The closer Virah got to the sound, the more she realized it came from a person instead of a Pokemon, and from the looks of it, her friends had caught on to that fact as well so instead of wasting time being concerned about what kind of Pokemon they could reasonably help, they sped up to help that person out.

When they got there, what Virah saw was a familiar scene of a wormhole and a rocket grunt a few paces away from it.

The wormhole blinked out of existence before anyone could register what kind of thing it was while the grunt stayed in place, heaving with his back pressed against the trunk of a tree.

His breathing was ragged and his smooth black uniform was singed and the smell of smoke wafted off of him but completely unlike his state, the three Pokeballs on his belt looked pristine, untouched.

He raised a hand and pressed his index finger on something in his ear.

“Boss?” He asked once, then frowned, “boss I- I can’t hear you-” he looked around and hissed out a curse that made Whitney frown, “right, Ilex Forest,” he said in realization, adding, “but I thought the boss proofed our devices? I swear my bud worked fine inside the Slowpoke Well a few days back…”

Virah held her breath, of all the things they would encounter while going around Ilex Forest, a dangerous criminal wasn’t one that she expected.

She turned to her friends, whispering, “we should go,” she wasn’t sure if the two of them could hear her words or even notice them seeing as both Grene and Whitney were glaring at the Rocket Grunt as if he killed their entire families so Virah tried again, “guys? We should go,”

Whitney shook her head, “no,” she was loud enough that their element of surprise was taken away the moment that she spoke, and instead of supporting himself against the tree while heaving, the grunt turned towards them with a glare, “we’re putting a stop to his crimes,”

“Whitney…” Virah wanted to say that her lines were cheesy- and most likely taken from a cartoon in the same way her bravado and courage was, - but stopped herself short and instead, chose to let out a sigh.

Virah forcibly stood up and revealed herself to the criminal, she raised her hand to the skies, “Confuse him!’

The grunt chuckled, “oh, I’m confused alright-”

He couldn’t finish his sentence since Jet came down from the canopies and let out an ear piercing shriek his way. He yelled and grabbed both of his ears before his body flared out a dark coloration and, as he seemingly started to blend in with the darkness surrounding him, the grunt turned coherent enough to grab hold of one of the Pokeballs on his hip and chucked it high in the air.

The sound of a digital hiss echoed out and moments later, a Raticate manifested on the forest floor.

It sniffed the air while waiting for its trainer's orders which, as expected, consisted of- “kill the girls,”

Grene moved quickly and popped out Hollie’s Pokeball followed by Whitney who released Kitten. Both Pokemon turned to their trainers for a second before glaring at the Raticate dashing towards them.

Whitney was the first one to let out a shaky order to her Meowth, “Fake Out!”

Without so much as a growl, Kitten turned into a white blur that blitz past everything before stopping directly in front of the Raticate with a grin, he used both his hands to slap either side of the Raticate’s head before jumping away while it was still disoriented.

Whitney seemed braver after seeing what happened.

Virah nodded at her shaking frame regardless, “stay strong, I’m sure the rangers are coming,” but come to think of it, where were the rangers? She shook her head and focused on the rocket grunt, “Jet! Wing Attack on the ground in front of the Raticate!”

“Kitten, move away!” Whitney followed after Virah’s command.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

“Hyperfang. All of them.” The grunt said with a heave before popping more of his Pokeballs and a Houndour as well as a Tyrogue came out to look around before their eyes settled on Virah and the rest, “Houndour, burn everything down, Tyrogue, help Raticate and kill the girls,”

The Fighting Type hesitated at the command while the Houndour opened its mouth to start spewing out one Ember after the next with the intent of causing a forest fire.

Virah let Nitro out of his ball and placed the Kakuna in front of them to act as a shield before commanding both her Pokemon at once, “Jet, Wing Attack on the fire before using Leech Life on the Houndour! Nitro, String Shot on the Raticate.”

“Hollie, move forward and attack the Raticate once its immobilized,” Grene immediately followed up, she sounded calm but Virah could hear a nervous tick in her voice.

All of the Pokemon moved at once, with Jet executing his orders perfectly seeing as the fires died down seconds after Virah had issued her command while the Houndour stopped using Ember and was now warily looking up at the canopies in search of the purple blur that attacked it with a hit and run while Nitro shot out a String Shot and trapped the still disoriented Raticate.

Hollie moved then and she ran with wide strides towards the now bound Raticate and just as she was about to hit it with Brick Break, a pink hand parried it and relocated her momentum to the side.

The Tyrogue stood vigilant next to the Raticate, its face sour, “Tyrogue.”

“Machop!” Hollie yelled back.

As the two Fighting Types conversed, Whitney decided to command her Meowth to attack the Houndour with Fury Attack while her Pidgey flew off to search for the rangers- the pinkette bit her lip, “one is supposed to be following us, why aren’t they here?!”

“Maybe they were distracted?” Virah offered as she gave both her Pokemon new orders, “Nitro, String Shot on the Tyrogue, Jet, help Kitten out with Supersonic on the Houndour,”

Grene followed suit with her own commands, “Hollie, grapple him,”

Her Pokemon moved and did as told and as she watched the Tyrogue swiftly dodge both Nitro’s String Shot and Hollie’s charging form, Virah turned to Whitney to comfort her, “I’m sure we’ll be fine,”

“No- we’re going to beat him and get out of this alive,” Whitney sounded resolute.

Virah sighed, “we really need to talk about the kind of cartoons you watch and why it’s a bad idea to imitate them-” Whitney’s face flushed and she stuttered, “- but before that-” Virah turned to her Pokemon, “Nitro, keep assisting Hollie with String Shot and turn the ground into a sticky mess to slow the Raticate down, I’ll go and direct Jet with his fight with the Houndour,”

“Ka- Kakuna!” Virah’s starter answered in positive.

The poison specialist set her eyes on Kitten’s fight with the Houndour and then her gaze went up to the Zubat up above, waiting for an opportunity to use Leech Life like the opportunistic killer that it is.

Virah didn’t want him to just let the Meowth continue wasting its stamina- though Kitten looked no worse for wear, - so she swept her arms to grab its attention and called out an order.

“Wing Attack on the Houndour Jet! Wait for Kitten to move away before you do it!” She yelled out and to the side, the rocket grunt issued an order that caused the Houndour to start moving near its opponent. Virah bit her lip, “Leech Life!”

The rocket grunt clicked his tongue and Virah briefly eyed the Raticate, it was still trapped while Hollie and the Tyrogue were…

“Ma- Machop! Machop!” Hollie was surprisingly putting up a decent fight against her fellow Fighting Type.

“Ty- Tyrogue!” And whatever her opponent’s reply was, Hollie didn’t like it judging from the way her expression turned into a frown.

Virah let Grene do her thing and focused on her fight against the Houndour, Jet kept using Leech Life but the rocket grunt had told the Houndour to back away to a tree at some point so there were only one direction attacks towards it could come from, and that was from the front but Jet wasn’t limited to a flat space, he could fly.

Virah decided to abuse that, “Leech Life into Wing Attack! Attack from above and bombard it Jet!”

Her Zubat did as told and as the Houndour let out a whine from taking in Kitten’s Fury Attack as well as Jet’s moves, Virah turned to the grunt and saw that he had now patched up his burnt side and was slowly standing up.

The Rocket Grunt spat out a bloody spit to his left and then wiped his mouth, ‘Raticate, Hyper Fang on the web, get out of it or I’m skinning you alive,”

“NITRO! STRING SHOT ON THE RATICATE AGAIN!” Virah yelled out but it was too late, the Raticate used Hyper Fang and then its trainer issued another order before Nitro could execute Virah’s commands.

“Quick Attack, back away, and then go back in with Frustration, Tyrogue, with me, your family isn’t getting avenged if I die you stupid thing,” the Tyrogue reluctantly did as told and went near its trainer, Hollie allowed it, not wanting to risk a pointless chase, “and Houndour, set yourself on fire and get that blasted Meowth off of you, then burn down the canopy, let’s see that Zubat fly around with its hiding spot ablaze,”

Virah gulped as the Pokemon perfectly executed the moves without so much as a fuss, it was as if they didn’t care about the threat their trainer threw their way nor were they scared to harm themselves.

Virah heard a growl next to her and she turned to Grene.

“I can’t believe you’re right,” the martial artist said coldly, her Aura flaring, “I would hate to take a detour during my journey just to avenge a bunch of Hitmons but I guess I have to do it now,”

“Our journey,” Virah corrected, she gulped, “we’re avenging those Hitmons together,”