Day 70: Revenge of the Onion

To head back, I need to hit the switch to disable the blue web again.

Outside the Gym, I -

 I'm stricken with the uncanny sense that something astonishing is about to happen. I go to the Pokecenter to prepare for what's to come.

 Next, I head west for Illex Forest, the area I previewed a few weeks ago.

"Is it true that Team Rocket has

returned?

What? You beat them? Hah!

Quit lying.

Are you serious?

Then let's see how good you are."

 Astonish is legitimately useful for once! Since it's ghost type, it does decent damage to Gastly.

 Good ol' curse. Never worth it for the enemy. Another Astonish finishes him off.

 Scary Face lowers Rhianna's speed, but Croconaw is faster to begin with. Basically a free turn.

 Vine Whip is not as effective as I'd like it to be. It takes off less than a third of his HP and Rhianna, being a literal twig, can't take much punishment. This is excellently demonstrated in the next turn...

As you can see, Croconaw takes off well over half of her health. I try using a super potion to heal her, but Croconaw bites her again and puts me right back where I started.

I go for the same gambit as yesterday - sacrifice Kyle for an extra turn to heal Rhianna in the background.

What I forgot is that yesterday it worked because Quilava fainted. So yesterday he came into battle during a brand new turn. By switching with Rhianna still alive today, I basically send him to die for no reason. Sorry, Kyle.

 I'm forced to make a move I didn't want for obvious reasons.

 Fortunately, Croconaw's obsession with Scary Face once again works in my favor. I'm using quick attack, so no matter how slow Quilava gets, she'll always attack first.

 Thankfully Passerb didn't have a potion in store at this point. Croconaw faints and Passerb readies his final Pokemon, Zubat.

The Zubats duel fairly for awhile, with bites and such, until...

 Once again, I'm not putting up with confusion. Ever. I bring out Quilava again to sidestep the situation.

 Thank god. I finish Zubat off with an Ember.

 Insightful.

"Pokemon, Trainers.

It doesn't matter who or what.

I hate to see them hanging around.

That goes for Team Rocket, too.

They think they are big and tough

as long as they are in a group.

But get them alone, and they're weak.

I hate them all.

You stay out of my way.

You won't be an exception

if you get in my way."

That paper-thin personality is kind of adorable.

Day 69: Gym Leader Bugsy & The Miracle of Life

 The following is without a doubt the longest post on blogspot.com.

 When last we left our dictator, he had beaten a redundant Bug Catcher. Now, it's time to face Bugsy. But first, I need to heal up.

With Togepi's birth, we have our first male Pokemon. I was kind of hoping for a complete amazon brigade for a team, but what you gonna do. Here's some info on him:

As with all egg Pokemon, Kyle starts at level 1. He has a "Lonely" nature, which means he has a higher than average attack growth and below average defense. He also doesn't learn a single offensive move until level 33 (or until he evolves), so I'm not going to bother leveling him up until I get an experience share. I WILL level him up though, because his final form is a goddamn stealth aircraft. 

On the way out of the Gym, Elm gives me a call...

"I knew that giving that Egg to you,

Stalin, was the right thing to

do. I just knew it!

You should come here and show me what

kind of Pokemon it is!"

Yeah... I'm not doing that. At least, not until I get fly.

The rest of the trip to the Pokecenter and back is thankfully Geisha-free.

In order to reach Bugsy, I need to head back to the twins. From there, hitting a switch disables the blue web and I can ride over to another switch on the lower right.

From here, I disable the red web.

"Pokemon.

My research is going to make me

the authority on Bug-type Pokemon!

Let me demontstrate what I've learned

from my studies."

He's uh, kind of a dweeb, isn't he?

Holy shit! Level 17? To test the waters, I try out Nelly's new Bite...

I didn't grab a shot of it, but Nelly's Bite only dealt a sliver of its health. And Scyther's Quick Attack wasn't even critical. Let me try Quilava instead...

Switching in takes a turn, so Scyther gets a free shot. It deals thirteen damage - impressive for the low power of Quick Attack.

Fortunately (or not) it uses the next turn on Focus Energy, raising its critical hit percentage but dealing no damage.

Not bad!

?

Ratatas.

At least I'm still dealing more damage-

Fuck. It heals him to nearly full health.

 This picture takes place AFTER the damage of Ember is calculated. He's still a healthy bug. And then...

 no

...

 You got this!

 oh

 So I actually sacrifice Kyle to gain a turn. I then use the turn to revive Quilava. Tricky buisness, I know.

 After another bloody exchange, Scyther is finally put down.

 Next is Metapod. It's clear that Bugsy blew his wad in the opening play. I bring a bruised, but functional, Nelly to battle. I use the first few turns to heal Nelly and Quilava with potions.

What follows is a slow Bite/Tackle duel that ends like this:

 Nelly actually survives this Tackle and Bites Metapod back for the win, but she's obviously too exhausted to survive the next encounter. I bring out Quilava again.

 Kakuna bursts into flames, making a satisfying crackling noise and dying in one hit.

 You were a worthy opponent, Dweebsy.

"My research isn't complete yet.

Ok, you win. Take this Badge."

"Do you know the benefits of the

Hive Badge?
If you have it, Pokemon up to Lv. 30

will obey you, even traded ones.

Pokemon that know Cut will be able

to use it outside of battle, too.

Here, I also want you to have this."

"Bugsy: TM89 contains U-turn.

It lets your Pokemon attack, then

switch with the next Pokemon

in your party.

Isn't that great?"

"Study your top choices thoroughly".

Whew. Thus concludes landmark no. 2. Easily the closest to defeat I've ever been. It's because I'm splitting the experience three ways very evenly. The day may come when I need to start grinding to beat the Gym leaders... but hopefully, it just won't come to that. I have a few... ideas to further that goal. I also plan to tighten up the editing to make the blog more palatable to read. You'll see...