"Any luck?" Brock asked.

Ash shut the last of Sir Aaron's well-thumbed notebooks. "No, there's nothing even close to this… or, I don't think there is, but it might just be that I'm seeing it and I don't know it!"

"Ouch," Brock winced. "I hadn't thought of that."

"I didn't either, at first," Ash admitted. "But it sort of came to me over time..."

He shook his head. "Well… I guess we just need to keep going, and watch out for that trick in future."

"Yeah," Brock agreed. "Dawn already said that – she's got a Contest at Solaceon itself, later today."

"That sounds good," Ash smiled. "It's a pity there isn't a gym here… I'll just have to do some training, instead."

He thought for a moment, then nodded to himself. "Can I have some of Geodude's time? I feel like I need to punch things a bit."


"Okay," Dawn said to herself. "Okay, guys, you ready?"

"Of course I'm ready," Piplup shrugged. "Why would I not be ready?"

"She has to ask anyway," Buneary sighed. "And yeah, we're ready all right."

"Good," Dawn smiled. She checked her own outfit – a dress May had recommended last time they'd talked, with a tie-dye pattern of blues on the skirt – then looked up, ready to go into the Contest hall.

Then she groaned. "Oh… dear."

"What is it?" Buneary asked, Bouncing up to her shoulder and landing lightly. "Oh."

"Are you going to tell me at some point?" Piplup said, flippers on hips.

Jumping back down, Buneary filled him in. "Incoming Ursula," she reported.

"Oh, right, her," Piplup muttered. "Was she even here last time?"

"I don't remember, but we hadn't met her yet then," Buneary pointed out.

"I guess I'll have to try to make a better first impression," Dawn decided.

"Good luck," Piplup wished her, not entirely confidently.

The sound caught Ursula's attention, and she turned to see where it had come from.

"Oh, hello," she said, with a nod. "You're competing as well?"

"That's right," Dawn agreed. "My name's Dawn – I'm from Twinleaf."

"Ursula," the other girl introduced herself. "I'm looking forward to seeing what your Pokémon can manage."

"Thanks," Dawn smiled. "Do you mind if I ask what Pokémon you're planning on using?"

"I do," Ursula dismissed. "We don't have to say, and I'm not going to."

Dawn's smile drooped a bit, but she shrugged. "Okay. That's your choice, of course."

"Of course," Ursula agreed. "Well, you seem pleasant enough. I'll look forward to beating you."

Buneary watched as Ursula walked off, then looked up at her trainer. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, she just… gets to me," Dawn sighed. "Sometimes she would try specifically to get to me, but even when she doesn't try… she does anyway."

She shook her head. "I'm not even sure what to do at this point. Is it really worth trying to make friends with her, if she's like this all the time?"

"Just do your best," Buneary advised. "What happens, happens… though admittedly the fact we're all time travellers makes that a bit of an odd sentiment."

"I guess," Dawn nodded. "Okay, let's go."


"Ash?" Brock asked.

Ash looked up. "Huh?"

"It's not very polite to read during a Contest," Brock reminded him.

"Right, sorry," Ash winced. "I was looking at the reminding pattern to see if there's some kind of opposite..."

He put the notebooks away – one of Sir Aaron's, and a new one of his own full of notations about Aura use. "What happened?"

"You missed a pretty good display with a Pichu and a Marill," Brock informed him. "This is the second."

Ash nodded absently, then frowned. "Wait, don't we know her?"

"I remember her," Pikachu agreed. "She didn't like Dawn much."

"Right," Ash agreed.

"Maybe she's not as unpleasant," Brock suggested. "We've already seen how even Paul got changed… a bit, at least."

"Yeah, maybe you're right," Ash agreed.

Out on the floor, Ursula sent out her Pokémon – her Jigglypuff, which pancaked almost flat before bouncing back upright, and her Gabite.

She made a flourish, and her Jigglypuff began spinning in circles with Gyro Ball before bounding into the air. Gabite jumped up, catching the Fairy-type, and bounced her on the floor once before launching a Dragon Rage at it.

Jigglypuff came through the explosion without any trouble, relying on its typing to endure the impact without damage, and Gabite took up bouncing it around before throwing it to the floor – producing a faint squeak sound, but no apparent injury – and jumping on it.

The Gyro Ball reactivated, setting both Jigglypuff and Gabite spinning, and Gabite angled her arms before suddenly catching the air and taking off. Her claws gripped Jigglypuff, flicking it into the air, and Gabite used Sand Tomb as she landed – sending up a blast of sand which the wildly spinning Jigglypuff deflected in all directions, before landing in a puff of Dragon Rage right atop Gabite's head.

"She's certainly still good at Contests," Brock judged. "Did we see that one last time?"

"You couldn't," Lucario said, before Ash or Pikachu could. "Fairy type, remember?"

"Right, yeah," Brock realized. "Forgot about that."


Dawn stepped out onto the floor, and took a deep breath.

It would be good to get back to what she was used to.

She sent out Piplup, who appeared with a flourish and a splash of water as his Splash Seals detonated, and twirled her finger wordlessly. Piplup used Whirlpool, whipping that starting splash of water into a watery tornado, and Dawn gently lobbed Buneary's Pokéball into it.

Buneary's Seal had a wave of high pressure air contained in it, and when it detonated a moment later – right at the heart of the whirlpool – it blew the middle apart, which Buneary immediately exploited by flicking an Ice Beam down at the lower half of the tornado and swinging it around. The aura of cold caught most – though not all – of the water droplets, turning them into glittering ice, and Buneary landed with a twirl as ice fell around her – just as Piplup did a matching spin, with the water from the upper half of the Whirlpool falling around him.

Buneary rolled onto her tail, powerful foot-paws tensed, and Piplup jumped onto them so she could launch him into the air. Once there, he used Surf – producing great gouts of water, which took on a spinning motion as he caught them in Whirlpools as well. They went all over the place, forming spinning vortices of water which Piplup flew between at speed by using them as speed boosters.

He dropped into one, boosted it up with his proximity, then flew out again to reach the next – sending it moving gently backwards with a kind of recoil.

Dawn watched for three seconds, then pointed. "Now!"

Buneary jumped, entering the nearest of the whirlpools, and used Thunderpunch. The whole whirlpool lit up, then Buneary exited it and shot an Ice Beam back towards it just as she left.

The whirlpool froze instantly, some of the electrical energy staying caged within it, and Buneary spun to do the same to the next whirlpool as Piplup shot past on his own path from whirlpool to whirlpool.

Dawn kept signalling, timing matters so Buneary was able to keep moving faster and faster – turning one whirlpool after another into frozen sculptures lit from within by caged lightning, as both she and Piplup had to use fewer and fewer of the whirlpools – their choices being restricted more and more as the sculptures built up, with the ones in the air gaining little tails of water reaching to the floor just before they froze to hold them up.

Then one of them froze without a standing base, sparkled for a moment in the air, and fell. It smashed on the stage floor, producing a fizzle of sparks, and Dawn frowned for a moment before realizing something.

One of the other whirlpools, over on the other side of the stage, had developed a stand-up tail. That was the one Piplup had expected Buneary to reach next – but that meant she'd made a mistake with the signals-

"Look out!" she said, and that only made things worse. Piplup looked over, concerned, and failed to exit his whirlpool in time – so Buneary smacked into him, Thunderpunch already going, and the two Pokémon went flying in opposite directions.

Buneary hit the base of one of the taller ice sculptures, knocking it over, and though Piplup managed to avoid hitting anything the damage was already done. The sculpture shattered as it hit the ground, releasing its' trapped electricity, and knocked two more over – which knocked another over – until the whole field was covered with smashed ice, in a way which was obviously not part of a planned sequence.

Dawn flushed.

"Oops..." Buneary winced.

"I think that one's partly my fault," Dawn admitted. "I was so focused on getting back into the groove… we should have done this one later, it's really demanding."

Piplup patted her on the knee, giving her wordless support, and Dawn smiled. "Thanks. But I think we're not going to be in the battle section of this one."

The score came up a moment later, confirming her fears, and she sighed. "Ah well. Next time, right?"


At about the same time, hundreds of miles to the south, May nodded.

"Two on two, right?" she asked the other Coordinator.

"That's right," the young woman agreed. "If you don't mind."

"Not at all," May replied. "Okay… I think I'll go with Munchlax and Beautifly."

She sent the two Pokémon out, one at a time, and the other Coordinator sent her own Pokémon out a moment later – a Chingling, and a much bigger green-and-blue Bronzong.

"Ring the changes," May's opponent instructed, and Chingling began to ring out a series of sweet notes – each one hanging in the air for a moment, harmonizing with the previous note, and building up a charge of psychic energy.

May pointed. "Bug Buzz!" she told Beautifly. "And-"

Before she could give Munchlax his instructions, Bronzong tolled. The note was much louder and more powerful than the sound Chingling was producing, but harmonized with it perfectly and produced a pulse of sound which knocked Beautifly through the air.

The Bug-type recovered quickly, firing her attack from a greater distance this time, and Chingling drifted out of the way – keeping up the sequence, with Bronzong joining in on every fourth note to supply the bass line.

"Kris?" Max asked. "Is that an actual piece of music?"

Searching, Kris stated. Yes. It is a modified version of the Canon in D.

"We had to adapt it a little so it worked with so few instruments," May's opponent told her.

A moment later, Munchlax used Metronome. The Normal-type looked confused for a moment, then coughed out a cloud of purple poisonpowder which settled on Chingling.

The Psychic-type's trainer looked surprised. "You use Metronome?

"And Assist, actually," May agreed. "I like a bit of randomness."

Chingling used Heal Bell, wiping away the effect of the Poison, and Bronzong's twin hammers swung in to toll against its' sides. This time, the bass note signalled a Rock Tomb, which flew into the air and barely missed hitting Beautifly.

"Shadow Ball!" May commanded. "Fire it through Munchlax!"

Munchlax scratched his side, then readied another Metronome. He grunted as both Psychic-type opponents hit him with attacks at once – again on the four-beat of the music – then exhaled a burst of frost as the random attack turned into Frost Breath.

Beautifly's Shadow Ball scudded through Munchlax, then the ice, picking some of it up to give it a shimmering corona which amplified the blast when it shattered on impact with Chingling.

May's opponent nodded her head a moment, in time with the music, then snapped her fingers sharply.

The tone of the bells accelerated noticeably, shifting from a simple four-beat tune to something much more complicated – Chingling producing a scalar melody pattern that still synced up with Bronzong's patient tolling, but which lent the whole piece a greater energy.

Which was when Chingling started using Echoed Voice along with its notes, pulsing out increasingly powerful bursts of sound and knocking Munchlax slowly backwards.

"Metronome," May instructed. "And Beautifly – Secret Power!"

Beautifly's attack fired first, producing a ripple that ran through the ground before mounding up and striking Bronzong.

"Heal Bell!" May's foe ordered, interrupting Chingling's Echoed voice sequence to keep her Steel-type awake, and Munchlax shadow-punched Chingling at almost the same moment. The sound produced was oddly discordant, but it still didn't seem to be enough to interrupt the music – which was only growing stronger, as Chingling and Bronzong resonated with one another, the Steel-type in particular glowing with a strength that increased with every bar.

"Wait..." May frowned suddenly. "Bronzong's only attacking once every three or four times Chingling does. But there's no reason why it should be doing that..."

"Chingling!" she heard. "Psych Up! Let's finish the performance!"

Suddenly, Chingling glowed as brightly as Bronzong already was – copying what May had suddenly realized was several carefully timed uses of Calm Mind, amplifying the power of both Pokémon now to make them much stronger than they should normally have been.

"Beautifly, Munchlax, sirocco!" she ordered.

Munchlax curled into a ball, and Beautifly dodged out of the way of a combined Psychic attack from both bell-tolling enemy Pokémon. She did a flip, swirling silver scales drifting off her wings, then pulled up and launched them towards Munchlax with a powerful gust of wind.

The Normal-type stuck out his fist, glowing with the sparks of a Fire Punch, and the Silver Wind caught fire. Beautifly swept it around, curling it with a supplementary Tailwind, and bathed both opposing Pokémon in flame – leading Chingling to use a Light Screen to deflect away the intense heat from his Bronzong partner.

When the firestorm faded, Chingling was staggering – the strain of enduring the Bug-type part of the attack clearly telling. Then Beautifly sped in, landing a blow with Bug Bite, and the bell-like Psychic-type fell to the floor as his strength gave out under the sudden physical attack which his Calm Mind boosts were unable to help with.

"Okay, time out," May's opponent requested. "I know what's about to happen, because Chingling's the only one who knows Heal Bell. Well done."

"You as well," May replied, as several other Pokémon – a Bunnelby, a Growlithe, a Flaafy and a Taillow – hurried onto the battlefield to see how their teammate was doing.

"I think he's fine," Flaafy reported, a few seconds later. "Just a bit stunned."

"Phew," Growlithe barked, tail wagging for a moment.

"I think if that were a Contest, it would have been closer," May added, thinking about it. "That bell motif you had going the whole time had enough variation that I don't think they'd have penalized it, and it certainly got me on the back foot a few times."

The other Coordinator smiled. "Well, I'm glad to hear that. I hope we do get a Contest together some day – do you have all your Ribbons yet?"

"I've got a couple to go," May replied. "I wasn't able to finish my collection before my brother arrived in Johto, and he's dragged me to all the gyms first."

"You're not hard to persuade," Max supplied from the sidelines.


"So, new rival?" Max asked, some minutes later.

"How do you figure?" May replied.

"Well, she's a Coordinator, you ran into her and befriended her – which already makes her a better choice than some," Max counted off. "And she's called June. Which is such an obvious comparison. It's like if I met someone called Min."

"There's still some badges to go for you in Johto, don't count it out," May replied tartly. "But yeah, it's kind of like that thing with Ash Ketchum and Ritchie Getem… or, for that matter, Ash Ketchum and Gary Oak. And, uh, May and Max Maple..."

She shrugged. "But Iwalani's not a name with any connection to 'Max', so it's not needed. And I didn't hear her surname being 'Palm', or 'Golden' or something else like that."

Max waved his hand. "I don't claim to make up the rules… but you have to admit, master swords-mon versus master archer-mon is a pretty good theme match up anyway."

He chuckled. "Maybe Celebi just finds it easier to remember who to mess around with if the names have a theme to them?"


"Don't worry, Dawn!" Mawile said, patting her on the shoulder. "I think that was a really great idea, and everyone makes mistakes sometimes!"

Dawn smiled. "Thanks – I've told myself that, but it helps to hear it from someone else."

Mawile hoisted herself the rest of the way up onto Tyrantrum's neck, giving the big Rock-type a scratch just where he liked it, then looked over at Ash. "Where are we going next?"

"Well, there's a hot spring on the way," Ash recalled. "So we can stop there for a bit."

"Aren't those dangerous?" Tyrantrum said, tilting his head. "They're supposed to be to do with volcanoes?"

"They're not very dangerous," Mawile told him. "Well… they're just warm, that's all. And relaxing."

She looked down at the ground, which from her current perch was quite a long way away. "I… think maybe you might have to just enjoy getting your feet warm, though, unless they've got a pool you can use yourself. They probably do, though!"

Tyrantrum considered that, and as he did the group began to head out of Solaceon.

"Hey!" Ursula called, getting their attention. "Dawn, right?"

"Yes?" Dawn replied, politely. "What is it?"

"I just wanted to let you know," Ursula went on. "I'm still looking forward to beating you, when you get good enough to actually reach the Battle rounds."

As Dawn stared in shock, Ursula walked off with a jaunty wave.

"Wow," Brock said, astonished. "She's… not nice."

"Not especially, no," Dawn agreed, trying not to groan.


"Um… Pikachu?"

Pikachu sat up, a faint crackle of Aura going over his fur to keep it dry. "Buneary? Is something wrong?"

"Not wrong, really, but..." Buneary looked around the hot spring pool – it had turned out there was a 'Pokémon' pool, and one big enough to allow Tyrantrum and even Steelix to lounge half-in-and-half-out of the hot spring water – and rubbed her paws together nervously, then clenched both fists slightly.

"I was wondering if you could help teach me something," she said. "I want to be able to use Magnet Rise to control my movement more – that was part of what made the routine yesterday so complicated, because I couldn't use any already-iced-up whirlpools as contact points or I'd break them. But it's something I want to learn for other reasons, too, it just… seems like something it'd be nice to be able to do."

Pikachu absorbed that, nodding slowly, then stood.

"All right," he said, flicking his tail to get a few drops of water off, and walking to the shore to hop onto dry land. "So I know you have Thunderpunch… do you have any other Electric type moves?"

"None I'm any good at," Buneary sighed.

"Don't worry," Pikachu told her. "When I taught Mawile so she could get over her fear of earthquakes, I started with Thunder Fang. Thunderpunch is a good starting point. Now, start the move up."

Buneary nodded, her paw sparking a bit as she began to charge the Thunderpunch.

"Right, that's good – and stop," Pikachu told her. "That's about the amount of charge you're going to need. Now – and I appreciate this sounds odd – what you need to do is to let the electricity flow over your entire body, but keeping it as contained as it is now. Don't let it discharge… in fact, compress it more. It should all be contained no further out than your fur."

The Normal-type took a deep breath, concentrating.

Then all her fur floofed out at once with an audible fzzzzert, and she groaned.

"Don't worry," Pikachu advised her, using his tail to sweep up the voltage into his Lightningrod and dissipate it. "Let's try it again. You didn't quite get the density high enough."

Buneary nodded. "Okay… so… like this?"

"Yes, just like that," Pikachu confirmed. "Now you need to spread it out… a bit… a bit more… and there you go. Hold it like that."

He picked up a small stick, and gave her a light tap. She tilted her head, confused, until she noticed she was very slowly drifting backwards – the voltage of a Magnet Rise just about keeping her off the floor.

"So, um… okay," she said, still drifting backwards. "So how do I steer?"

"There's a few ways," Pikachu told her. "One of them is to change the level of charge on your different paws – it makes you move one way or the other. Another is to touch something, when you're this low. And-"

Buneary reached the edge of the water, which drew up slightly to contact her fur. It discharged the Magnet Rise all at once, and Buneary fell into the hot spring with a startled yelp.

She bounced back out a moment later, sputtering, and rounded on Pikachu. "Did you do that deliberately?"

"No, sorry, I barely think about that kind of thing any more," Pikachu said, raising his paws. "I'll admit I did find it funny, but I didn't plan it."

Buneary shook herself out, judged how wet she still was, then looked up at Pikachu. "Can you give me an Iron Tail mirror?"

Pikachu complied, and Buneary promptly bounced an Ice Beam off it to splash over her fur. That froze all the remaining water, and she efficiently smashed it off before giving herself a quick preen.

"Okay, let's try this again," she decided, as Pikachu examined his tail to make sure it hadn't frozen as well.

"Let's do it in that direction this time," Pikachu suggested, pointing away from the water, and Buneary nodded – already starting to charge up another Thunderpunch.


"Isn't that supposed to be dangerous?" Lucario asked.

"What's that?" Infernape said, opening his eyes – floating with just his muzzle above the water. "Sorry, I was meditating."

"Just… your flames are underwater," Lucario pointed out. "And… well, out. I thought that was a bit dangerous for a Fire type."

"You're thinking of Charmander," Infernape corrected. "And the Pokémon who evolve from Charmander. With us it just makes us drowsy."

He pointed towards the top of his head, which was still aflame despite being in the water. "Besides, I've tested. It doesn't go out, it just gets less powerful."

"Interesting," Lucario mused.

Buneary and Pikachu went skimming smoothly past over the water, neither one touching it, then turned around to head back to shore.

"So is that," he added, nodding to the two smaller Pokémon. "You'd think they'd remember that a hot spring is for soaking in, though."

"I heard that," Pikachu told him.

"You were meant to."


"So, how are you going to handle this one?" Dawn asked. "There's a whole flock of Gligar, right… and a Gliscor, the one which Paul caught."

"I do have an idea," Ash replied. "So the most important bit is to check if the flock has arrived yet..."

He shaded his eyes, then nodded. "Okay, yeah, they have."

"I'm guessing you can see Gligar in there," Pikachu stated.

Ash nodded. "Yeah… and that means the first thing to do is to get them out of the city, before they get more confused."

He took a Pokéball off his belt. "Pidgeot, think you can do it?"

The Flying-type spread her wings, hammering them down in a takeoff, and got a look at the town centre before flying back down.

"Piece of cake," she declared.

"Okay… let's see," Ash frowned. "Brock, where do you think we should send them?"

"If you want to talk to them, wherever you are," Brock said. "But if you can move first… then I'd say near the Pokémon Centre, on the other side of town."

"Got it," Ash agreed. "Okay, Pidgeot, let's go!"

He swung up onto her back, accompanied by Pikachu, and they took off in a whoosh of air.

"You know, this is probably going to be a little more complicated than he thinks," Lucario voiced.

"Why's that?" Dawn asked.

"Oh, I was just counting something off last night," Lucario explained. "When was the last time any of you got Pokéballs?"

"That was… wait, hold on," Dawn said, frowning. "I… can't remember. Everyone turned up before I even left Twinleaf, and I like my team as it is, so… I didn't bother..."

"I don't have any more Pokémon to pick up," Brock contributed.

"Well, that's going to be interesting," Staraptor said.

There was a sudden whoosh from the direction of the town centre.


Pidgeot's wings rippled and crackled as they held in a powerful wind current. She flapped them again, and all the waste energy and eddies from her flight built up in a series of nested air control layers.

"Over there," Ash pointed.

"I see them," Pidgeot agreed.

She swept her wings back, air control swirling around them, then hammered them both forwards and just stopped in mid-air.

The group hung there only for a moment before Pidgeot began to hover again, but the air she'd been gathering shot forwards with the full momentum she'd carried beforehand.

It bounced gently off the buildings, like a soft pillow, and the interacting vortices snatched up all the Gligar – many of them shouting with surprise – then plucked up the Gliscor as well, lifting them all into a big whirling cylinder of air which rose into the air over the main street.

Pidgeot knifed around to a position ahead of it, wings smoothly shaping the vortex to keep it holding all the passengers, then made a grand gesture to her right and converted the cylinder into a vortex ring. It spat the Scorpion Pokémon out towards the Pokémon Centre, and then collapsed neatly – leaving nothing left but a few gentle breezes.

Ash's fastest Flying-type backed for a moment, judging her trajectory, then entered a shallow dive to reach where the Gligar were going to land before they did.


"Ow..." the Gliscor leader said, rubbing his head. "What was that for?"

"You were messing around with the people in the town," Ash explained, and the Ground-types all looked up.

"So that was your Pidgeot?" Gliscor demanded. "Well, that just means we'll have to get our revenge on you!"

"You'll have to deal with me, first," Pikachu declared, jumping down from Ash's shoulder and sparking his cheeks.

"Oh, yeah, an Electric type, that's so scary," Gliscor laughed. "Save us from the scary electricity!"

"Hey, uh, boss?" one of the female Gligar said, hesitantly. "I think that might be that special Pikachu we heard about..."

"What are you talking about?" Gliscor asked, half-turning. "What special Pikachu?"

"You know!" the Gligar replied. "The Pikachu with a trainer who can make a complete team of Legendaries, walk on water, fight even powerful Pokémon? The Pikachu who's scarier than the rest of his team, and his team includes a Lucario and a Charizard and an Absol? The Pikachu who can shock Ground types?"

"You'll be saying he's got a talking sword next," Gliscor laughed.

"I have given my service to Sir Ketchum," Kari voiced. "But, if the need were great, his Pokémon might wield me."

"This is ridiculous!" Gliscor declared. "No Electric-type attack can harm a Ground type! May lightning strike me down if I lie!"

Pikachu obliged.


Paul looked down at his phone as it rang, then answered it.

"Paul," he answered. "Who is this?"

"Ash Ketchum? How did you get my number?"

He frowned. "I didn't realize that was something Porygon were able to do. Or Porygon-2, whatever. What was it-"

A pause.

"Okay. Was it strong? Of course that's a valid question to ask."

By this point, Paul's Pokémon were – while still training – giving him curious looks.

"Where did you say you were? I don't even know where that city is… right. I'll be over as soon as I can get my flying Pokémon back from my brother."

A final pause.

"Don't you have any Pokéballs?"


"I can hardly believe it!" Gliscor announced, hugging Ash. "I'm such a fan – and I'm so glad to see you again – and I'm feeling them both at once! It's great!"

Pidgeot nudged Pikachu. "Is it me, or does our trainer still need air to breathe?"

"Last I checked, he did," Pikachu confirmed. "But I might have missed the latest Aura trick."

"Oh – oops, sorry," Gliscor blushed, relenting in her grip. "I'm just so happy to see you!"

"I'm glad to see you too," Ash told her, between gasps. "Wow, I forgot how well those wings can squeeze!"

He gave her a pat on the head. "It's nice to have you back."

Gliscor smiled, then turned to Pikachu. "So… what's it like fighting alongside Legendary Pokémon?"

"Surreal, sometimes," Pikachu admitted. "But that's not as odd as fighting against them, that's a real challenge."

Gliscor nodded. "And what about doing Aura stuff? Is that something any Pokémon could learn? Something I could learn?"

"I could have a go at teaching you, yeah," Ash suggested.


"This is a funny feeling," Zoey said, lying back on the grass.

Her Glameow gave her a quizzical look.

"Just… the whole situation," Zoey clarified. "I'm from the future, but you're not. And I don't know whether I should try to catch just all the same Pokémon as last time, or perhaps catch different Pokémon as well as a statement that I'm not just doing this because the future told me, or whether I should even try not catching one of my Pokémon from last time."

She straightened up. "I mean… I remember Gallade, but you don't, and he doesn't. Do I go up to him and try and explain the situation?"

Mismagius flourished both her sleeves, producing a sparkle of magic, and formed a complex picture in mid-air.

It was a shrug.

"I know, it's my problem to solve," Zoey admitted. "Still… don't either of you have an opinion? How would you have wanted me to do it?"

Glameow got up, stretched, and padded over. She nestled herself into the crook of Zoey's elbow, shifting a bit to make sure she was totally comfortable, then went to sleep.

"That's a lot of help!" Zoey said, a bit tartly, then laughed. "Well, I guess it is sort of an answer. I'm just worried about taking you guys into danger, since… you know, dangerous stuff happened."

This time, Mismagius produced a rather more nuanced picture. It showed the destruction of the entire universe, except for a small group of Pokémon in a small forest.

Zoey frowned, not sure what her Ghost-type was looking at, until Mismagius reached under the brim of her hat and pulled out a little white card. She handed it to Zoey, and the Coordinator read it.

One first class ticket.

From: Sinnoh.

To: The place that will be safe if the rest of the universe ends.

Time of departure: good question.

Method of travel: you tell me.

She laughed. "Okay, I get the idea. Nice trick."

Mismagius bowed.


"All right, let's do this," Meganium said, her vines coiling behind her. "You ready?"

"Of course!" Houndoom replied. "On the count of three."

His tail flicked up. "One. Two. Three!"

Both Pokémon exploded into motion. Meganium's vines flicked out, darting across on the left, at first, and there was a storm of thuds and clacks as she pressed her advantage on the flank.

Houndoom focused on his left, as well, producing Beat Up clones and dismissing them again in moments, then transferred his attention to the right and blocked Meganium's attack just short of doing serious damage.

His counterattack went in next, slicing in to hit Meganium's flank, and-

"What on earth are you two doing?"

Neither Pokémon answered, too intent on what they were doing, and Ivysaur shook his head before turning to the nearby computer screen. "Damos?"

My apologies, the Porygon stated. I am occupied keeping track of their game.

"I can help," Heracross supplied, raising a hand. "They wanted to play chess, but the basic variants – shogi and western chess – both seemed boring. So they got about… six sets, I think, and a giant sized board, and they're allowed to make as many moves as they want so long as each individual move is legal."

"That sounds like a lot of effort," Ivysaur observed, watching for a moment as Meganium's vines propelled a whole squad of pawns deep into Houndoom territory before they were cut off and surrounded.

A brutal exchange of pieces resulted, and at the end only a few Houndoom rooks were left standing.

"Why can't they just play a computer game or something?"

"They tried. Houndoom's not a very good touch typist."


No, I'm not going to put a car in orbit, Mewtwo said. Why would I do that?

"It could be a PR stunt," Jin suggested. "Your media profile is surprisingly low."

I don't mind having a low media profile, Mewtwo shrugged. I can handle interacting with the public, I've come to tolerate it, but I'm more interested in actually doing the work, since we don't really rely on public interest as such to keep going into space.

"That is a good point," Jin agreed. "But you're going to need recruits to set up colonies, aren't you?"

You haven't seen the amount of special interest email we get, Mewtwo observed dryly. I've hired an Absol to act as a message screener. He's very good at it, and he tells me we get about… a hundred useful CVs a week.

"That's… a lot," Jin said, blinking.

It turns out it's a lot more attractive to go and live on Mars if the journey back is a few minutes' walk and a single teleport than if it's a lifetime commitment. Mewtwo's tail curled. Now, the thing that's really going to provoke interest is when we get the results from the planet finder array.

"I must have missed that one," Jin chuckled, sitting down. "Sometimes there's so much stuff going on – it's really cool stuff, but it does mean I'm too busy to go up to space!"

He waved a hand. "I don't mind, though, being involved with this stuff is just great. So you're actually taking pictures of planets in other solar systems now?"

Still working on that, Mewtwo admitted freely. It's tricky stuff, but fortunately going up to check on the equipment is fairly easy. I just need to make sure their interferometry baseline is correct after each visit.

He hummed. Actually, since you mentioned cars... I wonder if we should start a new race circuit, with races on the moon and on Mars. Electric cars work in a non-oxygen atmosphere… something to think about, anyway.

"What was that you said about a low media profile?" Jin asked, smirking.

I don't want to do something specifically to raise the profile, Mewtwo explained. I'm not going to avoid doing something just because it's interesting.

There was a knock on the door, and Mewtwo waved his hand to unlock it.

Riolutwo came through, adjusting his tie. "Sir, there's someone from Ariadospace to see you."

Thank you, Riolutwo, Mewtwo said gravely. You realize you don't need to wear the tie?

"I like this tie," Riolutwo replied simply.


Serena went over everything again, just to make sure she hadn't forgotten anything, then let out a sharp breath.

"No point just waiting around," she said, mostly to herself, and got to work.

Blitzle's hooves clicked against the ground – hard-packed earth, from the last time a Rhyhorn had gone through – and he waited patiently as Serena fitted his saddle, the insulated type used for Electric-types like Zebstrika.

The hackamore came next, a loose harness around his muzzle so Serena could point him where to go without having to say it out loud, and then the reins. Serena had taken care with the hackamore in particular, making sure it was comfortable – not too tight – and also putting a pattern on it, shiny buckles holding together the striped straps which were a photo-negative version of his own stripes.

By the time those were fitted, the Electric-type was visibly waiting for his trainer to be done so they could finally get on with it.

"Calm down," Serena told him, smothering a giggle. "You're going to be doing most of the work… and we're not going far, anyway, not for the first day."

She tugged on one of the stirrups. "How does that feel?"

"Bllli-tzle!" Blitzle told her, and she spread her hands in surrender before hoisting herself up onto his back.

"Serena, dear?" Grace called. "Do you want me to time you?"

"No thanks, Mom!" Serena replied. "I don't think we're going to go very fast, today."

"Well, you'll need to keep track somehow, if you want to get him in racing condition," Grace pointed out.

Serena sighed, quietly. "I know, Mom..."

Picking up on her mood, Blitzle made the executive decision to start trotting by himself. The movement made Serena wobble, leaning on the stirrups, and she pushed on his neck to get herself back upright again.

"Thanks," she said, pitching her voice low. "I do like the idea of riding, but… just as a thing we can do, you know?"

Blitzle nodded his head, continuing to trot, and they headed out into the field.

"Just around here a few times, until you start to feel tired," Serena said. "We're not going far today, just getting used to this."

Blitzle nodded again, then glanced back at her and smirked.

"...what is it?" Serena asked, suddenly worried. "What are you planning?"

In reply, Blitzle broke into a canter. Serena wobbled a bit, grateful that she'd set the stirrups and stuff up right, then yelped as the Electric-type reared up and pawed at the air for a long moment.

He thumped back down onto the grass, glanced back, then began trotting again as if the whole thing hadn't happened.

"Blitzle!" Serena said, trying to sound disapproving, but unable to really put much force behind it. That definitely hadn't been what they planned for the day, and it wouldn't be much good in a race, but…

It had felt good. Fun, and energizing, and exactly what she needed to take her mind off things.

"Warn me before you do that again," she said, and Blitzle nodded innocently. "And… thanks."


Denae swept her hand across, indicating the whole valley below their position. "Your thoughts?"

Iris didn't reply at first, looking closely at the terrain and the weather.

"Okay, so the sun's out, but it's still quite early," she said, thinking out loud. "So any thermals aren't going to be very strong yet. But… the breeze is quite strong, and it's coming from the northwest. That makes it cold, but it also means that any cliffs where the high side is on the southeast will produce updrafts, and I can see a couple of them now – one there, and one there. And this hill we're on has a steep enough side on the northwest to do that as well."

Denae nodded, but didn't say anything.

"And..." Iris frowned, looking again. "That hill over there is going to be a bit dangerous, because it's going to have downdrafts. And so are cliffs with the low side on the southeast."

"Good." Denae told her. "That's the kind of thing you need to think about if you ride a dragon – they're often self-confident enough to try something if their rider asks, even if it's a bad idea, so you need to know what's a bad idea."

She turned, inspecting the equipment that Fraxure had carried up the hill with them. "All right. Now let's see you put it into practice."

Iris nodded, interlacing her hands and pushing them away from her to limber the fingers up.

"How often do dragon tamers get training like this?" she asked, looking at the hang gliders as Denae quickly checked them both over.

"Normally they learn the hard way," Denae answered. "Dragons tend to be strong enough to take the crashes without too much pain, but we may as well do this bit now in controlled conditions. That's why there's a Dragonite overhead to help out if we run into trouble – but don't use that as a reason to make mistakes!"

"Got it," Iris agreed. "So… okay, the first thing to do is to gain height at the updraft here..."


At about the same time, late evening on the Indigo Plateau, Misty returned her Politoed.

Her challenger, a young trainer called Fred Farrell, shook his head. "Ah well..."

"Sorry," Misty said. "You did do pretty well, by the way."

"Yeah, but it's my third challenge," Fred replied. "It kind of feels like I'm not making any progress."

"You are," Misty told him. "I saw the other two battles – you're definitely correcting some mistakes. But I do have a couple of other tips for you."

Fred looked up. "You do?"

Misty nodded.

"So, firstly, with your Water-type, Floodwater," she began, indicating his Feraligatr. "Something you didn't really use enough of was his swimming strength – not his speed, his strength. When battling a lighter Water-type, you could use a move like Whirlpool and then Floodwater would be able to move more easily than his opponent."

Ticking that off, she went on to his Flareon. "I know Flambé is in a tricky situation, battling Water-types, but that's sometimes an advantage – you can work to make it so the normal tricks used against Fire types by Water types don't work as well. How is up to you, because if I told you it certainly wouldn't work on me next time!"

Fred chuckled, and Misty went on. "Your Flaafy should be using her tail more, because that way she doesn't need to face the way she's attacking..."


AN:


Couple of things needed to be handled here, involving Gliscor and a Contest. Then I decided to look in on how things are progressing for various other characters, too.

Incidentally, the character who May interacts with here is a sort of memorial to my grandmother, who died last month. This is what's related to some of the schedule disruptions I've had.