"Three, two, one…" Cynthia counted off. "Zero."

Her Jangmo-o bounded into the air, using Headbutt, and her Togekiss flipped around before hitting Jangmo-o with a Zen Headbutt in response. The impact knocked Jangmo-o backwards into the roadside verge, leaving a divot, and Absol winced.

"I'm glad that's not me," he said.

"Why?" Pikachu asked. "You're immune to Zen Headbutt."

"I'm not immune to the ground," Absol replied, as Jangmo-o dug himself out of the ground.

"Okay?" Koraidon checked, looking behind them. "That looked like it hurt."

"It did!" Jangmo-o replied. "But I'll keep working until it doesn't!"

"Which is when I'll switch to Fairy moves," Togekiss explained. "That's training for you!"

"Togekiss is a graceful Pokémon," Dawn said, watching as Jangmo-o ran up so he was alongside Cynthia again. "Jangmo-o's got a different style, but there's definitely a style there…"

"You're trying to work out how you'd train my Pokémon?" Cynthia asked. "It's a useful intellectual exercise."

"Is that part of what you think makes a great trainer?" Ash said, interested. "Thinking about everything?"

He shrugged, making his ring shake from side to side a little. "I've been more about… giving myself a lot of options, then reacting. But when I'm doing training, I guess I try to go with what works for a Pokémon."

"That can work," Cynthia said. "I know I have a more analytical style of training… at least, in some respects."

She gauged Jangmo-o, then counted down again. "Three, two, one, zero."

Jangmo-o sprang forwards again, and got absolutely blasted back into the distance by Togekiss.

"I'm kind of reminded of Paul, even though I know it's not fair," Dawn admitted.

"The main difference, I think – though point out if this doesn't make sense," Cynthia added, "is that Jangmo-o has worked up to this over time."

"Yeah!" Jangmo-o agreed, having dug himself out of the ground again and hurried up to join them. "I'm so tough now I can take it and keep going! Sooner or later I'm going to become what I set out to be!"

"A statistical anomaly, right?" Pikachu asked. "It's a rewarding experience, take it from me."

"I am!" Jangmo-o replied, tail flicking from side to side.

"Speaking of that," Ash said, looking up. "How is Latios getting on, Latias?"

"I'm trying to explain Mystical Fire to him," Latias replied. "It's a bit tricky to do it while he's somewhere else… we might be psychic but that doesn't mean I can just explain things to him straight away."

"If you need any help, tell me," Ash told her. "You can sight-share what he sees and what's around him, right? That way it could be kind of like I'm training him, if you both sight share then it's like we're in the same place."

There was a whack as Togekiss drove Jangmo-o into the ground again, then Cynthia shaded her eyes.

"I wonder what that's about," she said, interested. "Let's stop for now, Togekiss, Jangmo-o, until we know what that crowd is about."

Ash looked the same way Cynthia was looking, and caught sight of the crowd she'd mentioned. There were a good few dozen people crowding around the entrance to a stadium, which was on the edge of the town they were approaching, and it looked like plenty of people were already going inside.

An Officer Jenny was standing there as well, and Cynthia watched her for a moment before relaxing slightly.

"It shouldn't be anything serious," she said. "She doesn't have any Pokémon out, she doesn't look worried… I'm going to guess she's there for crowd control, not because of some kind of catastrophe."

"Is that a risk?" Ash asked.

"Sometimes," Cynthia replied. "Doesn't look like it this time, though… we should ask."

"Champion!" Jenny said, astonished. "What a coincidence – we're lucky enough to have Aaron here!"

"Aaron is here?" Cynthia asked. "That's interesting. It's almost a pity you've got your Bug plate already, Ash, or you could challenge him to a battle."

"I guess," Ash agreed, thinking about it. "Bug type… I'd probably want to get hold of Charizard and Typhlosion before I did that, though."

"It's just an idle curiosity," Cynthia explained. "So what is Aaron doing?"

"He's doing a public training session!" Jenny replied, sounding very enthusiastic. "A display of skill, speed and power all at once – I've never seen one in person before!"

"That's Aaron, all right," Cynthia agreed. "Hmm… do we go backstage, or join the audience?"

"If we went backstage, wouldn't that spoil it?" Koraidon asked. "We wouldn't get to see it, or if we did get to see it then we'd be taking away a lot of the attention from Aaron."

She tilted her head. "It's really confusing because I keep expecting him to have a Lucario, even though he isn't a Steel type trainer or a Fighting type trainer."

"I guess sometimes people just… have the same name," Ash replied.

"Oh, right, Sir Aaron?" Dawn asked. "I'm guessing, but I remember when his Lucario joined us for a bit."

Koraidon nodded, pleased that Dawn had got it.

Then there was a crash from inside the stadium, and several people cheered.

"Oh, he must have started!" Jenny said, looking torn between crowd control and watching the practice session. "I'll – I can trust you, I'm sure, Champion!"

She hurried up the steps, and Ash began to follow her.

"We can speak to Aaron afterwards, right?" he suggested. "That way we don't have to pick one or the other."

"I'm glad you all enjoyed Drapion's Pin Missile!" Aaron was saying, as they entered the stands. "But it's time to explain why I'm doing my training – so you all know why I'm here!"

He swept his hand across in a dramatic gesture. "As soon as I get the chance, I'm going to challenge Cynthia – I'm going to try and take her place as Champion of how the hell did she get here so quickly!?"

"Where's that?" Koraidon asked.

Piplup sniggered.

Once Aaron had calmed down a bit, he did the rest of his practice session, which was actually really interesting to watch.

Ash had been expecting something like what Cynthia had been doing – a kind of mock battle, where both Pokémon knew what they were supposed to do and were improving mostly on how well they did it – but instead what happened was that Aaron had his Pokémon attacking targets, from launching attacks on the move to delivering precise and powerful strikes on short notice. It was more like an Appeal than a battle, at least in some ways, and that got him thinking all over again about the differences between the different styles of Pokémon training.

Then, once the main event was over, they went backstage with Cynthia for a proper conversation with Aaron.

"Seriously, boss," Aaron began. "How did you do that? You turned up within seconds."

He shrugged. "Uh, not that I'm intimidated, anyway… but, how did you do that?"

"Coincidence," Cynthia told him. "We're passing through on the way back to Hearthome for Ash's gym challenge, now that Fantina's actually there again."

"Oh, yeah, of course I know this kid," Aaron agreed. "Or, I know who he is, anyway."

"I was hoping I'd get to do the herald thing," Absol complained.

"I don't think he'd understand you anyway, Absol," Ash replied. "How does challenging the Champion work, anyway, as a member of the Elite Four?"

"I can ask to challenge Cynthia once a year," Aaron explained. "If I feel like I can do it. I have to have beaten all the others at least once to do that, but I have… though it wasn't easy."

"Yeah, Sidney was a really hard battle," Ash admitted.

"Did you always mean to be a competitive Pokémon battler?" Dawn asked. "I'm wondering because of how your training was a bit like an Appeal."

Ash glanced over, because he'd been thinking that earlier, then looked over at Aaron to see what his answer was going to be.

"I've always been interested in competitive battling, yes," Aaron agreed. "Though… at first I was too competitive. I rejected my Wurmple for losing a match, but I realized my mistake later – and now I regret it, I truly do."

Pikachu shook his head. "That's… yeah, I don't really know what to say?" he admitted. "I'm glad we never had a rough patch like that, Ash – or, not that kind of rough patch. But even though Aaron knows what he did wrong, he still did it."

Ash was silent for a moment.

"I guess that is a mistake," he said. "I wouldn't say anything else… but having mistakes in your past is, well, not as good as not having mistakes, but so long as you know they're mistakes… it's something you can get past and be better than?"

"I like that, Dad!" Koraidon agreed, nodding.

Then she tilted her head. "Oh! I just thought… Aaron is a Bug-type trainer, right?"

"Yep," Togekiss agreed, from his position overhead.

"Well," Koraidon resumed. "I'm trying to think of Bug type Pokémon, and there's a lot, but I don't know any legendary ones. Except you sometimes, Dad."

"I-" Ash began, then stopped, and thought about it. "I… guess so, yeah," he agreed. "That's weird."

"What's weird?" Aaron asked.

"Koraidon was trying to think of Bug-type Legendary Pokémon," he explained. "The only one she could think of was me, sometimes."

Aaron immediately looked fascinated.

"You're a Legendary Pokémon?" he asked. "Well, I could have guessed that, but – you're Bug-type sometimes?"

"Yeah, I have these things that let me change my type," Ash confirmed. "Most of them are badges, but I got a Black Augurite that lets me do Bug-type-"

"Oh, no," Aaron groaned. "You've got a Black Augurite and you need it for something. That's so annoying!"

"...uh," Ash said, as Pikachu giggled. "...sorry?"

"It's not your fault," Aaron said, waving his hand. "It's more that it's annoying because I tried to find out where Kleavor came from, and I got as far as discovering that Black Augurite was involved, but I've never found any."

He shook his head. "But, yes, I do know about the lack of Bug-type Legendaries… it's very strange and the Bug-type deserves better. Not that I'm ever likely to be able to find out why."

"Another one for the list?" Pikachu asked.

"Maybe?" Ash replied. "There's a lot, right now…"

"Do you think we could find Aaron's starter Pokémon for him, Dad?" Koraidon asked, a few minutes later. "I don't know if that is possible, or if you'd need help from Walking Wake and Iron Leaves to do it… it's a sad story and I'd really like there to be a happy ending."

"It is a sad story," Ash agreed, thinking. "I'm having trouble thinking of how to… it must have been ages ago."

He looked over at Aaron, who was in the middle of talking with Dawn about the ways Appeals informed battle strategies and vice versa, then down at Absol.

"Is that something you can help with?" he asked the Dark-type.

"Hmm," Absol frowned, thinking, and paced back and forth. "Well, I can't pick up any disasters at the moment…"

"There's a big surprise," Pikachu snorted.

"Well, it could mean that this is already going to sort itself out," Absol shrugged. "Or it could mean it doesn't count as a disaster?"

"What about if we ask around?" Latias suggested. "I know that his Wurmple could be anywhere at all, right now, but we'd never find out if we didn't try, right?"

"A missing Pokémon?" a Staravia asked. "Sure, I can help… what Pokémon is it?"

"Well, they were a Wurmple when they left," Koraidon answered.

"Oh, yeah, Bug-types do evolve quickly," the Staravia agreed, glancing over at the Kricketune sitting on the next tree over. "So, Silcoon or Cascoon, maybe… and I guess this is a Pokémon with a trainer?"

"Yes!" Koraidon agreed. "That's exactly right."

Kricketune nodded. "Shouldn't be too hard, we can look around and ask around," she said. "Anything else you can tell us?"

"It'd help to know how long ago this was," Staravia added.

"Oh, I forgot to ask," Koraidon admitted. "Hold on, I'll ask Dad."

She turned around, and ran off at great speed.

"...so, ever seen that kind of Pokémon before?" Staravia asked his friend, after a minute or so.

"Not really," Kricketune replied. "I'm sort of assuming she's foreign."

"Probably," Staravia agreed.

He paused.

"Hold on," he added. "How is her dad going to ask…?"

"I got an answer!" Koraidon supplied. "Nine years."

"Nine…" Staravia began.

"...years?" Kricketune finished. "Nine years? Do you think we're magic or something?"

"It's worth trying, right?" Koraidon tried.

"Honestly I'm not sure it is," Staravia said. "Why would you think that would ever work?"

"Dad's got an Absol who says there's no disasters involved," Koraidon said, a bit defensively. "That means there's a chance, right?"

"It doesn't really mean that," Kricketune tried to dissuade her, awkwardly. "It means that, uh… it could just mean that this isn't possible? If that's what's going on, then whatever disaster there is, it's already… happened?"

She waved her scythe vaguely.

Koraidon looked disappointed.

"Still," she insisted. "You can try, right?"

"Well… uh…" Staravia began, then sighed as Koraidon looked pleading. "Okay, sure, whatever."

About three hours later, Aaron was in the middle of a training session with Dawn when Ash trotted up.

"We found your Wurmple!" he said. "Though, uh, you really need to say sorry, and he's a Beautifly now."

"You actually found him?" Aaron asked, astonished, and his Vespiquen stopped firing Power Gem attacks at Samurott. "How did you… how is that even possible?"

"So…" Ash began. "I think I've got this right… Koraidon asked for help from some local Pokémon, and asked them to help out by asking just a few more local Pokémon each, so it would spread out quickly and the whole local area would get involved."

"Only thing is, the first Pokémon they found to ask were the Pichu brothers," Pikachu supplied, shaking himself to get some of the water off.

"Yeah, they asked these two Pichu who Pikachu runs into sometimes," Ash said. "And then they got enthusiastic, and I guess Raikou was in the area? And, uh, we got in a big argument with a Skuntank, and I sort of… lost track of some of it."

"I helped them float down the river!" Koraidon supplied.

"Also, just pointing out: it wasn't a disaster," Absol said.

"We had to use my tomato ketchup supply to get the smell off you," Pikachu protested.

"You can get some more," Absol replied. "See? Not a disaster."

Aaron looked over at Cynthia.

"Is this… normal?" he asked.

Cynthia looked at what colour Ash's ring and gems were.

"Yes," she answered. "Don't forget to apologize to Beautifly."

AN:

Cynthia is a bit intimidating, especially in person.

When you see her training methods, that might help explain why.