Third POV
It was the morning of the next day. Surge had shown up, just as he had promised, to pick up Grey and take him to the gym. He had gotten approval from Joy, who had told him to keep the exercises light.
Grey and Surge then walked to the Vermilion Gym, where Surge led him to a secret chamber of sorts that opened into a separate large room where he had built a rehabilitation center. Surge didn't have many trainers approaching him for battles now. The rush had only been there for the tournament. After that, most trainers avoided Surge as he was one of the tougher Gym Leaders. Plus, after the incident on the Anne, most trainers avoided coming to Vermilion City itself. Mostly, only reporters came looking for some scoop.
The door opened, and Grey saw quite a lot of Pokémon training there. A Doduo with a patch over one eye was trying to balance and learn to move with only one eye. A Pikachu whose tail had bite marks was trying to relearn its movements. A Geodude with massive cracks in its armor was also training.
All in all, Grey saw a lot of injured Pokémon working to improve despite their disabilities or injuries. Grey saw Surge in a new light today, as he was working on something not a lot of people did.
Grey also saw an Electabuzz with a lot of scars seemingly leading the center. Maybe this was the main Electabuzz that Surge had been talking about. He got a similar feeling from it to the one he had gotten when he had seen Erika's Venusaur in the past.
Surge then took him to an arena in that area and asked him to release his Pokémon. He would see what he had to work with and then assign training partners to each of them, while he himself would work on helping Grey recover his ability to walk without relying on the crutch.
Grey nodded and released all his team members.
Axew, Exeggcute, Cloyster, Persian, and Charmander hit the field.
The moment Persian saw its surroundings filled with so many Electric-types, it started hissing and looked at Grey, almost asking why they were here. Seeing Lt. Surge made the cat hiss even more.
Surge asked, "What's up with the cat? Why is it hissing so much?"
Grey then told him that it didn't like Electric-types after their gym battle, to which Surge laughed and said, "For a Pokémon that uses Thunderbolt so well, it almost feels like an Electric-type itself. That's an odd personality."
He then looked at the giant Cloyster and had a grim expression.
"Your Shellder evolved. Was it after the tournament, during the attack?"
Grey nodded, saying that it had found a Water Stone in the sea and that its evolution had saved his life.
Surge nodded and then asked if he could have a battle with Cloyster.
Grey agreed and was about to move to Cloyster's side when Surge stopped him.
"Only Cloyster. Not with you guiding it."
Grey was puzzled by the request but agreed.
Surge then told Cloyster about it, and it looked ready for a fight, wearing a cocky grin.
The arena was set, with Cloyster on one side. Surge then released his Pokémon, an Ampharos.
Surge told Ampharos that it could battle on its own against this Cloyster.
The sheep Pokémon nodded.
The battle began with Cloyster using Icicle Spear and Ampharos using Discharge to hit both the Icicle Spears and Cloyster at the same time. An omnidirectional surge of electricity spread across the field, and Cloyster took the brunt of the attack.
Grey noticed that Icicle Spear was way stronger than before.
Cloyster then tried for Aurora Beam, but Ampharos countered with Dragon Pulse. Both beam attacks collided in the middle and cancelled each other out.
Cloyster then seemed to have had enough and went for a Shell Smash, lowering its defenses but sharply boosting its Attack, Special Attack, and Speed.
Meanwhile, Ampharos used Cotton Guard to boost its defenses.
Cloyster then fired another Icicle Spear. This time, the spears were larger and faster. Ampharos tried to use Discharge to hit the spears and was able to destroy most of them, but a few bypassed the electrical field and struck Ampharos directly, visibly injuring it.
Cloyster wore a cocky expression, but Ampharos responded with Thunder Wave, paralyzing it.
Cloyster tried another Icicle Spear, but suddenly its body locked up from the paralysis. It then saw Ampharos seemingly speed up toward it. Cloyster attempted to use Rapid Spin to create its counter shield, but a Thunder Punch landed on its shell first. Ampharos then released a powerful Discharge at point-blank range, beating it up further.
Eventually, Cloyster lost.
Surge then told Grey to withdraw the Pokémon and take it to the healing machine he had in the room.
Grey wanted to know why Surge had done this, but he already had a rough idea.
He found the machine and placed Cloyster's Poké Ball inside. The machine would take fifteen minutes to fully heal it.
Grey then walked back to Surge with his crutch and asked for an explanation despite already having an idea.
Surge explained,
"To be frank, I haven't seen a Cloyster that big before. It's fascinating. Water or Ice-type trainers would definitely have a field day seeing this one. But even you noticed it—your Pokémon has grown too strong within a very short period of time."
Grey nodded.
Surge continued,
"Normally, Pokémon grow stronger after evolving, that's true. But two-stage Pokémon or Pokémon that need stones to evolve often gain strength very suddenly, so you need to be careful not to let them get an ego boost after evolving."
He pointed toward the healing machine.
"Let me put it into perspective. That Shellder I observed could probably beat a fifth-gym-level Pokémon. Now it can fight an eighth-gym-level Pokémon, which Ampharos was. Had Ampharos not had a type advantage and been prepared for the battle, it could have lost. You saw how after one Shell Smash its Icicle Spear became so much more lethal."
Grey had to admit that was true.
"Normally I wouldn't be worried about obedience when it comes to the Cloyster line," Surge continued, "but yours is just too strong and too big. While I can assure you it won't disobey you, it might start getting arrogant because of its strength. Also, after evolving, its momentum seems to have taken a hit. Before, it could perform that counter technique almost instinctively, but now it was slower. Either it thinks it doesn't need it anymore, or because of its new size it has to relearn how to move efficiently."
Grey nodded, understanding Surge's perspective.
"Honestly, I wouldn't worry about disobedience from any of your team. Even the Charmander line is known for causing problems, but yours won't. You have an Axew that will evolve soon, and with that giant Cloyster of yours, even if your Charmander becomes a Charizard, Cloyster can probably put it in its place.Heck had you had that cloyster before the tournament you would have swept the entire thing which just this mon ."
Surge then asked,
"Do you have any means to evolve your Exeggcute?"
Grey pulled out the Leaf Stone.
Surge stared at it and gave him a weird expression.
"And pray tell, why haven't you evolved him yet?"
Grey scratched his head.
"I got this stone after the tournament as well, and then I ended up in a coma. I never really had the time. I did ask my Exeggcute about it yesterday though."
Flashback
Yesterday night, Exeggcute was in Grey's room and Grey wanted to talk.
"Listen, Exeggcute. I got a high-quality Leaf Stone from Red. If you want, we can evolve you right here, right now, but I want to leave the choice to you."
Exeggcute then replied,
"I would like to wait until I can squeeze out most of my potential in this stage before going for it."
Grey nodded.
"I was asking because Cloyster evolved, and I didn't want you to feel left out."
Exeggcute immediately replied,
"Don't talk about that brute. Just because he has gotten larger, he thinks he is better. When I evolve, I will beat him up."
Grey nodded, at least happy that Exeggcute wanted to evolve eventually.
He then remembered something.
"By the way, you have two ways to evolve. There is an Alolan version of you which is a Grass/Dragon type and more of a physical attacker. If I evolve you with a Leaf Stone in Alola, you can gain the Dragon typing."
Exeggcute immediately shook itself.
"Heck no. I don't want to be another brute like Brother Axew. He is dependable, but I dabble with the mind. Why would I want to switch to brawn all of a sudden? Evolve me in this region only."
Grey nodded, glad he had cleared that up.
Flashback End
Grey then told Surge about Exeggcute's decision, to which Surge nodded.
"Fair enough, but I honestly don't think there is much more your Exeggcute can improve in this stage. Even among Exeggcute, I haven't seen one that pushes Self-Destruct and Explosion with Confusion the way yours does, nor one with that kind of resilience."
He then continued,
"My advice would be to let Exeggcute learn whatever it can over the next week and then evolve it. If it evolves, both it and Cloyster can keep each other in check."
Grey considered that advice seriously.
Surge then gave him another recommendation.
"After you leave Vermilion in a week, start using Charmander and Axew more. Cloyster would wreck almost any trainer your age very easily, and so would Exeggutor if you evolve it. Axew is also close to evolving, so pushing it through more battles would work in its favor."
He pointed toward the orange lizard Pokémon.
"And you need to catch Charmander up to speed as well."
Surge paused for a moment before adding,
"Honestly, your next few Gym Battles should be very easy now."
Grey nodded.
With that discussion over, Surge began working with Grey, helping him stretch his muscles and retrain his movements so he could eventually walk properly without relying on the crutch.
Author's Note: Yes I am sure most of you all figured it out the decision was always to make execgutte evolve to its kantonian counterpart as it has been specialising in psychic attacks for a long while plus its good at it switching to alolan just because it is an option wont work , besides my goal is for it to work in tandem with charmander to abuse the sun weather and keep being cloysters rival like a zoro sanji relationship him going dragon means he has 4 times weakness to ice and also the dragon type would double up in the team, I dont mind adding another dragon just not this one .
Second , Yes suddenly Grey's team is about to get a huge amp with the evolution so i will be exploring that as well , as while his pokemon have grown so does now the trainer with it .