On Route 38, a radical suddenly occurs to Silver. He takes a look at Crys's Arcanine, Hitmonchan and Cubone, the names 'Flame', 'Fist' and 'Earth' overlap with their faces in his mind. He then turns to Arbok, and instantly thinks of the Toxic Plate. Finally, he has figured out the answer. 'Flame' corresponds to 'Fire', just like 'Fist' to 'Fighting', 'Earth' to 'Ground', and 'Toxic' to 'Poison'. The names of the Plates actually reflect Pokemon types.

If one disregards the Normal type, the others: Fire, Water, Grass, Electric, Ice, Fighting, Poison, Ground, Flying, Bug, Rock, Ghost, Dragon, Dark, Steel and Psychic, make up a total of 16 types, which is equivalent to the number of Plates mentioned by Petrel, and it is obvious that each Plate corresponds to one Pokemon type.

Flipping out what Petrel named the Earth Plate from his pocket, Silver wonders what it would do to ground-type Pokemon when they hold it, and takes out a Pokeball. Back on the battlefield, Crys's three Pokemon are panting to catch their breaths, while Ariana's have hardly taken any damage. The woman remarks that the fight felt easier than she thought, and gets ready to deal her final blow. Just then, a Pokeball is tossed towards her, which pops to release a Rhyperior.

Silver hurls the Earth Plate towards Rhyperior from where he is, and the drill Pokemon catches it with its hand, which causes an aura to instantly surround it. With that, it unleashes a powerful quake across the ground, and sends Ariana and her Pokemon flying backwards.

As the smoke clears, Crys sees that Silver is nowhere to be seen. Instead, between Ariana and herself, a giant hole lies where Rhyperior just stood, and the Team Rocket General gasps at the force of the Earth Power which she just got hit with.

Having left the scene when Arianna was distracted, Silver dashes along the streets of Ecruteak to head towards the Gym. He feels astounded by the tremendous force of the attack Rhyperior pulled off with the help of the Earth Plate, and muses that it was even more powerful than he expected. He apologizes to Crys in his mind, and feels slightly guilty to have left her battling Ariana alone. However, now that he knows what the Plates are and what their powers could be, he simply must get to Ecruteak and seek help to locate the remaining ones as soon as possible.

Moments later, the red-haired boy arrives in front of the Ecruteak Gym. He looks up at the huge iron doors at the entrance, and gets ready to meet the Gymleader Morty who is said to possess the special ability, distant vision. Yet, he suddenly senses a presence behind, and turns around to see Falkner, Bugsy and Chuck, who are the Violet, Azalea and Cianwood Gymleaders respectively. Falkner requests to know what Silver's purpose at the Gym is, and the boy replies that he has come to find the Gymleader Morty.

Falkner grunts that it is happening again, and Bugsy responds with a nod. Silver doesn't understand what they mean by again, and Chuck states that in the past few days, numerous people have visited to seek assistance from Morty's distant vision ability. However, these people broke into the Gym the improper way and essentially forced Morty to help, which is something completely unreasonable. Because of that, Morty has asked for support from them, and visitors must now get past the three of them first if they wish to consult the Ecruteak Gymleader.

With that, Falkner's Noctowl and Bugsy's Kakuna circle around Silver, who simply raises an eyebrow and sends out Weavile to strike. The dark weasel knocks out its two opponents with its sharp claws easily, and Chuck hurriedly calls forward his Hitmontop. Silver feels frustrated that although he is more than capable of handling the three Gymleaders, he doesn't really have the time for it, and surely doesn't want to waste his energy there. Then, to his shock, Hitmontop delivers a super effective Triple Kick on Weavile, and sends it crashing against the ground.

Silver grunts that Ecruteak City has not been a lucky place for them so far, but remains unfazed at his goal, and is determined to meet Morty no matter what it takes. Reaching into his pocket for a Pokeball, he sends out Rhyperior, who charges forward with jabs it drill on Hitmontop's horn on its head. Yet, as soon as they make contact, both Pokemon widen their eyes in surprise, and immediately stop attacking. They stare at each other with bewildered looks, and Chuck asks Hitmontop what is wrong with a furious tone.

Falkner tells Chuck to calm down and wait, and after reading Hitmontop's facial expression, wonders if Rhyperior is an opponent that it knows from before. Hitmontop replies with a nod, and Falkner queries where it could have fought such a huge Pokemon before. Silver states that Rhyperior is the evolved form of Rhydon, and it is Pokemon he received from the Viridian Gymleader Green.

Chuck bolts in surprise upon hearing Green's name, and both Falkner and Bugsy recall that when it was still a Rhydon, the Pokemon fought Hitmontop in the Gymleaders' Exhibition Match at the Pokemon League. Chuck formally introduces himself to Silver, and says Green is a student of his. He wishes to know who Silver is, and is curious as to what his relationship with Green is. The red-haired boy reveals his name to the Gymleaders, and explains that he once fought alongside Green, who is his senior.

About three years ago, after the battle tournament ended at Hoenn's Battle Frontier, Silver returned to his hidden home on Route 18 in Kanto, where his Ursaring brought his injured father, Giovanni, to stay and heal a further few months prior, following an incident that involved the Sevii Islands. However, when he returned to the little wooden house in the company of Green, his father and Ursaring were nowhere to be found. Silver had no idea where they could have gone, but Green rationalized that the man might have already recovered and left, since it was more than 3 months since he was taken to the place after all.

After Silver failed to find his father at the hidden home, he and Green shared a brief chat with each other. Silver revealed to Green that he has finally solved the problem Green gave him, and claimed to have figured out the way to evolve Green's Rhydon after reading through the book 'Mysteries of the Earth'. He found out that trading with an item called the Protector was required, and upon showing the item to Green which he has managed to get his hands on, the Viridian Gymleader agreed to do a trade with Silver to test out his hypothesis. With the aid of their Pokedexes, Green traded Rhydon to Silver after equipping the item to it, and as soon as the process was complete, Rhydon started to glow, and evolved into a Rhyperior.

To Silver's surprise, Green did not request to have the Pokemon back. Instead, he offered to let Silver keep Rhyperior, and said it would fill up the space on his team for his missing Ursaring, and probably help him in his quest to search for Giovanni.

Having heard Silver's tale, Chuck is convinced that the boy is telling the truth, and says there is no reason to make life difficult for someone whose talent Green recognizes. He decides to let Silver into the Gym, and Falkner says he shall escort him in, as the path to the Gymleader's chamber could be a little difficult to get through. The two step through the Ecruteak Gym's doors, and Silver finds himself walking on wooden bridge which is only dimly lit by a few lamps. Falkner informs Silver that Morty is currently seeing another person who came to seek his help, and says he will have to wait until the previous client is finished. Silver is surprised to hear that so many people have come to ask for Morty's help, and Falkner grins that the Ecruteak Gymleader is a very busy person.

Meanwhile, inside, Morty gradually opens his eyes, and releases the torn cape from his hand. Gold asks if he is finally done, but Morty states that it is a rather difficult read. The boy wants to know if he means Lance cannot be found, and Morty replies that it isn't exactly the case. However, it is hard to make a clear explanation, and the Ecruteak Gymleader decides to draw his vision on a paper. Suddenly, a knock is heard at the door, and Morty wonders who it could be, since Chuck and the others should be keeping guard while he does his consultation.

Outside, Falkner tells Silver to wait and excuses himself to resume his guard at the entrance. Soon after Falkner leaves, the door is opened, and Silver quickly flashes his Pokedex upon seeing the Ecruteak Gymleader. Morty bolts in surprise at the sight, and realizes with a start that this is the boy whom Eusine really wanted him to meet, not Gold, whom he has mistaken as his client all this time. Blushing in embarrassment, he welcomes Silver in, and Gold instantly widens his eyes in shock upon seeing the red-haired boy. Referring to Silver as his good ol' pal, Gold expresses his most pleasant surprise in meeting him there…