On the way to Santalune City, they met a Dedenne.

Bonnie immediately declared it to be the most adorable Pokémon she'd seen yet, despite strong competition, and asked if Clemont could catch it.

"Dedenne is an electric type!" she said. "You're meant to be an electric type trainer! It'd work!"

"Well, uh…" Clemont tried, looking a bit overwhelmed. "That's true, but it sounds like you mostly want me to catch this Pokémon because you like the sound of having them…"

"There's not anything wrong with catching a Pokémon for someone else," Ash said. "That's what my friend May did for her brother Max. But there is a problem with catching a Pokémon who won't be happy with you."

Bonnie had looked about ready to explode with glee, and Clemont had been wilting, but Ash's second sentence swapped around which of them looked happy and unhappy a bit.

"There is?" Bonnie asked.

"There is," Lokoko agreed, stepping a little closer. "This is an important lesson, Bonnie, and if you learn it then it's going to help you for your whole life, okay?"

She waited until Bonnie nodded, then continued. "Pokémon are like humans, and people are like you. That doesn't mean everyone likes the same things as you, but it means that Pokémon have their own things they like. They can get sad about things, and happy about things, and it's important to remember that sometimes – no matter how much you like the idea of having a Pokémon – it would just make them sad. And that's not fair."

Bonnie frowned, looking quite serious. "I'll, um… I'll do my best," she said. "But, does that mean I can't have Dedenne?"

"It means you should ask," Lokoko told her. "Remember, I'll be able to help so you understand what Dedenne says… and you should ask Clemont as well, if it'd be okay for him to catch Dedenne for you if Dedenne agrees."

She smiled. "Got all that?"

"I think so," Bonnie said, then turned to her brother. "Is that okay? If you catch Dedenne if they want to come with us?"

Clemont nodded.

Dedenne turned out to be all right with the idea, at least once asked politely, and soon Bonnie was fussing with a bag to see if she could use it to carry Dedenne around.

"I can't carry you like Ash does Pikachu yet," she said. "But like this, you can come along with me anyway! And we can do it that way once I'm big enough, if you'd like."

"So I don't need to do any walking?" Dedenne asked. "I guess that does kind of make up for the battle training stuff…"

"Hmm," Clemont said, frowning. "Actually, Dedenne usually don't generate much electricity themselves, they need to recharge from somewhere else… I'll have to build a Clemontic Gear that can let Dedenne recharge enough for training!"

He began rummaging in his tools. "I can probably dismantle the Pokémon Attractor for it… or maybe I could use one of those things that generates electricity when you walk?"

"What about if you did something with the Minus ability?" Ash asked, looking up from Ibid. "Apparently some Dedenne have Plus as an ability, and Plus plus Minus doesn't equal nothing because Pokémon don't work like that."

"That's a good idea, Ash," Clemont said. "Maybe I could make some kind of resonator… it could recharge all sorts of electric Pokémon, if I get it right!"

The next day, at lunch, Clemont was fiddling with his tools in between bites of sandwich.

"What about this?" he asked, and flicked a switch. "How does that feel?"

Pikachu waved his tail over it.

"Hmm, not very powerful," he said. "There's a bit there, but it could do with being stronger."

Clemont sighed. "Well, maybe having a bit of a recharge is what I'm going to have to settle with for now," he decided. "Dedenne, it's your turn for lunch!"

The Electric-Fairy Pokémon came over, examined the Clemontic Gear, and reached out a curious paw.

A bolt of lightning jumped to his paw with a fzzbang, sending him flying two metres through the air, and he rolled to a halt before springing to his hindpaws.

"Dedenne!" Bonnie gasped. "Are you all right?"

"I feel like I could run to the next city and back!" Dedenne said, indistinctly. "Or jump over a tree!"

"Oh, yeah, right," Pikachu admitted. "I forgot we were calibrating this for a young Dedenne, not for Zapdos or Raikou."

"That does explain the ozone smell," Clemont admitted.

"Do you think you understand?" Croagunk asked. "It's all right if you need to hear the explanation again."

"No, I think I've got it," Froakie replied. "The idea, anyway. It's about… it's like what Grovyle said, isn't it? About looking beneath what's beneath what's there?"

"Did I say that?" Grovyle said. "That sounds very wise of me."

Froakie gave a sort of confused look to Grovyle, then shook his head and returned to what Croagunk had said.

"It's like… punching, but not punching," he decided. "You punch your opponent, and they'll obviously try and dodge, but this way even if they dodge a bit you still hit them."

Grovyle gestured. "Let's see how well it works," he invited, and Froakie took a stance.

"Oh, hey, you're ready to try something out?" Ash asked. "That's great! Let's see how it works, okay?"

Froakie gave Ash a determined nod, then took a stance and swiped at Grovyle.

The attack hit, but it turned out to have just hit Grovyle's Substitute.

"Not bad form, but you didn't quite get the effect right," Croagunk said. "Try again."

This time, Grovyle ducked, and the swipe went over his head.

"Hmm," Ash said, thinking. "What's it called, Croagunk?"

"Well, False Swipe, maybe?" Croagunk guessed. "No, that's a different thing. Maybe…"

"Oh, I know what it's meant to be!" Ash realized. "Froakie, use Feint Attack!"

Froakie punched, and Grovyle dodged to the side – and got hit anyway, even though Froakie's fist had missed.

"Great!" Ash told him. "Now, Croagunk, can Froakie try it on you?"

"This should be interesting," Pikachu said, as Froakie turned and set his stance again.

The Water-type lunged suddenly forwards, fist flashing out, and Croagunk dodged.

Since Croagunk had dodged without moving, and yet Froakie's attack was meant to hit without hitting, the net result was that Froakie punched a Fletchling that had been flying well overhead and the Flying-type crashed next to them.

"Well," Grovyle said. "That happened."

"Are you okay, little guy?" Ash asked, picking the Fletchling up. "Sorry about that, sometimes I guess my Pokémon's attacks get a bit strange."

"Humph!" Fletchling grumbled, flipping himself back upright. "Who hit me? I'll show them a thing or two."

Froakie held up his hand.

"You, huh?" the Flying-type demanded, springing out of Ash's hands to hover in front of Froakie. "What do you think that was, then?"

"I didn't mean to?" Froakie defended himself. "I was training against Croagunk, and he dodged the punch so it went into the air or something? I didn't know that would happen."

"Well, you should have," Fletchling chirped. "I'll show you! We're having a battle!"

Fletchling turned out to be very good at Double Team, though he was quite annoyed when Froakie used a Feint Attack punch that not only missed but missed the wrong Fletchling and yet managed to hit him anyway.

He was also quite good with Razor Wind, whirling it around under his wings before flicking it at Froakie on daring close attack-runs as Froakie tried to hit Fletchling with a Feint Attack.

"Aha!" Fletchling eventually said, panting, as his latest Razor Wind hit Froakie. "Got you!"

Then the Froakie he'd hit dissolved into frubbles.

"...what?" Fletchling demanded.

Froakie threw a Water Pulse, and Fletchling dodged aside just in time to avoid being hit by the Water attack.

"That's got to be the real you!" he said, and darted in. Double Teams formed again, and Froakie jumped before punching at the Double Team going past on the left.

That turned out to be an illusion, which Froakie's Feint Attack hit anyway despite not quite connecting, but the impact knocked the real Fletchling sideways to cannon into the real Froakie. Both Pokémon went over in a tumble, and Grovyle sauntered over.

"Hmm," he said. "I think whoever manages to get up at this point wins."

They both passed out instead.

"Well, that's a draw, then," Grovyle decided. "Good battle."

"I don't think they can hear you," Croagunk said, then shrugged.

Nobody was very surprised after that when Fletchling demanded to join Ash's team upon awaking.

After they'd eaten, of course.

"This is Santalune City!" Bonnie declared. "The Gym Leader here uses Bug types!"

"Bug types…" Ash repeated, thinking out loud. "Well, I guess that could mean the gym has a lot of different kinds of Pokémon… it's probably going to be Fletchling and Froakie who I use, but I've not really decided yet. It depends what the challenge is."

He turned to Clemont. "Actually, does your gym have a special challenge?"

"Uhh…" Clemont began, a bit embarrassed. "I was actually thinking of doing something like that where you had quiz questions about Pokémon, and the answers determined how powerful the Pokémon I used were, but that's… not really happened."

"Oh, that's right," Ash realized. "Right now, your gym's special challenge is managing to convince Clembot that you're skilled enough for a battle. I guess it could use some work, but it's good enough for now and I clearly need to get better at that!"

"Wait, what?" a girl asked, drawing their attention. "Is that really Ash Ketchum?"

"Non, je suis Clefairy," Clefairy replied, waving.

"I don't mean you, I mean the boy with the hat!" the girl said. "It is you, right, Ash?"

"That's me all right," Ash agreed.

"I'm Serena!" the girl introduced herself. "Don't you remember me?"

Ash frowned. "Uh… not really?"

"From Professor Oak's summer camp?" Serena tried.

Ash's expression cleared. "Oh, yeah, I think I vaguely remember that… that was when I first met Giratina! Not Giratiny, though, he's too young for that. Giratina helped me through the rain."

Serena wilted, but did her best not to look too disappointed.

"I'll be honest, I was skeptical about this whole project from the start," Serena's Fennekin said. "It was worth asking, though."

Serena gasped. "Fennekin? I just understood you! How did that happen?"

Fennekin looked just as surprised as Serena about it. "I don't know? I don't think I did anything?"

A shimmer turned into Lokoko, who bowed elegantly. "Good afternoon," she said. "That was my doing. I hope you enjoy it."

"Oh, that's your Ninetales!" Serena realized. "She's beautiful, I mean, more beautiful in person. I've seen her on TV, or, I think I have? I might have seen one of your other Pokémon pretending to be her. Even one of your other fox Pokémon. Actually, do you have a Fennekin-line Pokémon that I didn't notice?"

"To the best of my knowledge, I have no Fennekin, Braixen or Delphox teammate," Lokoko told Serena. "And, as a word of advice from someone who knows, it's better to make new friendships than pine after old ones."

Fennekin coughed. "Since I can actually mention this now, Serena, I seem to recall that before we suddenly ran into Ash Ketchum you said we were going to a cafe?"

"Oh, a cafe sounds nice!" Bonnie said. "Then Ash can go and challenge the gym!"

AN:

What is the sound of one frog punching?