Vs. Vikivolt

The Captain of the Electric Trial at Hokulani Observatory is named Sophocles.  His schtick is that he's quite nervous at the job.  Apparently, Mo and he both work at the observatory as inventors and technicians.  Mo used to be the trial captain, but he passed the position on to Sophocles.  Normally the captains are all chosen by the Kahuna, but Ula'Ula Island is currently in a state of flux about this.  Mo was a bit vague about it all, but I am admittedly intrigued.

"DETECTED PRESENCE OF
APPROACHING TOTEM POKEMON!"

Sophocles greeted me with a slightly short and frustrated remark about how he was going to summon the totem by sing a machine that he had invented.  He was decidedly short with me--almost a little hostile.  He seemed to lack the ceremony of the other Captains--and it eventually came to light that this was because of the fact that he lacked the confidence of the others.  Mo kept encouraging him and telling him that he was doing fine; by the end of the trial he was visibly smiling.  His character was a lot more real than many pokemon characters that I have run into in the past.  He acted the way that a real human would if they lacked the confidence in their own abilities: grumpy and brusque.  Sometimes, all you need in order to get someone else to open up to you is a little reassurance that you respect them.

The machine drained the power in the facility and I had to battle a Grubbin and a Charjabug in the dark as the totem approached via cutscene.  It was still dark in the Observatory when Vikivolt attacked.

Battle Team: Support Offensive

Vs. Vikivolt

The battles that had preceded my match against the totem, Vikivolt, had severely damaged my team and left Salandit unconscious.  Without my Z-move user in Inferno Overdrive, I had to turn my trust over to Tsareena instead.

I had brought this particular team because I don't have any true answer to electric pokemon.  The rest of my pokemon are all weak to shock.  The resulting battle team, "Support Offensive", was a weird bunch that just so happened to be weak against bug pokemon.  Sure, Salandit has the advantage, but as I mentioned previously, she was knocked out.  Crabrawler's fighting moves would have little effect, Tsareena is outright weak to bug moves, and I can't quite recall whether fairy moves are weak to the bug type or if it is the other way around...

It was Vikivolt vs Bouncee, then.  I wanted to spend the time debuffing my foes, so I used Low Sweep to lower Vikivolt's speed and to apply a little chip damage, and then Reflect to give my team a bit of breathing room.

Vikivolt is a bug/electric pokemon and its Bug Bite eventually took out Tsareena.  It's ally pokern was another Charjabug which seemed to be tossing around Thunderwaves all willy-nilly.  I used Ppunches to slow it down again with Rock tomb.  The chip damage was starting to add up and I saw an opening, so I sacrificed my crab in order to use a Revive on Salandit.

Time for revenge!  Z - INFERNO OVERDRIVE!

Occa Berry...

Vikivolt was holding an Occa Berry, which halved the damage of my fire move.

Godamn bullshit.

Now, down to Star Fighter, my question from before remains: does bug do weak damage against fairy or is it the other way around?

I sigh in relief: fairy is effective.  However, Vikivolt is tough and Charjabug continues to keep paralyzing my pokemon.  I use Baby Doll Eyes for a few turns...if I could avoid any critical hits or fully paralyzed turns, I could take him out...

Could becomes "did" and now it is Sylveon vs. Charjabug.  My Paralysis turns start to kick in, but due to all the petting that I've been giving my pokemon in Pokemon Refresh, Sylveon has a chance of recovering from paralysis whilst in battle.  A little luck, and a little more luck and my paralysis is healed and Charjabug has "fallen in love" with my Sylveon (due to its ability, "Cute Charm").  I don't blame it, Sylveon is pretty cute.

Sidenote: How many times can draining kiss fucking miss?!

Both Sailor Star Fighter and Charjabug are mortally wounded.  Will Charjabug's sacrifice itself for love?

Editor's Note: It did.