It took a while to explain the concept of the "game" to Mac. It took even longer to rein Lucky and Dart back in after they were introduced to their new playmates. Convincing Spin to come out of the ground and that all these new Pokemon weren't too much trouble to deal with took more finesse than time, but it still wasn't a good look.
I let Vola learn her lesson for a while, and once we were ready to start, I told Mac, "Okay, I guess you should ask Cloyster to let go of her now."
He smirked at me and gave the order.
Once she was free, I told her, "Maybe next time we'll think a little harder about going for surprise nips at unfamiliar Pokemon's faces, hmm?"
She gave me a grumpy, "Vul," and curled up to sulk. We'd all been taken off-guard when Mac's Cloyster had slammed shut for no reason. The only clue had been the poof of white fur poking out, and when I looked around and couldn't find Vola, I told Mac not to worry about it.
"Now if you're all done showing our new… companion what a poor job I've done training you, maybe we can get started?"
I don't think Mac's team quite understood what we were doing, but that just made it more impressive when he was able to give each of them commands fast enough for them to stay in the game. Even though Cloyster was practically immobile, he had it fire arcs of icicles into Spin's path, making walls that redirected him where Mac wanted. Hitmonchan's Mach Punch got it to Spin faster than anyone but Dart, but getting the right angle proved difficult for it. From the way he let Electabuzz run wild, I think he was just letting it practice its electric attacks on a target that it couldn't hurt. Still, every one of them responded to his commands instantly, even Electabuzz when he actually gave it one. If I hadn't already been wary of him, that would have done it. Mac didn't look too much older than me, but I got the impression that Bruno hadn't sent one of his newer pupils to keep an eye on me.
Eventually I called an end to the session and my team flopped to the ground, exhausted. Spin lay splayed out, stretching after being curled up for so long. Lucky and Dart were panting after the chase, both of whom had just run/flown after Spin like little kids playing soccer, with no regard for setting up advantageous positions or other planning. Vola had never really stopped sulking, instead giving a lackluster effort once Mac's team joined in. That left her with plenty of energy, though.
"Vola!" I scolded, and she froze guiltily right behind Hitmonchan. It looked like she was about to blow cold air under its skirt-thing, and I cautioned her, "Remember what happened with Cloyster." Mac looked amused by the interaction, and when Hitmonchan saw us looking toward it, it looked around and saw Vola. It nearly jumped in surprise, then its eyes narrowed.
"Cool it," Mac said, and it immediately put its fists together and started some kind of breathing exercise. He looked down at Vola, and continued, "Your trainer is right, little one. It's one thing to play tricks on your friends, but my team and I have done intensive training under Bruno himself. If you're not careful, you might get yourself hurt over a little prank. Hitmonchan has knocked people across the room on reflex when they've tried sneak attacks."
I know it was probably a friendly warning and not a veiled threat, but I still didn't like him talking to my Pokemon like that.
"Thank you, Mac," I said frostily, and from his reaction to my tone I could tell I was right about his intentions. Still.
"Vola, c'mere. Time for dinner." Spin's nose twitched a bit at the "D" word, but he was just too tired. I returned the tired lumps that Dart and Spin had become, picked up Lucky and Vola, then turned my back on Mac to get something to eat.
We left Pewter the next morning.
"Remember what we talked about, Vola," I told her as I mounted my bike outside the Pokemon Center. Mac told me at breakfast not to worry about outpacing him, so I was excited to finally get back to riding instead of walking. I'd skipped our morning training when I saw how tired everyone still was at breakfast. I sat Lucky on top of my bag as Vola hopped in her basket. Nearby, Mac started putting a fold-up saddle on his Dodrio.
"Won't she get tired carrying you all day?" I asked Mac.
He shook his head, "This is nothing. She could carry me all day; this is just endurance training."
"Okay then. Let's go," I said.
I specifically did not specify our destination, and not because I was trying to hide anything from Mac. I still wasn't keen on running into Izzy, so I wasn't about to head back through Mt. Moon. That left the southern Gyms, but Viridian was well-known as the toughest Gym no matter how many Badges you challenged it with, and I didn't feel quite up to that yet. If we went to Cinnabar, my ace would be at a disadvantage, and I only had one Pokemon with moves effective against them. I wasn't about to have Spin try to solo a Gym challenge. The next option would be Janine in Fuschia, and while that seemed like the best choice, it would also be the longest journey of any of the top 8 Gyms, and I didn't feel like explaining that to Mac.
We didn't talk to each other on our way south to Viridian Forest. Or, it would be more accurate to say, I didn't talk to Mac, and brushed off his attempts to get chummy with one-word responses until he stopped trying. Granted, he was just doing his job, and he hadn't really been anything but friendly and polite. Still, the whole thing seemed unnecessary, and I still hadn't forgiven him for that remark to Vola.
We stopped for a break, food, and our afternoon training at one of the rest stops on the edge of the forest. I decided to work on thinking before acting, something Dart and Lucky both needed to work on. But how?
While everyone else ate, I dug through my bag, looking for something I could use. Couldn't have them tearing up my sleeping bag, same for my handful of clothes. Food would get off-track real fast. Something with a water bottle, maybe- ah! I hadn't even realized they were packed; Mom probably included them.
I took out the tough, worn toys Vola had had nearly as long as we'd had her and studied them. After years of chewing, outdoor play, and mysterious stains, the best that could be said about them was that they were intact. Vola still played with them when I was busy, but they were basically lumps of various shades of brown. I could still remember all the trips to the PokeMart trying to find something that she could actually get a good enough grip on to pick up in her mouth. Each time, Dad made me go to the register myself to make the return, then told me to choose the next toy more carefully. Eventually Mom got tired of it and brought me herself, and helped me pick a nice, colorful pack of balls that wouldn't get punctured, but had some kind of soft inside that was squishy enough for a Pokemon to clamp down on. Over the years she'd still managed to whittle the pack of five down to two, but they'd be perfect for training tools.
Whatever I did needed to be good enough to satisfy, if not impress, Mac, but it also needed to require at least a little thought before acting. Simple catch or keep-it-up wouldn't do either, and those were our usual ball play. Maybe catch that wasn't so simple? And we'd never really played with anyone but the two of us; there had to be something there with a many players as we'd have…
"Katie?"
"Hmm, wha-" I looked up, then felt my face heat up. Mac stood there, all our meal stuff cleaned and collected.
"Wow, you really zoned out there," he laughed. "Are those that much more interesting than lunch?"
My stomach gurgled to emphasize his point, but thankfully it did so silently.
"Sort of," I said, unwilling to let him control the conversation. "If everyone's done, let's get to training. That's why you're here, right?"
I had my team get in a circle, and asked Mac to have his Pokemon join them.
"You can, too, if you want, but it could get dangerous."
He grinned, "Master Bruno would give me waterfall meditations if he found out I had my team train when I didn't. I'm in."
It was my first time seeing his whole team together, and it was a more intimidating sight than I thought it would be, considering I'd seen most of them already. Something about their ease together gave them a sense of power, as if together, they were more than the sum of their parts. Still, while my team wasn't necessarily as well-trained, they were more used to my techniques, so hopefully it wouldn't be too lopsided.
"Let's try to stagger it, so no-one's next to a teammate."
Once everyone was in place, I held up one of the balls. "We'll start easy," I said, holding it out to Dodrio. "Just pass this around the circle."
It could have gone worse. Cloyster and Lucky had some difficulties. Cloyster couldn't really move while clamping the ball with its shell, and Lucky… well, I don't know if he realized the ball would be coming, but when it bounced off his nose, he went chasing after it, then let loose a torrent of barks at it when he finally ran it to ground. Then he picked it up and brought it back to present proudly to me, like a hunter with its catch.
I glanced at Mac, and blushed again at his ill-concealed snickering.
"Give us a break, he's barely a week old," I blustered, and he held up his hands to placate me.
"I know, I know. It's still funny, though."
I scowled, but schooled my features to lean down to Lucky.
"Lucky, be ready for Electabuzz to give you the ball, okay?" He chuffed in understanding. "Okay, then as soon as he does, instead of giving it to me, give it to Magmar." I pointed to the flame-headed Pokemon he'd been next to. Lucky nodded eagerly, then scampered back to stand in place, staring eagerly up at Electabuzz.
"Let's try this again," I said, and passed Dodrio the ball again.
This time, we made it all the way around, though Lucky just dropped the ball at Magmar's feet and looked up at it like he was expecting to play fetch. Fortunately Magmar just picked it up and passed it to Dart, and I'd never said anything about not dropping it, so I didn't correct him.
"Good job!" I said when Hitmonchan dropped the ball into my waiting hand. I pushed a button on my watch and said, "We're going to time it now. Get ready, go!"
It wasn't fast, but it made it all the way around again.
"Let's go a little faster!"
By now, everyone had a pretty good grasp of what we were doing. "Looking good," I said, "now, we can get to the real activity. Listen closely, Lucky! Now that everyone can pass and catch, we're going to make it a little more difficult by adding some rules."
"First," I made as if to toss Dodrio the ball, then stopped and shook my head, "you can't pass to your neighbor. I would have to pass to Dart or Mac."
I threw the ball to Mac, who helpfully held onto it without prompting. "Now, we get to the other rule: you can't pass to anyone who's already had the ball until everyone has had a turn. So if Mac wants to pass the ball this way, he has to throw it at least as far as Hitmonchan, because Dodrio is next to him, and I just had the ball."
Mac was a good little helper and threw the ball to Dart, who flapped up to catch it in her talons, then used its momentum to pull her back into a loop before holding her position again with steady wing-beats.
"If your target misses the catch, or you break either of the rules, you have to go in the middle of the circle. Does everyone understand?"
They seemed to so I gave Dart the go-ahead. She did another loop, then released the ball as she came back around, sending it zooming across the circle to Mac's Graveler. Things went pretty smoothly; by now Lucky's head was tracking the ball constantly, and he had no problem catching it when Hitmonchan punched it to him. Unfortunately, then he dropped the ball back at Magmar's feet. I sighed, then walked to the middle of the circle.
"Come here, Lucky," I said. As play resumed around us, I kept up a running commentary for my pup, explaining why everyone was throwing the ball where they were, and showing him how some of the Pokemon, like Cloyster, were using attacks to send the ball where they wanted. When Graveler joined us in the middle, I asked it if Lucky could practice with it, and it gave me four thumbs up. I had Lucky practice using his head, paw, and tail to knock the second ball back to a different hand than the one Graveler had used to throw, and he had gotten it by the time Spin got out.
Spin had adopted a rolling technique, where he caught the ball by closing his whole body around it and rolling back, then doing a couple somersaults to build up momentum before lowering his tail to fling the ball to his target. We hadn't been watching the rest of the game, so Lucky first saw it when Spin joined our new circle and sent the ball to him. He got so excited that he forgot what we were doing, just catching it in his mouth and trying to copy Spin.
I laughed and left him to it, turning back to the "real" game just in time to see Cloyster, who was using small jets of water to propel the ball, shoot it to Magmar. The fire-type flinched as the water hit it, then recovered, snarled, and unleashed a flamethrower at Cloyster. Vola squeaked as she dove away from the heat. Cloyster launched a hail of icicles in retaliation, one of which narrowly missed Dart. She squawked in surprise, using a powerful flap to get her high enough to dive for cover behind Hitmonchan. Suddenly Mac was between them, one hand on Cloyster's horn and the other outstretched to Magmar.
"Enough!" he said, and both of them froze. "You've let your fight affect bystanders. Aside from any other training Katie runs today, the two of you will meditate with me on the importance of discipline before we sleep. Is that understood?"
Magmar and Cloyster looked ashamed at the castigation, and nodded in agreement.
Mac turned to me, "I'm sorry about that. Shall we continue?"
I held out a hand for Dart to land on, and Vola came over to be picked up. "No, I think that's enough for now." I stroked Vola's belly comfortingly, "Maybe we'll try again another day, but it was a good start."