With something approaching a plan worked out, where Bianca would be accompanied by Kangaskhan to guarantee that she'd be safe, Ash went on the following morning to challenge the next Gym Leader in Unova – Elesa.
"I'm here to challenge Elesa," he explained.
"That's sort of redundant," Sandile commented.
"What?" Ash asked, confused. "They don't know."
"Nah, I meant differently," Sandile flicked his tail.
"Well, Elesa is in at the moment," the man at the desk said. "She's scheduled for a fashion show tonight, but she does gym hours at this time of day."
"That's sensible," Pikachu said. "I'm sure Whitney would approve."
"It can be tricky as a new gym leader to find a balance," Cilan admitted. "But making sure your schedule is transparent is probably the most important bit."
The receptionist opened the door for them, and Ash went through.
"Ash Ketchum?" Elesa asked, sounding quite surprised as Ash got off the roller coaster. "You're my challenger? I heard a strong trainer was doing the Unova Challenge, but nobody mentioned it was you. How exactly are you still doing Gym Challenges?"
She frowned. "And, more importantly, why?"
"Well, I get the idea that a lot of my Pokémon are able to train against one another," Ash said. "And that's something that they're doing! But doing Gym Challenges and League Challenges is a great way to see how my new team is learning and getting on with themselves – and I'm trying to stick to my new team, because they're the ones who need it most!"
"I suppose I can't actually stop you," Elesa conceded. "Though since I did know a strong trainer was doing the Unova Gym Challenge, I've got something ready. Feel free to use one of your stronger Pokémon, but apart from that I'm holding you to only using Pokémon you picked up in Unova."
Ash raised his hand.
"What is it?" Elesa asked.
"Just, when you say stronger Pokémon do you mean the ones who I didn't pick up in Unova?" Ash checked. "Because it's a bit ambiguous."
"Yes, that is what I mean," Elesa confirmed. "Now, pick your first Pokémon."
"Roggenrola, you go!" Ash called, sending her out with a flash.
"A Rock-type," Elesa said, her own first Pokémon coming out – an Emolga. "An interesting choice, and one that's given you the advantage."
"Watch out, Roggenrola," Ash advised. "Emolga are sort of like Zapdos, in type terms."
"The sad thing is, that actually is the best reference for Roggenrola's personal experience," Pikachu sniggered.
"Begin!" Elesa added. "Attract!"
Emolga zipped down and blew a pink heart at her opponent, and Roggenrola let it bounce off her.
"Sorry, I'm straight," she said. "I appreciate the thought."
"Unova has a lot of Pokémon who use Attract," Purrloin observed. "I wonder if they're just cuter here… I don't think I went on a move-teaching trip here in the last few decades."
"Rock Throw!" Ash called.
Roggenrola did a backflip and launched herself through the air, bouncing off Emolga, and came back down with a whud.
"Instructions unclear, threw only available rock," she said.
"That works!" Ash decided. "Keep it up!"
"Volt Switch!" Elesa ordered, and Emolga blurred down with a flash of lightning to hit Roggenrola. She vanished with a flash, swapping out for a beautiful Zebstrika, and the Electric-type hammered Roggenrola with a Rock Smashing blow of her forehooves.
"Now, Earthquake!" Ash decided.
"Volt Switch!" Elesa called again, this time swapping Zebstrika out for an Eelektross. The Earthquake attack missed, leaving Roggenrola grumbling, and she rolled across the floor before spinning upright.
"I have decided to do seismology on you," she said, and her eye began to glow.
This turned out to mean Boomburst.
A pulse of sound flashed out and smacked into Eelektross, but the Electric-type just used Volt Switch again.
"Okay, new plan," Roggenrola decided, as Emolga flew overhead. "Stone Edge."
The ground trembled, and brownish stones appeared in a ring around Roggenrola.
"Shouldn't you be ordering your Pokémon?" Elesa checked.
"I think she's got a plan and I'm not going to ask her to explain it!" Ash replied. "It'd just mean you or Emolga could hear it."
"Volt Switch," Elesa replied.
Roggenrola's stones grew around her to form a dome, and Emolga bounced off – without switching out.
Then the dome exploded.
"Oh, right, I get it!" Ash said, as Emolga went thud onto the ground. "Those are made of sandstone! And that's made of quartz, right, which is that stone you were telling me about that's, um, a piece of electric?"
"Piezoelectric," Roggenrola confirmed. "It's simple science."
"Well, Eelektross, your turn," Elesa decided, sending out the levitating Electric-type. "Again. Aqua Tail!"
Eelektross slammed Roggenrola into the wall, where she went thump and collapsed.
"I guess she's been knocked out," Ash said.
Then Roggenrola evolved into Boldore, but continued to lie there unconscious.
"Is that actually possible?" N asked.
"Do you want the obvious answer or the obviously wrong answer?" Zygarde replied. "I can provide you with either of them."
"Oshawott, you go!" Ash said, only for not just Oshawott but also Zekrom to come out of their Pokéballs.
"Why not me?" Zekrom asked. "Oshawott's had one battle so far, same as me!"
"Because it's more useful for Oshawott's development for him to battle here," Ash replied. "You're an Electric and Dragon type, so you've got a lot of resistance to Electric attacks, while it's one of Oshawott's weaknesses."
"Oh, yeah, that's a good point," Zekrom admitted. "It's a more ideal way of training."
Reshiram manifested from the Light Stone.
"You went through a lot of words there to avoid saying the word True!" he complained.
As the Vast White and Deep Black Pokémon began squabbling, Oshawott flourished his shell. "Strengthen my heart, Scalchop!"
It flared up, a clear whitish colour, and Oshawott brightened. "Ooh, this one's a good one!"
"Are you ready to begin again?" Elesa asked. "I know which way this is probably going, but I want to make sure it happens properly."
"Yeah!" Ash agreed.
"Then begin," Elesa said. "Discharge!"
Lightning flashed out from the Electric-type, and Oshawott swung his Scalchop blade to fend off some of the electrical energy. A bit got through nevertheless, and Ash raised his hands.
"Water Gun as a decoy!" he said. "Then Tailcurrent!"
"Right!" Oshawott agreed, blasting out some water with quick bursts that made it suck up some of the lightning, and more splashed in front of him. He promptly stepped on the puddle, and it rushed forwards in a kind of self-contained circling current that spun him forwards like a set of pinball accelerators.
Eelektross missed with its second attack, and Oshawott jumped into the air to bring his Scalchop blade down with both paws.
"Retaliate!" he said, with great glee, and hit Eelektross hard enough that the levitating Pokémon hit the ground.
"Shock Wave," Elesa decided. "What's Tailcurrent?"
"It's like Tailwind, but with water," Ash said. "Currents move things around too!"
"Can you do that?" Elesa asked, glancing over at an aide. "Can he do that?"
"Pokémon League rule 182.4C says he can!" N supplied.
"182 point 4C," Arc repeated. "This rule intentionally left blank. Possibly you meant 182.4D, which says that new moves by definition are not on the ban list until they are copies of moves already on the ban list."
N complained about how having a rule that was that there was no rule there was unsporting, but by then Oshawott was speeding around in circles trying to stay away from a Shock Wave attack chasing him and Ash was more focused on that.
"Head straight for Eelektross!" Ash called. "Now – duck under him!"
Oshawott slid underneath the Electric-type, and Elesa's Pokémon held up an arm and blocked the attack.
"You realize that wasn't going to do much damage?" Elesa checked. "Eelektross is an Electric type."
"Yeah, but it meant it didn't hit Oshawott!" Ash replied.
"Retaliate!" Oshawott added, throwing his Scalchop, and it beaned Eelektross and knocked the Electric-type out.
Then it turned off.
"Oh, right, um… I don't think I can retaliate any more," the Water-type added. "Can I come back now?"
Ash recalled Oshawott, switching the Water-type's Pokéball out for a Safari Ball, and Iris looked interested.
"Who's that?" she asked. "I think I remember about half the Dragonite now… with help, anyway."
"Nah, this is Raikou," Ash replied, sending the Electric-type out.
She immediately turned to jump up at Ash and give him a lick, then tried jumping into his hands, and Ash just about caught her without overbalancing.
"It's nice to see you as well," he told her. "I might need to let you down now though."
"But this is a good vantage point," Raikou complained, before jumping down with good grace.
"That was cute," Cilan said. "I don't actually have a cooking metaphor for that one at the moment, it was just nice."
"Well, now," Elesa began, and steepled her fingers before pushing them out in front of her.
"This should be the star of the show, I think," she said, sending out her Zebstrika. "I've got a special surprise ready."
Adjusting part of her outfit, she revealed a Mega Ring – which lit up with a flash of light, matched by a bead woven into Zebstrika's mane near the back end, and when the glow faded Zebstrika had become Mega Zebstrika.
Mega Zebstrika had a pair of antlers, a rainbow pattern all along the mane down his back, and shimmering rainbow fetlocks around his rear hooves.
He was also visibly twitching in place, with sparks and rainbow light fizzing off his coat.
"Wow, this is a real rush!" he said, hooves drumming on the floor despite lifting them less than an inch each time.
"Begin," Elesa said. "Signal Beam!"
"Thunder curtain!" Ash retorted, and Raikou reared up. Sparks flashed around her paws, and formed a solid wall of lightning bolts which took the attack head-on and neutralized it.
"Go around the back!" Elesa said, and Mega Zebstrika flashed across so he was flanking Raikou's defensive wall.
He kept moving after that, though, suddenly trying to backwheel, and went slam into the wall hard enough to shake the building.
"Ow!" he yelped. "That's new – whoah!"
Another dodge, and this time he only took two steps but each one sent him blurring across almost a third of the arena in a shower of sparks and rainbow light.
"I don't think I was ready for thiiiiis," he complained, jittering around. "Signal Beam!"
Raikou dodged, this time, moving fluidly before crouching down and pouncing at Mega Zebstrika.
She went crash into the floorboards.
"Raikou, are you okay?" Ash asked.
"For some reason I really, really thought he'd be moving," Raikou admitted. "I think it's some kind of instinct about a big cat and a zebra."
"Are you a cat or a dog?" Pikachu asked. "I've never got a firm answer on that."
"Yes," Raikou replied.
Then she got hit by a flash of light.
"Use Extremespeed!" Ash said.
Raikou darted in, and Mega Zebstrika yelped and vanished with a flash.
"Where did he go?" Ash asked, as Raikou slid to a halt and looked around in confusion.
A faint voice floated down from above.
"I never tried jumping before! I also never tried landing before, so this was a bad idea!"
The Mega Zebstrika was slowly spinning in mid-air, up near the rafters, as his remaining upward momentum slowly changed into downward momentum.
When he was roughly upside down, he bent his knees and took a deep breath.
"Moonblast!" he announced, kicking out, and a blur of sparks and rainbow light connected his former position with the ground. This time the wham was massive, leaving a crater that fizzed and crackled, and even though he'd hit next to Raikou rather than landing on top of her he'd still sent her flying into the wall.
"That didn't look like a Moonblast," Elesa frowned. "That looked like a Wild Charge."
"It came from above and it definitely blasted," Mega Zebstrika replied, picking himself out of the crater. "I'm half Fairy type and Moonblast doesn't have a very painful recoil."
He waved a hoof frantically, which made sparks fly off it. "I'm not saying I disagree, I'm saying please stop arguing about it before reality decides to retroactively agree with you."
"Makes sense to me," Ash decided. "Raikou, are you doing okay?"
"I assume so," Raikou answered, shaking her coat out. "Do I aim at the left Zebstrika or the right one? No, wait, there we go, there's just one now."
"Great!" Ash said. "Mega Zebstrika is half Fairy type, so match his speed with Thunderbolt and use Steel Wing!"
"None of the second half of that sentence makes sense," Elesa complained, but then Raikou blurred into motion like a living thunderbolt. Silvery half-there Steel Wings appeared on her back, and Mega Zebstrika apparently lost his reservations about trying to move at full speed in favour of not being hit by Raikou.
"Hey, Keldeo?" Ash asked, as the two high-speed Electric-types blurred all over the place – too fast to follow, and half the time running on the walls, as Mega Zebstrika shot Signal Beams back at his pursuer and Raikou tried to hit him with Steel Wing. "What's the default rule on ring out?"
"Um… I think the latest ruling is that the default is rule 45 option 4," Keldeo mused. "Or option 3. But the important bit is that it disqualifies any Pokémon who leaves the arena entirely, or the gym in a gym battle, regardless of the reason so long as it's not outside interference."
"That is option 2," Arc said. "But it is indeed the default."
"Right!" Ash said. "In that case – Raikou, use Magnetic Flux!"
Reaching up, Ash took firm hold of Pikachu.
Then Raikou used Magnetic Flux in a way not considered standard by most electricians.
The result hurled all the Electric-types in the room violently away from a point just in front of her muzzle, resulting in Mega Zebstrika sailing out a window, Raikou going neatly through the door, and Zekrom going crash through one of the walls that probably wasn't load bearing.
Ash sent out Oshawott.
"Did you have to do that?" Elesa asked.
"Probably not, but the other option I was thinking of was having Raikou use Discharge and try and overload Mega Zebstrika's speed," Ash explained. "Or make him explode, depending on if he had Motor Drive or Lightning Rod."
Zekrom re-entered the building, which took a while because he had to line himself up properly with the hole.
"I suppose I have to give you the Bolt Badge," Elesa decided.
AN:
Reluctantly.