2007 TPM D/P Monotype Challenge

[DarkestLight]

Yes, Mismagius is a joy :O. You'll have fun with it for this MTC

[Poryhedron]

Name: Rita
Type: Ghost

As I was returning to Eterna City, I recieved a message unexpectedly. Fellow TPMer Fai D. Flowright, who had previously discussed a new team with me, needed to raise a Mismagius for his team...and was playing Diamond. I caught a spare female Misdreavus for him, and told him it didn't really matter what he sent me since I didn't want my Gastly to be an outsider and I didn't really need any other pokémon.

He was determined to send me something useful, though, and came up with the idea of sending me a Gastly Egg so that I would be the Gastly's Original Trainer when it hatched. I conceded that this would be fine, and after wrestling with my WiFi settings a bit, the trade was complete and I found myself with what would eventually be my third and final battler, earlier than expected.

With the Gastly Egg in my possession (what exactly does an egg that hatches into a gaseous undead creature look like, anyway?) I went back to raising Arcanum before taking on Team Galactic in their Eterna City building. I very quickly found myself less than impressed with Arcanum's starting moveset, and looked up its natural moves to discover it wouldn't learn a better damaging attack until level 23. I didn't want to use up my Hidden Power TM on the off chance Gastly would have a useful Hidden Power, and none of my other TMs looked appealing, so I started to keep an eye out for any other TMs I could find.

Approaching the Team Galactic Building, I saw that it was blocked by saplings; just then, however, a *ahem* COMPLETELY NORMAL TRAINER WHO IS TYPICAL IN EVERY WAY AND CERTAINLY ISN'T THE SINNOH LEAGUE CHAMPION walked by and gifted me with the Cut HM. I promptly taught this to Army, but couldn't use it on the Saplings yet...so I made my way to Eterna Gym to earn my second Badge.

I battled mostly with Arcanum to raise it, with Zephyr's Gust as backup. Arcanum reached Level 19 by the time Gardenia's last pokémon had fainted and I had earned the Forest Badge. With that done, I stopped at the Pokémon Center and then went to the Team Galactic building. The Galactic Grunts proved little to no problem (Team Galactic has easily the weakest grunts of any game so far. It's pathetic how many of them have basic early-game Bug-types.) Commander Jupiter was another story...she had a decently high-level Skuntank, a Poison/Dark-type. With only Astonish and Psywave for damaging attacks, Misdreavus proved unable to deal meaningful damage to it, so I Confused and Spited it as much as I could. Oddly enough, it beat around the bush for several turns, leading me to wonder if it was in the same situation I was; was its main attack Normal-type? But no, after whittling with Poison Sting for a while it finally pulled out Night Slash and wiped out Arcanum with one hit. Luckily, after the damage Skuntank had dealt itself under Confuse Ray, Zephyr was able to bring it down with a couple of Gusts.

I rescued the Bike Shop owner's Clefairy and all of the other pokémon, got a free Bike for my heroics, and headed for Cycling Road.

Team:

??? L?
, , ,
It hasn't hatched yet.

Arcanum L21
Astonish, Confuse Ray, Psywave, Spite
No idea what moveset I want yet...though Magical Leaf is a real possibility.

Zephyr L27
Gust, Stockpile, Payback, Spit Up
My first Ghost-type!

ARMY L22
Razor Leaf, Absorb, Cut, Rock Smash
I'm giving this guy the next Rare Candy I find. He's almost at levelup and I'm sick of seeing his Pokéball wobble in battle.

NAVY L8
Water Sport, Scratch, Tail Whip, Flash
You don't have to be Psychic-type to see Water HMs in this guy's future.

AIR FORCE L7
Tackle, Growl, Quick Attack, —
The obligatory Miniscule Bird That Will Somehow Support My Weight.

Next: ...I need what?

[Poryhedron]

...HAY GUIZ!

...I know I'm not the only one who was doing one of these...where's everyone else, huh?

...In any case, I finally got around to taking care of the problem holding me up. Thus, here's the update I've been sitting on nearly all this time...

Name: Rita
Type: Ghost

I headed for Cycling Road...only to be stopped by a woman who was scandalized that I hadn't gotten myself the ultra-cool, unbelievably hip, no-trainer-should-be-without-one Explorer Kit. As much addictive fun as excavating can be, I really didn't see how it contributed to my aboveground gaming experience save for the occasional semi-useful Hold Item, so I wasn't really interested this time around, but apparently you're not allowed to pass it up. Grumbling, I visited the Underground Man, got the Explorer Kit and did a couple of his missions and excavated some stuff. I scored a Red Shard, a Blue Shard and a Revive. Then I went back south and continued through to Cycling Road.

I got the Exp. Share from Lucas' father, and gave it to Army. One battle later, Army's pokéball on the Battle screen finally stopped wobbling. I took back the EXP. Share; I'd be giving it to my baby Gastly next. Then, in the very next battle, Zephyr hit level 28...and evolved from Drifloon to Drifblim! After that, I decided to pedal back and forth a bit (well, really just pedal back; gravity took care of the forth for me) until my Egg hatched. I nicknamed the tyke Shadow and gave it the Exp. Share for now. Then I proceeded to defeat the rest of the Cycling Road trainers. Shadow grew six levels from its first battle and was level 13 by the time I reached the south end. Sigh...they grow up so fast...

I continued south, and ran into Lucas, who gifted me with the Vs. Seeker (eh, okay,) and the Dowsing Machine Pokétch App (yay!) Then I kept going down to Oreburgh, and turned west to go back to Jubilife. On the way through Oreburgh Gate, I recalled seeing an item ball that could only be reached with a bike, so I stopped and grabbed that. It proved to be a TM for the Fighting attack Brick Break. Too bad that, of my entire team, only Navy could use it...

I crossed west to Jubilife, then north to Ravaged Path, saved and taught Shadow Hidden Power.

Used HIDDEN POWER on ZUBAT.
It dealt standard damage!
Possible types: DRK DRG FIR FLY GHO STL WTR
Used HIDDEN POWER on GEODUDE.
It dealt standard damage!
Possible types: DRK DRG GHO
Travelled to ROUTE 202.
Used HIDDEN POWER on BIDOOF.
The attack failed!
HIDDEN POWER type isolated. Your HIDDEN POWER type is GHOST.

Oh, come on! Twice in a row I get a Ghost-type with a Ghost-type Hidden Power...hrm...maybe I'll go ahead and teach it to one of them anyway. It might be more useful than Arcanum's Astonish or Shadow's Lick.

Team:

Shadow L14
Lick, Mean Look, Spite, Curse
Aw, what a cute little baby soul devourer.

Arcanum L22
Astonish, Confuse Ray, Psywave, Spite
No idea what moveset I want yet...though Magical Leaf is a real possibility.

Zephyr L28
Gust, Stockpile, Payback, Spit Up
Would you like to riiide...in my, phantasmal, balloooon...

ARMY L23
Razor Leaf, Absorb, Cut, Rock Smash
A one-time battler, now retired to HMer status.

NAVY L8
Water Sport, Scratch, Tail Whip, Flash
You don't have to be Psychic-type to see Water HMs in this guy's future.

AIR FORCE L7
Tackle, Growl, Quick Attack, —
The obligatory Miniscule Bird That Will Somehow Support My Weight.

Next: Across the Great Divide!

[Ghost]

Yeah, unfortunately i've been really busy as of late and haven't been able to play D/P much.

I'll try and get some more progress on my game though.

[Poryhedron]

Name: Rita
Type: Ghost

I took a look at Arcanum's and Shadow's natural move lists, and decided to teach Hidden Power to Shadow. Then I headed down Route 207, meaning to continue on to Hearthome. The first trainer battle was quite unkind to the still-lower-level Shadow, though. I pulled out and explored Route 206 underneath Cycling Road instead, and then battled the trainers on this side of Route 211. After that, I discovered that I had left most of the Fishermen on eastern Route 205 unchallenged, so I beat them too.

After gathering that EXP, Shadow was ready for the trainers on Route 207. I cleaned them out, then entered Mt. Coronet and met some creepy guy talking about how glorious and problem-free a newly-created world is. Oh, yeah, I'll definitely be kicking his butt later.

After clearing the trainers in Route 208, I arrived in Hearthome, explored for a bit, and then randomly ran into Corey again! I was caught off guard once again, but this time I beat him handily on the first go, and Shadow evolved into Haunter!

With the path to Route 212 blocked, I shrugged and headed for Route 209. Solaceon Town had pretty much nothing of interest, so I randomly poked around the Ruins, grabbed all of the items from there, and moved on northward. I got as far as the Café before saving and calling it a night.

Team:

Shadow L27
Hidden Power, Confuse Ray, Shadow Punch, Night Shade
Needs trade evolution! I'm posting in the Trading Thread now.

Arcanum L28
Astonish, Confuse Ray, Psybeam, Spite
No idea what moveset I want yet...though Magical Leaf is a real possibility.

Zephyr L29
Gust, Stockpile, Payback, Spit Up
Would you like to riiide...in my, phantasmal, balloooon...

ARMY L23
Razor Leaf, Absorb, Cut, Rock Smash
A one-time battler, now retired to HMer status.

NAVY L8
Water Sport, Scratch, Tail Whip, Flash
You don't have to be Psychic-type to see Water HMs in this guy's future.

AIR FORCE L7
Tackle, Growl, Quick Attack, —
The obligatory Miniscule Bird That Will Somehow Support My Weight.

Next: Oh, shoot, I forgot Lost Tower and HM04. That, I guess.

[Poryhedron]

Name: Rita
Type: Ghost

With the help of another fellow TPMer, Shadow evolved again into Gengar before I accomplished anything else. I dug into my pack and happily saw that Gengar could learn Brick Break, so I taught it to Shadow then and there. Not only will Brick Break be useful against Dark-types, it'll also be useful against the Normal-types that are immune to Ghost-type attacks.
That done, I entered Lost Tower and made my way up to the top floor and HM04. I taught Strength to Army, then went back north again to continue on my merry way to Veilstone.
I defeated all of the trainers on Route 215, and then explored Veilstone City for a bit before heading to the Gym. A Ghost team made this Gym more laughable than it already was ("Hiyah, teeeeeeeaaaaaaaars!") and I scored the Cobble Badge without much fuss. It was hilarious being able to use Brick Break on Maylene's Lucario!
After that, I helped Lucas get his Pokédex back, and then picked up HM0 screw it. I picked up RM02. I'm calling them Reusable Machines from now on, because they aren't hidden. (fume.) I taught Fly to Air Force, then flew to a few out-of-the way places to explore. Navy and I picked up some items from Amity Square, I explored the Old Chateau, and I visited the Pokétch Company, where I grudgingly accepted the Memo Pad app from the president so that I could then obtain the Marking Map app.
With that done, I flew back to Hearthome and headed south toward Pastoria. I beat up many many trainers, used the Dowsing Machine app to pick up many many items, finally reached Pastoria and took on Wak-..ahem. Crasher. Wake. in his Gym. Again, I cleared out the place with little to no fuss.
After that, I stopped in the Great Marsh, picked up Defog and made two trips in order to pick up all of the items. I also caught a Croagunk for the heck of it; I tried for a Skorupi, but it ran.

Team:

Zephyr L34
Gust, Stockpile, Ominous Wind, Spit Up
Would you like to riiide...in my, phantasmal, balloooon...

Shadow L35
Shadow Punch, Confuse Ray, Shadow Ball, Brick Break
With a FTG attack and the team's best physical Defense, this guy's my Anti-Dark personnel.

Arcanum L35
Psybeam, Confuse Ray, Astonish, Spite
No idea what moveset I want yet...though Magical Leaf is a real possibility.

ARMY L23
Razor Leaf, Strength, Cut, Rock Smash
A one-time battler, now retired to RMer status.

NAVY L8
Water Sport, Scratch, Tail Whip, Flash
You don't have to be Psychic-type to see Water RMs in this guy's future.

AIR FORCE L7
Tackle, Defog, Quick Attack, Fly
The obligatory Miniscule Bird That Somehow Supports My Weight.

Next: Someone set up Lake Valor the bomb!

[Poryhedron]

Name: Rita
Type: Ghost

I left the Great Marsh and set off after the Team Galactic member I'd seen earlier. I got held up by Corey along the way (not a tough battle by this point), and then stopped to battle every single trainer on Route 213, but I still managed to keep up with the Galactic goon and beat him in a painfully anticlimactic battle that ended with him reaching Lake Valor anyway. :/ Wow, that was an accomplishment...
I got the SecretPotion from Cynthia and then proceeded to clear Route 214, picking up TM28 on the way. I taught Dig to Navy, and then Flew to Solaceon to deliver the SecretPotion. After curing the Psyduck, I was given a mission by Cynthia to deliver an item to Celestic Town, so off I went. Along the way, I kept a lookout for the Shadow Ball TM I remembered reading was here; Arcanum very much needed that TM. As I was doing that, however, Arcanum hit level 37 and learned that exact move naturally! I chuckled at the irony and kept looking for the TM; if Arcanum didn't need it, Zephyr did. ...right? I quickly checked Drifblim's move list and saw that Zephyr would learn the move at level 44. Well, I was here now and no one else needed the TM, so I decided there'd be no harm in giving Zephyr the move a few levels early.
I had Air Force blow the annoying fog away, beat all of the Route 210 trainers and found the Shadow Ball TM, which I used on Zephyr. I saved Celestic Town from a spiteful moron, recieved Cynthia's old RM03 (you think I'm kidding about this, don't you? hmph!) and taught Surf to Navy. Then, after the broad hint from the town elder that I should go to Canalave next, I Flew to Hearthome to earn the ability to use Surf outside of battle.
In Hearthome Gym, I studied each of the posted questions carefully, so that I would know which door to enter last. I laughed off the two trainers who complained about me deliberately throwing the quiz for more battle EXP. I finally reached Fantina, overpowered her Ghost team with my own, and earned the Relic Badge and a TM for Shadow Claw. I compared Shadow Claw with Shadow's Shadow Punch, and decided I liked Shadow Punch better; sure, it had 10 less base power, but it had 5 more PP, and I value S.Punch's perfect accuracy more than S.Claw's critical hit rate.

Team:

Zephyr L39
Shadow Ball, Ominous Wind, Gust, Stockpile
Would you like to riiide...in my, phantasmal, balloooon...

Arcanum L39
Shadow Ball, Confuse Ray, Psybeam, Spite
Pretty much just generic special sweeping at this point. Magical Leaf after evolution.

Shadow L41
Shadow Punch, Confuse Ray, Shadow Ball, Brick Break
With a FTG attack and the team's best physical Defense, this guy's my Anti-Dark personnel.

ARMY L23
Razor Leaf, Strength, Cut, Rock Smash
A one-time battler, now retired to RMer status.

NAVY L8
Dig, Flash, Surf, Tail Whip
One more Water RM to go.

AIR FORCE L7
Fly, Defog, Quick Attack, Tackle
The obligatory Miniscule Bird That Somehow Supports My Weight.

Next: Someone set up Lake Valor the bomb! ...possibly for real this time!

[Blademaster]

Right, I'm in. Traded my Pearl Pokemon to Diamond, deleted my old file, and the Steel Monotype Challenge is... GO!






Name: Blade
Type: Steel
Reason: Take a guess, retard.
Rival's Name: n00blet
Reason: Again, take a guess. Retard.
Badges: 0
Progress:



Alright, so I listened to the obligatory introductory BS, Rowan going on and on flapping his trap while I ignored him, playing with the Wii in my bedroom (Ever notice how the game's home console counterpart is featured in each game? RBY had NES's, GSC had SNES's, RSE and FrLg had GameCubes, and DP has Wiis. Subliminal advertising, anyone?).

After Rowan finally shut up, I went downstairs and was thrown outside to play by my bitch of a mother. I went over to n00blet's place, where he proceeded to rush out the door and hit me. I paid him back by punching him senseless and dragging his unconscious body down to Lake Verity, but there were two witnesses around. They booked it when they saw me trying to dump a body in the lake; they left behind a briefcase. I figured I could use it to blackmail them, when suddenly, OH NOES! DEATH FROM ABOVE!

I chucked the briefcase at my attacker, which was... a foot-tall bird. Peachy. Ten minutes into the game and I've already commited two felonies.

The briefcase popped open, and out tumbled a PokeBall that beaned n00blet in the head, then burst open and released a Turtwig. The impact and the noise woke him up; he demanded to know where he was and why he was missing a tooth. Thinking fast, I said that a wild Pokemon had attacked him and that the Turtwig had saved him. He bought it and walked away with his stolen Pokemon; I figured I'd say "Screw it." and I grabbed one, too: a Piplup.

As we left the Lake, we saw those two witnesses from earlier. Shit! Fortunately, n00blet relayed our 'adventure,' successfully covering for me. Nice job, n00blet! Maybe he's not so useless after all...

One of the witnesses - Rowan, of course - seemed suspicious, but once he saw his precious empty briefcase, he scoffed it and ran; his granddaughter or whoever she was followed him, and n00blet and I went back to Twinleaf Town.

One time lapse later, n00blet had vanished and I was at Rowan's lab one town over. He evidently hadn't noticed that two of his three Pokemon were missing from his briefcase, so I swiped a Pokedex from him, too. He didn't even notice. That girl that was with him followed my example and swiped his last PokeBall and Pokedex. Stupid old coot.

After the girl introduced herself as 'Dawn' and gave me a tour, she sent me back home. Good. I had business to attend to: I went to the Poke Mart and bought some PokeBalls and Potions and whatnot, then i returned to Lake Verity and caught the 'knocked-out' Starly that I pwned with Rowan's briefcase. Yay, me. I named the corpse Tradebait, went back to Twinleaf, and told my mom I was gonna leave home and go travel around the continent on a potentially fatal mission to battle fierce beasts and evil cults of Pokemon thieves and-

"Yes, yes, that's nice." she cut in, shoving a pair of Running Shoes in my hands. "Take these and go play in traffic."

Bitch. Whatever. I put the Shoes on and returned to Sandgem, where I traded between my DS's - my 'sleeping' Starly in Pearl for my Riolu in Diamond, where I proceeded to dump the Starly back in the wild (AKA, in a plastic bag in a dumpster behind the Hearthome Poke Mart). Disposing with evidence FTW.

So, with two Pokemon in hand, I headed north, where Dawn was waiting to teach me how to catch Pokemon... WHICH I ALREADY KNOW HOW TO DO. Stuck-up bitch, she followed my example and swiped her PokeBall AFTER I got mine, and then she's gonna lecture me on half-assed Pokemon-catching?

I was ready to give her a black eye, but she gave me some free Poke Balls, so I let her head off on her merry way. Good for her. Me on the other hand, I hung around and beat the shit out of the Route 202 Trainers, leveled my team up, and finally headed north to Jubilife City and, after more Dawnservice (I'm gonna belt that bitch sooner or later, I promise you.), saved for the night.



Pokemon

Pennington, LV7 Piplup (M)
-Pound
-Growl
-???
-???
Future anti-Fire and anti-Ground personnel, he needs a good amount of work before he'll be able to hold his own in battle.


Koopinator, LV8 Riolu (M)
-Quick Attack
-Foresight
-Endure
-Counter
I've always wanted to try out Lucario; since he's gonna be the last Pokemon I'd naturally get, I traded for him early. So far, he's the stronger of the team.






Coming up next: ...Stuff. Stay tuned.

~Blade

[Blademaster]

Update, bitches.



Name: Blade
Type: Steel
Reason: Take a guess, retard.
Rival's Name: n00blet
Reason: Again, take a guess. Retard.
Badges: 1
Progress:



OK, so I did the mandatory crap in Jubilife - namely, beating up three faggy clowns so I could get a PokeGear PokeNav Poketch. Yay.

After that, I stormed off, beat up a bunch of people and their Pokemon, and made my way to Oreburgh City, where I proceeded to the coal mine to beat up the lazy teamsters pretending to be working. Slackers.

In the mine, I encountered an Onix. Since Geodude are too wimpy to withstand Pennington's Bubble, I caught the huge Pokemon and taught her Rock Smash with the RM some fat guy gave me. I also met some chick named Roark (Weird name for a chick, huh?); she showcased her amazing ability to break a rock, then left.

Wait, what? Oh, Hell no! I chased the bitch down - turns out she was the Gym Leader. Gasp!

Oh, wait. She uses Rock Pokemon. Lol, Rock Pokemon. Force Palm, Bubble, Force Palm, Bubble, Bubble, Force Palm, Bubble, Force Palm, Badge. Yay.

With my first Badge in possession, I noticed Koopinator was starting to act like a real arrogant little shit. I'm gonna have to kill fix that...

After returning to Jubilife City, I made my way north, when - guess who showed up again? That's right... MORE DAWNSERVICE!!!!!111!11

And Rowan was there too, being his usual ignorant self. Two green-haired loonies were talking some shit to him, threatening to kill Dawn, yadayadayada... Whatever. That wasn't important. What WAS important was that these fruit loops were IN MY WAY!!!

Time for a battle. My over-leveled Pokemon (along with some stupid monkey) thoroughly pwned the duo, who called themselves 'Team Galactic' and escaped in a spaceship before I could finish them off. Damn it...

After a few words with the old coot, another fat guy came and gave me some case thing. Man, fat people are really generous in this game...

At the TV Station, some musician challenged me to a battle; my Piplup whooped his ass and then evolved. Hooray!

I left Jubilife and saved just before the first Trainer on Route 204.



Pokemon

Pennington, LV16 Prinplup (M)
-Pound
-Peck
-Bubble
-Metal Claw
Future anti-Fire and anti-Ground personnel, he's currently the team cornerstone, seeing how he's the only RELIABLE battler I have right now.


Koopinator, LV17 Riolu (M)
-Quick Attack
-Foresight
-Endure
-Force Palm
Great fighter, greater pain in the ass.


Kinklink, LV9 Onix (F)
-Harden
-Rock Smash
-Screech
-Rock Throw
RM-er #1.



Coming up next: ...More stuff. Stay tuned.

~Blade

[Poryhedron]

I LIIIVVE!!

Name: Rita
Type: Ghost

I Surfed up Route 222, battling all of the trainers as usual, and finally climbed up the waterfall to Victory Road.This time around, I didn't need to write a guide for myself, because I had already written one in my last runthrough (seriously, I do this sort of thing. I like data; what's it to ya!?) Some of the bike ramp puzzles were seriously annoying, especially when I needed to keep up speed in Mach gear and wild pokémon kept interrupting me. Along the way, I also became fed up with Zephyr's weak moveset and broke out my TM case; teaching it Return over Ominous Wind didn't seem to help all that much, though, especially against the occasional Staraptor who are immune to Ghost attacks and hose my Attack stat when they enter combat.
Finally, I made it through the place, having battled every trainer and collected every item. I entered the Pokémon League building and putzed around for a bit, selling stuff I didn't need and buying stuff I did need. Unfortunately, however, I was once again caught off guard by Corey marching in to challenge me, and hadn't yet bothered to heal my team when he did so! ...not that this in any way stopped me from trouncing him handily, even though a surprising number of his pokémon happened to have Dark-type attacks. After that, I healed, thought some more about Zephyr's moveset, and flew to Veilstone to get a Thunderbolt TM for her. (For once I actually won the majority of the coins for something by playing slots! The Clefairy bonus rounds aren't hard to score big on.)

Team:

Zephyr L59
Shadow Ball, Return, Thunderbolt, Stockpile
We'll see how well this new moveset fares.

Arcanum L61
Shadow Ball, Magical Leaf, Psychic, Perish Song
Pretty much just generic special sweeping. Perish Song for a trump card.

Shadow L61
Shadow Punch, Dark Pulse, Shadow Ball, Brick Break
With a FTG attack and the team's best physical Defense, this guy's my Anti-Dark personnel.

ARMY L23
Rock Climb, Strength, Cut, Rock Smash
A one-time battler, now retired to RMer status.

NAVY L8
Dig, Flash, Surf, Waterfall
It's a good thing these guys can use so many RMs, as they're not much in combat.

AIR FORCE L7
Fly, Defog, Quick Attack, Tackle
The obligatory Miniscule Bird That Somehow Supports My Weight.

Next: Time to try my luck against the Elite Four!

[Poryhedron]

...oh hell, I never posted the part where I beat Volkner and got Waterfall! Dangit...it's already deleted now...oh well. :emo:

[Blademaster]

Another update, bitches.



Name: Blade
Type: Steel
Reason: Take a guess, retard.
Rival's Name: n00blet
Reason: Again, take a guess. Retard.
Badges: 2
Progress:



After whooping ass on every Trainer between Floraroma and Eterna Forest, I... Well... I entered the Forest. Upon entering, I was ambushed by some clingy bitch named Cheryl. She and her useless Chansey proceeded to tail me through the forest, offering a shield against dual wild Pokemon attacks. My Prinplup and Riolu gained a good shunk of EXP. apiece, and by the time we reached the end of the forest, both my Pokemon were well past hitting the LV20 mark.

Having mysteriously lost Cheryl (Heh heh.), I left the Forest and entered Eterna City, where I immediately beelined for the south gate, got an EXP. Share from some dork, and immediately attached it to Pennington. The sooner he became a Steel-type, the better, and besides, this would ensure Koopinator stayed at a lower (and more obedient) level for the time being.

After that, I entered the Gym and opened a few cans of whoop-ass on the hide-and-seeking Gym Trainers. They were easy, but Gardenia herself was a tough nut to crack, considering I only had one reliable battler, and he was at a type disadvantage. It took several resets before I finally caught a lucky break: After disposing of Cherubi and the Withdraw-whoring Turtwig, Gardenia's merciless Roserade used a few ill-timed Poison Stings instead of its typical Grass attacks, allowing Pennington to Peck it down. Badge for me, as well as obedience from my Riolu. Finally, things were starting to look up...

After leaving the Gym, I scouted the city, KO'ing a few surrounding Trainers and trading in my near-useless Onix for a far more versatile Bidoof, before finally stumbling upon... the Underground Man's house...



After 'receiving' an Underground Kit, I immediately bolted. Screw that old codger and his inane quests - I got what I wanted. I descended into the Underground and began digging, finding nothing but Spheres for awhile until I stumbled upon an Armor Fossil.

Jackpot! I went back to the surface, having my new Bidoof Cut my way around Eterna Forest, Floraroma, and Jubilife before finally reaching Oreburgh again. I took my Armor Fossil to the Coal Mining Museum and had the local mad scientist revive it into a Shieldon (M), who I named Reznor. Being able to take a fossil of ANYTHING to a local museum of any variety - whether it be a volcanic research facility or a museum for COAL (How exciting!) - and have a crazy hyperactive man with an accent bring it back to life in five minutes, absolutely free of charge... Man, the world of Pokemon is a pretty fucked-up place.

So, my team 3/4's complete, I cleared out any remaining Trainers and picked up any Items I may have missed on my way back through Jubilife, Floraroma, and Eterna Forest (disregarding the Old Chateau for the time being). I rolled up my sleeves and barged into Team Galactic's base, ready to fight.



Pokemon

Pennington, LV25 Prinplup (M)
-Pound
-Peck
-BubbleBeam
-Metal Claw
Future anti-Fire and anti-Ground personnel. His essentiality is beginning to dwindle now that my team is filling out a bit.


Koopinator, LV24 Riolu (M)
-Quick Attack
-Reversal
-Rock Tomb
-Force Palm
Currently the foremost attacker. He should be ready to evolve soon.


Reznor, LV20 Shieldon (M)
-Stealth Rock
-Metal Sound
-Take Down
-Iron Defense
The to-be defensive wall of the team - Iron Defense+Metal Burst is gonna make him absolutely EVIL once he evolves.


Biver, LV12 Bidoof (F)
-Tackle
-Rock Smash
-Defense Curl
-Cut
RELIABLE RM-er #1.



Coming up next: ...Even more stuff.

Stay tuned.


~Blade

[Blademaster]

Next: /crackling static/

Yeah! Do it! Do it, do it, do it!



In the meantime... You know what's coming...



Name: Blade
Type: Steel
Reason: Take a guess, retard.
Rival's Name: n00blet
Reason: Again, take a guess. Retard.
Badges: 3
Progress:



OK, so I dusted Team Galactic pretty much with no problems, saved a few Pokemon, and some guy gave me a Bicycle as thanks. Sweet. After that, I cleared out every Trainer east of Eterna, as well as n00blet at the southern gate of Eterna or something, and then headed south through the Cycling Road, playing drive-by baseball on the screwtarded Cyclists who think conducting battles on Bicycle's while going down a mile-long 45-degree incline is a good idea.

From there, I headed east through Mt. Coronet briefly, where some blue-haired freak approached me, said something about... something... and then he left. Right. Whatever. Probably some demented pedophile anyway. I got out of Coronet and cleared a path to Hearthome City, where I saved a Buneary, saw my mom (Bitch.), went to some cult church... I did pretty much everything there EXCEPT have a Gym Battle, because the stupid Gym Leader was on her high horse and said she wouldn't battle me until I got stronger. Another bitch.

I tried leaving the city, but some old coot gave me an Egg before I could leave. So now I'm carrying an Egg around. Great. I'd have boiled it, but Route 209 was SWARMING with Trainers that needed ass-whoopings first. So I rolled up my sleeves and got to work, and lo and behold, the first Trainer I beat was enough to make Koopinator evolve into a Lucario! Yay!

After clearing out Route 209, I explored Hicktown (AKA, Solaceon), where I found and sold a SHITLOAD of stuff from the Solaceon Ruins. Yay for money! So I checked my Map, which seemed to point straight north. I abided, beating the Trainers down until I reached a Cabin with a path behind it... BUT THE PATH WAS BLOCKED BY FUCKING PSYDUCKS!

Great, just great. No matter how many times I beat those little shits up, they're too dumb to feel the pain and move. So, after taking my frustration out on the cabin proprieters, I decided to go east, clearing a VERY rainy path to Veilstone City, home of Maylene's Fighting Pokemon Gym... I thought I was in trouble, but during the last Route 215 battle I had with two Trainers, Reznor evolved into a walking fortress called a Bastiodon.

I was stoked. I marched into Veilstone City, got the necessities I needed from the Game Corner and the Department Store, and healed at the Pokemon Center. From there, I headed to the Gym, had a pointless interlude with Dawn. That's it, I'm sick of her.

WHAM!

One punch across the face later, and she was down for the count, allowing me access to the Gym. This is where things started to get tricky.

First off, the whole Gym is full of these damn sliding doors that make it like a maze. It takes like five minutes to navigate, and along the way, these four Ryu-from-Street-Fighter rejects are interrupting my concentration and throwing me off, and I have to send out my Lucario and Prinplup to dust their endless parades of Machoke. Bastiodon is hella sturdy, but not against a Machoke of near-equal level that's spamming Vital Throw and Mach Punch on every fucking turn! I had to clear most of the Gym the lame way by spamming BubbleBeam and Force Palm and letting Reznor fall behind in level and health. By the time those four retards had fallen, Koopinator was unconscious, Reznor was at about 2% health, and Pennington was half-KO-ed. So I had to go buy some Revives, heal at the Pokemon Center, and come back and REDO THE DAMN MAZE PUZZLE AGAIN before I FINALLY reached Maylene.

And, of course, after the annoying five-minute maze configuration and the generic underpaid goons, Maylene was a breeze: She's a clueless little dipshit with a very unimpressive team. Her cliche Machoke fell to a Karate Chop my Lucario stole from it, and her other Fighter... I forget, I think it was a Meditite... It was beaten senseless by Payback before it could even launch an attack to BE paid back! Even when it was down to Lucario VS. Lucario, it was a washout: She Drain Punched, got zero health; I used Force Palm and got a one-hit KO. Cobble Badge for me.

After receiving my winnings, I left the Gym... And found that Dawn had come to. She started crying to me that she lost her Pokedex. Damn, I musta knocked it flying when... er, I mean... Team Galactic must have done it!

Being the hero I am, I took her to the Galactic Warehouse, where her Clefairy and kadabra and my Bastiodon and Lucario pwned the two guards there. They ran away, allowing me to 'reclaim' Dawn's Pokedex as well as a Fly RM for me. Sweet. Now I needed a Flyer...

My work done for the time being, I headed south, clearing the path to Lake Valor of Trainers, finding some bimbo's house key, and my forgotten Egg hatched into a Happiny, which I'm stuck with until I can dump her off in a Pokemon Center. Oh, and Koopinator started being a disobedient fuck again. Sigh... Oh, well. I just gave him the EXP. Share and let him take a back seat to Pen and Rez, who are ready to kick some Seven Stars Restaurant ass at the Valor Lakefront...



Pokemon

Pennington, LV33 Prinplup (M)
-Hidden Power (E)
-Peck
-BubbleBeam
-Brine
Pretty much doing what I need him to, but he needs an Ice attack, and fast.


Koopinator, LV34 Lucario (M)
-Me First
-Payback
-Drain Punch
-Force Palm
Unpredictable, yet highly deadly. Once I get Crasher Wake's Badge and a few more TM's, he'll be unstoppable.


Reznor, LV33 Bastiodon (M)
-Ancientpower
-Swagger
-Return
-Iron Defense
Not much for attacking yet, but he's still the most durable member of the team. He needs Metal Burst and Stone Edge something serious.


Fautso, LV18 Bibarel (F)
-Cut
-Rock Smash
-Water Gun
-Strength
Forget Bidoof - THIS is a reliable RM-er.


Shelly, LV1 Happiny (F)
-Pound
-Charm
-?????
-?????
Useless little creampuff I'm stuck carting around until I can dump it off in Pastoria, this one is. Thanks, Egg guy. Dick.



Coming up next: Probably beating the Hell out of Crasher Wake, hopefully completing my team, and... who knows what else.

Stay tuned.


~Blade

[Blademaster]

Oh, by the way, Darkly, I'm with you: Reznor's were the most annoying fucking bosses in Super Mario World. I'm glad they amped up the 'mini-boss' level of challenge from Boom-Boom in SMB3, but as a kid, killing fire-breathing quartets of rhinos spinning around a wheel above a collapsing floor above a lake of lava!? Nintendo's got some sadistic bastards working for them. ><



Anyway, time for an update.



Name: Blade
Type: Steel
Reason: Take a guess, retard.
Rival's Name: n00blet
Reason: Again, take a guess. Retard.
Badges: 5
Progress:



Well, the rich shmucks at Lake Valor's restaurant were pretty easy to whoop; I racked up a good chunk of cash in the process, then left and cleared the path of Trainers until I reached Pastoria City.

From Pastoria City, I was considering heading straight to the Gym, but I heard someone say an RM was in the Great Marsh Safari Zone. So, I paid $500 to get in, got the RM and a bunch of other Items, and sold them and made my $500 back with interest. Good deal. I also got to dump off that useless Happiny in the Pokemon Center, too. Good riddance, pipsqueak.

So, from THERE, I went to the Pastoria Gym, which was rigged with that annoying fucking water puzzle. I had to pound about ten Trainers before I cleared it, but thankfully I had enough supplies by the time I reached the Gym Leader that I didn't have to go back to the Pokemon Center and, thus, redo the stupid water maze.

So... Crasher Wake... Crasher Wake, Crasher Wake, Crasher Wake... Well, what can I say? He was piss-easy. Pennington's Electric Hidden Power fried his Gyarados and Floatzel, and his Quagsire fell to BubbleBeam and then Brine. Badge for me, and at the end of the battle, Pennington evolved into an Empoleon! Hell yeah!

So, yeah, I blew through Route 212 after that, caught a Staravia to use my Flying RM's, and returned to Hearthome, healed, stocked up, and went to challenge Fantina at her Gym...

...She still hadn't returned. FUCK!

OK, OK... Time to backtrack... I circled back around to Solaceon, then Veilstone, then back to Pastoria, where I finally found what I needed to do: Approach the Team Galactic nutjob and threaten to beat him up. He pissed himself and ran, and I chased after him, but thanks to that fucktard n00blet, I lost a good deal of ground. Whatever. I handed n00blet's ass to him on a plate, he talked some shit, I punched him in the face and ran. Back through Route 213, back to Valor Lakefront... I beat his wussy Glameow to Hell and back, he said 'Fuck this.' and bailed, and Cynthia gave me a flamethrower. Yay!

Back to Solaceon, back north, back to the Psyducks and FWOOOOM! Roast duck for everyone!

Bypassing that little obstacle, Cynthia came (How the FUCK did she get there so fast!?) and congrtulated me... She's becoming the new Dawn. Ugh...

Whatever. She gave me some stupid trinket and sent me north to Celestic Town; I essentially raped every Trainer and Pokemon on the way there, and finally arrived and found the old woman I had to give Cynthia's stupid lucky charm to. But she was busy yelling at that Galactic fucktard, who was trying to blow up Celestic Town and start the Pokemon 9/11, so I had to beat down all his Pokemon and bust his fucking head. Hooray, I'm a hero!

After that, that creepy blue-haired self-absorbed pedophile from Mt. Coronet showed up, talked some shit, and identified himself as Cyrus. He told me to tell him if I found any children poweful Pokemon, and then he left. Without giving me even a damn phone number or address, so if I DID find anything, where would I bring it? Idiot. So, anyway, I delivered the stupid Charm and got a Surf RM as a reward. Sweetness. That replaced Pennington's near-useless Brine quite well. RM in hand, I had work to do.

I flew back to Hearthome and FINALLY tackled Fantina's Gym. Koopinator's Payback made short work of the Gastly and Misdreavus lines I ran into, and Pennington's Electric Hidden Power brought down all the Drifloon's and Drifblim's. Beating Fantina was so easy, she's not even worth making French jokes at. Badge for me, and Surfing power for me.

From there, I had my Staravia Fly me back to Floaroma, and then I Surfed upstream from there to Fuego Ironworks. Shortly upon entering there, I obtained the fourth and final member of my team: a feisty little Magnemite, who of course had the Magnet Pull Ability.

Sigh...

One Breeding later, a baby Magnemite who better suited my needs was on my team and its papa got the boot. I named the hatchling Topman and slapped my EXP. Share on it, then returned and cleared out the Ironworks, levelling the little guy up and getting a Flamethrower TM. W00t.

After that, I left for Floaroma Meadows, found a shitload of Items, sold and stocked up accordingly, and then healed my team. I returned to Pastoria to Surf and the Oreburgh Pass for a Brick Break TM, and then I flew back to Celestic Town and headed for the west exit. Next stop, Route 211.



Pokemon

Pennington, LV39 Empoleon (M)
-Hidden Power (E)
-Aerial Ace
-Steel Wing
-Surf
A brutal beatstick and a near-impenetrable defensive type combo. He may not even need an Ice attack now.


Koopinator, LV39 Lucario (M)
-Bone Rush
-Shadow Claw
-Drain Punch
-Aura Sphere
A Swiss army knife. Nearly complete, he just needs Earthquake and maybe re-teach Dark Pulse in place of Shadow Claw, and he'll be REALLY ready to dish out the pain.


Reznor, LV41 Bastiodon (M)
-Ancientpower
-Dig
-Toxic
-Iron Defense
Still a sucktastic offense, but his defenses coupled with Toxic make for a slow yet painful death for near all opponents.


Topman, LV15 Magnemite (N)
-Metal Sound
-Supersonic
-SonicBoom
-Thundershock
Sucky moves, but this little guy ain't ready to battle yet, so I don't care.


Fautso, LV18 Bibarel (F)
-Cut
-Rock Smash
-Water Gun
-Strength
Reliable RM-er #2#1.


Swooper, LV17 Staravia (F)
-Fly
-Defog
-Wing Attack
-Double Team



Coming up next: More training, hopefully evolving Topman, another Gym Badge, and... the library. Urgh...

Stay tuned.


~Blade