Lumi Plays: Pokémon Scarlet Egglocke- Part 22- The Look of the Future
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Level Cap: 45
Deaths: 2 (8)
Rules
In the southwest corner of Paldea lies our next challenge, the penultimate gym badge! So we head south from where we fought the Titan Bombirdier all that time ago, and make our way to this huge cavern we'll have to cross in order to get there.
It's gonna be a bit of a trek!
I've got a good few Pokémon in the box at this point that I really want to get trained up- some of them will be able to fight now, and some are just a few level caps away from their full potential. That means we're going into battle with a couple of weaker party members in the back! And these trainers are strong, so I'm going to have to be extra careful today.
There are many, many trainers along the road, and lots of items to collect too. But I'm happy to report that we got through the cave without casualty- and on the last battle before we reached our destination, we had a big evolution!
The newest member of the box, our Mareep, evolved not once, but twice on the road to the gym! I've chosen to name them Goldenrod, as suggested by @tall-bearded-fool, for the colour, the city in Ampharos' home region, and it also brings to mind (for me at least) the ability Lightning Rod that is usually associated with Electric types, and also the Olivine lighthouse- where the most famous Ampharos resides.
But it's just a few paces further before we end up in the beautiful town of Alfornada!
It's a town that reminds me of my own experiences in Spain when I visited many years ago at this point. And it holds challenges ahead!
That means it's time for more training, so after I heal up, it's back to the cavern for raising up our Pokémon even more.
We even get another evolution, with Tundora becoming a Glalie! It's nice to have the addition of an Ice type, and it's good he's now more on par with the rest of the team.
So, with some training done, I head to the gym building, only to find someone waiting for us. Yep, that's right, it's Nemona! And she's not mucking about this time, it's time to fight!
She leads with Lycanroc, and we lead with our Gliscor, Claret. It's an easy match up, with a single Earthquake handling the dog! Next up is Sliggoo, who manages to get some damage off with Dragon Pulse after it survives one Earthquake- but it doesn't withstand a second. Nemona's third Pokémon, Pawmot, doesn't even manage that much! With Claret having torn through most of her team, as Nemona sends in Meowscarada, we counter with Pink the Dipplin. Meowscarada can't do a thing to us, so Pink just chips away and finishes the battle with Dragon Pulse.
An easy win later, and Nemona is off on her way. Apparently at this late in the gym challenge, only around 10% of challenges are still earning badges- and we should be proud of that! I expect we'll be seeing Nemona again in battle before too long...
Now, on to the gym test! And it's being led by someone unexpected...
Dendra, one of the teachers from the Academy, helps out Gym Leader Tulip with her gym test!
Apparently Dendra lost a battle against Tulip when they were younger, and the loser had to do whatever the winner wanted. We're not given any more details and instead are left to infer the rest... Hm...
Anyway! For our test this time, we're doing Emotional Spectrum Practice, or ESP. We just have to copy Dendra's expression and then battle a couple of trainers. Piece of cake! The second trainer does push us a little, but with Prism by our side, it's hard for us to go wrong.
But now, the gym test is cleared and it's time for the main event. Here's the team we're heading in with:
I needed bulk and power, and moves good on the Psychic type! This one was a little tricky to narrow down, but let's hope my choices were the right ones.
We meet Tulip, busy on a phone call about her cosmetics brand. Seems she's not just a gym leader! But she likes our style and gives us her full attention- and it's time to fight.
Tulip starts with Farigiraf, and we start with Claret! We're faster, doing about a third of its health with Night Slash, as it does about a quarter with Zen Headbutt. We follow up with another hit, bringing it down in range of one more hit as it goes for Reflect! We won't be able to knock it out with another attack now, which could be awkward. So I opt for a U-Turn, switching in Prism, who's immune to the incoming Zen Headbutt, and we finish it off with Dark Pulse.
Tulip's next Pokémon is Gardevoir, whose Fairy typing is a little scary for the team! I don't have great answers to Fairy types right now, but we go to Coffee, who takes about 40% from a Moonblast. We can survive a critical hit because of our Leftovers, so I decide we need Light Screen. And it's a good thing I checked that Coffee survives a critical hit, because the next Moonblast does just that- leaving Coffee with 7 HP! We have Light Screen up though, so we can take more hits with our other Pokémon. Scary, but good job Coffee! I bring in Ash, who tanks a hit well, then fires off a Shadow Ball, leaving Gardevoir with just a sliver of health! It goes for an Energy Ball, which was a little frightening, but Ash remains just over half HP. We Aqua Jet for the KO.
Next up is Espathra, and we go straight to Prism, avoiding a Shadow Ball on Ash! The bird can't do much to Prism, and we're healing slowly with Leftovers too, so it gives us a chance to put ourselves in a better position for Tulip's ace afterwards. I knock Espathra down to about 40% with Dark Pulse, and then we click Wish. We switch over, back to Claret, who takes the hit and heals back up to full from the Wish! This leaves us in the perfect spot to KO Espathra with Night Slash, and Claret still has full HP for the final Pokémon.
And it's Florges! Knowing it's going to Terastalise immediately, we go for Night Slash- Claret goes first and does about 40%- but then Florges attacks too, and does 40% back. Light Screen is gone at this point, and though Claret is holding the Assault Vest to mitigate some damage, this flower is strong! Now we have a problem. If Florges survives the next hit and lands a critical, then Claret is dead. Both Ash and Coffee are too weak to fight Florges, and Prism and Pink are weak to its Fairy moves. Goldenrod could take a hit, but then we'd be back to the same problem again of risking the critical, and Goldenrod isn't as fast as Claret either.
I weigh up all my options. Ultimately, I decide that using U-Turn to switch will just put me in another bad spot next turn. I have to risk the critical now, and we also have a better chance of landing a critical hit with Night Slash anyway! Maybe we won't need to take another hit?
Night Slash lands. No critical. Florges goes for Psychic and...
No critical! Claret survives in red health, but that's all we need to outspeed next turn and pick up the final knockout with one more Night Slash!
And with that, we earn our next badge!
That was a bit close at points, but no deaths is always something to be proud of. Great job team!
Back at the gym building, Rika is waiting for us again- and she's brought a very small friend!
This is Poppy, and she's a member of the Elite Four?? She must be very talented to be there at her age. She claims to be stronger than us- which is probably true for now- but she looks forward to fighting us later!
We've now met 3 members of the Elite Four, and the Top Champion too! A lot of people believe in us, so we have to make it all the way.
And helping us with that is our next order of business- an egg! As our reward, we're hatching this egg from @pokemonblack3white3, and it's...
Rolycoly! A very welcome sight considering where we're headed next! It's also a Pokémon I've always been interested in using but never have had the opportunity until now, so I'm very excited. Thank you so much!
Naturally, we'll need a name for our new friend here, so leave your suggestions in the comments and I'll reveal the choice next time! And speaking of next time- we're going to be facing our last gym battle. Can you believe it? Well, wish me luck, and I'll see you all then!
hey this must be so awkward but i have a theory that your boyfriend is secretly a worm. yeah if you could take a look at my conspiracy board here, you'll see that he just has sort of a worm mentality, and knows things that only a worm would know. so not to put you on the spot or anything, but would you still love him?
So before the DLC comes out and GameFreak cowardly disproves my very smart and especially very serious Pokémon theory for which I have utterly ironclad evidence, I'd like to call attention to a number of Official Zygarde Personality Traits. Canonically, Zygarde:
is unable to Mega Evolve for most of the plot of Legends Z-A, as well as for all time preceding Z-A, therefore including X&Y
dislikes being unable to Mega Evolve, because it knows that harnessing the power of Mega Evolution is vital to protecting Kalos
seeks out the Z-A protagonist for help because they are a strong Trainer who can wield Mega Evolution in a way that Zygarde can't
saved Lysandre from the ultimate weapon
believes in second chances, particularly seeing potential in Lysandre to correct his old mistakes and become a better, more emotionally balanced person capable of doing better things, particularly after losing his memories/experiencing ego death
Dragon/Ground-type
has its Cells and Cores stored in the Zygarde Cube
gains access to Complete Form, requiring all Cells and Cores, in Sun & Moon onward
could be reasonably argued to "have beef" with Fairy-types, eventually learning a signature Dragon-type move that Fairy-types are not immune to
So, it sure would be suspicious if there was a human NPC, or should I say, "human" NPC, who canonically...
once trained at the Tower of Mastery to learn about Mega Evolution, but "didn't have what it takes" and left
instead recruits the protagonist of X&Y and guides them on their path to help "solve the mystery of Mega Evolution"
has a well-documented soft spot for Lysandre
described the player stopping Team Flare as an act that "also saved Lysandre," way back in X&Y when all reasonable people assumed that Lysandre was just fucking dead
desired for Lysandre to "put his ego aside and lead everything to greater heights"
entrusted a different former member of Team Flare with a new job and opportunity to reform her old life
associated with Garchomp, a Dragon/Ground-type Pokémon
"discovered" the Zygarde Cube, with absolutely zero details ever given about how he "discovered" the Zygarde Cube
tasked his assistants with collecting Zygarde Cells in Alola to reassemble Zygarde's fully-powered form
has not appeared since X&Y, and by extension does not appear in ANY main-series game where Zygarde Complete Form is accessible, i.e. ANY game where all of Zygarde's cells and cores can be accounted for at the same time
most famously and conspicuously, has not appeared in the Zygarde-centric game set in the literal same city that said NPC used to live and research in
has an utterly half-assed excuse about "doing research in another region" to explain his lack of physical appearance in said Zygarde-centric game
had a huge role in scientifically formalizing the Fairy typing. you know, almost like a Dragon-type sick and tired of not being taken seriously when it tried to explain "hey these little pink fuckers SUCK actually" might do.
...But, of course, I'm sure there's not really an NPC like that. Because that would be just too suspicious.
Behold: a totally normal thing to find barely twenty seconds away from Terminus Cave, which is where Zygarde lives:
[ID from alt: a message on a bench in Couriway Town in X&Y, reading: "To the person reading this: What are you like now? Did you become who you wanted to be? For starters, what was the person you wanted to become even like? I don't know, but it would be wonderful if you can boast that you're living each day to the fullest. To future Sycamore. From the Sycamore dreaming of the future."
Last, a map of the Kalos region where Terminus Cave and Couriway Town are circled, and captioned "where zygarde lives" and "this message," respectively. They're nearly bordering each other on the far west side of the map, closer to each other than to any other landmarks. End ID.]
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