A Brilliant Diamond Story

Chapter 5: Washed Away

Not a damn thing.

It genuinely angered me. The best thing I ended up catching was a godforsaken Wooper! Not a Croagunk in sight! I was fuming.

But...nevertheless. I had to persevere. So I went grinding, grinding, grinding, just trying to get Blitz­ø and Egg up to the rest of the team's level. It took ages, but eventually, after Egg evolved into Chansey, I deemed them sufficiently more powerful than the wild Pokemon here, and we went off to challenge Crasher Wake.

Gym #4: Crasher Wake

Zippy turned this one into his own personal playground. He ran wild, electrocuting everything he could while Leaf cleaned up any of the Ground-types that might show their faces. Wake's Gyarados didn't even provide enough pause to stop Zippy, who tore into it like a hyperactive kid with a candy bag. His Quagsire, though, provided a bit more pause, and Leaf had to come in and Razor Leaf it into submission. Once it was dead, Wake sent out his Floatzel, and Zippy was more than happy to clean up the fight from there. So, with a decisive and brutal beatdown, Badge 4 was ours.

But it still wasn't enough. I was still fuming from my loss of any chance I could get a Croagunk, and I needed something to help me vent.

And then I saw a Team Galactic grunt. Perfect.

Perhaps sensing the imminent sadistic beatdown that was coming, the grunt took off with a package, and I sprinted after him, not be denied my venting session. But before I could follow him out of Pastoria, I was stopped by Barry, who wanted to have a fight.

Oh, even more perfect.

Zippy crushed most of Barry's team with ease, but when his Monferno came out, I suddenly realized a very important point; we didn't have anyone to cover Fire-types. Beav worked for the moment, but nobody else did. And considering Egg wasn't a Fairy-type, and only had a couple of Fairy-type moves, she might not work as a counter to...the Almighty Danger. So, I would have to pick up an Ice-type at some point, which would also be weak to Fire, and Beav was the only one I could think to drop from the team.

...Well. It would have to be a bridge we crossed when we got there.

The good news was, Egg evolved once again after the fight, finally achieving the status of Ultra Tank as Blissey...though I was still nervous. Egg's Special Defense was insane; despite being ten levels weaker than the rest of the team, her Sp. Def. was on-par, if not better than any of theirs. But her Defense stat was absolutely bottom-of-the-barrel, and I wasn't sure how to raise it. The only path I could think of was EV training, but I didn't even know where to start with that stuff.

Hmph. It would have to be another bridge to cross.

So, slam-dunking Barry into a dumpster, and my rage for my lost Croagunk still hot in my brain, I sped off after the Galactic grunt, who was headed for the Valor Lakefront like a bat outta hell. As I chased after him, Blitz­ø evolved into Rapidash, allowing me to catch him easily. I chased him all the way to the Valor Lakefront (thanks for stopping the obvious domestic terrorist, everyone else at the resort), and he decided to stop me with...a Glameow. Blitz­ø curb-stomped it with ease. So, the little thug fled to the Lake, and there, I met Cynthia again, who told me to forget about the actual cartoon villain who had barely escaped me, and she gave me some...magic medicine to help this barricade of Psyduck with their headaches. It's weed, it was weed, there was absolutely no doubt in my head that the "secret medicine" was cannabis.

So, I cleared the blockade with weed power, and then Cynthia ninja-appeared again like a Naruto character, this time to get me to deliver a charm to her grandma in Celestic Town.

All well and good, Cynthia, but there was something else that needed doing first.

It was time to challenge Hearthome's Gym Leader.