"Okay, so, it's around here," Meowth said, peering though a pair of binoculars. "Right?"

He glanced at James' Inkay. "It is around here, right?"

"I think so," Inkay replied. "I'm not certain because it's a sneaky covert plan and I only know what I do know because of luck."

"Yeah, yeah, you got an excuse for everythin'," Meowth grumbled. "Hey, Ambipom, dis thing can go intangiwhatsit, right? Can we use that to get closer an' see?"

"Believe it or not, being intangible doesn't actually mean you're immune to hypnosis, especially because the hypnosis relies partly on being able to see things and if you can't see something then…" Ambipom's voice trailed off. "Look, if we try it, we'll just all get hypnotized."

"Malamar are all kinds'a annoying," Meowth decided.

Inkay huffed. "Excuse me? My mother was a Malamar!"

"Hey, hey, I don't mean all of them," Meowth backpedalled, waving his binoculars around. "I mean more like, um, the ones what want to take over the world, an' all."

He frowned. "That is what they're tryin' to do, right?"

"Yes, I know that much," Inkay agreed. "They've got some kind of machine to drastically alter the world's climate so that it fits them."

"Terraforming?" Ambipom asked, leaning around from the controls of the Mecha Giratina. "That's amazingly advanced! How could they get together the technology to do that?"

"Knowin' our luck, they found it in a hole with a big sign sayin' use only in case of Legendary Pokémon," Meowth said. "Anyway, uh… fly us around a bit dat way… yeah, I think dis will work."

"Rude comment: Attention, meat bags," Porygon said, opening proceedings. "Statement: We have come to negotiate surrender."

Porygon was followed in by Jessie's hovering Yanmega with a big sphere held underneath her.

"Your surrender is unexpected but welcome," one of the Malamar said. "Join us."

The spots on all the Malamar glowed, forming hypnotic patterns, and Porygon's virtual form made an electronic chuckling sound.

"Smug statement," he said. "I am not using visual processing. Amused clarification: We were not offering our surrender. We were coming to negotiate yours."

"Then you are foolish," the lead Malamar replied. "You cannot stop us. The Malarforming of this world will proceed. It cannot be stopped. Your Yanmega counterpart is already under our control."

"Obey Malamar," Yanmega agreed, dully.

"You will tell us what is in the sphere, and then you will be removed as irrelevant," the lead Malamar said. "There is no other way that this will end. Give up."

"Suspicious compliance: of course," Porygon said. "Dramatic reveal: inside the sphere there are twenty-two Wynaut and one Wobbuffet."

"They will be useful," one of the other Malamar replied. "Wynaut and Wobbuffet are not immune to hypnosis."

"Grudging agreement: you are correct," Porygon verified. "Curious addition: have you ever heard of super-radiant scattering?"

There was a silence which tended to suggest that the answer was no.

"Final command," Porygon said. "Wobbuffet, return."

At that point, the Counter that had been bouncing around inside the sphere for the previous ten minutes punched a hole in the side of the sphere.

Also, in a very literal sense, it also punched the Malamar, and punched through their machines and the side of the mountain to boot.

"It's a shame they got away," James sighed. "Now they might try it again."

"Yeah, I ain't wanna live in a place dat Malamar think is paradise," Meowth agreed. "Not if they need to make all kinds'a changes to dis place to make it work."

Jessie was looking pensive.

"Did we just do a good deed?" she asked.

The Rockets were silent for several seconds.

"We did something in our own selfish interests!" Meowth eventually said, saying the words in a great hurry. "And dat ain't good!"

"Oh, right," Jessie agreed. "That makes sense."

Roughly meanwhile, Ash checked Arc.

"Not far to go until we reach Courmarine," he said. "Or is it Coumarine?"

"Coumarine," Arc replied. "And it is still several days' journey."

"Yeah, but that's less far than we've come," Ash replied.

"You are correct," Arc stated.

"I'm glad that's been sorted out," Clemont said, holding something with one of the mechanical arms on his backpack and fiddling with it. "Hmm… Luxio, do you think that it's better to do a non-invasive read of a Pokémon's thoughts electromagnetically or by capturing psychic radiation in a mechanical sense?"

Luxio blinked. "What? I don't even know what the second option means."

"First one, then," Clemont decided, and got out a screwdriver before using it to attach a headband sort of thing. "I know that with Lokoko's help we can speak to Pokémon, but what if we run into Pokémon where we need to understand something about their past while she's on holiday or asleep or on her honeymoon?"

He flourished a wrench. "So I'm working on my new Clemontic Gear to solve precisely that problem!"

"That seems quite a specific problem, sir, but then I remember the curious incident of the Lapras," Bunnelby noted. "We didn't even directly meet the Lapras and yet I can still see quite easily how that one could have been terribly awkward."

"Exactly," Clemont confirmed. "And with the intractable problems I'm having with the Translation Gear, it seems easier to scan the thoughts of a Pokémon to understand their motivation rather than work out a way to effectively understand what they're saying directly."

Bonnie sniggered. "It sounds funny when you say it that way!" she announced.

"Well, we might need that kind of thing!" Clemont defended himself. "Hmm… I think that's ready, but testing it is going to be difficult."

"I could test it," Pikachu volunteered. "I mean, it's all stuff Ash already knows…"

"Yeah!" Ash agreed. "Maybe we should try tracking down Kangaskhan some time!"

"Ooh!" Mew said, turning out to be Clemont's screwdriver. "Pick me! I've got loads and loads of backstory!"

Clemont looked at his hand, then at Mew. "...um," he began. "Were you actually ISO standard?"

"Of course I was!" Mew replied. "Haven't you ever heard of U-turn? Well, you turn me and I turn the screw! It's a simple move! Anyway, your real screwdriver's in your bag, where you left it, but I'm excited to try this out!"

"I think that might be a bit dangerous to the Clemontic Super Convenient Pocket Size Flashback Analysis Projector," Clemont hedged.

"Aww…" Mew pouted. "Why's that?"

"Well, I had to put in RAM chips to handle the data, and I was limited to using a finite amount," Clemont replied. "And not a very large amount, either, because it had to fit in the Gear. If I made something able to cope with a memory slightly longer than the entire universe, it would be…"

Clemont mumbled under his breath.

"About the size of a Pokémon Centre," he concluded. "Which would mean it wasn't Super Convenient or Pocket Size."

Mew nodded, accepting that willingly enough.

"Then does that mean I'm up to test it?" Pikachu asked. "It's not like…"

His voice trailed off, then he shrugged, and cleared his throat.

"It's not like a suitable Pokémon is just going to fall out of the sky."

A Goomy landed in front of them with a wet sort of splatch sound.

"Wow, Charizard was right," Pikachu said. "That is kind of cool to do."

After he'd been helped up, and given something to drink – a smoothie, whisked up in a minute by Dragonite – Goomy was recovered enough to look around.

"Umm… where am I?" he asked. "I was scared, and then that Swanna picked me up…"

"I know just what to do!" Clemont said. "Goomy, would you mind if I tested my new invention on you? It's Super Convenient and Pocket Size, and it'll show us where you're from and what happened."

"Oh, that sounds helpful," Goomy admitted. "I'm not sure where I'm from, so being shown where I'm from would be great."

Clemont held out the Gear, and Goomy looked at it.

"So, that's how big a pocket is?" he asked. "Pockets are bigger than I thought they were."

"Well…" Clemont began, then shook his head. "Anyway, just put it on here, and we'll see what happened."

The machine went glingleglingleglinglegling, and then not much happened.

"Should it be doing something?" Serena asked.

"Ah," Clemont winced. "In trying to keep it as Pocket Size as possible, I may have forgotten to include a screen big enough to view things on. Or possibly a lens."

Zygarde's leash-antenna raised.

"Pairing mode activated," the CSCPSFAP announced.

"Receiving," Zygarde added. "In summary: Goomy is from a place, and was driven out of that place by a Florges and their army. Information about the place is insufficient to determine the precise location."

"I didn't know you had Bluetooth," Clemont said.

"I do not," Zygarde replied. "All my teeth are green. I suggest that you travel with us, because Ash Ketchum is an expert at teaching Pokémon to do things."

Goomy blinked. "An expert at teaching Pokémon to do things? That sounds…"

He tilted his head, which meant his whole body sort of rolled over onto the side. "That sounds surprisingly generic."

"There is no more specific explanation that I can give," Zygarde told Goomy, lowering their antenna again. "I should note that it is not actually mandatory to become a captured Pokémon in order to travel with Ash. I am simply travelling with him until we get back to Kalos."

Goomy gasped.

"Before you say anything, we're in Kalos," Luxio said. "I don't understand how that works and if I tried I think I'd get a headache again, but if you were worried about being in a different region, you're not."

"That is a relief," Goomy admitted. "I just… can Ash teach a Dragon type to beat a Fairy type, then? Because I'm scared of Fairy-types… and Bug types… and invasions by armies of Bug-types led by a Fairy-type."

The little Pokémon gave a sort of blobby shrug, which meant he did the rest of a complete roll and ended up upright again. "That last one's a guess but I was scared when it happened."

"How many Fairy types have you met?" Bonnie asked.

"Just one, but she was terrifying!" Goomy said, quivering.

"Oh, okay," Ponyta replied. "So you're assuming that you're afraid of Fairy-types after meeting a Fairy-type who actually exploited their immunity to Dragon-type moves to do nasty things, rather than how most Fairy-types are nice. Like how people think of Dragonites as strong Pokémon, but if you've been travelling with Ash for a bit you think of them as fun Pokémon."

"Do some Fairy-types not use their immunity to do nasty things?" Goomy asked.

Ponyta flicked her mane. "I won't! Not when I evolve and have one, anyway, I'm just Psychic for now."

"...I thought Ponyta were Fire type?" Goomy said. "I'm very confused."

Eventually, and with the aid of diagrams helpfully provided by Tepig, they managed to get the complete situation across to Goomy.

"Well, I think I'd like to come with Ash, then!" the Dragon-type said. "Or go and visit those other Dragon types… and, um, maybe even meet some Bug and Fairy types, if it's done so I stay comfortable anyway."

"You being comfortable is the important bit!" Ash assured Goomy. "And it's great to have you!"

Mew zipped down and floated around Goomy in a circle, one pink paw on his chin. "Hmm…"

"Is something wrong?" Goomy asked.

"Oh, don't mind me, just trying to work out what to teach you," Mew replied. "See, one of the things about teaching Pokémon moves is that it works way better if there's a way for that move to make sense for that Pokémon! So I'm trying to work out what your thing could be. There's usually a few possibilities… hmm…"

She turned into a Machoke, making a shape with her hands, then turned back into Mew. "I could see you as a Ditto, I guess, we could try that. How would you feel about that?"

"See me as a Ditto?" Goomy repeated. "Is this going to mean another one of those diagrams? Because a lot of this doesn't seem to be making any kind of sense to me."

Ash was checking something on Ibid.

"So apparently when Goomy evolved into Sligoo they have trouble seeing," he reported. "It comes back when they evolve again, though."

"Ooh, that is a good point," Mew said, swinging upside down so their tail pointed straight up like an exclamation mark. "Isn't there that thing with a blind martial arts master? That could work too."

"Martial arts?" Goomy said.

"Yeah!" Mew confirmed. "You could learn how to be 360 degrees of punch!"

"I'm not sure I understand enough to make this kind of decision," Goomy apologized. "And I've had a long and stressful day."

"I get it," Ash said. "Do you want me to capture you? It's not required."

"Yes," Goomy decided. "I think that I'd be safe then."

Ash held out a Pokéball, and Goomy tagged it – before vanishing in a whirl of light.

"Your captured Pokémon with a full party still go to Oak Ranch, right?" Pikachu checked.

"Think so," Ash required. "Arc?"

"Verified," Arc confirmed.

"I hope he doesn't get too stressed by meeting all the new Pokémon," Dedenne said, sticking his head out of Bonnie's bag.

"Hello, fellow dragon," Meganium said. "It's nice to meet you."

"Oh, you're a Dragon type?" Goomy asked. "You look… well, very Grass-type. Are you a Grass Dragon?"

"No, actually, just Grass," Meganium replied. "Grass-Fairy when I Mega Evolve into Mega Meganium. But I'm part of the Ryunited Kingdom, so I think it counts, I've got an honorary type somewhere. King Dragonite the First sent me to meet you and guide you around, rather than have everyone rushing to meet the newcomer."

She offered a vine. "Would you like a ride?"

AN:

Honorary types are like normal types in some way presumably.