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With Natu fully healed from the Heal Ball, I let her out and she let out an excited chirp and plopped herself on my head. She was so grateful for the healing, but I knew we needed to go find her family wherever they migrated.

Mark and Theo helped me gather everything and I led them over to the now broken pedestal, telling them all about the vision Natu shared with me. We tried to make out any of the map they created, but half of it had disappeared. I wanted to help Natu find her family, so I took some pictures to compare later. Once school was over, I wanted to travel to find the rest of her flock.

All we knew at this point was to go back into the city and report the ruin explorer. I think he’s far from just a ruin explorer, but we weren’t sure what his motives were.

After the excitement we just had, I couldn’t wait to write my report for class!

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The man was the ruin explorer we met before!

Although none of the Pokemon or the man could see me, I inched closer to get a better look. It was none other than the man who found us in the ruins. And out from behind him appeared the Unown. Groups of Natu fluttered toward their Xatu leader and started teleporting to different locations, assuming to non-threatening locations before their migration.

The lone Natu flew forward with a nervous look on her face, and looked up at the elder Xatu. The ruin explorer sent out a large golden Arbok and it lurched toward the Xatu with its poison fangs ready to attack. Natu jumped right in the way and took the hit. Arbok turned quickly as the ruin explorer called out another attack to knock out the elder Xatu.

What ended up be in a matter of seconds, an attack came from nowhere (almost as if there was a delay from something Xatu tried to use before) and struck the Arbok and Xatu teleported away.

After his Arbok had fainted, and the Unown had scared all of the Natu and Xatu away, the ruin explorer gathered himself and ran off back into the ruins.

Suddenly, the vision had ended and I was sitting in the field with the poisoned Natu in my arms. I looked at her and knew I needed to get her back to a Pokemon Center. Without missing a beat, I grabbed the Heal Ball that Kurt gifted me and looked at the Natu with a look of concern, hoping for a confirmation as a response.

Natu clicked the Heal Ball with her beak, using the last bit of energy she had. After a few shakes, Natu was caught and joined the party!

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The Natu showed me a vision of the past.

An elder Xatu stood perched on an ancient pedestal in the middle of the open field we were standing in. The pedestal was standing upright in this vision, so this must’ve been from the past.

The Xatu widened its wings and called the others to gather. Somehow I was able to understand what it was telling its flock (probably because this is Natu’s vision).

Xatu told the others that they didn’t have much time left before the threat approached. There were several groups that looked like they were migrating to new lands. Nearby, I saw a map drawn in the sand right by the pedestal, showing different islands that looked like other regions. I couldn’t quite make them out to know which regions though. The Natu showing me the vision wasn’t sure which group her family was assigned to, so she stood by the trees waiting for them to come near.

Several of the leader Xatu gathered near families of other Natu, ready to embark on their migration. Then, from where Mark, Theo, and I came from the ruins, stood a menacing looking man.

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We ended up in an open grassy field.

These ruins are a maze and we were just trying to find a way back to the city. All of this for our report…

Togetic and Spearow both tried scouting the area for a way out, but couldn’t find anything right away. I went to the edge of the field looking through the trees to see if there was a path up ahead. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed a small Pokemon huddled by a tree and it looked hurt. As I got closer, I identified it as a Natu. It looked really hurt and not a nest or flock in sight. It might’ve been trying to get away from the Unown that lived here, but I couldn’t be sure.

I picked up the Natu and brought her back to the others. Mark inspected her longer and determined she was also Poisoned and ran the risk of fainting soon. We frantically searched our bags for Berries or any healing items to help, but no such luck.

I knew this was just how things went in the wild, but I couldn’t just leave her there. Who knows if her flock would come back for her at this point. With what little energy she had left, the Natu glanced in my direction and her eyes lit up. Suddenly, I was viewing a vision of a scene that Natu wanted me to see.

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Mark, Theo, and I all prepared to battle. Mark sent out Drowzee, Theo sent out Spearow, and I sent out Togetic. We began to attack all of the Pokemon when we could, but the ruin explorer seemed to orchestrate them with simple arm movements.

We couldn’t make sense of it, but we knew we needed to distract him enough to get around and climb up the ladder. Theo’s Spearow tried to fly into the ruin explorer to knock into him and get him to step away. Even if we tried to push him ourselves, the Unown would try to stop us with their attacks. It seemed that some attacks were doing more damage to some of our Pokemon than others, which we thought was so strange. Some weren’t doing anything at all.

I called out to Togetic to use Metronome, and somehow, it used Flash and lit up the entire area. That attack also was able to blind most of the Unown and the ruin explorer, and we knew that was our chance to run for the ladder.

While covering our eyes when we could, we rushed to get to the ladder. After what seemed like forever, it bought us just enough time to get all of us up the ladder, Mark return his Drowzee, and Spearow and Togetic to fly up to meet us on the upper level.

Once we were at the top floor, we did what we could to get out of the area. That ruin explorer was crazy and we didn’t want to stay any longer than we needed to.

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It was a ruin explorer the whole time…

We got a little freaked out, but it turned out it was another trainer coming toward us since he got lost in the ruins. We figured we could join him to get out, and possibly study some of the area while we were down there.

It was all too quiet for a while, mostly because we were worried we’d attract something we didn’t want to wake. Which, probably could’ve helped our report if it was a pokemon we hadn’t met yet.

After a lot of twists and turns, we came upon another puzzle on the wall. Theo quickly went up and started to solve it. Mark and I honestly wondered if that was a good idea, but we hoped it could get us out of the ruin. The ruin explorer who was with us didn’t seem to try to help… which we thought was weird. Something made us think he’d been there for a longer time, or he frequented this place often.

Finally after a click of the last piece of the puzzle, a ladder descended that could lead us to the upper floor. The ruin explorer let out a loud laugh and told us he couldn’t let us leave. They wouldn’t let us leave.

Out from behind him, a swarm of Pokemon came out and started to attack, with this ruin explorer as the leader. After checking our Pokedex, those were Unown!

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Before heading to the next town for our Gym Challenge, we were given a school assignment from Morty. Our assignment was to study Pokemon that we hadn’t seen before in our Pokedex. He recommended we check out the Ruins of Alph if we hadn’t gone yet. Mark and Theo said they’d been by before, but didn’t know of and Pokemon living near there. The last time they’d gone, no Pokemon were around.

We decided to head that way in the morning so we’d have most of the day to travel, mostly since we needed to back-track. We took a break along the way to visit Kurt. Although he was a little grumpy when we saw him, he gave me and my friends some extra Poke Balls he’d been working on. He gave us a Heavy Ball, a Lure Ball, and a Heal Ball he had leftover. By the time we reached Azalea Town, we needed to rest before getting to the Ruins of Alph.

After saying our goodbyes, we left the following morning. It took only a few hours to get there, and we immediately got to looking around to try and find some mysterious Pokemon.

We decided to check out some of the ruins and noticed some puzzles on walls, or maybe it was writing from an ancient language? We looked around to see if we could decipher anything. And just as we thought we’d figured something out, Theo moved pieces of a wall and solved a puzzle. Out of nowhere, the floor beneath us collapsed and we fell below ground.

We landed in a dark part of the ruins and had the think quickly on a way to get out. All of a sudden… we saw a bright flash of light coming from behind us.

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Nidoran is getting stronger!

We all agreed to head to the Ecruteak City Gym once the morning came.

I decided to challenge the Gym using Nidoran to test how strong he’s become. He’s really been wanting to prove himself since joining the team and has been training with Heracross quite a bit.

Morty uses Ghost-type Pokemon on his team, so Nidoran had quite a difficult time since he doesn’t know any moves that work well. After working through a lot of weaker moves, he was able to use Peck to knock out Morty’s Gastly and Haunter, but he needed help with the other two Pokemon. Togetic was able to help out as well to weaken Morty’s other Haunter and his Gengar. After Togetic going down, Nidoran was able to knock out his final team members and win us the battle.

And just like that, Nidoran grew stronger… Nidoran evolved into Nidorino, and I received the Fog Badge! Morty was so astonished by the battle and congratulated us on the victory. He said that we all weren’t to be underestimated and wouldn’t have an issue entering the Pokemon League Tournament. I couldn’t wait to keep training to get to that point!

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It’s been a wild few days.

On our way up to Ecruteak City, we came across a Pokemon that pretended to be a tree. We used that SquirtleBottle I got back in Goldenrod City and it sprang up to attack. Luckily, Theo brought out his Machop to take it out. Apparently it was a Sudowoodo, and Theo wanted to catch him. He was quite a goofy guy, so I’m sure he’ll for right in.

We finally got to the city and there was a bit of a kerfuffle near the Burned Tower. Some guy named Eusine is obsessed with the Pokemon that were rumored to have died there many years ago. He was a little weird about it and wanted us to check things out with him. Morty, the Ecruteak City Gym leader, was also there monitoring the situation. We approached the lower floor and those 3 Pokemon appeared.

The 3 Pokemon ran off after being startled by Eusine’s squeals, so I’m not even sure what Pokemon they were. I guess from Morty they were Entei, Suicune, and Raikou. I’m not sure if we’ll ever come across those Pokemon again in the future, but crazier things have happened!

After leaving the Burned Tower, Morty mentioned that we should check out the Kimono Dance Theater for the show, and then come challenge the Gym the next day. We had been traveling for awhile, so he wanted to make sure we were trained up as much as possible.

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After spending several days in Goldenrod City and trying to do as much as we could there, we decided to head on up north again and make our way to the next city.

As we continued, that wild Pokemon we sensed was still around. Mark and Theo went on ahead to scope out on the map where we needed to go (but I think it was an excuse to watch the Pokeathalon races or to go battle).

I wanted to get to the bottom of this so I sent out Togepi to help me assess the situation as they left. We set up some Berries to lure the wild Pokemon out and after a while, a very reluctant Pokemon started inching forward.

It turns out it was a lonely Nidoran who noticed us traveling and couldn’t find the rest of his family. I asked him where the last place he saw them was and it seemed like they left without him or he was way too far when he started wandering around. I told Nidoran we would help him look for his family, so off we went. Togepi and I yelled and yelled as much as we could, but there didn’t seem to be any traces of wild Nidoran in the area.

It wasn’t until we came across a group of Ekans swarming a group of wild Pokemon. We ran up to see all of the commotion and it looked like this group of Ekans were cornering a family of Nidoran, presumably this Nidoran’s family. Togepi ran over to attack and quickly got poisoned. I was fresh out of Antidotes, so he had to hang on as much as he could until I could think of something to do. I called out to Nidoran to dodge attacks and we seemed to be in sync. Togepi was hurting bad, and then the Nidoran got wrapped up by two of the Ekans. I had some more Pokemon to help, but I wasn’t sure what more to do other than retreat and see if Psyduck could help.

Just then, Togepi started to glow. Togepi evolved into Togetic! It was able to shake off the Poison and went into attack using Metronome. The Metronome attack turned into Earth Power and scared off quite a few of the Ekans. Then, out of nowhere, the Ekans that were attacking Nidoran lifted off of him as if by telekinesis…

We looked around, and off in the distance, there was a Drowzee levitating those Pokemon off of Nidoran. Then, running from behind was Mark and Theo. Mark said he found Drowzee and wanted him to help find his missing Abra, but ended up catching him instead.

Now that everyone was saved, Nidoran thanked us and rejoined his family. As we started to leave, the rest of the Pokemon’s family all nudged him to stop me before we left. It seems Nidoran wants to become stronger so he can protect his family and those he cares for, so I asked if he’d like to join me to become stronger. The Nidoran family all cheered and encouraged him to join. Nidoran was caught and joined the party!

With new additions to our group, we set out for Ecruteak City for our next Gym battle!

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As we headed up to National Park, we decided to chat more to get to know each other. Turns out Theo is from Sinnoh and transferred from the school up there. Apparently he’s from a town called Oreburgh City and that’s where he has been training with his Machop and Geodude. His dad works at the mines nearby and he was gifted these Pokemon so he could grow up to help his dad. Theo had more fun battling with his two Pokemon than he did at the mines, so he decided to go to school and then travel to Johto to learn more about battling.

Theo and Mark really bonded over battles, but we all were able to find a common connection when it came to our travels, and that was our connection to Pokemon.

On our way up north, we passed the same route we took to get to the Pokeathalon Dome and it seemed like this whole time, a wild Pokemon continued to follow us. We didn’t think anything of it, but he seemed to have an eye out for Mark. Almost as if he was forewarning us about something. We continued on until we met with the man at the gate taking entrants to the Bug Catching Contest.

We all entered, and we were told that we needed to catch the biggest Bug-type pokemon and whoever won would receive a special evolution item. I didn’t know what it was, but since I was trying to help Professor Birch with this task, I needed to win.

After what seemed like forever, the contest had ended and I brought up a rather large Scyther, Mark caught a large Venonat, and Theo… found a Weedle because everything was terrified of his Geodude that was helping. When the winners were announced, Mark came in second, and I came in first! Who would’ve thought this Scyther would’ve helped me win the contest? I was awarded a Sun Stone! Not sure I have any Pokemon that use Sun Stones, but I could do more research to see which Pokemon evolve with it.

I decided to release the Scyther back into the park for another trainer to possibly win the next contest. Mark ended up keeping his Venonat and wanted to train her as soon as he could. Theo’s Weedle was very terrified and he also ended up releasing it.

With a new member in the party, it ended up being quite an eventful day. We headed back to Goldenrod City, and that wild Pokemon’s presence still lingered behind us. We had to head back that way again tomorrow, so maybe we’ll confront it.

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Last minute preparations before our group challenged the Goldenrod City Gym.

Going into the battles, we were told that the Gym Leader, Whitney, preferred that we only use 2 Pokemon each. That was perfect, because after yesterday, we all now had at least 2 Pokemon with us. I decided to use Heracross because I’d been training him quite a bit, as well as Bayleef. Mark used his two newly evolved Pokemon, Frogadier and Haunter. And Theo used Machop and Geodude for his battle.

For my battle, Whitney used her Clefairy to try and infatuate Heracross. Despite her efforts, Heracross was able to use Headbutt anyway and get her Clefairy down to low health. It was able to use Metronome and it ended up using the powers of Roar to send in my Bayleef. Bayleef quickly took note of the situation since it wasn’t what we trained prior. She charged over to Clefairy and used Cut to finally take her out of the match. Whitney offered if I wanted to switch my Pokemon, but Bayleef stayed in to defend.

Whitney finally sent out her ace, Miltank, and began to Stomp at Bayleef. She dodge quite a bit and even landed a Poison Powder to whittle down Miltank’s HP. Sure enough, Miltank had a Pecha Berry to heal! She’s smart for using Berries to assist. We tried one more time, but Bayleef wasn’t quite enough and went down to a Stomp. It was now down to our last Pokemon.

Heracross came in and tried to Headbutt, but he wasn’t strong enough. Miltank assessed the situation and began to use Rollout. Unfortunately for us, Heracross was weak to this Rock-type attack. He was able to take two of the hits, but one more would’ve been game over. From a previous attack, Heracross was able to lower Miltank’s defenses, and then as Miltank charged forward with a boosted Rollout, Heracross was able to stop it in its tracks with a clean Brick Break to end the match.

Whitney was very impressed, but she was incredibly upset that all three of us beat her that day. She almost didn’t give us our badges… (one of her Gym trainers consoled her and made her turn them over to us). I received the Plain Badge!

After leaving the Gym, taking stock of supplies and checking in on any last minute preparations, we decided to buy some more items at the department store and then retire at the Pokemon Center for the night. We heard from locals that the Bug Catching Contest was the next day, so we made sure to get some sleep so we could join!

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Craziest thing happened…

Mark and Theo were battling, right? Well, Mark didn’t realize his Abra only had one move… and when he sent it out, Abra teleported away. We have no idea where it went off to.

So I guess Mark lost his Abra?

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The next couple of days in Goldenrod City were jam-packed with fun things to check out. We went by a flower shop and bought a SquirtleBottle for some of the Berries we hoping to plant and grow, pressured into buying Bicycles that I wasn’t sure we really needed, visited the Global Trade Terminal, stopped by to visit Professor Oak while filming his podcast, and went to see where the Gym was located.

It was rather eventful, but we decided to travel north to the Pokeathalon Dome before getting back to training for our Gym battles. Mark and I bought tickets to the race for that afternoon and had such a fun time! We even met another trainer there named Theo. He was enrolled in the Indigo Academy as well and had plans to challenge the Gym the following day. We told him we were as well and wouldn’t mind battling later to prepare!

After battling with each other and getting to know each other, Theo asked if he could tag along as we travel the region. The more the merrier! Theo joined Mark and I on our journey.

Next up, challenging the Goldenrod City Gym!