Also, one other thing to include here before I move on: there was another Vinesauce stream, and therefore another Wonder Trading session. Here's what I got:
- A Japanese, hatched-in-Premier-Ball Jangmo-o. It's Modest, so either it was meant to be a special attacker or it's just a randomly bred one with no desire to go for good stats.
- A hatched-in-Luxury-Ball Budew. OT is "Kirk". Doesn't seem remarkable in any other way, but it is an Island Scan Pokemon, so that's something.
- A Japanese Porygon. It's hatched from an egg, so it doesn't get bonus points for being an "original" Porygon, but hey, it's still a cool Pokemon.
- A Grimer with the OT "Tyler". It was apparently hatched, despite being Level 22 when I got it.
- A Graveler (which evolved after being traded, of course) that seems to have a lot of effort put into it. It's Brave (+Att, -Spe), has the Hidden Ability Galvanize, and was hatched in a Heavy Ball. It's nicknamed "GROBO!!!" and has the OT "Kiwi". I'm assuming this one was probably meant for Vinny, but I don't get the reference if so.
- A Munchlax caught in a Nest Ball from "Sirrle". Nothing else about it seems special, but hey, it's semi-rare and not hatched, so that's something.
- A Torkoal with Drought and the OT "Tio Chepe", but nothing else noteworthy.
- A hatched-in-Premier-Ball Jangmo-o from "TinyB♥" named "Devino-o". This one was sent out by the Twitch chat member "Bagel_Spanker" (in-game name "Kim"), after having received it themselves from someone else. I learned this from the chat, after noticing they said they had gotten my Snivy.
- An Abra caught in a Quick Ball from "Tove". From what I understand, these are fairly common Wonder Trash.
Overall, not a bad haul. That Golem is pretty sweet, and I like when I get stuff from other chat members too. But with that out of the way, let's finally move on with the story!
I exit the opposite end of the trial site and enter the Altar of the Moone. It's basically a temple-like structure on top of a big hill with a crapton of stairs leading up to it. Yeah, if you think I'm going to actually write this professionally, may the use of the word "crapton" there show you otherwise. Lillie and Hapu come in, and explain that not only was that Dragon trial the first one to ever be held in Alola, but it's also the final one. I kinda figured it was, but I wasn't sure if there was going to be a Fairy trial by Mina. I mean, there might still be if she creates one later, but I dunno. Rotomdex temporarily turns into Shaggy by pointing out "Zoinks, look at all those stairs!", and I begin the long climb up.
At the top, Lillie says she can "feel the strong power of the moon" despite it being day. I mean, the moon's still up there I guess, you just can't really see it. After a bit of talking to Nebby and restating her motivation for anyone who forgot (not including myself, even though it's been like a week), she realizes the same thing and says that we should wait until the moon has risen to actually do anything. So... time skip!
What follows is one of the game's actual decent cutscenes. You can tell because Luna actually has a different face for a part of it. She and Lillie stand on opposite platforms in front of the altar, and play a short tune on the Sun and Moon Flutes. I'm not sure where they learned the tune, or how to play the flutes in general (I personally don't understand how anyone knows how to play woodwind instruments... or most brass and stringed ones for that matter, there's too many finger combinations to remember), but I guess we're not going to worry about that. And since this is apparently a Zelda game now and things can be activated through music, this causes the circular symbol on the altar to open up and fire out a giant laser beam. Nebby somehow manages to fly over to it while staying inside the backpack that Lillie was wearing at the time (how did it move the straps? Ok, I'll stop asking about stupid details when there's far more fantastic things going on) and becomes surrounded by the energy. This causes it to warp-Digivolve into Lunala!
And that right there is where I wish I hadn't spoiled myself on the new Pokemon beforehand, because I probably wouldn't have guessed that Lunala (and Solgaleo) were the final evolutions of Cosmog. That would have been an actual shocking moment, I think. Bit of a shame, but I can't help myself, I like learning stuff as early as possible. Lillie, of course, has all the wonder and awe that I wish I had, and is amazed that Nebby evolved into the Pokemon of legend. After a brief chat, Lunala then a-fires its lazor to open a wormhole, scoops us both up, and flies into a different world. And I didn't even say goodbye to my mom yet. I suppose I had a week to do it though, so nobody to blame but myself for that one.
We emerge from the wormhole in "Ultra Space". It basically looks like Dark Aether from Metroid Prime 2, but without the poisonous atmosphere. Seriously though, it is actually fairly cool looking, despite basically just being a cave. It's a cool cave. Nebby, for whatever reason, has to stay put while Lillie and I go ahead. I assume it has to keep the portal open or something. Speaking of which, you can go back to the regular world if you need to, which is slightly anticlimactic, but I suppose it makes sense in case you came here unprepared. I should also point out that Lunala has a slightly different appearance when in Ultra Space. It's a lot brighter, and has a third eye open on its forehead. I seem to remember the official website giving a name to this form (Solgaleo also has one), but it's not recognized by the Pokedex as an actual separate thing, kinda like White and Black Kyurem's "overdrive" forms. And yet, Xerneas has the whole Neutral/Active Mode thing despite it being the most useless "form change" ever, if you can ever call it that. Yay for consistency.
A short distance away from the starting point, we come across Guzma sitting up on a ledge. He utters the memetic "Y'all are stupid!" line, in reference to the fact that even he, who's never afraid of anything, is basically terrified of this place and has no idea how or why we came here. He tried to catch one of the jellyfish beasts, but it apparently possessed him. But I guess he ... got better? He doesn't seem possessed anymore, unless he means it just messed with his head a bit and didn't actually take over. And according to him, Lusamine is way worse off, and she's been completely taken over. Lillie ain't havin' none of that though, and wants to try to save her no matter what.
It goes about as well as you'd expect. The jellyfish disappear and summon Lusamine, who goes into a bit of a villain speech. Basically all you need to know is she's completely nutso and doesn't care about anything but beautiful things and her love for them. She's also completely awful towards Lillie, not that this is really anything new. She also finally reveals the jellyfish's name as "Nihilego", which means I don't have to act like I don't know it anymore. She also brings up the point that all she's really trying to do is live here in a world where she's happy. I guess that's not really hurting anyone, aside from the whole "summoning powerful beasts into the regular world" thing from earlier.
There's also another interesting point brought up - if trainers can decide their Pokemon aren't good enough for them, why can't she decide the same thing towards Lillie? The answer to that is basically that the Pokemon world doesn't really follow real-world logic, and abandoning pets would still be quite frowned upon if the game ever decided to touch on it. Which it kind of does at times, but the player character is always exempt from this and free to amass a collection of hundreds of Pokemon that just sit in a PC and look pretty, so there's a bit of a disconnect there between story and game mechanics.
And then Lusamine gets absorbed by the Nihilego that she caught and becomes some kind of horrible monstrosity. Battle start!
Mega Lusamine starts off with a very smug looking Clefable that also randomly has a Special Defense buff like a Totem Pokemon. I'm guessing this is going to be a trend. I lead with Dreemurr, because I've got a pretty big level difference going on (43 vs 50) and I need to take this a bit more safely than usual. So I lead off with Yawn, and she uses Moonblast, bringing me below half HP. I heal on the next turn, and luckily she uses Cosmic Power instead of doing any more damage. While it sleeps, I get in two Swords Dances and a solid hit with Return, but it survives the hit and wakes up on that turn. Luckily for me, it uses Metronome and got a fairly unimpressive move in Bullet Seed, so I finish it off with another hit.
Her second Pokemon is Bewear (with a Defense buff). This thing wrecked face the last time I fought it, so I somewhat prematurely decide to go for the Z-move and hope to take it out with a single Breakneck Blitz. It was a good hit, but it hung on with about 10% of its HP left. It then proceeds to use ... Take Down. Not a fighting move, for some reason, but Take Down. Dreemurr hangs on due to Refresh (that has been really kicking in a lot lately, and I'm not complaining), and Bewear is taken out by the recoil damage.
Next up is a pissed-off Lilligant (with a Special Attack buff). It outspeeds but uses Teeter Dance instead of an attacking move, and I manage to hit through it, taking it out with a single Return. You know, I certainly didn't plan to solo this battle with Dreemurr, but I'm not about to end a good winning streak either. Next comes Milotic (with an Attack buff that it probably can't make any use of), and I decide that it's probably best to try and put it to sleep rather than attack directly. It outsped me though and used Safeguard, so that idea isn't going to work. Deciding that I should probably just take the hit here and get the free switch-in rather than waste a turn switching, I leave Dreemurr in, who once again exceeds expectations and dodges a Hydro Pump, then manages to one-shot the Milotic with Wood Hammer. Of course, the knockback led to a double KO, but that was still a fine performance. And people say that Komala is disappointing without an evolution.
Lusamine's final Pokemon is a Mismagius (with a Speed buff), and not knowing this beforehand, I sent out Crazy Bus so I could at the very least get in a Thunder Wave. I attempted this, only to realize that Safeguard was still in effect. I forgot that was a thing that stuck around like Reflect/Light Screen. Luckily this didn't really matter, because the Mismagius (or Lusamine, not sure which) was stupid and used Pain Split for no real reason, causing a small amount of damage to itself and none to me. It then used it again on its second turn, weakening itself further before I got in a Wild Charge and took it down to about a third of its HP. Following yet another Pain Split (raising its HP to about half, at least it was actually beneficial that time), I went for another Wild Charge and got the KO. And that's the story of how I beat the villain of the game with nothing but a Komala and Charjabug that were seven levels below her team.
Furious that she lost the battle, Lusamine realizes that she's kind of a Pokemon herself now and prepares to unleash some sort of attack on us, but Nebby intervenes with a blast of its own. Lusamine herself doesn't seem terribly bothered by it and is ready to attack again, but the Nihilego that absorbed her took the hit poorly and starts writhing in pain. We're spared the cutscene where it craps her out and instead it fades to black, then the Nihilego returns to its Pokeball as Lusamine collapses to the ground. What follows is another surprisingly good scene: Lillie rushes forward to see if she's ok, and Lusamine reaches up to touch her face. "When did you...start becoming beautiful?" This is accompanied with some pretty music, and I just wish it went on a bit longer than it did, because that one line's pretty much all you get.
In standard Metroid fashion (I told you this place was Dark Aether), the place starts to rumble and shake as a bunch of Nihilego show up and ... float there, menacingly. Before they get a chance to actually do anything, Nebby moves from its original spot (a whopping 50 feet, maybe) and warps me, Lillie, Guzma, and the unconscious Lusamine back out to the normal world. We get greeted by Hapu, who says a line that probably shouldn't have made me laugh but did anyway: "I was concerned so I ascended". She's glad to see that we're all unharmed... except for Lusamine making friends with the floor. Eh, she's fine. At least Hapu seems to think she is. Guzma puts her up on Mudsdale's back and they ride off into the sunset (or broad daylight, as the case may be. Wait, wasn't it night when we left?).
And of course, any meeting of a legendary Pokemon must traditionally be followed by a catching of said legendary Pokemon. Lillie and Nebby have a bit of a heart-to-heart, reflecting on all the people they've met and all 400 "get back in the bag" moments over the course of their adventure. And despite the fact that they've been together all this time, Lillie wants me to be the one to take Nebby and properly catch it in a Poke Ball. Her logic is that she isn't a trainer and I am. Well I thought you said you wanted to be a trainer earlier on, goddammit! What kind of better starter could you hope for? Again, I'd be perfectly content travelling with Lillie and helping out if she's really as useless as she claims to be. But alas, that's obviously not what is going to happen here. I could just leave (the game doesn't seem to have a problem with that... not immediately, at least), but I know I won't be able to progress until this happens. So you know what, fine. Let's do this.
*Some time passes*
Well, about six or so resets later, it's done. The first few all ended the same way: I'd lead with El Grapadura and use Darkest Lariat, which would take out less than half of its HP. I'd use it again, and for some reason it would KO despite not being a critical hit. I'd blame the RNG for giving weird damage range, but it happened about three or four times in a row. I don't get it. Then on the next attempt, it broke out of the Moon Ball, so I had to reset. Yeah, we're doing that. It's too fitting, how can I not? There's only one Moon Ball in the game, and I see no reason to not use it on the Pokemon that represents the Moon, no matter how annoying it may be. I mean, with a catch rate of 45, it's not going to be THAT bad. And sure enough, on the second attempt that actually ended with me throwing the ball and not KOing it, it was a successful capture. I formally named it Nebby (it only seemed right), and I've gotta say, the nature and characteristic it ended up with are very fitting for what it was like as a Cosmog: Naughty and Mischievous.
After catching it, there's a rather sweet cutscene of Lillie saying goodbye and whatnot. I'm gonna go ahead and quote the whole thing here:
"Lunala... No... Nebby. Nebby, you belong with Luna now. She will be the one to raise you. Just like any parent should raise their child. She will be your mother now. I may not have been able to do anything for you, Nebby...but I’m still glad I took you that day. So go with Luna and see the world! Have battles against strong Pokémon where you can use your full power. Meet other Trainers who will make your heart dance with the thrill of it all... That’s the kind of world that Luna can share with you!"
"If it’s you, Luna... I know I can trust you to raise my Nebby well. Take good care of it!"
(Lillie starts to leave, but keeps turning back to say something else)
"And I...will go to my mother. I need to see for myself that she’ll be all right."
"Nebby! Don’t always be trying to get out of your Poké Ball the way you always wriggled out of my Bag!"
"And...and don’t forget that you’re strong now. You’ll have to be careful not to accidentally hurt anyone until you get used to your strength!"
"And...and you can’t just go running off to some other world anytime without telling anyone! You’ll make Luna worry!"
"OK... I’m really... I’m really going this time."
What's that? Don't mind me, someone's just cutting onions. But seriously though, despite being a little cliche, I found that scene pretty emotional (not enough to make me cry or anything, but I could tell they were trying at least). And now I'm left in kind of a weird position. This is just a game, and I really shouldn't be putting this much stock in it, but ... I feel really guilty just leaving Nebby in the PC now. I haven't used a legendary in a serious playthrough of anything since my Nuzlocke of Platinum about six years ago, and prior to that, not since the original Silver. I consider it kind of cheap to do so, and I prefer leaving them untouched as collector's items. But that's just the problem. The game has beaten me down with so much stuff in the last few scenes that I can't help but want to bring Nebby with me.
Exhibit A - The cutscene with Lillie and Lusamine in Ultra Space:
"Children... Children are not just THINGS that belong to their parents! Pokémon are not just THINGS that a Trainer can do whatever they want to!"
"I am alive! Cosmog is alive!"
"We are not things for you to collect!"
"We’re not made for you to just discard when you get bored with us!"
"That is terrible, Mother! You are terrible!"
Exhibit B - From a minute ago:
"Nebby, you belong with Luna now. She will be the one to raise you. Just like any parent should raise their child. She will be your mother now."
Conclusion: If I treat Nebby like a "thing to collect" and just box it, then I'm a terrible mother.
Screw you, game. Why you do this.
So. Here's what we're gonna do. From this point forward, Nebby stays in my team, but doesn't actually get used. Within the context of the game's story, I'm taking it ("she", honestly, I don't care if there's no gender marker in-game) with me to see the world and whatnot. She doesn't actually get to participate in any battles though... at least not at first. I might change my mind on that eventually, but I'd like to get through the main story without her. This means that in addition to managing my rotating team of 12, I also only get to actually carry five usable Pokemon with me at a time. YEAH EXTRA CHALLENGE CONDITION COOL.
Oh, and after Lillie leaves, Nanu abruptly shows up and says that now that I've completed all the trials, I have to beat all four kahunas in a row. But since they're forming a new Pokemon League, things will be a little different this time. So... Elite Four, then? I wonder if it will actually be the kahunas or it it'll just be new people. (Spoilers - I kind of already know the answer to that, but only partially.) Nanu offers to bring me there, but I decline. "Not many kids make it all the way to the final trial, but there’s a handful every year. You won’t be able to go easy on this one. These are real battles. No holding back."
I think that's a good stopping point for this. I may not have progressed very far, but obviously some major things have occurred.
Current status:
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