- No, it turns out the TV crew is interviewing Stern for some kind of discovery he just made on the seafloor.
- It's an underwater cavern on Route 128. Said to be the home of some unnamed Pokemon that's probably Kyogre.
- Archie and company have made it inside the harbor and are actively trying to steal the submarine.
- Archie just gave away that they have a hideout in Lilycove City for absolutely no reason. Nothing prompted him to give that information away.
- The attempted theft has become an actual theft.
- Alright, looks like I'm going to be using Surf and giving chase.
- After consulting the map, it looks like I can make it to Lilycove by just going back to where Mt. Pyre was and then going East a bit.
- Decided to Fly to Mauville and start heading to Lilycove.
- A berry bush that I replanted had grown and was still there. Maybe I should Fly to Fortree instead and check the ones I replanted over there.
- Okay, yeah, there are still some plants over by Fortree.
- After some collecting and replanting, I was right near Lilycove. I guess that worked out for me.
- Gary picked up a PP Up.
- I made it to Lilycove City.
- There's a lot of Team Aqua grunts scattered around the city.
- May is standing in front of the department store. Maybe she'll help me with some of these guys. Or just challenge me to a battle.
- Okay, so, I technically get a prompt that will let me say 'no', but she does want a battle. Who am I to refuse?
- Slapkins one-shot the Swellow with Surf.
- Sredsa was able to take out Grovyle, despite being five levels lower.
- Sredsa almost one-shot the Wailmer and was almost knocked out in the same round.
- Annie finished the Wailmer and Slapkins one-shot the Numel.
- May said she was going to finish her Pokedex before mine. She's probably right. I wasn't really planning to put much work into that.
- I walked into some guy's house, where he said he wasn't awake yet and gave me Rest (TM44).
- An old man next to the house had words about Team Aqua claiming to be "nature-loving" while also "renovating" a natural formation under the sea. He finishes with "But what they do and what they say don't match at all!" I feel like there are a lot of people like that out in the world.
- The Team Aqua grunts and a few of the townsfolk were saying things about Aqua training a bunch of Wailmers in the cove and that their hideout was recently receiving more shipments.
- A woman in town near the motel had her Pokemon stolen! Maybe I can get that back for her.
- Lilycove is apparently the home of the Master rank Pokemon Contest Hall. I should probably give those a try at some point.
- I found a Max Repel near a weird post. I guess it's supposed to be a small lighthouse?
- Stumbled into a house with four kids on the floor with GBAs and the parents sitting at the table.
- Apparently, they're quadruplets. They all say the same thing about mixing records.
- The mom had advice on PokeBlocks, which is a contest thing that I haven't gotten around to.
- The motel owner said that Team Aqua's presence has been keeping tourists away.
- Went farther left of the department store and found the museum.
- Wait, I never went back for that fossil Pokemon.
- Talked to the curator. He wants me to find some newer paintings for his special exhibit.
- A mom and her son were at the museum looking at a painting of a woman with what looked like a Pikachu. It was sweet to see them there and read the good things they had to say about each other.
- Doesn't seem like there's any Team Aqua progression here. Guess I'll need to Surf out and see what I find.
- After getting to the coast and sailing North a bit, I immediately found the Aqua Hideout. Guess it wasn't that secret.
- Uh-oh, it's got a bunch of teleporter pads. This is going to get confusing.
- One of the grunts said that the submarine was here.
- Found a Nugget and a Master Ball! I had to battle two Electrodes pretending to be items on the ground to get them. The second one Selfdestructed.
- Apparently, that was some kind of side path.
- Gary picked up a Nugget.
- The Aqua guy near a patch of water with a suspiciously submarine-shaped shadow turned out to be Aqua Admin Matt.
- He had a Sharpedo, which was intimidating, but no match for Annie.
- Archie is going to some cave under the sea. I know there's some move that will let me dive down into the water, so I guess I need to find that next.
- Went back into town.
- The woman who's Pokemon went missing had it come back without her noticing.
- Decided to check out the department store since I hadn't done that yet. I needed to buy a couple of extra potions anyway.
- It looked like there was a lot of good stuff, but I didn't have an immediate use for most of it.
- Switch the Exp. Share from Billy to Finger.
- Decided to start grinding levels for Finger just outside Lilycove.
- I was right next to some berries I had planted when they decided to sprout. I didn't know there was a sparkly animation for when they did that.
- It occurred to me after a while that I had the Macho Brace and that using that would help me more.
- Gary picked up a Super Potion.
- After a long time, I finally got Finger from level 27 up to level 32 and got him his first evolution.
> FINGER: Aron -> Lairon
- Gary picked up a Rare Candy. How fitting.
- Did a little bit extra to give him a bit of a head start before the next time I grind for levels.