xaq_the_aereon: I caught it...now what? (Default)
[personal profile] xaq_the_aereon
Shocking news: These puns are so good it hertz, and impossible to resist.

And right away, walking up to the Hokulani Observatory gives us a cutscene with a bespectacled guy, Molyane, who breaks kayfabemistakes Professor Kakui for the Masked Royal. Apparently this guy manages Pokemon PCs in the region, making him the Alola Variant of Bill, and the guy who Poke Pelago put out of a job.

Apparently, though, this guy isn't the captain. He recently handed that title over to his buddy Sopho*RECORD SCRATCH*Sophocles? As in the Festival Plaza guy? (One tap of the A button confirms that he is in fact the FP guy, as well as buy calculating comet paths and other fun stuff.)

Okay, Molyane. I get it. You think Professor Kakui is the Masked Royal. Quit stating the obviousGet your eyesight checked. With that, the prof heads back to Malie Garden, mistakenly believing Hau may have had his fill of malasada by now. If you're wrong, Kakui, his tab's on you.

Anyway, Molyane gives me something for my troubles...that "something" being the Steelium-Z. Jinkies. My first freebie Z-Crystal. However, it won't be seeing any use right now. Only 2 of my team can utilize it; Langstrom (formerly Gauss) will soon be replacing their held item, and Serana's Flying-type is problematic even with Dragon negating her Electric weakness. Plus, each currently only has 1 Steel-type move anyway.

Inside the observatory is a little swarm of Charjabugs and Togedemaru (another Mockachu) who apparently power the place. That's so cute. ^_^ The man at the entry desk gives me a Comet Shard to commemorate my visit. Yay, sales fodder! Another scientist blanks on what the magnitude of a star 10x brighter than a fifth-magnitude star is.

...I'm actually gonna look this up.

Okay, so apparently the *smaller* a star's magnitude, the brighter it is. So it's 10x as bright as a magnitude-5 star, so maybe divide by 10 and get 0.5? That's one of the answers, so I'll go with it.

Ah, he thought I was one of his coworkers and apologizes for the brain-buster. Hands me some Stardust to apologize. Yay, more sales fodder! A Construction Worker mentions how modern telescopes are more like digital cameras, snapping photos of the cosmos rather actually looking at it. Man, that's surprisingly deep.

Moving on, with the next room putting the emphasis on "moving." It's chock full of boxes. Off to the left is a dead end with a Totem Sticker, off to the right is a door locked by a security system...straight ahead it is, then.

Hi, Sophocles! He asks where the Charjabug are. Molyane said it's dinnertime, I believe? Apparently they're pivotal to his Trial, so he asks me to go get them. Well, if that means not having to ask why the back half of your room is a giant, dissected trumpet, okay. (Kinda reminds me of the stage of the Blue Man Group show...)

I scour the place to no avail, so I decide to check outside. There they are! All fed and ready to go. ...Except there's 3 missing. Oh yay, another fetch quest. Apparently they're all...buried? O_o; Ah, that's how they forage for food, I guess. Found 2, but one's still MIA. Crap. While Molyane ponders where it could have gone, I spot it wander off in the background (as does one of the other Charjabugs). Right, preamble over, on to the main event. 9 Charjabugs, 1 Togedemaru, and 2 nerds vs 1 Trainer!

[TRIAL START]
It's a Charjabug puzzle slider! We have to line the Charjabugs up in such a way as to power the device that will call the Totem Pokemon for me to battle. They get moved around a 3x3 grid by rotating the 4 panels in each corner.

The first puzzle is a breeze, cleared in 2 moves. The Roller's primed, it fires up the Pinger, and calls forth the To--oops, that's not a Totem Pokemon

[ROUND 1: vs Elekid]
Also, my hopes of things being a challenge again feel dashed, as this thing is 10 levels behind me. Its Quick Attack bounces off Obsidian harmlessly before Rock Slide squashes it.

Puzzle 2 calls for us to line up a 2nd row of Charjabugs. This takes all of 3 moves. The Pinger lights up again, and THIS time for sure calls forth

[ROUND 2: vs Electabuzz]
Another wrong number who gets Rock Slided out of the way with a painful amount of ease, boosting Obsidian to Lv 40. She wants to learn Crunch, and since I've forsworn the overpowered Breakneck Blitz, I'll replace Thrash with it.

The 3rd puzzle stumps me for a bit. I get the last 3 Charjabugs lined up across the center no problem, but nothing happens. I try connecting them vertically between the 2 lines, and nothing.

Then I get an idea. I just made an I...What if I made a Z?

SUCCESS!! The Pinger's Z-Move is primed and ready to go! ...And it turns on the Charjabugs!! OH NO!! D:

Thankfully, Togedemaru jumps to the rescue, acting as a natural surge protector with its Lightning Rod ability, but this is too much for it to handle! We've gotta--

Oh dang.

[ROUND 3: vs Totem Togedemaru]
Its Defense Aura fires up, which ought to make things a challenge for Obsidian. In that case, I may as well go all-out. It handled the Pinger's overload, but can it take a Continental Crush at the same time?

Answer: Yes, because it's not very effective, so that did sweet F.A. before it called it a Skarmory for backup. Obsidian almost KO's it with Fire Fang before dodging an Iron Head and watching the enemy team speed up with Tailwind. I try Crunch on the Totem 'mon, but its Spiky Shield, which I mistook for Defense Curl earlier, bounces the attack back at me before Steel Wing leaves Obsidian hurting.

Time for a tag-out. Fire's a good answer to Skarmory, so Erinys comes out to play. She gets hit with something ineffective from Totem Toge and dodges a Steel Wing. Zing Zap hurts pretty badly, Toxic poisons the Totem 'mon, and then Torment stops her from using Toxic again...big deal, its doing its job. Still, she's hurting a bit, so a Hyper Potion before continuing. This causes Spiky Shield to go to waste while Tailwind gets refreshed, so...good call.

Zing Zap flinches Erinys, while Stealth Rock makes tagging out problematic. Zing Zap stuns her again, and Steel Wing puts her in the read. Toxic puts the Totem Toge in the yellow, but it had a Sitrus Berry. Crap. Right, Hyper Potion #2 puts her back at full, but Zing Zap and Steel Wing put her back in the yellow. MAJOR crap. :/

Right, time to shoo out the clown. Flame Burst explodes in Togedemaru's face, hitting both of them...and KOs the wrong one? I expected to knock out Skarmory, but its the one left standing! ...Er, flying. Torment locks me out of using Flame Burst again, but that's okay. If Skarmory thinks its Steel-typing will save it from Toxic, Corrosion says otherwise. Steel wing does diddly, Toxic puts it on its last legs, and I go for a Super Potion to ensure Erinys lives to see the end of this match. One last steel wing proves the Super Potion to be a waste, and then Toxic seals the deal.

[TRIAL COMPLETE]
Ah, now THAT was the kind of challenge I wanted to see! Having to think through my plays, employing strategy over raw power, and ultimately pulling out a win. Molyane ponders about the nature of Totem Pokemon Auras, while Sophocles ponders about how to make the Roller/Pinger work better so as not to endanger his Charjabuddies and Togedemaru.

Either way, with that the Electrium-Z is mine! Or rather, Langstrom's. XP

Aww, Sophy smiled at Molyane's praise. He's so adorkable. :D ...Actually, now that I think about it, it's usually the Kahunas who name the Trial Captains, but Molyane just sorta passed on the title...plus, I haven't met the Island Kahuna yet. Maybe there isn't one? o_O??

Anyway, while pondering all this, Molyane suggests my team and I get introduced to the Battle Agency. Eh? O_o? Oh, it's a new feature for the Festival Plaza. Must be what the lady at the last desk in there must work at.

So apparently, you team up with other Trainers using borrowed Pokemon to battle. Interesting. We log out of the FP and Molyane asks me to give an item that Kakui forgot back to him. It's his wrestling maska piece of Masked Royal merch the professor bought.

Have to admit, this was easily the most fun trial I've undertaken yet, but for now, it's back to Malie. Screw the psychotic bus ride, though. *pulls out Charizard Ride Pager*

Clearing Sophocles' Trial adds Full Heals to the Poke Mart's inventory. Thanks, but with a few hundred Lum Berries on hand, I'm good. I head into Malie Garden to hand the prof his wrestling attiremerchandise, but OH GOODY. He's being accosted by Team Skull. *cracks knuckles* Time to thump some skulls, as it were.

"Four turns!" ..Eh? Prof, I'm as confused as these boneheads are by that statemoh wait are you saying how long they'll last in battle with you? He challenges the two of them to a Battle Royale...but wait, doesn't that call for FOUR combatants? You're not planning on dragging me into this, are

NEVER MIND *THAT* SHIT. BIG BAD GUZMA IS HERE!!!



At long last, the grand Leader of Team Skull, the hardest guy in all of Alola, Devastation Incarnate Himself! Guzma enters the storyline!

Seems he and Kakui have a bit of a past. They agree on coming out from under ancient traditions and moving on, but it seems Guzma objects to the idea of a Pokemon League on the grounds that everyone already knows he's the best. Kakui claims that he came to realize that the best Trainers are those who work in concert with their Pokemon, their feelings and thoughts as one in the toughest moments, and that the formation of an Alolan Pokemon League would push all trainers to their limits and forge those bonds with their Pokemon stronger than anyone thought possible.

I aim to test both of those theories. Guzma spies my Z-Ring and asks why I bother with the Island Challenge. What's the point of it, he asks?

That's what I want to find out. If you want to stand in my way, Guzma, all I can say is

Bring it.



[ROUND 1: vs Golisopod]
Langstrom leads the charge against a Pokemon weak to Electric moves while sporting a brand new Electrium-Z. Congrats Guzma, you just graduated from "roadblock" to "test subject!" Go, Gigavolt Havoc!!!

Langstrom hits Lv 40 from obliterating Guzma's ace, as does Spectra, while Serenity hits 41. Given what he's about to tag in, I'll let Langstrom have another go.

[ROUND 2: vs Masquerain]
From Bug/Water to Bug/Flying. I may not be able to zap it as badly as his Golisopod got flash-fried, but I can hurt it pretty bad before letting Serana take over to try and garner some Exp; she's somehow slipped into last place and is now the only member not in the 40's. :[ So, Volt Switch!

...Oops, I killed it. Sorry Sera

GUZMA!!! WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?!



This is why I love this guy. No matter what he's doing, it's 100% over the top. Anyway, it seems I've put myself right at the top of Team Skull's shit-list now. ...Yay? Oh, hi Hau. Wait, how does Guzma know him? Oh, because he's Kahuna Hala's grandson. He says something about not having to do this just because of that family relationship and how he may not get what he wants out of it...y'know, that may be true Guzma, but I think you're missing the point here.

In any case, I score another Z-Crystal from the prof for my victory, and retire Hydro Vortex; he gives me the Primarium-Z, one specifically for Serenity to use with Sparkling Aria. A fair trade for his wrestling merchandise.

And Lillie's back from the library with Acerola. Yay! With that, the prof heads back up Mt. Lalikana to finish things up with the Pokemon League, Hau and I head on to Route 11 (which should still be clear of Trainers after my last detour), and the girls go off shopping. Seems a solid point to call it a night, so...g'night!
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