Maylene phoned the next morning to see if Fantina was back at her Gym yet, but it turned out that either the answer was no or she didn't believe in picking up her phone.

That still left several Gyms to pick from, and to avoid going too far from Hearthome they decided on Pastoria. It would be a walk south to the marshes, which sounded pleasant and not too much trouble, so it was decided.

"Thank you all for the help," Maylene said, waving goodbye. "And thank your Rayquaza for not eating the meteorites!"

"She's got good manners about that kind of thing," Ash laughed. "And Reggie, say hi to Paul for me!"

"I get the feeling you'll see him soon enough," Reggie said. "But next time I see him I'll ask if he's seen you first."

As they walked away, Ash sent out Torkoal and Moltres.

"So I had this idea," he began. "Do you think you could learn the way the other does flames?"

"I'm not sure that's really on brand," Torkoal admitted. "His flames are all about anger, right? That doesn't fit with my policy of being full of positive passion and a zest for life."

Moltres chuckled. "What about if I combined positive passion, a zest for life, and dislike of anyone who doesn't share that attitude?"

"You mean you'd be burninating the hip?" Torkoal asked, thinking about that. "Well-"

"Hold on," Moltres interrupted, looking at the Fire-type again. "I just realized, you're definitely keeping up with me. How?"

"I don't sleep while I'm moving, which makes me faster than a hair!" Torkoal said, blasting smoke out of his nostrils. "And Entei is definitely hairy. So that makes me at least as fast as him."

Moltres considered that.

"And the flying?"

"My legs are short," Torkoal explained. "I'd have to take many steps to keep up with you! So flying is much easier."

"And I suppose you're good at beating more than one enemy at the same time, because that's terrapin bowling?" Moltres asked.

"What?" Torkoal said. "No!"

A pause.

"I'm going to have to try that! I will be successful, or I will do ten laps of the campsite tonight!"

Several hours later, just outside Veilstone, Saturn turned on his radio.

"Sir," he began. "Ash Ketchum is no longer in Veilstone."

"You're certain?" Cyrus asked, on the other end of the radio line. "Did you actually see him leave?"

"I confirmed that someone who looked like Ash Ketchum, with people who looked like his friends, was leaving Veilstone this morning," Saturn said. "They were accompanied by Pokémon who looked like some of Ash Ketchum's Pokémon, and some of the Pokémon known to belong to his friends. And a tiny Moltres."

He glanced over to the side. "Also, my Toxicroak has finally stopped shuddering."

"That should do," Cyrus decided. "Get to work converting the Spear Key. And remember, evacuate without engaging if he does come back."

"Yes, sir," Saturn confirmed.

He turned the radio off, and stretched.

Waiting for hours was enervating, sure, but it was better than suddenly finding out that the meteorite you'd stolen was hiding a Legendary Pokémon inside it.

"...actually, is that possible?" he asked, out loud. "Toxicroak, if you feel anything… don't assume I've noticed."

"I was wondering, Marshadow," Ash said, glancing down at his side. "What are you the Legendary of?"

"That's a good question," Marshadow admitted, phasing out of Ash's shadow and walking alongside him. "Possibly shadows? Possibly stealing? It is not very clear."

"Stealing?" Dawn replied. "Is that something you do?"

"It is one of my powers," Marshadow said. "Actually, it is two of my powers. Firstly, I have a move called Spectral Thief, which steals the strength of the target. Secondly, I can copy the abilities and moves of someone when I hide in their shadow."

He shrugged. "But that is more of a can-thing than a do-thing. I would ask first."

"I wouldn't mind!" Ash told him. "You should have said before, I'd be happy to let you do that."

"That would be nice," Marshadow told him. "But yes. Shadows, or stealing, or something along those lines."

"Hey, isn't that a Mythical Pokémon?"

A Ranger came jogging over the top of a hill, recognizable by his distinctive outfit, and his hand went to his Styler before he skidded to a halt and did a double-take. "Wait, aren't you Ash Ketchum?"

"That's me!" Ash agreed.

"There was a special bulletin from Ranger HQ," the Ranger explained. "It said, uh… hold on."

He flipped his Styler open, and tapped the buttons a bit. "Here it is. 'If you see Ash Ketchum with a Legendary or Mythical Pokémon, assuming you know what the difference is, don't assume he stole it. He didn't.'"

"As we were discussing, I think it is more likely that I would steal Ash rather than that Ash would steal me," Marshadow said. "Though I don't think I could fit him into his own shadow anyway."

The Ranger, Kellyn, was actually out looking for a missing Riolu from the Lucario Kingdom. It seemed that some unknown person had kidnapped the Riolu, and nobody knew where they were but Kellyn was on a mission to find out.

"The good news is, I've been getting hints that they might be – well, not safe, but not currently imprisoned," Kellyn informed Ash. "Stylers are a bit of a two-way street, if you're good enough, and the Pokémon I've contacted sometimes remember seeing a Riolu around here looking lost and frightened."

"Well, of course we've got to go and help Riolu!" Ash said, one hand going to his belt. "Uh… I don't have Cresselia today, so I guess we can't look from the air… Starly, can you and Noctowl go looking?"

"I'll help out too," Whitney decided, as both Flying-types set off. "Rapidash, can you help me ask the local Pokémon? Oh, but if we're going to head off in different directions to look we should agree where to meet up… and every group should have a translator with them, or something like that!"

Kellyn frowned, thinking.

"I know what might help," he suggested, reaching into his bag. "I've got a carving made by Riolu's foster parent… that might help persuade Riolu that we're here to help out."

"Then let's find that Riolu!" Ash declared. "Meet back here later?"

"Nothing so far, ma'am," one of J's lieutenants reported.

"Continue the sweep," she replied. "That Riolu is worth a lot of money to us and I want to make sure we get to spend it. Airships aren't cheap."

"Copy that," the lieutenant agreed.

Hunter J ended the transmission, and her Salamence rose higher at a non-verbal command. Her goggles scanned the ground, running advanced pattern recognition algorithms to identify any possible cue as to where the Riolu had gone.

"It's got to be somewhere," she said, in a half-whisper. "But where?"

Another four or five minutes passed in silence, then there was a sudden ping as the goggles identified something coming into view over the edge of a grassy hill.

"Down there," J commanded, and Salamence began to dive.

He covered the distance in less than a minute, and as he slowed down J evaluated the situation – the Riolu out in the middle of a hilly field, far from cover.

Good.

Salamence flared his wings, and J fired her freeze blaster – then did a double-take as her goggles highlighted something else.

The Ketchum boy was running over, with his Pikachu on his shoulder.

"Damn it," J muttered, then looked closer at the readouts on her goggles and frowned.

Then she tapped Salamence on the shoulder. "Now!"

The Key Stone in her glove burst into light, matched by Salamence's Salamencite, and he dropped down to hover as Mega Salamence just two feet over the now-unmoving Riolu.

J sent out two Crobat and a Weezing as well, just to reinforce the point, and raised her voice.

"I'm not here to fight you, boy!" she said. "I'm after that Riolu. Let me have it and there won't need to be a fight."

"I won't let you take him!" Ash shouted back.

"You don't have any Pokémon with you except that Pikachu," J pointed out. "Your belt's empty."

"But-" Ash began, and Pikachu said something before starting to emit sparks.

J had seen enough, and signalled. The Weezing used a mixture of Smog and Smokescreen, obscuring what was going on, and both Crobat darted down to snatch the Riolu before bringing it back to J. The moment that she had hold of Riolu, J thumped Mega Salamence's back, and the Dragon-type rocketed away with a blast of lightning following him.

Down on the field below, the smokescreen slowly dissipated, and Ash and Pikachu watched as J vanished into the distance.

Then Ash went poof and turned into Zorua, Pikachu shimmered and turned into Noctowl, and Zorua sniggered.

"I almost wish I'd gone along to see her reaction, now," he admitted.

"It's a tricky move, it took me a while to get the hang of it," Ash said, sitting cross-legged. "The idea is partly that you form a sword, sure, but it's also about the emotions involved with using it – and you need to do both at the same time, there's no point getting the shaping bit exactly right without bothering with the emotion, and just getting the emotion without using the right shape isn't going to help either. It's all about the combination."

Riolu nodded, hanging off Ash's every word.

"Watch this carefully," Ash added, and grasped thin air. It solidified into a blue Sacred Sword, and Riolu's jaw dropped slightly before he blinked and pushed it closed again with a paw.

"It's amazing seeing a human do that," he said. "I could feel your Aura reacting to it!"

"It's about having something important to you, that's the focus," Ash told him. "It's why it's called Sacred Sword, I think… do you want to give it a go?"

"Can you do it again?" Riolu asked.

Ash did just that, and Riolu watched with his eyes closed this time.

"I'm glad you guys were around," Kellyn decided, leaning against a tree and watching. "Rangers are meant to have a good rapport with Pokémon, and we do, but it's not usually like this!"

"Ash is something special, all right," Whitney smiled. "Oh, almost forgot… I need to take notes on this! Riolu are definitely better for hugging than Lucario!"

Dawn thought about that.

"Is it the lack of spike?" she asked.

"It's the lack of spike!" Whitney agreed. "I'm sure Lucario can hug just fine, but they need to think about it, which means the spontaneous expression of emotion is a teensey bit harder to do. And you can pick up a Riolu, too, while that's not really an option for a Lucario and they're a bit short to pick you up – properly, anyway."

She winked. "There's a lot of thought that has to go into this kind of thing, you know."

"I bet," Dawn smiled.

And, some distance away, Hunter J hid under her desk.

"Can't you stop that Pokémon?" she demanded.

"Not sure how, boss!" one of the goons replied. "What do we even do to stop it? It's going through the walls!"

"That's because your walls aren't nearly thick enough," the weird Purrloin said, slipping out from behind a wall. "Mind you, I'm not sure what would be thick enough."

J fired a freeze blast, and it went straight through.

"Missed!" Purrloin said, sticking her tongue out, then dove into the floor.

Her voice came again, muffled by distance. "Hey, this big red and black cable looks important. Snip!"

The whole airship juddered.

"That was one of the main lift units!" J snapped. "If you keep doing that the whole thing's going to crash with you on it!"

"And I'm sure I'd be really worried by that if I wasn't exactly as tangible as I wanted to be," Purrloin said, jumping out of the floor again and scratching her chin with her tail blade. "Oh, are the lift units each for the whole ship, or do they stabilize different bits? I wonder if I can make this go on its side!"

Salamence used Dragonbreath, which didn't work either, and Purrloin stood on her hind legs, put her forepaws on her hips, and huffed.

"Rude!" she said. "Now I'm going to have to see if I can turn it upside down instead. It'll be like Trick Room, only, an airship."

She rummaged inside a wall, stirred something with her tail, and the whole ship went transparent.

"Ooh, malfunctioning cloaking module!"

J started wondering if there was such a thing as a loyalty discount on airships.

AN:

Caution, avoid villainous plans around Ash.