Bonnie hummed to herself.
"Are you doing that because there's no music in here?" Serena asked.
"Mm-hmm!" Bonnie agreed. "If we're going up in an elevator then there should be music, right? I know it's not all that far, but at least we don't have to climb the climbing wall."
"I'm surprised Ash didn't-" Serena began, then shook her head. "No, I'm not surprised he didn't take the elevator. It's Ash, it's just another challenge to him."
The elevator went ding at the top, and the doors opened.
"Hi, guys!" Ash said. "I didn't want to get started with my gym challenge until you got here!"
"How did you get here before us?" Clemont asked. "We took the elevator, and you were…?"
"Well, obviously you had to walk all the way over to the elevator," Ash replied. "That's extra delay, and I just had to climb the wall starting at the bottom. So of course it was quicker."
"I'm just going to take that one on trust," Clemont decided. "So, have you picked who you're using?"
"Of course!" Ash said. "Sorry, Pikachu, you're sitting this one out."
"I thought as much," Pikachu nodded.
"Actually, that might not be necessary," Grant interrupted. "You see, as part of my challenge, I do allow trainers to use more Pokémon than me… so you could always use Pikachu on top of whichever Pokémon you've got picked."
He shrugged. "Though honestly I'm mostly interested to see what happens, here. Ready?"
"Yeah!" Ash agreed, holding up a Pokéball, and Grant did the same.
"Fletchling, you first!" Ash called.
"Aurorus!" Grant replied. "Huh, I might actually have the advantage here, that's a Kalos Pokémon so you might not have had it long enough for it to pick up your usual brand of nonsense."
He pointed. "Aurorus – Hyper Voice!"
"Heat yourself up with Ember!" Ash retorted, as Aurorus' Refrigerate activated. "And – through it!"
The wave of icy energy washed over Fletchling, and the Flying-type shivered a little despite his Ember heat boost.
"Keep on the move!" Ash advised. "Start building up a Gust!"
"Hmm," Grant frowned. "Now I'm going to be distracted for most of the battle trying to work out what the trick is… why Gust if he has Ember?"
He shrugged. "Aurora Beam!"
"Left!" Ash advised. "Keep building that Gust, make it as strong as you can! Now right!"
Fletchling flitted back and forth, evading three Aurora Beams and two Rock Throw attacks in a row – sometimes only just – before Grant decided to go back to an old plan.
"Hyper Voice again!" he said.
"Convert it to Tailwind!" Ash said.
Fletchling's Gust unrolled itself into a single current of air, slamming into him from behind, and he accelerated.
And accelerated.
There was a white flash of light as Fletchling evolved to Fletchinder, flame dancing over his wings for a moment, and he turned before diving through the icy Hyper Voice again shrouded in a shield of flame.
"Now, Tailwind again!" Ash said. "And again!"
Fletchinder's wings beat the air, and he sped up – then sped up much more, to the point he suddenly vanished.
"...what?" Grant asked. "What just happened?"
"It's Gale Wings!" Ash explained. "It makes Flying moves faster, and Tailwind is a Flying move that makes you faster! Fletchinder just used it over and over so now he's going super-fast!"
"Yeah, but… where is he?" Grant said.
"Don't know, let's find out!" Ash suggested. "Flame Charge!"
Aurorus abruptly found out where Fletchinder was as the now-Fire-type hit him in the side with a wham that shook the building.
"I guess that's both Pokémon knocked out," Grant said, looking at Fletchinder. "I mean, I hope it is, because I'm not sure offhand what I'd do to stop a Pokémon that's going that fast."
"I've got an idea," Ash replied. "But yeah, Fletchinder's coming back, he's pretty out of it right now… I already know who I'm using next, anyway!"
He held up a greenish Pokéball, and Grant stared at it.
"That one looks really strange," he said.
"Yeah, that's right," Ash agreed. "Ready?"
"No, but we should keep going anyway," Grant decided, selecting his own Pokéball. "Onix!"
"Sandile!" Ash replied, sending the Ground-type out.
"Okay, I'm going to take a bit to get my bearings," Sandile said, then dove underground as Onix threw a Rock Tomb attack at him. "Excuse me!"
He popped up out of another hole. "Didn't your mother ever tell you not to interrupt when someone's talking?"
"My mother taught me Rock Tomb," Onix said.
"Ah, that kind of lady," Sandile mused. "A fine figure of a hillside, I'd imagine."
He ducked again as another Rock Tomb came his way, appearing out of the first hole, then dropped down into it again and switched to a third hole. Then back to the first, then the second, appearing and vanishing in a blur as each of Onix's Rock Tomb attacks hit wherever it was he wasn't.
"I hesitate to ask this, because I'm terrified of the answer, but is your Pokémon taking this seriously?" Grant asked. "I know it sounds like an accusation, but… well… hiding underground is a reasonable tactic, nobody could argue otherwise. And your Sandile isn't trying to wait out the battle by staying undetectably underground for a long period of time. It's just that… well…"
He waved. "He's making a bit of a production out of it."
As he spoke, Sandile demonstrated by doing a backflip from one hole to the next.
"Sandile!" Ash called. "Do you need help working out how to beat that Rock Tomb?"
"No, I just need to check my notes," Sandile replied, picking up one of his holes and moving it two feet to the left. He dropped into it, avoiding the latest rock, and pulled out a sheaf of paper. "Let's see… who did you get most recently?"
"Giratiny, Froakie and Fletchinder," Ash replied.
Grant mouthed Giratiny to himself, but Sandile was already shuffling through. "So, after that one… and… here we go!"
He dove underground just before being beaned by a rock, then jumped out again and sprang at the next rock Onix threw. Bounding off it, he went from that rock to another, and then to another, until finally he kicked off the last one and went flying into the air over Onix' head.
"Heavy Slam!" he announced, making a rummaging gesture for a moment, and pulled an entire metal anvil twice his own size out of a pocket that hadn't been there a moment ago. It hung in the air just long enough for Onix to notice, then dropped with a whud, and the impact drove Onix' head through the floor.
"Onix!" Grant gasped. "Are you okay?"
Onix pulled his head back out of the ground, swaying slightly, and rose to his full height.
"Did someone get the Pokédex number of that bus?" he asked, before collapsing again.
"I don't really understand what Sandile is doing, but it's usually interesting to see a new one of Ash's Pokemon," Serena said. "He's got such a varied and creative team!"
"Yes, varied is one word for it," Lokoko agreed with a chuckle. "It's not the only word for it, but it's definitely a word for it…"
"Well, I'm sending out my final Pokémon," Grant decided. "I'm not really sure I understand what you did to the first two, but I hope against hope that this third one's going to make a bit more sense."
Ash scratched the back of his head. "Sorry about that?" he said, shrugging. "It's just kind of… how I train Pokémon, I think. People have always complained about it, but it's what works for my team…"
"Don't worry, kid, I'm not complaining because I think you should stop," Grant clarified. "It's actually less annoying than if you were someone who sent out nothing but Legendary Pokémon, which is absolutely something you specifically could do… I'm just grumbling, I guess."
"If you're sure," Ash said. "Anyway, I'm going to use another Pokémon I got in Kalos. Like Fletchinder!"
Grant shook his head. "That… actually is reassuring, a bit," he admitted.
Ash called back Sandile, and sent out Froakie instead. "Go!"
Froakie took a stance, then bowed to Grant's Pokémon as it emerged… which, it turned out, was a Tyrunt.
"I can't remember, did Iris' Original Dragon ever turn into that one?" Pikachu asked. "It seems like quite an original dragon in some ways, since it's a fossil Dragon-type… then again, isn't the real Original Dragon Arceus? Or Dialga, Palkia and Giratina all together, since they're all sort of vital to the universe and, um, time, and you can't get more original than that."
"I don't think they did," Ash replied. "They did do Dracozolt though."
"Yeah, true," Pikachu agreed.
"What's a Dracozolt?" Grant said. "...wait, hold on… is that that weird Pokémon nobody recognized that you used in your Silver Conference win?"
"You might need to be more specific," Pikachu replied.
After a long moment, Grant shook his head. "Okay, let's just get on with the battle… Tyrunt, Draco Meteor!"
"Look out, Froakie!" Ash countered. "Dodge – left, then right!"
Froakie blurred slightly as he dodged first one way and then another, avoiding most of the impact of the meteors, then had to dodge all over again as Tyrunt came stomping forwards at surprising speed before slamming down a Dragon Tail. The second Dragon Tail attack was a sweeping attack, instead, and it dissolved a Frubble decoy as Froakie ducked just underneath it.
"Feint Attack!" Ash called.
Froakie jumped in and did a left-right-uppercut three punch combo, and each one slammed Tyrunt around very hard – but Froakie didn't really move at all.
"Huh," Grant blinked. "That's odd… back a step, then use Crunch!"
This time Froakie jumped forwards, and punched out both up and down. Tyrunt's Crunch stopped at least two inches from hitting Froakie's fists, and the Rock-type made a sort of grumbling noise before using Draco Meteor instead.
Froakie barely got out of the way in time.
"Keep it up!" Ash said. "Try and launch Tyrunt into the air!"
"Okay, how's he doing this one?" Grant asked. "I'm actually curious at this point."
"Froakie's Feint Attack works by punching without actually making contact!" Ash explained. "Which is how it doesn't miss, because even if it misses it hits so therefore it always hits and can't miss. You see?"
"No, but keep going," Grant invited.
"So because he's not making contact, there isn't any recoil," Ash went on. "And because there isn't any recoil, how heavy the thing he's punching is doesn't really matter much! I mean, I guess there's some limit to it, somewhere, but the punches are working so… there you go!"
"Froakie Combo," Froakie declared, landing in front of Ash, then Tyrunt went crash into the ground behind him.
"Great work, Froakie!" Ash said. "That's really working well now!"
"The trick was I had one of my frubble doubles punch him as well," Froakie supplied.
"You get the Cliff Badge," Grant summarized. "You know, in case you hadn't managed to guess that by now."
AN:
Frubble double bubble trouble.