Part 9: Pyrite Town, Part Four

Pyrite Town, Part Four
Objectives: Not sure anymore... I was supposed to get a free Shadow Pokemon out of this, so... oh, right. Rescuing, so on, and so forth. Well, let's try to heal and save, only to be spotted by...

ROLLER BOY PIKE, P$204
Taillow (Lv.33, M)
Hoothoot (Lv.34, F)
PIKE: Too strong for me!
* Espeon grew to LV. 30!
At this point, Espeon had the opportunity to learn Swift. Normally a 60 base power attack, its base power is reduced to 45, as it happens to target both Pokemon. It is an "unavoidable" attack, insomuch as it isn't affected by how many times the opponent uses Double Team, an evasion-boosting attack. It can, however, miss if the opponent is in the protective phase of Fly, Dig, or Dive, as well as if the opponent uses Protect or Detect. With Swift as a Normal type attack, it doesn't work well with Espeon's Attack stat, and thus was not taught. If it were taught, I would have had to select one of Espeon's four moves for it to forget.
PIKE: Urgh... I'm no match. I must level up some more...


There's also a trainer and what looks like a large lift over here. You can battle the trainer, but the lift won't work, even if you win. It needs a Key Item (pun unavoidable) to be activated. If you want, I can go back and battle her in Part Five. After healing and saving, we travel upstairs.


The vending machine being broken is quite a shame. There's only one in Orre that actually works, however, when you find it, you can buy some cheap HP-healing items. One at a time. It's frustrating, but in the long run, better for your wallet.

There are four trainers on this floor, one being optional.


BANDANA MAN GEATS, P$512
Larvitar (Lv.31, M)
Hoothoot (Lv.32, F)
Carvanha (Lv.32, M)
GEARE: I want to go wilder!
GEATS: My Pokemon don't look like they've gone wild enough, but I'll let you off with just this, this time.
A critical hit from Carvanha's Thrash attack instantly drops Espeon down from 85 to 4 HP. Ouch. The rest of the battle goes well, but I don't head downstairs to heal.


HUNTER GEARE, P$528
Remoraid (Lv.33, F)
Magnemite (Lv.32)
GEARE: Emergency! Mayday, mayday!
GEARE: Abnormality detected in friendly Pokemon...
At this point, Magnemite ends up taking down Espeon, who had sustained the brunt of the attacks with the first trainer, but in turn is defeated by one more Surf from Croconaw.


Battling the optional trainer through the upper doors means you can get past him, open up the chest you see in the vending machine picture, and get five free Great Balls. Nice.

BANDANA MAN LOBA, P$512
Wingull (Lv.32, F)
Wooper (Lv.33, M)
LOBA: Aiyeeeh! My beloved POKEMON!
LOBA: Waaaaaaah! My beloved POKEMON are all beat up!
As I've mentioned before, Wooper's an interesting Pokemon (as is its evolution, Quagsire). Being part-ground type, it's immune to Electric attacks. Having Water Absorb, it's immune to Water attacks, and actually heals from being hit by them. This is bad, in fact, when the two remaining Pokemon you have on you have only one attack that can hit it (Bite), other than Shadow Rush. After taking down the Electric-quad-weak Wingull with Thundershock, Wooper falls to some Shadow Rush attacks, the recoil lowering the amount of remaining HP of my almost-purified Shadow Pokemon even further.

A reference to the handheld games. Even at this age, it seems our protagonist can't be bothered to read.


BODYBUILDER AKMEN, P$744
Electrike (Lv.31, M)
Voltorb (Lv.31)
AKMEN: This wasn't good enough... This is a dilemma...
AKMEN: No glory for the fallen... I'm crushed...
Thanks for the melodrama, Akmen. I had to resort to Shadow Rush again on Flaaffy, because it has hideous type coverage, and Electric Pokemon resist Electric attacks. Croconaw was at about 20% HP, Flaaffy at 66%, after the battle, so I elected to head downstairs to heal and save.

Back up, two sets of stairs later, brings us to four battles on this floor, all non-optional, before we can get to the roof.


RIDER RALEEN, P$320
Doduo (Lv.32, M)
Ledyba (Lv.32, F)
Swablu (Lv.31)
RALEEN: Dropped in the dirt...
RALEEN: I only lost because I didn't have a SHADOW POKEMON this time.
Well, be sure to pass one on for next time! All three Pokemon are weak to Electric attacks, but I used Croconaw and Espeon, simply because I was too much in a rush to switch Pokemon.


HUNTER TURA, P$512
Spheal (Lv.32, F)
Snorunt (Lv.32, M)
TURA: How'd this happen?!
TURA: So, admit it! My POKEMON are decent, huh? ...Even though they can't win...
Espeon and Croconaw take a few hits, but still have over 65% health.



A little nook with a closed door hides another item, one I end up needing later in the update.


HUNTER TOTI, P$512
Horsea (Lv.31, F)
Oddish (Lv.32, F)
Sandshrew (Lv.32, M)
TOTI: Dancing alone doesn't win any battles
TOTI: The end is always so cruelly pitiless... Oh, woe...
… What? No Pokemon take damage from the sulker. Another Bodybuilder keeps us from getting to the roof... and this one's female, a rather frightening one at that.


BODYBUILDER ELIDI, P$512
Cacnea (Lv.32, F)
Tentacool (Lv.33, M)
ELIDI: You turned the tables on me!
ELIDI: Grrr... Done in, but how? What blind spot did you exploit?
Tentacool hung on with about 10% HP after taking one of Espeon's Confusion attacks, causing a bit of damage with Acid. The next round, it went down, as Croconaw 2HKOed Cacnea with Shadow Rush, followed by Bite.

Another trek downstairs to heal and save later leads to a trip back up to the roof.

♀ smacks facefirst into a column, and manages to get hung-up on it, thanks to poor path-finding skills. If only she stayed there, and didn't appear right behind me on the next screen... Before heading into the top-most room, where Miror B. was having his conversation with Nascour, I talk to a Hunter blocking off the cave:

Aww, how cute, he thinks we're still on their side. Well, best not to disappoint, so we can waltz on in...


> What made you think that you could simply waltz in here? Such a silly boy.
… I take back the previously-made waltzing statement. Perhaps I could tango in? … No, it takes two to tango, and I think ♀ is still stuck back there.
SILVA: Grr... Wh-where's MIROR B.? I'm taking him down!
> Take him down? After the beating you too? That's too funny! Ahahah!
SILVA: You wait, I'm going to drive all of you out of this town!
Once Silva gets back that truck those two thugs stole.
> Ahahah! Ooh, such a feisty boy! Don't tell me we have to take your POKEMON hostage to make you settle down. Like we did with DUKING.
SILVA: Wh-What?
Silva seems to have hearing trouble. Anyway, the two heroes are standing there, as the camera pans back.

> But that's no excuse for being a bad host!
Here, we enter the first of two consecutive battles. The nature of such makes it difficult to soft-reset for good Shadow Pokemon, namely because both trainers have one apiece, effectively making this a 3 vs. 7 battle. Not being able to heal between battles is a significant disadvantage, as the second Peon is stronger than the first.


MIROR B.PEON REATH, P$660
Spinarak (Lv.33, F)
Luvdisc (Lv.32, F)
Remoraid (Lv.20, M|F)
REATH: How did that happen? Unbelievable!
REATH: My POKEMON couldn't muster a thing! You're no ordinary Trainer!

This is what not to do in the second battle. You'll see that I kept the Snag from the first battle, and yet, if I went up and re-battled the two of them, they would act identically to before, except the first trainer would be short one Shadow Remoraid. (The second would be missing her Mantine, which we would have if it were Snagged during the failure video.) As you can see, Remoraid's level is quite low at 20, compared to the other Snags. Upon resetting and battling Reath, the Remoraid captured this time was female.

> Were you hired by DUKING as his bodyguards? Let me warn you, if you mess with us, you'd better be prepared for the consequences!

(Couldn't pick a more appropriate randomly-generated image title.)
MIROR B.PEON FERMA, P$660
Furret (Lv.31, F)
Aipom (Lv.32, M)
Yanma (Lv.33, M)
Mantine (Lv.33, M|F)
FERMA: What just happened? Unbelievable 2!
… Which two are unbelievable?

Another reason the second battle is difficult is that, if you have three Pokemon, Ferma obviously has more than you. Her Pokemon are faster than yours, and more likely to knock your Pokemon out; it's hard to hit back if your Pokemon faints before it can attack. Mantine makes for a hard Snag, for reasons mentioned in the previous mini-update, as well as its low Catch Rate. Between all activities that took place, this battle took about 7 minutes, from start to finish, the longest encountered in this playthrough.

Cutscene time. (Start at 08:10.)

Examining the screen afterwards gets us It doesn't appear as if it will work right now., where looking at the bookshelf yields:


… I guess the dude takes his dancing seriously, if not his appearance. On the desk is another binder, EIN FILE S.
SHADOW POKEMON
A SHADOW POKEMON is a POKEMON that has been made into a fighting machine by artifically shutting the door to its heart. What we didn't know is that the SHADOW POKEMON exude a dark aura that can't normally be seen by the human eye. Unfortunately, a girl with the ability to see this dark aura has been discovered. This is a major problem. This girl could become a huge obstacle for our SHADOW POKEMON PLAN. A solution to this threat is urgently needed.
SHADOW POKEMON LAB
CHIEF EIN
If only there were some sort of device that let people see this aura, perhaps an eyepiece, or scanner, or something... anything that would let us dump the redhead. I... kind of forget to talk to Silva after the first time. I'll see if he's still there when I work on the last part of Phenac Town, if he has anything else to say. Whoops.

Heading down the stairs takes us to the lift. Taking the lift down brings us to the chest you might have seen earlier, housing 3 Hyper Potions. Walking through the double doors brings us through the doors we couldn't pass through earlier, on the first floor... which you can't walk back through after you heal, which means you have to take the stairs through the twisty building maze all over again in order to get to that guy guarding the cave. (I did a quick check: there are no new items or different varieties of Poke Balls for sale at this time.)

> Hm? Oh, I get it. You guys weren't new recruits, but just intruders, too? That guy earlier was too weak for words. How about you? Are you going to keep me amused?
Despite being on the roof of this building, the battle takes place... on the ground, near Duel Square, because it's happening outside, in Pyrite Town.


HUNTER DOKEN, P$660
Qwilfish (Lv.33, M|F)
Goldeen (Lv.33, M)
Linoone (Lv.33, M)
DOKEN: Th-That was fun!
Another tough Snag, thanks to a low Catch Rate. Qwilfish takes out Croconaw with a critical Shadow Rush, as well as bringing Flaaffy down to 25% health before finally being Snagged.
DOKEN: Battling you was fun, so that's good enough for me. If you want to go through, go right ahead.
Um... okay. Thanks. We will go right ahead, soon enough. For right now, just one more trek downstairs for a heal and save. The caves are tricky, sprawling, and even more maze-like than the building. Look forward to some spelunking action during the next update.

During that update, we're going to run into a chest containing three Ultra Balls, making them a valid option for anything after Dunsparce (Swablu and Sudowoodo). To be honest, I'm a bit disappointed to not get them before Dunsparce, to use on it, because I think the two go together well. From Swablu on, though, Ultra Balls become a voting option, in addition to our current cache of Poke, Great, and Premier Balls.