After exiting the contest hall and gathering a few supplies, Davin and Maura traveled north of Mauville City and went past Route 111 to Route 112. They were standing on a mountain path, where to the left was a cave and to the right was a cable car service station.
"What?! You mean you're not going to come and cheer for me at the contest?" Maura shouted.
Davin rubbed the back of his head. "Sorry, Maura, but I've got a journey to complete. I don't have a second trainer option like you, so I can't skip my gym battles. I hope you understand."
She sighed and smiled. "I guess I do." She pointed to the station. "That cable car will take you to Mt. Chimney, where you'll have to go down the Jagged Pass to reach Lavaridge Town." She pointed to the cave. "And that's the Fiery Path. If you finish your gym battle and want to come see me, just go through there and go past Route 113 to reach Fallarbor Town."
Davin nodded. "Okay. Thanks, Maura." He turned to leave.
"Davin?" She spoke, grabbing his shirt. He turned around and saw her looking away and blushing a little. "Promise... that we'll meet up again one day."
He only stared at her for awhile, confused and somewhat happy, until he smiled and said, "You can count on it! That way, next time we meet, you can show me how many ribbons and badges you've got and maybe we could even have a battle."
She looked disappointed for a second, but quickly shook it off. "Uh... yeah. We can... totally do that." She let go of his shirt and turned towards the cave. "Good luck, Davin. I'll see you in the Hoenn League." And with that, Maura left to further accomplish her goal.
"She's a nice girl." Davin smiled to himself.
He turned to go to the station, but stopped. "Hmm... Now that I think about it, I don't know what type of Pokemon the Lavaridge gym leader will have (though, based on the town's name, I could assume it's Fire, but I can't be too sure)." He faced the path towards Mauville City. "Maybe that place Maura talked about would be the perfect place to do some training."
She had told him of Route 118, east to Mauville City, which she said was a quiet, sandy beach where people rarely visited, giving Davin an opportunity to train without any bothers. "All right, then. That's where I'll go!"
Running down the path of Route 111 and running east of Mauville, Davin arrived at the specific location. "Wow! This place is kind of pretty." He said, noticing the flowers on the grass area and the water slightly rising into the sand. "Well, let's get started! Come on out, everyone!"
Ros, Halo, Luck and Ferro materialized upon the sand. "Okay, guys. Our next stop is going to be the Lavaridge gym. There's no telling how strong the gym leader will be, so let's start training!" They all cheered with energy.
Back in Verdanturf, Maura gave him various objects for him to train his Pokemon, such as bull's eye stand-up targets and flying discs. Davin decided to divide the training evenly: He put Ferro and Luck at the targets while he put Ros and Halo at the discs.
"Okay, Luck, use Brick Break!" Its left arm glowed and destroyed its target by slicing it from the top.
"Ferro, use Metal Claw!" Its front leg glowed and it destroyed its target by hitting it in the center.
"Excellent, you two!" Davin said. Next, he tossed two red discs into the air. "Ros, use Water Gun on the one in front of you! Halo, you do the same, but with Gust!" The Marshtomp pushed the disk into the air with its water move and Halo made it fly further in the air with the wind it created from its wings.
Davin frowned. "Well, that was useless! These disks are only useful for improving contest moves." He sighed. "Maybe they'll be useful for practicing long range special attacks. But for the time being, it looks like we'll just have to use the targets for now."
From the beginning to the end of the sandy beach, he set up the targets to surround his team in.
"All right, guys! This time, use any move you want, but make sure to break the targets accordingly!" They all nodded and jumped into the air at once; Ros used Mud Shot to take out five, Luck used Scratch and took out two, Halo used Aerial Ace to destroy four, and Ferro used Headbutt to destroy three. "Not bad, everyone. You took out every target..." He faced south of the beach where the river was. "...except that one."
"Slakoth, Slak." Luck stepped forward.
"You're saying you want to do it?"
"Koth." It nodded.
Davin pointed to the target. "All right! Go for it!" The sloth dashed across the sand, charging for its Brick Break attack, and it knocked the bull's eye into the river by hitting it sideways.
Unknown to the others, the target hit something under the water and it became very angry.
"That was great, Luck!" Davin acclaimed.
"Slakoth." It smiled.
Davin faced his backpack. "Okay. I'll set up more targets." He was about to get them when he heard a strange bubbling noise. "What is that?"
"Mar Marsh!" Ros pointed to the river, where small bubbles that appeared were signifying that something was coming up.
"What could it be?" Davin wondered aloud. His question was answered when a fish Pokemon jumped out of the water and lunged towards them. They all got out of the way, just in time, to see the fish plummet into the sand. It spit sand out of its mouth and glared at Davin and the Pokemon in rage.
"What kind of Pokemon is that?" Davin took out his only source for that question.
"Carvanha, the Savage Pokemon. Carvanha attack ships in swarms, making them sink. Although it is said to be a very vicious Pokémon, it timidly flees as soon as it finds itself alone."
"That doesn't seem to be the case with this one." Davin noted.
Carvanha lunged at the group again, this time with its body glowing in a golden aura.
"It's using Take Down! Run!" Again, Carvanha missed, gaining itself another mouthful of sand.
"What's its problem? Why does it keep attacking us?" Davin wondered. Once again, his question was answered when he saw the target that Luck hit float to the surface. "I get it! The target must've hit Carvanha when it was in the water."
He faced the angry Pokemon. "Listen, Carvanha! We didn't mean to hurt you with that target. It was an accident." To no avail, the Carvanha came with another Take Down, the same event repeating itself. "Looks like it's not going to listen, so I guess we have no choice. Ferro, use Dig!"
The Aron dug a hole and disappeared. When Carvanha got itself out of the sand, it was quickly hit from underground, sending it into the air. "Halo, use Mega Drain!" The dark green energy from her proboscis caught it and stole its energy, giving it to her.
"Ros, use Mud Shot!" A stream of mud came out of his mouth and hit Carvanha in mid-air.
"Now, Luck, finish it with Brick Break!" The sloth did a karate-style chop on the piranha and it fell to the ground.
Davin grinned. "That should do it." To his shock, the Carvanha could still move, but was heavily damaged. It still showed everyone its rage-filled glare.
"What determination! It seems it wants revenge for getting hit by the bull's eye and it doesn't seem like it's going to stop until it gets what it wants. Maybe if put into the right hands, it could use that persistence to do good. Should I...?"
"Car... Carvanha!" It hopped across the sand to attack.
"I guess so!" He took out his signature catching tool. "Go, Poke ball!" It tapped Carvanha's forehead and absorbed it. The ball shook with its flashing red light, the Pokemon inside trying to struggle its way out.
Eventually, the Poke ball opened and the Savage Pokemon appeared, still heavily damaged.
"WHAT?!" Davin shouted in extreme confusion. "It still got out with all that damage?!" The Pokemon started to move towards them, slowly.
"Halo, use your Stun Spore!" The Bug/Flying type's orange powder spread through Carvanha's body, paralyzing it.
"Now, let's try this again!" He threw a Poke ball and Carvanha disappeared again. It shook back and forth, again and again, until it stopped with the red light fading away.
Without a word, Davin picked up the Poke ball and sent out the Water/Dark type into the water. It panted heavily, showing that despite its toughness, it was extremely tired. He got a Potion from his backpack and sprayed it, making Carvanha flinch in pain from the stinging.
"You okay?" He asked it with a smile.
"Car!" It averted his eyes in disappointment.
Davin tried to pet it, but he immediately pulled back at the slightest touch of it. "Ow! That hurt! What the-?" He took out his Pokedex.
"Carvanha's ability, Rough Skin, damages its foes when being hit with a physical move. It is known that Carvanha can choose whether to make its skin rough or not."
"So that's it..." He said. "Look, Carvanha. I hope you understand that that target hitting you was a total accident. We were just training to get strong for our upcoming gym battle; we had no idea you were even down there."
"Car..." It still didn't look at him.
Davin smiled. "Your pride is hurt, isn't it?" That caused Carvanha to look at him. "The Pokedex said that you're only tough when in a group, but cowardly and shy when alone. But, you're different. You feel that you have to be alone in order to make others think you can be tough by yourself, is that right?" Carvanha lowered its eyes down to the water. "There's nothing wrong with being with other people, especially if they're people who like and care about you. You can always depend on them whether you need them or not. That's what makes them so special."
"Carva..." It said to itself, taking in what he said.
Davin stretched out his hand. "So, what do you say, Carvanha? Do you want to be on our team and work together to win?"
It stared intently at him. Eventually, it nodded. "Carvanha."
Davin tried to pet it again, but was reluctant. Carvanha gave him a nod and he smoothed his hand across its now soft body.
Davin grinned. "Welcome to the team... Ira."
"Car, Car!" It smiled.
