The structure of the Ever Grande Conference was a bit strange, to Ash's eyes, but that was perhaps because it had an unprecedented number of entrants. There were almost five hundred of them, so a series of random matches happened for most of the people who'd entered to whittle down the number of trainers to two hundred and fifty-six.

Then after that there were double battles, cutting the number of trainers down to thirty-two, and it was after that that the full single battles began.

Ash wasn't one of the few who ended up with a pass through the first round by luck, instead getting drawn against a trainer called Gilbert, and after some consideration decided to send out Absol first.

Gilbert replied with a Hitmonlee, and Absol rolled his neck.

"Okay, this could go one of two ways," he began.

"It doesn't count as a prediction if you list off everything that could possibly happen," Pikachu called.

"Begin!" the announcer said.

"Rolling Kick!" Gilbert ordered, and Hitmonlee darted forwards before spinning into a roundhouse kick.

Absol ducked, taking the hit on his blade as it lit up with a False Swipe, then switched to Razor Wind and let it curl up around himself.

"Keep your distance!" Ash called.

Absol didn't need to be told twice, expending some of the air in his Razor Wind for a burst of speed, then turned at bay and skidded sideways.

Then he flicked a Razor Wind at Hitmonlee, and Gilbert pointed.

"Mega Kick to block!"

Hitmonlee's kick cancelled out Absol's Razor Wind, dispelling it in a whoosh, and Absol smirked slightly.

"I predict a disaster," he said. "For you, specifically."

Then the ground exploded underneath Hitmonlee.

"What was that?" Gilbert asked, surprised.

Ash knew, of course – they'd been working on Future Sight specifically to help Absol against Fighting type Pokémon – but he wasn't going to explain or anything.

Hitmonlee flipped through the air, then landed on springy legs, and Gilbert considered.

"Run in!" he decided. "Get to close quarters! Then Rolling Kick!"

Absol's fur rippled as he kept his Razor Wind charged, then he darted away with a burst of speed just as Hitmonlee was about to get close enough to attack.

The Fighting-type followed, but Absol was just as fast, and after a long moment as one Pokémon chased one another across the arena Gilbert raised his voice.

"Hitmonlee, stop!" he called. "Wait there! Now, keep moving around a little!"

Absol slowed to a halt, trying not to pant for breath too visibly to show that he'd been working his Razor Wind boost too hard, and Hitmonlee kept moving around too much to be targeted by a Future Sight.

Ash was impressed, but he still had to work out how to win this, and Absol was close enough to talk to…

"Could you try letting him in close?" he asked, quietly. "Then let off a Future Sight around both of you?"

"If you want, sure-" Absol began, but Gilbert was already giving another order.

"Retreat, for a run up!" he said. "Then, High Jump Kick!"

Hitmonlee did just as ordered, sprinting forwards just as soon as he'd taken a run up, and springing into the air at incredible speed.

Absol dodged.

Hitmonlee went crash into the ground, then got back upright, but he looked quite a lot worse off than he'd been before.

"Bite!" Ash called, and Absol darted in to use Bite. Hitmonlee fended him off with a Mega Kick, and for a long moment the two Pokémon stayed in a struggling pose.

Then the ground underneath them exploded.

"And lo, it came to pass," Absol said, not really bothered at all by the explosion. "That I brought disaster, but not for me."

"Isn't that the stereotype of Absol?" Ash asked, worried now.

Maybe it was overthinking it, but – was that bad for how people thought of Absol?

"Boomburst!" Ash called, during the next battle. "Latias, get clear!"

Swellow went crashing past both of the Pokémon his opponent had sent out, the Flying-type's supersonic shockwave hammering into both Clark's Quilava and his Charizard.

Latias had had just enough warning to get out of the way, and she flipped in the air before stealthing again.

Clark hummed, thinking to himself for a moment.

"Dragon Breath!" he called, flicking a little conductor's baton, and his Charizard fired the Dragon Breath attack at his Quilava.

His Quilava took her orders from the baton, detonating a Lava Plume attack and turning the Dragon Breath from a targeted attack into one that rained down around half the arena, and Latias yelped as some of the Dragon-typed energy hit her – crackling over her skin in flickers of green flame.

"Safeguard!" Ash called quickly, worried, then breathed a sigh of relief as Latias began to glow white – while it had ruined her stealth, at least for now, it meant she wouldn't be vulnerable to being paralyzed.

Then Clark flicked his baton again, and Quilava rolled up into a ball. Charizard picked her up, climbing into the air, and Ash frowned as he tried to work out what they were playing at.

"Boomburst!" he called. "Latias, Confusion!"

Swellow shot past in another crash of an attack run, hammering Charizard's wings, but she kept climbing and managed to resist the Confusion attack that Latias flung her way.

Then Charizard flung Quilava at Latias.

"Play Rough!" Clark called.

"Extremespeed Latias!" Ash ordered immediately, wincing.

Swellow got what Ash meant fast enough, and blurred over to hit Latias and knock her out of the way of Quilava's attack. The impact was loud, but not as powerful as a Fairy-type attack intended to hurt Latias, and Swellow followed up by banking around in a startlingly tight turn and hitting Quilava with Extremespeed as well.

"Latias, Steel Wing to protect yourself!" Ash called, as she recovered. "Go up and hit Charizard – Swellow, you too!"

If Clark was going to make it an aerial battle, he was willing to let that happen.

Ash couldn't shake the feeling that he'd met his second Double Battle opponent before.

He wasn't sure where from, and they definitely hadn't had a Swalot or a Tropius, but they looked.. familiar, somehow.

It was going to bug him for a while… but, hopefully, it could bug him some time when he wasn't in the middle of a battle.

"Stick together, guys!" he called. "Grovyle, cover Marshtomp and make sure that Tropius doesn't get him – look out!"

Tropius fired down a cloud of Razor Leaf attacks, and Grovyle sprang up to hit them with his arm leaves.

Each one glowed brightly with the light-green energy of an X-Scissor, and he slashed apart the Razor Leaf attack before it hit Marshtomp.

"Clear!" he called, then had to hurriedly correct himself as instead Tropius began firing down Seed Bombs instead. "My mistake!"

"Marshtomp, underground!" Ash called. "Grovyle, block and then Extremespeed! Get in the air!"

"Seriously, do half your Pokémon have Extremespeed?" Dominick asked. "What's with that? Sludge Bomb, Swalot!"

Swalot saluted, and fired a glob of poison at Grovyle. The Grass-type was just a hair too fast to finish his blocking, though, smashing a Seed Bomb apart and going from there to dart into the air – prompting the Sludge Bomb to miss.

"Aerial Ace!" Ash called. "Marshtomp, Dig!"

Dominick looked between his two Pokémon as Grovyle and Marshtomp launched simultaneous attacks, winced, then pointed. "Seed Bomb, get Marshtomp while they're separate!"

"Muddy Water!" Ash retorted. "Hit the Seed Bomb!"

Marshtomp got hit by a Shadow Ball from Swalot, but managed to knock the Seed Bomb away. Then Grovyle landed, blurring over to rejoin his teammate, and hit Swalot with the Extremespeed he'd used to get there.

"Get ready!" Ash added. "Remember what we talked about!"

"Got it!" Grovyle called.

"Less enthusiastically got it," Marshtomp said.

"Sludge Bomb, Seed Bomb!" Dominick ordered. "They can't protect each other perfectly!"

Perhaps they couldn't, but Grovyle and Marshtomp swapped places and each defended themselves from the attack that would have worked better on their teammate.

Then Grovyle took hold of Marshtomp with a grunt of effort, lined up on Tropius, and broke into a sprint.

Halfway across the arena, he threw the Water-type into the air.

"Bullet Seed!" Dominick decided.

"Avalanche!" Ash replied.

"Wait!" Dominick called, but too late, and a volley of Bullet Seeds connected.

Marshtomp winced, but the Ice-type energy he was summoning only got stronger.

He hit Tropius like an avalanche, which was ironic, and smashed the Grass-and-Flying-type hard enough that they fell straight to the ground and crashed.

"Keep it up, Tropius!" Dominick shouted. "Swalot, distract them with Body Slam!"

Marshtomp decided to Body Slam back, which was fair enough.

With two Double Battles down and one to go, Ash decided that the best choice was to send out Koraidon and Miraidon together.

The two Dragon-types landed, exchanged a glance, then Koraidon held up a paw.

Miraidon gave the paw a confused look.

"Geodude told me about them," Koraidon told her sibling. "They're called fist bumps. You bump your paw into mine."

"I see," Miraidon said, and complied.

"Well, I haven't seen either of those Pokémon before, but whatever," Ash's opponent Gavin shrugged, as across the field his Machamp and Marowak took up their positions.

The referee signalled for them to begin, and both of Ash's kids immediately unleashed their abilities.

"Mach Punch!" Gavin ordered, and Machamp came rocketing in to hit both Koraidon and Miraidon at the same time with a two-fisted punch.

Each.

The twin impacts landed with a wham, and Koraidon handled it better than her sibling – she went sliding across the ground, while Miraidon hadn't quite been ready and they flipped over twice before ending up in a heap.

"Back upright, Miraidon!" Ash called. "Koraidon, Iron Head, keep Miraidon safe!"

Koraidon charged back in, hammering into Machamp and forcing the Fighting-type to pay attention to her, and Ash glanced to where Miraidon was getting back upright – then saw the flying Bonemerang headed their way.

"Solarbeam the bone!" he called, pointing, and Miraidon focused sunlight for a moment before knocking the Bonemerang out of the air.

Then they got hit by an Earth Power, and Ash winced.

Unfortunately for both Koraidon and Miraidon, the Marowak turned out to know Ice Beam, while Machamp had Dual Chop.

It didn't take Gavin long to work out that both the 'raidons were Dragon-type Pokémon, and once he'd made that connection both Marowak and Machamp began hammering attacks into Miraidon and keeping them off balance.

"Hey!" Koraidon called, darting away to get momentum before charging right back in and hitting Machamp with an Iron Head. "Get off them!"

She kicked out at Marowak with a Rock Smash, then activated Solar Blade and did it again. "I know this is a battle, but still!"

"Dragon Pulse!" Ash ordered.

Miraidon fired, their attack smashing into Machamp as the Fighting-type ran back in, and that kept one of Gavin's Pokémon away from Koraidon for long enough that she could knock out Marowak.

Then Machamp punched Miraidon into the air, on a trajectory that would have them land in the audience.

"Catch them just before they hit the barrier," Ash asked Latias, and she took off with a shoom. Miraidon spent a full three seconds in the air, antennae twitching, but didn't quite manage to activate any flight mode they had before Latias caught them.

That left them with one Pokémon on each side, and Ash returned all his focus to Koraidon.

He trusted she could win this one… but it was his job to help her know how.

For the next minute or so, Koraidon played a careful game of keep-away with her fellow Fighting-type.

He had four arms and Dual Chop, which meant he could volley in a barrage of attacks in a moment if he got to her, but Koraidon was faster in a sprint and could corner better as well – and she had the ability to use Flamethrower, plus in an emergency she could spring into the air and glide.

For all that, though, she wasn't doing much actual damage to Machamp, and Ash leaned forwards a little as he looked for the smallest advantage he could get her.

"Well done, Miraidon," Pikachu said. "You turned off your Electric Terrain when Latias caught you, that was very good."

"Thank you," Miraidon replied, sounding tired but not quite exhausted. "I believed it was the correct course of action, and I know that dad is busy right now."

That brought a smile to Ash's face for a moment, then Koraidon zagged when she should have zigged and suddenly Machamp was too close for her to get away.

"Block!" he called out, hoping Koraidon could use her Iron Head attack to stop Machamp, but what happened was something else entirely.

Koraidon had been about to try and spring into the air, but instead she tried to block, and specifically she tried to block with Rock Smash.

And it worked.

There was a slam of impact as she caught two of Machamp's fists in her foreclaws, then headbutted the four-armed Pokémon before he'd properly registered what she'd done. Machamp went reeling backwards, and Koraidon stayed upright.

The feathers on her back and head had opened out fully, spread into a set of crests, and her tail had uncoiled and possibly even lengthened slightly. That balanced her out, letting her stand upright on two legs instead of four, and suddenly it looked… natural.

"Rock Smash!" Ash called.

"Oh, right!" Koraidon realized.

After Machamp had gone down, Ash cantered out to meet Koraidon in the middle of the field.

"Are you all right?" he asked. "I guess that's a new Form, right?"

"Yeah," Koraidon agreed. "I… don't really know how I did it? But, I might be able to do it again."

She frowned slightly, then fell over forwards. Her crests retracted, her tail shifted, and she was back to how she normally walked around.

"...wow," she said, sounding deeply impressed. "I am really, really tired right now. Can I go to bed, dad?"

"Sure, Koraidon," Ash replied, returning her. "You and Miraidon did a great job today."

AN:

Double battles are interesting.