ppe 21: Dealing with Issues of Galactic Proportions

[xaq_the_aereon]

[BANDITS STATUS]
Belfries, Lv 46
Atlas, Lv 43
Nebula, Lv 44
Dogmeat, Lv 44
Iceberg, Lv 41 (VIA TM: Ice Punch -> Avalanche)
Tessa, Lv 46

Landing back in Veilstone, we head up to the Team Galactic HQ. Right off the bat I run into a Galactigrunt complaining about his Clefairy (probably someone else's) being taken, his partner quitting, and not knowing anything about a Storage Key.

[ATLAS, TEAR HIS ARMS OFF]

"Oh you mean THIS Storage Key" he probably says to himself as he walks away, dropping the darned thing right in front of me. YOINK!

Guess we're not going into the main building, then, since this thing's meant for the warehouse we went to before...BTW, whose brilliant idea was it to put a Warehouse at the top of a staircase??? That's gotta make hauling stuff in a pain.

Inside, another G'Grunt asks if we have the key, mentioning it's safe with his buddy back at the entrance.

[NOT SO MUCH, BRO]

In goes the key, open goes the door, and SNAP goes the key in the rusty lock. Well, hope we won't need it again. Inside, the first thing I find is...a locked door that needs a special key.

[FLAG RETRIEVED]
Heading the other way leads me right into trouble.

[VS. GALACTIGRUNT]
[Vs. Golbat]
Belfries hits with Aerial Ace before getting Screeched at, then uses another to prove herself the superior 'bat.

The area beyond proves to be a bit of a labyrinth of twisting corridors, stacked boxes, and Galactigrunts waiting in ambush. Like this one!

[VS. TARGET PRACTICE]
[Round 1: vs. Dustox]
A bug vs. a flier? Oooh, bad call.
[ONE AERIAL ACE LATER]
See?

[Round 2: vs. Bronzor]
Dogmeat tags in for this one and gets half the Bandits involved in a Beat Up.

We finally find a staircase leading up...to another Galactigrunt.

[VS...WHOOPS, FALSE ALARM]
Poor guy doesn't even have a Pokemon? Ouch! Says its his own fault for not knowing how the warp panels conneI'M SORRY, WARP PANELS?

[OH JOY, A TELEPORTER MAZE]
And here they are on the next floor. Got 2 to choose from. Left or right...I'll go left first. This leads to a stairwell 2 portals away. Another stairwell is blocked by a Grunt, so I take the portal on the left instead. This leads to a stairwell to...the break room, I guess? Anyway, the science dud in here doesn't appreciate me interrupting his lunch.

[VS. SCIENTIST FREDERICK]
[Round 1: vs. Kadabra]
X-Scissors lands a crit and Kadabra pulls a disappearing act.

[Round 2: vs. Kadabra's twin brother Kadabra]
For Exp's sake I tag Iceberg in. She kicks up a hailstorm with Storm Warning. A Reflect protects Kadabra a bit while preventing Avalanche's 2x-power from being a factor, while not preventing it from hitting like a ton of snow. Recover restores most of its HP, but Ice Beam takes it all away.

Further on down we wind up back in the basement area, with a TM36 for Sludge Bomb and a Galactic Key, which opens the door we ran into earlier. Flag discarded!

[NOT SURE THAT'S HOW THAT WORKS]
Anyway! Back upstairs, back through the portal, and now to deal with the stairway blocker.

[VS. GALACTIGRUNT]
[Round 1: vs. Wurmple]
Aerial Ace was a bit much here. Oh well.
[Round 2: vs. Dustox]
Tessa hasn't had a turn in a bit, so I bring her out. Metal Claw hits for half, and Psybeam hits for so little it may as well have missed. Another Metal Claw takes it out.
[Round 3: vs. Cascoon]
...Got things a little out of order, didn't you? I tag Nebula in and Thunderbolt it to ashes.

Up ahead, another Grunt gives us a clue to where the key we already found is, while the next 2 Grunts play a bad game of Look Away, allowing us to sneak right by and get to another door needing the Galactic Key. There's some sort of generator array in here along with TM21 for Dazzling Gleam. Yay, except only Nebula can learn it and she already knows it.

[WAIT, THIS WAS A DEAD END?]
Looks like. At least we got the Galactic Key. And caught by one of the Grunts on the way back out.

[D'OH!]
[VS. REGIONAL PEEK-A-BOO CHAMPIONSHIP RUNNER-UP]
[Vs. Stunky]
X-Scissor almost KO's it, while Smokescreen lowers Belfries' accuracy a bit, allowing Cross Poison to miss. Night Slash does some damage, and another Cross Poison whiffs while Venoshock barely does anything. One last Cross Poison finally hits and puts another notch in its KO score, while Aftermath costs Belfries half her HP.

[NOTHING SOME MOO-MOO MILK WON'T FIX]

With that, we take the teleporter maze back to its beginning and take the right path. This...leads to a dead-end with the TM49 for Scald. Wait, what?! Eh, whatever.

[TESSA: Bubble Beam -> Scald]

After a bit of thinking, I get the hunch we're done here, so I head back to the first Galactic Door we found, kick my discarded flag to the side, and head back to the main building, stopping by the Pokecen on the way. I also move Atlas to the front on a hunch.

Sure enough, right off the bat is a Galactic Door.

[OPEN SESAME!]

And right off the bat is not one, but TWO Grunts wanting to fight.

[VS. TWEEDLE DUM AND TWEEDLE DUMMER]
[Round 1.0: vs. Double Golbats]
Belfries joins Atlas in the fray, making my earlier swap completely pointless. Aerial Ace hits the right Golbat, who uses Air Cutter for near nothing, as does its twin, who gets one-shot by Ice Fang.

[Round 1.5: vs. Silcoon and Golbat]
Aerial Ace eliminates Silcoon right away, Screech hurts Belfries' ears, and Ice Fang wraps things up for the Golbats.

[Round 2: vs. Golbat]
Or not. X-Scissor does a little damage, Bite does a fair bit, and AS I WAS SAYING, Ice Fang wraps things up for the Golbats.

Up ahead is another break room. I ask the doc what's on TV.

[VS. SCIENTIST DARRIUS]
Well that's just rude! :[
[vs. Kadabra]
Reflect boosts its defenses, but Drill Run shatters right through and scores the KO.

[TELEPORTER MAZE V.2 TIME!]
Oh joy. We have 3 to choose from. First one drops us by some beds that act as a Pokecen, and a staircase that leads to two more Grunts. I swap Belfries with Iceberg and move in. Seems they'll get a promotion if they beat me!

[VS. TWO SAPS WHO AREN'T GETTING PROMOTIONS]
[Round 1.0: Vs. Croagunk and Stunky]
Night slash hurts Atlas, who Drill Runs Croagunk out of the battle. Iceberg hits with Avalanche and does a lot of damage to Stunky, while it and Atlas get hit by the hail she put up.

[Round 1.5: vs. Glameo and Stunky]
Aerial Ace hits Iceberg pretty hard, and she retaliates with an Ice Beam on the Stunky to KO it, while Atlas Hammer Arms Glameow out of the fight. BONK!

[Round 2: Vs. Stunky and Croagunk]
Deja vu. Bite hurts Atlas and is responded to with a Drill Run for the Aftermath-loaded KO, while Avalanche one-shots the Croagunk and buries their promotion dreams.

Ahead we find 3 more portals. Ummm...let's go with the one on the right.

[AND IT'S A DEAD END]
I meant middle.

[AND IT'S A DEAD END WITH AN ELIXIR]
Oh for Arceus' sake! FINE, LEFT.

This one leads to a stairwell leading up to an office with one of the Commanders in it...I think that's Cyrus? Well, guess opening this Galactic Door's gonna spring a boss fight on us.

[IN WE GO]
Cyrus seems surprised that the one causing his Team so much trouble is a child. He senses that we want to save Uxie, Mesprit, and Azelf, the Lake Trio. He...lets us?

[SEEMS HE'S DONE WHAT HE WANTED WITH THEM]
...That's not reassuring. Neither is him saying that our coming to save them out of the goodness of our hearts is "illogical and irrational."

[YOU'RE DAMNED RIGHT IT IS, BUDDY]
..Oh, guess he wants to fight after all.

[VS. TEAM GALACTIC BOSS CYRUS]
[Round 1: vs. Murkrow]

Night Shade does a bit of damage to Atlas, who Ice Fangs it into oblivion.

[Round 2: vs. Sneasel]
Dogmeat tags in and Flame Charges most of its HP away, forcing it to use its Sitrus Berry. Icy Wind doesn't do much against Dogmeat, just cancelling the Speed boost from Flame Charge. Another Flame Charge roasts it and boosts her Speed back up again.

[Round 3: vs. Golbat]
While tagging in Nebula for Thunderbolt or leaving Dogmeat out for Thunder Fang seems good, I tag in Tessa instead. Scald scorches most of its HP away, Bite does almost nothing, and another Scald wipes the last of Cyrus' team out.

"Interesting. And quite curious."

[THAT'S JETTY IN A NUTSHELL]

He recognizes our strength, even if he disregards its source (our compassion), and rewards us.

[MASTER BALL GET!!]

With that, he heads off to Mt. Coronet..."to give everything a new beginning."

Ominous. Checking his PC shows he intends to capture some Mythical Pokemon creator-god...Arceus, probably?...with something called the "Red Chain," which is apparently born from the Lake Trio.

[WE'D BETTER GET MOVING]
Right. Past Cyrus' office is a portal to where the Lake Trio is being held. 2 scientists inside offer zero resistance; clearly they realize the error of what they've done, even if it may be too late.

The next room holds the Trio, held in stasis by a device run by Commander Saturn.

[MOVE, OR YOU WILL BE MOVED]

He chooses to be moved.

[VS. COMMANDER SATURN]
[Round 1: vs. Kadabra]
Its Reflect gets shattered by Drill Run, as does its HP.

[Round 2: vs. Toxicroak]
Iceberg tags in. Brick Break hurts her pretty bad, but lets Avalanche hit at full power...and do very little. Seeing that, I tag in Belfries, who dodges a Brick Break and shrugs off some ice before nailing it with an Aerial Ace. Thief swipes her Poison Barb...OI, GIVE THAT BACK!...and Aerial Ace scores the KO.

[Round 3: vs. Bronzor]
Dogmeat takes up the front and brings the rest of the Bandits in on a Beat Up.

And with that the Trio are freed, and we take the portal behind Cyrus' office back to the ground floor...huh, emergency exit, I guess. Anyway, time to hit the Pokecen, and then get our butts to Mt. Coronet to see if we can stop him before he does anything apocalyptic!

[KNOWING THE FRANCHISE, MY MONEY'S ON "NO"]

[BANDITS STATUS]
Atlas, Lv 45
Iceberg, Lv 42
Nebula, Lv 45
Dogmeat, Lv 45
Belfries, Lv 48
Tessa, Lv 47

Later!
[CIAO!]