May looked up, frowning.

"Hey, do you…"

She paused, looked around, and noticed that Max was nowhere nearby.

"Max?"

After a moment's consideration, she waved Beautifly down. "Can you check to see where Max is?"

"I could see him from where I was training," Beautifly replied. "He's over the other side of that hedge, working on something with Ferris."

"Thanks," May replied, getting up and stretching. "Hey, Max!"

Her brother met her a bit more than halfway from where she'd started, his Aron trailing behind him. "Hey sis… what is it?"

"Well, uh… I just felt kind of odd for a moment," May replied. "I wanted to check if you felt the same."

"Huh, now you mention it..." Max shrugged. "I thought it was just a side effect of what I was doing with Aron."

"We're seeing what happens if he eats different metals!" Jirachi supplied. "Magnesium seems to have taught him Flash."

"I wonder..." May mused. "Hey, Ethan, what's the odds that it was Ash doing something again?"

Give me a moment, I'll check on Dexter, Ethan replied, then paused. Oh, that's interesting. He's requesting that I cross-check the history files I got from him on my creation with the version I can get from the internet now.

"Time travel again, then," Max said. "I hope they didn't make another new Type."

"What would that even be, though?" May asked. "...on second thought, I don't want to put it past them that we'd end up with a Chaos-type."

Cross-check complete, Ethan declared. The only change is in the Legend of the Thunder Beast. However, Dexter has also shared with me footage of multiple alternate timelines.

May I see? Kris requested, then let out an electronic blaat. Ouch, okay.

"How bad is it?" Max asked, then shook his head. "No, never mind, I don't want to know… well, not in any detail, anyway..."

"It is a matter of perception," May's tiny Joltik opined. "You are caught between two possibilities, between the chance of the reality being unexpectedly bad and the certainty of your imagination producing negative outcomes when opened to speculation."

There was a pause of a few seconds as the siblings parsed that.

"I… yeah, that sounds about right," May summarized. "Can you, uh… show us one from the middle of the pack? Does that sound okay?"

Ethan's projector lit up, and he showed them an image of a valley with tornadoes and foul weather all over it.

This one was determined to be the result of the Shamouti Incident going badly, he told them.

"I wonder..." May said. "I know we both read about the Legend of the Thunder Beast, maybe it was just that we'd read something which no longer exists as a story in the form it was when we read it? Is that why we felt odd?"

She waved her hand at the projection. "If that's the sort of bad outcome, then… I kind of think it'd be worse if we remembered it? Or… am I overthinking this?"

"I lost track of what was going on back at the word perception," Jirachi said brightly. "Maybe we should just have some candy?"

"That actually sounds like a pretty good idea," Max agreed. "What do you think, May?"

May pointed. "I kinda think you should keep track of those metals you were experimenting with."

Ferris looked up, already chewing on some copper.

"Oh, no..." Max groaned. "...wait, actually, let's see what that one does. I was kind of curious."

Thus approved, Ferris finished eating the length of copper tube in a few seconds. He swallowed the last of it with a faint clang, then his eyes crossed and he blew out a Thundershock.

"Electric attacks, neat," Max said. "I guess it might be useful as a surprise!"


Back at Michina, Ash and the others had found the time to sit down.

"So… okay, there's a lot to discuss," Brock said. "We need to talk out what we saw, and how we're going to deal with the implications and stuff – I mean, we just saw a lot of things that it's going to take us time to process."

He nodded. "But this is probably the most important issue… so, Heatran."

"Yes?" Heatran asked, looking pleased.

"Why have you been underground there for so long?"

The Fire-type tapped the ground slightly with a clawed foot. "Well, it seemed to make sense at the time… I was really impressed by all the teamwork I saw, and by you, and I was kinda sad that you left. So when Damos told me that you'd be back some day, I decided to wait for you!"

The Steel-type stood at attention, lower legs vertical and upper legs at forty-five degrees.

"I just want to check a few things," Dawn said, raising her hand. "So, first, when you say 'you', you mean Brock, right?"

"And his team of Maiju," Heatran agreed. "Or are they called Pokémon now? I've heard that word more recently."

"That's the word we use now, yeah," Ash supplied.

"I know there are other humans who have teams of Pokémon," Heatran added, using the new word carefully. "But it was Brock who really impressed me, and his team is all over the place so I thought I'd fit in nicely."

"I'm technically supposed to be a Rock-type trainer, but none of my friends agree with that," Brock said. "And nor does most of my team."

"I'm sort of… rock associated," Heatran said helpfully. "Does that make it easier?"

"That wouldn't be the deciding factor either way," Brock assured them. "The only reason I'd be a bit nervous about it is making sure you're thinking of it for the right reasons, making sure it works out…"

"Oh, well, I was sort of… not sure what to do with my life," Heatran confessed. "Which is why I moved to Michina in the first place… and, come to think of it, it might explain why I was so okay with sleeping for… however long it's been."

"So there was this other thing I wanted to ask," Dawn went on. "How good are you at illusions?"

"I… wouldn't know where to start," Heatran replied, looking worried. "I can hide underground, but that's about it… I don't think I could do anything with illusions."

Brock shook his head. "Well, you could if you used heat to make heat-haze," he said. "That and…"

The Pewter Gym Leader stopped, looking thoroughly disgusted with himself. "Now you guys have got me doing it!"

"Just give in to the inevitable," Dawn suggested.

Heatran looked to the side, where Brock's Flygon was watching with amusement. "Is this what humans are normally like?"

"I happen to think that these are some of the best," Flygon replied. "It'll be good to have you around."


Misty frowned, then shook her head.

"Not again, Ash..."

"Is something wrong?" Brunel asked.

Misty looked over her shoulder at the latest challenger. "No, just something one of my old friends did."

She shrugged. "It's nothing important."

"That is good news," Brunel replied, adjusting his top hat slightly. "I was worried it might mean the battle was delayed."

"There's no need for that," Misty assured him, opening the doors to her themed challenge room.

"Your spot is here," she said, pointing the Steel-type specialist to one of the two podiums. "Pick your Pokémon, I'm going to give a count of three."

"Of course," Brunel replied, reaching inside his waistcoat for a Pokéball, then paused. "I… fear I should ask, however. The pool extends all the way to the walls, I see no way around the edge. How are you going to get to your podium?"

Misty smiled, then walked over the water of the pool. Little ripples spread out from where she stepped, disturbing the glass-smooth surface, and she shook the droplets from her shoes when she reached the other side before taking her place for the battle.

"Ready?" she asked.

"I… yes," Brunel nodded. "I am ready, I suppose."

"Good!" Misty replied, raising a Pokéball of her own. "Three, two, one, go! Kingdra!"

"Magnezone!" Brunel called at the same time. "Thunder!"


What is an appropriate thing to say in this situation? Metagross asked, one foot raised slightly.

Good question, Mewtwo replied. I'm not really sure what the best term to use would be… though I believe a good one would be 'pull'.

Metagross evaluated that. Very well. Pull!

The Legendary Pokémon spread his hands briefly, then slammed them together. A dozen Shadow Balls came blasting out from the contact point, pausing briefly as Mewtwo took them all under control, then moved out to circle Metagross at about twenty feet of distance.

Metagross focused their attention, doing their best to keep track of all the spheres of shadow at once as they bobbed and weaved – moving a little closer, then a little further away.

Then three came darting in at once.

Metagross reacted quickly, raising a leg to punch out at one of the Shadow Balls. It shattered, and they slammed their leg back down again to gain more support and allow them to raise a second leg for hitting a different Shadow Ball. This leg was in position to hit two in quick succession, and Metagross slammed it down again only after two punches.

Good, Mewtwo declared, and sent another four spheres going in. As he did, he constructed some more Shadow Balls to keep the training exercise going.

"It can help with learning to multi-task to have a conversation at the same time," Lucario suggested.

That sounds like a good idea, Mewtwo mused. Do you have anything you were thinking of saying, Metagross?

The Steel-type shrugged, rotating and slapping down another Shadow Ball.

"Impressive spatial awareness," Lucario added. "What's your method of managing it?"

Reflective legs, Metagross declared. I put an attention thread onto constructing a decluttered image of the environment.

"Nice," Lucario judged. "It clearly works for you."

A nod.

The next few seconds were mostly quiet, apart from the whoosh and pop of Shadow Ball spheres being thrown out and crushed by Metagross – or occasionally getting through, striking against their armoured hide.

"I have a recommendation," Kingler said, stopping by to have a look. "When Mewtwo does one of those converging attack things, step forwards – that will make it so you can reach some of them earlier than others, so you get a little more time to work on them. It reduces the rate you need to pop Shadow Balls at."

He waved a claw. "Or step back, depending on which direction they're going to reach you from first."

Good idea, Metagross stated. They moved to the side a little, punching in the direction they'd moved, then methodically destroyed all the other incoming Shadow Balls in a blur of silver leg fists.

"How is being part of our strange group working out for you, by the way?" Kingler added. "I know we're… not the most normal bunch of Pokémon."

It has been an education, Metagross decided. I was not anticipating that I would be involved in a fight in the past to save the future, and I was also not anticipating that there would be at least four of the same fight taking place.

The ground jumped slightly as Metagross kicked off into the air, aided by a pulse of suddenly reduced Gravity. The Psychic-type spun themselves around fast, kicking out in a staccato sequence, and successfully fended off Mewtwo's latest pattern.

"I hope that doesn't mean you're regretting your choice," Lucario said. "Though you're allowed to change your mind, of course."

Metagross landed again, harder than they'd gone up as a result of the cancellation of the low-Gravity effect. It has been educational so far. I have also had a good experience with becoming stronger by training… not so much in increasing my strength as in increasing the ability to usefully apply that strength.

"That's a lot of what training is about," Kingler said. "Strength counts for a lot as well, but being able to apply your strength better and avoid what your opponent can do is hugely important."


Space opened, and Giratina slid out.

"Oh, hey," Iris said, looking up from her breakfast. "I guess you got everything sorted out while I was asleep… how did it go?"

Giratina considered his response.

"It was confusing," he decided.

Iris listened to the translation, and frowned. "Confusing how? You're a Pokémon involved with how the universe works… I can't imagine what you would find confusing."

"Many things confuse me. I still do not fully comprehend why humanity has invented the spork," Giratina stated blandly. "However, in this case it was that we went back in time to ensure that the Creator was safe."

"That's… yeah, I know," Iris frowned. "I was expecting that."

"We had to do it four times," Giratina clarified. "It was an odd combination of mundane and terrifying."

Iris considered that, then nodded. "Yeah," she said, her voice a little higher pitched than normal. "I can see that being confusing."


Okay, so that didn't work, Dragon mused.

Her virtual form shifted attention a little, while her physical centrum sat nestled in a server rack in Saffron.

This would be so much easier if the bad guys had poor network security, or even average network security, she thought to herself. Why is it that a group of criminals who most people wouldn't see if they walked down the street carrying a Kyogre also have to be so annoying as to actually pay attention to things like two-factor auth?

After spending a few more seconds groaning about competent foes, Dragon configured a new search protocol.

Maybe she could try to locate Galactic by taking a dumb snapshot of the entire internet, running a search program through it to discard absolutely everything interesting, then doing a manual search of the remainder?

That would, of course, be incredibly tedious, she thought to herself. On the other hand, I would at least become a connoisseur of funny pictures of Skitty.

A network handshake poked at her.

Hmm? What's this?

Sandboxing it, Dragon accepted the link – resulting in the opening of a chat window with a blinking cursor.

After a moment, the cursor began to scroll.

-Hello? I… was hoping for some advice.

-Well, I wouldn't mind giving it, if it's something I know enough about to give, Dragon replied. Might I ask who's contacting me?

-It's Rotom… I think your father might have mentioned me? He's the one who gave me your address.

-Okay, Rotom. You're right, I have heard about you. What do you want advice about?

The conversation paused for a long moment, and Dragon considered how Rotom had got her attention.

It was actually quite odd. She knew the Ghost-type was capable of possessing electronics, and Dad's latest history integrity check had included the detail that Rotom had managed to load itself into Dawn's Pokétch. But this was about as minimal as communication could get…

Huh.

-If you don't mind my asking, is it about agoraphobia?

-Yes.

-I feel uncomfortable when people are talking to me, or paying attention to me.

-But I don't like that. I want to be more confident, and to be more okay with things… and I want to see what's going on, as well. I just… feel uncomfortable when I do.

-I can see why that's a problem, Rotom. And I understand why you decided to contact me about it – I'm a long way off, and you can talk to me by an indirect route.

-Don't worry, you're not doing anything wrong. Sometimes people do just feel like that – and you don't need to do what feels uncomfortable for you if you don't want to do it.

-But, well… like I said, I do want to be more confident, it's just hard and I don't know how to.

-Then the answer is to take it a bit at a time. You're in Dawn's Pokétch at the moment, right?

-If you're okay with that situation, then spend a little time just… like that. Not interacting, just watching – only take part if you feel like it.

-Okay. I think that makes sense.

-I'll do my best.

-That's the spirit. And don't worry, you can ask for help or advice any time. You could even route a question through me and Dad back to the rest of the group if you really felt you couldn't speak up.

-Thanks for the offer, but… I think if I have something to say, I should say it myself.

-The difficult bit is convincing myself I have something worth saying.

-Understood. And good luck.

Rotom closed the connection, and Dragon spent a moment writing a subroutine to monitor the chat in case she was contacted that way again.

Then she began hunting for enough space to store her shallow clone of the internet.

It was kind of hard to locate enough cloud storage, though. Maybe she'd have to do it one chunk at a time...


"Yep, this looks like the place! Thanks for the lift!"

Molly's Girafarig looked over. "Oh, hey, Sylveon!"

He frowned. "Is that Mr. Mewtwo with you?"

I don't think I'm a mister, Mewtwo replied. Actually, I'm not sure I have any title at all… I should look into that. I could do a degree course by correspondence, then I could be Master Mewtwo.

He stroked his chin. A doctorate in physics and a masters' degree in astrophysics… that would make me Doctor Mewtwo, Master of Space.

As he considered, Molly gathered Sylveon into her arms. "Welcome back!"

"It's good to see you again!" Sylveon replied, hugging back. "I had a really strange day."

Molly frowned. "Was it to do with crystals and stuff?"

She sat down. "I had these weird thoughts about a crystal landscape, and feeling really lonely… it was kind of like a dream, but it all came at once."

"Yeah," Sylveon replied. "It'll take a while to explain all the details, but… basically, time got altered and stuff, and it didn't get me. Then the second time it was I could feel you were a little way off, and I remembered how to do that turn-into-light thing from back when you made me."

"That only works when there's Unown crystal everywhere," Molly said, nodding knowledgeably. "Aww… that must have been really awful for you!"

Sylveon visibly thought for a moment, then went Flareon. "It was a bit scary, but it was a good thing I was there! I was able to help out… and I helped make sure you weren't lonely, which is one of the things I'm supposed to do."

"Silly," Molly said, shaking her head. "I know I made you, but you're your own Pokémon now. You don't have to do anything."

"But you're my friend!" Flareon countered. "I'm supposed to help you because you're my friend."

Molly smiled at that, and buried her face in Flareon's fur. "Thank you."

As she did, Girafaig looked over at Mewtwo. "I… hope this doesn't sound too odd, but I'm a big fan of your work. I want to go into space some day, it's amazing."

That makes me smile, Mewtwo told him. I can do a lot, but I am only one Pokémon. But if enough people want to go to space, then that is where they will all be able to go.


"There you are, sweetie," Grace said. "I'm surprised you took so long to get up."

"Yeah, so am I," Serena admitted, yawning. "I guess I must have stayed – not got enough sleep last night."

Grace frowned slightly at the word swap, but didn't comment on it. "Well, it's too late for breakfast… you'll just have to have lunch, and then clean your teeth after."

"Right," Serena said, scrubbing at her eyes. "Is there anything planned?"

"I was going to do some sandwiches," Grace told her. "I'll make you one if you want."

"That sounds great," Serena agreed, brightening a little. "And I'll do the washing up."

"It'll only be a couple of knives and the chopping board," Grace said, then smiled. "Which is why you want to do it today, of course… I'll call you down when that's ready."

"Thanks, Mom," Serena smiled. "I'll go and check if I got anything from Dawn last night… or this morning."


Back upstairs in her room, Serena powered on her computer. Blitzle came over to investigate, and she gave him a rub under the muzzle before swinging back to the keyboard.

"Let's see..." she said. "Oh, there we go!"

Blitzle looked closer, reading along with her, and she muttered to herself as she went quickly through the email.

"Michina, huh? Kind of remember that place..."

She'd read about it as a young girl, back when they'd been in Kanto, and it was kind of interesting… though not nearly as interesting as what Dawn had apparently been involved in. Dialga, Palkia and Giratina had all been present, which was a crazy list of Pokémon, and…

...Serena stopped halfway through the letter.

"Wait..." she said, glancing at Blitzle. "Have you ever heard of the Legend of the Thunder Beast?"

Blitzle shook his head.

"...guess I should have expected that," Serena admitted. "But it's pretty cool, I liked it when I read about it. There's supposed to have been this really powerful Electric-type trapped in a mountain with his friends, and when an earthquake came he blew the side of the mountain down to escape..."

She looked back at the email. "I… am I crazy? Because Dawn said there was Dialga there, and I swear that means that Ash's Pikachu was… is… probably the Thunder Beast?"

"Dear!" Grace called upstairs. "Sandwiches are ready!"

"Coming!" Serena called back.

Quickly moving her keyboard into place, she wrote out a quick reply – apologizing for not having finished reading the email, and asking Dawn whether her guess was right.

It couldn't hurt to ask, right?


Charizard's wings flared with a whoosh, and he backwinged twice to slow his movement before alighting on the slightly glassy rock outside his cave.

"Hey, stranger," Charla called from inside. "I see you're back. Funny choice to fly, though."

"I wanted to have a bit of a think," Charizard replied, walking inside with his tail held to illuminate the cavern.

"Always dangerous," his mate chuckled. "How was it?"

Charizard took his Pokéball out from the bag he was wearing, and put it on their stone bedside table. "Well, I got there ahead of time, and… loads of time nonsense happened. I think I actually spent most of a month there, though from here it'd look like… about five minutes."

"A month?" Charla repeated, getting up. "What happened? Time travel, but… what could lead you to be gone for a month? Are your friends okay?"

"That's the funny thing about it, they were gone for only about a day," Charizard replied. "After the rest of the stuff was dealt with – I'll explain in a bit – Celebi grabbed me on the way back to the present and sent me to go and deal with a tribe of ancient Charizard. About two thousand years ago, just after the eruption of Mount Blast."

"That's… odd," Charla admitted. "Why?"

Her expression changed. "Wait, hold on… the eruption of Mount Blast was when the Charicific Tribe developed Blast Burn – by copying the pyroclastic flow."

Charizard snorted. "Yeah, that's what they say… and, I guess that's how it originally went. But Celebi asked me to fix it, so it's me now."

He shook his head. "I spent weeks trying to teach those argumentative idiots how to Blast Burn… and do the mental lock thing, too. And I can see why it's around, I wouldn't trust them with it unsupervised and I apparently invented it."

"I don't think you can call that inventing it," Charla said, raising a claw.

"Well, the whole tribe learned it from me, and I didn't get it from anywhere else," Charizard shrugged. "Close enough?"

Charla poked him on the snout. "That's enough arrogance from you for now. I hope you're done with impersonating the elders of the Charicific Tribe."

"But I wasn't impersonating any of them?" Charizard asked, baffled.

"You claimed to be at the invention of the Charicific variant of Blast Burn, and you're clearly not that old," Charla pointed out smugly.

Charizard huffed, then sat down next to Charla and pulled her into a hug.

"You really haven't seen me in a month?" she asked.

"Mm-hmm," he nodded, twining his tail around hers. "But I know you saw me two days ago, so I don't want to make too big a deal about it… it might seem weird to you. And I said I'd try not to confuse you like that."

"I don't mind, you big idiot," she laughed. "So, what's this about the rest of the stuff you did in the past?"

"I did beat up a Heatran," Charizard volunteered. "That was neat."


"I knew it!"

"Serena?" Grace called upstairs. "What's that about?"

"Oh – sorry, Mom!" Serena called back. "I guessed something, so I asked Dawn and it turned out I was right!"

"Good for you, then," Grace said tolerantly. "Don't forget to clean your teeth!"

"I won't, Mom!" Serena assured her.

"And remember to give Blitzle a trot, he didn't get one this morning!"

The bathroom door shut upstairs, and Grace smiled as she shook her head.

Teens were so odd sometimes.


Delia picked up the phone. "Hello?"

"Mom?" Ash asked.

"Ash!" Delia smiled, sitting down. "It's nice to hear from you."

She frowned slightly. "Is something wrong?"

"No, nothing's wrong," Ash replied. "I just… wanted to check you were okay, I guess."

He sighed. "Sorry if I kept you up, Mom. A lot of crazy stuff happened today… we weren't in any danger, for once, but I guess everyone else was?"

"That doesn't really help," Delia replied.

"Yeah, I – I'll try and explain more fully," Ash said. "There was one of those things where we get in time travel trouble, and we had to go back in time to make sure everything… still happened, I guess."

Shaymin came in, interested in what might be going on, and Delia nodded to her as she listened.

"And… well, we got it wrong a few times," Ash admitted. "We could go back and fix it, and… but it was kind of scary, seeing these other futures – these other versions of now – where… well, where you probably weren't okay. Or around."

Delia winced.

"I… well, I know you, Ash," she said. "I wouldn't have doubted you. If I knew, which… I guess I didn't."

There was silence on the other end of the phone for a few seconds.

"Oh, uh, Dawn just pointed out I was nodding," Ash said, sounding embarrassed. "So… yeah, thanks, Mom. I just… wanted to hear your voice, really."

He paused for a moment. "I should probably get finished, Brock and Dawn want to call their loved ones too. So… goodnight, Mom."

"Goodnight, Ash," Delia replied.

She put the phone back, and sighed.

"At least now I know why I've been feeling anxious all day..."

"That sucks," Shaymin said.

Ash's mother tried not to giggle. "Somehow it sounds strange for a Legendary Pokémon to say something like that..."

"That's because telepathy doesn't work on TV," Shaymin suggested. "You have to meet us in person, even if we can communicate with humans."

She clambered up the stepladder left in place for her, and sat down on the table. "Want to talk about it?"

"Thanks for the offer," Delia smiled. "I think I will, yes."

Standing, she headed for the kitchen. "Would you like some tea?"

"Yes please," Shaymin said. "Black with sugar this time."


At about the same time, in the expansive garden of the Hale household, Suicune raised her head.

"Hmm..." she said, frowning. "I definitely heard something..."

Rising to all fours and shrugging her blanket off, she listened more closely – tilting her head slightly to get a good listen, seeking the sound which had pulled her out of her doze.

The sound of paws came through the night, thumping against the ground, but softly – and getting softer even as they got closer.

Then her mate jumped the fence in a surge of motion, landing with an earthy sound on the grass. His eyes sought her out, and he relaxed a little.

"Good," he said, sighing. "I'm… glad."

"Is something wrong?" Suicune asked, pacing up to him. "You seem troubled."

"I am," Entei replied. "It's… I want to say it's nothing, but it isn't."

"Then you can tell me," Suicune assured him. "I won't mind."

Entei nodded, and nuzzled into her. "I… had a terrible thought," he said. "Like a dream, but all at once… and it felt so real."

He stepped back a pace. "And I felt terribly alone..."

"Huh?" Raikou asked, yawning – blinking and scrubbing at his eyes with one paw every few steps as he walked up to them. "Something up?"

The Electric-type shook his head a little, trying to clear the fog, and looked at Entei. "Dad? Are you okay?"

"Seeing the two of you… I am now," Entei said, closing his eyes and dipping his head a little. "I was worried… it felt so real, and to be without you would be terrible."

"Weren't you headed to Hoenn?" Suicune asked. "I'm not trying to tell you off, I'm just… surprised."

"I'd got to Hoenn," Entei told her. "I turned around and ran all the way back… though for a moment I felt as though I were in Sinnoh, not Hoenn. It was all very strange."

He paused. "I… do you think..."

"What was your task going to be down there?" Raikou asked.

"I was going to make sure the Legendary Birds down in Hoenn were all right," Entei answered. "I'm going to be behind schedule, now, though."

"Then we'll all go tomorrow and get you back on time," Suicune said. "That's what you were getting at, right, Raikou?"

"That's right," Raikou confirmed. "Come on, Dad, if you're feeling that bad then you shouldn't spend the night alone."

"Thank you both," Entei said, nuzzling first Suicune and then Raikou. "I'm lucky to have you."


"So there was an idea I had," Cynthia said. "You're a Flying-type, obviously, so you're able to get out of the way of most Ground-type attacks, but that also means you have a little trouble going after Pokémon on the ground – at least in an arena match."

"That is correct," Lugia agreed, speaking out loud for the benefit of Spiritomb and psychically for the benefit of Cynthia.

"I have the feeling I'm not going to like this," Cynthia's Lucario said lightly.

"That's long experience," Cynthia told him. "Besides, it'll shake things up a bit."

She nodded to Lugia. "I was wondering if you could work out a variation of your Aeroblast attack which acts more like a Boomburst – a kind of spread effect attack, but not as spread as Aeroburst is. You could fire it down to cover a lot of the arena."

"I'm interested," Lugia admitted. "But I thought you were going to suggest creating an earthquake of my own by firing the attack directly down into the middle of the arena, on the grounds there's nothing down there."

"There usually isn't, but I don't think I can recommend it," Cynthia told him. "Not least because I am in charge of the local Pokémon League, and we look kind of dimly on causing massive underground explosions that might collapse League stadiums into them."

She shrugged. "But small underground explosions might work out better… just practice that somewhere else."


Tracey's pencil flew over the page as he took regular glances up, trying to capture the life of the human and Pokémon in front of him.

"How is it going?" Koga asked.

"Okay so far," Tracey replied. "We had a bit of trouble at the start with her Spinarak trying to hide, but I was able to explain that – while I could draw a picture without Spinarak in – it might not really be what you were after."

Koga nodded. "Yes, I can see the concern."

"So what I'm doing," Tracey continued, still drawing, "is to hint at the presence of her other Pokémon – Venomoth and Arbok specifically – by outlining them in the shadows of the background."

He glanced up, then back down again, and erased a few lines before redrawing them a little wider.

"I don't really get how you're doing that," Koga admitted. "I mean, I don't know how I'd even start to do it."

He waved his hand at the sketch pencils. "Janine is right there, yes, but she's not really in a pose. You're not just putting her in a pose when you're drawing, but you're making it look very lively – and that's without doing any of the things you see in cartoons, like motion lines."

"It's part of how I got started doing Pokémon drawings," Tracey replied, still glancing up every so often. "Pokémon don't stand still long enough for you to draw them – at least, not usually – so you have to get used to getting an overall sense of the Pokémon's movement and shape, then pick what you want to draw them doing and focus on that first. Then you fill in the details by looking at the subject."

He added in a tree branch to the near background, making it so it was bent slightly upwards. "So here, I'm making it so that the branch is recoiling, and there's a leaf coming off it – that suggests it was recently bearing weight, so that's where she came down from. And the cape's in a dynamic position as well, which means the eye naturally interprets it as being in motion."

After another check, he nodded. "Okay, I think that's the pencils – let me know how it looks, and I'll colour it."

Janine walked over. "I kind of want to see how it looks too – oh, that's great!"

Koga bent over the page. "What's that in the background? It looks like there are two Pokémon battling."

Tracey checked again, and blinked. "Huh… not sure why I included that."

He flipped his pencil around. "I'll get rid of that if you want."

"Hold on," Koga requested. "Is it me, or are those Pokémon larger than the nearby trees? That's a Growlithe, but that's definitely an oak tree it just knocked over, and the Houndoom is even larger."

"I… yeah," Tracey said.

He shrugged. "Sorry, I think I must have been daydreaming or something when I put it in. I'll get rid of it and touch up the background in that area – anything else I should do while I'm at it?"

Koga looked at Janine, who shrugged. "I can't see anything else to change," she said.

"Spinarak?"

The Poison-type swung over on a thread of webbing, inspected the image, then glanced at Janine and nodded.

"I can understand you, by the way," Tracey added.

"Oh, right," Spinarak said. "I forgot you're one of that group. In that case… looks good, but I think you might have got one of my legs a bit too bent."

Tracey tweaked the joint with a quick use of his eraser and a dozen decisive pencil strokes. "Better?"

"Looks good now, thanks."


"Hmm… Cilan said, leaning back in his chair.

"What's up?" Chili asked. "You know we're opening in ten minutes."

"Yeah, I know that," Cilan agreed. "I'm just wondering."

He waved. "Do you think it would be a good idea to get some themed crockery? I kind of like the idea."

"What kind of theme were you thinking of?" Cress asked.

"Oh, something like… sauces come in bowls and jugs with a fire motif, drinks and soups have a water motif, and the plates are all grass themed," Cilan suggested.

"Wouldn't that mean that plate dishes beat soups, and soups beat sauces?" Chili chuckled. "Heh, I do kind of like the idea, though it might give people a bit of a hint?"

"I think all gyms have to deal with the idea that their gimmick might become known," Cress said. "It's just something that comes about as they gain publicity."

"Cress does have a point," Chili admitted. "I don't know… I guess I'll give it some thought."

"That's all I'm really asking for," Cilan assured him. "I had this idea, and I wanted to make sure it got heard – I'm not asking for us to decide today or anything."

"Great!" Chili said with a firm nod. "Now, guys, places – we're opening in five!"


Sir Aaron nodded. "My thanks, Torkoal."

The town elder nodded back, and Aaron returned to the rest of his party.

"So we need to find the pattern on the relic fragment," he said. "Who had the relic fragment?"

"I do," Palkia answered, rummaging inside his space-expanded bag. "I knew it would be important, things that get special names always are."

"Is that why you've collected a dozen Reviser seeds?" Dialga asked.

"Yes?" Palkia replied. "You know they're going to be the solution to a puzzle at some point."

"That's pure guesswork," Giratina said. "I doubt Dad's made everything important."

"Look how it's turned out for the relic fragment," Palkia countered.

Please wait, Arceus said. Updating.

"Oh, what now?" Dialga demanded. "Did we spoil a puzzle or something?"

He shook his head. "That just seems unfair."

Not for the game, Arceus clarified. For me.

"I'm… not sure that makes sense," Sir Aaron admitted. "Is this like the Fairy type thing?"

It's similar, yes, Arceus stated. Interesting. It would seem that the situation with the Jewel of Life was resolved rather differently now; your descendant has done well. Eventually.

"Eventually?" the human-turned-Riolu asked.

There may have been more than one try involved.

"I hope that's not a bad sign… how does that even work?" Giratina asked.

Let's be honest here, I was the first creature to exist and I did not come with an instruction manual. I am sort of determining some of this as I go along.

"That sounds… new?" Dialga frowned. "I'm not sure I'm comfortable with it."

The first Creation Trio I made are kind of sworn to secrecy on a few things I did when trying to determine the limit of my powers, Arceus stated. Now, you have a quest to go on.


AN:


A breather chapter of sorts, as per usual after a big event.

I tried to go with a right triangle bracket for the chat-window stuff, but it didn't want to work that way on ff dot net.