Went through Victory Road normally until I got tired of dealing with Durants (which took about 45 seconds), then did the rest of it under Max Repel. My second time through it now, so I got to look around and consider it a bit more, and as Victory Roads go, I really have to say that this one's not bad. It's still tedious, but there've been much worse. Looped around and got all the items, even though none of them are really of any use to Sebastian. Then came out in front of the League.
Knowing what I was going to be facing, I decided that Ice Fang, much though I like it, wasn't going to do me much good, so I replaced it with Aerial Ace. Even that wasn't really necessary, and it actually does just a little bit less damage than Return (Aerial Ace is 75 so super effective on a fighter it's 150, Return is 105 so with neutral STAB it's 157), but I just wanted another useful attack so I had no risk of running out of PP.
So this was Sebastian, ready to go in...
and
And first up was Shauntal.
I figured she was going to be easy, and she was. Her ghosts went down to a single Crunch each. And it was on to Grimsley.
He was a bit tougher. Scrafty survived a Return, but he countered with Sand Attack, so I hit him with an Aerial Ace for a KO. Krookodile survived a Return and countered with an Earthquake that took about a third off of Sebastian. Grimsley used one of his Full Restores on the next turn and Sebastian hit with another Return. Then Grimsley used his other Full Restore and Sebastian hit again. Finally on the next turn he KO'ed the Krookodile. Bisharp next - Dig on the first (and second) turn, then Sebastian took a minor loss to a Night Slash, then Dig again for the KO. And finally Liepard. I took the first turn to give Sebastian a Hyper Potion while Liepard hit with the predicted Fake Out, then Sebastian KOed it easily with a Return on the next turn. Next up, Caitlin.
As I expected, her psychics were no problem - like Shauntal's Ghosts, they all went down to a single Crunch each. Then what I figured would be the toughest challenge for a Stoutland - Marshal's fighters.
He opened with Throh and Sebastian took him down with a crit on an Aerial Ace. Next up was Conkeldurr. Sebastian hit with an AA and took it down to less than 25%, then it countered with a Hammer Arm that took Sebastian down to 80 points (from his total of 218). I pondered it a minute and decided to go for it, and Marshal didn't use a potion, so the next AA fainted Conkeldurr. Next up was Mienshao. I was feeling exposed with Sebastian at 80 points, so I took a turn to give him a Hyper Potion, and Mienshao hit with a Jump Kick and took Sebastian right back down to 90 points. I could see that going on for too long, so I gambled on Sebastian's speed (and 20 level advantage) and set up an Aerial Ace, which went first and hit for a OHKO. Then it was Sawk's turn. I knew Sturdy was going to be a problem, and I knew that Sebastian couldn't survive starting at 90 points, so I gave him another Hyper Potion on the first turn. And Sawk hit with, of all things, Karate Chop. It took about 45 points off of Sebastian. So I just let it go and hit with an AA, which failed OHKO only because of Sturdy, while Sawk countered with another weak Karate Chop. On the next turn, Marshal gave Sawk a Full Restore, then Sebastian hit him with another AA that was stopped by Sturdy. We just repeated that until Marshal ran out of Full Restores, then KOed him. Much easier than I thought it was going to be.
Then it was on to the promised final battle with the Champion. Except, of course, that there was no battle with the Champion, because N was already there, and then Bowser's... I mean N's castle popped up out of the ground and so on.
I have to admit though, as sort of cheesy as all that is, it's really pretty cool when the Gym Leaders show up and confront the Sages.
Went up through the castle and talked to everyone and such, then saved in front of the last door, ready to go in and face down N. And Ghetsis. And Ghetsis' Hydreigon.
Yeah... I prob'ly oughta put Ice Fang back on Sebastian first, now that I think about it...