Aries

A Star Student

"I noticed your Metagross used Ice Punch?" Ash asked Steven as they walked away, the older looking over and then down at him before smirking. He held up a blue disc that glowed in the light. "It's a TM, it can teach Pokemon moves. You hold it to their Pokeball to transfer the information. I have quite a few."

Ash's eyes widened with interest. "So did you try putting more than 4 TM moves on Metagross?"

Steven nodded. "And he could still use Meteor Mash and Psychic just fine. Which proves your theory- Pokemon of a certain strength can learn more than 4."

Ash inspected the TMs Steven had passed him- Ice Punch, Fire Punch, Thunder Punch. They were coloured disc structures with the name engraved along the edge in block capital letters, shimmering in the light. He poked them a few times, before gently poking the older man and handing them back. "Why don't you get Metagross to use his four fists? And do them all at once?"

"I'm intrigued, what do you mean?" Steven laughed softly as they walked to a point to stop at and camp- a little clearing with a small river running close by. Ash released his three Pokemon while Steven released his 6 on him. Skarmory and Gale raced each other above the treeline, while Kai tried fighting Aggron. Pinwheel zapped Claydol for practising with electricity- Ash noticed how Pinwheel got Claydol to hide or move up and dodge a lot to try practising curving the shot.

"I mean, Metagross has 4 arms. Bruno's Hitmonchan can do two different elemental punches because that's what he's trained to do. I don't see why Metagross can't."

Ash had been exposed to far more clips and videos of the different trainers in the region than he used to be while his Pokemon were training one day, Steven had insisted on it. Steven was starting to love the mentality. "I don't see why not.", in the face of an impossibility confirmed by as many Pokemon professors- yet he was starting to get into the idea. The type coverage alone would at least slow Wallace down- until Wallace had a few good conversations with Ash, that was.

And it wasn't like he was going to hide the techniques he was learning from the case file.

"Sure. Metagross- come over. Meteor Mash in one arm, Fire Punch another, you get the gist." Steven ordered. The Pokemon buzzed and tried it out but only two attacks worked. He tried it again, and this time, a little of an Ice Punch was forming.

Ash clapped for his Metagross, calling quickly, "You can do this!" to the Pokemon that Steven didn't understand. Steven wasn't as bothered as he was initially thinking he was going to be in fact, the light-blue-haired man was quite happy to just not understand Ash 90% of their alone time.

He watched as Ash fetched a few firewood sticks to make a small campfire, enlisting Cradily's help (much to the grass type's amusement). He struck a tinder quite easily, moving through the campfire motions easily. Gale flew down with Skarmory, who had both collected many different berries. Ash flicked out the stems in them, mashed them up, and added them to create a sort of berry soup.

Steven stared at the bowl presented to him before silently raising a spoon to sip the mixture- which didn't taste terrible. It wasn't what he would eat every day, but judging by Ash's mixed expression, he wouldn't either. The Pokemon all adored it, though, and it was clear that Ash's goal was not to please himself.

"Isn't it nicer?" Ash commented after a little while. "To not be so separated from your Pokemon?"

Steven glanced at his Skarmory who was using her beak to try to get some more of the soup from the bowl, being shooed away by Claydol. Champion-level pokemon, fighting over... mediocre berry soup. He laughed to himself for a moment before Ash continued. "I know it doesn't taste great, but my Momma said it was ..."