The King of Pokélantis

The gang was getting near to the Battle Pyramid, which was located in the forest area outside Pewter City. The gang soon saw what looked like the top of a dark grey pyramid overlooking some trees.

"That must be the Battle Pyramid, let's go and get our final symbol." Ashlyn said.

But just as the gang walked on, they suddenly fell down a hole and they got trapped in some sort of chamber.

"Is everyone okay?" Ashlyn asked.

"I'm good." Alain replied.

"Me too." May added.

"Where are we?" Max asked.

Alain and Brock looked at the walls and saw ancient pictures and writing.

"It looks like we are in some ancient ruins." Alain said.

"How do we get out?" May asked.

"We'll have to follow the tunnels to find an exit." Brock replied.

So the gang walked through a tunnel.

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While walking down a tunnel, the gang saw a stone statue of a Pikachu. Max was about to touch it, but Alain quickly stopped him before he did touch it.

"We must not touch anything." Alain warned.

"I've read the stories and seen the movies about ancient ruins like this, and they all have horrible booby traps. So we must be careful while walking down these ruins and that also means no touching anything." Ashlyn informed.

"Well said young man and lady, you shouldn't touch anything here." A male voice advised.

The voice belonged to a man, and he was dressed as an archeologist. Ashlyn recognized him as Brandon, the Pyramid King.

"What you kids doing in here?" Brandon asked.

Ashlyn explained they were heading for the Battle Pyramid, but they fell down a hole, which lead them to the ruins.

"I see," Brandon understood, "Well, I will lead you kids out of here myself."

"Please excuse me sir," Ashlyn spoke up, "but are you by any chance the Frontier brain of the Battle Pyramid?"

"Yes, I am the Pyramid King Brandon," Brandon confirmed, "and I take it you're here to challenge me?"

"I am. My name is Ashlyn Ketchum, and I'm also here to earn my final Frontier symbol." Ashlyn introduced herself.

"I'm Alain Sycamore. I'm also here for the same reason as Ashlyn." Alain introduced himself.

"I will accept your battle Ashlyn, Alain," Brandon said, "but I have ruins down here to explore before we can have our battle."

"Are you an explorer?" Ashlyn asked.

"Yes, I'm also a researcher and protector of all ancient ruins around the Pokémon world. Right now I'm researching the ancient civilization of Pokélantis." Brandon explained.

"Pokélantis?" May asked.

"Pokelantis was an ancient empire that existed a very long, long time ago and it was now buried way under the ground outside of Pewter City." Brandon explained, "The last king of Pokélantis was an evil, greedy ruler and he wished to rule the whole world. To make the whole world his own he wished to capture the legendary Pokémon Ho-Oh and use its powers. Because of the king's evilness, Ho-Oh destroyed all of Pokélantis, until there was nothing left but the tomb chamber of the king. The king, who survived was furious and vowed revenge of Ho-Oh. And they say that the king created a stone orb and captured the legendary Ho-Oh with it." He finished.

The gang was fascinated by the story.

"Please excuse me Brandon, but I don't believe that the king had really captured Ho- Oh." Ashlyn spoke up.

"What do you mean?" Brandon asked.

"No offense, but I've seen Ho-Oh myself a couple of times and I do know that it's a Pokémon that would never let people, especially evil ones, capture it that easily no matter what." Ashlyn replied.

Brandon stared at Ashlyn with interest, "You seem to be quite knowledgeable about Ho-Oh," he said, "care to tell me more about it, Ashlyn?"

Ashlyn was about to reply when she suddenly felt a shiver go down her spine.

"What's wrong, Ashlyn?" Alain asked, noticing her pale expression.

"I feel a really evil presence down the tunnels there." Ashlyn replied.

Before anyone could ask Ashlyn another question, they heard screaming coming from the tunnel. The owners of the screams soon appeared, Jessie and Meowth.

"Jessie?" Ashlyn blinked.

"Meowth?" Alain blinked.

"Twerps!" Jessie and Meowth gasped.

"What are you two doing here?" May asked.

"Never mind that! Something's wrong with James!" Meowth exclaimed in a panic.

"James? Where is he?" Max questioned.

"I think James is possessed by some evil spirit!" Jessie panicked.

"Evil spirit?" Brock asked.

Jessie and Meowth nodded rapidly.

"We accidentally fell into one of the chambers and saw an orb in the shape of Pokéball and James picked it up. Then some dark mist came out of the Pokéball and went into James!" Meowth exclaimed, "He looked extremely scary as he spoke in a different voice. So we ran as fast as we could get away from him!" Meowth explained in a panic.

"Just get James back to normal and we won't take your Raichu for now!" Jessie pleaded.

"Alright, we will." Ashlyn promised.

At that moment, James turned up and a dark energy surrounding him. Brandon saw the stone orb in James's hand and realized what had happened.

"You're the king of Pokélantis who tried to capture Ho-Oh." Brandon concluded.

"That is right," The king confirmed, talking through James, "I left my soul into the orb I created so one day I would finish what I started; ruling the world with the power of Ho-Oh, and thanks to this foolish man touching my orb, I am now free."

"You are not going to rule over anything!" Ashlyn declared, angrily. She was about to grab a Pokéball, but Brandon stopped her.

"I insist we have a Pokémon battle to see if you are capable of doing that." Brandon insisted.

"Very well." The king agreed to that idea.

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Everyone went to the battlefield of the Battle Pyramid, which was a normal battlefield. The gang went to sit in the stands.

"I don't like this." May admitted, who was scared of what was happening here.

"Me neither." Max added.

"I'm getting the chills." Meowth rubbed his arms in fright.

"Me too." Jessie rubbed her arms in fright as well.

Just then Scott entered the arena, and he was surprised to see that Ashlyn or Alain weren't battling Brandon yet. Alain explained to Scott what had happened.

"Oh my!" Scott gasped, "Well Brandon won't let this king, don't you worry everyone. Brandon has a Pokémon that can be hard to beat."

Jessie, Meowth and the gang wondered what Pokémon Brandon had. Brandon's assistant Samuel explained the match was a one-on one match and declared the battle to begin. The king threw one of James's Pokéballs and out came a Cacnea. The Cactus Pokémon was about to hug James when it noticed the dark energy around James. So Cacnea stepped back away from him.

It was a big surprise for the gang when Brandon tossed his Pokéball; he had a Regirock. The gang remembered seeing the legendary golems at the Tree of Beginning and it was surprising to see Brandon having one of them.

Ashlyn looked at Regirock on her Rotom phone:

[Regirock, the rock peak Pokémon. Its entire body is made of rock. If any part chips off in battle, it attaches rocks to repair itself.]

"That evil king is done for." Alain stated.

The others agreed because they remembered of how strong a Regirock was.

"Cacnea, use Pin Missile!" The king ordered.

"Regirock, use Sandstorm!" Brandon countered.

The Sandstorm blew the Pin Missile away before they could hit Regirock.

"Cacnea, Needle Arm!" Cacnea's right arm glowed white and charged towards Regirock.

"Rgirock, Focus Punch!" Regirock punched Cacnea really hard.

"Wow that Regirock is really strong, the king doesn't have a chance here." Max commented.

Ashlyn and Alain watched Regirock carefully to try and figure out what Pokémon they should use when they challenge Brandon. The king was getting angrier and angrier by this time.

"No more Mr. Nice Guy! Use Bullet Seed, Cacnea!" he shouted.

Cacnea launched a Bullet Seed attack at Regirock and the Bullet Seed hit Regirock. But despite Bullet Seed being a grass type move, it wasn't enough to hurt Regirock that much.

'Anabel was right when she told me that the last battle facility was very difficult to beat.' Ashlyn thought.

"Regirock, use Lock On." Brandon ordered.

"Oh-no, now the king is going to get it." Max commented.

"What do you mean?" Jessie asked.

"When Regirock uses its next move, it won't be able to miss." Max replied.

Max was right because Regirock used Hyper Beam and it scored a real direct hit on Cacnea, and Cacnea fainted. So Brandon was the winner of the match.

The king was really angry now and he roared out in anger.

"What should we do now?" May asked, who was scared.

"Tesla, Thunder Shock!" Tesla gave James a really good shocking. The king got really weak from the attack. While he was unconscious, Brandon took this chance to seal the king back into the stone orb. Jessie and Meowth quickly ran over to James.

"James, James, James! Wake up!" Jessie pleaded, shaking him.

"Please wake up!" Meowth pleaded.

Scott and the gang were relieved that this was over. When James woke up, he saw Brandon's cross face.

Brandon explained to him about the king of Pokélantis controlling him. "I hope that will teach you to not mess with artifacts in ancient ruins again."

Team Rocket flinched at his crossed expression and soon took off out of the pyramid.

"Anyway, Brandon, is it possible that I can battle you now?" Ashlyn asked.

"Of course, but I need to check the ruins again and put this stone orb back into the tomb of the king." Brandon explained, holding the stone orb.

"Okay. I'll wait." Ashlyn understood.

Ashlyn understood by now that this battle would not be easy, but she looked forward to it.

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Pokémon Caught: Shiny Arcanine (Sonia)(F), Magmar (Fuji)(M), Hisuian Zorua (Yuki)(F), Sprigatito (Fleur)(F)