"It feels kind of weird to be walking into Pewter City again," Ash said.
He sighed. "I remember back when Misty and I first got here… I only had three Pokémon, I didn't yet know Butterfree was actually Mew in disguise, and because Mew had challenged me to a fight as Caterpie the only Pokémon I'd got in my normal way was Zapdos."
Max did his level best not to snigger.
"I remember that Gym Battle, too," Brock agreed. "Wasn't that the first time Pikachu electrocuted a Ground type?"
"That's right," Ash said. "I already knew he was a cool Pokémon, but that was just another confirmation!"
He frowned. "So your dad runs the gym, now, right?"
"Dad or Mom," Brock clarified. "It depends on the day… I think? We should probably stop by, though."
Brock's family was pleased to see him, and there were so many of them that there was a lot of pleased-to-see to go around.
Forrest said that he'd started running the gym as well, sometimes, depending on how the various members of the family felt that day, and had a proper talk with his Starter for the first time in months – Vulpix was so often with Brock for translation purposes that Forrest didn't have much chance for it – and then the friends stayed for lunch, before heading out of Pewter City to the north.
Brock's father Flint came with them, interested to see what Ash's battling style was like.
"So, uh… it's up here, right?" Ash checked. "I wonder if we'll recognize it when we see it!"
"Given how big most of the Battle Facilities have been, probably," Max mused.
Then they topped a hill, and saw the Battle Pyramid.
"Okay, yeah, there's no way to miss that," Max decided. "Wow. It really is a pyramid, huh."
"I'd say something about how the other ones also look like what they're supposed to, but I still remember Lucy's one," Brock said. "And that was a lot of things, but it wasn't a Pike."
Then the ground gave way underneath Ash.
Ash didn't fall immediately, floating in the air for a moment before landing on the far side of the hole, and he reached into his jacket to pat Rayquaza in thanks. "Huh. That can't be safe."
"...what just happened?" Flint asked.
"That's Rayquaza," Brock replied. "Or, the flying is probably Rayquaza. The hole in the ground, I don't think that's Ash's Pokémon, just Ash's luck."
Ash crouched down, looking at the hole.
"That's pretty deep," he said, then closed his eyes. "And, wow, there's a lot of weird energy stuff down there. I think there must be a whole complex instead of just a hole, so having a Pokémon seal it up might not work well."
"A complex?" Flint repeated. "You mean some kind of buried ruins?"
"Yeah!" Ash agreed. "I'd have said caves, but it might have been made by someone, uh…"
He thought about it a bit. "What do you think? I guess Dragonite or Latios could lower us down the hole easily?"
Flint frowned. "I suppose it'd be interesting to see what's down there."
What was down there, illuminated by the light of May's Eevee (and then by some lights in the ceiling, which was much more convenient) was a whole ancient tomb complex thing with hieroglyphs on the walls.
"I never knew this was around here," Brock said. "And, honestly, had we not just seen the Battle Pyramid I'd almost think this was the Battle Pyramid."
"Instead, it's an archaeological discovery," Ash replied, holding up Ibid so his peculiar Pokédex could record it. "Is anyone keeping track of the route back from here to the shaft we came down?"
"It's just through that door, Ash, even you couldn't get lost going that far," Max said.
"Right, but if we keep going it's going to be further and more confusing," Ash pointed out.
"Ooh, this looks nice," Brock's Eevee said, sniffing a Pikachu statue, and poked it with her paw. "It's probably valuable or something though."
The statue went click, and a boulder slammed down at the end of the corridor before starting to roll towards them.
Ash stepped forwards, golden light blazing in his hand, and used Secret Sword to cut the boulder in half. That stopped it rolling, and it sort of went thud with one half rocking back and forth instead.
"Whoops," Brock's Eevee said, ears going flat. "Sorry."
"I guess this place operates on the same rules as an expensive shop," May decided. "Don't touch it unless you want to be flattened by a giant boulder."
Max gave her a weird look.
"It's more memorable than you-break-it-you-pay," May said, winking, and Max snorted.
"Hello, there!" a voice called. "Oh, is that Ash Ketchum? Scott told me you were coming."
Everyone looked to see, as Brandon strode into the room.
"I'm surprised to see you down here," he said. "Ruins like this can be dangerous."
"Yeah, the road on the way to your Pyramid collapsed under me," Ash agreed. "Latios helped lift us down here, but I guess that means there's another way in?"
Brandon considered that.
"I'll have to get Regirock to sort that out," he decided. "But this is a recently discovered ruin from Pokélantis. It's supposed to have been where the King of Pokélantis trapped Ho-Oh and sealed him away."
The Timer Ball on Ash's belt burst open, and Ho-Oh filled the cramped passageway.
"Incorrect," he said. "Ow. I didn't realize this corridor was so small. Ahem. You are correct that the King of Pokélantis tried to seal me away, but you are incorrect that he was successful."
Brandon rubbed his chin.
"Are you sure?" he asked.
"Am I sure?" Ho-Oh repeated. "Am I sure?"
"Follow me," Brandon asked.
Several minutes later – it would have been much quicker but Ho-Oh had to furl his wings and duck his head and walk awkwardly to get through the passageways – they were in a larger, open room with a gigantic statue and a stone throne at the base of it.
On the throne itself was a small artefact which looked like a Pokéball.
"The legend goes that the King's artificers built the most powerful capture device yet known," Brandon explained. "And that when he tried to use it on Ho-Oh the Rainbow Pokémon fought back, destroying Pokélantis, but was sealed away himself."
"Okay, so, first of all, I did not destroy Pokélantis," Ho-Oh said, now with somewhat greater dignity since he was in a room that actually fit him. "They more or less did that to themselves. Their array of unstable devices was frankly asking for trouble and several of them went terribly wrong at once."
"So if you didn't destroy Pokélantis," Brandon frowned. "Can you prove there isn't a Ho-Oh in here?"
Ho-Oh stared at him.
"What."
"To be fair, Ho-Oh, he's got a point," Ash said. "There is more than one Ho-Oh, right?"
"How many of me do you think there are, exactly?" Ho-Oh demanded.
"Well, I'm not sure," Brandon admitted, tapping a foot. "But I've met at least two trainers who'd caught a Rattata, so it must be possible."
"Oh no there's two of them," Max said softly.
"Right!" Ho-Oh said, jumping into the air and flaring his wings. "I know exactly what will resolve this! That capture device either does or does not contain something, and I have been working on clarifying my Reincarnation technique so it does not cause problems if used on something that has nothing to viably bring back. We are going to get answers to this one way or another!"
Approximately a minute later, they had their answer.
"I hate you," the wispy, white-and-red Zorua declared. "Absolute, unbridled, hatred."
"Well," Ho-Oh decided. "I think that's conclusive. There was not a Ho-Oh in there."
"Thousands of years in the dark waiting, and then you came back right where I wanted you and now I'm like this?" the Zorua snarled.
"Hey," Ash said, sternly. "I know you're from a different cultural background, because you're from thousands of years ago – like Lucario and Xerneas – but it's not nice to insult Pokémon like that."
The Zorua grumbled something unintelligible, then jumped directly at Ash and used Bite.
Ash held up his hand, which now had a Zorua attached to it. "I guess you still need training too, huh? That's not really very strong."
"Murder attack!" Zorua mumbled, still making no impression whatsoever.
"Are you sure this is a good idea, Ash?" Ho-Oh said. "I can't be around all the time to revive you, and nor can… ugh… Xerneas."
"Why would you need to revive me?" Ash asked.
"Ash, he's trying to kill you right now," Pikachu said.
"And Mewtwo was successful, but that was because he hadn't been properly socialized and I don't hold it against him," Ash replied. "Besides, he's trying so hard and it's kind of cute!"
That only made his attacker try harder.
"When I work out how to actually use my amazing powers you're going to be in for it," the Zorua grumbled, about half an hour later.
Brandon had had his Regirock seal off the hole in the ancient complex's roof, then led them out through the entrance he'd taken, and they were now most of the way to the Battle Pyramid.
"Better Pokémon than you have hit Ash with attacks," Pikachu replied. "Seriously. I have a few times. So has Zapdos… and, for the record, Ash was trying to gauge whether she was keeping up with me on the strength of her Thunder attack."
The ghostly Zorua seethed, from where Ash was holding him in the crook of an elbow.
"What's your name?" Ash asked him.
That led to a double-take. "What?"
"Well, you were the King of Pokélantis, right?" Ash said. "I'd say you still were but I don't actually know the legal status of Pokélantis because I'm not good at ancient history, and for you it's the future so I don't think you'd know either. But because I'm no good at ancient history, I don't know your name, and I don't think it was either King or Zorua."
Ash began listing off points on his fingers, which nearly tipped the erstwhile monarch onto the ground until Ash apologized and adjusted his elbow. "So, uh, anyway… one, you probably don't think of yourself as Zorua, and two, I've got a Zorua who I am used to calling Zorua, so it'd just be confusing. I don't know if you want to come with me or not, but most humans won't understand you… it's a bit of a complicated situation, but there are some things I can do which don't actually cause any problems for anyone and make it easier for you."
That led to several seconds of silence. Still lethal silence, but perhaps more of a murder-you-in-your-sleep silence than a stab-as-soon-as-possible silence.
"My name is Aristocles," he said, eventually.
"It's not," Ho-Oh replied, shaking his head.
"Like you would know!" possibly-Aristocles snapped.
"Believe it or not, I actually do know," Ho-Oh replied. "Your name is not Aristocles. Aristocles just means The Most Awesome Person."
Probably-not-Aristocles growled, which got briefly quieter as Ash scratched him behind the ear before becoming much louder. Ash drew his hand away again, and the Zorua huffed out a breath.
"Plato," he answered.
"That author had been around for hundreds of years before you ruled Pokélantis," Brandon replied. "Also, I can read hieroglyphics."
"I thought that this Ash said I could choose a name," not-Plato said, scowling. "The cartouches were a mistake… rmf. Aten."
"Correct," Brandon said.
"This is not a quiz," Aten seethed.
When they got to the Battle Pyramid, Ash was eager for a challenge – and Aten did visibly perk up at the prospect of violence, for a moment at least until he realized that his ears and tail were helping to give his emotions away and started trying to stop them – but Brandon rubbed his chin.
"I don't know if I can give you a good challenge right now, Ash," he said. "There's a couple of Pokémon I want to pick up to make sure that I've got a complete strong team… it should only take a week or two. Would you mind waiting?"
"Uh…" Ash began, frowning. "Actually, it might have to be more than a week or two, if we wait, because the Grand Festival is coming up soon and May's going to be doing that. But I do want a really good challenge, so I don't mind waiting!"
Aten made a strangled noise.
AN:
Yes, I went there.
Aten's name comes directly from Akhenaten, the Pharaoh who attempted to institute henotheism or monotheism in Egypt and was not successful.
The two false names he gives are both names of the original author of the concept of Atlantis, who is known to us as Plato.