"Okay, here goes..." Altaria said, spreading his wings and slowing. "I hope this works!"
"That's not encouraging," May replied, holding on a bit tighter.
"What?" Altaria asked, looking back for a moment. "It's not something dangerous..."
His wings rose, then fell in a single beat – and they came to a stop as smooth as silk.
"...oh, so that's what you meant," May realized. "That was a great landing!"
Altaria gave a happy trill.
Stepping off, May rubbed his neck. "Sorry for not trusting you..."
Leaning into the rub, Altaria smiled. "That's okay."
Then Pidgeot shot overhead, pulling up to slow down and ready herself for landing.
"Showoff," the Dragon added, which made May chuckle.
"Good afternoon!" the local Joy said, looking up as four new people came into her Pokémon Centre – along with a Kirlia and a Gardevoir, for some reason. "Is it your first visit to Pacifidlog?"
"Yeah," agreed the boy in front. "Uh – I did hear about something, though, so I have a couple of questions..."
As he spoke, he got his Pokéballs off his belt. "It's been a long flight, can you give them a check-up?"
"Mine too," the girl added, to nods from the other two visitors.
Joy gathered the Pokéballs up, then frowned. "Hold on… I must have miscounted."
"No, it's probably right," the boy said. "I've got a couple extra I carry – it's complicated."
"Right..." Joy said, then did a double-take. "Is this… an Entei?"
"Yeah, that's him… oh, yeah, Latios needs a check too. Latios?"
Joy took a step back as a Latios materialized in mid-air.
"I think we found someone who's not heard of you yet, Ash," the young man behind him said.
"Right… right," Joy said, concentrating. "Okay. Sorry, I'm just – surprised. What was that other question you had?"
"Yeah..." said Ash. "Okay… I heard about a tsunami some years ago, and I wanted to hear about it. Do you know how I could?"
"Oh, the great wave," Joy realized. "Okay… well, I don't know much about it – I'm too new to have been here – but I think there's a memorial a little outside town. To the north."
"Thanks," Ash told her. "How long do you think they're going to take?"
"About half an hour," she replied.
"Ash, is this..." the girl asked, seeming to realize something.
"Yeah," Ash answered. "Okay, I'll be back then."
Joy was puzzled by his behaviour, but then again someone with two Legendaries was allowed to behave a bit odd now and again.
Out of curiosity, she searched up his trainer card – then sat back in shock.
"Nine of them?" she said, faintly. "Nine?"
It wasn't anything especially big, or grandiose.
Ash hadn't expected something like that – and didn't mind, not really. It made sense.
There was just a little stone marker, about four feet high, with a few fading wreaths by the side – made with bright blue flowers, some of them still almost the same colour as when they were picked.
No-one said anything as Ash ran his fingers over the inscription.
...the identity of this brave trainer is unknown, only that he was not a native of the town he saved. Pacifidlog is forever grateful to him.
We regret that we do not know his name, nor even the town of his birth, since it means we cannot tell those he may have left behind.
Our thanks come from the bottom of our hearts.
"It's funny," Ash said, eventually. "I kind of imagined… I don't know."
He shook his head. "Ho-Oh told me about it years ago, and I thought… maybe that I'd had enough time to come to terms with it. And Keldeo saw it, so I guessed maybe..."
Pikachu touched Ash's cheek.
"Somehow, this makes it real," Ash went on. "It's right here-"
His voice broke, and he swallowed quickly before going on. "It happened right here," he said. "And he's got a monument – and this whole town is worth it."
"Ash..." Pikachu said, softly.
"I just wish-" Ash bit the words off before he finished. "I'd really have liked to have met him."
"We could tell them," Brock suggested. "Pacifidlog doesn't know who he is, but I think they want to."
Ash shook his head. "No, I don't think I want to."
"Why not?" May asked.
In reply, Ash touched the inscription again. "I think it doesn't matter. They don't know who he was, but he's remembered-"
The words stopped there.
"I don't know," Ash went on. "Maybe we should… I don't know."
"Good afternoon," a voice called. "The Wave memorial? I didn't think there'd be anyone here so late – the anniversary was weeks ago."
The owner of the voice came walking up along the path, her Bellossom following her, and Brock stepped aside to let her past.
"Sorry," Ash began, turning. "I was just-"
"It's not a problem," the woman interrupted him. "I come here to clean it, not to-"
She stopped, eyes widening.
"What is it?" Max asked. "What's wrong?"
"You look just like him," she whispered. "A bit shorter, but..."
A moment later, she shook her head. "No, it was thirteen years ago. And you're nowhere near old enough to be-"
"It was my dad," Ash interrupted, on impulse. "He's the one who stopped the wave – with Aura. It's the first time since I found out that I had the chance to visit."
"Your father?" the woman repeated. "But that means – you know who the hero of the Great Wave was!"
"Not very well," Ash pointed out. "He died when I was really young… we thought he'd just left, until I found out that..."
"Oh, you poor thing," she said. "Hold on – do you have a moment? I'm the curator of this monument, so I've got most of the newspaper stories and things like that."
"Thanks," Ash said. "That'd be – that'd mean a lot to me… and to Mom, too, I guess."
"All right, then," she decided. "I'm Lana. I've got some cleaning to do, so spend as long as you like here and then I'll show you the collection."
"I'm not sure how much you know about the circumstances," Lana said, pulling a drawer open. "Honestly, what we've got isn't much – but if you didn't know what happened, it might be what you need. Ah, here we are!"
She lifted a folder out from the drawer, and transferred it to the table. "Okay, this is everything I've got."
"There's quite a lot," Brock observed. "More than I was expecting."
"That's because I've printed off a lot of stuff that's… speculation, really," Lana explained.
"You said I looked like him," Ash remembered. "How – did you know him… or, well, I guess you didn't..."
"I talked to him, once," Lana said. "He looked kind of lost, but didn't explain why – about all I did was tell him we don't have a gym here any more."
"He was doing a gym challenge?" Ash asked. "That's kind of like..."
His voice went quieter. "Like me."
Lana shrugged helplessly. "I really don't know – we only exchanged a few words."
There was a silence for a few seconds, and then Lana slid out some of the cuttings. "These are the eyewitness accounts. They all agree on a few things – he didn't have his Pokémon with him, his rough appearance, and that just before the wave arrived there was a kind of blue flash from his hands. And then..."
She shook her head. "Gone. Vanished like he was never here."
"Blue?" Ash repeated. "I guess Ho-Oh did say..."
Lana's eyes widened, but she evidently decided to ask later. "Yes – a kind of bright blue, shining off his hands. There's several ideas about what it is, if you'd like to hear them."
"No need," Ash replied. "I think I know."
The woman blinked. "You do? Is that because of what you said about Ho-Oh?"
Wordlessly, Ash raised his hand. A pale blue fire flashed into being around it, making the newsprint tinge blue on top of the fading yellow of the paper.
Lana stared. "What… what is that?"
"It's Aura," Ash explained, extinguishing it. "Something I learned how to do a few years ago."
He changed the subject. "What about Pokémon – didn't he have any Pokémon?"
"They all left town, we think," Lana said. "He did heal some of them at the Pokémon Centre – there was a Fearow and a Magmar – but none of them stuck around for long enough for us to ask anything."
"That's a pity," Ash said, looking down. "I'd kind of like to have met them."
"I wish I'd had longer to speak to him," Lana admitted. "He's kind of an enigma – it feels almost like he appeared from nowhere, saved us all and vanished. No body ever turned up… and it's only now we even know what he's called."
Ash was silent for a long time, and Max shifted a bit uncomfortably – not sure what to say, or if there was anything to be said.
"Ash..." Pikachu said, tentatively. "Do you think you should call your mom?"
"Yeah," Ash agreed. "Yeah, I think she'd want to see the memorial."
"It's just over here," Ash explained. "There – Lana said that's where he was standing, when-"
He stopped, swallowing, then went on. "When he – died."
"I think she's right," Keldeo agreed, thinking back to the flash he'd seen in the time bubble. "The wave came from over there, and then..."
Delia put a hand on his neck. "Thank you, Keldeo – it's good to know what happened."
She stepped forwards, approaching the stone, and Ash and the others fell back a few steps to let her reach it first.
Because of that, none of them heard the words she whispered to the stone.
"Thank you, Ash," she added, looking back to her son. "I think it's important to- to get closure, I think."
"Yeah," Ash agreed. "I hated not knowing anything – even thinking he might just have left..."
Latias floated closer, looking down at the simple stone marker. "He sounds a lot like our dad," she said, reaching down to touch the flowers. "He saved Altomare – and then…"
She looked at her brother, then back to the marker, and Latios put an arm over her back. "It's okay, Latias. It didn't happen any more."
Latias nodded, opened her mouth to say something, then stopped. She reached out for her brother, reassuring herself that he was still here.
"We're lucky," she said, voice husky. "We got lucky."
Delia stepped back a little, letting Keldeo through, and he silently switched to Resolute form and knelt in front of the stone. "Your son is a great friend, and a brave trainer," he told the stone – and, implicitly, the man it represented. "I regret not having the chance to know you, because I feel you must be the same."
Standing again, he glanced at Ash before continuing. "I don't have very clear memories of my own parents – they died when I was quite young – but when I saw them, at the same time I saw you… I was proud to be their son, and Ash should be proud to be your son. For the same reason."
"I am," Ash agreed fervently. "I'd trade all that to have you back, but… if I can't, then I'm glad this is the reason why."
He let out an explosive breath. "It's a lot to live up to."
"Make sure you do live up to it, Ash," his mother said. "I don't – don't want to lose both of you."
Ash nodded. "Mom… I'll always come back, okay?"
Delia smiled, began to speak, then just hugged her son.
He returned the embrace, and blinked back tears – then stopped trying.
"Thanks, Mewtwo," Brock said, quietly enough not to disturb the five at the marker stone. "I hope it's not a problem."
Of course not, Mewtwo assured him. For something like this, it is well worth the effort to fetch them all – even Keldeo.
"You know," Max said, watching as Ash and Delia turned back to the memorial. "This is kind of making me think… we're really lucky to have Dad."
May nodded. "Yeah… thinking about it, actually, Brock's dad did go off for ages without any real reason. And Dawn – I don't know if Dawn's dad ever came up..."
She shook her head. "And who was it Ash was working with in Unova?"
"I think it was… Iris and Cilan," Max said. "Not sure for either of them, actually – but we didn't see them much."
May nodded slowly.
"I guess we should say thanks," she decided. "We're going to be back home again soon, so we could say then."
Roland touched his mother's leg. Mom?
No, dear, Gardevoir replied, guessing what his question was. I don't know where your father is, dear – I'm sorry.
Roland sighed. He didn't, uh… did he, I don't know, vanish catching a meteorite?
Gardevoir shook her head, smiling slightly.
"You okay, Ash?" Brock asked, nudging him.
"Oh – yeah, sorry," Ash said, blinking. "Sorry, Brock, I was miles away."
"Not surprised," Brock replied, with an understanding smile. "But you've missed three of the Appeals already – it's Drew next."
"Drew's here?" Ash repeated.
"Don't feel bad for not being able to concentrate," Lucario said. "It's something that's worth thinking about for as long as you need."
"Thanks," his trainer smiled, sighing a little. "That does help."
"Drew, from LaRousse city!" the announcer announced. "And his Masquerain!"
As they watched, Drew strode out onto the centre of the arena. He adjusted his suit, then whistled.
As he did, a patch of cloth shifted on his back – then shrugged off a coating of black powder, as Masquerain spread his wings and set off into the air.
"An unconventional opening!" said Nurse Joy, with a nod. "Let's see what's next!"
Masquerain rose into the air, flapping his broad wings, and a sparkling coating of scales came off. He did a spin, catching them in the wind currents forming as he moved, then added to the process with a Silver Wind.
A moment later, he shot a stream of Bubble around in a circle, so that each bubble individually passed through a thick cloud of the shimmering scales. The audience had a moment to see the bubbles as they emerged – now themselves shining like opals – before he fired an Ice Beam which bounced between them, freezing each one before reflecting on to the next.
The shining globes of ice that resulted were still thin and light, mostly hollow, and shone like disco-balls in the lighting. The last remains of the air currents swept them around as Masquerain slowed, forming them into a spiral stretching out from his position.
Then they began to drop.
As they did, Masquerain accelerated – using Quick Attack, he smashed right through each of the icy balls in turn. As he hit each one, it exploded into a cloud of glitter and ice shards which showered down on his trainer and on the stadium floor.
There was a gasp from the crowd, as something else became apparent – the icy crashes of shattering bubbles were notes.
They played a short, simple tune which hung in the air, each note dying away as the next replaced it, until it finally faded as Masquerain slowed to land on Drew's outstretched arm.
"Okay, that was good," Max said, clapping along with the rest of them. "How did he get them to do those notes?"
"I guess the bubbles had to be different sizes," Brock decided. "And if he had Masquerain fire them out in the right order, then – because of the way he was spinning – the spiral would be the right tune just like that."
"Huh, I think May could have trouble..." Max mused. "Good thing it's the top eight who go through to the battle section!"
"What's she planning?" Ash asked. "I didn't see..."
"I did," Lucario informed him. "She got me to help choreograph it."
"Any clues?"
Lucario shook his head. "You'll see – she's next, I think."
"Okay, Ethan," May said, taking a deep breath. "I think this is your first actual Contest… right?"
Affirmative, Ethan agreed. However, I know the theory.
"Then… let's do this," May decided, smoothing her long blue dress and white pinafore.
She stepped out onto the arena floor, and held up Ethan's projector.
Stand by, ready, he intoned. Set up.
The Porygon2 briefly formed himself, then vanished again.
Unperturbed, May took a step forwards. As she brought her foot down, it hit something solid earlier than it should have – a flat plane of blue light.
Another step, and her foot landed on a plane of pink light. As she took her third step, the first plane vanished.
Then she jumped, and traceries of blue and pink light followed her to form a platform for her to land on.
"...is she walking on Ethan?" Max asked. "That's – well, it's pretty cool, but I'm not sure it's really Contest-y… is that a word?"
Lucario shrugged. "Don't ask me. I cheat by using Aura."
He pointed. "Anyway – this is the good bit."
Max followed his paw – then gasped. "What!?"
He wasn't the only one, as Ethan briefly reformed and fired a Thunder Wave at his trainer.
The attack flashed forwards and – missed. It missed because May had suddenly gone flying towards the ceiling, landing on a platform which appeared to catch her. Upside down.
Ethan had already dissolved back into vectors, and May jumped towards the floor – reaching the apex of her jump, then twisting to land on the 'wall' as she fell in that direction instead.
This time, Ethan's attack was a more powerful Psybeam, which May dodged by jumping sideways and landing back towards the floor as Ethan changed her personal Gravity yet again.
Finally, she jumped and hung in mid-air, suspended by equal forces pulling her up and down, as Ethan detonated four Zap Cannon attacks all around her. The sparkling explosions hid her from sight for an instant, and when they faded she was back on ground level – her Porygon2 collapsing himself calmly back into his projector.
"How long was she planning that?" Max asked, glancing at Lucario as the applause began.
"I believe it was after she saw the zero-g room at the Space Centre," Lucario replied. "And some old book about a wonderland was involved too…"
That was so cool! Kirlia said, eyes wide. I never thought you could do that kind of thing with Pokémon moves!
"Contests are pretty fun," Ash agreed.
It's nice to see a less… combative… form of competitive Pokémon training, Gardevoir observed. And thank you for getting us these seats.
"Sticky web, Ariados!" called Peter, pointing.
Barrier, Ethan countered, forming an octagonal wall of energy in the air. The web slapped into it, wrapping around, and failed to reach Ethan himself.
"Barrage three!" May instructed. "Sixth pattern!"
Calculating vectors.
Ethan's weapons array flashed, and the octagonal shield shattered into a dozen pieces. They spread out towards Ariados, who scuttled backwards and created a web-shield with a twisting trunk shaped like an oak tree.
In reply, Ethan used Tri Attack. The triple attack – Fire, Ice and Lightning – built up for a second, then went flashing out to hit three separate pieces of the shield.
The Fire component of the attack bounced off the Barrier fragment at an angle, hitting a second fragment, and bounced off that too. It narrowly missed the Lightning component, which was on its own path, and flashed between three more mini-Barriers in quick succession.
"Look out!" Peter called – just as the Tri Attack recombined directly behind Ariados and hit him from an unexpected direction.
The bell rang, and the scoreboard froze – showing Peter's points down at zero.
"And that's a second victory for May Maple!" called Nurse Joy. "Congratulations!"
"Man..." Peter said, sighing, and recalled his dazed Ariados. "I was not expecting that."
"Thanks," May replied. "How many things can your Ariados do with his webs?"
"Apparently not enough," the boy chuckled. "All right – I guess I should run!"
There are just the finals left, Ethan stated, reverting to his projector and letting May catch it. The little device pulsed slightly as he kept speaking. What strategy should we use against Masquerain?
"Good question..." May admitted. "Well, we've got a lot of options..."
"May has to win this one, right?" Max asked. "I think I lost count..."
"She doesn't have to," Brock replied, tapping on his fingers as he counted. "It's a few weeks until the Grand Festival, so there's at least a few more chances – but we might need to use Pokémon help to get to the Contests in time."
Max nodded. "Right, that makes sense. Still… that means this one's pretty important."
He frowned. "I could swear that May's been winning more than – you know."
"Relatively, yeah," Brock agreed. "But she's been giving up some chances to let us have a go instead."
"Oh, yeah, that's what I was missing… Ash did Ho-Oh, right?"
Brock nodded. "Looks like they're about to start," he added. "Ready?"
"Sure!"
"You know what to do, Masquerain!" Drew called. "Ready?"
Masquerain nodded slightly, taking off and flapping his delicate wings.
Begin!" called Mr. Contesta.
"Lock On, Ethan!" May ordered, almost on top of Contesta's instruction.
Locking on, Ethan confirmed, a slender targeting array materializing next to his head and firing a beam of light out towards the far wall. Masquerain dodged, avoiding the red beam for the first few seconds, but then Ethan successfully painted him and a large holographic crosshair appeared.
"Zap Cannon!"
The large Zap Cannon appeared as well – forming itself out of hard-light, with a central pole surrounded by two levitating rings. Lightning arced around them, and then it fired a large globe of white-cored blue light directly at the dodging Masquerain.
"Scales!" Drew instructed abruptly, and a puff of iridescent scales came flashing out from Masquerain's wings. They formed a dense cloud, and the Lock-On abruptly hazed into a mess of conflicting returns.
The Zap Cannon detonated as soon as it hit the cloud, sending some of them flying in all directions, but the majority remained – though Masquerain flew out from behind the cloud a second later.
"Silver Wind!" Drew added, pressing his advantage, and Masquerain did a flip to make the wing-scales barrage down at Ethan. "Keep him surrounded!"
Error. LIDAR unavailable, Ethan complained, as the Silver Wind engulfed him. Deploying countermeasures.
The powder jumped as Ethan formed a Magic Coat, then used planes of force from Barrier to shunt the fine scales out of the way.
Before he was quite finished, however, Masquerain fired a concentrated burst of sound – a Bug Buzz – which blew the scales outwards in all directions like a shockwave. The attack itself passed through Ethan's barriers, hitting him and knocking him backwards.
"Gravity, Ethan!" May called. "Sideways!"
The Porygon2 complied, and Masquerain did a half-controlled side flip as his 'down' changed. That was almost his comeuppance as a Charge Beam flashed towards him, but he managed to produce another scale cloud which scattered the energy from the Electric attack.
"And this is an excellent tactical battle!" Contesta said excitedly. "This seems to be a new tactic with great versatility and pizazz!"
"Remarkable!" Nurse Joy agreed.
Mr. Sukizo looked confused.
"How do I get past that..." May said to herself, frowning. "I guess – wait! Ethan, Sharpen and Agility!"
Ethan's bodyshape altered, his round portions flashing and changing to more angular forms. For a moment he looked almost like a conventional Porygon, then the changes firmed up and he took on a wicked-looking shape like a curved dart. The colours were the same, but he looked almost more like a fighter aircraft than a Pokémon.
"Aerial Ace!" May instructed, pointing.
"Agility!" Drew replied. "Double Team – and a scale burst!"
Masquerain produced a cloud of glitter scales, forming Double Teams under cover and splitting in all directions as he came out of it. A moment later, Ethan burst through the cloud – sending it scattering in all directions – and spent a fraction of a second picking one of the Masquerain before following it and firing off bursts of Tri Attack.
"Oh, what a change!" Nurse Joy said, clapping. "The whole character of the battle has changed!"
Ethan landed a solid hit on Masquerain, who promptly vanished. The other three fired Bug Buzz attacks at him, hitting his dorsal area, and Ethan flipped through a skid turn to aim at another of the Bug-type copies.
"Try to Lock On!" May called. "The real one's the only one you'll be able to hit!"
Ethan's targeting array flashed, playing across a randomly selected Masquerain, which promptly released a glitter-scale burst just as the other two did as well.
"...or he could do that," May added, wincing. Now none of them would be possible to Lock On to.
She glanced at the scoreboard, which showed Drew slightly in the lead.
"Time to try something new," she decided. "Gravity – as strong as you can!"
"Gravity?" Drew repeated, a little thrown. "What-"
Ethan spun a disc of light out across the arena, which paused for a moment and then lit up.
Masquerain staggered in the air, and a moment later Drew realized something.
All the Masquerain had jolted, as his Bug-type guessed what the copies should do. But only one of them had gone up, falling towards the sky before flipping to fly upside down and 'climb' back towards the stage.
Ethan fired a burst of Tri Attack, his light disc flashing and switching polarity to tug Masquerain back down out of a hasty scale cloud, and landed a solid hit.
"Don't let him get away!" May said. "Switch the gravity again!"
Another disc formed, this one vertical, and began to glow.
Masquerain pulled up, wings fluttering as they tried to support his weight, and then the direction switched – towards the wall this time – and he did a complicated flip to keep himself flying controllably.
He spun in a Quiver Dance, gaining speed and helping his fight against the rapidly switching gravity, and fired a Bug Buzz back at Ethan.
"Quarter shield!" May instructed, and a shield made of half an octahedron formed in front of Ethan. The point was directly facing Masquerain's Bug Buzz, reflecting it to form a square around Ethan without touching him, and as he spun the shield it turned the Bug Buzz into a diffuse cone of red energy.
May's score stopped dropping, and her opponent lost points instead – until Masquerain cancelled the Bug Buzz, leaving both Pokémon facing off for a moment.
Drew watched, keeping an eye on the scales all over the stage. They were catching the light more and more as the combination of wind and gravity kept changing, blowing them up into billows and complicated shapes.
"Okay, Psybeam!"
Masquerain's Psybeam went straight into one of the dense patches of scales, making it refract and bend slightly – hitting a surprised Ethan, though only for a moment before he scooted out of the way.
"Keep him busy!" May said.
The gravity switched to down again.
"Hidden Power!" Drew shouted.
Masquerain did a backflip, firing a little spark of crackling energy downwards.
"Wait – shield!" May called. "Now!"
Ethan's shield was still forming when the Hidden Power hit the closest scale cloud.
There was quite a loud bang as the huge, diffuse and flammable cloud of Masquerain's shed scales exploded. The explosion washed a cloud of iridescent scales up towards the audience, producing a rainbow shimmer all through the building, and Ethan was hidden by the sheet of flame.
"Ethan!" May called. "Are you okay?"
There was a scary pause, then a flicker of light. I am still functional.
May exhaled in relief. "Good – now, let's-"
"Time's up!" the Joy called.
"What?" May asked. "But..."
She sighed. "I guess that battle took longer than I thought..."
"This was a close final match," Contesta took up the thread. "Both Coordinators used some very tricky moves – and we've all seen more than one thing which has impressed us. But there can only be one winner."
He let the pause hang for a moment, then went on. "And that winner is – Drew!"
May slumped slightly, then shook herself.
There was still time for another Contest. Perhaps one in Petalburg…
"Great work!" she told Drew, walking over to shake his hand.
Drew smiled. "Yeah – thanks! You too!"
"However," Contesta went on, making May start in surprise.
She'd lost – wasn't that the end of it?
"This is a rule which does not come up often," Contesta explained. "It was put in place to prevent Coordinators from having to drop out when they won their fifth Ribbon in a region. So it is my pleasure to award the Ribbon tonight to May Maple!"
There was a stunned silence.
"Why?" someone called from the audience.
"I've already got five ribbons," Drew replied. "If that happens the runner-up gets it."
For a moment, May felt a bit like punching him.
Just a bit.
"You scared the life out of me!" she hissed. "I thought I might not be able to go to the Grand Festival!"
Drew shook his head. "Yeah, like that was ever going to happen – but, hey, at least this time we had a great match-up without one of us being eliminated, right?"
May glowered.
"Miss Maple?" Contesta called.
"Oh – right, sorry!" May apologized.
"Well done," the judge added to her, in a low voice. "Your fifth yourself, I see? I'll look out for you at the Grand Festival – good luck."
"Thank you," May replied, taking the ribbon with a smile. "I'll try not to let you down."
Contesta gave her a nod.
So… you collect five of those ribbons, Gardevoir said, examining them. They represent your ability to win battles with style, and to demonstrate style with Pokémon moves.
"That's right," May confirmed. "I try to train my Pokémon so they're all good at Contests – and I think they're all very talented, too."
I'm sure they are, Gardevoir smiled. So what happens then?
"Then – well, you know we mentioned the Pokémon League?" Ash asked.
Gardevoir nodded. So did Kirlia, walking just beside her parent.
"The Grand Festival is like a Pokémon League event for Coordinators," May filled in. "Only people with five ribbons can compete, and it's all in front of a pretty big crowd."
So, where now? Kirlia asked. Is where you said we should stay near there?
"No, we're heading back home first," May told her. "It's a few weeks at least until the Grand Festival, so we're going back home to train… and we need to stop off to pick up Munchlax, too."
"Oh, yeah, Munchlax!" Max said, with a smile. "Remember when I carried him on my back?"
Gardevoir did a double take. How?
Max stopped, blinking. "Uh… good question, actually..."
"I feel like this is the kind of question we'd normally ask Ash," Brock mused.
Thousands of miles away, under the light of a pre-dawn sky, a Mewtwo lay back and kicked his feet.
His friend looked up from a well-thumbed book, and smiled. "You're not fooling anyone."
"I am too!" the Mewtwo replied, folding his arms in a huff and looking away. "I'm not just any Mewtwo-"
His friend chuckled. "Are you jealous?"
Reaching over, N tapped Mewtwo on the nose – making him vanish in a puff of smoke and return to Zorua-form. "I'd read a book you wrote as much as Mewtwo's book, you know."
Zorua put a paw to his muzzle, then shook his head. "Writing's boring."
Some distance from where N and his friend were relaxing, Umbreon paced around the edge of the battlefield.
Mega Sableye kept moving, shifting his gem shield to keep it between her and himself.
"That's a pretty impressive defence," Umbreon noted, tail lashing.
"And you should know," Mega Sableye agreed. "You've been completely unable to hurt me often enough."
Umbreon's eyes flashed. "Of course. But..."
She pushed off, and began to charge forwards – jumping left to right to left as she moved in, making it so that Mega Sableye had to guess where to put his shield to form a better defence.
The Ghost-type adopted an unconventional approach. He shifted his grip, and used the shield as a baseball bat.
Umbreon had seen this trick before, and dodged – nipping on his arm, then running away before he could react.
"That's kind of unfair..." her opponent complained.
"Dark type?" Umbreon asked, twitching an ear.
Mega Sableye threw his shield at her.
Umbreon yelped, ducking away, and the spinning gemstone crashed into the ground just next to where she'd been standing.
It shivered, spun end-over-end, bounced a second time, and Mega Sableye caught it out of the air as he ran.
"That was not obeying the laws of physics!" Umbreon objected, then ducked as it came flying at her again.
"Dark-type," Mega Sableye reminded her. His claw clenched, producing a Shadow Ball, and he threw it at the returning gem shield.
The attempted trick shot missed completely, and Umbreon fired a Dark Pulse back at him – one which caught him a glancing blow in the side.
"I can see a downside," she noted.
"It's a work in progress," Mega Sableye noted, catching his shield again, then crouched. He kicked off from the ground, getting high enough to be level with the windows on the second floor of one of the nearby buildings, and shifted his shield-gem so it was what hit the ground first.
There was an almighty whack.
Umbreon tilted her head. "...it's very impressive. Was that it?"
Mega Sableye sighed. "Okay, back to the drawing board for that one..."
...no, sorry, still don't understand it, Alakazam admitted.
Furfrou tossed her immaculately-coiffed ears, the green tabs on the end of them waving from side to side. "It is simple, is it not? Fashion is what looks good, so I am fashionable so that I look good."
No, I get that, Alakazam said, shaking his head. What I don't get is why you said that fashion changes so much. I mean… I don't get bored of how I look that quickly.
The Normal-type sighed, gesturing with a paw and straightening the green fur-cut tie. "Alakazam, you must understand. Fashion is not the opinion of everyone. It is the opinion of those who are fashionable."
Alakazam's spoon waved in the air, then he gave up. Even I can't follow that logic.
"Perhaps it would help if you did something with that mustache," Furfrou mused. "It's terribly bland and dull..."
At her words, the Psychic-type put both hands protectively over his facial hair. Don't! It's a matter of style!
"No it's not," Furfrou replied, rolling her eyes. "Style looks completely different this month. I suppose it's a little endearing, but really there should be much sharper tips and a half-twist."
That sounds awful!
"And that, my friend, is why you will never understand fashion," Furfrou told him. "A pity, your colours are classical Autumnal."
AN:
Remember last time Pacifidlog came up?
That's a major part of this particular chapter... hopefully I managed to handle it correctly.
Apart from that, there's some Drew – and some Ethan, too. Contest routines are tricky to work out, and especially to describe! They're usually quite visual, after all.
Also some stuff with N, and Gary Oak's Pokémon (And Gary Oak Offscreen) In Kalos.
