The next day, en route back to Jubilife, they had an unexpected encounter involving a woman, a freeze gun, and a Salamence.

"That was… crazy," Dawn said, a little shakily, as the Salamence left. "Just imagining someone out there stealing Pokémon…"

She looked down at her Pokéballs, and sighed with relief on seeing them all there – then she caught up with what had just happened.

"Wait!" she said. "Ash, she got Pikachu!"

"Yeah," Ash agreed. "It's weird, I kept expecting her to do a motto… it almost doesn't feel right without a motto."

Dawn blinked, then looked at Ash. "You don't seem very worried! Aren't you going to send any Pokémon after her?"

Ash shrugged. "I sort of think it would be redundant…"

In her airship, Hunter J strode inside with Pikachu in a cage – frozen up to his neck, including his cheeks – and put him down in the holding area.

"Contact the usual bidders," she instructed. "That's Ash Ketchum's Pikachu, and I'm sure he'll fetch a high price."

"Got it, boss," one of her goons agreed.

J smirked, then the smirk faded as she walked in through the door dragging a frozen Heracross.

"What is the meaning of this?" the new J demanded. "Have you idiots been fooled by some kind of body double?"

"I'm not the body double, you're the body double!" J retorted, raising her weapon, and the other J did the same – stepping away from the door to get a clear field of fire.

Then another J came in, this time carrying a frozen Lugia almost as big as she was.

"What kind of imbeciles are you?" the third J asked. "I didn't think you could be taken in twice by the same trick!"

"But, uh, which boss is the real boss?" a goon said. "There's too much choice!"

The choice paralysis was made worse when a fourth identical Hunter J came into the room, this time with a tiny frozen shiny Rayquaza bobbing around on the end of a string.

"This is getting insane," the first J complained. "That one doesn't even make sense!"

"Freezing a Pokémon doesn't take away their abilities, as you would know if you were the real me!" the fourth J said.

"Yes it does!" the second retorted. "That's half the point!"

"This is clearly some kind of plan designed to make you think one of them is the real me," said the fifth one, this one coming in over the course of several seconds as she manoeuvred an entire frozen Zapdos through the door – doing her best to not get jabbed in the face by one of the several spikes festooning the Electric-type. "Well, I can tell you that my team is too smart to be taken in!"

"No they're not!" the third J replied.

"What is even happening with you idiots?" the first J demanded.

Then the sixth J came in, this one with a Grovyle, which she left on the pile of frozen Pokémon by the door. "What kind of nonsense is this?" she asked. "All these Pokémon left here rather than in the holding area? Did I train you to be lazy or is this a new development?"

"In case you hadn't noticed, fake, we're too busy!" the fifth J replied.

The seventh J came in through an entirely different door, tutted, then put down a cage (which contained an unusual wispy-looking Zorua) and put her hands on her hips. "What in the name of blue blazes are you all standing around for? Arrest them!"

"Arrest them!" the second J retorted.

"We don't arrest anyone, we're criminals!" the first J snapped.

Then another J came in through the window.

"None of you move!" she said, putting a folded-up Galarian Articuno down next to her. "This is completely crazy and I want it sorted out before anyone can move!"

By now all of the J were pointing fingers at one another, glancing back and forth suspiciously, and one of the goons raised his hand.

"Uh… wait," he said. "Only one of those is the real boss, right? So that means that at most one of those Pokémon is actually frozen."

"My patience has expired!" Aten announced. "I only went into this cage on the promise of gratuitous violence!"

Hunter J's airship exploded, which was on the whole the result of the extremely large sword blade that had just appeared from inside and cut an engine in half.

"Ooh," Whitney said, watching the debris raining down – along with the criminals, engulfed in glowing psychic energy or in one case vanishing off on a Salamence. "That's impressive."

"So… why didn't you send any Pokémon to go and get Pikachu back?" Dawn asked.

"Too late," Ash shrugged. "They sent themselves first."

In Jubilife, they were met by a group called the B-Button League.

The B-Button League's core philosophy, as explained by their leader (a trainer called Haley), was that they didn't evolve their Pokémon.

"It's not that we don't think Pokémon should evolve," Haley said, showing them into the main room. "We just think that a Pokémon shouldn't have to evolve."

"I get what you mean!" Ash agreed. "Pikachu doesn't want to evolve, so I'm not going to evolve him, and Dawn's Piplup said he doesn't want to evolve either."

Haley blinked. "I… honestly thought that the being-able-to-talk-to-Pokemon thing was an exaggeration. Or myth. Do you mean that you asked and he nodded?"

"No, I told them," Piplup answered.

"And I know what you mean, too," Whitney confirmed. "Or… I have some Pokémon who evolved, but I also have some Pokémon who haven't evolved and whether or not they do is up to them. It doesn't really prevent a Pokémon from getting stronger, right?"

Haley was still staring at Piplup.

"What about my Pidgey?" Ash asked. "How does she count? I caught her as a Pidgeotto, but she only evolves in battle now."

Now Haley was staring at both of them.

"I am going to love seeing everyone's reactions when you use Pidgey in a League battle," Whitney confided.

"I don't think that counts!" Haley's younger sister Oralie said. "She's still evolving, even if she turns back!"

Ash nodded. "Got it… hmm, there are some Pokémon I have who haven't decided to evolve yet, but there aren't really any besides Pikachu who want to not evolve. Sorry!"

"Another lesson!" Rapidash said. "It's okay to take pride in who you are, but it's not okay to look down on other people for not being that."

"Ooh, I like that one," Whitney nodded. "Is it okay to take pride in how cute I am as a Snom but only consider it a B-plus because it'd take advanced royal tuition to learn how to hug things?"

"Is it always like this with them?" Haley asked Dawn.

"Like what?" Dawn replied.

At Jubilife, they heard about a Contest up in Floaroma, and soon they were on the road again.

"I guess… the question is, do I want to use Pachirisu?" Dawn asked, glancing at the Electric-type taking her turn riding her shoulder (in much the same way as Pikachu was riding Ash's shoulder). "Or do I want to have Buneary and Piplup swap roles?"

"It's up to you, and to your Pokémon, I think," Ash replied. "If someone doesn't want to take part then you shouldn't force them, but if they all do then you can't really pick all of them… that's one of the tricky things about being a trainer, but I'm sure you'll do great!"

"Oh, yeah, tell me about it!" Whitney laughed. "Miltank sometimes gets a bit grouchy when I don't use her, but she knows what it's about."

She patted the Normal-type on the back. "You know what I mean, right?"

Miltank put her arm around Whitney in return. "Always have, always will."

Dawn smiled happily. "That's the kind of bond I want with my Pokémon… or, I don't just want that kind of bond but I want that kind of bond that lasts. I want to feel just as good with my Pokémon in ten years as I do right now, and… that's something I can't really know until ten years from now, right?"

"I could get Giratina to ask Dialga to check?" Ash suggested.

Dawn chuckled. "That'd be nice, but… I think I'd rather learn the hard way."

She turned to Pachirisu. "So, what do you think?"

"I think… I'd like to actually get the hang of this move first," Pachirisu admitted. "It's very nice, but very tricky and I don't think I'm ready yet."

"That's fine!" Dawn told her. "I'll make sure to practice it with you each night as well, but I might spend a lot of time on Buneary's Appeal from now until then, okay?"

She sent the Normal-type out. "Let's give that juggling another go, okay?"

"I can help!" Mew announced, jumping out from underneath Ash's hat.

"How long were you under there?" Ash asked, chuckling.

"Only since yesterday," Mew replied. "You should really check in there more often, by the way."

Floaroma Town did indeed turn out to have a Contest due.

It also contained Kenny, one of Dawn's childhood friends, who waved hello and sent out his Prinplup.

"I heard you got your own Starter Pokémon," he said, then actually noticed who Dawn was travelling with. "...wait, hold on, is that Ash Ketchum?"

"That's me!" Ash agreed. "And yeah, it is a good idea to ask, because the number of Pokémon I have who could pretend to be me is slightly surprising. It really creeps up on you."

He shrugged. "You know how it is, right? One minute you've got a Zorua, and the next you've got a Zacian and a Noctowl and you have to start keeping notes on what kind of illusion each one can do."

Kenny stared for several seconds.

"No," he said, eventually. "I don't know how it is."

"Huh," Ash shrugged. "You should try it! It's kind of interesting."

"I… was actually planning on telling some stories about Dawn to her friends," Kenny said, rallying a bit. "Who wants to hear about when Dee Dee gave herself a haircut like a Chimchar?"

Dawn went red.

"That actually sounds kind of neat, really," Ash replied. "Pokémon are great! What's wrong with wanting to be a bit more like a Pokémon?"

That made Whitney practically collapse with a fit of the giggles.

"It's kind of embarrassing…" Dawn admitted. "I didn't do a very good job, and it looked stupid. Everyone laughed at me."

There was a flash as Zacian emerged from her Repeat Ball.

"I am going to assume," she said, with a broad grin, "that you don't simply intend to embarrass your friend and make them uncomfortable by bringing up stories they would rather you not tell."

Kenny took a step back.

"Uh… no, uh, ma'am?" he tried.

"Excellent!" Zacian said. "In that case, it is always nice to meet the friend of a friend,"

She did an extravagant bow which didn't look possible from the point of view of physics, and in fact wasn't but she could fly so she didn't really pay attention to that sort of thing. "I am-"

"Woof," Zygarde interrupted. "You are woof. I am woof. Entei is woof. Suicune is woof. The rest is details."

"I'm trying to be regal," Zacian complained, looking swords at Zygarde.

"Apologies," Zygarde said, stepping back.

After several seconds thinking, Kenny nodded at Dawn's Piplup. "So, when are you going to evolve him?"

"When he asks for it," Dawn answered. "And not before."

She smiled. "Oh, I forgot to ask – are you doing Contests or the Gym Challenge? Or neither? Or both? We met someone who's planning on doing both."

"Contests, actually," Kenny said.

He blinked. "Wait, is the person doing both Ash Ketchum? Because I'm not sure I'm ready for that."

"I still think that's not what Hammer Arm means," Aten groused, as Dawn's Buneary ran through her routine.

It involved juggling half-a-dozen gigantic hammers, sometimes throwing them higher and sometimes lower, sometimes Bouncing into the air as she continued to juggle, and sometimes bashing two of them together with the frost from an Ice Beam momentarily glittering between them before it was smashed into a puff of powder-snow.

"If it works, why not?" Ash shrugged. "I think most people would have the same complaint about your Fire Spin."

"You don't expect a king to fight without preparing the ground first, do you?" Aten asked archly. "Besides, it's different for me, because it's me."

Ash reached up and stroked his fur in the way that took Aten longest to object to, and the half-Ghost leaned into it slightly.

Not quite enough that he had to actually take notice of what Ash was doing, of course.

After the Appeal round came the Battle round, and Dawn's Piplup faced off against Kenny's Prinplup.

Prinplup turned out to know Metal Claw, Bubblebeam, and Drill Peck, and mixed the three moves together into a fast style where he alternated between using a barrage of Bubblebeam to disrupt his opponent's moves, Metal Claw to fling his opponent around, and Drill Peck for an attack that combined a dramatic twirl with a strike against his target.

Piplup, for his part, kept himself twirling in and out of Whirlwind and Whirlpool and used that to dodge away from whatever it was Prinplup was trying to do to him at that moment. He caught the Bubblebeam Prinplup used and mixed it into his own watery attack, then dissipated the Whirlwind a moment later – flinging the Beam of Bubbles out as a horizontal flick-spray that caught the eye of the judges.

The same thing didn't quite work as well with Drill Peck, because Prinplup was able to get up a faster spin than Piplup and flick the other Pokémon across the room – costing Dawn points – but Piplup picked himself back up again and glanced at Dawn.

"Piiip-lup!" he said. "Pipipi-lup, pip?"

Prinplup did a double-take. "Priiin?"

"I think I know what you mean, Piplup!" Dawn agreed.

"Stop whatever they're trying to do!" Kenny said. "Drill Peck!"

"Bide!" Dawn ordered, just as Prinplup arrived.

"Wait, Bide?" Kenny repeated.

There was a flash of light as Piplup used Bide, absorbing most of Prinplup's attack, and did a somersault backwards to handle the rest.

"Now, Behemoth Bash!" Dawn finished.

Piplup unleashed energy.

It took the form of a giant shield just in front of his head, and he launched himself head-shield first at Prinplup to hit with an impact that knocked the Penguin Pokémon through a double-backflip that left him crashing to the ground.

"Okay, one, how did he learn that move?" Kenny demanded, as his points dropped, then saw that the bar had gone all the way to zero. "And two, uh… dang."

"That's one down, four to go," Dawn said, that evening, putting her Ribbon in the case, and trying what today's Dragonite chef had made for them. "And, um, wow. That is really nice laksa. Well done."

Dragonite gave her a thumbs-up. "It's the peanut butter that makes it."

"That does explain why you asked about allergies," Ash said. "And why we've got a Pecha berry sundae for dessert!"

"Emergency desserts are overlooked as a culinary adjunct," Dragonite nodded sagely.

AN:

Well, they are.