When they got to Fortree City, it was to find that the whole city was going through a celebration.
"What is this?" May asked. "This is really neat!"
"I guess it means we'll be waiting before my Gym Battle," Ash decided. "But yeah, I'd like to know as well."
Brock was frantically paging through a guidebook.
"Aha! It's the… Feather Carnival," he announced. "It's a celebration of flying and Flying-type Pokémon."
"Cool!" Ash decided. "Maybe it's because the local Gym Leader is a Flying-type Gym Leader… well, maybe everyone should come out and enjoy it? Especially Taillow and Noctowl."
Latias took the hint, and sent both Flying-types out before going through the rest of Ash's Pokémon.
"Koraidon too?" she asked.
"Weather looks good, so go ahead," Ash agreed.
"It sometimes sucks that I can't come out if it's raining, but I understand it," Koraidon said, looking around. "Ooh… this is nice!"
While she was turning in circles and looking around, Max got Swablu's attention.
"What do you think?" he asked. "Do you want to go for a flight?"
"I'd… rather not," Swablu said, shaking her head.
"Hmm," Brock's Torkoal mused. "Young one, a bird may choose not to fly, but it is the right of that bird's friends to ask them why not."
Swablu's wings fluttered, but not in a way to let her take off.
"I'm… nervous, okay?" she said. "I feel like my wing might stop working and I'll fall to the ground!"
"Oh, I get it," Ash realized. "So… you want to fly, but you're afraid for your wings?"
He thought about that.
"Maybe-"
"Swablu," Max interrupted, turning the Flying-type to look her in the eye. "If you want help, I'll help, okay? And if you don't want help, then you can ride around on my head and just be a friend. For as long as you want. But I want to help you… so long as you're okay with being helped."
Swablu looked down for a long moment, then nodded. "Okay… that'd be nice."
"She says it'd be nice," Ash relayed.
As Max slumped a bit in relief, Koraidon tapped Ash on the ring.
"Do you think I can fly?" she asked, pointing up at a really big Skarmory doing a fly over. "Like them? It's a feather carnival and I've got feathers."
She demonstrated, twisting her head a bit to show them off. "We don't really know what type I am, right?"
"No, but we do know a lot of types you aren't," Ash pointed out. "We tested for most of them, so you're one or two of… Dragon, Fighting, Psychic, Bug and Water."
"Oh, yeah, right," she realized. "I'm not Flying type because Ground type moves work on me. That's a shame…"
Ash nudged her. "Hey, remember, Latias is Psychic and Dragon! She can fly anyway, because that's her Ability, and there are Pokémon like Garchomp who can fly even without the ability."
"I've never met a Garchomp," Koraidon said. "What are they like?"
As Latias started getting out the Pokédex to show her, Koraidon crouched down. "Maybe I can jump really high, and that's like flying!"
She jumped, and something very unexpected happened. The blue-pink-white tendrils on either side of her head unfurled, turning out to be made of tightly bundled feathers, and she yelped in surprise as the pair of wings she'd only just realized she had caught the air.
For about two seconds, until she crashed.
"Whoa!" May gasped. "What was that?"
"I didn't know my head could do that," Koraidon said, her voice a bit muffled by hitting the ground. "Whatever that was."
After something like that, a lot of the rest of the afternoon was taken up by testing it out in between watching the Feather Carnival events.
It took Koraidon lots of practice, and the first couple of times she had to have her wings twined back up again manually by Latias and May, but eventually she got the hang of making it both spring out and furl back up again.
It also turned out (and this took help from Noctowl and Taillow and Swablu) that it wasn't the kind of wing you could flap, or if it was Koraidon hadn't worked out how yet, but it was one which could carry her in the air so long as she was moving fast enough.
And Koraidon could move fast if she wanted to, which gave her plenty of gliding time.
The next morning, bright and early, Ash came to Fortree Gym for his gym challenge.
"...huh," Winona said, when she opened the door. "You're actually real? I'm a bit surprised."
She frowned. "You are the challenger, right?"
"That's me," Ash confirmed. "Why?"
"Oh, it just seems like the kind of thing that someone would fake," Winona replied. "You know, a Pokémon doing the Pokémon League… I just hadn't seen you in person… this has gone terribly, let me start again."
She stepped back, closed the door, and opened it.
"Welcome, challenger," she said. "This is the Fortree Gym, where our battles happen under the sky in any weather! I hope you're ready for a high-flying challenge!"
"Yeah!" Ash agreed. "What are the rules?"
"...did that just happen?" May asked quietly.
"I'm surprised more people haven't thought Ash was fake," Max replied.
"Three Pokémon a side," Winona told him. "That's… about it, I think, though I did hear you had some really rare Pokémon. I'm mostly just interested to meet them."
"I'll have to introduce you to Koraidon later," Ash decided. "She's a bit new to flying. But I know who I'm using first!"
Once out on the arena, Ash's Noctowl flew in and perched on the upper part of his ring.
"Oh, is that one of the Pokémon you're using?" Winona asked. "That's a lovely looking Noctowl… Shiny, right?"
"Yeah, she is, but no, she's not," Ash said. "Wait. No, she's not, but yes, she is."
Winona looked politely confused.
"She's not the Pokémon I'm using, but yes, she is shiny," Ash corrected himself. "She's acting as a service Pokémon today."
"Right," Winona said, watching as Noctowl's eyes glowed and she levitated a Pokéball out of his bag – then put it on the ground, next to him. "Just one?"
"Yeah, but the first Pokémon I'm using isn't in her Pokéball," Ash explained.
"Well, then," Winona decided. "If you've chosen already, then I'll send out my first Pokémon. Altaria!"
In response, Latias dropped her cloaking field.
"...oh," Altaria said. "Really?"
"Latias is actually new to battling, so this is sort of her test to see how well she's learned, I guess!" Ash explained.
"Interesting," Winona said. "Begin – Dragon Dance!"
"Stealth, and take cover!" Ash called. "Use Mystical Fire, but disguise where you are once you use it!"
Latias's feathers shimmered blue as she re-cloaked, and she blew out a jet of Mystical Fire.
Testing had found that the move was more easily controlled than Flamethrower was, and Latias bundled it up into a sort of glob before flinging it at Altaria.
Altaria, for her part, dodged out of the way with blazing speed.
"Great, uh – okay, Latias, I guess we're working with high speed tactics!" Ash said, making sure he was looking at Altaria instead of at Latias to avoid giving her position away.
The two Dragons were now moving around the arena at high speed, sending wind gusts blowing over the spectators, and Latias was relying on Ash to give her the edge in this battle.
To spot something that would help her out.
"Dragon Breath!" Winona ordered.
"Safeguard, quick!" Ash replied.
Ash hadn't had time to explain it, but he'd noticed that Altaria had been homing in on Latias. He wasn't sure how, at first, until he spotted the wake that Latias was leaving in the air, but importantly that had meant that Latias couldn't rely on her stealth to keep her safe from the Dragon Breath attack… and being paralyzed would be bad news in this battle.
"You're doing great, keep it up!" Ash added. "Mystical Fire, behind you – now dodge left!"
"That's such a fast moving battle, I can barely keep track of what's happening," May admitted. "I'm impressed Ash can – and that Winona can, too!"
"I guess it's a thing for Flying type specialists especially," Max suggested. "Okay, Swablu, I've got you, ready?"
Swablu flapped her wings, up and down, exercising them slowly and carefully while Max held her body in place.
She did ten repetitions, then stopped and panted.
"Do you want to stop?" Max suggested, and got a head-shake.
Then there was a whip-crack sound from overhead.
"Confusion!" Ash called. "Altaria won't resist that one!"
Latias began flipping around in mid-air to aim her Confusion, pulsing out little jolts of psychic energy, then got hit by an Aerial Ace from Altaria. She spun around a few times, steadied herself, and rolled out of the way of another attack before using Confusion on Altaria again.
"Keep it up!" Ash called. "Dodge… left! Now dodge back! Right!"
Each pass Altaria made saw Latias either take a glancing blow or just about avoid the hit, and May frowned.
"I think…"
"Confusion!" Ash called again, as Altaria stooped down from overhead. "And dodge!"
The other Dragon-type promptly crashed very extravagantly into the ground.
"All right, you confused her!" Ash said. "Now, Mystical Fire!"
Latias hit Altaria as the Dragon-type was shaking herself out, managing to set Altaria on fire, and Winona promptly recalled her.
"Interesting," she said. "Latias probably needs some more moves, especially one that takes advantage of her Dragon type, but that was a good match overall."
"She's also got Headbutt, but it felt like she'd lose a head on collision," Ash explained himself. "Latias, you can come back if you're tired."
Latias squeaked something, wings drooping, and floated over next to Ash.
"Thanks," Ash told her. "Okay, Pikachu, your go!"
Winona's second Pokémon was a very big Skarmory, the same one from the Feather Carnival, and he flared his wings before taking off with a whoosh of air.
"Go!" Winona called. "Ground!"
Skarmory immediately rolled, bringing his steely wing to scrape along the ground, and a moment later Pikachu hit the Steel-type with a barrage of Thunderbolts.
Each one made Skarmory light up like a carnival display, but when the blasts faded Skarmory was still flying.
"Autotomize!" Winona ordered, and Skarmory accelerated. His speed increased to the point he blew right past Pikachu, the wind coming off his body knocking the Electric-type about a bit, and Pikachu shook himself before firing again.
Another volley of Thunderbolts blazed out, and they ran off Skarmory's wing and down into the ground.
The ground.
"Pikachu, it's like that Bellsprout from the Indigo League!" Ash called.
"Oh, right, I remember!" Pikachu realized.
"Agility!" Ash added. "Speed up to keep up with them!"
"Steel Wing!" Winona said, and Skarmory banked around. His bladed feathers stayed in continuous contact with the ground through the whole turn, and this time he didn't blow past Pikachu but slammed his wing into the Electric-type directly.
"Agility again!" Ash decided, as Pikachu rolled to a stop and flipped himself upright. "I've got an idea but you'll have to match their speed!"
"If you've got a plan, I'll give it a go!" Pikachu said, watching as Skarmory came in for another attack, then darted to the side at a dead run and managed to avoid the Steel Wing this time.
Ash fretted, dancing back and forth on his hooves a bit.
Winona's Skarmory wasn't really doing much damage, in the traditional sense, but he was neutralizing Pikachu's main way of attacking – and the alternatives Ash had come up with all relied on getting close, while Skarmory was simply too fast. And trying to keep up with Skarmory was visibly tiring Pikachu out.
Latias put her hand on Ash's shoulder.
"Huh?" Ash asked.
"You'll work out what to do, Ash," Latias said. "You always do."
Ash glanced at her for a moment, nodded, then turned back to the battle.
"Pikachu, get ready to dodge!" he said, as Skarmory came around in a banking turn with his feathers grating along the ground. "And when you do, use Agility!"
Pikachu nodded, panting hard to try and get his second wind, and turned so that Skarmory was coming towards his left side. The Steel-type blurred in, and Ash leaned forwards a little – then pounced.
"Dodge right!" he said. "And jump!"
"Look out-!" Winona tried, but too late.
Pikachu had dodged, all right – in the same direction that Skarmory was moving for his attack run. And when Pikachu had jumped, he hadn't been moving as fast as Skarmory, but that meant that Skarmory collided with him in the air.
The impact threw both Pokémon off, and – for a moment – Skarmory's wing left contact with the ground.
"Thunder!" Ash shouted.
Pikachu hit Skarmory with a full blazing volley of Thunderbolts, while they were both still in the air, the attacks connecting with an echoing bang that knocked the Steel-type cartwheeling end-over-end. He crashed into the ground with a wham, sparks flying in all directions, and Pikachu loped over to make sure his opponent was really down for the count – only for Winona to recall him.
"Well done," she said. "I never thought I'd see Skarmory beaten by an Electric-type, especially in only one attack. That's a good understanding of how flying Pokémon work… now, are you going to leave Pikachu out, or swap with your final Pokémon?"
"Swap," Ash said. "Pikachu really needs a rest."
Pikachu had flopped over on his back now that he didn't have any more battle to do, which sort of proved that anyway, and Latias went out to retrieve him.
In his place, Ash sent out his Taillow – and Winona sent out a Swellow.
A shiny Swellow.
"Huh, this should be interesting," Taillow said, taking off.
Once Pikachu was off the field, Winona waved her hand. "Begin! Aerial Ace!"
"Dodge!" Ash called, and Taillow blurred to the side. Swellow banked around to follow the movement, but Taillow's Extremespeed let him get out of attack range from his opponent and the shiny Pokémon had to give up on the attack.
"Get some distance," Winona said. "Up. Then Hyper Beam!"
"Follow her!" Ash called. "Extremespeed!"
Taillow accelerated upwards, outspeeding Swellow, and hit her with Extremespeed before her Hyper Beam was ready before dodging clear.
"In close!" Ash instructed, watching Swellow. "Now get distance – in close again and wing attack! Dodge!"
Taillow blurred in and out of close quarters with Winona's Swellow, doing his level best to prevent the other Flying-type from getting a favourable attack, and after a long moment Winona nodded.
"Brave Bird!" she said.
"Get clear!" Ash said, then – too late – noticed that Swellow's beak was glowing with golden light.
She hit Taillow with a Hyper Beam, instead of the Brave Bird attack, and Taillow crashed into the ground with an impact that raised a tremendous cloud of dust.
"Taillow, are you okay?" Ash called.
"What happened?" Latias gasped.
"I think Swellow doesn't know Brave Bird, that was a trick-" Ash replied, then stopped, because the dust cloud was glowing white.
Then a pair of wingbeats drove the dust away, and Ash's Swellow was standing in the crater.
"It's going to take more than that to put me out of the fight!" Ash's Swellow said, wings held high, then exploded upwards.
"Quick Guard!" Winona said, and her Swellow cloaked herself in red light. Ash's Swellow's Extremespeed hit but made no impression, and Ash tapped a hoof for a moment as he thought.
"Swellow!" he called. "Gain height! Then dive and use Extremespeed – go past your opponent!"
Swellow was already following the instructions before he'd finished saying them, and ramped up his speed to maximum with a burst of Extremespeed.
It didn't hit. It didn't trigger the shiny Swellow's Quick Guard. But the shockwave hit, and Ash's supersonic Flying-type knocked his opponent about simply from blurring past at maximum speed.
Noctowl raised the Pokédex for Ash to see, and he glanced at it for a moment.
At the bottom of Swellow's move list was a new one – Boomburst.
"Boomburst!" he ordered, and his Swellow darted past his opponent again. "Don't let up!"
"Wasn't planning on it!"
"Marvellous," Winona declared, once the battle was over. "And so is your Noctowl."
She stroked Noctowl's wing. "You clearly have a good sense of how your Flying-type Pokémon are best used."
"I actually have a couple more of them, or, had, I guess," Ash told her. "Charizard is still mine, but I released Pidgeot so she could take care of the local Pokémon around Pallet Town. I still miss her."
"A Pidgeot is a very interesting Pokémon," Winona told him. "But, well – you've more than won the Feather Badge."
She held it out, and Ash took it. His ring changed to a sort of slightly-metallic sky blue, with his gemstones going pure white, and he nodded to himself.
"The being poured the remains of its power into stone and buried it deep," he recited, and Pikachu got to tapping away as he recorded it.
"Those don't make much sense, do they?" Noctowl asked.
"Not so far," Ash said, shrugging.
And took off.
Without any fuss, he floated up to about six inches off the ground, then tilted his head.
"Uh," he said. "That's new."
AN:
Ash is now permissible in Sky Battles.
I don't think Koraidon is, though. Using Flamethrower for updrafts is a bit… 'rude' probably works.