"So, just to be sure… Ash, you are battling Brandon this time, right?" Brock asked, over lunch. "I know we're still a day or so away, but if we're going to have to wait another few days then we may as well spend it in a town or something."
"Don't worry, he'll be ready," Ash agreed. "I got a letter about it this morning, it said Brandon was ready tomorrow so he had the letter posted by a Celebi so it'd arrive the day before he posted it."
"I'm slightly scared about the coming battle," Max said. "It's going to be very weird."
He shook his head, then shrugged. "I guess that Ranger was nice, though? He said his Mission was Complete, anyway."
"I should think the mission was complete," Pikachu said. "Manaphy delivered to Samiya, Manaphy also still with his parent… that's the Ketchum solution. Everyone's happy except the villains." May smiled.
"It was nice of him to accept that," she agreed. "I'll make sure not to bother Manaphy too much, but how much is too much?"
"I think it's when he asks you to stop, so long as you've made it clear he can tell you any time he wants," Ash said. "And there was that cool crystal thing that he gave you, too."
May took it out, inspecting it. "Yeah, it's neat… he said he didn't know what it did, except it wasn't an important bit of Samiya."
Then it slipped out of her grasp, hit Eevee squarely on the head, and with a flash the crystal had suddenly vanished and Eevee was faintly glowing.
"Huh," she said. "I feel a bit weird. My paws are all tingly." She inspected them, revealing glowing golden paw-pads. "This is neat, though!"
"What was that?" Ash asked. "Mega Evolution? I guess it can't be, because May doesn't have a Mega Ring."
"I don't feel all that different, though," Eevee said. "Just tingly."
"Hah," Aten scoffed. "What kind of minor enchanted artefact is that? Gold paws and tingly? My artisans would have made you able to knock walls asunder with your bare paws!"
Eevee flicked her tail at Aten, and everyone abruptly discovered that for whatever reason Eevee could hit Aten now.
The Ghost-type flew into the air, to be caught by Ash, and then Aten trembled with annoyance for a moment before sinking into a kind of fluffy vulpine huff.
"So it makes you Scrappy?" Brock wondered.
Ash held up Ibid.
"Analyzing," Ibid said. "Pokémon: Primal Eevee. Ability: Paranormal. Moves ignore all type weakness, resistance and immunity."
"Right, that's it," Max said. "I give up, I'm just going to watch from a distance from now on."
Eevee couldn't actually work out how to change back, but that didn't seem to be a problem, and the next morning they reached the new site of the Battle Pyramid.
Brandon was outside, and waved.
"There you are, Ash!" he said. "That's a fortunate coincidence!"
"Actually, I got a letter from you," Ash replied.
Brandon nodded. "That makes sense… in that case, I'll send it after our battle. Now!"
He gestured them into the Battle Pyramid. "The rules are as follows – both trainers will use six Pokémon. Spectators are allowed, but they should make sure to avoid getting in the way. And if you use yourself in the battle it has to be at the end."
"That's a sensible rule," Pikachu said.
"That's a weird rule, in context," Max added. "Sorry, I know I said just yesterday I was going to go along with stuff, but this isn't necessarily an Ash thing… where did that rule come from? Is it because of Ash?"
"I battled some trainers a few weeks ago," Brandon replied. "They challenged me as a team. Their talking Meowth was surprisingly tough, really, but he was a bit dizzy for the rest of the challenge… so I thought it was just common sense to make sure the rule was in place."
"Huh," Brock mused. "I think we know who they were."
"Yeah, probably," Pikachu agreed. "All right, Ash, got your team ready?"
"I decided last week!" Ash agreed, getting a Pokéball ready. "Can we start?"
Brandon shook his head, until a young man in a shirt and tie came through one of the doors from elsewhere in the pyramid.
"Sorry I'm late," he said. "I'm Samuel, I'm the referee for the Battle Pyramid. Have the trainers chosen their Pokémon?"
"I've chosen my Pokémon, but I guess I should get some spectators," Ash admitted.
Ibid didn't need to be told this time.
Once much of Ash's team had arrived, everything was in place, and Brandon sent out his Pokémon first. It was his Regirock, who settled its stance in the middle of the battlefield, and Ash's own first Pokémon was his Noctowl.
"Interesting!" Brandon said. "Regirock, Rock On!"
Regirock's lights flashed, and a beam of red light hit the air next to Noctowl – or, to be more precise, Noctowl, as his illusion evaporated.
"Shouldn't that be Lock On?" Brock asked, as Noctowl swooped out of the way.
By way of reply, Regirock fired a high-speed rock at Noctowl.
"Grass Shuriken!" Ash called, and Noctowl flicked around in a spin while reaching under his wing. A trio of grassy throwing stars flicked out, shattering the incoming rock, and Brandon stroked his chin.
"Hm," he said. "Keep it up, Regirock!"
"Sacred Sword!" Ash instructed, as Regirock lased Noctowl.
Once again, though, a high-speed rock meant that Noctowl's attempt to line up an attack on Regirock had to be abandoned in favour of protecting himself from the rock.
"Aerial Ace, this time!" Ash said. "Fly out of the way so the rock misses!"
Regirock's third rock whipped out towards where Noctowl was, and Noctowl did a sharp turn to force the rock to miss.
The rock also did a sharp turn, though, hitting Noctowl on the wing.
"Ow!" he said. "I'm doing the courtesy of not being disguised, you'd think he'd have manners!"
"Freezing Glare!" Ash said. "Then use Thunderous Kick!"
"Rock On!" Brandon said again. "Hyper Beam!"
This time, the rock was followed by a much more powerful laser beam than before, and Noctowl dodged crazily to avoid being hit.
"Now, while he's recovering!" Ash said. "Double Iron Bash!"
Noctowl managed to defeat Regirock, eventually, but since it took using Seed Flare and that had involved getting poisoned Noctowl wasn't really up to continuing the battle.
"That's all right, I'll switch out first!" Brandon said, holding out an Ultra Ball, and recalled Regirock. Then Regice came out of the same Ultra Ball.
"Oh, that's neat!" Ash smiled. "That's like Suicune, Entei and Raikou, they share Pokéballs too! It's a Safari Ball instead, though."
"I… actually hadn't realized that," Samuel admitted. "Was that really the same Ultra Ball, boss?"
Brandon nodded. "It works for them," he said.
Ash recalled Noctowl, having Ibid teleport the Pokéball back to Oak Labs to cure the poison, then switched to Bayleef.
"All right, here we go," Bayleef declared. "You have a royal appointment."
Regice went beep.
"Specifically, that appointment is with me," Bayleef added. "It's a sort of pun, you see."
"Sunny Day!" Ash called, as Samuel signalled for the battle to begin. "Charge up your sunlight!"
"Blizzard!" Brandon replied, then watched as the solar energy on Bayleef's hide negated the Ice attack. "Interesting! Hyper Beam!"
"Kinetic dodge!" Ash replied, and Bayleef flicked a vine out to each side. Grasping onto two convenient vineholds, she tugged herself into the air to avoid the attack – then dropped back down, throwing a Weather Ball at Regice and following it up with a Sunsteel Strike.
"I can see I need to try something new!" Brandon said. "Regice! Ancient Power!"
The pyramid trembled slightly, then there was a crash as a large slab of rock came straight up through the floor underneath Bayleef. It was glowing golden with Ancient Power, but this was a little hard to notice because it carried her straight up through the roof.
"Huh," Ash said, as presumably vital bits of Battle Pyramid electronics fell through the hole. "That's one way to get Bayleef out of the battle."
"Actually, she's not out of the battle," Samuel said. "Brandon didn't specify a height restriction on the arena."
"Oh, I see," Ash realized, and thought for a bit. "Uh…"
He brightened. "Is it okay if I use a Pokémon to help me give commands to another Pokémon?"
"So long as that Pokémon isn't battling, I'll allow it," Samuel decided.
"Great!" Ash said. "Hey, Unown, can I get a Hyperspace Hole to wherever Bayleef is?"
A golden hole appeared in mid-air.
"Hmph!" Hoopa said, arms crossed. "Hoopa is disgusted that you would use Hyperspace Holes from someone who is not Hoopa! Besides, Hoopa is bored today."
They pulled their other ear-ring off, and opened a portal.
Air immediately began rushing out.
"Whoa, that looks really high, Bayleef!" Ash shouted over the airstream, seeing his Grass-type on the high-altitude rock. "Use Solar Blade!"
Bayleef sliced the rock in half, and began to fall.
"Sunsteel Strike!" Ash added, at the top of his voice, then Hoopa closed the portal.
"We should probably clear the immediate area," Pikachu suggested.
"I'll allow it," Samuel said.
When Bayleef had finished arriving (a process that didn't take long but was very loud), the Battle Pyramid was sort of opened up like a flower and both Regice and Bayleef were out of the battle.
"Well, that's a shame," Brandon said, once the shrapnel had finished falling. "This probably isn't repairable. I'll have to get a new one… making a flying pyramid is always a pain."
"How do you get it to fly?" Max asked. "I'm not saying it's impossible, we've seen some pretty amazing stuff, I'm just… impressed."
"Oh, the flying part is easy," Brandon said, waving his hand. "But do you have any idea how hard it is to get a genuine pyramid that's historically insignificant enough to install the flying equipment into?"
He held out Regice's Ultra Ball, returned the Ice-type as he walked back onto the now-open-air arena, then a third Pokémon came out of the same Ultraball.
"Regieleki?" Scott said, interested. "I didn't know you'd caught that Pokémon, Brandon."
"I haven't," Brandon replied. "Still, if they're willing to battle that's good enough for me!"
Ash replied by recalling Bayleef and sending out Ho-Oh.
"Use your Thunder Cage move!" Brandon ordered, several minutes into the fight. "Which is a move I assume you know."
Regieleki made a beeping noise, raised its arms, and Ho-Oh was abruptly enveloped in a curtain of lightning that spiked into his wings and body.
Smoke and flame rose up around him, and Ash squinted for a moment then pointed. "Future Sight! Make Regieleki break the attack off!"
Ho-Oh's wings glowed, and Regieleki got blasted into the air before being hammered twice with Fire Blast and once with Extrasensory.
His feathers were wreathed with golden fire, which burned away the scorch marks Regieleki's Thunder Cage had left, and Brandon groaned. "Oh no!"
Regieleki went brzzzzt, then reached into some of the rubble and picked up a rainbow-coloured feather.
Rising upright, it held the feather over its head, and the buzzing from its arms went br-bzzz-b-b-b-b!
Then Ho-Oh set both Regieleki and the feather on fire.
"No thank you," he said. "I'm not interested in getting an earful from my daughter about having accidentally given someone a gender they did not want."
"Again," Suicune called from the audience.
Samuel signalled that Regieleki was knocked out. Brandon tried recalling them, which didn't work, then Registeel came onto the field and picked the KO-ed Regieleki up.
The whole of the Steel-type lit up with electrical energy as it carried its fellow Regi from the field, and Brandon shrugged. "Well, I can see I'm going to have to get creative to battle your Ho-Oh!"
He held up a diferent Pokéball, this time. "Come on out!"
With a flash, a Zekrom materialized on the field.
"Morning," he said, nodding to Ho-Oh.
"This is an unexpected meeting," Ho-Oh agreed. "So is Brandon your Chosen of Ideals, then?"
"No, or at least not right now," Zekrom replied. "More like a Chosen Of Ideally I'd Have Picked Someone Else But Another Zekrom Called Dibs." He shrugged. "Still."
"Samuel, can we begin?" Brandon checked.
"The battle resumes… now!" Samuel replied.
"Bolt Strike!" Brandon ordered immediately.
Zekrom punched Ho-Oh. There was an enormous explosion of electrical energy, one which sent sparks of lightning flying out in all directions, and Ho-Oh was knocked upwards into the air before stabilizing.
"Sacred Fire!" Ash called. "And use Recover!"
Ho-Oh used Sacred Fire, and set himself on fire as well.
"Oh," he said, as Zekrom's turbine whined and the Electric-type evaded Ho-Oh's attack. "This is interesting. I can't actually burn away the damage from that attack."
"That's… probably not good," Ash winced. "In that case, Extrasensory! And keep away from Zekrom!"
AN:
It's called Primal Eeversion.