"And… here we go!" Ash said, standing back and looking up at the massive tower. "This whole thing is the gym?"

"Correct," Arc stated. "It is the Prism Tower. No other role has been found for the tower other than being a tower."

"Well, I guess I've seen bigger gyms," Ash decided, shrugging. "Cinnabar Gym is a volcano, and the only other thing it does is be a volcano."

"Is that a being thing or a doing thing?" Pikachu asked.

"Could be both," Ash allowed. "Okay, so… let's go!"

"Do I get to show off here?" Pikachu checked. "I'm not expecting it, I have to admit, but…"

"Show off?" Froakie repeated, from his perch on Zygarde's back. "Is this to do with the flying thing, or something else?"

"Some of the tricks I can do work best on trainers with Ground-type Pokémon, others work best on Electric-type trainers," Pikachu said. "That's because Electric-type trainers actually understand how much what I'm doing doesn't line up with what normal Pikachu can do."

"I see," Froakie replied. "Hmm… well, I do know that this gym is Electric type, if that helps."

"I was thinking of having Clefairy and Servine get involved some time," Ash said. "Or maybe Tepig, I don't know yet… Depending on the challenge I get, Froakie, you might be a bit new for it – I don't mean you're not strong, I mean I don't know how strong you are. It's important for a trainer to know what their Pokémon is capable of, and we'll be working on that the first chance we get!"

"Based on observations, you will then do something outrageous," Zygarde concurred.

"Yep," Pikachu agreed. "That's about the normal pattern."

The Lumiose Gym didn't take challengers on the ground floor. Instead, they were directed into a lift, and rose high into the building before coming out in a lobby.

"State how many gym badges you have," an electronic voice requested.

"Forty-four!" Ash replied.

"That is an impossible total, there are not forty-four gyms in Kalos," the voice replied, and a trapdoor opened up underneath them. All four of them fell through, Ash with a shout of surprise, and went plummeting out of the tower.

Clefairy came out of her Moon Ball with a flash, flicked her fingers, and gravity abruptly reversed before settling down to much less than normal so they could slowly drift down to the ground.

"Thanks, Clefairy," Ash said, then looked down at a whoosh sound.

A giant airbag had just appeared underneath them, with a boy and a young girl hurrying towards it, and the two humans both slowed to a sort of awkward halt and watched Ash and the Pokémon drift down like a balloon.

They touched down on the airbag, which went fwoomf as Clefairy cancelled the altered gravity field, and Ash got to the edge before jumping down.

"Thanks again," he told the Fairy-type.

"Pas de probleme," Clefairy shrugged.

"You guys are okay, right?" the boy asked. "We saw you fall out of the Lumiose Gym!"

"Yeah, Clefairy caught us," Ash said. "She used Gravity."

"Wow, she's so cute!" the girl gasped. "But so is that dog Pokémon! And that Pikachu! I can't decide which one to hug!"

Froakie waited a moment, then shrugged. "I don't know if I wanted to be mentioned or not."

"Hugs are acceptable," Zygarde said, sitting down in front of the girl, and she embraced the Dragon-type.

"I've never seen Gravity used quite like that," the boy admitted. "Oh, I should introduce us – I'm Clemont, and this is my sister Bonnie."

"You are the Gym Leader of Lumiose City, correct?" Arc asked, and Clemont looked startled.

"Wow," Ash mused, looking up at Lumiose Gym. "So the whole gym runs on automatic? That's pretty cool!"

"Clemont made a robot to take over the gym for him when he's not there!" Bonnie said.

"C'est largement mieux que les autres chefs d'arène que nous avons rencontré," Clefairy muttered.

"Really?" Clemont asked. "I mean… how? I'm stuck out of my own gym by the robot I built!"

"Yeah, but at least there are still gym challenges going on," Ash replied. "So, uh… there was Jasmine in Johto who had to shut down the gym completely to care for a sick Pokémon… Blaine in Kanto pretended he'd shut the gym unless you solved a riddle… Fantina in Sinnoh just went on holiday for months, and Volkner was so bored with it he was just dispensing badges to anyone who asked."

"Wow," Clemont said. "That's… huh."

"I guess the fall might be a bit dangerous, though," Ash admitted, looking up. "Hey, Clefairy, can you set up something with Gravity so that anyone who falls out will just land safely?"

Clefariy nodded, twirling her fingers, and then nodded in satisfaction. "C'est fait."

"Stress test complete," Arc said, as a courtesy. "The gravitational distortion will last for at least one year."

"That should be long enough, then," Ash decided. "Right?"

"Is that why you were holding up your phone?" Clemont said, looking up from repacking the airbag into his backpack. "I'd sort of heard of Ash Ketchum before, but I didn't know you were a gadget specialist too!"

"A gadget specialist?" Ash repeated. "I don't think I'm one of those."

"But you've got a phone that can detect gravitational distortions and their instabilities…?" Clemont said, a little confused.

"Oh, that's because Arc has some of the same spacial alteration talents as Palkia," Ash clarified. "And some of the same time warping ones as Dialga. They're actually a Pokémon who's just taking the shape of a phone."

"...huh," Clemont replied, sounding not entirely sure how to take that.

Hey! A voice said. Psst! By your foot!

Ash looked down, and saw a pebble, which turned into Primeape.

"So I hacked into that robot thing in the gym over there," he said. "And it turns out, it's actually intelligent enough to have opinions and stuff so I can't just change its mind about what being a good gym leader's about, because of ethics. You'll have to convince it yourself."

"Did that Pokémon just appear out of nowhere?" Clemont said, now completely lost. "...Clembot has opinions?"

"Yep!" Primeape replied. "And yes. I did appear out of nowhere, but it was a long time ago and it depends how you view causality."

"Excusez-moi, s'il vous plaît!" Clefairy said sharply. "Demander avant de faire un câlin!"

"Bonnie!" Clemont chided.

"Sorry, miss," Bonnie said. "But, you're so cute and… I couldn't resist!"

Clefairy huffed.

"I'm sorry about Bonnie," Clemont told the Fairy-type. "She's too young to have Pokémon yet, but she loves them a lot."

"I'll have to introduce her to Dragonite later," Ash decided. "Though… hmm. I want to do a Kalos Pokémon journey, but if the local gym leader's not going to battle me until I have four badges then I'll just have to go and get four badges! Hey, Arc, what's the best route?"

"Calculating," Arc said. "Santalune, probably."

"Then let's go!" Ash decided. "Want to come along? So far I've gone just about everywhere I've visited with a gym leader, it's traditional at this point or something."

He frowned. "Oh, hold on, one of my Pokémon is out on a date, so it'll be a while until you all meet Lokoko. But she'll be able to help you talk to all of your Pokémon!"

Bonnie giggled. "Clemont's not a very good electric gym leader," she said. "He's only got a Bunnelby!"

Clemont sighed. "She's not wrong… I really need more Pokémon, because most of what I use as Gym Leader are gym Pokémon and Clembot's using them now. And an Electric type would be good, too."

"Well, what really matters is having Pokémon who connect to you, because you can work on everything else!" Ash encouraged. "Right, Pikachu?"

"Yep!" Pikachu confirmed. "Hey, we should see who else out of your team can Mega Evolve you some time."

As they left Lumiose proper, Ash had Ibid switch out some of the Pokémon on his team, then sent out Grovyle and Croagunk.

"So I had this idea!" he explained. "This here is Froakie, and he's training to be a ninja, and I thought maybe the two of you could help him get started."

Grovyle nodded. "Hmm," he said. "Why not Torkoal?"

"I thought of you because you've got Grass Shuriken, and that seems more like what Froakie means when he says ninja," Ash explained. "Torkoal's idea of what it means to be a ninja is punching really hard, and I guess that works too, but…"

He shrugged. "And Croagunk's a frog, so that might help!"

"Hmm," Croagunk said, thinking to himself. "A ninja… what can you do already?"

Froakie swished his Frubbles around. "I have Bubble, and Water Pulse, and I can make a clone of myself out of bubbles."

Croagunk nodded. "Yes, I can see why you asked for us. Hmm…"

"It sounds like you might need some work on close combat fundamentals," Grovyle suggested. "As a first step in practising it, I'm going to need a soothe bell. You'll need to try and take it from me."

"I think I remember this one?" Croagunk asked.

"Yes, but this time my trainee doesn't have an item stealing move," Grovyle said. "Ibid, can you send me back to pick the Soothe Bell up?"

"How are you doing that?" Clemont asked, as Ibid and Grovyle vanished again.

"Oh, that's my Pokédex!" Ash explained. "His name's Ibid. He's another Pokémon."

Clemont blinked. "Another Pokémon? You mean a Porygon or a Rotom?"

"No, that would be a Pokémon living in my Pokédex," Ash corrected. "Ibid is my Pokédex, like Arc is my phone. It's the shape they've taken."

"I think for my own peace of mind I'm going to consider them very complicated gadgets and move on," Clemont muttered.

"C'est simple," Clefairy said. "Le téléphone est un bébé dieu."

"I'm afraid to ask which one…" the Lumiose Gym Leader admitted. "Though I can probably guess."

"You're bewilderingly good with that tail," Clemont's Bunnelby admitted, that evening. "I kind of hope to be as good as that with my ears in future."

"Yeah, there's a trick to it," Pikachu agreed. "Actually, there's several tricks to it. One of them is about momentum – you either work to make sure you have enough momentum that you keep moving in the same direction after an impact, or, as a more advanced trick, you aim to flip back in the other direction after the impact. You can have a lot of control by doing that."

"Right, right," Bunnelby said. "It's a pity there isn't a move like, oh, Metal Ears though. Your Iron Tail is something I can't match."

"Say that in earshot of Mew and you'll be learning the move inside a week," Pikachu told him. "I'm only half joking. But Rapid Spin and Double Hit could get you a long way."

"Guys!" Ash called, waving. "Dragonite's ready with the dinner! There's a curry and a gratin, because he's still learning your preferences. Try a bit of each!"

"Food cooked by a Dragonite…" Bonnie said. "This is amazing!"

"I'd prefer you think about it based on how good it tastes," Dragonite requested.

Bonnie giggled, still not over how convenient Lokoko's translation was, then looked over at her brother. "Hey, Clemont, it's dinner time! You should stop trying to make that thing work until you've had dinner!"

"But I've finished it," Clemont replied, putting a spanner down. "It's a machine to try and call Pokémon!"

"Really?" Ash asked, interested but also puzzled. "Usually I find just walking through the area works."

"I've heard about how you got Articuno, Ash," Typhlosion said, getting up from where he'd been providing the heat for Dragonite's cooking. "Sometimes even walking isn't needed."

"Well, this is meant to attract specific Pokémon!" Clemont explained. "I've set it up to call Flying type Pokémon!"

"Wow!" Ash said. "I didn't know you could build something to do that!"

Clemont pressed the button. "Now, let's see how long it takes for a Flying-type to show up!"

Dragonite took off one of his heatproof gloves, and held up a hand. "Should I be feeling attracted to the Pokémon attractor? I'm Flying type."

"It should be affecting any Flying-type in a mile or so," Clemont answered, adjusting his glasses and checking his notes. "And, it shouldn't be irresistible, just a feeling, but you should at least notice. Maybe I got something wrong..."

"Oh, let's check!" Primeape said, then shuffled through about a dozen Pokémon in the space of four seconds.

"Well, it's not type," she said, as Lapras. "Maybe it's a specific Pokémon… stand back, I'm going to go through all of them and some of them are really big!"

Then approximately seventy-five Beedrill answered the question of what the Pokémon attractor was attracting.

Croagunk struck a pose, and the Beedrill all vanished.

"You should probably turn off that attractor," he suggested. "I only dodged a few miles, and if they were being pulled in before they'll get pulled in again once they get home."

Clemont reached for the switch, hesitated as he tried to work out what Croagunk meant, then decided it was more important to get around to turning it off.

AN:

If you have a predictable pattern of doing things unpredictably, how does that work?