I was shocked at the power the Ducklett was exuding.

The Ducklett let loose a fearsome amount of pressurised water clipping Cet in the side, the water crashing into the ground harshly for a couple of seconds.

'The hell is that move, it's too strong. Stronger than Bravebird.' I thought looking at the Ducklett in shock.

'I must give Cet more treats. Even when I was shocked, he still dodged adhering to his training,' I thought deciding playtime is over.

"Back and bite, Cet," I called out hoping to end this match.

Cet looped onto the Ducklett back biting onto its neck, adjusting his position for better grip.

'With Ducklett's being better swimmers than fliers, it should have maintained some range.' I thought as Cet pressed the Ducklett onto the ground, leveraging its weight.

'If the Ducklett didn't use the move so near to Cet, he wouldn't be able to dodge it with just a scratch,' I thought thinking about what the move could be.

"Absorb," I called out.

The Ducklett unable to move and in pain, thrashed around.

With that powerful move as its egg move, it won't have any more moves surprises for me.

Cet slowly recovered his health, bringing the Ducklett onto the ground and pinning it.

'The Ducklett can't escape from that, I hope the Swanna is not too angry,' I thought looking at still Swanna.

With a sad croon, Ducklett stopped resisting.

Just as the Ducklett appeared to pass out, I ordered Cet to come back to me.

Cet landed on me and looked at me expectantly, as I stared at the Swanna and the downed Ducklett.

He licked and nudged my hand, getting my attention.

I gave him his job well-done treat and petted him.

The Swanna called out its name and gestured to the Ducklett and at my treat package.

I nodded at the Swanna and recalled Cet, taking a standard treat. I made my way to the Ducklett.

Seeing it lying on the ground exhausted made me feel bad, as I was the reason for this.

I slowly extended my arm with the treat towards the Ducklett, it looked at me and pecked at the treat.

I sprayed a potion at the Ducklett and swiftly retreated.

'The hell! where is the Swanna,' I looked around in surprise.

It disappeared.

As I kept looking around at the trees, confused, something tugged at my pants.

I looked down to see the Ducklett biting my pants. I gave it one more treat and carefully took it into my arms.

I distracted the Ducklett with another treat and started petting it. It finally relaxed in my arms after some thorough spoiling session.

'Maybe the Swanna want its kid to join me on my journey, I thought it just wanted some battle experience for the Ducklett,' I thought grinning at my luck.

Now this is some protagonist-level luck, getting an Elite's kid as my second Pokemon. But compared to most successful trainers' kids, it is not much.

The rich second generation can have a whole team of Elite offspring.

' I must think of a way to get an Elite offspring for my third Pokémon too,' I thought optimistically, searching for the Swanna one last time.

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Not seeing the Swanna anywhere I started walking to join route C, which leads to Celadon and has more Trainer traffic.

' I will have to investigate some evasion techniques for my 1st gym battle, learning moves takes too much time,' I thought thinking back on the way the match went.

Maybe I shouldn't have underestimated the Ducklett. But I didn't know what the Swanna wanted, so I played along not wanting to defeat the Ducklett too easily.

As I marched on Ducklett fell asleep in my arms.

'It's a well-deserved rest,' I thought looking at the peaceful Pokemon in my arms.

I didn't use Pokeball to capture the Ducklett yet, in case the Swanna changes its mind and comes back.

'Best to avoid any awkward situations,' I thought and took my Pokedex to search for Ducklett egg moves.

'Brine. It must be this move,' I thought happily at the new powerful addition to my team.

Brine's power doubles when the target is at or below 50% of health.

'Today is full of surprises,' I thought.

My first win, my first draw, my first catch, my first encounter with an Elusive wild elite.

The encounter with the Swanna made me feel incredibly alive, generally, if you encounter a life-or-death situation, it makes you aware of your mortal coil, but in my case, it showed that I am truly alive and can experience so much more.

And I came out of the encounter with a silly Pokemon too.

My? Ducklett has the normal cute-silly look that all the Duckletts pull off, but it looks too cute sleeping.

'I have to plan for its training too.'

'I hope that I don't have to waddle like a duck, to get it to learn basic commands,' I thought bleakly, suddenly not at all looking forward to the future.

….

The main route was wide, with plains as far as I can see. It was beautiful with the sun shining gently and winds buffeting the high grass of the plains and an odd oddish jumping out of its disguise of pretending to be grass, now and then.

I thought I saw a group of Exeggutors at a great distance away from the route, but maybe it was just trees moving from the wind.

With battles occurring at the side of the road, route C was quite lively.

I reached the main route after two days of travel from the day Swanna accosted me, successfully capturing the Ducklett on the previous night, not seeing any trace of Swanna over the span of two days.

The silly duck didn't even resist after I fed it and gave it a treat.

I decided to name her Naiad, Nia for short, after the Greek water spirits who are known for their elegance and beauty.

After she becomes a Swanna, she will be incarnate of elegance for sure.

Postponing the daily training to that day's evening, I started running hoping to reach Celadon city by late afternoon.

Training Nia took my headache to a whole different level.

With no Pokenet plan due to my Budget, I stopped teaching Nia after the Ducklett tilted its head at my Flight manoeuvre instruction for the nth time.

Instead, I had Nia practice water guns and wing attacks. This was easy, as Cet having no concept of boundaries got too close to the Ducklett one too many times, making her resort to firing water guns to keep him away.

Cet will get to practice his flying manoeuvres and the Ducklett water guns.

But most of the time the Wing attack practice turns into a game of chase with Nia chasing Cet to punish him.

The game generally ends with Nia flying to my embrace with her head down, I didn't mind as after some spoiling, she goes after Cet with more enthusiasm.

I had Cet practice his new movement technique by dodging Nia's Brine. He almost got it, but I decided to teach him quick attack after the gym battle for more controlled movement.

The route was quite crowded with trainers of all types of Pokemon, I even saw a ghost-type Pokemon -Gastly.

As I was making my way watching the interaction between novice trainers and their starters, a guy called out to me.

He looked quite like me with an oversized shirt and loose pants, which he had to adjust every few seconds.

"I am Rex, how about a battle?" he asked, observing me.

I shrugged and accepted.

He didn't look like he had any food to spare, so I didn't bother asking him.

I think Madlyn's food spoiled me for normal food; my bland food was even worse after eating the delicious battle-won food.

We went to the side of the road.

After filling in details in our respective Dex, we threw our Pokeballs at the same time.

Following the robotic voice coming from our Pokedex's countdown -in perfect synchronisation.

'A Rattata, Huh!' I thought looking at the Pokemon.

A purple rat with large front teeth, the size of a household cat.

Rex groaned on seeing Cet and I had an idea why.

Rattata like most of the common wildling Pokemon don't have any ranged attacks, even a Geodude rock throw is considered a mid-range attack as the rocks will lose most of the power after a certain range.

" I forfeit, I would not be able to do any worthwhile damage and I don't waste my potion if I can avoid it," he said shyly looking at the ground.

Taking pity on him, I accepted his forfeit on my Dex.

If I hadn't and he still wanted to withdraw, I would have gained more money as you cannot back down from a match without consequences. But I took pity on him as he was essentially in the same position as me.

He thanked me profusely and left.

"Hey, you with the Zubat. I am Connor. Let's battle." A guy wearing much better clothes than me called out, adjusting the spectacles on his nose.

'What another already! I must reach Celadon city,' I thought estimating the time I had and deciding I could have time for two more matches.

"Ok! But I have one condition," I spoke.

He looked smug on hearing me accept like he got one over me.

"You will give me a meal package if I win."

"Why should I?" he questioned, cocking an eyebrow.

"Come on, if you are so sure that you are going to lose why are you even challenging me? You can just scram!" I said taunting him.

"Ok! Let's do it."

' Like taking candy from a baby' I thought grinning.

After formalities, he released his Pokemon.

'Oh! Come on,' I exclaimed inwardly on seeing his Pokemon.