"Right, I think that's us about ready to go," Max said, paying for the bag of sweets.
Jirachi nodded. Yep!
"What Pokémon's that?" the cashier asked, frowning. "I don't recognize it..."
"Jirachi," Max replied. "Okay, do you want the liquorice first?"
Thanks!
As they left, the cashier blinked. "But… huh."
"You all done?" Brock checked, spotting Max.
"Yeah," Max agreed, as Jirachi nibbled on some of his sweets. "I got something for Mom and Dad, took me a while to work out what would be a good idea..."
"That's good," Brock nodded. "I saw Ash coming down one of the escalators, so I guess we're just waiting for May."
"There's a Contest later today, right?" Max asked.
"I think so… still plenty of time, though," Brock commented, then waved. "Drew!"
"Oh, you guys," Drew replied, sounding only slightly interested as he came over.
"Is that any kind of tone of voice to use with a gym leader?" Brock asked ominously, crossing his arms and glaring. (Presumably.)
"I don't know," Drew shrugged. "Let me know if you spot someone who's given out more than two badges in the past two years."
Max winced. "I think I felt that one."
"I think Philena did," Brock said weakly. "Low blow."
"Hey, you started it," Drew claimed, raising his hands. "What else can I do?"
"Oh, are you going to be in the Contest today?" Max said. "I know May's planning to be."
"Yeah, that's my plan too," Drew agreed. "Promise not to tell her anything sneaky and underhanded – or, if you do, tell me something too?"
I don't think that's a promise I can make, Jirachi said, shaking his head to a jangling of tags. I am very easy to bribe with sugar.
"At least you're realistic about it," Brock assured him.
"Maybe I should just leave it all under wraps," Drew decided somewhat dubiously.
Ash came over, Pikachu balancing on his hat and Lucario apparently attempting to hold two bags of shopping on the tips of his paws. "Any idea where May is?"
"No, we were just saying," Max updated him. "Isn't Lucario going to drop those?"
"No, I'm not," Lucario replied absently. "The Aura is with me."
"Actually, it's because Latios is helping," Ash supplied.
"Thanks for revealing how the trick is done. You would make a terrible magician."
"I never knew there were so many different kinds of Pokéballs, Mama!" Manaphy said, leaning forwards with both flippers holding onto May's top to keep him from falling off.
"That's because they're not all different kinds," May explained. "They're Cherish Balls – they come in lots of different designs, and you can order them custom as well."
She moved along a few more rows, then crouched down. "I think this one looks nice."
Manaphy looked down, and saw the aquamarine surface of the ball itself – and the row of little yellow dots around the top half, with a red dot in the middle. "It's like my egg! That looks great, Mama!"
"I'm glad you like it," May replied.
She looked over her shoulder. "Just a few more minutes – is that okay, Blaziken?"
Blaziken communicated it was okay while avoiding actually letting go of any of the shopping bags, or even opening his mouth.
"Thanks," she told him, and headed for the nearest counter.
Manaphy watched the cashier ring her up, and frowned. "So you give him money, Mama, and he gives you that Pokéball?"
"That's right," May agreed. "That's how buying things works."
"It seems kind of odd," Manaphy admitted. "But you understand it, so you must be clever."
May giggled.
"Was that your Pokémon speaking?" the cashier asked, interested. "I didn't know many of them could – sometimes there's a Psychic Pokémon which shows up, but that was real speech, right?"
"That's right!" Manaphy nodded, looking very proud. "Mama taught me!"
The register chimed, distracting the cashier for a moment as he pushed the change drawer closed again and made sure everything was okay. "There you go, miss – is it for this cute Phione of yours?"
"Phione?" Manaphy repeated. "I'm not a Phione!"
"Aren't you?" the young man said, blinking. "I thought for sure… one of my cousins showed me a photo she took of one once. They're pretty rare, right?"
"Phione are a lot like me," Manaphy agreed, nodding seriously. "But I'm a Manaphy!"
The cashier's jaw dropped.
"What!? Aren't they – aren't you – legendary Pokémon?"
"Yes?" Manaphy looked puzzled. "Is that wrong?"
"Not everyone's like Ash," May reminded him.
"Ohhh, right," Manaphy nodded. "Sorry, Mama, I forgot about that."
"It's okay, you've not met many people yet," May replied. "We'd better go and make sure Blaziken doesn't get tired of carrying that many bags..."
"Out of curiosity," Blaziken inquired, as May took two of the bags, "What is your plan for carrying all of this?"
"Ash's pouch, of course," May replied. "It's much more convenient than a taxi or something."
"Very true," Blaziken admitted. "I was wondering if perhaps we were going to have to have Venusaur put on saddlebags."
"That is a funny image," May said, then shook her head. "No, it would be a lot harder for her even if it is a funny idea. Ash's pouch it is."
"Mama?" Manaphy asked, raising a fin. "Can we do the Pokéball thing now?"
"Of course," May agreed, putting the shopping bags down again and expanding out the Cherish Ball. "Did you ever see how these work?"
"I think so, Mama," Manaphy agreed. "I sort of turn red and go inside?"
"That's close enough," May decided. "You need to press the button on the front – most people catch Pokémon by throwing Pokéballs, but if the Pokémon wants to come with them they can just press the button instead. It'll feel a bit odd, but-"
Manaphy pressed the button.
There was a flash of white light as the 'ball drew him inside, then clicked shut. It pulsed, wiggling back and forth slightly, then gave the twik tone of a successful capture.
As soon as it did, May opened the ball up and sent Manaphy out again. "Okay, dear?"
"That felt kind of odd," Manaphy announced, wobbling a little.
"Thanks for being so brave," May smiled, giving the Water-type a quick hug.
Then she clipped the Cherish Ball to her belt and picked up her bags – again. "Well, we shouldn't keep the others waiting."
As she spoke, Skitty came charging back towards them – still after her cat toy. "Okay, you, like, annoying feather-"
Blaziken's foot flicked out, and he lobbed Skitty neatly through the air before catching her in a carrier bag.
"And I was like, like, whooa..." Skitty mumbled, head spinning. "Who did that?"
Blaziken declined to answer.
"There you are, May," Ash called. "Did everything go okay?"
"Fine," May replied, nodding happily. "Oh, can I put some stuff in your bag?"
Ash eyed her bags, then the much bigger collection of bags Blaziken was still holding. "Uh… yeah, those should fit."
Drew blinked, then snapped his fingers. "Oh, right, the giant bag of holding thing."
"Yeah, it's kind of convenient," Max agreed, as Ash undid the drawstring and pulled the neck of the bag open.
Without much regard for ceremony, Blaziken lowered the whole set of bags through the opening and let them drop.
There was a surprised yowl.
"Blaziken!" May admonished. "Did you forget about Skitty?"
The Fire-type looked embarrassed. "Um… whoops."
"Like, that's totally not funny!" Skitty complained, her voice drifting up through the bag's opening. "This place is, like, full of all kinds of stuff!"
Pikachu sighed. "Okay, I'll go in and get her… Lucario, have you got the line?"
"I have Brock's fishing rod," Lucario replied.
"...good enough," Pikachu said. "Right, let's get this sorted out.
"Be, like, as quick as you can," Skitty requested. "This is, like, kind of boring?"
"May?" Drew said, frowning. "Who's that Pokémon on your shoulder?"
"Hello," the Pokémon in question answered, waving.
Drew tapped one of his ears, baffled. "Wait, I thought even when a Pokémon used Aura to talk you sort of heard their real voice behind it if you listened?"
"Manaphy doesn't use Aura," May explained. "I taught him how to speak."
"But you didn't have him last – wait, Manaphy?" Drew interrupted himself. "That one from the thing with the pirates?"
"Yeah, it confused us too," Brock said. "Ash's Lugia's son found the egg."
They were interrupted by a zzzzzzip sound as Lucario played the fishing reel out, letting his teammate drop into the depths of Sir Aaron's pouch.
"Okay, I'm down," Pikachu's voice floated up from inside the bag. "I think I see Skitty – wait, what the-!?"
"Is everything okay?" Lucario asked.
There was a crackle of electricity, the sound of running paws, and a confused blend of shouts – not all of them properly translated.
"Pikachu?" Ash asked. "Have you found Skitty?"
"Ash, get ready to catch!" Pikachu shouted up.
Ash duly tensed up, ready to catch, and then a Pichu came soaring up out of the bag.
Catching it automatically, Ash looked askance at the young Electric-type. "What were you doing in there?"
"Following my brother!" Pichu replied.
A second Pichu came flying up out of the bag, narrowly missing the fishing rod, and Ash caught him too.
"Okay, now pull us up!" Pikachu instructed.
Lucario reeled Pikachu in.
"Don't do it too fast, you'll damage the reel," Brock cautioned.
Lucario reeled Pikachu in a little slower, and he and Skitty emerged from the bag.
"Right," Pikachu said, swaying slightly back and forth. "Now, Skitty, whatever you do, don't let go until we're not over the bag any more."
Skitty opened her mouth to reply, and let go of Pikachu's tail.
Fortunately, May caught her before she landed back in the bag.
"Like, I know," Skitty said, then had the grace to blush. "That was, like, a mistake… right?"
"Silly Skitty," May chuckled.
"Right!" Pikachu said, unclipping himself from the rod and landing on the ground. "Now – what were you two doing in there?"
"We fell in," Pichu Big said.
"About a week ago," Pichu Little added. "By the way, those berries in that freezer are really tasty."
"I guess we need to do some more food shopping," Brock sighed. "Let's do that after the Contest..."
"I don't think I ever saw a Contest," Manaphy said, sitting next to Jirachi on Max's lap. "I hope Mama does well!"
"May's pretty good, so she should," Brock told him. "I think she was going to use Wartortle, it's the first time since she got her back."
"That's right!" Manaphy confirmed. "I saw them getting ready!"
"I guess the question is, who's first," Ash said.
"That's not the only question," Pikachu muttered. "Another question is when these two Pichu are going to go away..."
"Hey!" Pichu Big protested. "We agreed we would get to see the Contest."
"And eat popcorn."
"Whatever," Pikachu said, flicking his tail.
"Can I have some popcorn, please?" Manaphy asked.
"Sure!" Pichu Big agreed, taking an armful and passing it across Brock's lap to the Legendary.
Any further conversation was quelled as the lights dimmed, and the stage lit up with spotlights.
"Welcome, everyone, to the latest Saffron City Contest!" the local Joy announced. "Now, we're very privileged today, because two of our contestants are Hoenn Grand Festival finalists – so I'm sure we'll see some very impressive appeals!"
"Wow," Max said quietly. "Talk about pressure."
Drew walked out onto the arena dressed in a red jacket, black waistcoat, and carrying a chair.
With a flick of his wrist, he sent out Arcanine, who began prowling around the stage, and then flourished the chair and brought a whip out from his pocket.
Arcanine stopped prowling, and gave him an incredibly unimpressed look.
Drew brandished the chair again, and cracked the whip with his other hand. "Ladies and Gentlemen! I will tame this powerful Arcanine, and under my control she will roll over and sit up! You will be amazed, astounded-"
Arcanine snagged the end of the whip between her teeth, and pulled it out of his hand.
"...oh," Drew said, looking at his hand, then at the whip as Arcanine balanced it on the end of her nose. "Well, never mind! I still have the chair!"
The Fire-type promptly set it aflame, and Drew dropped it to the floor of the stage.
"Oh," he said, in a small voice. "Um… no hard feelings?"
Arcanine tossed the whip in the air, and took it in her mouth. Flame rolled along it, and she flicked her head to make the whip flick out in his direction.
Drew took a step back, then another, and Arcanine gave him an encouraging look. Her paw stamped on the floor, producing a flicker of flames, and then she dashed to one side.
The flames she left behind coiled up, producing a wheel with an open centre, and Arcanine nodded towards it.
Drew shook his head.
Arcanine nodded, much more emphatically, and the audience started to giggle.
Drew shook his head again, then put his hands up in surrender. Walking over to the ring, he stepped through it.
Extinguishing the whip, Arcanine tossed it back to him and padded over. They shook, hand to paw, and then both bowed to the audience.
"Risky," Brock said, as they applauded. "For the first half of it or so it looked a lot like Drew had lost control of Arcanine."
"I think that was the point," Max agreed. "It was pretty funny, though."
"Ready?" Wartortle asked.
"Nearly," May replied. "Just keep that up a bit longer… okay, done!"
Wartortle gestured, and the wall of frosted ice she'd produced melted into water before running off down the drain.
"Thanks," May sighed, smoothing out her clothes and picking up her bag to move back to the side. "I can't believe Drew and I had the same outfit..."
"It's a good thing you had a spare," Wartortle agreed, looking at May's backup outfit – a fluid dress with two layers to it, the outer layer almost transparent and rippling like water in the slightest breeze. "By the way, I think we're next."
"Okay, that's fine," May said, assuring both Wartortle and herself. "It's fine."
"Sorry about that," Drew volunteered, wincing. "If I'd known you were going for the ringmaster thing too..."
"Yes?" May requested, as he paused.
"I'd have gone with it anyway," he decided. "But I would have felt bad about it."
Wartortle chuckled.
"Don't you start," May warned.
"I think I have to," Wartortle countered, raising a clawed hand to her ear to indicate the sound of cheering. "We have to go out now."
"Fine," May agreed. "Let's go, then."
She held out the Pokéball, and Wartortle smirked before Returning herself.
Striding out onto the stage, May did a quick twirl – not something she'd precisely rehearsed for today, but with the different dress it was obvious and made the cloth form a rippling wave around her for a moment.
As she came back to her original position, she sent out Wartortle – who appeared in a sudden burst of water as two Splash seals detonated, then did a pirouette of her own and whirled it into a miniature dress for a fraction of a second.
"Hydro Pump!" May ordered, and Wartortle tilted her head back and launched a formidable geyser into the air.
Stepping backwards, she waved her hands – one back and behind her, the other straight up, then both together – and the water moved at the same time. It hung in the air, defying gravity as Wartortle's hands moved slowly and deliberately… then she fired an Ice Beam, freezing the whole thing solid at once into a tower of ice ten feet high.
"Good!" May praised. "Now, another one!"
"That looks familiar..." Brock said, looking between Wartortle and her second water construct – forming on top of the first one, making the tower of ice she was building reach closer to the roof.
"Is it like that thing Geodude does?" Max asked.
"Yeah, that's what I was thinking of," Brock agreed. "Looks pretty, too – but I'm wondering where she's going to go from that. I mean, it's nice, but somehow just building a giant ice tower seems… not..."
He stopped, and facepalmed with a sigh.
"I've been around you too long, Ash. This doesn't feel flashy enough."
Ash chuckled nervously.
"That looks like it would make a cool helter skelter slide!" Pichu Little said, staring up at the tower as Wartortle put the final capstone on it.
May glanced at the timer.
Twenty seconds left.
"Okay, Wartortle – Rock Climb!" she ordered.
Wartortle took a few steps back, cracked her knuckles – no mean feat for a turtle – and ran forwards with her arms continually forming a repeating series of simple gestures.
Just before she ran into the wall of her ice tower, she took a sharp turn left. Shimmering stairs made of coherent water appeared in front of her, rippling with a current which made her flow up the spiral stairs far faster than would be possible if she was having to climb them the normal way, and within seconds she reached the top of the tower.
"Good," May said to herself, the clock ticking down in her head. Twelve. Eleven. Ten-
"Dive!"
Wartortle jumped off the tower.
Almost as soon as she began to fall, water bubbled up around her – seeping out of the holes in her shell, where it had been kept in reserve. Her gestures and mental control shaped it, turning the fluid into a bubble across the whole of her back – then reaching outwards, flattening and taking on a coherent shape.
Five feet off the ground, she did a ninety-degree turn – and flew, on shining butterfly wings shaped out of clear blue water.
The audience didn't cheer, not at first. They gasped – surprised, and shocked, at the sight in front of them.
Wartortle banked, doing a complete lap around her tower, then slowed as she shed energy and her wings rippled in the slipstream. For a moment, she hung on the edge of stalling – then, with one last gesture, her wings collapsed and turned into a liquid cushion that caught her right next to her trainer on the very last tick of the clock.
Then the cheers and applause began.
"That is actually a new one on me," Ash admitted. "I know Squirtle is utterly ridiculous, but… I think he might want to learn that one or something related to it."
"No kidding, that was cool," Max agreed, as Wartortle dismantled her ice construct by the simple expedient of making it melt nigh-instantly. "I want to know how they practiced it!"
"I think it might have been at Rota, some of it," Brock suggested. "I saw her talking with Aaron's Lucario for a few hours."
He shook his head. "And, of course, we don't really know how much of that they were working on in Johto before the thing."
"You're right," Ash agreed. "But… wow, I wonder what else Wartortle can do with that."
"I'm more concerned with working out her thing," Pikachu mused. "I think I might need to borrow Dexter for a few hours of browsing, I think I saw something like that once..."
Manaphy's jaw closed.
"I really want to learn how to fly like that!" he announced. "I know Mama and Wartortle were doing water shaping – I helped! - but I didn't know you could do that with it!"
"I sometimes think the only limit on what a Pokémon can do is what they can think of a way to do," Ash told the little Legendary. "It's not just what moves you can learn, even – Ivysaur especially knows that you don't need to be supposed to learn a move to be able to do it."
"Then that's what I'll try to learn!"
There was a flash down by Ash's knees.
"Did someone say they wanted to learn to fly?" Mawile asked.
"I did!" Manaphy confirmed. "With water shaping, like Mama!"
"Hm," Mawile said, one hand going to her chin. "Well… I think I know. You've got to have thrust, and control, but if you can do that then you can fly..."
She nodded, clapping her hands. "I'll make a diagram, and we can try it later!"
"Before long you'll work out how to make Tyranitar fly," Ash chuckled.
"That is a tricky one," Mawile agreed readily. "I tried hiring Pidgeys, but I could not find enough of them."
"Look!" Manaphy said, pointing. "Mama's in the next round!"
Arcanine woofed a question at Drew.
"It's okay," Drew assured her. "It's your first time, and we only had a couple of days to practice it. I knew it was a risk… but I wanted to do something to show you that it's okay."
The Fire-type gave him a nonplussed look, and shook her head.
"Fine, next time it'll be something better," Drew said, raising his hands in surrender. "Maybe you can work with Masquerain."
Arcanine shrugged her massive haunches.
Her new Trainer's aplomb was unharmed. "Be that way, then. But I'd kind of like to see some of the rest of the Contest."
Wartortle brought her forelegs up and moved them sharply together, and water jumped up to form a bubble in front of her.
A bolt of sparking electricity hit it, fizzed around inside, and dissipated to leave the whole water globule glowing faintly from corona discharge. Recognizing the signs of heavy static charge, Wartortle released her control on it and let it splash to the floor before constituting another bubble.
"Good work!" May praised.
Her opponent's Flaaffy bounced backwards, using his tail to brace himself, and reached up to his wool.
"Let's do a fern this time!" the other Coordinator decided. "Ready… now!"
Flaaffy's grip closed. Pulling out a small section with a crackle of equalizing charges, he flicked it at Wartortle before taking a step to the side and blowing hard on the wool – wool which had originally been white, but which quickly took on a near-golden shimmer as charge built up on it.
"It's another electro-sculpture!" Nurse Joy announced. "This is something Antono and his Flaaffy specialize in!"
Wartortle braced herself, hands moving in slow circles to keep her defence up. It rippled a little, but was mostly transparent enough to let her keep an eye on the Electric type.
"Thunderbolt!" Antono ordered.
Flaaffy lanced forward his Thunderbolt, which connected with the cloud of wool and flashed all the way up it in a trice. It drained the energy from the wool as it went, growing in power and strength, and the charge flowing down towards it formed the shape of a fern branch before striking Wartortle's water shield.
May's Pokémon hadn't had enough time to fully react to the attack, but her sudden movement had launched the water towards her foe – so the suddenly-fully-charged water didn't manage to arc any of the rest of the charge across to her. That was about the best that could be said for it, though, and she did a quick, balletic spin to marshal a dome of water that could block a sudden burst of smaller Thundershocks delivered almost as one.
"May Maple's Wartortle is certainly showing her stuff!" one of the other commentators said. "That's a beautiful defensive technique, but one which doesn't seem to have very much offensive use – so she's suffering on points!"
May glanced up at the scoreboard to confirm, and nodded.
"Okay, Wartortle – change of plans. Go on the attack, but don't get too over-confident… Water Pulse!"
Wartortle nodded a confirmation, and gestured with more force. Now discharged of the harmful electricity, all the water she'd used so far rose into the air, and she mustered it for a moment before launching water bullets towards Flaaffy.
The ovine Pokémon reacted in an unconventional way, stepping backwards and letting the bare rubber-like skin of his chest take the impact of the watery attack.
The wet smack echoed around the arena, but more importantly it meant that none of Flaaffy's electrified fur was hit – and that it could continue to hold charge.
"Let's make a spiral!" Antono said. "And make this one a Thunder attack!"
Flaaffy detached another handful of wool, and scattered it outwards towards Wartortle. Static charge flared up, turning the whole area bright yellow as the light intensified, and Flaaffy grinned.
"Wartortle, stop him!" May shouted.
Wartortle's fist smacked into her other palm, and all the water around Flaaffy suddenly rushed towards him from all directions. The remainder of Wartortle's available water firmed up, forming a shield against the attack.
Then Flaaffy's tail flashed bright blue as he used Thunder.
The charge darted out through a gap in the closing shell of water, hit the edge of the wool cloud, and spread fast – spiralling around, going around some of the water still levitating between the two candidates and picking up more and more energy as it did so. It slipped past Wartortle's shield without touching it, and slammed into her with a loud BANG.
"Wartortle, are you-" May began, as her Water-type went flying backwards, then breathed a sigh of relief as a sudden splash of water caught her. "Good – can you keep going?"
Wartortle wiped her brow, wincing as little sparks jumped between her arm and her forehead, then steadied herself and began to manipulate her water again.
"Then Storm Forwards!" May called the play, trusting Wartortle to interpret it.
"I think I saw – yes," Nurse Joy said, interrupting herself. "There was some water armour there from Wartortle – not something we normally see! That's lessened the impact of that attack, but she's still not doing well with thirty seconds left on the clock!"
Wartortle wasn't listening to anything except her trainer. She advanced deliberately, using Water Gun to increase the amount of water she had available for use, and it orbited her in an Aqua Ring which grew steadily thicker and stronger with every second.
"She's in trouble, so finish this!" Antono instructed. "Show her an Ampharos!"
Flaaffy had to take two handfuls of wool for this one, and the cloud of golden wool which hung in the air was brighter and denser than before. Little sparks of preliminary static jumped from Flaaffy's tail, shaping the cloud – giving it suggestions of the long tail and neck of an Ampharos, the tail just where Flaaffy was and the head facing towards Wartortle.
Wartortle stamped a foot on the ground, and her watery ring jumped and frothed. Half the water in it erupted outwards, geysering into the air all around her but not touching her in the slightest.
Then it began to rain.
Every big, fat raindrop that hit Flaaffy's gilded wool drew off the charge from it, blowing a sudden hole in the incipient construct and making little sparks spread out across the ground.
"Fire now!" Antono said urgently. "Before she ruins it!"
Flaaffy fired his Thunderbolt, which flashed down the tail of the Ampharos – defining it in brilliant electrical light – and reached the body.
Then Wartortleswept both arms up. A thin curtain of water splashed up like a blade, cutting into the electrosculpture and drawing off Flaaffy's attack into the water covering the ground.
A moment later, Flaaffy fell over as something tugged at his feet – and, as he splashed into the water covering the stage, it picked him up and lifted him into the air.
Wartortle made one final gesture, and the water froze around Flaaffy – holding him in the air, mane covered with frost and limbs stuck in immobile ice.
Then the bell rang.
"That was cool!" Manaphy said, clapping as hard as the rest of the crowd. "Does that mean she's won?"
Ash looked at the scoreboard. "Uh… I don't know? It looks like she might have come a close second?"
"Your attention please!" Nurse Joy requested, making the friends look over at the judges. "I'm afraid this doesn't always happen, so we should explain – Wartortle's final move was well executed and an excellent example of misdirection, so we're awarding her the points we didn't have the chance to give before the time ran out!"
The scoreboard changed, Antono's total points shrinking down towards May's…
...and going past it.
"And with that," Joy went on, "May Maple is our winner!"
Wartortle panted, hands on her knees.
"That was more effort than I was expecting..."
Flaaffy mumbled something.
"What – oh, right," Wartortle blushed.
She moved her right paw in a small circle, and the ice melted to let Flaaffy down.
"Good one," she added, drawing the water out of his wool with another quick gesture. "I like the sculptures."
"Thanks," Flaaffy said a bit ruefully. "I should have really gone all in on you from the beginning..."
"Hey! Hey, Dawn!"
Piplup sighed.
"Barry?" Dawn said, lowering her throwing arm. "What is it?"
"Oh, I wanted to show you something cool!" Barry explained, tapping a cardboard tube under his arm. Before Dawn could ask, however, he looked between her arm and her Water-type. "What were you doing? Wait, is that moving target practice? How does that work for a Contest?"
"Yes, it's moving target practice, and – well, we'd better show you. Piplup?"
The penguin nodded, and faced upwards.
Dawn threw the ball.
Almost as soon as she did, Piplup fired a Bubble – then fired a much more powerful Hydro Pump straight through the middle, popping some of the bubbles and sending the rest pluming outwards.
The Hydro Pump itself hit one side of the ball, sending it spinning off into the near distance.
"We're still working on it," Dawn admitted. "But it is a lot flashier than just shooting at a flying enemy without doing that."
Piplup waved a flipper, waggling it back and forth – judging the execution of the move to be so-so.
"Right," Barry said. "Cool – so that's the kind of thing an aspiring Coordinator has to think about, huh? Maybe I should think about that kind of thing too, flashy moves are always a great way to add some energy to a battle! Hey, maybe I can practice by helping you think that kind of thing up!"
He clenched his fists, grinning, and Dawn raised an eyebrow.
"Didn't you have something you wanted to talk to me about?" she hinted.
"Oh, right!" Barry agreed, taking the tube out from under his arm and removing the top. "It's a new poster I got – it's pretty cool!"
Unrolling it, he showed Dawn and Piplup the poster.
It turned out to have Ash on it, along with pictures of every last one of his Pokémon who'd ever been in a League match and quite a few of the ones who'd never gotten around to it.
"There were loads of them – it was a shop online!" the hyperactive boy explained. "You could pick loads of famous trainers – like Drake, or Cynthia, or Misty – but I wanted to get this one because I was thinking about it and I realized that I know someone who knows Ash Ketchum but I don't know someone who knows any of the others!"
Dawn disentangled the stream of words, and blinked. "Wait. What about your dad?"
"Apart from him, but he doesn't count because he's a dad," Barry waved off. "Besides, he knows all of them, except himself because you can't really know yourself – unless you're kind of zen – and I got him one of himself for his birthday, so that was out. And I thought that if I got one that had Ash on then you'd be able to let me know how accurate it was!"
Piplup and Dawn exchanged a glance.
"I guess that makes some kind of sense," Dawn agreed, after a minute. "So this is going to go in your room?"
"That's the plan!" Barry agreed.
He was about to go on, but Piplup held up a flipper to interrupt him.
Waving his other flipper, Piplup indicated off to the side – away from Twinleaf, into the surrounding forest. His trainer followed where he was pointing, and squinted before nodding.
"I see it," she agreed. "A Buneary, huh? I know they're along here every so often, but..."
Piplup shook his head, and pointed again at the curious Normal-type. "Lip-piplup!"
Dawn looked down at him, then back to the Buneary.
Before she could say anything, however, the lapine Pokémon came bounding over and saying something very complicated.
Piplup intervened, speaking over Buneary and trying to get its attention. No, her attention, Dawn was pretty sure – she recognized something about the ears.
Actually, now she thought about it… that Buneary looked very familiar indeed…
"Lip-pipip-pip-lup!" Piplup explained, finally managing to get some silence long enough to explain. "Piplup-Pip-lup."
Buneary pointed a paw at him, then at Dawn, then at the poster. "E-ary?"
Getting a confirmation, she nodded to herself – expression set – then bounded up onto Dawn's hat.
"That's kind of new," Barry observed, as Dawn reached a hand up a little hesitantly. "Is that how you got Piplup? Were you walking along the side of a glacier in Hoenn when he skated off the edge and landed in your backpack, chased by a secret agent Mightyena in a helicopter?"
"Where do you get these ideas, Barry?" Dawn asked.
"I watch a lot of TV," Barry said frankly. "Plus, you're pen friends with Ash Ketchum or something, so of course bizarre things happen to you all the time."
Dawn opened her mouth, then closed it again.
"Anyway, I'm going to go put that poster up," Barry said. "Later!"
After he'd left, Dawn sat down and took her hat off – bringing Buneary with it.
"I don't know what Piplup said to you," she began. "I kind of think I need Ash's advice on this one or something…"
Buneary looked interested in that, then frowned and asked Piplup a question. "Bun-bun-ry?"
Piplup did a flipper-up, which was as close as he could get to a thumbs-up when lacking external thumbs.
In reply to that, Buneary nodded to Dawn. "Bun!"
"I guess this isn't the oddest thing that's ever happened to us," Dawn admitted, getting up again. "Wait, you don't somehow remember the future, right?"
Buneary shook her head, the question seeming to baffle her.
Piplup nudged Dawn's knee. "Lup," he confided.
Somehow Dawn got the impression that her Starter had given Buneary the highly truncated version of the situation.
"Okay, I guess I'll call him when we get home," she decided, sweeping her hat back onto her head. "But the easiest way to check one of the things this could be is going to be to catch you… that could be a problem, even though I promise I'll release you if this all turns out to be a bad idea."
Buneary shrugged as Dawn got to her feet.
"That's a new hat, dear," Johanna observed. "Where did you get that?"
"It's just the old hat with a Buneary on it," Dawn explained, heading upstairs.
Johanna nodded, turning the TV on.
Then she and Glameow shared a confused look.
"Okay," Dawn began, sitting down on her bed and patting the pillow.
As she'd expected, Buneary jumped onto it and landed with a flumph sound, then looked up at her with a quizzical expression.
"I don't know quite what Piplup said to you," she said, nodding to the Water-type clambering onto her desk chair, "but I'll try to give you the short version. Firstly, we're both time travellers."
Buneary tilted her head, and raised a paw to point at Dawn. "Bun?"
"I know," Dawn agreed. "And I do wish I had an easy proof for you, but I don't have one. The reason why this matters is that I came back in time from just about two years in the future – and you were one of my Pokémon."
Piplup nodded. "Lup-lupip."
Buneary took a step back, then sat down and rubbed her eyes.
"There's a way to prove it," Dawn told her. "I know I said I don't have an easy one, and that's because the person who does is Ash Ketchum – the boy who was on that poster. But he's in Kanto, so I'd need to capture you to transfer you across."
The Normal-type didn't seem especially surprised by that, and Dawn reminded herself she'd actually already mentioned the capture thing.
"If you're okay with that," she resumed, "then I can send you to Ash, and Ash can – probably – actually restore your memories of our time together."
Piplup nodded encouragingly.
"Ready..." Max warned.
Corona inhaled, fire sparking to life in the back of her throat, and she held herself ready – balanced with one clawed foot forwards, the other to the side, and her tail as the counterweight.
"Remember," Quilava said softly. "It's important to be ready to let loose your flame on as short a notice as possible, when fighting a fast opponent.
Taking that in, Corona kept inhaling softly. The heat of her readied Ember slowly built up, and then-
"Fire!" Max called.
Corona launched out a small fireball, which darted forwards – and exploded about half a second behind Swellow as the Flying-type swooped overhead.
"Whoo!" Swellow caroled, doing a roll and banking around. "That was pretty cool!"
"Not bad," Max said, as Ash's boisterous bird slowed to hover. "You were on the right line, you just fired it a bit too late."
"I know, but I made the fire come up as fast as I could," Corona said. "I think I need to aim for where Swellow's going to be, but it's hard to tell just where to aim from how fast she's going."
"I think you're right," Max agreed. "Swellow, can you go a bit slower for now?"
"What?" Swellow asked, alighting on a branch and making the leaves rustle. "But that's lame…"
"Swellow," Quilava called. "Remember, we're trying to help Corona learn. It's going to be my turn in a bit, but for now we're working on reaction speed."
"Fine," Swellow muttered. "I'll do it."
She nodded to Max, who couldn't tell what the byplay had been but guessed the details.
"Okay, thanks," the young trainer smiled. "I know you're basically having to be blasted with fireballs a lot."
"That's why I'm here, remember," Meganium contributed. "If you get blown up, I fix you."
"Yeah, I get the idea," Swellow agreed, wings beating steadily as she hovered. "Okay, you guys just stay here, I'll be back after I've done something awesome to pre-emptively counterbalance being hit by a fireball."
She vanished in a whirr of wings.
"Ready for the next one?" Max asked.
"I think I am," Corona agreed.
She shifted her footing, curling her tail up to in front of her mouth, and blew gently on it – resulting in a flicker of flames which licked out for an instant.
"Looks good to me!" Max agreed.
Then there was the sound of a phone ringing.
"That sounds like Dexter," Quilava observed. "I wonder what it's about?"
As they all turned to look towards Ash, there was a snarl and a bark from one of the nearby thickets – shortly followed by Casper emerging through the branches of the bush, chased in turn by an annoyed-looking Cinder.
"I would have told you if I wanted a bow on my tail!"
"I'm going to go ahead and guess that wasn't anything to do with why Dexter's ringing," Max said, to general nods.
"Hi, Dawn," Ash said, with a smile. "How are things in Twinleaf?"
"Well, they're pretty good," Dawn told him. "By the way, they're doing posters of your team now."
"They are?" Ash blinked. "Huh..."
"What is it?"
"Oh, just wondering if my mom might want one," Ash explained.
"Maybe she will," Lucario mused. "Well, I've got my next gift idea for her."
"How come you get to do it?" Pikachu asked.
"The ancient Lucario power known as dibs."
Ash chuckled. "Sorry, Dawn, Lucario's being funny."
"No problem," Dawn assured him. "Oh, the reason I called – there's some good news, actually."
She held up a Pokéball.
"...I don't get it," Ash said.
"Neither do I," May agreed, looking over his shoulder. "Is that a special Pokéball?"
"Well, it's got Buneary in it," Dawn told them.
"...didn't you catch Buneary in… another nine months or so?" Ash asked. "Or was it a whole year?"
"I was confused too," Dawn agreed. "She showed up right here in Twinleaf, and I explained a really simple version to her – can you restore her?"
"Sure, I think," Ash confirmed. "You've got a transponder, right?"
At her nod, he asked Dexter. "Can you-"
Already on it, Dexter replied.
The ball vanished from Dawn's hand, then appeared on the grass.
"Okay, let's see..." Ash said, picking it up, and opened it with a flash of white light. His palm glowed blue, and he touched it gently to the materializing Buneary.
"Woow..." the Normal-type said, shaking her head. "That felt really odd… wait..."
She looked up at Ash, then at Dexter's screen – still showing Dawn, who waved at her with a smile.
Buneary waved back, a smile breaking out on her own muzzle. "Dawn!"
"It's good to see you, Buneary," Dawn told her.
The lapine continued waving for a bit longer, then her paw slowed, and she raised the other one to her chin.
"Okay, so Ash is here… that means..."
Turning, she spotted a familiar yellow shape.
"Pikachu! It's, uh..." She paused, swallowing, and twisted an ear around her paw. "It's so nice to see you – I've missed you so terribly, and..."
Her cheeks heated a little, and she looked down at the ground. "Well, I didn't realize we'd be meeting again like this, but..."
Voice trailing off, the Normal-type took a step back. "I… was looking forward to it. To… seeing you again."
Pikachu glanced up at Lucario, and spoke in a low voice. "Could you throw me into the top of that tree? This is really awkward..."
"I'm enjoying this far too much," his friend replied.
"Last time I… I didn't get a chance to ask you about what happened in Unova," Buneary went on, one foot tracing a half-circle in the grass. "Personally, I mean… did you-"
Vines wrapped around her shoulders and lifted her smartly into the air.
"Okay, Buneary," Meganium said, not unkindly. "Speaking as someone with experience of this kind of thing, you're going about it all wrong."
Buneary looked confused, swinging slowly back and forth in Meganium's vines.
"Come on, I'll explain," she said, and placed Buneary on her back before walking off.
Everyone looked in the direction they'd gone for a few seconds.
"Ash, what happened?" Dawn asked, trying to peer around a corner through her videophone. "Where did Buneary go?"
"And why do I have a sudden feeling of impending doom?" Pikachu added.
AN:
More shopping, or rather the end of the subject of shopping.
Also a Contest, and something else.
