“Alright Nitro, are you ready?!” Virah stomped her foot against the head of the rock she was standing on.

“WEEDLE!” Her Weedle's response was the most energetic it has had since they met. Voice loud and proud.

Virah leaned into that enthusiasm and borrowed some of it, “ALRIGHT!” She pointed straight, “GO!”

Nitro coiled itself and bounced off the ground like a powerful spring, he arrowed straight for a nearby log, his horn pointed directly at it. When he struck it with a Poison Sting, the log fell and the rest of the impromptu training ground sprung to life.

Even though it was mostly designed as an obstacle course that ran in a large circle, the training ground had things that trained either reflexes, strength, or agility, with three parts for specific training.

At the start was the one meant for reflexes, a series of platforms- cut logs hanging on strings, - with wooden logs that swung like a pendulum in between and on top of said platforms.

Virah felt concern for her Pokemon getting harmed but this entire thing had been made with Nitro in mind so she was sure that the large logs aiming for him were just enough to hurt, but not maim.

And it's not like she needed to really worry since-

Nitro hopped from one platform to the next, he stood on the pieces of wood for no more than a second before jumping again, and then he did it again, and again. All without stopping.

The Weedle predicted the arch of the swinging logs with prodigious ease and he didn't even break a sweat when dodging the ones going through the platform themselves, weaving and moving as naturally as he breathed.

He passed through the entire thing without problems and came to the next part, the one meant for strength.

The obstacle now was ground based, with Nitro needing to either move large rocks into a specific hole or open up a route by overcoming the weight of wooden gates- which were still logs hanging on a string, this time stationary and needed to be lifted up.

The Weedle started everything by pushing the tip of his horn against a rock twice his size and with a painful yell of his name, started pushing it.

He was slowly making progress but Virah felt worried that he'd start overexerting himself so she gave the Weedle a light amount of scolding and followed by words of encouragement.

“You could have picked the smaller rocks you know?!” She got no answer as Nitro was too busy grunting while pushing the rock forward, “but fine! If you manage to push that thing into the hole, then I'll buy you a Sitrus berry and a bottle of vitamins later!”

She actually already had a bottle of vitamins from her job but the Sitrus Berry was still on the market and she'd have to spend quite a bit of her savings to buy a bag of them. But that was fine, she could always find some wayward trainer in one of the many battle plazas of Goldenrod and offer to teach their Pokemon a move for payment.

Virah refocused on Nitro and eyed the progress he had made, the rock had moved exactly one foot from its starting point and the Weedle needed to push it for 2 more if he wanted to finish his goal, after this, Virah would tell him to never pick a rock of this size during the rest of the obstacle course but for now, she's content on letting Nitro do his thing.

And he did it well, it only took him about 8 minutes to push the entire thing into the hole and that's including breaks. Right now Nitro was taking one, and the Weedle was panting so hard that Virah heard it from where she stood.

Concerning?

Yes, but Pokemon are tougher than they look and she's seen the Weedle take a Bubble that cracked stone point blank so she's sure that the one he just pushed is nothing.

2 minutes later, Nitro stood up and proceeded to do the rest of the obstacle course, pushing gates, moving rocks, and getting logs to roll. He did it without breaking a sweat.

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Well, sort of, the Weedle was already exhausted and what he's doing now is clearly pushing himself but a Sitrus Berry after this should do the trick.

Virah wasn't a professional nutritionist but she does know how to properly make diets for specific Pokemons and well, she's studied Weedles for over a year now, and to say that she's confident in her skill to judge Nitro's health is an understatement.

It is also worth noting that she's just trying to come up with reasons to let Nitro keep going instead of stopping him.

He looked like he wanted to do it and Virah was worried, sure, but not enough to stop the Weedle in his training like she did the last two times earlier.

'He’s killing himself from physical strain,’ a part of her mind said and Virah ignored it.

Nitro was fine, he's not going to die.

And call her inexperienced but Virah has taken care of baby Weedles before and this one would be no different.

Nitro would turn into a Beedrill under her care just like the rest of her brood even when all of the others hadn't exactly done obstacle courses- let alone one as harsh as Nitro is going through, - that wasn't the main reason why they survived into adulthood, that particular thing can be attributed to Virah feeding them and their capacity to keep going and evolve.

And Nitro had the drive to push himself, now it was just up to Virah to feed him.

Nitro let out a victorious cry of his name once he passed the last gate and Virah's worries disappeared.

He moved onto the last obstacle course, the one meant for agility, which was a series of rocks on the ground meant to be hopped onto as fast and as accurately as possible.

But before that, the Pokemon took a break, and Virah let him.

When his self imposed rest finished, Nitro immediately got to work and started hopping from one rock to the next, and he went through the entire obstacle course in less than 30 seconds. It was an impressive feat given that he wasn't just tired, the rocks had also numbered in two dozens.

Virah walked up to the panting Weedle and carried him up, she placed him on her neck and he slacked.

When viewed from afar, he looked like a series of beads hanging from Virah's back, beads that, for some reason, didn't reach each other and stopped around the sides of her collar instead of connecting at the bottom of her neck.

Virah is sure that the monks at the Bell Sprout Tower would be offended but she was far from that place so it's fine. Probably.

Would monks even care about her?

Virah, for her part, had kept up that strange train of thought as she made her way out of Route 34, moving past a lesser number of people now that the day was coming to a close, the only ones who stayed were either Officer Jennies or very dedicated trainers. Virah was part of the latter and the ones she passed by stared curiously at her.

With no animosity. At all.

They knew the value of a Weedle- not just Weedles, but Pokemon as a whole.

After all, no Pokemon is truly weak and in this world of wonderful creatures capable of rending reality itself, anything is possible right as long as one works hard enough to achieve it.

With enough work, anyone would be able to push past the boundaries that the regular, day to day people set.

Virah thought back to the effort Nitro put into his training and thought that her Weedle might just be one of those Pokemon that people stare at and think; ‘huh, they did the impossible.’

‘No, not just one of those Pokemon, but will be.’ Virah would make sure of it.

She entered Goldenrod City again and all the while, thought about her part of the battle.

Weedle was a hard worker sure, but was Virah? She didn't know- well- she does know- that she wasn't the kind of trainer that will get her Weedle the title of Champion but she can be.

Has been.

Where was the girl who had bred Beedrills for generations?

Where was the girl who studied Pokemon nutrition, diet, and foodstuff for the past year?

Where was the girl who was so dedicated to being a trainer, she asked the staff of an influential Breeding Centre to let her work for them and subsequently, once she got a job, asked for the vitamins they fed to their Pokemon?

And worse of all; where was the girl who had succeeded in all of those goals?

And for the vitamins? Sure, Virah only got three bottles, but in the end, what she got were three very expensive, high-tier bottles of vitamins. The best of the best and the kind fed by professional battlers to their teams.

Had she been bitter when she only got near empty bottles? No. She kept going. Like right now, she supposed, where she didn't let her stupid decision making earlier in the day stop her and kept going till now, where she is working on amending her mistakes.

And besides, all three of those vitamin bottles added up to a full one anyway so it's not like she had the right to complain. Especially since a full bottle costs exactly 5,000 Pokedollars.

And her Weedle would also consume the pills over the course of weeks, not days, so there's more than enough time to battle for money in between purchases.

Or so Virah hopes. But she knew that to buy a single bottle per month, she'd need to never lose for 30 days straight.

And battling wasn't just diet, Pokemon, or even training-

Trainers needed to take part in it as well and Virah, remembering the way she badly orchestrated and guided her Weedle earlier in the day, knew that she simply wasn't up to snuff.

But she will be, and for a start, she'd start paying better attention to the trainer battles she casually watched for entertainment on the breeding center's breakroom TV.