Team

O Z Y M A N D I A S [Dragapult]

Shortly after Gray moves to Galar to be with her father, Brenton Hale introduces his daughter to a dragapult he's been looking after who's suffered similar tragedy. After an accident resulted in the death of the two dreepy in his horns, Ozymandias stopped battling, and was subsequently abandoned by his trainer.

It wasn't easy, at first. Dragons are ancient, prideful creatures who don't bow to just any trainer, and Ozzie even more so, as he'd lost his faith in humans. And on her end, Gray couldn't help but feel like starting over with a new pokemon would be the ultimate betrayal to her old team.

But misery, as they say, loves company. The more time they spent with each other – just two ghosts wandering aimlessly around the Wild Area for days on end – the more Gray and Ozzie came to understand each other. And as the years in Galar slowly passed them by, they eventually forged an iron-clad bond, closer than that of trainer-and-pokemon. They think of each other as family now.

Ozzie – being much larger than a regular dragapult – never enters his pokeball. He remains a constant lingering spectre, floating by his trainer's side. The ghostly dragon's sheer size and eerie aura causes discomfort and fear in all except the most experienced trainers. No one looks him straight in the eye except Gray. But those who aren't scared away quickly learn that Ozzie is noble, dedicated, and extremely loyal to his trainer.

Despite having taken a long break from battling after the death of his dreepy, Ozzie is still the ace of Gray's team. She hardly ever feels the need to send him out in a fight, but when she does, the battle is as good as over.

I N D R A [Luxray]

Gray meets Indra when her father decides she's moped around for long enough and drags her to see the travelling circus in Wyndon City. Most of the event passes by in a dull haze; the only thing Gray can remember from that day is when the circus luxray turned on the ringmaster and nearly killed him, before being recalled into his pokeball.

As she and Ozzie are exploring the fairgrounds after the show, Gray overhears the ringmaster and the head trainer discussing the luxray, and how they have no choice but to toss him into storage permanently. Gray isn't sure of what came over her that day, but she offers to take the pokemon off their hands.

The circus staff warn her that it's a bad idea – the luxray is much too wild for any trainer – but Gray is adament. After what happened in her past with the Ursaring, she needs to prove to herself that she can handle a feral and come out victorious. Indra doesn't make it easy at all, attacking them every chance he gets. Gray realizes she's going to have to get through to him some other way.

Instead of trying to fight him, she makes a deal with him – if he stays with her as her team member, he has the chance to grow stronger, hone his skills against professional battling pokemon – and if a day ever comes when he chooses to leave and go off on his own, Gray promises not to hold him back. Indra reluctantly agrees. He's still rebellious and untameable, and will always be that way, but at least he obeys... to a certain degree.

In terms of raw, physical strength, Indra is Gray's strongest pokemon. In addition to his immensely powerful electricity, his claws can rip straight through metal, and his bite could easily rip a man's throat out.

E S M E R A L D A [M-Gardevoir]

Gray has known Esmee for as long as she can remember, as the gardevoir has been with the family since before Gray was born. She used to be Gray's mother's starter, but when Marisol retired from that lifestyle after learning she was pregnant, Esmee chose to follow her trainer home and took up housekeeping.

Esmee has been Gray's babysitter, maid, teacher, and surrogate mother at all once. She's the one who taught Gray how to more easily communicate with pokemon through a series of hand signs – lessons that Gray remembers and uses even to this day. She would also use her abilities to constantly track Gray as she played around Pallet Town.

Unbeknownst to Gray, her mother worked as part of the previous Champion's elite squad – A.C.E. – and as an A.C.E. Trainer's partner pokemon, Esmee is among the strongest psychics in the greater Indigo region. When Gray is leaving for Galar, her mother makes the decision to have Esmee go with her. The gardevoir's duties to her are over; now its time to watch over her daughter.

In addition to being able to teleport across whole regions, and establishing incredibly quick psychic links, Esmee is capable of producing and maintaining an almost impenetrable, invisible shield. Gray has no idea that the reason she isn't as prone to injury these days has nothing to do with luck. Esmee stays in Mega-form permanently because her regular body can't sustain the immense psychic pressure from her own abilities.

Even though Esmee is practically a member of her new team, and a veteran battler, Gray still has trouble seeing her as anything other than her babysitter. The fact that Esmee still behaves like a mother hen towards her doesn't help.

Other

T H E M O N S T E R [Mewtwo]

Twenty years before present day, Project Apotheosis was considered a success with the birth of Mewtwo.

Deep within the bowels of Cinnabar city, he was created in a collaborative project by Gym Leader Blaine, Professor Oak and Dr. Fuji, funded by Team Rocket, with Giovanni Vittore as Lead Administrator. He was meant to be a bridge between two worlds, but also a weapon – if the pokémon gods ever saw fit to lash out, Mewtwo’s psychic abilities would serve as a shield for humanity.

But as Mewtwo began to develop consciousness, the three scientists felt it too cruel to keep him trapped, and made the difficult decision to end the project and let him go. That very night, Mewtwo disappeared, and Giovanni along with him. Oak, Blaine and Fuji knew what had happened – Giovanni had stolen Mewtwo for his own purposes – but even they, with their considerable resources and political power, couldnt do anything against an ex-Champion and head of Team Rocket.

For many years, Giovanni kept the genetically-modified pokemon deep in Team Rocket's laboratory, hooked up to machines that would tramsit his immense psychic power across the Indigo region. These signals would disrupt and agitate wild pokemon, causing them to turn feral and attack unsuspecting trainers. And the more trainers who were reported attacked or dead in the wilderness, the more it would undermine Lance's reign as Champion, allowing Giovanni and Team Rocket to sweep the power out from under him.

The plan worked, until Gray raided the Team Rocket lab. While Giovanni and a few high-level Rocket Executives managed to escape, they had to leave Mewtwo behind, and Gray captured him in a Master Ball given to her by her father.

She keeps Mewtwo with her at all times, clipped to her belt. Due to his immense psychic powers, he is still able to communicate with her telepathically. He doesn't do it often, but sometimes, she will hear an abstract question or comment in her mind as the creature attempts to understand the new world around him.

They have an incredibly strained relationship, if it can even be considered that. While deep inside, Gray knows that he is equally a victim in all this, a larger part of her blames him as much as Giovanni for the death of her team. She tries to have as little to do with him as possible, only ever calling him 'Giovanni's Monster'. Mewtwo returns her contempt with condescension, only referring to her as 'child' or nothing at all.