Fortunately for Paul, he wasn't left entirely bereft of possible challenges, that day – Brandon's Battle Pyramid flew overhead while they were all talking, and Paul went off to follow it in case it was landing nearby.

"You know…" Whitney mused. "I remember hearing that you beat Brandon and the whole Battle Frontier, but I didn't see Brandon battle. What's he like?"

"He's got some great Pokémon!" Ash answered. "And a fun battle style. Though, uh, Shaymintwo didn't really like his Shaymin. They sort of just… rubbed one another the wrong way, I guess?"

He shrugged. "Anyway, it's going to be interesting seeing him battle against Paul, if that's possible. So we should go and see what happens!"

"And how are we going to get there?" Pikachu asked. "I'm not saying we can't. I'm well aware we can… in fact, we have plenty of choice, I'm just curious."

"Hmm…" Ash mused. "Well, I've still got Dragonite here, and Suicune. If Zygarde is okay riding along with someone, then I could just keep up on foot?"

"That should do," Pikachu agreed.

"And if we need a third riding Pokémon, then I can contribute too," Rapidash reminded them. "Telekinesis solves all kinds of problems! I'd make that a lesson, but it's already been one so it'd be redundant."

"I am a bit interested," Zoey confessed. "If you don't mind?"

Suicune jumped out of her Safari Ball. "In that case, take your pick," she invited. "As our guest, that is."

Ash gave a thumbs-up. "Sounds good to me!"

What the residents of Snowpoint thought about the procession of unusual flying Pokémon that went past – and Ash keeping up on foot, heading towards the landing Battle Pyramid – was not recorded.

"Ah, Ash!" Brandon said, waving. "It's good to see you. What brings you to Snowpoint?"

"I'm doing the Sinnoh Gym Challenge!" Ash replied. "And there's a gym in Snowpoint, so it seemed like a good place to go. I had a bit of trouble getting the badge for the Hearthome Gym, though, the Gym Leader wasn't there for a lot of the time."

Brandon nodded. "Yes, that's a weakness of the traditional Gym system. The Battle Frontier's Frontier Brains never leave their challenge sites for long."

He looked around. "Admittedly, the fact that my challenge site can move is a bit unusual, but it just adds extra difficulty. And it means I can go and do research if I want to."

"Oh, yeah, are you researching something now?" Ash asked, then snapped his fingers. "Oh, wait, I should let you know how Aten is getting on. He eventually decided it was okay to be my Pokémon, and I got him an antique Pokéball… actually, you're an expert on that kind of thing. Does it count as an antique if you have it sent back in time, so it's definitely hundreds of years old even though you bought it yesterday?"

"I think I'd allow it," Brandon judged. "How's his attitude?"

Ash frowned. "Well… I think he's starting to realize that it's okay to enjoy himself, if that makes sense."

"It makes a lot of sense," Brandon told Ash. "He might not realize it himself, but coming to realize that he can enjoy things that aren't related simply to acquiring more power is a significant step."

He nodded. "And yes, I am researching something. Or, I'm finishing researching something. I've been on the lookout for Regigigas."

"Oh, Regigigas is great!" Whitney said. "Or, at least, the one I met was. I don't know if there's more than one."

She looked over at Suicune. "Is there more than one? Or should that be are there more than one?"

"There are multiple Regigigas," Suicune confirmed.

"Right, so what I'm saying might not necessarily apply to all of them," Whitney agreed. "Anyway, speaking of Regigigas, the one I met was great! I did a little bit of upgrading to make them cute, but they were a really good bonus challenge… Zorua pretended to be you, actually."

They were interrupted by the arrival of Paul.

"The fact that you got here first is annoying," he said. "I should have thought of having Honchkrow carry me."

"That depends on if he's okay with carrying you, right?" Ash said. "I assume he is, but if you'd talked about it then it'd probably be something you thought of more easily."

"I blame the fact I was talking to you," Paul accused. "Because with how your Pokémon seem to be trained, if I thought of any of my Pokémon bringing me here faster than you it'd be Torterra."

Ash thought about that.

"Yeah, that could work!" he said. "Torterra flings you through the air, returns himself, then emerges again from his Pokéball before you land and uses his tree as a cushion."

"I didn't want a how-to guide."

Brandon informed Paul – in quite a polite way – that Paul couldn't face the proper Battle Pyramid challenge because he hadn't defeated all the other Frontier Brains, but added that there was plenty of possibility for a challenge to happen in a more informal sort of way if Paul was all right with that.

"Of course," Paul replied, firmly. "Why do you think I'm here? I'd like to see what the Pyramid King is like – and why my brother gave up Pokémon battling after he fought you."

"I don't really think it was anything to do with the battle," Brandon said, helpfully. "It's more to do with how he realized how little what he was doing was like what he wanted to do with his life."

"Still," Paul said. "I want to find out what battling you is like."

Brandon nodded. "That's fine. I think for this I'll use… Shaymin!"

"All right!" Brandon's Shaymin announced, coming out of his 'ball and throwing a flower into the air, then posing as it landed on his back and he activated Sky Form. "Let's go full speed!"

"I'm using Weavile," Paul declared.

"And I'm doing referee-ing," Whitney informed them. "Now, I want to see a good clean battle."

"Do people ever say they want to see a not clean battle?" Dawn pondered. "I'm serious here – I'd have thought it was an automatic assumption that you wanted a clean battle, but every time I hear that phrase I sort of wonder."

"It's more of a reminder, I think," Ash guessed. "Like how you tell people to have a good day, even though it'd be mean and silly to wish them a bad day."

"Or like when a Pokémon trainer tells their Pokémon to dodge," Pikachu said. "In theory, it's not like I'd ever decide not to dodge… in practice, the reminder can be surprisingly helpful."

"Okay, let's start!" Whitney decided.

"Ice Shard," Paul commanded.

Weavile summoned shards of ice to his claws and flicked them at Shaymin, but by the time they'd begun their flight Shaymin was already somewhere else.

"You're too slow!" he taunted. "Take this!"

An Air Slash came back down, followed by Shaymin himself slamming into Weavile with a wham sound, and Paul clenched his fist.

"Concentrate, Weavile," he said. "Ice Beam, try and catch him!"

"Missed!" Shaymin retorted, blowing a Razz berry. It turned into a blaze of Steel-typed laser light, hitting Weavile and knocking the Ice-type backwards.

"Ow," Weavile muttered.

Paul scowled. "Weavile, Swords Dance," he said. "Let's make your attacks hit harder."

"Can't use them if you can't hit me!" Shaymin said cheerfully.

After his challenge was over, Paul was silent for a long minute.

"I think I know why Reggie stopped being a trainer after his battle with you," he said. "I think I'm also impressed he didn't go mad, if your Shaymin was involved."

"Shaymin sez: that was rude!" Shaymin huffed, folding his forelegs.

"Well, I hope you enjoyed the challenge," Brandon told him. "I'm glad it was informative. Now, I need to sort out finding that Regigigas."

"I had an idea about that," Ash volunteered. "Let's have a shot put competition!"

Paul stared at him. "A what?"

The ground trembled, and a Regigigas ran up with a wham wham wham wham before skidding to a halt and holding out a hand.

"Oh, I see," Brandon realized. "Regirock, Regice, Registeel, which of you wants to go first?"

Paul rubbled his temples. "I don't understand how it can possibly be the case that the Legendaries are crazier than you are."

Ash considered, as Regigigas threw Regirock to the next mountain. "Well, I guess Mew is my oldest friend, in time terms, if I understand the paradox about where Mew came from right… and my second oldest friend in terms of how long I've known them, depending on if Gary considers himself my friend this week."

Since Snowpoint was about as far north as you could get in Sinnoh, and since the best gym for Ash to go to as his final stop on his journey was Sunyshore, the friends stopped by at Lake Acuity before starting back south towards – eventually – Sunyshore.

At Lake Acuity itself they met Uxie, who was quite agreeable all things considered, and also met a man called Looker.

"I'm a detective," he explained.

"Doesn't telling people that make it harder for you to do your investigations?" Dawn checked.

"Not really," Looker told her. "I don't tell everyone, but besides that a lot of my work is about collecting information the local police have to form a complete picture. And one of the things that that picture has revealed is that Team Galactic do not like Ash Ketchum."

He put his hand on his chin. "Or possibly his Pikachu, or one of his many other Pokémon. It could even be one of you two or your Pokémon, but I'm fairly sure it's Ash specifically or him and his Pokémon collectively who are making Team Galactic immediately run away the moment they realize his presence… so, any way you look at it, it's safe to tell Ash who I am because he more-or-less can't be a member of Team Galactic."

That said, he looked inquiringly at Ash. "Do you have any idea what Team Galactic might be trying to do?"

"Well…" Ash began, thinking about it. "They could be out to steal things, or do something dangerous with Legendary Pokémon. Those are the two main options based on my experience, anyway."

"Hmm," Looker frowned. "Well, it could be either. What sort of things might they be trying to steal?"

"Powerful Pokémon, not necessarily Legendary ones," Ash answered promptly. "That might actually be the main difference before they do whatever their plan is."

"Well, Team Galactic did go after the Lustrous and Adamant Orbs," Looker said.

Dawn gasped. "They might be going after Dialga and Palkia! We should warn them."

"Yeah, good idea," Ash said, getting his mirror out. "I'll ask Giratina to do it."

Giratina thanked them for the warning and said he'd pass it on, and after that they went on their way towards Sunyshore – south first, near the eastern side of Mount Coronet but not actually following the ridgeline itself.

"I am very grateful that we are back in warmer weather," Zygarde said. "The warm outfit was very nice, but at the same time there were factors of it which were less than ideal. It's good to not need it."

"Yeah, I know what you mean," Dawn smiled. "It's nice to have the option if you need it, but that doesn't mean you have to like taking precautions like that."

They rounded a corner, and she pointed. "Oh, look! They're doing Pokémon Hustle here – that's my favourite show!"

"What's that?" Ash asked. "I don't remember seeing it."

"It's about humans and Pokémon working together to complete physical challenges," Dawn told him, summarizing about as briefly as possible. "The trainer and the Pokémon have to make up for one another's physical shortcomings. It's all about forming a good team."

"That sounds interesting!" Whitney said. "Do you think they're accepting applications?"

Dawn thought about that.

"Probably?" she guessed. "They usually do, on the day of filming."

They were, and about half an hour later Dawn and Swinub were facing a pair of wobbly logs.

"Okay, Swinub, here we go!" Dawn said, and threw a rope to Swinub. The Ice-type jumped off the edge of the first log, swung around, then clung onto the far side of the rock and scampered up to form a complete loop.

Dawn took the other end of the rope, then held her arms out straight and walked around so she was underneath the log while Swinub was on top – making it so that she couldn't fall any further, as there wasn't enough rope to let that happen.

"This is a very unconventional approach," the announcer said. "Actually, I'm not sure what's going on!"

"Here we go, Swinub!" Dawn called out. "Tow time!"

Swinub began dragging the rope along, pulling Dawn with him, and they got past the first log and onto the second rotating log in only a few seconds.

"Keep it up!" Dawn said. "Remember, this one wobbles!"

"I don't think this is in the spirit of the challenge," Pikachu said, as Ash hauled them both up a nearly sheer rock wall.

"Why not?" Ash replied. "Can I have another hand hold?"

He held Pikachu out, and Pikachu used Iron Tail.

"Mostly that I feel like it's usually meant to be the Pokémon carrying the human," Pikachu replied. "Also, the bit with the actual purpose built hand and foot holds is ten feet that way."

"Yeah, but this is easier because we can make our own way," Ash shrugged, lifting them another arm length. "One here?"

"Three, two, one!" Whitney said, watching the countdown to the timer starting. "Now!"

Happiny threw her up the rolling boulder climbing slope, and Whitney landed with an oof before hitting the button that signalled the timer should stop.

"That's a new record!" the announcer informed them. "And one that's going to be hard to beat… I'm having trouble working out how that was possible, let alone doing better."

AN:

It is a little hard to work out how to beat that time without using any Pokémon moves. Probably possible, but not easy.