Austin opened his eyes, staring at the darkness on top of him. From the way it seemed, night had descended upon the island, and it was pretty close to midnight. Even from his bed, he could make out the snores outside- his and Cynthia's pokémon, Austin mused, as he lay upon the makeshift bed made out of the sleeping bag. There was a single lantern burning at a distance, the shadows creating a rather eerie effect on the green canvas on the tent.

After Cynthia had walked out of the tent, he had drunk the concoction (which tasted terrible) and had passed off within minutes of doing so as the medicine kicked in. This was the first time he had woken up after that.

A sight vanished the thought from his mind, as the shadowy figure of a sleeping Cynthia came into view. There she was, a little distance away from himself, sleeping in her sleeping bag, her lips having a disturbed frown. Austin decided that he didn't like that expression on her.

He pushed himself up from the bed, and doing his best to avoid making any noises, he slowly stood up, feeling the lack of pain in his muscles. Even the bruises seemed to have cooled down, as far as the stinging was concerned.

Some concoction that was.

He slowly paced out of the tent, doing his best not to disturb any of the pokémon sleeping within. The wild grass underneath felt wonderful. He should get himself a habit of doing this a little more often, he decided. A couple of yards away, the grassland ended prematurely into a tiny cliff with the waters of the sea touching the edges.

Sitting down, Austin stared at the stars absentmindedly.

He used to stare at the stars every summer with his brother who had a bachelor's degree in Astronomy. His brother would always tell him so many things about space and its innumerable mysteries.

" Clefairy !"

Clefairy hopped towards his trainer who just smiled at him as they both looked at the stars together.

Rubbing Clefairy's head, Austin absentmindedly said," You know people say that Clefairy is a Pokémon from outer space. So Clefairy, why don't we hop into your spaceship and go to space ?"

Austin ended with a chuckle before Clefairy thought about it for a second before he wiggled his fingers and with the use of gravity, the two were whisked into the air.

Clefairy could see that his trainer's mind had been burdened a lot these past few days and he wanted to help his trainer relax for a bit the best way Clefairy knew how was to have his trainer fly in the sky without a care in the world.

Austin meanwhile in the sky covered his mouth and shut his eyes closed as his heart was beating a hundred times faster.

" Clefairy ."

Hearing the soft tone of Clefairy, Austin felt a poke in his eyes causing him to peak as he saw the beautiful and ethereal beauty of the moon, the clouds, and the ocean in front of him.

This beauty had taken Austin's breath away so much so that he had momentarily forgotten about his fear.

" Clefairy !"

Clefairy smiled as he looked at his trainer who was left speechless.

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After an early breakfast, the next morning, Austin and his team were ready for their training for the day to begin. Neither Austin nor Cynthia had touched the topic of the previous day, behaving as if nothing of worth noting had happened. Though, Cynthia's enthusiasm had been replaced by the tactical battler that was the Sinnoh Champion.

"Charmeleon, because of his genetic constitution, can learn Draco Meteor. However, because of his recent genetic shift, it will be more… advisable to have him get a little more acquainted with his skills before we start his training."

Austin nodded and released Charmeleon, who let out a snort, seeing the Garchomp standing in front of him.

"The first exercise will be to work on his speed and physical attacks," Cynthia pronounced. "With his build and his proclivity towards quick attacks, he could become a good physical fighter in time."

Charmeleon snorted at that.

"Both of you," she directed her gaze at Garchomp and Magnus, "will be battling each other with only dragon claw. Use your speed and physical strength, and nothing else. The entire island and the sea are your battlefields. Let's see how it turns up after the next two hours or so."

The two dragons stared at each other, with Charmeleon letting out a challenging growl while Garchomp had a sort of laid-back attitude.

"Scram."

In a couple of seconds, Garchomp and Charmeleon were nothing more than a blur in the air, instantly leaping off from their positions as they raced towards the other side of the island, their sharp claws striking each other again and again as they hit, shot back, and changed tracks, all at fantastic speeds.

"If this is Charmeleon without training," Cynthia observed, "then I pity his opponent when he becomes a Charizard."

"What do you mean?" Austin queried.

"Charizards are specifically notorious for their immense strength and their ability to do so while flying, but their speed and flexibility are sacrificed at the altar of their overwhelming strength. Charmeleon the other hand… is much more nimble than anything I've ever seen. I could expect such nimbleness from a Gabite or a Garchomp, but not from a Charizard. Once Charmeleon learns to use his bulk to fuel his momentum alongside his speed, he will be one tough battler."

"I… hope it turns out that way." Austin muttered, more to himself than to others. "I just want him to be the best that he can be."

Cynthia spared a glance at him, before looking away. "He will. If you manage to keep him undergoing constant training, very soon he should be able to substitute as a fighting-type pokémon. I notice you do not have any of those on your team."

" I haven't had the chance to catch a fighting type."

" What did you have in mind ?"

" A Primeape."

" You are an ambitious trainer, you are always catching Pokémon that are aggressive and hard to tame"

Austin just shrugged as Cynthia asked," So did you talk to Scyther about if he wanted to evolve?"

" With everything happening so fast, I didn't have the chance."

" We will settle that later but for now we should focus on covering your weakness for example only Squirtle and Pikachu much to my knowledge have terrain moves. We can teach Clefairy and Bulbasaur terrain moves along with giving some of your Pokémon power-ups moves like nasty plot, sword's dance e.t.c. and healing moves also have to be considered at this point..."

Austin carefully listened to Cynthia's words as she listed off ways he could improve.