"Okay, I… think I know who to use next time," May said, checking some notes she'd made. "Pikachu and Snorunt are about ready, while Octillery has a good routine… Bulbasaur, we might want to work on something with you next?"
"Oh, for the Grand Festival, right," Bulbasaur realized. "Yeah, I need to be ready for that."
May didn't understand, but shrugged. "I'm going to guess you were talking about the right thing!" she said. "And, actually… what do you think of the idea that we should work on you catching Eevee? For a double routine, I mean."
Bulbasaur considered, then nodded. "That sounds like fun!"
May sent out Eevee, and the Normal-type bounced up and down before Bouncing into the air to be caught by Bulbasaur's Vine Whip.
"Like that," May agreed. "Now, we just need to work out a good way to give it some flair…"
She frowned, thinking, but as she did Max's Swablu mumbled something.
"I don't feel well," she said, and Ash looked over.
"Huh?" he said. "Is something up?"
"I feel dizzy," Swablu told him, closing her eyes. "Sick."
Pikachu's cheeks sparked, and Ash looked from him to Swablu.
"Uh," he began, thinking. "Swablu's dizzy… Pikachu, are you feeling weird too?"
"A bit," Pikachu said. "My electricity's a bit harder to control than normal."
"Having trouble with your electricity… It'd be a weird coincidence if you were both unwell at the same time for different reasons," Ash frowned. "Which… I guess means something else is going on."
"That's a good point, Ash," Brock said. "We should stop so I can try and work out what's wrong with Swablu-"
"Look!" Ash interrupted, pointing, as an aurora lit up the sky. "Uh… Magnetic interference… I can't tell where I am, and… I'm lonely? I guess there must be a Deoxys around here!"
"Magnetic interference?" Max repeated, reaching up and taking Swablu to hold her steady. "That must be what's making Swablu feel dizzy, then. Some flying Pokémon use magnetism to help navigate."
He frowned. "But, uh… what do we do, then?"
"Pikachu, can you help?" Ash asked. "Or… maybe…"
He looked thoughtful, then held up Absol's Pokéball. The Dark-type didn't come out, even when Ash activated the Pokéball, and Ash shook his head.
"I guess whatever's going on has disabled the Pokéballs, like at LaRousse," he said, returning Absol's Pokéball to his bag with Confusion. "So we need to find that Deoxys, I guess – and find out whatever's making it so it's lost, too."
"Hey!" a voice called. "You guys again!"
"Solana?" May said, turning. "Oh, hey, that was quick!"
"Quick?" Solana replied, jogging up the path. "We've been getting reports that there's been trouble in this area for days! It's just, you know, the reports couldn't be sent electronically, so they're late…"
"It's a Deoxys, we think!" Ash said, pointing up at the aurora overhead. "I understand what that means, or pretty close, and last time I understood one of those it was a Deoxys. So we need to find the Deoxys and ask what's going on!"
Solana looked almost nonplussed. "Seriously, what is it with you and quick answers? Anyway, uh… what else do you know?"
Max raised his hand. "We think there's electromagnetic disturbances going on," he said. "Swablu's feeling dizzy and Pikachu's having trouble with his electricity, and the Pokéballs have stopped working."
"That would explain why all the computers in the area seem to have gone haywire," Solana muttered, thinking. "But fortunately a Pokémon Ranger is on the case!"
She flourished her Styler. "This is sealed against electromagnetic interference, so it's perfect for a situation like this."
"Perfect?" her Plusle asked. "I don't know about perfect. Quite good, maybe."
"So, how are you going to use your Styler to solve the problem?" Max asked.
"Well," Solana began, then paused. "Okay, the Styler isn't going to solve the problem by itself, but it's going to let me deal with a Deoxys better than Pokémon Trainers would be able to if their Pokémon were stuck in Pokéballs."
Latias decloaked, and waved.
Solana sniggered. "All right, all right, you guys are ready for everything, I admit it."
"Look!" Pikachu said, pointing.
Everyone followed his paw whether or not they were able to understand him, and saw a Deoxys overhead.
"Hey!" Ash called. "We can help!"
Deoxys looked down, then vanished in a blaze of energy, and the aurora changed.
"It's not saying anything any more," Ash reported. "It's just an aurora… where did that Deoxys go, though? It was complaining about the disturbances, so it can't have been causing them."
"I've got an idea about what we could do," Solana said. "If we can get a magnetic anomaly scanner, we can track down the source of the disturbances."
Ash looked confused. "Wouldn't those be hard to get hold of?"
"Not really," Brock told him. "They're used to do things like track down Magnemite in office buildings… any Pokémon Centre should have one."
Solana smiled. "Fortunately, I happen to have a map showing the nearest Pokémon Centre. Pokémon Rangers are always prepared!"
Plusle started laughing, and Solana shushed him before resuming. "…so let's head over there."
The Pokémon Centre had no power, and fortunately wasn't currently dealing with any medical crises, but Ash frowned as he thought about something.
"Um," he began. "How far… I guess we're not all that close to Pallet Town?"
"What's that, Ash?" Brock asked. "It sounds like you have a plan or something."
"I was just thinking," Ash replied. "If we're going to be here for a few hours, I could have Latias go and fetch Miraidon. I think she or Pidgeot could tow them through the air if they're in their flight mode, same as Koraidon, and one thing Miraidon is really good at is powering things."
He glanced down. "It's… what I made them for."
"That's a good idea, Ash," Brock said, nodding. "I don't know if the problem here is no power or magnetic interference, but it worked in LaRousse. And… really, I know you're not sure what to think about it, but the fact that you made Miraidon to do something doesn't mean that you did something wrong. So long as you remember that, at least. Rayquaza was made for shooting down meteorites, after all."
"We don't mind, dad," Koraidon contributed. "If we can help someone out, why not?"
The Joy had been listening to the conversation in polite but complete bafflement, but the mention of a meteorite made her frown.
"Actually, there was a meteorite that crashed near here a while ago," she said. "Must be ten years, now. I think there were reports of… some kind of disturbance, then, but it only lasted a short time."
"That sounds like it's connected," Max decided, then corrected himself. "Or, at least, correlated even if not the cause."
Joy went over to a drawer. "Where is it… ah… here we go."
"Here you go!" her Chansey said, putting a scanner down on the desk.
"Oh, thank you," Joy added. "Here's one of our magnetic scanners… it's still working, because it's built for magnetic disturbances. And here's a local area map, and the meteorite fell… somewhere around here."
She circled part of the map, then slid it across the desk along with the scanner, and Brock took both of them.
"And is there anything you can do for Swablu?" Max asked, holding up the Normal-type. "Her magnetic sense of navigation is all messed up and she's dizzy."
"There's… not a lot I can do without power," Joy admitted. "But, hmm… Chansey? If I remember correctly, Swablu can learn Refresh, and you know that move. Can you demonstrate for her?"
"All right," Chansey agreed. "Watch closely, okay?"
Swablu nodded, trying not to move too much, and Chansey picked her up to give her a hug.
A green glow pulsed around Chansey's arms, and flowed soothingly over Swablu. Max's Pokémon tensed slightly, then relaxed.
"That's… such a relief," she said.
Then evolved.
Chansey was suddenly trying to hug a much bigger Pokémon, and wobbled dangerously. Latias caught Altaria before Chansey actually toppled over, and Max gasped.
"Wow!" he said. "Well done, Altaria!"
"I didn't realize it was happening until it had already happened," Altaria admitted, then nuzzled into Max's shoulder. "But I'm glad it did."
Outside, Solana looked around for a moment, then triggered her Capture Styler and used it to get the attention of a wild Fearow.
"I'd like a lift," she explained, turning to look back at the group. "I don't know if I'm counting right, but there's… Latias, Altaria, I think Koraidon… if we can move at high speed then we'll solve the problem much faster."
"I'll give May or Brock a ride," Koraidon volunteered. "I might need a tow, though."
"I can fly, so… yeah, I think we've got enough people who can fly," Ash agreed, getting out the Badge he used most often. "I should really spend time actually turning Fly from something I can do into a proper move, it's way too useful to be stuck in one Type… anyway, Latias, Altaria, do you two think that's going to work?"
"I'll be new to flying with a passenger, but I can give it a go!" Altaria said.
Max glanced down at Ralts's Pokéball, "It'd be great to have help understanding you," he said. "But I guess… do you mean you're good with it?"
Altaria nodded, and Max smiled his thanks.
Five minutes later, they were in the air.
Max and Altaria had the anomaly scanner, because Latias and Koraidon had to move quickly so Koraidon's wings could generate enough lift, and Solana flew alongside them on Fearow to offer advice.
A bit higher up, Ash looked around, wondering.
Why ten years?
"That Deoxys we met in LaRousse came down in a meteorite," he said. "But why ten years? Tory's friend was being healed by his dad… maybe this is just how long it took Deoxys to recover, but they said there was magnetic disturbance. That means they're not the cause, or… not deliberately."
"Hmm," Pikachu frowned. "I don't really know enough about Deoxys to say what it could be."
"Yeah" Ash agreed. "I… hope that it's all a misunderstanding or a problem we can easily sort out, but if it's not… you and Latias should be able to help out. And I'll help too."
"Whoa!" Max said. "The disturbance just got way bigger! Then… huh, it vanished again."
"It's intermittent," Solana decided. "Altaria, if your navigation is being thrown off by the disturbance… can you see where it's coming from?"
"I'll try," Altaria said, banking around to circle a few times, then winced and used her newly-learned Refresh.
"This way," she said, descending into the trees near a mountain scarp, and landed outside a small cave.
"Down here, guys!" Ash called. "Koraidon, can you glide down from there?"
"Sure!" Koraidon agreed, letting go of the tow rope, and circled around to shed height without gaining speed.
"Huh," Ash said, as they walked through the cave. "That's weird."
"What is?" Brock asked. "The cave, or something else?"
"Well… I'm getting pretty sure that smelling diamonds means time travel is going on somewhere," Ash said. "And now I can smell pearls, so what does that mean?"
"You smelled those before, too, didn't you?" Latias said.
She frowned. "At Rota, I think."
"At some point there's going to be a documentary about you, Ash, and I'm going to really appreciate getting an explanation," Solana chuckled.
"To be fair, those two things might not be remotely related," Plusle said.
"I wonder if it's your siblings?" Pikachu asked. "Well… I don't know if it works the same way with Koraidon and Miraidon, but if you're picking up something to do with time, could you pick up something to do with… space, as well? Or, symmetry, since Dialga, Palkia and Giratina are a set of three from what Rayquaza said."
Plusle now looked completely baffled.
"...you what?" he asked.
"I guess it could be space," Ash said, thinking.
They rounded a corner, and saw a lump of fused-looking stone-and-metal half-sunk into the ground, with a little hole in the cave roof overhead.
"Wow," Brock said, impressed. "The chances of this happening are tiny! That meteorite must have come in from directly overhead, avoided exploding, and crashed through the roof."
"If there was a Deoxys, maybe it was trying to slow down?" Max asked.
"There's hardly any magnetic anomaly at all, at the moment," Solana said, then winced and took a step back as the anomaly detector began beeping and flashing. "Wait, now there's a lot!"
Space shimmered in front of them, and a Deoxys appeared on top of the meteorite.
Aurora shimmered around it, and it changed form from its basic form to the much stronger defence form.
"...in pain," Ash said, repeating what he was getting from the aurora, then focused. "Wait!" he said. "We're trying to help, but we need to know how to help!"
Another pulse of multicoloured light.
"I know you're in pain!" Ash said, then there was a lurching motion and suddenly he was somewhere else.
So were Pikachu, Max, and Deoxys.
"Where are we?" Max asked.
"I was just about to ask that," Pikachu admitted. "There's nothing but white light and weird glowing bits around us."
"Deoxys is… hiding here," Max said slowly. "From the pain that the meteorite's making. Right?"
Ash blinked, because he'd got that from the aurora but he'd been expecting to be translating it for Max.
"Yeah," he said. "Then… it is the meteorite. And this is a kind of, pocket dimension I guess?"
Deoxys explained that they'd been in pain, and had made this pocket world to hide from the magnetic distortions brought on by the meteorite. That they'd landed ten years ago, in the meteorite, and had been so lonely… then the pain had come, not long ago, and they'd fled here.
"Lonely?" Ash asked.
"But you were in a cave," Max pointed out. "That's why you were lonely… I guess it might be hard to make yourself understood, but there's all kinds of people and Pokémon in this world! There's friends to be found everywhere! You could – you could go and visit Tory in LaRousse City! He's understood a Deoxys before."
Ash blinked. "Wait!" he said. "Max – you can understand Deoxys, right?"
"I'm the only one here who can't understand everyone else," Pikachu complained. "I feel like a human."
"Yeah, I can, but not Pikachu," Max said. "...huh. I wonder why."
"I think it's the same reason why Ralts called you for help," Ash replied. "You're just… good at connecting with Pokémon, psychically."
Max blinked, then groaned.
"Oh, no," he said. "And Dad's a normal-type Gym Leader!"
Pikachu tried his best not to laugh.
"What about if we try getting rid of the meteorite?" Ash asked, turning his attention to Deoxys. "That would stop it hurting you, and causing the magnetic disturbances, right?"
Deoxys expressed a question.
"There's a few ways, it might take a while to get-" Ash began, then stopped.
He turned, looking at his saddlebags, and picked Unown's Pokéball out of the right bag before sending them out.
"Is something wrong?" Unown asked, then took in their environment, and winked. "This is a pocket dimension."
"Yeah," Ash agreed. "Deoxys is hiding in here away from the electromagnetism of a meteorite. Can we get rid of the meteorite?"
"Analyzing problem," Unown replied. "Is it currently during a sunspot cycle?"
Max sent out Ralts, and gave the Fairy-type a hug.
"A sunspot cycle… I don't know," Ash admitted. "Would that change the answer?"
"It is possible that a meteorite can become charged with infinity energy during a sunspot cycle," Unown explained. "Destruction of the meteorite in this state could result in a large explosion."
Deoxys expressed their willingness to help contain the large explosion.
"No further problems identified," Unown determined. "Recommend the use of Water type Judgement."
"Then let's do it!" Ash said. "...wait, it's called Judgement? Judgement has a type?"
"I think that was a success," Solana said, once Deoxys had contained the explosion, waved goodbye, and left.
"We didn't do much, though," Plusle sighed.
Solana looked at her partner. "Were you complaining?" she asked.
Plusle shrugged.
"What matters is that the problem's solved," Solana declared. "And, really, since Rangers usually get the help of Pokémon, and I got the help of you, Ash, that counts!"
"I guess so," Ash replied. "Thanks! It was great to see you!"
"And now I've got a mystery of my own to think about," Max added. "Though… Ash?"
"Yeah?" Ash replied, turning to his friend.
"Don't forget about Jirachi, okay?" Max asked.
Ash shook his head. "I haven't," he assured Max. "You'll be back together as soon as I'm sure how to do it."
AN:
Max does this enough times that it really sort of crosses over from plot device to character trait.