In the middle of the mansion's lush garden there is a tree with a bullseye board hanging from it.
It's been a few hours since Lazarus started training his pokémon the basics of their biology.
"You are a dragon, you have access to the dragon force. Think about what it means to be one." Kamish remembers what Lazarus said. "A dragon has to know what he is if he is to harness the dragon force."
Kamish has his eyes closed, and tries to harness the dragon force that lays dormant within him.
Lazarus had told him to command his body and it will listen, so Kamish imagines himself flying through the air like a rocket, tearing through anything with nothing but his body.
He imagines the kind of power that's required to shatter a boulder into tiny little pieces, and believes that he too can do that.
"Now do it, Dragon Rush." Lazarus commands.
Kamish zips through the air towards the target, and this time every cell in his body awakens for combat.
Dragon force coalesces around his body in the shape of a dart.
Empowered by the dragon force, Kamish tears through the bullseye which shatters into tiny wood chips.
Lazarus claps smiling, "See! You did it. You have exceeded my every expectations. You are amazing Kamish."
The praise makes Kamish squeal giddy with happiness and float up to Lazarus, who pets his translucent body.
"How did it feel? Did it feel like you could take on the world and win?"
Kamish nods, licking Lazarus's fingers.
"This was just the start, soon I will teach you even more powerful moves. You are going to be powerful. Very powerful." Lazarus says.
Kamish is pleased with that. Power is the right of every dragon, and the stronger he becomes, the more he can help his trainer.
"Alright, how about we go and see how Aurora is doing."
Lazarus walks towards the other side of the garden with Kamish trailing behind.
He passes by his swimming pool, the sweet smelling berry bushes and the multi-colored flower patches and comes to stand a few feet away from the huge Salamence skeleton.
"Call her," Lazarus says.
Kamish looks at him, and points at himself with the end of his tail.
Lazarus smiles, "Yes, Call her. You are a dragon, so roar."
Kamish understands, and once again he channels the dragon force within himself and he lets out a roar with all his might.
A spectral, high pitched but weak squeal comes out of his mouth, then Kamish looks around to see if Aurora heard him.
Lazarus tries not to laugh, "Yeah…That wasn't bad, but how about a little louder."
Kamish tries again, he roars in quick succession, making cute squealing noises.
A minute later, they hear a yipping sound and see Aurora dashing towards them, jumping through the garden at an impressive speed.
Aurora leaps towards him, and Lazarus securely catches her into his arms.
"Woah, slow down little one. Not even a week old but already this fast. It makes me so happy to see that both of you are growing so fast."
Aurora gives him a toothy grin.
Lazarus plants a kiss on her forehead, "So, how was your training? Were you able to do what I asked. Did you have any trouble?"
Aurora's beautiful blue eyes looks at Lazarus, and she nods her small head at Lazarus and points towards the direction she came from with her paw.
"You want to show us?" Lazarus asks.
The Vulpix nods again, jumps from his arms, and dashes towards the center of the garden.
Lazarus and Kamish follow her into a more open area, where some planks with a bullseye painted on them are placed vertically.
The atmosphere is thick with gentle mist made by a small fog generator connected to the pool.
Aurora looks back at Lazarus.
Lazarus nods, "Alright go ahead, show me."
On cue, Aurora uses her cryokinetic ability to collect the ambient moisture present in the atmosphere.
A small cloud of mist coalesces in front of Aurora, which she then molds in the shape of small shards and freezes them.
Seconds later, Aurora shoots the shards of ice at the planks in front of her.
The ice shards zip through the air and shatter as they collide with the planks.
"That was amazing. Let's call that move Ice Missile." Lazarus smiles proudly at her.
Kamish also squeals, praising his big sister.
"Alright, let's do it again, and this time you try to hit the bullseye mark in the center of the planks."
—
After a couple of hours of training, Lazarus brings both of his pokémon back inside the mansion and gives them a nutritious lunch.
Braised Starly meat for Kamish, Magikarp meat for Aurora and a bowl of different kinds of fruit, berries, along with a packet of gummy multivitamins for both.
While both of them eat their lunch, Lazarus gets a notification on his watch regarding his trainer's license and goes to his office to check.
Lazarus sits at his workstation as a hologram of a man in his late 40's materializes in front of him.
The holographic projection of the man looks at him and asks, "So, you're Lazarus?"
Lazarus nods, "Mmm, that's me."
"Name's Mike, Secret Service, and your soon to be instructor." The man says.
Lazarus's ears perk up that, "They are asking a you to instruct a newbie? Sounds like a waste of your time. What's up with that?"
"Usually, they don't ask someone like me to train a newbie, but you are obviously a special case. The Warden herself is the reason for your special treatment, she asked me to become your instructor. Guess she has a soft spot for you, wanted to make sure you know exactly what the job demands, so you don't get yourself killed by a Pidgey."
"She knows about this?" Lazarus is pleasantly surprised hearing that.
"Your father told her about it," The man shrugs, "And even if he didn't, she is the most powerful individual on this planet, nothing happens in this country without her knowing about it."
"Yeah, guess you're right." Lazarus smiles. "So what is she doing nowadays? It's been almost an year since I last saw her."
The man replies back, "That's confidential, I would be out of my job if I told you that. And if you are that curious, ask her yourself."
"I wouldn't want to inconvenience her. I know how busy she usually is."
Mike nods before saying, "I will be frank with you, I was honestly surprised when I heard that Sylvia Hawke's son wanted to become a pokémon trainer."
"Yeah? And why is that?" Lazarus leans back in his chair.
"I didn't think your father would let you become one, and he does tend to get what he wants."
"You are right about that one. He didn't want me to become a trainer. He still doesn't, but we came to an understanding. He agreed to fully support me if I can win the league tournament next year."
The man shakes his head, "That's a pretty ruthless ask, but smart from his perspective. There are only twelve months left before the tournament. It will take you at least a month to complete the league-mandated training. Which leaves you mere eleven months.
Eleven months to train for a tournament where the average competitor will have at least three years of experience under their belt, and they will have had their pokémon for much longer than that. I hope you realize just how difficult this is going to be for you."
Lazarus sighs, "Yeah, I know. But I have access to unlimited resources and two of the best-bred pokémon in the world. That is my advantage. They will learn fast, and if I train them well, I have a good chance at winning."
Mike looks skeptical, "Sure, the pedigree of a pokémon matters, and you could in theory buy any pokémon in the world, but you still need to train six pokémon in twelve months, while also trying to collecting eight gym badges. But more importantly you have to create a strong bond with all of them. It won't matter how talented your pokémon are if you don't give them and your relationship with them enough time to learn and mature.
I don't know what to tell you, kid. Things are not looking good for you. You could probably, as you say, train your pokemon to beat the average contestant, which would still be an impressive feat. But know that some of those contestants will get recruited straight to Black Sector. Being slightly better than average won't cut it."
"Believe me I know how hard it's going to be," Lazarus sighs, "So, I would like to skip the training mandate. Any way I can do that? I don't think I need it, it takes too much of my time. And I have trained two pokemon before, not in a combat capacity but I know how to handle a pokemon."
"Tell you what, I'll be in Jubilife Battle Arena in two days. Meet me there and we will talk about your situation in detail."
"Yeah, let's do that." Lazarus agrees and before disconnecting the call he says, "Ohh… and I survived a Calamity Salamence, so I don't I'll die to a Pidgey."
"If you fuck up, sometimes a Pidgey can be more lethal than a Salamence," Mike smiles at him.
"Doubt it, but sure." Lazarus says before the call disconnects.
Lazarus exits his office and walks over to the lounge, and sees Kamish and Aurora playing a game of tag in the garden.
Aurora is supposed to catch Kamish, but he cheats by floating in the sky, forcing Aurora to resort to jumping to get to him.
After a few failed tries at catching Kamish.
Aurora gets the bright idea of climbing a tree and then jumping from there.
Kamish effortlessly dodges her, which leads to Aurora falling straight into the pool with a splash.
Lazarus laughs at their antics and decides to join in their game.