Saga learned of a Steelix causing terrifying earthquakes, vowed to go kick his ass, then got stomped by a Krookodile belonging to Team Cipher.

The time has come…

It’s been an entire year…

The long-awaited rematch to Team Cipher’s Krookodile has finally arrived…

Saga has been standing in front of this Team Cipher guy cursing his Krookodile for almost a whole year.

Now, at long last, she is more determined than ever to take him down.

COME ON YOU PIECE OF SHIT, LET’S DO THIS.

He begins with Dusclops… as I knew he would, and Quirino doesn’t take long to knock him out. We try to get through this guy’s Pokemon as fast as possible, because all we really want is to kill his Krookodile.

Level 35 looks good on our little Arcanine.

Our nemesis seems to think that death looks better on him though.

-_-

The fight is on.

And we are immediately doing terribly.

This damn crocodile crits Olaf as soon as I send him out.

One full restore and two Grass Knots later, we somehow manage to get him down to less than half of his HP.

Saga gets kind of excited, as perhaps this means her year of menacing stares and grumbling curses is actually paying off. Maybe she psyched the Cipher guy out and now he doesn’t know how to fight properly anymore.

Oh, what’s that? You’re digging a hole? That hole’d better be for your final resting place you piece of shit, because I’m gonna make sure I kick-drop you in there and pour cement over your lifeless body so that–

Actually, on second thought, let’s switch out to someone else… just to be safe…

I don’t really recall why I made the decisions I made, as I haven’t actually played any of this since Spring earlier this year… I’m basically rewatching all of these old videos of my gameplay and trying to remember what I was doing. We’re just gonna chalk some of these horrid decisions up to Saga-stupidity.

Such as this one… switching out to Carbink even knowing Dig was coming.

Jade is able to withstand moves that AREN’T super effective against her, so at least she’s got that going for her.

Speaking of super-effective…!

That must have been why I sent Jade out to take on Krookodile.

Anyway, our year-long grudge has finally been taken care of and the croc goes down! The rest of the battle with this Cipher guy was tough, yadda yadda yadda, but we beat him. Finally.

Oh yeah, and this happened.

Moving on.

The guy won’t move out of the way until he gives Saga his little “join us or die” spiel, so we entertain his proposition by pretending we actually give a crap. Then he tells us to join up with him later to give him our official answer.

Which will be no, by the way.

Quirino suddenly remembers he’s actually fainted and disappears back into his PokeBall, then Saga happily takes the Steelixite she’s been eyeing for so long now.

Now let’s get the hell out of here.

Saga feeds Arcanine a revive so he can show off his pretty physique to the remaining trainers and we trudge our way through the desert to reach the next town, eager to see what awaits us here.

A serial killer. A serial killer awaits us here.

Holy mother of god.

Surely this is just some nonsensical rumor this little kid is spreading. I shouldn’t take him seriously. I mean really, he’s wearing an inner tube in a PokeCenter in the desert. I think I might be a little more worried about his mental state than the Gym leader’s.

Yeah, I heard. Some weirdo little kid was telling me that–

…yeeahhh…

I, uh… I don’t feel very comfortable here with this psycho Gym leader running the town… I’m gonna go find a nice hiding spot.

The mines feel like a safe place to live out the rest of our days.

This little bat has rapidly climbed up the ranks in my list of favorite Pokemon. She has completely stolen my heart with her fierce attacking skills, her endurance against pretty tough opponents, and the sheer fact that she’s so very tiny and yet so very strong.

Wait, what’s this??

Evolution time?!

OH MY FREAKING GOD

Radio has just evolved into the COOLEST POKEMON I HAVE EVER SEEN

DO YOU SEE THIS?

DO YOU SEE THIS DRAGON-BAT OF AWESOME?

I use her for pretty much every battle now. Even when she’s got a type disadvantage… which is pretty much the entirety of this area. I don’t think she minds the constant trips back to the PokeCenter. She’s just too cool to leave trapped in a ball all day.

See? Look, she’s totally cool with fighting Pokemon she hardly ever wins against. She’s having fun anyway.

We reach the end of the mines to find–

HOLY SHIT THE SERIAL KILLER IS ALREADY HERE! HOW DID SHE KNOW WHERE TO FIND US??

Oh yeahh, we were helping her take care of this Steelix-problem. That’s right.

Shiny alert! We have a shiny, people!

We don’t get too excited about it though… first of all, because the “terrifying level” this thing is at is devastatingly lower than Radio’s, and second, we learned our lesson about shinies back in Vesryn. Remember? Shiny Garchomp is always shiny in this game? Pretty sure this Steelix is also set to always be shiny.

Despite our slightly let-down expectations, we plan on catching it anyway because it’s still a shiny Steelix, and that’s still pretty cool.

Hey look, Saga can’t spell.

For the love of god…

Welp, we’ve succeeded in taming the monster that caused us such distress when we were walking through the desert, and now she’s bound to my trainer-hood and follows me with uncertainty. That makes sense. She can probably tell I really hated her earthquake-ing and sort of held a grudge against her for it.

Hannibal Lecter: monster just like that. On behalf of our town, I’d like to extend my gratitude towards saving us.

She’s got us cornered. She’s going to take that drill of hers out and turn us into itty bitty rocks, I just know it!

I’m sorry for all the comments before about you being blind and crazy and all that! Please don’t hurt me!

Freddy Krueger: In return, I can tell you what exactly is so special about that Steelixite you’re holding. Would you like me to tell you?

Uhhhhhhh…

Nn-…yes?

Jason Voorhees: to change battles for ever. It’s a mid-battle move called Mega Evolution! Harnessing the power of its appropriate Mega Stone, a Pokemon can evolve once more in the middle of a battle and become even stronger than before! Have your Pokemon hold a Mega Stone in battle, and you can press the Z key from the battle screen to Mega-Evolve them. They’ll change back at the end of the battle.

Back then, I had never played Kalos, so I hadn’t experienced Mega-evolving until this game. The idea that a Pokemon can switch forms mid-battle seemed awfully silly to me at the time, but I was so… so naive…

Michael Myers: Anyways, Saga. Now that the problem is dealt with, I can get back to work! I’ll meet you at my Gym- I expect a great battle from you!

C…can we skip this one? I really don’t want to be decapitated if I lose… or hell, if I win, would it piss her off enough to do it anyway? Is there any way out of this in which I get to keep my head??

Mega evolution is pretty cool, especially when your Pokemon holding the stone is a shiny. The way out of the mines was filled with playing around with the differences between normal Steelix and Mega Steelix and general grinding in preparation for the Gym.

Saraph diverted from the group a few times just to hang out with the PokeCenter receptionist while in the middle of our grinding session.

THIS LITTLE FUCKER OH MY GOD

STOP FOLLOWING ME

I SWEAR I’M GONNA STEP ON YOU

I SWEAR

I’LL DO IT

We gather up enough courage to take on the deadly leader, saying our last goodbyes to those closest to us just in case things don’t end well here.

The blinding sand inside of the building is not a good sign.