DRAMA BOMB

Life was going really well for me this week. We were making significant progress getting our own place around here, work was going well, I made some delicious curry, and my pokemon were sweeping through Silph Co. with the lightest effort. Agnes was a Venomoth, Wayne was a Wartortle, Elsie was a Fearow, Buzz was a Nidorino, and Petekachu was, well, a Pikachu.

That's right! After Petekachu took down Lt. Surge's Raichu easily, we got a free Squirtle and had the fortune to catch an Abra with just a Great Ball. Newest arrival Julio was kicking all the butts now as a Kadabra, especially with Team Rocket's preference for Ekans and Zubat and Koffing and other wussy poison-types of the sort. We were just powering through those clowns' junk... until we saw Gary Oak.

Now, I knew what was coming. We were all leveled and healed and everything. What I didn't expect was for his Sandslash to be at level 38 – my pokemon were at a constant 33 or so, and that had been more than enough for all the rocket goons. With his beefy defense and water attacks, Wayne dispatched him with little contest, but it was Oak's new Kadabra that took me by surprise. What I should have done, and eventually did, was sent out my own Kadabra to take his weakened psychic attacks and hit him with his surprisingly useful Seismic Toss, but what I actually did was send out Petekachu, with the intent of outspeeding him and getting through his measly defense with Slam. It was a critical hit with Confusion, and in seconds, Petekachu was no more. :(

My companion, my friend, the little dude who gives this game his namesake, gone with just one mistake.

We pressed on, of course, but everything had changed. Between Buzz, Agnes and Julio, we defeated Giovanni with ease, even with his super overleveled Nidoqueen or whatever. We got a free Lapras, which I didn't care much about – in retrospect, had I remembered that I could get a free Hitmonlee or Hitmonchan in Saffron instead, I would have done so. In preparation for the fighting dojo outside, Stevie the Eevee, recently having become Stevie the Flareon, filled the void in my ranks. Though a few levels behind the party, he proved his worth by dispatching all of the Blackbelts nearly singlehandedly, using only some tactical Sand Attack / Growl / Tail Whip combinations and a Quick Attack finish (something child-Paul would have thought was so stupid when he last played this generation of games).

But the head of the dojo was something else entire. His Hitmonlee thwapped Stevie with a critical Rolling Kick right out of the gate that left him at a desperate 4 hit points. Fearing the low defense values of my appropriately typed Agnes and Julio, I switched to Wayne, hoping his tankiness would carry him through another close scrape. The guy threw down X Attacks as Wayne used Withdraw for his life. Knowing that Stevie had pulled off one Sand Attack on the guy, I waited for him to miss and give Wayne the advantage, but that chance never came. A critical Double Kick took Wayne to 0 health, and it was all over for my coolest bro. Elsie the Fearow swooped in and took out both of the leader's pokemon with some timely Fly attacks, but the victory was bitter. Wayne and Petekachu are gone.   

Damon the Lapras, no longer redundant, has to gain a good 15 levels before he's where Wayne was, but he's filling out the party because I don't have much of a choice. Sabrina's gym is next. I'm confident Julio can take these guys out through his wacky moves (Thunder Wave, Seismic Toss, psychic resistance), but so much has changed that it's hard to be optimistic anymore. Things have changed for this party, and not for the better, although, with time, these kids may yet prove to have what it takes to BE THE BEST.

LIKE NO ONE EVER WAS.