"...I just realized something," Ash said.
"Oh?" Pikachu asked.
"Well, that battle we arranged with Paul is today," Ash clarified. "Latios is ready for it, and so are the others… but it just occurred to me that I don't think we actually decided where the battle was going to be."
He waved at the lake in front of them. "When we had that chat, I kind of thought it'd be here that we'd have our battle… but that was based on how we got here about the right time last time around. But Paul doesn't know that."
"...and now I feel stupid," Pikachu muttered. "Well spotted."
"I think we all feel a bit thick," Brock said. "So… what do we do now? What do you even do in this situation?"
"We should go and let Paul know somehow," Dawn answered. "That's the right thing to do. I guess the problem is… more in knowing how to do it…"
"Does Absol have an idea?" Lucario suggested. "She can redefine disaster, maybe she can redefine it to 'making Paul upset'."
"I don't think that's a good definition to use," Buneary mused. "From what I remember, it was quite easy to upset Paul, and not battling with him is just one of many ways."
"That's fair," Lucario agreed. "She'd have to come up with her own definition. But I think it's still feasible."
"Worth a try," Ash agreed, and sent Absol out.
The Dark-type landed with a quiet tik of paws on stone, and looked around.
"...sorry, what was it you were asking?"
"Where Paul was," Ash repeated. "Because we don't know where he is to contact him for the battle we had scheduled."
"Well… isn't he just over there?"
Absol pointed, and the others followed her paw towards Ash's region-specific rival – currently leaning on a wall, looking out over the lake.
"...oh, yeah, so he is," Ash admitted. "Well… I guess that's time travel for you?"
He shrugged. "Thanks, Absol, I think we might have been kind of stuck without that."
"Pleasure," Absol replied, stepping out of the way of the others so they could head in Paul's direction.
"Ash," Paul said. "I was wondering when you were going to turn up."
"Weren't you worried that we wouldn't find you?" Dawn asked. "Ash forgot to set a place as well as a time."
"I assumed that was because of something to do with time travel," Paul replied. "It looks like I was right."
"That is a good point," Brock said. "You've got to admit, we did end up finding the right place."
Paul pushed himself up off the wall. "So. How should we..."
He paused.
"Wait. So. How have things been for you recently?"
Dawn blinked. "Are… are you attempting small talk?"
"Is something wrong with that?" Paul asked.
"Not really, it's just kind of unexpected," Dawn replied. "It's actually nice to hear, really… but, well, it's been kind of a big week. Or, a normal week with a non-normal day."
"We went back in time again," Lucario explained. "Four times."
There was a brilliant flash, and Heatran appeared.
It waved.
"Also, Brock recruited a Heatran," Ash said. "I… don't think we asked your gender?"
"I'm a boy," Heatran said.
"Right – well, Brock fought him a couple of thousand years ago, and he was interested enough to wait around for him."
"...you don't do normal, do you?" Paul asked. "I was hoping for some kind of answer about a Contest or something."
Ash shrugged. "Sorry."
He frowned. "Oh – I was going to ask. I know you want to battle a Legendary Pokémon, but what rules do you want apart from that? Like, do you want it to be a full battle, do you want me to use Latios first or last or somewhere in the middle?"
Paul thought about that for a long moment.
"I'd like to be able to use at least four Pokémon, but I don't mind if it's four or six," he answered. "And I don't mind where you use Latios, so long as I get to fight him and I don't have to just fight him."
"Right," Ash nodded. "And do any of the Pokémon you're thinking of using need the water to fight properly, like a Kingdra or something? There's a lake here so we could do it there."
"I don't need the water," Paul replied. "But I don't mind if it's there."
"Maybe we should ask Misty for advice, this is getting complicated," Brock suggested.
"Aren't you a gym leader too?" Ash asked.
"Well, apparently I don't have the right type speciality," Brock said. "Though, actually – Heatran, how do you feel about getting wet?"
"So long as it's in small amounts, I'm okay with it," Heatran replied. "I'm not strong to it, and it reduces my heat, but I've got quite a wide internal temperature range."
"Is this relevant?" Paul asked.
"No, sorry, just went on a tangent," Brock apologized.
"So, basically… you don't care where it happens, or how many Pokémon as long as it's more than three for you and includes Latios as well as other Pokémon for me," Ash summarized. "I guess that means we should probably have the battle fairly near the lake, to give more tactical options… Dexter, is there a good place to have a match around here?"
Engaging map mode, Dexter replied, his projector emitting a burst of light. There is a good location around the side of the lake, where there are several hills a short distance from the water.
"That does sound good," Ash agreed. "What do you think, Paul?"
Paul nodded.
"Hey, Paul!" Reggie called, waving. "And your friends! Nice to see you found us, Paul was pretty sure you would."
He jogged over, accompanied by an Azumarill. "So, have you guys decided where to have your battle yet?"
Dexter flashed the marker on the map he'd projected, and Reggie nodded. "Right, that's about ten minutes away by the looks of it."
"Is the Azumarill new?" Dawn asked.
"Huh?" Reggie said. "No, he's been around a few months now. I'm seeing how he handles fighting underwater, Paul doesn't have many Pokémon good at that and another is always helpful – he might come up against Misty one day."
Paul raised a hand. "...you mentioned Misty earlier. Is that the same Misty Reggie's talking about?"
"If you mean the Elite Four member in Kanto-Johto, yeah," Brock nodded. "We're proud of her."
Some minutes later, the group were all set up – in the hilly terrain Dexter had pointed out, with both trainers in the low section where two small valleys met just in front of the lake.
"Should we move up to the higher ground once we get going?" Ash asked.
Paul shrugged.
"I'll take that as a yes," Ash decided. "Okay, I'm not going to lead with Latios, just so you know… and I was thinking we should go with five Pokémon."
"Fine," Paul stated.
Ash took the first Pokéball off his belt, then paused – looking out over the lake. "Kind of a pity the Lake Trio can't watch..."
"Yeah," Brock agreed. "We'll find them some time."
Paul looked moderately interested.
"It's Team Galactic," Dawn explained. "They did it."
With that non-explanation, the topic of conversation largely went away.
"Anyway," Ash said, after a moment. "Ready, Paul?"
Paul held up his first Pokéball.
"Go!" Ash went on, and sent out Buizel.
His Water-type emerged from his Pokéball and did a flip forwards onto the ground, then saw his opponent was Paul's Torterra.
Torterra snorted and charged, and Buizel took off in a gout of side-scatter water as he used Aqua Jet. That got him clear of the charge in less than a second, but Buizel kept boosting upwards until he was at least fifty feet in the air before reducing the force of his jet-boost.
Flicking a Water Pulse down, Buizel began steering a wide path around his opponent to keep out of easy attack distance.
"Hm," Paul frowned. "Giga Drain."
Beams of light flashed up from all over Torterra's back, rising up in green streams which twisted around and reached for Buizel. The Water-type tilted over and banked around, speeding out over the lake with the streamers of energy-sucking light following him, then cut his jet and plunged into the water as cleanly as a knife.
The Giga Drain splashed into the water behind him, tinting it green, but with so much lake to spread through it couldn't do anything to Buizel. There was a tense pause of a few seconds, Torterra taking a few steps away from the water and turning to get a better angle, and as he did Ash headed up to the top of the short hill nearby.
The pause was ended by Buizel, bursting out of the lake again with cold water clinging to him, but this time there was much more water in his jet than he'd started the battle with. His takeoff was slower as well, encumbered by the amount of water he was dragging along and the limits he had on how much thrust he could produce, and Paul frowned slightly.
"Giga Drain again," he said. "Let's see how he reacts to that."
Torterra nodded, sending a second blaze of green streamers into the sky.
"And get ready to use Stone Edge," Paul added.
The Giga Drain approached Buizel, the dozen or so independent streamers spreading out with the ones further away from him moving faster and the ones headed directly for him lagging back a bit. They formed a globe, surrounding Buizel and keeping pace with him, then on an unseen signal all came flashing in at once.
Buizel's Aqua Jet froze into ice with a flash of blue.
The icy shield deflected every last one of the Giga Drain streamers, sending them scattering off and dissipating, and a flash of steam a moment later signalled that Buizel had used Scald to melt the ice back into water – followed by a sudden shriek as Buizel accelerated considerably, turning the mass of the water he'd brought with him into reaction mass to both reduce his weight and increase his thrust.
"Stone Edge!" Paul called, and Torterra triggered the already-prepared attack – ripping stones out of the soft ground and slamming them together, forming a single connected rock weapon which he flung towards Buizel.
It fractured again as it got close to Buizel, splitting apart into a dozen-odd fragments to increase the area of the attack, and Buizel froze himself a sharp icy tip at least two feet long to act as his leading edge. The spiked edge poked through one of the gaps, deflecting the bits of Stone Edge away from it – though by the time Buizel did make it through Torterra had had time to react, and more Stone Edge stones were floating up into the air to obstruct Buizel's progress.
"Aqua Jet Rock Climb!" Ash said very quickly, and Buizel did just that – jack-knifing around, shedding the last of his carried-over water as a way of dropping his momentum, then bounced between one rock and the next to use them as waypoints for changing his trajectory.
The stones of the Stone Edge went flying in all directions as Buizel kicked them away, a few of them abruptly halting as Mewtwo caught them and settled them gently to the ground rather than let them go too near someone, and Torterra watched with a frown. It was too hard to keep track of which way Buizel was going at any given moment, so he didn't know if the swift Water-type was going to go high or low, left or right, when he finally got out of the Stone Edge swarm-
-and on one of Buizel's bounces from one stone to another, he flicked out a Water Pulse which slapped the stone aside just before he reached it. Suddenly he was out of the stone cloud, and slapped half-a-dozen Rime attacks out in the space of less than a second as he blasted past Torterra's tree.
"Leaf Storm!" Paul snapped.
Torterra blasted out a cloud of leaves in all directions, shaking off the effect of the icy-water attacks he'd been hit with, and Buizel jinked upwards while spraying supercooled water around him in a rapid spiral. A wall of frost built up around Ash's Pokémon, stopping and snap-freezing all the leaves which might have hit him, and he burst out into the air without taking more than one glancing blow right at the start of the attack.
"Okay, Buizel!" Ash called. "Winter Smith!"
"That's not an attack," Paul frowned.
Buizel seemed to know what Ash meant, however. He sped up, using Hydro Pump simply to add to the amount of water he had to work with, and the continual bright blue flare of Ice Beam accompanied it – but he was shedding water as fast as he was adding it, sending it out in waves which hung in the air before slowly drifting downwards.
An ice-crafted shape began to slowly form at the top of Buizel's rocket system, oblong and bulky, and Paul frowned.
"Is that it?" he asked. "Some kind of big ice hammer attack?"
Torterra set his stance, digging into the ground with his feet to make sure he wouldn't be knocked away by the expected hammerblow.
Then Buizel flipped over, and flung the hammerhead down towards Torterra.
"Hyper Beam!" Paul called.
Torterra unleashed a beam of golden light, smacking into the hammerhead, and blew it to bits – sending powdered ice everywhere, and producing a shockwave which knocked everything else back a bit from the epicentre of the explosion.
Buizel blurred right down to ground level while everyone was blinking from the flash, and fired an Ice Beam. It lasted less than a second before he used Aqua Jet to boost to the side, but that was enough for the attack to freeze a startlingly large chunk of Torterra – the ice spreading over more than a third of his shell – and Buizel's next Ice Beam snapshot was just as effective.
"What – the water!" Paul realized. "It was all supercooled!"
Torterra raised a foot to ward off the attack as Buizel fired a third Ice Beam – this one completing the process of freezing Torterra in place.
Paul scowled, clenching his fist.
"Torterra, just a bit more!" Reggie called.
Paul looked like he was about to complain, but stopped – and, as Buizel slid to a stop to admire his work, Torterra's foot slammed down again.
Buizel was decidedly unready for the Frenzy Plant which knocked him into the middle of Lake Acuity, but the effort seemed to be too much for Torterra and the Grass-type passed out a moment later.
"That was a pretty good battle," Ash said, recalling Buizel once he floated back to the surface. "Your Torterra's as tough as ever."
Paul nodded briskly, paused a moment, then nodded again – more slowly the second time. "Yes," he said. "We should move on to the next Pokémon."
"Right," Ash agreed, getting his second Pokéball ready. "On three?"
Paul nodded, retrieving his own Pokéball. "Three, two, one, go."
He threw, and Ash threw at the same time.
With a flash of white light, Paul's Gliscor emerged from his 'ball into the air.
Opposite him, Ash's Gliscor did the same.
"Oh, hey!" she said, waving. "Boss! How's things?"
The male Gliscor did a double-take, aborting the beginnings of a swooping pass and turning it into a baffled hover. "Wait, hold on a moment… oh, damn, that's your trainer, isn't it?"
"Yep!" the female agreed. "I've been going around with him for a while – only a bit longer than the time since you got caught, but it feels like a lot longer."
Gliscor turned to his trainer. "Can I not? His Pikachu managed to shock me and I'm immuneto the Electric-type – I hate to think what it's going to be like fighting a Pokémon who should theoretically be an even match for me!"
He whirled back to her. "You have some way of making Ground type attacks hit me, don't you?"
"Well, I do plan to sandcast and coat you in enough bulky sand to weigh you down," Ash's Gliscor said. "But that's not the only thing I had planned."
"What's he saying?" Paul asked.
"I… well, he and Pikachu had an argument before you met him," Ash explained. "He lost, because Pikachu managed to get him with a Thunderbolt."
Paul stared for a moment, then put his face in his palm. "He doesn't want to fight, does he?"
"I do want to fight!" Gliscor replied. "Just not against her!"
"We can treat this as no score for either of us," Ash offered. "I think Gliscor would be fine against anyone else…"
"That sounds good," Paul said. "So the next Pokémon we send out will count as our second Pokémon?"
"That's the idea," Ash agreed.
Overhead, one Gliscor led the other to the side.
"It's good to see you, Boss, but you do seem to have taken it kind of hard," Ash's Pokémon said. "I mean, sure, the first time you get blasted by Zappy or Electrobreak or whatever it is it's kind of a surprise… and sure, you were comically arrogant about the whole situation, but still!"
Shaking his head a little, Paul checked his next Pokéball was the right one before drawing his arm back.
"Go!" Brock called, deciding it was his turn this time, and Ash's Pokéball flew into the air first – sending out Gabite, who landed just as Paul bounced his own Pokéball off the ground.
Paul's bulky Ursaring emerged in a flash, and roared. "Okay! Who's going to get beaten up today!"
Gabite waved.
Ursaring bent down a little, inspecting the Dragon-type, and considered for a moment before nodding. "Yeah, you'll do."
"I'll do?" Gabite repeated, tilting his head a little.
"Yeah, beating up little Pokémon is fun and all, but one tough enough to matter is more impressive!"
"Bulk Up," Paul instructed.
Ursaring roared again, a red glow infusing him with power and strength as he flexed his arms back. Then he attacked, Slashing at Gabite.
The Dragon-type jumped back with a huff of effort, flipping over once before landing with his claws and knee spikes digging into the ground. He tensed, then blocked a second Slash with one clawed arm – his other arm counterattacking in the second half of a Dual Chop, though Ursaring avoided more than a few shaved hairs.
"Take this!" Ursaring bellowed, kicking out at Gabite – the force of the blow knocking the Dragon-type away.
Gabite twisted, making sure he wouldn't land badly, and halfway through the landing he let out a blast of Draco Meteor – though his aim was off, sending a jet of orange light rising high into the air and out of sight.
"I, uh… 'scuse me," Piplup requested, and returned to his Pokéball.
"You missed!" Ursaring laughed. "That's actually kind of funny, that looked like a pretty powerful attack!"
On the last word, he surged forwards again – this time using a Hammer Arm attack, aiming to slam Gabite into the ground so he couldn't dissipate the force.
Gabite dodged to the side, using his claws for grip, then dove underground with a Dig. He moved quickly, only staying underground for a few seconds, then burst out of the ground again and swung his tail around in a Rock Smash.
"Agh!" Ursaring roared, retaliating with a snarl and an Ice Punch – an attack which Gabite was forced to take, ice starring over his forearm. "You'll pay for that!"
"Huh?" Gabite asked, a little confused. "I thought we were having a Pokémon battle. Fighting kind of happens in a Pokémon battle."
He charged up a Draco Meteor again, and held it for a moment before firing – but the attack went wide as Ursaring dove to the ground, the glowing orbs of orange light shooting off into the distance.
"I win battles," Ursaring insisted, rising back to his feet and producing a Seed Bomb. "Anyone else is cheating!"
"That doesn't even begin to make sense!" Gabite said, avoiding the first Seed Bomb and taking a glancing blow from the second.
The third he knocked back with his tail to make it explode in Ursaring's face, which made the Normal-type really mad.
"How can you grow as a Pokémon without taking the occasional defeat?"
Everyone looked at Pikachu.
"What?" Pikachu asked. "Why are you all looking at me?"
"Mostly what Gabite said," Buneary replied.
"Come on," Pikachu groaned. "That wasn't a dig at me."
"No, but you have to admit it's relevant," Lucario said.
"I have to admit no such thing," Pikachu replied, crossing his arms. "And I lose occasionally. It's taught me a lot. Largely about not letting Lucario use me as a projectile."
"Note to self, work on excuses file," Lucario muttered.
"I heard that!"
Gabite's clawed arm slammed into Ursaring's fist, a Metal Claw giving him at least some protection against the Ice Punch that Ursaring threw his way, and Gabite used Dragon Pulse – aiming it down at Ursaring's torso, trying to blast him away.
The force of the attack was much less than it could have been, Gabite's attacks weakened by his repeated use of Draco Meteor, and Ursaring snarled before forcing Gabite back a step and using Fury Swipes.
The Dragon-type avoided the worst of it, dodging quickly and keeping an eye on both of Ursaring's arms to make sure he wasn't caught by surprise. Then he saw another Ice Punch coming, and used Flamethrower on his own claws – heating them quickly, letting him take the impact of the Ice Punch without too much of the cold getting through to his rough skin.
"Why don't you just hold still so I can beatyou!" Ursaring bellowed, kicking out and knocking Gabite sprawling – his tail making him topple over awkwardly, doing a somersault down the hill before sliding to a halt.
Gabite replied by inhaling, readying another Draco Meteor, and Ursaring just stood back for long enough to let the attack shoot off into the sky before advancing.
"Ursaring," Paul called. "Focus. Just finish the battle."
"I'll finish the battle all right," Ursaring grumbled, then raised his fist. It glowed orange, charging up for a Focus Punch, and Gabite used Dig – vanishing into the ground.
"RRRAAAAH!" the ursine Normal-type bellowed, jumping into the air and landing an Earthquake, and Gabite came back out from underground with a shout of pain.
"Got you, you little-" Ursaring began, but before he finished Gabite broke into a run – firing his last Draco Meteor, this one into the lake, before halting and resting his weight on his arm blades.
"What was that for?" Ursaring demanded. "Are you making fun of me?"
Gabite shook his head. "Nope! I'm doing my best to beat you, because that's how you show you're taking a fight seriously!"
Ursaring growled warningly, raising his arm, then stopped.
"...why is the lake glowing orange?"
Gabite dove underground. "Incoming!"
Half-a-dozen golden meteors came bursting out of the middle of Lake Acuity in a shower of spray, boring in towards Ursaring at speed.
At about the same time, streaks of golden light came down through the sky from three different directions at once – the Draco Meteors Gabite had launched earlier, hurtling back towards the target he'd set back when he fired them, and all timed to arrive inside the same two-second interval.
The Normal-type nearly vanished inside the overlapping orange explosions, and when he emerged from the smoke cloud he stood there – one arm raised to shield himself from the blasts.
"Ouch," he wheezed, then toppled over like a felled tree.
Paul stared for a long moment, then reached out his Pokéball and returned Ursaring.
"...interesting trick," he said.
"Yeah, it took a bit of work," Ash replied. "It was based on how Gabite's Draco Meteor gets weaker, so it doesn't fire as far… and how his one seems to home in, which is kinda odd."
He shrugged. "It started out going for Dawn's Piplup, but we've mostly stopped it doing that..."
"I wonder if Ash is going to let Paul know when he's planning on sending out his Legendary Pokémon," Dawn said.
"Well, Paul has to know it's coming some time," Brock replied. "And… oh, hold on. I think Paul is going to know either way."
"Huh?" Dawn asked, then looked closer. "Oh, yeah, I forgot Latios has a Cherish Ball."
"Go!" Ash called, throwing the blue Cherish Ball out in a practiced motion, and Latios burst out into the air with a flash of white light – which was accompanied a moment later by a flash of blue light, as Latios adjusted his feathers to turn invisible.
"Weavile," Paul replied, his own Pokémon appearing in a cloud of icy dust.
"Oh, hey, that looks like a seal," Dawn noted. "I somehow didn't expect that, but I can see how it would give a genuine tactical advantage to a Pokémon like that."
While she spoke, Weavile dropped into a crouch. He looked around the area, then back at his trainer.
"Invisible," Paul explained.
Apparently considering that enough explanation, Weavile nodded once before breaking into a run – moving fast and erratically, in a way clearly intended to make it hard for an invisible Pokémon to hit him.
"Use Swift," Paul added, and the Ice-type flicked his wrists twice. The first one conjured a dozen glowing yellow stars into being, the second sent them sailing out in all directions.
There was a splash out in Lake Acuity, and Paul pointed towards the shoreline – his decision confirmed only a moment later, as the yellow Swift shuriken began curving towards the water and expending themselves on the surface. Weavile reacted as quickly as his trainer, pausing only for a moment to change direction before springing out towards the water's edge.
Another set of shuriken appeared between his claws, this time glowing a bright blue, and Weavile threw them one at a time directly at the water. Each of the cold-infused Ice Shards detonated with a quiet crash, creating a small splash-circle of ice, and Weavile jumped from one to another as he moved – creating footholds for himself as he moved out onto Lake Acuity.
Ash shaded his eyes as he looked out over the lake, then covered one with his hand.
"What's that?" Paul asked. "Why are you doing that?"
"Aura users with the right skill can look through solid objects, and see the Aura beneath," Lucario explained for his trainer. "It's easier if you don't have regular light to see through the same eye, though."
"Right," Paul said, absorbing that – including the fact that Ash could tell where Latios was, even if he was underwater, invisible or both.
The water rippled a little as Weavile moved along it, then suddenly surged upwards – a triangular wave appearing as Latios moved underwater at high speed, his wake forcing the water up and away in a peculiar pattern.
Weavile reacted by jumping straight up, getting height and distance from any possible attack, then flicked two ice shuriken together under his feet as he reached the apex of his jump. The short-lived splatter of ice that resulted gave him a new jumping platform, and he used it to do a second jump – then a third – keeping him entirely airborne, and out of range of an unnoticed approach from below the water by Latios.
The Dragon-type reacted to what he could see of that with a new approach, and the water of Lake Acuity churned as Latios did an underwater wingover. Bursting out of the lake, he fired a cone of Dragonbreath in front of him before swooping through it with a sudden increase in speed.
Latios' trick swept up the green Dragonbreath in his wake to make a smoke-ring structure out of burning dragonflame, then he braked abruptly – and fired a Dragon Pulse, shooting it through the hole in the ring as it went right past him and kept going.
Faced with the ring if he dodged and the pulse if he stayed, Weavile opted to dodge – blurring out of position with startling speed, and managing to avoid all but a glancing blow from Latios' attack. Using another pair of shuriken to jump in mid-air, Weavile focused for a moment before slinging out an Icy Wind from each hand – the wind attacks forming in lines out from the paths of his claws, sweeping in towards Latios in a long trail.
Ash's Pokémon stood on his tail and climbed out of the way of the attack, reapplying his cloak as he did so, and Weavile dropped – plunging straight into the lake in a swallow dive which made barely a ripple.
Dawn blinked. "Okay, I'm… not entirely sure I'm following what's going on here, but I guess that's expected when a stealth fighter is duelling a ninja."
She glanced sideways at Brock, then shrugged.
"Hey, Latios!" Ash called. "Remember not to break the lake!"
"That's not a huge concern here," Latios called back. "But thanks for the reminder, I'll keep it in mind."
As he did, Paul frowned. "He's psychic, right? That's why I can understand him?"
"Yeah," Ash agreed. "It's a good habit to get into – Brock and Dawn can understand him anyway, but if he doesn't speak psychically then other humans can't understand and if he doesn't speak out loud then Dark-types don't understand."
The water bubbled a little.
Ash looked back, then blinked. "Latios, watch out!"
Even as he spoke, a swarm of dozens of Swift stars broke out of the water. They all went homing in on Latios, who reacted by generating a Light Screen shield – one which easily absorbed all the attacks, but which also highlighted his position in a succession of bright flashes.
"Okay, so that's where he is," Latios decided, scooting a little closer, and fired a powerful Psywave attack – a plane of psychic force slapping into the water, pushing it down but only pushing Weavile with the water that was right next to his fur.
"Not the Swift!" Ash added. "Look out!"
Either side of Latios, the water surface exploded upwards.
Bianca chuckled to herself.
"What is it?" Latias asked. "Something up?"
"I was just thinking," Bianca explained. "About how good the town planners who built Altomare must have been. The secret garden's been here for at least a century, and as far as I can tell it's never so much as been noticed."
"It is kind of invisible," Latias pointed out. "You know, there's an illusion."
"Sure," Bianca agreed. "But that's not the only way to find something. It's not on the maps either, though, and those maps do show stuff here instead – it's just that it seems like it always hints that anyone coming down a street should find the end of it where they actually do find it, while actually showing it inside where the garden should be."
"That does sound complicated," Latias admitted. "Is that something you've been reading about?"
"Not recently," Bianca shrugged.
She looked up at the tree she was painting, then added a few brush strokes. "I remember trying to find another way into the garden years ago, and following the map and being really confused. I think I just put it all together and realized how well hidden it really was."
After another adjustment, Bianca put her paintbrush down. "Okay, I think that's about done for now… I'll come back to it later and see how it is."
"Looks pretty good to me," Latias supplied, inspecting it.
"How's your brother doing, by the way?" Bianca added.
"Well, you saw his last big date..." Latias giggled, then shrugged her shoulders a little. "I'm not really sure how he's getting on other than that, though, I can check?"
She frowned for a moment. "Oh, apparently he's a little busy right now."
The lake echoed with a continuous kra-kra-kara-kraaaash sound as Weavile's attack unfolded, trails of ice rising up out of the water all around Latios and crossing over ahead of him.
Weavile used Agility, flickering from his spot in the water over to one of the ice trails, and ran up it in a series of high-speed jumps.
"Special technique!" he declared proudly. "Eight Dragons Avalanche!"
The trails twitched once, then began raining ice down on Latios from all directions. Most of the shards missed, but they just crashed into the water instead – raising plumes of water from the impact points.
The ones which hit were deflected away somewhat by Latios' shield, but it wasn't set up right at first – and in the time it took for him to adjust, several of them battered it down and broke through, hitting him hard.
Weavile capitalized on his success by jumping off the top of the construct and riding a shard down for an Icicle Crash, and Latios finally got his wits about him enough to react the way he should have from the start – accelerating hard, shooting out of the focus point of the Avalanche attack and making for a gap in the ice.
Paul's Pokémon adjusted his technique so it closed the gap, and Latios replied with a Zen Headbutt – disdaining subtlety to just smash his way right through the ice wall, wincing at the chill.
He flipped end-over-end, looking for a moment to get an idea of where Weavile was, then fired a Luster Purge attack into the middle of the dome. Without Latios having gone Mega, it wasn't as powerful as it could be, but it was still an extraordinarily powerful Psychic attack – and when it detonated it shattered Weavile's entire dome into diamonddust, blasting it away and suddenly revealing Weavile's position as his hiding place disintegrated.
The water was no sanctuary either, as the same blast forced it away in a transient crater. Weavile winced, pulling out more Ice Shards to make it difficult for Latios to get close, then blinked as he saw where Latios was going – up, avoiding close contact with Weavile in favour of staying clear to get overhead.
Then the transient crater closed, forcing up a spike of water from the middle, and Weavile was knocked further into the air by a sudden waterspout from a direction – below – he hadn't been guarding against.
Latios caught him out of the air, then pulled up – accelerating hard, pulling around in a wrenching turn that left Weavile struggling and scratching to escape. A Night Slash made the Dragon-type wince, but he held on until he was through his loop and headed right for Lake Acuity at high speed and low altitude.
Then he let go, and Latios and Weavile slapped into the water a moment apart.
"...ouch," Dawn said faintly. "I think I felt that from here."
There was a long moment's pause, and then Latios surfaced again – carrying Weavile.
"I think he's out cold," he reported.
Paul considered for a moment, then nodded. "I'll bring him back and send out my next Pokémon."
"You can say who it is, Paul," Reggie pointed out. "Ash isn't going to switch out, right?"
"No," Ash confirmed. "Unless you'd rather I did?"
Paul shook his head. "No."
He held up Weavile's Pokéball and recalled the Ice-type, then switched to another Pokéball. "I'm using my Ninjask."
"Heh, two ninja Pokémon," Dawn chuckled. "It's kind of funny, that."
"There are quite a lot of Pokémon with a ninja theme," Brock agreed. "More than those two, anyway."
"Do you have a Shedinja as well?" Ash asked. "I know Nincada evolves into both Ninjask and Shedinja."
Paul shook his head.
"Yes you do," Reggie said. "Remember? That was last month."
"You caught him, not me," Paul replied. "I caught Ninjask as an adult, you caught Shedinja. They're completely different."
Ninjask emerged from his Pokéball.
"I wish to correct my trainer, shameful though it is," he said. "It so happens that the Shedinja who has been captured by my trainer's esteemed brother is my huskmate. It was an interest of his to ensure that we remained able to fight together, if the opportunity arose."
"Huh, that's interesting," Brock said. "So… what's it actually like having a huskmate? I mean, you started out being the same Pokémon, presumably…"
"From what my huskmate has said in discussion, we started out being the same but diverged very rapidly. We are still close, however."
"I guess we should just start whenever," Ash said. "Since Ninjask is already out."
Brock raised his arm, then brought it down. "Go!"
Ninjask immediately flew off, moving fast enough to leave a visible trail, and Paul watched as his Bug-type zipped low over the water – tracing a pattern in ripples, and not moving straight and level for more than a second or so at a time.
Latios wicked off the last of the water from his earlier dunking, then stealthed – accelerating as he did, but with his exact path a mystery once his light-bending feathers had rendered him functionally transparent.
After a few seconds, Ninjask swerved up and to the right, and two greenish scythes flickered out for just a moment – a Fury Cutter attack, which didn't seem to make contact with anything. A ripple pulsed though the air a moment later, a psychic distortion which looked like it had just missed Ninjask.
"So, I was wondering," Reggie said, sidling over towards Brock. "Is it that you get taught to help referee matches as part of becoming a Gym Leader, or is that just you?"
"Well… I think they give you the basic classes," Brock replied, shrugging. "But I didn't have to."
"Why's that?" Reggie asked, interested.
"Well, I told the people doing my training course I was the oldest of ten siblings, and they said I'd already qualified," Brock answered.
Reggie chuckled.
Paul only half-heard the conversation, most of his attention on trying to keep track of the battle.
At first glance, there was just Ninjask fighting against nothing – his greenish Fury Cutters flicking out momentarily almost like switchblades, or a darker Night Slash lancing out ahead of him before he turned it off.
But, as the tempo of the battle climbed and climbed, Ninjask's Speed Boost letting him set the pace, other clues started to come in. The distorting effects of the occasional Psywaves Latios was using were a start, and anything else Latios was forced to resort to would give a bigger clue of his position, but there was also the vapour trail – the air was still lightly misted from Weavile's battle, and Latios was clearly moving fast enough not just to disturb the mist but to force some of it to condense out into a more obvious path.
It was starting to become clear that Ninjask was the more manoeuvrable Pokémon, though his advantage was slim – his lower weight was the key there – but Latios was still hard to see, and was still a well-trained Legendary Pokémon as well.
Then there was a sudden white shock, and a moment later the WHAM of Latios breaking through the sound barrier reached the trainers. The initial blast was replaced a moment later by an ongoing rumble, and Paul refocused – realizing that the blur of green and yellow that was Ninjask was a lot further away over Lake Acuity than he'd expected… and moving a lot faster, as well.
"Mewtwo?" Ash called.
On it, Mewtwo replied, his hands outstretched and a shimmer around them both. Sorry, I should have realized we'd need sound deflectors.
"It doesn't sound any different!" Paul said, speaking more forcefully than normal to be heard over the rumble.
"It's for the people who live around here!" Ash explained. "Sonic booms are kind of loud!"
Latios twisted around, his body glowing faintly with psychic energy as he pulled himself into a sharp banking turn.
Going this fast meant he was losing the advantage his stealth gave him, but it was still something he needed to do – Ninjask was a tricky target, and while the Bug-type wasn't quite as fast in a straight-line sprint with his Speed Boost finally topping out it still meant he could chase Latios closely.
If he had his choice, Latios would have flown off to get distance before turning to come back on an attack run, but it would have taken miles and miles of flight to get enough of a lead… and it would have only given him one shot, anyway.
Just as he lined up on Ninjask to fire a Psywave, the Bug-type turned sharply – cutting across his path, avoiding the Psychic attack and getting close enough to score a thin line down his flank with a there-one-moment-gone-the-next Fury Cutter blade.
Latios used Aerial Ace, trying to return the favour, but by the time he had his air-blades in place the swift Ninjask was free and clear.
It was frustrating, even after fighting his sister – Ninjask was agile and hard to pin down, and it was becoming clear that a major problem Latios had in this situation was simply that he had trouble attacking in a direction that wasn't mostly in front of him.
"Latios!" Ash called, as Latios braked hard – briefly dropping subsonic, avoiding a surprise attack Ninjask had somehow managed to line up. The Fury Cutter cut air, and Latios turned to rocket over to his trainer.
Wondering how many times Ash had already called, Latios squeaked a reply. "I'm coming past!"
"Counter Shield!" Ash instructed. "He can see you anyway!"
"Right!" Latios called, whipping past the trainers and making a wide banking turn. His speed rose again as he did, and he dove slightly so the boom of his transsonic shockwave sounded just as he crossed the Lake Acuity shoreline.
Deciding on what attack to use, he charged for a moment and then used Dragon Breath. The stream of greenish flame that shot out from his mouth whipped back, trying to dissipate in the wind from his high speed flight, and then he caught it and wrapped himself in a broad cloak of emerald flame which would make things much more difficult for Ninjask to hit him with a Fury Cutter.
Naturally, it was only then that Latios discovered Ninjask also knew Bug Buzz.
"I guess your brother's still busy?" Bianca asked.
"Yeah," Latias agreed. "I gave it a few minutes, but now all he's saying is words I didn't know he'd learned."
Bianca hid her mouth. "I didn't know you'd learned any of those kinds of words."
"I'm a tearaway," Latias said with a giggle. "Latios always says he's the more responsible one. I bet he didn't hide invisibly under bridges trying to hear what tourists will say…"
She shrugged. "Well, I guess we can just find out!"
Latias started sight-sharing.
Latias stopped sight-sharing again.
"...okay, question answered," Bianca decided.
Latios banked to the right, dodging away from an intense red beam of weaponized sound.
"That's just annoying!" he grumbled, as the attack rose a plume of water to his left. He turned into the plume, hiding for a moment, and got a brief glimpse of the high-speed Bug-type behind him – a pair of glowing Fury Cutters now permanently out, looking like wicked swept-forwards wings, while his antennae glowed red and fired out Bug Buzz pulses whenever he had anything close to a good target.
Rolling, weaving, plunging briefly underwater to brake, and finally trying his reserve trick of banking left and telekinetically moving right, Latios kept just one step – or buzz – ahead of Ninjask, but he couldn't see a way to bring this to a victory. The Bug-type was just too manoeuvrable, and also too quick to be decoyed by Latios' attempt to undershoot.
Shooting out a Draco Meteor, Latios snatched the meteors up in his telekinesis and orbited them for a moment before shooting them all back at Ninjask.
The very moment he sent them flying, Latios heard a series of buzzing zzzaps of Bug Buzz, intermixed with frantic buzzing sounds and the occasional shwing of a Fury Cutter.
Latios judged the result of his distraction based on the sound, and decided that it would do – so he sped up hard, banking through a ninety-degree turn and sending a rooster-tail of water flicking into the air from his wake. He powered towards the shore, shedding his Dragonbreath, then intensified his shield to maximum.
He knew he was out of his depth, and he needed some more of Ash's advice… which meant-
Ash winced as Latios lithobraked to a stop in front of him.
"Ouch," he said, looking at the long trail of torn and compressed earth Latios had left – half skid mark, half tunnel. "Uh – are you okay?"
Latios dispelled his shield, and shook his head to clear it of a faint ringing sound.
"I'm fine!" he replied. "Any ideas?"
"Right!" Ash said, glancing up at Ninjask.
"Over here," Paul called, pointing.
"Good tactics," Lucario noted. "Kind of a jerk move, but good tactics – I can't really fault it."
"Stop complimenting the opponent," Pikachu chided. "It's bad for solidarity."
Ash spoke over the top of them. "Okay, so really quick – Luster Purge, middle of the lake, straight down. You've got more mass."
Latios frowned, trying to make sure he understood what Ash meant.
"Look out!" Ash added, and Latios rose vertically into the air as Ninjask tried to hit him with an X-Scissor.
Arcing from his landing site by the lakeside, Latios flew to a point near the middle of Lake Acuity – a little over a hundred yards up – and used Dragonbreath. His psychic strength caught it, wrapping it around him in a refreshed Counter Shield, and a shield sprang up as well – and the Dragonbreath kept coming, until the combined defensive layer was too thick to see through.
Ninjask buzzed around it in a circle, shooting off Bug Buzz attacks and unwilling to get too close, and Latios dodged up-down-left-right-roll-pitch-yaw to make sure he avoided as many of the beams as possible.
Then he used Luster Purge again, his shield opening at the base and letting out a stream of green Dragonbreath to accompany the attack.
It shot into the middle of Lake Acuity, and for a moment that was that – until it detonated.
And lots of water came soaring up into the battlespace.
Latios dropped his shield and surged into motion, flying straight down into the water – his streamlined form cutting through the odd, foamy mixture with greater ease than his normal swimming. After a moment to adjust for the turbulence, he pulled up and flew around in a half-circle – emerging at the edge of the splash plume, invisible once more.
Ninjask had had no way whatsoever of following him through the plume of mingled water and air, and couldn't observe him coming out from the water to regain a sense of where Latios was, either. That meant that the Bug-type was, for the first time in the battle, unsure of where his opponent was.
That moment was enough, and Latios rose back over the shadow of the dissipating plume with a fully-charged Dragon Pulse ready to fire. Ninjask tried to dodge at the last instant, but too late, and Latios followed up with a Steel Wing to make sure he'd managed to knock his opponent out.
"...that's probably going to make the news," Reggie said, as the water finally rained out of the air. "Are your battles often like that?"
"Shouldn't you know that?" Dawn asked. "A lot of them made the news too."
"I don't know how many don't make the news," Reggie pointed out.
He glanced at his brother. "Latios is coming back, and he doesn't look like he's in a hurry this time. I guess that means Ninjask is out."
Paul nodded. "Yes."
He held up his Pokéball, waiting for Latios to get closer with his assumed cargo, then returned Ninjask as soon as he had a good line to do it.
"You know, you could try Shedinja," Reggie suggested. "I'm not sure Latios has a move for that."
Paul considered, then shook his head. "I don't think it's worth it. And Ash has two Pokémon left."
He looked up at Ash. "Are you going to keep Latios out?"
"I was thinking I wasn't, actually," Ash said. "Latios has had a pretty hard battle so far, and I know both Swellow and Staraptor have been bugging me about getting a battle… I guess I'll just have to pick who to go next."
"Then I know who I'll use," Paul declared, reaching for the last Pokéball on his belt.
"You didn't pick that Pokémon because you knew Ash was going to use a Flying-type, right?" Reggie checked. "That'd be okay, because Ash said it, but it's kind of… sketchy."
"I already picked him," Paul countered. "I'm not going to cheat."
Having stopped listening when Ash confirmed that he wasn't in the next battle, Latios sank to the floor.
He hadn't taken all that many hits in the battle, as such – not strong ones anyway – but it had been a very intense combat, and his feathers ached a bit from all the violent manoeuvres.
"I'm going to want some advice on off-bore firing," he said. "Probably from Dexter? But not right now."
With that, he turned his attention to his twin-bond.
Sorry, Sis, I was kind of busy. What was that?
"Have you decided yet?" Paul asked.
"No, sorry," Ash replied. "It's kind of… Swellow and Staraptor have a similar type of fighting, but they approach it really differently. So it's a tricky choice."
He weighed both Pokéballs, then flipped one into the air. "Go!"
Swellow appeared with a flash, did a flip, and a bang echoed around the area. "All right! Let's get this started!"
Paul blinked. "I… why did that explode..."
He paused, took a deep breath, and let it out. "Okay. I'll send my Pokémon out now."
True to his word, he threw his final Pokéball, and Magmortar emerged.
"Hey, I've got a question?" Staraptor said, coming out of his own Pokéball. "How come her and not me?"
"Luck," Ash replied. "Kind of the fairest way to do it, really."
"That's antidisestablishment, that is," Staraptor groused, wings on his hips.
"It's not," Pikachu corrected. "That's not what antidisetablishment means. It means being opposed to removing an official religion."
He flicked an ear. "I read a book with it in. And I don't think the official religion is Staraptor."
"I guess you slipped up there," Swellow chuckled. "Steer clear of real words!"
"Are we going to battle now?" Paul checked.
"Oh, right, that," the Swallow Pokémon added, flying out to hover over the lake shoreline. "Bring it on!"
"Should I do this one?" Dawn asked, got a nod, and held up her hand. "Right, then, begin!"
Swellow rolled and dove, levelling out close enough to the lake surface to just gently kiss the ripples with her wingtips, then swerved and pulled back up again. Magmortar's flaming attacks whipped past, one of them exploding where she'd been, and another going off close enough to send embers scattering around Swellow's flight path.
She pulled up in an Immelmann turn, going up-and-roll-and-down again at a higher altitude, then zipped around Magmortar to make sure he couldn't just stand there and blast her – forcing him to keep turning to fire off his Flame Burst attacks.
Dipping a little more, Swellow opened her beak and let the pressure build up – then banked sharply in, passing though the fringes of a flame explosion, and unleashed her Boomburst.
The force of it slowed the Flying-type noticeably, and she peeled off to the side before hammering the air with her wings to regain attack speed – noting with satisfaction that Magmortar had been forced backwards a step by the pressure wave impact and looked a little worse for wear.
"Mix in Rock Tomb," Paul instructed.
Magmortar's next shot was a brightly glowing ball of stone rather than a simple fireball. It flew forwards and cracked, light shining though the cracks, then exploded in a fragmentation blast that sent small bits of hot rock whizzing through the air.
Swellow weaved her way through the blast without taking any hits, and turned her head so she could keep a better track on what Magmortar was doing. Keeping an eye on where his cannons were pointing gave her an extra fraction of a second to respond, letting her get further away from his aiming point when he actually fired.
Swerving hard again, Swellow flicked out an Air Slash at her opponent – then a second one a moment later, fired a little faster than the first so they would meet up and strengthen one another. Then she pulled up, wings whirring as she built up speed like a homesick meteor, and wrenched herself around into a dive.
Magmortar raised both mortars to point upwards at her, flinging fire and flame at her diving form – then adjusted a little, aiming a succession of Flame Bursts to explode at the same height not high over his own head. The continual explosions made a wall of flame which Swellow would have to pass through… so she flapped once more, folded in her wings, and did.
And used Boomburst.
The shockwave blasted away the flame in a shotgun-spread pattern, and Swellow hit Magmortar with a Brave Bird attack – one which knocked him staggering several steps, but which also sent her tumbling off before she managed to restabilize herself and cancel out of the spin.
"Okay, not doing that again in a hurry," she muttered, banking around, and did a big barrel roll to make herself a harder target – keeping her speed down this time as she came in for the attack, partly to make herself manoeuvrable and partly so she could bounce off Magmortar in a succession of quick Aerial Ace attacks – no one of them hitting the big Fire-type hard enough to trouble him, but coming so quickly on top of one another that Magmortar was reduced to shooting flame at himself and trying to fend her off that way.
"Use your secret weapon," Paul instructed. "Thunderbolt."
Magmortar lifted his arm, trying to line up a shot on Swellow, and used Thunderbolt.
"Bad move," Pikachu noted, with the voice of experience.
Swellow swerved sharply left as she saw the attack fire off – not to avoid it, but to get right into the beam.
Most of the second half of the Electric-type attack hit her, fizzing over her immaculate feathers and unable to gain any real purchase. Denied a way to discharge, it flowed over her instead like a Thunder Wave – and as it did, Swellow only got faster.
She pulled up and around, both speed and strength heightened by the very experience of fighting against near-paralysis, and a rippling cone of shock cloud formed around her for the barest moment before she hit Magmortar with a head-on Facade at maximum speed.
This time she knocked him into Lake Acuity, raising a hissing cloud of steam from his last-ditch attempt to rocket out of trouble.
Feathers still fizzing a little, Swellow flew down to land on Ash's outstretched arm.
"Quick as a flash, huh?" Ash asked. "That was a pretty appropriate end to the battle."
"I still think you should have let me punch him!" Staraptor muttered, from Ash's other arm.
"Hey, it wasn't your turn, it'll be your turn next time," Swellow shrugged a wing. "You'll get over it. Or you'll get all petuleagle about it."
"...just don't even try, you're no good at neologistics."
AN:
As previously scheduled, Ash v. Paul.
Paul's not good at this "socializing" thing, guys. He is putting in some effort though.
