Route 218

Original source: dogvevo on deviantART. Do not repost or do a dramatic reading without permission from the author. "“Its flotation sac developed as a result of pursuing aquatic prey. It can double as a rubber raft.”"--Floatzel's Pokedex entry, Pokemon Pearl

I always been the kind of person who hated resetting their Pokemon games-- the idea of having to manually move all of my Pokemon over to another game cartridge or lose them forever was just unappealing to me. Instead, I always opted to buy new ones so that I could replay my favorite games without having to do either of those options. I'd buy them secondhand, of course, because while Pokemon games were never really discounted, and I could at least get them at a reasonable-ish price if they were already used.

I was in luck, thankfully. At my local second hand game store, I found and bought a used copy of Pokemon Pearl. It was perfect, actually, considering that I originally played Diamond. While not an entirely new experience, at least I'd get to get all the version exclusive Pokemon I needed to help complete my dex in Diamond. And either way, it had been a few years since I had been to Sinnoh, and I was anxious to return, since the somewhat recent release of Pokemon Black had been taking up most of my time nowadays.

When I turned the game on, I learned that there was already a saved file loaded into the cartridge. I checked, out of curiosity, but there wasn’t much in the game for me-- the previous owner hadn’t left any Pokemon behind that I was too interested in. Actually, the only Pokemon that was left in the game was a level 28 Floatzel, one that didn't stand out to me as special in any way. I figured that they must have traded away all their good Pokemon away when they sold the game, which was lucky for me, considering I wouldn’t have to do any tedious trades over to my copy of Diamond. So after my initial check, I cleared the game with Floatzel still on the file.

I took my time progressing through the game, making sure to enjoy it to the fullest. I had chosen Turtwig as my starter, naming him “Gift,” as he was Professor Rowan’s gift to my trainer. I knew from the moment that I had received him, Gift was going to protect me from the harsh Pokemon world. It was a bit of a silly name in hindsight, but I thought it was cute at the time. Everything was going great, I was enjoying the game as I’d hoped, and making sure to catch every Pokemon I met along the way so that I’d have an easier time completing my dex. It wasn’t until I got to just before the 6th gym when things started getting strange.

As I got to Canalave City, I decided that before I took on the gym, I’d take a quick trip back to Route 218. Route 218 had the following Pokemon: Floatzel, Shellos, Gastrodon, Wingull, and most importantly-- Glameow. Glameow was an important Pokemon to me, firstly, because it was a Pearl version exclusive, but I had always been a big fan of cats. I wanted to catch two, one for my Diamond game, and one to put on my team and name it after my own pet cat, Oreo, who looked just like a Glameow. Oreo meant the world to me, so it was only right that I’d pay him homage by adding him to my Pokemon team.

I took to Route 218 and began to run around in the wild grass. Luckily for me, I’d already registered all of the Pokemon on this route in my Pokedex, so I didn’t need to bother with them. It would just be a matter of catching Glameow now. My first encounter was a Shellos, and then a Floatzel, and then a Floatzel, and then another Floatzel, followed by… another Floatzel?

From that point forward all I began to encounter was Floatzel. I didn’t think it too strange, because when I pulled up the Serebii Earth on my computer, I noticed that Floatzel had a 35% chance of encountering in Route 218, while Glameow only had a 15%. Perhaps I’d just need to keep running around some more.

After the first ten Floatzels in a row, now I began to think it was strange. Why was I only getting Floatzel? 35% wasn’t that high of a number and I had seen that one Shellos at first, hadn’t I? So was I just getting that unlucky? Or was this something else? Was my game bugged? Is that why it had been returned? Unfortunately, I had no answers. I was young at the time and didn’t think much of it; by this point I had even forgotten about the Floatzel on the original file, the idea never crossed my mind that this might be the same one. Even if I had some kind of terrible luck, I knew that I’d have to find Glameow eventually.

A few more encounters and I began to notice a trend-- a really strange one. I noticed that each Floatzel I encountered was female and level 28. Maybe it was a coincidence, but it was a very weird one-- Pokemon like Floatzel had a pretty even chance of being male or female… so why were all of the ones I were seeing female? I had so many questions and still, my answers didn’t come.

Instead, I ran around for what felt like hours in this grass, slowly losing my mind over each Floatzel encounter. And sure enough, with every new encounter, they were always, without fail, level 28 and female. By this point I had turned off my DS’s sound, tired of hearing its cry ring in my ears each time I saw it. Floatzel enraged me beyond words but I was a determined child with a need for a cute kitty-cat Pokemon.

Another few hours into my search, I had a dreadful realization. Maybe you’d call it an epiphany, even. Either way, what I realized something perhaps I should have realized much sooner.

What if… it wasn’t a coincidence? What if this Floatzel was the same Pokemon every time? It made sense, I guessed, considering the consistency of gender and level. But could that even happen? I really wasn’t sure if that was some feature they added in this game at some point that I just hadn’t heard of. Maybe it was? Or maybe it was a bug like I thought? In any case, I knew I’d probably just have to make Floatzel faint before I could finally be free of its torture.

I put Gift, now a Torterra, in the front slot of the party. It would be Gift’s time to shine. As my Gift and protector, he’d help me through this. I took a deep breath and ran into the grass again. Just like every time, Floatzel was there. However, this time I wouldn’t run. I would fight.

I ordered Gift to use Razor Leaf, hoping maybe that I’d land a critical hit or something and take Floatzel out in one hit. Luckily, my prayers were answered, and I felt myself exclaiming ‘Yes!’ as I watched Floatzel’s health slowly go down when the critical hit message popped up on screen.

Green… yellow… red… I watched with bated breath as it fell, only for it to stop right at the end of red. Floatzel had a sliver of health left, one that I could barely see. I gripped my DS tightly, squinting at the screen and grinding my teeth together. Had it not been enough to make it faint?

That’s when a message popped up. "‘FLOATZEL endured the hit!’"I couldn’t believe it. I don’t think Floatzel even used Endure or was holding an item, so why had that message shown up? Well, it was no matter-- whatever attack it used on me next wasn’t enough to take Gift down, so I’d simply go for another Razor Leaf to finish the job.

I selected Razor Leaf again and the attack landed. But Floatzel’s health didn’t go down.

A new message appeared on screen: "‘FLOATZEL won’t fall!’"How was that possible? It should have fainted if that hit it this time. I tried again, crossing my fingers and groaning angrily. I was getting even more annoyed than I’d already been.

Razor Leaf landed again but Floatzel still endured the hit. "‘FLOATZEL remains strong!’"Well, if I couldn’t make it faint, maybe taking down its health was enough for the time being? I gave it what it wanted-- a battle-- so now it’d have to leave me alone. I clicked ‘Run’.

‘Can’t escape!’ Came up on the screen and my heart sank.

What else could I do at this point? Catch it? I already had Floatzel in my dex… I didn’t need another one, let alone one that wanted to chase me around Route 218 all day!

I hit ‘Run’ again in desperation, only to be greeted with another ‘Can’t escape!’. So this was how it had to be. Floatzel had taken down much of Gift’s health by this point and if it hit again, Gift would probably get taken out. I sighed, going to the bag option and selecting a Pokeball. If this is what this Pokemon wanted from me, maybe it would finally leave me alone.

I watched as my trainer threw the ball, rolling my eyes and pouting my lip at the screen. It shook three times and I watched as the star animation played signifying that it had been caught. Great.

I decided to give it no nickname because in my eyes, a Pokemon that had given me so much trouble didn’t deserve one of my very good and thoughtful nicknames. I’d finally get to play the game normally now and get that Glameow that I had so desired. I had only thought everything would go back to normal, but catching FLOATZEL was far from the end. A short, but loud screech came from my DS’s speakers and I scrunched my face up in response.

The next message box that appeared on screen next perplexed me -- it said that FLOATZEL was put in my party. This wouldn’t be weird normally, however, the problem was that I didn’t have an empty spot in my party. Even with my plans to catch Glameow and add it to my team, I had a few temporary Pokemon in the party that I used for HMs and switching into battles and such.

Immediately, I checked my party.

FLOATZEL had been pushed to the front of my party oddly enough, while my other party Pokemon-- minus Gift-- had all but vanished. Were they in my party when I was catching FLOATZEL? I couldn’t have put them in the PC, since I’d moved Gift in the place of my Staraptor, Zephyr, earlier when I saw them all there. And this still didn’t explain why FLOATZEL had moved Gift from my party’s front slot.

I clicked on FLOATZEL’s summary and looked what exactly this new Pokemon I caught had in store. Its summary read ‘Highly persistent’ with an Adamant nature and I snorted. Yeah, no duh. It was… strangely fitting to say the least. I switched into Gift’s summary to see if anything had changed and strangely enough, I noticed that his characteristic had changed from ‘Highly curious’ to ‘Wants to protect you’. That was a new one. I don’t think I’d ever see a Pokemon with that characteristic. Maybe it was just special for starter Pokemon… it made sense to me, at least.

As I exited the summary screens, I attempted to move Gift back to the front of the party, only for my game to freeze as I clicked ‘A’ on ‘Switch Pokemon’.

I practically yelled out in anger. I hadn’t saved my game in hours. I’d have to go back to catching FLOATZEL again. Would it always do this when I tried to move FLOATZEL from the front of the party? How annoying. I’d bought second hand games before like this-- the kind that freeze at random times-- and I was really hoping that maybe this time I’d get lucky and have a fully-functional game for once. Alas, my game was more broken than I realized.

As I booted up the game and skipped to the start menu, I was greeted with a Pokemon’s cry. It wasn’t Palkia’s, though, as it should have been. I knew that cry anywhere after hearing it on repeat for hours. It was Floatzel. I turned my DS to the side and my eyes grew wide as I realized my volume switch was still off.

At this point, any normal person probably would’ve just turned off the DS and thrown the game somewhere where no one could ever find it, but this was me, remember? I was young and I hated losing my Pokemon progress. Even if my game was glitching out just a little bit, maybe it could be saved somehow-- maybe I could just keep playing normally? My other Pokemon had to be in my PC… I’d just give up on the Glameow for right now and come back to it later.

As I opened the game, I found my character standing on Route 218, a place I had become all-too-familiar with at this point. I raced to open the Pokemon menu. Just like it had before it crashed, there sat FLOATZEL at the front of my party. My eyes went wide. How had this happened? This was impossible. I knew that I hadn’t saved in between when I caught it and my game freezing.

This had scared me beyond belief, beyond the point of wanting to salvage my game, beyond catching Glameow anymore. I knew that I had no choice-- I absolutely had to restart my game.

I assumed that Gift was my only party member who remained right now and I decided that I would transfer him to my copy of Pokemon Black for safekeeping (I had chosen Turtwig as my starter in Diamond as well, so I didn’t really need the dex entry).

I went to deposit Gift into a box and also did some digging around, but I couldn’t find the rest of my original party anywhere. It looked like they really were gone forever but I still didn’t know why or how that had happened to them. Pokemon couldn’t just vanish into thin air. But I would lament later. I had a new mission. After I was done with Gift, I turned off my game, and went into another room to grab my brother’s DS. I needed two systems to perform the transfer to Black, after all.

After I started playing Black, I took to the Poke Transfer building so that I could set up what I needed. My idea was to bring Gift and a few other throwaway Pokemon over, since six Pokemon were required for the minigame. Once I did, I’d clear the data with FLOATZEL on it and probably return the Pearl copy to the second hand store at some point during the week.

I began the DS Download to play Poke Transfer, making sure to select Gift and the other Pokemon I wanted to bring. FLOATZEL couldn’t be chosen to transfer thankfully, since I left it behind in my party when I turned the game off.

I always thought the Poke Transfer game was kind of annoying, but I went along with it, making sure to get every one of my Pokemon before the timer ran out. I didn’t care to check right away, but I knew that my Pokemon were safe now. Once I ended, I opened up the DS with Pearl again, and went to clear the data.

I clicked up, select, B, taking me to the clear data screen. Or, well, what should have been the clear data screen. My DS screens went black as I heard the sound of a Torterra’s cry multiple times followed much louder and much more ear-splitting cry of a Floatzel. After the sounds stopped, a weird new message came up on screen instead of the usual data clear one, or actually a series of weird new messages came up, I should say. "‘Don’t worry!’""‘I didn’t leave you!’""‘I want to be your friend!’""‘I’m good for you!’""‘I can fight for you!’""‘I fought them all off to have you for my own…’""‘I got rid of HIM for you, too.’""‘So much for your protector.’""‘He couldn’t even protect you.’""‘Aren’t you happy?’""‘I just love you so much!’""‘It’ll just be the two of us forever, right?’""‘So… I don’t want to say goodbye just yet.’""‘OK?’" And then the data got cleared.

I ejected the game, tossing it on my bed with a bit of force as my cat jumped up to paw at it. What the hell was that? Who was that talking? Those words sent shivers down my spine, practically freezing me in my place. I knew that didn’t happen when I reset the game the first time! That shouldn’t have happened at all! I picked the game up off of my bed, squeezing it tightly in my hand and tossing it into my garbage bin. I wasn’t returning it to the store anymore. No one should have to go through that. I was young and foolish, but I knew this for sure.

I fell backwards onto my bed, exhausted. My day of torture was finally coming to an end and now I’d sit back and relax. Goodbye, cursed Pokemon game, hello Pokemon Bla--

I almost dropped the DS on my face as I looked through the Pokemon that I had just gotten through Poke Transfer. Gift, nor any of my other Pokemon were anywhere to be seen. My hands began to tremble and I looked towards the wastebasket I had just thrown the game in. I looked again at what was on the screen in front of me. My eyes went wide.

There sat my new waking nightmare. I almost pinched myself in response. I had to be sleeping. I'd fallen asleep playing and started dreaming, that had to be it… it was real, though. It was all so real.

Instead of the six Pokemon that should have been there, there was now only one sitting in their place. I watched as its new animated sprite bounced around on screen with nothing but pure fear in my eyes, my heart pratically about to burst from my chest.

It was a Floatzel named FLOATZEL.

Female.

Level 28.