A/N: 16/10/2021. I've done a major edit to this story.

Chapter Fifteen: Time Goes By

With the majority of my family having evolved, training mostly focused on fighting as a team and continuing to improve base states of strength and speed, and constantly thinking of new and innovative ways to use their moves.

For battle pairs there was several combinations that I felt would work best: Vulpix and Altaria, Deino and Noivern, Prinplup and Deino, Altaria and Noivern, and finally Riolu and Frogadiar.

The Vulpix and Altaria were an agile fighting pair who's moves and fighting style complimented each other. From the air, Altaria could use the winds to protect Vulpix and fight from a distance with devastating moves such as Dragon Break and Moonblast. When needed, she could also get in close and use her powerful wings to stun the opponent. Once Vulpix began learning more fire type moves, Altaria could use the weakened form of gust (which was just using her wings to pick cause a breeze, and so not strong enough to register as a move) which she had learnt from Noivern in order to fan Vulpix's flames. With Vulpix's ability to use Dig, the pair could make themselves difficult targets to hit. One of their move combinations had Vulpix disappearing underground after Altaria obscures the opponent's vision, then Altaria attacks them from above while Vulpix sneaks upon them underground.

Altaria and Noivern were a dual air battling team. Noivern was a more of a get close and behind the opponent flying attack, while Altaria could stay away and attack from a distance only coming in close when she thought the risk was worth it. Having the distance support of Altaria meant it was safer for Noivern to get in close, and easierfor him to sneak behind his opponents. They could also combine their moves, such as with Noivern's Hurricane and Altaria's Moonblast.

Deino and Prinplup were tanks, growing ever stronger and more resilient as they moved towards evolution once more. When Deino evolved on the 8th November her body was physically more dense and stronger than Prinplup's would be when she evolved, but that didn't stop Prinplup from working to match Deino in charging the enemy.

Deino and Noivern worked together as a heavy hitter and air support, but both of them preferring to get in close and fight despite having some sneak and distance moves. Riolu and Frogadiar were a close combat and speed demon team, who would only grow far more deadly once they both reached their final evolutions.

Other than the paired fighting, I also trained them in groups and as a complete family so that they could fight no matter the situation. When possible, I trained them to split into two; Frogadiar, Deino and Noibat were the first team, Vulpix, Altaria and Prinplup were the second team. Riolu would join and fight with the team that needed his skills the most as he was so diverse as a fighter and defender. If confronted by a larger group, I also trained them to fight as a group of seven who could weave and dodge amongst each other – dodging and using each other's moves to support their own.

Beyond learning to fight alongside each other, I also gave them a very small number of moves that they were to learn. Instead of practising them every day, or every other day, I only allowed learning time once a week. In this way, I delayed the learning and mastering of new moves so that it was more spread out and they didn't become overwhelmed by the amount of moves that they had at their disposal.

Prinplup added seven new moves to her eleven already known moves: Bounce, Metal Claw, Shadow Claw, Protect, Rain Dance, Hydro Pump and Aromatherapy. Even if we hadn't been taking are training nice and slow, it would have taken her a while to learn Shadow Claw and Aromatherapy because they were both moves which were so very different to her nature. Shadow Claw was a dark type move, and she was used to channelling water, steel and normal energy. She had the benefit of Deino, Riolu and Noivern all being able to naturally harness such energy so they could help her get to grips with the correct feeling. For Aromatherpy she didn't have such a benefit, and struggled for months to get a grip on the grass type energy until Altaria managed to master the move and help tutor her in it's use.

Frogadiar added five powerful moves to his move pool. Three of which were the powerful water type moves of Surf, Whirlpool and Life Dew, and the other two were defensive moves of Protect and Endure. The Protect and Endure were to help with his future role of a close combat fighter, while the water type moves were to help his distance fighting in the event that he was facing a fighter that getting close to would be disadvantageous.

Noivern learnt seven new moves with his evolution and it is unlikely that he would be able to learn anymore beyond that without the assistance of TM's. He learnt Protect, Air Cutter, Tailwing, Corrosive Gas, Endure, Confuse Ray and Extreme Speed. On learning Extreme Speed, Confuse Ray and Corrosive Gas it was very difficult to get my little prankster to use anything else in battle, and even harder to get him to use Endure or Protect when he preferred to simple dodge.

Deino managed to learn Thunder Wave and Thunder Fang before she evolved, before picking up another three moves as a Zweilous: Dragon Claw, Dragon Pulse and Detect. She had other moves on her list to learn, but with her current evolution speed she'd have another six months at least to learn those four other moves. Her learning of moves had naturally slowed for the first month after she evolved because Zweilous had to get used to not only being bigger and having a second head, but also the fact that she could see. For the first time she was able to see and understand colours, and had to learn to adjust to this new input.

Altaria learnt three knew moves out of the seven I'd wanted her to learn with her evolution: Perish Song, Sky Attack and Sing. A move that would forcibly withdraw an opponent after a limited amount of time, a powerful flying type attack and a move which would put her opponents to sleep. Sing was useful, not only for battles, but also for helping her family with their training. Slowking so very rarely left his own home now that my Pokemon were no longer babies, so the family had few opportunities to test their ability to use Sleep Talk. With Altaria's new move, that was no longer a problem and they could train in using the move and mastering it to an instinctive level. They also had to learn to fight with Altaria when she used such area effect moves such as Sing and Perish Song, and not be affected, which had taken quite a lot of careful thinking. In the end, Altaria had managed to make Perish Song targeted, while Riolu, Vulpix and Piplup knew how to make themselves deaf for a few seconds to go unaffected by the move. These three, and Ataria, also used the same skill when fighting with Noivern if he uses Supersonic, while the others simple learnt to battle through the pain.

Riolu picked up Low Kick, Force Palm and Aura Sphere. He picked up a smaller number of moves than he was capable of, despite the slow training, because he was learning to manipulate Aura outside of his body which was extremely difficult and tiring. Lucario had warned his son that he would struggle to externally use Aura before he evolved. But Riolu was stubborn, and he knew that I couldn't learn to push my Aura outside of my body until he helped me guide it out which he couldn't do until he'd guided and used his own Aura outside of his body. Despite being an Aura Potential, I needed the aid of an Aura Pokemon to use it externally as I was naturally built to push Aura out.

As well as learning to harness his Aura so that he could help me, Riolu was also taking time out of his training to fight with me. He had to hold back a lot physically, focusing on his technique, but it helped the both of us to have an opponent that we could face in a mock combat. Once Frogadiar evolved, or I managed to enhance my muscles with Aura (a skill I'd begun working on alongside increasing the distance of my Aura Sight since they were both internal manipulations of Aura), Riolu would have a true sparing partner that he could go all out on.

Vulpix picked up four new moves: Iron Tail, Copy-Cat, Helping Hand and Hyper Fang. These four moves had been very difficult for him to learn, not because of their natures but because only Iron Tail was something that research into his kind showed he should have been able to learn naturally. I didn't believe there was truly a restriction on the types of moves that a Pokemon can learn beyond things that were body-type specific, and so I had encouraged him to learn these moves which I felt would be very helpful for him to know. However, a Vulpix could only utilize and use so much type energy, and with the way that he struggled to draw on and use these moves, I believe we'd finally reached that limit. For the rest of the time that Vulpix was to remain as such, I'd decided to finally start teaching him more Fire type moves, but I'd wanted to do so under the guidance of someone who knew how to train a fire type to their greatest potential.

Because I wanted a tutor in helping to train Vulpix, and perhaps advise on the best place to find a Fire Stone and how to train a Ninetails, I'd reached out to Liza of Charicific Valley. Charicific Valley was a collection of mountains around a small volcano in Johto which was home to many fire types. The Valley was home to the largest collection of the Charizard line, with an alpha Charizard being the watcher, enforcer and protector of the other Pokemon in the area. From the research that Liza and her predecessor had done, the Valley was home to Vulpixs and Growlelithes and a handful of Ninetales, Arcanines; four Ponyta and Rapidash herds which were there all year round, while another six known herds visited every year for the winter; a couple of Magmar and Magby had been found in the volcano; the Cyndaquil line, Sugma and Magcargo, Numel and Camerupt and Larvesta.

Liza's role, officiated by the league in 1995, was to protect the Valley and prevent poaching as many of the fire types that lived there were rare Pokemon in the wider regions of Johto and Kanto. Liza also ensured that the breeding seasons where successful for each Pokemon, checked to ensure there was no over population of certain species – like the Fire Bug type Larvesta, policed aggressive Pokemon to stop them from pushing onto another Pokemon's territory and otherwise watched over the valley. She was not officially a Fire-Type Master; however, she had a Charizard and Rapidash as her partners and had been working with the fire types of the valley for so long she was considered to be a master in her own right. She also provided research to various professors across the regions, and worked close with Gym Leader Blaine.

Instead of taking on employees to help her work in the Valley, Liza often took in a Foster Child or two for between six and nine months. A foster child was someone between the age of nine and fourteen who wanted to learn more about a specific type of Pokemon or a particular area of life as a Pokemon Trainer or Researcher. Each of the children had to wright an application without support to the person they wish to foster under, explaining why they wanted to Foster as well as why they would be a good student. The application also had to come with at least one recommendation of a professional. The child did not have to fund their own fostering, as the person taking on a foster child was paid a stipend from the League to cover the child's costs as an investment in the future. As well as teaching the children, the foster children were typically used to cover some work that they'd normally have to pay an employee to do.

With the support of Joy (as both guardian and her official capacity as a Pokemon Nurse) and Mayor Altman I'd applied to Foster with Liza.

As Liza's fostering only lasted between six and nine months, I'd also reached out to Professor Oak and Gym Leader Chloe. I was hoping that one of them would accept me for another six months after I was done with Liza and Charicific Valley, since I didn't want to start my journey until I was twelve at a minimum. I wouldn't mind waiting until I was thirteen if the time I spent fostering went over.

If Professor Oak accepted my fostering, I'd be learning about being a Researcher – how to officially document observations about Pokemon and the world around me. The notes I was making on my team's observation weren't up to the standards accepted by the League, but Professor Elm had made note that I had novel ideas and training methods. It was Professor Elm who suggested I fostered under Professor Oak and he had also provided a refence. I wouldn't have minded fostering under Professor Elm, but he specialised in egg care and breading while Professor Oak was more into general Pokemon Research and Myths. In the rare times when Professor Oak took on a Foster Child, they'd be with him for around a year as he was extremely busy with his many projects and employees.

In the event that I ended up fostering under Gym Leader Chloe, I'd be learning to be a Gym Trainer while also learning more about dragon type Pokemon. With three part-dragons on my team, learning more about how to raise them would be really helpful, especially when all three were not displaying the typical characteristics of their species. Zweilous especially was not as hostile as the descriptions of the species suggests, which Professor Elm said the Blackthorn Clan was quite interested in as they didn't currently have one in their family. Fostering under a Gym Leader could be short, only three months, or really long at a year and a half. For those who took on a long fostering with a Gym Leader, it was quite common for them to go on to be a Gym Trainer.

Liza was more than happy to accept my petition for Fostering, which would start on the 5th of July following my eleventh birthday. Much to my surprise, Professor Oak and Gym Leader Chloe also accepted my petition. It took a couple of emails back and forth, and I had no doubt that the Gym Leader and Professor talked as well, before it was decided that I would do six months at the Blackthorn gym from the date that I'd completed my time with Liza, and then I'd would spend whatever time remained from then till the beginning of the League run with Professor Oak who would ensure that I completed the mandatory 'school hours' that trainers needed to complete before becoming Pokemon Trainers. As I hadn't been to school, my current education hours were being done via downloaded audios and documents on the PokNav.

Having three Fosters, and the good will of Professor Elm, Nurse Joy and Mayor Altman meant that when I began my journey, I would be able to go as a Sponsored Trainer. Being a Sponsored Trainer meant that I'd have the Gym Leader's and any League professionals I met, watching out over me and looking to see if I could do anything for me. My Pokemon and their condition would be closely monitored, and any excess Pokemon I might capture would have somewhere to go. I'd also have to do anything that my Sponsor requested of me, any quests or missions. It had yet to be decided who would be my official Sponsor as those I was fostering under had yet to met me and so didn't have anything to put forward as an argument. Having a Sponsee who was recognised by the community typically led to an increase of funding for the Sponsor, so they picked their Sponsee's carefully and when a promising child came around Sponsor liked to have a little friendly argument and debate.