Opening[]
I have always been a fan of Pokémon, ever since I first laid my hands on one of the games. I know tons of things about the games, and have been getting into Pokémon Showdown, an online battling simulator. Anyways, let me regale you with this story.
The Story[]
I was going to Kindergarten, and had played the original Pokémon Red and Blue. My Dad taught the sixth grade in the same school. After every day of Kindergarten, I’d go over to my Dad’s classroom to spend the rest of the school day. On the last day of classes, I went to school playing Pokemon Red on my Game Boy Advance, showing the kids in my class the Mewtwo I had caught the night before. We all chuckled at the nickname I gave it: Fingertips, because of the bulb-like fingers. After class, I ran down to my dad’s classroom.
At the end of the day, my dad did an inspection of the desks, and found a copy of Pokemon Yellow version left inside one of them. The game had a couple of tears on the label, and a stain or two on the plastic. He passed it over to me and I threw it into the Game Boy Advance. The title screen was the same as a kid in my grade shown me, but it had a saved game on it. ‘SCARED’ was the name.
I loaded the save up to check what was on the game. I appeared in the starter house, and proceeded to check my Pokemon, to see what this had left. Only a level 100 Pikachu named ‘WHIMPER’. I briefly wondered why it had a name like this. I just shrugged it off, and continued playing. Looking in the bag, there were 100 ultra balls. Seeing this, I went out of the starter room. The mother was missing, and replaced with an item.
When I picked the item up, it said, "SCARED picked up a note."
I began to read. “Go see the PROF. NOW.” The emphasis of the text felt a bit… freaky to me.
I walked out of the house to see one Team Rocket NPC in Pallet Town. Text came up on the screen. "Hey, you! Kid! Scram, or I'll make you!”
The NPC came to me, causing a battle to begin. He sent out a level 1 Rattata named ‘DESPAIR’. I went to attack it with Thunderbolt, and it somehow avoided the attack. It used Quick Attack, bringing Whimper down to 1 HP.
A text box came up, saying, "WHIMPER curled up in a ball, crying." I then used a hyper potion to heal Whimper. Despair used quick attack again, and Whimper fainted. Instead of whiting out, text came up on the screen.
"WHIMPER laid limp."
I sat there, staring at the screen. Nothing happened for a whole five minutes, so I restarted the game. I went to file select, and a file called MOURNING was there instead. When I loaded it up, I appeared in a grassy, seemingly outside area with Lavender Town’s music playing. I checked my Pokémon. The only one in my party was now the ghost from the Lavender Town tower, still called Whimper. I exited the menu, then noticed gravestones in front of the character. I clicked on all of them, and text popped up every time.
"Now isn’t the time for that." I walked away, and noticed a door. I exited it, and came out into Pallet Town again. The Team Rocket NPC was still there, and ran over to me again.
Text appeared. "So, back for more? I thought you don’t have any POKéMON now! Do you want to end up like that measly PIKACHU?"
A battle started. I sent out the ghost. All the ghost knew was Grudge. I thought it was weird. The Pokémon had no attacking moves. I just decided to click Grudge, wondering what would happen.
I shouldn’t have.
Text came up. "Whimper used Grudge!"
Instead of the usual Grudge animation, the animation for Explode happened on Despair's side. Text came up.
"DESPAIR is no more."
After that, the battle ended. The Team Rocket Grunt just ran over to one of the surrounding trees, and I went over and tried to talk to him.
"He is too stricken with grief to react."
I decided to venture to see Professor Oak, walking into his lab. Oak was standing in his usual spot, but when I interacted with him, I got warped out of the lab. I checked the door. I couldn’t go in, and text appeared.
"MOURNING is forbidden to enter."
I walked back over to the character’s house, and walked inside.
I was warped back to the graveyard-esque area and a copy of the player was at one of the gravestones. I walked up to him to talk, and all he said was "Why…? Why did it have to go this way?"
A battle commenced. The name of the trainer was ‘SCARED’, and he had a sprite looking like a skeletal Pikachu against me. The name of the Skeletal Pikachu was ‘WHIMPER’. I threw out my ghost Whimper, and tried to use Grudge again.
"WHIMPER shuddered." Then, the Skeletal Pikachu used Boomerang, and the ghost Whimper lost all of its health. Text popped up.
"WHIMPER faded away."
Scared appeared on the screen again, text appearing.
"…"
The game froze up, and I had to restart it again. When I did, a profile called ‘SORRY’ appeared. When I loaded in, I appeared in the graveyard room again, with a new tombstone. Text came up.
"SCARED, you were… MOURNING, you were…"
The game froze up again, and when I loaded it up for the next time, there were no profiles. I made a new profile, and it didn’t go through any beginning cut scenes. I appeared in the house again, with a ghost as a character sprite, and went downstairs. The character’s mother was sat in the chair where the letter was, and I went over to her.
"Why…?" is all she said. I tried to leave the house.
"You cannot leave…" I tried to go to the upper room. "You cannot leave…" appeared again.
I went over to talk to the mother again, and she said, "Why…?!?" and then left the house. I was trapped eternally in the room.
I turned the game off, and just hid it in my pocket. My dad said to me ‘Time to go!’ and we left. At home, I loaded the game again, and it kept on just freezing before I got to the profile screen.
A couple of days ago, I was rummaging through my stuff. I found this cartridge just sitting there in a box, and decided to dust off my old Game Boy Advance and load it up again. When I did that, the game loaded into the regular beginning cut scene, and let me choose a name. I chuckled, and decided to name the character Tree.
When I loaded into the actual game, the mother was sat down at the table, saying, "It is your older brother’s birthday today… I miss him so much… Sometimes I just feel his presence in this room…"
I left the house, and saw the Team Rocket Grunt in the same area as he was the last time I saw him. I went over and talked to him. "Uh… Aren’t you the younger brother of that kid that… got rid of my RATTATA, DESPAIR, years ago? You’ll pay for what your brother did!"
A battle commenced, with Tree sending out a Mewtwo, with the exact same nickname as my Mewtwo in my old Red game. Fingertips. It even had the same move set. I wondered how, and why the game had given me that Pokémon. I was facing a Rattata from the Team Rocket Grunt. I attacked with Psychic, and the Rattata just fainted right away. The Team Rocket Grunt, after the battle, just ran off. Under where he had been standing was a hole, like in caves.
I went into it, and appeared in the Graveyard again. I visited the tombstone that I went to years ago. A battle commenced.
"PKMN TRAINER SCARED would like to battle." He sent out Whimper as he was at the beginning. A regular Pikachu. I used Psychic, and instantly beat it. He then sent out Whimper’s ghost form, and I used Psychic again, not thinking about it much. I beat the ghost Whimper. The skeletal Whimper was sent out, and used Boomerang. My Mewtwo was brought to one HP, then Psychic prevailed.
After the battle, a copy of the character sprite, appeared but it was partially transparent. I guessed it was Scared.
"You… I know it is YOU… The jerk who caused this mess…" The game froze yet again, but before I turned it off, I saw the text box close, and a new text box come up.
"SCARED, you were… MOURNING you were… SORRY, you are now…"
The game just shut off, and the cartridge just began playing like normal when I reloaded it.
No, I am not going to say I never played another game again or any of that shit. I still love video games, and forever will.