This is the first of four chapters today.


"It feels kind of funny to have finished everything I'm doing in a region so early," Ash said, as they walked through a gloriously hot day. "I know it's not long until I'm due to head to Sinnoh, but… normally I'm used to finishing the League, or the Battle Frontier, and heading off almost immediately."

"Now you know what it's like for the rest of us," May chuckled.

"Well, it's not the only time I've stayed somewhere after the end of the League," Ash corrected himself, after thinking for a moment. "After the Unova League I kind of… wasn't sure where to go, really."

"Meaning that we wandered around for ages," Pikachu agreed.

Ash chuckled. "Yeah, and… well, it kind of feels like my next few weeks are pretty open. It's pretty nice, in a way."

"You'll go mad in a week," Lucario said. "Two, tops."

"I can relax!" Ash said. "I just… relax by doing a lot of training and things. And challenging Gyms. And-"

"We get the point," May replied. "What about doing Contest planning?"

"I quite like Kanto and don't want anything to happen to it," Max said. "At least not while I'm standing on it."

He took a drink from his water bottle, then groaned as it ran out.

"Ash?" he asked. "I finished another one."

Ash took the bottle, rummaged around in his bag for a few seconds, then brought the new one out.

It had ice, and condensation was dripping off it.

"That fridge-freezer was a really good idea," May said, as Max took a swig from the new water bottle. "Actually, speaking of that, I'd quite like an ice lolly."

"Me too!" Manaphy called, waving his flipper.

"Now you mention it..."

"Okay, hold on," Ash requested, and opened the drawstring again. "Any preferences for flavours?"


"I think I need to invent something, mama," Manaphy told May, licking away at his frozen juice treat.

"What's that, then?" May replied.

"Some way of making these so they work underwater," Manaphy replied. "I want to show everyone!"

May chuckled, then sighed.

"Mama?" Manaphy asked, concerned.

"It's fine," May replied. "It's just… sorry, but this is about the time when we first met you, and it reminded me that it's not long until you have to go back to the sea again."

"I know," Manaphy agreed, drooping a little.

After a bit of thought, he tilted his head. "Do you mean have to have to, or just have to?"

May looked at him, confused. "Pardon?"

"I wanted to know if I had to-"

There was a spa-looosh sound from just ahead, around a bend in the path. Then a surge of water came rushing down the road, spreading out and thinning out until it reached the friends as a small stream.

"Sorry!" came a shout, and a girl came running down the soggy path towards them. "Medicham, Buizel and I were trying something we saw on TV, and it got a bit out of control!"

"Wait a moment!" Brock said. "I recognize you – aren't you Lizabeth?"

"Well, yes, but-" Lizabeth began, then stopped. "Are you May? The Coordinator from Littleroot?"

"Why does everyone get that wrong?" May asked. "We live in Petalburg. But yes, I'm May."

"I was trying to do your water shows from your Contest!" Lizabeth explained, as a Medicham came walking after her. "They were so cool – a lot like what we do, but as a battle as well! But when we tried, we kind of lost track of everything and dropped all the water..."

"I can help!" Manaphy said brightly. "Which one was it?"

"It was the-" Lizabeth began, then stopped. "Hold on. Did you just talk?"

"I think so?" Manaphy said, frowning. "Mama, did I talk right?"

"You did," May confirmed. "Though you should really say 'did I talk properly'."

"Okay!" Manaphy giggled. "What was your problem?"

"It was that one with the waves appearing from nowhere," Lizabeth said. "The one that May's Wartortle did. We wanted to try that one first, because some of the others looked like they needed Acid Armor."

"Great!" Manaphy said. "I know how to do that one too! Okay, um, where were you practicing?"

"I'll take you there," Lizabeth decided. "My family has a travelling water circus show, and our motor home is parked about half a mile that way."

As she began to turn around, however, Manaphy spoke up again. "Um… did you know your necklace is a control interface?"

Lizabeth stopped. "What."

"Your necklace," Manaphy explained helpfully. "I recognize it now! It's one of the secondary control interfaces for Samiya, for people who aren't allowed to steer the ship but who still need to be able to use some of the other controls. They were usually given to the People of the Water."

The girl took another look at Manaphy, then her jaw went slack. "You're… that Manaphy? The Prince of the Sea? The one who is the rightful ruler of the Temple of the Sea?"

"I think so?" Manaphy said.

"Mom and Dad are going to love hearing about this!" Lizabeth grinned. "And so is Granpa Ship!"

"I'm sorry, I don't understand," Lucario said. "You are related to a seagoing vessel?"

"You know very well she's not," Brock sighed. "You're just being funny, aren't you?"

"What would give you that impression?" Lucario asked.


"The important bit is to make sure that your mental picture has what all the water's doing in it," Manaphy said. "Or at least, all the water you're not just letting behave like water."

"I think I follow," said Medicham, nodding slowly. "So when you picture the wave..."

"You have to picture the wave, and the rest of the water!" Manaphy agreed. "Or you can just do the wave and let the rest of the water do what it does, but that doesn't work on a hill..."

"That does explain it," Medicham agreed. "I noticed the water was flowing away and panicked."

"That's quite common," Ash volunteered. "Techniques often start out easier if you use a simple shape – that's why so many of these shape-moving attacks use spheres, because it's a really simple shape."

He held out his hand, producing a low-charge Aura Sphere. "See? It's easy."

"You guys have a different definition of easy..." Lizabeth said, watching as Ash waved a ball of blue energy around like it was just easy.

"Hey, Liz!" a voice called – Lizabeth's father, waving from next to their trailer. "Who are your friends?"

"Don't you watch TV, Dad?" Lizabeth asked. "That's May Maple! And that's Ash Ketchum!"

Brock and Max exchanged a shrug.


"All right!" Manaphy announced. "Here we go!"

He blew a bubble of water into his flippers, then spread them. The water reacted to his gestures, spreading out into a disc, then rose into the air a little.

"This is a really basic way of doing it," he explained. "I'm just picturing the little disc, which is a simple shape, and then I'm spinning it…"

Slowly, the water bulged out at the edges as centrifugal force acted on it. It split in the middle, becoming a donut, and then formed back together into a kind of blunt cylinder spinning about its axis.

He lowered it again, and began to shape it as if it was clay on a pottery wheel. "Doing it like this is good practice, too, because you're changing it a bit at a time so it's easy to understand!"

"So what matters is how much you understand about it?" Medicham asked. "It really is just about visualization?"

"That's one bit!" Manaphy said. "This is a kind of training thing, but I already did a lot of that… so this is one of the other cool things you can do. Watch!"

He waved, and suddenly the ball split into a dozen shapes like little rockets – simple ones, with just an exhaust at the bottom. They shot up into the air all at once, then stopped and hovered in place before turning into bubbles – full of air, this time.

"That was pretty cool," said Lizabeth's Buizel, waving her tails. "Was the rocket thing hard?"

"Really hard, yeah," Manaphy admitted. "It's kind of something I can't properly do in a fight, still, 'cause it takes too much concentration..."

He shook his head, then waved. "But this is a great way to have an aerial obstacle course!"

They looked at him.

"How?" asked the last of Lizabeth's Pokémon, her Seaking.

"Aqua Jet, of course," Manaphy said, looking faintly confused. "Why, isn't it obvious?"

"Not really."

"Okay, um..." Manaphy scratched his head. "Wartortle, can you take over? I'm going to ask if Buizel can join in."

"Of course," Wartortle agreed.

She cleared her throat. "Now, the way I tend to do things is to work on better visualization. Something a lot of Pokémon from my race do – Squirtle, Wartortle and Blastoise – is develop a fixation on some kind of anime, and then theme their powers around that."

Shaking her head, the Water-type continued. "I don't do that, but it is useful to have something in mind when you do freeform watercrafting. It's not really a proper move, so you have to have a better idea of what you're doing – it's like drawing instead of writing. You can write the word 'House' and be done with it, but to draw a house you need to put in a lot of work and the more you do the more house-like it'll be."

"What does that mean for this, then?" Buizel asked.

"It means that, for example, when I do something complicated I'm often using a memory of something I've seen to help me form the picture," Wartortle explained. "Because I have that memory, that helps my subconscious fill in the details."

Inhaling, she fired a Hydro Pump into the air. It split up into droplets, and rained down all around the area – making Lizabeth laugh in surprise.

"Hey!" the trainer called, shaking her head. "Aren't you supposed to make sure a Porygon doesn't get wet?"

My projector is very well protected, Ethan told her, then resumed translating the lecture Wartortle was giving.

"Now I've got the water to work with," Wartortle went on, making little gestures. "I need to think of what I'm going to do with it. So..."

She concentrated, continuously making little circles with her hands, and a shape appeared from the water all around the area. It pooled together, running upwards, until a little translucent Deerling was standing next to her.

"There," she said, as Medicham reached out to touch the watery construct. On contact, the aqua-Deerling reared back in surprise and 'sneezed', making Buizel giggle and Medicham sigh.

"So this is something you remember?" Seaking asked, from her floating bubble of water – courtesy of Medicham. "Does that mean that Medicham could watch something I do underwater, then make a water double of me to fly around in the air above water?"

"I think so," Wartortle agreed. "Hmmm… that would be an interesting one. Especially if she makes more than one."

"Ooh, flying fish," Buizel chuckled. "Maybe I could dance on a fish?"

"I think we're going to have a lot of fun with that idea," Lizabeth said. "Um… can we try something so you can tell us what we're doing wrong?"


"This is a lot to take in," said Lizabeth's father, Kyle. "Samiya is real, not just some old story-"

"Hey!" Ship said, waving his finger. "You loved those stories!"

"I know!" Kyle replied. "But it's a lot to believe, especially as an adult."

"Not so strange," Ship denied. "There's all kinds of things in this world that'd be hard to believe if you hadn't seen them yourself. Don't think this isn't just another one of them!"

"I suppose," Kyle mused. "Anyway. You were saying?"

"Well… Manaphy needs to go back there," May explained. "It's where he belongs – I love him, I wouldn't trade the time we had for anything, but..."

She trailed off.

"It'd be nice to see the Temple of the Sea," said Kyle's wife, Meredith. "I've heard a lot about it, we all have, but never seen it."

Meredith was about to keep speaking, but then saw May again. "Dear, are you all right?"

"Not really," May admitted, wiping at a tear. "It's just… I'm not nearly ready for this. I thought I was, but I'm not-"

She clenched her fist, then swiped at her eyes angrily. "-and I don't want to ruin the last of the time we have together feeling sad – and I don't know how to not be."

"Sadness is an odd thing," Ship said. "It's like being in a storm, driving you to a lee shore, and you can know exactly what's going on and all it means is that you can see it, without any idea how to solve the problem."

He looked at May, until she met his gaze.

"But that's okay," he added. "If you know the problem, even if you can't help – then others can, and you'll never find out the answers that are right there unless you ask for them."


"Okay, let's see this," said Lizabeth's Buizel. "What's he got for us?"

"Watch this!" replied Manaphy, smiling. "Okay, Buizel, get all the targets as fast as you can!"

"Is that all?" asked Ash's Buizel, tails twirling around themselves. "Do I have to fly through them?"

"You have to fly through the ones in the air,"Manaphy answered. "The ones on the ground you have to hit with water attacks!"

Ash's Water-type nodded tersely, and crouched down. He focused for a moment, and then used Aqua Jet – taking off like a rocket, spinning around once in a lazy vertical roll and then shooting straight through one of the water bubbles still floating in mid-air.

Correcting his attitude so he was flying horizontally, Buizel flicked off two watery spikes towards the ground – making them both hit little hovering bulls-eye targets Manaphy had created, sending up plumes of water droplets to rain down in the immediate area.

Manaphy waved a flipper, and one of the targets dodged out of the way as Buizel lined up on it. He turned away from the new location of the target, then flew straight for a few feet before turning back around to fly neatly through the new location of the bubble.

"That's pretty cool," Medicham said.

"Yep!" Manaphy agreed, then concentrated, and a translucent aqua-Buizel appeared where Ash's one had taken off. This new Buizel struck a pose, then took off – flying a pattern similar to the original, though without the water spikes or exhaust jet.

"...oh, right!" Seaking realized. "You're just having this new Buizel copy what your friend's doing, because that makes it easier to visualize!"

Ash's Buizel came down to hover, water blasting downwards to keep him in the air, then stopped and dropped the final foot or so to the floor.

"Fine work, Buizel," Wartortle complimented him. "You're very good at steering that move."

He shrugged. "It's not too hard. The air's softer than swimming."

"That doesn't make sense," Manaphy said. "Water's easier to push off. You need to do a lot more effort to steer in air, and you move faster too."

The Water-type thumped both tails on the ground. "So?"

Wartortle and Manaphy exchanged a shrug.

"I know!" the Legendary added. "Let's see if you can make different shapes, Medicham!"

"I'm willing to try," Medicham agreed. "Lizabeth, do you have any ideas?"

"A box?" her trainer suggested. "It's still simple, but harder to do than a sphere, and you could see if you can still lift Pokémon in it."


'Jackie' Walker leaned a little to the left, and his new Fearow friend banked left with him.

"Thank you," the Ranger said, smiling faintly. "I won't keep you much longer, don't worry."

The Flying-type shrugged his wings, then beat them a couple of times to get back on their glide angle.

Judging by how Fearow had flown for most of the morning, they were aiming for another thermal. It wasn't the quickest way to travel, but it was relaxing, and it meant Jackie could travel without being down in the heat near the ground.

"Should be another half hour or so to Pewter," he added. "If you want, I'll get you lunch before you leave?"

Fearow shook his head.

"Suit yourself," Jackie chuckled, then reached back to check his equipment. Styler, communicator, binoculars… everything was there, just as he'd known it would be.

As he followed the line of Fearow's path, however, he spotted something.

"Uh…" he began. "Fearow? Can you fly a little to the right? I need to see something in front of us."

Fearow did so, and Jackie unlimbered his binoculars.

There was a Psychic-type Pokémon levitating some water, making a straight-sided box – and inside the box was a Pokémon Jackie was sure was a Manaphy!

Tapping his communicator, Jackie contacted the mission coordinator. "Judy?"

"Jackie?" Judy replied, sounding surprised. "You're not on a mission at the moment, right?"

"I shouldn't be, but I think I just found a mission," Jackie replied. "There seems to be a Manaphy trapped in a box."

He looked closer, using his binoculars, and reported what he was seeing. "The Manaphy's jumping around a lot, and I just saw it turn into water to try to escape – it didn't work."

"A Manaphy..." Judy said, and he could hear her typing. "Watch out, that could mean you've run into Captain Phantom. He's a very dangerous criminal who's been hunting a Manaphy for months."

"Got it," Jackie said, gently tapping Fearow's neck before pushing down – signalling the Flying-type to descend more rapidly, going into a dive. "I'm on the mission!"

"Jackie, be warned," Judy went on. "You could be getting into a really big fight – the Manaphy that Captain Phantom's been going after travels with one of Ash Ketchum's friends, May Maple, and if they've both been disabled that means there could be some seriously dangerous Pokémon nearby."

"I'll be in and out before they can reach me, don't worry!" Jackie replied. "Okay, Fearow, looks like I need your help for this. Can you blow away the Pokémon and keep them distracted? I need a minute to use my Styler."

Fearow nodded, wings beating once more, and then they were plunging into a dive.

Confident that the Pokémon knew what he would need, Jackie started up his Styler but didn't fire the Disc yet.

The Flying-type came swooping in low, sweeping his wings back, then hammered them forwards in a huge blast of wind – breaking the concentration of the Medicham, and also slowing them both down enough for Jackie to jump clear. He landed on the wet grass, sliding and rolling once before standing upright, and fired his Capture Disc.

"Here we go!" he said to himself, noticing as Fearow regained some height, then put all his focus into using the disc to try and reach Manaphy. To convince the doubtless-frightened Water-type that he was here to help.

Almost immediately, a surge of water came up around Manaphy – forming a shield, a bubble of water which would protect him from trouble. That meant Jackie had to aim the Styler a little further out to avoid damaging it, which would make the process slower, but it would be fine.

He wasn't going to fail a mission this important.


Manaphy strengthened his water shield, adding a powerful side-current to it which would deflect anything aimed at him away so it didn't hit him – even if it could get through the water itself.

As he did, though, he started to actually think about what had happened.

They'd been playing around with the new box trick Medicham had been learning, and then – suddenly, someone had appeared out of the sky on a Fearow. Had knocked Medicham down, and then sent something after him.

It was a scary situation… but Manaphy didn't feel very scared. It was easier to think about it, to concentrate.

And he knew the person was determined – determined to do the right thing, despite his tense worry. And to save him, and-

Suddenly, Manaphy realized something, and looked out through his rippling water shield.

The little spark of light flying around his watery shield did look familiar, now he paid more attention to it.

Dropping his watery shield down to about waist height, Manaphy waved. "Hello!"

He turned to look at the others, and the Fearow who was gamely trying to keep them occupied. "It's okay! He's a Pokémon Ranger!"

The Capture Disc slowed down a little, and Manaphy felt the empathic link it was setting up fade slightly – still giving him an understanding of how the Ranger was thinking, but less strongly now.

"A Pokémon Ranger?" Medicham repeated. "Are you sure?"

She blinked. "Wait, of course-"

Ash's Buizel shot past overhead, shedding speed as he did, and twisted in mid-air until he came down to land on the water-soaked ground. "Huh."

"Is that all you have to say?" his female counterpart asked.

"Pretty much."

The Fearow looked vaguely confused at the way the fight had just suddenly stopped, then looked over at the Ranger.

As he did, the young man seemed to realize everyone was staring at him now. Looking a little uncertain, he powered down the Capture Styler. "Uh…"

"What's going on?" Manaphy asked, politely.

The Ranger stared. "How can you talk?"

As if that had opened the floodgates, he gestured around at the field. "Why aren't you concerned? Shouldn't you be glad to escape?"

"Escape from what?" Manaphy said. "We were having fun! And I learned to talk because Mama taught me how to get started!"

Looking around for a moment, he pointed. "Here she is!"

Blaziken came running up, carrying May, and skidded to a halt before putting his trainer down and taking a combat stance.

"Are you all right, Manaphy?" May asked.

"I'm fine!" Manaphy assured her. "It was all a big misunderstanding!"

"Wait, hold on-" the Ranger said.

"You mean it wasn't a misunderstanding?" May said. "What were you doing, then?"

She gave him a look, which made him take a step back. "I mean, uh… yes? Yes, it was a misunderstanding!"

He cleared his throat. "Uh… right. I was flying past on my way to Pewter – I'm travelling down to Shikoku for an assignment – and I saw what looked like a Manaphy in trouble, so I assumed he was in danger."

"But I wasn't," Manaphy said, with certainty. "If I was in trouble like that, I would just use Heart Swap!"

"Okay, clearly I've really screwed this up..." the Ranger groaned. "Look, can we start over? My name's Jackie."

"May Maple," May answered.

"And I'm Manaphy!" Manaphy introduced himself, remembering Jackie now but also remembering that Jackie wouldn't remember meeting him.

It was hard to keep all the remembering straight sometimes.


"Okay, so… it was because you'd heard that Manaphy might be in danger," Max said. "I guess that does explain why you'd go straight in..."

"Why's that?" Lizabeth asked.

"Well, he knows Ash has a really strong team," May explained. "And that means that whoever had beaten Ash's team was probably somewhere else – so he had to move quickly, before they arrived back."

"That's… about right," Jackie agreed, glancing over at the Lucario tapping his foot. "I'd confirmed with the Mission Coordinator-"

He stopped, wincing, and his hand went up to his earbud. "Uh… Judy?"

There was a short pause.

"Yeah, about that… it turns out it was a misunderstanding. Manaphy was fine, he'd not been captured."

Another pause.

"No, I'm not mind-controlled! I – look, I'll hand you over to the Lucario, he'll vouch for me."

Somewhat surprised, Lucario took the earpiece and listened to it.

"Yes, I'm fully aware this is a ridiculous situation," he said. "Aura translation doesn't carry over radio links. Nevertheless, I can assure you through the medium of any Pokémon who happens to be listening that Jackie is not under any sort of mental influence, except perhaps an overabundance of zeal."

"Oh, come on, that's not fair," Jackie complained. "I'm not that bad."

"We don't exactly have much to judge you on apart from this," Lucario told the Ranger, then handed the earpiece back. "I said Lucario at her a lot, that's literally all the help I can give."

"Yeah, like I said," Jackie told Judy, concentrating on his conversation again. "I know. I know, okay? And I've told the Fearow he can fly back now, I'll find another way to Pewter."

He listened for several seconds.

"Or I could do what you just pointed out, which is make sure Manaphy doesn't get kidnapped," he admitted. "Okay. Fine."

Jackie glanced back up at them, and sighed slightly. "I guess this means I'm looking out for Manaphy for the next few days or so."

"Shouldn't she have asked us?" Blaziken asked.

May shrugged. "I don't really understand how the Ranger jurisdiction works."

"We're usually assigned to situations in which the Pokémon involved distrust humans," Jackie told her. "The whole point of the Styler is that it creates a connection to the targeted Pokémon – it proves that we have good intentions, which is why it's a lot quicker than trying to gain the trust of a Pokémon the normal way."

He spread his hands. "Normally a Ranger relies on enlisting help from the Pokémon in an area to carry out their missions. I guess here that won't be quite as big a problem, though, since you guys have such insane Pokémon."

"I take exception to that remark," Lucario said. "They're not delusions of grandeur when you can sustain them."

Ash chuckled.

"Does this mean we can go and play again?" Manaphy asked.

"I think so," May agreed.


Excuse me?

Jackie looked around with a start, having been watching the various Water-types playing around. "Who-"

He spotted the Gallade standing behind him. "Oh, right."

My name's Roland, the Gallade introduced himself, and sat down next to him. Do you mind if I ask you a couple of questions?

"Sure, I guess I don't mind," Jackie agreed. "Is there a reason you're not taking part over there, by the way?"

I've been trying to get something else working, Roland told him. Absol and Lucario think I should be able to use a lot of blade moves, and I'm sort of getting the hang of Psycho Cut by now – I just wanted a break, but I might join in later.

"Makes sense to me," the Ranger agreed. "So, what do you need to know?"

First I wanted to know how someone becomes a Pokémon Ranger, Roland said. I hear a lot about Max growing up, but I don't know how he could have become a Ranger if that would have been better for him.

"Rangers are sort of scouted," Jackie told him. "It's kind of a complex process, because of what it takes for a good Ranger – they need to be dedicated, and they need to be pretty against the idea of ever having a single Pokémon. Or, at least, the idea of battling with Pokémon."

I see, Roland nodded. And then you train them with the skills they need to be good Rangers?

"That's it exactly," Jackie nodded, giving him a thumbs-up. "It's pretty impressive how fit someone ends up in the Ranger Academy, and after that most people live an active lifestyle."

Okay, I understand that, Roland said. Thank you. The other thing I was asking is – we've seen Pokémon Rangers before, and some of them have had partner Pokémon. How does that work?

"Like you'd expect it," Jackie shrugged. "They meet a Pokémon who likes them, who they can get on with, and they form a partnership. I know someone who hit it off with a Pidgey during her academy days, and now she's got a Pidgeot who helps her out."

He chuckled. "He can't sit on her shoulder any more, though."

Roland laughed. I think Ash could do that with his Pidgeot.

"Probably," Jackie agreed.

The Ranger turned his attention to Ash, who was demonstrating something ridiculous with Lucario, and chuckled. "Maybe it's a good thing Ash Ketchum didn't end up as a Ranger, though, because I kind of suspect none of the Pokémon he used his Styler on would ever leave."

Roland stood up. Well, thank you for the talk. I think I am going to go and…

He paused, frowning. Do you hear that?

Jackie didn't bother asking what. Instead, he listened – trying to see if he could hear something which might surprise Roland.

And, after a moment, he had it.

"Helicopters," he said. "Lots of them."

His hand went to his Styler, which booted up in seconds, and he began running over to the others.


"Remember," Captain Phantom began. "We want that little blue pay-check alive. Knock him out, but don't use anything lethal on him."

He chuckled darkly. "Everyone else… I don't care about much."

"Yes, captain," his second-in-command confirmed. "We'll be there in ten seconds!"

Phantom stamped over to the side of the big helicopter, one of a whole fleet the Phantom Pirates had brought together. Some of them had trainers at the door, ready to send out their Pokémon, but most of them were just fitted with plentiful weapons.

"Good," he said quietly, and then they swept low over the ridgeline and came roaring out into the open.


"It's the Phantom Pirates!" Jackie called. "They're after Manaphy!"

May's face set.

"Blaziken, get them all over here!" she said. "We need to run for it!"

Her Fire-type nodded, crouched for a moment, and set off with a shoom of displaced air and a shower of grass and dirt.

As the big helicopters approached, the high-speed blur that was Blaziken collected – in sequence – Lizabeth, Medicham, Buizel, the other Buizel and Wartortle. Then he jumped, reaching the peak of his jump just at the altitude Manaphy was currently supporting himself.

That one took longer than three of the others put together, because Blaziken had to wait to fall back to the ground, but once he did he brought the Water-type back and handed him off to May as Roland handed off Seaking to her trainer.

There was a chug as Kyle started up their motorhome, and Ship threw open the door to the trailer. "Get in!" he called.

Then the leading helicopters opened fire, with half-a-dozen rockets shooting off a rack as two machine guns started up.

Medicham and Roland produced glowing shields of psychic energy, and Manaphy shot some Water Pulses to swat the rockets down – managing to intercept them before they hit the shields the Psychic-types had up.

"Can you protect the trailer?" Jackie asked.

Not sure for how long, Roland answered. There are a lot of helicopters!

"I can!" Jirachi volunteered. "I can't teleport this many people easily, but I can shield you!"

"Good!" Jackie replied, having decided to take any further rare Pokémon in stride. He checked to be sure everyone was in, then dove for the door.

Kyle hit the accelerator, and they screeched off down the road.


AN:


So, finally, it's time for the Temple of the Sea film!

Obviously Jackie's intro has to be done a bit differently. Hopefully this works.