Pokemon: Nuzlocke
A/N: Pokemon is owned in its entirety by Nintendo, Nintendo of America, and its subsidiaries. This work of fanfiction is not meant to impugn upon any trademarks or copyrights. Please support the official releases!
Chapter 9: Decisions to make...
My eyes snapped open after what felt like a very long dream. Whatever it was faded away so quickly I didn't catch a snippet of it. I took a deep breath, my throat still sore from throwing up last night. I look over to the left of the bed to find the Shedinja floating there, unmoving. It would seem that what I had learned last night was not enough to fulfill the requirements of the questline for Shedinja, so I decided to ignore it for the time being.
"Mask?" I asked, looking at it. "I'm going to return you for now..."
The Pokemon didn't move or make a sound, so I grabbed its Pokeball and returned it. After clipping its ball to my belt, which I had left on the floor, I hopped in the shower. The floor of the shower was still kinda ashy, so I spent some time cleaning it as I showered so that there would be nothing for Nurse Joy to complain about later. After I finished, I stepped back into the main room to hear a soft chiming from my C-Gear. I snatch it up, and after fumbling with it for a moment, it lights up, showing I have a message. I tap on it, and the video screen pops open.
"Hi Billy," Nurse Joy says, always cheerful. "I'm just calling to let you know that your Nidoran is healed, and will be transferring in this morning at 10 am from the Regional Hospital. You're free to collect him any time after!"
'Fantastic!' I think, as I check the clock, and begin to quickly collect my things. 'I'm so glad to have Odin back…'
It takes me a little while to gather everything up, including a great ball that had fallen out of my backpack, and rolled under the bed. After a final check, I popped out, and swiftly made my way up the steps, and into the Pokemon Center proper. It was almost 11 am, and the Center was busier than I was used to seeing. It took me a few minutes in line to get to the front, and one of the secondary Nurses was more than happy to collect Odin for me. A few moments later, his Pokeball was clutched tightly in my hand. I felt terrible, honestly, that twice now he had been injured so badly to need extensive healing. I was going to be much more careful in the future, and make sure that this didn't happen again.
"Billy?" I hear a soft voice over the crowd, causing me to whip around.
"Jackie?" I ask, surprised to see her. "What are you doing here?"
"Oh! I was getting some healing done before I head back out into the wilds. What about you?" She asks.
"The same...Though, I was thinking about leaving Celedon for a little while, maybe head south towards the coast?" I reply as we move off to the side of the crowd.
"Oh wow! That would be fun. Do you want some company? I don't have any specific reason to be here right now." She says, smiling brightly.
Partner with Jackie?
YES NO
I think for a second, before nodding, "Sure, that would be kinda fun. Never traveled with someone before."
As I speak, the pop-up disappears, and her name, floating above her head, turns slightly blue-green. Not only that, but I get a general sense of her location, and if I closed my eyes, I could tell she was a few feet in front of me, and slightly to my left. A little indicator, just out of sight, lists her name, and 1/2 next to it.
"Yay!" She replies, "Okay, cool. Let me run home, and grab my things...and...Oh."
She slows down while looking over my right shoulder, causing me to turn around. An older boy is standing at the counter, a small urn with a Pokeball attached to the top clutched in his hands. The trainers that were previously talking are lining up on the path between the door, and the counter. Jackie walks past me to join them, pulling me along with her by the sleeve of my jacket. As he turns, everyone bows, apologizing for his loss. I can't help but feel a stinging in my eyes, remembering my own experience with this odd ritual, as I carried my Weedle home. After he leaves, everyone straightens back up and goes back to what they were doing.
"That's so sad," Jackie says, frowning. "I always hate seeing that…"
"That's my first time seeing it, but I agree," I replied, "From this side of it at least."
Jackie looked at me for a moment, before nodding. It wasn't difficult to remember that she likely had on her the Spearow that nearly killed me, and did kill my weedle. Truth be told, I can't say I blamed the Spearow at this point. The game was very obviously at work when it came to the events. How else would I have come across a flock of Doduo, or the Vulpix...or the Shedinja.
"You okay?" Jackie asks, seeing the grimace on my face.
"Oh, yeah, nothing to worry about," I reply, shaking my head. "So you said you need to go home first?"
"Hmm...Oh! Right, yes. I need to go home and collect some things before we can leave town. Do you mind at all?" She asked.
"Not at all. Meet me back here in an hour or so? I'm going to hit the department store, collect some things for the trip." I explain.
She nods, and runs off, almost skipping out the door as she goes. I pop open my C-Gear and use the map to point me towards the department store. The Celedon City Department Store is massive, so much bigger than it was in the games. Closer to a ten-story mall, it sold everything you could want. Food, Tech, even the latest and greatest Pokedolls. I'd not yet spent any time in there, but I knew that if we were to make it through this trip in one piece, I was going to need supplies that a normal Pokemart wouldn't carry. The walk wasn't fast, the size of Celedon stretching the trip out. Along the way, my Item Finder ability binged a few times, leading me to snag a few Pokeballs and even a TM18 Raindance.
After entering, I checked the map and found the place I felt would have what I needed. A few floors up, and what felt like several football fields worth over, I found myself standing outside of Oscars Sporting Goods. I entered, my nose filled with a smell I could only describe as action. The smell of things, and people, that are out doing things. I walked through the aisles, looking at the different items, reading their information, comparing their prices. I grabbed a few things, my small arms straining to hold it all as I made my way to the front to pay. The line was short, thankfully, and less than five minutes later I was back out in the main area. The mall wasn't busy, so I quickly posted up near a wall, and went about organizing my things.
The first thing I purchased was a much larger pack. While my backpack was nice, it was already getting slightly full and didn't have much space, to begin with. The Hiking Pack I'd purchased had several times the space, better pockets for organization, and some sort of harness to spread the weight out, which would make carry the second item even easier. I hadn't set out to buy a tent, but they turned out to be so cheap that I couldn't say no. The model I'd purchased could fit three people side by side or two people with much more comfort. I wasn't sure if Jackie would feel comfortable sharing a tent, or she might even have one of her own. Either way, it wasn't much more expensive than the single, so I snatched it up.
A small camp stove, some pots, and pans, a cleaning set, and other odds and ends that would make the trip easier were tossed in as well. I transferred the rest of my stuff from my backpack, into their own different pockets, before folding it up and stuffing it into the middle section. Opening my C-Gear, it quickly links up with my new pack, displaying my entire inventory. After slipping the pack on, and adjusting the straps so the center of gravity was slightly forward and matched my own, I started making my way out of the store. It took a little while, but I found myself standing in the sunlight once again a few minutes later. After setting up the map, I begin winding my way through the city back to the Center. All in all, my trip took about an hour, which felt pretty good considering I knew nothing of the place, to begin with.
As I round the final corner, my C-Gear starts vibrating. I flip it open, the calling function popping open to show Jackie's face. She's talking over her shoulder to someone else, before finally turning back to me.
"Hey Billy, sorry, I'm running behind. It's going to be another half hour before I can make it back to the Center." She tells me, as someone whispers to her, as she waves them off.
"No worries," I reply. "I'm just now getting back myself. Take your time."
She nods, and then hangs up, just as I enter the Pokemon Center. I flop down in one of the many seats and start studying the map to try and plan a route between Celedon, and the coast near Vermillion. According to this map, walking in a straight path would take us nearly a month, discounting sleep, battles, Pokemon hunting, etc. Considering everything that I'd gone through recently, a few months away would probably do me well, all things considered. I tapped a few areas, trying to map out each of the different sections as far as this Nuzlocke thing was concerned.
'Whatever a nuzlocke even is…' I thought as I flipped through options.
BING!
A Nuzlocke is a specific rule set used to make a Pokemon playthrough more challenging.
'Wait a fucking minute!' I think, reading the pop-up. 'The fuck you mean? Why didn't you tell me this before?!'
BING!
The Game Only Responds to Direct Questions
'You have got to be fucking kidding me.' I think. 'Fine, what are the rules for this Nuzlocke?'
BING!
As the pop-up began to populate, I felt, for the first time perhaps, that I had made a terrible mistake.
Pokemon Nuzlockes Official Rules
1. All Pokemon will have two life bars, green and red. HP damage during the green section is easily healed. HP damage taken in the red section are serious injuries. The Red Bar dropping to zero will mean that a Pokemon has died.
2. You may only capture 1 Pokemon per area. Exclusions, such as events and breeding, do apply. Collecting the Gym Badge for an area will remove this restriction.
3. All captured Pokemon must be named before they can be sent out, or battled with. Exemptions, such as prenamed Pokemon, Pokemon captured to be bred or released for events, do apply.
4. Under normal circumstances, the world of Pokemon is considered suitable for ages 6+, with warnings for cartoon violence. Nuzlocke option removes all restrictions. The World of Pokemon is just like the real world...but with Pokemon...You have been warned.
I could not help but blink, reread, blink again, reread.
'I have been warned?!' I thought thunderously, 'Where was my warning before choosing the damn option?!'
I was livid. Absolutely fucking livid. I chose Pokemon specifically because I didn't want a violent world like Naruto, and instead I'm stuck in hell until I die again? This was bullshit on a whole other level.
"Stupid fucking game...Stupid fucking Nuzlocke…" I whispered to myself, back on the map screen.
"Billy?" I hear Jackie ask, causing me to flinch.
I jump to my feet, turning to greet her when I'm struck slightly dumb. Jackie was about my height, brown hair, green eyes. She was pretty easy to recognize under most circumstances. However, standing before me were two girls, almost carbon copied, but one was slightly shorter.
"Uhh," I say, obviously confused.
The one on the left looks confused, before speaking up. "Oh, Billy, I'm sorry. This is my sister! When she heard I was going to be leaving town, she wanted to go with us, if you're okay with it?"
Partner with Jessica?
YES NO
"Oh, yeah, that's fine. Are...are you two twins?" I ask, at last. As I do so, her name also turns blue and is added to the little indicator. Beside it, 2/2 appears.
The two of them look at each other, before speaking up in near-perfect unison. "Nope! We're not twins at all."
Together the two of them burst into laughter before Jackie finally speaks up again. "I'm older than her by two years. We just look ALOT alike, and it doesn't help that we love the same styles."
"Oh. Well, it's nice to meet you…" I say, holding out my hand.
The girl blushes slightly, before stepping forward to take my hand. "Jessica. It's nice to meet you as well."
"Did you get everything you needed?" Jackie asks, shouldering her backpack.
I nod, before showing her the map on my C-Gear, "I think this path works best for us? What do you think?"
She nods, before tapping on the screen a few times. A moment later her C-Gear lights up, and she taps on her own. A second later, Jessica's lights up too. It didn't take but a second to realize that she had shared the path between them so we couldn't get lost. That I could sense their locations would only further help that along.
"Well, if we leave now, we can get a few hours in before we need to turn in for the night. Shall we?"
I didn't know then, of course, that such a simple question would lead us down the path it did. Had I known? Well, had I known, I may never have left Celedon at all.
A/N: And we are back as promised! With RPG Rebirth behind me, I finally have the time to settle down and relax my writing a bit. As I've always said, Pokemon was a massive time sink, the numbers I had to track always taking so long to work with that writing a single chapter could take a week when I was used to typing out 3k words in a few hours. This chapter is short, but we're just now getting back into the swing of things.
I've made some changes to how I track things for this story to hopefully lower that, but once we get into some battles, we shall see. I'm glad to say that I'm back on the Nuzlocke, and I hope you guys are as well.
The story continues with Billy making a friend, and adding a second one as well! A journey begins, stepping out into the world of Pokemon properly for the first time...A world that Billy now know's is infinitely more dangerous than he'd expected coming in…
Until next time, this has been...Pokemon: Nuzlocke.
