"That's it," said Duncan on his laptop.

"You care to tell me why you destroyed part of my wall?" questioned Claudio.

"Yeah, let us in on it," demanded Crystal.

"It states here that this is an entrance to the underwater catacombs," stated Kamon. "And they extend all the way to Mossdeep and Sootopolis!"

"Big deal," said Claudio bluntly. "It was probably sealed up during the construction for our safety."

"We should go in there," said Kamon.

---

Brendan, May, and Wally were taken to a large lab. "Wow."

"Some lab, isn't it?" Shelly remarked.

"Some lab," repeated Brendan. "Bigger than my dad's."

"That's 'cause big experiments happen here," stated Matt. "Oh, what am I saying? You wouldn't understand."
And he was right; Brendan didn't know much about what was going on, but a large water creature was inside a humongous tank.

Brendan blurted, "That's the biggest fish I'd ever seen!"

May remembered - that was Kyogre! There had to be some way to save it.

---

"All right, Courtney, cover up the hole," directed Duncan.

Courtney then moved a china cabinet towards the hole, cleverly covering it. "That should do it, guys."

No turning back now. The three headed off into the darkness.

"I can't see a thing; do we have a light?" asked Duncan.

"I didn't think we'd need a flashlight," answered Kamon. "But Tabitha gave me his lighter…" Kamon lit the Zippo lighter as they traveled through.

The tunnel was long and narrow.

---

After making sure Shelly wasn't watching, Wally increased the laser intensity on the terminal. He then moved back to his seat as Shelly returned.

An Aqua scientist pressed the "Start" button. A PA stated "30 seconds."

Five seconds later, it stated "25 seconds."

"20 seconds."

The timer then began to count down.

"19, 18, 17, 16, 15…"
The diffused laser bounced around the glass piece furiously.

"14, 13, 12, 11, 10, 9, 8, 7…"

The mainframe smoked and sparked, causing a major ruckus throughout the lab.

"Matt!" shouted Shelly. "A power surge!"

"Quick, the abort switches!" commanded Matt.

"3, 2, 1." The increased intensity of the laser shattered the fish tank and revived Kyogre.

Matt and Shelly futilely tried to abort the system, but the screen read an error instead.

"'Unable to Abort'," read Shelly. She then spoke through a microphone, "Kyogre might flood the lab! Turn off the power in here!"

Somewhere else, Steven had already beaten an Aqua Grunt and taken his key to the fuse box. Steven then shut off the power to the lab… as well as the entire complex! "This should shut off the surveillance."

Back in the now-dark lab, Kyogre tried to break through a wall.

"Attention! Attention! Please evacuate the complex immediately!" shouted Shelly through the microphone.

---

"Uh, Courtney?" asked Tabitha.

"Yeah?"

"Wasn't there like, something we were supposed to do?"

"Yeah," answered Courtney. "We were supposed to take Silver to… damn it!"

"I got the tranquilizer," said Tabitha. He pointed to one syringe with a label. "This one's for Silver. Maxie said not to shoot either Gold or Crystal."

"'Cause it'd kill them."

"Right. Let's go into that cave!" Tabitha and Courtney then went back downstairs, moved the cabinet, and entered the cave.

Duncan, Crystal, and Kamon reached a room. A statue of an ancient Pokémon dominated it. It had a long, thin, tube-like body with arms and a gargoyle head. It was tall and intimidating, about six meters tall, and made entirely out of stone.

"What Pokémon is that?" asked Duncan.

"I think that's Rayquaza," answered Kamon, who'd read the entire Hoenn travel guide. "Legends say that it brought peace to Hoenn after the battle between Kyogre and Groudon." Kamon didn't think it was likely, but due to their previous experiences with legendary Pokémon, he didn't completely discount the possibility.

The statue looked rather fearsome. Kamon stood in front of it and kneeled before it. The statue held out its hand, almost as if it wanted a handshake.

"I wonder if shaking the statue's hand will trigger a door…" He shook its open hand… which moved with his!

The floor that Duncan and Crystal were on began to sink.

"What's going on?" said a surprised Duncan.

"It's an ancient elevator!" Crystal said in wonder.

As the elevator sank into the ground, a new room opened to them.

"Your floor, sir," said Duncan in a mocking voice. "Have a good day, sir."

"Who Framed Roger Rabbit," stated Kamon as they stepped off of the elevator. "Wait, that was our ride!"

One minute later, the elevator sank down, this time with Tabitha and Courtney.

"We wanted to come along," explained Tabitha.

"I shook that statue's hand, and it does this?" questioned a baffled Courtney.

"You must have followed us," said Kamon. "Let's look around to see if there's another way out."

---

Shelly searched the crowd of evacuees, but Brendan, May, and Wally were nowhere to be found. Deep inside, she began to feel remorse and pity for them. "Get me a transport," she ordered a bunch of grunts. "Let's find those kids."

"Nobody is leaving until we make all the necessary repairs," ordered Archie.

"Up yours, sea dog!" insulted Shelly. "I'm resigning my position as tactic commander."

---

"What's that?" asked Duncan.

Crystal could barely see anything in the darkness. "What?"

Duncan flashed the lighter at what he saw - a skeleton!

"Oh, my God!" shouted Tabitha, his voice echoing.

Kamon examined the body. "It's Agatha." It looked like she starved to death.

Duncan sighed. "I guess she knew a lot more than she let on."

"But not quite enough to find a way out of here," continued Crystal.

"We're all going to be skeletons if we don't find a way out of here!" panicked Tabitha.

"Don't panic, Tabi, I'm right here," assured Courtney as she held on to him. "We'll find a way," she continued in a breaking voice.

Kamon saw a note in Agatha's bony hand. "Hey, there's a note! Okay, let's see…"

I am convinced that the entrance to Sootopolis lies beyond the next chamber. Alas, I cannot get past the gate. If only Claudio knew about the secret entrance…

Too bad for Agatha; she'd come a long way.

"A gate? Let's go look for that gate," commanded Kamon.

"Hold on," said Tabitha. "Just let me take this picture…" He used his cell phone to snap a picture of the skeleton.

As they continued deeper into the cave, they found a heavy bronze gate. Next to it was a narrow crawlspace.

Kamon tried to climb up to the hole, but the wall was too vertical. "This isn't good. Hey, Tabitha!"

"Yeah?"

"Could you please climb through that hole?"

"No way, dude! I bet it's crawling with Golbat and bugs! "

"Fine, we'll rot down here like Agatha."

Tabitha then looked at the picture of the skeleton. "We're not gonna go anywhere until I climb up there, are we?"

"I'm afraid not."

"Okay, then, up I go!" Kamon held on to Tabitha's feet as the six-foot-four man pulled himself into the hole, and fell to the other side. "Ha-ha! Come on in!" He used a pulley to open the gate.

After a long trek through the cavern, they finally reached daylight. "We made it, guys," declared Kamon. "Welcome to Sootopolis."

As he left the cave entrance, he saw a sign stating: "The Cave of Origin".

"That's what we came out of?" Kamon then remembered why they came here. "Let's go to Pantor's lab."

---

Brendan, May, and Wally awakened to find themselves washed up on shore.

"Where are we?" asked May.

"I think we're on a deserted island," said Brendan.

"No, look!" Wally pointed to a larger island with houses and a skyscraper. "We're in Mossdeep!"

---

Duncan, Crystal, and Kamon entered Pantor's laboratory.

"Hello?" asked a man.

"Hi, I'm Kamon Stelldox of Littleroot Town," introduced Kamon. "I think I know Lewis Pantor. You recognize me?"

"No, I'm sorry; I've never seen you before. I'm Clark Teneval. I was Lewis' research assistant."

"What'd he research?" asked Crystal.

"Lewis wanted to maximize brain potential, mainly of Pokémon," answered Clark.

"He developed theories of individual values and effort values of Pokémon, as well as values that define their personalities," explained Kamon. "I've been researching."

"Say, let's test him and Axel and see what happens," requested Duncan. "You'll see what we're talking about."

---

Kamon and Axel saw the geometrical math problems - and a bit of calculus on top of that. But this was somehow very easy for them - all of their answers were correct. Spike and Wyner, however, had no clue whatsoever. It was all a different language.

Next was the shuffle game. A coin was inside one of the five cups as they shifted around rapidly in one minute. Spike and Wyner picked a random one, while Axel and Kamon focused very carefully and picked the cup they focused on. It had the coin, while Spike and Wyner didn't get it.

Finally, there came the picture memory game. One hundred images were projected on the board. Kamon wrote down accurate descriptions of all of the images.

Clark was visibly impressed. This man and his Persian knew their stuff! There was something strange about him...

---

"Wow! Kamon and Axel's results are both so far beyond the normal range. I showed them a hundred images in one minute. Both remembered them all!" exclaimed Clark. "And they obviously show a lot of knowledge of math problems that would take even me a long time to solve."

"Well, then, don't you think it's possible that he was tested by Pantor?" asked Duncan.

"I suppose, but Lewis would have shared the results," explained Clark. "As shown with Wyner and Spike, the best test results, even with repeated tests, could only identify up to forty-two pictures." He saw Kamon looking at the glass display of rewards and pictures of Professor Pantor. "What are you looking at, exactly?" he asked.

"Check this out! You won't believe this!" said an excited Kamon. The others then looked at the picture, which was… of Kamon?

"That's you," said Crystal. "You did work with Pantor!"

"That can't be; check the name and date," Duncan rejected. "That's a man named Maximilian Banrun. From 2183."

"I wasn't even born yet!" shouted Kamon. "How is this possible?!"

---

The five had rented a room at the Pokémon Center.

"Look, man, we're not kidding you! I'll send you this picture of her skeleton," Tabitha insisted to Claudio on his cell phone.

Kamon sat on his bed. "Maybe that Maximilian guy is related to me."

"I think we know him," said Tabitha subtly.

"You do?" said a wondering Kamon. He then felt a sharp prick in his back. "Ugh… everything's all blurry…" His whole body numbed as his vision turned black and he collapsed to the ground.