"How do you decide which of your Pokémon to use, Ash?" May asked, as they flew towards Slateport.
"Pardon?" Ash replied.
Raikou carried him a bit closer to Latios, and May raised her voice.
"I asked how you decide which of your Pokémon to use!" May replied. "I know you have a lot, but I've got three and it's already kind of tricky to decide!"
"Oh, well, I guess it's partly just on feel," Ash replied. "But it's also to do with personal growth… so Treecko and Taillow are new, so they're likely to get a lot of time battling. And if one of my Pokémon is trying to work on a new trick and it seems like it's almost there, sometimes a battle is just the thing to make it work!"
He shrugged. "But… apart from that, I think it's kind of a good reason why I should do pre-League training somewhere where I can visit everyone. And why I should keep track of who might be feeling a bit under-appreciated… it's why this time Raikou and Latios are helping us fly, instead of Zacian and Latias. Next time it might be Zapdos, or I might bring the Dragonairs down."
"It's very nice of you," Raikou said. "And I know you're helping my sister work on flying as well."
"Yeah, that's another part of it," Ash said. "It kind of depends on whether the Pokémon is working on something that they need my help with… so helping Suicune with flying, that's something that needs personal attention for some of the bits. But for now she's working on hydrokinesis, and that's something she can work on for a while."
May nodded to herself. "So… with me, it's going to be more about my next routines?"
"Not just that, but… really, I don't think there's any one rule about it," Ash shrugged. "Just remember to check in with your Pokémon so you know none of them are feeling neglected, I think? And apart from that it's what makes sense for you… it's probably good for you to talk to Max about it, too."
He pointed. "Oh, look! There's, uh, is it Slateport?"
"Slateport indeed," Raikou confirmed. "It looks different from up here."
"I think that's the Pokémon Centre, it's… a bit to the left of the middle," Ash said. "Let's go down and land there, then we can get a rest!"
"Okay, Azurill, one more time!" May called. "Think you can manage that, or do you want a rest?"
"I do kind of want a rest, but after this!" Azurill replied. "It's really close!"
She bounced on her tail a few times, inhaling, then spat out a Water Gun that glistened with internal sparkles.
The glob of water rose higher, then burst, and a shower of glittery light flew out with it.
"That's great!" Brock said. "It looks like that's working!"
"Great!" May enthused. "Good job, Azurill!"
She picked the little Normal-type up and gave her a hug. "Well done. You've definitely earned that rest… want to stay out, or go back in?"
"I'll stay out," Azurill replied. "Can I have a drink?"
May got out some water, and gave it to Azurill. "There you go. I'll be training Beautifly for now, but I'll be right here, okay?"
Azurill nodded.
There was a loud yip from over where Ash was training, and she looked around. "What was that?"
"Sounded like Zorua to me," Vulpix said, knowledgeably. "Zorua's best off if he can pretend to be all the other Pokémon, but he still needs to work on not crashing into a tree when he's being one of the Beasts."
May tried not to giggle.
"Okay, Beautifly," she said, picking up a softball, and threw it. "Attack!"
Beautifly's attack hit the softball… and it went flying off into the distance, where it nearly hit a man in a Cacturne outfit.
He didn't take it well.
The next day, someone called Drew asked the friends for help about what to do with a beached Wailord.
Ash thought about the problem for a few seconds, and asked why they didn't just carry the Wailord back into the sea.
"...it's a Wailord," Drew replied. "It's really, really big and heavy."
"Yeah, but I mean, with the help of a couple of Pokémon," Ash explained. "So… Dragonite, and Articuno, and Suicune could help too by making a big wave… hey, Brock, do you think Onix can help?"
Then he shook his head. "No, wait, I've got a better idea! Let's see this stuck Wailord!"
Drew led them over a rise, and Ash reached for a Moon Ball on his belt. "Clefairy!"
"Finalement," Clefairy said, emerging from her Pokéball. "Et… voila!"
She touched her fingers together, and the Wailord let out a sigh as their weight suddenly dropped massively.
Ash walked over and picked Wailord up.
"...what," Drew asked.
"Clefairy's cancelling out almost all of the gravity!" Ash explained. "Not all of it, because then the whole beach would go flying and stuff and I wouldn't be able to walk on the ground, but pretty close, it only weighs a bit more than Larvitar now! So, uh… right, the sea's that way…"
A day before Beautifly was ready for his Contest, a council of Pokémon gathered in Slateport Market to discuss an important topic.
"We need to get our food back," Pichu Big insisted. "We can't let that Manectric get away with stealing it like that!"
"Yeah!" Pichu Little agreed. "That'll teach him a lesson! You'll all help, right?"
Zorua bounced back and forth on his paws. "Yeah! I don't like seeing Pokémon doing stuff like that when it's cruel, after all!"
"I guess I'm not doing anything else today," Mudkip shrugged.
Treecko glanced sideways at Pikachu. "You're the expert here."
"I'm not the expert, this has just happened to me more than the others," Pikachu corrected. "Speaking of which…"
He pointed to the Victini hovering next to Pichu Big. "Are you the same one who got involved in all those races with a Darkrai?"
Victini crossed his arms. "You can't prove that."
"So here's my plan!" Pichu Little announced. "We need to get to the other side of the market, but we don't want Manectric to find out we're coming, so we'll have to go along the roofs and under the stalls to make sure humans don't notice!"
"Sounds reasonable to me," Entei rumbled.
Pikachu looked over at him. "Really? You're actually going along with this?"
"I have a disguise," Entei said, reaching into his fur with a paw and pulling it out. "See?"
They looked at it.
"That's just a paper mask with the words 'Johtoian Espeon' on it," Pikachu said.
"Well, it is a disguise," Entei answered. "I mean, if it said Johtoian Flareon they might know it was me."
Mudkip raised a paw. "I think I'm starting to get the hang of this, this is going to be glorious chaos and I'm totally on board now. Let's go!"
"I think I'm kind of getting the idea about why you're able to help May with Contests, even though you don't do them," Max said, as they watched the Appeals round – specifically, a Milotic whose Twister attack swirled around like a whip, forming coils and patterns in the air. "It's all about controlling an attack really well, right?"
He shifted a little so the Shroomish in his lap could get a better view. "Shroomish can use Bullet Seed, and she's getting good with it, but Treecko can do much weirder things with it and that's the kind of thing a Contest is about."
"It kind of is," Pikachu said, thinking. "Because just using an attack isn't necessarily going to get you points, you have to do it in a way that looks good and shows creativity or skill… and that helps in battle too."
He looked over at the other Pokémon watching. "Right?"
"Yeah, makes sense," Taillow agreed, flaring her wings in a shrug.
Croconaw looked like he was barely restraining the urge to break into a song, and Lotad bounced up and down in agreement.
"You haven't even done a Contest yet," Vulpix pointed out. "So there."
"Hey, I've still been learning," Lotad protested. "And battling, too!"
For his part, Dratini was too busy staring at the Contest in awe.
"Ah, here we go," Brock said. "Here comes May."
May bowed, then sent out her Beautifly with a flash.
"Attack!" she said, and Beautifly's wings flapped before hammering forwards in a gust of wind. A sparkling cloud came with the gust, initially just glittering scales in the lighting before taking on a definite shape, and there was a sort of rustle as people leaned forward to see what was going on.
There were dozens of miniature Beautifly dancing in the lights, made up of shimmering half-transparent reflective material like the scales on Beautifly's wings.
"Now, Defend!" May added, and a second gust rippled out as the first curved around. The second gust's mini-Beautifly took shape more quickly, flittering around for a moment before joining up into a dome made of tesselating Beautifly shapes, and the first gust slammed into them in a shower of sparks – sending sparkles in all directions as the first gust's Beautifly shattered on impact, and leaving a rain-shower of motes of light that rained down on both May and her Pokémon.
"Huh," Max said, applauding. "You'd never know she wrecked three dresses getting that right…"
"Wow…" Dratini breathed.
"Petal Dance!" Drew called.
"Defend, Beautifly!" May replied, and her Bug-type formed a shield of miniature copies. It formed just in time, deflecting the surge of petals, and May sighed in relief – then spotted something else going on.
A shower of coloured leaves sweeping wide, around Beautifly's shield.
"Make it wider!" she called, but Beautifly didn't have time to adjust his Defend Order. The leaves struck home, leaving several scratches, and May frowned for a moment.
"Heal!" she said. "And form an all around defence!"
Beautifly's wings beat steadily, forming more and more miniature copies, and they tesselated together to form a spherical shield without any gaps. The leftovers fluttered around his injuries, attaching themselves to form little glowing stickers, and Drew considered.
May looked over at the points. They were going down for both of them… her shielding wasn't very aggressive, which was losing points, but Drew wasn't getting through the shield either.
"Charge up for a Solarbeam!" Drew called.
"Convert the shield!" May countered. "Attack Order!"
"What?" Drew asked. "You can convert them?"
The entire shield broke up into hundreds of copies, and they swirled for a moment before crashing down on Drew's Roselia.
"Remarkable!" someone said.
After the Contest – May had reached the finals, but that Milotic's Twister had shredded the Attack Order and Beautifly hadn't had a good response – Drew sought out May.
"You know that those aren't moves that Beautifly can learn, right?" he asked. "Just… wanted to make sure that was clear."
"I mean… I kind of thought they were?" May replied, shrugging. "You can argue with Beautifly if you want, though."
Drew sniggered. "I… guess I had that coming," he said. "Still… I hope next time you stick to moves that Pokémon can normally use."
"No promises," May replied.
That evening, as they were about to leave Slateport, one of Ash's Pokemon had a question for him.
"How does trading Pokémon work?" Dratini asked. "I mean, um, I know how it normally works, which is that trainers swap Pokémon for Pokémon they'd like better. But how does it work for you?"
"I think it's mostly… will a Pokémon work better with someone else," Ash said, thinking. "And if they want to, too."
"Because… I kind of like the idea of doing Contests?" Dratini explained. "They look really amazing. And – well, and I wondered how long it would take, and if you'd be okay with that, and…"
Ash picked the Dragon-type up and gave him a hug. "Don't worry, okay?"
Dratini nodded slightly.
"If you want to go with May, and May is okay with that, then that's what you can do," Ash added. "It's not really about making it a formal trade, but we will get it registered at the Pokémon Centre just to be sure… uh… hey, Brock? Do trading machines swap registrations of Pokémon, normally?"
"That's kind of the whole point, Ash!" Brock called back.
"Well, there you go," Ash said.
May thought about it for approximately two and a half seconds.
"If that's what he wants, then that's great!" she said. "I'd be happy to have him on my team!"
Then she frowned. "I… actually don't know how that works, though. Do I need to catch a Pokémon to trade with you, or…?"
"Funny, I asked the same questions!" Dratini said, trying not to giggle.
AN:
Featuring a Pikachu short.