On the way to Vertress City, site of the upcoming Unova League, our heroes notice a Drilbur and a Braviary who seem to be watching them. Their Trainers—brothers Rocko and Soren—show up soon after and challenge Ash to a Tag Battle! Ash is happy to accept, and decides to pair up with Cilan for a similar land-and-air team of Pansage and Unfezant.
The first move the brothers call for is Drill Wing, which none of our heroes has ever heard of before! It turns out Soren and Rocko are skilled at using double-move attacks—in this case, Drilbur’s Drill Run combined with Braviary’s Wing Attack. It doesn’t take Ash and Cilan long to pick up on this technique, and with some impressive teamwork, they defeat the brothers...who immediately start blaming each other.
Cilan steps in to break up the fight, and wields his Pokémon Connoisseur skills to offer them some advice: each brother is well matched with his own Pokémon, but they need a Water-type Pokémon to round out their land-and-air team. And of course, since Cilan is also a Fishing Connoisseur, he’s happy to give them some lessons on how to catch one. They first hook two feisty Frillish, but can’t agree on a strategy for catching them, so the Frillish get away. Once Soren and Rocko calm down and start working together, they manage to catch a Buizel and a Corphish to add to their team. Now they can boast of being rulers of the land, the air, and the water!
Our heroes say goodbye to the brothers with promises of a Tag Battle rematch if they meet again, and the journey to the Unova League continues!
