Bo whistled happily to himself as he worked alongside IO, Angel, and Dani’s Toxtricity, Rebel. Bo and IO were bustling around the large, garage-like structure attached to the converted gym Dani’s team was staying in, setting up an array of sensors and mats, while Rebel and Angel were setting up a wall of stereos alongside a series of large smartboards. When he’d explained to the others what he was doing, a number of younger assistants volunteered to ‘help’, but so far that mostly consisted of the Pancake brothers, Dani’s Pancham, Bancho, and Carter’s Vullaby, Regina, trying to tag Saturday and Fay while the small pokemon teleported or jumped around the garage. Despite the slight distraction though, after consulting with IO and Dani the night before and entrusting Baron with the rest of the team’s training, Bo was nearly ready to start his new protégé’s own training program, and she couldn’t be more excited!
“Is this seriously the best way to train?” Alice asked for the fourth time with a stunned look on her face.
‘Yes,’ Bo thought to himself. ‘She’s definitely looking forward to this.’
Once he finished setting up the final touches, Bo turned to face her with a proud smile. “You bet it is. Dani and I came up with this training back in Galar along with a musician buddy of hers. We’re lucky that IO still has the necessary programs for it and we could borrow the equipment from Minty’s lab. It’s perfect for training pokemon to use Snarl efficiently while battling, but it’s also good for training lung capacity while moving in general. With what I have in mind, it’s the best training possible for you.”
Lined up within the spacious garage were thirteen mats with a variety of brightly colored shapes and arrows detailed on them. Positioned around those mats were bundles of motion sensors and microphones. As Bo finished speaking, the smartboards hanging on the wall opposite them turned on, displaying a dancing silhouette and a stream of cheery words scrolling across the screens.
Alice looked from Bo to the equipment set up around the garage and back to Bo again. “Karaoke and Dance Dance Revolution is seriously the best way for me to train?” Alice asked once more.
Ok, maybe she wasn’t quite enthusiastic about it yet. She’d get there though.
“Yes, yes it is Alice. I kind of feel like I’ve already explained this, you know?”
“For my pokemon sure,” Alice said hesitantly while ringing her hands. “But why am I doing it too? How does me singing and dancing help?”
“It doesn’t,” Bo replied bluntly, only to hold his hand up when the teenager’s face turned irritated. “Look, it doesn’t really matter if you doing the exercise helps or not. The point is that this is a very rare moment where you’re asking your pokemon to do something that you are also capable of doing. As a trainer, whenever you come across an opportunity to show your team that you’re just as committed as they are, you do it. Make sense?”
Alice looked like she wanted to object, but his words had clearly landed. Happy that she understood the importance of being a true part of her team, Bo smiled and drove his point home. “Plus, in the wise words of Guru Capiche, if the only reason you have for not doing something is how stupid you’ll look doing it, you should immediately do whatever it is. Also, make sure to film yourself doing it so you can post it online.”
“Wait, what?”
Responding to Alice’s confused query, Bo’s phone leapt from his pocket and expanded to tablet size with an eager beep. Rotobi quickly pulled up a video showing Bo dressed in dark baggy clothing and wearing heavy gold chains, standing on a stage in Montenevera.
“Yo, yo, yo, they call me Bo-bro.
People take one look at me and go ‘oh hell nooo!’
You might make spirits rise, but I bring’em low.
I can see the fight in your eyes so c’mon let’s g-”
Rotobi beeped angrily as Bo snatched them out of the air, cutting off the video.
“That’s enough of that. The point is that you’re doing this and no more questions are needed,” Bo said hurriedly while stuffing a protesting Rotobi back into his pocket. When Alice still opened her mouth to respond, he turned away to check on Rebel and Angel. Seeing that they were finished on their end, Bo clapped loudly to draw all the youngster’s attention. “Alright everyone, we’re ready to go! Saturday, can you start us up?”
In response to my question, the Gothorita glanced at me before teleporting away once more. Only this time, he didn’t reappear even after several seconds. Looking around the garage somewhat awkwardly, Bo eventually turned to IO with a questioning look in response. The virtual pokemon whirled around themself in the way Bo recognized as amused before they shot into the smartboard. In a blur of colors, all the equipment around them took on a blue and pink hue before a series of air-horn sounds burst from the stereos.
“BRRR! BRRR! BRRRRRR! Introducing, the Main, Event! DJ-ayyyyyyyy Saturdayyyyyyy!”
Bo snorted as Saturday finally reappeared with a flash after IO’s introduction, but he still smiled and joined the others in clapping enthusiastically for the little guy’s entrance. The goth psychic nodded and waved in response as though addressing a crowd of adoring fans. Once done, he hopped over to the control panel IO had set up. Glowing a soft blue, Saturday quickly flicked the system to life and “Koffing and the Toxics” blared around them. Apparently satisfied, Saturday started pumping a diminutive fist in stone-faced glee.
“Alice,” Bo shouted to be heard over the roaring music. “Go ahead and release Sora, Yume, Kawaii, and Kamu, there, there, there, and there. Then grab this mat next to me. Regina, your mat is right there. The rest of you, go ahead and grab spots for yourselves. Rebel, Angel, you two are the bigger ones. Make sure to show us all how it’s done, alright?”
Nodding, Alice let out her Murkrow, Mismagius, Jynx, and Mightyena onto the patterned mats surrounded by sensors that Bo had pointed at before walking over to join him herself. The rest of the gathered pokemon and the Pancake brothers eagerly rushed over as well, hopping up and down on the wired dance pads.
“Okay. The program has been altered from the original to also include upper body movements and kicks into the dance sequences, monitored by the motion sensors. The four that Sora, Yume, Kamu, and Regina are on have been specifically set up for their body types. For now, just follow along with the directions shown on the screen and sing along to the lyrics as best you can. Watch Angel and Rebel if you need a guide. Most importantly, I want to see maximum effort out of all of you. Make it loud and proud. Are you ready?”
“Clef-clef!” “Flor!” “Wo-ho!” “Pan!” “Yeah!” “Tox!” “Jynx!” “Vul!” “Mis-mis.” “Krow?” “Yena?” “…Yes.”
“Perfect! We’ll start with the easy mode. Hit it Saturday!”
Bobbing his head once, the psychic played with controls once more. The harsh rock of “Koffing and the Toxics” switched over to a much gentler song, one that was easily recognizable by anyone who grew up in this part of the world. As we waited for the lyrics to scroll in, the screens started showing a series of dance steps and limb motions. Most of them were for human-like body shapes, but there were also silhouettes that clearly resembled a ghost, canine, and bird. Those three and some of the humanoid silhouettes were also visibly moving faster than the others.
Within a few moments, the music was accompanied by a chorus of stamps, claps, and wing flutters. Bo smiled as he saw Angel showboating by adding in extra moves and wiggles, prompting some of the younger pokemon to try to imitate him. Bo himself was pretty sure he was a little rusty on his running man, but otherwise didn’t have a problem following along. Alice and her pokemon sans her Jynx looked far less comfortable, but at least they were trying. The real fun though, was just starting.
Familiar words started scrolling down the screen and the garage was filled with a cacophony of pokemon cries and Bo’s own voice. The result wasn’t pretty, but memories of first doing this back when he and Dani were kids still filled him with a nostalgic happiness. Noticing something missing though, he looked pointedly towards the teenager next to him. Alice was awkwardly stepping along with the program’s directions and her mouth was moving along with the words, but Bo couldn’t pick up any sound.
Waiting for a pause in the singing, Bo raised his voice. “Not hearing you Alice!”
Grimacing slightly, her voice rose a little, but it was barely a whisper given the rest of the noise in the room.
“Louder! Really make me believe you love pina coladas and the rain!”
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Alice stomped her foot a little harder than before as she shot me a sullen look, but her voice finally picked up more. She still looked nervous, but her Jynx soon leaned over to nudge her encouragingly. Soon, her other pokemon were glancing over at her too, and Bo was pretty sure from studying her face that they were communicating with her through their bond. Her pokemons’ support and enthusiasm finally made her smile, and Bo was thrilled as her voice rose to be just as loud as all the others.
Looking at Alice at the very least enjoying doing something with her team, Bo felt a surge of victory. Sure, the group’s combined singing and dancing would probably make a Trubbish embarrassed to be seen with them, but they didn’t care. For several minutes, they worked through several easy songs, and for a moment, Bo forgot that this was part of training Alice for the tournament… IO on the other hand, did not forget. After the fifth song ended, an electronic voice blared from the various devices surrounding them.
“WRONG.”
“NO RYTHYM.”
“TERRIBLE.”
“TERRIBLE.”
“YOU SUCK.”
Whirling, Alice actually hissed angrily at Bo, and for a moment he could easily have mistaken the girl for her prickly starter.
“Oh right,” Bo said slowly as the music paused. “We only turned off the commentary for the first five songs as a tutorial mode. I forgot to mention that.”
“You could turn it back off,” Alice said pointedly, and her pokemon gathered around behind her to add weight to her glare. Fortunately, Bo was well used to being glared at by beings much scarier than them.
“Nope,” he answered with a wide smile. “I know it’s a little harsh… mostly because IO handpicks all the feedback messages, but it’s necessary. Now that you’ve got the enthusiasm down, you need to work on precision. If your voice isn’t hitting the right pitch, keep trying until it does. If you can’t follow along with the steps, practice until you can.”
“And how are we supposed to do that while IO shouts at us and tells us we suck?”
“Perseverance.”
True to his word, Bo pushed Alice and her team to keep going for over an hour as IO tirelessly critiqued their performance. After a while, the younger pokemon and the two brothers got tired and begged off, so Bo sent them along with Rebel to ‘help’ the others, but he, Angel, and Saturday remained as Alice and her team practiced. When they finally got through a song without IO shouting at them, the teenager whooped wearily and collapsed into a sweaty group hug with her pokemon.
“Oh thank Arceus it’s over,” she groaned dramatically.
Bo clapped to congratulate them and nodded in approval as Angel teleported away. A few seconds later, he reappeared with a jar of oran berry slices and honey Bo had set aside the night before. The puffy fairy bounced around the tired group and they grabbed some slices of the rejuvenating fruit gratefully. Biting into one of the slices, Bo himself nearly moaned with relief as the honey washed over his throat. This type of training really was a great way to practice, but he had to admit it was hell on his throat.
After sucking down half a dozen fruit slices herself, Alice still made no move to get off the floor, but she did look up at Bo with a weary smile. “Ok, we did it. So what’s next?”
“Now,” Bo said while stretching out his tired limbs. “We take the program off easy mode and start the real training.”
Alice’s smile froze on her face. “Ok, we did it. So what’s next?”
Bo tilted his head at her reply, but answered nonetheless. “All the songs so far have been fairly slow paced, and the steps for the pokemon haven’t been all that fast. Now that you have the basics down, we’re going to switch over to something with a faster beat.”
One of Alice’s eyes twitched alarmingly. “Ok, we did it. So what’s next?”
‘Oh dear,’ Bo thought to himself, worried he might have broken his new student already. “I know you’re tired, but this really is vital training, especially for you. In fact, you and your team are going to be doing this training for about four hours a day, every day, until the tournament starts.”
Both eyes twitching now, Alice rose slowly to her feet, looked at Bo, looked at her pokemon… and then ran for the door, her team hurrying after her.
Bo sighed while Angel laughed loudly, but he wasn’t exactly surprised. Half of Dani’s team had tried bolting when they first came up with this training drill. Luckily, he’d found a pretty good solution to such problems. “Gizmo, you’re up.”
As the Sableye rose from his shadow with an ominous cackle, other shadows all throughout the garage came to life. The shadows quickly wrapped around the fleeing teen and pokemon like darkly glowing puppet strings, bringing them to an abrupt holt. Alice actually froze with one foot in the air. They started moving again a few seconds later, but instead of continuing towards the exit though, Alice and her team spun around in unison before marching back towards the dance mats.
Despite their calm and coordinated movements, Bo could easily see the alarm in their eyes and the faint struggle in their limbs. “Try to ease up your muscles and just go with it. Gizmo’s being careful, but you might hurt yourself if you struggle,” Bo advised cheerfully. Seeing that that didn’t quite calm them down, he tried again. “Don’t worry, we’ve done this before. You’re bound to get tired pretty easily for the first few weeks of this training, so when you’re too tired to keep going like you are now, Gizmo will just puppeteer you through the steps. You’ll still be a little sore, but your bodies will get trained and the Chanseys can help ease the pain. You will definitely want to sing on your own though. Gizmo can try to do that for you, but having your vocal chords forcibly manipulated is incredibly painful. Trust me, I was her test dummy.”
“Please just kill me,” Alice responded flatly, and Bo had to stop himself from laughing at the doomed look in her eyes. Judging by the tugging on his spirit, Huntress already had her paws full keeping the rest of Alice’s team from rushing to her rescue. They were a problem for future Bo, though.
“Sorry, no can do kiddo. We still need you for the tournament, remember?”
“Ugh.”
Bo actually did chuckle a bit at that, but he gave the teenager a few seconds to recover before signaling Saturday to start up the song once more. As a familiar drumbeat started playing though, Alice groaned loudly. “Oh please no. I hate this song!”
“What?!” Bo gasped as Saturday slowed the music down, extending the intro. “How?”
“It’s just so corny.”
“It’s a classic,” Bo countered. “It’s also the only song we have set up for the training software, so it’s going to be on repeat for the next three hours.”
“…I think I hate you a little.”
“Hah! Welcome to the club! Hit it Saturday!”
Alice groaned once more, but when the words scrolled down the screen, she joined him and their pokemon once more, belting out the song as loud as they could.
““I WANT TO BE THE VERY BEST! LIKE NO ONE EVER WAS!””
““TO CATCH THEM IS MY REAL TEST! TO TRAIN THEM IS MY CAAUUUSSE!””
*
Nearly three hours later, Bo and Angel were happily guzzling back bottles of water and brushing sweat from their brows, flush with joy of a successful training session, while IO and Saturday had already left. Below them, collapsed in a puddle of sweat, Alice glared at them both with something Bo would affectionately consider murderous intent. Bustling around her, a Chansey was alternating between spoon-feeding her bits of her egg and tsking at Bo. Alice’s pokemon had already been returned to their balls, the mons only needing a relaxing place to recover from their own exhaustion.
“You know; you should really consider trying to sit up and stretch out a little. Lying down immediately after exercising is just asking to get a cramp.”
“Huff*, huff*, huff*, bite me… Skittles,” Alice wheezed out from the ground, her voice notably raw from the hours of use.
“Look on the bright side. I feel like you’re much more comfortable with me now than you were yesterday.”
“Never, huff*, mind. You lean over and I’ll bite you instead.”
“That’s the spirit,” Bo replied as the exhausted teenager finally rose to her feet again with the Chansey’s help. “Does that mean you’re ready for the next drill? We’ll work with your other four pokemon for the rest of the day. I figure we can rotate them between drills each day.”
Alice and the Chansey leveled identical glares at him, but Bo just smiled wide. Eyes darting around the garage, Alice spoke warily. "Tama and the others are on their way. What torture do you have next?”
“Oh, I wouldn’t call it torture,” Bo waved her question away as he felt the training partner he’d called to help with the next drill sprint closer.
Alice opened her mouth to interject, but a loud crunching sound cut her off and a gale of painfully cold air swept through the room. Around them, the various microphones squealed with feedback, even though Bo was sure IO had turned them off before leaving. Already knowing what he’d find, Bo turned to see Saber’s large head jutting in through the hole in the garage wall they’d just smashed open.
“Sabs, I love you, but you have got to start remembering how doors work,” Bo sighed, only for the ice type to tilt their head in bemusement. “…Never mind. Alice, you remember Saber, right? Well, they’re going to help me teach you and your team everything you need to know about the five D’s of dodging.”
“Clef,” Angel piped up to grab his attention. Bo turned back around just in time to catch the sight of the Chansey boosting Alice through a small window leading out to the back of the garage. Bo was honestly surprised the window was even big enough for her to fit, but she was really putting in the effort to wriggle through it.
“Huh,” Bo muttered in surprise before smiling. “I guess she’s eager to get started. Go get her Sabs!”
Another crunch filled the air as the frozen feline immediately pulled themself free and raced off after the teenager. Hearing a strangled shriek through the walls, Bo called out encouragingly. “Remember! Be careful with your teeth!”
*
Over the next few weeks, Bo fell into a steady rhythm, working with Alice and her team.
Occasionally, Bo worried that he wasn’t spending enough time with his own team, especially with the tournament inching ever closer, but, whenever he thought about pulling back from Alice’s training, his mind kept flashing back to the expression he’d seen on her face when he’d first offered to teach her. He was pretty sure every trainer in the world recognized that look, even if only from their mirrors. The look of someone who recklessly, fiercely, desperately needed to grow stronger; to push past their limits.
Truthfully, it probably wouldn’t be the end of the world if Alice wasn’t ready to fight in time for the tournament. Even if she mastered the strategy Bo planned for her, it probably wouldn’t be enough to truly make a difference in the grand scheme of things. When he thought about that expression of hers though, Bo found he just didn’t care. He had offered to help teach her, and he was determined to see it through.
Thankfully, Bo had Astra to fill him in on anything he missed when it came to their family’s own training. Thanks to her, he knew that, so far, Baron had only tried to work them through the night twice, Wicked had only attempted four coups, Storm had only snuck off to ambush Warrior once, and Princess had stopped muttering about burning Alice to ash after Bo offered to give her extra head scratches and sleep in her lair with her. Sure, a giant mound of pillows inside a dark cave was slightly less comfortable than his bed, but Bo was happy if it made her happy.
All said and done, Bo did check in on the others from time to time (Old Man in particular often pulled him aside to discuss the status of their project in Kalos), but mostly, Bo was able to devote his full attention to getting his student up to speed. True to his word, they only focused on training for one strategy. Each day, Alice and half her team would train their lung capacity and coordination for half the time, and then the other half of her team would conduct mock battles with Saber. For now, Alice’s pokemon only focused on dodging and keeping their distance.
Even though Saber wasn’t really that much stronger than them, their first few battles had still only lasted a few seconds before the ice type had the other pokemon pinned. With Saber’s natural speed and Bo’s experienced guidance, Alice’s pokemon just hadn’t been able to keep up.
Nevertheless, Bo was happy to note that they were making progress. Alice was getting better at reading Saber’s attacks and communicating to her team more efficiently. Her pokemon, meanwhile, were steadily getting the hang of stringing together Protects, Detects, and other moves that got them out of danger. They all eventually collapsed in exhausted piles, but Bo was proud to say that they all eventually got right back up to try again. Soon, Bo thought, the younger pokemon would even be ready to start working in other moves while still dodging.
Best of all, after only four days of training, Alice had even stopped trying to run away! She still occasionally tried to kill him with her eyes, especially after the thirtieth repeat of ‘Gotta catch ‘em all!’ a day, but Bo could live with that.