Part 12:
Go back to Shelly's Gym and up the stairs, into her room, to meet up with Victoria and Shelly. Victoria will talk about how she's worried about Shelly after seeing Corey's body and how she's going to the Grand Stairway due to what Eclipse and Aster said. She says to come along, while Shelly recovers.
Going back to North Obsidia, you can now go down the hole due to a ladder, and access a new area!
Beneath the Grand Stairway
However, once you go down... Victoria's already been captured by Aster and Eclipse. They're going to lock her up and use her as bait since they don't want you two teaming up.
Well, although you might not want to do it, the only thing you can do is go and rescue Victoria. However, this area has some wild encounters, which you'll be fighting in the Crystal Cavern Field.
Beneath the Grand Stairway:
BF1 Encounters:
BF2 Encounters:
BF3 Encounters:
Sandshrew, as a Sandslash, learns Swords Dance and Earthquake naturally, which is great. It also learns Gyro Ball if you want to run a slower one. It's a very strong physical wall after evolving, which it can very quickly.
Geodude/Graveler are pretty good, with Stealth Rock, Rock Blast, Earthquake, and Stone Edge at its arsenal. It also has the chance to evolve very soon, which is nice. Definitely a good Pokemon, if you feel that Onix isn't doing well enough, although it does have many weaknesses.
Diglett is very fast and gets Earthquake not too far from now (although you'd need to keep it a Diglett unless you want to wait another 10 levels). It's a pretty good Ground type, although it's very frail.
Chingling isn't very great, although it gets Extransensory, Yawn, and Heal Bell as a Chimeho. Its stats are pretty mediocre, it relies on TMs if you want attacks, and there's better Psychic types out there. Still, you need a Chimecho for an event later, so you could get one for that, I guess.
Dunsparce has a small niche for Glare, Roost, Endeavor, and other decent supportive moves, Ancient Power + Serene Grace, and Coil? Maybe? It's so rare, though, that you're better off using a better Normal type.
Unown is terrible and should never be used, unless you're doing an Unown-only challenge (in that case what is wrong with you you masochist).
The Diglett can be especially annoying if you don't have a Pokemon immune to Arena Trap up front, so you might want to spray some repels.
You also may want to grind mixed attackers on the third floor, as Unown give both Attack and Special Attack EVs, are relatively easy to beat, and only appear on that floor. You actually might want to grind any low leveled Pokemon there, as the Unown can jump to level 45 and give very nice experience.
Anyway, just head down the first ladder. You'll find yourself in a large room, although the only way from there is south due to the other paths being blocked. After that, you'll see you can go down four ways, and as there are ledges, you're forced to head down the route you pick and go back if you don't go the right way.
For convenience, I'll number the routes:
Far Left - Path 1
Second to Left - Path 2
Second to Right - Path 3
Far Right - Path 4
Path 3 is the correct way to go, so naturally, I'll say what you can get from the other paths first.
If you go down Path 1, and you'll eventually come across a ladder that will just take you back to the beginning.
If you go down Path 2, which will go left towards a staircase that allows you to pick up TM 63 Embargo and TM 94 Rock Smash, the latter from a Black Belt NPC. However, you'll need Shelly's Gym Badge if you want to use it.
If you go down Path 4, skipping the one before it, and you can find a hidden Focus Sash (reminder that these are consumable, if you like using these in competitive battling) and a visible Ability Capsule.
If you go down Path 3, the correct path, you'll come across a ladder. Going down it will take you to a long staircase. There's a Light Shard at the end, if your Pokemon are hurt by the wild Pokemon here.
In the middle of the room will be the man from that Factory Julia boomed before, standing before large doors. He will say how behind the door is a vast power, and to unlock the doors, four keys are needed - Ruby, the seal of pain, Sapphire, the seal of love, Emerald, the seal of faith, and Amethyst, the seal of beyond. Completely coincidentally, Corey and Heather's ring is called the Ruby Ring... He will permit you to go save Victoria after his lecture, saying that everyone should know about it.
If you go left, Aster and Eclipse will fight you. However, Victoria will help you (somehow from the cage...)
Team Meteor Grunts Aster and Eclipse would like to battle!
Items: 2 Super Potions
Field: Crystal Cavern Field
Format: Doubles (with Victoria, who picked up a Scraggy, evolved her Ralts and Makuhita, and trained up a lot from last time)
(Lv. 30) Levitate: Rock Polish, Psywave, Fire Spin, Rock Slide
(Lv. 32) Flame Body: Feint Attack, Fire Spin, Confuse Ray, Flame Burst
(Lv. 30) Levitate: Rock Polish, Psywave, Hypnosis, Rock Slide
(Lv. 32) Static: Swift, Shock Wave, Light Screen, Low Kick
Aster and Eclipse are much harder, but luckily, you have your Pokemon + Victoria's 4 Pokemon against their only 4 Pokemon. Beware if their Solrock or Lunatone get a Rock Polish up, as that also gives a +1 to Attack and Special Attack in this Field. Hypnosis, Fire Spin, and Confuse Ray can be annoying, but this fight shouldn't be too hard when you have Victoria with you.
- Pokemon with Rock moves, Nature Power (for Power Gem), or Rock Smash are great, as this Field boosts Rock moves and also may give them an extra typing. You have a 50% chance of getting something good against Solrock and Lunatone and a 25% chance of getting something 4x effective on Magmar. I recommend using a Rock type like Graveler or Lombre for Nature Power (as well as super effective moves against everything but the Electabuzz).
- If you don't like your chances with the Field, you can always change it with another Field move like Mist or a Bulldoze from Graveler (which is also very good against the Magmar and Electabuzz).
After winning, Aster and Eclipse will flee, and Victoria will say how the boss just talked to her about the same thing he did with you. She says she's going back to Shelly, and so you have to follow her.
Going back to the Gym, Shelly still hasn't recovered too well, so Victoria wants you to go to Dr. Connal, even though she states that she heard he has some notoriety, which should be a sign that he isn't too great...
Well, his orphanage is where that blue-purple haired girl was blocking the way before. When you try to enter, a girl will come out.
After she leaves, you can enter, to be greeted by another girl. She thought you were the girl who just left, Laura, and asks why you're glowing. A boy that looks similar to her says that nobody is glowing.
She decides to change the topic and introduce you to the other orphans. She is Anna, and her Jirachi is named Nostra, who says hi, and the boy is her twin brother Noel, who has a Cleffa named Nomos. Noel says that Nostra and Nomos are just dolls, but he still says that Nomos also says hi.
She then introduces you to the other character who has a unique sprite in the room, who is Charlotte. She has burn scars to Anna, but nobody else sees them.
Charlotte then says how Laura is an Elite 4 member (despite being stuck in an orphanage), and Noel tries to say that Anna is something (hint hint?), but Anna cuts him off. She says that Charlotte and Noel are Gym Leaders!
They then go back to talking about Laura, who was able to leave because she just turned 18. Charlotte says besides the Doctor letting them leave, turning 18 is the only way to escape.
...And then the conversation turns to how the Doctor uses Electric type Pokemon in his "therapy," which ominously hurts, according to Anna. And also, Anna can hear voices around the Doctor, and Nostra told her that some of his past patients died...
'
Anna then wonders why you're there, and upon hearing that you want help for Shelly, she'll say that the Doctor will simply make her worse.
And right then, the Doctor comes in, wondering who you are.
Anna will cover for you, saying that you want to fight Charlotte and Noel, and Sigmund decides to examine your skill to see how adequate you are at battling if you want to challenge his "gifted" patients. He'll ask an Orderly to fight you.
Orderly John should be a fairly easy fight, due to him just being a random Trainer and just using Electric and Psychic types. Even after beating him, though, Sigmund says that he cannot permit them to battle, as "it would be unbefitting of their current emotional development," and he also cannot let them leave due to them being too volatile. Makes one wonder how Trainers are expected to get all of their Badges if Charlotte and Noel aren't allowed to fight anyone.
Sigmund says you'll just have to wait until a better moment comes, so Anna decides this is your chance to leave and forcefully push you out. She whispers to you to tell Shelly to look out for the one who is truly hurt by what happened, judging by from what Nostra senses.
She locks the door out, preventing you from coming back.
Little tidbit of trivia: Ame has said that Dr. Sigmund Connal diagnosed Anna with schizophrenia, Noel with Asperger's, and Charlotte with conduct disorder. Anna's is obvious (but what she sees is strangely very accurate), and you'll get to see more things that might show Noel and Charlotte's disorders as they appear again in the game, and when you -officially- meet Laura, you'll get to see her disorder, too. Still, as Ame said, "Of course, these come from Sigmund, so feel free to disregard all of them."
Anyway, going back to the Gym, and deliver Anna's message to Shelly. She'll say she's going to find Heather, but first, she remembered that Victoria wanted a Gym battle. Victoria says she'd rather wait until everything goes back to normal, although you might want to do it instead. Shelly goes to the battlefield.
However, just before you enter the Gym, Victoria stops you and says she doesn't want you fighting Shelly, since she's still recovering. She decides to fight you to try and stop you.
Apprentice Victoria would like to battle!
Items: 2 Super Potions
Field: None
Format: Singles
(Lv. 30) Intimidate: Brick Break, Payback, Chip Away, High Jump Kick
(Lv. 31) Trace: Double Team, Magical Leaf, Psychic, Calm Mind
(Lv. 32) Thick Fat: Knock Off, Smelling Salts, Belly Drum, Force Palm
(Lv. 34) Thick Fat: Arm Thrust, Rollout, Take Down, Heat Crash
Victoria's team is a bit more threatening, with more powerful and set up moves, but with three Fighting types, it shouldn't be too hard. Brute force is generally the way to go here, as you don't want that Kirlia setting up with Double Team and Calm Mind or that Hariyama getting to use Belly Drum.
- Flying types work very well here, such as Murkrow (with Brave Bird) or Fearow (with Aerial Ace, which is especially good for Kirlia). That Pignite does have Rollout, though, so beware of that.
- Psychic types are also fairly decent when Scraggy and Kirlia are out of the picture, for obvious reasons. Poison types resist her Fighting type moves and can generally wall Victoria, as well. They have to beware Kirlia, but Poison type moves are also super effective on it. I'd recommend Meowstic, Trubbish, or Koffing.
- Granbull is very nice for this fight, as the Charm + Intimidate combination and Fighting resist means that Scraggy, Hariyama (if it doesn't get Belly Drum off), and Pignite are fairly useless.
After winning, she says to just try to be gentle against her, but still wishes you luck.