At the city of Eterna, Chimlord, Prinplup and Roo gasp in astonishment, and wear looks of bewilderment on their faces as they check out their own new appearances. The blonde woman who has been watching Dia, Pearl and Lady Berlitz train walks up to the young ones, and states that the three Pokemon's long-term companionship has caused them to develop similar growth rates, resulting in the simultaneous evolution.

The trio looks up hesitantly at their stranger who is standing at a distance, and sees that she is accompanied by a Garchomp and Spiritomb. Dia whispers that she seems to have anticipated their Pokemon's evolution, and Pearl wonders who she is. Dia grins that the most effective way to learn about someone's character is to see their response to a Manzai verse, and Pearl sweatdrops at his suggestion that one who laughs is certainly a good person.

Pearl: Speaking of Pokemon~
Dia: Speaking of Pokemooon!!
Pearl: There are gym challenges.
Dia: Gym challenges~
Pearl: There are many different kinds of Gymleaders.
Dia: Different kinds of Gymleeeaders~ (puts on mask of Roark) We fought Roark at Oreburgh~
Pearl: And tomorrow!
Dia: (puts on mask of Gardenia) We'll be battling Gardenia, who will surely be waiting in a garden-near~

The blonde woman gawks with a blank face at the two boys, and suddenly breaks into a hysterical laugh, causing her Garchomp and Spiritomb to sweatdrop. Dia and Pearl clearly did not expect such a big reaction, and are stunned speechless as they stare at one another. Dia wishes to know if the woman found their verse interesting, and the woman nods that it is some of the best Manzai she has seen. She wipes off the tears in her eyes which welled up because of her intense laughing, and introduces herself as Cynthia. Guessing that the trio must be training for the Eterna Gym challenge, she offers to give them a little coaching.

Lady Berlitz instantly beams at her words, and tells the boys that the woman certainly does not look like a bad person. Dia is impressed that she knows of Manzai, and Pearl agrees that they seem to have come across an unexpected fortune. Thanking Cynthia, the young trainers accept her offer, and promptly resume their training.

Cynthia takes off her coat for Garchomp to carry, and focuses her teachings on Prinplup after learning that Lady Berlitz will be the challenger. She begins explaining the importance of agile footwork in evading the foe's attacks, and the Lady listens attentively with Pearl, while Dia and his Pokemon sit aside to munch on their riceballs.

However, Dia soon chokes on a bite, and has rice backflowing into his nostrils. After struggling with a failed attempt to sneeze it out, he explodes with a barking cough, which badly startles Prinplup. It so happens that Prinplup is about to unleash an attack in that instant, and the blue penguin ends up firing off a blast of water with an uncontrolled force.

Pearl hollers that the attack is about to hit the spiky building next to them, and Cynthia quickly orders her Spiritomb forward. To the trio's amazement, a globe of energy encases Prinplup's attack and halts it in midair, and Cynthia explains that it is Spiritomb's Psychic, a move generated from the mind which is capable of freezing other attacks without affecting their original power and nature.

She states that Psychic can seal almost any kind of attacks, and tells Dia to try his Grotle's Razor Leaf. Dia thus commands Roo to unleash the grass type attack, and Spiritomb once again generates an energy globe to trap the sharp-edged leaves. Dia exclaims with admiration that he has never seen such a cool thing before, and Cynthia grins that they should probably continue their training.

A while later, Cynthia winds up their session, and compliments on Lady Berlitz's quick learning, predicting that it will be a very interesting gym challenge. The Lady bows her head with Prinplup, and sincerely thanks the young woman for her teachings. Cynthia says her final advice is that one must have adequate planning before a battle, and contemplate on different strategies to deal with the various situations that may come up. For instance, one must plan on what to do when the opponent makes a certain move, and how the outcome of the decision is best managed subsequently.

However, she points out that there are always situations beyond expectations in a real combat, and thus it is essential to learn how to turn the opponent's advantage to one's own benefit. Lady Berlitz nods and thanks her again, and the trio bids their goodbyes while Cynthia wishes them good luck. Watching the young trainers walk off, Cynthia thinks to herself that the three being Pokedex Holders must have made her reminisce about the past, which is most likely the reason why she took the initiative to befriend them.

She then steals a glance at a broken bicycle that lies in the bushes behind her, and pulls out a photo of a man, who is the owner of the Bike Shop in the city. Apparently, the man has been ambushed and kidnapped, and she has come all the way to Eterna to investigate upon the matter, where her latest discoveries have led her to the building right in front of her. Looking up at the spikey building, she believes that if she heard it right, the calls for help came from the top floor.

Later, at the Eterna Gym, Dia, Pearl and Lady Berlitz enters the building and finds themselves face to face with a huge maze which is formed by densely packed trees. The dragon-like statue at the entrance welcomes the young ones, whom it addresses as the children of the future, and almost right away recognizes their faces. Dia and Pearl gasp that it is the same voice as the one at the Oreburgh Gym, and the statue guesses that Lady Berlitz is once again the challenger. It then explains the rules, and says up to two Pokemon can be used, with a choice between switch-in, elimination, and double battles.

Lady Berlitz picks double battles, and the statue says challengers must solve the tree maze to find their way to Gardenia, who waits at the other end of the room. Just then, the Lady sees a silhouette dashing behind the trees, and wonders if it is Gardenia, but the statue states that it is only one of the four hidden trainers whom challengers must find and defeat in a definite order before they can fight Gardenia herself.

Pearl and Dia put on a grin as they trot over to where the silhouette was seen, and beckon Lady Berlitz over, saying that it must be the right path to go since the first hidden trainer is there. Their remark draws a grumble from the statue, and it demands to what the boys are doing. Dia grins that they are there for support and starts munching on his churros, and Pearl proudly claims to be the coach of the Lady. The statue hollers that it has stressed many times on the importance of fairness in gym challenges, and will not tolerate any form of assistance. With that, it throws the two boys out of the gym like it did at Oreburgh, and reiterates that eating is strictly prohibited in the room.

Dia and Pearl crash on their bottoms once again, and Dia wonders they should do now. Pearl grunts that he will not sit there and wait, and is determined to find some way to watch the battle. After looking around for a bit, they soon find a tree next to the gym which is tall enough to let them peek through the windows. Pearl is glad that they won't have to pile up as they did before, and starts scaling up the tree adeptly while Dia struggles to catch up.

Sitting on a branch that grows nearest to the building, the two boys make themselves comfortable, and look through the windows to see that Lady Berlitz has already solved the maze and beaten the four hidden trainers. Dia exclaims that Lady Berlitz will be fighting Gardenia next, and Pearl pricks up his ears to listen when the Lady speaks her full name upon the gymleader's request, but to no avail since the glass windows have muffled up most of the sound.

The dragon-like statue commences the battle, and Lady Berlitz sends out Ponyta and Prinplup while Gardenia calls forward Cherubi and Roserade. Dia remarks that Gardenia is indeed using grass types, and Pearl says Ponyta's flames and Prinplup's ice attacks should give them an upperhand. However, they soon see that the Eterna Gymleader has hopped significantly backwards on the battlefield, and left a considerable distance between Lady Berlitz and herself.

Gardenia states that even a fool can tell the clear disadvantage her Roserade and Cherubi have against the challenger's fire and ice attacks, and it is always wise to earn space for easier evasion. Dia finds it illogical since Gardenia's own attacks will have decreased accuracy as well, but the young woman seems hardly concerned, and Lady Berlitz wonders what the gymleader has kept up her sleeves.

As if to answer her challenger's query, Gardenia motions Roserade to begin its attack, and the bouquet Pokemon quickly sends a thick vine with thorns out of its left hand to jab into the ground. A soft rumbling echoes in the room, and before Lady Berlitz realizes what is going on, the vine shoots out right beneath Ponyta and whacks it like a whip. Ponyta instantly topples over in agony as the thorn disappears into the ground again, and Gardenia grins that the fire pony is already unable to continue fighting, leaving the Lady with one Pokemon against her two.

Pearl gasps that Roserade's vines are lined with poison thorns which not only deal a lot of damage, but may poison the foe. With the entire underground to serve as her medium of attack, it is no wonder that distance is not a problem for Gardenia. Not only that, but it will be nearly impossible to tell where the vines will emerge, making evasions extremely difficult to succeed.

Lady Berlitz orders Prinplup to charge forward, but Gardenia has Roserade repeat its trick, and Prinplup anxiously looks around to stay watchful as the rumbling sound draws nearer. Unfortunately, the vine spurts out from right behind it, and lands a wicked whack on its back. Dia exclaims that it is the same pattern all over again, and Pearl points out that while Prinplup fortunately didn't get poisoned from this strike, it is only a matter of time before it does.

Having gained an overwhelming upperhand, Gardenia decides to make it even harder for her challenger, and orders Roserade to unleash vines with both of its hands this time. For Lady Berlitz, she could only watch helpless as Prinplup shrieks in pain and receives another round of whipping...

(Original Japanese Jokes)

1. In the Manzai verse that plays on gym challenges, Dia and Pearl say they have already fought Roark at Oreburgh, and later, they will 'Natane-san to tatakaukoto ni nattane', which means 'get into the battle with Gardenia'. The pun is on the word 'Natane', which is Gardenia's Japanese name and also carries the meaning of 'to get into'.