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Tristen couldn’t help but to chuckle along with her, more so out of nervousness though. He really didn’t intend on making that kind of a scene here clashing with Nemona like that, but it was what it was at this point. But then his attention was changed when he was handed over the Pokeball which contained Scatterbug, their science class project. “Not back until Wednesday? So wait, you’re missing classes until then? Oh. Uh, yea, I can take care of Scatterbug. Not a problem.” He said. He did need to show responsibility to the bug as well at least every here and there. Scatterbug was just as much as his assignment as it was Fela’s. Though a realization occurred to the Manetric teen. Fela had been taking care of the Scatterbug this entire time; the only time he had any interaction he had with Scatterbug was when he was out with Fela all this past week trying to have a training session out in the fields beyond the southern gates of Mezagoza, having him partner with Wimpod. “Does uh…Scatterbug know?” He asked, looking at the Pokeball for a second. Last thing he wanted Scatterbug to think is that he was being abandoned.

One at a time Tristen took the things from Fela, and at first seemed pretty harmless enough. Food for Scatterbug. Okay, fine. Fair enough. But then treats. Makes sense. Then the swaddle. An ambiance CD. Then the rest of the assortment of items. One by one, she started to dump what started to feel like a whole household of items on Tristen’s kitchenette counter. “Uh. Fela? Um oka-Fela? I don’t-…uh. Oh boy.” By the time Fela was finished. Tristen and Mienshao couldn’t help but to sweat a large bead seeing the whole plethora of items that she had for Scatterbug. After everything was said and done, Fela would leave Tristen’s room in a near panic as she ran off for her parents. There loomed a silence as Tristen stared at the whole mess of things on his counter, then looked back at Mienshao. “…all of this for a science class project. And worse, I kinda wonder how she’ll be when its time to turn Scatterbug in. We’re not meant to keep Scatterbug forever.” Tristen told his Pokémon.

“Shhoooo…” Mienshao replied, wondering what kind of world he found himself in. He had walked over to the stuff and stared at it for a moment before curiously rummaging through it as Tristen made his way over towards the door for a moment and looked around in the hall. Fela was already gone, out of sight. He’d make his way back in the door and closed the door behind him. Once again, Tristen took off his jacket and tossed it across the seat of his chair at his desk then sighed once more.

Tristen figured might as well let Scatterbug out and let him get adjusted to being around him for a bit since its been all Fela all this time for the most part. But then a thought occurred. Tristen took out another one of his Pokeballs and gave it a toss out. “Come out, Wimpod.” He said.

Out on the floor, a flash of light and out came Wimpod. “Wiii-paaa” it squealed out. The cowardly bug then took notice to Mienshao standing only a couple of feet away from it; his antennae shooting straight up upon seeing Mienshao. Mienshao really paid no mind to Wimpod, however.

“Hey Wimpod. Easy. I’d figure to get other familiar faces in the room for Scatterbug here. We’re having to take care of him until Fela gets back in a few days.” He said to his bug Pokémon. “You think you can help me out?”

“Wi-paaa.” The bug replied, occasionally glancing back at Mienshao for a second, his antennae finally coming back down once he knew everything was okay.

“Hopefully, Fela got Scatterbug to understand what was going on. Well, here goes…” he then said, taking the Premier Ball that Scatterbug was in and popped it open to release the bug out onto the ground. Mienshao looked away from the stuff to see the new bug show up in the room. “Hey, Scatterbug, how’s it going. Looks like we’re roommates for a few days.”

“Wi-wiii-paaa.” Wimpod spoke up. The most he could tell was that they were in Tristen’s room at the school, but he unfortunately missed the part of the conversation about Fela had gone to.

“Fela had gone to go get a relative just a few minutes ago and she dropped you off with me.” Tristen said to the Scatterbug. Though no sooner that he got it out of his mouth, he stared in a bit of confusion at the bug. It wasn’t all unexpected though, considering how Fela seems to pamper Scatterbug. Scatterbug needed a moment to adjust, probably more so seeing Mienshao in the room. Tristen remembered the blanket for the bug, but really, he’d only resort to that last if it was really necessary. He honestly didn’t really think it was. And if Scatterbug was going to return to the wild at some point, evolved or no, it was probably best it managed to not be too susceptible to unknown things too much. Tristen perhaps feared Fela coddled him quite a lot when he and Fela wasn’t trying to train him outside of Mezagoza. Tristen would take a step back, moving his foot around the bug so he didn’t step on him himself and picked the bug up off the floor. Tristen would sit down on the floor himself. “Now you don’t need to be like that. He won’t hurt you. He’s another one of my friends. Scatterbug, this is Mienshao.”

“Me-Shooo.” Mienshao stepped forward closer to Tristen and the bug, looking down. As far as Tristen was concerned, better Mienshao as opposed to something that probably would sooner have him for lunch. Like some flying type outside.

“See, he’s okay. Not every Pokémon is something you have to try to battle against. He’s with us.” He told Scatterbug. The method was a little different compared to any new Pokémon that Tristen captures and tries to bring into the fold in his Pokémon entourage, but hopefully it still would work out all the same.

“I didn’t get you out for training. I tend to have my Pokémon out and about…well, my smaller ones anyways. The big ones would feel real cramped in this dorm room. Dragonite barely had a spot to sit in here last night when I was trying to give him the Assault Vest for the tournament today. But…now that you mention it…yea, we could actually go out and train for a little bit. Get some exercise in before supper tonight.” He said, giving gentle strokes to Scatterbug’s head. “And I can get Wimpod to help like he has been through this week. How about it?”

“Wi-paaa.” Wimpod spoke up. It wasn’t exactly thrilled about the thought, still being the same cowardly bug as he usually is.

“Wimpod, you’ve been doing good over this past week helping Scatterbug. And it’s doing a lot of good for you, too, you know.” Tristen said. “You’ll be fine. And I’ll be bringing Dragonite, Mienshao, and Rampardos with us in case anything happens. A realization then occurred to Tristen. Since he’s carrying around Wimpod now, he was taking up a spot in the roster. So he’s only able to take one more to carry around. “I think…also…I might bring along Litten to help out since he could stand to get some training in as well. I thought about trying to do something like that with a few Pokémon, kinda like what Blizz is trying to do on the gym leader run, but I haven’t really had that much of a chance. Might be a good opportunity.”

“Me-shoo.” Mienshao spoke up in response to Tristen’s thinking, agreeing with Tristen.

“So, how about it? Should we go?” he then asked the Pokémon before him.

“Me-sho.” Mienshao spoke up.

“Paaa.” Wimpod then spoke up reluctantly.

Tristen couldn’t help but to stare at Scatterbug in a fair bit of confusion. Not so much why Scatterbug was being oddly affectionate to Wimpod; in truth, Tristen was a little oblivious to that sort of thing. It was more of the matter he was left to question what Fela was doing when Tristen wasn’t around Scatterbug. As he stared at the stuff on his counter once more, he started to think she really was trying to spoil Scatterbug rotten, apparently, but even so…she…never really let him out and about unless it was on one of these training sessions, didn’t she? She never really let him out, just...coddled him. Probably so much so where Scatterbug was perhaps a little desperate to get out. Maybe it was something to bring up to Fela whenever she got back.

Tristen got up from the floor again and went to get ready for the trip outside. He’d grab his jacket once more and covered up, then grabbed his pack of supplies just in case. He wasn’t bringing any of the stuff Fela brought, though. He didn’t think there was any sense in it. “Alright, Mienshao, back in the ball for now, okay? Wimpod? You and Scatterbug, too, just until we get through the Mezagoza gates again like before. It shouldn’t be long, okay?”

“Me-sho.”

“Wim-pa.”

One at a time, Tristen recalled Mienshao. Then Wimpod soon after wards. Then once he grabbed Scatterbug’s Premier ball, he’d go to recall that bug too temporarily.

By this point, Tristen gotten relatively familiar with the area beyond the southern gates of Mezagoza, having explored a fair bit with the help of Fela getting him acquainted to the various spots between the gates and Los Platos, mostly of what made up of what was designated Area One. So far, it was what was described to him: it was a relatively easy-going route with general low-grade Pokémon, perfect for newcomer trainers or for others to raise fledgling Pokémon without getting in over their head too quickly if push came to shove. Scatterbug was managing, in some respects, but Wimpod unfortunately more often than not ended up having to pick up a lot of the work. It was fortunate that his Aqua Jet attack did a lot of heavy lifting, but Scatterbug needed to start picking up some work too. He wondered if in some of these battles he would need to just have Wimpod hang back a bit. It was going to be a bit challenging regardless; these bugs having limited capabilities as they are and won’t be able to do much more until they’re fully evolved.

Perhaps the best way to go about this was to head southwest, taking the path around towards Los Platos. The main roads between the Mezagoza gates and Los Platos tend to go in one giant circle and along the eastern side of this ‘circle’, he ended up finding out that there were a fair number of Grass type Pokémon like Bounsweet and Sunkern that tends to hide out around the brush and small ponds on the way to the town, and oddly enough, if one was lucky enough, the occasional Ralts as well. Though, Ralts tends to share an Abra’s tendency of getting the heck out of dodge via Teleport if they’re spotted. It was probably best not to count on that one. Picking a few fights with the Grass types might do some justice for Scatterbug and Wimpod.

Needing to make every second count, Tristen for the moment wouldn’t release the Pokémon as of yet, wanting to make sure that he can actually find a spot to start hunting around before he’d let the bugs out and not have to worry about corralling them while going along the path. Tristen would pick up the pace, making his way down the path in the hunt for general grass types, or at the very least, anything that he thought Scatterbug and Wimpod could take on.

Tristen started his way down the path to try to find any manner of grass types to have at it with until he started to notice something close by. A trifecta of Sunkern. Tristen wasn’t really intimidated, instead finding the trio cute as they tried to intimidate the likes of the Manetric hybrid. But when they charged, the fight was on. “Alright then, just what we needed. Go! Scatterbug! Wimpod!” Tristen shouted, tossing the two balls out onto the field on the oncoming attackers. “Alright you two, time to get to it! Scatterbug! Use String Shot! Wimpod, try Sand Attack!” Tristen commanded to the two bugs. If he could keep the three disorganized, Wimpod and Scatterbug could make it out relatively okay against this trio of Pokémon.

“Wi-paa!” Wimpod squealed out, going sending all manner of dirt towards the trio.

Alright, so far so good. Each one ending up trying to do their own thing. The sand and string shot got them out; they don’t seem like they’re working as any sort of team right now. That said, there was a problematic thing that needed to be addressed. One of the Sunkern was apparently trying to gain strength in using its Growth. In that second that Tristen took notice to it, he realized that Wimpod managed to take a tackle attack from one of the Sunkern. Wimpod yelped out, but it wasn’t all that hurt at the moment. “Wimpod, forget about that one!” Tristen called out. “The one back there with Scatterbug! Use Struggle Bug! You too, Scatterbug! Don’t let that one attack!” he commanded. Wimpod quickly rushed around, running away from its assailing Sunkern and went to assist Scatterbug, taking a frantic dive towards the Growth-using Sunkern to struggle with it to the ground.