Chapter 8 - A shocking new addition

My entry into New Mauville was celebrated with the newest addition to my team’s ranks – Dash the Voltorb, lv.24, Naïve nature. New Mauville was a piece of cake and I headed onwards.

I Surfed across the little stretch of water on Route 118 hoping not to get Tentacool’d, - I wanted an Electrike in the grass beyond – and was successful. Picked up the Good Rod from the Fisherman and headed further down Route 118. I bumped into Steven for a pointless conversation and delved into the grass. First Pokemon I encountered was… a Manectric! What are the chances?! Oh, 10% according to Bulbapedia… Male, lv.26, Static as his ability (I found this out when Crash was paralysed on contact with him). Named him Major. His nature was Quiet… Ok I guess. Now I can stick Dash the Voltorb in the PC and concentrate on my new, 4^th team member. Bulbapedia told me that Major wouldn’t learn Thunderbolt naturally so I used the TM24 Wattson had rewarded me with for sorting out New Mauville.

Route 119 sucks. It’s long and a Breloom nearly killed Major and you have to sit through the “It is raining” animation every damn turn… At least the Weather Institute was amusingly easy and has a bed to heal in. I obtained a Castform for saving the scientists, which I wasn’t able to nickname for some reason. Female, lv.25, Timid nature. I’m not allowed to use her though, as she’s the second Pokemon I obtained on Route 119 after catching Streaky the Linoone (lv.25, Male, Calm). I released Castform as soon as I could reach a PC and carried on, beating up May to obtain HM02. Swift was the lucky learner of Fly.

I reached Fortree City with little trouble, and looked around. An old lady gave me Hidden Power because I have psychic powers, a stupid girl wants to trade my Pikachu for her Skitty (why would I do that?!) and that’s about it. Bulbapedia told me that Winona, the Gym leader, had an Altaria at level 33. A quick Ice Beam from Crash should sort that out quite nicely, what with Altaria's 4x weakness to Ice attacks, so I figured I was already prepared to take her on… but something invisible was blocking the route to the Gym so I carried on down Route 120.

The first Pokemon I encountered on Route 120 was another Linoone, which I killed instead of capturing. I headed onwards and found Steven, who gave me the Devon Scope. He used it to make a Kecleon appear and attack; Major made short work of the Kecleon, which I couldn’t catch anyway. Something tells me this Devon Scope will get me into Fortree Gym…

It did. I progressed with minimal difficulty past the Gym trainers (and don’t you just love the puzzle in this Gym? I do) and set up a showdown with Winona… which was a complete anti-climax. I absolutely destroyed her, even though she switched in her Altaria a lot sooner than expected. 4 OHKOs later and I was outta there with a new Badge and the TM for Aerial Ace. I decided against teaching it to Swift as she was getting left behind level-wise – she was only lv.32 while Major, Charlie and Crash were at 37, 37 and 39 respectively, and her usefulness was dwindling, much as I loved her for being able to Fly me to any town.

Next up, I’ll head down to Lilycove City and finally help Crash forget Rock Smash!


-Samwise