"Okay!" Max announced, the next morning. "I've decided who I'm going to get my last Kanto badge from!"

This was met by mumbling from the others around the camp fire.

"Don't be so loud…" Dawn muttered. "It's barely time for breakfast."

Max checked the time, then flushed slightly. "Sorry..." he said. "I was thinking about it all night, so I was glad to finally have made my mind up."

"If you're this perky after being up all night then you might have to watch out," Brock advised. "Ash was pretty close to passing out during his battle against Blaine."

"...how did you know?" Max asked, dumbfounded.

Ash looked between Max and Brock. "Know what?" he asked, then yawned again.

"I think it's just a coincidence," Corona suggested, holding some bread over her tail to make toast. "Hey, Cinder, did you want one slice or two?"

"Two, please," the Mightyena requested. "As black as my heart."

"So light brown? With butter melted into it?"

"...yes."

"Wait, you mean you're going to be challenging Blaine?" Brock checked. "Okay, that's an interesting choice. Do you know who you're going to use?"

Max nodded, tapping three Pokéballs on his belt.


For the next few minutes, little was said as the friends ate their breakfast – Dawn passing out Poffins to those of her Pokémon who liked each unique flavour, and Lucario and Infernape warming up in the middle distance with a series of flowing kata.

Infernape's feet periodically exploded as he tried to copy Lucario's Aura jets, which helped to get all of them properly woken up.

"Are you going to do it today?" Ash said, after he'd finished with his first course. "I think Latios and Latias are free again, so we should be able to fly down there."

"What about us?" Dawn asked. "Should we just stay here?"

"Not if you don't want to," Ash replied. "I think the next town is…Jubilife, right?"

"Interesting definition of town," Dawn chuckled. "It's the largest city in Sinnoh. Well, I guess there's the B-Button League – do you want to visit them again, Ash?"

Pikachu answered for him. "No way. No way at all! That place has hyperkarp!"

"I don't think Pikachu wants to," Ash supplied. "But you've got some Pokémon who don't like evolving, so you could visit while Max and I go down to Cinnabar. Once we're done, we'll head to the Pokémon Centre and wait there for you."

"Sounds good to me," Dawn agreed. "I might go pick up my Pokétch if we have the time, though."

There was another explosion from where Infernape and Lucario were doing their kata.


"Hey, Ash?" Latios called.

"What is it?" Ash replied, as they shot southwards over Kanto – just passing Pallet Town on the way south, and getting a good view of Samiya below.

"Well, Latias had this idea," Latios explained. "She wants us to really make an entrance, but I'm not sure. I said I'd ask you what you thought."

"What kind of entrance?" Ash asked.

"She says she was thinking of doing a flypast," Latios supplied. "At full speed."

"How fast is full speed for you two when you're not Mega Evolved?" Ash wondered. "I know you can go insanely fast in Mega form, but you're not exactly slow otherwise."

"...how damaging are sonic booms again?" Latios asked.

When Ash reacted, the Psychic-type waggled his wings. "I'm joking, Ash. We're not going to go that fast. We will be going pretty close to the speed of sound, but no actual sonic boom."

"Then… I guess there shouldn't be a problem, as long as you don't run into the ground or any Flying-types or something," Ash shrugged. "Oh, yeah, and stay high enough the wind doesn't hurt anyone."

"Got it," Latios nodded. "Latias is pretty pleased about that."

They dipped lower, Latias dropping back to hang off her brother's wingtip, and came up on Cinnabar at about half the height of the volcanic peak.

Both Latias and Latios used Dragonbreath, purple and green flames stabbing forwards before being blown back by the wind of their airspeed. Rather than being simply dissipated, however, the two Eon Pokémon took the flames in a psychic hold and made them flow over the Light Screens they were using as windshields.

Then they started to turn.


A pair of blazing green comets shot over Cinnabar, barrel-rolling about a common base course to form a kind of double helix in the sky. People and Pokémon all over the city looked up, going silent or gasping, and followed the display for several seconds as it did a half-circle around the edge of town.

Then it dropped towards the volcano, slowing and tightening, until it faded away to reveal two white-blue and white-pink blurs which came to rest on the rim.

Just as the last of the green flame dissolved into the air, however, a third light – this one orange – came shooting down out of the sky to join the other two.

Blaine looked down at his shopping, up at his gym, then shook his head. "Can't step out for ten minutes," he grumbled.


"Deoxys?" Max asked, a little taken aback. "I mean, it's nice to see you, but – and I don't want to be rude… why are you here?"

Confusion, Deoxys-Orange stated, tilting its head. Distress signal. Deoxys symbol created by friend.

"Deoxys – oh, right," Max realized. "No, that wasn't a distress signal, that was just something Latias and Latios were doing for fun."

Fun, Deoxys repeated. Concept understood. I have been experiencing Fun as well.

The powerful Psychic-type looked around. What is this place?

"Do you mean as in a volcano?" Ash asked. "Or as in a gym?"

"Are there volcanoes in space?" Max said, as Ferris emerged from his Pokéball in a flash.

Volcanic or pseudovolcanic events observed on multiple planetoids, Deoxys-Orange stated. Then he looked down at Ferris, and amended the statement without having to be told. Yes.

"So it must be as a gym, then..." Max mused. "Do you have enough time available to watch my battle, then?"

Spectating is acceptable.


"All right, I knew you had to be involved somehow," Blaine told Ash. "Just tell me you're not breaking my gym. I don't want the volcano to erupt."

"I'm not going to," Ash assured him. "I'm not even battling here."

"And you?" Blaine turned his attention to Max.

"Well, I'm not using Jirachi," Max said. "And I don't know if Deoxys wants to take part at all, but I wouldn't use him for this gym. So I hope not."

"Good enough," the Gym Leader allowed. "I hope you won't mind that we're holding it outside anyway."

"No, that's pretty much what I expected," Max nodded. "It's actually better for me, really, because of who my Pokémon are."

"Very well. Now, before we begin..." Blaine put down the bag he was carrying, rummaged around in his pocket, and handed Max a folded sheet of paper.

Max took it, a little confused, then unfolded it and saw several questions on it – half a dozen word problems, some numerical questions, and a few to do with shapes.

"This is for that quiz you make your challengers do, right?" he asked.

"Yes, and it's also so I can put these in the fridge before it's time for the battle," Blaine replied, picking up his groceries again. "Head up to the top of the mountain – it's the lift on the left – and then complete the puzzles. The battles will begin when you have answered them all."

About to head into his living area, he stopped just before opening the door there. "The lift may not fit your Pokémon."

"We'll fly up the outside," Latios suggested. "We'll stay invisible this time."


Max examined the paper, frowning. "Sixteen, six, sixty-eight, eighty-eight… oh, hold on, they're upside down. So the next one's eighty-seven."

Writing that in, he moved on to the next one. "How many squares are there… well, there's twenty of them. Right – no, that's too easy..."

Contemplating it for a bit, he brightened. "Oh, okay, so you have to count all the bigger squares made up of the little ones. Forty, then."

"You're doing this so much faster than Ash did, it's amazing," Pikachu said.

"Hey, he gave me, what, eighty of them?" Ash pointed out.

"Yeah, and it took you so long to do them that you were up most of the night. Max is already nearly done."

"I'm just weak to that type of challenge," Ash defended.

The door they were standing by opened, and Blaine came out – his glasses and white shirt in place.

"How are you getting on?" he asked.

Max looked up. "There's a few to go, I don't really understand them..."

Blaine leaned over the paper to see which ones he was stuck on, then made a quiet hum of understanding. "Yes, that's quite sufficient. Those are questions you probably don't have the background to get properly – you've got enough of them right anyway it doesn't matter."

"So there's no bonus for getting a hundred percent?" Max checked.

"No, hardly anyone would get it," Blaine assured him. "I will inform you what my first Pokémon is before I send it out, so choose wisely – my first Pokémon will be Rhydon."

"Rhydon?" Max repeated. "I didn't know there was a Fire-type Rhydon."

"There… isn't," Blaine replied. "Why would you think there was?"

"This is the Fire-type gym, right?"

"Ah, I see the source of your confusion," Blaine nodded. "Rhydon are Rock-types, yes, but they sometimes live near volcanoes. Also, it's my gym."

"Did we just discover the Anti-Brock?" Latias asked.

His piece said, Blaine walked over to the other end of the battlefield – one built into the top of the volcano itself, in the crater and surrounded by walls.

"Rhydon!" he called, throwing his Pokéball.

"Okay, Kris!" Max replied, throwing his not-a-Pokéball, and the angular-sided Porygon materialized a short moment after Rhydon did.

"Stay at a distance!" Max called, as his Porygon redrew her vectors to form a much sleeker shape – one better at cutting through the air at speed – and took off with a shoom of Agility, just before a large rock hit the ground behind where she'd been hovering.

"Smack Down," Blaine ordered calmly.

Kris dodged to the side as the first attack came in, avoiding the high-speed rock, then avoided the second by reconfiguring her virtual wings into a slower-speed and more-agile configuration.

Sweeping them back again, she boosted to avoid the next couple of attacks before pulling up and starting to glow golden-green.

"Sandstorm," Blaine instructed, and Rhydon promptly produced one – though, partly due to the location, it was more of an ash storm than anything. The fine particles did just as well as a regular sandstorm at blotting out the sun, though, and they also started to do just the same kind of windblown scouring that a conventional sand storm would achieve.

When Kris used her Solarbeam, it was much weaker than it would otherwise have been. There was less power available to start with, with less light to work with, and the ash in the air drank up much of the force that Kris could put into it.

Then Rhydon used Fire Blast, and it became a kind of bubble of obsidian held on a pillar of flame – narrowly missing Kris, and making the Porygon tumble for a moment before she recovered.

"Thunder Wave!" Max instructed.

A pair of thin blades slid out of Kris' wings, and fizzed with electricity. The electrical current spread quickly, drained out into the storm, and attracted enough of the fine volcanic material that Kris quickly developed a grey patina – but it also added charge to the cloud, making the fragments she'd touched attract others together so they became larger and larger clumps.

Another bubble of volcanic glass came up at Kris, but she avoided it with ease – then she retaliated, cycling the polarity of her Thunder Wave rapidly and blowing all the ash away from her surfaces.

Now much more able to absorb sunlight, she began a series of wide, looping passes which used the turning phase to charge and then unleashed her Solarbeams when she was facing in the right direction. None of them individually was very strong, but put together they quickly began to force Rhydon onto the defensive – making him pull in his ash-storm to provide a better defence. Within thirty seconds or so, he was all but invisible inside the whirling ash and Kris was pulling her attack runs closer to try and burn through.

"Focus Blast!" Blaine said.

"Kris, break off!" Max ordered quickly, but Blaine had chosen his moment well – Kris was at maximum speed, and pulling out of her attack run was too difficult to do quickly. She took a glancing blow from the Focus Blast, knocking her halfway across the crater before she stabilized her flight again.

"Can you still fight?" Max asked her.

My function is unimpaired. Mostly.

"Good," Max sighed, relieved, then waved at her. "Come back, I'm switching you out."


"I don't get it," said a Stantler. "We are actually making the illusions, right?"

"I certainly am," his friend replied. "But it's not working on them."

"That doesn't make any sense," a third member of the herd said. "It's like they're so used to illusions that it doesn't even register any more. How could that happen?"


Dawn stopped, and Brock stopped a little way behind her.

"One more time, Pachirisu," she asked.

Pachirisu nodded, cheeks flickering faintly, then pointed off to the side.

Dawn looked carefully to see where her Electric-type was pointing, then walked in that direction.

The electric squirrel's paw was correct once again in telling her where north was, and they emerged from the forest onto a grassy field a few minutes later.

"I can see the city in the distance," Brock reported, shading his eyes. "We're making good time. Clever solution."

"Thanks," Dawn smiled, pleased Brock liked her way of dealing with his little illusion-test.

"I might have to see if one of my Pokémon can learn that trick," Brock added, thinking about how useful it would be to have a Pokémon with a built-in compass. It would certainly help in badly mapped forests like that one.

And, behind them, a baffled group of Stantler headed back into the depths of the trees.


Casper materialized, and immediately saw a glowing ball of orange light heading for him. He yelped, flinching, but the ball went straight through him before exploding on the inside of the crater.

"What just happened?" he asked.

"That was a Focus Blast," Max replied. "Watch out for any attacks that might actually hit you!"

The ash storm continued, but none of that touched Casper either – the only sign of its effects being a slight ripple on the fabric-like material of his body. Clenching his hands together, he formed a Shadow Ball before hurling it towards Rhydon.

Unfortunately, he missed.

"You're going to need to go closer in!" Max decided, as Casper dodged away from a Flamethrower which was surrounded by thick glassy material as it swept through the air. "That way you can see Rhydon properly!"

"Right, got it!" Casper agreed, and dropped into the ground.

A few seconds later, his arm came out of the rocky floor and used Shadow Claw. Rhydon yelped, then stomped down – his foot passing right through Casper without effect – before reaching down and taking Casper by the arm.

This worked, much to the surprise of the Ghost-type, and Rhydon waved him around like a club for a bit before throwing him into the distance and following it up with a Flamethrower.

"What happened?" Max called. "I can't see very well!"

"Then you need goggles!" Casper suggested. "He grabbed me and threw me over here, I don't know how he managed to do it!"

"Well, if he can grab you, then we need to make sure you'll win a fight like that," Max replied. He held up his Key Stone, and Casper grinned before starting to glow a bright gold – producing an odd, shifting set of shadows on the slopes of the crater wall as the ash blocked it irregularly.

When the Infinity Energy died down, Casper had Mega-Evolved – his whole body changing to that of a Mega Banette – and moved his claws about a little before chuckling.

"Go for it!" Max called.

Casper shot forwards, ducking a Flamethrower, and got back into close range. Rhydon promptly tried to use Crunch on Casper, but the Ghost-Type used both hands for a pair of Shadow Claw attacks and held Rhydon's jaw open.

He held it there for a moment, clearly straining, then vanished into a puff of smoke. Rhydon's jaws clashed together hard, and he growled at where Casper had been – only for the Mega Banette to reappear next to Rhydon's tail.

"Phantom Force or something!" he called, taking the tail in both hands, and threw Rhydon over the crater wall.

For a moment, everyone just stared.

"What was that?" Max asked, astonished, as Rhydon hit the volcano's outer edge with a sound like a compressed rock slide.

"Good question," Casper admitted, looking at his hands. "I'm a lot stronger than I'd realized like this..."

Query on local definitions of victory, Deoxys asked.

"Sorry, didn't get that," Latias apologized. "You have an odd way of phrasing things."

Is that a win? Deoxys amended.

"That's… a good question," Ash said. "Do you count a ring out in this battle?"

"I must admit, it rarely comes up," Blaine answered. "In this case, however, I think Rhydon has been knocked out anyway. He would have come back up the wall by now otherwise."

He turned to go up the steps to the crater lip, but Latios skimmed over to float next to him. "I'll return Rhydon if you want," the Dragon volunteered.

"Very kind of you," Blaine complimented, handing over the Pokéball. "Now, you have defeated my first Pokémon. See if you can handle the second."


"How is your pasta?" Virizion asked.

"Not bad," Cobalion answered, taking another bite, then swallowing. "Not bad at all. I must say the balance between the cheese and the tomato is really very well done."

He looked over at Virizion's meal. "And you?"

"Well, I ordered several kinds of dumplings to see which I preferred," Virizion reminded him. "I think I now know which ones I prefer and which ones I could do without, but the ones I like are very nice indeed."

"Yes, the food's very good quality," Cobalion said.

They both looked up at Terrakion, who was taking up the other side of the table. "Terrakion? What about you?"

"Huh?" Terrakion blinked, looking up from demolishing his tostadas. "Oh, right. Yeah, this is great!"

"I'll have to remember to thank Keldeo for the recommendation," Virizion said, finishing the last of her chosen dumplings.

Almost immediately, Cress appeared next to her and bowed. "Will madam be having any dessert?"

"I think we probably will," Virizion agreed. "But not right away. I'd like to wait for my friends to finish."

"Of course," Cress agreed with another slight bow. "I'll leave the menu so you can make your choice."

"We've got to come back here in future," Terrakion said firmly.


Blaine sent out his Ninetales, who vanished into the ash storm almost immediately.

"Fire Spin," he said, and fire flickered on the tips of Ninetales' tails – little spots within the dark grey cloud, which spread out before becoming a sudden roaring pillar of flame.

The flame pillar whooshed towards Casper, and he swiped at it with a Shadow Claw to split it – then yelped, blowing on his hand. "That's a lot hotter than I was expecting!"

"Was it the glass with it?" Max asked.

Casper inspected his hand, then shook it to get the droplets of obsidian off it. "Looks like, yeah-"

Another fire attack came sweeping out of the ash cloud, this time a Fire Blast which came like a spike and exploded just to one side of Casper's head.

"Yipe!"

Shaking his head, Casper retaliated with a barrage of Shadow Balls. They vanished into the concealing cloud of tiny rock shards, mostly bursting on the ground, but one or two sounded like they had hit Ninetales instead.

"Keep it up!" Max instructed. "Ominous Wind!"

Casper sent a surge of spectral energy rolling forwards like a gale, blowing away much of the ash cloud. Rather than disperse, however, it began to slowly creep back in again – though far too slowly for Ninetales' liking, whose tails all whip-cracked in unison and produced a puff of smoke from Smokescreen. The shadow outline of the kitsune vanished again in moments, and flame licked out from the cloud to narrowly miss Casper.

"Try it again?" Max suggested, then changed his mind. "Wait, no… Phantom Force or something!"

"That wasn't really – oh, right!" Casper realized, and threw another Shadow Ball before diving into the ground.

It was hard to see what Ninetales was doing, but the occasional little puff of smoke signalled that he was replenishing his Smokescreen. Then there was a sudden yowl of rage and pain, followed by an ominous growl.

"Um… I didn't do it?" Casper tried.

"You touched my tails," Ninetales growled. "You! Touched! My! Tails! That's a curse!"

"Well, I'm a Ghost, so curses work a bit differently-"

"Foul Play!" the enraged Fire-type snarled, and Casper flew out of the Smokescreen as if shot from a cannon. Nine pitch-black shapes of flame and fury came after him, and they all came together to engulf Casper in a series of powerful explosions that hid him from view for several seconds.

When the blasts faded, Casper was still in one piece – but he looked distinctly the worse for wear, and had a few scorch marks on his side.

"That's a new one on me," Pikachu commented. "I wonder if Ninetales can do it without yanking on those tails."

"You're welcome to find out," Latias told him. "Us Psychic-types over here are going to steer clear of the upset Ninetales."

"Casper, come back!" Max called, and returned his Ghost-type a moment later. "You're not really suited for this matchup," he explained, and sent out his third Pokémon. "Delta, your turn! Rain Dance!"

The big Water-type flapped hard, rising out of range of a speculative Extrasensory his opponent fired in his direction, then did a trio of backflips in mid-air and caused a sudden crack of thunder.

Rain began to fall from rapidly-gathering clouds, though Delta kept them well up in the air so he didn't spoil his own visibility, and the smokescreen began to dissipate – as did the lingering ash, turning into a kind of thin wet cement slurry on the ground around the edges of the arena.

"Ninetales, use Fire attacks anyway," Blaine determined. "Try to knock him around with the pressure."

Now looking quite bedraggled, the Fire-type swirled his tails around – though the dampness of his fur spoiled the effect a bit. The Flame Burst which shot forth was still powerful, though, and it exploded a little way from Delta's left wing – making him flick downwards with that wing, before he recovered.

Banking around in a tight turn, the Mantine used Surf – launching out a stream of water which crashed to the floor where Ninetales had been, though Blaine's Pokémon evaded quite easily with a flame-spewing dodge to the side.

"That was Flame Charge," Max warned Delta. "So he's going to be speeding up… use Bubblebeam!"

This time, when Delta attacked it was a stream of glowing bubbles moving at speed. They strafed along the ground, forming a series of explosions as they hit the wet rock, and Delta tried to 'walk' them onto Ninetales even as the Fire-type dodged to the best of his ability.

Once or twice, he was on target for a moment – then Ninetales got out of the way, and Delta's attack began missing again.

"Delta!" Max called. "Change of plan – use Surf again, and fire it up!"

Delta rolled onto his back, and launched out a massive blast of water. The effort nearly made him crash, and he rolled back upright just in time to avoid being pounced on by Ninetales – then his Surf came splashing back down like a diffuse hammer of water, and Ninetales got even wetter.

It didn't knock him out, however, and he spat a Fire Blast back – though there was enough water around it that it became a bit of a Hot Water Blast instead.

"Now, Whirlpool!" Max called.

Delta rolled away from the impromptu Scald, managing to turn so the hot water which hit him just knocked him into a tighter rotation, and broke into a high-power Whirlpool roll.

Still a little wobbly from his lack of practice, he bounced off the ground at an acute angle and hit Ninetales in the side before pulling back up again. Ninetales struggled, firing bursts of flame to try and recover the situation, then Delta reached the altitude he was after and spread his wings again.

Falling back towards the ground, he used Surf – upwards – and sent Ninetales flying high into the air on a plume of water.

Blaine didn't bother to put Ninetales through the experience of hitting the ground.

"Good," he said, as Delta recovered from his roll and began to circle. "Now, you will fight my final Pokémon."


Rockruff padded along behind her new Trainer, sniffing the scents of a still-unfamiliar Sinnoh.

It was nice here. Still warm, during the day, but cool and refreshing at night. A Rockruff could get to enjoy it.

"Geodude?" she asked, looking beside her at the other Rock-type. "What kind of things do we do?"

"You mean as Pokémon with a trainer?" Geodude checked, getting a nod. "Well… it's kind of hard to explain, because there's a lot of different kinds of thing that a Pokémon does when they have a trainer. Some trainers, like Ash and Max, have their Pokémon battle to become stronger and win championships – but others, like Dawn, train their Pokémon to be performance artists. To look and sound impressive as they use their attacks."

"Okay," Rockruff mused, thinking about that, then her tail wagged. "So it's just as mixed together as Pokémon who don't have a trainer?"

She tilted her head, ears perked. "But what about Brock? You mentioned Ash, Max and Dawn, but not Brock..."

"That's because Brock's a bit harder to describe," Geodude admitted. "The Brockster's always wanted to nurture Pokémon – and Pokémon trainers – but the way he does it changes. He's helped Ash and Misty grow as people and as trainers, and then he did the same to Max, May – that's Max's sister – and Dawn. And he's learned how to be a doctor to Pokémon, as well as knowing how to treat us to make us better at whatever it is we're going to do."

"What does Brockster mean?"

Geodude chuckled. "Heh, just my name for the guy. It's cool, you don't need to use it. Anyway, uh, does that help?"

"I still don't really understand what we're going to do," Rockruff admitted, but her tail was still wagging. "But I think it's going to be interesting! It is, right?"

"Pretty much," Geodude chuckled. "You're all right, Rockruff. If you have any questions, ask me."

"Okay," the other Rock-type nodded. "Geodude? When's lunch?"

Geodude laughed.


Blaine sent out his third and last Pokémon, who appeared in a flash of white light and shifted its stance a little.

"Magmar," the Fire-type said, by way of introduction.

"Is that the same Magmar you had when you battled me?" Ash asked. "That seems like a long time."

"Actually, no, I've gone through two Magmar already since then," Blaine replied. "There's a whole extended family, she's one of the latest generation."

"Cinnabar Magmar respect," Magmar agreed.

"Begin!" Blaine went on, and Magmar blew a stream of flame up towards Delta.

The Water-type dispelled the attack with a flap of his wings, blowing water-containing air into the path of the Flamethrower, then circled for a moment as Delta considered his options.

"Bubblebeam!" Max ordered.

Delta spat out a stream of bubbles again, going on a strafing run, and Magmar dodged nimbly away from the direction of the jet. She fired out bursts of flame – Flamethrowers and Fire Blasts – which were weakened by the ongoing rain but still did their job of making it harder for Delta to get her for more than a second or two.

Annoyed, Delta dove for greater speed and less travel time, and Magmar was battered by a continuous stream that formed white-and-blue explosions across her side.

Then, as Delta got closer, she jumped and gave him a right hook with a Thunderpunch.

Delta spun out, barely avoiding a nasty crash, then recovered and pulled a wingover to get much higher into the air.

"Are you okay?" Max checked.

"Yeah, though that really hurt!" Delta complained, rising higher in case Magmar tried jumping again.

"Okay, stick to long rang attacks!" Max decided. "In fact, use Surf! Try and make sure it's spread out!"

Delta built up a ball of water, circling well out of attack range. Then he came a little closer, pulled up short, and 'lobbed' the water bomb at Magmar.

She watched it come closer, shifting her footwork a little, then Thunderpunched it – blowing it apart, and sending a stream of sparkling droplets right back at Delta.

The Mantine tried to dodge, but didn't get out of the way in time as the shotgun blast of electrified droplets reached his altitude. Electricity fizzed over his wings, and he suddenly stopped flapping and fell out of the air.

Delta used Surf as he got near the ground, the burst of water letting him soft-land, but Magmar came running over while he was still Paralyzed.

"Cinnabar Circuit!" the Fire-type called, feet steaming as they touched the water, and punched Delta's landing puddle to electrocute him again.

When the crackling electrical energy faded, Delta was clearly out of the battle.

Max returned him, then frowned. "Uh… okay, not sure who to use now… wait, Magmar can have Flame Body, right!"

Making a decision, he threw Kris's projector.

The Porygon drew her combat form out of vectors, already moving, and her eyes flashed.

"Conversion!" Max ordered, and the blue panels on Kris' fighterform shimmered before changing to red. She swooped around in a tight turn, firing a Tri Attack, and Magmar avoided with a deft dodge to the side.


Battling, Deoxys stated. Examination of skill. Test of strength, of ingenuity.

"Yes, that's right," Latios agreed. "That's a lot of the reason most trainers do it, and why Pokémon do the same. But there's another reason, as well… not everyone is nice. There are bad humans and bad Pokémon, and if you're in trouble with them then it's best to be able to fight back. Not everyone needs to be able to, but we're Legendary Pokémon – and Ash is a hero, and you know what they're like."

His sister giggled, and Deoxys-Orange gave them both an uncomprehending look.

I do not know what heroes are like, he said. What are heroes like?

Latios hesitated, then shared his realization with Latias.

The only thing I can think of is to say that heroes are like Ash...

It's a pretty accurate description, Latias agreed. The problem is that it's like a Natu and egg problem.

A what? Latios asked. Have you been reading some kind of obscure philosophy book?

No, just speaking to Snorlax, Latias told him. Snorlax is very wise.

He sleeps all day.

Exactly! Latias agreed, then noticed that Deoxys was still waiting for them to say something. "Oh, sorry – we're trying to work out how to explain heroes to you. It's not easy."


"Hold on..." Max said, softly, thinking to himself. "I did teach Casper that move, right?"

Kris zoomed past on her latest attack run, and Magmar came close to hitting her with a Thunderpunch.

"Again!" Max instructed. "Closer – Sharpen and use Tackle!"

Kris' wings became sharper still, an audible whummm coming from them as they sliced the air, and she landed a glancing blow on Magmar's side – only to take a very direct Thunderpunch, sending her spinning through the air a bit.

"Conversion 2!" Max called out as quickly as he could, and the facets of Kris' vector body shimmered. They lost the orange colour that had bled into them when she had taken on Magmar's Fire-type, and instead became a subtler, deeper blue with a hint of purple to them.

"I can't keep track of what these conversion moves do," Blaine grumbled. "They're always so fiddly, and only Porygon ever use them. What did that one do?"

"I think it gave Kris the Dragon-type," Max answered. "Okay, Kris, now use Zen Headbutt!"

Kris rotated, banking around, and charged in again. This time, she hit head-on, and knocked Magmar backwards with an oof – but, as she bounced backwards, her vector form was outlined by flickering reddish flames.

"Come back!" Max said promptly, and checked his Key Stone was still glowing before sending Casper out again.


"Okay, I'm not sure I understand that one," Latios admitted.

"I think I know," Pikachu replied. "So Max could have sent out Casper straight away, but he didn't – and I think that's because he was worried about what abilities Magmar might have."

"Magmar..." Latios repeated, as Casper fired a Shadow Ball before charging in to try and trip Magmar up with his fist. "They can have Vital Spirit and Flame Body, right?"

"I think that's right," Pikachu shrugged dismissively. "I only really care about the Flame Body one. So he decided to have Kris make sure, and for that he needed her to be something that wasn't Fire type."

"So I did get that part," Latios squeaked. "But why did he only change to Casper once he was sure? Shouldn't it be the other way around? And if he's having Casper fight, why's he having him use contact moves?"

"Well-" Pikachu began, before a shout interrupted them.


"My hair's on fire!" Casper yelped.

"Stay calm!" Max called. "You don't have hair!"

"Oh, right," Casper realized, though his head was still aflame. "What now?"

"Use Dad's special move!"

Casper grinned, and pointed his arm at Magmar – who was just using Flamethrower at that moment.

The pink claws that spilled out of his arm bunched up into a fist, then the fist telescoped out and punched Magmar very hard indeed. The Facade attack was made much more powerful than normal by Casper's burn, and Magmar went flying halfway across the crater to smack into the nearby rock wall.

With a grinding sound, part of the rock wall collapsed on top of her.

Blaine looked at the pile of rock, then shook his head and started to chuckle.

"I can see you're passing on your unique style," he said to Ash, returning Magmar by the foot poking out of the rocks, then turned to Max. "Well done, and you have earned the Volcanobadge."

"Can someone extinguish me now please?" Casper asked, patting gingerly at his head. "I'm starting to get quite a headache..."


"Well, here we are," Brock noted. "What do you think, Rockruff? I think this is your first encounter with a city."

"It's… very big?" Rockruff tried. "And full of a lot of smells I don't know. Lots of humans… there must be thousands of humans living here!"

"It's a lot more than just thousands," Brock told her. "Want to have a look around to see what it's like inside?"

"Yes!" Rockruff barked.

"I think I'd like to go see if I can get a Pokétch quickly, before we actually head to the Pokémon Centre," Dawn requested. "And – Brock, can I just check?"

"Check what?" Brock asked.

"Well, I wanted to know how well I did on that illusion test," Dawn clarified. "You know, where there were all those illusions in the forest, and I had to work out what was going on and how to get out?"

Brock frowned. "I didn't set up a test..."

"I have a plan," Buneary suggested. "Let's just assume everything worked out okay and go and get a Pokétch. And some milkshakes."


"How's that?" Serena asked. "Not too tight?"

Blitzle shook himself a little, testing the fit of the saddle, then nodded an okay.

"Good," Serena said, patting him, and rose to her feet. "Okay, the saddle's on, so now we need to walk with it for about twenty minutes so he gets used to it."

"That sounds about right," Grace agreed. "Have fun, dear."

"I think we will," Serena chuckled. "It's going to be the later training sessions, when it's up to an hour, that it's going to get a bit boring..."

"Rhyhorn don't need to get used to the saddle," Grace pointed out. "They're tough enough to just have it put on them and go."

"Mom..." Serena sighed.

"I'm only teasing, dear," Grace said. "Now, you'd better get going, I think Blitzle's ready for you."


AN:


Well, clearly my last AN tempted fate. There's been a minor family issue which means my output rate will necessarily slow somewhat, as my mother's broken her ankle (thus, less time to write as we're helping her do things, plus a bit more stress so writing doesn't flow quite as easily).

I'm not stopping, just slowing down a little bit.

Anyway. Max's eighth gym badge, plus other things.