Max got in touch with Ash about ten minutes later, saying that the alarm on his Pokénav had gone off and it was now okay to thank Ash for his help.
He also said that he was fairly sure that Walking Wake and Iron Leaves had done something that was the opposite of time dilation, so that Jirachi was able to pack about two hundred years of rest into every night's sleep, or that was the best he could fathom from what they'd been saying since the conversation had quickly got very technical and Ralts hadn't been able to relay the details very well.
Once he'd finished with that topic, Max calmed down a bit and passed on that Altaria and Ralts were doing well, and so was May – and so were all her Pokémon, including Manaphy and the now-evolved Ivysaur.
May was doing Contests in Johto now, on a sort of lazy timeframe, and Samiya was sailing along the Johto coast so May could do them without getting too far from where Manaphy lived.
Then Dawn asked to be put in touch with May, sounding very excited, and Ash sort of lost the conversation thread after that because it all turned into Contest jargon.
Dawn sounded like she was having fun, though.
The next day, they set off from Solaceon towards Veilstone.
It was a difficult choice about which way to go, and really they could have gone in several different directions, but Cynthia eventually said that she felt it would be a good idea to loop up through Veilstone, then down past Lake Valor to Pastoria City, before coming back north to Hearthome again.
"Of course," she said, that evening. "That's not just because I'd like to witness you two meeting Azelf – which I'm sure will happen almost as soon as you get close enough to Lake Valor."
She paused. "But it is a big reason."
"That would be a good idea, yeah," Ash nodded, considering. "We'd need to come back to Hearthome anyway to let me battle Fantina, but organizing it like that also means I get to meet another one of my siblings."
He paused. "Actually, what's Azelf like?"
"I didn't meet him for very long," Dawn replied. "I did meet him, you're right, and… Azelf was very determined."
She laughed. "And he wanted to be sure I was determined, too! Also, he likes peanut butter."
"I should think he'd have to, with how many peanut butter balms you threw at him," Samurott snorted.
"Peanut butter, huh…" Ash said, thinking. "I guess it's too soon to do this, we'll have to go through Veilstone first, but maybe we should bring Azelf something nice with peanut butter in."
"I still know how to make the balms, but those were in a hurry," Dawn said. "Maybe I'll have to make some cookies, or something…"
Between dinner and bed time, Miraidon asked for a bit of help with their move.
Koraidon had passed on what Pachirisu did during the Contest, and Miraidon had already made some improvements, but they weren't quite at the point yet where the move properly clicked.
Ash warned Miraidon that it might take a long time to get right, maybe longer than there was in the day, and Miraidon thought about that seriously before saying that they understood that but wanted to keep going anyway.
Ash understood his child perfectly… in fact, Ash knew he was the kind of person to stay up late working on something… but when it was Koraidon or Miraidon or one of his other kids he thought it was important to say that kind of thing. Because he was responsible for making sure that they were thinking about that sort of thing.
"All right, Miraidon," he said, about half an hour into the practice – when it was clearly dark, but Cynthia and Dawn and their Pokémon hadn't quite gone to bed yet. "Let's try something slightly different, okay?"
"Did you have an idea, Dad?" Miraidon asked.
"Yeah, I think so," Ash replied. "So… Pachirisu used Discharge to blast out in all directions when she changed course, but that's not really working here. It's hitting Marshtomp, but not hard enough."
"Are you judging that by how I haven't been knocked out yet?" Marshtomp asked.
"Not really, I've been… kind of getting a feel for how strong the attacks are," Ash replied. "Maybe it's being Electric type at the moment?"
He thought about that, then shrugged. "But most of the energy of your attack isn't going at Marshtomp, Miraidon, which means it's mostly wasted… so, what I think you need to do is to make it so the big electrical burst is going in that direction."
He waved a hoof. "So, uh… Pikachu, stop me if this stops making sense, but – so if Miraidon fires a Thunderbolt out in front of them, towards their opponent but not going very far, that's going to make the air ionized, right? Like with that move, uh, Ion Deluge? Or how Electric Terrain works anyway."
"That sounds about right," Pikachu agreed. "It makes it easier for the air to have a current go through it, yeah."
"So… if Miraidon does that, then lets go of all their charge and swerves away at the same time, that should make the attack go where it's supposed to, right?" Ash asked. "Miraidon, want to give it a go?"
"Yeah!" Miraidon agreed, canting their nozzles forwards to float back for another run-up. "I've got a good feeling about this, Dad!"
Ash smiled, then decided to ask. "Miraidon? I've noticed that you and Koraidon like to call me dad even if you don't have to… in the sentence you're saying, I mean."
He shook his head, in case Miraidon got the wrong idea. "I'm not saying it's wrong – I like it – but I just thought I'd check, is that deliberate?"
"I like calling you Dad, Dad," Miraidon declared. "It's because… it's a reminder of how much you've helped us out."
They ducked their head, eyes showing a heart-shaped blush pattern, then looked back at Marshtomp. "Okay. So I will be moving forwards at high speed, targeting Marshtomp, then firing a short range bolt of electricity before my main attack – and then I will swerve away. Did I miss anything?"
"Where are you going to fire your attack from?" Latias asked. "I was thinking… when you're moving very fast, even if you're levitating, it can be hard to get the beam going in exactly the right direction – especially if you just fire it once."
She waved a claw. "And if it doesn't go far, your eyes will be seeing different things… I think you should fire at least three little pulses, even if they're in really quick succession, and try and line it up so that the version of the beam each eye is seeing is the same distance from Marshtomp."
"Oh!" Miraidon said. "That is parallax. Thank you, I will do that."
"Good idea, Latias," Ash told her, then they watched as Miraidon's jets and electrostatics built up energy – then the Electric-type suddenly lunged forwards.
There was a tssszt sound, almost too quick to register as three separate pulses, then Miraidon used their main attack.
It was immediately obvious that they'd got the attack itself right. A blaze of electrical energy flashed forwards and hit Marshtomp in an explosion of blue and yellow and brilliant white light, then before the flash itself had faded to afterimage it turned out that Miraidon had swerved too late. They collided with their training partner, sending the two Pokémon tumbling over and over, and Ash cantered forwards before they'd stopped moving.
"Are you two all right?" he asked.
"I am functional," Miraidon reported. "However, there is a Swampert on top of me."
Ash looked again.
"...oh, yeah, so there is," he said. "Congratulations, Swampert!"
"What hit me?" Swampert asked.
"That would be me," Miraidon reported, as Latias helped Swampert off Miraidon. "I was too surprised and did not swerve in time. Sorry."
"I'm mostly just glad that I didn't get electrocuted," the big Ground-type said. "That gave me a shock."
"Boo," Pikachu complained.
"That actually wasn't deliberate," Swampert replied.
It was late enough that Ash reminded Miraidon about getting some sleep, partly because he could see that if they got started again it would be hard to pick a time to stop, and partly because he needed to think about how to keep Swampert's style working with his new and greater size.
He was also a new addition to the Pokémon Ash could Mega-Evolve, though not for long, and the next morning Cynthia repeated her idea about trying to compare how easily Ash could Mega-Evolve a Pokémon if he actually had the Mega Stone to do it with.
Apart from that, though, most of the training Miraidon and Swampert did over the next few days was with one another. Miraidon worked on being able to repeat their blisteringly fast electric-spike attack, and on being able to swerve to the side to avoid just crashing straight into Swampert, while Swampert spent the time between Miraidon's attack runs on his own personal improvement and training.
Some of that meant discussing tactics and strategy with Samurott, since she was no stranger to being a heavy, bulky Pokémon needing to emphasize momentum as much as either speed or mass alone.
"Do you think you'll be challenging the Veilstone Gym?" Dawn asked, at lunch. "It's… Fighting type, I think?"
"That's correct," Cynthia agreed.
Ash had to think about it.
"I guess… probably?" he replied. "I know I don't need the Badge for my Plate collection, but I still need eight of them if I'm going to challenge the Pokémon League, and I'd like to do that. And since it's a Fighting gym, it could be good to check the fighting styles of several of my Pokémon."
"Am I one of them?" Buneary asked. "I'd like to see if I've got this working right."
"Yeah, probably," Ash replied. "It… kind of depends on what the Veilstone Gym Leader's willing to do for having the battle outside, though. Otherwise you might be stuck with other moves."
"That makes sense," Buneary admitted. "The Pokémon League has big open air stadiums, though, right?"
"So far all the ones we've battled in have," Pikachu told him. "So we should be good there."
"Dad?" Miraidon asked, after finishing their sandwich. "What should my new move be called? It's working almost all the time now, right?"
"It is working," Ash agreed. "You've really put in a lot of work on it over the last few days… and I don't know what to call it."
He tapped a hoof on the ground, thinking. "Your older sister's one is Collision Course, and she crashes into her opponent, but your one is specifically about not hitting the other Pokémon… just the attack does."
"Maybe it would have to be something to do with that," Buneary suggested. "You know, making the difference clear?"
"I am not just not hitting the opponent, though," Miraidon declared, and their eyes showed an hourglass for a moment. "I am swerving… perhaps that should be included?"
"...now I think about it, I wonder if the Pokédex knows?" Ash asked. "I didn't check for Koraidon before we thought up a name for it."
"Would the Pokédex know?" Pikachu said.
"The Pokédex doesn't work quite like that," Cynthia told them – mostly Ash, but it happened to be a good reply to Pikachu as well. "It's got records of a huge number of moves, and data about them, and most moves do have long-standing names – but there's nothing inherent about most moves that means they have to have that name."
"Most moves…" Ash repeated. "Why not all – oh, right, because of Judgement?"
"That's a good example, yes," Cynthia confirmed. "We know that one is inherently called Judgement, because Unown has said so… I should really ask if Hidden Power is the same."
"Electro Drift," Dawn said.
They looked at her.
"Drifting is when you're pointing in one direction and moving in a different direction," she explained. "Or things like that. For vehicles – it sounds more stylish than swerving, and when you're drifting you're in control of how the vehicle's moving anyway. And Electro because, well, it's Electric type."
"Electro Drift," Miraidon repeated. "I think that sounds good! Thank you!"
"Now I guess we, uh… tell the Pokédex?" Ash asked. "Did Professor Oak do that for Collision Course?"
AN:
Can't look up the data…