Litten yawned, then opened her eyes.

Rockruff was directly overhead.

"Ack!" she yelped. "Warn me before you do that!"

"I did that yesterday," Rockruff said. "Then you complained about me waking you up."

"Good point," Litten agreed. "Change of instructions. Don't do that."

"Aww," Rockruff sighed. "But it was funny…"

"It's best to try not to get on the nerves of one of your teammates," Zygarde recommended. "I am sure there are other Pokémon you can do this to, Rockruff. Like Rowlet."

"Rowlet just kind of rolls away when he's surprised, I don't know how he does it," Rockruff mumbled. "Especially without opening your eyes. Fine… but shouldn't you be on my side? Isn't that dog solidarity?"

"You are a solid dog, because you are rock type," Zygarde stated. "I am a less well consolidated dog, because of my multipart nature and because I am Ground not Rock type. Thus there may be solid dogs involved, but we are not on the same level of solidity in a geological sense."

"I want to argue but you're making good points," Rockruff sighed. "Maybe I'll go and argue with Salandit."

"It sounds like you're full of energy this morning," Ash said, as he finished breakfast. "Maybe you could help me out planning a lesson? There's a lot to say about how Pokémon can use the environment around them, and I'm trying to decide how many bits I should break it up into."

"Maybe," Rockruff said, tail starting to wag. "Yeah! That sounds like fun!"

"Then let's start with how you'd cope with the water," Ash decided. "I already know how you handle a beach, with sandstones and stuff, and obviously the footing isn't great, but it's still there with sand. But with water it's different completely, you need some way to either not go in the water or to fight despite going in the water."

"Oh, that sounds like it might be tricky," Rockruff admitted, tail still wagging but not quite as much. "Umm… I'd need to bring up stepping stones with Stealth Rock? That would work, right, there's always somewhere underneath the water…"

"Or hold yourself up," Litten pointed out.

"Oh, yeah!" they agreed. "I still need to keep remembering all the ways that changes things!"

"Actually," Ash began. "That's something you should work on, too, Litten. You'll have different answers for it, but it's worth thinking about even if you just decide that battling around deep water is something you're not good at."

Litten sighed. "I guess you're right," she admitted. "Well, now I need to think of what to do in that situation…"

After extensive testing, involving not just Rockruff and Litten but also Scrafty brought in as an assistant and Buizel as a target, Ash decided that Rockruff was good at batting over water but had real trouble dealing with an opponent who was in water. They simply found it too hard to aim and adjust for the diffraction at the water's surface, which meant that when they kicked a Rock Thrown down there it often missed, and while it was possible for Rockruff to use Stealth Rock to swim around underwater at high speed that was not the same as saying they liked it.

Litten, on the other paw, didn't currently work well with water at all. She was able to ignore her discomfort enough to swim there, for a bit, but it damped down her fire moves and she wasn't able to move fast enough to get in contact with her non-fire moves.

"Hmm…" Ash said, thinking, then looked over at the sound of Salandit's tail on the beach. "Oh, hi! Ready for your turn?"

"Water's annoying, but I can swim just fine and I have poison attacks," Salandit said, with a shrug. "But I'd be interested in any new tricks you've got for me there."

"I was thinking of one," Ash agreed. "It's the same idea with Sweet Scent and Natural Gift, but making it happen underwater… water can carry scents, right? I know you can make perfumed water and that's the same kind of thing!"

"...you know, every time you do something like this I understand why the Tapus have been making sure all the Totem Pokémon know what you look like."

"Hey, it's not all Ash," Pikachu said. "It's more like… he brings us all together. Technically Ash wasn't directly involved with my discovering Thunder That Breaks The Earth, even. And don't get me started on Skitty."

Salandit looked confused. "I don't think I've met Skitty yet."

"You wouldn't have, she's May's," Pikachu clarified.

Any testing of the underwater Sweet Scent burst, however, was interrupted as Snowy came running over.

"Hi!" she said. "Lillie's coming, and so is someone who looks all funny and mysterious and stuff! I'll go and let them know you know they're coming!"

She ran off again.

"I wonder who that's going to be," Pikachu said.

"I wonder if we're going to have to go swimming again," Litten muttered, shaking herself out again, then finally set herself on fire with a whoosh and steamed off the last of the water. "I am not a fan."

"Maybe I'll have to get Charizard in to give you some tips?" Ash wondered. "He started out digging through the water…"

"Ash, I wanted to introduce you to my brother," Lillie said. "His name's Gladion. I haven't seen him in a while, so that's why you haven't met him yet."

"Hi, Gladion!" Ash waved. "I'm Ash Ketchum!"

"I know," Gladion agreed. "You're a bit famous… well, actually you're a lot famous… what I didn't know is that you were actually teaching at Lillie's school. If I'd known I probably would have come to visit sooner."

"You would?" Ash asked. "Why?"

"It's one of my Pokémon," Gladion explained. "He's… got a troubled history, and I want to know if what I'm doing to help him out is what I should be doing. And I've been doing my best, but you're a known expert at helping and understanding Pokémon who can literally translate what they say, so if anyone's going to know what would help out it's got to be you."

"In that case, sure!" Ash agreed, readily. "Just, hold on a minute so I can check if Lokoko is up. If she's available then you and your Pokémon could have a talk…"

"We're going to get that Z-crystal, yeah?" Tupp said, hands on hips.

"Too right we are!" Rapp agreed. "You're so right, Tupp!"

"That's because it's Dark, probably," Zipp agreed. "And we're Team Skull! And Skulls are, like, like dark. Yeah? It's thematic and all that."

"So give up, unless you want to get wrecked!" Tupp concluded.

Jessie chuckled.

"If asked if we want to get wrecked," she said.

"We shall tell you our names!" James agreed, striking a pose.

Jessie did a twirl, sending out two Ekans to twirl through her hair. "A flower's face and a willow's waist, makes the moon abashed and flowers wilt. A single flower of evil blooming in this fleeting world: Jessie!"

James produced a top hat and cane. "An exquisite talent, and the perfect gentleman, a disciple of evil fighting back against this tragic world: James!"

"Walking the same path!" Meowth called out, lowering himself down on a ladder from something invisible. "The deeds of one are the deeds of all! Even among friends, the star of evil shines like gold. Meowth!"

"We are Team Rocket!" Jessie and James chorused.

"We are!" Meowth agreed, doing a backflip as he jumped off the ladder and landed between the other two.

"Wobbuffet!" Wobbuffet contributed.

"That didn't rhyme or even scan properly," Mimikyu complained.

Tupp held up his hand with three fingers, then two, then one.

"They say all the big gangs have a motto now," he said.

"But no one but us gets to put on a show!" Rapp agreed.

Zipp looked puzzled. "I don't think that actually rhymes," he hissed.

"It ends with the same letters, doesn't it?" Rapp hissed back.

"Who cares who fails some stupid test!" Tupp said, speaking louder to drown out the others. "I don't need that noise to prove I'm the best! I'm Tupp!"

"We're the best team, with the best team leader to boot!" Rapp praised. "We'll make trouble, and maybe take some Pokémon – if they're cute!"

She threw up a pair of hand signs. "I'm Rapp!"

"Forming these kinds of bonds is how we as a society evolve," Zipp declared, folding his arms. "And maybe we're causing problems to distract ourselves from the problems we can't solve."

He scratched his head. "Although if we get too distracted our original message might dissolve."

Tupp looked puzzled.

Rapp looked between the others.

Zipp waited a few more seconds, then coughed. "Uhh… guys? I think it's your turn again."

"Dude," Tupp groaned. "Just stick to the lines I gave you. We're never gonna make the official Team Skull motto if you ad-lib weird stuff like that."

"Shows how little you know!" James said. "Ad-libbing is most of what a motto's about!"

"If you can't tolerate how it works around here, then you should just get out!" Jessie agreed.

"Bellsprout!" James' Victreebel said, landing on his head.

"Hey, foul!" Meowth complained. "Dat ain't even the Pokémon you are any more!"

"It used to be," Victreebel said, as James made plaintive air-deprived noises. "At least it rhymes."

"How I got Silvally is a bit… complicated," Gladion admitted, once Lillie was – at his request – off training Snowy to use Ice Beam with help from one of Ash's Dragonite. "I don't actually know what kind of Pokémon he is, but Silvally is his name and he accepts it."

"That's good, sometimes it's hard to know what a Pokémon's called," Ash nodded. "Especially if they either speak in a way humans understand all the time or don't ever speak in normal noises. Regigigas doesn't usually say Regigigas, and Staryu wouldn't normally be called Staryu… anyway, what else can you tell me?"

"Sometimes he gets… stressed," Gladion said. "Lycanroc is good at bringing him out of that, but… well, he's wearing a helmet from where I got him from to try and keep that under control. That's why he has it."

"Got it!" Ash nodded. "Okay, let's have a look!"

Gladion held up his Pokéball, and sent out Silvally.

"Wow!" Ash said, inspecting him. "That's a weird helmet… and I don't think I've ever seen a Pokémon that looks quite like that before. How rare are they on a scale from Zapdos to Pidgey?"

"Uhh…" Gladion said. "Zapdos? At least?"

"Huh!" Ash decided. "Must be an Alolan Pokémon that I've just never heard of."

Gladion looked around for someone to empathize with him, and found that all was available was Ash's Pokémon.

"Master," Silvally said, reaching out a forepaw for Gladion, and when Gladion took Silvally's paw the Pokémon relaxed slightly at the contact.

"Hmm, maybe knowing what type of Pokémon he is would help?" Ash said. "I could ask Mew?"

"Mew?" Gladion repeated.

"Me!" announced a Diglett, sticking his head up from the sand, then turned back into Mew. Mew's tail flicked out in a sort of circle-and-stick shape, drawing a magnifying glass, and the Psychic-type picked up the magnifying glass before using it for Foresight.

"Hmm," Mew said. "This isn't one of mine… which is fascinating! Arc, do you know anything?"

Arc floated out of Ash's pocket, and pulsed gold.

"Who has been playing Me?" they inquired. "Gladion, did you not say that the helmet was a later addition?"

"Yeah," Gladion confirmed, mostly because it was a question and someone had asked it. "I don't know exactly why… I think Silvally might be involved in why Lilly's afraid of Pokémon, but she doesn't remember and I don't want to ask her."

"The helmet should, eventually, be removed," Arc stated. "But not until Silvally is all right with it."

"Yeah, actually… hold on, Arc, can you go and stand next to Silvally in your base form?" Mew requested, floating backwards. "Ibid, I'm going to need you to check something."

"Got it," Ibid said, turning into a Pikipek to fly over next to Mew.

Arc unfolded into their golden Arceus form, and Gladion nearly fell over.

"Lillie said you had a weird phone, I didn't think she meant that weird!" he said.

"Technically all of reality is defined in reference to a being almost identical to me," Arc objected. "By definition I am not weird."

"Okay, Transform!" Mew instructed.

Ibid changed into a miniature shiny Arceus, then into a miniature version of Silvally, then back to base form.

"It was modelled after a mighty Pokémon of myth," he said. "Its true power is sealed away beneath its control mask. Its trust in its partner would be what would awaken it."

"Trust?" Silvally asked. "I… thought I did… trust…"

"Trust is a funny thing," Ash said. "Because it's not that you do trust someone, or you don't. It's not something you can force. It's something that grows out of what you know about someone, and how you remember them acting in the past… and you shouldn't feel bad if you don't have enough trust yet. If you both want it to grow, then it probably will, so long as you give it time."

He frowned. "Though… have you tried a bonding activity recently? Not something to do with Pokémon battling, something more like dancing or flower arranging."

"Flower arranging?" Gladion asked. "Would that… how could that help?"

"It helps with Mega Evolution, so I assume this is the same kind of thing!" Ash said. "Like I say, keep working on it."

"Do not… understand," Silvally said, looking down at the board, then up at Dragonite. "Again? How do we beat you?"

"You don't, actually," Dragonite told Silvally. "It's not a game where one player beats another. This is what's called a collaborative board game. I'm here mostly so that you, Lycanroc and Gladion can work together and to make sure the rules don't confuse you."

He pointed to the board. "So, this is a map of an area of land, and each of you is someone working to turn it into a Safari Zone. You'll each have your own set of cards and tokens you can use to help that happen, but you're all working together to make it the best Safari Zone you possibly can."

A smile. "And that means sometimes that it's better for one of you not to solve a problem, because another player can do it better."

Gladion was reading the rules. "I… assume it's going to make sense once we start playing."

"I think so," Dragonite said, nodding in the royally-approved way to make sure that humans knew he was agreeing with them, then picked up the deck of starting cards. "So you get three each… there. And don't worry about showing the others what cards you have."

Lycanroc frowned. "What does this card mean? Hyperactive warden? It looks like it's no good, should I get rid of it?"

"Oh, that's actually a good card if someone tries stealing the Pokémon!" Dragonite explained. "Now, here's your first big choice. What kinds of Pokémon do you want to start making a habitat for first?"

He got Gladion's attention, then tapped the right spot on the fold-out play guide.

"Hmm," Gladion frowned. "Well… there aren't any bad choices, right?"

Dragonite gave him a claw-thumb's up.

"Then… what do you think, Silvally?" Gladion asked. "We can do grasslands, desert, forest, water, cave, mountain or roughlands."

"I think you went through them too quickly," Lycanroc said. "Silvally, do you need me to repeat them?"

Silvally considered, then carefully drew a water droplet in the sand.

"Good choice!" Dragonite said, as Gladion put down their first marker. "I'm a Water's-Edge Pokémon myself, so I approve!"

He pulled a card out of the random events deck. "And… ooh! While working on the habitat you find a whole cache of fossils!"

"Nice!" Lycanroc decided.

"This… will be the best park," Silvally declared.

AN:

Motto help from a friend of mine.

Since I know it's confusing, Silvally is the nickname Gladion gave to his Type: Null. He's still a Type: Null at the moment.