Donny couldn't catch a break, almost as much as he couldn't catch a dragon before Dreepy. For some insane reason he convinced himself to challenge the Hakamo-o, and Dreepy didn't stop him. As he lay on the floor he thought back on the one sided fight it was over quickly and painfully. First oft charged Donny, who had barely dodged it by the time he got up Hakamo-o was already tackling him. Donny had his ass kicked by plenty of dragons in the last three months though so he got up. Hakamo-o punched him in the gut so hard Donny understood why the species wasn't pure dragon type like the Haxorus line. That was the end of that fight and the end of Donatello's thinking on it, he just felt so weak and humbled afterwards. Humbled because it had been a while since he lost to a baby dragon and Dreepy hasn't lost a battle since they partnered up, so a loss after so long of winning was humbling for him. This told him he hated being weak, sure he was reasonable enough to know that no human was as strong as even a mid stage dragon, but he felt like he could've at least gotten a hit in.

  "Dreep? Dreepy?" Dreepy was hovering over his face inspecting him "I'm alright it's nothing new." Donatello finally got up "Next time I have a stupid idea like that stop me, even the most skilled human fighter in the world wouldn't win against a mid stage dragon type I don't know what I was thinking."

  Donny decided to get back to training with Dreepy. Today's training consisted of flying at top speed for as long as possible which on average for Dreepy would be 350-370 mph (563-595 km/h) already 20 miles faster than the fastest car. Donny had been incorporating this speed training more and more lately, because Dragapult were fast, everyone knew it so now one really bothers training its speed because it is already super fast. Donny of course knew this, most Dragapult maxed out at Mach 1.2-2.5, but Donny really likes speed so he wanted to see how far he could push it. Besides his strategy was there it was simple really, it doesn't matter how frail you are if you never get hit. The only reason Dreepy ever got hit in battles with other dragons was because Donny was telling it to hold back on speed. Donny had the strat, which involved Dreepy reaching top speed and ramming into the opponent. Consequently this also usually knocked Dreepy out. So endurance even if only a little still needed to be built up.

  A few days of the same repetitive cycle of Dreepy training, sparing with dragon, Dreepy training Was killing Donny slowly, if he was anything it sure as hell wasn't patient. He could tell it was getting to Dreepy too and the last thing he needed was a Pokemon demotivated from training. "Dreepy let's take a break you and I both know this is mind numbing, so I have an idea. When we leave this cave in 3 months we are gonna, more like I am, but I'm not just gonna be carried out I have to climb and I don't know about you but I don't think I'll magically be able to do that in three months with no experience so that's what we're doing for the rest of the day." Donatello figured he might as well do something productive and what better than rock climbing, with no safety gear. He was really regretting jumping off Black Kyurem if only he wasn't so impatient he would've had a pokeball for this ghost that was filled with 99.9% curiosity and 0.1% attention span, rock climbing gear, proper clothing, and a water bottle. Now a water bottle might not sound like a crazy useful item but his whole day consisted of training and stopping Dreepy from getting him killed or wandering to far, which is hard when it's top speed is faster than the fastest car, so that meant every time he needed to drink water he had to walk all the back to the lake take a drink then get to wherever he was going. Inconvenient was an understatement. Donny was taken out of these thoughts as Dreepy hissed, alerting him that he was at the entrance to the cave.

  Donny looked up like straight up it was quite tall, Dreepy shot off his head up to the top. Donny immediately began climbing. "Dreepy! Don't you dare leave this cave! I can't follow you out even if I manage to climb up there." The little dragon stayed up there taunting him, faking leaving the cave then coming back a minute later or just laughing at him. Donny tried as hard as he could but he just couldn't make it very far up. He was in an uncomfortable spot too high to just let go and land back on the ground, and not confident enough that he could climb down with how tired he was. Dreepy flew down to him looking ever so very slightly concerned and landed right on his head pulling on his hair. "Your pull strength is nonexistent bud, you can't carry me down, but thanks though." Donny just decided to climb down as far as he could before dropping and hoping his legs wouldn't hurt too bad. He climbed down about ten rocks. "Fuck it." He landed and let out a weird grunt sigh thing before falling on his ass while Dreepy hysterically laughed. His legs were not broken, but the fall hurt damn it! So he lied there for a while while Dreepy sat on his chest. It was calm actually, until Donny got scared half to death and slammed his head directly into a Bagon's forehead who had suddenly walked up and sniffed him. Bagon just looked at him quizzically. The slam didn't hurt it at all because its head was so strong from jumping off cliffs. Donny however, had a giant red spot on his forehead, and was holding back tears. This threw Dreepy back into laughter before it got in between its trainer and the Bagon. "Hey Bagon, would you like to battle Dreepy and I?" The Bagon took a few steps back and nodded. "3… 2… 1! Alright, Dreepy use Quick Attack, And sucker punch when you're close!" Bagon was way too slow to dodge despite trying and took a Quick Attack from Dreepy but Sucker Punch didn't activate because Bagon didn't attack, it roared and then it used Dragon Rage. Dreepy cried out as the blue flames rolled over its serpentine form, but ferociously tried Sucker Punch again hitting Bagon in the gut. Bagon, still undeterred, used Dragon Rage again, but Dreepy had learned and it sped backward. "That hurt right buddy, we'll have to make sure it doesn't happen again. Use your own Dragon Rage!" Bagon met Dragon Rage with Dragon Rage and they canceled each other out. Donny noticed how it was spamming the attacks and decided why do the work himself might as well make it hit itself. "Dreepy up close again with Quick Attack! Then tackle it in the stomach repeatedly!" Once again Bagon couldn't avoid it even if Dreepy wasn't at top speed. Dreepy got to work tackling Bagon as if it picked up on Donny's plan. The Bagon, seeing as the little dragon wasn't backing away, took in a big huff of air blue flame building in its mouth. "Ba… Gon!" As Bagon shot down at its stomach the dragon attacking it was gone. It seared its own stomach leaving a sizzling dark patch on its scales and whined before Dreepy uppercut it with a Sucker Punch knocking it out. "Made us work for that one huh bud, catch." Donny tossed Dreepy an Applin apple and he happily munched it down. Donny also left one for the Bagon before he walked away with Dreepy contently on his head. "Next time we battle I'm gonna let you go ahead on your own little guy, I'm not always gonna know best in battle sometimes you being the one fighting will know a better move then I will. Now let's go eat."

  1 month later Donny started to notice Dreepy was getting a big head for battles. He sort of feared this moment because for the sake of getting stronger he couldn't let Dreepy keep beating down on first stage dragons that he was way stronger than by this point. But if he moved up to mid stage Dragons Dreepy would start getting destroyed, and Donny didn't want his little guy to get demoralized. Donny took a deep breath and tossed the rest of his Magikarp lip. "Hey Dreepy you're pretty confident you could beat any first stage dragon that challenges you with or without me commanding you right?" "Dree!" "Yeah I agree with you so I was thinkin about us challenging some mid stage dragons beating down on babies isn't very fun right?" "Dre? Dreepy!" "These mid stage dragons are real strong though as you've seen I've had my ass handed to me more times than I could count and only held my own for a little bit against that Fraxure last week… listen I'm not gonna beat around the bush anymore don't expect to win for a while bud they are strong they probably have around two years of experience to have evolved, you were born what 5 or 6 months ago they are in a different league." Dreepy listened to his trainer-dad's words. He liked that there was minimal build up to news like that, but it hurt his pride, he would see this strength for himself in a match. But he trusted his trainer-dad so he kept what was said in mind.

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  Donny got up and stretched "Well the best teacher is experience so let's go find a mid stage dragon and challenge it to a battle see how well ya do." It didn't take long to find a mid stage dragon. Zweilous stood before them having agreed to battle the little dragon. "Dreepy, Quick Attack" Dreepy shot towards Zweilous and made a direct shot in the left head. Zweilous was unfazed by the hit. It looked like slamming into it just disoriented Dreepy. Zweilous bit down with crunch and Dreepy didn't get back up. "One hit… I-I didn't expect that." Donny walked over to Dreepy and scooped up the unconscious dragon.

  A whole day passed before Dreepy woke up and Donny was worried sick. Even after the poor dragon woke up it seemed the crunch had affected Dreepy's ghost type energy so much it was struggling to float. That meant the day was quite peaceful; the two mostly slept under the Applin tree while Dreepy recovered.

  "Gah…! Ow!" An apple fell on Donatello's head as he slept followed by a small wyrm who munched its way into the apple and got comfortable. "App! Lin!" Donny made note that the apple that the Applin chose to inhabit was green. Dreepy, who was sleeping in the crook of Donny's neck, looked down at the apple core pokemon from its perch. "Dreep. Dreepy!" Dreepy looked offended and growled at the apple Donny looked on in confusion as the 2 pokemon argued in their tongue. The argument ended as Applin used rollout to trip Donny causing Dreepy to shakily fly at it. "What's even happening?" Donny went unanswered. Dreepy Couldn't believe this weak newly born wyrm was insulting him and his trainer-dad, blasphemy! He'd show this brat even if he was hurt he could beat an apple, he already ate lots of those apples. Rollout met shaky Quick Attack and Quick Attack won easily. Applin chose their apples right after birth so this Applin had to be very new to life even the most picky of the species took a day max. That meant it was not very experienced in battle. "Hey hey Dreepy I don't know what it said but it's a baby don't hurt it!" Applin said something Donny guessed was along the lines of 'yeah, listen to your dad' even though it clearly would've lost.

  Now that he'd thought about it, this was the first time he'd seen an Applin in the cave even though he spent a whole lot of time near the Applin tree. That couldn't have been good so Donny had an idea to make sure this one didn't go mysteriously missing. "Hey Applin, such a strong powerful dragon like you would want to show the world how powerful you are, right?" "App! Appl in!" It did an Applin version of flexing. "Well Dreepy and I are going to travel around a whole lot and battle powerful Pokemon soon in 2 months. Would you like to come along with us?" Applin pretended to consider its options even though it didn't really have anything else to do and Donny had intrigued it. "Applin!" Applin did an 'I guess I'll tag along' tone and rolled closer. "Dreepy…" Dreepy turned away not acknowledging the apple core Pokemon. Donny knelt down and held out a hand to the apple. It hopped up his arm and onto his head. Donny only had time to think 'fuck' before the little apple got sent flying by a very angry Dreepy. "Yeah I probably should've warned him about that." That wasn't the first time something like that happened. One time a Noibat landed on Donny's head and Dreepy rushed it, knocking it out before it could even react. His head was Dreepy's spot And Dreepy didn't want anything else there. Straw hat, ripped up. Random leaf, blown away. Applin, sent flying into a boulder.

  He walked over to the Applin. "Sorry but my head is Dreepy's spot anywhere else is fair game I think."

  Donny picked him up and he couldn't settle on a spot besides his head so he decided to roll around. "Alright Dreepy help me out here let's walk Applin through how we train it won't be the exact same but a general frame of what'll happen is nice. So Applin we usually start the week with speed training on Sunday." Dreepy flies around quickly though noticeably slower than usual to Donny after Zweilous. "Next up is Monday which is move mastery. Basically, get used to what you already know how to do and maybe learn a way to do it differently." Dreepy uses Sucker Punch and transfers the energy to his tail instead of nubby hands. "Tuesday is more speed training. Wednesday is endurance training." Dreepy rams into a nearby rock a few times. "Thursday more speed training. Friday is strength training." Dreepy slams its tail into a moderately sized rock smashing it "and today is you guessed it speed training though you're probably not going to have as much speed training as Dreepy but for now you'll go along with him while I think up something proper for you."

  Applin fell into training surprisingly well. It seemed to like competing with Dreepy to get better results which was honestly amazing. It meant both sides pushed each other to train harder. And a month later it was time for Applin's first real battle. It had a few mock battles before this but nothing proper. Its opponent was Goomy. Donny decided not to tell Applin Goomy were considered the weakest of all dragons. "Alright Applin rollout, remember accuracy over power, keep control of yourself!" Goomy shot a water gun at Applin trying to slow it down "Applin jump hit its horns!" Applin didn't listen, it growled and continued forward only to harmlessly roll into the Goomy and slip to the side because of Goomy's slimy membrane combined with being wet from the water gun. "Bud we gotta work together with this. Goomy is too slimy to be hit by a starting rollout. But its horns are sensitive even if you slip off of them it'll still be frozen for a sec." Dreepy shook its head at its teammate's showing. Applin growled again and tried rollout again to no avail and was punished by dragon's breath from Goomy. Applin still refused to listen and Dreepy just dragged it back to Donny's side. "Dreepy is right you know you would've lost battling independently is one thing and I'm fine with that but blatantly ignoring advice isn't a show of pride it's just stupid. Look at Dreepy, he doesn't need any suggestions to beat Goomy because he understands what I said and is battling with the knowledge that physical attacks won't mean much unless they hit critical spots." Applin watched with amazement in his eyes and looked up at Donny with big eyes. "You'll have another try soon Dreepy is to strong for the base stage dragons around here"

  And another chance he did have this time an Axew

  "Start up rollout Applin, aim to break its tusks." "App!" It rolled enthusiastically towards the charging Axew they met and Axew won out but Applin kept rolling "throw in a withdraw to make rollout hit harder." Applin used withdraw while rolling back for round 2 with Axew who tried to bite down on him this time did in fact break a tusk. Applin kept rolling and both of them crashed in a heap but Applin had definitely won. Applin began to clean its green apple as it hopped over to Donny who praised it on the win. Even Dreepy seemed to mumble a congratulatory growl.

  1 month later Donny stood at the entrance looking up at the wall he had to climb. Applin was on his shoulder and even Dreepy decided to stay with him and not shoot to the top. "You'd think I'd be happier to leave this place but honestly I liked it. I won't miss it but I enjoyed the majority of my time here. What about you two ready to see the world for the first time?" "Appl… Applin." "Dreepy Dree." "Then I'd better get to climbing." Donny grabbed rock and climbed quickly. It had been familiar to him after so much practice he'd never gotten high enough to see outside just for this moment the climb out and see the sun for the first time in 6 months. He couldn't help but climb faster and faster within 2 minutes he was already half way up. And finally after 5 minutes of climbing he was at the top shielding his eyes from the harsh sun and looking out over the mountain. "It's… it's been so damn long." Dreepy was already zipping around curiously looking at everything. Applin stayed near Donny seemingly having been overwhelmed by it all. Doony squinted his eyes and could see his home in the distance. With Applin back on his shoulder and Dreepy secured on his head and began to run down the clearing towards his house. Donnatello looked like a crazy man screaming happily as he ran down the incline. He managed to keep speed for 10 whole minutes before slowing down as he got closer to home. It had been so long he wanted to properly shower, see his siblings, and see his father. As he reached the big gates he didn't wait for them to open he climbed right over them. He spent minimal time waving to all the guard dragons before bursting into the house. Maids were startled and froze and turned towards the door butlers instinctively grabbed their pokeballs. "I'M. HOOOOOOME." Before any maids could greet him he bolted straight towards his father's private quarters. He wanted to burst in but he knew better and knocked 3 times. "Enter." The door creaked as Donny pushed it open and faced his father. "Donnatello welcome home."