After a trip to the Pokémon Centre, the friends moved on to head south again. They were on the way back to Petalburg, and that meant taking a kind of shortcut through a valley known for Steel type Pokémon, but the first night after leaving Lavaridge Ash went over a little ridge for privacy – then sent out Marshtomp, Koraidon and Absol.

"Okay, guys," he said, sitting down. "Is it all right if we talk about how that went?"

"I hope that was okay," Koraidon began. "I'm still not sure about what I did at the end."

"I think it was good," Ash told her. "Really, with you it's not about how you did, that was good. It's about making sure you have the tools you need in future battles."

"Right," Koraidon said, nodding.

"First, though… Marshtomp, you're okay with having evolved, right?" Ash checked.

"Yeah, it's fine," Marshtomp confrmed, with a nod. "I was expecting it'd happen at some point, so… you know? Maybe if I was more like Treecko I'd be worried, because I'm slower than I was, but my style isn't about being fast."

"Hmm," Ash agreed, nodding. "Yeah, having a style that was based around being fast and dodging would cause problems… I guess it's always going to be helpful to be able to get out of the way, for any Pokémon, but if you evolve again you're going to be… what is it again?"

"Swampert," Absol said. "Saw one once. They're big and burly and tough, but not all that fast."

"So… yeah," Ash concurred. "The two ways to deal with that are… uh… being tough enough that you can handle being hit, like Flannery's Torkoal, or hitting hard enough that you can deal with an opponent faster than they can deal with you. Unless you find a way to move fast anyway, but you're never going to be as fast as Treecko is. I think even the things he evolves into are quicker than the ones you evolve into – and he has Extremespeed, too."

"He's going to be smug about it, I bet," Marshtomp said, then shrugged. "Well, I guess that's our problem to solve."

Ash frowned. "I actually wonder if I should ask Misty about it, she's got some Water types… no, Brock first, Onix is a big heavy Pokémon so he probably knows something. Anyway, uh… that means we've got an idea what to work on with you, but the other thing is that you're a lot weaker to Grass moves now. Maybe it'd be good to learn an Ice move just to protect yourself from them?"

"Do Ice moves have the same trouble in my sunlight as Water ones do?" Koraidon asked.

Ash frowned. "Huh. I… don't think they do? That is a bit weird… anyway, uh, Absol next. You did good, but you did catch fire, so I wanted to let you know that that's why I recalled you in such a hurry."

He stretched, making sure he wasn't going to get a cramp. "What I can't decide is if it'd be a good idea for you to get a long-ranged move or not."

"I've got Razor Wind?"

"True, yeah," Ash agreed. "But that still sometimes leaves you without good options… I'll think about it, I guess."

Then he turned to Koraidon.

"I guess the main thing for you is just making sure you've got options at all," Ash said, and sighed. "Koraidon, I'm sorry – I forgot to make sure you had a move that wasn't Fighting type. I'm not sure what your Types are, but… I guess you can probably learn moves that aren't Fighting type."

He stopped. "Actually, I'm almost sure you can! You were a long way towards using Dig, earlier, so that would be a good one to focus on… Marshtomp, you can show her how, right?"

"I can show her, yeah, but steering can take a while," Marshtomp admitted.

"Then… uh…" Ash thought about his team. "Well, you'll almost always have sunny weather, Koraidon, so what about if Cyndaquil teaches you a Fire-type move as well? He knows Flamethrower, while Bulbasaur knows Solar Beam, and both of those are moves that really take advantage of all that sunlight."

"Or… there's another one, isn't there?" Pikachu asked, speaking up for the first time. "Like Solar Beam, but not quite. If Koraidon doesn't take to Flamethrower very well, then she could learn… Solar Blade, that's it. I think it's a lot rarer though."

"Breathing flame sounds interesting," Koraidon said, thinking. "It wouldn't help against the Fire gym, but we're past that one, right?"

"Yeah," Ash confirmed. "Though there is a Water gym, and… actually, Solar Beam or Solar Blade would work really well there for you! Because your sunlight would make the Water moves weaker, and for most Pokémon there either Grass or Fighting would work well."

"Well, I haven't had a bad feeling about this training regime yet, so it's probably a good idea," Absol said.

"You haven't had a bad feeling since Ash blew up that fake Groudon," Pikachu said.

"I know, it's been very pleasant."

Then Max came up.

"Ash!" he said. "This thing happened while Brock was cooking, a Torkoal came into the camp! We think it was asking for help, and then a Skarmory came in, and Brock fought it off with his Onix – only, now he's got a Steelix not an Onix."

"Wow," Ash said. "That's really cool – we should go and have a look! It's going to be weird to see Brock's… Steelix, now, because he's had an Onix since Pikachu and I first met him."

"And I think he's got a Torkoal now, too," Max went on. "But hopefully you can translate?"

"So… I'm bigger, now," Steelix said. "And a lot heavier. Well, I feel a lot heavier… what do I do now?"

Ash was about to translate, but Torkoal sat back and held up their hoof.

"Before enlightenment: chop wood, carry water," he said, smoke wisping out of his nostrils. "After enlightenment: chop wood, carry water."

"...oh, I get it," Steelix realized. "So… the same thing as before, just with what I am now."

"Exactly," Torkoal confirmed.

"So, do you want to join our team?" Crobat checked.

"Many words should not be used, when few will do," Torkoal informed them. "Yes."

On their way to Verdanturf, the friends met a Delcatty.

Skitty immediately said that she was charmed and delighted to see an example of the kind of Pokémon that she might be able to evolve into, gave an elegant bow, and inquired into Delcatty's family before expressing a heartfelt hope that they were well.

Then she spent fifteen minutes chasing Delcatty's tail around, which she seemed to enjoy a lot.

"So, who are you going to enter?" Max asked his sister, once they arrived in Verdanturf. "And how come you're booking now, anyway – the next Contest isn't for a few days, right?"

"How do you know?" May replied.

Max pointed to the poster on the wall.

"Oh, right… but, I want to lock in who I'm using, and then get in extra training with them," May explained. "Plus, I really don't want to turn up and find that they're out of slots for the Contest. That would be embarrassing."

She paused. "But, no, I actually don't know who I'm going to use. Not yet. Skitty and Beautifly haven't had a go… I feel like it would be best to use Beautifly? Because Skitty's still got some Pokémon she simply can't deal with, like Ghost types."

"It sounds like you do know who to use," Ash said.

"...yeah, you're right," May admitted. "I'll go and register Beautifly."

"It must be so much harder choosing who to use if you only get to enter one Pokémon at a time," Latias said, as May walked off. "Hmm. Maybe that's a reason why Pokémon trainers travel together?"

"I don't think they do always travel together," Ash replied. "I know I've almost always been in a group, but we've met lots of people who travel on their own, right? Like Nicholai, and Drew."

"Yes?" Drew asked, from behind them. "I didn't know you could see behind you, I was going to ask if you knew where May was."

Pikachu sniggered.

"Actually, I was just mentioning you as someone who journeyed alone," Ash admitted. "What is it?"

"Oh, I was just going to let May know that she doesn't have me to deal with in this Contest," Drew explained. "I had a battle with this trainer with a Dusclops and a really very good presentation to him – Dusclops face mask, themed top hat, dapper outfit, and he introduced himself as The Phantom. It was very impressive."

He shrugged. "Unfortunately, Roselia was injured, and… well, she'll be all right, but I'm going to treat it as a bad omen. She doesn't like this town much any more."

"That's terrible," Ash winced. "Poor her."

"Yeah," Drew sighed. "Well, I should get going before May notices me, or something."

Latias considered that, after Drew had left.

"So if someone's on a Pokémon Journey on their own, doesn't that mean they have nobody to talk to, normally?" she asked.

She looked at Brock. "You're the Gym Leader here… do you know?"

Ash translated, and Brock looked mystified.

"I actually don't know," he said. "This sort of… is my Pokémon Journey. And I've probably spent less time on my own as a trainer than Ash has."

"Maybe," Ash replied, thinking. "Uh. There was that time after I arrived in Hoenn but before you did, I was travelling with May then. So it depends how long it took you to get to Hoenn?"

Any further pondering on that was interrupted as May came back.

"Drew was here," Max supplied. "He said he's not going to be facing you."

"...okay?" May said, not sure the significance of that.

"Ready, Cyndaquil?" Ash asked. "Remember, this time you're going to want to do it slowly, so Koraidon can watch what you're doing."

"Got it!" Cyndaquil agreed, nodding firmly. "Okay, so… first I breathe in…"

He breathed in, then exhaled slowly. A thin stream of fire arced through the air, hitting the dirt Marshtomp had mounded up for them, and Koraidon looked back and forth along the stream.

"So… how do you do the fire bit?" she asked. "I think that's the hardest bit to start with."

"Oh!" Cyndaquil realized. "I didn't know that was the bit you were having trouble with, but I really should have because it took me a lot of training to get my flames to start up when they were supposed to. Umm… that might not make sense if you're not a Fire type, though?"

"Cyndaquil used to have trouble getting his fire quills going," Ash provided. "We did some training in quick movements, but Cyndaquil sort of sorted it out himself… I couldn't ask then, though."

"Well… it might not help you out so much?" Cyndaquil admitted. "What helped for me was that I got to thinking about and remembering how I felt when I did get my quills working. And that meant that I could just think about how that felt, and then turn it into lighting my quills!"

"Are they safe to touch?" Koraidon asked, curious. "I'd like to feel what they're like."

"Umm," Cyndaquil began. "I don't know?"

"If you're not sure if something's safe, you can just touch only a bit and be ready to pull your paw back," Ash advised, so Koraidon reached out and put her paw into Cyndaquil's flames.

"It's warm and tingly, but it's not hot," she reported. "It's not like being hit by that fire attack."

"Then… maybe turn your quills on and off?" Ash suggested. "See if that helps."

"Got it!" Cyndaquil agreed.

As they got to work on that, Ash looked up to see how May was doing.

She'd been having Beautifly use Silver Wind and Gust earlier, but it seemed like they'd decided they'd done enough with that one. Now Octillery was trying to explain something to Beautifly, and occasionally firing out beams of multicoloured light as some sort of demonstration.

Latias was listening in as well, interested in learning either Psybeam or Psychic if that was what Beautifly ended up learning, while Brock was not training his newly evolved Steelix – instead, he was giving Torkoal a careful going-over with a brush to make sure his shell was in top shape.

Which was when a woman came hurrying over.

"Excuse me, have you – what are those Pokémon?" she interrupted herself. "I've never seen two of those before?"

"Which ones?" Ash asked.

"And one of them talks as well," the woman gasped. "Well, I never… anyway, have you seen someone in some kind of foolish Dusclops costume around? Or my son? He's been skipping school again, spending too much time with that Phantom character…"

A man followed the woman, and raised a hand with a little bob of his head. "Good afternoon… I'm Mr. Grimm, and this is my wife. We're looking for our son?"

"He's been spending too much time interested in training Pokémon," Mrs. Grimm added. "Pokémon are a waste of time!"

"What?" Ash demanded, rising to his hooves and wobbling a bit. "How can – Pokémon are great friends! And they help us out in all kinds of ways!"

"Ash," Pikachu said. "You're a Pokémon now."

"...yeah, but still!" Ash defended himself. "That was still true before that happened and it's still true now. Pokémon aren't a waste of time, they're… almost everything about the world!"

"Well, I'm sure you get a lot out of spending time with other Pokémon, but the only thing Timmy is getting out of spending time with his Pokémon is missed homework," Mrs. Grimm said. "And that's if that Phantom doesn't lead him into bad habits…"

Not more than a few minutes later, Latias found the Phantom.

She also, however, found a very awkward situation, which she explained to Ash because he was the only one who could translate for the humans and because she wasn't really sure what to do.

"So…" she began. "It turns out that Timmy is the Phantom? Apparently?"

She spread her arms, invisibly. "His Dusclops said that Timmy's been really depressed for a long time, because his mom insists that he spend all his time working instead of doing anything with Pokémon, but his dad used to be The Phantom before and now he's helping Timmy do it instead."

"Wow, this turns out to be kind of difficult," Pikachu said.

"Huh?" Ash asked. "Isn't it really easy to tell what to do?"

"It's easy to tell who's saying the wrong thing, mostly," Pikachu replied. "But if you've got an idea about what's right to do then I'm impressed, Ash."

Ash opened his mouth, paused, then closed it again.

Because… Pikachu was right. It was one thing to say that Timmy's mom was wrong, Ash was sure of that, but working out what to actually do to change things was… harder. Because she was still Timmy's mother, and it'd really suck if Timmy had to choose between his Pokémon and his mom.

Ash was fairly sure which choice the boy would make, but that wasn't the same as saying that it was an easy choice.

He frowned, thinking about the things he had available and what he knew, and turning them over in his head.

Then he went trotting up to Mrs. Grimm.

"Excuse me?" he asked. "Mrs. Grimm? I… I'm really confused by something."

"What?" the woman asked. "Is this something about Timmy?"

"A bit? But at the same time, maybe not…" Ash admitted. "I'm surprised, mostly, because you said that Pokémon were a waste of time."

He tapped a hoof on the ground. "And I know I've mostly spent time around Pokémon a lot, but why do you think they're a waste of time?"

"All of this sneaking out is ruining Timmy's school work," Mrs. Grimm replied, firmly. "He's late on his homework, and it's all for something that's not going to help him anyway."

"But-" Ash replied, hotly, then stopped himself.

Getting angry wouldn't help.

"What do you think Timmy should do as his job?" he said, then. "I know most people aren't Pokémon trainers as a job, but a lot of the people I've met have Pokémon with them."

"He needs to be ready to take over the family business," Mrs. Grimm explained. "It's the business I inherited from my parents, and Timmy will inherit it himself one day."

"Oh, like Devon Corp. is a business, right?" Ash asked, suddenly realizing something. "We met Mr. Stone back in Rustboro City. He showed us around the building."

Mrs. Grimm actually seemed impressed by that. "Well, the Devon Corporation is a little more experimental than my business, but, yes. Something like Devon."

"Because I'm… pretty sure that Mr. Stone's only child is Steven Stone," Ash explained.

"So?" Mrs. Grimm asked.

"Kimiyo?" Mr. Grimm asked. "Do you know who the Champion of Hoenn is?"

"The Champion of…" Mrs. Grimm repeated. "No? Why would I?"

"Because Steven Stone is the Champion!" Ash said. "I – I get why you'd want to make sure your son didn't make mistakes on homework and stuff, especially if you think he should be able to take over the family business, but…"

Ash wasn't angry, not quite, but he was upset about how much Mrs. Grimm didn't seem to know, and he tried to keep his voice level. "You can let someone be a child when they're a child, right? And – and if you try and make it so Timmy never does something, even when he's interested in it, you'll just make it so he has to choose. And that's terrible! Because either he'll be miserable with you and do what you want, or he'll be miserable with everything and pick the other option – but it doesn't have to be those two things!"

Ash realized, a bit too late, that he'd got louder and louder until he was shouting.

Mrs. Grimm looked shocked.

"I…" she began. "I need to check a few things…"

She took a phone out of her pocket and began dialing.

"Are you all right?" Koraidon asked. "I'm not sure what was going on, but you sounded upset."

"I was," Ash admitted. "Sorry, Koraidon. I was trying not to get upset, but I didn't do well at it."

She patted him on the side. "Trying is the important bit, right?"

"Yeah!" Cyndaquil agreed. "And if it doesn't work yet, try again next time!"

Mrs. Grimm came back about twenty minutes later, closed her eyes for a long moment, then turned to Ash.

"I… apologize," she said. "I am afraid that I allowed my own lack of knowledge to lead me into assuming things that were just… wrong."

"What were they?" Ash asked, then amended himself. "Or, do you want to say what they were? I'm glad you've apologized, so I accept it, but I'd still… like to know."

"My parents are… sort of to blame," the woman explained. "Not completely, because I should have checked when I was older, but… when I was young, I had a Poochyena, and my parents had her taken away because they were worried that I would spend too much time training for Contests."

"That's terrible!" Ash gasped.

"Yeah!" Max agreed. "Especially a Poochyena, because they're really persistent and so taking them away is… cruel."

His sister started giggling.

"Sorry," she said, holding up a hand. "It's not – it's really serious, but all I can think about now is how I'd have reacted as a kid if I was told I wasn't allowed to have Pokémon. Because I wouldn't have cared, even though now it'd be really different if you asked me the same question."

Max looked mulish. "I guess. And I guess there are times when you'd have to move a Pokémon away from where they lived, but your parents were, uh…"

"They were foolish," Mrs. Grimm declared. "And so was I."

She rubbed her temples. "I'm not changing my mind completely. But I think Timmy should… be able to keep his options open."

"What does that mean?" Latias asked.

"I guess keeping his options open means…" Ash paused, thinking about it carefully. "At a guess, it means that it's going to mean he can keep practicing as a Pokémon Trainer, so long as he doesn't end up missing out on homework and risking bad grades?"

"Exactly," Mrs. Grimm said. "And I'd like him to stop spending all hours learning from that sketchy Phantom."

"That would be… quite hard, dear," Mr. Grimm admitted. "Seeing as he is the Phantom. I made him the costume myself, it's like the one I used to wear as a Coordinator."

Mrs. Grimm looked very embarrassed.

"I had… actually forgotten that," she admitted. "So… I'd still like you to find my son, then, but can you tell him what I've decided?"

Latias shot off fast enough to make the air ripple.

"Latias is doing it," Ash explained.

Two days later, at the Contest, May ended up battling The Phantom in the final.

Both of Timmy's parents were in the audience, cheering for him, and it was a tough fight for Beautifly. The Bug-type had to use every one of his moves at one point or another, even Tackle which sent him right through Dusclops but which did get him out of the way of a Hyper Beam and turned what would have been a bad result for Beautifly into both a useful points-earning dodge and a chance to work up a String Shot – Gust combo, forming it into a little net that Beautifly could use to block a later Will-o-Wisp.

It was a close final, but in the end May and Beautifly eked out a win, and The Phantom shook her hand before unmasking and taking a bow on stage.

AN:

It's a little hard to understand how someone could possibly think that Pokémon training is a waste of time, but I did my best to make her not seem completely unreasonable.