Pokemon: Friend or Food?
We last saw our Pokemon trainers, trapped in a cave. Neither trainer has a Pokemon on them able to help with an escape plan. They've been stuck together, for three days now, and all their food rations are depleted. How will our heros escape? What will they do for food? Find out in this exciting tale, "Pokemon: Friend or Food?"
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"Man, Pikachu, I'm really hungry!" Ash spoke to his trusted yellow Pokemon, the kind creature's own stomach grumbled, Pikachu started rubbing its empty belly with its cute, little paw.
"I'm sorry, pal. We'll think of something, we always do. Right Misty?" Ash spoke optimistically towards his human companion. The girl kept quiet, sitting in a corner away from the others, her back to them.
"Ah, still mad at me, huh?" Ash had forgotten the two had fought last night. Misty had been treating Pikachu weird, poking and prodding the little guy as if seeing how tender his little flesh was.
"Misty, what are you doing?" He had asked her.
"Ash, we're out of food, and we need to start considering other meal options. I'm not dying of starvation when we have fresh meat available."
"What the fuck does that mean?!"
"It means, Ash, that I'm willing to eat Pikachu if we don't get out of here soon."
That's when they really starting yelling at each other, Ash calling her a monster for even thinking about eating his beloved Pikachu. They'd gone to bed not speaking, Ash holding on tightly to his Pikachu that night, just in case Misty got any ideas.
"Come on, Misty. Today's a new day, I'm sure Brock will find us eventually. Lets just forget last night, and move past it." Ash tried reasoning with her, they had to be united while trapped like this, fighting and ignoring one another wasn't smart or safe.
As he rose from his seated position, and began to walk towards her, the fiery orange headed girl yelled at him to stay back.
"Misty, come on! Don't be that way!" Ash pleaded with her, not listening to her warning and walking up to the girl. He looked down and his eyes took in something odd. It was sort of dark in the cave, so Ash blinked a lot before looking again at the strange thing next to Misty.
It was Psyduck's head...but that head wasn't attached to anything...Holy Shit!
"Misty!" Ash cried, stumbling back from the terrible Pokemon trainer.
"I told you to stay back." She grounded out her words, slowly rising. As she rose, a carcass fell off her lap, landing with a plunk next to Psyduck's head. Her lips were messy, her eyes held a strange look to them as she stared Ash down.
"I told you last night, Ash, I'm not dying of starvation while we have healthy Pokemon to eat."
"Psyduck was your friend, Misty! And you fucking ate him!" Ash could feel bile rising in his throat, the act of Misty killing and eating her Pokemon both greatly disturbed and sickened him.
"He was my least favorite, Ash, that's why he went first." She replied simply, no sign of remorse on her messy, dirty face. "Now I'll live to see another day. He gave his life to save mine, it's a noble way to die." She tried justifying her actions.
"Misty, what if we get rescued today and you ate him for no good reason? His death is on your hands forever!"
Ash was serious on his views of Pokemon treatment, what Misty had done made him want to forfeit their friendship forever.
"They're Pokemon, not people, Ash. We drink Miltank milk, Butterfree silk is used for clothing, don't you think that in some places, they eat Pokemon that are considered more of a pest than a pet? I've known plenty of fishermen who eat low level Magikarp." She was trying to make him turn Poke-cannibal, and Ash wasn't interested.
"No! We don't eat friends, Pokemon or human, I'm not going to start eating my Pokemon because I'm hungry! We're going to get rescued, Misty!" He was positive, Ash knew it wouldn't be long before someone noticed the cave-in.
Misty shook her head at him, dissatisfied with his way of thinking.
"Sooner or later, you'll see I'm right. When you're ready to admit that I'm right, I'll be waiting." She turned from him, sitting down next to the carcass again.
"Don't listen to her Pikachu, I'll never eat you or any of our Pokemon friends!" He picked up the mouse Pokemon and hugged him tenderly.
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After two more days went by, his diet consisting only of his socks, the Pokemon trainer wasn't feeling very well. Crapping out his socky meal had been extremely painful, Ash had learned quickly that the human stomach did not digest cotton material very well, the socks coming out his ass in strips.
He was starting to get desperate, wondering what else he should try eating, when he heard a loud yell from Misty. Quickly the boy ran over, seeing that his Pikachu wasn't beside him and fearing the worse. His eyes landed on a sickening scene.
Misty and his Pikachu, were playing tug of war over the remaining meat left on Psyduck's carcass. Pikachu was usually a healthy eater, but it appeared circumstances made the yellow ball of fur desperate. He was clinging with his teeth and paws onto the webbed foot of the dead Psyduck. Misty clung to the upper body of the carcass, cursing at Ash's Pokemon while she pulled.
"Pikachu, let go." Ash pleaded with the creature, but Pikachu was starving, he wouldn't listen to Ash's words.
"Fine, it's half rotten anyway. I'll just pick out another, fresh Pokemon!" She let the carcass go, both humans watched as the little meat that was left got devoured by Pikachu greedily.
"Ash, are you ready to try Pokemon?" Misty asked of him, pulling out her five remaining poke balls.
"This is crazy! You loved your Pokemon, why are you so ready to eat them?!" He felt tears in his eyes, hating the way things had turned out.
"Well, what else can we eat? I noticed socks aren't exactly filling." Apparently she had noticed in their bathroom section of the cave, his sock filled turds. This embarrassed him lightly, but what could he honestly say to that comment? Socks had been a bad idea, but at least he hadn't killed a friend just to satisfy his hunger!
A thought came to Ash, not a very pleasant one, but he couldn't help thinking about it. Before the cave had trapped them, he had caught a Zubat...It crossed Ash's mind that he hadn't named the new Pokemon, that he hadn't known the thing very well yet...
"Misty, before you eat one of your friends, I need to tell you something. I have a Zubat." She raised a brow at him in a 'so what' manner.
"Remember? I just caught it before the cave trapped us in. He's new, Misty, I haven't even named him yet." Misty was catching on, her hand put away the poke balls that held her companions.
"Are you suggesting what I think you're suggesting?" She asked of him, Ash wasn't really sure he knew what he was saying.
"Hand the poke ball over then, you don't have to watch me when I...when I silence it." She was being kind, using the word silence when she meant 'kill'.
"You don't have to watch any of it, in fact, why don't you start a small fire? That will keep you occupied for a while." She was taking on all the burden, knowing how Ash felt about the devouring of Pokemon.
He was starving, Pikachu had eaten the rest of Psyduck's remains. Ash was the only one 'not on board' with the groups food source. What else could he do in this situation? He wanted to see his mom again, dying wasn't an option.
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"Dinners ready!" Misty announced to the small group. They were sitting around Ash's small fire, Misty was handing out roasted meat on a stick, giving Pikachu one first, then handing the second one to Ash.
"This rabbit looks tasty, Misty." Ash commented. Misty looked at him, seeing the face of a frightened, uneasy young man, she knew what he was trying to do. Who was she to try and make this any more awkward than it already was?
"Yep, I sure lucked out finding that rabbit scurrying about. Eat up Ash, you'll feel better." She urged to her friend, her words had helped, the boy let it sit in his mind that he was eating rabbit. He chewed carefully on the roasted meat, eating slowly to savor the taste.
It had been harder with the Zubat. It was way more aggressive than stupid Psyduck had been. Psyduck had trusted her, had never expected the girl who owned him to strangle his neck until her hands felt the bones snap. His dead eyes looking up at her as if asking her "why"?
Zubat had been practically wild, his wings batted against her, the sharp edges slicing her forearms as she held him down with one hand, trying to stab him with a fishing knife with her other.
Her hands had been shaky as she tried stabbing him, the blade slicing her twice on accident before she finally jammed it into the little Zubat's body. Once he was dead, she took out her first aid kit and disinfected her wounds before bandaging them. After she did that, it was time to fillet the little creature. Using her sharp knife, she hacked into his body, peeling back the creatures fur and skin so that his meat was accessible.
Before they had been trapped, the girl had picked up sticks for cooking, never had she planned on using the sticks for Pokemon flesh. Life was funny that way, you never think you're going to be put into a terrible position, and when it actually happens, you're a completely different person because of it. If they ever did get out of here, Misty knew she'd look at Pokemon differently for the rest of her days.
For now, the three companions ate in mutual silence, filling their empty tummies with cooked Zubat. Or, in Ash's mental state, they were all just eating rabbit...whatever helped him cope, Misty was okay with pretending.
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By the time Brock reached them with his Onix, Misty was down three more Pokemon. She kept all the balls, so that it would look normal enough should anyone ever rescue them. It had been her decision that Ash keep all the rest of his Pokemon alive, he was barely coping with the fact he was eating Misty's, constantly pretending that she had found and cooked one rabbit after another. It was Ash's way of dealing with their situation without having a complete mental breakdown.
Brock was overjoyed to find his friends alive, helping them out of the cave and using Onix to travel them to the nearest Pokemon center.
"I bet your Pokemon could use some refreshing after two weeks of staying stuck in their balls!" Brock commented to the two, Ash easily agreed. He put up all six of his poke balls to give them a fresh healing. Brock noticed Misty only putting up two balls, and asked her why.
"The others are fine, I'm just going to keep them on me a little longer." She received a strange look from Brock, but he didn't bug her about it. When nighttime came, and they all had taken fresh showers and gotten into clean night clothes, Misty had gone outside for a private walk. In her hands she carried the four empty poke balls.
The moon was full as she walked down the empty streets, headed towards the city's small park that had a creek running through it. She sat on the fresh green grass, next to the creek and stared tiredly into the water.
While in the cave, it had been about survival, but now that she was safely rescued...
As tears started to well up in her eyes, she felt a hand at her shoulder. Misty looked up and into the equally tired eyes of Ash. The boy sat down next to her, looking into the water as a friendly arm stayed wrapped around Misty's shoulders.
"Ash..." She started to speak, but his head shaking from side to side stopped her. So the couple stayed silent, both their minds on what had taken place within the cave.
After a while, Misty took her empty poke balls and slipped them into the water, watching with glassy eyes as they floated down. Ash said not a word, inwardly knowing that they had been empty.
Misty had been very determined not to cry, but as she watched the last ball float out of view, her tears fell hard, her voice wailing as Ash slipped both arms around her, hugging her silently as she blubbered to him how sorry she was. The girl felt guilty about her actions, and was seeking forgiveness from him.
"They were rabbits, Misty. It was either them or us." He finally spoke to her after she'd cried a good fifteen minutes in his arms. Her crying stopped as her face looked up to stare at Ash's blank mug. He held a robotic stare as she looked at him, wishing he'd show some sort of emotion, so that she wasn't alone with her guilt.
"Come on, Brock's going to look for us if we aren't back soon." He began to stand, raising her with him and making sure she was steady before letting go. They silently walked back to the Pokemon Center, when almost half way there, Misty reached out her hand and took hold of Ash's.
"They were just rabbits." She repeated what Ash had said earlier.
"Exactly." He agreed, squeezing her hand with his own as they walked into the night.
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Pokemon belongs to Nintendo and Shogakukuan Comics.
A/N: So, I've always wondered if there are Pokemon out there bred for consumer consumption or just wild Pokemon that people enjoy eating. I'm really interested in exploring this side of the Pokemon universe, so probably more Pokemon eating stories will come from me. If ya thought any of this was morbidly funny, leave a review and let me know.