The boys decided to look for Hanny before heading to the Survival Area. They had been a team for so long, it did not occur to them to ditch her. This decision set up Manny for a great deal of headache and heartache, however.
"You fought WHO?"
They had found Hannah lounging in the lobby of the Battle Tower with Riley. Manny was being far too loud.
"Lance and Palmer," Riley repeated Hannah's words. "We beat them in a double battle on the twenty-first floor."
"WHERE IS HE?"
Riley winced.
"He left for Johto; said something about taking his red Gyarados for a swim."
"AAAAAAAAAAH!" Manny held his head, falling to his knees, causing everyone else in the lobby to either look away or take a few steps back.
"Manny's been trying to get his autograph since he was four years old," Mint explained. "When Manny was six, Lance was invited to a Jubilife TV interview. When his Mom refused to take him to see Lance, Manny ran away from home and trekked all the way to Jubilife City, only to find out that Lance had already finished the interview and left."
"I had to watch it on YouTube," Manny said in misery, "after I was grounded for two weeks."
Hannah cleared her throat.
"By the way, Manny, we fought your Dad and Palmer on the 49th floor. Your Dad is a jerk."
Mint and Manny snapped their heads toward Hanny so quickly they almost suffered whiplash.
"Did you beat him?" Manny asked.
"No. He used an Umbreon and a Scizor. Not only did they trash us, he gave them dumb nicknames from some anime I've never watched."
Mint cocked an eyebrow. "Why do you say he's a jerk?"
"He uses… clichéd catchphrases. They're extremely annoying," Riley said with a facial twinge.
"I don't get it," Manny said, still kneeling on the floor, still holding his head. "The two men I have wanted to meet all my life, and you guys met him on the same day. Did you at least take photos of them?"
"No, Riley and I were too busy doing a victory dance after beating Lance and Palmer, and your Dad is such a colossal, unremittent jerk that Riley and I just stormed off in disgust while he laughed at us."
Manny keeled over, forehead touching the ground.
"Why can't I ever get the things I really want?"
"Winning the title of Champion not good enough for ya?" Riley scoffed. Hannah smacked the man on his shoulder.
"Don't be mean, Riley! You beat Cynthia, too."
"Yeah," Riley sighed, scratching his hairline in embarrassment. "She uses a Lucario because of me."
Mint picked Manny off the floor, forcing him to stand up.
"Hanny, is Manny's Dad still here?"
"Yeah, he hasn't left the Battle Tower. He doesn't associate with peasants, though."
"Manny, you can still meet your Dad! We just have to reach the 49th floor undefeated!"
"Knowing my luck, he'll leave after the 48th battle, and your Dad will team up with some yahoo off the street."
"What is your Dad's name, anyway?"
"I dunno; never bothered to ask Mom. She refers to my Dad as 'him' or 'he' in polite conversation."
"What about impolite?"
"'That bastard'."
"Ouch," Riley laughed. Manny looked at the guarded entrance to the second floor of the Tower.
"Do you think we can do it, Mint? Even though we haven't trained at the Survival Area, or Stark Mountain, do you think we can go see him?"
"No, you dumbdumb, we HAVE to train first! My Dad's not some pushover, even at the 21st floor!"
Manny stared at Mint. He then doubled over in laughter, hanging onto the boy's shoulder for support.
"You're right. My Dad's no pushover, either. Hanny, you wanna join us?"
"Sure, why not. Hey, before we go, what happened when you visited Cynthia's grandmother?"
The boys reached into their backpacks to show her two orbs: the one Manny held resembled a diamond the size of a tennis ball. When Riley examined it closer, he found that it was not diamond, but metallic; a gleaming metal that was not of this Earth.
"She calls this the 'Adamant Orb'. With it, I can summon Dialga at the Spear Pillar."
The one Mint held appeared to be a pearl; the largest pearl anyone had ever seen, similar in size to the Adamant Orb. While the latter orb was shiny, this orb possessed an ethereal inner glow. Hannah stared at it, transfixed.
"She said this is the 'Lustrous Orb'. It calls Palkia."
"This would look really good on my Lucario," Riley whispered, the Adamant Orb reflected in his wide eyes.
"Yippy would be four times more adorable if he carried this around," murmured Hannah, the Lustrous Orb glowing full in her face.
Manny and Mint repacked their orbs. The other Trainers blinked, straightening from their crouched positions. Hannah waved to her battle buddy.
"Seeya later, Riley!"
"Later, Hanny!"
They hugged. Mint and Manny's eyebrows rose. After breaking contact with Riley, Hanny left the Battle Tower with the boys. When safely outside, she hauled off and slapped both boys behind their heads for being rude.
"You act like you've never seen me hug someone!"
"That guy's old enough to be your Dad!" Manny hooted.
"I'm not interested in Riley!"
"You keep staring at him!" Mint accused her with pointed index finger, a finger she grabbed and bent backwards until he squealed and cried 'uncle'.
"If you say that nonsense around Riley, I will break your fingers for real, both of you!"
"Yes ma'am, I'm sure your parents would be proud," Manny said with a thumbs-up, before leaping away from Hannah's hands and running northward for his life.
888
The gauntlet of Trainers along Route 225 calmed Hannah down as she could not break either boy's thumbs while battling.
"Audrey," she asked, "how did you defeat the Elite Four with a Taillow, Farfetch'd and Pidgeot?"
"That was years ago!" Audrey laughed, handing over the prize money. "My team is out of practice."
"So that explains the rest of the Trainers here," Manny said upon his return from a double battle with Mint against a pair of Rangers. "One had a Donphan, and the other, a Zigzagoon and Skarmory."
"Must have been the biggest, baddest Donphan, Zigzagoon and Skarmory on the face of the planet," Mint said. "They must have been twenty feet tall and breathed fire."
Hannah snorted.
"Audrey is just kidding. There's no way this was her original team."
In response, Audrey accessed the League Hall of Fame on her Pokédex. Hannah stared at the solitary entry: one Taillow, one Farfetch'd and one Pidgeot.
"You hacked this."
"Do I look like a hacker?"
Hannah smacked both hands on either side of her own head.
"There's just no way!"
"Nothing is impossible in the world of Pokémon. We have pint-sized gods floating around our world, who are even more powerful than their larger counterparts."
Hannah kept her silence. She was, after all, the Trainer who captured Uxie.
The rest of the route was uneventful. Manny cut down a shrubbery, behind which lay a Rare Candy. He told Hannah that he had just found a Full Restore, but Hannah knocked him over and stole the candy from him, saying that she could smell liars. She munched the candy in front of him while he cried, and did not share any with Mint, either. The most exciting thing that happened during the route was the discovery of an old woman's hut where the owner insisted they and their Pokémon rest for free. She served everyone strawberry soda on ice, much to Hanny's delight.
"Before Nurse Joy and her sisters monopolised the Pokémon Centre business, I was the Nurse in the Fight Area. We didn't have fancy machines, back then; just herbs and common sense!"
Thanking the woman for her hospitality, the kids continued north before turning eastward to the Survival Area. It was far smaller than most towns, simply consisting of three huts, a PokéMart and Pokémon Centre. One hut was atop a cliff: after Rock Climbing up there, they found a Move Tutor who accepted coloured Shards as payment. The southernmost hut's owner handed them TM42 (Façade) and the hut beside the Pokémon Centre was firmly locked against entry.
"Hey in there!" Manny banged on the door. "Let us in! We're not accustomed to people shutting us out of their homes! We demand your possessions!"
There was no response. Shrugging, they healed their teams at the Centre before proceeding eastward along Route 226. There, they Rock Climbed up and down a cliff, defeating a few Trainers before descending into the ocean. Manny Surfed on Vaporeon; Mint on Floatzel and Hannah on Minnie. Nobody asked how the tiny creature supported Hannah's weight. Her shoes did not even get wet! Manny faced off against Swimmer Lydia.
"Torterra, go!"
Plunk. Bubbles popped on the surface.
"Uh... Torterra, return! Keira, go!"
With Lydia and another Swimmer defeated, they had the freedom to explore the small island home where a man called 'The Meister' lived. He appeared to be a burly, bearded Hiker.
"Guten tag, little girl!" he boomed in a thick German accent. "I sense that you have a Lumineon! I really wanted a Finneon, but yours will do! Here, have this Magikarp."
He thrust a Pokéball into her hand, reaching for Minnie's Pokéball. Hannah sidestepped his grasping hands, dropping the proferred ball.
"You can't have Minnie in exchange for a dumb old Magikarp!"
"It is not dumb! It is German! Everything made in Germany is of superior quality! Cars, achitecture, ShamWows…"
"Forget it! Minnie is my friend, and I don't trade away friends, unless it's these guys. I'll totally trade them for any Rare Candy you got."
"There's a Rare Candy hidden in the forest behind my house!"
Hannah, Manny and Mint smashed Meister's front door down. Hanny summoned Minnie but Manny and Mint had already plunged into the water, swimming madly for the shoreline thicket. There they both used the Dowsing Pokétch to locate the Candy and fell into fisticuffs over it. Mint emerged victorious, the unwrapped Candy clamped between his jaws while Manny struggled to free himself from the foot planted on the back of his head.
"You're not going to taste one if you keep our company," Hannah informed him, floating atop Minnie with Yippy in her arms.
"I'm going to ditch you guys one of these days, I swear," Manny griped.
Surfing to the western shore, they arrived at a crossroads: north, Route 227's Stark Mountain, and further east, Route 228 leading to the Resort Area.
"My parents are at the Resort Area. I have no intention of meeting them at this time. We head north," Hannah commanded.
"Our Pokémon are tired!"
"Suck it up, Mint; we have a bajillion potions and food items."
Thus the children trekked northward under the gathering gloom of an active volcano.