Not long after Ash got his second Orange Gym Badge, they went to an island where a Snorlax was eating everything in sight.

Or, everything in smell, since it had its eyes closed all the time.

Still, there was an obvious solution.

"That was a great battle!" Ash announced. "And I caught Snorlax!"

He glanced at the Pokéball. "It's a good thing I sent Shaymintwo back to the lab, otherwise Professor Oak would be being surprised by a Pokémon it's kind of hard to cook for."

"And you're worrying about that now?" Misty asked. "When have you ever been concerned about that before?"

"Hey," Ash protested. "He liked the Dratini."

"Is this the first time you've actually captured a Pokémon by fighting them, Ash?" Tracey said.

"I think… actually, no, there was Caterpie," Ash replied, thinking. "Who turned out to be Mew. And then there's Clefairy."

"Who may well turn out to be Mew," Pikachu muttered. "Still haven't caught her out yet, but I'm suspicious."

"So that's still sort of a milestone," Tracey decided. "What are you going to do with Snorlax, Ash?"

"It kind of depends on what kind of thing Snorlax wants to do," Ash replied. "But I did have this idea for how to make him a good battling Pokémon…"

"I think we should be worried," Misty suggested.

"...so the idea is that you kind of focus energy, but you use it for more speed!" Ash said, on the beach that evening. "It's like the feeling you get when you start running, right?"

"That's right," Pikachu agreed. "There's that kind of surge you get when you start moving, but you sort of… spread it out over your whole body."

"And there's a kind of muscle burn, too," Lapras contributed. "That's how I could tell I'd got it right, because that feeling kept going… and once you've set it up, it just keeps going,"

Snorlax yawned. "It sounds like a lot of work."

"Well, learning it kind of is?" Ash said. "But then once you've done it it means you save energy – Pikachu can move a lot further without getting tired when he is using Agility than when he's not, and Lapras doesn't get tired all that quickly either. So you'd kind of be able to get around with less effort."

"Well, I was right," Misty said. "If this works it's going to be… something."

"You think it might not work?" Tracey asked, sketching away – outlining the shape of Lapras' head, then Pikachu, before starting to work on Snorlax. "From what I've seen so far, and certainly what I've heard, Ash does tend to achieve what he sets out to do."

"Oh, just hoping that maybe for once it wouldn't be that bad," Misty replied airily.

Zorua sniggered, then looked around as Charizard slammed into the beach. He went about six feet down, whirling through a Drill Run, then burst back out of the sand again.

Fortunately he was far enough away that no sand sprayed over anyone else, but Zorua was interested and loped over to see what was going on.

"What are you doing?" he asked, tail flicking from side to side. "It looks fun!"

"Just making sure I've got this move just right," Charizard replied. "There's a way you're meant to angle your wings, when doing this, and I really want to make sure it's just perfect."

He landed next to the Dark-type. "See, it occurred to me… when I use Drill Run, I go into the ground, right?"

"Seems like!" Zorua agreed. "Could just be a trick though!"

Charizard snorted. "Right. But I don't actually stay underground, I have enough momentum that I keep going and drill out a space I travel through. So… I'm going to give something a try."

His wings flared. "You might want to turn into a Floatzel or something, because if this doesn't work I'm probably going to need medical attention."

Zorua promptly did as asked, and twined his tails around one another. "This should be fun!"

"That's what I think too!" Charizard agreed, gaining height, then twisted into a Drill Run.

"That looks good," Ash said, keeping an eye on the glow spreading over Snorlax' fur. "Keep it up… okay, now walk over to that tree!"

Snorlax hit the tree hard enough that it rained coconuts.

"All right, that's it!" Ash whooped. "Congratulations, you've learned Agility!"

Snorlax gave a thumbs-up, then picked up a coconut. "Drink?"

"Yeah, I think you've earned it," Ash said.

"Geronimo!" Charizard roared, and Ash turned to look out to sea.

His Flame Pokémon crashed into the sea, a blur of orange and blue and cream… then came bursting back out of the water three seconds later and ended the Drill Run, wings sending spray in every direction and seawater cascading off him in sheets.

And his tail flame completely untouched.

"I've invented swimming!" Charizard declared.

After the Seven Grapefruit Islands, the next island was a place called Moro Island.

It had a museum, which Ash declared to be boring up until he heard about the fact it was about the Orange League. Then he was interested, looking at the exhibits – including a trophy from the Orange League from three hundred years ago.

"How come there's a Pokéball on it?" he asked. "I know Pokéballs have been around for a while, but that looks like a modern one."

"Nobody's all that sure," Tracey supplied. "The modern Pokéball symbol has appeared in art all throughout recorded history. The oldest place it appears is meant to be in Sinnoh, but then again Sinnoh is supposed to be the oldest place in the universe… if you listen to people from Sinnoh, anyway."

"I guess it looks a bit like that Pokémon… what is it, Foongus?" Pikachu suggested. "Or a Voltorb. Maybe it's designed based on that."

"Maybe," Ash agreed. "...hey, where did the GS Ball come from, anyway?"

He reached around and got it out of his backpack, then compared it. "Dunno."

Pikachu sniffed the GS Ball, then jumped as something oozed out of his shadow.

Marshadow became three-dimensional again, and examined the trophy.

"This is special to the person who once owned it," the Gloomdweller Pokémon said. "Their Pokémon are ghosts, and want to still honour their lost trainer, and they are angry. Their anger taints the trophy."

"Where did you come from?" Pikachu demanded. "How long have you been in there?"

"Since Navel Island," Marshadow replied, turning to look at him. "I wanted a lift on Entei back to Ho-Oh, but your trainer sent Entei home via Pokémon Transfer System. I had to improvise."

"Were we going to find out about it?" Ash asked.

"Not if you had taken one of the Beasts out," Marshadow said. "But then this would go unresolved."

Ash frowned, then shrugged. "Well, I guess we can speak to the guys in charge of the museum… maybe if a lot more of the exhibit is about their trainer? This museum doesn't even say what he's like or who he was!"

It wasn't quite as simple as that, but eventually something got sorted out that did satisfy everyone. The Ghost-types got the trophy, while the museum got an oral history of what the Orange League had been like from three hundred years previously (translated by Ash), and finally Ash went to the Pokémon Centre on Moro Island to access the Pokémon Transfer System.

Once the Beasts' Safari Ball had materialized, he held it up. "Come on out!"

Entei appeared in a flash of light, and Marshadow jumped into the Fire-type's shadow.

"I wondered where you'd got to," Entei said.

"It's kind of weird that Ash sent you back to Pallet and then it was you again," Pikachu observed. "You usually swap out more often than that."

"We did," Entei told him. "Four times. Including once when Professor Oak was taking Raikou's measurements."

He beamed. "The Dratini thought it was very funny."

A long way away, in Kanto, Giovanni frowned and went through the surveillance reports again.

No sign of him.

It was worrying, because the boy clearly knew several Legendary Pokémon capable of giving him a ride across the ocean… but he hadn't been seen in Kanto for weeks.

"What kind of mind game are you playing, Ash Ketchum…" he asked.

"So I had this idea," Ash said, over lunch. "Your Scyther is kind of old, right? But he mostly knows moves which work close in, and that's tiring."

He waved his hands. "What about if Scyther learns Razor Wind? That's a move he can use to attack at long range, so he doesn't take hits as often, and because he's an experienced battling Pokémon it means that he can get where the razors hit just right. He already knows Double Team, which is all about not being hit, so it'd just be more of the same!"

Tracey thought about Ash's advice.

Then he thought about how often Ash had had Pokémon do seemingly ridiculous things, and they'd worked.

"It's worth a try!" he decided. "I'm not much of a battler but I know Scyther wants to keep his skill up. Where is he, anyway?"

"I think he's over there with Zorua," Ash pointed.

"So, um… I'm supposed to ask you how to ninj?" Zorua said, checking a piece of paper. "Or something? About how it's going to be important to me in the future."

Scyther looked at him.

"Ninj."

"Yeah," Zorua agreed. "Uh… it says that I should ask you how I can be a ninja. I assume a ninja is someone who does ninjing."

The Bug-type stared for several seconds.

"Okay, I'm going to just assume that was for your own amusement, and not ask how you managed to mishear something that had been written down," he decided. "The way of the ninja is to use stealth and misdirection."

"Oh!" Zorua perked up. "I can do that! Watch!"

There was a poof, and he was a Pikachu.

"See?" he Pika'ed.

Scyther considered, then slapped him with the flat of his blade.

The Illusion burst, and Zorua tumbled across the clearing. "Ow…"

"See, if you'd learned the way of the ninja, that would have been a Double Team," Scyther told him. "And your illusion would have been safe."

"Oooh," Zorua said, sounding deeply fascinated. "That sounds great!"

After travelling across the big Mandarin Island (which was so big it was a proper Desert Island, as in, an island with a desert in the middle), and a bit of an incident where Charizard carefully rescued a girl from the water, Ash and friends made it to Ash's third Orange Islands gym – Trovita Gym, on Trovita Island.

Though technically they met the gym leader on the pier, but it still counted.

Misty examined a map. "I think we're not doing this in the most efficient order."

"Yeah, but we're here now!" Ash replied, as. "So, what's this gym's thing?"

He grinned. "I hope it's swimming! Charizard's ready for that!"

"Actually," the Gym Leader replied. "It's a type test. You need to show you can handle battling Pokémon of the same Type as your own… but, first, I want to see how fast your Pokémon can attack. There's an obstacle course, I'll take you out in my speedboat."

"So that's just about how fast they can hit targets while on the move?" Ash checked. "It doesn't have to be any specific attack?"

"So long as all the targets get hit, I don't care," Rudy declared.

Ash sent out Zapdos.

"Then let's go!" he decided. "I bet you can beat the speedboat to the end, Zapdos!"

He began rummaging in his backpack. "I put the harness somewhere… I'm sure I did… ah, we don't need it for flying in weather this good!"

"So, this target course," Zapdos said. "Where is it?"

Rudy finished staring.

"I hope you don't pick flying as one of the types," he said. "Though I do have a Flying and Ground type."

"I'm nearly at the point where that wouldn't even help you out," Zapdos said. "Anyway, where's this target course?"

Two minutes and thirty seconds after starting the target course, Ash and Zapdos flew back down and came alongside Rudy's speedboat.

"We got all the targets!" Ash said. "Plus that bonus one."

Rudy blinked. "I'm sorry, what? Bonus target?"

"The big Magikarp one," Ash replied. "...you know, the one that exploded when it got hit?"

"There's no such bonus target," Rudy told him.

"Oh, okay," Ash answered. "In that case, we just beat Team Rocket again."

"Wow," Ash said, the next morning. "This is a really amazing battlefield."

It was on a tall stone platform, surrounded by pillars, and there was so little space for spectators that Misty and Tracey had to watch the battle from a hot-air balloon.

"The first type you picked was Fairy," Rudy declared. "So that means I'm starting with my Azumarill."

"Clefairy, you first!" Ash replied, holding up the Moon Ball, and Clefairy emerged onto the battlefield with a flash.

"Ah," she said, considering her opponent. "Un Azumarill."

"Gravity," Ash added. "Use it to throw their attacks off!"

Clefairy bounced up in the air, making a gesture to the left, and Azumarill's Water Gun attack slid to the side without connecting.

"Music!" Rudy requested, and a big portable stereo began playing a series of thumping beats. Azumarill dove forwards, going into a spin on the ground, and shot out a stream of Bubblebeam which arced through the air in all directions – some of them aimed at Clefairy and missing, but others aimed away from Clefairy which happened to hit.

Twitching her fingers, Clefairy used Metronome.

She cupped her hands around her mouth, dodging away from a Bubblebeam with a flicker of her wings. "Ta mère était une Pikablu!"

"What did you just say about my mother?" Azumarill demanded, bouncing back up from his dance and bounding forwards. "Take this!"

He punched at Clefairy, who used a pulse of Gravity to rise further into the air and avoid being hit – fingers already twitching.

Energy swirled around her as she boosted herself, and Rudy frowned.

"Concentrate!" he called. "Don't let her annoy you – stick to Water moves, you won't catch that Clefairy with melee attacks!"

Clefairy's third Metronome promptly put that into question, as it turned into Jump Kick and she smacked into Azumarill as he tried to set up a Water Gun. The impact didn't do much damage, as Clefairy just bounced off, but Ash pointed anyway. "Now to the left – make the battlefield tilt!"

Much to Rudy's relief, the gravity pulse didn't actually make the battlefield tilt to one side. It meant that Azumarill slid off towards the edge, though, before curling into a Rollout and moving back closer to the middle.

"Dig a hole for yourself," Rudy said. "Then get back to dancing!"

Clefairy threw down a trio of Water Shuriken as Azumarill dug, not doing much damage with that attack either, and Ash frowned.

"Can you make him rise into the air?" he asked.

"Non sans plus de proximité," Clefairy answered, throwing a rock down at Azumarill. Then a Thundershock, but by then Azumarill was firing back with bursts of Muddy Water… and getting back into the beat of the music, which seemed to be helping him out.

"Then… okay, whatever the next one is – flip gravity, get in close fast and try that!" Ash said.

"Oui," Clefairy agreed, switching the direction of her gravity field, then discovered that her latest Metronome had turned into Extremespeed.

She hit Azumarill hard enough that the small crater turned into a larger crater.

"I think that's a draw," Rudy said, once the music was off. "I've never had a draw before."

"It's kind of a thing that happens, with Clefairy," Ash replied. "Metronome has done some really cool things, but it's kind of random."

"Well, that just means you can't afford a loss," Rudy said. "Next up is your Normal battle. Tauros!"

"Snorlax!" Ash replied.

"So… I can't remember," Tracey said. "Did Ash teach Snorlax an offensive move yet?"

Some snapping Flamenco music started, and then the battle began.

"Agility!" Ash shouted, and there was a blur of motion and a wham that ended with Snorlax standing where Tauros had been a moment ago.

Off in the distance there was a rapidly moving dot, which eventually hit the sea with a splash about two miles offshore.

"...I think he did, and it was Agility," Misty replied, as Ash sent out Zapdos to go and pick up the Normal-type. "Ouch."

"So I'm down to my last Pokémon," Rudy said. "And… I'll be honest, this one was kind of difficult, but I do have a Dragon type."

He held up his third Pokéball, which flashed. "Vibrava!"

Ash took the brown-and-green 'ball from his own belt. "Go!"

Dratini emerged, and waved his tail. "Hello."

Vibrava buzzed into the air.

"Extremespeed!" Ash called. "But be careful with your aim!"

Dratini coiled up like a spring, and fired himself at Vibrava. The flying Ground-typed dodged away as thumping techno music began, wings fluttering in a bzz-bzz-bzz sequence that resonated with the beat, and prepared to fire a Dragon Breath attack up.

Before she could, though, Dratini's tail coiled up slightly, then snapped out. Half-a-dozen Dratini Double Team duplicates appeared and all dodged in different directions, and Vibrava paused before singling one out and firing a Dragon Breath.

It dissolved in a blur, and Rudy frowned.

"Use Supersonic!" he called, as the Dratinis landed and moved closer together again – confusing the issue of which one was which still further. "See which one gives you an echo!"

"Uh, Ash?" Pikachu said.

"Twister!" Ash called. "Confuse that Vibrava!"

Instead of using Twister, though, the Dratinis all used Flamethrower. The resultant curtain of flame still confused Vibrava's echolocation, and meant that she couldn't see where Dratini was at all, and she buzzed back and forth to the beat of the music while she waited for it to fade.

"Ash," Pikachu repeated. "Your hand's got paint on it."

"What?" Ash asked, looking at his hand.

There was mottled green-and-brown paint on his hand, just like Pikachu had said.

"Sand Tomb!" Rudy ordered.

Vibrava's wings buzzed, and as the flamethrower died away a sandstorm replaced it. The wave of sand washed over all the Dratini duplicates, and when it was gone there was just one left.

"I won't lose!" he announced. "That's the way of the ninja!"

There was a poof of smoke, and Dratini turned into Dynamax Ninetales.

Misty stared.

"What," she said, intelligently.

"Zorua!" Pikachu shouted. "What was that for?"

"It's a ninja thing!" Zorua replied, inspecting underneath one of his massive paws – Vibrava had sort of ended up underneath it – then went cross-eyed. "Ow. This is actually giving me a headache…"

There was a tremendous crunch as half of the rocky platform crumbled, boulders avalanching into the sea in a long roaring craaaaash, and then Zorua reverted to his base form with a pop and an enormous cloud of quickly-fading white smoke.

"I don't want to turn into a giant Pokémon any more," he mumbled. "My everything hurts."

"Why did you turn into a giant Ninetales in the first place?" Ash said.

"Scyther was teaching me about how ninja never do anything that's expected," Zorua explained. "And I saw it on TV so I wanted to see if I could do it."

Rudy had been staring at the wreckage, but then shook his head. "So… that wasn't actually a Dratini?" he said. "That was your Zorua?"

"Yeah, I think he repainted his Pokéball," Ash replied. "Which is kind of, you know, dedication if nothing else?"

"You realize that means you've ended up doing the challenge with the wrong Pokémon?" Rudy said. "That's a forfeit."

"Oh, right," Ash winced, then frowned. "Okay, do you have a Dark type?"

Rudy looked at what was left of his arena. "...you know what?"

He reached into his pocket. "Why don't you just take this badge. I hear the weather's lovely right now on an island that isn't this one."

AN:

Eh, it'll be fine, that's fixable. Just need Groudon to come around and do it.

He does house calls, right?