Montana

Personality: Montana is said to be a spitting image  of his father, Maxie: Serious, cold, calculating, and a bit stubborn.  Although it's meant to be a positive context, it's actually a comparison Monty hates with a passion. They aim to surpass their father after  being held back for so long due to his chronic asthma health.

Despite  his rough exterior. he is genuinely a nice and caring lad, always  offering to lend a hand to people in need. Ironically he's hesitant to ask others for help as he's always determined to prove his independence.  After the great drought in Hoenn causes a rock slide and separates him  from Team Magma, he decides to use the forced separation to turn over a  new leaf, travel elsewhere, and eventually find his way in Driftveil  City (located in Unova).

Backstory: Montana was born an only son to parents Maxie and Marge of Team Magma in the Hoenn region. Since the workings of Team Magma were heavily based on logic and rationality, Monty mostly spent his childhood years being taught life skills, mastering many at an early age. 

Due to being an only child, and arguably  the only child of Team Magma, he was watched over very carefully by grunts and admins alike but even that didn't stop his mischievous streak. One day, while out by the beach, the toddler snuck away from a distracted Tabitha and met another child close to his age. It was Cascata! They spent some time playing on the sand before Cascata gave him an old fishing rod. Together, they fished close to the waves and an incredible event happened. Something tugged on their lines and when they reeled in their rods at the same time. it turned out to be twin Mudkips! With glee, they each took one home as their first Pokemons. Maxie and Tabitha  were surprised while Marge couldn't be more proud of her son's first catch. Maxie was a bit disappointed since he was planning to gift a Ground-type Pokemon for his birthday later on, but it is what it is.

However,  a life-changing event would affect Monty and his father forever. When Monty was eleven, the family was out exploring Kirikiri Mountain, but an earthquake suddenly struck the mountain. Rocks began to rapidly tumble, fall, and even cut off the path ahead for them, so they had no choice but to flee. The intense dust and sand triggered an intense asthma attack, which slowed him down to a dangerous level. His Marshtomp tried to hurry him out faster, but they were still going too slow. Marge was terrified for their lives, so acting on pure motherly impulse, she grabbed them both and carried them out before she could go. At the last second, she tossed them out at the exit for Maxie to catch; despite being less on the muscular side, he was able to get them both. Marge was ready to escape herself, but she was grabbed by a tentacle and knocked to the ground. Just before she is dragged away, she cries out for them to keep going and no matter what, she will always love them. The tentacle drags Marge into the collapsing Kirikiri Mountain, which crushes her to death.

Life for father and son became very hard on them. Several Team Magma members paid tribute to Marge's memorial and comforted both grieving men. One member in particular stepped up as an admin to help support them both at a more familial and intimate level, but that's another story. Team Magma's morale also dipped greatly. While  their ideals never changed, it's clear their methodology changed dramatically. In order to keep his son's health stable, he designated Monty with indoor tasks as a part of Team Magma. While his intentions were pure, it was this very isolation that ended up driving them apart even further. Asthma doesn't magically go away after all.

On the day of Groudon's awakening, Monty desperately needed an outdoor break, so he decided to take a breather to hike with a pair of Team Magma grunts. Of course, they insisted on him taking plenty of water and his inhaler at the ready. For once, they felt truly happy to have time to himself. While he was clearly inexperienced with hiking, he was just happy to try something new. What unfortunate timing. Maxie's meddling with Groudon caused it to awaken and the pleasant weather in Hoenn shifted into a terrifying drought. The combination of heat stroke and overexertion of his muscles caused yet another asthma attack; while he was able to save himself with his inhaler, he couldn't stop the incoming rock slide. He dodged the tumbling boulders just in time, but it ended up forcibly separating him from the Team Magma grunts. He took shelter in a nearby cave while the rocks blocked the entrance. The terrible familiarity of this brought a panic attack upon him, with only his Swampert to comfort him. 

Just as he was about to accept his fate,  a sound erupted in front of them. It sounded like something moving the rocks out of the way! But who was strong enough to move all these heavy boulders out of the way?! It was Groudon itself! He was understandably shocked at this revelation, but contrary to its terrifying appearance, it seemed to be offering a hand for him. He didn't want to die in that cave, so he went for it and took its hand. The skies of Hoenn had finally been restored and Groudon was just on its way to rest. While it's clear that he's long separated from Team Magma, he decides that they can team up to explore new horizons, which Groudon decides to accept,

Today, Monty has inherited a fraction of Groudon's power and decides to use it to sense vibrations in the earth. This makes him very beneficial to the people of Driftveil City. However, he also has plans to reconnect with his old childhood friend, but how can you do that when your childhood friend doesn't remember you at all? Maybe Groudon can help.

Additional

• Unlike Cascata, Monty was made very recently as a contrast to her.
• ALSO unlike Cascata, Monty has very good memory; this is both helpful and hindering to him.
• I made a design for him prior to his reference, but I didn't like it anymore, so I scrapped it and made something new.
• His Pokemon were caught by grunts and gifted to him, but it was him who actually trained them.
• Marge/Courtney 1's backstory was heavily inspired by Courtney 1 in the Ruby & Sapphire arc of Pokemon Adventures. The name Marge came from the Chuang Yi translations.