In Icirrus a couple of days later, once Brycen had got his Ice Beam down – not that he was reconciled to the fact he could now fire beams of ice out of his hands, and occasionally pinched himself to make sure he was awake – Ash challenged him to a proper battle.

"Are you sure?" Brycen checked. "I'd be happy to just confirm that, yes, you're Ash Ketchum and you can have a badge if you want."

"But that's not why I battle Gym Leaders," Ash replied. "Battling Gym Leaders with all their different styles is a great way to build up the skills of my Pokémon, specifically the ones who haven't had much experience yet otherwise."

"Which is a purely relative way of saying the ones who haven't battled many gyms," Pikachu contributed.

"Yeah, but still," Ash shrugged. "And if I spot something, then everyone can learn it!"

"That's true," Pikachu conceded.

"So when you say that you're using Pokémon who haven't battled many gyms…" Brycen began. "I suppose that at least makes sense as a good condition. But I'll tell you that I plan to use three Pokémon, in that case."

"Great, I know just who to use!" Ash announced. "First off is-"

He stopped. "That is… do you want to clear up your main gym battle room? It's a bit ice-splat-covered."

"Actually, I think it helps with the challenge," Brycen decided. "Let's go ahead."

The first Pokémon Ash sent out was Snivy, who did a twirl and winked at her opponent – a Vanillish.

"Begin!" Brycen called. "Icicle Spear!"

"Lunar Blessing!" Ash instructed.

The pink-and-silvery light of Snivy's transformation knocked away the first high-speed icy projectiles, and when it ended she had shimmering silvery light forming lines along her markings and stripes.

"Oh, then just use Blizzard," Brycen decided, and a surge of ice slammed into Snivy.

She froze solid, then the ice dissolved around her, and she did a little bow.

"What was that one, again?" Cilan asked. "I don't think I remember that."

"It is simply a property of the moon, no?" Snivy replied, flicking her tail. "The moon is cold, but it is not as if that hurts the moon; then the moon is hot, when the sun shines on it, and it is just the same."

"Oh, how is that fair?" Vanillish inquired. "Are you saying I need to do enough damage to you to seriously impact the moon for it to even count?"

"I have the moon power," Snivy said, which wasn't really an answer. "And the make up, though that may simply refer to my looks."

She did a twirl, forming a semicircular shape out of silvery light, then grabbed it and threw it at Vanillish. "Bonemerang Tiara Action!"

"That's not made of bone and you didn't use it as a tiara!" Vanillish complained, ducking to avoid being hit. "Make up your mind about what you even are!"

"But I have!" Snivy replied, catching it. "It is not my fault you do not see the way this all works, no?"

She dissolved the Bonemerang again, and gathered together the light into a sort of diamond shape. Then she threw it, and it shimmered before multiplying hundreds of times over. "Diamond Storm!"

"Is the moon associated with diamonds?" Iris asked, as Vanillish fell to the ground with a thump. "I didn't know that."

"I read a story once," Ash volunteered. "I thought Cresselia would be in it, but there weren't any, but it was about scientists on the moon and one of them found a really really big diamond."

"Searching," Arc announced. "Found. All That Glitters. As it happens, this story is not supported by any known scientific information, though presumably your nephmew could create diamonds if you wanted."

"Oh, yeah, that's true," Ash admitted. "Sorry about that, Vanillish, it turns out that diamonds aren't associated with the moon. At least not yet."

Vanillish didn't seem grateful for the correction.

Brycen decided his Vanillish couldn't continue battling, on account of having been knocked silly by a barrage of possibly virtual gemstones, and switched out for a Cryogonal.

"Scrafty, you go!" Ash decided.

The Fighting-type landed, legs compressing slightly to absorb the impact, and nodded respectfully. "I hope we have a great battle!"

"A Scrafty?" Brycen asked, interested. "I worked with a Scrafty in one of my films."

"Yes, I remember that one!" Cilan agreed. "Brycen Man Strikes Back, the second of the Brycen Man Strikes Back series!"

"Second?" Iris repeated. "Shouldn't it be the first?"

"No, the third film was Brycen Man Strikes Back Two," Cilan told her. "And it's in a separate series to Brycen Man Returns, which branches off after Brycen Man Rides Again but before Brycen Man Punches A Lot Of Pokémon."

Brycen looked faintly embarrassed by the recital, but the last one actually startled him. "Are you sure that's what it's called? I was told that was a working title."

"The title certainly worked!" Cilan replied. "It's one of the most popular. Reviews say it's refreshing that it didn't bother with a plot and just got straight on to punching half the Unova Pokédex."

"Oh, can we get to the battle?" Scrafty asked. "I don't want to rush anyone, but I am sort of eager to see if this new move I worked out works."

"A new move?" Brycen said. "I'm almost afraid to ask."

"Well!" Scrafty replied. "Scrafty never leave their territories, or that's what Ibid says, and so I decided the best way to do that was to have my territory be big enough there was no chance of leaving it. So my territory is the entire universe and any other ones connected to this one that I could travel into or through."

She folded her arms. "And I've been reading about the things there are out in space. Have you ever heard of these things called Wolf-Rayet stars?"

"Aren't those the stars that make up the constellation of Zacian?" Pikachu checked.

"There is no Zacian constellation," Arc said helpfully. "At least, not as far as people who are not Zacian are concerned. The constellation's name is generic to any large canine, and it has no sword."

"Yeah, I think that probably means Scrafty's thinking of something else," Ash decided.

"They're really big and bright stars!" Scrafty said. "And I haven't yet checked what Nature Power does with that information, but it should be great!"

Cryogonal closed their eyes for a moment. "Can I at least go first, so I get to do something in this battle?"

"Of course," Scrafty invited.

"Begin!" Brycen said. "Reflect! Now, Frost Breath!"

Cryogonal became shiny like a mirror, and exhaled a jet of ice which Scrafty evaded with a swift backflip. Bouncing on her hind legs, she clasped both fists and brought them down on at the conclusion of a forward flip, and a ball of incandescent heat and light hit Cryogonal and turned them into a cloud of steam.

"...oh," she said, suddenly worried. "I didn't expect that, the attack didn't look that hot."

Brycen chuckled, then held out a hand and used Ice Beam. The cloud of steam reformed into Cryogonal, who spun around once and retreated quite precipitately.

"It's because Cryogonal are snowflakes," he said. "They can evaporate safely and just turn back into normal Cryogonal when they cool down enough, but it does count as being knocked out. What move was that, anyway?"

"Searing Shot," Mew supplied, putting down a sketchbook. "Nice!"

"Is your last Pokémon less ridiculous?" Brycen asked, after nodding to Beartic to move forwards. "I know that's quite a difficult question."

"It is, yeah," Ash agreed. "How do you even define how ridiculous a Pokémon is?"

"Well…" Brycen thought. "I think the fact that you have a Snivy using moon powers is a big part of it. Snivy aren't even associated with the moon."

"They're moon shaped, though," Ash countered. "Or, crescent moon shaped, but that's moon shaped enough for Cresselia so I think it counts. Anyway, my third Pokémon definitely isn't one who does things that most people wouldn't expect that Pokémon to do."

"That's good," Brycen said.

"No, it's not," Iris told him. "Just a bit of friendly advice."

Ash lobbed his phone into the arena, and Arc shifted from Phone form to Shiny Arceus form.

Brycen contemplated that, and nodded. "Yes, I see what you mean, Iris."

"Beartic," Arc said, out loud. "Hm. Mew, question?"

"Answer!" Mew replied gleefully. "But seriously, what did you want to ask?"

"Searching online reveals that the name Arctic Circle means the circle with bears," Arc said. "But that is not derived from Beartic, because it is missing the first C. Is this a spelling mistake you made, one humans made, or a coincidence?"

"Probably me," Mew waved off, flicking a paw. "I get bored easily and often. There's a reason why cats are like that, I assume, probably."

"Is this relevant?" Beartic said.

"Potentially," Arc replied. "But I am willing to begin battling if you are."

"Watch out," Brycen cautioned. "Obviously we don't know that that's an Arceus, but based on what happened to that poacher we should probably assume it is. He is? They are?"

"I do not use gendered pronouns," Arc said helpfully. "But others can use them for me if they wish. I also do not mind it."

"Then we should probably assume it is," Brycen resumed. "So we don't know what type it is… open with Mega Punch, then use Superpower or Shadow Claw. Begin!"

Beartic surged forwards and lashed out with a punch, one that went clang off a solid wall of thin air, and duck-rolled to get underneath the wall before using Superpower.

"That worked great, Arc!" Ash said. "Time-frozen air is a good defence, just keep moving your frozen bits to defend!"

"Of course," Arc agreed, trotting backwards on thin-air and manifesting more frozen air panels with Roars of Time. "However, I wish to issue a grammatical correction."

Their ring glowed. "Spacial Rend."

A circle appeared on the ground, and Beartic vanished through it.

"This is now the Arc circle," Arc explained, reversing direction until they stood on the air atop the white circle. "It has the C in the right place, and it no longer contains a bear."

"Where did Beartic go?" Brycen said. "I hope you didn't send him anywhere he's in danger."

"I did send him to what I assumed was his trailer," Arc replied. "It has his name on the door."

Brycen thought about that, then nodded. "That's acceptable. You're right, it is his trailer from when we worked on films together. He was a co-star."

He fished in his pocket for a Freeze Badge. "Have you ever thought of making films? The only downside I can see is that people would consider the special effects to be too unrealistic."

AN:

To be fair to Ash, field testing is important.

To be unfair to Ash, these particular tricks probably didn't need a Gym Leader.