For Nitro, the second part of the event started out fine, normal.
As he and the rest of the competitors stood in front of the red line, he eyed the gigantic box beyond them, the flags have already been set up but a few occassionaly came and went.
These reoccurring flags had different colors compared to the rest and with his ability, the Beedrill was able to spot the Digletts responsible for moving them around.
Virah had been right.
Nitro eyed the small shifts in the sand as a blue colored flag a few meters away from him disappeared into the ground, a small tremor, one that's barely noticeable, started to move along in a straight path and he was able to follow it with his eyes until it eventually stopped.
He then proceeded to count down the seconds it took for the flag to emerge out of the spot and once it did, he kept the time to memory.
He repeated this process for a while and when he was done, he observed his opponents to see if they were doing the same thing but except for Highlander, none of them did.
It seems that other than him, the Fearow was the only one to take things seriously.
Nitro looked away from the Flying Type to spot all the available flags surrounding him, he made a simple plan to avoid Highlander whilst at the same time, combating any other contestant gunning for the other pennants.
Soon, the countdown for the event started and everyone got ready, Nitro's vision went back to normal and to his right, he saw that Highlander had stopped grooming his wings.
A surge of Poison Type Energy came down on him as the Alakazam floated away with his platform, before long, the event officially started and everyone was off-
Nitro sped past everyone and with his speed, he was the first to capture a pennant.
One. He counted as he flew above a Geodude struggling to chase after a blue colored flag, the flag disappeared before the Rock Type could get to it and as Nitro grabbed another pennant, he casually inspected the sand on the ground.
He made sure to follow after the shifting sands as he captured more pennants and by his fifth, he proceeded to fly over to the spot where the blue flag was about to rise and swiftly took it.
All eyes were suddenly on him and in return, Nitro eyed his opponents.
His gaze stayed on Highlander the most and the Beedrill silently cursed at the fact that with everyone else being distracted, the Fearow now had all the time he needed to capture as many pennants as he wants.
Nitro flew to the left as a non-energized tackle came from his left, he glared at the Pineco as he lowered himself back to the ground, "you know there's a Fearow capturing a lot of pennants right now right?"
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His fellow Bug Type returned the gesture, "I know."
Nitro weaved left as the Pineco attempted another tackle, this time it was accompanied by a magical leaf that shot out from somewhere above him.
The Beedrill, having no other choice but to run, buzzed away as quickly as he could. He inspected the Pokemon chasing after him once he got far enough and counted 4 of them in total.
Up above a Hoppip happily flew about, to the left of it was a Mareep, while to the right stood a Magby, and at the center was the Pineco that had originally attacked him.
"Chasing me isn't worth it, but if you do, I'll make sure you all lose your pennants," Nitro declared, his deep voice reverberating through the loud voice of the human announcer.
The Pineco charged-
"I don't have much anyway!" Was the tiny Bug Type's response.
Nitro lifted a drill and stabbed it straight to the sides of the overconfident Pokemon, sending it flying and causing its captured pennants to stop being data and materialize once more.
As per the combat rule, all three red flags that popped out of the Pineco got sucked into the Pokemon responsible for knocking them out.
"Oh?! It looks like we've finally gotten some heated combat folks! That Beedrill is carrying a two times multiplier and the Pokemon around him want it!"
The announcer's voice stuck itself to Nitro's head like glue and the Beedrill, realizing that fighting opponents and grabbing more pennants may just be the way to go, held back a sigh as he charged towards his opponents.
Poison Type Energy washed over him as he slapped a Magical Leaf away, the surge of energy didn't dissipate even as he became full.
Guess Virah had the same idea as him- and at the thought of that, Nitro kicked off to finish his three opponents as quickly as he could.
Starting with the Mareep, Nitro hit her two times with his drills to ensure that she didn't paralyze him with her attacks, then he followed it up by jabbing the fireball that the Magby sent his way.
He dodged to the left as the Pineco came at him from the back, causing the Bug Type to over extend and fly straight towards the Magby, who had to dodge-
And that was when Nitro moved, he flew faster than he had been since the start of the event and caught the Fire Type with his sudden burst of speed, a strike to the head followed by one to the back caused the Magby to fall and release all his captured pennants.
Flags emerged in a red light before getting sucked into Nitro's form.
Now that his ground based opponents have been taken care of, the Beedrill set his eyes to the sky and made eye contact with the Hoppip, who immediately decided that fighting him wasn't worth it and that she should fly away.
Nitro chased after her and after another burst of speed, he caught up and all it took for her to go down was a single strike to her underside.
After that, all four Pokemon that he took pennants from did nothing more than chase after him for the rest of the match and he was forced to dance around them while capturing pennants, in the worst case, he sacrificed one pennant for another because the Hoppip was mobile enough to be able to steal pennants he set his eyes on.
When he had around 27 points worth of pennants on his person, he started making his way back to the red line to turn them in and on the way there, he noticed a series of shifting sands that indicated another multiplier was about to emerge.
He formed a plan and he knew the risks of it but…
He no longer thought twice once he felt a sudden surge of energy come down on him- he thanked his trainer for the boost before changing his flight path.
To distract the Pokemon chasing after him, he decided to pick fights and he took down a Pidgey that found itself on the wrong area in the wrong time, the Flying Type gave him 4 flags in total, bringing his points to 31.
After that he picked more fights, all the while getting chased by his previous offenders, he took down a Ratata for 2 points, then another for 1, bringing his total up to 34.
And lastly, when the multiplier was about to emerge, he took down a Ghastly with 5 points, bringing his total to 39.
Capturing the blue flag that popped out of the ground multiplied that by three and it brought his points up to 117.
"Oh! Looks like the Beedrill has gotten over 100 points!" The announcer, who has been following him for a while now, called out, causing everyone to turn their attention on him.
Nitro heaved out a sigh he couldn't hold back before eyeing the red line in the distance.
"Well, then," he said to the small barricade of Pokemon blocking his path. "Guess I'll have to fight all of you huh?"
The answer was wordless and in the form of the Pineco, who only had 6 points from following him all this time, tackling him.
Nitro took to the skies, dodging the attack easily, before hitting the Pineco two times and taking in all his points, bringing his base to 45.
Then he flew away, and it was all problems from there.
As Nitro made his way back, he dodged a Ratata tackling him, followed by barely moving away from a vinewhip unleashed by a Bellsprout and then proceeding to get out of a wing attack from a Pidgeotto.
More and more Pokemon piled up on him and Nitro was forced to take detours just to run around all of them but eventually, he outsped all of them and as he was about to reach the red line, he waved them all goodbye to turn in his capture 135 points.