I ended the internal debate on which fighters to register by splitting the difference: Gyarados would be my EXP-receiving chump and Zapdos would fill out the 6th slot as additional high-level insurance. Every single opposing pokemon in the Elite Four is above level 50, going up as high as level 60. So my team entered a little below that average. Yeah, my Blastoise and Gengar are beefy battlers, but the rest all centered around 50 (with that young Gyarados checking in around 40). So I had to be ready with some good items in backup: Revive, Full Restore, Max Potion, and my favorite health item: Fresh Water.

Lorelei was not much of an issue at all. I toyed with her for a while before sending in my Gengar to finish her off. Bruno was even less of a challenge... Surf, Surf, Surf. Agatha's annoying evasive Gengar and confusion attacks can get tiresome. I think the secret is to bash out her first Gengar as quickly as possible, so it doesn't have to confuse you and get so quick that it avoids all your later attacks. Lance wasn't too bad, another casualty to my heavy hitters.

Then I faced the League Champion, none other than Liquid. He fielded a Venusaur, Pidgeot, Rhydon, Arcanine, Alakazam and Gyarados. Growlithe Flamethrowered the Venusaur. Gengar flattened the Alakazam in one hit (Shadow Ball). Blastoise Surfed over the Arcanine. The rest were taken out by some big attacks, plus using a Resting Snorlax to stall for time to heal up the damage.

The battle ended and Liquid gave the usual "I can't believe you beat me!" speech... then Professor Oak dashes in and proceeds to give Liquid a brow-beating on how to treat pokemon with love and kindness. On his way out, Liquid references going to One Island, a veiled hint that you should also go there once the credits finish rolling.

Here's my winning team. In retrospect, the Zapdos was a cheap throw-in. I used his Thunder Wave to paralyze a couple guys, and his Fly attack here and there... but other than that, he was barely touched. I'm always very personal with my pokemon, favoring those I've spent more time with... so Zapdos (whom I caught at level 50) felt like a ringer.

Growlithe level 50	Blastoise level 57	Gengar level 62	Gyarados level 41	Snorlax level 50	Zapdos level 51

Oh, duh. Growlithe requires the Fire Stone to evolve. FR/LG have a ton of pokemon who evolve with the various elemental stones - including Eevee - so you can actually buy Stones at the Celadon Department Store for a reasonable price.

So now for the traditional Pokemon Second Quest. This time we venture back out to the Island chain (as Liquid suggested). I'm annoyed he's still a part of the game; I'd prefer he slink back off into the darkness. I've already checked in with Celio on One Island. He wants a Ruby, for use in a piece of tech that will enable "pokemon trading with people far away." Now, we're not jumping on a wi-fi hotspot anytime soon, so Celio must be referring to activating link trades with Ruby/Sapphire. I'm hoping against hope that I can dredge up a Dragon Scale here in LeafGreen, so I can use that to evolve myself a Kingdra to trade back into Sapphire.

Time: 45:46
Badges: 8
Pokedex: 90 (Seen: 142)
Party: Growlithe lv50, Weepinbell lv40, Katamari (Meowth) lv39, Gengar lv63, Poliwhirl lv26, Zapdos lv51