Pastoria City

I like variety, so I modify my team again. At the Poke Center in Pastoria City, I add Apsu and Inanna to my team, replacing Kazza and Khali. The other trainers in the Poke Center babble about the "Great Marsh." I do not care. Marshes are dumb. However, I do notice that by the gate to this "Great Marsh" there stands a follower of Team Galactic. What with Sinnoh's police or whoever unable to deal with these fools at all, I take this as a sign that I will in fact have to enter the Great Marsh because some task I must perform to deal with Team Galactic will involve doing so. I curse my luck. Maybe I won't have to go in. Maybe I can just kill this guy now?

The Team Galactic follower talks about some package from Veilstone and how he has to "set it off." He disregards me as just some kid with only three gym badges. I was unaware that this is considered paltry by Team Galactic standards, considering that every one of them I've faced has been puny. I consider taking the issue up with him, but no. No point in that. He's an idiot anyway.

I loot some berries and speak with the locals, but all I ever hear about is the Great Marsh. Eventually, I find a move tutor who offers to teach my pokemon moves in exchange for heart scales. I will keep this in mind for later. I barge into a house with some neurotic woman who gives me a berry and asks me to please plant it somewhere. Little does she know that there is no chance of that ever happening. Berries do not belong in the ground. They belong in my backpack. All of them. Every berry in Sinnoh. I will have them all.

I decide to take on the gym while I'm here. Once again, Slave has already been here. That boy is always one step ahead of me. Or more than that. Probably more. No matter, I'll deal with him if I have to. Maybe I'll have to kill him. This gym uses some series of lifts and gates with water that block my path. It's some stupid puzzle that forces me to weave around the gym fighting trainers, which is fine because these trainers are going to be fun to destroy. Inanna gets beaten up by a Buizel immediately. I switch her out and have Sekhmet bring down the otter or whatever it is Buizel is supposed to be. I am annoyed that Inanna is so heavily damaged. Even though her exp. share should let her keep improving without actually fighting, I use hyper potion to restore her and then continue with the rest of the gym.

The next trainer uses Barboach, which doesn't hurt Inanna much, but does get her confused using water pulse, so I switch to Sekhmet again. This trainer is either smart or lucky, because he has Barboach switch to mud slap when Sekhmet comes out, and the ground-type attack hurts her. I switch to Ninhursag. One hit from giga drain takes out Barboach. Wait, do any of these trainers use more than one pokemon? I mean, it's kind of a bad idea to only use one when you could use six. Whatever.

I spoke too soon. The next trainer has two pokemon. First, there's Wingull. I have Inanna use minimize, making her a difficult target while the Wingull struggles to hit her over and over. Then I switch to doubleslap. Almost no damage. Inanna's attack is too low, but defensively she's one of my best. I should pair her with an effect that poisons enemies. Eventually, I become bored of watching Inanna slap the bird around, so I switch to Articuno, who immediately gets confused by supersonic. Annoyed, I switch to Apsu. Dragon rage makes quick work of Wingull, who was already wounded by Inanna's repeated slaps. Up next is, well, another Wingull. Apsu crushes it in one hit though. Easy. Why did I ever take this guy off my team in the first place? He's awesome.

The next trainer uses Azurill. Sekhmet takes some damage switching into the thing's attack. I really need to just make her first in my lineup. Marill is next, and I gather that it's the next form of Azurill. Sekhmet is proving useful against the water types that this gym is filled with. I apply a super potion to Sekhmet and move her to the front of my lineup. She wipes out the next trainer's Goldeen, but Barboach is immune to electric attacks somehow. I switch to Apsu while Barboach is trying a ground attack, which Apsu is fortunately immune to. I think Barboach is probably a water/ground pokemon. Apsu dominates it, whatever it is. This trainer isn't done though: he still has Gyarados. So of course I leave Apsu in. My Gyarados is better than your Gyarados! Apsu hits with dragon rage, takes damage from the foe's bite, then strikes again with dragon rage, winning the battle.

One more trainer left before the gym leader. He leads with Shellos. Apsu and I have some fun with that. Then there's a major upset. This guy's Wingull beats Sekhmet. He hit her with supersonic right away and she never managed to attack. Apsu strikes with dragon rage, but Wingull uses supersonic again. Unlike Sekhmet, Apsu manages to score a hit despite the confusion and demolishes the Wingull. Next it's Shellos again. And I switch to Hanuman because I can. Bad idea. Shellos wins that fight. I am screwing everything up here. Apsu comes in with Shellos already hurt and with lowered defense thanks to Hanuman. Now that nothing else is in my way, I revive Sekhmet and Hanuman, then use some super potions before facing the gym leader.

"Welcome! I don't get challenged very often. The glory that you are now beholding is the Pastoria Gym Leader! That's right, I'm Crasher Wake! My pokemon were toughened up by stormy white waters! They'll take everything you can throw at them and then pull you under! Victory will be ours! Come on, let's get it done!"

Uh, okay. He leads with Gyarados. Sekhmet's spark handles that problem. Next is Quagsire. Spark doesn't work. Oh, another ground pokemon. I have just the thing for that. Go, Ninhursag. One hit from giga drain eliminates Quagsire. Crasher Wake brings in Floatzel. Ice fang beats Ninhursag. Oh. I wasn't expecting that. Inanna, make yourself useful. Or not. Ice fang takes her out too. Your turn, Sekhmet. Pursuit hurts Sekhmet and spark hurts Floatzel, but he eats a berry, restoring himself somewhat. The next spark nearly finishes Floatzel and paralyzes him too, but he gets revenge with an ice fang that drops Sekhmet. I bring in Hanuman to finish Floatzel off. Crasher Wake uses a super potion. Well, he's definitely putting up a better fight than I expected and he's the strongest trainer I've faced so far. He makes a mistake though. Floatzel is a water type and should have the advantage against Hanuman, but Crasher Wake has his pokemon use pursuit, which is weak against Hanuman. Paralysis makes the otter slow enough that Hanuman wins. Well, that was kind of close I guess, but I still had Apsu and Articuno to fall back on.

Crasher Wake takes the loss well and gives me a new gym badge and TM. I take my crippled team back to the Poke Center for some healing. I notice that the Team Galactic follower is still at the gate to the Great Marsh. I confront him again. What now? Now I have four gym badges instead of just three, that's what. You want a piece of this? He runs away, making some excuse. I chase him down and he insults me, pretending that I am no threat. I am just about to have Apsu bite his head off, when Slave runs right into me from behind. The Team Galactic follower gets away. Slave doesn't seem to notice. He does challenge me to a battle though.

I see that you're still using Starly, Slave. That's cool. Say hello to electric death, Starly. Oh, and there's Ponyta. So burn slows Apsu down, but you're still outmatched. And there he is: your very first pokemon. Prinplup. I knew you'd be using him. But did you know that giga drain works really well on water types? What else do you have, Slave? Roselia? Well, you remember Hanuman, right? Or was the last time too painful? Yes Slave, I am telling you that you lost. That's because you did.

Slave says that I should chase down the Team Galactic guy. I was trying to do that before a certain someone challenged me to a battle. I head back to the Poke Center and heal my team from the epic battle that just happened, then it's off to renew my pursuit of the Team Galactic follower. Once I get to the beach area, following his tracks is easy. He sees me and sees that I see him, but he refuses to battle me because it would be a waste of effort. Coward. He tries to lose me in the hotel, but I spot him. He tries to get away again. I chase him down. He tells me that I leave him no choice. His pokemon will KO me.

It turns out that all he has is one Glameow. Sekhmet brushes the cat aside in one attack. My opponent trudges away, dejected that he didn't get to make his delivery because apparently I stopped him by battling him. This doesn't make any sense. I consider still having Apsu bite the guy's head off, but then I see Cynthia.

Cynthia talks about the folklore of Lake Valor. Some pokemon on an island in the middle of the lake. Then she asks me if I've seen the group of Psyduck on Route 210. I most certainly have! She gives me medicine to use on them. She thinks it will help with my pokedex. Well, I didn't have anywhere else to go, so I fly to Solaceon Town and administer the medicine. It works. The Psyduck disperse. Just as I am about to explore the path they were blocking, Cynthia walks up behind me.

"Oh, good. You used the SecretPotion I gave you. Psyduck are known to suffer from chronic headaches. But no one's been able to figure out what triggers the headaches. Oh, yes! Can I ask you a big favor?"

Uh, you just had me come here to do something that you could easily have done yourself. And then you came here anyway? Well, what's your favor?

"I want you to deliver this Old Charm to my grandma in Celestic Town. I know there are some rare pokemon between here and Celestic Town, so it will be worth your while to go."

Sure, why not?