The gym in Teret City wasn't exactly unique. Yes, it was placed within the Pokémon ranger headquarters; but many gyms in Toreta were part of their home city's important buildings. Skolar's library was the perfect example: the library was easily the center of the city, was home to the psychic type gym leader, and was filled with oddities. Geistom's gym was in the tomb of the priests of Arceus. Ephar's gym was its famous gardens.
But the gym was Ada's, and she wouldn't change a thing.
Sure, it was pretty average. But it was the normal type gym. Average was to be expected. It was still a test of a trainer's abilities, in the best possible way. Any trainer that completed the Teret gym could be easily expected to at least survive until they got to the next city. That was the point, really.
Except that, today, it was broken.
"Can anyone tell me why nothing is working?" Ada asked, looking around with her hands on her hips. "The rolling log has stopped, the quiz computers are freaking out, the maze is a straight line, and the mud has dried up." She shook her head as her gaze swept across the massive training room. "That's not even mentioning the fact that the ropes course has been cut, the iced floors have thawed, and the bramble thicket's dead."
Indeed, the whole room was in great disrepair. All of the training equipment was broken or destroyed, or at the very least rendered useless. It was downright infuriating.
"I dunno how it happened," One of the rangers said, scratching the back of his head. "One minute, everything's running fine. The next, poof! All broken."
Ada sighed. "Alright, I'll get to work on fixing it."
Grumbling to herself about the faulty wiring, Ada walked across the room to take a closer look at the once-maze. It was usually controlled by a trio of diggersby, but it clearly wasn't under their control right now. It should've been a winding maze, but instead it was just a path with two dirt walls on either side.
Ada walked around the maze to the trapdoor hidden next to it. After removing the dirt that was covering the door, she lifted it, climbing down the ladder into the basement below.
The diggersby that controlled the maze lived directly below it, spending all of their time in the basement floor. They were more than happy to do so, too. They were well-fed, permitted to leave at any time, given things to do, and almost pampered by the rangers. It was basically a dream job for the rabbits.
Except that all three of them were now standing in one corner, staring at her.
"What in the…?" Ada muttered, stepping closer. She glanced around the basement level, noting with surprise that there was a tunnel in one wall. Not a diggersby tunnel, either. A human sized, human-made tunnel. As she looked, a man wearing a concealing outfit decorated with a teal P walked into the basement, humming to himself. "Hey! What're you doing down here?!"
The man jumped in surprise, then cursed. He muttered in Kalosian for a moment, then raised his hand.
Immediately, Ada felt a pinching sensation on the back of her mind. She only had a fraction of a second to think.
Then the world descended into darkness.