"Was that all we had to handle in Celestic?" Mewtwo checked.
"I… yeah, I think so," Ash replied. "There was a thing with Galactic, last time, but they did it a while ago this time around. So I guess… there isn't really anything else."
"That's fine," Mewtwo nodded. "I did visit the museum, which was nice, and checked in on everyone back at PsiTech. We can move on to… where was it this time?"
"Hearthome, I think," Ash said. "I need to pick up Fantina's badge!"
"Why didn't you pick it up last time through?" Mewtwo asked.
"Well… huh, I guess I forgot to check," Ash blinked. "Last time around we kept having trouble meeting Fantina, she was always busy somewhere else – but we never did check if she was in when we passed through Hearthome."
"It's probably for the best," Pikachu said, shrugging. "Because reasons? Anyway, if it were actively a problem I think Celebi would have told us."
"That's a tricky thing to rely on," Brock frowned. "I get your point, but we should really think though what we're doing rather than just base it on 'Celebi hasn't complained yet' logic. We already know she's not infallible."
"Do you talk about Celebi in the singular or the plural?" Dawn asked. "Even if there's just one of her they can be in multiple places at once, which is sort of the definition of the plural."
"That's an odd one," Brock chuckled. "I don't think our language really has the right words for it. I wonder if Celebi have the right words for it."
"I'm sure they do," Dawn said. "Problem is, the words are all 'Celebi'."
Ash chuckled, then shrugged. "Well, I guess we'd better get going-"
"Not so fast!"
The friends turned, seeing a familiar figure striding towards them with arm outstretched.
"Oh, hey Barry," Dawn waved. "Didn't we see you a few days ago at the Summer Academy?"
"Correct!" Barry agreed. "But that's not what I'm here about!"
He pointed at Ash. "I challenge you to a battle! Or I'll fine you… a lot of money!"
Ash blinked. "I… well, I guess that's okay, but… why did you just say 'a lot of money'?"
"Well, I don't know how much money you have," Barry replied reasonably. "So you could be really rich or just making enough to get by. And I didn't want to fine you way more money than you actually have, because that way if you said no and ended up crippled by debt then it would give you trouble saving the world, and I like the world because all my stuff is here – it would be most of my stuff not all my stuff, but the space agency down in Hoenn doesn't return my calls."
He shrugged. "And if you're really really rich, then you might be able to say no without being worried about the money at all, which would admittedly be kind of cool because then I'd be rich but it'd also mean that I couldn't have the battle and I do want the battle as well."
Now finished with his list, Barry spread his hands. "See? That's logical, right?"
"Technically, that's logical," Mewtwo said. "The premises may be flawed, but his conclusions given the premises do seem like accurate representations of the outcomes."
As the conversation continued, Prinplup waved Pikachu over.
"I just wanted to let you guys know… sorry," he said. "I know our trainer is a bit obsessive… okay, a lot obsessive… but he does have a good heart."
"He seems kinda nuts, if you ask me," Zorua contributed, loping over. "How long has he been that nuts?"
"Hey, he's not nuts," Prinplup replied. "Or at least not in the way you're thinking. He's got some, um… crazy ideas… but that's not really him being crazy so much as him trying to make sense of a crazy situation."
"I don't get you," Zorua replied bluntly.
"Zorua," Buneary sighed, jumping down from Dawn's bag. "You could at least show some manners."
"I could, but I won't," Zorua retorted. "If I really need to have a good reputation I'll just turn into some other Pokémon, like a Furfrou, and be the very picture of good manners."
"So what do you mean about crazy situation?" Lucario asked, trying to get everyone back on track.
Prinplup blinked a bit at the size of his audience, now up to four Pokémon directly listening. "Well, ah-"
Smeargle raised a paw. "Allow me."
He waved at Ash. "Our trainer has been interested in what Ash can do for a while, and quite simply your trainer's abilities make no sense and his Pokémon collection is ridiculous. What Barry has done is conclude based on that that there is something unusual about Ash, and it is from there that he has begun speculating."
The Normal-type took out a piece of card, and began drawing expertly on it with flicks of his tail. "While it's true that most of the theories he comes up with must be false, it is also the case that there must be some theory which is true – if not more than one – and Barry is hoping that by a process of random selection he can find a set of explanations which line up and explain everything in the most parsimonious manner."
There was silence for a few seconds, as they all took in the diagram – showing jigsaw-puzzle pieces labelled with things like 'aliens?' and 'secret legendary plan' and 'just luck'.
"Um… okay," Pikachu said, blinking. "I… well, thanks for explaining?"
"My pleasure," Smeargle replied.
"Well, anyway, what I was saying was that I didn't really like it when people call him crazy," Prinplup amplified. "Because he's a bit weird, yeah, but he's also trying a legitimate way of solving a problem, and one which couldn't easily be solved in a conventional way."
He waved a flipper. "Besides, it's not like you can talk, Zorua."
"Hey!" Zorua complained. "Ash is the crazy one! My trainer's perfectly sensible."
"I'm sure," Prinplup replied. "By the way, when was the last time he had a gym battle?"
"...I don't think I like your face."
"So where are we going to have the battle?" Ash asked, taking his Aaron hat off. "Any preference?"
"Well, I guess the most visually impressive battlefield nearby!" Barry replied. "Nowhere else would work nearly as well!"
Mewtwo raised his hand, and snapped his fingers.
With a flash, they were suddenly stood on an island in a lake with a high mountain range all around them.
"Oh, hey!" someone called. "Mewtwo, you're back! And Ash – and Brock, and who are these?"
Mewtwo smiled, locating Riolutwo. Yes, I'm back, though I'm afraid not for very long. One of Ash's friends – that's Barry here – challenged him to a battle. The other is Dawn.
"Oh, Dawn, right," Riolutwo said. "Yeah, I remember hearing about her now."
As he approached to shake first Dawn's hand and then Barry's, the other Mount Quena clones arrived in ones and twos to watch.
"Where are we?" Barry asked. "Wait, that was a teleport, so we could be anywhere, and those Pokémon have all kinds of odd markings! Is this where Ash found Mewtwo and beat him in a battle to earn the right to have him as a Pokémon? Are these all Pokémon who are mutated to be really powerful by Mewtwo's sheer psychic power?"
Smeargle swirled his tail over a sign, then held it up for his trainer to see.
All signs point to no.
"Aww, okay," Barry sighed, then brightened. "At least this looks like a great place to battle! Though, hey, are we still on Earth?"
He jumped up and down experimentally a few times, then checked his Pokétch, and nodded. "Well, either we're still on Earth or we're on a space station with enough artificial gravity to make it feel like it and close enough to Sinnoh to not give me roaming charges, so close enough! Let's have that battle!"
A few of the Quena clones exchanged baffled looks.
"Oh, yeah!" Barry added. "I'm going to use a flying Pokémon first, just so you know!"
"Right," Ash nodded. "Thanks for the warning."
I will be acting as referee and linesPokémon, Mewtwo informed them both. Go.
Ash sent out his Gliscor, and Barry's own Pokémon – a Staravia – emerged a moment later.
"Think you're ready with those new tricks?" Ash called up.
"You bet!" Gliscor agreed. "I'm really going to make the rest of you proud!"
She dipped sideways, dropping out of the sky fast enough that it looked like she was about to crash into the beach, then pulled up and trailed her tail along the beach to produce a Sand-Attack.
The sting on her tail flicked it up, and she pulled up and dragged the sand along with her as she climbed to a fighting altitude.
"Close in for a Wing Attack!" Barry called, and his Staravia screeched before plunging down out of the sky towards his fellow Flying-type. Gliscor tracked him on the way in, then rolled just as Staravia was about to reach her.
There was a poomf as Staravia hit a cloud of densely packed sand instead of the Gliscor he was expecting to attack, and fluttered a bit awkwardly before recovering.
"Hey, that was great!" Ash called.
"Yeah, it was so cool!" Gliscor agreed, swooping around to entrain the sand in her slipstream again. "Thanks for helping me with it, Flygon!"
Barry blinked, then looked down at Smeargle. "What was that move? It looked kind of like Protect but Protect looks different."
Smeargle's tail made a few looping shapes on another of his ubiquitous canvasses, and held it up.
"Oh, right, Sand Tomb!" Barry said. "I get it! That's a pretty cool trick, sure, but I bet it's got problems too – Staravia, use Steel Wing this time!"
Staravia's wings pumped the air, accelerating him into an attack run, then he dove abruptly. His wings shimmered silver-steel as he bottomed out of the dive, and he came at Gliscor from below instead of attacking from the direction she'd been planning. Her Sand Tomb defence misfired, aimed at the wrong direction, and the Steel Wing knocked her higher in the sky before she rolled and recovered – striking back straight away with a Fire Fang attack, which Staravia blocked with his claws before trying for a Quick Attack.
Pikachu craned his neck to see what Smeargle had written on his board, and the Normal-type tilted it a little so Pikachu could have a good look.
It was a landscape painting of the Pyramids, rendered in reds and yellows and whites to show the landmark just as the sun slipped below the horizon and tinted the whole sky red.
"You didn't just write Sand Tomb?" Pikachu asked, and Smeargle shrugged.
"Aqua Tail!" Gliscor announced, her tail bubbling with water as she swept it towards her opponent. He dodged out of the way of a direct hit, but the spray of water coming off it still made contact – making Staravia flick his wings to shake the droplets off, before rolling to fly alongside her for a moment.
"Why do you keep calling out your attacks?" he asked. "You don't have to give me the warning, and I can tell you're strong enough to do the attacks without a reminder."
"Look out!" Barry called suddenly, and Staravia looked around in confusion – spotting half-a-dozen large rocks flying through the air towards him just in time, and chopping one in half with his wing before the rest mobbed him.
"Because otherwise you wouldn't get complacent?" Gliscor suggested, as her Stealth Rock began trying to force him towards the ground.
Staravia flailed about with his wings, hacking at the obstructions as he fell, then there was a sudden flare of white light from inside the cloud of offensively-minded rocks.
He did a fast roll, wings slashing out, and smashed all the remaining animated stones to powder with a Close Combat attack.
"Huh," Gliscor said, as Staraptor climbed back towards her. "Was wondering when that was going to happen next."
She thickened the sand she was carrying into a Sand Tomb shield, then grabbed onto it with all four legs and threw it at Staraptor – dissolving it back into loose sand just before impact, to try and throw his aim off.
Then it was all a whirl of close combat moves and Thunder Fang attempts.
"This is pretty impressive stuff," Togekisstwo said, watching the aerial battle. "Gliscor are supposed to be mostly gliding Pokémon, right? They can't flap very hard, or they're not supposed to."
"Look who's talking," Pidgeottwo chuckled. "You're a delta-wing flyer, I'm not a hundred percent sure how you generate flight momentum in the first place."
The Fairy-type shrugged her expansive wings. "Fair enough."
She glanced aside. "Any of the rest of you want to contribute?"
"With what?" Pikachutwo asked. "I'm certainly not a flying-type expert. Maybe Charizardtwo has another opinion, though."
The big Fire-type shrugged. "I'd just use wings if I wanted to fly."
"That's kind of the point of the discussion."
Gliscor dove towards the ground, side-slipping away from Staraptor's Wing Attack hammerblows, and pulled up just as she was about to hit the beach.
Staraptor followed a little behind, at first diving to the same level as his opponent – then pulling up a little so he didn't end up in the sand trail Gliscor's tail and claws were throwing up from the beach, contenting himself for the moment in sending a slapping Tailwind forwards to try and blow the sand clear or make Gliscor make a movement mistake.
The Tailwind blew more sand up into the air, hiding Gliscor entirely from sight for a moment… then didn't settle back down, and Staraptor blinked.
"What-"
"Head up!" Barry called. "Then build up some speed and Brave Bird through the cloud!"
Staraptor decided that was as good a plan as any, and soared skywards to gain more height and thus more momentum. Once he was high enough, he performed an outside loop and dove back towards the outer edge of the cloud – rolling so he was the right way up, and building up speed for his Brave Bird.
The sand continued to swirl, but Staraptor had picked up easily enough momentum to avoid having trouble with the building Sandstorm itself. He didn't hit anything, but nothing hit him either – though a flicker of cold on his wings suggested he'd barely evaded an Ice Fang – and when he glanced back behind him he saw a tunnel in the sandstorm blasted by his wake.
It quickly 'healed up', flowing back to make it a continuous cloud, and Staraptor flew around in a wide curve to make a second attack. Four powerful wingbeats sped him along his path, and he plunged into the cloud at top Brave Bird speed-
-and hit the beach.
It was only a glancing blow, but it badly staggered him – bleeding off much of his momentum in a cloud of sandspray, and breaking the power of his attack. He staggered through the air, trying to recover, only to discover his wings feeling heavy and impossible to use properly – covered in sand trying to foul his feathers and ruin their aerodynamics.
He transitioned his wings to Steel Wing and beat them hard, driving off most of the sand, but the seconds of slow movement had cost him – Gliscor hammered him with a Thunder Fang attack, paralyzing him and sending him crashing into the lake offshore.
"Phew," Gliscor said, more than a little tired. "Good battle!"
She looked down. "You okay?"
Staraptor's head broke the surface. "Yeah, let's go with 'okay'… how did you do that?"
"Ground type," Gliscor replied, focusing, and landed on a floating platform of sand.
"I'm going to repeat my question," Staraptor said, nodding towards the sand platform.
"Ground and Flying type."
Staraptor seemed unsatisfied with the answer, but then vanished in a beam of red light.
"All right, that's one!" Barry said. "Now it's time for my next Pokémon!"
"Do you think you're okay for this?" Ash asked.
"Yep!" Gible agreed, with a nod. "I've been taking lessons! I'm almost fifty percent sure I'll hit the right target!"
Piplup Returned himself.
"You know fifty percent means half, right?" Pikachu checked. "Do you mean you think it's more likely you'll miss than hit?"
"Well, the other Pokémon's going to be dodging, right?" Gible asked, tilting his head. "I think fifty percent is pretty good, given that."
He frowned. "I can try for better if you want?"
"It's probably best to try to do as well as you can," Ash said. "But even so… Togekisstwo, can you be on lookout? It's possible Gible's attacks might go a bit wide, and better safe than sorry."
I'm handling that, Mewtwo reminded him. Don't worry.
"Thanks," Ash said, waving to Mewtwo.
"Hey, how come that Pokémon's Togekisstwo?" Barry asked. "I thought Mewtwo was called that because Mewtwo was like Mew but different, but the only difference between that and Dawn's Togekiss that I saw once is that that Togekiss has different markings. Is that what makes it Togekisstwo?"
Mewtwo sighed. Before I answer that question, Barry, I have a question for you first. Are you actually able to keep something quiet rather than saying it for everyone to hear?
"Well… not really, but I say everything anyway," Barry said. "I know not everything I think of can be true, and I know most of it has to be false, but if I think of enough things then something's going to be true, right?"
My apologies, but I don't feel comfortable explaining it, Mewtwo informed him. But I must admit that I admire your self-understanding. It is a good quality to have.
"Thanks!" Barry replied, then put a hand to his chin. "Hmm, now I'm going to have to guess..."
His Prinplup poked him in the side, and Barry jolted. "Huh?"
The Water-type indicated Gible, waiting for his battle, and Barry nodded in realization. "Right! Okay, you can have the battle!"
"But… that's not what I was-" Prinplup began, then shrugged. "Ah well, it'll do."
"Oh, yeah, before I forget!" Barry added. "Thanks for evolving my Staravia into Staraptor, Ash! It's really helpful!"
"Well, it's not really something I have any kind of control over, except being there or not," Ash shrugged. "But I'm glad that worked out well for you."
"Hey, have you ever discovered an entirely new Pokémon evolution with your super evolution power?" Barry asked.
"Well, I think a couple of new Mega-Evolutions got noticed while around me," Ash replied. "But that doesn't really count..."
Begin, Mewtwo intoned.
Gible immediately sprang into action, diving into the sandy soil of the island with a crunch and vanishing underground.
"Mewtwo?" Brock asked. "Why is there so much sand around here? This isn't a seaside island, so shouldn't it be something else?"
I actually brought the sand in from elsewhere, Mewtwo explained. I wanted the island to be a bit more picturesque, so I modified it to fit. It wasn't too hard, I purchased all the materials from a supply company.
"I was wondering," Brock said. "I'd have expected either very coarse rocks or very fine rock flour, depending on whether there'd been glaciers."
He looked around. "It's a very impressive job."
Some Diglett gave me advice on it.
Gible stuck his head out of the beach and fired a Dragon Pulse at Prinplup, who dodged a little too late and took a glancing hit.
"Water attack!" Barry called.
Prinplup's flippers flashed white.
"How come you're not attacking?" Barry asked, as Prinplup stood there – flippers occasionally pulsing with light.
"He's underground!" Prinplup replied – then Gible burst out of the ground again, firing a burst of Dragonbreath.
Prinplup whirled, slashing his flippers across, and water came bursting out of them in a wave. Each formed a kind of crescent-shaped beam, and dug a furrow in the soil which intersected with the other beam at Gible's location.
The watery impact sent the Ground-type dragon sliding backwards in a cloud of dust, and Prinplup repeated the trick to send more water beams flashing foewards.
This time they were stopped short by a blast of dragonfire, blowing away the dust to show Gible standing at the end of a long scrape in the earth, and Gible looked down before using a powerful Dragon Pulse to launch himself high into the sky.
"Foul!" Barry called.
"How is that a foul?" Dawn asked. "Flying without being an official flying type is pretty common, especially with Ash's Pokémon after Mawile took it on as a hobby."
"That's not what I mean!" Barry insisted. "I mean it's emotional distress! The whole reason why Prinplup is learning that water jet attack is so he can fly with it, like that gym leader in Johto does with her Empoleon!"
That's not a valid reason for a foul, even assuming it was intentional, Mewtwo informed him. Which it wasn't. We allow moves like Attract and… well, most Dark type moves…
"Oh, yeah, good point," Barry agreed. "Okay, Prinplup, take him down! And stay on the move!"
Prinplup nodded, conjuring more water, and slashed it upwards at the still-flying form of Gible. The first attack missed, then the second scored a glancing hit, and the third went wide as Gible fired out a Dragon Pulse to keep him airborne.
"Dodge!" Barry called, pointing, and Prinplup looked up for just long enough to see where the attack was going before diving forwards onto his front. His flippers produced a quick burst of water, and he skated forwards far enough to get out of the attack before standing back up.
"Keep dodging!" Barry shouted, but Prinplup had barely had time to react before the Dragon Pulse scored a direct hit on him.
"How did that work?" Dawn asked, blinking. "That didn't seem right..."
Overhead, Gible unleashed a Draco Meteor attack. The attack produced a shower of dozens of glowing orange meteors, a few of which collided with one another to explode overhead – just as the rest of them came hurtling down towards Prinplup.
The Water-type began flicking blades of water up at the sky, aiming for the meteors which were about to actually hit him, only to realize that the ones he'd thought were going to miss were actually changing course to come directly for him.
"Well-" Prinplup began, then vanished under a haze of orange explosions.
"That was odd," Dawn said.
"What, the homing in thing?" Ash asked. "That happens to Piplup all the time, though it's pretty impressive he got it working for-"
"No, that's not what I mean," Dawn said, pointing to the ground some way in front of them.
As Gible came down to a landing with a quick green jet of Dragonbreath, Ash looked at what she meant.
The meteors which had collided in mid-air hadn't come down towards Barry's Prinplup like the rest of them. Instead the fragments had rained down in an irregular circle near Dawn, forming a crude but recognizable drawing of a Piplup.
A final Draco Meteor orb came down and hit in the middle of the drawing, obliterating it.
"Sorry, my attacks all kind of… default," Gible said. "At least I'm getting better at aiming at my actual target!"
A water blade flicked out, bowling him over, and he dug underground just as soon as he stopped rolling.
The pressure of the blade attack – along with three more a moment later – dispersed the dust cloud, and Barry whooped.
"All right!" he called. "Empoleon! Now, go get that Dragon type!"
Empoleon walked over to the hole Gible had left, pointed one flipper down the hole, and fired a massive blast of water. The pressure looked like it was about to knock him over, but he held it on target – and Gible came rocketing out of the ground some distance away in a geyser of water, spinning end-over-end from the unbalanced blast which had knocked him into the sky.
"Draco Meteor!" Ash called.
Gible duly began using Draco Meteor, sending out orange orbs of light in all directions, which began curving in mid-air to home in on Barry's newly evolved Empoleon. The Water-type began defending himself again, while overhead Gible used the respite to use jets of Dragon Pulse to control his tumble and get back on course.
Ash, Dexter said suddenly. How close were you to Ethan when he evolved? That evolution was the first Porygon2 there has ever been.
"Oh, yeah, that's a good point," Ash agreed, as muted explosions and the sound of dragon-jet-blasts echoed across the water around them. "What about when you evolved to Porygon-whatever?"
I wasn't even in the same dimension as you, I checked the time stamps.
"That's pretty cool!" Barry declared. "So do you think your Pidgeot or Keldeo or Mewtwo is going to evolve? What about your Pikachu?"
The first three were far fetched enough, but that last one is ridiculous.
"So, what do you think of their style?" Venusaurtwo asked.
The Pokémon he was talking to, an Espeon evolved from Eeveetwo, flicked her tail across. "I… well, it's certainly impressive," she said. "I like the flight particularly, though the water sword beam things are also quite worthy of note."
"Yes, I can see that," Venusaurtwo nodded. "Any thoughts on how they'd integrate into the militia?"
"Well, now," Espeontwo said, thinking. "I think that Gible would be best on an aerial squad – I'd probably break up our flying squad into two halves and mix in another Pokémon or two who can almost manage full flight, rather than just adding him to that section, though."
"That makes sense to me," Venusaurtwo agreed amiably. "Though I'm not exactly an expert in tactics."
"Well, I've mostly learned from books, but that's what training's for," Espeontwo replied, glad for the confidence of her friend.
Both of them were startled out of their discussion by a sudden blast, louder than the norm.
Sliding along fast enough to throw off the aim of the incoming Dragon Pulse, Empoleon canted sideways a little towards a rocky shelf some way along the beach. He rolled, flicking a water beam upwards to disrupt the incoming Dragon Pulse, then continued his roll so he was back on his belly.
Digging in both flippers, Empoleon wrenched himself in a three-quarters forwards flip to land upright. Bracing himself, he sent waves of water slashing up towards Gible – then used Ice Beam, sending a blast of freezing cold elemental energy up at the water turning into droplets all around Gible.
The Ground/Dragon switched from Dragon Pulse to Flamethrower, buffering the icy-cold attacks so they were manageable, and moved his head side-to-side a bit to increase the coverage. That reduced his thrust, though, and it also meant that Empoleon was no longer having to focus on defence – his attacks getting more powerful as he got up to speed, and putting Gible under more pressure.
"Draco Meteor!" Ash ordered.
Gible used Draco Meteor, and the explosion blew away the cloud of water as well as launching him much higher into the air than he'd already been. Several of the meteors survived, as well, coming down to home in on Empoleon from all sides, and the half-Steel-type pointed both flippers down before using Hydro Pump on full power.
The blast of water let him rise just a little, and he got a clear shot for an Ice Beam – one which shot between two Draco Meteors, sliced through the Dragonbreath that Gible was using to control his spin, and scored a direct hit.
Then Empoleon was too busy dealing with exploding repeatedly for several seconds, and when he stopped tumbling end-over-end he was about ten feet deep in the lake. Rising back up to the surface and sculling over to shore, he looked around to see Gible – and finally spotted him, hurtling back down to splash into the lake about where Empoleon had been.
Encased in a block of ice.
"Fire Fang!" Ash called. "Melt that ice!"
Gible didn't respond, and Mewtwo teleported over to examine the floating Giblescicle more closely.
It appears he has been knocked out, Mewtwo said. That gives Empoleon the win.
"Great work!" Barry called. "Huh, I actually wasn't sure if that would happen… well, I guess that means it's one each!"
He returned Empoleon with a flash of red light, and nodded to Smeargle. Then he hesitated.
"Hey, uh – is it okay if you use as many Pokémon as possible? I'm trying to build up Smeargle's move collection since I worked out that seeing moves on TV wasn't enough to actually Sketch them, which is kind of odd because a TV screen is showing an image and paintings are images too – I guess Smeargle really believe in life painting? But anyway, is that okay?"
"I… well, I guess if you don't mind me switching out Pokémon a lot," Ash agreed, a bit dubiously.
"Great!" Barry declared. "All right, Smeargle, let's do this!"
Smeargle looked up at his trainer, did something fantastically complex with his eyebrows, then walked out onto the field.
"Okay, right..." Ash said. "What would be a good Pokémon to start with… Buizel, you go first!"
Buizel emerged from his Pokéball in a flicker of light, and took in the situation at a glance before sprinting towards Smeargle. He jumped into the air halfway to his target, and activated an Aqua Jet to boost at Smeargle faster – flicking two water projectiles at Smeargle before pulling up and away to set up another attack run.
Quick as a flash, Smeargle began flicking his tail back and forth. The paint formed brush strokes which solidified into a Protect dome, and Buizel's attacks splashed off. Even as they did, however, Smeargle was making another picture in mid-air, and sent it off to fly up and home in on Buizel with a flourish.
Not best pleased by being targeted by one of his own attacks, Buizel did a flip-and-dive in mid-air and transitioned from a regular Aqua Jet to an Ice Aqua Jet.
Smeargle used Sketch to produce another protective dome, and Buizel reacted in time to avoid running into it – flipping again to hover, then resuming his dive as the shield collapsed. The addition of the ice to the Aqua Jet made it hit harder, bowling Smeargle over, though the Normal-type bounced back almost none the worse for wear.
As Buizel looped around for his next attack run, aiming to land for some close-in combat, Smeargle drew a spiral in the air which spun up once. It produced a sudden blur of motion as it turned into a Whirlwind, and Buizel whirled away in a gust of wind before dematerializing into his Pokéball.
Ash sent out his next Pokémon, Corphish, and the crustacean gave Smeargle a long look.
As he did, Buizel came back out of his Pokéball again. "Hey, wasn't I doing this?"
"Sorry, this is my fight now," Corphish replied, scuttling to the side a little. He flicked both claws out to the side, and ignited his Shellsabers with a flash of red light.
Smeargle Sketched the move, holding his tail in guard position, and spun it a couple of times before advancing.
"What they were talking about over there got me thinking," Meowthtwo mrowled, sitting down and scratching idly at his left paw with a claw on his right. "You've not evolved, but you're a genetic clone – not a full physical copy. Right?"
"Well, yes," Pikachutwo agreed. "And with some of those tweaks that Father put in… but I'm not sure I see your point."
"Your baseline hasn't evolved, and doesn't want to evolve – and possibly can't evolve, because of that thing with the Thunderstone we heard about," Meowthtwo said, rolling over onto his back for a moment before coming back upright and starting to lick his paw. "But you could. Ever considered it?"
"I… well, not really," Pikachutwo admitted. "It never really occurred to me..."
"I was just thinking, you know there's an Alolan variant of Raichu?" Meowth went on. "It occurred to me that you're a big fan of Mewtwo, and an Alolan Raichu is kinda similar in some ways."
"That's… hmm," Pikachutwo said. "I'm not sure, but I will think about it…"
Smeargle spun his tail once, blocking a blow from one of Corphish's Razor Shells, then flicked it in the other direction to stop the attack coming from the other arm.
"Impressive, most impressive," Corphish noted, scuttling back a step and crossing his blades – making them hiss and fizz with water droplets as they rubbed against one another. "But you still have much to learn."
He uncrossed the shellsabers and swung them in from both sides at different heights. Smeargle reacted with a quick shape drawn in the air, then Bounced out of the trap – coming down to land on top of Corphish's head, before rolling forwards to end up behind the Water-type.
Corphish reversed his direction in a moment, slashing away again once he was facing in the right direction, and Smeargle blocked his attacks with a dodge-parry-riposte combination that struck a glancing blow.
In reply, Ash's Pokémon switched from Razor Shell to Bubblebeam, filling the air with white projectiles that forced Smeargle to retreat. Corphish pressed his advantage, firing on the run from one claw while winding up a Crabhammer with the other.
Smeargle drew a spiral in the air, then invoked it to Whirlwind another of Ash's Pokémon off the field.
"Huh, okay," Ash said. "Torterra!"
"How come you're calling for Torterra instead of sending him out?" Barry asked. "Is this some kind of summoning thing, like you just call out the name of a Pokémon and they appear?"
"Usually no," Ash replied. "But Torterra said he was going to watch-"
Before Ash finished the sentence, space tore open and Torterra stepped out.
Ash glanced at Barry, who seemed to be lost for words, then shrugged. "All right, Torterra, you know what to do!"
Torterra nodded as the portal closed behind him, and set his stance. He powered up an Energy Ball, and fired it at Smeargle – though the Normal-type quickly blocked with a Light Screen, then drew a circle in mid-air and produced an Energy Ball to fire right back.
Torterra took the attack stoically, letting it deflect off his shell, and used his second Energy Ball to charge up before flicking a stream of Razor Leaves at his opponent.
Smeargle turned and ran, drawing a line on the ground with his tail and diving behind it, and a Stone Edge sprang up to block the leaves and give him a moment of cover. He used it to draw two more Energy Balls, taking one in each hand, then resumed running as Torterra blew the cover to bits with an Energy Ball of his own.
Throwing first one and then the other, freeing his arms, Smeargle took the base of his tail-tip in one paw and switched back to using Razor Shell. Thus equipped, he blocked two Energy Balls in quick succession, and Barry whooped in triumph as Ash's Grass-type paused to rethink.
Torterra's next Energy Ball was twice as big, and hit just far enough away that Smeargle couldn't reach it to block it. The blast was big enough to knock Smeargle off his feet regardless, and he flipped once before coming down to a landing with an oof.
"Switch!" Barry instructed, and Smeargle drew out the spiral in mid-air to Whirlwind away his latest opponent.
"I'm not very familiar with how Pokémon battles go, but that seems a little unusual to me," Fearowtwo said. "Doesn't that look strange to you?"
Ninetalestwo shrugged her tails. "I couldn't possibly comment."
She hummed. "Though it is impressive to blow away such a large Pokémon."
"Okay, I guess-" Ash began, before one of his Pokéballs opened by itself.
"Right, I've had quite enough of not getting some wingilism in," Staraptor declared. "It's my turn!"
"What in the name of a dictionary is wingilism?" Pikachu asked.
"It's like pugilism, except it uses wings," Staraptor replied. "It's a perfectly cromulent word."
"Now I know you're trying to be funny," Pikachu muttered.
"I'm not sure why you're so hostile to my neologizing," Staraptor said, flying a little higher. "All right, I've heard about how you work! You're a Pokémon who copies moves other Pokémon do – so I've got a trick to beat you, I'll do things you can only do with body parts that you don't have!"
Stooping into a dive, he used Wing Attack – cuffing Smeargle before he could respond, using one wing and then the other to juggle his opponent and knock him down towards the water's edge.
Twisting into a position that would let him land softly, Smeargle rolled once, and his tail brush made an odd looping motion as Staraptor came in again.
"Remember he can do older attacks too!" Ash warned, and Staraptor nodded – most of his attention on his attack run.
This time he'd gone higher, picking up momentum for his plunge, and slowed just a little as Smeargle began sketching – ready to react to whatever move Smeargle would throw at him.
Then the Normal-type drew himself some wings and took off into the sky.
"Huh, that's new," Staraptor admitted. "Guess I accidentally gave him Fly..."
"I kind of wonder where that Smeargle is going to go, one of these days," Brock said, as they watched the canine artist wing-fencing in mid-air with Ash's burly Flying-type.
"Well, I've known Barry for a while, and I think the answer is probably 'space'," Dawn replied. "I guess the question of how is the trickier bit, but I wouldn't put it past him to put together a way somehow..."
Brock nodded, and then winced as Smeargle dismissed his wings. "Is that a problem?"
"It looks more like a strategy," Dawn frowned. "That was just a bit too deliberate – yeah, look."
Smeargle's brush flicked around him as he drew out a Water Pulse ball, then let go of it just in front of him and re-sketched his wings. With both him and the ball falling at the same speed, it was still there when he was finished with the wings – and he snagged it in his feet before pulling up, bottoming out about twenty feet above the ground and rising higher into the air once more.
"I think he was aiming to reach the bottom lower than that," Dawn mused. "It would be more dramatic, and Barry may not be a Coordinator picking up Ribbons but he's really into the spectacle side of things anyway."
As she spoke, Smeargle flew up towards Staraptor – then lobbed the ball and did a little flip to let the ball move ahead of him, before powering after it with strong flaps of his sketch-construct wings.
Staraptor dodged aside, moving so the ball would miss him, and Smeargle flapped both wings to slap out a sudden gust of wind. That made the ball detonate, blowing a sudden powerful wave of water at Staraptor too fast for his dodge to allow, and his trajectory wavered just enough for Smeargle to take advantage of.
The pure Normal-type got in the first Wing Attack, managing two blows before Staraptor got going himself, and half-a-dozen attacks from each side flashed back and forth in quick succession until Staraptor managed to get in a Close Combat.
Smeargle shielded with both wings, which shattered under the blow, and went flying towards the water. As he went, he drew another spiral, and hit Staraptor with a Whirlwind just like most of the other Pokémon he'd battled.
"I'm… not sure how that even worked," Dawn admitted. "How does hitting a Flying-type with a gust of wind in the sky mean they go back into their Pokéball?"
"Not sure," Brock admitted. "Smeargle doesn't look worried."
The Normal-type's tail flicked across by his feet, forming a shape out of coloured paint-or-ink which then flaked away to reveal the reality of a surfboard.
Thus prepared for a Surf, Smeargle splashed down into the water and sculled back over to the shoreline.
"I wonder who's next," Brock mused.
"My turn, I think," Lucario declared, stepping forwards as Smeargle dismissed his Surfboard.
"All right, this should be great!" Barry declared. "Get ready, Smeargle!"
Smeargle readied his tail, and Lucario spun up an Aura Sphere – then threw it, sending it arcing towards the Normal-type.
Barry's Pokémon dodged to the left, leading the attack into an instant wall he created with a Stone Edge, then Sketched his own Aura Sphere and threw it right back.
Lucario blocked the Aura Sphere with a Force Palm spike that shattered it into pieces, and then charged up his own Aura Sphere – letting it grow larger until it was about a foot and a half across, before suddenly crushing it between his paws.
Tiny seeker-spheres fanned out in all directions before homing in on Smeargle, and the Normal-type Sketched quickly to copy it and retaliate in kind.
He got a normal Aura Sphere.
That confused him for just long enough that one of the seeker spheres clipped him, and then so did all the rest at once.
"Huh, I guess move copying has limits!" Barry said, looking up at the flying beagle.
He adjusted his position left a bit, and neatly caught Smeargle as he landed. "I guess that means you win. Great match!"
"Yeah, it was fun," Ash agreed.
Mewtwo clapped, and they were back where they'd left from.
"Oh, and thanks for evolving my Prinplup!" Barry added, returning Smeargle. "See you guys later!"
"Okay," Aaron said, sitting down on a convenient rock.
"Hey!" the rock said, shaking a fist at him.
"Sorry," Aaron winced, and sat down on a second less Geodude-y rock. "So… I think I understand what's going on."
He pointed. "So over there is the place a Time Gear is kept. We had problems before because Grovyle was taking them and that was making time freeze, though we could still walk through the place time was frozen."
"Right," Dialga confirmed.
"And Grovyle came from the future because time had frozen in the future," he continued. "Though I'm not sure how any of this is making sense so far. But what you're saying is that because things are getting worse time is freezing in the past of the cause of the freezing time, even though the time gears are still in place."
"I… think so," Giratina said, a little uncertainly.
"So how does any of that make sense?" Aaron asked. "Grovyle, you're supposed to be an expert on this. So the effect of the freezing of time is going backwards in time from the future and that's then making it spread forwards in time when time isn't moving until the whole world is frozen, except for the Pokémon who can still move around?"
"Actually, I'm pretty sure I get this," Dialga informed him. "It's simple, you just have to understand that time has three dimensions."
He lifted a hoof-like foot. "There's conventional time, which most Pokémon and other people travel in. There's also a second dimension which is how you measure changes to the timestream – at any given point a timestream is a long line in the first dimension but only has a single coordinate in the second dimension."
Palkia muttered something about wanting Ginseng.
"And the third dimension?" Aaron asked.
"That's the dimension which I experience time in," Dialga explained. "It's my own personal world line. So the tapestry of the timestreams itself can be changed by my own alterations, because I'm somewhat outside that timestream – at least, when I'm not incarnated like this, when I keep my privileged worldview but I can't do as much timesteam alteration."
"I think my head hurts," Giratina moaned. "Does that mean you and the other Dialga have your own personal time dimensions? Why don't all time travellers?"
"You know, now that I think about it, a lot of this would be best explained if my own local counterpart was going insane..." Dialga mused.
AN:
A Barry battle, because why not.
Also a look at the Mount Quena situation.
