Emerald II - We are the Champions

Well, it took two tries, but the Elite Four are down.

I'd turned on the game to do Yet More Training and thought, eh, what the heck, why not just try it.  So I gave the E4 a go.  To my surprise, I made it all the way up to Wallace without too much difficulty.  His Ludicolo was tough, taking out half my team before I finally got it down, but I still had Samson to pit against Wallace's Gyrados.  I was within one hit of winning it when I found out the hard way that if you use something like Detect or Protect against Hyper Beam, the user does NOT have to recharge on the following round.  Ouch.

Afterwards, I found myself standing on the steps of the Pokemon League with all my Pokemon intact.  I was about to reset, but my team had all gained a level or two in the battle.  Sure, I'd lost half of over 200K Pokeyen, but regaining those levels would mean SO much grinding....so instead of resetting, I saved.

And then I trudged back into Victory Road and continued training.  I got everyone up to lvl 58, except Tabasco who I raised to lvl 59 so I could have him forget Rock Smash and learn Sky Uppercut.  Then I fed everyone a Rare Candy to celebrate, and headed up to the Pokemon League again.  To guard against monetary loss, I bought up a whole bunch of potions and full restores and revives.

This time, things went much more smoothly.  My Pokemon were mostly going first due to their higher levels, and type advantage took most opponents out on one hit.  Wallace's Ludicolo was still a bit of a pain, but Samson got his Gyrados down on the recharge round this time, and it was over.

Hall of Fame, ribbons all around.  My time was something like 85 hours, but eh.

After the credits rolled, I went back in long enough to get the Nat'l 'Dex, the SS Ticket, and the call from Scott about that place he'd like me to visit, i.e. the Battle Frontier.  Oh, and Mom:  that Pokemon they were talking about on TV?  It's red.  :)

So that gives me two completely open Emerald games.  I should be able to catch up the second 'Dex with the first by trading, and then I've only got nine Pokemon left that I'll have to hand-raise to complete them both.  I'll also be able to catch an extra round of legendaries, and my own Latias.  And once both 'Dexes are complete, I'll have the opportunity to collect both of the other Jhoto starters.

And then someday, maybe I can get back to finishing SS.....