Lord Chespin

Aw... I only got 4 badges... oh well, I had fun.

Chapter VI: It's Getting Hot In Here, So Take On All Your Foes Remember when I said in the last part that it was a long time coming? I was a little preemptive in that statement. Seriously, I bet you thought Episode 16 would come out before the next part of this guide! (Okay, just got to cross off "Make fun of Ame" on my To-Do list...) Anyway, let's get to it! So, after watching our friends get mercilessly ripped away from us, your first reaction might be to rush down and see if we could save them. Well, you'd be stupid, because we just fought Shade and our Pokemon are all weak from fighting. What if there was an ambush, huh? Heal them first, then go after the Meteors. Good news: No Meteors. Bad News: No Cain, who ran off. We do find Victoria, though, who tells us to run after Cain and get the key to the Wasteland from him before he gets too far away. However, when you find him at the Coral Ward, he's too busy trying to get to Apophyll Academy, where the HM (or TMX, as this game calls them) for Strength is. Since he needs the HM for strength to get past the debris he made when fending off the grunts, he Leroy Jenkins-es it up and sails away on his Muk, leaving us with no leads... until the plot, which abhors a vacuum, has Amaria come out of her dock-warehouse-thingie and ask us if we'd like to help her storm Team Meteor's other factory in the Peridot Ward: the Blackwater Factory. Naturally, with no real other option, we accept. After meeting Amaria at the factory, she has her Lapras make a staircase out of water and freeze it (which somehow has perfectly formed and non-slippery steps). At the top, we get into a double battle with two grunts; however, Amaria must be a zealous level-grinder, as she has a level 80 Lapras, which will annihilate the grunts regardless of what yo do. The grunts do what any sane human being would do and panic, calling their boss in. After Amaria gets cornered by Grunts and blasts a temporary path for us to go to, we meet said boss- and surprise, it's Solaris, the guy who monologed to us in the ruins beneath the Grand Staircase! Except not surprise, because that guy was pretty shifty anyway. He then dumps us down a trash chute into a room full of cages, which were stolen from the Day Care center. Luckily, there are just enough Pokemon for us to break out in a puzzle that I'm sure somebody else has explained, allowing us to storm the factory (although you should make sure to pick up that Ditto). After beating up all the grunts (including new elite grunts, we can enter the main atrium, where we find the second PULSE Pokemon in this game: PULSE Muk, which goes from a blob of gunk to a blob of gunk with concrete in it. We also meet ZEL and Solaris again, and Solaris tries to kill us in what is actually a rather clever ploy that only failed because of Amaria and our plot armor. However, he notices Amaria's Sapphire Bracelets and gets into a fight with her over them, and ZEL decides to take us out. This leads to... WHAT THE MUK DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING ZEL's Glaceon can hit rather hard, but any good fire, rock, steel or fighting STAB attack can break through it fairly well. Try to use special attacks on it, as its special defense is a lot lower than its other stats. ZEL added a Flareon to their team, even though they still only have three personalities; maybe there's a second silent personality named Herpi? Flareon is probably the easiest Pokemon to deal with; it just knows flare blitz, iron tail, quick attack, and dig, so it can't really touch a water-type. Jolteon has hyper voice, signal beam, and an electric-type STAB, probably thunderbolt (can't remember it, sorry), so a good ground-type can wrk wonders. The PULSE Muk is surprisingly tough; it has a good special attack, protean so all of its moves are STAB moves, and great coverage in discharge, sludge wave, mud bomb, and water pulse. The use of water pulse means that you can't use ground-types on it, so I'd recommend starting with a decently fast psychic type and rolling with the punches as it constantly changes types. ZEL's Espeon is fast and powerful, and can heal itself with morning sun, but it has awful defense, so you can do quite a bit of damage to it with a sucker punch or shadow sneak. Finally, Umbreon has insane bulk, recovery in moonlight, confuse ray and double team just for being annoying, and leftovers, meaning it just. Won't. Die. Fortunately, it's very susceptible to taunt and has lower defense than special defense, so you can do quite a bit of damage to it with a good fighting-type move. Just don't use status moves on it, as it has synchronize to bounce them back at you. After their defeat, ZEL apologizes to Solaris, only for him to throw a tantrum like a little baby and have his Tyranitar attack Amaria with a superpower, breaking several ribs. He then retreats, and an injured Amaria, grateful for our help, gives us the key to her boat before leaving, letting us reach Apophyll Academy! Once we make it there, we meet Kiki, a Zen Buddhist and the fighting-type gym leader. Victoria briefs her on the situation, and rather than just give us the freaking HM, she makes us take the one ring and throw it into the fires of Mount Doom. Just kidding; she makes us fight her best student, Cal. Cal used to be the fire-type gym leader, so isn't fighting him on top of a volcano kind of skewing the battle in his favor? Eh, whatever. After climbing the volcano and meeting him face to face, he tells us how he always lived in the shadow of his older brother Blake, let his rage drive him while he was a gym leader, and used to know Shelly before he did something to her that turned her into the timid girl she is today. After all this monologing, he finally fights us. SPIT HOT FYAH Cal's Infernape can do quite a bit of damage with close combat and mach punch, but it's very frail, so a good psychic- or flying-type move can take it out very, very fast. Mega Charizard X is less scary than it looks; its strongest STAB attack is dragon claw, and it has relatively weak moves like wing attack and fire fang. However, don't underestimate it, as it has tough claws and a good attack stat. A bulky rock-type like Golem can work wonders here, and now might be a good time to set up stealth rock. Typhlosion can set up sunny day, which lets its fellow fire-types do tons of damage, and has solar beam and a power herb to counter rock-, ground-, and water-types. A good idea is to use another fire-type, like Camerupt, against it, but don't use fire-type moves: it has flash fire. Delphox is deceptively fast, and can hit hard with moves like shadow ball, psychic, and flamethrower; however, a good dark-type like Houndoom can prey on its low special defense with a sucker punch. Blaziken is a beast if you leave it alive for too long thanks to speed boost, so try to KO it fast with a bulky psychic-type like Gothitelle or Musharna. Finally, his ace, Magmortar, can do tons of damage with a blast burn or a thunderbolt, but you can take advantage of its low speed and KO it with a faster ground-type like Dugtrio, or wait for it to use blast burn, then finish it off with a rock- or ground-type attacker. With Cal defeated, we head back to Kiki, who is lying on the floor with Victoria standing over her. Turns out she has a terminal disease, and is dying; regardless, she still upholds her end of our bargain, and lets us battle her. With this sobering display of selflessness, we follow her out and GOD DAMN IT VICTORIA. Yes, Victoria, despite actual orphans' lives being at stake here, still doesn't want us to battle Kiki and makes us fight her first. (groan) Well, here we go... WHY THIS AGAIN Scrafty can hit rather hard and has a rocky helmet, but it still falls pretty fast to a stronger fighting-type move, like a high jump kick from the Medicham you can get at Apophyll Academy. Heracross can be dangerous if you let it KO one of your Pokemon thanks to moxie, but it can't take a flying-type attack, so use those to take it down fast. Emboar is pretty threatening, as it knows superpower, flare blitz, and sucker punch, and can shrug off stat drops with its white herb; however, a bulky water-type or fast flying- or psychic-type can deal massive damage to it thanks to its weak defenses. Poliwrath is kind of a joke; it can target flying- and grass-types with an ice punch, but it's relatively frail. Be careful with Hariyama, though, as it can set up belly drum and sweep your entire team if you give it half the chance. Try to knock it down to half health before it uses belly drum, and you'll be fine. Finally, her Mega Gallade is by far her most threatening Pokemon on her team: it has shadow sneak for priority, swords dance to make itself super-duper powerful, and brick break and psycho cut as STAB attacks. However, a good fairy-type can resist most of what it has to throw at you and KO it back with STAB attacks. Finally, with Victoria down, she reluctantly lets us battle Kiki while pouting in the corner like a brat. In case you couldn't tell, I don't really like Victoria. Fortunately, now we can fight... YAY BEATING UP THE TERMINALLY ILL The thing you should know about Kiki going into her battle is that you shouldn't use flying-types against her, or at least not specially-attacking flying-types. This is because the field she uses will lower the accuracy of all Pokemon when a special flying-type move is used, and most of her Pokemon are able to break through the accuracy-lowering thanks to their abilities and the field. However, the field boosts the power of the move psychic, meaning that psychic-types can deal with her team pretty well. Machamp can boost its attack to sky-high levels with a meditate, as meditate's effect is tripled by the field; however, it has pretty low physical bulk, so a speedy physically-based flying type (like Emolga, for instance) can do massive damage with an acrobatics or a similar move. Just watch out for stone edge. Toxicroak has a nasty 4x weakness to psychic, but it has sucker punch and a focus sash; however, if you have a bulky psychic-type like Musharna, now might be a good time to set up calm mind, which is also amplified by the field. Scrafty is more or less the same as Victoria's; just use a good fighting-type move and you'll be fine. Hitmonlee can do insane damage with a field-boosted, type-changed, normal-gem-boosted (sure have used a lot of hyphens in this paragraph, haven't I?) strength, which also gets STAB due to becoming a psychic/fighting-type move. I'm also pretty sure it has knock off, so try to be careful with your psychic types. It has a low defense, though, so try to use your physical flying-type again. Her Lucario gets a big ol' buff to its aura sphere thanks to the field, but a faster fighting- or fire-type like Primeape or most of the fire-type starters can outspeed it and KO it due to its low defenses. Finally, her Mega Medicham is a beast. It gets a massive attack and speed boost, has priority in bullet punch, coverage in ice punch, a good STAB attack in drain punch, and a boosting move in meditate, meaning that you'll be hard-pressed to KO it if it gets going. Try paralyzing or burning it on the turn it mega evolves, then wail on it with physical flying-types or fairy-types. And so, with Kiki defeated, we earn... jack diddly squat. The power of plot convenience causes Kiki to pass out, and after regaining consciousness she completely freaks out, revealing just how terrified she is of dying. The poor thing just wants to be left alone for a while, but she doesn't even give us her badge; I mean, I know she's terminally ill, but isn't that more incentive for us to get her badge before she dies? No? Okay... Celebrate my triumphant return in the comment thread, minions! Mwahahahaha!

HEY LOOK I'M NOT DEAD Just, uh, kind of busy I promise that, since I have some free time now, I'll be able to get back to work on this guide. Sorry. Here, have an abomination:

Yeah, the modder shuffled the last three gym leaders around to avoid type redundancy. Glad you like the hack! Also, YAY, SOMEBODY ELSE POSTED ON THIS THREAD! WOOOOOOOOOOO (Victory music plays) Anyway... Update #17: The Battle of Mistralion City Well, Skyla was probably the hardest boss of this whole hack thus far, as she could wipe out each of my Pokemon with a single hit. On the bright side, thanks to the type changes, I had several Pokemon that could threaten her with their STABs, so I guess everything evens out. On TEH URN, Jen led with Raiden, Dan, and Grapevine, and Skyla led with her Togekiss, her Braviary, and her Mandibuzz (the fight was a triple battle; time to put my Redemption League skills to the test). Dan made Togekiss flinch with a fake out, then Grapevine did massive damage to Braviary with a low sweep (which did extra damage thanks to Grapevine's traced sheer force). Sadly, Grapevine fainted to a single brave bird from Mandibuzz, but Raiden was able to do more damage to Braviary with an aura sphere, weakening it enough for it to get taken out by brave bird recoil after it KO'd Raiden! Skyla sent out her ace, Swanna, next, and Jen sent out Chun-Li and Zaprong to replace Raiden and Grapevine, respectively. Chun-Li managed to dodge a hurricane from Swanna, and Zaprong ended it with a thunder punch! Chun-Li then did some serious damage to Togekiss with a thunder punch, but fainted to a brave bird; luckily, Dan managed to dodge a hurricane and avenge Chun-Li with a mighty strength! Jen replaced Chun-Li with our newest team member, Haley the Beartic, and Skyla sent out her Gliscor and her Archeops. Skyla, thinking she was smart, had her Archeops hit all of Jen's Pokemon with an earthquake; however, not only did all of Jen's Pokemon live, but she missed the opportunity to KO one of Jen's Pokemon with a flying gem-strengthened acrobatics. Zaprong then KO'd Mandibuzz with a thunder punch, and Haley and Dan tanked another earthquake from Gliscor to KO it with an icicle crash and seriously injure Archeops with an arm thrust! Zaprong was on his last legs, though, so he spent his turn healing Dan; Archeops used earthquake, but it barely did anything besides fainting Zaprong; Archeops then fell to an arm thrust, ending the fight and earthing Jen the Jet Badge! With that done with, it's time to begin the long trek to Opeliucid City! The team so far:

Update #16: Rain Drops Keep Fallin' On My Head Hey! Sorry for the long gap in updates; I had a long stretch of story with no major battles to get through. Anyway, Juan was actually fairly easy; Jen managed to take him out without much trouble. On TEH URN, Jen led with Raiden, and Juan led with his Crawdaunt. Crawdaunt survived a sacred sword and set up a dragon dance, but it was very low on HP, so Juan healed it with a hyper potion while Jen mispredicted and had Raiden use aqua jet. Luckily, he survived a crabhammer the next turn, and was able to KO Crawdaunt with a second sacred sword! Juan sent out his Whiscash next, but it didn't even get a single hit in; Gordon (who Jen swapped Raiden out for) did massive damage with a bullet seed, bypassing its Rindo berry! Ah, Technician-boosted bullet seed; the only way to play! Up next came Juan's Luvdisk, which was also quite easy to take out. Jen sent out Zaprong, who was promptly confused by a sweet kiss, but Zaprong managed to break through it to KO Luvdisk with a mighty thunder punch! Running out of options, Juan sent out his Walrein, and Jen sent out Raiden again. Raiden took some damage from an earthquake, but was able to shrug it off and KO Walrein with two sacred swords! Poor thing took the "wall" out of Walrein... Finally, all that remained was Juan's ace: Kingdra. Jen swapped out to Dan, and he did some damage with a fake out. Kingdra then set up a rain dance and did crazy damage with a hydro pump, but not only did Dan survive, he unleashed a mighty arm thrust and strength, ending the Kingdra! With Juan down, it's time to take on Skyla! The team so far:

Well, I had a bit of a field day making this guy. MEGA FLYGON It's about bloody time Type: Fairy/Ground Ability: Pixilate HP: 80 Attack: 130 (+30) Defense: 80 Special Attack: 130 (+50) Special Defense: 80 Speed: 120 (+20) My idea for this guy was to utilize its wide movepool and make it into a good special and physical sweeper. Fairy-typing and pixilate comes in to capitalize on its ability to learn boomburst, which (alongside eartquake/earth power) gives it pretty much perfect neutral coverage (aside from Charizard, Mega Charizard Y, Crobat, and Skarmory). If you'd rather go physical, you can use return or facade (for absorbing statuses) and earhquake, which (while not as powerful as boomburst) is still a good lure for special walls. Add in additional moves like quick attack, fire punch/flamethrower/heat wave, bug buzz, superpower, stone edge, giga drain, and crunch, and you've got an incredibly terrifying Pokemon. It's not all sunshine & rainbows for Flygon, though. It has rather middling bulk, so repeated strong attacks can wear it down fast. It also is weak to two common forms of priority in bullet punch and ice shard, meaning that Pokemon like Weavile, Mamoswine, and Scizor can wail on it. Overall, though, it's pretty awesome. Inb4 Jericho says "why not give Slaking huge power" and bans it to ubers

Update #15: Clay Achin' Well, for some reason, Clay seemed kind of easier for me than Norman or Rood; maybe it's because I had better checks to his Pokemon, or because Breloom is just that good. Anyway, on TEH URN, Jen led with Chun-Li, and Clay led with Hippowdon. Chun-Li did some damage with an ice punch, but sadly, she fainted to a combination of sandstorm damage and an earthquake. Luckily, Gordon was able to come out and KO Hippowdon with a mighty bullet seed! The next Pokemon Clay sent out was his Nidoking, so Jen sent out her newest team member; Grapevine the Gallade! He tanked a sludge wave with 35 HP remaining, and KO'd the Nidoking with a mighty psycho cut! Clay decided to send out his Golurk, and Jen sent Gordon back out. Amazingly, though,, Gordon began something of a sweep, taking out Golurk with a single bullet seed, then taking out Clay's Seismitoad with a mighty bullet seed! The Rindo Berry, it does NOTHING! Clay, running out of options, decided to send out his ace: Excakill Excadrill! Jen sent out Raiden, and he did quite a bit of damage to it with two aqua jets; unfortunately, Excadrill set up a swords dance and proceeded to KO him with a single earthquake. Luckily, good ol' Gordon Freeman came out and KO'd Excadrill with a mach punch! All that remained was Clay's Krookodile, so Jen, deciding to spread out the EXP a little, sent out Dan. Dan did considerable damage with a fake out, then tanked an earthquake and KO'd Krookodile with a mighty arm thrust! With Clay down, it's time to head to the PWT! The team so far:

Update #14: Para-Norman Activity Well, even though I had the type advantage, Norman was still really tough! On TEH URN, Jen led with Raiden, and Norman led with his Vigoroth. It did quite a bit of damage to him with two earthquake, but he lived, and ended it with two sacred swords! Norman then sent out one of his harder Pokemon to deal with: his freaking Linoone. Seriously, I'm lucky that thing didn't use belly drum, or it would have been all over. Jen sent out Gordon, and he tanked an extreme speed and did some damage with a mach punch; unfortunately, Linoone's Liechi berry activated, boosting its attack, and Norman healed it while Jen swapped Gordon out for Leonidas. Leonidas was able to survive an extreme speed, however, and ended it with a close combat! Norman decided to stop messing around and sent out his ace: Slaking. Jen sent out Eliza as a sacrifical lamb, letting herself faint to an earthquake so that Gordon could come in while it was subject to truant, paralyze it with a stun spore, and KO it with three mach punches while it was immobilized! Norman may have lost his ace, but he still was able to send out his most troubling Pokemon: Zangoose. Dan came out to replace Gordon, and he set up a belly drum while tanking a close combat. Unfortunately, Zangoose's toxic orb activated, and while Jen healed Dan it managed to KO him with a quick attack and a close combat. Gordon came back out, but he fainted to a quick attack as well. Luckily, Raiden was able to out-prioritize it with an aqua jet, KO'ing it thanks to all the stat debuffs it gave itself! All that remained was Norman's Keckleon. Jen sent out Chun-Li, and was paralyzed and hit with an aqua tail; luckily, she was able to take advantage of Keckleon's color change and took it out with a mighty fire punch! WIth Norman defeated, now we can really take on the gym! The team so far:

Update #13: A Rood Awakening Well, Rood was a lot harder than I expected, mainly because his Pokemon all held choice items. On TEH URN, Jen led with Leonidas, and Rood led with his Stoutland. It did some damage with a wild charge, but Leonidas was able to KO it with a single close combat! I can see why the actual Leonidas likes Heracross so much... Up next came the bane of my existence, the single hardest Pokemon Rood had to throw at me: his Swoobat. Dan came out, and managed to do massive damage with a fake out, but he fainted to a single psychic. Gordon came out next and did some damage with a mach punch, but also fell to a psychic. Jen sent out Raiden, now a Samurott thanks to grinding, and he almost knocked it out with an aqua jet, but didn't, and then he fell to a psychic as well. Luckily, Eliza was able to survive a psychic and end the dreaded bat with a force palm! All that remained was Rood's Bouffalant, so Jen sent out Zaprong. He did insane damage with a low kick, but fainted to a head charge; luckily, Rood was hoist by his own petard, as the recoil from head charge took out Bouffalant! With Rood defeated, it's time to go forth and take on Clay! The team so far:

By the way, what did Helen win?

Wow, this thread sure has prospered a lot since I last saw it! I think it's about time to introduce a Mega I was planning on making for a fan-made Pokemon game of mine (once I learn Ruby, of course...): MEGA LAPRAS Type: Water/Dragon (Replaced Ice with Dragon) Ability: Swift Swim HP: 130 Attack: 110 Defense: 110 Sp. Attack: 110 Sp. Defense: 115 Speed: 60 Now, I don't know much about the metagame, but when I look at Lapras' stat distribution, I see "bulky tank". Sadly, its Ice/Water typing is terribadtastic defensively, which severely hampers its effectiveness. With this set, It gets a better defensive typing that still has a good STAB combination to fit its movepool (it learns outrage physically, and dragon pulse specially). As for its stats, while most of my Megas are skewed towards either physically or specially offensive, this guy is designed to be viable regardless of whether you go physical or special: if you go special, you get higher base power moves to compensate for its lower attack stats compared to other Megas, and if you go physical, you have either curse for a bulkier set or dragon dance if you want to attempt to sweep. You can even take advantage of its ability to pull off a sweep under the rain, as has a favorable matchup against other rain teams and can abuse the rain with an 100% accurate thunder. It's not perfect, though; it lacks reliable recovery, and it has somewhat lackluster attack stats for a mega. Overall, though, I'm rather proud of it.

Update #12: Death By Glamour Well, Elesa was actually harder than Flannery! Seriously, I only won because I had more healing items. I'm beginning to think that the game's difficulty level is parabolic, with the lowest point in difficulty being around the third gym... Anyway, on TEH URN, Jen led with Dan, and Elesa led with her Emolga. Emolga, miraculously, didn't use acrobatics; instead, it used light screen, allowing Dan to end it with a fake out and a strength (although he got paralyzed in the process)! Up next came Elesa's ace, Zebstrika. Jen swapped out to Eliza, but sadly, she fainted to an overheat almost instantly. Jen then sent out Zaprong, and he tanked two bounces and knocked Zebstrika to the red with two low kicks (although he also got paralyzed). To my infuriation, though, Elesa used her hyper potion, and while Zaprong was immobilized Zebstrika took him down with a quick attack. Jen decided that the Godzilla threshold had been crossed and sent out our newest Pokemon: Gordon the Breloom! He did massive damage with a mach punch, and dodged a bounce by swapping out to Dan. Dan not only lived, but was able to end the Zebstrika with a fake out! Elesa's ace might have been down, but she still had a lot of Pokemon left. She sent out her Lanturn next, and Jen swapped back out to Gordon. Gordon managed to outspeed the Lanturn and did massive damage with a bullet seed, taking it out! Elesa decided to stop messing around and sent out her Luxray; Jen responded in kind by sending out Leonidas. Sadly, after only getting off a brick break, he fell to a fire fang. Jen sent out Raiden, but he also fell to a volt switch, allowing Elesa to send in her Ampharos. Jen, running out of Pokemon, sent out Gordon again. Gordon did some damage with a bullet seed, but then got paralyzed by a thunder wave; luckily, despite being paralyzed he was able to dodge a focus blast and do some damage with two mach punch. The RNG gods decided to abandon me the next turn, though, because Gordon was immobilized by paralysis and was blasted by two focus blasts, leading to him fainting. However, this is where things began to turn in my favor again: Dan, despite being paralyzed and only being at about 33.3333333333333333333333 (repeating, of course) percent health, was able to KO Ampharos with a fake out! Elesa, probably confident in her ability to take me down, sent out her Galvantula next. Jen quickly healed Dan, allowing him to tank two giga drains, and he knocked Galvantula down to its focus sash with a strength. Unfortunately, he was hit hard by a bug buzz and was immobilized, but he was able to get healed by a hyper potion, tank a second bug buzz and a giga drain, and end Galvantula with a strength! All that remained was Elesa's troubling Luxray. Dan tanked a volt switch with 18 HP remaining, then did crazy damage with an arm thrust. Not wanting to lose the battle, Jen healed him the next turn, and he survived a crunch and a second volt switch to fire off one last arm thrust, ending the fight! With Elesa defeated, it's time to head on out to Driftveil City! The team so far:

Update #11: Spit Hot Fyah Well, remember how I said that Colress was the hardest fight so far? I think Flannery put him to shame. It took me three tries to beat her, and I only won by the skin of my teeth. Anyway, on TEH URN, Jen led with Eliza, and Flannery led with her Magcargo. Eliza did massive damage with a bone rush, coming only inches short of KO'ing it thanks to weak armor; sadly, she then instantly fainted to an overheat. Jen sent out Raiden, and while Flannery healed Magcargo with a hyper potion and Magcargo fired off an earth power, Raiden took it down with two razor shells, learning aqua jet in the process! Camerupt came out next, but it was a pushover, fainting to a single razor shell. I guess this is why they improved its bulk when it got a Mega... Flannery sent out her Magmar next, and Jen swapped out to Dan, who did some damage right off of the bat with a fake out. He then got burned by a will-o-wisp, but he managed to still take it out with a mighty strength! I guess that just goes to show how powerful Hariyama is! Up next came Flannery's Houndoom. Jen sent out one of our newest team members, Leonidas the Heracross, but the poor thing fainted to a single overheat. Luckily, Zaprong the mighty Electivire was able to come out and paralyze it with a thunder wave, tank an overheat with 10 HP left, and KO it with two electro balls while it was immobilized! Finally, all that remained was Flannery's ace, Torkoal... and to be honest, it was probably the most annoying Pokemon on her team, if not the hardest Pokemon to deal with. Zaprong fainted to an overheat, but was at least able to paralyze it with a thunder wave. Chun-Li came out to avenge him, but fainted to a single overheat after only landing a single low kick. Raiden came out in an attempt to more successfully avenge his comrades, but he missed a razor shell and got smacked with a yawn. Luckily, Jen was able to wave him up and cure Dan of his burn with two lava cookies while Torkoal was paralyzed, and Raiden managed to land wo razor shells while Torkoal was immobilized! He missed a third one and was put to sleep with a yawn, but luckily he was able to wake up shortly afterwards and KO it with a fourth and final razor shell! Now that Flannery's down, it's time to take on Elesa! The team so far:

Okay, sorry. I can wait!

Update #10: Subway: Beat Fresh Well, Ingo and Emmet were tougher than I expected, but I managed to get by them. On TEH URN, I had Jen lead with Dan while Nate (our partner) led with Pignite, Ingo led with his Chandelure, and Emmet led with his Eelektross. Dan fired off a fake out, causing Eelektross to flinch, and Pignite tanked a flamethrower while whiffing a take down. Unfortunately, then things started to go south: Dan then tanked a thunderbolt, but got paralyzed and immobilized, and Pignite fainted to a critical-hit flamethrower. Nate sent out his SImisage, and Jen swapped out to Zaprong, who was now a fully-evolved Electivire! He tanked a flamethrower and absorbed a thunderbolt (getting a speed boost) and fired off a thunder punch on Chandelure while Simisage hit Chandelure with a seed bomb and lowered everyone's defense with a leer. Sadly, it then went down instantly to a flamethrower, and Zaprong fainted to a brick break. Poor Jen was now stuck in a one-on-one fight. Raiden (who came out next) tanked a flamethrower and a brick break, but got burned; luckily, he was able to KO Chandelure with a razor shell before succumbing to burn damage and a brick break. Zexy came out afterwards, and he managed to do decent damage with a double kick, then tanked a brick break and ended the Eelektross with a second double kick! With Ingo and Emmet down, it's time to head onward to Elesa! The team so far:

Hey, um, I beat Nick last week with my new team, but I don't see my name on the standings. Did it get lost in the shuffle again?

Update #9: Maniacal Machines Well, I'll be honest: Colress was probably the hardest boss I fought on this run so far. It took me three tries, and I still feel like I only won by the skin of my teeth. On TEH URN, I led with Chun-Li, and he led with his Magnemite. Magnemite took some pretty heavy damage from a low kick, but survived thanks to sturdy and paralyzed Chun-Li with a thunder wave. Magnemite then got its HP restored with a hyper potion, but Chun-Li was able to knock it back down to the red with a karate chop. Unfortunately, it then pivoted out to Colress' Metang, which only took scratch damage from a karate chop; because of this, I had Jen switch Chun-Li out for Zexy, who tanked a bullet punch and did impressive damage with an ember, then survived a psyshock with 1 HP remaining to... get KO'd by a bullet punch. Well, bluh. Jen then sent out Eliza, who did massive damage with a blaze kick, ending the Metang and avenging Zexy! Up next came Colress' toughest Pokemon for me to deal with: his Rotom-Fan. Jen sent out Dan, and after he did some damage with a fake out, he tanked an air slash and did massive damage with a strength... only to come just short of KO'ing it. He then promptly fainted to an air slash. Luckily, Zaprong was able to come out, tank a dark pulse, and end the Rotom with a shock wave! Colress then sen out his ace, Porygon2. Jen sent out Eliza again, and she did fair damage to it with a force palm (paralyzing it in the process) and then survived a psyshock to fire off two more force palms. Unfortunately, not only did she fall just a little short of KO'ing it, but Porygon2 was able to heal itself pretty much back to full HP, even though Eliza managed to hit it with a force palm between its two recovers. Luckily, the next turn it used psyshock instead of recover, allowing Eliza to KO it with two more force palms! Colress decided to send out his Klink next, and Jen swapped out to Raiden. He managed to do some impressive damage with a low sweep, but got paralyzed by a thunder wave; fortunately, even though Klink took off a fair-sized chunk of its health with a wild charge, it took massive damage from the recoil, allowing Raiden to end it with a second low sweep! Finally, all that remained of Colress' team was his Magnemite, which only got off a thunder wave and a signal beam on Zaprong before he took it out with two low kicks! With Colress defeated, it's time to head on out to Nimbassa City! The team so far:

Update #8: Bug-Eyed and Flustered Well, Burgh wasn't all that bad, although it did take a try for me to get past his Masquerain (which is a Bug/Water type in this hack). Anyway, on TEH URN, Jen led with Dan, and Burgh led with his Accelgor. Accelgor got slammed and welcomed to the jam with a fake out, then missed a focus blast and fell to a strength! Well, that went better than I expected... Up next came Burgh's Escavalier, and Jen sent out Zexy. Zexy fired off an ember; it didn't do as much damage as it could have thanks to Escavalier's Occa berry, it did managed to burn it. Escavalier retaliated with a drill run, but Zexy lived and took it down with a second ember! After this, Burgh sent out his Masquerain; expecting it this time, I had Jen send out Zaprong. Zaprong tanked an icy wind, set up a thunder wave, did some damage with a shock wave while Masquerain was paralyzed, and then took it down with an electro ball! Burgh, in a hasty move, decided to instantly send out his ace, Leavanny, and Jen swapped out to Eliza. Eliza tanked a leaf blade and did massive damage with a blaze kick, but failed to KO it thanks to its focus sash. She then fired off another blaze kick while Burgh used up his hyper potion, and followed it up with a quick attack for the KO! Having played his royal flush, Burgh was low on options; he decided to send out his Scyther, and Jen sent out Dan again. Poor Scyther never stood a chance; it set up a swords dance, but Dan was able to KO it instantly with a strength! All that remained was Burgh's Vespiquen... and honestly, it was probably his toughest Pokemon, if only because I underestimated it. Jen sent out Raiden, and he lowered its defense with a razor shell, then fought through confusion to land two more razor shells. Sadly, Vespiquen was able to heal off the damage with two roosts, and it promptly ended Raiden with an acrobatics. Zaprong came out next, and he managed to seriously dent it with an electro ball... only to fall to a single x-scissor. Fortunately, Chun-Li was able to come out and finish off the weakened Vespiquen with a thief, ending the fight! With Burgh defeated, it's time to take on Colress! The team so far: