Chapter 4

From the Petalburg woods, I go to Rustboro City. Seeing as the gym is a rock type theme and there aren't any prerequisites I challenge it. With a water and grass type on my team it's a cakewalk I crush Roxanne and her minions. She gives me the stone badge a nicely made pin in the shape of a double-sided arrow. In addition to the badge, she also gives me a TM for rock tomb and license for HM01 cut.

Turns out what makes the hidden machines special is that it's illegal or at least frowned upon to use HM moves without a license. It was originally a system for Pokemon rangers who were out at the edges of civilization but still didn't want to wreck ecosystems. Then it got carried over to trainers. Fly, surf, waterfall, dive, whirlpool were included for the trainer's safety. Cut and rock smash were included because while there are other destructive moves Cut and rock smash are just much more effective and efficient. Flash and Defog can really mess with the environment. Flash used in a cave lights up the entire cavern which is really disruptive for nocturnal Pokemon. Defog can mess with the weather enough said. No idea why strength is an HM, but something must have happened for it to be light banned.

With no limits in learned moves and HM not being unforgettable, I go ahead and use my copy of HM cut on Herb. He learns it no problem and as finish teaching him Cut I see the scientist guy from the forest chasing after a guy calling him a thief guess no one was there to stop the robber this time. I head out after him. I end up cornering him in a cavern defeat this grunts slightly less mediocre poochyena retrieve the stolen goods and return an old man's pet bird. I return the stolen stuff to a companies headquarters in Rustboro. For my trouble, I get a great ball and a phone upgrade. He asks me to deliver a letter to Dewford town which I'll go to eventually so I accept.

And by eventually I mean next as I head back to route 104 I find out that old man whose bird I returned is a sailor and he gives me a ride to Dewford.

Once in Dewford an old man talks to me about fishing for a while then gives me a really old fishing rod, but it was nice of him. The gym in town focuses on fighting types so I decided to train Walts in the nearby cavern. A dude outside lets me use a copy of his Flash TM I use it on both Walts and Herb. Once inside the cave, I have Walts practice against the wild Pokemon. In the back of the cave just happens to be the guy who I was meant to deliver the letter to. He thanks me by giving me a copy of a Steel Wing TM. I spend the next couple of days training Walts until I feel good about her soloing the gym. During that time training Walts there was enough excess wild Pokemon that both Herb and Kwan got enough fighting experience to evolve. Herb into Ivysaur and Kwan into Marshstomp.

Back in town, Walts crushes Brawly and earns me the Knuckle badge. Heading back towards the beach the old sailor tells me he has a delivery to make to a nearby town so I follow him. By this point, I started to get into the groove of things. I go to a place beat local trainers, best the gym leader, stop team magma, and occasionally battle May. The next city Slateport Harbor is no different. I'm briefly concerned about being hunted by team magma, but I've basically been hunting them already and so far it hasn't been an issue. After our second meeting, May gives me a dowsing machine which lets me find hidden items.

The next town over is Mauville a completely indoor city. It's basically a big mall though, cool but kind of depressing after a while. I stayed in Mauville for a month. I bought a bike and some TMs. Took advantage of the daily inverse type battles to collect a full set of evolution stones and a lot of rare candies. I know it's less than optimum but I have a plan so I give all of my Pokemon an equal split of the rare candy and they all evolve and Walts evolves twice. My team is now Swampert, Gardevoir, and Venasaur. Now that they're all fully evolved I have the local move tutor teach Herb grass pledge and frenzy plant. Then Kwan water pledge and hydro cannon. Those moves are the real reason I wanted to speed up their evolution. During the month I also take advantage of the Food court challenge spending 1000 pokedollars on a sandwich and then while I wait for it to be done beat five trainers earning me a golden nugget worth 5k so up 4k and a sandwich. As the month passes I feel the town turn increasingly hostile as I win all of their prizes so Herb and Kwan beat Watsons' team and I earn my third badge allowing me to use rock smash which I teach to Herb and Kwan.

Leaving Mauville, I take a pitstop at Verdanturf and help a little girl find her missing shroomish. In return, she gives me a colorful stone which I recognize as a mega stone of some sort. From Verdanturf I take the cavern path route 116 inside I find a dude trapped by rubble. I use an excessive amount of rock smash to clear the path and rescue him. I help him back to Verdanturf and into the arms of his waiting girlfriend. As a reward he offers me a mega stone, however, his girlfriend Wanda instead gives me a mega stone for gardevoir seeing as Walts is just out and about and I don't have whatever Pokemon was for the other one. I thank her then take the now completed route 116.