Pokemon Black - Day 32 (I should have fought this legendary moose with a flying squirrel.)

And as I exit the gym, I'm approached by someone (tone indicates complete lack of surprise)!



And it's Bladdernut! From her reaction, I'm guessing that she's telling me that I now have to make the journey to visit the Elite 4, which I base on her taking me to the northern exit of town, which leads to a single location up in the mountains. She says something about Route 10, which I guess is the area that leads to them. I wonder what kind of pain in the butt dungeon is waiting for me this way.


Holy crap! She just gave me a Master Ball! Awesome! Now it's a quick trip to the Pokemon Center, and I'm on my way to fight the Elite 4, and becoming a Pokemon master! As I head into the tunnel, I'm stopped by the lady at the desk that's in all of these things. I think she checked to see if I have all of the badges, then she lets me through into the next route. As I head into the next area I see a patch of grass, and I know instantly that the Pokeballs that seem to be littering it are going to turn out to be those mushroom pokemon again, and I'm proven to be right. I also managed to catch a... a...


Whatever the hell this thing is, which is called a Baruchai. I'm going to call it Baby, though.


Then there's this guy, which is... Yeah. I'm going to have to call him Afro, but he's really called Buffalon.

Anyway, since I'm on my way to the Final Four, I think I need to stop and do some power leveling.

As I'm wondering around and leveling, I'm suddenly approached by Cherren. He seems to be complaining to me about something, and I can't say I really care because as the game goes on, he sort of comes across as more and more of a little jerk. This time he brought Belle with him, and thankfully the bridge we're on can support the weight of the four of us. Me, Cherren, Belle, and her ass, which pretty much counts as a living entity in and of itself at this point.


It looks like they both want to fight me, and I'll admit it's not as much of a walk through the park as I thought it was going to be. Their pokemon are about the level of the last gym leader, but of course they both have pokemon that are strong against mine, since they're each packing a monkey or two. After I beat Cherren, Belle gives me something and he heals my Pokemon... then seems to run away crying. I'm not kidding, he just took off at something close to triple speed and ran away from me. I guess I don't fight Belle, because she ran off after him while he pouted like a bitch.

And then I ran in to this thing...


I'm just going to go ahead and call him Fillr, because that's what he is. Filler. His real name is Morobareru, but I can honestly say for the first time in this game, I really don't care... I'm sorry guy, but I think you've won the award for being my least favorite Pokemon in this series.

Anyway, it's starting to look like I've found Victory Road.


Yep, that is definitely looking like a road to victory... Feels good, man.

But before I go through, there are a few things I want to do, because I want to try to make sure I've done everything important before I move on. First off there was a cave on route 6 that I saw quite some time ago, but couldn't get to because I didn't have Surf at the time. Now I do, so I figure it's a good idea to check everything out.


Here is the cave in question. It's near the top of the route I think, but I took a really strange route to get here, so I'm not entirely sure... Damn I'm helpful, aren't I?


Yes, you'll have to use Flash in here as the cave is in almost total darkness, which isn't too much of a problem once you've found Flash... wherever I got it. Moving on, there are trainers in here, but they're all at least twenty levels lower than me, so... woops. I guess I was supposed to come here a while ago. I had been wondering where you catch these guys.


He's called a Kibago, but I'm calling him Pliza, because he's a Pointy Lizard.

It looks like a fairly straight route through the cave so far, though it's a very good idea to keep your dowsing machine on to find all of the items on hand. You'll have to do a fair amount of boulder pushing, but that's not so bad since it leads to a set of stairs up into a new area!



Which seems to be more cave. Well, I think I'll keep going on for a little bit more and see if anything springs up. What I notice first is that it's a pretty straight line to the stairs, but there's also a lot of items around that I wish I could tell you what they were. The next set of stairs seems to lead up to another cave, this one where I don't actually need Flash. Well, that's a nice change of pace for the moment, I wonder what secret this cave hides... And if it doesn't pan out, there's still a water route back on route 1 that I never took, which I'll go back to once I'm done here.

I think something interesting must be in here, because there was an old man standing on a set of stairs that I thought was a trainer, and when I came up the stairs without him looking at me he ran over to talk to me, then asked me a question, to which I answered yes. He then proceeded to read me War and Peace, or at least that's the length of his dialog, and mentioned the number three quite a few times before he finally shut his god damn cake hole. I wander by him and...


I think I have stumbled on to something great. Time to save, and to battle... once I figure out the route to get up to him.


That thing... is AWESOME! Gods I hope I don't kill it. From the blue and yellow coloration, I'm going to have to guess it's a Lightning/Ice combo, and that's pretty neat, and pretty odd if it turns out to be true.


Great Success! I think I'm gonna call him... No. You know what? I think I'm going to leave his name unchanged, since nothing is coming to mind at all that would fit him. His name is Cobalon, and so shall it always be.

The second I'm out of the battle, the odd old man is talking to me again, and I'm really hoping it's not A Tale of Two Cities this time. Ohhh! I'll bet this is about these things being this game's legendary dogs/birds/spirits/bread loaves. After he's done I leave the cave, and I guess I'll make my way back to route 1 and find that other path.

Tomorrow. Still more to come, if you're still reading!