Xisode 5: The gyms are happening faster now

Gym battles are picking up in frequency, so here's a special 2 for 1 episode of Joe's Xlocke!

Setting out from Grass-gym town, we quickly encounter a large desert. Excited for a new catch to fill my open one, I set out. Bunkle has been lagging in levels, so he's out in front. He does hardly any damage but he takes hits like a champ. So while he doesn't see a lot of action he's always good for a quick teammate saving switch in and helping keep them safe with reflect. Using my pokedex and the fact that tauros's entry comes immediately after Carbink's I deduced that Bunkle will not evolve. This would have bugged at one point but Bunkle's utility had already solidified his place on the team.
So with Bunkle in the lead, we set off into the desert looking for our first encounter. We quickly find a dugtrio, pretty solid choice. I'm making my plan of attack as I switch Bunkle out when I freeze up. This particular dugtrio has arena trap. Meaning my weak to ground, damageless, only 5 pp attack move Bunkle is stuck in there until one of the two of them faints. I'm about to resign Bunkle to his fate as mole food when desperation kicks in. Lets start with what we can do. Reflect goes up, I havent been earthquaked yet so thats good. I test out my one damaging attack, ancient power. It does maaaybe a fifth of the dugtrio's hp. I just have to get him low enough to catch. 3 rounds later, after a few very lucky low roll magnitudes, Bunkle sits at about 1/3 health and Heartattack the dugtrio is caught and sent to the box. Maybe I can get through this next gym with out a fatality after all.

I became a little less enamored with my catch when my next two encounters were with a gabite and a trapinch. Ugggg, a Garchomp or a flygon would have been sick to have in a nuzlocke... I quickly realize that half of the pokemon in this desert have arena trap, so Bunkle can't stay in the lead. He'll have to train somewhere else.  One other craaaaaaazy thing that happened in the desert is I contracted pokerus! I've only ever gotten it once before in an emulator in all my years playing pokemon. This is my first time in a real game. I just happened to be looking at my stats in the desert and me team had been infected. I made sure to infect some dudes in my box so I would always have someone contagious. Apparently there is a 3 in 65,536 chance of finding it. Craaaaaaazy.

Also in the desert occurs my second run in with gen 6's organized crime syndicate, Team Flare. The first one was to brief and inconsequential to even mention. Their Modus operandi seems to be look as stylish as possible, and plot to make the world perfect. In a nondescript, fiendish sort of way. I had to kick them out of a power plant they had taken over for mysterious reasons which I have yet to discover. At this point, Smithers and Colby are quite overleveled, so the team isnt in any real danger as we roll through them.

The next city, containing the 5th gym, is actually the huge city where I got Smithers, now slightly more accessible. Here's a map of my travels thus far if anyone is interested.

Wooooo paint!

The 5th gym is electric. I swap out Gullby for Heartattack and head in. Most gym trainers have pokemon in the 34-38 range. Carbunkle, Grumble and Grover were around 38, Smithers and Colby 43, and Heartattack was only 30. Even so, he was usually good for one or two knockouts per match. I kept him very safe and leveled as quickly as possible. The leader battle started With trusty Bunkle vs. Emolga. I was immediately reminded of the electric gym leader in black version who had near kicked my butt with a pair of emolga. Unperturbed, Bunkle started his routine by sending out stealth rock. Emolga predictably volt switched out for a magneton, doing measly damage to my rock/fairy/tank. Then... guys... I screwed up. 

I don't even know what the attack was. I was to engrossed in my own tactics to even read the text before Bunkle's health started plummeting. For whatever reason I had never even considered this possibility, but I knew Magneton was steel and I knew Bunkle had a 4x weakness to steel , so I have no excuse. Bunkle was taken to 0 from near full hp. The saddest part was that I didn't even need that set up to win the match. I just wanted him to feel like an important part of the team and I was so used to doing it. RIP Bunkle, the most pleasent surprise of the game thus far. (Upon review, the move that killed Bunkle was most likely mirror shot).

The rest of the battle was swift. Heartattack and Grumble fell on their opponents with righteous vengeance, and the 5th badge was mine. Hopefully I'll be able to get one of these eventually without paying such a price.

Here's the leader's other pokemon. The core of his team. Idk what it does really, Heartattack killed it too fast.

Heliolisk

Part 2

Too impatient to check out the rest of the ridiculously sized town, we set off to the next route, more in need of a new teammate than ever. This route had a creepy, haunted forest vibe to it. I was excited hopefully I could snag a cool gen 6 ghost type. Instead I found Leverne the Carnivine. A pretty cool guy, but I didnt really need another grass type. 

The next town arrived quickly with minimal shenanigans. I was blocked from the next route by team flare goons for no apparent reason, so no new catches for me. 

The gym's rooms are set up identically to sabrina's gym in red/blue. 3x3 block with teleporters connecting them. Except now, the rooms are vertical, like the luigi's mansion level in smash bros. brawl. Heartattack leads the way, still trailing the team by a significant number of levels, but gaining quickly. Oh yeah, its a fairy type gym. I have experience with fairy types, with the exception of Grumble and Bunkle, so I'm a little on edge. I don't know what to expect and I have no super effective moves. I cruise through the trainers easily enough, Heartattack just hitting his stride when disaster strikes again. With a plummet very reminiscent of the last gym, Heartattack succumbed to the enemy Aromatisse's super effective energy ball. I was NOT prepared for that. So my near perfect streak of a death every gym continues. 

Seriously, I have no idea what to expect when they're throwing around pokemon like this.

I clean up the rest of the gym trainers, head back to the pokemon center two heal up and switch out Heartattack for Leverne. (another life extinguished too soon. sigh.....). I havent fought the gym leader battle so I'll let you know how that goes in just a sec.....

ok, so.
First opponent: Mawile. Paralyzed by Grumble and battered to death by Grover.

Second oponent: mr. mime. Obnoxiiously hard to kill due to walls, eventually succumbed to being toxic poisoned and bitten to death by Smithers.

Final Oponent: Sylveon (new eeveelution). Poisoned and kicked around by Mega Smithers.

Not a very exciting gym all in all. Just a lot of suspicion for pokemon I havent seen before. To be honest though, I'm ok with a little mundane if it means I can keep my team alive.

Badges: 6
Deaths: 9

Current team

Smithers, Blastoise lvl 49
Toxic
Surf
Bite
Water Pulse

Colby, Chesnaught lvl 50
Body Slam
Leech seed
seed bomb
Spiky shield

Grumble, Granbull lvl 49
Charm
Play rough (physical fairy attack)
Thunder wave
Strength

Grover, Sawk lvl 46
Retaliate
Brick break
Rock smash
bulk up

Gullbee, Pelipper lvl 33
Fly
Water pulse
roost
protect

Leverne
Leaf tornado
sweet scent
ingrain
faint attack