-Shortly after we’d recovered in the PC, a huge BOOM echoed out through the city, smoke immediately began rising from the Great Marsh and a TG member came sprinting out of the main building, before sprinting away to the City exit. Only seconds after he disappeared, the familiar shape of Looker appeared from the Marsh and chased him out the City.
-Deciding it might be better to give him some backup (not that I would cry if something happened to him) I join the chase. I notice Barry and Crasher Wake heading into the Marsh as I’m leaving. They can handle that. I catch up to Looker at the Valor Lakefront, just in time to see Looker’s Croagunk defeated by the grunt’s own Croagunk. Wasting no time I call out Truman and punish the grunt myself.
- “Perhaps I was wrong about you, you really don’t seem like someone set to defend Team Galactic, regardless, I must give chase. I need to uncover their plans!” Is all Looker says before dashing off after the grunt. As he disappears, Cynthia appears and asks me to go and feed some medicine to Solaceon’s Psyduck and get em to move. Normally I’d tell her to stuff it but given that I’m regarded as a slight criminal and I don’t wanna make things worse for myself.
-Back on Route 210 I cure the Psyduck and lo and behold, Cynthia is here. Concealing my frustration, I agree to take an Old Charm to her grandmother in Celestic Town. I hesitantly agree, last time she sent me to do something tedious she appeared anyway.
-Fighting my way to Celestic Town is a pain because fog sucks but we made it anyway. I find her grandmother scolding a Galactic Grunt for threatening to blow the city up. I feel like she isn’t taking the threat very seriously so iI set my team on the grunt and laugh as they whoop him all the way out of the city. As thanks the old lady guides me into the ruins and gives me an HM, she explains the story of the ruins to me and the crazy guy with blue hair appears.
-He reveals himself as the leader of Team Galactic and reveals his mental plans to us. Safe to say, we challenge him to a battle and he loses. He seems unperturbed and leaves the ruins again. Then surprise surprise, Cynthia appears -_-
-After she thanks me for protecting the town, I decide to waste no more time and fly back to Jubilife and surf on to Canalave City. Soon after arriving in Canalave Barry appears and challenges me to a battle, he loses and begin to understand how the region works for trainers with 6 Pokemon, only being allowed to use three myself is making my travels significantly easier. I teach Keating Shadowball for a little bit of coverage we head to Iron Island to train a little, just to be safe.
-Naturally TG appears again here too, but I team up with a man named Riley who has a very impressive Lucario! We chase TG out of the island and find a chamber that my Pokedex tells me used to be the home of Registeel, as my Pokemon each begin to search the chamber I hear Keating cry out from my right and turn to see her surrounded in a blinding white light. Before I knew it I had a powerful Roserade stood by my side.
-With the team fully evolved and ready I decide now is the time to take on the Canalave City Gym. As I’m about to enter however Keating falls ill and we send her back to the Pokemon Center. It becomes clear that she wants us to fight the gym anyway after she threatens to poison us if we didn’t go, so we make our way onwards to Byron.
-The only challenge with Byron was his Magneton. Having a Crobat and an Azumarill on my side was an issue with electric types. We soon overcame it however secured ourselves our 6th badge. Keating made a full recovery soon after and we were ready to get back on the road. As we went to leave, Barry appeared and told me the Professor was waiting for us in the library.
-As we get to the top floor of the library, I’m greeted with a Togetic to the face. I soon realised it belonged to Dawn and noticed she and the professor were seated nearby. As he began to explain his research to me the entire building began to shake. For the second time in not long enough, I heard a loud BOOM and clutched onto the table for my life.
-As it settles down again the TV behind us switches to an emergency broadcast and shows pillars of smoke rising from Lake Valor. The Professor assigns each of Me, Dawn and Barry to a lake (naturally I get the one that’s been blown up) and we all take off to investigate.
-Back at Lake Valor I’m greeted by the results of the last explosion. The lake isn’t really a lake anymore, it’s more like Valor Pit. Magikarp are bouncing around all over the place and amongst them, are members of Team Galactic. I make sure to beat each and every one of them as a punishment before heading into an open cavern in the center of the ‘lake’bed.
-Inside the cavern is the final TG Commander that I had left to meet, Saturn. We battle and I kick his butt, however he reveals to me that the legendary of the lake is already back at their base. “I imagine my comrades have finished with your friends by now as well,” he adds as a taunt before strutting back outside.
-I fly straight to Lake Verity where I know Dawn and the Professor are investigating and find Dawn and her Togetic fighting off Mars’ Purugly. Before the battle ends I run to Dawn’s side and watch with a smug grin as recognition flashes across Mars’ face. She informs us that the Pokemon of this lake is long gone too and orders a retreat.
-Not wanting to leave Barry in danger, the Prof tells me to head up north to Snowpoint City. He gives me the HM for Rock Climb and tells me I’ll need it to get to the lake. I fly back to the base of Mt. Coronet and head through some caves until I emerge on a route covered in a thick layer of snow.
-The battles are hard but we make it all the way up through the blizzard, until we get to the lakefront, making our way up the cliffs to reach the actual lake, I see Barry get defeated by Jupiter, who orders her Skuntank to ‘finish him’ however Kesha smacks it away before it can deliver a fatality. Not even pausing to look at me, Jupiter calls out her Bronzor and teleports away.
-After consoling Barry and convincing him to continue his journey, we both head into Snowpoint City and prepare to challenge the gym. However, upon learning that the leader uses ice-type Pokemon, Keating refuses to join in the battle and once again I’m left with only truman and Kesha to fight for me.
-Although I was initially nervous about this, they cleared the gym without much trouble (Kesha has been amazing since learning Aqua Tail) and I head back to Veilstone to buy all of the supplies ever. As I leave the department store Looker stumbles by, looking considerably worse for wear. After catching his attention and making sure he’s okay, he reluctantly asks for my help invading the Galactic Base here in Veilstone. I agree, eager to make myself a thorn in their side.
-Breaking in through the warehouse on the edge of the City, Looker and I proceed to sneak our way through the base, warp panels suck and are very confusing but eventually we made it to a very large, empty room. Before I know it, Looker pulls me down behind a nearby desk as hundreds of Galactic Grunts start swarming the room, I thought we’d been discovered but soon realised they were here for their leader, Cyrus, to give a speech. Thankfully that wraps up without us being noticed and we continue sneaking through the base.
-Eventually we reach a darkened room with a big locked door, we assumed this is where Cyrus was hiding and Looker pulled out a card key he had managed to steal from a grunt. He unlocks the door and I head into the room, secretly impressed with his skill. We find Cyrus waiting inside and he wants to battle me again, I defeat him with little trouble and he storms out of the room, declaring his intentions to create a new world at the top of Mt. Coronet.
-Looker and I head deeper into the base and find a laboratory filled with tanks of green liquid. We stumble into the next room and find the three Legendary Pokemon of the lakes trapped inside some machines. Saturn is guarding the button to release them and refuses to let me free them. I stomp him in a battle and get Kesha to move him for me, which she eagerly does and we manage to free the Pokemon.
-Leaving the base, Looker declares my innocence, finally realising he was wrong he apologises for what he has done before asking for my help once more. He asks e to climb Mt. Coronet with him to put an end to Cyrus’ plans. Thinking about it, if he had asked me this a few months ago I would have outright told him no, but something about this journey has changed me and before I know it, we’re heading up the mountain together.
-Halfway up Mt. Coronet, Barry turns up and says he wants to help fight TG, clearly he’s holding a grudge against Jupiter, but after exchanging introductions between him and Looker, he joins our little team in the climb. The mountain is crawling with TG Grunts but we handle them pretty easily. After what feels like an eternity of climbing, we make it to the summit. We’re greeted by a duo of the team's ‘most powerful grunts’ but they quickly fall to Looker and I. Moving on, Mars and Jupiter appear and challenge me and Barry to a battle. The battle was long and hard but we pulled out a victory and Looker heals my Pokemon.
-Cyrus turns to face me as I approach him. His expression remained blank as he told me I was too late, as he says this two huge ‘holes’ appear behind him, it looks like a sphere of space has opened up and within seconds, Dialga and Palkia come appeared out of the spheres. Just as Cyrus was about to command them, the three lake guardians appeared and alongside them was Dawn, riding on the back of her now fully evolved Togekiss. They shot down towards us as the lake guardians launched themselves at the Legendary Pokemon. Cyrus however just laughs.
-He announces that although Dawn’s idea was smart, the lake guardians couldn’t contain both Palkia and Dialga. She shoots past him and orders Togekiss to launch an Aura Sphere at Dialga, as she does, the lake guardians launched at Dialga pushing it backwards towards the portal it came from, their efforts however were futile as Dialga began to resist, it was obvious they wouldn’t succeed.
-Cyrus lifted the Red Chain above his head but was interrupted once again. This time by what looked like a hole appearing in the ground in front of him. It grew until Dawn and I were completely separated by it and Cyrus was backed up against a pillar of stone. A huge shadowy shape crawled up out of the whole in the ground, it let out a fierce cry before turning its shadowy head round to Dialga and Palkia. To my disbelief, they both retreated back into the portals and disappeared. Suddenly the monsters head whipped around to face Cyrus and it roared again, before grabbing him with a shadowy claw, and dragging him down into the hole, which shrank again until it became a tiny portal in the ground.
-Moments later Cynthia appeared looking flustered. She quickly explained to us that that shape was a Pokemon named Giratina and we had to go and rescue Cyrus from the ‘Distortion World’ (I was quite happy to leave him there to be honest) before I knew it though, she leapt into the portal in the ground and disappeared. Before I could even respond to that, Dawn leapt in after her. Finally finding my feet again, I followed through as well.
-I appeared in a world where things were just wrong. Walkways were floating around and in the distance, I could see a waterfall that was flowing upwards. Not wasting any time, Cynthia declared we had to find Cyrus before it was too late and charged off, leaping onto a floating platform, that seemed to glide forwards as she landed.
-Partnering up with Dawn, we carefully made our way through the world. Apparently Dawn had some kind of connection to Mesprit which allowed he to find it and ask for help, that connection also lead to the other lake guardians following suit as Dawn and Mesprit had climbed Mt. Coronet alone. The lake guardians had also followed her here it seemed, as they soon appeared around us and showed us how to navigate through the Distortion World. Eventually, they lead us to Cyrus.
-After arguing with Cynthia for a while, Cyrus eventually turned to me “Will you dare to face me one more time, before I destroy this wretched world and bring your world down with it?” Of course I would, I had come too far to give up now. Dawn gave me a reassuring smile and a couple of potions for my Pokemon and soon, our battle was underway.
-The fight stretched on for what felt like hours but eventually, we managed to claim victory over Cyrus and his team. Giratina appeared once again, calmed now, by Cyrus’ defeat. It opened another portal for us to leave through, returning us back to our world. Just as I was about to leave an unfamiliar voice spoke in my head. “Return soon Trainer, and show me everything you have learned on you journey!” I turned back to Giratina and gave it a nod, before finally diving back into my own world.
-After Cynthia and her Garchomp disappeared with Cyrus towards the Pokemon League, Dawn thanked me for my help before deciding to escort the lake guardians back to their homes. I myself left for Sunyshore City, I only had one badge left to collect after all.
-After reaching Sunyshore, which wasn’t too far from where the portal had landed us, I met a man named Flint who challenged me to challenge the Gym Leader, who was apparently about to resign from his duties due to boredom. I agree and head to the lighthouse where the Leader is apparently waiting. I find him staring down a set of binoculars and upon my arrival, he declares he will wait for me at the gym and leaves. I look through the binoculars and discover he was staring at the Pokemon League.
-Making my way through the gym proved to be a significant challenge, clearly Volkner had too much time on his hands as the gym was filled with elaborate traps and puzzles. We soon made it to him however, and after a long battle, we emerged victorious. He actually seemed excited by this and reignited his passion as a gym leader. He gave me a TM that I will never use and I left the gym.
-Outside, a woman I recognised as a Gym Leader from Johto was chatting with Barry. As i approached he turned to me and excitedly told me that he was almost caught up to me in strength and that he would challenge me at the Pokemon League. Jasmine seems happy with our friendship and gives me an HM as thanks. We say goodbye and my team and I make our way north to Victory Road.
-Victory Road was fierce! We came close to wiping out many times due to the sheer power of some of the trainers in there, however, we gave it our all and managed to fight our way through every single one of them. Eventually we emerged from the cave and came face to face with the Pokemon League.