I woke up to a very heart-warming scene. Nautilus was sleeping at the foot of the bed frame, huddled together with a small spot where Mudkip's head could be seen popping out. I wonder if Nautilus had a similar backstory. I still haven't asked him, mostly because I couldn't understand anything from a Pokémon other than a general sense of what they wanted to say. Like, I could understand when they tell me they're hungry or want to battle, or if they are okay with something, like the Pyroar from way back when.

Tetsu, as always, had taken up most of the bed and left me just enough room to not fall without cuddling up with her. Well, I've always slept like a log, and by that, I mean I never move when I sleep, so it didn't matter if I didn't have too much room. I began to stretch, which woke Tetsu up. As she began to rise, her metallic hums woke Nautilus and Mudkip.

"Good morning doll," I told Mudkip. "We're early risers, so you'll have to get used to waking up early. We train in the mornings, but I don't expect you to join just yet. I'll have to see where you are before that happens. Is that alright?"

Mudkip groggily nodded her head before slumping back into dreamland. I chuckled when Nautilus got up and brought Mudkip along with his telekinesis. It made sense that he could do it, since he's a Psychic-type, but it's still weird to see when it never happened before. We walked out towards the gym and began our warm-up. Mudkip slept for another hour and only woke up before we started our sparring.

I decided that it would be best for me to spar with Nautilus and Tetsu. Not only would it toughen me up considerably, it would get me used to the high-speed battles they partook in. I recently learned that both had learned new moves recently, so I had to adjust their training regiment.

Nautilus/Malamar:

Moves: Peck (trained), Tackle, Hypnosis (trained), Disable (trained), Attract, Pluck (trained), Psybeam (trained), Slash (Trained), Night Slash (Trained), Guard Swap (Trained), Stored Power, Psycho Cut, Reflect, Swagger (Egg Move), Acupressure (Egg Move)

New moves: Reversal, Wrap, (Protect)

Tetsu/Ferroseed:

Moves: Harden (trained), Tackle (trained), Pin Missile, Bullet Seed (trained), Iron Defense (trained), Ingrain (Trained), Spikes (Training), Endure, Flash Cannon (Trained), Gravity (Egg Move, trained), Leech Seed (Egg Move, trained)

New Moves: Vine Whip, Iron Head, Self-Destruct, (Protect)

Hmm, I guess all those Beedrill really helped with move training. I think I understand what the Professor was saying. Ok, I'll have Nautilus focus on Psycho Cut, Reversal, and Reflect. Tetsu will continue to focus on Spikes, since it was difficult to train that with flying bugs, Vine Whip, and Iron Head. They could both practice their moves during our spars. Protect could be trained/learned during their meditation sessions.

With that figured out, we began. Nautilus flew in with a Psycho Cut, which I used against him by grabbing around it and flipping him over and into Tetsu, who had begun preparing Spikes. Most of the Spikes landed on Nautilus. He grunted and set up Reflect while Tetsu used Vine Whip to grab him and lash out at me. I started to dodge her attacks, keeping on the defensive since there were still a few Spikes scattered around her. I definitely did not want to find out how much they hurt.

We kept brawling for a while, which surprised me. I was expecting to get knocked out of the round within a few minutes. Psycho Cut and Vine Whip hurt like a bitch, but Iron Head and Reversal were easy enough to dodge. At least for me, I couldn't say the same for the other two. After almost a full hour of it, we stopped. The three of us were super tired and sweaty, so we decided to shower up and then head out for breakfast.

Mudkip was exuberantly talking about our spar with Nautilus and Tetsu. While we ate, I asked Mudkip if she had done any training before. She answered with only some move training. She trained Tackle and Growl with her siblings, while Counter and Endure got a lot of use during the few days of getting attacked by other Pokémon.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

I asked if she could show me her moves after breakfast, to which she half-heartedly agreed. I guess she won't be one for training. Not yet, at least. Once we got back to the gym, Mudkip presented each of her moves. She had really good stamina with Tackle, being able to do it repeatedly for 30 minutes without getting tired. Growl was able to slightly affect Tetsu and Nautilus, so I'm sure that would be good enough for now.

Counter and Endure were busted. She was able to take a Flash Cannon, Slash, and Psybeam with some healing in between. Counter, which was used after each hit she took, nearly made Nautilus faint after Mudkip took that Slash. Mudkip was very efficient with those two moves in particular, taking barely a couple of seconds to use them. I'd hazard a guess about those four moves being well-trained already.

Her aim for Water Gun and Rock Throw were abysmal. Rock Throw in particular was a struggle for her. We were definitely going to be focusing on those two. I wasn't sure about training her to use Hail, but I figured it would be good to have it as an extra training tool for Nautilus, Tetsu, and I. Better to train for the cold now.

With that, I asked Mudkip if she was willing to join our training.

'Why would I want to train?' she asked with Nautilus as our messenger.

"Well, that's up to you. I'm training because I need to be strong in order to protect my family," I answered her, gesturing to Nautilus and Tetsu as I did so.

'I train because there are much stronger monsters out in the world, and I want to be able to fight against them,' was Nautilus' reply.

'We nearly died about a week ago and I don't wanna die yet. Plus, it's fun!' was Tetsu's answer.

Mudkip stared at her for a minute. It might've been the fact that we almost died or the fact that Tetsu said it with a rather joyous tone that made her pause.

'Was that Golisopod strong?' she asked Nautilus.

'Not really. Even he would be able to fend it off,' he answered with a smirk. I think he knew what she was thinking. Or he just wanted to talk shit.

'Hmm, then I want to get stronger. If I get lost again, I don't want to be the same weakling I was before.'

She sounded much more confident. Is it just me, or do these changes happen really quickly? Anyway, I told her about how our training worked. Physical exercise, sparring, breakfast, move training, and then meditation. Simple enough for the first three hours of the day. They began their move training while I practiced with Mudkip. I had her try to hit me with Water Gun while I dodged, then try to hit me with Rock Throw while I either punched through those rocks or threw them at Nautilus and Tetsu.

I didn't have to guide Nautilus and Tetsu as much since they had already gotten accustomed to how I wanted them to do things. After meditating, I began to accept some tasks. There were quite a few things to do for the local ranch, though most of them were making deliveries and didn't pay all that much.

I went for the classics: catching Pokémon for people. I also took on a few battle requests from trainers that had created new moves or something like that. They needed to test out the moves and were paying quite well.

We went down into Route 13 to catch a few Pokémon. Nothing too major, just a few Geodudes for a construction company and a Trapinch for an independent researcher. Just those two would net me 11,000$. As for the battles, I had three to do today. Two people were testing a move they created with their Pokémon, while the other was just a regular Trainer wanting to see if they were ready to take on this gym. I would earn 12,000$ from those three.

It seemed like a lot of money, and to be honest, it was. But I only had two, three Pokémon to take care of now. If I counted correctly, Tetsu would cost me about 15,000$ per month in metals to feed her, Nautilus would be at about 2,000$ since he can just eat the same stuff I can, and I wasn't sure about Mudkip yet. A full team would fuck me over if I didn't have a steady stream of money or a huge savings.

That aside, the Geodude were easy enough to catch. I convinced a whole group of them to get caught by telling them they could flex their muscles and be fed for it. The Trapinch, not so much. I was following one because it was the only one I could find out here. It fled on sight, much to my annoyance. It kept using something like Bulldoze while digging to slightly confuse us on its location, but Mudkip was able to discern him from other stuff using the fin on her head.

I guess I won't be able to negotiate at this point.

"Tetsu, Gravity on the spot Mudkip points out. Nautilus, knock it out."

That's all I needed to say. Mudkip stared in a certain direction for a few seconds before Tetsu flattened the ground, leaving a small mound of dirt just a stone's throw away. Nautilus immediately went for a weakened Peck, knocking it out immediately. I threw a Pokéball and missed. I guess it couldn't be as easy as the games.

I walked over to it and tapped the ball on its head. It wobbled three times before dinging. I still had more than enough time for the battles, so we walked back to the PokéCenter. On the way, I stopped by a PokéMart to get someone to appraise the stones Nautilus and Tetsu found. Most of them were things like Hard Rocks that weren't of high quality, which meant they didn't have too much energy left.

There was one Nugget, two Pearls, a bag of Soft Sand, and a Shiny Stone. I sold the Nugget and Pearls and kept the other two, much to the clerk's dismay. I wonder if they get discounts on evolution stones and stuff.

I left the mart and went to the PokéCenter to heal the Trapinch. I then delivered the Pokémon through the Transport app. Jesus is that app useful. I then waited for the three Trainers at the battle courts the PokéCenter had next to the gym. I only had to wait 20 minutes for the first person to show up.

They were a young male, probably about 18, with long brown hair in a man bun and blue eyes. He wore an orange and green tracksuit, similar to the Ace Trainers from the third and fourth generation games. He looked me over once, not bothering to greet or thank me before calling out a Swoobat.

"Don't get upset if your Pokémon gets seriously hurt, you signed up for this," he said in a haughty voice. I didn't bother to respond verbally, instead opting to mock him internally with a mental face and the thought 'I'm Peng Clan's young master.'

I sent out Ferroseed for this one. I actually wanted to see what this move was, but since it was a battle, I was not going to let my Pokémon lose just to do so. We didn't need a referee since it wasn't the same as a normal League battle. Instead, the contract we signed for the task took care of any potential problems.