"Ash? Ash!" Professor Sycamore waved. "It's actually good luck that you're here!"

"Oh, that's good!" Ash replied. "Why is it good luck?"

"Well, I tried calling you, but my phone said it would be an international call, and I can't really make that kind of call on my grant," Sycamore answered. "It's against the terms and conditions, I think… so I must have had the wrong number."

"Actually, we were in Kanto yesterday," Ash said. "Helping Diancie! She made herself a Diancite."

Professor Sycamore blinked. "I… actually can't remember if you've already revealed that part of your bafflingly in-depth knowledge about active areas of Pokémon research," he said. "Sorry. There's just so… much."

He shook his head, and smiled. "Anyway! I wanted to invite you, and your friends, to the Pokémon Summer Camp I'm running! It's meant to be a way for trainers to build an even deeper bond with their Pokémon through their interactions with other trainers."

"Is that actually possible for Ash?" Clemont checked.

"Hmm," Pikachu hummed. "The funny thing about how deep your bond is is that you can always go further, really."

"I guess that's right," Clemont said. "And I suppose with translation available, then it'll always be possible to help other trainers!"

"Translation complete," the Translation Gear chimed in. "Those fireworks are amazing."

"Pardon?" Professor Sycamore asked. "Where did it get that from?"

"I think it's lagging a bit," Clemont replied. "That's probably from yesterday."

"So, how does the summer camp work?" Serena asked.

"Well!" Professor Sycamore said. "There's going to be ten teams, each of three trainers, and each named after one of the traditional Starter Pokémon from different regions. Those teams will each share a hut, and they'll compete together for the competitions on the second day onwards – on the first day it's getting everyone introduced to one another, and there'll be fifteen one-on-one Pokémon battles between people from different teams. No points for that one."

He looked slightly uncertain. "I assume you're going to be part of the same team? It'd make things easier, since I wasn't sure if you were going to be available and I'd assigned everyone else huts already."

That sounded good, and they were all assigned to Team Froakie before someone came over to introduce themselves.

"I'm Tierno!" he said, thumping his chest. "Hey, listen, are you really Ash Ketchum? If you are, you're my idol!"

"It's not like it's difficult to recognize Ash, right?" Pikachu said, then thought about the number of times they'd met duplicates, doppelgangers and illusion-causing Pokémon. "Wait, never mind, forget I said anything."

"You've got the most amazing Pokémon!" Tierno went on. "Your Croconaw is an inspiration to me! I've always wanted to train a whole team of dancing Pokémon, and your Croconaw is what shows me that it can work!"

"Tierno!" someone called. "Don't just go running off like that – hold on, is that Ash Ketchum?"

"You might want to invest in a name badge," Lokoko chuckled.

Two other trainers came hurrying up, one of them a girl with a Bulbasaur and the other a boy with a Charmander.

"It is Ash Ketchum!" the boy said. "My name's Trevor, and I've been following your adventures for years! I've got a special interest in cataloguing rare Pokémon!"

"Why would you be interested in me, then?" Ash replied.

Trevor blinked a few times, then leaned over to Serena.

"Is he serious?" the boy stage-whispered.

"It's actually amazing how fast you get used to it," Serena replied.

"And I'm Shauna!" the girl finished. "You know Dawn and May! They're both incredible Coordinators, and Pokémon Showcases are a lot like that! Only, they involve the trainer working alongside the Pokémon, which is something both of them did as well!"

Fennekin nudged Serena. "We should probably-"

"Already thinking of routines," Serena replied, without missing a beat.

Tierno, Shauna and Trevor were all on the same team, Team Squirtle, and after general introductions Professor Sycamore called all thirty campers together to give them an opening speech.

That was followed by sorting things out – Ash rotated out some of the Pokémon he'd had on hand, and told Bonnie that her job was going to be accompanying Lokoko and making sure she was where she needed to be to offer translations to everyone who needed it. That made Bonnie feel much better about the next few days, and then it was on to the Pokémon battles.

"Remember, everyone, this battle is not necessarily until one Pokémon faints!" cautioned Cossette, one of Sycamore's assistants. "If one of us calls out that the battle should stop, you should do so straight away and both at the same time – otherwise, someone could get hurt because they think the battle's stopped."

She checked her clipboard, then nodded. "All right, begin!"

"I'm so excited!" Tierno said, watching as his Squirtle dodged back and forth with Ash's Froakie. "Hey, is he landing punches without actually making contact? That's really cool!"

"It's Feint Attack!" Ash clarified. "That doesn't miss, so if it's a punch-"

"Okay, I kind of get how that works, but at the same time it's weird," Tierno assessed. "Squirtle, keep up your momentum!"

"Let's use it for a chance to train your other moves!" Ash decided. "Froakie, do the ninja walking on water thing to your Water Pulse!"

Froakie backflipped away from a Water Gun, used Water Pulse, and threw it at Squirtle. The turtle dodged away, meaning that the attack missed, but it bounced on the ground and went flying off into the distance.

"Oh, so that's what you meant," Pikachu said, nodding. "I wondered."

"Keep it up, Froakie!" Ash commanded. "Bounce those Water Pulses!"

"So, what's the secret?" Shauna asked. "Bulbasaur, Razor Leaf!"

Bulbasaur threw out a barrage of Razor Leaves, and Fennekin swished her tail across at the same time as firing out an Ember. The Ember flicked sideways into a kind of ribbon of fire, which incinerated a big cluster of Razor Leaves all at once, and Fennekin jumped through the gap.

"The secret to what?" Serena said. "You'll have to be more specific… Fennekin, Ember up!"

The Fire-type tilted her head back and spat out a jet of flame.

"Now tackle it!" Serena went on, and Fennekin made a little jumping motion. The flame she'd set up pounced down on Bulbasaur as well, splashing over the Grass-type until they used Vine Whip to quickly beat the flames out.

"Well, actually, two things," Shauna answered. "Firstly, in general, what's the secret you learn when travelling with Ash, secondly, specifically how is Fennekin doing that?"

"Sympathetic magic," Serena said. "For the second one, anyway. They're Fennekin's flames already, so by doing things with her body she can make the flames copy her. We're trying to learn Mystical Fire too but it's a bit trickier. And as for Ash… I guess it's just getting continued exposure to how he looks at the world? Maybe?"

She shrugged. "It's just there really."

"Chespin, you know your target!" Clemont said. "Switch modes on the Fire Control Clemontic Gear!"

"Got it!" Chespin replied, tapping away at the controls as she dodged Trevor's Charmander's attacks. "Umm… where's Wide Mode?"

She tapped again. "Now there's words on the screen… what does danger close mean?"

"Translation complete," the Translation Gear announced. "Nid wyf yn y swyddfa ar hyn o bryd. Anfonwch unrhyw waith i'w gyfieithu."

"What?" Clemont said, baffled.

Then a Future Sight hit Chespin, who was decidedly displeased about the whole thing.

The first activity that was actually scored was a fishing competition.

"So… we're competing in teams," Clemont said. "And it's scored based on the size of the Pokémon we catch, but we don't get to keep them."

He brightened. "This sounds like a perfect opportunity for me to use one of my tried and true Clemontic Gears!"

"Didn't the last one of those that we tried blow me up?" Chespin said. "I'm still not sure how that happened."

"Well, I've turned off the voice control for the Fire Control Gear," Clemont said. "I'm still not sure how that is able to understand Chespin better than the translator…"

He shook his head. "Anyway! This time I'm relying on something the Gear has already done, in a proven way! We're going to be catching Sharpedo!"

They considered that.

"That is something your Gears have done before," Bonnie agreed. "But doesn't that just mean that this time it'll attract a shiny Magikarp?"

"That might not score you many official points, but it would still be quite an achievement," Lokoko said. "Though I'm wondering if I should invite Absol here and make it a date, since we're in the same place for several days. Then again, if you're going to be attracting large numbers of Sharpedo I might wait until tomorrow…"

"Well, what's your suggestion?" Clemont asked, a bit sharply. "Are you going to use magic?"

"Not at all!" Serena's Ponyta told them. "We're going to use statistics. I got hold of a chart showing the preferred baits for a wide range of Water Pokémon, and we can use this to work out the best combination of baits to attract large Pokémon!"

She slipped it out of her saddlebag and held it up with a hoof.

Fennekin nudged Serena's leg, got lifted up so she could get a better look, and peered closer.

"That says it's for the waters around Oblivia," she pointed out.

"It does?" Ponyta replied, blinking, then adjusted her glasses and took a closer look. "Oh. Oops! Well, it's still better than guessing, probably. In a Bayesian sort of way."

"Hey, guys, is something wrong?" Ash asked. "We just go and start fishing, right?"

"We're trying to work out the best way to do it," Clemont told him. "Who's that Pokémon with you?"

"Oh, this is Keldeo!" Ash introduced. "You haven't met him yet, but he's an old friend of mine!"

"I tried teleporting while swimming and ended up swimming over there!" Keldeo added, pointing. "Then Ash threw me a life preserver, just on general principle I think, which is nice of him!"

Serena considered that, then nodded. "Yeah, I think that tracks… what's the definition of fishing for this summer camp competition?"

"Well, yes, I think it does count," Professor Sycamore said. "You threw something attached to a line into the sea, and a Pokémon grabbed onto the lure – as it were – and now you've got them onto land. They're even a Water-type."

He rubbed his temples. "I did not expect to have to answer technical questions about the definition of fishing, but I really should have."

"If you want, I can stick around for a bit," Keldeo volunteered. "I saw Serena has a Ponyta, so I could help her with how to be equine in a world er-go-nomically designed for humans."

"Actually, I don't think that's going to be a problem," Serena said. "My mother's Rhyhorn and Fletchling run a web design business, so they've got experience between them… we should really talk about that after Clemont and I have done our fishing, though."

AN:

Believe it or not, and I would be unsurprised if you selected "not", Serena's mother's Rhyhorn and Fletchling being sufficiently web-savvy to watch a stream on a laptop themselves is actually Pokémon anime canon. They were doing it to watch Serena's Showcase while Grace was in the live audience.

I just wanted to specify that one.