Recap: Saga’s team got a nice upgrade. Foxxy was evolved into Glaceon, Yukio evolved into Togekiss, and Xion was swapped out for a shiny Garchomp named Genevieve.

The way the next Gym works is after fighting each trainer, you have to correctly answer a trivia question about Pokemon. If you get it wrong, the weird machine things blocking the path remain where they are. If you get it right, they disappear.

Also, I am saddened to know that the Rare Egg that contained Gible is always shiny. I guess I still haven’t legitimately caught my first shiny yet…

Demetri: I trust you had no trouble in getting here? Normally I do not battle trainers who have not proven themselves to me by defeating hundreds of trainers. However, you have defeated Odin. To me, defeating the leader of a terrorist group is as good as beating a thousand trainers. So bring it on, Saga! I’m ready to fight you!

I will say that I absolutely underestimated how difficult this battle was going to be.

I had NO CLUE this was going to be a double battle Gym.

We’re not off to a very good start.

Claydol threw me a bone by using Earthquake. Yukio was unaffected and it wound up hitting Metagross, taking his HP down more than any of my team had. I almost had Claydol out, but Demetri used a Full Restore on him, causing me to roll my eyes because I didn’t anticipate that.

Of course he would use another Full Restore. Get it together, Saga, you should’ve known that would happen.

Demetri chickened out and withdrew Claydol because he knew we were going to take him out. He sends in this weird gothic doll-looking thing in his place.

Yukio tried to use all of his strength to attack Metagross, but the poor little thing doesn’t have much strength to use, so it barely hits the guy. Metagross gets angry and then takes out Foxxy. Gothic Barbie knows Yukio has to recharge the next turn, so she uses Psychic on him, forcing him back into his PokeBall.

Zephyr and Barret get sent out next.

Demetri doesn’t understand that when your Pokemon has 1HP left and you’re out of Full Restores, you should really just let them faint. He withdraws The Monster High Doll and sends Claydol back out, evidently more willing to sacrifice him than his precious toy. This is super frustrating because I have not defeated any of his Pokemon yet thanks to his withdraw-ing. It is becoming more and more clear that we are not going to win this fight.

Metagross’s Zen Headbutt faints Barret, leaving me no choice but to send out the only other Pokemon I have left: Shawn.

Oh come ON!

Claydol hangs on by a THREAD after Zephyr’s Shadow Ball, then uses Earthquake to one-shot Shawn. I keep a shred of hope that Zephyr will be able to take out at least ONE of these guys before we are kicked out of the Gym, because I am ashamed that all 6 of Demetri’s Pokemon are still alive, but two against one makes it pretty impossible…

I forgot Claydol’s Earthquake also hits his teammate! Metagross is DOWN! Thanks, buddy!!

Zephyr levels up to 62, even though he wasn’t the reason Metagross fainted, and that fucking fetus-jelly comes out to fight. Zephyr’s Shadow Ball kills Claydol and I take the opportunity to revive Barret. Why Barret? I thought if Zephyr wound up fainting, Barret could use Discharge over and over and wind up attacking both of Demetri’s Pokemon at the same time.

If you can tell, I’m pretty much grasping at straws at this point trying to win.

Goth Chick is Crunched to death. Demetri sends out Alakazam, who then buffs himself up into his Mega Form… which is… an old man?

He forces Zephyr out of the fight, leaving Barret the final Pokemon in my party. I didn’t even get a chance to try the Discharge plan because Barret fainted after two hits…

This was not the only time I saw this screen…

I don’t know what the issue was. I was changing up my strategies and Pokemon order over and over, and yet Demetri proceeded to kick my ass and take my money.

When all else fails, start grinding.

Saga asks the Pokemon Rangers if they still need help with their Gigaremo issue.

The mission winds up a little disappointing, as there is no one to fight for the most part. Saga is just SURFing through Hoenn to find Team Asgard’s leaders.

SURFing on the Instant Lapras. Not on Fish. I’m not putting him in my party ever again.

Loki: dumb Gigaremo anyways. I’m much more interested in you! Bring it on, Saga! Prepare for revenge!

Genevieve, stop standing in the water! You’re part Ground-type, get out!

This was not was I was hoping for. Genevieve practically OHKO-ed every one of Loki’s Pokemon and she only gained one level in the process.

Loki: I care not for this Gigaremo. Destroy it if you will. I’ll leave it and allow your putrid Ranger friends to deal with it. Goodbye, Saga. As for next time, I know the victory lies with me.

He disappears and the mission ends. I try to do another one, but the Ranger Leader doesn’t think I’m going to be able to handle myself until I get the Kinetic Badge.

Bitch.

Hmm… looks like I’m going to have to grind another way.

How about the Police Club?

Aw hell. I forgot I had attempted this mission at some point earlier and defeated all of the Rocket Grunts already. The only person I haven’t won against yet is Giovanni.

Damnit. Where the hell am I going to grind after this?

Giovanni: It doesn’t matter. It’s too late! The cloning device is successful! We will use it to clone every single legendary Pokemon and rule the world! Watch as Mewtwo emerges!

Giovanni throws a damn Master Ball and catches Mewtwo.

Shit. All of the bad guys in this game are actually pretty decent at capturing Legendaries.

Giovanni screeches in excitement and demands a battle with Saga. She sighs and accepts, telling Genevieve to hurry along and knock these guys out.

Mewtwo is his only Pokemon and he’s wearing some bad-ass armor. He knows Ice Beam and one-shots Genevieve.

Shawn almost takes him out by spamming Dark Pulse, but winds up losing.

All I wanted to do was level up my Pokemon friends, not faint them to a different trainer!

Well, at least Barret got a level up.

He’s at level 63 now and wants to learn Wild Charge. Saga obliges and asks him to forget Leer, because we have never ever used it.

With Giovanni defeated, he freaks out and says that Mewtwo might escape. Mewtwo does just that and turns the screen purple, vanishing Giovanni from the building.

Mewtwo: set of armor. In return, I will not kill you.

Why, that’s awfully considerate of you!

Mewtwo: I will also teleport you away from here. I do not believe you wish to be involved in the aftermath.

The screen fades into purple again and Saga appears back at the Police Club.

So, my NEW grinding plan is fighting against this dude in the Simulation Department thingy.

I don’t know what YOGSCAST means…

This plan worked out surprisingly well.

Martyn had Pokemon who could be one-shot by practically every member of my team. I wound up winning a bunch of money after fighting him and I just kept doing it over and over.

This simulation thing is insane. It worked out perfectly for grinding my team at this point in time as well as later on in the game. I got rich pretty fast, I could heal my Pokemon in two seconds because the department is inside of a PokeCenter, and by passing the Lucky Egg around, everybody got SICK experience points.

I highly recommend taking advantage of this feature if you need to grind at any point in time.

After getting everybody to a level I feel comfortable with, I have Yukio learn a Custom Move. I make it Dark-type and call it Shadow Wing (because I’m so creative…) and hope that it will help against Demetri.

To prepare my team completely, I spend my riches on healing items.

Okay Demetri, let’s do this for real this time!