Josh was certainly out of his element in the confines of the ruins beneath New Mauville. He had been down to the underground space planned to be an expansion to Mauville City, but was ultimately abandoned due to a reason he was not privy to. He loved going down there, though, especially for the electromagnetic race course that allowed electric Pokémon to run upside down, much like a futuristic hovercar's antigravity.

Thankfully, this was completely on the opposite end of New Mauville. That lab on the lowest levels of the place was something he wanted to forget about. As much as he wanted to be, the war had taught Josh he was no fighter. He was a hell of a combatant within a predefined set of rules, but war had no rules. It was kill or be killed.

"And I'm sure I couldn't excavate this place without your help, either," Josh returned Howard's compliment, seated on the back of Toralf, his Raichu. All of the steeds be brought had to be of a smaller size; there would be little room to fly, most likely. Even then, he brought two Pokémon that could fly, just in case. One for him and one for his partner.

As he stepped inside, a glint of light caught his eye as the stairs transitioned from metal to rock. It was the reflection of a gray, gemstone-like object embedded in the wall. "Lemme see if I can get this out. This is really curious." The Gym Leader backed away and sent out Extratone, a Kommo-o whose tail immediately started rattling. The dragon-type spread his claws over the rock surrounding the small gemstone piece, vibration shooting down his tail and into his fists. The rumble was loud, grinding just enough of the stone to dust for the shard to fall out.

You obtained an AERODACTYLITE FRAGMENT! This is your 1st one!

Feeling a small amount of Infinity Energy radiating from it, recognizing it thanks to having regularly worn a Sygna Suit so often, he palmed it and brought it toward Howard. "Do you recognize this?" he asked.

"Hm?" Howard turned to Josh and walked over. He had been inspecting the crumbling walls and infrastructure. Long ago, there had been a battle with the Megalopolans that had shaken the area to its core. Howard hadn't been part of that battle, but the scars of it were prevalent.

He picked up a massive cord and inspected it. It reminded him of the cords found in Ultra Plant, filled to the brim with Xurkitree and strange energies. Unbeknownst to Howard, Sapphire had picked over New Mauville, as there was allegedly a massive ruin akin to the one north of Dewford located here. Would Howard and Josh find something that they missed?

It was possible. Hoenn's fate might depend on it.

"Let me see." The archaeologist plucked up the stone and inspected it with a trained eye. After peering at the shard, Howard's missing eye began to twitch. He remembered a flashing pain and burning nerves. Howard felt the need to scratch at his eyepatch. "Yeah, I recognize it."

His face betrayed little.

"It's an Aerodactylite piece. Surprisingly good shape for one that's been shattered." Howard looked pleasantly surprised by the find, though the stone brought him back memories of... "Shirley has a completed one. I didn't know these could be found down here."

Shirley, who appeared in a flash, sniffed the stone, before shrieking and disappearing deeper into the complex.

"Me too, girl. Come on." Howard said wearily before walking after Shirley. "Let's see if we can complete the stone as we descend."

---

Josh Devlin

As the adventuring duo reached the bottom of the stairs, Toralf's tail rose straight up, Josh's skin tingling as his Raichu steed's cheeks began to glow. "What's up, buddy? You--"

Before he could even react, a Runerigus, hidden in the corner, zapped the Gym Leader with a nasty SHADOW BALL. Without the protection of his Sygna Suit, the attack really stung. He hurled a second Poké Ball toward the ghost-type, from it emerging Rime, an Alolan Ninetales that the Rocket Admin may have been familiar with if he spent a lot of time at Mauville Gym. An ICE BEAM to the ground-type's eye faceplate was enough to freeze their foe solid.

They were far from out of the woods yet, though; the CONFUSE RAY of a Gardevoir from around another corner blinded the fellow fairy-type. Were Howard to take a peek around, the scene would be utter chaos: a wide-open chamber whose walls contained a mural unreadable in the heat of battle, containing several TELEPORTING Gardevoir and Gallade not happy to see the two invaders treading on turf that humans were never supposed to set foot on.

"Guh!" Howard let out a yelp as he fell to the floor. His chin struck gravel and rubble as the rough grains dug into his chin. Immediately, Shirley yowled into action, letting out a shrill scream as Howard cowered on the floor.

Claws scratched against earth as Shirley scraped against the industrial walls of New Mauville. Saliva emerged from her gaping maw as her jaw opened, crackling with arcing electricity. New Mauville might've been cramped and not ideal for flight, but that didn't stop the Aerodactyl from savagely rampaging through the underground stronghold.

A Gardevoir teleported. It reappeared. It fell into Shirley's maw.

It fell to the arching electricity and the crushing jaws.

"Josh!" Howard shouted as the Gym Leader was struck. Howard pawed at his belt, and tossed out a ball. A Rampardos began rampaging towards a Gallade, pinning it against the wall. Howard didn't need to say a word, because he was panicking. The fires of battle weren't good for him.

His Pokémon rampaged without guidance, and it was up to Josh to direct the flow of battle alone.

"Josh! Help!" The archaeologist's eye darted frantically as he cowered. "Do something!"

---

Josh Devlin

With the myriad of ghost and psychic Pokémon known to inhabit ruins, Josh's Mightyena would have been perfect for coming to Howard's aid, weren't it those Pokémon specifically being Gardevoir and Gallade. This was gonna get ugly. "Clyde!" he cried, hurling the ride-trained Flareon's Poké Ball into the confusion of battle. A FLARE BLITZ from behind, after the Rampardos' tromping, was enough to down the Gallade. It was all thanks to his quick reaction time that Howard suffered no further harm.

Once all of the psychic-types had fallen, a slab covering the north passageway receded into the ground, as though the Pokémon in the antechamber had been holding it up. Withdrawing his Flareon, Josh guided his Raichu forward, gasping at what he saw in the large, open expanse of the Mauville Ruins. "Arceus, Howard, come take a look at this! You won't believe it!"

"Guhhhwhazzat?" Howard groaned as he clawed to his feet. Carnage surrounded him. Josh was a very strong trainer. Their battle bounced back to him in his mind. This was what Josh was capable of? Their fight had felt hard to Howard, but now he realized something.

He had barely caused the Gym Leader to struggle. He got lucky.

"Coming!" The archaeologist jogged over, whistling his Pokémon to follow. As he looked over Josh's shoulder, his eye widened slightly. These ruins weren't ruins. It was old infrastructure from New Mauville. Old cables, wires, and various pipes lined the walls. An old fusebox was slightly ajar.

"It's magnificent. It's a shame that Mauville abandoned this project. It had a lot of potential. Old potential."

Yet there were hints of something more here. A crumbling wall that seemed out of place. Strange symbols behind a mass of wires. Unbeknownst to Howard, SAPPHIRE had been to New Mauville in hunt of a strange ruin. Unbeknownst to him, they had also found nothing.

"Come on." Howard clapped his foe on the shoulder as he walked past into the depths.

---

Josh Devlin

The chamber before them was enormous, but not what Josh was expecting. When a SAPPHIRE report had told him about ruins beneath Mauville, he was expecting something closer to the pyramid beneath the Great Desert. This appeared to be an entire abandoned underground city. Before them appeared to be a disused convention hall and skyway, a mazelike arrangement of barricades on the floor below them clearly used to direct high volumes of traffic at one point. Free-floating sparks flew around the walls, an indicator that the power had never been cut. Why? What was down here that required the place to still have power? "I had no idea something this grand was beneath Mauville," Josh gasped, keeping his eyes out for dangerous Pokémon.

Leading the way through the skyway to the east, Toralf's ears shot up. "What is it, buddy?" Josh asked his Raichu steed, who was quick to point his long tail toward another skyway to their north. Several Magneton were bouncing about the corridor; if they were to come that way, they would have to engage them if they wanted to go through. This place was already maze-like, and they had barely explored it!

Once the duo had passed through the skyway to the east side of the hall, a red beam struck Josh, causing an electronic door to close behind the two explorers. Seconds after entering, a high-pitched mechanical whir caught Josh's attention, floor panels composing the ground they stood on dropping beneath a fog that not even the Raichu could see the bottom of. The only obvious ways out were across a "bridge" that would collapse from underneath Howard if he tried to hoof it across.

With quick thinking, Josh hurled Voja's Poké Ball toward the Admin's feet, the tall Mightyena appearing in a flash of light. "You want to avoid dealing with those Magneton, then hop on and hurry!"

"Mauville's got a lengthy history. New Mauville was quite the project, I've been told. We need to go deeper." Howard frowned and shuddered. Ancient history was difficult, but history of urban developments was even muddier and even harder. Development reports weren't written, data was lost, and people who worked on urban projects died or moved away.

If Sapphire couldn't find anything down here, could Howard and Josh?

"At least you'll be more knowledgeable about Mauville because of this. Learn this place like the back of your hand. If you're its defender, might as well do your job. C'mon, chop chop!"

Zrrrt! Magnetons flew towards them, and Howard accepted the Gym Leader's offer. All of Josh's Pokemon were freakishly huge, but the archaeologist wouldn't complain about a free ride. As he crawled on, his Rampardos returned to her ball. Shirley, meanwhile, glided alongside them.

"Shirley, shake 'em off!" Howard shouted as several pieces of rubble lurched towards the Magnetons, swatting them away with an Ancient Power. "There! Look!" Howard pointed up ahead. "We need to lose these Magnetons! Man, I wish I had brought a map of New Mauville!"

---

Josh Devlin

With Howard securely in Voja's saddle (or as securely as the guest rider was going to get), the Mightyena and Raichu ferried their riders across the collapsing tile bridge and distanced themselves from the slow, floating steel-types. As much as he wanted to examine and possibly force open the large, coffers-like object at the end of the hall, they weren't doing so with the Magneton chasing them. They would have to come back when they were better prepared to handle the steel-type foes.

The next chamber the two found themselves in gave them a good look at the Magneton-filled skyway from the opposite side, as well as a new obstacle even the Gym Leader was not familiar with. The northwest corner was sealed off by what appeared to be a line of CHARGE BEAMS, but they were blue instead of the normal yellow. Something was odd, indeed. "What is generating these...?" As things stood, there was no way they were getting to the smaller, coffers-like crate beyond; the passage to the north was beyond the beams, and the west one was locked from the other side. They would need to come back with either a SMALL KEY or a way to disable those beams.

The only way back was a slippery slide... back to where they had come from. They had traveled in a giant circle. "Wow, a dud. So I'm wondering now, Howard... did Sapphire find nothing because there was nothing to find down here... or did they find nothing because this place is a pain in the ass to navigate? They really should have hired Shalin. She'd make quick work of a place like this."

With the number of exits out of the commons, Josh had to remain organized in his excavation of New Mauville. "We have to do this systematically. How about we go counterclockwise through the open entrances?" he asked Howard. Provided there were no objections, he would lead the way around the pit, dodging Rotom trying to make themselves pests before leading the way through the northernmost passage on the right.

The smell of mold wafted into Josh's nostrils, causing him to cough. Nocturnal grass Pokémon, such as Amoonguss, made their homes in the ruins, too. Two such myconids spread sleep-inducing SPORES the moment they saw the intruders. Josh tumbled off Toralf, the Raichu no longer able to stay awake. In the center of the room, blocking passage further north, was a large, defaced statue, unrecognizable in its form. Voja let out a bark, the only warning for the Admin to slide off. If he didn't, he would be in for quite the ride as the Mightyena slammed into one of the Amoonguss with a vicious TAKE DOWN!

"I don't know, man. You tell me. I'm just an academic, not a civil servant." Howard rolled his eye to the ceiling, before shrugging. At the end of the day, Mauville was Josh's domain. That included everything that was under it. "Mauville's one of Hoenn's biggest cities. It doesn't shock me that it's built on top of old infrastructure. You gotta sit in on more meetings, man. Learn your town's history."

This place was a patchwork. It was an area that had been built, built over, and then destroyed by that giant Xurkitree. A Xurkitree, Howard realized, that was likely Dynamaxed. Where had it gotten that ability from, if not here? Nonetheless, they had to continue. These could be ruins, but it could also simply be old electrical infrastructure from when Mauville was the hottest project on the block.

Hopefully they didn't get lost. Luminoise City in Kalos had sprawling sewers and catacombs.

"I don't know, man." Howard exhaled through his nostrils as he peered at the electric bars. He could've easily annihilated them with Regice, but using that Pokémon wasn't worth the risk. Josh would be honor-bound to report it to the League, and that secret would be out of the bag.

No, it was best to poke around.

"The war here happened before you became Gym Leader, right?" Howard asked Josh as they went counterclockwise. "Would you put your life on the line to stop something like that from happening again?"

It was a question that was interrupted by Amoonguss. As Josh's Mightyena barked, Howard didn't get off its back in time. Instead, he got quite the ride as Voja went for the TAKE DOWN.

Shirley let out a roar as she followed Howard into battle, maw opening to a cavern of icy crystals as the Aerodactyl used Ice Fang to freeze another Amoonguss in place. It pounded on it, and mauled it. Despite Howard's mediocrity as a trainer, Shirley was remarkably strong.

Worming off of Voja, Howard fell to the floor with a crash. His eye widened as he saw a Spore approaching.

---

Josh Devlin

"Technically, New Mauville isn't part of Mauville City," Josh corrected him. To his knowledge, it was its own entity, an underground construction project that had to be abandoned part of the way through. There were some parts of it still functional, such as the MOBIUS RING race course. It was one not for the faint of heart, either, using the power of electromagnetism to allow electric and steel Pokémon to run while upside down. With how much stronger of a person he was now, though, it might be worth a try. He hadn't tried it in over a year and a half.

That would have to wait, though; they had a mystery to solve.

"Correct; well before I became Gym Leader," Josh answered. Most of what he knew about the war came from Lorekeeper Alexei Ivanov . "Absolutely. As a Gym Leader, I am loyal to Hoenn, yes, but my most important responsibility is to keep Mauville's citizens, especially the young and the elderly, safe. Mauville has a substantial elderly population, and I want to make sure that when their time comes, it will be in peace, not in violence." It was one of the reasons Josh was especially concerned about a Power Spot showing up on his Gym's property. Mauville may have been the most susceptible city in all of Hoenn when it came to Dynamax warfare due to the city building upward, not outward.

"Howard!!" Josh cried as Voja took off with the inexperienced rider in tow, his gallop and swerving perhaps feeling like the meanest rodeo Tauros in the world to the Admin. With a second reckless TAKE DOWN, the Mightyena dispatched the remaining Amoonguss, but not before the SPORES also put the dark-type to sleep. On foot, the Gym Leader shoved his friend out of their way, the soporific attack landing on the lower third of his clothes. While they were harmless for the time being, a gust of air could cause them to float into his nostrils at an inopportune time.

With the coast clear, he withdrew Voja. With two of his Pokémon asleep and two in poor shape, Josh had little choice. He had to ride his Kommo-o, Extratone, to remain mobile. Sending out the dragon-type, his skin tingled just from watching the scaled Pokémon's tail vibrate.

Advancing northward and helping Howard if he needed it, Josh ascended to a skyway that was still on the same floor. It split in three, the westmost door covered by a large, golden lock. Without the BIG KEY, they would be unable to open it. Ignoring it, he and Extratone continued north to another crisscrossing series of skyways.

At the path's end were the supports of a shelf that had long since been destroyed. Hanging from one of the supports was a SMALL KEY that was camouflaged against the end of the debris-filled skyway. "Hey, I think this will let us get into the west wing, Howard!" the Gym Leader chirped, happy he had at last caught a break.

You obtained a SMALL KEY! This key can be used to open any one lock. You can use it only in this dungeon.

"Like Granite Cave isn't part of Dewford?" The archaeologist asked casually. Dewford's Gym Leader fought a war with the beast that lie dormant under his town. If Josh was aware of it, he would understand the meaning, if not...

Oh well. Not every person could carry the weight of their city and its surrounding areas. Mauville was a heavy burden as one of Hoenn's greatest cities. The strain was enough to cause a man to stumble and fall. Josh Devlin stumbled, but had he ever fallen?

That was his story to tell.

There was only one objective here, truly. To delve into the depths of New Mauville in an attempt to find something, anything that would help Howard in his mission of understanding what had happened in the Island Cave. He'd have to visit the other sites at some point, as well. First, though, they'd have to get through the height of urban excess that was New Mauville.

"Of course it's locked. Everything in this place is locked." Howard sighed as Josh pocketed the key. Whatever keys had existed for New Mauville's construction were likely buried under rubble. Lucky that there were spares lying around.

"You should start sending people out around Mauville, then. The city is yours, but the surrounding routes... New Mauville... They all need to be safe." Howard insisted as the two returned to the west wing. He let Josh while he continued to contemplate this. Hoenn needed brave soldiers to defend it, and Howard wasn't brave.

Josh would need to pick up the slack, and defend the future instead. Him and the other Gym Leaders.

"Why'd you come to Hoenn, Josh?" He knew that Josh was from Johto, but beyond that, he knew little.

---

Josh Devlin

Part of Dewford Island, sure. Part of the municipality? No. New Mauville was actually quite far from Mauville City, down highway 110, a playground for sprinting Pokémon in Hoenn. The long, straight shot between Mauville and Rustboro served as arguably the fastest "fast lane" in the region. New Mauville, though, was the domain of gMH and oscar clayton .

While Josh was on the way back to the west wing, he noticed an entrance he had missed: an emergency escape hatch that let him drop down from the skyway to the ground level. "Can't believe I missed this," he remarked, the emergency route serving as a shortcut to the lower level. As they crossed the long span leading downstairs, the Gym Leader shared his story as asked.

"That's the domain of general Law Enforcement," he answered. "Next meeting, I'll see if we can spare the manpower. Mauville's a huge city, though, and the crime rate's... not where I'd like it to be." Especially in the slums. It was a place he visited with some regularity to shine the rays of hope upon the city's less fortunate.

Coming to the end of the span, Josh unlocked the gate leading to the basement. "It's... a coincidence. Back at the end of June of 2022, I traveled to Hoenn from Johto for a two-week vacation. The day after I arrived, the barrier went up. You know, the barrier that kept Hoenn isolated from July until November? Anyway, I planned on staying for two weeks, but it ended up being four months. By the time I could return to Johto in late November, I had already made a life for myself here, having been Gym Leader since September."

As Josh and his Kommo-o led the way to the basement, he found his surroundings pitch-black. Stumbling, he reached for Mastema's Poké Ball and clicked it open, unable to see the Togekiss mere feet in front of him. "Mastema, need you to use your DAZZLING GLEAM so we can see." The fairy-type nodded before releasing a brilliant burst of light that illuminated the dark room long enough for the duo to note its shape.

A large pressure plate was located in the northwest corner. When Josh reined Extratone toward it, shutters in the southeast and southwest corners opened. As soon as the dragon stepped off it, they closed once more. "You got a permanent light solution, Howard?" he asked. "Mastema's good at Dazzling Gleam, but he can only hold it for so long."

Were the two to work together to hold the shutter open, one of them would find a gleaming, golden KEY in a storage room past the shutter.

You obtained the BOSS KEY! Now you can get into the chamber where the Boss lurks.

Now the question remained: how were they going to hold the pressure plate down so they could keep the shutter open so they could delve further in?