Another stone fell, crashing into the even cavern floor before a Larvitar jumped through the dust and rubble, propelling itself forward with reckless abandon. Larry pushed himself, labored breath after labored breath was heaved out of him as he propelled himself forward. A sharp stalactite fell before impacting the place he’d just been at, as he quickly dodged aside.

The training had paid off and Larry felt wrecked, like ‘a truck AND train had both crossed a walkable intersection at 120 miles an hour and Larry was the only person who was caught in the accident’-level of wrecked. It had been a few days, they had talked, planned, and trained their butts off. His everything hurt, and somehow it wasn’t just because of all the attacks his mother used, but also the training itself. Larry hadn’t thought about it, because he never exercised this much before, but muscle pain due to exercise was another part of the pain.

His body ached as he continued his advance toward his mother, they were in the process of training dodging, ‘Argh! They do say ‘No pain, no gain’, but they’re really underselling the pain part!’ It wasn’t just physical damage that had done him in, his mother had also used special moves, whose effects Larry had the displeasure of feeling for the first time.

Ebbing and flowing Dark-Type waves which were released by Dark Pulse, they attacked one mentally, assaulting one's mind with a large variety of bad thoughts and depressive emotions. Larry had never felt someone else put suicidal thoughts into his own head so viscerally, his mother wasn’t even a specially focused Pokémon, that was one of her weaker moves.

He shuddered to imagine what an Alakazam would be able to do to him. The idea of having one's thoughts controlled or influenced just made Larry uncomfortable, it just wasn’t right. Due to how physically focused the Tyranitar line was, he also wasn’t very interested in learning any special moves. He’d get his immunity to Psychic-Types once he evolved into a Tyranitar anyway.

His mother went on the offensive, charging at him once more, but before she could pick up speed, Larry released his newly learned move, Scary Face. Normal-TE put a mask on top of his face, showing the enemy an intimidating face they wouldn’t want to face. When his mother spotted his mask, her speed drastically decreased, and Larry sped up another bit to finally charge up his attack.

Rock-TE shot out of his feet and in front of him, slowly small rocks began to jut out of the ground just in grabbing range as he ran past and Larry quickly grabbed and launched one after another while running at his mom. The hits were negligible as always, by now he knew that his mom was practically indestructible to the likes of him. The only person who could kill his mom was herself or probably someone who had every gym badge.

She still slowed though, and Larry used this moment to finally attack, he charged up a Bite, forcing Dark-TE into his jaw as a monstrous maw materialized over them and bit down on his mother's leg as she charged. The extra weight made her lose her balance and she dramatically fell to the ground, by the time she moved her legs again to stand up Larry was already gone again, running circles around his large mom.

‘She’s faster in a straight line, but not if I corner, I’m just going to annoy her until she gives in!’ Larry had a plan set out this time, his mom had a lot of moves that used the rocks of the cave in creative ways and Larry had seen every single one by now. Rocks falling from the sky, exploding out of the ground, being thrown at him, and even just straight up materializing out of nothing in some cases. He knew he couldn’t do something like that, but maybe eventually...

The attack finally came, and it was something he’d felt before. Below his feet, Larry felt Rock-TE move in large amounts, he felt the rock shift and jumped out of the way before he was impaled as a gigantic spike of stone suddenly shot out of the ground like a needle through a piece of fabric. It didn’t stop there though, as Larry kept dodging, another stone spike shot up, then another, and finally the last.

Larry's breath came out in more desperate gasps than anything else and he could feel his eyes fall closed as he stood and waited for the next attack.

“Alright, that’s enough for now.” His mother said casually, and Larry simply dropped down onto his butt right there on their training ground outside the hideout. He was wiped, and his mom approached him slowly, “You’re getting good,” she said as she bent down to pick him up by the scruff of his neck and cradle him in her arms, “You’re fighting above your own level.”

With Larry comfortably resting in her arms, his eyes drooped closed ever quicker, “Am... Am I good?” he asked drowsily.

“You’re great, Larry.” His mom answered back with a smile, “Go to sleep for now.” Larry barely heard his mother's words before he fell into the world of dreams. He had told her to use the name he’d given himself and surprisingly enough, his mom agreed. It seemed that Pokémon don’t have the same naming conventions as humans, they simply accepted names people preferred.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

The two of them had been training together for the last few days in their new impromptu hideout and Larry had been wiped out every single waking second of the days with his mother putting upon herself to train him. They’d only taken a few breaks in-between to sleep and eat and Larry had felt like he was dying every waking second of his life.

He would’ve started hating his mother, weren’t it for the sheer amount of improvement he’d been feeling. Every little trick his mother taught him and every single move she’d shown him, he’d soaked up like a wet sponge.

His mother knew a lot of different moves, if Larry had to guess it seemed that she learned every move the Tyranitar line lines through level-up, though she mostly kept to the weaker ones for their spars. With the rare use of something like Stone Edge to keep Larry on his toes.

Due to his mother's knowledge, he’d managed to learn Scary Face quite easily, Normal-TE was probably the easiest Type of Energy to manipulate, right along with his own types of Rock and Ground. His mother had more moves planned to teach him, but she’d said she would only do so after she felt he was ready for them, so Larry was stuck with the spartan practice he’d been forced into now. Though, surprisingly, he actually quite enjoyed his new training, which was weird to Larry.

Larry had never felt this before, in his past life he’d have more in common with a Snorlax than a human. It was almost a wonder he’d managed to die by truck, considering he never went outside his room. So, he had been wondering to himself why he enjoyed this so much, it felt like he had finally found his calling in his second life, and it hadn’t made any sense.

The answer was found out sometime later when he asked his mom, “All Pokémon love to fight.” She’d answered him like it was the most obvious thing ever. But was it? In the Anime they certainly showed that fighting and battling was something good for Pokémon, but of course, they would’ve, because else they’d have an uncountable amount of irate parents bearing down on them.

So, it was official, Pokémon love fighting, and they aren’t forced to fight in the Pokémon battles at all. It brought the Onix and Machoke back in the second layer to mind, when he’d snuck past and the Onix charged at the Machoke, that wasn’t an assault as much as it was a playful tackle into a fun spar, it also cleared up why Onix was simply left there in its fainted state instead of being killed. It made much more sense considering the entire second layer was on friendly terms with each other.

He liked what was happening now, it felt to Larry like he was finally becoming a proper Pokémon and wasn’t just some poor sob stuck in the body of Larvitar. His body didn’t feel weird anymore, the bouquet-like tail he’d always kind of disliked and the giant dull horn on top of his head that both messed with his balance when he’d first been reborn.

By now he’d acclimated to his new body and the training with his mother had allowed him to make his new body his own, the tail he’d found no use for was great to use for blocking bites and swipes, and the horn he found out gave him a higher center of gravity. Larvitar weren’t the weak base form of the beast they’d evolve into after 55 levels, they were their own beasts, being able to dig around effortlessly but still have some speed on land.

Larvitar had a lot of physical moves they naturally learned, making for a Pokémon that packed a lot of punch in a small package. That combined with their ability to eat incredible amounts of dirt and dig around made for a Pokémon which shared the same qualities as something far more delicate like a bird, being able to dodge into the ground the same way a bird can dodge into the sky.

Considering it was only a base form Pokémon of an evolutionary line of three, Larvitar obviously wasn’t the strongest Pokémon by itself. Yet its qualities gave a strong start and a safety net in the form of its ability to dig. If Larry had been reborn in the caverns of Mt. Silver as something more generic like a Zubat or Geodude he’d have had a much harder time, being forced into a large pack of Pokemon and having to fight for dominance.

...

Larry woke back up and after a short break for food and similar he immediately was cast back into practice by his mom. Their time together had been the most productive time in his new life, when he’d fought before it was either a human fighting style or a sheer instinctual fight for survival, but now Larry was finally using his new body in the way it was supposed to be used.

Digging into the ground, Larry swam through it like a fish through water before launching himself straight into his mom's soft underbelly, shearing into it with his TE-empowered arms, before disappearing back into the ground and coming back around for another round. He swam back towards her, dodging an array of Rocks dropping from the ceiling and exploding out of the ground before launching himself out and onto his mom's head with a Bite.

He released when an attack began to charge inside her mouth, Larry dodged backward the second he hit the ground but just barely couldn’t dodge his mother's fangs closing on him. His energies moved on instinct and Payback activated as her jaws crunched down on him, chewing on his torso like an especially hard piece of candy. Larry didn’t even cry out anymore, he simply sucked in the Dark-TE from his mother's move before releasing it all with a punch straight into her face, his mother's mouth sprang open, and he fell back down onto the ground before leaping up and back into the distance.

His mother didn’t follow, she stood there and looked down at him with a prideful smile on her face, “You’re amazing, Larry."

Larry was still catching his breath, but he couldn’t hide a grin at his mother's compliments, she’d been singing his praises ever since they’d begun fighting, “Huff... Huff... Thanks...”

She approached him slowly, before speaking up again, “You’re ready to learn some more moves.”