Part 29: Kepler Lab

Yeah, the more I think about it, the more we should probably stop whatever plans Taen has for Anastasia. Today's update will be a short one, it's just a bunch of story being dumped in our laps.



It's very easy to be drawn straight in here after the gym fight. Be abso-fuckin-lutely sure you heal up before you go in. If you fought Anastasia without a Delta Vespiquen, you probably had a rough go of it. There's another boss fight in here, and it's kind of mean of the game to draw your attention to Taen immediately after the gym because you aren't expecting two boss fights back to back.



: All right, Taen, your commission is done. I'm wiping my hands of it. I don't want to be involved with this creepy cult stuff anymore.
: $1,000,000 has been wired to your PokeBank account, as agreed. That was our end. Now show me the suit I paid for.
: ...very well.



: The armor has been made to your exact specifications. It'll increase the defensive stats of a pokemon that wears it. I did a bit of research. The only pokemon that fits your measurements is... well, Zekrom.



: Do you honestly expect me to believe you have Zekrom too?
: I really don't care if you believe it. The truth is the truth. Great work. The armor looks sturdy and functional.



Anastasia's armor is gonna be a pain in our ass for the rest of the game.

: I've heard stories about Zekrom, but I never thought I'd see it myself. How is it that you've caught two legendary pokemon? Most people never even see one in their lifetimes!



: I don't try to coax or convince them to join us. Have you seen how other cults operate? They just ask them to join. It's no wonder they never succeed. Common sense, come on. A strong pokeball is so much more effective than messing around.

Fair enough.

: Anyways, it seems to fit fine. Do you have the other armors we commissioned?
: I... yes...





: Orion? Amy? What on earth are you two doing here? How did you get in?
: I just walked through the door. It wasn't guarded or anything.
: Oh... Why are you here, though? Shouldn't you be managing your Gym?
: I came because my friend told me to. There was s-



: You again! Stay away from me and my pal! I don't know what you want, but you'll never put your hands on them!
: It really is adorable, how brave kids are. I appreciate you coming though. This saves me the trouble of finding Reshiram myself.



: Zekrom, the Dragon of Ideals! Now bound in protective armor, it is stronger and tougher than ever before! It's perfect fusion of both pokemon and machine!

No I didn't forget a word. Taen actually says that.

: Zekrom... joined you? Why would it choose to join forces with something like you?
: It didn't. I caught it. It's very easy to get a pokemon to obey you once you've tamed it.
: You're a monster.

Stones and glass houses there, Orion.

: Then why don't you try and stop me? A duel between dragons... winner takes all. Unless, of course, you don't care about what happens to Zekrom.
: I do care... but you have a suit of armor! That isn't fair at all!



: No. I'll do it. Reshiram, come out! I don't know what on earth your problem is, but I'll be gosh-darned if you're going to walk all over me, too!



: Very well. Zekrom, crush this worm.
: Reshiram, attack!





They slam into each other a few times.

: We... we're not doing any damage at all!
: Zekrom, this is getting boring. Finish it.





I'm pretty sure Taen just threw a ball at Reshiram and caught it.



: To the victor go the spoils. It looks like an armored legendary pokemon is able to take out an armor-less one. That's pretty indicative of the power of these armors, if you ask me.



: Do you think you can beat the perfect combination of science and myth? Bring it on. I want payback for what happened in Helios City.





Taen favors dragon types and seems set up to try and fight their weakness to Ice in particular. For whatever reason, this is actually a tougher fight than the one we just finished.



Dracolich eats this psychic pig for breakfast.







Mega Delta Charizard hits Grumpig with a damage-boosted supereffective Dark version of Solar Beam. Or to put it another way...





Oh by the way, Soft Serve is here just to fight off Zekrom.



Despite Zekrom's shiny new armor, Freeze Dry fucks it right up for half its health.





Yeah, the Draco Meteor hurt, but it only got a single one off. So much for Taen's armor theory, eh?



Um...? I'm sure there's a reason you'd want to nerf Luxray's physical attacks, but I sure as shit don't see it.



Believe it or not, Fancy has yet to come into her own. That day is still a little ways off yet.



I tried to sweep the Pyroar by exploiting its vulnerability to ground. At the time I didn't realize what its hidden power was...



Ice HP is a pretty good defense against ground types.



On the other hand, a draconic demilich blasting fools with beams of pure, concentrated dark energy is hard to defend against.



Pyroar tried to blast our lich with Flame Blast. It didn't work.



Seriously, those stats. Yeah they're the mega evolved stats, but oh my god.



Hm...



I do like Shadow Ball, but I'm gonna give Ghost Fly a try for a while.



This was just stupidity on my part. My mind went to trying to exploit Kyurem's dragon typing, forgetting that it resists ice.





Soft Serve is doing remarkably well for being at a disadvantage here.



Sigh.



Okay, take two!



I love my engine bee.



But I do not like Kyurem.



I haven't run the numbers, but alternating between Substitue and Roost doesn't seem like it would work out in your favor.



Beeisel keeps shifting gears...



Kyurem tried to Dragon Claw the bee, but her defenses are too on point.



Beeisel hits 4th Gear and is ready to kick ass.





Hit the Substitute so hard that the original flinched!



Hopefully these past two updates have shown why I love Delta Vespiquen so much.





Battle of the Mega Charizards.



In retrospect, Dragon Pulse was probably the better move to use here. It would have hit Mega Charizard X for supereffective damage.





Taen is overfond of Dragon Claw as a move, I feel. Though that may just be my being annoyed at the RNG deciding that nope, Dracolich was going down.



Honestly, I would have been better served leaving Beeisel out and just having her ram her head into Charizard X repeatedly.



I thought I had won with the last move and apparently not. Charizard X appears to be hanging on with a single HP. Another Iron Head leater...





: It shows potentital, but it's definitely not complete yet. Orion, is it? You want Reshiram back? Visit the Dragon Ruin near Selene City. That's where I'll be.



: Each can do unique things the other couldn't hope to try. If we could combine the talents of both people and pokemon... Perfection... perfection could finally be achieved.

What the fuck are you talking about?



: What a nutcase. That's the craziest thing I've heard in my life.
: Selene City... Anastasia, isn't the ruin near Selene City the one that's totally off-limits?
: Orion, you're not seriously considering...?
: I have to, Anastasia. I need to do it for Reshiram. It was my friend before I even knew it was a pokemon. It supported me even when the entire city was against me.





: Well, today was eventful. Listen, Amy. Don't judge me about the armor thing. I didn't know he was a cultist until today. I'd never even seen him before.

Ohh I'm judging.



: They're not perfect, but they'll get the job done. Let me know if you're interested.



And we're free to explore the lab.



Over to the left we find a bunch of appliances for Rotom. So if anyone is interested, I can grab a Beldum outside now.



Anastasia sells three types of armor.

Tyranitar Armor - Increases the base Defense and base Special Defense stats of Tyranitar by 1.3x when held.
Flygon Armor - Increases the base Defense and base Special Defense stats of Flygon from 80 to 103 when held.
Leavanny Armor - Increases the base Defense stat by 1.4x of Leavanny and base Special Defense stat of Leavanny from 80 to 98 when held.

Zekrom's armor, for what it's worth, does the same as Tyranitar's... 1.3x defenses.





This guy is another move tutor, one with some good stuff.



Probably gonna teach Beeisel Meteor Mash in case I decide to keep using her in the future.



That's all for now, though!

Looking Ahead

Route 11

Scyther
Miltank
Sceptile
Tropius (10%)
Wynaut (15%)
Yanmega (10%)
Klink (5%)

Nasca Town

Rampardos
Shuckle
Solrock
Lunatone
Crustle (9%)
Sudowoodo (9%)
Carbink (2%)

Safari Zone Quest Reward (Can only pick one)

Bulbasaur
Charmander
Squirtle

Safari Zone

Southwest

Flareon (First Eeveelution we can catch outside of friend safaris)
Purugly
Drapion
Weavile
Zebstrika
Leavanny
Eelektross
Heatmor

Northwest

Sandslash
Giragarig
Delibird
Sceptile
Yanmega
Audino
Amoonguss
Golurk
Deino (Will not catch if voted for. Trust me on this.)

Northeast

Kingler
Omastar
Feraligatr
Kingdra
Swanna

Southeast

Dugtrio
Marowak
Donphan
Flygon
Claydol
Cradily
Hippowdon
Excadrill
Krookodile
Diggersby

NEXT TIME: On to Nasca Town!