Room Excavation: The Hunt for the Missing Pokemon

So, this all began when the new downloadable content/extension pack for Pokemon Scarlet/Violet was about to release. I thought to myself "My Pokemon Home (the app that holds all the Pokemon I've collected for at least a decade) is not up to date and organized. I can bide my time organizing it."

The "organizing/clean-up" that I thought would span only about 2 hours at the most ended up taking days. The more I dug into each pokemon entry, the more I realized oddities...fake generated pokemon that were traded to me were the biggest concern. But, I even learned that Pokerus (a virus) was a real thing and some of my boxes were infected with it (but I left those pokemon alone, as they all still had me listed as their Original Trainer). After a "purge" of sorts, I came to realize that I was missing pokemon I knew I had in other games. In particular, a shiny Petilil:

This Petilil was one that I had randomly bred in the games Pokemon X/Y while seeking a specific Petilil Nature and it hatched with blue eyes instead of the customary red. When it comes to my Pokemon game cartridges, I've collected so many of them that I stored them in their own separate case. But, that case was nowhere to be found. I did find the original game that once held it, though, but the Petilil was not physically there. All that the Pokedex entry could provide me with was proof that the little thing really existed:

After some deliberation, I figured that perhaps I had transferred the Petilil to the games that followed...either in the hopes of using her on my team or to just ensure that she could be transferable to future game entries. But, which games would those be? There was but one answer: Pokemon Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire!

Looking at my Pokemon Home app, I realized that i had the main legendary, but none of the post-game ones. This led me to believe that I was in the middle of post-game shenanigans, but I hadn't completed it. The entries after the segment were stuffed full of Ultra Sun/Moon pokemon, instead.  Could I have been so distracted by the release of Pokemon Sun/Moon that I had forgotten to complete Omega Ruby? 

OF COURSE I BECAME DISTRACTED! 

A second inspection of the Pokemon Home Pokedex revealed that there was no trace of the shiny Petilil ever existing...that means that the shiny Petilil, along with several other Omega Ruby post-game Pokemon must still be trapped in the cartridge! 

That was when I began excavating my room from one corner to the next trying to find that old Omega Ruby cartridge that held the game file for these missing Pokemon. I'm at 75% and still no luck. I checked with friends and family to see if I had loaned them my game case, but they do not have it. This week I'll attempt to search the last 25%. 

Wish me luck.