I Sting (Pokemon Poison Type Specialist)

“Okay, I think we’re safe,” Whitney dared to peek outside of their tent. Seconds later, the pinkette swiftly turned back to them and offered a thumbs up with a shaky grin, “we’re good!”

Virah sighed in relief, “that’s… great, I think?” She tilted her head at her two friends, “but… are you both okay with going with me? Didn’t you already clean yourselves earlier?”

“We did…” Whitney trailed off, “but that Gengar could be out there and we need to protect you!” She said as if she would somehow be able to defend Virah from a Gengar when the time comes, the pinkette puffed up her chest, “we’re going to be fine though! I’m sure of it!”

“Well, I think we are safe,” Grene said, “since those sounds from earlier were most likely the Rangers fighting the Gengar,”

“You think so?” Virah faced Grene, who nodded, “huh,” briefly, she wondered if her Beedrills somehow also joined in on the fight but decided to shake the thought off, they most likely didn’t, she had a hunch, “and I guess they did, yeah,” Virah looked around, “so we’re going out to clean ourselves again,”

‘Yep!’ Whitney agreed, “we’re going back out to the lake to clean ourselves again!” The pinkette rolled her arms around, “now come on! We’re going out there and cleaning ourselves! A Gengar isn’t going to stop us!”

Grene sighed, “I think a Gengar could very much stop us but yes, we should be safe now, I just hope that the Pokemon didn’t run away and was instead captured using the ranger stylus, that would give me a piece of mind at least,” the martial artist said in concern, “but we should be fine,”

Virah watched her two friends go back and forth about how they were ready to go out and how they were fine to go out before deciding to break the ice-

“Yes, yes, we are,” she said sheepishly, if they were going to play chicken then she might as well be the one to break away first, “now come on, let’s head out,”

She was scared, yes, but Whitney and Grene wouldn’t even dare to move outside of the tent if they had a choice on the matter so it was her who decided to take the first step and… no shivers crawled up her spine fortunately, which meant the Gengar was well and truly gone and the area around their camp was safe.

Whitney and Grene shuffled from behind her and soon, they started walking towards the lake, small conversations passed between them, with topics like how powerful the Gengar was- it most likely was powerful, given it was a fully evolved mon, but not as powerful as the ones that Elite Trainers had on their teams, - or how good were the Rangers for fending it off, which again, had an obvious answer, the rangers were obviously capable if they managed to beat a Gengar.

Eventually, their topic shifted to the time when Virah went with Nera to check on her Beedrill brood and they started talking about that in earnest, with Whitney starting it off by, “come to think of it, didn’t you have a Ranger friend Virah?”

The green head nodded, “she wasn’t my friend, but we did talk, and uh, yep, we went around the forest to check on my Beedrill brood,” she answered, “why?”

“Do you think she’s one of the rangers who fought that Gengar?” Whitney questioned and Virah mulled it over.

Nera, with her specialty, wouldn’t be able to do anything to a Gengar but if the ranger somehow had a Scizor- a fact that Virah very much doubted, because if she did, then she wouldn’t be a ranger, - then Virah could see how she would be useful in fighting a Gengar, since Scizors are both immune to the Poison Type’s attacks and also offer versatility in the form of tanking damage and Roosting them away or using Bullet Punch to chase after the speedy Ghost Type.

But overall?

“No,” Virah answered with a shake of her head, “Nera is probably sleeping right now, rangers have shifts, you know that?”

On the bushes, the aforementioned ranger chuckled, “yeah but Bug Types are mostly known to be nocturnal,” Nera whispered to no one but herself, “but she also has a point… I should probably be sleeping right now shouldn’t I?.. why did I take this shift again?”

Oblivious to the dilemma of the ranger guarding them, the three girls continued talking about her, “I guess it makes sense,” Grene nodded, “since we did see her during the day at the start of the exam, it means she’s one of the rangers on the day shift”

“Right?” Virah said, “it’s clear that she’s part of the day shift or whatever,”

“Huh,” Whitney hummed, “well I guess it makes sense so moving on from that-” the pinkette eyed Virah, “when are you going to check on your Zubat?”

“I want him to… think about stuff first, and hopefully it’ll lead him to accept his situation,” Virah answered, “I’ll leave him in his Pokeball for the rest of the night and release him by morning, hopefully, he’s calm enough by then,”

“Is that fine?” Grene asked.

“Yeah, we didn’t really damage him all that much so I don’t think he needs a Pokemon Center right now,” Virah shrugged, “and even if he does… well, we don’t have a Pokemon Center out here in the forest do we?”

“Wait you’re right,” Whitney said in realization, “does that mean that we’ll have to heal our own Pokemon?”

“Yeah, it does,” Virah confirmed, “don’t worry though, I’m pretty good at that- I’m not as good as a Nurse Joy obviously, but I think I’m good enough to nurse a Pidgey back to full health,”

And she has, at some point, when a kid brought her his Pidgey because he was worried that its injuries were bad enough that a Pokemon Center somehow wouldn’t be able to heal it- though he was definitely lying and was probably covering up the fact that he fought with his Pokemon from someone, most likely his parents, - and all it took for her to take care of the Pokemon at the time was a brief check up to realize it had a broken wing and after that, tying said wing into a caste.

“It’s really great that you’re here with us,” Grene said, “otherwise I can’t imagine how much of a pain it would be to heal my Pokemon throughout the exam,”

“I guess?” Virah said with a bit of unconfidence, “I don’t think it’s that useful though,”

“Trust me, it is,” Grene pushed, “in any other scenario, specifically one without  you on our team, I would be forced to be careful with my battles and wouldn’t be able to train as much as I would like but with you around, I can get Hollie to fight anything that we find as a tough opponent without worrying about her injuries afterward,” 

Virah sighed, “Machops are already actually kind of tough,” she told the martial artist, “and they heal quickly too, so chances are, you’ll probably just need to give Hollie an oran berry after you “train” and then she’ll be fine by morning,”

“And if her injuries are bad enough that it leaves her bedridden?” Grene asked.

“I guess you can… I don’t know, make a berry shake for her depending on the injury? Cheri berries are good if Hollie’s muscles are locked up and cramping, while pecha berries can clean out any infection from her system, oran berries can be used for healing too, and if you need-” Virah stopped explaining the needed shake for that situation and stared at her friends as they gave her impressed looks.

“What?” The greenhead looked down at herself and grabbed her collar to sniff it, “it- I don’t smell that bad do I? I can’t really tell because it’s my own smell-”

She was once again cut off by Whitney’s laugh and she glared at the pinkette, who quickly recovered to say, “oh Ho oh,” she said with a shake of her head, “you really don’t know how useful you are don’t you?”

“No?” Virah paused and mulled over her own words, “wait no,” she said, “I actually know how useful I am but you’re clearly overestimating me here!”

“We’re not,” Grene said with a shake of her head, “we’re telling you the truth of the matter and that’s how useful you really are to our roster,” the martial artist said with a smile, “really, how many people do you think know how to make berry shakes or better yet, take care of an injured Pokemon in the wilds?”

“A lot?” Virah guessed, “isn’t it important to know how to take care of your Pokemon if you become a trainer?”

“Pffft, no?” Whitney denied, “the only thing that you need to know if you’re a trainer is how to fight and what moves do and stuff,” the pinkette shrugged, “you don’t need to learn how to heal Pokemon,”

“Or, at least that’s how it is for the common trainer,” Grene added, “but that’s not the case for everyone and clearly, outliers such as yourself also exist, but you’re all mostly rare which is why I’m saying that you are useful, because as talented as Whitney and I are, we don’t know how to heal our Pokemon when push comes to shove,”

“Yeah, that,” Whitney nodded.

“I don’t think-” Virah retorted but was quickly cut off.

“Just take the compliment for what it is,” Grene said.

Virah snapped her mouth and walked alongside her friends in silence.