I stared at the tiny screen of my Game Boy Advanced, and tried to decide what I wanted to do.
It read "-Continue New Game Options". I clicked continue. Then it read "M Play Time: 61:27 Poke Dex: 31 Badges: 5" and below it read "-Yes No".
I thought about it for a minute longer before pressing B. Then I changed the first menu so the arrow was on "New Game".
After clicking A, the new menu popped up. "Are you sure? You won't be able to recover this file!". This time, I chose "Yes" without hesitation.
"Yes, I'm sure!", I grumbled, "Get on with it!".
It gave me the usual "Erasing...Please do not turn off the system..." message. It seemed to stay there for a bit longer than usual, but I just chalked that up to both my game and my GBA practically being fossils by now. Then the screen said, "Done!" and I was sent back to the title.
"Finally...", I muttered.
The title had an adorable, blinking picture of a pikachu, with the word "Pika!" floating over it's head in a speech bubble. After a few seconds of watching it's eyes blink, I pressed start and selected "New Game".
"...Huh?", I stared at the new message on the screen, "What the-!?". Now it read "ERROR OCCURRED! PLEASE, STAND STILL...". (Crap...) I thought (That mew glitch really did fudge up my game...). After another few seconds, the screen began to glow. It got brighter and brighter...It was blinding! I could barely make out the faint words "Thank you for waiting" on the screen.
Then, everything went dark.
"Hello! May I assume you already know what I will say?", came a familiar-sounding voice. I looked around to see an old man looking at me. He had white hair, black eyes, and bushy white eyebrows. He was wearing a lavender shirt, light brown pants, a white lab coat, and lavender slippers...Professor Oak!
"W-what the heck!? Where am I!?", I tried to think of a time where I might have drank something or ate something that could cause hallucinations...But I hadn't. Maybe I just fell asleep? "I should have expected this...", Oak muttered to himself. Then, he spoke to me, "You're 'mom' will explain everything in a minute. I'll just skip my speech and...Who are you?". "Uh...oh...I'm Subby...", I found myself saying rather calmly. Then, Oak disappeared, and Gary Oak (Blue, Green, whatever you call him) appeared. Strangely, I could still hear Oak's voice.
"Uhuh. This is your rival. Please give him an APPROPRIATE name this time." I couldn't help giggling a little when I remembered the last name I gave him. 'My' rival simply glared at me. "I don't trust you", he said bluntly. "...Aw, fine", I pouted, "Green. Just start this thing, so I can find out what's going on!". Green, for those of you who don't know, is one of his default names. The newly named Green preceded to disappear, and Oak reappeared in front of me. He looked annoyed, "Sheesh,you're impatient! Well...whatever!" With that being said, he disappeared again. But nothing reappeared in his place...
(Huh...? My hand went numb...)
I looked at my hand just in time to watch it change. It went from my normal, five-fingered hand, to a small, chibi-like hand in less than a minute. I felt the rest of me go numb, and not the 'Oh-it's-asleep-and-I-can't-feel-a-thing' kind of numb either. It was the 'pins-and-needles' kind of numb. I closed my eyes, unable to keep them open...The numb-ness passed and I felt oddly comfortable.
I opened my eyes to see myself laying in a bed that wasn't mine. I sat up, and looked down. My hands were still finger-less, chibi hands, and someone had changed my clothes. Now I was garbed in Red's outfit. However, something seemed a bit more off than that...Something I couldn't put my finger on...And then I screamed.
"I'M A DUDE!", I panicked, "I'M A FREAKING DUDE!" "No, you aren't", said a calming voice, snapping me out of my panicking state. I looked over to see a woman. She had black hair, black eyes, and was wearing a purple dress. I guessed this was 'my' mom. "There just wasn't enough pixels for your chest..." I felt a blush creep up to my face, "Oh..." (Well...I always wanted to be flat-chested...) I thought.
"Now, I bet you'd like to know what's going on..." I nodded. "Well...Let's see...where do I begin?"
"All games in the world are truly alive, a little known fact. Anyone inside the game that originated there can interact with the real world. An example of this would be earlier, when we pulled you into the game from your actual house. It's a program that can also be reversed...
"However, using it either way with bad intentions can cause serious problems in either world. This has actually been known to kill a few people, meanwhile driving others insane-"
"THE CREEPYPASTAS!", I shouted suddenly.
"The what?", she looked confused at me.I immediately got embarrassed about my outburst.
"Nothing..."
She looked skeptical but continued on anyway, "Pokemon usually don't know about the real world, and assume that this world is real. They are also the only ones to get their memories erased when a game restarts..."
This part confused me until I figured out she had no idea how old this game really was. She probably never even heard of Pokemon Mystery Dungeon or Hey You Pikachu.
"But the humans are almost always reused, and we never forget. Some protagonists do disappear when a game is erased. They are never seen again, and get replaced by a new one."
I think she noticed how wide my eyes went at that comment, because she quickly tried to calm me down, "You're not a replacement. Don't worry. Red's just taking a break. Once you finish your adventure, we'll send you back out, and Red will come back in."
That wasn't very reassuring.
"Then why am I wearing Red's clothes?", I asked.
"Doesn't it make you feel a bit more authentic?", she replied, "Not to mention a lot of pokemon would have thought that apple on your shirt was real" That made sense...I think..."Anyways, we didn't have a replacement prepared, so we thought you might...you know...like to experience the game for yourself..." I shrugged. Personally, I wasn't sure whether or not I actually WANTED to be in the game. I just enjoyed playing it.
"Let me get this straight...", I muttered, "I restarted too much, so Red decided to take a vacation...But you didn't have anyone to replace him with, so you kidnapped me instead..."
"We didn't kidnap you", 'my' mom replied, but I ignored her.
"So...Basically...I'm in the game..."
"Isn't that what I just said?"
I ignored her again. (Might as well see where this goes) I thought.
"See you later"
With that, I turned around and attempted to walk down the stairs.
THUD!
"Owww...", I groaned, getting up. I could kind of hear 'mom' muttering "She's doomed" and briefly considered going back up and smacking her.
I resisted the urge.
Anyways, this was gonna be confusing. What I remembered about the game (such as, being able to get safely downstairs from whatever angle I stepped on it) didn't seem to apply anymore. I had just fallen down a flight of stairs attempting to enter them from the wrong direction, which wasn't exactly fun.
(Ok, this will be hard) I got up and made my way to the door. Opening it up, I was shocked to see how realistic the game was now. The grass looked normal. The girl that was always standing in front of the sign was roughly the same height as me. Even the fat guy looked like any other fat guy.
"This is the game, right?", I asked no one in particular, "It looks so realistic!"
Then I noticed something, "Oh!"
It was the grass where you encounter pikachu in Yellow. I could tell because it looked a bit different from the other grass. It was taller, and slightly darker-something I hadn't noticed from the real world.
(Ok...) I walked over to the grass. (So I just walk in here, right?)
I took a few steps forward, trembling slightly at the idea of being attacked before Prof. Oak showed up. I knew that wasn't gonna happen but something about all of this was just making me paranoid.
"WAIT!", I heard Oak's voice behind me.
I looked back to see him standing less than an inch from me. I couldn't help screaming and stumbling backwards. He smacked his forehead and groaned at my incompetence. (Well, you should learn a bit more about personal space, jerkwad!) I thought angrily, getting back up.
"What was th-" his sentence was cut short as a pikachu lept out of the grass (how did I not notice it earlier?) and lunged at him. The first thing I did was panic, but Oak reacted calmly. I guess that's because he's done this before.
He simply pulled out a red and white ball(a poke ball? I doubted it due to the lack of the middle button) and threw it at pikachu.
The pika went inside of it, and, after three shakes, Oak had caught it. With little struggle too. I couldn't help being impressed, even though I knew that the game was programed to always capture it. I found myself wondering what would happen if pikachu ever broke free from the ball instead. Well...I guess that's just a mystery for another day.
Oak didn't even bother with his next line. "Follow me", he said it with such a stern voice, that I was kind of scared to find out what his commanding voice sounded like.
I followed him anyway.
A few seconds later, we had arrived at the outside of the lab.
Up close, it was HUGE. "Whoa...So this is your lab?", I asked in amazement. He didn't respond.
"...Professor Oak?"
I looked over. He was gone.
"He...Went in...Without me..."
After I recovered from the slight shock that I had been ditched, I opened the door and walked in.
"Oh well", I muttered, shutting the door behind me. I noticed Green and Prof. Oak past the two bookcases. (There they are) I stated the obvious in my head, and walked towards them.
"Hey, sorry I'm late!" I apologized a bit more cheerfully than I should have.
"Took you long enough", Green retorted.
"Shut it, you-"
Oak cut me off.
"No fighting you two. At least not yet...Anyways in m-HEY!"
"Spare me the speech, ok?", I was already at the table, and picking up my brand-new pokemon. It was my favorite pokemon from this generation! There was no way in freaking hell that I was letting Green get the eevee this time!
...Or...So I thought.
The next think I knew, I was laying against the wall, with the back of my head throbbing violently. I didn't know what exactly hit me, but I had a pretty good guess...And I was about to punch his lights out.
Then the pokemon professor snapped me out of my thoughts, "Stop messing around, and get over here!"
I got up, using the wall as support, "Right..."
My head still ached as I walked over. I swear I saw Green stick his tongue out at me.
"Here's the pikachu I caught earlier", Oak held up the poke ball, which had a slightly yellow tint to it now, "It's not tame yet, but you could learn to be a bit more responsible."
"HEY!", I snapped defensively.
He ignored me. "Anyways, here you go", he finished, handing me my new partner.
I hugged the ball. I'll take good care of it. Eevee, or no eevee. You'll see.
"I'm going to call you Shita", I said happily. Then, a sly smile formed on my face, "Heehee! Everyone on DA is gonna be so jealous!"
Oak looked at me, confused, "What?"
(Oops! I forgot he was here...) "Oh...Uh...Nothing", I replied, covering up my outburst, "Anyways, see you later!"
I can't believe I didn't remember what was gonna happen next.
The second I was in-between both bookcases, I heard Green yell, "Hey Subby! Let's battle!" (He can't be serious) I looked over my shoulder for the hell of it.
He already had his eevee out.
(He's serious) Turning around, I held up my poke ball, "So...I just...Throw it...Right?" Green nodded impatiently. "Um...Go Shita!", I tossed the poke ball. It opened up, and, in a flash of white light, my cute lil pika partner was out too. (Ok, now to catch it) I reached out my hand...But missed the poke ball by practically a mile when it came back towards me.
I scrambled around to get it.
"Pika?", Shita sounded confused. Once I picked up the ball, I turned around to see it. It was just standing there, dumbfounded about how it got there, and where it even was. I wasn't sure what to do now.
Fighting had been awesome when it just seemed like a video game to me. Now it seemed real. Was I really gonna force Shita to battle?
"You have the first move", Green offered.
(Looks like I have no choice...) "Um...Shita! Use Thundershock!", I commanded hesitantly. "Pi?", Shita looked at me out of the corner of it's eye. It seemed to figure out that was directed at it after another second.
"Piiikaaa..."
It's cheeks began to spark, and I took a step back.
"CHUUU!"
ZZZZZT! That was a direct hit. Eevee was looking a little on the charred side now. I felt a bit of regret for doing that.
"Vee...", Eevee muttered weakly. It didn't even wait for Green's command, and wagged it's tail at Shita-I'm no genius but I'm pretty sure that was Tail Whip. I think I saw a small grin on Shita's face, though I'm not sure why.
This time, Shita didn't wait for me to say anything. She instantly used Thundershock, as if she already knew that's what I was going to say. After that attack, eevee fainted. Now it's fur was really charred from the electric attack...Ouch!
"Unbelievable! I picked the wrong pokemon!", Green seemed really angry about that, "I'll get better! You'll see!" Then he left, slamming the door as he went.
"It's eevee who was doing all of the work, dumbass!", I called after him, though doubting his ability to hear me through the door, "Anyways, good job,Shita!" I bent down to pet her and...
CHOMP!
"OWWWWWW!", I screamed at the top of my lungs, startling Shita enough that she released me. Prof. Oak came over with a first aid kit, and began wrapping up my hand.
"She bit me!", I cried in disbelief, "She bit me! That little bitch bit me!"
Oak merely sighed, "I told you it wasn't tame...And how do you know it's a she?" He also gave me a look that practically screamed at me not to call my pokemon names.
I gazed over at Shita to see her pulling off the same fangirling expression that I always had when I was around Luigi or Bakura or...Actually...I think you get the point. "Call it a hunch", I muttered.
"Well...Whatever. Good luck-you're going to need it-, and make sure you're prepared.", he replied. I thought the emphasis on first 'you're' was a little uncalled for.
"Uh...Right. C'mon Shita!", I left, with my pika partner following close behind me.
This is gonna be a really long day...