On the yard of a local hotel close to the marina of Mesperit City was a green haired boy with three pokemon before him.
"Okay guys, we're here to train a new contest number, yeah?" the boy spoke with a hopeful smile on his face. The Dunsparce before him was drowzing off peacefully in the sunlight while the two other pokemon - Skiploom and Mantine - were doing their things also. The Skiploom was floating in the air, distracted but happy. The Mantine, who happened to be Toshi's team's newest member, made a show of not paying attention to what Toshi was saying, simply swimming along in the hotel fountain.
Toshi sighed, refusing to give up. He had a clear plan, and he really wanted this number to work.
"Toto, Skip, just like we practiced, remember? Let's show Mantine how to do this," the boy nudged encouragingly, trying to get everyone pumped up. The Skiploom turned its attention to Toshi, happily floating to its trainer.
"Skiiiip," it sung, seeming motivated. Dunsparce only gave a lazy but acknowledging "spaarce" in response.
"First up! Toto, use Mud Slap on the ground!" Toshi commanded with a determined grin on his face, excited to get this to work. The pink yellow earth snake hopped around, splattering soft mud all over the yard. "Awesome! Next up, Skip: sprinkle the ground with Bulled Seed, then use Sunny Day!"
As soon as Skip used Sunny Day, the seeds it had planted into the soft mud began growing, a beautiful fresh green raising from the ground. Toshi grinned even wider, excited. This was going so well!
"And last, but not the least... Mantine dear, use Water Pulse to help them grow even faster!" Toshi exclaimed, turning to face the Mantine, eyes sparkling with hope. The young trainer had certainly gotten the note that Mantine wasn't very fond of him or his team yet, but Toshi thought a group exercise like this would definitely help Mantine feel more united. Maybe it would even see the beauty pokemon moves together could cause.
Or... maybe not.
"Aaagh! I said Water Pulse, not Icy Wind!" Toshi shrieked as a chilling blast of icy wind hit them, freezing the ground and effectively killing all the little saplings that had begun to grow.
Shivering and gathering Skiploom in his arms to shield it from the super effective ice move, Toshi looked around in hopes that no one had seen this spectacular failure.