Veilstone City

Undaunted by my meager frame the drones from Team Galactic move to block my path. I could instruct Kazza to blast their feeble minds or something, but instead I turn back, processing new information. This warehouse supposedly belongs to Team Galactic. And I say "supposedly" because they seem to simply lay claim to whatever happens to interest them, relying on threats of violence to crush dissent. I am unmoved by threats of violence, not because of any particular conviction, but simply because such threats made against me are impossible to carry out.

After exploring Veilstone City for a bit, which mostly consists of barging into houses, as I've grown accustomed to doing, I arrive Team Galactic's Veilstone Building. The warehouse can wait. This architectural abomination commands my interest for the moment. Well, one door leads to nothing but an empty room, but the next has the front desk. The drone there states that this is Team Galactic's Headquarters, but then corrects himself and calls it their "Veilstone" building. Enough of this. The other people here are also useless. I head south, encountering some cratered lumps of rock. Boring. I leave and check out some more buildings. There's a "game corner" that has nothing but slot machines. I chat with the clientele, because if they're pathetic enough to waste their money on this nonsense, maybe I'll get some amusement out of whatever they have to say. One man tells me that his daughter is the gym leader here and that she's tough. A gym? Finally, something that isn't stupid.

I scour the city for the alleged gym. Just as I find it, I also find Dawn. She makes some excuse and then leaves. It seems that she is embarrassed because I caught her shopping in Veilstone City instead of out in the field working on the Pokedex project. Whatever, Dawn. It's not like I actually care about the Pokedex project. I enter the gym. Slave has already beaten the leader, of course. But that just means this should be easy, because I always beat Slave before.

This gym is obsessed with fighting types and fighting moves. They're even wearing gis. What dorks. Nanabozho beats the crap out of a Meditite to start things off, which shouldn't happen if these trainers were any good, as Nanabozho isn't very strong. The next trainer leads with Machoke, and after getting one hit in, I switch to Kazza. He takes a huge hit from vital throw but strikes back with confusion, finishing his opponent. Another Meditite is next, so I switch to Ninhursag. Although Meditite can hit harder (and this one is higher in level), Ninhursag has an advantage with leech seed and stun spore working against her foe, and she wins in the end. Against the third trainer, my team is getting worn down, so I have to switch to the heavy hitters. Nanabozho is immediately called back, with Sekhmet paralyzing and then pulverizing the Machoke, but just as he's nearly finished, he gets a lucky hit with karate chop that takes Sekhmet out. I send Kazza to finish the job. I have him use confusion on the next Machoke too, but the fighting pokemon withstands the attack and gets revenge with "revenge." Two of my team are down, but Ninhursag dispatches the Machoke. Next comes—another Machoke, of course. But this one is in for a surprise: he's up against Hanuman. Machoke does surprisingly well, but ultimately can't handle the heat.

The next gi-adorned zealot I approach doesn't battle me. He simple assures me that the gym leader will crush me. Whatever, coward. I move on to another trainer. Unsurprisingly, he is using Machoke. Nanabozho does some damage, but gets beaten by karate chop. Hanuman finishes the job with flame wheel. Then comes Machop. And at a high enough level that it should have evolved, but nevermind that. Yet another Machoke is there to seismic toss Hanuman into oblivion, but the Machoke goes down in flames just in time.

And now I have a clear choice: I can face the gym leader with what I have, or I can go back and heal my team fully as well as possibly switching some pokemon for others. Khali would dominate the fighting types that are so popular here. If I don't go back, I will almost certainly have to rely on Articuno to win. Is that acceptable? I decide that it is. Let's see what you've got, Maylene.

Meditite. And Hanuman is nearly finished. So I switch to Articuno, who virtually ignores the confusion that Meditite uses against him. Articuno promptly begins napping. Stubborn bird. Meditite throws everything it has at Articuno, who sleeps through most of it, then takes Meditite out in one hit once he gets around to actually fighting. Maylene sends in Lucario. I tell Articuno to aerial ace, but he ice beams instead, which almost finishes the Lucario, but the pokemon annoyingly hangs on and fights back. Metal claw actually manages to damage Articuno pretty impressively, but a second ice beam ends things for Lucario. Maylene calls out her last pokemon—another Machoke. What is it with this gym and Machoke? Whatever. One hit from aerial ace and the battle is over. It always helps to have an invincible ice phoenix acquired under bizarre circumstances.

Blah blah blah, she learned from this loss, whatever. I take my new gym badge and complementary TM and leave. As soon as I'm out the door, Dawn is waiting there. She wants my help. She dropped her pokedex and Team Galactic took it. Oh, maybe that was why she was embarrassed earlier? Articuno did a good job and deserves a break, what with having used a full four attacks in that battle. So I heal my team at the Poke Center and meet Dawn in front of the Team Galactic Warehouse.

On one side: justice. On the other: stupidity. Dawn is using Clefairy. My stupid opponents are using Beautifly and Dustox. While Nanabozho is busy totally outclassing Beautifly, the other two pokemon are using silly moves like protect and gravity (makes everyone earthbound, which is interesting I guess). Beautifly goes down for good soon, only to be replaced by Stunky. Dustox gets switched for Croagunk. Nanabozho is taking too much damage for my liking, so I switch to Ninhursag. Together, Clefairy and Ninhursag bring down Croagunk, but Dustox comes right back out, and Stunky has really hurt poor Ninhursag. Your turn, Sekhmet. Stunky finishes Clefairy, but Dawn isn't out yet, and calls in Kadabra, who dominates the Dustox with psybeam. Stunky hurts Kadabra badly, but Sekhmet hurts Stunky even more. I think I'll let Dawn finish this one, so I'm switching to Ninhursag again. Annoyingly, the Galactic drone has his Stunky change targets, and slash takes Ninhursag out. I bring in Nanazboho. Kadabra doesn't actually use an attacking move, so Stunky actually slashes him until he faints. Dawn brings in her strongest pokemon that I've seen so far and presumably her ace-in-the-hole: Grotle.

The Galactic drones hand over the pokedex and run away. Dawn quickly disregards the encounter with them and announces that she is heading to Pastoria City and the great marsh. While I'm sure lots of pokemon live in swamps, that really doesn't sound like anything I want to do right now. Well, the drones are gone, so I stroll into the warehouse. I find an HM for fly. There is another drone standing around, but he's clueless and doesn't try to battle me or anything. He talks about "those things" being moved to Pastoria City. I don't care. Then again, I might as well set out for this Pastoria City, as I've run out of things to do here in Veilstone City.

And I will do that soon enough. But first, I teach Articuno the move "fly." It's not that I'm interested in using the move in battle at all. But I've heard that I can use it to quickly travel. For some reason, some invisible force is blocking me from flying anywhere except for a few specific locations. I can fly to any of them, but the spaces around and between those locations are inaccessible with this type of travel. How absurd. Oh well. One of the locations is apparently right in front of my house. I turn in for the night.