"We're headed for the actual Hearthome now, right?" Ash checked.

You are, Dexter replied. Though it will be quite a way, the route is not very direct.

"Well, that's fine," Ash shrugged. "So long as we're still on schedule, it gives us a chance to train!"

"Is it going to be a problem for the Contest thing that we weren't in the right place?" Mawile checked.

"No, normally Contests run more than once a week," Brock told her. "There's a good reason for that, which is that every Coordinator who reaches the grand festival has to have five ribbons, and not everyone's going to make it to the grand festival. So with how many people do reach the Grand Festival, you need something like eight times that many ribbons being given out."

Mawile nodded along. "Okay! So they have to give out hundred and hundreds of them!"

"That's right," Brock agreed. "So if you do miss a Contest, you can just come back next week and they'll hold another one. They sometimes hold non-Ribbon Contest events, too, just for fun."

"Just for fun sounds good," Mawile said.

Ash smiled, then looked to his side at the Pokémon walking alongside him. "Infernape?"

The Fire-type looked over.

"I just wanted to ask," Ash explained. "Was that okay? I know you don't have good memories of last time you met Paul there."

Infernape didn't answer immediately, letting the question hang in the air.

"I think… it depends how I feel, how Paul makes me feel," he said finally. "Sometimes, I feel really offended by his style of training – not just that he does what he does, but that he thought it was a good idea at all. And sometimes I feel kind of glad to see him, because it reminds me that I'm better than him now."

He shrugged. "It's all complicated. But I think the main thing I feel… is just gratitude. To you. Paul was involved with a lot of bad things, but he was also why I met you in the first place, Ash."

Ash smiled at that.

"As for the other thing, the battle…" Infernape went on. "Well, Charizard and Pikachu and Lucario are all really impressive, and so were their opponents, and I know you've got other Pokémon with that kind of strength as well. But I… just don't really feel like that's a problem."

He cracked his knuckles together. "After all, they've got years of experience on me. I'm still catching up, and when I do..."

"A noble attitude," Kari volunteered from Ash's hip. "It is good to be able to view things dispassionately."

"Well, you know," Infernape shrugged. "I do that outside of battle, and often in battle too, because when I get really passionate it's… interesting."


Mawile slid a bit towards the back of the group.

"Tyrantrum?" she said. "I wanted to ask you about something… I do like the idea of you being able to be in a Contest, but is that really what you want or is it just something you don't want to disappoint me about?"

Tyrantrum was silent for a long moment.

"I… don't know," he admitted. "I'd like it a lot more if there wasn't any fighting in Contests at all. Even if I'm not the one who's doing the fighting… to know that I'm involved in the same thing is kind of uncomfortable."

"That's okay," Mawile told him. "We'll work something else out. I'm sure there are lots of other things Pokémon do which don't involve battling… there aren't as many of that kind of event, but there's got to be some of them!"

Tyrantrum looked a bit embarrassed. "You don't need to do that for me, Mawile."

"Of course I do!" Mawile replied. "I know how trainers work, and they don't make their Pokémon do things they're really uncomfortable with! I'd just be helping, you'd be actually doing the thing – so it'd be wrong of me to make you do something you don't want to do."

That made Tyrantrum smile.

"...I know!" Mawile realized suddenly. "Dancing! You can ask Totodile to help show you how!"


"So I was thinking of looking at focusing my Blaze in a kind of… weapon way," Infernape said, waving his hands vaguely. "You know, making it so I have tools made of intense heat. Fire shield, fire whip, that kind of thing."

"Could work," Lucario agreed. "You've got the internal heat to make it work. We'll talk."

Infernape nodded. "Thanks."

There was a little flicker of light.

"What was that?" Brock asked, confused.

Then Rayquaza came swooping down from overhead.

"Ash Ketchum," he stated, in brassy tones. "I have been thinking about this for a long time, and I think I have come to a decision."

Coiling the bulk of his body under him, where it rested just off the grass of the path, he bowed slightly. "I will become your Pokémon."

"That's great!" Ash replied. "But, uh, I don't think I've got any appropriate Pokéballs. I've only got a couple, and they're simple ones..."

Rayquaza reared up a little, head tilting. "I do not understand. Do you reject me?"

"I just think it'd be good to have a kind of… theme?" Ash shrugged. "And… well, it'd give you a bit more time to think about it. It's a few days at least to Hearthome, at least the way we're going, and that would let you see how closely you fit into my team."

The Dragon-type seemed lost for words.

"I mean, it is really cool!" Ash added. "You're a powerful and impressive Dragon-type, and we worked well together twice already – I just think we might have not been acting normally then."

"Very well, then," the draconic Pokémon agreed, lifting off the ground in a sudden movement to hover alongside the group. "I admit I am unsure how this normally goes."

"This isn't how it normally goes," Brock replied. "It's close to 'how it normally goes for Ash', but that's something entirely different..."


"How much do you know about other fighting styles?" Infernape asked. "I've got this idea, but I wanted to know if you could help out."

Kari hummed, an oddly metallic sound. "Well… my main focus was always on sword work, but I've dabbled in the basic forms of other styles. Why?"

"I was thinking of… well, it's kind of like what happens when someone uses Sacred Sword, but with a lot more variety to it," Infernape explained. "I make something out of fire, then I make something else with it and use that – if I need a shield, I use a shield, if I need a sword I use a sword, if I need a staff..."

"I see," Kari said, thinking it over. "Well, if needs be I can give you a basic grounding in a number of weapons."

She slid a little in her scabbard. "You seem remarkably uninterested in the Dragon-typed legendary Pokémon."

Infernape shrugged. "I think you more or less have to be, in this team."

Rayquaza's head went up. "Alarm! Something is coming!"

"Another meteorite?" Ash said. "Can you stop it?"

"It is no meteorite," Rayquaza told them, as the silver light came descending from the sky – slowing, rather than accelerating, until it was large enough to see.

It was a great silver disc in the sky, lights shining from the bottom, and it rotated slowly as a faint eeooeeooeeoo sound filled the air.

Something came out of the light, a metallic shape – like a three-pointed Staryu – drifting down from the odd craft, and landed with a soft thump on the path just in front of them.

"Shom Kala!" it demanded, some kind of object facing towards them, and Kari's ribbon snaked out to Ash's wrist. She hauled herself out of her scabbard to place herself in his hand.

"To arms!" she called.

"Why?" Ash asked, lowering his hand so he wasn't brandishing the Honedge at them. "We can't understand them, that's all. They might come in peace."

"To Me Ki!" the metallic shape said.

"You seem very unconcerned," Rayquaza noted, sounding baffled. "Why?"

"Honestly, this isn't even the third time we've run into aliens," Brock pointed out. "Remember? The only odd thing is that these ones aren't Pokémon."

"That's pretty odd, to be fair," Dawn volunteered.

"Not sure it makes the top five list," Pikachu said. "Any luck on translating, Dexter?"

Not really, no, I need much more in the way of speech to even begin trying. He, she, it or norf could be asking us about salad recipes for all we know now.

"Norf?" Dawn repeated, tilting her head slightly.

If you're an expert on alien pronouns, you tell me what the correct one is.

"That's a good point, you have to admit," Ash said. "I get confused enough with Mew and Deoxys."

The metallic entity raised the object again, then a line of green light flashed in from the side and knocked it flying. The friends' gaze followed, letting them see a man wearing a green suit and a Sky-Shamin emblem on his cape as he kicked the shape into the middle distance.

Another suited figure, this one with a roaring Pyroar emblazoned on her chest, landed in front of the friends. "Are you hurt?" she asked, without preamble.

"We're all fine," Ash said. "What's going on?"

"Good," the woman sighed in relief. "I'm Yellow Lion, one of the League of Heroes – we've been worried about the Tricuspids coming back for months!"

A dozen more three-pointed metallic creatures came out of the flying saucer overhead, and the green-suited hero jumped up to meet them. There was an explosion as he axe-kicked one into the ground, then a wave of water knocked away the one about to strike at him in turn, and Yellow Lion turned to join the battle.

"Huh," Brock said, watching as the full team of newcomers got involved – he counted five, including both of the ones they'd already seen. "I don't think I've heard of them before."

"Yeah," Ash shrugged. "It's good to know there's some people actually helping out apart from us, though… maybe they've always been behind the scenes or something. Could be why we didn't run into some things before."

Dawn considered that. "It… actually does explain a few things. Just a few, though."

There was another explosion as a pink-clad hero delivered an almighty punch to knock the Tricuspid she was fighting down to the ground, and the flying saucer dispensed another batch.

"Think we should help out?" Dawn suggested.

"Seems kind of rude to jump in without offering," Lucario mused. "Wouldn't you say so?"

"Maybe," Pikachu shrugged. "I'm sure they'd ask if they were desperate."

"Or maybe they just don't know they could ask you for help," said a new voice.

Everyone turned to see a sprightly old man closing the door on a small horse box.

"Of course, I doubt it," the man went on, with no attempt to explain how the horse box had ended up there in the first place. "Very unlikely that they'd think you weren't worth asking for help, not with Rayquaza right there! Still, should have known they'd want to handle it themselves – what else can you expect from fellows with future technology using it to save the world?"

"Future technology?" Ash asked. "So… they're time travellers?"

"No, their technology is from the future, they aren't," the man corrected him. "Really fascinating stuff – back in the future they pick people specially, but when it came back in time it picked them and they're really doing a rather good job."

The door to the phone box banged open again, and three more people came out – along with a large robotic dog.

"All right, that is it!" shouted a voice.

The opening to Ash's bag stretched wide, and an irate fridge came out.

"Are you all unable to notice this is clearly some kind of hoax?" it demanded. "How silly does it need to get?"

"Honestly, this is just an unusually busy day for us," Brock replied.

"Not the busiest, either," Ash contributed.

"The talking fridge is a new one," Pikachu noted.

"You think I'm the most ridiculous thing here?" the fridge demanded, door flapping open as it spoke. "There are costumed sentai heroes fighting an alien invasion by killer triangles! I'm surprised the ghost doing this can live with itself!"

"Hey!" Rayquaza replied. "I'm just setting this up, they're doing it themselves-"

The hovering Legendary stopped. "...uh oh..."

Then the world collapsed around them.


Zorua tilted her head.

She looked down at the small stick she'd retrieved from a nearby tree, then at the snoring forms of her trainer and their friends.

Delicately, she poked Ash in the shoulder.

This elicited no reaction, so she poked again – mostly to see if it would help.


"That was all illusions, right?" Brock asked, looking around at the formless grey void they were now floating in. "Some kind of shared dream?"

"That's right," the fridge replied. "I sensed it and came in myself. It's a trick some Ghost types do, but usually they're a lot more subtle."

"Have you seen what I had to work with?" Rayquaza demanded, hands on what were presumably some kind of analogue to hips. "They didn't even flinch when a Rayquaza showed up! Are they immune to surprise?"

"Pretty resistant, at least," Ash judged. "After everything that's happened to us already..."

Wait, wait, hold on, Dexter stated. This is a shared dream?

"Yes?" Rayquaza replied. "Standard procedure for Ghost type trickery. Hypnotize everyone, put them to sleep, link their dreams."

I'm a computer.

Rayquaza gestured, and a Mareep bounced past.

Touché, the Porygon2 admitted. I suppose I do have a sleep mode.

"So if this is a shared dream, then… who are you?" Dawn asked the fridge.

"Seems pretty obvious to me," Lucario said. "Rotom, right?"

"If he's right, how long have you been in that fridge?" Pikachu asked. "I got a drink out of that just this morning."

"Ever since-"

The fridge paused. "...oh, yeah, that's right, I was trying to hide… um..."

It dove for the mouth of Ash's bag, missed because the bag was only two inches wide without being stretched, and nearly flattened Ash himself.

"Look, are we going to-" Rayquaza tried.

"Sorry!" the animated fridge said, sounding somewhat panicked. "Um… uh…"

"You are that Rotom from Eterna Forest, right?" Ash asked, brushing his sleeve. "You've been in my bag the whole time?"

The fridge nodded with a slight movement, a purple glow lighting up around it as the Rotom stopped concealing itself.

"Are you guys-" Rayquaza tried again.

"I know this might not be helpful, but it might give you better results talking to people if you didn't go between being really worked up and really scared," Brock suggested. "I don't think any of us mind if you want to live in Ash's bag or something..."

He looked around the group, seeing no dissent, then went on. "But it'd have been nice to know about it."

"Yeah, and this did kind of help," Dawn added.

"I was just worried..." the Rotom said softly. "Most of the time I don't like talking, or… or even being seen... but then when I get angry I just..."

"Don't worry!" Mawile told the Electric-type. "We're all very accepting here!"

"Mawile's right," Ash contributed. "We try our best, anyway."

"Oh, never mind!"

The Rayquaza's form dissolved into that of a Mismagius, and it flew away in a shower of purple sparks. "You people have no appreciation for art."

The misty dreamworld fell apart, a bit at a time, until it was just blackness. Then they-


-woke up.

Ash's eyes opened first, and he looked down at his shoulder in confusion. "Why is there a tree branch poking me?"

Zorua dropped it. "The stick wasn't working, so I though I'd try something bigger?"

"Oh, right, Dark type," Ash realized. "Did you see a Mismagius around here?"

Zorua sniffed. "I… yeah, I can smell her. She left a moment ago, I think."

As the others got up, Ash looked up and sighed.

"Something up?" Pikachu asked.

"Yeah, just..." Ash shook his head. "It was kind of cool to think Rayquaza had decided I should be his trainer."

"That's kind of a nasty trick, yeah," Pikachu agreed, cheeks sparking for a moment. "I wonder if I should have a word with that Mismagius?"

Ash shrugged, putting his Dark-type hat very firmly on his head.

As he did, he frowned, then drew his bag's opening wider and looked in. "Rotom?"

There was a pause, then a faint purple glow lit up.

"What I said still counts," Ash explained. "But I think we should see if there's something you'd rather go in instead – you know, something that would fit better with what you want to do. But if you're fine being a fridge, that's okay."

After waiting a moment, in case there was a reply, he closed the bag again.

"I'm thinking back," Dawn said, contemplatively. "And I think I remember when we met that Mismagius last time, now I think about it. Didn't it shower us in things like… lots of girls for Brock, or lots of Ribbons for me?"

"Yeah, I think that happened," Pikachu agreed. "But if it's going to give up on sense, it could at least have given me a ketchup swimming pool."

That might be a bit dangerous, at least in real life, Dexter warned. It gets thicker if you're not moving, so you might not be able to get enough traction to move properly. You'd just sort of flail about, and you couldn't even walk on it like you can on custard.

His speaker emitted an electronic buzz. I'm still adjusting to the discovery that I'm a valid target for Hypnosis and can share a dream.

"That's a pretty big realization, then?" Pikachu asked. "Kind of a verification that you're a Pokémon?"

I already know I'm a Pokémon, the new discovery is that I seriously need to upgrade my firewalls and ICE, Dexter countered. There are vulnerabilities here I hadn't even considered were possible.

As Dexter began thinking about how to test that, Brock addressed Zorua. "What happened when we got taken under?" he asked.

"Well, there was a kind of funny flash of light, and then you all fell over at once," Zorua replied. She bounced up and down a couple of times on the springy moss of the ground, and shrugged. "Good terrain for it, though."

She paused. "So… when's dinner?"

"Good question," Brock admitted. "Since preparing dinner now means negotiating things with the fridge."


"Welcome back, Latias," Ash said, nodding to the Dragon-type. "How are things back in Altomare?"

"Pretty good!" Latias squeaked back, spotting Ash's hat and electing to speak out loud. "Latios is still acting like he can hide how serious he is with his girlfriend from me, which is kind of funny… and the city's doing this new exhibit on the history of the DMA, along with everything that happened during that time you saved us!"

"That is a new thing to have, Ash," Infernape noted. "I don't think you've had a museum exhibit yet?"

"Sorry, we all have one already," Pikachu pointed out. "Remember the thing where we saved Arceus?"

"That one is a bit complicated with how it interacts with time travel stuff," Brock pointed out. "But yeah, that probably does count..."

He frowned, then shook his head. "No idea how to evaluate that one. I think this is still the first direct museum exhibit, Pikachu."

"Fair enough," Pikachu shrugged.

"So, any training to do?" Latias suggested.

"I did have an idea for helping me learn," Ash replied. "Kari says I should get quicker on the draw, and at going into useful stances, and I think one of the best ways to do that is to have you surprise me."

"But won't you be expecting it?" Latias asked.

Ash shrugged. "I'm sure you can be creative."

Croagunk tapped him on the shoulder.

"Like that?" he asked.

"Yeah, like that," Ash replied, once he'd calmed down a bit and started using Aura on his shoulder. "Did you have to do that with a Poison Jab?"

"I'm getting rusty without having to jab my trainer every other day," Croagunk shrugged. "I'm not about to jab someone who's not asking for it, but..."

Ash finished drawing out the poison, and let it drop to the ground. "There we go… I guess I can't really complain about that, not when I'd just asked to be surprised."

"I thought we just got through a long examination of how little surprises any of us," Dawn said.

"The important thing is not to avoid being surprised, the important thing is to have the appropriate reaction to being surprised," Kari replied.

"That's a good point," Ash agreed. "As we change things, more and more of what happens is going to be different to what we remember from last time around – we should be ready for when it's different, and not assume it's going to be the same."


"You were saying?" Pikachu asked, some minutes later.

"I still think I was right," Ash replied. "Mostly. Right?"

"Probably, but you can't deny it's a funny coincidence."

"How did we handle this last time, again?" Dawn asked, looking up at the stuck Hippopotas. "Didn't you go around the back and climb down with a rope?"

"No need for the rope this time," Lucario said. "Do you want to do it, or should – no, never mind, Latias handled it."

"It's funny how easy it is to handle a lot of the things humans have trouble with," Latias giggled, bringing Hippopotas down to the ground. "All right?"

"Yeah, kind of," Hippopotas agreed, then looked up at the humans and their entourage. "Have you seen – no, wait, humans don't understand Pokémon."

"I do," Ash said. "So does Brock, and Dawn's working on it."

The Ground-type blinked. "Okay. So, um, have you seen a herd of Hippodown around here?"

"No, but I think we might know where it is," Ash answered. "Roughly… have you eaten recently?"

Hippopotas shook his head.

"Then let's have something to eat, and Latias, Staraptor and Crobat can go look for the herd," Ash suggested.

"Togekiss as well," Dawn pointed out, sending the Fairy-type out – producing a thunderous BANG, a cloud of smoke and three pure notes as if sounded by bells.

"Whoops..." she added, blushing, as the smoke cleared. "Forgot to take off the seals..."

Hippopotas stared, then began to giggle.

As the flying Pokémon set off to search – all heading in the rough direction Hippopotas' herd had been last time – the Ground-type sat down. "So… what's the food? I was trying to get some, but I got stuck on the cliff..."

"Well, I can go and get that if you want," Ash suggested. "But I think we have some leftovers from lunch… right, Brock?"

"That's right," Brock agreed. "I think the fridge might be asleep at the moment, though… I said we wouldn't need anything until dinner."

"I'd better go get it, then," Ash said, and began walking up the cliff wall.

Hippopotas' gaze tracked Ash silently as he climbed up the near-sheer rock face, then the Ground-type slumped onto his back.

"Got it!" Ash called, before jumping back down and absorbing the impact with a quick flicker of Aura. "Uh… is Hippopotas okay?"

The Pokémon in question rolled back onto his front, shook his head a bit, and sighed. "I think I've had too many odd experiences to think properly."

Dawn read off the translation on Dexter's screen, then nodded. "Yeah, it's like that at first."


"Dang," Infernape said mildly, watching as his latest attempt at a flame weapon collapsed. "Any ideas what I'm doing wrong?"

"I have one," Lucario replied. "This is going to sound a bit odd, but… I think you might do better if you were running. Normally fire needs to keep moving or it burns out, it's a property of the element, and I think you might get better results if it's always moving or changing in some way."

The Steel-type shrugged. "It's worth a try, anyway. That or you could just keep continuously feeding more energy into it, it's going to be in your hand anyway for the most part so you could just supply it with fire coming over the rest of your body into your hand."

"Both sound like things to try, thanks," Infernape agreed. "I'll have to give some thought… maybe I could get Staraptor to fan my flames while I train."

"He'd probably call it enwindification," Lucario mused. "But yes, that could be a good way to get something working, then lower the intensity of the wind until you can do it under normal circumstances. What do you think your first weapon's going to be?"

"Well, with what you said about constant movement, nunchucks might work," Infernape said. "Or a staff. Bojutsu is all about movement, right?"

"The only martial art that's all about movement is nowyusimi – nowyudont," Lucario said blandly. "But Bojutsu has a fair amount of spinning."


"Excuse me, ma'am," Togekiss began. "Are you missing a Hippopotas?"

"Yes!" replied one of the Hippodon. "My son went missing on the last day's travel – we don't know where he might have ended up!"

"Well, you're in luck," Togekiss assured her. "We're out looking for his herd, so now we've found it Latias will go and bring your son back."

She fired a blue-and-pink Fairy Wind into the sky, and Latias came rocketing over. A single circuit, and the Dragon-type had her task – blazing off into the sky to head back to the group.

"I didn't know Legendary Pokémon did search and rescue," one of the other Hippodown blinked.

"She's been diversifying, it's all new to her," Crobat shrugged. "Sweet girl."

"She's about a hundred years old," Togekiss pointed out.

"Still," Crobat countered. "Legendary Pokémon, long life."

"Ninetales is younger, has a long expected life span, and..."

The Hippodon and their Hippopotas children looked back and forth like tennis spectators.

"What's going on, mama?" one of the little females asked.

"Good question," the Hippodon sighed.


"Already?" Ash asked, impressed. "That's good work!"

"Togekiss and Crobat found them," Latias clarified. "I think Staraptor saw the signal as well, he was flying that way. I'll just take the lost little Ground-type back to his family now."

Hippopotas came walking over, smiling, then paused and looked back. "Thank you," he said, then let Latias pick him up.

"Hold on tight," she advised.

"But… my legs aren't very good for that," Hippopotas said, worried.

"All right, then," Latias replied. "Just relax, I'll hold you on."

Picking up the Ground-type and placing him on her back, she rose a little way into the air, then hesitated.

"...so,, what-" Hippopotas began, then yelped as Latias suddenly went.


"That went pretty well, I think," Brock said, some minutes later, as their flying Pokémon all returned. "We got everything sorted out with Hippopotas without Ash getting neckstrain."

"Neck strain?" Ash repeated. "What for?"

"For carrying a heavy Pokémon on your head," Dawn reminded him.

"Oh, that," Ash shrugged. "Didn't really hurt. I guess that's Aura."

"The catch all excuse," Pikachu snarked.

"It's clearly the Ketchum excuse," Lucario shrugged.

Amid the resultant groans, Dawn looked off into the distance and frowned.

"Huh..." she said, softly. "Look."

The others followed her gaze.

"I wonder who we know who might have a Pokéball balloon," Infernape mused. "Didn't Team Rocket have a Meowth one?"

"They use an aircraft these days, but maybe they changed over to a balloon again," Ash answered. "I wonder why they'd use a Pokéball, though…"

"Maybe it's a Voltorb," Brock suggested. "Or a Foongus?"

"Or it could just be someone else," Ash frowned, then closed one eye. "Nope, that's them."

He shrugged. "Well, I'm sure we'll find out sooner or later."

Croagunk chose that moment to jab at Ash's ankle, a strike the Aura adept just about managed to block with his staff.

"How do you keep doing that?" he asked.

"Be bland, and nobody notices you," Croagunk shrugged. "It's all about a way of not caring. Incidentally, I'd like to learn Natural Gift."

He rubbed the back of his head. "I've got a plan for it."

"I think Pikachu knows it," Ash said, then nodded. "Yeah, he does, we just don't use it much because of his Light Ball. Plus, it's now kind of obvious when he's not using his Light Ball because his cheeks go back to red."

"That could be fixed by makeup," Buneary suggested.

"It'd have to be a good reason to give up the Light… Ball..." Pikachu trailed off. "Could that work in reverse?"

"I think so!" Buneary judged. "Nice red cheeks… nobody could tell you're not a normal Pikachu."

"Until he does anything at all ever," Lucario contributed.


"It's a pity we had to compromise on artistic vision," James sighed. "A Pokéball just doesn't have the same personality."

"Well, you said havin' nineteen different balloons we changed out day by day wasn't an option," Meowth noted.

"No, I said it would be an enormous amount of work," James corrected. "Then Jessie threatened us."

"What was that?" Jessie asked warningly.

"Just discussin' policy," Meowth defended them quickly. "Nothin' you need to worry about."

"Good," Jessie stated.

She raised her binoculars. "Any sign of anything crazy going on so far?"

"Eh, mostly that Latias flying' off with a Hippopotas carried on her back, then comin' back with a load of other Pokémon," Meowth shrugged. "So not much so far."

He looked again. "I guess they're movin, though. Let's get goin' after them."

After a few seconds he blinked. "Wait, I forgot. This one don't have a steerin' column..."

"We do have a Dustox, that'll do!"


"Excuse me!"

The friends looked up, seeing a red-haired girl over by the side of the path.

"Are you on your way to Hearthome?" she asked. "I can help you get there."

"Is that what you're really after?" Brock replied.

"Why?" the girl said, sounding a bit hurt.

"Well, if you wanted our help, then we'd be glad to oblige," Dawn told her. "I mean, it's not like Ash would refuse… but if you try to trick someone into helping then that's not really kind."

The girl's jaw dropped.

"How did you..." she began, then shook her head. "Uh, anyway..."

She sighed. "You're right. I wanted your help getting something stuck at the bottom of a lake, because I can see you have a Water-type."

"The bottom of a lake?" Latias asked, shimmering into visibility and making the girl jump. "I'm in!"

She put her claw to her mouth. "Of course, the whole point is that I can use Dive so I'm not in. If that makes sense."

"How far is it to the lake?" Ash asked.

"Well… it's a few miles, but my Abra can teleport you all straight there."

Brock returned the Rockruff padding alongside him, and Ash took his hat off.

"Sounds good," Dawn said, once the friends had policed up their Dark-types. "Let's go, then."

Abra raised his hands, and they all vanished in a bright purple flash.


"That was easy," Latias said, two minutes later. "This place is much less interesting than Altomare."

The girl – who'd introduced herself as Mira – opened the Pokéball Latias had retrieved for her. "Sandshrew!"

The Ground-type yawned, then looked up. His expression turned to shock, and then he jumped into her arms.

"I'm glad to see you too," Mira said. "But – how did you deal with that Gyarados?"

"There's a Gyarados in the lake?" Lucario asked, interested.

"Please, Lucario, if it is not too much bother… can I do this one?" Infernape requested.


"Greetings," Lucario bowed, standing on the surface of the water. "My teammate would like to challenge you to a battle."

Gyarados stared at him, then roared and fired a Hyper Beam.

Lucario's palms flared as he blocked the attack, and the energy surging into the water as he deflected it produced a watery explosion and a wave which came crashing down over the side of the lake.

Surfing it back into shore on two blue-glowing paws, Lucario nodded to Infernape. "I think he's fine with it."

Infernape grinned his thanks, then looked down at the water. "Okay, let's see if this works."

Taking a few steps back for a run up, he charged forwards and began running over the water with flames spiralling up from his feet.

"Wow!" Ash said, impressed. "That's a nice trick!"

"I taught him the Aura trick," Lucario supplied. "The flames are cosmetic."

"Spoilsport," Infernape shot back, then lunged at Gyarados. The Water-type retaliated with a blast of Dragon Rage, and Infernape kicked off from the ground to do a somersault over Gyarados' head and run down his spine.

And promptly slip off.

"That's a different trick!" Lucario called through cupped paws.

Infernape landed on the water a little clumsily, turned, and rolled out of the way of Gyarados' next attack. His arms went out to the side as he did so, and coils of flames came from his bracers.

He ran a little further, then suddenly stopped and turned to lash out. It wasn't really a weapon, as such – without enough form for that – but it was a kind of spike, which extended his punch far beyond what it should have been and startled Gyarados as it clocked him on the chin.

The serpent shook his head a little, getting rid of the stunning effect of the blow, then roared again and charged forwards.

Infernape summoned the coils of flame again, using them to block, and it did manage to dissipate some of the force out sideways as a little burst of smoke and flame – though much more of the energy went into Infernape himself, knocking him into the water.

A lance of intense orange flame promptly burst out of the water, sending up a cloud of steam which surprised Gyarados considerably and sent him sliding backwards through the lake, and Infernape came jumping back out of the water to land on the nearest shore.

"Okay, take this!" Infernape announced, his flames now seething with the extra intensity characteristic of his Blaze. He formed another ball of flame in his hands, feeding energy into it and giving it the same kind of orange-red tone as his flames, before charging forwards towards the waterline.

He jumped high into the air, hurling it down at Gyarados, and the Water-type dodged it easily. Then it exploded on contact with the water, knocking Gyarados skidding sideways, and Infernape used the sudden movement to surprise Gyarados with a Mach Punch to the chin which knocked it crashing back into the lake again.


"Is this normal?" Mira asked.

"Do you mean normal for him, normal for us, or normal in general?" Dawn asked. "Because Infernape's a pretty strong Pokémon by most standards, but he did learn water walking recently. But Ash knows it too, so by our standards this is fairly normal."

They watched as Infernape's armour began to glow, quickly going from red hot to white hot as his Blaze-boosted flames licked over it, and when Gyarados spat a Hydro Pump at Infernape the whole attack vanished into a wall of hazy steam as Infernape blocked with his superheated bracer.

Another shapeless mass of fire formed from Infernape's fingers, this one a little shorter and narrower, but his clear attempt to create a kind of sword or small spear fell apart in a burst of intense orange flame.

"It looks like he's still experimenting," Dawn said. "He's only been working on it for a few days, but this is already looking impressive."

Gyarados reared up, mouth glowing as he prepared a Dragon Rage, then fired – into the water, not at Infernape – before sweeping the beam of energy towards Infernape to create a built-up wave and try and swamp the Fire-type entirely.

In response, Infernape moved his hands at speed. Summoning some flame into them and clenching them to one another, he whirled the clasped hands together in a circle and a half before suddenly thrusting the flame ball forwards.

For a brief moment, a beam of flame was visible, reaching out towards Gyarados – but it hit the wave before it hit Gyarados, forming a surging bubble of steam which promptly exploded. Infernape was sent skipping along the water in a trail of spray, reached the land, and flipped over twice to land neatly on the grass.

Ignoring the smoke coming from it, he inspected his still-glowing chest armour piece for any damage. Seeing none, he looked up at Gyarados and used Flamethrower – sending out a surging spike of intense heat, one which got through to Gyarados this time and washed over his slick scales with a savage hiss.

Gyarados thrashed, tail forming great waves which went in all directions, and one of them blocked the direct line of effect of the flamethrower itself. Another hit Infernape, knocking him backwards, and the Fire-type did a handspring before flipping twice and landing on his feet. His stance adjusted a little, and he half-formed a ball of flame before discarding it and running in in a charge.

This time, Gyarados tried using a Bubblebeam. Infernape heated his bracers with a coil of Blaze-boosted heat, running forwards using them to block, and disrupted bubbles flicked out in all directions.

Infernape used Flash, the effort also producing a Smokescreen to keep him hidden, and jumped into the air to get around behind Gyarados. The Water-type shook his head, blinking the spots out of his vision, then spun around just in time for Infernape to hammer him with a point-blank Flamethrower.

Switching to Mach Punches, he hit the big Water-type two or three more times, keeping him off balance, then wound up for a big one and Thunderpunched it halfway across the lake.

When Gyarados landed, he was out for the count.


"Question?" Latias began, as Chansey looked over the various bruises and splash marks Infernape had acquired. "Why didn't you do that in the first place?"

"I was trying to test something in a difficult situation, that's why," Infernape replied, his flames now mostly back to their normal intensity. "If I'd used Thunderpunch, it would have been a test of how well I can Thunderpunch, because Thunderpunch would beat Gyarados really quickly – but this way I got to try out a whole new type of move, and see where I had problems with it."

He swept his hands around, forming a little blob of flame, then let it slowly fade out again. "I don't think it's going to work, though. It's all right in a testing situation, but when I get in a fight… no, I can't concentrate well enough to keep it up, not with everything else going on."

The Fire-type shrugged. "Maybe I could teach someone else, though. Pikachu, was Pignite missing anything in his arsenal?"

"Hmmm..." Pikachu mused.

"Perhaps before abandoning it entirely, Infernape should meet with the Marowak you have told me of?" Kari suggested. "Her skill set seems quite close to that, from what I have been told."

"That might be good," Ash agreed. "Though I'm not sure how we could arrange that..."

Latias coughed.

"Are you trying to be the answer to everything these days?" Pikachu asked.

"If the task fits!"


"Ha hah!" Chuck laughed. "This is quite a fight! Chesnaught, Pin Missile!"

Chesnaught slammed her fists together, and a shower of Pin Missiles flashed out. They arced towards Roland, who teleported backwards and dispersed his Fury Cutter in favour of an Air Slash attack.

"Combination!" Max called, as Roland blocked three attacks in quick succession. The Psychic-type spared a moment to give his trainer a confirmatory nod, then produced a Fury Cutter and merged it into his Air Slash this time.

Not stopping for more than a moment as Chesnaught fired a Seed Bomb, Roland used Ice Blade in his off hand. He swung it about, jabbing at the Seed Bomb with the very tip of the Ice Blade, then teleported away as the explosion went off.

Vine Whips snagged him on the feet, forcing him to cut them off with a lightning-fast movement of his two-element sword, and Roland barely managed to block the next attack with an omnidirectional pulse of psychic energy. He followed up with a Synchronoise, which made Chesnaught flinch back as their Fighting-types resonated, then she hit him with a Wood Hammer and knocked him across the room.

Roland teleported three times in as many seconds to let himself slow down a bit and reorient himself, bent his legs to absorb the impact as he finally let himself hit the wall, and fused the Ice Blade into his on-hand weapon. A Night Slash joined it, and he was forming a Psycho Cut when Chesnaught launched a storm of Needle Arm needles at him.

The Gallade's blades blurred as he worked as hard as he could to block the attacks, sweeping both arm swords through a complex pattern as he slowly stepped back. Most of them easy to block with the Psycho Cut or the other, combined, blade – except for the occasional Pin Missile hidden in amongst them, which Roland had to spot early enough to hit them with the combined blade instead of the Psychic one.

The whole time, Chesnaught was slowly moving closer, until she suddenly charged – shoulder-checking Roland into the wall before he teleported away, then firing off a Needle Arm needle to detonate the Seed Bombs she'd scattered all over the floor.

Roland backflipped out of the blast radius, merging his Psycho Cut into the weapon, and produced a sixth blade – this one a sizzling Fire Blade, a new trick – before merging that as well and taking a two-handed sword stance.

The oddly coloured combination of blades pulsed once, then twice, and was sheathed suddenly in blue light.

"Sacred Sword!" Roland announced, and went charging in. He swept the broadsword across in a low slash, one which Chesnaught jumped over, then spun it around to block her punching counter attack and slid a little across the floor with the impact.

Twirling it in a way which reminded those watching that it had very little actual mass, Roland used his Sacred Sword blade to force Chesnaught back – towards the middle of the room – and to block any counterattack attempts by spinning it sideways and interposing the considerable width of the flat.

Then Roland decided he'd reached the right position, and grabbed Chesnaught's wrist..

The two of them vanished, reappearing some way into the air, and Roland rammed his Sacred Sword into her crossed gauntlets – producing a whunng – but neither of them fell back to the floor, gripped in Roland's psionic power.

At that moment, the Gallade's Sacred Sword came apart. Not an explosion, or a collapse, but a planned separation into six distinct parts which rotated away to circle the two Pokémon.

"What?" Chesnaught asked, baffled.

Roland teleported away, grabbing the Air Slash, and plunged in towards her to hit her with it. She blocked that one, but the moment she did he teleported away again – leaving the blade to spring back to its original position – and took up the Ice Blade instead.

By the third attack, Chesnaught was looking around in bafflement. By the fifth, she missed a block. By the eleventh, she'd taken hits from five of the six component blades, and then Roland teleported up to grab the central Air Slash the whole thing had been built around and come plunging down at her.

Chesnaught used Spiky Shield – and then found out Roland didn't actually have to be carrying the other components of his Sacred Sword, once he'd built it.

All five other blade components hit her at once, comprehensively discharging the Spiky Shield in a way it could do Roland no harm, and a moment later he slammed her into the ground with the Air Slash.

Panting heavily, Roland watched as all six components fell apart around him – each one plunging into the floor for just a moment before vanishing – and turned a weary gaze on his trainer.

"Please say that's enough..." he quipped.

"I'd say so," Max agreed. "I think that's your last Pokémon, right?"

"That it is!" Chuck agreed with a chortle. "I heard you learned from Ash, right? I can certainly see it!"

"Thanks," Max smiled, returning Roland for a rest. "I'll take it as a compliment, anyway..."

"Ever thought of having your Pokémon do some Contests?" May invited. "I think tricks like that would play pretty well on the Contest circuit – though admittedly it might take too long."

"Yeah, we're working on accelerating the construction," Max admitted. "Thing is, even that was a bit quick – it could easily have just flown apart earlier, we didn't properly bed in the Flame Blade part and that might well have made it unstable..."

He shrugged. "I'll think about it, I guess, and see what the others think."

"Hey, kid! Heads-up!"

Max turned, and caught the incoming Storm Badge after juggling it twice. "Whoops – hey, thanks!"

"You earned it, kid," Chuck told him. "And now I think maybe I should pick up a Pokémon who can learn Sacred Sword myself – every time I see that move I swear it's got a new thing it can do."

"Yeah, it's supposed to be like that," Max agreed. "From what Ash's Pokémon said, anyway, and Roland's one is pretty odd even by that standard."

The door slammed open.

Chuck's wife inspected the gym, noting in particular that the roof was still in one piece, then turned her attention to her Gym Leader husband.

"All right, not bad," she judged. "It is still standing."

"And with someone who learned Gym Destroying from Ash Ketchum," May chuckled. "Maybe it really was him, just being nearby?"


"Thank you for taking the time to see me," Cynthia said.

"It's not a problem, Grand Champion," the man replied. "Now, what can we do for you?"

"I was hoping you could help fill me in on how a company was doing," Cynthia told him. "I know it's a bit of an unusual request, but it is important."

"Of course," the man said. "I'm flattered you'd come to me for my specialist knowledge!"

Cynthia smiled. "I knew who to ask."

She sat down. "Now, I wanted to ask about the Galactic group."

The clerk frowned. "I'm sorry, I'm not aware of them – not offhand, anyway. Do you have any more information?"

"They should be based in Veilstone," Cynthia told him.

"Right, Veilstone," her informant said. "Well… Veilstone… and the Galactic group, you said?"

He tapped on his computer for several seconds, then shook his head. "Sorry, there isn't anything by that name in the database."

Cynthia blinked. "Are you sure?"

"Sorry," the clerk said, spreading his hands. "It might be in the paper records, the Veilstone section is… this drawer."

Cynthia slid open the indicated drawer, and shuffled through the folders until she got to G. Finding the Galactic documents, she checked over them.

"That's odd..." she mused. "The last mention of them is over three years ago, and it's just routine stuff until that date. Would they have just up and left?"

"That is odd," the clerk agreed. "And no, there should either be a confirmation of their occupancy or the building lease reverting. One or the other."

The Grand Champion nodded. "Well, it looks like there's a mystery to solve here… thank you for your help, anyway."

"The pleasure's all mine, Champion Cynthia," the clerk told her, shaking her hand. "I'll see if I can find anything on my end… just leave the documents there when you go, so I remember to follow up on it."


"Well, that didn't work out," Cynthia sighed. "I wonder what changed that?"

"I don't know," her Lucario replied. "To me this is the world… but you say you didn't notice much changing between your memories?"

"Not at first," Cynthia clarified. "Obviously Ash's rise is different, but the first time I remember that really having an effect is in the Mewtwo incident. And that's months too recent for it to be the cause of this sudden stop."

She shook her head. "Well, we'll work it out."


"So… how about this idea," Clemont suggested. "You know a Victini, right?"

I do, Mewtwo agreed. He aided us during the comet incident.

"Well, Victini can keep a Pokémon strong perpetually!" Clemont explained. "So if we can find a second one, then there's two Victini who can keep each other topped up and use a perpetual fusion explosion to accelerate a ship to interstellar speeds! Weight wouldn't matter, because even a really big ship wouldn't take long to get up to speed, and… and… why are you giving me that look?"

Clemont, I understand where you are going, Mewtwo assured him. And if we did not have the options we currently do, I would approve. But as things currently stand we are not planning interstellar operations for at least a few years, and when we do we will be making use of point to point teleportation if possible rather than relativistic travel. This is, among other reasons, because of the difficulty of shielding.

"I was thinking about that, too!" Clemont said. "I developed this prototype, I call it the Clemontic Artificial Aurora! It makes strong magnetic fields which deflect away charged particles in interstellar space, and you can fill it with plasma so that anything which isn't charged hits the plasma, explodes and becomes plasma!"

That is an interesting achievement, Clemont, Mewtwo stated. Thank you for informing me of it. However, other concerns remain – such as simple travel time.

"Oh, yeah, I guess..." Clemont admitted.

He looked up. "Is there anything else I should work on?"

It would be helpful to have a good design for artificial wings with haptic controls, Mewtwo suggested. Ideally muscle assisted.

"I tried," Clemont said, shaking his head. "It takes too much power to be useful."

In Earth gravity, yes, Mewtwo agreed.

He smiled slightly, leaning back. We have a moon base, and I have a Callisto base.

Clemont muttered something under his breath, paused, and looked up.

His eyes brightened.

Excellent, Mewtwo decided. I look forward to seeing your next gear.


AN:


Some transitional stuff here, covering the interesting bits.

Also, Roland.