Spending time in Moon City

It took the Poke center only one hour to heal Larvitar back up to full health, so after receiving its Poke Ball Lukas made his way to the training field next to the center. 

"Larvitar" 

"Hey, I'm Lukas and those are my current partners..." 

He repeated a greeting in the same way he did to Pidgey and after finishing finally took a look at Larvitar's summary. 

He didn't do so until now since he forgot. Though the reason he caught Larvitar in the first place was because of its rare species not because of any obvious outward traits. 

___________________ 

Species: Larvitar 

Gender: Male 

Age: 1+ 

Type: Rock, Ground 

Rank: Iron(high) 

Abilities: Guts, Sand Force 

Traits: Pure Blood(rock), Hardened 

Affinities: Rock, Ground, Dark(weak) 

Bond: Lukas Emerald(new) 

Stats:(Iron) 

Vitality: High 

Strength: High 

Constitution: High 

Agility: Mid 

Energy Strength: Mid 

Energy Constitution: High 

Moves: 

Learning: 

Crunch 

Initial: 

Protect 

Novice: 

Tackle, Sand Attack, Iron Defence(egg), Focus Energy(egg) 

Beginner: 

Rock Throw, Bite, Stomping Tantrum(egg), Sandstorm 

Rank-up req.: defeat 50 opponents 

Evolution req.: (high)Bronze-Rank, defeat 50 Pokemon with Rock-type moves. 

____________________ 

It seems that this Larvitar is the descendant of one of the Master-Rank Tyranitar living in Mt.Moon. After asking, it turned out that his great-grandparents are both of the Master-Rank. 

In total Larvitar possesses two traits, one of them very good the other decent, as well as a rather rare ability, and although still (weak) a third affinity. 

He also has three egg moves, with each parent having the possibility to pass on up to two moves he could be considered quite lucky. 

His stats on the other hand are nothing special with his agi and e.str even holding him back from immediately starting his limit training. 

Having checked his new Pokemons summary Lukas began thinking about his next goals. 

'Because of the Mt.Moon incident it took us 6 weeks to finally arrive here at Moon City.' 

Since he still has plenty of time until the next Junior-league starts, he doesn't mind that his arrival at this city was delayed a bit. 

What is weighing on his mind is how exactly to proceed from here. 

He already decided that in order to earn some money quickly he will opt for the easy challenge at the Moon City Gym as well. 

He will also visit the local FC branch and finally increase his ranking from Bronze to Silver there. 

Next he has to keep a lookout for some fitting Silver-Rank items he will need for Riolu's, Charmander's and Abra's evolution and the following advancement to Silver-Rank. There are also Pidgey and Larvitar that have to either start or finish their limit training in order to advance to the Bronze-Rank. 

In the end Lukas decided to only leave the city after all three of his Bronze-Rank Pokemon advanced to Silver. 

Simultaneously he would of course also train his two new Pokemon to have them catch up. 

Finally, he would also spend some time earning money at the FC and get his second Gym badge. 

"Alright team, listen up I decided how we're gonna spend the next few weeks here..." 

… 

From that day onward, Lukas and his Pokemon began spending most of their time with training. 

Since he already had enough wins to apply for a promotion match at the FC he did so and, after unfortunately losing two of them because his opponents had multiple Silver-Rank Pokemon, he managed to rank up. 

Upon reaching the Silver-Rank his prize money rose from 1.000 PD to 7.500 PD per win, of course he also got an increasing amount of money from ad revenue. 

Thanks to the higher prize money, it only took him one and a half months to earn about as much money as he got from fighting in the FC for three months back in Honey City. 

That also while he registered for fewer fights to spent more time on training. Also, one can't forget that he lost most of his matches, since the majority of those at the Silver-Rank in the FC use Silver-Rank Pokemon. 

Every couple of days, he would visit the local Poke markets in search for the supplementing items he would give his Pokemon while they're advancing or evolving. 

Unsurprisingly for various reasons, chief among being that it is a well known fact that Pokemon grow faster if they train with the help of stronger Pokemon that are bonded to the same trainer, Pidgey was the first to finish her limit training. 

After advancing to the (low)Bronze-Rank she got a new trait called Adaptive Strength that increases the effects of every move that Pidgey doesn't have an affinity for by +10% which is nice. Of course, she also received the same Full Buff trait as the three Pokemon before her. 

Larvitar was the next in line to finish his limit training and thereby advance. 

He gained a trait called Poisoned Fury that boosts his str whenever he is hit by a poison-type move. 

While he can't be 100% sure, Lukas is pretty confident this trait came to be because of Larvitar's hate for the three Arbok-line members that played with him. 

After Larvitar reached the (mid)Bronze-Rank Lukas officially challenged the Moon City Gym. 

He had to beat a few of the gyms trainers again which he did without much problem before getting to fight another deputy. 

Apparently the gym-leader was still occupied with the whole incident at Mt.Moon, wandering the enormous mountain range to make sure everything is in order again. 

Starting the fight Lukas beat the deputy's (mid)Bronze-Rank Aron using Larvitar. 

Although Larvitar tried his best he couldn't beat the following (high)Bronze-Rank Onix. 

So Lukas send in Riolu who ended the gym battle by making quick work of the Onix and the deputy's last Pokemon Rhydon as well. 

Besides the moon shaped badge, Lukas received another million PD and a Silver-Rank Rock emitting pure Rock-type energy. Lukas directly used the last reward to make Larvitar's Bronze-Rank training potion. 

Riolu finished his limit training shortly after the Gym-challenge and got ready to evolve. Yet before he could do so, Lukas was suddenly hit with an epiphany. 

Having done extensive research on advancement in the past, Lukas eventually discovered the (peak) sub-rank, and now that his Pokemon got ready for evolution he also began looking in depth into that. 

What he learned was that the difference between them is that during advancement, a Pokemon uses the energy that was build up inside of them during their training to raise their stats to increase the genetic limiter on their power. 

Meanwhile, during evolution a Pokemon draws in the ambient world energy which then elevates and changes the genes of a Pokemon thereby causing the phenomenon of evolution to occur. 

He had a question after learning about that. 

If both change a Pokemons genes to some degree with one drawing energy in from the outside while the other uses already existing energy to do something similar could it be beneficial to combine both processes? 

After this idea settled in his mind, he spent the next few days with little else than looking through his internal library for an answer. 

Indeed, in the past many tried combining the process of evolution and advancement into one hoping for any possible positive effect. 

No matter how often the scientists of the past and present tried however, they were unsuccessful every time. 

Eventually they came up with a widely accepted conclusion. While both processes have a close relationship with a Pokemons genes, the way in which they interact with them is different. 

This then simply leads to advancement unlocking a higher genetic limit while they are being changed by evolution, without one process interfering with the other. 

Instead of being disappointed however, Lukas became a little excited. 

His answer lay in limit training. After years of research into the unique talents and traits some Pokemon possess, all of them were classified as mutations on a genetic level. 

Now since that's the case, Lukas assumes that the "perfect breakthrough" doesn't grant a new trait, but rather induces a genetic mutation during advancement which results in one. 

This would mean that a Pokemon that advances after finishing their limit training could affect the process of their evolution and vice versa. 

Whether this will result in a positive or negative outcome is not something Lukas is particularly worried about. 

Several millennia ago after the disaster that resulted in Mewtwo and the shenanigans from some crazy scientists that led to the creation of modern day Genesect, Mew knowing that forbidding humans from performing genetic research on Pokemon would do little to stop some people changed the very core of her own creation. 

She basically made the genes of all Pokemon present and future incredible resilient and resistant to non-natural changes. 

So even if Lukas goes through with combining the "perfect breakthrough" and evolution, the worst that will happen is that the Pokemon in question just evolves and receives a normal trait from the limit training as per usual.