Bo remained calm and still as predators gathered around him, their cold, analytical gazes seeming to pierce right through his soul. Luckily, even abandoned by his pokemon in this hour of need as he was, Bo had gone through more harrowing experiences then this. He knew the secret to escaping the hunting pack that had encircled him was to identify the weakest link and charge. Gaze darting around, he locked in on two, their eyes lacking the hardness brought on by years of experience bringing down their prey. Turning to face them, Bo put on his most beguiling smile, holding a perfect mix of vulnerability and charm.
“Well, what do you think?”
“Uhhhhhh…”
“Florrrr…”
“You still look like a haunted scarecrow.”
“I was asking Alice and Fay, Dani,” Bo retorted quickly before smiling back at where Alice and Fay were still hesitating with innocent eyes. Around them, Dani, Witch, Suzu and Song were staring at him far more critically, while another woman and a Jynx were pinching and pulling at the fabric. Off to the side, Isaac and his Leavanny were hunched over a bundle of fabric, and seemingly ignoring them, while Carter lounged annoyingly carefree against a nearby wall. The dimly lit building they were in would have been rather spacious and airy if it wasn’t for the swathes of fabrics and dozens of clothing items hung up by webs, stretching throughout the shop. The enormous Ariados clinging to one corner of the ceiling didn’t help either.
On one of the few days they were all letting themselves and their teams rest from intensive training, Bo had finally found himself inside Isaac’s tailoring shop to spruce up his image just a little. After much thought, he had decided that it probably couldn’t hurt to sharpen up a bit and find some clothes other than his comfy robes. In fact, with a quick visit to the local barber taking care of his scraggly mane of hair and a month of being back under Carmine Village’s moonlit sky causing his skin to drift back into a natural pale rather than bone white, he was looking forward to trying on some new duds and letting his sparkling looks shine once more. Yuzu threatening to poison him, Suzu threatening to stab him, Emma threatening via Carter to light his old clothes on fire, and Dani physically dragging him to the store definitely had nothing to do with his decision.
Regardless of what may have been or definitely was his reason, Bo was actually fairly pleased with the first option Isaac had presented him. A silky black yakata broken up by wavy, dark gray pinstripes and bound with a red-checkered sash. It was simple and easy to wear, elegant enough to clearly not be something fit for a vagabond to wear, and thematically on brand. Putting it on, Bo had high hopes that this whole expedition might be resolved quickly. The doubtful looks facing him were throwing a bit of wrench in that hope though.
“The clothes aren’t bad,” Alice hesitantly said while his Floragato nodded in agreement. “But there’s just something off about it all. I’m not really sure what it is.”
“Jy-ynx,” the Jynx chimed in with a frustrated tone as she gave up on whatever she had been trying to fix.
In response, Isaac’s wife Lonny straightened up as well, shooting the pokemon a stern look. “Now, now, there’s a better way to put that.”
“Jynx,” the human-like pokemon said simply, turning towards Isaac. In response, the man jerked up suddenly as if just hearing something.
Looking over at them, he nodded idly towards Bo. “Apparently there’s nothing wrong with the clothes, it’s just Bo.”
“Hey,” Bo exclaimed towards the catty pokemon who just shrugged in response. It didn’t help that a light of seeming understanding had dawned in Alice’s eyes either. Fay at least still looked ready to defend him, sweet child that she was.
“It sounds worse than it is,” Lonny reassured him while shooting Isaac a quick glare. “The fabric doesn’t seem to want to drape properly is all. And with your thin frame and pale complexion, well…”
“You look like a scarecrow,” Dani repeated in a sadly factual tone. “Or maybe one of those monsters in ghost stories that show up to snatch children.”
“Fros,” Bo’s Froslass agreed with a derisive huff. For a ghost whom he’d once caught after several families in a small mountain village had reported missing children, she was apparently rather judgmental about such things.
“Kinda like a Darkrai,” Suzu nodded along with a considering look.
“That’s not so bad,” Carter, Bo’s lord and savior, chimed in. “Darkrai is practically an icon of dark typing and who’s to say that scary, horror movie vibes can’t be your shtick. Blaine started dressing up like a gameshow host during the last few years.”
“Thanks man, but I’m pretty sure the League would rather their Gym Leaders’ appearances not scare first year trainers.” Bo responded dryly, his shoulders slumping. At least Witch hadn’t felt the need to chime in, favoring quietly watching them all instead. Without being told, he sighed and stepped back into the changing room before slipping off the robes. Turning to thumb through some of the other clothes Isaac and Lonny had left for him, along with some selections he and his friends had found amongst the chaos, Bo called out from across the curtain. “I still say that it’s completely unfair that Carter just got to let Emma find him a new look.”
“Married,” responded Carter’s blunt voice with just a hint of amusement. “Suck it.”
Bo rolled his eyes but chuckled lightly. He had to admit that Emma had found something that truly fit Carter to a tee. Much more than the leather clad skin-head look he'd used to rock ever had. When they’d first walked into the shop, Carter had shared a look of dread equal to Bo’s, only for Isaac to reveal that Emma had already sent a few ideas to him ahead of time. The scarred tailor and his Leavanny had proudly shown off a series of dark gray aprons made out of a sturdy fabric produced by the bug type. Each apron featured a patch depicting the stylized image of one of Carter’s dark type pokemon, even one showing a Vullaby. All he needed to do was throw one on over a shirt and jeans and he was good to go. Even now, Carter had happily slung the one bearing a snarling Houndoom across his chest.
For the next three days (though Rotobi kept trying to convince him it had only been thirty minutes), Bo tried on a series of outfits to no avail. He outright refused the suit and tie, Lonny’s eye wouldn’t stop twitching at the paisley shirt, Alice begged him to not go with the Umbreon kigurami, and Dani tackled him to get the Wigglytuff fur coat off of him (soo fucking soft). So far, the closest contender was a slinky, black dress that Bo, Dani and even Alice agreed did wonders for his legs. Unfortunately, Carter and Suzu had vetoed it, siting possible lawsuits if he forgot to cross his legs when sitting. They were just debating the pros and cons and cons of a carmine zoot suit when Isaac got up with a huff and scooped up a nearby stack of clothes.
Walking over to Bo, he bluntly pressed the stack into his hands. “I’m done. Here. Wear this,” he rasped quietly while pushing him towards the dressing room. “Buy it and get out.”
Nonplussed, Bo slipped out of the suit and looked at the two outfits presented to him. They were nearly identical, but Bo noticed that one of them was thicker and heavier, made from a fluffy cotton blend Bo recognized as coming from a Cottonee. Clearly designed for colder temperatures. Closing in on the peak of Spring as they were, Bo put that one to the side for the moment, scooping up the remaining set of clothes. Quickly shrugging them on, Bo found himself actually giving a pleased smile at the simple setup before stepping out.
The others forgo any immediate comments, as they tilted their heads considerately. Bo was wearing a light, white turtleneck and loose, black slacks, topped with an inky-black jacket he thought might have been made from Isaac’s Ariados’ silk. He’d dropped the beaded necklace in favor of clipping pokeballs to magnetic clips lining an unobtrusive shoulder holster under the jacket. Isaac had even provided a matching pair of nondescript, slip-on sneakers. Overall, the whole get-up was simple, easy to move in, and easy to maintain, three big plusses in Bo’s mind. Thankfully, the others seemed to agree after a moment.
“Not bad,” Dani smiled appraisingly. “Reminds me a bit of Palmer, but distinct enough to work.”
“Thaaats what it reminded me of,” Alice exclaimed.
Suzu too was smiling happily. “You still somehow make it look kinda eerie, but not nearly as bad as the robes. Just enough to be intimidating is pretty on brand for you.”
“Works for me,” Carter offered with a satisfied nod, seemingly both approving of the outfit and happy to be done with the conversation.
Bo would take it though. He turned towards Isaac to tell him, when a sudden thought made him cock his head. “Wait, if you had this sitting there the whole time, what have we been doing here.”
Isaac exchanged a look with his wife and their Jynx, who blushed and looked away, before shrugging and turning to face Bo again. “We get bored,” came his blunt rasp.
Amidst several cackles from Dani and not-so-well-hidden snorts from the others, Bo and Carter resignedly paid the man. Carter for the seven aprons Isaac had already made, along with a payment to get a few more made featuring his non-dark types, and Bo for a dozen sets of the shirt and pants, along with a few back-ups of the jackets. Being a Gym Leader and Gym trainer might not involve as much travel as being a wandering trainer, but both men knew how quickly outfits could get ruined when working with pokemon. The thought had Bo briefly rubbing at the back of his neck where his favorite scarf used to hang, but he pushed the memory out of his mind. He could have bought a dozen of the exact same scarf since the last one was destroyed but they’d never really be the same.
As he stepped out of the store into the street with his new clothes tucked away in his drawstring bag, Bo stretched his arms skywards with a content sigh. Feeling Fay’s pampered spirit lounging in her ball and the echoing giddiness from where Song and Gizmo hid in his shadow, he embraced the sense of joy running through him. With the days seeming to fly by and the tournament only a month away now, a twinge of worry had scratched at him all day, but he had to admit that a rest day was nice every once in a while. Even Baron was taking it easy as long as you counted light sparring with Brute and Apollo easy.
Dani and Suzu were chatting happily with the latter planning to show the Galarian woman around the village some more. Carter was practically skipping with a faraway gaze, Bo having told him of a couple of climbing routes on the other side of the mountain. The larger man had immediately mapped one out and made plans to trek some of them. As Bo mulled over what he himself should do on his day off, his gaze landed on the last member of their group. Thinking back to his conversation with his grandfather, Bo called out to her.
“Hey, Alice, you have your pokemon on you?” he asked suddenly, his question causing her to freeze in place.
“Yeah, why,” she asked cautiously.
“Let’s go for a walk,” Bo replied with a jerk of his head. Seeing her cautious expression become slightly more alarmed, he waved a hand to reassure her. “Don’t worry, it’s nothing serious. I just want to take you out into the woods where no one can hear us.”
‘Alright, I should have guessed that telling someone with social anxiety not to worry wouldn’t do much, but why is everyone else glaring at me?’
*
Alice panted heavily as she scrambled through the woods as fast as she could, nearly tripping and tumbling over tangled roots more than a few times as she sought to escape her pursuer. Her long, curly hair slapped irritatingly into her face as dangling branches caught at her sweater. The forest was disturbingly quiet with the exception of the clashing of battle around her. Ducking under a branch and twisting around another tree, the teenager yelped as a razor sharp shard of ice whizzed by her face and slammed into a tree behind her.
“Careful, Song,” the specter of death with his face-splitting smile and dead eyes called out from where he was stalking behind her with agonizing ease. While she crashed her way through the chaotic foliage, the demon easily leapt from root to root, occasionally reaching up to swing from one of the sturdier branches. A slender green feline kept pace alongside him, her pink eyes glittering with amusement at Alice’s plight. “These trees belong to the Shiftry groves. If you’re going to throw something, snuff it out before it hits one of them.”
“Or me!” Alice shouted back between huffs of air.
“That too.”
“Flora!”
“La-la-lass!”
‘That was definitely more of a laugh than an agreement!’
Dashing around her, five of Alice’s pokemon were engaged in a moving hit-and-run battle with Bo’s chattering Froslass. They weren’t losing exactly, but Alice would be hard pressed to call it winning either. Within the coverage of the forest, the icy ghost weaved around or phased through trees on a whim, casually dodging attempts to attack her before zipping off to land quick blows against the other pokemon. While none of her individual attacks did significant damage, Alice could feel the rapidly growing frustration and weariness slipping through her bond with her team. She wasn’t sure how long they’d been running like this, but she knew they were getting tired too.
It had started out well enough. The less agile of her team hung back in their balls while her speedier pokemon engaged the ghost. Sora, her Murkrow, had worked double-time to weigh the ghost down with status moves, Taunt to keep her from using any tricks of her own and Mean Look to hold her still. For a brief few seconds, the others on her team had managed to land blows. Tama in particular had struck with a super effective Feint Attack that sent the Froslass reeling, giving them all hope. Then she started attacking back, the status moves slowly losing the ability to restrain her as she danced between them.
Between breaths, Alice rattled out orders as fast as she could. “Ouma-Agility-to-Smart-Strike-Sora-Confuse-Ray-Kamu-Crunch-YumeTama-Snipe!”
“Ballet,” Bo said casually in response.
As Alice watched, Ouma, his bewitching mane of black fire flaring with psychic energy, disappeared in a blazing blur to drive his glimmering horn into the ice type. The Rapidash’s horn just barely grazed her smirk before she twirled, whipping a hand up to punch him solidly in the side as he sprinted past her. Mid spin, she flung out several razor sharp shards of ice behind her, nearly catching Sora as he tried to sneak up on her and pinning Alice’s Mismagius, Yume, to the tree she had just phased through, disrupting the Shadow Ball she’d been forming (the fact that Bo once again only looked worried when the shard bit into the tree was somehow the worst part).
Continuing her twirl, icy blades gathered around Song’s spinning lower body, clanging harshly against the dark, gaping maw Kamu tried to tear into her with. Before her Mightyena could recover, Song spun twice more, landing two strikes across Kamu’s face, causing her to snarl in aggravation. The Froslass paid Kamu no mind though, as she started spinning even faster, a whirling storm of icy blades dancing around her. Like a wild dervish, the Froslass blitzed towards Tama as the feline fired a gleaming Power Gem towards her. The glimmering light only glanced off the ghost’s spinning form and Tama was soon sent skidding back as she barreled into him.
‘For the love of Arceus, ballet had better be a code word, because if that was actual dancing I’m going to scream.’
Alice was quickly broken out of her aggravated thoughts when Bo’s robe-clad form loped past her as he, Fay, and Song took the lead once more. With another cackle, the Froslass turned to face them while she floated backwards, peppering Alice’s team with short bursts of Icy Wind as they tried to catch up. Gritting her teeth at the ghost’s cheery mood, Alice felt a spark of anger force itself past her panic. It was one thing to know they couldn’t beat them in a battle, but she would not let her team be humiliated like this. As Bo leapt over a low branch, Alice quickly snapped out new orders, trusting her team to understand what they needed to do.
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
“Sora, yell. Tama, Saffron alley. Ouma, anvil. Kamu, finish. Yume, burn a fucking tree down!”
“Swing!”
As the human-shaped monster’s eyes widened in surprise and he hurriedly issued a command, her team leapt to action, not one bothering to question her. Sora cawed scornfully, drawing a brief moment of anger from the ghost with Taunt. Tama dove slightly to the right, ensuring that the Froslass was directly between himself and Bo, and fired off a burning beam of glimmering light. Ouma called on his remaining stamina to speed himself up once more and circle around their opponents before directing a tight stream of flame at the Froslass. Kamu lunged forward to position herself under the ghost. At the same time, Yume halted in place, conjuring a ball of flame that she quickly sent towards a nearby tree.
Alice felt a flash of satisfaction as her team executed the improvised plan flawlessly. Without access to status moves and her trainer directly behind her, Song wouldn’t be able to dodge. She would need to meet the super effective Power Gem head on, leaving her open to Ouma’s Flamethrower from behind. Then, Kamu would have an opening to land a finishing blow on the distracted ghost. And most importantly, one of those priceless, fucking trees would burn to the ground.
Song dodged.
Alice’s heart pounded in her chest as the world seemed to slow down around her to let her watch her plan fall apart. Without a second’s hesitation, Song ducked out the way of the Power Gem, letting it barrel towards her trainer. Rapidly dropping low, she delivered a sharp slap to Kamu before rushing Alice’s Murkrow, deftly grabbing and Flinging him behind her to collide with the incoming Flamethrower. Not pausing to see the result, the cackling ghost blew towards Tama. Before her starter could react, a freezing cold hand reached out and pinned him against a tree, ice rapidly spreading from the ghost’s hand and coating him until the Persian was completely immobile. Each movement Song made sent ripples of shock through Alice’s spirit as she felt her team slump to the ground.
Panting in place, Alice searched wildly around for her last two pokemon only to freeze in shock. At first, she thought the Froslass had managed to pull off a Double Team despite her pokemon’s Taunt, but quickly realized that that wasn’t quite right. Instead of hollow duplicates, two statues that vaguely resembled Froslass’s made out of ice and shrouded in ghost type energy were pummeling Ouma and Yume. The two tried desperately to shake the statues off, but their blows simply glanced off the fragile looking ice as retaliatory punches hammered into them. The statues’ blows were slow and clumsy, but they packed the kind of power that sent Alice’s pokemon reeling. As the realization that any semblance of a battle had finished, a loud clapping filled the air and the ghost stopped attacking.
“Now that’s what I’m talking about,” Bo cheered as the glowing green barrier of protect started to fade around him, his Sableye’s head jutting slightly out of his shadow to snicker at the sight before her. Fay meanwhile, was hissing angrily at Tama while sticking her tongue out and pulling on one of her lower eyelids. “Nice group attack.”
In response to his words, the adrenaline started fade, and with it, realization of what she had just done flooded back in. ‘Oh Arceus, you just nearly had Tama blow a hole through him, Alice! How could you possible-’
“Though I am curious,” he interrupted her thoughts with a serious edge to his tone. “What was going to be your plan if you actually burned one of the trees?”
“Blame you.” Alice’s eyes widened as the words slipped out. She hadn’t meant to say that out loud, but a tiny bit of irritation had flared up with him still being more concerned about the foliage than the risks of her basically having a pokemon attack him. Nevertheless, the man still didn’t seem to mind.
“Good instincts,” he laughed wildly while looking around at where her weary pokemon were starting to stir. Digging around in a pocket, he fished out and tossed her a small spray bottle. “Here, Song was a little rough with those last attacks. No reason to have them walking around with freezer burn.”
She uttered a reflexive thanks as she caught the bottle before freezing. Looking at the potion canister’s distinctive, blocky shape and blue tones, Alice’s heart, which had nearly settled down from all the running, started to pound in her chest once more. “Is this a max potion?” she asked shakily.
“Yeah, why?”
“The kind that have active Ditto cultures in them?” her voice rose to a high pitch towards the end as she gingerly held the bottle away from herself.
In response to her question, Bo brightened up even further. “Crazy, right? Apparently the cells in the cultures aren’t powerful enough to form complete Dittos, but when introduced to an existing pokemon, they fix up just about any injury like that,” he snapped his fingers for emphasis.
“Yes, and they’re toxic to humans,” she hissed quietly as though the bottle’s contents might come alive to get her. For all she knew, that might be exactly what could happen. “You can’t even legally buy this stuff without having eight badges and League approval.”
“Eh, there’s a reason for that,” Bo responded with a shrug. “Max potions are only significantly lethal towards newer trainers that haven’t been around pokemon so much. For whatever reason, prolonged exposure to powerful enough pokemon eventually develops a slight immune response in your body that will reject the cells. As long as you’re careful with applying the max potion and use gloves, you should be fine. Full restores are the ones you need to be careful with. Even a few drops of the stuff hitting your skin and the Ditto cells will spread like a cancer. If you don’t cut off the affected area, you’ll wind up dead in a matter of minutes.”
“Does that happen often?”
“…Every once in a while,” he mused slowly while seeming to unconsciously rub at one of his own arms at the idea. “Like I said though, you should be fine with using a max potion or two as long as you’re not huffing the stuff. You’re not, right? I don’t want to get up in your business or anything, but huffing things in general is really unhealthy for you. If you do though, you should really stick to all natural stuff like Oddish or Foongus powders, maybe a Shroomish if you can find one that doesn’t mind.”
“I’m not huffing anything!” she snapped back angrily before thrusting the bottle out towards him. “I just don’t want to be casually walking around with a bottle of poison!”
Bo’s cheery face finally hardened slightly as he kept staring at her. “Suit yourself. The potion’s yours to do what you want with, but I just want you to consider something,” he spoke seriously, none of the ever-present carefreeness in his voice that she had become accustomed to. “If it comes down to needing something that might save your pokemon from dying right in front of you, are you really going to care about it possibly killing yourself?”
Alice felt her throat dry at the seriousness in his question, something about the look in her eyes telling her that this was more than some hypothetical. Struggling to find a response, she eventually just dropped her gaze and swung her backpack over her shoulder to grab a standard potion for her team’s bruises. After a moment of hesitation though, she did slip the blue-toned canister into a sealed pocket for safekeeping. When she looked up again, Bo’s too-wide smile had returned but he refrained from commenting, content to lean back and rub a satisfied looking Song’s head while scratching behind a preening Fay’s ears.
Going around to her pokemon and rubbing a quick spray of potion into their scrapes, along with a few comforting words, she sought out something to change the topic with. Noticing the patch of ice lingering on Yume’s cloak, a question emerged. “If you don’t mind me asking, what was that last attack, some kind of custom move?”
“Not quite,” he responded while still cuddling his pokemon. “At this point, I’d say it’s still more along the lines of an already known move, just taken to the extremes. Poltergeist uses ghost energy to possess inanimate objects and attack with them. The move’s usually used with items other pokemon take into battle, but Song here learned to possess the ice she creates herself. She’s ridiculously good at doing it, but we’re still trying to take it to the next level.”
“It’s tricky, because the line between what could be considered a ‘custom move’ and using a pre-existing move in a new way can get pretty blurry in the upper levels of battling,” he carried on smoothly, and Alice was surprised to find herself actually listening attentively to the conversation she had started as a distraction. “Take lines of moves like Ember through Blast Burn. While they all practically accomplish the same thing, directing a flame towards a target, each have different output levels and release methods which distinguish them.
Over time, those moves have been used and trained so much that they’ve become ingrained into pokemon on a genetic level. Seeing as pokemon are so much better at tapping into their genes than we are, pokemon instinctively start to learn most of these moves as they grow and train in the same way humans learn to walk or grab things. It’s like an inherited memory inside of themselves that they can instinctively recall even if they’ve never actually experienced it before.
The next step for trainers is then to train their pokemon into exerting control over their type energy in order to alter or optimize the move beyond that core instinct. You’ve probably seen some of the stuff Apollo can do with Flamethrower for example, bending it, narrowing it, intensifying it, etc. Your Crawdaunt's Swift-Bubblebeam combo is another example. The only thing is, that control and skill is entirely up to the individual pokemon and is earned from practice and experience. The results can’t just be reproduced by another pokemon through something like a TM, so most experts don’t consider those alterations separate moves.”
Curiosity overriding nerves, Alice moved methodically through her team with her spray bottle as she thought about the impromptu lecture he’d launched into. “So, how do new moves get made?”
“Hmm,” Bo seemed to think for a second. “Do you know anything about lockpicking?”
“No?”
“Knife-throwing?”
“No.”
“Billiards?”
Head shake.
“…Baseball?”
“A little?”
“Good enough!” he said in relief. “Alright, so think of a ‘move’ as throwing the ball. You make the needed motions at the needed speed in order to throw the ball from one place to another. That’s your move, Toss, as it were. So you use Toss, but then you want to alter it, so after you Toss the ball, you sprint after it and start adjusting the ball’s speed or trajectory while it’s in the air. You end up producing a completely different result than before, but that result is entirely based on your ability to chase after and adjust the ball midflight. The base of it all is also still that original Toss. A new move, then, would basically be coming up with a way to achieve a different result by adjusting your initial actions from the outset. You could speed up your throw to turn Toss into Fastball or change the release to turn it into Curveball. That initial motion, once learned, is something that could then be taught to and reproduced by others.”
“That… actually made sense,” Alice said slowly, the trainer side of her mind already whirring to process the new perspective.
In response to her words, Bo lit up with an even wider smile than before. “Wonderful! Anything else you want to know about creating moves? Though, I guess if you’re really interested in move creation, you should probably talk to Dani. My team’s managed to come up with a handful of custom moves, but for most of them, only they’ve ever been able to use them effectively, even with TM technology.
Dani and her team, on the other hand, have been able to come up with a bunch of moves that can easily be learned by other pokemon. Hell, they came up with so many custom moves that she’s been able to sell off a good few for TM production, and let me tell you, it is no small thing for a trainer to do that when they’re still actively battling. Once you get to the ace level, trainers pretty much need to squeeze out every advantage they can get.”
Unfortunately for her mood, Bo’s last sentence had unknowingly hit a sore spot that Alice had been nursing for a while now.
“Ace level, huh? Wonder what that’s like,” she muttered morosely as she finished patching up her team. They were still tired, but none of them had really been all that hurt in the first place. For all their effort, Bo’s Froslass really had been pulling punches even towards the end. It wasn’t that Alice had hoped to beat him, she had seen him, Dani, and Carter sparring too many times to believe that was going to happen, but it had still been 5-on-1. A part of her screamed that they should have at least been able to do something.
“Hey, come on,” Bo said sympathetically, apparently even him being able to pick up on what she was feeling. “It’s not like you were that bad. Battling on the run like this is practically a hobby of mine and takes a lot more out of people than they tend to think. You also couldn’t use any area attacks or even moves with any kind of spread. Plus, fighting 5-on-1 seems like an advantage, but if you’re not used to commanding your team as a group, it just gets more complicated. For a while, you were having to call out five commands for every one I did, giving me more time to react and respond. Honestly, from what I saw, Ouma or Tama are actually only a little behind Song in terms of sheer power. With the type advantage and just a little more experience, either one would have a shot at beating her.”
“Really?” she asked, trying not to sound too skeptical. She must not have succeeded because Tama mrowed at her haughtily while Ouma snorted decisively, causing her to smile. The two were more than ready to prove they were up to the task, despite their loss. The rest of her team too, sent feelings of assurance, telling her to have faith in them.
“See what I mean,” Bo smiled at their interaction while Song chuckled goadingly. “They’re already raring to go. Legendary Trainer Rule #2, always trust your pokemon.”
“Are there a lot of those?”
“A few,” he shrugged. “Most of them are pretty easy to remember. Don’t ride your bike indoors. Where there’s one Zubat, there are a dozen Zubat. When in doubt, beat them up, it’ll build character. You always need more potions. Don’t mistreat Magikarp. If no one else is using it, it’s not stealing. The usual. There are a few that are a little hard to remember though. For example, if you ever battle what appears to be a child with a Pikachu, go 110%. Ninety-nine out of a hundred times, you’ll just make a little kid cry and their mother will jump out of the bushes to hit you with her purse, but that hundredth time, I swear to Arceus that you will be having the battle of your life on your hands.”
“A kid with a Pikachu? You mean like Champion Elaine?”
“There’s another one?” Bo asked as his eyes bugged out of his head at the news. With a beep, his Rotom phone leapt out of his pocket and flashed in front of him, presumably showing him Indigo’s most recently ascended Champion. Apparently he had missed the news while he was in Paldea. “Son of a Beedrill.”
Chuckling slightly at the man’s stunned expression, Alice smiled and pushed at the bond she held with her team, thanking them for their efforts. In the ensuing quiet, Bo put his phone away and started to rock slightly on his feet. If she ignored the resting, manic smile he had back on, she’d actually say he looked nervous.
“Soo,” he eventually squeezed out with his eyes darting slightly. “I know you know that the tournament’s coming up soon. How are you feeling about it? Feeling ready, confident?”
Unbidden, her mouth dropped open at that as her eyebrows shot up her head. “Do I feel confident about the ace level, possibly elite level, tournament after a single one of your weakest pokemon fought off five of mine at once?”
“…How about a few minutes before that?”
Alice barked a laugh at that even as her shoulders slumped. So this was why he wanted to talk with her. When Old Man Moon had first asked her to be a part of this tournament, to be a part of history in the making, she had leapt at the offer without really thinking. Now, she braced herself as Bo awkwardly tried to tell her that she wasn’t good enough to be here. After a month of seeing how far apart she was from the rest of the team, she had kind of been expecting such a talk, despite his reassuring words earlier. She felt her team’s spirits’ stirring around her in response, their subdued feelings mirroring her own. Only Tama felt ready to attack the man if he continued speaking, though Alice tried to calm him through their bond. At the very least, it seemed like Bo would try and break it to her that she wasn’t good enough easier than her mom usually did.
“So, this tournament,” he started slowly. “Most of the competitors are going to be at the ace level, trainers that have been competing in the tri-annual League for years now, and the rest are going to be elite level trainers like Dani or Carter. You… aren’t one of those.”
Alice couldn’t help but wince as he said it. She knew more than anyone that she wasn’t ready to compete with ace trainers yet. Sure, she’d gotten her eight badges and made it to the annual conference last circuit, but she’d still gotten knocked out in the qualifying rounds. Really, that wasn’t so bad. Most trainers that earned their eight badges ended their careers in the top sixty-four at most. Theoretically, she still had years to make it to the ace level or even further.
“It’s not that you’re weak,” Bo continued as Alice felt herself curling inwards. “It’s just that in comparison, you aren’t strong.”
‘You have time Alice,’ she thought to herself. ‘You have time to get there. As long as Mom doesn’t cut me off or have my trainer’s license revoked and sell off my team before I turn eighteen. And she won’t do that. She wouldn’t. She was just making a point. I still have time.’
“So… I was thinking, we, Old Man and I were thinking, thaaattt, you could, well,” reaching the end, he seemed to hesitate, so she bit down her worry and tried to end it.
“It’s okay, Bo,” she interrupted. “I get what you’re talking about. It’s okay.”
“So… you agree then?” he asked nervously as though afraid she’d change her mind.
“Yeah, I get it. I know I’m not good enough to compete right now, but,” she said, mustering herself to look him in the eye. “I am going to get there.” ‘I will get there. I still have time.’
“Perfect,” in contrast to her own frustration, Bo’s face had lit up in response to her agreement. “Now, I’ve never actually done this before, so why don’t we start with you just telling me everything I don’t already know about you. You have ten-minutes, go!”
Alice jerked back in surprise in unison with her team, all staring open-mouthed at the person before. “Huh?”
“…Ok, twenty minutes, go!”
“…Huh?”
“Thirty minutes?”
“What the Mew are you talking about?”
Looking at her surprise, Bo’s own face turned confused and he started speaking in a rambling tone. “You’re a good trainer…, but not really at the ace level yet…, so I’m going to coach you and guide you to get there…? Maybe not by the time the tournament comes around…, but eventually. I’d be, like, your mentor. And to do all that, I’m going to need to know more about you…? Like, what exactly you’ve been doing to train before I showed up. Make sense?”
“You want to teach me?”
“Yeah, what did you think we were talking about?”
“I, I don’t, nothing,” she eventually stuttered out while still gawking. “But, you want to teach me?”
Suddenly looking awkward, Bo shifted in place, nodding his head hesitantly while rubbing at the back of his neck. “Well, yeah. Gramps and I were talking about you and about how part of being a Gym Leader is guiding trainers and how it might be a good thing for both of us if I tried teaching you. I mean, I know I’m not Old Man or anything, and I’d completely get it if you’d prefer to just keep learning from him, but I actually am pretty good when it comes to training,” he rambled on before speaking somewhat awkwardly. “I’ve got a lot of experience with fairy, ghost, and even psychic type energy and pokemon.”
“As for training dark types,” Bo concluded, a bit of confidence forcing itself into his voice. “I’m, well, I’m fucking great with dark types, if not the best alive.”
“I know that,” Alice replied quickly, her tone still incredulous from shock. “You’re Rainbow Moon. Literally every person I’ve ever spoken to in Carmine Village has mentioned you at least once, and I’ve only spoken to some of these people the one time. Old Man has, like, all of your public battles recorded and I’ve seen your battle with Cynthia dozens of times. BattleCast called it the toughest battle she’s had since Dawn. Also, I saw Princess turn the entire sky into a sea of fire the last time that shop in Pewter ran out of her favorite donut. I know you’re strong. I just never thought you’d actually want to train me. You and your team are amazing… and terrifying. Amazingly terrifying.”
He blushed at her words while the Froslass and Floragato next to him preened. “Thank you,” he said with a bashful shrug.
“I’m serious,” she said while laughing lightly, still numb from a feeling of shock. “For a second, when you told me we were going to walk out to where no one could hear me, I thought you were going to kill me and bury my body in the woods or something. I know that’s silly, but…”
Bo chuckled and nodded along with her “I mean, just a little. The Shiftry groves here are pretty meticulous about what’s going on in their trees’ soil, so a decomposing body would actually be fairly noticeable. If you really want to hide a body around here, you’d be best off sneaking it into Song’s collection of frozen cadavers or convincing one of the fire types in the caverns below the village to cremate it,” he informed her matter-of-factly.
“That’s…” she trailed off hesitantly before remembering her momentary panic when she’d first met Bo and the others. “That’s possibly not bad to know.”
“Right?” he laughed happily with a beaming smile. “I can already tell you’ll make the perfect protégé.”
Alice felt a reflexive grin of her own rise up, but a lingering twinge of doubt pulled her up short. Strange behavior and body disposal knowledge aside, Alice knew Bo was a brilliant trainer. Achieving what he had wouldn’t have been possible otherwise. For anyone learning directly from him, reaching the ace level would be a near guarantee. If someone couldn’t get stronger after learning from him, well… clearly there was something wrong with her.
“Um, do you, do you really think I can get stronger?” the anxious question slipped from Alice’s mouth before she could hold it back. Seeing Bo’s confused expression, more words haphazardly spilled from her lips as anxiety rose within. “It’s just, we’ve been training ever since we got knocked out in the conference over a year ago. Day in day out, we’ve been doing everything we could and listening to everything Old Man said to get stronger, but we just… haven’t. I, I don’t know if we can get any stronger.”
She bit the last words out painfully, the admission hurting her to the core and redoubled by the pain radiating from her teams’ spirits. It wasn’t their fault. Alice knew that beyond a shadow of a doubt. Her pokemon had the ability and drive to soar to whatever heights they dreamed of. The only thing left that could be holding them back was Alice herself. And as much as she wanted to jump at the chance she was being offered, she knew going for it only to have her inadequacy confirmed would be the final nail in her coffin.
Nevertheless, she pushed onwards. “It’s my fault. I know that it’s my fault. I have to be doing something wrong or just not doing the right thing well enough, because my pokemon have worked so hard, but I just don’t know what else I can do. What if I’m just not good enough to help them?”
Alice balled her doubts up as tightly as possible to look back up at where Bo was standing, evaluating her while thinking over her words with a faraway look on his face. She braced herself as she waited for his response.