New Forum Story Idea and Recruitment

A boy named Dan and his Lv. 12 Sneasel who lived a normal life in Snowpoint city, until his family was attacked by the Plasma Alliance because his father was a well-known researcher conducting research on Legendary Pokémon. They took his mother hostage to force his dad to work for them, but not him, as his mother told him to hide at the neighbour (a close friend of the family)'s house and pretend to be their son "until the situation quiets down." He's sworn to save his parents and wants to track down the Plasma Alliance and thwart their ominous plots. He's below average at battling and struggles with the higher leveled Pokémon around his city, so he decides to practice under the Gym Leader Candice as a Gym trainer until he can handle the wild Pokémon. Candice declines his offer as he's not strong enough to handle the challengers that come there. Dan is devastated and his self esteem is crushed, but Candice, although reluctantly due to the risk it could put him in, offers him another plan to get stronger and accomplish his goals— travel and help Prof. Rowan with his research. The Plasma Alliance is also chasing Prof. Rowan who's been hopping from town to town to avoid them, but as a Gym Leader, Candice can not only escort Dan outside to a safer place, but also introduce him to the Professor and convince him to give Dan a Pokédex. Dan should be safe even if he loses since Prof. Rowan's assistant Lucas is strong and could save him. Candice's plan works and he's now Prof. Rowan's assistant along with Lucas. Dan finds that he's better at catching Pokémon than battling and almost completely ignores the latter now to avoid the pain of loss, much to the disappointment of Sneasel who enjoyed battling more than helping Dan catch Pokémon. This ends up snowballing into a bigger problem after Dan is escorting the Professor across a route while Lucas does research and a Plasma Alliance admin finds them. Dan tries to fight back and fails horribly, even with six Pokémon, and Lucas is nowhere to save him. He realises that he can't achieve his goals if he stays stagnant and starts participating in more battles to get better. I'm unsure of what to do after that.