King of Pokelantis

The gang was getting closer and closer to the Battle Pyramid. It was located in the forest 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 my final symbol." Ash said.

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

"Where are we?" Max asked.

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

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

"How are we going to get out?" May asked.

"We will have to follow the tunnels to find an exit." Brock said.

While walking down a tunnel, the gang saw the stone statue of a Pikachu. Tomo was about to touch it, but Ash quickly stopped him.

"Don't touch anything." Ash instructed. "I've seen movies and stories about ancient ruins and they contain horrible booby traps. So we must be careful while walking down these ruins and that also means no touching anything."

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

The voice belonged to a man and he was dressed like a archeologist.

"What are you kids doing in here?" The man asked.

Ash explained that they were heading to the Battle Pyramid but they fell down a hole, which led them to the ruins.

"I see." The man said. "Well I will lead you kids out of here myself."

"Please excuse us sir." Ash said. "But are you by chance the Battle Pyramid's Frontier Brain?"

"Yes, I am the Pyramid King Brandon." The man introduced himself. "And I take it you're here to challenge me?'

"I am, my name is Ash and I'm also here to earn my final Frontier symbol." Ash said.

"I will accept your battle Ash." Brandon replied. "But I have ruins down here to explore before we have our battle."

Brandon explained that he was a researcher, explorer and protector of all ancient ruins around the Pokemon world and right now he was researching the ancient civilization of Pokelantis.

Pokelantis was an ancient empire that existed a very long, long time ago and it was now buried way underground outside of Pewter City. Brandon explained that the last king of Pokelantis 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 Pokemon Ho-Oh and use it's powers. Because of the king's wickedness Ho-Oh destroyed all of Pokelantis, until there was nothing left but the tomb chamber of the king. Surviving the destruction, the king vowed revenge on Ho-Oh.

"And they say that the king created a stone orb and captured the legendary Ho-Oh with it."

The gang was fascinated by the story.

"Pardon me Brandon, but I doubt the king captured Ho-Oh." Ash said. "I've actually seen it twice before and I know it would never let anyone, especially evil individuals capture it that easily."

Brandon stared at Ash.

"You seem to be quite knowledgeable about Ho-Oh." He said. "Care to tell me more about it Ash?"

While the gang talked to Brandon, someone was sneaking around in the ruins. A man was looking through a chamber; he was a tomb robber. He had heard about the legendary empire Pokelantis and he had come to search the ruins for treasure or other riches. Taking care not to set off any booby traps, the tomb robber came across a stone door with strange circle and pentagon symbols on it. The tomb robber touched the door to see if he could open it, when suddenly the door spun around taking the tomb robber with it. As soon as the tomb robber passed the other side of the door, the torches suddenly lit up by themselves like magic revealing a big chamber. The tomb robber saw the massive statue of a king and realized he was standing in the tomb of the evil king of Pokelantis. The tomb robber saw a stone orb shaped like an ancient Poke Ball.

"There must be some ancient Pokemon living in there." He said. "This will make me rich."

He picked up the stone orb, but then a black and purplish energy appeared out of the orb and covered the tomb robber. The tomb robber screamed.

Back with the gang...

Ash's head shot up.

"What's wrong Ash?" Brock asked.

He knew Ash sensed something was up.

"Did you just hear someone scream?" Ash questioned.

Before anyone could ask him a question, the tomb robber emerged from the tunnel and the energy still surrounded him.

"Who are you?!" Brandon shouted. "And what are you doing down here?"

He didn't like trespassers or tomb robbers. The tomb robber chuckled. Brandon saw the stone orb in the man's hand and realized what had happened.

"You're the king of Pokelantis who tried to capture Ho-Oh." He said.

"That is right." The king nodded, talking through the tomb robber. "I placed my soul in the orb I created so one day I could finish what I started; ruling the world with the power of Ho-Oh, and thanks to this foolish tomb robber touching my orb I am now free."

"You're not ruling anything." Ash said angrily.

He was about to grab a Poke Ball, but Brandon stopped him.

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

The king agreed to the idea. The tomb robber did have Pokemon with him and the king was going to use them.

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 said.

She was scared of what was happening here.

"Me either." Max added.

Just then Scott entered the arena and he was surprised to see Ash wasn't battling Brandon yet. Ash explained to Scott what was going on.

"Oh my." Scott said. "Well Brandon will not let this king win. He has a Pokemon that will be hard to beat."

The gang wondered what Pokemon Brandon had. Brandon's assistant Samuel explained the battle was one on one and announced the battle to begin.

The king threw one of the tomb robber's Poke Balls and out came a Victreebel. It was a big surprise for the gang when Brandon tossed his Poke Ball; he had a Regirock. The gang remembered seeing the Legendary Golems at the Tree of Beginning and it was surprising to see Brandon have one of them.

Ash looked Regirock up on the Pokedex.

"Regirock, the Rock Peak Pokemon. Regirock was sealed by people long ago. If this Pokemon's body is damaged in battle, it is said to seek out suitable rocks on it's own to repair itself."

"That evil king doesn't stand a chance." Ash said.

The others agreed because they knew how strong Regirock was.

The king started off by telling Victreebel to use Stun Spore. Regirock used Sandstorm and the sandstorm blew the stun spore away before it could hit Regirock.

"Leaf Blade." The king ordered.

Victreebel charged at it.

"Focus Punch." Brandon ordered.

Regirock punched Victreebel really hard.

"Wow that Regirock is really strong. The king doesn't stand a chance." Max said.

Ash watched Regirock carefully to try and figure out what Pokemon he should use during his battle with Brandon. The king was getting more and more angry.

"No more Mr. Nice Guy. Leaf Storm, Victreebel!" He shouted.

Victreebel launched a storm of leaves at Regirock striking it. Even though Leaf Storm was a grass type move, it didn't do a lot of damage to Regirock.

*'Anabel was right when she told me that the last battle facility was very hard to beat.'* Ash thought.

"Regirock, Lock-On." Brandon ordered.

"The king's gonna get it now." Max said. "Especially when Regirock uses it's next move because it won't miss."

He was right because Regirock used Hyper Beam which was a direct hit on Victreebel, causing it to faint. Brandon was the winner of the battle.

The king was enraged and roared out.

"What will we do now?" A scared May asked.

"Manectric, Thunderbolt." A bolt of lightning shocked the tomb robber.

The king was weakened by that attack. While he was unconscious Brandon took this opportunity to seal the king back in the stone orb and Samuel quickly tied the tomb robber up with rope. Scott and the gang were relieved that this was finally over. Seeing what happened to the tomb robber after he touched the stone orb convinced Tomo not to touch anything if he ever entered caves or ruins again.

When the tomb robber woke up again he was greeted with a angry Brandon. Brandon told him that the king of Pokelantis was controlling him.

"I hope this teaches you not to mess with artifacts in ancient ruins again." The tomb robber was in trouble and he was taken to jail for trespassing.

"Can we battle now?" Ash asked Brandon.

Brandon agreed but first he had to check the ruins again and place the orb back in the king's tomb. Ash knew this battle wasn't going to be easy, but he was looking forward to it.