"Well, here we are," Ash said, spreading his arms. "Veilstone!"

"It's quite a place," Brock noted. "It's famous for having been built around meteorites."

"Maybe we should have remembered that during our trouble with finding one for Rayquaza…" Ash winced. "Whoops?"

"No, they're old ones," Brock corrected him. "They've definitely run out of whatever charge they had. Either that or this entire city was built last year."

Rockruff sniffed the air.

"What do new cities smell like?" she asked. "Is it like that artificial rock with iron in it that humans make?"

"That's not a bad guess," Brock told her. "Yes, a new city of this type would have a lot of new concrete in it. But it's actually about… a hundred years old, I think? Quite new, as cities go, but way older than that."

"Okay," Rockruff said, grateful for the explanation. She sniffed the air again, frowning. "Is that another Lucario?"

"It might be, Maylene had one," Dawn replied. "And it's really great to not need one of you guys to translate any more..."

"Yep, that's a Lucario," Ash told them. "And I think that's Maylene, as well. I can't be sure, though, not until we get closer."

With that, he started walking up the cliff.

"Is he going to stop?" Dawn asked.

"Probably not," Brock replied, shrugging. "Togekiss can carry you, right?"

Dawn nodded, and Brock sent out his Flygon to carry him up.


"Hello!" Ash called.

Maylene paused halfway through practising kicks, then withdrew her foot from full extension. "Over here, who is it?"

She focused, then smiled. "Hey, aren't you Ash Ketchum?"

"That's me," Ash agreed. "You're Maylene, right, the Veilstone gym leader?"

Maylene nodded, stretching a little to avoid her abrupt cessation of exercise leading to cramps. "Yeah, but I'm surprised you recognize me. I'm not really very good at it."

"Really?" Ash asked. "What makes you think that?"

"Well, I do my best, but I'm not really able to train Lucario very well," Maylene sighed. "And – actually, you could help me with that! I know you've got a Lucario, can you show me where I'm going wrong?"

"Sure!" Ash agreed readily.

Maylene sent out her Lucario, and he took a stance.

So did Maylene.

Brock and Dawn arrived just as Maylene's Lucario launched into a spinning roundhouse kick, which Maylene nimbly avoided with a duck-and-roll before springing back to her feet. She punched at him twice, both times getting blocked, then Lucario took the offensive and struck at her with a Force Palm.

Maylene deflected it with a rising block, using the chance to get close and hammer an elbow strike into Lucario's chest, and Lucario oofed before retaliating with a low kick that swept up to launch her bodily away.

The Gym Leader didn't quite stick the landing, stumbling backwards before finally coming to a halt, and by the time she was ready Lucario was throwing an Aura Sphere at her.

She slapped it aside with her off hand, wincing at the explosion, and then Brock finally asked a question.

"Ash? What the heck?"

"Hey, I didn't tell her to do it," Ash replied. "It's how she trains her Lucario."

Brock looked over to the side, noticing Ash's Lucario watching, and then looked back at his fellow Gym Leader.

"That is how you train Lucario, right?" Maylene asked. "I know that's how you do it, and I saw Riley once, and I've never really thought it was right to bother Cynthia with my questions, but…"

"It's how people with ridiculous Aura powers train Lucario," Dawn told her. "Ash has ridiculous Aura powers, and Riley's one of the last Aura guardians left – certainly the last one in Sinnoh, unless Ash counts now."

She frowned. "More to the point, how did you do that? You definitely hit Lucario hard enough he felt it, and you just blocked an Aura Sphere as well..."

Maylene looked puzzled. "It's just martial arts," she replied. "I train well. You know, breaking bricks and stuff, but I'm not very good at that either."

She exchanged a glance with her Lucario, who shrugged, then went over to a box by the side of the clearing. He took something out, holding it up for her, and Maylene punched it – a full-body punch with all the force she could muster.

It shattered in a cloud of dust, and bricks crashed to the ground for two or three feet behind where she'd made contact.

"See?" she asked, turning to face them. "The bricks are still intact."

Brock picked one of them up. "This… has mortar on it."

"Yeah, I'm breaking the mortar, but I'm not breaking the bricks," Maylene stressed. "I'm still trying to work out what I'm doing wrong."

Her Lucario nodded.

"I… think you might both be missing an important detail," Ash's Lucario spoke up. "Well, two of them."

He counted them off. "Firstly, experienced human brick breakers tend to do it by supporting the bricks either side, without mortar, and then striking downwards. It's also the harder form of an art normally done with wooden boards."

Maylene's puzzlement did not change.

"Secondly, most people can't break through a brick wall by punching it. Are you sure you're not using Aura?"

"But it's just martial arts, right?" Maylene asked. "I just did a lot of training, I thought that was how it worked?"

As Brock continued to explain, Maylene's Lucario suddenly frowned. He caught the attention of Ash's Lucario, and hurried over to ask him a quick question.

"How common is it for humans to be able to, with training, fight Pokémon on even terms?"

"With their bare hands?" Ash's Lucario replied, for clarity. "Very rare. Not all Fighting Gym leaders we've met could do it, and very few others. My trainer is an exceptional human."

"Ah." Maylene's Lucario looked distinctly embarrassed. "I may have been setting my expectations too high… I'll have to apologize to Maylene for that."

"If you expected the average human to be able to punch holes in brick walls with a couple of years of training? Yes."


"So… most people who do martial arts are just… okay, I think I get that," Maylene said. "Perhaps that just means I got the training regime right, then… hey, can I ask you something? I'd like to get an idea of where I actually stand, and you know about this kind of stuff."

"Technically, Ash is a surprisingly non-technical fighter," Lucario volunteered. "He's getting some structured weapons training, though. But that's not what you're thinking of."

"No, no weapons," Maylene clarified. "Besides, that's a Honedge… no, I was thinking just a no-tools martial arts fight."

Ash knelt down, and began taking his boots off.

"If you want to get an idea of how good you are, I suggest that we bring in Dexter – Ash's Porygon2," Lucario suggested. "Between us, we should be able to get a fairly good idea of where you are."

"Sounds good to me," Maylene agreed, then frowned. "How come you're taking your gloves and cape off?"

"They amplify my Aura in different ways," Ash explained. "It wouldn't be fair to use them if it's a fight without any tools."

"Fair enough," Maylene agreed, as Dexter formed out of curved lines and cleanly defined vectors. "All right, when you're ready?"

Ash nodded, taking a ready stance, and Maylene did likewise.

Ash's Lucario raised his voice. "Begin!"

Maylene moved first, taking a single sure step and then lashing out with a kick aimed at Ash's shoulder. Ash stepped back, opening the distance, and used a rising block to try and make Maylene overextend – though before his effort actually came to fruition she kicked off with her other foot, doing a full backflip to come back down in a three-point landing before rising back to an upright position.

She jabbed quickly forwards with a punch, which Ash blocked, then feinted high and thrust-kicked at Ash's waist. The blow landed with a thok of impact, driving Ash back a pace, and he retaliated by grabbing at her ankle before she could withdraw it again.

Maylene flexed, twisting her ankle out of Ash's grip with a sudden explosive movement, then spun back upright and moved in for a volley of powerful punches. Ash blocked the first two, deflected the next three, blocked another one, then stepped in to break the sequence with a shoulder-charge aimed at knocking her backwards. That sort of worked, sending her back a step, but she just took another before reversing direction for one large punch.

Ash stopped that one as well, a sideways block, and twisted his arm around to take control of her forearm. Maylene's feet adjusted position a little as he did, grabbing at his forearm in turn, then abruptly used their mutual point of contact to anchor a whip-fast roundhouse kick.

That blow got through, hitting Ash in the side and sending him stumbling back as their grips broke. There was a flash of blue Aura as he boosted himself up, jumping to get clear and recover, and when he landed it was a little further away than he'd been before – and in a different stance, this one more open.

Maylene crouched slightly, then burst forwards, and Ash blocked her first palm strike with a low-powered Force Palm. Much to his surprise, she didn't notice, and that very surprise led to him being a bit off-balance when she struck for a second time.

Ash's palms flared blue as he gathered much more Aura, and this time Maylene definitely felt the Aura strike – a flare of power which knocked her backwards several steps, until she stopped herself by flinging a leg out to the side and going down into a crouch with the other leg.

Clenching her fists for a moment, she bounced back and forth on the grassy surface – then ran forwards for a few steps, jumped, and punched down with all her momentum.

Ash reacted automatically, raising a Protect shield by crossing his arms, and Maylene bounced off with a pulse of energy. She landed hard, immediately swept one leg around to knock Ash's feet from under him, and sprang back to her feet before sweeping her fist down – aiming to stop it just before hitting Ash.

By the time she was ready for the pulled punch, however, Ash was no longer there. He rolled to the side, launched himself back onto his feet, and formed an Aura Sphere in both hands.

After a moment, Ash remembered he was fighting Maylene and not a Pokémon, and made to dispel the Aura Sphere. Maylene was already attacking again, however, and Ash threw the sphere on learned reflex – so Maylene punched it, aiming to make it burst.

The Aura Sphere exploded, a brilliant flare of blue light, and Maylene blinked to try and get the flash out of her eyes. By the time she could see again, Ash had another Aura Sphere ready – now sure, thanks to the unexpected results of the first one, that Maylene could handle it.

He crouched slightly, threw the sphere, then followed it up with a Force Palm just a moment later. Maylene tried to block them both at once, caught the Force Palm, and missed the Aura Sphere – which knocked her for a loop, and she measured her length on the ground before rising groggily back to her feet.

"Okay," she said, nodding a few times. "You win."

Shaking her head, to clear it, she rummaged in her pocket and tossed something to Ash – who caught it automatically, then blinked.

"...this is a Cobble Badge."

"Well, yeah, you won," Maylene said. "Why?"

"It's just… normally that involves a Pokémon battle," Ash replied. "Or saving the town, that's happened a couple of times too, but a Pokémon battle was involved. And there were the extreme sports contests..."

He waved his hand. "Uh, anyway! That was just to see where you were, wasn't it? And did you just punch an Aura Sphere away?"

"Yeah, I do that for Lucario's ones sometimes, they really sting if they get in close," Maylene said. "...why? Is that not normal either?"

I think we're beyond where expert analysis is needed, here, Dexter noted. You're officially ludicrously good as a raw martial artist, and Aura is probably involved.

"Look, can we have a Pokémon battle, please?" Ash asked. "Apart from anything else, it'd feel odd… and I think some of my Pokémon might be very annoyed, too!"


As Maylene was trying to decide which Pokémon to send out, Brock approached her Lucario.

"I understand you're having a few problems," he began. "Is that right?"

"Well… yes, but they're mostly my own mistakes," Lucario replied. "If not entirely. Your friends have just managed to show that I was expecting far too much of my trainer, and that I should have been thoroughly impressed with the skill she has rather than expecting something much greater."

He sighed. "So yes, we are having problems, but I hope that we can overcome them."

"Well, if Ash is willing, I did have an idea to see how close you two still are," Brock explained. "Did you know Ash has a Lucarionite?"

Lucario paused, working through what Brock had to mean. "And… he has a Key Stone as well?"

"We don't even know if what he uses works for anyone else," Brock said. "It's something made out of Sir Aaron's staff and donated feathers from Lugia and Ho-Oh. But I have a Key Stone, and I'd be willing to loan it out."

Lucario considered that carefully.

"I… would like to think about it," he requested.

"All right," Brock said. "It's your choice. I will let Ash know he might have a Mega fight later, though."

Maylene's Lucario nodded, already thinking hard.


"Okay, I think I know how to challenge you," Maylene decided. "Do you have any pure Fighting-type Pokémon?"

"I've got a Primeape," Ash replied. "He's the only one, though."

"That'll do fine!" Maylene said. "Okay, let's see how your Primeape does against my best Pokémon for punching things!"

"Is it a Hitmonchan?" Dawn asked.

"What?" Maylene asked. "Oh, right, yeah. No, he's a Machamp. Because they can punch better. Because they've got four arms."

Pikachu chuckled.

"They certainly have forearms," he observed. "Four of them, in fact."

Buneary gave him a look.

"What?" he asked. "That was an actual pun."

"Yes," Buneary agreed. "Which is why I'm giving you this look."

Ash checked with Dexter, and a moment later Primeape's Pokéball appeared in a flare of light.

"That's pretty useful," Maylene said. "I've only ever used the storage PCs in Pokémon Centres, but I don't usually need to do that any more, because of the gym. It's funny not having to worry about which Pokémon to take with you because you've got all of them with you."

"Shouldn't we actually go back to the gym, then?" Brock suggested.

"No, I've got Machamp with me," Maylene told him, sending the fighting-type out. "Okay, the rules for this one are… three falls, two submissions, tap-out, thrown out of the arena, or knocked out."

"Quite a lot of conditions, but I can see why they would all be needed," Ash's Lucario said. "I'm pretty sure I've seen battles won by all the latter reasons. Though tap-out, now… hmmm… I might need to think on that one."

"Yeah, I decided to try doing battles with the same rules you have in human martial arts, but it didn't really cover what happens when someone gets thrown out of the arena. You'd think they would, because..."

She trailed off. "Wait, is 'throw someone else out of the building' another of those things that I think is difficult but achievable, but which isn't really?"

Lucario, Pikachu, Brock and Dawn all nodded.

"Yeah, you can knock someone out of the arena, but throwing is a lot harder," Brock confirmed. "Not impossible, maybe, but it's really not something you'd expect."

As they talked, Primeape limbered up, then crouched down.

"Ready?" Brock asked, acting as the referee. "Then… begin!"

Primeape came off the starting line like a rocket. He began with a low punch, aiming for Machamp's legs, and landed a strong blow which hit hard enough to bounce him clear back out of the way of Machamp's counterattack – a volleyed sequence of Mach Punches which began to tear up the ground almost immediately.

Machamp turned, still throwing punches, and Maylene made a sharp gesture. "Spread!"

The four-armed Fighting-type switched punching style, going to one where his fists lashed out in sequence. Each arm would punch once forwards, then once to the left and once again to the right, and their cycles were staggered so all four arms were punching on a slightly different schedule- producing a wide block in which any given area was being punched several times a second.

Machamp advanced, the lower part of the block of punch just level with the grass, and ran towards Primeape.

Ash's Fighting-type collected himself, watching the sequence carefully, then leapt. His gloved hands closed around one of Machamp's punching fists, and he used the momentum of Machamp's retraction to add strength to a kick that hit Machamp square on the forehead.

Machamp's reaction to this was to simply punch Primeape harder, with all four arms at once, and send the infuriated Pokémon sailing off into the distance. It looked like he might even have scored a Ring Out, but Primeape focused for a moment before kicking off from thin air so hard there was a muted boom from behind him. That got him back to a landing on the grass, and he discarded both his gloves before sprinting around in a circle to come at Machamp from the side.

"Three-sixty degrees of punch!" Maylene ordered.

Primeape veered away as Machamp promptly began punching all around him, producing a blurred circular area in which there were punches all the time, and skipped back to rethink.

Then he decided, very visibly, that this whole subtle approach was boring him, and Mach Punched directly at one of Machamp's own fists.


"What's Mega Evolving like?" Maylene's Lucario asked.

"It's pretty good," Ash's Lucario replied. "It's a real feeling of expanded capability, and you can feel – all the time – that it's because of your connection with your trainer. They're sort of… there, helping you, and you can feel it constantly."

"I see," the other Fighting-type said. "Thank you."

"You should do it," Ash's Lucario added. "Looking at the two of you, I can tell Maylene cares strongly for you… so you need to ask yourself how much those problems you've had still irritate you, and how much is just nitpicks and niggles like everyone has for their friends and loved ones."

"Did I miss the special Lucario class on being wise and mysterious?"

"You joke, but I've heard the Kingdom does a correspondence course..." Ash's Lucario said.


"Machamp!" Maylene ordered. "Use Fire Punch, and turn it into a flame tornado!"

Machamp began to spin, feet hitting the floor in a thump-thump-thump pattern, and his fists all blazed up. Three seconds, and he had a complete tornado of flame protecting him from whatever Primeape might do.

Primeape examined the result, then dodged to the side as it spat out a Flamethrower and scorched a line along the ground. He focused, a flare of blue light along his arm for a moment, then punched out at Machamp.

There was a whoom of displaced air, batting away most of the fire tornado, and Primeape lunged through the gap as it began to close – twisting around, kicking away the first fist that tried to grab at him, then punching the second hard enough to produce an explosion of displaced air.

Machamp slammed his remaining two fists together in a paired Dynamic Punch, using the blast they created to try and ward Primeape off, then repeated that again and again, alternating fists each time. He accelerated quickly, a rolling wall of concussion to try and knock Primeape away, and once it seemed to have worked he stopped to move on to another attack – punching the ground with all four fists at once, producing a powerful Earthquake.

Primeape lunged back in, on the attack again, and Machamp snatched him out of the air with a meaty fist, strong fingers closing on Primeape's arm.

Ash's Fighting-type shouted something nearly incomprehensible, and began to glow a eerie orange as he Focused Energy.

Machamp made to punch Primeape with his other three fists, and Primeape twisted improbably before throwing Machamp over his shoulder.

Maylene blinked, as Machamp crashed to the ground. "...how did that work?"

Ash shrugged.

"No, I mean… how did he get the leverage?" Maylene asked plaintively. "That didn't even begin to make sense. His only anchor points were Machamp's fists."

Machamp rose from the ground, shaking his head, and Primeape snap-kicked him in the shin. It didn't look like it did much damage, but Machamp tripped and fell back to the floor again.

"That's two falls," Brock noted helpfully.

"Right!" Maylene decided. "Machamp, use Submission!"

The four-armed Fighting type burst up off the ground, grabbed Primeape with all four hands, and managed to hold on long enough to slam Primeape into the ground – though Machamp took a knock as well, and barely managed to get upright before Primeape's high sweeping kick counterattack knocked him to the floor.

"And one submission – is that how that works?" Brock checked, getting a nod. "Right. One submission on Ash's side, two falls on Maylene's side."

Primeape took a deep breath, then cleared his throat.

"Outrage," he said clearly and distinctly.

Machamp, no fool, immediately blocked.

It didn't help. Primeape punched him so hard he went flying clear out of the arena, and the recoil knocked Primeape back so hard he dug a crater in the ground almost a foot deep.

"Huh, what was that?" Maylene asked, interested. "I don't think I've seen that before."

"It was a Master Blow, I think," Ash replied. "Part of the martial art he uses."

He returned the Fighting-type, who had fallen back with his arms out in the crater. "He's… probably going to need medical attention after that – thanks," he finished, as Dexter dematerialized the Pokéball to send back to the lab.

"Well, that's two out of three," Maylene said brightly. "So that means you definitely win my badge!"

She nodded. "But don't worry, I'll give you your third battle as well. I – huh?"

Maylene turned, seeing her Lucario had just tapped on her shoulder. "What is it?"

"Can we try something?" her Lucario requested.

"Well, I was going to use you anyway, so sure," Maylene said. "What is it?"

"That's the thing," Lucario went on.

He brought his other arm around from behind his back, revealing the Lucarionite armband and Brock's Key Stone.

"They're both loaners," he clarified. "But… I want to see if we can make it work."


"Okay, how do I do this?" Maylene checked, as she held the Key Stone.

"You need to focus on your Pokémon, and the connections the two of you have," Ash provided. "Everything about them you think is good, that you want to remember about them… the closer your bond, the better it works."

Maylene nodded, and closed her eyes.

She was relatively new to her Lucario, as a companion, but the two of them had hit it off well, and they'd shared many hours of training together. It was true that Lucario had expected more from her than she'd been able to do, but that was an honest mistake – and now they knew the truth, he had apologized and was doing his best to correct things.

She didn't mind mistakes – they happened – and it was good he could see how to fix his.

There was a kind of shivering energy, just for a moment, and Maylene opened her eyes again.

Her Lucario was suffused in an orange-and-gold light, which effervesced off him in waves before dispersing all at once – leaving him with red, metal-spiked paws, an altogether more complex pattern of blue and black, and a tail outlined in tan-brown fur.

She could feel the power of his Aura, much stronger than she was used to, and smiled slightly. Mega Lucario first glanced down at himself, surprised, then caught sight of her smile and returned it – a little shyly.

Then he began checking how the change had affected his speed, and his strength, as Ash brought out his Heracross and Mega Evolved that Pokémon as well.


"Any special rules?" Brock asked Maylene.

Maylene shook her head. "No, just the normal."

"Right," Brock replied, pausing, then spoke again. "Begin!"

Mega Lucario moved first, using Extremespeed to become a blur of blue and tan and black. The blur jinked once to the left as it approached, then resolved back into Mega Lucario having just kicked out at Mega Heracross.

The beefy Bug-type blocked with one arm, catching the blow, and his forearm spun once with a chunk noise as it took the hit. He raised his other arm, firing a Seed Bomb, and Mega Lucario backflipped away twice before sliding to a halt leaving three parallel furrows in the grass.

His paws went together as he grew an Aura Sphere, and Mega Heracross copied him with an Aura Sphere of his own. Mega Lucario's one grew much faster, but Mega Heracross didn't seem to care – until the attacks were fired at one another, and Mega Heracross snapped both arms up to fire a salvo of Bullet Seeds at the larger Aura Sphere his opponent had pulled together.

Both balls of Aura impacted, and both exploded in a cloud of blue light – the extra damage Mega Heracross had done with the Bullet Seeds helping to overcome the stronger Aura Sphere Mega Lucario had used. By the time that was clear, however, Mega Lucario had already changed tactics – darting in at speed to hit Mega Heracross with a Fire Punch, which the Bug-type countered with an Arm Thrust. The combination sent sparks and little flickers of flame going everywhere, and both Fighting-types pushed hard to gain distance from the flames.

Mega Heracross began firing a barrage of Pin Missiles, and Mega Lucario swept his paws out to the sides to generate Metal Claws – using them to block the attacks as he crouched down, then launched himself into the air and used a High Jump Kick.

Ash's Pokémon ended the barrage with one arm, drawing it back, and the cylindrical system on his wrist clicked once to settle into a new position as he chambered a Focus Punch.

Focus Punch struck High Jump Kick, and Mega Heracross headbutted Mega Lucario as well – the combined force of the two blows knocking Mega Lucario away, though he flipped himself around to land catlike on a rock some distance away rather than slamming to the floor.

"Rock Tomb!" Maylene called, and Mega Lucario jumped down behind the rock he'd landed on. He was hidden from view for a few seconds as a tchak sound echoed off the trees, and then the rock rose into the air as Mega Lucario lifted it.

Adjusting his grip, he began to walk forwards, then to run – building up speed, until he launched himself into the air and threw it directly at Mega Heracross.

In reply, Mega Heracross chambered Focus Punches in both arms. He held them, spinning the arms up faster and faster, until the rock reached him and he blew it into a cloud of gravel with a boom that spread dust and pebbles all over the arena.


Dawn yelped as pebbles came raining down on her, then shaded her eyes to see what was going on.

Mega Lucario had closed in, and was using a dazzling sequence of punches, kicks, tail-strikes, all enhanced with Aura and many of them glowing with Fire or Electrical or even Dragon-typed energy, trying to overwhelm Mega Heracross' superior prepared firepower by sheer speed. It was sort of working, as Mega Heracross was giving ground in the form of a steady retreat, though the explosions of Rock Blasts and the pinging hail of Pin Missiles going everywhere showed that Mega Lucario was really having to work for it.

Even as she watched, Mega Heracross tried something new. He jumped into the air, a blast of powerful hot air from his lower-body vent propelling him higher, and just as he left the ground a pulse of Earthquake rippled outwards. Mega Lucario avoided the worst, jumping and skipping over the waves as they moved, and Dawn took a steadying pace herself to avoid being knocked over – but it became clear a moment later that that had just been the prelude.

The ground cracked, and Mega Heracross used Stone Edge. A whole forest of stone pillars came shooting out of the earth around Mega Lucario, forming a kind of megalithic henge, and then all went crashing in at once.

Dawn lost sight of Maylene's Pokémon for a few seconds, during which time Mega Heracross landed again. Then the pile of stones moved.

"You can do it!" Maylene called.

The pile moved again, then several of the pillars avalanched off.

Mega Lucario came bursting out of the pile, one pillar held in each paw, with his Metal Claws digging into it to keep them in place. He panted for a moment, then charged with blue light flowing off his fur as he charged up his Aura.

Mega Heracross clenched his claws, ready to act, and watched carefully as Mega Lucario came running up with the giant stone pillars held like tonfas. He blocked the first one as it came in with one arm, a muted boom echoing outwards from the impact, then caught the second in the same way.

Mega Lucario kicked him just below the vent, let go of both pillars, then took Mega Heracross' lower horn in both hands and threw him into the air. Launching himself with a high jump to follow, he High Jump Kicked Mega Heracross right back to the ground again, then flipped once and came down with a scorching Blaze Kick aimed directly for Mega Heracross.

The Bug-type rolled to one side, avoiding the direct impact, and brought himself back upright with a powerful handspring. Lashing out with two Arm Thrust sequences at once, he caught Mega Lucario while the latter Pokémon was still recovering, and Maylene's Lucario bounced twice before landing with a whoosh on the trunk of a tree.

Leaves exploded off the tree as Mega Lucario transferred his momentum, and the Fighting-type's paws contacted one another with a flicker of blue light. He slowly drew them apart, revealing a Bone Rush staff, then clutched it in one paw and charged again.

Mega Heracross lit his horn with a Megahorn, lowering it slightly to fence, and used it to block the first blow of the glowing blue staff. Mega Lucario twisted, using the contact as a pivot point, and slammed a kick into Mega Heracross' side – but it was a glancing impact, not a full body-blow, and Mega Heracross shrugged it off.

His Arm Thrust attacks hammered into the shaft of the staff in quick succession, making it creak and crack, and Mega Lucario summoned a second one in his off-hand before using it like a lance to hit Mega Heracross in the forehead. The first staff shattered just as he did, and both Pokémon staggered for a moment – then Mega Lucario struck out twice, once high and once low, and hit his opponent both times.

Mega Heracross used one arm to catch the third blow by the Bone Rush attack, his other arm winding up for a powerful Focus Punch, and Mega Lucario reacted by summoning a new second staff. The Focus Punch smashed into the new staff, shattering it instantly, and the recoil knocked both Pokémon back several feet.

Preparing two Focus Punches, one for each hand, Mega Heracross lunged back into the fight. Mega Lucario replaced his lost staff, then dodged away from one punch and deflected the other into the ground. It caused the whole arena to shake, this time, and Mega Heracross quickly redirected his second punch to strike at Mega Lucario-

"Okay, stop!" Maylene called. "Sorry, but much more of this and you're going to cause a landslide!"

Mega Lucario stopped instantly, and Mega Heracross fired his punch up at the sky instead of the ground or his opponent. The overextension spun him around, and he staggered a little before regaining his footing.

"That's a good point," Mega Lucario agreed, looking down at the visible cracks that were starting to form. "I hadn't noticed."

"Don't fight on top of a cliff that often," Mega Heracross agreed. "Good fight."


"Wow," Maylene blinked. "Mega Evolution is pretty impressive."

She walked over, patting Mega Lucario on the shoulder as he reverted with a flash of light, then offered Ash her hand to shake. "Thanks! That was a great battle!"

After she'd said her piece, she looked down. "Um… do you know a good way to prevent a land slide?"

"I'll get my Geodude to see what he can do," Brock suggested.

"Thanks," Maylene smiled. "It wouldn't look very good – or be very neighbourly – to collapse half the cliffside on top of someone..."


"I don't know much about meteorites, but how come there are some on the surface?" Ash asked. "Don't they normally either explode way up in space, or bury themselves in the ground, or blow up everything in a thousand miles?"

Brock shook his head. "No, that's… quite a simple way of putting it. A big meteorite, so long as it's not too big, can get slowed down as it comes in without either exploding in the air or making an explosion big enough to destroy it. I think it's a pretty tight threshold, for a specific type of meteorite, but I'm not sure."

"Huh, okay," Ash nodded. "Right. Which is why they could still build a town here without the meteorites having turned the whole place into a crater."

"Yeah, that would have been kind of difficult," Maylene chuckled. "But no, Veilstone is great. I'm impressed by how well you know your way around, though."

"I don't," Ash admitted. "I'm awful at that stuff. But Brock has a secret power."

"…Ash, it's called map reading," Brock sighed, and got a laugh back from Ash.

A little further back, Maylene's Lucario turned to address Dawn. "How long did it take you to learn to communicate with Aura?"

"A while," Dawn admitted. "Several months. But a lot of that was just learning how to make the right kind of connection… and to use Aura at all, too. I had some help from Suicune, but she was busy most of the time."

"Strange friends you have," the Lucario mused. "But that sounds like good news, to me."

He touched at his arm, where the Lucarionite armband had rested. "I… have been trying to think how I could make amends to Maylene, and I think that taking the time and effort to teach her how to speak with all her Pokémon with Aura – the Aura I think she may already be able to use, however unconsciously – is a fitting thing to do for her."

"It's a nice thought," Dawn replied. "You don't have to feel guilty for an honest mistake, but I do think some of what you did you should have known wasn't very good… but doing something like that is a good way to help show you're sincere, so long as you don't think of it as making up for it."

Lucario nodded. "Wise words indeed."

"Hey, uh, not to interrupt you," Quilava said. "But the others just ran into a police barricade."

Dawn looked up. "Huh?"

She sighed. "Oh, great… what now?"


"Sir Ketchum, Sir Slate," the Jenny said, recognizing them. "Gym Leader Maylene. I'm sorry, but this is a crime scene – we're still getting forensics in."

"What happened?" Ash asked. "If you can tell us, at least."

"It's very strange, actually," Jenny replied. "About twenty minutes ago, we got a call saying the meteorites had vanished."

"The… wait, what?" Maylene blinked. "We're talking about the Veilstone meteorites, right?"

"The very same," Jenny confirmed. "They just… disappeared. We're not sure why, of course, and we're especially not sure why nobody noticed it until afterwards."

"Hold on… this sounds familiar," Brock mused. "Ash?"

"I know what you mean," Ash agreed. "There were people in the park, right?"

"As far as we can tell," Jenny told him. "The man who called it in just looked down at one of the meteorites – the northern-most one – and noticed it wasn't there any more, but he's pretty sure it was there when he arrived. But there were over two dozen other people in the park, and most of the city would notice if someone or something was moving them. Even teleporting them should have made a noise… or been noticed."

"Twenty minutes ago..." Ash repeated to himself. "Dexter, when were we having our battle?"

Your guess is correct, Dexter stated. The battle on the terrace took place about twenty minutes ago, plus or minus five.

"I might be missing something," Maylene protested. "Why does it matter when we were having our battle?"

"We've run into this kind of thing before," Brock supplied for her. "People – Team Galactic – who just get missed out. People ignore them even when they're doing something right there, and we're… not really sure why."

"That sounds very worrying," the Jenny said, taking a note of it. "Do you think they could really have taken the meteorites in broad daylight without being noticed?"

"I don't know," Ash admitted. "But one of their Pokémon attacked my Suciune, hard enough to drive her about three inches into a stone staircase, and she only noticed hitting the stairs."

Jenny winced. "In that case, it might be for the best if we don't annoy them, at least until there's something in place to deal with them. Who else knows?"

"We told Champion Cynthia about it," Brock volunteered. "She said she'd find out what can be done."

"That's good to know," Jenny relaxed. "I'll put it into the system, though, and that might help out."

She frowned. "We might be able to find something from the forensics, though, so I'll do my best to find out what happened."

"That sounds good," Brock nodded. "Not much point in us visiting, then. That's a shame."

"Yeah," Maylene sighed.


After they left, one of Jenny's assistants caught her attention.

"Was that Ash Ketchum?" he asked. "I didn't know he was around here."

"Yeah, it was," Jenny agreed.

"Did they have anything to say?"

"Not much," Jenny replied. "I was just telling them the park's off limits."

She tore off the top page of her notebook, discarding it in a nearby bin. "It's a pity, really, those meteorites are one of our big tourist draws. Hopefully we can get them back before too long."


"Care to explain?" Sceptile asked.

"Okay, firstly, this made total sense when we started," Tauros assured him.

"Secondly, how come you're coming after us?" another Tauros said. "I thought you were cool, man."

"Cool isn't an excuse," Sceptile sighed. "Especially not under these circumstances. So, how did this make sense?"

One Tauros raised a green-splattered hoof. "So we had the idea of testing our ability to dodge by using paintballs, instead of attacks..."

"Okay, I think I can see the rest," Sceptile told him. "You're over here, the other Tauros are on the other hill, you're firing at one another by kicking them?"

"Mostly," Tauros agreed. "You did miss one bit, though."

Sceptile raised an eyebrow.

"Staraptor wanted to play."

Sceptile's expression changed, and he dove for cover.

He made it out of the blast radius just before Staraptor dropped a mesh net full of paintballs on the hilltop.


"Paintball?" Ivysaur asked. "Really?"

"Really," Sceptile replied. "My recommendation is that we make all five of them take a thorough bath, and have Staraptor do the clean up work on the hilltops."

"I like that plan," Ivysaur decided, nodding. "By the way..."

Sceptile paused.

"Why are we Grass types so often the sensible ones? Just a trend I've noticed."

"Don't ask me," Sceptile replied. "Unless it's just that we're more used to waiting around to photosynthesize..."


"I wonder how Galactic stole those meteorites," Ash muttered. "I get that they could have just done it in front of everyone, but those were big… does it hide helicopters or something?"

"Let's be honest, the only thing about this which is unprecedented is that it affects everyone except us," Pikachu noted. "Normally this kind of thing either only affects us, or it affects everyone and we're included."

"This kind of thing?" Dawn checked. "You mean like the time travel thing?"

"Yes, all the times that happened," Pikachu confirmed.

"Excuse me?"

A young man with purple-black hair waved, catching their attention. "Sorry to interrupt – do you know my brother Paul?"

"Yeah, we've met him a few times," Ash confirmed. "You're Reggie, right?"

"That's me," Reggie agreed. "I guess he's mentioned me?"

"A bit," Ash said, simplifying considerably. "You decided to stop being a trainer, right?"

"Yeah, I fought Brandon," Reggie agreed. "He asked me some hard questions afterwards, and… it was kind of like I just hadn't been seeing something, and now that he'd asked the question it was obvious. I didn't really have a style, I didn't really want to be a great Pokémon trainer… I was just going along with it because it was what people expected. What Paul expected."

He shrugged. "But I'm much happier now. All the pressure's just… gone."

"I'm glad that worked out for you," Ash said, shaking his hand. "But I don't really think I could do the same thing. Nor could Paul, really."

"Yeah, but he's improved a lot since he met you," Reggie replied sincerely, taking Ash's hand in both of his own. "I think you've really done something that's set him back on the right course."

"Glad to hear it," Ash replied. "He and Mawile took part in a doubles tournament, recently – they worked pretty well together."

"I'm not going to pretend I understand how that could have worked," Reggie said, with a disarming smile. "Well, I won't keep you – just wanted to say thanks."


"You seem subdued," Lucario observed.

"I am, a bit," Infernape replied. "Just… since we met Reggie. It reminded me of all the Pokémon who were my teammates with Paul."

He waved a hand. "I didn't really like a lot of them, but there weren't any I never wanted to see again. Even if it would take a while for me to decide to see some of them again… but I never really got the chance, not that I felt I needed to. And that makes me feel odd – I'm not sure how to take it, that there are Pokémon who I know but who don't know me."

"It's sort of the opposite of being a celebrity," Lucario suggested.

Infernape laughed. "I don't know, though," he said. "And… well, maybe if Paul hadn't been so insistent on fixing me, if he'd handed me off to Reggie for a bit instead of discarding me, then I would have been with Reggie's Pokémon now. Then. You know what I mean."

"Funny, isn't it, thinking about the road not taken," Lucario agreed. "Especially as we've all had personal experience with that kind of thing – with seeing how a life can take two different paths."

He shrugged. "Of course, sometimes that just means someone else will take your path instead. Sometimes the path you used to be on is occupied, and sometimes it's not. Sometimes a resurfacing crew comes through and the path is blocked off for a while, but then it's better than before. Or sometimes you need to build your own path, possibly out of logs, and then someone else can follow it, but once too many are taking it you need to improve-"

"This isn't about paths through life any more, is it?" Infernape asked.

"Kind of drifted into infrastructure maintenance, yeah," the Steel-type replied. "You know how they handle roads in the Lucario kingdom?"

Infernape shrugged.

"Not a clue. Never paid attention while I was there," Lucario explained.


"You understand?" the man asked. "I need a specimen. Live. Preferably undamaged."

The shadowy figure across the table from him nodded. "We can do it… but it will be expensive."

In reply, the man slid a briefcase and a note across the table.

Taking the note, the shadowy figure paused. "Tempting… half down, half on delivery?"

"That is half down," the man said.

There was a slight pause.

"Then yes," the shadowy figure allowed, after taking a few moments to calm down again. The briefcase clicked open, as the figure checked the contents, then it clicked shut again. "We'll get you your specimen. Alive. Preferably undamaged."


AN:


Ah, a gym battle. Which didn't even get within visual range of the gym.

Probably a mistake there.