It was eerily familiar to Dominic, being back in the city where he had once been arrested. Now, as he, Brenna, and Alex watched Mauville City grow around them, Dom felt himself shiver with nervousness. Sure, Pierre had said that he was clear of charges, but did he really trust that old guy? No. He didn't trust him one bit, and he feared that the police would be waiting here, waiting for him to come back..

"Dom? The gym's over that way," said Alex, extending his arm ahead of them.

"What? Oh.. okay," Dom said, his mind still on Pierre. Pierre, Steven, his dreams, his dad.. so many mysteries trying to distract him.

The group moved forward into the city, the purple-roofed houses and buildings towering over them. In the distance Mauville Gym could be seen, it's glass doors reflecting the afternoon light toward them. They followed a stone road through the shops and apartment buildings, all the while headed for the gym. It was silent for what seemed like a long time.

"Oh, have you guys ever checked out the game corner?" said Alex, breaking the silence.

"The what?" asked Dom.

"Honestly, Dominic, even I know what the game corner is," said Brenna, adjusting her glasses.

"Well sorry, I didn't get out much back in Fortree," Dom said, scratching his head.

Alex sighed. "The game corner is the number one attraction Mauville City has to offer. I mean, Mauville is at the geographic center of Hoenn, you need something for people to do while they pass through. It's like a casino, people get addicted and have wasted their lives playing slots there, but.. it's still one of the most popular places in the city."

"My brother comes here all the time," Brenna commented, "My mom yells at him for wasting his money, but he won't listen.. don't go in there, Dom, you'll become a casino zombie."

Dom smiled. "How old is your brother, Brenna?"

"Oh, he's 17," she said, "But maturity-wise he's 9. He's a lifeguard back in Slateport.. I swear I think he's adopted.. I mean, I find myself telling him how to do his homework some nights."

Alex and Dominic laughed and they continued down the road, again, in silence. Before long, they stood in front of the entrance to Mauville Gym. Dominic quickly made sure his pokemon were healed, that he had extra potions, and that he himself was ready.

"Dom, I think I'm gunna go check out the game corner myself," said Alex. Brenna moaned and gave him a scolding look.

"And while you beat the leader I'm going to go to the library, check out some books to read in our spare time, you know?" she said. This time, Alex gave her an odd look, sniggering softly.

They glared at each other then looked at Dom, simultaneously saying, "Good luck!" And then they walked off, leaving Dom to enter the gym, and, hopefully, win his third badge.

* * * * * * * * * *

Dom stepped through the automatic front doors and into the gym. Suddenly, unexpectedly, he felt a surge of electricity run through him. He jumped, feeling his dark hair stand on end.

"What the hell..?"

He was standing in the lobby of the gym, several trainers staring at him. Actually, they were groaning. The receptionist smiled at him and clapped.

"You've been shocked by the Mauville Gym! Congratulations!"

Dom looked at her as if she was a rabid monkey. "Say what?"

She chuckled. "Oh, you haven't heard about the shock?"

"Can't say I have," said Dom, still shaking. He heard cursing coming from the trainers sitting in the waiting corner, and began to wonder why they seemed to be so angry at the fact of Dom's electrocution.

"Oh, dear! The first person to be shocked while entering the gym gets to go straight to the leader without waiting!"

Dom managed a little laugh. "Okay then.. I guess.. is that a good thing?"

"Oh yes, when the next trainer comes out of the arena you'll get to go!"

Dominic smiled. As if she had been listening, a girl walked through the swinging doors that lead into the arena, smiling. No loser could wear a smile like that..

"I beat him! I beat him!" she began to scream, running out the front doors.

"You're up!" said the receptionist. Dom felt his stomach flip.. he hadn't even thought of his strategy.. His plan had been to.. well.. figure things out in the reception area.

As he walked through the swinging doors, he heard one of the trainers waiting in the lobby yell towards him. "Screw you, bastard! I've been waiting here for three hours! Screw you, screw your pokemon, screw this gym, and screw GOD DAMN ELECTRICITY!"

Dom turned, stuck up his middle finger, and walked into the arena, laughing.

* * * * * * * * * *

The Mauville arena was very much unlike the previous two gyms Dominic had battled in. The floor was covered in neon yellow tiles, and electric generators stood in the corners of the room, generating small volts. Dom knew the theme here was electricity, and it had been made even more apparent by the shock he had received upon entering.

In the very back of the large room a short, rotund man stood staring blankly at the ceiling. He was much older than Dom, and his elderly eyes seemed glazed over. Dominic stopped a few yards away from the gym leader, afraid of what might happen. He know noticed that the older man was muttering something softly.

"What the hell.. I cannot.. no.. I will not let them do this," he uttered, "my dreams are never wrong, the ancients won't be pleased.. oh, but a new power has awakened!"

"Er.. hello?" said Dom, unsure of what to do.

"They are moving towards the forests. The ground is shaking. The bloody face, the hand.. we will not give in.." the man glanced at Dominic, was now frozen with fear. "Oh, boy, I didn't see you. Come in, do, please.. we must battle, must we not?

"B..b..bloody face?" Dom gulped.

"What? Oh, nothing boy, nothing to concern you. Grown up things, is all. Now do you want a badge or not?" said the man.

"I..I.. I saw a bloody face in my dream.."

"Excuse me?"

"I.. I had a dream. There was this huge thing.. a pale face, a hand.." Dom found himself sweating again, as he had been after the dream occurred.

"Dear, dear me. Oh lord in the skies, tell me this is the one? We will see about this.. we must battle," said the leader, "three pokemon each, then I will talk with you. I have an eerie feeling in my bones.. my premonition will be confirmed after the battle."

Dominic was very confused, and scared of what this old man had been talking about. It was so eerily familiar.. the shaking.. the head

"Okay, then, I'll get serious about this battle thing," the leader said, straightening his face, "I'm Wattson." Dom looked over this guy, who was at least in his sixties or seventies. His white hair stuck up in the back and ran around his ears to form a thick beard. On top, he was bald.

"Alright," Dom said nervously. He watched Wattson take out a pokeball from the pocket of his brown jacket, which he wore over a yellow buttoned down shirt. The jacket had a yellow lightning bolt on the sleeve, encased in a black circle. His cargo pants were also bright yellow.

"Let's go, then, partner!" yelled Wattson in his southern accent. He threw down a pokeball onto the tile, which burst open to reveal a.. another pokeball?

Before he even reached for a pokemon, Dom pulled out his pokedex.

(Voltorb. Electric Ball pokemon. Electric type. Voltorb is able to hover above ground due to a unique ability: voltorb can direct electrical currents under it. Because of it's appearance, voltorb has many a time been mistaken for a pokeball, which is unfortunate for the unwise person thinking this. Voltorb has chronic anger, and many people wonder why the scientists who created pokemon gave it this feature.)

Dom looked again at the spherical pokemon, who sure DID look angry.

"TORB. TORB."

The voltorb sounded very mechanical. Dom looked over his four pokeballs and couldn't help but choose the first one.

"Manectric! C'mon!" he yelled.

Out came the blue and yellow dog. "Dom! Where are we? Oh, gym, huh?" Manectric barked. Dom's pokemon studied the voltorb and spoke up again. "I dunno, Dom. I don't think my electricity will do much good against that thing."

Dom frowned. "We'll try."

Wattson had had enough waiting. "Okay then! Voltorb, screech!"

"Manectric, shock wave!"

The voltorb gave an odd look toward Dom and manectric, and then let off an ear piercing noise. Dom covered his ears, and manectric fell to the ground whimpering.

According to his pokedex, Dom's manectric just had it's defense lowered extremely. Manectric stood up weakly and shot a blot of lightning at voltorb, who simply absorbed the volt.

"TORB. TORB."

"God damn!" Dom yelled, now sweating. "Zappy, thunder wave!"

"Voltorb, selfdestruct!" shouted Wattson, and voltorb immediately began to glow red. Manectric looked back at Dom.

"Oh shizzle! I'm going down!" the dog said.

"What? Manectric.. what..?" Dom said.. but suddenly saw. Voltorb, who had been glowing, was now bright red. It suddenly burst into a thousand pieces, blowing manectric across the room.

"No!" Dom yelled, unwillingly recalling his fainted pokemon.

"Ah, kid, my voltorb's fainted, too. It's still even!" said Wattson, throwing another pokeball down. Another floating pokemon came out, this time a silvery pokemon with one large, circular eye in the center of it's sphere-shaped body. On both end of the pokemon were large magnets.

"I know what that one is," muttered Dom. "A magnemite.."

"Well? Move it along, partner!" shouted Wattson, his feet tapping impatiently.

"Okay.. um.. I guess.. barboach?" Dom tried to shout, but ended up mumbling it. Before barboach could even fall out of it's pokeball, the floor underneath Dom and Wattson opened up, creaking, revealing a pool of water that the small eel fell into.

"Darnit.." said Wattson. "That thing hasn't opened up since I started at this gym.. no person has EVER used a water pokemon round these parts.. heck I didn't even know this thing opened up automatically."

Dom didn't smile. Barboach was ground type, too, right? Wouldn't it be unaffected by electricity? Maybe not.. how could he have been so stupid? Dominic smacked himself on the head.

"Magnemite! Sonic boom!"

"Er.. barboach.. mud shot!"

The silvery pokemon began to spin around quickly, and soon it had formed a small tornado that flew toward barboach. To Dom's pleasure, the eel pokemon simply dunked itself underwater, dodging the blow, and resurfaced with it's mouth full of.. something. It shot a stream of mud out of it's mouth at magnemite, who became covered. Wattson's pokemon wobbled a little in the air and suddenly fell, it's eye flickering and suddenly fading.

"Wow, that was awesome, barboach!" said Dom.

"Wahoo! Thanks Dom, buddy boy! Anything for you to win a badge! Wahoo!" said barboach. Dom had never heard his pokemon talk before, and now suddenly thought that his barboach had a personality very much like Cara. Even that little "Wahoo" was sadly familiar..

"Alright, we've had enough fun and games, little one. Your barboach may be ground type, but my next pokemon will blow him out of the water! Go Magneton!" hollered Wattson, withdrawing magnemite and throwing down another pokeball.

"Just hold on, barboach.." said Dom.

"Gotcha! Wahoo! Boach!"

Forming from the thrown pokeball now was a gigantic, floating figure.. much like the rest of Wattson's pokemon. It looked somewhat familiar to magnemite.. and Dom realized it was the evolved form of Wattson's previous pokemon. It had three eyes, each in the center of a metallic sphere. The three spheres connected, forming a large, evil looking mechanical monster.

"Magneton, thunder!"

"Oh god.. Um.. barboach! Another mud shot!"

Magneton began to glow a neon yellow. Barboach quickly dove underwater again, coming up and spitting mud at the large pokemon. Magneton was covered, but didn't seem fazed. Sparks began to come from it, and suddenly it burst into lightning, shooting straight toward barboach . Dom couldn't help but mutter under his breath. "You won't be fazed you won't be fazed you're resistant barboach barboach come ON!"

But it was too late. The attack had struck the water, which quickly conducted the electricity, zapping barboach until it reached.. zero health. Dom kept his eyes closed.

"Damn!" Dom didn't know whether to bring out spoink or gulpin.. spoink was at level 25, gulpin at 21. Gulpin needed the experience.. but had an extreme disadvantage.. what to do.. what to do..

"How was THAT boy?" sputtered Wattson, laughing maniacally again. "My magneton is ultra powerful! He'll knock out whatever pokemon you bring out next!"

"We'll see about that.." whispered Dom. "Gulpin!"

The green blob materialized on the field as the tiled floor once again covered the pool of water. Dom was eager to see what his gulpin talked like, if it talked at all, but was soon interrupted by Wattson's yelling.

"Magneton, thunder again!"

"Shit! Gulpin, if you can hear me, um.. sludge!"

The gulpin rolled over, and for a moment Dom thought it had died. But gulpin simply rolled over, and over, and over.

"Gulpin?"

The green pokemon suddenly opened it's mouth, and instead of sludge coming out, a voice did.

"Honestly, Dominic, why bother sludging the thing? It won't work. Why don't we just stop battling and go out for a cup of tea?"

Dom's mouth hung open. This seemingly dead pokemon was now talking.. and in an English accent.

"What..?"

"That's right, chap, I think we aught to go for tea. It would do me some good," said gulpin, twitching.

"Er.. later.. right now you hafta.. sludge!" screamed Dom.

"I TOLD you.. it won't work. The magneton is steel type, I'm poison, sadly. Why couldn't I be made a dragon? Or even.. even a dark type? But NO.. ah, well, anyway, poison has no effect on steel!" said gulpin confidently. "I would think that you, as a trainer, MY trainer to be exact, would know that. I'm a useless lump that will never do anything."

"Gulpin! That's horrible, don't say that, it's not true! But you hafta do SOMETHING! You're about to get electrocu-" but Dom stopped at that. Wattson's magneton was sparking.. ready to thunder. Before Dom could say anything a bolt of lightning struck gulpin in the side, and it fell over, shaking.

"Ha! I WIN! Good day to you, sunny!" screamed Wattson, laughing hysterically. "And now, I can get back to my work.."

"But.. you.. I.. my.. oh shit."

"Okay, now, boy, leave! There's others waiting. BYE!" Wattson turned away and walked into a back room.

Dom recalled his gulpin helplessly. He hadn't even gotten to attack.. he HAD to get that badge! What would he tell Brenna and Alex? That they had to wait another day? He HAD TO GET IT NOW!

"Wattson! Come back!" yelled Dom, running after the old man. "You said you would talk to me! About my dream! I.. you SAID!" Wattson turned around, angry.

"Boy! I TOLD YOU.."

"I know, but please, please, PLEASE! I really do want to talk! And I just NEED the badge! I can't wait around here until tomorrow! Just give me another chance!" moaned Dom.

"Well.. let me think.. NO!"

Wattson turned and began to walk away, muttering things again, when the lights flickered. Dom looked up to see the lights strung to the ceiling going on and off.. on and off.. on and off.

And then the room was plunged in darkness.

Wattson turned around quickly and walked in the opposite direction, ignoring Dom, and pushed his way through the swinging doors. Dom ran after him.

"Wattson! Wattson what happened? Why are the lights.."

He found Wattson standing in the lobby, where the lights were out, also. The trainers waiting here were moaning, groaning, stamping their feet. It was pretty much the same as when Dom had first came in.

"I'm sorry, you all, but the gym will be closed until tomorrow. We have to fix a problem.. as you can see the power's gone out," said Wattson.

"No! GOD DAMN IT! I'VE BEEN WAITING FOREVER! SCREW IT ALL!" screamed the same boy that Dom had heard before.

The trainers filtered out of the gym, leaving Wattson and Dominic alone in the darkness.

"Wattson, what happened?" asked Dom.

"Power surge. I hafta go fix it.." Wattson was mumbling as he walked out of the gym, in the direction of the city exit.

"Wait! Well.. I could do it for you!" said Dom hopefully. Wattson turned to him and sighed.

"You want it that bad?" he asked. Dom nodded. "Here. Take this key and go to New Mauville, it's a power plant outside the city. You'll find a major light switch there.. it will restart the generators.."

Dom held back a cry of relief. "I'll do it! Yes! I'll do it! Thank you so much! SO SO MUCH!" Dominic took the key Wattson held out and grinned. "Will I get the badge if I do this?"

"Boy, I told you that I had to see your battling skills before I told you about this dream thing. But you lost! My thoughts were wrong. Nothing is important to you as of now. Just go to New Mauville and try to fix the power. If you make it back alive, I might consider giving you the badge.." said Wattson, itching his beard.

"I don't lose that often! I won two badges before this! I.. I.. wait. Alive? Is there a chance I might not be alive when I get back?" sputtered Dom.

"You know that didn't make any sense, right? Just do me this favor. I bet you are strong, but you need a little experience.." said Wattson, who was now crossing his arms. "You made some bad choices in that battle.. I mean.. gulpin? Never mind, will you just leave? I want to watch the Championships on TV.."

Dom sighed, disappointed in himself. He hadn't won, but he could be getting the badge anyway.. it just didn't feel as right. Plus, he was becoming a little disturbed about this entire dream business. He would go attempt to fix the power, and after that he would never lose a gym battle again.

Ever.