Text Play: Pokémon Zeta #17

Hello, and welcome back to the Vesryn Region! Welcome to the seventeenth entry in my Text Play of Pokemon Zeta!

It's my first Text Play of 2021! It may be a new year, but the tradition remains. As usual, I want to warn you all that I will be spoiling this game. 

If you wish to play the game for yourself, then you can download it at the game's wiki here. And with all that out of the way, let's go! 

And in this entry, we will finally take on Avery and his little army of Bug Pokemon. 

I have to admit, I don't think I've never been this nervous before facing a gym leader. I think it's mainly because I don't think I ever had such a tough time preparing for one before. I have theorized in the past that based on the location and wild Pokémon in the area that Avery was originally intended to be a Rock/Ground-type specialist early on in the game's development but that got changed. Yeah, read the last entry to hear more of my rants about that.

I did get a good chuckle from one of the trainers at the gym when they did a bit of what TV Tropes called "Lampshade Hanging".

When you do think about it, the guy does have a bit of a point. In the real world, having Gyms that specialize in a particular type would seemingly make little sense. After all, for example, if someone specializes in Fire-type Pokémon, they'd be easy to beat. Just bring in a bunch of Water, Rock, or Ground-type ones. Well, in game, I think it does. It forces you to try and adapt your teams to face new challenges, and it teaches you about the various types of Pokémon out there. 

Also, keep in mind this. Since the release of Sword and Shield, there are now about species of Pokémon. There are many dual-type Pokémon out there, so defeating Gym leaders likely isn't as easy as you think. I can also imagine that realistically, Gym leaders are well aware of their types' weaknesses and keep it in mind.  

Anyway, I made my way through the Gym, and I fought a trainer named Pmok.

His name is Pmok, and he's a stallion evidently, ha ha. I wonder, though. Is Pmok an actual name? I'm thinking it was a typo, as I didn't find anything on it. Before you reach Avery, there are two puzzles in front of him.

These puzzles both form the same picture: Mew. Yeah, it's an odd choice for a Bug-themed gym. I suggest the one on the right. Unlike the previous puzzles in the Gym, the two puzzles here don't work by placing tiles on the board. The one on the left rotates the piece you choose and the neighboring pieces, while the right puzzles slides the pieces on the board. You only need to solve one to get to him, anyway. The one on the right is easier.

Before you face Avery, make sure you have plenty of potions and healing items like Antidotes. Trust me, you're better off having them and not needing them than needing them and not having them. Bug-types tend to learn moves that can cause status changes like Sleep, Poison, and Paralysis. And with that, the fight was on.

 1st Pokemon: Parasect (Lv. 38) - Defeated by Murkrow. Avery used a Full Restore.
2nd Pokemon: Escavalier (Lv. 39) - Defeated by Charizard. Escavalier used a Life Orb, which took the last of its HP, causing fainting after it took a Fire Blast.
3rd Pokemon: Scizor (Lv. 41) - Mega Evolved with Scizorite. Defeated by Charizard with one blast of Flame Burst.
4th Pokemon: Shedinja (Lv. 39) - Avery switched this Pokemon out after taking a blast of Flame Burst for Volcarona. Defeated by Charizard.
5th Pokemon: Volcarona (Lv. 38) - Defeated by Charizard.
6th Pokemon: Ninjask (Lv. 39) - Defeated by Charizard.

And with that, the Swarm Badge is mine. It lets me use the HM Waterfall outside of battle. Alongside that came TM81 (X-Scissor). Avery then warns me that the next two Gym leaders will test my bonds with my Pokémon and my skills in thinking fast. But then again, this is the same guy who said that he was having a "great battle" when he was down to his last Pokemon: Ninjask. So, take that for what you will. 

I am so glad that this was over. Six badges down, two to go. 

I have to give a special shout-out to Charizard. Charizard was the surprise MVP of this team. It basically wrecked most of Avery's team on its own. I do feel bad for my Crustle and Pidgeot, though. I put all that work and time into training them to face Avery, and they ended up not being used. It's kind of sad. But I am still glad I did. If things had gone differently, then they would have been handy backup. 

With Avery beaten, we can finally go into Mt. Press.

Well, not quite. You see, Team Olympus is hanging around the entrance.

I swear, these guys are like freakin' cockroaches. They're gathered around the entrance to Mt. Press, most likely up to no good as usual. Anyway, I would not talk to the commander until you are ready. You see, once you talk to them, you trigger an event in which you're taken to their base. You can't leave until you complete the events in the base. So go to the Mart and make sure you get lots of supplies. There is a place to heal your Pokémon at the base, but it would not hurt to be safe. 

I hit the Pokémon Mart and got some extra potions and Revives. Better to have them and not end up needing them than to need them and end up not having them. Once that was done, I entered the group of Team Olympus goons to trigger the cutscene. 

So, why are these guys at Mt. Press? Well, it's believed that the legendary Pokémon Victini is there, and Zeus has gone there to find and capture it. They want to use Victini and this new Pokemon called Divaevus (This Pokemon had been first mentioned in entry #6) to, you guess it, take over the world. 

The grunts there are feeling some pressure due to yours truly constantly handing them their behinds. He's also mad at Apollo and Artemis. 

The grunts are rather nervous about how powerful Zeus will get if he succeeds in catching Victini. They have understandable reasons to be worried. He's already managed to capture Shaymin (In entry #3), he likely has a guaranteed way of getting Divaevus (which is likely the unique legendary of this game). If he gets Victini, he'll likely be a darn near unstoppable Trainer.

As such, the grunts are doing a little plotting. They want an invincible Pokémon. One that can kick any Pokémon's butt. One that'll protect them from Zeus. It's an interesting idea, the grunts questioning things and worrying that things are getting out of control. It's part of the fun of fangames. They can play with tropes of the Pokémon series.

The leader warns them that this kind of talk is dangerous. It won't be far until they start talking about overthrowing Zeus. And that's not what she'll tolerate. Zeus is still the leader. She does agree that Zeus needs a check on his potential power, though. And with that, the meeting is over. The leader spots us, and gives us a dose of chloroform. Off to their secret base!

Mama always said there'd be days like this. Well, this is how the journey ends. Trapped inside a Team Olympus base. It was nice going on this journey with all of you...wait a second...

Huh. One of the Gym leaders has come to the rescue. Graham is here to get us out of here. Remember Graham? He was the Gym Leader of Kivu Town. Won the Necro Badge from him in entry #10. He informs us that Athena (we encountered her in entry #3) is working on some bizarre fusion experiment. She has to be stopped, and as is tradition in Pokémon games, we gotta go hand her another butt-whipping. He'll meet us there. Evidently, he's very confident in our ability to get us through this base. So, we might as well. 

Traveling through the base, you find the usual stuff: Grunts to fight, and items to collect, like right here.

It's a Max Ether. Get it. It can be handy. I also found another handy item.

This is TM75 (Swords Dance). If you want to teach a Pokemon that move, I suggest picking it up. The Base is basically a gigantic maze. I'm not a fan of mazes in video games (Bad experience playing Star Trek: The Next Generation as a kid on my Sega Genesis). There's plenty of Team Olympus grunts to fight if you want to train your Pokémon up some more. I recommend doing so. Getting your Pokémon more experience is never a bad thing.

Traveling through the base, I found this Grunt drinking his problems away.

I tell him things will be fine. Besides, if he's formerly of Team Olympus, he can turn in state's evidence against them. Get put in Witness Protection, that kind of thing. He starts talking about his life story. He was once just a normal kid from Vesryn...until he met Professor Oak. Okay, he was a trainer once. Likely started out on his journey, had some adventures, that kind of thing. But then, things take a turn for the strange.

His first Pokémon was an Electric-type that was a bit wild, but they eventually bonded. They had many adventures together. The Grunt even met a pretty girl. She was fond of Water-types. He mentions one of them was a Starmie. Wait a minute... They eventually got married and started a family. But then they fell on hard times, split up. He joined Team Olympus to make ends meet. He then invites us to guess the letters of his name. Wait, kid who met Professor Oak...had adventures with an Electric-type Pokemon...met a girl who was a Water-type specialist, including a Starmie...Yeah, it's Ash Ketchum.

I can't help but wonder if this is an attempt to deconstruct Ash Ketchum a bit, if not the Pokémon anime. I mean, the anime does tend to portray him as not very bright at times. Also, the show did seem to indicate that he didn't have any skills other than Pokémon training. Also, he never seemed to win any tournament...well, any one that was actually based on a canon region... So maybe, the game is showing that in real life, Ash's life would not go so well. Or maybe it's just doing a twist on anime characters appearing in fangames. 

One thing is for sure, though. This does firmly establish these games are not part of the main Pokémon canon, wither games or anime. Anyway, he gives you TM68 (Giga Impact) if you hear his story and guess his name. All he wants to do his drink himself to oblivion in peace. In the room he's at, there's some Leftovers hidden in a plate of food. Next to that plate is a blue cup. Interact with that to get a Soda Pop. In a nearby room, there's a TM44 (Rest) hidden on one of the clipobards. In addition to the usual items you can find in places like this, there's a special surprise here. This is the point in the game that you can get a Master Ball.

Yup, the ultimate "Easily-Catches-Any-Pokémon" containment device. You only get one, so use it wisely. So, how do we get said Master Ball? Well, first of all, remember that nurse that was nearby where we first appeared in the base? Well we have to go back to her. If you like collecting TMs, there's a grunt to the right of her. Near the grunt is a clipboard. The clipboard has TM08 (Bulk Up). Keep going this way, and you'll find two grunts and a Max Ether.

To get the Ball, we have to go southwards from the nurse. Follow the path until you get to the room that has the staircase to the second floor. In this room, there's a computer in the top left corner. Interact with it, and this will happen.

Answer "yes" when it asks to activate the program. Next, we take the staircase to the second floor. Just keep going along the path (fighting the grunts along the way). Eventually, you will reach a fork that leads to three stairways. The leftmost fork will take you to a staircase that leads to another room with a grunt in it. Keep going up until you reach another staircase. Go down...

...and there's your Master Ball. Use. It. Wisely. You only get one. Now I bet you may be asking, how do we get out of here? Well, we go back to the fork. Take the right staircase and follow the path to another staircase. Go up it, and you'll trigger a cutscene.

Zeus managed to make his way to Mt. Press, and he's playing the waiting game. Once Victini and Divaevus is under Olympus's control, their master plan can begin. What is the master plan? Well, that's not important. ...they don't have one, don't they?

This is basically a repeat of the convo before we ended up here in the first place, Athena wanting a Pokemon to check Zeus's power. We do get something more here, though. It turns out that Zeus is not a bad boss to the group. Well, not as bad as say, Giovanni or any of the canon team bosses. He still wants to take over the world, so we can't exactly say he's 100% a nice guy.

Athena is concerned because well...Team Olympus had gotten their butts handed to them a few times. They're worried that it may not have had the best effect on him mentally, and when you have Legendary Pokémon at your command, it's best to be mentally sound. But they do have two Pokémon that could help stop him if necessary: Sableye and Shedinja. 

Why these two? Well, Sableye supposedly has no weaknesses, being a Dark/Ghost-type...yeah, that was before Generation VI came along. Hello, Fairy-type... As for Shedinja, it has the ability Wonder Guard. Wonder Guard is an ability the Shedinja is famous for. A Pokémon that has this ability is immune to any attacks that are not super-effective against it. For example, the Electric-type Pikachu with this ability can't be harmed by a Water-type attack...but it's no protection against a Ground-type attack.

Wonder Guard does have another weakness. It's no good against any attack that is meant to affect a Pokémon's status, like Sleep Powder. Again, using the Pikachu as demonstration, it can be poisoned with Poison Powder, despite Wonder Guard. If it's confused, it can still damage itself. Wonder Guard is not as OP as Athena thinks.

 Anyway, Athena believes that if they can somehow combine the two Pokémon, they they'd truly have something that they can use to check Zeus. Or something straight from the Jeff Goldblum version of The Fly.

They have a machine to make this possible, but Corlett of the Elite Four is like "not so fast!" And he thinks I'm his partner here. Athena is a bit sore about me beating her in Onega Town, so she makes a wager. I win, she stops the experiment. I lose, I join as a grunt. I want to get out of here, so fine.

(Vs. Athena)

1st Pokemon: Noctowl (Lv. 46) - Defeated by Luxray.
2nd Pokemon: Mienshao (Lv. 47) - Athena used two Full Restores. Defeated by Butterfree.
3rd Pokemon: Medicham (Lv. 47) - Defeated by Butterfree.
4th Pokemon: Lucario (Lv. 46) - Defeated by Garchomp.

Looks like I'm not joining Team Olympus after all.

Athena decides "Screw this, I'm fusing anyway!" Not surprising since she is a villain. Corlett uses Ampharos to shut the whole thing down. Athena loses it, but Graham shows up and gets us out of there with Shadow Sneak. I did like having him show up here. It's like the game is giving us a nice tease who we're going to face in the future.

And with that, I think I will stop here. Next time, we'll hit Mt. Press! I'm a little nervous, to be honest. It's supposed to be a long trip, and I'm a bit nervous. God, I hate Mt. Snarlet...

Hopefully it will not be so bad. Wish me luck! Thanks for reading this blog entry! If you liked it, show it off! Take care of yourselves and each other! Stay safe, stay healthy, stay home, wash your hands often, and wear a mask! See you next time!

Pokemon Obtained
(Route 314)
- Charizard (evolved from Charmeleon)
- Pidgeot (evolved from Pidgeotto)