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“Well, looks like we got the next volunteer.” Tristen said. “Scatterbug, you go in and use Struggle Bug on that Sunkern.” He said, pointing out the Sunkern that tried to absorb Scatterbug’s strength. This might be the perfect opportunity to give Scatterbug some room to do work itself. “Wimpod! Go after the other one that still has Scatterbug’s string shot on it! Make sure he doesn’t stop Scatterbug! Try more Sand Attack!” he then commanded.

Quickly leaving Scatterbug to his own devices, Wimpod rushed off towards the already somewhat debilitated Sunkern, giving another coating of dirt and dust to keep the Sunkern at bay. Everything so far was coming in millhouse for Tristen. The more that he could get Scatterbug to take fights on its own, the better.

Scatterbug was coming along nicely. Managing to take on the fights as they come. Granted, in the grand scheme of things, they were pretty easy. Things probably would go a hair smoother if Tristen had the means to go back to the headquarters and train Scatterbug there. But then, that would probably be cheating now that he thought about it. Students wouldn’t have the means to raise and train a Pokémon in controlled spaces like that. They would have had to do probably what he was doing right now. Well, among other things, that is.

Wimpod ended up wincing a little bit, not having the kind of resistances that Scatterbug tends to have. That said, given how Sunkern are, it wasn’t really that much to begin with. “Alright, Scatterbug! Follow up! Go after that one now with a Struggle Bug! Let’s finish this battle up!” he then said. “Wimpod! Get out of the way.” Wimpod’s antennae shot straight up and rushed off to get out of Scatterbug’s way.

With the final Sunkern taken out, silence finally came over the area that turned into a sudden battlefield. Three versus two and the two Bug Pokémon managed to win out. “Way to go you three! That’s how its done!” he said to the two of them. “This is a good start. Alright, let’s keep up the pace. There should still be-“ Tristen would then get interrupted, when he started to notice Scatterbug acting slightly weird. Then much to his surprise, the bright glow of evolution. Tristen winced a bit then got a good look at the Pokémon. “Ha! Apparently that battle was everything you needed! Congratulations!” he said, kneeling down near by the newly evolved Spewpa. “Fela is going to be happy when she gets back.”

Wimpod scoots its way over towards Spewpa, looking up and down the insect. “Wiii-pa?” Wimpod spoke up, giving Spewpa a curious nudge.

“Its Scatterbug, Wimpod. Now, Spewpa.” He then said. “How are you feeling, Spewpa?” he then asked the newly evolved bug type, carefully rubbing the Spewpa’s head.

It wasn’t just that, however. It was a trait of bug Pokémon like this in general. Metapods and Kakunas for instance, when they are in this state, were trying to conserve all manner of energy. They knew they were vulnerable to predators and such like that. They couldn’t defend themselves as well as well as their beginning states, let alone their evolved states. They are dedicated solely to evolution. Granted, trainers could still get them to battle, make it so much as their second state isn’t so much of a detriment to them and a lot of the times, the Pokémon when they evolve into their final states come out a lot better for it. Spewpa was generally no different, though they do have it better than aforementioned Metapods and Kakunas, being a lot more flexible as opposed to the rigid shells that other bug Pokémon tend to have. But it didn’t really matter if they just don’t have that kind of energy to put into any battles they would get into. Truth be told, in spite of Tristen knowing that much…it wasn’t exactly something he had a full know-how to overcome. Usually every Pokémon that he ever gotten, they could battle quite well every step of the way. Maybe there was that slight awkwardness fresh out of evolution, but nothing that couldn’t be overcame. Spewpa had the near equivalent to having an upper-torso bound and was expected to fight with its head or legs.

Tristen needed to figure out how to shift gears and work with a Pokémon like this. “You know what?” Tristen said. “Instead of trying to get into more battles today, especially after battling all of those Sunkern, how about we get you used to being like that Spewpa, how about that?” Tristen said. “I’m sure you’re going through a lot right now. How about it Wimpod? Let’s help Spewpa out.”

“Wiii-paa?” The Wimpod spoke up, wondering what Tristen had in mind.

“Well, I was thinking maybe have Spewpa try to practice with you. Let Spewpa try moving around, maybe try to hit you with a couple of attacks, maybe dodge a couple from you. How about it Spewpa? Up for it?” He then asked. Wimpod couldn’t help but to look over towards Spewpa, conflicted. He wanted to help, sure. But was this going to involve more battling? That much he didn’t care for. But then…what did Wimpod care for that he wasn’t scared of?

“No?” Tristen asked, staring in confusion. Wimpod’s eyes suddenly went wide, his antennae going straight up astounded by how moody Spewpa was. Yea, in this case...this Spewpa was a whole other creature. Tristen had a realization just then…it was probably a no wonder for Mr. Jacq to give students extra credit if they go all the way to Vivillion with their class assignments. It was trying to deal with the possibility of a Pokémon ending up like this. Not that this was any issue to Tristen. Tristen had to purify extremely temperamental Shadow Pokémon that’d sooner would have tried to Shadow Rush Tristen as opposed to do anything constructive like training; this was effectively nothing…well…other than annoying that is.

Tristen stared in confusion as Spewpa wiggle slowly off towards a nearby tree and hung himself from it and its want for sleep. Just as Tristen thought, it was focused on conserving energy, just as they naturally would, but it was being rather offputting; a complete contrast to how it was as a Scatterbug. “Spewpa, you do realize I can just put you back in the ball, right? If you want to sleep, at least do it in safer confines so you don’t end up in some Fletchling’s or Rookidee’s talons. But even so, why don’t you want to practice with Wimpod any?”

Wimpod started to look a little upset now with Spewpa’s conduct. Well…upset for even it. Over the past few days, despite him showing that he constantly clashed with a proverbial yellow streak as much as any Pokémon out in these fields, he actually started to become a bit fond of Spewpa…at least, as a Scatterbug. Now, it’s like Spewpa just doesn’t care about anything anymore. Tristen stared, almost bemused as Spewpa refused to even acknowledge anything Tristen was saying. If Spewpa didn’t realize it, it was giving Tristen the opportunity to show just how he was measures above Matteo if nothing else. The mantra of ‘Pokémon depend on you as you depend on them’ was to insinuate that when it comes to Pokémon training, the dichotomy goes both ways. When one gets full of themselves in some fashion, rather it being a trainer believing he is better than what he or she is, or on the Pokémon’s end, feeling their trainer isn’t worth it or in Spewpa’s case, not wanting to really deal with anything at all, let alone the trainer’s commands, the union falls apart. It wasn’t any gym badge that earns the Pokémon respect, it’s the understanding that through thick and thin, through all challenges, trival or daunting, rather it be in a Pokémon battle or going through day-to-day life, they were in it together.

Matteo earlier showed not only to Tristen, but to everyone in this school, that Shelgon was having none of whatever Matteo was wanting or doing. Ignoring commands, even intimidated the Growlithe. Tristen almost suspected that Shelgon was borderline dangerous to Matteo, probably ever since it evolved to a Shelgon. Matteo flinched a couple of times when Shelgon snapped at Matteo in defiance. Signs that Shelgon probably attacked Matteo on at least one point in recent history and now the dragon knows he could push Matteo around. Matteo could do nothing to him substantial and had nothing to give to Shelgon in return, and allowed Shelgon to think that rather he intended to or not. Tristen pretty much believed that possibly Matteo got a Bagon early on, going on some delusion that he was going to easily command a rather fierce dragon and now it was biting him. Matteo allowed the dichotomy to collapse to his own hubris and if he wasn’t careful, such a thing could spread to his other Pokémon if they start thinking what Shelgon has ‘realized’. Who knows what’d happen if that Tauros decided it had enough. Matteo wasn’t taught as Tristen was…

First issue was not backing down. Just as with any other person, a Pokémon could bully with the best of them just as any human or hybrid. They can also, just as Spewpa is showing, just outright ignore you and pretty much hope you go away. A trainer’s true mettle was re-establishing that union should anything like that happen. Tristen shouldn’t do anything like bribes and such as they were a poor way to go; that’s not synergistic, but instead parasitic. Usually if a trainer was good enough, that wasn’t usually ever an issue, but Tristen had the disadvantage admittingly of not being in contact with Scatterbug constantly; not like Fela has, and she practically coddled this Pokémon. It was almost effectively as if the Pokémon was traded in a way at this point. It shouldn’t be anything that was going to be too big of an issue. Unfortunately, Tristen had to figure this out elsewhere…

The Manetric hybrid started to hear some clamoring close by and staring at a nearby tree, he started to notice a bunch of Fletchling. Of all the timing…Tristen was confident that he could deal with a bunch of Fletchling. Spewpa sure as heck couldn’t. And neither could Wimpod for long. That said, Tristen would probably sooner have to get out Dragonite and probably Hurricane them away or something to basically scare not only them, but perhaps everything else in the vicinity off. He’d rather not fight them if he could help it. This was, after all, just the natural order. “Alright, hardball it is then.” Tristen said, taking out the Premier ball and Wimpod’s Pokeball. “Wimpod, come back for now.” He said, recalling the cowardly bug back into the ball. As soon as he was done, it was Spewpa’s turn. “Now, you were warned, Spewpa. We’re heading back to the dorm.” He said, going to recall the bug back into its Premier ball.

A meal denied and a sigh out of the Manetric hybrid. Spewpa was going to be a brat, to be sure. Worse, even if he did get Spewpa’s act straight – what was going to happen when Fela comes back? Was she going to have a hard time with the bug too? She wasn’t the kind of trainer that Tristen is, let alone much of one at all. She practically raised Scatterbug more as a pet than anything, not that there’s usually anything wrong with that in some cases, but it was possibly going to clash with what needs to be done. Let alone the fact that they were going to have to release Spewpa eventually, evolved again or no. Tristen then looked up towards the skies, starting to realize that apparently the time flew. He could have sworn that he had a bit more time. He then took out his SNAG just long enough check the time, and sure enough it was getting late. He needed to get supper for himself and his Pokémon right about now.

He made his way back for Mezagoza, making his way back for the school. It was a peaceful walk. Quiet. Nothing really happening on the way back other than Tristen being cordial in passing to those that got his attention on the way back. He was thinking the best way to get Spewpa on the straight and narrow again and he knew all manner of ways to do so; some of the ways that he knew of others doing so. Tristen was told by Freth a long while back ago about when her Hitmonchan was still a Tyrogue, she’d let him have his way one time. He wanted to show that he was better than anything else. Tyrogue didn’t want to listen to Freth, so she allowed him to get beat up by one Pokémon after the next until he realized that he was in over his head. It was in that where she ended up finding out that Tyrogue was an abandoned Pokémon and Tyrogue didn’t want to go through that sort of thing again. It took that day for Tyrogue to realize that she wasn’t going to abandon him either. That, rather if he realized it or not, he needed her just as she needed him. She’d care for him.

Unfortunately, this wasn’t a case of winning over a once-burned Pokémon. This was a Pokémon that was going through proverbial growing pains. And he didn’t know what exactly what snapped when Spewpa evolved. Tristen needed to figure that out before things were back to normal. And when that happens, evolution to Spewpa’s final state should come relatively easily. Granted, Tristen still remembered the other bug type quirks, where Spewpa probably did want to conserve all manner of energy just to focus on evolution in some fashion, but Spewpa could stand to be considerably less insufferable for it and understand there are other ways to go about it, even in its state.

Eventually, Tristen found his way back to the academy and went to get something to eat for himself. Apparently quesadillas were being served this evening. Didn’t sound too bad, Tristen thought. After having supper for himself, he would take it off to the rec fields and find a place at one of the benches. Now that its open that Tristen was better than what he appeared to be at first, he allowed all of his Pokémon out to serve them something to eat and allowed them too as Tristen partaken in the quesadillas. Over the past week, sans last night, Tristen didn’t have too much of an issue getting his Pokémon fed. He kept generally smaller Pokémon on him like Litten and Wimpod and they all ate in his dorm room. Since last night, he ended up serving Dragonite and Rampardos at least one at a time because they all didn’t fit in the dorm. Now? There was really no need for that. That said, he’d save Spewpa for last. After how temperamental the bug wanted to be, Tristen figured to try to get the bug in controlled spaces lest he tried to run off. And maybe get the bug to at least talk to Tristen again.

All the same, though, as he watched his team enjoy their food, he started to wonder something. He started to wonder if he really needed to hide this much to begin with? Everything generally felt better this way instead of skulking around the school, trying to sneak around extremely strong Pokémon and hide everything under the sun. Right now, at least at this second, everything felt…easier. Everyone was reveling in having another trainer around, and not just that, but one that could take on Nemona. Tristen then just shook his head at the notion, remembering that he never really wanted to be famous here. He wanted the normal life. An average kid just as most in this academy was. He wasn’t going to get that if he just went in asserting all manner of authority like that. He’d probably try again if given the chance. Though, how would his Pokémon take that? Just how long would they stand Tristen trying to hold them back like that? Hide them at every turn until Tristen felt it was time? Would there have been a good time? Tristen started to think there was probably no winning that sort of situation…

After he and all of his Pokémon had their dinner, it was time to see if Spewpa decided to change its tune right about now. After cleaning up the spot he took, he made his way back for his dorm, made his way in and closed the door right behind him, locking it. He didn’t have any intention on going anywhere else for the night if he could help it. Once again, he took his jacket off and sat it down on the chair then thought for a moment as to how to go about the next two to three hours before heading off for bed. Tristen then took out the Premier Ball once again and popped it open, releasing Spewpa on the floor of the dorm. “Alright, Spewpa. Hungry?” he would ask the bug. “Its dinner time.”