The Pokepurge
A short, alternate-reality take on the world of Pokemon
By James G. Griffith
The following is a log entry from a Pokedex found in a hollowed out tree in the Viridian Forest.
It's called the Purge; the cataclysm that grips our world, that is…
Sorry, let me start at the beginning. My name is Ethan Hibiki. I'm a Pokemon trainer from the town of Pallet, a small but famous town in the Kanto region. Pallet is famous for its Pokemon preserve run by the prestigious Professor Oak, and the highly accomplished Pokemon trainers that started their journeys in Pallet Town. Now, Pallet could simply be called ground zero of the greatest ecological disaster to ever befall our world.
Originally, there was only one Pokemon League, the Indigo League. In our lands there existed a total of 151 Pokemon species, and the first trainers usually only had one or two Pokemon at any one time. The Pokemon League itself was really a way for the Kanto government to keep order in the increasingly turbulent nation. Pitting trainers against each other in government endorsed combat prevented Pokemon assisted banditry, and generated revenue for the cities as trainers traveled around to test their skills against the masters of different towns. In time, as the national identity grew stronger, the government founded the various Pokemon Gyms and created the first true League, with annual tournaments held upon the Indigo Plateau for trainers skilled enough to defeat the eight Gym Leaders and collect their badges. It wasn't long before similar Leagues sprang up in distant nations worldwide, and with the advance in technology Pokemon training eventually came to dominate the world.
It was only a few years ago that trainers first began to tour the different Leagues for adventure and glory, and it was then that things began to fall apart. Up until then, the only contact with foreign Pokemon breeds happened at the great Inter League Tournament held every five years on the Indigo Plateau, but transport of the foreign breeds was heavily regulated and trading of Pokemon between regions was both illegal and considered dishonorable. When free travel between the Leagues began, the Indigo League saw a massive influx of young and reckless trainers eager to test their creatures against the masters of the original League. Before anyone knew it, the entire Kanto Region was flooded with runaways, released or abandoned creatures, and the results of rampant breeding. You see, in the other Leagues trainers are given free reign to breed their Pokemon as they see fit, while in the Indigo League breeding is only performed by licensed and highly educated Indigo League Breeders like Brock, the Pewter City Gym Leader. Most of the foreign trainers didn't even know about the Indigo breeding laws, and most of those that did know didn't care.
Professor Oak was one of the most outspoken against the Inter-League travel, warning that introduced Pokemon species would destabilize the entire ecosystem of the Kanto Lands, and he couldn't have been more right. Totodiles and their evolutions spread quickly through the wetlands and rivers of the Indigo Lands, preying on the once abundant Squirtle populations and pushing them dangerously close to extinction. Nocturnal Hoothoot, Noctowls, and Staraptors decimated the Venonat and Venomoth populations in the south. Cyndaquils forced Bulbasaurs from their grottos. Chimchars and Aipoms invaded woodlands, preying on Caterpie and Weedle colonies.
Worst by far was the introduction of the Dark and Steel type Pokemon which had no counterparts native to the Kanto Lands at all. Dark types like Mightyena and Murkrow ran rampant in the central regions, and nearly killed off Abra and Drowzy populations wholesale. Packs of Houndour and Houndooms pushed packs of Growlithe and Arcanine from their forest territories. Even mighty Charizards were harassed by the rock and dark type Tyranitar, which would invade their volcanic homes and raid their nests. Underground regions like Mount Moon were hit hard by the introduction of the steel types Steelix and Aron, which quickly stole territory from native Onix and Geodude. Interbreeding has already pushed the endangered Onix to the brink of extinction.
Not even the ocean was free from the destabilizing effects of the introduced species. Goldeen and Horsea spawning reefs were overrun by the shark-like Sharpedo and Huntail eels, and Magikarp schools were followed upstream by the ravenous Carvanha.
It soon became obvious that if something were not done to control the influx of new Pokemon breeds then many of the native Kanto species would go extinct. The first call for action came from Pallet Town, issued the Indigo Champion. Depending on who you ask the Champion's name could be Blue, Red, Ash, Gary, or even James, I guess he changed it from time to time in his travels, but everyone in Kanto knows of him. The greatest Pokemon trainer of the Indigo League, famous for once defeating the Elite Four and previous Champion with only one Pokemon, his Venusaur. He is more famous still for being the only trainer to ever capture and tame all 151 Kanto Pokemon, including the Legendary Birds Articuno, Zapdos, and Moltres, the mythical Mew, and even the all powerful genetic experiment Mewtwo.
Anyway, he issued a call to all Pokemon trainers of the Indigo League to return to their homeland and join him in purging the Kanto lands of the taint from the Johto, Hoenn, and Sinnoh Pokemon. The story is that he began to carry all the Pokemon he had captured with him, instead of the legal maximum of 6, and deployed them all in huge groups into the forests surrounding Pallet to root out and slaughter all introduced Pokemon in the area. On that day in Pallet, the Purge had begun.
The Indigo League broadcasted their Champion's message in every city in Kanto, and it didn't take long for groups of like-minded trainers to band together and join the Purge. They called themselves Purists, and as a uniform of sorts they wore the colors and badge symbols of their cities. Trainers from Johto, Hoenn, and Sinnoh objected to the idea and would often confront the Purists; for a while at least. Soon, Purists began to target the foreign trainers as well as wild foreign Pokemon.
It wasn't until Sabrina, the Saffron City Gym Leader and master of Psychic Pokemon, declared herself a Kanto Purist that the real Purge began. Sabrina took over as the de-facto mayor of Saffron City, and had every foreign trainer arrested or ousted from the town. Now with a Gym Leader behind the banner of the Indigo Champion, the Purge seemed like a more legitimate course of action.
A few days after Sabrina shocked the League, Professor Oak also became an outspoken supporter of the Purge, declaring it the only way to save the original 151 from extinction or mutation. With the Indigo Champion still in Pallet conducting the Purge in the surrounding lands, Professor Oak was safe from reprisal and had every foreign Pokemon on his reserve interned. The flood gates were really opening now.
Within a week, three more Gym Leaders joined the Purge; Blaine, Misty, and Koga. They too echoed Sabrina's policy of arresting or expelling all foreign trainers from their cities. On Cinnobar Island, Blaine and his Purists actually drove most of the foreign trainers into the sea to be left to the mercy of the Gyarados and Dragonair that roamed the waters.
Before anyone knew it, half of the Indigo League had thrown themselves into a campaign of ethnic cleansing which the Kanto government was powerless to stop. After one month of the chaos, mandates from the Johto, Hoenn, and Sinnoh Leagues demanding an end to the genocide were delivered to the Elite Four, the only trainers with the authority and power to bring the Gym Leaders back in line. The Elite Four, however, had been opposed to the Inter-League travel in the first place, but had allowed the Kanto government to overrule them. Now the power was squarely in their hands and they did not hesitate. Ignoring the mandates, the Elite Four threw in with their Champion and issued orders to every Indigo League trainer and Gym Leader to join the Purists and assume control of their cities. Just like that the Purge went from being a barely contained regional conflict to being the responsibility of every native trainer of Kanto. The Elite Four even went so far as to push laws through the Kanto Government outlawing ownership of any foreign Pokemon.
Only one Gym Leader refused to join the Purge; Erika of Celadon City, the Mistress of Grass. She would not stand for such wholesale slaughter of innocent creatures, but her sentiment was not shared among many Celadon citizens. An uprising of Celadon Purists kept her holed up in her Gym while they carried out the Purge on their own. She was finally defeated and supplanted when the Indigo Champion himself traveled to Celadon to force her hand or break her power. Erika was not killed or even arrested, but her license as a Pokemon trainer was revoked and all her Pokemon seized; it was a worse punishment than any time spent in jail could be for a Gym Leader.
As outcry from the foreign Leagues increased, the Elite Four passed Deportation Laws, immediately exiling all foreign trainers and closing the borders of Kanto to anyone except Indigo trainers returning from the other regions. Once the foreign trainers were officially banished, Purists began to hunt them down and force them into unfair battles against teams of 10 to 30 Pokemon at once. Whenever a trainer was defeated they would be dragged back to town for detainment, and their Pokemon were seized for rehabilitation if a Kanto creature, or proper extermination in the case of a foreign creature.
Even the Pokemon Centers got in on the action. Most Centers would turn any foreign trainers away, but a few would trick them by taking their Pokemon in for treatment, but then secretly shipping them either to Professor Oak or the Local Gym Leader. They would then call in local Purists to haul the foreign trainers away.
It was about this time that I had traveled down to Fuchsia City to aid in a large Purge operation to cleanse the Fuchsia Bay of foreign water Pokemon and Kingdra mutations. I was one of the first Purists to return to Kanto and join up, and as a Pallet Purist I enjoyed a good reputation among the other cities. It was probably for this reason that I was paired up with the Cerulean Purists and saw for the first time what the Purge had done to our own people. I was appointed as personal assistant to Misty, the Cerulean Gym Leader whom I had met and defeated some years back. She was 19 then; attractive, vibrant, smiled a lot, the kind of girl who should be sunbathing or splashing around in the surf, not leading a militant attack to wipe out foreign Pokemon breeds. She didn't seem to be the same girl only a few years later; now she scowled all the time, more than a few scars stole the beauty from her face, and her voice didn't have the same ring it had before… I think that was the first time I began to wonder why we were doing things this way. Had we even looked for another answer, or did we just assume the Indigo Champion and Professor Oak knew what was best without question? After the attack I remember being very tired… and wanting to go home.
After several months, the other Leagues had finally seen enough of the Purge, and sent their own Elites to negotiate an end to the genocide and secure release of the thousands of interned Pokemon and their trainers. They were met on Cinnabar Island by the Indigo Champion himself, who offered them terms. He would face them in traditional 6 vs 6 Pokemon battles one after another without rest, and if any one of them defeated him he would call for an end to the Purge. They accepted. The Champion faced them with a team of the Indigo's greatest; Venusaur, Blastoise, Charizard, Articuno, Zapdos, and Mewtwo. The foreign Elites fought him one after another until all of them had been defeated, and not a one of his Pokemon fell in all twelve battles. Warning them to keep their filth in their own lands he sent them back, defeated.
There is a long pause in the recording at this point. After several minutes he continues.
Well, that's really are there is to tell… The Purge continued for several months after that, and it still isn't over. Rooting out the last of each one of the introduced breeds will take time no matter how many of us wander around out here hunting for them.
We've shifted the main focus of the Purge now to repopulation, which is what I'm doing out here. This forest used to be teeming with the sounds of Caterpie and Weedle crawling through the trees, Rattata and Pidgey scampering around in the grass, and hell on a good day you could find a Pikachu or two wandering around out here… But now it's just quiet. So quiet… Professor Oak says we should be able to properly repopulate every region in Kanto within a few years, but from where I'm standing I'm not so sure.
What worries me is what we're really going to do now. There's no way the other Leagues are just going to roll over and accept what we did to their trainers and how many of their Pokemon we killed. No, the conflict between the Indigo League and the rest of this world has only just begun… I wonder if the Indigo Champion, whatever his name really is, had this all planned out from the start?
I've even heard rumors that a few bands of Indigo Purists have traveled to Johto and started a new Purge there… God I hope not, I've seen enough murder for now… Besides… I never told Professor Oak about the Totodile I captured while I was in Johto… I have to keep him a secret, otherwise he'll be killed and I'll be thrown in jail for owning him. But what kind of trainer am I to keep him in his pokeball day in and day out… I have to find a way out of Kanto… the Purge will not simply stop at this and I've had more than my fill of it. I hope whoever finds this recording can understand why I've decided to leave, and I hope you can see if what we did was right or not. I just don't know anymore.
End of recording.