After about four hours' sailing Ash and Jessie were chomping at the bit, bored of having nothing to do except look at a never-ending expanse of blue to pass the time, so they were glad when an announcement rang out that in another hour they would be pulling into port. They were somewhat put out by the fact that it wasn't the Hoenn Region that they were stopping at, but a smallish island in the Rosaspian Archipelago, a small chain of islands between the Kanto and Hoenn Regions. When the ship pulled in Ash tried to return Riolu and Deino to their pokéballs, and he didn't have any issues with Deino, but Riolu repeatedly dodged the beam from the pokéball. After the third attempt Ash gave up and just stowed Riolu's pokéball away on his belt. When that was done they, along with almost every other passenger, disembarked, given six hours before the ship was resupplied, and walked about the port town with tags d-clipped onto their belts so that they could get back on the boat without any problems.
When they were down on the ground, Ash looked at Jessie and asked, "So, what do you want to do?" not really knowing anything about the island.
Jessie said, "Well, there's the island's Cultural Museum."
"A museum?" Ash sighed. "Of course there is."
"Well, you asked," Jessie said.
Ash shrugged and said, "Sure. Why not? Lead the way."
Jessie led Ash to the base of the mountain that the museum was in front of. They went in and paid P500 each. They made their way through. Ash didn't really pay too much attention to the exhibits, more concerned with getting Jessie through as quickly as possible, which didn't happen. That was until they came across a massive rock relief that had been extracted from somewhere that had images and writing all over it, when he asked, "What is all this?" feeling a strange sense of déjà vu.
Jessie said, "It's called the…Pokémopolitan Inscription. According to this placard it tells the story of the people of Pokémopolis' last days."
"No," Ash said, "that's not it."
"What?!" Jessie exclaimed, stunned by what her friend was saying, "What do you mean? That's what the card says it is."
"They misinterpreted it. It's the tale of the last days of the Guardians of Pokélantis."
"What? Why do you think that?"
"I don't know how, but I can read what it says."
"You can…then what do you think it says?"
"It says…in the last days of the war against the Eastern Lords, the Pokélantis Guardians sealed away their civilisation's sky god in order to prevent their country's leaders from attempting to use its power, which they believed would have destroyed the world."
"They 'sealed' a god?!" Jessie exclaimed. "How did they do that? Wait. Where. No…forget all that, we have to tell someone!"
"I don't know Jess, if it really can destroy the world, then maybe it should stay sealed."
Just then, someone stranding nearby, said, "That's an interesting story kid, but your translation is a bit off there."
"Oh," Ash said, "and just who are you exactly?"
"Me? I'm the one that translated that inscription."
"Well, sorry, but you messed up."
"I assure you, I didn't. That there," the man said, nodding at the façade, "is only one part of the inscription. It had multiple translations below it when it was cut out of the mountainside. Now, not to brag or anything, but I am the foremost expert on ancient languages, so if I say that's what it says, you can be certain that that is what it says."
"Uhh…no it's not."
"Okay. Let's try it this way…" the man said, thinking, 'This'll put the brat in his place.' "…why do you think that my translation is wrong?"
"Well…because it is?" Ash said, not knowing what the man wanted him to say.
The man sighed and said, "Well that's not going to convince anyone, boy. I told you that it was recorded in other languages as well. Both languages contained the same thing. The thing with translating between languages is if there are three different texts next to each other and two of them translate to the same thing, then it can be extrapolated that the third shall mean the same. Inscriptions like this one were used all the time by ancient civilisations to pass on their history and culture to the future."
Ash said, "Extrapa-what now?"
The man smiled indulgently and said, "Extrapolated. It means that it can be taken as, or inferred."
"Infra-red?"
The man almost fell over. He said, "No. not infra-red. Inferred. In this case, it means that based on other evidence, meaning can be found in something else, like this inscription."
"Oh. I see. Well then, sorry, but that still sounds a lot like a guess to me."
The man's face contorted as he thought, 'Damn this brat! He's…'
Jessie started laughing when she saw the man's reactions to what her friend was doing. She said, "Sorry, but my friend sometimes…lets his mouth run without thinking."
The man covered his mouth with his fist as he coughed and said, "Well, be that as it may. I would like it if you wouldn't go around telling anybody else this theory of yours."
"Why not?" Ash asked.
"Well, it would likely draw attention to your families that your parents wouldn't like."
"Well…I hate to tell you, but my mother was a pretty well-known pokémon trainer back in the day, and my dad…well…suffice it to say that he can handle himself."
The man sighed and pointedly said, "Nevertheless…" anger starting to creep into his voice, unaccustomed to children challenging his translations, which were widely accepted as being correct. "Besides. There's no mention of 'Eastern Lords', Pokélantis is the only civilisation mentioned in the text."
"You're right," Ash said.
"So you do accept my translation."
"I accept most of it, yes. But the things that you've missed aren't in the text."
"What are you talking about? I didn't miss a thing."
"Well, you did. It's that crest in the corner."
"The crest? What are you talking about?"
"You see that blue dragon there, in amongst the mountains?" pointing to the top right hand corner.
The man said, "No. what are you talking about? There's nothing there."
"Sure there is. It's right there." Ash said, pointing at a mountain range on the rock.
"I assure you young man. There's nothing there."
"Sure there is, isn't there Jessie?"
"Uhh…sorry Ash, but there really isn't anything there," Jessie said. She was uncomfortable about disagreeing with her friend as she had never known him to straight up lie before.
"Sure there, it's right there," Ash said, pointing animatedly at the spot. "It's clear as day."
The man sighed and said, "Well, this was a waste of my…" Before he finished talking he thought, 'Wait. If 'that legend' is true then the Guardians of Pokélantis had powers that had never been seen before, or since. If that's the case, then the kid might be right. After all, it's not exactly unheard of for people to try and preserve things by making them in a different style and hiding information that they'd rather kept secret in amongst other info. Those damned Pokélantans they did manage it! Wait! Then how can this kid…' The man frowned as he looked at Ash and looked him over. He thought, 'If you change the black jacket, and put a hat on him, then I'd say that he looks like one of 'them',' looking back to the inscription. 'Hmm…' He said, "Well, all that aside, I've never seen either of you here before. Did you come in on the boat?"
"Yeah," Jessie said, "we're on our way to the Hoenn Region."
"The Hoenn Region you say?"
"Yeah, why? Is there something wrong with that?"
"Oh, no. Nothing like that. It's just that my grandson is heading there today too."
"Really?"
"Yeah. He's only a little older than you two, but he's already got his Masters in Archaeology. He's going to study some ruins near Oldale Town with Professor Alden."
"Really? Maybe we'll see him on the boat then."
"I would imagine so. His name's Avery Leverton."
Jessie said, "Avery, got it. How will we know him?"
"Oh, trust me, you won't miss him."
"Well, if you say so," Jessie said, grabbing Ash's hand, seeing the 'I want to continue this argument to the end' face that had always gotten him into strife with Gary. She pulled Ash away from the inscription, not wanting to waste any more time than they already had.
It seemed like no time at all when Ash and Jessie left the museum, but, to their surprise, it was almost time for them to be back at the boat, so they ran back as fast as they could, reaching it just as they were about to pull up the ramp. They went through the check-station and were let on with no complaints. When the boat was underway again, an announcement rang throughout the ship, advertising a Shipboard Pokémon Competition that was enterable by all trainers. Ash and Jessie were amongst the first to register for it.