pp17: Having a Blast

[xaq_the_aereon]

[TEAM STATUS]
Tessa [Prinplup -> Empoleon], Lv 36
Belfries, Lv 36
Astra, Lv 36
Dogmeat, Lv 34
Atlas, Lv 34
Nala, Lv 37

The Galactigrunt threatening to blow Celestic Town up says he'll thrash me in a battle if I dare to challenge him. I dare.

[VS. A Bump In The Road]
[Round 1: vs. Beautifly]
Metal Claw drops it deep in the red, while its Stun Spore induces paralysis and Leech Life siphons off a tiny bit of HP before Brine obliterates it.

[ATLAS: Scary Face -> Drill Run]
[Round 2: vs. Croagunk]
Bubble Beam crits to blast it and the Galactigrunt away.

He scurries off without setting his bomb off, and the town elder comes to give me her thanks...oh right, this is the lady Cynthia wanted me to deliver that creepy Old Charm to. She introduces herself as Cynthia's grandmother and takes that icky collection of Pokemon bones off my hands.

[ANYONE HAVE SOME HAND SANITIZER????]
Afterwards, she suggests I take a look inside the ruins. Not much in there but an old wall painting depicting 3 little alien-looking things around a pink orb.

According to Granny Elder, this depicts a story from long ago of a powerful creature, considered by many to be a god, who was opposed by 3 Pokemon with whom it created balance. She also gives me some TM95s for Surf, which can be used both as a powerful Water-type move and as a Hidden Move once you have the Hearthome Gym Badge.

[MAYBE SHE'S HOME THIS TIME?]
Probably not. XP On the way out, I come across that Team Galactic guy I ran into back at Mt. Coronet. He talks about an insignificant struggle that happened here recently...

[DEFINITELY TALKING ABOUT THE BUMP IN THE ROAD EARLIER]
...and how people ought to view things at a larger scale, a universal scale. He then introduces himself as Cyrus...so he's the guy who had Lake Valor blocked off earlier. Seems he wants to create a world free of strife.

[ONLY WAY THAT'S HAPPENING IS IF HE GOES THANOS ON EVERYONE]
He asks us to keep him informed if we come across any kind of ancient powers that could help him...suffice to say, not happening. Before I go anywhere else, though...

[TESSA: Brine -> Surf]

After that, I head west to Route 211. Not keen on dealing with the trainers in this area (I accidentally ran into a Ninja Boy who was responsible for Tessa's evolution), but I may as well.

[VS. Bird Keeper Katherine]
[vs. Noctowl]
Metal Claw hits pretty decently, while Extrasensory all but fizzles. A second Metal Claw finishes this battle up.

[AAAAND THAT'S ENOUGH OF THAT]
Back into Mt. Coronet we go, then...and with no way to use Strength on these boulders, we head right back out. Checking the map, I see I have a Honey Tree south of Veilstone ready to be checked. Sadly, I never cleared out the trainers on the north part of Route 214, so I get challenged by a psycho on the way there.

[THAT'S PSYCHIC]
No, they're pulling the old "WHAT'S BEHIND YOU!?" trick. They're a psycho.

[VS. Psycho Abigail]
[Round 1: vs. Gastly]
Surf leads to a quick and devastating wipeout.

[Round 2: vs. Misdreavus]
I let Atlas handle this one. Confuse Ray does exactly what it says on the tin, but Drill Run still goes through...and misses entirely due to its Levitate. Heads up, Abigail! Hex does a number on Atlas, who Ice Fangs in retaliation to put Misdreavus in the red. Another Hex crits, and Ice Fang wraps the battle up.

[Round 3: vs. Kadabra]
Dogmeat takes over and does a solo Beat Up to take the win.

The Honey Tree winds up being an Aipom, but that suggests it may have been a Rare encounter, which in turn suggests this might be one of the Lucky Honey Trees that have those more often, so I give it another slathering for later. With that, we Fly back to Hearthome.

[YO, TAXI!]
Right then, time to see if the lady of the Gym is home. Turns out, she is! And this, as it turns out, is a Ghost-type gym.

[SPOOOOKYYYY]
Not really. Dark-type works nicely against Ghosts, so I move Dogmeat and Nala to the front in case this ever becomes a two-on-one. ...Instead, it looks like it'll be a test of wits: each floor contains 3 doors and a clue to which one leads the right way.

[FLOOR 1: What is 3+5+7? LEFT FOR 2, MIDDLE FOR 16, RIGHT FOR 15]
About 0.1 seconds of mental math suggests going right. This leads us to the next floor.

[FLOOR 2: 12+18 = ?? LEFT FOR 30, CENTER FOR 40, RIGHT FOR 50]
Middle this time...do her Gym Trainers ever actually battle anyone? These are stupidly easy.

[FLOOR 3: 3 x 13 = ?? LEFT FOR 39, CENTER FOR HEY WAIT I WASN'T DONE YET]
No point, left it is.

[FLOOR 4: WHAT WAS THE FIRST ROOM'S ANSWER? LEFT FOR 2, FORWARD FOR 16, RIGHT FOR 15]
This might have been a challenge if I wasn't...you know...WRITING ALL THIS DOWN? So off to the right we go. And thus we find the glamorous Gym Leader, Fantina. Complete with Ojou Laugh.

[GYM LEADER BATTLE: VS. FANTINA]
[Round 1: vs. Drifblim]
Beat Up OR Thunder Fang should wallop this thing. I opt for Beat Up, and 5 bonks later it is done.

[Round 2: vs. Gengar]
It leads off with Confuse Ray, causing Dogmeat to hurt herself. Sludge Bomb hits her pretty hard, but Beat Up powers through and clobbers it.

[FINAL ROUND: vs. Mismagius]
I leave Dogmeat out but take a turn to heal her up with some Moomoo Milk. Dazzling Gleam hits and drops her HP meter to the L of her Level. Another Dazzling Gleam leaves her in the yellow, Confuse Ray wears off, and Beat Up lets the whole team go to town for the win. Guess having Nala on standby wasn't needed.

With that, the Relic Badge and ability to use Surf outside of battle is ours! She also gives us some Stickers and the TM65s for Shadow Claw. Having a Ghost-type move in my repertoire would be great, but currently only Tessa can use it, and her Attack is badly lacking vs. her Special Attack.

...It just dawned on me: The outside of this building was clearly only 1 floor, yet all of the elevators we found went UP. Would have made more sense for it to be going downwards, no?

[ESPECIALLY SINCE IT'S A GHOST GYM]

Outside, we run into Cynthia again. Always a pleasure to see her. <3 She thanks us for helping out in Celestic Town and gives some advice on where to go next.

[SO NATURALLY YOU HEAD ELSEWHERE]
Duh. :p Anyway, this feels like a good spot to call it for this entry.

[TEAM STATUS]
Tessa, Lv 37
Nala, Lv 38
Astra, Lv 37
Dogmeat, Lv 36
Atlas, Lv 35
Belfries, Lv 37

Toodles!
[BYE!]