Ash was surprised to discover that, now he had the Plain Badge, someone at Goldenrod Radio Tower wanted to interview him.

Getting it all set up was kind of a strange experience, partly because they had to tell Pikachu not to get too close to the microphones or it caused feedback, but then Ash was assured that all he had to do was answer the questions.

"So," the host said. "You've got quite an unusual Pokémon team. Do you mind telling our listeners how on earth you caught them all?"

Ash began counting off. "Well… with most of my Pokémon, I just met them and talked to them and they wanted to come with me. Sometimes that's because we shared food, like Zapdos, and sometimes because I helped them out in a tricky situation – like Articuno or Cyndaquil!"

DJ Mary chuckled. "Well, you sound like a lucky trainer. I'm guessing you're planning on doing the whole Johto challenge?"

"That's right," Ash confirmed.

"And do you plan to win the Silver Conference?" Mary went on. "I suppose most people go in wanting to win the Silver Conference!"

"Yeah!" Ash said, sharing a grin with Pikachu. "But if we don't win, that's fine, because it just means we need to get stronger!"

DJ Mary nodded. "Getting stronger?" she asked. "Would you say that's your goal?"

"Well, my goal is to first become a Pokémon Master," Ash said. "And then, second, work out what a Pokémon Master is."

That made Ash's interviewer laugh.

"Wouldn't it be easier to do it the other way around?" she said.

Ash considered that.

"Maybe, but if being a Pokémon Master is a good thing then I'd want to do it anyway, not waste time working out what specific thing to aim for," he shrugged. "And apart from that, I've got all sorts of great Pokémon so I want to make sure they achieve their goals too!"

"Ash, by this point most of our goals are to see you do well," Pikachu said. "You're kind of pulling us all along because you enjoy what you do so much."

"Thanks, Pikachu!" Ash smiled.

"Yes, I wanted to ask about that, actually," DJ Mary admitted. "Can you actually understand what Pokémon say?"

"Yeah, you just kind of… have to listen the right way," Ash told her, waving his hands a bit. "People think of it like there's hundreds of Pokémon languages, but Pokémon can usually understand each other whether or not they're the same kind of Pokémon. Once you start listening the right way it's easy!"

In New Bark Town, Professor Elm put his head in his hands.

"How can a preteen just invalidate so many assumptions about Pokémon science with something so simple?" he asked.

North of Goldenrod City, the friends ran into Casey again.

"So, uh… there aren't going to be any Legendary Pokémon crashing into the ground around you this time, are there?" Casey asked, glancing at Misty. "Because last time was weird."

"I don't think so, but that kind of thing happens whether or not you think it's going to happen," Ash said. "So… honestly, I don't know? But if it does happen then Silver should be able to catch them, because I've got him with me today."

Casey frowned. "...actually, how come you just have the one Pokémon with a nickname? Unless that isn't your only one?"

Ash shrugged. "Silver's been called that for years, since I met him. He said it was his name, so…"

The other trainer mouthed years to herself, then – visibly – let it go.

"Are you guys here for the Bug Catching Contest?" she asked. "It's just a bit further north. I'm hoping to catch a Beedrill!"

Misty shuddered. "No thanks. If that's going on, then count me out… unless they have Bug types from all over the world, because there's at least one Water Bug type that's okay I guess."

They did not have Bug-types from all over the world.

Apart from that, the rules were sort of interesting. You were allowed only one Pokémon, and one Park Ball, and you caught a Bug type Pokémon in the park – but only the one with the strongest Bug Pokémon was allowed to keep their capture, which was the prize for winning the competition.

Ash gave it a bit of thought, then opted to have Pikachu as the Pokémon to help him capture a Bug type, and for the next half hour or so he went through the park battling very few Pokémon but saying hello to quite a lot of them.

Several of them had met the Butterfree his old Butterfree had trained, and when he mentioned that actually it had been Mew a big burly Scyther – like Tracey's – had said that, honestly, that kind of made sense all things considered.

Then there was a bit of a problem because Casey had got carried away and tried to overwork her Chikorita, and Ash had to remind her that she was in the Bug Catching Contest for a Beedrill so it probably wasn't a good idea for her to push her Starter too hard over trying to catch a Scyther even after how it wasn't a good idea to push your Pokémon too hard anyway.

Still, her Chikorita did evolve into Bayleef after Casey apologized, so that was good. And Ash caught a funny bright green Pokémon, too.

"Mr. Ketchum?" one of the contest officials asked. "Before the results are announced, I wanted to have a word."

She held up the Park Ball, then opened it to show the funny green Pokémon Ash had caught. "I'm afraid that this isn't a Bug type. We're not sure what Pokémon it is, but because it's not a Bug type then you're disqualified."

"Excuse me, could I get a lift back to Kalos?" the green Pokémon asked. "I should never have accepted a lift from that Keldeo."

Simply sorting out the situation with Ash's sort-of-capture-but-not-really was a little awkward, because Ash hadn't won the Bug Catching Contest (Casey had, acquiring herself a Beedrill) but it was eventually worked out that if the Pokémon willingly left the nature reserve after having been released then it wouldn't actually be breaking the rules.

With that handled and the green Pokémon – who introduced itself as 'less than a percent of Zygarde' – now ensconced in Ash's bag until they found a way back to Kalos (which Zygarde had accepted might take a while as they weren't going that way) they kept moving north.

"So… did you actually find out what that Pokémon is, then?" Brock asked, that night in camp. "In Pokémon type, I mean."

"Ground and Dragon, it says," Ash answered. "Though not really what to call it, because saying Zygarde feels inaccurate with how small a fraction of Zygarde they are."

Maybe they need a name, Silver suggested.

He inspected the Pokémon carefully. Don't you eat anything? Brock's cooking is really good.

"I recharge from sunlight," the Pokémon said.

Sunlight… Silver frowned. Doesn't that make you more like a Grass type? Like Bulbasaur or Shaymintwo or Chikorita?

"You're one to talk," Pikachu sniggered. "Aren't you a psychic flying water dragon?"

Silver folded his wings, trying not to giggle. How rude!

"Sunlight…" Ash repeated. "So… I guess you should probably come along on the outside of my bag, then?"

He considered. "Or you could just hang around with Chikorita. She knows Sunny Day."

"Umm…" Chikorita began. "I can focus sunlight, and use Sunny Day, but I can't keep it up forever."

"It would not be efficient to be hanging on the outside of your bag," the Dragon-type considered. "Solution found."

It flared green, and a blur of green light surrounded it.

When the flare faded, instead of a small green worm-like Pokémon there was a much larger canine Pokémon with a black coat and green markings.

"I am operating at 10 percent of full capacity," the canine said. "Is this solution acceptable?"

"Was that a Form change?" Brock asked. "That's kind of neat."

He frowned. "Or is it Forme with an E at the end? I can never remember…"

"So you'll be able to come alongside, right?" Ash asked. "And get your sunlight that way? That would work, and then if you need a rest I'll be glad to carry you the rest of the way."

"Hey, guys!" Misty called, coming up the road with a bag of shopping. "I picked some ingredients up like you asked, Brock, but did you know there's a Seaking catching competition in the next town over?"

"This place has a lot of Pokémon catching competitions," Ash said. "I guess it makes sense for a nature reserve."

Misty was close enough to spot what Zygarde currently looked like, now, and shook her head. "Is that another Legendary Pokémon, Ash, or just the same one again?"

"More of the same one, I guess?" Ash said. "Though it could be Mew again."

Ash got disqualified from the Seaking Catching Competition as well. Four times.

Apparently it wasn't in the spirit of the rules to have Articuno lift a Seaking psychically out of the water.

Or to have Silver generate an underwater Twister to fling one into the air.

Or to ask nicely.

Or to have Noctowl fly low over the water and get one Seaking so confused about which way was up that it jumped out of the water and into Ash's arms, though that last one was only a technical disqualification because the Seaking had been so big the boat had promptly sunk.

Still, Misty won the trophy in a Pokémon battle after a draw on weight, so that was nice.

"Ash, on one level I really appreciate what you're doing for my Pokémon," Misty said, later. "But at the same time, can you… sort of… stop it?"

"I don't really control whatever it is, assuming I've got anything to do with it," Ash replied. "I'm just here, and Pokémon evolving happens."

"Three Pokémon evolved during my battle," Misty pointed out. "One of them Brock's Zubat, who skipped Golbat and wasn't even in the fight to begin with. The only reason that isn't a record is the Indigo League."

She frowned. "Ash? If someone with a team full of Magikarps wants to battle you, don't accept."

"But if someone's got a team full of Magikarps, then it's going to be a great battle!" Ash protested. "The only reason they'd do that is if they'd got a way to train Magikarps to be really effective!"

"I think she's just worried about the whole area being destroyed by rampaging Gyarados," Pikachu supplied helpfully.

"...oh, right," Ash agreed. "Yeah, that makes sense."

That same evening, Silver sought out Wartortle and Poliwhirl.

"What's it like to evolve?" he asked. "I know it'll never happen to me, but I'm kind of curious."

"I've only done it once," Wartortle replied, twitching his ears. "But it's kind of… well, it felt like I suddenly had this big rush of strength. It wasn't that there was anything new I could do, but it was more that I could do everything better… including hearing, my hearing got a lot better."

"I don't think many Pokémon evolve more than twice," Poliwhirl agreed. "Unless they can Mega Evolve, then they can do it as many times as they want, but that's never going to be an option for me. It might be an option for you, right, Wartortle?"

Wartortle considered, and while he did Poliwhirl went on. "But for me it was a much bigger change. I gained a whole new pair of limbs, though… admittedly I'm not really sure how to use them."

"Oh!" Silver said, brightly. "I can help with that! You need to fold up your hand so you're not squeezing part of it with another part, and then when you punch you need to use your whole body… then it's just making it an elemental punch if that's what you're after!"

"Hmm…" Gary said, checking through some of his notes. "Okay, let's try this. I've got a Waternium Z here, and if you can teach Blastoise the basics of Rime we can see if it keeps the freeze chance. Scald's hot water effect gets diluted by the Z power, but does the same thing happen with Rime?"

Misty frowned. "I'm not actually sure… it's a lot like Scald, but is it enough like Scald? And would it need the Ice crystal instead of the Water crystal?"

"Have you tried using both the Fire and Water crystals at the same time with Scald?" Ash asked. "Hey, what about moves like Freeze Shock which are kind of two types at once… or isn't there that one called Flying Press?"

"I already know that Pixilate kind of doesn't work with Z moves…" Gary frowned. "But if you've got a Pokémon that can use Freeze Shock… actually, no, that'll just break the Z crystal…"

A little way away, Umbreon sighed.

"They forgot they were in a battle, didn't they?" Pikachu asked.

Umbreon's ears twitched. "Pretty much. Still, I'll be glad to use the move that makes a miniaturized black hole once they remember."

"Je suis intéressé par vos idées et souhaite m'inscrire à votre bulletin," Clefairy informed Umbreon.

The Dark-type inspected Clefairy. "...were you here a few seconds ago?"

"She's an urbane spacemon," Pikachu told her. "She's got speed."

"All right, guys, let's see some Extrasensory!" Ash called. "Ready?"

He threw the GS Ball up in the air. "Zapdos!"

Zapdos fired first, knocking the 'ball to one side, and Noctowl fired it as well to hit it right back at her. Zapdos fired again, hitting the ball back in the same direction she'd done the first time, then Articuno took over and began bouncing the ball in the air.

"Noctowl, that's getting good, but Zapdos has hers a bit more wide beam," Ash called. "Have a look at how Articuno is doing hers, and see if you can match it!"

"Is there a word for being an actor who often plays female roles?" Noctowl asked, hovering as he watched Articuno's precise Extrasensory blasts. "Not that I'm complaining."

"Okay, now try taking over being Articuno!" Ash said. "We'll do a bit more Extrasensory and then work on wing blade cuts, then go back to Zapdos!"

"I would like some clarification," Zygarde said, as the gold-and-silver ball bounced back and forth – this time by Thundershock, between Zapdos (who was doing it with great skill) and Noctowl (who still hadn't got anything like the hang of it). "What is Ash Ketchum doing?"

The dragon-dog basked in the evening sunlight. "If he wants a flying Pokémon who can use electrical attacks, he has one."

"It's kind of… what I think Ash is aiming for is that one day he'll be able to have a full scale League battle where none of his Pokémon is the Pokémon it looks like when it goes into the field," Pikachu replied.

He rolled over. "He's already had a battle where Zorua was a Magikarp, and obviously Mew is Mew and so could be anything, but Noctowl can pretend to be any of Ash's flying types most easily, with his illusory hypnosis. He just needs the moves so that it isn't obvious… and once people start to know about it, then Zapdos can impersonate Noctowl impersonating Zapdos and at that point people start to go cross-eyed."

"Understood," Zygarde said. "And what do you pretend to be?"

Pikachu's cheeks sparked. "I don't need to."

Ash found out that Mewtwo and Ambertwo actually lived not far from Ecruteak City, and he found that out by getting lost and ending up on the mountain.

"Huh… so how are you getting on, then?" Ash asked.

"It has been quite pleasant so far," Mewtwo answered. "I have inquired, anonymously, and it appears that I am not yet old enough to become a Pokémon trainer – though I intend to consider it very carefully."

He spread his hand and took in the whole sweep of Mount Quena. "Apart from that… we have water, and food, and I built houses for everyone with my enormous psychic powers. Also, underground entertainment facilities."

"Yeah, there's a ski slope down there," Ambertwo told him, her tail coiling around her wrist for a moment. "It's a whole thing."

Nine Zorua ran past, in the middle of a game of what might have been tag or might have been rugby.

"I… think I might have trouble picking out which one of those is mine," Ash admitted. "They are Zorua, after all… is it okay if we stay a couple of days, though?"

"Of course," Ambertwo smiled. "We know you're trustworthy."

In Kanto, Giovanni considered very carefully the idea of regaining his trump card.

Then he decided it was a bad idea, because based on past evidence it would turn out that Ash Ketchum had Legendary Pokémon in his backpack or something and he'd end up having to retire to live on a beach.

Though, now he considered it, some aspects of that had some appeal.

"Okay, here we are," Ash said. "Ecruteak Gym!"

"No, it's not," Marshadow replied, slipping out of Ash's shadow for a moment. "This is the Burned Tower."

The Safari Ball at Ash's waist opened as well, letting Suicune emerge.

"So it is," she said. "Ash, how exactly did you mistake this for a gym?"

"Well, uh…" Ash began. "Honestly, when I didn't see one of the normal modern gyms I just assumed the Ecruteak Gym would be old fashioned and stuff. So this is where you and your siblings got reincarnated?"

"Ash…" Brock began, amused. "Did you just lead us to a random building because you thought it was the Gym?"

"To be fair, we've only got ourselves to blame for going along with it," Misty sighed.

"And yes, to answer your question, Ash," Suicune added, turning to her trainer. "There was the storm, and the fire, and then the rain; our old lives perished, and then our new lives began here."

She sighed. "It is a place which we consider to have mixed meanings."

"Excuse me?" someone called. "That's not really safe for… visitors?"

Two men were approaching them, one of them wearing a remarkable purple suit with a white cape and the other dressed in a slightly more subdued way.

"Well, I know that now," Ash protested. "Any idea where the gym is?"

"Is that Suicune?" the speaker asked. "Wait, that means you must be Ash Ketchum?"

The other man – the one in the purple suit – seemed to be hyperventilating.

"No, you must have found the other kid with a Pikachu and an insane relationship with the world's Legendaries," Misty said under her breath, then stopped. "Wait, that might actually be possible, forget I said anything."

"That's me," Ash agreed. "I thought this was the gym, but Marshadow and Suicune set me straight. It's not really very well signposted."

"I didn't want to put up a giant Gym Here sign in a historic town!" the man defended himself. "Oh, I'm Morty, I'm the Gym Leader here. This is my friend Eusine."

"Marshadow as well," Eusine mumbled. "And I'm close enough I could reach out and touch Suicune."

"Please ask first," Suicune said, glancing at Ash.

"Oh, uh, Suicune says it'd be best to ask before touching her," Ash provided.

Eusine frowned slightly, then swallowed. "You're… no, of course you're sure it's her, you're… her trainer. Right. Sorry. I'm just coming to terms with how several of the books I read had no idea what they were talking about."

He crouched down. "Suicune, I've been studying you and the other Legendary Pokémon of Johto for my entire life, and… it would mean more than you can know for me to simply be able to confirm that I'm not dreaming."

"Is there something significant going on?" Zygarde inquired.

"I think the answer is definitely yes for Eusine," Pikachu said.

After a proper round of introductions, Morty offered to show them to his actual Gym, and the group set off south.

"So… does that mean you've actually met Ho-Oh, as well, then?" Eusine asked. "Or did you encounter Marshadow separately?"

"No, we did meet Ho-Oh," Ash said. "He gave me a feather."

"So that means you're the Rainbow Hero," Eusine replied. "...when I was younger I dreamed about becoming the Rainbow Hero, you know… but I don't think any of them have been like you."

Atop the Tin Tower, Ho-Oh muttered some extremely rude bird noises.

Then he sighed.

Marshadow must just be planning to have Ash come there at a better time.

AN:

If you're a distributed network of cells spread out across continents, attempting to detect possible major threats to the ecosystem, sometimes it is relaxing to also be dog.