Ash slept in the next day and by the time he was awake, Rick, Misty and the Pokémon were already up eating breakfast. Ash yawned and sat up, looking at his watch. It was 12:46. He shook his head and looked again. No, it wasn't 12:46, it was 12:47. "Did I really sleep in that late?" Ash asked as he stood up and walked over to the others.

"Don't worry about, Mr. Lazy over there only woke up a minute or two ago" Misty said looking at Rick.

Rick looked up from his breakfast with his mouth full of food. "Hmm?"

Ash's stomach grumbled. "My stomachs reminding me it's empty" He sat down next to Pikachu, who offered him some ketchup. He refused and instead started stuffing his face with pancakes.

Ash suddenly felt something shaking in his pocket and looked down. He took Ho-oh's Pokéball out of his pocket and looked at it. It was shaking crazily and suddenly there was a click sound. "Ho-oh no!"

Too late, the Pokéball opened and the large legendary bird appeared in the center of the busy Pokémon Center.

Ho-oh stretched his wings but stopped when he heard a few screams. It looked around and noticed Ash hadn't been letting it out after all. He nervously looked around at the trainers, who were all looking at it in shock.

"Wow!" A man ran in front with a camera. "This is front page stuff!" He held the camera up to his face and began to take pictures of the giant Pokémon in front of him.

Ho-oh, startled by the flashing camera, began to stomp it's feet, causing a small earthquake that was knocking pictures off the wall. Ash jumped up and held out the Pokéball, "Ho-oh return!" A red beam shot out of the Pokéball and hit the Pokémon, returning the upset looking pokemon into it's Pokéball.

Rick stood up and walked over to Ash. "We better get going before..."

"Isn't that Ash Ketchum? The kid that won the Orange League a while back?" Came a persons voice.

"And he was at the Indigo Plateau Pokémon League too. He got a Ho-oh?"

"Mr. Ketchum" A man ran up with a notepad and pen. Probably a journalist. "How did you capture such a rare Pokémon?"

Ash quickly shoved the Pokéball into his pocket. "What Pokémon?"

"The Ho-oh" The journalist said.

"What Ho-oh?" Ash asked nervously.

"The one you just returned" The journalist replied getting a little annoyed.

Ash put on a clueless expression. "What one I just returned?"

"Don't play dumb with me kid" The journalist said in an annoyed tone. "Everyone in this Pokémon Center saw you return a Ho-oh and release it too"

"Oh, that Pokémon..." Ash looked at Rick for help, but the clueless expression on Rick's face told him he was on his own. "Uh...it's not really a Ho-oh"

"What do you mean?" The journalist gave him a confused look, along with Rick and Misty.

"Uh...I'll have to get back to you on that" Ash said. He didn't have a clue why he had said that, but when you panic you say strange things. He turned and looked at the others. "Let's get out of here" He turned and ran towards the Pokémon Center door, Rick, Misty and the Pokémon following.

"But wait..." The journalist began, but it was too late, they were already out of sight.

Ash and the others finally stopped when they reached a dark spot outside Celadon. Rick's Charizard and Ash's Cyndaquil were the only source of light they had now.

Ash took out the Pokéball and let Ho-oh out. The Pokémon appeared in front of him. "What did you think you were doing?! Now all those people know about you and by tomorrow half the world will. And not to mention everyone thinks I caught you, which means they're going to be annoying me too"

Ho-oh lowered it's head sadly. "I'm sorry Ash. It's just I was stuck in there so long and when you picked up the Pokéball I thought you were letting me out. I'm sorry"

Ash sighed. "It's not your fault, I should have let you out sooner" He walked up and patted Ho-oh's beak. "Well, we don't have time to worry about that now" He looked back the others. "Right now we have to worry about the next orb"

The others nodded and returned the Pokémon except for Charizard, Raichu and Pidgeot.

Ash returned his Pokémon and clipped the Pokéballs to his belt. He turned to Ho-oh and smiled. "Let's go get that orb Ho-oh"

Ho-oh looked up. "You mean you're not angry at me?"

Ash walked over beside Ho-oh. "Nah, I couldn't stay angry at you even if I tried" He climbed on Ho-oh's back. "Let's go buddy" He said as Pikachu jumped onto Ho-oh's head.

Ho-oh smiled and spread it's wings and readied itself for take off.

Soon, Mount Silver came into view. The normally beautiful scene was destroyed by a large black building right on top of the mountain.

Pikachu was now sitting by his trainer. Without the sun, it had become quite cold in the Pokémon World, and also being so high up in a mountain made it colder. Pikachu had caught a little bit of a cold and now his since of smell was a little messed up.

Ho-oh landed carefully in front of the large door and lowered it's head to let Ash down. It's eyes scanned the area, making sure there was nothing around them.

Ash slid down and landed by Ho-oh's side. He patted the Pokémon and looked at the door. He felt Pikachu jump onto his shoulder.

"You ready?" Rick asked, who had just landed with Charizard. Misty landed beside them with Pidgeot.

Ash smiled. "More than I'll ever be. Ho-oh Fire Blast!"

The giant bird grinned and released a Fire Blast on the door, slowly melting it.

Ash turned to the others. "This place is most likely going to be the most dangerous, so be careful"

The Fire Blast shot through the door and travelled a little down the corridor before Ho-oh stopped the attack.

Ash took a deep breath and sighed. "Let's go" He walked into the building, looking along the corridor.

This building was lit by a line of fire, which stretched across the walls, like a fiery hand rail.

Ho-oh looked along the corridor. "I'm too big for this corridor. Return me but let me out as soon as possible, ok?"

Ash looked at Ho-oh, a little confused that it had suggested going into a Pokéball, but shrugged. "Ok" Ash held up the Pokéball and returned Ho-oh, putting the Pokéball into his pocket.

The group walked silently down the corridor, alert in case of anything unexpected happened.

Ash led the group, ignoring the warnings of being the one to fall into the traps.

[Ok, I spy, with my little eye...something beginning with...b] Pikachu said to Raichu as they walked down the corridor.

[B? Um...] Raichu looked around the dark corridor. [B...b...Black!]

[Dam, I thought that was a hard one] Pikachu said frowning.

"I'm starting to think this place is empty" Misty said. They had been walking for at least two hours and still not a single trap or orb had been found.

"Ya, maybe we should go back and try that other path that..." Ash was cut off mid-sentence when the ground burst open under him. He had just enough time to yell before he fell down.

"Ash!" Misty and Pikachu ran forward towards the hole. There was a strange sliding noise as they neared it, but only for a second. Misty looked in and saw Ash, sitting in a shallow hole. "What the?"

Ash looked up at her. "Guess they never finished building this trap" He stood up and noticed the trap was only a little taller than he was. He pulled himself out, with a little help from Misty, and looked in. "I think they're running out of idea's"

"Ditto" Rick said, as he looked in.

"Ditto? What do you mean by Ditto?" Ash asked.

"You know, I agree?" Rick explained.

"Oh, right, I knew that" Ash said. "Come on, lets go" He turned and started walking down the corridor again.

Misty and Rick followed along with Raichu and Pikachu.

Ash didn't say a word as he walked, and he seemed to know exactly were he was going, though he had to stop every now and then to check things on the walls.

Pikachu followed, but something wasn't right around here. Something just didn't feel right. Maybe it was something in the building.

After about five hours a large door came into view. It was very tall but to narrow for Ho-oh to fit, so Ash made no move to take it out of his pocket.

Raichu walked up to the door and placed his paws on it. The door creaked and opened easily.

"Come on, let's check it out" Ash said walking straight in.

"Ash, be careful" Misty shook her head and walked in after him.

The room was round in shape, or at least that's what it seemed like. There was a narrow path leading to the centre of the room and beside it was nothing to support them. It looked like a bottomless pit when they looked down. Nothing but darkness below them.

"Ash, I don't like this place" Misty said. Just looking at the darkness made her feel cold.

There was a suddenly slam and they turned and saw the door was shut. Raichu and Rick, who were closest, tried to open it, but it wouldn't budge. "I think we're trapped" Rick said.

"Ditto" Ash said, his voice sounded a little amused.

"Ya, I agree too" Misty said.

Ash just grinned, but not in a friendly way.

Misty looked at him. "Ash?"

Ash looked up. "Can't you recognise a fake when you see one?"

Misty gave Ash a strange look. "What? You mean this isn't a real trap?"

Ash laughed a little. "I'm not talking about the trap" He sighed and looked at her. "I'm talking about me"

"What?" Rick turned and faced him.

"And Pikachu, can't you tell your trainer from a Pokémon?" Ash said looking at Pikachu.

[What are you talking about?] Pikachu said.

Ash laughed a little before answering Pikachu's question. "I'm one of the best transforming Ditto in the World. I can change into the exact double of any living thing, even a human"

Misty shook her head. "Ash, cut it out"

'Ash' grinned at her, but ignored what she had said. "And now the real Ash is off in a secret passage, all alone with no one to help him"

"What secret passage, we didn't find any" Rick's fist was now shaking with fury.

"Well" 'Ash' said. "When Ash fell down the trap, a new slab covered up the slide he had fallen down, then all I had to do was quickly transform and take his place until I led you here"

"And why did you lead us here?" Misty asked.

'Ash' turned to the center of the room. He passed the narrow path easily, which the real Ash wouldn't have been able to accomplish without a Vine Whips help. He opened a box and a small item floated up. Pikachu recognised it as Dark Ho-oh's Dark Orb. It floated up and stopped half way between the stand and the ceiling. There was a blinding red flash and when the light disappeared there was a large glowing ball, the same size, if not larger then Ho-oh.

"What's that?" Rick asked.

Misty, Pikachu and Raichu were just as confused as Rick was, that is until a picture began to form in the glowing ball.

"Pikapi!" Pikachu cried as the picture showed Ash, knocked out, in a corridor they'd never seen before.

"What's going on?" Misty asked.

"We have a few surprises in store for your little friend" 'Ash' said. "So just sit back and watch. Who knows, it might be amusing for you to watch him die, I know it will be for me. Oh, and I wouldn't try that" 'Ash' said as Rick made a move to get a Pokéball. His eyes glowed and Rick, along with Pikachu, Misty and Raichu, were lifted off the ground and slammed against the wall. Chains shot out of the wall and tied them so they couldn't move. "Why don't you just hang around for a while?"

Rick struggled to get free, but the chains seemed to be unbreakable.

"Just sit back and enjoy the show" 'Ash' said grinning.