Recap: Team Asgard destroyed Nyasa Town so Saga was entrusted to take them down for it. We ended the chapter beginning a battle with Thor, one of Asgard’s commanders.

As you can see by my PokeBall pictures, Saga was not prepared for this battle.

First up is Elekid. Luckily, Xion is already paralyzed, so Elekid can’t do much to make that worse.

Elekid doesn’t put up much of a fight. Two Poison Tails and he’s down, giving Xion a new level. Next up is Carvanha.

Soooo, Carvanha makes Xion flinch, so I switch him out for Wyatt, who then gets his HP annihilated by SURF and Thrash…

…and faints. At the very least, Wyatt managed to poison the enemy before going down.

Ulrich is sent out and knocks the fish down with a good old-fashioned fist fight. Thor steps forward to brag about his invincibility and Ulrich punches his Luxio.

You can tell where this is going, right?

Yup. Ulrich got one-shotted right into his PokeBall.

So, unless I want to try to throw the egg in Thor’s face and run away as fast as I can, it looks like Shawn is going to have to win the battle.

Shawn gets fed a Super Potion before enduring two bites from Luxio.

They do practically nothing. Shawn STRENGTHs Luxio and wins the battle like a BOSS.

The icing on the cake is growing to level 23.

Thor: The Time Caller! I’ll use it to revive my Pokemon! Go!

Ahhh, well this is unfortunate…

I hope this means I don’t have to fight him again.

Wilson? Isn’t that the guy I’m supposed to talk to about… something…?

Thor: Of the Elite Four! The legendary Dragon-type trainer and Pokemon Creator!

Wilson: I didn’t know I had such a following here! Now screw off, Asgardian scum!

Thor: Odin will hear of this, be sure of it! *exits with Pokemon*

Wilson: Well done. At your young age, defeating a Team Asgard member is no easy feat. I offer you my congratulations. My name is Wilson. I used to work here, in the SCP department. SCP stands for Synthetically Created Pokemon. After 681 different experiments, I finally came across success.

Experimenting on Pokemon? I don’t think green-haired guy would like that.

Wilson: I became one of the greatest trainers in the region.

I’m sure if I was synthetically creating Pokemon I would be, too. He probably altered every stat to make them unbeatable. I’m not looking forward to facing them in the Elite Four.

Wilson: The only reason I actually came here was to find you. My friend, the Legend Researcher, told me you’d be here. He told me you were a fantastic trainer. I see now he told the truth. Hold on… I feel as if I know you from somewhere… You look like somebody I used to know. I’m sorry.

I bet he is thinking of Aria. Have a little romance for awhile, didja?

Wilson: There’s something in my eye. I need you to go to Ladoga Town, over in the Chrome Circle. You’ll need a Pokemon that knows SURF though, and you’ll need 4 Gym Badges to use that. You should challenge the Agassiz City Gym to the South, and the Fianga City Gym, when you’re done. I… I should go.

As soon as he leaves the room, four more scientists just pop in out of thin air.

One of them offers to teach a Pokemon Return. I give it to Xion in place of Bite with the assumption that Xion will be in the team for a long time.

Saga steals the scientists’ food and realizes it can be used as a held item for her Pokemon.

In the next room, Saga notices an NES on the table, but it won’t play for her. She asks this guy how to make it work and he changes the subject, offering to trade her some experimented-on ferret for a Pokemon with 1HP left. Saga doesn’t have one, so she ignores him and moves along.

This guy used to work for Team Rocket. He says he still had some Mew DNA leftover from his evil days and tried to use it to create a different Pokemon, resulting in something he is willing to give away. Saga offers to take it off his hands, but it escapes and begins a battle, evidently pretty pissed off.

It’s a Ditto.

I don’t want it.

We use it as experience fodder.

I mean, it kills Shawn first and brings Xion to the brink of fainting, so it must have been pretty strong, but oh well.

We heal up and then spend all of our money on Super Potions.

Look what hatched from the egg! A happy little Togepi!

He gets the name Yukio and we get the option to actually pick which PokeBall he resides in. I pick the Dusk Ball for no particular reason.

As a level 1, he is pretty useless, so we play the switching game to get him as much experience as we can.

His follower-sprite is so cute I can’t help but smile everytime I see him walk.

We move our grinding session forward by heading into the next area.

Occasionally, in-between trainer battles, I’ll just run around in circles to watch Togepi run.

Okay, I don’t know what this is, but it’s creepy and adorable at the same time… and I want it.

I keep Togepi out for a minute to confuse the Espurr. If you’re curious, at this level, Yukio knows Growl, Metronome, Sweet Kiss, and Grass Knot (I taught him that one from a TM, the others he gained from leveling up).

Yukio keeps spamming Metronome to get Espurr’s HP to a place where I feel confident in throwing a PokeBall.

I try a Great Ball, but it fails, and poor Yukio gets caught in the aftermath.

Another Great Ball throw, but Espurr breaks out of it just as easily as the first one.

A PokeBall is what nabs him in the end. This happened when I did my randomized Emerald playthrough, too… Great Balls hardly ever worked and a lot of my Pokemon were caught with regular PokeBalls.

Espurr gets a “Z” name — Zephyr.

You can’t see him, but Zephyr is actually following Saga right now. The guy who is working on the game itself hasn’t put in Pokemon XY follower-sprites yet, so for now, Zephyr is going to be invisible whenever he is at the front of the party.

I think it’s pretty funny that Zephyr is immediately happy with being with Saga, even though he was literally caught thirty seconds ago and barely knows her.

I love him. I love Espurr now. I didn’t even know what it was, but I am hooked. His ability is Keen Eye, which is AWESOME, because it prevents loss of accuracy. That means Sand-Attacks will be USELESS against him. On top of that, he’s like some type of psychic-cat thing and dominates battles, gaining shit-loads of experience points in the process.

I finally use the TM Cyrus gave me and give it to Zephyr in place of Light Screen.

Not only does Zephyr gain experience pretty quickly, but fighting against other Espurrs seems to give any Pokemon a ton of experience, too. Saga continues the grinding plan by rotating all of her Pokemon so that everybody gets to fight an Espurr or two.

I looked up some stuff on Espurr in general since I had never heard of it before, and learned that when it evolves, it will end up one of two styles of Pokemon. If it’s a boy, Espurr evolves into a blue cat with white accents. If it’s a girl, Espurr evolves into a white cat with blue accents. Saga’s is a boy, so we’ll be getting the blue cat.

If you’ll notice here, Ulrich is missing from Saga’s party. After the excitement of catching Espurr, I figured we’d probably find some more epic wilds, so Ulrich offered to retire his services from the team. You have done well, bug soldier, enjoy your new life full of relaxation!

Night hits just as Saga reaches the next town.

This very nice old man gives us a Lucky Egg, which is awesome, because it will bump up the amount of experience points Pokemon earn in battles, meaning leveling will go much faster.

I would be pretty damn nervous living on top of a building like that.

That was my hometown exploding. Thanks for your sympathy.

Shady people in this game give us the best stuff.

There’s no Gym here, and the one in the other town can’t be accessed without CUT, so Saga marches onward.

I love double battles, especially when you have two new Pokemon who need to both be getting experience.

Especially when those double battles give you enough experience to evolve! Say hello to our new blue cat!

A bashful, mischievous Meowstic.

On our way to the next town, we hit a hell of a sandstorm.

Have you ever tried to evolve a Togepi before? Because I haven’t, and it’s a bitch to do. I kept Yukio in the front and allowed him to battle on his own, WITH the Lucky Egg, mind you, and he managed to avoid evolution long enough for me to actually start yelling at my screen “EVOLVE DAMNIT”. This is him at level 29. I understand Togepi has to be your best friend in order for him to evolve, but damn, how long does it take for one to decide that?

Level 30. No Togetic.

We reach the next town and (sort-of) see something going on right in front of it. I can’t tell for sure, but I think that’s our rival Jake talking to some Team Asgard people. The guy with black hair asks the kid to move out of the way.

Yup. That’s Jake, alright.

Black Haired Man: Team… I’m sorry, what?

Jake: Team Yoloswag 5eva!

Black Haired Man: Look, kid… You don’t… Nevermind. Look, you’re not even worth my time. I have better things to do! *disappears with Team Asgard*

Jake: No! Wait! *looks at Saga* …You! You dare get in the way of Team Yoloswag? You’re no rival of mine if you get in my way! Prepare to lose! We’ll put this HM up at stake! Whomever wins, gets it!

Really Jake? Right now? There is sand in my eyes, I just realized my Togepi hates me… can’t you just use the HM real quick and then let me have it? Must we battle?

I LOVE MEOWSTIC. It’s like, nothing ever hurts him and no Pokemon ever fazes him. It’s amazing. He shows Charmeleon who’s boss and grows to level 27.

Psychic moves are not very effective against Aron, huh? DOES IT LOOK LIKE I GIVE A SHIT?? Zephyr can take you on ANYWAY! BEHOLD the mighty moves of Meowstic! You can TRY to take him down, but you will NOT SUCCEED! NOTHING can destroy the mighty—

—…nooooooooooo

I bet he still loves me anyway. *glares at Togepi*

Come on, Xion! Venoshock the hell outta this guy!

OH MY GOD I’M SO FUCKING STUPID

I kept him out anyway to see if Return could subdue Aron… but I was wrong. Now it’s time to get serious. Come on down, Shawn!

Well, that worked, but now I have to switch him out for someone else or Seadra will use his type-advantage to crush him.

Wyatt feels he is up to the challenge. He uses his usual strategy of poisoning the enemy before actually attacking, and it works pretty well. I give him a Super Potion once his HP hits the red, because I would really hate to lose to Mr. Swagilicious over there. Luckily, the poison in Seadra’s system is what ultimately takes him out.

Wyatt also has the Leftovers, by the way.

Shawn gets the honor of officially defeating Jake by destroying his Scraggy.

Jake: world has ever known! You better watch out, Saga! Take this HM, I did promise! *hands over CUT HM* You can’t use it until you beat the Gym here in Agassiz- which you’ll never do. You’re just not good enough! Now scram! I’m off to bigger and better things! Yoloswag out!

EXCUSE ME, IS THIS THE POKECENTER?? I CAN’T SEE A DAMN THING

This is pretty cool. There’s a dude here who will teach your Pokemon a custom move for $5000. I gave one to Seviper. Made it a water-type move called Water Blade.

Okay, so here’s what we’ve got right now! I’m loving the team lineup as of today, but there is still much exploring to be done! Who knows what epic Pokemon will join Saga on her adventure next!