August 17-20
August 17, 1999
Aidyn and I decided to visit the Ruins of Alph before leaving Violet City this morning. I managed to solve the tile-slide puzzle inside which opened a trapdoor that dropped us both into a strange ruin below! We explored around and encountered these weird hieroglyph Pokemon that the Dex identified as "Unown". I caught one and sent it back to Professor Elm for cataloging and research. It seems like they only know Hidden Power so they aren't much use in battle. We managed to find a ladder that led to the other above-ground ruin, so we weren't trapped down there. It certainly was weird and I let the archeologists there know about what Aidyn and I found. After that detour we finally headed South down Route 32 to carry on to Azalea Town. While there Aidyn caught a Bellsprout, Pidgey, Rattata, and Wooper while I only found a Mareep. I don't recall if Aidyn named Bellsprout or Rattata, but I do remember Pidgey and Wooper being named "Fluffy" and "Booper" respectively. As for my Mareep, I called him "Shoop". He's real soft and likes to brush up against my legs, and they get along real well with Boris (still can't determine Boris' gender by the way). I gotta sleep though. We set up camp right outside Union Cave (oh yeah this fat weirdo was haggling us to buy Slowpoke tails…. gross) and will go through there tomorrow. -Ethan
August 18, 1999
Before going spelunking into Union Cave I challenged my sister to a battle. It was a 3 versus 3, where I used Dundee, Kooka, and Shoop while Aidyn used Lava, Nin, and Fluffy. I led with Shoop but he was quickly knocked out thanks to a good prediction by Aidyn. Just as Shoop's Thundershock was about to connect with Fluffy, she ordered the bird to use Mud Slap on the attack, causing it to fizzle out. Fluffy then directed more Mud Slaps at Shoop, distracting him and causing their subsequent Thundershocks to miss until the poor guy was knocked out. I then sent out Kooka, who quickly attacked with a barrage of Pecks, though Fluffy held her own (oh right, Fluffy is a female) against the onslaught and shoved Kooka away with Gust. After Kooka recovered I ordered a Fury Attack and that did Aidyn's Pidgey in. She was down to her last Pokemon and sent out Lava, her starter. The little rat cooked my Spearow with Ember and it was down to Dundee! I figured that with his type advantage, Dundee would take out Lava with one or two hits, but our opponent got lucky when they Evolved mid-battle into a Quilava! Lava's newfound strength allowed him to take out Dundee with only 3 Tackle attacks, and I lost.
After healing my team at the nearby Pokemon Center we finally entered the cave where we were immediately attacked by a swarm of Zubat that Shoop had to repel. Thanks to the glowing ball on Shoop's tail we were able to find our way through the cave in only about half an hour, and still had plenty of daylight left to burn. When we entered the town we saw these weird guys in all black with bright-red R's on their shirts, and I overheard something about Slowpoke being kidnapped. It kinda creeped us out, so we just dropped our stuff at a room in the town Pokemon Center and went to train and explore in Ilex Forest for the rest of the day. -Ethan
August 19, 1999
So I figured out what the deal with those guys in black were. They were the people kidnapping Slowpoke that I overheard! Some old geezer who makes PokeBalls filled me in and we rushed over to the Slowpoke Well to drive them out (Aidyn went back to Ilex Forest to train earlier, so I was by myself)! Old guy fell down the ladder so I had to go face the thugs on my own. They're a nasty bunch, call themselves "Team Rocket" (sounds familiar I think?), Dundee and Shoop put in a lot of work against these criminals. Dundee especially was still mad about losing yesterday so he gave his all. When I busted their operation most of the grunts fled, but the leader tried to stay behind and fend us off. Dundee had just evolved into a Croconaw after defeating one of their Ekans, so the leader's Koffing was a breeze to defeat. Eventually all of the goons escaped back towards Union Cave and weren't seen again. That whole ordeal was tiring and took most of the day, so I went back to the Pokemon Center and slept after helping the geezer and their own Slowpoke (guy's name is Kurt) back to his house. I think Aidyn returned sometime after Midnight with a Kakuna in her arms. (oh i wrote this the morning after driving out Team Rocket) -Ethan
August 20, 1999
Seems like what Kurt and I did worked, because there were Slowpoke everywhere in Azalea Town this morning! After a nice breakfast Aidyn and I made a beeline for the Gym so we could take on Bugsy and his famed Scyther, as for what I thought was a Kakuna last night, it was actually a Metapod. Aidyn named her "Marge", and it evolved into a Butterfree after battling the Gym Trainers.
I went up against Bugsy first, and he opted to lead with a Metapod that utilized String Shot to try and hinder Kooka's speed, though it was no match for my little bird and quickly went down. Next came out a Kakuna that was a little more threatening with Poison Sting, but still went down in two hits. Finally I came up against Scyther, and now I see why it's famous; this thing was incredibly easy to defeat, I'm actually disappointed and so was Kooka. In fact I think the Scyther itself might be a good battler but Bugsy is just bad at commanding it. Kooka took no damage and evolved into a Fearow after the battle, and I "earned" my Hive Badge. Aidyn's battle was much the same and her Pidgey became a Pidgeotto. I hope the following Gym Leaders aren't such pushovers, because battling Bugsy was honestly just sad. We're going to depart for Goldenrod City tomorrow morning. -Ethan