Fly!

I leave home and take to the skies. Flying is awesome. And very fast. I return to some of my old stomping grounds, beating the crap out of wild pokemon with Nanabozho, who really doesn't have particularly powerful attacks despite being higher in level now. I decide that I want Khali back. Since I'm in Veilstone City again, I might as well check out the famous department store.

Right away, someone gives me a fashion accessory. I'm still not doing contests. I might have to just blow the contest hall up. That might solve things. Anyway, I spend a whole lot of money on medicine and on ultra balls (in case I run into rare pokemon or something). Most of my money, actually. But it's fine. I'll get more by beating trainers just like I always do. The second story has nothing of interest really. There are some nutritional supplements or something, but they're way too expensive. Well, if I feel like wasting money on a TM, I can revisit the third floor, so that's cool I guess. The fourth floor has only junk. The fifth floor has some vending machines and a guy who gives me a sticky barb. Enough of this. I pass through the southern gate, where a man informs me that Route 214 is "chewed up." Look, I don't care about scenery, I just want to get to Pastoria City.

Of course, I'm ambushed by a trainer right away. Preying on unsuspecting travelers, are we? Well, you got more than you bargained for. She tries to trick me with the old "look behind you." Since I don't fall for it, she reluctantly calls out her Gastly. Ninhursag uses leech seed and stun spore, crippling the enemy, but night shade has hurt her too much, so I switch to Articuno. Somehow, my opponent anticipates this and Gastly immediately hits Articuno with confuse ray. I switch to Khali. Gastly hurts her with sucker punch, but falls easily to astonish. Up next is another Misdreavus, so I can't resist leaving Khali in. Mine is the stronger ghost and next comes Kadabra, so of course I switch to Kazza. The two yellow demon things fight it out in a confusion war. Kazza seems to be weaker, but pulls ahead in the end. Barely.

My team is slightly damaged, I fly back to Veilstone City's Poke Center and heal them. How did I ever get anywhere without this move? I return to the road, looting some berries from the unsuspecting earth and planting none in return. I find a small cave. Inside is a man known as the "Ruin Maniac." He challenges me to a race. He'll keep on digging his tunnel or whatever and I'll try to catch one of each variety Unown. I decline, but he seems to ignore this. Whatever, it's a bad idea for a race anyway and Unown is really weak. I smash my way through some rocks blocking my path and run into another ruin maniac. This one challenges me to a battle. Excellent.

He leads with Cranidos, which hurts Ninhursag, but she hits back with magical leaf, defeating that pokemon. He brings in Bronzor. I decide that leech seed is in order. So is stun spore. Bronzor is highly resilient against Ninhursag's cuts, so I switch to Articuno. Bronzor puts Articuno to sleep with hypnosis. Maybe shopping was a good idea: I use an awakening. I have Articuno use fly, which smashes the metal disc beyond recognition. Next is Geodude, so Ninhursag gets to see action yet again. One hit from magical leaf and the battle is over. My opponent makes some excuse and hands over his cash.

I am challenged by yet another ruin maniac, which is odd because I don't see any ruins around here. This one uses only Shieldon. I could probably just immolate this one with Hanuman, but instead I leech seed and stun spore, then switch to Khali so that Shieldon is seeded, paralyzed, and confused all at the same time. Ruin maniac, you are so outclassed.

Ninhursag rips through a wild Graveller before I reach the next trainer, then she takes his first pokemon out in one hit. Buizel. And grass is good against water. This is so easy. Of course, this is one of these trainers who uses only one species of pokemon, so Ninhursag's magical leaf is doing overtime. She does go up to level 22, so that's good, I guess. Basically, Ninhursag has become what she was when I used her back in Oreburgh City: a wrecking ball that makes everything too easy. The only wild pokemon out here are rock types, and it's magical leaf again for them.

Another trainer challenges me, saying that for the sake of his collection, he takes on trainers he knows he can't beat. What? That doesn't make any sense. Whatever. He leads with Roselia, but of course mine is better. Both Roselias become paralyzed, though. Ninhursag has cut and the other Roselia only has grass attacks, so she beats him. After that, I switch to Hanuman for flame wheel against the rest of the Roselias this loser will throw at me.

And then I am challenged—by a private investigator? Oh well, I mean he has pokemon and I'm willing to take his money, so whatever. But if he's investigating me? Well then, I'll just have to kill him. Ninhursag magical leafs her way through all three of this guy's pokemon, all of which are Goldeen. Another collector challenges me next, and since he leads with Ponyta, I assume that he'll be using three of them. Too bad I don't have Apsu right now. I switch to Sekhmet, who is immediately burned (I use burn heal). Sekhmet defeats the pony, but not by much. Your turn, Kazza. Easy.

Next I'm challenged by a trainer who only has Wormadam (and only one, not three like everyone else on this route). I switch to Hanuman, but he never gets a single hit in, being afflicted with confusion and having his attacks blocked by protect. Hanuman, you just went down against a bug. Shameful. I switch to Articuno, who refuses to attack. This time, when Articuno tries to nap, I bring in the awakening. One hit from ice beam and it's all over. So yes, lady, I did teach you something about pokemon. I taught you that you suck.

Soon I'm ambushed by a "psychic." But if you were really psychic, you would have known that I was going to switch to Kazza, so you wouldn't use sucker punch right away. And then you'd know that I was going to use psybeam, so you would have used sucker punch. Moron. I get off Route 214 and enter the Valor Lakefront. Two strange men block me from getting to the lake. Actually I didn't really want to go to the lake anyway, I just didn't know what lay beyond the path they were blocking. Well, now it's time to have Khali scare them off or something. After all...

Oh. These two are rather oafish, but it's clear that they were placed there by Cyrus. That man is unstable. And apparently he commands the obedience of idiots. I sure hope he never runs into Team Galactic, as they have a lot of idiots. Well, perhaps it's best to postpone this anyway. Removing these two peons would tip Cyrus off that I'm worried about how unstable he is. I continue south. There are some ornate buildings, a woman who dropped her suite key, and a fat guy who won't let me take the road east because of a blackout. Whatever. According to him, it's Sunyshore City that's had the blackout. The one I'm looking for is Pastoria City. If he's still blocking the road later, I'll probably have to kill him. I check my map. Sure enough, Pastoria City is the other way.

I explore this resort place, barging into all of the buildings. They're booked and I don't have any reservations, but they do heal my pokemon. How nice of them. There's also a restaurant where I can beat up on some trainers and take their money. Awesome.

Up first are two people on a date. They use Roselia and Clefairy (three of them because he's a collector and that's what collectors do, I guess). Psybeam makes quick work of them. Then it's another dating couple, this time with Bonsly and Sudowoodo. They also have a Pichu, but everything goes down in one hit anyway. Next I face an older couple using Lopunny and Starly. I switch Ninhursag for Sekhmet while Kazza psybeams the Lopunny. Kazza does take a hit and the wing attack does negligible damage to Sekhmet, but both of the opposing team drop, only to be replaced by Glameow and Hoothoot, and both of them take one hit. Kazza is dominating this place. After that, I guess I'm battling some kid and his mom? They use water types, so Ninhursag has some fun. I switch to Sekhmet and Khali for variety before I destroy the Aipom they send in after that. Finally, I battle a reporter and her cameraman. They have Murkrow and Luxio, so I switch to Sekhmet and Khali again. Khali takes some punishment, but Sekhmet demolishes them. They use Pikachu and I switch to Hanuman before having Sekhmet finish the battle.

I continue toward Pastoria City along a beach. It's kind of far, I guess. I wish I could just fly there, but apparently I can't. Some kids playing on the beach battle me and are easy prey to Ninhursag's giga drain. I run into a few more trainers, easily beating them with giga drain. There's an odd man living in a house on the beach who can supposedly look at a pokemon's footprints and know all about it or something. I mostly ignore him, but for some reason I am compelled to accept the ribbon he awards for Ninhursag having such a close bond to me. Enough of this. I head away from the coast, find some berries, and take them. I'll have Sinnoh stripped of berries soon enough.

Finally, I arrive in Pastoria City. Someone there tells me that some trainers deliberately keep their own pokemon from evolving so that they learn certain moves. Interesting. Another person gives me a fashion accessory. Ugh. Do I have a sign somewhere on my person that reads, "Pokemon Coordinator"? I barge into a house, but find nothing of interest (some loser doesn't want to give me a scarf, which is fine because I'm already wearing one.

I notice that suddenly I am able to fly to Pastoria City. It's no longer blocked. I do so. This takes me right to the Poke Center. Apparently all the places I can fly to except home are Poke Centers? Let's check. Yes, that appears to be the case. Bizarre. I fly back to Veilstone City. I fly to Pastoria City again. Then back to Veilstone. Pastoria again. Veilstone again. Pastoria. This is awesome. Flying is the best.