The Gym For Real This Time, Part IDEFK Anymore: The Return of the Son of the of the Bride of the Re-Gymening!
Thirteen, huh? That's an awfully unlucky number... for Regina. Hopefully. Please?
Okay. Team healed up after all the training, items redistributed, a little extra special sauce waiting in the wings...
Not as much luck as you're gonna need, cupcake. Strike up the band and let's dance.
Let's see if six extra levels are enough for Tierog to redeem himself.
There we go! I have no idea why it didn't use quick attack there, but I'll take it! You're not completely worthless under pressure, Tierog! I'm as surprised as you are.
Okay, so you're brave enough not to be terrified by the giant headless supermodel caterpillar. All right, Barilbil, that's fine, totally fine. Tell me, though... how will you respond to hax?
(dang, the screenshot didn't take fast enough. That's supposed to be stun spore. You... you can't even really see the animation against barilbil, can you? Thanks for crapping all over my dramatic reveal, screenshot program.)
Whatever! You're paralyzed, Barilbil. What do you intend to do now, hm?
Oh. I see. You're going to keep alternating between stomp and this "proud swivel" move that also causes flinching and I'm also too slow to screenshot, and then you're going to knock out my peludillar. Okay... okay. We're still okay. (gaaaaaah I want fur cooooat) You, on the other hand...
Double kick to the face! Hell yeah! Two down, one to go!
...my nemesis! So you're going there, are you, Regina? Well now you've gone and made it personal. Anything else and I would've just given it a swift and merciful double-kicking to death, but instead you and your devil bear are going to suffer.
Guess who else knows stun spore, Regina? Not that I have any idea why she knows stun spore, but I had to step on 95% of the verdva in that forest to earn this move, and unusual or not I think I've earned the right to blast it into your little monster's face and watch it twitch helplessly on the floor.
Regina, Devil Bear, allow me to introduce you to a dear friend of mine called paraflinch.
So what if you didn't actually get paraflinched and you have a super potion? Too little, too late. Like I said before: I. Got. This.
Teeter dance? How dastardly. Clearly these hunber are not to be underestimated, even while on the very doorstep of defeat.
Okay, so clearly hustle is backfiring on me now—teeter dance wouldn't have happened if Durvas hadn't missed, and the way this is going she'll hit herself for hustle-boosted confusion damage next turn. But you know what? That's okay. Durvas has done her job. I've still got one more trick up my sleeve.
You didn't honestly think I wouldn't raise my starter to level 18 as well, did you? You only met Aenjara briefly during our first encounter, Regina. Last time she was preparing to make a heroic sacrifice for the rest of the team. This time, though?
This time she's going to banish your devil bear back to whatever honey-slathered circle of hell it crawled out of.
It's over.
Hell yeah I did.
Hell yeah you have.
And hell yeah you're paying for my new TV.
You know, it really was. Even with most of my team overleveled Regina still managed to pull out a few surprises and hit pretty damn hard. Now that is a fun challenge. (Granted I probably could've done some things differently to make it easier on myself, but this way was a lot more interesting, no?)
Oh, yeah. Badges. I knew that. It's not like I just came here for the cash or anything, hahaha... ha.
Badge get, baby. Pokémon League, here I come!
She tells me that the Common Badge raises my pokémon's power (attack stat, presumably) and allows me to use rock smash outside of battle. And then...
Oh, come on, why am I always too slow to catch the name of this move while it's on screen?
There we go.
It is? All I saw it do was make Kilasdann flinch once or twice. Maybe its accuracy is low but its flinch rate is high, or something like that? This requires further investigation.
I can't promise that all of those thoughts will be positive ones, at least not until you do the right thing and get that demon of yours properly exorcised, but sure, why not? (Alternatively, I'd be plenty willing to forget about it if we went back to the bar and you bought me a drink...)
Damn straight I did, Charlie!
I get some kind of royalty if you do that, right?
Well, that was exciting! Feels good to finally be able to put this behind me and move forward. Thanks again for the advice, guys. Next stop: those suspiciously smashable rocks out on Route 3, and whatever lies beyond! Onward, to the rest of Ethereal Gates!