"We should be pretty close, now," Jimmy said, checking his map. "Are you hyped for this?"
Sparks shot from the cheeks of his Pikachu, Spike, and Jimmy pointed with a tch sound. "That's what I like to see, man! There's nothing like battling a trainer like Ash Ketchum with a Pikachu like that, and win or lose we're going to have a great experience!"
"Pii-ka!" Spike confirmed.
Jimmy adjusted the guitar slung over his shoulder, checking on the strings that ran down from the Pikachu-themed body to the Pikachu-themed neck, and tugged on his Pikachu-themed fingerless gloves.
Everything else about him, including his hair and facepaint, was Pikachu-themed too. He just didn't adjust them.
"Ssh," he added, halting, and Spike stopped.
They could hear sounds from over the next hill, and Spike tilted his head slightly before nodding as an electric attack flashed through the air.
"All right, that's them!" he said. "Spike, let's make a big entrance!"
Spike loped over, grabbing hold of the jumper cables dangling down from Jimmy's guitar, and the two of them stepped up onto the hill before playing an electric power chord.
"Whoo, yeah!" Jimmy declared, as the amplified sound blasted out. "I challenge you to…"
His voice faded away, as did the power chord, as the guitarist actually looked at the campsite.
It was quite confusing.
"Hi!" waved one of the Ashes. "Who are you challenging? You didn't say."
"Is it me?" another Ash said.
"Why are there three of you?" Jimmy demanded. "Why are there over a dozen Pikachu?"
"Oh, can I try?" asked one of the little girls. "I can introduce you to everyone!"
Jimmy was torn between saying yes and saying no, but then realized that there was no way he'd know what on earth was going on if he said no.
Admittedly it didn't look like there was much chance if he said yes.
"So this is Mirror Bonnie!" the little girl explained, waving at a perfect duplicate of herself in just about every way. "We call her that because the Ash from this world was holding a mirror when we met and it's a good way to tell us apart! And I'm Other Bonnie, I'm from a different world."
"The Ash from this world?" Jimmy repeated. "You mean one of – what do you mean, you're from a different world?"
"Would it help if I provided musical accompaniment?" a Noivern asked. "An Otherworld awaits you!"
"That's not helping," Jimmy complained. "How did you do the vocals and drums and stuff?"
"I'm a Noivern," Noivern pointed out. "Though admittedly around here I can see why you'd want to confirm that!"
"Yes, we're from a different world!" Other Bonnie said. "My brother, Other Clemont, wanted to get some advice on magic from Mirror Serena and see how she was doing, and Other Serena and Other Braixen are helping Mirror Clemont get the Translation Gear into working order."
"Uh," Jimmy said, intelligently. "Spike? Do you understand any of this?"
"Not much," Spike replied.
"Wait, I can-" Jimmy said, then cut himself off. "One thing at a time, okay, so… how come there's so many Ashes, then? There's three!"
"There's two," Mirror Bonnie corrected. "That's Other Ash with the Bidoof there, and that's Mirror Ash there in the middle. The other one's Ritchie, he's sort of Mirror Ritchie but we haven't met Other Ritchie so it's a bit confusing."
"A bit confusing?" Jimmy asked. "But what about all the Pikachu?"
"Oh, let's go down the list!" Other Bonnie decided. "Um… right, so, starting with that one there. You see them?"
"Her, I think," Mirror Bonnie corrected slightly.
Jimmy nodded. "Yeah, I guess… you think?"
"That's actually Delta Purrloin, who's actually Mew," Mirror Bonnie explained. "Mirror Mew really, but Mew transformed into Delta Purrloin who's a consistently female version and who has Illusion. Mew could be transformed into a Pikachu instead, but I think it's an illusion."
She moved on. "And that one there is Mirror Ash's Ash-Zoroark, who's currently using an illusion as well. He's really good at it because of his special Ash-ability, we don't know if there's a better label than that."
Jimmy was already starting to lose track and there were a lot of Pikachu to go.
"Let's do all the Mirror ones in one go," Other Bonnie said. "Or all the Mirror Ash ones. So those two there who are flying are Latias and Latios, using their ability to bend light and make illusions which isn't the Illusion ability. And that one there that's sort of hovering is Noctowl, who's using the same sort of not-an-ability Illusion but different, I think he can make them happen somewhere he isn't."
She beamed. "He's shiny! It's so cool!"
"I'm a Ninetales, really," said the notched-tail Pikachu who'd been shadowing Jimmy for the last couple of minutes. "My name is Lokoko. I suppose you'd call me Mirror Lokoko. I'm providing translation services, though Noivern could also do it with overdubbing."
"And that one there is… which one do you think it is?" Mirror Bonnie said.
"I think that's Froslass," Other Bonnie replied. "Yeah, see, she's using ice powers. She can look like that because of… ghost magic? I don't actually know."
"She met one who could do it, and that's how she learned," Lokoko supplied.
"And that's Zacian, over there," Mirror Bonnie told Jimmy, who was starting to feel the need for a crib sheet. Or album notes. "While those two there are Ibid and Aten, the first one's a Ditto and the other's a special kind of Zorua, Aten's the one who keeps growling. He's a bit angry some of the time."
"A bit angry some of the time?" Jimmy repeated.
"Yeah!" Mirror Bonnie agreed. "The rest of the time he's furious. But I think he's having a good day today… oh, yeah, and that one there is Pikachu. Mirror Pikachu, I mean."
Mirror Pikachu waved.
"And I'm Croagunk," said the one on Jimmy's head.
"How did you-" Jimmy asked, startled, as the Poison-type jumped down.
"Well, once there was a maiden, and you forget the rest," Croagunk said, shrugging.
"I think that's all the… did we mention Zacian?" one of the Bonnies asked. "Yeah, I remember, we did!"
"So let's do the rest," the other (possibly Other) Bonnie decided. "That's Other Ash, and Other Pikachu is with him, and a Bidoof too but I don't think you were counting that one. Then over there that's Mirror Ritchie like we said! He's got a Pikachu, only it's called Sparky, and he's got a Mimikyu too only it's called Pikatwo."
"And we've each got a Dedenne!" the first (possibly Mirror) Bonnie finished. "So, really, there's only four or five Pikachu here depending on how you count a Ditto."
"I, uh…" Jimmy said, muttering to himself. "I guess I get how they all look like Pikachu, anyway. Well… most of them."
He stopped. "Some of them? Spike, did you understand any of them except the Ditto one?"
Spike shrugged. "I think I got the Zorua one and the Zoroark one."
"Oh, yeah, well spotted," Jimmy agreed. "But what I don't get is why."
"That's because Other Ash's Bidoof heard someone saying that Mirror Ash could pick his Pikachu out of a crowd of Pikachu," Lokoko explained, relenting and abandoning her illusion. "So she asked if her Ash could do the same thing, and, well, we all sort of stayed in the decoy forms after that got started. You know how it is, you get dressed up and then you forget about it…"
That was something Jimmy could relate to, he had to admit. Especially the bit about dressing up like Pikachu, given he was currently decked out in everything up to and including Pikachu-themed facepaint.
Jimmy eventually did get his battle, Pikachu against Pikachu, but it turned out that Spike – while ready to battle other Pikachu – wasn't very ready to battle the Pokémon that had effectively defeated Mewtwo by himself.
Other Ash patted Jimmy on the back and said that Other Pikachu had enjoyed the battle, then Mirror Ash thought for a bit and suggested that maybe what Spike needed was an aux moveset.
"You mean auxiliary, right?" Jimmy checked.
"No, I mean, he helps you out with a guitar!" Ash explained. "So he's got experience with working with electricity and sound. Noivern, can you give Spike an idea what I mean?"
"Of course!" Noivern confirmed, alighting in front of Spike and humming a Heal Bell. "So what you want to do is build up some resonance, set up a chord, harmonize – use your electricity to convert it into sound, and you can produce sound moves! That's how electronic music works, right? What's it called… the middle?"
Jimmy frowned. "Wait, do you mean MIDI?"
"That's it," Noivern agreed. "And yeah, you could get that working! I know it sounds weird, but my friend Gible can fly because someone might make a Gible shaped aircraft in future!"
He waved a wing. "Hold on, I'll give you some musical encouragement. That'll help you out… I just need to encourage myself to be better at encouraging people first."
Spike learned how to do several moves that day, but his favourite was Metal Sound.
A few days later, the friends were getting close to Snowbelle – and close to time for lunch – when Arc rang.
"Professor Sycamore would like a word," he said. "That word is 'experiment'."
"Oh, sure!" Ash agreed. "Where is he?"
"He is in his laboratory," Arc told Ash.
"Hmm, that's a long way away," Ash said. "Unown, can you help?"
Unown began spelling, and a short while later they'd spelled out Hyperspace Hole and got a Hooparight notice thrown at them through another Hyperspace Hole from Hoopa.
"Well, this is convenient," Sycamore admitted, looking through the hole. "Ash, you remember Diantha?"
"Oh, yeah, I remember!" Ash agreed. "It's been a while!"
"And I remember you, as well," Diantha agreed, stepping through the golden wormhole. "Professor Sycamore asked me for help with another experiment, this time not involving Mega Evolution precisely but instead involving the strange bond phenomenon that you've achieved with several of your Pokémon."
She smiled. "I hope that's all right?"
"Of course!" Ash agreed.
"Did you know Ash was nowhere near Lumiose?" Serena said, curious. "If you'd already turned up at Sycamore's lab, doesn't that kind of make it harder to quickly get started?"
"Of course it doesn't," Sycamore replied. "I just guessed that if I called you, either you'd come here or you'd work out a way to quickly get us to wherever you were."
He came through the portal with a laptop. "Now, let's get this all set up, and we can discuss the experiment protocol…"
"Who do you want me to get?" Ash checked. "I could get Zoroark, or Silver, or Charizard, or King Dragonite – or Greninja, but he's already here."
"None of the above," Sycamore said. "You see, I'd like to test a hypothesis."
His Garchomp put a desk on the grass, and Sycamore put the laptop on it. "Thank you! Let's see… and… there we go."
He pointed at Pikachu. "Have you tried doing it to Ash?"
Pikachu's ear flicked.
"No, but I'm now interested to see if that would work," he said. "I know I can Mega-Evolve him, so…"
"Exactly," Sycamore agreed. "But first we'll want data on how strong Mega Ash-Absol is, and then we can check on, ah, Pikachu-Ash-Absol? If that's possible, that is."
Diantha Mega-Evolved her Gardevoir, who projected a set of ten layered shields as a starting point, and Ash got sorted out with his potion before Mega Evolving.
"What about if I use Twister?" he suggested. "That's a move that's Dragon-type, so it won't matter if I'm stronger than expected, and I don't need to aim to miss."
"That sounds acceptable," Mega Gardevoir decided.
Mega Ashbsol flicked his head around, forming a swirling current of air, then pushed it sharply towards Mega Gardevoir. It hit the shield with a wham, breaking through most of the layers, and Mega Gardevoir took a step back in reaction.
"I have to admit, I'm impressed," she said, then rebuilt her shield as Ash reverted.
He shrugged off the necklace with his Mega Stone, throwing it to Greninja, then closed his eyes and focused.
"Okay, here goes," Pikachu said.
Nothing happened for a long moment, then suddenly a flash of energy pulsed over both Ash and Pikachu.
"There we go!" Professor Sycamore said. "I thought that was what I was missing… yes, I can definitely pick up that they've synchronized now."
When the flash faded, Ashbsol was a lot yellower and his horn had gone from a smooth curve to something more jagged.
"How do you feel, Ash?" Clemont asked.
"I feel like I've got a lot of energy!" Ash replied. "It feels different to Mega Evolving, I definitely don't have the wings, but… yeah, it's different!"
He swirled up a Twister, threw it forwards, and it punched right through the whole shield and knocked Mega Gardevoir halfway across the clearing.
"Gardevoir!" Diantha called. "Are you all right?"
Gardevoir's prone form held up an arm with a thumb up.
"That went right through a type immunity," Sycamore breathed. "Though… does anyone have a Ghost type?"
"So, I have to ask, Professor," Diantha began. "I know you wanted my help with this, and I knew it involved Ash, but… what actually gave you the idea to see if Pikachu and Ash could synchronize like that?"
I've been doing research on Mega Evolution for a while, now," Sycamore answered. "And, well, part of the problem with doing research like that is that Mega Evolution is all quite similar in how it works. The exact conditions that can set it off can be different, but one Pokémon Mega-Evolving through Infinity Energy is just the same as another."
He pointed with his pen at Ash, who was now using Razor Wind to hit Giratiny and demonstrate that he could ignore Ghost-type immunity as well, then at Pikachu who was twitching back and forth in sympathy with Ash's movements. "But this new thing… it's similar, it's got a lot of the same conditions, but it's not identical. And without a Key Stone or Mega Stone, it's different enough that – if it uses some of the same underlying mechanisms – it can give us whole new insights into how Mega Evolution works, as well as moves like Return and how they're all similar or different."
The Kalos Champion nodded along. "I see, but that would only explain why you'd be keeping track of how Ash could synchronize with his Pokémon and transform them. Not whether Pikachu could transform Ash."
"That's just basic science," Sycamore answered. "The core of science is trying to make testable predictions. First you gather data, then you form a hypothesis, and you test that hypothesis."
"I have a hypothesis," Gardevoir said, raising her hand. "Is it all right if I test it?"
Sycamore made an encouraging gesture, and she cleared her throat. "Hypothesis: Pikachu-Ash-Absol's new ability is like a typed version of No Guard. Analysis: This is best tested by trying to hit him with a Psychic move. Method: use Psychic."
She used Psychic.
"Results: no, it isn't," she said. "Conclusion: It isn't."
"Thank you," Sycamore told her. "I'll make sure to include you as an author!"
He frowned. "Though… could you help check my spelling? It's always good to have someone else look over it."
AN:
You have to be scientific about these things.