At most Pokémon events, I can be easily identified by my shoulder buddy - Transat the Delcatty.
On 23rd May 2018, I was sitting at Gate C30 in Toronto Pearson Airport. I had been walking around the airport for a couple of hours, after being dropped off by very close friends that I was going to miss, and still do now. So to take my mind off of what I was leaving behind, I signed into the free wifi, loaded up Pokémon Go, and started catching. The last Pokémon I caught in Canada was a Delcatty - she wasn’t particularly strong, and she isn’t a rare species - but as we started boarding that Air Transat flight, I had already fallen in love with her.
And so, Transat was born.
This version of Transat very quickly became my buddy, and once the Buddy system updated my Best Buddy and earned her ribbon.
Meanwhile, I realised that there was a Delcatty available in the GameCube game Pokémon XD, the first generation that ribbons were available. I learned about the community dedicated to the Ribbon Master challenge - a challenge to collect every ribbon available to a Pokémon. So I searched for the one Luxury ball available in Pokémon XD, prepared my team, and managed to snag Cipher Admin Lovrina's Shadow Delcatty. As the game continued, I walked with her, battled with her, and called to her until her heart was opened and she received her first ribbon, the National Ribbon, awarded for "overcoming all challenges" - the first of many challenges!
We defeated Champion Blue in Fire Red, made friends with a team - including Dansen the Tauros, on a similar journey - for the Sapphire Battle Tower, then returned to Orre in Pokémon Colosseum for 100 straight wins at Mt. Battle, earning both a ribbon and a friendship with Ho-oh. Back in Hoenn in Emerald, we earned acclaim and a series of painting depicting Transat's prowess in Contests.
Transat bid farewell to her friends in Hoenn, and we travelled to Gen IV! There, she continued her dominance in the Contest scene, spent a whole week talking to Julia in Sunyshore, and took down the legend, Red. Unsurprisingly, she had enough ribbons to impress the Ribbon Syndicate, and cleared out my Poké bank account to purchase three very expensive ribbons.
During our journeys around Johto, we also collected a handful of beautiful golden leaves, that were made into a Leaf Crown in a mark of our close bond.
And then the Battle Tower loomed in front of us. With the help of Dansen, Transat made it through the challenges of the Doubles Ribbon and the Ability Ribbon, and with the power of WiFi tower cheese, we picked up the World Ability Ribbon. Currently the Great Ability, the Multi Ability, and the Pair Ability ribbons stand between Transat and a vacation in Unova.
