"So it's kind of a weird one," Ash freely admitted.
"I can see that," the woman at the registration desk agreed, looking at the Larvitar hovering nervously at the counter.
She'd never seen anyone – human or Pokémon – literally hover nervously before. Except for that one time with a self-conscious Koffing, but even then that was a Pokémon you expected to do that.
"It's because he kind of lives in a reserve?" Ash added. "But he wants to help out, so he and his mom agreed that I could temporarily capture him to use in a battle at the Silver Conference – and so he can watch the rest of us as well, too… the same kind of thing is going on with Unown, actually! Anyway, uh, is there anything left for me to sort out for paperwork?"
"I…" the woman began, then checked over the trainer card again.
"I don't think there is," she replied. "There's a footnote here on your Plain Badge which says we're to alert Whitney immediately if you show up at the Pokémon League, though."
"Oh, yeah, Whitney was fun," Ash said. "I think she was the Gym Leader who was the happiest to fight me, which was nice… anyway, I think it's qualifying battles first, right?"
He grinned. "I'm looking forward to them!"
"Wow," Misty said, looking around. "This is really impressive."
"We do our best," Lance told her. "To be honest, I'm glad you accepted our invitation."
Misty looked around again at the Elite Four's viewing box.
There were easily two dozen seats looking out over the main Silver Conference stadium, but that was only the side which actually faced towards the stadium. The rest of it went well back into the body of the structure, and there were even more seats inside – around tables, and on their own – along with video feeds of each of the secondary stadiums for the Conference.
"...I'm not really sure why we'd disagree," she admitted.
"Yeah, this place is amazing!" Brock agreed. "And such lovely girls – Bulbasaur it was a compliment don't mrff."
"Anyway," Misty added, pushing Brock so he sat down hard on one of the chairs. "Is there a reason you wanted us?"
"Well, I did want to invite all the Gym Leaders," Lance admitted. "For more than one reason. But you two in particular have been travelling with Ash for years now, and I have a feeling he's a possible star of this year's Silver Conference."
"That makes sense!" Togetic agreed. "Ash is a really strong trainer. And it's not just that he has really strong Pokémon, because he finds Pokémon who aren't strong and makes them strong!"
Lance blinked.
"...I didn't know Togetic could speak in human language," he admitted.
"Actually, she can't," Misty replied. "But Brock's Vulpix has learned the same kind of Hypnosis trick as Ash's Lokoko. She's making you think you understand."
Since Brock was still being prevented from hitting on Lorelei, Misty found a seat for herself and pulled Vulpix up onto it. Then got to the neck scratches as a reward.
"It's a living," Vulpix said. "And the pay is good."
Lance blinked for a few times, then shook his head.
"I need to keep reminding myself that you're the normal ones by comparison," he admitted.
The first part of the Silver Conference was a series of one-on-one qualifiers, intended to reduce the number of competitors from over 200 to just 48.
Ash's first opponent had to send out their Pokémon first, and sent out a Metang.
"That's a tough Pokémon," Ash said, then picked a ball off his belt. "Dratini!"
"Ice Punch, Metang!" his opponent called.
"Copy him!" Ash replied immediately.
The other trainer blinked. "Pardon?"
Ice Punch crashed against Ice Punch, and while Dratini got knocked backwards she also didn't take much damage – simply because Dratini's tail was already encased in ice when she attacked, and the actual enemy attack didn't make her much colder.
"Psychic!" Metang's trainer decided.
"Astonish!" Ash countered.
Dratini launched herself at her opponent using her tail like a coiled spring, and crashed into the metallic Pokémon hard enough to send it sliding backwards through the air. It flinched, the Psychic attack going wild, and Dratini followed up on that by snagging Metang's arm in her tail and suplexing the Steel-type.
"That was not Astonish!" Ash's opponent complained.
Ash frowned. "Why not? It seemed surprising to Metang…"
Metang managed to get a grip on Dratini, and flung the Dragon-type into the air.
"Dratini!" Ash called. "Use Being A Dragonair!"
"That's not even a move – can you do that?" Metang's trainer demanded.
Dratini twisted in the air, focused, and used Burn Up. A Dragonair-shaped inferno shot down from her airborne position, hitting Metang with a crash and a burst of flame, and knocked the Steel-type out in one massive impact.
"I literally cannot decide if he's setting a bad example or not," Lance admitted.
Misty held up her hand. "Wait for it… aaand there we go."
On the screen, Ash's Dratini had evolved into Dragonair.
By Ash's second preliminary battle, several more Gym Leaders had shown up – Morty and Jasmine both looking somewhat bewildered, preceded by Whitney, and followed by Clair.
"It's great to see Ash is doing well!" Whitney said, taking one of the seats in the Elite Four lounge. "Have I missed any of the Legendary Pokémon yet?"
"I do not believe we have met," Zygarde told her.
"Ooh, my goodness you're cute!" Whitney announced. "Are you one of Ash's Pokémon, or one of Brock's or Misty's?"
"None of the above," Zygarde stated. "I am travelling with Ash and his companions so that I will eventually get back to Kalos."
They tilted their head. "I expect this will take a long time. This is fine."
"Ooh, now I wish I had a reliable assistant," Whitney admitted. "I would absolutely tag along, but I've got the gym, and the job…"
She shrugged. "Anyway! Did Ash pick up any other Legendary Pokémon I didn't see? Is he using any in today's battles?"
Lance shook his head. "You're always a surprise, Whitney," he admitted. "Were you passing through?"
"No, I put an alert on his Plain badge," Whitney said. "In case I forgot about the League or he did it in a different year. Because I want to see this."
"Doesn't that mean you're leaving your gym unattended anyway?" Morty asked.
Whitney shook her head. "Since it's temporary, I left Miltank!" she said. "But if I were going on a journey, I'd have to take Miltank. Very different."
The Normal-type specialist leaned forwards. "Oh, is that the same one that he used against me as a Totodile? I wouldn't normally think much of a Croconaw but – yes, it is! He's still dancing, that's superb!"
Morty glanced at Jasmine. "Why are we friends with her again?"
"Look on the bright side," Jasmine replied. "Not about this specifically, necessarily, just generally…"
"Shut that Croconaw down!" Bonita called, pointing. "Thunder Wave!"
Her Ampharos nodded, stamping his foot down. A pulse of thunder approached Croconaw, but before it actually reached him he did a forwards flip in pike position and spread his arms out as a finishing presentation.
There was a whoosh of water, and most of the Thunder Wave didn't make it through. Some did, but instead of paralyzing Croconaw it just made him wince slightly at the impact.
"Switch out your style, Croconaw!" Ash ordered. "Let's see something more grounded!"
Croconaw nodded, and did a twirl. Then he switched to something completely different, going from his previous flowing Dragon Dance to something with ground-thumping and paw-clapping… something that was such an odd sight that it distracted Ampharos, at least for the few seconds until Croconaw interrupted it to fire a Muddy Water attack.
The Ampharos skipped to the side, not wanting to get his close-grown wool dirty, then Bonita cupped her hands around her mouth.
"Electroweb!" she ordered. "Try and trip him!"
Ampharos flung out an Electroweb, and it hit Croconaw with absolutely zero effect.
"...what," Bonita said.
"Revelation Dance!" Ash ordered.
Croconaw jumped into the air, thumped his feet together twice, and landed with a crash with both feet, one foreleg and one tail all at the same time. Sand and earth crashed together around him and surged forwards, forming into a kind of earthen wave that rose up before hammering into Ampharos with a crash.
"Okay, one, Revelation Dance is a move exclusive to one specific Pokémon from Alola," Morty said. "Which isn't a Croconaw. And two, it's based on what Type the user is. That was not a Water type move."
"Yeah, that's the clever bit," Misty replied. "That first splash of water was Revelation Dance as well, but Croconaw knows Conversion-2."
"I don't know what Conversion-2 is," Morty confessed.
"It's actually kind of a neat move," Togetic spoke up. "Team Rocket's Porygon uses it when fighting us, it messes around what Type the user is. Mew explained it to us when she was teaching Croconaw."
Morty blinked.
"I got off lightly," he said. "A Chikorita used Sunsteel Strike and a Noctowl used Aeroblast in my gym, and I got off lightly."
As Ash's third battle was going on – involving his Bayleef facing off against an Azumarill, under blazing sunlight courtesy of Bayleef but which didn't seem to bother Azumarill much – Jasmine leaned over to Morty.
"What is Sunsteel Strike?" she asked. "I feel like I should know about it, but you're much better on really obscure moves than me."
"It's-" Morty began, then interrupted himself. "Wait, look at that – she caught Azumarill with that Solar Blade, but it's got Sap Sipper."
Azumarill rolled forwards, flicked her tail to Bounce into the air, and came down with a wham that knocked Bayleef skidding backwards. Then the Water-type followed up by spinning to hit Bayleef with her tail.
Bayleef caught the tail in her vines.
"Hmm…" Morty said, as Azumarill twisted to break free before using Ice Punch – something which Bayleef blocked with a burst of flame from a Weather Ball.
Then her vines flicked out, grabbing anchor points on the far side of Azumarill, and reeled herself in at enormous speed.
"...that was Sunsteel Strike," Morty concluded, as Azumarill bounced off the far wall. "I know it didn't technically have to ignore Sap Sipper to do that, but I think it came as a surprise anyway."
AN:
Short one this time, but this was the best breakpoint I could find for the Silver Prelims.
Everyone will get a chance to show off!