"Somehow, I should have expected it," Misty chuckled. "We went on a holiday to Alto Mare, and Ash spends most of the week training Pokémon and comes away with another Legendary."
She frowned. "Or is it two? I… don't even know how you count your Legendaries any more. But then again, I haven't known how you count your regular Pokémon since that time Primeape turned out to be Mew."
Ash chuckled. "It's kind of… how it makes sense, I guess?"
He shrugged. "Anyway, next we're going to New Bark Town and then on to the Silver Conference!"
"Ash is really enthusiastic for that, huh?" Togetic giggled. "That's just like him, right, mama?"
Misty blinked a few times, brushing away tears. "You're right there, sweetie. And that reminds me again… I really need to thank you, Vulpix. More than I do already."
"I take payment in affection," Vulpix said smugly. "Just don't expect it to work too far away, it's kind of got a limited range..."
"So… I don't think it got explained yet," Latias admitted. "What is the Silver Conference? Is it where everyone talks about Silver?"
Ash laughed. "It does sound kind of like that, yeah…"
He looked at the air next to him. "But it's actually the name for the Pokémon League battles and stuff. The Pokémon League is always there, but the Silver Conference is when everyone comes to Silver Town to battle it out – there's loads of trainers who are going to be there, and they're going to be trying to show that they're the best trainers in Johto."
"Oh, so it's a tournament!" Latias realized. "Like Challenge mode on that team fighting game?"
"That's right!" Ash agreed. "It's not exactly the same because you don't have to take the same team all the way through, that was just a thing that that game did. But there's several battle rounds, and whoever wins the whole tournament has a chance to challenge the Elite Four."
"Which, honestly, I'm looking forward to a lot," Pikachu said. "We might not get there this year, but we're getting there at some point, and it's going to be great fun… plus, I'd get more than one or maybe two battles in the whole Conference if we did."
"I'm not sure who I'd use to challenge the Elite Four yet," Ash admitted. "But Pikachu would definitely be on the list for one or two of them, and maybe all four if I get that far."
Latias sighed. "Well… I hope I don't let you down."
"There's still more than two months of training to go," Pikachu said. "If you get all those moves we've got planned down, and we get you to the point you're good and fluid at doing them, then you'll be great."
He flicked his tail. "Besides, that's what a team is for, right?"
"I think in your case, what a team is for is confusing people," Brock told him.
When they got back to New Bark Town, Professor Elm asked to give Ash's team a check-over to see how they were doing before the Silver Conference.
This turned out to take about two hours.
"Okay, how many Dratini is that?" Professor Elm said. "I'm starting to lose track."
"There's only eight to go," Ash replied, putting the latest Dratini Safari Ball into the transfer system and sending it off to Oak Labs. "Then it's the Dragonair and Dragonite, and after that we can move on to Shaymintwo!"
"I knew you had a surprising number of Dratini line Pokémon," Elm blinked. "But… you've got how many?"
"Twenty-nine," Ash answered. "Then, uh… it's probably best to keep going in capture order… hey, Mew, which one do you want to be counted as?"
He pulled Mew out of his bag. "I think the most recent one was Lapras, but when did you put in Clefairy?"
"Oh, Clefairy goes before me, definitely," Mew said. "Just count me as Lapras."
Professor Elm put his head in his hands, then looked up as the Pokémon Transfer System terminal beeped again.
Ash picked up the Safari Ball, frowned slightly, and opened it.
"Nice try, Zorua," he told the Dratini.
It went poof into a Zorua. "Aww… how did you know?"
"If I told you it'd stop working," Ash replied.
He was really glad that he'd taken Zacian's suggestion to quietly score a Z-mark into the base of Zorua's Pokéball…
"Professor Elm's looked you over already," he added. "And don't forget to get the paint off your Pokéball."
"Meanie," Zorua pouted, then returned himself.
"I don't even know how you begin to keep track," Professor Elm said.
Much later, Professor Elm ran his scanner over Zacian's fur.
"We have long since passed the point where I have any idea what to do," he admitted. "You're probably healthy, and I suspect if you weren't then you'd know."
Zacian made a chuff sound, tossing her hair, then frowned. "Oh, actually… Ash, you remember that discussion we had last week?"
"That's a good point," Ash admitted. "Professor, do you know where we could get hold of a sword?"
Professor Elm looked utterly baffled.
"It's because some of Zacian's moves need a sword," Ash explained. "And she's got one back in Galar, but that one changes her into Crowned Sword Forme and sometimes that's kind of overdoing it – and it makes her weak to different types, too, like fire. So just having a normal sword would make it so she had more options."
The poor Professor frowned. "I… well, I don't know… one of my assistants might, though, he's more into that sort of thing than me."
He put the scanner down. "Well, you're not on fire and probably not poisoned, and that's about the most I can tell."
"My thanks," Zacian declared. "It's so troublesome to find one has been on fire."
Ash passed that on, and Zacian pushed off gently from the examination table.
"...and she can fly," Professor Elm added, watching the Fairy-type floating around like a novelty balloon. "How many more Pokémon do you have for me to look at, Ash?"
"Just three, I think," Ash replied. "Latias and Latios are pretty close to identical, but I've only got one of them with me at the moment. She's been watching the whole examination, actually."
He reached to his belt. "Apart from that, there's Lokoko and Phanpy, so I guess Phanpy is next."
"Please tell me that Lokoko isn't another Legendary Pokémon I haven't even heard of," Professor Elm begged. "Zygarde and Marshadow were enough."
"I haven't actually caught a Legendary you've never heard of," Ash corrected. "Those two are just with me because we're friends. But no, Latias is the last Legendary on the list."
Ho-Oh checked the time.
"Any minute now," he told himself.
"That is the most research I have ever done into rare Pokémon in one go, and also two very weird hours of my life that I'll never forget," Professor Elm said, once the examinations were over. "But Ash, I'd like to ask a favour… there's a Pokémon egg here which is believed to have been stolen from a Pokémon preserve."
He took out an egg case, which contained a greyish-brown egg, and put it on the table. "I'd like you to take care of it, and find out what Pokémon it is – and, ideally, return it to its parents."
"Not that I don't think Ash can do it, but why him?" Misty said.
Professor Elm looked at her. "Ash can speak to Pokémon," he pointed out. "That makes him the ideal person for this."
"Hey, everyone can speak to Pokémon," Ash replied. "It's understanding what Pokémon say which people seem to have trouble with."
He picked up the case, and looked at it. "Well, I guess-"
The egg hatched into a Larvitar.
Misty blinked. "...okay, I know Phanpy took only a day or so, and Zorua didn't take all that long, but that was ridiculous."
The bottom of the egg case gave way, and Latias' eyes glowed as she caught the falling Rock-type before he hit the floor.
"Thanks, Latias, you're getting good with Extrasensory," Ash said, picking Larvitar up. "That egg case must be really badly made."
"We talked about this, Ash," Brock reminded him. "That's another of those Pokémon that's heavier than you seem to think it is. Like Phanpy."
"Oh, yeah, that's right," Ash realized. "Larvitar might want to meet Phanpy. How does that sound, little guy?"
Larvitar looked at him, then at the rest of the lab, then curled into a ball.
"Huh," Ash frowned. "Okay, I guess… well, if he's shy then it's probably best not to try and introduce him to everyone."
With no real clue where to go to solve the Larvitar problem, the friends stayed in New Bark Town overnight.
Ash offered Larvitar a choice of where to stay, first saying that he'd leave Larvitar downstairs if the Rock-type wanted to be properly alone, then when he objected to that Ash switched to having Larvitar in his room instead. That seemed to be about right, or at least Larvitar seemed okay with it, and Ash carefully made sure that if Larvitar did change his mind then he knew Ash wouldn't mind being woken up.
Then Ash had a weird dream about a Larvitar egg being bounced around in traffic and kicked around underfoot.
Based on all his experience as a trainer, Ash concluded that that was probably something to do with the newly hatched Larvitar.
"So there's this idea I had, okay?" Ash said, the next morning. "Firstly, there's this blanket."
He gave it to Larvitar. "If you don't feel okay with anyone talking to you, you can use the blanket to show us. Okay?"
Larvitar looked at the blanket, then back up at Ash.
"The other thing I wanted was – you could learn a move called Iron Defence," Ash went on. "That would help keep you safe. But you don't have to."
The Rock-type seemed to be seriously thinking about that.
"You don't have to decide now," Ash told him. "It's just an offer."
Ho-Oh tapped his claws on the wooden flooring.
Then he spotted something in the distance, flying towards Ecruteak from the south and then turning towards the Tin Tower.
Wings flapping away, a Pidgey came in through the window, and put down a plastic bag in front of him.
"Ah, thank you," Ho-Oh declared. "The payment is on the table at the eastern side of the room. There is a tip."
As the Pidgey took his payment and left, Ho-Oh took the first container out of the bag.
He wasn't going to risk missing Ash passing through, but fortunately there was quite good takeout service around here.
Today he was having yaki-soba and gyozas.
Slowly, and with help from no more than one Pokémon at a time unless specifically requested, Ash coaxed Larvitar out of his shell a bit.
It was a kind of frustrating process, but whenever he did feel a bit annoyed Ash just reminded himself that Larvitar was scared and that this was to help him out. And it did seem to be helping, because while Ash didn't spend all his time with the Rock Skin Pokémon – he had training to do for the Silver Conference – after a day or two Larvitar did start walking over to watch as Ash helped Clefairy work on unusual gravity tricks, or Phanpy get Flamethrower just right without singeing her trunk.
Not to say anything, really. Just… to be there.
"I'd like to try something, okay, Larvitar?" Ash asked. "I got some photos from Professor Elm. Do any of these look familiar to you?"
He spread them out, putting them so Larvitar could see them, and the Ground-type looked closely at each one in turn.
"I don't recognize those," Pikachu said. "Mountains?"
"They're all the same mountain," Ash replied. "It's Mount Silver, because it's kind of big and recognizable, but it doesn't look quite the same from all the way around… I got the idea because Latias got lost looking for New Bark Town yesterday, she got kind of turned around in clouds and didn't realize which one was the right one until she'd flown past it and looked back."
"Huh, I didn't hear that one," Pikachu admitted. "Any ideas, Larvitar?"
Larvitar looked up, then looked back down at the photos.
He tapped one.
"All right, which one's that?" Ash said, picking it up and turning it around. "That's… uh, it says it's a western view of Mount Silver, so that means Larvitar's from west of Mount Silver! That's great, we've got somewhere we can go and look!"
He turned to take it to Brock and Professor Elm, then stopped and turned back.
"Well done, Larvitar," he added. "We'll get you back to your mom, and you've helped out a lot."
Larvitar smiled, and Ash smiled back before going off to speak to Professor Elm.
How are you getting on, Latias? Latios asked, a few days later – reaching out to his twin sister through their mental bond. I hope it's not too tiring?
His telepathic voice took on a teasing tone. Regretting it?
Not at all, Latias replied. I've been working my wings off for hours every day trying to catch up with everyone, and it is so much more complicated than fighting games made it look, and it is the best experience of my life so far I can't even describe how much fun I'm having. Also I made a friend.
Latios considered that, then his eyes lit up as he began sight-sharing.
Is it the Larvitar?
It's the Larvitar! Latias agreed. We're taking him back to his mom, but it's a long way for him to walk and Brock asked Ash to stop carrying him around all the time because with Phanpy and Mew in his backpack then carrying Larvitar too might do, uh, unexamined damage to Ash's lower spine. Or his shoes. One of those.
She smiled. But I offered to carry him for a bit, and he likes flying! So we're friends now. I've been going invisible because that way Larvitar feels more like he's the one flying.
Latios frowned. You do realize, Latias, that that might look suspicious? Anyone watching is going to be able to tell an invisible Pokémon is carrying Larvitar around.
Why? Latias asked. Ash is around. All anyone's going to think is that Larvitar knows Fly.
Latios considered that.
Objection withdrawn, he admitted. I'll tell Dad you're doing okay, okay?
AN:
Yep, translation is now sorted for Brock and Misty.
Misty's still working on understanding Togetic herself though.