Hearts Collide

They were set to go in training.

Cinder and Storm could now be seen standing on one of the training fields of the pokemon center that was provided for trainers to train on.

Cinder found themselves a secluded place, a bed of grass encompasses with a few erected artificial trees. It was a clearing that many trainers were not around training along with their pokemon, generally because it took quite a few minutes of walking to go to and fro from where the pokemon center was.

"We are going to be training for two days before we set off and continue towards Pewter City. We'll obviously take breaks to rest and get meals, and both of us should still get to bed at a decent time, but overall, we will strictly devote ourselves to the wild pokemons found around Viridian Forest, and most importantly, to prepare for our gym battle." Cinder said. He took a pause as he eyed his starter who was sitting on his bum. He seemed to be listening carefully.

"Okay, Storm. It's time for you to learn; Iron Tail and Double Team." Cinder informed. "The way this works is that I return you to your pokeball and place it in one of the slots in the TM case. I swipe the TM, and then the knowledge of the move would be transferred directly to you. I'll do it with both moves, and then we'll test them out."

Pokemon Trainers received a TM case for free after purchasing a TM if they didn't already have one, so Cinder happily accepted the TM case after it was offered to him by the cashier.

"Mareep!" Storm pumped an arm into the air enthusiastically.

Cinder grinned. His starter was definitely fixated on getting stronger, it was a bit outside of the norm considering its species, but he liked it that way.

He lightly tapped Storm's forehead with the pokeball, watching as Storm was sucked into the opening orb.

He started with Iron Tail, and then Double Team.

He released Storm again after doing so.

The sheep blanked out for a moment, processing the knowledge entering his pokebrain, after composing himself, he looked eager to test out his new tricks

"Okay," said Cinder. "Start with Iron Tail."

Storm closed his eyes and began concentrating.

Iron Tail was a very powerful steel-type move and a must have for Storm's lack of offense in his arsenal. It was an excellent offensive versatility that could hammer down an opponent's defenses when used at high levels.

Unfortunately, just like with most pokemon moves, it was easier to master if the user was the same type as it. Storm was far from being a steel-type pokemon, so the learning curve would be very noticeable.

Cinder was just hoping that they would have decent control over the move by the time they challenged Pewter City's Gym.

After a while, Storm's tail began to glow with metallic energy. Much like what the video he had reviewed earlier at their guest room, this one was very clearly imperfect, but the difference was most definitely noticeable.

Storm rushed forward towards a patch of rocks nearby and struck one of the bigger rocks with his tail. Large cracks appeared on the rock's surface, and Cinder could certainly hear the impact.

"That's good," said Cinder in restrained excitement. "It took a good few seconds to charge up, but that was actually pretty great for a first attempt. And although the move isn't at full power yet, you've still handled it pretty well. It would definitely do some major damage, even right now." he smiled kindly and complimented. "You're a natural, Storm!"

Storm smiled bashfully as he drew circles on the dirt ground below his hoof, a very large blush quickly appearing on his face. "Ma..reep!"

Cinder giggled. "Okay then, now try Double Team."

Double Team was a Move that involved the user splitting themselves into multiple copies in order to confuse their opponent. The copies had very low durability and usually went down in a single hit, but the main point of the technique was to keep the user safe by tricking the opponent into attacking the copies instead, very skilled users of Double Team could make the copies borderline indistinguishable from the user themselves, and could even make the copies move along with them, rather than remaining stationary. This could make battles particularly chaotic.

After a few seconds of attempting, Storm's body flashed as he split into two Mareep. The original, Storm, leaped back with a startled yelp as he stared at the shimmering copy of himself. The copy wasn't moving, and it was clearly obvious from the shimmering that it was just a copy of Storm and not actually Storm himself, but it was most certainly a start.

Grinning ear to ear, Cinder patted the Mareep on the head as the clone fizzled out, Storm canceling out the technique. "Great work, Storm!"

"Now that we have both of those moves tested out. Let's organize the training for the rest of the day." Cinder said, as he grew silent for a few seconds to think. After organizing a training which he thought was good, he continued. "You see that boulder over there, near the tree? I want you to hit it with your Thunder Shock, every time you do so and it wouldn't be destroyed, use Iron Tail on it, do that for an hour. Within that time frame, whenever you get tired or run out of electricity, we will go back to the pokemon center whilst running, no stopping, to recharge on the power source of electricity they provided for you electric-types. Then, to work on your Double Team, you are going to run around while concentrating on channeling the energy for the move. I want you to get the hang out on that particular technique, since it is the only single method of evasiveness implemented with your battle style at the moment."

Storm nodded sternly. It was now in training mode. It got itself close towards the boulder. Then began to release a discharge of Thunder Shock, seeing that it wasn't at all cracked, not to mention destroyed, he followed up with Iron Tail. Which, this time damaged the surface of the boulder as irregular shaped pieces of rocks were nicked.

He repeated that for over a dozen times, close to two dozen, before the boulder was finally destroyed as it falls apart from the impact of his Iron Tail.

"Train on that boulder right next to it now." Cinder directed Storm towards a boulder of similar size.

Which Storm immediately smacked with a Thunder Shock.

They repeated that cycle for a span of an hour. All the while, Storm tried its best to demolish his training targets, and Cinder, who was overseeing his training, shouted loudly at the pokemon whenever Storm began to take a break that would take over 30 seconds. Progress was evident though, and Cinder could clearly see that.

With the repeated usage of the move Thunder Shock, it has now begun to leave a deeper black scorch mark on the surface, although it still has some time of progress to be considered perfect, time was Cinder's greatest asset. Iron Tail similarly had gotten much more powerful, and it didn't take Storm much time anymore when he charged up the move like before when he first tried to use it, with practice it would become practical enough for the move to be usable in battles.

What really startled Cinder was, Storm has not yet requested to be fed electricity to recharge. It seemed like he underestimated his Pokemon's stamina a little bit. So, he made the most logical decision... He added another hour for that repeated exercise.

After the added time of an additional hour of that physically and mentally tiring exercise, Cinder accompanied Storm as they jogged towards the power source, to get his power back to full capacity.

After they came back to their training place, Cinder allowed Storm to take a 5 minute break.

Shortly afterwards, they continued as Storm began to sweat like bullets running around while concentrating on using Double Team. To say the least, it was physically and mentally tiring for the sheep pokemon.

Cinder had to stop him before even an hour of that training because he began to see that Storm couldn't go on much longer, if he pushed the pokemon he might faint from overexertion.

"Do you want to continue, Storm? Or do you want to go back and rest before continuing tomorrow?" Cinder asked, as he tilted a canteen of water he brought with him as he fed it to Storm. Which the pokemon received gladly as it took big mouthfuls of gulps before exhaling deeply in relaxation.

"Mar, Mareep!" Judging from Storm's tone, he appeared to wish to continue the training.

"Alright, take a rest first. Let's start after you're all ready to go." Cinder said grinning, liking his starter's fighting spirit more and more pleasing.

Storm's hard work was already bearing fruit. They wouldn't be knocking out Pewter City's rock types anytime soon, but he'd probably make any new trainer's pokemon rethink a direct attack from one of Storm's attacks.

After their training was done, it took almost 5 hours. 5 HOURS! Of this tiresome training, to some extent a few would say they are pushing themselves a bit too far. Yet, Cinder and Storm were smiling as both the duo were sprawled out in the dirt on the training ground, getting their breath back as the moon started to rise in the sky.

Cinder felt a cool breeze blow over his skin and finally sat up, looking at his starter's exhausted frame. He really couldn't get used to how adorable his starter was, but the pokemon really surprised him on how willing he was and the enthusiasm he had for the training. He felt like Professor Oak must have given him an unpolished gem by mistake, after all while pokemon desired power, not all of them are as persistent in training.

He was happy and felt glad he got himself such a wonderful starter. He promised he would treat Storm well, well that was already his thoughts before this, but he just wanted to remind himself how precious Storm was.

The young trainer took out a pokeball and then called out to Storm softly. "You really worked hard, Storm. Take a break now, okay? I'll heal you up in the center, and then we can go to sleep afterwards, of course before eating."

His pokemon just nodded. Too tired to properly respond.

Cinder smiled. 'You deserve the rest, Storm.' He thought.

He recalled his starter and forced himself to get up, wincing at the soreness of his legs. He trudged his way back to the pokemon center, too tired to be rushing like how he had been with Storm earlier.

He did the little work, but he still felt this way. Cinder could imagine how Storm had persisted till the end, even if he was a pokemon.

As he entered the automatic sensory doors of the pokemon center, Cinder blearily wiped some of the sleepiness from his eyes.

"Emergency! Hey, get out of the way! MOVE!"

The sound of rapidly spinning roller skates along with a feminine voice that contained the emotions filled with haste and worry got Cinder to groggily turn around slowly. When he did, he was scared out of his wits, his soul was threateningly close to take a visit to the distortion world.

In his sight, a tall and slender girl with very long creamy blonde hair tied in a big, thick, high fluffy ponytail that emerges from the back of her white helmet, she looked to be around his age, of this would have been any other circumstance, he would have took his time to appreciate such a beauty. Unfortunately, what Cinder felt was deep chilling trepidation, for the most part because of her bolting speed as she headed towards where he stood without any intention of stopping. With that speed, one would find themselves difficult to even take the slightest turn...

Cinder was flustered as he prepared himself for the inevitable as he shielded his head with his arms, prioritizing on covering his head which he quickly changed as he swiftly turned around to shield the black backpack that contained his pokemon egg.

Not even a second later...

*Bang*

"Ack! Shit!"

The girl collided with Cinder, which knocked him down on the ground, pretty harshly.

**Recommend a water-type pokemon, that is native from Kanto, and Johto. **