After a battle where Bianca's Pignite ultimately lost to Chimchar's superior aerial battling, Ash's next opponent was someone they'd met before – Stephan, the kid who'd originally introduced them to the Wishing Bell Festival.
"We didn't get a chance to battle before, but let's change that," Stephan suggested. "I hope you're ready!"
"Sure!" Ash agreed, raising a Pokéball. "Let's go!"
The other trainer sent out a Zebstrika, and Ash responded with Scrafty.
"Flame Charge!" Stephan ordered. "Build up some speed!"
"Go swimming!" Ash replied. "Nature Power!"
Scrafty jumped forwards, doing a handspring, and water formed around her feet. She lashed out, with her right leg trailing a shimmering arc of water, and the Water attack hit the Fire one with a hiss and splash.
"Puddle!" Ash called out, and Scrafty's left leg kicked out in a Mud Shot attack. That hit Zebstrika's attempt at using a Spark to exploit the water, and Stephan whistled.
"Back a bit!" he ordered. "Then charge around in a circle – stay clear and use Shock Wave!"
Ash frowned, thinking for a moment, then snapped his fingers. "Puddles and grass! Nature Power!"
Scrafty sprang forwards onto her feet, wincing at the impact of the first Shock Wave, then did a backflip again. In mid-air she conjured mud in one hand and a glowing ball of green light in the other, then slammed them together, and the Seed Bomb blew the Mud Shot into thousands of tiny fragments that went everywhere.
Zebstrika's second Shock Wave grounded out on the burst of mud, and without instructions Scrafty used Secret Power to conjure a Gust that kept it whirling around her as a shield.
"Is that a move?" Stephan asked. "I don't know if that's a move."
Ash adjusted his hat. "Now, um… hey, remember when we read about giant boulders dropped by glaciers? Do one of those!"
Scrafty used Nature Power again, and pulled an enormous rock out of her shed-skin before lobbing it at Zebstrika – who barely got out of the way in time.
"The more I see of him, the more I think Ash's Pokémon are really erratic," Clay said.
After a few seconds, he glanced around. "What, nobody?"
"I'm not sure how she's doing that, but it seems very useful in battle," Grimsley said. "I've got a Scrafty but he can't do anything like that."
"It's something about a really unusual interpretation of territory," Garchomp provided.
Grimsley gave her a glance. "Weren't you a Flygon earlier?"
"Of course not," Garchomp said. "You must be thinking of someone else."
"In a lot of ways, Ash's Scrafty is like a true connoisseur of flavours!" Cilan smiled. "She's got tastes from all over the universe, without having to go there first, because everywhere's local if you think big enough."
"I don't know," Marshal grumbled. "Usually when people talk like that it's an excuse to not visit places."
"We have already visited the moon twice, if that helps," Zygarde stated. "It is a nice place to go. There is a swimming pool."
"There's a swimming pool on the moon?" Marlon said. "Wait, would that have no tides or really big tides? Because I think I want to visit if it has really big tides."
"Large bodies of water on the moon would have big tides, because of the gravitational pull of the earth," Zygarde told him. "However, there are currently no bodies of water on the moon large enough. I will mention the idea to Ash's Nephmew the next chance I get and see whether they consider it viable."
"...do you ever get the feeling that you might just have altered how the future's going to go?" Marlon asked. "Because, dude, I just really got that feeling."
"About something really punk," Roxie interjected. "Moonpunk!"
"Honestly, after a while it sort of fades to a background buzz," Archeops told them.
"Sketch!" Ash called.
Tepig drew a large pair of blacksmith's bellows, pointed them at Stephan's Liepard, and stomped on the handle. There was a whoosh of air, and Liepard went flying off into the distance.
"Okay, uh, I told Liepard to use Astonish, I guess," Stephan admitted. "And that was astonishing. But I didn't know Tepig could learn Sketch and I didn't know Sketch could do that."
A paw tapped Ash on the shoulder.
"Yeah?" Ash asked, turning, then saw it was Mew. "Oh, hi! Is everything okay?"
"I wanted to check something with Mirage Mew," Mew explained. "And I could just go up there myself, but I wanted to give Arc something to do. Mind if I borrow them?"
"Oh, sure," Ash decided. "If Arc doesn't mind, that is."
"It would not be a problem," Arc confirmed, then floated out of Ash's pocket and vanished along with Mew.
Stephan was staring, as was his Pokémon – from a safe distance.
"I didn't know you could get phones that did that," he said. "Is it one with a Rotom in or something? I've never seen a Rotom phone."
"Not quite like that, but Arc does know how to fly," Ash answered. "Oh, yeah – Tepig, Sketch a Zap Cannon!"
Tepig drew a kind of structure with a long central pole, a glowing metal ball on top of it, three levitating coils around the central pole and a rotating turret.
Then he fired an electrical blast out of it that missed Liepard but did scorch a hole in the ground.
"Double Team, Liepard!" Stephan called. "Give him more targets and get close in!"
"Placing call," Arc said.
"Huh?" Alder asked. "What's this about?"
"I heard you were wondering about tides on the moon, so I thought I'd ask an expert!" Mew explained. "Plus see how long it'd take to do whatever it takes to do the thing. You know, getting a quote."
"Call connection enabled," Arc told them. "Owing to the long distance of the call, there will be an additional Spacial Rend in order to allow real-time communication. Please wait."
A ripple appeared in the air next to them, and then a semitransparent Mew appeared next to actual Mew.
"Or you could do that," Arc agreed.
"Hello," Mirage Mew said, waving. "It is nice to see all of you."
They looked at the screens. "I notice that Ash's Tepig is having fun."
"Yeah, fun," Chili muttered. "That's one way to put it. Another way is laying waste to everything nearby with a tesla cannon."
He shrugged. "Still, it's working, so you can hardly complain."
"We actually had a question for you," Garchomp explained. "It's to do with the tides. How big would a swimming pool need to be to have cool tides on the moon?"
"A swimming pool would need to be quite large," Mirage Mew replied. "This is because only the sun generates lunar tides, owing to the moon being in a state of tidal lock with the earth."
Zygarde shrugged. "In fairness, I am a simple countryside dog; that is, a dog which is also the countryside. I am not used to evaluating the moon."
The faux-Psychic type brightened. "However, the idea of having amplified tidal movements on the moon is quite interesting. I may have to induce libration to try it out, assuming that the Cresselia and Clefairy do not disagree."
Clay raised his hand.
"Now, I flatter myself as being the most geologically inclined one here," he said. "And I have no idea what libration is."
"Libration," Arc related. "A process whereby a planetary object does not spin but is not in full tidal lock either. It wobbles back and forth, which the moon does slightly, but it could do it more."
"I think there's a bigger and much more important question here," Marlon said. "Which is… this swimming pool I've heard about. Does it have a wave pool, and what's surfing like?"
N coughed. "That's two questions."
"Present!" Ash called, out on the field.
"Present?" Lenora repeated. "That's a move that doesn't usually do much, isn't it?"
Tepig held up a large, well-wrapped present, then put it down on the ground.
Confused, Liepard examined it, then looked back at Stephan.
"Ignore it!" Stephan told his Pokémon, and Liepard nodded before pouncing towards Tepig.
When they were halfway there, the Present box opened and revealed Tepig was inside it.
"Huh?" Stephan asked.
What had been Tepig before was now a Tepig-shaped pile of Seed Bombs with a face hastily drawn on it, and a tail that was audibly hissing.
Then it exploded.
"If you're going to make a fuss about questions, I think Ash's fighting style raises more than enough," Marlon said.
"Okay, three rounds down," Trip said, recalling his Serperior. "Let's see who I have to beat next, before we move on to the Full Battles."
He checked the schedule on his way off the field, then stopped. "Oh, no. Oh, no."
"Hi, Trip!" Ash said, at the start of the third qualifier. "We haven't had a battle in a while, huh? I hope this one goes well!"
He frowned. "Actually, last time we met I didn't get a chance for us to share what Pokémon we'd caught at that point, so we're really out of date on hearing about one another's teams… I guess this is where we find out, right?"
Trip looked at the referee. "Do I have to?"
"It's normally considered standard to send out Pokémon, rather than talk about them," the referee offered. "If that helps, that is."
After a moment's consideration, Trip decided to take that advice and held up a Pokéball.
Ash did as well, and a moment later his Snivy was facing Trip's Conkeldurr.
"All right, Snivy!" Ash said. "When the battle begins, transform!"
"Do you mean the actual move Transform?" Trip asked, worried.
"No, just using the power of moonlight to increase her powers and let her do moon related things," Ash replied. "Though I think there was something about improving her ability to blend in, as well?"
"Begin!" the referee called.
"Rock Tomb!" Trip ordered, deciding to try and stop whatever Snivy was planning, and the burly Fighting-type threw one of his rocky pillars at Snivy.
The Grass-type did an elegant backflip, landing for a moment on the hurtling pillar, and jumped off before saying something. A kind of silvery glow lit up her tail, then her body, and a moment later she was a Servine with ethereal light patterns over her leaves and a pale cast like a full moon to the normally-yellow parts of her body.
"How does that improve her ability to blend in?" Trip said, startled.
"Oh, well… I think it's something to do with how anyone looking for her would be looking for a Snivy?" Ash asked. "Or maybe that they'd be looking for a Servine, and she'd be a Snivy again. I'm not really clear on the details myself."
The Servine said something, and Ash pointed. "Yeah! Use Surf!"
"Jump up on your other pillar!" Trip called. "Then Bulk Up and use Stone Edge!"
"I'm not sure this translation thing is working properly," Shauntal said.
"That has been a problem, sometimes," Salamence said, flicking a wing as Emolga made a rude noise. "What did you hear?"
"Well… did that Servine just say she was using an attack called Silver Moon Draining Kiss?"
"Yes, that's exactly what she said," N confirmed.
"Oh, okay," Shauntal said, nodding. "I wondered, because while she said Draining Kiss she didn't actually do anything remotely resembling a kiss."
She waved vaguely at the arena. "I thought I'd check, since it launched Conkeldurr into the wall, and everything."
"Great work!" Ash called. "I'm going to call you back now, though!"
"I suppose I should offer the others a chance to attempt to match my brilliance," Servine agreed, and the silvery moonlight glow faded away into a single Moon Stone shaped like a heart.
What didn't fade away, though, was that she was a Servine not a Snivy.
"Oh," Servine said, turning around to examine herself. "This is unexpected. It seems like a very one-way sort of disguise."
"We can probably get Celebi's help if you'd rather revert?" Ash suggested.
"No, no, let's not be too hasty," Servine told him, waving her forearm, then returned herself.
"...should I pick a new Pokémon myself?" Trip checked.
"Probably!" Ash replied. "I warn you, though, I'm going to use a really rare Pokémon!"
"Oh, no," Trip groaned, then reached for a Pokéball. "Right… your turn, Lampent!"
"Pidgey!" Ash called, sending the Flying-type out.
"Oh, no," Trip repeated, this time much more fervently.
"How does this even make sense?" Trip asked, some minutes later. "My Unfezant is a Flying type! That's a Ground type!"
"Well, Flying types don't automatically beat Ground types," Ash said. "Dugtrio, Nasty Plot!"
"All right!" said the tallest of the three Dugtrio. "So what we're doing this time is we're trying to improve on that classic concept, the helicopter."
"I don't see this going well," the shortest one winced. "You, high speed spinning blades… though, on the plus side, I'm shorter than you two. So this could be a plus."
"That's not – look," Trip said, shaking his head. "I get the idea that your Dugtrio being a Ground type means they don't automatically lose. But that's one thing, and having a Dugtrio outmanoeuvring Unfezant is something else entirely!"
"How are you two handling precession?" the middle Dugtrio asked.
"Well," the tall one began. "I thought it'd just go through the middle of the town, talking about how utterly amazing I am."
"That's obviously not what he means," the short Dugtrio said. "All right, let's hear it, what is precession?"
"Precession," the middle Dugtrio said. "It's associated with the motion of a gyroscope, or spinning top. Interestingly this means it affects the planet as well, which is involved with the seasons. In this case-"
"Please get on with it, before we all have to go home because it's gone dark," the tall one said, in what wasn't quite an order.
"I was getting to that, if you'd let me finish," said the medium one.
"Attack bird!" the short one warned, and all three of them combined their efforts to fend off an Air Cutter from Trip's Unfezant.
"Now, as I was saying," the middle one continued.
"Give me strength, he's still going," the tall one groaned.
"Okay, so, the Dugtrio is flying because… of reasons?" Caitlin asked.
"Honestly, I'm not sure either," Dragonite admitted. "There was some kind of challenge thing with Skyla, I think?"
"Yes, Ash challenged himself to teach three Pokémon to fly before the end of the battle," Skyla confirmed. "I'm not sure I follow how any of them did it, not really."
"I'm not sure Ash has very good control of them, though," Marshal said, critically. "They're arguing with one another a lot more than they're battling Unfezant."
"That is actually part of Ash's style," Zygarde volunteered. "He feels that Pokémon should often work out their differences themselves, if it is not critical to the current battle, though he often offers help."
"All right, so, we're agreed," the middle Dugtrio decided. "We're scoring based on speed, power, control, how long it lasts before the blades fall off, and number of crashes. Plus hits scored on the opponent."
"Can we get on with it?" the short one said. "I'm going to use Swords Dance, and then-"
"I was going to use Swords Dance," the middle one complained.
"Let's not get bogged down with what moves we have or haven't called dibs on," the tall one suggested. "Steady, and-"
A Heat Wave attack hit them all as Unfezant tried something a bit different.
"Let's go, Dugtrio!" Ash called. "Now!"
"Swords Dance!" the short one called.
"I've done this properly, Spin Slash!" the middle one added.
"Fire Spin!" the tall one shouted. "It's all about speed and power!"
At that point, the Dugtrio remembered they were all part of the same Pokémon.
A barely-controlled discus of wildly out of control flame crashed into Unfezant, knocking the Flying-type into the ground and leaving a massive crater as Dugtrio spun out before leaving the stadium.
"Uh… how do we score that?" Ash asked the referee.
"Well, I think Trip's Unfezant is on fire," the referee said. "And probably knocked out. Since you still have Servine-"
"No, I mean, which one scored best on their competition?" Ash interrupted. "Oh, I guess I should tell you the scoring criteria."
AN:
No, he wasn't going to escape having another one of these.