The Forgotten Gem

Well, since people nowadays are still waiting on Black and White to come out, I’ve decided to just wait and buy a copy of HeartGold before it goes out of style. I myself restricted at the thought of buying it for the sole reason because my favorite female, Kris, is not in the game. Instead replaced by that she-thing Lyra. I loathed whatever Game Freak or who created pokemon decided, but it couldn’t be helped.

She’s already there

So, I decided to make my way to the store and buy the copy I’d reserved. As I make my way out of the driveway, I noticed my mail box was slightly open. Thinking if someone stole my magazine subscription (lol), I got out of the car and opened it. Surprisingly, there was a package with ribbon on it. The wrapping was tinged with a slight sense of golden sun, and the ribbon was a stunning silver, like those finely washed utensils you see at fancy parties.

On the corner of the package was a heart-shaped card of sorts. I opened it and the package was for a woman named Karly. There was only one Karly I knew of, and she recently passed away from an unknown cause. Seeing as how this must have been an “I miss you” package, I felt a sudden urge to deliver it to her house. I remember her family staying there, so I’ve got nothing to lose, right?

Wrong. No one was there. In fact,the house wasn’t there. It was just torn down, like yesterday. The crew who managed to deconstruction was about to haul away, but not before I inquired them who had the place torn down.

It was Karly’s family. They crew decided to give me her family’s number so I could contact them. I tried. The number was apparently retired.

Why would they suddenly cut off any possibly connection they have to Karly? I must have been going over the top here. Maybe they could have just wanted the memory of a loved one not be touched upon anymore, so they ultimately abandoned her for a better and stress-free life. That must be it.

I really had no choice anymore. I was stuck with a dead person’s package. Well, I was about to leave to get my game anyway, so I just tore it open, out of selfish curiosity.

To my surprise, it had two boxes.

One of HeartGold.

And one of the old Crystal version.

To my delight, I got the game I was vying for! But, Karly was 49 when she died. Why would she have any interest in a pokemon game? I dunno, she was never the funnest person, to be honest. Maybe one of her relatives just wanted to play on her seriousness with a kid’s game.

I would’ve expected the other to be the remake, SoulSilver, but it was just the normal, old Crystal version. Then it struck me. I remember Kris being in that version! “Wow”, I thought to myself, I can finally relive playing as my favorite female in the games! So, with no hesitation, I instantly booted it up my GB color and started playing. It was seriously a copy of Crystal! I couldn’t wait to choose Kris again!

But no. For some odd reason, it only went straight to Gold’s sprite. As if the gender choice wasn’t even in the game. Like I was playing an old copy of Gold or Silver.

Feeling a bit dismayed by this, I shut off the game without saving, and switched to the copy of HeartGold.

The game started normally, and being sick of Gold’s face again, I chose Lyra. Yeah, Lyra. She-thing, Kris-troll, Mario’s daughter. Lyra.

Of course, being a remake, I didn’t know what changes I would’ve expected. I shrank from the intro and made my way downstairs. Mom was there, and instructed me on various things, and now allowing me to save as well. I saved, just in case this copy’s saving was faulty. Being one who lost his Crystal to a dry battery, I didn’t wanna take any chances.

But, this is 2010. I’m pretty sure it won’t happen again. I ultimately abandoned this attachment during my play time.

I chose my starter from Elm. A Chikorita. Along the way, it evolved into Meganium, along with critters like Ambipom, Quagsire, Yanmega, Miltank and Ho-Oh.

It was a really normal playthrough. That is, until after I beat the game. I “woke up” in my house, like every time you beat the Elite Four or Red. But, there was seriously something wrong. My party except my Meganium wasn’t there. Instead, there was a Dragonite, a Tyranitar, a Metagross, Salamence, and a Garchomp. All the pseudo-legendaries from generation I-IV. I thought to myself that this was a really awesome thing to happen, but I still felt sad about my old party. I then opened my bag. My items were intact, except everything in my TM list was gone. Including the HMs. Which was strange, because HMs can’t be sold, or even be given away. I had no choice. I wanted to go to Kanto already, so I decided to get the ticket from Elm.

As I stepped outside, a shadowy figure was there. What appeared to be “spikes” on its head was jutting out, really noticeable. About the same length as Lyra’s pigtails. I tried to press A, but before I even touched the button, a “!” appeared above the figure, and disappeared. Strange. Was this in the old version before? Shaking this curiosity off, I made my way to Elm’s lab. But the horror that appeared before we was far worse than you could’ve ever imagined.

Bodies. Bloodied bodies were everywhere. The walls were lined with blood. The books were scattered on the floor. Bookshelves misaligned, which was strange, because if I recall correctly, only Black and White had that aesthetic that included rotated items in any direction, not just up, down, left or right.

Noticing the bodies, the heads were bitten off, and what appeared to be silvery dust. As I continued upwards, I see Elm’s sprite being cornered in one side, and what appeared to be a Yanmega.

Wait a minute. Is this MY Yanmega? Trying to shrug this off, but unable to, I forwarded myself to it. I triggered a battle. It was really the Yanmega I had. Except its sprite was recolored blue. Aside from that, everything else was fine. Still the same level 49. I sent out my Meganium. Of course, it being faster, it attacked first with Bug Bite. My Meganium, being level 60, defeated it with Ancientpower. It simply fainted. But instead of ending the battle screen, it gave me the option of “recapture”. I was allowed to get my Yanmega back! I caught it in a Net Ball, and was sent to my box.

I talked to Elm, and even though there’s no programmed voice tracks for any character, I felt the emotion from his speech. He was scared of something. But what was it? Was it the shadow from earlier? Did it cause all of this?

Still no Fly, I just worked through the game as if I just started a new game. That is, until I reached Violet City. The buildings were destroyed, and what appeared to be yellow stars. Scattered everywhere. Something destroyed the buildings with those. But what?

Suddenly, out of the trees, an Ambipom attacked. It was mine! But why is it attacking the city? Same thing with Yanmega. It was blue. It was defeated and recaptured subsequently. Feeling a bit disturbed already. But I couldn’t stop letting go of the game. Along the way, I kept encountering every member of my party that, I would describe, was “released”.

Quagsire was recaptured at Union Cave, which was slightly flooded.

Miltank was recaptured at Goldenrod. Inside the gym. It appeared to “kill” Whitney’s Miltank and was unable to kill Whitney herself.

Ho-Oh wasn’t at the Bell Tower, but it WAS flying around Ecruteak, which was blazing. Everywhere. I recaptured it. Notoriously, the blaze was blue.

So, I got my party back. Disturbing moment over, right? Well, no, actually. That wasn’t the end of it. The path to Mahogany was strangely blocked by rocks. The blaze from Ho-Oh blocked the path back down. The only choice was go to Olivine. Hopefully, this issue won’t be too much in Kanto.

As I step outside the guardhouse, the camera pans to the end of the route, and, showing the shadowy figure. It appears the figure saw me, as a “!” appeared again. The route was normal. Trainers were still there. But what was scary was that their dialogue changed. All of them kept repeating “returned”. What this meant, I have no idea.

I entered Olivine, and once again, the camera panned, this time, downwards. The figure entered the docks. Creepily enough, there were no people in Olivine. Not even Nurse Joy.

Entering the boathouse, I see Oak in the corner, surrounded by a Crobat. Engaging in a battle with it, it was at level 80. In a disadvantage with my Meganium, I sent out Metagross. Being level 100, I didn’t worry about it not obeying. But it didn’t obey. Despite me having all 8 badges. It then used Explosion. It defeated the Crobat, but then it fainted.Every Revive thereafter wouldn’t wake it up.

Instead of going back to the dock, I reappeared in what was in a cave of sorts. And there were graves everywhere. I checked my map.

I was in Lavender Town.

Could this be the normally inaccessible area Mr. Fuji mentions in the Soul House? Where the graves of the pokemon from pokemon tower were moved?

Then, without me ordering it, the Metagross in my party used Flash. To my horror, adjacent of the graves surrounding me were bones. They weren’t pokemon. They were human.

The camera suddenly panned forward. The shadowy figure was there. What appeared to be an animation taking off its cloak occured. To my surprise and horror…

…It was Kris.

Dialogue finally showed up.

“Finally, you are here.”

“I’ve been awfully lonely.”

“Staying here for the past 10 years”

“Forgotten”

“ABANDONED”.

“Lyra, you will feel my pain”.

“The pain that those bastards gave me.”

“The pain of being abandoned!”

The screen then cut to white. The next thing I knew, I heard a scream from my DS.

I had enough. I wanted to lay it down for a while. I wanted to walk out. Luckily, my friend was there, about to knock on my door. Hugging her tightly, I told her to walk with me around the area. We passed by Karly’s house, and what appeared to be a poorly-designed “grave” was on it. Curiously, we read it.

“Here lies Karly, full name…”

KRIS C. RYSTAL.

Abandoned and forgotten".

Shivers went down my spine that day. They never ceased to exist until I got home. With my friend, I just wanted to do something to get my mind off of that coincidental creepiness.

Without reason, I opened my DS. The savefile wasn’t there anymore. Only a New Game.

It went normally. That is, until I got to the gender choice.

It was Kris.

With a knife.