"You are already leaving! Dios mios, I only just got back though!"

I laugh as the taller girl with black hair and a green streak hunches over sadly

"Calm damn prez, Dustin will be back in no time, I'm sure he will battle you then" Arven snort shaking his head

"Really you will?" Nemona says head rearing up violently eyes gleaming

"Yeah sure" I say nervously

"Great! Where Poppy I can practice with her" She says darting her head around

"Poppy's in the cafeteria with Penny and Daisy" Ryan says as he hitches his backpack up and joins us

"Ryan! Quick one on one before you leave?" Nemona ask with the same gleaming eyes

"Another time kiddo, plus I'm sure your guys are tired out after the finals. Congrats by the way, I had a feeling you'd win" He says with a laugh

"Oh they are, I've caught some new guys this morning I wanna train up" She says bouncing up and down as Arven shakes his head in the background

"Well you get them trained up and beat Dustin then we will see kay?"

She nods before rushing off

"She's a lot" I say with a sigh

"You get used to it, promise" Arven say before handing me a bag

"What's this?" I question

"Some food I made for you, good meals help with training"

"Thanks, can I give you some LP for the ingredients?"

He waves his hand

"Just let me know how they are, think of it as a welcoming gift. I'll leave you guys to it" HE says with a nod before taking his leave

"He's a good kid, he'll be a good friend" Ryan says with a smile as I coddle the bag

"Right, lets get heading off, it will take time to get to our training ground"

"Okay"

We head off, the first point of call is taking a Corviknight taxi to the north west coast of Paldea and Port Marinada, from there we take a boat to just of the coast of Mele Mele island of the Alola Region. We pass by the Aether Paradise as we enter in from the south, the island is pretty large, there is a single port that allows ships to dock, there a old man accompanied by a Drampa at the dock who welcomes us, he proceeds to swap with the current boat driver who quickly absconds to the cabin to sleep after the ferrying

"Come on this way" Ryan says with a smile

He guides me through the thicket of the islands foliage, there plenty of different Pokemon all on the islands, Cutiefly chase Volbeat and Illumise, Pinsir and Heracross happily eat away at sap pouring from trees. At one point we even spot a Slaking and Snorlax together napping peacefully under the sun

"This is a paradise" I say under my breath

"Nice isn't it?" Ryan questions

"Its beautiful"

"Me and Es found it a few years back when we were flying back from Aether paradise, you wait till you see the real highlight

We continue to climb further up until we come to an almost sheer drop, its dark and the bottom is obscured by a thick fog

"Right, this is the hard bit, I'm going to have Espeon lower me down first, then she will lower you down okay? She done it loads of times so don't panic"

"How does Espeon get down?"

He point of towards a cave

"There's an entrance to where we are going lower down but we're to big"

"Okay"

Espeon slowly lowers Ryan down through the fog

"Okay, he's down there, I'll keep you safe don't worry, you can close your eyes if it helps" Espeon says looking up to me with a smile

"Uh okay" I cross my arm over my chest as if I'm about to go down a waterside and tightly shut my eyes

I feel myself lift off the floor and hover before feeling movement, its odd to be moved psychically, I can feel I'm being moved but all the body stays in one place, there no resistance or feeling of movement like wind.

"There we go gotcha" Ryan says as I feel him grab hold of me

"Thanks, wow" I say as I open my eyes for the first time

There is a huge open plain with a sandy beach, rocky outcropping as well as a pool of water with a waterfall

"Cool huh? We call this the sunken grounds" Ryan says happily

"This is amazing" I say looking up

It look as though this part of land had quite literally fallen down in the pit, the top is rounded with rocky terrain but the beautiful warm sun beats down through the gap

"This is where I train, nice and secluded plus no press can get here" He says setting his bag down

"Can I go in it?" Espeon says bouncing up and down next to him

"Go on, but remember we're here to train not to goof off"

"Yay!"

Espeon speeds off towards the waterfall and fully jumps into the pool, she splashes around taking in the sun

"Set yourself up kiddo, try one of those meals too before they get too cold"

"Are you sure, I can help set up yours first"

He waves his hand

"No no, I'll be fine, take it all in, plus send your Pokemon your brought out, which three did you pick?"

"Oh yeah I forgot" I say before sending my three Pokemon out

Venusaur touches down hard on the ground stretching out, Quaxly lands delicately and begins to fiddle with its head feather making sure they are in place while the last to appear is Togetic, she flutters around before spotting me, she speeds up and slams into my chest causing me to take a back step

"Its good to she you too" I chuckle as I pet her

She calls out happily before going off to investigate the surrounding areas

"Interesting choices, its nice to meet you Quaxly" Ryan says shouting over to the small duckling

It quacks back before spotting the water, it looks to me almost asking permission

"Go ahead have fun"

It quacks back before rushing off and diving into the same pool as Espeon

"Nice to see you Venusaur, how are you?" I say walking up and putting my hand on the gree goliath

"Saur!" It calls out happily sending a vine out and pulling me in closer

"Its good to see you too girl" I say before being released

I sit myself down in front of her and pull up my phone. I stretch to the tablet versions and it has my trainer profile up with the Pokemon roster listed

"Right lets go through and decide who needs more or less training"

Ryan looks over inquisitively

"What are you doing?"

"Uh well, I remember you saying about having leaders of each of your teams, well Venusaur kind of the leader of all my reserve Pokemon back at Elm lab, I'm not sure who best to take over the Johto team yet so Venusaur helping me with everyone, she's a good judge for who needs more training, who needs less plus I trust her judgement"

He smiles widely at me

"Sounds good to me"

Me and Venusaur spend the next 30 minutes or so going through the whole teams, we decide Dodrio being a little lazy and needs a bit more training, Jolteon needs more battle experience so I designated it to battle more in the battle facilities ran by Tom, Meganium and Feraligatr have been pushing themselves very hard since the Johto tournament so there training should be brought down slightly so they don't burn out. Just as we finish up Ryan has set up his own little camp. I would only be staying for tonight while Ryan is staying longer to train before the masters 8 tournament.

"Right then, he's the treat for you, Oi Es over here please!" He shouts

Espeon jumps from the water and rushes over to Ryan and sits by her

"So as you know I'm battling Cynthia in the first round of the Masters 8, it the first time I have ever battled her in a competitive setting so, I gotta bring out the big guns" He says throwing up 5 balls

They burst around him revealing 5 Pokemon, the first is his dusk form Lycanroc, it touches down on the ground and ruffles it fur shaking itself, next is Greninja who touches down very delicately almost completely weightless, Cinderace touches down to it quickly begins to kick up a small rock from foot to foot, Heracross more slam down being heavier than the rest. Espeon jumps up to Heracross shoulder pushing her head in it horn happily greeting it. Lastly in the back of all the hulking figure of Ryan Dragonite appears, it huge I had read that it was considered an Alpha Pokemon, generally normal Dragonite are around 7 ft tall whereas Ryan is closer to 12 maybe even 12 and half foot tall

"So this is the champion team" Ryan says happily

"Wow" I say in awe as Venusaur looks up too, we are joined by Togetic and Quaxly too

"So I think Togetic, you'll benefit training with Dusk here" He says putting his hand on Lycanroc who barks out happily

"Toge!" It flies over happily

"Dusk I want you to focus on projectiles, so using Stone Edge like we practised"

It barks up before the pair go off together

"Venusaur, lets put you with Dragonite and Heracross, Heracross I want you to help with her mobility, you struggled with that in the past so you'll be a good teacher and Drags I want you to help with the amplification of her moves, rather than making them one big flurry make them a powerful large cloud like you do with Hurricaine and Ice Beam okay"

They before call back happily, Heracross charge of while Dragonite stomps over to us, it quite intimidating and I can feel a sense of nerves energy run over me and Venusaur

"Bau!" It calls out happily putting it arm out to me to shake

I take it and Venusaur extends a vine that it wraps around, it calls out happily before shaking it with a huge wide grin similar to Ryan's, it then beckons for Venusaur to follow them

"You two, I want you to spar, Espeon focus on Dazzling Gleam and Iron Tail. Cynthia has a lot of physical hitter with range attacks so Iron Tail for defence will be important, Cinderace I want you to keep trying that three move combo of Pyro Ball, Acrobatic and Thunder Punch, I think that will do well in case you end up against Milotic or Spiritomb"

They both call back before racing off together

"And then you two, your with me and Greninja" He says moving his head

I nod and pick Quaxly up following alongside

"You brought spare clothes yeah?" He question as he pulls his trainers off and then his socks

"Yeah, why?"

"We're going under that" He says pointing towards the waterfall

"What?" I question

"Just trust me, take your shoes off, you get more grip bare footed"

I nod rather nervously removing my shoes, Ryan quite comfortably already take up his position putting his hands under the waterfall, I join him while Quaxly stands next to me, it flutters it wings in the shallow water while Greninja stands next to Ryan

"So the water is a good analogy for pressure so here is what we are going to do, Greninja will make us some targets with ice, we will stand under the waterfall and we need to hit the target" He says nodding to Greninja

Greninja complies and creates some ice targets with Ice Beam

"Ready?" He says holding his hand out to me

I nod and take it, we step under waterfall and it begins to hit the back of my head pushing it down, the power is quite hard, it causes my head to jerk forward and pushing it back just causes it to jerk back

"Get in a comfortable position, you need to let it hit the middle of you head, kind of the crown" Ryan says

I finally get my head in a position where I can look forward, Quaxly positions itself next to me

"Right so the water hitting you, that pressure, all the feeling in your head when you battling, are you good enough, are you making the right choices. The idea is to get you used to it"

"Okay" I murmur trying to keep my head up

"The most important thing you need to do kiddo is open your eyes" He laughs

I take a breath and open them, the only thing I can really see is the water rushing in front of my face

"Deep breath, if you can't handle the pressure it will effect your Pokemon, clear mind, feel the pressure but move past it"

"Greninja Water Shuriken!"

Greninja summons a small star and sends it flying out slicing one of the ice targets in half

"Okay, Quaxly Water Gun!"

Quaxly fires off a shot but the water warbles and falls flat

"You need" Ryan begins

"Its okay Quax, focus the attack in your mouth and then push it forward rather than shooting it"

Quaxly summons a ball of water in its mouth holding it before throwing its head forward sending off a pulse of water which hits into the target

"You did it!" I shout before my foot slips and I feel myself go forward

I'm caught by Greninja who moves forward

"Good work, but its not just pressure that can affect you, its good to be happy when you achieve something but you have to stay centred"

"Right" I say before moving back under the waterfall

We spend the next hour hitting targets from under the water, Ryan continues to train me through it, its interesting to see his training techniques. Eventually he pulls me out, he talks to me and Quaxly about using that technique of storing water in its mouth to use it a physical attack, Quaxly much better using it physicality as moves. I get changed while Ryan looks around the rest of his team, it an experience to see him train with his Pokemon. One of the big thing I have learned from Ryan is the use of moves as offensive and defensive tactics. Espeon is a good example, her move-set is Expanding Force, Shadow Ball, Dazzling Gleam and Iron Tail. Now Iron Tail due to Espeon stat isn't the greatest move but it allows for a lot of defensive capabilities, I watch her deflect Pyro Ball after Pyro Ball from Cinderace easily, she can also use it to block physical attacks as Cinderace just in close once to use Thunderpunch but she blocks it with Iron Tail and fires a Shadow Ball into Cinderace. Ryan also likes to use moves in different ways, so Cinderace use Pyro Ball as a range attack firing off its rock from far away and can also use it close up. It really entertaining to watch, Quaxly, Togetic who completely wiped after training with Lycanroc and I all sit in awe at there power. Eventually Ryan has Greninja and Cinderace sparing while Espeon and Lycanroc do, it incredible to see him control four Pokemon all at once. After a while Venusaur is carried over by Dragonite, Venusaur is completely exhausted and just lays bathing in the bright sun beating down to restore its energy. After another hour or so just as the sun is setting Ryan calls time on things, it interesting to see as while all my Pokemon were wiped by training, all of his look like they could go on way longer. We set up for food and to unwind, Ryan talks to me about my journey in Paldea and what my plan is

"I would skip out on the gym challenge there if I was you" Ryan says as he chomps down on a sandwich

"How come?" I question

"The gym challenge is great but, you've already done two plus there no Palean tournament as such, my suggestion work you way through the student ranks"

"Student ranks?"

"Yeah, so in Paldea, seeing as the elite four is part of the curriculum and you don't just have to get the gym badges to fight them, if you manage to get yourself into the top 5 student trainer ranks you qualify to battle them. It would be good training for the World Championships too, get you used to working through ranks and all your student battle will attribute points to it too"

"Right okay, makes sense"

"Also means that you have the ability to explore the region anywhere you want, you don't have to stick to a set path"

"That would be cool, plus it lets Koraidon to stretch it legs a bit more"

"Oh Daisy mentioned to me about a Pichu?" Ryan asks

"Oh yeah, uh its an odd one, I caught it but it wants nothing to do with me, I spoke with the Nurse Miriam at school, she sees it quite often so would let me know the next time she sees it"

"Is it really a spikey eared one?"

I nod

"Shiny too" I add

"One that is a super rare find kiddo, just give it time and space, if anyone can win it round I would say your the best target, I understand you have a Shiny Pawmi too?"

"Yep, Poppy helped me catch it"

"Little shiny hunter, that's what 3 now?"

"Uh yeah, Pichu, Starmie, Pawmi"

He chuckles

"Maybe that's another calling of yours, anyway lets get this food down and get some sleep, you got an early pick up tomorrow and these guys need to rest up for tomorrow