"The system won't boot up properly," Joy said, apologetically. "The computer system's completely disabled… we think it might be a Deoxys."

"Might be?" Max said, mostly to himself.

"It's been going on for a week," Nurse Joy explained.

"That's happened before, yes," Solana said, the Ranger frowning a little as she tried to remember her briefing about it. "It was at LaRousse City. Professor Lund said that the Deoxys there arrived by meteorite, but it didn't start causing a disturbance straight away."

"Oh, yeah, I remember-" Ash began, then Pikachu, Noctowl and Brock all tackled him to the ground.

"Pik-aaa!" Pikachu said, firmly. "Pika kachuu, Pikapi!"

"...um," Solana began. "Should I be… worried about that?"

"No, it's fine!" Max said, waving his hands. "Nothing to be worried about! That's just Ash being Ash, and Brock being Brock, and his Pokémon being his Pokémon!"

"I wonder how he got that Pokéball to work?" Nurse Joy asked.

"He didn't!" May replied. "That's Noctowl, she's an illusionist, she sometimes hangs around invisible! Nothing to worry about here! You were saying something about meteorites?"

"...yes," Solana nodded. "Professor Lund said that the Deoxys arrived by meteorite, but it didn't start causing a disturbance until years later."

Joy thought.

"Well," she began. "There is an old story of a meteorite landing up in the mountains…"

"Are we clear?" Brock asked.

"Yeah, Solana said, let's go up to the mountains," Max confirmed. "I asked her to wait a few minutes for us, May's chatting with her about how Contests work."

"Good," Brock said, then got off Ash.

Ash coughed, as Noctowl got off as well.

"What was that about?" he asked.

"Pikaaa-Pikapi, Pikachu pika!" Pikachu said, sternly. "KA-chuuu!"

"She brought it up first!" Ash defended himself. "I was only going to say! What's wrong with that?"

"You know what's wrong with that, Ash," Brock said. "We can't admit the movies happened on screen!"

"Chuuu!" Pikachu agreed.

Noctowl squeaked.

"And that's why," Brock went on. "You know what the writers are like about making sure that everything that happens can be explained without watching the movies."

He pointed at Noctowl. "And you know who can't be explained without watching the movies?"

"I guess," Ash admitted, then frowned. "Are you sure that would happen?"

"Do I need to remind you about what happened with that post Dragonite?" Brock asked. "If they look too closely they will notice."

Ash winced.

"Okay, okay, fine," he said, getting up. "I just… it's hard to remember that, you know?"

"I know it is, Ash," Brock agreed. "And I do know what you mean. But I don't want us to have a more recent reminder."

Ash nodded, slowly.

"And that was quick thinking, Latias," Brock went on. "I know we talked about it before, but you got it just right."

Noctowl made a squeaky, high-pitched purr, then decloaked and gave Ash a quick hug.

"Thanks," Ash smiled, hugging Latias back. "All right, all right, I'll do my best, okay?"

"Pikaaa, Pikapi!" Pikachu smirked.

"I was actually a bit worried when you were letting on that you were understanding Pikachu so well," Max admitted. "After Rota, I mean… but I think we've managed to get away with it."

Brock chuckled.

"Okay, let's go," Ash decided, and Latias shimmered back into invisibility. "And find that Deoxys to help them out!"

AN:

Inspired when someone noticed that in the Deoxys anime episode in the Battle Frontier, the LaRousse City incident comes up – but not that Ash and co. were literally there.