A Brilliant Diamond Story

Chapter 6: Ghost in the Machine

Buuut, it seemed she wasn't home! I actually traveled the whole distance, without Fly, just to be told to bounce. So, with that awful disappointment now burning a hole in my patience, it looked like it was time to visit Celestic Town.

So, I made my way through the rest of Route 210, beating up four Naruto-cosplaying children along the way, and gaining a strange feeling that I was being added to a Pokecop most wanted list, I ended up in the, most irritating location since Wayward Cave. A foggy forest the likes of which I could not navigate to save the life of me. Seriously, I had to grab a map online to get through here, because I was never given Defog and the fog in this zone was so thick I couldn't even see myself. But thankfully, I managed to get through to Celestic Town, crushed the grunt outside the cave, and met Cynthia's grandma, who apparently thought the grunt was a guy from outer space. Well, with a bowl cut like that, I'd imagine only aliens would think that was a human hairstyle...But surprise! Something I actually was unaware of, having played plain-jane Diamond so long ago, er...Dialga and Palkia wanted to just off humanity. Yeah. Apparently Azelf, Uxie and Mesprit were called the Lake Guardians not because they would defend the world when needed, but because they did defend the world from the gods of time and space. Pretty metal, if you ask me.

But then, stepping out of the ruins, Cyrus instant-transmissioned next to us, literally told me his whole plan, and just peaced out. "Hey, this world has too much strife, let me know if you find anything I can use, okay, seeya!" And now...I was left with no clue what to do. I explored the town, finding nothing...and then remembered that Gen 7 installed an objective tracker on the map. And now, it was off to Hearthome once again! Watch out, Hearthome! This time, I was there for keeps.

Gym #5: Fantina

Type: Ghost

Now, this gym was...disappointing, to say the least. From a dark maze of ghosts in the original game, to...picking doors to solve math problems. It almost felt like a meme, honestly. What's scarier than math? Especially in a game made for children. But, a few easy times counting on my fingers and we encountered Fantina. The first thing I noticed about this lady was that she was obviously from Kalos. She had ze French accent, no? She spoke parlait français, too. But weird language or not, I was not going to let some lady "Ohoho" at me, even if this was like an anime! Time to show her what we were made of.

First was Driftblim. Being a Ghost/Flying type, Zippy had no trouble taking it out with a Charged-up Spark. Then came her Gengar. This one actually survived a Bite because of some fancy berry it was holding, but it couldn't stand up to another one. And then came her Mismagius. Now...Zippy gave me quite the appreciation for his attack in this fight. It survived the first attack, so I went in for a Spark to finish it. Fantina, however, had other plans. She Hyper Potion'd it all the way back to full health, ready to fight me in a war of attri—and Zippy killed it with a critical hit. Even I was surprised. But I was proud, as well. Zippy had just won us that badge with hardly a sweat. And I had a feeling he'd be helping in the next one, too.

Stepping out of the French gym, my clothes no doubt reeking of Essence de Toilette, I was suddenly jumped by Cynthia. Classic plot progression, yadda yadda, but fun fact; the lighting changes from sunset to nighttime in Bright Diamond at exactly 8pm. I know this now, because mid-conversation, the entire sky just went from red to black like it dropped from above like in the Spongebob Hall Monitor episode.

But regardless, Cynthia suggested we go to Canalave City, and I'm not one to turn down plot. So, a quick flight to Jubilife City—and a mad dash for the exit because I'm still convinced everyone there is evil—and we were on our way.

Down Route 218 we went, totally trusting a friendly Bibarel, a wild animal, to ferry us across the water. It could have drowned us at any time, so why didn't we...nevermind. I crushed a few fishermen's hopes and dreams, found some lady who was terrible at communicating with her boyfriend, found the boyfriend who was on the opposite side of the river, and made it to Canalave City. Thank Arceus.

After exploring the place and finding a secret path that gave me a useless TM, I ran into Barry, who wanted to test my skills yet again. Well, my leg strength certainly got tested when I booted him into the river.

But nevertheless, we set sail for Iron Island, where we beat up yet more children, and found a guy dressed like a blueberry pimp named Riley. Gee, I wonder what Pokemon he used—oh. It was Lucario. Well, same Pokemon, just evolved. Don't judge me. But...yeesh. Riley's hat moved like it was its own entity, and I did not appreciate that. But after our trip through the depths of Iron Island, the last thing I expected showed up; more Team Galactic thugs, who were apparently responsible for agitating the Pokemon around here. So, we beat both of them and apparently phased them out of space and time, because they simply disappeared and didn't come back. After that, Riley thanked me with an egg, which I could easily guess would hatch into a Riolu, which, as a Fighting Type, wouldn't exactly be the best addition to the team, even if it became Steel-type when it evolved. So, into the box it went, and I continued back to Canalave City, and into the sixth Gym.

Gym #6: Byron

Type: Steel

It was at this moment that I realized not just a few, but every Gym Leader was a pun of their type. Ones like Roarke and Gardenia were obvious, but...Crasher Wake as the Water-type? Fantina? Phantom? And now Byron...take away the B, you've got Yron, pronounced like Iron. Well, the more you know, right?

Regardless, this gym was an absolute cluster of typings. I think I ran into one Steel-type the entire way to Byron, which put Zippy at a definite disadvantage, since most of the other chosen types were at least partly Ground-type, nullifying Zippy's Electric devastation. But, the whole gang was there to back him up, and we eventually ascended to the top floor, which had to be some 50 feet above the roof of the actual building at this point, but who cares?

But Byron proved to be far more intelligent than those I'd faced thus far. He started with a Bronzor, something I knew Zippy could handle with ease...until it suddenly flipped the script. It used Trick Room, which flips the Speed stats of our Pokemon, and was able to use Confuse Ray on Zippy before I could even get a finishing blow off. Then, right as I was sure we had it, Byron suddenly withdrew Bronzor and sent out Steelix, ensuring the attack that finally made it through the confusion had zero effect. But that was...okay. I swapped in Leaf to predict an Earthquake, and sent one right back. But it survived thanks to its Sturdy, and so I sent in another Earthquake, anticipating a Potion heal this time. But, instead, Byron withdrew Steelix this time, and sent Bronzor back out, its Levitate nullifying the Earthquake entirely. Now sweating as I realized the AI must have gotten an upgrade somewhere, I started moving around his moves like we were in some kind of sick reverse-psychology game. Steelix came back out, and this time I perfectly timed Byron's healing with yet another Earthquake to bury his Steelix for good. And then, Byron sent out Bastiodon, who honestly proved less of a threat than Byron's previous dancing. Two solid quakes put it down...and badge 6 was finally ours.

And now, it was time to think. Even if it was rudimentary swapping to predict my attacks, Byron was clearly more intelligent than the rest of the Gym Leaders up to this point. Was this foreshadowing? Was each major fight going to be an even greater, more intelligent threat than this? God, I hoped not. And hoping had gotten me this far, right?

So, badge in hand, I stepped outside to face the day—

BOOM!

I swear...

That thug I had chased all the way to Lake Valor had apparently set off his fancy bomb, so Dawn, Barry and I decided to split up to investigate each of the lakes and make sure Team Galactic wasn't about to bomb half the country.

Well, as they say...ain't no rest for the wicked.