Since my last installment, I not only leveled up a bit, but I also did a few of the Pokestar Studio things. Maybe I'll go about them in more detail when I use my own Pokemon, but they're not worth talking about while using rentals.
As I go to leave, I can see that Hugh is pestering the captain. Nothing major though (un)fortunately; he just wanted to go to the next city. When I tell them I want to do the same, we leave... and within seconds have arrive at Castelia City. Hugh registers me on the Xtransceiver thing before wandering off to find Team Plasma. As much as I'd like to tell him to tell him to check his map and find their secret base that way, it's not an option, sadly. Never the easy way, huh?
As I go into the city, a clown guy greets me and gives me... a free bike? That's certainly a better deal than Kanto's 1,000,000 of whatever currency it is. He then tells me to find the "harlequins" which can be found in certain places around the city. Doesn't tell me why though. :/
As I explore the city, I for now just talk to the locals, who don't really have much to say. I briefly visit Liberty Garden, but there's nothing to do there, so I return to the city. To the east seems to be a cruise ship which seems similar to the SS Anne in that you battle trainers on board, but don't really go anywhere (you leave, but return to where you started). Something to do later.
When I begin checking out the buildings, there for some reason seems to be somebody in the way in the Pokemon Centre. Odd. When I talk to them, they mention something called Geonet, which they tell me is the globe which marks where I am in the world. I already marked my location after beating the first gym though, so I don't care.
Oh, and I just got a medal for looking in rubbish bins a lot. Neato. (...Or not. :P)
Next is the Battle Company. After having it described to me, it seems a bit too dangerous for a Nuzlocke. Moving on! Last on the dockside is "Passerby Analytics HQ". If this is the kind of place where they get me to answer questions with stock phrases, then I'm not interested... But after talking to everybody, not only does it seem I'm right, but when I try to leave, one of them asks a question without any sort of "I don't care" option. Well that's unrealistic.
After I answer the first answer in each question (not that I remember what they were, of course), I am finally able to actually leave. Onward!
Ooh, a GameFreak building. It's mostly just the same stuff as usual, but there is oddly a couple of guys in here who want to battle. I win with no issues. (I do notice though that from all my successes at the Pokestar Studios, I have 35 Lemonades. Useful.)
Another building elsewhere has the person who developed Unova's PC system. No complaints here... Although this city is getting kind of boring. At the entrance to the gym nearby, a guy says the leader went off to do something, at which point somebody called Iris shows up. New possibility of the Champion (in case you forget, my previous guess was Alder... but he seems to like staying in his little kiddyshack. Creep.)
Following Iris, it seems she wants to go sewer-crawling on the east end of town... Or at least lead me in there. If I didn't know better, I'd say she's a part of the problem, but instead she is just a wimp. Hugh however is doing his best to pretend to not be a wimp, and has entered the sewers himself. Time to find him, I guess. Well, after I check out if there's a reason I can't go to route 4, anyway.
...As I attempt to go there though - indeed, when I'm at the gateway - Bianca shows up to give me the ItemfinderDowsing Machine. Useful. Oh, and it turns out that the Harlequin Hunt's reward was just a Rare Candy. yay.
I continue onward, into route 4, where I immediately spot a couple of trainers in my way. Since I'm not sure if these guys are too strong for me, I head back to the sewers due to them being the "obvious" next place to go.
Once there, Hugh the Wimpy decides that he needs to team up with me to keep going. He's still a wimp, but I don't mind so long as he heals me after every battle like he implies he will.
Wild Pokemon battle! Since Hugh's with me, it's a double battle, therefore I get to choose who to catch between a Grimer and a Zubat. As annoying as Zubats are, I'm going to attempt to catch her, as catching Grimer would just further propagate my weakness to Ground.
...And Zubat has been caught! I name it Ozzy, give it the Exp Share, teach it Venoshock, then continue on. Thoughts while I'm down here: Why is there a janitor cleaning this place? Why is there no water? Huh; Hugh doesn't really have a running animation.
...Oh hey look, there's a couple of Plasma Grunts. After the double battle Hugh initiates, they run away, somehow not realizing the hypocrisy of how they steal Pokemon yet don't consider themselves villains. But I'm guessing we all already knew this. Or hey, maybe they do consider themselves villains and just like lying about it.
Well anyway. They run away, and Hugh says we should go further in. May as well; with him healing my Pokemon after every battle, this is a decent place to train. I think I'm gonna use the Rare Candy I got on my Zubat though, as it doesn't become even decently strong until it evolves once. (And then it becomes fast when it evolves again)
Oh. Wait. The gym leader, Burgh, has shown up saying that there was no one suspicious beyond that point. I'm guessing he doesn't count, for some arbitrary reason? Giovanni was certainly proof that gym leaders aren't inherently good. Hugh seems a bit confused, but eventually gives in, and for an equally arbitrary reason gives me the HM Strength. Not sure if I have any Pokemon which can use that yet.
Hugh walks off, right before some guy with a big blue clamp on his head shows up. Or at least, I think it's a guy. He walks off as well, with not even Burgh having any idea what he was going on about. I'm guessing evil cult leader with absolutely no affiliations with Team Plasma. Nope. Nooooooone at all. Not a one. Maybe a Happy Happyist.
Once they're all gone, I head up the way clamp-guy came from, only to end up in a new place called Relic Passage. In the interests of having a fourth Pokemon again, I walk around until I find an Onix in a dust cloud... but sadly I knock it out, as it had exactly 40 health, and I used Sonicboom twice. But it was only an Onix, so I'm not worrying too much. Level Five Onix and whatnot.
Returning part way, I then head in the direction Burgh came from... And there really is nothing there. I suspect that there'd be more in these sewers if there was actually water here, as I noticed a few boxes on the ground which looked wooden. Heading further back, I notice a new way I can go, leading to a garden in Castelia. Here - After A LOT of walking around in the dark grass - I meet a Rattata. Well at least it's not an Onix. I catch it and name it...
Huh. This is difficult. Does anybody have any suggestions?
Pokemon:
- Haggis the Flaaffy, Lv.19
- Pica the Magnemite, Lv.19
- Ozzy the Zubat, Lv.17
- Rattata, Lv.15?
