In Hazel Eyes

You know, I’ve always liked vintage video games, but especially Pokémon games. I liked the feel of having your own Pokémon to help catch or defeat other ones, and to battle other Pokémon trainers too.

But recently, my grandmother has died due to cancer, so she passed me her old Pokémon game, HeartGold, for me. “Take care of my babies, especially Hazelnut” were her final words until she sadly died.

A week later, I had finally started playing it… at around midnight. I guess it took me a bit to figure it out, huh? I don’t usually stay up this late, but it took me longer than expected to think about it.

I grabbed my DS and inserted the HeartGold game into it and started playing.

EMILY

32:41

BADGES: 5

POKéDEX: 62

Man, she must’ve been playing this game for a while. Without further ado, I selected up the save file.

I was at Route 30. I checked my party, and I had four Pokémon: Flareon, Meganium, Vibrava, and Furret, named Ember, Garden, Butterfly, and Hazelnut respectively. If she wanted me to take extra care of Hazelnut, the best way was to move it to the head of my party, or so I thought.

Anyways, I headed out into the grass with Hazelnut in the front and found a wild Pokémon. It was a Metapod, and my trainer sent Hazelnut out. It was supposedly a male and level 30, but I couldn’t have known since I never checked his summary. I checked his attacks…

- RETURN

- GROWL

- TACKLE

…Yep. Doesn’t really look that much of a powerful moveset. No matter.

“Hazelnut used Return!”

Hazelnut returned to its trainer!

Uhh… what? That move did NOTHING to that Metapod! What kind of lousy Pokémon was this?!

The game sent out Garden as my next Pokémon to use. Metapod, of course being a wild one, uses Harden to raise its defense.

Thankfully, Garden has some decent attacking moves.

- RAZOR LEAF

- REFLECT

- POISON POWDER

- MAGICAL LEAF

I chose Magical Leaf and defeated that Metapod in a single hit! I would give Hazelnut some credit if he wasn’t such a cowardly thing. Last time I checked, Return would deal more damage when its user’s friendship was high. Maybe this was some bug? Anyways, I checked Hazelnut’s summary.

His sprite looked a bit… off. I’m sure Furret looked a bit more saturated, and his pupils in his eyes at around the top of the sclera. I was starting to get a little worried, but maybe this was a rom hack of sorts. Anyways, I initiated another battle, this time with a Pidgey. I sent out Hazelnut again, and selected Tackle for an attack, but when it did:

“Hazelnut doesn’t want to use Tackle!”

…What the fuck?! “Doesn’t want to use Tackle?” This is one lousy Pokémon that my grandmother has had! I ran from the Pidgey and went to Cherrygrove City’s Pokémon Center and logged into the PC. I selected Hazelnut and chose Release.

“Do you really want to release your grandmother’s companion?”

If it was not going to be useful in battle, yes.

“Hazelnut grudgingly left. Goodbye, Hazelnut.”

“Grudgingly left?” The release text never said that the Pokémon “grudgingly left” when I released them. This has to be a rom hack, right?

Skip to after I beat the Champion, I was finally in the post-game. My team was as the same as before, minus Hazelnut, as well as three new additions: Gyarados, Rhydon, and Crobat. I now had to finish my regional Pokédex for once thing: the PokéRadar. I knew that with the PokéRadar, I could find rare and shiny Pokémon. So I went to Route 34 and started a wild battle.

The Pokémon was… a Furret? Or at least a silhouette of one. But as soon as the “A wild [POKÉMON] appeared” showed up, the game glitched out and froze. I had to turn my DS on and off again, but when I did…

“The save file is corrupted. The previous save will be loaded.”

FUCK! I forgot to save the save since I first got it! I decided to load the save file, but…

HAZEL

99:59

BADGES: 0

POKÉDEX: 0

What the hell? This wasn’t even possible for a save file like this! I was getting more worried now, but I still started up my save file.

The entire place I was in was pure black. There was nothing there to be seen, as if I was in a void. I couldn’t move left, down, or right, so I moved in the only direction I could: up. Eventually, a text box appeared, having this to say:

“You…”

What could it say about me, exactly?

“You thought I was useless.”

“You thought I was unviable.”

Unviable? That’s some weird talk for you, whatever you are. Something slowly faded in the void, and it looked like a Furret. However, it had dark and light grey fur, and red pupils as well.

“Do you even remember me now?”

“…Your little HAZELNUT?”

THAT thing is Hazelnut? Damn, he must’ve gone through some breakdown from me releasing him.

“I had myself passed down by a loved one, and for what? To get disowned because I’m not good enough?”

“You don’t deserve me. You don’t deserve to be a trainer. YOU DON’T DESERVE TO LIVE.”

A battle initiated, and I sure did NOT like what I saw.

Hazelnut had pure black, bleeding eyes with a hell of a creepy grin. His paws had blood on them, and his tail was torn off.

“If you can’t use this game of yours, you can’t disown anyone else. And I will make sure of that.”

He was at level 99, so he’d probably trained himself a lot. I sent out my first Pokémon, Ember, to help fight this sick creature. I selected an attack but Hazelnut out-sped me.

“Hazelnut used Hyper Beam!”

It one-shot my Flareon! I guess that’s how powerful he is now, let alone how long and hard he was training. I sent out my Gyarados next, since it could take out Hazelnut easily.

“Hazelnut used Thunder!”

WHAT?! How could it be able to use Thunder? It’s a rodent Pokémon you find in the early routes! And how it could use it after Hyper Beam was beyond me. Gyarados quickly fainted, but then Hazelnut had this to say:

“I’m getting tired of doing this. But if I have to do it, so be it.”

I sent out my Rhydon next, since it couldn’t possibly-

“Hazelnut used Close Combat!”

“Oh, COME ON. This is just unfair!” I yelled at the DS.

“What YOU DID to me was unfair. Why should I treat you any BETTER?!”

I froze at the sight of that textbox. Maybe I shouldn’t have released him when I thought he was powerless. No matter, I sent out Butterfly next to deal with Hazelnut.

“So this is what you do with your gifts? Use them as tools for victory?”

“Hazelnut used Ice Beam!”

“Tools”? I wouldn’t really call them tools, to be honest. But then again, he was right. I only thought of competition and viability at the time. Still, no battle goes unfinished, so I sent out Crobat next. Unfortunately, I forgot about Hazelnut’s Thunder, so it completely wiped him out. I had to send out my final Pokémon, Garden. Then, Hazelnut spoke:

“This is your final chance. Will you nourish your Pokémon with love, or will you continue to break them down further than where they are now? Your choice.”

I did take me a while to think about this, though. Meganium’s sprite did look a bit tired and sad, too. Was I really treating my party with loving care? Or did I actually push them past their limits? I still didn’t think it would be fair to let Hazelnut win after fainting- no, KILLING almost my entire party. I had to make him pay. When I selected an attack for Garden to use…

“…Well…”

“I gave it my best. I tried reasoning with you…”

“…I bet you’ll always treat others badly, won’t you?”

“Hazelnut used Guillotine!”

“Meganium fainted!”

…My last Pokémon… dead. Hazelnut has achieved what I feared: victory. He did have one last thing to say though…

“Your heart is full of evil, isn’t it…”

“You’re no trainer of mine…”

“…You are an ATROCITY.”

The game froze after that, letting out an extremely loud beeping sound. I tried pushing the cartridge out, but it was stuck, leaving that beeping to its earbleeding job. I soon passed out with the last thought being stuck in my head…

“You are an ATROCITY.”