Where we left off, I had been to Lake Valor & beat Saturn. So I was in Pastoria City, healing up & flying to Twinleaf Town to go to Lake Verity. Arriving there, I see a whole bunch of Spacemen as well as Prof. Rowan & Lucas. Pummeling my way through the Spacemen, I see Lucas being held up by Mars. I confront her & challenge her to a battle.
Random's Team at this point:
Chocolate: Lv35
Larolla: Lv35
Stortamus: Lv35
Missy: Lv38
Lailaps: Lv41
Mr Penguin: Lv43
I lead out with Chocolate while Mars leads out with a Golbat. Chocolate gets in a Fly, but gets 2HKOed by Air Cutter. So I send in Lailaps, who takes the Air Cutter like a champ (God those Warstory puns have now made it into my updates 0_O) & KOes Golbat with Spark.
I send in Missy against Bronzor, who gets in a Shadow Ball, only to be confused by Confuse Ray. Spending two turns of hitting himself in confusion, Bronzor raises his Defence with Iron Defence & gets in an Extrasensory. Missy then fires off two more Shadow Balls to KO Bronzor, taking the oncoming Gyro Ball like a champ...
I send Lailaps to deal with Purugly. Unfortunaterly, Purugly puts Lailaps to sleep & KOes him with Slash. So I send in Mr Penguin, who shrugs off the oncoming Slash like a champ to deal a lot of damage with Surf. Not happy with this, Purugly eats her Sitrus Berry & hypnotises Mr Penguin to sleep. Then starts Slashing the poor Penguin, followed up by a few Faint Attacks. Luckily, Mr Penguin wakes up in time & KOes Purugly with Surf, winning me the battle.
After that, I have to go to Snowpoint City, but first, some things have to be done. First, Larolla's 2 TM's. I replace Agility with Protect, & Protect with Iron Tail. Second, Someone to give Strength to. Unfortunately, the only Pokemon in my party that can learn Strength aren't really viable with it, so I need a HM Slave. I grab Doofus out of my PC, unfortunately, he doesn't learn Strenght, so I need to catch a new HM Slave. I go to Route 207 & catch Rock Pile the Geodude & teach him Strength. He enters the party at the expense of Stortamus, who isn't actually going to be much help once I hit the snow. So I go through the Celestic Town Entrance to Mt. Coronet, beating the trainers along the way. After going through the passageway, I eventually arrive in the snow.
It was cold, freezing, & pretty tough. I eventually find a shack where I have a rest before continuing. The battles were tough, I had to return to the shack a few times, but then, I eventually arrive a Acuity Lakefront, which was guarded by Spacemen. At this point, I had gotten Brave Bird for Chocolate & Larolla had learnt Dizzy Punch. After a few more battles, I had arrived in Snowpoint City, where I healed up & went inside the Gym. The minor trainers were tough, but I eventually beat them & then challenged Candice to a battle for Gym Badge #7.
Random's Team at this point:
Stortamus: Lv35
Chocolate: Lv38
Larolla: Lv38
Missy: Lv39
Lailaps: Lv43
Mr Penguin: Lv45
I lead out with Stortamus against a Snover, Stortamus' speed meant there was sand flying around in the air. At the beginning, Stortamus survives a Razor Leaf to set up Stealth Rock. Knowing I need him to keep the hail away, I switch in Larolla, only to allow Snover to set up Ingrain. Then Larolla starts an Iron Tail onslaught, taking the oncoming attacks, before Candice used a Hyper Potion, which was for free as Iron Tail missed...Eventually Snover survives the next Iron Tail to KO Larolla with Razor Leaf, only for it to be killed by Sandstorm Damage.
I send in Chocolate for the next part, hoping Abomasnow doesn't come out. A Medicham comes out. Good. Then Medicham comes along & gets a lucky crit OHKO with Force Palm...Damnit. So I send in Missy, who 2HKOes with Shadow Ball, laughing when Medicham Bulked Up.
Third was Sneasel & I sent in Lailaps against it. Lailaps kept Returning on it & after a Full Restore & a Slash, Sneasel went down.
Last was Abomasnow, who I sent Stortamus in, purely to keep Sandstorm going. Stortamus, unsurprisingly, was soundly defeated. Abomasnow showed she had Swagger, making Stortamus hit himself, & while I healed, Abomasnow cancelled out the Hyper Potion with Avalanche, then knocked Stortamus out with Wood Hammer. Lailaps fared little better, being put to sleep via Grasswhistle, & subsequently knocked out by Wood Hammer. So I was down to two Pokemon, Missy & Mr Penguin, who hadn't seen any action yet. I send in Missy, who saves the day, dodging a Grasswhistle to 2HKO with Shadow Ball, & more importantly, win the battle for me in a hard fought battle with a fair bit of hax involved.
So I had won the Icicle Badge, my 7th, & the TM for Avalanche. I wasted no time dealing with Larolla's 2 TM Restriction, making her forget Cut, replacing it with Protect, & replacing Protect with...Shock Wave. I then go to Lake Acuity & find that I was too late, with Idiot failing to beat Jupiter & the spacemen were on their way to their hideout in Veilstone. I fly there & get a Storage Key from one of the Spaceman & went inside the hideout. It didn't take long before the Grunt Battles started, but I eventually got through them & got the Galactic Key. After briefly healing up, I re-entered the Hideout through the main entrance, & after more annoying battles, eventually reached the Galactic Leader's room, & challenged him to a battle.
Random's Team at This Point:
Stortamus: Lv37
Chocolate: Lv38
Larolla: Lv38
Missy: Lv41
Lailaps: Lv44
Mr Penguin: Lv45
I lead with Stortamus against a Murkrow. Murkrow kicks off the battle with Astonish, while Stortamus sets up Stealth Rock like he usually does. Murkrow, realising how little damage Astonish had done, resorted to Night Shade while for a lack of a better attack move to use, Stortamus used Crunch, doing a fair bit of damage. Seeing as he wasn't going to get KOes fast, Cyrus switches in Sneasel, took Stealth Rock damage & took the oncoming Crunch like a champ, unusual for something that fragile...So Sneasel then went along & KOed Stortamus with Ice Punch.
After thinking for a bit, I send in Larolla, who shrugged off the oncoming Ice Punch to do hefty damage to Sneasel with Iron Tail & get a lucky Defence drop. Cyrus then saw an opportunity to use a Super Potion...Which was cancelled out by Larolla's Iron Tail. Seeing as Super Potions weren't going to save Sneasel, Cyrus goes for broke getting Sneasel to Ice Punch Larolla...Only for Larolla to survive with 9HP. Larolla in return, landed the KO with Iron Tail.
Seeing as Larolla clearly had one turn left in her, I switch in Missy after thinking for a bit against a Golbat. It wasn't exactly the best choice, as Golbat had Bite up his sleeve, but Missy survived with more than half health & did surprisingly low damage in return with Psybeam, but enough for Cyrus to use another Super Potion...Which was cancelled out by Psybeam. Then Golbat used Air Cutter, doing not as much as Bite, as Missy KOed in return with Psybeam.
Lastly, Murkrow returned & it was Lailaps who was sent in to pick Cyrus off, & she did exactly that, taking the Night Shade like a champ to KO with Spark & win the battle.
After the battle, I get a Master Ball form Cyrus & he tells me that he's going to Mt. Coronet. After healing up at the hideout beds, I go past Cyrus' Room to go to the place where the three fairies were. Saturn was there & I challenged him to a battle. The battle was a mere textbook victory for me, Stortamus was put in an Embargo & OHKOed Kadabra with Crunch, Missy survived an Extrasensory to 2HKO Bronzor with Shadow Ball, & survived a Poison Jab to 2HKO Toxicroak with Psybeam. A textbook victory.
After that, I left the hideout & healed up at the Veilstone Pokemon Centre & got ready for Mt. Coronet. So it's definitely lategame now, starting to phase into the endgame. I have 7 badges in possession, the battles really are getting harder by the game-time hour, but with confidence, I will prevail. And that's where we leave off...