TRAINER ID
Name: Daniel Ingram
Age: 16
Badges: 1
Account: 6,644 credits

POKÉMON
Ralts (Apollo) - Male
Corphish (Duran) - Male
Eevee - Male

The further into Route 117 we got, the more it became apparent that this wasn't like any other route I'd traveled on before.

For one thing, the sprawling forests and occasional mountains that littered the western coast of Hoenn slowly transformed into open fields and slightly rolling hills. It was extremely open, and although there were some trees and the occasional pond, by far the more defining feature was the flora. I'd never seen so many different types of flowers before, and even many of the trees that I came across bore flowers.

I could see why grass and bug-types seemed to love this route so much. It was a seemingly endless bounty of food, water, and natural beauty all combined into a natural paradise largely untouched by humans aside from a well-traveled dirt path. Although I hadn't seen much of Hoenn yet, I would wager that this route was among the most beautiful landscapes that the region had to offer.

Another indicator that this route was different from the others I'd traveled previously was that the further into it we got, the more trainers I began to see. We were still quite a ways from Mauville; my research had told me this route usually took two or three days to travel on foot, yet already I'd seen about ten people who were clearly trainers. A couple were traveling toward Verdanturf or Rustboro, some were combing the fields looking for Pokémon to catch, and we even passed a couple having what seemed to be a romantic picnic with a few Pokémon relaxing with them.

Despite the uptick in trainers and all the wild Pokémon, there was a distinct lack of any battling. I'd have liked to think that there wasn't any particular reason for this, but I also got the strange sense that it was almost taboo to do so in such a peaceful and beautiful area. There were quite literally grass-types playing, dancing, and singing as they basked in the glory of the sun and enjoyed the day; who would feel comfortable ruining that atmosphere?

This point was further illustrated by Samantha frequently stopping to talk to wild Pokémon. She seemed to have no desire to battle and capture her next teammate the traditional way but was rather refining and repeating an elevator pitch for why they should join her team, travel with her, and spread their beauty with the world on the stage of grand contest halls.

I couldn't blame her too much; it was how I had gotten both Eevee and Apollo to join, and it was a surefire way to ensure cooperation with your future partner. Still, her constant solicitation to every Pokémon that caught her eye made our progress much slower than it would have otherwise been.

My team and I made the most of our spare time whenever we had to wait for Samantha's inevitable rejection. We made a game that every time Samantha and Stella would temporarily separate to give their pitch, I'd begin counting out loud and each of my team members would create the strongest Protect they could and hold it as long as possible. It ended up being great practice, as I could see a little bit of progress on each attempt. Not only were they getting better at holding it, but I could visibly see the energy shield slowly getting more dense.

As Samantha and Stella returned yet again, their solemn expressions told me that they'd been unsuccessful in their recruitment effort yet again.

"No luck, huh?"

"Nah, not yet," she sighed. For a moment I thought she was ready to throw in the towel, but she straightened up and gained a newfound look of determination after what I assumed was some mental gymnastics saying she was close.

"It's only a matter of time. We just need to find one with the right disposition, that's all."

"Mind telling me what your pitch is, and where the sticking point seems to be?" I asked curiously.

"I'm keeping it simple. Come with me and we can be good friends. They can travel the region, share their beauty with the world, and become famous. I even tell them I won't have them battle unless they want to, and that I can provide them with better care than any other human they'll ever come across."

"Sounds like a pretty solid pitch for the most part," I admit, "what's the problem? I assume Stella is serving as translator?"

"Yeah, she helps for sure. A couple of times I thought I almost had it, but usually it comes down to them simply not wanting to leave. They like it here, that much is clear. I just need to find that one that has that drive to do something more, ya know? People and Pokémon aren't so different; some simply want a comfy and happy life, while some demand adventure and risk. That's what I need to find."

"That makes sense, although didn't you say that species tend to have their own personalities, even if there are subtle changes? I believe you used Skitty as an example. Have you considered that most grass-types would rather bask in the sun and enjoy the life they have, rather than chase something more?"

Samantha glared at me, and I put my hands up placatingly.

"I'm just saying, there's no way I would have been able to 'talk' Duran into joining me. His disposition simply wouldn't have allowed it. Sometimes, you just need to show them what you've got to offer and they'll realize it's a pretty good deal."

"So you caught him against his will and took him away from his home, and you're surprised he eventually decided to play nice with his captor?" she said flatly.

"No, Apollo beat him and I caught him, then I had him join us for a night of camping and training. I gave him the option of taking him back to his pond in the morning, but after seeing some improvement in training he decided to give us a chance. Now he's happier and stronger than ever, isn't that right buddy?"

"Corphish!" he agreed from his perch on my backpack.

"That might work for some trainers, but I'm a coordinator. Strength doesn't matter, synergy and shared dreams do. I need to find one that has a sense of adventure and convince them that life would be awesome if they came with me, not beat them into submission and prove I'm superior."

"Exactly. So do that. Convince them."

"I'm trying Daniel! What do you think I've been doing?" she nearly yelled, exasperation evident.

"I know what you've been doing. You've been going around soliciting every Pokémon who will listen, telling them that even though they are perfectly happy they could be even happier if they uprooted their lives and came with you, a total stranger, to live a lifestyle that's completely alien to them. Do you think wild Pokémon have any concept of what a contest is? Your only remotely convincing argument is that traveling might be fun, but I'd wager they can't imagine a place better than this. It's basically a natural paradise, in case you haven't noticed."

Samantha gave me a blank stare, seemingly at a loss of words. I gave her a moment to try to piece together what I was getting at, but her conclusion disappointed me.

"So then what do I say that could convince them?" she asked confusedly.

"I'm really tempted to slap you, but I'll settle for saying that you're the idiot this time. Sammy, don't tell them that they should come with you. Show them."

"I am not going to battle–"

I grabbed her shoulders and shook her, "SHOW THEM A FUCKING ROUTINE! I showed Duran that I had something to offer him. Not only with the battle, but with training and my teamwork with Apollo. If you show off the beauty you can create, and how much fun your team has doing it with you, I'd be shocked if you didn't get some interest. It sure can't be any worse than trying to convince perfectly happy Pokémon that some strange human can take them away from their home and friends and somehow make them happier."

Samantha stared at me with a vacant expression for a moment before looking down at Stella, who seemed relieved to not have to play the impossible task of interpreter for a sales pitch destined to fail.

"It's not a bad idea… Let's try it."

"Remember how you said I owe you one after I caught Eevee?"

"Well we're even, no doubt about that."

"No, you definitely owe me one now."

She rolled her eyes, fully aware that she didn't have a leg to stand on. We both knew I was right; my suggestion had gotten her not one new team member, but two.

I personally didn't agree with her decision to catch both a Masquerain and an Oddish; I'd always been of the opinion that you should add one team member at a time and give them time to acclimate.

But Samantha was over the moon and I didn't want to build a reputation for being a buzzkill whenever something good happened to her, so I kept my mouth shut and let her enjoy her high.

My idea had worked extremely well. Initially, Samantha had tried to gather an audience of sorts, but after she had trouble doing that I was able to talk her into simply start practicing some routines in public under the idea that it would attract an audience on its own.

Of course, it did. Although she wasn't able to convince any Bellossom or Roselia to join her, she did get a particularly enamored and adventurous Oddish to happily agree to join her.

My attention was momentarily drawn to Eevee and Apollo having a conversation with a particularly curious Bellossom, but when Samantha approached and informed me she was ready to continue on, she suddenly had a Masquerain with her.

We were making much better progress toward Mauville since we no longer needed to constantly stop for Samantha to shoot her shot. However, things were far from normal for our traveling group.

We had every single Pokémon out traveling with us. I of course had Apollo on my shoulder, Duran on my backpack, and Eevee in my hoodie pouch so he could enjoy mindless petting as usual. Samantha had Stella walking by her side, Skitty running around smelling flowers and slinking through tall patches of grass, Masquerain buzzing around us, and an Oddish cradled in her arm who seemed to really enjoy Samantha playing with its leaves.

Two humans and seven very different Pokémon, all walking casually down the road toward Mauville. I didn't doubt that we were quite the sight, as every person we came across gave us a good long look.

I considered challenging some of the trainers we encountered to a battle, but I had still yet to see a single battle on this route, and I wasn't about to be the one to break the peace. It almost felt taboo to ruin such a peaceful place with something like senseless battling, so I could only assume that as we got closer to Mauville, we would find more trainers and be bound to encounter some battling.

"Say, did you ever end up naming Skitty?" I asked curiously, thinking that both Skitty and Eevee were overdue for getting a name.

"Yeah, I went with Chase. He gave me about as much approval as I could hope to get, and I think it's fitting."

"It's a pretty good name," I admitted. I still wasn't the biggest fan of human names for Pokémon, but Chase had a bit more meaning behind it so I could get behind it.

"Have you given any thought about Eevee's name?"

I shook my head as I pet my purring Eevee, "Nah, I didn't want to do it without you. I promised you could help, after all."

"It's ok, you can do it without me. I'm not too keen on having you help name my two new partners now that the tables have turned, to be honest."

"I'd actually like to hear your ideas. Just try to stay away from human names please, unless it's really fitting."

"There's nothing wrong with treating your Pokémon like a person, but fine. Let's see… what's the vibe you are going for?"

"One second, let me check something," I requested as I mentally requested for Apollo to ask Eevee if there was any sort of theme or meaning he wanted his name inspired by.

A curious look from Eevee and a few moments later, I was informed that Eevee wanted something that incorporated either 'brother' or 'predator'. The first one warmed my heart, not only because it reminded me of his search for his brother, but also because Apollo informed me that he considered both Duran and himself brothers now, which I found incredibly moving.

As for 'predator', I found myself both amused and a little hesitant at that. Clearly our hunting trip had a big effect on Eevee, but I'd had half a mind to keep that particular story from Samantha.

Considering recent events, I decided I'd just be honest. I hadn't really done anything wrong, since I hadn't done it around her like I promised, and I didn't want to lie by omission.

"So Eevee wants something that incorporates 'brother' and 'predator' if possible… I'm not sure how we could do that, but those were his two suggestions. I should probably tell you, I took Eevee on his first hunt last night. It went very well and he's become a lot more confident because of it."

"You went hunting? And you were… successful?" Samantha asked, clearly a little uncomfortable with the idea as she glanced down at the Eevee in my pocket.

"Yeah. I won't get into the details, but let's just say Eevee won his first two battles and I learned some survival skills."

"Fair enough… I don't think I want to know any more than that. As long as I don't have to see it, I can accept it."

I raised a brow, interested that she seemed to be essentially endorsing it. I wondered if that meant that we could do it while traveling with her, but decided to stay on topic.

"I'm not sure if it's possible to marry the two ideas, but at least it's something to work from. Any ideas?"

"Let's see…" Samantha hummed as she mindlessly played with Oddish's leaves. "Something like Hunter is way too on the nose and boring… Archer, maybe… I'll be honest, I don't really know how we could incorporate 'brother' though."

"Yeah, it's tough… Maybe just something that uses the literal word, like how Brody starts with 'bro'? Or maybe something with the ending?"

"Not a bad idea. There are names like Gunther or Luther, but they don't quite fit Eevee in my opinion…"

"They are also very human, and not very original," I pointed out.

"Arceus, you're making this so difficult… Well let's break it down then. 'Kin' could be used to relay brother. Now how could we merge that with something related to hunting… Kinsley? Kind of like to slay? That makes it sound like he kills his brothers though… Kindred? His foes dread facing him?"

I wasn't sold on any of the ideas presented so far, but decided to have Apollo check with Eevee if anything he'd heard interested him.

Fortunately, or perhaps unfortunately, nothing had grabbed his attention.

"Eevee isn't sold on anything," I informed Samantha, "I think we're being too literal. Maybe something a bit more abstract…"

I slapped my forehead as an amazing idea came to mind.

"I think I've got it, the perfect marriage of all these ideas into one," I muttered, tossing the name around a few times to make sure I liked the way it sounded and thought it would match Eevee.

"What is it? Don't hold out on us," Samantha prodded as Eevee looked up at me curiously.

I could feel Apollo's approval of the name through our link, and I knew that as long as Eevee liked it, this would be the one that stuck.

"Orion, as in the constellation. It has everything; clear hunting influence, a subtle hint of brotherhood by matching Apollo's space-related name, and it's even fairly human so it holds some inspiration from you. Arceus, the most famous part of that constellation is Orion's belt, and where does Eevee like to travel?" I asked as I pointed to the intrigued Eevee at my waist.

"It's not a perfect solution, but I have to admit it's pretty brilliant. Just please don't be one of those cringe trainers who picks a theme to name their entire team after."

"Duran's name has nothing to do with space," I informed her as I glanced down at Eevee. "It's sort of a big name to live up to; Orion is famous as a great hunter. Do you like the way it sounds and think you can live up to the name?"

Eevee yipped and nodded confidently, much to my relief. I was pretty sure he had no idea what constellation I was talking about, but it sounded like my explanation and the way it rolled off the tongue was enough to convince him. I could always show him later; I wouldn't be surprised if he recognized it once I pointed it out.

"That settles it. From now on you'll be Orion Ingram." I said happily, petting his head as he purred happily.

"It's a good name," Samantha admitted, "I'll have to start thinking of names for my two new additions here soon."

"Did you scan them with your Pokédex? Know what their gender is?"

"Masquerain is a male, and Oddish is a female. She actually dreams of becoming a Bellossom, so that's perfect for me. I'll need to get a Sun Stone, but I have some time until then."

I bit my tongue, deciding against pointing out that she wouldn't have any issue affording something that most trainers would struggle to get.

Then, a thought came to my mind.

"Say… How are there wild Bellossom here?" I asked curiously.

"You do realize that nearly all evolution stones are just different types of natural energy concentrated into a gemstone, right? Is it so hard to believe that this place gets enough sun that some Gloom could naturally evolve, or that Sun Stones are likely to naturally occur here and they might be stumbled upon?"

I blinked, my mind trying to process the implications of what she'd just said. I'd never done too much research into evolution stones, I just knew that they were naturally occurring and had different potencies. I remembered coming across an article that talked about the Devon Corporation trying to mass-produce evolution stones, but they were never successful.

My understanding was that they naturally occurred over hundreds of years, and that it was the result of minerals and crystals being exposed to a specific type of energy long enough to absorb and retain it. Depending on the integrity of the stone, the length of the exposure, and the amount of latent energy in the area to be absorbed, you could get varying potencies of evolutionary stones.

Some theorized that this just happened naturally over time, and some thought that there might be some sort of catalyst that caused the fusion to occur. Either way, the last I'd heard nobody had ever successfully created one. They could only be found in nature, and were surprisingly rare. Some companies like Devon did mining operations in key areas where they were known to occur in order to sell them, and if they found a particularly high potency one they would often auction it.

"So… this might be a dumb question, but why bother buying a stone if they can just evolve naturally, given enough sun?"

"Because, Daniel, that's extremely unlikely to happen while we're traveling. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if this was the only place in the region that got enough sunlight for grass-types to evolve without a Sun Stone. You also need to realize that it's like evolving with the lowest-tier stone you could find. It's barely enough to trigger an evolution."

"Why would you care if you aren't really interested in battling?"

"Because training and practice can only go so far. If a Pokémon evolves with the minimum amount of energy required to trigger it, its potential and natural proficiency is noticeably reduced. Say you had two Eevee who were siblings with identical skill and experience; evolve one with a grade nine stone, and evolve the other with a grade two. Try using the same move; the difference will be startling, and that's not even taking into consideration what happens when you start training them to the limits of their potential. There are tons of studies on this, it's extremely well documented. I assume I don't need to explain to you why that might matter in contests."

I nodded in understanding, deciding against asking any more questions about this particular topic, even though I still had plenty. It was times like this that I felt extremely behind some trainers; as much research as I'd done online, in many ways it simply didn't compare to a formal education at a trainers' school like Samantha had gotten.

"It's about time we made camp for the night," I noted, observing that the sun was getting close to the peak of the mountains containing Rusturf Tunnel to our west.

"Yeah, I guess you're right. We might have to break your rule though, it's pretty open here," Samantha commented as she looked around the open field we were currently standing in.

"Not happening. It may take a little bit to reach the treeline, but we are not camping right in the middle of the route out in the open."

"Has anybody ever told you that you're a bit paranoid?"

"You just did. Forgive me if I'd rather take a little precaution to ensure we're safe; I learned my lesson with the Rocket. Plus, don't you want a campfire? We need sticks and leaves for that, which means we need trees around."

"Fair enough," she agreed while pulling out her phone. A minute later, she informed me that the treeline was closer to the south, so we headed in that direction in search of a place to set up camp.

With so many Pokémon, the camp was quite lively that evening.

Oddish was extremely social and friendly, and I observed as he made a point of introducing himself to each Pokémon. Overall it went well, although unsurprisingly Chase and Duran weren't particularly receptive.

Oddish didn't seem to take it personally. He simply moved on to find somebody else to talk to when he realized that neither appreciated his presence. He struck me as endlessly cheerful and simply happy to be experiencing new things and meeting new people, a mindset I could appreciate.

Masquerain was much more reserved. I wouldn't call him shy, since he seemed to be more than happy to hold a conversation when he got into one, but unlike Oddish he didn't really socialize until others came to him.

Thankfully, everyone did at some point. Well, everyone except for Duran and Chase.

Part of me wanted to classify Samantha's Skitty as a loner at heart, similar to Duran, however that wasn't quite true. Orion seemed to be the only one who could really get Chase to socialize, as they were exploring the area and occasionally playing games with each other.

After talking to the two new additions, Apollo and Stella settled for keeping each other company with a telepathic conversation while Samantha made dinner and I thumbed through Survive & Thrive, which made me happy to see our two starters back to normal.

As for Duran… well, he was content to scavenge the area, although he did have a quick conversation with Orion after he approached at one point. Part of me wished that he was a little more social, but I knew he had no problem socializing when he wanted to. My guess was that he simply had no problem being alone and might have a low capacity for idle socialization, something I could sympathize with.

He got along with my team perfectly well, and that's all that mattered to me. I had a sneaking suspicion that if Samantha's team ever got the chance to show their strength in battle, he'd likely come around more. But considering Samantha seemed to have no interest in battling or even sparring, I wasn't going to push the matter.

After eating the savory soup Samantha whipped up for dinner, feeding Apollo and Duran their vitamins, setting out food for Duran and Orion, and feeding Apollo a Pokéblock so he didn't feel left out, I watched with interest as Samantha tended to her new team members.

She fed Stella and Chase their normal meals, but was doing one of her Pokéblock taste tests for her two new members. I was really curious about what she planned on feeding them going forward; I was pretty sure Oddish just needed sunlight to be healthy, but Masquerain to my knowledge mostly fed on nectar. I doubted that would be available throughout the region, but she could probably supplement it with berries.

But I knew that wasn't why she was doing her taste test. No, she wanted to do her weird coordinator analysis thing on them to figure out their personality and strengths… based on their taste preferences.

I still found it somewhat laughable, but I had to admit there was a small part of me that was curious about what her evaluation of Orion was. She had indicated that she had a pretty good idea, but if I recalled correctly I had annoyed her and she'd withheld the information.

"So…" I started casually as I sat down beside her and watched as her two new additions sampled her spread of assorted Pokéblocks. "You said you had a good read on Orion, right? Mind sharing?"

"I thought you didn't believe in this stuff?" she asked with a raised brow.

"Can't say I'm fully sold on it, but I'm mature enough to admit that I'm not as educated as you, and even an idiot like me can see that what you said about Duran and Apollo was more spot-on than any horoscope."

Samantha grinned, "I'm tempted to take offense to you comparing it to a horoscope, but I'll let it slide. I'm ninety-five percent sure I know what Orion is, but we can confirm it pretty easily with two Pokéblocks…" she trailed off while grabbing two Pokéblocks from the spread Oddish and Masquerain were still sampling; one pink and one red. I called Orion over, and after sampling both it quickly became apparent that he really liked the pink one and hated the red one.

"Yup, that confirms it. Orion is timid."

I stared at her blankly for a moment, waiting for her to finish the thought. But nothing else came.

"That's it? I could have told you that… Well, a few days ago at least. He's been getting much more confident lately," I said as I scratched behind his ear affectionately.

"I've noticed that myself. He's been more social and isn't shying away from fire anymore," she said while casting a glance between Orion and the nearby campfire. "Like I said before, you can work on compensating for shortcomings of a Pokémon's natural-born disposition and weaknesses, and you seem to be doing a good job working through Orion's."

"Thanks, but I can't take all the credit. He's shockingly brave with a little nudge, and seems to want to prove himself."

"Something that you made possible. You're encouraging, patient, and supportive. You and the rest of your team lead by example, so of course he wants to pull his own weight. You don't give yourself enough credit, Daniel. You'd make a good dad someday, you know," she said with a cheeky grin.

I winced, and I could feel both Orion's slight vibration as he withheld a giggle as well as Apollo's mixture of amusement and agreement over our link.

"Not anytime soon, hopefully," I said truthfully before trying to steer the conversation back on track. "So he's 'timid'... what does that tell us?"

"I see what you did there," she said with a knowing grin, but thankfully she felt enough mercy to let the topic drop. "But fine. Apart from the obvious personality traits associated with being timid, it means he's naturally quick, but likely not quite as strong as physically strong as others. In case you were wondering, he likes sweet food but hates anything spicy."

"Very good to know, thanks a lot," I said while rummaging through my backpack to quickly note that down.

"Why do you even bother taking notes of random stuff like that? Can't you just remember it?" she asked as I stowed my notebook and grabbed a brush to use on Orion.

"Probably, but it's good to have a backup and just writing it down helps me remember it. You should have seen how many notes I had back at the orphanage. Multiple of these notebooks filled to the brim."

"And you just… left them?" she asked confusedly.

I shrugged, "Tossed them out, yeah. Wasn't about to carry them across the region. This one is sort of a condensed version with key points I wanted to remember, with plenty of room to add notes."

"So what's in there, then?"

"A fair bit. Lists of each route and settlement with things like average travel times, points of interest, and Pokémon commonly seen. Notes tracking my team's progress, move combinations we've made, our non-verbal commands, telepathy information, stuff like that."

Oddish hobbled over to Samantha, somehow managing to look even happier than normal, as she turned her attention to getting the results of the test and giving her cheerful Oddish some attention.

I took that as my cue to leave and decided to start the evening's training session. I was rather eager to get to it, since it felt like we had a lot to work on.

The Mauville gym was just around the corner, and I wanted to try to figure out a way to improve Duran's mobility if he was to have any hope of redeeming himself. Apollo's Psybeam was still in its early stages and needed some work, and Orion had seriously struggled against that wild Zigzagoon.

Despite the obvious type disadvantage, I wasn't planning on sitting Duran out or disappointing him again. If the gym leader wanted to do a three-on-three, then I'd have no choice but to use Orion despite the fact I didn't think he was ready.

My biggest fear was Duran quickly going down due to type disadvantage and mobility issues, Eevee getting overpowered, and Apollo bearing the weight of the gym on his shoulders. It wouldn't be fair to him, Duran would take the loss hard, and Orion might lose the confidence he was starting to build.

We needed to win as a team, and I wanted to make sure I did everything in my power to make that happen.

I started Apollo off with Psybeam practice and had Orion working on Swift while I pulled Duran aside to try out a couple of ideas I had that might make him a bit more mobile.

The most obvious solution was to attempt to fling himself by slamming his claws into the ground. After a little practice and some testing, we found that it was only slightly better than how far he could hop, but with the drawback that it really only worked forward or backward and it wasn't something he could do consistently or repeatedly.

My next idea was for him to try to slam his tail into the ground to launch himself forward. This was much less successful; his tail simply didn't have the strength or length to facilitate any meaningful movement.

One thought I had was that we might need to revisit it once we had time to figure out Aqua Tail. Perhaps it would give us the power needed to make that particular technique viable, but we hadn't even started trying to learn that yet.

The last idea I had was to try using Water Gun or Bubblebeam as a method of propulsion. I wasn't confident that it would work; I'd never seen a water type moving around the battlefield with that kind of usage of their water attacks, however while thinking on the idea I realized Duran had a major advantage that most water-types didn't have.

He used his water moves from his claws instead of his mouth. That meant that he not only had two different sources of potential propulsion, and that he could in theory move around without ever taking his eyes off the opponent.

I didn't doubt that most water types could use water propulsion to get around if they wanted to, but it would be extremely awkward. I imagined having to crank the neck down and shoot the ground, or even completely turn their back to the opponent.

Coming from the mouth, the idea of using water to get around seemed shoddy at best. But in Duran's case I could easily see it working; he might even be able to hover in the air like one of those Silph Co. water jetpacks I'd seen on television years ago.

Hovering wasn't something I was planning on working on though. I doubted he'd be able to make use of that when he evolved, and I didn't see a ton of utility in it anyway. For now, I just wanted him to do a quick blast to the ground around him to add distance and speed to his leaps.

Results were promising, but it quickly became clear that we'd need to work on his control. Not only familiarizing himself with where to blast the water for the best results, but also using Water Gun in more of a fast burst than a stream. Until then, we'd been focusing on the accuracy and distance he could shoot, which mainly came down to maintaining a tight and constant stream. But what we needed here was for him to release the maximum amount of water in the quickest burst he could muster.

With Duran now seeing the potential in my idea and understanding what he needed to work on to make it work, I left him and turned my attention back to there rest of my team, although not before noticing that Samantha was now a little ways off holding her own training session of sorts.

It might be a bit of a stretch to call it training, but it was close enough. The reality of the situation was that she was grooming Chase as she sat alongside Stella and observed her two new team members as they demonstrated the moves they knew. I was exceedingly proud of her, as that's exactly what I would do in her situation.

Well, I might have had Stella and Chase running drills, but there were obvious advantages to doing some team bonding during the session, so I wasn't about to fault her for that. Hopefully, the two new additions to her team would make her want to join in on more training sessions going forward, but I wouldn't press her. Making sure her team got along well was the priority, particularly since she'd just doubled its size.

Apollo and Orion were very eager to show me the progress they'd each made. Orion was getting much more proficient with Swift, able to consistently create three projectiles now and shoot them further than before. By far the most noticeable thing though was that even though he was putting more energy into the attack, it didn't seem to take quite as much stamina to do so. I was exceedingly proud of his progress and made sure to praise his efforts.

Apollo's Psybeam was now much more condensed and visible, and he was able to hold it for longer. I had no idea if it was strong enough to be useful in battle, but if nothing else he was getting close. As Duran was giving a demonstration of his meager yet undeniable progress of using Water Gun to help him get around, Samantha took notice and decided to come by to completely pull the rug out from under us.

"I'm not trying to tell you how to run your training, but if you're trying to improve Duran's mobility, you should be working on Aqua Jet, not… whatever that is."

"I looked up the moves Duran can learn, and Aqua Jet wasn't one of them," I replied as I watched Duran take another leap and blast the ground below him, although he didn't get it quite right and landed with a tumble.

"You're probably looking at the list of moves they are known to learn naturally. I've seen a Corphish use the move in a contest performance before. Just because they aren't known to learn it in the wild, doesn't mean they can't," she informed me.

I groaned in annoyance as Duran scuttled over, clearly having heard and his interest now piqued.

"I have no idea how I'd even begin to train that, have any ideas?" I asked Samantha with pleading eyes, not even attempting to hide my desperation.

She nodded, "It won't be easy, I think it's probably an egg move that gets passed down by a parent who knows it. But with the right training, it should be more than possible. I'm not overly familiar with the move myself, but I get the gist of it. Let's give it a shot. That is, if you and Duran don't mind taking instructions from me," she said as she gave Duran a skeptical look.

I was suddenly reminded that Duran didn't particularly seem to respect Samantha, and that he had flat out ignored her asking him to provide her with some water. To my relief though, Duran seemed to understand that now wasn't the time to be prideful, and soon Duran and I found ourselves in a private training session with Samantha while the rest of our teams relaxed and conversed back at camp.

I was reminded of both Samantha's seemingly endless wealth of knowledge and Duran's unending drive for growth. Despite how tired and beat up he was from tumbling around during the training we'd just held, his desire to improve far outweighed that and he was able to push through his fatigue.

It made me even more nervous about our upcoming gym battle. Learning Aqua Jet would surely help, but Duran was going to seriously struggle to take down his opponent at the electric-type gym given his type disadvantage. With us approaching Mauville and time for preparation running out, I could only hope that Duran was awarded the redemption he so desperately deserved.

A/N: A little homage to Chase the Garchomp, who deserved better.

On another note, I've been getting multiple comments of people disliking characters, that Daniel takes too many L's, and that it's overall slow. I just wanted to remind everyone that these are imperfect teenagers we're dealing with, and that this is a slow-burn story about struggle and growth. There will be mistakes and adversity for the foreseeable future, that's just how it is. If you feel I'm making them unbearable to follow or taking too long to turn Daniel into a badass, all I can do is promise that things will get better over time, Daniel will have more agency and control of what happens around him, and I'll be picking up the pace of traveling and gyms more now that groundwork is mostly laid. But the reality is that this story isn't about the destination but the journey, and if you aren't enjoying the ride this probably isn't the fic for you. I feel like tons of fics blow through the early-day struggle way too fast and have very minor character flaws that get erased overnight, and this story aims to address that. Perhaps my next fic(?) will be more of a crowd pleaser with more action and quicker progression, but I've accepted that this one probably won't appeal to what most people want to read, and that with this being my first time writing my execution probably isn't portraying things quite how I want in some aspects. If I lose you along the way, thanks for giving it a chance and sorry if you leave feeling unsatisfied. I'm simply doing my best to write the story I'd like to read, and I admit that I have rather peculiar tastes. If you happen to enjoy the story and stick around to see the end result, just know I appreciate you.

Shoutout to Trix for beta-reading this chapter.

Come discuss DotD or just hang out and chat on Discord. gg/ ge6a8XcNcB