hau do you do

But with such a daunting task ahead, we need to pick a team for the mission. With 19 Pokémon in the box (16 if we don't count repeat species), and only 6 slots, this was a genuinely tough choice! I wanted to both pick a team that would help us through the final battles, but also would feel right rounding out this journey. This is what I settled on.

As you may notice, this is the team that we set out from Los Platos with all that time ago. With the sole exception of our departed friend Coffee, all the rest are still with us, and have been extremely valuable allies, and I want to use them all one more time. With Coffee missing, the final slot is taken up by Opal, who to me at least feels like a spiritual successor.

Before departing, I also took the liberty of not just adjusting the movesets of our Pokémon, but also used any nature mints and EV boosting items we'd collected! This team is as strong as it's going to get. Now let's get moving!

Not far from Medali, we pass through a previously blocked gate, finding ourselves outside the Zero Gate- the station that holds the sole entrance to the Great Crater of Paldea. Arven is waiting for us, and he tells us that we've got some more allies waiting inside.

Who else could it be but Nemona, our one true rival and champion ranked trainer, and Penny, the tech genius leader of Team Star! Apparently they both came eagerly when they heard about the mission. Together, I'm sure we can reach the bottom of Area Zero and complete the task Professor Sada set for us.

Speaking of which, we then hear her voice over the intercom. Arven tells the others that she's his mother, but it's obvious that he's not happy about it. Nemona on the other hand, seems honoured to meet a famous professor! Sada opens a hatch for us and asks us to proceed into the crater.

The hatch opens to a massive drop, but thankfully we have our fully restored Koraidon to help us! The four of us hitch a ride and glide down to the depths of Paldea.

Upon landing, Koraidon starts acting... odd. Arven says he think it's probably just hungry, but there's definitely more to it than that. Meanwhile, Nemona is already running about and exclaiming how amazing this place is! And in fairness, it is a pretty incredible sight, this hidden land beneath the clouds and filled with powerful Pokémon.

Suddenly, Sada contacts us again. She asks us to meet her at the very bottom of the crater, in the Zero Lab where she currently resides. She has a stilted, slightly odd speech pattern, but surely nothing's wrong... right?

On the way down though, we'll have to release the lock on the lab door- and to do that, we have to make our way down via four research stations, unlocking a lock at each one. We have an immediate goal, so it's time to start moving.

As we journey down, we get to listen to our friends chat and get to know one another. It's always awkward when your friends from different parts of your life meet for the first time, and they do seem to wary of one another at first! But the further down we get and the more time we have to talk, they genuinely seem to start to like one another, opening up and sharing things that even we haven't heard before.

Arven talks about his strained relationship with his mother, and about the last time he was here in Area Zero, and how Mabosstiff was injured. Penny talks a little about her own family too, as does Nemona. They also share with each other the stories of how we got to know each of them, and they seem rather impressed that we were juggling so much at once!

Before long though, we reach the first research station. Outside, we're attacked by a wild Glimmora- just like our own Cobalt, and like Geeta's star Pokémon! Nemona and I have no difficulty in fending it off, and we head inside.

It's an old way station constructed as part of the initial surveys into Area Zero from 87 years ago. Everything looks rusted and dusty, but in working condition. Easily enough, we disable the lock.

When we come to the second checkpoint though, something rather odd happens. Outside, we're met with a Pokémon that looks rather a lot like a Jigglypuff, but is much more aggressive and attacks us! They're not a problem for Penny and I, but it's definitely stronger than your average Jigglypuff. Arven theorises that it's one of the monsters of Area Zero, creatures described in the Scarlet Book.

It's inside the second station that Sada explains to us- that Pokémon, and the strange Great Tusk Titan we fought so long ago, are ancient Pokémon from the distant past.

There is a time machine of all things at the bottom of the Zero Lab, and while a human would not be able to come back from a trip through it, many powerful, ancient Pokémon have poured out through it, and now infest Area Zero. We're going to have to be careful. Arven seems to know about the time machine, but is surprised that his mother got it working. He asks her directly why she called us here, but Sada is evasive, and would rather talk face to face. We open the second lock, and Arven decides to entrust us with the Scarlet Book- figuring that we should hold on to it as the one Sada expects to solve the problem going on here.

The journey continues further down the crater, and at the third way station we're charged by another Great Tusk! It's smaller than the Titan we fought, but still threatening- though Arven and I are old hands at tackling Pokémon like these, so we fend it off.

Inside the station, Penny begins to theorise about Koraidon- perhaps it's one of these ancient Pokémon too? And yes, Sada confirms this! It was the first Pokémon to come through the time machine. But though many Pokémon of many different species have come through the machine, there has only ever been two Koraidon here in Area Zero. Nemona suggest that perhaps we're headed for a family reunion then? We'll have to see.

By the time we reach the final station before the Zero Lab, we've been travelling a while. We've descended past the grassy lands above and into a massive cavern filled with crystal. Penny notes that it seems to be very similar to Terastalisation energy, an interesting connection...

At the the final station, we're not attacked thankfully, but when we step inside the place is trashed. Something has definitely happened here, and it's more than a little eerie! It doesn't help that when Sada contacts us this time her voice seems glitched almost. She tries to explain it as a poor connection, but that doesn't quite ring true. We open the final lock.

Finally, we reach the lab, a building encased in an enormous crystal. Professor Sada confirms Penny's suspicions about Tera Orbs, and explains that the energy of these crystals gives a power that she used to create the time machine. But now it's time to enter. Sada warns us though, that as soon as we open the door, we will be swarmed by ancient Pokémon that were inside, and we'll have to defend ourselves. No time like the present though!

But we're being watched. As soon as we open the door, we're not swarmed from within, but a huge, towering Koraidon leaps down at us! It's in its battle form, the form that our own Koraidon hasn't manage to achieve since it protected us on Poco Path way back when. We'd brought our Koraidon out of its ball to protect us from the ancient Pokémon, but now it cowers in the face of this other beast. As it's about to strike though, it notices the lab door has now fully finished opening, and heads inside.

This is when a whole swarm of Pokémon burst out from inside! Great Tusks and Scream Tails (the Jigglypuff-like creature), and even a Misdreavus looking Pokémon called Flutter Mane. We help each of our friends battle some of them off, but the Pokémon are powerful, and they're scattering. Penny and Nemona start to chase down some of them so they can't cause havoc, and Arven and Mabosstiff remain behind to buy us time to head into the lab.

Inside, we find Sada. Except it's not Sada. It's an AI in the form of her. The robot explains.

The original Professor Sada was killed in a tragic clash between the two Koraidon, the incident that ruined research station 4. This was a battle that our Koraidon lost, and it now clearly fears the other. The AI was created to help keep the time machine running, but now? The Pokémon pouring out from the machine are too powerful, and while for now they're contained within Area Zero, some have started to break out. When they do, it'll mean havoc for the ecosystem of Paldea, and it has to be avoided at all costs! That's why the AI Sada asks us to help her shut down the time machine.

This is quite a shock, but we follow the AI Professor down to where the time machine is. It's in a huge room with walls of Tera crystal, a very impressive sight! AI Sada tells us that we need to insert the Scarlet Book into a slot in the machine to shut it down, apparently the real Sada placed identification in that book, and that's why we needed it here. But there's a catch. Once we start to deactivate the machine, AI Sada will lose control of herself- she has an overriding, inbuilt protocol to protect the machine at all costs, and she'll battle to stop us. She's also been programmed with the skills of countless champion level trainers, so she won't go down easily. This is what all our hard work has been leading to! We enter the book into the machine, and the fight of our life begins.

Ai Sada's entire team is composed of powerful Pokémon from the ancient past, but our team is just as powerful! She leads the battle with a Slither Wing, but we have Claret! As if to make a mission statement, we immediately start by outspeeding the ancient bug and landing a OHKO with Dual Wingbeat!

It's followed up by a Scream Tail, whose Ice Punch would be devastating for Claret, so we immediately switch to Opal on the move- and it freezes us. Scream Tail is now free to hit us with a Play Rough, which does about 15%, but our Leftovers heal off some of that. Opal stays frozen. It proceeds to hit us with Play Rough after Play Rough, as Opal gets ridiculously unlucky and stays frozen for seven turns in a row. We're now in a position where if Opal doesn't thaw out now, the next turn we'll be in range of a critical hit killing us, so we'd have to switch, and we'll have made no progress on the second of Sada's 6 Pokémon. Come on now Opal.

A Play Rough brings Opal down to very low health, and.... Opal thaws out. At the last possible second. We Recover, and we're back in the match! Another turn of Play Rough and Recover, and we're back to full health- as if nothing ever happened. We're now taking more damage than before, because being frozen was activating our Marvel Scale, but I much prefer being able to move, personally. One more Play Rough, and we finally do damage with a Surf- more than it's doing to us. Next turn, it hits us with a Zen Headbutt. It's used so many Play Roughs on us that it doesn't have any more PP! But we trade blows, it using Zen Headbutt and occasionally Drain Punch, and we use Surf and Recover to stay healthy. It's a war of attrition, but Opal comes out on top, with about three quarters health remaining.

The next Pokémon to hit the field is Flutter Mane- and this thing is scary. The incoming Thunderbolt hits Pink as we swap in our Apple, taking only 10 HP in damage. It now hits a Shadow Ball, doing about a third of our health, while we do a little less than that with Giga Drain and heal slightly. We are actually safe here with Pink, as this Fairy type doesn't have a Fairy type move, but I realise that we actually have an easier option. I go back to Opal on the next Shadow Ball, knocking them down to half- but baiting Sada into using Thunderbolt next instead of Shadow Ball. We can now switch in Byzantium, who takes minimal damage from the move, and outspeeds, going for Phantom Force and ending the Flutter Mane.

Halfway through. Next up is Brute Bonnet, and it's Cardinal's time to soar. The incoming Payback does about a third of our health straight away- but it triggers Flame Body, and Brute Bonnet gets burned. I was planning on doing that with Will-o-Wisp anyway, but this saves us a turn! We can now go for a Roost safely, and it tries to Sucker Punch us, but that fails! We now go for Acrobatics, knocking it down low, and the mushroom hits us with another Payback. Thanks to the power boost from getting hit first, Cardinal takes about as much damage as it did before- but we heal it off with another Roost and prevent another Sucker Punch from landing. Finally, we KO our opponent with one more move- U-Turn, to set us up for the next Pokémon as I swap in Pink.

Pink hits the field just before Sandy Shocks- and this is a bad match up for the ancient ancestor of Magneton! It goes for a Flash Cannon, dealing very little damage, and in return takes most of its health with Giga Drain- healing us almost to full HP. The next turn it tries a Power Gem, to just as little success, and we get an easy KO, with the Giga Drain healing leaving us at 90% health.

And now out comes Sada's final Pokémon, the star player and terrifying beast that rounds out the team- it's Roaring Moon. Immediately, its Booster Energy item activates its Protosynthesis, and raises its Attack. The plan here is that I need to get Cobalt in here at full health safely, that way it can surely KO with Dazzling Gleam, and doesn't have to worry about fainting because of its Focus Sash. The problem is setting this up, and there are only two ways. The first is a sacrifice play, and something I want to avoid! The second is that we need to U-Turn out after it's already made its move for the turn. That means we need to be slower than it- and I think Cardinal is too fast. So we have one option really. I swap out Pink and send in Claret.

Dragon Claw does a huge amount, even with our beefy defenses, bringing Claret down to just over half health. That's all we need though. We can survive one more Dragon Claw and switch into Cobalt for the finishing blow. If it gets a critical hit now, well, we can still send in Cobalt safely, but we'd lose Claret- and I don't want to lose anyone on the final Pokémon of this climatic battle. We have no other play though, we have to take this chance!

Dragon Claw hits Claret, and I watch the health bar tick down, terrified. It settles at 27 HP. U-Turn. Claret is safe, and so is Cobalt as we switch it in! Roaring Moon tries to break through our Pokémon, but Cobalt clings to the Focus Sash for dear life, holding on after an Earthquake with a single hit point! But that's all it needs- as Dazzling Gleam blasts from its body, and that shining light ends Roaring Moon and the battle as a whole. We survived. We all survived.

As the dust settles on the battle, our friends all come rushing in. Arven has clearly figured out that this Sada isn't really his mother, but before the now malfunctioning AI Sada can explain, an alarm goes off. There's one more security measure in place, as the Paradise Protection Protocol goes into effect. A voice fills the room, announcing the disabling of the AI, and locking all Poké Balls not registered to Sada. This is bad.

The AI tries to tell us to flee, but she can't help sending out one more Pokémon- the aggressive Koraidon. We try to fight, but we can't use our Poké Balls! All our Pokémon are useless.

Except... We have one more Pokémon in a ball that is still registered to Sada. We send out our own Koraidon. It hits the field and rises to the challenge, finally reclaiming the battle form it lost!

The two beasts go blow for blow! We direct Koraidon in a tough fight, it's clearly outmatched in strength, but it's fighting for its friends- for us! The support of Nemona, Penny, and Arven gives us both the strength we need to survive tough blows and whittle away at the foe.

It comes down to the wire. We're on the ropes, without any more of the powerful Collision Course moves we've been using, but we have one more trick up our sleeve! The energy in the room is powering our Tera Orb, and we can Terastalise our Koraidon into a pure Dragon of fury. A Tera Blast shoots through our opponent, and knocks down the king, claiming victory for us and finally putting an end to things!

The AI Sada gains control of herself again, but she knows that the time machine cannot truly shut down while she remains- she's part of the system. She tells us all how proud, impressed, and jealous of us all she is. Jealous of our freedom, and our adventures. And so, to truly put an end to things, she's going to disappear into the past, on her own adventure.

She may not be the real thing, but she has all of Sada's memories and personality imbued in her. And before she goes, she tells Arven that she loved him. Poor Arven's already overwhelmed state must be confused even further by that. But she bids us adieu, and the time machine powers up- sending Sada into the past, and putting an end to this ordeal.

Arven is clearly upset by all this, and that's something that only time can mend. But Penny and Nemona offer their support- along with being impressed (and intimidated, in Penny's case) by Koraidon's powerful battle form. They also congratulate us on saving Paldea! A well earned congratulations, if I do say so myself!

But now, it's time to hit the road. The four of us journey out of Area Zero, towards Mesagoza. But... We don't have to head directly home. Nemona suggests we take the long way home, so our adventure can continue together. That's a suggestion we all eagerly accept!

And so, the four of us head off into the sunset for further adventures, as the credits roll, and our story comes to an end.

And that's all folks!

Wow, this has been a long undertaking! I've enjoyed it immensely, but I'm going to be glad to take a break from the Lumi Plays series for a little while.

I'd like to thank all of you for reading, enjoying, suggesting names, and just being a really lovely community. But I'd also like to send a special thank you to those that made this challenge possible by sending me eggs! That's thank you to @jadenoryuu, @zigdirty, @lovyan, @valid-toaster, @pokemonblack3white3, @confidentiallyconfusing, @haveyouusedthispokemon, @daily-pokemon-polls, and @puppy319. I hope you've all enjoyed seeing your eggs come to fruition, and that you approved of how I used them!

And as for those Pokémon, I want to thank them too. Not just the 6 on this last team, or the 25 on this second attempt, but all 36 eggs that were sent to me were so appreciated, and I tried to do my best to use a wide variety of them! I'm also pretty pleased that on this second attempt we had 6 deaths, all of which were sad, but it could have been a lot worse!

Going forward from here, keep your eyes peeled for an upcoming stats post about the series! I wanted to do a little run down of the contents of the eggs, and how much each Pokémon got used, so look forward to that.

As for the future of the Lumi Plays series, well, I'll definitely be doing more again in the future- as long as you all keep enjoying them! Like I said, I'm definitely going to be taking a nice long break for a while, but we'll be back with more Pokémon playthroughs at some point. That may be something new, or maybe a continuation of this journey into the DLC? Who knows!