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Once Tristen finally crossed the threshold leading out of Mezagoza, he made his way across the bridge and back to a familiar sight. The fields of southern Paldea. The small ponds that sparsely dotted the area and the path that circled it that went through Los Platos and back around to the gates of Mezagoza. Right at the moment, he didn’t want to actually get into a fight with any random wild Pokémon that might be roaming around. Maybe later, perhaps. For now, it was making sure that Spewpa was ready to actually take on something and if not, to actually work on that. He wanted to do this sooner, but between Tristen training and Spewpa wanting to be a pill before that, it was easier said. Fortunately, after being called out yesterday in front of all of Tristen’s Pokémon, effectively having a ‘coming to Arceus’ meeting with the bug, Spewpa seemed to now got his act straight. At least, he hoped so. It did look promising when Spewpa finally apologized to Wimpod and even in a rather heartwarming sight the two was taking a nap with each other back on the beach.

Tristen made his way off past the Pokémon center and off to the fields, not really following any path, looking for a good enough clearing. Also one where the nearest tree was a good ways away. Last thing he wanted was some wild Pokémon to ruin the day, let alone having a random perching bird decide it was supper time, as was nature’s way. At least this way, he’d be able to better defend Spewpa if push came to shove. Once Tristen found a good enough spot, he tossed out the two Pokeballs. “Wimpod, Spewpa. Let’s go.” He said, giving the two Pokeballs a lob out in front of him. The balls popped open in a flash and allowed out the two bug times. “Hey there, you two, how’s it going?”

“Wimpaaa.” Wimpod spoke up.

“Alright, well, we’re going to help out Spewpa today. Before we can get to some actual battling again, I want to make sure that Spewpa can actually move around good enough. I bet its kinda hard trying to move around like that. It looked like it a little bit and you needed your string shot to pull you everywhere, didn’t you?” Tristen asked Spewpa.

Tristen thought for a moment then had a bit of an idea but he needed to test a few things. “Okay, lets try a few things that might be able to help…how about you use String Shot on Wimpod. Wimpod, when you get hit with String Shot, I want to try to pull away from it. Spewpa, I want you to pull Wimpod to you. I want to see how strong your strings are, Spewpa, and also maybe how strong you can pull. The whole idea is to be adaptable. Obviously moving around on two non-existent feet right now isn’t going to help you out, so you need to rely on other things. I think if we can use your String Shot right, you can be good to battle really good again.” Tristen would explain. If he can get a gauge as to how much strength Spewpa had itself or the strength of the String Shot, he may have some idea as to how to work with Spewpa from here on.

As Wimpod was pelted with the String Shot, Wimpod would go ahead and do as instructed. Tristen was trying to work a more likely scenario in his head, trying to discern any plausibility. As far as what he could think, if the String Shot threads were strong enough, Spewpa could do one of two things. He either could pull a target to it or pull itself to its target. By Tristen’s thinking, smaller the target was, the more likely the former was the case, and visa versa. Not to mention, once Spewpa evolves again to its final state, String Shot might end up its most valuable asset. Last thing Tristen imagined anything wanted was a Spewpa dangling around and causing havoc. Nor would they expect it, incidentally. Spewpa just had to get trained in working like that for a little while until it found itself with wings. As Spewpa hung on tight, Wimpod started to run off the other way, making the tension rather tight on the string shot webbing. “Spewpa, if you can pull Wimpod toward you, do it. Let’s see what you got!” Tristen said.

Tristen watched the two bugs try to pull at each other. Wimpod was trying to pull away, its tiny feet digging away at the ground to get away from Spewpa. Spewpa on the other hand was firmly anchored, not giving an inch. “Alright, stop! Stopstopstop!” Tristen called out to the two bug Pokémon, wanting the tug of war to cease between the two. “Good work you two, that’s good.” This gave a bit of an idea as to what Tristen had to work with, unfortunately, it came under estimate. While the string shot held tough, the bugs were effectively in a stalemate in force. Spewpa wasn’t going to be able to pull much if anything at all to it, so it was probably best to pull itself to its intended target. “Alright Spewpa, its probably going to be best if you pull yourself to whatever you’re shooting your String Shot at, like what you were doing to that rock earlier, but instead of dragging yourself to it, try hopping, and when you make your hop, pull. Here. Detach yourself from Wimpod for a second, then use a String Shot on me. It'll be fine. We’re just working on something, okay?”

“Wii-paa?”

“It might be a little bit of work, but we need to work on getting you to where you need to go faster, right? You’re going to need to use whatever momentum your opponent has against it. It will be a little tough, but if you can get it right and in range of whoever you need to battle, then you can start using attacks like your Struggle Bug or your Stun Spore. So go ahead, fire a String shot, Wimpod.” Tristen said. It was just like training back at the headquarters and the best kind was having the trainer get involved. Firing at targets and practice on dummies were all well and good, but sometimes the trainer going hands on was sometimes the best way to show that one cared. That they too were going to put in the work just as much as the Pokémon in training. Establishing a bond more than anything.

Tristen looked down at his waist and gave a nod. “Okay, good. Now obviously, no Pokémon is going to like it when you do this, so you know they will either try to get away from you, or try to take your String Shot off, which is going to be a bit hard to do when in battle. Sometimes they’ll think they’re trying to shield themselves from it, but you really don’t care about that. You care about just sticking onto whoever you’re trying to battle.” Tristen said. “So first, lets try just some simple things. First let’s just get you moving. Start hopping and pull yourself to me when you do it and keep doing that until you get to me.” Tristen said. “Don’t worry about trying to break any speed records, but just get in the groove to getting to your opponent. You need to get close for Struggle Bug or at least get in enough range for Stun Spore, so give it a try Spewpa.” He said to the bug.

“You’re fine, Spewpa. Take your time.” He said at the first attempt, trying to be encouraging just as he always has to any Pokémon. He’d watch the Spewpa make a few more attempts, Wimpod moving in to shove himself under the Spewpa and push him up. Tristen wasn’t going to object for the time being; this was practice after all. “You’re getting there, Spewpa…” Tristen said, he himself lifting Spewpa off the ground and put him back up right. “It’s a little tough, I know, but I can only image there are a lot of Bug Pokémon like you that are in your situation. But you know? You can come out on top better than all of them if you get this down. And once you do, we can get to the next step. Don’t worry about anything else right now; this is just practice, okay? Wimpod and I will be with you every step of the way on this.” Tristen said, stepping back again, careful to not lose the String Shot that Spewpa attached to him. “Try it again. You can do it.”

“Hey! Way to go, Spewpa!” He said, reaching down and picking up the bug off the ground to give Spewpa much deserved praise. Wimpod scurried himself close by giving a few squeals out himself. “And keep in mind, you can do this to effectively a lot of stuff like that rock over there from earlier. But now…” he then set the bug down. “In battle, you know they’re not going to just let you hop over all that easily. If you’re not trying to tangle opponents up with your String Shot to slow them down, they’ll try to get the string off of them. But your strings…” he then knelt down, taking the string off of himself, albeit with a fair bit of effort, to show to Spewpa then started to pull on it with his two hands. It was sticky, but it was pretty tough. Maybe not as tough as say Galvantula’s webs, but they would serve the job for Spewpa’s purposes. “…they’re really tough, they’d probably would have to try cutting it more than just trying to pull it off themselves. So…the next thing I want you to do…” Tristen stepped back some. “You’re going to want opponents to pull you to them, rather if they mean to or not. So, try to shoot me with a String Shot somewhere like my arms.” Tristen then said to the Spewpa. Come one way or another, a mundane String Shot was going to be this Spewpa’s most powerful and versatile weapon.