I Sting (Pokemon Poison Type Specialist)

Virah looked around, her expression collected.

"I thought there's more to this city than its martial arts," she comments as she stops and eyes a closed dojo, "almost everything here is either beach related or something to do with training physically,"

"Well we are in Cianwood, Chuck's town so…" Grene offered from the side.

"So martial arts is the main attraction, got it," Virah sighed, "I guess I just don't like how this place is a whole lot more quiet compared to Goldenrod,"

I their hometown, the night would just be a signifier for things to shift and people would go from shopping in malls and eating at restaurants to going karaoke or heading to bars, it's like the liveliness in their city never dies down.

Compare that to Goldenrod's quiet atmosphere and everything just hits differently, it's like being happy for all your life and then becoming serious all of a sudden, it just doesn't make sense.

"This place is a whole lot quieter isn't it?" Whitney chimes, "and also boring,"

"That too," Virah nods.

"Dad says that if he ever retires, he'd love to stay here and I thought it made sense before but now I'm not so sure," the pinkette elaborated, "what's so great about this place?"

"Maybe this place also has great battlers?" Virah guessed after some thought, "which is why I think going out at night while in Cianwood isn't a great idea- most of the attraction is in the day,"

"I guess?" Whitney replied, her tone sounded unsure, "but it's kind of boring to think that night is just for sleeping right?"

Virah nods, "mhmm, usually in Goldenrod we can still go outside no matter the time of day and find people going around, having fun, battling, or doing whatever,"

"Heh," Whitney grinned, she looked up, "guess Goldenrod is just so much better than Cianwood,"

"Mhmm," Virah agreed with a nod, "the liveliness there is a whole lot better compared to the dread atmosphere here,"

"Speaking of dread…" Virah trailed off, "have you guys noticed how creepy the beach looks?"

"I have, yeah," Grene replied, "it's completely empty when we arrived wasn't it?"

"Yeah," Virah agreed, "I wonder if there's people there?"

"How about we go out there and find out?" Whitney turned to them with a grin, "it's boring here anyway, so what do you guys say about going around and investigating the beaches here in Cianwood?"

"Are you saying we should throw on our costumes?" Virah looked at Whitney with fake exasperation.

"You look like you want to do it," the pinkette retorted.

Virah shrugged, "I do," the poison specialist smiled and reached into her trainer bag, "what about the two of you?"

"I want to do it too," Grene nodded, she shifted her bag over to her chest and took out her newly furbished costume, "I wanna try and see if I can still move freely with my new costume,"

The "new" part was nothing more than a one piece she'll wear in place of her civilian clothing, the luchador mask that hid her identity and showed her specialty was still there.

"Let's do it then," Virah replied.

She looked from side to side to find a place for them to change into and found nothing other than the alleyways between the buildings, all three of them considered it good enough and they got in them to change into their costumes.

"Why split up?" Virah couldn't help but ask Whitney as she watched the pinkette throw on her pink outfit, "going around together sounds better doesn't it?"

"Well, yeah, but it's not like there's anything dangerous here," the pinkette answered, "I'm sure that we'll be fine,"

Virah met Grene's eyes, the martial artist shrugged, "she isn't wrong," Grene replied, "and besides, exploring Cianwood by ourselves sounds calming,"

"Hm." Virah paused and put some thought on Grene's reply. The martial artist wasn't wrong…

Virah nodded, "yeah, that's a good argument," she said, "okay, so, I'll take the right side of the beach, Whitney takes the city, and you go to the left side right?"

The two girls nodded at the same time, "yep!" / "That's the plan yeah," Whitney and Grene replied at the same time, the pinkette adding, "do you think we'll find something interesting around here?"

"Probably not," Virah shook her head, "Cianwood doesn't feel like the kind of city to hide criminals, there's too many martial artists here, it's also way too peaceful,"

"Mhmm," Grene agreed, "way too peaceful,"

"You're right, it is kind of peaceful isn't it? It feels eery," Whitney giggled, "I bet there's something hidden around here,"

"Maybe," Virah vaguely agreed, "and I bet I'm the one who's going to find it,"

Her friends look at her, their gazes becoming serious.

"Oh, you're on!" Whitney declared, the pinkette pulled on her gloves and fixed the position of her hoodie, she pulled on the mouth of her sneakers and fixed the placing of her face mask, "I'll find it first!"

"What she said," Grene chorused, the martial artist did the same with her one-piece, which in Virah's eyes closely resembled a swim suit more than something used on wrestling matches.

The purple colored thing only covered the center of her body while leaving her arms and legs bare. Grene covered up the latter from the knee and above using a pair of athletic shorts.

Virah smiled from behind her mask, "nope, I'll find it first," the poison specialist took in her friends' challenging words in stride, "watch me,"

After a few more challenging declarations of beating each other, the girls took off for the rooftops and once they reached the skylines of Cianwood, they split up and went on different directions.

Whitney headed for the center of the city, Grene went to the side, and Virah went on the opposite direction of the martial artist.

She ran until the grey concrete gave way to yellow sand and once she landed on the beach proper, she scanned the surroundings, her expression unreadable thanks to her mask.

As expected, there was nothing more than umbrellas, sand, and landlocked seaweed, almost everything was on par for the course when it came to what someone would normally see on the beach with the only difference being the lack of people as well as the absence of the sun.

Those two things were more than enough to turn an otherwise lively beach into a creepy, barren desert that gave off a sense of fear.

Virah, undeterred, released Jet from his Pokeball and commanded the Zubat to take to the skies and act as her scout, "tell me about anything that you think is strange, if you find someone, then immediately tell me okay?"

"Zubat!" The Poison/Flying Type nodded before flying off.

Virah watched him go, his figure shrinking as he flew higher and higher, it continued until he disappeared from Virah's naked eyesight in his entirety.

Virah scanned the beach for the second time, she didn't have high hopes on finding anything here, but she was hoping that something interesting would at least happen here.