"Wow, that's weird," Brock said, as they topped a rise. "That's got to be the Battle Pyramid."
"Weird?" Max asked. "How come?"
"It's because I grew up here," Brock explained. "Around Pewter, I mean. And, sure, it wasn't the same every day, but a lot of it was more or less unchanged, and – now there's a giant pyramid there!"
Ash considered.
"It'd be less weird if you saw it being built, right?" he asked. "No, wait, landing, because it flies. It'd be less weird if you saw it land?"
"I… think so," Brock concurred. "Yes. It's like how remodelling the gym would have been a lot less surprising if I'd seen it happen."
He turned back towards Pewter itself. "Right, Mom?"
May laughed.
"Come on, guys," Ash prompted. "I don't know what Pokémon Brandon has, but I'm really interested in finding out!"
"I'm interested in seeing how the battle goes too," Pikachu said. "And, well, not just seeing how it goes."
"True," Ash agreed. "And since we know where the Battle Pyramid is, let's go!"
He took the lead, and the others had to hurry to keep up, then Ash noticed and slowed down a little.
"Sorry," he said, wincing.
"No big deal," May replied. "Though, huh… if you do win, Ash, you're sticking around for long enough to watch the Grand Festival, right?"
"Yeah!" Ash agreed. "I want to see how you and your Pokémon do!"
He sighed. "Speaking of which… I don't really know where I'm going after doing the Battle Frontier, yet. But I guess we're not travelling together forever, right?"
"Probably not," Max agreed. "Still, we don't have to say goodbye just yet."
Then Ash stopped, looking confused, and May ran into the back of his ring.
"Ow!"
"Sorry," Ash said. "I was just confused… the ground here felt weird."
There was a slight tremble, then the ground gave way underneath them.
Latias yelped, darting down to catch the nearest person (which turned out to be Brock), and Koraidon grabbed May. Max's Altaria came out of her Pokéball in a flash of light and snagged his shirt, slowing him down enough that he didn't hit the ground too hard, and a moment later May landed after Koraidon's wings had slowed them both down enough.
Ash just hit the ground with a whud, all four hooves ending up in little craters, and shook himself out.
"What just happened?" he asked.
"Are you all right?" Koraidon asked May.
"Is anyone hurt?" Ash added, looking around and counting off his friends.
May nodded. "Just shaken," she said, then spotted a brown shape, and caught Eevee as he scrambled down into the hole to check on her.
"I'm fine," Koraidon reported. "Zorua?"
Zorua twitched his tail. "Okay," he said. "What happened?"
"I'm all right," Max reported. "The ground collapsed… that's not normal, right?"
"No, it's not," Brock agreed, as Latias gently lowered him into the hole. "Sometimes sinkholes form, but that's mostly on limestone and that's not what the rock is around here."
"Then… does anyone know Flash?" Max asked.
"Hang on a moment," Ash requested, then used Dazzling Gleam but without actually being Dazzling.
It was useless as an attack, but it did make his ring glow a soft silvery-pink colour, and that was good enough for now.
"Whoa," Max gasped. "Look!"
"Those are an ancient writing system," Brock said. "I can't read it… but that must mean this is some kind of buried building. Not a natural cave at all."
"Uh," Ash said, leaning forwards. "In the thirteenth year of the king's reign, the foreign countries made conspiracy in their lands, and caused devastation upon the world wherever they struck. They took the peoples, the tools, the maiju, they left nothing for the king or his people, and they crossed into his lands… there's all kinds of stuff like that, it goes on and on."
"You can read it?" Pikachu asked. "Wait, silly question, so far you've understood basically every kind of communication we've come across."
Ash nodded, then saw Brock frowning. "What is it, Brock?"
"I'm thinking," Brock explained. "This sounds a lot like the king they're talking about thinks a lot of himself… it's one thing to be able to read this, but don't forget, Ash, not everything you read is true."
"Yeah, good point," Ash conceded. "Still, this is amazing, I wonder who built it?"
"If it's talking about a king, I guess the people who the king ruled built it," Latias suggested. "But we don't know who it was, right?"
"...actually," Ash said. "Now I think about it, didn't Scott say that Brandon was an archaeologist? I guess now we know why he landed near Pewter City."
The friends were torn between exploring more of the buried building and going back up out the hole, an issue that was complicated further by how they didn't know if Brandon was expecting them today specifically.
"It's not like he can sit around in the Pyramid for a week, or until Ash turns up, right?" Max said. "Maybe that's how Gym Leaders do it…"
He glanced at Brock, who looked offended.
"...but I'm not even convinced about that," Max went on. "And if he's an archaeologist, maybe he's actually down here."
"He could be," Brock replied. "Or he could be at the Battle Pyramid. We don't really know at this point."
"Well… what about if we have a look?" Ash suggested. "Maybe he is down here, maybe he isn't, but even if he isn't then we've probably found something new. So long as we don't get lost, at least."
"Now I'm nervous about this plan," Latias said, which made Koraidon try not to laugh.
Max rummaged in his pockets, then brought out the Pokénav. "It's okay," he said. "I'll just record our route with this! That way we can retrace our steps."
"Sounds like we're going exploring," Brock said. "But watch out for other places that might be unstable… actually, that reminds me."
He took out Crobat's Pokéball, sending her out with a flash of light. "Can you try and make a map of this place?"
"Sure!" she agreed, bobbing in mid-air, then flew off down one of the corridors with her Supersonic clicking.
"I guess we're waiting here while she explores, then," Max said.
Crobat came back only a couple of minutes later, flipping up to hang from the ceiling.
"I met a trainer," she said. "He had Pokéballs, anyway, and that's usually a good clue. But he asked how I got in, and I turned around to lead him back."
"Crobat's leading someone here because they're a trainer," Ash passed on. "So, I guess we're about to have company!"
He stepped into the darkened corridor, trotting a little way along to the first corner Crobat had taken, then spotted a light in the distance.
"...huh," he added. "I guess this place has been explored, or it has lights in it anyway."
He looked back at his still-glowing ring. "Maybe that's a downside of making your own light, you don't notice those things…"
"I don't think that's a very good lesson," Pikachu sniggered.
"Excuse me?" someone called, from the direction of the lights. "Are you there?"
"Yeah!" Ash called back. "You're looking for Crobat's trainer, right? He's over here with the rest of us!"
The man who'd spoken turned the corner, stopped for a moment at the sight of Ash, then chuckled.
"You know, my Battle Pyramid is actually above ground," he said.
"Oh, so that's Brandon," Pikachu realized.
"You're Brandon?" Ash asked. "Huh, I guess that's one way to answer that question. We, well, the road collapsed and now we're down here, so… we were wondering if you were down here or not. And I guess now we know!"
"You do indeed," Brandon said, looking concerned. "The road collapsed?"
He looked up at the ceiling for a moment, muttering to himself. "Well… hmm, that might mean a geophysics survey is needed. Or to make sure we don't use Earthquake moves during any battle we have."
"What is this place, anyway?" Max said, coming along the corridor as well. "We don't know much about it, but if the Battle Pyramid is here I guess you must know something."
Brandon nodded in agreement. "Yes, I do," he said. "This is an ancient ruin from the time of Pokélantis… though the name was more of an aspiration than anything else. Pokélantis was the site of a great tragedy."
By now everyone else had crowded into the corridor to listen, and Brandon kept going. "The King of Pokélantis was so full of hubris that he sought to contain even the most powerful Pokémon he could find, and ultimately tried to rule the world by controlling Ho-Oh."
"Ho-Oh," Brock repeated. "Ash, didn't you-"
"Yeah, I met Ho-Oh," Ash agreed. "More than once, though only once since I turned out to be a Pokémon, and really that's the only time we actually… met, met."
"Fascinating," Brandon admitted, then kept going. "According to the stories, the King ordered his artificers to build a device capable of capturing Ho-Oh – it was before Pokéballs were invented – and in retaliation Ho-Oh destroyed the whole kingdom, then was captured by the King in his newly made stone Pokéball in revenge. He had this tomb constructed to seal the Legendary away from the world forever."
Ash was taken aback.
"Then… that means that Ho-Oh has been stuck down here for hundreds or thousands of years?" he asked. "That's terrible! We should try and find them and set them free right away!"
"The tomb hasn't been fully mapped," Brandon warned.
"Yeah, but-" Ash began, hotly, then cut himself off.
He shook his head. "I… it doesn't feel right, to not help as soon as I can."
"I understand, Ash," Brandon said. "But this is a large tomb, and I have no way of telling where the important places are… or where the traps are."
Ash frowned. "Important places…"
"What kind of traps?" Pikachu asked.
"Good point," Ash agreed. "What kind of traps?"
"There's a reason I have Regirock with me," Brandon replied. "They mostly rely on rolling boulders. But keep an eye out."
"And… hey, have you tried the King's Chamber yet?" Ash asked.
Brandon looked nonplussed. "The… what?"
"The King's Chamber," Ash replied, waving a hoof at the wall. "There's a map here. We're here, this says main corridor, that says King's Chamber…"
"Ash can understand anything," Max said. "...no, correction. Ash can read and translate anything, understanding's still a question mark."
"Hey!"
"How can you comprehend any language, actually?" Brandon asked, as they headed down a corridor towards the King's Chamber. "Is that something to do with what Pokémon you are?"
"It… could be," Ash said. "This all got started with a magic potion that was meant to let me understand Pokémon, but maybe that was just a coincidence."
He frowned. "So far I've understood Pokémon speech, normal human language obviously, ancient human languages, and when Deoxys communicate in auroras. I can't remember running into a kind of way of speaking or writing that I couldn't read, or a way of speaking that I can't understand. After transforming, at least."
He twitched his shoulders, in a quadrupedal shrug. "I guess maybe I could have done, but I didn't recognize it as that at all."
"A good point," Brandon admitted. "Ah, this looks like the door."
Ash went through first, with Latias alongside him, and the door promptly closed with a wham as flaming torches sprang to life.
"Huh?" he asked, turning. "That's weird…"
"Yeah!" Latias agreed.
Ash looked around, to see if there were instructions, and saw walls covered with hieroglyphics along with a massive statue of a seated human. The statue's huge staff looked familiar for a moment, until Ash realized that it didn't look much like Sir Aaron's staff at all, and there was a human-sized throne between the feet of the statue.
"Huh," Ash said, then read through the things on the walls. "Uh… okay, it's all about revenge on Ho-Oh I guess… and there's an orb on that throne over there which smells weird. Sick."
"It looks a bit like a Pokéball," Pikachu pointed out. "A bit, anyway."
"Oh, yeah," Ash agreed. "I guess that's probably where Ho-Oh is trapped… but we should get the door open first, because otherwise releasing Ho-Oh would just mean they were trapped in a bigger underground space, right?"
"That's true," Pikachu said. "I'd hate to be trapped in a Pokéball for an hour, let along centuries… and being let out into a bigger space would help, but not much compared to knowing I could leave completely."
Ash considered the door, then it went crunch from the outside as Koraidon used Rock Smash. Rocks tumbled across the floor, and the Fighting-type stepped through before brushing some of them aside awkwardly with a paw.
"I was trying to work out the mechanism to open it," Brandon said, mildly.
"Yeah, but Dad might have been in trouble!" Koraidon said. "You're not in trouble, are you?"
"I'm okay, Koraidon," Ash assured her. "But we're pretty sure we found the thing Ho-Oh was sealed into."
He pointed, and Brandon whistled slightly.
"That's quite a find," he said. "It looks like the King of Pokélantis certainly thought highly of himself."
"Now, let's rescue Ho-Oh," Ash declared, trotting ahead, and picked up the orb with a forehoof. "How do you make this open…"
Then it began to glow.
Ash staggered for a moment, suddenly feeling weaker and heavier, then there was a sort of dark flash.
"Ash, are you okay?" Brock asked, as the swirl of purple light died away. "What happened?"
"Ash," Ash repeated. "A peculiar name… I'll have to decide whether or not to keep it."
"Laa-tias!" Latias said. "Tii-as!"
Max frowned. "Latias is right," he said. "That's not Ash."
"Perceptive boy," said the spirit in Ash's body. "I am-"
"Not a Pokémon," Max interrupted. "You said it was me who worked it out, not Latias, but Latias is the one who said it first. You can't understand Pokémon… which means you're not Ho-Oh."
"Ho-Oh!" the spirit said, stamping Ash's hoof hard enough to make the flagstone splinter. "That beast destroyed my kingdom, and forced me to retreat into the capture orb before the time had come."
Then he chuckled. "You thought Ho-Oh was trapped in here? Amusing… and if that's how I have gained this body, then it's fortunate."
"Raaai-don," Koraidon swallowed.
"You're the King of Pokéatlantis," Brandon said, partly just to make sure it had been said. "And you've possessed Ash."
"Pika-kaa-chuu!" Pikachu declared. "Chuu-ka-Pikapi!"
The King shrugged Ash's body convulsively, knocking Pikachu loose, and kicked out at him to knock him away. Pikachu bounced once, slid to a halt and his cheeks sparked.
"I wouldn't," the King said, contemptuously. "He's still here, you know… whatever Pokémon this body is, Ash is still in here. The capture mechanisms worked to suppress most of his power and let me take over, though they didn't give me his knowledge… I demand to know what Pokémon he is and what he can do."
"Chu!" Pikachu retorted.
"Zo-ru," Zorua added.
"We're not telling you anything," May said. "I'd tell you you had to let Ash go before we'd say that, but Ash wouldn't want us to do that, so we'll never tell you!"
"You seem to miss who has the bargaining position here," the King said, with a careless toss of Ash's head, and brought a hoof up to Ash's chest. "Like I say, Ash is still in here… but I don't need this body. I can find another one. And it's up to you if I leave this body healthy… or not."
"Pika-ka-kachu," Pikachu said. "Pika-piii-"
The King raised Ash's hoof. "No planning," he said. "A simple bargain… I'm dismayed by this body's lack of hands. Give me a substitute to take over, and I will let Ash go. Unharmed and-"
"Laa-tias!" Latias said immediately, raising her paw. "Tii-as!"
The King looked up at her, then there was a flash of golden light from Ash's ring and swirling gold-and-purple light began simmering around him.
"What's going on?" Latias asked, heart in her mouth. "Does anyone know?"
"It looks like Ash is fighting back!" Max said. "The gold must be him, and there was purple when he got possessed!"
"What can we do to help?" Pikachu said. "Ash and the King are in the same body! Anything I try to do to one of them is going to hit them both! Even shocking Ash might just make things worse, I know he's resistant but I don't want to trust that!"
"Come on, Dad!" Koraidon called. "Fight that king off! You're strong enough to do it!"
Brandon reached for his belt, then hesitated. "I don't know how Ash works, that could make things worse as well as better…"
"What do we do?" May said. "Does anyone have an idea?"
Ash's body raised a hoof, then brought it down with a crack and a flare of gold-purple light that made a flagstone splinter into a dozen pieces.
Then everyone heard a growling sound.
Zorua's tail flicked once, then he launched himself from Koraidon's crest in a pounce that took him right from her back to Ash's.
"Let Ash GO!" he keened, then bit into the seething purple smoke.
The purple recoiled, pushed back, and the golden light got a bit stronger. Then the purple retaliated, striking directly at Zorua – and passed straight through him.
"Ghost type!" Brock said. "Guys, Ash is Normal right now and the King must be Ghost!"
"Right!" May realized, sending out Froslass and Skitty. "Eevee, Froslass, Shadow Ball! Skitty, Shadow Sneak!"
"Dusclops, Solrock, I need you!" Brandon added. "Shadow Punch, Shadow Ball!"
All the Ghost type attacks struck at once, passing right through Zorua as the little fox gnawed away with malicious intent, and the purple mist began to waver and dissipate.
"No!" the King snarled, shaking Ash's body, then the golden glow from Ash's ring intensified and Ash struck his hoof on the ground.
"Go AWAY!" he insisted, and there was a brilliant golden flash.
Everyone had to blink against the bright light, then when it faded Ash wobbled and sat down hard.
"Are you all right?" Latias asked, rushing over. "Ash, that was so scary!"
"Yeah, I… think so," Ash replied. "It was weird, like… I could see what he was doing, and hear it, but I couldn't do anything at first. I didn't have any strength…"
He swallowed. "Then he said that bit about a new body, and – I got so angry."
"Better now?" Zorua asked urgently. "Helped?"
"Yeah," Ash replied. "I – yeah. You helped out a lot, Zorua. Thank you."
Zorua smiled.
"I… think we've got everything worked out, now," Brandon said, some minutes later. "So… the story that came down to us through the ages was wrong."
He snorted, and shook his head. "In hindsight, it should have been obvious that the King couldn't have trapped Ho-Oh successfully, and that if he had done then he would have used Ho-Oh to do… whatever it was he planned. Not just left."
"Yeah," Ash agreed. "I… didn't get a lot of an idea of what he was like, but, he seemed really offended by… you know. Everything. And I guess he wanted a better body."
He looked up at the statue. "What we missed was that he didn't want to capture Ho-Oh, so much as he wanted to become Ho-Oh. I don't know if Ho-Oh are immortal, but I guess I should ask if I see the local one again."
"I hate that this happened," Latias said. "But – I'm glad you're okay, Ash."
Ash sighed. "Yeah, it was…"
"What I don't know is how he took over Ash in the first place," Max said. "I guess it's something to do with the way he was going to try and take over Ho-Oh, suppressing Ho-Oh's mind so he could take control, but… it wasn't enough to keep Ash down?"
He shrugged. "I know I'm apparently psychic, but I'm not an expert in psychic phenomena."
"You do know the word phenomena," Brock pointed out. "That's better than some would be."
That got a snigger.
"The King's plan was to possess Ho-Oh, but Ho-Oh fought back and destroyed the kingdom," Brandon resumed. "And the King waited until someone picked up the ball… we don't know if that stone ball can do it again, but it's now very important to make sure nobody ever tries. I wonder if we can destroy it completely."
Ash thought about that.
"Uh…" he began. "I have an Absol, but he isn't with me today. It's a pity I didn't bring him… oh, actually! We should sort this out first, but is it okay if I battle you afterwards?"
"So long as we can sort this out, I would enjoy that," Brandon said. "I'll be sure to give you an excellent challenge for the Brave Symbol."
"Then… I think I need to contact Mew," Ash decided. "And Absol. He can say if this is a good idea or not, but Mew can turn into any Pokémon so if there's any way to safely handle the orb it's something Mew should be able to do…"
AN:
Stressful day all round, really. At least the king had no idea that Ash actually had everything he'd been seeking and more.
In case people don't know, I've finished my alternate take on the last 11 episodes of Ash's tenure, Mezase Pokémon Master/Aim to be a Pokémon Master. The last chapter went up earlier this week, and it includes at least an appearance by pretty much every single Pokémon who was ever part of Ash's team.