Route 5

Apparently the bridge to the next city is closed so I decide to have a look for a new recruit while I wait. A minccino! Pokéball go!

Minccino: Only 9 more and you have a nice coat!

- Welcome to the bench, Minky!

Minky ♀ Lv. 22

I return to the road to find Cheren talking to a huge guy.

Are you insinuating that I’m in dereliction of my duties?

I, er, um..

A champion does much more than sitting at the pokémon league waiting for challengers.

I um… oh Caldar! Quick, battle me!

- What?

When I beat you again it’ll show Alder here how good a trainer I am!

- “Again”? You’ve never managed to–

Go Liepard!

- Go Gamey!

- Air cutter!

Fake out!

Liepard bats Gamey across the face, making her flinch.

- Air cutter!

Pursuit!

Liepard traces Gamey’s movements, drawing nearer before slamming into her. Gamey blasts liepard back with a wave of cutting wind.

- Air cutter!

Torment!

Liepard makes insulting gestures at Gamey before she blasts liepard into the river with another blast of wind, dealing critical damage.

Go Panpour!

- Quick attack!

Scald!

Gamey darts at panpour at great speed and slamming head first into it, panpour douses Gamey with boiling hot water.

- Gamey come back! Go Bushi!

Bite!

Panpour chomps on Bushi’s arm as he leaves his pokéball.

- Tackle!

Scald!

Bushi barges into panpour, knocking it to the floor. Panpour blasts Bushi with extremely hot water, burning him mostly across his arms where he covered his face.

- Razor shell!

Scald!

Bushi grabs a piece of his shell armour and cracks panpour over the head with it. Panpour soaks Bushi with more hot water.

- Tackle!

Scald!

Bushi knocks panpour to the floor once more but he seems to be in a lot of pain from his burns.

Go Servine!

- Bushi come back! Go Blaze!

Mega drain!

Servine surprises Blaze by trying to drain life from him.

- Flame burst!

Leech seed!

Blaze spits a fireball at servine which explodes on impact. Barely holding on, servine eats a sitrus berry and throws a seed at Blaze. The seed sprouts, latches to Blaze and begins to drain energy from him.

- Flame burst!

Mega drain!

Blaze hocks another exploding fireball at servine, sending it flying into a nearby mobile home.

Go Tranquill!

- Yawn!

Air cutter!

Blaze yawns loudly at tranquill as it blasts him with razor sharp airwaves.

- Blaze come back! Go Hans!

Air cutter!

Hans tries to stay low as the wind blasts are sent his way. Tranquill falls asleep.

- Rock tomb!

Air cutter!

Hans covers tranquill in rocks.

- Rock tomb!

Air cutter!

The rocks covering tranquill are covered in more rocks thrown from Hans.

You still have much to learn. And Caldar, was it? Don’t let this go to your head, I sense you still have learning to do too.

Has nobody lowered that bridge yet?

Oh, hello Elesa. It would seem leader Clay wants the bridge closed for now.

Does he? Well it seems he forgets that my city connects to this bridge too!

Elesa opens her cross-transceiver.

I demand that the Driftveil Bridge be lowered immediately! I don’t care what Clay says! By authority of the Nimbasa gym leader I countermand his order! And tell that lazy ass he’s got a couple of challengers waiting for him!

Soon after the bridge lowers and traffic resumes. Cheren decides to walk with me.

Driftveil Bridge

You know I will beat you someday. And I’ll be champion of Unova too!

- Sure… Have you ever considered just focusing on the task at hand? You haven’t even gotten all the badges yet.

Yeah well… neither have you. And it’s nice to have an end goal, you know…

- Well you’re not wrong but have you ever tried to–

DUCK!

A panicked ducklett flies into my face, furiously flapping it’s wings and scattering feathers all around. In the confusion I just throw a pokéball at it.

Ducklett: The only thing more duck-like than Psyduck.

- It’s the bench for you, Dolan!

Dolan ♂ Lv. 22

What’s a psyduck?

You don’t want to know. It’ll only give you a migraine.

How come my pokédex doesn’t know?

My database was only limited to Unovan pokémon in order to make space for my personality drive.

Ha! So you’re not so fancy after all!

At least the voice I was given sounds human, you sound like a robot from a 90’s anime!

And what’s wrong with that! At least I’m not trying to imitate something I’m not!

I kind of zoned out at that point, Cheren and I just kept walking while those two argued.

Driftveil City

And another thing–

I’m going to have to interrupt you there old boy.

What?

My… battery is low, I’m going to standby mode.

Ha! I’m glad I got one of those fancy batteries from the future!

You got a battery from– entering standby mode…

- Well at least they’ve shut up for now…

Agreed…

Well well. You two must be th’ reason Elesa dun mess’d up mah manhunt!

- Manhunt?

Dem Team Plasma cretins be makin’ trouble an’ I almost had ‘em 'till a couple a impatient trainers done flooded mah city with tourists!

We had no idea!

Y'all best help with th’ search now y'hear? I might just permit y'all to challenge me if'n you do a good job.

Cold Storage

- You’re sure you saw a plasm grunt head this way?

Positive. He vanished amongst those shipping containers.

- Hey, what’s that?

What’s what?

- Is it a pokémon? Pokéball go!

Vanillite: An ice-cream pokémon… really?? What’s next, a cotton candy pokémon?

- Welcome to the bench, Sorbet.

Sorbet ♂ Lv. 25

Caldar! This shipping container is open, let’s look inside!

I peek inside and see a bunch of plasm grunts huddled around an oddly dressed man.

S-so c-cold! Get closer, we need to stay warm!

Yes, sage Zinzolin!

Let’s apprehend them, come on I’ll take the left and you take the right!

- Wait, I’ve got a better idea.

Oh?

- Ever seen an explosion in a confined space before?

No.

- Neither have I. Blaze! Flame burst!

Blaze spits a large fireball into the container just before I slam the door shut behind it. The explosion blows the door off and the noise reverberates across the city.

Zinzolin and his grunts stagger out of the container, choking on smoke.

I figured Team Plasma’d be th’ cause. Looks like whatever they were doin’ backfired. Take 'em away, boys!

The workers of the cold storage escort the plasm people away.

Thanks fer flushing 'em out kids! I suppose y'all can visit me at mah gym later.