"Hmm," Mew said, orbiting Bonnie's new Tyrunt. (Officially Clemont's Tyrunt, if you wanted to get technical, but nobody did.) "This is going to be an interesting challenge!"
"Who are you and where did you come from?" Tyrunt asked, more than a bit surprised.
"Oh, I'm Mew, and I came from…" Mew stopped, thinking. "Everywhere, I think. Everywhere or Sinnoh. But Kanto is what it says on my ID."
"You have an ID card?" Ash asked.
"It's technically a library card, but it's the closest thing I have," Mew answered. "And obviously you caught me in Kanto, Kanto, Kanto, Orange Islands, Hoenn I think, and possibly somewhere else, so on balance I'm registered as from Kanto. So, turns out I'm from Kanto now!"
Tyrunt glanced at Bonnie.
"It's okay," Bonnie told him. "Mew is a friend! Mew usually listens when you ask them to stop, too."
"Well… okay?" Tyrunt said. "I'm not sure why Mew started though."
"Oh, I'm trying to work out what kind of Pokémon you are," Mew told him. "Not as in Dragon and Rock, that's easy enough, I was on the design team or however it is that works I've not had to do it in a while. What I mean is, what kind of Pokémon you are, and what kind of things you'll do."
"I can help explain," Ash said. "What Mew is talking about is that… okay, so, Noibat is good with music, because Noibat as a whole use sound to battle and Noibat himself is focusing on it. So that means he's good at doing things with music in general, and that makes it easier for him to learn moves to do with that. While Croconaw is a dancer, so he learns all kinds of dancing moves."
"And it's way easier to teach you neat new moves if I can work out an in," Mew said, nodding along. "Hmm… are those feathers?"
He rubbed his paws together. "What about if we try some Flying-type moves?"
"Okay, I think I get that one," Tyrunt said, nodding.
"Then let's give it a go!" Bonnie told him. "Is anyone able to help us practice?"
"I can," Frogadier replied, putting his fingers together, and formed a cloud of Frubbles. They turned into a Frogadier, jumped up onto a nearby branch, and stopped there.
"Remember, aim for that," Frogadier added.
"Right!" Tyrunt replied, then stepped back.
"A bit more," Bonnie advised. "A bit more… and… that should be enough. Go for it!"
Tyrunt lumbered into motion, then kicked off the ground and did a high-speed kick that went straight through the Frubble double.
"Great!" Bonnie cheered. "Well done on Aerial Ace!"
"Are you sure that wasn't High Jump Kick?" Pikachu checked.
"No, I could do it on the ground too, it'd be like a sliding tackle," Tyrunt replied.
"Just checking," Pikachu shrugged.
"Okay!" Mew said. "Hmm, I've got a couple of other ideas, but for now let's move on to Roost!"
She winked. "It's a healing move!"
"How does it work?" Tyrunt asked.
"A Flying-type uses Roost by landing and resting," Fletchinder provided. "I know that much. I can do it really quickly because of Gale Wings."
"So…" Tyrunt began. "It works by landing and resting… so you heal while you're on the ground, right?"
"That's about right!" Mew confirmed.
"Oh!" Tyrunt said. "So… that must mean I'm already doing it, because I'm already on the ground."
"I think-" Luxray began, but Mew zipped over to put a paw on his muzzle.
"Sssh," she advised.
Once they were back on the move towards Anistar, after a bit of discussion Bonnie and Tyrunt decided between them that they could try out having Bonnie ride Tyrunt around and see how it worked out.
Ash contributed by saying that it was a good idea to have a harness, both to be safer and because that way they could decorate the harness with things Tyrunt decided he liked, and though the one he used when flying on Zapdos wasn't really suitable a bit of help from Serena, Clemont and Leavanny between them put together a light, tough harness with slots to put things in.
"Just don't forget to take care of it, later," Clemont said, as they continued on their way. "You'll need to take it off before Tyrunt goes to bed, unless he's sleeping in his Pokéball – I think it's fine then."
"Hmm," Tyrunt began, but Bonnie spoke up.
"I'll make sure to!" she insisted. "I know there's a lot more of Tyrunt than there is of Dedenne, but I'll make sure to take care of them both!"
"That's a good attitude," Ash told her.
"Thanks!" Bonnie said. "And, umm… Tyrunt, what's your favourite colour?"
Tyrunt raised a forearm to think about it.
"I like red," he said.
"Then I'll look out for some red flowers, and you can see if you like them," Bonnie decided.
Arc went beep.
"Landmark added: some flowers," they said. "Possibly there are red ones."
Ash checked.
"So, not all that far up ahead," he summarized. "It's certainly this side of Anistar, and I think it's on the direct route."
"This job has got a lot easier once Ash started getting navigational assistance from a literal Creator Deity," Marshadow opined.
"Did your shadow just start talking?" Tyrunt asked. "I may not know how those things humans have in their pockets work, but I know how shadows work and up to this point I haven't heard any of them say anything."
"That's probably because you haven't met a Marshadow before," Marshadow said, waving, then reached down into Ash's shadow with one arm. "Would you like a crisp?"
"And… here we go," Ash said, mostly unnecessarily, as they came out from inside a forest. "Right, Arc?"
"Correct," Arc said. "This is: some flowers."
It wasn't all flowers, but following Arc's marker had led them to a beautiful grassy meadow dotted with flowers and split by a clear, cool river.
"Wow," Serena summarized. "This place looks really nice. How did you do it?"
"I checked where I would put the marker," Arc replied. "And I have just told myself that this is acceptable."
"I'm going to ignore that for my own peace of mind," Luxray sighed.
Bonnie was already getting down off Tyrunt, and she let Dedenne out of her bag to help her out.
"Let's see if we can find some red flowers," she suggested.
"I think maybe we should all look," Serena decided. "Not all for red flowers, but if we see any we should let Tyrunt know… but more for flowers in general. And try to keep an eye out for Pokémon as well, just so we don't disturb the locals too much."
"Well, I know what I'm going to be doing," Chespin said. "Hey, Clemont, does that Fire Control Gear work for specific Pokémon?"
"I think so," Clemont replied. "Or I can tune it to focus on a specific Pokémon… why do you ask?"
"Because I think we should set it to Red Flower Flabébé," Chespin answered. "Then I can wander around and it'll be doing the looking for me. Great plan, huh?"
"Now I'm worried, and I don't even know why," Luxray confessed.
"There we go," Bonnie said, most of an hour later, taking four big red flowers from Dedenne and threading them one by one into Tyrunt's harness. "What do you think?"
Tyrunt nodded his approval, smiling, and Bonnie smiled back before sitting down on a hummock of grass.
"Pokémon Trainers get to go to such nice places," she said, with a sigh. "I sort of think it's a shame more people don't see them, but part of what makes this place so great is that there's not many people here. It's funny like that."
Dedenne snuggled up to her, and Tyrunt carefully lay down on her other side.
Then Bonnie sat up, frowning and looking into the distance.
"Is that a Pokémon?" she asked. "Down on that rock?"
It was a bit far away to see what Pokémon, but it certainly looked like one.
At about the same time, and much closer, Serena had her hand over her mouth.
"That's such a cute Eevee," she whispered. "That's a great dance they've got going on there!"
Eevee was jumping and twirling, stamping their paws and just having a great time, and Serena didn't want to say anything because it might interrupt the moment.
"That Eevee reminds me of me," Pancham said softly. "But a lot more confident. I'd never have dared to do something like that out in the open before I joined up with you, Serena."
Then Eevee froze, glancing in their direction, and bolted.
"...okay, maybe not a lot more confident than me," Pancham admitted. "Now I feel bad."
"Maybe Eevee doesn't realize that we're not a threat," Serena said. "Or maybe they don't realize that we actually do that kind of thing too…"
"Oh, hold on, I'm going to get some advice," Ponyta reported, getting out her notebook and carefully writing something in it with a telekinetically-controlled pen. "How… do we make sure… a wild Pokémon… doesn't see us as a threat?"
She waited for the magic to work, then looked up.
"Speak in their own language," she said. "I'm not sure if that's helpful, because Eevee ran off and we never got a chance to say anything?"
"No, I think it's actually really deeply meaningful," Braixen replied. "Or it can be and I choose to assume it is. We've only seen Eevee so far, not heard them, but that just means their language is dance for these purposes."
"Well, we've got a few routines that involve three of us, but nothing that involves all four of us," Serena thought out loud. "We could give it a go with all four and see what happens?"
One of the things Serena and her team tried worked, which was when they had three of them doing the showcase routine and kept switching in and out. So first Ponyta, then Pancham, then Braixen tagged in and out again, trying to keep moving, and that sort of worked out.
Of course, they only figured that out after trying to all do it at once and ending up falling in a heap four times in a row.
"I think we need to work on doing things all as one group," Braixen suggested, switching from one wand to two with a flick of her tail and drawing a pattern in the air. "And three, and two, and one, and – now!"
Pancham took her place, jumping through a hoop of fire and letting Serena pick him up to spin him around.
"You're right!" he said, jumping off Serena's outstretched hands and landing on Ponyta's back. "It wouldn't make a good routine, because we can't all be in the Showcase at once, but sometimes I forget how much fun this is!"
"I think we might need to stop now, though," Serena said, then came to a halt and put her hands on her knees. "Phew… I was enjoying myself, but that was tiring."
"Wow," an Eevee voice breathed.
The Normal-type's ears went flat, as Serena looked up and caught their eye. "Oh, um-"
"Please don't run off," Serena asked, shifting so she was sitting down instead. "We saw you earlier, and… that was really nice. It's what got us dancing, actually… we wanted to say hello, but we couldn't think of a good way to start."
Eevee looked twitchy, then scampered over to them.
"Are you sure you're a Pokémon trainer?" they asked, confused. "I heard they're all about catching Pokémon and battling them."
"Not all trainers are about battling Pokémon," Braixen contributed.
"Some of them are, but the good ones only catch Pokémon who want to be caught, and only use the ones who want to battle to battle," Serena replied. "And I'm a trainee witch and mostly spend my time doing Pokémon Showcase sort of things, instead of battles."
"What's a Showcase?" Eevee asked. "And, can you understand me?"
"Most of the time," Serena answered. "It's sort of fiddly sometimes, but Braixen can help me out if I slip a bit, I understand her just fine. And my friend Ash's Ninetales is great at translating for everyone, if they're close enough."
"And… hey, do you mind if I say something?" Pancham said. "I know it might sound strange, but when I saw you earlier I thought you were really brave. I like performing and stuff, but where I grew up it was not the kind of thing a, especially a male Pokémon did and so I kind of… hid it. And I know you were surprised when someone saw you, but…"
He shrugged. "It really seemed cool, seeing you just dancing like you didn't care who was watching."
That made Eevee blink a few times, and they scrubbed at their eyes with a paw.
"Especially a male Pokémon?" they asked.
"That's what they thought," Pancham replied. "It's been great with Serena because she doesn't think like that. Nobody in our group does, that I can think of."
One thing led to another, and when Serena rejoined the others for dinner it was with a fourth team member.
AN:
Dance like no-one's watching, because otherwise you get worried thinking about all the people watching.