"See, you aren't ready to go into the forest. Now go back and train, kid."
"Hold it!"
"Now who's inter-. Oh, shit, the Rangers. Get outta here, kid. It's gonna get messy."
I followed the voices off the route and found a Flux grunt battling a Ranger. The grunt's Scyther quickly overwhelmed the Ranger's Pachirisu. The Ranger pointed the red device on her wrist at the Scyther, but a Swablu appeared out of nowhere and tackled her down. Another Flux member ran in from the other side.
"How's that for teamwork?" she mocked the Ranger as the Scyther knocked out Pachirisu.
"Terrible," I said as Nova and Nautilus rushed their Pokémon. Nova's Embers zoned in on Scyther, the small flames bursting all over its face and wings. Nautilus snuck up on the Swablu and used Psyshock. The Swablu fainted right away, allowing my two starters to take down the Scyther.
Nova sent a flurry of Embers toward Scyther, causing it to dodge backward into Nautilus' waiting Pluck. Nautilus then used Psybeam to send Scyther into Nova's next round of Embers. They went back and forth like this until the Scyther fainted.
"Yo, that's no fair!" the first Flux grunt cried. "You came out of nowhere and ganged up on Mantis!"
"Tough luck," I replied, helping the Ranger up. With Nautilus and Nova at her side, she arrested the two. She called her headquarters, who told her to wait for a League Agent.
"Thank you," she said after placing them in handcuffs. "I thought the second grunt actually ran away. I didn't expect to get blind-sided like that."
"No problem," I answered. I watched as she locked their PokéBalls, turning on the Stasis mode. "These chuckle fucks have been getting more aggressive lately. I'm more than happy to beat them for the betterment of society."
"What the hell did you call me? The only reason you won was 'cause you snuck up on us and battled dirty like a fucking Scrafty."
"Yeah, yeah," I replied. "Neurologists would whistle like a mechanic if they looked at your brain."
Both the Ranger and the second Flux grunt started laughing. The first grunt looked confused for a moment, then turned to his partner. "Why the fuck are you laughing too?"
"Because he's right. He's out of line, but he's right," she answered between breaths. "That shit was funny, yo."
"It's not even that funny," he muttered. "It doesn't make sense."
"Wisdom is fast, but it seems you are faster," I nodded. He struggled against the cuffs for a few moments before giving up and settling for giving me a death glare. The League Agent teleported next to the Ranger, who reported what happened. After confirming some details with me, the Agent teleported again with the two grunts.
"Again, thank you for your help," the Ranger turned to me. "I don't think that would have turned out well otherwise."
"I know Team Flux is relatively new, but have they harmed or killed Trainers? Team Flare was a dangerous group, but does Flux compare to them?" I asked.
"None of our reports have suggested they are dangerous," she answered. "But you should still be careful. They aren't afraid to hurt Trainers, as you saw with their Swablu."
Her expression grew serious, and she looked around quickly before saying, "I've also heard they're behind the current Vespiquen and Ledian conflict. I don't know if that's true, but any confirmation will be rewarded. Just stay safe."
"Will do. I'll make sure to report anything I find. Take care!"
I continued my walk with Nova and Nautilus. Tetsu was too heavy for me to carry her the entire way, and she seemed to be getting heavier every day. She also couldn't keep up by bouncing or rolling along with us. Until her Metal Claw was reliable enough for her to walk with them, I decided it would be better for her to stay in her ball.
That left the other two to protect me. Despite how they aggravated each other this morning, Nova and Nautilus worked well together. Maybe it was the times they'd battled against each other, but each seemed to know what the other planned to do and helped each other land hits on the Scyther.
"You two did a great job," I praised them. "With coordination like that, Team Flux is going down in no time."
"Coco!"
"Inkay!"
"Alright, we've only got about three hours of daylight left. Based on how fast we're going, I say we'll get to Lumiose in just under three more days. That means we have time to train a bit each day. So, let's travel for another hour and we'll spend the last two hours of the day training, got it?"
After the two confirmed, we traveled at a faster pace than before. There were a few moments we had to hide from a group of Bugs fighting, but we didn't find ourselves in big trouble during the hour.
After setting up camp, I cooked a lentil curry and made Grumpig ham and cheese sandwiches. Tetsu and Nova enjoyed most of the sandwiches, while Nautilus and I stuffed ourselves with curry.
A few Trainers passed by and asked if they could rest and chat for a bit. I made extra curry and sandwiches to share. I doubted the younger ones would have joined me if I hadn't made the curry. It was nice to chat with other Trainers, but the age differences were prominent in the conversations I had. Some of the younger teens talked about their favorite Gym Leaders and Pokémon. The older teens asked for advice. Most of them wanted input on team building and Gym Battle strategies, but there was one kid who asked for advice on getting a girlfriend. That one made me uncomfortable, but he didn't stay very long.
Once we were alone, I had my three Pokémon start their training. Nautilus hyper-focused on honing Pluck and Psyshock to be more efficient, but I also had him practice Disable whenever Nova got too frustrated to do anything but spam Ember. I also wanted him to learn to manipulate Water-type energy, so I added Rain Dance to his list of move training.
Nova had Ember, Dig, and Slack Off well-trained already. I asked her to focus on Yawn and Curse while also learning to manipulate Dark and Fairy-type energy with Bite and Disarming Voice.
It was hard to choose a specific training goal for Tetsu because of the number of good moves she had available. In the end, I had her focus on Metal Claw so she could travel with us. Along with Metal Claw, I wanted Tetsu to focus on Stealth Rock and Leech Seed. She was going to be my tank, and it was better to start environmental control early.