Crystallized

I was pleasantly surprised when I saw the friend ball pop open, revealing the small alolan vulpix inside, the words "Albino ♀, Level 20" hovering above it's head.

This was a pokemon which had been on my radar, my wishlist. However, I had bought Pokemon Moon instead of Pokemon Sun, and since it was exclusive to the latter, I had locked myself away from an awesome pokemon. I was surprised to find such a lucky wonder-trade be bestowed upon me, especially just for a sandslash I only had to fill the dex anyways. As soon as I received it, the party was where it would go.

Once I got her, I decided to train her up on some caterpie at Route 1. She had a decent, balanced moveset of Blizzard, Roar, Protect and Toxic. She had her hidden ability, Snow Warning, too. I was wondering why her previous trainer gave her up. Anyways, she swept through the caterpie fast with her moveset. Happy with her, I began to train her up.

She passed through the levels swiftly. Level 25. Level 30. Level 35. Level 40. All earned within one training session. A few more days of training later, she was already Level 60.

I thought she would be ready to evolve on this level. Key word here; thought.

I selected my bag icon and scrolled through my items until I found my ice stone. I had gotten one from wonder trade when I found an eevee holding an ice stone. Whoever owned that eevee must have thought an ice stone would have evolved it into glaceon. I clicked on the stone. "Who would you like to use this on?" the game asked. I selected "Albino."

Text reading "What? Albino is evolving!" appeared onto my screen. She was concealed in that ball of light, beginning to swirl up towards the sky.

"No."

The game froze up, and so did I. That had ever happened before! The evolution screen closed. I stupidly thought it as some sort of glitch, so I reopened the bag, and tried again.

The evolution animation played. Froze up mid-animation, text reading "No." appeared. The screen closed, so I tried it again. And again. And again. But every single time, it just did the same thing.

After about nine fails, I decided that that was enough. I'd try to evolve her one last time. If it failed, I'd give up and try again later.

Little did I know that trying to evolve her again would be a fatal mistake.

I opened up the menu, clicked on the stone, selected Albino, and let the animation play. This time, there was no music, and the background was a dreadful red. However, everything else was normal. Albino floated up into the air, consumed by light, and floated back down as a beautiful alolan ninetales. However, the text, instead of congratulating me for evolving her, it said "Albino evolved into a ninetales and had her dreams crushed." Her dreams were crushed? That had NEVER happened to me before!

The screen closed off. I was worried about Albino, so I decided I would check on her. I opened up the menu, and selected Albino. Instead of bringing me to her menu, a text box appeared.

"I thought I could trust you."

Curious, I selected her again.

"But you were just like them."

"Who the hell are THEM?!" I shouted out loud.

"The others. The trainers who gave me up. You.. you made me this."

A distorted and sad ninetales cry played as the picture of an alolan ninetales flashed across the screen. But not a normal alolan ninetales.

Scratches were all over it's body, and it's hair was ragged. Words reading "I TRUSTED U" were carved into it's flank, and carved into it's chest was "FEEL MY SUFFERING." Blood was leaking from it eyes, like.. like TEARS! It's eyes gave a sad glare, and it was frowning.

I soon realized that this was Albino.

"I didn't want to evolve. But you made me evolve. You are no better then them."

The sprite of the ninetales flashed again, but this time, it was smirking.

"But now you will feel my suffering."

The screen changed to a zoom in on Albino's face. Text reading "Albino used Crystallize!" appeared. A burst of blue light filled up my vision, as my body was concealed into a crystal of ice. Everything went black as I blacked out.

I woke up in a freezing cold field. I looked at myself. I was an alolan ninetales, covered in insane, bloody wounds, which were yet frozen over. Ice crystals were sticking out of my body. On my paws, words were carved reading "YOU HAVE BEEN CRYSTALLIZED. NOW FEEL MY SUFFERING. -ALBINO"

I ever saw Earth again after that. Sometimes, I wonder what would have happened if I didn't evolve Albino. What would happen if I didn't become crystallized.