"So… which way do we go now?" Latios asked, sliding a bit closer to where Articuno was carrying Brock. "I know we're headed for Pacifidlog, and it's roughly that way, but I've never seen the island before… any hints?"

"Let's see," Brock replied.

He checked the map, checked the guidebook, double checked the guidebook, and frowned.

"Huh."

"That doesn't sound like a good sort of huh," Articuno pointed out. "In fact, it sounds like a lost sort of huh. Are we, or are we not, lost?"

"I haven't seen a map like this before," Brock said. "There's about eight islands on it with question marks… the guide book says that they're sometimes there and sometimes they aren't."

"That's pretty cool!" Ash said. "I think we should go down and look at one… some of them are there, right?"

"That's what I'm trying to check," Brock told him. "There's dozens of islands… sorry, Articuno, can you hold still, I need to mark these off."

"Is something wrong?" May called, from her Dragonite's back.

"We're just checking on which island to go down and visit!" Ash replied.

"I think… that one there is one of the ones that appears and disappears," Brock said. "The one with the half a fringing reef on the right and some dots for a reef on the left."

"I see it!" Latios agreed, then began swooping down. May's Dragonite and King Dragonite followed, and Articuno waited long enough to be sure that Brock had his map equipment packed away before bringing up the rear.

"Is this island even real?" Max asked, hesitating before slipping down from King Dragonite's back. "If it sometimes appears and sometimes isn't there… might it be just an illusion, or something?"

Ash considered that.

"Let's find out!" he said, and jumped off Latios' back.

He went thump onto the ground, and Max sighed in relief.

"Why did you do that?" Latios asked. "Isn't that dangerous?"

"I've got Rayquaza to help," Ash replied. "She can carry me if I need it… plus, if it's an illusion and there isn't any island here then there isn't any ground here, and we're about a quarter of a mile in the air. Which is a good few seconds before hitting the sea."

"Unless it's a solid illusion," King Dragonite suggested. "The Royal Illusionist says that Zoroark can do that."

"It'd help to have Noctowl along right now," Ash said, as May and Brock stepped down as well. "He knows Foresight… maybe he'd like to join in next time we go flying? I'll have to ask him."

He looked around. "Hey! Are there any Pokémon here?"

There wasn't any sound for several seconds.

Then a golden portal opened in mid-air, and a strange-looking Pokémon fell through and bounced off Ash's head.

"Were you surprised?" Hoopa asked, giggling, as they leaned half-way through a second smaller portal. "Hoopa has heard of mysterious spots and soaring, but when you are on a Latios that is not a Mega Latios Hoopa cannot drop Pokémon in front of you! So Hoopa had to wait until you landed on an island!"

Pikachu snorted. "Nonsense."

"Of course it is!" Hoopa told him. "That is why Hoopa is enjoying it!"

The Mythical Pokémon nodded to themselves, closing the bigger portal, then waved to Max and May as well. "Hoopa gives special discount rates to friends of Ash Ketchum! You'll be surprised by the value!"

As the Hyperspace Hole closed, the Pokémon who'd landed on Ash's head picked herself up.

"Oh, uh… hi?" she said, waving. "Quick question… where am I?"

"We don't know the name of the island, but the region is Hoenn," Ash said, pulling Ibid out of his pocket. "Purrloin, huh?"

Ibid transformed into a miniature Purrloin. "Purrloin," the mini-Purrloin said. "The Devious Pokémon."

"That's rude," Purrloin huffed. "Humph!"

"You don't look much like Ibid's picture," Max said, comparing the purple-and-cream Ibid version with the slate-coated grey-faced Purrloin sitting in front of them… not to mention her green tail and red tailblade. "Are you a shiny Purrloin?"

"Viewing: Shiny Purrloin," Ibid repeated, and his duplicate changed colour.

"No, that's actually less like you," Ash frowned. "Huh… usually Ibid is pretty good with this kind of stuff."

"That must be because I'm one of a kind!" Purrloin said proudly, then flicked her blade-tail around and picked at her claws. "Hmm. Does it count as one of a kind if it's because a lot of Pokémon where you're from are one of a kind?"

"Ibid, what can you tell me about this Purrloin?" Ash requested. "If she's unique, then she's not going to be like other Purrloin."

"You could have said that in the first place," Ibid complained, then changed into a copy of the Purrloin they'd just met. "Abnormal Purrloin. Type: Ghost/Fairy. Ability: Illusion. Ability: Lightningrod."

"Lightningrod?" Pikachu repeated. "And Illusion? I think we might just have found someone who can fake being me better than Zorua can."

"You've got a Zorua?" Purrloin said, interested. "Neat!"

She purred. "Now I know you're not going to object to me asking to come along… any chance for a lift?"

A few miles away, the Hikokyu rose invisibly back into the clouds.

"Now, remember what we said, an' all!" Meowth declared, walking back and forth in front of a dozen Wynaut. "What do you do when you're fallin'?"

"Counter!" the Wynaut cheered.

"And if there's four of you?"

"Two Counter, two Mirror Coat!" they all chorused. "Aim for the other one using it, bounce it back and forth, then launch it at the target!"

"Dat's right!" Meowth said. "Huh. Funny how it's much easier ta recruit…"

For a moment, he felt like he was on the edge of some kind of epiphany… then shrugged it off.

They had a plan to steal Pikachu to write out!

"Do… you think you're overdoing that, slightly?" Max asked Ash.

"Huh?" Ash replied. "What's wrong?"

Pikachu adjusted his position on Ash's left shoulder. "Yeah, I don't see a problem."

Purrloin, who was currently using Illusion to appear as a (female) Pikachu, rode Ash's right shoulder as he sat down in the Pacifidlog Island Contest Hall. "It's because I'm less conspicuous as a Pikachu."

"And I'm because if I was a Zorua it'd make people think about illusions," Zorua agreed. He was riding Ash's bag, and also currently a Pikachu.

"Okay, fine, fine," Max said, then pointed up. "But that's overdoing it!"

"Is it?" Noctowl asked – currently pretending to be a Pikachu with balloons tied around his waist, next to Latias who was doing the same thing. "That's unfortunate."

"At least we're not in the way of anyone," Latias replied. "Oh, right. Pikachu."

"Should I put on a Pikachu headband?" Rayquaza suggested. "Otherwise I sort of spoil the theme."

"It's been a while since I was in the audience for one of these," May said. "It's going to be interesting watching what Brock can do."

When he came out, Brock was wearing a sombrero and poncho.

For no readily discernable reason.

"Swablu!" he called, holding up a Pokéball, and Swablu emerged in a flash of light. "Echoed Voice!"

Swablu spread his wings, peeped a couple of times, then raised his voice in song – making it a lilting tune which began with a single melody before rising into counterpoint with itself.

He took off, rising into the air, and the music rose with him – reaching higher as he flew towards the sky, and dipping lower again as he drifted back towards the floor.

"And, pause," Brock said. Swablu stopped singing, but the sound resonated in the hall for several more seconds. It didn't seem to be getting any quieter, despite the fact Swablu had stopped, and a few mutters went around the hall.

"Sparkling Aria!" Brock ordered.

Swablu sang again, this time a completely different tone, and a bubble of water formed in front of him. Pulses of visible pressure chased one another around inside it, and the music from before finally faded away… almost completely, at least.

It could still be heard, resonating out from inside the floating water bubble of the Sparkling Aria, and Swablu had chosen both his songs well – they formed a duet, weaving in and out of one another.

Brock took a maraca out of his poncho, shook it three times, and on the third shake the Sparkling Aria burst. The original song came back at the full volume it had originally had, saturating the hall, until Swablu alighted on Brock's arm and the whole of the sound vanished instantly.

"I'm not quite sure what the maracas were for, but that was quite a performance," Mr. Lively said. "I think that one gets a good score."

He looked over at his fellow judges. "What do you think?"

"I think I'd like to know how that Swablu knows Sparkling Aria," Nurse Joy replied. "I don't think they learn that one."

"Oh!" Mr. Hanamoto said. "You didn't read the latest judging packet, I see! Admittedly it mentions May Maple by name, not this young man, but I think the same rules must apply to both…"

"Houndoom!" Joshua called, during the Battle Round. "Swift – keep up that punishment!"

"Song of defence!" Brock replied.

Joshua's Houndoom flicked out a cloud of Swift stars from his tail, and Swablu sang a precise, resonant note. An interlocking pattern of musical notes formed a shield around him, one which the Swift stars bounced off with a spang, and Swablu's Protect vanished only a second later as he switched to offence with a ball of shimmering water.

"Burst that Aria!" Joshua said. "Get a Shadow Ball ready!"

Houndoom span up a Shadow Ball, then flicked his tail as well as Joshua called for Swift. The combined barrage of attacks broke the cohesion of the Sparkling Aria – only to reveal that Swablu had sung two songs, one of them a Disarming Voice, and a surge of Fairy-typed energy poured out to hit Houndoom and stagger him.

"Boomburst!" Brock called, and Swablu's voice peaked. He sang a single note which appeared as a visible music-note-shaped shockwave, and it hit all the water from his Sparkling Aria… carrying it into Houndoom, who slid backwards halfway across the stage before tripping over and rolling to a stop.

"An impressive combination there!" Joy commented. "I wondered whether Brock's Swablu had Boomburst and how he'd keep it in-theme, but there it is!"

"How do you like that?" James declared, two crowded minutes after Team Rocket had interrupted the final Battle Round. "If you're going to leave us with decoy Pikachu to choose between, we'll catch them all!"

"And this way we've definitely got your supercharged Pikachu," Jessie added. "Plus whatever these other Pokémon are."

"So don't go complainin' about it!" Meowth finished. "...actually, how come you ain't complainin' about it?"

A paw tapped him on the shoulder.

"This is very impressive!" a Glameow purred, flirting her tail. "Can it hold Ghost types?"

"Well, dat's a weirdly specific question for such a beautiful Pokémon," Meowth admitted. "But no, 'cause Ghost types can go through solid matter, an' you ain't able to make non-solid matter dat dat Pikachu can't break."

Pikachu demonstrated that even their best efforts were barely up to the task by using Thunder and making several dials on Meowth's control console light up alarmingly.

"So… this would be a bad idea for you, then?" Glameow asked, tapping the glass with her tail. It sliced through like the glass was made of cheese, leaving a visible gap, and Pikachu smirked.

"...looks like we're about to decamp," James sighed.

"It'd take industrial equipment to decamp you," Jessie retorted.

"Would an exploding console do?" Pikachu asked. "Hey, Noctowl, Zorua, boost me! I'm going for the distance record!"

The next day, with Brock one Ribbon richer, the friends found that the SS St. Flower was stopping off at Pacifidlog not then but in a few days.

"I guess we should do some training, then!" Ash suggested. "I want to make sure my newer Pokémon are ready for the League! Like Purrloin, and Snorunt, and Ho-Oh!"

"Ho-Oh?" Entei repeated, sniggering.

"Well, he hasn't had a Gym Battle yet!" Ash pointed out. "And I don't really think he's got the idea behind the shield trick yet, though I guess setting himself on fire and daring his opponent to try a physical attack is a bit similar…"

"I don't mean to be rude," someone said. "But if you're going to be doing training of that sort, please do it some distance away."

Ash thought about that.

"Let's go and see some of the scenic islands around here!" he suggested. "What do you think, guys?"

"That could be fun!" Max agreed. "Hey, do you think your Treecko could help Shroomish work on her Bullet Seed?"

"Okay…" May said, a few hours later. "And… Brock has Swablu… Vulpix… Bulbasaur… Onix… Lotad… and Mudkip. There we go."

She pressed a button on her Pokénav, confirming the order list, and a Kadabra materialized with a big sack.

"Thank you," she told the Kadabra, who bowed before vanishing again – leaving the sack.

"That's really convenient," Brock said. "I know most of the time I cook, but sometimes doing Pokémon food for everyone's team is a bit of a distraction."

"You don't have to apologize," May assured him. "But it's good to see that a lifetime supply of Pokéblocks really is a lifetime supply… even if you don't use it most of the time."

A Munchlax walked into the clearing.

"Did you say a lifetime supply of food?" he asked.

Marill giggled. "Are those the magic words?" she said. "At least he won't overstrain the food budget!"

AN:

Delta Purrloin here making an appearance from Pokémon Insurgence. Because Mystery Spots should be maximally mysterious… or something.