"Okay, I think I've got most of this down," May said, lowering herself into a resting posture. "What do you think, Blaziken?"
"You've got the kata correct, yes," Blaziken agreed. "The next step is going to be developing all that into a proper fighting style – or, at least, understanding when to use what move. Most humans rely entirely on their Pokémon to fight for them, so they are not well practiced."
May nodded her understanding. "So if someone grabs me, I don't need to be able to do some kind of long, complicated attack chain?"
Blaziken was about to speak, but May shook her head. "No, I just realized – there's no point. That's the kind of thing you use to win a stalemate, if you and your opponent are evenly matched."
"The primary priority is your safety, May," Blaziken told her. "If you can immobilize or disable any attackers, then you should just leave and get help."
"Right," May agreed. "What about what Ash does?"
They looked over to where Ash was, and spotted him exchanging blows with Lucario and Pikachu at the same time. Then Absol darted in, horn ready, and Ash drew his sword without breaking stride and blocked her with a clang.
Absol skipped back, and Ash turned his attention back to the other two Pokémon battling him. Pikachu's Thundershock crackled against the blade, going no further due to the blue coating of Aura on Ash's sword hand, and then the trainer struck his Lucario in the shoulder with a Force Palm that knocked the Steel-type backwards – almost bowling him over.
"That's different," Blaziken reminded her.
"Fair enough," May agreed. "Okay, so next we should try specific situations?"
"Perhaps later," Blaziken suggested. "You need some rest – that was as long as yesterday's workout."
"It was?" May blinked. "Huh, I didn't realize..."
"So, like… what's the idea?" Skitty asked. "Like… I don't get why I need to, like, ask Venusaur about things. You know what I mean? Like… I don't, like, use her fighting style or anything..."
"Yes, but I can only help you with half the training for the next Appeal," Wartortle replied. "We need Venusaur's help, both so you get the move down and so that we can make sure you get the angles right on the mirrors."
"Fine..." Skitty sighed. "But this is, like, a headache..."
Wartortle cleared her throat. "Venusaur? Do you mind helping us out?"
Venusuar glanced over her shoulder. "Sure, that'd be fine."
She put down the cards in her vines. "I'm pretty sure Grumpig's won anyway."
The Psychic-type put his own cards down, face-up – revealing that he had a full house. Afraid so.
"Were you using telepathy to read my mind?" Venusaur asked.
Grumpig shook his head. Not much point even if I could. It's only a card game.
Venusaur shrugged, then turned to the other two. "Okay, let's hear it."
"So there's a plan we have for Skitty's Appeal," Wartortle said. "There's two plans, really – it's whichever one gets working first that we're going to use – and one of them uses Sunny Day. Since you're the Pokémon we know is here who has Sunny Day-"
"Ho-Oh has Sunny Day as well," Venusaur pointed out.
They all looked at the big phoenix.
"Like, that's kind of… like… no," Skitty said. "He'd, like, tell me to just… like, set the air on fire?"
"Okay, sorry, I should have realized that one was a mistake," Venusaur sighed. "Right. Well, then, let's see what we can do."
She paused. "Actually, we're going to need another Pokémon to work this out… do you know Rain Dance, Wartortle?"
Wartortle shook her head. "If I need water coming down from overhead I just fire a Water Pulse and then push the water upwards."
"Then I think… Goodra," Venusaur decided.
"Like, ew," Skitty said, sticking her tongue out. "He's, like… all gooey..."
"He's also very good at using Rain Dance," Wartortle pointed out. "We'd have to ask him for help anyway."
She gave her fellow Pokémon a sly look. "Or would you rather get rained on for almost the entire Appeal?"
Skitty thought about that.
"Like… you didn't have to be rude..."
"Okay," Goodra began. "So – Rain Dance."
He thumped his tail on the ground, and it promptly started raining on them all.
Venusaur spread her leaves a little wider to catch the droplets. For her part, Skitty pouted – then perked up as Wartortle started to move her hands in circling movements and the rain stopped falling on them.
"Rain Dance makes it rain," Goodra went on.
"Shyeah," Skitty snorted. "Like… that's totally, like, something I never knew!"
"Skitty," Wartortle said. "Please be polite."
Skitty rolled her eyes, though it was a bit hard to tell. "Guh. Like, okay..."
Goodra shrugged. "It's okay," he said. "That was kind of the obvious bit. This is the important one."
He nodded to Venusaur, who overrode it with Sunny Day. Then Goodra used Rain Dance again, and this time the beating rain was a much smaller thing – only raining on him, very specifically, and not all of him.
Skitty's head tilted to one side. "Like… how did you, like, do that?"
Goodra smiled. "That's the trick. It's all about recognizing and projecting the energy which the actual move uses, and being able to work out where it's going from that."
He nodded to her. "Do you have the basic move?"
"Like… yeah," Skitty agreed. "We used, like, a TM? But it's totally hard to tell how to use it."
Venusaur used Sunny Day to neutralize the rain again, and Goodra thought for a moment.
"Okay," he said. "Just do it as you normally would, and let's see what happens."
There was a long pause.
"Are you using the move?" Goodra checked.
"Like, no?" Skitty replied. "You told me to, like, use it like I normally would. And, like, I'd like to never get wet like that."
Venusaur chuckled.
"This could take a while," the Dragon-type sighed. "Okay, let me put that another way…"
"Okay, so here's how I tend to think of the best tactics for small, tough Rock types," Brock began. "It's important to-"
He stopped. "Wait, are you taking notes?"
Ferris tilted his head, looking down at the marker taped to his foreclaw, then gave a quick nod.
"Well… good work," Brock decided. "And don't forget, any questions you have – do ask. It's important to make sure you understand what we're trying for."
He cleared his throat. "Anyway. One of the things most small Rock types share is that they're very tough and heavy for their size. That means that it's good to be as fast as possible, because that's the thing which is going to be the limit, but it also means that when you're attacking you've got a lot of momentum."
The Aron made a few notes on that topic. "Traction?"
"Traction's an issue, yes," Brock agreed. "For a small and heavy Pokémon it can be hard to change direction quickly. There's moves which help with that, but I don't think you'll want to use Autotomize because it actually makes you lighter – and it can make you too light. Instead, I tended to teach the Gym Pokémon Rock Polish, so they could use that to build up lots of extra speed quickly, and rely on prepared high speed attacks."
The Gym Leader clicked his fingers. "Actually, that trick is one of the ones I used on Lorelei – I had a Golem use Rock Polish to speed up, and knocked her Cloyster so hard it bounced off the wall."
"One of these days I kind of want to hear about that battle," Max said.
Ferris tapped his claw on the ground.
"Right, sorry," Brock apologized. "Okay, so that's one point – momentum. The other one is that you need to watch out for – well, you don't need to watch out for Grass typed attacks, but your big vulnerabilities are Ground and Fighting."
Brock tapped his nose. "But there's a trick to that one! What you need to do if you run into those is to use a move like Bide, or Metal Burst – that and be tough enough to withstand the attack long enough that they have a chance to work."
Ferris took that in, and nodded.
"Okay, so I think the first thing to do is to practice that high speed movement," Brock decided. "Any problems with that, Max?"
"No, it makes sense," Max agreed. "Actually, I think it might be good training for Corona as well. She's got her fire-boost way of moving in unusual directions or at high speed, but she needs to get good training in using it to hit a moving target."
"Sounds good to me," Brock agreed. "How's that coming along, by the way?"
"We're doing some neat things with extending her fire aura," Max reported. "It's not as powerful that way, but it can hit things further away."
Ferris folded up the little notebook he'd been using, and put it to one side.
"Flammable," he explained, taking the marker off and capping it.
"That's a pretty good point," Max agreed. "Right, where's Corona… actually, is there a good practice area? This hillock is grassy."
"I saw a bare patch earlier," Brock suggested. "Let's see if that one's available."
"Hmmm..." Pikachu mused. "You know, a lot of the moves and tricks I've worked out are designed for a Pokémon at least a bit bigger than you."
"Is that a problem?" Joltik asked. "I can still use them, right?"
"Yeah, but I have a whole trick about using my tail as a way to boost my charge separation," Pikachu told her. "That's not really something you can do, because you're so small you can use a coin as a bed."
"Yes," Joltik agreed. "The juxtaposition of a symbol of profit and the gentle repose of the individual is an odd one, but I don't think it has any significance worthy of note."
Pikachu blinked at her, then shrugged. "Okay? Uh, anyway, I did have one idea that could be quite useful."
He inspected her, bringing the end of his tail around to make it easier to see her. "So, the first thing I was thinking about is that you're a Bug type – that's good for an Electric type, because it means you're not weak to Ground, but it also means you're weak to Fire and Rock. Well… there's a thing that sometimes happens when I charge up a lot, and I think you could use it."
Joltik sparked a little. "Really?"
"That's right," Pikachu agreed. "Watch this."
He began to build up a charge, then diverted it to his ear tip. He increased the strength, until there was a faint hissing sound – one which was almost hidden in the more general crackle of electricity, but which was still there.
"That's called ion wind," Pikachu explained. "It's not very strong for me, but it's stronger on a small point – and I think it might just work to blow away some Fire-typed attacks."
"Wow!" Joltik squeaked. "That sounds almost like a deflector shield!"
She scuttled along Pikachu's tail to the very tip. "How are we going to be able to test it, though?"
"Well, I think I know a Pokémon who can use Flamethrower..."
"No, no, that's not it at all," Goodra said. "Sorry, Skitty, but it won't work that way. You need to try and make it smaller, not weaker."
"Like, aren't they, like, totally the same thing?" Skitty said, tail flicking about as Wartortle used a careful hand gesture to hydrokinetically draw the water out of her fur. "Like, I don't get how small isn't… like… weak."
"The difference is that there's the same amount of rain per metre, but it's in a smaller area," Goodra explained patiently. "You need to hold the energy closer to you, that way you can get the density right – only after that can we move on to trying to properly shape the rainstorm."
"Like… this is going to take, like, forever," Skitty pouted.
"You could always use a musical training montage," Wartortle suggested.
Goodra blinked. So did Venusaur.
"Um… there aren't any musical training montages in Avatar," Venusaur pointed out.
"What's Avatar?" Wartortle asked, confused.
"It's… that show you like?" Goodra said. "Isn't it? I sort of assumed, because of all the waterbending."
"Never heard of it," Wartortle replied. "Now, can we sort out Skitty?
She reached into her shell, and produced four sets of sheet music. "This is your part, and-"
"How long have you been making these?" Venusaur asked, looking at hers. "What does Be A Mon even mean?
"One of the difficult things about a Fire attack is getting the intensity to it," Lucario lectured. "It's why they tend to involve some kind of movement, either of air or of the body part. Fire types can stoke up their own internal fires to produce the same sort of effect, but it's less able to produce a proper fire attack."
"Oh, okay..." Corona said, nodding. "I think I understand. A lot of Fire attacks are based on fire breath – like Flamethrower or Fire Blast – and the ones which aren't are usually things like a punch or a spin."
Lucario gave her a thumbs-up, in defiance of all digital precedent.
"How did you work that out?" Corona asked. "Was it hard to learn?"
"Well, I sort of had to," Lucario replied. "The way I learned to use Flamethrower made it hard to do anything else, in fact. I think most Fire-types don't actually think about this very much, simply because they grow up with it."
Corona got a mischievous look. "Does that mean you don't understand Aura?"
Lucario shook his head solemnly. "I trained to do Lucario things as a Riolu, so I needed to learn the proper theory. Much like you need the proper theory to do what you plan to do."
The Fire-type conceded the point.
"Hey," she said, pointing. "Looks like Pikachu's coming over."
"So he is," Lucario said. "And, thanks to my Aura Sight, I can tell that he's not alone."
He paused. "Also, because I overheard Joltik ask him for advice earlier."
"Hey, Lucario?" Pikachu called. "Think you could try and set Joltik on fire, but not very much?"
"That's a very odd sounding request, you know," Lucario noted. Rising to his feet, he looked for a moment before picking a likely looking spot and ramming an Aura Sphere into it. The resultant explosion of dirt would have rained down over all of them if Lucario hadn't raised a quick Protect shield, but it did clear an area so there was relatively little flammable material present.
"OR you could have just gone over to that rock," Pikachu said, pointing.
"This was more entertaining," Lucario told him, then paused. "I realize I should have asked. Why, exactly, do you want me to set Joltik on fire?"
Joltik answered for him. "We believe that we have developed a way for me to avoid Fire attacks reaching me. It would be best to test this on a small sample flame, and Pikachu is of the opinion that you have good control of your Flamethrower."
"What she said," Pikachu concurred.
Lucario nodded, and waited until Joltik was in position. Once she was – and once the String Shot she'd used to get there was removed – Lucario rubbed his palms together, generating friction which he fed with his Aura.
A little spark of flame flickered up, and he blew it gently at the Bug-type – obscuring any view of her completely.
Then it slowly died away.
"I believe the result is a success," Joltik said.
"Is it?" Pikachu asked, looking at the scorch mark, then bent closer. "Oh, yeah, there's a little circle of unscorched ground around you. Neat."
"Do I have to learn how to deal with that?" Corona asked.
"Only if you plan on battling tiny Electric types, or very powerful ones," Pikachu told her. "Ion wind requires a lot of power, and we've only just proved that this works."
The Charmander nodded, agreeing with the sentiment, then raised a paw. "Can we go back to my practice now?"
"Hey, Skitty," May said, sitting down next to her feline Normal-type. "How's the practice going?"
"Like… I have got so totally soaked," Skitty announced. "And it's, like… guh."
"You feel pretty dry right now," May pointed out.
"Well, yeah, but, like… Wartortle dried me off a lot," Skitty told her. "It's… like… helpful, but it doesn't, like, stop me getting wet in the first place."
May stroked Skitty. "How's she doing?" she asked Wartortle, deciding to get an answer from one of the other Pokémon.
"Actually, she's doing pretty well," Wartortle told her. "She got the hang of aiming Rain Dance in no time, once I broke out the musical numbers!"
May blinked. "Musical numbers?"
"Don't ask," Venusaur said. "I had to do the baritone part, and it took several rehearsals."
"I… really kind of want to find out what happened one of these days," May admitted. "Actually… I wonder if a musical number would be good for an Appeal at the Grand Festival."
"I'll get to composing one," Wartortle decided immediately. "Actually, I'll do several."
Goodra chuckled.
"So we're ready to use that appeal?" May asked, still absently stroking Skitty's fur.
Skitty just purred.
"I think that's a yes," Venusaur judged.
"Okay, tell me again why we're doing this," Iris requested.
"Because no dragon would be willingly confined to the hours of daylight," her tutor said. "And no dragon tamer would surrender a battle just because it happened to be dark."
"Okay, yeah, I get that much," Iris agreed. "But my Pokémon have senses that I don't – Fraxure has good hearing, Excadrill has tremorsense, and both of them can smell better than I can."
Denae shrugged, a movement that Iris could barely see in the deep darkness of a cloudy night. "And your job as a Dragon Tamer is to find things your dragons do not. They are busy battling; you are not."
"He's blindfolded!" Iris burst out. "And we're on top of a cliff!"
"Then you will have to be good at your job," Denae said simply. "Learn the look and sound of Fraxure, use any tools at your disposal to direct the battle."
Iris frowned, looking out at where her Fraxure was facing off against Denae's Druddigon.
"We will start slow," Denae told her. "Now. Begin."
Iris looked into the darkness, seeing the occasional flash of sparks where one dragon struck the other.
How was she supposed to help with this? She could barely tell what was going on! There was just the crash of claws against scales, or claws against claws…
Iris paused, listening a little closer.
She could hear which claws were which, or at least that they were different. The sound of the impact was a little off, but she couldn't tell which was which.
"Okay, think…" she whispered. "So Druddigon live in caves, and that means they're better at seeing in the dark than Fraxure is."
After another pause, she nodded. "Okay. That means Druddigon has an advantage. I certainly can't see better, but..."
She knelt down, and sent out Excadrill. There was a brief white flash, and she used that to fix the location of both Pokémon as they were at the moment. That told her which sounds were which.
But it didn't help her much, and it wasn't why she'd sent out Excadrill in the first place.
"Excadrill, I need your help," she said.
The mole's expression wasn't really visible in the dim light, but she sort of got the gist anyway.
"I know," she sighed. "But this is helping Fraxure fight. Let me know when Druddigon is closer to the cliff edge than Fraxure is."
Excadrill paused, then tapped her palm with a claw.
"Thank you," she told him.
Several seconds ticked past, with the occasional thump and clatter as the two Dragon-types fought in the darkness.
Then Excadrill tapped her palm again.
"Dragon Pulse!" Iris ordered. "And close one eye!"
Fraxure complied, firing off a Dragon Pulse the moment he heard Iris give the order.
Iris had one eye closed as well, so the sudden flash of light only dazzled the open one – and Druddigon staggered back a step, night vision destroyed by the attack. It hadn't even hit home, but it had done the job.
"Now, charge!" Iris said.
Her Dragon dove forwards, slamming into the much heavier Druddigon, and knocked it backwards -
-and a flash of red light captured it and drew it back into its Pokéball.
"Good," Denae pronounced. "If your Pokémon have better senses than you, put them to use!"
"You made me work that one out by myself, didn't you?" Iris said.
"How else would you remember it?"
May whistled to herself, bouncing on her heels as she waited for her turn to go and perform.
One of the other Coordinators was giving her Pokémon a quick last-minute pep talk, and the Pokémon in question – a Graveler wearing a tuxedo – was nodding along with her words.
"Um… excuse me, miss?"
May glanced around, and saw the questioner was referring to her. "Hello?"
"Miss – are you May Maple?"
"That's me," May agreed, shifting her grip a little. "I'm kind of glad to be recognized, actually!"
The other Coordinator smiled, a little nervously. "Yeah, uh… I have a question."
"Go ahead," May invited.
"Why are you carrying a chair?"
"Oh, this?" May said, looking down at the folding chair. "It's actually pretty light."
"Yeah, but I meant..." the Coordinator began, then shook his head. "Never mind, I guess I'll find out somehow."
"Didn't you hear?" someone else asked. "She's one of Ash Ketchum's friends."
"And what's that supposed to mean?" May asked.
"...we're talking about Ash Ketchum," the newcomer said, slowly. "Ash. Ketchum. The person who's so ridiculous their Pikachu can electrocute Ground types. It'd be odd if you weren't a bit unusual."
"...okay, good point," May admitted. "But yeah, I do have a reason for carrying the chair around."
She paused. "But… it's part of my Appeal, so you'll just have to be surprised."
"That was a pretty good one," Brock said, as the Graveler left the stage with his trainer. "I liked the whole sandstorm thing."
"Yeah, it was different," Max agreed. "Okay, May must be next, there's been loads."
He smiled down at Manaphy. "So you'll see your trainer soon, okay?"
"Yep!" Manaphy agreed, from his own seat – one which he had to stand on the back of to get a good view. "I think this is going to be neat!"
"Absolutely," Joltik shouted, loudly enough for them to hear her.
As they waited for the sand to be cleared away, Manaphy frowned. Then he raised a flipper. "I… have a question."
"Go ahead," Brock invited.
"How do they know Pokémon in the audience aren't interfering?"
"That is a good question," Brock said. "I read about it once, but I might not remember quite right… from what I do remember, it mostly doesn't matter because most attacks are obviously being used by the Pokémon. For the ones which aren't that obvious, though, they can get the Pokémon to demonstrate all the moves it used during the Appeal. I think they check that during the judging period, if they have to."
"Okay," Manaphy nodded, then sat down with his flippers underneath him. "I don't want to look like I'm doing hydro…kin-e-sis."
He glanced at Brock to check that last word, and the Gym Leader nodded confirmation.
"Hey, here we go," Max said, pointing.
May bowed, then sent out Skitty with a carefully thrown Pokéball. There were no seals, but the throw landed so that Skitty appeared on her shoulder in a quick flash of white light.
She spent a moment to pet her Normal-type, then began to unfold her chair. As she did, though, it began to rain – a few drops at first, then getting quickly stronger.
Only on one half of the stage, though. The other half was dry, and May quickly picked up her folding chair and hurried into the dry section.
Skitty followed her, then hopped off her shoulder as she set up the chair again. Padding up to the edge of the rainstorm, Skitty batted at it with a paw, then meowed at her trainer.
"Huh?" May said, looking over. "Skitty?"
Skitty meowed again, batting at the rain.
"Just wait it out," May advised her. "Or sort it out yourself, I don't know."
Skitty nodded, and brought her tail around to touch her chin – the picture of careful thought.
Then she brightened, and a ball of light formed in front of her muzzle. It brightened, getting more powerful by the second – then popped, and she went shooting into the air.
For a moment, she vanished into the rain clouds, then her Sky Uppercut faded and she dropped back down towards the ground. Twisting in mid-air, she landed on her paws and shook the damp off her fur.
The Kitten Pokémon shook her head, then pondered again.
"That's very interesting," Nurse Joy said quietly. "I didn't know a Skitty could do a move like that."
"They can't," Raoul Contesta replied. "Of course, this is one of the Maple Siblings, so it could be that long exposure to Ash Ketchum results in your Pokémon learning improbable moves..."
Mr. Sukizo passed a note to them.
"Assist," Raoul read. "Yes, I see. Risky, but if it works I think I'll score it with extra points – it's hard to pull something like that off."
Skitty pouted, then looked upwards at the rain clouds and used Assist again. This time the ball of light took a little longer to form, but once it did it intensified just as fast as before – then burst, forming a ball of swirling light for a moment before surging upwards in a Gust that blew the clouds away in an instant.
The Normal-type blinked, surprised, then shrugged and padded out into the 'outside'. As she did, however, the rain clouds began to form again – and this time, in addition to the big one overhead, a small one appeared directly over Skitty's head.
Skitty yowled, and went running back into the 'indoors' – only for the cloud to follow her, raining on her whenever it got a chance, until she hid under May's chair to try and escape.
By that point the audience was laughing at Skitty's antics, as the Normal-type peered out from under the chair to make sure the nasty cloud had gone away.
Satisfied, Skitty walked back out towards the border of the main raincloud. As she did, the smaller one appeared again from behind her, but she snarled at it and it ran away to hide.
Licking her paw, Skitty pondered one last time.
Then a lightbulb appeared over her head.
"...how did she do that?" Joy asked.
"I think that was Flash," Raoul said, a little uncertainly.
As they watched, Skitty walked right up to the dividing line. She inhaled, and then breathed out a cloud of snow and freezing air which swirled up and around a whole half of the arena.
"Phew," May said, standing up. "Skitty? You've been quiet."
She turned, and saw her Normal-type sitting on top of a big snow-statue of a Delcatty.
"Ty, Skiii-ty!" Skitty announced.
Dawn checked the time.
"Okay, looks like now's a good time," she said to herself.
Buneary looked up, interested.
"Sorry," she apologized. "Just going to give Mamoswine his shower. I think I remember where Mom left the hose..."
Then she checked around the room, just to make sure another Pokémon hadn't appeared while she wasn't looking.
You couldn't be too careful.
The Graveler facing Skitty cracked his knuckles.
"Like… this is gonna, like, suck," Skitty decided.
"And, begin!"
Skitty fired a burst of ice at the floor and skated away from Graveler's first attack, then flicked her tail around to turn her and avoid the second Rock Throw.
There was a smattering of applause as Skitty reached the end of the ice trail, then pushed off with her tail and paws together to jump a bit higher than her opponent was expecting. Graveler's Rock Blast detonated underneath her, and she did a flip before landing on her paws again.
"Good dodging," Nurse Joy noted. "But you can't win a battle by doing just that."
"I agree," Contesta said.
"Don't touch this!" May instructed
"...was that even an attack name?" Joy asked, confused.
As she wondered, Skitty took a deep breath. When Graveler fired a double Rock Blast at her, Skitty reacted to that by dodging to one side – but she fired a powerful Blizzard at one of the Rock Blasts, letting the other sail past her, and jumped into the air to land on the frozen one.
It took her some impressively fancy footwork, but she managed to make the frozen Rock Blast turn around so it was moving in the direction of the confused Graveler. Then she jumped off again, and used a Double-Slap to knock the icy attack right back at the instigator.
"Sandstorm!" Graveler's trainer called, and the Ground-type launched a barrage of gritty sand at the ice projectile. The stream of it was strong enough that it eroded away some of the ice, and the attack detonated shortly before it reached Graveler himself.
"Remarkable," Mr. Sukizo pronounced.
"That's right," Contesta agreed. "That has to be some kind of planned way of countering an attack – very impressive, even if Graveler did have a way to avoid it."
"Is there any reason we're not using Graveler's trainer's name?" Joy asked.
Mr. Sukizo shrugged.
"Like, awww..." Skitty sighed. "That one was, like, totally going to hit!"
"It did hit, Skitty, keep it up!" May advised. "Okay, let's try-"
Before she could finish the sentence, there was a sudden blast of fine red sand. It swirled out towards Skitty, engulfing her, then settled out a little as Skitty waved her tail around to blow it away.
Graveler's arms clenched, and he threw out another burst of sand – this one a coarser white colour, forming a two-tone pattern with the red sand he'd already used. Then he began to use Sandstorm, and the two colours and densities of the sand made them visibly segregate.
The finer sand rose to the top, the coarser sand settled to the bottom, and the circular currents produced a familiar-looking shape.
"Great!" Graveler's trainer told him. "Now, keep that up and use Sand Tomb! Try to catch that Skitty in your Pokéball!"
"That… is actually kind of impressive," May admitted.
"Like, yeah," Skitty agreed, then jumped aside as Graveler fired a burst of sand at her from the Sandstorm. The little burst of sand didn't go straight back into the sandstorm itself, but was swept along by the wind and battered Skitty's side before being drawn back in.
"Skitty, Blizzard Guard!" May said quickly.
Skitty fired a burst of Blizzard at the ground, and it bounced off with a flash – forming a kind of spiky splash-shape of ice, which deflected the next attack without breaking.
"Skitty, you've got to use Rain Dance to flatten the sand," May pointed out.
Skitty was silent, ducking below the top of her icy rampart as another blast of sand came in.
"Skitty?"
"Like, quiet..." Skitty instructed. "I'm… like… thinking about it..."
May sighed.
Skitty darted out of the side of her defensive structure. A Rock Blast nailed it, blowing it to bits, and then an eddy of the sand came out and pulled her into the Pokéball-sandstorm.
"Hmm..." Joy said, tapping her pen on the table. "That's probably not a good thing for Skitty there."
"No," Contesta agreed. "Do you think this might be what decides the match?"
Joy was about to nod, but then stopped.
There was something going on within the cloud. It was starting to lose the crisp Pokéball shape which had impressed them, going a bit weak at the base and dark in the middle, and it even looked like it was becoming rotationally uneven.
Then the whole thing collapsed inwards over the course of several seconds, going from a red-and-white sand construct to a disc of pink water. The disc stayed there for a few seconds, then burst apart in all directions – including directly at Graveler, getting him soaked – to reveal that Skitty had been in the middle of it.
Her fur was an absolute mess, but she shook the majority of it off in a few seconds.
"Rapid Spin!" Contesta said. "Very impressive – and that water as well! I think that's a very impressive combination!"
"But Skitty don't learn Rapid Spin," Joy objected.
"They do learn Assist," Contesta countered. "It was luck, yes, but she used it well."
"It's not over yet!" May's opponent said. "Graveler, set up another Sandstorm!"
"Skitty, over here," May ordered. "Now, Hyper Voice!"
Skitty's paws splashed on the damp, gritty stadium floor. She skidded into a turn, already feeling the wind starting to chill her damp fur, and shouted. "LIKE!"
The burst of sound bounced off the wood of the arena without causing it much actual damage, but it did pick up a lot of the water Skitty's undercover Rain Dance had produced. With the shout pushing it all in the same direction, it produced a pretty half-circle of pink-sandy water which slapped into Graveler from the front as he tried to concentrate on his Sandstorm.
"And finish it with another Hyper Voice – and Blizzard!" May said.
Skitty obeyed both orders in quick succession, sending another great sheet of pink-sand water up at Graveler. Her burst of Ice-type energy came on the heels of the attack, and Graveler found himself frozen solid in a cage of faintly-pink ice.
"What does that do to the scores, Raoul?" Joy asked. "What about that deciding the match?"
Contesta chuckled. "You're right, I did nearly call it too early. I think that means my decision was-"
"Re-mark-able," Sukizo said earnestly.
"You do that on purpose, don't you?"
"Okay, Skitty, I think that's most of it," May said, lifting the towel for a moment. "There's still sand in your fur, but I think we're not going to get it off while it's stuck on like that."
"Like, like what?" Skitty asked.
"Everything's damp," May explained. "So the sand's sticking to you. I know, it's kind of a pain, but I think we need to give you a proper shower."
The Normal-type sighed. "Ugh. Like… I've gotten too, like, wet today."
"At least we got the Ribbon," May pointed out. "So you don't need to do it again."
"Like… I really need to, like, learn a sunny move?" Skitty suggested. "And have, like, my own personal sunbeam."
May chuckled. "That sounds like a good start, but you could stand to pick up some other moves as well. Relying on Assist is a bad idea, we both know that."
She frowned. "Perhaps we should get you a couple of TMs, to speed things up..."
"I, like, like the sound of that," Skitty volunteered, licking her paw and then making a face. "Ugh, sand."
She shook her head. "Like… less effort is, like, something I'm on board with."
"All right," May said. "Let's have a look at the catalogue later – we can visit Celadon and buy some once you've decided."
She picked the Normal-type up. "Now, come on, let's get you in the shower."
Skitty bristled, then May scratched her behind her neck and Skitty's objections dissolved into purring.
At about the same time, in Sinnoh, a young princess returned to her rooms.
"My, my..." she said. "What an interesting group of people."
She turned her attention to the woman following her. "Wouldn't you say so, Freesia?"
"Perhaps, Your Highness," the experienced servant agreed. "I must say, I'm very glad there were no major problems."
Princess Salvia chuckled. "You may be right. But I think that depends on one's definition of a problem."
Freesia spread her hands. "I wouldn't wish to presume, Your Highness. But from my own understanding, negotiations begin with an extreme position and subsequently become less so."
"One can only hope," Salvia allowed.
She shook her head, sitting down on her bed. "Well, the negotiations will continue tomorrow. Perhaps their positions will be easier to accomplish?"
There was a purr from the other side of the room, and a Togekiss came floating over to hover just above the bed linen. The princess raised her hand to stroke the Fairy-type, smiling wistfully.
"Thank you, Togekiss," she said, still stroking. "It's always a delight."
Freesia smiled to see her princess relaxing after a trying day of negotiations, and turned to make sure the room was as fresh as could be.
Then she frowned.
"Your Highness?"
Salvia looked up, concerned. "Is something wrong, Freesia?"
"A letter for you, Your Highness," Freesia explained, holding up the envelope. "It was on your dresser."
"How odd," the royal noted. "How very odd indeed. I wonder who might have delivered it?"
"An excellent question," Freesia said. "With your permission, Your Highness?"
At a confirmatory nod, Freesia opened the letter with some care – taking pains to avoid any potential trap. Then she withdrew the paper within, unfolding it, and frowned.
"How odd."
"Freesia?" Salvia asked. "Is there something wrong?"
Togekiss cooed next to her.
"Well..." Freesia began. "Not wrong, so much as unexpected."
She passed the letter to Salvia for her to read.
"Dear Queen slash Princess, open brackets, delete whichever is inappropriate, Salvia..." she began, out loud so Togekiss could hear.
The Fairy-type did a double-take.
"I see what you mean," the princess agreed, then kept going. "You can totally have a zing-bat way to relieve… y queiro… stress on occasion."
The young royal looked up again. "I don't understand some of these terms, Freesia. What do they mean?"
Freesia spread her hands. "I am afraid, Your Highness, that I do not know either."
Salvia looked back down, and continued reading. "Because you totes have a body double…"
"I think a tote is a kind of bag," Freesia supplied. "But surely that can hardly be what the note's author means."
The princess pursed her lips, nodding, then finished. "But the price is that you have to share your Togekiss. Jivin, huh?"
Togekiss took off with a gentle flap of her wings, and examined the note more closely – just to make sure that was really what it said.
"There are instructions on the back, Your Highness," Freesia pointed out. "And an email address to send a message to. Should I follow them?"
"I think… yes," Salvia decided, after a little thought. "We may as well see what this is all about. But I would prefer you did not use the main email account."
"Of course, Your Highness," Freesia agreed. "Of course."
"There we go," May said, switching off the hair dryer. "Better?"
Skitty eyed her reflection, which was far too poofy.
"Like… I look like some kind of, like, Tribble or something..."
"A what?" May asked.
"Like, nothing," Skitty said quickly. "But, like, I'm going to need… like… brushing for, like, days after this."
"That's fine," May said, patting her, then turned it into a stroke. "Tell you what, though. Let's see if we can teach you a proper Water-type move, so you can use water attacks without having to get yourself soaked."
Blaziken coughed.
"Huh?" May said, looking up. "Oh, right. Sorry, Skitty, I guess we've been taking a bit too much time."
She brushed Skitty's fur with her hand, to get off any remaining stray sand, then returned her into her Pokéball.
"Okay, let's go," she decided.
"I wonder if it's worth investing in a pressure washer," Dawn mused, playing the hose over Mamoswine's back. "It might make this a bit quicker."
Mamoswine snorted.
"Don't worry, I don't mind doing it as it is," Dawn assured him. "If I did mind then I'd already have asked for one. It's just whether it saves enough time, is all."
The Ice-type shook himself, gently, and sent droplets cascading out to land all around him.
"None of that," Dawn chided gently. "I don't want to get these clothes too wet."
There was a discreet cough from behind her.
Dawn lowered the hose, and looked around. "Hello – huh?"
She did a double-take, looking at someone she recognized as Freesia, then shook her head. "Sorry, uh… you kind of caught me off guard there."
"So I see," Freesia agreed. "Are you Dawn Berlitz?"
"That's me," Dawn confirmed. "I'm… kind of confused as to why you want to see me, though..."
"Just two Symbols to go," Ash said, out loud. "Battle Tower, then Battle Pyramid, and that's the Frontier done!"
"How's it been?" Brock asked. "Doing the whole thing again, I mean."
"Interesting," Ash replied, after some thought. "I mean, obviously my team is much bigger now, so I guess it's tricky to pick who should be in each battle. The Battle Tower is all about Psychic Pokémon, so it's almost like a Gym that way – but not quite..."
He shrugged. "Plus, it's been a good opportunity to spend time training. It's not that long until Sinnoh."
"It's going to be weird, travelling without you," May said. "I mean, we'll be available whenever you need our help, but Max and I were talking – and we think Johto's the place to go."
"Yeah, Johto's got some good gyms," Ash agreed. "Like-"
Dexter interrupted him with a snatch of classical music.
"...huh?" Ash asked, blinking, then took Dexter's case out of his pocket. "What was that about?"
I have been attempting to index personalized ringtones for many of your contacts. This one is the Morning Song by Rossini.
"Dawn, right?" Brock said.
Yes.
"Doesn't really sound right for Dawn..." Ash frowned. "Anyway, uh – right."
The Porygon2 decided to treat that as an agreement to answer the phone.
"Ash?" Dawn asked, her sounding voice much better than was normal from even a good-quality phone as Dexter applied smoothing algorithms. "Do you remember the thing with Princess Salvia?"
"I… think so," Ash said. "The princess who looked just like you, right?"
"That's her," Dawn agreed. "I… okay, this is kind of an odd situation. Basically, her servant's shown up at my house. Did you have anything to do with that?"
"How would I do that?" Ash asked.
"I don't know, you're the one who's technically a knight," Dawn replied. "You really didn't do it?"
"No!" Ash answered. "It never crossed my mind!"
"Well… great," Dawn sighed. "For some reason, the Princess thinks that I can help her participate in Contests now and again. And I still don't know how that idea came about..."
Many thanks, Mesprit stated. Assistance appreciated. Expert opinion on technical support most helpful. Could not have done it without you.
Celebi did a flip, pleased. It's my pleasure, she replied.
But one question remains, Mesprit went on. No, no, not one question – imprecise. One simple question. Where did you get the email address?
I have lots! Celebi told the Lake Spirit. I know I need them, so I set them all to forward to my main account. Then when I get a forwarded email I go back in time and set up the account, then I go forwards again to find out what I did that led to the email arriving, then I actually reply!
Mesprit paused, and a long tendril came up to rub the Psychic-type's temples. That does not make sense. Predestination paradox?
A lot of what people call paradoxes are actually just poor understanding of the nature of time, Celebi replied airily. But yeah, Celebi totally abuse that kind of thing all the time so we know what we're supposed to fix.
She spun around in mid-air. Anyway, did you need my help for anything else?
Not at this time, Mesprit answered. Dawn's team construction preceding apace. Further assistance will be requested at the required time.
The Emotion Pokémon reached into thin air, and pulled out a small but well-frosted cupcake. Here is your payment.
Thanks! Celebi laughed, taking the treat. Time travel burns a lot of calories.
"Finally," Palkia sighed, as they cleared the last set of stairs. "This Sky Tower is way too well named."
"Tell me about it," Dialga agreed. "You realize I've got four legs?"
Aaron facepawed. "You guys have been complaining about this since we entered Sky Tower."
"That doesn't make it any less valid," Palkia countered. "You're way lighter than us, climbing stairs is easier."
"Yeah, but you didn't realize that both of you have ways to float," Aaron countered. "And Giratina's been floating all tower."
Dialga and Palkia exchanged long looks.
"...I blame Giratina," Dialga decided.
"Seconded," Palkia agreed.
Giratina shook his head with a long sigh.
"Anyway, if we're done with that?" Aaron checked. "We kind of need to stop the incoming meteorite."
He cupped his paws around his mouth. "Hey, RAYQUAZA!"
Rayquaza promptly came swooping down from above. "The sky is my domain! Depart at once!"
"Oh, come ON!" Aaron groaned. "Arceus!"
What's wrong now?
Aaron pointed up. "The meteorite is so close that we can see it with the naked eye, Rayquaza's job is stopping meteorites, and yet I bet you're planning on having us beat him up before he'll agree to stop the meteorite!"
...she, actually.
"Not the point!"
Fine, then. See if you can talk her around.
Aaron stepped forwards. "Rayquaza."
The serpentine Pokémon gave him a cool stare.
Then Aaron darted forwards, his whole body outlined in violent blue Aura, and kicked Rayquaza in the chin so hard that her neck snapped back and left her looking straight up.
"Stop that meteorite, please," Aaron said, landing back on the oddly solid cloud of their arena.
"Ow,"Rayquaza muttered, one clawed hand going to her chin. "Fine..."
She powered up her Hyper Beam, and unleashed it in a brilliant orange torrent.
"So..." Palkia began. "Dad? Where did this idea come from?"
Well, I did get hit by a meteorite a long time ago, Arceus replied. Let me tell you right now that the asthenosphere is less pleasant than Groudon makes it out to be. But for some reason it felt especially appropriate recently.
The fragments of the meteorite began to fall around them, little sparks burning up as they fell through the atmosphere.
"So, is that it, then?" Dialga asked. "No more game?"
Have you never heard of Post Game Content? I've got tons. Heck, I might even make it possible for you to evolve.
"Into what?" Giratina asked.
Hm. Yes, good point. I might make it possible for Aaron to evolve.
AN:
A bit of training, a bit of Skitty, and a bit of confusing machinations by Legendaries.
