Goodbye, Pikachu
A Pokémon Yellow Creepypasta
Recently I had grown interest in so called Pokémon Nuzlocke Challenges. I had watched many Let's plays and read many Nuzlocke comics, and I had really grown fond of those basic Nuzlocke rules. I thought said rules make the game more "realistic", since fainted Pokémon are referred to as dead, and you can't decide which Pokémon you want to be on your team. That sounded like a real challenge to me, and therefore I decided to play my old Pokémon Yellow – the only Gen I game I had – as a Nuzlocke challenge.
Since I like the original names, I called my character "RED", and my dear Pikachu's name was "PIKA". And I must admit I grew very fond of this little bunch of pixels.
I trained Pika more than any other Pokémon in my team, and rather sacrificed other Pokémon than endanger my dear yellow friend. I really loved this little guy, and the fact that he was always walking right behind me made me feel very comfortable – even though I lost many other virtual "friends" along the way, Pika was always there for me. I know it sounds weird, but I really couldn't imagine this game without my cute electrical mouse.
And so I finally reached the Elite 4. I had lost many Pokémon along the way, but Pika was still there at my side, alive. And so I was standing there with my team, consisting of my Butterfree "SLY", the Fearow "DOOM", "MASK", the Arcanine, my Kadabra "YURIGERA" (guess why I named it like that…), the Kabutops called "SAMURAI", and – of course, "PIKA" – all of them trained to at least level 60, so I would be able to beat the Elite 4 without having too much trouble.
And, in fact, I lost only one Pokémon along the way. I had guessed it would be more, but I reached my Rival "BLUE" with only losing my Butterfree (I could deal with that).
But that's when things got worse for me: When I tried to defeat Blue's last Pokémon - his evolved starter, Jolteon – my Pikachu fainted.
Yeah.
This was a Nuzlocke Challenge. And therefore…
Pika was "dead".
My beloved starter was dead.
I defeated Blue nonetheless, but I was very sad about this loss – and since it was the rule, I had to release Pika.
After the credits had played, I was back in Pallet Town. I used my Fearow to fly me over to Lavender Town, since I thought it was a nice idea to "bury" my friend in the graveyard town so many people fear and honour at the same time.
First of all, I stored my Butterfree in the Box and released it, then I wanted to do the same with Pika, more forced than by choice.
But when I put Pika into the PC Box, it let out an angry or sad cry. I couldn't tell which emotion it was since I hadn't heard anything other than Pika's happy cries for quite a long time. But that was, in fact, nothing abnormal. Pikachu was supposed to complain about being stored in the yellow version. Nevertheless, I tried to release Pika.
I heard another cry, and this time it was definitely an angry one. A textbox popped up and it said: "PIKA is looking unhappy."
Oh yeah, I remembered: You can't release your Pikachu in this game, since it is the special Pikachu-version. Of course!
I sighed. Not only had I "lost" my precious friend, now Pika was even mad at me. Great! But since I couldn't change that fact, I left Pika in Box 1 of Bill's Storing System and left the Pokémon center.
Yes, I'd left it all alone in a PC Box, since I couldn't release him. I don't know, but I probably shouldn't have done that.
This night, I didn't sleep very well; I had a weird dream…
I was standing in an alleyway on a ship. The SS Anne, I guess. My in-game rival, Blue, was standing there, a few metres away from me. He looked angry, staring at me with hateful eyes. Then he ordered his Pokémon, a Rattata, to attack my Pokémon.
It was Pika. Pika was standing right in front of me. It was the only Pokémon I had with me, and the same applied for Blue and his Rattata. It was a one-on-one battle. On the SS Anne. Somehow, inside of my head the warning bells were ringing.
I've read about this "Red killed Blue's Pokémon on the SS Anne"-stuff in many creepypastas – but I didn't know if something like this happened in Yellow, too. It probably did, since Blue had said the exact same things he had said in Red and Blue, if I'm not mistaken. The only difference was that his Rattata hadn't evolved yet when you were fighting him on the ship in the yellow version. So it was a Rattata which had died, not a Raticate.
I hadn't realized this before. So why was I dreaming about it?
I suddenly heard Pika scream and I noticed I was still in a battle with Blue. I raised my hand, but I couldn't say anything. Pika reacted nonetheless and attacked Blue's Rattata with Thunder Shock and Quick Attack. That was sufficient. Rattata fainted.
…Or at least that was what should have happened. But I knew better. I knew pretty well what was happening now: Rattata was lying there on the ground, injured and bleeding.
Blue's eyes filled with tears. He took his Rattata in his arms, he talked to him, shouted at him in despair. I didn't understand a word he said. It sounded like he was miles away.
Red's rival abruptly raised his head and glared at me; the tears were piling up in his eyes and I could see hatred, fear, agony and many other emotions written all over his face.
"You will get what you give, RED!", he said.
I was confused. Why did he call me "RED"?
I turned around – and all of a sudden I was standing in an endless, white room. It was empty, except of the mirror that was standing right in front of me.
I looked in the mirror, and the person I saw wasn't me but Red.
I was Red.
But the person in the mirror looked sad. I looked sad. Sad and regretting, almost crying, but still…
And then I woke up. The first thing I thought was: "Wow, that was weird." I had dreamt about something that must have been bugging me in my subconsciousness – there wasn't any other explanation for that. It was strange enough that I didn't even dream about my dead Pikachu, but about the in-game rival I didn't give a shit about.
And then the next night I had another weird dream. This time, I (or Red, who I was in this dream - again) walked trough Lavender Town and straight into the Pokémon Tower. On the second floor I encountered Blue, standing in front of a gravestone. As soon as I was standing just a few metres behind him, said guy turned around and looked at me with dark, emotionless eyes. I expected another battle with my rival, but he just said: "An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth…"
After that I woke up.
And I realized: Those dreams I had – they were about Blue wanting to avenge his dead Pokémon. He wanted to kill my precious friend, just like I killed his… didn't he? Well, since I had played a Nuzlocke challenge, he had actually paid like with like. He had his revenge…
…So why did he haunt me in my dreams?
I must admit, I was actually kind of worried at this point of time. I turned on my game as soon as possible and checked if Pika was still in the box – and, yes, of course it was.
I was teasing myself the whole day for being so stupid and superstitious. It was just a dream, and a dream doesn't affect a game. Of course! I was just being silly.
With those thoughts I managed to repress my worries concerning those weird dreams. And in fact, it worked for a couple of days.
But just a few days, maybe a week later, I had another eerie dream: I was fighting Blue in the Pokémon League. Pika and Blue's Jolteon were facing each other – they were the last two Pokémon we had left. That was weird, since I had 4 other Pokémon left when Pika had to deal with Jolteon back then - but hell! This was a dream!
Jolteon lunged at Pika all of a sudden. I couldn't even react; it was like I was frozen or something. I could only watch as Pika got bitten by Blue's Pokémon (which is rather curious, since I'm pretty sure Jolteon didn't have the move "Bite" in this fight). My beloved Pokémon got two large wounds on its small body: One on its neck and one on its chest.
And Pika was bleeding. It was lying there on the ground, bleeding to death. And I couldn't move. Red's body wouldn't let me.
I was stuck. I couldn't help my friend.
Then suddenly I fell on my knees. I crawled to Pika and looked down at its corpse. I didn't pick it up; I didn't hold it in my arms; I didn't hug it like I wanted to. I was just kneeling there.
And then I got back on my feet… and walked away.
When I woke up, I realized I was crying. And there was only one, pestering question inside of my head: Why did I leave Pika there? Why didn't I take it with me, like Blue did with his Rattata?
Why?
I had many other nightmares from this night on, but I couldn't remember them as soon as I woke up. The only thing I knew was that Pika had shown up in those dreams. Every other memory of those dreams was just lost somewhere inside of my head.
Being damaged of the bad sleep lately, I got ill and decided to stay at home in bed one day. I tried to make up for that loss of sleep, but my body and mind just wouldn't let me fall asleep the whole day.
It was some time after midnight when I finally got to sleep.
…I wish I didn't.
I found myself all alone in a dark room. I walked around, trying to find an exit, but I couldn't find anything. Even though I was walking and walking and walking, I couldn't even find a wall or anything else. It was like I was lost in eternal darkness.
"Wish you had someone with you now, don't you?"
A sweet voice was calling out to me. I turned around, but, of course, I didn't see anything.
"Wish you hadn't abandoned me, don't you?", the voice (that didn't even sound human to me) said from another direction. I turned around for a second time, just to find myself starring into darkness again.
"I wanted to be with you forever!", it said, "I became immortal, just for you!"
The oh-so-sweet voice suddenly sounded angry.
I - or to be specific: Red, still turning around, didn't even wonder about the meaning of the word "immortal" in this case. He just looked in every possible direction, and asked: "Where are you?"
Whoever was out there was just giggling.
"I'm dead, ain't I?", the sweet voice answered after a few minutes of silence, "I'm in heaven, right?"
"Why can I hear you then?", Red's unfamiliar voice shouted. It was weird saying something with a voice that wasn't mine; in a body that wasn't me at all…
"Where are you?", he shouted again, "Where are you, Pika?"
Oh, so it was Pika…? My Pika?
I heard a giggle from behind me, and I revolved on the spot.
In fact, it was Pike standing there in front of me, smiling. But its smile wasn't his usual, cute smile. It was blood-curling.
But Red smiled, tears filling his eyes. I couldn't see clear anymore thanks to that.
"You came back to me, Pika…"
Pika tilted its head to the side, giving me an eerie grin. And that's when I realized: Pika was looking exactly like it did when I had last seen it in my dreams: bruised, with deep wounds in its body, its smooth skin dyed red from its own blood.
"No," it said with an evil grin, "You came to me. Now we can be together forever!"
Red's face frowned and he turned his head in all possible directions.
"You mean…?" he asked, and I understood.
"Yes," Pika answered. "You'll stay here with me. I'm no longer locked in your PC, RED!" it said, giggling. "I'm DEAD. Like you wanted me to be."
"But those are the rules!" I shouted, and it was actually my own voice, not Red's, "I had to…"
"Rules?" Pika hissed, its voice no longer sounding sweet at all. "You didn't have to. You said you loved me, and love knows no rules! You let your guard down, and you let Blue kill me!"
Pika didn't smile anymore. It looked sad, then angry, then furious – and then it grinned again.
"But that doesn't matter anymore," it whispered, coming closer to me.
"No! S-stay away!" Red's and my voice shouted at the same time.
"Didn't you love me?" was the last thing I heard Pika say before it jumped towards Red and me…
…And then I woke up. I was lying in my bed, in my dark room, and I was screaming. My body was trembling and sweaty, and it was hard for me to breathe.
It took a while for me to calm down, but as soon as I had recovered from the previous dream-shock, I grabbed my Gameboy and started the game. I was anxiously waiting for the menu screen to appear, since there was no other way for me to reassure me that all of this had just been some freaking, messed up dream.
But after the usual intro with Pikachu surfing, flying and running around, there wasn't any "Continue/New Game/Options" selection like there should have been. The screen showed me the menu-screen from the PC.
"Withdraw Pokémon", "Deposit Pokémon" and "Release Pokémon" were the only options I was given – so I chose "Withdraw Pokémon".
But the box was empty. Pika was gone. It was really gone.
I was absolutely frightened and freaked out at this moment, so I hit the B button until the menu closed.
But the screen showed me nothing, it was completely black… until suddenly Red's overworld sprite appeared, followed by a Pikachu.
Then the game froze.
I couldn't scream, even if I wanted to. My voice didn't react anymore. I was just sitting there in my bed in the dark and starred at my Gameboy.
I really hope it was just my imagination, or the internal battery dying and making the game all glitchy. I really do hope so…
I put the Gameboy down on my bedside table and lied down in my bed again, staring into the darkness.
Suddenly I heard a sweet laughter from somewhere.
"Didn't you love me?"