Dawn looked at the map, then smiled. "I think we're not far from Amity Square. That should be a nice place to visit."

"Amity Square," Ash repeated. "So… amity is another word for friendship, right? Friendship square?"

"Probably," Dawn said. "It's known as somewhere that people walk around with their Pokémon."

"It is?" her new Shinx said, padding along beside her. "Is that… unusual?"

"No, come to think of it," Dawn admitted. "Huh. I'm not really sure what's going on with that. Maybe I just misunderstood something."

She shrugged. "Anyway, it's still a nice place. I assume. So we could visit there and see what it's like."

"If it's fun, that sounds good," Pikachu said, balancing on Ash's shoulder, then his cheeks chirped slightly.

Shinx looked up, then jumped to the side as Pikachu flicked down a Thundershock.

"Hah!" she said. "I saw it coming that time!"

"That's right, you did," Pikachu confirmed. "So let's try with less warning time."

"Oh, brother…" Shinx winced. "Well, I do like a challenge, and I refuse to be worse at this than… than…"

She looked up at Pikachu. "Quick, name a female Electric type!"

"Raikou," Pikachu suggested.

"That'll do," Shinx said. "I refuse to be worse at this than Raikou!"

A flicker of red energy pulsed around her, as her Rivalry ability accepted that one as valid.

"It's so cute to see Pokémon training like that," Whitney giggled.

Amity Square was, indeed, a nice place. It was partly-wild, like bits of Alamos Town, but on top of that there were some old ruins in the middle – big columns, stretching up towards a roof that wasn't there any more.

There was also the Sinnoh Grand Champion, Cynthia.

"Ash Ketchum," Cynthia said, nodding to him. "Lucian said you were around here… it's good to meet you."

She offered her hand, and Ash shook it.

"It's nice to meet you, too!" Ash replied. "I really hope I get to battle you in the Pokémon League!"

"I'm looking forward to it," Cynthia told him. "Though I don't think Lucian is."

She took a step back, and gestured to the ruins. "I was actually wondering if you could help me out. These ruins here are said to be associated with Dialga and Palkia, but we don't know much more than rumours. You, however, might know a lot more."

Ash frowned, looking at them. "I think I remember Mew talking about these… oh, yeah, that's right. Dialga wanted somewhere to stay while visiting the real world that people wouldn't think was actually their home, and Palkia wanted somewhere that was flashy and impressive, so they built a great big temple sort of thing and then Dialga did something weird with time. Whenever you visit it, if you do it in the past then it looks normal, but if you do it in the present it looks old and ruined. I think there's meant to be an entrance for Palkia you can go in and you're getting the gateway to the past, too, but that was the bit where Mew got bored and started teaching Mega Pidgeot how to use Oblivion Wing."

Cynthia smiled. "Thank you, Ash. I won't mention that last bit, though, because otherwise people might bother Dialga and Palkia."

"Yeah, it seems polite," Ash agreed.

"Now I remember who you are!" Whitney said suddenly, pointing at Cynthia. "Do you, or do you not, have a cute Garchomp?"

In reply, Cynthia sent out her Garchomp.

The Dragon-type twitched her head, waved, and Cynthia plucked a flower from the ground to put it on Garchomp's ear.

"I knew it!" Whitney said, clapping her hands. "I'd hug her but her skin could actually be quite dangerous!"

"I've got Sand Veil, not Rough Skin," Cynthia's Garchomp said. "Hug away!"

Whitney did so, and Garchomp looked at her trainer. "I think I like this reaction."

"Cynthia!" Paul's voice called. "I challenge you to a battle."

His tone changed. "Is that Ash?"

"Hi Paul!" Ash waved. "Can we have a Starly versus Starly battle first? Or whatever you've evolved yours into by now."

Paul's Staravia turned out not to exist, because he'd released it.

His Murkrow hovered over one side of the battle area, and Ash's Starly over the other, and Cynthia took over the role of referee. "This battle will be until one Pokémon can no longer battle, by my judgement, or until I call it off. Begin!"

"Haze!" Paul ordered, and Murkrow spread a shimmering haze of cold mist through the air.

"Aura Sphere!" Ash retorted, which took both Paul and Murkrow aback as the blaze of blue Aura shot unerringly through the mist. "Do another one and follow it – then use Thunder Punch!"

"Pursuit," Paul said. "Stay ahead of him. Sky Attack."

"Stone Edge!"

"Okay, now I'm looking forward to our battle after the League is done," Garchomp said.

"So, I was meaning to ask," Ash said, after the battle. "You went through Johto, right? Did you do Kanto as well?"

Paul glanced at him, then nodded.

"Was that when Misty was Gym Leader at Cerulean?" Ash checked. "She's a friend of mine."

Paul stopped. "That… explains a lot."

He shook his head, and turned to Cynthia. "Can we have our battle now?"

"Of course," Cynthia agreed. "Though I'll let you swap out your Murkrow for someone else if you want."

"Cynthia was nice," Whitney said, that evening. "Really, a lot of people are nice if you understand them right."

"That's what I think, too," Ash nodded. "It's really hard to think of someone who's genuinely nasty… that trainer with the Salamence who tried to steal Pikachu, I guess? And maybe Dastardly Darkrai."

He waved. "Oh, hi Grovyle! How are you getting on?"

"Happiny asked me for help," Grovyle explained. "And I could hardly let my cute little student go without training, could I? So we're starting with Rock Throw."

Happiny trotted into the clearing, carrying a boulder about the size of a Golem.

"I've got a good feeling about this one," Grovyle confided. "She's very prodigious. And precocious, too."

Shinx was staring.

"How is she carrying that?" the Electric-type asked.

"Vectors!" Happiny answered. "The direction of force is straight down."

"I mean more… from the point of view of levers, and stuff," Shinx said. "It is levers, right?"

"This isn't a lever," Happiny said, trotting off after Grovyle.

"Dawn!" Zoey said, waving. "It's good to see you!"

"You too," Dawn replied with a smile. "How's your Contest circuit going?"

"Well, you know…" Zoey said, shrugging. "I caught myself a Shellos around where that Buizel was, so I've been training them up to work with Glameow for a Double Contest. What about you?"

"I got a Ribbon in Alamos Town," Dawn told her. "Oh, and actually I should go in time order… we met Lucian of the Elite Four, and Ash had a Gym Battle with Gardenia – he won!"

"Yeah!" Ash agreed. "I got the Forest Badge! Then Gardenia asked to see some Grass-types, and I even met a new one myself called Zarude! They were a bit rude though and wrecked some of the gym."

"Then we went to Alamos," Dawn resumed. "Oh, and that egg we had hatched, it turns out she's a Happiny. And we met a Darkrai, and Dialga and Palkia, and I won a Ribbon at Alamos Town and a Shinx joined me too! She's learning some really cool stuff."

Zoey was making little gestures in the air and counting under her breath.

"Oh, and we met the Grand Champion," Dawn finished.

"It's only been about a week and a half," Zoey protested. "I… well, I actually wanted to warn you about the fact that the Hearthome Contest uses a Double format, and so does the Sinnoh Grand Festival. So you might want to train in double Appeals and double Battles."

"That's great advice," Dawn thanked her. "We'll be sure to take it!"

"So this move is called Brick Break," Grovyle said. "Now, what do you think about the name?"

"It sounds like the name is symbolic rather than proscriptive," Happiny decided, after thinking about it for a few seconds. "Because you don't often see bricks on the battlefield."

"Good," Grovyle told her. "Always look underneath the brick."

Happiny blinked.

"Pardon?" she asked.

"I know, it needs something else to make it sound properly meaningful," Grovyle admitted, then shook his head. "Anyway. It's called Brick Break, but it's actually about breaking all sorts of things. Like boulders."

He contemplated his tiny student.

"In your case, I'm going to assume 'everything' and work down from there."

"Okaay, here we go!" Mew said. "Think she's ready, Croconaw?"

"She's ready!" Croconaw confirmed.

"Great," Dawn smiled. "Let's see what your training can do, Shinx – Revelation Dance!"

Shinx flicked her tail, jumped into the air, and there was a massive flash of electricity that burst out from her in all directions. It flashed out, then formed into a shape, and there was a giant Luxray made of lightning that fizzed and crackled around her.

"That looks great!" Dawn told her. "Now for the hard part. Ready, Buneary?"

Buneary nodded.

"Ice Beam," Dawn called. "Shinx, keep up your Revelation Dance and use Conversion 2!"

Buneary fired her Ice Beam, which went nowhere important, and then Shinx's Conversion-2 triggered based on the Ice-type attack. That changed her Type, and that changed what Revelation Dance was doing, and the electric Luxray transformed in a blur of moving parts into a flaming Arcanine.

"Huh, that's kind of neat," Mew mused, flipping upside down and stroking her chin. "Last time it was a Pyroar."

"How does it feel to move like that?" Dawn asked the little Shinx in the middle of the flaming construct.

"Let's see," Shinx said, and crouched down. The Arcanine crouched as well, then Shinx said "Uh oh-" and it exploded.

When the flames had died down, there was a bemused-looking Shinx in the middle of the scorch mark.

"I think I still need to work on it," Shinx admitted.

"Maybe you do," Dawn said, picking her up with a huff of effort. "I'm not going to lie and say you're done training. But it works, Shinx, and that's really cool!"

"I didn't think Revelation Dance could do that until now," Shinx agreed, tail flicking slightly as she snuggled into Dawn's embrace.

"Yeah, neither did I until we were trying it!" Mew said. "Not specifically, anyway. The type-changing was guaranteed, Croconaw does it, but whether we could make it do the giant Pokémon thing? Not so sure."

Shinx sniggered. "I'd complain but it worked," she mumbled.

The next morning, as the friends were heading down the road, there was a bright purple flash.

"What was that?" Whitney asked. "Was that Mew?"

"Mew's flashes are usually pink," Ash supplied. "So probably not…"

"Maybe there's a rare Pokémon around here?" Miltank said.

"Sorry, Miltank, I didn't understand that," Whitney apologized. "Rapidash? What's going on?"

"I'm not sure!" Rapidash admitted, his horn flickering. "I'm trying to use Hypnosis the way Lokoko showed me but it's not working properly."

"Rapidash says his Hypnosis isn't working properly," Ash supplied.

"Huh," Whitney said. "Well, at least we've got a backup!"

She sent out Chatot. "I guess we'll need your help for translation for now, okay?"

"Piece of cake, piece of cake!" Chatot cawed.

Dawn giggled. "That's like that pirate's Chatot from those old films."

"I never understood why he kept saying the same thing twice," Chatot agreed. "Maybe he just had trouble learning his lines!"

"Hey, look!" Whitney pointed. "Isn't that the cutest Pokémon? I didn't even know one that was naturally that much cuter than Mew even existed!"

The fluffy little Pokémon in front of them waved, and one ear flopped down over its eye (which made Whitney make a sort of hng noise).

Then it yelped.

"Ow ow ow ow ow!" a Mismagius yelped, trying to throw off the wispy Zorua clinging to her hat. "Get off me!"

"No chance!" Aten replied, biting harder. "Let them go!"

"And you'll stop?" Mismagius asked.

"And they will probably insist I stop before we find out if a ghost can actually perish for a second time," Aten countered, using Crunch. "I could keep this up forever, I don't actually need to breathe!"

"Okay okay okay fine!" Mismagius said. "I was having trouble thinking of something that wasn't completely ridiculous anyway!"

The pile of humans and Pokémon lying on the path began to stir, and Aten held on until the first of them was clearly awake before letting go.

Mismagius immediately (though not necessarily gratefully) vanished.

"That was really weird," Ash said shaking his head. "Any idea what happened, Aten?"

"You fell over," Aten said. "Then you got up. Don't ask me for more details because I don't have any."

AN:

There's a lot of things between gyms in Sinnoh.

I've been feeling bleh recently so this is going through the buffer.