"So the first thing you should know about Contest performances, with Electric attacks, is continuity," Dawn said, as the delicious smell of cooking hovered around their camp. "A lot of Electric attacks are really fast, they can be over in a flash, but because a Contest is about spectacle and looking good that can actually be a disadvantage. Can you see why?"

Cyndaquil chewed on his lip.

"Is it because the audience doesn't have time to see the good bit?" he asked, uncertainly.

"That's it exactly," Dawn agreed. "Well done. So instead, when in a Contest you kind of… set it up so the electric attack isn't necessarily done as fast as possible, but instead it's as consistent as possible. So it happens over and over again, and it adds up to the same as a proper attack."

She demonstrated. "So that's a Thundershock, but slowed down and done over and over again. See?"

"I think so," Cyndaquil agreed, then brightened. "Oh! Is that why you're teaching me as a Plusle? I was wondering about that."

"That's right," Dawn confirmed. "I'm not really up to Contest levels myself yet, but I can show you what I mean just fine."

Cyndaquil nodded along with that.

"Hey, does anyone know what this is?" Phanpy asked, trotting into the clearing. "I found it over there."

Dawn looked around, then got help from Riolu who gave her a boost so she could see what Phanpy had.

"That looks like… well, a pirate treasure chest?" Dawn tried.

"Oh, that's what I was thinking of!" Phanpy realized. "I found it, but that doesn't always mean I know what it is, so… yeah!"

"Is there anything in it?" Riolu asked. "It could be pirate treasure, and then we could work out who Chatot should work with to loot it."

He paused. "I don't actually know all that much about how pirates work, I have belatedly realized."

"What's that, Phanpy?" Whitney asked, holding out her arm so Chatot could land on it. "Mind if we have a look?"

"Go ahead!" Phanpy agreed. "I'm not really sure what's in here, but I quite like the box so please be careful not to break it?"

"Sure thing," Whitney agreed. "Chatot, mind helping out?"

"Not at all!" Chatot told her.

Phanpy put the chest down, and Chatot used Supersonic to whistle into the lock. Then his tone changed, and a few seconds later the lock went click and unlatched.

"What's inside?" Dawn asked, interested.

"Just some paper," Whitney replied, taking it out and unfolding it. "Huh. That's… weird."

She got her phone out, dialled a number, and waited while it rang.

"Hi, yeah! Me again, I know I called about how the gym was doing earlier today, but we just found a buried chest in Sinnoh, with a letter in it – yeah, that's right."

Dawn watched, puzzled, as Whitney nodded along to what she was hearing on the other line.

"Okay," she said. "Will do. And don't forget, Wigglytuff needs a pair of bongos… got it. Talk later!"

She ended the call, then held up the paper. "Rapidash, use Mystical Fire! And don't send this anywhere, just burn it."

Rapidash did so, and the paper was burned to ashes.

"Was that important?" Phanpy asked.

"The person who wrote it doesn't think it's true any more, and asked me to get rid of it," Whitney explained. "Still, you've got the chest!"

Between the Spear Pillar and Daybreak Town, Ash and friends were walking through a large, confusing forest – one which Stantler said with a happy sigh was just like home – when a Scizor came zooming out of the sky.

Chimchar sprang up, crossing his arms, and a flash of flame whirled into a shield. The Scizor bounced off, looking annoyed, then a shout came from overhead.

"Scizor!"

The Bug-type winced. "Sorry."

"I'm sorry about that," the girl's voice added, getting closer, and it turned out that she was in a hot-air balloon. "I'm training with Scizor to battle in high winds, but that sometimes means he goes off course, because… that's what high winds are."

"Oh, that's a neat way of training!" Ash said. "Most of my Pokémon have trained in conditions that include high winds, but I don't think any have trained specifically for high winds."

"My grandfather's an expert in it," the girl told them proudly. "His Scizor beats my Chimecho all the time, and not just because of type differences. But I have to learn it, not just Chimecho, and I can't just rely on Scizor to get it right… so it's been all kinds of interesting, learning what Scizor can do and how to do it."

They could see the Chimecho, now, carefully steering the balloon in for a landing, and Dawn frowned.

"Hey, if your grandfather is good at training Pokémon to fly in unusual ways, maybe he could help Pachirisu? Or Whitney's Rapidash, he can fly but it's a bit brute-force."

"It's true," Rapidash sighed. "I'm just holding myself in the air. I have low wingpower, the wings are mostly for show."

"Did that Rapidash just-" the girl began, then interrupted herself. "I, uh, sorry, I'm Maya. And, I guess you could ask my grandfather, but he doesn't really take students any more. I'm more learning from Scizor than from him in a lot of ways."

Maya led them to her grandfather, Mr. McCann and Ash showed off the Pokémon he had who could fly.

This went on for some time.

"Oh, yeah, this is a fun trick," he said. "Ready, Rayquaza?"

Rayquaza nodded, reached into her backpack, and turned into Tiny Shiny Primal Groudon.

She stayed hovering in the air.

"She learned Fly," Ash explained. "And I realized that there's no reason she should forget a move when she changes form, especially if it's not a speciality move for that form. So she's using Fly right now!"

Mr. McCann coughed. "I'm, actually more of an expert on having Pokémon who can already fly take advantage of different ways to fly."

"That's okay," Ash said. "What about Suicune? She can already fly, but I'm not sure if there's something about the way she flies by standing on the water making her paws damp that we could exploit but we aren't doing yet."

Mr. McCann blinked.

"...standing on the water making her paws damp?" he repeated. "Uh… well, I'm not sure how I'd begin to help with that one. I don't know what it means she could or couldn't do, so I don't know what the tweaks are."

"That's okay too!" Tiny Shiny Flying Primal Groudon said, then reverted to Tiny Shiny Rayquaza because it was getting a bit hot. "Miss Suicune can control the winds, so that's a step better than using them. Right?"

"I can't believe this, but I'm reconsidering whether it was a good idea to take up a career that's over," Mr. McCann groaned.

"Excuse me," Cyndaquil asked. "But don't storms have winds involved with them? Would it help me out if I learned to do things with the wind?"

"Ooh!" Mew said. "I've been wondering who would let Ash-and-his-friends catch up with Brandon for the Tao Trio!"

"How did you get that from what Cyndaquil asked?" Swinub said.

"Who's the Pokémon move expert here, you or me?" Mew replied.

"Based on what you do, I wouldn't have called you an expert on what Pokémon learn what moves," Pikachu pointed out.

Mew folded their arms. "Hmph! Shows what you know, I pay loads of attention to the rules. It makes it better when I show how wrong they are."

During the process of Mew training Cyndaquil to do whatever it was that Mew had decided Cyndaquil could do – which appeared to be starting with teaching Cyndaquil the electric-type version of Sandstorm but wasn't finishing there – the friends met a Gible.

"So… just to check," Gible opened with. "You're the guys I've heard about, right?"

"We could not be," Pikachu replied. "What have you heard about?"

"Something about a group of trainers and Pokémon who keep redefining what's possible and what's impossible," Gible answered.

"Okay, yeah, that's us," Pikachu agreed immediately. "Why?"

"Well, I wanted to run this idea I had past someone, before I tried it," Gible said. "See, I've heard that Garchomp can fly. I've even seen it! But what I don't get is how they can fly. It's a puzzle."

"Yeah, it is," Ash agreed, pulling Ibid out. "Any ideas?"

"Data suggests that Garchomp can fly at high speeds because it looks like a jet plane," Ibid told them.

"Huh!" Ash said, thinking. "So, could Garchomp always fly, or was it only since people invented jet planes?"

"I saw them flying a looong time ago," Mew told them all. "Before jet planes, certainly!"

"So in that case…" Ash frowned. "They could fly because they looked like a type of plane that was going to be invented in the future. So if someone invented a kind of smaller, more boxy aircraft, then maybe a Gible could fly too!"

"That makes sense to me!" Gible said brightly. "Um, but… wait, hold on, we don't need to wait until one is invented, because a Garchomp could fly before the jet plane was invented!"

Cyndaquil raised a paw. "Is this normal?"

"I'm not going to interrupt them, this is great," Whitney replied. "I think I see where this is going!"

"And we don't need to prove that a plane will eventually be built that looks like a Gible, either!" Ash said. "Or, sort of like a Gible, because I haven't seen a jet plane that looks more than sort of like a Garchomp. But those Garchomp hadn't had it proved, so that means we can just assume and see if it works!"

Gible floated into the air.

"Great!" he said. "Hey, mind if I come along with you guys? This is amazing fun!"

"You could join the Ryuunited Kingdom," Ash suggested. "I bet King Dragonite would love to meet you!"

Professor Oak checked off the latest Pokémon on his list.

"Flying Gible," he said. "Bit of a long shot, but it turned up anyway."

"Professor, are you playing bingo with Ash's luck?" Tracey asked.

"I'm old, at least according to Ash," Professor Oak replied. "That means I'm supposed to play bingo."

Growlithe jumped up on his desk, curious, and looked at the list.

"This isn't a very good game of shiritori," she said. "You haven't lined it up at all."

Oak and Tracey exchanged glances.

"Is it worth asking Lokoko to translate?" the Professor asked.

"Probably not," Growlithe replied, shaking her head.

AN:

Flying Pokémon.

Flying type Pokémon.

The terms don't have much relation to one another these days, right?