Chapter 1: This Game Sucks

"That is stupid." Anthony replied to my explanation of the new Pokemon game. "There's only one version, and there's no new Pokemon."

"Correction." I raised my finger in protest. "There are three new Pokemon, and four new Ultra Beasts."

"Ultra Beasts? That shit's stupid, those are dumb." Anthony dismissed the game's new additions. "Sure the graphics are nice, but this game has almost nothing new. I'm not playing."

"Will you at least watch?" I asked him. "These games are supposed to be amazing. The difficulty of the early games is back, and the evil team is actually menacing."

"Oh wow." Anthony gasps jokingly. "We're watching tv. You can play on your own time."

"Kinda hard when you're my roommate and my best friend." I sighed, switching the tv over to television. Almost in spite, the commercial playing is showing off footage from the new game.

"Yes, that's right." A bald man in a suit spoke into the camera, standing greenscreened in in front of the game footage. "I'm holding a once in a lifetime event for two lucky people to experience Pokemon Venture in groundbreaking, immersive VR. The first two people to get to Joe's Game Emporium once midnight hits will be the only two people to ever experience the game this way."

"Don't you even think about it, Petra." Anthony said with disapproval, reacting before I could even look at him with puppy dog eyes. "We're not going."

I got up from the couch and stormed off, quickly throwing my jacket on. I opened up the door and was about to step out into the night before he called out to me.

"I said we're not going." He reaffirmed.

"Ok." I shrugged, popping one foot out. "Well I am. It's 11:45, I gotta get there."

"Fine." He groaned, getting up. "I don't know how long this is gonna take, and you get into too much trouble by yourself. I'm driving.'

And that was that. Anthony drove us from our house to Joe's Game Emporium, the local place to play any and all games. We went there often, sometimes for arcade games and sometimes for new releases. We pulled in right as the clock struck midnight and hurried into the shop.

Standing inside was the same bald guy from tv, who was eager to shake our hands. He smiled with impossibly shiny teeth, giving off a glare that caught in our eyes. He gave us congratulations briefly, made us sign some papers, and sent us off into the open VR world.

It was incredible, with realistic 3D graphics, courtesy of the Nintendo Switch. I looked at my body and Anthony's and was surprised to find that we were seamlessly converted into the Switch's graphical style. I excitedly ran around, looking at the pretty environment.

"Yeah, no. Nope. This weird." Anthony shakes his head. "How do we get out?"

"Didn't you read the contract?" The bald man's voice rings down from the sky, "You guys don't get to leave the game until you beat the story. Now get out there and win!"

"What?" Anthony asked in shock, looking at me in wild disbelief. "I can't fucking believe you."

"Calm down, Anthony." I put my hands up, trying to soothe his anger. "Is this really worst case scenario? We get to live through a Pokemon game! We'll be trainers, it'll be what every fan has dreamed of!"

"Yeah, I dreamed of it." Anthony admitted. "When I was a kid. This is a nightmare! No one knows we're here. We signed a contract, we're in unless we win. You said this game is really hard and has a scary evil team? We're fucked! This is not good, Petra!"

"It's fine, it's fine." I tried once more to placate my angry friend. "Calm down. I watched all the trailers that they put out, I can navigate us. Me being a fan has come in handy already for us, while your cynicism has gotten us nowhere."

"You calm down, Marcus Aurelius." Anthony joked with me, comparing me to the Roman emperor, "I can do without your philosophical commentary, I'm already annoyed enough."

"Alright." I sighed, "Well you better get over that annoyment quickly, because we have a game to beat. If you wanna be a drama queen, you can continue be reluctant on going on any adventures and be stuck here forever, or you can come with me and have a journey."

"Fine." Anthony groaned, stepping up to me. "But if this game sucks, I'm done being friends with you."

"It won't suck." I shook my head, "Has Game Freak ever let us down with the release and promotion of a Pokemon game before?"

"Oh my god." Anthony muttered in fear, "I'm gonna die because of Game Freak. I always knew it would happen, I just didn't think it would be this soon."

To Be Continued