This is the fourth of four chapters today.
"All right, everyone!" Professor Rowan called. "Good work on your Pokémon Watcher write-ups on days three and four – it's going to take us a while to go through them, but we'll do just that over the next two days. In the mean time, however, the next task is about a very particular type of Pokémon. The Ghost type."
"The Ghost type?" Conway repeated. "Interesting. Ghost types are supposed to be tricky, as a rule, along with being very difficult to battle under a lot of circumstances."
"Well, some Ghost types are into pranks," Ash volunteered. "But I've met others which are a lot more serious, like Kari."
"I would say that is a fair assessment," Kari noted.
"Oh, right, yeah, you have a Pokémon sword," one of the other Green participants said. "A Honedge, right?"
"That's right," Ash confirmed.
"Kind of odd how you carry it like that, though."
"I heard his Honedge is a her," someone else pointed out.
"If I can have you attention?" Rowan asked, waiting until the discussion died down. "Thank you. Now, not far from here are the Summit Ruins, which have a number of Ghost types in them. Tonight, you'll need to find the Summit Medal in the ruins and bring it back here."
Mewtwo raised a a three-fingered hand.
"Mewtwo," Rowan said, indicating him. "Your question?"
I wished to ask whether there is more than one medal, Mewtwo explained. If there is only one medal, then only one attendant can take it regardless of what happens.
"As that's such a good point, we thought of it already," Rowan said, which made a few of the campers laugh. "There's plenty of medals, but please only take one. Now, since this is a night-time task, you're going to have to team up into pairs. You won't be setting off until about seven PM, so please pair off and discuss what you plan to do. Apart from that, the rest of the day is yours to spend as you please."
"Ghost types," Dawn said, thinking out loud. "Which of you guys can handle Ghost types best? I know most Pokémon are well behaved, but Ghost types do tend to be some of the Pokémon who are much more likely to prank than normal."
Her team exchanged a series of glances, then all pointed at Buneary.
"I assume that's because I'm able to ignore ghost attacks," Buneary said. "I don't have any Dark type moves, though, and Ambipom can do it the same as me."
"You have a Ghost type move," Piplup pointed out. "I've seen you working on that Shadow Ball you picked up."
"That is true," Buneary allowed.
"That sounds like a plan, then," Dawn decided. "And I'll make sure to have you on hand too, Ambipom – you don't have a ranged Ghost or Dark move, but they might try and get close."
Ambipom nodded.
"It does depend who you end up teaming up with, though," Pachirisu observed brightly. "They might have an Umbreon or an Espeon."
"Espeon have trouble with Ghosts, right?" Quilava asked.
"Yeah, but Type weakness or no Type weakness they also have an advantage against them because of their supernatural powers," Pachirisu shrugged.
On seeing the others look at her, she flirted her tail defensively. "What? I wanted to grow up to be an Espeon when I was young."
The looks did not relent.
"...I wasn't very good at biology as a kitten..."
"Would you mind if I worked with you?" Angie asked.
"Sure!" Mawile replied. "Oh – are we supposed to do it inside our colour groups?"
Angie didn't seem to understand, so Mawile indicated her colour badge and then Angie's one, before miming a question with a smile.
"Oh, right," Angie realized. "Well… I don't think it's a problem? Professor Rowan didn't say."
Mawile shrugged, then nodded brightly. "Sure, then!"
She reached up to scratch her chin. "I wonder what we should do for the next… nine or ten hours?"
After a bit of thought, she took out a notepad and wrote something on it.
Angie had a look, and her eyes went wide for a moment before she nodded. "That sounds amazing, I'd love to help!"
Mawile smiled back, then glanced around quickly and located the nearest Pokémon able to speak using Aura. "Excuse me, Lucario, do you have a bit of time to give me some Aura lessons? I think it'd be a good way to get to know my new partner a bit better."
Lucario nodded. "I should have the time for that, yes, though I think I'll need to be back with Ash in case any ghosts need punching."
"That's okay," Mawile said knowingly. "Ghost punching is an important skill too!"
"So, what's your plan to handle this?" asked Brock's partner, Sally. "Ghosts trying to trick us, and stuff?"
"It's okay," Brock replied. "I am apparently an expert on that."
Seeing the confusion in her face, he explained. "I'm supposed to be a Rock type trainer, but I have three Rock type Pokémon and most of my team are more like deception specialists. So the joke my friends have is that I'm only saying I'm a Rock type trainer as a disguise… and given that I have two illusionists and a Zorua, it's kind of got some truth to it."
Sally blinked. "Doesn't Ash Ketchum have several illusion Pokémon as well? I remember hearing about a Latias and a Latios, plus the Noctowl."
"Yeah, but he has dozens of Pokémon they're spread over, and he's not supposed to be a single-type trainer," Brock said, expanding his point. "Anyway, one of the Pokémon I have who is a Rock type is my Geodude, who can move earth and stone telekinetically, and he should be good in helping with obstacles, while Crobat is an anti-illusion guy and good in the dark."
"It kind of sounds like I'll be along for the ride," Sally admitted. "I do have a Magby, though, so we can see?"
"That sounds helpful," Brock agreed.
"This is still pretty amazing to me," Danny said. "If you'd asked, I would have said that of course Pokémon were smart – but seeing someone hold a conversation with them is completely different."
Dawn shrugged. "I guess it's the difference between knowing something and seeing it," she said. "Sadly it took a lot of work to get this far, you have to have a lot of lessons – Ash has been getting better at teaching it, but even so..."
"Yeah, I can see how that would be a problem," Danny mused. "Especially if you need to be taught by someone who already knows how."
"The problem is that it seems to require one-on-one teaching," Buneary said.
Dawn passed that on, then frowned. "But, hmmm… if it took a month or so of continuous effort, as in lessons every day, then how long would it take before everyone in the world understood Pokémon? If everyone could put that much time aside, anyway."
She counted on her fingers. "Two, four, eight, sixteen… thirty two… sixty four…"
"The tenth number in that sequence is just over a thousand," Danny supplied. "So the twentieth number is about a million, and the thirtieth number is about a billion."
"Wow," Dawn blinked. "That's… what, less than three years?"
"If your guess is right," Ambipom pointed out pedantically, and Dawn nodded. "Yeah, if the guess is right."
A little distance away, all but invisible in the gloom, a Haunter laughed soundlessly.
This was going to be such a great prank! He just needed to push this pile of rounded sticks down the hill, and they'd roll under the feet of the humans and trip them over!
Haunter waited a moment longer, just to make sure that his targets were in the right position, then reached out-
"Ahem."
It was quiet, just a little coughing sound, but it was deep and resonant as well.
Haunter blinked. "What's the big idea?" he asked, turning. "I'm trying to-"
His voice cut off in a strangled yelp.
Glowering down at him, frowning sternly, was… Giratina. Wispy shadow-wings spread, eyes glowing faintly in the night, and floating tail-body moving gently as the massive Pokémon inhaled and exhaled.
After a long moment to calm himself, Haunter shook his head. "Nice try, whoever this is," he said. "You got me, well done. But I'm trying to play a prank of my own, here, so – oh, no, the humans have got past the place I set this up..."
Hands crossed despite the lack of arms, Haunter huffed. "I'll have to do another one now, I hope you're happy."
"Perhaps you misunderstood me," Giratina suggested, voice just as deep and menacing as before. "I would appreciate if you did not play such pranks."
"Oh, and what if I do?" the Haunter asked. "That illusion's not going to scare me!"
A gateway tore open in space in front of him, making him double-take.
"Now I am sure you misunderstand me," Giratina said. "Don't do it, or I demonstrate to your satisfaction that I have the power of a Legendary Pokémon."
"Satisfied now!" Haunter said very quickly, as Giratina's whole form began to glow with golden light – a wave of energy he could feel at that distance. "Very satisfied!"
"Did you see that?" Danny asked, looking up into the trees.
"What was it?" Dawn replied. "I wasn't looking."
"Kind of a golden glow or something," Danny replied. "There was a noise, as well, kind of like a squeak?"
"Maybe the local ghosts are trying to freak us out," Dawn suggested. "Or at least freak someone out."
"Wow, I can see so many stars, it's so dark," Angie said. "But kind of too dark to see where I'm going, too… hey, Mawile, do you know Flash?"
She looked around. "Mawile?"
As she tried to work out where the Fairy-type had gone, a girl with a pastel yellow dress walked up to her. "Are you lost?"
"Yeah, I kind of am," Angie admitted. "I can't really see anything."
"I know the way back," the other girl said. "Follow me."
Angie nodded. "Right, thanks – you're a lifesaver. Only… do you know where Mawile is?"
"Mawile will be fine," the girl assured her. "You're the one who needs help."
"I guess so, Mawile can take care of herself," Angie agreed, following the other girl on a right turn through the trees – leaving the main path behind them.
A minute or so later, Mawile came back along the path in the direction Angie had originally been going.
"I can't see where Angie went," she said. "Tyrantrum, can you help?"
Tyrantrum turned to see where she was pointing, and knocked over a sapling.
"Oops," he muttered, then bent down to sniff the ground.
"I think I can smell her," he said. "She went this way… then turned off into the trees."
"That's kind of odd," Mawile observed. "Okay, let's see if we can follow her."
"How much further is it?" Angie asked. "This doesn't look familiar..."
"Just a bit further," the girl replied, walking a few steps ahead of her.
"Wile!"
Angie turned, slowing, and saw Mawile just coming around a tree behind her – only barely visible in the dim starlight.
"Wait-" she began, then her foot came down on thin air.
When she saw Angie start to topple forwards, Mawile didn't hesitate.
She grabbed her glider wing from where Tyrantrum had been carrying it, waving it to open it as she broke into a run, then held on tight and used Flamethrower. There was a crunch as the wingtips hit trees and the outer folding sections broke off, and Mawile did her best to adjust for the sudden change as she went over the cliff edge and dipped into a dive.
The cliff was high, and Angie hadn't had time to hit the bottom when Mawile reached her. Still blasting out her Flamethrower, she grabbed onto Angie with both arms and twisted to try and pull up.
Something broke, and then Mawile cut out her Flamethrower as she hit something else – remembering to use Iron Defence in time – before there was a dizzying series of splintering crashes, and a slow skid to a halt.
"Are you okay?" Mawile asked Angie, checking on her. She wasn't a human doctor, but it looked like Angie was okay – just breathing hard.
"I, uh," Angie said, breathing heavily. "I… what happened?"
She patted herself down, checking, then sighed with relief. "I'm all right… Mawile! Are you okay?"
"I think I hit my head, but it's made of Steel," Mawile replied.
Then she looked up-slope.
There was an obvious skid path where they'd landed near the base of the cliff, and pieces of splintered wood all over the place from what had moments before been Mawile's glider wing. Angie's clothes were a bit muddy, but it looked like most of the skidding had been done by Mawile – who, now she was calming down a bit, could feel mud all down her side and back.
"Ow," she said, trying to work out how to feel about the whole situation.
"We really should have picked up a map," Mark said a little nervously. "Are you sure this is the right direction?"
"I'm fairly sure," Conway replied. "I had a good look at the map. Now, we need to turn… left here."
"Where?" Mark asked.
That made Conway stop, surprised, and look at their surroundings again. There was no sign of a left turn, just a straight ahead and a right turn.
"That means we should have picked up a map, right?" Mark asked.
"...yes," Conway agreed. "All right, which way are we facing? The academy's back that way, and we should have been heading..."
He frowned, thinking, then glanced up at the sky to get his bearings. That gave him a very rough idea of which way south was, and a bit more work left him pointing. "Okay, we need to head that way."
"Are you sure?" Mark asked. "There's a light that way. It might be someone who thought to bring a torch."
"Yeah, maybe..." Conway said, frowning. "I really thought… well, maybe I'm wrong."
He nodded. "Let's ask them for help, then. They don't look too far."
"Aren't we going to get going soon?" Sally asked. "It's been a couple of hours since everyone else set off."
She looked down at the cookie she was halfway through eating. "Though I guess this is really nice."
"That's the idea," Brock replied. "Zorua was being kind of naughty yesterday, but not too naughty so she got to pick her punishment. That's why she's been doing all the hard work of making several batches of cookies."
"That does sound like the good kind of punishment," Sally allowed. "For us, at least."
"Yeah, though the downside is that to make it a punishment she had to make a lot of cookies," Brock chuckled. "But it's nearly nine o'clock, so we should get going once Zorua's taken the last batch out of the oven."
"Sounds fine to me," Sally said. "What are you going to do with all these cookies, though? And, come to think of it, where did you get all the ingredients?"
"I asked Mewtwo to make a shopping run," Brock explained. "And I think it would be quite nice to pass them out to everyone who takes part in tonight's challenge. That's for later though..."
Zorua waved, opening the door of the oven, and put the last tray of cookies on the cooling rack.
"Good work, Zorua," Brock told her. "Ninetales, you and Chansey keep an eye on them, make sure the local Starly don't get at them."
He stood up. "All right, let's go and get one of those medals!"
"Hey, hold up!" Mark called ahead.
The light they'd been catching intermittent sight of stopped for a bit, dancing around as it swung towards them, then turned away again.
"Are they just jerks?" Mark asked. "We asked them to wait..."
"It's possible that they're walking slow enough for us to catch up," Conway suggested. "At least we can see well enough to get better footing, that's a positive."
He huffed a little as they climbed the latest little rise. "Though it's still a lot of effort – hey, look!"
Mark was already looking. The light – still moving away from them, in what was probably evidence that the person with the torch was just plain rude – was illuminating the sides of an opening, a corridor leading into the nearby hillside.
"That's got to be part of the ruins," Mark said. "Let's go follow them, this could mean we get to the medals faster than we were expecting – and I'd be glad of it, I'm getting pretty tired..."
Conway nodded, following. "It does seem that way."
They reached the doorway, a simple gap with smooth walls, and Conway headed in first, following the light as it continued to dance down the hallway…
Then there was a swirl of movement in front of him, and Mark and Conway halted abruptly as a shadowy shape emerged from the gloom.
"Um… isn't that a Dusknoir?" Mark asked, a little startled.
"Look out!" Conway called ahead, and grabbed Mark to run.
The Dusknoir shook its head at them, then held up a spectral hand. Turning, it rushed off at speed towards the light ahead – catching up with it after only a few seconds. There was a blur of movement, and then Dusknoir came back to them.
Held in both hands was a Litwick.
"Wait, that wasn't a person?" Mark sad. "That was a Pokémon?"
Dusknoir nodded, then there was a brief pulse of pressure as it did something. The hallway ahead of them trembled, then fell apart – revealing them to be in a cave with walls of raw stone and packed earth.
And, not far ahead of them, a swirling mass of inky blackness.
Dusknoir gestured again, and the roof collapsed to block off the swirling mass. Then it threw the Litwick away – sending it through the wall – and turned to leave.
"Wait!" Conway called. "Um… thank you?"
"Hey, is it just me, or… now that Litwick's gone I feel much less tired," Mark said. "Are you feeling that too?"
"Yeah," Conway agreed. "That was just… strange..."
The Dusknoir observed them both, then reached out and patted Conway on the shoulder. That done, it floated off through the wall.
"...I guess we should go back to that turning, then," Mark said. "Sorry about that."
"No, don't be, I agreed with you," Conway told him. "We were both wrong."
"I know you said it would be easy," Sally said, as she and Brock walked back into camp. "I didn't think it would be that easy."
"I didn't expect Crobat to have mapped out the area two days ago for something to do," Brock replied. "But yes, between Flygon, Geodude and Crobat, that was… how long was it?"
"Twelve minutes," Zorua said, then repeated it for Sally.
"I think that means we win the speedrun record," Geodude observed. "So what do we do overnight?"
"I think the normal thing to do is to have cookies and sleep," Zorua told him. "Hmm…"
She jumped into the air, and flashed for a moment as she shapeshifted into a little Joltik.
"Why did she do that?" Sally asked.
"Because now the cookie is bigger than I am!" Zorua replied, already advancing on one of the still-warm cookies she'd made.
"I can't help but feel I got really lucky to be going with you," Benji said, as he and Ash walked through the ruins to the light of Pikachu's Flash. "It's like… you've got such a ridiculous combination of Pokémon, and you can speak to them so they can give you advice, and on top of all of that you can see through walls!"
"I can't just see anything through walls," Ash pointed out. "It's a bit more complicated than that. But yeah, I guess I just picked a lot of it up as I needed it."
"Either my Pokémon journey has been really boring or yours has been really interesting," Benji decided. "I never had to learn how to do any of that stuff."
They turned a corner into one of the larger underground rooms, and a girl stood up from a bench by the wall.
She had a pastel yellow dress on, and smiled with relief. "Someone's here! I was worried I'd be stuck in here alone until morning, or even longer..."
"Where did your partner go?" Benji asked.
"I don't know," the girl replied. "We found the medals, but I think he slipped out while I wasn't looking."
She paused. "I didn't get one myself, but – don't you want to?"
Pikachu tapped Ash's shoulder. "Ash," he whispered. "No electrical signals."
"Sure," Benji said. "Lead on."
"Wait," Ash told him, and closed one eye.
After a moment, he opened it again. "You're a ghost."
"What?" Benji blinked. "This girl's really a Gastly or something?"
"No, not a Ghost-type," Ash corrected him. "A ghost – a spirit. The ruins really are haunted."
Between one moment and the next, the girl's expression went from worry to outrage. She slashed at Ash with a weapon that appeared in under a second, and there was a shivering crash of steel.
Several will-o-wisps of light danced around the room from the contact point, and the spirit drew back her weapon before attacking again.
Ash blocked with Kari a second time, producing another musical crash of ghost-made steel on steel-made ghost and a shower of sparks, then waved his hand to Benji. "Look out!"
Benji got so Ash was between him and the spirit, and began rummaging through his Pokéballs. "I've got, um – I have a Poochyena, could that help?"
The spirit tried to dart around Ash, going for Benji this time, but Kari's blade sang through the air in front of her and blocked her movement. The Honedge flicked towards her target, then drew herself back into Ash's hand and released the grip her tassel had on his wrist.
Snarling, the spirit tried to get around Ash's other side. She got about halfway before Lucario punched her in the side – a pulse of shadow flying out in all directions as he triggered his Dark Pulse.
The impact seemed to have dazed the spirit, but she quickly recovered – taking on a more guarded posture this time, dividing her attention between the threats that she had to respect.
"Any idea how to deal with this one?" Lucario asked. "I'm not really familiar with the measures one takes to deal with ghosts if punching them doesn't work."
"Good question," Ash agreed. "I think Giratina would probably know, but he's obviously not here..."
The ghost girl attacked again, three times in two seconds, and Ash blocked each blow as it came in. The impacts sent wisps of light flying around the room, bouncing off walls and sending illumination everywhere, and Benji yelped as the ghost tried to lunge for him before getting tackled by Lucario.
His Poochyena emerged from his Pokéball and began barking bravely, then stepped back in surprise as a Dusknoir emerged from the ceiling.
"Excuse me," it said politely. "I believe that unquiet spirit is my responsibility. If you could?"
Lucario rolled over, bringing the spirit up so Dusknoir could take it, and the Ghost-type picked her up with a single sepulchral hand.
"Thank you," it said gravely, then floated back up through the ceiling. "I'll dispose of her in the marked receptacle."
As he left, the room shimmered slightly – revealing a pile of medals on the table.
"I guess now we know," Ash said. "And thanks, guys."
"Thanks are not needed," Kari replied, her metallic tone clear. "That spirit gives ghosts a bad name, for certes."
"What just happened?" Benji asked. "It all happened so fast..."
"I think that spirit or ghost or whatever was trying to lure people into doing something," Lucario said, frowning. "Probably something fatal. I certainly hope Professor Rowan didn't know, as otherwise this would be too dangerous a task."
"Ash!"
Ash turned, seeing Dawn coming in though the same door he had. "Hey, Dawn – you just missed-"
He paused, spotting that there were two other campers with her – and Mawile, who was carrying a pile of splintered wood in both hands.
"Are you okay?" he asked.
"Someone tried to make Angie step off a cliff," Mawile explained. "I caught her, but I broke my wing doing it."
Ash moved over and picked her up, giving her a hug. "Great work, Mawile," he told her. "Are you both okay?"
"I… kind of shocked," Mawile admitted, hugging Ash back. "And – and I feel wrong, because I'm all upset about the wing even though Angie nearly got badly hurt or-"
"It's okay," Ash said. "I know what you mean, it's because you don't know what to think so you focus on one little thing. It doesn't make you a bad person or anything, and it's okay to feel upset that something of yours got broken – just don't lose sight of the fact you saved someone. Okay?"
Mawile nodded. "Okay."
"Angie says there was this weird girl in a yellow dress-" Dawn began.
"The same one we met in here?" Benji asked. "It tried to trick us, too, but Ash found it out and then had a swordfight with it – and then a Dusknoir turned up and just carried it through the ceiling."
He paused. "I'm… kind of hoping we don't have to do a written report on this task now, that was weird."
As Rowan finished explaining the final challenge, Brock nodded. "That's going to be interesting… I suppose the reason why we have to use rental Pokémon is so people with ridiculous Pokémon, like Ash, can't just finish it really easily."
"What's the challenge?" Zorua asked.
"...were you even listening?" Brock blinked.
Zorua shrugged. "I could have been, but I wasn't."
Brock sighed. "All right, so the basic idea is it's a relay race. Everyone runs to the first station, and gets a rental Pokémon. They then head to the second station, where they swap that for a Water-type rental Pokémon, cross the lake to the third station, then run back to camp."
He traced the route on his map. "It goes through a cave on the final bit, which is a bit odd… not quite sure why they did that, it's not like they have to."
The vulpine Pokémon – currently wearing the human form she'd invented for her prank earlier in Sinnoh – rolled over onto her back. "How come it's not just a race straight back to the shore?"
"Don't know," Brock admitted. "Maybe it's supposed to be partly a map reading thing. It's what it is, though."
He stood up, ready to head over to the start line. "Do you want to come?"
"Yeah, I could watch," Zorua decided. She sprang to her feet, and blurred from human to Taillow in a moment of flickering blue light.
"This do?" she asked.
Brock gave her a nod. "Looks fine to me."
"Excuse me?" Mawile asked. "I had an idea for the race. Would it be okay if I had my friend Tyrantrum as my only riding Pokémon?"
Suicune translated, and the assistant at the starting line blinked. "I… wait, you're asking to ride a Tyrantrum? Not… not Suicune?"
"I think Mawile knows full well that I would count as cheating," Suciune said. "A Pokémon that can outspeed the wind and the dusk is a little bit too fast for a friendly race."
That just made the poor man look more confused. "The wind and the dusk?"
"My brothers worked it out once," Suicune explained. "The wind is simple – we can go supersonic if we work hard enough at it. But as for the dusk… well, it would not work, perhaps, in Hoenn. But here in Sinnoh the line of the dusk moves but a little faster than the speed of sound, and we may run faster than it if we try."
She smiled. "Though I confess I've never tried myself. It might be fun some day, and Raikou says it's quite something to see three sunrises in one day."
"...well, now," the assistant said, blinking. "Um… anyway, are you sure it would be okay on the water bits?"
"He's quite tall," Mawile assured him. "How deep is the lake?"
"There are some bits which are pretty deep, I'm afraid," the assistant hedged. "It might slow you down a bit."
"I don't mind," Mawile said, then thought about it a bit more. "Though… on second thought, I might bring a Water Pokémon just in case it gets too deep. I can return Tyrantrum if we have trouble and switch for the Water Pokémon."
Suicune translated with a smile, and the assistant nodded.
"That sounds fine to me," he said. "So long as you do the on-foot bits yourself. I think it's specifically said that someone's not allowed to get help from their Pokémon for those bits."
Mawile nodded. "Got it."
"Ready," Professor Rowan said. "Set..."
He nodded, and the Loudred next to him let off a cannon-blast of a Hyper Voice aimed directly upwards.
The various trainers set off, running for the first post to pick up their rental Pokémon, and Mewtwo watched with interest.
This is an interesting part of the challenge, he noted to Professor Rowan. I assume that the intent is that the Pokémon and their partners share the effort.
"That's the idea," Rowan agreed. "Making it clear to those going through the triathlon that you're expected to do the work just as much as the Pokémon are."
Mewtwo nodded. I see, he said. How does it affect things if one of the trainers goes out far ahead of the rest?
Rowan blinked. "Who?"
The Aura adept seems like the obvious first guess, surely? Mewtwo shrugged. It's Ash, of course. I wonder if Pikachu's going to be able to keep him from going in the wrong direction?
Brock took his Pokéball from the person running the way post, and opened it with a flash of light.
The Nidoking inside tilted his head. "You… seem taller than I was expecting. Aren't you a bit tall for a kid?"
"I'm a bit older than the others doing this," Brock explained. "Ready to get going?"
"Sure," the Poison-type agreed, then paused. "...wait, how come you understood me?"
"My friend Ash taught me," Brock told him. "Oh, I should check – do I need to do anything to avoid being poisoned?"
"No, I don't have Poison Point," Nidoking answered. "Just hop on."
Brock did so readily enough, and the big Ground-type lumbered into a run.
"It's cool you can speak to Pokémon, by the way, sorry if I gave the wrong impression," Nidoking added. "Just let me know if there's anything I can help with."
"I'll let you know if I think of anything," Brock replied. "Though – hold on, right here, it'll cut across some of the path."
"Got it," Nidoking agreed, and smashed his way though some underbrush. "What's your friend like?"
"The long answer's really long, but the shortest answer is..." Brock thought about it for a few seconds. "Heroic, because he's decided it's the best thing to do in his situation, I guess."
"Sounds like a good kid," Nidoking mused, as they broke back out onto the trail again. "Any more good shortcuts, by the way?"
"Doesn't look like it," Brock told him. "Just keep up the speed, nothing more than that."
"I can manage stampede," Nidoking said. "I know there's only one of me, but big Pokémon can manage a lot of stampede themselves, heh."
"I don't doubt it," Brock agreed, trying to make sure he was comfortable.
"Thanks for letting me ride you," Dawn said. "I do appreciate it."
"It's a job," replied the Ponyta she was using for the task. "I'm from a lineage of riding Ponyta and Rapidash, so I'm not exactly new to the concept. But the thanks are appreciated."
"No problem," Dawn smiled. "A friend of mine over in Kalos is raising a Blitzle as a riding Pokémon, and she's been keeping me updated – her mom prefers Rhydon, but she says she thinks Blitzle's more what she likes."
"Huh, that's interesting," the Ponyta said. "Wait, obstacle coming up, hold on."
Dawn crouched down a little, and Ponyta surged into a jump over the rocks strewn across the path before turning a corner – revealing the next part of the route to be a long straight.
"Oh, hey, there's Ash," Dawn pointed. "I didn't see what Pokémon he got, an Ariados is kind of an odd one."
The Ariados in question skittered sideways a little as they watched, and as Ash pointed. Then it shot out two strings of web, each of which anchored to a tree beside the path, and hauled itself forwards in a giant leap.
"...you don't see that every day," Ponyta said, blinking. "I didn't know Ariados could actually do that."
"That's Ash for you," Dawn shrugged, then held on more tightly as she realized that had probably been a mistake.
"Wait, you did say Ash, right?" Ponyta checked. "Is that the same one who was at Laramie ranch a few years ago?"
"I think so..." Dawn said, frowning. "I remember hearing something about that from Brock, but I wasn't exactly travelling with him years ago."
"Neat," Ponyta said. "I might have to ask – he can talk to Pokémon too, right? Well, I'm from Laramie, so it might be nice to know for sure."
Dawn smiled. "Sure, I'll ask about it afterwards."
"That'd be great!"
Ariados swung around the last corner, holding on tightly to a tree with a thick cable of webbing, then detached it with a snap and scuttled to a halt.
"Thanks!" Ash told her, getting off, and checked Pikachu was still with him. "You really took to that web swinging trick!"
The arachnid Bug-type gave him a quick nod, then Returned herself without a word.
"Not a Pokémon of many words," Pikachu observed, as Ash handed the Pokéball in and set off at a run for the next station.
"Excuse me?" the assistant manning the station called. "That's the lake! You can't-"
He stopped for a moment, dumbfounded, as Ash reached the water's edge and kept going.
"Mr. Ketchum!" the assistant called, after staring for a few seconds. "You need a Pokémon – and you're going the wrong way!"
Ash skidded to a halt, throwing up a big rooster-tail plume of water, then ran back across the lake to the stand.
"Sorry," he said, wincing. "I remembered there was a second running bit, but not which part it was..."
"That's all right, Mr. Ketchum," the assistant told him, passing over a randomly chosen Pokéball. "Now, you'll want to head that way across the lake to the third stopping point, where you need to hand back your Pokémon and then go through the cave."
"Got it!" Ash nodded.
"Let's see if you get lost," Pikachu suggested. "Maybe you can ask Lapras' cousin for directions – I bet if you tried to follow his directions you'd end up just where you needed to be."
Angie and Mawile arrived at the lake side station at about the same time, the sleek Shiftry Angie had been assigned depositing her next to Mawile's Rock-type friend.
"Huh, looks like Ash didn't get very lucky," the human said, pointing. "That's a Magikarp he's on, it looks like that Sharpedo's almost caught up with him."
Mawile clambered onto Tyrantrum's head to check, and nodded, then jumped down to the ground with a whud and went to pick up her Water-type.
Angie kept watching for a bit longer, which meant she saw it when the water around Ash suddenly exploded.
She blinked as Ash abruptly sped up, now surfing on the head of a large and still-glowing Gyarados which charged for the far shore of the lake in a plume of spray.
"That's one way to do it!" she said, blinking. "Maybe that's why they gave him the Magikarp? Or is it supposed to be random?"
Mawile came back over with a Pokéball, and clambered onto Tyrantrum's back. The Rock-type waited until she was on his back, nodded briskly, then began to run directly for the water.
Handily for Angie's peace of mind, Tyrantrum did not start running on the water. He did sink up to about the level of his arms, but then began picking his way carefully along the bottom – listening to advice from Goldeen and Barboach which kept jumping up out of the water to talk.
"Miss?"
"Oh!" Angie realized, and went to swap out Shiftry for another Water-type rental Pokémon.
She had a distinct feeling she wasn't going to win, though.
"This is all very helpful," Professor Rowan said, watching the overhead map. "Your other node is up overhead, correct?"
Correct, Dexter confirmed. It is monitoring, and I am producing the visualization.
Dozens of smaller holopictures showed the individual racers, while the large map indicated where everyone was on the route – or, in the case of one unfortunate attendant, off the route. It wasn't clear from the map how he'd ended up lost, but Yuzo was already heading over there to make sure he didn't leave the area of the Summer Academy entirely.
I see Ash is near the front, and near the cave, Mewtwo said. Are you going to be able to track him when he's in there?
No, I can't penetrate that much rock, Dexter replied. I'll mark him and anyone else in there as in the cave, and highlight when they leave it – though you'll probably see, it's not far from the finish line.
Mewtwo leaned closer to the hologram showing Ash, and watched with interest as the Gyarados he was riding accelerated towards the shore. Ash slipped backwards down the Pokémon's scales as they got closer and closer to the shore, until he was on the tail – at which point Gyarados flicked him straight at the shoreline and swam off.
Pikachu could just about be seen flying through the air next to Ash before landing back on his shoulder, and Ash dug his feet in to control his skid as he went sliding along the beach in a cloud of sand and dust.
The slide took him clear into the cave – vanishing from Dexter's sight and thus his hologram – and the marker for Ash shifted to hovering on top of the cave itself.
"The caves are quite a tricky challenge," Rowan said. "They've got several wrong turns, though we did block off all the actual dead ends – the wrong turns just mean it takes longer to get to where you're going."
As he spoke, Mewtwo counted under his breath.
What are you counting down to? Dexter asked.
Mewtwo pointed. That.
Ash came sliding out of the cave towards the finish line, at pretty much the same angle and speed as he'd gone in, and they all watched in surprise as Ash slowed and approached until he stopped just over the finish line.
Impressive, Mewtwo noted. In a maze of twisty passages, Ash found the straight path. I think that's negative lost.
"I hope everyone enjoyed their time at the Summer Academy!" Rowan said, the next morning. "Hopefully you've all learned a few things, enjoyed yourselves a little, and maybe made a few friends – and, of course, had an introduction to all sides of the Pokémon experience, from training a new Pokémon to finding out all you can about an existing one."
He waved his hand to the side. "And, well, I hope you're all grateful to everyone who's helped make the experience what it was this week. Goodbye, and enjoy your Pokémon Journeys wherever they end up taking you."
There was a smattering of applause, which made him smile a little, and he waited for it to die down before raising his voice again.
"I'll be here for the rest of the day if anyone has any questions, but we will be spending a lot of time packing up, so keep that in mind."
Most of the audience was already breaking up into knots of talking young trainers, and Rowan smiled a little before waving to Yuzo and the others to get started.
"Are you sure you don't mind?" Mawile asked.
"Not at all," Ash assured her. "If it's what you'd rather do, then go ahead – and I'll do my best to help, too."
"Thanks!" Mawile replied brightly, and turned to look in the direction of Professor Rowan. "Um… can you come along and translate, please?"
Ash nodded, and followed Mawile as she approached the Pokémon Professor.
"Mr. Rowan?" the Steel-type began, with Ash duly supplying the translation so Rowan could actually understand. "I was wondering if I'd be able to do some more Pokémon observation and research stuff, some time – it's been really interesting to do some this week, and I think my friend Tyrantrum would like it too."
Once she finished, and once Rowan had heard the translation, he hummed to himself.
"Interesting," he said. "Your perspective would be very valuable, and your write-up was one of the best produced this week… but there is a downside."
"There is?" Mawile asked, looking dismayed.
"Yes," Rowan told her after Ash relayed her question. "It's not necessarily a huge problem, but a lot of scientific work is collaborative – and with other scientists unable to communicate with you, that would pose difficulties. You could handle everything by computer or in writing, but it would give you a severe handicap."
Mawile thought about that for a bit, then nodded. "Okay," she said. "That means I need to get my Aura translation working, and then you wouldn't have a problem?"
"If you can do it, that sounds ideal," Professor Rowan told her. "Though, of course, if it takes a while you could spend some of the time doing more reports like the one you already provided."
"That sounds great!" Mawile smiled, then turned to Ash. "That's okay, right?"
"Of course," Ash told her. "Like I said."
"I do still want to get involved in some battles," Mawile added, not wanting to leave the wrong impression. "But I think it'd be cool to do more research like this, too, and this is the thing that would take up more time."
She nodded. "It's settled, then! Thanks for your help!"
"No problem," Ash assured her. "Do you want to head back to the ranch, or would you rather learn with us?"
"Hmm..." Mawile said, raising a finger to her lips. "I… think the ranch, if that's okay?"
Ash nodded. "We'll get that sorted out later, then."
Good news, Damos sent to Dexter. The False Zodiacs have headed out on their assignments – it took a while, but they worked out who was going to go where. We've also got the cloak working, Manaphy was very helpful.
It's good to hear that you made so much progress, Dexter replied. That takes a bit of pressure off, at least, but I won't stop being worried for some time.
Of course, Damos agreed. Though I think what really helped was most of Ash's Pokémon decamping to Sinnoh for several days. The ambient chaos level dropped hugely.
Dexter thought about that, then sent an electronic sigh. I can see that, I really can...
AN:
And the final two camp activities, which are a bit more compressed.
