Fallarbor Town was just a temporary stop. I needed to go south, in search of Team Aqua. I’ve caught a Swablu on route 114, which was an excellent catch, since I believe it learns Dragon moves at higher levels. I named her Poof, because I think the name fits the looks.

Team Aqua was at Meteor Falls, fighting with another team, Team Magma, over who gets to take some guy with them. I wasn’t really paying attention since both teams sound dumb as hell, so I can’t tell you who the guy was. I’ve chased them off and caught a crappy Zubat before moving further south to Route 115. I don’t even remember what I named the Zubat at this point.

Route 115 didn’t have any bushes, so I guess I’m going to have to catch a Pokémon there by swimming, if I ever get to that. Since I was at Rustboro, I decided to pay a visit to the president of Devon Company, who gave me an Exp. Share for helping him earlier.

Then I took the cable car to Mt. Chimney, where I had a throw down with one of the Team Magma leaders. He was easy to beat, but it was obvious I was starting to fall behind in level grinding. Chasing away Team Magma opened the way to Lavaridge Town, through Jagged Pass. Sadly, I was an idiot and forgot this was a new area, so I killed what could’ve been the best and only Machop I ever owned.

The Gym was easy, deceptively so. I cleared pretty much every Pokémon with no difficulty, since most of them were fire types. This boost of confidence ruined me. Alice was at half health when the gym leader’s final Pokémon entered the battle. It was a Torkoal, and it took one critical Body Slam for Alice to go away, forever. I got my new badge, and lost my most powerful fighter. It was at this point that I knew it wasn’t going to end well.

I started training Smokey, hoping it would soon replace Alice as my top Pokémon. It was looking good. Soon he was able to one-hit-KO most of the Pokémon below his level. I got him to 22 before I got bored, and then I decided to try my luck with my dad’s gym. Before that, I also went to the desert on route 111 and caught another potential asset – a Trapinch I named Chompette.

I should’ve waited. I should have prepared more. I didn’t. The rooms before the final one, I was able to clear, though with difficulty and a couple of close calls. Vigoroth and Spinda fell, but I was hurt badly. Then Linoone entered the battle. Headbutt, and my Jonathan was gone. Another one, and there goes Mr Ploppy (who evolved in the meantime, by the way). I was left with 3 Pokémon at around level 20. Care to guess how that ended?