"Oh, huh, that's neat!" May said, as they entered Crossgate Town. "Ash, have you ever taken part in a PokéRinger contest before?"

"I… no, but I think I remember seeing them on TV?" Ash replied, frowning. "It's about scoring goals with a ring, right?"

"That's right," May replied. "There's more than one trainer per team, either two or four I think… I can't remember the exact rules, though."

Brock considered that, and sent out Crobat. "What do you think? Does that sound interesting?"

"It might be," Crobat said. "I wonder what they think of using attacks?"

"No, I remember that much," Ash told him. "Attacks are fine."

"I could have Torchic or Beautifly take part," May pondered. "We should see the organizers."

The committee running the PokéRinger tournament took one look at Ash, and exchanged meaningful glances.

"Mr. Ketchum," the head of the committee said. "Am I right in thinking that you took part in a balloon race in Johto?"

"Oh, yeah, that was pretty fun," Ash replied. "Why?"

"Because I would like to offer you and your friends a compromise," the committee head explained. "We actually did discuss this when we were setting up the tournament this year… you see, we're fairly sure that if you take part then there are going to be dozens of Legendary Pokémon involved. That's your own, plus the other Pokémon who turn up around you sometimes…"

Ash shrugged. "Yeah, that might happen, it's happened a few times, so I guess you're right!"

"And that's why we're offering a compromise," the man replied. "We'll run a separate tournament for your Pokémon and any legendaries who show up… that is, any other legendary Pokémon who show up."

Rayquaza looked up.

Her much bigger, non-Shiny counterpart looked down at her.

"I have only known you existed for five minutes," he said. "But in that time I have undergone a wholesale realignment of my priorities."

Ash's Rayquaza frowned slightly. "Um...I hope your priorities still include stopping meteorites? That is important, and I'm too little to do it yet."

"Come on, Dad!" Silver laughed. "You go high, I'll go low – we'll get past them together!"

Lugia beat his wings, hovering there as he looked at their opponents. "Are you sure? Those two seem fast…"

"That's half the fun!" Silver replied.

"You won't be laughing once I show you my true power," Shaymintwo said.

Zapdos coughed. "Ahem."

"Our true power," Shaymintwo corrected.

"Okay, Dad, start with a Twister!" Silver instructed. "Then I'll use Hydro Pump into it, and… and remember that we can talk psychically instead of telling them our plans out loud…"

"Fusion Bolt!" Zekrom insisted.

"Fusion FLARE!" Reshiram replied.

"Fusion BOLT!" Zekrom shouted.

"FUSION FLARE!" Reshiram escalated.

As the explosions echoed overhead, Kyurem cleared his throat and looked across the field at Articuno, Taillow and Swablu.

"Doing it as a three versus three okay?" he said. "Honestly I sort of expected this."

"Nah, I want to see what happens if I Electrify a Fusion Flare," Taillow replied. "Don't wait up for me!"

She darted skywards, there was an enormous blast of lightning, and she came back down again as a Swellow.

"Huh," she announced. "Now I want to do that again!"

"I'm more interested in getting to the actual PokéRinger game," Crobat replied. "Torchic and I worked something out..."

"Yah!" Dragonite said, rolling just left of a Mist Ball and sliding sideways through the air as he chased after Noctowl. "Come back here and have a hug!"

"I'd rather score a point," Noctowl replied, the ring glittering in his claws. "It's the point of the game, after all…"

He rolled away from Zacian, then ducked underneath Suicune, but Tornadus caught him in a whirlwind.

"Aha!" the Flying-type said. "Got you now!"

He tried to take the ring, and failed.

"Turns out that's not the real ring," Noctowl said, airily, and nodded.

Up above, Latias and Ho-Oh were flying escort for Rayquaza as she carefully hung the actual ring.

"Well done!" Dragonite called up at her. "Good work!"

And, a little way away, Cresselia shook her head.

"No," she said, firmly. "I know you think it would be neat, but no."

"But it would be so cunning!" Darkrai protested. "An extra team member snuck into the game!"

They were walking along the banks of a river, the next day, when Rayquaza made an announcement she'd clearly been thinking about.

"I don't think I want to get as big as that other Rayquaza yet," she said, with great solemnity. "I wouldn't be able to fit around Ash properly."

"I'm pretty sure I could teach you Minimize!" Dunsparce told her. "But staying small for as long as you want is absolutely an option and we'll all support you."

"Yeah!" Ash agreed, pressing one arm against his jacket where Rayquaza was and giving her a reassuring hug. "I'm not a hundred percent sure how that would work, but if Dunsparce says it's possible I'm not going to argue, because he's done more of that kind of thing than anyone else!"

Rayquaza let out a happy little sigh.

"Hey, I found something!" Phanpy called, from where she was leading the group along. "There's a big building, too! I don't know what it is but it looks important!"

"Ah, welcome to the Weather Institute," said a researcher. "My name is Bart. I'm afraid that things aren't really working properly here at the moment."

"Why's that?" Ash asked. "If you research weather, how can something not be working?"

"We don't research how weather works," Bart told him. "That's a misconception. We actually work on controlling the weather, but unfortunately the machine stopped working a couple of hours ago… it might look like a lovely day out there, and it is, but our machine is trying to make it snow."

"Oops," Rayquaza said, softly, and abruptly it began to absolutely pelt down with snow.

"Whoa!" Bart gasped, running for the machine and turning it down as his Castform shifted into Snowy Form. "What just happened?"

Ash coughed. "I think that was one of my Pokémon," he said. "Her ability is Air Lock, which stops weather happening, and she just turned it off…"

"Oh, that would do it," Bart agreed. "As soon as the ability turned off, then the weather machine would reassert itself with a vengeance!"

"Did that Pokémon change form when the weather changed?" Max asked, looking at Castform. "That's pretty cool. Does it do that for any kind of weather?"

"Well, so far Castform has been identified turning into a Water type when it's raining, an Ice type when it's snowing and a Fire type when it's brightly sunny," Bart told him. "Castform is a Pokémon designed to forecast the weather."

Skitty emerged from her Pokéball.

"Okay, so, tell me someone here has a weather control move!" she requested. "Because I have Me First, Normalize, and magic science to do!"

"Zapdos has Rain Dance," Ash volunteered.

"Perfect!" Skitty declared. "Let's go and see what we can do!"

Bart pointed at Skitty as she began chivying Castform along with her tail. "That Pokémon just talked."

"It's not her doing it, it's Vulpix," Max provided. "I think it's May's turn to give Vulpix a lift today?"

"Yep!" Vulpix agreed, from inside May's bag. "Accolades welcome!"

"So what's the plan, again?" Zapdos asked. "Just want to make sure this is all lined up properly."

"Well, you'll use Rain Dance," Ash said. "Then Skitty will use Me First and type-convert it to whatever we're trying to replicate. Then, if you can't turn off your Rain Dance before it activates it'll be Treecko's job to use Mimic and copy the altered Rain Dance, and then Treecko can use it again to finish the sequence."

"Exactly!" Skitty confirmed. "Fairly simple symbolic shuffling… really, to be properly scientific we should start with a Fire-type conversion of Rain Dance but I'm not really sure it's good manners to make it rain down fire and that is a possibility here. Anyway… ready?"

"I have no idea what is going on," Castform supplied, now back in his normal Form thanks to Air Lock and the weather machine being turned off.

"That's okay, we just need to take notes," Ash told him. "Okay, let's try… hmm. Bug type first? Or Dragon type?"

"I like Dragon type!" Skitty agreed. "Okay, Zapdos, three, two, one!"

"Rain Dan-!" Zapdos began.

"Me First!" Skitty interrupted, and Zapdos scrambled to cancel her Rain Dance as Skitty took it over. A ball of light formed on her tail and shot into the air, then burst, and the air filled with green sparkles which began to fizz off any exposed surface like Saint Elmo's Fire.

Castform transformed into a shape with a sleek body and long tapered wings, and blinked. "Huh. I didn't know I could do that… what is this weather called?"

"I made it, so I get to name it," Skitty declared. "Dracorocco!"

"So we've found out about eight new types of weather," Ash reported, later. "Plus, we made what seems like Sandstorm but it just confused Castform."

"We think that's because Sandstorm is both Ground and Rock," Bart said. "But that's just a guess at this point."

"Also, we finished up with a proper rain storm," Skitty added. "Because otherwise it was going to be a bit sticky out there, since the Bug type one made it rain honey and wax."

May winced. "Ouch… I can imagine walking along in that. Eesh…"

"Do you think it's been going long enough?" Rayquaza asked.

"Probably leave it another few minutes," Ash told her. "Then it should be fine."

Rayquaza nodded.

"What about the thing I found?" Phanpy asked. "You know, the shiny stone!"

"Let's see…" Ash said, taking it out of his pocket. "I think this is another Mega Stone… how do people tell what they are, again? They can't just pass it between hundreds of Pokémon, right?"

"Wouldn't it be something you could look up in a catalogue?" Max suggested. "You know, the colours and stuff."

"Maybe, but when it's a new one," Ash clarified. "You couldn't look up the first Aggronite in a book because it'd be the first Aggronite."

"You could ask Diancie?" Dunsparce suggested. "Hold on a sec!"

She vanished in a Teleport.

Bart looked at where the tsuchinko had been, then at the friends.

"This is just how it is for you, right?" he asked. "I can see that it's an opportunity for enormous discovery, but it's not for me…"

A glowing golden ring appeared in mid-air, showing a crystal-lined room lit only by glowing diamonds and the light coming through the portal, and Diancie clasped her hands together as she looked up. "Good… well, it is after midnight, so good morning I suppose."

"Hi!" Ash replied. "My Pokémon Phanpy found this Mega Stone, do you know which one it is?"

He held it out, and Diancie examined it. She picked up a clear round gemstone the size of a fist, and used it as a loupe to look more closely.

Then she looked up.

"That would be a Castformite," she said. "I believe only one was made, unless my memory tricks me, and-"

"A Castformite?" Bart repeated. "But Castform is artificial!"

"So is the Mega Stone," Diancie replied. "If you happen to use it, do let me know how well it works."

"Thanks, Diancie," Ash told her, as Dunsparce hovered back through the portal from Kalos. "Sorry for bothering you!"

Because Mega Evolution was unpredictable, they went outside again.

"So, ah… how does this work, again?" Bart said, holding Ash's Mega Ring. "I've never Mega Evolved a Pokémon before."

"It's easy!" Ash told him. "What you do is, you concentrate on the Pokémon and how much they mean to you, and… that's it, really."

Bart blinked. "Oh. People make it seem harder."

He closed his eyes, focusing, and golden light spread over Castform.

Then faded, leaving the Weather Pokémon exactly the same as before.

"That's odd," Brock said. "Usually the light show means the Mega Evolution has happened."

"Hmm…" Ash said, thinking. "Can you use Ice Beam!"

Castform rotated to face a nearby tree, and the moment he started to use Ice Beam it began to snow and he transformed into his Snowy Form.

"That must be it!" Ash said. "Oh, now try a different move!"

Castform used Energy Ball, and the weather changed again – this time to a breeze heavy with pollen and accompanied by cherry blossoms, and which made Castform change into a green shape with a pattern of roots underneath.

"Wow!" Phanpy trumpeted. "That's really cool! So you're Grass-type now?"

"I think we should stop the experiment here," Castform requested, quite carefully. "Because I also know Clear Smog and I'm not sure what that one would do…"

"They were nice," Bart said, waving goodbye to the friends. "We've got a lot more data now."

He shook his head. "It's just a bit of a pity that the new graduate student hasn't shown up yet. I think most of her second day is going to be going over those experiments."

Castform bobbed up and down.

In the woods nearby, a Team Aqua strike squad closed their umbrellas.

"They're gone, right?" Matt asked. "Ash Ketchum and those other ones? They are gone?"

"Surveillance says they're gone," one of the grunts agreed. "Two miles away."

Matt considered that.

"Let's wait a bit longer," he said, shaking pollen, honey, darkness and sand off his umbrella. "Team Aqua fears nothing… except them."

AN:

There was just so much stuff that could be done at the Weather Institute...