"All right, here we are in Virbank City!" Ash said. "So, what's this place like?"

"It's got an amusement park," Cilan told him. "Also, there's Extreme Action Amusement Park a little way off into the hills, which… doesn't have a great reputation."

"Oh, I heard of that place," Iris said. "The elders always said it was kind of a neat place to visit, so long as you were tough enough."

Cilan gave Iris one of the most disquieted looks he'd produced all region. "The elders said that?"

"What is it about this place which is so bad?" N checked.

"Well, Extreme Action Amusement Park has an interesting safety record," Cilan explained. "I heard that it was built as a Pokémon amusement park, but they just opened it to humans as well – one of the waterslides drops you out thirty feet over a pool of freezing water, and the On Fire coaster was fortunately only run once."

Iris winced. "Ouch. So what happened?"

"Well, the coaster caught fire, but then it promptly dumped everyone out thirty feet over a pool of freezing water," Cilan replied. "On top of the people who'd just come out of the waterslide, who were a bit surprised."

"Now I sort of want to visit," Pikachu said. "What do you think, Zorua?"

"I think it'd be a unique experience," Zorua mused. "Though I'm not sure if that's because nowhere else is like it, or because we'd get too badly injured to do anything more than once."

"Well, apart from that, there's also a movie studio," Cilan resumed. "Pokéstar Studios! It's where a lot of the best films in Unova are made."

He shrugged. "I assume, I mean, they make so many here…"

"Hey, what are you doing over there?" Iris called.

Iris looked up, surprised. "Wait, is that what I sound like?"

"People often sound different from the outside," Ash told her. "Mew says that it's either because of resonant frequencies in the bones in your head, or it's because of how your mind inherently imbues the personal with different qualities to the external and you just don't notice the different interpretation."

Cilan chuckled. "If you don't mind my saying so, Ash, both those answers are a lot more technical than I was expecting from you!"

"Sometimes Mew feels like explaining things," Ash said. "Sometimes I don't really get it, but I usually assume that he knows what he's talking about."

"I said-" the other Iris began, then their friend Luke put his hand on her shoulder.

"You're doing great at getting the voice right," he told her. "But remember how many Pokémon with illusion abilities Ash has? I think they just assumed you were a Zorua."

"That's Pokémon-ist," the other Iris grumbled, then cancelled her Illusion. "Just because it's right…"

"Oh, hi Luke!" Ash waved. "Yeah, your Zorua's doing great at getting human voices right!"

"Actually, because of that, I was wondering if you'd all want to take part in a film!" Luke suggested.

He frowned, then corrected himself. "I mean some of you taking part in the film. I don't actually know who yet, we're going to need to work that out to make good use of your abilities, but if your Zorua wants to take part-"

"Of course I want to take part!" Zorua interrupted, jumping up onto Ash's head. "We should get Aten involved too! And Latias and Latios! And Zacian, and Noctowl! And Lokoko if she's available!"

He spread his forepaws, balancing in a wobbly sort of way on his hindpaws on Ash's head. "We could make a film where it's impossible to tell which character is who and what's really a Zorua!"

Luke coughed. "Actually I was thinking of using your ability to do small or giant versions of Pokémon to have a giant Pokémon or giant robot fight, and having a pair of identical twins with magical powers, but mostly being standard apart from that."

"That option's better," Zorua decided, jumping down from Ash's head again. "That's way better. Do that one. Iris, I can't remember, what Zoroark attacks do you know yet?"

"Silence, fool!" Doctor Foul said, pointing at the girl he had captive. "Absol! Make sure she doesn't interfere!"

The Doctor adjusted his lab coat. "Nothing must get in the way of the Perfect Pokémon Plan!"

Absol growled, horn lighting up menacingly, and the young girl stepped back. Her pet Snivy made a worried sort of noise, and Doctor Foul looked up for a moment before turning to focus on the machine he was operating.

"Soon, the whole of Unova will see my genius!" he said.

Absol advanced another step, one paw-pad at a time, and the girl he was glaring at backed into a corner. Then her expression changed, and she hurled a ball of swirling light at Absol.

Absol cut it in half, and Luke stood up. "Cut!" he called. "Iris, that's not in the script."

"It's not?" Iris asked. "I thought there was a bit where I back away, then I use my holy powers when Doctor Foul is distracted. That knocks his Absol away and I escape, which is when I summon Zacian… right?"

"Well, that does happen, but it's much later on," Luke replied. "And I'm pretty sure one of the others is scripted to do it… possibly Noctowl?"

He flipped through the script. "Uh, let's see… I thought we were doing the scene where Doctor Foul distorts Axew into a giant rampaging Haxorus in the first test of the Perfect Pokémon Plan, which is what alerts Zygarde that something is wrong, and they rescue you. Then your twin is caught by Doctor Foul thinking it's you, that's actually my Zorua who'd be caught at that point, and that's when Keldeo rescues her from Doctor Foul's Dragonite."

"Is that one an actual Dragonite or a stunt double?" Cilan said, taking off his Doctor Foul safety glasses. "I know there's an actual Dragonite somewhere in the script but I can't remember where."

"I befriend the Dragonite," Iris replied. "He recognizes my good heart, and there's a scene we already did where Snivy's being all huffy about it until the two of them become good friends."

Ashbsol raised a paw. "I wasn't expecting to be hit with Night Daze yet," he admitted. "Should I have?"

"No, I don't think so," Luke said, checking. "Uh… actually it's supposed to be a proof of the Twins' holiness that they can hurt you at all, it's supposed to be an Extrasensory ball. And it's when one of the twins is captured for the… fourth time? Or maybe it's the third… no, it's at least the fourth, I know there's a bit where Doctor Foul isn't sure why she doesn't know about the second kidnapping and it's because that's when he learns there's two of them."

"So when does the giant robot and giant Pokémon bit happen?" Zacian queried. "And I want to be sure which bits are going to be actual giant Pokémon and which bits are going to involve normally sized Pokémon."

"Well, the scene with the expansion, that's going to be Ash's Zorua," Luke said, flicking through the script again. "Because that's something he can do. But we're going to be using the small-sized set for any scene where there's more than one giant Pokémon on screen, which means that for those bits Ash's Ditto is going to be imitating you… and for the big Behemoth Blade scene we're going to want to have Ash's Zorua doing it at normal size…"

Iris held up her hand. "So the scene where I'm imprisoned and being threatened by Ash and get out by using magical powers is actually a stunt double?"

"Yes, but the bit where you and your twin use your powers in the same scene in different ways is going to be you," Luke replied. "I think?"

"I thought that it depended on what powers Iris was going to be using?" Ash said. "Hold on, is the bit where I go Mega out of rage still in the script or did we get rid of that?"

"No, that's still in the script, we're having you battle against Zacian," Luke replied. "That's way too cool a concept to give up on, but it means we need to have Keldeo in there as well to talk you down, and so he has to be alerted to the whole situation by, um…"

He flipped through the script, then flipped back again. "Apparently, Latias and Latios. I think we need to change that."

"Isn't part of the idea that Latias and Latios are my and my twin's connections with our power?" Iris said. "So what about if it's Latias telling Latios, or vice versa, and they're the ones who tell Keldeo?"

Luke sat down again. "I think I've just gone cross-eyed."

"But will we ever see you again?" Iris asked, hands clasped together.

Snivy squeaked something, and Zacian leaned closer before touching her muzzle first to Iris and then to her duplicate.

"I will always be there, if I am needed," she told them both, then turned and loped off into the sunset. Ten long leaps and she began rising into the air, and then after another three she vanished in a twinkling swirl of pink and blue dust.

"Cut!" Luke called.

Still a bit woozy from the final battle sequence, Ash used Cut and knocked over part of the set.

"...well, fortunately we've got the footage anyway," Luke decided, with a shrug. "All right, now all we need to do is to edit it together!"

"You mean we can't watch the film right now?" Iris asked.

"Not really," Luke told her. "Normally we'd be able to watch little bits as they come in, the rushes, but because this whole film was done in such a rush and we got such good footage we should mostly be done… though I wouldn't mind if you stuck around a couple of days in case we need to do reshoots."

Ash looked embarrassed, then switched back to human. "Sorry about the set."

"It's okay, we can just film against the other bits if we need reshoots," Luke told him. "Or, optionally, we can have it be part of the damage that the Perfect Pokémon Plan did."

"So how long will it take to do the editing?" Cilan checked. "Is it like with a recipe, when-"

"Everything's like a recipe with you!" Luke's Zorua groaned.

"Though that does mean the cooking is very tasty," Zygarde said.

"Well, what I was going to say was, is it like a recipe, when you need to test which order the ingredients go in and how long is best?" Cilan went on. "You can get an all right result if you just add the right ingredients at about the right time, but doing the exact quantities and the exact timings is how you make a perfect dish!"

"That's a fairly good analogy," Luke decided to agree. "We've got some music to add, as well, and music can really make or break a film if it's done right. Or wrong, one of those two."

He rubbed his hands together. "Well, I'd better get started!"

"Would it help if I promoted Turtwig to an assistant who could do it quickly?" Croagunk asked.

Luke looked down. "Oh, sorry, I don't recognize you. Are you another one of Ash's Pokémon?"

"I was the stunt triple," Croagunk explained. "But if you want me to help out with getting a rough cut much more quickly, assign me the job."

Luke looked faintly puzzled, this time, which was an improvement on down. "I thought you said Turtwig?"

"Trust me," Croagunk requested.

"Well, I guess it couldn't hurt… Croagunk, you handle making a rough cut," Luke said.

Croagunk vanished, and Turtwig appeared in his place.

"All right!" he said. "I will work with the White Boxes and be the greatest producer!"

He jumped up to the nearest laptop computer and began typing away.

"What just happened?" Luke said.

"I think part of that was Ally Switch?" N asked, hesitantly.

"Oh, I get it," Pikachu realized. "Croagunk just dodged responsibility."

Zacian coughed.

"Did someone forget to tell me the take was done?" she asked. "I was four miles away by the time I decided to turn around and check!"

AN:

Because when you have this kind of stunt work available, you sort of just remake the movie to focus on it.