Started new game, named self Calenlily and told my friends to call me Calen. Picked Froakie. Got a female the first time I soft reset for a better nature, named her Frogger.
Picked up a Bunnelby on Rt 2 for an HM slave and Pickup support, but apart from that it was just me and Frogger through Santalune City. Detour to Rt 22 to catch a Psyduck, name her Pita, spend some time grinding her up so I'll have two viable before challenging the Santalune Gym. While it's been smooth sailing with Frogger, Pita struggles considerably more. Hit the gym, let Pita take as many trainers as she can since she needs the Exp, then Frogger (who's a Frogadier by now) easily takes Viola's team. Get my first badge and the Exp Share, hooray.
Head down Rt 4, during which time Pita hits level 15, learns Confusion, and starts to be moderately useful. Reach Lumiose City, battle the Professor (where Pita's Confusion comes in very handy against Bulbasaur, though she dies to Leech Seed shortly after taking it down), and get my choice of Kanto starter. Pick Squirtle, of course, and name him Sheldon. Head down Rt 5, now focusing on training Sheldon, and he gets to level 16, learns Bite and evolves into Wartortle before we leave the route.
Camphrier Town, Rt 7 west, Rt 6 and the Parfum Palace are all pretty uneventful. I've got a decent little party by now but I'm mostly focused on getting to the other side of Rt 7 so I can get my next party member. Finally get the flute and wake the Snorlax, knock it out and finally reach Rt 7's tall grass. Getting a Ducklett encounter seems to take forever but once I do the first one I find is a +SpA female. Name her Odette and make her my new primary training focus. Odette provides very welcome coverage against grass and bugs and starts being a BAMF even before she reaches the level of her teammates.
Get a bit of Exp and money at the Battle Chateau, then head through the Connecting Cave and over Rt 8 to Ambrette Town. Get the Rock Smash TM, and promptly run all over the beach smashing all the rocks I can find until I get a decent Binacle. Catch Binacle, name her Billie, train Billie and Odette through Rt 9 and the Glittering Cave. Return to Ambrette Town and cross Rt 8's beach to arrive in Cyllage City.
Everyone gets a few hits in in the Cyllage Gym, 2nd badge acquired. Billie mains Rt 10 (with a little help from Odette) since she's still underleveled and we reach Geosenge Town. I'm nervous about facing Korinna at the exit, but Sheldon easily handles her Lucarios with Bulldoze.
Odette and Pita both evolve on Rt 11 as we approach Reflection Cave, and Sheldon and Frogger achieve their final evolutions on the way through the cave. Billie is MVP of Reflection Cave despite being my lowest leveled and only still unevolved team member. (This game's pacing is very odd; it doesn't seem right to be exiting Reflection Cave with an almost all fully evolved and approaching level 40 team but unable to buy Full Heals because I only have two badges.)
Arrive in Shalour City. Billie takes Calem's Meowstic and Absol at the Tower of Mastery, and Odette takes Quilladin. Odette effortlessly sweeps the fighting gym, 3rd badge acquired. Return to the Tower, grumble about being forced to battle Korrina with a Lucario that I don't want, win the battle and get the Mega Ring. Equip Sheldon with his Mega Stone.
Get Surf from Calem, teach it to most of the party, then head down Rt 12. Box Pita to collect the gift Lapras, name her Nessie. Arrive in Coumarine City, promptly pick up the Good Rod and go fishing in Azure Bay. Catch a Remoraid and name her Octavia. Catch a Chinchou and name her Lumi. (Both take a number of catches before I find individuals with the right ability and a decent nature.) Decide I'm not going to use Nessie after all and box her and my Diggersby in order to free up party slots for Octavia and Lumi. They're both a good 15 levels behind the rest of the party and take some serious effort to get leveled up. Octavia evolves into Octillery almost immediately, but I hold Lumi back so she can learn moves quicker, and use Eviolite to bolster her defenses in the meantime. Explore Azure Bay and everywhere else I've previously bypassed on account of needing Surf in order to get Lumi as much Exp as possible.
Return to Coumarine City. Battle Calem outside the Coumarine Gym, using the same Pokémon and moves as last time. Challenge the Gym, Octavia is able to take Ramos's Jumpluff with a few Aurora Beams and Odette sweeps everything else.
Octavia handles Rt 13 easily enough and spends a while grinding there before heading into the Power Plant. Put Lumi up against Team Flare, but she's really struggling, so I let her evolve after she learns Signal Beam at level 34. She does a bit better after that, but is still noticeably the weakest team member.
Arrive back in Lumiose City. Fight all the trainers in the back alleys before heading to the gym. Let Lumi take the first few gym trainers, since Volt Absorb makes her better than immune to electric attacks, but she's still not holding up too well, so I switch to using Sheldon instead. Sheldon easily sweeps the gym by Mega Evolving and spamming Bulldoze, deferring only to Billie (who's a Barbaracle by now, don't remember exactly when she evolved) to take out Clemont's Emolga.
Another battle with Calem goes down pretty much the same as the last two, except I let Lumi take on Absol this time and his starter is now fully evolved and thus doubly weak to Odette's flying attacks. Odette and Octavia see us down Rt 14 to Laverre City.
Challenge the Laverre Gym. Billie sweeps with Poison Jab plus Shadow Claw for the psychic dual types, with a little help from Sheldon's Bulldoze to take care of Valerie's Mawile and gym trainers' Klefki and Dedenne. With 6 badges down, head to the Pokéball Factory. Lumi (who got the Dazzling Gleam TM from the gym) is much more capable by now and carries the team here, with a little help from Octavia and Sheldon to deal with poison and electric types.
Head down Rt 15 to Dendemille Town. Take Frogger to the Move Relearner for Night Slash, and Sheldon for Flash Cannon (overwriting Bite with the latter, which he can afford to give up now that Frogger finally has a dark move). Explore the Lost Hotel and Rt 16 before returning to Dendemille and heading north to the Frost Cavern. Sheldon handles the wild Pokémon here, while Odette takes on the large number of fighting specialist trainers. Save Abomasnow from Team Flare's harassment and ride Mammoswine down Rt 17 to Anistar City.
The addition of a Vaporeon for Lumi to take out fails to make Calem any more threatening. Challenge Anistar Gym, where Frogger and Billie split the honors, and Lumi gets in on the fun to take down Olympia's Sigilyph before a Yawn from Slowking puts her out of action.
Emerge with our 7th badge to news of disaster and fly back to Lumiose City to raid Team Flare's hideout. Lumi mostly carries again (with a help from Octavia and Sheldon, the latter being crucial against a few of the scientists), at the hideout and in Geosenge Town, and solos Lysandre twice. Octavia goes up against Yveltal and tanks three attacks to put it in the red with 1 HP remaining herself, and the first Ultra Ball catches. Octavia goes on the take down Lysandre's Mienshao when he challenges me once again, then Lumi sweeps the rest of his team.
Return to Anistar City and head east once more, over Rt 18, through Couriway Town where I meet with the Professor again, and down Rt 19 to Snowbelle City. Sheldon mains against Shauna, Tierno, and Trevor.
Odette has pretty much carried the team through these routes and on an expedition to explore Terminus Cave, ending up five levels above the next highest party member, so she gets boxed for a while when I need Diggersby for HMs on Rt 20.
Catch up with Wulfric in Pokémon Village and return to Snowbelle to challenge the gym. Sheldon sweeps again, occasionally deferring to Billie and Octavia when they can target double weaknesses (as with Wulfric's Abomasnow, who falls instantly to Octavia's Flamethrower).
Return to Pokémon Village for the Psychic TM, and do some backtracking around Mountain Kalos to collect other items that require Waterfall to access before heading on to Rts 21 and 22. Enter Victory Road, where Octavia mains. I still have Diggersby in the party for Cut and Strength, but once I get to the grove about halfway through and he pushes the boulder into place to create a shortcut to the entrance, I can duck down that passageway and briefly return to the Pokécenter in Santalune City to return him to the box and retrieve Odette, who stays with me for the rest of Victory Road. Battle Calem once more, then finish making my way to the Pokémon League.
I try to maximize the amount of play everyone gets when we face the Elite Four, so I send in a different team member against each one of Malva's fire types. Lumi and Frogger split the honors with Siebold's water squad, and Sheldon and Octavia face off against Wikstrom's steel types. Octavia, Lumi, and Odette take on Drasna's dragons. When it comes time to face the Champion, Odette takes Diantha's Hawlucha, Sheldon faces Tyrantrum and Aurorus, Billie takes Gourgeist, Lumi deals with Goodra, and then Sheldon comes back out to meet Gardevoir.
Victory Road actually put quite a bit of wear and tear on my team, but the Elite Four are a joke. I don't take a single hit until after Malva and Siebold are down, and don't even bother with healing until I'm preparing to face the Champion. Diantha's Mega Gardevoir does manage to KO Mega Sheldon, but only because it got a paralyze off with Thunderbolt and I chose to be stubborn about finishing the E4 run without using any healing items in battle; Billie takes over to swiftly finish it off.
Championship achieved, I go attend a parade in my and my friends' honor. AZ challenges me, and Lumi quickly sweeps his team. Roll credits.
...I am officially bad at briefly summarizing.
