Previously, in Pokémon: The Lost Child, Piplup and the newly evolved Grovyle finally got to compete in the tournament. Piplup lost his match but in the process evolved into Prinplup, while Grovyle won his first one. He wasn't able to beat the next match, despite his best efforts. Little did both Prinplup and Grovyle know that this tournament was much deeper than they first realized.
Prinplup and Grovyle decided to hang around for a bit longer to see how the tournament would go. They both figured it would be a good opportunity to learn more about battling as well as the kind of Pokémon they would be dealing with.
"Magmar has made it pretty far into the tournament," Prinplup commented.
"I can't say I am surprised, he is the one who defeated us, and I can tell that he is very strong," Grovyle said.
"The one thing I found most interesting about him is that he was able to teach himself to use moves outside of his type, like that thunder punch, for instance," Prinplup commented.
"If we are going to want to succeed, we will want to take some hints from him, I just wish I knew where to begin."
While Prinplup and Grovyle were talking, some piece of paper fell off Grovyle's leaves. At first, Grovyle didn't notice it, but Prinplup did.
"Wait what just fell off your leaf."
"What do you mean?" Grovyle looked around briefly and saw the paper that had just fallen off of him.
"So this is yours?" Prinplup asked.
"No, I have no idea who it belongs to, but it looks like it has some sort of message on it. Meet me in break room 4a as soon as possible. I need to talk. Huh, this is interesting?"
"Well, we need to head to the place. Someone may need our help," Prinplup said.
"Wait we need to be cautious. This could be some sort of trap."
"I am ready for that possibility," Prinplup said while running off.
"I swear you will be the death of us."
The two went to the exact location that was given. The room was nearly empty, which they found weird as most of the other ones were full at all times.
"Hello is anyone there," Prinplup said.
"Oh thank Arceus, you came." Prinplup and Grovyle looked around to see that it was none other than Magmar standing there.
"So you are the one that sent that letter," Grovyle said.
"Yeah, I was. Look, I know we don't exactly know each other super well, but I need your help."
"What exactly do you need our help for?" Prinplup asked.
"I know it may sound crazy, but there is something very wrong with this tournament. I have faced several Pokémon that are way above me, and I thought I was going to lose each time, but they kept making a lot of poor decisions that allowed me to win. It was almost like they were intentionally throwing the game. That is the reason I am coming to you. You are the only two that seemed to be genuinely trying to fight against me."
"I will admit that is quite a claim," Prinplup said.
"Also, why is this place empty? None of the other rooms are like this," Grovyle asked.
"Oh yeah that, there is a rumour around this place that this room is inhabited by some sort of evil presence and as a result, nobody comes in. I didn't want to use this, but there was no other option I had."
"Do you have any idea what is going on?" Prinplup asked.
"I wish I did, but I am just as unsure as you guys," Magmar said.
"We could first try interrogating the Pokémon you said purposefully lost you," Grovyle suggested.
"I guess that is worth a shot. My last match was against a Drilbur, which I found especially strange as he had the type advantage over me and had several chances to hit me, but always paused at the worst moments," Magmar said.
"Let's go find him."
The two searched around the building for Drilbur, and they found him pretty quickly. Grovyle was the one to find him, and he knew that he would need to lure Drilbur to the room. Grovyle slipped a note to Drilbur, which successfully lured Drilbur to the abandoned room. Grovyle then regrouped with Prinplup and Magmar to tell them about this.
"I managed to lure Drilbur to the room. We just need to coroner him there."
Drilbur went inside like it said to do. He found it weird that the place was completely abandoned when all the other rooms were full. When Drilbur was distracted, Grovyle knocked him out.
"Wait where am I," Drilbur said, waking up to see he was tied to a rope and his arms were sealed.
"That should hopefully hold him," Grovyle said. Drilbur then screamed out after seeing what was going on. He immediately thought he was being kidnapped or something.
Grovyle replied, "Calm down. We aren't going to kill you or anything like that. We just need to talk to you,"
"Why, for Arceus' sake, did you tie me to this thing."
"We need to know who paid you to throw the match against me?" Magmar jumped straight to the questions asked Drilbur. This caught Drilbur off guard quite a bit. He was not expecting someone to figure it out.
"Uh, what are you talking about," Drilbur bluffed with a clear nervousness that made it clear to the three right away that he was lying.
"Your tone betrays you, Drilbur. You are lying. If you won't talk willingly, I guess I will need to force the information out of you," Grovyle said.
"Wait, we can't torture him for information," Magmar said in shock that Grovyle was even considering doing this.
"We don't harm people like that, that isn't who we are," Prinplup said.
"I will do what is needed to get to the bottom of this, Magmar. You should understand me. Don't you want to find this out too?" Grovyle asked.
"I do want to find out, but not using these methods." Tensions between Grovyle and Magmar had been rising, and it looked like the two were about to fight over doing this their way.
"Guys, we can't fight amongst each other. That is how we will never find out what is going on," Prinplup said.
"It's not like I know anything anyway," Drilbur said.
"Elaborate," Grovyle said.
"Look, you are right. I was paid off to throw the match, but I have no idea who did it."
"Well, thanks for being honest with us. Anything else you would like to add?" Grovyle asked further.
"I was supposed to pick up my money in a few hours," Drilbur replied.
"Well, Drilbur, you will pick up that money as scheduled and pay no attention to the people following you, Grovyle said.
"As you wish."
The idea was for Drilbur to collect the money so the three could ambush the person who delivered it. Drilbur went to a back alley outside of the tournament where he was told to collect the money. A figure walked into the alley and it seemed like they were the ones delivering the money. The three couldn't tell who they were though, as they were disguising themselves as something.
"I can't tell who that is," Prinplup said.
"It doesn't matter, all we need to do is jump them now and demand they give us the information," Grovyle said.
They waited for the figure to get closer and then sprung their trap, jumping the Pokémon. They were caught off guard and unprepared for an attack as well as outnumbered, so they were subdued quickly. Grovyle hit them with a leaf blade to undo the cloaking move that they used and discovered it was a Machoke.
"We know exactly what is going on with this tournament. It's corrupt and rotten. You better tell us everything that you know or else you will pay the price," Grovyle said menacingly while holding his leaf blade right up to his face while pinning him down.
"Calm down, Grovyle, we don't need to keep using threats to get information out of them," Prinplup said, concerned about Grovyle doing this for the second time. It looked like Grovyle was hesitating at the idea for a bit, but he wanted this information badly, so he went right back to threatening him.
"Alright, alright, please stop. I will tell you everything," Machoke said.
"See, that wasn't so hard. Now talk."
"I am a part of a secret group working for an organization that is fixing the results of the tournament to make money. I can lead you to their location, just please don't hurt me."
"You will do exactly that," Grovyle replied.
"Grovyle, we need to talk," Prinplup said.
"What?"
"You need to stop threatening people to get what you want out of them. I know you want to get to the bottom of this, but this isn't right."
"I have to agree with Prinplup Grovyle. If this is what we need to do to solve this mystery, I don't know if I want to solve it," Magmar said.
"You may disagree with my methods, but they are getting us the results we want." As much as Prinplup and Magmar wanted to at this point, they didn't have a good argument against him. They reluctantly agreed to follow Grovyle and Machoke.
Eventually, they find themselves in a mining facility that Machoke says is where their base of operation is.
"I don't see anyone around here," Grovyle said.
"Just keep looking," Machoke replied.
Grovyle knew something wasn't right. He sniffed around and noticed a high amount of dirt everywhere, way more than what is natural in an active place.
"This mining facility has been abandoned for what looks like years. This place can't possibly be your base." Grovyle pinned Machoke down again and went back to threatening.
"Okay, okay, I was lying. I am not a part of this group, I am only the middle man."
"You have wasted so much of my time," Grovyle said as he was ready to strike him before Magmar grabbed his arm.
"Grovyle, it's not worth it. This Machoke doesn't know anything. Your threats are what got us into this. Don't make things worse." Grovyle, at this point, had to understand that what he was doing was a bad decision and reluctantly let Machoke go, but not before saying, "Leave and don't ever show your face in this place again."
"Yes sir," Machoke said, running away as quickly as he could.
"I'm glad you could come to your senses, Grovyle. This is not the way we should be handling this," Prinplup said.
"I don't particularly like this, but I have to admit that my methods aren't getting the solid results I thought they were," Grovyle said.
"It's good that you admit you were wrong. Now let's find the people responsible for this corrupt tournament the proper way," Magmar said.