"Why didn't we take care of this sooner?" Jessie asked, pushing the blade of her shovel into the ground.

"Because I forgot about it," James replied, throwing a spadeful of dirt over his shoulder. "But no harm done, right?"

"I don't tink Jessie's gonna be philosophical about this for a while," Meowth voiced. "Maybe in another few weeks?"

"Try months," Jessie muttered. She dug into the dirt again, and there was a faint clang as the shovel hit something.

"There it is!" James exulted. "Great!"

He nodded to Meowth. "Can you dig it out?"

As Meowth used Dig, Jessie stepped back and shook her head. "And why didn't you think of that sooner?"

"Well… you didn't either?" James pointed out, then shrugged. "I panicked?"

"That's obvious..."

Meowth threw the box up in the air, jumped out of the hole, and caught it again before it landed. Raising a claw, he picked the lock and opened it.

James snatched the letter inside, opened it, and confirmed that it was what they were after.

"Moltres!" he called, sending the Fire-type out.

The big Legendary landed on the edge of the hole, and looked quizzically at her trainer.

Putting the letter back in the box, James pointed. "Incinerate it!"

Moltres gave him a bit of an odd look, but burned it to ashes with a jet of Fire Blast that exploded inside.

"Phew," James sighed. "That was close."

The Flying-type asked something, and Meowth translated. "She wants ta know what it is. But dat's an easy question, it's dis letter proposin' to Jessiebelle."

"Hey!" James complained, as Moltres looked down at the puddle of metal that the fastenings had turned into. Then at Jessie.

"No, Jessiebelle," Meowth clarified. "Dat chick what you blew up the helicopter fleet of."

Moltres accepted that with a nod, and kicked the ashes.

"Well, I guess that's dealt with," Jessie added. "Anything else from your past you forgot?"

"I don't remember any," James said, frowning.

"Yes, well done James," Jessie grumbled. "That's the definition of forgot."

"But if I could think of any, I wouldn't have forgotten them… I think?" James asked, now sounding a bit confused.

"Er…"


"You know, all things considered, I think things actually calmed down pretty quickly," Lucario noted, as Latias, Charizard and Flygon cruised over Sinnoh in formation. "I mean, here we are, back out on a journey, and it's only been two weeks."

He waved his paw. "That's pretty short for the complete restructuring of the relationship between mortals and immortals."

"I can't even remember what was going on last time around, about this time," Gliscor admitted, slipstreaming off Flygon's wing.

That was because you went off for extra training in air battling, Dexter reminded her.

"That would be why," Gliscor agreed. "Yeah, okay, fair enough. So what was happening last time around?"

"I'm pretty sure I remember this bit," Dawn said, pointing over Latias' side. "That basin over there is full of water, and we need it to not be full of water. Right?"

"Oh, yeah, there were those Pokemon who normally had battles there to get rid of their excess electricity," Ash agreed. "Okay, I guess we should go down and land there!"

Charizard banked around, shedding velocity and height, then backwinged to a landing. He was the last one to actually touch down, as Flygon hovered down to a touchdown by the side of the water and Latias displayed her usual total disregard for avionics at any speed below supersonic.

"Right, so… okay, we need to get the water out of here," Ash summarized. "And maybe stop it happening again?"

He frowned. "So I can think of several ways to fix this… I bet you guys can too."

"I could punch it," Lucario suggested. "Or maybe Ash could try using Kari to cut through?"

"We should at least check with the local Pokemon to be sure they need help," Dawn said.

Before they could do anything else, though, there was a flash of light. A hole opened up in space about a hundred yards away, a blue-edged tear in reality, and Dialga, Palkia and Giratina came through.

The scarves around their necks, coupled with their lack of shiny colouration, heralded that they were the ones who'd come out of the GS Ball, and the friends watched with surprise as all three Creation Dragons started arguing with one another about who was going to get to sort this one out.

"Uh… what's going on?" Ash called. "Is something wrong?"

"Of course something's wrong!" Dialga told him, breaking off the argument. "This basin's full of water! We're going to be told that it has to be emptied, so we're here to empty it! But my brothers aren't agreeing with the simplest answer!"

"What, you think the simplest answer is to speed up time so the lake evaporates?" Palkia demanded. "How is that simple?"

Dialga stamped his foot. "It's better than forming a localized black hole!"

"Look, the simple solution is going to be just opening a hole into the Reverse World and letting the water drain out."

"Oh, really?" Palkia asked. "And are you going to get my help making sure the water actually falls into the Reverse World?"

"I appreciate that they're trying to help, I really do," Dawn said softly. "But I really hope they've got supervision."

Brock looked back towards Mount Coronet, and saw the Golden Wheel blink out.

A moment later, the air opened again – this time allowing out a four-legged figure cast in gold, his body encircled by a pulsing wheel of auric metal.

"...za?" Pikachu asked. "I'm sure Arceus didn't look like that the last time I saw him."

After saying that, he paused, and put his paws on his forehead. "Sometimes you just realize how crazy your life is..."

"I am here to help!" the golden Arceus announced. "I am Super-Arceus, here to solve all your problems!"

"...how long exactly did Arceus say he was in the GS ball with those guys?" Brock asked.

"Well, um… since I set out on my Pokemon journey for the second time," Ash replied. "So… almost four years, pretty much."

"Clearly too long, then," Brock summarized.


"You know how things have kept getting bigger and harder to deal with?" Pikachu asked.

"Oh – yeah, I know what you mean," Ash agreed, covering his eyes from the sun and looking down at Daybreak Town. "Especially with Legendary Pokemon."

"I hope I haven't been getting bigger and harder to deal with," Latias squeaked. "If I was I'd have to be worried about my girlish figure."

"I'm not sure that applies to Legendary Pokemon," Pikachu began, then paused. "Wait, no, hold on, we met that Snorlax once who was really fit. It must apply to all Pokemon if you can have an exercising Snorlax."

"I'm more confused about why you're a bit smaller than your twin brother," Ash admitted. "Anyway, I do know what you mean, Pikachu."

"Can that stop happening at some point?" Pikachu requested. "I'm kind of imagining that at some point there'll be an invasion of alien monsters from another dimension. How would you react to that?"

Ash thought about it for a long moment, as they started on the trail down the hillside.

"I'd probably just consider it to be nothing we shouldn't already have been expecting by this point," he admitted.

"There you go."

"We should be ready for most things," Kari suggested, from her place on Ash's belt – both blades side by side, now, though a cross-draw position had also been suggested. "Though I fear that trying to be ready for everything would be a little… strenuous."

"And impossible," Brock said.

"We've been at least able to cope with everything so far, haven't we?" his Chansey asked. "That's a good sign."

"Aren't good signs what Raikou carries around?" Buneary asked.

"No, that's wood signs," Latias corrected.

Dawn's Pokétch buzzed.

"Hold on, I'll get this," she said, and held it up. There was a crackle of electrical energy, and an image of someone who looked very much like Dawn appeared over the top of it.

"Wow, that's cool," Ash observed.

You don't react like that when I do something like that, Dexter grumbled.

"I think that's because I'm used to you doing it," Ash admitted. "I'll try and react like that next time you do something like that, how about that?"

That's better.

"Dawn?" asked Princess Salvia. "Is this a bad time?"

"No, go ahead," Dawn invited.

"Thank you," Salvia replied. "I know it's only a couple of weeks after you were involved in that dreadful nonsense on Mount Coronet, but I don't suppose we could swap at some point soon?"

"Actually, we probably could," Dawn said, thinking about it a bit. "We're just about to reach Daybreak Town, and there's a Contest hall there, so… yes, that would work."

"That's lovely," Salvia smiled.

The smile looked a bit odd, though. More like it was a picture of someone smiling.

Dawn frowned, then shrugged it off. "How long do you need to be able to sort it out?"

"I'll call again in half an hour," Salvia told her. "And – thank you, Dawn. I'm always grateful for this kind of help."

"What are friends for?" Dawn asked.

After the call ended and the image vanished, Dawn examined her Pokétch closely.

"Was that you, Rotom?" she asked. "The image, I mean."

A yes buzzed on the screen.

"I liked it," Dawn told the Ghost-type. "Thank you."

Another buzz.

"Who do you think Salvia is going to use?" Brock asked.

"Well… to be honest, I don't know," Dawn replied with a shrug. "Despite how it looks, I'm not Salvia."

Ash snorted.

"Wait, you're not Salvia?" Pikachu asked. "Since when did this happen?"

Buneary put her paws over her mouth and tried not to giggle.

"Is anyone going with you, Dawn?" Chansey asked. "In case you get into trouble, I mean?"

Brock's Zorua jumped out of her Pokeball, and landed as a Furfrou. "I could go! I actually kind of enjoyed it last time, and Furfrou are supposed to be royal guardians or something."

"I think that's because of their extra-thick fur," Ash replied, frowning. "You know, they can block attacks and stuff. But if you blocked an attack you'd just get revealed as a Zorua… and it'd hurt."

"I could block a Psychic attack," Zorua replied, unfazed. "And anyway it's all about the excuses for me to be there."

"If it's about excuses, Togekiss would be good," Dawn mused. "But I think Salvia might prefer to have the opportunity to use Togekiss..."

She shrugged. "We'll have to work it out."


"Your name?"

"Jesselina," Jessie said promptly.

"Ah, yes," the organizer realized. "I heard about your Contest yesterday down in Jubilife. You're going through them quickly!"

"I haven't been able to compete until just now," Jessie explained. "I'm trying to rattle them all off quickly."

"I'm sure we'll enjoy it," the organizer chuckled. "You're registered, good luck!"

Jessie moved on, and the next contestant came up to the desk.

"Oh, I recognize you as well," the organizer said. "...wait, though… haven't you won five ribbons already?"

"I don't know what you mean," Salvia replied. "I've certainly not got five ribbons."

"Really?" the woman asked. "I've definitely seen you at the Wallace Cup, and I think there were enough other wins..."

"Maybe she just looks a lot like the person you're thinking of?" Zoey suggested.

"I hear it happens," Zoey agreed.

The organizer blinked, looked from one Zoey to the other, and focused for a moment on the little name badges they were wearing as brooches. One announced that the Zoey in question was Zoey Miz, the other that she was Zoey Noz.

"...that all seems to be in order," the organizer decided. "What name would you like to be under?"

"Dawn," Salvia said.

The organizer frowned, then looked up at the two Zoeys. This time she went to the extreme of reading their name badges under her breath, just to confirm that they were the same first name, then shook her head.

"If you're wondering about her Pokemon," Zoey Miz added, smiling. "Yes, that happens too."

"I met someone who looked a lot like me and had a Pikachu as his main Pokemon," Ash volunteered. "Twice. At least, I think it was twice… maybe Arnold has a Pokemon by now. And if he does it's probably a Pikachu."

Just to complete the explanation in case the lady had any questions, both Zoeys simultaneously sent out their Mismagiorum.

"Goodness," the organizer said. "Well, it's nice to meet you, Dawn. Even if you're not the Dawn I was expecting!"


"It feels like ages since the last time we went to a Contest," Brock observed. "I know it hasn't been that long, but so much has happened."

"You're not wrong," Chansey agreed, adjusting her seat position slightly. "Which is why Ash is over there trying to get out of an autograph session."

"He is?" Brock blinked, then looked.

True to form, Ash was surrounded by over a dozen Contest-goers who were all holding up pads of paper – some of them with pens as well – and Brock could hear him trying to ask them to let him through so he could get to his seat.

"I wonder if this is some kind of karma for how many spots we're taking up in the stands?" Lucario mused. "It's not like there's anywhere else for Pokemon specifically to sit."

He looked at the Pokeballs on Brock's belt. "I mean, what would that even look like? How would you build seats that could accommodate a Steelix, a Heatran or a Flygon without having lots of wasted space if they were being occupied by, say, a Pikachu?"

"Flygon isn't actually that big," Brock replied with a shrug.

"I know, but I had to mention three or it wouldn't have had the right flow," Lucario replied.

He looked back towards the stage as Ash finally extricated himself from the well-wishers, and closed one eye. "Oh, here we go. Looks like Jessiebelle is first."

"Go!" Jessie called, holding up her Pokeball, and her Yanmega erupted out of the ball with a flash of sparks and did a loop-the-loop in midair. "Tailwind!"

Yanmega's wings buzzed, and wind began to swirl around her.

"Something about that seems odd..." Ash said, leaning forwards a little to look.


Down on the stage, Yanmega buzzed her wings faster. She used Silver Wind, just a touch of it leaking out into the air around her mouth, and it formed a kind of glittering stream out behind her – spreading and diffusing so it formed a kind of 'scarf', before losing definition entirely and spreading into the air.

Then she circled and flew down, speeding up as she dropped lower, until she was flying directly at Jessie.

The crowd gasped, but Yanmega slowed again until she stopped moving just before touching Jessie.

Her wings were still working, and she clearly wasn't hovering in place – the Silver Wind whipping out behind her was the obvious sign of that – but her forwards speed was exactly counteracted by her backwards Tailwind, holding her balanced in place between the two high-speed forces.

Jessie curtseyed to her Bug-type, then began to walk across the stage. Yanmega followed her, but rather than just flying along beside or behind her trainer the big dragonfly banked around to the side and adjusted her Tailwind to match.

Now the Silver Wind acted like a spirograph trace, speeding outwards in the grip of the Tailwind to outline the movements Yanmega had made. A circle and a half clockwise, then the same thing again counterclockwise, followed by moving up so she was flying straight down and yet not moving at all.

Jessie kept going until she'd walked in a slow, stately circle, and a complex interwoven basket of Silver Wind dust surrounded her and Yanmega. Then she clapped her hands once, sharply, and a Sonicboom pulsed outwards and dispelled the whole tracery at once.

Yanmega also abruptly stopped flying in the same moment, cutting her Tailwind just a second or so later, and shot up nearly to the roof before doing a loop and slowly coming back down to land.


"I think I get it," Luxio said, tail flicking from side to side in interest. "So the trick there isn't that it was big and explode-y and flashy, it's that it showed really amazing control to be able to do that."

"That's what I think is going on," Pikachu agreed. "Good spot. And I especially think it's interesting that her hair isn't mussed – that's good control too."

"Oh, yeah, good point," Luxio agreed.

Jessie left the floor and was replaced by Zoey Nozumi, and there was a wave of water from a Splash Seal as she sent out her Lumineon.

The Lumineon used Whirlpool, whipping up a little mini-waterspout of water before it could actually hit the stadium floor, then wove in Icy Wind to conjure a bowl to swim in. That was just the start, as it began making great jumps to do flips and mid-air whirls before landing again with a splash in a newly made water-pool larger than the one it had left.

"Oh, I wanted to ask," Luxio added, as they watched the watershow. "She kind of reminded me of it, anyway. How much is this kind of thing… normal?"

"Normal?" Pikachu repeated. "Well, I think Contests are fairly normal… but that's not what you meant, of course."

"It's not," Luxio agreed. "What I meant is – well, out there is someone who's one of two people, when before there was just one of them. And there was that weird memory effect thing, where things were happening right in front of me and I couldn't remember them."

He licked his paw. "And then there's, um, the thing with the return of Arceus the Creator to the world in glory. So… is that normal?"

Pikachu considered that, though they both looked up when Lumineon hit a descending Water Pulse with an Aurora Beam and made it explode into a light dusting of snow.

"Is there a theme for this?" Lucario asked from one seat over, as Lumineon blew two more Water Pulses to bits with Psybeams. "It reminds me of something."

You are probably thinking of Handel's Water Music for the Royal Fireworks, Dexter supplied. Think of it as an eighteenth century mashup.

"To answer your question, Luxio," Pikachu resumed. "The last few months have been kind of eventful even for us. I don't think Ash could go more than three months without something seriously eventful happening to him, and usually the first time we go to a new region something happens more than once a week, but this has been unusual."

He shrugged. "As for the memory thing, I don't remember any other one of those happening."

"Ouch," Luxio said, giving Pikachu an unimpressed look. "Did you have to do that?"

"Well, no, but I wanted to," Pikachu replied. "You have to admit you walked into that one."

Luxio chuckled. "I suppose so."

"So, hold on, I just want to clarify this," Lucario said. "Was there ever a piece of music called the Water Music for the Royal Fireworks?"

More than a dozen Water Pulses went flying into the air at once, and Lumineon began bursting them in precisely aimed pairs. Water Gun, Signal Beam, Aurora Beam… the last two were nearly to the water, and then burst by themselves with a sudden plume of steam.

Lumineon jumped out of the now-quite-large pool they'd made from water and ice, flipped seven times, and landed back with a splash.


Salvia smiled as she walked out onto the contest floor, and did an elegant curtsey to the judge's table.

"All right, Togekiss," she said softly. "Let's begin."

When she threw the Pokeball there was a flash of light and a cloud of smoke, the Seals around her Pokeball going off with a soft shff, and then Togekiss emerged from the smoke and did a three-hundred-and-sixty-degree roll. Curls and eddies of smoke followed her before twisting off under the force of her spin, sending a wide ring out to frame her emergence, and she rose to hang in the air before dropping back down towards one of her trainers.

"Aura Sphere!" Salvia instructed, making sure everyone in the stands could hear it as well, and Togekiss went sweeping past her with a curl of golden light trailing around her before flying far up to the top of the Contest hall.

Blue light focused together to form a ball of Aura, then Togekiss fired it down towards her.

Salvia raised a hand, and the golden light that Togekiss had been shedding focused around it. Suddenly the light formed into an avian shape, with a pair of brilliant wings, and the Aura Sphere bounced off and curved back towards Togekiss.

Togekiss rolled, knocking the sphere back towards Salvia, then accelerated around in a complete loop so this time she was the one knocking it back upwards as well. More of her Sky Attack trail built up around Salvia, and the princess stepped forwards before beginning an elegant dance.

That set the rhythm, as Togekiss danced and looped around in a vertical figure-of-eight. When she looped down she knocked the Aura Sphere back up, when she was at the crossing point she sent it back down, and when she was at the very apex of her climb she focused the trail of her Sky Attack and used it to help Salvia return the Aura Sphere herself.

That all required precise coordination, and Salvia helped out by giving Togekiss alerts about what she was doing. She announced each move before she made it, so Togekiss knew whether to aim left or right, forwards or back, and each time it bounced back to Togekiss the Aura Sphere got a little more tightly contained – staying spun up and coherent, instead of falling apart.

Finally, Salvia did a twirl, and all the streamers of Sky Attack energy focused together under Togekiss' control. They went flying upwards as Togekiss herself pulled up into a stall and dropped into a dive, and the Flying-type attack pierced the Aura Sphere just before it would strike Togekiss.

The explosion of blue and gold sparks that resulted hid Togekiss from view entirely for a moment, and when they faded it was to reveal the Fairy-type balanced – nose down – atop Salvia's outstretched hands.


"Neat," Luxio pronounced, as the applause began. "But can I check something?"

"Yes, Togekiss is the one that's hers," Pikachu confirmed. "It's a nice routine. I think there's some of Ambipom's influence there as well."

"Actually, I was going to ask how Togekiss got Sky Attack to do that," Luxio clarified. "I didn't know you could do that with it – and I know I've seen a lot of odd ways to use Pokemon moves since joining up with Dawn, but..."

"Oh, right," Pikachu realized. "And no, that's unusual but it's not impossible – obviously. The streamers are the trick, Togekiss was using those to keep it connected to her. It's not really a useful battlefield trick yet, though."

"The important word there is yet, isn't it..."


At about the same time and some distance away, Dawn listened to a request from one of the petitioners.

"It sounds interesting," she said, once he was done. "But I'm not sure at the moment. If you could provide a hard copy version to consider fully, and I'll get back to you at the earliest convenient time?"

"But of course, Your Highness," the man agreed. "Should I just give it to you, or…?"

"Either myself or my secretary," Dawn told him.

Smiling pleasantly, she wondered how Salvia was getting on.


Buneary Bounced on the floor, adding a bit of a Blaze Kick as well as she sprang into the air – just to give her a nice bit of takeoff flare – and flipped over once before using Ice Punch. A big spectral fist of ice punched downwards at her opponent, but Zoey's Lumineon retaliated with a Psybeam that splintered the ice and robbed the move of much of its impact.

Undeterred, Buneary used a Fire Punch with her other fist, letting her juggle herself with a backflip, and flicked out with a Thunderpunch as well. Lumineon had had enough time to drop out of attack range, though, and splashed back into an ice-fenced water pool before moving straight on to the next one.

Salvia frowned, considering, and as she thought Buneary landed in front of her

"You have a water attack?" the Princess asked quietly, and Buneary nodded. "Then let's try this – combine it with your fire punches."

By way of reply, Buneary shot a Water Pulse straight up in the air, then launched herself with a Bounce. She kicked off with enough force to nearly overtake the Water attack, and as it slowed down on approaching the apex of the climb Buneary was still rising.

She lashed out with a Fire Punch, deliberately focusing it for a bit longer than normal so the flaming energy didn't blossom out until it was inside the flying blob of water.

The resultant explosion sent orange-lit droplets in all directions, but more importantly for Buneary all those droplets were trailing a haze of steam – and the blast itself launched her off in a different direction entirely, down towards the ground but much closer to Lumineon's current location.

A Signal Beam flicked out, refracting through one of Lumineon's own Water Pulses to cover the whole area Buneary was about to land, and she sent another globule of water rising upwards just before she Bounced.

Lumineon aimed a Psybeam at her next, and Buneary slammed her fists together with Thunderpunch on both of them to create a dazzling cloud of sparkling electricity that attenuated the impact of the attack. Then she was close enough to her previously-fired Water Pulse to hit it with an internally-exploding Fire Punch as well, and more steam and mist began to fill the hall as trails of steaming water rained down all over it like the sparks from a fireworks display.


Lucario nodded. "Oh, I see now. Royal fireworks."

"Pardon?" asked someone in the row behind him. "How does that explain anything?"

"Ssh," Lucario admonished him.


Landing with a thump, Buneary skipped to the side before sliding along and punching upwards against one of Lumineon's ice bowls. Her fist pulsed with Ice energy as she did, forming a giant Ice Punch, and the water froze even as the bowl shattered – sending a shower of rapidly freezing droplets rising into the air, a sparkling white counterpart to the steamy blasts of a moment before.

Lumineon landed in the next bowl over, shooting a beam through the side of the bowl at her, and she jumped into the air while firing a Water Pulse. That exploded into steam as well as she targeted it with an expanding Fire Punch, and hot droplets rose into the air in a shower before dropping back towards the ground.

Buneary kept going, twisting herself into a whirl in mid-air like Piplup did with his Whirlpool – only her one whipped fire around her instead of water.

Intense at first, it quickly unravelled as she lost control of it… but that was just fine, as the increasingly diffuse cloud of flame heated the air in the upper part of the Contest hall just as the repeated Ice attacks from before cooled down the lower part.

Dropping back down again, Buneary took a hit from a Signal Beam and landed badly. She converted the impact into a roll that didn't hurt too much, but it still meant she had to brake to shed her momentum before kicking an ice bowl apart and hitting the water inside with an Ice Punch.


"That's new," Ash said, interested, as the mist and steam settled out more and more – forming a kind of rippling, diffuse layer that took on increasing definition as Buneary kept moving below it. "It kind of reminds me of something, but it's new."

"Buneary and I got the idea from Lucario's flying dragon move," Pikachu informed him. "That's an artificial weather condition."

"What, like fog?" Brock asked.

"I was going to say, I didn't see anyone use Rain Dance or Sunny Day," Luxio noted. "What do you mean, weather?"

"It's called an inversion," Pikachu elaborated, then pointed as Buneary came springing out of the cloud layer as if she were emerging from water.

She punched both to the left and to the right, sending bursts of flame in both directions, then did a forwards flip and vanished back into the mist as Lumineon jumped out.

"The idea is that there's hot air above cold," he continued. "It's one of those things where you work it out and then leave it alone until you realize there's a good situation for it."


Salvia glanced at the points and the clock, and frowned slightly.

Buneary was winning, but only slightly, and the clock was ticking down rapidly. Then Lumineon was out in the lead as Buneary took a hit on one of her jumps – then Buneary fired a steam-infused Water Pulse which burst in the air just near where Lumineon was about to emerge-

"Time to finish it!" she decided. "Back to Thunder!"

The hard thing about being a Coordinator in this sort of situation was being not entirely sure what Dawn's Pokemon could do.

There was a wham, then a crash, and Lumineon jumped into the clear air again and did a graceful flip. The cloud roiled, though, and no sooner had he plunged back into the mist bank than he was knocked upwards again.

There was a sudden crackling chirp of Thunderpunches charging up to full power, and the mist layer quickly cleared out around where Buneary was. The static electricity leaking off her fists electrified the droplets, driving them away from one another in less than a second and giving the impression of an explosion of clarity coming out from Buneary, and she hesitated for just a moment before springing up into the air.

Cloud trails swirled and eddied around her, some forced away by the electrostatic force and others flowing in behind her as the inversion started to collapse, and then she spread both her paws wide.

Lumineon readied a Signal Beam, and as he fired it two giant electrical paws clapped closed around him and there was a bang.


"Nice work!" Pikachu called.

"Are you Contesting vicariously through your girlfriend?" Lucario asked.

"...there's no answer to that I can give that leaves me coming out of it unscathed," Pikachu admitted.


"I thought that went great, Salvia!" Ash told the Princess, once the Contest was over.

"Thank you," Salvia replied, looking back at the hall. "I have to say, the competition has certainly become more ferocious since the last time I took part in one."

"That happens," Pikachu assured her, and waited for Dexter to translate before turning his attention to Buneary. "And I thought you did really well as well."

"I'm a little bit bitter about how it ended," Buneary said, shaking her head and making her ears flop about. "I feel like I should have won that last one."

"It was very close," Luxio told her. "I could barely keep track of either of you."

"I really thought you had her on the ropes," Lucario added solemnly. "Until, that is, she suddenly burst into flame and turned into a giant Ninetales made of fire that almost blew the roof off."

"I'm still not entirely sure I understand how she got that from an orange jumpsuit..." Pikachu mused. "Still, I thought it was great."

"Thanks," Buneary smiled. "And this just means I need to plan for something like that in the Grand Festival."

"That's the spirit," Brock told her. "Now, Salvia, how soon do you need to be back?"

"I have a few hours, I think," Salvia said. "I'd rather get back as soon as I can so Dawn doesn't have to take over for me for too long, but it's more of a 'like to' and less of a 'need to'."

"In that case, what about if I make a celebration dinner?" Brock suggested. "I picked up some sausages, pasta, broccoli and pine nuts in town, so I was thinking of making a big pot of those and adding some sauce."

Salvia thought about it, and smiled.

"That would be lovely – and very different from the more formal meals at home. Thank you so much for making me welcome, all of you."


A long way away, Ritchie Getem closed his eyes.

He reached out a hand to help him focus, and called upon his psychic powers. At first they came slowly, but then they strengthened until suddenly the object he was holding tore itself apart into a dozen pieces.

"Want some?" he asked.

Sparky used his own psychokinesis to float a Sitrus segment over and began nibbling on it.

Wasn't there some kind of speech about how you weren't supposed to use psychic powers for trivial things? Ritchie's Raichu asked, using telepathy because his mouth was too full.

Ritchie shrugged. "I always decided that what that meant was that you weren't meant to just use them for stupid things," he replied. "And this is training, anyway."

He gestured, and half the remaining Sitrus segments squeezed together. Juice flowed out into a glass, and once they were done he took a sip.

"I can't remember. We're doing the Johto league this year, right?" Sparky asked.

"You should know, you did two of the gym battles," Ritchie chuckled. "And yep, that's the plan."

He pushed himself upright. "I'm feeling full of energy, I think I'll see if Fortune wants a run. Going to come with me?"

"I'll finish my lunch," Sparky decided, snagging another one of the Sitrus segments. And then see if Zippo will give me a lift to join you.

"Well, you'll know where to find me," Ritchie decided. "See you later."

He felt a rush of warmth-companionship-humour from his Raichu, and returned the mental caress before sending Fortune out. The big Rapidash materialized already standing on the stone path, and struck it with his hoof.

"Oh, come on, Fortune," Ritchie groaned, looking at the broken paving slab. "You know people hate it when you do that..."

I've got diamond hooves, Fortune shrugged, then his horn lit up with a corona of energy and he lifted Ritchie into place on his back. You said something about a run?

"All right, all ready," the trainer chuckled. "Let's get going."


Further away than that, Keldeo looked up in surprise as a voice called his name.

"Keldeo!" Virizion called. "Do you have a moment?"

"Sure, coming!" Keldeo replied, closing his eyes for a moment to use his Aura Sight and confirm where the Grass-type was.

That done, he sped up quickly – trot-canter-gallop – then took off with a blast of water that lifted him fifty feet into the air. That took him above most of the boulders in this part of the Moor of Icirrus, and he landed on one before springing back into the air and boosting himself to the next.

Four jumps later and he was landing in a great shower of water right next to the other three Swords of Justice.

"What is it?" he asked. "Is there danger? Pokemon in trouble? Pokemon causing trouble?"

"Nothing like that, Keldeo," Terrakion assured him. "That's why Virizion asked if you had a moment, instead of telling you to come quickly."

"Oh, right," Keldeo realized, snorting slightly. "Sorry. I guess that does make sense..."

Cobalion smiled slightly, then sobered. "Keldeo… we have talked it over, and there is something we all think we should say to you."

"Uh oh..." Keldeo winced.

"Is that a guilty conscience?" Virizion teased.

"Not really, just that whenever someone says something like that it's generally bad news," the Water-type replied, trying to defend himself.

"Have no fear, it's all good news," Cobalion said, then sighed. "Keldeo, it has taken us a while to really process what you told us about what happened at Spear Pillar. It was all so…"

"Big," Terrakion supplied.

"Big, yes, that's the word," Cobalion agreed. "It's hard to get my head around. But now I have – now we have. And there's something we'd like to say."

He knelt, and the other two did the same.

"Uh..." Keldeo began, confused.

"Thank you, Keldeo," Cobalion said solemnly. "From all of us."

"Good work, little guy," Terrakion agreed.

"You have made us all truly proud, beyond what we could easily express," Virizion completed.

They held their pose for a moment longer, then Cobalion and Virizion straightened.

"Little help here?" Terrakion asked, wiggling a little but not rising back to all fours. "I don't really think I thought this through…"


Further away than just about anyone could have suspected, Mewtwo slowly relaxed.

I am no longer maintaining the atmosphere field, except for my own personal bubble, he declared. Open all the internal doors and let's start the checks.

"Testing," M-001 announced, then made an affirmative sound. "Atmosphere is holding up."

Good, Mewtwo stated. Good work. Now let's turn on the generators.

Generator power initiating, Dahak reported.

There was a thump that resonated through the floor. Then another, then another, as twelve banks of generators came online one bank at a time.

"Main power is functioning according to parameters," M-001 said. "Positive_response_4."

We should really make sure you get a proper positive response for that one, Dahak observed.

"Viewscreens on," M-001 added, its Mew avatar spinning upside down and hovering in place for a moment. The little virtual Pokemon spread both paws, and then the space around Mewtwo darkened – before flashing into a blaze of starlight that surrounded him and the two AI avatars.

A great forbidding mass of orange and white cloud hung off to Mewtwo's left, accentuated by a baleful red eye – as if the whole of the base, and the whole of the moon within which it was built, had become perfectly transparent.

Yes, this seems like it will work, Mewtwo thought softly. Is the Infinity Generator ready?

"Infinity Generator ready for scheduled full power test," M-001 agreed, then tilted its head. "Query: What are you going to use for a test?"

In reply, Mewtwo turned to Dahak. Please caret Themisto for me.

Themisto careted, the Porygon confirmed, putting a little blue bracket around the small Jovian moon. Are you really going to…?

Don't worry, Mewtwo reassured him. I'm going to put it back again.

The whole of Callisto Base hummed slightly as the Infinity Generator powered up, and Mewtwo raised a paw.

Then he snapped his fingers, and instead of an almost-invisible dot the caret was suddenly indicating an enormous rocky mountain that seemed to hover just overhead.

It was there for ten long seconds, then vanished again.

"Infinity Generator powering down," M-001 said. "Opinion: test was successful."

Yes, it most certainly was, Mewtwo concurred. I think we can call that phase done.

Next step on the agenda: installing a cafeteria, Dahak opined. Otherwise we will not be able to do a proper press event.


AN:


If I want a whole plot reference to Anne McCaffrey's Pegasus In Space, then I don't care what anyone says I am going to write one.

Also, something something Handel on the best way to do a contest.