"So, Ash, did you hear about the next big event on the Melemele calendar?" Kukui asked. "It sounds like the kind of thing that would Attract attention from you and your Pokémon!"

"I don't think I did," Ash replied, frowning. "What is it?"

"It's called the Pokémon Pancake Race!" Kukui replied. "It's a special event that celebrates Alolan-style pancakes, and… well, it's a bit silly, really. But it's good fun!"

He waved inland. "The way it works is that a team has to complete the whole course with a complete stack of about ten pancakes… it could be ten, it could be twelve, I don't remember exactly. But the important bit is that you can't drop any of them, because dropping a pancake results in elimination. Same thing for using attacks to mess with opponents."

"Oh, I get it!" Ash realized. "So it's a test of speed, but also of your ability to control something awkward while moving fast!"

"Hmm," Pikachu said, already thinking about it. "I could enjoy doing that."

"There's three steps to the race," Kukui explained. "The first step is that the trainer goes alone with the stack, then the second step has the trainer pulling the Pokémon along by wagon, and the third stage is Pokémon on their own."

"Query," Zygarde stated. "What are the restrictions on how teams are formed?"

"I… actually don't know that," Kukui confessed, once Ash had relayed the question. "Why do you ask?"

"I think Zygarde's asking for the same reason I'm asking, which is that it'd be great for some of my Pokémon to enter as a team," Ash said. "I guess it might not be fair if they're racing against humans for the first two bits, though… who organizes it? Maybe we can sort something out…"


"All right, everyone!" Anna the announcer said. "Welcome to the Pokémon Pancake Race! I'm Anna, and I'll be handling commentary for this event… and this year something new is being tried out! That's right, the Pokémon Pancake Race is now open to two kinds of team!"

She waved down at the starting line. "As you can see, there's some Pokémon at the start line as well! All-Pokémon teams are scored separately, and they have pancakes with cocoa powder mixed in so they're all dark brown and delicious in a different way entirely."

"Hoopa is looking forward to trying out those pancakes!" Hoopa added, the moment she took a breath. "Hoopa has Hoopa-rings ready to catch pancakes that would otherwise fall on the ground!"

"Hey, who are you?" Anna asked. "You're a Pokémon?"

"Hoopa is Hoopa!" Hoopa clarified. "And Hoopa is joining in in doing the commentary-ing, because Hoopa was bored which is Hoopa's normal way of being. Now, when is the race starting?"


"Phew," Kiawe said, sighing in relief. "I was getting worried seeing there were Pokémon to race against. It's a good thing we don't have to keep up with your Suicune, Ash."

"Yeah, they were really nice about it," Ash agreed. "It does feel weird, though, Pikachu's waiting up ahead and I think that's the furthest I've been away from him in months."

"Wow," Lana blinked. "That's a really impressive bond you have there, Ash. I… shouldn't be surprised by it, but I somehow am."

She adjusted her pancake plate. "The problem with this race is that you're not allowed to eat the pancakes, they really seem tasty…"

"Why not just go ahead and eat them?" asked a competitor in a trenchcoat a few places down, holding up their own light coloured pancakes.

"Huh?" Lana asked. "Did someone say something?"

"Drat," the trenchcoat-wearer muttered.

"All right, everyone, we're starting in three!" the announcer said. "Two! One! Go!"

Suicune smoothly picked up speed, the wind diverting around her to avoid blowing her chocolate pancakes off her back, and Ash's Zapdos took off in a whirl of wings. Next to them Bianca (who'd arrived from Altomare) stumbled slightly but managed to save her pancakes, and the trenchcoat guy ran ahead with a flapping sound from the moving trenchcoat.

Ash's Torkoal was doing the course on his front legs only for some reason.

"Wow, this is hard!" Bonnie said. "Hi Ash, Hoopa dropped me off and I didn't have time to say hello before!"

"Don't overdo it," Ash told her, jogging alongside instead of racing off into the distance. "Remember, you want to keep your pancakes, so it's better to go a bit slower and not drop them."

"Right!" Bonnie agreed with a nod. "It's hard but fun!"


"Hold on, did I just…" Anna began, then tried not to laugh.

"Zapdos has been disqualified!" she announced. "Cause of disqualification, eating own pancakes!"

"Hoopa thinks she should have eaten more breakfast," Hoopa said sagely. "Hoopa could have given her a lot of breakfast! And look, the first Pokémon are reaching the carts!"

Torkoal ran right past the cart where Grovyle was waiting for him.

"Hey," Grovyle said. "Are you forgetting something?"

"I will do the course on my front legs!" Torkoal replied, huffing. "And if I do not, I will do the course eight times on my front legs!"

Grovyle considered that, then shrugged. "Well, whatever. I guess if I went now I'd have a blue cat crossing my path…"


"Here!" Suicune called, braking just as fluidly as she'd accelerated. "One set of pancakes, ready to deliver."

"Incorrect," Zygarde stated. "The pancake stack required is ten pancakes. You have four and two of them have a large bite taken out of them."

"I do?" Suicune replied, then twisted her head to look back at herself. "Oh, so I do. I wonder how that happened?"

At about the same time, a few metres away, an almost invisible length of fishing wire shimmered in the sun.

An actually invisible Munchlax swung on one end, and from the invisible anchor on the other end came some distinctly Victini-like sniggers.


"Nearly there!" Glastrier said, cantering up towards the change-over station, then slid to a halt.

His pancakes kept going, and went smash on the ground.

"Oh," he said. "Oops."

Calyrex gave him an unimpressed look.

Bianca huffed her way past them, spotting her own cart, and put the pancakes in the cart before starting to pull.

"Remember!" she said. "Don't give me any help! That'd be cheating."

"I know, I know!" Latias replied, sitting in the cart herself. "And don't worry, I can make up time for us when we hit the second change over!"


In the woods off to the side, Dastardly Darkrai held a frying pan out over Victini.

"Are you sure you tied that Munchlax up properly?" he demanded.

Victini nodded, ears glowing as he heated the pan, and Darkrai poured some batter into the pan.

"We should be at the front by now," he grumbled. "Instead we're making replacement pancakes… how long is this going to take?"

Victini's ears twitched, and he sniggered.

"This tastes terrible," Munchlax complained.

"Don't eat the fishing wire!" Darkrai seethed. "Victini, do something!"

At that, Victini promptly zipped off to help sort out Munchlax. This left the frying pan without a source of heat, and Darkrai stared for a moment at the pancakes.

He was trying not to think the word congeal.


"Let's go, Turtonator!" Kiawe said, passing Turtonator the pancakes, then grabbed onto the handle and started pulling.

It took a lot of effort to even get the Fire-type to start moving.

"I don't think I thought this through," he admitted.

Honestly, I don't think I understand the rules, a voice said beside him.

Kiawe looked to the side, huffing as he tried to slowly build up speed, and saw a weird Pokémon floating next to him with a stack of outsized pancakes.

A stack of three pancakes, which turned into two as she ate one with a large fork.

Still, the pancakes are nice, Newtwo added. Good luck.

"Turrrt," Turtonator said.

"I know, I know," Kiawe replied. "I should have at least checked if you or Charizard was heavier…"

Torkoal went past for another lap.


"Thanks for the lift!" Latias said, scooping up her plate. "See you in a minute, Bianca!"

She zipped off down the course with a whoom of displaced air.

"Phew," Bianca sighed. "Maybe they should have got the Pokémon to tow the humans? No, that wouldn't work great either…"

Ash arrived next to her, and Pikachu hopped off the cart. There was a splash as he summoned a watery Surf-board, took the pancakes, and then began steadily accelerating off into the distance – pursued a few seconds later by an Alolan Raichu, who hopped onto his tail and zipped after Pikachu.

"Hi, Bianca," Ash said. "Latias went ahead, right?"

"That's right," Bianca agreed. "How are you doing here… wherever here is?"

Ash brightened. "Oh, right, I should tell you where we are. This is Melemele Island, in Alola!"

"Sorry, but what?" Raichu's partner asked. "How did you get here without knowing where you were?"

"Hoopa!" Hoopa said, sticking Hoopa's head through a Hoopa-hole. "Hoopa has taken over the role of joint organizer! Hoopa is accepting payment in pancakes – oops!"

Hoopa went back through the Hoopa-hole in the other direction, and several pancakes came flying into the air behind Hoopa. Hoopa caught them, took one off the stack and ate it in a single bite, then held the stack out to Anna. "Want one?"


"Ah, I need to be faster!" Servine decided, watching as Torkoal went past her. "Lunar Blessing!"

She threw the pancakes into the air, did a twirl as she powered up, and caught the whole stack again as it came down. "Marvellous, non?"

Nobody said anything, so she just shrugged and kept going – at least until a pancake landed in front of her, making her slip and sending all her pancakes flying forwards.

Hoopa caught some of them just before they'd hit the ground, and Servine curled up a leaf to shake in the direction the pancake had come from.

"Rude!" she called, then sighed. "Ah well. It was good exercise."


"Faster, Victini!" Darkrai called, running alongside and with his trenchcoat on the wrong way round. "We're neck and neck with the leaders! You can't lose now!"

He picked up one of his spare pancakes and threw it in front of Pikachu and Raichu, but both Electric-types just sailed over the obstruction.

"Drat!" Darkrai snapped. "Victini, do something!"

Victini ate a pancake, and Darkrai put another one of the spares on top of the stack to replace it.

"Are you sure we're the front runners?" Pikachu asked. "Ignoring for a moment the blatant cheating going on here, I'm quite sure Latias went zipping off ahead before Ash and I got to the second changeover."

"I don't want any more of that from you!" Darkrai said, snidely. "Now stand still so I can scheme!"

"Finish line's coming up," Raichu reported.

"And it looks like the leaders are coming into sight!" Anna announced. "There's Pikachu, Raichu, and a Victini! I didn't know that was one of the competitors!"

Darkrai threw a pancake, aiming to actually hit Raichu this time, but he missed. It hit the track, skidded to the side, bounced, and slid directly into Darkrai's path.

He stepped on it, and the inevitable happened – his trenchcoat came off, he cartwheeled forwards, and bumped into Victini. Then there was an almighty tangle as they slammed into the crash barriers to one side of the actual finish line, and Anna began trying to work out if Pikachu or Raichu had actually flown over the finish line first.

"Curse," Darkrai grumbled, glowing as he powered up. "Foiled again."


Meanwhile, in a forest clearing on the other side of Melemele, Latias scratched her head.

"Navigating on a race course is a lot easier when there's big glowing arrows which tell you which way to go," she said. "I may have been spoiled by video games."


AN:


You also don't get the loud WRONG WAY warning.