"Hayley, hurry up!"

"I'm trying!" Her fingers hovered over the screen before her as she bit her lip and thought.

"I thought you said you knew how to do this!"

"I do! Connie showed me the trick once, you just have to kind of… Go in a circle…" Privately, she wasn't sure it was working. Hadn't she just moved this exact sequence of blocks? Was she going backwards? Frustrated, she reached out and started tapping the screen again. Still, the red rectangle stayed stubbornly enclosed in a sea of brown.

Miriam hovered over Hayley's shoulder as she worked, breathing directly in her ear. "You tried doing it that way already."

"No I didn't."

"Yes you did! Just move over and let me try—"

"No! I've almost got it!" And she did. At long last, the red block slid out of gridlock and into its goal. A celebratory jingle played from the speakers around them, and then the screen flashed and changed to show a line of text. "Okay. Here's the riddle. 'I have cities, but no houses. I have mountains, but no trees. I have water, but no fish. What am I?'"

"What?" Miriam elbowed closer and squinted at the screen. "That's… Ugh!"

Hayley backed off, put her chin in her hand, and thought. Above her, the huge digital clocks hung on every wall ticked away. Three and a half minutes left. "Sinks have water and not fish, right? And cities without houses… Maybe… Does an apartment count as a house?" Still pondering, she leaned against the wall—

—and the wall gave out behind her. She yelped and stumbled back, landing prone in a new room. It took only seconds for her to recover and stand up, but in that time, the apparent door she'd fallen through had disappeared. There was only a smooth, unbroken wall.

"A-ha! Trainer! I challenge you to a battle!" Hayley spun around and saw a girl about her age, dressed in a white blouse and red plain skirt. She held out a Pokéball in the classic challenger's pose. "Prove your strength! I'll wager one Star Point on the outcome of this battle!"

"Okay, just hang on. I need to…" Miriam was still on the other side of this wall. There had to be a way to open it up again, right? She turned back and felt around for some kind of handle or seam, only for the girl to give a sharp, mocking laugh.

"There's no escape! Our eyes met; we have to battle! That's the law of the Trick House!"

"I'm not trying to escape, I—oh, fine." Hayley faced her once more and frowned. "The one who issues the challenge sends out their Pokémon first. That's the law of the Trick House."

The girl smirked and tossed her ball to the floor. A Chingling popped out, and Hayley's brain kicked into action. Chingling fought with sound and psionics—Barrett would definitely win, but she couldn't rely on him for everything, so—between Ceres and Sen, Ceres would be the better counter, but her fights were always slow, and they had less than three minutes left—agh, the more time she spent thinking about it, the less time she had! She went with her gut and sent out Ceres, who emerged with a rumble. One of the huge television screens on the wall blinked to life:

3! 2! 1! Go!

"Yawn!"

"Yawn!"

Ah. It was going to be that kind of battle, then.

"I still can't believe we missed out on first place," Miriam moaned. "I wanted that TM so bad."

They had initially planned to pass by the Trick House without going inside. But when they'd seen that they happened to be just in time for their badge level's weekly challenge, and that the prize for winning was a TM for trick room, Miriam had changed her mind and dragged them inside. Unfortunately, despite Ceres knocking out her Chingling opponent with ten seconds on the clock, Miriam hadn't been able to figure out the answer to the riddle, leaving them one point short of victory.

"A rare candy's okay too," Hayley said. Miriam pulled her unwanted prize out of the pocket of her cargo shorts, held it up, and scoffed.

"I guess. Aren't these things basically steroids, though? I don't want my Pokémon to turn into meatheads."

"They're fine if you just use them every once in a while, I think. And if you want Xena to evolve before you fight Jin, then using one might help."

"Hmm." Miriam kept scowling as she stuffed the packet away again.

"I mean, if you don't want it, I'll take it."

"No! Or…" Miriam's face scrunched up as she visibly debated with herself over what was fair. "I guess we could… Battle for it, or something. If you really want to."

"I'm good," Hayley said, and Miriam slumped in relief. "Barrett's strong enough for now, Ceres probably wouldn't like it, and Sen would definitely think it was cheating."

"Cool," Miriam sighed. "And… Thanks."

The raised structure of Cycling Road loomed closer and closer as they walked, and by the end of the day, they had crossed under it and were standing in its shadow. Half highway, half bike lane and battlefield, it ran to the north and south as far as the eye could see, curving gently as it crossed over water and tall grass. The main entry points were at each end of its span, but smaller ramps and stairways branched off periodically throughout, allowing people—but not cars—to enter and exit as they pleased. From what Hayley remembered from her civics classes and Birch exam prep, its construction only come after years of bitter fighting between conservationists and the cities of Mauville and Slateport: Mauville and Slateport had argued the need for a road to let people travel safely without circuitous ferry routes, while conservationists had said that building one would be a death sentence for the vulnerable wetlands of Route 110. Eventually, both sides had reached the reluctant compromise of building an elevated path through the marsh while letting the land beneath and around it remain completely undeveloped and wild.

And when they said "undeveloped and wild," they meant it. At least the main route through Petalburg Woods had a well-trod dirt path—here, the sucking mud and thickly-growing grass swallowed every attempt to carve out a trail, and it was only the presence of signposts and Cycling Road itself that let trainers know they hadn't wandered off-route. Before they'd even finished crossing under the bridge, Hayley had stepped in a soft spot and gotten her foot stuck in past the ankle, requiring Ceres to pull her out again with telekinesis. After being extracted, she examined her mud-filled shoe and groaned.

"I guess we're here."

"I didn't think it would be this—ew." Miriam recoiled as a Gulpin slithered by, leaving a thin coating of slime on top of the muck. "I didn't think it would be this wet. How do electric Pokémon live here?"

"Plusle and Minun tend to stick where it's dryer, but Elektrike, Wattrel, Joltik, and Shinx use the water to help them hunt," Hayley said. "And Voltorb and Magnemite—"

"—hang out under the road and eat the electricity. Yeah." Miriam cast a rueful glance at the bridge above them, which had no Magnemite to be seen. "I wish we could look from up there. This is going to be, what, four days of being stuck in the mud?"

"Maybe five, depending on how fast we go."

Over to the side, Yuna stalked after the Gulpin that had passed them, only to sink into the marsh up to her shoulders. She thrashed and cried out with ear-splitting wails, and when she was pulled out, she began to sob even louder at the sight of mud covering her steel skin. Even Ceres washing her off with water gun wasn't enough to console her, and Miriam finally had to recall her before her crying attracted unwanted attention. In the silence that followed, she grumbled a curse. "This better be worth it."

Xena was brought out to replace Yuna, but they quickly found that in these conditions, it was impossible to keep her fur dry, and every bit of static she tried to store in it immediately discharged into the air and ground. Without an internal battery to fall back on, she had no way to stay charged with electricity, and started to become sluggish and exhausted after just a few minutes. She had to be recalled as well. Ceres, meanwhile, was thrilled by their new surroundings, but her already-slow speed was cut to a crawl by the muck pulling her down and swallowing up her legs. Hayley put her back in her ball with an apology and a promise to let her play in the mud later—the light was fading fast, and they had to find a suitable place to make camp before dark.

That left them with Barrett, Sen, and Zero. Barrett, of course, complained about the water and mud just like Yuna had, but Hayley's assurance that there would be wild Pokémon to fight, as well as a sly appeal to his pride by saying they needed his strength, kept him from sulking too much. Sen was light enough that the ground barely sank underneath him, and he treated the conditions with his usual stoic indifference. And Zero avoided the ground altogether as he floated along at Miriam's side.

With Barrett's fire providing extra illumination, and Zero scanning the area, they managed just in time to find a patch of dirt clear and solid enough to pitch their tents on. The wet grass would normally have meant a struggle to build a fire, but with a Barrett-campfire at their disposal, that wasn't a problem. Sen raised rocks just big enough for them to sit on, and they managed to have their dinner in relative comfort. But when it came time to turn in, Hayley slept lightly, swearing she could feel the ground squish every time she turned over and worrying the tent would come crashing down on top of her.

They rose early the next morning—even Miriam, who claimed she'd slept fine—and as they ate breakfast, Hayley addressed her team. "Guys, I want to talk to you about something. It's time for us to start looking for a fourth teammate."

The reactions were about what she expected. Barrett grumbled and eyed her suspiciously, Sen furrowed his brow, and Ceres, after taking a moment to process the news, bellowed in excitement. "It doesn't have to be today, or even by the time we reach Mauville, but I'm hoping we can find one by the time we get our badge—they won't be fighting in the gym battle, Barrett, calm down." Barrett cut off mid-growl and let his flames drop back to normal levels, and beside him, Sen relaxed slightly too. "Still, the sooner we start training them, the better. The badge after this one will be four-on-four, and as strong as you all are, I want us to have the best shot at winning. Does that sound fair?"

While Ceres rumbled in agreement, Barrett crossed his arms and glared sulkily at the ground, and Sen remained impassive. Mixed feelings, clearly, but at least nobody looked ready to mutiny. "Okay. I'm looking for an electric-type, like Xena, or a grass-type, like we were trying to find in Petalburg Woods." The last part, she addressed to Barrett, as well as the next: "You hate fighting water-types, right? There's a water gym coming up eventually, and if we get one of them to help us, things will be a lot easier for you." Barrett grunted and huffed out a small cloud of smoke. "And like before, I want to make sure that whoever we catch is someone that we can all get along with. So, let me ask, is there anything that any of you would really like to see in a new teammate?"

That gave them all pause. After a long moment, Sen thrust out his hands and signed train-fight. "A new sparring partner?" Hayley guessed, and Sen nodded. "All right, we can do that. Ceres, what about you?" She bellowed again. Hayley looked to her other two Pokémon for translation; Sen glanced at Ceres disdainfully out of the corner of his eye, then signed friend like the gesture physically hurt him to make. Hayley smiled. "A new friend. I'm sure that won't be a problem. And, Barrett?"

Barrett stayed quiet for a while, smoke wisping from his nostrils as he thought. Finally, he shrugged. "You're not sure yet?" Another shrug. "Okay, that's fine. I'm sure you'll know it when you see it, just like I will."

With that business done, Hayley turned to Miriam and her team to talk logistics, and after a bit of back-and-forth, they were ready to go. They broke down their camp and, remembering how the previous night had went, recalled all their Pokémon except for Barrett, Sen, and Zero. Hayley wished she could keep Ceres out as well, to give her an equal chance to weigh in on new teammates, but traveling at her pace would make the journey take a week or longer, and they didn't have the supplies or the patience to make it that long. But Hayley was staying away from her Rustboro strategy of catching first, asking questions later, so there would be time for her to weigh in even if the meet-and-greet started with her in her ball. And, honestly, Ceres could make friends with anyone when she put her mind to it. After all, she'd done it with Sen.

A long stretch of Cycling Road ran parallel to the marsh ahead of them, support columns staked into the shallow water. Miriam and Zero would keep their eyes skyward for Magnemite while Hayley, Sen, and Barrett would watch the ground at their feet, looking out for hazards and wild Pokémon. Hayley's heart beat with excitement as they made their final checks and took their first cautious steps out. By the end of today, they might both have a new teammate.

But excitement quickly turned to misery. Hayley began to feel like Miriam as she realized, little by little, that everything about this route was awful. The sun had barely risen, but the air was already sticky with heat and humidity, and with no trees to provide cover, the sunlight was unrelenting and hot and directly in their eyes. And while the lack of trees should have given them a clear line of sight to the horizon, thick fields of cordgrass had taken advantage of the rich soil and abundant sun to grow above their heads in places, making them bumble their way through without being able to see what was ahead. Hayley had to constantly recall and rerelease Barrett for fear of him starting a fire, which got on his nerves very quickly, and Sen kept disappearing between the blades, making her call out to him to find him again, which got on his nerves very quickly. The ground seemed to change from springy to soft to quicksand every few yards, and in places where the grass grew especially dense, each step forward was a leap of faith. By lunchtime, Hayley and Miriam were both sullen, exhausted, caked in mud, and worst of all, hadn't seen a single Pokémon aside from Magikarp and Tentacool drifting by in the water and the occasional Wingull flying overhead.

"I thought the Pokémon were supposed to constantly jump out on you on a route like this," Mirima groused as she hunched on one of Sen's rocks and tore through an energy bar. "Plenty of them showed up in Petalburg Woods, right? Why not here?"

"They'll show up," Hayley said with more confidence than she felt. "It's a really long route, and we're barely a day in. Just wait."

It turned out she was right. As afternoon began to turn to evening, Hayley finally spotted signs of, not a Magnemite, but of one of the Pokémon on her list. At the water's edge, in the shadow of Cycling Road and strung between tall stalks of cordgrass, there was a thick gossamer web. Hayley called for Miriam to stop and for Barrett and Sen to come to her side, then pulled out her Pokédex. It could be a Spinarak web, of course, but it looked too small for that, and based on the pattern—

"Joltik," she said. "I think that's a Joltik web. Sen, can you see if there's a Pokémon over there?"

Sen's eyes shone green as he scanned the area. After a few moments, he nodded and pointed to a patch of grass. Hayley took a deep breath. "Okay, let's go over there—slowly. Don't attack unless I say so."

They crept over, Hayley keeping her eyes glued to the ground, and then there it was. Barely bigger than a sitrus berry—Hayley had known Joltik were small, but seeing it in person still took her aback. The Joltik's compound eyes were fixed on the water and its web, but as they drew closer, it twitched around and focused all four on her. Just as she had on Dewford, Hayley stopped and lifted her hands. "Hi. I'm Hayley, and this is Barrett and Sen. We're looking for an electric-type Pokémon…"

But as she spoke, Barrett scoffed, and even Sen had a look of incredulity on his face. This Pokémon was tiny, she could practically hear them thinking; not even the size of their heads. How could it possibly fight? Hayley pushed on anyway. "Would you be interested in joining our team? We can have a battle first and see if we all get along." The Joltik continued staring at her, its buggy expression inscrutable. Hayley wondered if it was frightened, or intrigued, or simply didn't understand her. Whichever it was, it didn't matter. Barrett was snorting and shaking his head, and Sen was boring through her with a judgmental stare. Neither had any interest in this being their new teammate.

"Never mind," Hayley sighed. "Sorry. Good luck out here with your hunting." And she turned and walked back to Miriam, who'd been closely watching the entire thing.

"Kind of a shame," she said as Hayley got close. "I'd catch it, but I need to keep all three of my slots for Magnemite."

"You want to catch it? I thought you hated bugs."

"Yeah, but Joltik are useful. You can use their web to fix cables and jump circuits and stuff. I don't want one for battling, but once I make ace rank and can have more than six Pokémon, I might get one just to have one."

Hayley raised an eyebrow at Miriam talking about making ace so casually, when she didn't even have four badges yet, but said nothing. Either way, neither of them was catching it now. And so they ended the first day empty-handed and frustrated.

The second day, at least, started out better. There was some cloud cover, though not enough to signal rain, and a cool breeze kept the air from being too oppressive. The route curved north, removing the sun from their eyes, and the ground rose up a little too, making their steps less treacherous and letting marsh flowers and groundsel bushes break into the endless stretches of grass and mud. Unfortunately, Cycling Road—now on their left instead of their right—was built a little further into the water here, meaning Miriam had to periodically lift Hayley's binoculars to her eyes to peer for elusive Magnemite. She swore she had a way to attract them onto land once she found one, but wouldn't elaborate on what the plan was. Hayley had already worked out her half of the plan with Barrett, at least: surround them in fire to deflect any electric attacks and burn them until they fainted.

Even if Magnemite would be harder to spot, the livable conditions meant that other Pokémon had finally started showing up. An hour into their hike, they began seeing Zigzagoon, which ran away from them, and then a Linoone, which didn't. Barrett finally got the fight he'd been spoiling for, and the fact that it backed off after just a feint attack, cross chop, and low-powered flamethrower made him strut and preen about his own strength. Though Hayley cautioned him not to get a big head, she was secretly impressed as well. The Linoone might not have been as well-trained as Norman's, but it had been big, wild, and fierce, and it hadn't even posed a threat.

After that first fight, more and more Pokémon began to cross their path. They fought a Masquerain, which Sen took out with a well-timed rock tomb, and an oversized Gulpin, which endured a surprising number of flamethrowers before finally rolling over in submission. But they didn't see anything Hayley was interested in catching until, at last, they came across an Electrike.

Electrike was a Pokémon that was firmly on her "maybe" list. They were strong, for sure, but they weren't very versatile, and… Honestly, Hayley couldn't help but view them as a less-cool version of Growlithe. But then, Hayley had felt negatively towards Slowpoke and Meditite until Ceres and Sen had joined her, and now she couldn't imagine her team without them. So she'd decided to try not to let pickiness get in the way of a new partner.

This Electrike was ready to fight. It was crouched low to the ground, sparks leaping from its fur and a growl coming from its throat, but its loose posture and raised hindquarters told Hayley that the battle it sought was a benign test of strength, not a life-or-death challenge over resources or territory. Hayley nodded to her two Pokémon, who had already dropped into fighting stances. "Sen, it's your turn. Do you want to take this one?" Sen nodded and stepped forward, and Hayley turned to address the Electrike. "Electrike, we're looking for a new Pokémon to join our team. After this battle, do you want to think about coming with us?"

The Electrike cocked its head and yapped, sparing Hayley only a brief glance before returning its attention to Sen. Not a no, and not a yes, as far as Hayley could tell; they'd have to win it over before it would hear her pitch. "Okay. Sen, watch out for static; it'll shock you when you touch it just like Xena does."

Barrett, as always, was the better counter for electric-types, but Sen could do this. She was sure—

The Electrike dashed forward and was on Sen before Hayley could even blink. Sen detected away and drove his fist into the ground to pull up a rock tomb, but the quick attack had been a feint; the electricity the Electrike had built with its movement leapt off its fur and zapped Sen in the torso. Sen's muscles jerked and stiffened as paralysis took hold, and the Electrike howled and leapt again and grabbed hold of his right arm with sparking fangs. Sen, using all his strength, drew back his left arm and punched the Electrike in the temple, but the Electrike barely flinched and continued pumping electricity into Sen. Within a few seconds, Sen's struggles became limp convulsions, and the Electrike dropped him to the ground. He had fainted.

Hayley stood with her mouth agape. She hadn't seen one of her team get bodied that hard by a wild Pokémon since—well, since Granite Cave. She heard Barrett snort, and she quickly shushed him. "That—that was a good fight, Electrike," she said, trying to pack her bewilderment away. "Do you want to fight one of my other Pokémon next? Or…" The Electrike gave a short, sharp bark, turned its back to her, and trotted off. Off in search of strong opponents, probably, which it had decided she was not.

"Wait, it's over already?" Miriam had put down her binoculars and was now staring in Hayley's direction. "I just looked away for a second—"

"It was a bad matchup, and it was stronger than I thought. We were just unlucky." And when Sen began to stir and realized he had lost, she assured him of the same thing—that his fighting style had a disadvantage against electric-types, that this was part of why they were looking for an electric-type or grass-type teammate in the first place, that he shouldn't take it too hard, that the Electrike had probably been close to evolving and she should have noticed and been more careful. None of it worked. Sen refused to hear her, and he wouldn't look her in the eye.

It was two hours later when Miriam finally gave a triumphant shout. "There! Over there!" Hayley squinted in the direction she was pointing, but since Miriam still had her binoculars, it was hard to see. Against the steel-grey bridge, there was… another grey thing moving, maybe. "There's two of them!" Miriam shouted, and in a flash she'd released Xena at her side. "Hayley, get Barrett ready. We're going to draw them over."

"Okay. But how—"

"Charge and thunder shock, Xena! Like we planned!"

Xena, who had been dropped on a clear patch of dirt, cheered and began spinning her arms. The spark between her horns grew brighter and brighter, and when it was big enough, she released it into the sky. An enormous bolt of lightning cracked through the air, twisting and arcing for several seconds before dying away once more. "Again!" Miriam shouted, a manic grin growing on her face. She brought the binoculars back up to her face: "They're getting closer!"

And they were. The lure of free lightning was apparently too much for an electric parasite to resist, because gradually, the shapes of two Magnemite began to draw closer and closer. By the time Xena was readying her fifth thunder shock, Hayley could see the screws on their heads and the red and blue tips of their magnets. An odd buzzing filled the air, making Hayley's ears itch, but Miriam ignored it as she lowered her binoculars and backed up. "Okay! They're almost close enough! Barrett, pull up your fire spin!"

Barrett snorted in apparent offense at Miriam commanding him, but a fight was a fight, and he had already agreed to this, and so he readied a long ribbon of fire. A few more seconds, and the moment the Magnemite were firmly over dry land, Miriam shouted "Now!" Barrett threw out his flames in a vicious spiral, surrounding the unprepared Magnemite in an instant and enclosing them in a ball of fire. The Magnemite gave alarmed buzzes and beeps, and Hayley heard the spark and crackle of electricity, but the flame conducted it harmlessly away. In just moments, one of the Magnemite fell to the ground, and the second followed it quickly thereafter. Miriam had already drawn two empty Pokéballs, and now she raced up and tossed one onto each Magnemite. Two swirls of red light, a brief struggle of the balls rocking back and forth, and it was done. Miriam had two new Pokémon.

"Congratulations," Hayley said. Her heart was still pounding from the battle high, short-lived as the fight had been. "You just need one more now, right?"

"Yup." Miriam was scanning the balls with her Pokédex. After some deliberation, she put the dex away and pulled out a permanent marker. "I think this one's stronger," she said as she marked one of the balls with a numeral "1". "I'll have to check for sure at the Pokémon Center, but unless the next one I catch is even stronger, this one'll probably be the primary head."

Barrett gave a pointed huff, and Hayley sighed and granted the praise he was demanding. "Great job, Barrett. You showed those Magnemite what's what."

"Hopefully a third one's around here somewhere," Miriam said. "Then I can catch it and we can hop onto Cycling Road and be done with this route—"

"Uh, no, we're not done with this route," Hayley interjected. "We agreed we'd walk the whole way so Barrett and Sen could fight wild Pokémon, remember?"

"…Right," said Miriam, in the tone of someone who definitely did remember but had been hoping Hayley had changed her mind. "Yeah. Right."