On the grassland south of Mauville, Sapphire is relocating the spot where she fell through the ground earlier while Wattson and the Trick Master patiently wait besides her. Sapphire soon finds it, and rams her fist hard to flip open the plate-like rotating gate. The three are about to go in when a crowd of children suddenly come storming up to Wattson and request a challenge. The jolly old man happily accepts and releases an Electrike and two Magnemites. The three electric Pokémon swiftly take down the children's Pokémon, and the children praises Wattson for being the strongest gymleader ever. Sapphire gaps her mouth wide in surprise when she hears that the weird old man is the gymleader of Mauville, and gets even more shocked when he starts handing out Dynamo Badges to the children.

Sapphire angrily asks what Wattson is doing, and the old man replies that he's recognizing the children's strength in gym battles. He explains with a laugh that his motto in life is 'to live light-heartedly', and says it doesn't matter to him where the battle takes place or whether or not his opponents win the battle. He remarks that gym badges are authorized symbols of the Pokémon Association which are given out at the gymleaders' own discretion, and he feels that the children's enthusiasm deserves his recognition. He then hands a Dynamo Badge to Sapphire and says it is a compliment to her helping him find New Mauville, but Sapphire thinks the old man is not taking his gymleader duty seriously and angrily swats the badge away. She hollers that she set out on her journey to have proper gym battles, and would not settle for ludicrous rewards like that.

The Dynamo Badge Sapphire swatted away lands hardly on the forehead of Donphan, and it immediately fumes with rage and starts charging towards the three. Sapphire, Wattson and the Trick Master quickly run for their lives, but Donphan catches up with them and slams them all into the underground hole. It then bumps onto the rotating gate without control and falls into the hole itself, closing the gateat the same time.

A while later, Sapphire wakes up to find herself in darkness. With her sharp vision, she notices that Wattson is nowhere to be seen, but the Trick Master and Donphan are next to her, and shakes to wake them up. The two resume their fighting once they see each other, and Sapphire angrily yells for them to stop. The Trick Master presses a button on the walking machine he's riding on, and a power lamp extends out to illuminate the place. Sapphire gasps in surprise as a whole room of different weird machineries come into sight, and she asks the Trick Master what the ancestors built the underground city for. The Trick Master says no one really knows, but it is widely believed that the ancestors foresaw the overpopulation of Mauville by children, which is already happening, and thus created a backup land just in case the city above ground gets too crowded. He remarks that both he and Wattson cherish children very much, and that the two of them have been searching for New Mauville for a long time.

Sapphire seems to understand now why Wattson was so appreciative of her helping him locate the place, and feels bad for yelling at him earlier. She continues to wander around the place looking for the missing old man with the Trick Master and Donphan, and soon hears his faint cry from a distance. Wattson's Electrike and two Magnemites suddenly come running towards them, and Sapphire exclaims in shock when the two magnet Pokémon start to lose their strength and crumble to the ground. She checks on her Pokédex to learn that Magnemites become incapable of flying if their internal electrical supply is depleted, and the Trick Master wonders who drained the energy of the two Pokémon away.

Sapphire hears Wattson's cry again, and tells Electrike to lead the way. After running along a corridor and turning a few corners, they see a giant power generator built like a two-horned monster creating a field of electric sparks around itself. Beneath the machine's single eye, a struggling Wattson together with his Voltorb, Electrode, and Magneton are fastened to its cyndrical metal body by electrical wires...

Thanks To Coronis For Writing this for us