Nitro flew towards the starting line of the race track, all around him, his fellow racers did the same.

Most of them didn't seem like the kind to race in his eyes but maybe they were more experienced when it comes to the course? Memorizing the pathways was an advantage he didn't really have at the moment.

"Hey," Nitro stopped staring forward and turned his gaze to where the high pitched voice came from, the Clefairy waved at him, "you look familiar," she said, "do you go to the Eggtech Daycare near here?"

"No," Nitro shook his head, guess his disguise was a lot less effective than he thought, "you're mistaking me for another Beedrill,"

"… No, you're definitely him, the uh, one that goes around with that Zubat?" The Clefairy elaborated further, "you have a trainer with green hair?"

"I'm my trainer's only Pokemon, and she has red hair," Nitro lied, he wanted to talk to Virah about fixing his disguise but that needed to wait until the Pokeathlon is finished.

"Oh. I swear you looked familiar though, but I guess I was mistaken, sorry!" The Clefairy laughed, "well, I'm Harley," she introduced herself, "you?"

"Iron Jr." Nitro said the nickname he agreed with Virah beforehand, "nice to meet you,"

"What's the junior for?" The Clefairy tilted her head.

"I came from a Brood," the Beedrill explained calmly, "one that our trainer gets Beedrills from once in a while, and she had a Beedrill before me, which she named Iron,"

"Your trainer must be strong huh? For her to go through Beedrills like she does," the Clefairy's tone turned solemn, "I can't imagine going through the pain of losing a Bug Type again, let alone multiple times,"

"She is," Nitro agreed, though not in the way that the Clefairy thinks, "my trainer is strong. The best."

"I think it's great that you think so highly of her," the Clefairy giggled, "I also think that Chloe is pretty great! She's the best and we bothed worked together from moving on from Garland's death,"

"Garland?" Nitro asked.

"Yeah! Our old Venomoth friend, we go here once a year because he liked the Speed Pokeathlon a ton,"

"I see…"

Nitro went silent and mulled over the words of the Clefairy, so it seems that not everyone is as serious as he was about this thing, some, like Harley, are here for reasons beyond just simply winning.

"That's… nice, I'm sure Garland appreciates what you're doing," he offered comforting words.

"I hope so," Harley replied, her tone soft.

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The conversation ended then and Nitro decided that now was the time for him to gouge out his fellow racers, most of them didn't look like they would be a threat but a little bit further to his left a Pokemon caught his eye.

The massive Fearow didn't look much as he groomed himself but that was because his wings were tucked in, otherwise he would look quite intimidating, especially with the giant wingspan Fearows have by default.

After a bit of waiting, an Alakazam teleported on a metal plate to their right, the psychic type then took to the skies by lifting the plate.

"You all know the rules for this particular game correct?" Everyone responded in a positive, "good, good," the wisened psychic type nodded, "but to reiterate, you cannot go beyond your lane, and that's it."

"Right," Nitro nodded, he had already revised the rules with Virah beforehand and was well aware that this rule only applied to the current game, the next two had different sets.

"On your marks," as the Alakazam started counting, Nitro lowered himself to the ground, he placed his drills on the ground and bent his limbs.

"Get set,"

As the buzzing of his wings died down, he calmly repositioned himself until he had an angle where he could propel himself quickly.

"Go!"

Nitro kicked himself off and proceeded to strengthen his garnered momentum with his wings, the buzzing overtook his senses and his vision shrunk as his ability kicked into gear.

Sniper was commonly known for its capacity to help its wielder's aim but it had other uses, like the one Nitro was using right now where he methodically calculated the best spot for his "jump" so that he would gain more momentum instead of losing it.

He carefully eyed the wooden barrier meters in front of him as well as tracks before the obstacle, he carefully thought about when he needed to jump, it didn't take him long to find it.

Nitro tensed his wings as he was about to reach the aforementioned spot and when he got there, he lowered himself and made his legs work in tandem with his flight.

His legs kicked him high into the air the moment he got to the spot and he passed the first obstacle without losing much of his momentum.

He repeated this several more times throughout the course of the run and managed to successfully reach 2nd place.

Unsurprisingly, the opponent that managed to beat him was the gigantic Fearow he saw earlier.

Nitro eyed the Fearow as it started to groom itself again, the two of them made eye contact and the Flying Type stopped what it was doing to stretch its elongated neck to stare at him.

"For a bug, you did well," he had a deep voice that reminded Nitro of his own, though it was more "cracked" than his, "the name's Highland," Highland nodded, "you?"

"Nitro," the Beedrill pointed a drill at himself, "you're pretty quick too even when you're flying so low," he returned the compliment with an inspection of his own, "are you a battler too?"

"Something like that," the Fearow shrugged his massive wings, "I'm mostly focused as a carrier though, me and my trainer commonly carry crates of Milktank Milk around Johto,"

"I see…" Nitro looked down and paused before nodding, "must be tiring,"

"At first, yeah," the Fearow chuckled, "now it's just an everyday thing for me,"

"I'm a battler," Nitro pointed out, "and I've trained since I have been picked up by my trainer,"

"Hmm…" the Fearow hummed, "I'm surprised you're even here then,"

"It's because she wanted something from here," Nitro answere.

Virah wanted to train with him as he prepared for the Pokeathlon back then and she did pretty well in traversing the speed based obstacle courses she had set up for him- or ratherz the two of them.

"That makes sense," the Fearow nodded, "well, it was nice talking to you but I need to prepare for the second event, see you, little bug,"

Nitro watched the Flying Type go, curious as for whether or not the nickname given to him was intended as an insult.

The Beedrill eventually decided that it didn't matter and quickly moved on from Highlander's parting words to do his own preparations, which mostly consisted of a simple buzzing of his wings.

As Poison Type Energy flowed into his being, Nitro looked on to the floating stands carried by a herd of Magnemite to the left of the second course for the Speed Pokeathlon.

His eyes made contact with his trainer and he saw her nod, a gesture which he gratefully returned, a silent conversation passed between the two of them, with the trainer asking him to do his best and the Pokemon promising to bring forth victory.

The moment passed and Nitro turned towards the sandy, square shaped arena meant to house then for the second event, there, he saw as several red flags started to erupt from the ground.

The two following events, the Pennant Capture as well as the Relay Run no longer disallowed Pokemon attacking each other and thus, it's only expected that he would soon have to watch out for Highlander or some other threat during them.

Nitro had already made plans with Virah on what to do during both events and one by one they planned for him to attack his fellow contestants to take their flags during Pennant Capture while he would move as fast as he humanely could during the Relay Run.

Both events should become simple with Virah boosting him via her Type Energy so there shouldn't be any problems…

Or at least Nitro hoped so, he still prepared for the worse regardless and silently, he scouted out the two tracks waiting for him.

The area for the Pennant Capture was a simple box with a sandy floor, meanwhile, the course for the Relay Run was an actual race track, albeit one filled with piles of rocks he needed to avoid as well as gigantic boulders blocking his path.

Nitro eyed and both courses to refresh the maps he memorized last night, and much like his trainer, he also reviewed all the things he could do during the Pennant Capture.