The ketchum conference

Movie 9

Bruno: "Who here has heard of the Crown of the Sea?"
*long pause*
Lorelei: "What, no-one else?"
Siebold: "I have. Vaguely."
Bruno: "Right. It's a crystalline artefact built by the People of the Water, an-"
Alder: "Ancient civilization yada yada yada. Your crazy oriental country is rife with the things."
Malva: *cough*

Bruno: "The Crown can bestow the powers of Water-type Pokemon to those nearby, including Swift Swim and the ability to breathe underwater. It can also control a large mobile city called the Temple of the Sea."
Alder: "If these ancient peoples had all that tech, why'd they vanish?"
Bruno: "They didn't, some of them are still around. Anyway, take a wild guess what the problem was this time."
Wikstrom: "Some blackguard wanted the Crown for his own purposes."
Bruno: "Right in one. A charming man called Captain Phantom."
Caitlin: "Captain? Captain of what?"
Aaron: "Sounds like a super hero."
Bruno: "Try cyborg pirate."
*splash*

Lance: "Oh, dear - we'll have to clean that up later. Are you alright, Grimsley?"
Grimsley: "Sorry, dropped my glass."
Lance: "At least it was water. Right... continue, Bruno."
Bruno: "He planned to obtain this crown by obtaining the egg of Manaphy, the Legendary Pokemon known as the Prince of the Sea."
Cynthia: "As opposed to the Beast of the Sea, the Creator of the Sea, the Water's Great Guardian or any of the others?"
Bruno: "I know, the list does get a bit overwhelming at times. Captain Phantom secured the egg, but only for a few minutes before a Pokemon Ranger called Jackie - who'd been infiltrating the Phantom Troop-"
*laughter*

Alder: "What is this, a Saturday morning cartoon?"
Bruno: "Quite. He was in a position to retrieve the egg and escape with it."
Cynthia: "Good for him! I'm sometimes a bit annoyed by the ranger union in Almia, but they're good sorts."
Bruno: "Jackie hid out with a circus, who Ash and his friends - of course - ran into. As Manaphy got closer to hatching, it started to use Heart Swap."
Phoebe: "Isn't that the thing which swaps minds between bodies?"
Bruno: "That's correct. Anyway, the Phantom Force came after them, and Manaphy hatched while the chase was going on. It imprinted on Ash's friend, May Maple."

Steven: "May... May... Wallace mentioned her to me a few times. She's the coordinator, right? She's doing very well for her age, I hear."
Bruno: "That's correct. Manaphy assumed she was his mother, I'm told - and then things got a bit confusing. Clifftop car-helicopter chases, that kind of thing."
Lance: "We've been looking into how all this hardware gets into the hands of criminal gangs, but no leads so far."
Alder: "You should see what Plasma had. We managed to seize a giant floating warship!"
Bruno: "They made it to the Temple of the Sea, but were followed by Phantom - who started pulling bits out of the controls, because they were made of shiny crystal."
Cynthia: "And there we go. Moron..."
Bertha: "They're all a bit stupid, dearie, why else did they become pirates?"
Cynthia: "True..."

Bruno: "The temple started to break down, but the Ranger and Ash's friends were able between them to replace them - I understand that Ash came close to drowning as he replaced the last crystal, and that Manaphy successfully operated the Crown to give him the ability to breathe underwater."
Lorelei: "How close are we talking?"
Bruno: "I'm not sure - we couldn't interview him, and he was the only one there. All he told Brock - who we did interview - was that he'd started to black out."
Bruno: "Kyogre turned up - much more amicable, this time - and destroyed Captain Phantom's submarine. With that, everyone went home - mission accomplished."

Cynthia: "I forgot to ask this, but - no Ash?"
Bruno: "Assuming his friends were still there, and everything else went as it did without Ash, then Samiya - the Temple - crashes into the seabed and is destroyed."
Aaron: "It says a lot that saving a floating temple-city is a step down for him."
Bruno: "Quite."

Lance: "Well, I believe that's about it for the Kanto region. I know that Ash's team did very well indeed in the Battle Frontier, but that's not really our remit."
Cynthia: "Oh? Define doing well."
Lance: "Brandon brought out his three Regis and Noland used his Articuno. Ash still won."
Cynthia: "How has he never won a League?"
Lance: "There were... irregularities with his defeat in the Indigo Conference. We've launched an investigation. Aside from that, though, he tends to face completely outrageous opponents."
Cynthia: "I'll say... poor kid."
Lance: "Apparently he was offered a Frontier Brain slot-"
Flint: "Damn, he must have impressed Brandon! Those don't exactly get given out like candy..."

Cynthia: "Okay, there's five incidents in Sinnoh I'd like to mention. I was there for one of them, so I'll handle that one - Aaron, if you could take the first?"
Aaron: "Alamos? Uh, sure - might need a few minutes to go over my notes first, though..."