A/N: Edited 16/10/2021. There is a major edit that has occurred to this story. You might want to go back and read if you're jumping in to this story here cause the chapter no longer match up with how they were laid out before the edit.

Chapter Nine: Progress

Being able to spend all my time with my Pokemon meant that they progressed quickly at all points: physically, intellectually, emotionally and with their moves.

True to my initial observations, Vulpix took on the role of guardian and protector to his nest mates. He was the sensible one, the one who looks to the safety of his siblings and ensuring that they didn't get on each other's nerves. If someone did start going a little bit to far, he would separate them until they calmed down.

Noibat was the prankster who loved joking and having fun. He wanted everyone to laugh and join him in their fun, and he made everything into a game – especially their training. Swablu mothered everyone, joining Vulpix in looking after everyone; Froakie was still openly curious about everything, regularly bringing things back for me to identify. Froakie also loved cuddles and when he wasn't sleeping in water, he would find the softest thing he could to curl up on.

Piplup was the stubborn one who didn't give up once given a task, while Deino was the enforcer who told one of the others off if they did something wrong and she also encouraged and ensured everyone put in their best during training hours.

Their bonds with each other were growing by the day as they learnt to depend on each other. My bonds with them only got stronger as my Aura-developed Telepathy grew, although I could not detect more than emotions from any but Noibat who was able to impart impressions. Being able to communicate, even at such an instinct level, helped me to understand behavioural responses.

Running training was going well. Deino was getting quicker and more agile, especially when she started following Vulpix and mimicking his movements which helped teach her how to move her body in order to take corners while running. Being shadowed by Deino also helped Vulpix by increasing his stamina since he couldn't stop until Deino had given up and she didn't like giving up; at the minute Deino had better stamina than Vulpix.

Swablu had learnt that she couldn't walk or run like Noibat because her legs were just too short. Instead, she took to hoping. I allowed this because she was still increasing her mobility on the ground which was what I wanted in case she ended up in a combat situation which would be detrimental to occur in the air. Noibat and Piplup were both quite steady on the ground now, but were having issues with turning unless they jumped and spun in order to change direction.

Froakie took great joy in running around everyone since his legs gave him a lot of forward propelling motion, greater than what even Vulpix could achieve despite being faster than anyone else. In time, Vulpix would be able to out speed Froakie on the land unless he was using quick attack, but Vulpix was still playing catch up.

Stamina was increasing in all six of them, being able to run for longer and needing less time in order to recover between activities. Vulpix and Deino were the quickest to recover and could typically last longest in the running exercises, although Froakie could go from the running exercises to a jumping exercise since it wasn't his legs that couldn't continue but rather his forward momentum (he started flipping and rolling because his back legs provided too much power and he didn't catch himself with his arms). The stamina exercises I used was running around a set cause, sometimes a circular run and sometimes dodging around pillars which had been put in place.

Strength exercises were done at the same time as practising their moves. Three sets of weights had been found in the lost and found room and so I rotated each of them every other day. One day Piplup, Vulpix and Noibat would wear the weights while working on moves, while the next Deino, Froakie and Swablu would wear the weights – each of them adjusted depending on their innate strength. Deino had the highest weight, while Swablu had the lowest.

Move practise consisted of aim and strength with distance moves like bubble, and ember while adding more power behind tackles, bites and other close contact moves. At first these attacks were done with rocks which they had found in a deserted clearing on the island, and then after a while they were practised against each other, which also doubled as dodge training, although Vulpix wasn't allowed to be targeted by Bubble for another month when he would be old enough to have some resistance to water attacks without extreme pain or damage.

A month after they'd started training, I'd determined that each of my family members had learnt and mastered their moves. Only then did I decide to start teaching them knew moves, splitting the process into two categories: teaching and learning. For those that could, half the time was spent teaching the others a move they already knew, while the other time was spent learning and mastering a new move. By having multiple members of the family doubling up on moves, they'd be able to watch each other's back with greater success.

Vulpix started by teaching Swablu safeguard, while learning Quick attack at the same time. Once Swablu new safeguard, Vulpix turned his attention to learning incinerate. Swablu was tasked with helping Noibat learn supersonic since the theory behind the noise base attack was the same as round. Once Noibat had an idea of the basics, Swablu moved on to learning dragon breath. Once he had the basics of Supersonic down, Noibat would go on to learn wing attack which he would be able to teach to Swablu.

Piplup focused on learning fury attack and water sport since she didn't currently have anything to teach the others. Water Sport cloaked her in water in order to help protect her from fire type moves, and would be relatively easy to learn because she already knew water spout. Froakie was learning smack down and water pulse. I figured they would both be more motivated to learn something not water related if they were allowed to learn both at the same time until I could prove to them that knowing non-water type moves was a good idea.

Deino focused on learning crunch which was the next step after learning Bite, since she had a very strong jaw already but Crunch was far more powerful. Next to learning Crunch she also took to learning Dragon Breathe alongside Swablu. She was extremely happy to be learning a dragon type attack because she could feel that energy inside, but she hadn't known any dragon type moves.

Of the two moves that each of the family were tasked with learning, it took them three weeks to learn the moves. It would take them another month or two to move from 'knowing' the moves to mastering them.

We only trained for up to three hours in a day as I didn't want to push my family into over extending themselves while they were so young. I had no reason to push my charges to learn moves quickly as we were not in the wild or pushing to face gym leaders. Taking our time, learning the moves slowly and steadily, so that they were mastered before I thought about introducing any new moves.

Many times, our training sessions would dissolve into fun and games.

May 7th, we were running through a dodging session with Vulpix using ember and Froakie using Bubble, as Vulpix was finally old enough to start building resistance to water. The others were watching so that they could provide advice to their nest siblings. We were interrupted by Nurse Joy approaching with the imposing presence of Lt Surge who I'd been waiting anxiously for news from.

With the appearance of an unknown man, especially since I'd only been able to introduce my family to Tobias Altman, had them all converging around me. Deino jumped between me and Lt. Surge, Noibat came to hover at my shoulder; Swablu came to land on my head, Vulpix jumped up and stood ready on my shoulder while Froakie hopped to land on Deino's other side.

"It's alright," I stepped between Froakie and Deino to rest my hands on their heads. "Lt. Surge is a friend."

"They are impressively protective of you," the Lt. Surge spoke, deep amusement in his tone.

"And I'm just as protective of them." I smiled slightly. "Which is why they've not had a lot of interaction with the island population. Lt. did you get them all?"

"We did, including the ones you identified as their contacts in the different regions." Lt. Surge confirmed. "They were a nightmare to round up, and the reason it took so long."

Noibat took up his position clinging to my back and everyone relaxed as they released that this stranger was someone that I knew. Noibat had learnt to leap from my back and attack others, although he no longer needed to hide his head in my shoulder blades to protect himself from the light.

"Why have you come all this way to tell me that in person?" I questioned, my fingers running through the fur at the base of Deino's neck. "You are an extremely busy man; you could have sent a message through Nurse Joy."

"Well, you aren't stupid," Lt. Surge grunted. There was the sound of rustling fabric, before the whistle of something flying through the air between them. Noibat pounced, launching from my back and intercepting the object. As he caught the ball between the tips of his wings, he dropped to the floor.

"Thank you, Noibat," I crouched down so that I could retrieve the object. A light frown graced my face at the feel of the object, it was round, with a raised button in the middle. A Pokeball, and there was the feeling of life inside. "A Pokeball?"

"When we shut down the operation on the island, Lucario approached me. He'd helped contain the retributes during the attack, and then ignored everyone except me. He was most displeased when he couldn't sense you on the island anymore, and feared that you had died. Once I assured him you were alive, and that you were the one who sent me, he told me to give you 'his last'." Lt. Surge explained.

"His last," I repeated, rocking back on my heals in shock. "But that's…" I brought the ball close to my breast. "But that means he'll be alone."

"The old boy seemed quite happy ordering the Rangers around as they set up the sanctuary," the Lt. snorted. "You going to explain to me what Lucario meant? It's been bothering me."

"Lucario's mate for life." I explained softly, moving to take a seat and motioning to the soldier to do the same. My Pokemon all sat around me, Deino sat on my left and Froakie acting quickly to claim my lab before the others could do so.

"He found his mate nearly fifty years ago, that was when his trainer released him and he found a home on Grasshope. He and his mate had nine children over their time together, who have all travelled out into the world with the help of various water type Pokemon. Eighteen months ago, Lucario's mate gave birth to his tenth and last child; she died bringing him into the world. Lucario is giving me responsibility of Riolu, the last link he has to her." I hugged Froakie close while cradling the Pokeball in my hands.

"It's not known information that Lucario mate for life. You might want to right a report on that and send it to Professor Elm, he'd be interested." Lt. Surge commented after a long moment. "I'll make sure that Riolu is transferred into your custody with my permission and Professor Elm."

"Thank you, Lt. Surge." I smiled before releasing Riolu from his Pokeball.