Bug Vs. Normal
After beating Flannery I went directly to the desert to find my new team member, however the mirage tower weren't there so I headed over to the Fossil Maniac. I got dig from him and then returned and the Mirage Tower weren't there still...
Without knowing how to get it to appear I googled it and found out that it is random if it appears. With not much trouble I ran between the desert and the nearby route until it appeared.
I used my bike to go to the top and grabbed the Claw Fossil which will become my new member in the team. I headed over to Rustboro City and ressurected the fossil into a healthy Anorith which I nicknamed into Ancient. From the president I also took the exp share which I gave to Ancient since it was at level 20 when my other pokémon are close to or if not already 30.
After my visit at Devon Corporation I headed over to Petalburg City's Pokémon Gym and prepared myself for challenging every trainer there.
First up is Cooltrainer Randall with his Swellow. With Ancient in the lead I switched to destiny to take the hits. However, Destiny went down with a critical hit Wing Attack so I switched into Fate which survived a wing attack with barely any HP and took it down with HP Electric.
I then decided to switch Silent to the front since its a normal gym and not many would be able to hit it or so I thought at first. Anyways after ressing Destiny and healing up Fate I went ahead and challenged the next trainer.
Cooltrainer Parker was next up in the line with his Spinda. Silent killed herself with confusion from the Teeter Dance which really was annoying during this fight. I switched back and forth to Silent after ressing it but it kept killing itself with confusion so I decided to go to Destiny in the end and finally killed the Spinda with some psybeams. I hate confusion so much after this fight.
Next up is Cooltrainer Jody with her Zangoose. She didn't have an attack which could hurt Silent so after maxed Swords Dance it went down with one HP Fighting.
After that battle I challenged Cooltrainer Alexia with her wigglytuff. Thinking she couldn't hurt Silent I decided to swords dance up but to my unforunate surprise it had Shadow Ball. That really sucked for Silent. I decided Destiny would be great to take it on, I used harden to survive the Double-Edge and took it down with psybeams. I got a fortunate crit on psybeam making the wigglytuff go down faster. After the battle I let Destiny learn Light Screen since that will help against special using pokémon, especially fire types.
Next up is Cooltrainer Mary with her Delcatty and as stupid as I was I didn't switch out Silent knowing full well that the Delcatty probably got Faint Attack and Silent was taken down once again. I switched into Fate this time to get some exp but after surviving a shock wave I had to switch to Destiny instead. I put up light screen and then psybeamed away.
Later after that battle I went ahead and challenged Cooltrainer George with his Slakoth. Believing that Slakoth wouldn't be able to hurt Silent I got hit by a shadow ball... go figures. Anyway I decided to go with Destiny for the kill once again.
After a bunch of devastating matches for Silent I went and challenged Cooltrainer Berke with his Vigoroth. I started out with Swords Dance and he used slash. Figuring it wouldn't be able to hurt Silent I went ahead and maxed its atk and then took it down with HP Fighting.
The last trainer is now down at it's time to battle the leader! Or dad...
Gym Leader Norman would like to battle!
First up is a spinda. To my surprise Norman switched it out for vigoroth. Because I was stupid to think I was faster when I know silent even got a -speed nature, I tried HP Fighting but to my demise it used Faint Attack and killed it off. Oh well I switched into the HM Slave and ressed Silent to use later in the match.
I switched in Destiny and managed to confuse the Vigoroth with psybeam. Luckily for me it kept hitting itself making it so much easier. Norman switched in Spinda again so I decided to switch in Silent again. I used a swords dance on the switch when he switched out to Slaking.
Even Slaking managed to outspeed Silent and killed it off with faint attack. I switched back to Destiny and he did almost no damage to Slaking. While using harden and light screen + some psybeams, Slaking managed to crit Destiny and then it all went downhill.
Slaking managed to take down all my remaining pokémon without much trouble...
Before trying it out a second time I decided to go to Lavaridge Town to restock some potions and revives.
All right time for take 2! This time I start off with Fate to be able to take care of the spinda at least. With some Mega Drains I managed to take it down.
Next up is vigoroth, I decided Destiny could do well against it. Getting an encore after I used harden weren't all that great... But I decided to let Destiny stay in to max it's defence anyways. My hugest threat were Vigoroth's slash since it's crit could kill Destiny. After maxing defence I decided to go with Psybeam for the confusion possibility. After some psybeams it were taken down.
I decided Destiny could stay in on Norman's linoone since it had maxed up defence already. Linoone managed to get a crit on slash but forunately Destiny survived with 8HP. After some psybeams it finally got confused, it hurting itself helped a lot in its demise. However Norman's multiple uses of Hyper Potion slowed it down as well... Linoone managed to crit with facade but didn't take Destiny down to red HP.
With linoone's desperate attempts at taking down Destiny, Destiny finally managed to become the victor over the battle. It would of been easier if Silent were out but I figured he would switch to slaking if I did so.
Last up is finally slaking. I decided Destiny could stay in and try to at least stall out faint attack if it used it. Yawn didn't threaten me much since Destiny had high defence up to survive hits from slaking. It really helped that slaking were loafing around each other turn since it wasted some counter on those turns. Thus I varied with HP Bug and Psybeams on turns he were loafing around and such. Thankfully for norman wasting his Hyper Potions on Linoone, slaking went down with some ease.
Thus I've won over Gym Leader Norman and earned my 5th Badge! =D
I got the Balance Badge and TM Facade! Facade could be great on a later team member if it got guts. =P
After the gym battle I got surf from Wally's father and went to heal up at the pokémon center where I'm currently located.
.:Current Team:.
Fate the Gentle Beautifly:. LV30 ::HP-Electric::
~ Hidden Power, Gust, Mega Drain, Flash
Destiny the Quirky Dustox:. LV31 ::HP-Bug::
~ Psybeam, Hidden Power, Moonlight, Harden
Silent the Quiet Shedinja:. LV27 ::HP-Fighting::
~ Hidden Power, Cut, Leech Life, Swords Dance
Ancient the Adamant Anorith:. LV22 ::HP-Unknown::
~ Hidden Power, Scratch, Water Gun, Harden
Mudkip Lv6 (HM Slave)