Truth hurts

It all started about two weeks ago. I was shopping with my friends when we went into the local GAME store. I walked over the shelf where the new Pokémon games were. Pokémon: Black and White Versions, £30 each.

"Damnit. I need a tenner" I searched through my purse. I only had £20. I decided to look at the preowned game section. After about ten minutes most of my friends had bought their copies of Portal 2 and Nintendogs 3D and were standing next to me, helping me search through the shelves. It was another five minutes before we found anything.

"Got it" I grinned and held up a DS box. Pokémon: Black Version. Preowned. Only £10.

"Only a tenner?" My friend stared at the price tag.

"It clearly says it there. Ten pounds." I took it over the checkout and bought it. It was defiantly ten pounds.

When our trip was over and I was at home, I quickly slotted Pokémon Black into my DS lite. The game started up, and I selected new game. I got through the Juniper lecture, selecting the female player character. I couldn't think of anything to call her. So I just typed in Hilda. I clicked enter and Juniper checked if my name was Black. I went back and typed in Hilda again, but it kept saying Black. In the end I gave in and confirmed my name was Black. I chose Snivy as my starter, and soon I had all eight badges. The elite four were pretty easy. I took care of the fighting and ghost type members with my Victini. My Serperior handled the others.

But then it got to the final showdown with N.

And that was when everything changed.

Most of my Pokémon were level 65 or higher by this point, due to my excessive training. Catching Reshiram and taking down N should be no trouble. How wrong I was...

The cutscene where Reshiram appears before you was triggered. The light stone rose into the air and the curled up figure of Reshiram emerged. When it opened its eyes, they were blood red. So were its claws and rings. I stopped. That wasn't normal. It couldn't have been the shiny version. The shiny version had gold rings... I sighed and entered the battle scene. I selected my master ball.

'Reshiram doesn't want to be caught' I knew I wouldn't get any EXP for defeating it, and it would be in the Dragonspiral Tower if I ran away. I ran away from it.

'Would you like to give a nickname to Reshiram?'

I stopped. That was impossible. I had run away. I was too shocked to think of any good nicknames. I just wrote 'Truth'. I added it to my party. I closed the screen and was greeted by a cutscene. One of those 3D ones. Some kind of easter egg? It couldn't have been made by anyone other than the people who did the other clips...

Truth turned around and lashed out at Black with its claw. She stumbled back and fell down into what used to be the pool around the edge of the hall. I just starred at the screen. Nothing made any sense. Truth's white fur was specked with blood as it turned back to face N and Zekrom. It charged at Zekrom, who had hardly any time to react. In seconds Truth had its claw through Zekrom's chest. With its red claws dripping with blood, Truth grinned as Zekrom's heart crumbled into black dust. Yanking its claw from Zekrom's corpse, Truth tossed the body aside, letting it fall into the pit. It landed a few metres away from Black, who lay there in a pool of blood. Truth turned back, ignoring N, and jumped down, landing in between Black and Zekrom's corpse.

Truth raised a claw and thrust it into Zekrom's side. It begin to smear the blood on the wall, then smashed it's palm into the wall, leaving it's clawprint in blood on the wall. Truth turned to look at Black, who was leaning against the wall, her hand over her wounds, barely able to stand. She began making her way over to Truth. She placed her hand over Truth's print. They both turned and read the words Truth had written...

''Truth Hurts.... Doesn't it?''

I tried to turn off my DS. Nothing happened.

Truth turned and smashed through the walls, making his own path out of the castle. Black followed, chasing after the bloodied dragon. Eventually they reached the steps from the champion room down to the elite 4. Black stood next to Truth, who turned around, ignoring her completely. It sat there for a while, just staring into the horizon, gazing at all the towns ahead...

Text started to appear at the bottom of the screen:

Truth: Do you treat your Pokémon well?

I selected yes.

''Truth: I am Truth... Don't even try to lie to me...''

Truth's tail erupted into flames and it flew down the steps, with Black chasing after it again...

After some time they were just outside the entrance of victory road. Truth's tail was blackened and bloody now. I was almost sick. There were bits of muscle sticking out everywhere. I tore the game out of the DS and forgot about it for a few days. But one night I couldn't sleep and I did something foolish...

I slotted Pokémon Black back into my DS.

The game cut straight to the cutscene. No start screen, no rotating Reshiram. But the cutscene was not at the exact point where I had left it. Black was standing, staring at a huge sea of flames. The map screen opened. I was in Opelucid City. I realised that the cutscene was now over. I walked around the streets. Everything was covered in flames and blood. I tried walking back to route 10. The path was blocked by a pile of bloodied corpses. Many had chunks of flesh torn away. Unable to stare at these gruesome sprites anymore, I ran to the exit for route 9. Blocked by bodies. So was the exit for route 11. I decided to try to search the city for Truth. As I walked more blood stained the streets, until it was running down the roads like a river. I followed the trail until I reach a point where it seemed to flow from under one of the doors. The battle house. The sign had been written over in blood. It no longer advertised Rotation Battles. It was a warning;

Stay away...

I entered. Blood was flowing down the stairs. I couldn't climb up so I searched the room downstairs. Later, having found nothing, I left the battle house and headed to the gym.

Truth was there. I walked up to it, and a battle scene triggered.

I couldn't call out any of my Pokémon. I had no moves and I couldn't run away.

Truth used Shadow Claw

Black passed out 

The screen faded into black. For a moment I thought my DS had shut off. But I checked and it was still on.. The screen stayed that way for a while. Text stared slowly appearing at the bottom of the screen;

''Black... Black..... Black! ...Wake up...''

The blank screen faded into another cutscene. A field... surrounded by a vast ring of fire.

On one side Truth stood behind Black. On the other side stood the male playable character- Hilbert.

I guessed that I was about to battle him. So I opened my party. No Pokémon. The cutscene resumed when I exited the menu.

Truth turned around;

''You're probably wondering where your Pokémon are... You won't be needing them again. All this time... you've sent out your Pokémon, no matter how much energy they have left, no matter how much they have suffered... Now you shall know how it feels...''

A Battle scene was suddenly triggered.

Trainer White wants to battle!

Trainer White used stomp

My health gauge, which had only been at half at the start of the battle, began slowly going down.

Trainer Black used Pound

It kept going. Turn after turn. Move after move. I was at a severe disadvantage against an opponent who started with a full health gauge. I only had three hit points left. I opened the bag. It was completely empty. No pokeballs, no medicine, nothing. I sighed. Stupid video game.

Trainer White used Hi Jump Kick 

I wished that the move would miss. But wishes never come true...

Trainer Black has died

The game cut back to the cutscene. Truth was glaring at the screen. It's eyes seemed to burn into my mind. Slowly, the image began to glitch. Eventually it was just a mass of mixed up pixels.

''Your save file has been corrupted. Please return to the main menu and select 'New Game'''

At that moment I ripped the Pokémon Black game cartridge out of my DS and hurled it at the wall. It shattered into pieces. They fell into the bin just underneath. Later I checked the box. Apart from being a bit tatty (well it was a pre-owned game) there wasn't much wrong. But I knew something wasn't right.

The Instruction Manual.

I never read them.

I flicked through the pages as if the booklet was an animation flipbook. There was something scrawled onto the Notes page;

''I finally fixed it... I managed to hack into the game and I reinstalled the events that occur when Reshiram dismisses the player... The... the.. White version. Must... repeat..''

The handwriting was extremely messy and the end became almost impossible to read. It's as if the person was trembling while they wrote it.

I closed the booklet. Placing it back in the box and dumping the box into the bin. It landed on it's front. Something was written in blood on the back of the case;

''Truth Hurts.... Doesn't it?''