"Okay, here we go," May said. "Ready?"
There was no reply.
"Oh, right," May chuckled. "That would trigger the splash seal."
She adjusted her dark blue dress a little, making sure it was just right, then set herself as the announcers called the end of the performance by Kevin and his Croconaw.
"Next up is May Maple!" the MC said, as May walked out onto the field. "She's a relatively new Coordinator but already has a real flair for the unexpected – so let's see what she has for us today!"
The description made May smile, and she bowed before raising her Pokéball.
Throwing it into the air, she left her hand outstretched until the 'ball opened with a sudden explosion of water. The force of the burst and the height combined to make it turn into a fine mist of spray, and Glaceon came tumbling out of it to land carefully poised in front of her.
As the spray drifted down, May brought her right hand down to her collarbone and clenched it. "By the power of the snow!"
Glaceon charged an Ice Beam, and fired it at the ground to coat it in ice. Then she began skating circles around May, carefully gauging her Ice Beam's power before firing it in short and well-controlled bursts.
The first one hit May's sleeve, which made the fine coating of mist on it freeze instantly. With so many small droplets of water, it produced a shimmering white frost affect around the whole sleeve – making it seem as though it had become something else entirely, transformed by Glaceon into something altogether more special.
The Ice-type's next beam changed May's other sleeve, then an altogether wider-beam one changed the whole of her skirt.
Taking a step forwards, May put her arms out to the side and skated a little on the ice as well. Glaceon easily wove rings around her, using her Ice Beam to change the whole of May's dress, then waited a moment until May next lifted her left foot and fired an even more carefully aimed Ice Beam at the heel.
A flash, and that shoe had a high-heel made of ice. May stepped back onto one of the clear sections on the floor, raising her other foot, and Glaceon made that one transform as well.
Skating around to the front of her trainer, Glaceon lined up for a pair of Ice Beam attacks – one after the other. The first froze May's hat, forming a nice ice crystal on it, and the second created an oversized, ornate spike connected to that ice crystal.
Sweeping both hands up, May broke the 'scepter' off with a quick movement and did a twirl, then posed. Glaceon did as well, sliding neatly into place next to her Trainer, and her final Ice Beam froze the remainder of the spray to turn it into diamonddust.
"Marvellous!" the announcer said, as the crowd applauded. "That's a very versatile use of Ice Beam – and of Contest seals to play with the one-move limit! I think we can see where miss Maple got her reputation!"
May held the pose for a moment more, then dropped it. She curtseyed, the frost crackling on her dress as she did so, then returned Glaceon and headed for the exit door.
That was very impressive, Gardevoir said, taking another bite from her biscuit as she spoke.
Don't talk with your mouth full, mom, Kirlia chided.
Gardevoir chuckled. It doesn't work like that, dear.
She finished the biscuit, then looked back at the TV screen as May walked off. What did you all think?
"Well, it was like the announcer said – the use of the seal to get some water as a catalyst for her Ice Beam was ingenious," Caroline said. "I was wondering how she was going to get around the limit, a lot of her Appeals tend to be elaborate and to use a lot of moves."
Well, that one did use a lot of moves, Gardevoir said, making both humans smile. They're just all the same move over and over.
"It was a nice theme, too," Norman added. "It really did look like a good Magical Girl transformation, though I think the lack of music was a bit of a problem."
"That would have been Altaria's job, but it'd be a second Pokémon and a second move," Caroline countered.
I think I might like to try that, Kirlia said, after what had clearly been some intense thought.
"Try what?" Norman asked her.
I would like to try being a Magical Girl, Kirlia explained. Maybe not now, but if I evolve then I would like to have a transformation sequence into Mega Gardevoir.
Gardevoir smiled. I think you could do a transformation sequence right now, dear. You just need to use Flash and psychic powers to bring bits of a costume to you.
Kirlia nodded to herself, then frowned. Wait… but that means I'd need to learn Flash. Who learns Flash?
"Dramatic Pokémon," Norman said. "It's actually very useful because – unlike moves like Sand-Attack – it's too fast to dodge or block, because it's just light. You can use it to dazzle your opponent, or you can use the threat of it to make sure they don't look at you."
Kirlia giggled. I think I could get to like that. Beware my shiny transformation sequence!
The others laughed as well at that image.
"Oh, it looks like we missed one of the acts," Caroline said, noticing a girl leaving the arena. "Did anyone see it?"
I was watching, Gardevoir told her. It wasn't really anything special, so I didn't let you know.
She watched as the next one walked out. That woman looks somehow familiar...
"'scuse us," said a small figure in a trenchcoat. "Comin' through… ah! Here's our seats!"
Ash looked up at the small trenchcoated figure, and the larger figure in a much taller trenchcoat. "...Meowth?"
"No," said the taller figure.
"He was talkin' about me!" the shorter one snapped. "Ah well..."
Sitting down, Meowth pushed back the hood of the trenchcoat. "Phew… it ain't a cool day, dat's for sure."
"After the last few days I'd be happy to have some ice cream," James added.
"Hold on," Ash told them. "I think we've got some."
"You'll have to get it," Pikachu said.
"It's fine, the freezer is near the opening at the moment," Ash assured him, reaching into his bag up to the shoulder. "Uh..."
"What have you been doing the last few days?" Max said, asking the obvious question.
"Kanto ribbons," James answered. "Jessie realized it was almost time for the festival less than a week ago, we've been teleporting around Kanto since trying to get five ribbons..."
"Aha!" Ash said, withdrawing two ice cream cones. "Here."
"Thanks!" Meowth smiled, taking one and passing the other to James. "Ya know, a few years ago dis probably would'a been a Pokémon battle..."
Jessie rolled her shoulders, checking discreetly on the slim backpack under her dress, then sent out her Pokémon.
"Wobbuffet, Counter!" she called, taking three steps towards him, and jumped.
She landed on his tail, which depressed, then sprang back – launching her upwards with the blue flicker of Counter around the point she'd stepped on.
Jessie bounced several feet into the air, then came down to land on the head of the Psychic-type. This didn't seem to bother him, but he did use Counter again, and she went higher this time.
"Counter!"
Each impact and bounce sent Jessie perhaps half again as high as she had been before – with at least three seconds of delay between landing and takeoff. The height multiplied quickly, and after her sixth bounce she was going as high as the top of the stands.
Then she landed one last time, this time on Wobbuffet's tail again, before rolling forwards smoothly – so that when he used Counter, it launched him into the air instead.
After an impressive hang time, Wobbuffet smacked into the ground in front of Jessie. None the worse for wear, he saluted. "Wobb-buff-fett!"
"That was odd," Max said. "How many times did Jessie have to practice that?"
"Lots," James replied, finishing off the flake on his ice cream cone. "She took a parachute just in case..."
"Yeah, about one time in three she totally misses one of da later jumps," Meowth said sagely. "If she did dat, she'd just pop da parachute and act like it was deliberate."
"That's a big part of doing Contests, I suppose," Max nodded.
He looked at Roland. "Getting any ideas?"
A few, Roland replied. But mostly they're based on sword stuff, and I'm not sure how to make that impressive with one move.
"I think I could do some air displays with my Flare Blitz," Corona said. "That's just one move."
They looked up as the next Coordinator did their appeal – one which involved a well-timed Zap Cannon, which burst overhead just as the Pokémon and Coordinator did synchronized poses.
"We may be overthinking this," Corona added.
Probably.
Dress hung up to dry, May arrived up in the seating to watch the rest of the Appeals.
"Ouch," she winced, as the Tropius doing a display of Natural Gift edged a bit low in the air and landed with a slithering crash into the ground.
"Do you think that means they're out?" Brock asked her.
"I… don't know, actually," May said, thinking. "It probably depends on how many others go wrong like that. I know a lot of the contestants go through this round, so they might make it in near the bottom or they might not make the cut at all."
She shook her head. "This judging thing is harder than it looks."
"It looks hard enough," Brock chuckled. "Are you interested in doing it as a career?"
May considered that.
"I guess it's the kind of thing that they need people for," she said, thinking. "And nothing says I'd have to do it all the time – in fact, it's probably better if I keep switching between judging and coordinating, if I do take it up. I… think I'll definitely consider it."
There was a flash as Blaziken appeared next to her. "Would we get to participate? We could all hold up number ratings."
"All of you?" Brock asked, smiling. "What about Joltik?"
"She would have very small ones," Blaziken answered promptly.
"But if that's the case," Brock went on. "What about Beautifly?"
"I am an ideas chicken. Implementation is for others."
Brock chuckled at that, then they looked up at a cheer.
"That… is an impressive Appeal," May said. "That's Surf, right?"
"I think that's what it is," Brock agreed. "The Viking ship shape is impressive, though."
As they watched, the Coordinator stood on her Lapras – who was Surfing around on a water construct of a longboat, itself balanced on the crest of a breaking wave.
"That's Solidad, right?" Brock asked, as the wave collapsed and Lapras skated to a sliding halt. "That's someone to watch out for."
"Yeah," May agreed. "Hmmm..."
She frowned. "I wonder how they do judge these. I mean, it can't be that easy to rank two hundred and seventy performances."
"I assume they just give each one a score out of ten," Brock said. "Then they look at the top hundred or so again, now they know what the whole field looks like. They probably also check all the first couple of dozen."
There was a crunch on the field, as the next Pokémon – a Graveler – accidentally beaned itself in the head with its own Rock Throw.
"Except if they do that," he added, as Graveler toppled over. "They probably don't need to check those."
"It's a pity," May agreed. "Sometimes more arms just makes it harder to juggle."
"Deep," Lucario said solemnly.
"All right," Ivysaur said. "Does everyone understand the rules?"
The assembled Pokémon of the Oak Ranch nodded or otherwise confirmed that they did.
"Good," he added. "Now, the first round has you trying to show off – you want to demonstrate creativity with your moves, not raw destructive power."
The shiny Raikou raised a paw.
"Where?" he asked. "Some of us will break the area."
"Well..." Ivysaur retrieved a map. "Let's see, now… ah, here we are. That headland over there got designated a move testing area, so that should be fine."
He checked his list. "The rules are that each Pokémon's performance is rated out of ten by all the others. We'll then have Damos calculate the average, and that's half the score for the tournament."
"So, who's first?" asked Houndoom.
"Looks like… Houndour," Ivysaur answered.
Two of Houndoom's siblings perked up, then eyed one another.
"Did we forget to designate the identical Pokémon separately?" Ivysaur asked himself, taking the names out of the hat and examining them all. "We did, as well… okay, can the Tauroses, Growlithes, Houndours and any other plural Pokémon present come over here? I need to do some numbering..."
"All right, Masquerain!" Drew said. "Go!"
There was a whoosh of smoke as the seals activated, and Masquerain materialized from his Pokéball.
Drew waved his hand with a flourish. "Bubble!"
Inside the smoke, Masquerain spun around like a top. He inhaled, and fired out a long stream of Bubble attacks – shaping them carefully, so each one took in a little of the smoke even as his wings dissipated it.
Ten seconds after he started, the cloud was gone – and there were dozens of drifting bubbles, each one with a little wisp of the thick grey smoke in it.
The Bug-type flapped his wings, gently influencing the bubbles as they drifted, and then blew another string of bubbles. These were smaller, and more numerous, and formed a circle in the air around the smoke-filled ones from before.
Drew reached up, and one of the smoke bubbles came down to rest on his palm. The rest followed, producing a kind of upside-down pyramid of bubbles, and Masquerain landed on top of them – so delicately that the bubbles trembled but stayed mostly intact.
They stayed poised for three seconds, then Drew closed his hand and the whole bubble assemblage burst at once in a puff of smoke.
"That was interesting," Dawn said, as Drew left the stage. "I didn't think about using seals quite like that… maybe we'll have to try doing that."
Ambipom waved her left hand-tail, using her right one to pick up some popcorn.
"That's May's friend Drew, isn't it," Dawn added. "I wonder if he knows they were in different stadiums?"
Piplup shrugged.
"Pachi-rii," Pachirusu said, pointing as the action in the northern stadium picked up – a Coordinator with a Plusle, using Magnet Rise to fly around at high speed and do a few acrobatic tricks.
"Yeah, that does look interesting," Dawn agreed. "I wonder if we should try something like that – think you'd be able to do it?"
Pachirisu nodded firmly.
"Hey, Dawn!" Barry called, leaning in the window. "Did you see that cool trick that other trainer you know did? The one where she acted like she was a Magical Girl?"
"Yeah, that was on about… fifteen minutes ago," Dawn said, checking the time.
Then she looked out at Barry. "...how are you doing that? My bedroom's upstairs..."
"Dad said I could work with Dragonite again!" Barry said. "But he told me that Dragonite was supposed to use his judgement about not using any attacks that might break something, and I think he told Dragonite as well. So he's not been using any attacks, but it's still cool to see how fast a Dragonite can fly!"
He frowned. "Oh, yeah, that's what I was going to say. Do you think there are any Pokémon that would be able to do an Appeal which was like a super-sentai transformation? Or a giant robot combining, that would be cool as well. I can't think of any but you're the Coordinator expert so I thought I'd check in case you had any ideas."
"Are you standing on Dragonite?" Dawn asked, coming over to the window to look. Sure enough, Palmer's Dragonite was hovering outside her window.
The Dragon-type gave her a long-suffering look.
"Yeah, it's a lot easier than you'd think to ride some dragons, I mean dragons like Dragonite don't really have to flex their muscles to fly because they do it by levitation," Barry told her. "So it's really smooth. Anyway, did you have any ideas?"
"Not really," Dawn answered, frowning. "Apart from Mega Evolutions, but they change the Pokémon instead of the trainer. And… I suppose a Porygon could do it, but I'm not sure you could do that with just one move."
Barry shrugged. "Okay! I guess I'll just have to come up with something else to look cool. Maybe I should ask Dad for ideas..."
Several hours later, and thousands of miles away, Serena sat on her bed watching a video on her computer.
She sighed, a little wistfully, at some of the more impressive displays of Coordinator skill. While she wasn't sure what to do when she finally went out on her own Pokémon journey, the idea of doing Coordinating was an interesting one.
The video ended, and she checked the time – still way too early for lunch – then opened up another one, this one apparently a compilation of mistakes from the Kanto Grand Festival.
Serena watched for a few seconds, then winced. "Ooh..."
Seeing a Graveler hit itself on the head with a rock just looked painful.
There was a rustling, and she looked over at the basket in the corner of the room.
Going along with Mom's friend's instructions, they'd set up Blitzle in Serena's room so the two could get nice and familiar with one another as the Electric-type grew up. He yawned, blinking a bit, then reached over his shoulder and pulled off the blanket he'd worn overnight.
Standing up, he came trotting over to her bed and laid his head next to her lap.
"Good morning," she said, stroking his mane. "How are you today?"
Blitzle yawned again, then tilted his head a little to look at the computer screen. They watched as a sleekly-groomed Flaafy used Thunderbolt to send bolts flashing into the sky – only to miss slightly with one of them, and send his trainer's hair standing up in all directions from the charge bleed-over.
"Oh, no!" Serena said, trying not to laugh. "Poor thing..."
She reached down to the side of Blitzle's muzzle and gave him a quick scratch there, then looked around for the brush.
"Turn a bit?" she asked Blitzle, who complied, and started to brush down his jagged mane to get it properly in shape.
The guides said this helped to make a Blitzle more able to control their electricity, and Serena was all for it – plus, it was something the Electrified Pokémon liked, she'd already found that out.
The next Pokémon on the video came out of their Pokéball several seconds late, and turned out not to be the Pokémon the Coordinator had been asking for in the first place.
Serena couldn't help but feel sorry for them both – and the Pokémon who had been expecting to take part, too.
"Serena!" Grace called upstairs. "I'm going to meet some friends for lunch – do you want to come?"
"Sure!" Serena replied. "Sorry, Blitzle – see you in a few hours, okay?"
Blitzle nodded, yawning.
"I'll get you a Poképuff so you don't get too hungry," she decided. "Hold on a minute."
Serena paused long enough to hit pause on the video, then headed downstairs to pick up the Poképuff.
She wondered where they were going to have lunch.
"Octillery!" called Harley. "Make ready!"
His squishy Water-type curled tentacles, then sprang into the air.
"Now, skeet!"
Octillery inhaled, twisting up, then fired – one Water Pulse after another after another, sending dozens of them rising into the air in a kind of giant fountain. A couple of them were too close together, and collided with one another, but the rest of them produced a shimmering display in the air of spherical orbs of water.
For a moment, they hung there. Then the first ones began to fall, and Octillery opened fire.
The first water globe shattered into pieces under the impact of a dozen Bullet Seeds. The second was hit by a high-speed blast of water from an Octazooka, and a moment later the third froze solid on the outside. It creaked as Octillery moved on to hit others with Psybeams and Charge Beams, then the frozen orb exploded as the water pressure inside got too much for it.
Rain fell all around Harley and his Octillery, but not one of the water orbs reached the ground intact.
"Voilà," he said, bowing, and Octillery did something which was probably a reasonable approximation at bowing.
"It's interesting how it changes things when Pokémon can use more than one move for the Appeal," Brock said, considering. "It means it's much more possible to do combinations like that – where the first round was all about careful planning and husbanding your resources, this second round is where Coordinators get to show off their really impressive routines."
He glanced sideways. "I'm sure Geodude could use his earthshaping to tell a whole story, especially if he had the help of someone with Fire and Water attacks."
"Grass as well would be best," Geodude agreed. "But yeah, I could do the history of the world that way."
"Maybe we should think about going into Contests more..." the trainer mused.
He shook his head. "Anyway. What about you, Max – any thoughts on which Pokémon you'd use to do this side of things?"
"Hmmm..." Max frowned. "Well, I guess the most versatile Pokémon I have at the moment is Cinder, but that's probably going to change as Roland picks up more moves. I could have Guy doing a martial arts routine, though – I'm pretty sure he can do some impressive stuff even without a target."
"Or you could bring a target onto the field with you," Ash pointed out. "If you had a sack, lots of Liquid Seals and Ice Punch, you could use it to make a punching bag by freezing the water and putting it in the sack."
"Oh, yeah, that would be cool," Max said. "I like that idea."
He frowned. "But then again, Casper has some good Ghost tricks as well – we should do more Mega Banette practice – and there's a couple of others as well."
"Too many ideas, huh?" Ash asked. "I know the feeling."
He nodded towards the arena. "Looks like it's May's turn again."
Without much in the way of preamble, May threw her Pokéball into the air. Then she held her hands out, and the 'ball burst open with a flash of light.
Skitty dropped out, a shower of pink and purple petals all around her, and landed in May's hands before jumping out and touching down on the ground – a scarf tied around her tail.
She crossed her eyes, and a Substitute appeared with a flash of smoke. The duplicate eyed her for a moment, then darted forwards and took the scarf.
Skitty whirled, then yowled, and ran after her own duplicate.
They went all over the place in a blur, the blue-and-purple scarf contrasting with the pink-and-yellow colour of Skitty herself, and began doing what was quite close to a dance – and, as they did, Skitty began using attacks.
She started with a Shadow Ball, which the Substitute avoided with a twirl – scarf trailing behind – and then followed up with a bolt of electricity, though the substitute evaded as if it was made of smoke.
A flurry of other attacks followed – Grass Knot, Solar Beam, Mud Bomb, Water Pulse, Blizzard and Hyper Voice – interspersed with closer-in clashes with Iron Tail and Fury Swipes, and the two Skitties at one point running up May and jumping off her outstretched hand.
About twenty hectic seconds later, Skitty pounced and retrieved her scarf. Then she turned and began to run, as the Substitute started chasing her this time.
Instead of using attacks to try to drive off the Substitute, she began using them to get away – using Blizzard to build a series of icy steps, or Hyper Voice to boost herself up into the air. Her path took her around May in a circle, building taller and taller ice pillars to parkour from, until finally the shimmering ice hid her entirely from the view of the audience.
"Return!" May called, the first thing she'd said for the whole battle.
Skitty jumped into the air, doing a somersault, and her tail flashed white with the scarf trailing behind it. It slammed into the ice, and the whole construct crumbled at once.
May caught her out of the air as she fell, icy fragments scattering in all directions, and bowed.
"That's interesting," Lucario said. "Both her Appeals so far have made big use of ice. I wonder if she's going for it as a speciality?"
"I think it's just the moves which produce constructs," Pikachu decided. "Those are good for involved Appeals, because they make things which stay for a bit after you stop using the attack. Ground and Rock moves do too, but she doesn't have a move like that."
As Jessie walked out onto the arena floor, Meowth scratched his chin.
"Ya know..." he said, frowning. "I was listenin' to that appeal by May, and it got me thinkin'."
"That's always a warning sign," Lucario noted.
"Yeah, yeah, laugh it up," Meowth grumbled. "Anyway. Dat move she had her Pokémon use, Return. Kinda funny how it means both the name of a thing ta do and the name of an attack."
"That is strange, now you mention it," Ash agreed. "It's one of the moves you need to actually think through ahead of time – that is, unless your Pokémon can work out which one you mean without making a mistake."
"That would be a pretty big mistake in an Appeal," said Ninetales, leaning over the back of Meowth's seat from the row above them. "Can you imagine it? Right at the climax of the appeal, Skitty just vanishes back into her Pokéball..."
"How would that be scored, though?" Brock asked, frowning. "Do the regulations cover that kind of thing?"
Meowth thought for a moment. "I ain't got a clue. James?"
James looked away from the glittering scale-trail Dustox was tracing through the arena. "What's that?"
"How'd dey score it if da Pokémon misunderstood an order," Meowth summarized.
"Well… that's a difficult one," James said. "The examples in the rulebook don't really answer that question, they all assume the judge should just use their own judgement."
"That doesn't sound very fair," Brock pointed out. "Does it?"
"It is the trainer and Pokémon team making a mistake," Ninetales noted. "They probably have to allow for how well the routine led up to that point."
She waved her tails, then stopped as someone behind her complained. "Oops… anyway, Contest judging is all quite a relative thing anyway."
"I guess it is," Ash said.
"Are we having a conversation where I can't understand half of it?" James asked.
Ash tapped on Dexter's chassis, and James found himself provided with subtitles.
"Is Return the only move that happens to, though..." Brock said, thinking to himself. "Some of them are obviously only moves, like Fire Punch or Gust, but other words can be a bit close to normal verbs. Like Sing – you can sing without using Sing."
"You're not likely to accidentally tell a Pokémon to Sing when you mean to just tell them to sing," Pikachu countered. "I don't think it counts."
"What about Mist?" Ninetales said, making them look up at her again. "I launch an attack, it doesn't hit, Brock says 'Missed!'"
"That doesn't sound very realistic," Brock said. "You don't miss that often."
The Fire-type chuckled. "I'm glad you're so confident in me."
There was a cheer from the crowd as Dustox used Moonlight, lighting up the scale-dust patterns she'd set up.
"Quick!" Max said. "Attack!"
There was a moment of confusion, then Brock chuckled.
"That's another one, you're right," he said. "There don't seem to be many of them, but they're almost kind of sneaky and can catch you by surprise – you give what would normally be just another order, and it goes the opposite way to what you'd expect. And it would mostly happen when it's not obvious what the right interpretation is – if you told a Pokémon to block an attack when they could also use the move Block, you might lose a battle."
"But if ya said ta Block – the move, dat is – when there ain't no attack to block, then it's obvious," Meowth said. "I tink you pretty much summed it up dere."
"I just realized," James said. "We missed most of Jessie's Appeal."
Growlie spoke up, paws landing either side of James's head as he leaned forwards from his own seat.
"You'd better watch out for a Ponyta on your pillow," he said, deeply amused.
"But wouldn't that just-" Ash began.
"We already had dat discussion!"
Meanwhile, in Ecruteak, the Kimono Girls watched their television and enjoyed some cups of well-brewed tea.
"It's strange, really," Sakura said, taking a sip. "Watching a Pokémon tournament, in a place we know the Storm's End's trainer to be, without anything too ridiculous happening. I suppose it must mean he's merely spectating."
"I think so as well," Sumomo agreed. "Though I admit it would be very impressive if Ash used the Beasts as part of an Appeal."
They considered that for a moment.
"Yes, I can see how that would be impressive," Koume mused, rubbing the ruff of her Flareon's fur as the Fire-type dozed. "But it also seems as though it would… perhaps not show the finesse required on the part of the trainer. For Suicune to merely run fast would be impressive by any normal measure, but would it show a Coordinator's skill?"
"That's why he would have to do a proper Appeal," Sumomo countered. "Perhaps something like the way this girl's Pidgeot is showing off?"
As they watched, Solidad's Pidgeot plunged down towards the grass of the arena. The moment before the Flying-type committed to an unrecoverable crash, however, it backflipped and sent a torrent of feathers swirling out like the blast wave from a crash that had not happened.
Flipping back again, the Pidgeot summoned a Double Team and sent it ahead – then had it turn back in again to make a crash-dive, leading the real and fake Pidgeot towards a collision.
Then Pidgeot turned away again, a pulse of aerokinesis sending a second Feather Dance pluming out as if it had just come from an airborne crash.
"I see what you mean," Koume conceded. "From speed can come simple grace, but also a grace originating from poise and calm."
"That is correct," Sumomo said. "But that is but one example. I could also think of tricks such as Suicune climbing a watery staircase she is herself creating, or Entei tracing out patterns with his burning paws – or, indeed, the Storm's End making good use of his versatile Weather Ball."
She waved a hand. "And we saw what a Glaceon could do, did we not? May Maple's Eeveelution is a fine example of the type."
They listened for long enough to hear the applause – which was enough to suggest that the Coordinator would go through – then Sakura frowned.
"Is there a reason none of us have ever tried Coordinating?" she asked. "For that matter, can you have a Coordination team?"
I think I can tell where this is going, her Espeon told her. I'm perceptive like that.
"Ah..." Tracey said to himself, sketching away. "It's nice to be able to relax."
"Is that what it's called?" Marill asked, bouncing up and down on the sofa next to him. "Looks a lot like art to me."
"That as well," Tracey told her, glancing up at the screen and then back down at what he was drawing. "Just doing some sketches for now. I'm seeing if I can do a full sketch of the Pokémon involved in an Appeal by the time it ends – probably not, but it'll be interesting to see how far I can get."
Marill leaned over to look at his art, noting the sketched-out Parasect at the top of the page, then stepped back one as she saw that the current Coordinator and their Pokémon – a Machop – were just bowing themselves off.
The next trainer appeared, and Tracey frowned.
"I think I know that guy," he said, watching as the trainer sent out a Roserade, then got to work sketching. His pencil traced out the basic outline, working half on autopilot – marking the flowers, and the little holes which produced a shower of petals. "Any idea where from?"
Marill shrugged, tail bouncing up and down. "Don't ask me," she said. "Can you get a good closeup of his shins? I usually focus on shins."
Tracey laughed, adjusting the lines on his Roserade picture a little – giving it a sense of movement, to show how the Pokémon on the screen leapt into the air and used a jet of Petal Blizzard to launch herself higher.
"Are you going to colour that one?" Marill asked, tilting her head. "I think it'd look nice in colour."
"I might," Tracey replied, quickly erasing a line he'd flubbed and then redrawing it correctly – watching as the Roserade on screen whirled in the middle of a cherry-blossom blizzard. "I think we're recording this, so I can handle that nicely."
"Bullet Seed," the Coordinator called – faintly, to them.
Roserade diverted her Petal Blizzard as she deactivated it, accelerating to a faster spin still, then used a Bullet Seed attack – sending high-speed seeds going all over the place, shredding the petals she'd put in the air a moment before.
Then she landed, red flower up and blue flower down, and a wave of Grassy Terrain spread out from her impact point.
"Nice," Tracey chuckled. "Hmmm… I think I might adjust this a little, so I do the bit when she's about to switch between petals and seeds. Or maybe I'll just do another one on the same piece of paper."
He put down the somewhat-blunt pencil he'd been using, and picked up another one – then heard a bang from outside.
Scizor leaned in through the window. "Don't worry, that was a stray rock from Ivysaur's tournament. Nothing to worry about."
"Okay, finally," Aaron said, putting his head in his paws. "We handled Rayquaza, Kyogre, all three of the Legendary Beasts, and both Latias and Latios. We sorted out the problem with the evolution spring. We got Gengar to reveal his true history. And we finally managed to beat that Mewtwo, after about six tries."
He sat down. "Is there anything left?"
"You did miss about half of the things we did," Dialga pointed out.
"I'm aware of that," Aaron countered. "I was trying to simplify things. So, Arceus – what now?"
Well, you have pretty much cleared the whole of the plot I had planned, Arceus told the Riolu Aura Guardian, along with the three Legendary Dragons around him. And the post-game content.
"I'd noticed," Aaron noted. "We've run out of places on the map to explore."
"My ability to walk through walls helped," Palkia contributed. "That does kind of make a mockery of mazes, though."
"You're telling me..." Dialga said. "Is there anywhere we need Giratina to unlock? Because he's in hock to the Kecleon Brothers after trying to steal their inventory again."
Fortunately, that's not going to matter for this, Arceus said. Brace for transfer.
"Does that mean what I think it does?" Aaron asked.
The world dissolved around him.
Probably. I don't know, I'm not a mind reader.
Arceus's voice paused for a moment, then came back. Well, not when I'm not using the Mind Plate. But you know what I mean.
Aaron shifted, feeling sand under his side.
Opening his eyes, he found himself on a beach – waves breaking just below his footpaws.
"Huh," he said, looking down at himself. "Still a Riolu, then."
Why mess with what works? Arceus asked, rhetorically.
The ancient knight rolled over onto his back, then flipped to his feet with a casual flex of back and tail. "Okay, so-"
He stopped, staring.
"Giratina?"
"Well noticed," the Ghost-type Legendary said, going temporarily intangible and righting himself before phasing back into reality. "I wonder where we are now."
Aaron looked around, noticing an oddly shaped headland, then shrugged it off. "Well… the important question is where your brothers are."
"Good point," Giratina agreed.
Closing his eyes, Aaron looked around.
"There they are," he said, opening them again and looking up the cliff. "In retrospect I didn't need to use Aura sight to find them."
He cupped a paw by his ear to hear better.
"...kind of cliché," Palkia said. "I mean, come on. We're walking along the waterside and we just happen to run into new friends?"
"It's the plot, though," Dialga countered. "What's more likely, that all four of us just happen to be friends for years beforehand?"
Palkia took a step to emphasize his point, and the cliff face collapsed.
Aaron crossed his forearms, summoning up Aura to protect himself, and the landslide divided itself either side of him. Palkia went past on one side, crashing into the water, and then Dialga came dropping very slowly down after him.
"That was not big on dignity," Palkia mumbled, picking himself out of the surf.
"Dad told us some of the plot," Dialga contributed. "Basically, we're going to form a Rescue Team."
"What, again?" Giratina asked, phasing out of the landslide's material.
It's an Exploration Team!
"Same thing, right?"
...yes.
"There's apparently something new this time," Dialga said.
He grinned. "Something about a fearsome Wigglytuff."
"...I'm not scared," Giratina said, apropos of nothing much. "You're the Steel-type – you won't let him beat us up, right?"
AN:
So, some Grand Festivalling, and a look in on a few other characters as they watch TV and stuff.
Also, Palkia talks about Super Mover.
