Mackie normally didn't bother with more than basic greetings when meeting people on the path, though until now he'd spent most of his time rather more next to the path, or way off of it, so it hadn't mattered.
The path wasn't crowded anyway, and no one passed him going up, but a good few were coming down. There happened not to be any trainers it seemed, though one little girl, holding her father's hand and clutching a stuffed Starly, stared with wide eyes at Bonnie where she perched on his head. Mackie smiled at her, and felt Bonnie shift and preen, and as they passed each other, Mackie hear her voice pipe up, insistently asking her father about the "fluffy blue bird."
Up by the cave entrance, though, there was a young guy crouched just outside, giving a potion to something that resembled a giant lilypad with legs. Mackie grinned. Lotads were darn cute. He'd seen some before, in the big pond on the Brennan's ranch, back home. They looked just like plants in there, but if you waited long enough, you could see 'em peek out of the water. They trundled around on land in a funny way too. Taking the opportunity, he pulled out his pokedex to record this pokemon on it.
Once it had finished with the potion, the Lotad looked very perky, trotting around its trainer happily, and going a few steps back in towards the cave.
The guy straightened up, and saw Mackie, shooting him a smile. He looked like he was in his early teens, and had light red hair and blue eyes, and looked oddly familiar, though Mackie was sure he'd never met him before.
"Hi," Mackie greeted, raising one hand, and the guy waved back.
"Hey there, uh, I don't suppose you're heading into that cave?" he asked, and Mackie gave the entrance a mock-thoughtful look.
"Well, I dunno, I mean, I suppose I could just turn 'round and go back down again, after I got all the way up here," he said, and the guy made a half-grin of acknowledgment of that obvious answer.
"Well, I was just hoping, I mean, if you're not rushing," the guy said, looking hopefully at him, "see, I want to catch a Cleffa for my little sister, it's almost her birthday, but they're so hard to find. I've been looking since the sun came up, back and forth, but I haven't seen even one." He looked over at his Lotad. "Marbles defeated an Aron in there, and Ziggy downed a couple of Zubat, and I think I saw a Chingling, but that's it."
"Oh," Mackie said, "but I don't know how I can help, really." He didn't know if there was a way to attract a Cleffa.
"Well, that was my last potion," the guy said. "I'll be able to look around a bit more if someone else with pokemon comes with me, though." He still looked hopeful, but seemed braced for a refusal. It was a request that'd take someone out of their way, that was true.
Mackie gave the cave entrance a second thoughtful look, but it was real this time. He'd intended to go straight through this tunnel as fast as he possibly could. No detours. But it this guy had been hunting around all morning and was fine, there probably wasn't anything in there that pokemon couldn't protect them from.
He didn't really want to go wandering around a cave, but it wasn't like it was going to hurt him. Not this time, anyway. And after all, that Diglett had attacked him right on the main path.
"Okay," Mackie agreed, and the guy's face lit up in surprise.
"Wow! Thank you! I don't wanna stay in there forever, or anything, if we don't find one, we'll stop, but.. thanks," he said again, sighing with renewed determination. "My name's Daniel. Well, Danny." He bent to gather up his bag and sling it across his chest. "That's Marbles, like I said, she's my strongest pokemon," he pointed at the Lotad with his thumb, and the Lotad trundled in their direction and butted at her trainer. "Ziggy's a Swinub," he patted his bag, where Mackie could see the slight rounded outline of a ball.
"Mackenzie—Mackie," Mackie answered him. "That's Bonnie. She's a hat in her day job," he said, and Danny laughed.
"She's a... Swablu, right? They're rare in this region," he said.
"Yeah," Mackie confirmed, kind of impressed that Danny had known. "I have a few others, but I won't get 'em all out or they'll scare the cave fresh outta Cleffa."
Danny asked about them nonetheless, and Mackie was happy to talk about them, running off at the mouth, even, when he described Luster in action, or how he'd met Stel, or how Bonnie made him keep tidier than he'd ever been in his whole life.
"But what's a Swinub?" he asked Danny, voice quiet now, as they moved off the lighted path to investigate one of the offshoot tunnels. They'd both recalled their pokemon to make moving easier. "Ain't heard of those."
"Little tiny ice/ground type, from, well, where there's ice, mostly," Danny replied, dropping down to a crouch, which Mackie copied. "Speedy, too, and kinda tough against physical attacks, but not so much against special. They look like little furry brown-striped stones. Sometimes they're silvery, but brown's the usual."
"Huh. Can I see it, after? I wanna add it to my pokedex."
"Sure thing," Danny agreed readily. "That thing is really cool," he added, not camouflaging his envy. "I wish I could've visited a pokemon professor."
"I was real lucky," Mackie agreed. "You can look at it if you wanna."
Danny shot him another surprised smile. "I definitely do." He nodded. "And not like I want my sister to know about what I'm trying to get her, but if she were here, she'd love it." They moved past a spot where the ceiling dipped and the floor slanted and into another more open room of the cave that had a shaft open overhead that let in a little bit of outside light.
"Does she also—hey!" Mackie elbowed Danny and pointed. A little pink thing was jumping around at the other side of the room, flinging itself at a Zubat that was attacking it. Pink, brown ears... "That's it, right?"
"Yes!" Danny scrambled in his bag for the apri-ball his Lotad was in, then hesitated. "What am I supposed to do about the Zubat?"
"Isn't that what I'm here for?" Mackie held up Luster's ball, ready to send her out.
Then, "Medi!!!" came a shout from much closer to them, and a white head popped out from behind a dip in the irregular wall. "Meditite!"
A second one appeared next to the first. "MediTITE!" it snapped, and both of them looked ready to attack.
"No!" Danny hissed at it, and when Mackie turned to look again at the Cleffa and the Zubat, the Zubat was flapping unevenly back towards the ceiling and the Cleffa was nowhere at all.
"Listen, at least we know it's there, huh?" Mackie told him. "One thing atta time. G'wan, Luster!" he opened her ball and she appeared, the buzz of her wings loud in the closed-in space.
"Marbles! Help me out!" Danny said, and the Lotad appeared, and hopped once, turning to face the foes.
"Quick Attack! The left one!" Mackie told Luster, like always, and she swerved off to turn and fly back at the Meditite on the left, as it eyed Luster carefully.
"Nature Power!" Danny told the Lotad, and she seemed to gather herself up. Without her even moving, Mackie felt vibrations through the ground, and then with rattling thuds, rocks landed on both Meditite at the same time. "Turns into Rock Slide," Danny said in satisfaction. "I love that one."
Luster hit the left Meditite and pulled up, and Mackie was frustrated to see it was utterly unaffected. "Try again, Luster, this time use Aerial Ace!"
Again the glint in the Meditite's eye, and again Luster's attack simply did not leave a scratch. Danny pulled off another Nature-Power-that-turned-into-Rock-Slide, and Mackie definitely like attacks that could hit two, in a double battle. But his own lack of any effect at all was frustrating him.
"Luster, come back a bit. We'll try something else!" he alerted her, and recalled her promptly, grabbing Bonnie's pokeball, and sending her out.
Or not.
"GLIGAR!" Stel yelped in terror, flattening himself against the floor against the sound of Marbles' Nature Power, and the sight of Marbles herself, along with the two Meditite. He whipped his tail against the cave floor, flinging sand at one of the Meditite, and Mackie fumbled with the ball for a moment before managing to recall him, his heart racing at the mistake. He was going to have to do something to be able to tell the pokeballs apart by feel, or this might happen again, and Stel would never try to battle at all.
"Swaaa!!" Bonnie called out, when Mackie finally got her out.
"Bonnie! Sing! Left!" If he could stop the damn things from protecting themselves, this would go much better.
"Marbles, Astonish on the left!" Danny said immediately after, and Mackie wondered why he'd stop with the Nature Power, but Marbles lunged at the Meditite, and it flinched back. And Bonnie swooped down to serenade it, while its attention was elsewhere. Its eyes blinked closed, and it slumped back, reclining against the cave wall.
The other Meditite glowered out at both its opponents, and crossed its arms, closing its eyes briefly to summon up a circle of greenish glowing spheres. They coalesced and shot out at Marbles, and Mackie heard Danny gasp, then let out his breath.
"What?" he asked hurriedly.
"That was Hidden Power. You never know that it'll be, not from looking at it. Could be fire or ice or dragon or anything."
"So what was it there?"
"I dunno, but it wasn't very effective, and that's all I care about. Marbles! Nature Power again! Keep it up!"
"Bonnie! Peck on the left!" He watched, willing it to stay asleep, and when its relaxed doze slumped even further into a proper KO, Mackie sent her against the other one instead, which had been facing down Marbles all this time.
"Absorb," Danny urged Marbles, and she did, bearing down on the tired-looking Meditite a few steps before bracing herself and pulling a green glow from it right through the air into herself. She bounced on her feet, awaiting the next command. "Keep absorbing!" Danny told her. "Get as much as you can before it's over!"
It wouldn't be too long now, Mackie realized, and had a thought. "Bonnie! Good girl, c'mon in!" he recalled her, and this time took a few real seconds to look and choose the ball of his newest team member.
"Tyrogue! Show me your stuff!" he said, and the Tyrogue appeared, as Mackie had been almost sure he would, in a flexed-arm showing-off pose. Mackie heard Danny snort a laugh next to him. "Oh, I know, I know," Mackie assured him.
"Tyyy!!" The Tyrogue announced proudly, turning one way and another, too fast, and nearly tripped over his own feet. As his arms were waving to keep his balance, Mackie pointed at the remaining Meditite, hoping the Tyrogue could get in before the Meditite pulled out a Confusion.
"Show that Meditite how super you are!" he shouted. "Tackle it! Bring it down!"
"You sound like a colosseum announcer," Danny muttered.
"Whatever works," Mackie replied.
The Tyrogue slapped his hands together, then pulled them back in fists, leaned forward, and charged. He bowled into the Meditite and knocked them both sprawling together.
Marbles paused. "Lotad!" she called out, and the Tyrogue picked himself up and crossed his arms smugly, nodding as if to an invisible audience.
"I guess it does work," Danny looked at Mackie. "And hey, maybe you should put him in contests, too," he added.
Mackie blinked. He'd never thought of that.
"Good job, Tyrogue," Mackie told the posing pokemon, and waited until he'd strutted back towards Mackie for a rub on the head and a congratulatory fistbump before recalling him.
"You have a whole safari with you," Danny said, looking a little amazed, even though Mackie had told him all about them already. But seeing them was a bit different, Mackie guessed.
"Well, I wanna do the whole League challenge," Mackie shrugged. "Gotta get a whole team. So far they mostly work good together, too."
"I hope the Gligar isn't too mad at you," Danny said sympathetically.
"Yeah..." Mackie held Stel's pokeball up, rubbing it a little with his thumb. He half-wanted to bring him out now and at least give him a hug and say sorry, but he thought it might be best to leave it till later. "He's tough, I know part of him is, but I didn't wanna dump him in just like that." He tucked the ball away again. "But let's go on," he said, "that little Cleffa's right on ahead, maybe."
"Maybe," agreed Danny. "If the noise didn't scare it off."
"It beat up that Zubat, remember?" Mackie reminded him, and Danny looked heartened.
The room pinched in on the far side to make a natural doorway into yet another area, this one damper than where they'd just been, with the smell of water in the air and shiny wet walls, even though Mackie couldn't see a pool or anything like it. Then they crossed over a narrow crack, and Mackie saw a faint glint of moving water far below, that showed just how deep it went. Far enough down to hit groundwater, it looked like. He shuddered slightly, imagining if the crack was wider, wide enough to fall into and get stuck, or fall all the way... ugh. He shook himself, hard.
He was okay. He was. But he definitely didn't like caves, and was glad he was in here with someone else.
"Cleffa, cleffa..." he heard faintly, and looked at Danny, who looked back with wide eyes. They'd both heard it. "Cleffa..." came the quiet little sing-song again.
Then, bounding down from somewhere above, the little pink pokemon landed in front of them. "Cleffa!" it called out, hopping once. It didn't look too concerned, or like it was about to run.
"Uh... Marbles?" Danny sent her out, and she looked up at him for a moment, until she noticed the Cleffa.
"Lotad! Lo-lo-lo-lotad!" she chirruped, and the Cleffa hopped again and waved its little arms.
Then its expression turned serious, and Marbles went into a ready stance as well.
Mackie looked at Danny, who grinned at him, while biting his lip at the same time. No point in counting Starlies before they hatched, but...
"Absorb!" Danny ordered her, and she readied herself as the Cleffa flung itself forward in a Pound.
It was up to Danny now. Mackie could onlywatch.
*
They came out the other end of the cave, to Mackie's great relief, and he turned his face up to the sky for a second, even though it was overcast just at this moment, with the sun behind one of the clouds. He didn't care, they were outside. He took a great huge breath of non-cave air to go along with the feel of wind and sky.
"Oh..." Danny said, and Mackie sighed happily and looked at him. "You didn't like it in there, did you?"
"Not really," Mackie said, "but it's not some big ol' phobia or nothing," he assured Danny. And that was true, at least when he had someone with him. "I'm from farming country, is all. I like open air."
"Well. Thank you," Danny said again, and Mackie waved it off with an eyeroll. That was probably the thirtieth time, now. At this rate it'd be a hundred when they actually got to town.
"Wasn't nothing," Mackie told him firmly. "Saw some new pokemon, won a battle, it was a good time."
"Yeah," Danny agreed, turning over the pink apri-ball in his hands. Mackie'd seen those at the Marts, and it seemed they worked. He thought it was nice that the colour matched the pokemon it held, without even having to paint it.
"Ally likes pink, and she likes things to match," Danny had said to him, after he'd caught the Cleffa. Mackie knew the feeling. Not about the pink--about the matching.
"Oh say," Mackie remembered suddenly. "Can I see that Swinub of yours? For my pokedex?"
"Absolutely," Danny said. He looked down at Marbles. "Back in for a little bit, okay?" he told her, and recalled her."
"Huh?" Mackie said. "Why?"
"Oh... they don't get along," Danny shrugged one shoulder unhappily. "At all," he added, face turning gloomy.
"Oh... huh." Mackie had never thought of that. He'd had all his pokemon out together a bunch of times. Even the little Tyrogue had seen everyone at once on the last couple of rests Mackie had taken on the uphill path. Maybe some were kinda... jealous, like Luster didn't seem to think the Tyrogue's showing-off poses was so funny, like Mackie did, but he figured that was 'cause she like to show off too.
Even the Stantler, that he himself didn't like so much, they had gotten along with her.
"Well, here we go. Ziggy?" Danny opened the ball, and Mackie watched as the red light formed into a little brown pile of striped fur with a nose on one end.
"That is darn cute," Mackie declared, and crouched down. "Hey there, titch. Yer just a little sneeze of a thing, ain't ya?"
"Swiii!!" it squealed. It zipped towards him faster than he ever would have thought possible, and butted up against his legs, rearing up to plant two tiny feet against him. "Swiii!!" it squealed emphatically, little squinty eyes hardly even visible in all its dense fur.
"What's goin' on?" Mackie asked it.
"Do you have food in your pockets?" Danny chuckled.
"Uh, yeah."
"Well, that'd be why."
"Ah-huh," Mackie nodded. "Snack, little thing?" he inquired, and dug the last of the pokemon food out of his pocket. He picked out the pieces that weren't lint-covered, and held them out, tossing the rest off to the side.
The Swinub gobbled down what he gave it by hand, and then dashed off to root around for the bits he'd thrown away.
"Wow," Mackie laughed. "I guess it's gotta eat to keep up that energy." He was gratified, though, that when it was done rooting around for the last bits, it returned to lean fondly against his ankles, making a happy-sounding rumble.
He pulled out his pokedex to get the Swinub entry, then handed it over to Danny, who pored over it while walking, until Mackie convinced him to park himself while he studied it. "This is amazing," he told Mackie absently. "I want one. I hope they start making them for everyone." They found a grassy patch off the path, and sat down.
"I guess we're test driving them for that," Mackie said, then let Danny look at it in peace, only chiming in when Danny asked him what button to press.
"Okay, c'mon out guys," he said, and laid out all the balls, pressing the buttons one after other.
"Swaaa!" Bonnie announced happily, and took to the air. Luster was quick to follow. If Mackie wasn't slightly wrung out from the cave, he'd have busted out the kite, but that would have to wait.
"Ty!!" the Tyrogue announced his arrival. Mackie gave him what was rapidly becoming the "fistbump of awesomeness-acknowledgment", and then, to Mackie's amusement, the Tyrogue flopped down to sprawl back and close his eyes, yawning hugely before dropping off in to a doze.
"Gli!" Stel was next, and looked at him with wide eyes before flinging himself against Mackie for a hug. Phew. Not angry, then.
"You were brave!" Mackie told him. "You did a Sand-attack! I saw it!" He hugged him tight.
The Stantler was last, and she ducked her head at him in greeting before moving off to browse in the grass.
The Swinub scurried up to her, moving around her feet, and she mostly ignored it, only pushing it out of the way when it got in the way of her grazing.
Next, the Tyrogue got a firm nudge in the side, then another, until he woke from his nap. The Swinub turned in a circle, and the Tyrogue reached over to grab it right round the middle and lift. Squeaking, the Swinub wriggled in his grip until he let go... and then butted up against him, asking for more. The Tyrogue obliged happily, making a show of lifting it and hauling it to and fro.
"Hey, what's that? A Stantler?" Danny had looked up from the pokedex. "You didn't say you had one."
"Oh, well." Mackie didn't want to say he'd forgotten, but... when it came to discussing his pokemon, she just hadn't been grouped in with everyone else, in his mind. "She... I caught her at a Capturing Contest in Eterna. She's in great health, and she's a good battler. Very confident."
"I'll say," Danny was watching her graze. "Look at her lines. She knows Stomp, right?"
"Yeah."
"And with those hooves..." Danny trailed off, and shook his head admiringly, then returned to the pokedex.
Mackie looked at the Swinub playing with his Tyrogue, and looked at Danny.
When he was done looking over the pokedex, maybe... maybe Mackie could see if he was willing to trade.