After the fishing contest was over, and after they'd got Trevor's Wailord back into the sea and persuaded the Sharpedo that there wasn't actually anything left of Clemont's lure gear to eat, the next activity at the summer camp was about filming your Pokémon doing things.

"It's a lot like Pokévision, really," Professor Sycamore told them. "So I'm sure-"

One of his assistants waved to get his attention, and whispered urgently into his ear.

"Ah," he said. "I've been informed by Sophie that the reason it's a lot like Pokévision is that it's Pokévision… which would explain a lot, actually."

Sophie sighed, then took over.

"There are tools to make Poképuffs and for grooming your Pokémon in the main hall, while you can scout around nearby for where to film and you've got the whole day through to nine PM to make them," she said. "You'll have to have a finished and edited film by then, though, and we'll see them all before voting on which of the films is the best. And, of course, nobody can actually vote for their own film."

The meeting broke up into various teams of trainers discussing about how to make a movie, and after a bit of thought Serena snapped her fingers.

"Didn't you get involved in making a film, recently, Ash?" Serena said. "You and your friends in Unova, anyway… I'm pretty sure you were in it, too. Though I didn't recognize you when I watched it."

"That must be an impressive memory," Clemont told her. "How did you know Ash was in it?"

"It's all the Pokémon that turned up in it," Serena explained. "Like Zacian and Latias and Latios… also it was a bit hard to follow the plot. But I only realized Ash was in it when I thought about that Absol character."

"That checks out," Fennekin agreed. "I am so looking forward to when we can make that potion ourselves and find out what you are, Serena."

"Yeah, that was fun," Ash said. "Though it might be hard to keep track of everyone if we do something that big… but maybe we should get Zorua and a couple of the others to see if they've got any advice."

He held up a Moon Ball, which flashed and sent out nothing. "Latias, can you see if you can spot somewhere interesting to do some filming? Somewhere that looks pretty would do, so long as it's not far."

"Got it!" Latias agreed, and flew off with a whoosh of displaced air.

Then she came back down again.

"Just to be clear?" she said, still invisible. "Do we mean not far by human standards, not far by Lati standards, or not far by Arc standards? Because Altomare's very nice."

Latias found them a nice place a few miles up the coast (which wasn't far by Lati standards) and where there was a kind of rocky arena with a grass floor overlooking the sea.

"Right, now we need to work out what we're doing," Serena said, and looked up as Ash sent out Zorua and Zacian. "Do either of you have any ideas?"

"Oh, I've got one!" Zorua replied. "Only, I want to check, the idea here is to film something cool, right?"

"That's a good start," Serena told him. "It's going to be going on from there, though… it depends how we want to play it. But we're still at thinking up ideas right now."

"Then we could have my training sessions with Ash?" Zorua suggested. "There's probably some new things we can do now that I've evolved and everything."

"You evolved?" Ash said. "I was going to say you don't look it, but you're a Zorua slash Zoroark open brackets delete as inappropriate close brackets, so you're probably just illusioned, right?"

"Well, I could be a Zorua who's really really convincing at illusioning myself into a Zoroark and even fooled myself, or I could be a Zoroark who's currently illusioning myself into a Zorua," Zor-questionmark said. "It's like how you can't tell if Mew is Mew who thinks they're Butterfree, or Butterfree who thinks they're Mew. Or both."

Pikachu considered.

"I've got a very simple answer to your question," he said, and used Thundershock, which shortened Zor-questionmark into Zoroark.

"Congratulations!" Ash told him. "What do you think?"

"I kind of miss my tail," Zoroark admitted. "Fortunately I can just get it back… we should probably see if that Zoroarkite we used for that fake-out back in Kanto actually is one, some time!"

He stretched, then smirked in a vulpine sort of way (which was more-or-less his default). "Hey, I haven't had much chance to practice making illusions that aren't just disguising myself. What about if we give that a go?"

"Sure!" Ash agreed. "Hey, Pikachu, you want to go first or shall I?"

"I think I've worked out a theme," Clemont said. "Pokémon trainers who teach their Pokémon to do things by example."

"Well, sir, I'm hardly likely to be disassembling a Gear to try and fix it, but I suppose that's as good a definition as any otherwise," Bunnelby said.

"I suspect this isn't how they do those sweeping long shots you get on nature documentaries," Zacian said, about half an hour later.

"Ssh, we're about to get to the bit where we can pick up good sound," Serena advised, as Zacian flew swooping down towards where Ashbsol and Zoroark-as-a-Lucario were exchanging attacks.

Zoroark hadn't got the hang of Sacred Sword properly, let alone Secret Sword, but he could make something quite similar that lasted until it was hit for the first time and vanished in a swirl of light. The result was really quite cinematic, as far as Serena was concerned, and Zacian got her a good view as she circled the bowl-shaped training area at about twenty feet in altitude.

Then Zoroark zigged when he should have zagged, tripped over, and burst his Illusion.

"Oops," he said, rubbing his bashed muzzle before rolling over and sitting up. "Ow."

"Is something wrong?" Ash asked, idly rubbing his own muzzle with a paw. "You've gone all weirdly coloured, it's like you didn't revert properly."

"I did?" Zoroark repeated, confused, then looked in the mirror Ibid provided. "Huh. Weird, I didn't do that deliberately… and those aren't Lucario colours either. There's too much blue and not enough black, and that red stripe is different."

"You kind of look like Ash would if he wasn't an Absol at the moment, in a weird way," Pikachu contributed. "If all you had to work with was a Zoroark shape."

"Huh," Zoroark said, then shrugged. "Well, we'll work it out later?"

He returned to Illusioning himself as a Lucario, and conjured another Fakred Sword.

"I'm… sorry?" Professor Sycamore said. "I mean… really?"

He looked up at the video, then back at Ash, Serena, Clemont and the Pokémon (including Zoroark, currently shaped like a Zorua). "Are you telling me that you found a way that your Zoroark could change form, in a way that makes him look like you-"

"Not like me at the time, I was an Absol," Ash interrupted. "I did say. He looked a bit like the clothes I was wearing before I used a magic potion to turn myself into an Absol, but we haven't tested it yet with me wearing different clothes."

Professor Sycamore looked at the video again.

"I see," he said. "And did you notice anything else unusual?"

"Well, I did, a bit," Zoroark said, holding up a paw. "I kept fluffing my moves at weird points in the day, and thinking about it that odd feeling that sometimes came up was going on at about that time. I always felt like I was trying to walk on two and four legs at the same time? Or like I was suddenly slower, not much, but a bit, and you'd think I'd be used to that because I change shape except that it happened when I wasn't changing shape."

Professor Sycamore sighed.

"It's at times like this I feel sympathetic to Professor Oak," he said. "Can one of you try and keep track of any of that sort of thing that you run into? It sounds like some kind of strange connection between the two of you, and I'm not sure if that's something that's unique to Ash or unique to Zoroark or unique to the two of you… or if it's just something that's impossibly unlikely and has therefore happened. You don't happen to have Serene Grace, do you?"

"As an Absol I've got Illusion," Ash contributed. "Maybe it's to do with that? The potion hasn't worn off yet so we haven't tested."

"Right," Professor Sycamore said. "And did you really spend the whole time after making an entirely new scientific discovery focusing on choreography?"

"No, just the first two hours," Zoroark replied. "The rest of the Pokévision video is about Serena and Fennekin and Ponyta practicing magic, and Clemont and Bunnelby and Chespin testing inventions. Because it's themed!"

"Exactly!" Ash agreed. "The new thing might have been important, but the Pokévision video had a deadline. Then we did some editing, and that's what we've got now."

Professor Sycamore stifled a groan.

"Can we go and show our video now?" Serena asked. "I don't want us to miss out on a chance to show it, or on a chance to see the videos we'll be voting for!"

With no scored activities on Day Four, instead the Summer Camp turned into a sort of jumble of trainers and Pokémon giving one another advice or having practice battles or just enjoying themselves.

Which went well.

"Hawlucha will now test his latest technique!" Hawlucha announced. "You will see here that I have set up two rocks, correct?"

"I sometimes have trouble keeping track of whether you're using first person or third person, but sure," Entei agreed. "Actually, let me check."

He padded over to the two boulders, each slightly bigger than he was, and sniffed one.

"Yep, that's a rock," he said, and paced back over to Hawlucha.

"Aren't you going to check the other one?" Fennekin asked.

"I don't see why he'd have to," Ash shrugged. "They don't look different."

Hawlucha nodded, then sprang into the air. He struck a pose, then used Flying Press, and smacked down on the rock Entei hadn't sniffed. It went tchack, sending splinters flying off, and he rolled backwards before landing with poise.

"And now!" he went on, and pulled a mask from under his feathers.

It was blue underneath and red on top, with a white beak tip, and Hawlucha fitted it on before striking another pose.

"When you think about it, Flying Press is a Fighting-type move!" he declared. "It just uses the Flying type to move faster! So it should be far more effective against Rocks than even a normal Fighting-type move!"

He sprang into the air again, and this time his Flying Press hit the second rock hard enough that cracks spread throughout it. Then it dissolved into gravel, and Hawlucha struck a pose on top of the pile.

"Oh, I get it," Pikachu said. "That's the same thing Zoroark was doing, right? Except you just did it by putting on a mask."

He flicked his ears. "I'd complain, but it just seems impolite."

"Hmm, actually, maybe whatever was happening with Zoroark actually is magic?" Serena pondered.

"Oh, of course!" Ponyta agreed. "It's the principle of sympathy, which is, once people hear what Ash has done this time they feel sympathetic to everyone else involved who isn't Ash."

She frowned. "Hold on, that might not be correct. I'm going to need to check my notes…"

The next day involved Pokémon Orienteering, or PokéEnteering, and each trainer had to pick a single Pokémon to accompany them.

Ash opted for Pikachu, Serena for Fennekin, and after a bit of a conversation with both Pokémon Clemont took Chespin. Meanwhile the other Pokémon stayed with Bonnie, who wasn't actually allowed to help them but who was tagging along with her brother just so she got a chance to do the event as well.

"I'm not really clear on the rules," Serena admitted. "But are you allowed to follow us?"

"I think so," Tierno replied, clearly thinking about it seriously. "There's nothing that actually stops it, and we'd need to get our own stamps anyway – and if we're following you then obviously you'd come first. I think we'd have to stop if you asked us to stop, though."

"Well…" Serena began, considering. "Based on the stories I've heard, Ash without Arc is a potential way to get quite lost."

"Okay, Pikachu, let's see where we are!" Ash declared. "Ready?"

"Ready!" Pikachu replied.

Ash took two steps and threw Pikachu upwards, then the Electric-type formed a water Surf-board and rode it further into the sky.

"Then again, maybe not?" Serena added, then shrugged. "I guess we'll find out."

"Good news!" Pikachu said, coming back down and bouncing his Surf-board off the ground to shed his momentum. "I think we're close to one of the stamps… in fact, I think it's at the top of that cliff!"

"Right!" Ash decided, throwing Pikachu his Mega Ring. "I'll go get it!"

Tierno, Trevor and Shauna watched as Ash dropped his Illusion, Mega-Evolved, then ran up the side of the cliff with his wings whipping in the breeze.

"So," Trevor said, eventually. "How typical a day is this?"

Serena shrugged. "It's still cool when it happens?"

With most of the stamps collected, Team Froakie was on their way back to the drop-off point – with their last stamp on the way – when Bonnie pointed off to the side.

"Look!" she said. "There was a Pokémon over there, in that mist!"

"I'm surprised there's mist there at this time of day," Clemont frowned. "It should all have gone by now… maybe it's a Pokémon using Fog? Is Fog a move?"

"Mist is?" Chespin suggested.

"And there must be a Fog move to be the opposite of Defog," Ash added. "Maybe that Pokémon knows it? I think Zapdos might know, but I can't ask her now… what do you think? Should we go and ask?"

"It'd be the polite thing to do, I think," Fennekin said. "And if it's not, we can just say sorry and move on."

With that said, they pushed through the brush and into the mist. The air got darker and damper, and colder, and within a minute or so Bonnie stopped.

"What if we get lost?" she asked.

"Don't worry!" Dedenne replied, popping his head out of Bonnie's bag. "I can use my whiskers to tell which way north is! That'll make sure we can't be lost for long!"

The little Fairy-type flicked his tail. "Assuming we don't just use one of the several other ways we have of not being lost. Or of just going straight back to camp."

Bonnie nodded. "That's very clever, Dedenne!"

Dedenne preened happily.

"Excuse you!" a bossy voice said, and a Celebi flew up to them. "I'm busy here!"

"Oh, sorry!" Pikachu replied. "We weren't sure if you were or not. We'll go now."

Celebi watched as they turned around and walked off.

"...well, that was a bit odd," the Psychic-type said. "And why do I get reja vu when looking at them?"

They shrugged, and went back to practising.

Even a time-travel Pokémon had to be young and inexperienced at some point.

"And here's our finished sheet!" Ash said proudly, handing it in.

Professor Sycamore groaned.

"...is something wrong?" Bonnie asked. "I think we did really well! Have any of the other teams finished yet?"

"None of them have started," Sycamore told them. "The event's not due for another half an hour. Just… go and sit in my cabin so we don't get a paradox."

"Is that when you have the same Quaxly at two points in its timestream?" Ponyta asked. "Standing next to one another, so they're a space-time pair of ducks."

"I can't even tell if that was a deliberate joke or not," Sycamore lamented.

AN:

There's a time and a place to be polite, and that time and place is most times. And most places.