The Battle Factory's Secret

THE STORY
So, where have you heard the phrase "I'm a huge pokemon fan" before? I know, I know, it's as generic as it gets. But seriously, I've been a fan of the series since i was in diapers, and still love it to bits to this day. To be real, though, I think I'm a bit.... Too into Pokemon. It's gotten to the point where im defending games that people dont even actually like. Why? Because I like them, and they're good to me. Kinda selfish of me, isn't it?

A huge complaint about newer Pokemon games is that the postgame content, other than the obvious "catch them all" is practically non-existent nowadays. They always point to some sort of Battle Frontier, like Emerald and Platinum. However, after an experience I had in Sword and Shield's Crown Tundra......After what Emera went through... I'm glad it keeps getting cut, and I kinda hope it never comes back.

To give some backstory, when I was about 8 or so, I was lucky enough that I was drowning in Pokemon games. However, two I could never stop playing were Soul Silver and Platinum. I would sometimes link them up to play together in the Battle Frontier, just for fun. My favorite battle facility, though, was always the Battle Factory, though. It always inspired me to get into competitive battling, even if i wasnt exactly great at it.

One day, everything changed though. When doing one of my link up sessions, I had the luck to have one of my choices be a shiny Aggron. Though, if you know the rules of the battle factory, i think you would actually consider this unlucky. If you somehow don't know, the Pokemon given to you in the battle factory are rental Pokemon, meaning they will be taken back when everything is done.

After this experience, I wanted one of my own. Green is my favorite color, and to see such a cool pokemon like Aggron in a wonderful jade/emerald green filled me with delight. Unfortunately, though, I was never really all that patient, so shiny hunting was a no-go for me.

Until 2020. After seeing that Aron was in Pokemon Sword and Shield, I knew that now, when shiny hunting was at its easiest (Because of the limited Pokedex, I had the shiny charm. Even if you don’t like Dexit, you have to admit that’s like the one good thing about it.) I knew it would finally be my chance to get one of the shiny pokemon I always wanted.

I opened up my VERY much completed Shield game, and after taking care of the Crown Tundra's minor story I began the hunt. Surprisingly enough, the precious gem came surprisingly quickly. I freaked out so hard, after years and years I finally got one of my dream shinies! I was so happy that I almost immediately started throwing Pokeballs at the little guy. But... I realized something before I did. The usually wide-eyed Aron looked... Frightened? His eyes were in a position that looked like he was really afraid. It also looked cracked and scratched up, which is interesting. It was kinda hard not to think of what had happened to him while he was going into the Pokeball.

I ended up naming him Emera, close to Emerald, as well as what the gems in Super Mystery Dungeon are called. I immediately put him at the front of my party, putting my level 100 Inteleon in the box. I then went to the camp to make him some curry. Partly because I wanted to see my precious shiny happy, but also because I wanted to see if things would change.

Surprisingly enough, he did. Eating the curry, he seemed...surprised? I gave him some more and he almost looked normal again. I decided to finally look at his status screen, and that was when I noticed something a little bit odd... The small icon that showed what region a pokemon was from was the Sinnoh one. I still remembered the first Aggron, and how they were on Platinum, but I didn’t think much of it. Maybe the game glitched out and put the wrong icon.

I decided to bring him into battle so I could take pictures of him since it adds to the realness of the screenshot. I wanted to show my first ever hunted shiny to my friends, and I wasn't gonna tolerate any talk about whether he was even real. However, the moment he was in battle, he reverted to that terrified state. I didn’t understand, emotions in this game didn't exist outside of curry creations, or happiness. I ended up running away from the fight, kinda worried about what would happen to the poor thing if I fought using him.

I eventually wanted to relive seeing that amazing Aggron again. So, I went into my bag to give it some EXP candies. Considering battles were a no-go, I figured I'd go with the easier option. Eventually, Emera was fully evolved. The usual fanfare happened, and he roared in approval, but it made me realize... Emera wasn't cracked a bit. His entire body had damage all over! The 3 flaps of armor all had a hole in them instead of just the top, his shine looked a lot duller, and it had many scratches all over its body, including 2 big ones on its chest and stomach, as well as his front claws. The worst, however, was in its horns. The smaller ones looked very dull, and the main one might as well have been in 2 pieces. It seemed like it could fall off at any second. It mortified me and made me wonder what happened to Emera?

He hates fighting, he has scratches and cracks all over him, what could have been the issue? I also realized around this time that they also had the cloudy mark. For those who haven't played Sword and Shield, marks are kinda like ribbons. However, these randomly appear, making Emera even more special. This made them "Emera the Cloud Watcher."

This made me reminisce on my youth a little bit. Looking up at the clouds while laying down on a hill in my local park, feeling the gentle breeze of the wind on me, it was always so nice. But... Connections were starting to form in my head. The Sinnoh mark, the cloud mark, made me think more and more about the battle factory before my mind came up with something seemingly stupid.

"You came from the battle factory, didn’t you?"

I don't exactly know why I thought this. It was silly, wasn't it? The thought that a pokemon in a region wasn't even born in that region. But this thought was almost infectious. I decided to test this dumb theory of mine. I didn’t want to hurt Emera, but I needed to know.

I flew to the battle tower. After all, that’s been around since Generation 2 and is usually the "big one" whenever a battle frontier is available. The Galarian one, in particular, is very high tech, as well as having rental Pokemon in a sense, so it would be pretty close to the Battle Factory, too. I stepped closer and closer, and as I got to the door, a textbox appeared.

"Emera's Pokeball is shaking! It seems like he doesn't want to go inside!"

I heard a pitched down Aggron cry, similar to the cry of a damaged or fainted one. That gave me my answer, as well as broke my heart. I decided to check in on him, and he almost looked... Resigned to some sort of fate.

I decided to head to the starting town, and give it a bunch of curries to try and calm it down. It was silly, but maybe a calming atmosphere may have helped. Took about a dozen bowls, but it actually ended up working and Emera went back to... As normal as he can get. Nowadays, I use Emera as more of a showpiece. I still give him curry, but they're more of a friend to me nowadays. They seem happy with a life like this.

But what made him like this? What caused this damage and this fear? While I don't have a concrete answer or any evidence, here's my best guess.

The Battle Factory hides a dark secret that the rest of the facility keepers know about. They abuse pokemon, turn them into fighting machines just for the entertainment of trainers. Why do you think that outside of battle we never actually see any pokemon running around?

Emera's parent was the shiny Aggron I used so long ago. That Aggron was old, damaged, not in good health. (I remember it being kinda frail, but that could have just been a special attack move hitting me for all I know.) They wanted to replace it with Emera after it finally passed on, but he ran away before he could be properly captured. He did get damaged beyond repair, though. The poor thing must have run away so far that they made it to Galar somehow. This part I can’t explain very well, but I think the rest of my story has enough evidence for now. The sad cry was probably him believing that I was just going to bring

As far as I know, nothing confirms nor denies this. But until I get told it’s untrue, then I'll be the one person who doesn’t want the Battle Frontier in any upcoming games. I never want any Pokemon to have to go through what Emera and their parent went through, and I feel guilty for enjoying it ever.

AUTHORS NOTE


sooooo this is my first ever creepypasta as a whole! I hope you like it! Its kinda based on a real story, the part about the battle factory shiny aggron and the shiny aron with the mark are real, i just altered it a bit to work with the story. It felt interesting making more of an eerie and depressing story, as thats not what i really do. I also wanted to try and stray as far as i can from normal tropes (haunted/hacked games, murdermons, enough blood to fill a swimming pool, etc.). Again, i really liked writing this and i hoped you liked reading it!