"This has taken entirely too long to arrange," Aten said, as they walked towards Hearthome Gym. "I know what you said about why she left, but she still should have made sure someone was here."
"I think she knows that, now," Ash said. "Though it is a bit hard to tell… Whitney, did they give you a guide about this sort of thing in Johto?"
"Well…" Whitney began, thinking. "I remember getting a lot of paperwork, but if there was one like that I must have missed it. So I can't say for sure!"
"They never give you a guide for becoming a trainer's Pokémon," Pikachu said. "Well, most people don't. The Ryuunited Kingdom give orientation sessions apparently, but I never got the benefit."
"You already knew what to do before I even got them," Ash chuckled.
Then someone gasped.
It was a big gasp, the kind of gasp that was loud enough and pervasive enough that you ended up paying attention to the gasper just because they made it impossible to do anything else, and all three of the humans (and Rapidash) turned to see who had done it.
A blond boy was pointing.
"You're Ash Ketchum!" he said.
"That's right!" Ash agreed. "And this is Pikachu!"
"Pikachu!" Pikachu said.
The boy looked confused. "Wait, hold on… I definitely overheard him talking before. Aren't you the one whose Pokémon can speak human?"
"Most of my Pokémon can't, actually," Ash replied. "They can understand what we say but not pronounce it. But what's actually going on is that Whitney's Rapidash is doing the translation – Pikachu just said Pikachu in Pikachu, but I can see how that would be confusing until you know what's going on!"
"I'm confused after that explanation," the boy said, then shook his head and held out his hand. "Anyway, uh… hi, I'm Barry!"
Dawn frowned a bit, but Barry was still going. "You're an amazing trainer! I saw some of your battles in the Pokémon Leagues, and I heard you beat the Battle Frontier as well – what's your secret?"
Ash thought about that.
"Well… I guess there isn't a secret about how I did well," he said. "I don't have some special training style that I use in secret, I just work with my Pokémon to make sure they get better at things that help them battle well… both making sure they're better at things that make them strong, and covering up for weaknesses. Though I guess I do try to make sure that most of my Pokémon have at least one thing that's versatile and that they're really good at, so maybe that's the kind of thing you mean?"
"Yeah, that sounds like it," Barry agreed.
"Wait, I remember you!" Dawn said. "Didn't you sing a duet in the Twinleaf Festival?"
"Yeah, I did," Barry confirmed. "And speaking of duets, weren't you all in the Hearthome Tag Battle Competition? That thing with the Chimchar was weird. What happened?"
"Paul didn't really think he was able to train Chimchar well, so he let Chimchar choose and he came to me," Ash summarized.
"Oh!" Barry said, suddenly realizing something. "If you're here in Hearthome again, and there's no special event, you must be here to challenge the Gym! I'm here to challenge the Gym as well!"
"He had better not take our slot," Aten growled.
"Oh, yeah, I forgot to finish the introductions," Ash realized. "This is Aten. That's Whitney, and her Rapidash, Dawn and her Piplup, and Zygarde and Marshadow here aren't anyone's Pokémon but they're just journeying with me. And I think Stantler's around here somewhere but I won't point him out because that's a bit rude when someone's going to all the effort to stay invisible."
Fantina welcomed them all to her gym, and said that she was glad to be facing Ash's challenge… and that she wasn't going to be judging herself based on how well she did against him, specifically, on the grounds that he was Ash Ketchum and therefore not a good basis for comparisons in any realistic sense.
"Is that rude?" Pikachu asked. "I'm not sure if it's rude. Do you think it's rude, Ash?"
"Not really," Ash replied. "People keep telling me that I've got unusual luck, so if they don't want to use me to base a comparison on that's their choice, right?"
Fantina chuckled. "Indeed, indeed," she said. "But, Ash, I mean more that you are a League Champion in your own right – twice – and so it should be expected that you would win a typical Gym Battle, though I will do my best anyway of course!"
"I wouldn't want you not to," Ash agreed. "Ready?"
"But of course!" Fantina replied. "I have no specific challenge for you, so send out your first Pokémon!"
Ash sent out Zacian, and for her part Fantina opened with Gengar.
"Ah," Zacian said, nodding to herself. "This is an interesting situation."
"Yeah, you'd better watch out, just in case," Ash agreed.
Fantina clapped her hands. "Commence! Shadow Punch!"
"Dazzling Gleam!" Ash replied, prompting Zacian to flash with brilliant light. It eroded the shadows making up Gengar's Shadow Punch, weakening the attack even though it couldn't prevent it, and Ash pointed up.
"Into the air!" he said. "Keep up Dazzling Gleam, and use a flaming sword!"
Zacian bent her head to the side, reaching for the hilt of her sword, and drew it out of her fur with a sound of audible sharpness. Her paws rested on thin air for a moment, then she flew backwards with a swirl of golden light around her, and the sword burst into flame as she channelled Fire Fang through it.
"Now turn it into a Sword Shield!" Ash added.
"I still think that name is not quite correct," Zacian said, throwing the flaming blade into the air anyway. It split into two, and while she caught the one made of metal the one made of flame began to circle around her. "It makes me sound like I'm fighting like Zamazenta, and I do love him but his style is most assuredly not my style."
Another sword blade added itself to the ones circling around Zacian, then another, and Fantina frowned.
"Ah…" she began. "How exactly is this working? I must ask… is that a move?"
"The correct answer to that around Ash is, and has always been… it wasn't until now," Pikachu opined.
"I got to thinking," Ash explained. "A sword is made of steel, and steel is conductive, so you can conduct fire or ice or lightning along the blade."
"I actually meant how they're flying all over the place, in a screen like that," Fantina clarified.
"Oh," Ash said, then shrugged. "It's a way to make it so she can block attacks better. I assumed that a Ghost move might just go through a Sacred Sword without being blocked, so there's this."
Fantina shook her head. "Gengar, use Hypnosis!"
"Eyes closed, Zacian!" Ash called.
Zacian immediately closed her eyes, so she didn't see Gengar's attempt to put her to sleep, and Ash frowned with concentration.
"He's above you," he called. "Now left – swooping around to the front – dodging down into the floor…"
Zacian's latest swipe of her flame-shrouded blade missed, and she tensed like a coiled spring.
"Poison Jab!" Fantina called suddenly.
"Iron Head behind you!" Ash called, just as quick, and Zacian whirled before striking out directly behind where she had been. She dropped enough for her paws to touch the ground, giving her extra leverage, and swept her main blade and all four of the duplicates across in a slashing pattern too tight for Gengar to evade as his Poison Jab bounced off her Iron Head.
"Gengar's not using Hypnosis at the moment!" Ash added.
Zacian's eyes opened, and she followed up her first strikes with another Moonblast – then a Night Slash, which came from overhead and slammed Gengar into the floor.
"However did you train Zacian to fight blindfolded like that?" Fantina asked. "That was most impressive!"
"I actually knew she already knew how," Ash admitted. "She taught me! She's really experienced in how to do a lot of things, and I like to think I've helped but I know she already knew a lot of it."
"The Night Slash was from an Absol, though," Zacian added. "It's a little unchivalrous, perhaps, but…"
She shrugged.
Aten went out next, going up against Fantina's Drifblim, and the Gym Leader clapped her hands together in delight. "That is such a unique Pokémon!"
"Unique… in what specific way do you mean that?" Aten inquired. "Because I haven't yet decided whether to be offended."
"In how wonderfully chic you look!" Fantina said. "Such a cute little Pokémon!"
"I have now made my decision," Aten grumbled.
"But cuteness alone is not enough," Fantina added. "This is a Pokémon that I raised from birth, you see! They are often more in tune with their trainer."
"Watch out, Aten," Ash called. "Be careful."
"Begin!" Fantina decided. "Will-o-wisp!"
Drifblim flung out a globule of flame, several more gathering on their strings, and Aten jumped to the side before breaking into a lope and avoiding the second Will-O-Wisp on a warning from Ash.
"Go in for a Bite!" Ash said.
"Keep using Will-o-Wisp!" Fantina instructed. "Form a flaming shield against that Zorua's attacks!"
"Never mind, pull back!" Ash amended.
Aten jumped straight through the Will-o-Wisp anyway and used Bite, clinging onto one of Drifblim's strings even as the Will-o-Wisp set him on fire, and began making muffled gnawing noises as he repeatedly Bit Drifblim.
"Shake him off!" Fantina said.
This proved to be quite hard, firstly because Aten was extremely tenacious and secondly because after a few seconds the flame had spread to Drifblim.
"Never mind shaking him off, then!" Fantina decided, after a minute. "Hex!"
Drifblim lifted the string Aten was clinging on to, focused, and used Hex.
The move passed straight through Aten, but it didn't pass through the string he was clinging on to. Drifblim hit themselves with their own Hex, and staggered in the air as the aftershocks of the self-directed attack pulsed through them.
"What is this?" Fantina demanded. "How can that happen? I do not understand at all!"
With another convulsive shake, Drifblim finally launched Aten clear, and the Normal-type flipped through the air before landing on the arena floor.
He slapped the ground, and a Whirlpool rose up around him which extinguished the flames.
"Somehow I hadn't expected that to happen," Dawn admitted.
Aten shook himself out, then slapped the ground again. This time it glowed around Drifblim, and flashed up into an electrical web.
"Zap," he said, flicking his tail, and the Thunder Cage snapped closed.
Drifblim did not enjoy this experience.
After Fantina had returned her Drifblim, and Ash had congratulated Aten on managing to turn a tricky situation to his advantage, Fantina raised her hand.
"So you do not tell your Pokémon off for not doing what you ordered?" she asked.
"Aten knew that he wasn't doing what I'd said," Ash agreed. "But he also knew that if that went wrong it was kind of his fault. So if he felt he had a better idea, I don't mind trusting him on that."
"Interesting," Fantina said. "Well, then, send out your final Pokémon!"
She sent out her Mismagius, and Ash threw his final Pokéball in response.
What came out was a red-furred Solgaleo with yellow sunrays, as tall as the ceiling and almost filling the arena, who brought his paw down on top of Mismagius and flattened her.
"Sucker Punch," he explained.
"Zorua, is that you?" Zacian asked. "Isn't this about the point when you fall over, when you try to do a Dynamaxed Pokémon?"
"But I'm not doing a Dynamaxed Pokémon," the now-revealed Zorua explained, and turned into a Giant Zorua instead. "It's an Illusion! But I realized that with Illusion I can pretend to be different Pokémon Ash could have, right?"
He waved his paw. "And I couldn't impersonate Moltres without being able to be tiny, or Cresselia without being able to be giant, and of course I couldn't impersonate being a Shiny without being able to look Shiny and Ash has loads of those now. So obviously I can impersonate being a Giant Shiny version of any Pokémon."
"Now I want to ask someone who'd know what the actual Shiny colouration is for Solgaleo," Ash mused. "It'd be kind of cool if you got it right!"
"I think, on balance, that you have won the Relic Badge," Fantina decided.
AN:
Usually it's not this hard to work out.