[Sage Chow]

HeartGold Solo Challange - Main Post

The Original Challanges:

Challanges

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Originally Posted by Fat King Serperior

You have 8 tasks in order to get this Rattata into the top 5% of all rats:
-Task 1: breed Flame Wheel on it.
-Task 2: solo the following: Koga, Blaine, Koga's daughter(forgot name)
-Task 3: NO STAB
-Task 4: Flame Wheel first before anything else.
-Task 5: solo ALL trainers on Route 3, with the kid who says that HIS rat is in the top 5%.
-Task 6: if Guts, no moves over 70BP. If Run Away, No Priority.
-Task 7: solo two trainers per Kanto gym.
-Task 8; must be on the team when facing RED.

I always wanted to try out a Flaming Rattata, but I was always too lazy to breed it. Finally I've got my chance! Flame Wheel will be useful during his solo's and Bite does get that useful flinch chance. Buster could even run Sunny Day to support the team (and to prevent Magcargo from being drowned by Misty..). I will make it my Johto mission to breed him, maybe catch some good IV'd parents along the way. I'm going to try the route 3 solo without pokecentres, mayve even ending the solo with the Top% kid.

Originally Posted by Fat Treadshot A1

Scizor named N10SE:
This Scizor is the leader of the Nautical Scyther I'd given out a while back. It's name? N10SE. You can't ever know what it's real name is.

N10SE generally prefers to leave the dirty work to his Scythers, so he just takes the easy way out of life. So he's going to solo the Ice and Dragon Gyms, in their entirety. Thing is, though, he ain't that cheap. He's a guy who likes a challenge, just as long as its rigged. So he's going to tackle the Ice Gym withOUT Steel moves, and he cannot be taught/bred Superpower either.

For the Dragon Gym, he's fine with being resistant to their STAB, but in return, he's decided he has to live out one Dragon Attack from each Dragon he fights. Outrage has to last until the user is confused, before it counts as one attack. He still cannot use Steel Moves, nor Superpower.

For the Elite Four, N10SE is quite happy to tear down Lance, as he's already beaten Clair, so another Dragon Trainer shouldn't be a problem. You have to land at least one attack on Lance. Doesn't have to kill, doesn't have to be any specific attack or Pokemon, you just have to hit his Pokemon once.

N10SE is quite happy to travel wherever, but he is the leader of the Nautical Scyther, so he must lead your party whenever you are Surfing. Also, he must accompanying OU to Tohjo Falls, and he must solo every trainer you encounter in it (optional side areas can be skipped). N10SE must land at least on blow on Lance. The rest can be solo'd by the Red Gyara.

When you reach the first city of Kanto, N10SE goes back to join his crew, to take over Unova, so you have to stop using him. If you decide to go all the way to Red, then N10SE must solo one of his pokemon. Every time Scizor kills something, or you have a very arduous battle, you must shout at the end, "that was INTENSE!"

I'm looking forward to use Scizor ingame; he's such a badass! Absorbing the dragon attacks will be his biggest challenge. One of them carries Fireblast, which N10SE has to stall out first, before getting hit by dragon pulse.
To keep the atmosphere INTENSE, I'm going to add a little spice to him: He's going to roll with Fury Cutter as his STAB and a second attack in Cut, Thief or Knock Off. This should place him on par with the rest of the challanges. I hope to catch him at the Bug-catching contest. I'll give him some better moves at Mt. Silver, when he will return to re-claim his spot as MVP.

Originally Posted by Fat BiGGiE

Man, some of these challanges look a little soft. Therefore, for your challange I bequeath to you Earl, the Dunsparce.

Belying his appearance, Earl is a very outspoken pokemon. He has been ever since he was a wee lad. He is always ready to speak his mind and throw down against his his enemies in support of his team members. As such, he must always lead your party when it is does not conflict with another challange. Furthermore, Earl must be one of the pokemon you carry throughout your entire journey. Earl must be caught in your game, meaning you're going to have a fun time enjoying the Dark Cave at night. Also, Earl must have the ability Serene Grace. Because of his knowledge of this power, Earl can ONLY use attacking moves that have a chance of a secondary effect occurring AS SOON AS HE IS ABLE. This means Earl is going to be using HM 06, Rock Smash.

Earl is very much confident in his abilities and carries with him a certain Swagger. In order to show off his determination, you must solo 15 pokemon on every route before progressing. In order to showcase his ability, you must have a secondary effect go off against 20 pokemon of every type. (20 Normal pokemon, 20 Ghost, etc.) In order to show off his toughness, you must solo 4 main battles (Gym, Elite 4, Rival, Boss) WITHOUT the use of healing items. Finally, just for funsies he can't be the lowest-levelled pokemon in your party.

Recap:
Must CATCH a MALE Dunsparce with SERENE GRACE, named Earl.
Must ONLY use attacking moves with a chance for a secondary effect of happing starting with Rock Smash.
Must be taught Swagger.
Must Solo 15 pokemon on every route before progressing.
Must have a secondary effect happen against 20 pokemon of every type.
Must solo 4 main battles without use of healing items.
COME AT ME BRO

(Also, person who gets the Pokemon's reference gets a shiny cookie.)

Dunsparce, haxing his way to victory since '03.. Not being able to heal is going to be a devious thing for him; I'm going to go with Roost and Glare for support. Rock Tomb, Ancient Power, and Charge Beam are great options for him. I'm going to assume he can use status moves like Yawn and Glare (not boosted by Serene Grace) unless you say otherwise.

I removed the restrictions that force him in the lead position and at the highest level; I want to use my scramble-mon equally. Besides, soloing 15 pokemon on every route will enforce these things regardless.

By the way, is Earl a reference to that TV show "My name is Earl"? If it is, I'll try to incorporate some references in the updates.

Originally Posted by Fat luigiowns

So, Chow, Take Reckless the Tyrogue!
Reckless lives up to his name by charging wildly into any battle he knows he cannot win, meaning He must solo all Flying and Psychic Types you meet, unless they overlap with another challenge.

Once he hits level 25, However, he gets into a terrible accident (not involving a skarmory, a hat and 3 bottles of champagne, honest) , that makes him lose use of his arms or legs. To bear this pain, he decides to evolve into either Hitmonchan or Hitmonlee. The evolution comes at a cost, After evolving, His body becomes too weak to use physical attacks. You must also renickname him Crippled to remind yourself of his handicap.

This Injury makes Crippled lose any self esteem he has, meaning that you have to help him regain his strength.

Once you hit the elite four, Crippled learns of a Fighting master named Bruno. He asks Bruno for help, and with his help, he slowly regains use of part of his body. You must solo Bruno.
If you have a Hitmonchan, He gains use of his legs.
If you have a Hitmonlee, He gains use of his arms.

Crippled, after gaining use of a part of his body, is, of course, over the moon, and thinks that, by strengthening the rest of his body, he can regain the use of that too. He learns from Bruno that his weakness is himself, as his lack of self esteem is limiting his potential as he is always putting himself down. To regain control of his mind, He enlists the help of Sabrina. Sabrina, however, is less than sympathetic, but fighting her opens Crippleds eyes to how well he can do even when disabled, and reminds him of how he used to fight pokemon stronger than him. This burst of emotion is enough to snap Crippled out of his depressed state, and as you helped him regain his esteem, he views you as a friend and mentor, and decides to stay with you to train himself further.
You Must Solo Sabrina
Renickname him to whatever you like.
Teach him Return as a memento of your friendship

Tyrogue is a great choice! In fact your story inspired me to try this challange without evolving him at all! I'm planning to abuse Double Team and hax my way through Bruno's team with Vacuum Wave or Hidden Power. But, if Sabrina is too brutal, I might evolve him in the end.

I removed the highest level restriction for the same reason as anyone else's. He's going to solo the Psychics and Flyers after Earl has completed his thing; an execption will be made for Kanto Gym trainers which must be be solo'd by Koops and Rattata.

Originally Posted by Fat EndQuote

Right. Sage Chow, you get Koops the male Squirtle, modified to be more difficult.
Like the sidekick in Paper Mario, this Squirtle is very timid, and prefers to hide in his shell.
He sees all Dragon-types as Hooktail, and must switch in and solo them immediately, unless this conflicts with another solo.
To prove himself, he must solo one trainer in each gym, unless this conflicts with another solo. If you want, take two get-out-of-gym-free cards.


Also:

(1) Against Dark, Bug, and Ghost types, he is immobilized by fear, and can never switch out.
(1) Against other Water-types, he feels inferior, but tries to prove himself by using only Water-type moves.
(2) Against female Pokémon, he becomes too shy to move, and can only directly attack every other turn.
(2) He must use Withdraw immediately every time he is sent out.
(4) He lacks the self-confidence to evolve.
(4) He feels that TMs would be wasted on him, so he can never learn TMs or HMs.
The Dragon-type soloing restriction can never be lifted, because Koops will never forgive Hooktail.

Every time Koops soloes a major battle (Rival/Gym/Boss/Legend) he gains ONE confidence point.
You may spend the confidence points to delete one of the above restrictions. The amount of points required are in parenthesis.

Good luck!

A very good challange; I really love the idea of buying off restrictions. The plan: Trade and hatch him immediately in Johto; get his special defense boosted by training with a Power Band; solo the rival in Azalea; bring him back on the team while storming the Ecruteak hide-out and take him to the Whirl Islands to solo Lugia; he'll join the team permanently from the SS Anne on out. If Surge turns out to be impossible as a Squirtle, he will hunt down Raikou and Entai. He could trap them with Whirlpool and solo them. This should give him 6 Confidence Points before Surge.

Originally Posted by Fat Jimera0

Congratulations Sage Chow! You get to use Serene the Lapras in your HG challange! Lapras is easily one of the most useful in-game Pokemon around, so you're really lucky to be able to use one through the entire game, all the way through both Kanto and Johto!

There's just one minor hitch you see. Serene is a complete pacifist, and so must never, ever, EVER use a move that directly damages the opponent. This means any move that has BP, or does variable damage (or damage equal to the users level, like Night Shade). In order to show that non-violence is just as effective as violent means, she must solo the single most brutish and violent gym leader in Johto: Chuck! Stupid brute with his nasty, violent fighting Pokemon, he must be shown the power of PEACE and LOVE! Furthermore, she feels the need to show the true potential of non-violence by soloing one of the Elite 4 (Will in this case since he's the only one left).

Enjoy your wonderful Lapras!

This will be very interesting; I like how it explores another side to Lapras. Potentially, he can use Confuse Ray, Toxic and Hail to deal reasonable damage. For now I think a combination of Perish Song, Rest, Sleeptalk and Toxic could be effective. The gymleaders will switch out, however, so I could breed Block on it.. but playing it safe is not my style. Grinding him will be a huge pain in the ass. I laughed at soloing Chuck and his brutal ways, definitely the guy to solo. Can't wait to get this thing in the E-4!

Originally Posted by Fat shinyskarmory

You get Skip the male Quagsire. He's a great pokemon, and a great friend, but unfortunately he's too Jolly to take things seriously. However, that isn't to say he can't grow from his humble beginnings as a Wooper to become a key member of your team.

You catch him as a Wooper at the first opportunity. You and him grow close quickly, and you grow so close that he wants to make Return ridiculously powerful. He likes to tell jokes to the other members of your party, so he must have one move that is boosted by prankster. Finally, even while he travels in Johto, Kanto, and beyond, he must keep some kind of connection to his family at home by having one STAB move at all time.

After you get the ability to surf, he gains the interest of a female Quagsire. After they...do whatever it is pokemon do in the day care, a Wooper will hatch from the egg. Since Skip doesn't want to leave his child behind, you may only surf on the hatched Wooper.

Skip knows he has to solo Whitney and Morty, to earn his offspring's admiration.

Enjoy!

Unfortuately you got ninja'd by Jimera0, who picked the very same Gyms. The timestamp on the post decided in his favor so Skip is stuck with the remaining Johto solo's. But he is going to be the very first team member I can use. He will solo Sprout Tower, Falkner, Whitney, Morty and the very last trainer in Johto to make up for it. (He should stay with his family when I go for Kanto).

I liked your story but I'm going to pass up your Surf restriction. I already have nine scramble-mons plus a HM Flyer to juggle around; there's no more room for him. But I could run Surf on Skip instead as his only STAB.. And yes, I will still hatch the kid when I reach Goldenrod. (Random Idea: The Kid could solo one pokemon during his dad's final solo, min. 10 levels behind him.)

Originally Posted by Fat Super Saiyan

@Sage Chow, take Fusion the Red Gyarados. The Pokemon from my SoulSilver Challange will be sharing their restrictions but with added difficulty.

Restrictions:
Against Pokemon of the opposite Gender, its under the effect of Taunt and a Choice item.
Against Pokemon of the same Gender, it is under the effect of Taunt and Torment.
It thinks its Ability is Moxie. You cannot switch out once a Pokemon has been defeated. It can only switch if it faints or Thunder misses.
Must know and keep Thunder ASAP. It it misses, switch out.
Must know and keep Frustration ASAP. Cannot intentionally lower happiness.
Cannot have 2 moves of the same type. 1 move must be a Water HM ASAP (Surf, Whirlpool, or Waterfall). The last move is your choice, but cannot be Super Effective on Electric or Grass Pokemon.

Misc:
-Status cannot be healed. (must either Faint or go to a Pokemon Center)
-Super Potions and Revives are the only HP restoring Items allowed.
-PP can only be restored at a Pokemon Center.
-It must solo Lance after N10SE hits his first Pokemon. Lance must be allowed to use at least 1 Full Restore.
-It must solo Blue, just because it wants to.
-If you battle Red, solo Pikachu.
Good luck!

If Fusion misses with Thunder during a solo, he cannot use Thunder for the remainder of the battle. If its choice locked, switch to Frustration. For some added difficulty, Fusion is a female Pokemon.

Additional credit for this Challange is given to those who assigned my Scramble Pokemon.

This looks pretty straightforward; Waterfall, Thunder, Frustration + Bite and then hope for the flinch hax. Both battles will be very interesting.. Lol, I will be praying not to miss with Thunder! I love the fusion concept, by the way.

Originally Posted by Fat Axmaster68

Sage Chow, you get Molasses the Slugma. Molasses is super slow, and so must have a -speed nature. He wants to get the world back for declaring him so slow, so he must solo your rival at Mt. Moon, and all of your remaining Kanto gym leaders. Misty must be soloed as a Macargo. If only 2 soloes are allowed, make it Brock as a Slugma and Misty as a Macargo. Molasses also wants to show the world that he can be awesome without powerful moves. So, he can only use Smog, Ember, Yawn, Sleep Talk, and Protect. EVER. He must also solo 50 trainers, and 5 seperate pokemon of every type. Molasses, if you face the E4 twice, must solo 1 member. Molasses can only evolve after the solo of Brock, and after every pokemon, completely seperate from all other pokemon Molasses soloes, you get to flip a coin. After you get 3 Heads in a row, then your other condition is met. Finally, Molasses can not participate in any battle in which any of your pokemon above base speed 80 are used. Good luck, and have fun!

Axmaster, you seem to have a knack for impossible challanges.. ;) I'm quite worried to pull this one off, but also really excited about the challenge. Magcargo is one of my favorite pokes too. I'm not sure why Sleeptalk is listed as without Rest it's pretty useless. Misty is going to be pretty damned hard, if not impossible. I could grind, but I like the spirit of keeping a low level. The only way would be a team mate setting up Sunny Day and a Lightscreen to soften the initial blows for set up.

I'm not sure if I can solo Brock before Misty, but I guess evolving him isn't a real benefit at all (seeing as Brock has Kabutops, Omastar and EQ for a nice x4..). I also omitted the level restriction in consistency with the other challanges. Um.. just another thing; I can't make heads or tails from the underscored part.. I'm assuming he has to complete the pokemon solo's before evolution?

The Scramble 'mon at a glance:

Skip the Wooper

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- Must have a Jolly nature and a (fe)male gender. (done)
- Must have a maxed out Return ASAP (can't get in game)
- Must have a move that is boosted by Prankster (done, Yawn)
- Must have one STAB move at all times.. which will be EQ (done)
- Must breed a Wooper in Goldenrod, the offspring must solo one GLP (done)
- Must solo Whitney by OHKO-ing both pokemon from full HP (done)
- Must solo Morty, with the offspring taking care of one pokemon (done)

Earl the Dunsparce

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- Must be a male with Serene Grace (done)
- Only moves with a chance for a secondary effect (done)
- Must be taught Swagger (done)
- Must solo 15 pokemon on every route before progressing. (done)
- Must have a secondary effect happen against 20 pokemon of every type.(well enough)
- Must solo 4 main battles without use of healing items. (done)
- These battles are: Bugsy, Jasmine, Rival and Karen. (done)

N10SE the Scizor

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- Must solo Pryce (done)
- Must solo Claire, by living one Dragon Attack from each pokemon (done)
- Must land a blow on one of Lance's Dragons (done)
- Must lead the party while Surfing (done)
- Must solo the trainers at Tohjo falls (done)
- Must solo one of Red's pokemon (done)
- Added: Fury Cutter, Thief and Cut as his only attacks in Johto (done)

Reckless the Tyrogue

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- Must solo all trained Flying and Psychics
- No Physical attacks until after Bruno (done)
- Must solo Bruno to regain Arms/Legs (done)
- Must solo Sabrina (done)
- Must learn Return upon completion of the challange (done)

Serene the Lapras

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- No moves that deal direct damage
- Must solo Chuck (done)
- Must solo Will (done)

Fusion the Gyarados

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- Moveset: Thunder, Frustration, Waterfall and [Non Stab, Non SE vs Grass/Electric] (done)
- Choice-locked versus males, Tormented versus Females
- Can't switch after a KO unless Thunder misses
- Must switch after a missed Thunder, switch to Frustration when soloing.
- Super Potions and Revives only, not even status or PP items
- Must solo Lance (he must apply a Full Restore at some point) (done)
- Must solo Blue (done)
- Must solo Reds Pikachu (done)

Koops the Squirtle

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- Solo all Dragon-types (in Kanto) (done)
- Solo one trainer in each Kanto Gym (done)
- Can't switch out versus Dark, Bugs and Ghosts (1)
- Can only use Water-type moves versus Water pokemon (1)
- Can only attack every other turn versus female pokemon (2)
- Must use Withdraw on the first turn of battle (2)
- Can't evolve (4)
- Can't learn TM's/HM's (4)
- Must solo Lt Surge and Erika (done)

Molasses the Slugma

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- Solo Rival at Mt Moon (done)
- Solo Brock to evolve (done)
- Solo Misty as Magcargo (done)
- Moveset: Smog, Ember, Yawn and Protect (done)
- Solo 50 trainers in Kanto (done)
- Solo 5 seperate pokemon of every type (done, except Dragon)
- Solo one E-4 member on the second run (done)
- Cannot participate in battle with Raticate and Gyarados.

Buster the Rattata

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- No STAB
- Must use Flamewheel on first turn of battle
- If Guts, no moves over 70BP. If Run Away, No Priority.
- Must solo Koga, Blaine and Janine (done)
- Must solo one trainer per Kanto gym (done)
- Must solo all trainers on Route 3, end with the top% kid (done)
- Must be on the team when facing RED (done)

Regular updates:

Chapter 1: Dude, where's my Wooper

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Introduction:

The adventure begins before I even load my HG cardridge. Nine pokemon have been selected to join my quest to become a pokemon master. Over the course of this challange they will prove their worth by single handedly taking down Johto's top trainers. But they have more in common than would appear; they come with a specific heritage, be it by breeding, trading or even fusion of pokemon, and their motives share a common denominator too; they all seek to to prove something. Before I fire up the cardridge I breed a Vacuum Wave Tyrogue from a lone Hitmonchan. I also have a Metal Coat, a Squirtle egg, a Hidden Power and a Return TM standing by to be traded.

Dude, where's my Wooper?

The first stage of a scramble is getting your team members. And especially the first ones proved to be very elusive! I spend the bulk of this chapter's playtime searching for a Jolly Wooper. He's also the MVP for this part, simply because of his beastly performance at Sprout Tower XD I will be covering the first two gyms in this chapter. Enjoy!

For some reason I randomly selected Totodile as my starter.. A dumb move, as most of my pokemon are water types that have to solo the rival at some point. Cyndaquil would have been great for breeding Flame Wheel on my Rattata too. Oh well, I guess the rival battles will be more epic this way..

After the mandatory intro missions I finally get some pokéballs and jolt straight for Violet, carefully bypassing the trainers. I want to get my first scramble 'mon as soon as possible. I could catch two pokemon before the first gym: Wooper, which must be Jolly, and Dunsparce, at Dark Cave. Dunsparce are normally obtained by smashing rocks but I assume that walking around should give the same result..

First stop: Dark Cave!

I should have checked my facts first: Instead of 10%, it has the awesome 1% chance to encounter Dunsparce on foot. Fortunately, it only took me an hour to find that out. But I'm not done understimating these challanges; I could simply catch Wooper first, right? Shouldn't be so hard. I just head over to Route 32 and catch the little bugger there.

Originally Posted by Fat Challange

Not so fast! It must be a Jolly-natured Male Wooper.

I get about five Docile Woopers in a row and start freaking out a little.. Aren't there any other Woopers around? With the failed Dunsparce hunt, it becomes a bit of a roadblock. I need at least ONE pokemon before I challange the Violet gym. So I soldier on with my search, hitting reset every 5 catches.. I get every nature at least once.. I'm almost tempted to take a well IV'd Timid Male.. but I reset; Jolly is Jolly.

*Many hours of Wooper later* "BOO-YAH!! Finally a Jolly Wooper in the pocket! Okay, I caught 90 Wooper before I could obtain the right nature, but now I have a Jolly... ..female?"

NOOOOOOOOO!!!

I give up. This is the pokemon I'm going to scramble with, I'm not going to go through another ninety Wooper.. *shudders*. Besides, I could order a sex-change operation in that shady building behind the Name-rater..

Skip the Wooper finally joins the team, with the intention of founding her own family of Wooper one day (Great, even more Wooper -.-). But with her Jolly presence, hunting down Dunsparce doesn't seem so boring anymore. With renewed energy I head back to Dark Cave to continue my search. This time my sexually ambiguous pal Skip can even kill some Geodudes. But as my PP goes down I see the folly of my ways: A male Jolly Wooper has a theorethical encounter rate of 1 in 150, but for a male SG Dunsparce it's 1 in 400..

*runs out of dark cave*

Long story short (well actually it isn't); I decide to solo Falkner with my trusted pal Skip instead of the elusive Earl. Hey, he can solo Spout Tower on the fly as well; Just watch me select Mud Shot a couple of times.. *does so, but due to Jolly it does reduced damage* .. but it doesn't even KO the lvl 3 Bellsprouts!

*speechless*

That damned Jolly Nature, which I just spend 5 hours looking for, has turned the dumbest trainer (ironically my namesake) into a tough solo!! I burst into laughter when a critical Vine Whip (!!) nearly destroys my Wooper. In fact, I'm very disappointed when the higher level Bellsprouts select Growth over Vine Whip.


Versus Falkner:

Because I chose Mud Shot over Water Gun for STAB, I'm in a bit of trouble with Falkner. I have to grind to level 15 and take out his birds with Slam. Fortunately his Pidgey uses Sand Attack twice before I can hit it. I decide to Tail Whip the Pidgeotto a few times before missing a gazillion Slam attacks.. >.< Following a bunch of Roosts, I finally nail the bastard and nab my first Solo-Badge! *Does Ash's Victory Dance* More Importantly, I can finally get my Dunsparce!

Getting the team:

*Uses Rocksmash and catches the right one easily*

Right.. >.<

Earl the Dunsparce has made a special arrangement with his Karma: In exchange for his extreme luck scoring secondary effects, he must help all pokemon he has wronged in the past and tries to make them stronger. And that list is quite long: Not only does he have to solo 15 pokes on each route, he has a special spot reserved for Bugsy's Scyther, Jasmine's Steelix, the Rival and Karen's Murkrow. Because he hid in Dark Cave when he should have been solo'ing Bellsprouts, he can start his list by soloing Youngster Joey and the Route pokemon. But his Karma pays off well; Falkner has left him an awesome TM Roost to abuse, all the better considering he can't use potions during battle.

At the Violet Pokemon Center, I trade my Totodile for the Squirtle Egg and, courtisy of Elm, the Togepi Egg for Tyrogue's. While I'm there, I get a Slugma Egg from Primo by entering the password. BAM! That's four members added under 10 minutes!

*Phonecall from “Mom”.. “You'd be happy to know I'm spending your money on useless crap..”* ...Thanks?!

By the way: Whát is the deal with all these NPC's asking for your number? Calling you like they're your pals or something.. "Well, I've got news for you, Youngster Joey! You're not my pal, guy!" It can get so annoying later on when they call you every five minutes to whine how they spotted yet another Rattata.. Am I really bothered? *points to face* "Rattata, Face, Bothered!" I've also been crackin' up over their reaction when you refuse the phone-number: Mountainman; "You don't want my number? Oh, I'm going to live all alone in the mountains then.." *Cue All By Myself*

In the meanwhile, my Squirtle egg hatches Koops, who seeks his vengeance on his nemesis Hooktail. But, much like the lion in the Wizard of Oz, he also wishes to become more courageous. In order to do so he must solo as many of the major bosses as possible. Fortunately, the first one will be waiting around the corner: The rivial in Azalea has a powerfull team so I decide to grind him up at Union Cave and have him and Earl combat the Slowpoke Rockets in turns, like the best of bro's. Earl gets the Rock Tomb TM from the cave, as it has a chance to lower speed.

Versus Bugsy:

Bugsy is a last minute addition to Earl's list. Since he has squashed a few bugs with a rock, he decides it's bad Karma to use Rock Tomb on the main mantis. Instead he will fight this battle mano-a-scytho using the ever awesome Rock Smash! And an epic battle it was! I lost multiple times before I finally cracked the code to success..

I bring to this fight:
- One X-Def and one X-Att
- One Dunsparce, sporting 15 PP's worth of Rock Smashing epicness
- Not a single potion, because Earl takes his beating like a man

The mission:
- Solo the Scyther with Rock Smash as my only attack

On turn 1 Earl Glares the Scyther; this gives me the speed advantage and creates extra turns for defense drops. But Scyther is far from crippled: He still has that Technician Quick Attack to score critical hits and he has Leer to counter my Stalling approach..

On the next few turns I get a few Rock Smaches in, while the mantis uses Leer. I get around 20% off his HP in 3 hits before he U-turns to his Metapod. It would cost me 8 hits to take it out with Rock Smash (assuming a potion), so I'm forced to take it out with Rock Tomb for PP reasons. Scyther comes back for more Leers and a second U-turn to Kakuna. Now I'm forced to switch out of the accumulated defense drops. During the winning match I even grabbed the opportunity to set up one X-Def and Att to better endure the end game. Kakuna also poisoned me one instance; I wasn't sure whether I was allowed to cure status, so I simply kept going and lost. Note to self: Parahax the damned thing eventhough it has Shed Skin.

The final show-down with Scyther was the most interesting. At minimal defense Scyther took about 20% per Rock Smash. In return he got a lot of critical hits with Focus Energy. He finished me off from full health with a critical U-turn, immediately followed by a critting Quick Attack... twice!!! No paralysis when you really need it! Well, on my final attempt I decided to try something different: I used a random Glare to taunt the RNG gods and it payed off: I got a critical hit on the Scyther, KO'ing it from 60%.

Epic battle, Bugsy.. Too bad I just squandered my only X-items, because right after this battle I have to solo an even harder opponent:


Versus the Rival:

Why did I start with Totodile again? Bayleef was a nightmare. It has Synthesis to heal himself to full HP, while I'm forced to deal pitifull damage with Bite. Razor Leaf not only does super effecive damage, but it has a high critical hit ratio to render by Withdraw tactic useless. As a coup de grâce it has Reflect and Poison Powder to completely shut me down.. Things get even better considering his lead Gastly; it outspeeds me to guarantee a Curse and a Mean Look, while I'm forced to Withdraw. Oh, did I mention he can't switch at all versus ghosts? Fortunately I cán save before the battle.

I get the Gastly to use Spite and use Withdraw for free. Finally, Koops can Bite to KO Gastly without a Curse to worry about. The plus one defense is vital to live Razor Leaf when Bayleef comes in. It uses Reflect and Poison Power and then starts attacking. I use Withdraw twice and take the inevitable Razor Leaf.

Because of Synthesis and Reflect my attacks are useless and I'm burning through my Antidotes and Potions quickly. But my hail lies in a tiny move labled Tail Whip.. I figure that taking him out in two blows while his screens are down should secure the victory. But I get lucky, Poison Power misses twice and Koops Bites for the win. Much Oblidged. *Does Confidence Dance* or in the current trend of scramble: CONFIDENCE POINT GET!

Team overview:

Skip (Wooper) - Level 17
Nature: Jolly, Ability: Water Absorb
Item: None
- Slam
- Mud Shot
- Mud Sport
- Tail Whip
Status: Mudshot for STAB, Mud Sport is boosted by Prankster. He solo'd Falkner and Sprout Tower (LOL) I caught around ninety Wooper just to obtain a Jolly one. Screw the fact that it's a female.. this is the one I'm going to roll with!

Earl (Dunsparce) - Level 18
Nature: Lonely, Ability: Serene Grace
Item: None
- Rock Smash
- Glare
- Roost
- Rock Tomb
Status: Solo'd his routes up to Azalea, and beat Bugsy's Scyther with one hand behind his back (No Rock Tomb). After hours of searching for Wooper and yet another hour in Dark Cave, I decided to get the Violet gym badge with Skip instead. Catching a Dunsparce with Rock Smash is so much easier!

Koops (Squirtle) - Level 18
Nature: Modest, Ability: Torrent
Item: Shell Bell
- Bite
- Withdraw
- Water Gun
- Tail Whip
Status: Hatched in Union Cave and was trained to beat the rival in Azalea on par with the Bayleaf's level. Thank god he's male.. it made the Rival a bit more manageble. He's going to be benched when I catch N10SE at the National Park.

Reckless (Tyrogue) - Level 1
Nature: Quirky, Ability: Guts
Item: None
- Fake Out
- Foresight
- Helping Hand
- Vacuum Wave
Status: Hatched while beating the Azalea Gym.

Molasses (Slugma) - Egg
Nature: -, Ability: -
Item: None

Status: I picked up this easter egg from Primo at Violet Poke-Center. Some things are just too easy not to use. It's nearly hatching..

Chapter 2: Zoom that Miltank!

---

This chapter I spend a lot of game time addicted to the game corner. As a result I get a Zoom Lens for Skip's upcoming solo of Whitney. Or so I thought.. I forgot one critical mechanism in the Zoom Lens that would come back to bite me in the ass..

Reckless's Hidden Powers:

With three well trained pokemon I'm heading back to Union Cave to train my specially oriented fighting type. I dubbed him Reckless, per challange, but I guess a more personal name would be more suited.. I'll get back on that. While grinding, I instantly miss the lack of coverage moves and decide to put his hidden powers to good use; it's effective on the Geodudes and neutral on the Zubat, so I guess that's Water then.. Nice!

Armed with his Hidden Powers, Reckless charges onwards into Ilex forest to get those lazy Farfetch'd back to work. It does a decent amount of damage almost on par with neutral Vacuum Wave, but isn't super effective on anything there.. He even manages to take on the mandatory Drowzee's with his powers and get's a nice extra dent with Fake Out.

Earl finally solo's his Route 34 pokemon and I can enter the City. Out of curiosity, I end up in the Game-corner. Man: "Hey, kid! There's nothing wrong with underage gambling! Why don't you take this coin case and gamble a little bit" *Sees nothing wrong with this statment and does as told*

I actually like these new games a lot more than in the first gen. I never even bothered to play in the gamecorner because these minigames bored me. Until this new game got me addicted. I played for a few hours to see if I could reach beyond level 7, but wasting another two hours did have it's advantages: I purchased a Zoom Lens for Skip to negate the horrible accuracy of Slam and Mudshot.

*Picks up the bike, the radio-card and some TM's; Clears the underground with Reckless and gives Skip a haircut*

A little fastforwarding later I end up at Route 35 when Slugma's egg finally hatches. Molasses has already two of his final moves; Yawn and Smog, epicness right there! But he'll have to wait untill Kanto before he will get some real action. Right now I'm going to pick up my final Johto team member at the Bug Catching contest.

*Catches Scyther and wins*

In retrospect that Bug Catching contest is a pretty sweet place to get some exp. Earl smashed some high powered bugs with his Rock Tomb. But what bullshit is this: Apparently you can't access your bag during the constest.. but every other bug carries a damned Poison Power/Stinghax! Thank god for Roost!

When I trade-evolve Scyther things look even better: It has an Adamant nature and Technician!! I baptize N10SE on the spot and head back to Goldenrod to settle an old score..

Versus Whitney:

Skip has a personal score with Whitney. Spamming Cute Charm and Attract, she taunts Skips origins as a female in a male's role. Unaffected by her tactics, Skip jumps at the opportunity to prove herself by showing off her strength in battle. During the pre-battle motivational speech Skip indicates her confidence in this battle and suggests her Jolly plan; not only is she going to solo Whitney, but she's going to OHKO both pokemon from full health!

I bring to this battle:
- Three Super Potions because I'm Super Awesome,
- An X-Defend and 2 X-Attack to boost my stats,
- one Wooper; one level above the GLMP,
- and one Zoom Lens to miss Slam only on the most critical moments.. -_-

The mission:
- OHKO both pokemon from full HP with Slam.

To succeed I must set up all X-Items on Clefairy, lower it's defense by 2 with Tail Whip and get the full six drops on Miltank for a clean OHKO. But, because Miltank likes to flinch-hax me to oblivion, I will need to use Mud Shot four times to out-speed Miltank.

I failed quite a few times; a critical Stomp from Miltank kills my poor Wooper below 75% health apparently, and my three potions are barely enough to survive this battle. But, I can live four Stomps at +1 defense with a sliver of health left. Miltank rarely uses Roll Out, and when it does I can survive the most powerfull one at Max HP only.

During the first attempt, the RNG gods stomp all over me: Clefairy gets a criticical full hitting Doubleslap, selects Dragonbreath to inflicted a full paralysis and a critical hitting Powder Snow on the next turn. What are the chances of thát happening?! But it got even better; Miltank gets two critical hits in a row on Stomp, draining my only potions, and flinches me on the next turn! I guess Whitney must have taken her own personal vendetta to this fight too..

After a reset the hax is significantly less. Miltank's speed goes down to circumvent the flinching and it Milk Drinks back to full hp. I use my first potion and start spamming Tail Whip; I need Skip at +2 Attack and Miltank at -6 Defense to land a OHKO with Slam. My final potions go down and Skip goes deep into the red on the final Tail Whip.. Everything is done, I outspeed, I can OHKO, this is the moment!! "Skip, Slamdunk that stupid cow back to it's trainer!"

*Slam misses, Stomp KO's Skip instead*

...

..

.

*facepalm*

Right.. I'm just going to break this worthless Zoom Lens and smash my DS.. Nah, I simply hit reset and tried one final time with success. Wow, this was so much fun. I'm going to hand out this challange to someone in the future.

Chapter 3: Breeding Buster

---

Most pokemon on my team require breeding in one way or another, and this chapter I have spend a lot of time moving back and forth to the Day Care to pick up and hatch Eggs. After beating Whitney, I buy some potions and head for Ecruteak:

Route 36:

Time to water myself some trees! I even get a Berry Planter.. um.. nice?! Well, actually it is.. I always hated the berry growing systems, but atleast this one is portable. Why not try it out? Turns out "Mom" has send me some Shuca berries which will be a godsend for Molasses later on. At the same time Earl does his rout(e)ine solo when he gets burned by a random Growlithe.

*Goes through backpack with nothing to heal*

"D'oh!"

When I try to continue with a crippled Dunsparce, he even gets trolled by a godamned Pidgey! That little bastard is spamming sand attacks while Earl misses 5x in a row!

In the meanwhile, Reckless has a stare down with trained Drowzee. It has to solo it, per challange, but it has Dreameater and Confusion. Fortunately a well supllied stock of Awakening pulls him through. His hidden power is now revealed to be of the Steel type as it isn't very effective on the Voltorbs.

But the Growlithe has given me a new plan: I need one to breed Buster the Flaming Rattata. Unfortunately Earl has killed them all in his frenzy. I head over to route 38 first to catch Buster's Mum the Ratticate. It even puts up quite a fight, escaping 5 pokéballs before capture.

But there is more breeding on the horizon: On the same route Skip battles Sailor Harry's male Wooper and falls in love. It realizes it wants a family (fortunately I've already caught a whole bunch of suitable mates..) so I head back to the Day Care to Breed Skip Jr. Not only will it be a HM Slave (way to prospect your pokemon life), it must also help solo Morty's ghosts.

As I leave I bump into Lass Dana and her Psyduck.. Goddamned Lass Dana!! The freakin' Psyduck gets a critical hit on confusion, inflicts and makes Wooper kill itself in his confusion before landing a single hit. Enraged I send out N10SE because I really want to hurt that thing!

But it Disables my Pursuit, forcing me to false swipe >.> And then it gets even better: She heals it with a Milk and scores YET ANOTHER critical confusion! My scizor kills itself by hitting himself 3 times in a row! WTF! And then Koops has to swich moves every other turn and gets - you guessed it - confused too! Fortunately Bite KO's it. AARGH HAXED BY A FUCKING PSYDUCK! NO GO AWAY! I DON'T WANT YOUR NUMBER!

And what is the deal with the Safari Zone dude?! Whether I want to list my number? “Sorry dude, I don't do telemarketing!” Game: “Can't escape!” *Sighs* "Alright then, give me the damned number.. jeesh why ask in the first place?"

*calms down*

With both Wooper at the daycare, I take the opportunity to explore Mt Mortar and train Reckless and N10SE for a bit. I also delete False Swipe for Cut, because, lets face it.. Never again such a disgracefull battle. It learns Fury Cutter on the fly.

Earl gets quite the workout with all these new routes. Soloing all the way up to Lake of Rage. But I get the feeling that Serene Grace is a bit of a double edged sword because EVERY SINGLE FLAAFY activates that damned Static! I am soo happy that I'm not running a cherry berry Zubat..

When I head back I pick up Skip's Kid and start my quest for a Male Flamewheel Growlithe, aka. Buster's Dad. I even have to train it to level 20 before I can put him in the Day Care with Buster's Mum. To kill some more time I go and face the Rival in Burned tower. Finally some proper action!

Versus the Rival, round II:

Koops gets another shot at confidence points by soloing the Rival again. Not much has changed.. The Bayleef now has Magical Leaf so Withdraw isn't going to be much help. That Gastly is still a gigantic pain in the ass too. It's important to note that while attacking the Shell Bell proves quite vital to heal off poison damage while he uses Synthesis (thrice!)

I'm forced to Withdraw, while Gastly confuses and curses me. Koops hits himself before he can Bite for the KO. I switch Skip in to die to Magical Leaf and heal up Koops. Now the fun can begin:

Turn 1: Withdraw while he sets up Reflect
Turn 2: I set up X-SpD while he poisons me.
Turn 3: Antidote and take a Leaf to the Face, it just fails to 3HKO. Nice!
Turn 4: I Tailwhip and take another Poison Powder.
Turn 5: Antidote and take a second Magical Leaf
Turn 6: I heal he attacks yet again
Turn 7: I decide to man up and Bite (15%) while he sets up Reflect
Turn 8: I bite to get a flinch!
Turn 9: I bite while regains full HP with Synthesis.. Damn! What a beast!
Turn 10: I opt for waterpulse and pray for confusion, he poisons.. >.<
Turn 11: I use a third antidote while he synthesizes to full HP
Turn 12: Reflect ends, I bite for 15% damage while he sets up reflect
Turn 13-15: After 3 Water Pulses I get the confusion in. He attacks to bring me down to the red.
Turn 16: But he snaps out of confusion the next turn.. (For the love of God!) I heal while he sets up Reflect.
Turn 17: Waterpulse confuses again, he heals with Synthesis.
Turn 18: I Bite, he hurts himself (for 8%)
Turn 19: I Tail Whip, he misses Poison Powder.
Turn 19: I Water Pulse, Reflect ends, he attacks
Turn 21: I bite, he flinches
Turn 22: I bite for the KO! *Does premature victory dance*
Turn 23: He sends out Magnemite.. (aw give me a break!)

Fortunately it does not carry Thundershock. The Zubat is no match for Waterpulse either.. Thanks to all that early grinding, Koops has turned out to be quite the beast. These haxy moves are awesome too! Yeah, I'm going to steal your phraze again, Endquote (well, it's your scramble mon anyways.. ) CONFIDENCE POINT, GET!

Versus Morty:

What better way to show off your Quagsire family than battling another one? Family guy Morty and his lineage of Ghosts are the perfect challange for Skip and her baby Skip Jr. This is the only challange to feature two 'mons and I have tried my best to balance them out.

Because Skip has nothing to hit the Ghosts with, I'm buying TM Blizzard from the PokeMart. Skip Jr can learn Surf (as stated in the challange) and will have to do all the grunt work. Skip Mommy will wall Daddy Gengar with Amnesia, but has to worry about PP. One succesful Spite will turn this solo into an impossible nightmare.

I bring to this battle:
- 5 Awakenings (Yes I used them all 0_o)
- 5 Fresh Waters
- 5 PP of Blizzard on Skip the level 26 Quagsire
- 15 PP of Surf on Skip Jr the level 16 Wooper
- Wooper has an Oran Berry, Quagsire has his 'trusted' Zoom Lens

The mission:
- Defeat Morty before you run out of PP

First up is the Gastly: It spites on the first turn and I cower in fear. If he even reduces my Surf I could be in major trouble; Surf is a 3HKO on the weakest Gastly. He Licks and gets the paralysis in. This is not good. I have to cure this asap as I can't afford to get haxed under Curse. As expected he Curses and my oran berry activates. I could switch, but I haven't got the PP to deal with him on Quagsire. I simply let it Lick again while I KO with a third Surf.. Oh yeah.

Next is the Gengar. I switch to Quagsire to get rid of Curse. Wooper will most likely get KO'd. Besides, it's time the parents dug it out. I set up Amnesia while he misses a Suckerpunch. Blizzard is a four hit KO.. I start to panic.. what if I miss? What if he uses a potion? Fortunately he doesn't and I get his main pokemon down with Blizzard.

Third is the Nightmare + Dream Eating Haunter. I keep Quagsire in and heal Wooper with a Fresh Water. Time to Surf his ass! I switch and Wooper gets hit by Hypnosis. (I heal 4 freakin' times on the turns he uses Dream Eater before he finally misses a Hypnosis!) I land a few Surfs until he gets one more Hypnosis in. My last Full Heal is gone, but Surf KO's; Skip Jr. is performing quite well!

Morty's final poke' is the Night Shade Haunter. Fortunately, my Wooper has leveled up to level 17 and has 47 HP; that means he can júst live two nightshades.. I Surf twice, living with 1 hp. Then it's time to switch to mommy Quagsire and Blizzard that thing to oblivion.. But it fails to KO!! By two HP?

But the RNG gods have balanced the scales: The Haunter gets frozen solid. I heal Wooper and switch while Morty opts for a Hyper Potion. My heart skips a beat.. Do I have enough PP left?

I do. With 5 Surfs I take it out while it stays frozen in a big block of Ice. Serves him right! With such a family bond this battle was a done deal. Battling with two pokes and minimal PP is fun, but I really wished I brought an X-Special to this match.


Team overview:

Skip (Quagsire) - Level 27
Nature: Jolly, Ability: Water Absorb
Item: Zoom Lens
- Blizzard
- Mud Shot
- Amnesia
- Tail Whip

Status: That Zoom Lens was a pretty awesome investment given his low speed. (Yes it performed much better this chapter hitting all 5 Blizzards was instrumental in winning the Fog Badge).

Earl (Dunsparce) - Level 29
Nature: Lonely, Ability: Serene Grace
Item: None
- Rock Smash
- Glare
- Roost
- Rock Tomb

Status: Solo'd his routes up to Lake of Rage. I simple love the combination of Roost and Glare to add to his bulk and his Rock/Fighting combination for coverage. Unfortunately, I'm going to have to delete his moves for Swagger.. he could get Secret Power or Headbutt later on. I'm also hoping for Chargebeam and Ancient Power.

Koops (Squirtle) - Level 27
Nature: Modest, Ability: Torrent
Item: Shell Bell
- Bite
- Withdraw
- Water Pulse
- Tail Whip

Status: Has two confidence points in the pocket and climbing. I simply love how bulky he is with Withdraw and his low HP works well with the Shell Bell. His latest solo of the Rival proved how vital these secondary effects are.

Reckless (Tyrogue) - Level 27
Nature: Quirky, Ability: Guts
Item: None
- Fake Out
- Foresight
- Hidden Power [Steel]
- Vacuum Wave

Status: Underpowered and quite frail. Died on a few occations due to his mandatory soloing of Flying and Psychic Pokemon. He really needs 3 to 5 hits to comfortly KO his opponents with a neutral move. Hidden Power performs reasonably, dealing similar damage as Vacuum Wave.

N10SE (Scizor) - Level 27
Nature: Adamant, Ability: Technician
Item: None
- Leer
- Focus Energy
- Fury Cutter
- Cut

Status: He's a boss. Even with crappy moves like Fury Cutter he is a real menace. Cut is horribly overpowered on him, but makes it fun to kill stuff. It's also quite usefull to have a HM at hand.

Molasses (Slugma) - Level 11
Nature: Hardy, Ability: Flame Body
Item: Charcoal
- Yawn
- Smog
- Ember
- Rockthrow [Disabled]

Status: I switched him in on some Random trainers in Mt. Mortar to gain some exp. I might even train him a little.

Buster (Rattata) - Egg

Chapter 4: Serenity now!

---

To Union Cave:

It's Friday night. I just finished my battle with Morty; I ready myself to write a big chapter about the last gymfight, when I realise there are urgent matters to attend to.. I have exactly ONE HOUR LEFT to catch myself a Lapras.. Without further ado I rush to Union cave.

But where the hell is that Lapras? *Is challenged by yet another trainer*

"Goddamnit, another fucking Drowzee! I guess Reckless will be fainting again.. "

*He does.*

Fortunately, N10SE isn't bothered by anything; despite an insane amount of hax he simply cuts through these trainers like a knive. There is no time to deal with the formalities; Only twenty minutes left and that basefloor is a goddamn maze.. and WHY CAN'T I MOVE TWO FREAKIN' STEPS WITHOUT ANOTHER WILD POKEMON!

*Yet another Zubat.. ..presses run frantically*

"Can't Escape!"

Oh, for the love of god! I should have bought Repels. Well actually I did and then I decided to head for the Ruins instead of in the right direction -.- But with two minutes on the clock I trigger the battle.. Serene, you will be mine! Earl Glares and Rock Smashes until it goes into the red.. I throw a pokéball and it is a done deal! BOO-YAH!

Serene (also dubbed Serenity) has joined the team to spread her pacifism. Right now she only has Confuse Ray to spam, but all of that will change soon enough.. I calm down and Escape Rope out of that god forsaken place.. There's no way in hell I'm going through yet another hour of Zubat..

Lake of Rage:

I take the time to edit the previous chapters before continuing the quest. Now that I can surf I guess it's time to pick up Fusion at Lake of Rage. I already completed the Route solo's and the trainer battles, so things are quite easy.

But I get caught up in an even lamer Gamefreak joke: While exploring Lake of Rage I get stuck in this maze of lilly pads.. and all you ever encounter? Yup.. Magikarp!! Which would be alright, I guess, IF IT WASN'T EVERY 5 STEPS OF THE WAY..

WE GET IT GAMEFREAK! YES, MAGIKARP LIFE IN THE FUCKING LAKE... BUT I DON'T NEED TO BE REMINDED OF THAT EVERY GODDAMN STEP OF THE WAY!! THERE IS ONLY SO MANY TIMES A JOKE IS FUNNY! [/rant]

..

.

Okay, I guess it's funny again.. I surely hadn't learned a thing from the previous experience because I hadn't bought any Repels. Things got even better when I forgot to save and had to do the entire maze for the second time.. -.-

*Lyra calls.. yet again.* LEAVE ME ALONE, I ALREADY HAVE A LIFE INSURANCE!! I hate the phone system. I guess gamefreak has a real skill for making stuff up that are really tedious: The contests in Gen III, the berry system, the long pointless bridges in gen V.. the list is endless. But in the end we forgive them..

Finally, I'm back at the Lake. A freaky thunderstorm is roaring and strikes bunch of pokemon simultaneously.. with a flickering light they phase out of existance and in their place appears a shiny red Gyarados. But he proves to be a real beast to catch! It takes him 12 turns before he succumbs to his paralysis and permits me a free turn. He even takes a measily 15% from Rock Smash at minimal defense! When I finally get him down in the red he drains all my pokéballs and great balls. My final Premier Ball takes him down. Boy, am I glad I'm such a cheap bastard when buying these supplies.

Back on the lake shore Dragon Master Lance appears out of nowhere. Wait.. is he pouting? I guess I did just ninja him out of a shiny pokemon back there.. "Sorry, Bro!"

"Hey, how's it hanging Lancy! What? You want me to follow you to a creepy dungeon? Sure! I mean it's not like you would put me in any danger, would you? No evil villains taking over the world?"

He rides off on his magical pony.. while I'm stuck walking back to Mahogany. Now, as you die hard fans know, there is this little joke near the exit. Yep, you get to pay money to team Rocket! WHY THAT.. Scizor! Attack! But no, Gamefreak has you pay the money whether you like it or not. They didn't have to do that. It's just the game's little way of letting you know that it can troll you at any time..

Mahogany:

Yay, time to fight rockets.. But really, the same dudes over and over again.. I thought, we've been through this.. Also the Voltorb field was a nice touch.. really? I decide to kill off a few grunts with my newly caught Gyarados and put him in the lead. Goddamn! Fusion is such a freakin' boss outside of his pokeball. In the end of the Mahogany base he even KO's the Electrodes, taking a few Sparks to the face.

More battles.. FINALLY! A rocket admin to solo with Koops!

*Easily does so*

Well, now I'm disappointed. But then Ariana appears for round two.. I get a little less excited when Lance jumps in the battle. "Go away, dude! Find your own battle.." Unfortunatly his Dragonite KO's all pokemon before Koops can even get a proper hit in.. Damned confusion! Meh, I guess this could count as a confidence point? Anyways, with Lance finally buggering off to the pokemon league, it's time for my next gym badge!

Versus Pryce:

Versus Pryce? Apparently, I can just challenge the gymleader now. N10SE has sharpened his claws well enough on the trainers along the way. And being at level 30 should make this battle a little more interesting.

The many Ice-types make this the perfect moment to train my Fighting and Steel powered Tyrogue. I have really overestimated this dude; things are going moderately well until he faces off with a bunch of Seel and a Dewgong. Horribly walled by Rest it takes 25 Vacuum Waves to get rid of one Seel and the Dewgong!

The final battle isn't the epic battle I hoped for. I set up a Focus Energy and start spamming Fury Cutter. Seel uses Rest, giving me three hits to build power. Time to KO the other two! But, to make things a little more interesting, N10SE decides to miss his full powered hit on the Piloswine. But then it attacks with Mudbomb.

..

BWAHAHA MUDBOMB? REALLY? IT DOESN'T EVEN GET EARTHQUAKE?

When the Dewgong comes in, I'm ready to hit it with another quadruple Fury Cutter. It lives and takes me into the Red.. Damn, now I have to heal. But wait a minute.. It will probably just use a Potion or go for Rest. Time to show some balls and hit it with a max powered Fury Cut.

*Does so and wins Badge*

Fury Cutter Scizor is one heck of a beast. I also get TM Hail to put on Serene. Great, now it can deal some damage! I wonder if I could just go for Blackthorn right now. I'm really not in the mood for any of those Tentacool routes.. NO the old man stops me.. Scizor, I command you cut his head off!

To Cianwood:

After Reckless got walled by a fucking Seel, I bought a few special attack vitamins in Goldenrod before soloing the Lighthouse with him. While I was there I picked up Protect for Molasses, Thunder for Fusion and Frustration.

And man, was that a frustration to get. I had a random Wooper from my box die about twenty times and the lady still refused to give me that TM. Fortunatly I discovered the herbal medicine shop..

I also trained my dear Molasses in the Bug Catching contest. That damned poison is really annoying though.. But he lived up to full hp incinerating some Metapods with his Shell Bell. What a Beast!

On the naval routes I did some more switching with my Lapras, trying to get it to learn Perish Song before taking on Chuck. I also learned it Hail and Attract to get myself the best chance to beat him in a fair fight. So without further ado:

Versus Chuck:

*Play the epic boss tune here*. Serenity has organised a protest rally against the most violent of gymleaders: Chuck with his 20 PP, 150 BP, STAB SE Focus Punch is no joke. Goddamnit, his attacks hurt like a freaking truck. I can't direcly foil his chances to land a Focus Punch so I have employed the good old Miltank-Method of beating him.

I bring to this battle:
- A Chopple Berry to live a Focus Punch (a OHKO without stat boosts)
- 6x Milk, 4x X-Defend, 1x Ether, 2x Awakening (for the Hypnosis)

The mission:
- Defeat Chuck with Hail as my only reliable source of Damage.

I have one major Ace: Serenity is a female and I have scored myself an Attract TM. Coupled with Confuse Ray I should be able to live through quite a few misses. My other ace is a Chopple Berry, which should ensure my survival while I set up Attract and X-defends. Note that I can't attack to foil the Focus Punch and that it OHKO's without any defense boosts.

The final battle was LONG!! He heals his Poliwrath TWICE! Meanwhile I'm forced to deal pitiful damage with Hail or the occasional confusion. It took me 16 Confuse Ray's (one Ether), 15 Attract's (to stall), 50 turns of Hail (0_o I ran out of PP in the end and had to finish him off with confusion hax alone!) and the 13 items listed above. I guess I could have used Perish Song to take down the Poliwrath.. but it felt like cheating at the time, so I soldiered on.

A full transcript would be dull. Suffice to say that Chuck now understands what people go through when fighting Whitney. The Chopple Berry was instrumental in the victory; without it I probably wouldn't have gotten Attract or Confusion up. I set up the X-items while Primeape was too pre-ocupied with the power of love. It's also important to note that the abilty Shell Armor is freaking awesome for challanges!!! No fear of crits made this quite a comfortable battle, despite the insane amount of power on the other team. One critical hit would have been enough to foil this challange.

Great match Chuck.. But the Hail was enough to wear you down. Maybe you should train under an avalange next time.


Team Summary:

Skip (Quagsire) - Level 32
Nature: Jolly, Ability: Water Absorb
Item: Zoom Lens
- Blizzard
- Mud Shot
- Yawn
- Strength

Status: What's there to say? He's somewhere in the middle in terms of usefulness.

Earl (Dunsparce) - Level 32
Nature: Lonely, Ability: Serene Grace
Item: None
- Rock Smash
- Glare
- Roost
- Swagger

Status: Solo'd his routes up to Lake of Rage. The frequent solo of wild pokemon keeps him on par with the rest of the team.

Koops (Squirtle) - Level 31
Nature: Modest, Ability: Torrent
Item: Shell Bell
- Bite
- Withdraw
- Water Pulse
- Tail Whip

Status: Has gathered three confidence points in total. He solo'd Petrell and Ariana in the Mahogany hide out. They were nowhere near the threat that Bayleaf was.

Reckless (Tyrogue) - Level 35
Nature: Quirky, Ability: Guts
Item: None
- Fake Out
- Foresight
- Hidden Power [Steel]
- Vacuum Wave

Status: Underpowered and quite frail. Died on a few occasions due to his mandatory soloing of Flying and Psychic Pokemon. He really needs 3 to 5 hits to comfortly KO his opponents with a neutral move. Oh did I mention he got walled by a Seel -.-


N10SE (Scizor) - Level 32
Nature: Adamant, Ability: Technician
Item: None
- Leer
- Focus Energy
- Fury Cutter
- Cut

Status: He's a boss. Even with crappy moves like Fury Cutter he is a real menace. Cut is horribly overpowered on him, but makes it fun to kill stuff. It's also quite usefull to have a HM at hand.


Serene (Lapras) - Level 28
Nature: Bold, Ability: Shell Armor
Item: None
- Hail
- Attract
- Confuse Ray
- Perish Song

Status: The most annoying thing ever, but mighty fun to see Chuck go down to this.


Fusion (Gyarados) - Level 32
Nature: Hasty, Ability: Intimidate
Item: None
- Bite
- Surf
- Thunder
- Frustration

Status: Thunder has already missed a couple of times >.< Not looking forward to that happening in the Pokemon League. Can I just add how much of a freakin' boss he is outside of his pokéball? His spite is absolutely huge and the red color makes him look like a mutated lobster.

Molasses (Slugma) - Level 21
Nature: Hardy, Ability: Flame Body
Item: Charcoal/Shell Bell
- Yawn
- Smog
- Ember
- Protect

Status: He incinerated a bunch of Bugs in the Bug Catching Contest to gain some early levels. He even pulled back from 1 HP by poison using his shell bell.

Buster (Rattata) - Egg
Hatched and ready to use..

Chapter 5: Earl's Confusing Times

---

With Chuck's Badge I can finally use Fly. I head straight for Olivine to heal Amphy at the Lighthouse. While I'm there I pick up the Swagger TM that I forgot. I'm forced to replace Rock Tomb because, apparently, Earl has Swagger (although I'm not exactly sure we're on the same wavelength here..)

Time to prepare for the next Gym! Back outside I get a call from Boaba (was Gamefreak running out of proper names?). He mentions that the safari zone is open for business. Great timing! Earl can solo his pokes on route 47 and 48 for some extra training. When I reach the Safari Zone the old man even convinced me to catch a Geodude.

*Does so*

But when I return it turns out to be a classic trap.. "No no! You have to catch another pokemon.."

*Back in Olivine* When I enter the Gym, the trainers don't even bother to attack. I guess that's nice of them? Oh well, straight to the match it is!

Versus Jasmine:

Earl finally faces the second pokemon on his list; he has always bullied Jasmine's Steelix for not being cool, so now he must share some of his new found Swagger to make up for the past.

I bring to the match:
- Swagger and Rock Smash
- Roost as my only source of healing
- No Stat Healing items (but atleast Glare can balance the score)

The Mission:
- Swagger each pokemon and finish it off with Rock Smash

The Magnemites always go for T-Wave; I Swagger and hope for the confusion hax. The first magnemite is confused by Earl's crappy attemps to display his Swagger and starts punching itself in the face. A Rock Smash takes it out. But the second Magnemite evades the Swagger and paralyzes Earl for the rest of the match. Dang! I use Glare to even the score and Rock Smash to K.O.

Now, that Steelix has a pretty powerful Iron Tail. It does around 50%, meaning that one Screech or Critical Hit is enough to take down my Dunsparce, especially when Sandstorm is up. Steelix also outspeeds me (I'm paralyzed) which makes it much more dangerous to rely on Roost for healing. But one Glare should even the score.

*A few turns of Rock Smash, Roost, Sandstorm and Iron Tail go by.*

With a tripple defense drop, Rock Smash inflicts around 20% damage. But Jasmine has a similar trick and goes for Screech. Earl the Dunsparce is in trouble.. Steelix has a reasonable chance to OHKO under the sand. I consider my options: I could man up and go for the Swagger. I'm at half health, so an Iron Tail will kill me regardless.

I get lucky as he goes for another Screech. With no need for Roost anymore I select the fourth Rock Smash.. He goes deep into the yellow. Just one more attack and I will win the battle. I select Rock Smash and hold my breath:

*Steelix snaps out of confusion*

Ohh shhii..

*Steelix used Iron Tail*

..shhiiiiii...

*Steelix attack missed!*

Pfffew!

The inevitable potion comes while I use Swagger for the second time. He will KO me regardless now, might as well make him hurt himself even more, right? And he does.. with +4 Attack and -4 Defense he takes more than one third of his HP. A final Rock Smash should finish it!

*It doesn't, Steelix lives in the red*

.. FUUUUU ...

I hold my breath in fear.. But the AI decided that sand is more important.. and sets up Sandstorm! I should not be winning this; A bold move, Jasmine! Shame it cost you the match!

Versus the Rival - Part III:

What do you do when an evil gang of thugs holds a city hostage? That's right, call some random kid and tell him to investigate! While I'm there I run into the Rival twice. Earl was eager to do yet another solo, so there you have it.

I replaced Glare with Iron Tail to hit Haunter and Golbat for neutral damage. The Meganium now has Petal Dance over Magical Leaf which does quite a bit of damage. Coupled with Swagger, it hurts itself more than it does me.

With a bit of luck I get the Rival down to his last pokemon: Apparently he has just seen Batman as he growls: "WHY SO SERIOUS!". I really should have named him Joker.. Anyway, he sends out his Haunter who curses as I miss three Iron Tails in a row! Yeah.. I had to reset right there -.-

Versus the Rockets:

Yay! More bosses to solo with Koops! When I return to the radio tower to round up the remaining rockets I run into Proton. His Golbat confuses while I'm forced to Withdraw. Thanks for that! Koops manages to hit himself in the face four out of five times! Stupid Golbat! Finally Koops regains his senses and zaps the bat with his mighty Water Pulse. The Weezing gets lucky with the Poison hax on his sludge. I'm forced use another milk to restore HP when that bastard gets a crit. The poison will surely end me this turn, but Koops has yet to fire his Water Pulse. And justice prevails! He scores a crit of his own, winning the battle before taking the poison damage! That's confidence point number four!

But there is no time to cheer, Executive Ariana is waiting on the next floor with her diabolical Vileplume. It has Mega Drain to make Koops' life miserable and it has Sleep Powder and Sweet Scent to troll me even more. But let's not skip ahead.

She leads with Intimidate Arbok, who likes to switch out on the most inconvenient times. I'm forced to use Withdraw on the first turn, while the snake Glares for paralysis. With Crunch causing defense drops I set up a second Withdraw and proceed to Water Pulse to get a confusion in. But suddenly it switches and that thing comes out..

Without my X-SpD's that Mega Drain is going to hit like a truck. But Koops came prepared and a Rindo Berry softens the initial blow. I guess I could cure the paralysis now, but Vileplume will only put me to sleep on the next turn. But, oh joy, I get fully paralyzed three turns in a row.. -.-

My best chance is scoring a confusion with Water Pulse and hax my way through with Bite. BUT 15 FREAKIN' ATTACKS LATER I STILL DON'T GET MY CONFUSION!!

For some inexplicible reason, I dó manage to take out the Vileplume. I guess she must have run out of PP. But victory is in sight.. The Arbok dies to Water Pulse; just a level 33 Murkrow left.. Koops has a comfertable 32 HP remaining at +2 Def, +2 SpD and -2 Att.. I can live anything the crow can throw at me, right?

*Murkrow uses Nightshade, Koops faints*

NOOOOOOO!!! Why didn't I use a potion!? *facepalm*

On my second attempt the hax gods are more favorable.. I crit the Arbok with Water Pulse and set up one X-SpD on the switch. Rindo Berry absorbs a critical Mega Drain while I get the confusion in on the second Pulse.

Now, that's more like it. Time to spam Bite for more hax! Insane hax! I get three flinches in a row followed by a missing Sleep Powder. When Arbok comes back he simply dies to a second crit. This time Koops is at a comfertable 34 HP when Murkrow comes in. Payback's a bitch! Or CONFIDENCE POINT GET!

All that remains is head honcho Archer with his Houndoor. It shouldn't be a problem.. (Although the Koffing gets 4 poisons in a row with that damned Sludge..). Just the Houndoom is left, I heal Koops while I take a sip of tea..

..but when I look back he is dead! WTF? Must have been one heck of a crit.. *sighs* Let's try that one more time shall we? These rockets didn't make things any easier for Koops. On the plus side he now has enough confidence points to get rid of that Withdraw restriction. I actually think I'm going to miss it.. fortunately I can just substitute it for Iron Defense.

To Blackthorn:

The Rage Candy Bar dude finally lets me pass.. Reckless dies yet again to some over powered Kadabra and Earl solo's some Weepinbell with his Iron Tail. The Ice Path Swinub keep on Enduring hits, which makes it easy for Earl to land his secondary effect on the Ice-types aswell.

On arrival in the city I get yet another item: WOW! 'Mom' just gave me a Choice Scarf! Nice!

Since I wasn't in the mood for the gym challenge just yet, I decided to check out the Safari Zone for round two. But when I catch the Sandshrew and bring it to the owner: "Congratulations! You are now the safari zone owner. But please do continue to pay admission."

*Gets saddled up with all the debs of the park, while the old dude evades major fraud prosecution*

Seriously, who saw this coming?


Team Summary:

Skip (Quagsire) - Level 37
Nature: Jolly, Ability: Water Absorb
Item: Zoom Lens
- Blizzard
- Earthquake
- Yawn
- Strength

Status: Finally! A decent STAB move.. Earthquake is awesome, especially in combination with Blizzard. Yawn is his prankster move and gives some cool team support. I'm loving his Zoom Lens too. A lot of pokemon like to use Double Team on him only to be hit with EQ.

Earl (Dunsparce) - Level 39
Nature: Lonely, Ability: Serene Grace
Item: None
- Rock Smash
- Iron Tail
- Roost
- Swagger

Status: Solo'd his routes up to Blackthorn. He solo'd both the Rival as Jasmine without the use of any items. Swagger really doesn't work as well as Glare however. Iron Tail does decent, but the accuracy is a major problem for him. The 60% for a defense drop is not going as well as was expected.

Koops (Squirtle) - Level 34
Nature: Modest, Ability: Torrent
Item: Shell Bell
- Bite
- Iron Defense
- Water Pulse
- Tail Whip

Status: Has gathered six confidence points. His solo of Ariana was quite difficult and even Archer proved to be much more dangerous than I thought. Two CP will be spend to rid him of the the Withdraw restriction, hopefully giving him a fighting chance against Lt. Surge. Two CP are spend on the gender restriction, because it's too annoying to keep track off. Next solo: Ho-oh.

Reckless (Tyrogue) - Level 38
Nature: Quirky, Ability: Guts
Item: None
- Fake Out
- Foresight
- Hidden Power [Steel]
- Vacuum Wave

Status: He's really under-powered! I'm going to look for those Choice Specs at Lake of Rage next chapter and maybe grind some EV's in SpA. He is a high maintenace guy. But for some reason I find him very cool and try to use him as often as possible.


N10SE (Scizor) - Level 38
Nature: Adamant, Ability: Technician
Item: None
- Leer
- Focus Energy
- Fury Cutter
- Cut

Status: Not much to say here other than that he is the main to go guy. His immunity of poison makes him invaluable versus the rockets. Cut is useful on wild pokemon when he's leading the party on water.

The rest of the team didn't see much action. Fusion also killed some stuff, but I can't remember his level.

Chapter 6: Farewell Johto

---

Time to get that final Johto badge. N10SE is all pumped up for the fight, ready to mince these dragons with his mighty Fury Cutter. Who needs Bullet Punch when you're already awesome?

Versus Claire:

Scizor must endure a Dragon attack from each pokemon to complete the challange. It may seem rather easy at a glance, but there's a nasty catch: This means stalling out some dangerous coverage moves with a good chance of killing Scizor in a single blow. Dragonair has Fireblast, which is dangerous in itself, but N10SE has to live through five of them before the dragon move comes out. And then there's Kingdra's Hydropump, dealing 66% damage per blow.

Surprisingly, a few X-Sp Def and two dozen MooMoo Milks were enough to pull through. Simply healing every turn and avoid critical hits resulted in a lucky win. But the victory was unsatisfactory; the dragon attacks, the ones I was supposed to endure, did pitiful damage after the boosts. Therefore I decided to man up, reset and do the challange my way: Take any hit from these dragons without these cowardly defense boosts.

I bring to this match:
- One X-Speed
- Six Potions
- An Occa Berry

The mission:
- Survive an attack from each dragon and K.O. with Fury Cutter.

*Gyarados spams Dragon Rage to consistently chip off 40% health*
Annoying, but not impossible to set up on. It's crucial to outspeed the Dragonair and the Gyarados because without a boost Scizor is revenge killed with Fire Blast. I'm going to alternate between Fury Cutter and Milk to slowly build power.

*A fourth Fury Cut takes out the Gyarados*
Awesome! I'm at low health, so I must use another potion right now to take the Fire Blast. The Occa Berry is instrumental in taking the next hit, as without it I'd be dead. Of course I could just Fury Cut for the K.O. right now, but the challange dicates I must absorb a hit.

*Scizor is blasted for 70% damage after Occa, Fury Cut KO's Dragonair the next turn*
OMG! Technician FC just keeps on blowing my expectations. The ability to use stuff like Potions and Leer without resetting the counter is really awesome. Once it gets going it completely owns everything in its path!

*Kingdra comes out and does massive damage with Hydropump*
Looks like the danger is far from over. That Hydropump did 66% damage to my unboosted Scizor! I'm going to stall two hits with my remaining potions an pray for a miss. But even then I'm not in the clear; from experience I know that Kingdra can survive one full powered attack, activating his berry. What at beast! I will use Leer on the first free turn.

*Finally Hydropump misses and N10SE goes for Leer*
A fourth Hydropump brings me back in the red and I can hear myself thinking; "Screw this, I only have one potion left, which I'll need later. He can't be hitting every attack, right? Time to man up and stare the monster in the face and see who's chicken!" But as I select the button labeled 'Fury Cutter' I regret my rash decision. Kingdra still outspeeds me, what if he doesn't miss?

*The AI opts for Dragon Pulse, barely missing the KO on Scizor who slays the dragon with a single blow*
Now that was INTENSE! Sorry about that Claire, BERRY DENIED!

*The final Dragonair trolls with T-Wave and a critical Aquatail while the final potion is applied. But there's no escaping Scizor's fury as he delivers the finishing blow.*
N10SE once again reaffirms his status as 'Boss'. Fury Cut is soooo powerful XD Aw, don't be such a sore loser, Claire! Just fork over the Badge or I will be forced to let the Repo handle this..

.. Or I could just go and talk to some creepy old dude in a cave. I randomly click some of the answers and apparently pass the test. Claire storms in and claims she hasn't even passed herself. I'm starting to wonder whether the questions matter at all. Time to get the hell out of there!

What next?

With the final badge it's time to head for the pokemon league. But my team is severly underleveled. I decide to grind them all to level 45. For Earl, Skip and N10SE this also means the end of their main journey. I'll try to complete the bulk of their challanges and end at a respectable level. I decide not to take Buster to beat Koga. The whole point of the Kanto pokemon is to use untrained pokemon to make this part more interesting. Skip will solo Koga in his place, while Buster will take him out on the second run.

The Move Deleter replaces Earl's Rock Smash by Secret Power and Fusion's Surf by Waterfall. I pick up the Choice Specs at lake of rage to boost Reckless' power. While I'm there I fight some random fishemen..

Wait.. did Fusion just get outsped by a Magikarp? *facepalm* Oh yeah, Swift Swim!


Ecruteak:

Apparently, the Kimono girls want to battle so I head for Ecruteak without much planning. I forgot the first one leads with a diabolical Umbreon.
*Switches Reckless in*
Dark Pulse does more to me than Vacuum Wave does to him? To make it even more embarrassing Reckless punches itself in the face three times in a row. I heal but he's flinched to death without landing a single blow!
*Sage Chow's Rage is building*

Time to bring on the big guns; N10SE, go!

Turn 1: Dark Pulse crits, FC does minor damage.
Turn 2: N10SE is confused and hurts itself.
Turn 3: Dark Pulse crits again while N10SE hurts itself.
Turn 4: I heal while Umbreon goes for Dark Pulse.
Turn 5: Dark Pulse flinches.
Turn 6: N10SE hurts himself in confusion and eats a Dark Pulse.
Turn 7: Dark Pulse flinches.
Turn 8: Dark Pulse crits AND Scizor is killed by confusion (ARE YOU FREAKING KIDDING ME?)
Turn 9: Heal fodder and revive.
Turn 10: Dark Pulse crits while Fury Cutters deals decent damage.
Turn 11: FINALLY N10SE pulls through the confusion.

"Lets hope that the rest of the Kimono's go easier"
*Espeon gets two crits on Fusion and Scizor, taking them out too*
"D'OH!!" Fortunately, Skip knows how to deal with these Eevee bastards.

With the Clear Bell I head for Bell Tower to solo Ho-oh. *Sighs* This is such a boring dungeon. I'd expect better than a bunch of lvl 22 Rattata. Seriously, not even a Ratticate by now? At least the old version had some Sages to fight in the basement.

Versus Ho-oh:

Koops is pulled from the bench for yet another intermezzo. This time he'll be soloing a greatly overleveled Ho-oh. Although he has the type advantage here, I'm having doubts whether he can actually pull this one off.

I bring to the match:
- A level 34 Squirtle (Ho-oh is at lvl45)
- One X-SpD to live one sun boosted Fireblast
- Two Potions, Burn Heal.

I reset the battle quite a few times. Admittedly, I won the first battle with a lot of luck. The bird kept going for Sunny Day and missed two Fireblasts out of four. I also got the confusion in near the end; a strategy that didn't work in later battles..

But the battle was brutal enough. In the sun Fireblast is a clean OHKO unless I had the X-SpD up. Iron Defence saved me from those Sacred Fires but Ho-oh preferred to get a lot of crits on his fire powerhouse attacks, killing me regardless. The sun also meant that waterpulse did rubbish damage. In ten battles I managed to win only three due to the lack of critical hitting Fire moves and I managed to get the confusion in only twice. Extrasensory still hit like a truck though. In the sun I could hardly deal any decent damage, and I ended up using Tail Whip and Bite to gain the upper hand.

Now thát is a battle worthy of a CP! Koops is benched to enjoy some well deserved rest.

Through Tohjo Falls and Victory Road:

N10SE leads the party through Tohjo falls, but there aren't any trainers to solo. I guess he can solo the one near the house and the one with the Magneton.

*Is forced to solo an Espeon with Reckless*
"Oh great, another Psychic. Let me guess, he gets killed yet again.."
*Serene confuses Espeon, who hits itself 4 times in a row*
OMG! He actually pulls through! Payback's a bitch, but even with the newly equipped Choice Specs, HP Steel pulls out a 4HKO.. I really need to EV train him.

There are a lot of high exp. trainers here, so this is the ideal place to bait and switch with Serene and maybe solo a few 'mons. It takes the same effort to grind versus a lvl 22 Rattata as it does versus a lvl 44 Rapidash. So haven't used it much after Chuck. (there's your answer, Jimera)

*Cooltrainer Gavin is faced with Serene*
"What the hell, let's try to solo his Kingler!"
*Guilotine hits on the first turn*
Of course.. -_-

Have I mentioned what an epic boss Fusion is on victory road? Easily the MVP. If he misses thunder on the Golbat he can simply switch to Serene and back. But grinding Reckless is a pain. He can't even escape from these damned Golbat! Go away! I don't want your crappy Speed EV's.


Versus the Rival - Part 4:

I've always hated the game for placing him right at the end of victory road. Most pokes are out of PP or weakened and this clown shows up with a full roster. Hah! I'm going to show him a battle he won't easily forget:

"Go, Serenity!"
Okay, I accidently lead with Reckless. But this turns out to be quite helpful. The rival leads with a Sneasel, who is easily taken care of with Vacuum Wave. Wow, I believe this is Reckless' first OHKO in a long time. Good Job!

*Kadabra comes out to play*
Normally, Reckless should solo him, but he's choice locked in Vacuum Wave. Challange DENIED! I send out Serene to spam Hail and Confusion.
*Kadabra stats punching itself in the face under the influence of the power of love*
Well, that went rather good. Who's next?

*Meganium comes in and starts spamming Petal Dance*
Fortunately, Serene has one Special Defense boost to take the occasional hit. The combination of Attract and Confusion is enough to create free turns for setting up Hail and the Petal Dance just fails to K.O. a severely underleveled Lapras.

*Magneton is about to come in*
Now I have to switch back to Reckless. With paralysis and Supersonic it can beat me at my own game, stalling out my attacks. It's also genderless, meaning Attract won't do a damned thing. I don't have the patience for this: Reckless, use Vacuum Wave!
*Magneton goes down in two hits*

Serene comes back in to take care of Golbat. That damned Bite nearly flinched me to death with 5 out of seven hits. But I refuse to heal without confusion or hail up. The turns fly past and Haunter comes in for the grand finale. Serene, use Perish Song!

*Haunter used Mean Look*

...

..

.

Goddamnit!

Oh well, nothing I can do about that. I only had 4 PP of Attract left and the Perish Song. At least it kinda counts as a solo, right?


Shopping time:

I buy a few dozen potions and battle items and pick up the Exp Share and TM Roar for Serene. At the ranch I order another annual supply of Milk, which is invaluable for Serene's stalling style of battle.

I also buy some vitamins for Reckless, maximizing his SpA and HP stats. But he requires even more power to face Bruno. A quick grinding session of Psyduck puts him around 135 SpA EV's to back up the choice specs. This had better be enough.

'Mom' has been super awesome as well, giving me a Muscle Band for Fusion and a Focus Sash. I am totally retracting my earlier annoyances, because these items are totally worth it!

In the meanwhile I finish up the final routes with Earl the Dunsparce. The restriction to solo 15 pokemon on each route, hasn't really been a restriction at all. In fact he keeps up with the team rather well, simply by these solo's.

He grinds the final levels to the targetted 45 by hunting down the last Ice, Fire, Rock and Steel types to land a secondary effect on. I call the challange completed, with these few remaining:
- 5 Dragon Types (let's face it, he's done well enough)
- Most Ghost Types (Which are OHKO'd or immune)
- Most Dark Types (Which is impossible due to lack of wild pokemon)

In the meanwhile, N10SE grinds a little versus random Sandslashes and Ratticates when I realize what an epic boss he really is: Cut's PP has been depleted and he has 20 HP remaining. But he keeps on winning battles. He manages to take down three pokes and take only 14 damage from their combined attacks.
*Sandslash uses Crush Claw*
He lives with 3 HP! Surely he's dead next turn!
*Sandslash uses Fury Cut*
He lives with 2 HP, surely he can't take another poke.
*Ratticate uses Scary Face twice and gets killed*
Okay now then.
*Quagsire uses amnesia, a crit takes it out*
What a boss!

*Cooltrainer Gaven wants to rematch*
Finally! Serene is given a chance to redeem herself for losing to that bastard Kingler! This time she will solo the entire team. Victreebell costs me a lot of potions though and Fire Blast from Flareon does a bit more than I anticipated.
*Kingler misses Guillotine on the first turn*
"Okay, lets not make that mistake again; Perish Song!"
I'm starting to resent that move; it forces me to switch out, costing me half of my hard fought experience. Meh, a solo is a solo.

Serenity is now at level 37. I decide to give it the Exp Share and start to kill some Jellyfish on route 41. Both Fusion and Serenity could use the special Defense. A final tour of victory road brings Serene and Fusion up to level 40 and 45 respectively. There there, all done for the pokemon league. Finally! With every member properly trained and at the same level I can start the fun..


.. Next Chapter =P


Team Summary:

Skip (Quagsire) - Level 45
Nature: Jolly, Ability: Water Absorb
Item: Zoom Lens
- Blizzard
- Earthquake
- Yawn
- Strength

Status: Skip has completed the challange. He solo'd Falkner and Whitney as a Wooper, bred Skip Jr. and solo'd Morty with his offspring. He continued to be a reliable pokemon with a great STAB in Earthquake. Strength proved usefull to keep him on the team. Yawn for team support and Blizzard with a Zoom Lens was a pretty cool way to round off his coverage.

Earl (Dunsparce) - Level 45
Nature: Lonely, Ability: Serene Grace
Item: Muscle Band
- Secret Power
- Iron Tail
- Roost
- Swagger -> Stealth Rock

Status: His route solo's actually helped him, as he always got enough EV's and experience to stay ahead of the team. Swagger is useless on him and was a bad part of the challange. I'd rather had another Serene Grace move (even a crappy one like Rock Smash). Secret Power is a fun STAB and Iron Tail did surprisingly well too. He was a fun guy with mediocre stats and moves. His solo of Karen was the most annoying thing I ever did.

N10SE (Scizor) - Level 45
Nature: Adamant, Ability: Technician
Item: Silk Scarf
- Leer
- Focus Energy
- Fury Cutter
- Cut

Status: Scizor is just an epic boss. High attack, Technician and decent typing make even the most crappy moves like Fury Cutter into high powered weapon. Leer provided excellent team support duting the E-4 and Cut very usefull for attacking wild Tentacool (when leading the party). I also love to have some HM's around to prevent needing to bring a second HM slave.

Reckless (Tyrogue) - Level 45
Nature: Quirky, Ability: Guts
Item: Choice Specs
- Fake Out
- Foresight
- Hidden Power [Steel]
- Vacuum Wave

Status: Even with Choice Specs he is underpowered. He scores a 3HKO on wild Donphan and manages to take out the Rock-types with his VW. But those Golbat can give him a lot of trouble. I really hate that he can't just run away from them. Oh, well he can always switch to Serene.

Serene (Lapras) - Level 40
Nature: Bold, Ability: Shell Armor
Item: Chesto Berry (Exp Share for a few levels)
- Hail
- Attract -> Roar
- Confuse Ray
- Perish Song

Status: It takes the same effort to grind against a lvl 22 rattata or a lvl 44 trained Rapidash. Natually I waited for the most exp before taking the effort to train her. She actually did well on Victory road. She solo'd half of the Rival's team with relative ease and solo'd Cooltrainer Gavin in a rematch. I'm starting to use her as a revenge killer with decent results. Whenever something is at low health she comes in and takes it out or switches back and forth to sponge powerful hits and confuse things. Perish Song also helps, but the loss of 50% xp is a real deal breaker. Oh well, other pokes can benefit from it.


Fusion (Gyarados) - Level 45
Nature: Hasty, Ability: Intimidate
Item: Muscle Band -> Shell Bell -> Choice Scarf
- Bite
- Waterfall
- Thunder
- Frustration

Status: Easily the MVP. Intimidate, decent attack and great moves. He led the team in victory road and gained multiple levels with ease. Whenever I can't handle a pokemon, I send out Fusion to spam his Waterfall. Thunder missing isn't a bit problem as he can simply switch to Serene and come back in for the Intimidate. Frustration does abolutely nothing, however, and his restrictions on Switching and Choice Locking can be annoying when he actually faces an entire team.

Chapter 7: The Elite Four

---

I tried several stategies during the Elite Four to see which would be the most interesting. In summary I solo'd Will using Roar and Stealth Rock with Serene. Solo'd Koga with Skip by accident while I was checking out his team. Bruno was finished off by Choice Specs Vacuum Wave Tyrogue. Earl pulled through against Karen and Fusion solo'd Lance by shuffling Intimidates, with a little help from his pal N10SE.

I made some last minute adjustments to the team, swapping Earl's Swagger for Stealth Rock and deleting Serene's Attract for Roar. Serene gets a Chesto Berry to counter Jynx's Lovely Kiss and Fusion gets a Shell Bell or a Choice Scarf in his final battle.

Versus Will:

I bring to this match:
- Two X-SpD
- A Chesto Berry
- Stealth Rock on Earl
- Roar, Hail and Confuse Ray

The mission:
- Defeat Will using residual damage
- Set up Rocks and start shuffling his birds.

My normal strategy of Attract, Confuse Ray and Hail is not going to be very effective on Will. All of his pokemon are female, meaning that Attract is utterly useless. Slowbro has Oblivious so I can't wear him down with Confuse Ray and Jynx is immune to Hail. I also going to require a more effective method of damage, since last battle drained all my PP on two pokemon alone.

Solution 1: Swagger. I speed up the damaging process by raising attack to +4 and at the same time solve the PP issues of Confuse Ray. But it seems that Will has prepared himself for that strategy. All of his pokemon carry a physical STAB attack for back up. I have to be careful not to go to plus six, as Aerial Ace or Egg Bomb can potentially deal a lot of unwanted damage. But that's why Confuse Ray is there.

Fortunately Shell Armor can shield me from critical hits and two X-Defends keep Serene out of K.O. Range. The big problem to this set is Slowbro, who must be pseudo phazed with Perish Song until he's the last pokemon standing. Especially the part of switching out in unappealing. It worked but, I didn't like it very much.

Solution 2: Stealth Roar. Earl can learn Stealth Rock and set up hazards on the first turn. Serene can then use Roar to deal consistent damage to a Stealth Rock weak team. Hail should provide reliable back up damage and Confuse Ray should help me distribute the damage equally. I should aim to wear all pokemon down simultaneously to avoid the need for Perish Song.

Solution 2; seems like the elegant solution and interesting to use aswell. I trade a TM from SoulSilver and replace Earl's questionable Swagger with a superior move. Hey, maybe he can benefit from it during his fight with Karen?

The battle goes with relative comfort. I love how Xatu uses Me-First to give me free turns for Hail and X-items and then uses U-turn to spell it's own doom. The Exeggutor and the Jynx are the biggest threats for Serene and after my Chesto berry is gone, I get trolled by Hypnosis. The lead Xatu is healed and the second Xatu has a Sitrus berry to survive the onslaught of Roar for a little longer. The most critical turns are when Psychic scores a Sp Def drop and when Exeggutor puts me to sleep for 5 Turns.

In the end it all works out. I break down Slowbro and Exeggutor with hail damage long enough until they're in the yellow.

My trap is set! Serene, Roar that Slowbro!

*Roar drags Exeggutor in who takes Stealth Rock Damage and dies to Hail on the same turn*
*Xatu comes in to die to Stealth Rock*
*Slowbro comes in to die to Stealth Rock*
*Jynx comes in to die to Stealth rock*
*Xatu comes in to die to stealth Rock*

That was great! I actually hit reset here, to experience this fun battle all over again.


Versus Koga:

I planned to do a quick scouting battle to see what pokemon are on his team but Skip accidently pulled through despite some obvious flaws. I guess the battle was fun enough.

Koga leads with Ariados and I foolishly go for Yawn to scout his moves. The Insomnac spider hits me with Giga Drain and Skip dodges the bullet by a hair: It just manages to miss the KO by a few HP and thanks to that jolly nature he is able to outspeed Ariados. Giga drain has healed the spider quite a bit, so I'm randomly tapping EQ and preparing for a reset.

*Earthquake has exactly the right amount of power to take out the Ariados*

Oh, well let the testing continue. I proceed to waste my earthquakes on the Forretress completely forgetting I have Yawn. Koga pulls out a Full Restore and I realize I need to conserve my PP.

One EQ takes the Venomoth down to yellow life, but confuses Skip in return. I'm not really bothered with the battle and Skip hits himself three times in a row going down into the red.

*Skip snapped out of confusion and smashes the moth with Strength*

Well will you look at that! Maybe I do have a shot at winning. I have one earthquake left to deal with Muk. The blob misses Gunkshot while I heal, but uses Minimize on the next turn. Thank god for that zoom lens. *Strength takes it out comfertably.*

After Minimize I'm back on alert. The Crobat will go for evasion shenanigans too. I Yawn first and start missing Blizzards. The fourth one finally hits, but the berry activates costing me the 2HKO. The last Blizzard hits too and brings the bat into the red. Koga uses his last Full Restore curing sleep in the process. Another Yawn puts the bat back to sleep while Skip spams Strength until it goes down. Easy!


Versus Bruno:

Even at maxed out special attack Tyrogue fails to OHKO the Hitmons with Vacuum wave so I go for three Special Attack boosts. I need to be able to survive two High Jump Kicks and Cross Chop's. Unfortunately, 3 boosts are not enough and Tyrogue is outstalled by High Jump Kick.

I bring to the match:
- Choice Specs
- Vacuum Wave
- 4 Potions
- 3 X-Specials, 4 X-Defends

Hitmontop goes for Counter or Dig, making it easy to set up the X-items. I need one potion to heal and my special Tyrogue is all set up to sweep. But Bruno decides his Hitmontop is his best bet and uses a Full Restore. I think not! Reckless, use Vacuum Wave!

*Hitmontop goes down, Hitmonlee comes out*
Oh oh, Hitmonlee uses focus energy!! One crit and I'm gone!!
*Vacuum Wave scores a critical hit*
Or I get lucky and take it out before it attacks..

Machamp deals MASSIVE damage with Revenge and forces me to heal quite a bit it does way over half even with the quadrupple defense boosts. Fortunately I don't have to attack every turn and go for some potions. In three hits I have him in the red, just one more..

*Bruno applies a full restore*
Dang.. This will take a while. Back to healing then.
*Much later the Machamp is knocked out the ring*

I simply laugh when Bruno sends out his Onyx. What is HE going to do? Of course the Hitmonchan gets healed too. But it doesn't matter, he can't do anything too dangerous to me. The match is over! Thanks to Bruno's expertise on fighting pokemon, Reckless is no longer disabled. He can start using certain physical moves from here on out. Yay!


Versus Karen:

OMG I MADE IT!! THE MOST ANNOYING BATTLE EVER!

I hated this battle; Synchronize kept bouncing Paralysis, Umbreon once trolled me with Confuse Ray and Double Team to drain my PP, Gengar has Spite and I got killed so many times by Destiny Bond (THAT SNEAKY BASTARD). And when it does attack, its even worse! It can potentially OHKO with Focus Blast!!

On the defensive side it's not a joke either. I need to land four hits on the Umbreon and at least two on every other pokemon.

Not even to mention the insane damage that comes from that Houndoom. Without an X-SpD, Flamethrower could 2HKO, even without the random burn hax and Crunch. Last but not least that Murkrow has Whirlwind, which would technically end my solo in one stupid move. Oh yeah, have I mentioned I'm not allowed to heal? It's fun to note that Stealth Rock and Muscle Band actually secured the 2hko on Gengar and the 3hko on Houndoom. They were vital to winning this battle.

Earl sets up Stealth Rocks and starts missing Secret Powers while Umbreon confuses and initiates his diabolical Double Team strategy. Finally, I hit the thing and get it paralyzed. The fun is short lived:

*Umbreon's Synchronize paralyzed Dunsparce*

Oh great! Just what I needed. I finally take the thing down at the cost of 10 missed Secret Powers, a few Iron Tails and quite a bit of Roost. She even heals the thing and surprize, surprize; Synchronize Paralyzes Earl yet again. Sigh. Gengar is send out to do his Evil Thing. I need an X-SpD right now, or risk a potential Knock Out.

*Focus Blast deals massive damage* Earl has to Roost off the damage and pray that he doesn't get hit by another Focus Blast first.

*Gengar used Focus Blast*

.. "Gasp!"

*Gengar's attack missed!*

.. "Phew!"

I hate that thing! Better take it down with an Iron Tail. This had better not miss!

*Gengar uses Spite! Roost PP is reduced by 4. Iron Tail takes it to yellow range.* Aaargh! I really hate that thing! I need to preserve my Roost PP, seeing it's my only source of healing. I go for Iron Tail to take it out swiftly.

*Gengar used Destiny Bond*

...

..NNOO..

..OOO..

..ooo!

*Earl's Iron Tail missed!*

OMG! That was close! I can stall out another Destiny Bond with Roost but what if he goes for Spite instead. Hmm, how to proceed? I'm just going to go for it! Iron Tail, GO!

*Gengar uses D-Bond! Iron Tail misses yet again!* Man this luck is really uncanny. This is the moment where I lost so many battles! It never does the same trick more that twice, though. I'm counting on that. Earl, use Iron Tail!

*Gengar used Spite! Iron Tail takes it out.* About time! Only 2 PP left, another Spite would have been the end of me. With an X-SpD and at full HP that Houndoom doesn't seem to threatening. I could probably live two Flamethrowers. Secret Power, Go!

*Houndoom uses Nasty Plot!* OOH FUUUU... Secret power brings it down to Sitrus range and Paralyzes the Houndoom. Maybe I do have a chance.. But the second Secret Power fails to kill the infernal dog by a shred of hp. I'm done for!

*Houndoom is fully paralyzed*

But maybe not! Secret power takes out the dog, only a few PP left so I use an X-Att while Murkrow comes in.

*Murkrow used Whirlwind!*

.. (Did that bird just flip me off?)

That little bastard! A whirlwind would drag in another team-member, technically ending my solo attempt! And I know that Secret Power wouldn't have killed it!

*.. But it failed!*

Success!! Now it's Earl's turn to show him the finger. Let's Secret Power that thing! *Murkrow faints, Vileplume comes out* Secret Power takes it down in two hits taking a Stun Spore and a Petal Dance.

While I'm writing this, I can't help but realize how lucky this battle was. What I haven't mentioned is all the attempts where the tables were turned. I seriously had a long session of Bad Luck before this fight: Random burns from Flamethrower, crucial misses with Iron Tail, insane confuse hax from Umbreon when I needed a Roost (that no Potion thing is brutal sometimes) and most of all getting surprised by those nazi D-bonds from Gengar all the time! How many times have I lost to that Gengar!!


Versus Lance:

Fusion is up for his first solo and it's a big one! Fortunately N10SE has to land one blow on one of the dragons first. My initial strategy is to set up on the Gyarados, bring it in red health to activate the Full Restore and then sweep the team as best as I can with Waterfall.

I bring to the battle:
- 5 X-Attack, 2 X-Defend, 1-X-Speed and a Dire Hit
- 10 Super Potions for healing
- A Shell Bell.

I'm going to hit hard and hit fast. I'm required to heal with super potions, can't use any status healers, am choice locked against all pokemon, must enable Lance to use a Full Restore and must deliver a single blow with N10SE.

Two defense boosts enable Fusion to barely live two Outrages. A speed boost enables me to outspeed Charizard and Aerodactyl before they can hit me with Thunderfang.

I could have set up Special Defense, but the Dragonite always go for T-Wave. Fusion is not going to live a second Thunder either, so he'd best knock out the Dragonite before he can attack. He needs 5 attack boosts to secure a 2HKO on the Dragons. Without more defense boosts and proper healing methods, this is vital. The most annoying restriction is not being able to cure status. I completed the battle earlier with more boosts, but tried to go with a more offensive approach.

N10SE uses Cut on the Gyarados before Fusion can come in to set up. Waterfall brings the Gyarados in the red to trigger the Full Restore and Aerodactyl is OHKO'd.

Dragonite T-Waves me after taking 50% from a +5 Waterfall. What a beast! The inevitable Thunder misses (after a few attempts) and Waterfall kills the third poke. With Fusion Paralyzed for the rest of the match this is going to be brutal.. That stupid non healing restriction is annoying the crap out of me.

I take a Dragon Rush to the face (that +2 Def is key here) and get a critical hit on the second dragon, killing it in one hit. The final Dragonite starts spamming Outrage right off the bat, and I'm forced to heal Fusion with super potions until the confusion hax kicks in (his health still drops but not as rapidly).

Finally he hits himself in confusion while I get some hp back. The next turn Dragonite goes for a Safeguard while Fusion lands the first Waterfall. I get lucky when another burst of confusion strikes again. Fusion kills it with Waterfall. Charizard manages to take a hefty chunk with Airslash but is OHKO'd in return.

What a lucky win. I lost quite a few times due to Full Paralysis, Thunder Hitting, Repeated Outrages etc. While I'm here I wonder why I didn't go for Dragon Pulse over Bite. But looking in my bag I wonder; where the hell IS my TM Dragonpulse!?!! Wasn't I supposed to get that earlier?


ALTERNATIVE:

I realize during the battle that Scizor actually has to hit one of the DRAGONS. I decide to reset and try this battle once again, but now with a hit and run tactic. I'll use Scizor's Leer for Support and will score multiple Intimidate drops on the Dragons to live an Outrage.

Since Gyarados is going to be choice locked anyway (only male pokemon on Lance's team), I decide to give him the Choice Scarf to hold. Dragonite number one can OHKO with Thunder and Aerodactyl can OHKO with Thunderfang so this is a key item for me to have.

I bring to this battle:
- A Choice Scarf
- 10 Super Potions for Fusion
- Leer Support
- Random healing stuff for N10SE
- No X-Items
- The ability to switch, even though I actually can't

Mission: Bait and switch, Scizor will use Cut once on the Thunder Dragonite.

I lead with Fusion and 2HKO the Gyarados with Thunder. I'm choice locked so I need to switch in Reckless as fodder and let Fusion comes back in to OHKO the Aerodactyl with Waterfall.

I use the opportunity to switch out to Scizor to face the Thunder Dragonite. Three leers to give Fusion a decent shot at revenge killing but he also has to deliver one blow to a dragon. I use cut on the final turn to bring Dragonite in yellow life. Fusion comes in for an easy revenge kill. 3 Down.

The second dragon is handled the same way. Scizor switches out to Gyarados to get a total of four Intimidates. Gyarados is healed with Super Potions while Scizor takes Dragon Rushes like a champ. But the trick is to avoid the Thunder Wave: Fortunately, the Dragonite goes for Hyper Beam once Scizor is out. With a little guessing I switch Fusion in hoping to take the Hyperbeams and net a free recharge turn to deal damage with Waterfall. Afterward I switch back to Scizor to safely absorb the T-Wave. Rinse and repeat.

The final dragon is the most interesting. Outrage does massive damage and gives me great prediction to switch to Scizor and use Leer. But it also has Fireblast, requiring a lot of switching back to Fusion. With three defense drops I go on the offense. Waterfall combined with confusion damage takes it into the red and Lance goes for a Full Restore (Finally!!).

But I'm running out of Super Potions. With a final switch to Scizor I use my final two potions to bring Fusion back to green health and hope for the best. Waterfall needs four hits, but Outrage only three. This would be the time for confusion hax!!

*Dragonite used Outrage*

... o_o

*Dragonite used Outrage*

....0_0

*Dragonite snapped out of confusion!*

... O_O (..oh snap!)

*Dragonite used Safeguard*

YESSSSS!! Thanks to the scarf Fusion outspeeds and kills the Dragon and Charizard with Waterfall. This was way more epic than screwing with the X-items. Great Match!


Oak appears and the credits roll. It's time to say goodbye to N10SE, Earl and Skip for a while. They have served me well!

Next chapter: Kanto! With new Scramble 'mon too!

Chapter 8: Buster

---

Ah, the promise of a new region! I awake in New Bark town with my victorious Pokemon League team and drop by Professor Elm. He gives me tickets for a boat in Olivine and off I go. But like Ash I will have to make some dramatic changes to my team. I head to Cherrygrove on foot and access the computer:

Skip, Earl and N10SE will stay in Johto for this part. Fusion is benched for a while until he's less overpowered compared to the rest. Serene has now finished her solo's, and I plan to use her in a more supporting role. Reckless can now use physical moves and will learn Headbutt from the Ilex Tutor. Koops joins the party for good, having decent experience from earlier solo's, but also quite under powered compared to my pokemon league team. If I complete his solo's he can potentially evolve too!

And then there are the new Kanto team members Molasses and Buster. Buster is at level one and hasn't seen any action yet. I decide to put him in the lead for the entire chapter (except for some grinding sessions later on) and learn him a TM Pluck on the spot.

On his first wild battle he already crits a Metapod with his mighty Flamewheel. I'm already enjoying his unorthodox new movepool. I start walking for Olivine, pick up Headbutt for Reckless, buy a crap load of new X-items, buy a crap load of Milk and grind Buster to level 25. His lack of EV's, STAB and experience make me evolve him before proceding to the boat.

Without Fusion my team is pretty interesting. Koops is under-leveled. Buster and Molasses are untrained and Reckless is Frail. Haha that leaves Serene as my MVP. I have a big problem with fighting types and once Koops and Reckless are gone I'm counting on Serene to take things out a lot.

Kanto:

I arrive in Vermillion. I really love how HG gives an entire new region to explore. I could solo Lt. Surge now, but my team is too weak to stand up to him yet. Not only am I severly underleveled, but I need to solo a gym trainer as well. Instead of doing the battle now, I decide to head to Fuchsia where Buster can complete his first solo. I keep my ninja-rat in the lead so he can build enough power to take out the gymleader on his own.

In a patch between Saffron and Lavender on Route 8 I go and train Molasses up to speed. There are Noctowl and Haunter to give me great EV's in the process. Time to get cracking! When I'm done Molasses has gained over 10 levels and is at level 37. Still 10 levels below the regular trainers.. -_-

There are a few lost Growlithe in the patch, which Molasses effortlessly solo's with Smog. It actually does decent damage on lower leveled pokes. I like how he has a "coverage" move that is still soo crappy than only Scramblers see decent use in it. But the let down is 70% accuracy. WTF Gamefreak! I though that was for awesome moves like Focus blast! I mean look at it! It has 20 freaking basepower!! Sure it has 40% chance to poison, but sludge has 30! I demand that Smog gets more love next generation.[/rant]

I explore Dark Tunnel for a bit and then head south. A trainer with three Gyarados forces me to use Buster and Serene in tandem to take it down with great effort. Wow, Serene is really seing a lot of action now.

Buster really needs the burn and flinch hax from his his moves to knock out a single pokemon. And my stock of milk goes down rapidly. But slowly he approaches level 40 and becomes more and more the MVP of this team. Decent coverage moves and solid speed enable him to solo a lot of trainers on the route towards Fuchsia. Especially Fearow are welcome adversaries. But he's also overwhelmed by powerfull STAB moves and is frequently forced to switch to Koops or Serene in fear of getting his ass kicked.

On the final stretch he can battle some wild Quagsire in the grass. I even skip most trainer battles after he reaches level 45. He's not exactly there yet, but at least he should be able to take on Janine with a reasonable chance of winning. This will be interesting. The rest of the gym matches all have super effective moves on my pokemon, so this should be one of the easiest battles in Kanto. Therefore I don't want to head in with too much training or power, to keep it at a difficult level.

In the gym, Koops solo's the Nidoking and Queen. But man do they overpower him! He's at level 40 while they are at level 47! Molasses takes down the line of Bulbasaur, with his Yawn + Protect tactic. Protect is so awesome on him! Stalling out an extra turn of Burn damage has won him many battles. It doesn't matter that Sludgebomb hits like a freaking truck. Just Protect when they use it!

Buster incinerates the final trainer before facing his first challange: In order to become a cool Ninja Rat like Splinter he must beat Janine:

Versus Janine:

I bring to the battle:
- One Flaming Ninja Rat
- An X-Def, an X-Sp Def, A Guard Spec and two X-Att
- A Pecha Berry
- One Full Restore and a Milk

Poison gym's are one of the coolest in my opinion. I like how Fuchsia's is the only poison gym in the franchise. You've got to give her points for that. Anyways, she leads with her Crobat, who can confusion hax and deals quite abit of damage to my frail Ratticate. I decide to go for an X-Defend to give Buster a bit of bulk while Confuse Ray hits him in the face.

*Crobat used Screech!* How annoying! After two Screeches Crobat can OHKO Buster without a problem. But Buster needs at least 5 hits to get rid of the bat. Fortunately I learned from previous battles:

*Guard Spec. prevents Buster's stats from being lowered!* Ahahaha! I guess I just ninja'd the ninja! I have 5 solid turns to set up and put pressure on Crobat. Since Buster has no STAB and lacking attack. I set up two X-Attacks and start attacking. Buster, Flame Wheel! *Does decent damage but so does Wing Attack*

Buster hits himself in his confusion and I'm forced to heal before a second hit. Looks like it just fails to take the bat down in two hits. *Janine uses a Full Restore* Great, a free turn to deal some damage. Let's hope that she doesn't go for Screech. A second Flame Wheel burns the bat. Wing attack now does pathetic damage while another attack takes the bat down.

*Weezing comes out and uses Sludge Bomb* Sludgebomb deals a hefty amount of damage; over 50%. I need to apply an X-Special to live first the hit. Even with the attack boosts that Weezing is incredibly bulky, so I go for Focus Energy to set up. But my plan gets foiled as I get smacked by Toxic.

*Buster's Pecha Berry cured Poison!*

Now, thát are some proper Ninja skills from Buster. Never go into a poison gym without a Berry! Time to fish for a flinch hax and spam Bite. *Toxic Poisons again. Bite does 20%* That is one bulky Weezing! Fortunately Toxic activates Guts so the next hit should do more damage. The next turn Buster gets blasted by another Sludgebomb, bringing my Ratticate's health to 15%. But bite scores a critical Guts boosted hit and brings Weezing in K.O range for Flamewheel.

*Buster survives at 5% health. Venomoth comes out* That Venomoth is at a whopping level 50! I'm forced to heal Buster with a Full Restore to get rid of Toxic. Venomoth's Sludgebomb does a hefty chunk of damage in return. I'm not sure whether Buster can live another turn like that. But he has one Ninja trick up his sleeve that he hasn't used yet. I pray that I outspeed the moth:

*Buster used Pluck!*

Perfect! Buster outspeeds and hits the moth hard with a guts 120 BP super effective attack and steals the sitrus berry to heal himself in the nick of time! What an epic move right there! *Venomoth lives and poisons Buster with Sludgebomb* What a beast! It lived a +2 SE hit like that! I really should have grinded for attack EV's.. But now I'm in a decent position. Buster outspeeds her pokemon and can spam Guts boosted Pluck to pull through.

But that Sludgebomb has put me at low health; if I fail to K.O. the Ariados the poison alone would be enough to finish me off. I can hear myself thinking; "Come on, It's an Ariados! Go for it!" Can it do the trick?

It can; *Both Ariados are OHKO'd*

Buster pulls out the first Kanto solo with his masterful ninja skills. That was a great battle. Guts has really come through for me. Pluck, the burn from Flamewheel and the Pecha Berry really came through for me. Janine has only one response:

“SOOOO STRONG!!!” XD

Buster is now at a comfertable level 47 and in the absense of Fusion a clear contender for MVP. But where to go next? I guess it's time to head to Vermillion for Koops' next solo.. I really want to hold off Sabrina until Reckless is on par with her pokemon.

Team Summary:

Buster (Raticate) - Level 47
Nature: Relaxed, Ability: Guts
Item: Pecha Berry
- Flame Wheel
- Pluck
- Bite
- Focus Energy

Status: He started this chapter at level one and quickly developed as the primary sweeper of the team. By keeping him in the lead at all times he faced some tough trainers and cost me a lot of potions and items. But once he got to a respectable level his moves started to pay off. I'm glad I evolved him before the S.S. Anne. He really needs that extra bit of stats to make up for the lack of EV's and his low level. I'm really enjoying his unorthodox movepool of Flamewheel and Pluck; makes him a whole new pokemon to scramble with.

Molasses (Slugma) - Level 43
Nature: Hardy, Ability: Flame Body
Item: Charcoal
- Yawn
- Smog
- Ember
- Protect

Status: Yawn and Protect are a solid combo on him. The best he has to offer. He can use it get a little damage in with Ember while the foe sleeps. In the endgame Flame Body and Burn hax are great in conjuncion with Protect to stall out more residual damage. I love Smog as the last move, it's great for hitting fire types (he solo'd a few Growlithe), but the 70% accuracy is a let down. After a long grinding session on route 8, he has a lot of SpA, HP and SpD EV's. He solo'd 5 trainers so far.

Koops (Squirtle) - Level 42
Nature: Modest, Ability: Torrent
Item: Shell Bell
- Bite
- Iron Defense
- Water Pulse
- Tail Whip

Status: With the solo of Ho-oh he has now 3 CP in his pocket and has spend the 4 on losing Withdraw and the gender restriction. He rejoined the team at level 35 and had a hard time with the over-leveled trainers that he faced. In Kanto he's severly limited by his un-evolved form and quite frail despite heavy investment. He often relies on Water Pulse to confuse things in order to beat strong opponents.

Reckless (Tyrogue) - Level 47
Nature: Quirky, Ability: Guts
Item: Choice Specs
- Fake Out
- Headbutt
- Hidden Power [Steel]
- Vacuum Wave

Status: With Bruno's solo completed, he regains certain Physical Moves to his set. Arms for Hitmonchan, Legs for Hitmonlee.. but what about Tyrogue? Can he learn EQ? or Rockslide? or even Brick Break? For now, he will stick to Headbutt.


Serene (Lapras) - Level 43
Nature: Bold, Ability: Shell Armor
Item: Chesto Berry
- Hail
- Safeguard
- Confuse Ray
- Perish Song

Status: With the absense of Fusion, she is the only truely Bulky pokemon on my team. As a result she often switches in to take a hit for buster and confusion or Perish Songing strong foes to help wear down the opponent an create free turns for her team mates. With her solo restrictions completed, I'm thinking of giving her Screen Support to truely help other team mates complete their solo's and set up. This will also increase her general usefullness giving her more opportunities to come in and actually do something. This pokemon is way better without the solo-focus of this particular challange and would have been a star in the next part of my biathlon challange.

Chapter 9: Koops

---

With the Soul Badge in the pocket, I guess it's time to face the music. Koops still has to solo Lt. Surge in Vermilion but is severely underleveled. I guess I should go to the Power Plant first to give him some last minute training. I'll backtrack over route 11 and clear those trainers too.

East of Fuchsia:

With Molasses in the lead I go solo the trainers East of Fuchsia which I skipped earlier: Sunkern, Spinda, Aipom, Volbeat.. Is the route for forgotten pokemon? And did that Sunkern just outsped my slug? It doesn't matter though, setting up Sunny Day will only make me roast his ass harder. Molasses, use Ember! *Sunkern becomes a dry roasted snack*

Molasses is really becoming a powerhouse amidst the trainers here. I guess that EV training has really helped him out. Sandslash takes massive damage from Ember and burns himself on Slugma's body. Hah, serves him right! Graveler?

*Uses Protect while it uselessly self destructs*

He's such a bastard, I love it! How to deal with Golem? Aha, the HM bird actually carries Flash and makes him miss Earthquake on Molasses. I wish he could do Teeter Dance just to annoy the rock even more. I guess I'll have to settle with Yawn to take the rock down. He even gets past Water-types: Squirtle uses Skullbash (LOL!), Psyduck is poisoned and Slowking fails to K.O. with Waterpulse!

The Power Plant:

Koops on the other hand is failing to do anything. I put him in the lead to get some exp, but the first trainer he faces carries a bunch of Pikachu.. sigh. When I return to Lavender he's at a meager level 43. It looks like I have a lot of work to do. I'll take Rock Tunnel and head for the power plant.

Random dude: "My precious Charge Beam powers this machine"
Um.. I'm going to stand over there for a bit..

Apparently he's the owner or something like that. After the mad dribbling he manages to inform me that somebody stole a part from their machine and now their factory isn't running. Um.. Don't you guys have any spare parts? What kind of place is this? And who in their right mind would steal a GEAR? Did he mistake it for a pokémon? And who hides a gear in a swimming pool? (oops, spoilers! XD) But sure, I'll go look for it. Let's have the 10 year old solve the technical issues of a powerplant! *Looks around the room* Wait, there are like five cops in here! Why can't they take care of this? Or are they buzy eating donuts? Typical gamefreak, always adding that touch of realism where you least suspect it.

Time to fly to Saffron. On the way North some old hag gives me the Cleanse Tag. Gamefreak really seems to associate Ghost type pokemon with old hags like that.. Somebody must have really disliked his grandmother over there.

In the gym: BUMP!! .. EEK A ROCKET!! Wait, didn't Koops solo his masters a few chapters ago? This should be easy! Koops, use Water Pul.. Hey, where did he go? Did he just snuck out of a pokemon battle? I thought you weren't allowed to do that! Great, now I have to go and find the dude.. I wonder where he'll be hiding (hint: not really).

Later..

Ah the thief! He was waiting on the bridge all along. I do love how he tries to hide between the lovey dovey couple. But enough talk, let's do this! I AM A TRAINER, YOU WILL BATTLE ME!! I'm almost expecting him to reply "Screw the rules, I have money!" *Koops easily disposes of his puny Golbat* What.. that was all he had? I'm almost disappointed, but then he opens his mouth: "Now I go back my country to do teame rocket for make benefit glorious nation of kazakhstan!" Hahaha! That Sasha Baron Cohen! I didn't know he had a Rocket Grunt as his latest character, he even had the crappy pokemon battle right!

He leaves, an I'm send on yet another mysterious quest to find the missing part in the swimming pool. I love how the dude on the bridge suggests that you bugger off when you talk to him. "Dude, I'm kinda making my move here. Why don't you go fight some pokemon or something and leave us alone!"

*Does So*

Okay, Koops still ain't that great: Random Raichu and Golduck are still too much to handle. I'm getting a bit worried about that gym battle. But the rest of the trainers give him some much needed experience. Sandslash and Golem are very appreciated kills indeed.

I deliver the machine part to net myself a Charge Beam TM. Man, I'm still creeped out about the whole 'my precious' attitude of that fat guy. Oh well, time to head to Lavender and pick up the radio card.

Route 11:

I haven't taken route 11 yet, so Koops can get some final experience there. Versus an Exeggutor I accidentally tap Iron Defense and end up tanking a Woodhammer really well. And even though I need to heal Squirtle after every battle, he's doing better and better. Fortunately there are some more Fire and Ground types to soak.

The sleeping Snorlax is one of the better roadblocks in my opinion. Well, comparing to invisible Kecleon and annoying old dudes with Rage Candy Bars that is. I whip out my pokegear and tune in to wake Snorlax up. *Radio plays Slayer* *Snorlax woke up!* *Snorlax attacked the poor taste in music!* I always found it very strange how the pokeflute was supposed to wake up the big fat pokemon. Isn't the soothing music supposed to put him to sleep?

*Koops attacks for pathetic damage* This could take a while. Hey, it has leftovers! That will be so awesome for the next gymbattle! MUST.. HAVE.. LEFTOVERS!!! Sod this fight, I want to catch it now!

*Throws Master Ball*

Leftovers, get! Hah, and a Snorlax to boot. I dub thee 'Bob II' in tribute before sending thee to the eternal pokébox. Oh, and I can also enter Diglet's cave. MOAR EXP!! *All pokes are level 17* Meh, what a disappointment. Oh well, Koops is now at level 50 and ready to rock Lt. Surge!

Vermilion:

*Enters the Pokemon Fanclub* Aha! A stuffed Clefairy.. It's kinda creepy, though. Is it a hunting trophy? Let me guess, Encore and Cute Charm must have annoyed the heck out you.

Chairman: "Blah blah blah.. here's a Rare Candy!" I guess gamefreak was running out of creative ideas to make tedious ways to obtain these items and decided to run with tedious alone. Or possibly they had a person like that on their team, who just couldn't stop talking nonsense. Either way I guess the candy is useful. But immediatly afterwards my character gets served by the chairman: "No, No. I like to train my pokemon like a real man, but you look like you could use it.." Um.. Thanks?

The Vermilion gym has only three trainers, so each Kanto pokemon gets to solo one of them: Koops, you're up first!

*Electrode used Explosion*

.. -_- ..

*RESET*

Molasses, you're up first! *Molasses used Protect* Ahaha! The slug is really starting to gain my appreciation. Koops takes care of Pikachu (these Rich guys always cheat with Full Restores) and Buster can Flame Wheel the Jolteon. T-Wave just boosts my Ninja Rat's attack and it doesn't even carry a Special Attack!! But that Magnemite does a crap load of damage and confuse haxes him to death! How is that possible! .. Oh yeah, Screech! Sigh, let's try that one more time!

The Gym Puzzle must be one of the most tedious ones in the history of Pokemon. Really, Gamefreak? Checking a bunch of trash cans at random for hidden switches? And the worst part is I had to do that twice, because I forgot to heal Koops.. I can't help but wonder what we're supposed to learn from all this: Always check your litter bins for valuable items and hidden switches?


Versus Lt. Surge:

Lt Surge: "I've never lost on the battle field!" Now now, Surgey.. Don't lie! We all know that Red beat you in the previous game. Denying it isn't going to help anybody.

The soldier is one haxy bastard, though. All of his pokemon seem to carry Light Screen, Double Team and Shock Wave. And three of his pokes carry that damned Static ability which seems to activate all the time. Especially Light Screen is a nightmare, as Koops has quite low Special Attack and struggles with his 20 PP.

I bring to this battle:
- 2 X-SpD, 2 X-SpA, 1 X-Acc.
- One Full Restore, a few Milks and Par Heals
- Leftovers

He leads with Raichu, who can 2HKO. "Fortunately" it always sets up screens and a few Double Teams first. Giving Koops the chance to set up before missing every attack. Two Special Defense boosts give him the bulk he so desperately needs to survive. The Leftovers are great to recover extra health on the many turns of LS and DT.

He also gets one accuracy boost to negate the first Double Team (Electrode got to +6 for free while Koops kept on missing) and two special attack boosts will give him the chance to overpower the screens which seem to be up forever.

Raichu T-Waves and gets confused by Water Pulse. I heal while his evasion goes to +4. But it can't save him, confusion strikes and WP crits to take it down.

Electrode number one has less luck. The accuracy boost negates his first double team and hits hard while the screens are down. But the next turn they come back up, costing quite a lot of hits to take it out. Two down!

Electrode number two goes staight for the Charge Beam and nets a SpA boost. Next turn, Koops gets slammed by T-wave and is fully paralyzed. Chargebeam strikes once more for a SpA boost. His attacks are beginning to hurt but Koops breaks through the paralysis like a champion and lands a critical Water Pulse while the screens are down. Electrode is in the red! Just one more hit.

*Lt. Surge used a Full Restore* Aw, give me a break! I decide to go for one of my own too. Now the Double Teams start rolling in. But Koops wears the electric ball down with his trusty pulse. Charge beam his for massive damage before he takes it out. I guess that accuracy boost really saved my ass on this one!

*Electrabuzz comes out* OMG! That thing is at level 53! What the hell, I thought this was supposed to be the first gym! Shock Wave barely fails to 2HKO, even at +2. Water Pulse does quite a bit of damage while the screens are down. Let's keep this up. *Electrabuzz used Lightscreen!* (E tu, Brute!)

Another Shock Wave takes my Squirtle in the red. I know that Electrabuzz is going for the Quick Attack now, but an Iron Defense can be sqeezed in on the screens. Koops lives with 2 HP and I heal him with a Milk. Time to assess the situation: Koops has only 6 PP left and the screens are up. I'll switch strategy and go for Bite until his turns are up.

Full Restore rears it's ugly head for the third time but Water Pulse gets a confusion in. Excellent Smithers! He punches himself in the face and two Bites take him to 50%. Finally his screens are down! Water Pulse! *Electrabuzz lives in the red*. Okay, the screens will go back up anyway, but Bite can take it out. *It can't. Electrabuzz lives with a sliver of health left* Oh, for gods sake! Another Bite!

Four down, one to go. Magneton comes out and Double Teams like the haxy bastard he is. I'm forced to heal Koops. Water Pulse hits while he goes for another Double Team. I miss while he goes for Double Team number three.. NOOO!! Please hit! Finally the Light Screen is down. Time to hit that thing for some proper damage: Water Pulse misses and Koops takes a Shock Wave. Hrrrr.. Again! Just one more hit!! Magneton attacks with another Shock Wave:

*It's a critical hit!!!*

An endless echo of 'nooooo' bounces through the city as Koops succumbs to the overwhelming electric shock. Bet you didn't see thát coming? Well, neither did I! I actually won two attempts later. These critical hits are like kryptonite to Koops. Even on the final win he had only 2 PP left on Water Pulse. Curse those potions! You're one haxy annoying bastard, Surge! I was fortunate enough that you have Shock Wave over T-bolt. But in all seriousness, SW might be good enough for Wattson, but I'd expect better from a high leveled Gymleader.


To Celadon:

Koops is really working hard for his confidence points. He now has four, meaning I could evolve him. But I've grown fond of the little Squirtle. Time to find out if he can measure up to Erika's grass types: To Celadon gym!

*A short walk later*

Old man near the gym: "This gym is full of strong trainers!!" Heh, that's not what I remember at all. Didn't he used to be some pervert, spying on the girls in the gym? Did gamefreak suddenly become correct? In any way the gym is again a top contender for tedious layouts. Oh no! A tree is in the way, what must I do! *uses cut* -_-

Three trainers and a double battle. Let's get Serene and Reckless handle the double battle first. *Giga drain proves super annoying with Lapras' Hail tactics* Okay, Perish Song instead!

Buster easily takes the Skiploom, Koops solo's the Exeggutor and Molasses stomps all over the Parasect. There, all happy!


Versus Erika:

I'm not in the mood for a pre-battle story. Koops jumps straight into action and bites the lead Jumpluff for pathetic damage. In return Giga Drain brings it up to full health dealing massive damage. Shit. *Two X-SpD and X-att later* No. Bite still does next to nothing.

*Jumpluff used Leech Seed and U-turns to Tangela*

..

..

I guess this is pretty much game, set and match.

*RESET*

I bring to this battle:
- The entire freaking drugstore on battle items
- The bible to pray that nothing will Leech Seed
- A voodoo charm to ward of Critical Hits
- A bottle of liquor to remedy my frustration
- Koops, the one and only, in propria se.

For some reason I get extremely Lucky and the Jumpluff U-turns to Tangela. No more mister nice guy!! I set up 4 Special Defense boosts and 4 attack boosts, spice up the cocktail with a Dire Hit and add some Speed to prevent him from mellowing out on me during the battle. He could make Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas seem like a mild sedative.

At +1 he'll outspeed to get the flinch-hax with Bite. Full Restore cures the Sleep Power and Koops is all set to attack. LOL! Even at +4 Giga Drain still does around 25%.. But Tangela goes down in about four Bites.

Bellossom appears at the insane level 56. I thought I had grinded Koops, but I guess I was mistaken. Bite lands a powerful crit and activates Sitrus Berry. This is actually going quite well! Until:

*Bellossom used Sunny Day*

So this is why I chose Bite over Water Pulse.. Okay let's go for another Bite! I'm at decent HP, can live a hit and need only two more Bites to take it out!

*Bellossom used Solarbeam. Koops is knocked out.*

..

Oh.. Chlorophyll! *Facepalm* I'm surprised it did over 50% damage, even at +4 Special Defense.

*RESET*

Similar shenanigans, but now I'm at +5 SpD and Tangela gets a Full Restore. I need to stall out the sunlight with potions. Solarbeam still does a lot of damage. Fortunately, Bellossom alternates with Giga Drain to gives me an opportunity to attack. Finally the sun goes down and Koops can outspeed the Bellossom for the knock out.

Victreebell comes out. Of course at level 56 as well. I'm at half health and the sun is down. I can attack comfertably, right?

*Victreebell used Leaf Storm*

NOOOOOO!!!

..

.

*Victreebell's attack missed!*

OMG!! That's insane! And Bite gets a critical hit!

I accidentally misclick in the excitement and hit Waterpulse. It does next to nothing. I'm so glad I went with Bite on this one. Imagine what little it would have done in the sun.. but I also get lucky: *Victreebell is confused. It hurt itself in its confusion!*

Here comes the Full Restore. Let's just hope I can take it out before Leaf Storm. *Bite Flinches* And the insane hax streak continues. *Giga Drain does damage. Bite hits.* Well, this is a welcome change after that battle with Surge. One more bite to take it out!

*The Jumpluff goes for U-turn* It actually does decent damage. I guess the AI has noticed the special defense boosts and therefore U-turns out at the start of the match. Why it doesn't go for Leech Seed anymore is beyond me.. Maybe that Voodoo charm really did make a difference?

Oh yeah, the match! A few Bites later the final plant bites the dust. Confidence Point, Get!! I've got to hand it to Erika: I did win, but it cost me 5 Special Defense Boosts and 4 Attack boosts to get even close to winning. Now if you'll excuse me I have to get Koops to a rehab clinic to flush out those Steroids he took.

Who's chapter will be next?


Team Summary:

Buster (Raticate) - Level 48
Nature: Relaxed, Ability: Guts
Item: Pecha Berry
- Flame Wheel
- Pluck
- Bite
- Focus Energy

Status: He didn't see much action this chapter. Still, he solo'd his gymtrainers with ease.

Molasses (Slugma) - Level 48
Nature: Hardy, Ability: Flame Body
Item: Charcoal
- Yawn
- Smog
- Ember
- Protect

Status: His special attack is quite decent, putting a good deal of damage behind his low powered Ember. I guess he's up next, so he'd better prepare his ass! So far he solo'd 16 trainers in Kanto. Only 34 left to go. He will not be getting his Dragon types, these are all reserved for Koops.

Koops (Squirtle) - Level 52
Nature: Modest, Ability: Torrent
Item: Leftovers
- Bite
- Iron Defense
- Water Pulse
- Tail Whip

Status: He has 5 Confidence Points in his bank and spend 4 on the withdraw an opposite gender restriction. He solo'd the Azalea Rival, the Ecruteak Rival, Executives Petrel, Ariana, Proton and Archer, Ho-oh and now Lt. Surge and Erika. Leftovers on him are really awesome, but the insanely high level and power gave him a lot of difficulty with his final solo's. I love him as a Squirtle, but perhaps it was time he evolved.

Reckless (Tyrogue) - Level 48
Nature: Quirky, Ability: Guts
Item: Choice Specs
- Fake Out
- Headbutt
- Hidden Power [Steel]
- Vacuum Wave

Status: With Bruno's solo completed, he regains certain Physical Moves to his set. I'm going to learn him Thief to take on Sabrina. Seeing how the reasonably bulky Koops fared agains Erika, I really need to grind him before Sabrina.


Serene (Lapras) - Level 44
Nature: Bold, Ability: Shell Armor
Item: -
- Hail
- Safeguard
- Confuse Ray
- Perish Song

Status: Giga Drain completely shuts her slow tactic down but Perish Song in a double battle is pretty great. Safeguard isn't bad as support, but I really would have liked lightscreen. Meh, I could go for captivate I guess.

Chapter 10: Reckless

---

"The sun sets over the Saffron Skyline after a final night of rooftop martial training. The red morning glow casts two long shadows stretching side by side on top of Silph scraper. Reckless the Tyrogue stands silently by his trainer, gazing determined upon the gym in the city below. His final test is waiting for him.. but has he learned enough to solo Sabrina?"

Reckless is in desperate need of proper training. Erika's pokemon were no joke at level 56, and I want to grind as much as possible before facing Sabrina *shudders* My god, this is going to be a nightmare!! Fortunately, there are a bunch of Hells Angels on the nearby bicycle road. Reckless can start his training by smushing these 'dare devils'. Although, they seem more occupied with imitating motor sounds than your actual motoring..


Bicycle road:

*Sighs* Why are there so many Weezing with Self Destruct? Reckless' best bet is to use Fake Out and switch to Serene to live the explosion. This is costing me a lot of potions but at least it gets the job done.

*A Magmar burns with Lava Plume* Even these neutral hits can be a problem: How the hell is he supposed to stand up to Alakazam? The Guts boost is helpful and sparks an idea for later. It's about freaking time his ability did a damn for him! The boost is still not enough, though. If only Tyrogue had 10 extra points in every stat..

Some of these bikers have such awesome names: Biker Teddy! LOL! I thought you guys were supposed to be rough? At least he's is nice enough to boost Reckless' pathetic attack with a Swagger: Hey, did Headbutt just OHKO something?!

Biker Ernest even has a Teddyursa to show how much of a wuss he is.. *Reckless smushes his team with his mighty Vacuum Wave* ..What's that? Whether I want to become best friends with a smelly biker? Um.. Maybe next time. Reckless, let's get out of here! No, no.. don't make him angry! He might cry or show his Dora the Explorer tatoos..

*Cooltrainer Gaven wants a rematch* Excellent, more volunteers to put in Reckless' crosshairs! These Weezing and Magmar were getting quite annoying. *Reckless owns Victreebell* What's next? Ah, the Flareon! Serene's got this, confuse hax does a crapload of damage on him. I'll just Perish Song Kingler and switch to Reckless on the final turn.. there, there.

*Flies back to Celadon to heal*

I exit the pokecenter when Gavin calls for a rematch. Wait.. didn't we just cover that? Oh well, I guess I could smush him once more.. Sjeezz, some people don't know when to stop. And did he just claim he trained his pokemon? Obviously not; he still has the same boring old team.. Oh well, good exp is good. But i'd expect this demented dribbling from the grannies in the psychic gym..

After a little grinding on Victory road and a quick restock on X-items it's time to head to the gym. The rest of the team is eager to solo their trainers so there you have it: Reckless and Serene will tagteam the Bronzor/Hypno while Buster effortlessly devours the Kadabra and Slowbro.

Koops on the other hand is taken by surprise: A Mr. Mime Reflects and suddenly switches to Exeggcute. At first I just laugh at the pathetic bunch of eggs, but the Reflect hampers Koops' ability to fry them. To make things worse Leech Seed and Giga Drain start wearing him down to the point where a critical Psychic from Egg 2 takes out my Squirtle.. Hrrr! Good job! You've managed to piss me off before the gymbattle has started!

*A reset later* Psychic Jared is now opting for the "retard strategy": He switches thrice in a row while Koops just snaps at whatever is put in front of him: bacon and eggs; his favorite breakfast!


Nugget Bridge:

Admittedly, I tried to fight Sabrina a couple of times first but decided to grind for more power. Espeon and Mime were surviving important hits in the red, taunting Reckless's by his lacking offenses.

But before I left I had a go with Reckless' evolved form Hitmonchan to see how much easier it would be. And it was much easier. On the very first attempt he pulled through with a simple Choice Scarf flinching his enemies with Headbutt:

Espeon Calm Minds, flinches, heals and flinches again before falling to Hitmonchan's Headbutt. Mister Mime flinches twice, heals and Mimics only to be killed off next. At least Alakazam gets a Reflect up and Psychic misses the OHKO by a hair (OMFG!! Reckless just lived that attack!) I send in a heal fodder and Reflect goes down: Reckless, Headbutt for the Kill!!

It can be that easy!! Surely after some training, my Tyrogue can do that too, right? *RESET*

So, the Nugget Bridge trainers have to die. Serene uses Safeguard to avoid those annoying Effect and Stun Spore's while Reckless sweats another two levels together. But life is still hard; Nidoking OHKO's him with an EQ, and Lapras ends up cleaning his mess once again.

Supernerd: "Ahahaha! I have nothing to do with the 6 pack. I waited here so you'd be weakened.." Why do these supernerds always open with these retarded theories. Aren't they supposed to be smart? *Porygon is send out* AHAHA! Vacuum Wave! *It fails to 2HKO while Solarbeam kills* FUUUUUU!! I'm soo tempted to just evolve Reckless right now!! Why can't you do ANYTHING!!!

Last dude: "Here's a nugget.. blah blah.. wanna fight?" Tyrogue misses the KO again on the Rhyhorn. This is embarrasing.. But it doesn't matter; Chameleon crits him anyway. Molasses, time to shine! *Chameleon used Scary Face* LOL!! Lowering his speed isn't going to work.. Smog poisons and my slug can just Protect all day long. Best move ever! That is solo'd Fire-type number five!

While I'm at it, I play some slots at the Game Corner to net a TM Double Team. I also get Reckless Poisoned (why won't these damned Grimer use Sludge already!) to activate his Guts Boost as an experiment. The gloves are coming off, Sabrina! And this time it's personal!


Versus Sabrina:

Let's preview the battle: STAB SE Psychic coming of Base 130 Special Attack will tear Reckless apart, regardless of boosts and berries. Blistering speed enables Zam to outspeed even a +2 Tyrogue and of course Sabrina has Full Restores to troll me even if I do land a hit.

Fun fact: Espeon has Calm Mind! Even when I got Reckless to +6SpD, one simple Calm Mind boost was enough to inflict 85% damage with Psychic. That is freaking insane!! I almost gave up there..

Tyrogue's most powerful hits come from Thief or flinch hax Headbutt after a speed boost. Well, mister Hunt, that's not a mission improbable.. that sounds very much like a Mission Impossible!

*theme music plays*

Tyrogue plans to dive into action recklessly! Sabrina has agreed to train his mind, but isn't going to be all nice and sypathetic about it. If he goes out head first, he'll be knocked out by Espeon regardless of boosts. In order to win, he carefully assembles his own team to help him win this badge:

Originally Posted by Fat The A-Team:

Serene: Can pseudo phase with Perish Song and live a few hits while stalling with Safeguard and potions. It gets the leftovers for added bulk. Its mission is to get Espeon to switch out to Mr. Mime. and to act as fodder. If Zam comes out instead it must phaze again.

Molasses: Can stall out Mime's Psychic with Protect. Its mission is to Yawn Mime on the switch so Reckless can set up. He can live one Psychic from Mime unless a max damage roll. A Quick Claw might net me another Yawn in a pinch.

Reckless: He has Double Team to set up max evasion on Mime. He has a Focus Sash to live one hit or a Kasib Berry. Thief is nice to steal Zam's berry after Focus Sash, but Natural Gift with Kasib is his most powerful attack: A 60 BP Ghost attack takes Espeon or Zam down in two hits instead of three, preventing Sitrus or Full Restore.

The mission: Phase Espeon until Mime comes out. Stall out his Psychic attacks and sleep him. Max out evasion and hope that he misses his last attacks. Sash to live one lucky hit, +2 attack to score a 3HKO on each pokemon (2 on Zam using Thief).

The goal: Try to use as little X-items as possible.

Serene leads the team to phase Espeon on the first turn with a Perish Song. The greedy bastard likes to set up on her so Slugma can usually come in for free on Calm Mind. Molasses just sits there, chilling, like a boss, while Protect blocks an over powered Psychic. Finally, Perish Song forces Espeon out and the slug is free to Yawn Mr. Mime (if lucky) on the switch. When it tries to attack, Slugma simply protects again to sleep his foe unharmed.

Serene and fodders start switching around, while Mime runs out of PP for Psychic. When one of the fodders goes down I can send Molasses back in. Protect stalls another attack an he usually lives a Psychic to land a Yawn. And he lives it LIKE A BOSS. At 10 hp or less he can safely protect again and the mime falls asleep. All set: Reckless can safely set up.

*3 Speed Boosts, 6 Attack and a Dire Hit later* Even at max attack Headbutt fails to OHKO the Espeon! Psychic activates the Sash and a few Full Restores are wasted on Espeon before it gives up. Just the Alakazam is left; without the third speed boost it outspeeds and kills. OOPS! But this time I get the drop. Headbutt flinches to activate Sitrus berry and a crit wins me the match! Not bad, but more training is needed. Headbutt would have failed to K.O. if it wasn't for that crit. *resets and does nugget bridge*

So what have I learned so far: defense boosting proved useless when a single Calm Mind kills Reckless regardless. Max attack doesn't secure the OHKO's needed for a flawless victory either. I might as well run with 2 attack boosts to 3HKO each pokemon. Speed is nice to flinch, but could be omitted.

There's one thing I haven't tried: Double Team. At max evasion I can simply prevent getting hit at all. The focus sash can help Tyrogue tank one hit to ease the luck factor. But these 3HKO's worry me. I need a more powerful attack to get rid of that Espeon without giving Sabrina the opportunity to use a Full Resore and use Several turns more of Psychic. I could run a Kasib Berry instead and use Natural Gift to land a 60 BP Ghost attack once to K.O. the Espeon from green Health.

The Kasib strategy works. With two speed boosts I outspeed Espeon, dodge a Psychic to Headbutt and K.O. it with Natural Gift! Score! Alakazam misses twice while a critical Headbutt takes it out.

So what else can I cut back on.. this gym battle is turning out the be quite a sport. But the strategy is perfect. Sure, Zam comes out a few times instead of Mime, but he can be phased with Serene and some potions. I replace one attack boost by keeping a poisoned Tyrogue on the team to benefit from Guts.

But Mister Mime has some funny shenanigans too. It Mimics Double Team, and trolls my poisoned Reckless by avoiding attacks like a boss. What was even more funny that it has Skill Swap to take away my guts boosts, only to swap it back on the next turn.. LOL! Guts wasn't ideal at all for this! But thanks to that Kasib Berry and some hax, I made it.

But my best run was with the Focus Sash and two attack boosts. I got extremely luckly on the misses and end up losing the Sash to Espeon, critting the Alakazam with Thief to steal the berry and using a potion to tank an Energy Ball hitting. Wow, I just made it without any speed boosts. Just 2 X-Att, a Sash and a Tyrogue to solo Sabrina.. Who would have thought?

That was one brutal match, Sabrina. The only reason I pulled through was by PP stalling Mr. Mime's Psychic and building enough evasion while he slept to survive the remaining few. That sash was definitely helpfull too. The Kasib Berry attempt were pretty stressful by the lack of a safety net, but all the more awesome, when it 2HKO's the Espeon before it can heal.

With such an epic win, Reckless eyes are opened. He is no longer the crippled Tyrogue he once was. He now has the confidence to evolve whenever he pleases and learns Return on the spot.

Next chapter: Two Gyms, One Slug!


Team Summary:

Buster (Raticate) - Level 49
Nature: Relaxed, Ability: Guts
Item: -
- Flame Wheel
- Pluck
- Bite
- Focus Energy

Status: He got to solo two more gymtrainers and haxed them to death with randoms burns and flinches. Awesome.

Molasses (Slugma) - Level 49
Nature: Hardy, Ability: Flame Body
Item: Quick Claw
- Yawn
- Smog
- Ember
- Protect

Status: Protect is his biggest asset really. He isn't good, but managed to survive key hits, such as Mime's Psychic. I just love how he owns things like Self Destruct Weezing, Poison stalling Chameleon and sleeping Sabrina's Psychics on the switch. So far he solo'd 17 trainers in Kanto. Only 33 left to go.

Koops (Squirtle) - Level 52
Nature: Modest, Ability: Torrent
Item: Leftovers
- Bite
- Iron Defense
- Water Pulse
- Tail Whip

Status: He solo'd another gymtrainer, eventually. 4 more gyms to go. 5 Confidence Points still in his bank.

Reckless (Tyrogue) - Level 56
Nature: Quirky, Ability: Guts
Item: Focus Sash (Kasib Berry)
- Thief (Natural Gift, 60BP Ghost)
- Headbutt
- Double Team
- Vacuum Wave

Status: The road was a struggle for him, but he did it; he solo'd Sabrina. I must admit he did better than expected. But I did have to cheat a little bit, stalling Mr Mime's PP like that. As a Hitmonchan, he had no problem with the gym, however (although he got insanely lucky when he recklessly charged in like that) so I guess either way you look at it the solo is complete. He can learn Return, and maybe evolve now that he's done.


Serene (Lapras) - Level 46
Nature: Bold, Ability: Shell Armor
Item: Leftovers
- Hail
- Safeguard
- Confuse Ray
- Perish Song

Status: She saw a lot of action behind the screens this chapter. Tanking Self Destructs, Safeguarding in Double Battles, Perish Songing dangerous pokemon and picking off weakened foes. But it always feels an effort when I use it. Perish Song's ability to phase, was instrumental in helping Reckless complete his solo. And I had a lot of fun using her and Molasses in tandem to lure Mr. Mime out.

Chapter 11: Molasses

---

With the Marsh Badge in the pocket, I head for Viridian via Diglet's cave. Molasses takes the lead at the Viridian Gate where Oak's little helper provides me with a Sacred Ash. Apparently, it revives all my pokemon at once.. they really don't make items like that anymore! This will be very useful against Red.

I decide to do the sights in Viridian: Some dude gets me TM Dreameater (Does it really deserve to be a TM?), I get my ass whupped in the trainer house and get stalked by the coffee-holic weirdo. Well, that was a bust! Let's get the hell out of this town!

Somewhere on Route 1: A level 47 Magmar, Electrabuzz and Jynx give Molasses a hard time before he can cross one Ice type from his list. *Rattata appears in the grass* Really, Gamefreak? A level 2 Rattata? Way to raise the difficulty around here! Wait.. did these trainers grind all the way up to level 47 by soloing these?! I almost admire the dedication. Too bad he still lost to Smog.. Better luck next time! You know what? I'll save the other trainers here for the next chapter! (OMG, Cliffhanger!)

Back in the Pokecenter Reckless is boxed and Fusion returns to the team. Now that the other pokes have leveled a bit, he's not so overpowered anymore and his Intimidate will come in handy soon enough.


Viridian Forest:

Bug Catcher: "Why do girls dislike bug pokemon so much?" Um.. Because they're creepy? After a battle: "We should exchange phone numbers so I can educate you on the merits of bugs.." I stand corrected: It's because you're creepy. PHONE DENIED!!

Hey, it's Bugsy! What is he doing here? Training, eh? Let me see what wild pokemon we have here? *A level 3 Hoothoot appears* Um... yeah let's have a rematch some day.. *Walks off to find a normal person*

WHOA! A LEVEL 60 METAPOD! YOU SIR, ARE AN EPIC BOSS!! But why does it only know Harden.. That's just lame! Why not give it Bug Bite or Tackle so it can be a hard boss fight for level 20 pokemon? I'll just gather some items, have Molasses Smog the crap out of these Hoothoot and be done with this forest. Some HP EV's won't hurt before the Gym either. Also: 70% accuracy, my ass! Smog misses ALOT!!

In Pewter there isn't much to do. Even the museum is a bust! At least in Hoenn there were some proper evil grunts to battle. I'll just head for the gym: Molasses is at level 53 now; that seems sufficient, doesn't it? But I do spend two PP-ups on Protect; Brock is going to learn the empirical definition of "stall".

Pfft.. Only two gym trainers? Even that is lousy in Pewter. Alright then, Koops and Buster can have their solo. Random Gym Girl: "Rock types have very high defense, battles may end up going for a long time.." *Koops OHKO's the Rhydon with a Water Pulse* Shortest battle yet!

Random Hiker Dude: "RA-RA-CHANK!" He's just making random noises! Was Gamefreak not even bothered enough to give him a proper phraze? But when he sends out his Golem the noise starts to make more sense, unfortunately. Buster MUST solo this dude but his Golem carries Roar. FREAKIN' ROAR!!! And it uses it ALL THE TIME! The stupid rock can't even kill one of my team members to Buster can GET ON WITH IT!!

*Sighs*

After a lot of switching Buster finally takes it out. I really got worked up how Roar never seems to drag Buster out.. Flinch hax does seem to make it up, though.


Versus Brock:

Molasses always wanted to be a rock type. Rock types are cool! To become his own rock he must first prove himself by soloing the authority on rock-type pokemon. But Brock isn't going to make it any easier. Each pokemon has at least two STAB super effective attacks. The lead Graveler has a powerfull Earthquake that can OHKO Molasses unless it has two defense boosts or a Shuca Berry. Omastar's Brine hits unexpectedly on the special side and Kabutops' raw power is enough to break through minor boosts. Does Molasses have what it takes to be a rock type?

I bring to this battle:
- Leftovers. They're too awesome to pass up.
- 5x X-Def, 3x X-SpA, 3x X-SpD
- 7x Milk and an Ether
- Fusion to Intimidate Graveler

The Plan:
- Use Fusion to Intimidate Graveler twice (instead of shuca berry)
- Don't get nailed by a critical hit! Take a crit an you're dead! Don't even blink!
- Poison with smog and then Protect until something dies.
- Use leftovers to counter sandstorm and recover during sleep Protect

*Fusion switches in thrice to Intimidate Graveler, Buster dies and Molasses enters the arena for his first solo*
"Yawn and Protect! Go go go!" Molasses takes the first Earthquake with 55% and luls the Graveler to sleep with Yawn. As long as his foes are sleeping he is sure to dodge a potential critical hit; his number one kryptonite! My slug only needs to 5 Yawns to crumble the rock with Ember and set up essential X-items:

- Three X-Def enable Molasses to tank two Rock Slides after leftovers.
- Three X-SpA for power, but obsolete next to burn and poison damage. What was I thinking?
- Three X-SpD are needed to counter Omastar later.

*Rhyhorn is burned upon waking from a two turn slumber* "Yes! Crippled the bastard!" Protect and Ember wear down pokemon number two.

But Omastar is a different cookie alltogether: Brine does 55% after three special defense boosts and Molasses is forced to stall two turns of leftovers to take a second hit. I need this thing to sleep and Yawn right off the bat. Protect, potion.. and time to unleash the Smog!

*Omastar wakes up and Brines, Smog MISSES*

Magnificent.. That inflicted zero damage while Molasses is back to yellow health. I need to Protect twice in a row to live a second Brine to Yawn. I'm soo happy with these leftovers; without them, I'd need another X-item! Protect once.. the bastard keeps going for Brine. Protect twice! *Molasses lives Brine by 5 HP* (Phew) Fortunately, the Ammonite sleeps a little longer and the first batch of Smog starts chipping off pathetic chunks of damage. *Omastar wakes up and Brines* Rinse and repeat: 2x Protect, live Brine at 5 HP, Yawn and Protect.. Heal and Smog while it sleeps:

*Omastar wakes up. Smog finally poisons!*

SUCCESS!!! Time to stall him out with Protect! *Brock used a Full Restore* "Aw.. give me a break!" Brine takes Molasses back to the yellow. Sigh.. Protect to Recover health, Protect to..

*But it failed!!*

..

..

*Omastar used Ancient Power, Molasses lives by 5 HP*

OMG!! Brine must be out of PP.. Molasses actually stalled the danger with Protect! Gradually, Omastar starts spamming Spike Cannons and Smog poisons for the second time. Not a moment too soon. I'm actually out of PP for Yawn AND Protect. Even Smog is running low on fumes (pun intended). Molasses can sit here all day now that Brine is gone, time for an Elixir and a Potion while the poison wears him down.

Next is Onix: Screech will take away my defense boosts.. AW HELL NO!! So this time around I scout with Protect. Sandstorm is annoying but at least I can safely put this thing to sleep. Now lets just Ember this thing and...

*Onix switches out to Kabutops*

Oh, bugger! *Kabutops' Rock Slide does a hefty chunk of damage* Looks like it still does over half.. Shit! How am I going to put this thing to sleep? I opt for a fourth defense boost after using protect to gain a crucial bit of health back. It works.. sort of. Molasses hangs on by a hair as the Slashing Trilobite gets drowsy. "Molasses, time to Smog!" It deals minor damage but misses on the crucial turn it wakes up. Another Protect/Yawn/Protect combo then. Smog actually gets Kabutops down to the yellow before it poisons! BOO-YAH! This is going well. Protect once. Protect twi..

*But it failed!*

Oh shit..

*Molasses lives Aqua Jet by a tread.* Another Protect should stall out the final blow from poison.. *Brock uses a Full Restore* .. or maybe not? Rinse and repeat! Kabutops gets to sleep three more times before it gets poisoned. On the plus side, it runs out of Rock Slide PP. Aqua Jet still does a lot of damage, but I get free turns when it Endures and Giga Drains.

*It's a critical hit!*


... Gasp!

I get some massive luck on my side!! Brock finally gets his critical hit, but on a worthless Giga Drain! Poison takes out the Kabutops and Onix returns for round two: What could possibly go wrong? A few Embers activate Sitrus Berry, but no burn. Back to sleep with Onix and more Ember to take it out. *Another Full Restore* Goddamnit! Why won't it just die already! Another Yawn.. just one more hit!

*Onix woke up*

*Onix used Rock Slide*

..

*It's a critical hit!*

...

Words can't describe my frustration. I was already taking down notes for this warstory, confident in my victory. That bastard Onix with his final Rock Slide gets the crit.. Really, Gamefreak? Can't you just give me this one? *Resets game and wins after a couple of times*

During the battle the frequent brines solidify bits of flying rock and sand on Molasses' back as it evolves into Maccargo. Brock congratulates him on an epic solo and hands him Rock Slide. Molasses refuses. "What good did that TM do you? You lost the match (well eventually)!" He decides to stick with his main power move Smog and vows to uphold the awesomeness of the rock type. There's even a little ceremony involved. But with great power comes great responsibility. Time to settle an old feud with the Water Type. It's about time Molasses payed Misty a visit!


Route 3:

On the road to Mt. Moon lives a Youngster named Jimmy with his prized Raticate. He brags how his Double Edge is way cooler than Buster's Flamewheel and dares him to solo all trainers on Route 3 without visiting a Pokecenter. Buster accepts this challange of course and vows to finish his solo with Youngster Jimmy's own Raticate to prove he belongs in the Top%. But before Buster can start, Gavin wants yet another rematch. Who am I to say no? *Molasses now easily solo's his team* Back to business:

In a double battle with Serene: Electrabuzz has that annoying Discharge to paralyze both pokemon before Serene can set up Safeguard! What a bitch! Buster burns him with Flamewheel in retaliation.

Versus a Firebreather: Buster is burned by Magmar and gets to spam guts boosted Flamewheel. But the subsequent Weezing is not amused: Two Bites fail to take it out and it decides to Explode. For god's sake! Third time's a charm: finally no burn as he takes down Magmar! I decide to heal while Weezing comes in to be on the safe side..

*Weezing used Explosion*

.. "gasp!"

*Buster hangs on by 5 hitpoints* What a beast! But the battle isn't even over: The Firebreather's final poke is a level 47 Camerupt who burns through two Hyper Potions with Earthpower before Buster can take it out. These are some heavy matches for him!

Versus a Hiker: "Hey, a Graveler! Too bad Buster must use Flamewheel first!"
*Flamewheel crits and burns the Graveler*
"Awesome! Keep going Buster!*
*Graveler used Explosion*
FUUUUUUU!!
*Buster survives the blast*
What a beast! "Buster, go and kill that Rhydon!"
*Rhydon's Hammer arm takes Buster out with a critical hit*
GODDAMNIT!!!

I have to do this battle seven times before Buster pulls through. Explosion kills without an X-Def, and Rhydon gets an uncanny amount of critical hits. [Insert rage episode here]. Finally, Buster gains the upper hand: Flamewheel on the Graveler, X-Def and Focus Energy while Explosion fails to K.O. my rat. Heal and take a Hammer Arm. Bite while Rock Blast hits three times instead of four: WHOA, I LIVED THAT LIKE A FREAKING BOSS!! Hyperpotion time: Bite flinches and the Rhydon bites the dust! Epic solo right there; that X-def totally saved my ass on this one!

Versus a Blackbelt's Poliwrath: Buster is forced to Flame Wheel while Mudshot lowers his speed. Next turn Hypnosis puts him to sleep before he can move. This is where the fun starts: Hydropump and Dynamic Punch take Buster down while he refuses to wake up. I reset. "Screw this, I'm using awakening this time!" *Four Hypnosis in a row later* "Oh, come on!! Even Hydropump seems to hit every time!"

*Dynamic Punch hits on the first go* DOES THIS DUDE EVER MISS!!

He doesn't. Two attempts later Dynamic Punch and Hypnosis keep on hitting. But my rat finally survives a punch with 30 HP. "Allright, time to end this! Buster, use Pluck!" *Buster is put to sleep* CURSES! I go for a Full restore while Hydropump hits. "Please, wake up!" *Hypnosis sleeps, Dynamic Punch hits too* WHY.... WONT..... YOU.... EVER... MISS!!!

"Okay, Mr. Poliwrath: Alea Iacta Est! Time to use Buster's ninja skills!" This time I give him a Chesto Berry. All of a sudden Flamewheel decides to get the burn hax, leaving Poliwrath's most dangerous weapon neutered. Hypnosis is finally countered and two Plucks kill the constipated tadpole frog thingy. Finally! This is one exhausting route. *Goes to fight the next trainer* Goddamnit, HOW MANY TRAINERS CAN THERE BE!!

Yet another Blackbelt dude: "Ohh great! A Primeape.. Let me guess: Dynamic Punch? Wait.. Flamewheel does over half damage.. And why does Machoke keep making these Scary Faces? Hell, faces don' scare me, boy!" *Pluck claims another victim*

yet another Hiker: Please! No more Self Destructing Graveler or Rhydon! Oh.. a Magneton.. Steelix is even burned by Flamewheel. Now, that's more like it!

With the last trainer defeated, it's time for Youngster Jimmy to face the music. Buster is running low on PP and the last potion has already been consumed. Still, he has around 50 HP left, it should be enough: Flamewheel burns his Raticate, who goes for Assurance. Top %, my ass! It doesn't even do damage. Parasect is utterly destroyed by Pluck and Arbok simply gets burned again. Wow, this route was a lot longer and harder than I imagined. I actually wasted 10 Milks and all Flamewheel and Bite PP on this. On the plus side I think that Buster had enough training to take on Blaine: He went from level 49 to level 53 in no time.

Gamefreak conveniently placed a Pokecenter next to the entrance to mount Moon. Time to heal and head back to Cerulean. *Dramatic Rival Theme Plays* Oh no! Maniacal music! who could it possibly be?


Versus the Rival - Part V:

The Rival is even slower than Molasses. He had all this time off screen to train and he's still behind the Kanto gymleaders.. His lead Sneasel demonstrates his mental challenge by burning himself on Magcargo's body. "Nice going, derp!" Molasses doesn't even notice the hit. Apparently, he's still holding the leftovers from the previous battle, transforming him in an epic tank.

The rival returns a smouldering pile of ash to his pokebal and sends out Alakazam. "Seriously? That is your best counter?" Yawn and Protect do the usual thing but Zam wakes up early and disables Ember. "Sigh.. do we really have to make it tedious? Let's go for Smog then!" Zam takes another nap and disables Smog this time. "Oh no! What must I do without my oh so powerfull Smog?" *Ember roasts Alakazam*

Meganium gets up a Lightscreen to prolong this battle even more.. But two can play that game! Molasses dodges a nasty poison powder with Protect while the grass-dino (i guess) falls for his trade mark trick. Bwahaha! Molasses is such an annoying boss like that, it never gets old. The flowerpower dinosaur wakes up early and lands a critical Petal Dance. My god! That nearly took out my Magcargo. I almost forgot he's part Rock type now.. I'll just Protect for recovery and stay in for the Yawn.. *Petal Dance brings Molasses down to 5 hp* What a boss!

Magneton is next. He even gets a critical Discharge and paralyzes Magcargo. Dang! I'm at low health and don't want to blow my Full Restore. Hah, I'll just Protect first and hope that it works. *it does*. Magneton sleeps, Molasses is back to full health and Ember takes down pokemon number four.

But Gengar spoils my Day. It Curses while I foolishly go for Yawn. This is unfortunate. Ember takes it out, but the constant Curse damage forces me to switch in the HM fodder to heal. Golbat burns itself on Molasses body and confuses it. LOL! It seems to take more damage from his burn than any actual attack. One more thing to cross of Molasses' list.


To Cerulean:

Mt Moon isn't quite the epic dungeon I expected it to be. Even the pokemon are their trade mark pathetic levels again! At least I get some items before continuing to route 4.

Camper Girl: “I have the feeling I can win” *Molasses roasts her only Flaafy* Think again!

*A Bird Trainer sends out his level 13 Pidgey* "Wow, Gamefreak must have really disliked you!! And stop using Roost with that Pidgeot! Seriously? Seven times in a row? No wonder your Pidgey is so underleveled.." Heh, that solo 50 trainers becomes a piece of cake with guys like this.

Versus a Camper's Furret: "Molasses, use Ember!" *Furret uses follow me* What is that Furret doing running around like a headless chicken? Well it does make things easier.. Another Ember? *Furret "cunningly" switches out* Let me guess: He has a level 10 Oddish next? *Rapidash's Flash Fire raises it's power* Oh.. shit, didn't see that one coming. *Smog poisons and kills eventually* I can't say I'm impressed.. His pokemon didn't even land a single hit! Oh well, gym time!

There's nobody at the gym yet. Misty is still at the cape with her "boyfriend". I think it's very strange that he just runs off when you approach the cape. Why does he wuss out like that? Wait.. isn't that Bill? I thought he has a wive and kids in Goldenrod. Actually, this makes perfect sense now.

Douchebag in the gym: "Yo, while Misty was away, I went away and had some fun too!" Please! No details neccesary.

Fat Sailor: "Glub! I'm first!" *Koops solo's his Seadra with Waterpulse* Um.. I hate to ask.. but why aren't you swimming like the proper gymtrainers around here?

Buster solo's the Golduck and the two Seaking, opening with his mandatory Flame Wheel. Fusion gets to solo the Cloyster and Serene the Azumarill. The "Aqua Rabbit" (seriously, that's what the dex says!) even puts up a fight with Aquaring!! NOO! I need that residual damage from Hail to actually HURT! Fortunately, some Double Edge recoil takes it down.


Versus Misty:

This must be the first Kanto gymbattle where I'm not underleveled. Molasses sits at a comfertable level 55 and has perfected his strategy versus Brock's fossils. He can even take an unboosted Water Pulse from Golduck and live with a few HP. At first I wasn't impressed with Water Pulse.. Why not go for Surf or Hydropump? But decent PP and confuse hax will make this battle challenging enough.

I bring to this battle:
- 3 X-SpD
- 2 X-Def
- 8 Milk
- Elixir, Ether

The Plan:
- Stall out Major Attacks
- Don't get nailed by any critical hits
- Inflict Poison with Smog
- Protect, Protect, Protect

Molasses Protects on turn one, lives a Water Pulse by a hair and Protects another turn. There, 17 Water Pulses left to stall out. I use a milk and set up the three Special Defense boosts to comfortably tank two Pulses in a row.

*Golduck used Psych Up!*

LOL!! I just got served at my own game! I'm glad I didn't go for the Special Attack Boosts; that would have been the end of me for sure! The boosts are surely annoying, but it doesn't matter. I wasn't really planning on sweeping him with Smog. The poison damage should do most of the work here. After the standard Yawn, Protect, Smog strategy I poison the duck and start stalling with Protect. It goes down into the red and.. Yup! Full Restore Time. Four Smogs in a row fail to poison before the fifth does the trick. Meh, at least it's hitting now.

Golduck succumbs to the poison and Starmie is Yawned to sleep. I randomly select Ember when it suddenly switches out to Lapras. Shit. Natural Cure will heal it now. But I do get lucky: Lapras is burned on the spot! Ahahaha! MOAR PROTECTING!! But the PP has ran out.. Allready? Even Yawn and Smog are almost depleted. Time for an Elixir then. At least Ember does some decent damage this time.

Quaggy is next: Oh shit! It carries Earthquake to OHKO Molasses. One X-Def should fix that. Scout with Protect, live a hit and heal. The stalling pays off as it goes for a Rain Dance and I can set up a second defense boost. Rain boosted Water Pulse hurts, but not as much as Earthquake. Now Molasses is confused and struggles to get another Yawn in. Fortunately, Quagsire goes for a couple of Amnesia first. LOL! Magcargo will be doing pathetic damage with Smog again.. *he does, but Smog Poisons* SUCCESS! Moar Protect Stall!

*Misty uses a Full Restore* Of course..

I'm getting extremely paranoid about the absense of critical hits so far. Have I really been this lucky? I try to Yawn and Protect as much as possible to avoid any hit I possibly can. But Earthquake appears to have run out of PP and I might even live an unboosted WP. Smog FINALLY poisons the Quagsire for the second time and the beast goes down for good.

But with it's final breath it sets up Rain Dance for Starmie. Molasses takes a big hit when it goes for Yawn. Shit! Confusion strikes again! Fortunately he Protects first before he hits himself.. Time to attack! A long stall war ensues and Starmie is left with a timely burn when it wakes up. But Protect is nearly out of PP too! I Protect twice in a row, dead paranoid to take any hit at this point. I've come so far! No damned crit is going to stop me now!

I know it and Misty knows it: Full Restore is around the corner. I grab the opportunity to Yawn and get an Ether to restore Protect's PP. Again I spam Protect: The less Water Pulses I take the better. But there's light at the end of the tunnel. Starmie starts using random Confuse Rays and (a critical hitting) Icebeam (LOL!). Molasses isn't bothered by the confusion; it does less than leftovers with his monstrous defense. Time to finish this: Molasses, Smog at will! *Smog poisons* After 34x Protect this battle has finally been decided in Molasses favor. Cascade Badge Get!

Good game, Misty! I am so glad that Water Pulse was your only STAB move. Molasses has proved his superiority over the Water Type and gloats all the way back to the pokemon center. Man, he had one hell of a chapter, soloing three major bosses and a load of trainers.


Next Chapter: Rounding up the final Kanto Badges!



Team Summary:

Buster (Raticate) - Level 54
Nature: Relaxed, Ability: Guts
Item: Muscle Band (Chesto Berry!!!)
- Flame Wheel
- Pluck
- Bite
- Focus Energy

Status: He manned up and solo'd route 3.. Never again!! I hate all Poliwrath now! If I ever encounter another one, I'll have Fusion Thunder his ass! Un the plus side: I guess he's ready to take on Blaine.

Molasses (Magcargo) - Level 56 (!!)
Nature: Hardy, Ability: Flame Body
Item: Leftovers
- Yawn
- Smog
- Ember
- Protect (PP-up x2)

Status: Nobody can touch him anymore! Godly defense, annoying burns and protect to stall out any attack.. He did three major solo's this chapter, I guess he has proven his worth! He also solo'd 33 trainers, only 17 more to go. On the type solo's: 2 More Ice Types, 5 Fighting, 2 Steels and 4 Darks to complete another sub challange (Dragon is excluded).

Koops (Squirtle) - Level 54
Nature: Modest, Ability: Torrent
Item: Rindo Berry
- Bite
- Iron Defense
- Water Pulse
- Tail Whip

Status: He needs to solo two more gym trainers in Kanto and he still hasn't found his nemesis Hooktail! Will he get his sweet revenge before the challange is over?? (OMG, forshadowing element!)

Serene (Lapras) - Level 47
Nature: Bold, Ability: Shell Armor
Item: None. Serene's already walling the heck out of everything as it is.
- Hail
- Safeguard
- Confuse Ray
- Perish Song

Status: Has netted her mandatory kills for the chapter.


Fusion (Gyarados) - Level 47
Nature: Hasty, Ability: Intimidate
Item: Mystic Water
- Bite
- Waterfall
- Thunder
- Frustration

Status: He's not so overleveled anymore and is back on the team. His intimidate was very usefull in helping Molasses set up without a type-berry.

Chapter 12: Fusion

---

After all that roaming through Kanto most pokemon have actually surpassed Fusion by a longshot and he's no longer the overleveled MVP he was. It's about time to change that! He's put in the lead for most of the chapter so he can get back up to speed before facing off with Blue. I'll head to Pallet town first. *Oak checks pokedex* Not good enough, eh? Well onwards to Cinnabar then!


Around Cinnabar:

Now let's battle these trainers! *Swimmer sends out a Shellder* "Seriously? That's all you've got?" Come on, it's the END OF THE FREAKIN' GAME! Why did I bother with the level 40 trainers on the SS Anne when I get crap like this on the final routes? Let's hope the rest is better than this. Meh, Molasses can solo him, I guess. At least it's another Ice type and soloed trainer to cross of his list.

Hey, a Bird Keeper! What is he doing on that little island? BATTLE ME!! Wait.. do I have to get all the way out of the water for that? *Sends out level 37 Pidgeotto* Sigh.. I sound like a broken record. But there's another one on an even smaller island *sends out a bunch of Dodrio* Hey, how did you even get here? Weren't you supposed to have a pokemon with Fly?

Well at least the wild pokemon are at a decent level. Too bad Fusion has to switch each time he misses! *Thunder misses yet again* "Hrrr, stupid Tentacruel! Screw the rules! I'll just hit it another time!" *Thunder misses 5 times in a row* "Okay, I get the hint! I should play by the rules.. -___- Switching to Serene for the Perish Song. *One trainer battle later* "Dang! Fusion misses AGAIN!" *Serene takes her sweet time to solo a low level Corsola* "Sigh.. this just isn't worth the trouble.. I'll probably get pathetic experience points for this too.. Next Corsola will be subjected to Fusion's Waterfall!"

Hey, what is that swimmer doing? He's just whirling around aimlessly.. is he having a seisure? *Tries to get his attention* Okay.. trigger the battle already! *the elusive bastard keeps spinning away* BATTLE ME!! Finally! "Now then, hand me those shock pads!" *Fusion zaps his Octillery* "All Clear!" ZAPPP! "There, all resusitated! Next time use your pokemon, you morron! Riding a pokemon is cool."

On Cinnabar Island: Hey, it's Blue! Let's battle him now: "I AM A TRAINER YOU WILL BATTLE ME!" Blue: "Screw the rules! I have money! Come back when I'm in the mood!" Now, I've always wanted to say that too! How come I never get away from these battles?

*Random Azumarill uses Raindance* YES! "Fusion, Thunder his ass!" .. Pfft.. it's not even a K.O!!

Swim Girl: "GLUB GLUB.." *sends out three Luvdisk in a row* Should I even bother to comment? *Gyarados used Frustration* JEEEZ! It does absolutely nothing! Even to a damned Luvdisk!! I'd better not miss Thunder during that solo..

Some more pathetic trainers on this route.. Looks like Molasses can easily get his quotum of solo'd Kanto trainers. *OHKO's a lone Shinx and Starly with Ember* Lol! He appears to be such a monster next to these crappy pokemon. Swim girl: “Look it's my best pokemon and my best swimsuit!” *Sends out Bidoof* LOL! Superpower does less than leftovers.. Best pokemon? I think you might want to consider a career change.. Her only reply “Ohhh!” SOO STRONGTH!!

Aha, the Cinnabar gym. I love how there's no annoying gympuzzle this time. Just a few trainers to solo; exactly the way I like it! Now, where can I find the gymleader? *Evil voice* "Welcome, Mr Powers, to my underground lair!!" Dr. Evil! We meet again!


Okay, these mad scientists totally fit the underground lair! Just look at him! He babbles something about detergent and whiteness and sends out his Arcanine! (Level 50! Finally some decent pokes to fight!) Thunderfang paralyses Koops and haxes SIX TIMES IN A ROW!! Koops tanks his fangs like a boss, thanks to an early Iron Defense. After battle: "It's all white in my head!". I'm getting a weird vibe from this whole gym.. Mad Scientists, white herbs.. overdosing pokemon.. If I didn't know any better I'd say they ran a Meth Lab down here. Makes perfect sense: Remote location away from authority, Volcanic heat to mask chemicals and heat and a gym as cover.. o_0

Back on track: Koops solo's the Ninetails, Buster takes down the Torkoal and Serene just Perish Songs the rest to level up. Awesome!


Versus Blaine:

Blaine is such a PIMP! Just look at his sprite! Buster must get some of that swagger for his Flamewheell. But Blaine is also Power: Sun boosted Overheat can easily OHKO Buster and his final Rapidash is at a whopping level 59. To make things even worse each pokemon has a White Herb to keep their Overheat at max power and Rapidash can go physical with Flareblitz. I lost MANY times before cracking the final code to succes, mostly due to INSANE crit hax on Overheat. Even at -4 it managed to kill me off a lot of times. But the most annoying thing is the Flame Body on Magmar and Magcargo. Sure, Guts will boost attack, but the residual damage is often unexpected and make risky turns into sudden death.

I the end I decide to replace Focus Energy with Rain Dance to counter the sun light. If I get blasted by overheat in the sun, the game is over. But Blaine also has four full restores and Bite's PP is drained rapidly, not to mention the increased exposure to attacks will drastically increase the chances of getting nailed by a crit. So I teach Buster a second move to get an unexpected kill on the Magcargo (initially) or the Rapidash (later). The move? Natural Gift! A rain boosted Pasho Berry Natural Gift can K.O. his slug after a Bite and kills his mare from 50%. I also bring one X-Speed. This is needed to outspeed Magmar who will set up Sunny Day and blasts me to death with Overheat the next turn unless I ninja him with my Rain Dance! TO BATTLE!

I bring to this battle:
- 10 Potions
- 3x Full Resore
- 1x X-Speed
- A Passho Berry
- An Ether (for Rain Dance)

The mission:
Keep Sunny Day off the field at all costs. Use Rain Dance to tank Overheat. Use Passho Berry to net a surprise kill on the Rapidash or Magcargo to skip two annoying (and very critical haxing) Full Restores.

I'm stuck with that damned mandatory Flame Wheel on the first turn of battle. It really sucks. Magcargo takes pathetic damage, often burns with Flame Body and gets a free Sunny Day or Overheat. But Buster strikes back: A quick Rain Dance ruins the first overheat and the White Herb goes down. I get a Bite in while Sunny Day goes up. Normally, I went with Rain Dance and Passho Berry here to take out the Magcargo, but Blaine will use all Full Restores on his haxing Rapidash later.. I almost won until a random burn from a critical Flare Blitz took my Ninja Rat down with it! (D'OOHHH!!)

Stall it is: Rain counters Overheat, Flame Body provides the occasional Guts boost, Smog poisons (sound familiar?) and a Full Restore prolongs the inevitable. Magcargo goes down but Rain Dance and Bite have lost a lot of PP in the proces. I end up with full health against Magmar (vital moment!) I apply my X-Speed while a greedy Magmar sets up Sunny Day to make his next Overheat insanely powerful..

*Buster used Rain Dance*

Haha! Ninja time! The first blow is softened but still does 50%. That is one beastly Magmar! Overheat two is lived with 5 HP and I get a Bite in. Dumb play on my part. If Flame Body would have activated, Buster would be dead (Believe me, this happened ALOT). *More dancing, sunlight, heat, biting and Thunder Punching* Suddenly Magmar decides he hasn't trolled me enough and goes for Confuse Ray: Blaine applies his second Full Restore while Buster hits himself. Dang! I need to heal him now.

*Magmar scores a crit with Thunder Punch*

Damnit! Another Potion then!! Just what I needed: More hax.. :( But my ranting works: FINALLY the Magmar flinches to my Bite. After hitting himself again, Buster brings Magmar in K.O. range. I have to be careful here. If he's not at decent health when Rapidash comes out, he can't set up Rain and will die to Overheat almost every time. I heal first and then Bite. But in his final act of trollishness the Magmar manages to burn my rat with Flame Body. Just when Rapidash comes in to spam full powered Overheat.. I have to go for it: "Buster, use Rain Dance and tank that hit like a boss!"

*Lives with 22 HP*

..

*But takes another 16 HP from his burn*

Too Close!! Have I mentioned how much I hated this battle? Time for a full restore of my own to tank that Flare Blitz!

*It's a critical hit!*

NOOOOOO!! But thanks to the Rain, Buster actually lives that hit! Wow, my reckless move has really payed off!! I'd be dead right now, if it wasn't for that rain! More healing as another Overheat finally lowers that thing's special attack. Yes!! I have enough health to actually land an attack! Only 5 PP left on Bite, let's make em count! I'm in the read and heal to take a Quick Attack. Everything is ready! Rapidash is at mid health and I have one final turn of Rain: "Buster, use your secret Ninja skills! Passho Berry his ass!"

*Rapidash turns blue in berry juice*

VICTORY!! FULL RESTORE DE-NIED!!! My god, this was one hard fought victory! But soo worth it in the end! Rain Dance and Natural Gift proved vital to win this Battle. I congratulate you, Blaine. I totally underestimated this solo. I guess the lack of X-items made this especially interesting.

Seafoam Caves:

Blue, that bratty gymleader, is finally ready to battle and flies back to Viridian. Apparently, I'm worthy of challenging him now.. Jeez, enough with the celebrity allures! I was only asking you to do your freakin' JOB!!

Back in the Seafoam Cave: "Yeah! A final Ice-type for Molasses! ROAST THAT DELIBIRD!!" It's kinda strange though; an icy cave beneath a volcano? No no.. don't think about this. These questions pop up all around the game. At least this is a fun dungeon. The ice puzzles actually require a little bit of thinking and the wild pokemon are worthy of a proper grinding session. Fusion is enjoying the lead, recovering any damage with his Shell Bell. *Picks up TM Icebeam* Yep, one of the better dungeons!

*Inspects a suspiciously lone pillar of ice* Aha, a Rare Candy!

Versus a male Dewgong: *Fusion's Thunder misses while the bastard lives by 5 hp* Dang! Time to switch Fusion out to Serene.. *Confusion fails to hax 5 times in a row* "Hrr.. just die already!" *Dewgong uses Safeguard effectively walling Serene another 5 turns while trolling with Dive* Finally it goes down.. after 12 TURNS!! To take down a Dewgong! With 5HP left!!

*Phone Rings* Lyra: “I once caught a wiff of Marill's scent. It smelled like a dust mop!” For the THOUSANDTH time: Stop bothering me with that STUPID STORY! Sigh.. Gamefreak really trolled be there.. Why did they have to make that girl so god damn annoying?!

Down below are more decent pokemon to fight. Fusion even has difficulty beating a level 50 Slowbro: Bite does less that Slack Off and it has to switch moves all the time. Of course Thunder misses too -_- *Gets an idea* Aha, Serene can use Perish Song! Looks like she's becoming more and more useful! *Encounters Articuno* Technically it's a legendary for Koops to solo. *Easily does so* Hm.. not the epic battle I was hoping for. I'll hunt down Mewtwo next!

Back outside: More cannon fodder for Molasses. LOL, a Linoone! What is HE going to do? *Linoone uses Surf!* Crap. But the badger is burned by Ember. Looks like my slug can just Protect his way through another solo: Only 10 more to go!

Swimmer dude: "Pant.. pant.. just a little further.." *Fusion zaps him out of the water* "I'm sorry, bro! Looks like you didn't swim fast enough!"
His Girlfriend: "I hate wimps!" *Her Clamperl uses Whirlpool* Um.. yeah, you're so terrific! Looks like Molasses wil solo another trainer!

*Water Gun scores a CH*
*Molasses lives by 5 HP!*
"Yes! .. No! Whirlpool will kill it!"
*Lefties recover before Whirlpool*
"Sweet! He even outspeeds!"

On Route 1: Fusion continues to waltz over the leftover trainers. Serene Perish Songs an Alakazam who rapes my team with Energy Ball and Focus Blast (She even takes TWO Focus Blasts to the face!). She's even needed to Perish Song a Starmie, who T-bolts my poor Fusion to death. More shopping, Super Potions and other crap later, I'm ready for the gym!

The final gym:

Time to round of these gymtrainer solo's. Koops takes the lead, sets up Iron Defense and destroys the Me First Stantler. But the Tauros carries Thunder.. WHY? Is it a cousin of Trusty? It doesn't do a whole lot of damage either.

Ida and Elan in choir: "We're a double team!" Oh no, they have matching outfits.. I already loathe them. Fortunately Molasses and Serene have no problem taking them out. Perish Song while Molasses Yawns (he even lives a Waterfall). Protect while Lapras switches for the HM fodder (lol both attack my weakened slug). I'll switch Lapras back for Molasses and switch him back in while the fodder dies. All set up. Just one more protect and another match has been soloed by Serene!

Buster gets the Spinda. LOL! Spinda! This shouldn't be too hard! *Trickroom and Teeter Dance ensure that Sudowoodo kills with Hammer Arm* D'OH! That Sudowoodo is a tough cookie! But wait! Natural Gift still has a Passho Berry to take it down! But he needs one more solo to complete the condition: The Slowbro and Lickilicky shrug off the rat's attacks while burn and flinch hax wear them down. After three potions, that Licky is still at half health.. But wait! Buster now has a Chopple Berry to take down his last foe: "Natural Gift that pink blob!"


Versus Blue:

Okay, this one was pretty easy. Fusion leads versus Exeggutor. The initial Leafstorm does decent damage, but so does Bite. Blue pulls out a Full Resore, misses Hypnosis and Fusion draws first blood! A male Machamp is send out to Thunder Punch (a OHKO). Time to switch in a heal fodder to Super Potion back to health and to swich attacks. Intimidate ensures that Fusion lives the next hit like a champ while K.O-ing back with Waterfall.

*Rhydon comes out* LOL! Waterfall will OHKO while the Shell Bell recovers a bit of HP. *Arcanine comes out to Intimidate* Why are all his pokemon male? Oh well, being locked into Waterfall is no problem! Gyarados takes a few Extreme Speeds to the face and 3HKO's Arcanine.

*Gyarados is up* Time for another heal fodder to switch attacks to Thunder and apply Super Potion number two. *Thunder barely misses the OHKO* Ohh shit, let's hope it doesn't miss while it Dragon Dances.. *Two Full Restores later it goes down to Thunder* The Shell Bell is loving this as Fusion heals back to full health before taking a Return to the face. This is going well! Fusion, keep spamming Thunder!

*Thunder misses the Pidgeot*

Dang! No I have to go for Frustration -_- this might take forever until he can savely struggle.

*Pidgeot used Whirlwind*

OMG!! THANK YOU! Now I can swich moves and Waterfall for free! Earth Badge, get!

*Suddenly realizes Fusion isn't supposed to switch out after a K.O.*

Oh bugger.. I'll just reset and spam Choice Scarfed Waterfall with some X-items: A heal fodder takes the first Leafstorm from Exeggutor, Fusion is pumped with 4 X-Attack and sweeps half the team. The only problem is Gyarados with a second Intimidate: At +2 Fusion fails to 2HKO, starting a long sequence of Dragon Dancing and healing (it could get to +4). Second try I just go for another X-att before sweeping the rest of his team.

And thats it: The final badge! These Kanto gyms were a lot of fun to solo. Great availability of items, berries and TM's gave me the tools to get through. But on the other hand the gymleaders were overleveled, well stocked on Full Restore and had huge teams to tear down. Definitely one of my favorite parts to scramble.


Next chapter: Hunting down legendaries and facing Red.


Team Summary:

Buster (Raticate) - Level 56
Nature: Relaxed, Ability: Guts
Item: Passho Berry (Chopple Berry)
- Flame Wheel
- Natural Gift
- Bite
- Rain Dance

Status: That solo of Blaine proved insanely difficult! I guess I should have trained him a little more. Rain Dance was vital to live an Overheat especially to keep the Sun down during the battle. Passho Natural Gift (60 BP water) shortened the battle by two Full Restores and ultimately won him the fight.

Molasses (Magcargo) - Level 58
Nature: Hardy, Ability: Flame Body
Item: Leftovers
- Yawn
- Smog
- Ember
- Protect (PP-up x2)

Status: The naval routes had quite a number of pathetic pokemon that he could solo. Random Surfs and critting Water Guns couldn't bring him down. He now solo'd 41 trainers; only 9 more to go. On the type solo's: 5 Fighting, 2 Steels and 4 Darks.

Koops (Squirtle) - Level 55
Nature: Modest, Ability: Torrent
Item: Rindo Berry
- Bite
- Iron Defense
- Water Pulse
- Tail Whip

Status: He solo'd Articuno for another Confidence Point (I guess I'll count the point together with Moltres and Zapdos). His gym trainers are solo'd, just that damned Hooktail and he's done!

Serene (Lapras) - Level 51
Nature: Bold, Ability: Shell Armor
Item: None. Serene's already walling the heck out of everything as it is.
- Hail
- Safeguard
- Confuse Ray
- Perish Song

Status: She got a lot of pokemon to solo. With high Exp Fire-types at the Cinnabar Gym and soloing every last pokemon on the Ace Trainers on route 1. Cool Trainer Gavin was battled multiple times for even more exp.


Fusion (Gyarados) - Level 56
Nature: Hasty, Ability: Intimidate
Item: Shell Bell (Choice Scarf)
- Bite
- Waterfall
- Thunder
- Frustration

Status: Back to being the over-powered monster he was. His solo of Blue was the easiest solo yet. Frustration is a joke however, dealing 1 HP damage to a freaking Luvdisk! He is enjoying the lead with his Shell Bell, consistently ploughing his way through unsuspecting wild pokemon.

Chapter 13: Red

---

*Professor Oak phones* Sweet! I get HM Rock Climb! Now I can backtrack everywhere to find more stuff.. Time to wrap up loose challanges. Koops could use some last minute confidence points and Molasses must still solo nine trainers. I have no other choice than to get phone numbers for a rematch. Let's just pray that Gamefreak doesn't troll me with more pointless conversations..

*Flies around Kanto to do so*

In the meanwhile I must prepare my team for the epic confrontation with Red. Buster, N10SE and Fusion must all solo one of his pokemon so I'll have one big grinding session to get my team at level 60. N10SE has the longest way to go: He re-joins the team at level 46 (I believe he was drilling his private army of Nautical Scyther).

Route 28 looks like a good place to start: *Cuts a tree to get Steel Wing, Flamethrower and a Rare Candy* For cutting one lousy tree! Well, that's the last time I needed that; time to replace Cut with Rock Smash! Double Hit and Swords Dance will Leer and Focus Energy soon enough.

Versus the Legends:

With Mt Silver unexplored, Fusion charges up the waterfall to battle the pokemon in the western dungeon. I get some welcome goodies: Iron for Serene and some Rare Candies. But I came here with a mission: Koops must solo the legendary Moltres! *Waterpulse comfertably 3HKO's* (Compared to those gymleaders this feels way too easy.. -_- )

*Collects more phone numbers* Why won't they battle already? And no, I really don't want to have a picknick, you morron! Sighs.. lets just solo Zapdos first. I can take Rock Tunnel..
..but: "Oh no! Why do I need Flash?"
*Decides to check out Cerulean Cave instead* "Nope, Flash!"
DAMNIT!! STOP PUTTING THESE WORTHLESS FLASH PUZZLES IN THE GAME!! IT'S NOT EVEN A HM!
*Sighs* I'll just take the bike then..
*Soloes Zapdos with a Wacan Berry and some confusion hax* By soloing the three legendary birds, Koops has gained one more CP.

Lugia will be next! I can hear myself thinking: "Why not take the Magnet Train?" But when I try to enter the gate it appears that yet another pointless subquest needs to be fulfilled. No. I'm done with the subquests. Screw the train: I'm flying old school!

*Needs Flash (yet again) to enter Whirl Islands*

.. *facepalm* I really hate going back and forth for these pointless HM's.. Surf, Flash, Whirlpool, Strength, Rock Climb, Smash and Fly.. I've hardly got any scramble 'mon left! It's the holy trinity of anoying dungeons: Low leveled pokemon with worthless XP, tedious HM puzzles and ledges that have you backtrack all the way through the complex. Oh and have I mentioned the worthless treasure? My god, in SS you actually have to do this pointless dungeon just to advance the plot!!

Versus Lugia: Koops needs one X-SpD to properly tank Aeroblast and Safeguard prevents confusion hax from Waterpulse. I decide to go old-school and Tail Whip. But on the same turn Lugia trolls me by getting the all round Ancient Power boost. (Gee.. thanks! -_-) Two critical hits later, Koops is still struggling to do something, but the Tail Whip strategy pays off: A series of bite and 4 potions finally take the beast down for confidence point number seven!

Cerulean Cave:

No no, this is the holy trinity of annoying dungeons: Wobbuffet, an endless rock maze and more HM drudgery. Sigh.. Wobbuffet appears way more often than he should: With Counter, Shadow Tag and Destiny Bond my Scizor keeps getting killed by the blue bastard. (A Choice Scarf makes D-Bond especially fun: I can't even use a potion at full HP and try to stall with X-items..) And that maze is LONG! I'm using PP items left and right while N10SE gains 10 levels! I can't say I'm enjoying this one, though.. *Makes it all the way to the bottom* Surprize! You needed to bring Rock Climb!

..

.

I hate you Game Freak.. Sometimes I really do!

Versus Mewtwo: The final legendary! I'll go for an X-Special Defense to tank those Psychics. *Mewtwo uses Psycho Cut* Really? No Psychic? Times really have been tough on the dethroned King of Ubers. But for Squirtle this is good news; this looks like an easy solo: "Koops, use Iron Defense and Tail Whip!"

*Mewtwo used Guard Swap!*

... *facepalm* Spamming Bite and Iron Defense is enough to pull through, apparently. Just a few potions to heal and Koops earns his 8th CP. Now he can evolve and learn TM's. Awesome! As a reward Koops learns Icebeam on the spot to help deal with annoying Grass types and future Dragons. He may even get Surf, but for now I'll stick with the confuse hax from Water Pulse.

Later: What happened to all the Parasect, Kadabra and Magneton? All Buster ever encounters on the way up are that Machoke and his annoying Revenge! Is this because he has Guts instead of Run Away and only wants to grind like a boss? An where is my GODDAMN BURN HAX!! /rant

Rematches:

A rematch (finally): Molasses laughs at Parasect, burns a Poliwhirl but I misclick and Protect against a Ditto. This is soo enfuriating! My own Smog misses 4 times in a row while Molases is Yawned, Poisoned and counter Protected by his own tricks! Bastard Ditto!

*8 trainers left to go* Great! A double battle with two Quagsire to spam EQ. Molasses Yawns and Protects while one Quaggy takes out his sleeping partner with EQ. Serene just sits there, healing the slug with potions while it stalls though the endless x4 attacks. Fortunately, the next rematch is with a bunch of bugs: 6 trainers left to solo!

Rematch with a Rapidash: Stomp has to be one of the most annoying moves in the game. Molasses just tries to poison the mare with Smog, but needs about 20 turns:
*Flinch. Miss. Flinch. Flinch. Miss* DAMNIT!! HIT THAT THING!!
*Smog hits, deals pathetic damage and fails to poison* (Of course..)
*Miss. Hit. Miss. Flinch. Miss. Miss* (70% Acc my ass!!)
*Flinch. Hit. Miss. Flinch. Flinch. Hit. (Where's my poison!)
*Miss. Flinch. Hit* Finally that annoying thing goes down! Sigh, these last solo's aren't easy at all!

In the meanwhile the team is slowly grinded to level 60. Reckless is rewarded for his efforts with Return and an evolution. Lol! Return becomes a powerhouse attack all of a sudden! *Serene wants to learn Shear Cold* Hmm.. Are the OHKO moves attacks or not? I decide she can't have it; just to be on the safe side. But this would have been very sweet.

*More montage grinding*

I've reached the Icy Peak with a total of 12 Rare Candies in the bag: Two for Fusion and N10SE and six for Serene and my plan is complete! The entire team is now above level 60. The remaining two are used to evolve Koops to Blastoise. (An initial battle with Red demonstrated how a level 60 Squirtle gets owned even by the Charizard.) Fusion gets a Choice Scarf, Koops gets the Leftovers, N10SE the Muscleband, Serene a Chople Berry and Buster a Charti Berry to solo Charizard. Time to face Red!

Versus Red:

"..."

*Begins Battle* (There's all the backstory you need!)

Fusion leads to solo the Pikachu. Fun Fact: Intimidate + Wacan Berry can't prevent an OHKO from Volt Tackle! Crap! How the hell am I going to solo his rat? In the end I'll just invoke the RNG gods: Choice Scarf enables Fusion to outspeed the Pikachu and gives him a 20% chance to flinch! I get lucky: Waterfall crits and OHKO's Pikachu. "Yay!" *Pikachu's Static Paralyzes Fusion* "Naaee.."

Snorlax is next. Hmm.. I'll send out Serene to get rid of that annoying snowstorm by, ironically, using Hail. Snorlax's health drops into the yellow by confuse hax and hail alone. But my patience is wearing thin: The HM slave is murderen by a critical Giga Impact and N10SE can safely switch in for a free Swords Dance. Rock Smash 1 does over half damage, but scores a defense drop. Full Restore doesn't help anymore, Snorlax goes down in two hits and that annoying hail is gone too.

Of course Charizard rears his ugly head, looking to roast my bug-type. But that is not the plan. Buster still has to solo a pokemon and Charizard seemed a likely candidate. I send in Fusion to Intimidate (Flare Blitz is a OHKO) and Serene for a Confuse Ray to give Buster hopefully a turn to set up. One X-speed is needed to outspeed and avoid the flinch from Air Hax. *Charizard hits itself in confusion* Yes! Time for the mandatory Flamewheel! *Airslash brings Buster down to the red* Crap. I won't live another hit like that.. Time for a hyper potion and pray for some confuse hax.

*Charizard snapped out of confusion*

(ohh shit!)

*Charizard used Flareblitz! Buster is Burned!*

NOOooo!

But Buster lives the burn; thank you, Intimidate! On the plus side Guts gives Buster a much needed attack boost and the recoil has weakend his opponent. Time to go for it: "Buster, Natural Gift!" The Charti Berry gives júst enough power to kill the lizard from green health with a 60 BP Rock attack. After so many times, he finally did it! a level 84 Charizard solo'd by a Raticate!

The burn still fails to take him down and Buster gets a pathetic Bite in on the Blastoise.. Back to good ol' Fusion and his Intimidate then: Three Thunders in a row leave Blastoise paralyzed and Koops comes in to spam Waterpulse. But a crafty switch from Red later he's suddenly faced with his arch nemesis Venusaur. "Oh no, you don't!! This one is for N10SE to solo: Let's Dance!"

An X-Speed and a Swords Dance get Scizor ready for action, but Sleep Powder has put him to sleep. N10SE just laughs at Frenzy Plant and Swords Dances again, just because he can! Double Hit for the kill and this match is technically over. N10SE is such an overpowered monster that he could easily sweep the team. But that would be lame. Koops really wants to get his own kill!

Serene is revived while Focus Blast kills N10SE and phases the Blastoise while dodging a Focus Blast. A switch to Fusion gives Red a chance to heal his Pokemon and Fusion dies to Blizzard. Koops enters the arena unscratched versus a switching Lapras. He tanks Body Slam with Iron Defense and Water Pulse and Bite hax wear the 'mon down. A Full Restore and a Special Defense drop give Koops a hard time before he banks his solo. Just that damned Blastoise is left.. I'll send in Serene for a final Perish Song. Chople Berry tanks the last Focus Blast and Koops switches back in on the turn that Red's final pokemon bites the dust!

More Rematches:

Great, an all Water-type trainer wants to battle! *Molasses in OHKO'd by a crit* FUUUUU!! I'll just revive him and try again! *Smog Poisons, Molasses is killed yet again* Another revive then!! Protect Spam!

Rematch with Kenji: Woohoo! Two fighting types to solo. I totally forget them on Molasses list. Looks like he needs three more Fighting types!

*Makes a bunch of random calls* Aha! Bugsy wants to fight in the Saffron Dojo.

Versus Bugsy:

Bugsy with his level 55 Bug types looks like an easy opponent: Scizor Sword Dances while Molasses solo's his fourth Steel type with a single Ember. But Heracross lives an Ember and deals a massive blow with Close Combat. Oops! I guess I needed to Yawn instead going for Ember. *KO's the Bug in his sleep* There that's another fighting type!

*Yanmega crits with Tinted Lens Bug Buzz* Crap! Another reset. Okay, Protect for leftovers and another Yawn.. Fortunately this time it doesn't crit and I can safely heal and 2HKO with Ember. This isn't going as smooth as I imagined.

*Pinsir OHKO's with Earthquake*

.. *facepalm* I'll revive Molasses and just Protect and switch to Koops until its PP is depleted. Flame Body even burns on an X-Scissor. Full Restore just prolongs the inevitable: EQ runs out and Ember claims another victim. Bugsy's final pokes don't put up much of a fight: Vespiquen gets a lot of Potions and LOL Shedinja is left defenseless. *2 Trainers to go!!*

Final stuff:

Hmm, who else to battle? Maybe the double battle with Claire and Lance? When I get there Derp the Rival quotes an other movie: *breathes heavily* "Come over to my side!" Well, well.. Derp Vader wants to team up, eh! Alright then! *Molasses is OHKO'd by waterfall* Damn that Gyarados! I guess Koops will have to solo the Dragons then.

*Derp the Rival has his team killed before Lance's Gyarados is even down* "Well, thanks for nothing Derp! Remind me why my character chose to team up with you instead of champion Lance!"

Fortunately, Koops tanks hits like a boss and his Icebeam decimates the Dragons. Just one potion is enough for him to solo Lance's remaining pokes after Derp has gone. *After battle* Lance: “Do you see?” Claire: ”I see” Great lines at the end of the game! But this still leaves two more trainers for Molasses to solo.

*A bug catcher wants an easy rematch* FINALLY! Just one more trainer, one Steel, two Fighting and a Dark type left to solo. But I have a plan: Molasses will solo Bruno's hitmon and Lucario and then solo Karen as his final trainer. Buster must solo Koga, N10SE can solo Will and Koops should solo Lance's Dragons. I'll take Reckless or Serene along for the ride.



Next chapter: Fight E-4 round 2!


Team Summary:

Buster (Raticate) - Level 61
Nature: Relaxed, Ability: Guts
Item: Charti Berry
- Flame Wheel
- Natural Gift
- Bite
- Swords Dance

Status: He solo'd Reds Charizard with a little support from his friends. I spend some Game Corner Coins on TM Swords Dance for a little more power. He needs to solo Koga to complete his challange.

Molasses (Magcargo) - Level 62
Nature: Hardy, Ability: Flame Body
Item: (Leftovers)
- Yawn
- Smog
- Ember
- Protect (PP-up x2)

Status: The naval routes had quite a number of pathetic pokemon that he could solo. Random Surfs and critting Water Guns couldn't bring him down. He now solo'd 49 trainers; only 1 more to go (karen). On the type solo's: 1 Steel, 2 Fighting and 2 Darks (Bruno's Lucario).

Koops (Blastoise) - Level 64
Nature: Modest, Ability: Torrent
Item: Leftovers
- Bite
- Iron Defense
- Water Pulse
- Ice Beam (PP-up x3)

Status: The three Kanto Birds, Lugia and Mewtwo give him 8 free Confidence Points to be spend on the Evolution and TM restrictions.

Reckless (Hitmonchan) - Level 60
Nature: Quirky, Ability: Keen Eye
Item: Choice Specs
- Thief
- Return
- Double Team
- Vacuum Wave

Status: Return was his final thing, I guess he'll have to solo some pokemon at the league to go out in style.

Serene (Lapras) - Level 60
Nature: Bold, Ability: Shell Armor
Item: Chople Berry
- Hail
- Safeguard
- Confuse Ray
- Perish Song

Status: I'm amazed she got to level 54 without much grinding. She is definitely a wall with all Iron and Zincs and HP ups put on her.


Fusion (Gyarados) - Level 60
Nature: Hasty, Ability: Intimidate
Item: Choice Scarf
- Bite
- Waterfall
- Thunder
- Frustration

Status: He solo'd Red's Pikachu with a LOT of luck. Even Intimidate and the Wacan Berry weren't enough to prevent a Volt Tackle from OHKO-ing. Fortunately Flinch and crit hax plus a Scarf pulled him through.


N10SE (Scizor) - Level 60
Nature: Adamant, Ability: Technician
Item: Muscle Band
- Rock Smash
- Swords Dance
- Fury Cutter
- Double Hit

Status: He took a lot of grinding this chapter. But he did prove useful in the battle with Red, quite possible capable of soloing his entire team on his own.

Chapter 14: The End

---

At last! The final chapter is done. I took down the notes for this one a little while ago, so I hope I got it all down. The mission for this chapter is simple:
- Get Reckless one final Psychic Boss to solo.
- Buster must solo Koga to become the uber ninja rat he always dreamt to be.
- Koops must solo his nemesis Hooktail and his henchmen by soloing Lance.
- Molasses must solo Bruno's Lucario for his final Steel, one more Fighting and Karen's entire team of Darks to check his final trainer and types off his list.


Versus Will:

Reckless has one more Psychic Boss to solo. As a Hitmonchan this should be a heck of a lot easier than battling Sabrina. But Will's lead; a Bronzong has some nasty little tricks up its sleave.

Let's begin the battle by setting up an X-Special Defense to live those Psychics. But on the same turn Bronzong scores a Sp Def drop with Psychic. For a mere second I imagine the metal bell to virtually flip me off and scores ANOTHER SpD DROP!! Sigh.. the gloves are coming off! Time to spam some Double Teams: I get to +3 evasion and +1 SpD (Curse you hax gods!)

*Bronzong used Gravity*

..

*facepalm* Great! That made my moves even more useless! Even after a few Vacuum Waves that thing annoys the heck out of me.. Of course it gets a Full Restore and scores a crit with Psychic.. twice!!

*Sage Chow's Rage is building*

But finally I win! I throw in a Dire Hit to get some hax of my own and plow through the Bronzong. When the Xatu finally comes out it manages to hit me twice in a row (at +6 evasion 0_o) before Thief takes Will's MVP down. Only a Slowbro left:

*Slowbro uses Curse*

Shit.. if he gets the Full Restores this could get ugly and Thief is out of PP. *Reckless's Return crits to K.O. his last poke* Oh, never mind. I guess it was that easy! Man, that Bronzong was a real piece of work but after that this was a cakewalk!

Versus Koga:

One final ninja to be soloed by Buster. Flamewheel go! He hasn't really used his new and awesome Swords Dance yet, so there you go: While set-up-fodder-Skuntank foolishly uses Dig, he manages to get to +6 and sweeps the team. Payapa berry Natural Gift destroys Toxicroak before Swalot somehow manages to live two max attack Bites using his leftovers! "Wow! That thing is actually pretty bulky!" But the hax gods make up that insane Bronzong from last battle:

*Bite flinches twice in a row*

LOL! Poor Swalot! He finally gets his Full Restore and manages to land a Yawn. This is annoying. I'll just Full Restore before Venomoth can set up Double Team. (gasp!) Flamewheel takes care of the moth and the subsequent bat. I don't even remember what Crobat does. Just the Muk is left:

Koga: "I'm down to my last pokemon, that was my plan all along" .. Somehow, it doesn't seem like such a solid plan anymore.
*Muk survives Bite and lands a Swagger*
Ai! At +6 Buster could really hurt himself!
*But he doesn't and finishes the battle like a boss*

Awesome! Just like Splinter in TMHT!


Versus Bruno:

Alright, lets bag Molasses his last two Fighting types!
*Hitmontop uses Earthquake* #$%$#
But Molasses lives by 5 HP! Protect. Heal.
*Hitmontop wakes up after a 1 turn sleep and OHKO's Molasses*
OH, COME ON!!

Meh, I'll lead with N10SE this time.
*Close Combat is a 2HKO, Double Hit misses*
Sigh.. I guess an X-Def is order.
*An X-Spd and Swords Dance later: Double Hit kills the puny Hitmontop in one Hit*
Hahaha! N10SE is such a boss! Who's Next?
*Double hit misses again, Hitmonlee uses Blaze kick*

..

*facepalm*

Sigh.. let's try that again: SD + X-Spd and Hitmonlee and Hitmontop perish to Double Hit. Hitmonchan seems the weakest hitmon for Molasses to take on. X-Def on Close Combat and the Hitmon is burned. Awesome! Some potions and protect stall and an Ember brings it into the red. Yup! Full Restore.. (Crap! I need that burn!) Finally! Molasses gets a break while Chan is incinerated by Ember.

*Hariyama comes out* Crap! It has Guts. "Serene, Go!" *Is OHKO'd* DANG! That is one tough pokemon!

Okay, N10SE! *Dances on a useless Counter and Double Hits for the kill*

Finally! Lucario enters the arena, allowing Molasses to cross the final Steel and Fighting pokemon off his list. X-Defend to tank a Close Combat (Jeez, why does every pokemon carry that dreaded move!). Finally it goes for Iron Tail and the slug finishes him off with Ember.

*Machamp OHKO's with Dynamic Punch* (at +1 Def!)

Dang! Who to send out? *N10SE is OHKO by DP* Maybe Reckless? *Gets two Returns off before fainting*
Crap. Only Koops is left. Waterpulse away!
*Misses the K.O. and is confused by Dynamic Punch*

This is nice.. -_- ..the Full Restores will be coming in again. So I'd better Iron Defense. But Koops decides to hit himself in confusion first. Magnificent. Fortunately, Water Pulse confuses Machamp too and the match is won. Pfew! That was a close save. Fortunately Koops Water Pulses his way to victory like a boss.


Versus Karen:

"Are we there yet?" Not in the slightest. The second time around, Karen managed to be equally annoying as before. Molasses still requires some Dark types to solo and must solo his 50th trainer with great effort. The lead Weavile appears decent set up fodder. I equip my slug with X-Def while it gets two crits in a row before Flame Body activates. More X-items including some X-SpA for later and the Weavile is Full Restored. Dang! More crit-hax drains more potions and the lead goes down to Ember. Yay! Absol comes out next. "No Problem! Molasses is at +5"

*Absol lives by 5 HP to Perish Song* Really, Gamefreak? Ember, then!

*Karen switches to Houndoom*

REALLY? At least Smog can poison and damage before I have to switch..

*Smog misses. Houndoom uses Nasty Plot*

..

%$# REALLY?!! I guess this is GG! *RESET*

Originally Posted by Fat Fail Montage

- Smog misses Houndoom twice in a row (start using X-Acc)
- Absol sings more Perish Songs to piss away my X-items.
- Houndoom plots to +6 while Molasses Protects in vein.. -_-
- Absol CH's twice, finally the slug attacks only to be K.O'd by yet another crit.
- Houndoom poisons with Sludgebomb, Dark Pulse Crits again
- Spiritomb Curses to pick off a weakened Molasses
- Plus 3 Ember fails to K.O Spiritomb after Curse by 5 hp.
- Umbreon Curses to +6, Karen applies a Full Restore.
- Umbreon crits with payback, Molasses is revived, Umbreon crits yet again!

STOP GETTING CRITICAL HITS!!!

So finally I get past the Houndoom with 2 X-SpD, 2 X-SpA and an Accuracy boost. (Smog misses too much) Absol is killed too. Succes!

*Spiritomb uses Curse while Molasses Yawns*

...

There go my boosts. Fuck you, Spiritomb!! But by spamming potions, Molasses pulls through. The Honchkrow comes out while Curse saps the remaining life energy out of Magcargo. I decide to man up and Ember but the bird has other plans: Whirlwind saves my slug from further damage, but also takes away my precious boosts. A fair trade, I presume. More tedious fighting, more Whirlwinds and more CH's (again with the Super Luck!).

Just Umbreon is left. But it has Curse. +3 Payback crits and does massive damage. But Molasses lives (thank god he didn't attack) and Flame Body activates. In the meanwhile Umbron Curses to +6!!

*Karen uses a Full Restore*

Holy crap!! I'd better not take a Sucker Punch!

*Payback Critical hits*

Nooooo!

*Revives only to get nailed by yet another crit!* UGH that FUCKING UMBREON!! *Sighs* One more time?


Final reset: Yawn the Weavile. Protect and get an X-Acc for Smog. Weavile is hit by Ember. This time I Yawn Houndoom on the switch and try to poison it. But it gets a Nasty Plot off. Crap. 2 X-SpD should match the arms race but it wakes up early and Nasty Plots again!! Yawn on the obvious restore, more X-SpD and Smog to Poison again.

Of course Absol gets that annoying Perish Song in, but is burned by Flame Body. Weavile comes back and wakes up while Molasses has to switch out of Perish Song. Nightslash crits but Ember takes it out. Spritomb Curses twice (LOL!) while Molasses is forced to do some more switching. Take care of the crow and FINALLY that BASTARD UMBREON. Flame Body burns and 2x X-SpA are pumped into Magcargo. Yawn on the obvious Full Restore. (Crap! It has already cursed to +5!) Another Yawn while Payback fails to K.O. from full health by a hair.. It sleeps and Molasses can safely Ember for the win! Pffeew.. I HATE that Umbreon.


Verus Lance:

Koops has mustered enough confidence to face his nemesis Hooktail in combat. But he has to dispose of his dragon henchmen before facing the master: Salamence is up first. His Dragon Claw does decent damage but Icebeam brings it into the red. Here comes the Full Restore! Koops goes for Iron Defense to tank another hit. Icebeam brings the dragon back in the red as it goes for Lum Rest. Sigh.. another icebeam and another rest. Finally it admits defeat and dies.

Gyarados is up, Koops could easily beat him but I don't want to bother with him right now and keep Icebeam PP stocked. Serene confuses and phases with perish song. Koops comes back in and uses Iron Defense on the switch. Garchomp gets greedy and Swords Dances while koops blasts him with Ice beam. And wow! Even though it fails to OHKO, it gets the Freeze hax! Another dragon down and the Gyarados begs for a repeat battle with Serene.

Koops comes back in to face Charizard with his trusty Waterpulse. A nice 2HKO. Again that blasted Gyarados.. sigh.. go away! Again Serene comes back in, and again Koops nabs an Iron Defense on the switch. Altaria is blasted by another Icebeam and WOW again the freeze hax! The Full Restore is pointless but drains some more Icebeams (I'm really glad I used those PP up). Gyarados again. Serene nearly takes it out (Dragon Dance + confuse ray is sneaky) but another Full Restore brings back up before Perish Song.

Finally! Hooktail the Dragonite shows himself! It Draco Meteors for decent damage but Koops' Icebeam brings it down to Sitrus Range.. Hooktail never stood a chance.. With his Iron Defense up Koops walls the dragon like a boss. The Gyarados returns for desert while Koops just sets up another Iron Defense to wall the beast to hell and back. Even two Full Restores don't matter while Water Pulse finally confuses the Dragon Dancer.

And there you have it: The final battle completed and the challange of epic solo's comes to an end. In the new year I'll start part two of this scramble biathlon and do a challange based on team work rather than soloing major battles. Below are some final remarks.

Final Words

---

The emphasis was on difficult solo's and each gym was fun and interesting in its own way. I guess the Kanto battles were the most fun, due to insane difficulty, the great number of pokemon and Full Restores and the type advantages in nearly every gym fight. Additional restrictions such as aiming for the least amount of X-items, OHKO-ing all pokemon and not healing made the simpler solo's into the epic battles that I requested. It also made the warstory more interesting, seeing as nobody wants to read about OHKO-ing every pokemon.

Switching pokemon before Kanto severly raised the difficulty. Most of my MVP's were benched enabling a fresh start with my new pokemon. Normally, Kanto is a bit of a drag with the old pokemon trained and ready, but this time I found myself struggling with the new pokemon. In a good way. I also realized how much of a good scramble relies on a balanced team. Reckless was underpowered the entire time while Fusion simply stole the show each time he was out. Once I took him and N10SE out of the team, other members such as Serene became much more useful.

I'd like to thank everybody who gave me a challange. Some were very original and some had great stories. I did feel that some were easier than others, and tried to use each proportionally to prevent a clear MVP from taking over.


Buster (Raticate) - Level 62
The mandatory Flame Wheel at the start of each match was annoying at certain times but never too annoying. Blaine was probably in the top three of difficult soloes. His solo of route 3 was much harder than expected because of this rule. No STAB isn't the end of the world for a normal pokemon and Natural Gift provided immense versatility.

Molasses (Magcargo) - Level 64
This was a proper hard challange. His moveset was pretty awesome with Protect as his most valuable move. Ember was just good enough for some grinding on wild pokemon and Smog was great for coverage on fire types. His solo's were really hard, but immensly satisfying to do.

Koops (Blastoise) - Level 66
The idea of soloing major battles to get rid of restrictions was an awesome motivator to use him in all kinds of disadvantageous situations. He soloed the Rival twice, the Rockets (x3), Ho-oh, Surge, Erika, the Kanto Birds, Lugia, Mewtwo and Lance. Getting the rival a Meganium certainly made his job a little harder and soloing Surge and Erika as a Squirtle certainly added to the difficulty too. The female torment restriction was annoying to keep track of and the Withdraw restriction would have been too much during the SS Anne and subsequent Gyms. He almost turned MVP after evolution.

Reckless (Hitmonchan) - Level 61
Tyrogue was a mixed bag. I love Tyrogue and tried to use him all the time. But he is soo weak! Even more with just Vacuum Wave as his best attack. His mandatory soloes of Flying and Psychic types came close to drudgery. Flying types are everywhere!! I removed the flying and wild psychic types from his restrictions to make this more manageable. Please pick one type in the future and pick an obscure type! The solo's of Bruno and Sabrina were great obstacles to overcome and Sabrina even became a sport to get the best solo. Reckless constant struggle made this the insane epic challange that I wanted.

Serene (Lapras) - Level 60
The soloes with Serene were a lot of fun and enabled me to try some strange tactics. I absolutely loved Stealth Roar vs Will because it was actually the most effective. In Kanto she saw much more utility as my only Wall. I guess Fusion and N10SE really overshadowed her before that. On the down side, Serene took determination, effort and planning to level.


Fusion (Gyarados) - Level 60
Gyarados is such a boss. His restrictions forced him to go full out attack. Not switching seemed fair, but actually made the challange more boring: Instead of smart switching and relying on Intimidate, he just needed a bunch of X-items and ploughed through everything. By ignoring this one I've gotten much more interesting battles than with it. That Pikachu would have been impossible without the Choice Scarf.


Skip (Quagsire) - Level 46
The Morty solo with the Kid was interesting. For the rest he was a solid in game pokemon, the silent force behind the team for the first half of the game. The restriction Male and Jolly cost me a whole night of searching and I will probably never do that again. The prankster move is always a nice one and Yawn is always a great thing to have. Blizzard and Zoom Lens were awesome on him.

Earl (Dunsparce) - Level 46
Abusing Serene Grace was fun, his route solo's weren't as tedious as expected and actually made things easier for him. Swagger missed the synergy for this pokemon and didn't seem to make much sense both in game as to his story. It felt like a "oh yeah, just add that move" kind of thing. No healing + Roost made his solo's interesting: Karen was a nightmare and Jasmine put up quite a fight aswell. Soloing 20 pokemon per type was too tedious and I had to keep an elaborate list. Dragons are really rare and Dark types don't exist in the wild. Next time, reduce the number but make it trained types only and make exceptions for types that are unavailable (check pokearth).


N10SE (Scizor) - Level 61
Even with Fury Cutter Scizor is just really awesome. He was fun to use, but his insane power kinda overshadowed the rest a bit. When he rejoined in Kanto he was the one pokemon who could have swept Red's team given the time to set up. His solo of Claire, taking a few powerful hits to the face, was very interesting. I loved the story and the unorthodox pokemon, but we both know you went easy on me =P