As they headed back towards Oreburgh Gym, with Zorua batting at the plastic Aerodactyl they'd got for completing the quiz, Dawn frowned at her Pokétch.

"In most ways, this is great," she said. "But there's one problem with it… it's impossible to type on here."

"Type?" Lucario repeated. "Why would you want to type on it?"

"To be able to send messages," Dawn explained. "You know, to text people… sometimes people have these whole groups of friends that they send messages to all at once, as a way to stay in touch like you're close enough to have a conversation even when you're all over the world. And you don't have to react right then, when it's happening."

She shrugged. "I was just thinking, it's much more convenient than a phone in a lot of ways but there's some things it just can't do."

"Personally I'd just use a phone," Ash admitted.

Then, as they reached the Gym, the door opened in front of them.

"Oh," Paul said, surprised. "You again?"

"Yeah," Ash agreed. "I guess if you're doing the Gym Challenge too it's not impossible that we'd run into one another… you challenged Roark, right? How did it go?"

"...I got the Coal Badge," Paul answered. "And I was thinking about what you said, so… I'm going to ask you."

He reached for one of the Pokéballs on his belt. "I caught an Azumarill to help with the Gym, but their Hydro Pump didn't work and Roark's Geodude beat them. What do you think I should do?"

Ash frowned.

"Well, uh… maybe-"

"How much training did you give Azumarill?" Cynthia interrupted. "Is Azumarill a Pokémon who's interested in battling? How many Badges do you have already? You haven't given us nearly enough information."

Paul blinked.

"They're… an Azumarill who knows Hydro Pump," he said. "Shouldn't that mean they're already as strong as they're going to get?"

"You would not say that if you were into Contests," Dawn advised. "Any Coordinator knows, knowing a move is the start of how you use it, not the end."

"Yeah, that's a good point," Ash agreed. "But what you asked was what I think you should do. And what I think you should do is… talk to Azumarill? Ask them what they think, and if they'd rather train with you to improve or not. And if they do want to improve… do that, I guess?"

He shook his head. "But you can't expect a Pokémon you've just caught to be as strong as they're going to be, and you certainly can't expect them to work with you as well."

Paul frowned, then sent out Azumarill.

"What do you think?" he asked.

"I was not ready for Gym Battles," Azumarill said, sounding slightly stunned. "That Geodude hit like a truck!"

Ash translated, then Azumarill went on. "I… don't really think I can make this work," she said. "It's way too stressful."

"Do you mean gym battles, gym battles with this trainer, or being a trained Pokémon?" Miraidon inquired. "Because they are all different."

Azumarill looked up at Paul.

"...this trainer I think," she said. "Maybe gym battles at all."

"It sounds like Azumarill doesn't work out well as your Pokémon," Ash summarized. "But maybe she'd work better with another trainer?"

Still wondering what to do, Paul said he wanted to watch Ash's gym battle.

Ash didn't mind, though when they went in and Roark saw Paul he looked a bit confused.

"You… do know you won, right?" he asked.

"I'm here to watch," Paul explained.

"Well, if Ash doesn't mind, I don't mind," Roark decided. "All right… how many Badges do you have?"

Ash frowned.

"That's actually a bit of a tricky question?" he said. "Because I've got twenty-four, but the Pokémon I'm planning on using haven't had any official battles yet. So I guess… how does that work out?"

"Hmm," Roark said. "Well, if you'd come in and just said twenty-four badges I would have used a stronger team, but… yes, I think I know who I'm going to use."

"There's a difference?" Paul asked.

"Yes, but it's not widely advertised," Roark replied. "Mostly to prevent people from trying to avoid having a proper eight badge challenge… we're much more likely to give our best challenge regardless of the Pokémon if it's later in someone's regional gym challenge, though."

Paul looked deep in thought, and Roark resumed. "Now, I'm going to say… three Pokémon a side. Is that manageable?"

"Sure is!" Ash agreed. "Okay, have you picked who's going first?"

"That's my line, but – yes, I have," Roark confirmed.

"Okay," Ash said, turning his head a little. "Who wants to go first?"

Roark looked a bit puzzled, then Zorua carefully put down the Aerodactyl and jumped down from Koraidon's head.

"Me first," he said.

"Right, got it," Roark realized. "So… uh, is the Mew one of the other ones?"

"No, they're not," Ash replied. "The other two are in their Pokéballs… okay, Zorua, let's go!"

"Geodude," Roark replied, sending out the Rock-type, and Zorua's tail wagged slightly.

Cynthia got out her notebook.

"This should be interesting," she said.

Roark looked pensive. "This… eh, may as well go for the test. Begin! Geodude, see if Seismic Toss works!"

"Right!" Geodude said, springing forwards, and her hands went straight through Zorua.

"Scratch!" Ash replied, and Zorua swiped out with his claws at the Rock-type. The blow hit, but not hard, and Zorua's tail flicked a bit before he pounced straight through Geodude and whirled around.

"Rollout!" Roark said. "Build up some momentum and hit that Zorua!"

"...now I wonder if Roark is a Zoro-roark," Dawn mused. "I wonder how you'd tell?"

"I've been hearing that joke for years!" Roark shot back, then Geodude came rolling in towards Zorua.

"Pounce her!" Ash called, and Zorua phased right through Geodude again.

"That makes things harder," Roark admitted. "Geodude, Hidden Power and keep rolling!"

"Watch out, Zorua, that's going to let her hit you!" Ash realized. "Wait – then – Shadow Ball, like we discussed!"

"Dodge aside!" Roark called, as Zorua inhaled, and Geodude swerved out of the way.

The Shadow Ball, however, didn't go out at her in the first place. Zorua sneezed, flopping over to land on his back, then fired the Shadow Ball, and it went flying up into the air before wobbling off in a vague sort of way.

"Quick!" Roark decided. "Before he gets up!"

Geodude changed course again, rolling straight towards Zorua. "Got it, boss!"

"-wait!" Roark realized. "Abort!"

Geodude didn't have time to abort her attack, and the Shadow Ball Zorua had fired had been curving around and back towards him. It phased straight through his body, passing through to hit Geodude with a crash that shedmost of her momentum, and the Ghost-type rolled over onto his front.

"You're it!" he said, and used Bitter Malice.

There wasn't much actually bitter about it, and the malice was questionable, but Geodude didn't appreciate it either way.

"How was that, Zorua?" Ash asked, once the battle was over. "Those Hidden Power attacks look like they hurt."

"Ouch," Zorua agreed, trying to lick his tail, and began going round in circles.

"I'll call you back," Ash decided. "For now, at least, and next up is… it's your turn, Buneary!"

Buneary came out of his Pokéball and sprang forwards, then saw the Onix facing him and gulped.

"Is he going to be okay?" Zorua asked, then turned to Koraidon and held his forepaws up. Koraidon crouched down, using one of her own forepaws to lift Zorua up to her crest, and Ash considered the question.

"Do your best, okay, Buneary?" he said.

Buneary glanced back, then his expression hardened and he nodded firmly.

"What do you think?" Dawn asked, sidling over to Cynthia. "About how Buneary's doing, I mean?"

Cynthia considered.

"Well," she began, then went silent for a moment as Buneary had to Bounce out of the way of a tail swipe.

The Normal-type did a flip, landed, then Bounced again to get out of the way of an attack.

"He's got one thing very right," she said. "A Pokémon needs to have either the power to defeat an enemy first, the speed and agility to avoid attacks, the ability to block them, or the toughness to endure them. It's easiest for a small Pokémon like Buneary to use speed and agility, and that's exactly what he's doing."

"Ice Beam!" Ash called, as Buneary did a tuck-and-roll on landing, and the Normal-type stopped before turning to use Ice Beam. His jet of bluish light splashed out across Onix, and the Rock-type grumbled in complaint but kept going.

"Slam!" Roark called, and Onix lifted his tail before smacking it down with a crash. This time Buneary got clear with a bit more time to spare, and Roark frowned.

"Oh, I see what's going on," Cynthia added. "Clever trick."

"Huh?" Dawn asked. "Sorry, I can't tell what it is."

"Stealth Rock," Roark called, and half a dozen rocks rose up from the arena.

"Bun-RY!" Buneary shouted, using Ice Beam again, then Ash directed him to Bounce clear before the first Stealth Rock hit.

For the next several seconds, Buneary was bouncing between Stealth Rocks, and not always successfully – twice he didn't get the flip required, and didn't manage to hit the rock footpaws-first – but he got through it, ending up high in the air, and Ash called for another Ice Beam.

The jet of freezing light splashed over Onix, and Cynthia pointed. "See – it's not freezing Onix in place, but so many attacks are cooling Onix down. Which slows him down anyway."

"Dizzy Punch!" Ash called, and Buneary crashed down on his opponent.

The impact knocked Onix swaying backwards, wobbling before managing to just-about avoid crashing to the ground, and Buneary backflipped backwards with recoil before landing.

He stumbled a bit, and fell over.

"Look out!" Ash said.

"Now's your chance, Onix!" Roark called. "Double-Edge!"

Onix reared up, then used Double-Edge, and Buneary couldn't dodge in time.

Which turned out to be fortunate, because Onix missed very emphatically and knocked himself out.

"...bun?" Buneary asked, sounding astonished, then looked at his fist before looking at Onix. "Bun? Ear-Bun?"

"Yeah, you did!" Ash agreed. "Well done!"

Buneary gasped. "Buun…!"

He stood up to celebrate, then found out that that was a bad idea and fell over again.

Ash's third and final choice was Starly, and the Flying-type glanced around.

"Any special plan in here?" he asked.

"It's… probably not big enough," Ash replied.

"That's the Starly that you got when I met you first, right?" Paul asked.

"Yeah!" Ash confirmed. "Actually, how is yours doing?"

Paul looked away. "...I sent them to my brother Reggie, because they weren't really working out."

"Wow," Cynthia said, shaking her head. "You have really short term expectations for how quickly you can tell if a Pokémon is worthwhile or not."

"Then how long should I take?" Paul asked.

"There's no one way to tell," Ash replied. "Partly because I think just about any Pokémon can succeed, it just depends how much time it's going to take before that happens. But I guess… if the Pokémon wants to keep trying, then you should probably keep working with them? Because their willingness to keep trying is way more important than where they start, for just about any Pokémon."

Paul looked thoughtful. "Then… the opposite is true as well, right?"

"Of course," Ash said. "If a Pokémon doesn't want to keep going, that's a great reason to let them retire or shift them out, or something like that. It's… one of those things where you have to base it on how they've been acting for a while, not just a momentary thing, and there's not really any one rule about it… it's more complicated than there being one rule."

After several seconds of thoughtful silence, Roark sent out a Cranidos.

"Shall we begin?" he invited.

"Sure!" Ash agreed. "Okay, Starly, use-"

"Headbutt," Roark interrupted, and Cranidos launched himself into the air to hit Starly with a loud whud.

The impact knocked Starly into the air, almost as high as the ceiling, and Starly recovered before circling much higher now. "Ow!"

"Stay up there and keep moving!" Ash said, frowning. "Build up speed – actually, use Gust, then Quick Attack down the line of the Gust!"

Starly chirped, wings beating the air into a Gust, then accelerated down it with a whoosh.

"Zen Headbutt!" Roark called.

"Now!" Ash added sharply, striking his hoof against the floor, and Starly used Steel Wing before doing a snap-roll. He was surrounded by a blur of steely wings as he dropped and Cranidos rose, and this time the concussive impact between the two Pokémon made a clang sound that echoed through the arena and sent both Pokémon tumbling – Starly to pull out just before he hit the ground, and Cranidos to slam into the ground on all fours before getting back up again.

"Gust to slow yourself down!" Ash called, and Starly braked with a slap of air. It bounced off the wall he was heading towards, hitting him for a second time and completing the job of making sure he wouldn't hit the wall beak-first, then Roark called for a Flamethrower.

"Gust again, blow it away!" Ash instructed. "Then let's do another Steel Wing dive!"

Starly ended up going down first, but one of his Gusts blowing the Flamethrowers back at Cranidos had actually set the Rock-type on fire, and that plus how Starly had been headbutted into unconsciousness let Zorua muster something that still wasn't bitter or malicious but was certainly upset-ness.

With Cranidos out of the battle, Roark got out the Coal Badge.

"Nice work," he said, and passed it to Ash. Then blinked, as Pikachu got out Ash's Pokédex.

Ash tilted his head for a moment, then shook it.

"Nothing," he said. "And I didn't change colour, either… I guess that means it's just the first ones."

"Well, that's good to know, either way," Cynthia decided. "I suppose if they represent trials then it's less meaningful for you to overcome the same trial twice."

Ash turned to Paul. "Now, uh… if you really think that Azumarill won't work out for you, I guess we should ask what she wants next…"

AN:

Well, they say you need to repeat an experiment for it to be workable, but I think in this case that might need to be waived.

Also, no, this doesn't grant chat access.