I made my way to the entrance to Route 4, and sure enough Bianca came running up to start the battle. She wasn't much of a challenge, but her Pokémon gave pretty good experience.
With that battle done, I entered Route 4 where Cheren was waiting for a battle as well. He didn't give me any more trouble than Bianca, and oh those sweet experience points...
As soon as our battle concluded we received a call from Prof. Juniper asking us to meet in Nimbasa City. Cheren headed off right away, but I decided to stick around on Route 4 for a bit. I had a few things to do.
First, before exploring for trainer battles and items, I decided to find out what my encounter was for this route. My first eligible encounter would have to be female, because I still had to find a new partner for Hot Wings. So who was my first female encounter?
Scraggy! I love Scraggy, so of course I was dying to catch her. Thankfully, Hot Wings knew Yawn, which made capturing her quite simple. The first nickname that came to mind for her was "Strawberry Shotcake", but I went with simply "Shortcake" to fit within the character limit. In retrospect I think I like the name better that way anyway.
Let's take a look at her nature... Relaxed, the same as Cornbread. This means she has boosted Defense and weakened Speed. That's not a big loss since Scraggy are pretty slow anyway, and a boost in a defensive stat is always helpful.
Time to give Shortcake the Exp. Share. She has a little catching up to do!
After clearing the rest of Route 4 of trainers and items, I decided to take a break from training and enter Nimbasa City. At the entrance Prof. Juniper was kind enough to give me some Ultra Balls. That seems a little random, but I won't complain.
So I take my first steps into Nimbasa, and what do I find? More Team Plasma grunts causing trouble, of course. This time they're pestering the Day Care man. I chased of the grunts easily, and the Day Care man rewarded me with the Bicycle! Again, a random gift, but again, I'm not complaining!
Since I was taking a break anyway, I figured I'd stop by the Musical Theater. I didn't want to participate in a Musical, but I at least got to dress up Shortcake. She's adorable enough without the props, but it was a pretty fun way to waste a couple minutes.
On the way out of the Theater, I got to witness some of Bianca's family drama unfold when her father showed up begging her to come back home to Nuvema Town. Apparently it took a random appearance by Gym Leader Elesa to change his mind... Weird, but ok.
After all that I felt like I wanted to battle some more, so I decided to check out the Big Stadium and Small Court. The trainers here had Pokémon at lv 25, making them the most challenging opponents I can face for now. This makes them good opponents for training, but I'll have to be careful when facing them for a while.
A couple side notes, while exploring the city I received HM04 Strength and the Soothe Bell. Good thing I decided to look around, or I probably wouldn't have remembered to get Strength until some point later when I needed it.
Next I decided to do some more training and catch some more Pokémon. Since my party is currently full, I don't have to take gender into consideration, just Duplicates clause. First up is my encounter for the Desert Resort.
My first find is a Sigilyph. Not as useful as some of the other Pokémon I could have captured, such as Sandile or Darumaka, but it could be interesting to use. I was a little hesitant about how to approach this battle, since from my past experience Sigilyph tend to like to use Whirlwind, so I decided to take a chance and throw a Quick Ball on the first turn. Fortunately, this strategy worked perfectly. It's so nice when that happens! I decided to name her "Honeydew", because her body is somewhat like a melon.
From there I continued training and exploring around the Desert Resort, picking up some items such as the Soft Sand. Yeah, sand in a desert. Who would have guessed? I also approached the Relic Castle, but decided to wait on entering for now in case I want to try going for Volcarona later on.
With that done, I took another pit stop in Nimbasa. I got some more gifts, including the Macho Brace and the Vs. Recorder. From there I headed to the northeast exit of the city to continue training and exploring.
While on Route 16, I picked up a little Minccino which I named "Cherries". I think she could come in handy.
In the Lostlorn Forest, I decided to get my encounter by using Super Repel and looking for shaking patches of grass for a chance at a rarer Pokémon. Unfortunately I only found the less rare Audino, but I still captured her because a Pokémon is a Pokémon, and since I only get one capture per area there's no sense in wasting it. The first sweet foods that came to mind when thinking of a name for her were angel food cake and sponge cake, so I went with the shorter name "Twinkie", also a nod to Hostess' financial demise last December.
At this point my Pokémons' levels are probably plenty to take on Elesa, but I want to do a bit more training because a few of my Pokémon are pretty close to evolving. That's what I'm going to be taking care of next, and I'll summarize the results of my training in the next part. Until next time!
(credit for party sidebar format goes to Marriland)
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