Disclaimer: Me no own Pokémon.

Chapter 10: I am aiming for a shounen tag with all these training chapters.

The journey from Lavender Town to the heart of Route 8 took me about three hours. I had left the Pokémon Centre very early in the morning as I wanted to reach my goal before it was too far into the day. Brock decided to stay here in the Town for the moment and would join me at the end of the seventh day. Although I wouldn't have to train for this long if I just challenged the Celadon Gym, I was a little stubborn in wanting to challenge Sabrina.

The location that I was after was a river basin in the middle of Route 8. It was one of the offshoots of the river Silver and flowed into the ocean near the Vermillion Bay. The entire riverbank was flanked by deep woods in which some rare Pokémon could be found. In fact, there were primarily six types of Pokémon found in these parts. These included Pidgey, Meowth, Ekans, Sandshrew, Vulphix and Growlithe.

Among these, Growlithe and Vulphix were rather difficult to come across as they were rare. In fact from the data I collected back in the past or future, there were only two places in Kanto were these two Pokémon were naturally found and these location were on the either side of Celadon city. This was not saying that they were not found in any other location, but in such cases, the sightings are recorded as unnatural.

Many people don't understand the principle behind this so let me give a simple explanation. Pokémon in the wild have a tendency to give birth in the exact same location that they were born. Even when they leave their home in search of a better home or when they become too powerful and need new challenges, they come back to lay eggs in their birthplace unless they have been captured by a trainer. Studies done by Professor Rowan and Professor Oak suggested that this behaviour was linked to the times when prehistoric Pokémon first started to settle in the land. As different species emerged, in order to avoid large scale conflicts, Pokémon of a same species settled together in single area. Even those who left this arrangement had to come back to such settlements to breed.

In the case of Pokémon like Rattatta or Pidgey which had a rather short breeding cycle, they slowly multiplied in large numbers and spread out throughout the world. Even though Arceus was first discovered by Sinnoh natives, there are a huge number of evidence that prove that Kanto was in fact, the land of origin of Pokémon as we knew it. This is solidified by the fact that every major region in the world has Kanto Pokémon residing there in the wild. One will be hardpressed to find a non Kantonese Pokémon here.

In the case of rare Pokémon like Kadabra or Growlithe, as their breeding cycle was rather long, they ended up being much shorter in number. These Pokémon ended up inhabiting a very short area as compared to the ones with a short breeding cycle.

Now there are Pokémon that breed outside their traditional expanse, but these were hard to come across. In the case of some Pokémon like Tauros and Kangaskhan, their natural Breedin grounds were located in what is now known as the Safari Zone. Some Pokémon like Dratini had already lost their natural breeding grounds and had to be kept safe in the Safari Zone just to make sure that they didn't go extinct.

With all this said, coming across a Growlithe or a Vulphix in these parts was a small time gamble. In fact, I calculated a 5 percent chance of running into one every time. I set up camp at the base of the river, away from the grass. Since this was summer, there was no risk of the river flooding and as such I build myself a sturdy looking camp. By the time everything was finished, it was already noon. We ate the food provided by Brock before taking a small nap. I had released all my Pokémon from their balls and they were also lying about.

Charizard was simply lazing around with Pidgeotto perched on his head. Those two had become really close which was a surprise for me. After all, Charizard despite being the strongest, was also the laziest when it came to anything outside of fighting or training and Pidgeotto as my second capture was the strictest of them. But as both of them were flying type, it helped them bond quicker. He was also taking lessons from her on how to fly better.

Wartotle and Ivysaur were pretty much self explanatory. They had been friends for a long time in my past life and although most of their memories were lost, the feeling of brotherhood was strong. Ivysaur was taking in sunlight at the riverbank while Wartotle was lying near in the sand. Both of them were pretty much asleep now.

The most surprising bit was my remaining two Pokémon. Ever since I introduced her to the team, Haunter had taken a shining to Kadabra. Being the prankster that she was, she decided that she was going to annoy Kadabra who was always a little serious. Even now, she was just floating around him while making dumb faces while he was trying to meditate.

After a rather lengthy nap, I woke up at around 4PM and decided to simply walk around to familiarize myself with the forest. As he was already awake, Charizard decided to come with me. I didn't recall him back, opting to let him walk with me.

"Hey buddy do you remember anything from back then?" I asked but he gave a low growl to say that he didn't.

I had a good reason to ask as Charizard was my strongest Pokémon when I became champion. He was also my first Pokémon to master Mega Evolution with full access to both X and Y form. Although the Keystone cost me a fortune, it was a good decision in the end. But this time, I already got my hands on one. Even though Mega Evolution was an interesting prospect, I had no reason to try it too fast.

We walked around a lot as I made myself familiar with the forest. The wild Pokémon were giving us a wide berth as Charizard was too powerful for them to try their luck. I could see a few Growlithe looking at him with respect. I ended up making a detailed map as this part of the region was completely unfamiliar to me. My mapping works took me to the Centre part of the woods where I saw that there were many strong Pokémon here. Many of them were near level 25 with some eve being level 30. So as long as I did lie I did last time, getting to the target level was not that hard. I introduced myself to the Chief Pokémon and received their permission to fight here. After that we returned to the campsite where everyone was already up. I cooked dinner and we went to sleep soon after.

Day 1

As today was the start of training, I decided to go with my oldest captures to the training grounds. I left the other four to guard the camp and to train their attacks in a moderate level. I took Charizard and Pidgeotto with me as they were the relative seniors of the group. We entered the deepest part of the forest to train. I had already prepared for the day but I planned on having lunch at the campsite anyways.

The training hours for the day was fixed at 8 hours just like last time. I decided to start with Pidgeotto first as she was neither at a type advantage or disadvantage here. Pideotto was going to be integral in Celadon city so I wanted to get her as high level as I possibly could. We started training soon after by challenging a few sandshrews.

The high level of the Pokémon found here was a great thing as levelling up was rather quick. She reached level 33 within twenty minutes after the start and finally reached level 36 after one and a half hours. Soon after, she was enveloped in the brilliant white light of evolution. When it was over, she stood there as a Pidgeot. She was a little bigger than normal Pidgeot, being around 2 metres tall. The plume on her head was much longer than normal showing that she was among the elites of Pidgeot. I took Dexter out to gain the following info.

Pidgeot, the Bird Pokémon

This Pokémon has a dazzling plumage of beautifully glossy feathers. Many Trainers are captivated by the striking beauty of the feathers on its head, compelling them to choose Pidgeot as their own Pokémon.

This Pidgeot is a Female and has the ability Keen Eye.

This Pidgeot is currently level 36 and knows the moves Tackle, Sand Attack, Gust, Steel Wing, Quick Attack, Whirlwind, Wing Attack and Feather Dance.

After evolving, her attacks became much more ferocious which led to a much needed increase in battling speed. But levelling was not my only focus in the end. We tried out all the different moves in her arsenal, even the non attacking ones like Sand Attack. Mastering all the available moves were extremely important to a Pokémon who had fully evolved as they now had a solid base to work with. Attacks like Steel Wing, which had not been used outside Pewter was used again and again just to make sure that she didn't lose grip of the attack. However, all this focus on attack training eventually caused a great slowdown i levelling speed and as such within the remaining 2 and half hours, Pidgeot only gained 4 levels which took her to level 40. But I was happy with that. 8 levels in four hours was a blindingly high pace.

By the time I finished training Pidgeot, it was already time for lunchso we returned to base camp. Upon arrival, I found that all of the Pokémon were still in their own routine. Ivysaur who was really close to evolution was soaking up as much sunlight as he could while constantly switching between different attack moves. Wartotle was increasing his movement speed by carrying a boulder and running around. Kadabra was meditating while lifting several massive Boulders with his psychic powers while Haunter was diligently practising her Shadow Punch on the nearby trees. I was worried that she may slack off as she was new to the team, but my worries were unfounded.

All of us were accustomed to eating fastly and it didn't even take me thirty minutes to finish lunch and clean up camp. But we did take an hour off just to allow the lunch to be properly digested. I left Pidgeot in the camp and told her to take a nice long break for the rest of the day as she had done more than enough training for the day. I decided to take Wartotle with me as an insurance in case Charizard accidentally burned anything.

Charizard's training was much easier when compared to Pidgeot as he could easily deal with more than six opponents at a time. The wild Pokémon also found this acceptable as they had a bigger chance of actually landing a hit on Charizard who also got to train his defences. By the time an hour passed, he already reached level 40 and was still ready for more.

In the second hour, the collective damage done by the wild Pokémon was enough to force him to rest. I had a lot of Potions in my bag and I didn't falter in their use. He still gained three levels by then making him level 43. The next hour was mainly spent in practising different attacks just like I did with Pidgeot.

As a Charizard, his flame was extremely hot as it is but I knew that there was much more that he could achieve. A Charizard with perfect mastery over his flames were capable of generating White flames which was the hottest thing ever recorded in the planet. A white flame was so hot that it could hurt legendary fire types. But this level of mastery was previously unheard of and the only reason I knew about it was because I was the first trainer to own a Pokémon that mastered it.

The flame training was simple with Charizard spewing and endless stream of fire into the flowing river. Although a lot of water was evaporated upon contact with the flame, the water was still winning handily. This training was something that was going to go on for a long period of time so there wasn't any hurry. On the other hand, I was surprised at how strong his flame was.

Other attack like Scratch or Steel Wing was done a gargantuan boulder lying near the river. Constantly crashing his wings against it did two things for him. One, it strengthened his wings. Two, It strengthened the power behind the attack itself. This was also something that was to be done for a long time.

The last two hours were spent with light battles and honing the attack's powers. Flamethrower was becoming stronger even if only by a little. He did gain two more levels which marked the official end of his level training. I had gotten an idea on what to do with him for the rest of the days. We left the forest and went back to camp and after a short rest, I started on making dinner. After eating dinner, we decided to call it a day and went to sleep.

Result for the day: Charizard level 45, Pidgeot level 40.

Day 2

The day, as usual, started with me making breakfast. Although most rookies doesn't know this, sourcing food was easy to do in the wild. Pokémon as a whole was usually herbivores unless the situation forced them. The berries that were edible by them contained all the essential nutrients including Protein which was primarily found in meat. Not to mention the fact that such berries had an extremely high calorie content which was essential for having a good training session.

Although this fact was only known by high level trainers as well as breeders, there were two types of berries that were found in the wild. One was the battle berries which were commonly used by most trainers and was edible by humans and the second ones that I use are toxic to humans and didn't have any particular effects during battle. These berries were presumed as inedible by the general public as the knowledge of them was lost to the sands of time. In this era, the only people who knew of these berries were Lance and Alder at most. Alder learned it from the deceased head of the dragon village while Lance probably learned it from his deceased grandmother. They choose not to publicise it as it gave them an edge in training. I was in the same boat so I didn't want to criticise them.

After breakfast, I decided to take Charizard to a nearby waterfall. I had one specific training method for him in mind for the next few days as his levelling was already done for now. Now don't get me wrong, I could level him up further but that was just overkill at the moment. The beauty of training was in the journey that we took to reach where we are now.

"Alright buddy, here's the task for you. I want you to stand under this waterfall while training your attacks." I said and he gave a small growl in approval. The fall that we were at was not that powerful but training in water was extremely beneficial to Charizard. He could by this way, reduce the damage he took by water type attacks.

"Now this training is a little dangerous so I want you to make sure that you take long rests if you are feeling bad okay? " I said again.

"Grrr." He replied by giving another low growl. Since this technique was a little dangerous, I decided to let Pidgeot keep watch over him. I also didn't leave the waterfall area, opting to train today's pair with the Pokémon nearby.

Today was the turn of Ivysaur and Wartotle. I decided to go with Wartotle first as he took a longer period to evolve as compared to Ivysaur who was just a level away from evolving. Anyways, I just let Ivysaur bask in the sun as there wasn't much for him to do before evolving. He chose to keep a watch on Pidgeot and Charizard.

Training Wartotle was much easier than any others as there were no grass types in this part. Even the rare fire types were quick to lose towards the concentrated Water Guns that Wartotle fired. One of the most important thing about training Water Types is to make sure that they don't overuse their water reserves. Dehydration for Water types, while being non fatal, caused comas which could last a few days as they were quite slow in producing water when unconscious. Water types used their internal energy to produce water which meant that overexertion was never a good thing in the long run. In our case, Wartotle was trained thoroughly on controlling the amount of water that he released every turn.

The quick turns worked it's magic perfectly as it didn't take much time for Wartotle to evolve. The blinding white light once again enveloped my vision and a Stout looking Blastoise was standing there after the process was over. He was almost the same size as Charizard as he was comfortably over 3 metres in height. Dexter gave the following evaluation.

Blastoise, The Shellfish Pokémon.

Blastoise has water spouts that protrude from is shell. The Water spouts are very accurate. They can shoot bullets of water with enough accuracy to strike empty cans from a distance of over 160 feet.

This Blastoise is a Male and has the ability Torrent.

This Blastoise is currently level 36 and knows the moves Tackle, Mirror Coat, Tail Whip, Bubble, Withdraw, Water Gun, Bite, Rapid Spin and Protect.

This Blastoise has a height of 3.1 metres, which makes it the tallest of its species to be ever recorded.

Evolution did nothing to slow down our training speed. He had learned Rain Dance at level 42 after three hours into the training time, which was when I decided to cut back on the pace in order to familiarise him with the move.

Rain Dance, like every weather altering moves, only worked within an imaginary square of thirty metre sides. This was probably controlled by the weather guardians so as to not affect the weather of the area just due to a Pokémon battle. Anyways, Rain Dance did three things in the battlefield. One, it strengthened Water type attacks to 1.25th of its strength, weakened Fire type attacks to 0.75th of its power and gave electric type attacks an accuracy of hundred percent. I ordered Blastoise to practise Rain Dance for as much as he can around Charizard for the remaining time before lunch. Since there was an hour left before lunchtime, I decided to go for some extra special recipies that I learned from an old breeder in my previous life.

Lunch was exquisite for today as I had a lot of time in my hand. While I was cooking, I remembered the events which led to me meeting the old lady who taught me the art of cooking for Pokémon. It was during my days of wandering in the Sevii islands that I ran into her. I was hungry and the woods that I was trapped in had none of the berries that I knew of. I was running on fumes when I stumbled onto a clearing with a shabby looking hut in its middle. I remember desperately pounding on the door. The door opened and she walked out looking puzzled at being interrupted in this remote island. She did gave me food and when I finished eating, curiosity made me stay and she never forbade it. She was old, probably around eighty years of age. She never talked much but since she learned that I was there to stay, she started teaching me. I learned a lot of things from her in the year that I spend with her.

She was a veteran trainer and a breeder and had a full team of level 70 Pokémon with her. She was apparently a big name back in the days but retired and later went on a journey around the world. Her retirement took her to this remote island where she learned about the lost arts of cooking the inedible berries. She herself learned this from a book that she found in here. From her I learned about how resourceful nature was.

A lot of Pokémon professors study evolution or things related to battle, but Gary was the first to study the behaviour of wild Pokémon in my life. He did in fact learn about these berries but that was a long time in the future. My time with her was spend on learning how to identify poisonous berries and to differentiate between them in accordance with their nutritional makeup.

In case anyone is wondering what I ate during my stay there, there were edible berries in the island but that was limited to her backyard for the most part. I already knew how to cook back then so I spend most of the time mastering the art of cooking. I even trained my Pokémon while I was there on the strong wild Pokémon on the island. My stay came to an end when she said that there was nothing left for me to learn. I left the island soon after and when I returned there an year later, she was gone.

The sound of my Pokémon brought me back from the trance that I was in. I could cook perfectly while being absent minded so the food was unaffected. The dishes I cooked was packed with nutrients while being delicious at the same time. Lunch was over pretty quickly and after the mandatory hour long rest, we went back to training.

Training Ivysaur was a lot difficult compared to Blastoise. He was weak against fire types so when the rare Pokémon arrived, he was on the defensive. Although the individual fire type found here were not strong enough to damage Ivysaur on their own, but the damage stacked causing him to rest after five consecutive battles against said types. In the end, the level up needed for evolution came after an hour passed. Venusaur, just like his fellow starters were much bigger than usual. He in fact was the biggest among them with him being over 5 Metres tall if we included the flower.

Venusaur, the Seed Pokémon.

There is a large flower on Venusaur's back. The flower is said to take on vivid colors if it gets plenty of nutrition and sunlight. The flowers aroma soothes the emotions of people.

This Venusaur is a Male and has the ability Overgrow.

This Venusaur is currently level 32 and knows the moves Growl, Petal Dance, Tackle, Leech Seed, Vine Whip, Sleep Powder, Razor Leaf and Sweet Scent.

This Venusaur is 5 metres tall and is the tallest of its species to have ever been recorded.

Since the regular training method was not working, I decided to o about it another way. Venusaur started by using Sweet Scent, which attracted a horde of Pokémon who were promptly sprayed with Poison Powder before the exchange was finished off with Vine Whip or Razor Leaf. This method cleared up training and Venusaur reached level 40 by the end of the session.

Charizard and the rest were also done by now and we returned to the camp which was guarded by the remaining two Pokémon. I cooked dinner and we went to sleep after a good day's work. My team was increasingly becoming Powerful and now I had the four permanent members of my team fully evolved. The future was looking bright for me as i went to sleep happily.

Ash' team

Charizard

Level 45

Moves: Scratch, Growl, Rock Slide, Bite, Ember, Metal Claw, Smokescreen, Scary Face, Flamethrower, Wing Attack, Slash( Will replace scratch from now on)

Pidgeot

Level 40

Moves: Tackle, Sand Attack, Gust, Steel Wing, Quick Attack, Whirlwind, Wing Attack, Feather Dance.

Kadabra

Level 30

Moves: Teleport, Thunder Punch, Confusion, Disable, Psybeam, Reflect, Recover, Future Sight.

Venusaur

Level 40

Moves: Growl, Tackle, Vine Whip, Leech Seed, Poison Powder, Sleep Powder, Petal Dance, Razor Leaf, Sweet Scent.

Blastoise

Level 42

Moves: Tackle, Tail Whip, Bubble, Withdraw, Water Gun, Mirror Coat, Bite, Rapid Spin, Protect, Rain Dance.

Haunter

Level 32

Moves: Hypnosis, Lick, Dream Eater, Spite, Curse, Night Shade, Confuse Ray, Shadow Punch.

That's it for the day folks.

Sorry for the delay but I visited my grandparents house and was too tired to write for the day.

Anyways, I hope you liked the little information that I gave out in here. It will help to clarify any doubts that you may get.

Read and review as always kay.

Good night.