When Joseph woke up that morning, alarmed by his SmartRotom, he looked around himself, worried: The training was tiring, and his grandpa had taken the habit of waking him up really early in the morning to meditate. But SmartRotom was saying something peculiar.

"We overslept! It's 10 AM in the morning, Joseph!" SmartRotom shouted.

"10 AM?! HOW?!" Joseph said, getting up and grabbing his yukata, his socks and his sandals. "We are going SO late to the training, Grandpa is SO mad, I... I...!"

But when he opened the door outside his room, he stumbled into something surprising: His grandpa, Clair, Lance, Piter, Falkner, Ai...

"What is... all of this?" He asked. He saw the Zygardes that weren't currently on his team hanging banners on the hallway of the compound. "Grandpa? Did you call all of them for a special training?"

"Are you stupid?" Clair asked, smiling nicely. "Today is your 12th birthday, you dingus!"

"Ah, yes?!" SmartRotom said, surprised. "I didn't... have it in my database! Our anniversary of meeting, in fact, falls during the celebration of the Pokémon League!"

"Grandpa called Clair and I to celebrate" Lance said. "He said you were making so much progress in so little time... I'm hoping to fight against you!"

"Ah, I doubt I'm strong enough!" Joseph smiled.

"And you do well by that!" Piter interfered, smiling cockily. "I am the Dragon Hunter, after all. I won't make your victory easy!"

"I count on that, Piter!" Joseph said, fistbumping his friend's hand.

"I want to become the greatest Flying-type expert, so I won't be behind you guys" Falkner smiled.

"Yep! I'm counting on that!" Joseph smiled.

"Ey, Joseph" Ai said, giving him a little charm. "Happy birthday~"

It was a star-shaped charm, of a bright pink colour.

"What is this?" Joseph asked.

"It's a charm. I made it myself, for you" Ai blushed.

"Oh, I see" Joseph smiled. "Thanks, Ai. It'll give me good luck with my training"

"You haven't seen your birthday cake yet! I ordered the chef of the compound to bake one specially for you!" The Patriarch said.

"What about my Pokémon?" Joseph asked. "Do they get cake?"

"Cake for your Pokémon?" Lance asked, crossing his arms.

"Yeah! We're all going through a hell of a training, mastering all the abilities we've got! They also deserve birthday cake!" Joseph said, smiling.

"You're impossibly pure, Joseph" Clair laughed.

"I'm going to bake a Pokémon cake!" Joseph said, excited.

"Don't get me wrong. You make good curry, but baking is not the same" Piter laughed. "You'll need my help"

"And mine!" Falkner said.

"If we want to help, we need to get our Pokémon onto it!" Ai said, excited.

They went to the cuisines, which had enough space for their Pokémon.

"Come forth! Lugia, Fearow, Talonflame, Staraptor, Swellow and Xatu!" Falkner ordered.

"Pidgey, Sunkern, Machop, come on!" Ai shouted.

"Jynx, Mamoswine, Gardevoir, Nidoking, Sylveon and Latios! Come forth!" Piter said.

"Huh?! You got Latios?" Joseph asked, surprised. "But I thought that was a Dragon!"

"A Dragon to hunt Dragons, after all!" Piter grinned.

"I see. How exciting!" Joseph said. "Go! Dragonite, Delibird, Heracross, Pikachu, Zygarde, Latias!"

"Ah! You got Delibird back?" Piter asked, surprised.

"Yep! I'll finally show everyone what good training can do to a Pokémon everyone called weakling!" Joseph said. "And after the League, he'll go with Father Winter! Right, Delibird?"

"Deli!" Delibird nodded, excited. He had finally found his place, both as a fighter and as a gift-giver.

"Brother" Latias said, surprised, looking at Latios. "Did you really leave Altomare?"

"I left it temporarily. I knew you were going to join Joseph's team, so I decided to join Piter's. I wasn't going to stay home and do nothing!" Latios said, cockily.

Dragonite looked at Jynx. They both smiled at each other as a sign of mutual respect, out of their rivalry. They didn't have any discussion to do, they just helped making cake for everyone with their strength combined.

"Heracross!" Meanwhile, Heracross chatted with Mamoswine, trying to express how hard Joseph had tried to show he was worthy of his power.

"Mamooos!" Mamoswine, on the other hand, boasted about Piter actually honing great strength before even daring to give him orders.

"Hera?" Heracross wondered whether that was sad, the fact that Piter had given up so much time on actually showing Mamoswine he was worthy of his care.

"Mamoswine!" Mamoswine groaned that he didn't need Piter proving himself every day. That he had enough with being at Mahogany until Piter had searched for his strength.

"Heracross! Hera, heracross!" Heracross thought that Mamoswine's way of thinking was far too similar to what he had thought before. That he was strong enough for Piter to have had forged a great strength before training him. But he was wrong.

"Ma?" Mamoswine asked.

"Hera... her, hera, cross!" Heracross admited that the time he had lost his horn he felt defenseless and scared, but Joseph just cared so much about him, even if Heracross didn't give him the time of day.

"Mamoswine!" Mamoswine though Heracross was talking nonsense. "Mamos..."

Heracross looked at Mamoswine, surprised, when he looked at Heracross, menacingly.

"Mamoswine!" He promised he would win their battle at the League, to show that Piter's approach to hold enough power in order to master him was better than Joseph's approach to gradually make Heracross care about him.

"Heracross!" Heracross promised he would win as well, thinking about the reservoir Ursaring was spending her days, waiting for the League to end to ask Joseph about staying at the reservoir.

Pikachu and Gardevoir were talking to each other as well.

"Gardevoir!" Gardevoir confessed that she was basically Piter's most trusted Pokémon, even if Jynx was his starter. She boasted about how strong she was.

"Pikapi" Pikachu confessed that he did not belong to that point in time. Gardevoir looked at him, baffled.

"Garde?" She was curious.

"Pikapi, pikapika" Pikachu confessed that he had been friends with Patriarch Ryuu on his youth. That their friendship wasn't fated to be because of Ryuu's obligations as a Patriarch. But Joseph showed up, lost in time thanks to Celebi, and showed that he could take care of Pikachu. They were friends, but they always had this implicit promise that after Joseph's journey was complete, Pikachu would come back with Ryuu.

"Gardevoir, garde!" Gardevoir mocked it off, pointing out how sad it was that Pikachu's bond with Joseph was temporary.

"PIKA!" Pikachu denied that completely. His bond with Joseph wasn't temporal. They were friends. And Pikachu was going to show Gardevoir.

Nidoking and Zygarde were talking as well. Their conversation didn't dwell in any emotional aspect, but they both knew their rivalry was a lot more dry and their Trainers, and that Zygarde hadn't forgotten how Nidoking had defeated him so humilliantly.

And... Delibird and Sylveon were helping with the cake. They both shared two bonds that made them work together on it: They both were the trump cards. Pokémon regarded as not as strong as their companions, but potent in their own right. They were also both balls of sunshine that liked giving joy to everyone.

If Ursaring and Dewgong were there, they both could've bonded through being the unlikely seventh team member that were retired from the team to retrieve a retired Ice-type participant, both of typing that made a weird dynamic on their Trainers's teams.

Even if most of Joseph's and Piter's teams were slacking off, the Pokémon cake was finished; and all of them, human and Pokémon, could eat and rejoice for Joseph's 12th birthday.

The League was approaching, and Joseph was throughoutly excited!

To be continued

So... yeah, parallelisms, character arcs for Pokémon, rivalries... I really like writing this, it allows me to write more complex stuff, I think. Let's do the teams again, shall we?

Joseph's Team:

Dragonite (Male) (Level 83)

Delibird (Male) (Level 80)

Heracross (Male) (Alpha) (Level 81)

Pikachu (Male) (Level 81)

Zygarde (10% Form) (Level 80)

Latias (Female) (Level 82)

Piter's Team

Jynx (Female) (Level 80)

Mamoswine (Male) (Alpha) (Level 80)

Gardevoir (Female) (Level 80)

Nidoking (Male) (Level 80)

Sylveon (Female) (Level 80)

Latios (Male) (Level 80)