To the reviewer who said the SI 'needs more personality': I agree that that's a recurring problem right now, but it would be difficult for me/the SI to get invested in any characters in a world which has no solid characterisation to begin with (being that it's a 'generic' setting). Avoiding his true name is partly to impress the idea of a Player Character, since this mostly follows the video games and the PC's defining characteristic is that they're a blank slate you can project onto.
At least there's a decent amount of dialogue scenes in this chapter.
Pokemon: Hoenn; City Life50 (Fortree); Actual Starter: Eevee (Shiny50); Freerunning; Swarmed+100 (100)
Priority: Physical Fitness100; Survival Training100; Master Ball*3100; HM Collection50; Rebreather50; Psionics300; Savant600; Blend In300; Egg Move4 (Flail, Wish, Stored Power, Synchronoise)200; Combat Training100 (1900).
-Day 1301-
Kanto, was simple.
Simple was appreciated, given that my parents could see, even before I told them why, that I was still visibly shaken by my battle with Giovanni. I'd spent a solid week chiding myself for that stupid dick-measuring decision, but it had faded relatively quickly once I realised that I could have, in a pinch, defenestrated the five of them as easily as I had the Voltorbs. Fuck the murder convictions, no-one would pin that on an eighteen-year old psychic claiming to have been attacked by a resurgent faction of Team Rocket, including Giovanni and four of his Executive's, with CCTV security camera recordings as evidence.
Of course, the news ended up getting the recordings and the entirety of Japan got to see a barely-eighteen psychic fighting off all of the supposedly-disbanded Team Rocket's most senior members with a Shiny Espeon. Seriously, dude, fuck ganging up on one single trainer with like twelve fucking Pokemon, then six suicide bombing Voltorb, then another six 'personal Gym Leader' Pokemon. And my parents… were more than a little frantic, but the whole mess took place days ago, so it was already over and done with, wasn't it?
On the other hand… Evan won. It took six Sitrus Berries, four of which she was very grateful for, but she'd grown in leaps and bounds compared to when she'd first Evolved. Soloing eighteen highly-trained Pokemon belonging to a former Gym Leader and his 'employees' was a huge leap in effectiveness, even if some of them were Poison-typed.
Thus, I now felt that Evan was ready for the Gym Leader Rematches. But first, Kanto. And while we were at it, Sinnoh. Kanto's Gym Challenge was about as hard as you'd expect a Postgame Gen 4 Remake to be, when you're doing a solo run with a level sixty-ish Espeon. By which I mean, not as hard as it sounds when the combat isn't turn-based, but still a decent challenge that entertained her. Also, no plot threads: Team Rocket had been ousted long ago, as proven by their little Johto show a few weeks ago. It was shortly after my completion of the Kanto circuit, as I was touring the rest of the region, that finally my Choice Points ticked up to six hundred. Two years. Almost two whole years before I could take an undiscounted 'capstone' Perk (the most expensive, and often the most powerful/versatile). But it would be worth it. So worth it.
Though I'd made my mind up in advance, I'd basically figured out my entire build well before this point, I still took a moment to consider the other three Perks: Pokeglot (the ability to talk to Pokemon), which was slightly-redundant and something I'd get for free in any Jump where I was myself a Pokemon; Aura (generic life-force energy blasts, shields and empathic sense), which was definitely on-the-table for future purchasing but not exactly crucial when I already had Psionics; and Savant (perfect memory, mental calculation, spatial awareness and 'firearm aim' equal to two of the best gunslingers in history), which should boost my Psionics and was definitely something I wanted out of this Jump. Never forgetting where I'd left something, an arithmetic upgrade that would make my Certificate IV in Accountancy mostly obsolete (and make it really easy to earn official qualifications in future Jumps), and a dexterity/agility boost which would probably come in handy due to my new top speed being way over what I could control with certainty. Enhanced aim with a firearm might also bleed over into other things, and would without-a-doubt come in handy some day, when I went to a world where they were more common than the police departments.
So, I made the decision. Just like last time, I got Evan and my PokeGear set up in my treehouse Secret Base (since I had another family Christmas coming up anyway) and-
-after the 'couple of seconds of strangeness'… well, it wasn't as obvious as Psionics, but the change was definitely there.
It's another one of those 'difficult to describe' changes, which I suspect will become a running theme: my thought processes weren't any different, I hadn't suddenly undergone a personality transplant or anything like that, but my entire mind just felt faster. Mental division suddenly just clicked, where before I would have struggled compared to multiplication or addition/subtraction. Just looking around the room gave me both measurements and confidence that those measurements were right, and my memory… didn't seem to include anything from before a few seconds ago. I suppose it's not retroactive, which is a shame, but on the other hand… not a whole lot of stand-out good memories from my 'original' life... and I doubt I'll lose all that much of my previous twenty-eight/forty-three years of experience, if those're the only memories being supported by my brain and not by my soul-based Perks. Whatever, I wanted to test out my new aiming skills, and see how much of my 'enhanced spatial awareness' translated into my Psionics…
And one other thing. "We're all good, Evan." I reassured her, and as she strolled over to check me out, I took the opportunity to catch her cheeks in my hand and give her a kiss on the forehead, much to her bewildered contentment. "And with my new permanent memory, I will forever treasure this image of you being adorably confused." I teased her, getting a slightly-annoyed chuffing noise that probably fit a canine better than a feline Espeon… but she did evolve from a vulpine Eevee, so I guess that's Pocket Monsters for you.
-Day 1841-
The rest of Kanto was spent going through the Celadon Department Store for the Gen 1/Let's Go TM's, and seeing how long it took for Evan to get them down. And the few Moves from Goldenrod's Department Store and its supply of Gen 2/4 TM's that she was still struggling with (Curse and Grass Knot were a bit outside her usual fare). And touring, of course.
Then we moved on to Sinnoh, which was slightly more complicated. I was expecting Team Galactic to pop up at any moment, but since I barely remembered the actual plot threads of the games due to having emulated them once on a subpar laptop at forty frames per second (almost as painfully slow as Sonic Chronicles… fuck me, that was a long time ago) and acquired everything else from Let's Play's and Bulbapedia trawling, I wasn't entirely clear about most of what was supposed to happen. But again, no plot hooks, and I was fine with that. I still popped over to the three Lakes and, despite not finding their Guardians, there was no signs of invasion or damage, and no indication in the news networks that Cyrus had gotten Team Galactic into gear yet, so I was happy to simply tour the place and return home for Christmas as usual.
While there, though, I'd used my knowledge of the timeline to try and plan my next move (emphasis on try): Kanto's Team Rocket and Hoenn's Team Mag/qua were supposed to happen at roughly the same time, then there's a three year gap in which Orre's Team Snagem (who I'd mistakenly referred to as Team Snatch when I ranted to Giovanni, getting the original Japanese name mixed up with the English translation… though I do get why they wouldn't want to call them Team 'Snatch' in English-speaking territories…) and CIPHER, and I think Fiore's Go-Rock Squad make trouble, then Johto's Team Rocket and Sinnoh's Team Galactic along with Almia's Team Dim Sun and Oblivia's Pokemon Pinchers, then roughly two years later Orre's CIPHER and Team Snagem makes a comeback, Unova's Team Plasma has a go at fucking up the world at least three years after Johto/Sinnoh, then two years later they try again at the same time as Kalos' Team Flare pops up, then we have another two years before the Aether Foundation in Alola is immediately followed by…
Team Rainbow Rocket. Well, that's going to be unpleasant if it happens. And I don't know when the criminal subplots of the Galar region happen, but I'm not worried about them yet, for the same reason I'm not worried about the three Pokemon Ranger criminal subplots: if I can't get there, I'll just assume I'm not supposed to be there in this Jump.
So what follows the timeline and what doesn't? Kanto and the first Orre 'incursion' both happened around when they were supposed to apropos of me. Johto happened a week before my fourth year, which is… about close enough for it to count. Hoenn, on the other hand, happened two years later than it 'should' have. Assuming that timetable holds up, Team Galactic won't openly appear in Sinnoh until my fifth year, which… Well, I can't really trust that either, because my remaining five years isn't enough time for Teams Plasma, Flare and Rainbow Rocket/the Aether Foundation to attempt their own plans, so either things are going to accelerate, or I'm not going to have to deal with whatever they have in store for me until my next Pokemon Jump, which… would be nice, honestly. Still not that interested in fighting hardened criminals, thank you very much.
On the other hand, it was very likely that Team Galactic would try something, and fairly probable that Team Plasma would also pop up for their first assault by the end of my Jump, so once again, it came down to my willingness to let the police handle it (or Giratina in Cyrus' case, and probably N in Ghetsis' case), and I…trusted them, but, I would still try to track the Grunts' movements just to verify that they didn't need any help with the Admins, or what came next with the Lake Guardians and Creation Trio. And I totally will end up intervening either way, even if only to direct the local police to their hideouts, but at the very least, I'll be doing so with backup this time.
And in the interim… I'd had more than a Year to prepare, most of which I spent revisiting the Gyms across all of Japan and fighting (and eventually defeating) all of their 'personal' Teams. Even Tate and Liza lost to me, which bookmarked our Hoenn Rematches, despite their two-on-one rule and me not actually getting a Badge out of it. Then Johto, then Kanto, then Sinnoh. And by the time I'd finished up, returned home for the yearly visit and come back to Sinnoh to prepare, I'd made quite a few Discoveries in those five hundred days.
Of course, the best thing about my Jump Supplement, is that my builds were sequential and purchasing decisions could be changed on-the-fly. I had intended to go all the way to Aura for another Six Hundred Choice Points, but since I had reason to believe that problems were going to come up within six hundred days, I instead chose four Egg Moves for Evan (specifically: Flail, Wish, Stored Power and Synchronoise), and the Blend In Perk for myself. Pretty sure Stored Power is on the table in Gen 8, but it's too good of a move to hold off on solely because I would rather have Evan learn the otherwise-unobtainable Tickle instead.
Thus, after my yearly family gathering, I brought Evan with me and prepared to wait up to a month to see if anything interesting happ-
No. Do not think of this as 'interesting'. That same logic could have gotten me killed, or Evan stolen from me. I am a peacekeeper and I will act with professionalism.
Or at least, as much professionalism as was appropriate for the situation. Evan was pretty fucking strong by now, soloing over thirty Personal Gym Leader Teams in a single year, and I was confident she could go through any of the Elite Four's with four Full Restores and Elixirs, let alone individual Grunts or Cyrus and his Admins.
And lo and behold, on the eighth day of my vigil, I found the two thugs I expected at Jubilife's primary northern exit, harassing… that would be Professor Rowan, actually. Huh. Now that I think about it, how come I didn't run into any of the other Professors in my travels, or the Player Character's rivals? Dawn's with him… does that mean May exists here?
Ah, questions for another time. What the hell is the guy saying? "Now, Professor, things don't have to get ugly for you or your assistant. All we want, is your research findings. Hand 'em over peacefully, and we all get to go home. Don't, and at least one of you will be paying a trip to the hospital first. Understand?"
He sounds… much less 'deliberately-ridiculous' than I remember the canon Grunt being, though not necessarily any more competent. Even Dawn just seems annoyed at being accosted. "What on earth is with those ridiculous outfits you have on? Honestly, you call yourself adults? You think you can intimidate me because there are two of you?"
Both Grunts narrowed their eyes. "Well, it doesn't matter anymore, old man. Intimidation went off the table the moment you started talkin' shit about our colours. Now, your assistant gets to watch us beat some new tricks into an old dog." They both cracked their knuckles near-simultaneously, which I thought was hilarious. It's not like they're not going to rely on their Pokemon anyway, what makes them think a display of 'toughness' makes any difference?
Well, it actually did, because I wasn't the only one watching them. "Halt!" A gentleman in a brown trenchcoat marched up to the four of them. "Agent Looker, International Police. I heard every word, and you're both under arrest for Obstruction of Traffic, Attempted Robbery and Assault. Hands above your heads!" Well damn, Looker sounded much more competent. Was he reaching into his coat for a Pokeball, or a goddamn sidearm?
It didn't really matter either way. "Yeah, right!" The male Grunt jeered as they both pulled out Pokeballs, and I promptly yanked them straight upwards out of their hands with enough force to throw them both on their backs, leaving their Pokeballs lazily spinning in midair. "Hey jack-offs!" I walked over, making motions that made it obvious to all present that I was the one psychically levitating their unreleased Pokemon. "If you're gonna rob someone, don't do it in a city full of antsy trainers who aren't gonna put up with that shit."
Suffice to say, their first foray into villainy ended very quickly and with great humiliation. "Thank you for the assistance, citizen." Looker offered me, as the local police he'd called over dragged the two of them (one swearing and one staying carefully quiet) into a van. "Any chance you knew what they were doing there?"
"About an hour ago at Lake Verity, I was busy touring the place when some blue-haired loony showed up and started ranting at the cave system in its center. Figured I'd just ignore him until he said the words 'Team Galactic', and after Teams Rocket, Magma and Aqua, I'd rather not have any more popping up in Japan." I rattled off a deliberately-false story that he had no reason to disbelieve and which held enough truth that it would only reinforce his belief in it when he inevitably stumbled across supporting evidence. "The latter half I caught was something about using the 'Lake Guardians' to make a 'Red Chain' he could bind the 'Creation Duo' with at Spear Pillar, but he got interrupted by a red-haired lady he called Mars, telling him that they were 'ready to move on the Windworks', and on my way over there, I saw these two with the same weirdly-blue hair invading this gentleman's personal space, so I assumed they were connected. Not… actually sure they are, but it wouldn't surprise me, and I'm not taking chances if Legendaries are involved." I made an effort to pause and look mildly confused. "And given that I'm from Hoenn, are there any Legendary Pokemon titled the 'Lake Guardians', or the 'Creation Duo'?"
The visible blood-loss in his face told me everything I needed to know. "…yes, there are." He visibly regathered himself. "At least this case sounds straightforward, I suppose. The Valley Windworks are east of Floaroma Town, to the North of Jubilife. Would you mind if I joined you to verify this?"
"Not at all." I released Evan from her Pokeball, carefully ignoring the annoyed look she gave me for having put her in there again for the sake of subtlety, especially since we were probably about to break stealth again anyway. "Espeon, teleport the three of us to Floaroma Town."
The Windworks were a joke, of course: we Teleported about twenty feet away from a pair of police officers trying to calm down a frantic little girl, and once Looker flashed his badge to them and she confirmed that "a buncha spacemen broke in'ta the Windworks, grabbed Dad an' kicked me out!", the four of us marched on the building. The moron out front had a doubletake, threw out a Glameow, started swearing about "being given a useless Pokemon!" and bolted inside, locking the door as we reached it and faintly hollering to 'Mars' that they had company. Suffice to say, I had the mechanical lock picked in fifteen seconds with a laugh of "As if a manual lock can keep out a psychic!", took two steps to the right and Evan shoved it open for an Arcanine, Machamp and Croagunk to pour through, followed by the three officers.
On the one hand, Mars had her final canonical team of Bronzong, Golbat and Purugly, and clearly wasn't a pushover. On the other, the Grunts weren't worth much, Evan was used to fighting teams twice that size, and she only had to serve as backup. Also, as soon as things started going south, Charon (or whoever the non-Trainer scientist in the back was) put an arm around a Grunt's neck in a chokehold and whispered something to him, at which point he immediately went limp and Charon lowered him to the floor in full view of the police. A sacrificial lamb to save his own hide. Probably not a bad idea, once we had Mars in cuffs, he claimed that they'd grabbed him out of his holiday apartment in Floaroma (which he later proved he actually had reserved, and blamed its trashed state on the Grunts' having stolen his access pass) and got away with only questioning and giving a report at the local station.
I, as a proven psychic and with Looker's vouching, pretended to 'read the mind' of the 'unconscious Grunt' for roughly three minutes, then 'snapped out of my trance' and pointed them to two main headquarters: one in Eterna lead by 'Admin Jupiter', which they were planning on stealing Pokemon from en masse; and one in Veilstone led by 'Admin Saturn', where they were planning to deploy explosives on the three Lake's cave systems… much to Charon's violent twitching, but he couldn't exactly call me out on lying, could he?
I also made a show of having a migraine, communing with Evan (mostly just to tell her to go along with it) and informing Looker that she could teleport them to each city, but after that, we'd be exhausted and unable to contribute any further. Fortunately, there was no need for us to fight anyone else. While it was questionable that Team Galactic might be chasing actual Legendaries whose existence was mostly relegated to myths in this world, the instant a terrorist attack using landscape-reshaping bombs on the fresh water supply of Sinnoh came up, the assembled officers about exploded in a frenzy of desperate calls. Within an hour, Evan, Looker, his newly-evolved Toxicroak and I all walked away from an army of other International Police (led by an Agent 'Tedesco', who I think is from the Anime?) dragging out the remains of Team Galactic from their Veilstone HQ, half-a-dozen Growlithe snapping at their heels and having witness almost the same thing in Eterna mere minutes before (except with Magnemite 'crackling' at their heels).
"That, was a very productive day." He reflected, visibly pleased with his accomplishment. "We routed an entire gang of delinquents led by a genocidal maniac. Well, almost the entire gang, but this Cyrus fellow is bound to show his face sooner or later."
"Indeed." I outwardly agreed with him, while doubting my own words. Cyrus never seemed like the type to just up-and-leave, and with Charon having 'mysteriously disappeared' from the Floaroma hotel, they were probably going to try something sooner or later… "But even if he does, I don't think he'll succeed in capturing the Lake Guardians, figuring out how to craft his 'Red Chain', and take control of Dialga and Palkia. His plan just has too many pitfalls in it. Hopefully, no-one ever hears of him again: maybe he'll get the message and sod off somewhere we never have to worry about him returning."
"Very possible. But my experience with crazed extremists tells me that he'll try something sooner or later." He slowed to a stop and turned to me. "Maybe you could help us with the next 'incident', sign up with the IPF?"
"Not a chance, mate." I emphatically shook my head, halting my own momentum. "I only got involved for the same reason I tipped off Hoenn's cops about Teams Aqua and Magma: I like this island. It's where I keep all my stuff. And I don't trust some overly-ambitious lunatic not to burn it all to the ground, if given half the chance."
He clearly suspected me of something. "…and Giovanni?"
Ah, right. "Yes, I suppose you saw the footage. I don't think there's a national news channel that didn't play it. At least it didn't have any audio, I cut a much less imposing figure when you can hear the nervousness in my voice." I gave him a serious look. "My decision to confront Giovanni was dumb, and if Evan had lost to any of his six Pokemon after the other twelve his Executives pulled out, and the half-a-dozen Voltorb I shoved out the window, I would've either had to repeat that with those five, or throw myself on their mercy. And I'm not a killer by any means, but I don't think a court would have convicted me for it, and I certainly wouldn't have trusted a mafia gang to let me and my Shiny Espeon go."
"I suppose not. That is quite the extraordinary turn of events, though. First you thwarted Teams Magma and Aqua with strategic positioning and information-gathering, then you were in the Radio Tower the exact same day Team Rocket tried to reform, and now you're in Sinnoh helping the local officers bring down Team Galactic." Yeah, he obviously knew something was up. "But when I spoke to that Mars lady you helped us arrest, she seemed very certain that though the enigmatic Cyrus had recently visited Lake Verity, she had never gone anywhere near it, nor had she met him there to discuss their takeover of the Valley Windworks." …I knew that one explanation wouldn't carry enough weight. "Any idea why?"
Thank Christ I'd already realised how awkward that lie I'd made was, and come up with a perfectly plausible explanation. "…well, hypothetically, she could have been lying for any number of trite reasons." I started, projecting visible discomfort. "Or hypothetically, I might have read the random blue-nette's mind with casual ease and then constructed a story to hide that fact, because most people don't respond very well to finding out that I'm actually an extremely-powerful mind reader, and prone to not asking for permission." I then gave the actual story, with no indication as to which made me more uncomfortable. "Or, hypothetically, I might not be telepathic and faked both Cyrus' conversation and reading that one grunt's mind, because my information comes from a third party who'd like to remain anonymous but definitely does not want the world destroyed, so they picked the first 'Aura adept' they saw as a go-between to disseminate this information to the police." See? Plenty of theoretically-possible options, but no clear indication as to which is the 'true' one. "Pretty sure psychic's don't actually work that way, but the point is that given Team Galactic were absolutely committing crimes, I think the most likely answer is that she's trying to make Cyrus' look less-insane than he actually is, probably out of propagandised and brainwashed loyalty to the leader whose true intentions she didn't even know."
"And whose intentions that Grunt who you 'mind-read' also claimed not to know." …ah, shit, he's woken up alread-well, he wasn't unconscious to begin with. I just made a stupid assumption that he'd go along with Charon's orders without questioning them! "But that doesn't prove that he's also not lying, or that you didn't get the information directly from Cyrus, or a 'third party'." He visibly relaxed his body language. "I suppose it's not especially important either way. You did help us bust a relatively-large crime ring before its plans to severely impact the Sinnoh region came to fruition, and you haven't shown any indication of working for a malevolent entity, so I'm not going to bring you in for questioning just for one or two points of suspicious activity along the way. That being said, the International Police can't make any more offers of employment if they aren't absolutely certain that you have no ill intentions, and refusing to clarify or introduce your source in the takedown of a region-wide gang is well past the point of employability."
"Fine with me. As I said earlier, I get in enough trouble on my own. I don't need to be paid to deliberately get into more of it." Though it would be nice, given Cipher and Plasma before my stay ends, I have no real reason to add to the problems I create for myself. I mean, with how competent Agent Looker and those officers he commanded were, I think we're well past the point of needing to get involved in these little disputes 'to protect others'.
"I will also need to mention your 'hypothetical' scenarios in my report, along with a rough physical description, your psychic powers and your team," He added, visibly amused. "and while I don't need your real name, I need something for any other Agents you might meet to refer to you as. We can work with an alias, we're used to getting tip-offs and direct aid from random Samaritans, I'll just list you as an independent agent. Do you have a name already picked out, or…?"
Given that I'd adopted my older step-brother's birth name, I'd picked out a perfect codename quite some time ago. "I'd rather not get slapped on the news like I already did with Giovanni: drawing more attention to my Shiny Espeon and the likelihood I'll be running into criminals doesn't seem like a good idea. So call me Agent Bourne: bee-oh-you-are-en-ie. Fictional superspy from my hometown, known for lots of silly jokes about how insanely good he is at his job, so I might as well pick a title that makes me sound competent."
"I can work with that." He held out a hand. "Nice to meet you, Agent Bourne."
"Nice to meet you too, Agent Looker." I returned the handshake. "I've got your number if I need you, do you need anything else from me regarding this case?"
"Nah, I've recorded all your statements already." He fished out what I assume is a voice recorder. "Best to come prepared, and all that."
"In that case, before I leave, I have something to ask." Not like it would hurt to make my intentions known. "Given how many Teams I've run into so far, running into more of them seems to be a foregone conclusion. I have psychic powers and Aura, but that leaves me deceptively-few options when it comes to, for example, teleporting into an enemy base, grabbing an incredibly-dangerous piece of technology and teleporting back out. Given that just about everyone likes to keep their Pokemon in their Pokeballs, this option could allow me to easily disarm entire groups of enemies… if I get the drop on them. To that end, do you know of any legal way to get ahold of flashbangs, or stun grenades?"
The look he gave me back said it all. "Not without a considerable amount of training and drilling, and outside of a military career, I seriously doubt it."
I sighed. "Thought so, but it was worth asking. See you later, Looker." [Evan, send us back to base.]
"You too, Bourne. Try not to 'accidentally' get caught up in anything too dangerous, okay?" I barely had time to send him a thumbs up and a [sure thing], and catch a flash of surprise, before Evan dropped us into our Secret Treehouse and I immediately went to take the shower setup (basically a gazebo whose roof was a large water-catcher, and which contained an electric boiler, a transparent rubber mat to stand on and a small waterproofed compartment on the ceiling for a towel and a change of clothes) outside. Time for another few days of celebrating by pigging out on snacks, lazing about the house, and helping Evan train her psychic finesse by manipulating a video game controller with her telekinesis.
-Day 1901 (Combat Training)-
And of course, that 'few days' had turned into a week of rest and relaxation, just like last time, but it's not like we were on a time limit anymore. The next 'big' incursion was going to be Cipher's return in roughly two years, by then I'd have Aura and the newly-Discovered Combat Training Perk. In the interim, I'd booked a flight and taken a plane to Unova to try their Gym Challenge. Turns out… well, I was kinda beyond the average Gym challenge now, even after only fifty days here.
Of the eight Gyms, only Burgh was slightly more than a bump in the road. Hell, between the three gym leaders of Striaton Gym, each personal team was only three members strong. Yes, they were unexpectedly strong individually, but that's still half the Pokemon Evan was used to fighting in a single team. The other Gyms weren't much more impressive, not even the eighth Gym leader had a team of at least five Pokemon (in this case Iris, who had Drayden's B2W2 team of Druddigon, Flygon, Altaria and Haxorus as her 'personal' team). The drop in quality compared to the other regions reminded me that Unova was supposed to host a 'relatively new' League (if I recall correctly) in BW, but at this point…
I was now planning to challenge the local Elite Four, finish up my tour over the rest of the year, return to Japan, and challenge all four of the 'Japanese' Elite Four's over the course of the next year. Possibly on an individual basis and without expectation of the Champion position, because I did not want that kind of responsibility four years from the completion of my Jump, and I'd quite like to find Lorelei on the Sevii Islands which I haven't bothered exploring just yet (the Orange and Decolore Islands, on the other hand, were both quite peaceful by the time I arrived) and challenge her to a fight too, despite her retirement from the Kanto/Johto Elite Four.
And once I was done with that and had Aura, I would be ready for whatever Shadow Pokemon bullshit Cipher could throw at me… with the possible exception of XD-001, but I had plans if Greevil decided to pull out his Shadow Lugia, so I could work with that. Or just shoot him and Teleport away while Shadow Lugia went berserk, Unova (being based on America) sold plenty of firearms, and even the same kinds of military-grade flashbangs and stun grenades I'd asked Looker about. Apparently, given that even modern-day guns weren't effective against all Pokemon, the American government felt it was totally acceptable for them to be sold freely, along with plenty of ammunition. Something I was going to take full advantage of in a firing range in my downtime, so I could test Savant's 'firearm accuracy' in a more obvious way.
And hey, Orre is Arizona and shares the same loose gun laws, so while I'd have to rent a locker for the two weeks I was back home (being that Japan still restricted firearms unless you were police or military, despite allowing ten-year olds to catch fire-breathing dragons), I could keep a sidearm with me while I was around here. Still have to look up Alola's laws concerning them, but only an idiot puts themselves in harm's way without a backup sidearm, no matter how incredible their supernatural powers may be, especially in a world where they may end up facing off against a squishy human trying to restrain and direct a corrupted god of the world's ocean currents.
AN: rediscovered PokeIdle (which hasn't changed much, other than moving off GitHub to a dedicated website) and PokeClicker (which did the same, but has changed hands and gone through a lot of updates since then), so I'm still a few days behind in my overall schedule. We'll see if I can start making up the time gap with the next one…
