"Okay, Suicune!" Ash called. "Ready? Let's see if we can get this working!"

"I'll certainly do my best," Suicune agreed. "So, let me see… Hydro Pump!"

The blast of water immediately soaked Ash, and he brushed the worst off with a laugh. "That should be enough! Now, the next step is Extrasensory!"

Suicune's eyes glowed, and some of the large puddle she'd left shimmered as well. It lit up with a faint glow, and Ash glanced at Articuno. "How's she doing?"

Articuno rubbed the base of her beak. "She's getting a good grasp of the field so far… this is where we were having problems before, though."

"That's okay, I had an idea!" Ash said. "Okay, Suicune, so you can walk on water, right?"

"Indeed I can," the Water-type agreed. "Which is why we're trying this in the first place."

"Right, but I was thinking," Ash explained. "So when you stand on water, it's not like the water is supporting your weight in a real way, right? If it was surface tension, and stuff, then you'd make the water sink like a boat would. So the weight… doesn't exist when you're standing on water, in a way."

Suicune's eyes crossed, which was quite unusual since they were still glowing faintly, and she repeated that to herself.

"I think I follow that," she said.

"So that means you don't have to take all that water with you," Ash explained. "Not the whole thing, anyway. You just need your paws to be wet, and that's what you're doing… kind of carrying shoes with you, so there's water to go around? Then whenever you put your weight down you're stepping on water, and the weight doesn't exist."

Suicune's head tilted to the side a little, and she drew up some of the water around her paws in a kind of close-fitting slipper. She raised a paw, then pushed it down, and it stopped several inches from the ground.

"There you go!" Ash said. "Now, let's work on moving around!"

"Is it okay if I have some hot chocolate with dinner today?" Rayquaza asked, looking at Pikachu. "I like hot chocolate, but people only seem to have it just before bed."

"That's just because they think the meals fit together like that, I think," Pikachu said, pondering. "I know I like ketchup a lot, but for some reason nobody else thinks it's a good drink with a meal."

The Dragon-type giggled.

"I don't think there'd be a problem with it," Pikachu added. "Brock's the expert, though, we can check with him."

Rayquaza uncoiled, ready to follow Pikachu over to Brock to ask, then the two of them watched as Ash and Suicune ran past.

The Water-type was running with her paws at about head height, and clearly enjoying herself.

"Oh, they got that working!" Pikachu said. "That's great!"

"Here we go, Torchic," May said softly, then walked out onto the Contest floor.

The announcer announced her, and she waved before sending out her Torchic.

"Five," she said. "Four. Three. Two. One. Ignition!"

Torchic began using Blaze Kick, lighting up both feet with flame, then added Smokescreen to the mix – producing a jet of smoke from his wings that splashed out from where he was standing, billowing out at speed before slowing down and becoming a turbulent roil.

"And liftoff!" May added, and Torchic slowly rose into the air – still using Smokescreen to produce a continual jet of smoke, and with his feet burning beneath him and sending out a fire-trail that reached to the floor.

At about the height of May's shoulders, he flapped his wings, and two Embers trailing smoke flew off in either direction. He kept rising, now tilting over to lie on his back, until finally the Smokescreen and the Blaze Kick died down and he was flying in neat circles around his trainer a little above head height.

May waited until he'd circled her twice, then whistled, and Torchic flipped around and used Blaze Kick for a moment. That changed his flight path, and he 'fell' towards May with a wisp of smoke before landing neatly on her head with another Blaze Kick flicker.

"Tor-chiiic!" he announced, proudly, and pulled out a hairpin May had concealed in her headband. There was a little bit of paper attached to it with a picture of Torchic on it, and he planted it like a flag.

"Well, that's quite a punchline!" Mr. Sukizo said. "We already knew her Torchic could fly, but seeing him with such remarkable control over his attacks…"

"I know," Raoul Contesta agreed. "She's not just resting on her laurels of, look at me, I've got a flying Torchic. They're really developing, and that Smokescreen was a beautiful move even by itself… did you see the booster separation?"

"I assume she's probably going through, then," Joy chuckled.

"Let's just say I think there's have to be some amazing performances to push her out of qualifying," Contesta said.

"Is it actually required that a Coordinator keep innovating?" Max asked. "I know we seem to keep seeing the same judges, but there must be dozens or hundreds of Contest Halls in Hoenn and they can't run all of them… so what's to stop someone doing the same routine every time?"

"There isn't really a rule about it," Brock replied. "Not even really a guideline, except that of course not many people become Coordinators to just do one routine over and over. May is perhaps being more innovative than usual, but that just means she's doing it right."

"Smokescreen barrage!" May called, down on the floor, and Torchic flourished his wings. More than a dozen smoky trails flashed out, too many for their opponent's Staravia to dodge entirely, and he flapped his wings to blow them away instead – which disrupted the attack, and stopped Staravia from losing many points, but May was already changing plan.

"Ember fountain!"

"It's probably something to do with Ash," Brock added.

"It's very easy to blame Ash," Bulbasaur said. "Especially when blaming him is usually right… in fact, I can't think of a time it wasn't."

"Hey," Ash protested. "What about the times when it's Team Rocket who does stuff?"

"I'm pretty sure they've been after you, most of the time," Bulbasaur answered. "Besides, I need a single explanation to make sense of it all and that qualifies as simple..."

"Do you think we'll all earn a Ribbon?" Dratini asked, that evening. "How many do you need for the, um, Coordinator League, anyway?"

"It's not called a Coordinator League, it's called a Grand Festival," May answered, carefully washing the last of the soot out of Torchic's feathers. "And it's five ribbons to enter… I'm definitely going to try and spread it out, but if I do end up with six or more Pokémon then someone's going to have to not win a ribbon just because that's how maths works."

"Does that mean I might not get another Contest?" Marill asked.

"Well, probably not an official one, for a ribbon," May replied. "Unless they do a thing where you can pass on your ribbon if you already have five."

She washed her hands again, then ran them through Torchic's wing. "I… think that's everything," she reported. "Anyway, now I think about it I probably should have known more about how that side of things worked before getting to the point I have two Ribbons. I wonder if they do beginner's guides somewhere?"

Marill giggled.

"Just so I can check, I can head off now, right?" Torchic asked.

"Just wait a minute or so for your feathers to dry properly," May requested. "Now, there's Dratini, Skitty and Beautifly yet to win a Ribbon… using Me First during the battle phase is going to set Skitty up pretty well, but we still need to finish that routine, and for Beautifly it's sort of the other way around because he's got a routine we've used once but the problem is in the Battle phase. Hmm…"

"And what about me?" Dratini requested.

"Honestly, you're pretty well set," May smiled. "You're getting really good at shaping Twister, after all, and when you add in Hydro Pump it can get beautiful."

Dratini looked quite pleased with himself.

"I wonder," May added, frowning. "Perhaps if Beautifly learned Thunderbolt, and especially Flamethrower? We should ask Lokoko or Vulpix for help with Flamethrower…"

On the way back down to Petalburg, mostly so that Max and May could spend some time at home before the friends went on towards Fortree City, they saw a whole flock of Swablu flying past.

At first that was all there seemed to be to it, until that evening there was a thunderstorm and a nearby tree was struck by lightning – and one of the Swablu tumbled out, hitting the ground with a soft peep of pain.

Bulbasaur more or less immediately took the little Flying-type under his figurative wing while they – especially Brock – helped heal Swablu's entirely real and strained wing, first with a potion spray and giving it time to set, then through the physical therapy needed to get the wing back up to strength.

"It kind of aches," Swablu said, swallowing, and Brock nodded.

"I know it does," he agreed. "That's because your left wing is used to what it's meant to do, but your right wing isn't. You remember being taught to fly, right?"

Swablu nodded.

"It's kind of like that, but you already know how," Brock explained. "So you're not learning at the same time as you're conditioning your muscles, and it feels like it's longer, and your muscles are complaining too. Normally that's so you don't hurt them, and we're not doing too much at a time here, but a bit of an ache is okay."

He turned his attention to Bulbasaur. "Okay, a bit more this time. You let me know if it starts to hurt more than you're comfortable with, Swablu?"

"I will," the Normal-type said, bravely, and Bulbasaur began gently moving Swablu's cloudy wing through range-of-motion exercises.

"I really don't like this," Swablu said, a few days later. "I feel like…"

He shook himself. "It's like I've let you down."

"Don't say that, my man," Geodude told him. "What could make you think that?"

"It's because you've all helped me out so much, in helping me get back to being able to fly," Swablu explained. "But I can't even manage to take off – I'm so scared, and I feel like…"

"Hey, now," Brock interrupted. "None of that, okay?"

He patted Swablu on the head. "Healing takes time. And getting past something like that is… you know how we had to re-train your muscles?"

Swablu nodded.

"This is about re-training your heart," he said. "And it's awkward and fiddly, and you need to go slowly so you don't hurt it worse. But if you want help, we'll be around for as long as it takes."

The Normal-type took that in.

"So, um, I'm not familiar with how the different types work," he said. "Do Nest Balls work better on Flying types, or…?"

Brock blinked. "...Vulpix, did you translate that wrong?"

"No, you got that," Vulpix told him. "Just to make sure, Swablu… are you saying you want to be part of the team?"

"I wouldn't mind!" Swablu said. "Lotad was saying it'd be nice to have someone else who can sing!"

"Hey, I can sing," Brock protested.

"Lotad didn't say he was the only one who can sing, my man," Geodude said. "He also said Eevee could sing. I think it has to be more than one song though, so you don't make the cut."

Brock sighed. "Most trainers don't have to deal with this much sass."

"You love us for it, though," Vulpix declared.

The next day, Aggron checked a list she'd written out.

"Hmm," she said. "So there's a lot of sound based moves… oh, I know what would help first! Heal Bell!"

Eevee ran past, then skidded to a halt, then retraced her steps backwards to stare at Aggron.

Who was slightly smaller than Eevee was.

"Um, so, can I check something?" she asked. "Am I larger than normal too?"

"No, no, I used Minimize," Aggron replied. "I wanted to make notes without needing a piece of paper the size of a fridge."

She blinked. "Wait, what do you mean, larger than normal too?"

"This is not even the first time this has happened!" Zacian declared, as they ran into town. "Do you actually give off Dynamax particles? Is that it?"

"Hey, I don't know!" Ash replied, keeping pace with the Heroine of Many Battles as she drew her sword. "We weren't even in town when the giant Gulpin appeared!"

"And the Alakazam and the Gengar?" Zacian inquired. "The Dragonite? Zorua?"

"To be fair, when Zorua does it he usually just gets a headache and falls over," Pikachu pointed out.

Zacian chuffed. "Well, fortunately I am a specialist at dealing with Dynamaxed Pokémon! Attention, enormous Gulpin! I challenge you to a duel!"

"You remember that isn't the sword that you can use for Behemoth Blade, right?" Ash checked. "And that you're not Steel type at the moment?"

"Yes, I do," Zacian said. "Though I do thank you for checking."

"Though…" Ash went on. "Actually, I don't think we need to fight the Gulpin, not unless it wants a fight itself. We just need to get it so it's not enormous any more, and then solve the original problem. Right?"

"You make an excellent point," Zacian admitted.

"Plus…" Pikachu added. "I kind of want to see if Torkoal can judo throw it."

Zacian looked conflicted, then sheathed her sword.

"I want to see that too, actually," she admitted. "Very well. Diplomacy first, Torkoal second, me third at the least."

AN:

It makes sense, or at any rate it sounds reasonable enough the world will probably let you get away with it.