Bronze and Jake journeyed through the expansive city streets, until they came across a circular culvert in the road, with a pleasant garden in the center. Smelling the aroma of the galenas flowers, Bronze's serenity was interrupted by a hunchbacked man holding a vase of flowers shouting at an Electabuzz that was preventing him from moving through the grassy clearing.

"Come on, you blasted, miserable, stinking creature!" The man screamed. "I have things to do, places to go, and people to see! Be gone, I say, be gone!"

Bronze came up behind the man, wondering why he couldn't just go around the garden. "Is something wrong, sir? Has this Pokémon been bothering you?"

"What does it look like, whippersnapper?!" The man yelled. "I always walk through this garden, every day, no exceptions! And now it won't let me get through! On top of that, my daughter's wedding is going on in about, say, a single hour!"

"Well," Bronze said. "Perhaps you can compromise on your usual routine, if this wedding is so important to you. Just go around the garden. I think I am going to have a good look at that Pokémon, by the way. It may be attracted to your flowers."

Bronze grabbed a single capsule, containing a few grains of potent Bounsweet sugar. He threw it to the Electabuzz, who broke open the canister and ate a single grain.

Immediately, the Electabuzz leaped into the air, a static charge passing off its body that made Bronze's hair stand up. The Pokémon hit the ground, got up, fell, got up, fell again, and went to sleep. "There." Bronze said. "Go on your way."

The man hobbled away through the garden, taking care not to trample a single flower. Bronze pulled out a Poke Ball, readied to throw it-

"Hey!" Jake yelled, distracting Bronze. "What are you doing?! If you want to catch it, you have to weaken it, not capture it while it's sleeping! That's unethical!"

Bronze rolled his eyes. "Unethical? I have some answers for that, friend! First, it is laying right there. I cannot think of a better time to capture it. Second, it is merely asleep! If you want be to pummel it in a battle before I capture it, than perhaps you should reevaluate your understand of the word 'ethical.' Step aside, Jake!"

After Bronze threw the Poke Ball, the Electabuzz was captured in a burst of plasma-charged static. Bronze picked the Capture Device up, satisfied that he had one more Pokémon on his roster.

"See, Jake?" Bronze said, as he continued along the road to the Gym. "I am not afraid to violate established perceptions of what is acceptable. But you must know that it was not fainted. Capturing it then would have had dire consequences. I use Bounsweet sugar cubes for waking the unconscious and capturing Pokémon in a similar fashion to what you just saw. Now, let us continue on!"

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Silvent Gym was much smaller than Bronze had envisioned it would be. The building could have passed for a single Pokémon Center, or even a large coffee shop. Bronze wondered if it stretched far underground, or was a low-budget endeavor. A single metal sign hammered into the steelweave wall declared:

No admissions to challengers with professed connections to Team Eclipse. We do not need your business. Vandals will be persecuted. Terramist supporters will be evicted and detained. We remember the Battle of Rosecove City. -Gabriel.

What a sign of the times. Bronze thought. A sign...that is a sign of the times. Hey, that's pretty funny. I think.

"Gym Leader Gabriel. Specialty: Electric-type. Pokemon, Pikachu, Manectric. In his free time, he has been known to work shifts at the Silvent City Power Plant."

Jake was reading from a free guide book in the Gym Entrance, made for tourists, almost certainly made by tourists. "Looks like there's also a puzzle before you actually fight the Gym Leader. I don't know why that keeps happening, but the Association has been encouraging it in Roria, apparently. They are more about mental skill then battling through weaker foes before you get to the real fight."

Bronze had also researched on this Gym Leader. He was definitely stronger than Bronze in terms of sheer power, so he would have to pick his battles out of strategic necessity, not raw strength.

"Well, it appears that you are free to go, Young Master Bronze." The greeter said, a nervous little man with a noticeable twitch. "Not many contestants this week, even with the tournament in a few months. It is the first ever in Rorian history, but people are not as interested as you would think. Please step through that door to the right."

Bronze entered the darkness of the aperture, after Jake said he would be waiting for him, to congratulate him on his victory.

Then he saw the arena.

Pulsing lights throbbed like blood-filled ventricles, with blaring television sirens of music wailing above the frenzied, gyrating movements of the crowd. A line of catwalks, dark as ebony, stretched across the massive dance pit. Gabe was reclining in a tattered recliner near the DJ booth, smoking a foul pipe.

Bronze hated the place. In fact, that made him all the more motivated to beat the proprietor.

"Hey-ey-ey-ey!" Gabe yelled, although the music was so loud that only the security staff on the catwalk and Bronze could hear him. "We have a new contender! I would ask you all to give him some applause, but no one can hear me! Ha! Ha! Well...time for you to get rolling! Here is the puzzle..."

"Basically," Gabe screamed. "You have to guess a sequence of notes in a song, and then step on a collection of tiles in the correct order based on factors such as rhythm, harmony, bass, and lyrical resonance-"

"Whoa! Wait!" Bronze yelled, holding up his hands. "What if someone has absolutely no musical talent, but, say, still would possess the necessary skills to battle?"

Gabe held out two Gym Badges. One hand held a normal copy of the Arc Badge, while the other bore a modified version, with a pair of prominent rabbit ears.

"Actually, buddy, you can just challenge me. Both Badges are equal valid, but the challengers who beat me, but didn't take the puzzle get the rabbit ears with it. What do you say?"

Bronze walked to Gabe, baring his teeth in a grim smile. "I don't care about how the Badge looks. I just want the Badge itself. Start the battle, or are you unaccustomed to having no time to prepare, buddy?"

"Geez, kid." Gabe said. "Well, just for that bit of arrogance that I detect, it is now my utmost priority to crush you! Light it up!"

Gabe sent out Pikachu, and Bronze released Charmander.

I have to learn his weaknesses before I can mount an sufficient offense. Bronze thought. He is wishing to prove himself, likely covering for a primal brokenness in his life. Thus, he needs to prove that he is stronger than me. That means that he will get overconfident once he defeats even one of my Pokémon. I am going to enjoy this...

Pikachu darted forward and launched a searing spark at Charmander, who dodged in time with Bronze's command.

"You're quick, aren't you?!" Gabe said, clapping his hands together. "Let's change that up, shall we? Pikachu, use that accumulated energy that you absorbed! Increase your speed!"

Gabe nodded at Pikachu, who began to send rivulets of electricity down its body. Charmander leaped, Bronze directing it to send two brutal scratches across the opposing Pokémon. They hit, but Pikachu commenced it's attack.

Pikachu jumped into the rafters, blasting a spark a Charmander with such speed it had no time to dodge. Hitting Charmander squarely in the side, the fire-lizard started twitching.

Paralysis, Bronze grimly thought. He tried to direct Charmander to launch another Ember, but it couldn't respond, shackled by misfiring neural impulses. Gabe grinned, and Pikachu shot a massive volt from its tail, knocking Charmander out cold.

"One down, eh, kid?" Gabe said. "Let us see how your other does, if you have one. No one tells Gabe what to do! No rabbit ears for you, kid, no badge at all! As always, no one can beat-"

Bronze sent out Electabuzz, clearly battle hungry. Gabe was far too distracted to order Pikachu's to evade Electabuzz's massive blow to the torso. The opposing Pokémon slammed into the arena railing, unconscious.

"What?!" Gabe yelled. "No Electabuzz could deliver such a powerful strike!"

"I just caught it, actually." Bronze said. "It accumulated a lot of anger inside it's Poke Ball. Now that it channeled it's emotions into a single, powerful attack, it will take my orders without resisting."

"Clever." Gabe said. "Manectric, go! Smokescreen!"

A cloud of thick vapor spewed from the jaws of the enemy Pokémon. The entire arena was clouded in the noxious vapor, hardly anything visible. Electabuzz heard a rustling-

Manectric slashed Electabuzz countless times, before blowing it off the arena with a weak variation of the Hyper Beam attack. The recoil from the frenzied series of assaults left the Manectric weakened, but still standing.

"Well, looks like I'm the winner, huh?!" Gabe said. "Come back when you actually get some experience, kid."

He was then interrupted by a figure appearing in the smoke behind Manectric, blowing a single stream of blazing flame, until the Manectric fainted.

The smoke cleared, and there stood Charmander, none worse for wear.

"Wh-what?" Gabe sputtered, "H-how? It fainted earlier!"

"I used my one item," Bronze replied. "A Revive. I always carry them around, who doesn't? That's why I didn't send Charmander back to its Poke Ball. Might I have the Badge now?"

Gabe stared at Bronze, giving him the Badge with the rabbit ears. Then he smiled, and started laughing, although it could hardly be heard over the blaring sound.

"What and old trick! You beat me fair and square. I am always surprised at how few trainers actually use a Revive. Be on your way. Please leave. Goodbye."

Bronze thanked him, and walked out of the stage back over the catwalk. Just out of Gabe's sight, Bronze used the Logarian dagger to cut off both the rabbit ears, the hallowed blade slicing through cast iron like rice paper.

One down...seven to go.

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(Note: Everything that Emrett says here should be regarded with the utmost suspicion. The servants of the Evil Djinn are liars, and what they say may not be true even from their own standpoint.)

Bronze's father woke in a spacious, fragrant conservatory, artificial sunlight streaming in through plastiglass windows, silicon-based flowers and sculptures of forest-dwelling Pokémon dotting the garden. There was a stream of rushing water, entering and exiting the room through a durasteel culvert.

He realized that his wife was also awake, lying in a single recliner. Neither of them had any bonds whatsoever, and the man ventured that their captors believed the room unescapable.

"Ah, finally!" A voice said, thin and smooth. "Now, we can get down to real business."

A man in flowing, black and orange stained linen robes stood beside a Beheeyem, a staff of pale wood in his hand. "Good day, Robert Tercano, Lily. I am a proud representative of the illustrious leader of Team Eclipse, the Black Hood, who in himself is but a pawn to the Great Djinn, Giver of Freedom, Lord of the Earth. Please, stay seated."

"If you think that I care about anything you say," Robert said, spying a kitchen knife on a wooden table, situated next to a mound of food. "You ought to be sorely mistaken! Your other 'representatives' threatened the life of my son and drugged me."

Emrett noticed Robert's fixation on the knife. "You are hungry. Eat. There is decade-mulled Aprijuice, steamed curry, deluxe Poffins, and, of course, a fresh Rage Candy Bar, along with sauced Cinnabar-fried steaks! And by all means, attempt to kill me with the knife. Your attempt will fail. Firstly, my Beheeyem will boil your brains before you even get within ten feet of me. Second, I am learned in over a dozen schools of lethal combat, and have already determined that I could kill you and your wife in about three-point-two seconds within a distance of four meters. And thirdly, I am not even physically present. What you see is a holographic representation of me that I control. Of course, that brings the second point to moot, but the first still stands."

To illustrate the final point, Emrett waved his hand through a synthetic palm tree, the holo-image appearing entirely realistic. "I built this cell as my own expenditure. Make no mistake, this is a cell. You will never escape. Then again, you have no reason to. You will be fed, given water, and will have a variety of freedoms, including exercise, supervised walks, and selected reading material."

"Nice food," Lily said. "What's in it?"

"Some spice," Emrett said, stroking the head of his Beheeyem with intangible fingers. "Oh! And a wee bit of lethal neurotoxins. Ha! Just kidding. I will not resort to coercion or force in this interrogation, for I respect you far too much to use such basic methods."

"Respect us?!" Robert said, barely keeping his cool. "What about us could you possibly respect? What information do we have that you need? Everything that we know, we have told to public sources! Do you people even have internet connection, with all due credit to your ability to duplicate the house key?"

"I do respect you, more than you know. Mostly, because people like you are the greatest enemies to our cause, you Arceans."

"What does out religion have to do with it?"

Emrett gave a mock gasp. "No, no, no! It has nothing to do with religion per se! Many Arceans are valuable allies of our cause. I was rather referring to what I call mere Arceanism. You see, our cause, Team Eclipse's cause, can only latch on as a parasite of sorts. That means we can't have regular Arceanism, we have to have Arceanism and the Crisis, Arceanism and Psychical Research, Arceanism and Faith Healing, Arceanism and This or That. We need Areceanism and. But we must get to business. Firstly, have you discovered a sort of ancient bottle in your archeological finds?"

"Yes." Robert said. "What is this Great Djinn you mentioned?"

Closing his eyes, Emrett smiled. "Ah-h-h-h-h...the Great Djinn. The true Master. He who Alone is Worshipful. The Foe of Arceus. The Black Enemy of the World, at least that is how the ignorant Hisuians saw it. I assure you, Arceus is peanuts compared to the Great Djinn. But I thank you for answering my questions so promptly! Next question. Is this bottle now in your possession, or has it been moved to Anthien Museum, as our sources report? Our men have already swept your house."

"No." Robert said. "They moved it to the Anthien Museum! They didn't see, they didn't know...that thing is dangerous, far too dangerous to put on public display! We fought tooth and nail to lock it away, but they took it. The one displayed at Anthien is the authentic."

Emrett laughed. "And our most trusted, supernatural sources say the same. Now I know that you two are telling the truth, as Beheeyem has registered your prime bodidly states when not undergoing the action known as lying. No falsehood can be hidden, not now. But...there is one more question that I have, and for this reason, you are going to be staying here for a rather long time. When you first touched the bottle and took the energistic measurements, what did you see?"

"When I even grazed that thing," Lily said. "Well...evil. Just evil. That is how it felt. But when we applied every test we knew...it was just a normal artifact. We couldn't open it, but I assume that it wouldn't have any effect."

The Beheeyem held up its blinking, three-bulbed hand. "It appears that you are lying, or not telling the whole truth." Emrett said, clucking his tongue. I hoped that you would be honest in your entirety. But it appears that I must...extract the information from you. Let us start. You will notice that you can no longer move from the chair. That is my Pokémon's psychic abilities demonstrating themself. Now, one plus one make two. Two plus two makes four. Four plus four makes..."

"Don't listen!" Robert yelled. "He is trying to get your mind into a state in which Beyeehem can predict your thought patterns! Break his numeric sequences with things that require logic, or advanced philosophical knowledge! Quick, it was two 'undered times ten when the Hisuians set sail in the ocean blue..."

"Remember your multiplication tables!" Emrett screeched. "Three times three is nine. Four times four is sixteen. Five times five is twenty five..."

"Type advantages are very important in Pokémon battling!" Lily yelled, feeling Beheeyem attempting to work it's way into her prefrontal cortex. "No, that isn't strong enough...I know! Arceus, Lord of All, Lover of Light, Elohim of all Elohim, Elyon..."

"Stop! Stop!" Emrett cried. "Cease! I have had enough! I gave you your chance at being civilized. Now, you go around so freely proclaiming the titles of the False One! Tell me what you are hiding, or I will personally visit your son!"

It was a lie, of course. Emrett was forbidden to harm Bronze in any way. But his parents did not know that.

"There is a energy of a morphogenic nature inside the bottle." Lily said. "It could be absorbed, but the recipient would have to be in perfect physical condition to survive! Please, that is all we know!"

"Wonderful." Emrett purred. "I have scarcely been more pleased. Ah, women, so easily spilling dearly-held secrets. But the man would have done the same thing, and the wisest thing. Either way, I am impressed that you resisted Beheeyem, even for a moment. You are to stay here, until further notice. Beheeyem will accompany you through the length of your imprisonment. Bonne chance, as the Kalosi say."

Emrett vanished, leaving nothing but a Beheeyem, and two distraught prisoners.