Ash and Rick spotted the Burned Tower and the Tin Tower not far away. Rick ordered Charizard to land by the Burned Tower and it obeyed.

Ash jumped off the Charizard and stumbled a bit before straightening up and looking at the entrance to the tower.

Pikachu jumped off and stood beside him. He looked up at his trainer and noticed he still had Ho-oh's Pokéball in his hand.

Rick patted Charizard on the head. "Time to return" He held up Charizard's Pokéball.

Charizard frowned and nodded to the tower, signalling that he wanted to go with them.

"Hey, the towers burnt enough without your tail flame" Rick said as he returned him. He walked up beside Ash. "Well, better get going"

Ash nodded and walked in. The inside was dark and the walls were black. Ash walked across the room, not paying much attention to the surroundings.

When they reached the fifth floor, after fighting off a few Ghost Pokémon, Rick stopped Ash. "Ash this isn't a good idea, this floor looks too dangerous"

Ash looked around the room. There were a few holes in the floor and across the room he could see the stairs leading up. "We have to, those stairs are the only way of getting to the room at the top of the tower, and that's were we need to go" He took a step forward and the floor creaked.

"Ash get back here!" Rick said.

Ash didn't pay any attention, he took a few more steps and heard the floorboards creek loudly under his feet.

Pikachu took a nervous step forward, but jumped back when the floor creaked.

Ash took another step forward, but heard a loud crack as the floorboard broke under him.

"Ash!" Rick ran forward and grabbed Ash's hand just as he fell through the floor.

Ash felt something fall out of his hand and he looked down to see Ho-oh's Pokéball fall to the floor beneath him. He panicked as he saw a Haunter approach it.

The Haunter swirled around it for a minute then picked it up.

"Drop it!" Ash called down at the Haunter.

The Haunter looked up at him and laughed. It floated up in front of him and made a face.

Ash kept a straight face, knowing the Haunter was just trying to make him laugh.

The Haunter tilted its head and floated closer to him. It put its hand in front of its face and when it removed it, its face was gone. It held up its hand so its palm was facing Ash. Its face was on its palm, and it once again made a face at Ash.

Ash smiled, but fought back the laughter.

The Haunter was getting annoyed and put its face back. It floated right up to Ash. It stuck out its tongue and turned its eyes upside down, making the sound of a Pidgey clock.

Ash grinned and kicked the Haunter in the face, then he grabbed the Pokéball with his free hand.

The Haunter's eyes glowed and it shot a Night Shade at Ash.

"Pull me up, pull me up, pull me up!" Ash yelled as the Night Shade shot towards him.

Rick pulled him up, just missing the Night Shade.

The Haunter appeared through the ground and was about to shoot another Night Shade at them when Pikachu jumped forward with a Thunderbolt attack. The Haunter yelled and fled as fast as it could.

"Way to go Pikachu" Ash gave Pikachu a thumbs up.

Pikachu smiled and looked at the door leading upstairs.

Rick stood up. He pulled Ash to his feet. "Told you it was dangerous"

Ash shrugged, "Well we're almost there, so let's go"

Pikachu walked forward slowly.

"What's Pikachu doing?" Rick looked at Pikachu, confused.

"He's looking for a safe way across the room" Ash explained.

Pikachu ran back to him smiling and pointed to the door. He turned and started walking over to it.

Ash and Rick followed, careful to make sure they didn't fall through again.

When they reached the stairs, Pikachu ran up to the top. It was pretty dark so Pikachu used his electricity to light the top of the stairs. He was soon joined by Ash and Rick.

Ash looked at the door. It had a large flame carved into it. Strange that even though the whole tower had gone up in flames, the door was unmarked. He sighed and reached out for the gold door handle. He opened it and looked inside. The room was nothing like the others. There wasn't a burn mark in sight. It had red carpet and a golden stage, were Ho-oh would perch, lay at the end, golden tablets along the wall beside it.

Rick walked in behind him and looked around. "Looks like someone's been redecorating, though they forgot the rest of the place"

"No, no one's been up here in years. This room was never affected by the fire, it was protected by Ho-oh's power" Ash said.

"How do you know?" Rick looked at Ash.

"I dunno, I just do" Ash walked to the perch and took out Ho-oh's Pokéball.

"Hey, you know, you don't seem so weak anymore" Rick closed the door when Pikachu walked in.

"Ho-oh gave as much power as it could to me so I could bring it here" Ash explained. He released Ho-oh and the Legendary Pokémon lay motionless on the stage. He looked around and walked over to one of the golden tablets and looked at it.

Pikachu jumped over to his trainer and looked at the tablets as well. There was some sort of riddle.