Clair went on her way to Unova, specifically to visit Drayden, but not before explaining that Lance had offered to take over the Blackthorn Gym while she was on holiday.

It would only be for a few weeks, apparently, but that was still long enough to make a substitute a good idea – especially since neither the Indigo nor Silver conferences were due to happen over that time.

Not long after that, though, and near the end of the Decolore Chain, Arc rang.

"You have a phone call from: Dragonite," the Arc Phone said. "The call is for Cilan."

"Interesting!" Cilan nodded. "Is that the Dragonite who's at Striaton? I still haven't got all those names right."

Ash passed Arc to Cilan, and as Cilan took hold Arc beeped. "Connecting call."

"There's some bad news, I'm afraid," Dragonite said. "I'm speaking to Cilan, right?"

"Oh, dear," Cilan replied. "And yes, that's me!"

"Someone turned up at the gym to challenge us, but not in the normal way," Dragonite explained. "Apparently there's some obscure rule that if someone announces it first, they can take over the gym if they beat all the Gym Leaders without losing to any of them. She beat Chili, and Cress, and then she beat me… sorry, she's an Ice type specialist and I wasn't expecting it."

"That sounds really quite rude!" Alexa said. "Is this some obscure Unovan rule, then?"

"If N were here he'd know," Ash replied. "Actually, if N were here he'd get the number slightly wrong."

"I guess that means she's coming to battle me, then," Cilan decided. "Thank you for the warning, Dragonite. And don't feel bad about it, I'm sure you did your best… I'll just have to use the time you've given to prepare a three-course feast of a battle!"

He frowned. "Hmm. Actually, what was the challenge like?"

"We were a bit off balance, so we tried one Pokémon each," Dragonite told him. "I think she only has three Pokémon, though, I only saw three Pokéballs."

"And I couldn't set it to be four Pokémon just so I could use my whole team," Cilan mused, out loud. "Then this will have to be a three-course meal! I'll need a starter, a main, and a dessert!"

Ash raised his hand. "Which Pokémon is your main? Because I want to say it's Pansage, but he's your starter as well."

"Quite right!" Cilan nodded. "But I'll have to use the next best thing to that theme…"

"If you don't mind?" Alexa said. "I would like to film the whole of the battle. It sounds most exciting, and high-stakes as well!"

She reached for a Pokéball. "In fact, I could get some high-angle shots as well!"

With a flash of white light, Alexa sent out a Noivern, who went donk head-first onto the ground and slowly collapsed.

And snored.

"He, ah, is a little bit nocturnal," she added.

"That's a pretty cool Pokémon!" Iris said. "If a bit, uh… asleep…"


The next day, on Paladin Island, the Striaton challenger found them and began to battle Cilan.

Since she hadn't actually introduced herself, or even said it was time for a battle, Iris' Excadrill and her Kyurem both intervened by getting in the way.

"Hey, what's the big idea!" Ash called.

"This doesn't involve you," the woman said, from the other side of a thick wall of ice courtesy of Kyurem's Glaciate.

"Sure it does!" Ash replied. "I'm technically an amateur government agent, or… something… Pikachu, can you remember what it was?"

"Lance paid you," Pikachu reminded him. "I think that makes you a professional government agent."

"Oh, yeah, good point," Ash admitted. "But just attacking someone out of nowhere is rude! Even Team Rocket doesn't do that!"

"Before you ask, we're on holiday!" James called, also coming into the clearing. "We're here to look at the historic site of a long-ago battle between the strongest trainers from Unova and Sinnoh!"

The woman snorted. "Well, that's not happening here…"

"No, Cynthia's not around," said Ash's Charizard, who was taking a turn with his team as well mostly because he could. "What's your deal, lady?"

"I'm here to challenge Cilan of Striaton Gym!" she said. "I, Morana, will become the new Gym Leader of Striaton and make it into an Ice type Gym!"

"Uhh…" Iris began. "I have some questions?"

She began counting them off. "Firstly, why don't you just start a new gym yourself?"

"They won't let me because there's already an Ice gym," Morana sniffed.

"Okay, that answers two of them," Iris said. "Third, you just ambushed Cilan in the middle of lunch! That's not a question but I'm pointing it out anyway because it's neither ideal behaviour nor being truthful about yourself!"

"It is a bit pragmatic," Kyurem noted. "Just saying."

"Good point," Iris admitted. "But how is that even part of what the rules say?"

There was a shoom as Ash's Dragonite went overhead, then airbraked to a halt in the clearing and saluted.

"Reporting for duty," he said. "Oh, she's already arrived, that was quick. She must have hired a Pidgeot or something."

Cilan had finished putting away his utensils, and he adjusted his jacket before pointing.

"Morana, I challenge you to a three-versus-three battle," he said. "Obviously the rule you're using says that if you win you get the Striaton Gym, but if I win then what happens?"

That confused Morana slightly, and Cilan went on. "Because what I think is that, if I win, you should go and ask Brycen to become his apprentice. He spends a lot of time working on films anyway, so he might actually appreciate it… and you'd get an idea of what it's like running a gym before trying to open one."

"Whatever," Morana shrugged. "I don't intend to lose. Three against three… pick your first Pokémon!"

"Hold on," Ash requested. "Alexa had to turn in an article, we should wait until she's here so she can film it."


Morana was not happy with the length of the delay.


"All right, ready to begin?" Alexa asked, now airborne on her Noivern after a quick Chesto Mint Ice Cream Surprise – the surprise, naturally, being that it tasted like mint despite only having Chesto Berry in.

"How come we never get journalists following us around?" Meowth pondered.

"Probably the whole organized crime thing," Jessie decided. "The Boss wouldn't like it."

"Oh, yeah, good point," Meowth nodded. "I guess maybe we could have a newspaper guy do it, that way they wouldn't have photographic evidence?"

"Or we could say it's LARPing?" James pointed out. "If we all wear costumes fabulous enough then nobody will believe that we're serious criminals!"

"If dat worked, given your wardrobe we'd actually be da police," Meowth snarked.

"Let's have a good, newsworthy battle!" Alexa said. "Begin!"

"Abomasnow!" Morana said, sending out her Ice-type.

Cilan's first Pokémon came out at the same time. "Pansage, get ready!"

"A Pansage?" Morana asked. "You three really are themed triplets, aren't you?"

Dragonite sighed, as it began to snow. "I did my best to keep up with the theme, but Simisage stood out a bit and I think people could tell I wasn't one of the brothers."

There was a flicker of green, as Zygarde switched out for his warm outfit from Sinnoh, and Morana pointed. "Blizzard!"

"Solarbeam!" Cilan retaliated.

Morana sniggered, then frowned slightly as the Blizzard faded and she saw what Pansage was actually doing with the Solarbeam. It was forming a glowing yellow-green shield, and the surging snow was melting away.

"Now, Hyper Beam!" Cilan called. "Follow it up with Blast Burn!"

"What?" Morana asked, bewildered. "How can – a Pansage can't do that!"

Pansage disagreed.


"You know, your Abomasnow was confused as well," Cilan said. "Your duty as a trainer should be to your Pokémon, not to complaining about what your opponent's doing."

Morana recalled Abomasnow, and shook her head. "That's nonsense. My duty as a trainer is to win."

"I disagree," Cilan told her. "Your relationship with your Pokémon is more important than anything else, and yours isn't very good… it's easy to see that your Pokémon don't have a strong bond with you."

"I don't have to listen to this!" Morana said. "Mamoswine!"

"That's enough for now, Pansage," Cilan decided. "Crustle, your turn!"

"Earthquake," Morana ordered.

"Don't worry!" Cilan called, as his Pokémon stumbled sideways on the shaking ground. "You can do this! Now, bend forwards and use Eruption!"

Crustle's tiny volcano went off with a faint doot sound, launching out a plume of fire that rained down over Mamoswine, and Morana clenched her fist in rage.

"I have realized that I could have just come over here instead of getting changed," Zygarde said, from next to Charizard. "Thank you for being Fire-type."

"Not something I had to work at, but thanks anyway," Charizard chuckled.

"Okay, Crustle!" Cilan called. "Let's fight earthquake with earthquake! Magnitude!"

As it turned out, a subduction zone was prone to extremely large-magnitude earthquakes.


"This is…" Morana said, clenching her fist, as Cilan's Crustle sat down for a well-earned rest. "Something must be wrong today, you're beating my Pokémon!"

"The secret is, Pokémon have amazing potential if you just work hard enough!" Cilan told her. "That's something I've learned from travelling with Ash and Iris – and Iris and her Excadrill are an inspirational lesson in how you can turn around any relationship if both sides are willing to put enough effort into it!"

"Send out your final Pokémon," Morana demanded, her own Glalie flashing out into the battlefield.

"Hmm," Cilan replied, already recalling his tired Crustle and swapping out for Dunsparce. "Something I've noticed is that you've got two Pokémon who could Mega Evolve. But I think you haven't been able to get either of them to… am I right?"

"That's none of your business!" Morana said.

"Well, I am a Pokémon Connoisseur," Cilan countered. "And when someone needs help as much as you do, it's hard not to want to help."

Apparently Morana didn't like the way that was phrased, and she pointed. "Glalie, Ice Beam!"

"Left!" Cilan replied, and Dunsparce rolled out of the way. The Ice-type attack hit next to her with a crash, and Cilan hummed to himself for a moment. "Now, use the ice as a slide – and Nuzzle!"

"Nuzzle?" Morana repeated. "Nuzzle? What-"

Dunsparce hit Glalie in a little fizz of electricity, and Glalie promptly dropped out of the sky to go wham into the ground.

"Some Dunsparce, like mine, have an ability called Serene Grace!" Cilan said, as Dunsparce fluttered in the air where Glalie wasn't. "It makes special effects on moves more likely to happen. And Nuzzle's a move which has a paralyzing effect, like Thunder Wave… and it always happens normally. So, mathematically, Dunsparce has a two hundred percent chance to paralyze!"

"What does that even mean?" Morana said, sounding at her wit's end.

"It means I'm getting amazing footage!" Alexa called down.

"Glalie can still battle even though they're paralyzed," Cilan pointed out. "It makes them slower but it's not an instant defeat."

"Stop telling me how to train my Pokémon!" Morana demanded. "Sheer Cold!"

"Sizzly Slide!" Cilan called.


"I'm not sure why," Professor Juniper said, apropos of nothing. "But I have this horrible feeling that I'm never entirely going to escape from something…"


After the battle was over – and after a somewhat chastened Morana had been sent off to Icirrus Gym, to learn from Brycen – it was time for Ash to say goodbye to Iris and Cilan.

"It's been fun, Ash," the Gym Leader said. "It really has! But I think it's time to go back home to Striaton and really make the gym into a stop on everyone's Pokémon journey – I want it to be somewhere where you don't just have a great battle, but learn a lot about yourself and your Pokémon while there. And have a good lunch, of course!"

"I think you're most of the way there," Ash told his friend. "It sounds like you'll have a great time!"

"I agree," Iris said. "And I'll probably be coming around some time… I'm going back to Unova too, but I plan on getting my whole team ready for it and then doing a gym challenge. I know you didn't want Alder's job, but I'm going to see if I can manage it!"

"What about you, Ash?" Cilan prompted. "Where are you heading next?"

"I think Kalos, actually," Ash answered. "There are some cool Pokémon there, and I bet it'll be a lot of fun!"

"We could have fun anywhere, Ash, so long as we're together," Pikachu said. "But Kalos sounds good to me, too."

"Back to Pallet Town first, though," Ash added. "I want to check with Professor Oak if there's anything I should know… and say hi to everyone on my team, too, of course!"


AN:


Cilan has learned well.

And no, 200 percent paralyze chance shouldn't mean anything special, but it apparently does…

That's it for Unova (well, Unova extra time), so next stop Kalos!