I’ve never really been into Pokémon all that much. Yes, my parents did buy me the Sinnoh games (plus my mom’s old silver cartridge which I never played due to how weird it was), and yes, I did play them and they did play a role on my childhood, but I never really enjoyed them that much, y’know? Maybe it’s my personal preference or the fact that my DS was so busted it kept on crashing the game, but I would soon find out.
The streets were cold and barren, leaves crunching under my boots. I disliked autumn. I hate the fact that it’d be so chilly and how leaves would scatter everywhere and fly into my face. I remember always raking the leaves and then moments later my brother would just jump into the pile of leaves scattering it everywhere, but I knew someone who would’ve loved this weather: Susie, the bright and cheerful kid who’d always look at things in a positive light. She was my friend, best friend. She was always so nice and always so energetic like a squirrel. She’d always make people’s days feel better and was so goofy that sometimes my heart couldn’t take her kindness, but she wasn’t here anymore, no, she was gone, and I had lost her, forever. I lowered my head and walked past the old candy shop that she used to buy in every day. I stopped and stared at it. How long has it been closed? It felt like years… I stood there staring at it before taking another step.
Crunch
Huh?
I removed my leg and saw it, a small, black cartridge with some wording. I picked it up and fumbled with it. It read POKEMON BLACK.
Oh.
It was a Pokémon game...
But...
What was it doing here?
I look around. There are barely any people on the streets. I furrowed my eyebrows and looked at the slightly busted cartridge again, scratching my head. Who’d leave this here? I mean, I know that people leave things all the time, but a Pokemon cartridge? I looked at it, thinking of whether I should just throw it or keep it. After much thought, I thought it’d make a good quick buck on eBay. I shrugged and shoved it into my pockets, walking through the icy air again to reach my home…
The rain pours outside as I fumble through boxes upon boxes, trying to find my DS. Goddamit where is it?? I run my hand through the box with millions of wires and then my fingers touch a familiar smooth surface. I pulled out the rectangular plastic and then saw it.
Bingo!
My old blue DS, slightly busted with a cracked lower screen, but it still worked! I get out of my attic and go to my living room, plopping myself onto the couch. I jam the cartridge inside and watch the intro sequence begin, smiling to myself. I might as well just play the game a bit before selling it. I opened it and saw a save file the name ‘goober’ with 70080 hours
Wait..what??
Seven THOUSAND hours?? How- what?? I may not know what that equals to, but I bet it’s a long long time…
I clicked on it, wanting to check it and it’s mysterious properties. I found myself standing in front of Castelia City. I checked the trainer card and saw that I had all eight badges and of course the over abundant time which was glitching through the other texts. I had only a few thousand poke-dollars. I exited out and checked my team. It consisted of: a level 76 Samurott names ‘Charles’, a level 50 crobat named ‘purble’, an unnamed level 5 shiny snivy (probably from a wonder trade) , a level 100 magnezone named ‘polybius’, a level 15 Zorua named ‘kitty’, and a level 60 houndoom named ‘lucifer’.
I wouldn’t exactly call it a ‘stacked team’ but I found it a bit impressive, probably because my knowledge on Pokémon was a bit rusty. I exited the team and walked around the city. I talked with the npc’s and they of course said nothing interesting. The entire thing felt boring. It had seemed like I had already became champion and that I had every single Pokémon in the Pokédex and a shiny charm as well. There was really nothing to do, so I kept on talking with the npc’s and walking around until I talked to an old man in front of a poke center. What he said really intrigued me.
“Did you know that rare candy could be edible? We still don’t know the side effects but I heard that you can probably eat it no problem!”
I raised my eyebrows. Eating rare candy? That sounded really interesting. I opened my bag and looked through it to see the rare candy. Bingo! I said again. I smiled and clicked on it. An option read ‘eat’ and I clicked on it. The rare candy disappeared followed by some ‘eating noises’ and then….nothing?
UGH!!
I was so frustrated I nearly threw the DS across the room, but stopped in embarrassment. What the hell was I doing?? What was I expecting anyways? I groaned and looked at the DS again. I talked with the old man but he still repeated the same thing as before. I sighed, flipped the DS closed and put it next to me. I already need a nap anyway. I propped myself on the nap and closed my eyes, drifting off into sleep..
…
I come back into consciousness like a truck hitting a brick wall. I open my eyes. The first thing I notice is how cold it is. I shiver and wrapped my arms around myself. I look out and see it’s almost pitch black and raining a lot, lightning scattered throughout. Great, another thunderstorm. I look around and see the DS again. Oh, right…I pick it up and flip it open again, planning to just remove that save data to sell it like I planned to, but then I noticed something strange... It was open on the trainer card. The male protagonist, goober, seemed a bit different. I squinted my eyes and saw some sort of pink rash around his neck and hands. I raised an eyebrow. This is definitely not supposed to happen. I exited the trainer card and went through white city, talking to npc’s, most of them just talked their usual bullshit but the others seemed to notice the rash too. They also talked about his ‘sudden change in personality’ such as how giddy and childish he was. I walked around more and noticed the ‘rash’ spreading throughout his sprite. He started to turn pink and a bit sluggish. He started to leave some sort of pink sticky trail every time he walked somewhere, and all of this happened pretty slowly. Like, I had to wait what felt like 6 hours and walk a lot of steps. Eventually all the npc’s started to either run away and avoid him or insult him and leave him in fear, so now every time I’d walk around the city I’d be greeted with emptiness. That was, until I was stumbling across a random route and found a lone npc under some shadows. I confronted it and it turned around, initiating a battle. I was caught off guard. The npc’s sprite slid in and it played his animation, the textbox reading “YOU’RE CHALLENGED BY PKMN TRAINER CHEREN!” I guessed it was my rival since his design was probably not the regular trainer design. The guy’s sprite then froze, his face turning into a horrified and shocked expression. He stumbled back and dropped his books, the text box reading “what the hell..??” The screen faded to black, another text box appeared “PKMN TRAINER CHERN FLED THE BATTLE…” I was back to the over world, and Cheren was gone. I noticed a slight frown on my characters sprite. I checked the trainer card and saw how goober looked like in close detail. His skin and hair was all pink and sticky like melting candy, and random pieces of candy stuck all over him. His eyes were now replaced with a green and blue gum ball drops, and he was having a slight frown. I exited the card and walked around the route, and I also noticed that every time I encountered Pokémon, they’d immediately flee from the battle. I continued to walk around, goober was walking around more slowly. All the npc’s were now gone. No Pokémon would encounter me. I was alone, goober was alone, we were alone. Eventually, after walking through a random route again, my sprite shook and then something came out of it.
It was Charles, the sammurott.
It looked at goober for a while before turning around and running. Goober tried to run after him but he tripped and couldn’t get up. A textbox appeared saying “Charles had left you.”
I was shocked and frankly a bit disturbed. Did his own Pokémon just leave him...? But- but why? I watched as the sprite shook again and this time a crobat came out. It did its cry and flew into the sky. Another text box appeared: “purble had decided to leave you, it couldn’t bear to see you like this.”
One by one the Pokémon slowly left goober. For each Pokémon that left, a text box would accompany it:
“Polybius is leaving you, it is disgusted”
“Snivy is going away, it had too much from you”
“Lucifer ran away, it’s too scared of you.”
And just as the Zorua was about to leave, goober held onto it and hugged it tightly “no!” He said “d-don’t leave me kitty!”
‘Kitty’ struggled under his grip squirming and giving out pained cries, “kitty wants to leave” the text box said “kitty needs to leave” “it’s scared” “leave it” “you’re hurting it” “let it go” let her go, go!” “It can’t stay with you” “leave.”
Kitty slipped under its arms and ran away fast “kitty ran away” the text box said “you’ve hurt it too much.” And goober just watched
I sat there in disbelief. Had his Pokémon…had his Pokémon abandoned him? There was no way. I watched as goober started to cry, and then he started to get up, limping around. I wasn’t even holding the controls. He started to limp around the city, and the city slowly started to crumble(?), revealing nothing but a white and black void. He limped towards a house and entered it. The house was empty. A woman stood there at the other end, faceless. Goober limped towards her. “mama!” He said, “mama! I don’t want to be champion anymore!” He cried out as he hugged his mom “I don’t even want to grow up! Please! Let me stay!” He sobbed like a little child “please!”
The mother just stood there. She slowly hugged him back “All boys need to leave home eventually.” goober looked at her. “No! Please! I don’t wanna go! I don’t want to go!” He sobbed again. “Please! I don’t wanna grow up!” And then the game snapped frozen.
The sound was loud. I jumped and looked at the screen. I couldn’t move and I couldn’t do anything. I closed the DS and threw it away. It broke slightly, and I just stared at it. The words tinged and repeated throughout my head. The image of goober hugging his mom was still clear.
I don’t wanna grow up.
…
And so didn’t I.