Virah couldn't help but glance at everything they passed by, the sight of a Pokemon's lifeline was like staring at a blazing campfire; it was comfortable and the constant, colorful shift of movement, the crackles caused by their emotional outbursts, and the color were simply too mesmerizing, too endearing for her to turn her gaze away even for just a moment.

She heard Grene say something related to how to possibly distinguish the distance of a Pokemon's Aura but the martial artist also added that what she was going to say wasn't a surefire way of truly knowing how to gouge out the distance so Virah tuned her out and simply stared at the vital signs that make up a Pokemon’s very existence.

It was… fascinating to look at.

Fascinating is too much of an understatement to describe it because it was honestly so beautiful that no words could possibly give it justice.

The Pokemon Breeder within her was furiously doing its best to understand the concept of why this sort of thing exists and how it’s even possible for it to exist and yet at the same time, not. And looking back, maybe the vague, oddly religious descriptions of past practitioners were on point, because how else would a person describe something like what she was seeing?

Really, Virah couldn’t help but be impressed by something so… unique- beautiful.

And that was a great way to describe Aura, isn’t it?

Beautiful- like the artwork of a masterclass artist, or one of those weird sculptures of Ho oh that the Geishas of the burnt tower were so fond of- it’s simply a masterclass work of art and it left Virah in a daze just from staring at it.

Eventually, she did have to stop using her Aura Perception since Grene told them that constantly activating it would leave scars in their psyche and so, Virah regrettably decided to cut things short.

Now back in the darkness of Ilex Forest once more, Virah scanned the trees for any possible sign of a Zubat and she eventually, and expectedly, gave up when there was simply nothing interesting to be found around them.

A few of the Spinaraks up on the trees showed telltale signs of being healthy, and their size indicated that they were good enough to be battlers but Virah opted to ignore them in favor of Nitro. She already had a Bug/Poison Type, getting another one would just be redundant.

They walked for a while and until they spotted a Zubat that, to Virah, was good enough.

She turned her friend’s attention its way and they stalked the Poison and Flying Type for a good while as they waited for an opportunity to take it down.

Virah also had another purpose for tailing after the Pokemon, as she wanted to see whether or not it had any deficiencies- whether they be physically or genetically, - thankfully though, if the Zubat had anything like that, Virah wasn’t able to spot them and so, she and her friends prepared to catch it.

Starting by planning, with Virah being the one who spoke first, “this is a wild battle,” she started, “so it doesn’t matter if we decide to attack the Zubat as a trio or alone, but I think it’s better if we do it together,”

“I agree,” Grene said with a nod.

“Same here,” Whitney also nodded after a brief glance at Grene.

“Great, guess we’re all on the same page then,” Virah clapped in satisfaction, only to wince a moment later.

She checked if the sensitive ears of the Zubat caught what she did and it… probably didn’t, but just to be sure, she quickly told the plan to her friends, “okay, so here’s what we’re going to do, Whitney, your Meowth is fast enough to keep up with the Zubat, so you tell him to fight it,”

“Okay,” Whitney grabbed Kitten’s ball and expanded it.

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“Grene, your Machop knows Foresight and Rock Tomb right?” Virah turned to the martial artist, who nodded, “good, I want her to be the one responsible for zoning the Zubat through attacks, tell Hollie to use Rock Tomb every time it does something we don’t like,”

“Okay,” Grene nodded.

“And I will get Nitro to use String Shot and capture the Zubat, how does that sound?” Virah palmed her Pokemon’s Pokeball and turned to her friends.

“I think it’s a good idea,” / “I’m in,” Grene and Whitney said respectively.

“Great,” Virah stood up, “Whitney, release your Meowth and make it chase after the Zubat, and then we’ll start the fight,”

“Okay,” Whitney took in a deep breath and threw out Kitten’s Pokeball and when the Meowth materialized, the fight officially started-

“Kitten! Try to catch it!” Whitney yelled out in command and her Meowth didn't bother with his usual dry stare in response to his nickname and immediately moved to execute his trainer’s order.

Kitten glowed white and moments later, he was bounding from tree trunk to tree trunk like a ninja using Quick Attack.

“Rrrrrow!” The feline yelled out as he swiped for the fast Flying Type but unfortunately missed. He fell through the air and broke into a roll when he landed before quickly recovering and running around the place again.

Virah tossed out Nitro's Pokeball and issued a simple command, “String Shot. Put it down.”

The Kakuna didn't even try to guess what Virah was telling him to target and much like Kitten, simply did as told. His body tilted at an odd angle and a thick line of string was shot out, it missed the Zubat but landed on the branches of a tree, and seeing that got Virah to make a new plan.

“Whitney, make your Meowth chase after it,” Virah said to the pinkette who nodded and ordered her Meowth to do so moments later, “Grene, tell your Machop to use Rock Tomb at the Zubat every time it tries to get away from our general vicinity,”

“Got it,” Grene nodded. She turned to Hollie, “use Foresight on the Zubat and then Rock Tomb every time it tries to get away,”

“Machop!” Hollie slammed her hands together in a confident gesture before focusing on the Zubat as if she were scrutinizing its movements.

Lastly, Virah turned to her Pokemon, “Nitro, use String Shot and fire webbing on the treeline, make sure to block every possible avenue of escape that the Zubat has, we're trapping it,”

“Ka-kakuna!” Her Pokemon yelled in response.

Seconds later, Nitro started firing one String Shot after the next on a circle around them while Kitten and Hollie did their orders with nigh perfect accuracy, and Kitten even occasionally managed to hit the Zubat which Virah was starting to get concerned about but she was sure that nothing bad would happen to it- Kitten knows how to restrain himself after all…

Okay, maybe she shouldn't trust the Meowth to just “restrain himself” during this fight- “Kitten! If you uh- uh- don't cripple the Zubat I'll give you some of Nitro's Pokefeed later!”

Her Pokemon stopped firing and turned to her, Nitro shot her a betrayed look, “Kakuna?”

“I'll give him Ratata's food,” Virah said which she's sure the Meowth caught.

Nitro resumed firing String Shot like a turret and continued putting a ring of webbing on the trees around them.

Soon, the silky prison meant to trap the Zubat was finished and when Nitro finished that task, he turned his attention towards the Flying/Poison Type and directed his attacks there and with him, Hollie, and Kitten working together, it didn't take long for the Meowth to lead the Zubat towards one of Nitro's webbing.

With a screech, the Zubat fell from the skies and crashed against the trunk of a nearby tree. Virah followed after him- but not before recalling Nitro and thanking him for his work, - and then quickly took out a Pokeball to toss it at the now prone Pokemon.

The Zubat broke four of her balls before one moved once, twice, and then finally, thrice and captured the Pokemon successfully.

Virah went near the Pokeball, grabbed it, and held it close to her chest, she heaved out a sigh of relief and faced her friends with a bright smile, “second team member, captured!”

She gave them a V-for victory sign with her fingers- which caused Whitney to start laughing.

“W-what now?!” The green head glared at the pinkette, who keeled over, “I swear I’ll- I’ll- I will literally go over there and wrestle you to the ground!”

Whitney’s laughter got even worse and Virah just stared at her until she calmed down enough to stop cackling. Whitney straightened her back and wiped a stray tear on the corner of her eye, “y-you should do that again!”

Virah felt her face go hot- “No!” She yelled at the pinkette, “I- what was even that about?!”

Virah pointed accusingly at her friend who chuckled weakly, and just as Virah was about to think that Whitney would start laughing again, her friend just shook her head and smiled at her.

“Well, I thought you looked nice doing that pose,” Whitney said with a grin.

A flashback of Whitney’s smiling image came to the forefront of Virah’s head and she blushed and averted her eyes, “no- no I wasn’t!”

“Hmmmmm?” Whitney’s brows playfully shot up, “ I could have sworn you looked nice though, smiling all victoriously as you did just now,”

“Nope,” Virah turned away from her friend and started walking, “I’m going to ignore and forget about everything you said,” Virah denied, “now come on, let’s go, we still need to find you and Grene’s possible team members,”

“But you really did look nice though,” Whitney said to her, her tone softer than before.

Virah didn’t reply, and instead, she was silent as she continued walking.