Having recharged at the Pokémon Centre, they headed north out of town after buying necessities and selling their loot at the PokéMart.
The clones beamed at them, waving. "Please come again!"
"And they used to call you a witch." Manny snorted in disgust. "Funny how money reveals people's natures."
"It's kinda sad that you and Mint are the only people who like me for me, and not how strong or rich I am."
"What about your parents?"
"Pffffft, they're adults; they don't count."
The dynamic duo encountered a flock of Psyduck blocking Route 210 that led northwest to Celestic Town.
"Get migraines elsewhere!" Hanny yelled at the lot, but they didn't budge. She plucked a Pokéball from her belt but Manny restrained her.
"Using brute force against them won't work; it'll just make their headaches worse, which will increase their psychic power. They'll beat us to a pulp."
Beside the forlorn flock was the Café Cabin. Inside, Manny and Hanny pulverised the Trainer clientele before purchasing a dozen bottles each of MooMoo milk.
"Your Pokémon will love it!" the girl behind the counter promised.
"This isn't for our Pokémon; it's for us," Manny corrected her.
"Yeah, we're growing kids, for crying out loud; our Pokémon get enough nutrition at Pokémon Centres," Hanny scoffed.
They went, as ever, east; this time along Route 215, both slurping fattening milk. While pounding the pugilists that populated the path plagued by perpetual precipitation, Manny procured another elemental Plate.
"It's a Fist Plate, with a different engraving: 'The power of defeated giants infuses this Plate'."
"How come the hundreds we found Underground weren't engraved?" Hanny wondered, wiping raindrops from her glasses.
"A better question is why anyone would just leave it lying around. I think they're being left here on purpose for us to find!"
"Yeah, it's not like we're the only Trainers who travel this route, right?"
"There's Dawn, but she lags behind us. Mint is so distracted catching Pokémon and fighting Trainers I don't think he'd notice if the sky fell down."
888
They entered the stonewall city named Veilstone, both soaked to the bone. The very first thing they noticed was a pair of Team Galactic grunts guarding a warehouse. Deciding that getting dry took priority over crime fighting, they searched for the Pokémon Centre.
"Why are all the buildings built higher than the streets? It's very inconvenient for navigation!" Hanny groused within minutes of sightseeing. Her shoes made squishy noises.
"Ugh! I can't find the Pokémon Centre!" Manny growled, looking in every direction.
"Don't you have a Town Map?" Hanny said.
Manny smacked his forehead then dug out the map. Half an hour later, their Pokémon were in tiptop shape, but more importantly their bodies and clothes were warm and dry. Hannah made a point of visiting all the unlocked houses in the city. Sure enough, she was rewarded with some sweet loot and a free Pokémon.
"I found him outside the Team Galactic HQ. He must have run away from them," the man of the house said. Hannah hugged the Porygon he gave her.
"I'll take good care of him!" she promised, scuttling outside with glee.
"What's that thing? A Porygon?" Manny cocked an eyebrow.
"Your name is Glitch," she told the newest addition to her team.
"Gon~" Glitch chimed like an alarm clock, his blocky head spinning a full 360 degrees.
"He is so adorable!" Hanny squealed. Manny shook his head.
"I'm trading him to you," Hanny said after making Glitch hold the Up-Grade she had stolen from Team Galactic HQ in Eterna.
"Porygon don't have a gender!"
"He's a boy because I said so!" she said, handing him to Manny. At once, the Up-Grade and Glitch began to shine brighter than the sun in the sky. The Pokémon and the item it held fused together in mystic harmony, producing the sleeker, smoother model of Porygon2.
"PO-RY-GON," Glitch honked, twitching in Manny's arms.
"Eeeeeeeee!" Hanny shrieked with delight, grabbing the newly evolved Glitch from Manny. "He's even CUTER than before!"
The Trainers skipped the Pokémon MegaMart and Gym in favour of the casino named 'Game Corner'. Sitting at a slot machine, who should they find but Looker?
"Ah, it is you, yes. Examine, if you will, the reels. The Team Galactic logo, it is here. Further investigation is needed, and I am just the man to do it. Also, where the masses gather, so too does information… Ack. My streak is broken."
"You're addicted to gambling and use it as an excuse to spy on others," Manny said. Looker, however, was too busy pushing coins into the machine to reply.
"I don't feel like spending the next few days playing the slots to gather enough coins, so I'm going to buy enough coins to purchase Ice Beam for Vaporeon and Flamethrower for my Ponyta," Manny told Hanny.
"I don't feel like wasting my time here, either, so I'll buy the same TM's for Minnie and Zeke."
"Who's Minnie?"
"My Finneon. She's part of my main team now! But more importantly Manny, won't people ask where we got all that money?"
"Hanny, they're allowing us CHILDREN inside a CASINO. I don't think they care where our money comes from, as long as it lines their pockets!"
They each got a Coin Case from a clown in one of the neighbouring houses. Returning to the casino, each Trainer spent four hundred thousand Pokédollars buying twenty thousand Coins. The casino staff had to abandon the Coin Cases and use wheelbarrows to carry the glittering tokens to the coin exchange counter next door. Hanny and Manny were presented with the most useful TM's in the world and immediately taught them to their respective Pokémon. With that errand complete, they headed for the local Gym.
"Hi Dawn! How's the shopping?" Hanny asked the girl, who was just leaving the place. Dawn looked tanner. Her skin had acquired a healthy glow, as had her eyes.
"Oh, Hanny! They have the best department store ever! They even sell Poffins and Berries!"
"We'll clear them out after we get the Fen Badge. Have you seen Mint?"
"No, but he's one of the certified Trainers in this Gym, so he must be on his way to Pastoria City by now. I'll see you guys later!"
As soon as Dawn walked off, a bald, half-naked muscular man wearing a Gyarados mask burst out of the Gym, singing with a voice as big as the sea.
"The ring is my roiling sea. The towering waves shaped me. Crash! Crash! Crasher Wake! Crash! Crash! Crasher Wake! I'm the tidal wave of power to wash you away! Put out the fire, Crasher Wake! Run from electricity, Crasher Wake! Ah, ah, aaaah! The ring is my sea."
He eyed the boy and girl staring at him.
"Maylene is very tough! I know this because of my learnings! I'm the triple-threat Gym Leader in Pokémon, wrestling and song. I'm Crasher Wake of Pastoria Gym! We'll meet again!"
Without bothering to wait for their reply he charged past them into the unknown.
"Okay, I'll admit that we've met some weirdoes, but a masked wrestler who runs about half-naked in public trumps everything we've encountered so far," Hanny said, shaking her head.
888
Before they even entered the Gym, the weirdo with the sunglasses hid behind a Pokémon statue.
"Don't let her hurt me!" he begged Manny.
Manny wagged a finger. "We would report you to Looker if he weren't stalking us as well."
"You guys know that loony detective? He follows me around calling me a suspicious adult!"
"The way you're dressed, I'm surprised you haven't been arrested for public indecency. Now stop bothering us."
"Yes ma'am," the weirdo whimpered. "Just so you know, this Gym uses only Fighting-type."
Manny snapped his fingers.
"I completely forgot! Hanny, I'm gonna trade Kadabra to you right now."
"Okay."
Kadabra evolved into an Alakazam once Hanny released him under her jurisdiction.
"Thanks Hanny! Now send him back to me."
"No. Let's go kick butt, Alakazam!"
"Kazam!" the mustachioed Pokémon obeyed, following his mistress. Manny could only watch in consternation as his Pokémon annihilated every Trainer in the Gym, including Maylene. Hanny rubbed the Cobble Badge in Manny's face upon her return.
"This isn't funny, Hanny! Give back Alakazam!"
"He's so powerful! I'm gonna keep him."
"HANNY! GIMME BACK MY POKéMON!"
"Fiiiiiiiiine you big baby. I'm not waiting on you; I'll be in Pastoria City."
Manny clutched Alakazam protectively while Hanny mounted Zeke and galloped away.
"I won't let the mean girl use you again!" Manny promised.
"Ala?" the Psychic critter blinked. After a short trip to the Pokémon Centre, Manny used him precisely the same way Hanny had.
"We're the Karate Quads!" the Gym Trainers shouted. "We each strike a blow for a different ideal!"
"LOOOOOOOOOVE!"
"COURAAAAAAGE!"
"HOOOOOOOOOPE!"
"TEEEEEEEEEARS!"
"Alakazam, use Psybeam."
"NOOOOOOOOOO!"
The Karate Quads in ruins, Manny confronted their master. She was a young girl with pink eyes and pink hair curled into two spikes on either side of her head. She was barefoot, wearing a blue vest, blue and pink fingerless gloves and baggy white pants. There was a bandage on her nose and left shoulder. Most shocking of all, she looked almost the same age as he.
"I don't know what it means to be strong, or how I became the Gym Leader," she admitted.
"Then why did the Pokémon League allow you to become one?"
"They don't care who becomes a Gym Leader as long as they have Pokémon of a certain type and level."
"I can't believe you're tougher than the Karate Quads; those guys are grown men! Wouldn't combat training cause muscular degeneration in someone as young as you, Maylene?"
"Yeah, my growth is gonna be stunted for life and I'll probably never be able to have children, but I'll do my best as Gym Leader! I take battling very seriously."
So did Manny, who took down her Meditite, Machoke and Lucario with pristine ease thanks to Alakazam and Ponyta. After admitting defeat, Maylene handed over the Cobble Badge and the TM for Drain Punch.
"I don't know what it means to be strong. I don't know how much effort goes into being strong… But being with Pokémon lets us keep making the effort, doesn't it?"
"Maylene, please give up martial arts before you completely wreck your body. There's still a chance that it isn't too late."
"I'm sorry Manny; I can't stop unless the Sinnoh League retires me."
She looked over Manny's shoulder at her broken and despondent Karate Quads.
"Guys, I'm hungry! Let's go out for more pizza!"
"Yes, Master!" arose their joyous chorus.
888
Dawn ran up to Manny as soon as the Gym doors closed behind him.
"Why can't people leave me alone for one day?" Manny thought while the girl caught her breath.
"Manny, some Team Galactic goons took my Pokédex away from me! I asked the Detective in the Game Corner to help me, but he was too busy playing the slots!"
"Brilliant. I'm beginning to feel like Batman. Where are they?"
"I'll be waiting in front of their warehouse."
Taking a minute to fully heal his Pokémon at the Centre, he met Dawn at the entrance to town where the warehouse sat.
"That goon on the left is the one that took my Pokédex! Go, Clefairy!"
"Go, Grotle!"
Upon their defeat, the grunts handed over Dawn's Pokédex and retreated inside the warehouse. Right on schedule, Looker ran up to them, coins falling out of his trench coat's voluminous pockets.
"Have no fear, I have come running. I heard of children feuding with the Team Galactic. It turns out, of course, to be you."
Dawn sputtered before she found her voice. "It's that gambling addict from the Game Corner who wouldn't help me!"
Looker folded his arms. "You insult me to my face? How very uncouth of you."
Dawn's jaw hung open. She then turned away, flicking her hand. "Okay, that's it. I'm outta here."
They watched her stalk off, muttering about unreliable adults.
"It is of no matter," Looker assured Manny. "Of more interest is the criminal behavior of the Team Galactic. They attempt to steal the belongings of a child? The scale of their criminality, it seems rather miniscule. The triviality of their action makes them more sinister, perhaps. Their warehouse needs investigation. Come with me, and we'll take a look!"
Inside was empty. Looker banged on the rust-encrusted double doors sealing off the rest of the building.
"Hmm… A key is necessary for us to go on. For the time being, we cannot give chase to those who run away."
He looked around, discovering an item ball.
"Ah, this Hidden Machine… It is of the hidden move, Fly. Manny, this, you should be keeping. It will not do to leave this item here to be used by the Team Galactic. So, we did not learn very much from this exercise… no matter. What concerns me is what I have overheard in the Game Corner: the Team Galactic has transported something to Pastoria City. What they are up to, I do not know, but I have bad feelings about it."
"Come with me, then."
"No, I must wait here for backup. Evidence, we must collect, to build a case against the Team Galactic!"
"But you don't have backup. I've never seen you with anyone else."
Looker wouldn't reply, so Manny left him there, and taught his Staravia how to use the hidden move Fly. The first thing he did was command her to fly him all the way back home to TwinLeaf.
The first time Keira flapped her wings and pushed off the ground, Manny screamed. He tumbled backwards and fell off. Keira circled, landed, pecked at his shoes. Manny steeled himself the second time but still screamed when he saw the houses rapidly becoming smaller. There was nothing between him and two hundred feet of empty air but his small Staravia. He whimpered. He wanted to throw up. His head felt like a lead weight that would never move his chin from his chest, because if he looked up he would fall and fall and fall.
Then, when the terror was so great he thought his heart would stop, he looked up.
He was flying. They had left the trees behind, they were nothing but a dark green carpet against the light green plains.
He was free.
He started to cry. All the anxiety and fear and sickness melted away from him with every beat of Keira's wings. He was flying and he was alive. He was part of the sky, now. Keira climbed higher, then they were among the clouds, then above even those, soaring on nothing but sunlight and feathers and the improbable physics-defying power of the Hidden Machine.
He lifted his right fist and pointed it forward into the deep blue yonder, his left fist tucked against the shoulder. One word passed from his lips as tears streamed down his face:
"Superman."