Ellie

Born and raised in Virbank City to two film technicians who always encouraged her to pursue her creativity. When she was 8, she met a shy and lost zorua who she named Zed - this would become her partner pokemon. She decided to stay in school instead of pursuing the Unova gym challenge. Upon finishing highschool she was admitted to the University of Unova at Nimbasa City for an illustration degree. Zed would conjure up fascinating illusions that Ellie would then use as inspiration for illustrations, so they made a good team.

She quickly lost interest in her education when she began to meet more people who were primarily interested in Pokemon, including her new friend Elesa who was the city's gym leader. Although she still loved art, she decided to drop out of college after gaining a new curiousity about her zorua and her mysterious ability. She wanted to learn more about Pokemon, and especially Pokemon abilities, and how they might be able to help people in more ways than just battling.

Her interest in research was cemented when she visited Dr. Fennel, a family friend who lived in Castelia City. She was studying dreams, which to Ellie, were similar to zorua's illusions. Seeing Fennel's research convinced Ellie that she wanted to travel and learn all she could about her Pokemon.

Her first stop was to visit her cousin Burnet in Alola, who was working at the Aether Foundation as a conservationist and researcher. This is where she met another zorua who had been taken in by the facility and was in need of a home. With encouragement from Burnet, Ellie decided to adopt this zorua and name him Soul, and she quickly noticed his illusions were far different from Zed's. 

She spent a decent amount of time in Alola assisting at Aether Paradise, learning about its ecology, and finally gaining an interest in battling from her cousin's husband Kukui. She traveled around the islands with her two zorua companions, meeting new people and Pokemon along the way. With some training, Zed finally evolved into a zoroark and the two really honed in on mastering the illusion ability to confound their opponents in battle.

Eventually it came time to leave the islands and to continue traveling elsewhere to pursue the path of research. Although Ellie hasn't finished school to become an accredited professor, she's perfectly happy doing her own studies to satisfy her own curiosity. She is not an expert by any means, but definitely knows a fair amount and really is a master of zoroark's illusions.

Team:

Zed - female zoroark, childhood companion

Soul - male zoroark, adopted from Aether Paradise

Stella - female liepard, encountered upon her return to Unova

Spoons - female weavile, caught as a sneasel on her first trip to Sinnoh

Hiro - male braviary, voluntarily joined team after helping guide them out of danger. 

Malachite - female tyranitar, raised from larvitar that she caught

Relationships:

Maria and Robert Hart - parents

Reese Hart - younger brother (~12)

Professor Burnet (+Kukui) - cousins

Prof. Juniper, Dr. Fennel, Aether foundation team - family friends

Elesa, Kahili, Jasmine, Sonia - notable friends from traveling

((friend OCs)) - other friends