Whirlipede is a bit of an insane upgrade. Game logic, unfortunately, did not carry over. Bite and Bug Bite were not usable techniques for Pokémon without mouths, so that was cordoned off until her next evolution. Everything else? Massive improvement.

Bite, Rollout, and Pursuit though? Entoma as a Venipede was light enough to carry on my shoulder. Pokémon nonstandard physics or not, a hundred or so extra pounds of momentum turns your cross-country runner's hit into a sumo wrestler's charge.

Poison Sting and Toxic were also massively improved. While she now lacked the mouth to shoot them with, her massive horns could effectively produce and launch the toxins with ease. And that's before mentioning the added momentum produced by spinning, where an attack fired mid-roll accelerates to an insane degree.

Her defense was similarly improved. More mass, more shell, more profit. Gargantua sent a few Rock Blasts at her, and she barely even felt them. Smack Down still stung, though. Until, of course, she pulled out Iron Defense.

She hadn't had much opportunity to show off her new acquisition immediately after evolution, on account of being turned into a beach volleyball by that Pheromosa. See, there's a reason that it doubles your defense in the games.

Iron Defense turns your skin to steel.

Alright, not quite, but that's functionally what it does. From what I can tell, it imbues your skin with steel-type energy. It's not quite as strong as possessing a genuine steel-type, but it's pretty damn close. All but the strongest poison-type moves just wash off, physical attacks are dulled, and you're just generally tougher.

Entoma's carapace was already quite durable and dense, so it was a massive improvement. The best part? It lasted for about ten minutes per use. And with the absence of maximum move quantities, there was no reason to not use it in every engagement.

The only downside was that it didn't stack in strength on subsequent uses, but I can't say I'm too mad. This power-up was already too good, I'm not sure how I'd be able to cope with something that ridiculous.

Speed wasn't all that improved, though. Rolling can hit some pretty ridiculous speeds, but it needed to be going in a semi-straight path. Not that she couldn't turn without stopping, but she needed some time to build it back up to max.

Overall, I was really happy. Forgive my gushing, I'm going mad with the power my subordinate has. It was only slightly tempered by my recent experience of her being absolutely decimated.

Cocytus was noticeably jealous and intimidated by her new strength, but Gargantua seemed excited to try and fight Entoma. That's the attitude I love, keep it up and soon you, too, will cause disasters in my name. Cocytus needed to get more of that style of thinking.

Speaking of those two, I needed to get them trying to learn Toxic. I'm not entirely sure if Wimpod and Golisopod can learn it, but let's be real. A tank without Toxic stall strats? Oh, and I guess I should teach him Protect as well, that should help temper his cowardice somewhat.

Huh, now that I think of it, it's a little odd that all my Pokémon are tanks. In games, I tended to stick to high-damage, high-speed Pokémon a la Weavile. I suppose compensation for their generally mild power is good defenses.

Hapu showed up a bit later.

"Ready to head on out?" She approached with her Mudsdale trailing behind.

"That I am. Alright, everyone, get back over here."

I recalled my party and walked back towards Hapu. She had already mantled her horse and gestured for me to hop on. With some minor difficulty, I managed to get back on it as well. Fuck, who would ever willingly ride a horse when given the option of a car?

With a press of her heels and a "git," we set off towards the Ancient Poni Path.

"So, where you want me to drop 'ya off? If yer still lookin' for the bugs, I can leave you at the Grove to look 'round."

Ah, here I was worried that I'd have to try and find Poni Grove all on my own.

"That'd be perfect, actually."

What a kind girl. Hapu took me through the Ancient Poni Path with no difficulty. I didn't even see any of those white flashes. A little longer, and we reached a path littered with trees.

"Alright, here y'are."

I hopped off Mudsdale, we said our farewells, and I was left alone. I called out the three of my Pokémon.

"Well, you lot. We're here in the Poni Grove. Keep yourselves alert, and point out any bug-types you see. I believe she said there was some Pinsir and Heracross?"

A general affirmative later and we were off. I figured that if we were looking for the bugs, best to check all the trees. The first cluster had nothing I was looking for. A few Trumbeak lay sat in the branches, but they didn't seem to care about my search for bugs.

The second was a little more interesting. A small family of Buneary hid in this set of trees, with two Lopunny keeping watch. Those two didn't take too kindly to my search through the trees.

Gargantua tried to fight them immediately, but I recalled him before he could instigate further. I then practiced my immense diplomatic skill and convinced the group to let leave via a quick sprint away. Honestly, I'm just not interested in fighting Pokémon of unknown strength.

It took a whole damn hour to find a bug. I had lost track of what tree cluster we were looking through, but it was firmly in the double digits. Gargantua was still in his ball as he seemed to like to cause problems for me, but the rest of my team was still released and prepared.

I walked into this grouping, and a Heracross was lying in a tree suckling on a massive honeycomb. The honeycomb was quite impressive, larger than my head and practically bursting with honey.

I called out Gargantua and decided to let him lead. He was clearly a bit irritated at my denial of combat and was very willing to vent his anger on the Heracross. Screaming, he charged at the reclining beetle.

The Heracross was quite unprepared for a random rock-bug to attach itself to its back and begin rapidly firing Rock Blasts mixed in with the occasional Bug Bite. The Heracross scrambled off the tree, thrashing about. Eventually, it recovered from the shock, stood up, and slammed its back against the tree it had just fallen off.

Gargantua let out a pained cry as he was forced off Heracross' back. Not one to stay down for long, he charged up a Smack Down. Of course, Heracross could see this and immediately rushed to interrupt it.

Gargantua shot his attack off first. The big rock slammed down on Heracross, likely giving it quite the headache as it was forced to all fours. This seemed beneficial for Heracross, though.

Scuttling forward on both sets of limbs, Heracross made it to Gargantua and scooped him onto its horn. With a full-body flick, Gargantua was launched into the air with an amusing yelp.

Huh, that's a lot higher than expected.

Seeing as Gargantua was preoccupied with his impromptu skydiving trip and wasn't coming down anytime soon, I motioned for Entoma to step up. I would have had Cocytus try, but I still didn't know his moveset. I should have checked up on that earlier, but I was too busy working out Entoma's new evolution's capabilities.

"Alright, start with Iron Defense and a Rollout and throw a few Poison Stings while you're at it."

After shining with a flash of steel-type energy, Entoma charged up a Rollout and began rapidly spinning at the Heracross' turned back. I'm starting to think we're too reliant on sneak attacks, but results are results. The Rollout slammed into Heracross just as it turned around to check who was talking, sending it flying backward.

A bunch of small purple barbs, Entoma's Poison Stings, shot out after the careening bug. The barrage of barbs embedded firmly into Heracross' carapace, almost certainly poisoning him. Screeching, Heracross firmly planted his feet in the ground, carving a small gorge through the ground with the remaining momentum.

It reeled its fist back, a light glow settling over its entire body.

"Entoma, stop!"

Entoma, unfortunately, didn't have the room to properly stop. She had already committed to the follow-up slam. So, she kept rolling towards Heracross, only managing to slow down slightly.

Heracross did not try to stop Entoma with its rather blatant prepared punch, rather it let the attack hit it. The momentum seemed to ripple through its entire body before coalescing into its fist, which was slammed right back into Entoma. Counter, if I had to guess.

Entoma was the one launched back this time. The punch didn't crack through her currently-steely shell, but it sure looked like it hurt. She wasn't out of the fight, thankfully.

I suppose this is my comeuppance for sticking to tanky physical attackers. Counter is frankly ridiculous, it only took a second or two to prepare, and all that physical force is immediately redirected into you. A slower Pokémon team like mine just doesn't work against something so clearly designed for us.

Huh, physical force. It's a good thing I'm a scumbag who likes to use poison liberally.

"Entoma, keep to Poison Tail and get him nice and drugged up!"

With a chatter, Entoma used the momentum from her backward launch to get rolling again. A turn and she was rolling directly towards Heracross who prepared another Counter.

Entoma hit Heracross once more, scraping her dripping, purple spines against it, this time leaving a smattering of poison on its shell. Heracross was already lightly poisoned from the earlier Poison Stings, but now it seemed that we had a clear win condition.

Entoma repeated the process over and over, slowly yet steadily poisoning her opponent. Counter was great, but against a defensive Pokémon covering in Iron Defense who was actively pulling its punches? It just wasn't an effective strategy there.

I could see it now, we only had a few more hits until he reached a critical mass of poisoning, and I would have a new Heracross.

Oh, I can hear Gargantua's screaming. I guess he finally hit his flight peak and was coming down. I looked up, and there he was.

Along with six massive chunks of rock falling with him.

"Huh, is that Rock Slide?"

Both Entoma and Heracross froze at the scream from above. Heracross looked up just a moment too late, as Gargantua and his rocks crashed directly into him, kicking up dust.

The dust settled a moment later and there was a mound of rubble with a psychotic hermit crab dancing in celebration on top of it. With a mad cackle, Gargantua ripped the now unconscious beetle from the rock pile and threw him to my feet.

Huh, convenient, but unnecessary. I felt a little irritated at Gargantua ruining yet another plan of mine, but at least this time it was in my favor.

I pulled out a generic Pokéball, tapped Heracross once, and I had another Zerg for the rush.

"Thank you, Gar, Entoma. So, Rock Slide, eh? Mind showing me a demonstration?"

Gargantua closed his eyes and put one claw in the ground. A moment later, he ripped it out of the ground with six small boulders violently ejecting towards the trees. With a crash, a few of the trees fell over, their trunks demolished from the impact of the rocks.

I winced as Gargantua cackled. I better not be held responsible for the minor deforestation.

"Wait, where did you even get the rocks you fell down with?"

Gargantua seemed to scowl and summoned a small cluster of floating pebbles that slowly began to grow in size.

"Ah. I'm guessing it's only particularly effective if you have time to prepare?"

Gargantua pouted at me and nodded. Well, let's try and keep using it on land, then.

Let's see what this Poni Meadow business is about. At the very least, Ribombee should be making a fair bit of honey to appease my new honey-loving BeetleBorg. I believe I would have to go through the Poni Plains first. Huh, didn't Hapu say there were Scyther there? That's an incentive to be sure.

The path through the Grove was rather straightforward with no forks whatsoever. We had already traversed most of the area in our search for a Heracross or Pinsir, and now that I had one I figured it was about time to move on.

Ten minutes later, and we emerged from the path into what must be the Poni Plains. It seemed to stretch for miles, with long wild grass and the occasional palm tree. A few bird Pokémon flew around, Tauros and Milktank loitered around munching on grass, and the occasional ferret-like Pokémon whose name I can't remember occasionally peeked up from the grassy cover.

I didn't see any Scyther, unfortunately. I didn't feel like searching for one quite yet, as I had a meadow full of bees to find. A convenient signpost at the entrance pointed me to a sloped path in the distance, so we all started heading in that direction.

Cocytus had gotten a bit tired, as he was not used to walking long distances.

"Oy, Cocytus, feel free to hop on my shoulder or something if you need to rest."

He let out a grateful chitter and latched onto my backpack, seeming content to hang off its side. I got a distinct feeling that I was being glared at, but when I glanced behind me the only thing behind me was Entoma, calmly rolling.

Going up the slope, we reached a cave entrance with a curtain of purple flowers. Pushing past them, I couldn't help but be reminded of one of those bead door curtains. The cave entrance turned out to not be much of a cave entrance, as past the flower curtain was a tunnel stretching on for at most ten feet.

At the end of the tunnel, everything opened up once more. A veritable oasis of rivers and flowers was contained in the valley before me. There didn't seem to be any entrances other than the river's paths that carved through the sandstone walls. On one of the sandstone walls opposite to us was a massive beehive, literally dripping with honey and infested with bee Pokémon.

"Damn, that's a nice sight," I quietly spoke.

My Pokémon murmured their agreement, all seemingly as stunned as I was about the sudden shift in the atmosphere.

"Well, there's a fair few bugs I could catch. Come now, let's get going."

The way down to the valley of flowers had a bunch of large roots I had to climb over but was otherwise a simple walk. It was rather amusing to see Entoma try and roll over the roots, but she managed to get it done. We got to the bottom of the valley and began to traverse the flowers.

My first issue came when I got to a river. Or, was it a creek? Regardless, it was about five feet across and I didn't feel like getting wet.

Before I could think of exactly how to get across, I heard a bunch of chattering and buzzing coming from the direction of the hive. Approaching us rather rapidly was a horde of Cutiefly and Ribombee. I was about to call for my team to prepare for battle until I took a closer look.

About half of the swarm had chunks of honeycomb they were carrying towards us. The other half were waving at us joyfully. A few of the Ribombee had one pair of limbs holding a chunk of honey while simultaneously waving.

I froze for a minute in confusion, just enough time for the surprisingly fast group to reach us. Rather than attacking us, the bees seemed to start coddling us.

I wasn't quite sure what to do as a dozen or so bees latched onto me with hugs and cuddles while occasionally hand-feeding me. I couldn't see Cocytus, but judging by the noises coming off my back he was in a similar state of shock. Even Gargantua wasn't sure what to do as three Ribombee began to hug and feed him. Enotma didn't exactly have a mouth so they couldn't feed her, but they seemed content enough to lounge around on her.

"Well, aren't you all a friendly bunch," I managed to say after a moment of rebooting my brain.

They all let out a happy buzz, seeming content. I know fairy-types are supposed to be nice, but isn't this a bit ridiculous? Well, I'm in no position to try and capture one of them with the entire squad at their back, so let's see if I can use it to my advantage.

"Look, as much as I appreciate the gesture, I'm looking to hopefully catch one of you, if any of you are willing."

They didn't seem put off by that, only a bit curious.

"I'm mainly a battler, so if one of you is interested in getting stronger and traveling the world, feel free to join me."

That had most of them looking less enthusiastic, but I suppose that's not all that big of a surprise. There are definitely more lovers than fighters in this group. They stopped their caretaking for a moment to start buzzing at each other.

After a moment they seemed to come to a consensus, and a couple of the bees began to fly back to the Hive. The rest simply went back to cuddling us.

"So, is that a yes or what? I mean-"

I was firmly interrupted by a little limb shoving a honeycomb filled with honey in my mouth. Alright, I see how it is. I certainly did not pout as I sat down and let myself be treated like an Egyptian king, let me tell you.

I took two Ribombee, one per arm, and began to cuddle them back. Their buzzes turned into strange, buzzing purrs. It was pretty adorable, I'll be honest. Eh, I've got nothing better to do than relax a bit.

Entoma didn't seem to care all that much as she just stayed in place, having become somewhat of a playground for the Cutiefly to bounce around. Cocytus had hopped off my backpack at some point and was currently just enjoying as much food as he could, the gluttonous bastard. Gargantua wasn't sure exactly what to do, so he just sat there with an uncomfortable look on his face, enduring the hugs.

"OH! I've got a new Heracross I managed to catch. Do you mind if I bring him out?"

The bees buzzed again, before agreeing with a bit of an uncomfortable look on their faces. Judging by how Heracross was suckling on a big 'ol honeycomb when I found him, they've probably been faced with a few Heracross coming in and ransacking their hive for a quick hit of honey.

I called out the still unconscious Heracross and my new yellow friends gathered some more honey, placing it all in front of it. It twitched at the smell, but didn't wake up quite yet.

Oh, there's some more Ribombee coming this way. A smaller group, half a dozen at most, is flying towards us from the hive. As they approach, one in particular heads my way. Upon its arrival, the bees surrounding me stop feeding me, presumably so I can eat. The Ribombee then uses its little limbs to point at itself and then at me.

"Err, sorry?"

It shakes its head, gesturing over to my Pokémon.

"Ah, are you the one who's looking to join me? You... know we'll be fighting other Pokémon, right?"

It raised its fists and began to box the air with a faux-angry look on its face.

"I like the enthusiasm, at least. Well, then welcome to the team. First question, what's your gender?

It blinked, thought for a second, and then pointed at Entoma.

"Female, alright. Spunky, yellow, hmm. How does Leinas sound for a name?"

The newly christened Leinas gave me a thumbs up. I chuckled, pulled out a Pokéball, and gave her a quick tap. No shake, just a click to signify a capture. Alright, dragonslayer acquired!

Damn, if it was a male and I was using Dark Souls names, I could have had Ornstein. Eh, life is like that sometimes.

I release Leinas from her ball and she latches onto me like the rest of the Ribombee, but instead of feeding me honey she starts producing little yellow balls and feeding me them. I'm not quite sure what they are, but they taste good.

A few moments later, I hear a set of voices coming from the entrance of the valley. All the bees started to buzz around in excitement upon hearing the voice, so I assume they aren't particularly malicious. From the tunnel emerges two men, likely in their early thirties.

One of the men is dressed in a generic ranger outfit, complete with rope and everything. The other is much larger and seemed to take inspiration from the generic hiker model of the games.

Upon entering the valley they notice me and the bees and wave down at us, beginning the short walk to approach us. At this point, a small bunch of the bees have returned to the hive, likely to fetch more honey for the two approaching people.

"Well, how are you, stranger!" the hiker called out to me. "The name's Jim, and this here is Clyve," he said, gesturing to the ranger. He has a light southern twang, but it's nowhere near as noticeable as Hapu's.

After brushing away Leinas, who's still trying to feed me, I give them a short wave before responding, "Ah, I'm doing well. The name's Nico, a pleasure. I was just in the area, looking to meet some bug Pokémon, and the Kahuna pointed me this way. What about you?"

This time Clyve, the ranger, responds, "We're here to pick up some honey and pollen puffs. Judging by your situation, I figure you already know how generous these lot are?" His accent is even less pronounced, barely a hint of it.

I chuckled, "Heh, that I do. So, what, you just come here every once in a while and gather some food?"

"That's about right, we got a nice little cabin in the forest. We live all nice and cozy there, have a few berry trees around, and keep things sweet with some of the bee's treats," replied Jim.

"Heh, sounds like a cushy life."

Honestly, that does sound pretty lovely. A cabin, away from everyone else, just you and a close friend living off the land. Or lover, I'm not entirely sure of their situation. Regardless, that seems like a good future. Perhaps not quite so remote, though.

Heh, maybe I'll pull an Alder and find some farm town to settle down in.

An even bigger swarm than the one that showed up for me was approaching from the hive, with even more bounty than before. The two homesteaders started pulling large mason jars from their packs, clearly prepared for this.

I let Leinas go back to feeding me, watching the procession. Ribombee and Cutiefly alike form in a line, one by one squeezing out the excess honey from the honeycombs. After the extraction, the leftover chunks are deposited in some bags I hadn't noticed Jim pull out, likely for some other purpose.

Another set of mason jars are prepared, these one being attended to specifically by Ribombee. They're producing a bunch of the little balls that I've been being fed.

I ask them, "I presume those balls are the pollen puffs, then?"

Jim turns to me and answers, "Yup. Ribombee get the ability to make them once they evolve. They're a bit of a delicacy in most of the world, actually. Very nutritious and all that. More interestingly, they can use it as an attack. Condense them, and launch them like little pellets. Ribombee are fascinating, honestly. We would know, they keep us alive!"

The two broke out into guffaws at that, and I awkwardly laughed along. Well, it's certainly nice to have a bit of extra food around. I'm fine with the rations, but variety is the spice of life and all that.

We made small talk for a while, but eventually, they had their jars filled and were ready to leave.

"Well, it's been a pleasure kid!" spoke Jim, "But, we've got to get home. Here, take this as thanks for the conversation. This island is pretty empty of people, except Seafolk Village, so it's always nice to have a conversation with a traveler. Here, take this for the memory."

He handed me a jar of honey. It was one of the smaller jars, but it was still a solid sixteen ounces or so of honey.

"Ah, well thank you!" I can hardly reject a gift, now could I?

"Not a problem. You just stay as friendly as you were with us, and we'll call it even."

We said our farewells, and they left. Me, friendly? Maybe I am changing for the better. It's probably the hugs, I'll be honest. Dopamine is a bitch like that.

We stay like that for another while, relaxing and eating. Huh, this seems to be a lot of my life. How... quaint.

Oh, hey, Heracross is waking up.

He twitches awake, slowly blinking with drowsy eyes. Here's hoping he didn't get a concussion or something.

Upon seeing the dripping pile of honeycomb in front of him, his eyes shoot open. Quickly snatching a chunk from the pile, he starts to suckle on it. Then, still chowing down, it starts to look around.

Upon seeing the bees, it tenses up, likely ready for an engagement. Then seeing us, the memory of our fight must have hit it, if the dawning realization in its eyes is anything to go by.

I wiggle a Pokéball in its direction. It's not actually its Pokéball, but I'm sure he'll get the message.

"Oy, we fought, I won. You come with us, you get stronger. Easy as that."

I figured that since it's a fighting-type, that sort of ideology would go over well with Heracross. It seems that I'm correct, because after a moment of consideration it nods.

"Excellent. Gender?"

It paused from its eating to click confusedly at me.

"You... don't know what gender is?"

A nod. Well, it seems we have found the meathead of the group.

"Look, which of the group can you mate with?"

Understanding sprung up in its eyes again, and it pointed at Entoma. She seemed vaguely offended at the insinuation that he could mate with her.

"Alright, male. Names, names, names. Heh, the first time I've had to name two in a day. How about the cockroach emperor. Kyoko? Kurohou? No, no, no. It's been too damn long since I watched Overlord. AHA! Kyouhukou! I'll call you that, sounds good?"

Another nod and he went back to eating. Well, at the very least he should get along well with Cocytus, the hungry bugs they were. Maybe with that fighter's mentality, he and Gargantua could be pals, assuming Gargantua got over being launched high enough to reach terminal velocity.

Leinas, who's still hugging and feeding me along with the other Ribombee, could probably be friends with everyone. Who passes up on free food?

It occurs to me that my team is growing at an astounding rate. At this point, I don't know half of their movesets, and that's an issue. I mean, sure, the whole point of this trip was to collect a bunch of bugs I couldn't get easily elsewhere, but still.

Eh, I've got plenty of time. Searching for a Scyther can come later.

"Alright, we need to get this sorted out. Cocytus, show me your moves. Need to get a handle on them before we can start training you up."

Cocytus stopped happily munching on the provided honeycomb, looked up to me, and gave me a firm nod. Walking forward, he clicks at the bees to get them to buzz away. First, he kicks at the ground, generating an absurd amount of dust and dirt for the motion. Sand Attack, I suppose.

Next, he surrounds himself with the greenish energy I've come to associate with either Enotma's or Dwebble's Bug Bite and sends it out in a shockwave. I'm honestly not sure what that move is. Process of elimination time; Probably a special attack, weak enough and suits Wimpod?

"Is that Struggle Bug?"

Cocytus turns and nods at me. Then, he sits there. He's... still just sitting there.

"Is that your moveset?"

An affirmative chitter.

"I... see."

Fuck, that'll be hard to cover for. I know Wimpod are generally weak, but I assumed I could use some creative thinking to make up for it.

"Next, Kyouhukou. Fuck, that's a mouthful. Kyou is much better. Show me what you got."

He is a fair bit more diverse. He had Aerial Ace, his only move that utilized the underrated fact that Heracross had wings and could, you know, fly. Aerial Ace reminded me of Pheromosa's standard movement, as depressing as that thought is. Just a quick flash and a hit.

Horn Attack was a given, just charge in and bash the opponent with your horn. Less of a given, he also had Night Slash. I'm not sure if that's an egg move or natural, but it'll be good to have. Basic shit, it just coats your claws in weird abyss energy and cuts. Reminds me of a Dark Souls hex, if I'm honest.

Of course, I already knew he had Counter. That'll be invaluable. Just a hard counter to any mainline physical attacker? Sign me up!

To finish off he had a solid physical fighting-type move. Brick Break was a force of nature, an energy-infused chop that I had no doubt would shatter anything less than a Protect, and even a Protect if the user is weak enough.

Overall, a solid line-up. Far better than Cocytus, not that I'd say that out loud.

"Alright, finally, Leinas. Gonna need you to quit pampering me for a bit."

Pretty simple stuff from Leinas. Fairy Wind, a blast of pink wind that probably hurt like a bitch. Counter to that was Silver Wind, a blast of, well, do I have to say it? It's in the name, really.

More interesting were Stun Spore and Sweet Scent. Sweet Scent less so, but they would make for a fun way to make the former wind attacks much more irritating.

Absorb and Draining Kiss were nice to have. Absorb couldn't heal quite as fast or do quite as much damage, but the grass-type keeps it worthwhile.

And then, the crowning jewel. Pollen Puff. Pollen Puff could be used for a Bullet Seed style barrage, a shotgun burst, or even as a healing shot. Turns out, if I had had any injuries getting to the Meadow, all the puffs I've been eating would have healed me right up.

You know, in a place I had gotten a Golisopod, a Heracross, and a Ribombee, I hadn't expected the Ribombee to have the most use. At best, a niche addition. But, with the healing puffs and versatile ranged moveset, Leinas was now the official red mage of the team, keeping us nice and healed.

Damn, now I'm regretting buying all those healing items.

Overall, there's some work to be done. I know an obscene amount of Pokémon can learn Toxic, but there's not much point in trying to teach it quite yet. Bug Bite is something both Cocytus and Kyouhukou need to learn, an easy STAB physical move. Protect is pretty much the universal standard of moves, have everyone who can learn it do so.

And then... and then what?

Up until now, I've just been going for a solid team because that's what you do in Pokémon. Life on the road is nice for now, but I'd certainly like some sort of house like Jim and Clyde had. For that, though, I need some cash. Not just small amounts either.

How does one make loads of money through having a powerful team of Pokémon?

Fuck.

I'm going to have to do the gym challenge.

How frustratingly generic.