"Welcome home!" Norman said, embracing first his daughter and then his son. "How have you enjoyed your Pokémon Journey so far?"

"It's been like nothing I ever imagined," May replied, beaming. "I've made such good friends – I've seen so many things – it's been just… so good it's hard to describe!"

"That's what the very best journeys are like," Norman told her. "An adventure, and a discovery, and finding the Pokémon who will be with you for the rest of your life. That's exactly what it should be."

He stepped back a little. "And you, Max? How have you been getting on with your sister?"

"...I've learned a lot," Max said, after thinking about how to answer. "There's a lot of things out there that just don't match what I'd have learned in school, and it usually involves Ash… but not always…"

Norman chuckled. "Well, everyone come in, come in… Jirachi's still asleep, but I think Mightyena is going to be glad to see you, Max. And speaking of which, we haven't met your Beautifly, Dratini or Skitty yet, May… and we haven't seen Marill since she evolved, either! You'll have to introduce us all over again."

As they went inside, Max frowned, then chuckled.

"I just realized," he explained. "Now Mom and Dad can actually meet our Pokémon, because this time Vulpix is around. It's weird how quickly you get used to that."

"Used to what?" Norman asked.

"Vulpix can make it so people who aren't Ash can understand what Pokémon say," Brock explained. "It's a Hypnosis trick. Ash's Ninetales, Lokoko, can do it as well but he's got a bigger team to rotate through so it's usually Vulpix doing it."

"It's kind of weird to get reminded that not all humans understand Pokémon," Rayquaza mumbled.

"What's your plan for the rest of Hoenn?" Norman asked, spreading out a map on the table. "There's more Contest Halls than Gyms, of course…"

"I thought we'd go this way," Brock replied.

He drew out a line with his finger, going up towards Fortree City and then sweeping down to Lilycove. That done, the route went to Mossdeep for the seventh gym in Hoenn, then to Sootopolis before returning via Pacifidlog to Slateport.

"The Grand Festival comes before the League," Brock explained. "But this way we'll be ready for both by then, there's plenty of Contest Halls on the way and if we need to then we can fly around to catch up."

Norman chuckled. "If I'd had access to a Flying type who could fly me around Hoenn, I don't think I'd have been able to resist doing that on my own journey to save on walking… and it would have been a big shame, because that's how I met so much of my own team."

He smiled, remembering his own Gym Challenge, then snapped his fingers.

"Why don't we go over to the gym?" he asked. "It won't be a formal gym challenge, but we can get some sparring in – and I'd like to see how May's Pokémon are developing for skill, as well!"

Norman did not get to see how May's Pokémon were developing for skill.

"I'm sorry about that," Brock said, once they'd evacuated the building. "In hindsight, it was probably a bad idea to teach Mudkip Strength."

He patted Onix. "Are you feeling better now?"

"Fortunately, I have very high physical defence, Takeshi," Onix replied, sounding a bit woozy. "Allow me to credit Senri on the excellent strength of the wall I went through."

"So this is another one of those shortcuts, right?" Ash asked. "Like the Valley of Steel?"

"A bit," Brock replied. "Though it's for different reasons… or, to be more precise, the Valley of Steel is clearly marked while this one isn't. The main routes just go around it, and it'd add an extra day or so to our journey to skip it."

"Weird," Ash said, shrugging. "I wonder if it's because of the Pokémon around here? It can't be the weather, this is great!"

"...actually, it could be the weather," Brock mused. "I didn't even think of that, but you've got Rayquaza with you. Her Air Lock could be preventing what would normally be rainstorms or something."

"I can turn it off if you think that would be better," Rayquaza suggested.

"No, I think we're fine," Ash told her. "'cause there are Pokémon who normally live in wet areas, right? We haven't seen any of those, and the ground doesn't seem all that muddy, so this is probably just a normal bit of land."

"Makes sense to me," Pikachu mused. "What do you think, Swablu?"

"I think it's probably not a good thing that the compass Brock's using keeps spinning around?" Swablu said, leaning forwards on Brock's shoulder. "I'm just guessing though."

"Huh?" Brock asked, taking a proper long look at it this time.

It slowly spun through a complete circle over the course of about a minute, and Brock groaned.

"Or that could be why," he said. "We might have ended up going in circles… thanks, Swablu."

"No problem!" Swablu piped.

A little way further back, May frowned.

"Huh, I wonder why we've stopped?" she said.

"I think I overheard something about a compass, if that helps," Dratini said. "Hold on… can you lift me up a bit?"

"Sure," May agreed, bracing herself slightly, and hoisted Dratini up so the Dragon-type was at arms' length. "Erf… how's that?"

"Thanks!" Dratini told her. "And I can see a fence up ahead… if we'd kept going we'd just have run into the fence! Maybe it's that?"

"That would still mean we were lost, though, right?" Max asked, as May let Dratini down again. "Unless that wall isn't on the map or something…"

Then, to the surprise of just about everyone concerned, a Skarmory swooped down and grabbed May by the shoulders.

"Hey!" May protested, as the Skarmory began to pick her up. "Dratini – Twister!"

Dratini's tail flicked around, and the Dragon-type used Twister. A swirling torrent of Dragon-energy-infused wind rippled up, coiling around in a complex circle, and hit Skarmory four times – face, torso, both wings – without touching his trainer at all.

"OW!" the Steel-type screeched, talons releasing, and May fell about three feet until an invisible shape in the air caught her.

"I've got you," Latios said.

"And I've got some words to have with you!" Torchic added, bursting out of his Pokéball and glaring at Skarmory. "What was that about!?"

Skarmory looked shifty. "Umm…"

"That was the most amazing thing I've ever seen!" a Bulbasaur gasped, from just inside the fence. "I didn't even know you could make an attack do that!"

As it turned out, the walled-off area was a Pokémon nature preserve, specifically one for Grass-type Pokémon.

The Bulbasaur was a local, technically one of the Pokémon who lived on the preserve, but quickly decided to join May – something which May was only too happy to agree to – and the thing that took the most time was simply working out who to ask about that.

Eventually, through Latios' help to fly her around, Bulbasaur asked her mother and that seemed to be good enough for everyone involved.

"This is the first time I've had to make this kind of decision," May admitted, looking at the Pokéball she had ready to capture Bulbasaur and then at the rest of her team. "I guess… is anyone looking for some time off? It wouldn't have to be long."

"Well… I could?" Marill suggested. "I've already got a Ribbon, after all… and I know what I'm going to be practicing, but your dad might have a Pokémon with a useful move I could pick up too?"

"If you're okay with that, that sounds like a good idea," May said, with a smile. "All right, then, let's get that sorted out with Ibid and then Bulbasaur can join the team!"

"So if you want a lot of versatility in the Vine Whip, you need to give it a bit less than full force at the start," Brock's Bulbasaur explained. "That means you can add to the force as well as reducing it. Make sense?"

"It does!" May's Bulbasaur agreed, nodding. "I wonder why my parents never mentioned that?"

"It's the kind of thing you pick up from experience," Brock's Bulbasaur replied. "In my case, lots and lots of times stopping Brock from doing something stupid."

"Hey, he's not all that bad," Lotad said. "Though, yeah, he has kind of a weird approach with the señoritas. And it is best if you stop him singing after the first song, because he runs out."

"Yeah, that is a bit of a pain," Brock's Bulbasaur agreed.

He thumped the ground. "Also, nobody forget to specify which Bulbasaur you're talking about from now on… anyway, there's a lot of tricks you learn over time. It's not a criticism of your parents that they might not have all of them."

May's Bulbasaur nodded. "Right! And then, um… what about good coverage moves?"

Brock's Bulbasaur looked over at the humans discussing what to have for lunch. "Probably best to speak to Ash about that one."

He paused, listening to Ash asking whether Clefariy's Meteor Beam could be used to give Rayquaza a snack. "...later, though."

"...so, since the next gym is Flying type, we could focus on dealing with flying targets," Ash suggested. "It's good to be able to anyway, right?"

Pikachu nodded his approval. "A lot of us are ready already, one way or another, even the newcomers… Taillow certainly is… but I think Phanpy and Torkoal in particular need to work on it. Apart from that… well, there's Croconaw as well."

"Hmm…" Ash said, thinking.

"I have a suggestion," Zygarde mooted. "Instead of battling flying targets, you could simply have Phanpy ensure they cannot fly. Thousand Arrows is capable of ensuring this."

"Oh, yeah, that would be pretty neat!" Ash agreed.

Just then, a Pokémon popped up on the path in front of them.

"There you are!" Celebi said. "I told you to be here tomorrow, you're early!"

"Oh, hi, Celebi!" Ash replied. "Are you the same one from the Lake of Life? Or do you know me in my future instead?"

"What are you talking about?" Celebi asked, zipping around behind Ash and starting to push him. "I've thrown you into five problems so far this year! And I don't think I pruned the bits where I explained this… seriously, Ritchie, you can be dense sometimes!"

"Point of order!" Pikachu interrupted. "Wrong trainer. This is Ash, not Ritchie."

Celebi stopped pushing, and flew back around to inspect Ash, then took a Pokéball off his belt and examined it.

"My mistake!" she decided, and vanished into a time warp.

So did the Pokéball.

"Hey!" Ash called. "You forgot to put that down!"

"...did that just happen?" Max asked, a little baffled.

"Oh, did you not hear the one about how Zacian joined Ash's team?" Eevee said. "That one involved lots of time travel too, I… think. I'm a bit fuzzy on the details, and sort of miffed I didn't turn into a Chroneon!"

Celebi reappeared. "Sorry about that," she said, and dropped the Pokéball for Ash.

It opened, revealing a Dunsparce.

"So, uh, just to check?" Ash said. "Did you used to be Aggron?"

"That's me!" Dunsparce agreed, little wings flapping and raising him up to head height. "I got de-evolved by time flux, and this is what I ended up with when Celebi undid it! Kind of cute, huh?"

Celebi brushed dust off her hands. "There we go. Problem solved. Bye!"

"And… go!" May called, on the Contest floor in Rubello Town. "Defend Order!"

Beautifly's wings flapped hard as he came out of his Pokéball, sending forth a dense swirl of miniature Beautifly drones, and they swarmed around about halfway across the stage from Beautifly himself before coalescing into a shape – the shape of a flying Butterfree, around which other miniature drones whirled and circled.

"Now, launch a strike!" May added. "Attack Order!"

Beautifly sent out a second surge of drones, which whirled around him for a few seconds shaking out into a loose but intricate formation, and they went flying out towards the faux-Butterfree as Beautifly circled around.

The remaining drones around the Butterfree came flying out towards the strike and attacked it, some of them colliding with Attack Order drones and making both vanish in a flash, but the strike got through and plunged down on Beautifly's Butterfree creation. Some of the Attack Order drones hit the wings, others hit the torso, and the whole construct fragmented and fell towards the arena floor – only to dissolve into a cloud of drones where it would have crashed, and the drones flew back towards Beautifly to orbit him once more.

"...I'm so unfamiliar with how that move works that I'm not entirely sure how to judge that," Mr. Contest admitted. "Except that it looked very good."

"Well, normally the Defend Order involves a simple wall of Combee drones," his colleague Sukizo told him. "I trust you see why we're teleporting all around Hoenn to make sure we keep an eye on this remarkable young Coordinator?"

"Is that why you're judging with me?" Joy asked. "This morning I thought it was going to be Abby and Mr. Joyous from up the road…"

"You know, I think May might not have read the rules for this one properly," Brock said, consulting a pamphlet.

"Why's that?" Ash asked. "Did she break one of the rules or something?"

"No, it's just that she's using Beautifly again," Brock replied. "The rules for this Contest say you can use a different Pokémon in the battle round… they sometimes do, I think it's just chance that all of May's ones so far have been set-type."

Out on the floor, May called for Beautifly to use Defend Order. The now-familiar shield of interlocking Beautifly drones formed, and May's opponent – Savannah, a self-confessed fan of May's – ordered her Lairon to use Shock Wave.

The Shock Wave hit Beautifly's shield, punching a hole in it, but the charge didn't get any further and Beautifly rotated his shield to make sure there was no vulnerable path.

"Now, Attack Order!" May called, and Beautifly sent out the same swirling bombing-run assault from before. "And use Thunderbolt to counter that Shock Wave!"

Beautifly fired Thunderbolt from his left foreleg, twitching it each time he used it, and Lairon rumbled as her Shock Waves were countered.

"Ignore the drones!" Savannah called. "Send your Shock Wave through the hole in his shield – curve it!"

Max, who'd been watching May practice with Beautifly over the last week, put his hands over his ears.

"Flamethrower!" May ordered. "Bombing run!"

Beautifly's left hind leg kicked out, and a burst of flames flicked out. They hit his Defend Order shield and punched through, setting the whole thing on fire, and every one of the drones which had made it up plunged down on Lairon in a cascade of explosions.

"Didn't I say something about Pokémon only using moves they're meant to learn?" Drew asked, meeting up with May after the Contest. "Damn, girl, three ribbons now. You're really doing well."

"Well, Beautifly only really picked up a couple of moves since last time…" May replied, putting a finger to her lips. "And I'm sure Max told me about Butterfree using Flamethrower, so how is that not a move that butterfly Pokémon can learn?"

"...in retrospect that was the kind of request you were never going to be able to fulfil," Drew admitted. "I should have remembered you're travelling with the guy whose Noctowl pretends to be legendary Flying-types and it's hard to tell."

"Well, not just Flying-types," May said. "He's got Sacred Sword down now, so he can pretend to be Zacian as well!"

Drew laughed. "That's a terrifying thought."

AN:

Norman is a normal dad.

Sorry. Norman is a Normal dad, meaning he shares a Type with the Creator.