"The pose is almost like that," Ash said. "Then you need to punch with one paw, then the other one… yeah, that should be about right."
"You know, even after everything you've already done, I did not expect this interpretation of teaching one of your Pokémon to do Z moves," Kiawe told Ash. "I'm not sure why-"
There was a pop, and everyone looked up.
"Looks like the fireworks have started!" Ash realized. "Okay, Pikachu, we'll give that a try later, let's watch these for now!"
"Sure," Pikachu agreed, relaxing. "So… I don't think I've ever explicitly looked into it. How do shaped firework displays like that work anyway?"
Another pop went off overhead, this time a relatively simple shape, then there was a crackle and a recognizable Rowlet-face appeared.
"So, it's a guess," Ash admitted. "But I think the way it works is to do with having lots of little fireworks, and they're all arranged carefully so they go up in a pattern. So long as they all go straight up the same distance, or things like that, they're likely to end up in the pattern you want?"
He shrugged. "But I've not done things like that before! So it's a guess."
After the next volley, a purple shape came up to Ash.
"Po-ioioi?" Poipole asked, worried, and waved at the sky.
"Oh, right…" Ash smiled. "Me-ww-wew. Does anyone know what the fireworks display is celebrating?"
Professor Kukui didn't seem to have any idea, and nor did anyone in his class.
"The display may be celebrating: having a lot of fireworks," Arc suggested. "Or: not wanting to have a lot of fireworks any more."
"Yeah, that sounds worth celebrating!" Ash agreed. "If you don't want to have a lot of fireworks, the best way to celebrate having managed it is a fireworks display!"
"I-" Lana began. "Yeah, actually, that does work now I think about it."
Ash passed that on to Poipole, mostly that they didn't know what the fireworks display was for, then everyone settled in to watch.
The display lasted for most of an hour, as the evening turned to full night, then Arc informed them all that the finale was about to happen.
At that, a double-V formation of ten Dragonite went rocketing out over the water, all of them using different attacks to make a cascade of overlapping explosions in the air, and Arc manifested into their true glittering golden form before changing over to a plate that made their ring a sort of dark brown. They struck the beach with a hoof, and a rain of meteors plunged down out of the sky towards Hau'Oli bay.
The Dragonites all veered upwards, each one intercepting one of the meteors, and they all vanished at once inside balls of fire and light.
"Wow!" Lillie gasped. "Are they okay?"
"They are fine," Arc replied. "That was a Ground Typed Judgement. That was just a matter of good judgement about types."
The explosions faded, revealing that the Dragonite were indeed all fine, and they returned to formation before flying back inland.
"I guess they'll go and get a lift from Ibid to get back to Kanto," Ash guessed. "Thanks for helping arrange that, Arc, and that was a great performance!"
"It was my pleasure," Arc replied, then returned to phone form.
"You have the best phone," Kiawe said softly. "So, the display's over, right?"
"Correct," Arc said.
Then there was a multi-coloured explosion out over the bay.
"Huh," Ash frowned. "Maybe they decided they should, I don't know, use the spare fireworks or something?"
He leaned forwards. "That looks a bit familiar… Arc, can you let Ibid know? Entei should be awake, I want to check something with him."
Another similar explosion went off, a multicoloured pink and blue one, and Poipole gasped. "Poiiii."
Ibid appeared, along with several Dragonite, then Ibid vanished again.
"Evening, sire," a Dragonite said brightly. "Did you like the flypast?"
"It was great!" Ash said. "You really steered well! It didn't end up with two of you going into the same meteors, that was really good coordination."
"Thanks!" another Dragonite smiled.
Then Entei appeared, along with Ibid.
"Oh, Alola, right," the Fire-type said. "What's the matter?"
"Hi, Entei!" Ash waved.
He pointed out to sea, where another of the strange explosions was happening. "Does that look familiar to you?"
"I will never get used to how casual he is about this," Mallow murmured to Lana.
Entei watched, then nodded gravely. "Yes, it does," he said. "That reminds me of something I can do. Mew taught me once."
"I thought so!" Ash agreed. "That's the thing you did in Gardenia's Gym, that's where I remember it from. So that must be a Pokémon doing that!"
He shaded his eyes, but the display seemed to be finally over. "Well, I guess if we do find out what Pokémon was causing it we'll know where the move came from!"
Arc went beep.
"You have a text from Lusamine," they informed Ash. "Text reads: Are you up for the fireworks display? We're detecting Ultra Aura, and it doesn't seem to be the same type as Nebby does."
"Let's do a video call!" Ash decided, and Arc manifested a video window in front of them.
Or possibly an area of warped space. It was a bit hard to tell and the result was the same.
"Hi, Director!" Ash waved. "So I just checked with Entei, and he says the last fireworks look like a Pokémon attack. It could be an Ultra Beast attack because Mew isn't sure where it came from, or wasn't last time I checked… do you think we've got time to go and find the Ultra Beast now, or is it better to do it tomorrow morning?"
"That depends," Lusamine replied.
She wasn't at her desk on the Aether Paradise, and seemed instead to be sitting at a kitchen table wearing a dressing gown.
"Do you have access to transport? The Ride Pokémon are all off duty at the moment."
"That's okay!" Ash replied. "About half the Dragonite who were helping with the fireworks display are still here, so we should be good to go!"
"Silver's out in the bay, too," Dragonite volunteered. "He was there in case one of us crashed."
"I should give him that number-four badge," Ash decided.
As it was getting gradually darker, Sophocles' Dragonite used Flash, flying up over the others to provide them with illumination and make sure they didn't end up going thump into the ground.
It wouldn't be very polite to their passengers.
The rest of the formation spread out, on the lookout for the source of the explosions, and Lillie shaded her eyes.
"Can you see anything, Snowy?" she asked. "This is a lot harder now."
"Piiix," Snowy replied, and Dragonite reached back with one arm. Snowy got into it, and Lillie tried not to gulp as Dragonite held Snowy out underneath them so the Ice-type could get a better view.
She knew the only way that would be happening was if the Vulpix asked for it, and Dragonite agreed it was a good idea, but it was… um… unsettling, maybe?
Unsettling was a good word to describe it.
"Vul-vul!" Snowy called, excitedly, and Dragonite waved. There was a sort of whoosh sound behind her, and Lillie looked back to see that Dragonite's tail was on fire.
She didn't know what move that was, but it seemed to be some kind of signal, because the other Dragonite started converging on them – only to dodge out of the way again as another one of those big explosions happened.
"Well, I guess we found the Ultra Beast!" Ash said, as Silver swooped into place next to Lillie's Ride Pokémon. "They're running across the sea, huh…"
He frowned for a long moment.
"I wonder why they started doing those explosions in the first place… maybe it's to do with seeing the fireworks?" he guessed. "It's worth a try- hey, Silver, let's test it out!"
Silver nodded, then Ash spread his arms out to the side, and Silver changed colour.
"Huh?" Lillie asked, baffled, before Silver inhaled and fired out a red beam of light with a sound like tearing cloth.
The beam flashed down until it was just above the sea, then curved upwards, making a kind of spiralling loop in mid-air. Then it kept looping around, three more times, then formed a sort of flower pattern with more than a dozen petals, and finally exploded.
Another of those explosion attacks happened in response.
I think it's working! Silver's psychic voice announced, full of excitement.
"Yeah, now we need to work out how to speak explosion!" Ash replied. "Arc, any ideas?"
"Perhaps try that again," Arc suggested. "Or use Thunder or Fire Blast."
Good idea! Silver concurred, then used Fire Blast and shaped it into a kind of overlapping river of flames that sparkled and popped.
"How are you doing that?" Kiawe asked from the back of Charizard, asking the question that a lot of the class were probably thinking. "Why is your Lugia a different colour now?"
"He's Ash-Silver!" Ash explained, not that that helped much. "When a Pokémon does this they sort of get an extra unique little thing they can do? And for Silver it's that he can control his attacks even after they're fired, which is really useful for Aeroblast!"
"That is not a little thing," Sophocles complained.
"Pika-pikachu," Pikachu pointed out. "Pikapi, pika-ka!"
"Oh, right, yeah, I should probably do a lesson on Mega Evolving and Bond Phenomenon some time soon," Ash agreed. "That would be fun! But for now… right…"
He reached for Arc. "Let me know when you've got enough to be working on, Arc! Silver, let's try one with Blizzard now!"
Eventually, after several more air-to-air and sea-to-air explosions, Arc had enough information to work from to convey the message that they had been learning how to say things and now wanted to talk (which involved Silver making a big plume of water with Hydro Pump, then freezing it with Blizzard, and Pikachu blowing it up with a massive Thunder attack).
The Ultra Beast promptly veered for the nearest bit of shoreline, allowing the Ultra Guardians to land nearby, and as soon as Silver touched down Ash got off him and got out Ibid.
"Can I have… Tepig and Salazzle?" he requested. "They should be good with explosions."
"Fetching," Ibid confirmed, vanishing in a flash of teleport.
The Ultra Beast's head exploded.
"Translation," Arc provided. "We are here to talk. Where am I."
"Thanks," Ash said, checking Arc's screen. "And… right, so their name is Blacephalon! Thanks, Arc… okay, we need to say, you are in another world, and, we would like to send you home."
Silver leaned closer to look, then Salazzle and Tepig did the same once they'd arrived.
"So we need to start with a big red and gold explosion shaped like a disc," Ash summarized. "Tepig, can you do the gold part? The red part should be doable, right, Silver?"
"I can do my best!" Tepig said.
"I wonder what the fireworks display meant, then," Lillie pondered. "What do you think?"
"I think-" Lana began, then stopped. "Hey, is it me or is there something over there?"
Ash looked, and they saw another Ultra Beast advancing – something that looked a bit like a tangle of wires, with some of them sparking.
"Well, that's a bugger," Salazzle said. "How do we talk to them both, boss?"
"Arc, what's Blacephalon for 'we'll handle this'?" Ash checked. "Pikachu, that looks like an Electric-type!"
Arc provided the translation in diagrams, and Salazzle and Tepig quickly got on providing it. For his part, Pikachu jumped off Ash's shoulder, so in tune with his trainer that he didn't really need the plan explained.
Nobody else had that benefit. "What are you going to do?" Mallow asked.
Ash adjusted his hat. "We need to make sure that that Ultra Beast realizes we could beat them, but we're not going to unless they make us!" he said, slotting the Electricium Z into his Z-ring. "Pikachu, let's Z-pose to assert dominance!"
Lillie made a sort of heartfelt groaning noise, then Ash and Pikachu struck three poses together and Pikachu blasted a line of holes in the beach.
The other Ultra Beast turned out to be called a Xurkitree, and while they'd never met a Blacephalon before the two of them seemed fascinated by one another. Xurkitree's electrical displays of communication and Blacephalon's head-detonating ways of speech turned into a sort of impromptu overhead display as the two Ultra Beasts tried to impress one another, which the Ultra Guardians let happen because neither of them were violent and both seemed to be enjoying themselves, then Nebby showed up to help and used her special Z-move to send both extra-terrestrial Pokémon back to their home worlds.
"I'm going to talk to Professor Kukui about this," Ash pondered. "But it might make sense to start school late tomorrow…"
"Oh, no, you're right, we have school tomorrow," Mallow realized. "It's really late…"
AN:
I'm not apologizing.