Anyway, now that I've Purified my current team, I can switch them out for a few others to Purify instead. This will also let me show you the Numel from before.
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Notice the Charcoal he's carrying? There are actually quite a few Shadow Pokémon carrying items. They start out as just simple things like the attack boosters (it's unfortunately going to be a while before I can get Espeon the Twistedspoon), but as we get further in we'll get some rarer pieces of equipment like the Lucky Punch or Stick.
I kind of like this concept. I think it's a neat way to obtain the items, and I like the thought that the enemy team is actually trying to use items effectively (which is very important in Pokémon battles, but no AI enemies ever do). Unfortunately, Shadow Pokémon only know Shadow moves, so they don't really get any use out of the Charcoal and similar items until you start to purify them.
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Ok, just two doors left. I haven't finished exploring the floor, so I'm going to leave the elevator alone. To the left it is!
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I know, right? He should totally help perfect the ultimate killing machine that you guys are mind controlling and hoping to use for World Domination.
Then, when he does perfect it, I can capture it, and then I can use it for World Domination.
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Y'know, I hung around my mom's lab a lot, and I don't think I was hassled nearly this often.
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Great, a Wynaut. Please don't tell me I'm going to have to face Wobuffets in this game. They probably won't do much, because Espeon knows Bite and is still overpowered as all heck, but they are still annoying.
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Aurora Beam also looks awesome in this game. Go Spheal!
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Yep. Kind of makes you want to rethink your pathetic life, huh?
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Why weren't you busy thirty seconds ago, hmm? I heard you, you were just sitting there gossiping with your coworker. You weren't busy at all. You're just another slacker.
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Um, if you know you shouldn't say that, why did you?
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I'm pretty sure I could have figured that out without you focusing on it so much, but at least you can make an accurate self assessment. Cheer up! Assessing things accurately is a very important trait for a scientist, so at least you have that going for you.
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That's... Actually, that's a great plan. You guys are both in a side room, I could easily have bypassed you and went straight on to the boss. Maybe if you pretend you never saw me, you won't get fired for laziness and incompetence.
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You'll have to explain what happened to the Great Ball that was in the room with you guys, though. Heh heh.
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It's actually more of a "stroll". Maybe you could call it a "swagger", but I'm definitely not "scurrying".
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Shadow Pokémon Alert!
Oh, yay. Carvanha was another of those guys who stayed on my team for a long time when I first played this. He's a really nice little glass cannon. No real defenses, but he can hit like a truck, especially once he evolves.
Also, even though I don't usually nickname Pokémon, I think I'm going to nickname this one "Sharknado".
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This seems like a good time to highlight some of the other Shadow Moves. This is Shadow Hold. It prevents both Pokémon on the opposing team from escaping.
Luckily, by the time Carvanha used this, I had already switched Spheal out. Carvanha had already taken out more than half of Spheal's health in one hit (Spheal is a pretty decent HP/Tank Pokémon usually, it's just slow as molasses). Had this nabbed Spheal, Spheal would have fainted.
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Here's my stats after the fight, just so that you guys can see. I pretty much one-shotted all three of the other Pokémon in the battle. This damage was almost all done by Carvanha. That's actually really good for a single Pokémon to do to a team, especially by an AI enemy. It also helps that Carvanha has good typing, being immune to Confusion and resisting Bite, so I might not have been able to one shot it even if I were trying. But, of course, I wanted to capture it, so I had to let it pound on me while I tried to weaken it (which is not easy, especially since it could almost two shot Espeon).
That's what I love about Shadow Pokémon. It makes fights so much more interesting, by putting you up against extreme damage dealers while also making you not want to actually just destroy them immediately. It puts a huge risk/reward twist on the standard Pokémon gameplay, and I love it. It gets even better later on when Trainers start getting more than one Shadow Pokémon on a team.
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Oh, sweet, I got permission to run around the base! Now I won't have to worry about being stopped for battles every five feet! Right?!
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