Cross my heart and hope to die

 Dawn, much like she wasn't always a Shieldon +Anima, wasn't always Dawn. She used to be Dana, the green-eyed, blonde-haired daughter of a family of researchers in Sandgem Town.

They were on a research trip to Oreburgh when she was about seven. She wandered off into the mines, and got a bit lost. Unfortunately, she didn't notice the signs saying "Dangerous" and "Do not enter". While she was lost in the mines, there was a cave-in.  She was caught in it. She was lucky, however, that her hand fell upon a certain rock -- a fossil. She grew a short tail, and her face became a sturdy shield against the falling rocks. Her skeleton strengthened to the point that it wouldn't break. She bashed her way back to her family.

 

Now, in Sinnoh, +Anima are said to not exist. Anyone found to be a +Anima is dragged off by the government and never seen again. Operating under the belief that Anima are genetic, the same is done to the families of those found to be +Anima. No one is supposed to talk about these disappeared families because they, in theory, "never existed".
 

Dana was found out. As expected, the government came to spirit her and her family away. They and their employer, Professor Rowan, did their best to stop it. However, only Dana was spared as the Professor was able to scare the agents away before they found her. He then gave her a new identity. She became Dawn, his assistant and granddaughter, and kept her hair blueish-black and her eyes golden-brown. She learned to keep stoic and serious, and be very wary about hiding the Anima markings on her face at all times.

 

She's now traveling around the region with Lucas and Barry, and trying to find what became of her family. Inside, she's actually a kind of silly, girly girl, but on the surface, she's a silent, stoic only-sane-man. She keeps Barry and Lucas in check , and has come to be a mama bear towards them, though she won't admit to it.. She hides her silly self, as well as her forgetfulness. She keeps a small sketchbook in which she doodles people to remember them, but only assigns nicknames to them. As a result, she usually forgets names, and her nicknames for people are usually a bit on the ditzy side.

 

As for her team...

 

Platyrrhini	Sericea	Sciuridae	Cirrus	Accipitriformes	Medusozoa

 

Yep. And her Pokemon form is somewhat like this, ever so courteously drawn by Suika of the many names: