"Take that!" Croagunk announced, swiping at Ash.

Ash swayed out of the way, twirling a Sacred Sword in his hand, and blocked Croagunk's second Poison Jab before flicking a Psycho Cut back in the other direction – one which Croagunk avoided in turn.

"Not bad," Zacian commented. "You're definitely getting the hang of that, Ash."

"Thanks!" Ash replied. "Training like this is a bit fiddly, though."

"That's only to be expected," Zacian told him. "Learning to fight blindfolded is a difficult skill."

She chuffed. "As I'm sure Pikachu knows."

"I'm not getting back up on Ash's shoulder during this," Pikachu said. "I don't fancy getting retropoisoned."

"I'm not sure that that's a word," Dawn mused. "But you'd know, I suppose."

Croagunk swiped out again, and Ash dodged – then held up his hand. "Hold on, uh… I just got a weird twinge."

"A twinge?" Croagunk asked. "Is that a 'currently an Illusioned Absol 'twinge or a different sort?"

"I think it's the illusioned Absol one," Ash replied. "But, uh, maybe it was nothing – nope – maybe we should keep going – aha!"

"What were you just doing?" Whitney asked, curious.

"I was checking to see what made it worse," Ash explained, heading off the path into the woods. "I think there's someone here who needs our help!"

A few minutes of exploring revealed that there was a Hippopotas stuck down on the side of a cliff, and Ash contemplated the stuck Pokémon for a few seconds before sending out Starly.

"Okay, Starly, time to rescue that Hippopotas!" he said. "You know Strength, right?"

"I know the theory," Starly hedged.

"The important bit is to lift with your legs, not with your back," Ash advised.

Thus reassured, Starly flew down and spoke to the Hippopotas. They talked for a few minutes, a bit too quietly to hear, then Hippopotas nodded and Starly grabbed onto the Ground-type.

"Strength!" Starly chirped, and hoisted Hippopotas up the cliff.

"Shouldn't that be Rock Climb?" Whitney asked.

"He knows that too," Ash shrugged.

"And done!" Starly announced, putting the hippo down in front of them.

"Thank you," Hippopotas said, blinking a few times. "I got separated from my herd… I don't know where they are. Do you have any idea?"

Zygarde raised a paw. "I may be able to help."

They closed their eyes, green paw flashing with light, then dissolved back down into their original Zygarde Core configuration.

"Oh, wow!" Whitney gasped. "There's a squishy version of you too! I didn't know you could do that!"

"That is because we have not yet encountered weather cold enough," Zygarde stated. "I would prefer to use this setup and hide in Ash Ketchum's bag with a Fire type when the weather is below a certain temperature."

"Would Froslass do?" Ash asked. "She's an Ice-type but she uses Fire too."

"That may be acceptable."

Hippopotas tilted his head, uncertainly. "What are you doing?"

"Enacting remote control protocol," Zygarde said. "It is a bit taxing. I am forming a 10 percent Form at all locations where Hippopotas herds have been recently observed, sequentially."

The search took another half hour, during which time Stantler and Zacian discussed the merits of actually swiping at someone with a sword versus merely making an illusion of one before veering off into an odd little discussion of the very specific ways in which certain Things had been Better in the Olden Days.

They were talking about different Olden Days, and nobody quite knew what to make of it, but they seemed to be enjoying themselves. And they both agreed that things like cooking were much better these days.

Then Zygarde reformed into 10 Percent Form.

"It turns out that I did not refine my search parameters," they said, a little embarrassed. "I did not realize the problem until I noticed Hammerlocke in the distance at one location. The correct herd with a missing Hippopotas has been located."

"Great!" Ash said. "Good work, Zygarde! Now we just need to send Hippopotas home… I'll ask for some Dragonite!"

"And… go!" Dawn said.

Lightning fizzed around Pachirisu's paws, and she blasted herself into the air.

Buneary watched her go, then giggled. "I always wonder if she's coming down, after she does that!"

"She's not an Emolga," Dawn chuckled. "But yeah, she really gets some height on that."

They watched as Pachirisu rose, peaked, and came back down again.

There was a matching blast of lightning as she was about to hit the ground, negating her momentum, and she dropped lightly to the earth.

"There's a whole herd of Pokémon over there," she reported. "I think they might be Shieldon?"

"Shieldon, huh?" Ash asked. "They're Fossils, right? I guess a lot of them have been revived again these days… what's your opinion on Shieldon, Whitney?"

"I guess I rate them… slightly above Cranidos," Whitney replied, thinking. "Definitely below Archen, though. I once met Falkner's Archeops when he was an Archen, really cute little guy!"

"There was a human, too," Pachirisu supplied.

"Oh, that might mean we can go and say hello," Dawn said. "If there's already a human there, then the Shieldon won't be scared if more turn up."

Pachirisu was right, and there was a whole herd of Shieldon moving through the forest.

There was also one Gary Oak, who waved.

"Ash, so this is where you went!" he said. "I see Zygarde is still following you around."

"Woof," Zygarde said, waving.

"Huh," Gary frowned. "That was odd."

He turned his attention to Dawn and Whitney. "I've known Ash for a while… sorry about you having to cope with him."

"Sorry for what?" Dawn asked, puzzled. "Why would you need to apologize?"

"Yeah, this is great!" Whitney confirmed.

"Oh, wait, you're Whitney," Gary realized. "Yeah, in hindsight, fair enough, that checks out."

"His Phanpy found me a Chatotite!" Chatot said. "It's fun!"

"A Chatotite," Gary repeated, rubbing his temples. "I knew I shouldn't have become a scientist. Sooner or later something like this would happen."

"What's this?" Dawn checked.

"Running into Ash again," Gary grumbled. "Still, it's fulfilling work apart from that. I'm tracking these Shieldon to observe their migration patterns and see if we can catch sight of one evolving into Bastiodon."

Charizard emerged from his Pokéball.

"Is there any chance that Blastoise and I could have a battle?" he requested. "Just a little one."

"Okay, I definitely understood that one," Gary said. "Is this your nonsense again, Ash?"

"Mostly it's that Lokoko taught Whitney's Rapidash to do it," Ash replied. "He's over there."

"Psychic powers are friendship!" Rapidash said, posing.

"Right, okay, one," Gary began. "No fighting please, it'd upset the Shieldon. Two, suddenly some of the stuff Gramps has been saying makes a lot more sense. Three, I was expecting to have thought of a third thing by this point."

"You could sing a shanty," Charizard suggested. "Rapidash likes singing sometimes and Chatot's a parrot."

"That's stereotyping but also true in this case," Chatot quipped.

Then a Salamence went swooping overhead.

"Hey, that's that person who tried to steal Pikachu!" Ash said.

The Salamence flew closer, with his rider on his back, then Hunter J saw Ash was present. Pikachu jumped down from Ash's shoulder, standing ready, and Ash threw his Key Stone underarm to Whitney who used it to Mega Evolve Chatot.

Without breaking eye contact, she reached down for her phone and hit a button.

"The price has doubled," she said. "Ash Ketchum is here."

The friends couldn't hear what was on the other end of the line, but J frowned under her goggles. "He's a Champion. That's a bargain."

Pause.

"Deal's off, then," she said, and Salamence flew off.

"So she's the one who tried to steal Pikachu?" Charizard mused. "I didn't see a Jolly Rodger."

Mega Chatot landed on his shoulder, bobbing his head slightly to a beat nobody else could hear. "She should get a Koffing!"

"Yeah, that would help," Charizard agreed.

"There was that pirate guy who we dealt with back in Kanto," Ash mused. "The one who wanted Manaphy, I mean. He had a Chatot, but last I heard the Chatot was going through rehabilitation as a Ranger's Pokémon."

When they were nearly to Hearthome City, someone called Mira asked for help retrieving something.

Ash was happy enough to help, and neither Dawn nor Whitney disagreed, but it was still a bit odd that the thing Mira was after was at the bottom of a lake.

"Huh, okay," Ash frowned, already thinking. "So we need to sort out a way to get something at the bottom of a lake…"

A golden portal appeared next to him.

"Hoopa can help!" Hoopa announced. "Hoopa can make a Hoopa-hole and drain water out of the lake into Dahara City! Hoopa will then need to work out what to do with the water but that sounds like a problem for Future Hoopa!"

"Um, are you sure that's a good idea?" Mira tried. "It sounds a bit-"

"I think you should make sure that wherever the water goes is actually expecting it," Ash warned. "It's not really fair to flood Dahara."

"Hmph," Hoopa huffed. "Dahara is in the desert! They should appreciate the water!"

The Psychic-type flicked out two Hoopa-rings in the background. "Hoopa will help another way then!"

Regice landed with a splash in the lake.

"Regice can freeze the lake, and then you can carry it off!" Hoopa announced. "Or possibly Regigigas can. Hoopa is not sure of which should do it, Hoopa was not paying attention in Hoopagarten."

Palkia appeared out of a spatial warp. "Is there a problem?" he asked. "Dialga said I should be here."

Dialga appeared out of a time warp. "Is there a problem?" he asked.

"I said that," Palkia protested. "You're the one who told me to be here!"

"Oh, I'd better take care of that," Dialga said, vanishing again.

"We were talking about how to drain this lake," Ash said. "Hey, couldn't Silver's dad do it? He does waterspouts… uh, no, I guess that has problems about where the water goes too."

"Doesn't Froslass have that Heat Dry move?" Pikachu asked.

"Yeah, that's a good point," Ash agreed. "Hmm… that would have to be a big attack, though, it's a big lake. Hey, Marshadow?"

Marshadow leaned out of Ash's shadow.

"How much stuff can fit in my shadow?" Ash asked. "Could you fit a whole lake in there?"

"Even if I could, most of my stuff is in here," Marshadow pointed out. "But no, the lake's a bit big."

A few minutes later, Mira's jaw had dropped and stayed dropped.

"Okay, so here's the plan now!" Ash said. "Rayquaza switches to Primal Groudon and makes the lake water go away, we find the thing we need to, and then she turns into Primal Kyogre and refills the lake!"

"I still think that it could have worked with Lugia pulling it up into a Twister," Pikachu said. "With enough Dragonite keeping the water in place."

"Do they have enough wingpower for that?" Rapidash checked.

Then Charizard put a Pokéball on the ground.

"Found it," he said. "I used Dive and Chatot used sonar. There's a whole village down there, but that's the only valuable thing I could find."

Mira opened the Pokéball, and a very surprised Sandshrew tumbled out.

"I'm sorry it took so long to come back and get you!" she said, hugging Sandshrew.

"So… does this mean I shouldn't go Primal Groudon?" Rayquaza checked, just for clarity.

AN:

If you don't think of the simple solution, you may be suffering from choice paralysis.

If the simple solution is for your Charizard to go swimming, you may be Ash Ketchum.