[TW: Lore]

Cerberus had hit a limit.

Darius watched how he worked his small hound body, he worked himself to the bone every single day to try and improve, but improving stopped at a point. Darius wanted to, as Cerberus' trainer and Alpha - according to the little hellhound himself - to help him overcome his limitations. 

To do so, Darius had three ideas!

The first idea he had was to increase the pressure on Cerberus' body by having Gardevoir use [Gravity] on him, which was enough to push his buddy to the limit. They tested this form of training for two days, but there were no improvements - it was almost as if this invisible barrier had been hit, and physical pressure was not enough to break through. 

So Darius had a second idea - energy pressure! He used [Overflow] and concentrated a lot of energy from his body to Cerberus' body, making the puppy try to keep the energy that flowed and glowed out of his little body. The majority of the energy was lost, but it did help them find out that there was a next stage in Pokemon ranking! At Rank 1 - the Novice Rank - the Pokemon starts to establish a foundation for their future. Darius had been preparing Cerberus for his foundation, having him slowly learn how to manipulate the energy of his type outside of his own body and improving it by manipulating his own energy for new attacks or attack combinations. 

So, what is the difference between a Novice rank (1) and a Trained rank (2)? 

Well, lets imagine the power of a pokemon as a... tree. Yes, as a tree. The Novice rank is the sapling or seed that will grow that tree. The stronger and/or better the seed slash sapling, the stronger and/or better the tree. Now then, the Trained rank is the beginning of the growth of that tree! It's the moment in which you need to care for the tree, because it has been planted just recently. It needs good and clean water, a nice and rich soil, and lots of sunlight! 

What I mean is, you need time to do this. If you want your Pokemon to grow, you need time and focus. Resources help your Pokemon grow, and like trees, some Pokemon grow slower than others no matter the amount of resources you use on them. With this in place, we must now focus on another matter.

There are limits to the amount of status that a Rank 1 Pokemon can get. The maximum is 1000, but Cerberus can only go to 200... This might not be a rank thing, but a Pokemon species thing, but Darius is focusing more on how to get over this rather than to try and think about other things.

If energy pressure and physical pressure don't work, will mental pressure work? Darius tried to, under Cerberus' clear and excited approval, put the puppy in dangerous situations - now, before you freak out, know that Gardevoir, Darius, and Big Boy were more than ready to use any means to help and save the good boy that is Cerberus. So, Darius found a Pokemon one rank above Cerberus' rank and had him fight the Pokemon to the death. Of course, the Pokemon Cerberus was fighting was a lonely Poocheyna. Darius was feeling kinda bad that he order Cerberus to fight that Poocheyna to the death, but the need to survive could potentially unlock a deeper strength!

Even back in his old home, to save and protect others, humans have shown a degree of strength that was considered superhuman. From mothers saving their kids to people surviving things no one should be able to. 

Although Darius feared it wasn't the case, the threat of serious danger could make Pokemon break their limits, right? 

So as he watched Cerberus fight against the Poocheyna that was panicking, fighting for its life, Darius felt a pang of pity. Clearly Cerberus would be in no danger fighting this Poocheyna! Darius hesitated for just a second before he stopped the fight. He approached the scared Poocheyna and apologized, explaining to both Cerberus and the Poocheyna the reason of his interference. He might have offended the Poocheyna, but the little girl was happy to be alive. "So, I'm sorry little one, but I thought it was necessary." Clearly it wasn't, because he chose a Pokemon that Cerberus would be no threat under... But wait.

What if he doesn't need to be in danger, only his body need to think he is? 

Looking at big boy, Darius decided to try his hypothesis! He gave Cerberus one instruction: Survive. Then he asked Gardevoir to telepathically ask Big Boy to use his heavy aura and presence aggressively towards Cerberus, act like he wants to kill him, but not kill him. And soon, even Darius felt it. Heavy, like Gardevoir was using Gravity on him- Wait. That's it! Soon, Gardevoir actually user Gravity on Cerberus, and Darius used the Energy Core to channel enormous amounts of Fire and Dark energy to Cerberus' body under the [Overflow] effect with [Energy Technique - Energy Share] skill. 

The combination of Physical Pressure - Gravity - Energy Pressure - Overflow - and Mental Pressure - Bloodlust, or the threat of Death - seemed to work because Darius felt it. The bond between him and Darius (which he was the bond, that very connectiom between their souls, that he was using to share his energy with the good boy) seemed to almost... What? The bond between him and Cerberus seemed to deepen, but not in a substantial way, more in an almost imperceptible way. The only reason he could perceive such a change was because he could feel the amount of energy being wasted simply slowly reduce. 

Almost as if Cerberus' body could now get more energy.

In a moment, Darius grinned- 

[Congratulations. You have created a method to safely initiate a rare phenomenon known as Limit Break.]

[In this world, not much is known about this phenomenon, only that it is rare to happen in the wild.]

[In the past, when Ancient Pokemon used to roam thos world, the air was full of energy. Energy that was taken by Necrozma alongside the light of the world. Due to this, the normal phenomenon of Limit Break became a rare occurrence.]

[That energy helped many ancient Pokemon to break their limits and grow even stronger. Which is why Ancient Pokemon were much stronger than today's Pokemon.]

[Mega Evolution is believed to be able to being forth the potential to occur a Limit Break, due to the requirements.]

[Such requirements are: 

Physical Stress 

Mental Stress

High Amounts of Energy 

High Willpower

A Strong Bond Enough to Someone/Something

Pressure from a Powerful Pokemon]

[With this method, you can break the limits of Pokemon up to Rank 5]

[The benefits of this method are as follow: 

1: Your Pokemon have now overcome their species limitations. With the right training, they can learn how to use abilities from other Pokemon species naturally. 

2: Your Pokemon lifespan is increased.

3: Your Pokemon can now hold more energy within themselves, increasing their output.

4: Your Pokemon's natural healing is increased.

5: Your Pokemon can now train and learn moves that they weren't able to previously, including creating new moves.]

H-holy shit. So many things at the same time!

-Scene Cut- 

Darius: I'm the type of person who reads 100k slowburn fanfic just to read hardcore smut later.

-Scene Cut-

Cerberus was happy. 

Finally, finally he achieved something - he was immediately hit with a sense of deep, deep exhaustion as he heard his Alpha approaching him. He fell asleep soon after, knowing he'd be safe beside his Alpha... 

It wasn't always like this, you know?

Cerberus, before he received such a name, was only a runt. The moment he was born, he was shunned by the pack, because his mother had an affair with some other Pokemon, and that made him the result of infidelity, and therefore not worth the effort. He spent most of his life struggling to get through each and every single damn day in this world - he'd fucking break his bones and drag his body after each beating because he needed the pack to survive. He tried to make himself useful, but the scrutiny of the pack could not be broken. 

The Alpha, the largest and strongest Houndoom Cerberus ever knew, just declared that he was not to be treated with respect. His own mother threw him away and ran, ran back to the one she had an affair with, and he was forgotten there with his pack... He remembers how slowly the pups that were born were taught to hate him, he was used as an example of what not to do, what not to be, and what to hate.

Weakness was a sin.

And he was a sinner.

And sinners do not survive unless under the grace of the Alpha- he was strong, therefore he should be on the top. He was just showing him his place, and he should be there and not speak up... Like that, Cerberus lived for 2 years. 

Until it happened.

It was a simple mistake - he did not see the stick on the ground as they were sneaking out of the way from a pack of extremely angry Donphans. His pack had hunted down a couple of small Phamphys, the little ones cried loudly, and alerted their herd - it was an almost massacre. The majority of his pack died, of the 34 Houndours and 12 Houndoom (not including him), 22 Houndours and 8 Houndooms died. All because of a small mistake of his... It was a simple stick! He had not seen it, and neither had he known that a Donphan would hear it and charge through the bushes and tackle him.

He was lucky to be thrown away by the powerful attack from the Donphan, which was what - ironically - saved him. For right after, another Donphan came rolling, crashed through his fellow Houndours, killing 12 of them in a single attack. 

He passed out right after the impact, he didn't know what happened but he found himself near the boundary between the savanna and the forest. The savanna was the place they came from, he didn't know the name but he knows his pack crossed the desert and savanna to reach this lush forest... It was said to him, by one of the older Houndours, that their pack came from a valley near to a volcano, where many of their species lived. And the oldest Houndoom, the Alpha's mother - who once was a trainer's pokemon that was released into the wild - told him and the fellow Houndours about their motherland. Known as Hoenn by humans, it was home to their species for a long time! It was said the volcano in the region was born by Groundon's power over the land and magma. 

He woke up alone. Alone and hurt. He dragged his broken body through the ground, hiding whenever he could so he wouldn't be eaten by other opportunistic Pokemon. He crawled for two days, then he was too tired to walk further, deciding to accept his fate and die a pathetic death... 

But then he found him. His new and way better Alpha. 

Cerberus, at first, wasn't willing to follow or obey him, thinking he'd be abandoned the very next day. But then hours turned into days, and most of the time Cerberus spent those days in a half awake state, too tired and weak to be awake but not enough to be completely unconscious. When he was fully awake, he noticed he had not been abandoned, but was instead fully healed - that was when he saw his Alpha as someone worthy his loyalty. 

And now it was his turn to show him he was worthy the effort. 

-Scene End-

Darius: What's your backstory?

Cerberus: Scoliosis 

Darius: That's crazy, I'm a Leo.

-Scene End-

Author's Note: 

Here's mah boy's backstory, in summary. He is literally baby, just 2 years old! 

Anyway, from this point forward, there will be a lot more of... surprises? Yeah, let's go with that. Surprises.