Aaand the final part of the saga. Props to anyone who gets the reference in the title, by the way. Enjoy!
Max tore out of the darkened hallway, coming up near Marshtomp, panting heavily as the last divider slammed into place not five feet behind him.
"Marsh?" Marshtomp inquired, looking at Max in surprise.
"Max? What are you doing here?" Brock asked, running over to him, just as Houndoom and Quilava delivered their devastating double Overheat attack.
"Th-they told me to come back...but..." Max began, still breathing heavily. "I think Ash and May are still trapped in there!"
"What?" Brock exclaimed, shifting his gaze to the blocked hallway before him.
"No! NO!" Nate roared angrily, recalling his defeated Ditto-Regice. "This isn't going to happen again!"
Will merely grunted, calling back his Ninjask angrily.
"So, what now, you two?" Trey challenged. "You gonna try some more of your Pokemon? Or call it quits while you're still ahead?"
"Shut up!" Will snapped back.
"Very nice." Trey remarked dryly.
"Come on, let's get out of here!" Nate roared, gesturing for Will to follow him.
"Where exactly were you planning on going?" Brock cut in. "The hallways have all been sealed off."
Nate and Will glanced around the stadium angrily, clenching their fists. "D-damn it!"
"Whoa, cool down." Trey said, bringing his hands up in defense. He then turned to Lily. "You want to do the honors?"
"Sure." Lily replied, giggling to herself as she tossed another of her Pokeballs. "Butterfree, give me a hand!"
"Freeee!" Butterfree chimed, emerging in a flash of light next to Quilava.
"Butterfree, hit 'em with Sleep Powder!"
"Freeeee!" Butterfree answered, proceeding to soar over the heads of Nate and Will, loosing a grainy blue powder onto them in the process.
"Hey - what the - !" Will grunted angrily, vainly attempting to escape the spray of powder before falling to the ground, along with Nate, both suddenly in a deep sleep.
"Haha! Nice work, Butterfree!" Lily praised as her Butterfly Pokemon floated back to her side. "Quilava, good battling out there! Return!"
"Yeah, you too, Houndoom. Nice job." Trey added, recalling his Pokemon as well.
"So...what are we supposed to do now?" Brock asked, approaching the two trainers now that their battle was over.
"We've got to go help Ash and May! And I think Brandon's in trouble, too!" Max urged.
"Huh? What happened?" Lily asked, looking at Max in confusion.
"They got trapped in the hallway with those big dividers!" Max explained quickly, pointing back to the large metal sheet now obstructing the hallway.
"What about Brandon?" Brock asked.
"He ran ahead, past the dividers! I don't know where he is now!"
"Well...okay. Someone should stay behind and keep an eye on these two." Trey began, gesturing to the limp forms of Nate and Will across the room.
Brock nodded. "Yeah, I agree. Uh...not to...well, you know, but I think it should be Lily. She's the only one who can put them back asleep if they happen to wake up."
Trey nodded slowly. "Yeah...you're right."
Lily merely shrugged when she saw the consensus, grinning as usual. "Well, okay. If I have to!"
"And...I think Max should stay behind as well. Who knows what's going on with Brandon right now?" Brock reasoned, looking to his younger companion. "You okay with that, Max?"
"Yeah. I guess." Max answered halfheartedly. "Just...bring my sister back okay, all right?"
"You can count on it." Brock assured him, grinning.
Trey looked to him, smirking. "So. Looks like that leaves us."
"Yeah."
He held Brock's gaze for a moment, then turned to Lily. The two shared a quick embrace and exchanged a few words of comfort, then Trey walked over to Brock, facing the blocked hallway.
"You ready?"
"All right - what's going on here!" Brandon boomed, storming into the control room.
The room was empty on the side nearest the door, but the other side housed three large computer consoles, two facing each other on oppositer walls, and one directly across from Brandon. Each had about half a dozen or so men stationed at it, but something was wrong. Only one of the workers turned to face Brandon. The others merely lay in their chairs, their bodies slumped over onto the controls.
"Well, hello there, Pyramid King."
Brandon was surprised at what he saw, to say the least. "What's going on here? Who initiated the lockdown procedure?"
"Oh, yes, that. That would be me." The man's voice was rather flat and emotionless, and he was dressed in the same simple garb as everyone else manning the consoles.
"You - what? Why would you - ?"
"Well, you see, I was thinking about those men's plan while we were sitting in here, waiting patiently for your command, when I realized...you know, you really don't pay well enough."
Brandon was aghast at the man's words. "What? What does that have to do with anything?"
"Well, in one way or another, those two were doing all this for money. I figure that there may be some credence to their idea - though, their execution was terribly flawed." The man spoke, not moving from his spot. "Unfortunately...not everyone here thought as I did. One even managed to disengage the lockdown I initiated for a short while."
"You never answered me! Why would you - ?"
"Oh, the lockdown?" The man finished for him, chuckling. "Simple. It was merely to keep you away. But I can see how well that worked out. Oh well."
"So what are you doing exactly?" Brandon demanded.
"Well, the way I see it, the easiest way to make a good portion of money would be the sale of certain legendary Pokemon." The man explained, holding a hand out with three miniaturized Pokeballs in it.
Brandon realized what three Pokemon were inside them almost instantly. "No! You give me those back! NOW!"
Brandon's brief advance was quickly stopped, however, when the man produced a pistol in his free hand and trained it on Brandon's forehead.
"Now, now. Don't make me do this." The man said, putting the three Pokeballs back into his pocket. "But, then again, it may not make a difference, anyway."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"Oh, don't worry. I'm sure you'll find out soon."
"All right, Crawdaunt, use Guillotine again!" Trey called out, causing Ash and May to leap back in surprise, as well as Pikachu. Before their eyes, the metal barrier blocked their passage back to the arena was sliced in half, and on the other side of the rubble stood Brock and Trey, with Marshtomp and Crawdaunt beside them, respectively.
Brock blinked, looking at the two strangely. He could've sworn that he saw Ash and May embracing on the floor before they jumped away. "Uh...hey, guys."
"Brock!" Ash exclaimed gratefully. "Trey!"
"Pika!" Pikachu added happily.
"What's going on out there?" May asked, eyeing Trey's Crawdaunt strangely after seeing it slice the divider clean in half.
"We took care of Nate and Will. Your brother's back there with Lily, but he said that you guys needed help." Trey explained.
Ash and May glanced at each other, grinning. "All right!" May remarked happily.
"Way to go, Max!" Ash added.
"I still think it's amazing that your Crawdaunt can use Guillotine so effectively." Brock remarked, glancing admiringly at Trey's Pokemon.
"Heh, thanks. We've been partners for a while now, so I guess he's gotten pretty powerful in that time."
"Craw." Crawdaunt mumbled humbly.
"Well, come on, you guys." Trey said, gesturing to Ash and May, the latter of which now had Pikachu perched on his shoulder again. "We're going to help out Brandon, whatever he's doing back there."
Ash nodded, then glanced to May. Both of them nodded at once, and each tossed one Pokeball. "Let's go, Grovyle!"
"Combusken, go!"
"Grooo!"
"Com-busken!"
Ash glanced back at Brock and Trey confidently. "Thanks, guys. Let us take it from here. Grovyle, use Leaf Blade!"
"Grooo-vyle!" Grovyle cried, charging forward at the steel barrier and slicing it cleanly in two, similar to Crawdaunt.
"Wow. Guess it's my turn to be impressed." Trey commented, eyeing Grovyle enviously.
"Heh, thanks." Ash replied humbly, the group stepping forward over the remains of the divider.
"Combusken, use Mega Kick, go!"
"Coooom-busken!" Combusken boomed, jumping forward at the next metal sheet and slamming into it with a glowing foot, knocking it over on its back.
"All right! Combusken's doing great!" Ash praised, cheering on May's Pokemon heartily.
"Not as good as Grovyle!" May shot back jokingly, the two trainers grinned at each other.
Brock noticed this as well, and continued to watch the two closely as their Pokemon continued to advance down the hallway.
Before they knew it, the four had arrived at the door to the control room. They took a moment to catch their breath, and then opened the door and stepped inside, along with their Pokemon.
"Oh, who do we have here?" The defected worker said, glancing over Brandon's shoulder at the four.
"Huh? You made it through the hallway?" Brandon questioned incredulously.
"Yeah, and good thing, too!" Ash exclaimed, glaring at the worker defiantly, noticing the pistol pointed at Brandon. "What's going on here?"
"Oh, it would have been so much easier if you had just stayed away..." The worker groaned pleasantly. "Oh well."
"What are you talking about?" Brandon demanded again, growing impatient, but not stupid enough to move with a gun trained on him.
May glanced at the man, noticing his outstretched hand with the gun in it. She slowly glanced to Combusken, then to the man again. Combusken nodded in understanding before glaring defiantly back at the man.
"Go, Combusken! Now!" May cried suddenly.
"Hm?" The man grunted.
"COOOM-BUUUUSKEN!" Combusken roared, streaking across the room and attempting a Sky Uppercut on the man, intending to knock the gun from his hands.
But the man noticed all too soon, and instead turned and fired at Combusken.
"Combusken!" May cried.
Combusken narrowly dodged the shot, but was forced to fall back to May. However, the worker seemed not to care about this, and instead pointed the gun at May next.
"What - !" Ash choked out.
"Agh - !" Brock grunted, both of them glanced to May as if in slow motion.
The man fired, a smirk on his face. But Combusken had already leaped in front of her, but Ash had leaped in front of it. The bullet connected, driving through Ash's clothes like paper and wedging itself firmly in the muscle tissue of his right shoulder.
"ASH!" May cried out at once as Ash fell to his knees, clutching his shoulder. Combusken looked devastated as well, staring at Ash with a strange look in its eyes.
Brock, Trey, and Brandon merely glared at the man, grunting angrily under their breath as he retreated back to the console behind him. "It seems we've come to a disagreement. I suppose it's time to leave, then."
With that, he mashed a button on the console, smirked at the group, and swiftly dived out of a previously unseen door in the wall behind the control panel.
Brandon ran over to the control panel at once as Brock and Trey recalled their Pokemon and went to Ash's side.
"Pika pika!" Pikachu cried affectionately.
"Grooo...vyle..." Grovyle chirped sadly, both Pokemon staring at their wounded trainer.
"Ash, are you okay?" Brock asked hurriedly.
"I..." Ash choked, still clutching his bleeding shoulder. "I don't know..."
"Agh!" Brandon bellowed in anger from across the room. "He's engaged the self-destruct system!"
Trey glanced at him in shock. "He what?"
"Come on!" Brandon boomed, running across the room at full speed, gesturing to them as he did so. "We've got to get out of here, NOW!"
"Self-destruct counter initiated. Battle Pyramid will self-destruct in sixty seconds."
Max and Lily shot their gazes skyward in horror as the computer announced this over the speakers.
"What'd it say?" Max asked worriedly.
"That's not good..." Lily said darkly. "Butterfree, return!"
Just then, the group came charging out of the side hallway, all of their Pokemon recalled sans Pikachu, who was running on the ground due to the fact that Ash was presently slumped over Brock's shoulders.
"Come on!" Brandon bellowed. "We've got to move!"
Max and Lily's eyes widened when they saw Ash's wound. "What happened - ?"
May ran over to him. "Come on, Max, there's no time!"
Trey slowly turned to Will and Nate's limp bodies across the room as everyone began to head for the exit corridor. They were still asleep, and if left here, would surely die.
"Hey! What's the matter! You want to go down with this place?" Brandon demanded angrily.
"Hold on!" Trey called, rushing over to Will.
"What the - !" Brandon roared, but Lily ran over as well.
He glanced at her for a moment and smiled. Together, they managed to boost Will up over their shoulders. They looked to Nate for a moment, but then decided against it and ran back to the others.
"Are you finished? Come on!" Brandon insisted.
"Battle Pyramid will self-destruct in thirty seconds."
The group hurried down the exit corridor, pieces of the structure already beginning to collapse down around them. Brandon was leading, with Brock behind him, holding Ash up over his shoulders. May and May followed behind him, respectively, and Trey and Lily brought up the rear, struggling to carry Will between the two of them.
"Battle Pyramid will self-destruct in fifteen seconds."
Just then, a light came into view at the end of the hallway.
"There!" Brandon declared.
"The exit!" Max cried hopefully.
"Pika!" Pikachu added.
As they drew closer to the door, the voice over the speaker became riddled with static as it broadcast again, the tone and pitch changing wildly as well.
"Battle PyraMID will SELF-destrUCT in ten SEConds."
They drew up to the giant exit door. After stepping outside, they began to dive into the water one by one, swimming away from the facility as fast as they could.
"Five...four...THREE...tWO...ONE..."
With that last word, the facility blew itself apart from the inside-out in a spectacular flurry of fire, smoke, and metal. The sound was deafening, causing almost everyone in the water to recoil from hearing it, and the sheer force of the blast carried them almost all the way back to Cinnabar Island through the water.
Once they had all managed to get up onto the ground at the edge of the island, as well as the city, they took to treating Ash immediately. Brock unloaded him from his shoulders and laid him flat on the ground, and began to examine the wound.
As he did so, Trey and Lily unloaded Will from their arms as well, lowering him onto the ground.
"So...?" Lily asked softly, looking to Trey.
He looked back at her defiantly. "Just leave him there. We helped him way too much already by just getting him out of there."
Brandon was merely standing on the edge of the island, staring out at the burning remains of his once-great facility, his face hidden from the others.
May, Max, and Pikachu were all looking over Brock shoulders sadly as he examined Ash's condition.
Ash looked up at May, barely conscious at this point, his eyes hazy and glossed over. "Are...you okay...?"
Tears welled up in May's eyes, but she refused to let them out this time. She smiled back at him sadly. "Yes. I'm fine..."
Ash mustered up a smile. "That's...good..."
And with that, his head fell back against the stone ground underneath him. Unconscious.
Please R&R!