Game Chapter 9: Team Rocket (Patreon)

Viridian City.

Inside the rental.

Sean stared at the pile of new data on his screen, lost in thought.

While adding the Gym portion of the story yesterday, another idea hit him.

—In the original Hyper Emerald, the starter options were plentiful; you could pick starters from multiple generations.

If you met certain easter-egg conditions, you could even choose two!

Since his game was going to be tougher than the original, the starter selection ought to be looser too.

Tying it to the newly added voice system, he simply designed an easter egg: if, during the starter pick, the player tells Professor Birch they want a starter of some other type, the easter egg triggers and Birch will randomly hand over a non–pseudo-legendary, non-legendary Pokémon of that type.

Its base stat total won’t be lower than 500—a net positive for players, since they can choose the opening type they really want instead of being forced to pick among Water/Fire/Grass.

To balance it, triggering the easter egg comes with a cost:

—Some rival battles will be replaced with battles against the Team Rocket trio!

Yep: Meowth, James, and Jessie.

And Sean did not design them as pushovers.

The first time the player runs into them—on the way to Petalburg City—their team will match the player’s level: a Koffing and an Ekans.

And both have max IVs, max EVs, and optimal held items.

No question, that’s scarier than the rival.

As the story advances, every time you meet them again, they’ll be stronger.

He put them in because he’d always felt those three should have this kind of strength. With their skills, if they’d stop chasing Ash’s Pikachu, they’d have succeeded at just about anything by now…

They could probably swipe Arceus’s plates if they tried…

Plus, they’re among his favorite characters in the source, so in they go.

As for whether the Team Rocket trio really exists in this world…

Well, that’s another matter.

..

Meanwhile, in Iono’s stream, with chat arguing heatedly about Team Rocket, Jessie and James stepped forward and the battle animation fired.

“Brat, hand over your Pokémon!”

[Ordinary Team Rocket Trio challenges you!]

With pounding drums and a flash of white, a Koffing appeared!

Its level matched Iono’s Mareep—both level 11!

“Same level, and they’ve got two Pokémon? That’s a bit rough.”

“But they’re NPCs. Shouldn’t be that bad, right?”

Muttering to herself as she eyed the HUD, Iono had Mareep use Thunder Shock.

Lightning crashed; Koffing’s HP bar dropped by half!

Before she could celebrate, Koffing spat a glob of toxin from its mouth!

[Koffing used Venoshock!]

[Critical hit!]

Mareep’s HP bar emptied in an instant.

Iono: ???

Dude, what is that damage?

Even a crit shouldn’t be that nuts, right?

Since when is Koffing this strong?

As she sat stunned, Jessie and James popped back on screen.

“Hmph. You and your partner are way too weak! The boss wouldn’t want these.”

“Later, brat!”

The screen went dark.

[Iono has no Pokémon that can fight.]

[Everything goes black.]

Seconds later, her avatar respawned at the Oldale Town Pokémon Center. Chat went feral.

[Wait, that’s a Team Rocket grunt? You sure?]

[Since when is Koffing this cracked??]

[The villains decided she’s too weak and wouldn’t even steal her Pokémon. I’m crying.]

..

Snapping out of it, Iono now understood the “extreme difficulty” in the description wasn’t a joke.

But difficulty is what makes games fun.

She started planning.

The one-shot happened because the move rolled a critical hit.

Per the game’s notes, a “critical hit” is a chance effect that deals double damage, and it won’t trigger every battle.

In other words, Mareep should normally be able to tank two hits from Koffing.

With Mareep moving first, she could eat one Venoshock and finish Koffing with a second Thunder Shock.

Even so, there was a bigger problem: they still had a second Pokémon!

A half-HP Mareep probably couldn’t beat what came next.

So… she had to beat Koffing without taking damage.

After a glance at Mareep’s info in the bag menu, a plan formed.

She returned to the encounter point. No fanfare this time—straight into battle.

This time she didn’t use Thunder Shock first. She chose Thunder Wave.

Sparks danced over Koffing; an orange icon popped on its status—paralyzed.

[Koffing tried to move, but couldn’t!]

It twitched and lost its first turn entirely!

Iono’s eyes lit up.

Knew it!

She explained to chat:

“Thunder Wave inflicts temporary paralysis, so I wanted to see if I could lock Koffing down.”

“Looks like the dev even implemented this! If Koffing can’t act, Mareep can keep its HP and be ready for the second Pokémon.”

Confidence rising, she picked Thunder Shock. Lightning cracked again; Koffing’s HP fell back to half.

“Great—one more of those will do it.”

But just as she cheered, current flickered across Koffing—and didn’t stop it. A wave of toxin surged out and nailed Mareep.

[Koffing used Venoshock. Critical hit!]

[Mareep fainted!]

[Iono has no Pokémon left to battle.]

[Everything goes black.]

She stared, speechless.

Wasn’t Koffing paralyzed? How did it still use a move?

And why another crit?

Is your crit rate set to the moon??

…

Respawned at the Center, she didn’t rush back. She opened the menu and read the in-game tutorials.

Sure enough, she found status explanations.

“So paralysis halves Speed and only has a chance to prevent actions…”

Makes sense; otherwise a paralyzed foe would never act. That’d be busted.

Her respect for the dev ticked up again.

It wasn’t just Abilities and moves that were faithful—status effects were sensibly reproduced too.

Bottom line, this fight might take a few attempts.

…

Armed with that, she re-engaged. This time luck was with her: after being paralyzed, Koffing failed to act for two consecutive turns and went down to two Thunder Shocks.

Team Rocket’s second Pokémon was Ekans.

As it entered, a red flash swept over Mareep and a prompt appeared:

[Intimidate lowered Mareep’s Attack!]

Iono exhaled in relief and explained:

“Good—this means it doesn’t have Shed Skin, it has Intimidate!”

“If it had Shed Skin, any paralysis would clear on its own.”

“And Mareep’s a special attacker anyway; a physical Attack drop doesn’t matter.”

“This should be easy!”

Confident, she selected Thunder Wave again—

—but Ekans moved first.

[Ekans used Crunch!]

[Mareep flinched! It couldn’t move!]

Mareep’s HP dipped into red.

Iono: …..

She clenched a fist. “It’s okay. Again!”

…

After seven or eight failed runs, Fortune finally smiled.

This time neither Ekans nor Koffing landed a crit.

Once paralyzed, neither managed to act even once.

Even so, when Mareep finally won, its HP bar was down to the last sliver—despite only being hit once.

That’s how tough the fight really was.

The trio fell back a few steps.

“Cursed brat—just you wait. We’ll be back!”

“—What an awful feeling, meow!”

They tossed their parting shot and vanished into the grass.

Iono let out a long breath.

At the same time, a strange feeling bloomed in her chest.

This was a Pokémon battle, sure—

—but what she felt here was totally different from the real world.

Trying things based on your own understanding, failing, tweaking, trying again and again until you succeed—that’s something you can’t feel in real battles.

In real life you often get one shot; to try again, you wait.

Pokémon need real time to recover HP and energy. In a game, after a failure you can rally and dive right back in.

And that feeling when persistence finally pays off—that’s addictive.

By now, she was hooked without realizing it—off a single NPC fight.

After beating Team Rocket, she headed straight for the next city.

The next stretch was simpler: reach Petalburg City, visit the Gym run by the player’s father, then accompany a boy named Wally to catch a Ralts as his starter. After that, Iono left Petalburg and entered the forest to the north.

An endless green jungle teeming with Bug-type Pokémon.

Before long, she ran into a Joltik!

Without hesitation, she threw a Poké Ball post-battle and added it to the team.

Then she smiled at chat:

“Tada~ Iono’s Electric-type mini-class is now in session!”

“We know Electric types are fast and hit hard, but they have weaknesses.”

“Biggest one: Ground. Electric moves are completely negated by Ground types.”

“Beyond that, Grass, Rock, and Dragon are all unfavorable matchups.”

“Grass and Dragon resist or shrug off Electric damage. Rock doesn’t resist Electric, but most Rock types learn Ground moves—huge threat to Electric teams!”

“The mainline is Gym challenges for badges leading up to the League.”

“So if we want an Electric-specialist team, we have to patch those weaknesses.”

“Take Joltik, for example—it’s also Bug-type. That makes dealing with Grass opponents much easier~”

“I’ll build the squad around that idea until every blind spot for Electrics is covered!”

Chat cheered:

“As expected of an official Electric Gym Leader—knowledge on point!”

“Yep. Even in a game, a pro is still a pro!”

Iono glanced at chat, grinning.

“I doubt there’ll be a Dragon Gym this early.”

“So… that leaves Ground and Rock.”

“There’s no way the very first Gym is one of those, right?”

She stretched. “All right—let’s keep moving~”