"Ah, welcome to Castelia Gym!" Burgh said, greeting them at the door. "What do you think? I know you in particular have seen dozens of gyms, Ash!"

"It looks pretty cool!" Ash replied. "Most Grass-type gyms I've seen have been like this, but I think you're more of a Bug type trainer?"

"That's correct, of course," Burgh agreed. "I like to provide a natural environment for my Pokémon, which is difficult in the heart of such a big city as Castelia, but it makes sure that people remember that Bug-types are Pokémon that live in the countryside just like any other Pokémon would."

He spread his hands. "Of course, that's not the only thing I do here. Castelia Gym contains an art installation on the lower floors, though… at the moment it's going through a bit of a remodel and it's not safe to go down there to view it. Sorry if you were hoping to."

"What kind of thing is it based on?" Ash asked. "I know someone called Tracey who's a sketch artist, but I guess you work with something more than sketches if it's unsafe… unless you're actually using the move Sketch."

"Yes, I work in all sorts of mediums!" Burgh agreed. "Including language, because that should be 'media' but I'm making an artistic decision around it. But seeing you battling against that Sewaddle encouraged me to put together a kinetic demonstration piece – it's going to be a haunting reflection on the nature of sound and movement, as a single massive pendulum stays in place while the planet rotates underneath it and the swing leads to the wind it produces triggers other smaller displays to sound off according to the time. And all without any actual contact, because we influence even people we've never met."

He coughed. "It's just that you have to put a lot of care into the design of a display involving a one-ton pendulum on a rope three stories tall. So I'm still working on it. Anyway, I assume you're here for a Gym Battle?"

"That's right!" Ash agreed. "How many Pokémon is it?"

"Three!" Burgh said. "I'm sure you'll find me as much of a challenge as I can reasonably present."

Burgh's first Pokémon was a Dwebble, who waved hello to Scrafty when Ash sent her out.

"It's nice to meet you," the Fighting-type replied. "I hope we have a good battle."

"And let's begin!" Burgh declared. "Dwebble, X-Scissor!"

The Bug-type swiped at Scrafty, turning out to be surprisingly fast, and she backflipped out of the way after taking a glancing hit to the foot.

"What should I do first?" she asked, glancing at her trainer.

Ash considered, then snapped his fingers. "Camouflage!"

"Got it!" she said, doing a hand-stand as she backflipped again, and when she landed her scales and shed-skin had changed colour slightly.

"Hmm," Burgh said. "Camouflage works based on terrain, and this should be grassy enough that Scrafty went Grass… but if it treated her as being indoors, she's Normal-type now. Dwebble, Shell Smash and Rock Smash!"

"Nature Power!" Ash replied.

Flames flared up around one of Scrafty's arms and wind swirled around the other, and she flung a Lava Plume and an Air Slash at Dwebble in quick succession. The two attacks detonated with a whoosh of flame and a whirr of cutting wind, which Dwebble evaded only by burrowing underground, and Burgh scratched his head.

"I'm fairly sure that for a move like that my gym would need to be a volcano," he said. "In mid-air. And it's not either of those things."

"Well, how close does the volcano need to be to get Lava Plume from Nature Power?" Ash replied. "Because as far as Scrafty's concerned, everything's local. All Scrafty have a territory they never leave, and because of that her territory logically has to be really big."

"Secret Power!" Scrafty called out, slugging forwards something that looked a lot like a Water Pulse, then dove into a forwards roll and came up with the fingers of one hand posed to snap. "Nature Power!"

It turned into Psyshock.

"What terrain makes Nature Power turn into Psyshock?" Iris asked.

"It's where Solgaleo and Lunala live," Mew told her, currently shaped like a Sudowoodo in order to do something which was theoretically blending in. "I think? I'm not very clear on the details, but apparently either this is what happens when you use the move in Alola or they live somewhere else."

They sidled closer. "Maybe it's the pancakes?"

Burgh's Dwebble was tough, especially given the conditions he had to battle under, but eventually called it quits after being hit by a Nature Power-generated Hydro Pump and bouncing off the roof.

Ash called back Scrafty as well, switching out for Sewaddle, and Burgh smiled even as his Whirlipede came out of their Pokéball.

"It's nice to see you're using Bug types as well," he said. "I know you have a Heracross, but apart from that I mean… though I knew you had this one already. I'm not phrasing this well, am I?"

Shaking his head, Burgh tried again. "It's nice to see you using Sewaddle in a gym battle so early. Now… begin! Whirlipede, Steamroller!"

The Gym Pokémon spun up with a whirr, and darted towards Sewaddle.

"String Shot!" Ash called. "Latch onto the roof!"

Sewaddle's silk shot snatched her away from her opponent, though she was close enough that she began swinging back and forth on the String Shot cord, and Ash watched carefully. "Reel in – let it out – reel in again and detach!"

That combination of instructions sent Sewaddle slinging halfway across the Gym, out of the way of Whirlipede's next attack, and she fastened onto the branch of a tree to swing up into it.

"Hmm," Burgh mused. "Whirlipede, get ready to use Solarbeam!"

"Why?" Iris asked. "I know you're in the middle of a battle, but why Solarbeam?"

"Good question!" Burgh agreed. "Poison Sting, then! But careful not to hit the tree!"

"I can't help but wonder why I'm expecting to recognize something about this Whirlipede," Shaymintwo said.

Pikachu gave him an odd look. "Weren't you back in Kanto?"

"Yes," Shaymintwo replied. "But I'm a bit fast. You may have noticed."

"True," Pikachu agreed. "And you can teleport and warp time, which should have been the bigger clue to me. I don't know why I was objecting."

"Sewaddle, you know how when you evolve you're going to be able to learn Leaf Blade?" Ash called.

"Well, when I evolve twice, yes!" Sewaddle shot back, before dodging out of the way of a Poison Sting. "Yipe!"

"I just got the oddest sense of tingles," Pikachu said. "I think Ash just came up with an idea."

"Well, Leaf Blade is a move that's about making leaves act like they're sharper than they'd normally be!" Ash explained. "Or it is for a Leavanny, anyway, we know their leaves aren't always super-sharp because otherwise they'd hurt themselves! But your String Shot is really thin, so you could use that!"

"Use it to do what, cutting attacks?" Sewaddle replied.

"Yeah!" Ash agreed. "Use it to cut the next Poison Sting in half!"

Sewaddle closed her eyes and sort of vaguely waved a ball of String Shots in the direction of Whirlipede, and the Poison Sting got stuck in the glob without being cut in half.

"Good aim, but make it more cutty!" Ash called. "Like Razor Leaf, but on String Shot!"

The second attempt resulted in Sewaddle cutting off the branch she was standing on.

"String Shot the stump!" Ash called. "Swing around and hit Whirlipede with the branch!"

"Look out!" Burgh called, but Whirlipede took a thwack from the branch as it swung.

"I think we can call that Wood Hammer," Ash said, then looked again. "Hey, Sewaddle, look, Whirlipede's ended up on their side! Hit them with sticky String Shot to stop them getting up!"

"Wiggle for all you're worth!" Burgh said, but too late and Whirlipede was stuck to the ground.

"I guess we've got something to work on, huh, Sewaddle?" Ash asked. "That was great, any battle is a lesson!"

"I hope you can fix that tree, though," Burgh said. "Can you?"

"I'll do it," Shaymintwo volunteered. "It'll be easier than trying to get hold of Xerneas and accidentally turning the gym into an Orbeetle."

"I think that's more of a Ho-Oh thing," Ash frowned.

They paused the battle until the tree was repaired, and then Burgh got his third Pokéball ready.

"Who are you using next?" he asked. "I don't think you officially said if you were recalling Sewaddle or not."

"I probably should," Ash agreed. "Everyone I got in Unova has had a go so far, so… maybe I should have Dragonite take part?"

He was still thinking about that a moment later, when a Sandile came through the floor.

"Okay, not quite what I was aiming for," the Pokémon said, flicking his tail and bringing a small booklet up out of the hole. "Anyone seen some stampeding Venipede around here?"

"Stampeding Venpiede?" Burgh repeated, baffled. "Did I hear that right?"

"Yeah, the subtitles matched," Sandile said. "I think we must have skipped an episode or two. Anyone seen this region's Pikachu-alike?"

"I'm more lost than you apparently are," Pikachu said. "Were you the same Sandile we saw before?"

"Yeah, that's me," Sandile confirmed, still flipping through the booklet, then dropped it back down the hole. "Hey, I know I'm not scripted for this one but we're apparently ignoring that now. Hey, Ash, catch."

This time what came out of the hole was a green-tinged Pokéball with a blue centre line, and it bounced once before landing in Ash's hands.

"There we go," Sandile said. "Mind if I have this one?"

"I think that would be a violation of the rules around gym battles," Keldeo frowned. "Um… there's some rule about it, I want to say rule 214?"

"Rule 214," Arc chimed in. "Any gym battle lasting more than two hours must include a break for a meal. Are we in danger of that happening?"

"No, I mean the one about using Pokémon who aren't registered to you!" Keldeo corrected.

"Nah, that's fine, I'm on the infobox," Sandile shrugged. "Or, I will be by the time anyone checks. So let's get on with it, okay?"

"What kind of Pokéball is this?" Ash asked. "I don't think I've seen it before."

"You wouldn't have," Sandile agreed.

Burgh's third Pokémon turned out to be a Leavanny, who was capable of both an impressively agile display of String Shot and the use of the powerful Leaf Storm move that peppered the whole area with flying leaves.

Sandile, meanwhile, was capable of both ducking underground to avoid being attacked and picking up the hole he'd previously dug to use as a shield.

"...I was watching that and I have no idea how that worked," Cilan admitted, as Sandile peeked out from behind his hole. "Do you have any idea how that worked?"

Iris shook her head. "Beats me."

"Fling!" Sandile announced, throwing the hole like a discus, and it skidded along the floor underneath Leavanny. The Grass-type fell through it, and there was a distant clang.

"...and there goes the pendulum," Burgh sighed. "Is this the oddest gym battle you've had so far?"

"Based on what I've seen so far, you might make Top Three in Unova so far," Iris told him.

AN:

Three badges down, a number to go.