"What a coincidence, running into you here. Are you challenging the Driftveil Gym too?" Gary asked.
"Of course. The Castelia Gym Leader still isn't back, so I came here instead," Benga said.
Gary couldn't help wondering if Alder's grandson was a little slow. Nimbasa City was obviously closer, so why come all the way to Driftveil? Wasn't that going out of his way for nothing?
"Hello. My name is Lacey, and I'm one of Benga's classmates. It's nice to meet you," the girl said pleasantly.
"Hello. I'm Gary." He turned back to Benga. "By the way, have you already had your Gym battle, or are you still waiting?"
"I'm here to challenge it, obviously," Benga said.
He had arrived first, so naturally he'd be the one to go in first.
"Then what are you standing around outside for? Hurry up and get in there. I'm challenging the Driftveil Gym after you," Gary said.
"You're here to challenge my father too?" Lacey asked, surprised.
"What? Your father...?"
Gary blinked at her. Looking more closely, she was dressed like a student, in a pink coat, her pink hair falling to her shoulders. She didn't look remotely like the daughter of the Driftveil Gym Leader.
Gary knew exactly what Clay looked like, and it was hard to picture a man like that fathering such a cute girl. Clearly he'd married well, and Lacey had inherited some very good genes from her mother.
"That's right. The Driftveil Gym Leader is my father," Lacey said.
"I see. In that case, could you get us inside?" Gary asked.
He didn't much care that she was Clay's daughter. All he wanted was the Driftveil Gym Badge.
"Please follow me."
Lacey led the two of them to the Gym doors and rang the bell. Before long, a middle-aged man in work clothes and a hard hat opened up.
"Miss Lacey, you're back." He looked surprised to see her, then glanced past her at the two behind. "And these two are...?"
"This is my classmate, and this is a Trainer we met on the way. They're both here to challenge the Gym," Lacey said.
"Ah, I see. Come in, then."
The man led the three of them inside and down a long corridor. At the far end stood an elevator. They all stepped in, and it began to descend.
"Why is the elevator going down?" Benga asked, puzzled.
"Because my father built the battlefield underground. Gym battles are held down there," Lacey explained.
"What? Battling underground?"
Benga was genuinely startled. It was the first time he'd heard of a battlefield being built below ground.
Gary wasn't the least bit surprised. He'd challenged so many Gyms by now that he'd seen every strange design imaginable. Compared to some of them, a Gym Leader who simply put his field underground counted as fairly normal.
Ding!
The elevator stopped and the doors opened onto a magnificent underground passage.
Beneath the Driftveil Gym lay a huge cavern. Orange and yellow lamps lit the surrounding rock walls, giving the whole place a grand, striking look.
The man led them out of the elevator and along the passage, and before long they spotted a figure in a brown suit up ahead.
"Boss! Look who's here," the man called out.
Hearing the voice behind him, the man in the brown suit turned around. He was a stern-faced, middle-aged man, but the moment he laid eyes on Lacey, that severe expression vanished, replaced by a beaming smile.
"Dad!" Lacey waved.
"Sweetheart, when did you get back? Why didn't you call ahead?" Clay hurried over and pulled her into a warm hug.
Watching the fond, fatherly smile on Clay's face, Gary decided the man was hopelessly devoted to his daughter.
"Dad, my classmate is right here. Let go of me," Lacey said, pushing him away.
"Honestly, you used to love it when your father hugged you," Clay complained.
Hearing him talk like that in front of everyone, Lacey went red with embarrassment and quickly changed the subject. "Dad, my classmate came with me. He's here to challenge the Gym, so deal with that first."
"Your classmate...?"
The warm, fatherly smile was still on Clay's face, but the instant he looked at Gary and Benga, it hardened into something stern.
Gary noticed, too, that Clay's eyes had fixed on him in particular, and they were full of hostility.
"Boy. You're the one here to challenge my Gym?" Clay asked.
"Yes."
Gary nodded, unbothered by the way Clay addressed him. He had, after all, come here to challenge the Gym.
"Hold on, I got here first. I should go first," Benga cut in.
"You?" Clay barely spared him a glance. "You can have your turn after I've taught this kid a lesson."
"Why? That's not fair!" Benga protested.
"I'm the Gym Leader. What I say goes down here. If you don't like it, you don't have to challenge me at all," Clay said flatly.
Benga fumed, but there was nothing he could do. By League rules, a Gym Leader couldn't refuse a Trainer without good reason, but nothing said challenges had to be taken in the order people arrived.
"Fine. I'll wait."
Sulking, Benga gave up the first slot to Gary.
Gary still had no idea what Clay's problem was, but he had a feeling the man had misunderstood something.
"Come with me."
Clay brought the three of them to a stone gate, picked up a mining pick, and swung it at the door.
Just as everyone thought he was about to smash straight through, he pulled the swing short and tapped the rounded end of the pick against a switch on the gate.
The next second, the stone gate shuddered and slowly split open to either side.
Behind it lay a wide battlefield, lit brilliantly by the incandescent lamps overhead.
Lacey and Benga headed for the spectator area.
"Lacey," Benga muttered under his breath, "what's wrong with your father? I clearly got here first."
"I don't know either."
Lacey shook her head. She thought her father was acting strangely too, and she couldn't understand why he'd insisted on taking Gary's challenge first.
Down on the field, Gary and Clay had already taken their places in the trainer boxes.
"Boy, going by your age, you must be pretty strong," Clay said.
"I am. You'd better give it everything you've got, Clay, or you'll lose," Gary replied.
"You've got some nerve for a brat. What's your name?" Clay said.
"Gary. I'm from the Kanto Region."
Clay's brow furrowed.
Kanto was a very long way from Unova. There was no way he'd ever let his daughter marry into a family that far away.