The way to the Battle Tower went through Commerce City, and the friends ended up briefly sidetracked by trouble with a talking Pokémon called Red Lightning.
It was fairly easy to discover that Red Lightning was a Scizor in disguise, and almost as easy – if a bit disappointing – to find that Red Lightning was also not a talking Pokémon but had hidden speakers so his trainer could act like a voice.
It would have been an impressive display of Pokemon-human cooperation if Red Lightning hadn't been in the habit of challenging trainers to very unfair battles and then beating them in moments.
Also the girl who was his trainer had some sort of surface-to-air tree launcher, but Ash wasn't sure he understood what was going on there.
"In truth, I understand some of your plight," Zacian said, lowering her sword after blocking Red Lightning's attack. "Not just the Scizor who I face, but the girl against whom we are battling. Loneliness can be a terrible thing, and until I met Ash my main solace was my brother… though none of you are to repeat that to him."
"That's right," Suicune agreed. "To have a family to talk to, friends… it is a great experience. But to challenge trainers to battles that are entirely one-sided is not fulfilling."
Red Lightning's trainer – Luna – frowned, clearly not liking that, but Max marched up to her.
"Do you have any idea how much I want to be a Pokémon trainer in my own right?" he asked. "You've got that chance, and you've got a strong Pokémon – do what's best for you and what's best for him, and take on challenges that actually challenge you. Otherwise Red Lightning will do great right up until he challenges a strong Fire-type, and he'll have no clue how to handle that because he's never had to deal with being on the back foot."
"But how does your friend do that, then?" Luna protested. "He's got Legendary Pokémon!"
"We battle one another," Zacian said. "Or, in extremis, Pikachu."
Pikachu waved.
"Also, you may want to ask Red Lightning what he thinks," Vulpix added. "I'm translating everyone, including him, he just hasn't said anything yet."
"I wondered why everyone seemed to understand the Pokémon," Red Lightning admitted. "I thought it was something to do with Aura."
Luna gasped.
"Then – what do you think?" she asked her Pokémon, after taking a steadying breath.
"Winning is good," Red Lightning said. "But beating such weak Pokémon… I only do it because you want me to. I would prefer a challenge, if it would still make you happy."
Zacian used Fire Fang, and her sword heated to a dull reddish glow. "Let's see about a challenge, then."
It was probably a good thing that Red Lightning turned out to be okay with catching fire.
Really, he was surprisingly resilient.
"What you doing?" Manaphy asked, watching as May and Bulbasaur practiced. "That looks funny!"
"It's what I do as a Pokémon trainer," May told him, signalling Bulbasaur to hold her attack for now. "Some trainers like Ash have their Pokémon battle the Pokémon of other trainers, but a lot of what I do is in making sure their attacks look good – so, impressive, or funny. Showing that they're good at something."
Manaphy thought about that, putting a flipper over his mouth, then brightened. "Oh! Like water!"
He used Bubble, blowing a stream of water bubbles which floated in the air, then lost his grip on some of them and they fell to the ground. "Oops…"
"Like that, yes," May agreed. "Or like you were trying to do, at least."
"I can do that, mama?" Manaphy asked. "It looks like fun! And you do it, I should too!"
May smiled. "If you'd like to do that, then that would be wonderful."
"Um…" Bulbasaur said. "I'm starting to photosynthesize internally…"
"But I need to keep practicing with Bulbasaur now, okay?" May added, and got a nod from Manaphy. "Okay, Bulbasaur – Solar Blade!"
She looked at the result. "I think that's great – now, let's try that first bit again?"
"Wow!" Manaphy said, that evening. "All here to see Mama?"
"They're not all just here to see May," Pikachu told him. "But May's got a reputation. I think some of them might have come here specifically to see her… it's just that mostly they're here to see her and the other Coordinators as well."
Manaphy thought about that, then nodded. "Okay!"
"Bulbasaur, go!" May called. "Pledge storm!"
Bulbasaur whipped up all three Pledge moves at the same time, split each elemental whirlwind into two, then combined them in three pairings that activated all three two-move combinations at once. A rainbow spread overhead, the ground hissed as a field of fire competed with a swamp and balanced out as a fresh grassy meadow, and May took three steps back before pointing. "Now, Petal Blizzard!"
What Bulbasaur produced wasn't just a swirl of pink petals. She'd been working on her control and refinement, and a multicoloured display spread out into the Contest hall – all the colours of the rainbow, at first intermixed together but then separating out. They formed the white-and-red of a Pokéball, then added the blue and deeper red of a Great Ball, and after a moment changed again so they had the mixed greens of a Safari Ball.
"And… Solar Blade!" May finished.
Unseen inside the petals, Bulbasaur had also used Razor Leaf. Every single one of those sharp leaves lit up with Solar Blade at once, and while the solar bladestorm only lasted a fraction of a second before it completely shredded itself it also tore all the petals and leaves into fine rainbow confetti which drifted on the remaining breeze.
Manaphy applauded. "Pretty!"
"Have you ever felt torn between feeling someone's very inventive as a Coordinator, and suggesting that they should go into competitive battling instead?" Mr. Sukizo asked. "It's not what I expected to be thinking, but there it is."
"I can't say I have," Contesta replied. "Partly because if May Maple did go into competitive battling, she'd have to go up against Ash Ketchum."
"If her Skitty was making a serious go of competitive battling I'm not sure what would happen…" Sukizo admitted. "It'd be a remarkably unusual insurance claim."
Joy put her hand on her lips. "Would that count as some kind of act of Legendary?"
"Surf!" May told Squirtle. "Ice Beam – jump!"
"Razor Wind, Absol!" her opponent said.
Absol used Razor Wind, and Squirtle twisted around mid-jump to catch the attack on his surfboard. It split in half, but absorbed the attack, and Squirtle flung both broken halves at Absol to keep the Dark-type off balance.
"Are you feeling all right, Absol?" Mollie asked, as Squirtle rolled on landing before creating a new water surfboard to retain most of his momentum. "You've been off all Contest!"
"I'd like to see you concentrate with a pneumatic drill in the audience!" Absol retorted, shaking his head.
"Leaf Blade!" Mollie added.
"Multiple jumps and build up speed!" May said, prompting Squirtle to kick against the ground for a speed boost and blast Ice Beams all over the place. Absol began smashing some of them, using Quick Attack to get to them and Rock Smash to break them up, but Squirtle had left himself options and each ramp saw him jumping higher and carrying more momentum.
"Now, Ice Beam and Scald!" May told her Pokémon, just as he hit a jump.
Squirtle used both attacks at once, shooting out an icy ball that hit the ground just next to Absol and boiled over with an explosion and a crash of steam.
"This is not an ideal situation," Absol said, as Squirtle fired a second steam bomb at him.
May made the effort to seek out her opponent after the Contest, and congratulate her on how well she'd done.
"I didn't think it was that good," Mollie admitted.
"Well, I know what it's like for an Absol to be around my friend Ash," May explained. "Yours didn't run away, that's happened before, and I thought you did well!"
"As it happens, Mollie, I agree," said an older trainer. "May's already an excellent Coordinator, but you've got a spark that I think deserves to be nurtured."
"Yuma?" Mollie gasped. "Weren't you a Top Coordinator!"
"It's good to see that I'm so well remembered," Yuma said, smiling.
"And I think you're a vision of-" Brock began, then went thud as Bulbasaur tripped him over.
"...thank you," he added, now face-down on the ground.
"Glad to remind you whenever you need it," Bulbasaur told him.
Around Cremini Town, and still a day or so from reaching the Battle Tower, the friends were in camp one evening when a Mewtwo abruptly appeared next to them.
Hello, Ash! Ambertwo said, waving. I thought I'd see how you were doing. It's been a while, hasn't it?
"Yeah, it has!" Ash agreed. "Sorry I didn't think to stop by, we weren't going by where you live so it didn't really come to mind."
That's okay, Ambertwo nodded. How have you been doing?
"I won the Silver Conference, but Lance beat me," Ash said. "Then I won the Ever Grande Conference, too, and I beat Steven but he told me that I don't have to take over as Grand Champion so I didn't."
Ambertwo gasped. Wow! Well done, Ash!
"Uh… who's this?" Max asked. "I guess you know her?"
"This is Ambertwo," Ash introduced her. "She's a cloned human resurrected by Ho-Oh as a cloned version of Mew, only not really a clone because Mewtwo is a lot more different from Mew than Shaymintwo is from a normal Shaymin. She's kind of the first Mewtwo's sister."
Ambertwo waved. That's me!
"And Ambertwo, these are Max and May," Ash introduced them. "They're brother and sister, and May's a Coordinator while Max is technically too young to be a trainer, so May caught some Pokémon who wanted to come with him…"
"I'm not sure what it says that this might actually not be the strangest friend of Ash we've met," Max said.
"Oh, you should meet Mirage Mew!" Ash told Ambertwo, which was about two seconds before Mewtwo teleported in.
Remember, we need to keep our existence from being discovered oh wait it's Ash never mind, Mewtwo said. Good afternoon, Brock. Would you be all right with another for dinner?
AN:
A bit shorter than usual, this one, that's just how it turned out. I wasn't feeling great which impacted my writing rate.