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.Well, after my third gym victory I had thought to go visit the home town of Touko. Even though it would take me away from the gym route I thought it might have been a worthwhile detour. Sadly, workmen picked this moment of all moments to do a check on the bridge and wouldn't let anyone past. So those plans had to be scrapped.
I headed towards route 4 instead, only for that weird guy from the sewers to appear before me again. The guy called himself Colress and asked if I'd entertain him with a battle. I agreed and he opted to meet me further in route 4 for it. I headed further into route 4 and meet up with him near a bunch of rocks. Well, apparently those rocks were pokemon and, upon Colress's direction, left the area. We had our battle too, which I easily won. The guy left, muttering something about bringing out pokemon potential.
I continued further in and checked out the ruins scattered about. Trainers challenged me as I looked around and I was able to grab a few items here and there. One kid even offered me a trade, but I couldn't even remember seeing the pokemon he was asking for in the wild so I had to decline.
Around the rear of one of the buildings was a strange creature. Imagine my surprise when I discovered it was a Braviary that was practically begging to be caught. The battle proved a bit tricky though as my lead Sandile's ability dropped its attack one stage, only for its own ability Defiant to immediately boost it back up two stages. Oh dear. Fortunately with good co-operation between several team members I was able to weaken it and catch it in a great ball.
My team was full at the time, but this seemed like a pokemon destined for my team. Eagerly, I cycled as fast as I could back to the city. On the way I was surprised at the pokemon breeder challenging me again. I guess she can't get enough of fights so I beat her again and got to the pokemon center. I took the opportunity to heal my team and then accessed the PC. Patrat was exchanged with Braviary. Now I was ready.
I raced back into the ruins area and continued to look around. Soon I reached a fork in the road. I opted to head to Nimbasa for now. I was shocked to stumble into something called Join Avenue and was given responsibility for attracting shop keepers and customers. I spent a little time doing this, ending up with a beauty parlour and an antiques store and boosting the popularity of the place a bit. I soon moved on and entered Nimbasa properly.
My, this place had lots to offer too. I found a trainer called Nate chatting to some strange guys in front of what I would learn to be the Battle Subway. I agreed to help this Nate in a doubles battle. I must say, those weird guys were tougher than I thought they might be, but our team were able to win. I even got a vs recorder for helping.
Exploring around showed a lot of other things too. A snooty Battle Institute that I apparently wasn't good enough to attend. Like I wanted to go in there anyway. I did visit the court and stadium buildings. Even though the teams were practising they didn't seem to mind trainers wandering around down there taking on some of the players in battles. Strange.
Then their was the Pokemon Musical. The guy running it spoke of Touko having been there and gave me the props she had used. There weren't actually that many, leading me to think that she didn't really care for it, but others spoke highly of her. I gave it a go myself, letting my Pignite demonstrate its elegance. I ultimately came to the same conclusion that I didn't like it either and left.
After a almost unsettlingly ride on the ferris wheel with a guy who complained the entire time I found the gym. Or I thought I did, but what used to be Elesa's gym was now just an attraction for the park. I did get some experience in there though and soon found the location of the real gym.
Inside there was no puzzle layout. It was pretty much a long catwalk leading up to a stage where Elesa was entertaining her fans. I fought off the three trainers leading up before I took on Elesa herself.
I must say, this fight was indeed tougher than the gym battles I had faced before. I opted to bring Flaffy out first and it used Echo Voice to take out both her Emolga and Flaffy. I decided to give my Flaffy a rest since it was suffering from paralysis and sent out Pignite to deal with Elesa's final pokemon Zebstrika. While its Pursuit did little to affect Pignite, its Volt Switch was a lot more damaging, making the battle a lot closer. My usage of Flame Charge did help my pokemon to outpace it and just managed to get the final blow in. I do think if the battle had gone on any longer I would have needed to switch.
With a victory I could be proud of acquired, Elesa awarded me her badge and gave me a TM. I was now roughly halfway through my journey. Elesa even had me appear on the big screen too. That was pretty cool. I left the gym and healed up at the pokemon center.
Current Location: Nimbasa City.
Current Team: Pignite (Lv27), Flaffy (Lv27), Sandile (Lv26), Braviary (Lv26), Herdier (Lv20), Lillipup (Lv4).
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