Steven looked at his outfit one last time, afterall his style was a little unique, so he had to wear it with pride and it had to be perfect. Right now he was staring at a mirror, looking at his reflection and grooming himself. He was wearing all black loose cargo trousers, with a dark grey shirt with red patterns on it. He had red overall straps going over his chiseled shoulders, the shirt tight fitting, showing his muscles beneath the shirt, a testament to the extreme training he had undergone in the last year. He wore black combat boots with black socks. He never realized he liked dark colours so much, maybe he was inspired after seeing death's face void. He had been trying to find a good outfit for his first day on his journey, today was the day he turned 15 and could set out on his journey. He was so excited, he was trying really hard to be level headed and calm, not that it was working particularly well. He was thinking something in his wardrobe was missing, and he was searching for the thing that would cap off this stylized look of his. This was another part of his personality that he was exploring here and he wanted to properly express that through his clothing. He saw a trench coat, all dark grey with black streaks, was sitting on a rack nearby. Steven tried it on and smiled. He had completed his look and was ready to head off into the great unknown and his journey.

He walked out of the building and saw his pokemon sitting outside the building playing and napping, waiting on steven. Steven called out to them and they all looked at steven as he approached. Steven was so happy with all their progress that he could jump for joy, they had grown to genuinely love and grievously hate the training field that he had created just for them. But it had worked! Steven could see it whenever he looked at his team of pokemon. They looked strong, they all had mastered their own independent elements, they all had great defense, attack, alternate strategies, and modern military training in case of emergencies. Right now they thought they were still weak because steven made sure they never got too cocky, he would tell them that they need to always want more, to be greedy for power, but ethical in how you got it. This was how capitalism worked on his old word, and it could very well apply here as well.

Steven grabbed his pre-packed backpack that had immense internal storage. It was amazing to him how they had void inducing capabilities like this with these backpacks but they could barely have newer gen computers.

Oak sees Steven approaching and says to him,'So, its finally the day huh?'. Oak looked at all the pokemon that Steven had trained and smiled. Oak thought to him,' You have done well in this year i gave you. Congratulation on completing every task i gave you with flying colors, I have officially sponsored you, which means that if you make another massive discovery let me know. Also don't feel bad about the money, I'm going to try to publish your journal to a the professors and science committee.'

Steven thought back to him,'Thank you professor for everything you've done for me now and in the future. I promise to be one of the greatest trainers to ever live.' He had a serious tone when he said this and Oak could tell he meant those words. Oak wondered what other secrets Steven had discovered and uncovered in the years time he was here.

Steven put on his backpack and set off.

–2 hours later–

'Shit! Prince, flash step teleport combo 3!' Steven yelled out in his mind. Currently he and prince were battling against 8 pidgeys at once. How could they have possibly come to this conclusion you ask? Well they saw a pidgey. Just one, and thought 'hey lets battle'. Prince sent out an attack and then pidgeys hidden in the tree all come rushing out. Yep, it really was one of those days, and something was slightly weird. They should be in trouble, in danger from the pidgeys attacking them but both Prince and Steven both dodge and attack. They smile at each and know the other is fun, this isn't even that hard training. Steven inwardly laughs at the irony of the situation, he might have overtrained, oops.

Prince quickly teleports up a tree and then sharply teleports above down right above the pidgeys. He pushes the most powerful attack he has. [Confusion] Prince knocks out five of the eight but the other three are injured and flee. Prince looks at Steven and smiled and hops down from the top of one of the tree to the ground next to stevens side.

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

He kneels down and says,'My lord I have defeated 5 of the 8 enemies, the other three have fled the scene.' He looks a little angry at the ground for not being able to get all eight of them at once, The damn birds were so useless they had to be so far apart from each other. Prince thought for a moment 'wait, if I were to, rapid fire, like a burst fire instead of an area of affect it could…'

'PRINCE!' Steven yelled at him in his mind

'Yes My Lord! What is wrong!?' Prince said now on guard again for enemies

Steven looked at him and sighed,'whoo~ dude you scared me! I was calling your name for like 3 minutes and you weren't responding.'

Prince looked serious,'My lord could call either of the other teammates? I have thought of a new tactic in that ariel dog fight and would like to ponder its uses and timings.'

Steven gleefully said,' Of course buddy!' and returned him to pokeball. Steven was honestly very happy, 'Prince learning after 1 battle a strategy so important he goes into deep thought for it, honestly I might be training super soldiers at this rate.' Steven thought to himself in admiration. He called out Smoker to accompany him on the trip for a while.

Smoker is called out and he immediately gets in a defensive position,'My Lord, you called?'

Steven sighed inwardly. That 'My lord' stuff was becoming more and more normal for him, all his pokemon insist on calling him that. First it was Prince and then Queen right after she hatched caught on to it and then even recently Smoker has been saying it, Steven doesn't get why they calll him that and why they don't just call him by his name but he's learned that they all very stubborn people and his training really didn't help. But it did help discern them in his strategies. He was planning on group battles, no one said that would always be a one on one, so he has been slowly been introducing the team to group battles where its 3 at time vs 3 or more. For this, everyone in his team have their niche that they are currently the best at. Of course Queen the Bagon is the most powerful attacker, and steven had a couple of guesses as to why. First she was a dragon type, an already powerful typing in the early generations, and then was her personality. Steven knew that all pokemon had "natures" and that they dictated how they grew as pokemon and how their stats shaped overtime. Well steven believed she was a "jolly" nature, which is one of the best for her species. Second theres prince, who seems to favor mobile warfare, and fast succession attacks that didn't let their opponent even breath. Another hunch that steven had on this, one was that Prince was either "adamant" or "brave nature. Steven hoped that he was adamant but believed he was brave. Prince was very brave when it came to close quarters and steven believed that was his inner gallade shining through along with the training he had received over the last year. Then, finally there was Smoker the Growlithe. Out of everyone the one who impressed him the most was him. Smoker was a verifiable god of defense, he was the best defensive pokemon he had. Normally the Growlithe/Arcanine species are very strong special attackers however steven believed that Smoker had an "Impish" nature due to how natural he was with defense. Smoker was undeniably the tank of the party.

Steven looked ahead of him and thought to growlithe,'Come on Smoker let's continue our journey, Prince needed to formulate a new strategy so hopefully everything goes well for him'. Steven and growlithe walk along the path of route 1 and after what felt like 10 minutes they ran into a rattata horde, with 4 ratta staring at them a couple of feet away. Steven signed to growlithe 'horde, defense, destroy all'. Growlithe got into a fighting position and howled loudly to signal his intent to fight. The rattata attacked him 4 on 1 all at the same time. Growlithe dodge the first two and used bite on one of them, knocking it out with its powerful jaws instantly. Smoker quickly sprinted to Stevens side and fire off a fire spin that caught two of the three remaining rattata.

The last rattata saw he was no match and attempted to flee. 'No run!' Smoker thought to himself and fired off a powerful fire attack. The fire move chased after the rattata and right before he got away the fireball hit him and knocked him out instantaneously.

Steven looked at Smoker with a shocked expression and signed at him,' wait, don't move'

Steven released Prince from his pokeball and thought to him,' Sorry to interrupt your brainstorming sesh but I needed to ask Smoker something real quick'. Prince didn't say anything and only nodded and set up the mind link. Steven turned towards Smoker and thought to him,'Smoker what was that move just now? It was not [Fire Spin]'

Smoker looked prideful and thought back,'New move, big fire, small ball, more fire, less space'

He called out Queen and she looked confused at to why she was called out with no enemies in sight. Steven pointed and Smoker and said,' Everyone! Smoker is the first to create and use a new move! He has officially learned how to use [Ember]!'

The group cheered and celebrated at the great news, while smoker who was somewhat embarrassed also felt alot of pride in being the first to learn a new move. He was normal compared to the other two but he had amazing combat potential. Steven knew that while Growlithes overall rating tier-wise was on the lower end, an Arcanine who is at the level of a fully evolved salamence is and has the defensive capabilities that he did would be invaluable. The beginning of the journey had officially started.

–Day 2–

Steven and Smoker creep up on the camp, being as quiet as they can, to not alert the people not far away from them. They both were trying very hard to remain calm and think rationally but were having a very tough time controlling themselves. They glared at the tents in front of them with the device pulsing a light purple, with a big letter R on it.