Rainbow Chara X
Impossible to gauge!
- 129
- Posts
- 9
- Years
- Shiny Hunting in Sinnoh
- Seen May 12, 2025
This chapter's title is more than just a reference.
Chapter 4 - Pride and Pestilence
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Let's get to business already. There's a zombie fresh for experience hogging.
"It was once a zombie, but either Gleis or Dantalion has carefully removed all of its bones through its nose and now it can't move."
That's some Mortal Kombat fatality shit right there.
"It was once a zombie, but either Gleis or Dantalion has nailed it to the ground with its own amputated arm."
These guys are very effective, I'll give them that. At least this means I don't have to deal with as many pains this episode.
Here's a Repel in case you don't want to deal with wild Mons. The area above us is completely unassailable for the moment, so let's not bother with it now.
"It was once a zombie, but either Gleis or Dantalion has buried its feet in the Earth and cut off its hands. Now it is stuck and wobbles in a comical manner."
On one hand I feel like laughing but on the other hand I feel pity for the damn thing.
"It was once a zombie, but Gleis has torn its face off and tied its brain to a tree root. You know it was Gleis who did it because its head is covered in Faceleech spit."
Nasty. Faceleech was evil when we fought it, but I'll give it this. It's metal as fuck.
Also, Ace got into a fight offscreen and lost to another Taillow. Amazing.
"It's a strange demonic creature like a snail, except it uses this man's corpse as its shell. It looks like it's going to move very, very slowly."
... Just roll with it. It'll get out of the way eventually. For now we have more pressing matters.
It's a blue-haired athlete dude.
: "Ye-yes?"
???: "I am Dantalion, servant of the one you call Gleis."
Dantalion: "Yes I have. What do you think of this one, by the way? Does it suit me?"
He's hitting on Jack like a goddamn wrecking ball.
: "... Yeah, sure."
Dantalion: "Thanks. Anyway, the Master has instructed me to remain outside and keep a lookout. He wants you to go inside - I shouldn't keep him waiting if I were you."
: "Ok. Thanks, Dantalion."
I don't even know what to say about this.
is that a new grinding session i smell
"Come over here and we'll talk further."
Huh. Let's talk to the girl before we do anything.
"This girl's eyes glow a soft silver. She murmurs unintelligible nothings under her breath. The words are red and shudder angrily in her mouth."
That's legitimately unnerving. What the hell even happened to her?
[Current Audio: Elite Four Appears]
"Then I shall tell you. One sets up a suitable vessel for the demons to flow through from the Pit, and then one casts the appropriate spell. This girl here is the vessel - she is channeling the demons through. If I can break the spell on her, no more demons will appear."
: "So what do I do?"
"When the demons in the Pit sense their portal to this world being closed, they will flock towards it in the hopes of getting through before it closes. I need you to beat them back before they can get through."
: "Y... you're serious. Okay. I'm ready when you are."
Oh no. What did we get ourselves into?
[White flash followed by two more]
Landon: "May? Oh she's gone shopping in Slateport with her friend Elise - you know, the Cut Man's daughter.
[White flash]
: "Are you quite alright, Jack? You appear to be swaying slightly."
: "Yeah, I'm fine I think. It was just a little flashback... I remembered who this girl was. She's the Cut Man's daughter - I remember her. I'm ready to go now!"
^ dan's brain
: "Very well. I'll begin work on breaking the spell."
Oh christ, here we go. What is it going to be?
I... what. Let's dissect what we're looking at here. It's a messily put together red guy with Brock's eyes, a Groudon claw and a Zangoose claw. Wearing black pants. I... wow, the demon corpses looked a lot scarier. I know this hack does not exactly contain the best sprite quality, but Cutlerine could have gotten creative and made the demon guys like super-hell Pokemon or something.
Or you know, hired someone to do the sprites.
Belial here has two Anorith, though. Why that Pokemon of all things I'll never know, but apparently Anorith are the spawn of the devil now. Also, I mulled it over and gave Grasswhistle to Reggie. Surprisingly, it worked.
However, it woke up on the switch to Bellamine (the Anorith know Harden - physicals be damned) so it wasn't that great.
Now here's something funny. They know Mud Sport, just in case you decided to bring in a Pikachu. And the only other person that has a good chance of hurting this thing was Ace. So technically Bellamine saved the day for this fight.
Not that it was much of a threat to begin with.
: "It was something by the general meaning of: 'I dislike you intensely."
I don't like you either, Belial.
Awww here we go. This has to be promising.
... It's literally the same guy but with a different name!
Second verse same as the first with the fight too, cause they both have the same Pokemon. Also, demonology.
Belial is a King of Hell (#68 in the Lesser Key of Solomon) and was created as the first spirit after Lucifer. He has the power to distribute senatorships and gives excellent familiars. He must be presented with offerings, sacrifices and gifts, or else he will not give true answers to demands. So you could describe him as basically a super-competent hiring guy.
Asmodeus, on the other hand, is another King of Hell (#32). His appearance is something that Cutlerine could have really taken advantage of, as Asmodeus is described as "strong, powerful and appears with three heads; the first is like a bull, the second like a man, and the third like a ram; the tail of a serpent, and from his mouth issue flames."
Like imagine that instead of this Brock-wannabe with a Groudon claw.
Bellamine politely shows them the way back into Hell.
: ("What are you talking about, Jack? These are the easiest fights we've been in so far.")
: ("I know, but this could get nasty if we keep going so let's just stop here.")
: ("I understand.")
: "I have almost completed the required spell, Jack. Give me a moment more... There! Done it!"
[Elise blinks in and out of existence before disappearing entirely]
: "It would appear that she was consumed by the energy released from the ending of the spell. It is just as well. If she had not absorbed it, the energy would have killed us."
Oh fuck we killed her.
... Not that it matters that much given she was a minor character.
: "We will meet again some day."
[Fade to black]
: "Still, I suppose I can't expect driving out demons to be a bed of roses. Now that they're driven out, I should continue my search for my brother and May. Maybe someone in Verdanturf knows something about them."
Like I said. Jack's reactions to everything are appropriate for the situation and that's why I like him.
I couldn't resist.
Not sure if Pumbloom is going to be used at all, but Exploud is pretty badass. So I'll keep him in mind.
You can get a Max Ether here.
Again, I don't recommend ever using these as they're part of the too-good-to-use club. Let's make our way to Verdanturf and see what's been changed.
[Current Audio: Verdanturf Town]
Yeah, no kidding. This place got destroyed. I should also mention that Verdanturf has always been one of those songs that really touch my heart, so to hear it to this scene where the town is practically a crater makes me kinda sad. It's like a shadow of its former self.
[White flash]
: "What's with this flashback? They don't usually hurt as much - Aagh!"
Pestilence: "Ha! The boot is on the other foot now! I knew you couldn't stand against us. And now all that's left is to bid you... adieu!"
[Extended white flash]
: "What was that?"
Damn, Jack, you must have taken a real fumble if you wound up there. I'm surprised he doesn't have any bruises.
"I'll bring you to my boss."
She has a boss? Are we at Gravetric already?
Oh. Never mind.
: "You're - you're Pestilence! But... from where do I know you? And why can't I remember anything about you other than your name?"
Pestilence: "YOU! What are YOU doing here? I thought you were dead, destroyed along with that deadbeat town... But wait. You say you only remember my name?"
I love how nonchalantly Jack says this after Pestilence just said "I thought you were dead" and the fact that her name is PESTILENCE. He's either not caring or having an incredible lapse of logic. It's the latter, I'm afraid.
Pestilence: "At least I had some success. I may have not killed you, but the impact appears to have at least erased your memory. Needless to say -"
Pestilence: "Pestilence, the only female member of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, cannot afford any loose ends!"
The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse?
Cutlerine, out of everything you could have picked from the pre-existing mythos of Pokemon, you went with the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse? I mean, come on, dude. At least make them Pokemon if you're going to do this!
Her sprite is blech too, but I guess it fits since she's supposed to be... sickly, I dunno.
Pestilence being the horseman of disease would explain why she has like two of these. Also, I think the zombification of Grimer made it even more gross looking. But guess what? It's still just Poison type.
This woman is absolutely stealing the show today. That's my girl.
Pestilence's Pokemon, aside from the Moulders, is this Qwilfish. Don't be fooled - this is actually not Qwilfish. It is in fact Tentacool with a Qwilfish reskin. This will become much more relevant as time passes. Also, she's pretty hard if you don't properly train up a Pikachu as demonstrated by the beating she left on Ambes.
They're called grinding sessions, babe. They're not hard to do.
: "No matter. We shall leave this base for now and build ourselves another one. Come, Alicia!"
[She walks offscreen]
"Please forgive me for attacking you all those times, but... Times have changed. I work for the Horsemen now and I can't show you any mercy. I won't fight you this time, but next time I'll go all out against you."
I do not buy this for one second.
: "... It's no use. She's not coming back."
What was Jack even going to ask Alicia? I'm curious now.
"What is going on here? How do all these people know me? And why can't I remember anything about them?"
[White flash]
: "Wait a minute. What's that?"
: "I remember what this is!"
Hot damn, we finally get a Pokedex!
"Is this my brother's? He had one, I think. No, wait. He had completed his, I seem to remember. May had one that she didn't finish, didn't she? So this is hers! But what was Pestilence doing with May's Pokedex? Hm... I probably stand a good chance of finding out if I continue on my search. For now, I'll use this Pokedex myself."
Cool. With that revelation, let's actually use our brand new Pokedex.
Let's look up Ralts to see the earliest possible place we can pick one up.
LILYCOVE?! ARE YOU FOR REAL?!
Man, now I'm glad I cheated to get Bellamine. I am not waiting until we get to there of all places.
I should mention that Verdanturf has some really weird thing going on where the exit pointer constantly shows up as you face down but there's no exit that goes to the south. I guess he just didn't want people to get confused by this layout or something.
"The zombie appears to have been made completely dizzy by the heat of the lava. Its dry body is on the verge of catching on fire, so you'd better move away."
I'm really glad Cutlerine didn't make zombie Pokemon that explode. Because that would have been disgusting.
"This Charizard appears to be enjoying the heat here. You think about catching it, but as it has a collar around its neck, you decide it belongs to someone, and leave it alone."
Jack being a goody two-shoes again. Do you know the damage we can cause with a Charizard, man?!
Feh. Let's go into this cave.
WHAT
This isn't a cave.
"Welcome to Endless Plains. Thank you for visiting and please stay within the force field."
I admit it's much more deserving of the Verdanturf music than the actual town now, but... Where the hell are we? Were we teleported here?
Also, even though it's called Endless Plains, this map isn't that much bigger than a house. I guess that's just how much the "force-field" covers.
Sweet. Now we can progress through the route above Rustboro.
My main man Larry has the goods.
Back on Route 116, the demon snail with a man-shell has moved out of the way. If this was any other game, it... would still sound kinda weird.
"This man has had his brains delicately scooped out through a hole in his skull the size of a ten pence piece. You are beginning to suspect that the zombies have an unusual sense of style when it comes to killing people."
Almost comically uncharacteristic for the zombies that we've seen so far. It must have been a much more powerful kind of zombie. Also,
He gives us the Snakewood equivalent of the Amulet Coin. That's alright, I suppose.
As we try to leave the Route, we get called by Birch.
"Hey, Jack, it's me! Listen, I've got news for you. I managed to reprogram an old military satellite and have got a working connection with Dewford Town. Because it's an island, it appears they're completely unaffected by the plague."
: "That's cool and all, Prof, but what does any of this have to do with me?"
"Your brother and May were seen in Dewford a few weeks ago. You should go and investigate."
: "Okay. How do I get there?"
"Here's the tricky bit. You'll need HM Surf and a Balance Badge to get there. I don't know where you can find the HM, but I know there's a couple of survivors from Norman's gym. I think they might have a badge or two lying around - look for them around Rustboro and ask."
: "Okay. Will do. See you, Birch."
: "I'll call you later. See you, Jack."
Alright, we have a definite mini-goal to reach. Cool, cool. Although it's pretty obvious Landon or May are still not on Dewford.
Upon coming into this route, there's completely nothing on the left. Well, nothing we can do without Surf just yet.
Go to the right and you get a Super Potion and some Bluk berries if you have the crazy idea to do Pokeblocks in this hack.
(spoiler alert: you can't.)
Uh? That's not right. I didn't use cheats this time either, so that's a legitimate map error.
"Hey! This dead guy's got a Pokeball on him. Let's see what it contains."
Okay, hold the phone.
Jack wasn't comfortable with stealing three Pokemon that were in the middle of nowhere, but he's perfectly fine with looting off of dead peoples' bodies? What kind of sense does that make?
(so glad Sun and Moon did away with this mechanic, by the way)
There we go. I would use Magikarp... if I were predictable, but the thing it has is much more important. (By the way I like Gyarados but I feel the spot for this adventure would be better filled up by something else, preferably one of the new Fakemon)
We give it to Zagon because she's the most usefulhm slave Pokemon on the team.
Also, I don't know what to do with Benedict. All it knows is Leech Life. Maybe it should get the bench after this episode? I dunno.
Also, hello zombie (ghost) girl. She has a zombie Ivysaur and that's all fine and good.
However, she has something worse.
(kinda) RUDE CRUDE DUDES ALERT
Charmeworm (ha ha) here is basically an upgraded Rotmander, with all of the things that made the first one hard to deal with. He also has Smokescreen, which makes trying to hit him an absolutely lovely experience. I like that he has the Charizard shiny colors, but other than that, there's not much to worry about if you prepared.
I did not. Therefore Zagon got kicked out of the fight. Poor gal.
But Ace gets to show off his skills once again.
Rock Smash? Well, I'll keep this in mind for later.
Huh. There's a lady here that doesn't have a mangled sprite. Let's talk to her.
"I'm the only trainer left alive from Petalburg Gym. That makes me the Gym Leader and means I need to uphold its honor by defeating you!"
Bring it on.
The Gym Leader theme isn't playing, by the way. That's a bit lame.
RUDE CRUDE DUDES ALERT (for real this time)
Christ almighty. Zangoose not only looks cool but she can absolutely rip you apart with a Swords Dance boost. It's a pretty heinous strategy for this early in the game, and it makes Zangoose as strong as Faceleech in some regards.
There was also a Delcatty as the second Pokemon. Cute Charm wound up being really annoying, but I don't have much to say as she got criticaled by Reggie. I did have an Alice joke in there to make, but I didn't feel like it would work.
Regardless of any fallacies on my part, Laura falls.
She gives us the Balance Badge!
But no TM though. She said she could only escape with the badges so that's a shame.
"Now, go and prove I wasn't just weak! Go and beat some zombies!"
: "You don't have to tell me twice."
Alright, sweet. Now that we have the Balance Badge, we can use surf now. But wait a second, let's take a look at our team.
Oh wow, WE GOT ROCKED
There we go, much better. But take a note, everybody: If an enemy has used Swords Dance at least twice, drop the fight and run away. There is no shame in it.
Cutlerine changed the surfing message too. Although it may not make sense now, we'll be surfing on more than just water in this game. Just trust me.
With that said... Next time on Pokemon Snakewood, we'll be heading to Dewford.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Team set-up:
(Reggie, level 16, has Leftovers,
/
) - Contemplating life until he gets a good grass or bug type move
(Bellamine, level 17,
) - Taking care of the team
(Zagon, level 14,
) - Currently surfing
(Ambes, level 16,
) - Drooling at the amount of EXP to be gained from fighting water Pokemon
(Ace, level 17, has Anadrin Talon.
/
) - Keeping a lookout
(Benedict, level 9,
/
) - Doing egg things.
(Alice, level 10,
) - ooh she mad
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Chapter 4 - Pride and Pestilence
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Spoiler:
Let's get to business already. There's a zombie fresh for experience hogging.
"It was once a zombie, but either Gleis or Dantalion has carefully removed all of its bones through its nose and now it can't move."
That's some Mortal Kombat fatality shit right there.
"It was once a zombie, but either Gleis or Dantalion has nailed it to the ground with its own amputated arm."
These guys are very effective, I'll give them that. At least this means I don't have to deal with as many pains this episode.
Here's a Repel in case you don't want to deal with wild Mons. The area above us is completely unassailable for the moment, so let's not bother with it now.
"It was once a zombie, but either Gleis or Dantalion has buried its feet in the Earth and cut off its hands. Now it is stuck and wobbles in a comical manner."
On one hand I feel like laughing but on the other hand I feel pity for the damn thing.
"It was once a zombie, but Gleis has torn its face off and tied its brain to a tree root. You know it was Gleis who did it because its head is covered in Faceleech spit."
Nasty. Faceleech was evil when we fought it, but I'll give it this. It's metal as fuck.
Also, Ace got into a fight offscreen and lost to another Taillow. Amazing.
"It's a strange demonic creature like a snail, except it uses this man's corpse as its shell. It looks like it's going to move very, very slowly."
... Just roll with it. It'll get out of the way eventually. For now we have more pressing matters.
It's a blue-haired athlete dude.
???: "I am Dantalion, servant of the one you call Gleis."
Dantalion: "Yes I have. What do you think of this one, by the way? Does it suit me?"
He's hitting on Jack like a goddamn wrecking ball.
Dantalion: "Thanks. Anyway, the Master has instructed me to remain outside and keep a lookout. He wants you to go inside - I shouldn't keep him waiting if I were you."
I don't even know what to say about this.
"Come over here and we'll talk further."
Huh. Let's talk to the girl before we do anything.
"This girl's eyes glow a soft silver. She murmurs unintelligible nothings under her breath. The words are red and shudder angrily in her mouth."
That's legitimately unnerving. What the hell even happened to her?
[Current Audio: Elite Four Appears]
"Then I shall tell you. One sets up a suitable vessel for the demons to flow through from the Pit, and then one casts the appropriate spell. This girl here is the vessel - she is channeling the demons through. If I can break the spell on her, no more demons will appear."
"When the demons in the Pit sense their portal to this world being closed, they will flock towards it in the hopes of getting through before it closes. I need you to beat them back before they can get through."
Oh no. What did we get ourselves into?
[White flash followed by two more]
Landon: "May? Oh she's gone shopping in Slateport with her friend Elise - you know, the Cut Man's daughter.
[White flash]
^ dan's brain
Oh christ, here we go. What is it going to be?
I... what. Let's dissect what we're looking at here. It's a messily put together red guy with Brock's eyes, a Groudon claw and a Zangoose claw. Wearing black pants. I... wow, the demon corpses looked a lot scarier. I know this hack does not exactly contain the best sprite quality, but Cutlerine could have gotten creative and made the demon guys like super-hell Pokemon or something.
Or you know, hired someone to do the sprites.
Belial here has two Anorith, though. Why that Pokemon of all things I'll never know, but apparently Anorith are the spawn of the devil now. Also, I mulled it over and gave Grasswhistle to Reggie. Surprisingly, it worked.
However, it woke up on the switch to Bellamine (the Anorith know Harden - physicals be damned) so it wasn't that great.
Now here's something funny. They know Mud Sport, just in case you decided to bring in a Pikachu. And the only other person that has a good chance of hurting this thing was Ace. So technically Bellamine saved the day for this fight.
Not that it was much of a threat to begin with.
I don't like you either, Belial.
Awww here we go. This has to be promising.
... It's literally the same guy but with a different name!
Second verse same as the first with the fight too, cause they both have the same Pokemon. Also, demonology.
Belial is a King of Hell (#68 in the Lesser Key of Solomon) and was created as the first spirit after Lucifer. He has the power to distribute senatorships and gives excellent familiars. He must be presented with offerings, sacrifices and gifts, or else he will not give true answers to demands. So you could describe him as basically a super-competent hiring guy.
Asmodeus, on the other hand, is another King of Hell (#32). His appearance is something that Cutlerine could have really taken advantage of, as Asmodeus is described as "strong, powerful and appears with three heads; the first is like a bull, the second like a man, and the third like a ram; the tail of a serpent, and from his mouth issue flames."
Like imagine that instead of this Brock-wannabe with a Groudon claw.
Bellamine politely shows them the way back into Hell.
[Elise blinks in and out of existence before disappearing entirely]
Oh fuck we killed her.
... Not that it matters that much given she was a minor character.
[Fade to black]
Like I said. Jack's reactions to everything are appropriate for the situation and that's why I like him.
I couldn't resist.
Not sure if Pumbloom is going to be used at all, but Exploud is pretty badass. So I'll keep him in mind.
You can get a Max Ether here.
Again, I don't recommend ever using these as they're part of the too-good-to-use club. Let's make our way to Verdanturf and see what's been changed.
[Current Audio: Verdanturf Town]
Yeah, no kidding. This place got destroyed. I should also mention that Verdanturf has always been one of those songs that really touch my heart, so to hear it to this scene where the town is practically a crater makes me kinda sad. It's like a shadow of its former self.
[White flash]
Pestilence: "Ha! The boot is on the other foot now! I knew you couldn't stand against us. And now all that's left is to bid you... adieu!"
[Extended white flash]
Damn, Jack, you must have taken a real fumble if you wound up there. I'm surprised he doesn't have any bruises.
"I'll bring you to my boss."
She has a boss? Are we at Gravetric already?
Oh. Never mind.
Pestilence: "YOU! What are YOU doing here? I thought you were dead, destroyed along with that deadbeat town... But wait. You say you only remember my name?"
I love how nonchalantly Jack says this after Pestilence just said "I thought you were dead" and the fact that her name is PESTILENCE. He's either not caring or having an incredible lapse of logic. It's the latter, I'm afraid.
Pestilence: "At least I had some success. I may have not killed you, but the impact appears to have at least erased your memory. Needless to say -"
Pestilence: "Pestilence, the only female member of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, cannot afford any loose ends!"
The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse?
Cutlerine, out of everything you could have picked from the pre-existing mythos of Pokemon, you went with the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse? I mean, come on, dude. At least make them Pokemon if you're going to do this!
Her sprite is blech too, but I guess it fits since she's supposed to be... sickly, I dunno.
Pestilence being the horseman of disease would explain why she has like two of these. Also, I think the zombification of Grimer made it even more gross looking. But guess what? It's still just Poison type.
This woman is absolutely stealing the show today. That's my girl.
Pestilence's Pokemon, aside from the Moulders, is this Qwilfish. Don't be fooled - this is actually not Qwilfish. It is in fact Tentacool with a Qwilfish reskin. This will become much more relevant as time passes. Also, she's pretty hard if you don't properly train up a Pikachu as demonstrated by the beating she left on Ambes.
They're called grinding sessions, babe. They're not hard to do.
[She walks offscreen]
"Please forgive me for attacking you all those times, but... Times have changed. I work for the Horsemen now and I can't show you any mercy. I won't fight you this time, but next time I'll go all out against you."
I do not buy this for one second.
What was Jack even going to ask Alicia? I'm curious now.
"What is going on here? How do all these people know me? And why can't I remember anything about them?"
[White flash]
Hot damn, we finally get a Pokedex!
"Is this my brother's? He had one, I think. No, wait. He had completed his, I seem to remember. May had one that she didn't finish, didn't she? So this is hers! But what was Pestilence doing with May's Pokedex? Hm... I probably stand a good chance of finding out if I continue on my search. For now, I'll use this Pokedex myself."
Cool. With that revelation, let's actually use our brand new Pokedex.
Let's look up Ralts to see the earliest possible place we can pick one up.
LILYCOVE?! ARE YOU FOR REAL?!
Man, now I'm glad I cheated to get Bellamine. I am not waiting until we get to there of all places.
I should mention that Verdanturf has some really weird thing going on where the exit pointer constantly shows up as you face down but there's no exit that goes to the south. I guess he just didn't want people to get confused by this layout or something.
"The zombie appears to have been made completely dizzy by the heat of the lava. Its dry body is on the verge of catching on fire, so you'd better move away."
I'm really glad Cutlerine didn't make zombie Pokemon that explode. Because that would have been disgusting.
"This Charizard appears to be enjoying the heat here. You think about catching it, but as it has a collar around its neck, you decide it belongs to someone, and leave it alone."
Jack being a goody two-shoes again. Do you know the damage we can cause with a Charizard, man?!
Feh. Let's go into this cave.
WHAT
This isn't a cave.
"Welcome to Endless Plains. Thank you for visiting and please stay within the force field."
I admit it's much more deserving of the Verdanturf music than the actual town now, but... Where the hell are we? Were we teleported here?
Also, even though it's called Endless Plains, this map isn't that much bigger than a house. I guess that's just how much the "force-field" covers.
Sweet. Now we can progress through the route above Rustboro.
My main man Larry has the goods.
Back on Route 116, the demon snail with a man-shell has moved out of the way. If this was any other game, it... would still sound kinda weird.
"This man has had his brains delicately scooped out through a hole in his skull the size of a ten pence piece. You are beginning to suspect that the zombies have an unusual sense of style when it comes to killing people."
Almost comically uncharacteristic for the zombies that we've seen so far. It must have been a much more powerful kind of zombie. Also,
He gives us the Snakewood equivalent of the Amulet Coin. That's alright, I suppose.
As we try to leave the Route, we get called by Birch.
"Hey, Jack, it's me! Listen, I've got news for you. I managed to reprogram an old military satellite and have got a working connection with Dewford Town. Because it's an island, it appears they're completely unaffected by the plague."
"Your brother and May were seen in Dewford a few weeks ago. You should go and investigate."
"Here's the tricky bit. You'll need HM Surf and a Balance Badge to get there. I don't know where you can find the HM, but I know there's a couple of survivors from Norman's gym. I think they might have a badge or two lying around - look for them around Rustboro and ask."
Alright, we have a definite mini-goal to reach. Cool, cool. Although it's pretty obvious Landon or May are still not on Dewford.
Upon coming into this route, there's completely nothing on the left. Well, nothing we can do without Surf just yet.
Go to the right and you get a Super Potion and some Bluk berries if you have the crazy idea to do Pokeblocks in this hack.
(spoiler alert: you can't.)
Uh? That's not right. I didn't use cheats this time either, so that's a legitimate map error.
"Hey! This dead guy's got a Pokeball on him. Let's see what it contains."
Okay, hold the phone.
Jack wasn't comfortable with stealing three Pokemon that were in the middle of nowhere, but he's perfectly fine with looting off of dead peoples' bodies? What kind of sense does that make?
(so glad Sun and Moon did away with this mechanic, by the way)
There we go. I would use Magikarp... if I were predictable, but the thing it has is much more important. (By the way I like Gyarados but I feel the spot for this adventure would be better filled up by something else, preferably one of the new Fakemon)
We give it to Zagon because she's the most useful
Also, I don't know what to do with Benedict. All it knows is Leech Life. Maybe it should get the bench after this episode? I dunno.
Also, hello zombie (ghost) girl. She has a zombie Ivysaur and that's all fine and good.
However, she has something worse.
Charmeworm (ha ha) here is basically an upgraded Rotmander, with all of the things that made the first one hard to deal with. He also has Smokescreen, which makes trying to hit him an absolutely lovely experience. I like that he has the Charizard shiny colors, but other than that, there's not much to worry about if you prepared.
I did not. Therefore Zagon got kicked out of the fight. Poor gal.
But Ace gets to show off his skills once again.
Rock Smash? Well, I'll keep this in mind for later.
Huh. There's a lady here that doesn't have a mangled sprite. Let's talk to her.
"I'm the only trainer left alive from Petalburg Gym. That makes me the Gym Leader and means I need to uphold its honor by defeating you!"
Bring it on.
The Gym Leader theme isn't playing, by the way. That's a bit lame.
Christ almighty. Zangoose not only looks cool but she can absolutely rip you apart with a Swords Dance boost. It's a pretty heinous strategy for this early in the game, and it makes Zangoose as strong as Faceleech in some regards.
There was also a Delcatty as the second Pokemon. Cute Charm wound up being really annoying, but I don't have much to say as she got criticaled by Reggie. I did have an Alice joke in there to make, but I didn't feel like it would work.
Regardless of any fallacies on my part, Laura falls.
She gives us the Balance Badge!
But no TM though. She said she could only escape with the badges so that's a shame.
"Now, go and prove I wasn't just weak! Go and beat some zombies!"
Alright, sweet. Now that we have the Balance Badge, we can use surf now. But wait a second, let's take a look at our team.
Oh wow, WE GOT ROCKED
There we go, much better. But take a note, everybody: If an enemy has used Swords Dance at least twice, drop the fight and run away. There is no shame in it.
Cutlerine changed the surfing message too. Although it may not make sense now, we'll be surfing on more than just water in this game. Just trust me.
With that said... Next time on Pokemon Snakewood, we'll be heading to Dewford.
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Team set-up:
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