"So… I have to ask," Iris began. "Dawn, do you ever think your perception of what counts as simple has been affected by your time around Ash?"
"Not really, no," Dawn replied. "Why?"
"Well, it's just… the way we solved that missing Cubchoo problem," Iris explained, waving vaguely in the direction of where they'd gone on a trip that day. "We heard about a missing Cubchoo, is what I mean, and you sent out your Togekiss."
"Technically she's about thirty-three percent my Togekiss," Dawn corrected."The other thirty-three percent is Princess Salvia's, and the thirty-four percent is Togekiss's."
Iris nodded. "Right, I knew I was forgetting some of the details… but anyway, what I mean is, you sent out your Togekiss, and fourteen seconds later the Cubchoo came flying through the air and landed on an open-topped pillow truck that happened to be driving past. And that's simple?"
"Well, yeah," Dawn agreed. "It's Togekiss's ability, Serene Grace. And it meant we could just ask Cubchoo where they'd gone missing, and they'd just found a friend."
"Which was really sweet, actually," Pachirisu piped up. "Don't you think?"
Iris nodded, a little unwillingly. "You've got a good point," she allowed. "Travelling with Ash and Whitney was the first time you'd spent a long time with Pokémon trainers, right?"
Dawn nodded. "Why?"
"No reason…"
"So, what do we do today?" Cilan said. "Undella hasn't run out of attractions – I'd quite like to try out their undersea tunnel and see what Pokémon we can visit."
"Oh, I went and had a look at that last night," Ash replied. "I couldn't sleep so I went for a bit of a walk, and I took the chance to show Typhlosion and Articuno what it's like here."
He shrugged. "I didn't see many Pokémon, though, Kyogre was in the way."
Cilan raised a finger, then lowered it again.
"I should have expected that," he chuckled.
"We can't do it just yet, it's not on yet, but one of the reasons I'm in Undella is to do the Pokémon World Tournament Junior Cup," Dawn told them, as she carefully dried Buneary's ears with a haredryer. "It's… well, honestly I don't think it's a world tournament, not properly, but at least if we show up it'll have people from outside Unova."
"That could be interesting!" Iris said, perking up.
Then there was a click sound, something went beep in another room in Cynthia's house, and everyone looked up as Dawn's hairdryer suddenly turned off.
"That's odd," Dawn said, flicking the switch a couple of times. "What just happened? If this has broken I'm going to need to get it replaced on warranty."
"The hairdryer has not broken," Arc said, in a declarative sort of way. "The power has shut off. I am accessing cellular networks to determine the cause."
"Can't you use precognition?" Pikachu asked.
"Technically I have," Arc told him. "There has been an accident at the power plant. However, I need to gain that information from somewhere or it is a bootstrap paradox, which results in snide emails from Uncle Dialga."
While they'd been talking, Dawn had unplugged the hairdryer and given the plug to Cyndaquil, who made a buzzing noise and powered the hairdryer up again.
"Let's go and see if we can help out!" Ash suggested. "Even if that just means replacing the power plant power while they sort out the problem."
"Now that would be an interesting challenge," Pikachu admitted. "Dawn's team, Stunfisk, myself, Zapdos, Raikou, Zekrom, however Mew decides to help… Grovyle… yeah, it could be fun."
When they arrived at the Power Plant, the Officer Jenny outside stared.
"Ash Ketchum?" she asked, confused. "I asked Cynthia for help."
"She's out today," Ash replied, getting down from Zapdos' back. "We're staying over at her place, but we must have left before you asked, we just came here to see what was going on."
"Why did you ask Cynthia for help?" Dawn added, getting off Ash's Zekrom. "Is she good with power plants?"
"Not that I know of," the Jenny admitted. "But she is meant to be good with powerful Pokémon, and that's what caused the power cut – it was a Dragonite."
"A Dragonite?" Iris repeated. "Was it one of Ash's Dragonite? There's a lot of them in Unova these days."
Officer Jenny blinked.
"How would I possibly know that?" she asked.
"Well, if one of mine crashed into a power plant, they'd probably have drawn out a sign that said sorry," Ash said, thinking out loud. "Or possibly asked for diplomatic representation. Were they wearing a chef's hat?"
"...I'm just going to let you in to sort this out," Jenny decided.
"It's good to see you arrived so quick," said one of the Power Plant managers, waving towards an iced-over door. "The Dragonite's in there… it hasn't made any sound in a while, but we're a bit wary about what to do."
"Hmm," Iris frowned, thinking. "So sometimes Dragonite can get territorial, but that's about where they live… you said it crashed into the power plant?"
"That's right," the manager agreed. "Hit one of the turbines, as well."
"Can I see the hole?" Iris asked.
"We've got a picture," said an office worker. "I'm in the middle of writing out the insurance claim."
She showed Iris her computer screen, and Iris muttered to herself for a moment.
"Well, I don't think that Dragonite was trying to cause damage," she decided. "Dragonite can move very fast, and if a Dragonite wanted to cause damage it'd do more than that… I wonder."
Unclipping a Pokéball, she raised it, then paused and lowered it again.
"Does anyone have a way to see through walls?" she asked.
Dawn sent out Luxio.
"Luxray can see through walls," Luxio announced proudly.
"Wait, I understood that," the manager blinked. "And, uh… you're a Luxio, right? It's been a while since I saw one but I don't think you're a Luxray."
"Right!" Luxio agreed. "Charge!"
Her fur lit up and buzzed with electrical energy.
"Miniature giant robot, Luxray form!" she added, jumping into the air and doing a forward flip, and instead of landing on her paws four fizzing paw-shaped electrical constructs touched the ground.
"Isn't a miniature giant robot just a robot?" Pikachu asked.
"Nope, completely different," Luxio told him, as the pseudo-Luxray finished forming around her. "What do you want to know, Iris?"
"What's Dragonite doing?" Iris asked. "What do they look like?"
"Well, it isn't one of Ash's, I recognize them all and this isn't one of them," Luxio replied. "They're lying down, I think they're asleep."
"Hmm," Iris said, thinking. "I think I've got an idea… give me a few minutes to get ready."
Dragonite shifted, then blinked awake as there was a sudden surge of movement.
By the time he'd dragged himself up out of sleep, he was on a grassy field, which was unusual because he definitely remembered freezing himself into a room in some human building or other.
"What?" he asked, half-rising, then jarred his wing and winced. "Ow – when did I move?"
"A few seconds ago," a human in front of him said.
He thought she was human, but she did look a bit Zoroarky.
"I used Dragon Dance to lift you," she added. "And to get you outside quickly, so that the people in the Power Plant can fix it."
"Power Plant?" Dragonite repeated. "What's that? Some kind of Grass-Electric type?"
"No, but that's a cool idea," a Pikachu said. "Maybe we should suggest it to Mew."
"Hold on, you understood me?" Dragonite asked, still baffled. "How?"
"That's Emolga's help," the human girl explained. "Is your wing hurt?"
Another human girl's belt flashed, and a Nickit came out.
"I can fix that!" the Dark-type said.
Her tail flicked out, and suddenly Dragonite's wing felt… absolutely fine. Like it had never been broken.
"What did you just do?" he asked.
"Oh, I think I see," the Zoroark-girl realized. "I'm starting to get the hang of this. Nickit, did you just steal Dragonite's wing injury?"
Nickit nodded smugly.
"But you don't have a wing," Dragonite protested.
Nickit just looked smugger.
Dragonite was a bit hungry, so the friends decided to have lunch a bit early, and as Ash's Dragonite served up plates of fiery multicoloured curry the wild Pokémon raised an arm.
"So, uh…" he said. "The whole situation was a bit hard to follow, but did you say you used Dragon Dance to lift me? Are you actually a Zoroark, like you look?"
"Not today," Iris replied. "But I learned Dragon Dance before I first turned into a Zoroark… it's actually one of the few things I have which makes me the Dragon Tamer I'm theoretically supposed to be, my team's great but only Axew is a Dragon type."
She pulled Axew out of her hair, putting him down in front of a bowl of curry. "How's that?"
Axew leaned forwards, took a taste, then shook his head. "Too hot!"
Iris started mixing yoghurt into the bowl, and Dragonite blinked a few times.
"I have more questions now than when I asked," he admitted. "Are you saying you… hold on, there's too much to unpack there. Um, what's the rest of your team?"
"Well, there's Emolga," Iris said, pointing to the little Electric-type perched on her shoulder. "And there's Excadrill, he's the one who cut through the ice wall you made, and finally there's Archeops. So, really, I've got a Dragon-type, and a Pokémon specially set up to beat anything that counters the Dragon-type, and I've also got two Flying-types who I guess appreciate the help with Ice types?"
"The way that Pokémon trainers get their teams is different depending on the trainer," N said. "There's no rule about it, but Pokémon trainers who have a way to understand Pokémon tend to rely mostly on the Pokémon who actually ask to go with them."
A Pidgey chirped from N's mane.
N looked back at him. "Are you lost?"
"Probably," Pidgey agreed, without hesitation. "I'll be honest, I am not good at navigating."
"Well, if you know where you're from then we can probably sort out a way to get you back home…" N said. "That's an option for you as well, Dragonite, I'm sure."
"I think I won't take that offer," Dragonite decided. "I've never learned Dragon Dance and I'm sort of interested to learn it from a human. Do you have a Pokéball?"
Iris was still looking at Dragonite's Pokéball that afternoon, as they walked through town.
"It feels weird," she admitted.
"What, to have another Dragon type?" Dawn asked. "I know the feeling with type specializations, I just sort of ended up drifting into being an Electric-type specialist and half my team still isn't-"
"No, I mean to have a Dragonite around here who isn't in a Safari Ball," Iris replied.
"All right, here we are!" Ash said. "Let's register for the Pokémon World Junior Cup!"
"I did not realize you were going to register," Zygarde stated. "Are you sure you're allowed?"
"Rules and regulations for non-League Pokémon competitions," N related. "Chapter five: intermediate and below, rule 237. No."
Everyone slowly turned towards Ash.
"Your citation is technically correct," Arc said. "However, since the text of rules 232 through 240 is, in each case, the single word 'No' for redundancy, I am going to assume you meant one of the other eight."
"I was getting worried," N admitted.
"Oh, well, I guess I should have expected," Ash said, then shrugged. "Still, I can watch all of you take part!"
"It makes sense that they'd want to make sure Champions can't participate in competitions like that, to avoid a single strong taste spoiling the whole flavour!" Cilan smiled.
"Actually the rule's about Ash specifically," N corrected. "I think all nine of those rules are."
AN:
Sometimes just one rule isn't enough.
They're probably used like the Reply given in Arkell and Pressdram.