Halfway to the league!

We've got our Rainbow badges!

Erica recently came through, or rather, her entire greenhouse of a Gym did. A big chunk of the Greenhouses at the Botanic Gardens vanished in this big cosmic storm of a tear, the biggest and most violent we've seen yet. It was terrifying. We must be getting closer to the future we saw with Kirlia. Anyway, now there's another door in the Botanic Greenhouse, about two thirds of the way along, and a slightly wonky Gym logo embedded in the grass outside. Whether you enter from the 'front' door, or by going along through the Greenhouses, you suddenly find yourself in a pastel coloured floral paradise, with women in kimonos wandering about. I hope nobody was in that bit of greenhouse when it and the Gym swapped. It happened at night, so it should be ok, but I shudder to think of the chaos in the other world casued by the sudden vanishing of an entire Gym.

Anyway, we helped her set up and settle in, and then we got to battle! Glaceon, Rattata and Chatot destroyed her team, as did Charmeleon and Gible. The others went for one-on-one battles. Wortortle with Ice Beam had a close finish, but won. Hitmonchan has Fire punch, so that was over pretty quick. Sammy had a battle of the Glooms, and won by about 3HP. I still have no clue how Doom's Bulbasaur is so ridiculously powerful, but he didn't seem to have much trouble winning.

So yeah, 4 badges down! We saw that strange man in a brown trenchcoat again, I could have sworn I heard him mutter something, but he sounded like Yoda and he was a little way off, so I have no clue what he said. Then he wandered off round a corner and vanished. WHO IS HE?

X and Y: Co-ordinates of Chaos!

I'll get better at those titles, I promise. Well, Hello! Been a long time, hasn't it? Quite a lot's happened, but I'm just going to catch you up on the 'out of the ordinary even for us' stuff, and the big events.

Firstly, we have several new additions! 

Sammy found an injured Vulpix after one of the more crazy waves, and looked after it, so it's joined her team.

Maelstrom bought what he was assured was 'a super powerful water dragon!'. The dude selling it left out the word 'potentially'. Yep, Magikarp. Shiny though.

Ragnarok has caught a venipede that he saved from a stampede of Tauros.

I caught a some guy who'd just come through a ripple being a complete arse to a Wurmple he'd caught, so Butterfree beat him up and Wurmple is staying with me.

Right, here comes the super crazy stuff:

One day the shard started tingling really hard, and a ripple appears in front of us, in the middle of the base, and it opens to become a shimmering portal. Dragon turns up in it! He says hello, thanks us again for helping him while he was here, then looks around curiously. 'Is this all of you?'

'Uhhh, yeah? I mean, Happiny's off sorting berries so she has a bunch on hand for healing, and Kirlia's gone to see Moira, and STILL refuses to take us to meet her, but it's all of us trainers...'

he stuck his head through into our world, and tilted it slightly, as if listening hard. 'Hmm, he IS gone. It seems fate looks unkindly on him in every world. A pity, I had hoped he could lend some assisstance to a problem that may be arising with our version. I shall just have to hope the matter can be prevented. Sorry to have troubled you, I must look into this at once.' Then he ducked his head back in, the portal scrunched up and he was gone! Um, basically, WHAT?!

The introduction of Kalos, the Fairy type, and all the other stuff from Gen 6 has changed a few things. Sammy's Clefairy is now, well, a fairy.  Glaceon is in a bit of a huff about all the hype surrounding Sylveon.'Woo! A new Eeveelution! And it's super effective against dragons!' Well guess what? SO IS HE. I really like the look of Sylveon, and I don't think Glaceon has anything against it personally, it's just the dragon thing. Ragnarok has tried to get my DSDex to give us the Mega stones, like it did so spectacularly with the normal evolution ones, but no luck. We think it's because of X and Y being on the 3DS, making the format (connection?) different, or something.

We had another run in with one of those Yu-gi-oh wannabes, who unleashed a swarm of pinsir on us, Charmeleon did some amazing work, helped out by Flareon and Vulpix.

And Lastly, do you remember that sword that came through a rift the day that Flareon, Jolteon and Vaporeon evolved? Well IT'S ALIVE. We came in one day to find it glowing, and floating, and then it's blade got shorter, the hilt changed, and it gained a big ribbon from the end of it's handle. It also seems to have a scabbard now, AND AN EYE. Creepy, but it seems friendly, so it's staying, joining 'Kirlia's gang' of unowned friends of the group.

That's all for now, see you soon!

Cold Shoulder

Glaceon is annoyed. Everyone's really excited about the new Fairy type (Well, Maelstrom thinks it's a bit silly, but since Clefairy hit him he's 'changed his mind' ) and they're saying how cool it will be to have another super effective type against dragons. Glaceon, being part of the original dragon-busting type, is a little bitter about all the attention. Poor guy. I still love him.

Also, you remember that Gabite we tried to catch a while ago, and it ran off? As part of his 'See, I'M the best against Dragons' showcase, Glaceon blasted it. Ragnarok saw his chance, and caught it. So yeah, welcome to the team.

Other than that, just normal rift ripply, universe endangering problems, nothing special. Bye foe now!

Some shocking battles!

Finally found some time to let you know how the fights with Surge went.

We were told that only his Raichu was battle-ready, so we would all be doing one on ones.
My battle was over fairly quickly. I convinced Joltik to get off my arm and go into battle without me, instead attaching himself to Raichu. With his natural ability to leech electricity from any source he's touching, and the move leech life, Raichu was running on two kinds of empty in a couple of minutes.

Sammy was next, she chose to use Clefairy and struck lucky with a Metronome. After getting Splash and Ember, Clefairy got an Earthquake, which devastated Raichu, who was then finished off with doubleslap.

Don did well too, Riolu had learnt Bulldoze in preparation and had mastered Force palm, which it turns out were the only moves he needed.

Doom only has Bulbasaur of course, but he was, as ever, awesome. Raichu leapt at him, and Bulbasaur grabbed his tail with a vine, and began slamming him repeatedly against the floor and walls amidst a storm of leaves. Another pretty short battle.

Maelstrom's was brilliant. We were all a bit worried, with him only having Wartortle, and I asked him if he wanted to borrow one of my guys.
'Nah, dude, but thanks. Don't worry, We've got a plan.'
Surge actually laughed when Wartortle strode out onto the match area. 'You think you stand a chance? You wish to take on my supercharged Raichu with a water type? And not a full grown one at that? I don't think this will last long.'
'Nope, don't think it will.'
It turns out Wartortle learnt Ice Beam. Raichu leapt up in shock as Wartortle coated the floor. We all had to jump as the Ice surged towards us, and skidded as we landed. The entire room was now an Ice rink, and Raichu slid around, trying to get a grip on the smooth, slippery ice.
'What is this? What are you doing? What do you hope to achieve? Raichu, use Thunderbolt!'
Wartortle leapt onto his stomach, sliding expertly on his shell, dodging the attack. He ended up against a wall, pressing his feet against it, taking aim.
'Anyone care for a game of Ice Hockey?' Maelstrom grinned.
'What?' Surge began to look genuinely worried, watching Wartortle, confused.
'Wartortle, Rapid Spin!'
Wartortle pushed off from the wall, spinning madly until he was only visible as a disc, a large tortoise-shell puck that shot straight at the still skidding Raichu, knocking him off his feet, sending him flying into the air.
'No!'
Wartortle kept going, ricocheting off a wall and speeding back across the floor, just in time to slam into Raichu again as he fell back down. This happened again and again, as Wortortle shot back and forth all around the room, and Raichu was repeatedly sent flying in every direction. I had to leap out of the way to avoid being knocked down myself.
'Sorry, I think he needed the angle!' Maelstrom was beaming.
The match ended when Raichu landed on Surge, swirly-eyed.

'That was impressive.' I congratulated Maelstrom as Charmeleon melted the ice in readiness for Rag's turn. Charmeleon was about to step into the match area, but felt a paw on his tail. Pichu had stopped him, and was glaring at Raichu. The rivalry he felt towards his final form was literally sparking around him. Pichu marched forwards, game face on.
'Well, what do we have here? Raichu's baby form, how cute.'
'Yes he is. Start with Charm!'
Pichu waved his paws excitedly, beaming an adorable smile. Raichu looked like he was trying to resist, but he smiled.
'Now Tail Whip!'
Raichu had now had both his attack AND defense lowered, and was gearing up to strike before he was weakened further.
'Raichu! Unleash your thunderbolt!'
Pichu was hit with the full blast of the attack, and winced, but then opened his eyes, confused, as nothing happened, except a small ripple of power seemed pass over him.
'Ha! Lightning rod! Pichu's ability converts your electric attacks into a stat boost for attack!'
'Blast! Then this is gonna be a draw. Raichu has that too.'
'Unless of course, Pichu decided that Electricity wasn't the only option.....Use Iron Tail!'
Pichu leapt into the air-
'piiiiiiiii-'
-and slammed his now metallic shiny tail down onto Raichu.
'-chu!'
Raichu reeled, then shook his head, clearing it.
'That's how you want to play it?! We've fought some of the best trainers my world has ever seen you know, and we've learnt a few tricks! Thunderbolt the ground!'
Raichu blasted the ground, sending chunks of floor exploding out towards Pichu, who quivered.
'You can do it Pichu! Iron Tail again!'
Pichu, nodded, determined, and his tail shimmered silver again. He leapt up, swatting chunk after chunk back the way they'd come. Raichu, wide eyed with horror, tried to run, but wasn't fast enough, and the makeshift rock blast slammed into him, throwing him down onto what remained of the floor. Pichu ran over and kicked him, then peered hopefully at his eyes. Raichu twitched and Pichu fled behind Rag, but Raichu's eyes turned to swirls. Pichu jumped up and down doing a little punchy dance, looking proud, and Rag got his thunderbadge.

Stormy seas! Tempest vs Misty!

Sorry for the delay, much more mundane reasons this time, although we also had a very strange wave that I'll tell you about later, but here it is at last:

Me and Misty took up our positions at opposite ends of the swimming pool. Misty sent out Seaking, I used Butterfree, who had added energy ball to his moveset. That wasn't a long battle. Next up was Starmie. Joltik didn't want to battle, so I kept Butterfree out,giving me at least a bug over psychic advantage.
Starmie launched a jet of water at Butterfree, who flew up high to avoid it, hitting back with an energy ball. It sent Starmie flying, but it used Rapid Spin to change direction mid-air, curving round to slam into Butterfree from behind. Butterfree plummeted into the water, squealing. Starmie dived after it, vanishing into the pool. I thought Butterfree had had it, but the water began to surge, swirling round in a whirlpool. The whirlpool rose upwards, spraying water everywhere. I grinned. 'Whirlwind!'
The column of water burst, revealing Butterfree in the middle. 'Free!'
'Nice one Butterfree! Now use Silver Wind!'
Starmie was struck as it leapt from the pool, and was slammed to the floor.
'Now finish it with Energy ball!'
The ball of green light hurtled towards Starmie, who began to glow with pink light.
'Starmie! Throw it back with Psychic!'
The energy was surrounded by a pink aura, and slowed down, speeding up again as it began to fly back towards Butterfree.
'Fight back with Confusion!'
Butterfree gained his own pink aura, frowning at the energy ball, which began to slow down again. It verred back and forth between them as they fought for control, the air becoming static with Psychic energy. I could feel my hair stand on end, and Misty's was becoming a frizzy afro. It was happening to everyone else too. The energy ball surged, growing in size and strength as it was boosted by the psychic torment surrounding it. An inflatable armband floated past my head, and I saw Butterfree buckle slightly.
'Use your wings too! Push it with all your strength!'
He flapped frantically, and the enrgy ball shifted slightly further. Starmie and Butterfree were totally focused, giving everything they had to the fight for control.
'Free!'
'Mie!'
'Freee!'
'Meee!'
'Freeee!'
'Meeee!'
'Freeeeeee!'
'Meeeeeee!'
BOOM!
The Energy Ball exploded, and both fighters vanished in a cloud of smoke. Coughing, I peered through it, trying to see them. 'Butterfree! Whirlwind the smoke! Flap it away! Butterfree?'
As the smoke cleared, we could see them, both lying collapsed at the edge of the pool, both swirly eyed.
I thanked Butterfree, gave him a berry, and sent out  Dratini. Misty sent out Gyarados, who roared. Dratini quaked, but stayed, looking determined.
'Try Thunder wave!'
'Tii!'
The wave hit Gyarados, bringing his thrashing to an abrupt stop. He roared, and Dratini quailed.
'Gyarados! Bite!'
Gyarados managed to lunge, sweeping Dratini up in his huge jaws.
Dratini's squealing filled my ears as I panicked. What do we do now?
Then I had it. 'Dratini, use your shed skin ability!'
Dratini scrunched up it's face, concentrating, and shot out from between the huge fangs, a sparkly sheen rippling along his body.
'Phew! I didn't know if that would work...'
Dratini dived, slipping smoothly into the water.
I thought. Ok, so thunderwave wasn't going to be much help on it's own. It is basically an electric current though, it just needed strengthening somehow. I looked at the pool, and grinned. 'Dratini! Thunder wave again! In the water, then jump out!'
'Tii!'
The electricity shot through the water as Dratini launched himself out onto one of the floating platforms. There was a sound like a bug zapper, and a slight burning smell. Gyarados raged, writhing in pain as the electric swimming pool fried him. He roared again, lunging down for Dratini as the yellow crackles of energy faded from the water.
'Dive in the water to evade!'
Dratini did, wiggling through the water like an eel as Gyarados tried to hit him.
Misty looked thoughtful. 'Ok Gyarados! Use Ice fang on the water!'
'Oh bugger'
Ice spread across the water, freezing the pool. Dratini tried to leap out, but his tail was trapped in the Ice, leaving him half in, half out. Gyarados was trapped too, but had a lot more freedom given his size.
'Right, that's my bad, I showed you how to do that.'
'Yeah, thanks, it worked well! Hyper Beam!'
'Twister!'
Dratini let loose a huge Twister, almost the size of Gyarados himself, but it was obliterated by the Hyper Beam, which blasted straight through,  smashing the ice around Dratini, sending him flying. I saw him wincing, he wasn't knocked out! But he was heading for a wall, and looked like it might finish him off. 'No!' I aimed his ball, returning him to it before he could crash.
'Thank you Dratini, have a good rest.'
Happiny tapped me on the leg, and reached up, sounding keen. I handed her Dratini's ball, and she rushed off with it towards my bag to heal him.
'Fine, you want to battle with ice? Meet a pro. Glaceon! FINISH HIM!'
Glaceon had been waiting for my signal, and shot past me, growling. He's almost as protective of Dratini as Charmeleon is of Pichu, and he was not pleased. I could tell he considered the use of Hyper Beam on Dratini, while he was trapped, was a low blow, and he did not intend to let Gyarados get away with it. He didn't even wait for me to call out a move, he just started Ice Beaming every part of Gyarados he could, quickly encasing most of him in Ice. The huge sea dragon thrashed around, almost freeing himself, but as soon as one bit of ice broke another formed. When he could no longer break free, Glaceon raced up Gyarados' back, leaping at the top, spinning in the air and delivering a punishing Iron Tail to his head. Then an Icy wind, then more Ice Beam, then an Iron tail that smashed the Ice trapping Gyarados in the pool, then one that toppled him over, then more Ice. In just under a minute a swirly eyed Gyarados Ice block was filling the pool. Glaceon gave a derisive head flick and strode away to check on Dratini. Misty was left staring, shock and confusion on her face, mouth open in shock.
'Uh...wow. That was...wow. Oh, yeah, right, here's your badge.'
yay!

Sorry again for the delay, Surge battles to follow soon.

Many Misty Matches!

Sorry for the delay, there was a blizzard, which led to ice types running riot, and Surge's gym led to this big wave of electric types that sent they city's power haywire, it's been a bit mad.

So, we all went and challenged Misty.

She beamed at us, leaping down from the lifeguard chair.

'Hi guys! This place is working out great, thanks for all the help! I've been looking forward to our battles, '1 on 1' or '3 on 3' ok?'

We agreed, and Rag went to stand at the other end of the pool while we went to sit in the stands.
'Um, I was wondering if we could do it as a triple battle?'
Misty blinked 'A triple battle? Oh, like at the world tournament. Sure!'
She sent out Starmie, Seaking and Gyarados as Rag's three leapt out onto platforms floating on the water. Charmeleon looked nervous, grabbing his tail defensively, but then locked eyes with Seaking, and snarled.
'A Charmeleon? Are you sure?'
'Certain.'
'Ok then! Starmie, use Water gun! Seaking, Horn attack! Gyarados, start with Aqua tail!'
'Charmeleon, dodge the water and use Bite! Snover, hit them all with Razor Leaf! Pichu, Thundershock!'
Pichu aimed his attack at Starmie's jet of water. Electricity blazed across it, zipping along the line of water, frying Starmie., Starmie drooped, dazed, taking further damage as Snover's leaves battered it, and Charmeleon took his chance, leaping forward and biting down. The dark move was devastating to Starmie, who trembled.
Seaking had been thrown back by the leaves, but started forwards again, aiming for Snover. Gyarados' tail had battered the leaves away as if they were nothing, and sent a small tidal wave across the pool. Charmeleon, at the side of the pool, kept biting down, just missing the water as it crashed at the edge.
'Starmie! Rapid spin!'
Charmeleon's eyed widened, worried, and Stamie span madly, throwing him off. He landed on one of the floating platforms, skidding towards the edge. Pichu yelled, jumping over and grabbing his tail. Straining to pull Charmeleon away, he was dragged along, digging his tiny heels in, slowing them. They came to a stop with Charmeleon only half on the platform, nose millimetres from the water. He got to his feet, and hugged Pichu.
'Aw! It's so great to see your pokémon help each other like that!'
Misty beamed, then remembered she was the opponent. 'Starmie, Seaking, get them!'
Starmie spun through the air towards them, and Seaking burst from the water, but let out a cry of surprise as Pichu, body crackling with electricity, jumped on top of hiim, using him as a steeping stone on his way to Snover, who was trying to hold off Gyarados. Seaking fell back into the water, sparking.
'Charmeleon! Catch Starmie with Metal Claw!'
Charmeleon ducked, thrusting his glowing claws upwards as Starmie soared overhead.
'Flamethrower!'
Starmie glowed red under the intense heat of the attack, looking weak. Seaking leapt up from the water once more, and Charmeleon spun, throwing Starmie like a frisbee, scoring a direct hit. The tangled mess of fish and star flew backwards, into the path of an icy wind Snover had just sent out. They were incased in ice, becoming a small boulder. Pichu leapt up as they flew past, using Iron Tail to slam them into Gyarados, who roared, whipping his tail round, batting Snover into the air, slamming into a window, and a wave of water washing over Charmeleon, who covered the end of his tail with a protective claw.
We gasped, all eyes on him. When the water dropped, we leaned forward, concerned, desperate to see if he was ok.
Charmeleon was still standing, the tiniest wisp of flame still flickering away at the tip of his tail. He opened his eyes, let out a shrill yell, and staggered quickly away from the pool.
Rag sped over to Charmeleon, horrified. 'Snover, we need a leaf!'
Snover, upside down against the window, looking very dazed, waved an arm, sending out a single leaf that wafted over to Rag, who caught it and held over the flame, feeding it. Misty had stopped too, looking concerned, leaving Gyarados to thrash around undirected. Pichu had bounded over, gripping Rag's arm, peering over to look at Charmeleon, trembling.
'He'll be fine, don't worry.'
more water lapped at rag's feet as Gyarados whipped his tail round again. Pichu glared, cheeks sparking with rage. He ran at Gyarados, yelling 'Chuuuuuuuuuuuu!'.
Misty turned to look. 'Gyarados! Hyper Beam!'
A huge beam of destructive light blasted from it's mouth, but Pichu dodged, darting round and leaping onto Gyarados' tail. Scrambling quickly up it's back, Pichu arrived on it's head. He grabbed the middle spike of the three pointed crown, on Gyarados' forehead, Pichu unleashed all the power he had, a huge blast of electricity, sending Gyarados into spasms, thrashing wildly. Pichu shocked again and again, holding on tight as the shaking and writhing threatened to send him flying. At last, fried, Gyarados collapsed, toppling over into the pool with a huge splash. As he fell, Pichu leapt into Rag's arms, exhausted, but pleased.
After a lot of healing, a proud Rag took his badge and came to sit in the seats with us.

I wish I could make everyone's as big and exciting as that, but no. Doom's for instance. It was her incredibly strong Bulbasaur against Starmie. The entire battle was two moves, both from Bulbasaur. Yeah, it was pretty short.

Same for Sammy's Gloom against Seaking, although that match was three moves. Seaking actually managed to hit with Horn attack, but it didn't help much.

Maelstrom and Wartortle had a slightly harder time, lacking a type advantage, but they were up against Starmie, so Bite proved useful for them aswell. That one was actually really close, with Starmie only fainting mere seconds before Wartortle collapsed, but he did it, and won the badge!

I'll upload mine separately, I didn't do a triple battle so it went on for longer.

New years resolution: Go to the gyms!

Hey all, I hope you had a good christmas and new year. Ours was fairly uneventful, no more shadow controllers, just normal outbreaks from new waves. A few more buildings have taken on a cartoony appearance, but no big world breaking collisions yet, so that's good.

The really exciting news though is that Misty and Lt Surge fell through rifts recently! Misty came through on her own, but Surge was part of a wave that more or less replaced an outdoor gear shop with his gym. The switch was pretty smooth, so there wasn't a lot of clearing up to do, and Kirlia says that Moira's handling it on the other side, so the shop staff will be ok.

We've helped Misty get set up at Parkside swimming pool, where is both a lifeguard and gym leader. There's a rota for when it's swimming only, and when it's ok to challenge her, so we're all going this afternoon.

Surge is ready for challengers too, after tweaking his gym a bit since he and it arrived, so we're hoping to go there straight after, and get both in one day! About time too, my Boulder Badge has been looking lonely.

Oh Team Rocket made another grab for the eevees, and in the fight that followed, Joltik learned Electroweb! I can't wait to try that out properly at the gym later.

Oops, have to go, work to do. I'll let you know how we all get on later. Bye for now!