Xisode 6: So I may be responsible for showdown becoming blocked at my work....

Our intrepid hero sets off from 6th gym town (I have no idea what any of the cities actual names are, I don't think I've retained a city name since gold/silver) and is immediately distracted from his quest by the dastardly  devices of PLOT DEVELOPMENT. The insidious Team Flare has captured the local pokeball factory, and are in the process of a massive ball heist!
Of course, Habberdash intervenes. Otherwise he won't be allowed to the next route where his next potential teammate is waiting. The team plowed through grunts steadily in your standard pokemon meets SWAT team hostage saving maneuver. The whole affair was longer than the rocket takeover of lavender tower, but shorter than silph co. So about as long as the game corner hideout. This was the first time Gullbee the Wingull had seen much action. He'd been hanging out on the team as a flyer for a while, but hadn't battled at all. with the core three of Colby the Chestnaught, Smithers the Blastoise and Grumble the Granbull being way ahead in levels, it was becoming more and more apparent that we needed some decently leveled support 'mons.
As we finally reach the executives in charge of the operation, I'm forced to team up with my rival. I still resent her deeply for when she ended the life of Trungle the Tyrunt when he was still so young. We found ourselves battling along side the very same meowstic that had slain Trungle, except this time her battling was completely ineffectual and I had to pull the team's weight myself in typical rival team-up fashion.

Meowstic

<--- Murderer












Nevertheless we send Team Flare packing and receive some hazy explanation of a plan involving recreating the world by hogging all the pokeballs to themselves.

We set out on the next route eager for a new teammate. We are somewhat perplexed to meet Garfunkle the Klefki. A steel-fairy type (fairies are everywhere in this version) with prankster and some interesting moves. I add it to the team with hopes of using it as a status inducer/special sweeper, filling the gap left by Bunkle the Carbink.

Garfunkle

At the next town I'm slightly relieved to find there is no gym. I need some time to get my teams levels evened out. I can't keep relying on on three dudes to get me through the game. In addition to the route leading onward from this town, there is also a route leading back to an old city that is now accessible, an abandoned pokemon infested hotel on said route, and an ice cave ,which means 4 new encounters before the next gym!
The next route yielded scooter the Skorupi. He had a ways to go until he evolved, but a Drapion kicked my butt in the black version elite 4, so I was excited to have him. The abandoned hotel first encounter was an electrode who promptly used self-destruct. I cleverly found a loophole that would allow me a new catch anyway by pretending it didnt happen (nuzlocke cheat: 1). The second encounter was another electrode who was also a part of the same creepy suicide pact. I elected to ignore that one as well. The third encounter however, was Betty the pawniard. I'd always kind of wanted to train a Bisharp, so I welcomed him despite having both of his types being covered by Scooter, who would evolve into a dark type and Garfunkle the steel type. About this time I turned off the exp share. I was never going to even out the levels with it on, so I sucked it up and went back to grinding the old fashioned way. With 3 new teammembers and two more on the way, I decided to box Grover. He'd overcome his muderous Sawk heritage to be a real contributor to the team. He could dish out a lot of hurt, but only really had fighting moves, and I needed some versatility. If I ever have another series of horrendous deaths, he'll be a great backup.

Scooter

Betty

We enter the mysterious ice cave for our next catch. HOT DAMN, A HAUNTER. Welcome to the team, Felix! This is especially perfect as my team had recently started to look like a bunch of  murderous little beanie babies. At least now it would have a medium sized one as well. I also happened to have some gengarite he could mega evolve with burning a hole in my bag. We're going to do this right. I pull out all the stops. I super train and affection grind to max right away. I even find a stranger on Reddit to trade him with so I end up with a Gengar who is already better trained than anyone else on my team. Felix is going to be a hoss. At least he was supposed to be. Until a hariyama who knew payback dodged his hypnosis and laid him out in one attack.....
Ok, I'm calling a mulligan. I'm just starting to grind without exp share and I cannot lose someone I just spend an hour training just because he's underleveled. Plus, I really want to use mega gengar (nuzlocke cheat: 2) (this might have happened one more time...or two more). Yes, I'm awful. Sorry.
We break up another Team Flare party where they were harassing an Abomasnow to try and get it to give them its energy or something, idk, and head on to the next town. On the way we catch Westley the Sneasel. I think the game is disappointed in me about the cheating and is giving me pokemon to fit my criminal background. A dark/poison, a dark/steel, a ghost/poision, and a dark/ice. I could have the evilest looking team ever if I wanted right now.

The 7th gym is psychic type.  MUAHAHAHAHAHAHA. Team evil will have a blast with this. Scooter has evolved to Drapion, so we set off with him, Betty and Felix at the front. Westley Sneasel remains benched for now. Felix cruises through the gym trainers. He is able to one-shot every single thing in the gym (except a gardevoir, which took two). The trend of the gym seems to be that every trainer has a single fully evolved, high level psychic type, but they cant stand up to Felix. He's still a little behind in levels, but catching up quick with the help of a lucky egg. We breeze through everything until we come face to face with the leader. I don't even bother healing up, Felix spent a total of 7 pp moving through the gym and didnt lose any health.

Felix flattens the first of the leader's three pokemon, a sigilyph and moves on to the next, a Slowking. Welp, shadow ball has worked well so far, no reason to stop now. Felix's first attack leaves slowking clinging on with just a few pixels worth of health. It was still too much. His super effective psychic wastes Felix as fast as Felix had wasted every other pokemon in the gym. I'm sorry buddy, I can't save you this time. It must be karma for my past offenses to the Nuzlocke gods. I didn't even get to mega-evolve him, I was too fixated on leveling first. Scooter the drapion quickly wraps up the rest of the gym (her last pokemon was another damn meowstic, ugh) and we move on.

Immediately upon exiting the gym, we're called by the mysterious individual Lysandre who had shown up periodically on the quest and offered mysterious platitudes about beauty and a better world. What?? you mean the shady recurring NPC whose ideals strangely match up with those of the area's organized crime syndicate was their leader the whole time?? And now he's going to destroy the world?? Who would have guessed?

I suppose the way they dress could have been a hint

 

Team Flare Grunts                                                                  Lysandre

 What crazy adventure awaits Habberdash? Will the fashionable and power-hungry team Flare emerge victorious? Or will they prove to be simply style over substance? Find out next time, on Joe's Xlocke challenge!


Badges: 7
Deaths: 10
Cheats: 2


Current team

Smithers, Blastoise
Toxic
Surf
Bite
Water Pulse

Colby, Chesnaught
Body Slam
Leech seed
seed bomb
Spiky shield

Grumble, Granbull
Charm
Play rough
fire fang
Strength


Scooter, Drapion
Crunch
fell stinger
toxic spikes
cross poison

Gullbee, Pelipper
Fly
Water pulse
roost
stockpile

Betty, Pawniard
I dont even remember. Hasn't battled much yet. I'll have to check.
SPOILER: it doesnt matter any more :(

As a bonus, here's a map of the last episode. It had a lot of backtracking so the visual aid helps a lot.

 Double bonus, here is a site devoted to Espurr, the unevolved Meowstic, that is perfect for halloween.
http://espurr.net/