Turning to the two old men for help, though, was a complete waste of time.
Both old bachelors had spent their whole lives with almost no experience dealing with women. Asking them for advice now would get less useful results than asking Aresdra's Psyduck, DIO. At least DIO's two Trainers were both lovely women, so even a Psyduck probably understood girls better than these two old men did.
Both seniors acted as though the whole scene had nothing to do with them.
Gilbert stared up at the sky, admiring how the clouds drifting over the desert were, in fact, very cloud-like.
Mort stared down at the ground, muttering to himself about how sandy the desert sand truly was.
In short: you made her cry, Nova, so you go comfort her yourself.
Nova's thought: Comfort her? I'd sooner comfort a rock.
Did the woman across from him look like a normal girl to anyone?
What kind of person bullies others without mercy when winning, then throws a screaming fit the moment they lose?
Nova quickly recalled Nidoking and his two other Pokémon into their Poké Balls, released Corviknight, and climbed onto its broad back with Meowscarada.
Then he made a swift exit.
"Master, Senior, about that task to gather resources in the desert, I'm not finished yet! I'll go find some good materials for the Dojo right now!"
"Don't wait up for me at dinner tonight!"
Without waiting to hear what the two men thought of that, he had Corviknight take off at once, clearly not planning to stick around.
Mort turned to look at Gilbert.
After a lifetime of knowing each other, the two released their Garchomp at the exact same moment and shot off at incredible speed.
Anyone still near the battlefield could have looked up and seen Corviknight's large shape crossing the sky far ahead.
Mort and Gilbert's shared thought: Trying to run from us? You've got a long way to go, kid.
Diane, still sprawled on the ground kicking and sobbing, finally opened her eyes after a while, only to find her whole world had fallen apart.
It seemed like every man from Layered Peaks Gym was useless.
What kind of men ran off while she was heartbroken?
Cowards! Every last one of them, old and young alike!
Just wait, I'll post about this online and get everyone to drag your names through the mud!
Diane looked up at the sky. Corviknight wasn't especially fast, so she could still make out Nova's position. Part of her wanted to send out her Salamence and chase after him, but the memory of that slap made her hesitate. Diane had well and truly been beaten into submission. She gave up on chasing Nova and instead pulled out a small, adorable Goomy, letting it use the egg move Life Dew to soothe her swollen cheek.
Ignoring the mess Diane had left behind, Nova felt lighter than he had all day. After flying a short distance, he found a sheltered spot and let his team rest for a while.
To be fair, even though Diane didn't put much effort into training or caring for her Pokémon, their raw talent was undeniable. That battle had genuinely pushed Nova hard.
Especially that Gold-Tier Archaludon; how unfair its stats were bordered on ridiculous.
After a strange, messy match with no clean beginning or ending, both of Nova's Pokémon that had fought were seriously worn down.
Azir, in particular, had been pushed into a frenzied state by Zweilous. He had snapped out of it eventually, but his HP wouldn't recover quickly on its own.
Back when Nova used to play the Pokémon games, he always hoarded a backpack full of healing items and never touched them until after finishing the whole game, which made them pointless in the end.
But in real life, it was much harder to let an injured partner suffer just to save a few Potions.
Nova no longer needed to hold back. He had a full supply of recovery items and no reason to be stingy with them.
There was also that oddly bulky portable Pokémon healing machine from the now-closed Withered Gym. Since the Gym had shut down, Nova figured it was better to take it than let it go to waste, and had stored it away in his bottomless bag.
The machine wasn't very "portable" at all, and it cost one Revive plus a large amount of electricity every time it was used, but it was still a proper healing machine, capable of fully restoring a Pokémon's HP. Out in the wild, that made it more than worth the trouble.
Nova had Nidoking haul the machine out of the bag. He used two Revives to bring both Meowscarada and Azir back to full health, then had Nidoking carry the heavy machine back into storage.
He wasn't overworking Nidoking on purpose; it just happened to be the only Pokémon on his team strong enough to carry something that size, aside from maybe his temporary teammate, Rhydon.
After all, when the Withered Gym had used this same machine, it had taken two Golett working together just to move it.
After tending to his partners and sharing a quiet dinner, the team rested for over an hour before Nova decided to move again.
Under the desert night sky, he rode Corviknight a short distance further and finally reached the area near Taylor's old research base.
It wasn't that Nova had some amazing memory for the terrain around the underground lab. It was simply that the number of wild Vibrava nearby had grown noticeably.
As the team's scout, Azir, now fully recovered, buzzed busily around Nova and Corviknight, gathering information while chasing off any Pokémon that came too close.
He showed no mercy at all, even toward his own kind.
Any Vibrava foolish enough to attack Nova or approach with bad intentions was met with swift punishment from the self-proclaimed Desert Prince.
If Nova hadn't already told Azir not to kill wild Pokémon during fights, he likely would have witnessed some brutal scenes between kin that night.
Because of the effects of a corrupting substance in his bloodline, Azir was naturally more violent than an ordinary Vibrava. If he ended up crippling a Pokémon Nova wanted to catch, Nova would have been furious.
But Azir didn't see the issue at all. He wasn't a child personally raised by the Flygon Queen, and he hadn't grown up alongside these wild Vibrava.
In other words, because of that same corrupting influence, even their actual parents no longer recognized these violent offspring as their own. After being rescued, the parents had simply walked away without looking back, returning to a quiet life deep in the mountains.
Azir didn't even know he shared parents with these defeated wild Vibrava, and even if he had known, he lacked any real sense of kinship toward them.
Thanks to Azir's ruthlessness, Nova ended up catching four Vibrava during this short stretch, which would make for a nice bonus back at his Martial Uncle's place.
Since Vibrava were showing up in such large numbers nearby, it meant Nova had finally reached his destination. He had Corviknight land, and the next step was pinpointing the exact location of the underground base.