Oreburgh City hadn't changed a bit during the months that had passed while they were in the Underground. After recuperating in the Pokémon Centre, Mint happily skittered off to shop for his baby. The other two visited the PokéMart.

"We haven't seen you two for a long time. Did you give up on your adventure?" one of the clones behind the counter enquired.

"Quite the opposite; we just defeated Gardenia and want to sell you the stuff we dug up in the Underground," Manny corrected them.

"Oh, dusty little trinkets have you?" the other clone scoffed. "Let's see them."

"They're in Eterna City. Along with another friend, we FILLED the Underground Man's basement with elemental Plates, a variety of useful rocks and stones, bones, Revives, Max Revives, Heart Scales, coloured shards and fossils. We couldn't carry it all with us."

"If what you are saying is true, little man, we will come with you," a clone said, frowning.

"If you are tricking us into leaving our store so your other 'friend' can break in and steal, we will destroy you," the other clone promised with not a hint of emotion in his tone.

The cynical proprietors of Oreburgh's PokéMart soon discovered that the children spoke the truth. The Underground Man's basement was actually a natural cavern, sectioned off hundreds of times by artificial walls and doors, like a grand underground warehouse. There were millions of treasures within these rooms, and Eugene took them to the ones Hanny, Manny and Mint co-owned.

"Turns out these youngsters were really good at excavatin'," Eugene chortled, stroking his white beard. "This one here's Manny's treasure room."

He unlocked the heavy steel door, pushing it open with surprising strength for his age.

"Woo! Digging for treasure all day has its benefits!"

Before them lay a mound of treasure that was taller and wider than Manny's house in TwinLeaf. It sparkled with hidden promise that would make a thief's fingers itch. The PokéMart proprietors salivated till they dribbled from the corners of their mouths.

"There's TWO MORE of these?" they chorused.

Eugene opened Hanny's cache: it was about the same size, shining with the loot of a thousand conquests fit for a pirate queen. The clones hugged each other, too weak to stand on their own when confronted with such opulence. Then he opened Mint's cache: it was the size of three houses. The treasure hill glittered with the riches of a kingdom. The clones fell onto their backsides, struck down by dreams of avarice.

"That blonde kid," Eugene hooted. "He's the best excavator there is. Ain't nobody in all my decades of digging ever dug as fast or as well as he."

888

It took a few days, but the PokéMart clones cleared out all of it: they hired the coal-mining Machop of Oreburgh to cart the treasure from the basement to the hired fleet of delivery trucks aboveground. Of course, Manny and Hanny ensured that they kept all of the Revives, Max Revives, coloured shards and Heart Scales for themselves and Mint. They kept one each of the fossils, and three each of the Pokémon-usable items, in case they ever needed them. It took another few days for the PokéMart clerks to count the rest of it and calculate what they owed the three Trainers. When their calculations were complete, they invited the three kids to their PokéMart. Locking the doors and shutting the blinds, they huddled with them in a dark corner.

"Your bank accounts are now six figures each," one of the PokéMart clones whispered with unabashed pride. "We respect you now, for you have made both of us very, very rich. The museum will be paying us for those fossils for years to come!"

Manny shook their hands. "We are the youngest millionaires in the world. We must alert the Guinness Book of Records at once."

Hanny shook their hands in turn. "I'll buy land near Solaceon Town and build a ranch on it so Zeke can run around."

"I'll buy those islands off the west coast and turn them into amusement parks!" Mint yelled, jumping up and down with Togepi bouncing on his head, waving its little paws, chirping with glee.

"The sad thing is, he can do it; he's richer than both of us combined," Hanny sighed.

Manny smiled. "I think I'll go home and tell Mom the good news."

Hannah grabbed Manny by the scarf and pulled him down.

"Are you insane? If our parents find out, they'll want to TAKE our money from us! They'll say we aren't responsible enough to handle all that wealth, or something equally stupid!"

"Huh, you're right. Mint! Stop calling your Mom!"

"Awww," Mint said, ending the call before she picked up. "I want Mom to be proud of me!"

"She can be proud of you when you are legally an adult and she can't meddle in your affairs!"

"Fiiiiiiiiine," Mint whined, flopping on the counter, Togepi mimicking his pout.

"We will continue our adventure like normal," Manny said. "We will tell no-one of our six-figured bank accounts, or else Jubilife TV and all the other bums in Sinnoh will stalk us."

"I do not relish the idea of paparazzi following us wherever we go," Hanny said. "I hate the very idea of being a celebrity."

"Considering the way you use us to your own ends, I doubt that, but let's just go. Come on, Mint!"

"Coming," Mint said, feeding Togepi a bottle above his head.

888

When the Trainers left the PokéMart, the usual hustle and bustle of Oreburgh was gone, replaced by a crowded commotion around the Pokémon Centre.

"Excuse me, did something happen?" Manny asked the nearest resident. The woman turned, her face flushed bright red.

"It's my daughter, Mira! A cave-in trapped her in Wayward Cave!"

"Oh my gosh, is she okay?" Mint asked, his eyes goggling with worry.

"She's fine!" Mira's Mom flapped her hands in dismissal. "But she won't listen to Roark!"

The trio pushed through the crowd so that they could watch Roark scolding the little girl.

"You're lucky to be alive after that Geodude used Self-Destruct!"

Roark continued yelling at Mira, whose deep scowl reminded Manny of a wild Onix.

"I told you already, Kadabra handled it!"

"He was knocked unconscious, the ceiling came down, and you were trapped on the other side with him! You were missing for almost an entire day!"

She glared at him with all the brash defiance a little girl can muster. "I'm not gonna give up my Pokémon because of one stupid cave-in!"

Roark flailed his arms in anger. "What if the rocks had fallen ON the two of you? You have a Meowth's luck, that's for sure! Now give me that Pokéball!"

He lunged at her. She screamed "NO!" and kicked him in the shin. While the Gym Leader howled, hopping on one leg and clutching the other, Mira summoned her Kadabra and fed him a Revive.

"Thanks for digging us out, Mister Roark, but we're a team; we'll never be separated! Kadabra, use Confusion!"

Roark became violently disoriented, foaming at the mouth and collapsing. Mira and Kadabra beat an expeditious retreat, evading her mother and the other townsfolk.

Pausing at the town gate, she lifted her fist, her small voice and bright, clear eyes holding in them a spark of eternal flame. "I won't stop training 'til I'm tougher! I won't be a scaredy-cat anymore!" she promised everyone before disappearing into the eastern Mount Coronet entrance.

Manny, Hanny and Mint looked at each other, shrugged, and exited north out of the city.

888

Just before they entered Mount Coronet to the northeast of Oreburgh, a familiar face stopped them.

"Dawn!"

"Hanny!"

"What're you doing here? I thought you were Professor Rowan's protégé!"

She hopped up and down, bubbling over with youthful earnestness. "Not anymore; I began my Pokémon adventure with Piplup last week! Lab work's not for me, you know? I want to be a Pokémon breeder; the best breeder there is!"

"Congratulations on ditching that weirdo Rowan. Care to join us through Mount Coronet?"

"I'm not ready for that, yet. I just came here to give you each a Versus Seeker and Dowsing machine application for your Pokétches! My dad would give them to you, but some biker ran him over the other day."

"Fascinating," Mint said.

"The first one allows you to battle with Trainers you've already defeated, and the second one allows you to find hidden items around you!"

Hanny smiled. "Thanks, Dawn."

Manny, Mint and Togepi stared in disbelief. They hadn't seen Hannah smile before.

"How come you guys are still near Oreburgh, anyway? Shouldn't you have at least challenged the Sinnoh League by now?"

"Oh, we went to the Underground," Mint said.

"Nice! Did you find anything?"

"NOTHING!" Manny waved his hands and shook his head side to side.

"NOTHING AT ALL! We didn't bring back a thing!" Hanny shook her head and hands likewise.

"I don't know about you guys, but I checked my bank account this morning, and-"

"SHUT UP!" Manny and Hanny yelled, their eyes almost popping out of their heads.

"OH! Right! I totally forgot! Thanks for reminding me, guys," Mint said, blushing. He then put on his best crestfallen face. "Yeah, Dawn, we didn't bring back anything with us. We've got nothing but the clothes on our backs, we're so poor!"

Dawn raised her eyebrows, then shrugged and waved goodbye. "O…kay, then. I'll be going now. Good luck, and please be careful!"

The three waved back while hustling off to Mount Coronet. "Good luck! We will!"

888

No sooner had they entered the cave and turned the corner than the same stern man with spiky blue hair walked into them, descending a rocky staircase.

Without bothering to greet them or even state his name, he began lecturing in a cold, dead voice. "According to one theory, Mount Coronet is where the Sinnoh region began."

Togepi began crying. Mint cradled the baby, raising his other hand in greeting. "Hello, my name is Mint, what's your-"

The man ignored the boy, and instead looked upward from whence he had come. "…In a newly created world… A world where only time flowed and space expanded… There should have been no strife."

"Excuse me, mister, but you're-"

The blue-haired man turned sharply, staring down Manny with his haunted eyes. "But what became of that world? Because the human spirit is weak and incomplete, strife has spread…"

Manny felt a chill run down his spine.

The man held up his hands and with them encompassed all creation held in his dark eyes. "This world is being ruined by it… I find this state of affairs to be deplorable."

He then pushed past the children as though they weren't even standing there.

Mint scratched Togepi's head, who had calmed down somewhat. "We keep running into that guy! He sure is kooky."

"I'm more worried about him than our stalker, Looker," Manny said, helping Mint comfort the baby with tickles. "He must be working for Team Galactic. He has that spiky golden 'G' on his clothing."

"That makes no sense. Every Galactic commander we've come across always had an army of minions behind them. This guy's always alone," Mint said as Togepi giggled.

"Then maybe he's a grunt."

"Did you see his eyes, or hear the way he talked, Manny? He HAS to be one of their commanders!"

"Then I don't want to run into their boss."

Hannah said nothing. Manny suddenly felt the desire to find a warm place filled with sunshine. He took the lead through the damp, dark tunnels.

888

As they traveled east along Route 208 beyond Mount Coronet, defeating Trainers one after the other, they ran into an Aroma Lady named Hannah.

"How dare you insult my name by being an Aroma Lady!" Hanny hollered. "Wearing your pretty dress and carrying around a flower basket! Shame on you for fulfilling a female stereotype!"

"I'm sorry!" Hannah bawled. "I just like flowers!"

"CHANGE YOUR NAME THIS INSTANT!" Hanny commanded. "You're making me look bad!"

"Uh, um, is 'Renata' okay?"

"I don't care, as long as people don't mistake the likes of YOU for the real deal; me!"

"I'm so sorry!" Renata cried.

A little further on, they met an elderly artist.

"I shall make a fantastic tableau of our battle!" he boasted, but only sent out a Mime Jr. and Bonsly. Mint's Floatzel trounced them with impunity.

"Our battle will be the inspiration for a masterpiece painting! I shall title it… 'My Pokémon Is Fight!'"

"Oh, dear Lord!" Manny cried out. "You're a SomethingAwful Goon!"

"That old guy's a Goon? The world has gone mad!" Hanny held her head.

"What's a Goon?" Mint asked, returning Floatzel.

"Don't ask! Run, before he makes another reference to his comedy website!" Manny yelled, sticking both fingers in his ears.

The old artist grinned. "Photoshop Phriday is awesome!"

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" Hanny and Manny screamed as they ran for their dear, sweet lives and sanity. Mint lingered, with Togepi making confused noises at Manny and Hanny's behaviour.

"Can I get the website for that? I love jokes!"

"Something Awful dot com, my boy. The Internet Makes You Stupid, but nonetheless, buy Zack Parsons's novel, or he will crush you with his wallet."

Mint took due note of this before following his friends's screams into Hearthome City.