"And that's the last one I've got, at the moment," Ash said, taking Sidney's bracelet off his ring and changing back from being Dark type. "I can only do one at a time, which makes sense, I guess – and it still makes me really versatile."

"That's an understatement," Cynthia nodded. "I'd already seen what Professor Oak passed on to me about this, but to see it in person is helpful. Thank you."

She tapped her notebook. "So… to summarize. It gives you that Type, and it seems to give you an immunity to that Type as well… which means that in some cases, notably Dragon, that's actually a much better deal than the Type normally gets."

"Oh, yeah, that is a good point," Latias agreed. "I can't remember if someone pointed that out before, but it's still a good one."

"In addition," Cynthia resumed. "You said it seems to make it easier to learn moves of that Type?"

"That's how it seems, yeah," Ash confirmed. "Or, maybe it's more like, it's easier for me to learn moves of a Type that I am at that point. So I learned moves like Extremespeed and Foresight before I knew how any of the badges worked… though, maybe I should be calling them Plates, that's what Rayquaza said Dad's version was called."

"Plus, don't forget, you can fly with the Flying-type one," Pikachu said.

"Pikachu's right, I can fly with the Flying-type one and walk on water with the Water-type one," Ash reiterated. "There might be other things like that too, but it's hard to tell sometimes."

Dawn giggled.

"Sorry," she said. "I just imagined what it would be like to try and find that stuff out!"

"Like what?" Turtwig asked.

"Oh, you know what she means," Piplup said, shaking his head. "Trying to find out if being Dark type means Ash can see in the dark. If being Rock type means he can swim through rock. That kind of thing."

"I don't actually think I've tried either of those," Ash frowned. "Um. Maybe I could see in the dark, but I got the Dark type one way after I learned Foresight so I'm not sure if I'd be able to tell."

Cynthia wrote that down as well, just in case.

"Now, what about this other one?" she asked. "I've heard something about the effects of this from Goodshow."

"I, hmm," Ash began, thinking. "I've got Sceptile and Latias, and then… actually, Latias, can you check how far away any towns are? Maybe I can show Pikachu's Gigantamax thing."

Dawn looked curious. "What's Gigantamax?"

"There's a phenomenon usually only experienced in Galar, called Dynamax," Cynthia explained, as Latias shot into the air to check for locals. "That's a temporary state where a Pokémon becomes much, much larger and stronger. Then Gigantamax is what happens to some specific Pokémon where they also change in shape when they do that."

"Unown calls it the Gigantamax Factor," Ash supplied. "Pikachu has it, and that also means he can't evolve, is what Unown said… Unown also said that that was a lot of what the definition of Pikachu's Noble trait is, now."

He glanced back. "But I don't really like thinking about what that means."

"Yeah, it's a melancholy topic," Pikachu agreed.

"We'll have to go over Noble traits some time," Cynthia said, then frowned. "No, hold on, there was something I was going to… yes, it's the Plates bit. You see, there's been occasional references to things called Plates, and it's been suspected that they're somehow connected to the Types, but it's good to get confirmation."

"Oh, is it ever good to get confirmation of something," Lucario agreed. "You have no idea."

"I know that tone, you rascal," Cynthia said. "Come on, what am I missing?"

"Well, it does mean you stop looking," Lucario pointed out. "It's quite a relief at times."

Cynthia made a rude gesture, then Latias flew down.

"It seems clear," she said.

"All right," Ash decided. "So, this is a bit tiring but it's not too bad if I don't do it for long."

Cynthia looked contemplative. "I wonder… no, go ahead with the demonstration, please."

Ash sent out his Sceptile, and the Grass-type stretched.

"Here we go," he said. "This should be interesting."

"Yeah, I'd like to see this," Starly agreed.

Ash clicked the Frontier Symbol onto his ring, then focused, and Sceptile Mega-Evolved in a flash of light.

"Hmm," Cynthia said, nodding to herself. "I haven't seen a Mega Sceptile before myself, but that certainly looked like a normal Mega-Evolution to me… once you know her well enough, we should experiment with my Garchomp and Key Stone."

"Huh?" Ash asked, then released the transformation and panted for a moment. "You mean, uh, see if I can Mega-Evolve her normally?"

"And which of the parts of the process that combined symbol is substituting for," Cynthia added. "It's an excellent avenue for research."

They waited until Cynthia had finished taking notes, then Pikachu went out into the middle of the clearing by himself and Ash focused on him this time.

"Watch closely," Cynthia advised Dawn and her Pokémon, and by extension Starly. "Dynamax and Gigantamax is quite a sight!"

There was a moment's pause, then Pikachu Gigantamaxed.

"Wow," Dawn said. "It's… kind of a pity that kind of thing wouldn't fit into a Contest hall? It would be a really spectacular Appeal finisher."

Ash held the change for about ten seconds, then Pikachu reverted, and Cynthia looked at Ash with some concern.

"Are you all right?" she asked. "You seem a lot more tired than I was expecting."

"It wears off, but… it's a bit of a strain," Ash explained. "Right when it happens, anyway."

Cynthia nodded, then a Buneary ran out of the bushes and right past her to intercept the returning Pikachu.

"What was that?" the Normal-type asked. "I've never seen a Pokémon do anything like that – how did you do it – you were huge!"

"Um," Pikachu said, a bit nonplussed. "Hello?"

It took a few minutes to calm Buneary down enough to have a proper conversation, and when they did the Normal-type sat down and took a deep breath.

"Sorry," he said. "I guess I should start with that? It seems the obvious place to, but, um… um. It was just…"

He shook his head. "I don't really know how to put it, but I felt really excited? There was all this… possibility that I suddenly realized was there."

"I've got to admit, a Pikachu the size of a large building would do that," Starly said, then frowned. "Hmm, now I think about it that's a really poor way of saying it… how large is a large building? Large. It doesn't help."

Ash translated what Buneary had said for Cynthia and Dawn, so they could follow along, and Cynthia chuckled.

"I know the feeling," she said. "That moment when something clicks."

"I do, too," Ash agreed. "Both learning moves and, I guess, when battling? Suddenly you see a way you can do something, or, other times it's about seeing that there's the possibility to do something a certain way… I guess I've never been as excited by something as Buneary just was, though."

"Sorry," Buneary said, embarrassed.

"I don't think that's wrong or anything," Ash hastened to say.

The Normal-type looked down, embarrassed anyway, then looked up again.

"So, um," he began. "Which… who's Pikachu's trainer? Because I don't know if they'd like to have me, but…"

"Hey, hey!" Starly interrupted, flying down to hover between Ash and Buneary. "If this is happening, and I'm not saying it has to, then there's something we need to sort out first."

"There is?" Ash asked, confused, and Buneary tried leaning around Starly.

"Yeah," Starly said. "If you're catching him, you'd better catch me first, so I can do a proper pose!"

He coughed, landing. "Also, I made up my mind. Yes."

"I sometimes wonder if this is one of the differences between different kinds of trainer," Cynthia said, as Ash held out a Pokéball and Starly pecked it.

"What is?" Dawn asked. "You mean how you get your Pokémon? I guess…"

She frowned. "Well, I don't know how you got your Pokémon, but so far, Piplup was a starter and Turtwig decided to come with me, and all of Ash's Pokémon so far have joined by being recruited… you mean the difference between someone who recruits Pokémon and someone who catches them in another way?"

"A bit, but I was thinking more in terms of something you could statistically test," Cynthia replied. "Compare the number of registered Pokémon captures someone has to the number of Pokéballs they've bought at shops."

She considered. "Maybe I'll have to suggest that to someone… Professor Oak might be interested."

"Not going to do it yourself?" Lucario asked.

"Nope," Cynthia replied. "...not yet, anyway."

Starly came back out of his new Pokéball, and flirted his wings. "Okay, bit weird but I'm sure I'll get used to it."

"I'm not," Pikachu said. "I've never liked those things."

"Most Pokémon do get used to them," Ash reminded Pikachu. "But it's okay that you don't."

"Of course it is," Pikachu agreed, nodding, but he looked pleased anyway. "Hmm… how many Pokémon do you have with you at the moment?"

"Me, you, Latias, Koraidon, Zorua, Sceptile, Mew, and now Starly," Ash said, going through them. "Oh, yeah, good point… Buneary, I'll sort it out as soon as we get to a Pokémon Centre, but right now if I caught you I think you'd end up going to Professor Oak's lab."

"Where's that?" Buneary asked. "Is there some kind of rule about how many Pokémon you have?"

He twitched his ears. "Well, there must be, so… silly question, I guess."

"Normally it's six, but there's a kind of… special case going on with me," Ash replied. "Because I am one, and because there's some things where I still need help to do them. A lot less than I used to, but Latias still helps me out with some things that humans can do much more easily than I can now."

"Like door handles!" Koraidon giggled.

"I'd help you out, too, Dad," Mew said, and Buneary blinked.

"Um," he said.

"It's complicated," Ash admitted. "And, uh, it's up to you if you want to be caught today or wait until we reach Jubilife, or whatever… but either way, it might be good to know how you can do with your moves? That way we can think about what to work on next."

"Oh, right," Buneary realized. "They're not very impressive, really… I can do Bounce."

"Perfectly good Buneary move," Pikachu said, and Buneary tried not to snigger. Then he demonstrated, springing into the air before landing again with a thump, and Ash considered.

"That is a pretty good height," he said. "May's Eevee could use that to get a lot of control of where he was on the arena, so you can do something similar… right, Koraidon?"

"Yeah, being able to jump into the air and land somewhere else is really useful!" Koraidon said. "Even if you're not able to glide. It's okay, not everyone can glide and that's nothing to be ashamed of."

"Then I can do… actually I need someone to try it on, I think?" Buneary went on. "It's, I don't really know the name, it's a punch where sometimes-"

"I know the one you mean," Ash interrupted. "Sorry, I should have realized you wouldn't know – it's Dizzy Punch, the Pokédex tells me what moves you have. That's neat, and you've got Ice Beam too?"

"Maybe you can show our sibling Miraidon how to use Ice Beam," Koraidon suggested. "It sounds like the sort of thing they'd appreciate."

"Okay, can I please get an explanation of the family thing?" Buneary requested. "Because I'm getting more confused every time."

"It's actually not very complicated," Koraidon told him, pointing. "Ash is my dad, and he's also Mew's dad, and we've got a sibling called Miraidon who's back at Pallet Town. Miraidon and I don't have any other parents, and Mew sort of had another parent but none of us really think that counts because he was so horrible, and I guess Mewtwo might count as Mew's adoptive uncle or something?"

Buneary blinked.

"That's not complicated?" he asked.

"Compared to our aunts and uncles, yes," Mew said, stifling a giggle.

AN:

He's no Knife Buneary, but…