Progress Report

With Electrium Z and Steelium Z both in hand (prizes after the trial), I was on my way.  First stop would be a pokemon center to heal up.

As I was out the door, Molayne called me back and handed me the mask of the Masked Royal.  He told me to take it to Professor Kukui because he had left it behind.  (Lol)

I ended up battling all the trainers on the Hokulani Mountain trail in order to challenge the veteran trainer at the top.  Just like the Ace Trainers on the previous islands, this trainer had a Z-Ring of his own.  He had with him an Absol which used the move Z-Black Hole Eclipse.
_____________
I think it might be appropriate to take some time to reflect and note a few important bits of progress.  I have had Bagon off training in the Pokepelago training facilities for the past few islands.  Bagon, remember Bagon?  And how I spent hours trying to get him to spawn?  Well he's a level 50 Salamence now and he's unstoppable.  I used him a few times in wild pokemon battles, but he's a bit too much for my current team, considering that my quad is all barely level 30 or less.  Back to the box with this one--to be called upon only when I need him.

Trumbeak evolved into another great pokemon: Toucannon.  It's no secret amongst the people who know me in the real world that my favorite animals are all birds.  While the ordering is always a bit suspect, my top five favorite animals include the crimson shrike, the cardinal, the blue jay, and the toucan.  That my silly woody-the-woodpecker Trumbeak would evolve into a Toucan pokemon has made me the happiest pokemon trainer this side of Johto.  The icing on the cake is that it's quite strong!  It even learned a new move in Beak Blast.

Ori-chan the Oricorio is still in her Akala Island forme, but I plan on changing that whenever I find the local nectar of Ula'Ula Island.  She's a reliable special attacker and a good support pokemon for my team.

My meanie, Mareanie, is performing quite admirably as well.  It's bulky and it's always reliable in battle.  I'm running "Protect", "Payback", "Toxic", "Toxic Spikes" right now and it's been working well.  Hopefully it learns a recovery move sometime soon.  That's the logical next step for such a bulky stall pokemon.

There isn't much to add about Sylveon given its tight performance in basically every trial match that I have ever had.  I hope that it learns some move that would give me an answer to steel pokemon though.  The only damaging moves that it has right now are Draining Kiss (fairy) and Swift (Normal) and, while I probably wouldn't want to leave it in against Metagross or Gengar, it would be nice to have it learn something that could at least hit such a pokemon...does it learn Dark Pulse?  (Editor's note: No, it doesn't.)

Crabrawler can be relied upon to deliver a strong blow and to eradicate anything that doesn't resist Fighting.  Even neutral hits seem to cause massive damage.  Its ability is Iron Fists (which increases the damage of punching moves), so I'm hoping that it will learn Fire Punch or Hammer Arm eventually.

Tsareena, as mentioned before, is my hard-hitting physical support pokemon.  It is walled out by anything "bug" or "flying", but even against these, I can count on it to survive and put up a Reflect or a Light Screen for the teammates.

Sassy Sally...well...things have been a little tough for this one lately...as I mentioned before, its Z-Inferno Overdrive can be a force to be reckoned with...when some crazy bullshit doesn't happen to ruin the moment.  Right now, I can count on Sassy Sally to throw around big damage and to die on a fairly consistent basis.  It's strong and it's fast, but until it evolves into that sexy Salazzle it might have to be part of the "let's see what happens" crew.

Pako Pako may be under leveled compared to the rest of my rotating squad, but thhis is circumstantial to the plot of the game.  I've had more use for the other pokemon recently and it just so happens that Brionne has fallen behind.  Make no mistake though, when I need something dead, Pako Pako always gets it done.  It's a bulky pokemon that hits hard with nearly perfect coverage in Scald, Disarming Voice, and Hidden Power Fire.
______________
I made my way to the bottom of the hill and finally on to the garden where Kukui would be.  Little did I know that waiting for me there would finally be the main man, the head honcho.

The boss of Team Skull.

Current Squad:

Brionne/Pako Pako/lvl 26
Crabrawler/Ppunches/lvl 28
Salandit/Sassy Sally/lvl 28
Oricorio/Ori-chan/lvl 27
Tsareena/Bouncee/lvl 30
Sylveon/Star Fighter/lvl 29

On Rotation:
Toucannon/Pip Pip/lvl 30
Mareanie/Meanie/lvl 26


Pokedex: 154 caught

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.

Who IS the Masked Royal? (it's Kukui)

At the gates if the Bokulani Observatory, I met the childhood friend of Professor Kukui. He referred to by  himself as "Molayne" and assured me that I was in good hands learning things from the Prof.  He challenged me to a pokemon battle--my toughest one yet.

He used three tough steel pokemon in battle: Skarmory, Alola Dugtrio, and Metang.  This is where I realized, for probably the fourth or twelfth time, that my team lacks focus because it's too damn large.  I had prepared for an electric trial and so all I had with me were Grimer, Steenee, Sylveon, and Misdreavus.  Sylveon and Steenee came out of the battle with top marks.  Neither of them was able to do much damage against their opponents (steel resists grass AND fairy moves), but they had the appropriate support moves in order to make the match an eventual success.  I mean, thank Arceus for potions and revives, but I was quite impressed by my packmen's abilities to tank hits and rebuff opponents.  

However, the battle helped illustrate to me how redundant Grimer and Misdreavus were on my squad.  I decided to send the both of them into training with Bagon--to be called upon if I ever need them--and thereby lowering my active team to eight players.

During the battle, Steenee evolved into Tsareena.  I fucking love this pokemon.  It's strong and it's really quite useful as a supporting role as well.  I currently have it with Trop Kick (a powerful physical grass attack which always lowers the opponent's attacking stat), Low Sweep (a strong fighting attack which always lowers the opponent's speed stat), Reflect (which doubles your team's physical defenses for 5 turns), and Light Screen (which doubles your team's special defenses for 5 turns).

Also, it's fucking adorable.

Fukui and Molayne congratulated me on a well-fought match and let me enter the observatory for my next trial.  Apparently the running gag is that everyone knows that Kukui's alter ego is the Masked Royal except for Kukui's wife.  Kukui thinks he's been doing a great job keeping it a secret that he moonlights as the undefeated champion of the Battle Royale league.  He hasn't fooled anyone other than his lady friend.

Current Squad:

Brionne/Pako Pako/lvl 26

Crabrawler/Ppunches/lvl 26
Salandit/Sassy Sally/lvl 27
Oricorio/Ori-chan/lvl 25
Steenee/Bouncee/lvl 29
Sylveon/Star Fighter/lvl 28

On Rotation:
Mareanie/Meanie/lvl 27
Trumbeak/Pip Pip/lvl 27



Pokedex: 126 caught