>>6435064>>6435067>>6435330It's still going to take Gareth a hot minute to wake up, not to mention Holly and Daisy, so you decide to spend the interim while breakfast cooks training Piker some more.
He'll be a Milotic before long, so it strikes you as prudent to set him up for success with some good moves.
When you release him, Martha arches an eyebrow.
"What've you got planned for training?" She asks.
"Water Spout." You reply. "You mind spotting us? Make sure that I don't screw up and he doesn't hurt himself."
"Damn right I will." She says, scowling now. "You battled with him what? Once? Twice? Water Spout is one of the most powerful moves there is. If you don't do this right - and I am by no means an expert - he's going to wind up hurt." Martha warns. "I say stop, you stop. If you don't you're walking funny the rest of the way to Halfway City. Got it?"
"Got it." You reply, swallowing.
"There's ambitious, then there's taking risks with training like this." Martha says, sighing and shaking her head. "I suppose it's a good thing you're smart enough not to just try this by yourself." She concedes. "But seriously - this isn't a move that he's ready for, so don't expect any miracles." She warned.
With that, you get started.
Martha helps you track down some basic drills for Piker to do and some foundational moves for him to practice in the interim - Chilling Water among them - and you get to work.
There's a lot of stopping and starting, Piker's lack of experience does indeed make this a challenging move to practice, but you look at this a bit like a beginner doing more advanced katas during a general martial arts class: It's better to have the practice than not and you can still get some mileage out of applying the principles of Chilling Water in different configurations.
And despite the difficulty, you do make some progress and when Martha brings you some useful foundational moves, you swap to practicing Surf and Brine before the hour's out, much to her relief, as your practice with Water Spout had stalled out somewhat. There's only so many different ways to use Chilling Water and Piker has just about washed the dead wattle out of the hillside from your practice.
Piker is full of energy as well, apparently bouyed by the fruit soup from last night, which you guess certainly didn't hurt his performance this morning.
"Okay, you did alright, but you've got to stop pushing so hard. Work on your team's foundational moves first." Martha advises. "There's less chance of things going wrong that way."
"Yeah, that was a struggle." You agree, then grimace as you think back to when Blitz chipped his tooth practicing Crunch.
Thinking about what might happen with a botched Water Spout, you grimace.
Piker might not explode, but you can't imagine that the move backfiring on him would be especially good for him and your mother would probably wring your neck for taking this sort of risk.
(Part 1)
