- Ran into another Pokemon Breeder (Issac). Again, refreshing to have trainers in the game that feel like actual trainers.
- Made it to Verdanturf.
- Apparently, this is where the normal Pokemon Contest building is.
- Got the Contest Pass, even though I don't necessarily plan on using it.
- This is also where a person who approximately tells a Pokemon's happiness level is.
- Found Wanda's house, which is where Wally's family is.
- His uncle said something about a mix of the natural environment and his Pokemon improving his health. That's good to hear. I'm glad Wally's doing better.
- The woman in the house (I presume this to be Wanda) said her daughter's boyfriend is helping to dig the tunnel between Rustboro and Verdanturf. That might have been the guy I ran into when I was still over by Rustboro.
- Wally expressed a desire to continue training his Pokemon and becoming stronger than me. It's nice to see him have dreams.
- Went into the tunnel to see about what's there to explore.
- Found the guy from earlier and a girl, separated by two breakable rocks.
- Used the Rock Smash TM on Gary.
- The man showed his appreciation of my destroying the last boulder by giving me the HM for Strength.
- Okay, so, apparently, the girl in the tunnel was Wanda. I guess the other woman is just Wally's unnamed aunt.
- Went back to the house because there's probably new dialog.
- Wanda is Wally's cousin. I don't know why I thought she was going to be his sister.
- Back in the tunnel, Wanda had a line about how her boyfriend wasn't just digging the tunnel to see her and that he was doing it for the good of everyone. I guessed that he was mostly doing it to see her. What little dialog he has here makes me think I guessed correctly.
- Decided to grind for some levels.
- Found a Volbeat. I forgot these existed. I don't know if they're good or not.
- It has Confuse Ray and Double Team. Maybe it's good.
> Caught: BUNSON [M]
- I just remembered that Aar told me to go back to Rustboro and see the Devon people to get the Exp. Share.
- Went to Rustboro and got the Exp. Share from Mr. Stone.
- Gave the share to Sredsa.
- Looking at my map and the fact that I can't get anywhere on Route 115 without Surf, I need to get back to Mauville and head to either Lavaridge Town or Fortree City.
- After getting to Mauville, I decided on going to Lavaridge.
- A guy who didn't challenge me to a battle told me that the Elite Four were much tougher than any of the gym leaders. I was going to guess that, but it's nice of the game to explicitly state that to me far in advance.
- Two employees from some TV station crew challenged me to a battle, then had the audacity to ask me for an interview. I said yes.
- I was asked to describe how I felt about the battle. I just put "Television".
- Made it to the desert but couldn't walk through the sandstorm. Headed down Route 112 to get to Lavaridge.
- Gary picked up a Super Potion.
- There's a cable car that goes up to Lavaridge. That sounds like what I want to take to get to where I'm going.
- Team Aqua goons are blocking the way. Of course.
- Found a cave to walk through instead.
- Oh shit. I ran into a Torkoal. I didn't know those were in this game.
> Caught: BETSY [F]
- Found a boulder I can push with Strength. I guess it's time to teach the move to one of my Pokemon.
- It will not let me teach the move to Gary.
- Finger can learn the move, so I think that's my best option.
- I taught the move, but I apparently don't have the badge I need to push things with Strength. I guess this isn't the way I need to go.
- Surfaced on Route 112. There were some berries very close to the exit.
- Found the Old Lady's Rest Stop building. The healing was much appreciated.
- The TV was on. It played out the events that happened with that TV crew I battled earlier.
- "The combination of Aron and Nincada was divine!"
- That was more of an accident and an attempt to get them leveled up more than anything.
- Ran into a Cool Trainer with a Roselia that took out both Finger and Sredsa. Slapkins took it out by having a ten level advantage over the foe with the type advantage.
- Gary picked up a Rare Candy.
- Fitz, Annie, Sredsa, and Finger are all at level 19. None of them have evolved yet.
- Made it to snowy Route 113.
- Gary picked up a nugget.
- Wait, I didn't make it to Lavaridge. I'm going past it. I guess I'll have to come back to that later. Looks like I'm going to Fallarbor instead.
- Oh, it's not snow. It's volcanic ash.
- Found something hiding behind a mound.
- It was a kid hiding in a pile of ashes.
- The kid's first Pokemon was a Koffing and he immediately used Selfdestruct.
- The rest of the kid's Pokemon were also Koffings and Finger did great throughout the whole battle since the kid only had ineffective moves.
- Sredsa made it to level 20 and evolved. She also learned Double Team, Fury Cutter and Screech.
> SREDSA: Nincada -> Ninjask
- Having Bulbapedia open too long gradually used up more RAM and almost caused my system to grind to a halt before Firefox saved the day and put the tab in a crashed state. I should really start using ad-block.
- Sredsa's moveset is now Screech, Double Team, Fury Cutter, and Sand-Attack.
- Found the Glass Workshop. Decided to pop in and see what it was about.
- I got a Soot Sack from the man in the shop. Apparently I can do something with it once I collect enough ash.
- Found a TM32 in a pile of ash.
- Finally made it to Fallarbor. That took a really long time considering my journey there technically started from Mauville.
- Went to the Pokemon Center because it had been time to heal up for a while.
- There was a woman standing in front of the PC. Having an NPC in front of one isn't a common sight.
- The woman was Lanette, who apparently developed the Pokemon Storage System. I guess Bill's system got replaced.
- She asked for me to visit her at her house on Route 114.
- Gary picked up a Full Heal.
- Went shopping because I needed Pokeballs.
- I talked to the old man wandering the streets and he asked if I had already challenged Flannery, the gym leader at Lavaridge. Did I miss something?
- Learned from a woman in a house that a Professor Cosmo went to Meteor Falls on Route 114 with Team Aqua guys. I better look into that.
- Got Dig (TM28) from a kid in a house just outside of Fallarbor.
- Decided to check out the tunnels his brother, the Fossil Maniac, had dug.
- The Fossil Maniac suggested I look for fossils on Route 111 because any fossils in his tunnels belonged to him.
- Got Roar (TM05) from a man with a Poochyena.
- Pokemaniac Steve has excellent character art.
- Found Lanette's House. Her house is really well organized. To show her appreciation for my stopping by, she gave me a Lotad Doll.
- Interacted with a random PC and it had an email on it. It was a letter from Bill praising Lanette's new storage system and expressing pride in his involvement with the development process.
- Son of a bitch, they knew players were going to be wondering about that.
- Gary picked up a Super Potion.
- Switch the Exp. Share over to Finger. Hopefully, that will help him evolve.
- Found a Protein.
- According to the map, the mountains I stumbled onto are the Meteor Falls.
- Nevermind, there's an entrance to Meteor Falls in the mountains I found.
- I can't move three fucking steps without triggering an encounter with a Zubat.
- Wait, I found a Lunatone. I thought those were from a newer generation.
- Found the Team Aqua guys.
- Started confronting them when Team Magma showed up!
- The Team Aqua guys took the Meteorite and ran away.
- Started talking to Maxie, the head of Team Magma.
- They're doing something with the Meteorite at Mt. Chimney. Not sure what.
- Prof. Cozmo apparently got tricked into excavating the meteorite for the Team Aqua guys.
- Found a Moon Stone.
- Couldn't go back the way I came, so I had to go back to Rustboro. How the fuck did this happen to me?
- Gary picked up a Revive.
- I was going to look up what was supposed to happen next, but it occurred to me that the Team Aqua guys in front of the cable car might have cleared up.
- Went from Rustboro to the cable car and there was no sign of Team Aqua.
- The cable car has a nice little animation of the ride up the mountain.
- As soon as I step out of the station, there's a squabble between a Magma and Aqua grunt.
- It looks like they were put there to block access to the Jagged Path.
- Working my way up the mountain, there was an even more involved battle between Maxie and a trio of Aqua grunts.
- They are all using Poochyenas.
- Gary picked up a Rare Candy.
- After some grunt battles, I caught up with the head of Team Aqua.
- Oh, right, his name was Archie.
- The battle with Archie was kicking my ass and I would have lost if it weren't from a top-tier performance from Slapkins. Sredsa was also really good.
- I thwarted their evil plans, although I don't know that a ten year old kid would have much stopping power against a large group of what appear to be ecoterrorists given that Archie would be stronger than the child protagonist and they were right next to the open, lava-filled top of a volcano.
- Worked my way down the mountain.
- Holy fuck I finally made it to Lavaridge. It only took absolutely fucking forever.
- Visited the Pokemon Center and restocked on Super Potions at the Poke Mart.
- An old woman in the shop clued me into some kind of rare and cool item that can only be bought at the top of Mt. Chimney.
- Isn't the name Mt. Chimney a little too on the nose?
- An old lady next to the hot springs offered up an egg. I went to the Pokemon Center, put Fitz in the PC, and took up the offer.
- This was my first time actually using the PC since meeting Lanette, so now the first option on the menu is "Lanette's PC" instead of "Someone's PC".
- I'm unfamiliar enough with these games to truly not know what Pokemon hatches from this egg.
- There's a gym here, so I'll keep the egg with me while I travel, but for now, I'll bring Fitz with me to the gym.
- Flannery is the gym leader in Lavaridge, who is said to have a "fiery passion that burns".
- Hmm. I wonder who I should use for this gym.
- WHY DOES THE TORKOAL HAVE ATTRACT!
- The Torkoal took out Slapkins and none of my other Pokemon are near the level 30 mark. It took out Fitz and Sredsa. I thought it was over. I tried Finger next and Torkoal used Flail twice for some reason, even though a Fire-type move would have been super effective. Two Strengths from Finger to finish it off and I had barely won.
- Fitz, despite fainting, evolved.
> FITZ: Whismur -> Loudred
- Got the Heat Badge, Overheat (TM50), and the ability to actually use Strength to move things.
- Saw May just after exiting. She gave me the Go-Goggles, which will let me travel through the desert on Route 111.
- I went to buy more Full Heals from the Poke Mart but they didn't have any available. I think both of the ones I used on Slapkins were from Gary picking them up. I don't think I would have won without them.
- Gary is perfect. The real apex predator of the Pokemon world.
