"So, after much thought, I have come to a conclusion," Fantina reported, some minutes later. "I have decided that it would be better for my gym if we were to battle someplace else… perhaps quite a considerable way away."

"That shouldn't be too hard to sort out," Ash replied. "Not if Mewtwo is okay with helping, anyway… Mewtwo?"

Yes, that's fine, Mewtwo agreed. It's an interesting chance to stretch my mind. Let's see… heavy battling, assume it'll be for two hours for sixteen people, give it an overestimate…

"You mean Mewtwo could transport us to a better place for a battle?" Fantina asked. "I did not know this!"

"Yeah, it's something he does as a job now, but mostly rockets into space," Ash explained. "It's really cool, we have a lot of options as a result."

Mewtwo smiled. I'm glad you think so. Now, Fantina, how many Pokémon are you going to be having Ash use? We're going to be going somewhere I don't think he can pull in more from his transceiver network.

"Wow, how far are we going to be going?" Ash asked. "I thought Dexter could reach anywhere in the world with that..."

Quite, Mewtwo agreed. Gym Leader Fantina?

"Well, I was thinking, perhaps, that quatre Pokémon would be correct?" Fantina suggested. "Does that seem agreeable?"

"That's… four, right?" Ash checked. "And – yeah, sure, that sounds okay. Give me a minute."

He turned his attention to the sword hilt at his side. "Kari, do you want to give this a go?"

"Perhaps I shall," Kari agreed. "It will be interesting to match my skills with those of an expert in my new Type."

"Intéressant!" Fantina declared. "Might that be a Honedge? I did not realize you had such a Ghost-type – indeed, I had thought you had no Ghost type at all."

"I've actually got two, but they're both quite recent," Ash told her. "I'm not going to use the other one in our battle, though, he might be a bit… unfair..."

"And why is this?" Fantina demanded. "I am an expert in the Ghost-type! What Ghost-type Pokémon could be unfair in a battle against me?"

"Giratina," Ash replied.

Fantina blinked, then nodded. "Acceptable answer. My apologies."

"Apart from that..." Ash snapped his fingers. "Right. Corphish, Absol, and… I was thinking either Swellow or Glalie. Can we take both?"

Fetching.

Even if they do not battle, I think Swellow at least will find the battle area interesting, Mewtwo said, as Dexter delivered Ash's selections one Pokémon at a time. Now, if you're all ready?

Ash nodded, checking with his friends and those of his Pokémon who were out, and Fantina gave a sharp nod as well.

Thus assured, the Genetic Pokémon spread his hands. A glow built up over his skin, signifier of a great deal of psychic energy being built up-


-then they were somewhere else, a slightly drab sports arena with a high domed roof and no windows.

"I feel really strange, all of a sudden," Dawn said, looking down at herself. "What happened?"

She lifted an arm. "I feel all… light?"

Lucario jumped experimentally into the air, and soared about eight feet before coming to a slow halt and floating back down to land.

"...are we on the moon?" Brock asked.

Yes, you're correct, Mewtwo agreed, with a nod. Well worked out. This is an underground sports centre that I constructed to try out various sports in a lunar gravity environment. Thus far I can report that basketball is very impressive but badminton requires a higher roof, and volleyball leads to a lot of crash landings.

"Kari, I know you float," Ash said. "Do you think you're going to be okay in low gravity?"

He drew her, then let go of her in mid-air. The Honedge just hung there for a long moment, then began going through a blade exercise – swinging through a sequence of attacks, alternating high with low and finishing with a virtual thrust.

"It seems amenable," she decided.

"Well, this will be most interesting," Fantina smiled. "It seems this will be a very challenging battle, getting used to this whole new environment!"

She glanced at Mewtwo. "Actually, ah, how difficult would it be for me to set all my future battles here?"

I suspect you'd have to move to the moon, which is a bit far from the shops.

"A good point," she admitted. "Very well! Let us begin, select your first Pokémon!"


"Okay, Corphish," Ash said. "Just to warn you, we're on the moon, which means the gravity's a lot lower."

Corphish emerged from his Pokéball, and a claw glowed a faint red as he used Ancientpower to stick himself a little more firmly to the ground. "It won't be a problem. You'll find I'm good at battling in extraterrestrial environments."

"...since when?" Pikachu demanded. "Is this something Squirtle does when we're not around?"

"No, he's not involved," Corphish replied. "It's just something which any adept with the Power can do."

"Am I translating this right?" Dawn asked. "Or is it just that all your Water-types are crazy?"

"Suicune isn't," Latias pointed out.

"Fair enough," Dawn agreed. "So it's just some of them."

"I'm surprised you didn't start by pointing out Buizel," Pikachu said.

"Yeah, but he was a better fit for Ash for quite a while," Dawn replied. "So it's more like he was at least a bit… odd... already."

While they were talking, Corphish scuttled about a bit testing his balance – using the force of his Ancientpower to stay mostly stuck to the floor, and checking just how much he could swing his claws about without losing traction.

"All right, that's quite enough of that," he decided. "Let's get going with this!"

"We're ready!" Ash declared, and Fantina nodded – having taken her place at the other end of the improvised battlefield.

"Bon!" she said. "Mismagius, go!"

Corphish watched as the Ghost-type emerged, and set his stance – igniting one Razor Shell, a glowing red blade which extended from his left claw. Whirling it once, he held it in a brief salute before bringing it around to a guard position.

"So, we meet again, at last" he said.

"We do?" Mismagius asked. "I'm afraid I don't recognize you."

"My mistake," Corphish replied. "I'm afraid it's hard to tell, with ghosts."


"I wonder how this is going to affect how Corphish fights," Dawn said, thinking. "He normally moves around on the ground and doesn't get airborne much, but is that because he can't or just because he prefers fighting that way?"

As if in answer to her question, Corphish surged forwards. He fired a powerful stream of Bubblebeam attacks at Mismagius, who dodged to the side and took a few hits – though the Water-type attack's accuracy was so atrocious that staying put would have seen her remaining entirely safe. She made a little gesture with one hand, producing a Shock Wave, and sent it blasting out in a four-forked lightning bolt directly at Corphish.

The crustacean Pokémon slid to a halt and whipped up his red blade to intercept the beam, sending lightning crackling all around it and flaking off in little arcs, then flicked it to the side and sent the bolts dancing across the floor until they ended in Pikachu's cheeks.

A little bemused, Mismagius tried again – putting together an Energy Ball, then flinging it at Corphish.

That got blocked as well, and the shellsaber actually sent the attack right back at Mismagius so she had to quickly dodge to one side and avoid the main force of it.

"Magical Leaf!" Fantina instructed. "Give him too many targets!"

Mismagius complied, taking her hat off and shaking it out. Dozens upon dozens of leaves fell out in a stream, developing a glow as they dropped, then spiralled out in a multicoloured storm and poured in on Corphish from all angles.

Igniting a second shellsaber, Corphish began blocking in a complex weave of red light. His claws clicked and clacked as he shifted his footing on the wooden floor, turning to make sure the self-renewing swarm of magic leaves didn't gain an advantage from the direction he wasn't facing, until he reached some invisible mark on the floor.

Then he slammed a claw down on the wood with a donnnng, producing a pulse of energy which blew all the leaves away and dispelled the attack. The recoil knocked Corphish into the air a bit, but he quickly corrected by running along the floor with his rear legs and bringing himself back to horizontal.

"I'm not sure how that works unless he's sticking himself to the floor," Lucario observed. "There's a few physics concerns."

Not particularly listening, Corphish jumped forwards by using all his legs to launch himself off the floor – doing a complete flip which carried him over a Shadow Ball hurled his way by Mismagius. His left claw glowed red as he swung it, using it as an oddly effective counterweight to change his course and land him on the floor much closer to Mismagius – only to jump off again, swiping at the Ghost-type as he got close.

Mismagius dodged neatly away, hurling a Psywave at Corphish and knocking him clear into the wall. Ash's Pokémon did manage to twist in mid-air, landing legs-first instead of hitting at a more painful angle, then jumped off again in an oddly floaty arc.

"Well, it is flashy," Fantina said, a little dubiously, as Corphish continued flipping around the arena with the occasional red flash of his Razor Shell cutting through the air. "But is it really very effective?"

Corphish landed and bounced high in the low gravity, deflecting a Charge Beam snapshot with one blade, then slid to a halt. Both blades came up and crossed to deflect Mismagius' next attack, which was a Psywave that knocked him into the wall.

"Impressive, most impressive," he said. "But you are not-"

Mismagius blasted him with a pair of Thunderbolts, hurling him back into the wall.


Shaking his head a little, Corphish switched tacks.

One claw still glowed red with his Shellsaber, but the other clicked once and switched to Surf. It blasted out a wave of water, one which Mismagius shielded against with a burst of shadowy energy that divided the Surf in two directions.

Ceasing fire, Corphish began using Ancientpower instead, taking hold of the water and bringing it surging back towards him. His right claw glowed red with Ancientpower, while his left claw switched abruptly from Razor Shell to Ice Blade – digging into the water overhead, which he used as a jumping-off point to launch himself into the air.

The floatiness of his low-gravity jump threw Mismagius' Energy Ball off, and he manipulated the frozen ice he'd created along with the water carrying it to provide him another platform and jump off from there.

"I'm pretty sure that's not how Ancientpower works," Mismagius complained, sleeves whirling as she produced a Shadow Ball and then charged the inside of it with electrical energy. The whole thing crackled like caged lightning, and she hurled it into the air before sending a surge of forking Shock Wave attacks stabbing out after Corphish.

The Water-type froze his current platform with a quick Ice Blade swipe, then switched both claws into blades again and began using them to deflect the electrical attacks as his platform slowly fell towards the ground. More and more energy built up around the blades, a coruscating corona of current which expanded until it looked like it was about to jump from the blades into Corphish himself.

"Look out!" Ash called, alerting Corphish that the Shadow Ball bomb was curving around to attack from 'underneath' the Water-type – flicking in to hit his platform from the side.

Corphish jumped clear, sweeping his blades around with strands of lightning trailing behind them. He twisted so one was pointing at his platform and the other at Mismagius, then abruptly switched both from swords to Water Pulse.

The blasts of water which went out in both directions carried the accumulated electrical energy with them. One hit the caged-electricity bomb and blew it up with a stunning flash of light and steam, the other hit Mismagius and hurled her halfway across the arena.

Corphish landed a little poorly, unable to quite control his attitude fast enough, and twisted to see whether Mismagius was knocked out.


"Well, I can't see her," Corphish said. "You guys?"

Ash closed one eye to check, and immediately pointed. "She's in the wall there!"

Mismagius came bursting out of the wall as Ash pointed, the energy of a Shadow Ball swirling around each sleeve. She threw them both at once, directing them to combine into a larger single attack, then added an Ominous Wind to the mix which amplified the speed and the force of the attack into a single massive ball of shadow energy.

Corphish used the Power to lift up all the water he'd been using before, trying to form a shield in time to deflect the attack, and when the enormous Shadow Ball hit it threw up a cloud of mist and smoke which entirely obscured that side of the stadium.

"Magnifique!" Fantine declared. "A fine use of the Ghost type for a combined attack!"

As the seconds elapsed, however, she frowned.

"Is your Pokémon not now defeated?"

Ash was about to reply, but a sound interrupted him. A heavy breathing, deep and hissing in before a sighing wheeze out, rhythmic and measured.

The mist began to slowly settle, and a red light flashed inside the cloud.

"Corphish?" Pikachu called.

"That name no longer has any meaning for me."

A blur of red light, and the mist swept away, revealing Ash's Crawdaunt stood all but motionless on the stadium floor.

"Nice work with the straight line," Lucario commented.

"I like to be accommodating for my teammates."

"Dazzling Gleam!" Fantina ordered, and Mismagius complied – weaving together a flicker of blue and pink fairy lights, then throwing it at Crawdaunt.

The big red crustacean gestured with his right claw, retracting the Shellsaber he was generating from it, and a pebble from the floor flew up to slam into the Fairy-type attack to disrupt it. Then he readied his left claw, which glowed for a moment and then produced a twenty-foot-long version of his earlier red Razor Shell ability.

Swinging it rapidly at Mismagius he hit her three times in succession, then jumped hard out of the way of her counterstrike and floated over to land in the stands.

Using Ancientpower with both claws this time to levitate the chairs there, he began hurling them at her in ones and twos.

Mismagius gave him a slightly confused look, and let the chairs pass through her.

Are you quite done? Mewtwo asked, looking with some annoyance at the mess.

Crawdaunt ignored him. "It's over," he said.

"Why?" Mismagius asked. "You're just in the stands."

"I have the high ground," Crawdaunt explained, as it if was obvious.

Mismagius floated a bit higher. "I'm not a hundred percent sure you get this whole ghost thing, I'll be honest."

Crawdaunt scuttled back a bit, getting right up to the top of the stands. "Well, I have the high ground now."

Rolling her eyes, Mismagius floated higher still until she was on a level with Crawdaunt again. "You don't. You can't go any higher, you've run out of space and the stadium roof isn't far away."

"I agree," Crawdaunt said.

His giant shellsaber reignited, this time with a black tinge to it as he used Night Slash. Moving with startling speed, he brought the blade up underneath Mismagius and knocked her clear through the roof.

"I assume we're using normal ring out rules," he added, jumping and coming back down to land on the floor of the arena. "Because it's not often you get a chance to throw your opponent out into space."

"That was… odd," Dawn summarized.

"I'm a Dark type now," Crawdaunt pointed out. "It's expected."


"All right, that is one Pokémon battle down, and three to go," Fantina noted. "I do not think we discussed how many you need to win to pass."

"I guess it should be okay to just keep going until the end," Ash said. "I prefer continuing a battle until the end, just so more of my Pokémon get a chance to battle."

"A fine attitude," Fantina smiled. "All right, now get ready to use your next Pokémon."

"I will," Ash agreed. "I've already decided who to use."

He readied the Pokéball, and was about to throw it when Mismagius dropped back down through the stadium roof.

She gave Ash a dirty look, then returned herself without a sound.

"Ah, it seems Mismagius was not a fan of what happened," Fantina said. "It is a pity, I thought it was a most impressive outcome."

"Mismagius might not appreciate that," Ash replied. "But I guess she'll probably come around… I think."

He threw his Pokéball, and Glalie emerged with a flash.

Swellow appeared a moment later, and nearly hit the ceiling as her wings propelled her much higher with each flap than she'd expected. "Whoah!"

Flipping over and flying down again, this time with much more closely controlled flaps, Swellow found herself going down much more slowly than expected. She overcorrected, then undercorrected for that, and nearly crashed into the floor before recovering and laughing a bit nervously. "Heh, I was going to ask how come it was Glalie you were sending out rather than me, but I guess this kind of answers it… I bet this would be awesome for really complex moves once I got used to it, but as it is it's kind of something I need to adjust to. Is it okay if I stay out and stuff?"

"Go ahead," Ash replied. "Just make sure Glalie and Fantina's Pokémon have enough space for a proper battle."

"Yeah, gotcha," Swellow agreed with a flip of her wings in salute. "Dang, I feel like I've just evolved again, only instead of being supercharged it's just kinda sucky. I'm way overpowered but it's still just as hard to bank as normal, which is all kinds of annoying."

"I'd offer my condolences, but I don't really think I can make it sincere right now," Glalie replied. "I've got too much positive energy about the coming fight."

"Oh?" Swellow asked. "So how come that's the case?"

"Simple!" Glalie said. "I'm over the moon!"

Swellow stared at him for several seconds, then shook her head. "Sounds more like you're a lunatic."


"How are you doing floating in place?" Ash checked. "I know Mismagius was doing okay, but you have actual weight so I want to check."

"It's not too bad," Glalie replied. "Bit easier to rise than normal, but that's not a huge difference."

"Good." Ash caught Fantina's eye. "Okay, I think that means we're ready."

"Excellente!" Fantina smiled, then sent out her next Pokémon.

"I don't think I've seen that one before," Ash admitted. "Dexter?"

Trevenant. A haunted tree.

"I think you normally provide more information," Brock chuckled.

I can't do hasty synthesis of existing information, we're a light second out of range of the wifi, Dexter replied. Hold on… okay, Ghost and Grass type, it's able to control trees. It curses those who cut down trees in the forests it dwells within, but is kind to those who live peacefully there.

"Well, that's good," Glalie noted. "I don't see any forests around here, which is treemendous."

"Okay, one, I'm a Pokémon with a trainer," Trevenant said, crossing his limbs. "And two, that was awful."

"Oh, come on, it has to be at least oak-ay," Glalie complained.

Trevenant stared at him for a long moment, then pointed. "You are getting so cursed."

"I think they're about to start fighting whether the battle officially begins or not," Ash said.

"Oui, so it seems," Fantina agreed. "Commencez!"

Glalie immediately began using Ice Beam to construct a cloud of fluttering Ice-Taillow to shield himself, though ran into the same problem the real Swellow was still quietly trying to acclimatize herself to. Glalie's artificial Ice-Taillow swore a lot less as he figured out the flying, but it still took long enough for Trevenant to wind up an attack.

A giant rock went flying up at Glalie, only scoring a glancing blow but knocking him back and spinning him around. Trevenant followed up with another Rock Slide attack, though this one was less effective as Glalie intercepted it with a quickly constructed Ice Regice.

"Hey, didn't you hear about how people who live in greenhouses shouldn't throw stones?" Glalie asked.

"I'm not sure that qualified as a pun," Lucario called, paws cupped around his muzzle.

"Not my best, yeah," Glalie agreed, horns flaring with a blue arc-light as he constructed a solid stream of little Flying-types to add to his available ice. Some of the flock dove in the way of a Focus Blast Trevenant directed his way, shattering into fragments, then the rest all flew together into one place and reconstituted into a giant Ice Gyarados.

"This fight was good," Glalie declared. "But rime's up."

The sea-serpent he'd made exhaled a jet of supercooled water, splattering all over Trevenant and freezing instantly.

Then Trevenant stepped forwards, phasing through the solidified ice.

"...that seems unfair," Glalie muttered.

Trevenant threw another rock, and Glalie's Gyarados construct shot it out of the air with another jet of rime. It froze the rock in an instant, and Glalie followed up by making an ice Staraptor to grab the rock and flip around to hurl it back at Trevenant again.

Spiking the rock with an Ice Beam as it reached his target, Glalie made it shatter and explode into icy shrapnel. Trevenant hoomed in annoyance, then reached out an arm which creaked like old oak.

Shadowy purple light reached out, right through the icy Charizard which Glalie conjured to shield himself, and brushed against the Ice-type for a moment.

"...wait, did that actually do anything?" Glalie asked, confused. "I don't feel any different…"

He shrugged. "Well, time for the punchline."

Ice swirled around him, forming a giant Lucario shape out of ice with Glalie's head forming one of the fists.

Trevenant blinked. "...really?"

"What?" Glalie asked. "Haven't you heard of putting ice in punch?"

Trevenant threw a flickering purple Will-O-Wisp flame at Glalie, which swirled around him and caught, then blocked with an X-Scissor as Glalie manipulated his Ice Lucario to punch at the Ghost-type.

The collision between the two attacks sent both Pokémon reeling backwards, with Trevenant's roots phasing through the floor a little to get a better grip and Glalie's Ice Lucario falling apart from the strain.

"That hurt a lot more than it should have," Glalie said, eyes swivelling as he looked up at the flame on his head. "Probably the fact I'm on fire. I should get that put out, I know I wanted to set the world alight but this is ridiculous."

As he spoke, Trevenant created a Seed Bomb in one gnarled hand and a Shadow Ball in the other. Using the swirling energies of the Shadow Ball to shred the Seed Bomb's insides without damaging the hard testa on the outside of the seed, he eyed Glalie for a moment and then threw it.

Glalie spotted the incoming bomb and turned the remnants of his short-lived Lucario sculpture into a cloud of Ice Butterfree, using them to block the attack by cushioning it so it couldn't explode and surrounding it in a shell of ice some way away from Glalie himself.

Trevenant countered by throwing a rock right through the ice shell, detonating the bomb and sending a plume of seed-bomb dust at Glalie.

Which promptly exploded.


Well, I was hoping there wouldn't be much in the way of fire or explosions, Mewtwo grumbled, already holding up both hands to describe a globe which repeatedly popped and sputtered. I'm replacing the air with new air from the atmosphere we left on Earth, give me a minute or two before continuing the battle.

"I don't think that'll be a problem," Ash replied. "It looks like Glalie's out. How did that work?"

"I cursed him," Trevenant explained, rolling his limbs around to test their motion after all the ice that had hit them during the battle. "The Forest's Curse gives the target the Grass type."

"That was a contest move that Trevenant and I worked out," Fantina explained. "C'est magnifique, non? Trevenant does not learn the conventional Fire moves, so we had to work out a workaround so as to allow him to make better use of his curse!"

"It was pretty good, yeah," Ash agreed. "I've done that dust explosion trick a couple of times, and I know my friend May has as well."

"Ah, May Maple," Fantina smiled. "She is a very impressive Coordinator! Though it seems your newer friend Dawn is quite the rising star herself, of course!"


"Doing okay?" Dawn asked.

"Yes, thanks," Ambipom agreed, most of her focus on two ping-pong bats and two ping-pong balls. "Getting used to this different gravity is a pretty interesting challenge."

"Does it take long?" Dawn said, interested. "I mean, it's a total change in how you do things, so I'd imagine it might take ages."

"Well, a lot of the tricks are the same, I just have more time to do them in," Ambipom replied. "Like… there's a trick which is functionally just for a ball coming down at a one-in-twelve gradient, and that still happens here but under different circumstances. It'd take longer to get down the really advanced combinations and stuff, the reflexes are all wrong, and there's a whole new sequence of more advanced moves exploiting the longer hang time I could put together, but the intermediate stuff mostly transfers pretty well."

"That's kind of neat," her trainer smiled.

"Yeah, though I'd love to see what swimming is like on the moon. Does Mewtwo have a swimming pool?"

Yes, but it's being cleaned, Mewtwo told her. Sorry. Maybe later.

He waved his hand, and the bubble of air interchange went away. The atmosphere should have been scrubbed. Resume your havoc… just try not to breach the atmosphere seal.

"Is that actually a risk?" Brock asked, as Ash unhooked Kari from his belt and held her out. "How far down are we?"

Fifteen or twenty metres between the top of the arena and the surface. But this is Ash Ketchum, so I wanted to say anyway.

"Got it," Ash agreed, letting go of Kari's scabbard and hilt – leaving her hanging in mid-air, until she drew herself smoothly. "Any really powerful attacks, make sure to aim them level?"

"Certainly," Kari agreed, her tassel keeping hold of her scabbard by the throat. "Let us see who my foe shall be."

Fantina replied by opening a Pokéball, sending out her Drifloon.

"Ready?" she asked.

Her Drifloon evolved into Drifblim.

"...that was not expected," Fantina blinked. "Ah – ready?"

"Kari?" Ash checked.

"I am ready," Kari confirmed, shifting her position so her blade was held vertically in a guard position and her scabbard was horizontal behind the hilt.

"Yeah, she's ready," Ash relayed.

"Then begin!" Fantina called, bringing her hand down.

Immediately opening combat, Drifblim lashed out with a Will-O-Wisp attack. Purple flames streamed out from her four arms, curving around to form a pattern before all converging in on Kari.

Kari's blade hummed briefly, taking on an icy blue cast, and she slashed three times in quick succession – each blow brief and restrained, cutting through one of the Will-o-Wisps with the energy of an Ice Blade to buffer herself against the heat. The third swipe got both of the remaining two flames, swinging back into guard position, and Kari gathered herself for a moment before advancing.

"Watch out for ranged attacks," Fantina called. "His Pokémon with sword moves have done that before."

Drifblim bobbed up and down as a nod, summoning more flame and pulling it together into a solid-seeming blob of flame. She lashed out, aiming to cover the whole area Kari was in with a sheet of flame, and Kari halted a moment to use an Air Cutter and sweep the whole fire-wall out of the way.

The turn left her out of position to avoid a much more concentrated blob of Will-O-Wisp which hit her scabbard in the side, licking up and down to give her whole form a reddish cast.

Annoyed at herself for missing a trick, Kari tensed a bit before flicking herself forwards. Her scabbard went out to the side, altering her centre of mass, and her blade responded with a rapier-like curl to get around a focused Shadow Ball and strike a glancing blow against Drifblim's side.

Ominous Wind surged, knocking Kari away, and she flicked around herself to control her momentum before coming back in again. This time she hummed with the power of a Night Slash, cutting through the Ominous Wind that tried to drive her away, and the energy separated from her blade to create a beam that connected despite Drifblim's best efforts.

"Will-o-Wisp on yourself!" Fantina called. "Then use Hex!"

"Shadow Claw!" Ash instructed.

Kari let her blade glow with the energy of the Ghost-type attack Ash had called for, and brought herself up into a guard position. Her tip waved a little from side to side as Drifblim powered up her attack, then Ash called another command.

"Tip contact!"

As the first Hex attack came in, a barely-visible distortion in the air, Kari swung across to deflect it with the very tip of her blade. The strength of the attack was shocking, and Kari could only just make sure it didn't hit the rest of her – and the recoil from the deflection spun her entirely around her centre of mass, flipping end-over-end so her blade was only just pointing towards Drifblim when the second Hex attack reached her.

This deflection was louder, more powerful, and sent a puff of greyish-purple smoke out in all directions from the point of contact. The impact completely negated Kari's spin and reversed it, flicking her around in the other direction.

"Two the same way," Ash called. "Then beam it!"

"Wait, what – Drifblim, stop!" Fantina ordered.

By the time her order reached Drifblim and the Ghost/Flying type had reacted, Kari had already used the force of deflecting the third Hex to spin up even faster. Pulling her scabbard in close to her hilt to ensure only her tip would intersect with any attack, Kari turned the Shadow Claw she'd been using into a blade-beam and lashed out – her rotation so fast that it was more like she was emitting a spiral of ghostly energy rather than a single cohesive blade beam.

Reinforcing it with a Night Slash when the Shadow Claw began to degrade, then an Ice Beam on top of that, Kari hammered Drifblim with at least a dozen hits in the space of only a second or two – and carved a long and horizontal furrow in most of the walls.

There was a pop, and Mewtwo sighed.

And there goes the light power cable, he noted.

"How come the lights are still on?" Ash asked, as Kari spun down to a more sensible speed by turning her blade across against the direction she'd been spinning.

Because the power comes from solar panels on the lunar surface above us, and the lights draw power from them without the wires having to come past that slash. But the changing rooms are probably dark now.


As Fantina returned Drifblim, Mewtwo floated over to Ash.

Please tell me you are going to try and keep collateral damage down a bit for the last fight, he asked.

"I was going to use Absol, so if she defines collateral damage as a disaster that would work out," Ash said, thinking. "But couldn't you just put up a psychic shield along the walls and stuff? Then they'd only really need to be careful about Dark type attacks."

That… is a good point, yes, Mewtwo agreed. I'm afraid I forgot about the LinesPokémon role because there's nobody in the stands. I'll correct that.

"Great," Ash smiled. "Okay, uh – Fantina, have you picked what Pokémon you're going to use?"

"Well, I have two choices," Fantina explained. "I am hoping to give you a fine challenge to end your gym, uh, challenge, but I am not sure which would be the better. There is my Gengar, for whom I have a Mega Stone, or there is my Marowak."

"A Marowak?" Brock asked. "Did I miss something or are we in the wrong gym?"

"You are not in my gym," Fantina pointed out. "And yes, you missed something. He is an Alolan Marowak, and he is a Ghost type."

"Well, I was going to use Absol," Ash repeated, for Fantina's benefit this time. "I've got a Mega Stone for her too, and I was wondering how it would work with her wings and the lower gravity, uh… that's a tricky one, really..."

"If it helps, I was thinking that you could use the Mega Stone regardless," Fantina told him.

"Absol?" Ash asked, sending her out. "What do you think?"

"I don't think I've battled an Alolan Marowak before," Absol said, tilting her head as she said the words. "And it seems like it would if anything be slightly less painful to the scenery."

"That's the answer, then," Ash told Fantina.

She frowned. "But what is the answer?"

"Oh, right – Absol said that the Alolan Marowak seems like the better choice," Ash supplied.

"Then that is what we shall do!" Fantina declared, and duly sent out her Pokémon.

"Huh," Dawn said, blinking. "That's… different..."

The Marowak's fine scales were a dark near-total black instead of a soft sandy brown, and his belly was a paler but still cool grey-brown. Another difference from the 'normal' Marowak they were all used to was a multipronged symbol on his shell helmet, but the strangest difference was with his staff as he whirled it in a quick pattern before striking a pose.

Both ends of the staff were flickering with a greenish witchfire, leaving a trail behind it as he moved it, and when it stopped moving the flames grew until they were almost as big as his head.

Ash had readied his staff while the Marowak was showing off, and Absol glowed with golden-rainbow light a moment later as her Absolite flared into life. Her blades expanded, her fur lengthened, and two wings curled up from her flanks.

"Ah, a Mega Absol is a Pokémon with great poise to it," Fantina said, then waved her hand. "Begin!"

Marowak flipped his staff into a defensive position, held diagonally across his body, and waited for Mega Absol to make the first move. After a couple of seconds she did, darting forwards with a Night Slash hissing on her horn.

She feinted forwards, and Marowak raised his staff to block. Already moving back, riding her precognitive disaster-sense to optimize her combat style, Mega Absol tossed her head and sent the Night Slash hissing forwards as a ranged attack instead.

Marowak met the Night Slash with a quick swipe with his bone club, smashing the core of the attack so only the fringes reached him, then counterattacked with a blurring combination that made the green flames erupt into brilliant purple light. A core of blue briefly flared in the middle of the fire, and Marowak swept his club across to hit Mega Absol in the side.

The Dark-type jumped over the attack, wings fluttering as they controlled her fall, then tried to interpose her horn to block a return strike. The Night Slash she produced on it immediately collapsed, and she took a blow which knocked her across the room before she could slide to a halt with her wings out to brake.

"Ow," she muttered.

"What happened?" Ash asked.

"Not sure, which is unusual," Mega Absol admitted. "My attack just fizzled, and I didn't see it coming until I tried."

Her horn flashed green as she worked up a Leaf Blade, then she flicked it at Marowak rather than get close to him as she tried to tease out what had happened.

Marowak stepped smartly to the side, letting the attack shraak into the shield Mewtwo was maintaining, then counterattacked with a rapid Bonemerang – throwing it hard at Mega Absol, so she had to block and send the bone back, and somehow attracting it back to his hand before throwing it a second time.

Mega Absol blocked the first Bonemerang with an Ice Blade, but the energy collapsed straight afterwards. She found herself trying to block with her bare horn, which worked but not as well as it could have done – until she powered up a Leaf Blade again, which successfully blocked the final attack in the sequence.

"I think my Leaf Blade just went," she reported. "This is getting very annoying, something's messing up my disaster sense! How does losing an attack not count as a disaster?"

"Good question," Ash replied. "Sacred Sword!"

"But that won't hit?" Mega Absol said, confused.

"Yeah!" Ash agreed. "So use it to experiment!"

Mega Absol nodded, her horn flaring a brilliant blue as she switched sword attacks. Her tail glowed as well, and she flicked a Sacred Sword beam at Marowak.

The Ghost-type didn't bother trying to block, charging forwards instead, and the attack went straight through him – then Mega Absol was busy trying to avoid a series of close-in attacks, Bone Rushes and Bone Clubs mixed in with the ethereal flames of the more esoteric Ghost-type bone attack Marowak was throwing in.

She moved like quicksilver, flowing out of the way of Marowak's attacks where possible and then blocking with her horn or her tail where that wasn't possible. But Marowak was almost as fast and didn't have to worry about which of his moves were still working, able to almost ignore counterattacks as Mega Absol used her unpowered blade to fend off some attacks – losing her Sacred Sword to one, then her Slash to another, and finally resorting to an Air Slash and only getting one use out of that as well.


"Is there any reason you keep glancing at me?" Karen's Absol asked.

"Not really," Misty replied with a shrug. "Just… Ash has an Absol, but I haven't seen her much. I think I've seen you more, but it occurred to me to think about how different you two are. There's that stereotype about Absol, but you're as distinct as any Pokémon."

"True," Karen's Absol agreed. "Though technically when she arrives in town chaos follows her, but that's just because Ash Ketchum is there."

She shivered. "I respect her greatly for being able to stand it for long periods of time, but I'd never be able to."

"What are you two discussing?" Karen asked, coming in with the popcorn.

"How different Absol can be from one another," Misty supplied. "I guess even for a really strong single ability like disaster sensing, what matters is how you use and adapt to that power."

Karen nodded. "Yeah, it's interesting stuff… but we were going to watch that movie, right?"

Absol nodded, passing the remote control back to her trainer, and Misty settled down to watch today's film – but some of her attention was still on Absol.

If Galactic made a move while Ash was away, Karen's Absol might just give some warning.


"Absol!" Ash called. "It looks like an attack needs to connect to be affected!"

"Right!" Mega Absol replied, crouching down a little as she swiped her blade back and forth – trying to use the bare horn to intercept attacks, unable to take the full force off even with her chance-dancing letting her interpose it perfectly but needing even the partial resistance that the unaugmented blade offered. "Any tips on where to go from that?"

"Yeah!" Ash agreed. "Use Thunderbolt through your horn – and hit really hard!"

Mega Absol did so, lighting up her horn with electrical energy, then slamming it into Marowak to knock him away. The blow's extra strength did send Marowak sliding backward, bone flipping around as he absorbed his momentum with a sliding brake, and the Thunderbolt fizzled out as that attack got deactivated as well.

"Make sure you use each attack really carefully," Ash added. "Go with no attack instead of a weak one… and remember you can make new attacks if you need to!"

It's true, Mewtwo volunteered.

"No, Mega Absol can't hear you," Ash pointed out. "Magic Bounce."

Ah, right. How unusual.

Mega Absol nodded, focusing. She took a deep breath and exhaled, and as she did Marowak drew back his arm and threw a Bonemerang attack at the Dark-type.

"Foul Play!" Ash ordered.

Mega Absol jinked to one side, getting out of the direct path of the bone attack, then jumped as it went past. She aimed it perfectly, snagging the edge of the bone just right, and Dark-type energy seethed up through her jaws and into the bone as she twisted about.

Her jump and the trajectory of the bone took them to just touch the wall, and her paws slammed into it – all four, all at once – propelling her towards Marowak, until she tossed her head and threw the seething Dark-infused bone almost directly towards her Ghost-type foe.

Marowak had dodged, but unlike his odd trick with disabling moves his dodging was amenable to Mega Absol's prediction. The Foul Play bone struck true, curving just slightly to hit hard and knock Marowak back with every bit as much force as Marowak had used to throw it.

"Now, use Thunder Blade!" Ash called.

Mega Absol blinked, then reframed her own thinking as fast as possible.

Disappointing her trainer would be a disaster, albeit a minor one… so she flowed electrical energy into her horn, charging it up, and threw it directly at the Ghost-type as he recovered from his landing.

It scored a glancing blow only, as Marowak dodged out of the way just in time, and the attack was weak to begin with. But it hit, and Mega Absol bared her teeth in triumph – only to frown suddenly.

It had hit?

Then Ash's plan came together for her all at once – and without his having to say it out loud, where Marowak or his trainer could hear it.

Setting her stance, Mega Absol began putting together another new attack – taking a kind of energy she could already use thanks to her repertoire of ranged moves, and restructuring it into a blade move which would make better use of her skill with her horn.

"Stomping Tantrum!" Fantina called, and Marowak took up his bone club to shake the Dark-type energy off it before charging forwards.

Light began to form on Mega Absol's horn as she rushed to meet him, a cool aquamarine blue as she prepared to use her new Water Blade-

-and Marowak slammed his club into her horn, shedding much of the force of his attack but shutting down her attack before it could really solidify.

The impact knocked Mega Absol partway into the air, and she spun around to land a blow with her bladed tail – knocking Marowak's club out of his hands – then slammed a paw into his chest and knocked him further away from it with a Sucker Punch.

Wings flaring once as she made sure she landed properly, Absol raised a paw.

"Stone Edge," she declared, slamming the paw into the ground, and knocking Marowak high enough he almost hit the ceiling before slowly floating back down.


"Okay, that was really hard," Ash said, as Fantina recalled her clearly-unconscious Pokémon. "He wasn't Ground type at all, right?"

"Non, you are correct," Fantina said, waving her hand. "Ghost and Fire. Well spotted."

"That explains why those Ice and Leaf blades didn't work so well," Absol groaned, transitioning back down from Mega with a sigh. "But what was with that disabling thing? I have Magic Bounce, Disable shouldn't have been..."

Ash relayed the question, and Fantina chuckled. "Ah, it is the Cursed Body you refer to. It is an ability, not a move… but it has a flaw, as well. It does not last very long."

She raised a hand to her mouth. "In truth, you could probably use your Night Slash and your Shadow Claw by the end – but you did not try!"

Absol muttered something about Ghost types.


Well, I have a repair job now, but I can't say it's anything other than my own fault, Mewtwo sighed. Mostly.

"Yeah, sorry about that," Ash said. "It was a really fun battle, though, the unusual gravity gave it a great feel – much more airy and floaty than a normal battle, almost like an airborne one."

I'm glad that it came out positive, at least," Mewtwo said. Though, speaking of airborne, there is one thing I'd like to try out while you're here. That's you specifically, Ash.

"Huh?" Ash asked, more than a little confused. "Why me?"

Because, especially relative to your size, you are the strongest human I know, Mewtwo explained.

He waved his hand in a grand gesture, and one of the cupboards along the wall popped open. The interior was full of equipment, from hockey sticks and basketballs to badminton racquets and a few dozen coloured vests of varying sizes.

From behind the pile, Mewtwo extracted two folded objects, floating them out in front of Ash.

"Ah, excuse me?" Fantina asked. "But I am afraid I would like to return to my gym? If this will take a while?"

My apologies, Mewtwo allowed. One moment.

He vanished, and so did Fantina and her now-returned Pokémon team.

Ash caught the bundles before they hit the ground – easy enough given how slowly they began to fall – and inspected one carefully, finding that it was buckled closed and popping it open.

"Is that what I think it is?" Pikachu asked.

"No, probably not," Lucario replied. "I can't see a Tesla Field Generator anywhere and it's not nearly red enough."

Pikachu blinked, then gave Lucario a look. "What?"

"Well, you should have been more specific," Lucario defended himself.

Mewtwo popped back in. Ah, good. We just need to fit them on and then we should find out if I got the size right.

He paused. And yes, they're a pair of strap-on wings.

"Why-" Brock began, then interrupted himself. "This is because you hope Ash is strong enough to lift himself, right?"

Well, I hope that most humans will be able to lift themselves, with the right wing design and perhaps some elevated air pressure, Mewtwo noted. But Ash is the one who will likely have the least problems.

The other wing unbuckled itself. Should we give it a go?

"Sure," Ash agreed. "It sounds like a fun experience… is that why this room's so big?"

That's some of it, Mewtwo agreed. Not the only reason but definitely one of them.


Some minutes later, Mewtwo pronounced the wings attached correctly.

Right, let's see… the Psychic-type mused, floating backwards a bit. I'll be ready to catch you if things go wrong, of course, so let's have you start with a jump to get a bit of height. Remember you'll go much higher here, so don't jump so high you hit the roof.

"Got it," Ash replied, doing a test bounce on the balls of his feet and going about two inches into the air. "I am used to the high jump low gravity thing, it's what my boots can do – I just normally leave them a bit higher than normal to get stronger."

Ah, that's right," Mewtwo realized, looking over at the blue boots resting against the wall. I should have considered that. Now, once you jump, you're going to want to bring your arms down with a bit of an inwards curve – that's how the wings bite – then up again with your inner wrists facing one another so they don't bite on the way up.

Ash nodded. "Okay, I think I get it… and to stop?"

That's largely my job, Mewtwo said, then indicated a pile of mats which had silently levitated out of the supply cupboard. But if you want to give a go at a landing, then the important bit for winged flight is probably to flare at the end. Pull up and angle the wings as brakes, it gets rid of as much of the momentum as possible – oh, and keep your feet pointing towards the ground. The fins on your ankles are your stabilizers.

Another nod, and Ash took a few steps back – a trifle awkwardly, as the large and stiff material of the wings got in the way slightly.

He took a deep breath, nodded, and jumped.

Powered by just a touch of Aura and his considerable training, he got about halfway to the high roof of the arena, then held his arms out to the side as steadily as he could once he reached the apex of the jump.

Mewtwo's wing design rippled visibly, and the Psychic-type sent Ash a sharp message. You're not moving forwards enough to generate lift.

Ash reacted by rotating his arms and forcing them down, the wings resisting hard as he put as much strength into the flap as possible, and it felt like he was trying to lift his entire – albeit reduced – weight by his arms.

Which was more or less what was happening.

That arrested his downwards momentum, and he twisted a bit so he was leaning forwards as he raised his arms – remembering to make sure they wouldn't bite by rolling his wrists – then flapped a second time. This time the air they pushed aside went as much behind him as below him, giving him a quick burst of forwards momentum, and though he was still moving slowly it felt very different to simply jumping.

The third flap went a bit wrong as Ash forgot to make sure the wings would bite properly, wrenching at his shoulder, but it didn't seem to actually damage anything so he just kept going – correcting on the fourth flap, and by the fifth he was moving forwards at something like walking pace.

"Wow!" Dawn called. "That looks unbelievable!"

Ash stopped flapping for a moment, deciding to try something out, and swept his arms back behind him a little to see if he could dive. It half-worked, controlling his trajectory so it wasn't just a ballistic arc, but he didn't gain much forward momentum and had to bring his arms back out and pull up with another wrench.

By the time he was no longer falling, Ash was uncomfortably close to the ground, and he managed one more flap before deciding to land. Rolling his arms and flexing his elbows to control the wings a bit more, he sort-of-flared, and stumbled to a halt on the mats before tripping.

Mewtwo caught him before he hit the ground.

Not bad for a first try, he judged. How was it?

"That was..." Ash paused. "Um… it's kind of hard to summarize… but it was amazing. And it felt, uh… it wasn't as hard as I was expecting?"

I did wonder about that, Mewtwo noted. I suspect some people might be strong enough to do it on Earth if they had the wings for it, but the problem is that the material you need for the wings needs to be very strong to manage Earth weight – that or very big, and you were already having trouble with those ones.

He waved his hand. But that's for later. If you don't mind, I'd like us to do a few more test runs – and take some film for Mawile, of course.

"Yeah, she'd love that," Ash agreed. "And I don't mind… I did kind of feel like I was about to roll over sometimes, though."

Perhaps we should do some practice with the ankle fins first.


AN:


Ash better leave fairly soon, before he does something that turns it into Space: 1999.

Unusual Gym battle but I thought it was interesting.