It was an enormous, artificially excavated cavern. Black magnetic stones covered the surrounding walls and floor, while partition walls made of highly conductive hard stone divided the cavern into corridors. At every corner, a Pokémon the size of a shot put clung to the wall. Each had a single eye and horseshoe-shaped magnets on either side, with currents continually flickering around its body.
These were Magnemite.
Even now, Pokémon League researchers did not know how they were formed, and much about them remained a mystery.
Yong stood at the entrance to the maze, surveying the walls and floor made entirely of magnetic stones and hard stone. They absorbed what little light the dim lamps provided, restricting his vision even further. Only the occasional flicker of electricity around the Magnemite offered a glimmer of light.
Frowning, he sent out Marshtomp.
"Marsh!"
"Marshtomp, scan the area. Can you find where the Trainer inside is?"
There was nothing else for it. He could only give it a try first.
Marshtomp crouched down and closed its eyes. The finlike feeler on its head swayed slightly as invisible energy spread wildly through the surroundings. Yong waited patiently.
Members of the Mudkip family generally buried themselves in mud or sand, then used the feelers on their heads to detect their surroundings or locate food. But everything here was made of magnetic stone. With the irregular magnetic fields interfering, he had no idea whether it would work.
Sure enough, after scanning for quite some time, Marshtomp stood up and shook its head at him.
"It didn't work? Looks like things are more complicated than I thought!"
He had already prepared himself for this possibility, so the result wasn't unacceptable.
"Thanks for your hard work. Come back and rest!"
"Marsh!"
After comforting Marshtomp, which felt bad about being unable to help, Yong recalled it to its Pokémon Ball and sent out Aron.
"Aron! I'm leaving this one to you!"
"Ar! Ar!"
The excited little Pokémon looked curiously around its surroundings, then nodded at him as though saying, "Leave everything to me!"
Without another word, Yong headed toward the entrance. The chaotic magnetic fields here rendered all detection equipment useless. To get through, challengers had to find their way by repeated trial and error.
But for Yong, who had Aron, there was an easier way.
"Aron, start eating the wall straight ahead!"
"Ar! Ar!!"
Since Marshtomp couldn't scan the area,
he would use the precaution he had originally prepared for an iron maze like the one in the games: he had stopped feeding Aron any ore a day in advance.
He hadn't expected the iron to be gone and hard stone to take its place!
Pokémon such as Aron, Larvitar, and Sableye ate ore as their main food source, and the harder it was, the more they liked it. Despite their small bodies, they could eat an entire mountain to meet the needs of their growth.
To develop steel armor that could protect them, they searched everywhere for hard ore. When they couldn't find enough to satisfy their needs, they would even sneak off to eat steel products made by humans, such as railway tracks and mine carts.
Hard stone was extremely tough, making it one of Aron's ideal foods.
However, hard stone formed very slowly, and a mine or mountain range would produce only a single piece, large or small. As a result, it was very expensive!
The little Pokémon, which hadn't eaten any ore for over a day, gave a happy cry at Yong's command. It ran to the wall ahead, opened its mouth, and bit into it.
It decided to follow its Trainer's instructions to the letter and eat its fill!
Amid the crunch of breaking stone and the sounds of chewing, a small hollow soon appeared in the hard stone wall. Yong nodded in satisfaction and continued giving instructions.
"Just eat in one spot. Make a hole through the wall!"
"Ar~ar!"
Hmm... should I let Steelix out to eat, too?
The wicked thought sprang into his mind, and he had absolutely no intention of stopping.
The Magnemite at the nearby corner watched everything unfold and silently switched on its camera...
Meanwhile, in front of the large screen at the final arena,
Wattson, Harada, Chengjie, and a referee stared dumbfounded at Aron happily enjoying its feast and the boy cheering it on beside it.
"What are they... doing?"
The Gym Leader, who had weathered countless trials in his life, muttered to himself.
Beside him, Harada wiped the cold sweat from his forehead and spoke cautiously.
"From the looks of it, I think he wants Aron to eat a path through?"
Chengjie struggled to hold back his laughter, not daring to make a sound for fear of provoking someone's wrath. He could only applaud his friend in his heart!
Amazing, Yong! You actually came up with something like this! That's you, all right! I chose the beginner trial back then, and I still spent four whole hours in there! I almost didn't make it out!
Every trial a Gym set had a purpose.
At the Rustboro Gym, for example, climbing all the way up the mountain path tested a Trainer's character and physical fitness, while battles with the Gym Trainers tested their command of moves and their ability to adapt.
At the Mauville Gym, the first trial tested a Trainer's judgment and understanding of their own strength. The second trial, the maze, tested the rapport between Trainer and Pokémon, as well as their attention to detail.
Under normal circumstances, as long as the two worked together and observed carefully, they would notice that the positive poles of every Magnemite's magnets pointed in a particular direction... It was a very strange phenomenon.
Every Magnemite had two magnets with completely opposite positive and negative poles. They should never point in the same direction, only in opposite directions.
Yet inside the maze, they actually pointed the same way. That spoke volumes! An outside force was interfering with them... deliberately!
Anyone who paid a little attention could notice the anomaly.
But Yong and Aron... how should one put it? Perhaps this was another kind of rapport? Just brute-forcing their way through?
They hadn't even ventured into the maze!
And this much hard stone was incredibly difficult to obtain!
"He's breaking the rules!! This! This... how can he do this?!"
Wattson tugged at his beard, finally unable to hold back his roar!
It hurt so much!
The referee beside him quietly edged away before answering.
"The rules don't say Pokémon aren't allowed to eat the hard stone..."
"...Uh..."
As though someone had seized him by the throat, Wattson fell silent.
Everyone around him also stopped talking. Only Aron's crisp chewing noises from the video echoed through the hall.
The strange silence didn't last long. Everyone watched the boy on the screen release an enormous Steelix while muttering to himself,
"Having two of them eat should make it faster. Good things are meant to be shared!"
This time, even Chengjie was stunned.
Their appetites are that big?
At last, Wattson spoke again.
"Right now! Immediately! Add a rule for challengers! Neither Pokémon nor Trainers may damage Gym facilities through underhanded means!!!"
"It's eating... that's not underhanded..."
"This is the most underhanded method of all!!! Add it now!!"
Speechless, the referee spread his hands and could only reluctantly agree.
"You brat!"
Just as Yong was instructing Steelix to get started too, a voice rang throughout the maze.
"Follow the direction the Magnemite are pointing and get over here right now! I'm going to beat you up!!!"
"Huh?"
Who is that? Why does he want to beat me up?
Completely baffled, Yong finally noticed the Magnemite around him. Whether they faced him directly, stood sideways, or even lay flat, the positive poles of their magnets all pointed in the same direction.
"There's something off about these Magnemite... this seems a little too deliberate!"
He studied them thoughtfully, then waved a hand as realization finally dawned on him.
"I get it! That direction must lead to the exit, right? Aron, Steelix, just finish eating this wall. We'll go take a look first. If it's not the exit, we can keep eating!"
"Roar!"
"Ar! Ar!"
Somewhere, a heartbroken roar rang out.
"My hard stone!!"