Recap: Saga caught an Espurr named Zephyr, got lost in a sandstorm, hatched Togepi from the egg, and defeated Jake… again.

We begin today’s journey by entering the Psychic Temple.

Ah, yes, the Lavender Town of Zeta!

It would appear that Team Asgard is causing a ruckus inside.

We climb the tower without much problem. Xion is perfectly capable of handling these grunts without issue.

His font changed from blue to red! SHIT IS GOING DOWN

Officer: A dangerous Pokemon has taken roost up there! It could be hazardous and life threatening!

Green-Hair: You idiot! That’s what Team Asgard is here for! Now move out of the way, or I will be forced to hurt you!

Officer: Sir! I cannot! It would be against the–

Green-Hair: MOVE OUT OF THE WAY!

The screen was actually shaking back and forth when he screamed. This dude means business.

Loki? Looks like we’re dealing with a higher-ranked Asgardian!

Brown-Hair: Why? Scared of an old friend?

Loki: Jonathan… It’s been a while. How’s that criminal charge faring? I thought your sentence lasted at least another two years!

Jonathan (Brown-Hair): They let me out early, for good behaviour. They knew deep down, that it wasn’t me who killed that family…

Loki: Oh right… how old was the kid again? 6? And on his birthday, too. Tsk, tsk… what a shame.

I AM VERY AFRAID OF TEAM ASGARD.

Loki: I think not. And seeing as this foolish guard is standing in Team Asgard’s way, I’ll be taking my leave. *font color change, but still Loki* I’ll be sure to warn your parole officer about you threatening people. Ta-ta!

Jonathan: *turns to Saga* Oh! I’m sorry you had to hear all that. It’s a feud that goes back a long way. Hey kid, can you help me relieve some stress?

Uh… maybe?

Jonathan: You look like a tough battler. Come help me out in my Gym, alright? See if you can beat me. I need to loosen up. See you then, if you’re up for it.

You want to battle? Oh, okay, I can do that.

Just thought I’d ask.

It took me a very long time to find the Gym in this town. You’d think there’d be some Go-Goggles or something somewhere around here. It is impossible to navigate without wanting to bang your head against the keyboard.

If this Gym is full of nothing but Roggenrollas, I’m rage-quitting immediately.

Thankfully, making Xion’s custom move Water-Typed really paid off here. He was pretty much dominating the hikers.

Even little Yukio stepped up to the plate and won a few fights.

Jonathan: Don’t ask me about what Loki said. I don’t want to talk about it. You’re here to battle, right? Then bring it on!

What about what Loki said? It was perfectly normal and not psychopath-batshit-crazy at all. There is nothing to ask about, Team Asgard is a friendly team full of fluffy Igglybuffs.

sob

Hopefully, this will go as smoothly as the rest of the Gym.

Piece of cake!

I think I just got lucky giving Xion a water move and Yukio a grass one. The two of them tag-teamed Johnathan’s team, OHKO-ing almost every one of them. Larvitar put up more of a fight, but Yukio held his position and withstood the attacks. He also leveled up to 31.

At last! Togepi loves me enough to evolve!! Hooray!

I can’t really tell if he is being sarcastic or not… was today really all that great? You got yelled at by Loki and then defeated by a snake and an almost-hatched egg…

He hands over the Diamond Badge and the TM for Rock Slide. Then we leave, hopeful that we won’t have to stay in this sandstorm for much longer.

With the Diamond Badge, we now have the ability to use CUT outside of battle. I give it to Zephyr in place of Covet because that move is pretty much useless.

We use our winnings to stock back up on Super Potions.

Oh for crying out loud… look what I just found. AFTER finishing up here.

THIS IS SO MUCH BETTER.

While out grinding, Wyatt manages to bring a Phanpy’s HP down to what looks to be about 1, so Saga catches it with the intention of trading it to that one scientist guy to see what his mystery ferret is.

He gets an “A” name, but since we’re not going to be training him, I just call him Adam because it was the first thing to pop into my head.

He is really stoked we actually have one. The trade begins and I am expecting a Sentret or a Furret or something.

I WAS WRONG

IT IS AN EEVEE

THIS IS AWESOME

His name is Foxxy, so I’m going to go ahead and count that as an “F” name, meaning we’ll just skip that letter when we get there.

I love Eevees. I mean, who doesn’t?

I usually try to raise a different Eeveelution in each game that I actually use one. In my Emerald Randomizer, I had both Umbreon and Vaporeon, so those two are out for this run.

I actually really want either Leafeon or Glaceon, because I’ve never played that gen myself, so they are completely new to me. Right now, I am leaning towards Leafeon. I’m assuming it takes a Leaf Stone to evolve it.

(And what do they say about assuming things? Something about making an ass out of you and me??)

Time for grinding! Since Adam was level 20 when I traded him, Foxxy started off there as well. This is him at level 22. I pretty much just kept wandering around the Espurr area so he would get a chunk of experience from them right off the bat.

The next Gym was blocked by a CUT-able tree, so we were unable to access it until now.

A robot? Oh, so now we live in a world where even Gym Leaders can lose their jobs to machines??

They took-uhr-jobs!!

Gym-Greeter tells us the robot uses only Steel-type Pokemon. Shawn is Fire-typed, so I think we’ll be okay.

This Gym is one big maze of Rocket-Hideout spinny-tiles. It’s not the easiest building to navigate, but at least there isn’t any sand in our eyes.

Haven’t you people ever seen any of the hundreds of movies where machines develop a consciousness and slowly take over the world? This one’s got a bunch of Pokemon on his side. I think you should probably think about disabling him sometime soon before he becomes the real threat.

Here we go!

Just like in the last Gym, Saga’s Pokemon choice paid off. Having no clue what the Gyms are, I just get lucky sometimes with typing.

Shawn grows two levels, putting him at level 30 by the end of the fight. Almost everybody was one-shotted. Every so often, someone would get a hit in, but we had this one in the bag.

He learns Fire Punch over Clear Smog.

We get the Android Badge and a TM for Gyro Ball that I don’t plan on using.

It takes me about an hour of wandering around to realize I don’t know where to go next, so I head back to Agassiz Town while wearing the Go-Goggles, thinking I might have missed an important item or something.

I did miss this little interaction.

This guy is running away from Dunsparce, shouting something about Secret Power and a Secret Base. He hands over the TM, which is taught to Foxxy, and runs off.

I had heard a lot about the Secret Base stuff before I started playing, but looking at all the stuff that I can do now is overwhelming. Saga doesn’t buy anything quite yet and instead fights all of the Dunsparce wandering around.

We’ll be back, though.

Here’s another thing we missed when blindly stumbling around the town. The Machete is the replacement for the CUT HM.

There isn’t a chance in hell I would have been able to find this entrance without the Go-Goggles. It’s a damn good thing I found them.

Route 309, as I discovered, is a lovely little maze of a cave that you evidently must make it through in order to advance forward.

I’m going to spare you the insanity that was trying to get through that godforsaken thing and skip ahead to the next town.

This is fucking brilliant.

Was this the original intent of the Pokemon creators or was this just a realization by the dude that made this game?

Either way, I wanted to just start clapping after talking to that NPC.

Oh. Okay then.

This guy is talking about the Turkana Stone in the middle of this town.

This one, to be exact. We can’t mess with it though, because the police squad thinks Team Asgard might be after it soon and won’t let anyone near it.

Turkana Town doesn’t have much to offer, so we venture back into the cave of Route 309. This hiker is looking for a Heart Scale for his girlfriend and asks if we help him find it. He moves out of the way and we look at the cave wall.

This is different…

This is some cool little mining mini-game thing. When you select an area, a little pick axe shows up and breaks the wall. If you can see the crack forming at the top of the screen, that happens everytime you pick an area. I’m guessing when the crack reaches the other side, my mini-game is over.

Luckily, Saga discovers the Heart Scale before the crack ends the game.

The hiker rewards her with a Super Potion.

We play the mining game a little longer and get some items we can sell later on.

Hey, look at that! We’ve reached Kivu Town!

So, at this point in the game, I’m starting to really notice Wyatt’s weaknesses. He’s not as strong as my other Pokemon, and I keep waiting for him to evolve, but I guess he’s got a ways to go before then. I was really psyched about him in the beginning, but now, I’m just not so sure how much longer he’s going to be hanging with us.

Just getting him from level 28 to 29 was a nightmare. We were running back and forth from the PC after every single battle.

He sure as hell tries his best, but he’s eating up all of my Super Potions the second I buy them.

I’m not PC-ing him quite yet, but don’t get too attached, because I don’t think he’ll be in Saga’s endgame.

There is a building in Kivu Town where the Pokemon Rangers reside.

This guy asks if I’m a Pokemon Ranger.

Like a good samaritan, I tell him honestly no, I am not.

An HM, you say?

Screw honesty! I’m a Pokemon Ranger alright!

She gives us the HM for FLY!

Yukio can learn it thankfully, so we go ahead and teach it to him.

The leader of the Rangers asks if Saga wants to join them.

Sure, why not?

Ranger Leader: There’s some strange machine that’s hurting all the Pokemon in the area. A Ranger will explain the rest when you arrive. Good luck!

Someone’s hurting Pokemon with a machine, eh? Leave it to me! I’ll take care of ’em!

Kyle: Saga? Interesting. We’re having a bit of a problem here. These guys, Team Asgard have all the Pokemon in the area hypnotized to do their bidding. We can’t rescue them and introduce them to freedom if they don’t have free will! So, we want you to go and find this evil mind-control device! Go now!

Well, team, looks like we’ve got some Asgardian-ass to kick!

….I need to work on a Pokemon Ranger catchphrase if I’m ever going to be successful at it.