Previously, in Pokémon: The Lost Child, Prinplup and Grovyle were contacted by Magmar, who knew something was going on with the tournament as multiple of his opponents seemed to be losing on purpose. The two agreed to help, but due to Grovyle threatening the info out of the suspects, they were led in the wrong direction. Now they need to figure out how they will get back on track to finding the truth.
"Is Grovyle okay?" Magmar asked Prinplup.
"It seems he is deep in thought, probably trying to figure out how we are going to solve the case now."
"My first question is what is their motive for fixing this tournament. The Machoke gave us money as the answer, but how much money could be made from this?" Grovyle said.
"That is a good point, perhaps it's some other motive," Magmar said.
Grovyle had an idea. "You say that you have defeated a few opponents that seemed to not be trying to fight back. Is it a coincidence, part of some bigger plan or could somebody be trying to make you win the tournament?"
"That would make sense from what is going on, but I don't see who would want to do so," Magmar said.
"What if it's someone who has a personal interest in seeing you win, like maybe a family member perhaps," Grovyle thought.
"I don't see who it could be. My younger brother Magby doesn't even remotely have the capability to pull any of this off. He is still a child. My father, Magmortar, I guess, has the physical capability to pull something like this off, but it can't be him."
"If Magmar doesn't think it's possible, I would be willing to believe him," Prinplup said.
"I am not as quick to assume, I will admit it is probably hard for you to even consider the possibility that a family member could be involved in this, but you have to admit it fits up rather well with all the actions that have been taken," Grovyle said.
"I will admit, you do have a good point, I guess we are strapped for options, so I guess it wouldn't hurt to at least look into this idea," Magmar replied.
"Since you aren't going to threaten information from the suspects this time, Grovyle, we need a new plan to get some information," Prinplup said.
"How about we sneak into your house and see if we can find any evidence we can use," Grovyle suggested.
"That is an extremely risky idea. If we get caught, my father is not going to be mad," Magmar said.
"I don't want Magmar to get in trouble, especially if we turn out to be wrong," Prinplup replied.
"I do understand your concern, but we don't have many other options right now, I will do my best to be careful, I have learned a few stealth tricks. Besides Magmar, you don't need to sneak in yourself. What I need you to do is lure your dad outside. That way, he will never catch me."
"I will need to be able to give a signal in case he goes back in."
"How about I launch a flamethrower into the air? That should be something easy to spot."
"That is perfect. Now let's get started."
While Prinplup was still hesitant about the plan, he ultimately agreed to go along. Magmar lured his father outside by telling him he needed help practicing his thunder punch for the next tournament battle. The tournament was currently on a break, so they didn't need to worry about that until tomorrow.
Prinplup and Grovyle snuck into Magmortar's room through the roof, keeping a close eye out so they weren't spotted. Right away, the two started looking around his room for anything that might tie him to this conspiracy. They did so for a few minutes, but weren't able to find anything for a while. Eventually, Grovyle tripped over and spotted a stack of letters.
"Prinplup, look what I found." Prinplup came over to see the stack of letters and knew right away that this could be the lead they were looking for.
"Read them quickly, we don't have much time."
"Arceus, damn it, these things are all written in code. Wait, but the names of the senders aren't in code, and among them are Drilbur and Machoke, and they were sent super recently."
"That can't be a coincidence," Prinplup thought.
"No I would most certainly think this isn't, so Magmortar is involved in this corruption just to let his son win," Grovyle responded.
"That seems like such a weird reason to go through all of this trouble," Prinplup thought.
"It may be to us, but it probably isn't to him," Grovyle replied.
Right away, Prinplup heard a noise outside and looked around to see that a flamethrower was being launched into the air, and right away he knew what this meant: "Grovyle, we need to leave now."
"Crap, I will just take the two important letters. Maybe we can use them for something." Grovyle quickly grabbed the letters from Drilbur and Machoke, and he and Prinplup fled the house as quickly as they could.
"Thanks for your help with my thunder punch, dad. I need to get back to practicing on my own," Magmar said after coming back inside with Magmortar.
"I am so proud of you, son. You have made it this far in the tournament," Magmortar said.
"Thanks, dad." Magmar left the house to meet back up with Prinplup and Grovyle. He was hoping that they didn't find anything.
"Thanks for the heads up, Magmar," Prinplup said.
"Did you guys find anything?" Magmar asked.
"I'm afraid you won't like what you see." Grovyle showed Magmar the two letters they grabbed from his room.
"I can't deny it anymore," Magmar said with a sad look on his face. He didn't want this to be true, but this looked bad.
"Can you decipher the code?" Grovyle asked.
"I don't recognize this, so I am afraid I cannot," Magmar replied.
"That is unfortunate," Prinplup said.
"So how are we going to approach this now?" Grovyle asked.
"My father is a respected member of the community, so we need to tread carefully. We can't just accuse him without any evidence," Magmar said.
"We need to gather some evidence by following him wherever he meets up," Grovyle replied.
"That isn't going to be easy, but I guess it's the best choice we have," Prinplup commented.
"I don't particularly like doing this, but I guess we don't have any other option," Magmar said.
The trio began with their plan to follow Magmortar wherever he went. It was mostly nothing special, but very late in the day, he went to some super faraway place, Magmar did not recognize this route even though he recognized all the other ones, so he right away knew something was up.
Magmortar had gone to some sort of warehouse on the outskirts of the village near the forest. The trio knew this must be the place where they were meeting up with someone related to the conspiracy.
They followed Magmortar inside the warehouse, being super careful to stay out of sight. Magmortar was meeting up with a Golem and a Simisage.
"How is everything going, Magmortar? Has the coverup gone smoothly?" Simisage asked.
"No need to worry, I have everything under control. All of the competitors have been paid off and none of them know enough for it to be traced back to us."
"What if someone finds out about the sabotage of the tournament? Won't that ruin our plans," Golem said.
"Don't worry, I have set things up so the tournament can never be shut down," Magmortar said.
"I think we have all the proof we need. I also found this document that details all their illegal actions," Grovyle said.
"How are we going to take them down, though? Nobody is going to be able to stand up to the three," Magmar asked?
"Could we try talking to them nicely?" Prinplup asked.
"No!" both Magmar and Grovyle said at the same time.
"That does give me an idea. We have the element of surprise. Magmar, you are the most powerful of us three, and Simisage is weak to your attacks, so I think I have an idea," Grovyle said.
"I will admit, sabotaging a tournament to make money is a pretty genius strategy," Grovyle said while revealing himself to the three conspirators. This is not something the three were expecting.
"How did this one find his way in here?" Golem asked, super annoyed.
"I have no idea, I guess I will need to eliminate him." Magmortar was about to go in to take down Grovyle, but it was all part of the plan. Magmar had been hiding out, and while Magmortar and Golem were distracted, he hit Simisage with a powerful flamethrower from behind that nearly knocked him down instantly.
"What in Arceus' sake," Golem said.
Grovyle sarcastically responded, "Bet you didn't see that coming."
"Hello father," Magmar said.
A massive fight broke out between the three, Magmar attempted to knock Simisage down for good, but Magmortar, enraged at his son for disrupting everything that had been going on, attacked him. Grovyle instead went to take on Simisage while Golem went after Prinplup.
Grovyle managed to take Simisage down super easily due to how weakened he already was, but the other two were struggling. Golem had Prinplup in a block and was breaking through his defenses with Prinplup unable to get around it.
"You shouldn't have meddled in our affair, kid. You don't stand a chance. I am in my final form and you are only a second stager," Golem taunted.
"That may be true, but I have friends." As Prinplup was talking, Grovyle snuck up from behind and hit Golem with a powerful leaf blade. Prinplup managed to get a hit, but he realized his claws were becoming metallic and tried attacking Golem with them, which worked as Golem was knocked out by it.
"I didn't know you were able to do that," Grovyle said.
"Yeah, me neither. I guess it's a new attack. We need to help Magmar now, as it looks like he is struggling."
"Why are you doing this, dad?" Magmar asked.
"I'm doing this for you, son, to help you win the tournament," Magmortar replied.
"I want to win with my skills, not by you paying off anyone who could beat me."
As Prinplup and Grovyle came to assist, they all started wailing on Magmortar, one at a time. Despite Magmortar's strength, he could not take on three opponents at once, and he eventually fell.
After the dust settled, the mayor, Pyroar, came by, and the trio told her everything that happened. She promptly banished the three from the village and set to restarting the tournament to make it a fair one, with Pokémon that were paid off being banned.
"Are you sure that you two don't want to reenter the tournament? The mayor is more than willing to have you compete after you exposed the corruption?" Magmar asked.
"It wouldn't be fair because we did lose against you fair and square," Prinplup said.
"I would have liked to, but Prinplup was able to convince me. Besides, we do need to get back on the road," Grovyle responded.
"By the way, Magmar, I am sorry about what happened," Prinplup said.
"Thanks, but it's not your fault, I now have to step up and take care of my younger brother. Again, thanks for your help. We would have never uncovered what was going on without you two."
"Goodbye," Prinplup and Grovyle said.
"Bye."
Meanwhile, in some unknown location, Magmortar had been discovered by the organization he worked for, who learned of what happened.
"I'm sorry, my master, I failed."
"I don't want to hear any excuses. Your two friends told me what happened: weakness and failure cannot be tolerated."
"No, no please don't no, no nooooooooo."