Top Down Training!

The New Pupil
"Ugu!?" Having been sleeping peacefully, Jason was awoken by several loud raps on his room. The group had spent the night in the Pokémon Center after Jason's pitiful loss, and he was now being rudely awoken. The raps on the door grew louder and he fumbled for the clock; upon seeing it was 2:00 AM, all drowsiness was replaced by something new; irritation. The knocking simply grew sharper in their intensity, and the boy resigned himself to the fact that whoever it was wouldn't be going away.

"Hold on!" He called out, shoving the heavy sheet off and dragging his feet to the door. "Who could it be at this time of night?" He thought, firmly gripping the door knob and pulling the door open, to be confronted by the face of his new teacher, Dawn.

"There you are." She smiled. "Glad to see you're awake."

"It's 2 AM, Dawn." The boy said, sleepily. "What is it?"

"It's time to start your training." She replied, seemingly positively at ease despite the ungodly hour of the morning. "Early risers are successful, as they say."

"Isn't this...early?" Jason mumbled, rubbing his tired eyes. He could practically fall sleep on the floor right now.

"You haven't seen early yet, but you will." She flashed a bit of a grin. "If you think this is bad, you wouldn't survive under my own teacher and we haven't even started. Now come on." She walked off down the hall, and Jason, reluctantly, grabbed a sweater, and his Poké Balls, and trudged after it.

It was with great irritation that the boy stepped into the crisp, early morning air, and the first thought that crossed his mind was, "I already hate it." He was certainly not a morning person.

Dawn gave off a serene smile as she inhaled. She seemed to be enjoying herself immensely. "Alright, Jason. First things first. Before I begin teaching you anything, let's establish what type of battle style works best for you. What do you excel in?"

"Well..." Jason frowned. "I like Contests!" He blurted it out; perhaps being awake this early made him careless? "If I had to say anything, I'm really good with appeals, and combination moves."

"Hmmm..." Dawn cast him a thoughtful look. Despite what he'd said, she hadn't seen any of that in his last battle; in fact, he was far too impatient to do anything but rush in.

"Why, though?" Jason asked curiously. "Are we going to find what Pokémon I work best with, or something? Weeding out weaker Pokémon?" He suddenly felt very defensive; Pichu wasn't seen as the strongest thing around, what if she tried to make him get rid of Pichu?

"No." Dawn replied quickly, and she suddenly seemed stern. "People who undergo training like that aren't fit to become trainers. There are no weak Pokémon in a Pokémon battle. There are only weak trainers. Find the good in every one of your Pokémon, and draw out the unique strengths they possess." It was obvious Dawn felt this was important; her expression was set in stone as she kept her own gaze locked onto Jason's, but it soon melted into a warm smile once more. "After all, effort in battle is a representation of the love between the Trainer and their Pokémon."

Jason blinked, stunned by this.

''"Now, its right where you want it!" Silus screamed. "Finish it off! DRAGON PULSE!"''

''With the claw still firmly in its mouth, and enhanced with the power of Work Up, Deino gathered draconic energy at the back of its throat, and quickly released it at point blank, creating a brilliant explosion in the process, filled with greenish-blue smoke which engulfed the arena. Now Silus would just keep his eyes glued to the results of this strategy.''

''When the smoke cleared, Zoroark was still standing, weakened and battered. There was, however, something odd about it's stance. The arm that Deino hadn't bitten was free and extended, but the aura it had before was now gone. In addition, even Deino looked a little worse for wear.''

''"What...just happened?" Amelia blinked in confusion. "Did Zoroark do something?"''

''"Yeah, it did." Ivory confirmed. "People tend to forget, Pokémon have their own personalities and can very much think for themselves. They aren't tools of war, they are partners we instruct in battle, and can do as they want if they please. From the looks of it, Zoroark reacted, the instant Deino had to open it's mouth — thus releasing it's arm — to release Dragon Pulse, using it's remaining arm, which was still coated in the so called "Shadow Slash", as a means of defence! The aura protected Zoroark's arm, and halved the damage from the explosion due to the interruption from his strike when it tried to force it back into Deino's own mouth. Not only that..." She flashed a small grin when she looked at Deino. "The explosion, from such a close range, backfired on the poor little Deino as well. It, as well as Zoroark, felt the pain from that Dragon Pulse when it exploded. I think Jason's determination is rubbing off on Zoroark. It doesn't want to lose."''

" ROWR! " Zoroark let out a mighty roar into the heavens as it cast a glare at Deino.

''"Zoroark..." Jason was shocked. He hadn't expected Zoroark to be so determined to win. "You...you really want to win, don't you?"''

The Illusion Fox Pokémon vocalised it's agreement, and then began to glow white.

''"What...what now!?" Jason couldn't handle much more shock or stress.''

Zoroark, complete with it's new white glow, propelled itself forward at Deino, white light spiraling around it, aiming to connect with Deino from this very close range.

''"This...it's Aerial Ace!" Ivory practically stood up in her own excitement. "In desperation, Zoroark just learned Aerial Ace!"''

That's right...back in his battle with Silus, Zoroark had accomplished so much, and gone so far, out of their mutual bond as trainer and partner Pokémon. His love for his Pokémon was what brought out Zoroark's strength that day.

"I see you've experienced it before." Dawn noted from his expression that he was remembering something from the past. "The rush that happens when you and your Pokémon synch in a battle; when your feelings bring out strength in your Pokémon that you didn't know was there. That's part of what we'll be working on — bringing out the bond between the Pokémon you have, as well as unique battle strategies you can employ...and also working on your impatience."

These two were about to get busy.

Training Begins!
"Alright, send out every Pokémon that you currently have in your party."

Jason heeded the request, throwing five Poké Balls into the air. A flash of white light bright enough to be blinding erupted from the balls and hit the ground, morphing into solid shapes; Seviper, Zoroark, Krabby, Aipom, and Phanpy. Pichu leapt down from Jason's shoulders, filling up his current line-up of six Pokémon.

"Hmm..." Dawn looked the entire team over, her eyes resting immediately on Krabby and Phanpy. "These two are young." She could tell just by looking at them that these two are infants. "These little ones don't show the kind of experience your other Pokémon have. Even Phanpy, who seems to have seen battle at least once or twice, is still new to everything."

Jason blinked, confused. "Y-yes, that's right. Krabby only recently hatched, and according to the Professor, Phanpy itself is a recently hatched Pokémon; it probably hatched only a few weeks before I caught it."

"I see. That much was obvious." She looked over his team again, her eyes scanning the six and taking them all in. "You don't have much in way of type coverage; the usual wisdom is the more types your team covers, the better chance you have of winning a match. However, that can be made up for with creativity and ingenuity."

"Huh?" Jason didn't seem to be following, which caused the older woman to let out a drawn out sigh.

"You need to be clever." She said, emphasizing the last word. "As a Coordinator, your greatest strength is your creativity; it's how you use not only your moves but your Pokémon's individual talents that win the battle, not simply a type-advantage, and this applies to any battle, not simply Contest Battles."

Darkest Before The Dawn!|N/A