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Dear Diary Out of all of the challenges I expect us to face in our journey, I always get a lump in my throat when it comes time to face a Gym Leader. Whitney, in particular, is known to be a thorn in the side of many trainers. So, if we can make it past her, we’ll have put a great difficulty behind us. I just hope we can do this. Like I said before, I’d hate for everything to end here. Angelica and Chrissy are trained up for this. But we’ll never know if it was enough until we try. Whitney’s Gym trainers were tough, especially since we don’t have any Fighting types. But we managed, and, soon, I was face-to-face with Whitney herself. Her lead Pokémon was Clefairy, who was quickly dispatched by the Grass type tag team. But that was just the beginning. Her Clefairy isn’t what makes Whitney so formidable. Sure, Clefairy has caught many trainers off guard with Metronome. But her biggest threat, for sure, is what comes after Clefairy gets defeated. From her next Poké Ball came Miltank. Our first line of defence against the bovine beast was Chrissy. I knew before I even entered the Gym that none of us could take on Miltank face-to-face. Our best shot was to give it a face full of Sleep Powder first. And, as much as I appreciate Julia, who also has Sleep Powder, she’s too frail to stay in and risk missing and taking a Rollout attack in retaliation. Enter Chrissy. She’s more capable of taking a Rollout or 2. All that needed to happen was for Sleep Powder to hit its mark. And, as Chrissy sprayed wisps of silver powder at our opponent, we were elated to see Miltank shut its eyes. Her job done spectacularly well, Chrissy was returned to her Poké Ball. Next up was Angelica. She would finally get to leave her mark against a Gym Leader. She set up Reflect, then fired a Razor Leaf against the sleeping Miltank, and it hit hard. Miltank remained asleep. It wasn’t quite the clash that Brittany versus Scyther was; the exchange of quick blows leading to a decisive finish. Another Razor Leaf was used, and, while it also hit, it awoke the sleeping giant. Miltank stared Angelica down and leapt into the air. Shocking, considering its size. And that size came into play when Miltank returned to the ground, a hoof outstretched. Angelica attempted to escape, but was hit regardless, causing her to fall to the ground. But she got back to her paws as quickly as she was downed. Regardless, I sent her back to her Poké Ball. The pattern would have to begin again. Chrissy hit the field again, but took a Rollout in the process. She stood her ground, however, and fought back with another dose of Sleep Powder. Again, it was effective in subduing the bovine menace. Miltank fell asleep once more, and Chrissy was switched out. Angelica was her replacement. She set up Reflect once again. But, this time, Miltank woke up before damage could be dealt with Razor Leaf. Miltank sped towards Angelica like a cannonball, but Angelica dug her heels in and took the hit. Shock was evident in Miltank’s eyes as a Razor Leaf was launched. Undeterred, Miltank tried Rollout again. Angelica smirked. I’ll never forget it. Taking a page from her opponent’s book, she took a flying leap. In the air, she angled herself properly. When she came down, it was leaf first, directly into Miltank’s head. The beast bellowed, then fell, defeated. At her loss, Whitney burst into tears. I wanted a badge, but not like this. I tried to leave, but was stopped by a trainer who informed me that this is a common occurrence. After a short talk, Whitney relented, and handed me the Plain Badge. That makes 3 badges! And a huge roadblock is out of the way; a lot of trainers, as I said before, fail at Whitney. But we weren’t done in Goldenrod City yet. Speaking of roadblocks, I heard that people have reported that a tree has sprouted seemingly out of nowhere to the north, blocking access to Ecruteak City. Maybe the employees at the nearby flower shop would know a way to get past it. The flower shop is a wonderful place, full of sufficient blooms to make a Shaymin blush. And, to my surprise, they had already heard of the sudden tree. Not only that, but it turns out, the owner had already deciphered its identity. It was actually a powerful Pokémon that had stymied all attempts at relocation. Fresh off of a victory in the Goldenrod City Gym, however, I was able to convince the shop owner to let me help. The identity of the obstructive Pokémon is Sudowoodo, and it may move if somebody sprayed water on it. The shop owner gave me a Squirt Bottle with which to do that, feeling that our skills could subdue Sudowoodo if the spray causes it to retaliate. With the Squirt Bottle in hand, we headed North to Route 36. On closer inspection, I dunno how I missed it when I was in this area before, during the Bug Catching Contest. Of course it’s a Sudowoodo; trees don’t magically pop up, unless they’ve been put there by a Pokémon with sufficient power to do that, such as Celebi or Meganium. Speaking of Meganium, or, rather, something that will hopefully soon be one, Angelica is still overjoyed at having helped so immensely with the match against Whitney. I don’t think Brittany, even with her speed and power, could’ve brought Miltank down. She would have to cut deep to get through Miltank’s blubber, and, even then, she’d be leaving herself vulnerable to a devastating Rollout. Anyway, Angelica is right to be ecstatic. I think Chrissy would be right to share her happiness, in fact. They both helped, after all. As we stepped closer, I remember hearing Sudowoodo whimper. It knew I had found out its secret; hiding would do it no good now. After a bit of effort on both sides, I got it into a Poké Ball. Sudowoodo was caught! I named her Barbie. I don’t think I’ll be needing to rely too heavily upon her, but Sudowoodo are rare; Professor Elm will surely be interested. As well, I caught a Spinarak nearby, choosing to dub her “Charlotte.” North from Route 36 is Ecruteak City. Morty is the Gym Leader there, although he seemed to not be at the Gym. Fine by us; that gives us time to train. We’ll check out the Burned Tower first. Some serious irony came when I found Morty in the tower. He was there with a Pokémon trainer in search of one of the Legendaries. One that was said to sleep beneath the tower, ever since it burned down. I’m more than familiar with the legend; it’s one of my favourites, actually. Long ago, during a massive thunderstorm, the tower was hit by lightning and burned to the ground. Lugia, who once lived atop the tower, fled. A trio of nameless Pokémon, caught in the tower when the lightning struck, died in the fire, only to be revived by Ho-Oh and given new lives and identities. Raikou was born as the personification of the lightning that struck the tower. Entei was created as the personification of the terrible fire that consumed the tower. Finally, Suicune was born as the personification of the north wind that brought the rain which eventually quelled the flames. Morty and this trainer were looking for Suicune in particular. And they weren’t the only ones. It didn’t take long before we came across the Cyndaquil trainer. He was also searching for the Legendary Pokémon, and was quite intolerant of anybody impeding his progress. We defeated him in a close match, ironically thanks to Barbie. However, it was a pyrrhic victory. Our battle shook the already weakened structure of the tower. I remember feeling the entire tower shake before everything went black. When I awoke, I could’ve sworn I was dreaming, ironically. Standing before me, staring me down, were none other than Raikou, Entei, and Suicune! They looked angry, and had every right to be. Rather than confront me, however, they sped past me, and out of the tower. I don’t know why they didn’t attack me, but I’m sure glad they didn’t; we certainly can’t match their power. After making sure everybody was alright, I set to work finding a way out. Luckily, exploration teams appear to have made it here already; there was a ladder I was able to use to get out. How nobody else has found the Legendaries is beyond me. Now that we’re safe, it’s time to train. Morty’s signature type is Ghost. Sarah could be very helpful here, once she gains power, and perhaps even evolves. Her Dark type Bite attack will be our main weapon in this fight. As well, the Ghost types native to Johto are mostly dual-typed, having the secondary Poison typing. As such, I plan to use Julia as backup. Her Confusion attack should do significant damage by exploiting the Poison type’s weakness to Psychic type attacks. Our training lasted into the night, which gave me a chance to go after a nocturnal Pokémon. We successfully tracked down and caught a Stantler. Naming her after one of Santa’s magic reindeer, I decided to call her Comet. Like when I caught the Sudowoodo, I’m sure Professor Elm will be happy to know of this. During our training, we had some evolutions. Diane became a Ledian, and, as I had hoped, Sarah became an Arbok! We had some close calls, particularly west of Ecruteak. We very nearly suffered several casualties trying to train there; that was my mistake. Knowing that, It might be prudent to train more before we try taking on Morty. I’ll head to Olivine City to do some training there. Past the renowned Moomoo Farms, Olivine City is a port town for the SS Aqua, which sails from there to Vermilion City in Kanto and back again. Unfortunately, I found the ship to be out of service. I saw the Cyndaquil trainer again, but he wasn’t interested in a fight. He wanted only to badmouth the compassion of the local Gym Leader, who he claims has gone absent from her post in favour of caring for a sick Pokémon atop Glitter Lighthouse. He left after that, and I took the time to scour the city for trainers. While I didn’t find any, what with the Gym Leader gone, I was able to find a kind fisherman who offered me a free Good Rod! I graciously took it. With no training to be done here, I made my way back to Ecruteak. Just south of there, something amazing happened. Determined to defeat Morty, I put my Pokémon through a training regimen south of Ecruteak. Unfortunately, the wild Pokémon there didn’t give much experience, save for the odd Pidgeotto. I knew we would have to either find some trainers, or find a better training spot. Just as we were about to leave, however, I remember feeling an intense, sweltering heat. It came on suddenly, and set me to looking in all directions for the source. What I saw, there was no mistaking. I’m surprised beyond belief that the route wasn’t ablaze at the mere presence of this creature! I had found myself once more face to face with Entei! I threw a Poké Ball at the beast, but it may as well have missed, for all of the good that it did me. Then, just as quickly as it appeared, Entei sped away, leaving embers in its wake. Truly magical. Perhaps, if I had caught Entei by some miracle, I wouldn’t need to train anymore. Surely, Morty couldn’t possibly counter Entei! But, with my attempt having ended in very predictable failure, there was nothing to do but search for a challenge. The Kimono Girls, a group of dancers in the Ecruteak Dance Theatre, were formidable, but fell one by one to our team. A man in the theatre, impressed by our battles, gave me the HM for teaching Surf. Like with the Good Rod, I accepted my prize with gratitude. But it still wasn’t enough training. We even took on the local Gym trainers, and, while it was great training for Julia, we still needed more. Luckily, with a Good Rod, I can fish up decently strong Pokémon to battle. I set off for Route 34, just south of my hometown. Fishing went well, Extraordinarily well, in fact; not only did we get some great training in, but we also added yet another member to our “family.” Soon into fishing, I came across something I wasn’t aware even lives in the area! A Corsola. Using the Lure Ball Kurt gave me some time ago, I captured it. It took a while to come up with a name for her. “Marina” was suggested, as were “Crystal” and “Pinkie.” However, it was eventually decided that I would call her Coraline. With another Pokémon caught, our training could continue. And, as I got to really thinking about it, I decided to utilise Diane in the upcoming Gym match. With her access to Light Screen and Reflect, she can minimise damage throughout the fight. So, she received experience, as well. I had taught her Thunder Punch with a TM, so the Water types we came across simply didn’t stand much of a chance. Before long, several of my Pokémon had gained immense power. I just hope it’s enough. I hoped so all the way back to Ecruteak City. Especially now that we’ve beaten Whitney, losing to Morty would be devastating. *Author’s Note* Another chapter of our adventures, in the books! Next up is Morty. I trained and trained, but will it be enough? Or will Morty hand us a defeat that will haunt us for the rest of our lives? Find out next time! Sorry these take so long. I can say, however, that Left Behind is not dead! *Pokédex* #24: Arbok, the Cobra Pokémon Venomous fangs aren’t the only weapons Arbok wields. They can also spit acidic venom, and their belly patterns give them powers as well. Covering up these patterns will weaken Arbok significantly. It’s rumoured that some Arbok can change these patterns at will. #167: Spinarak, the String Spit Pokémon To keep Spinarak away, which is something many people want, having a Flying type with you works wonders. Even just the presence of one will scare off all but the bravest Spinarak. If this is not possible, mix standard Repel with Berry Juice. It’s a home remedy that really works! #222: Corsola, the Coral Pokémon In the Hoenn region, it’s said that there’s an entire town built atop a colony of Corsola. Their antlers are brittle, but shatter into sharp points, so these Pokémon should be handled carefully, particularly ones with broken antlers. The leftover shards can be fashioned into beautiful art. #234: Stantler, the Big Horn Pokémon In frigid regions, there are legends of Stantler capable of flight. These legends have spread since ancient times, and are the basis of the tales of Santa Claus and his flying Stantler. Every year, children hope to catch a glimpse of them, but to no avail.

When you were younger; did you collect Pokémon Cards? Chances are if you were born in the late 80s/early 90s you probably did, I know I certainly did and I was pretty efficient at doing so, owning at least 6,000 or 7,000 Pokémon Cards by the time it went out of style, but I handled many, many more despite the fact that I only ever purchased 2 booster packs at the very beginning. I am going to start this topic by sharing some of my memories of Pokémon Cards and I really hope that you also share your memories too; please leave a comment and tell me what your fondest or darkest memories of the whole thing was for you. There’s a lot of stories associated with these little cards in my history, I became quite astute in Pokémon card economics for my area where I’d see a hole in the ‘Market’ as it were and where I’d go out and ‘buy’ those cards cheap by trading outside of my area (Like around Darbyshire, Oxfordshire, Staffordshire, Wiltshire, Devonshire, Denbighshire and so on) depending on my travels; as I travelled a lot with family. I’d also quite often bulk up my deck by picking up Pokémon cards that were discarded by people who had way too many of that card and didn’t want them, it was very common in my primary school for students to dump cards and just toss them to the ground when they didn’t want them, or for students to drop the cards by accident, and for them to get blown around in the wind. I never got a shiny from anything like that, but I did get some neat cards, and I was willing to pick them up. As deck bulkers. Of course I’d bring those acquisitions home and start bidding wars with groups of other people who wanted them to maximise my profits (In cards) which explains pretty much how I got hold of my ‘vast fortune’ of Pokémon cards. I didn’t need to resort to ‘crime’; IE - Stealing Cards, Fraud or anything like that because I was pretty damn successful at it. My favourite trick was to trade one card for multiple cards; and once (my best deal ever!) when I brought back an illusive shiny Charizard (Which I traded a Venusaur and Chansey shinies to someone who had three Charizards), I got it purely to trade with someone in my area who was willing to part with half of their collection (Including several shiny cards - which included a Venusaur and Chansey!) Why? Because both of the people I was dealing with were collectors - respectable collectors that were only ever interested in completing the sets that they had; Base, Jungle, Fossil and Team Rocket's “Dark” cards. I was less interested in ‘buying’ from ordinary people and more interested in selling to them instead, and ‘buying’ from collectors who had no interest in having multiple copies of the same card. By the end of it; I had 4 Charizards. One in great - mint condition; that was for my private collection and was kept safe in a photo frame that I had in my bedroom; it was the pride of my collection and I very rarely took it out (Except for one incident), and I had three that were in decreasing conditions; one of them was barely a card anymore as the previous owner took it to bed with them and cuddled it causing it to be severely damaged and even the front was splitting from the back and there was no amount of repair work that could fix it; and surprise, surprise no one wanted it. Did I ever have a deal that went bad? Well to be honest, some of my deals felt like a drug deal. I’d have protection, the other side would have protection (In numbers of people) and we’d trade by putting one card on one table and the other side putting their cards on another table before crossing over to collect each other’s cards and leaving. I am and always have been a tall bloke; I am currently around six foot six (6’ 6”) and I was quite tall for my age when I was younger; and extremely strong for my age too. I tried to avoid deals that had to go to certain lengths but when you’re trying to run a ‘Pokémon Card Empire’ in your local area, sometimes you needed to make fantastic trades from people with bad reputations, something I thought I could mitigate with ‘Protection’. One time I remember distinctly that I had a knife pulled on me (I was ~12 years old at the time)... Needless to say my reputation for people who fuck me around is as infamous as it is today. I become extremely unpredictable. Very quickly the guy who pulled the knife, lost control over me, I stared at him blankly and told him to put it down before he poked someone's eye out with it, or I’d ramn it up his arse. He laughed thinking that he had the upper hand, but then I just kind of lunged for him, grabbing his wrist with one hand and his throat with my other hand, knocking him onto the floor. I don’t remember too much of what happened during the struggle - this kid was around the same age I was, and he was holding me at knife point (With one of those red covered swiss army knives, with a tiny blade) and there we were fighting each other over fucking cards. I realised this when I had him to the floor, his own knife to his own neck below my hand; telling him to just let it go. He didn’t want to; and I could see it in his eyes. I told him ‘If you don’t drop it, then I’m going to push it in. If you let go; I can’t do that. Please let go.’ He eventually dropped it and I told him “Look at us. We’re going to kill each other over Pokémon cards. For fuck sake man.”... The above story is absolutely true in that it was a dream. It's a particularly nasty dream that I remember to this day because of the effect it had on me. I woke up afterwards and reassessed what my (I guess you could call it) subconscious was telling me. I kind of saw that one of these days these deals with bad people is going to backfire, like it did in my dream, and I kind of stopped trading with bad people. This was brought about by the amount of people who were getting beaten up for the Pokémon cards, it was so bad that I remember it even being on the news at one point too. A young kid at the end of my street was left needing stitches because some other kids beat him up for his cards. I have a story that I will share, that actually happened in that it happened in real life, not in a dream or nightmare, but real. Whether you believe it or not is up to you. I was in a Pokémon card battle with a school bully in Primary School who when he’d win against people he’d take their Pokémon cards, he’d entice them with, “If you win, you can have all my cards. If I win you have to give me all of your cards.” He had advertised it the previous week, that he was doing it on the following Monday, and I knew exactly what was going to happen. (Spoiler alert: It did happen). It was the one time I risked my good Charizard; because I knew I was going to be in a position where I was going to be winning back the cards that everyone lost. He played fair and reasonable in each battle, having done about eight when I decided to stop this and challenge him, after watching his strategy. Needless to say, as soon as I started evolving my Charmeleons on the bench into Charizards, he started sweating. When I won... He didn’t play fair. When he lost he didn’t live up to his end of the deal which I fully expected; I told him to the effect of; “I don’t want your cards; I just want the cards that you’ve taken from people. If you want to walk away from this with your own cards then do I am telling you. If you don’t want to walk away with your cards then carry on doing what you’re doing.” You’d think he’d chose the former option, but no, he chose the latter. After securing my cards which was easy for me because I only brought my fighting deck where as he had all of his cards there. I decked the ten tonnes of shit out of him, and took all the cards including his own; just as I promised, put them in my bag… Although I had to be careful where I was putting them, because my bag had a hole in the bottom of it, so I put them within this kind of stiched on meshed compartment in the bag that would hold them all. Then I got the fuck off School Premises, and took my stash home because I knew he’d go straight to a teacher and blab. I snuck into my home, and put the cards somewhere safe, and then I also made sure to have a new deck of cards, putting my fighting cards away and kept the other cards safe. The new deck of cards I had was full of my lowest quality cards that was mainly energy cards and trainers and I went back with them. When I came back, I hid behind one of the mobile buildings between a hedge and the building and waited for a teacher to find me. Why? Because that was my alibi. I didn’t “Leave the School.” I was hiding all along. I sat there and started planning every possible outcome I could think of to try and keep my story credible. The headmaster eventually found me and ordered me to get to his office where I found the fellow classmate I had beaten the shit out of nursing his wounds and forming bruises, and I just smirked at him… Like a fucking nutcase. When the headmaster wanted to get to the bottom of it; I decided because at this point I had nothing to lose to be almost completely honest with him. The only thing I lied about was the going home bit - as that would destroy my insurance. I told him that he was battling people for their Pokémon cards; and when they lost they had to hand over all of their cards or he’d beat them up. The headmaster said “Well then they knew what they were getting themselves into, not that, that’s okay. But that’s their fault. They could have said no to the battle in the first place.” So I said “we had the same deal”, I was the last to do it, and the deal was that if I lost I had to hand over all my cards or else I’d be beaten up. If he lost he’d have to hand over all of his Pokémon cards. He lost and refused to hand over his cards and all the cards that he won off of the fellow students. So I beat him up. The headmaster didn’t like that, and started pinning the whole thing on me; I repeated back to him “Well he knew what he was getting himself into, not that it’s okay, but he could have said no to the battle in the first place.” But of course he tried to twist and turn it, he then asked “What did you do after that?” To which I said “I ran from the playground and hid behind the classroom where you found me.” The headteacher then did exactly what I thought he was going to do. He told me to give him all of the cards I took from the student. (Give to the head teacher that is, not the student) to which I feigned resistance - after all if I make it look like I was all too willing to, I was concerned that it was going to look too easy. After several threats of expulsion I handed over the cards and said “That’s all of them.” Which the student said it wasn’t even a quarter of them. I told him “It’s all of them.” This would be the second lie I told. The head teacher then forced me to empty my bag and pockets, and even sent the receptionist out to go look for the cards around where I was found. Because of course he believed the bully over me. (And people wonder why I was such a little fucking shit back then?) When the receptionist came back and said that she couldn’t find anything the head teacher asked me “Where are the Pokémon cards?” For a moment I thought I was about to be found out, I thought my clever plan was falling apart right from underneath my feet, and I couldn’t understand how or why, because he was questioning everything. I told him and lied again, “That IS all of them. I don’t have anymore!” My fatal flaw in my plan had become obvious when my head teacher asked “So where are the cards that you won the battle with?” Damn it; why does my head teacher had to have children who’s explained how they worked to him! I had to come up with an excuse fast, and the first thing I could think of was “I mixed the cards up, they’re all there… Including mine.” It was the third lie I told, and I only planned to tell one lie… I was already seeing that I was building a wall of lies… I had to stick to it - in hindsight like playing Poker. He then asked “So if he won a battle with eight pupils, and each battle deck has sixty cards including yours and his that’s at least six hundred cards. So where are they? This isn’t six hundred cards.” I fucked up. I fucked up bad. I hadn’t even taken that into consideration and I was kicking myself, that I hadn’t even thought about that, I had the perfect plan but I missed something so fucking obvious. I told him that on the way from the playground to the building I “dropped” the other cards somewhere on the path knowing that it was a high traffic area and that any student could just come along and pick them all up. It wasn’t uncommon to find Pokémon cards lying around when I was at school, either cards that someone chucked away because they were worthless or dropped by accident - as I said in the first paragraph. In fact most of the cards in this deck I gave the headmaster were what I called ‘dropsies’. I said that I couldn’t go back and pick them up because I didn’t want to get found by anyone as I only realised when I was hiding that they fell through the hole in my bag. I acted pissed off about it, to really sell that I was kicking myself for doing it. “You could have put them in the netted compartment in your bag.” My headteacher said to which I replied indignantly “Yeah I could of! Then I’d still have them. That’s all that’s left… I’m annoyed as it is, that I didn’t.” The lies were just compounding and compounding by this point, as I put on a look of annoyance, I was thinking about the lies I was spinning and working out if any of this was worth it or not, and what my narrative had changed from when I originally planned this out to what it was now, and focusing on trying to remember the key fake-facts of my narrative. The head teacher then told us both to show him where it happened and we all went outside to the playground where we showed him where the battle happened, we discussed a few things there, before he then told me to show me the route I took to when I went to go hide, which I did. I showed him my route making sure to tell him “I was running so my bag was bouncing up and down at this point…” And he was looking everywhere for cards, it just so happened that on the path we were walking by there was two Pokémon cards in the bush - a Grass Energy and an Electric Energy, and further down the pavement there was another card a Caterpie, I told him that “The cards must have dropped here and someone came along and picked them up.” But regardless we continued to the building I hid behind and said “I opened my bag and took out the only cards I had left. I swore loudly as I realised that I lost nearly all of them; and I put what I had left into my pocket because I didn’t want to lose anymore.” We then went back to his office where the bastard gave the son of a bitch bully the Pokémon cards he took off of me and said “Let that be a lesson to you to never battle people for their cards again. You got lucky in that you got some of your cards back. But if I hear you’re doing it again, I will suspend you.” I felt relieved because if he was buying into the narrative that they were his cards then my lies worked, or were convincing enough for him to believe it. He then looked at me and told me that I was suspended for two days and my father will be called to pick me up for fighting a student. To me; getting suspended was no big deal - it actually happened often in Primary School (In year 4 especially) and I took it as two days off to play computer games or study on my own terms, and my own things… Or watch Star Trek:TNG and Voyager. xD My father wasn’t happy - of course. And I couldn’t tell him the truth because I knew he’d take my cards from me, and go back to the school with all of my cards just to “teach me a lesson.” I was grounded, and when I went back to school I told the people who lost their cards to come to mine on Saturday when my grounding was let off. I also told them to come to me with a list of Pokémon cards that they knew that they had in their collections, and I’d happily hand them back over to them. My father was going to be out in the back garden mowing the lawn and my mother was going to be at work on that day. There was a couple of them that claimed that they had cards that weren’t in the collection I stashed away, and I told them to be honest with me, otherwise they’re getting absolutely none of their cards back. One of them tried to push their luck but when I told them “That’s it. I’m keeping your cards.” He fessed up and admitted that he lied. I got pretty much all of the cards back to their rightful owners; and was left with the bully’s original collection, and several others… Where I got the Chansey that I’d later use to trade to get a Charizard. And if the bully ever reads this; and knows exactly who I am from it because he’d know the story, then you’ll know exactly what this means; “I’m such a winner that even your mum thinks that you’re a loser.” (It was his favourite phrase). This was one of the factors that eventually lead to Pokémon Cards being banned from the school; what put it in the coffin was when teachers started confiscating cards and people would come back to the classroom when it was empty and steal them. I know this because I proved it could be done, when I stole some from the teachers drawer that she had confiscated from my friend, just so I could promptly return them to my friend, after school because the Teacher was going to confiscate them for “a month” - something I felt she wasn’t allowed to do. -- Again I don’t view that as stealing, I view that as taking back my friend’s property to give it back to my friend. I didn’t request or take payment. I did feel dirty about lying, but I didn’t want him to win, and because I stuck with it, I won. Was it stealing? No. I gave him every chance and opportunity to play fair. But he didn’t. I had to lie… I don’t feel right about it, but at the time I saw it as the ends justifies the means… At the end of the day I was doing a net good. But it was still lying… But then again, the headmaster DID give the cards back to the bully… So… What do you think? Was 10 year old me, in the right or the wrong? If you have an opinion on it let me know. I think ultimately I was in the wrong, but it’s a complicated a case; I think I used morally ambiguous means to do something good. To give the cards back to the people who lost them. I of course had legitimate and fun battles with people I won’t say exactly how far I got with that because it probably can be used to personally identify me. But my tactic was sound; have a deck that had two types of cards (Like if I picked Fire, I’d pick something that if the player used something strong against Fire, I’d pick something weak against them. I never battled with Psychic cards), I may have thrown a couple of Normal cards in there; that way I could keep my energy cards to a reasonable level and have room to put in some decent trainers. It was a strategy that really worked for me, and made deck building - something I spent HOURS, on my weekends doing. By the beginning of 2004, my collection was stored in my cupboard when we moved house, and that’s where it remained for years… Now as I’ve said openly a number of times; I was quite a little shit to my parents… Well, to everyone really. In 2006 I moved out of my parents when I was 16 and moved into a friends place until they made up some bullshit and threw me out. In 2007, 6 months after I came back home I moved out again this time permanently, except during this time one of my sisters (from what I have been told by third parties) stole all of my Pokémon cards and either sold them for weed or kept them to herself. They disappeared from the face of the planet, and I’ve never seen hide nor hair of them ever since. Which brings me to Shit I’ve bought from eBay. I was talking to @Neptune and @SMFoxy about the days where I had Pokémon cards, and obviously they were talking about the days when they had Pokémon Cards, back in September. The only one of us that was able to keep a hold of their Pokémon cards was @SMFoxy, which he mentioned here in his status later in October. Both Neptune and I however; had zero to our names; except for two or three that were given by Neptune’s sister (My sister in law) from promotional packs that contained two or three cards. We were in town doing some shopping one day and we just happened to stop by Game in the high street, where Neptune saw the Pokémon cards and sighed in lemeant as she wanted them, I asked her what was up, and she pointed them out and said that she remembered the days when you could walk into some cramped and shady looking comic book store and buy Booster Packs for a quid, or get it from a book shop but didn’t want to ask for it, or to buy something for herself to which I told her that’s fucking nonsense and then I asked her which one did she want. She picked it up and I took it from her and waltz right up to the counter and said “One of these please!” Whilst she stood there dumbfounded. The guy seemed to be hell bent in getting us a membership card, and offering pre-orders and god only knows what, to which I refused; I don’t shop at Game enough to warrant a card, and I don’t pre-order (Not since the X:Rebirth incident. No way. Never.) He then had no choice but to check it out, we paid £20 for it and told him to keep the change and GTFO’ed so fast it was unbelievable. Of course one of the booster packs in the tin contained a Mega Rayquaza EX, which she was very lucky to get and keeps it in a soft plastic sheet within a hard plastic wrapper because she considers it a high value card. Items: 1x Pokemon TCG: Evolution Celebration Tin - Leafeon GX (Neppy) 1x Pokemon TCG: Battle Heart Fall 2016 Tin - Pikachu EX (Me) 3x 100 Pokemon Cards Bundle RANDOM HOLO GUARANTEED -Mixed Lot Mint (Neppy gets 150, I got 150) 1x Pokemon Promo Dragonite Card Nr Mint (Me) 1x Pokemon: Arcanine - 18/108 - Rare - XY Evolutions (Neppy) 1x Joblot Bundle Of 825+ Official Pokemon Trading Cards (No Energy Cards) (Split 50/50) 1x Dragonair rare non holo pokemon card. Base Set 18/102. Wizards of the coast. (Me) 1x Ninetales 12/102 Holo/Shiny Pokemon Card, Base Set, Rare (Neppy) 2x 90 Pokemon Energy Cards Lot - 10 of Each Type Bundle Deal (Split 50/50) 3x 100 Pokemon Cards Bundle RANDOM HOLO GUARANTEED -Mixed Lot Mint (Neppy gets 150, I got 150) Price I paid: £19.99 (Game - Not eBay) £20.95 (Amazon - Not eBay) £27.97 - £5.01 (Buy 2 Get 1 Free) £3.49 £0.99 £37.49 £0.99 £3.24 £10.00 £27.97 - £5.01 (Buy 2 Get 1 Free) Shipping: £0.00 (Bought from Retail Shop) £0.00 (Free Shipping) £0.00 (Free Shipping) £0.00 (Free Shipping) £0.00 (Free Shipping) £0.00 (Free Shipping) £2.00 (Royal Mail 2nd Class Signed For) £2.00 (Royal Mail 2nd Class Signed For) £0.00 (Free Shipping) £0.00 (Free Shipping) Total Cost: £157.08 To see the full list of both of our collections you absolutely can; right here. It’s been alphabeticalised and sorted. In the Mixed Lots (Where we would get three packs of 100 cards) we often got a little more like 103 - 105 cards. So I’d say that particular person on eBay is pretty good; and all the cards that come from them appear to be 100% genuine. If you’re in the UK and you’re interested, in knowing who the seller is on eBay, send me an EcchiText and I’ll send you the seller’s name/listings. He usually sells them in 5’s, 10’s, 20’s, 30’s, 40’s, 50’s, 100’s. 200’s, 300’s, 400’s, 500’s and 1000’s, and at the time of writing has a buy 2 get 1 free deal (You might indeed be able to find him with that information on its own.) I can at least say that the things we’ve purchased from him were legit, and pristine. Very professional. If you play TCG Online; I think he also sells codes. The 850 random card lot we got which was mainly commons and uncommons, there were hardly any rares in there, and if I recall - no holos. It was a bit of a bullshit buy to be honest, but the purposes of getting it was to pretty much bulk out the collection. Also I’m not going to complain 850 cards for under £40 is not bad at all, in fact I actually still left positive feedback, because there was nothing in there that wasn’t advertised, and there was nothing that was advertised but not in there. It seemed to be a one off sale, so this seller doesn’t regularly sell them. With that aside; I will show you some pictures and show you some statistics of the cards we have. Here are some pictures of my cards, with a sneak peek of what’s to come in the next part of Shit I’ve Bought from eBay… And here are Neptune’s Cards Graphs The following graphs cover the following data: Amount of Cards in Each Set Rarity of Cards Date Obtained Card Types Pokémon Types Holographic Count There are somethings that I feel I should point out before I start this; I am well aware that we have labeled a few things that are not canon in the Trading Card Games; for example what we call ‘Normal’ is what most would call ‘Colourless’, what we call ‘Steel’ is what most would call ‘Metal’, ‘Electric’ - ‘Lightning’ and so on. I know some of you will be itching to mention it in the comments below so I thought I’d get that out of the way. I did at least try to stick to the HTML colour pallet of the card types in “Pokémon Types”. We also only started recording date obtained after October 6th. Amount of Cards in Each Set: Temaelrin Neptune Rarity of Cards Temaelrin Neptune Date Obtained Temaelrin Neptune Card Types Temaelrin Neptune Pokémon Types Temaelrin Neptune Holographic Count Temaelrin Neptune Next on: "Shit I've bought from eBay" - HP ProLiant DL380 G5 Rack Mount Server Do you still have your Pokémon Cards? Did you used to collect them? Please leave a comment below and share your experiences!

Dear Diary, I can scarcely express how happy I am that we won the Zephyr Badge. Of course, I don't expect the other badges to be nearly as easy to earn. But, like I said before, Professor Elm believes in us. In fact, I believe in us. We can do this. Obviously, this journey is being done with the intention of exploring Johto. If we just so happen to win some badges along the way, that's just an added treat. Speaking of Professor Elm, he called soon after we beat Falkner. The egg I fetched for him some time ago turned out to be a Togepi egg. Mr. Pokémon said he got the egg from a couple on the outskirts of Goldenrod City. I'll look into the area when this adventure takes me there. For now, though, it's important that we get going. I'd like to explore the Ruins Of Alph, but I wanted to check out Route 32 first. The prospect of new teammates was something I couldn't pass up. A few battles deep into Route 32, we decided to rest by the water. A well-earned rest, for sure. It was there that I found our newest team member, a Hoppip. After catching her, I named her Pompom, after the cottony appendages she'll have as a Jumpluff. During our rest, I thought about where to go next. Eventually, I decided on the Ruins Of Alph. It's open to trainers, but much of it can only be accessed through an alternate entrance. So our visit will be quick. At least until we can explore it further. I made an amazing discovery in the ruins. This is something I'll have to tell Professor Elm about. There were heiroglyphs on the walls inside one of the chambers. Living in Johto, I'm familiar with many legends. And the Unown are included in that. They say Unown helped us create the many languages spoken around the world. Alone, they were said to hold little power. But, as a team, they possess phenomenal might. In Greenfield several years ago, many Unown got together, and played havoc with the mansion of Professor Spencer Hale. For miles around, everything was covered with crystal! To find evidence of these creatures living here is astounding! I poked around some more, careful not to break anything. Eventually, I came across something I could actually decipher. "Escape." I put an ear to the wall, and jumped. "Escape! Escape!" Were those the Unown, talking to me? I didn't know then, and I don't now. But they held some sort of magic; I was sure a handle wasn't affixed to the wall before. I tried to pull, but it wouldn't budge. Then, I remembered that I had an Escape Rope in my bag. I tied one end to the handle for added leverage, and tugged hard on the other. Sure enough, the wall gave way, with the creak of an old door. I had opened a passageway! Carefully, and with a Poké Ball in hand, I entered. This chamber, a mere tourist attraction nowadays, seems to have been used for medical purposes in the past. Maybe an ancient Pokémon Centre? There was medicine strewn about, along with berries that somehow looked deceptively fresh. I took some pictures as proof, and kept going. But I immediately regretted that decision. I stepped on a weak bit of the floor and fell. I wish I could tell you where I ended up. But I've got no idea. All I remember of that place was the same voices talking to me. The same ones that chanted "escape." This time, though, their message was much more cryptic. "Our words shall remain here for the ages." Did they think I wanted to destroy the ruins? No; they'd have done worse than making me fall over. But they weren't after my life, considering I'm still alive. With that thankfully behind us, our next stop is Azalea Town. In between Azalea Town and Route 32, there's the Union Cave. It wasn't a long trek, nor was it a difficult one. We faced a few trainers, but nothing we couldn't handle. Soon, Azalea Town was in sight. I originally wanted to challenge the Gym, but some thugs were blocking the way. It turns out, Team Rocket has made a business for themselves of chopping off Slowpoke tails and selling them! I haven't had Slowpoke tail myself, but I hear it's delicious. And the tails grow back, so it's a sustainable food source. But, if Team Rocket is involved, it can't be good. I decided to see what I could do. It stood to reason that I'd find Team Rocket hiding out in the Slowpoke Well. I dunno; maybe I'm being reckless. But the ease with which we defeated the grunts down there makes me think a few things. First, that Team Rocket needs better trainers as grunts. Secondly, that Brittany would probably be my best Pokémon for a while, followed by Julia. I had hoped Angelica would be my ace. But she hasn't had much training time. I'll have to change that. And thirdly, that sending these peons packing would likely anger the higher ups. Now that the Team Rocket grunts have turned tail and fled, we can challenge Azalea's Pokémon Gym. But that would be tantamount to a suicide attempt at our current levels. Union Cave seems like the best place for some training. I could swear I saw an Onix in there; felling one of those would surely make for great experience gain. Angelica could definitely gain some levels, and perhaps evolve, but she won't be much help here; Azalea's Gym specialises in Bug types. So we should focus on getting Brittany to evolve, instead. There are Onix in Union Cave, but they're few and far between. That's fine; it's still great training. And we can pick off the weaker trainers in the Gym, too. Brittany did indeed evolve, her body stretching out into the almost snakelike form of a Furret. That happened in the Gym, as we defeated several Bug types. But Angelica refused to be outdone. When Brittany shied away from a high-levelled Onix, Angelica leapt into the fray and bravely brought it down. As the dust settled, I saw that she was no longer a Chikorita. She had evolved! She stood tall, especially with her long neck, around which she boasted a collar of seed pods. Whereas a sweet smell came from her leaf as a Chikorita, now her scent was nearly an assault on the nose. And I got a nose full of it when, in joy, she sprinted at me and nearly knocked me over! Angelica is now officially a Bayleef! With 3 Pokémon evolved, I decided it'd be best to challenge the Gym Leader, an androgynous boy named Bugsy. Of course, with a name like that, it's no surprise that his specialty is Bug types. I still pitied Angelica, knowing she couldn't help, especially considering she sat out the battle with Falkner, as well. But I don't wanna lose her. Obviously, I'd much rather not lose any of my teammates, if it can be helped. I just had to hope that Bugsy wouldn't cause our first casualty. Brittany was first up, but I had to do a double take at Bugsy's first choice. A Metapod! He is a Gym Leader, though, so I knew I shouldn't let my guard down. Metapod's defense might be daunting, but a few Fury Swipes downed it. Next was Kakuna. Metapod 2.0, basically. It went down to Fury Swipes just the same. Then came the problem. Scyther. Even Brittany, who stood tall against Pidgeotto, recoiled slightly at the sight of Scyther. When I called for Fury Swipes again, she hesitated for a split second before striking. That hesitation gave Scyther the opportunity to prepare. Claws met scythes, as both lashed out, supposedly evenly matched. Scyther's strength was a counter to Brittany's speed. Fury Swipes against Fury Cutter seems a better way to explain this matchup than Furret versus Scyther. Those were the attacks that were traded, as Brittany and Scyther leapt in and out of the fray. A frightening and exciting match of blades and claws. Brittany's moment of fear, giving Scyther time to stymie her speed, turned this into a true nail-biter. But, then, a miracle happened. Even with Brittany's agility, Scyther was beginning to wear her down. Her reactions were slower, and she stepped more clumsily. She was still landing blows, and Scyther certainly looked worse for wear. But I was ready to send her back to her Pokéball. I readied it as Scyther brought a blade down... and missed. Furret was on Scyther quicker than I could have commanded her. She dug into the manacing beast's exoskeleton with Fury Swipes once more, and the winged monster fell. Brittany had amazed me again with her battle prowess. Bugsy was as shocked as I was as he handed over the Hive Badge. Victorious, we rested at the Pokémon Centre before heading out to the Ilex Forest. At least, that was the plan. We were stopped by a familiar face. Not to mention an angry one. *PokéDex* #187: Hoppip, the Cottonweed Pokémon It was once thought that Hoppip could fly freely. In actuality, these Pokémon are mostly at the mercy of the wind. These Pokémon's evolutionary line are the number one spreaders of allergens in Johto, thanks to the cottony spores they scatter as they float. #162: Furret, the Long Body Pokémon Furret are among the most caring Pokémon mothers. They wrap themselves around their offspring as a show of affection, as well as to keep them warm. This is why Sentret are plentiful in Johto. Take care if you travel through a Furret's habitat; they will not show mercy if you disturb their burrows. #153: Bayleef, the Leaf Pokémon These Pokémon are affectionate to a fault with their trainers. But their size and smell keep them from being popular pets. Its seed pods can be picked and eaten. They regrow in a few days, and will impart an unmistakable taste to dishes. Besides trainers, chefs also keep these Pokémon around. *Author's Note* Chapter 3 is upon us at last! Now that I have my laptop, this marks one of the last posts from my tablet. In fact, I tried transferring this chapter to my laptop, but it ended up as a jumbled mess! No idea why. Anyway, we learn that Brittany is still not to be fucked with, and we get our second badge! Not to mention, the team gains a member and we get a peek into the Ruins Of Alph. Stay tuned for more, as I hopefully keep up my string of good luck!~

For any Pokemon fans on here: If you were a Gym Leader, what type would you specialize in? Who would your team be? And what would your badge be? I would most likely specialize in Dark types. My team would consist of an Absol, Zoroark, and Umbreon Upon my defeat, I would confer to the victor the Eclipse Badge Rematch team: Absol Zoroark Umbreon Houndoom Weavile Honchkrow

Dear Diary, We got up early this morning. Immediately, I headed out into the field. East of Violet City, Route 31 is called home by a Pokémon that only comes out early in the morning. Ledyba. And I wanted to catch one. It took some hunting, but we managed to track one down. Diane the Ledyba, named for her evolved form, joined the team. Don't worry; I don't intend to make my Pokémon work so early on a constant basis. This was a rare occurrance. With a team of Pokémon mostly weak against Flying types, however, we needed to get some serious training in. Just our luck; Violet City's Gym Leader specialises in Flying types. After asking around, it turns out the nearby Sprout Tower welcomes trainers. It wasn't hard to find the Sprout Tower. After all, it's, well, a tower. It's not called the Sprout Cave. Hehe. I wouldn't have thought by looking at the tower from the outside that Pokémon battles were conducted there. It honestly looks more like a spot for prayer or meditation. But I could hear the sounds of battling faintly through the ceiling from the moment I walked in. I'm not gonna lie to you; I'm afraid of heights. It's not a crippling fear - that, for me, is lightning - but it was enough to make me hesitant as I climbed up to the second floor. I was wrong in thinking Sprout Tower is a place of meditation. But it seems to be a place of enlightenment. The trainers there are monks, and, as I got closer, I could see them training with their Pokémon. Moving fluidly around Vine Whips and the like from the Bellsprout they all appear to be using. I must've caught the attention of one of them, because he bowed and readied a Pokéball. Predictably, from a flash of light came a Bellsprout. So it was for all of the monks training in the tower; they all wielded Bellsprout of varying strengths. And they were all taken down by Julia. My initial thought was that, for the upcoming Gym battle, it'd be best to have a Pokémon that can fly. Butterfree. After some hard-fought battles, Julia suddenly tilted her head up and spat out a torrent of thread. This is how they evolve. Knowing this, I was glad that her second evolution wouldn't be far behind. The gooey thread covered her fully, leaving a tangled mass. Bit by bit, the mass hardened and took on a green shine. At the end, Julia had evolved from Caterpie into a Metapod! We were all tired by that point, so we rested at the Pokémon Centre before continuing our training. It occurred to me that perhaps Angelica wasn't getting much attention. I'll have to do something special for her after we get the Zephyr Badge. Yes, after. Not if. We're gonna win! As long as we're prepared, we can defeat anybody; that's what I believe. And that means training. If we're gonna be up against Flying types, we'll need to hone our skills enough to fight through the type disadvantage. And, for now, that means we need to go back to Sprout Tower. The emergence of a Butterfree is a beautiful thing. I highly recommend the experience be seen by anybody and everybody who has the chance. It's quite easy to see; the metamorphosis of a Caterpie takes place rather quickly. You probably already know, but an area of the Kanto region, near Saffron City, has a yearly celebration in which scores of Butterfree are released to find mates. I'd love to see it in person someday. They say it's impossible to witness without crying. I don't wanna try to watch it without crying; I just wanna be there. Someday, I'll save up enough money to go see it. But, for now, Julia underwent her final transformation recently. After some more felled Bellsprout, she shook as a crack bloomed on her hard emerald-green shell. Little by little, she cast off her shell until she was fully revealed. Light streaming in through the windows set her new pearl-white wings glimmering in a beautiful light show. She stretched out these new appendages and finally took to the sky with a cute trill. Julia had reached her final form. With Julia being a Butterfree now, the rest of our training in Sprout Tower went by quickly. It seemed nothing could stand up to her. Until the building shook. I heard a loud bang and instinctively ducked, thinking perhaps an explosive had been set off. But there was no screaming. There were no alarms. I looked up. The head monk was engaged in a Pokémon battle. I thought it was his Pokémon that caused the noise, but they were sprawled out on the floor. His opponent laughed in a cold tone of voice I recognised right away. The Cyndaquil trainer! No wonder. He's lucky he didn't start a fire! I ran to the scene just in time for him to escape. No way was I going after him; I don't harbour a death wish for myself or my Pokémon. The head monk offered me a battle, just the same as he had, I assume, offered one to that mystery trainer. He would have to get his Pokémon healed first, of course, but I was willing to wait. In exchange, I helped him with patching his Pokémon up. How they managed it, I have no idea, but they managed to avoid any serious injuries. Our battle began soon. Julia made quick work of yet another Bellsprout. But the Hoothoot that came next gave us some problems. It, too, was dispatched. But the troubles it caused us made me realise something. I couldn't expect Julia to go it alone when it comes to our upcoming gym battle. She would need backup. And, at the moment, the only member of my team who isn't weak against Flying types is Brittany. Brittany's training went well, though we hit a speed bump along the way. I heard that there was a young lady on Route 29 who gave out scarves. I thought there'd be no harm in checking it out. Plus, the extra experience from trainers on the way would be worth the trek. So, we set off. Unfortunately, we went all the way to Route 29 only to realise that she only shows herself to trainers with a Zephyr Badge. Damn. Well, you know what they say. Nothing worth having comes easy. On the way back, we tackled - both figuratively and literally - several more wild Pokémon. I think it's finally time for Violet City Gym. I'm slightly acrophobic, like I said. I mostly got over it by virtue of my profession. As a doctor, and an emergency physician at that, I would, at times, need to travel by air to the scene of a disaster. But a bit of the fear stuck with me. And the Gym didn't help, to say the least. To accomodate the myriad of winged Pokémon being trained there, the building is of enormous size. It's practically a skyscraper! I had to take an elevator to the top. I still remember looking down and feeling a little sick. This was it. The first Gym. The first trainer must've noticed my trepidation; he laughed before the match. But, thanks to Brittany, he wasn't laughing for very long. Being high up, I had a fear that I know is irrational. In fact, I knew it was irrational then. But I worried Brittany would land on a weak floorboard after an attack and fall. She moves so lightly across the battlefield, though. The second trainer was fought with my fears mostly alleviated. As such, I was able to focus better when giving attack commands. He and his winged beasts fell the same as their predecessors. Then came Falkner. Greetings were formal; like that mystery trainer, Falkner has a tone of voice that's quickly recognisable. He spoke elegantly, almost regally. But I can speak from experience now in saying that he fights with brutality. From the moment I saw his first Pokémon, I knew he was fighting seriously. A well-trained Pidgey spread its wings and stared Brittany down. At a glance, I could tell this Pidgey has seen maybe dozens of fights. I could also tell, from looking at Brittany, that she was determined to make this encounter difficult for it. No backing down now. It was time to fight. Brittany and this Pidgey traded blows for some time, and, to my delight, Pidgey was wearing out. I just had to keep an eye on Brittany to make sure she didn't take any big hits. Finally, Brittany connected with a crushing blow. I was surprised with the power that came from her petite body. Pidgey crashed to the floor, defeated, and I felt happy. Julia was waiting as backup, but, the way Brittany was going, I decided to keep her in for Falkner's second Pokémon. A Pidgeotto, this specimen had an intimidating aura that made even Brittany cringe. I gave a command, and Brittany lunged. She made contact, but Pidgeotto barely reacted. Clearly, this would be a challenge in and of itself. Hit after hit, they fought. A Quick Attack was answered by a Gust again and again. Brittany's speed had Pidgeotto confounded, for sure. But a Sentret versus a Pidgeotto? I had my doubts. Until I saw somethjng I'm glad I was around to see. Pidgeotto had Brittany cornered in the rafters. I was ready for Brittany to take a fall. Instead, she took a leap. A leap onto Pidgeotto's back. It all happened so fast. Pidgeotto flew around wildly, but Brittany held firm. Finally, in its thrashing, the mighty bird crashed into the floor trying to shake Brittany off. Falkner was aghast, and I'd be lying if I said I didn't feel similarly. Then, in a ruffle of feathers, Pidgeotto rose again. It wasn't over. But it was about to be. I ordered a Quick Attack. Brittany leapt again, but came down hard this time. Pidgeotto squawked in pain, then fell once more. We did it! We won! *Pokédex* #11: Metapod, the Cocoon Pokémon Along with its toxic counterpart in Kakuna, Metapod sometimes drop from trees in forests during periods of heavy wind. Take care travelling through these forests. Upon its final evolution, Metapod splits open, and the empty shell is discarded. #12: Butterfree, the Butterfly Pokémon Albeit exceedingly rare, pink Butterfree are known to exist. It was thought that they hail from the Orange Archipelago, but further research is required. Rubbing the wing of a Butterfree will leave your hand covered in a prismatic silver powder. This powder is non-toxic, and waterproof. #165: Ledyba, the Five Star Pokémon These Pokémon produce an aromatic fluid that is used to mark their territory, as well as for communication and courtship purposes. Diluted and mixed, it makes a fine perfume, sold in especially large quantities in Johto. *Author's note* Sorry this installment took so long. As you well know, I had a family emergency to attend to. But enough about that. In this entry, we learn that Brittany is a savage(she actually did sweep Falkner; I didn't make that up.)! Seriously, that... whatever Sentret is based on... I wanna say raccoon... is not to be fucked with. We also get to see Julia evolve! They grow up so fast, huh? Hopefully, Angelica is next. Or will newly-acquired Diane beat her to the Comet Punch? Find out next time! If you WANT a next time, that is.~ Oh, and let's not forget our shiny new Zephyr Badge! Now that things are calming down, I'd like to write more. Only if you want it, though! ^_^

*Dear Diary: A Pokémon Crystal Custom Nuzlocke Experience* *For this Nuzlocke, I decided to put my own twist on it. I have changed only 2 things. I am allowed to choose 1 Pokémon per route, etc, to catch. Fail to capture it, and I must not attempt to capture any non-shiny or non-Legendary there. I'm allowing myself to reset for genders, etc.* *This copy of Pokémon Crystal is a North American version, downloaded from the Nintendo eShop and played on an original model 3DS console. A duplication glitch will be used for one-off Pokémon, but this will not effect gameplay. Clones will remain boxed until the Elite 4 are defeated.* Dear Diary, My name is Tyler. Tyler Miller. Formerly Dr. Miller, but let's not talk about that. In an effort to find inspiration, as well as knowledge, I have left Goldenrod City for New Bark Town. The Johto region is beautiful, and I want to explore it. Through this diary, I'll chronicle my journey through Johto with the Pokémon I will call my friends. This is our story. Arriving in New Bark Town in the morning, Professor Elm put me to work immediately. A friend of his had called on him to help with a discovery. But, being busy with research, he couldn't go himself. So he sent me over in his stead. In exchange, he gave me a choice of my first partner for this adventure. Ever since I treated a very sick Chikorita, I've wanted a Chikorita of my own. My choice was obvious. Being that my Chikorita is female, I named her Angelica, after a type of flower called an Angel's Trumpet. I'll likely see some on my journey, but I'll have to be careful around them; they're poisonous. Of course, Angelica and I had to fight off wild Pokémon on our way. Our destination was a house north of Cherrygrove City. A bit of a walk, but nothing compared to the trek I'll be taking later. I almost feel jealous of little Angelica; she gets to ride along in her Poké Ball. Anyway, we stopped for a bite to eat before continuing on. Route 30 was more of the same; dealing with attacks from wild Pokémon. The only difference is that the Sentret and Rattata of Route 29 were replaced with Caterpie, and a Weedle or 2. But we made it. The man Elm sent me to see wouldn't tell me his name; only that he was known as Mr. Pokémon. Fair enough. The discovery he made was a Pokémon egg. Apparently, it had appeared at the Day Care Centre near Goldenrod City, secluded from any couples who may have produced it. I was shocked not only by that, but by the fact that this "Mr. Pokémon" had company! Professor Oak, from Pallet Town in Kanto, was looking into the egg too, but, pardon the pun, he just couldn't crack it. With neither of them able to solve this mystery, I was given the egg to take to Professor Elm. And, from Professor Oak, I got a Pokédex! I'll have to remember to check it on a regular basis. So, I left Mr. Pokémon's house. And that's when shit hit the fan. I had only just set foot outside when my PokéGear went off. Probably Professor Elm, wondering where Angelica and I were. Or so I thought. I was half right; it was Elm. But he was understandably not too concerned with us. The lab in New Bark Town was... Well, Elm wouldn't say what happened. But he wanted us back ASAP, so we started our return trip. On our way back, we were stopped by a trainer. An angry young man, tone of voice bitter as unsweetened tea. His hair, were it any colour but blood red, I'd be envious of. I don't much like redheads. Anyway, this kid challenged us out of the blue. Thankfully, he wielded just a low-level Cyndaquil; Angelica and I subdued him. He predictably spat insults at us, then ran off. I thought he was a real dick, frankly. Turns out, I didn't know the half of it. We returned to the lab, only to find it in disarray. Somebody had broken in while I was running my errand! In fact, an officer was there, questioning the professor. Apparently, nobody was hurt, and nothing was damaged. But a Pokémon was taken. A Cyndaquil. I had just battled a Cyndaquil user! I offered that information to the officer, but I couldn't for the life of me remember the trainer's name! I remembered his appearance, though, which was helpful. After the officer left, I completed my errand and gave Elm the mysterious egg. In the midst of thanking me, he noticed my Pokédex. I guess he reasoned that, if Professor Oak could trust me, so could he, because he gave me a suggestion. The suggestion to tun this journey into a mission. A mission to collect the badges from Johto's Pokémon Gyms. Well, I wasn't planning on it, but I guess I should at least try it, if Professor Elm believes in me. I accepted. To get me started, he had one of his aides give me a set of Pokéballs. Happily taking them, I walked out the door. My journey was beginning. Going back through Route 29, I was glad I packed sunscreen for my trip. Angelica didn't need to protect herself from the sunlight; she uses it for energy. But I'll have to remember to pick up some aloe gel or lotion. Grass types like that stuff, and it'll help keep her coat shiny, and her head leaf healthy. But I can't complete this challenge with her alone. In short order, I found and captured a Sentret, who I named Brittany. I dunno why I chose that name; it just sounded right. After a small bit of training, we set out north of Cherrygrove, to Route 30. There, we found another new team member. A Caterpie. Knowing that Caterpie evolves into Butterfree, I named her Julia, after Julia Child, a famous chef known to use lots of butter in her dishes. The trainers along the route were not an issue for us. We tore through them, reaching Violet City just as the sun began to set. We decided to take a break there, and spend the night at the Pokémon Centre. All in all, a good, productive day. I just hope we can keep up this pace. *Pokédex* #152: Chikorita, the Leaf Pokémon Chikorita are loyal companions, and very affectionate towards their owners. During long stretches of inclement weather, these Pokémon may become lethargic, or even ill. When possible, they should be allowed time to lie down in direct sunlight. This keeps them healthy and happy. The leaf on their head is prehensile, and sensitive. #161: Sentret, the Scout Pokémon Sentret are capable of balancing on their tails to appear taller, as well as to obtain a better vantage point. Their bodies have a membrane that connects the forepaws with the hindpaws, and can stretch slightly. Upon spotting danger, Sentret will release an earsplitting cry to alert other members of their group. They can, however, be trained to curb this. #10: Caterpie, the Worm Pokémon A common sight in forests, these Pokémon release a harmless, but rotten stench from their antennae when threatened. Trainers who attend school are often told to keep these Pokémon in their Pokéballs. This Pokémon is a wonderful choice for beginners. *Author's note* This is inspired by the work of @NyxAvatar69. If they do not approve, I will promptly remove this. Pokémon Crystal is probably my favourite of the main series games. I've already completed this challenge in the Virtual Console releases of Gold and Silver. Generation II is by far my favourite Generation of Pokémon. Because this Nuzlocke has different rules to a normal one, I will call this a "Choicelocke." This is because, rather than having to catch the first Pokémon you see in each new area, this challenge allows you to choose one Pokémon in each area to catch. Thank you for reading, and I hope you enjoy.~

*Chapter Three: Finding Good Help* Faced, sure enough, with a padlock, Artemis took a deep breath. She reached behind herself and gripped the twig nesting in her vermilion tail. As she unsheathed it, sparks ran down its length. Even as she was holding the fully removed twig, the tip was alight with crimson flames. Embers broke off from the fire, only to fizzle out upon hitting the wet grass. "Wait!" "Well, now's a fine time to be giving warnings," Artemis teased, turning to face Bellossom, who had called out to her. "Collateral damage," Bellossom said. "The embers on the ground reminded me. Hold on just a minute." The maid bent down, and, with a sharp tug, broke off several blades of grass. "We want the lock to still work when we're done with it; right?" There was a collective nod as she stuffed the keyhole with the grass. "There. Now, the actual lock is safe; it won't melt and deform from the heat of your wand." Artemis shrugged, carefully pointing the tip of the twig at the top of the lock. The flames died out along most of the "wand," concentrating on the tip. "Alright; stand clear!~" With Bellossom and Pesky both out of the way, Artemis thrust the twig forward. From the tip shot a whip-like ray of flames. Despite her trepidation, it was a figurative bullseye. The flames cut through the metal bar, leaving the lock intact and the bar split cleanly in 2. "Nice shot!" Pesky cheered as Artemis quelled the flame by bringing a paw down over it. "Hush!" Artemis shout-whispered. "Wait until we're in the forest." With the lock broken, the gate opened easily. Pesky and Bellossom hurried in, while Artemis quickly got to work at welding the metal bar back together. When she rejoined the group, she was nursing a paw, holding it close. "Are you alright?" Bellossom asked, advancing gently on her. "Lemme see your paw." Artemis held it forward to reveal a patch of charred fur. With a figure like Goodra's, it was only natural that she turned some heads as she walked through the Goldenrod Department Store. And she stepped lightly. That she was filled out in all of the decidedly best places to be carrying extra weight still meant that she carried extra weight. Seeing her walk with any sort of grace was, in many ways, as striking as it would be to see Wigglytuff carrying herself in such a manner. She had almost finished shopping, and was looking through the list she brought with her. Written on in beautiful cursive, the paper she held was stained with her slime. "Hmm... Yes; this should be enough meat to keep the carnivores happy for quite some time." As she double-checked the shopping list, she found the paper suddenly wet. She was crying. Softly but surely. It finally seemed to hit her that what she was buying, only she and the other residents would partake in. Her master was gone. If he wasn't, the list would likely include his favourite foods. Goodra loved to spoil him. Another tear fell, and she took a sharp, shuddering breath inward. "I should be over it by now, but... I can't forget about you, sweetie. You wouldn't wanna see me like this; I know." She vigorously shook her head, as though she were trying to shake her sadness away. With a smile on her face to mask her true feelings, Goodra trudged on. Sylveon still fussed with her hair as she and Ruri stood outside the Pokémon Centre. "Sylvie, for Arceus' sake, your hair is fine!" Ruri insisted. Sylveon scoffed. "Of course it is, honey! Or it damn well had better be; I spend so much time on it. But fine isn't enough.~" Ruri, exasperated, shut her eyes tightly, likely in an effort to calm down, so she wouldn't lash out at her friend. By the time her eyes saw the world again, the duo was already inside the Pokémon Centre. All around, trainers and their Pokémon waited to be tended to. Sylveon approached the front desk. Before she could strike a bell that would alert staff to somebody waiting to check in, a nurse was already in front of her. "Hello, miss! Do you have an appointment?" "I don't," Sylveon admitted. The nurse turned to look back into the office behind her, at which point Sylveon gave a thumbs up to Ruri. She began to sniffle. It was a talent that was often unused, for fear that it would ruin any trust for her, but Sylveon had a very convincing fake cry. "I... I d-didn't have time to... I..." Ruri was stunned, but understood the thumbs up as a sign to play along. "It's alright. I'm sorry, miss. My friend here, miss..." She paused to look at the lady's nametag. "...Nurse Joy. My friend, she's a maid. I'm sure you could tell by her outfit." "Yes, I could," Nurse Joy replied. "Is she hurt? Or is she here on behalf of somebody else?" She offered Sylveon a tissue, which was politely refused. "S-Somebody else," Sylveon answered her, and, by this time, some of the trainers in the waiting room had taken notice, and were watching the situation unfold. "M-My master; he... He was hurt in the storm. Please; I'm a terrible cook. C-Can you spare any food?" There were enough plants in the flower shop to make a house for a Chikorita! Wigglytuff actually raised a sticky paw to slap herself, but lowered it when she remembered she was in public. "Of course there's a buncha plants here, you big dummy! What did you exp- Oh! Hello, ma'am.~" The older of 2 sisters who ran the shop was in front of her. Brown hair swept her shoulders, and her appropriately floral print dress reached her knees. "Hello yourself, miss," she responded kindly. "We haven't had many customers since the storm. What can I help you with?~" The politeness of the shop owner got the portly bunnygirl to smile. "I'm looking for berries. See, our garden was drowned by that same storm, and we have a lot of herbivores to feed. Do you have any in stock?" With a slightly sorrowful, understanding nod, the florist pointed fowards a corner with several terra cotta flower pots full of plants. "Do you want the plants, or just the berries themselves, dearie?" Wigglytuff looked towards the indicated spot, and felt a pang of nervousness. She was certainly gluttonous, but what she wasn't was impolite. The only member of the household, to her knowledge, that could cultivate a berry plant was Bellossom, and not only was she out helping Artemis and Pesky, but it would be a slap to the face to give her a berry plant and ask her to do all of the work. "J-Just the berries, please. I'm not picky; anything edible will do." Nodding again, the lady led her to a counter. Used to immediately putting money on a counter when walking into a candy store or a bakery, Wigglytuff did the same here. She had a small amount of money. Mostly coins, as her paper money had by and large been exchanged for sweets already. "Can I get anything for this, ma'am?" "How'd you hurt yourself?" Bellossom asked, eyes darting across the forest floor. "I slipped," Artemis replied. "My paw hit the padlock." Pesky rolled his eyes. "Damn. I hate to use this analogy, but when it rains, it pours." "Very funny," Artemis scolded him. Bellossom stepped away slightly to pick a large cyan berry from a nearby tree. "Hold out your paw." Artemis did as instructed, but, rather than handing over the berry, Bellossom took a bite of it. Pesky gasped. "Are you serious?! You can't just eat wild berries; you'll get poisoned!" Bellossom dismissed his concern by waving a hand in his direction. Ever polite, she swallowed before speaking. "It's a Rawst Berry. Perfectly safe to eat, though a bit of an acquired taste." With that, she revealed the remains of the fruit. "Here, Artemis." Before the burnt vulpine could react, Bellossom rubbed an exposed end of the berry onto the blackened area of her outstretched paw. The colour didn't improve, but the pain was quickly dulled. The group didn't have access to bandages, so the application of the healing berry was all that could be done. Through thick foliage, the group pressed on in near complete darkness. Artemis had several times offered to light her wand tip to help, but Bellossom's response was always quick and to the point. Even with the plant life wet from rain, lighting a fire was still a bad idea. It wasn't until the third time Artemis made this offer that a voice besides that of Pesky or Bellossom answered her. "Are you trying to start a brushfire?!" Pachirisu sat in the living room of the Delphox's abode. On her lap, warm from near constant use, was her radio. It was a special radio, capable of picking up broadcasts beyond the range of a normal Pokégear; previously, it was a belonging of her master, who gave it to her when he had his Pokégear updated with similar functionality. Even so, the only advantage the upgraded Pokégear offered was portability, since the radio was a clunky machine. Normally, Pachirisu kept it on her bedside table, so it could provide background noise while she slept. Now, though, she was listening intently to every word spoken by the inhuman voice coming from it. "There are unconfirmed reports of rare Pokémon seen near Ilex Forest. These Pokémon are not to be confronted until conditions improve. Severe weather is expected within the next few minutes, which will endanger the lives of trainers and their Pokémon." Severe weather? "Oh, no!" Cassie and Dragonair had already returned from fishing by this point, and Goodra and Wigglytuff were likely close behind. But Artemis, Pesky, and Bellossom were completely exposed to the elements. "Mistress!" Pachirisu called out. "Mistress!" The sound of footfalls cushioned by fur soon followed as Kianna entered the room. "What's wrong, Pachi?" "I-I just heard that a storm is coming. Pesky and the girls are gonna get caught in it, and we don't have a way to contact them and call them back here!" Kianna stood, taking this information in for a short time. As a mother, she couldn't help her concern. "Poor dears. I hope they get back soon." Concerned as she was, though, she was unable to get Pachirisu's meaning. "No, mistress," Pachirisu corrected her gently. "I have to go after them!" *Author's note* Yes, Pachirisu. Run outside, confident in the belief that a thunderstorm is coming. What could possibly go wrong? So, in this chapter, we learn a few things. Goodra is still sad about her master. Goodra and Wigglytuff are both A B S O L U T E U N I T S. In awe at the size of these lasses! Yeah; we already knew that. But I like reaffirming it. XD Sylveon can cry on command. Bellossom has decent survival skills. The ones who went near the forest were spotted; the report of "rare Pokémon" was about them. Pachirisu's radio is a hand-me-down. So, do you think you can tolerate a fourth chapter? Special thanks again to @SMFoxy, for allowing me use of his characters.

I still hate myself for choosing to do postgame. Also, like Episode 15, due to the nature of how this and all of Episode 15 are written, I'm posting them here instead of the same place as the other 14 episodes...because yeah. The run is finished so the remaining episodes will be released over time because I chose to do postgame. Everything after this is going back to the place I posted the first 14 episodes. A day had passed since Ruby aided the Ultra Recon Squad in stopping the rampaging Stakataka in Poni Grove. Luckily, any news of the incident was kept to a minimum, but it was likely due to the upcoming press conference at the Aether Paradise. Ever since the Necrozma incident at the Alter of the Moone, Ruby had been hearing people asking questions and wondering what had taken place. At least to Ruby, it didn't mean much since her duties as Champion had priority. Stepping out of her room early in the morning, she noticed her mom standing in front of the boxes that still hasn't unpacked. "All right! I've put it off long enough! Now that Ruby has become the Champion..." Ruby's mom said, turning around and looking down at her Meowth. 'Is she actually going to do something about those boxes?' Ruby wondered, deciding to keep quiet for the moment. "Meowth! This is it! We're really, definitely going to put away these boxes today!" she continued until the doorbell rang. "Oh, now who could that be?" she wondered only for someone to come running inside unannounced. "Sophocles? What are you doing here?" Ruby asked, making her way over to the door. "Ruby... I...I...You've got to..." Sophocles tried to say while he caught his breath. "What huge, random task likely involving unknown beings from another dimension do I have to do this time?" Ruby asked. "What are you talking about?" Sophocles questioned. "It's a long story..." Ruby mumbled. "Oh, are you one of Ruby's friends? I'm her mom. It's so nice to meet you!" Ruby's mom said, getting herself involved in the conversation. Sophocles jumped when he suddenly heard the voice of Ruby's mom, turning towards her. "Eeek! S-S-S-Sorrocles! I mean I'm sophorry! I mean I'm sorry! No, I mean I'm Sophocles! I'm a very sorry Sophocles!" Sophocles said. Ruby couldn't help but laugh a bit at this while Sopholcoes turned away. "Sorry... Let me just calm down a bit..." Sophocles said before turning around to face Ruby again. "I...I came because I need your help, Ruby..." Sophocles finally said. 'Here we go again," Ruby thought. "A bunch of strange guys appeared out of nowhere and...and they took over Festival Plaza!" Sophocles explained, but Ruby turned her head as if he had no idea what he was talking about. "You mean that weird place you showed me that one time?" Ruby asked. "I'll show you what I mean. Come on!" Sophocles said, grabbing Ruby's arm and taking her outside. He took out a device with two screens and pressed a few buttons. In a flash of light, Ruby and Sophocles were gone. They reappeared in a circular plaza with a number of shops and attractions with a strange red castle in the center with a bunch of Rs in a rainbow background on the monitors. "Is that supposed to look like that?" Ruby asked, pointing to the castle. "No, it isn't. The space here suddenly became all twisted and the programming of the Plaza was rewritten! That's why the castle looks so..." "Really weird?" Ruby asked. "You think so? It looks pretty menacing, like where a final boss would live... I think it looks kinda cool!" Sophocles said while Ruby let out a sigh. "Sophocles, this isn't a video game. Final bosses don't exist in reality," Ruby pointed out. "Still, they broke through my impenetrable security system, even if they did take advantage of a system malfunction. And they've taken complete control of Festival Plaza," Sophocles said. As Ruby listened to him talk, something occurred to her. She recalled hearing the voice in her head talk about a "twisted script" and things not sounding like they should, leading her to believe that the voice's sudden disappearance and the takeover of the Festival Plaza may be connected. "So, all we have to do is take down the guys behind this operation?" Ruby asked. "Yes, but be careful. These guys know what they're doing," Sophocles replied. "When has that ever stopped me?" Ruby said. "Then you'll help me take back Festival Plaza?" Sophocles asked. "Normally, I would say no because something tells me this place has some problems without the takeover. But this time, I'll do it," Ruby said. Sophocles let out a sigh of relief. "I'm glad that you're with me, Ruby. You're the Champion, after all! W-well... Let's go then..." Sophocles said, making his way towards the castle. 'If all this goes well, that voice in my head should come back, and maybe we can figure out why so many people have been wanting to challenge me lately,' Ruby thought, following Sophocles into the castle. When they got inside, a single man wearing a black suit and a hat was standing in the middle of the room. Hearing the approaching footsteps, he turned to face Ruby and Sophocles. Ruby stopped in her tracks when she saw the rainbow R on the front of his shirt. 'There's no way, right? That team was beaten by some guy years ago...' Ruby thought until he heard the man speak. "Hey, who are you?! Nobody should be able to enter Team Rocket's Castle!" the man questioned. "Team Rocket?! But that's impossible! Team Rocket was beaten years ago by someone named Red! It's old news in Kanto, but people still talk about it!" Ruby said, but as if her words didn't exist, Sophocles went on. "I-I have admin rights..." he tried to say until the man stomped his foot on the ground. "What?! How dare you try to confuse me with your nerdy language!" the man shouted before he turned around and took a moment to calm down. He cleared his throat and turned back towards Ruby and Sophocles. "No matter! Team Rocket's Castle is under our control! There's nothing you can do, whoever you are!" the man said, laughing while he walked away. Ruby clenched her fists and watched as the man walked off. "It seems like this group calls itself Team Rocket. They definitely don't seem like nice people..." Sophocles said. 'Of course they aren't. They steal Pokemon from people. They've even killed one before...' Ruby thought to herself. "I can't believe I've allowed Festival Plaza to be taken over by people like them..." Sophocles said, pacing around a bit while he put a hand to his chin. "Still... He said this castle was under their control. What exactly did he mean...?" he asked himself before returning to Ruby. "Give me a sec and I'll check," Sophocles said, taking out the same device he used to transport him and Ruby to the Festival Plaza. He pressed a few buttons, staring hard at the device. After a few moments, he put it away and turned his attention back to Ruby. "I've got it, Ruby... They have some sort of program lock that prevents us from using the Pokemon in our pary!" Sophocles said. "Well, that's just great. How do we clear these guys out of here, then?" Ruby asked, turning her attention towards a woman dressed the same way as the first man they saw, staring at the Battle Agency desk. 'Maybe...we don't have to use our own Pokemon,' Ruby wondered. "Do you have any ideas on how to get Team Rocket out of here, Ruby?" Sophocles asked. Ruby smiled a bit and turned back towards Sophocles. "How about the Battle Agency?" Ruby asked. "The Battle Agency...? Oh, of course! If we use the Battle Agency rules, we can use other people's Pokemon to battle! It doesn't matter if we can't use our own!" Sophocles replied, taking his device out once again. "Just a sec..." he said while he fiddled with his machine. "Using my admin rights to access the debug features... Rebooting the reception program..." Sophocles mumbled. In a flash of light, a female receptionist appeared behind the once empty Battle Agency desk. "I've made it so we can use the Battle Agency now, too... I wish there was more I could do...but I can't even access my full admin rights..." Sophocles said. "I can take care of it from here. Just leave it to me," Ruby said, making her way towards the Battle Agency desk. "I'll try and get back complete admin access while you keep them busy!" Sophocles said. Ruby turned and nodded in agreement before turning back around and walking to the desk. "Welcome to the Battle Agency!" the receptionist said with a smile. She gave Ruby the general rundown of how the Battle Agency worked before presenting her with three Poke Balls. Ruby looked up at the screen behind the receptionist to see what Pokemon were available. 'A Golisopod, and two Pokemon I've never seen before. Guzma has a Golisopod, and I doubt it let him down. I should pick that one,' Ruby thought, taking the first Poke Ball. Due to the glitches in the Festival Plaza, the Battle Agency could only provide Ruby with hologram trainers instead of actual people, but Ruby didn't really mind it. "Last but not least, before you begin, we request that you project the proper look of an agent at the Battle Agency. Good luck!" the receptionist said, handing Ruby a pair of sunglasses. "Um...ok. Thanks," Ruby said, putting on her sunglasses and stepping onto the transporter next to the desk. 'Here goes something," Ruby thought, closing her eyes as the receptionist hit a button on the bottom of her desk that activated the teleporter, sending Ruby to the stadium in an instant. When she opened her eyes, she found herself in a large, mostly light blue stadium surrounded by silhouettes in the stands. Two other trainers were already in the stadium and Ruby guessed it was the trainers she was supposed to be battling with. She made her way over to the two, and once she did, the referee in the center of the stadium spoke up. "Let me introduce the trainers who will battle along with you," she said, but the two other trainers only gave generic responses. Ruby shook her head while a voice rang out through the stadium. "Installing a battle program... Type "Team Rainbow Rocket." "Rainbow Rocket?" Ruby asked as a man who looked exactly like the one who spoke to her and Sophocles earlier appeared and made his way over to the center of the stadium. "Oh! Who are you? I'll beat you!" the man said. 'He's just as generic as these other two...' Ruby thought. "Let's do this! Raticate, go!" the grunt said, throwing out his first Pokemon, a Raticate. However, this Raticate was nothing like the Alolan variety was. It was as Ruby remembered seeing in Kanto, a normal Raticate. "So that's how they're going to do things, huh? Alright, Golisopod, let's show him what we're made of!" Ruby said, sending out the Golisopod she was borrowing. "Alright, let's give this guy a good first impression, Golisopod!" Ruby called out. The Golisopod went forward and stabbed the Raticate with it's arms, doing significant damage until it started eating the berry it was holding. "That was nothing. Raticate, use Super Fang!" the grunt said. The Raticate's teeth began to glow white as it ran towards Golisopod and bit down hard on it's arm. Golisopod shook it's arm to get the Raticate off before running off behind Ruby, almost as if it was using her as a shield. "Oh right, Guzma's Golisopod did this too. Well, that's fantastic. Return for now," Ruby mumbled, returning the Golisopod to it's Poke Ball and turning towards the two generic trainers waiting for their chance. "So, who wants to go now?" Ruby asked. The sunglasses wearing boy stepped forward with his Poke Ball, sending out a Passimian. 'They may not talk much, but maybe they can actually do something,' Ruby thought. "It doesn't matter at all. Raticate, use another Super Fang!" the grunt said. Like before, the Raticate ran towards the Passimian and bit on it with it's fangs as hard as it could. As the Raticate was trying to return to it's trainer, the Passimian swung it's arm into the Raticate and threw it onto the ground. The impact with the ground was enough to make the Raticate faint. "Not bad, generic guy," Ruby said. While the boy didn't say anything, the Rainbow Rocket grunt was not happy. "You got lucky, kid. My next Pokemon won't be as easy to take down. Go, Golbat!" the grunt said, sending out his next Pokemon. "This one could be trouble," Ruby quietly said. "Golbat, use Screech!" the grunt ordered. The Golbat let out a loud, piercing noise that forced Ruby, the other trainers, and even the Passimian to block their ears. In an attempt to stop the noise, Passimian threw an Iron Ball it had with it at the Golbat. The attack was enough to knock Golbat out of the sky, but not enough to make it faint. At the very least, it had stopped making the noise. "You're getting on my nerves! Golbat, use Toxic!" the grunt said. The Golbat fired off a stream of purple liquid from it's mouth, poisoning the Passimian when it landed on it. The Passimian ran at the Golbat, despite being weakened by the poison, grabbing the bat Pokemon by it's legs and jumping into the air. It swung around in the air and threw the Golbat to the ground. Like the Raticate, it wasn't able to take the impact of the attack and fainted. "Alright, one more to go," Ruby said. "I'm not going to let you win! Arbok, go!" the grunt shouted, sending out his final Pokemon. Ruby turned his attention to the other girl standing next to her. "Hey, you're up," Ruby said. The girl gave a simple nod while the generic boy returned his Passimian. She stepped forward and threw out a Clawitzer. "Arbok, go for a Bite attack!" the grunt ordered. The Arbok charged at the Clawitzer and bit down on it's big claw with it's mouth. The Clawitzer shook the Arbok off and it slithered on back to it's trainer. "Go for another Bite, Arbok!" the grunt said. Like before, the Arbok charged at the Clawitzer and bit into it again. As the Arbok started going back to it's trainer, streams of brown water began to pour out of Clawitzer's claw, and the Pokemon fired the water out like a cannon at the Arbok. "Well...that's something you don't see every day," Ruby said mostly to herself. "No! I won't lose this! Arbok, use Wrap!" the grunt said. The Arbok slithered over and tried to wrap itself around Clawitzer's body, but mostly only managed to get around the Pokemon's large claw. The Clawitzer slowly tried to open it's claw, hitting the Arbok with another blast of water. The blast forced Arbok off of it and back towards it's trainer, causing the snake to slam right into the Rainbow Rocket grunt. A few moments passed and Ruby, along with the Rainbow Rocket grunt, were teleported out of the stadium and back to the Festival Plaza proper. "So, how about that?" Ruby said, crossing her arms with a smile on her face. "Impossible! This kid...defeated me?!" the Rainbow Rocket grunt questioned before stomping his foot on the ground. "That's unfair! You shouldn't be able to battle so effectively with other people's Pokemon!" the grunt added. He shook his head and pointed at Ruby and Sophocles, who had joined Ruby shortly after her return. "Bah... Get 'em, guys!" the man said. Several more Rainbow Rocket grunts who were standing around walked over, leaving Ruby and Sophocles surrounded. "We can't let you take back Team Rocket's Castle. The boss's plans depend on it!" the man said. "The boss?" Ruby asked. "Just in time... Full system restore!" Sophocles said. In a flash of light, several of the Festival Plaza workers had reappeared. Sophocles continued playing with his device in order to get the Rainbow Rocket grunts out of the Festival Plaza. "Target set to Team Rocket... Executing kick from Festival Plaza!" Sophocles added, pressing one more button. In moments, several of the Rainbow Rocket grunts began to dissapear. The first man, who seemed to be leading the group, made one final charge at Ruby before he also vanished. "That was a bit too close for comfort," Ruby said. "Whew... That was close. ...Thanks for your help, Ruby! You kept them busy just long enough for me to get back full admin access... I've used that access to lock Team Rocket from the Festival Plaza forever! I also restored all the features and everything to normal, too," Sophocles explained. "Actually, Sophocles, can you try to fix one more thing for me?" Ruby asked. "What other thing do you want me to fix? Sophocles asked. Ruby took a deep breath and told Sophocles everything that she knew about the voice in her head that guided her along her island challenge and how it had suddenly vanished after she had become the Champion. Hearing herself, she thought that the whole thing actually sounded a little crazy, but at the same time, she knew that the whole thing was real. "I'm telling you that it's all true. If it wasn't for that voice, I don't think I'd even be here right now," Ruby said, watching as Sophocles started walking away from her as if her entire story was nothing but crazy talk. Ruby sighed and walked back inside the castle, taking a seat in a nearby chair. 'I just want them to come back. Without the voice guiding me along, I don't think I ever would've become the champion of Alola. If they were here, maybe we could figure out what's going on with these Ultra Beasts and these Team Rainbow Rocket people. All I want is for things to go back to how they were before,' Ruby thought, looking up at the ceiling. For a few moments, she didn't hear anything at all. Deep down, she had hoped for something to happen, but when those hopes were proven to be a waste of time, Ruby shook her head and stood up. As she started walking towards the castle's exit, a faint, but familiar voice rang out. Ruby stopped and looked around, a part of her thinking she was finally losing it. "I must finally be hearing things," Ruby said until she heard the voice again, a bit clearer than before. She looked around once again just to make sure she wasn't dreaming. 'Is this really possible? How can I hear the voice again so suddenly? Is this some kind of sign or something?' Ruby wondered while she walked around a bit. She shook her head, a part of thinking the reason didn't really matter much. She knew that she could trust the voice to guide her along the way and hopefully help her figure out what was going on. So then I said "well, Diamond and Pearl suck because the games are ultra slow, and Platinum is the only thing saving Sinnoh from being on par with Kalos or Alola in terms of..." Um...Hi? What the heck is this? What's going on here. I finally have access to the Ultra Moon stuff and now Sophocles is thanking me for something and giving me an Eject Button. What even happened? Ever since Episode 14 ended, I've been locked out of my Ultra Moon project. I can only guess this was the work of the same person who's been breaking my script. Well, no worries, it's over now. Now we can start with Episode 15. Wait, what? What do you mean there's already an Episode 15? I never wrote an Episode 15. And who even titled this episode? I thought Team Rocket was censored...and wait, what? Is the script fixed? That's convenient. How did that even happen? This totally has something to do with the weird things going on since the whole Masked Royal case. Well...alright then. I guess we're back in business. I honestly had no intention of doing postgame since there's not even much to do in postgame, but we'll cross that bridge when we get to it. Instead, let's talk about what goes down next here in the Gen 7 postgame. According to the game, what comes next takes place straight away after the Rainbow Rocket incident at the Festival Plaza. I won't argue with it, but to be honest, the whole thing just seems a little...eh. Anyway, how about we get on with the show. But first...who named the Type: Null you get without a choice after Gladion the Edgelord? It's also Modest, so it sucks too since Type: Null and Silvally learn almost no special attacks at all, or at least learn any worth using. I'll have to box it later. I'm beating around the bush, now, though. After the whole Festival Plaza fiasco, I guess instead of taking care of those boxes, she taught her Meowth how to turn on the TV. Pro tip, don't teach your pets to turn on electronics. After they walk away, we get to see a press conference from the Aether Paradise regarding the clouds that appeared over Poni Island, but we already know it was the whole Necrozma thing. Lusamine, who is actually crazy and not a good person at all, kinda just drops the bomb and says it was Necrozma's fault. I mean, we still get our praise and...Faba walks away. Ok, I didn't like him anyway. Moving on, as Lusamine rambles on, an Ultra Wormhole opens up and suddenly Rainbow Rocket guy tackles the cameraman. Apparently, there's chaos, but let's be real here, not much is actually going on because Lusamine went after a mysterious man. And so, the Rainbow Rocket Episode begins, postgame content added into Pokemon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon, and since we're here, we may as well nuzlocke it. I know in the earlier stages of this run, I was on the fence about doing postgame, but at this point, I might as well do it. It gives me more reasons to complain about these games and how...lackluster they are in my opinion. So...Ultra Wormholes are still a thing, and after that little moment, there's someone at the door again. Because in this universe, people don't lock their doors, Lillie comes barging in, but at least she's nice about it...unlike a certain shirtless murderer I will be talking about briefly in the next episode. Anyway, turns out she saw the Ultra Wormhole problem at Aether Paradise, and she just tells us that she's going to see what's going on. I mean, we could always go and see what's up, but..we're not going to do that. Now, here's the thing. We aren't being forced to go to Aether Paradise. We can go there and handle business there anytime we want, so here's what we're gonna go. Some new areas have been unlocked now that we're conqueror of Alola, and that means encounters. That and I want to prove that these games lack in content. I mean, at the time of writing this, Let's Go Pikachu and Eevee have just released and those games have disappointingly small amounts of postgame content even though in my honest opinion, the entire game is a disappointment. We're not here to talk about those games, though. Next time, we will be doing everything we can except the Rainbow Rocket stuff. So, until next time. And no, I'm not catching the Tapus. They're sort of in the same class as the Lake Trio, but better, and even though I will be bending rules soon for certain reasons, I am marking the Tapus in the same class as legendaries like Zygarde and Necrozma. So yeah, we're not breaking the postgame extremely hard. Anyway, with that out of the way, until the next episode. Also, the Rainbow Rocket grunt theme is fantastic and you'll be doing yourself a favor by listening to it.

Some of you know I have a story on here called Lovesick. It's about a sick Shaymin in love with a trainer who wants to cure her. Well, I decided to write a prequel of sorts. This explains why Shaymin is with the trainer, despite being wild. This was touched on, but not really elaborated on. If I may stroke my cock ego for a bit, Lovesick is still up, and available for reading.~ There's more than one Shaymin. More than one Latios. More than one Latias. It makes sense, doesn't it? When you think about it, it's a bit ludicrous to step back and take in the view of a windswept meadow or a treacherous forest and think every blade of grass, every tree, every flower, and every dandelion puff was all the work of a single entity. Arceus Himself didn't even create Sinnoh single-handedly, let alone the myriad of species that live there. That's precisely why the Legendaries exist. Clearly, though, these deities are not immortal. Not invincible. The mere fact that a Shaymin had the incredibly poor fortune to contract a rare and fatal disease is proof of this. But that wasn't her first brush with death. All Shaymin have access to an island in the extreme northeast of Sinnoh. The sun beat down on this one in particular that day as she tended to her property. As it usually did; when Arceus designated that bit of land for the original Shaymin and her descendants, He called on Groudon and Kyogre, to ensure that the weather there would be hospitable towards the growth and health of abundant plant life. Shaymin herself included, of course. Judging by what, indeed, could only be called an abundance of plant life, it clearly worked. Few humans have ever been lucky enough to see what they've rather appropriately dubbed "Flower Paradise," but the general consensus is that, besides Shaymin, no wild Pokémon live there. This is simply fallacy. However, one can hardly blame the misinformed for being misinformed, given what the truth actually is. The plant life does attract Pokémon. However, humans do not typically have the opportunity to venture to the Flower Paradise unless Shaymin allows it. This is relevant because the wild Pokémon hide when a guest of Shaymin approaches. To date, the Flower Paradise has been home to dozens of Shaymin, and these Shaymin have played host to a myriad of human guests. Among these humans lucky enough to be granted an audience with the rulers of fertility, most have been trainers. However, there are exceptions to every rule. It's known that Professor Samuel Oak is permitted entry. As well, engaged and married couples are sometimes shown favour and allowed to enter. In fact, at least one recorded incident has taken place in which a Shaymin, having particular interest in a wedding, posed as the bride's bouquet. It is not the case, however, that Shaymin are attracted by the victorious, the studious, or even the betrothed. Rather, what attracts a Shaymin is gratitude. Of course, Shaymin have personalities all their own. But, as a whole, as a biological instinct, these wondrous deities are drawn to the thankful. Shaymin, as well, are quick to show gratitude of their own. In the Sinnoh region, in fact, Shaymin's name is evoked as the punchline of jeers directed towards the overly talkative, or the overly polite. Shaymin winced as sweat stung her eyes; only now did she realise how long she had been tending her island-wide garden. Moreover, the scent of rain was faint in the air, and she knew she'd soon have to retreat to her shelter. First, of course, her eyes needed cared for. Pure, clean water flowed in a spring nearby, and she used it to splash the sweat out of her eyes. As she blinked the last bits of water away, she smiled. She couldn't help herself from being prideful, gaze resting upon a magical garden of her own creation. Everything seemed to be in order, and the rain would only aid in their growth. Content with that knowledge, Shaymin began the short journey towards shelter. A burrow, cleverly hidden beneath one of the countless flower patches dotting the island. She had fashioned it with her powers some time ago. She wasn't the only one preparing for the rain, either. As she padded towards home, another smile crept up on her. Above, a group of Butterfree searched for a safe place to land. Being a Grass type, Shaymin typically disliked Bug types. She knew these Butterfree, however, and knew them to be friendly. "Come with me," she offered the worried couple. "I'll make room for you." Grateful trills were her reply from the winged beauties as they followed close behind her. They likely wouldn't have much room to spread their wings, but it was a far better alternative to getting caught out in the open during rain. It wouldn't kill them on its own, but their senses would be dulled, making them easy prey. For all of the next few minutes, all was well. It's a shame it couldn't stay like that. For starters, neither Celebi nor Dialga smiled upon her that day; time was not on her side, and rain was dampening her fur before her burrow was in sight. Then again, not much was in sight as it was, with the suddenly harsh wind blowing a curtain of leaves in front of her vision. Hearing the worried cries of the Butterfree behind her, Shaymin acted quickly. Not wholly unlike a child throwing a tantrum, she stomped on the ground with a stubby forepaw. All at once, vibrant flowers sprang up, leading to her burrow. Of course, Shaymin herself didn't need reminded of its location. But she rarely had guests there, and wasn't about to risk her friends getting lost. Due to her stature, she could only trust her ears in this situation, as the blowing leaves obstructed her vision, especially since the oncoming storm prevented her from reaching Sky Forme. But she was content with the wingbeats she could hear growing ever fainter before being drowned out by the howling wind. Meanwhile, she kept running. The sad truth, however, is that she didn't get far. To give credit where it's due, even with the path ahead obscured, Shaymin hardly seemed to have any trouble, her paws crushing fallen leaves and kicking up rainwater as she ran. But something felt wrong. Not just wrong, but very wrong. Shaymin was able to run for only a few seconds before fatigue hit her hard. At once, her gait went from a sprint to a weak stagger. Her breaths came shakily, and with much difficulty. She burst into a fit of harsh coughing, whimpering as every cough hurt. "What..." Shaymin could barely speak; she could hardly hear herself over the cacophony of nature's wrath around her, and the weak voice she had was mostly drowned out by coughs. Her chest burned as though she had just swallowed something too hot to be eaten or drank. "Wh-What... " Shaymin stammered desperately; this was all happening so fast. "What's... happening... t-to me?" She couldn't run anymore; whatever was doing this to her, she was helpless to stop it. Then, a flash of red filled her vision, before the world turned black. Shaymin awoke some time later, in a daze. Without even opening her eyes, she knew full well she was no longer in the familiar surroundings of Flower Paradise. Whatever she was resting on was soft and plush. Certainly not the ground she passed out on. Without opening her eyes, she shifted her position. Yes; certainly, this was a bed. And not the one she had fashioned for herself out of shed bits of fluff from Jumpluff and Whimsicott. Had Arceus teleported her away from the storm when she lost consciousness? She wasn't able to keep that thought in her head for too long, however, before a voice spoke. "Good; she's waking up." Shaymin finally opened her eyes. That voice. A young adult male. She didn't know who the voice belonged to, but it certainly wasn't Arceus. A boy stood over her, gaze fixed on her, and with a warm smile on his face. He wore similar attire to what Shaymin remembered Professor Oak wearing. A white coat, partially open, over a red shirt. Khaki pants adorned his legs, and he wore sneakers, mostly red and with light grey mesh, over plain white socks. Shaymin didn't feel threatened by him; merely uneasy. Nonetheless, she wanted answers. She opened her mouth, but, to her immense shock, could only manage a sort of raspy squeak. What's more, that short vocalisation caused her great pain. Her throat and chest both burned, quickly silencing her. "You can't talk?" the boy asked. Shaymin noted the genuine concern in his voice before nodding. Though she sensed no malicious intent, Shaymin didn't lower her guard. "Can you do me a favour?" the mysterious boy continued. Shaymin cocked her head quizically, allowing him to continue. "I know you must be in a lot of pain, but could you roll over? On your back, I mean. I think I know what's wrong, but I have to make sure." Shaymin complied, nearly as eager as this boy was to identify her illness. No sooner had Shaymin moved onto her back, her leafy quills flattening against her fur, then the boy produced an odd device. Shaymin was certain she had seen it before. But what was it called? A "stellar scope?" She shook the thought from her mind; far more important problems were present at the moment than pronunciation. "This will be cold" was the only warning she received before the boy placed 2 nubs on one end of the device into his ears, then pressed the other end - a flat metal disc - gently against her chest. It was indeed cold, but Shaymin didn't react, as she was warned beforehand. Besides, she suddenly realised something. Upon closer inspection, this boy was wearing white gloves. He wasn't a professor; he was a doctor! This revelation calmed her significantly. At least she was in good hands. Finally, the odd device was pulled away, though only to be repositioned on a different area of her chest. "Can you take a deep breath for me?" the doctor asked politely. "In through your nose, and out through your mouth." Again, Shaymin complied with the innocuous request. Soon after that, the device was again pulled back. This time, the doctor removed the nubs from his ears. "Your heartbeat is fine, which is a relief. But your breathing is definitely laboured." After that explanation, the doctor sat on the edge of the bed. Shaymin righted herself and listened intently as a few medical terms were tossed about. But the topic of the conversation changed quickly as a gloved hand was extended towards her. "I'm sorry; please forgive my poor manners. My name is Tyler Miller. I found you unconscious, and brought you to this Pokémon Centre." In spite of the situation, Shaymin found stifling a giggle rather difficult. Tyler's politeness was welcomed, of course. But it had been quite some time since anybody had spoken to Shaymin with such reverence. Blushing beneath the stark white fur of her cheeks, she nuzzled the boy's hand. Faced with affection from a deity, Tyler's professionalism faded somewhat. "U-Umm... See,... what's wrong is..." Unlike Shaymin, Tyler had no fur cloaking his cheeks. Therefore, when he blushed, it was very obvious. For just a few seconds, Shaymin was glad her voice was shot. At least Tyler couldn't hear her giggling as she backed off to allow him to diagnose her. Even then, Tyler needed a moment to compose himself. The next minute or so was spent in relative silence, save for the sounds of scribbling as Tyler wrote on a chart. "O-Okay. I won't keep you waiting anymore. Your symptoms add up to what I'm sure is bacterial pneumonia." It was, no pun intended, the perfect storm. Treating Pokémon is complicated, in and of itself. They can typically understand humans, but humans cannot easily understand them. Moreover, while Tyler was able to understand some Pokémon language, Shaymin couldn't speak, anyway. So the doctor could only assume his explanation got through to her. "There was blood on your face, mostly near your mouth. Since you were unconscious when I found you, my guess is that you coughed up blood right before passing out. So you fell in it." Tyler hesitated. Could Shaymin understand him? She was staring in wide-eyed shock, implying that the diagnosis worried her, or that she at least understood it. Of course, for all Tyler knew, it could just have been the word "blood" that got her attention, since even Pokémon tend to associate that word with injury or illness. It wasn't until Shaymin gave a slight nod that Tyler continued. "The likely reason for you losing your voice is that the coughing you were doing damaged your vocal cords. With pneumonia, that can definitely happen. Your lungs fill with fluid, and you start coughing to get rid of it." Again, wanting to make sure Shaymin understood him, Tyler fell silent until she responded with a nod. At that, however, he allowed a smile to come through. "There's good news, though. I can cure this." If she could speak, Shaymin would have cheered. But her face told as much as words could. Her eyes, usually emerald green in colour, but now faded with illness, sparkled nonetheless with joy. She made an attempt to voice her gratitude, but was again reduced to a painful squeak. "We'll have to work together to get your voice back," Tyler added. "It'll take a while, but..." Carefully, he extended a hand again. "...I'll be with you every step of the way, if you'll allow it." Not a moment's hesitation followed Dr. Miller's offer before Shaymin closed the distance in a single joyous skip. Of course she agreed to his help. Sure, she would miss Flower Paradise. But it wasn't as though she would never return there. This was merely a temporary setback. And, to be honest, she wasn't even sure it was a setback. She felt no fear towards this boy. He was, if anything, overly polite to her. Shaymin trusted the doctor. Besides, even weakened, the fact remained that she was a Legendary, and could easily fight him off if he attacked her. She would daresay she found a new friend. One that, ironically, she never would have known had she not fallen ill. And she was appropriately grateful for this opportunity. The next week, the duo didn't stray far from each other. And, gradually, Shaymin's health improved. But her voice did not return. While her gratitude was obvious, she couldn't voice it. Tyler had been right when he said getting Shaymin's voice back would require a joint effort. This took nearly another week. During this time, Shaymin learned that her saviour was a trainer. As the days passed, Shaymin's gratitude morphed gradually into affection. She followed him closely, and even slept by his side. But her greatest act of kindness came when she had fully recovered. Knowing she would have to return to her home, Shaymin offered Tyler a final gift. After a heartfelt, and finally verbal "thank you," she presented him with a Gracidea. A single, vibrantly pink flower, native to Sinnoh and sacred to the people and Pokémon there. If ever Tyler wanted her by his side again, she assured him he need only hold the stem of the flower and call out to her. Then, in a flash of white feathers, she took off, into the morning sky. She would see Tyler again. And her feelings towards him would be amplified many times over in the coming years. And some say that, deep in Flower Paradise, Shaymin fiercely guarded an empty medicine bottle. *Author's Note* This was actually fun to write. And cute. But WAS it cute? I leave that judgement up to you!~ Oh, and here are the references. "It's known that Professor Samuel Oak is permitted entry." Shaymin is an event Pokémon, unobtainable through normal gameplay. In Diamond, Pearl, and Platinum, an item called Oak's Letter was required. Without it, there's only a white rock where people pray and give thanks for their blessings. Professor Oak's canonical first name is Samuel. "...a Shaymin posed as the bride's bouquet." A reference to a bonus mission in Pokémon Ranger: Shadows Of Almia. The mission is called "For The Bride And Shaymin." "It wouldn't kill them on its own,..." Refers to several Pokédex entries for Butterfree, stating that the scales on their wings are waterproof.

I got fuck-all for sleep last night. Too excited. I think it was about 3 in the morning before I finally fell asleep. Have you ever heard the phrase "old habits die hard?" No; not the Billy Joel song. That's "Only The Good Die Young." Which, by the way, I REALLY hope is false. That'd mean I'm next to go. I guess I did almost take a tumble off a skyscraper, though; could it be that I'm just good at cheating death? But that isn't where I was going with this. See, Big and I live a bit north of Goldenrod City. A quick walk to the subway. Back when all we had was the clubhouse, we would watch TV through windows. Sure, we got caught a few times. But we were just let be for the most part, since we weren't hurting anyone. Well, since I couldn't sleep, I watched a bit of TV. Next thing I knew, Big was shaking me and there was one of those emergency test things going on. Always hated those, even as a kid. We have to take the Magnet Train. Millenium Town isn't hours away from Goldenrod, but it's way too far to walk. But the Magnet Train? We're Electric types! Won't that hurt us? No; that's me overthinking things. There'd be a sign; wouldn't there? "Not suitable for Electric type passengers," or something like that. Plus, it's right next to the Radio Tower; if they aren't having problems, we won't. Damn; Big is rubbing off on me. I thought only one of us had to be the responsible one. Figures; I couldn't sleep last night, but I fell asleep at the station, waiting for the train. Or I think I did. I remember getting there, buying a ticket, and sitting down. Then Big was shaking me again. Either I fell asleep, or I got wasted. And I don't remember buying a drink. I made a real ass of myself getting on the train, though; that much I remember. I didn't hit anyone, or break anything. But I'm loud when I'm sleepy. And I think I can sing. Enough said. The seats are SO fucking comfy! What're they stuffed with? Wigglytuff fur or something? This proves that I'm still a kid at heart; I can't begin to tell you how much I wanna jump on these seats! I think Big knows, though. I won't say I'd be dead if looks could kill, but I'd totally be fucked up. You know you wanna join, though, Big. Somewhere in you is the big bro who used to party until his paws were too sore to keep going. I'll get him out. A little bit into the trip, a guy came around selling snacks. We both have money, but we weren't really hungry. So we ended up sharing a bag of chips. Not exactly healthy, but we can get a proper breakfast in Millenium Town. How awesome would it be if the bakery on Route 58 was still there? I'll keep my fingers crossed. Though I will admit, I'll be pretty damn happy to see ANYTHING there that I remember from my childhood. But I guess we'll see. Looking around now, the Magnet Train isn't exactly bustling. Then again, it's pretty early. I think we're almost there; I just looked out the window, and the scenery is starting to look familiar. Big's eyes are a little glassy. Good to know I'm not the only one about to fall asleep. At least Big has a reason, what with his job. I'll get work someday. I have tried; I'm not just lazing around all day like a Snorlax. Shitty as this sounds, I hope to move back to Millenium Town, when and if I finally decide to act like an adult. Maybe I'll move in with Delcatty; she still lives there, last I heard. We're definitely getting some looks. I had a feeling we'll be recognised. Definitely gonna take some pictures later. Not that I mind. I'd try to get some sleep, but I'm totally sure I wouldn't even have time for a nap. Again, that'll have to wait for when we get to Millenium Town. Food first, then nap. Priorities done right. Haha! Big and I are feral, so we don't have issues sleeping pretty much anywhere. Don't get me wrong; thank Arceus for beds! But I could've slept on the floor of the apartment last night if I wasn't so damn excited. And I'm still excited! Why shouldn't I be? I get to see my old stomping grounds again, if only for a couple of days. You bet your tail I'm looking forward to this! Plus, Delcatty and I have been texting back and forth leading up to this. I wouldn't be at all surprised If she met us at the station. You know, come to think of it, that'd be great. She could show us around. I guess we'll find out soon. Very soon. I just heard the conductor. "Millenium Town Station is just ahead." Well, here goes nothing! *Author's Note* WOO!!!! I said I'd do a second part. The Magnet Train allows you to travel from Goldenrod City to Saffron City in the Generation II games. You gain access to it after completing a postgame sidequest in Kanto. The abandoned power plant where Zapdos was in Generation I isn't abandoned anymore; people are working there. Or trying to; Team Rocket has made off with a crucial part. Without it, the Plant can't function. Head the verbally-challenged lackey off in Cerulean City, and he'll tell you you're too late. He's already stashed the Machine Part in Misty's gym. Get it, and take it back to the Power Plant. The Magnet Train is convenient, because you usually can't travel immediately from Johto to Kanto. Even using Fly, you have to stop at the Indigo Plateau first. Anyway, I left this one on a cliffhanger, so let me assure you I WILL make a 3rd part. There is one thing I have to explain first, though. Little's guess that the comfortable seat cushions are stuffed with Wigglytuff fur is a reference to Pokédex entries in Crystal, Black 2, and White 2, that state Wigglytuff's fur is so soft and luxurious, once you touch it, you won't be able to take your hands away.

The following story contains foul language, depictions of mental disorders, depictions of suicide, and rape. If you find any of these subjects disturbing, TURN AWAY NOW!!!! What follows is a bit of a summary of several roleplays I've done privately with the wonderful @SMFoxy. The story is told by a Jirachi who mistakenly and tragically wasn't careful when granting wishes, and who now has a wish of her own. To make things right with her victims. This is the second time tonight. The second time I've woken up, screaming bloody murder and drenched in sweat. I can't sleep anymore. Not without the nightmares. They won't stop; every fucking night, they come back to haunt me, like ghosts! What did I do to deserve this? Sure, I haven't been perfect, but nobody has! Dammit, I was just doing my job! Arceus put me here to grant wishes, and that's what I did. Can I really be blamed for the times they went wrong? How could I have known their intentions? I'm a Legendary, sure, but there are still things I don't know. I assumed they could relate. I assumed everybody could! I... I just didn't realise the effect I could have on them. 7 acquaintences became victims. Victims of an old saying. "Be careful what you wish for." In one fell swoop, I ruined the lives of a trainer and 6 Pokémon. If I could take it all back, I would. I can. They just need to ask. But they won't. I've caused them too much pain for them to wanna seek my help. But I'd love a chance to apologise. Anything to stop these damned nightmares! They're in them. Always dying. Always dying! Fuck me; I'll never unsee those nightmares, if I live to be 100 years old! The storm that started everything. Was it supernatural? That, I can't answer. The weather is outside of my jurisdiction. But it came from nowhere, and battered Goldenrod City mercilessly. I saw 6 Pokémon huddled around their trainer, in a closet. They begged for safety. But not for themselves. They wanted their trainer to survive. They all survived; so did the house, by some miracle. But I watched them intently that night. They surrounded the boy with affection. He treated them well. Even after everything I've done to them, I'll stand by this until the day I die; he was never abusive to those Pokémon. Quite the opposite, in fact. Rarely does a Pokémon legitimately enjoy waiting on their "master." But all 6 of them did. Their trainer fell asleep long before the storm subsided, but they still kept a close eye on him. It was honestly adorable. They each made a wish. And it was easy for me to grant them; the wishes were all the same. They whispered with each other how much they wanted to repay their master's love. It warmed my heart. I knew I had to help them, so I did. Finally, they settled on a wish. They wanted to be able to serve him properly. They eventually fell asleep, same as their trainer. It was... I think it was a half hour later. Not that it matters. I got started as soon as I was sure they were asleep. Fur and scales became hair and clothing. Their bodies, depending on species, either stretched or shrank. By the time the physical transformations had been completed, all 6 of the former Pokémon were mostly human. They still had their tails, and some other features. Their trainer could already understand them when they spoke their native tongues, but, since it'd be rather odd for them to walk around in public yipping and cooing like the creatures they were moments before, I altered their voices, as well, so they would speak English. This process, by the way, is not painless. None of them were; there's a reason why I waited until they were asleep. By the time I expected they would wake up, most or all of the pain would've gone away. But I wasn't finished yet. They wanted to serve; didn't they? They were all females. Their trainer isn't sexist. He just doesn't care for burly, musclebound brutes. His preference is for femininity, and it showed in his team. Not that he was ever sexually involved with them. He used to use them in battles, like the majority of trainers do. And, before you ask, no. I don't object to battles. There's a difference between contests of strength and skill, and brutal beatings. Yes, there are occasionally injuries from battles. But accidents can happen from the most innocuous of activities. Sweet, innocent Chansey Scouts trip and fall sometimes. It hurts, you cry, you get a bandage and/or a lollipop, and you go about your day. But I digress. The trainer of the Pokémon I had just transformed held a spot in the Johto Hall Of Fame, which he earned when his team defeated the six battle-hardened, vicious Pokémon of the former champion, a trainer who thwarted terrorist attacks, traversed the entire Johto and Kanto regions, and tamed even the guardian of the sea and the sacred winged rainbow. But he didn't battle with them after his victory. Following that tremendous upset, he left competitive battling to focus on the medical field. A passion of his for a long time. In fact, even before the championships were a blip on the radar, he showed decent skills, being able to repair minor wounds, and cure minor ailments. To make extra money, he would moonlight at Pokémon Centres. By the time he was considering going to the Indigo Plateau, he barely needed Pokémon Centres for healing his beloved companions; he could fix everything from cuts and stings to broken bones. It seemed like just the natural progression of things; forgive me, but it brings to mind another old saying. "What're you going to do now?" "I'm going to Disney World!~" He used his fame from winning the championship to secure a job at the Pokémon Centre in his hometown. This boy became one of my victims. He has nothing now. The 6 Pokémon I transformed were a Bellossom, a Goodra, a Pachirisu, a Sylveon, a Vaporeon, and a Wigglytuff. To grant their wishes to be able to serve their master, I turned them into maids. I thought it would go over well with everyone. At least I was right in that respect. For a while, anyway. When they awoke the next morning, they all eagerly began their chores. Vaporeon had the poor luck to be the one to awaken the boy. They had been made to think their roles had always been theirs. I didn't think - damn; that's a theme - I would need to hypnotise him, too. He was furious. Not from being woken up by a beautiful anthropomorphic Vaporeon. But from being waited on. Trainers can sometimes forget that, were it not for the Pokémon they care for, they wouldn't be trainers. Nor can the Pokémon be champions without trainers to teach them the finer points of combat. Everyone has to work together. Of course, every partnership is different; in some cases, the trainer may have a disability, and their Pokémon have to work harder to come out on top. Or vice versa. I've seen deaf trainers win matches because their Pokémon could understand sign language. I've seen Pokémon with impaired vision use their other senses to outwit and topple opponents. But, at the core of everything, it boils down to teamwork. And these 6 girls were well-versed on the subject, before and after their transformations. As crazy as this is going to sound, after all of the praise I've just given their trainer, it's him that doesn't understand that. But the misunderstanding in this case is probably the opposite of what you might expect. See, he doesn't expect these Pokémon to do everything for him; he would prefer to be the one serving them. I should explain that I knew this boy before the storm. Well, saying that I knew him is a bit of an understatement. I would go so far as to say we were friends. I'm not going to reveal his name; I've revealed too much about him already. In fact, to be fair, he was submissive with me, too, so I suppose his behaviour towards his Pokémon shouldn't be so surprising to me. But he explained that it's because I'm a Legendary Pokémon. One of many that keep this world balanced. So maybe he has a point. But he spoiled those Pokémon rotten when he was still a trainer. Not that there's anything wrong with that. I guess, since I grant wishes, I do more or less the same thing anyway. He devoted his life to the care of Pokémon. Studying, healing, and training. But it all came crashing down around him when he tried to play Arceus. The trainer was born fully human; during a rescue mission, he accidentally bonded his soul to an artifact that fused his DNA with that of a female Cinccino. Still, he went on with his life, and even grew to love his new fluff. Until he was raped for it, that is. That was my first mistake; I should've stepped in. I offered him a wish to console him, but couldn't give him what he wished for. With all of his Pokémon being female, he wished to be feminised. Could I have done it? Without a shadow of a doubt. Child's play. But he held a very important job back then - he specialised in emergency medicine when he was a doctor - that would be put in jeopardy if he showed up in a dress and makeup. So I had to refuse. As horrible as this sounds, if he asked again, I'd grant his wish in a heartbeat, now that he's lost his job. Not granting his wish was my second mistake. And, unfortunately, soon after that, he managed to get in far over his head. His mission was noble; the species he had recently become a member of was, and unfortunately remains, severely endangered. The next time I offered him a wish, he made it right away. His wish was for a massive increase in their population. That was a good bit harder. I can warp bodies, minds, inanimate objects, and more. But creating life is something I'm not at all well-versed in. Mew and Shaymin handle that; in retrospect, I should've asked one of them. Preferably Mew; Shaymin didn't get along well with the boy. I knew I owed him, though, so I tried doing things myself. I won't go into specifics, but I messed up. Big time. Again, I should've asked Mew. My name was certainly mud with the boy and his former Pokémon after that, not that I blame them. But, with that, I struck out with the trainer. As ironic as this sounds, I wish the troubles had ended there. Of course, they didn't. The trainer was ruined, but the girls were in good health. Unfortunately, that was about to change. Starting with Vaporeon. Vaporeon, objectively, was hit the hardest. But they all suffered. Those poor girls lost their minds, and a good bit more. Even I couldn't have predicted the horrors that would befall them. In a way, it angers me; it really, truly does. So many evil people in this world, yet an innocent boy and 6 innocent Pokémon were harmed, just for making wishes! A wish to help a loved one, and a wish to save an endangered species. Not exactly scandalous. "But Jirachi! Just make everything better!" Believe me, I want to. But I can't do anything unless the request is worded as a wish. Arceus added that rule. And no, I can't just make the wish myself; it doesn't work. I've tried. As for what happened to the girls - the "horrors that befell them" - it seems each one bears a different curse. Bellossom constantly exudes a ludicrously strong floral scent. Pachirisu cries at the drop of a hat. Wigglytuff is a glutton. Vaporeon is the opposite; she starves herself. Sylveon is addicted to cosmetics. And Goodra is convinced she's the doting mother of her trainer. Huh? Bellossom's fate doesn't sound so bad? She's scrubbed herself raw trying to remove the stench. To no avail. Goodra doesn't sound like she got a bad deal, either. But you don't see her. She has absolutely gone insane. She fills her bedroom with what she insists are framed pictures of the trainer and her. They're all blank. The victim I see in my dreams changes often, but they die the same way each time! And the deaths, in stark contrast to the victims, aren't pretty. Wigglytuff collapses in agony, dead of a heart attack before reaching the Pokémon Centre. Bellossom is mauled by wild Pokémon. She cries out, but nobody is willing to bear her stench to rescue her. Sylveon is taken into an alleyway, raped, then beaten to death after being drugged while on a date. Vaporeon takes a final, shaking breath in her bed before her organs give out from starvation. Pachirisu, the poor dear, has an emotional breakdown and commits suicide by drinking various cleaning chemicals. And Goodra dies of shock upon finding her "child" hanging from a ceiling fan. 7 images, counting the trainer, that I don't think I'll ever get out of my head. For fuck's sake, every fucking dream is a snuff film! I can't take this much longer! I can't help them; I want to. I really, really want to! But I can't unless they make wishes, or someone makes wishes for them. Vaporeon was helped by a kind Delphox who wished her back to good health, but her mind is fried; I have absolutely no doubt that she's still gonna starve to death unless someone wishes her shattered psyche back together. I don't blame the Delphox, though. He and his daughter have hearts of gold, the both of them. I'll go to my grave insisting that he had Vaporeon's best interests at heart. As for his daughter, her wish broke my heart. Her mother died when she was too young to remember her. All she knew of her mother was stories, as though she was brought into this world by a fairytale princess. Of course, she wished for her mother back. And, of course, I granted her wish. Sort of. As it happens, her mother was a Cinccino. I can't resurrect the dead, but I can revive their souls. The poor trainer of the 6 ill-fated girls used to have a Cinccino, whom he had recently rediscovered was living comfortably in a nature preserve after being released. Sacrifices were made, and that Cinccino was given the memories of the young lady's mother. Both of them, and the Delphox, still live happy, healthy lives to this day; lucky them. But for the Delphox and his daughter, I probably would've eaten a shotgun shell quite some time ago. The blood of 7 innocent victims is on my hands, and I can't help them until they ask for it! The Delphox and the trainer are close friends. That's lovely; otherwise, I have a sneaking suspicion the trainer would've been found hanged with his own tail. Maybe that Delphox can turn things around. But, just in case, let me broadcast a plea to everyone reading this. If any of you see a male Cinccino anthro, or any of the 6 maids I mentioned, I beg you. Please, for the love of Arceus, tell them everything will be alright. And tell them I'm sorry, and that I'll do whatever I can to make everything up to them. Oh, and, if you see me, wish for something that benefits one of them. I promise, if you do, I'll give you a second wish. Whatever you want. That's a promise, literally in writing, from a Legendary. Just make the nightmares stop. If you don't feel sorry for me, which you probably shouldn't, at least do something for their sake. As badly as my nightmares have scarred my mind, at least they end when I wake up. I can't say the same for them.