The Road to Snowbelle City

The road to Couriway town brought me to an optional cave called the "Terminus Cave".  I took some time to explore the cave, coming out with a small fortune in random items, the TM for Shadow Ball (nice!), and a bunch of pokemon: Pupitar, Durant, Sandslash, Graveler, Gurdurr, and Torkoal.  When I reached the lowest part of the cave I met a character blocking a doorway who basically told me to come back when I have become the champion.  Nintendo must be hiding Mewtwo back there.

Just you wait...

When I reached the town, the Professor Sycamore found me and thanked me for killing his friend Lysandre.  Not in these words exactly but I could read between the lines well enough.  He then gave me the HM for Waterfall.  This is one item which I have been waiting nearly the entire game for because Nintendo is very good at teasing new areas to the adventurous.  "Hey, look!  A waterfall and several shiny items right out of reach, bet you can't wait to come back here, huh?"  Jerks.

He then battled me with his Venusaur, Blastoise, and Charizard.  I beat him handily, but it was still a fun battle anyways.  He ran off afterwards, congratulating me and mumbling something about a surprise.  Last surprise was a Bulbasaur, so I hope his next surprise starts with a C and breathes fire.

...

I meant Charmander.  I hope he gives me a Charmander.

The route ahead took me over a swampy gorge.  I didn't have to explore the swamp to cross, but I did anyways and caught a fucking Stunfisk.  No I don't mean a Stunfisk, I mean a fucking stunfisk because stunfisk is the most odious pokemon of all time.

As I crossed the bridge, three of the four Pokemon thieves appeared out of nowhere and challenged me to a battle.  I beat Serena's (the one who Nintendo was building-up to turn into my character's love interest in the game.  Looking back, glad that didn't happen) Delphox handily and Tierno (the one whose only trait is "likes to dance") only put up a slight fight (heh) with his Crawdaunt. 

The third battle was against Tierno (the quiet one) and it was actually quite difficult.  He had a Raichu, a Florges, and an Aerodactyl.  The first two of these were easy enough to beat, but his Aerodactyl outsped everyone in my team, including Pikachu, so I didn't even have the chance to attack before many of my pokemon were knocked-out.  In the end, I stalled it to death with Hippowdon using Yawn while Leech Seed took its health down.  Maybe Yawn/Roar/Earthquake/Toxic isn't the set to be running on this guy...at least not in-game.  I'll change it soon.

I made it to Snowbelle, the town of perpetual winter and bad ice puns, and found that the gymleader, Wulfric (the most Northern-sounding name of all time) had gone into the nearby forest to train.  I guess the path ahead is through the greenery!

Current Squad:

GRENINJA/Froakles/lvl.46
VENUSAUR/Venus/lvl.45
FLAREON/lvl.45
SCRAFTY/Scrappy/lvl.44
HIPPOWDON*/Leviathan/lvl.44
AERODACTYL/Scarydactyl/lvl.46

On Rotation: Lucario, Gardevoir, Skrelp, Pikachu, Haunter