In the next episode, REYNOLD and Co will pilfer the Team Galactic HQ in Veilstone City, looking for the TM Fly.
Syke! That's the wrong episode.
It turns out that REYNOLD's next destination was Pastoria City, where the Water-type gym is located. What made me think that we'll infiltrate the Galactic HQ is that Dawn asked us to help her get back her stolen Pokédex from Team Galactic.
It turns out she likes to use Clefairy more than her starter, but that's okay. Maybe she'll heal me in battle like Cheryl did in Eterna Forest.
But she was not as bright as I thought, because all she used was Metronome. "Metronome randomly selects a move and fully executes the attack." I was not comfortable with this gamble, because what if she accidently uses Selfdestruct or Explosion? After my GINGSH was chipped away by the opposing Zubats, I didn't feel comfortable staying in, so I switched to someone with full health.
Well, what do you know! Guess what she did.
Of course she used Selfdestruct. This time, I dodged a bullet just by listening to my gut, but holy hell! That was some unholy luck right there. GINGSH would have definitely dropped if I don't switch her out, and luckily Bibarel could barely survive the hit.
On my way forward, I met youtuber ProJared who was just hanging out on the beach. I guess he was much younger here.
Then I finally arrived at Pastoria City, where I had many things to do. First of all, I could finally buy some Quick Balls. Secondly, I found the move relearner guy (Move Tutor). There was also the Great Marsh. And that's if you don't count the Water Gym and the girl who gives free berries every day.
I already had a few Heart Scales (the currency that the Move Tutor uses), so I went on to teach a few strong moves to my elite. ZERIA learned Cross Poison, then I changed her Razor Fang to a Poison Barb to increase the damage of her Poison-type moves. Then I was wondering if I should teach Wood Hammer to THORNANG instead of Razor Leaf. The 120 base power was tempting, but I didn't really know if I wanted a move with recoil. Another option I had was teaching him Bullet Seed, which can either deal 25, 50, 75, 100 or 125 damage. Bullet Seed was also stronger than Razor Leaf, but it seemed unreliable to get high damage consistently. So I went with Wood Hammer eventually. Keep that in mind.
After I reached Pastoria City, my team also went through some changes.
1. A NEW CROBAT? (ZIMMY)
ZIMMY reached the required happyness to evolve into a Crobat, but she still haven't learned Giga Drain yet, so I interrupted the evolution. I will look really stupid after all this if it turns out that Golbats cannot even learn Giga Drain.
2. SHELLOS!
Another Shellos appeared, but this one is inferior to SHINRA. His ability is Sticky Hold instead of Storm Drain.
Either way, I called him Shellock Holmes, so he will now help me with my investigations.
3. Q?
On my way forward, I met another inferior beast compared to SHINRA. This one was a Quagsire whose ability was Damp instead of Water Absorb. The funny story with Quagsire is when I tried to give him a nickname, I accidently pressed the Confirm button instead of the Next Page button (which are next to each other), so my Quagsire's name is simply Q. ^^"
4. GORDY is evolving!
And finally we got a Graveler with Earthquake.
But sadly that's the only evolution he will get. Learning from my experience in Emerald, I won't be using him during the late game, so I must use his full potential as early as possible. Keep that in mind.
Before I could enter the next gym, I was caught off-guard by my rival, Zane. Because I was caught off-guard, I only remembered to start recording mid battle. As you can see from the following video, it was not a clean victory, but at least we suffered no casualties.
Against Crasher Wake, the leader of the Water-type gym, I had a clear plan in mind. Lead with GINGSH to 1v1 Wake's weakest member, switch to BEREVIC when he switches in his Gyarados, use Yawn, then either switch out to SONIC after he fell asleep or switch out to GORDY if he started using Thrash. And yes, I'm planning to use my Graveler against Wake, but strictly against his Gyarados if he starts using Thrash. My plan against his Quagsire was to bring in THORNANG, and the rest of my team should be able to handle the rest of his team. Okay, so let's see how this plan went.
Fifth Gym Battle: Leader Crasher Wake!
First matchup:
Lv.34 GINGSH vs Lv.33 GYARADOS.
"And right out of the gate, my plan is ruined!"
Him leading with Gyarados is one of the worst things that could happen against my team plan. Now my Bibarel will have to take a hit before he can use Yawn, which is a significant setback. But I had to cook with the ingredients I had, so I decided to try my luck with GINGSH. A boosted Psybeam did a bit less than third of his HP, but he of course had Bite against us. >__> On the fly, I switched in SONIC, hoping to tank the next hit, but Waterfill did around 50%, so I was forced to switch out again.
"This is already looking awful."
I wanted to take the lowest possible damage, so I brought in my tankiest team member, ZERIA. (Never thought I'd ever say this, haha.) After one hit, Wake wasted his Hyper Potion, which was at least good. ZERIA managed to get rid of Gyarados, but for what cost? It required my strongest to take down his weakest, and I was not happy. At least SONIC learned Thunder Fang over Spark, so that's something.
When Wake announced his next Pokémon, ZERIA was already in the orange zone, so I had to switch. Second matchup:
Lv.35 BEREVIC vs Lv.37 Floatzel. Since Wake's Gyarados was already down, I had the opportunity to use Bibarel's Yawn strategy on someone else. We lived two Crunches, but our Defense dropped. Hyper Fang did around 45% to Floatzel, so instead of switching out, I decided to gamble on Floatzel being asleep for long enough.
The second Hyper Fang barely killed him, but Sitrus Berry made him out of KO range again. 1 turn of sleep gone.
The third Hyper Fang barely killed him, I just needed one more hit. 2 turns of sleep gone.
The fourth Hyper Fang would have killed, but the scummy lord of waters decided to bring out a second Hyper Potion, which made Floatzel a 3-hit KO again. 3 turns of sleep gone...
The maximum turns of sleep is 4, but even that doesn't help me win 1v1 against Floatzel. At best, this was my last turn of sleep and I can get in one more Hyper Fang hit, but then I would have to sacrifice something. I went for the risky hit though, and wanted to get in that last chunk of Hyper Fang.
But wait, what's this? Floatzel woke up!
And with BEREVIC's lack of Speed and lowered Defense, the next Crunch was an easy KO for Floatzel. DAMMIT!!!
At this point, my plan was non-existent and I made my moves on the fly. Floatzel still had more than 50% HP, so I needed a big gun. Probably the biggest gun I had.
Lv.34 THORNANG vs Lv.37 Floatzel. I was confident that the newly learned Wood Hammer would KO Floatzel, while THORNANG had enough bulk to live any physical Water or Dark type move Floatzel had.
"Wood Hammer it is, then."
Quick Claw didn't activate this time, so I was just waiting for what move Floatzel starts off with. But it was FREAKING ICE FANG of all things! The following seconds felt like minutes to me. The animation of Ice Fang stopped after 2 seconds, then THORNANG's HP was just going down, and down, and down... THORNANG, please, tank the hit!
His health was getting lower and lower... We went from green, to orange, to red, and... We lived on 17 HP!
I was almost cheering, but then... Oh right, remember when I told you to keep in mind that I taught THORNANG Wood Hammer over Bullet Seed?
The good news are that we defeated the Floatzel, but the bad news are that nobody gained EXP from it, because everyone he battled died. You may ask how? Well, THORNANG took recoil damage from Wood Hammer, proportionate to the damage we dealt to Floatzel. And since Floatzel still had a bunch of HP left and we only had 17, we went down in an instant. With that, our starter was officially dead.
According to the calculator, a 3-hit Bullet Seed would have dealt 79.3 - 94.2% damage to Floatzel, which would have been enough in theory to finish him off. Even if Bullet Seed only hit twice, that would have dealth 52.8 - 62.8% damage, which might have been enough too. Or if that wouldn't have been enough, I could have switched in ZERIA next to deal the faster finishing blow, and then at least someone would have gotten EXP from defeating Floatzel. (Even Razor Leaf would have dealt 54.5 - 66.1%.)
But the battle didn't end there.Crasher Wake still had a Quagsire left, and my only Grass-type user was gone. At this point, I had to make-do with what I had left.
"Remember what I told you to keep in mind about GORDY?"
I didn't foresee GORDY doing much for me on the long run, and I couldn't even use him against Wake's Gyarados as I planned, so I decided to turn him into a sacrificial bomb. Third matchup:
Lv.34 GORDY vs Lv.34 QUAGSIRE. Our levels were equal, so I had hope. My plan was to outspeed Quagsire and hit him with an Earthquake before he uses a Water or Ground type move and kills us. But I was not as fortunate, because GORDY was slow as rocks, and Quagsire was clever enough to use a Special Water-type move to KO us. Darn!
All things I had left on the team were limping on 50% or lower HP, some of them even weak to one of Quagsire's attacks. GINGSH had a bit more than 33% though and he was also specially defensive, so I gave her a try.
Lv.34 GINGSH vs Lv.34 QUAGSIRE. Our boosted Psybeam, however, was not strong enough to 2-hit KO Quagsire, so it was time to switch or sacrifice again.
GINGSH lived the next attack on 9 HP, so it was clear she could not take any more hits. However, Quagsire's last used move was a Ground-type move, so I had a last-ditch effort to play around him.
Lv.39 ZERIA vs Lv.34 QUAGSIRE. If Quag used Mud Shot again, ZERIA would not take damage from it, and then we would have enough turns to KO without dying.
But surely it cannot be that easy, right?!
Freaking ROCK TOMB! I don't know how, but the AI outplayed me again, hitting my strongest with a super effective move when she was already in the orange zone. But somehow we lived that hit with 8 HP!
My strongest was still alive, but Rock Tomb lowered our Speed by 1. It was a gamble at this point if we are still faster than him, but I was running out of options, and staying in and attacking seemed to be the only way to deal with Quagsire.
ZERIA used Fly! Luckily we were still faster, so we dodged the incoming Rock Tomb. I was banking on Rock Tomb missing on the next turn, or on he using Mud Shot again. I was sure that any of his attacks with more than 0 damage would end us on contact. Using Fly, however, was a double-edged sword, because there was a chance that we miss.
We reached the second turn of Fly, when all these gambling factors would come into place and decide the outcome. And then luckily Fly landed. Quagsire had a bit more than 50% HP left, so I was anxiously waiting how much damage Fly does. And it somehow knocked out Quagsire without a critical hit! That, gentlemen, is probably the luckiest thing that happened in this match against Crasher Wake.
According to the calculator, a regular Crobat would have dealt 40.3 - 47.8% damage to Quagsire, but it looks like ZERIA collected a good amount of Attack IVs on our way here. I could have sacrificed ZERIA against Wake, because I had a replacement Crobat in the form of ZIMMY, but ZERIA has been with us longer and she also has some really good investments.
All hail the bulky Crobat!
But to see how harsh things went, check the following image of my team after we defeated Crasher Wake.
At this point, the episode would normally be over, but I had to go on a rampage to avenge my fallen team members. I went on a level-up spree with ZERIA, in an attempt to raise her to such high levels that she can take down gym leaders on her own. In the process, SHELLOCK evolved into a Gastrodon.
I also wanted to catch a new team member in the Great Marsh, but it was at this point that a Team Galactic Grunt exploded the Great Marsh, which totally didn't happen in Diamond for real. Now I couldn't even go in to catch new team members, because Zane and Crasher Wake were blocking the way. >__<
The fury of ZERIA lead us after the escaping grunt. The grunt was running, while I was efficiently pursuiting him on a bicycle. At one point, Looker joined the chase too, but he ran ahead. When I next saw Looker at the Lakeview Hotel reception, he already lost track of the grunt and was interrogating the staff members. This was our chance to take over the investigation!
"Detective SHELLOCK, where do you think the grunt escaped the room?"
"Well, dear Watson. Seeing how there are only two exits from this room, and one of them is where we came from, he must have fled using the opposite door.""That makes sense, thank you Detective Shellock!" Ha! Suck on that, Looker.
Who needs you (or Detective Pikachu) when we have Detective Shellock? SHELLOCK was right as expected, and we soon caught up to the grunt, who ran out of breath and couldn't run or walk any more. ZERIA took quick care of his lone Croagunk, then SHELLOCK and Watson were ready to capture the grunt. However, that's when main antagonist Deus Ex Cynthia came in to stall me in my investigation for almost a full minute, which was enough for the grunt to escape. Curse you, Cynthia! My plans were foiled again.
But what did Cynthia want from us, other than letting the grunt escape? Well, she told us that the Marsh is fine and that a new route opened up to the north, then she went on to ramble about the habitual behavior of Psyducks. For real. That's really all that happened, and that's exactly where I'll continue from in the next episode.~
End of Day party stats:
 | Lv.42 ZERIA, the Crobat (♀)
Item: Poison Barb
 Fly |  Cross Poison |  Bite |  Confuse Ray |
|
|  | Lv.35 SONIC, the Luxray (♂)
Item: Shell Bell (Ability: Rivalry)
 Thunder Fang | Bite | | Charge |  Leer |
|
|
 | Lv.35 GINGSH, the Girafarig (♀)
Item: Odd Incense
 Psybeam | Assurance | | Agility | Baton Pass |
|
| | Lv.30 SHELLOCK, the Gastrodon (♂)
 Water Pulse |  Mud Bomb | | Body Slam |  Hidden Power |
|
|
 | Lv.35 MYSTRO, the Meditite (♀)
Item: Fist Plate (Ability: Pure Power)
| Force Palm | Rock Smash | | Meditate | Confusion |
|
|  | Lv.25 PERESVIR, the Porygon (-)
| Psybeam | Agility | | Recover | Flash |
|
|
Spoiler for Here I pay my tribute for the fallen:
For BEREVIC:
BEREVIC, the Bibarel: Lv.18-Lv.35, from Route 209. Died by Crasher Wake's Lv.37 Floatzel. Scummy Wake used both a Sitrus Berry and a Hyper Potion on his Floatzel, so BEREVIC couldn't finish him off before Floatzel woke up from Yawn.
For THORNANG:
THORNANG, the Torterra: Lv.5-Lv.34, my starter. Died by Crasher Wake's Lv.37 Floatzel. Ice Fang into Wood Hammer recoil was too much from full health, but at least he died like a hero, taking his opponent down before the fall.
For GORDY:
GORDY, the Graveler: Lv.18-Lv.34, my starter. Died by Crasher Wake's Lv.34 Quagsire. We weren't faster, so Quagsire knocked us out in one hit.
"Bye-Bye, BEREVIC, THORNANG and GORDY! "
