Please note that this will contain spoilers to the story and events of Pokemon Black/White and Black 2/White 2. Leave now if this is a problem to you.So I made my way to Route 20 and met up with that odd hiker who felt it was his duty to stop people without badges from passing. He couldn't say no this time, but he did decide to show off by challenging me to a fight. Well, tried to show off anyway, but he fell like all the others. I continued onward only for Hugh and Cheren to catch up to me by some dark grass. There was a neat explanation of the potential for encountering pokemon that attack in doubles here and that is would be tough. Bianca also showed up and gave the pokedex an upgrade, showing what pokemon lived in each area I had visited, which I thought was an excellent addition.
I let Hugh play around in the dark grass and continued on my way, defeating more trainers on my way. I got to sample my own first doubles battle too, through which I soundly defeated them. The area wasn't offering anything else of interest though so I headed into Virbank City. Upon entering the city I saw an argument between two people; something about causing trouble for people and duties. Whatever. Annoyingly though that guy was hogging up the attraction to the north so they wouldn't let me in. I looked around and chatted to the people in the city. I did come across the gym, but opted not to go in just yet. Someone made a remark about the Virbank Complex and catching magnemite there. I didn't really care for a magnemite since I already had a good electric type in my team, but I figured a little exploration before my gym battle couldn't hurt.
When I walked in some guy asked me to go motivate his workers. With pokemon battles of course. Quite why he was the supervisor and wasn't doing this himself was a mystery, but it was a chance for experience so naturally I decided to go for it. I must say though, I think Health & Safety organisations would go crazy upon seeing a place like this. Parts of the complex were only accessible by walking along dangerously narrow pipes high above and the guy running the place just expected a youngster to do this without any safety equipment. I really should have reported the place to the authorities but, you know, experience. So I went all around the relatively small place and defeated the various trainers. It seems there were others in here too. Were they also sent by that supervisor guy? Honestly, what a terrible person he is.
Sadly, this area also marked the first time a member of my team fainted and it was such a lousy moment too. I had calculated the flow of a battle against one of the random trainers quite well and figured that my Mareep would just manage to defeat their Lillipup. Or would have if the critical hit gods didn't decide to smite my poor sheep right there. Of course, Tepig stormed in and wiped the floor with that dog afterwards, but it was still a stinging result. I eventually found and defeated all the workers and returned to the supervisor to pick up a nice new TM. Not sure how much use Rock Smash is going to be but it was still a nice bonus.
Before heading to the gym I did a little training to bring my levels around equal. I had long since stopped training the Patrat so I had a core team of three. During this training my pokemon learned some strong moves (Lillipup gained Take Down and Tepig learned Flame Charge) and two of my pokemon evolved too (Lillipup again and Mareep). I was feeling pretty confident now so I healed my team at the pokemon center before heading for the gym. My second badge was waiting for me in there and I was going to get it, despite once again going in with a lack of type advantage.
Apparently Roxie didn't care for a puzzle layout for her gym, as it was an underground club instead. I have to say though, I have no complaints. Especially as that music was freaking awesome. I decided to chill a bit first. After all, I've been so busy since leaving my home that I haven't had much chance to rest. Nobody would serve the "special" drinks to me though, but I chatted to people and listened to the music.
Eventually though, I knew I had to get a move on. I headed onto the stage, noting just how little care the band had for personal safety. First off, I challenged Roxie's two band mates. I was kinda impressed at how well they were able to keep jamming along as we fought. Less so impressed by their actual battle skills, neatly ploughing through their poison pokemon. With the warmups over with I approached Roxie.
As expected, the gym leader is a step above her pals. My Tepig and her Koffing duked it out, exchanging attacks well. As her pokemon neared defeat she used a super potion to keep it going. Not to be outdone, I gave my prized fighter some fresh water to even things up, leading to a victory. My Tepig continued the fight against her Whirlpede and continued on to take the victory there too. My Tepig stole the show and even evolved at the end of the battle. Roxie gave me a new badge and a TM too.
It seemed that my activities in Virbank were far from over. A man approached me and indicated that I was destined for stardom and invited me to head over to the Pokestar Studios. Intrigued I healed my team at the pokemon center and then headed for the studios. I was given a neat tour of the place and watched the movie that the ship captain I saw earlier starred in. It was hilarious, even though I don't think that was the intention. Still, it looked interesting and they let me give it a shot. The movie I starred in was mostly the same kind that I had just seen, but I was determined to shine. Using the rental Riolu they gave me, I acted opposite this guy Brycen and acted my heart out. Afterwards I checked out the result and it looked pretty sweet. I even had a fan already. Maybe I'll return here eventually to do more.
However, I had places to go so I left and headed towards where boats were docked. On the way I saw Roxie and Hugh getting into a conflict with some suspicious looking people, so naturally I dived in too. One of them thought they were all that, but my Flaffy quickly set the record straight. These members of Team Plasma (who shall be referred to as Plasma Grunts from here on) fled past us. Naturally we gave chase onto Route 20. I fought one of them myself and beat them again, only for her to dash past me again. I guess I'm not as good at catching people as I am pokemon.
badumtissshOh well, I couldn't get all down about that. I headed back to Virbank at Hugh's urging. Next destination is Castelia City.
Current Location: Virbank City.
Current Team: Pignite (Lv18), Flaffy (Lv16), Herdier (Lv16), Patrat (Lv10), Lillipup (Lv4).
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