"Let's give it another go?" Serena requested.
"All right," Braixen agreed. "Now, three, and two, and one, and – Fire Blast!"
She twirled her forearm-length branch and shot out a jet of flame, and Ponyta reached out for it with a burst of psychic energy – but the Fire Blast continued stubbornly on its way, before exploding in mid-air.
"No, that didn't work," Braixen said. "Sorry about that. I could try using Mystical Fire instead, and shape it?"
"That would work, but it doesn't really fulfil the idea," Ponyta replied. "It's supposed to be all about catching fire, in more than one metaphorical sense at once, and the hand-off between your fire and mine works better if it's a catch instead of if it's a swap-out. Hmm…"
She stepped back, and looked Braixen up and down. "I wonder… maybe there's a way we can use our favourite magical principle here?"
"...what, you mean Lily?" Braixen replied. "I suppose we could get her help, but I'd like to work it out myself."
"Sorry?" Ponyta asked.
"...oh, I get it," Serena realized. "Braixen, she said principle as in rule of magic, not principal as in head teacher. I don't think it's a word Galarians use that way."
"I did wonder," Braixen admitted. "So, what were you thinking of?"
"Well…" Ponyta began.
"What do you think?" Serena asked, half an hour later, as Pancham finished whittling.
Braixen picked up the newly made branch, which was made of willow, and gave it an experimental twirl.
"It's quite bendy, but that's the point, right?" she asked. "Okay, Ponyta, ready?"
She threw a jet of flame, and Ponyta caught it with a whoosh before shaping it into a ball.
"There we go!" Serena cheered. "Great work!"
"Now I'm wondering what other woods could do," Braixen said, looking between her new branch and her original one. "Maybe I need a whole tail-full of them?"
"I'll be willing to help," Pancham said. "Just so long as you don't need too many in one go, mind you…"
"Do you guys need to keep working on that?" Ash asked.
"I think they're done for now," Lokoko reported. "Do check with them, but I think we should be ready to get going now."
"Great!" Ash nodded. "We could stay around, but Dragonite's finished clearing up the lunch things so we can get moving now if we want… if we were staying a bit longer then Clemont wanted to work on something with Luxray, but he said it can wait…"
"Now I wonder if having lots of wands would let you cast magical effects from more than one of them at the same time?" Ponyta suggested.
"...I wouldn't want to get them mixed up," Braixen said. "But maybe?"
That evening, they had an unexpected dinner guest.
"Hey, Ash! Serena! Clemont, and Bonnie!" Trevor called, waving to them. "It's been a while! Remember me from the summer camp?"
"Yeah, it's nice to see you!" Ash agreed. "What brings you here?"
"Well, I'm aiming to get photos of a rare wild Pokémon!" Trevor explained. "You know where we are, right?"
"Uhh…" Ash began. "Approaching Anistar, right?"
"Well, yes, but besides that," Trevor replied.
"We are next to Mount Molteau," Zygarde stated. "Mount Molteau is known for having a Moltres on it."
"Well… yeah, okay, that actually skips a few steps in the explanation I was going to do," Trevor said. "Yes, you're right, I tracked down a Moltres to Mount Molteau!"
He looked embarrassed. "To be honest, I probably should have started here, but it's not all bad – I got photos of a wild Zapdos and a wild Articuno as well."
"Well done for repeatedly stressing the word wild," Pikachu complimented. "Ash has all three Legendary Birds, but one is Galarian and another is technically Sinnohian but not the normal Sinnohian form for that Pokémon. And of course they're all his Pokémon, so none of them are wild."
"Yeah, I don't have any wild Pokémon in my Pokéballs, except for maybe Mew?" Ash said. "It depends how he counts. Zygarde and Marshadow are wild though."
"And what I'm after is to get a photo to complete my collection," Trevor resumed, showing them the photos he already had. "I know that there's other Legendary Pokémon, but I want to start with a complete set and then move on from there…"
"Hmm," Ash frowned. "So you just need to go up the mountain and get a photo?"
"I also need to find Moltres," Trevor replied. "A mountain's a big place, and Legendary Pokémon are usually elusive."
"I-" Ash began.
"Usually," Pikachu stressed. "He said usually, not always. You're just preposterously lucky with Legendary Pokémon, Ash."
"Well, okay," Ash said, still dubious. "If you're not sure about finding Moltres, maybe I could send out a Pokémon to have a look?"
A few minutes later, Ash's Articuno came flying back down towards them.
"Okay, so, quick report," she said, holding up a wing as she hovered in place. "Firstly, I found Moltres. Secondly, he's kind of touchy, and it got worse when I explained that the reason I looked this way was because I was Galarian. Then I asked him a question which, in hindsight, was offensive, and it all sort of kicked off from there."
"Come back here!" Moltres demanded, swooping down with flames trailing off his wings.
"Yeah, speaking of," Articuno added. "Do you want action shots? Because I think you're about to bloody get them!"
A spear of flame shot towards Articuno, who cut it in half with a Psycho Cut, then ascended and rolled away from the second spike of flame that Moltres sent her way.
Trevor looked conflicted, then took out his camera.
"I'd ask if you can calm Moltres down, but this is really cool," he admitted. "So, uh… maybe calm Moltres down in a few minutes? Once I've got some good photos."
"Strengthen my heart, scalchops!" Dewott called out, and his twin blades lit up – one shimmering with white energy, the other cloaked in swirling wind.
"Huh, actually, these ones work out okay," he decided.
"You're sure?" Fletchinder replied. "That's what you said about the last ones too."
"Yeah, but this is different," Dewott replied. "It's not what I've been hoping for to beat your speed, but it could actually do it anyway. Let's do this!"
Fletchinder took off, and blurred into motion before flicking out an Ember as he went past. It was whipped into greater heat by the stacked Tailwinds pushing Fletchinder along, and Dewott swept one blade upwards in a rising strike that took him high into the air.
"Sky Uppercut!" he called, twisting in mid-air, and pointed the other blade vaguely in the direction of Fletchinder. "Take this!"
A flash of light hit Fletchinder, and then suddenly there was a sudden crack as Fletchinder broke the sound barrier.
"That's weird!" Ash said. "Normally Fletchinder skips the sound barrier, I wonder what's going on there?"
Dewott landed, looking at the white blade in annoyance. "I was sure I had him there. That was Simple Beam and so he should have lost Gale Wings."
"Yeah, but he still has Tailwind and Flame Charge," Ash replied. "He can still speed up, I bet it's just that now he actually has to go through the intervening speeds instead of just skipping straight to being ultrafast."
"Well, so much for that," Dewott sighed. "I'm sure there should be some move out there which lets me go to absurd speed myself, then we can have one of those proper battles where you only see us when we collide and briefly lose momentum."
Fletchinder arrived, largely by crashing, because he also couldn't negate his momentum in the same way as usual.
"Huh, maybe there's some value in this though," Dewott added.
"Ow," Fletchinder said, succinctly. "There's a big dome over that way, any idea what it is?"
"Checking," Arc stated. "It is the Pokémon Fossil Research Lab. Yes, I am aware that there are many Pokémon Fossil Research Labs, I do not think there is an industry standards branding organization that prevents the name being overused."
"Well, we should go and visit," Serena suggested. "Those Amaura and Aurorus we met in the last one were cute, so I wonder what they have here?"
The answer, it turned out, was Tyrunt and Tyrantrum.
"It's actually a misconception that Tyrantrum are particularly violent," the scientist explained. "We're taking notes on everything that happens, of course, but they have a quite normal family structure going on with lots of playing… I think it's just being Dragon types. People just remember the dragon rage thing."
"Yeah, and they confuse Gyarados for a dragon," Ash added. "Some Gyarados can get pretty angry at times. Obviously any Pokémon can be any personality, but it seems like it's a bit easier for a Gyarados to end up angry."
"It's all that pent up annoyance from being a Magikarp," Pikachu suggested.
"You're quite right, of course," the scientist said. "So far most of our Tyrunt were revivals, but there's been a natural birth… we keep a close eye on them to make sure that they don't develop a bad personal interaction, because if they do we might need to work it out to separate one of them from the rest of the group. And that would be tricky."
"These are cute," Bonnie announced. "I've got a set of Tyrunt and Tyrantrum pyjamas, and they're nice Pokémon up close too!"
She put down her bag, getting Dedenne out, and rummaging around. "I'll show you! Is there somewhere I can get changed?"
"Probably the bathroom?" Serena suggested. "I'll help out, Bonnie."
"I have a bigger cousin whose job is to shoot down meteorites," Rayquaza said, looking up at one of the Tyrantrum. "I don't know if he was around that long ago, though."
Tyrantrum shrugged. "That's just how it is, I think."
"It'll be my job too eventually," Rayquaza volunteered. "I'm not big enough to shoot down more than quite small meteorites at the moment, though."
Then Bonnie came up with a Tyrunt.
"We're friends now!" she announced.
"She's not wrong," Tyrunt confirmed. "I met Dedenne and he's cute. And I think her taste in Pokémon is great!"
The Rock-type then tapped his claws together. "But, um… how is this going to work?"
"How is this going to work?" Clemont repeated. "I know that Tyrunt is one of your Pokémon, but he and Bonnie seem really attached."
"It's a difficult topic," the scientist admitted. "The Tyrunt and Tyrantrum are stable at the moment, and it'd be difficult to justify having one leave unless it was for their benefit."
"I do like Bonnie," the Tyrunt said. "But I also like my friends here… and, um, now I feel like neither option is really good, because I'd be disappointing the others? I'd be happy here if Bonnie was okay with it, and I'd be happy with Bonnie if the Pokémon here were really okay with it, but now it's got all awkward and annoying."
"Hmm," Ash said, thinking out loud. "What do you actually need from a Pokémon to revive it as a fossil? I know you can revive an Archen from a feather."
"Oh, well, DNA technology has been improving," the scientist replied. "We don't need much if the preservation is really good."
"Then, uh, hold on," Ash said. "Tyrunt, I've got an idea… can I have one of those feathers from your ruff? And Arc, can you contact Celebi?"
Five minutes later, Celebi presented them with a fossilized Tyrunt feather.
"Here you go," they said. "Now, I'm not normally one for doing this kind of thing, but I told myself I'd done it, so there."
"Wow," Tyrunt breathed. "So that's… fossil me?"
"Let's find out!" Ash decided. "It should be, Celebi took the feather a long way back in time and buried it, then dug up where it had ended up, but we won't know if it's worked until we try!"
"So… you're both Tyrunt?" Bonnie asked.
"Apparently!" the left-hand Tyrunt said.
"I think so," the right-hand one agreed. "I remember Ash asking for my feather, then getting revived."
"And I remember looking at the feather, so I'm probably the first one," the left-hand one concurred. "Now, um, do we flip a coin to see who goes where?"
AN:
Dupe glitch, or something.
To make sure it's clear, I have all fanfiction dot net material backed up, but I do not intend to transfer it over wholesale unless the collapse of ff dot net makes it necessary. It would otherwise take quite a long time and some of the early stories/chapters make me feel like I need to thoroughly rework them...
