The fifth Gym Badge is obtained back in Petalburg, from none other than my own father. The path to Norman is an interesting one; you fight his subordinate trainers room by room rather than the usual one-room labyrinth. Each room gives you a hint as to what you'll be facing... the Defense Room, the Speed Room, etc. Since the game doesn't penalize you for skipping out between battles to heal up (in fact, it's encouraged), I took my time and ended up beating all of the sub-trainers.
I beat Norman on my first attempt, but it was a hairy battle. Norman fields two Slakoths and one Vigoroth, and it ended up down to a one-on-one. His last Slakoth vs. my Sableye. My Sableye truly earned her right to a nickname for outlasting the Slakoth... I would not have made it through had she not paralyzed the damn thing with Secret Power, buying me a couple free attacks.
The prize for beating Norman is the ability to use the HM Surf, and Surf itself is rather neatly obtained right next door. Unfortunately, none of my party can learn the move, so I had to dig that Tentacool out of hiding.
On my way through Mauville, en route to do some Surfing to the eastern part of the map, I ran into Wattson loitering around town center. I didn't recognize him at first - since Gym Leaders rarely appear outside of their Gyms - but his unusual hair stopped me in my tracks. He informed me of a secret underground section of Mauville and gave me the key to enter it. That's where I am now.
One thing I forgot... I picked up a fossil in the desert. I chose the Root Fossil (there are two choices, Root and Claw, but once you choose one, the other vanishes.) Just like getting Kabuto or Aerodactyl in previous games, Sapphire/Ruby has limited access to prehistoric pokemon through identifying and harvesting fossilized DNA. It makes one wonder just how these particular pokemon became extinct. My personal theory is that they all evolved into another species, and somehow forgot (or didn't need to) spawn new ones of the original species. Like, all the Aerodactyls evolved into Spearows over time, and the Spearows ended up reproducing little Spearows, not Aerodactyls.
Wasn't this Professor Elm's area of expertise? Breeding and eggs? I hope he's making progress, because the last time I saw him, he was goofing off criticizing my damn pokedex.
Time: 21:17
Badges: 5
Pokedex: 41 (seen: 79)
Party: Skitty lv27, Grovyle lv29, Razorbeak (Swellow) lv30, Gringo (Mightyena) lv27, Tentacool lv10, Sableye lv31
PS. When I say the Aerodactyls evolved "over time," I don't mean in the gradual Darwinian sense. I mean that they evolved in the traditional pokemon sense, instantly, and over the course of time eventually every single Aerodactyl evolved. Further, Aerodactyls and Kabutops that are bred from fossils are probably incapable of reproducing, explaining why we continue to consider them extinct.
Hey, wasn't there are episode of the cartoon that dealt with this? I seem to recall Ash and company finding a hidden crater full of living prehistoric pokemon. Then again, the cartoon continuity and game continuity don't always jibe.
