hau do you do

Sitting in our box is also the newly named Palette the Smeargle, whose name was suggested by @confidentiallyconfusing. Unfortunately, given what we're fighting today, neither of our Smeargle will be much help!

Soon enough, I find myself outside the final Team Star base. This belongs to Caph Squad, the Fighting type users of the bunch. They're not going to be easy, so it's time to train!

I decide that now's a good time to get everyone in the box up to level 55. We have a ton of strong team members, and I want them all at their best before we take on the squad. Of course, this means...

Sapphire finally evolves into Dragonite! He's at long last fulfilled his full potential- and not a moment too soon I might add. I have a plan in mind for the tough fight ahead.

This is the squad I'm going in with. You may notice the moveset and item on Sapphire is specifically designed for something- but we'll get to that in a second.

As we approach the base, we see that Clive is already there, and fighting- wait? Eri?

That's right! The squad boss herself has come out to meet us, in order to stop any of her fellow teammates getting hurt. Both her and Clive's Pokémon are a little worn out at this point though, and as she tries to take us on, she's stopped by a grunt named Carmen. She convinces Eri to withdraw, and let her handle the guard duty like she's supposed to. Eri reluctantly agrees.

We then take down Carmen with ease, Sapphire able to knock out both of her Pokémon in one hit. And now, it's time to battle the Caph squad!

Cassiopeia tells us that Eri is the one who's trained all the rest of Team Star in Pokémon battles, and she's tough! They also correctly predicted that Eri would come out to meet us first, before our challenge was complete- though they seem surprised that she would withdraw. No matter, for now, we have a squad to stomp.

Sapphire, Cardinal, and Claret take down the 30 Pokémon we need to with ease, prompting Eri to reappear. Now it's time to fight for real.

Eri starts with Toxicroak, and we start with Sapphire! The plan is very simple, as Toxicroak does about 30% with a Poison Jab, before we set up with Dragon Dance. Not in danger of a critical hit, we go for another Dragon Dance- now faster than the frog- as it goes for another jab, poisoning us. That's okay though! We're holding a Pecha Berry, and cure the poison, before Sapphire delivers the knock out with Wing Attack. I do also get slightly confused and Terastalise Sapphire to Dragon, misremembering its Tera type as Flying, but hopefully that shouldn't matter?

Out comes Lucario. Now this... this may be an issue. I'm not certain that even +2 Attack is enough to knock out Lucario in one hit, and it has Dragon Pulse, which will certainly KO Sapphire from where its at. I think I should pause the sweep and reposition- I may be able to set up again later. I switch in Opal, who takes the Dragon Pulse nicely. We then trade blows, Aura Sphere and Surf- Recovering for good measure between- until Lucario goes down.

Now, Eri sends in Passimian! This Pokémon has Seed Bomb, and looking at its stats, I think that we may be able to get Sapphire set up again here if we play it carefully. We can switch in on Seed Bomb and then Roost up since we should be faster. It's a little risky, but I think should work! We switch Sapphire in and- wait-

What? What happened?

I had made a mistake- one that compounded with my earlier mistake, and I was punished for it. Passimian didn't go for Seed Bomb, it went for Close Combat. Even against Milotic, who's weak to Seed Bomb, STAB Close Combat is a little stronger- I got tunnel vision, and didn't think it fully through. Secondly, Sapphire no longer resisted the move, the Terastalisation that I got wrong meant that Close Combat was a neutral hit, and not resisted. And on top of all of that? It was a critical hit- one that I'm pretty sure mattered. So, in its big debut as a Dragonite, Sapphire paid the price for the errors I made- I'm so sorry!

It's heartbreaking, but we still have a battle to finish. I send in Claret, who outspeeds the murderous monkey and takes the KO with Aerial Ace. Now in comes Annihilape, a Pokémon I am very worried about! I was hoping to have Sapphire set up against it, but right now it's about to KO Claret with Ice Punch, so we have to switch to Opal. Opal tanks the hit, and now what?

I think things through, and I think the best option here is Cardinal. We swap to our Talonflame, who takes about 40% from a resisted Close Combat! But Annihilape drops its defenses doing so- setting us up to knock it out with Acrobatics. Okay, we're almost through.

Eri's last Pokémon is of course the Starmobile, and I think we have to stay in with Cardinal. We go for another Acrobatics, dealing a big chunk, but triggering its Stamina ability and raising its Defense. In exchange, it goes for Combat Torque, and chips down Cardinal- and paralyses us. This is getting a little scary- and I want a special attacker in the battle to bypass the Stamina boosts. So we swap out Cardinal for Ash- who's immune to the incoming Combat Torque! Okay, we still have our Focus Sash, so Ash won't go down in one hit, and we can start firing off Surfs. It looks like we need three hits, based on the first Surf's damage- but the Starmobile is setting up with Shift Gear. It then outspeeds us to go for another Shift Gear- big mistake! We get in another Surf, and with our Focus Sash intact, we are guaranteed to live the High Horsepower that hits Ash just before she goes for the finishing blow!

We win, defeating the last Team Star boss- but paid a price.

And so, like always, we flash back.

In this flashback, we simply see the Team Star bosses cheering up Eri and thanking her for helping them train after she worries she's gone too hard on them. They clearly care very deeply about her, and they suggest that she rests- seeing as she's taken them all on without breaks, and they're tired after just fighting her! But she's pumped full of energy, looking at the Star badges they made fills her with determination that she can do anything.

Back in the present, Eri says she can tell we're not a bad person, despite us beating her and all of Team Star. Still, she's frustrated with her loss, and leaves in a fury! That's when Carmen reappears, who explains to us and Clive why she's so close with Eri- telling us about how she used to be jealous of Eri when they were both at school, and even started bullying her! But when tides turned and Carmen became a target of bullying herself, Eri stood by her, despite all that she'd done. The two have been bonded ever since. Clive remarks that there have been rumours of bullying within Team Star too- but that doesn't seem all that likely, given what we've heard.

Back outside, we get the call from Cassiopeia. She transfers over our reward, but there's no Penny in sight this time, with Clive actually bringing us our reward materials. He then asks about the next step- which Cassiopeia tells us is the final part of the plan, taking down the big boss of all of Team Star. But who is this boss? Where do we find them?

Why, that's Cassiopeia themself of course! They apologise for deceiving us, but thank us for our help in taking down the squad bosses. Apparently they wanted to disband the team before, but the various members and squad bosses have taken things too far. That's why Operation Starfall came to be. The mysterious boss asks us to meet them at the Academy after sundown- that's where our final showdown with Team Star will take place.

After they hang up, Clive says he's beginning to have an idea of Cassiopeia's true identity... And I think we might know as well! We'd better prepare for that final confrontation.

But first, our last egg before the toughest battles of our journey yet! This will leave us just one more egg in the box- which I've decided we'll hatch after wrapping up the three separate storylines we've played and before we make our way to the true final boss. But we're getting ahead of ourselves! Our egg today comes from @pokemonblack3white3, the final one he sent in. And it contains...

A Zorua! A very fun choice- one that gives us the opportunity to mess with our opponents and play a little sneakier! We'll definitely be training them up and considering them for the final battles ahead, thank you!