At the Hearthome Gym, Fantina puts on a shocked expression when she sees the emergent headlines about the Pokemon Conference from her Cute TV. Apparently, on the twentieth morning of this cross-region Pokemon Academic Conference held at Canalave City, two participating scholars have suddenly gone missing, one of them being Prof. Rowan, a top authority in Pokemon evolution who hails from Sandgem Town; and the other being his co-researcher, Sir Berlitz.

Lady Berlitz bolts with shock upon seeing the man's picture on the TV screen, and Fantina wonders if something is wrong. The Lady requests to use the telephone at the gym, and with shaky fingers, dials her home number, which is quickly answered by the frantic voice of her butler, Sebastian. Dia and Pearl get increasingly worried as they watch the girl's face gradually whiten with fear during the call, and the Lady finally hangs up with a devastated look on her face.

Falling to her knees, she mutters that the missing scholar at the Canalave Conference, Sir Berlitz, is her very own father, and causes Dia, Pearl and Fantina to gap their mouths wide open in astonishment. Fantina hollers that it is a tragedy, and says Lady Berlitz must head to Canalave Ciy right away. The Lady turns to the boys with a pensive look, and Dia states that it is what they ought to do. Although their destination is Mt. Coronet, now that they have heard such news, the logical thing to do is would be to put their journey on hold, and gather as much details as they could from Canalave.

The Hearthome Gymleader hands Drifblim's Great Ball to Lady Berlitz, telling her to take the aerial route which will be quicker, and says she really would have preferred to accompany her if she could. The Lady shakes her head that it is already more than enough, and thanks Fantina from the bottom of her heart.

Later, under the evening skies, the trio climbs onto the blimp Pokemon and slowly takes off as Fantina waves goodbye to them and wishes them good luck. Pearl thinks of the fact that they are heading to where the Lady's father vanished, and wonders if other members of the Berlitz family will also be there. He begins to get anxious as he anticipates what is going to happen when those who have seen the real bodyguards spot them, and how they will look upon he and Dia, being fake substitutes who have escorted the Lady on her journey all along.

As Drifblim gets closer and closer to the western side of Sinnoh, Dia starts to get nervous as well, and wonders if things will be alright with them setting out under such tense emotions. Pearl states that he will be lying if he says he isn't worried at all, but the only right thing to do now is to bring the Lady to Canalave, since it is what they ought to do as bodyguards after all.

Just as the first rays of the morning sun begin to turn the evening skies a very faded shade of blue and yellow, Lady Berlitz spots the harbour city of Canalave beneath them, and cries that they have arrived. She quickly looks for the Canalave Library where the Pokemon Conference is being held, and tells Drifblim to land them in front of the building.

Standing at the Library's front door, Pearl sees that the entrance has been heavily blocked by tapes that say 'Keep Out', and remarks that it is probably too early in the morning and nobody seems to be around.

Lady Berlitz stares at the blocked door as she thinks of Prof. Rowan and her father, and Pearl notices that she is trembling with uncertainty again. He tries to cheer her up and suggests finding a hotel to take a short rest first, and remarks they will be able to inspect the place in person after the investigatory forces resume their work. He points out that as the daughter of the missing scholar, Lady Berlitz's presence will draw a lot of attention from both the police and the press, and while he understands that she is extremely worried, they must also think of the limit of their bodies, and rest up before facing all the drama.

Dia voices his agreement, and Lady Berlitz sees that the boys have a point. However, in that instant, she hears a distant familiar voice, almost as if speaking from another dimension, and quickly bolts around. Once she identifies its source, she begins dashing off, and Dia and Pearl hurriedly follow suit, requesting to know what is going on. Without turning her head, the Lady hollers that she has heard a voice, which she is very certain that belongs to her father, and causes the boys to gasp with surprise.

The girl stops in front of a four-storey building where she heard the voice came from, and promptly makes her way in once she finds its heavy steel doors. Dia and Pearl struggle to catch up with her, and warn that she should be careful of dangers. As soon as they say that, the metal platform which they are standing on begins to move forward, and travel along a steel rod towards the other end of the room. The trio lets out a cry when they are thrown onto another metal platform, and just when they have a chance to catch their breath, the platform rapidly elevates and takes them up to another storey.

The three young trainers continue to get tossed between moving metal platforms, and the boys exclaim that they are getting so dizzy that they are ready to throw up. Fortunately, as they are lifted to the top storey, the motions finally come to a halt, and the trio pants to catch their breath while taking off their scarves from the heat. Pearl grunts that the building must be some kind of new game attractions, and Lady Berlitz suddenly notices a silhouette in the small chamber behind them.

She quickly turns around and demands to know who it is, and sees that it is a scruffy man in a cape, holding a spade and crouching among a big pile of books next to a Shieldon. The man isn't very happy that they were making so much noise, and mocks that they must be really good trainers to barge into his place so early in the morning. With a tone of contempt, he says he shall gladly be their opponent and slowly straightens up himself.

Meanwhile, at Oreburgh City, the coal miner who owns Yellow the Psyduck drives to morning shift on the bulldozer, and waves to his colleagues as they walk past. He passes by the room of their person-in-charge, Roark, and sees the Oreburgh Gymleader standing next to his Cranidos, which he hasn't seen for quite some time.

Just then, Cranidos begins to shake and glow, and in a flash of light, evolved into a Rampardos. The coal miner quickly gets off the bulldozer with Yellow to congratulate Roark about it, and Roark grins that it happened just as he expected. The coal miner is amazed to hear that the young man knows exactly the timing of his Pokemon's evolution, and marvels at his precision in methodical issues, which is radically different from the style of his father, Byron. The coal miner realizes the rudeness in his statement and apologizes, but Roark doesn't mind and grins that his father's strength lies in his ability to pick up the impression that things exude, and come to conclusions with his powerful sixth sense.

The coal miner then wishes to know why his father summoned him to Canalave three weeks ago, and hopes that Roark doesn't mind him asking. The Oreburgh Gymleader ponders for a moment, then says it is because there have been certain odd activities that raised their concern. To make it easier to understand, an odd organization has started to show up at Canalave City. They have not really caused any trouble in the city except for looking up on various ancient literatures at the Library, but his father felt the need to investigate.

And then, there was this incident of scholars going missing while attending the Pokemon Academic Conference held at Canalave. Roark steals a glance at the TV screen behind him, which happens to be broadcasting the news, and says they have reasons to believe that the two things may be related.

The coal miner remarks that his Yellowduck has actually gone missing for one week a while ago as well, but a kind person found it wandering near Route 210, and brought it back to him. The miner then says he personally thinks that Byron's six senses are pretty accurate however, and Roark grins that he can agree to that. That said, the Oreburgh Gymleader is somewhat worried about his father, because he often takes action without thorough thinking. He could only hope that his father isn't going to act too impulsively over every single strange thing.

Back at the four-storey building at Canalave, the scruffy man in cape sends out two Bronzongs, while his Shieldon timidly flees from the soon-to-be battle ground. Lady Berlitz throws her scarf aside as she gets ready to fight, and calls forward Empoleon. The scarf happens to fall on Shieldon's face, and the shield Pokemon's eyes widen with surprise when it spots the five Gym Badges pinned on it.

The Lady commands an Aqua Jet, and Empoleon promptly delivers a powerful water blast onto the Bronzongs. Dia cries that it will not be very effective since the opponents are steel types, and the burly man grins that they don't seem to be completely naïve after all. Throwing down his spade, he orders a Payback, and the two bronze bell Pokemon instantly radiate out a pulse of energy to knock Empoleon back, fainting it in the process.

Pearl grunts in frustration that their opponent is really strong. Not only is he extremely familiar with type advantages, but he also knew that Aqua Jet is an attack that always strikes first, and thus waited his Bronzongs to receive the hit before countering with Payback, a move which power is doubled is the user attacks after the foe. Dia and Pearl call forward Beh, Roo, Chimlord and Chatlord to assist Lady Berlitz, but the girl tells them to stand back, and states that she will take care of this man on her own.

With her father's voice coming from this strange building, coupled with the fact that this man is attacking them for no reason upon their arrival, she is more than convinced that he has something to do with her father's disappearance, which is why she will go to her extremes to make him confess his evil doings. With that, she calls forward Ponyta, who instantly hurls out a barrage of fire balls.

The man in cape holds up his arm to shield the attacks, and is astounded by the intensity of the flames. One of the fire balls lands on a curtain in the chamber, and the man bolts to his feet when it rapidly burns off. To Lady Berlitz's astonishment, behind the curtain lies a giant transparent cube lined by white frames, and trapped inside the cube are no other than Prof. Rowan and her father, Sir Berlitz...

(Original Japanese Jokes)
There are no jokes or Manzai in this chapter.