This is the first of two chapters today.


"I hadn't realized quite how far you have to fly to get to Sinnoh," May's Altaria said, wings rippling a little in the slipstream as they crossed the coast.

"I hadn't either," May agreed, packing away the last of their lunch. "At least we remembered to bring something to eat."

Altaria trilled his agreement, and they banked down a little – heading for the blue oval ahead that was Lake Valor.

"How warm do you think it is at sea level?" May asked, inspecting the quilted wool of her flight jacket – something she needed for long journeys, but which had been like wearing a steam bath back in Johto.

"Not as cold as it is up here, but it doesn't look too warm," Altaria replied. "No snow… oh, and the trees aren't shaking too much, so it's probably quite calm – I guess we'll find out when we reach the lakeside."

Deciding he was coming in a little fast, Altaria banked around for a circle to lose a little height. As he did, the harness jingled a little, and May smiled at the reminder – not so very long ago even flying with the full harness had been scary, but now they only really used it for the longer flights like this one.

A second circuit, and then Altaria was flying low over Lake Valor and producing little ripples below him. He hummed to himself, the tone echoing back from the water, then floated down to alight on the lakeside path.

May unclipped herself and slid down, undoing the harness with a practised ease, then stowed it and returned Altaria.

"Where's the hotel room again?" she checked, getting her Pokédex out.

The hotel room is on the second floor, Ethan told her. However, more importantly, I have just sent a message to Kris.

A moment later, Roland and Max appeared in a flicker of light.

"Hey, sis!" Max waved. "How was the flight?"

"Long," May replied. "How was the Pokémon Centre?"

"Relaxed," Max told her. "I had some pastries while I was waiting."

Arc came out of his Pokéball, jumping up and licking May, and she laughed. "Calm down, you saw me earlier before I took off!"

"But that was miles away," Arc replied, with impeccable logic.

May shook her head. "Whatever," she sighed, as Blaziken emerged from his own Pokéball. "Let's go get checked in, then we can find Ash."

"Can we take a moment to look for the Legendary of the lake?" Manaphy asked.

"Would that count as a diplomatic visit?" Max said, amused. "The Legendary of the Sea meeting the Legendary of a Lake?"

"Good question!" Manaphy replied. "Ooh, but if it was one of those I should have brought Samiya… never mind, then..."

"I don't think you could get Samiya into the lake," May said, and Manaphy nodded.

"Yeah, good point..."


"Well, here we go," Dawn said. "The Wallace Cup!"

She glanced down at the two Pokémon she had out – Piplup and Buneary – and both gave her a confident nod in reply.

"We'll be not just fine, but we'll blow them away!" Piplup pronounced. "Though not quite as literally as if Pidgeot was involved."

"We tried, back in Kanto," Pikachu said, in case Piplup hadn't heard or couldn't remember. "She only really fits in in open-air events anyway, and if there's such a thing as a ring out disqualification she gets it."

"Hey, guys!"

Everyone looked up, seeing May coming their way – Max a little behind her.

"Great to see you!" Ash smiled.

"How was the journey?" Brock asked.

"Short," Max answered quickly, and May snorted.

"Short for you," she said. "The flight was fine, just a bit longer than we were expecting."

She looked up. "What did you think, Joltik?"

"The experience of flight is most certainly a peculiar one," Joltik commented. "Perhaps the way ground-bound creatures enjoy it so much is linked to the thrill of the forbidden, or even the philosophical enjoyment that comes from leaving somewhere you were supposed to be stuck. It's not a universal enjoyment, but it's a persistent enough one it's hard to explain!"

"I'm going to go ahead and assume that means it was fun," Pikachu said, into the resultant silence.

"Yeah, that's probably best," Max agreed. "Okay, so what-"

"There you are!"

Ash turned around, and blinked at the sight of Jessie's 'Jesselina' persona.

"I've been looking for you for ages!" Jesselina said, more than a little crossly.

"Five minutes tops," her Audino supplied smoothly, before drawing Brock into a concise but eloquent discussion of the value of braising.

Unaware of what Audino had said, Jesselina handed Ash a Pokéball.

"Yanmega, right?" Ash asked, then Reminded the Bug-type with a little tingling flash of Aura. "Okay, that should be sorted out now."

"Thanks," Jesselina replied, mollified somewhat, and took the Pokéball back. "Are either of you entering the Wallace Cup?"

"It's why we're here," Dawn pointed out. "Though, honestly, this is going to be a tough one – May's had a lot more work-up time than I have."

"You've had your Pokémon for longer than you might have expected," May pointed out. "I actually think you might have more relative training time compared to me than you did last time..."


"Excuse me?"

Jessie's Pikachu looked up from the oddly-shaped wood she was inspecting, considering whether to make it into a hockey stick or a large comedy hook one might use to drag a poorly performing comedian off stage. "Hello?"

Buneary took a deep breath. "I… wanted to ask you about whether you have romantic inclinations towards Ash's Pikachu."

Cosplaychu considered the question for about two seconds, then shook her head. "No, too conventional for me."

Buneary blinked. "...what?"

"Have you seen my normal preferences in costumes?" Cosplay Pikachu asked. "I'd want a romantic partner full of variety… if it ever came along, which it might not."

Buneary raised a paw for a moment, head tilted, then lowered it. "I… was honestly prepared for this to be a lot harder than it's turned out to be."

The Pikachu shrugged. "I get the concept of crack shipping, I'm just not really into taking part."

"How is that a crack ship?" Buneary asked, now honestly baffled. "Male Pikachu and female Pikachu is… yeah?"

"Personality's what counts," Cosplaychu replied. "Now, do you think there's enough of a curve in this to let it be a hook?"

"Um – well – honestly, I think it might work better as a shepherd's crook," Buneary answered.

"That's a point, I don't think I've done that one yet..."


"Hi Max!" Mawile said brightly. "Have you met my friend yet?"

"I don't think so, Mawile," Max replied, shaking Tyrantrum's hand. "I guess he's why we're sitting in this row?"

Tyrantrum nodded, taking his place just past the end of the regular rows of seats.

"That's right," Brock confirmed. "There isn't any need for anyone to use that part of the stair path, so Tyrantrum can just sit there – and, more importantly, there's nobody directly behind him."

"Makes sense to me," Max said. "And the fridge?"

"That's the Rotom who normally lives in Ash's bag," Brock replied. "It was interested, and it does also mean we get drinks more easily… though, to be honest, I'm not entirely sure how the power requirements thing works with a plasma ghost."

Max chuckled. "I hope Rotom enjoys it… oh, what are the rules again? I know this is basically a giant Contest..."

That's about it, really, Kris informed him. Everyone does an Appeal round, then the top sixteen go to a Battle round. The level of performance expected is much higher, though, because people have come here from all over.

"That does explain why the Appeals round takes over half the time allotted to the competition," Max admitted. "Quite a lot more."

Something floated in front of him, and he looked down to see a glowing soft drinks can.

"Oh, thanks," he told Rotom, taking it. "That's a poltergeist-type thing, right?"

"Probably," Brock agreed.


After the first few performances, including a very impressive fire display by a low-flying Charizard who used the swimming pool as a backstop, May walked out to the edge of the water.

She waited for a moment, as the announcer read off her name and hometown, then raised her Cherish Ball.

"Let's go," she told Manaphy, and sent him out.

Manaphy dove into the water with an easy smoothness, barely even leaving a ripple, then popped back up again with his antenna glowing and began to manipulate the water with his flippers.

Water mounded up, maintaining an impossible shape under his active control, and Manaphy got to work sculpting it – adding in towers, ramparts, and crenellations, like a sandcastle being made at the beach. But this sandcastle was made from water, and to make it so it was easily seen Manaphy was making it at an enormously greater scale – almost to the size of a real, if small, castle.

As he finished each section, Manaphy used Mud-Slap – adding a little extra colour to the water, and making it more obvious – before moving on to the next, dissolving into water with Acid Armour to flow around his growing construction and produce the next bit. Then he began using his Tail Glow to light up the area he was currently working, sculpting tower after tower and adding walls and spires as he sped up more and more.

Manaphy was a tracery of light carried in his own private water current, and the water level of the pool dropped noticeably as he built his work – but even that was something he'd thought of, and the water receding left behind new sections of the tower bases as if they'd been there the whole time.

Finally, after about a minute and a half, he was done. A fairy-tale castle stood in the middle of the pool, built entirely out of shimmering water and garlanded with multiply reflected light, and Manaphy's personal column of water flew over it in an arc – an arc that shed fireballs and trailing sparks, one after another, as Manaphy used Dazzling Gleam and Water Pulse to send fireworks into the sky.


"I wonder why he didn't freeze it in place," Max said. "That would have made it easier, right?"

"Yeah, but… hold on," Brock replied, counting under his breath for a moment. "About twenty by twenty by ten… halve it… yeah, I think the next contestants might have complained about having two thousand tonnes of ice in the pool."

"Good point, well made," Max admitted, as Manaphy began deconstructing his castle – letting it flow back into the pool one tower at a time, before jumping off the final tower and conjuring butterfly-wings of water to glide down and land in May's arms.

"Maybe I should make a list of who can fly and who can't yet, out of the Pokémon I know," Mawile pondered. "Manaphy can, obviously..."

"He can glide, but isn't flying a bit harder?" Max asked.

"No, of course he can fly, he can control the water to just pull him along," Mawile pointed out. "Hmm… hey, Tyrantrum, I had an idea. You're a Rock type, right, and Ancientpower can involve lifting rocks?"

"Should I be worried?" Tyrantrum asked.

"No, don't worry," Mawile hastened to reassure him. "I like the idea of making it possible, but you don't have to actually do it. It's sort of like a hobby, so..."

"Don't worry, Mawile," Tyrantrum told her. "I'm just trying to join in on the teasing thing everyone seems to do when they're talking to one another."

"That was a great example, then!" Mawile replied, bouncing back from her worry. "Oh, we'd better watch the next appeal though!"

"...isn't that that Ursula person who Dawn doesn't like?" Tyrantrum asked, after a moment's examination.

"Looks like," Mawile agreed.


"I really need to get a handle on my nerves..." Dawn said to herself.

"Not really!" Pachirisu replied. "Being nervous is a perfectly natural response, even if it's not justified. That doesn't mean you have to be nervous, but it means you don't need to feel guilty about it!"

"That does help, actually," Dawn told her. "I… yeah, I won't second-guess myself this close, I'll go with the plan we made earlier."

"Thanks!" Pachirisu smiled. "I read books, you know!"

"I didn't know," Piplup noted. "When?"

"This isn't about me," the squirrel replied with a tail-flirt and a shrug. "But, if you must know, I tend to do it when I'm recharging. And eating nuts."

Dawn tried not to laugh. "That sounds really stereotypical."

"..." Pachirisu began, then her tail drooped. "I… the only comeback I could think of was 'nuts to that'..."

This time Dawn couldn't contain herself.


"I've lost count," Max admitted. "How many contestants are there?"

Quite a lot, Kris summarized. We're exactly halfway through.

"Somehow you've managed to give me a precise value without even mentioning a number.."

Half is a number. It's just not a whole number.

"That looks like Dawn," Brock pointed out, heading off the argument. "I wonder who she's using?"


Dawn stopped about ten feet back from the edge of the pool, then turned towards the dry-land area and threw her Pokéball.

It skipped along once, then burst to reveal Mamoswine – a glissando of musical notes rising into the air as he emerged, before stamping his feet once to test the ground.

Apparently satisfied, he turned to face the pool and began to move. Slowly at first, then faster and faster. Light flashed on his big feet, and he did a wide sliding turn which went around his trainer in a curly loop – just about avoiding plunging into the water.

Dawn produced a baton from up her sleeve, extending it with a click-snap, and pointed it at Mamoswine before sweeping it slowly around to the right. Mamoswine followed her directions, ice glittering around his feet, and at Dawn's direction he drew a looping treble clef in frosted white ice before following the long stem down towards the pool again.

A quick flick-and-twist, and he switched from white ice to invisible black ice. Now his path was unmarked, and he headed for the pool at speed.

Dawn held her breath. This was the tricky bit, and they did have a plan in case things went wrong but-

-and Mamoswine flew out over the edge of the poolside. He went about ten feet before contacting the water, dropping about four inches in that time, and when he made contact there was a shoom of blue light and instantly-forming ice.

Mamoswine's trajectory was just about flat enough to avoid breaking the ice, and he skidded sideways – his Ice Beams freezing new ice in front of him, and the ice behind him spiderwebbing with cracks before breaking up into thousands of tiny pieces.

Dawn swept her baton across again, and Mamoswine followed it impeccably – twirling, skating, leaving a trail of frozen spray behind him which rose into the air. More than once he did a little jump, skipping five or six feet with a high-speed low-altitude hop and coming back down with another flash of blue light.

Finally, after almost a minute, Dawn brought her baton up. Mamoswine froze a small wave ahead of him, launched himself out of the pool, and turned to skid to a halt facing the water as Dawn walked over to him.

Then he used Blizzard, and the whole pool iced over – just a thin skin, but all in a flash.

"Oh!" one of the announcers gasped.

"Very impressive!" Wallace agreed. "Very impressive!"

In the frozen pool surface, traced out by the difference in colour of the ice where Mamoswine had been skating, was a six-note musical score – the very same one the Seals had played when Mamoswine had come out.

Dawn sighed with relief as the crowd began to applaud, and patted Mamoswine on the side.

"Well done, Mamoswine," she said. "And thank you."

Mamoswine nuzzled against her, then let himself be Returned with a quick flash.


"What's your favourite food?"

"I don't know, it depends how I'm feeling?" Ash replied, a bit puzzled. "Do people seriously want to know this?"

"What Pokémon do you think you're going to add next to your team?"

"Probably a Gible, but I'm not sure," Ash answered, and several of the reporters wrote that down.

"If they don't give us some space soon I think I might start electrocuting things," Pikachu muttered.

"Look, I need to get to the arena pretty soon," Ash said. "Can you just-"

"One more question, Mr. Ketchum," one of the reporters said. "Why are you wearing a sword?"

"That's a Honedge who I met recently," Ash answered. "She's asked to travel with me."

"Why?" another reporter asked.

"I thought you said that was one more question?" Ash pointed out.

"He did," the new reporter said. "I didn't."

Hey, Ash? Latias noted. Hands up.

Ash raised his hands, and Latias lifted him out of the press pack.

"Thanks," he said, as Latias flipped him around so he could land on her back for the quick ride to the waiting area. "I can understand why Wallace doesn't like the press."

"I fear I now understand why he was so glad to hear you were here," Kari contributed. "You have run interference for him, all while not intending it."

"That sounds like what was going on," Pikachu agreed.

They landed, and Ash slid off Latias' back. "Thanks."

"No problem!" Latias replied, and stealthed again with a flicker of blue light.

"There are so many situations we got into before where a Latias or Latios hanging around would help out a lot," Pikachu observed. "Granted, this might not technically be one of them, but..."

Ash shrugged. "I'll take it… I guess I understand people want to know, but some of these questions are just silly."

"They are so that people see you as a person, and not a cipher, are they not?" Kari asked. "And yet… I cannot deny the experience is an unpleasant one."

"Yeah, I'm much more comfortable out there on the tournament field," Ash agreed. "I know there's more people looking at me then, but… yeah, it's just easier to deal with."


Serena yawned, glad she'd been able to arrange to watch the Wallace Cup, but nevertheless ending up quite sleepy as a direct result.

"That was a pretty interesting one," she said, blinking a bit. "Don't you think?"

No reply, and she looked over to find Blitzle sound asleep on his blanket.

"...oh, right," Serena blushed, lowering her voice. "Well… anyway, good luck, Dawn. I didn't know a Pokémon that big could be that graceful..."


"I was wondering if Ash had entered this," Max said, watching as their friend walked out onto the appeals area.

"Why?" Brock asked. "Weren't you sure just because he's… you know, not here?"

"No, because I know Ash gets lost a lot," Max replied. "He could quite easily have been wandering around in circles for the past few hours."

"…I'm not disagreeing..." Brock said carefully.

As they watched, Ash took a Pokéball from his pocket and threw it.

Then there was a shoom as Ho-Oh emerged.

"Well, I think I know who's been pestering Ash recently," Max chuckled.


Ho-Oh rose into the air, flames curling out from below his wings, and shot fire into the water pool below. It plunged about ten feet deep, then exploded in a shower of steam, and Ho-Oh pulled it together with a Weather Ball which he crafted into a disc before letting it explode outwards.

As it spread, he used Sunny Day – then beat his wings, hurling wisps of cloud high into the air as a representation of a summery day, only the faintest cirrus disturbing the light.

Another wingbeat, and his Sacred Fire this time shot deeper still into the water before erupting. It launched gallons of water into the air to form clouds, carefully crafted by Ho-Oh in a way that looked casual, and they stormed down on the water surface below – even producing a lightning bolt.

The Fire-type next used a clever twist of fire and air to very rapidly cool one of the clouds, forcing it through the same pressure change that would otherwise affect air rising more than a mile into the sky, and it began to snow instead of rain. A similar burst to the other cloud, with more violence, and that one began to produce hail.

Ho-Oh flew under the two clouds of warm-day snow, letting them flash into steam as they touched his wings, then summoned a burst of rose-coloured fire again and lashed the pool surface. This time it was not to produce a single explosion of water, but a continuous column of heated, moist air – which he spun into a tornado, before bundling the whole thing up into a Weather Ball and launching it into the air.

It burst with impressive force, producing a ring of clouds, and Ho-Oh flew through the ring with a rainbow trailing behind him.

Landing next to Ash, he waited.

"...I'm not familiar with this," he whispered to Ash. "But shouldn't there be applause?"

The mist slowly drained away.

"Well..." the announcer began, sounding very confused. "I'm… honestly not sure how we score that one. Wallace?"

"I don't think that's happened before," Wallace agreed.


"Oh, dear..." May groaned. "I forgot that can happen."

"What happened?" one of the other Coordinators asked. "I didn't see."

"That's the point, you couldn't see," May replied. "Ash sent out his Ho-Oh to do something, but the very first thing it did smothered the whole audience in mist. They didn't see a thing apart from that… which is a pity, since I'm pretty sure there was a thunderclap there and I bet it looked really impressive..."

"I can't remember how that rule works," Dawn admitted. "Is there one?"

"I think they just have to score it based on the sound..." May shrugged. "It's not going to be a great score, though."


"I'm sure it looked good on the cameras," Ash said, as they left the arena.

"I'll take it, I suppose," Ho-Oh mused. "Pity we didn't get the full performance scored, though. I worked for a long time on producing an Ice type effect."

"I though it was impressive!" Ash agreed. "A real surprise for anyone who… you know, doesn't watch TV."

"It's rare for rampaging and confused Legendary Pokémon to be familiar with television, or they wouldn't rampage so much," Ho-Oh opined. "I know a docudrama is just the thing to relax of an evening… or whatever else people who can work the TV remote are watching, anyway."


Jessie looked up at the crowd, then sent out the Pokémon she'd picked for the Appeals round.

James' Victreebel emerged, with a whoosh of smoke, then inhaled and captured the smoke inside his bell. His vine whipped out, and he anchored himself into the ground by the spike before twisting hard to get himself moving – around in a circle, starting slow and moving faster.

A little ooze of smoke came out of the edge of his bell's leaf lid, forming a trail, and he spiralled in before slamming himself down right where his vine's spike had been anchored to belch forth the rest of the smoke he'd been holding in.

Razor Leaf attacks whipped out, punching holes in the smoke and drawing wisps of extra smoke behind them, and were followed up by a full-blown Leaf Tornado which sent it all over the place to fill the immediate area with drifting leaves and a light coating of stage smoke.

There was a whoosh as Victreebel added to it with a coating of Poison Powder, making the air shimmer slightly from the two-layered mist he'd put into it, then Jessie pointed.

"All right, Sunny Day! And Magical Leaf!" she ordered.

Victreebel complied, making the sun blaze brighter with a pulse of soft yellow light before shooting out a salvo of glowing multicoloured leaves. The leaves flashed as they reflected the sunlight, then four of them flashed more brightly as Victreebel fired a Solarbeam at them.

Each one of the four leaves reflected off a different colour in a different direction, producing beams of red, green, blue and yellow light which showed up clearly in the smoky haze. One of them bounced off the water before being caught by another Magical Leaf and reflected back, the other three were just sent around the complex pattern of Magical Leaves Victreebel had already set up.

The pressure of the light pushed the leaves around, and Victreebel adjusted his aim carefully – making the lights flash around like a rainbow laser light show. Then Jessie stepped forwards, doing a twirl, and the light focused back together into a beam of white sunlight focused directly on her like a spotlight.

And revealed the dozens of mirrors sewn into her outfit, lighting her up like a disco ball in the haze she'd had Victreebel produce.


"I ain't sure, but I bet Jessie's glad she ate all those Pecha berries now," Meowth observed.

"I'd hoped she enjoyed them anyway," Audino said brightly. "It's not easy to make Pecha Berry Curry without the Pecha neutralizing the curry powder!"


"Last one on the list," Mr. Contesta finished. "Zoey. I thought this was a very good performance, I'd give it a nine."

"Hmm… I don't know," Joy said, frowning. "I think that's a six for me – I respect your opinion, Raoul, but I'm afraid I may have seen too many Gastrodon recently."

"Eight," Wallace decided.

"Remarkable," Sukizo stated clearly.

"Well, that's the full score," Contesta said. "Where does that leave us, Jeeves?"

Collating, the Porygon answered, before a screen flashed up with the names of the Coordinators ranked by score. The top sixteen glowed, then Jeeves sorted them randomly into the brackets.

Wallace leaned closer, checking the equally-ranked positions met with his approval, then nodded. "Good. Go ahead, Jeeves."

Of course, suh.

The big boards over the stands flashed up the bracket, and Joy picked up the microphone. "It's time for the Contest Battle round! Congratulations to all sixteen competitors who made it this far, and commiserations to those who didn't quite make it."

She waited a moment, letting the applause die down, then continued. "The first Contest battle is between Jesselina and Ursula, and it will be a double battle. Please come down to the arena."


Ursula sent out two of her Pokémon, her Plusle and her Minun, and they did a brief aerial dance relying on their mutual electrostatic attraction before separating again.

"Good!" Ursula told them. "Let's deal with this old frump!"

Jessie clenched her fist, then made herself relax. Instead, she sent out her own Pokémon – Marowak first, then Wobbuffet.

Ursula blinked. "...what? Okay, ignore the – wait. Hmmm, that's actually quite a good plan..."

She shook her head. "Well, never mind!"

"Begin!" the announcer called, and the clock began ticking down from five minutes.

"Plusle, Minun, use your electric dance!" Ursula ordered, and the two Electric-types reached out to one another with cables of electricity again. They connected with a fizzzzt and began to move, each one pulling on the other in turn to get them both moving relative to one another, and spun around a few times before Minun launched Plusle on the end of an electric bungee cord.

Plusle used Grass Knot at the end of his tether, pushing grass out of the ground at Marowak, and Marowak dodged to the side.

Wobbuffet saluted. "Uaabaa!"

Plusle looked vaguely confused, then shrugged. Landing back where Minun had launched him, he focused before hurling Minun forwards in turn.

This time, Minun used Signal Beam, aiming it at Marowak on the logic that the attack would be harder to dodge. It was, but Marowak pulled something out of thin air and deflected the attack away.

The Ground-type began to use the pause as Minun switched places with Plusle to set something else up, conjuring a bigger shield along with a crested skull-helmet and a bone-spear, but instead both Plusle and Minun attacked at once – two Signal Beam attacks flashing in and knocking Marowak backwards.

Wobbuffet said something else, and Marowak shot him a look before throwing a Bonemerang at the two Electric-types. They dodged, one going above and one below, and there was a ripple of applause in the crowd as they switched places three times in as many seconds to confuse Marowak.

"Wide!" Ursula called, and Plusle and Minun flicked out to either side – letting Marowak's returning Bonemerang pass harmlessly between them, before re-establishing the electrical connection it had broken and powering up.

Marowak conjured two bone shields, one to either side, and watched as the widely spread Pokémon got ready to use Signal Beam.

"Narrow!" Ursula instructed, and Minun and Plusle snapped back together with blistering speed before firing a combined attack.

Marowak blocked. With Wobbuffet.

Both her paws around his tail, she swept him into the way of the Signal Beam attacks, and by the time the Cheering Pokémon had realized their mistake Wobbuffet was glowing with stored energy from his Mirror Coat.

"Hold it in!" Jessie called. "Marowak, use the laser trick!"

Ursula blinked. "...the what?"

Marowak threw Wobbuffet into the air, and spread both arms to the side. Muttering to herself, she conjured a pair of giant feet – like the skeletal fossil of a Tyrantrum, but five times larger at least.

Pausing for a moment, she produced a mirror-like shield formed of Steel-type bone and reflected Wobbuffet's Mirror Coat back at him – only a little of the energy going anywhere except right back at her teammate.

She jumped, forming the torso around her at the apex of her jump, then reflected another Mirror Coat – this one faster than the last, and brighter – before finishing her aria and completing the huge theropod skeleton she'd been producing.

It reared up under her control, snatching Wobbuffet out of the air with a chomp, then pointed directly at Plusle and Minun.

Ursula blinked. "Wait – split!"

Wobbuffet unleashed the power of his Mirror Coat.


"...that's a new one on me," Contesta admitted. "I don't think I've seen that before. What attack would you call that?"

"Ancient Power?" Wallace suggested.

"...yeah, we'll call it that," Contesta agreed. "Jeeves?"

Of course, suh.

"I think that's a knock out, but honestly that was going to go that way anyway," Joy mused. "Don't you think so, Mr. Sukizo?"

Mr. Sukizo nodded.

"Well, that means that Jesselina advances to the last eight," Wallace decided. "I wonder when she's going to use her Pikachu, that one's always a treat."


"Okay, uh… how's that?" Ash asked, fiddling with his bag.

"Acceptable," Ho-Oh replied. "It's quite dark in here, but I can see the battlefield. Thank you."

"No problem," Ash said, sitting down on the seat Max had kept clear for him, and putting his bag so the Ho-Oh inside could look out at the Wallace Cup. "I feel kind of guilty we didn't spot that on the practice run."

"Never fear, trainer – the fault was at least as much mine, for of the two of us I'm the one who's supposed to be a weather expert," Ho-Oh said.

"That does help me relax," Ash admitted. "But I should have caught it too."

A soft drink can floated over to him, courtesy of Rotom, and he took it before opening it with a hiss of escaping gas. Pikachu got a small chilled ketchup, and Lucario a can of violently orange drink which emitted wisps of smoke.

"What is that, anyway?" Pikachu asked.

"Iron brew," Lucario replied, taking a swig. "I wanted a vivid drink."

He leaned forwards a little. "It looks like this battle is May against… Zoey."

"Against Zoey?" Brock looked closer himself. "Huh. So it is."


"I kind of feel like there's been a mix up somewhere," May muttered, then readied her Pokéball. "Okay, let's go!"

Zoey threw her Pokéball at the same moment, and there was a twin-flash as Skitty and Glameow emerged from their Pokéballs.

"Like… huh?" Skitty asked, looking back at her trainer. "You didn't, like, say this would be, like, a kittyfight."

"Please stop talking," Glameow requested.

"I didn't, like, say very much anyway."

"Oh, I know…"

At the signal to begin, Skitty immediately skipped back a step and used Assist. There was a flash of brilliant light, and absolutely nothing else happened.

"Like… huh," Skitty muttered. "Must have been, like, a dud..."

Glameow's tail coiled up, little sparks fizzling along it, then she fired a Shock Wave at Skitty. The attack didn't fly true, however, instead looping and curling in the air to draw a simple paw-shape before snapping hungrily down at Skitty – only to bounce off an ice-shield May's Normal-type had generated with a quick Blizzard.

The impact of the attack sent shocks through the channels of water Skitty had left in the ice, fracturing them apart as tiny portions of the water flashed into steam, and Skitty jumped out from underneath it before tapping it with an Iron Tail.

Ice cubes cascaded down the remnants of the frozen shield, revealing an ice-sculpture Delcatty, and Skitty winked before dodging away from a Fury Swipes.

"Double Slap!" May ordered, and Skitty began using her tail to fence with Glameow. She added a bit of electrical charge to it, and Glameow did the same, and for several seconds the two of them sent sparks flying across the arena.

Skitty finally managed to outpace her opponent, and skidded around in a circle using her tail as an anchor. Another Assist ball appeared as she slid around towards Glameow's side, and then she rocketed forwards in a Flare Blitz.

Thanks to extensive and chaotic training, Skitty managed to add a little nuance to her blistering fire-type attack. Her tail was the key feature again as she used it to control her trajectory, coming up-and-around and down-and-around twice before finally slamming Glameow into the pool with a woosh of spray.


"Ouch, they're not going to like that," Max winced. "Two feline Pokémon ending up underwater?"

"Not all feline Pokémon hate water," Ash said. "Just… you know, most of them. Mewtwo actually quite likes swimming."

...on the moon, Dexter finished.

"Swimming on the moon?" Max blinked. "Really?"

No, I just felt like adding 'on the moon' and making it make sense. There's a swimming pool up there, but there's no report of Mewtwo using it.

"I remember he mentioned that," Ash said, as Skitty sprang back out of the water and created an ice platform to land on – then shook herself out from head to tail, cold air around her making the individual droplets shimmer outwards like airborne frost. "All the cool things you can do by swimming on the moon or in low gravity are things Mewtwo can already do by thinking about them."

"That makes sense," Max agreed, as Glameow came out onto the same ice platform. Her tail uncoiled, the end glowing gently with a multicoloured light, and Skitty stared at it. "What's going on there?"


"Like… shiny..." Skitty said, crouching down a little with her own tail twitching. She batted at the multicoloured light, which flicked higher so she just about missed catching it, then jumped to try and get it and missed again. "Just, like, stay still!"

The light waved in front of her eyes, hypnotically attractive, then flicked off in one direction – so she followed it, and there was a whack as a paw struck her in the back.

That broke the Hypnosis Glameow had put her under, and she had just about enough time to realize what was about to happen before she got a second bath in the pool.

Very annoyed indeed, Skitty swam a few feet underwater until she was underneath her ice platform – then used Assist again, not particularly caring what she got so long as it was powerful.

She got what she was after.


Water showered everywhere as Skitty burst up through the ice, a pair of brilliant white wings made of billowing cloud extending from her back, and Glameow avoided being hit by the Fly attack by darting back to dry land.

Controlling her angle with two powerful wingbeats and a flick of her tail, Skitty strafed Glameow with Blizzard attacks before pulling up and away – the excess cold air from her blizzard condensing extra moisture onto her temporary wings, making them bigger and bulkier.

"Hold the Fly as long as you can!" May called. "And use Water Pulse – then Blizzard – and shape it!"

Skitty did so, alternately using Water Pulse and Blizzard to add to the structure being created off her copied Fly. She caught a Shock Wave which looped through the sky, stumbling a bit, then recovered – only to feel the whole thing beginning to destabilize.

She pulsed one more Blizzard through it, then slipped out the back – using her Ice-type attack again to create a looping roller-coaster course for her to skate along. Controlling her angle, she brought herself around towards Glameow for an Iron Tail.

Glameow blocked the blow with an Iron Tail of her own, and skidded backwards along the icy floor before hitting the Delcatty statue.

The impact made her stagger a bit, then she extended her claws and gripped the surface to avoid further movement.

Skitty halted a little way off. "Like… checkmate."

"Glameow, behind you!" Zoey called.

Glameow turned to look, and saw the winged-cat statue Skitty had been working on. Skitty's roller-coaster course had curved up and around to catch it, and it was headed for Glameow at great speed.

She didn't quite have time to get out of the way.


"May needs to watch out for that," Brock said, critically. "She kind of has a habit of letting Assist and Metronome's unpredictability sort things out for her – but that won't always work."

"She didn't only do that," Max replied, defending his sister a bit. "But yeah, I think Skitty does need a good power move for situations Blizzard doesn't work – or something she can work to use with Blizzard, reliably."

"Well, let's see who's next," Ash suggested.

"…oh, right, you missed when the bracket went up," Brock realized. "It's Dawn next, and she's facing Drew."

"Somehow I think they got their rivals mixed up in the post," Lucario chuckled.

"Sounds like it," Brock agreed.


AN:


This is a two-parter to make it slightly less unwieldy. It's the Wallace Cup!

I'm not showing every match, so be aware of that.