While there was a lot of choice about what to try and learn, Ash gave it some thought and ultimately opted to go for Flamethrower.
That was because it was already a move that Koraidon was learning, and Cyndaquil was already teaching her, so he could get in training while she was learning the same thing and it wouldn't take much time away from keeping up the training of the rest of his team.
It was still a strange experience to actually be deliberately learning a move… well, and making progress, anyway. Foresight and Extremespeed had both come suddenly, from really wanting to do something, while Ash had spent several fruitless weeks trying to learn how to do Confusion before ultimately giving it as a bad job… but with Flamethrower, when Cyndaquil earnestly described how it felt to use it and how it was meant to be used Ash could actually feel it working.
Slowly, but it was working.
He wasn't even the only new student Cyndaquil had, either. But that didn't mean he was ignoring everyone else.
"It's weird, in a way, but that trick from before with Pound isn't working," Grovyle said, then inspected his hindquarters. "I can still do the move, but… you know. Not much of a tail."
"True," Ash agreed. "I've seen a Sceptile once, and I think they have big tails again, but it'd be a shame for me to just say, wait for that. Since you might not want to evolve at all."
He frowned. "Okay, so… you're pretty good for Grass moves already, I think. Instead, we should think about how to handle Pokémon types that you're not good against… Steel, is one, and Ice is another. Maybe Ghost is a third?"
Grovyle nodded. "And Grass, sort of."
"Yeah, true," Ash frowned. "It's sort of a pity you can't learn Flamethower, because having you join in the lessons with Koraidon and Latias and myself would save time and it'd help with two or even three of those… I guess so would a Fighting move, for two of them at least."
He stretched. "Absol has Night Slash, so you could learn that from him… if you ever get a move like Leaf Blade, it could even be like a swap."
Ash tapped a hoof on the ground. "Night Slash first, I think, because the next gym is Flying but the one after that is Psychic."
"Good point," Grovyle admitted.
"And how are you doing?" Ash added. "With being bigger, I mean."
"I haven't got any slower, but I do sometimes find my balance is a bit weird," Grovyle answered. "It'll pass… hopefully, anyway. And, well, I might have trouble dodging for a bit."
Ash nodded. "I guess… make sure to mention if there's a problem, okay?"
That got him a salute.
"Wait for a few minutes," Absol said. "I think."
"Huh?" Ash asked. "Oh, sure, but why should we stop?"
"I don't mean stop moving, I mean stop trying to breathe fire," Absol clarified. "All of you, that is – you, and Koraidon, and Latias."
He looked left and right. "I'm not quite sure why my disaster sense is pinging up for once, but I suspect it's the possibility for a forest fire."
"Oh, I get it, because if a forest fire did start it'd be too big to not be a disaster," Ash realized, then brightened. "That must mean one of us is close to getting it properly. Right?"
"Could be," Absol agreed.
Latias stopped trying to do Flamethrower, and Ash frowned. "Huh. Can any of you guys hear that? What is it?"
"What's what?" May asked. "We can't hear anything."
"What does it sound like?" Max asked.
"Uh," Ash said, because it was hard to describe. "It's a bit like…"
He frowned. "It's really weird, because I can hear it but what it actually sounds like is… diamonds? And I mean, it sounds like what diamonds look or feel like, somehow."
"That sounds like synaesthesia," Brock decided. "That's where your senses get mixed up and they interpret something in a way that you can understand. But that means we don't actually know if you're hearing something, or smelling it, or sensing it in a different way."
"None of you can feel something unusual, either?" Ash asked.
Koraidon frowned, sitting on her haunches.
"It's not like diamonds," she said. "I think. I don't actually know what diamonds are like. But I feel vaguely like there's something nearby."
"I can have a look around?" Latias suggested. "Maybe I can take Pikachu, too, so there's two pairs of eyes looking?"
"Maybe," Ash said. "Not just yet, though… uh…"
"Excuse me?" a girl asked, coming down the path in front of them. "Do you know anything about a Baltoy's Path?"
She shrugged. "I'm… a little confused, because I got a phone call telling me to follow the Baltoy's Path, but I don't know who it was from."
"We don't have any idea at all," Max said. "Or, I don't. Does anyone else?"
"No idea," Ash admitted. "Baltoy is… a Psychic type, right?"
"Psychic and ground," the girl agreed. "I've actually got one… it's, actually I'll show you. My name's Calista, by the way."
She sat down, getting a book out of her backpack, and sent out her Baltoy.
"There's stories about ancient artefacts and ruins in the Kirikiri mountains," she said. "And I've wanted to investigate for years, but my parents said no… and now, someone called me on the phone to say that everything in the book is true! I don't know who she was, but I just had to try and find out."
Ash glanced at the others.
"This could be someone trying to trick you," Brock warned. "But I don't think whoever it is will be ready for all of us, even if they are trying to trick you. So how about if we go with you for a bit?"
"That would be great!" Calista agreed. "And, um… it was in here somewhere… there's a song which is supposed to be the key to finding the ruins. But it says nobody has found them yet."
She looked puzzled. "How does that work?"
"She's got a point," Pikachu said. "It's notoriously hard to have a book which gives directions to somewhere nobody has ever seen."
"Maybe it's like… where Absol is from?" Ash asked. "They know how it's supposed to work, because of old knowledge or something like that, but they also know that nobody's found the answer yet… or like finding out what Pokémon I am, because finding my dad would be an obvious way to do it but we haven't actually done that yet."
"That's a good point, Ash," Brock said. "It's about the only way to know that without time travel, anyway."
"Time travel?" Calista asked. "That's not even real, is it?"
"I think… this way," Absol said, pointing down a side route.
"And I guess that if it turns out this is wrong, but we do eventually sort it out, it was the delay caused by going down this route that led to everything working out?" Pikachu asked.
"How did – I mean, no," Absol replied.
Pikachu sniggered. "Yeah, sure."
As they talked, Ash paused to sniff the air again, then skipped sideways as he realized May had nearly run into his ring. "Oh, sorry."
"It's fine," May replied. "Huh, it's getting foggier now that Koraidon's back in her Pokéball… I really wonder what's going on here."
"So do I," Ash said. "I can smell diamonds again… it seems to be stronger now."
"Ash, can you use Recover for a moment?" Brock asked. "It's probably nothing, but you might be unwell."
Ash pulsed his Recover move, holding it for a long moment, then shook his head. "No, I can still smell it just the same."
"It's so weird to be with a Pokémon that can talk, let alone one that has other Pokémon," Calista mumbled, then they abruptly came out into a clearing around a large tree.
"Good," said a woman wearing a concealing cloak and sunglasses. "You've arrived, Calista."
"You're the voice I heard on the phone!" Calista realized. "Who are you?"
"You'll see," the woman told her. "You have a Baltoy, yes? We must go down the Baltoy's Path."
Latias was starting to get the hang of what to do in suspicious situations, by now, and hovered over the woman without giving away her presence just in case she'd have to pick her up and disable her.
Pikachu got Grovyle's Pokéball ready, as well, but the woman just asked Calista to sing the song from her book. Calista frowned, not sure what was going on, but eventually agreed to – and the whole section of the ground they were standing on sank away beneath their feet, letting them out in an underground cavern.
"This – I recognize this!" Calista gasped. "This is exactly like the pictures in my book – look!"
She unfolded it, and Max leaned closer to look.
"Those… are photos," he said. "Or they're drawings based on an exact depiction. Look, the little squiggles are the same. But… how could someone know all of this without having just… found the ruins?"
There was a faint noise, and Ash frowned.
"I think there's a Pokémon on that dais," he said. "Under the rocks – Latias, can you lift them off?"
"You too, Baltoy!" Calista said, sending her Psychic-type out, and the two Pokémon between them cleared off the rocks.
Revealing another Baltoy, which the woman returned into their Pokéball to rest.
"I… hang on," Ash requested. "I just realized something. Brock's right. And the reason why Absol's been worried is-"
He pointed a hoof. "Because everything has to work out how Calista remembered it."
"Er, Ash?" Calista said. "I'm Calista. Not that… woman?"
"No, you're both Calista," Ash said. "That's how that book exists. She came back in time to tell you about the ruins, and now she's going to have to go back in time further to make sure the book exists in the first place."
"Ash is right," the older woman said, pulling off the hood of her cloak – and revealing her to be, as Ash had realized, an older Calista. "And, there's a lot he doesn't know about himself yet. I've always wondered if he realized what he's been sensing today is time travel, on a subconscious level."
"That's what I've been smelling?" Ash asked. "I… don't get that."
"You will," the older Calista promised. "And yes, my Baltoy and I are going to go back in time and deliver my book, now… a book that's going to start a lifetime of discovery. I've still got the copy from all those decades ago, and I've got the new one to deliver now as well."
She stepped back onto the platform, and sent out her Baltoy again. "Rapid Spin!"
The whole platform blurred with light, and the older Calista vanished.
"That was rude!" Calista said. "She left without saying goodbye… oh, no, now I'm going to have to do that as well!"
She stepped closer to the platform. "And… I have no idea how this works."
"Well, I guess you'll find out eventually," Max reassured her.
While they were heading ultimately for Fortree, for Ash to collect his next Badge – a Flying-type one – the friends' interim destination was Rubello, a town with the unusual feature of a Contest that required all participants to already possess a Ribbon.
That left May with an interesting dilemma to deal with, or more accurately a trilemma because she had three real choices and couldn't decide which was better.
"So…" she said, the night before they reached the town and two days before the next Contest. "Torchic and Beautifly have both won a Ribbon, one each, so it probably doesn't make sense for you two to get involved in this one. Right?"
That got a nod from Torchic, and a flutter of wings from Beautifly.
"Meanwhile, we've got Octillery," May went on. "We've got a new routine, and I know you're interested – so you're definitely on the list."
Octillery balanced on three tentacles, and combined the other five into a thumbs-up.
"That's lovely!" May praised. "And a nice trick, though probably not one we can work into the Appeal… still, I'm very impressed."
She moved on to Skitty. "You're on the list too, of course – I think the addition of Thunderbolt has really made it so that you've got what we need for both a good Appeal and a good Battle round."
Skitty bowed elegantly.
"And, Bulbasaur – I know we're still working on your moves," May said, finally addressing her most recently gained team member. "But Vine Whip and Razor Leaf between them is still a lot of variety, especially with those tips from Ash's Bulbasaur, so if you were really set on taking part you could… is there anyone on the list who doesn't want to at the moment?"
"Bulbb-bulba-ba!" Bulbasaur said, pointing past her. "Bulba!"
May turned to look, and saw that thin air was breathing fire.
"Oh, Latias must have got her attack working!" she said, then noticed that Latias was specifically breathing fire on Ash. "...huh?"
"Wow," Ash said, loudly enough that May could hear now she was trying. "So that's not quite Flamethrower but it's something else… uh, Pikachu, can you get the Pokédex to check? But, I guess I really don't get hurt by fire attacks like this. I thought it was just being burned, but… huh."
"Pikapikachu, Pikapi, pii-Pika!" Pikachu suggested, getting Ash's Pokédex out.
"Hey!" Ash protested. "I do too notice when you shock me! So we could test it with Wattson's badge!"
The Pokédex beeped.
This Pokémon knows the moves: Safeguard, Confusion, Headbutt, Mystical Fire.
"That sounds cool," Ash admitted. "Or, warm? Do I mean warm? Anyway, it means you're got a new move now!"
"Yeah, that's just Ash," May summarized. "Anyway, Bulbasaur, it's up to you if you want to be considered…"
"And… that's your Skitty registered," the official said. "Thank you for taking part in the Rubello R1."
"Thanks," May replied. "Though… I have a question about how it works for Contests with Pokémon that aren't on your Trainer Card."
She glanced over her shoulder for a moment. "I've got a couple of friends with Pokémon as well, and if one of those Pokémon wanted to take part in a Contest… how would that even be done?"
"Oh, well," the official replied. "It's actually not like it is with Pokémon battles, simply because we understand that Contests are to a much greater degree about artistic synergy between the Pokémon and the Coordinator. That's why they're called Coordinators."
He took a sheet of paper out from behind the counter. "This is what's involved. It's a Pokémon Loan form, you just enter the trainer card number of the loaning trainer. It's generally recognized that because a Contest Pokémon has to have a good connection with the Coordinator anyway, the amount of trading back and forth that would be required to make it official would be… ah…"
He tapped on a key. "Ah, yes. 'Too much faff'."
After all the anxiety that May had had over who to pick, it turned out that the Rubello Contest followed a different set of rules – something she hadn't actually noticed at first – and that she was required to switch Pokémon between the Appeal and Battle rounds.
Bulbasaur still wasn't quite ready yet, so May used Skitty first followed by lining up Octillery for the Battle Round, and her Normal-type delivered a fine performance which exploited her own Swift stars in a back-and-forth display. She even paid herself a compliment, Flattering herself before eating her Persim Berry and curing herself, which gave both her new Thunderbolt and stalwart standby Swift attacks much greater force.
May added a bit of extra flair by stepping into the arena herself, trusting in Skitty's aim with her Swift attacks, and the result was a kind of starfall as big Swift stars deluged the stage around them both as Skitty bounced up on her own tail.
That won them through to the Battle Round, where Octillery faced her old opponent again – Drew's Roselia.
This time, though, Octillery had a better idea of what she was getting into, and had been listening very carefully during a lot of the journey from Petalburg to Rubello. When Drew's Roselia whirled up a petal shield around herself, Octillery replied not with the Aurora Beam May called for but with Flamethrower – something which actually did lose May some points, but she adapted quickly enough to avoid losing from it and directed Octillery in a sweeping fire-and-ice combination that turned Roselia's petals into just another part of Octillery's display.
Then they lost in the final against the Lairon owned by a Coordinator called Savannah, who was just that bit better at dazzling the judges, but neither of them really even minded.
They'd shown they could go up on stage with veterans and give it their all, and Ash knew the feeling.
Sometimes, even making it a close run thing was just as good as winning.
AN:
Beginners may wish to map their extra senses to the ones they're familiar with.