Ho-Oh did quite well at keeping away from Zekrom, but that was not the same as being successful.
He really was a durable Pokémon, though. Even with Zekrom's Teravolt making it much harder for him to Recover, Ho-Oh still took several hits and dished out at least two Sky Attacks before going down.
"This is going to be a tricky choice," Ash said, recalling Ho-Oh into his Timer Ball. "But I guess… Charizard, it's your turn!"
Charizard emerged from his Pokéball, and Ash held up his Mega Ring – then paused.
"Hey, Charizard," he said. "You remember how we discussed that thing we'd try if we ever got both Charizardites? Let's try it!"
"Fine by me!" Charizard agreed, and Mega Evolved with a flash of orange light.
"Outrage!" Brandon called.
Mega Charizard promptly unMegaEvolved, half-blocked half-parried Zekrom's Outrage attack, and breathed a jet of Dragon Breath at his opponent. Then he used his own Outrage, slamming into Zekrom head-on as the Deep Black Pokémon came in for a second attack run.
"Use Thunder!" Brandon decided.
Charizard reMegaEvolved, shedding his weak Flying type for a resistant Dragon type, and the attack fizzed and crackled over his wings.
"Cool!" he said. "That's really strong! Hey, Pikachu, you might actually have some competition here."
He gripped onto Zekrom's arms, wings beating as he wrestled against the keening power of Zekrom's turbine, and exhaled another cloud of Dragon Breath. "Oh, yeah, cool thing about Zekrom."
"There is?" Zekrom asked. "Is it Kyurem?"
"Nah," Mega Charizard said. "You're not a Flying type, and you don't have Levitate."
He suddenly stopped pushing back against Zekrom, twisting his arms, and began to spin instead.
"Drill Run!" Mega Charizard announced, and took Zekrom on an underground tour of the area.
"So… I have a question," May said, as a panting Charizard delivered Zekrom back onto the surface. "How many tunnels did Charizard just make, underground?"
She looked down at her feet. "Is it potentially dangerous? Because if the ground might fall away underneath us then we should probably know about it."
Charizard thought about it, wings out for balance as he rested his hands on his knees.
"It's probably okay," he said.
"At least you haven't wrecked my temple complex," Aten added.
Charizard snorted, then gratefully returned himself as Ash held out his Pokéball.
"Silver, go!" Ash added, holding out the Psychic-type's Dive Ball.
"Tornadus, I need you!" Brandon replied.
"Oh, that's interesting!" Silver said, as the Therian Tornadus emerged from his Pokéball with a flash of sparks. "I don't think I've met a Tornadus before. Hello, fellow bird type Flying type!"
"Wait, is that Tornadus shiny?" Brock asked. "Shiny Legendaries must be rare, right? ...right?"
"Ash does have one himself, and there's Xerneas too, so… we've actually seen three," Max replied. "Unless I'm forgetting one."
He swallowed. "I'm trying to keep to that promise I made about going along with things, but it's not working."
Samuel called for them to begin, and Tornadus took off in a swirl of wind.
"Hydro shield!" Ash told Silver, prompting the Lugia to exhale a torrent of water, and he caught it with his psychic powers and set it whirling as a defensive screen.
Tornadus hurled an Icy Wind at him on Brandon's orders, then a Smack Down, but both got blocked by the shield.
"Dark Pulse, then!" Brandon said.
"Dive!" Ash replied, and Silver dove into his water shield.
The shield stopped floating, raining down to the floor instead, but more importantly Silver vanished completely – avoiding the attack – before splashing back out of the water pool as it spread out across the floor. His wings hammered the air once and he psionically yanked the water along with him, curling up one wing to hit Tornadus with an Ice Punch, and Brandon pointed.
"Tornadus, use your Light Ball!" he said.
The avian form of Brandon's Shiny Therian Tornadus turned into a Shiny Therian Thundurus, which punched back to retaliate to Silver's second Ice Punch. Then Brandon ordered him to use Discharge, which hit both Silver and his water shield, so Silver swept it around in front to protect himself.
"That's cool!" Ash told Brandon. "So that's how they evolve – it's just like Rayquaza!"
Max's jaw worked for a moment.
"Every single part of that statement is wrong, including the actual events it's describing," he protested.
"Electric Terrain!" Brandon called. "Then switch to your Soft Sand and use Stone Edge!"
"Is it okay if I use this thing I learned back at home?" Silver asked Ash, then used his wing to karate-chop an incoming rock in half.
"Go ahead!" Ash replied.
"Right!" Silver replied, then his eyes lit up.
A kind of glowing aura appeared around him, almost solid with intensity and nearly hiding the little Psychic-type within, with one icy-blue Articuno wing and one black-and-yellow Zapdos wing and the flaming trailing wing edges of Moltres. The tails of all three Legendary Birds swirled behind him, and he beat his wings once before shouting out an attack.
The words "Thunder!", "Fire Spin!" and "Blizzard!" overlapped, each individually just audible enough to make sense of them, and Brandon's Shiny Therian Tornadus was hit by a storm of three full-strength attacks at once.
Then he exploded, which was apparently in fashion because Silver exploded a moment later.
"Where did you learn that?" Ash asked, hauling Silver to his feet. "That was really cool!"
"Oh, well, Articuno, Zapdos and Moltres – not your Articuno and Zapdos, the Shamouti ones – were babysitting me," Silver explained. "And, I think it was Moltres, offered to show me something, but then Articuno and Zapdos got into arguing about who would show me the thing. So they sort of all explained at once and kept arguing about it, but I did my best to copy it all!"
He coughed out a cloud of smoke. "I'm really glad it worked!"
"All right, Ash, it's time for my final Pokémon," Brandon said. "I'd like you to meet my starter Pokémon!"
"That's great, I was already going to use mine!" Ash replied. "Go ahead, Pikachu!"
Pikachu jumped from his shoulder, heading out into the still mostly-intact battlefield (which was probably the most intact bit of the Battle Pyramid at this point), and took a ready stance.
Brandon held up a Pokéball, and sent out a Shaymin.
"Oh, huh," Pikachu said. "That's going to make knowing what's coming a bit easier."
The Shaymin smirked, then transitioned to Sky Form with a flash of light.
"I thought a Shaymin needed Gracidea to do that," Ash said.
"He does," Brandon replied. "He's just got some Gracidea seeds in his spines, and he grows them when he needs to shift!"
"Come on, let's get this battle started!" Shaymin asked, bouncing on his feet, then flicked one of his hind legs up and rubbed it against the back of the other. "We're burning daylight here!"
"Begin!" Samuel said.
"Extremespeed!" Brandon ordered immediately, and Shaymin blurred into a head-on charge. He hit Pikachu on the way past, evading Pikachu's Thunderbolt, then skidded to a stop again on a convenient bit of the arena side wall.
"Come on!" he said. "I was expecting a bit of a run today!"
"Agility, Pikachu!" Ash called. "Catch up to him!"
"Not likely!" Shaymin retorted, and began moving so fast he left a blurred trail of green light behind himself. An Air Slash flicked out, then another from the opposite direction, and they came at Pikachu from either side.
"Shield!" Ash ordered quickly, and Pikachu wrapped himself in the fizzing lightning of a Counter Shield. Most of the attack was deflected away, but not all of it, and Pikachu winced before firing out a Thunder in all directions.
To his surprise, it turned out that "all directions" didn't include where Shaymin was, as the Grass-and-Flying-type dodged away from the attacks before charging into Pikachu to deliver an Energy Ball attack.
"You're too slow!" he taunted, then zipped away again.
"Wow," Aten said, honestly impressed. "I think that's the most annoyed I've seen anyone since ending up as this new body."
"That Shaymin is aggravating me," Shaymintwo admitted. "He's frivolous. Nothing but a faker."
"Pikachu, keep using Agility!" Ash called. "Make sure you're moving as fast as you can to keep up – and don't let go of that shield!"
A portal appeared next to Ash.
"Huh?" Ash asked, glancing to the side. "Oh, Hoopa! Do you want to watch?"
The Mischief Pokémon had their hands on their hips. "Hoopa thinks that Shaymin is familiar…" Hoopa said, frowning.
"Shaymin!" Brandon called. "Get around that shield! Hyperspace Hole!"
A golden ring appeared, and Shaymin jumped out of it – inside Pikachu's Counter Shield. He hit Pikachu with a double kick, then Pikachu retaliated with a Sky Uppercut, and blasted Shaymin with an Electro Ball during the brief period before Shaymin flew out of the way.
"It is him!" Hoopa scowled. "It's that fiend who keeps stealing Hoopa's rings!"
"He does?" Ash said, as Shaymin flicked an Air Slash down at Pikachu before zipping back to ground level.
"...well, collecting Hoopa's rings," Hoopa went on. "Or, if you want to be technical, picking up Hoopa's rings when Hoopa forgets where Hoopa left them."
Hoopa folded Hoopa's arms. "Hoopa still calls foul!"
"Shaymin says: don't litter!" Shaymin announced.
"Earth Power!" Brandon instructed, and Shaymin darted down to ground level to hammer in the Ground-type attack. It hit Pikachu, sending him skidding backwards, and Shaymin smirked.
"That was almost too easy! Now I'm up, over and gone!"
"Pikachu!" Ash called. "He's still too fast for you, so let's change that! Start using Electrowebs!"
"But – oh, right!" Pikachu realized.
His cheeks lit up, and he threw out a tangled knot of electrical energy. Before it hit Shaymin, though, the Grass-type simply jumped into the air and went gliding over the obstacle before firing a barrage of Magical Leaves.
"How do you like my homing attack?" the Grass-type asked.
"Keep using Electroweb!" Ash said. "Let him hit you a couple of times if you have to!"
"Like it's up to you!" Shaymin replied.
"His starter is… I'm still processing that," Brock said. "I wouldn't give up Onix for anything, but… the first Pokémon he had as a trainer is a Legendary Pokémon."
"You know, Ash did say he met Mew first," Max pointed out. "And, technically, I could have Jirachi as my starter."
"So, really, there's nothing unusual about it," May finished. "At least, if you base it on the people we know."
Vulpix giggled.
"Nice try, but you're toooo slow!" Shaymin said, as the latest Electroweb hit behind him. "I'm not falling for your diabolical speed traps!"
"That's okay!" Ash replied. "They weren't for you anyway! Let's go, Pikachu!"
"Wait, what?" Shaymin asked. "That doesn't sound good."
Pikachu smirked, threw down one final Electroweb right next to himself, and jumped on it.
The electrical strands stretched for a moment, then pinged Pikachu across the battlefield at high speed. Shaymin dodged away with a laugh, hitting Pikachu with an Energy Ball on the way past, bu Pikachu simply hit another Electroweb and bounced back faster than he'd been going before.
It took six bounces until Pikachu was moving as fast as he could sprint under full Agility. Two more and he was going as fast as Shaymin.
Three more and he completely lost track of where he was, but by that point he'd wrapped himself in an Electro Ball. Sooner or later, his trajectory inevitably intersected with Shaymin, and there was an absolutely colossal electrically charged bang.
"Shaymin!" Brandon said, after Shaymin had eventually landed. "Are you all right?"
Shaymin pulled himself to his feet, lightning crackling over his ears and scarf, and defiantly faced down Pikachu – who had also landed, and who was visibly having trouble keeping himself upright.
"Meow," Brandon's Pokémon announced, and fell forwards onto his face.
"Ash, that was marvellous," Scott said, as Ash accepted his final Symbol to complete the set. "I'm a little worried about having to replace the Battle Pyramid, but it was marvellous. The kind of battling which really puts a spring in my step."
"Yeah, it was great fun!" Ash agreed. "I can see why Brandon's the last one in the challenge, he's really brought out the best in his Pokémon!"
"I'd like to offer you a position as another Frontier Brain," Scott went on. "I'd like to. But Lance already told me that if you were getting a position associated with Kanto that it'd be an Elite Four member."
"That's okay," Ash replied, with a smile. "I'd rather not be stuck in one place, I've still got plenty of journeying to do!"
Scott nodded, respecting that.
"Also, I had a few concerns about whether the region could survive you and Brandon working closely together for a long period of time, but that's something else," he added, a little more quietly.
AN:
Well, hopefully that should clear a few things up.