Recent Happenings in White
Let's see, where did we leave off on this lovely little adventure? Ah yes, I believe we have just arrived at Icirrus. Okay, so I already mentioned how much I love this city, with its merry air and its likeliness to the Irish countryside. I already mentioned exploring places such as Route 8 and the Moor of Icirrus. Well, after that, I did a bit of level-grinding for a LOT of my Pokemon--even the ones that were not on my training team. Quite a few of my Pokemon evolved and/or learned new attacks.
After the boring training against wild Pokemon, the first thing on my agenda was to battle Brycen. The battle was almost as easy as the battle against Skyla--I ended up using only three Pokemon, and none of them fainted. Of course, maybe that's because my team consisted of two Steel-types (one with a Rock attack), an Ice Pokemon with a Steel attack, two Fighting-types, and a Fire-type. Klink, Excadrill, Vanillish, Throh, Mienfoo, and Litwick Lampent Chandelure. That's right, Venifica (the... creepy candle) evolved twice as I battled the trainers in the gym. First she got to level 41 to become Lampent, but she didn't stay a Lampent for long--I decided she didn't need to learn any more attacks, so I used a Dusk Stone on her directly afterwards. All that and she didn't even participate in the battle against Brycen himself.
The first thing I did after earning my seventh badge was head to the Dragonspiral Tower. I caught a Golett somewhere along the way (I had also caught a Druddigon while training earlier), and fought a few Team Plasma people. While doing so, my Duosion evolved to Reuniclus! And learned Dizzy Punch, of all things. Anyway, at one point I was surprised to battle four Plasma grunts in a row, but it wasn't too bad. Then I reached the top and saw N flying off with Reshiram! Ooh, this wasn't good.
So I went to Nacrene City for a conversation with Lenora. After some talk, she asked me if I would accept the Dark Stone. My heart grew heavy, and I thought about how Frodo felt when he decided to take the ring to Mt. Doom. Naturally, I answered Yes. Dun-dun-dunnnn...
Bah, she told me to go to Opelucid City to find out more about this stupid stone. Oh well, time to do some more exploring. So I did, heading through the Tubeline Bridge and wondering where the heck the train station to get to Anville Town was. I wasn't too impressed with Shopping Mall Nine, but at least I got to battle some trainers. I also caught a Pawniard in the route nearby, but I don't know if I'm completely satisfied with his nature and ability (Brave, Inner Focus), so I might try catching another one. Then it's time to train some more in preparation for the battle with Iris...