Progress

After the battle with Paul, Cinder decided to go head back his way, and not get through Mt. Moon just yet. He had some thoughts to go through with what Paul brought forward towards his vision on pokemon training. Paul was a trainer that was on a path of becoming stronger, that's for certain, he has a view on training that's on a higher level than most. With Paul not even using his starter pokemon, Cinder expects that it would be a pokemon a little stronger, if not a whole lot stronger than his Elekid. Maybe he does have a point about a pokemon's starting point, but does he consider the pokemon's feelings when he released them after coming short of satisfactory by scanning their moveset? it somewhat pained him to admit it, however, he saw Paul as a rival now. Much like how he views Blue and a little like Red too, even Korrina.

On the road back to the Pokemon Center, Cinder and his team were lucky enough to run into a decent amount of fellow trainers to battle. Not only did this give Storm the perfect chance to break in his evolution, but it supplied them with a fair amount of monetary prize money as well.

The newly evolved Flaaffy had received incredible boons in every regard since evolving. His abilities were incomparable to that of when he was still a Mareep. He saw the most action on the tunnel so far, easily winning most battles that he fought in. So does Hercule, the water-type was very keen of the prospects of evolution the moment he saw the noticeable strength growth of his fellow teammate, he battled against pokemon as much as he could, which greatly pleased Cinder.

It didn't take long for them to reach the entrance they had just entered earlier in the day. He knew beforehand that there was a Pokemon Center at the foot of Mt. Moon since he had passed by the building when he entered the tunnels. That's where he was going to stay for the night, or maybe until he felt he was ready for the Gym battle in Cerulean City's Sensational Sisters, the Gym Leaders.

The night passed with him and along with his pokemon accompanying him for dinner and planning ahead on their plans for the future that awaits them at the Pokemon Center, it didn't take long before they hit the bed.

...

Cinder finally decided to stay in the Pokemon Center for a couple of days. To get some training done, and three days passed with the dedication to train.

In the present, It was still rather early when Cinder had woken his team. Storm had been the first to respond, while the others got up shortly afterwards with help from Storm.

In the time they were training these past few days, Cinder had begun teaching Storm Electro Ball. Cinder figured that prioritizing in the Move over anything else is perfect, as it required control over Storm's electricity, which would extensively make future electric-type moves easier to learn in the long run.

At the moment, Storm could only barely manage the Move. He was beginning to successfully condense his electricity into a ball, but it was sloppily formed and difficult to hold together, often fizzling out mere moments after being fired.

Hercule was continuing his usual training regime, Cinder couldn't really teach him much with his current stage as a Poliwag, however, he was confident that he could train him with a ton of things when he would evolve into a Poliwhirl, since by then, Hercule would actually have literal arms as a factor that would be added in battle. Although, he did come up with a few things for his Poliwag.

So far, he had spent his time on the tunnels and back, racking up experience for his team and money from the trainers they defeated inside Mt. Moon. Cinder was desperate for cash, if he wanted to buy TMs at some point to buff his team's move pool, he would need as much money as he could get, not to mention supplies for their journey and the food they needed. Most of the trainers they took on were beaten by his pokemon, but Cinder did lose to some, for example, his battle against a veteran yesterday that had been a trainer for nearly seven years. The guy had a Primeape that he just wasn't able to defeat with his current strength. It had been odd for Cinder, losing like that. He hadn't lost many Pokemon battles before. Still, it was a good experience.

Not to mention it got Hercule and Storm fired up even more for their next round of training.

Cinder had been working on his pokemon's move pool while having their stay in the Pokemon Center. Right now, Storm was working on learning Electro Ball, getting his mastery higher on his new move, Focus Punch, and a grass-type move, Cotton Spore. The latter two were fairly easy to get a hang of, and he'd already gotten them down for the most part, but Electro Ball was taking some work. It required a lot more electrical usage than Storm had ever had to handle before. It would just take time. He already almost completely mastered, if not already, on most of his moves, like, Thunder Shock, Thunder Wave, Iron Tail, and Agility. Reflect was going along quite smoothly as well, Cinder was happy at that, since Reflect would be Storm's defensive measure against his potential opponent's physical attacks.

Cinder had been trying to teach Storm Thunderbolt as well. That was coming along nicely. It was a step up from Thunder Shock.

He still couldn't do much with Hercule—not until the tadpole evolved. All Cinder had managed to do was teach Hercule Hydro Pump, and, like Storm's Thunder Bolt and Electro Ball, simply required practice for Hercule to build up the power necessary to learn it.

The problem with Hercule now was his limited move pool. It consisted solely of water-type moves along with Hypnosis and Ice Beam. That left him pretty sore for variation. That's why Cinder couldn't wait for Hercule on evolving, so they could move on the training he had in store for his water-type pokemon.

Part of the reason Cinder was saving up for TMs so desperately was because his team needed those extra moves. They had a strong variety of attacks they could learn naturally, but TMs would open up a whole new chapter for them in battles. Cinder really wanted to get his hands on a Light Screen TM for Storm and for Hercule - Focus Punch, Blizzard and Water Pulse when he evolved, as well as a Dragon Claw TM for Fafnir when he would be ready for training, which wouldn't be far from Cinder's observation on the dragon's growth progression. But for now, his team was making great progress.

Well, most of them. Cinder hadn't gotten anywhere with Starly.

The big(for his species) avian pokemon utterly refused to get along with them. She would not train and only listened to him when Cinder told the group it was time to eat. Despite Cinder's attempts to be friendly, she offered only cold glares and the occasional growl of aggressiveness for her trainer. He'd be lying if he said he wasn't disappointed that Starly was so slow to trust him, but at least she didn't attack him outright the second he released her from her pokeball, like before. That was a good thing.

Starly did, however, start to walk and play occasionally with Hercule, Storm and Fafnir, sometimes the avian even accompanied him on going outside the Pokemon Center towards his way in the tunnels for some battling experience. Cinder figured the fresh air might do her some good and let her ease up around them. She seemed to like flying freely around, though any offer Cinder made to carry her when she got tired was blatantly refused. While it was clear that the fresh air definitely helped her relax, she did not let up on her passive-aggressive attitude towards him and his team.

She wouldn't battle, though. Cinder had no intention of forcing her into a fight, but all she did when they got into a pokemon battle was sit by his feet and stare in boredom, she was the total opposite of the baby dragon, Fafnir. No matter if they won or lost, all she did was stare. There were no cheers of excitement when they won or growls of displeasure if one of Cinder's pokemon were defeated like what Fafnir would have done. Starly just looked void of emotion.

It worried him. Cinder knew that she'd been abused, but he had to wonder exactly what had happened to make her the way she was. He had gotten her checked out in the Pokemon Center, but all Nurse Joy could tell him was that she was a bit underweight and hated needles with a passion. Hopefully, she will come around with time.

Cinder paused on his way to take a look at the sky and found that it was just around early-late morning. It was getting hot outside as well. Spring was passing quickly—it would be summer in just over a month. He'd been traveling for over two weeks now. Cinder wondered how Dom, Diana, Red, Korrina, Paul, and even Blue, he also wondered about one of their childhoods in Pallet, Leaf, on how they were doing. He hadn't seen the latter since after all of them started their journey. Not to mention Paul. Cinder had not encountered the boy after encountering him in the tunnels of Mt. Moon. He was sure that wherever they were, the six of them were probably training hard.

His call with his mother hadn't lasted too long, but it had shaved off some time. Still early in the morning, but past 9:00 AM.

Cinder had always enjoyed the simplicity of morning, even back in Pallet Town. Before the day got fully started, before it was time to progress with their agenda. Just an enjoyable breakfast as they all got settled in. That was how it always was, and he always looked forward to it.

At the moment, he wasn't sure which food Starly liked, so he tried some experimentation with berries and a couple of different assortments of traditional food. Starly seemed to respond quite positively to the berries, but only seemed to be mildly interested in everything else.

It was a start. He would get a better grip on the avian pokemon's diet in time. Meanwhile, the rest of his team devoured their food happily, Storm and Fafnir especially eating quite fast, much to Starly's bewilderment, and everyone else's amusement.

The sheep and dragon never did take the time to enjoy their food when they liked the way that it tasted. Not that the duo ever seemed to mind, of course.

Enjoying his own food, Cinder opted to eat a bit more slowly as he went over his plans for the day. Taking a bite into one of his pancakes, he thought about it for a moment, but his thoughts was interrupted by a voice.

"Is this seat open?"

Cinder, Storm, including Fafnir perked up at the familiar feminine voice and turned to see an also familiar girl standing behind his team, holding a tray of the food she liked consisting of orange juice, applesauce, and crepes.

"Cinder!?"

"Uhh... Korrina?"