Rival is a strong word
Lance couldn't make sense of it, this was something that shouldn't be happening to him. He was one of the regions and the world's most elite dragon trainers. He knew the ends and outs of dragon types, what food they liked the most as a species, what they enjoyed doing the most, the regular behaviours, and most importantly how important a dragon's bloodline is in the hierarchy of the dragon type world. Now here he was with one of the most powerful dragons in existence as his pokemon and best friend. Lance really didn't know whether to laugh or cry, because with just her presence alone his elite dragonite was kneeling in submission. Lance's dragonite was inferior to Stevens' bagon. Lance needed to know who this pokemon descended from, this pokemon was royalty among royalty. Steven was raising a true Queen among dragons and he only had a small idea of how big this was, yet another thing that would change the course of history forever.
That should have been the end of the discoveries, only then did Lance notice the blue capped ralts. A variant ralts!? In kanto of all places?? After Steven explained how he came to in the forest and how he met ralts it made alot more sense, but this only furthered Lances shocked impression of Steven. Pokemon born with "Royal" bloodlines almost never submit to a new trainer, hell as far as he knew even veteran elite trainers had extreme trouble and resistance from royals. In this regard Steven held two elite Royal bloodline pokemon, needless to say Lance was at a loss for words and unfortunately for him the excitement of steven was not over. Steven casually mentioned that even though it was an important battle for him and his pokemon to gain experience, it was in his own words,' a light workout'. Before Oak could stop Lance, he had asked Steven what he meant by those words.
Steven didn't answer Lance's question for a bit as he was speaking to his pokemon, and Lance believed it was Steven having a partial conversation with just his pokemon. As he waited for Stevens' answer on what he meant he started to seriously take a look at his three pokemon. He noticed it then, Steven Growlithe had extremely sturdy legs, his ralts looked like it could vanish out of the air at a moment's notice, and the Bagon had muscles so defined they looked like they could pop out of her at any moment. Steven hadn't even said anything yet and Lance was already starting to understand that whatever training Steven and his pokemon were doing it was extreme. Lance then thought to look over Steven himself, he hadn't paid much attention to him other than briefly noticing he was fairly well built. But no, now Lance was starting to notice similar training patterns on Steven himself! The legs, the muscles, the edginess, everything that his pokemon seemed to specialize in, Steven seemed to possess all three of these attributes. Steven was exceptionally well built, but Lance noticed that whatever Steven was teaching his pokemon he was doing it too. Steven snapped Lance out his thoughts a quick 'can you hear me?' calling out in his mind.
Lance was still not getting used to this telepathy power his ralts seemed to have perfect control over, which again, Lance knew was not a normal thing for a weak ralts to be able to do. Steven spoke and every word he said made Lance shiver in anticipation. 'Lance of the elite four, since you are doing me a favor I will answer your question with a demonstration. However, everything I am about to show you was built with a personal regimen that most would consider way too extreme. I'm sorry I have to make you do this, but you have to swear not to spread or try to recreate what I am about to show you'
Lance, Oak, and Steven and all the pokemon walked with Steven as he led the way and as Steven finished his sentence they had arrived to an arena. No, Arena was being nice, this area looked like one of the battlefields from the great pokemon war, he would know, as a trainer he had participated in that war. Somehow Steven, who was 10 years too early to be able to have even seen a war, had built an almost exact replica of the battlefield from nearly 10 years ago. Lances curiosity skyrocketed at this point, he knew Steven was about to unveil something that could, no, would change how people trained their pokemon in the future.
Steven told them to get a higher vantage point on a nearby hill, and they did as he commanded. Thats when Steven told his pokemon they were going to run a "1-3 defense drill". Steven then picked a tree at random that was leaning over and covered in other trees and even small boulders. Steven assigned his Growlithe to the tree and then they all went separate ways to opposite corners of the arena. Lance noticed something odd though, Steven wasn't sitting out while commanding his pokemon, it looked like he was planning to participate! Then it happened, Steven gave the starting shout of GO!
Lance could only watch as Steven, and his two other pokemon seemingly all were trying to land hits on the tree and Stevens growlithe protected it fearlessly under an onslaught of attacks. Lance and Oak stood in silence together on that hill, not saying a word to one another and simply watching Steven and his pokemon train for thirty odd minutes before ralts managed to hit the tree with a confusion. Steven told his pokemon to stop the drill and collect their breaths, they had done a good job. Lance noticed that even though they all looked tired, they looked genuinely happy.
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After Steven and pokemon caught their breaths they all went back to Oak and Lance and before Lance could say anything Steven thought to him first. 'Lance, I know you have many questions, but I will keep it simple, I first had a basic field, where my pokemon mastered the elements, then I built this arena battlefield, to maximize the characteristics of each team member. This entire arena was built to maximize their potential and find what they are best at.' Steven said to Lance who was slowly starting to understand the logic and reasoning behind this kind of training. Lance now understood why Steven had asked him not to replicate or share this with anyone, Steven had created a heavenly miracle and at the same time a hellish training area. Lance knew that if someone saw this and even attempted to try it they would be crossing a very dangerous line if they did not know exactly what they were doing.
Lance then asked Steven,' Could you give me more details on how this training field and the exercise you just completed works and how it, as you say, "maximizes their potentials".'
Steven smiled and thought to Lance,' I am so glad you asked, let me perfect the training for on the go and after that I will send you a technical manual on how to train the way I train.' Steven thought to Lance, who at this point was incredibly humbled by this new trainer. 'Anyways, Lance, I will try to break it down as best I can. What we just did is called a defense drill, basically I pick a tree at random and the pokemon who is selected has to try to defend the tree under any circumstances. This teaches the pokemon proper defense techniques rather than me just saying "hey Smoker block the attack". Honestly, in this past year me and my pokemon have perfected attack, defense, and support techniques and the group battles on route 1, although under the wrong circumstances, was a great intro into a handicapped fight. Other than laying down the basic framework of a plan, every move my pokemon used and almost every action they took was a decision of their own, they create strategies and techniques on their own to fit their own personal fighting style.'
Boom. Steven had just dropped a massive bombshell on Lance's head. 'His pokemon think for themselves and need barely any input to improve?' Lance thought to himself. Lance knew at this moment, Steven was a monster, a prodigy among prodigies.
Before Lance could ask any questions or say anything back to Steven, Steven continued on,'So for example, I learned because of Smoker my Growlithes front left leg was amputated, he preferred more defensive or neutral styles. So that is what this exercise is for, although the other pokemon do it too, Smoker is the best at this exercise. Smoker is my defense general, Prince my Ralts, he is my Assassin or Area of Effect ranged support, and Queen my Bagon is my power forward all out Attacker.'
Lance stopped being shocked at this point and said to Steven,'You are a genius Steven. No matter what happens, and no matter where life takes you, you will always be greeted in the Elite 4 with warmth. You have the potential to be the best like no one ever was! I predict you might even become a rival to me one day!' he thought back and then laughed out loud.
Steven turned towards Lance and while smiling thought to him,'With how far I plan to go and all the things I want to do, I think rival is a strong word'.
–The next day–
Steven was once again heading out into route one to try to get to Pewter city. According to Oak, going along route 1 to Viridian was the first step and usually took trainers around a week to get through. Steven inwardly laughed as was going to take his time anyways, but a week? That was laughable, even to steven. After all route one was only about 20 miles of road, if one hurried they could reach Viridian in one day. With that amusing thought, steven once again set off into route one with Prince by his side as usual.
Steven and Prince were walking along the road and very casually beating the pokemon in the area. Prince wasn't gaining much battlefield experience as the pokemon were basically one-shots and didn't even pose a small amount of threat to Prince. Steven and Prince were walking when all of a sudden a young kid around Stevens' age ran up to Steven and challenged him to a battle. Steven nodded his head and the opposing trainer sent out a pidgey.
Steven wanted to make this a little more fair for the young kid and told his ralts,'Prince, for this fight you are not allowed to take a single step!' Prince looked back at Steven in an almost horrified manner and Steven laughed at his face. 'Relax, if I didn't give you this handicap at the very least you would finish this fight in under 5 seconds', he thought to Prince. His pokemon knew he could not say no, as he also knew the pokemon in front was not his equal, so he just nodded and focused his attention on the pidgey in front of him.
Pidgey let out a squawk and his trainer said,'pidgey, tackle attack!'. Prince looked on with seemingly a sense of boredom. The pidgey rushed at Prince and seemed to get faster as he approached.
Steven said to Prince,'Confusion'. To which Prince responded with a psychic attack that pidgey tackled straight into. The pidgey was not stuttering after receiving a heavy attack from Prince.
Prince then did something Steven was not expecting. Prince used Hypnosis on pidgey, which caused the enemy pidgey to fall asleep. Now the pidgey was directly in front of Prince and asleep, so Prince simply used confusion again and knocked it out, Steven was so proud of his small little pokemon, and true to the rule that Steven had set, he had not moved a single inch from the spot he began in.
Steven bowed in respect to the trainer and signaled at his throat to indicate he couldn't speak. The trainer was a nice kid, and he and Steven talked for a bit about the battle before they parted ways, Steven was now 47 pokedollars richer. He had just participated in and won his very first official pokemon battle if you don't count the team rocket goons. Steven called Prince back into his ball as he needed to mull over his battle with the trainer and think of better ways to use his powers if he is handicapped too much by one of Steven's challenges again. Steven brought out Queen and together the two of them strolled along route 1 peacefully as could be.
— 5 days later —
Steven was about at his breaking point, he wasn't having fun anymore. Route 1 was too boring and stale for him and his pokemon, they were all pretty weak in comparison to his team. So in this time of battling, resting, strategizing, and walking Steven started his next big project for his team. This was the last bit that Steven needed to prove that even the last generations mechanics would still work in this world. Steven was attempting to get Prince to unlock the first ever fairy type move ever in this world.