Justyna finally decided to come downstairs after slakothing around her bedroom for hours. Dawn and Anna were already there; Paul, Piotr and Cranidos joined them, as well as brown-haired girl they had met the other night(whose hair was now black for a trendy reason). An elegant, long dragonair curled around the table so that she could reach the table and not take off space.
"What took you so long?" Anna asked.
"I was busy doing nothing, alright!" Justyna whined, "Let's get on with it."
After a nice screened breakfast of calorie-free waffles and non-allergenic maple syrup, they headed out, still accompanied by their new friend who now had a name: Katia. Her dragonair was named Pyhalka.
"Were we going to go the Safari Zo-"
"No." Justyna interrupted Dawn; quite rudely to be precise.
"Well, what else is there to do here?"
Katia cleared her throat and pointed up at the familiar building towering over them. It was another gym! It seemed to be leaking. Katia reassured them that this was not unusual as it was a water-based gym. She soon changed that statement after they entered the gym.
"This place is completely flooded!"
"Well, it IS a water gym."
"But this is super flooded! Wake! Crasher Wake!" Katia screamed across the water. In response, a Masked Man who bore resemblance to a Mexican Wrestler traversed the waves on a tall gyarados that seemed barely able to support the massive man. He jumped down from his serphant all hasty-like.
"Miss Katia! Do you know what happened?"
Katia knew Crasher Wake well enough to make an educated guess.
"The other day, these men in weird suits came into ma place and they asked for a gym battle. So I gave 'em one and of course they lost – the bastards. But then they got all mad for no reason and they messed with ma plumbing! They got croagunks and quagsires on them sides! Now ma place is flooded! Ma trainers all went home 'cause they were drowning in here! It's an absolute mess!"
"I see." Katia processed. Dawn, never the wiser, also saw and immediately spoke up.
"We can help you fix your gym. The three of us." She gestured at Anna and Justyna.
"For free?" Justyna inquired, cocking her head to the side. Dawn pushed her to one side with all the might she could muster.
"For a badge each." She responded, out of breath.
"Well, I dunno about that, l'il lady. I was thinking that battles are the only fair way to decide that sort of thing!"
"Nope, we only work for badges."
"Or money." Anna added.
"Or dungeon maps." Justyna added
"Well, I haven't got any money, so I guess I'm gonna hafta take your offer with those badges." Crasher Wake sighed in defeat; the poor man's wife had been trampled to death by a mamoswine.
As stated, the place was flooded. They were on a platform elevated higher than normal as it seems that Crasher Wake prepared for such moments. The platform blocked the door so they were almost obligated to help the old man. The water came up almost to the top of the platform. Pyhalka jumped in the water with Katia and urged the others to follow; she knew what she was doing, more or less.
"WAIT!" Justyna shouted, "Let's be smart about this."
They kept the old man underwater as the girls changed into their bathing suits. They had clothes and more important things that could not afford to get wet. They then jumped in. Justyna let out Riceball and sat comfortably on the large, penguin pokemon's back. Anna sent out Golduck whose humanoid frame made it a bit awkward to sit on him. Dawn sent out the only water pokemon she owned: Valour. No doubt, he was very excited and swam around in large circles until Dawn calmed him down and struggled to come up with an idea of how to use him to not drown.
"Just rotate your arms and bend your knees Dawn!" Justyna advised.
"I can't swim." She reminded her coldly. She finally figured out to just hug the little mudkip in her hands; he floated and he didn't mind being submerged. Katia nodded when they were all ready and told them to dive, dive, DIVE! They weren't ready for this but Justyna did it so the rest had to follow suit.
Katia led the way, her dragonair traveling quickly to the very bottom. Justyna was there a second later and her head very nearly exploded form the pressure. She resurfaced and decided to descend with her green-striped hat on. That would help alleviate the pain.
They were suddenly granted goggles by the universe and Katia guided them along the bottom of the gym and large pool, navigating the stupid maze that the gym set up. They had to quickly find the drain and drain the water before they ran out of oxygen! :o Thankfully they did find it fast but still had to resurface because…
"How are we going to get the plug out?" Anna asked.
"It's stuck in their tight." Dawn gasped for air.
As Justyna pondered about the eligibility of those last to lines to be innuendos, Katia though long and hard about this and finally shrugged and replied, "Just pretend you're a box of cereal."
They had no clue what she was on but she had a better clue than they did and they descended once more. The black, chained plug was indeed wedged in there; Riceball and Golduck gripped the chain and Pyhalka tried her best to as well with her snake-like body. Valour, being the energetic nutball that he was, temporarily left Dawn stranded at the bottom of the pool to tug at the stopper of the plug. It took 10 rigorous seconds to free the plug. Joy was soon replaced by utter realization of the suction force the drain was creating. Katia, Anna, and Justyna held fast to their large, aquatic pokemon as they fought the current and made their way to the surface, stuck fighting up there until the water level dropped. Valour valiantly swam against the current as Dawn's life clinged to him and held breath. He was able to keep them away from the drain of doom until the water level fell. That took a while and when all the water was finally washed away, Dawn was wriggling and gasping for breath on the floor for the third time that day. Justyna laughed.
"Valour's tiny!" Anna smacked her and they helped Dawn get back on her feet.
"That was easy, despite that last part." Anna commented, "At least we're getting badges for it."
"Indeed, I extend my fondest of congratulation to ya'll!" Crasher Wake laughed as the platform that he stood on descended, "I don't know what I would haf dun if you hadn't showed up! I just feel awful that I trusted those awful spacemen in comin' into this gym in the first place!"
"Yeah, you think those kind of people would draw a lot of attention." Justyna pondered.
"Can we have our badges now?" Dawn spat, still coughing up some water.
"Sure you can. NOT!" Crasher Wake laughed and his old manly voice echoed annoyingly through the chamber. They were stupefied. Justyna roared in frustration, telling him that believe it or not, their task had been hard and stressful. She threw her quick ball and released Light. Anna decided to join the anger and released Luxio. Crasher Wake was ready during the interlude. He threw a pokeball and let out a floatzel that towered over Light and flicked him away with a jump and a spin. It laughed in a rather amused and harmless sense. But you dont mess with Luxio and his boy. The lion snarled and suddenly…he glowed white! He grew a foot taller and was now a sparkling Luxray. Floatzel backed up, putting his hands up in a placid defeat. But the shining lion doesn't take any shit and Luxray glared and spun and whipped him against the wall.
Crasher Wake was suddenly very sweaty. He quickly ran off and returned when they had managed to climb out onto the platform.
"Badges! I promised Badges and here they are!" And he gave out Fen Badges to everyone, even Katia who now had three. They walked out with Luxray purring by Anna's side, and Paul following Dawn who had a gloomier than the usual gloomy feel to her. They had little idea of what just happened but they didn't care. They were getting out of this miserable little town. They healed up their pokemon and went west. Katia joined them, saying that she had never been on the route before, that she had lived in Pastoria for quite a while actually.
"Well, it's time to move on. Let us journey through this harsh and marsh! How bad can it be?" Justyna said with optimisme.
Like all answers to such questions, it took them three weeks to make it up the route. They fought all the people standing by the side of the roads; they killed all the bidoofs they could find(and believe me, they found some); they even stopped by the Mansion that was randomly placed by the route and contained a garden. It was there were Justyna was reminded that she had an egg in her Lucky bag and that she should probably take care of it more. Light shuddered. She had Makowca hold it and walk alongside them in the rain. It is essential to note that Pyhalka, Kitty, Monty, and Anthony were starting to get antsy; Paul and Riley as well but for different reasons. They finally reached the familiar safehouse that was placed at the end of each route. After muffins and refreshments, they exited the house and found themselves on a familiar, chocolate-brown, brick-paved street.
"This loops back to Hearthome! Who woulda guessed?" Justyna exclaimed as if they had just discovered gold. Dawn had known this all along but had refused to speak. They were going to end up here sooner rather than later. That was true. Katia had never been to the city and marveled at the bright, golden lights that illuminated the streets now that evening was dawning. She gasped and asked if they could visit Amity Park; her dragonair was quite happy and anxious as she trailed her owner.
"Later! I need a warm bed and a shower." Dawn and Anna complained. They were still girls after all.
"Wait!" Justyna commanded. She ruffled through Anna's bag and pulled out a business card that Anna angrily snatched away.
"When did we get this?"
The narrator made them in Graphic Arts! It was a pink little card that bore a ghostly outline of a pokemon and read the name Dale Kamonohashi; only backwards.