"You know…" Dawn said, looking up at the mountains in the middle distance. "Sinnoh really is a beautiful place when you take the time to look around you."

She threw the GS Ball, and Swinub stampeded over to where it was going to land before bouncing it on his head. Two bounces, three, and then he moved to the side and a plume of hot water and steam surged up where he'd been.

Whitney giggled. "When they say Swinub searches for Hot Springs, I don't think they usually mean this kind of finding hot springs. It's looking great, Dawn!"

"Swinub's doing a lot of the work," Dawn said.

Pachirisu caught the GS Ball out of the air, flicking it back to Dawn with her tail, and after it bounced once Dawn scooped it up and threw it for Swinub again.

"Lunch is ready," Dragonite said. "I have three kinds of toasted sandwiches. Who would like cheese and pickle?"

Then a Shaymin fell out of the sky onto his head.

"I also appear to have a hat," the Dragon-type added.

Shaymin scrambled off Dragonite's head, slid down his back and tail, and jumped off towards Ash who caught her automatically.

"Hide me!" she demanded. "And get me home, quick!"

"Is something wrong?" Ash asked.

"Of course there's something wrong!" Shaymin insisted. "Isn't it obvious! I was minding my own business and-"

Shaymintwo coughed.

"Why don't you just fly?" he asked. "That is a thing that Shaymin can do."

"Wait, who are you?" Shaymin demanded. "I don't know you. Where did you come from?"

"I'm Shaymintwo," Ash's Grass-type said. "I'm not a normal, timid Land Form Shaymin. I'm the ultimate plant life form. This is who I am!"

He sat back, folding his forelegs. "And you haven't answered my question."

"You haven't answered mine!" Shaymin said. "I've never met you before, and you've got those blotchy markings… I don't think you're even a real Shaymin! I think you're a fake!"

"Fake?" Shaymintwo asked. "I think you're the fake!"

"I'll make you eat those words!" Shaymin insisted.

"Hey!" Ash said, sharply. "Shaymintwo, calm down please. Shaymin, this is Shaymintwo, and he's a clone created a few years ago. But because he's a clone doesn't mean he isn't a real Pokémon, okay? So you should be more polite, especially if you're asking for a favour."

"Hmph," Shaymin said, sniffing, but subsided a bit. "I'm the one who you should be respecting the feelings of! I've been terrorized! Betrayed!"

"That still doesn't answer why you can't fly home," Shaymintwo mumbled.

"Giratina kicked me out!" Shaymin burst out. "He must be really angry and want revenge for something I didn't even really do!"

"Huh," Ash said. "Getting angry doesn't sound like Giratina…"

He held out Shaymin to Whitney. "Do you mind taking her for a moment? I want to check with Giratina."

Whitney took the Grass-type, and began stroking her back. "There, there, calm down… we'll get all this sorted out, and you'll be back home by the end of it. Okay?"

She tickled Shaymin under the chin. "And nobody likes a grumpyguts! Well, actually, I do because they can be really cute like that, but it's better to have a good attitude or at least be in a silent sulk instead of insulting people."

"Did he just say check with Giratina?" Shaymin asked. "What?"

"It's a bit of a mess in here," Giratina explained, through a small portal. "Shaymin was helping me clear it up, but absorbed so much of the smoke that there was a big explosion."

He shrugged, his serpentine body flexing. "I'm not sure why she thinks I kicked her out."

"You're the only one who can make portals out of the Reverse World!" Shaymin insisted. "You did it to punish me for the explosion!"

"No, I'm the only one who can make portals into the Reverse World," Giratina corrected. "Any sufficiently large explosion can make a portal out, and it doesn't need a reflective surface to do that either. It's generally considered to be bad manners by all Reverse World inhabitants, though."

"So, you, right?" Dawn asked.

"I do happen to make up a hundred percent of the inhabitants."

"So… I can understand why Shaymin wouldn't want to keep helping," Ash said, frowning. "And obviously if she wants to get home then we can take her home. But do you still need help, Giratina?"

"I wouldn't mind," Giratina admitted. "It's just… untidy, really."

Between the help of two Dragonites and Articuno, they made their way to Gracidea (which was a place, as well as a flower, an inconvenient fact for the purposes of conversations) and dropped Shaymin off back at home.

"I, uh…" she began, then shook her head. "Thanks. And, sorry about that."

"It's good that you apologized," Ash told her. "And it'd be great if you could make sure you didn't make that kind of mistake again, right?"

"I guess," Shaymin agreed.

As she walked off, clearly deep in thought, Giratina opened up a Reverse World portal next to Ash.

"Good afternoon," he said. "It is afternoon, correct? It's not always easy to tell from in here."

"It's about right," Ash agreed. "Want some of lunch? We had ours but there's a couple of sandwiches spare."

"That's very polite of you," Giratina complimented, nodding.

Ash collected the sandwiches, then crouched down to Shaymintwo.

"Are you okay going in to the Reverse World for a few days?" he asked.

"Tch," Shaymintwo snorted. "I can do better than that other Shaymin any day!"

"Good luck, then," Ash said, as Shaymintwo stepped through the portal and Giratina collected the sandwiches.

"Oh, I get it," the Grass-type added, looking back. "So there's a reflective surface on this side. Clever!"

He coughed. "I mean… hmph. Not bad, I suppose."

"Hey, I have a question for all the Sinnoh natives," Articuno said.

She rolled onto her side, using one wing to point up. "Is that normal?"

"Confirm identification," Zero said, aboard the Megarig. "That is a Reverse World portal?"

"Correct," said Infi, his artificial intelligence. "The energy observed in the portal is consistent with the Reverse World."

"Copy the frequency of the portal and amplify it," Zero ordered. "Giratina must be on the other side."

He smirked slightly. "And once I have Giratina, I can have the Reverse World as well."

"Ow," Giratina winced. "It's doing something to my portal that's making it bigger! I can't stop it… ergh!"

Whitney got her phone out of her pocket and dialled a number.

"Heeey!" Ash called up, cupping his hands around his mouth. "What's the big idea! What are you doing?"

"I don't expect you to understand!" an amplified voice replied. "I need Giratina's power to purge the pollution in the Reverse World, and punish the real world for befouling it!"

"That isn't even close to how this works," Giratina said, tail lashing. "Stop it!"

"You're hurting Giratina!" Ash called.

"Yeah, you guys are experts with flying ships," Whitney said, into her phone. "Any chance I could get some help?"

"Giratina's statement is correct," Zygarde confirmed. "The Reverse World is considered a mirror of the Inhabited World. Each impacts the other, but the observed pollution is minor and not a significant danger."

"Zygarde agrees with me," Ash reported, then the portal finally opened all the way and the giant flying ship descended towards Giratina. "I think we're going to need to fight to keep Giratina safe!"

"Ally Switch," Dragonite said, and was replaced by another Dragonite. Then, a few seconds later, a golden portal appeared in mid-air and Unown came through.

Along with all the Dragonite, and large numbers of Legendary Pokémon.

Zero did a double-take. "Where did they come from?"

"Smug statement: Wouldn't you like to know," the screen on the wall replied.

A Porygon gave him a superior look, pushing away a digital avatar of Infi with one vectorized foot. "Amused sidenote: mobile phones are wonderfully capable these days. Cultural reference: all your flying base are belong to me."

The Mecha Giratina launched with a whunk, and Zero stared as his specially built transforming fighter jet flew off without him in it.

"Master," Infi said, as the Porygon's image vanished and she regained control over the interface. "The Giratina Power Copying Module has just crashed."

"Then reboot it," Zero ordered. "We need to take Giratina's power while we have the chance!"

"I mean that it underwent an emergency ejection and hit the ground, breaking apart," Infi clarified. "It is not functional."

The Megarig shook.

Infi emitted a throat-clearing sound. "Additionally, there is a large Cresselia sitting in front of the room the Magnemite and Magneton live in, and she is reading a newspaper while refusing to move."

"Was that good?" Rayquaza asked. "It was the best way I could think of to stop that ship from flying."

"I think that was a great choice, Rayquaza!" Ash said, looking down through the now-flat-horizontal Reverse World portal at the Megarig.

It had ended up crashed sideways, about a hundred metres below the level of the portal, and enormous amounts of the salt water Tiny Shiny Primal Kyogre had summoned were still draining out of every window to form a little circular lake underneath it.

"I was worried that I'd made it crash in the wrong place," the now-Flying-type Legendary admitted. "Isn't the Reverse World what we were trying to keep safe?"

"Honestly, a single crashed ship isn't a big problem," Giratina told her. "I might start using it as a summer home."

Zapdos flew back up out of the Reverse World with a Magnezone held in her claws, and Articuno followed with a guy dressed up in Giratina cosplay.

"There's some Magnemite and Magneton still down there," the Psychic type said. "Cresselia's keeping them quiet, or, quieter. They keep trying to electrocute her but she's mostly working on the sports pages."

"Pikachu, can you and Purrloin help out with that?" Ash asked. "You've both got Lightningrod."

"I'll help too!" King Dragonite said, then leaned over a bit to get a different view. "There's someone with a Shieldon down there! Hello!"

The person with the Shieldon ended up actually giving them information about what had happened.

His name was Newton Graceland, a researcher, and he'd discovered how to go to the Reverse World – and a way to take Giratina's power, though Newton had destroyed it once he'd realized the possible dangers.

Zero had disagreed with that, and had left Newton and built the Megarig himself to steal Giratina's power even though it would cost the life of the Dragon of Symmetry.

"So… you wanted to research the Reverse World?" Giratina checked.

Newton nodded. "I'm so sorry about-"

"Oh, don't worry about that," Giratina said. "You're not to blame, not really. But what I was wondering is…"

He looked aside at Rapidash, then returned his attention to Newton. "Do you have any questions that I might be able to answer? I can spare the rest of the afternoon… if only so it means I can enjoy an evening meal here."

Later that afternoon, several miles over Goldenrod, Ambipom steepled her tail-hands and pushed them outwards in an enthusiastic gesture.

"Oh, I can have fun with this," she said. "Thanks! You get the best presents."

"Observation: I have only got you one present," Porygon pointed out.

"This is a really big one, though," Ambipom replied, already opening up the control panel. "Wait, is that… it is! This has an adaptive fly by wire unit… it's got variable geometry, but it actually works out the avionics based on the hullform. I could make this transform if I do it right!"

"Is it gonna look like a big Meowth at some point?" Meowth asked. "I liked all da balloons 'cause of that."

"No promises," Ambipom told him, reaching for a spanner.

AN:

It's good to have specialists on call.