"And, finally, after a longer delay than we were expecting..." Dawn began. "Hearthome. With two 'h'-es this time."
"It does look a lot more like a city than the other place," Ash agreed. "There's a gym here, right? I don't think we ended up visiting it the first time we got here, last time."
"Sometimes this gets confusing," Lucario noted, counting on his paws. "So you came here twice?"
Three times, Dexter supplied. Including once for a fashion show.
"This place is a real tourist trap," Brock sighed. "As in, you have to keep coming back..."
"Oh, hey!"
The friends looked up, seeing Zoey coming towards them.
"Somehow I knew I'd find you here," Zoey said, nodding to Dawn. "How are things?"
"Pretty normal," Ash replied.
"Ash, that's normal for us," Pikachu pointed out.
"Oh, right," Ash realized. "So… since we last saw you, we got involved in a fight involving Dialga, Palkia and Darkrai."
"I did see that one on the news," Zoey mused. "I guess I'll just have to get used to that now. Anything else?"
"Our friend Max completed his first Indigo League run," Brock said. "And we met a Tyrantrum – well, he's a Tyrantrum now – and Ash did a few gyms."
"And a Rotom possessed our fridge," Ash reminded him.
"And that, yes."
Zoey shook her head. "So… which of you is the normal one?"
"I think that's your job now," Dawn chuckled. "So, you're in the Contest?"
The Coordinator gave Dawn a nod. "Wouldn't miss it! You know it's a double, right?"
"What determines whether a Contest is a single or a double?" Brock asked.
"Basically it's up to the Contest organizers," Dawn and Zoey replied at the same time. They exchanged a look, then Dawn waved Zoey to keep going.
"They decide for themselves, and they either announce it on the day or set a schedule," Zoey explained. "At Hearthome they've announced that their Contests will all be doubles, so we know well in advance."
Ash nodded. "That's a lot different to gyms, they usually just tell you the special challenge when you're there. Sometimes after you've picked your Pokémon."
"That's because a lot of Pokémon battles in gyms are about how you can adapt to specific situations with what you have," Brock volunteered. "For Contests, it's all about having a planned routine."
Zoey nodded. "Speaking of which, we've got some last minute prep work to do. See you this afternoon!"
"I'm just… not sure it's really something we can do," the organizer said, a little awkwardly.
"Aww!" Mawile sighed. "Really? Don't you get people offering to be cheerleaders?"
There was a moment's pause.
"Zorua?" Mawile asked.
Zorua repeated what Mawile had said.
"We don't, really," the organizer told her. "It's not something we have a policy on."
"Then can you let us try?" Mawile asked. "We want to see how it'll work out."
There was another pause.
"Zorua?"
"Sorry," Zorua winced, then repeated Mawile's words again.
"I'm… see, it's kind of a tricky situation," the organizer replied. "I'm not a hundred percent sure of the insurance situation, and while it might be fine for you two I'm not sure it works for… him?"
Tyrantrum sighed.
"That's a pity." Mawile shook her head. "It was a lot of work to get those pom-poms big enough for him. Is it okay if we watch from the side anyway?"
Zorua translated.
"That should be fine," the organizer judged. "I'll show you where I think the floor's sturdier, so you shouldn't have any problems… but jumping around would be a bit too much."
"Watching will be fine," Tyrantrum said. "Thank you for letting us."
Mawile smiled, seeing her friend wasn't too upset, then followed the man to where they were going to be able to watch the Contest.
"Looks like it's Zoey first," Ash said.
"Well, third," Brock corrected him.
"First of the people I know," Ash amended himself. "Wonder what she's going to do."
"Yeah, she's likely to be pulling out some nice new tricks, she's had a while to think of them," Brock hummed. "What do you think you two would do if you had to do a Contest appeal, Lucario, Pikachu?"
"Electric dragon fight," the two said, almost in unison.
"I'd make an electric dragon construct," Pikachu explained. "It'd be kind of like a Charizard, but made of electricity."
"Then I'd fight it," Lucario went on. "I'd punch it a bit, then kick it, and Pikachu would make it react in a realistic way."
"Then we'd end it by having him transition smoothly from fighting the dragon to dancing with it," Pikachu finished. "It's a version of that story about the Lucario princess who married the dragon."
"That's… actually surprisingly thoughtful and nonviolent," Brock allowed. "I mean, it does have a dragon fight, but I was half-expecting something that would seriously endanger the building."
"Gym destroyer," Lucario indicated his trainer. "This isn't a gym, nor is it something which serves a gym-like function."
"That's a good point," Brock admitted, then they all looked up as Zoey began her appeal.
The first Pokémon to emerge was a Mismagius, who swept her hat off and produced a raincloud from it – the water moving down to pool such that it looked like it was in a large, invisible bowl.
Then Zoey's other Pokéball opened, sending out a Finneon, and the piscine Water-type splashed down into the 'bowl' of water, before swimming up to the top and leaning on its fins. Thus able to watch, it saw Mismagius conjuring rings of smoke, which took on different aspects – flame, water, grass and ice.
Mismagius waved her hands again, more sparkling light around them, and Finneon dropped back underwater before launching itself out into the air. Tail beating, it swam smoothly through the space of the tent – in defiance of gravity – and swimming for the nearest ring, a ring of swirling leaves.
As it arrived, however, there was a bright flash and it bounced off. Mismagius tutted, waving her hands, and the Finneon swam in circles in the air a moment as it thought.
Then it darted through the fire ring instead, producing a little pulse of flame outwards as it swam-flew at greater speed. Now with a flicker of flame following it, it looped around and passed through the ice ring.
Another pulse of the appropriate element, and Finneon went for the Grass ring – then the Water one, completing the circuit and sending more water cascading down into a not-there dish across the floor.
"Now, full circle!" Zoey instructed, and Mismagius made a much grander gesture. The four rings from before became sixteen, one of every type but Normal and Dragon, and they scattered themselves in three dimensions.
Mismagius let out a theatrical laugh, and Finneon turned around once – taking in the whole of the pattern – before flipping its fins and accelerating.
The first ring it passed through was the ring of swirling sand, gaining a sandy Ground-type corona around itself, and the ring flew up to the top of the arena. Before it was done, meanwhile, Finneon went through the Electric ring – then the Flying one, and the Bug one, switching corona types every second, as the rings it passed through went flying up to the top of the arena and merged into a single multicoloured ring.
Dark. Ghost. Psychic. Poison. Grass. Finneon wove a complex, spatial corkscrew as it danced through the air, like a crazed loom shuttle, and the larger ring forming overhead grew brighter and brighter.
Water. Fire. Steel. Fairy. The trail of sparkling light Finneon let was forming a shape – drawn in multiple colours, still becoming clearer, but it looked oddly like the outline of a cupcake.
Fighting. Rock. Ice – and then Finneon flew up to the cherry on the cake, the combined nature of sixteen other elemental rings tinted purple and yellow by Mismagius as it became positively Draconic.
Dragon. Dragon. Dragon. Dragon – and then Finneon shot upwards, and a shower of sparkling light erupted from his fins and scales.
"Very impressive indeed!" the MC announced. "A fine flying fish flourish, to end a great ghostly ring route!"
"Do you get paid to come up with that kind of thing?" Contesta asked, then looked down to see his microphone was still on. "Whoops..."
"That was clever," Ash said, in the audience. "I didn't realize you could do a complete route around all the Pokémon types like that...well, except Normal, because it's sort of the odd type out."
"A lot of types are the odd type out," Lucario noted.
They watched as Finneon took a quick swim, then Zoey returned both Pokémon and gave a bow. As she left, Dawn replaced her, and their friend sent out her Pachirisu and her Ambipom.
Pachirisu jumped into the air, and Ambipom began using her hand-tails to juggle the Electric-type around – not in the simple way most jugglers got started, but adding in complex flicks, even for just the one subject.
Then Dawn produced a packet of mixed nuts, tore the paper, and threw the whole pile of peanuts at Ambipom.
Tails and hands moving in a blur, Ambipom knocked the entire set of nuts into the air. As they came down, she began to juggle them as well, and Pachirisu occasionally got close enough to one to snag it out of the air and eat.
With each nut eaten, Pachirisu used Thundershock. It wasn't much, to begin with, but the electrical energy didn't go away when she went from the first nut to the second – then the second to the third – and soon she was starting to attract the other nuts towards her when she got close, drawing them into a kind of orbit from which she occasionally retrieved them.
It became clear a little later that Pachirisu was actually producing different effects from the different nuts she ate. A brazil nut produced a shimmering three-sided prism, then a peanut produced a two-lobed shape with a wasp waist around where Pachirisu herself was.
Each of these only lasted for a moment, but the walnut and the acorn and the cashew nut made it clear that Pachirisu was imitating the shape of the whole nut with each one eaten. Then she had the rest of the packet, all at once, and landed next to Ambipom rather than being juggled back into the air.
Lightning crackling around her, she took Ambipom by the tail and flicked it – and Ambipom jumped into the air.
Pachirisu looked up for a moment, checking where Ambipom was going to come down, then ran over there and curled her bushy, springy tail before Tail Whipping it up again.
Sparks flying with every contact, Pachirisu juggled her teammate half a dozen times, then the larger Pokémon used Swift just as the smaller one used Shock Wave. The attacks collided, neither Pokémon missing a single one, and produced a cloud of sparks which hid both of them from view for several seconds.
When it faded, Pachirusu was stood neatly atop Ambipom's clasped tail-hands.
"Are you sure this is okay?" Tyrantrum asked, bending his head a little to fit through the door.
"I think it is," Mawile said with careful clarity. "There's two matches before Dawn's first one, so we have time to get something."
She turned a corner, and brightened. "Aha!"
Walking up to the counter of a concession stand, she carefully looked at the menu.
"Tyrantrum, you know when we gave you some ice cream?" she asked. "Did you like it?"
"Kind of," Tyrantrum replied, leaning around the corner behind her. "I'd like to try something else, though."
"That's okay, they've got lots of choice," Mawile told him. "Hmmm… what about some cotton candy? It's really just nice-textured sugar, but it's fun to eat!"
Tyrantrum thought it over, then nodded.
Mawile turned back to the stand. "Can we have one me-sized cotton candy and one Tyrantrum-sized cotton candy?"
There was a long silence, then the blue-haired man on the right side of the stand hissed something. A whisper came back, sounding like it came from under the stand, and the man nodded.
"That's just fine," he said, handing the sticks – one small and one extra-large – to his coworker on the left side of the stand. She twirled them with a flourish, then began sticking the cotton candy to them – making sure to keep her extensive red hair out of the way.
"That's… fifty-four Poké," the man added, and Mawile rummaged around for the spending money she'd been given.
"Here you go!" she announced, putting exact change on the counter-top, then took both sticks and passed the big one up to Tyrantrum.
The Dragon-type looked at it, frowning slightly, and Mawile winced before taking the big one back and holding it at a height for Tyrantrum to easily eat.
"I think we need to find a Psychic move you can use, so you have better hands!" she suggested. "Thank you, Jessie, James, Meowth!"
"Aw, come on!" Meowth groaned. "How'd ya-"
He stopped talking.
"Meowth!" both Rockets groaned.
"Eh, the thing which amazes me is that normally none of Ash an' his friends work it out," Meowth mused. "So dis is kinda unusual..."
"How's that?" Mawile asked, leaning a little further forward.
"That's good, thanks," Tyrantrum replied, taking a bite. "This is very tasty… but for some reason I feel like I should be running."
"Why?" Mawile asked, adjusting her footing on his neck so she could keep holding the cotton-candy-on-a-stick in front of his nose.
"Oh, just… a feeling… it's probably nothing, really."
They stood in companionable silence, watching the battle phase of the tournament – in particular, the bit where Ambipom juggled Pachirisu into the air to avoid an attack and Pachirisu didn't miss a beat in her electrodisplay.
"Early!" Dawn called.
Ambipom bounded into the air, and Pachirisu followed her – with a much less powerful jump, and a fizzing Magnet Rise attack to give herself proper bounce.
The Normal-type smashed both hands down, driving Pachirisu towards the middle of the arena, and her teammate just about touched the ground with the tip of a whisker before being propelled powerfully back up on her Magnet-Rise bounce. She shot through the space between Mismagius and Finneon, electrical pulses going out in both directions, then used her tail to brake her momentum and swing back around to come at the duo from behind.
Finneon darted towards the Electrical-type, then did a peculiar little flip just as Pachirisu was about to use Spark. His tail sent out a splash of water, which blocked the Spark by making it waste itself on the water rather than on Finneon, and the startled squirrel got hit by an Aurora Beam to the face and flew back towards the ground.
Ambipom darted in, bouncing Pachirisu against the ground twice to break up the ice, and knocked her high to serve her right at Mismagius – resulting in a flash of light as Mismagius tried to use Mystical Fire and Pachirisu interrupted her with a Shock Wave.
Cancelling her Magnet Rise, Pachirisu came down to land in a sliding skid along the floor.
"Rally!" Dawn instructed, and Pachirisu nodded.
She twirled her tail, readying an Electro Ball, and both of Zoey's Pokémon waited for her to fire before darting out of the way.
The Electro Ball attack went flying across the arena, towards Ambipom, and the Normal-type smirked before using Thunderpunch – smashing the ball right back across the arena at Mismagius, who took a glancing hit.
Pachirisu already had another Electro Ball ready, and served this one with a flourish. Ambipom hit it, both of Zoey's Pokémon dodged, and this time Pachirisu used her tail to return it again – setting up a back-and-forth rally that gained speed and energy until it finally grounded out on one of Finneon's desperate Aqua Tail saves.
Zoey's points dropped, but before they could get low enough to knock her out she ordered a new strategy. "Fishion!"
Light swirled around Mismagius' sleeves, and then darted across to Finneon, who split into two identical copies. Then four, then eight, and finally sixteen, as a combination of Lucky Chant and Double Team made it nearly impossible to tell which fish Mismagius was actually levitating and which were the fifteen identical decoys.
"Shock Wave!" Dawn told her team, and Pachirisu switched to serving up that one. It flew straight and true, angling for the real fish, but Finneon blocked it with his Aqua Tail so he only got a glancing blow – and before either Pokémon could capitalize on that the Finneons shuffled about to make it impossible to build on the information.
A moment later Mismagius set Pachirisu on fire, which made concentrating much harder.
"It's probably a good thing only one of Dawn's Pokémon is really into table tennis," Ash said, watching as Ambipom went bounding into the fray to take attention off Pachirisu – producing Seed Bombs to knock at speed at her opponents, and putting some wicked backspin on one so it curved around to hit Mismagius from behind. "I know Casey does it with her whole team and baseball, but there's less ways a Pokémon can be good at table tennis."
"I'd do all right, I think," Ninetales volunteered. "I'm not good with any one bat, but I make up for it in volume."
"Ambipom, Pachirisu!" Dawn called, getting the attention of both Pokémon. "Sizzler serve!"
Ambipom nodded, running forwards, and Pachirisu adjusted her flaming-running-in-circles to bring her a little bit closer to Ambipom. It was the best she could do, and Ambipom decided it was good enough. She ran forwards, scooping up the squirrel with both hands using Fire Punch as a pair of oven gloves, then launched herself into the air with a Bounce.
Winding up, she threw Pachirisu at the ground – just as Pachirisu reactivated Magnet Rise, leading the flaming squirrel to bounce up and at Mismagius from an unusual angle. Pachirisu's cheeks flared as she spun out an electrical cable to entrap the Ghost-type, holding her in with chains of energy she couldn't easily break, and Ambipom came bounding up to start bouncing both Pokémon around.
She fended off a series of attacks from fake versions of Finneon, having to make sure none of them hit home so she wouldn't end up being blindsided by the real one, then hit the two electrically bound Pokémon together so they sparked brightly and launched the combination up at one of the Finneon.
Blazing with electric blue over smouldering orange, Pachirisu began quickly tweaking the electrical charge she was using to contain Mismagius. By switching it between negative and positive, while keeping her own at negative, she was able to quickly bounce Mismagius back and forth across the area Finneon was in by using herself as the counterweight.
After a few seconds of repeatedly using herself and her opponent as a projectile, she managed to hit the Double Team which was actually the real Finneon – knocking him halfway across the room, stunning him with the direct electrical blow, until Ambipom jumped up and used Thunderpunch on both tails to knock Finneon across the room back towards Pachirisu.
The Electric-type fired Mismagius on an intercepting course, cancelling out her own electricity as she did so, and Zoey's two Pokémon collided with a crackle-BOOM of neutralizing positive and negative charge.
Ambipom landed first, caught Pachirisu, and the two posed as sparks drifted to the floor around them.
"Nice work, Dawn," Zoey credited her, shaking her hand. "I can see you've really stepped up your game – I'll just have to do that too!"
"Just not too much," Pachirisu requested, a trifle plaintively. She rubbed her tail gingerly, touching at the scorch marks. "That was actually really quite painful."
"Yeah, we'll have to be careful about fire in the future," Dawn admitted. "If you had a way to extinguish it yourself, that would help."
"Hmmm..." Zoey hummed to herself. "I think I'll really have to bring my 'A' game to handle you, Dawn, you've learned really well!"
"Thanks," Dawn smiled. "And you're still the hardest opponent I have, in Contest battles..."
As Dawn rejoined the group, she found both Ash and Brock looking at a flyer.
"Is that the Tag Battle thing?" she asked, getting a nod. "Interested?"
"Well… I'm not sure, really," Ash admitted. "It kind of feels unfair for me to take part. This is supposed to be about teamwork, and… it's not really very big-headed of me to say that I'm at the level where I could win a lot of the fights by myself..."
"Yeah, that is a point," Dawn agreed, then frowned. "Oh, just to be sure, did you mean your team could, or you?"
"Both, probably," Lucario suggested. "Even if he left Kari by the side."
"Perforce I should be left by the side, for 'tis only one Pokémon per contestant at a time," Kari said. "I might wield myself, were I to deem it right, but he and I could only enter the field of battle together were it a double battle."
"That's a really long winded way of saying yeah," Pikachu noted. "Actually, though, is there such a thing as a tournament where Ash could enter as himself?"
"If there is, the best people to ask are probably Chuck and the Lucario Kingdom," Lucario suggested. "Unless, of course, they say 'only one Pokémon' but neglect to mention if humans are restricted."
"I think if Ash showed up and started punching Pokémon across the arena then they would restrict it pretty quickly," Dawn laughed.
"Hey, maybe I could enter!" Mawile suggested. "Ash – you could loan me a couple of Pokémon, like Goodra and Tyranitar?"
Ash frowned, thinking about it. "That… actually, that might be good, as you are an official trainer because you have Tyrantrum. But you're right, he probably wouldn't want to take part in this."
"Right!" Mawile agreed. "That's the kind of thing I was thinking about!"
Ash took out Dexter. "Would Mawile be allowed to do that?"
Give me a moment, I need to OCR the rules PDF.
"Pardon?" Ash said, mystified.
Give me a moment, I need to read the rules, Dexter repeated in the same tone.
The sound of running feet made them look up, seeing a young girl with purple hair approaching them. She looked about six, and was wearing jeans and a T-shirt which told the world that 'Igneous is Bliss' with an accompanying diagram.
"Found you!" she announced, and hugged Brock's legs – speaking very quickly, sounding a bit hysterical. "I was so scared, I got lost and then there was that big scary dragon and-"
"Calm down," Brock told her, crouching down to be on her level, and squeezed her shoulder. "You can relax, you're safe now. What happened?"
"I got lost," the girl said, calming down a bit. "You and Ash were showing me something while Mom was busy, and I got bored, and-"
"Wait, hold on," Ash said. "Brock and I were showing you something?"
The girl squinted up at Ash, and nodded.
Dawn frowned, then her eyes widened.
"Was the dragon a four legged one?" she asked. "With blue skin and kind of… glowing lines on it?"
"Yes," the girl nodded again. "Why?"
"That's Dialga," Dawn explained. "We haven't met you yet."
The girl squinted at Brock, tilting her head, then frowned. "Dad? You do look kind of young..."
"Say what!?" Ash asked.
"Is your Mom's name Philena?" Dawn said.
The girl nodded, then began to shake.
"It's okay, uh..." Brock began, trying to comfort her. "Dear? We'll get you..."
The shaking got stronger, and began to bubble into laughter despite the girl's best efforts. After a few more seconds, she started howling, and collapsed in a flare of blue light.
Zorua tried her best to stop laughing after her disguise failed, she really did, but it didn't seem to help.
"You have to admit," Lucario said, as the three humans tried to process what had just happened. "That was a good prank. Nice groundwork, and… yeah, pretty believable."
"I'd like to register for the Tag Battle Tournament."
"You're just in time," the clerk told him. "You've got the last slot. Name?"
"Paul," Paul supplied.
The clerk typed that in, then handed him a card with the number 32 on the obverse and his name on the reverse. "Keep that handy, you'll need it for the team selections. Just through there."
Paul nodded, walking through without a word.
At the other end of the tunnel was a grassy field, with several trainers milling about. One or two of them had a Pokémon out, and Paul immediately noticed that Ash was also present – with several Pokémon out, which was admittedly normal for him.
One of them was a Raikou, which was a bit odd.
"Your attention, please!" the organizer called. "For those who are taking part for the first time, the rules are as follows – you each have a number on your entry card, and we'll pair you up randomly into teams of two. The two of you will work together, and we'll be doing a straight elimination tournament from there. Any questions?"
Paul saw Ash raise his hand. "How many Pokémon can you use in each match, and are there any other restrictions?"
"One Pokémon, no-" the organizer began, then saw the Raikou and coughed. "Ahem, Legendary Pokémon are restricted, because… honestly, you're the only one who's going to have any."
"Raikou's not here to fight," Ash assured him. "Thanks for explaining."
Paul frowned, wondering what that was about, then saw the numbers flash up on the screen as the organizer decided there were no more questions coming.
His number, 32, was paired up with a number 14, and he started looking around for who it might be – holding his ticket turned number outwards, so other people could see his ticket.
For some reason, he seemed to be one of the only people who'd thought of something that simple…
"Ah, there you are!"
The voice had the odd timbre to it that Paul had already started associating with that thing Pokémon did when they could make humans understand them. He looked around, and saw Ash's Raikou looking back at him with a broad grin.
"Capital move of you, there, made things much easier. This way, come on, come on!"
Paul did so, and – as he'd half-expected – ended up being led right over to Ash.
"You got fourteen?" he asked, to make sure.
"Maaa-wile!" Ash's Mawile waved.
"The young lady wishes to correct your mis-statement," Raikou announced genially. "She's the one competing, not Ash. And yes, she is an official trainer – quite the job of work arranging that, I understand!"
Paul looked down at Mawile, who was wearing a cap a lot like the one Ash occasionally wore. "Really?"
He frowned. "I don't speak Pokémon, if you haven't noticed."
"That's what I'm here for!" Raikou explained happily. "I'm the translator! Well, chop chop, we've got strategy to talk!"
"You're not competing?" Paul confirmed, looking up at Ash this time.
"Wile!" Mawile said, hands on hips. "Maa-ma-wile-mawile!"
"Mawile wishes to inform you – in her own inimitable way, of course – that you're being silly about all this," Raikou said. "There's nothing stopping a Pokémon from being a trainer as well! Not that you could tell, with some of them. Ditto are dashed sneaky sometimes..."
"She said all that?" Paul asked.
"No, the last bit was just me," Raikou informed him. "Now, where – aha!"
He unslung a bundle from his back, which turned out to be made up entirely of wooden signs. "In the heat of battle, there might not be time for a full translation. So! Mawile's got a dozen or so signs here from my basic set, plus a few she asked me to make, and if she holds one of them up pay attention to it, there's a good chap."
"Exactly how much time have you been spending with Noctowl recently?" Ash asked.
"No more than usual!"
"Well… what Pokémon does she – do you have," Paul asked, correcting his focus towards Mawile.
Mawile counted them off, and Raikou provided the translation – not without some extemporizing on the nature of the Pokémon involved.
It seemed she'd borrowed Pokémon from Ash, to fit a sort of theme – she had a Totodile, a Tyranitar and a Goodra on hand, along with the Tyrantrum Paul assumed had come from the same place he got Cranidos.
Apparently he was there strictly for moral support, though. It seemed a little odd to waste such a powerful Pokémon, but then again Paul had to remember that she was one of Ash's own Pokémon and Ash's methods clearly worked sometimes.
A few minutes later, watching her talking animatedly with the Pokémon she'd brought along – including Tyrantrum, who she'd just said wasn't going to get in the battles – Paul wasn't so sure.
The little Steel-type turned her attention to Goodra, talked to him for a moment, then asked Raikou something.
"Mawile would like to know if you've got your Cranidos along," Raikou reported.
"I do," Paul confirmed.
"She thinks Cranidos would make a good teammate for Goodra," the Legendary supplied.
"Why?" Paul asked. "Is it that she thinks they'd make friends?"
"A little, a little," Raikou replied. "But she also thinks you've almost certainly taught her Iron Head, which would make her a good counter for most Pokémon that could cause Goodra serious trouble, while Goodra has plenty of moves to make things difficult for the Pokémon that could give Cranidos trouble. She's not got as much to say about good teammates for Totodile because..." Raikou glanced at Mawile, who started to explain, and Raikou repeated the explanation. "Because it's obvious the best choice is your Torterra, and you've got to have that one along because it's your starter."
Mawile made one final comment, and Raikou dutifully supplied it. "Also because Totodile's good at dancing, so earthquakes won't be a problem for him."
Paul absorbed that with an interested frown.
Maybe this wouldn't be so bad after all...
"Maaa," Mawile frowned, looking at the Pokémon on the other side of the field. "Wile?"
Paul glanced at Raikou, who cleared his throat. "There's only one Pokémon over there, she says. Where's the other one?"
"I don't know," Paul said, shortly, then frowned and looked closer.
The Mawile was right. He could see an Azumarill, currently firing Water Pulses at Cranidos and having them blocked by Goodra, but that was it.
Come to think of it, that Water-Fairy type could cause problems for both Pokémon by himself, as Goodra and Cranidos were both vulnerable.
"Wa-ma-wile," Mawile instructed. "Wile!"
"She told Goodra to ask Cranidos if she could fight under rain, and use Rain Dance if she said yes," Raikou reported. "I suppose we're lucky my brother isn't the one doing this, he'd be quite incensed!"
"Right," Paul said, not sure what the implications of that were.
Mawile turned to him, smiled, and held up a sign.
It read: 'Don't worry! Goodra can sense things that are being rained on!'
"So Goodra will find the missing Pokémon," Paul realized. "All right. Cranidos, as soon as it starts to rain charge forwards and attack Azumarill with Iron Head. Keep him busy."
Cranidos nodded, replying to Goodra at the same moment, and Goodra used Rain Dance.
As the rain began to fall, Cranidos lowered her head, using it as a kind of rain-shield as she blurred across the arena. Halfway across one of her feet got stuck, leading her to stumble-skip a few steps, but she recovered and scored a glancing blow on Azumarill. The Water-type retaliated with an Aqua Tail, and Cranidos interposed her hard head with a whack that echoed across the stadium. Her feet slid a little on the grassy stadium floor, and she dug in her talons before launching a second attack.
Goodra came lumbering a bit behind, paused, then whipped his tail around and smacked something out of the grass.
The Pokémon he'd hit – a Kecleon – bounced once, disguise collapsing from the impact. It retaliated with a Psybeam, then tried to hide again.
Goodra adjusted himself a little, and strafed a line of Dragon Pulse along the grass. It hit Kecleon, harder than the first blow, and Paul heard the other trainers shouting something.
Something about Play Rough-
"Cranidos, intercept him!" he ordered.
Cranidos whirled, claws tearing up the ground beneath her, and used a Head Smash to knock Azumarill away just before he could punch Goodra halfway across the stadium. The Fairy-type whirled, launching a Hydro Pump at Cranidos, and Goodra's Dragon Pulse intercepted the attack to send them both off at an angle – returning the favour by keeping Cranidos from taking an attack that might knock her out.
"Wiiile!" Mawile called, pointing, and Paul followed where she was pointing to spot the moving grass which showed where Kecleon was going.
The lizard reached Azumarill, and was quickly beaned by a very weak fingertap to the head. Then he vanished back into the grass, and Goodra took a moment to locate Kecleon again before blasting Dragon Pulse at him.
"Mawile," Paul said. "That was a Play Rough. Kecleon's Fairy type now."
"Maa?" Mawile asked, glancing at him, then nodded firmly. "Wiii-mawile, wile!"
"Roughly speaking: should we switch targets?" Raikou supplied. "There's also a lot of stuff in there about the tactical situation, but-"
"Yes," Paul decided. "Goodra should handle Azumarill for now. Cranidos – Avalanche, then Head Smash!"
"That's really good camera footage," Suicune said. "Isn't it?"
"It is, you're right," Swellow agreed. "Normally with these things the cameras stay up on the wall, which I guess is fine, but this is giving us great views of the battle right up close! I wonder how they're doing it?"
The assembled Pokémon watched for a bit longer, seeing Goodra using his Dragon Pulse to fly all over the place – avoiding the close-range attentions of Azumarill, and also using the flame jet to blind him and prevent him from getting at either Goodra or Cranidos – then Ivysaur nodded to himself.
"Got it," he said. "They're not reacting, so it's not something they can see. It's invisible – and it's getting very close to the action, so it's either not valuable or it's able to protect itself."
"So, what's the answer?" Torkoal asked.
"Latias," Ivysaur said simply. "I bet she's got a camera somewhere, possibly on her forehead, and she's just flying around shielded and invisible to get the best pictures."
"How do you work that out?"
Ivysaur gave the speaking Tauros a look. "I've seen a lot of things. Eventually you kind of get used to thinking the right way."
"This tournament really does produce some strange team ups," Brock observed, watching as Tyranitar unleashed his Hyper Beam and Paul's Ninjask got out of the way. "I know normally you want Pokémon who can cover weaknesses, because you can't really work out good elaborate combos with a randomly assigned teammate, but even so..."
"I do know what you mean," Ash agreed.
"Then again, if you have a really powerful Pokémon, they can win by themselves," Lucario mused. "Mewtwo, for instance."
"They did say they wouldn't allow Legendary Pokémon," Brock pointed out.
"Then what about M-002?"
"That's a Mewtwo as well," Pikachu said.
"True."
"I think what Lucario's trying not to do is say he'd be the one," Ash observed, then winced as the Charmeleon forming one half of the other team used Flamethrower and Paul's Ninjask barely got away. "Whoa! That was close."
The other half of the team, a burly Machoke, went running up towards Tyranitar.
"Earthquake!" Mawile called.
The ground shook as Tyranitar used Earthquake, hitting both Pokémon but especially Charmeleon, and the Machoke jumped to slam home a punch into Tyranitar's chest.
Machoke's punch drove Tyranitar back several feet, then he turned around and used his tail to smack Machoke to the side.
Ninjask shot in, getting off three hits with Fury Cutter before Machoke hit the ground, then did a loop once around Tyranitar and came back for two more attacks.
"What would you have done there?" Brock asked.
"Probably have had Tyranitar turn on Sand Stream by now," Ash mused. "Ninjask should be fast enough to avoid the worst if the sandstorm's got a consistent direction to it. I'll mention it to Mawile after the battle – but she's doing really well so far."
"We've reached the finals," Paul said, looking down at Mawile. "This is working well."
"Thanks!" Mawile replied, then rummaged through her pile of signs and held up one to represent that.
Paul looked for a moment, then turned his attention to the arena. "I'm using Torterra in the final," he announced, watching as the semi-finalists they'd beaten left.
Mawile nodded, taking Totodile's Pokéball, and adjusting her position slightly so she stayed balanced on Tyrantrum's head. "I wonder who our opponents are going to use..."
Raikou didn't bother to translate that one, sitting on his haunches to wait for the other two finalists to arrive.
"Isn't that that Barry person?" Mawile asked, moving her cap so she could see better. "Don't you think so, Raikou?"
"It seems as though I remember him from somewhere," Raikou admitted. "Though perhaps I just blew past him on the road?"
He shrugged. "Though I don't know his Pokémon, anyway, so who knows what he'll send out?"
The referee indicated they should all send out their Pokémon, and Mawile threw her Pokéball with great enthusiasm – putting a backspin on it, like she'd been taught how to do, so it bounced back to her hand with ease.
Totodile landed with both legs and one forepaw, rose to an upright position, and watched as Barry sent out a Prinplup and his teammate sent out a Kricketune.
"Okay, Totodile!" Mawile called. "Get ready to keep Torterra safe!"
She turned to Paul. "Can you make sure Torterra stays back a bit and uses Earthquake?"
Raikou began to relay that, and Paul held up his hand. "I know. Earthquake."
Mawile nodded, holding up the 'yes!' sign, and then the referee called for the battle to begin.
Almost immediately, Barry pointed extravagantly and Prinplup used Ice Beam. Totodile fired off a Scald attack, colliding with the Ice Beam and producing a loud crash, and the combined spray of icy water went off to the right – missing Torterra handily, who used an Earthquake and made the ground tremble.
Totodile began dancing about, using the jolting of the ground as an impetus to start moving rather than letting it hurt him, and Mawile nodded. "Good work!"
She looked through her signs for a moment, then gave up. "Should I have Totodile keep Kricketune occupied so Torterra can charge Prinplup?"
Paul listened to all of Raikou's translation, then nodded. "Yes. Good plan."
As Mawile gave the instruction, though, the other team started a plan of their own.
"That's right, Prinplup!" Barry pointed. "Use your Water Gun, then freeze it! Nando, your Kricketune can run along the ice!"
"It's worth a try, I suppose," Nando decided, and by the time he'd finished speaking Prinplup was already freezing his Water Gun.
Kricketune took the hint, jumping onto the ice and starting to skate along. He put his scythes together, playing a quick jig as he Swords Danced, then jumped straight at Torterra as he reached the end of the ice rail to use X-Scissor.
He was about to reach the Grass-type when Totodile interrupted, snapping his jaws down on the edge of a glowing scythe and doing a twirl to swing Kricketune into the distance.
Prinplup promptly dove onto his belly, sliding along the ground by icing it up, and Nando gave Barry a slightly confused look.
"I got the idea from something I heard Ash Ketchum did once!" Barry explained. "Well, he had a Snorlax spinning around firing Hyper Beams, and the ice was made by setting off the sprinklers or something, but it's the same principle!"
"I suppose," Nando allowed. "It's a useful trick, certainly."
Prinplup reached where he was going, and promptly got hit by a Solarbeam.
"Prinplup, use Metal Claw!" Barry instructed.
Prinplup picked himself up, looked at his flippers, then looked at Barry. He shrugged, and the tips of his flippers began to glow – letting him divert away the Energy Ball that Torterra launched at him.
They heard Mawile say something, and Torterra slammed out an Earthquake which knocked the singing Kricketune off his feet without affecting the dancing Totodile.
"I wonder if it's helping out their team that one of the trainers is a Pokémon, or harming it because they can't talk," Nando said, then shook his head. "Barry, what can your Prinplup do to help us get at Torterra?"
"He can slide along the ground, and your Kricketune can ride on top?" Barry suggested.
"That will do," Nando agreed.
"All right, Prinplup, let Kricketune get on your back and go straight for Torterra!" Barry instructed.
"I have an idea!" Mawile announced, as their opponents formed a combination. Totodile went diving in to try and disrupt them, but Kricketune's scythes flicked back and forth in a series of defensive moves and stopped the little Water-type from achieving anything. "Does Torterra know Frenzy Plant?"
As soon as Raikou finished the question, Paul scoffed. "Of course he does."
"Totodile knows Hydro Cannon! So they should use the attacks at almost the same time!"
Paul thought about that for only a moment once he'd heard it. "Done. Torterra, get ready to use your strongest attack."
Torterra glanced back for a second, then nodded – understanding Paul's meaning without his having to name the attack specifically.
Mawile smiled slightly, glad to see Paul relying on his Pokémon thinking for themselves, then cupped her hands around her mouth. "Totodile! Use Hydro Cannon!"
Just after she shouted the command, Prinplup veered off course – not wanting to give Totodile an easy target – then came back in to attack Torterra from a different direction.
"Oh, I get it!" Barry said. "That's cool, it's kind of a vector thing because hitting a moving target is much easier if it's moving towards or away from you, so by doing that they've made it so only Torterra has an easy target, which is something that's kind of impossible to avoid if you think about it-"
"Barry, please," Nando requested.
Barry made a zipping gesture in front of his lips.
A moment later, Torterra slammed his forefoot down on the ground, sending a small shockwave pulsing out. It jolted Prinplup into the air a little, but his flippers steered him back down to the ground so he wouldn't crash.
At which point Torterra fired off his actual attack, Frenzy Plant.
"Block!" Nando called.
Kricketune took two quick steps forwards and crossed his scythes, letting them take the brunt of the close-range Frenzy Plant impact. The jolt stopped both Pokémon in their tracks, but it also diverted enough of the force of the surging roots and vines that it didn't send them flying.
"Mmmm!" Barry mumbled, pointing, and Nando turned a little – only to see Totodile firing his Hydro Cannon.
The attack hit Kricketune square in the side, the stalled Bug-type an easy target, and knocked him flying square into the wall. Totodile nearly collapsed with the effort, but the exchange had also left Prinplup by himself – unable to get moving again on short notice because of the roots all around him – and Torterra came charging forwards, introducing Prinplup to a Thrash attack.
"Mmm," Barry sighed, as the board indicated they'd lost, then shrugged. "Mmm?"
"...you can talk now," Nando said, after realizing what Barry was getting at. "And yes, I suppose second place is entirely respectable."
This is probably a historic moment, or something, Mewtwo mused. I did wonder at one point whether I should take up the League Challenge, but my other projects… ah well. I'm happy it's been done, irrespective of who did it.
He smiled. Besides, using Charizardtwo would probably qualify as cheating… or unfair, at least.
"Well done, Mawile," Ash smiled. "And thanks for helping her, guys."
Totodile, Goodra and Tyranitar all in their own ways indicated that it was fine.
"She's our friend," Tyranitar voiced. "And I think sister?"
"I think she's your sister, my friend, and Totodile's partner in crime," Goodra mused.
"Is dancing a crime?" Totodile asked, sounding interested in the idea. "I like the sound of being an outlaw dancer!"
"How would that work?" Brock asked. "Break into a house and tango at them?"
Totodile nodded enthusiastically. "Yeah!"
As he considered whether it would be more appropriate to break in and then start dancing or break in by dancing – mostly but not entirely for the fun of it – Mawile just looked at the Soothe Bell she'd won.
Paul had the other one, and when they'd left he was still trying to work out which Pokémon to give it to.
"Who had this last time?" Mawile asked, eventually. "You won the tournament, right?"
"Yeah, I did, with Paul," Ash agreed. "But I didn't really work out who to give either one to, so they just sat on my desk."
"Oh, yeah, that's right," Pikachu said. "I forgot about that. Yeah, last time he didn't want his one, did he?"
"I wonder what changed that," Dawn mused.
She paused. "...wait, who said that last bit?"
"Congratulations," Pikachu offered her. "Now you'll have to understand everything I say."
"I didn't realize I was making that much progress," Dawn admitted. "Is that how it works?"
"It seems to be a thing about the person, as to whether they have the right… something," Ash waved his hand. "We've only really got a few examples to go on, but last we heard May and Max hadn't worked it out yet."
"Does this mean you can understand anyone?" Goodra asked, interested.
There was a pause.
"That's probably a no, then," Pikachu said delicately.
There was a jingle, and they looked up to see Mawile putting the Soothe Bell around Tyrantrum's tail.
"There," she said. "I know you get nervous sometimes, Tyrantrum, and I hope this helps out a bit. If it doesn't, that's fine and we can just take it off."
"Thank you," Tyrantrum smiled.
He waved his tail, producing a little jingle. "It is a really nice sound, actually… and maybe it'll make sure I don't surprise people as much."
"That's a very good idea, Mawile," Ash told her. "I think you've done really well today – not just in battling, but in how you've behaved."
Mawile beamed.
"I wonder if there's an ice cream place around here," he added.
"Okay, look," Maxie said calmly. "I understand that I've committed crimes. Serious crimes. I understand that I'm going to be in prison for a long time."
He adjusted his glasses. "I'm fully aware that I've been found guilty and sent to prison. And I know it's supposed to be a punishment. But I'm not being a troublesome prisoner – I've done what I'm supposed to. I've gone along with what you've asked for, and I've given up all the information I know on Team Magma and Team Aqua."
The ex-Team Leader put his hands on the table. "So please, please, move me to a different cell than Archie the pirate pillock!"
"Be you disrespectin' me again?" Archie demanded.
"Of course I am, you bilious blue excuse for a sailor!" Maxie shot back. "I happen to know you started doing that stupid dialect only last year because it sounded more like what a pirate would say, and you got the idea from some internet holiday!"
"Lubberly lubberwort," Archie muttered, crossing his arms.
The phone rang.
Philena Ivy picked it up with one hand, pointing with her other one at the door. "Luxio, just – look – make sure the pink Pidgey don't get at the non-Pinkan berries, okay? That'll ruin the whole experiment."
Her Electric-type loped off, Roaring, and Philena directed her attention to the actual phone conversation. "Sorry about that, bit hectic here – Brock! No, that's fine," she assured him. "Luxio's handling it now. I've always got time for you."
She listened for a moment, then frowned. "Pardon?"
Another, longer pause.
"Well, Zorua are pranksters, but this sounds like much more of a prank than normal," she admitted. "She pretended to be what?"
Pause.
"The sad thing is, she's sort of right – that sounds much more plausible than it would have done a year or two ago," the Professor groaned. "I hope you're giving her a good telling off!"
Luxio ran back in with a bright pink Pidgey, still fizzling from the aftereffects of the Thunder Wave. She deposited the avian neatly in a cage, then pounced out the door after another one trying to carry a Sitrus berry off.
"That sounds like it'll make her understand actions have consequences," Philena agreed. "Knowing how much of a gourmet she is, two days of bread and water – even lots of it – might almost be too cruel!"
She nodded to herself a few times, listening to what Brock was saying, then smiled. "Love you too. Oh, before you go – we saw the tag battle tournament on the TV. Be sure to let your friend's Mawile know she was very cute."
AN:
So, today we have both a bit of Dawn Contest and a bit of... something else.
Hopefully it was an interesting take, at least.
Sorry for the delay, I'm afraid there are some things happening right now which cause a number of interruptions to my normal routine.
