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Finally the cracks finally came to the surface as Tristen watched Matteo’s reactions throughout the conversation. Tristen finally saw what Fela had been talking about this entire time and it left him to wonder if this wasn’t the first time that he ended up in a conversation like this. Maybe with Fela herself, if Tristen had to guess. Perhaps, Fela didn’t have as heavy of a hand as Tristen did. It wasn’t anything that he wanted to drill in on, it was irrelevant now. “I’m willing to help.” Tristen said, and unlike Matteo, he didn’t have anything shackling him from giving a gentle smile. “It might take a while. Some habits to break and well…some people to make up to, probably. Find out who’s open to thought and try to give you some slack for a little while, long enough to see that you’re out to do good, and others who just want to be spiteful…probably like Gloria.” Tristen was more than willing to put her in her place the more she wanted to interject. Wouldn’t be the first time; he still recalled how he put her in a position to where Mr. Sanguaro had to yell at her one morning. It was still kind of funny.

As Tristen sighed, enjoying the company now, a thought nagged on him. He thought back, remembering the conversations he had with everyone. Fela, Penny, B, E, even Ms. Picante. Matteo wanted to be better than his father; he clearly idolized him, but…at the same time, the more that time goes on, Tristen was left to think Matteo’s father was the core issue of a lot of what ailed the Growlithe hybrid. If everything that got Matteo the way he has been because of that, then he’d have to guide Matteo step by step. Tristen wondered if he’d ever meet this ‘Orange Blitz’. It was probably a safe bet. There was one other issue that Tristen saw as well…

“Though if I am being honest, I think the hardest thing to do is helping you out with Shelgon. Its not impossible, but that is probably going to be harder than any one person here in the academy.” Tristen said in observation. “When we battled, something I noticed…you seemed to be scared of him. And if he thinks the same thing, then he will take every opportunity to walk all over you. And before he fought against Dragonite, probably thought he was pretty invincible. If I also had to take a guess, this happened when he evolved from Bagon. They’re already kinda rude as Bagon, but Shelgon and even their evolutions are…really tough to deal with I heard. Am I on the right track?” Tristen asked.

Tristen couldn’t help but to think back just then to the many lessons he got from his own adoptive father. The consequences to evolution as opposed to just the physical, tangible things. It was fortunate that Rampardos and Meinshao that both of them didn’t go off the deep end when they very well could have after the battle of Black City, for instance, even though they very well could have. “Yea, that’s…a problem.” Tristen said. He contemplated what to do, rubbing the edge of his soda can with his finger. He had always been told ‘Pokémon depend on you as you depend on them’. A mantra, a creed that was instilled as he was being raised by who was set to be the next gym leader of Mahogany Gym, as the current leader did with him. It was to emphasize the relationship of Pokémon and trainer, the dichotomy, the balance between the two. When something upsets that balance, the relationship falls apart. Contrary to some trainers’ belief, gym badges don’t just automatically make Pokémon bend to their will. They’re symbols of what they accomplished together. Some never have to worry about such things. Others, like Matteo, are now in the midst of trying to repair any relationship he had with others, let alone to this Pokémon. Evolving Bagon to a Shelgon so quickly probably wasn’t the underlying issue, though it probably didn’t help. Matteo perhaps did get a Bagon, thinking that it was going to be cool to have a dragon like that. Tristen did recall how Matteo before as they talked to each other seemed to favor those fierce, large looking Pokémon, and perhaps had some sort of illusion of grandeur that he was going to easily tame such beasts, only for him to realize that was far from the case. And at the moment, it’s only a Shelgon; it wasn’t even at its fiercest state and it already effectively threatens Matteo. Maybe Shelgon realized at the time Matteo was full of himself; a realization that only Matteo was now coming to terms with and wanting to fix it.

As Tristen contemplated how to go about things, he was compelled to ask, trying to see just how systemic the damage was between him and Shelgon. “So, what exactly happened? Did he just evolve and then just attack you without saying anything? Did something happen around the time that made Shelgon not like you anymore? Do you think you were too hard on him?” he started to ask. “I’m only asking because if anything we need to get to the bottom of why he wants to be a bully. You know, make things better between you two. I mean, get this…well, I didn’t tell Fela this, believe it or not, but when the Scatterbug we got from Mr. Jacq for our science project evolved to Spewpa, he was wanting to be a pill too. But the reason why he was? Fela was gone on a trip with her family to the Kalos region and with her being gone, he missed Fela too much and wanted to try to take it out on me or some of my Pokémon. And with him wanting to isolate himself and left himself open to be lunch to a bunch of Fletchling one day and Wattrel another, I sat Spewpa down one afternoon, and had the other Pokémon around staring him down because they were upset with him, to get him to realize that being the way he was wasn’t going to get Fela to come back any quicker and that I was responsible for him too. Spewpa was fine after that and realized that I was telling the truth that she was going to be back, which she did a couple of days later.” Tristen said taking a look up towards the window for a couple of seconds, still trying to be on the lookout for Vivillion for the moment. He then looked back towards Matteo. “It might not solve everything, but it is a start. If it comes to it, see if there is some way that you can get Shelgon to talk to you. Listen to him. Which is going to be the second thing…the other issue is you are going to need to stand up to Shelgon. You can’t be afraid of him anymore, no matter what he does. Respect his power, but don’t fear it. From there, its just taking the issues on one at a time.”

If what Matteo says is true, then he just wasn’t ready for anything this Bagon had to offer. He indulged it all the way up until it finally evolved to Shelgon, and then it was problems from there on. “…you couldn’t bring yourself to do it because of what it would make you look like.” Tristen said, finishing that line of thought. “It’ll take time. Its not going to be done soon; there’s a lot of time between you two that needs to be fixed, but I think once Shelgon realizes that you’re not something like dead weight, then he’d see that you are a good Pokémon trainer. You are a good trainer, and can be better if you can keep your ego in check. And if you can get Shelgon under control somehow, and heck, even get him evolve him to a Salamence and get him to acknowledge that he got that way with your help, he'd be amazing in your Pokémon party.” Tristen said. “Its really just the matter of getting him to recognize you. Accept you.”

Tristen just laughed a little as he started to go down memory lane just now. He took another swig of his soda. “You know, I didn’t have Dragonite under control when I got him either. Though unlike you, I actually got Dragonite as a Dragonite believe it or not. There was a contest back near home. An island chain off of the Kanto Region known as the Sevii Islands. Held a tough contest. One that was getting test ran and if it went off good enough, maybe would have been submitted to the Pokémon League to be part of a different kind of competition. Me and Blizz actually took part of that. I actually…well…took Dragonite from a couple of Pokémon rangers. I was still a Electrike hybrid at the time, and the Pokémon I had on me was Xatu, when he was still a Natu, a Mawile, an Eevee, and a Castform. I had no business at the time trying to fight a Dragonite of all things. Blizz…heh…he didn’t really expect me to capture it, he only wanted me to distract him long enough so he could fight the rangers at the time because the rangers already showed he was a massive powerhouse as is.”

“I didn’t Snag it like I would have any other Pokémon that are with pretty bad people like Team Snagem would have. You wanna know a secret? Most Pokémon Rangers don’t capture Pokémon like you and I do. They have devices to put Pokémon under their control only temporarily and then put them back out in the wild when they’re done, though occasionally they might compel the Pokémon to help the rangers for the longer term. They’re all as wild as any Pokémon that you can go outside and find. Dragonite was one such Pokémon that was like that. He was part of a transportation network called the Dragonite Bus system. They are effectively employed by the rangers to take them where they need to go really fast, or carry things from one place to another. The Pokémon are not really trained for battle, but they got…naturally strong? I guess? Because they worked so hard like that. They moved fast through regions like that. But they were still wild Pokémon. And after having to attrition out Dragonite, I managed to capture him. Freth found out about it and she couldn’t help to laugh because I took the rangers ride and stranded them on the island we were on for a little bit.”

“I didn’t have the Pokémon experience back then as I do now though. Like you with Shelgon, I was scared of Dragonite. Yea, I managed to capture him, but it really didn’t hit me about what it actually meant until I started to try to heal him after our battle against each other. Even hurt, he snapped, thrashed, and even one time tried to fly off with me trying to hold on to his tail. Yelled and roared at me. Wouldn’t listen to anything I said. I was kind of convinced that after the contest was over to give Dragonite back to the rangers. Little did we realized at the time that what remained of the first group of Team Cipher that we dealt with back then was trying to have a last gasp at life by trying to get a powerful Legendary Pokémon, Lugia, that is known to roam there. It all came to a head when all the competitors, including me and Blizz, fought with those Cipher guys. I needed Dragonite to help, but he was still being stubborn and when he yelled at me to back off, I realized that I had…a lot bigger worries than an angry Dragonite. I grabbed Dragonite by the antennae horns and pulled him down to my level, looked him in the eyes and yelled back, telling him to ‘help me help people.’ In hindsight now, that was kind of crazy of me. He could have hyper beamed me to dust right there if he was any angrier of a Pokémon, but apparently…it clicked with Dragonite and helped me fight the Ciphers with everyone else.”

“When I went to return him, figuring that our common enemy was gone, Dragonite actually wanted to stay with me. I earned that respect that day. Something that I hope to never betray as long as we’re together.” Tristen said.

“Truthfully? I don’t know. At the very least, the thing we need is for you two to get a…mutual respect for each other. Sure, you can respect Shelgon all you want, but when he doesn’t have any intention to in return, then suddenly starts thinking he can take on a Dragonite’s Hyper Beam when you know and he should know he can’t, then…well…a lot of good respect is gonna do. Shelgon is going to have to understand you have his best interests at heart and he needs to allow you to guide him through it, for better or for worst. To return that respect. One thing Blizz always told me – ‘Pokémon depend on you as you depend on them’. Its something that he constantly told me as he was trying to train me and make sure that I could make it out on my own when he was not there. He still does. Its to emphasize a balance between Pokémon and trainer. When the balance fails, one way or another, then the whole dynamic falls apart. It’s how Pokémon trainers tend to fail, how Pokémon never progress, one problem gets stacked on top of another. It sounded like you did nothing more than gave in to his want to battle, perhaps for too long, probably to prove he was the best Pokémon around. That didn’t sound like mutual respect, that sounded like…you just being a chauffeur to the next battle. I get that you probably didn’t realize it at the time, but it was something that was…left alone for too long, and when you try to say something about it now that he’s evolved, bigger and stronger than he was, stronger than you even, he knows he can push you around. To bully you. If nothing else, you’re going to have to stand up to him. Probably at worst, take a little bit of a beating, but you can’t back down. You got to show him that you can be strong too. He’s for sure not going to like it at first, you definitely won’t either, but he’s got to give you the time of day again if he wants to do anything else. For him to understand that you know what he wants, what he needs, and what can be done to get there. Maybe even when times where he gets hurt somehow, either from tiring himself out in these battles or something, that instead of taking him to a Pokemon Center, take care of him yourself. If he wants to get up and walking again after a tough battle, he's going to have to listen to you, and know that you care. A good time like that could of happened back at the tournament after Shelgon got blasted by Dragonite, for example. Show him that a lot of good it did just disobeying you and get him to realize that you had a better plan instead of randomly thrashing about. Not to mention, even without all of that, just taking care of Pokemon with your own two hands every now and then and not taking them to a Pokemon center whenever they only got a couple of bumps makes a relationship stronger between Pokemon and trainer.” Tristen said to him.

“Just remember, Matteo, a lot of this is going to take time.” Tristen said as Matteo started to get up. “Its going to be rough; you got a lot of ground to make up for, but I believe you can do it.” Tristen said to the Growlithe hybrid. “At any rate, its not a problem. Its what I wanted to happen. To help you. To help all of us. Just don’t let everyone else get under your skin. I know, it was habit for a long time, but things tends to change. And its okay.” He said as he followed Matteo to the door. He then listened to Matteo as he got his last word in, being lucky that he got the dad he did, the experiences he did. Probably so. It was luck that his fateful encounter being rescued those years ago and effectively being adopted by the likes of a random legendary Pokémon hybrid, trained and given a new lease on life, one that…sad to say almost been revoked on more than one occasion by many forces that be, yea, he was. He wasn’t going to take it at all for granted though.

Tristen made his way back for his desk and gave a sigh, then pulled out his SNAG once more, taking a look at the clock. It was still pretty early, though he needed to at least fix something to eat. He wasn’t planning on going anywhere, however. He still needed to keep a lookout for Vivillion. He went back to his window above his bed, taking a look out the window of the scenery outside, not seeing anything different than what he expected otherwise. Stashing the SNAG once more, he went back around his counter and started to release his Pokémon. Sprigatito, Litten, Rookidee, Wimpod, Espeon, and his own Weavile were released out into his room. The Pokémon started to converse with each other, other than Espeon and Weavile, both of which who wanted to explore and plunder around the new space they found themselves in. Tristen figured it was easier to get these Pokémon fed instead of having to scoot them all out somewhere like at the academy courtyard just because they’re too big. It made feeding Gyarados and Dragonite for instance a bit problematic. Once they were getting settled in, Tristen started to put food out for the each of them and once they were eating, Tristen himself started to fix himself something to eat. A simple sandwich, nothing special. Some chips along side. He would proceed back to his desk and start having at it himself with his meal, staying nearby the window to keep a look out for Vivillion.

As he sat there, eating his meal, he couldn’t help but to think about the conversation with Matteo, still fresh on his mind. He was hoping that this would help Matteo and he wouldn’t have a repeat of what happened those weeks ago. But as he thought about it, the train of thought was suddenly derailed by the general silence, short of the eating and munching noises of his Pokémon. “…I think I need a small TV or something in here…or maybe a computer to use so I don’t have to keep going downstairs if I need one.” Tristen mused. How does one arrange getting something like that in here?

As the Manetric hybrid finished his meal for the evening, Tristen realized that he would have to start asking around tomorrow when more staff is around. Or maybe, give a call back to the headquarters, because all as for he knew, any TV or laptop available here in the academy was going to cost money that he didn’t have in spades. Even if he didn’t have to pay for it right away, he was sure that something was going to come of it. It was probably something he’d look into maybe tomorrow after class. Maybe give Sub a call and hopefully he don’t catch him at a bad time. It wasn’t necessarily important now; he had things that he could take care of in the meantime.

Tristen looked back towards the window for a second, contemplating if he was going to see Vivillion or whatever it was that was leaving its mark on his windowsill. He realized that he couldn’t stay up forever, he did have class tomorrow. Granted he still had a little while before he’d go to bed normally, but it was the question of just when exactly he should just call it quits for his own sake. Tristen decided to just give himself an arbitrary cutoff of around midnight tonight. He got up early as is in the mornings to get himself and his Pokémon ready so he didn’t think getting up too much earlier was going to matter. He’d take a chance tonight. In the meantime, Tristen would clean up the plate that he had to eat on. The Pokémon were already done at this point and then started to go about to explore the limited space that was Tristen’s dorm, though sadly not much to explore. Boredom was going to set in quick for a good number of them, he imagined. Tristen in the meantime made his way back to his desk and went back to work on his Still Life from earlier.

Unless his guest finds its way back on Tristen’s window, here is where Tristen would stay until around midnight, trying to at least make his Still Life pictures half-decent…

At this point, Tristen was starting to go cross eyed from trying to draw a Still life. He eventually managed to draw the first one of his books, pack, Lure and Heavy Balls, though he still wasn’t happy with how it looked in spite of him trying. He was convinced he really need to try to do this more. He got started with a second picture, where he had left his Pokémon food dishes, their food, and their own Pokeballs on the kitchen counter for him to look at. Tristen would have thought drawing a simple circle with a couple of lines across it to represent a Pokeball would be easy…far from it in fact. He wasn’t feeling the greatest about his work of art. Fortunately he would have another day tomorrow to try to finish it and try to make a third one before the next art class. He was getting tired however. Tristen reached over towards his SNAG, seeing the time on it. He stayed up as long as he was going to give himself, or his guest. His Pokémon were long since out, a couple of them taking up residence on his bed, another one on the counter, one on his desk fortunately out of the way of his work. Tristen realized that he wasn’t going to be feeling the greatest when he got up, shorting himself some sleep, but he said that he would try to give it a shot and see if he couldn’t see what was going on. He couldn’t just go without sleep, and he very well knew being short on it sucked extremely. He wasn’t a stranger to it, but it wasn’t anything he wanted to do.

With a sigh, resigned that he was not going to get any more company. Tristen stretched out in his chair and got up, but before he walked off to get ready for sleep, he started to hear something. He looked around then looked towards the window that he had left the curtain and blinds open this entire time. Tristen narrowed his eyes, not sure what he was looking at; whatever it was it was doing a good job covering up the window from the outside. Tristen started to wonder for a second then grabbed the Premier Ball as a just in case notion, then shifted towards the window slowly, trying to get a closer look at what it was. As he slinked towards the window, trying to not disturb the Sprigatito and Espeon on his bed, he tried to get a better look. His lights in his dorm wasn’t doing a good job showing it and the few lights outside were all on the ground floor and didn’t reach this high up. He had to go for it. Tristen slowly unlatched the window and pushed it up to get a good view. “…uh…hello?”

Tristen nearly jumped when Vivillion jumped itself in panic, the noise of the commotion of the window jarring awake the Pokémon in his room. Tristen wasn’t sure if it was in fact his and Fela’s science project, but there was only one way to find out. Tristen aimed the Premier Ball out the window and at the fleeing Vivillion, ready for this instance. “If that is actually you, in the ball!” Tristen said. Pokeballs encoded with the Pokémon in question would get returned back into the ball they were captured in. If this wasn’t his and he made contact with the laser, the ball would reject the Pokémon. Tristen was taking a gamble. If it wasn’t their Vivillion, then nothing lost other than a couple of hours of sleep, if it was, Fela was going to be happy tomorrow.