11 Can you help us?

Alan walked inside the training room and could not help but marvel at the types of equipment placed in it.

The room was divided into a human training area and a pokemon training area.

"Come out, Eve," he said before taking the Pokeball from his neck and throwing it into the air.

A black light flashed and Eve appeared in front of it, and just like Alan, she was amazed by the training room.

Ever since her last battle, the craving for strength had appeared in Eve; Alan could feel how she was trying her hardest to improve every time they trained.

[This is?]

"A training room, we are going to use it train ourselves for a month, this is an opportunity we cannot waste," he explained the details of pokemon camp to her and then they both walked towards the area used for moves training.

TMs were an easy way to learn a move but what TM gave was nothing but the theoretical knowledge of a move to the pokemon while the move itself had to be practiced to make it stronger and faster.

Why did Eve not have to practice the Tackle then?

That was because, in the simplest sense, Tackle was running into your enemy at full speed, and even her other moves were the same. But protect and Shadow Ball have energies involved along with timing and accuracy.

The ways a pokemon could get strong were: firstly, they had to do physical training, some pokemon were inherently physically stronger than others, but that did not mean the weak ones should not increase their strength. For example: in the previous battle, if the gap between the physical strength of Eve and Ralts was significantly larger, Eve could have taken it out in just two to three Tackles without struggling.

Inherently weak pokemons could get strong, too; it just needed hard work, time and money.

The second way for pokemon to get stronger was through practicing its moves. The pokemon moves had different levels of mastery; beginner, intermediate, advanced, expert and master.

With an increase in mastery level, the moves performed would get stronger, and if a pokemon had two moves at the expert level, they could be used together simultaneously.

"We are going to practice Protect first and then Shadow Ball," he said before going to a machine and activating it.

He had already researched all kinds of equipment, and this one here was a perfect one to teach Protect to Eve.

"This will release small beams of light; they will hurt you but not much. You have to use Protect if you don't want to get hurt."

[If I get it right, you need to reward me,] said Eve with a cute face, the one Alan could never say no to.

"Okay, how about your favourite snack, a chocolate cake?'

[Deal]

With a motivation even stronger than before, she stood ten meters away from the equipment, ready to begin her training.

The equipment gave a countdown of fifteen seconds, and it was within these fifteen seconds, Eve would have to use Protect and guard herself against the attack.

She immediately focused her mind a tried to create an almost invisible shield around her, but by the time she was close, the timer was out, and a small beam of light was fired from it, hitting Eve.

"That is a failure," said Alan from the side, and Eve just pouted at it.

[It is more challenging than I imagined]

"So then, no chocolate cake?"

[Who said I am giving up] she immediately retorted; nothing could come between her cake.

"Then I will leave you here and start my training."

Alan walked towards the human training area, and the first thing he did was go to a catalogue placed in one corner of it. He had seen how some of the kids his age already had better strength than him; probably, they had been training even before they got their pokemons.

His strength had increased after he had formed a bond with Eve, but he could almost feel that this was not the true extent of it. The limitations of his weak body were stopping him from gaining the real boost from the bond with Eve.

He needed to train his body and decide on a weapon he would use.

He tapped at the huge screen, and a menu appeared on it; he scrolled through it until he saw HTEs (Human Training Enhancements), and without even batting an eye, he bought ten of them, each costing around ten thousand pokedollars.

Each HTE lasted for an hour, and these would last him ten hours before he would have to buy more of them.

As soon as he placed his order, a small portal on the side of the catalogue started glowing before a box containing ten bottles appeared on it.

"This is convenient," he said as he grabbed the box and took it to the area he was going to train in, starting with his stamina.

There was a huge treadmill about ten meters long and twenty meters wide, rather than a conventional treadmill; it had levels one would clear as they got better. Each level being harder than before.

The first level was running.

Alan, who had never done any physical exercises before, had to start from the very bottom levels, but he was ready for a challenge.

He checked the time, and it was 9:47 am; preparing himself, he drank an HTE and climbed onto the treadmill.

Thus began his training along with Eve's, and with most of his time spent in the training room, Alan did not feel the passage of time.

**********

In the peaceful Pallet town, the sun rose from the horizon marking the beginning of a new day. On the road going through the town, a young boy was jogging with a pokemon following him on the side.

It had been a month since Alan and Eve started their training camp. They worked hard every day to improve themselves, and the results were undeniable.

Eve's timing for Protect was now almost eight seconds, and she could make a pretty decent shield to protect herself, whereas the Shadow Ball was no longer weak and dispersed after a meter or so.

Now it had dense energy inside it, and Eve could fire it off within a few seconds.

The only downside was that she could not spam Protect. Eve would have to wait for at least ten minutes before using another Protect. However, if she could raise the level of mastery in it, she would make the move stronger, and the cooldown would be cut short.

[It is today, right?]

"Yes, today is the last day of the camp and also the day of the tournament. We will have to do our best if we want to win the tournament."

They soon paused for a break and sat under the shade of a tree. Eve as always, climbed his head, taking her favourite spot.

Alan took out his Pokedex and scanned Eve, showing him the final result over the month of training and hard work.

[Eevee.

Type: Normal.

Level: 9

Stage: Beginner Stage (Low)

Blood Bond: Alan Salvador

Ability: Anticipation (Hidden Ability)

Innate Skill: ???

Moves: Tackle, Tail Whip, Growl, Sand Attack.

IM: Bite (Regular)

TM: Protect, Shadow Ball, Rest, Agility, Work Up, Dig, Iron Tail]

Over the past month, training their strength and moves was not the only thing they did. They accepted tasks for credits which were relatively easy except for the rare few.

At first, Alan expected them to be hunting pokemons in the wild, but it was nothing like it, to his disappointment. The tasks usually included feeding pokemon on the ranch, taking care of them and on very few occasions defeating weak, rebellious pokemon in the ranch.

'Isn't this way too good of a deal to buy all these things for these tasks?'

Alan could not help but wonder if this was a 'training camp' until he got the explanation from the only person he knew.

He became very close to Cynthia over the month.

To her, Alan was talented and had the potential to be a great trainer, but the most important thing was how nonchalant he was with her. Rather than swarming him like a bee, he talked to her like a friend, which she surprisingly did not see from others.

To Alan, she was also the first friend he had made, and he cared less about her identity.

As he told Cynthia how he was expecting different things from the 'training camp,' he finally got the answer he was looking for.

"Who in their right mind would send ten-year-olds into a forest filled with dangerous wild pokemons? As for the things being sold, all the people here have excess to them; it doesn't matter if they get them here or by themselves from outside. Not looking down on you, but you are the only one who thinks that these things are hard to come by. This camp is designed for the 'high class' and never has anyone with a background as weak as yours participated in it."

As he heard Cynthia's explanation, he finally understood what kind of training camp was.

"So basically a summer vacation for the rich kids where they get 'rewards' if they do something?"

"Exactly," she said while nodding her head, "other than you, me and maybe a few others, have you seen anyone train? This is, just like you said, a summer vacation before we all enter pokemon school. We get to meet others our age who would be important figures in future. I did not want to come but was forced by my mother, so I had no say in it."

"The only thing important in this camp is the tournament."

"I feel like an odd one out here," said Alan while shaking his head.

As he remembered his conversations with Cynthia, an unknown smile appeared on his face, which was quickly noticed by Eve.

[Are you thinking about her?]

"How do you even know?" he asked, surprised by how every time he had thought about Cynthia, Eve could quickly figure it out.

[You should look at the smile on your face when you think about her, it is almost nauseating]

"Oh, come on, it is not that bad as you are saying it to be," said Alan, but Eve just looked at him as if he was dumb and then proceeded to enter the Pokeball hanging around Alan's neck while shaking her head.

Once he was done resting, Alan walked back to the small forest and soon reached the clearing he had found to set up a tent.

It was a peaceful place with a small river close by. He and Eve had gone around fighting any wild pokemon they could find within the camp area, and most of them were usually Pidgeys and Rattata.

Though not too challenging after they fought them more than once, they were still better than anything else, while the kids did not do any battles, trying to keep their strength secret till the tournament.

As he reached his camp, he saw some people waiting for him. He frowned, but he knew who it was, and it did not seem like they were here for trouble, except maybe two of them.

"You are finally here. Did you know how long you have made me wait?"

Alan looked at the boy as if he was an idiot, if not for the special status of this boy, he might want to punch him in the face.

Shaking his head he silently walked towards his tent, no wanting to talk anymore.

"Would you shut up Gary?" said an orange haired girl with a slightly tanned skin, "forget what he said, we were here because we wanted to talk to you about something."

"What do you want Misty," asked Alan, he only knew two people in the whole training camp with Cynthia being one of them.

If Misty wanted to talk about something, then it was surely because she wanted something from him. And with Gary, Daniel and Leaf accompanying her, he was sure about it.

He knew some things about her after the month he had spent in the camp. Daughter of the Cerulean City gym leader, one of the strongest gyms in Kanto. From what he had seen before, her pokemon was a Staryu with a Deep Green potential. But Alan believed that it was not her starter since there was another pokeball strapped on her waist.

"Do you want to fight?" said Daniel with a threatening voice but Alan looked at him as he was looking at someone stupid.

"Let me talk," said Leaf who was standing beside them.

"Don't mind these three, they might come off rude but they are good people," she said with a friendly and an innocent smile, "we are going to have a tournament soon and it is said that the first prize this time would be something special. We are all aiming for it, and it is not too hard getting into top ten but the first place..."

She dragged the end of her sentence and Alan's frowned deepened after hearing, 'just say what you want,' he thought.

"There are two people who are sure to win the top rank and we were hoping you could help us defeat one of them," she now explained the true reason they had come to Alan

Alan was surprised by the request, 'how can I even help them?'

"And how do I need to help you?"

As she heard Alan ask that, she gave a soft smile and explained further, "one of the people expected to win is Sabrina, a psychic."

"You mean that weird girl with a doll?" said Alan before he shivered a little.

He had met her a few times and every time he did, Alan felt a chill run down his spine. Especially when that girl stared at him at every chance she got.

'What is she staring at anyway?'

Ignoring his thoughts about Sabrina, Alan then asked about his role in all this.

"And what do want me to do about her?"

Shaking her head, Leaf continued her words, "no, what we want your help with is the other person who is most likely to win."

"And who is that?"

"Cynthia Sharon."