A few days after May's Grand Festival win, and while they were still trying to work out where to go next – apart from waiting until Brandon was ready for Ash's challenge – the friends were walking down a road and encountered a group of performers practicing.

"That's kind of familiar," Brock chuckled. "It's a lot like what you've been doing, May."

"I guess it is," May agreed, watching as the various Pokémon played around with water. "Well, it's like what Marill, Manaphy and Squirtle do, at least."

Max frowned. "And Ash has Suicune, and Croconaw sort of does it… it's not really the kind of thing Mudkip does though. Swablu's the only Pokémon of yours who can do that kind of thing, Brock, unless I've missed one?"

"That's about right," Brock agreed. "And I'm sure Ralts could if he was here."

"Actually, that's a good point," Ash frowned. "Are you counting psychic powers in that, or just basic hydrokinesis?"

"Let's not go there," Max asked. "Because otherwise you're going to overturn the type chart again and it's too early in the morning to do that."

"I assume we're going to be able to say hello, though, right?" Pikachu asked. "Also, Max, you forgot me."

"...oh, yeah, that's right," Max realized. "Your Surf does count, good point."

The performers were called Meredith, Kyle, their daughter Lizabeth (who was the one actually doing the practicing) and then Lizabeth's grandfather Shep and a recently joined clown as well.

Lizabeth took a second look at May, then brightened, and asked if she was the May who'd won the Kanto Grand Festival. That turned into a whole discussion about the difference between competitive battling, Contest battling, Appealing and doing circus performances, which spread out into a wide discussion that went everywhere and drew in almost all the Pokémon and trainers present.

Almost all of them.

"I take it that this is not to your liking?" Zacian asked.

"Not really," Aten snorted. "Why would it be? I am a king by right, and though Pokélantis is gone I'm not exactly going to lower myself to take part in frivolities."

Zacian considered that answer for several seconds.

"I have some small knowledge on royalty's nature," she said, eventually. "And it is this… to be rightwise king is no small thing, and to value, for it gives one's life a defined role. But a defined role is not a meaning or a purpose, and if you feel your life's purpose is 'to be a King' then you are saying you have no purpose at all."

Aten growled, and the Heroine of Many Battles stepped around him. "One can have aimed to be a King who sought what was best for one's subjects, or one who sought to protect their realm, or perhaps for baser motives. But it would be for the best if you were to consider why you sought to do what you did, and to be what you wished to be… as that will be of no small import."

"What are you talking about?" Aten asked.

Zacian sighed, slightly, and drew her sword.

"This is not the true blade I bear," she explained. "That lies in Galar, in the Slumbering Weald, for when I wish to take it up again. But it is nevertheless important to me, because it came from my trainer and student. My partner."

She sheathed it again.

"How exactly did you talk so clearly with that in your mouth?" the Ghost-type said, a little confused.

"Practice," Zacian answered. "But to my point. If you were king now, what would you be seeking?"

"Something more fun than watching people talk about how to throw water around," Aten said.

"There you go, you see?" Zacian asked. "If you seek power, then it is power to do something… but what is it you would want to do when you had that power? Because if you can gain that thing without the power in the first place, why bother with the power?"

"Then why do you bother getting stronger to battle for your trainer?" Aten asked, snidely.

"Because there are several things I want to do, and one of them is battle alongside Ash," Zacian said. "Something that is more possible with him than with any other trainer I could have, though I wanted to do that before. And because battling is fun in and of itself."

She reached out her paw, glittering with golden sparks, and touched Aten on the nose. "Maybe you should try finding out what you think is fun, and see if you can do that."

"Did you just press my nose?" Aten demanded.

"Oh, you are correct," Zacian apologized. "I forgot to say boop. Should I do it again, and properly this time?"

"Boop?" Aten repeated. "Is this some kind of joke to you?"

"Not everything is a joke," Zacian told him. "But if you look for insult everywhere, you will assuredly find it."

Then there was a thump.

"Look what I found!" Phanpy said, holding up a case.

"Hey!" the clown protested, speaking for the first time. "That was in my stuff, I'm keeping it safe!"

"You are?" Phanpy asked. "But it was on the ground. That's how I found it."

The clown got out a Capture Styler, and Aten's ears flicked up.

"I don't know what that is, but I assume violence is about to happen," he said.

"Oh, huh," Ash observed. "That's kind of tingly… and yeah, I get that you want to make sure that nobody gets hold of that egg case who can't be trusted with it. I even understand why you're being secret about it!"

The clown, who was actually a Ranger, looked at his Capture Styler in bafflement. "That's… um, supposed to work on Pokémon, not humans…"

"Yeah, it's working right," Ash agreed, dispelling his Illusion. "Celebi gave me the potion this morning and said it was a good idea to drink it, and I did and she was right, so this must be why!"

The Ranger looked extremely confused.

"What?" he asked. "You're a Pokémon?"

"Not normally," Ash answered, still as Ashbsol. "But today, yeah."

"I, uh…" he said, then shook his head. "Well, I… guess I didn't get any negative feedback from you, so you're trustworthy at least."

"It's fine," Ash said brightly. "I understand why you need to be careful!"

"It's because the egg is the egg of – well, of a Manaphy," the Ranger explained, then realized he hadn't given his name. "Oh, and I'm Jackie… it's my mission to get Manaphy to safety."

"So that egg's another Manaphy?" Manaphy asked.

"Nope!" Celebi said. "Sorry, I kind of need this."

She grabbed the egg case.

"Hey!" Jackie protested. "What are you doing?"

"Oh, I get it!" May said, as Celebi vanished. "That's not another Manaphy, that's where Celebi got Manaphy's egg from!"

She nodded. "That makes sense."

Lizabeth raised her hand. "...am I the only one who is completely lost now and confused why May just said it made sense?"

Jackie called Ranger HQ after that, and while he was sorting that out Shep explained something about the People of the Water.

It seemed that there had once been an ocean temple called Samiya, ruled by the King of the Sea and inhabited by the People of the water, but it had come under attack from evil spirits and so the King of the Sea had sent Samiya underwater.

"Oh, like where Lugia lives?" Ash asked, rummaging in his pocket. "I didn't think to have Silver available today, but maybe I should."

"It's a little harder than that," Shep said, trying his very best not to spoil his credibility as a seen-it-all kind of guy at the mention that Ash had more Legendary Pokémon on call. "The King made Samiya invisible, except for during a lunar eclipse… and the next one's not for another couple of weeks. But Manaphy is the Prince of the Sea, and he's able to guide people to Samiya."

"I am?" Manaphy said. "Huh! I didn't know that… but I've never tried before, either, so that could be something to do with it."

Jackie joined back in with the conversation. "I checked with Ranger HQ," he said. "They say my mission hasn't changed. We need to keep Manaphy safe from the Phantom Pirates, and that means-"

"Sorry, Phantom Pirates?" Max interrupted. "Who are they?"

"They're the organization that I rescued Manaphy's egg from," Jackie explained. "I'm sure they want to use his powers somehow… the safest place for him is Samiya."

"But… May isn't going to live on Samiya," Manaphy protested.

"If it's really what's safest for him, then that's what we'll have to do," May said, hugging Manaphy. "But only if it's safest, and that means you have to be sure."

"Right!" Manaphy agreed. "I love May… saying goodbye to her would be sad!"

Ash frowned slightly, thinking, then looked around. "Uh… I think we might have trouble, my leg's itching."

"...what?" Shep asked.

Then two Beedrill buzzed down to attack, and Ash dropped his Illusion again.

"Come on, Pikachu!" he called, throwing his Key Stone to his Electric-type, and Pikachu caught it with one paw before using Electro Ball. The blast of electricity knocked a Beedrill aside as Ashbsol parried the other Beedrill with Razor Wind, then Mega-Evolved with a flash of orange light and charged at the Pinsir that had come next.

"Blaziken, go after that helicopter!" May said, sending out her starter, and Jackie activated his Styler as Brock's Eevee took off to follow Blaziken.

Things did not go quite as the Phantom strike team had presumably expected.

Three exciting minutes later, Zacian was standing watch over the captives.

"There'll be more," Jackie said. "This wasn't nearly as many people as the Phantom has access to."

"Then I guess we need some help from Dragonite!" Ash said.

"Which one?" May said. "I think he's back home at the moment."

"I mean King Dragonite," Ash clarified, in that way that didn't actually help for people who didn't already have a good idea what he was talking about. "Ibid, can you get hold of him?"

"How many should he bring?" Ibid asked.

Ash counted under his breath. "Uh… there's four circus performers, and the four of us, and Jackie, so I guess at least eight others! But can you get Silver, too, and Latias or Latios? If we're going diving we might need them."

"On it," Ibid said, and teleported away.

"Sorry, King Dragonite?" Shep asked. "Who's he when he's at home?"

"King Dragonite The First Of Us To Evolve Into A Dragonite, I think," Ash said. "Unless they changed his title since I last checked."

Ibid returned, along with a whole wing of dragons and Silver.

"Royal Air Force reporting for duty," the King said, then embraced Ash.

"It's great to see you as well!" Ash laughed. "Not too hard, I'm Illusioned today!"

Ten minutes later, with their captives handed off to the nearest Officer Jenny, they were flying out to sea.

"So how can Manaphy tell which way to go?" Ash called over to Shep.

"I sort of assumed it would be obvious to him!" Shep replied. "Maybe if he's in the water?"

The Dragonite carrying May dropped towards the sea, and Manaphy jumped down to splash around a bit in the salty water.

"Um… I think it's that way!" he announced, pointing. "It's funny! It's kind of like how when there's flowing water you know which way it's tugging, but not nearly as strong and not actually pulling me."

"Then we should go… that way," Max said, waving his hand off to the right of the direction Manaphy had pointed. "Ibid should remember what the angle was, and then we can draw the lines on a map to see where they cross – that should get us close, at least."

"That's pretty smart of you, kid," Jackie admitted. "And I am not used to working with a trainer with quite this many outrageous Pokémon…"

"I'll have you know that not all of us actually know Outrage," the Dragonite carrying him sniffed. "It's a stereotype, is what it is."

"In my day, that move was called Imperial Rage," Aten said, then immediately buried his face in his paws. "And now I sound like one of those dreadful old men who tried to tell me I should stop ordering the sages to make giant Pokémon."

Zacian emerged from her Pokéball. "So it was you, was it?"

Aten bared his teeth. "And what if it was?"

"Well, I'm mostly glad to have an answer, for some of it at least," Zacian replied. "Did Pokémonopolis do it as well? I've been assuming it was them."

"They weren't as good at it," Aten answered, untensing slightly. "And I claim all credit in that case."

"I feel like I should be taking notes," Kyle admitted. "I'm just not sure what they'd be about."

Max's trick helped them narrow down how far they had to go, and within an hour or so – and a long way out to sea – they'd reached the site where Manaphy said Samiya was directly under them.

Of course, it was still both underwater and invisible, but Ash sent King Dragonite's Dragonites home and got Charizard instead. That gave them three Pokémon who knew Dive, counting Latias and Silver as well, and with Manaphy's help it took them only about another ten minutes to get inside.

"This is amazing," Meredith gasped, as they walked though Samiya inside the cloaking field. "It's beautiful."

"I never imagined it would be anything like this," Jackie agreed. "The technology the ancient People of the Water had is astonishing – it's almost like magic."

"So… what do we do now, then?" May asked. "Is it really safer for Manaphy to be here? Or… is there something else we can do?"

"Actually, I was thinking about that," Ash said. "Do you know Acid Armor, Manaphy?"

"Oh!" Manaphy said, thinking. "I… oh, I don't think so? It sounds like a move I should know, but…"

"We didn't really get around to it," May admitted.

"That's okay, I'll get Mew," Ash said. "Ibid, can you handle that?"

Ibid Teleported off again.

"Anyway, here's the idea," Ash said. "If Manaphy uses Acid Armor and some of him is in a bottle with May, and the rest of him is in Samiya, then it's all still him, right? And there shouldn't be anything stopping him from forming himself in either place, because it's still water, but it's still him. And he can always learn Growth too to get back to the right size."

"That sounds like it would work!" Manaphy said, smiling broadly. "I get to stay with Mama!"

Jackie sat down hard. "I think I'm now glad I chose not to train Pokémon. It seems to involve headaches."

"Okay, so, I already did Heart Swap," Mew said, once he'd been retrieved and got onto the right topic. "And remember, for Acid Armor you need to focus on being Water type, and become Water."

He dissolved into a little pink puddle. "Like this!"

The Mew-puddle blobbed back up into Mew. "The trick is, you need to sort of unfocus. It's like how your eyes go when you're trying to see a magic eye picture."

"Got it!" Manaphy replied, screwing up his eyes to concentrate.

Then the glassy surface of the nearest crystal formation rippled.

"Excuse me," Giratina said, peering out. "Ash? There was a submarine full of disagreeable sorts trying to get into this place, so I thought I'd put them in the Reverse World and then ask you if they were good or not."

"...you know, my first thought is, that's an impressive submarine," Max admitted. "We were moving really fast and we've not been here long."

"Their leader is a cyborg, if that helps," Giratina said.

AN:

Ranger HQ is going to have to have a new way of handling unusual reports.