As the friends left Whitney's smoking gym, someone hailed them.

"Excuse me, young man!"

Ash stopped, looking over. "Uh... yeah?"

"Allow me to introduce myself," the man said, walking over. "I'm the producer of Pokémon talk radio. I was wondering if you'd give an interview?"

"Sure," Ash said. He glanced behind him at the heavily damaged building. "I... hope it's not all going to be about the Goldenrod gym, though... that didn't go quite as planned."

"Oh, you've got a reputation," the producer said with a chuckle. "But no, it was more a general interview sort of thing."

"Sounds good," Ash agreed. "Lead the way."


"Okay, Mr. Ketchum," Mary began.

Ash chuckled. "Please, Mr. Ketchum sounds way too serious. Call me Ash!"

"Okay." Mary nodded. "Right. Ash, we've got a few questions for you put together. We were wondering if you'd be able to answer them for us."

"Sure," Ash agreed, nodding. "How many are we talking about?"

"There's about a dozen," Mary informed him. "Okay, first... why are you still doing the gym challenges? Given you won the Indigo league, I mean."

Ash shrugged. "I guess... I enjoy travelling. And meeting more Pokémon, too. I mean, Pikachu's nice, all the Pokémon I already have are great-"

Pikachu nodded firmly. "You bet!"

"-but just in my time in Johto so far, I've already met several more Pokémon who are great friends. Like my Totodile, or Noctowl. Just because I've already won the Indigo league doesn't mean I don't want to catch more Pokémon."

"A good point," Mary agreed. "Most of us never win any Leagues, of course-" she chuckled, "-so we forget that."

"And I've still not beaten any of the Elite Four," Ash pointed out. "I've still got a few years while my challenge right lasts, even if I don't win the Silver Conference, and I think it'd be nice to have more Pokémon before my next go."

Mary made an understanding noise. "I guess you faced a member of the Elite Four?"

"Lorelei," Ash confirmed. "She beat me, but I like to think it was close."

Pikachu muttered something.

"Pikachu kind of wants a rematch," Ash added with a chuckle.

"Not surprised," Mary agreed. She looked down at her paper again. "So, since Pikachu's your starter – is that correct?"

Ash nodded.

"Ah, good. Don't forget, though, this is a radio programme."

"Oh, right. Yeah, Pikachu's my starter. Professor Oak had actually run out of other starter Pokémon to give out," Ash said, retelling the half-truth Oak had revealed to him this time around.

In reality, of course, Oak had known (as Sammy) that Pikachu was Ash's starter, and had given it to him despite everything.

Time travel could give you a headache.

"Well," Mary said. "Since he's your starter – what tips do you have for young trainers?"

Ash thought it over. "Okay, first – never give up on a Pokémon. Any Pokémon can be a valuable team member and a good friend, and there's a kind of tendency for the ones which need more effort to end up cooler. Like a Pidgey..."

"Yes, your Pidgeot is remarkable," Mary agreed.

"And second... if one of your Pokémon isn't doing as well as you want, train them. I mean show them what you want them to do, work through it, do everything you can. Try to come up with a way to put it that they understand..." Ash shrugged helplessly. "Pokémon are different, there's no one way that works. I guess just... be their friend, help them, and everything else works from there."

"Impressive," Mary observed lightly. "So you just think trainers should be friends to their Pokémon?"

"Pretty much," Ash agreed.

"Right." Mary looked down the list. "I suppose next is... how do you raise your Pokémon? What did you do to your Charizard, for example, to make him so powerful?"

Ash chuckled. "With Charizard... well, I actually saved him as a Charmander from a really nasty trainer. He evolved pretty quickly, and he acted out a bit..." Ash thought about it, thinking back on Charizard's behaviour. "I guess he wanted to see how far he could push me. But we made up, and..." Ash shook his head. "It's kind of hard to understand, really, because I saw it all from the inside. But Charizard – I think that, since then, he's wanted to prove that he was a lot stronger now than he ever was when D-when that other trainer had him."

After a moment's silence, Ash spoke up again. "With Charizard, especially, what helped was that I used him to fly on a lot. That built up his muscles, and made him stronger physically – and that helped make his fire attacks more powerful, too."

"Same answer as last time, then," Mary summarized. "It depends."

"Pretty much." Ash stopped her just as she was about to go onto the next topic. "If there's one thing that helps... teach them moves which cover their weak points. Not just types, either – my Totodile's a bit slow sometimes, so I recently started teaching him Aqua Jet so he can dodge more easily."

"A good example." Mary nodded. "Right. Next question on that – what's your favorite Pokémon type?"

Pikachu sniggered. "Think carefully..."

Ash blinked. "That's a tricky one..."

After thinking about it for several seconds, he frowned. "I don't think I've really got a type I prefer, but there is a type I seem to have a lot of – Flying-types."

He shrugged. "But that doesn't mean much. I mean, I only have one Electric-type, and I think he's one of the best Pokémon in the world."

"Only one of?" Pikachu shook his head. "I'm offended, I tell you. Offended."

Ash laughed.

Mary blinked. "Huh. Well... that's another question... we'll get to that later. One last question about Pokémon. What Pokémon would you like to get next?"

"I won't know until I get them," Ash replied. "I don't really aim to get a particular type of Pokémon... I just meet Pokémon who I think are cool as people, and half the time they agree to come with me when asked." At Mary's look, he shrugged. "I don't know why either. But if I had to pick one..."

He thought, then realized there was an answer which would be really nice. "An Eevee, I think. They've got so much potential."


In Pallet Town, Molly Hale laughed. "I think he's talking about you!"

Her Eevee nodded, and yipped agreement. "I've got a lot of potential – and I'm cute, too!"

Molly stroked her Eevee. "That's right, you are!"

Eevee glowed, and flashed over to Leafeon. She waved her tail, and leaned into a scratch.


"Well, that's interesting," Mary said. She turned to the second page of questions. "Okay, now, the next topic is one I'm sure a lot of our listeners have seen on the news – Greenfield."

She looked at him. "What on earth happened there?"

"Right. Well..." Ash took a breath. "Okay, the first thing you need to know is that the Hales were researchers trying to find out about a very powerful Pokémon called Unown. On their own, Unown aren't very powerful, but when put together in hundreds... they can do some very strange things."

"Like turn half a village into some kind of crystal palace?" Mary asked.

"That's it exactly. They're hard to control, and hard to stop." Ash paused. "A lot of this isn't really my story to tell, so I'll try to sum it up. The Unown tried to make dreams real, and they got confused. My friends and I were nearby, and Professor Oak told us a bit about what was going on, so we decided to go in and try to sort it out. My friend Brock had had a run in with Unown before, so he sorted most of it out, and what my friend Misty and I were doing was mainly giving him cover to work. That meant fighting the dreams the Unown had brought to life."

Mary blinked. "Goodness. That sounds... difficult."

"It was," Ash agreed readily. "We nearly didn't manage it."

"Yes, some of the scenes were a bit unbelievable." Mary pondered for a moment. "What was happening with your Charizard?"

"I don't know either," Ash said, shrugging. "It was like he was evolving, almost – but I've got no idea what could cause that. Lucky he did, though."

"True," Mary agreed. "And what about those other three Legendary Beasts who showed up?"

"Well, they clearly didn't like the dream ones..." Ash chuckled. "Copyright issues?"

Mary chuckled along with him. "I suppose anything's possible. Well, thank you for that... though there is another question we have about what happened then, as well. Looking at the news reports, you seem to have fallen a good couple of hundred feet and survived. We've looked back at your League challenge and you were doing it then as well, but less so. Would you be able to explain how that works?"

Ash winced – that pretty much put the Skitty out of the bag...

Well, there were people who were known to be psychic, right?

"You're right, I did," he said, deciding to explain that whole issue. "You know how some people are psychically powered? Like Sabrina in Kanto?"

"Yes," Mary agreed. "Is that it?"

"Not quite." Ash took a deep breath. "There's this other thing, called Aura. Some Pokémon can use it – it's how attacks like Aura Sphere and Force Palm work. And... a few humans can too."

He shrugged. "Like me."

"Well... goodness," Mary said. "I think I've heard of Aura Guardians... there's a story about one from Kanto, isn't there? Archie?"

"Aaron," Ash filled in. "I learned a lot about this stuff in Cameran Castle, which is where he used to live. I guess I was just in the right place at the right time – a Lucario there taught me, and I've been practising since."

"Interesting." Mary thought about that. "Is that the Lucario you currently have on your team?"

"No, a different Lucario. I'd just got my Lucario then – as a Riolu," Ash explained – chopping and changing details from the two different timelines. "My Riolu only evolved a few months ago."

"So... how long have you been able to do this Aura use?" Mary asked, wanting to follow up this surprising information. "And what can you do with it?"

"A bit over a year," Ash filled in. "And... oh, no!"

"What?" Mary asked, a bit alarmed at his sudden shift in attitude.

"I forgot to go back to Cameran for the tournament, that's what!" Ash explained. "I can't believe I forgot about it!"

Pikachu facepawed with an audible thump. "You're an idiot."

"Hey, you forgot too!" Ash replied hotly. "So did Lucario."

"Is Aura how you just did that?" Mary asked. "I swear you just understood what your Pikachu said..."

"That's right," Ash nodded. "It's the best thing I've learned to do with Aura, really... nothing else compares."

"I can imagine," Mary smiled. "I bet most of our listeners would love to be able to really understand what their Pokémon say."

"Yeah," Ash agreed. "Back before I learned this, I had to guess what Pikachu wanted to say, and... the difference is huge."

"Well... now you've finished making us all very jealous," Mary said with a smile, "I did have a few more questions."

"Sure," Ash agreed.

"Well... why do you keep destroying gyms?"

Ash groaned. "Oh, no, not this again..."

"They called you the Gym Destroyer in Kanto," Mary said, her tone of voice conveying her amusement. "Would you like to talk us through how you got that nickname?"

"First off," Ash said, "I really don't deserve that nickname, a lot of it wasn't my fault."

Mary laughed.

"But... right, the first one was Cerulean gym – that's Misty's one. Don't know if you knew this, but some gyms have tests of character?" Mary nodded. "Well, hers was about giving up if you had an unwinnable fight."

"And?" Mary prompted.

"I broke the gym instead." Ash blushed. "I think we brought down the roof, actually..."

Mary blinked. "How?"

"Lots of ice and then a very powerful Electric attack." Ash scratched Pikachu, who leaned into it and nodded. "Well, there was other stuff too."

"I see." Mary nodded. "And what about the other gyms?"

"The other gyms..." Ash frowned. "Bulbasaur tore up the floor of the Vermillion gym with a Frenzy Plant, then Riolu blew holes in the wall and Pikachu added to them. The Celadon gym we flooded with water and then froze solid, which did a lot of damage..." As he spoke, Mary's jaw gradually dropped. "The Fuchsia gym has a maze in it, and Riolu just punched through the walls."

"Isn't that... against the rules?" Mary asked, blinking.

"It is now." Ash shrugged. "And I'm pretty sure I broke the roof of Viridian gym."

He counted on his fingers. "I might have done some damage to the Kumquat gym, and I know I absolutely wrecked Pumello – that was mostly Lucario. Then there's the Goldenrod gym, which was mostly Whitney's fault."

"Really?" Mary blinked. "The impression I got was that your Pokémon did most of the damage."

"Well, he did," Ash agreed. "But all at once at the very end, after she'd already made lots of holes in her own walls."

"Well..." Mary thought back over the list. "That's quite impressive. Do you have any advice for other gym leaders?"

"I don't mind having battles outside," Ash answered quickly.

"That sounds like good advice." Mary glanced over at her notes. "Okay, just three more questions. One -which gym is your favorite?"

"The next one." Ash grinned. "It's the challenge which I like – trying to outwit someone who knows their type well. But... I think, of the gyms I've faced so far, some of the best have been in the Orange Islands."

"Really? And why's that?" Mary asked.

"Well... they kind of focus a bit more on teamwork. So there's one gym where you and your Pokémon have to build a sled and then race down the mountain on it. There's no actual battle, it just tests teamwork." Ash rubbed the back of his neck. "I guess it just... it's something they don't cover a lot in most gyms."

"A good point. Let's see..." Mary looked up at him, with a slightly mischievous cast to her features. "Misty of Cerulean travels with you, we've seen. Is she your girlfriend?"


Max blinked, staring at the radio. "I didn't know Ash could splutter that much."

"Is that his Pikachu laughing like that?" Norman said, blinking.

May giggled. "I think it is. Poor Ash! Imagine being asked that on the radio!"

Max looked faintly confused.


Once Ash had stopped coughing, he looked back up at Mary – a blush flaming on his cheeks. "Seriously? I'm twelve! She's a girl, and she's a friend, but she's not my girlfriend!"

He took a deep breath, calming down a bit. "I don't have a girlfriend. I'm twelve."

Mary chuckled. "Sorry, but several people did want to know."

"...right." Ash shook his head, and picked his still-giggling Pokémon up. "Why you keep finding this stuff funny... next question?"

"Last question, really," Mary assured him. "Is there someone you aspire to battle someday?"

"Wow..." Ash had to think about that one. "I guess there's a few, really. Lance is one – I mean, who doesn't want to fight the local Grand Champion? But there's also Cynthia, the Sinnoh Grand Champion, and I guess... I kind of want to do the Battle Frontier someday. I mean, I want to get more League experience first, but... Brandon seems cool."

"Quite high aspirations!" Mary said. "Well, thank you for your time, Ash Ketchum. And I'm sure I join many of our listeners in wishing you good luck in your Johto league challenge!"

"Thanks!" Ash said, getting up and shaking her hand.

"Just don't break all our gyms," she added with a wink.


As Ash left the radio tower, his friends met him.

"What was that about me?" Misty asked, and Ash winced.

"I had to kind of react quickly, Misty..." he said. "I kind of... I dunno, do you think I got anything wrong?"

"Well... no... but..." Misty made a helpless gesture. "My sisters are going to tease me about that now!"

"I didn't ask them to ask that..."

"Hey," Brock said, breaking up the awkward half-argument. "Is that Pidgeot?"

Ash turned, looking into the sky. "Yeah!" he said, after a moment. "And – wait, is that Professor Oak?"

Pidgeot's wings flared, hammering the air, and she settled down in front of the tower. Oak got off, and wobbled slightly. "Oh, I'm out of practice..."

"Professor!" Ash said, waving. "I didn't expect you to be here!"

"It's the first time I've known where you were going to be for long enough to come over," Oak replied. "I missed most of the interview, though Tracey and Damos have recorded it for me."

He smoothed his hair. "Thank you for the help, Pidgeot, by the way."

"Why did you want to see me, Professor?" Ash asked. "I could have just waited..."

"Well, I didn't want to ask Dexter, since this is sort of a surprise," Oak admitted.

He rummaged in his pocket, and took out a Pokéball. "Here."

Ash blinked. "Um... what's the occasion?"

"Well, you did save his life," Oak said. "He made up his mind."

Mentally shrugging, Ash opened the Pokéball.

The flash of white light formed into a Houndour. "Hi," he said, nodding respectfully to Ash.

"...oh, right!" Ash said, bending down. "You're the one I carried, right?"

"Yes." The Houndour stepped forwards, sniffing to memorize Ash's scent, and Ash gave him a quick scratch. "Father gave his permission, and I decided that I wanted to travel with you for a while. I don't know for how long, I might not-"

"That's fine," Ash interrupted. "Really. If any of my Pokémon decide they're happier with someone else, or in the wild, I don't mind. I'm just glad they're with me."

"Thank you, then." Houndour stepped back, and Ash stood again. "Though... who are these?" He walked around Brock and Misty, sniffing at them. "They smell like they're pack for you..."

"I've not heard it put like that before," Brock chuckled. "We're Ash's friends, yes."

"And you also smell of..." Houndour sniffed again. "Stantler, Ninetales... I can smell some steel, and some rock... and is that a Crobat?"

"That's impressive," Brock said.

The Houndour turned to Misty. "And with you... uh... something rock and water? I don't recognize that one..."

"Kabuto," Misty supplied.

"And... wow, you've got a lot of Water types... and a Togepi? No, something like it..."

"A Togekiss," Ash said. "Pretty good, though."

"Thanks." Houndour paced back over to him. "Where are you going now? I think..." he looked around for landmarks, and saw mountains in the distance. "we're... north of where my pack used to live?"

"That's right," Ash nodded. "And we're heading further north."

"Sounds interesting." Houndour sat down, and waited to be recalled.

Instead Ash gestured to him. "Come on. We've only just met properly, I think we should spend some time getting to know one another."

"Right!" Houndour barked, and padded over beside Ash.

"Thanks, Professor!" Ash added. "Hope your new radio program goes well!"

"You're welcome!" Oak called back. Then he contemplated the return journey. "Uh... Pidgeot?"

Pidgeot nodded at him. "Jot?"

"Can you go... slower, this time?"

She nodded again, and bent lower to allow him to climb on.

"If we weren't in such a hurry, I'd have taken Dragonite," Oak grumbled, as they took off. "He knows how to take care of these old bones..."


"These are pretty cool," Keldeo said, tilting his head. "Why did they build them?"

"I think I heard of these," Terrakion said.

The others looked at him.

"You do?" Virizion asked politely.

"Hey, I read!" the burly Pokémon said defensively. "Anyway, uh, they built these big places for Yamask and Cofarigus. Because that way, they're..."

Terrakion frowned, trying to remember the precise wording.

"They believed that those Pokémon were... like... human kings and nobles who'd died? And the idea was that this was taking care of them. The kings built their own future houses, sort of thing."

"Oh, okay," Keldeo frowned. "I think. But couldn't they just ask other Yamask?"

"Hey, I dunno," Terrakion shrugged.

They looked out over the pyramids.

"How'd they make them, then?" Keldeo asked, after a minute.

"Presumably they used Conkeldurr to help them," Cobalion suggested. "Or whatever it happens the local equivalent is."

"It's certainly impressive," Virizion nodded. "How old are they?"

"Thousands of years."

For a few minutes, the Swords of Justice (and their trainee) stood in silence.

"Should we go and get some photographs?" Keldeo suggested.

"Perhaps-" Cobalion began.

A roar interrupted them. The roar was followed by a crash, and a sound like nails on a blackboard, and an unmusical crash of metal on rock.

"Oh, not again..."

"Trouble just follows us around, doesn't it?" Terrakion asked with a grin. "Come on, guys!"


It took them a few minutes at full gallop to reach the source of the sound, a steep-sided valley a mile or two away.

When they got there, a fight was already in full swing. A herd of Lairon and Aggron, with several little Aron crowded into the protected centre, was stalled facing east towards the great river. In their way, and blocking their path, a pair of Tyranitar roared and stamped at the ground – occasionally knocking one of the Aggron skidding backwards in the crumbly sands of the valley floor. A gradually growing sandstorm was beginning to cloud the air around the Tyranitar, increasing in force even as they watched.

Cobalion took in the situation at a glance. "Virizion, get those Aggron moving backwards a bit! Terrakion, same for the Tyranitar – you can handle their sandstorm!"

"Right!" the other two Swords confirmed. They followed him over the valley lip, hooves working as they skidded and slowed their fall on the sandy scree.

"Hey!" Keldeo called down the slope. "What about me?"

There was no reply. Tossing his head in a shrug, he followed the others down the slope.


The male Tyranitar let loose a wordless roar, and kicked out at the Aggron facing him. It blocked with a ponderous movement of its tail, and roared back.

"Let us through!" a second Aggron shouted, and lashed out with its forehead in an Iron Head attack. The female Tyranitar took the blow on her chest with a grunt, and pounded the floor with her tail – producing an Earthquake.

All the Pokémon in the clash staggered as their footing was upset by the powerful Ground-type attack.

Before they'd recovered, the male Tyranitar saw a brown blur run up to him. It spun, slowing enough for it to be recognizable as some sort of vaguely equine Pokémon, and lashed out with its hind legs – once at each knee, and hard enough to send him stumbling backwards.

A green blur of motion hit the Aggron facing his mate, and then as he staggered back to his feet the brown Pokémon hit his mate and the green one hit the other two Aggron fronting the herd in quick succession.

Gold and green light blazed, as the two mysterious Pokémon produced long horns made out of brightly-coloured energy.

A third Pokémon, this one blue, formed its own horn. "Enough!" it shouted, voice brassy and powerful. "Cease this pointless conflict!"

The male Tyranitar made to move forwards, and that golden horn swung to point in his direction. Grumbling, the Tyranitar stopped his move.

He wasn't sure what the horn was, but given what the brown Pokémon had done with a simple double-kick it wasn't worth trying to test him.

"Right," the blue Pokémon said, after examining the head Pokémon of each group. "What is the cause of this?"

A babble of voices raised.


Keldeo winced, walking into the intensifying sandstorm. Unlike Cobalion and Terrakion, he wasn't immune to the blowing sand, and it was getting in his eyes and making him uncomfortable.

Squinting, he saw Virizion's green-glowing Sacred Sword first, and steered for that.

"What's going on?" he asked quietly.

Any reply Virizion was going to give was overridden by Cobalion's voice. "Enough!"

The voices of the Aggron, Lairon and Tyranitar died down.

"I will hear from the Aggron first. Why are you travelling through this valley?"

"We're migrating," the head Aggron said. "We've gone this way every year for generations."

"You-" a Tyranitar began.

"Silence," Cobalion told him. "Can you not take another route?"

"We don't know any other routes safe for young Aron," another Aggron said.

"Understood." Cobalion turned to the Tyranitar. "And you?"

"Virizion," Keldeo said, again keeping his voice low. "Are you alright? My eyes kind of itch in this sand."

"I'm fine," Virizion insisted.

Keldeo decided he didn't believe that.

He flicked his tail upwards, and a sprinkle of water came off it. Again, and this time it pattered down over Virizion.

"I hope that helps," he said.

Virizion glanced back at him, and smiled. Then turned back to the Aggron and glowered, and the one who'd been slowly edging forwards stopped.

"Right," Cobalion said, with an air of finality, drawing their attention back to him. "Your herd, and we, will help in moving the clutch of eggs these Tyranitar guard onto a suitable ledge on the valley walls. Then, you, Tyranitars, will allow free passage through the valley floor."

Both groups of Pokémon grumbled a bit, but accepted the judgement.


As they cantered north and east that evening, Keldeo spoke up. "We never did get those photos..."

"We're running late already," Cobalion reminded him. "We should make all haste to Johto, and only stop to help those in need."

"Or to sleep," Terrakion corrected.

"Or that, yes."

"Or to eat," Virizion chuckled.

"You know what I mean."


"What's the most important advantage of the Normal type?" Norman asked, as Kris materialized on the battlefield.

"They have very few weaknesses," Max said promptly. "Only Fighting-type moves are strong against them."

"Why is that even more of an advantage for Kris?" Norman pressed.

"The moves Conversion and Conversion 2," May answered. "They let them change type if they're fighting a Fighting-type."

"Correct!" Norman nodded, sending out Vigoroth. "But there's a downside to doing that."

"Changing type means that a lot of their best attacks become less effective," Max supplied. "Because they're not Normal Pokémon using Normal-type attacks any more."

"And it means your Pokémon is likely to be weak to attacks it wasn't before." Norman nodded. "Good, you're picking it up. Now, let's see what you can do with it. Vigoroth! Slash!"

Kris backed smoothly away from the hyperactive ape, reforming her vectors. Analyzing... Tri Attack.

The three-elemental attack lashed out, hitting Vigoroth on the arm, and it screeched in pain. Electricity crackled around the wound, and lashed across Vigoroth's arms.

"Facade!" Norman ordered.

An orange glow surrounded Vigoroth, and it lunged forwards.

The third wild, flailing blow of his forearms hit Kris on one of her lower vector surfaces, and sent her floating backwards by several yards.

"Conversion 2!" Max said. "Try and resist his attacks!"

Converting. Type selected: Steel.

"Uh oh..." Max winced, as Kris changed colour – gaining highlights in mirror-bright sheen. "Not good..."

"Rock Smash!" Norman ordered.

Vigoroth ran forwards, and hit Kris hard enough that she bounced off the wall and her projection dissolved.

Max picked up the projector. "Sorry... guess I hoped we'd get Ghost."

It's okay. I'm new to this myself.

"My turn," May said. "Okay, Ethan!"

Set up. Downloading.

Norman withdrew Vigoroth, and sent out Linoone instead. "Okay, Linoone. Headbutt!"

"Reflect!" May said, and Ethan reformed into a shield-like shape which Linoone bounced off. "Now use Signal Beam!"

"Double Team," her father said, and Linoone multiplied into a dozen images. The images started moving around in a complicated pattern of right angle-turns and straight line dashes, making the task of identifying which one was real nigh-impossible.

"Okay, Ethan," May said, pointing. "Lock on, and then use Zap Cannon!"

Identifying target... Ethan reformed back to a normal Porygon-shape, and his eyes flashed red – laser light pulsing across each Linoone in turn, until it hit one particular one and the beam locked onto it. Target acquired.

Norman frowned. "Mud sport!"

Linoone started throwing up mud and dirt, but the Zap Cannon plowed through the dirt nevertheless and hit Linoone, knocking him out.

"Not bad," Norman said, nodding and returning Linoone. "Are you sure you were a coordinator?"

We've been practicing that as well, Ethan said, sounding vaguely hurt. I can now fire a zap cannon into another, earlier, slower zap cannon.

"Besides, contests have some battling in them too," May pointed out. Ethan floated over to her and dematerialized, leaving the projector sitting on her hand. "Thanks for the practice, Dad."

"It really is a pleasure," Norman told her. "And you as well, Max." He smiled. "I'd wondered whether I'd be able to practice this sort of thing with either of you – I'm glad I can."

He frowned suddenly. "Hmmm... maybe you could help out in the gym one of these days? I could lend you a couple of Pokémon, and you could-"

"Not so sure about that, Dad," May said, interrupting him. "I mean, I get that you're eager, but we are still kids younger than just about anyone who's going to challenge you..."


AN:

Ash has something of a reputation. (The reputation he somehow escaped in the original anime... he wasn't going to get that lucky twice.)