“Alright Nitro, String Shot!” Virah swept her arms in front of her at the same time as her Kakuna fired a line of string towards a nearby branch, “good! Now use Poison Sting!” Nitro followed after her command and the two scythe-like appendages below his head glowed before shooting off two purple spikes at the branch of the same tree, “Great! Now Harden!”

“Kaaaaaaaaaa-” Nitro's body glowed white.

“Keep it up! Use String Shot again!” Virah repeated the series of orders again for the fifth time and Nitro successfully used String Shot, Poison Sting, and Harden consecutively without getting tired.

After getting a Black Sludge and connecting it to Nitro's pokeball, she knew that her Pokemon would currently have a lot of energy to spare and his state would continue throughout the day. Right as long as Virah gets conservative with the Black Sludge's output that is.

And she was, mostly because she's studied the item- as well as a few others, - several times back when she was bored at the breeding center.

She knew that the Black Sludge would be fine after everything and through it, Nitro would be able to keep up with the constant training she was putting him under- will be putting him under for the rest of the morning and then later, after school ended, the entire afternoon.

Nitro kept up his move usage until there was only an hour left before school and after that, Virah recalled him back to his Pokeball and left the battle plaza.

The training she was putting Nitro under was to increase his stamina and use more moves during battle, and repeatedly using their known moves was a common way for a Pokemon to do just that.

But that wasn't everything though as Virah also wanted Nitro to get used to having his current moveset of 5 distinct moves, it's only the first day so she's using the ones natural to his evolution line but tomorrow, she'd start getting him to use Bug Bite and the day after that, Roost.

And once Nitro is used to his current moveset, she'd get him to learn something new- as in that the move is quite literally, not seen before.

Or at least it wasn't officially recognized as a move as the battle that inspired Virah to come up with it- an elite level double battle between a Bug Type specialist as well as an Electric Type one, - had shown the possibilities of String Shot's ability to not just neutralize electricity like she originally thought, but also conduct it.

Electro Web was what she was calling the move, she named it after Elekid, the previous evolution of the Electabuzz which had the bright idea of redirecting his Thunder Bolt at the thin strand of string his opposing Ariados had shot out the turn prior.

The resulting electricity crawled through the string like it was a wire, causing the Bug Type hanging on it to spasm from the sudden surge of voltage running through its body.

Copying what the Ariados did during the battle- which was to use its string to detect enemies, - had also been something that Virah considered but she quickly dismissed it, since Nitro will turn into a Beedrill and has no need to detect his enemies when he can just fly and observe them while in the air.

And well, it's not like that particular trick is useful to him right now seeing as he's moved on from being a mobile Weedle and has evolved into a Kakuna.

Which, as a rule, were “warm” thanks to their constantly shifting state within the shell, and that right there is what Virah got to consider the move in the first place, as the internal change of her Pokemon already produces heat energy so why not an electrical one?

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And there's also the fact that Nitro quite literally shoots out his String Shots from the same mouth he feeds with so clearly, it's connected to the being underneath his shell, adding more possibility for him to be able to do Electro Web.

Other than her plans for letting him learn a new move, Virah also knew that Nitro is immobile in his current state so she's considered grabbing a new Pokemon to help him but she couldn't figure out just what she should capture.

A Koffing was a good idea, and so was a Grimer, but then Virah also knew that those two Pokemon were only found in the more… vile places of Goldenrod City so she's not really sure if she can even get one without getting kidnapped in some slum somewhere.

Virah's thoughts stopped in their tracks when she saw the gates of Trainer's School and as everything she just thought about started to fade from her mind, she increased her pace and walked past the gates. It was time for her to start her classes and later on, earn Pokedollars from battling her more stubborn schoolmates who just kept rematching her, never quite learning their lesson after each loss.

Classes passed by in a blur and before Virah knew it, she was suddenly sitting down on the school's battleground/field and eating onigiri, she sipped on her juice just as Whitney took the spot on the bench next to her and minutes later, Grene shortly arrived.

The three of them kept their silence, with Virah eating, Whitney opening up her lunch box, and Grene meditating.

It was the last one that Virah turned to in concern and she looked over to the martial artist, wondering where her food was, “do you eat lunch Grene?”

“I do, it's in my bag, but I want to meditate right now,” the martial artist didn't even open her eyes as she replied.

Virah met Whitney's gaze and when the pinkette nodded at her, she grabbed Grene's bag and took out the paper bag within, opening it, Virah saw a sandwich, “huh, guess it's not that different from mine,”

Grene opened one eye and stared at them, “I just want to say that it is rude to check other people's belongings without their permission-” Virah held back a wince, “- and also there's a world of difference between our food, as yours is mostly sweet and mine is vegetables, meat, and carbohydrates, all good things a martial artist needs to continue their training,”

“I guess,” Virah conceded, “but sugar is good at building fat, which I'll need if I want to uh, keep moving and walking during my journey,”

“Good point,” Grene agreed and then she went back to meditating as Virah put her lunch back in her bag.

Silence was their companion once again and it was only broken after Virah finished her lunch, she told them her plans on wanting to capture a new Pokemon.

“I think I'm looking for a new member of my team,” she threw the empty juice box and plastic bag on a nearby trashcan then faced her friends, “what do you guys think I should get? A Grimer or a Koffing?”

“If you want an honest tip?” Grene said, Virah nodded, “then I think it's better if you grab a Zubat, as Gyms have an audience during battles and slow battles aren't really liked by the watchers, and sometimes Gym Leaders get annoyed by them too,”

Virah considered that, her eyes went to the ground and seconds later, she had an epiphany and her head shot up to look at the martial artist, “you're saying that the Gym Leaders don't like to use healing moves?”

“Not if they can help it, no,” Grene shook her head, “but they can be very aggressive if they want,”

“I guess…” Virah considered with a hum, that last point was just obvious, “okay, that's- I think I can work with that,” she nodded thoughtfully, “a Zubat huh?..”

Virah went back to the bench and kept her silence as Grene started her lunch, Whitney talked to the martial artist about her Aura- which the pinkette had unlocked immediately after the martial artist started teaching her, in some ways, Virah did as well but…

Both of Virah's friends went back and forth as to how to properly wield the energy and Virah for the most part tuned them out in favor of thinking about her potential team members.

Personal preferences aside, she wanted a male Nidoran for her second member if she was going the non-stall route for her team composition.

The problem is though, those were rare so finding them is going to be a pain. The strongest male Nidoran also often hide in hard to reach places, areas that, by definition, have a lot of strong Pokemon, which Nidokings and queens- or in other words, their parents, - seem to love for some reason.

Well, they are competitive as a species so Virah didn't think it was that strange.

Moving on to Zubats…

Virah thought that if she wanted a second team member, that Pokemon might just be her best option; as not only are they plentiful- and she means really plentiful, entire species relies on eating them for sustenance even, - which opens up more opportunities for Virah to catch and find a powerful Zubat, they are also quite versatile moveset wise.

And not to mention, their evolution line is also quite strong, starting from the annoying and speedy Zubat to a decent Golbat to the menacing Crobat.

All in all, a Zubat as a second Pokemon for an offensive Poison team sounded… great, neat even, and Virah considered the option but then again, there are other options, an Ekans was great, and a Grimer was also good…

Virah found herself frowning, ‘what do I want?’