Uh...wow. This playthrough was clearly not meant to be. Instead of drawing it out, I was inspired to write, so here's my terrible fanfiction!
I am a Pokemon Trainer, and I shall never train again.
I left home with my heart full of ideas and ambitions. What a fool I was. With Palms by my side, we walked the short distance to Cherrygrove Town. Clearly, Palms was out for blood, as the corpses of Rattata he left in his wake were mangled and unrecognizable. Only I bore witness to the slaughter, and only I remember the faces of those Rattata. The price one must pay on the road to the championship, I told myself. What a fool I was.
Palms only stayed his merciless leaf storm against one Rattata, who seemed to have immunity to Palms’ venoms, which seemed to amuse him. I caught the beast, naming him Incisor. We then travelled north of Cherrygrove on the long and winding road to Violet City and the site of my first goal: Falkner’s Zephyr Badge. It would be a long and arduous journey, but Palms, Incisor and I could brave any storm. As we made our way north, another Rattata expressed interest in me, and began following me, skittish of his surroundings. I accepted his company, naming him Mousetrap.
Almost immediately, we were set upon by a horde of Rattata! They had come to avenge their brothers, their sisters, their mothers, their fathers. The four of us fled for our lives, darting in to a lightless cave, where we hid for what must have been hours. I must have fallen asleep, because the next thing I knew, I couldn’t find my way out of the cave. The ambient light from outside had dissipated with sunset. So I groped and felt my way toward what I thought was the exit when I tripped over something! I then heard a roar. I blindly hurled a Pokeball in the roar’s direction, and my eyes finally adjusted to the darkness. I could see the exit, framed dimly by the moonlight. I darted for the cave mouth when I noticed that the Pokeball I had thrown had returned to me. I opened it, and out popped a Geodude! Using the Pokedex device that Professor Oak gave me, I determined that it was female, and thus gave her a very imaginative name: Terra.
A nearby sign told me that our entourage, now five strong, was not far from Violet City, so I started off toward it. Along the way, I introduced several naïve boys to Incisor, who ripped their own poorly trained Rattatas to shreds, leaving them to cry bitter tears of pain in my wake. How smug I was! How great I was! This would be my legacy!
Finally, my destination: Violet City, a bustling center of activity, with people full of their own comings and goings. After a brief stop at the Pokemon Center to restore my friends’ health, I proceeded to Falkner’s Gym, intent on giving him a sound beating. However, when I arrived, I found that the gym was inactive, and that some fool with ugly glasses and a terrible haircut was blocking the entrance to the gym proper. He said, “I do not think you should continue up there. Falkner and his lackeys are very powerful, and, without proper training, you cannot hope to defeat them.” I scoffed, but decided to play along. “Where might I find this training?” The man gestured northward. “At the north end of this town is an ancient tower, said to be built around a gigantic Bellsprout. The monks there will surely teach you everything you need to know to conquer this gym.” Profound, and foolish, I thought at the time.
I left the gym and headed to the tower, which stood out very easily in the skyline. I took a deep breath, and entered. Immediately, as I entered, I felt a slight chill in the air, and the hairs on the back of my neck stood up. There was a presence here, I could feel it. I whipped around, and there, hovering right in front of me, was a spherical apparition! My Pokedex chirped, and I opened it. It explained that the creature before me was a pokemon called Gastly. This one might be useful, I thought, and Palms leaped in to action, setting upon him with a controlled vengeance. I hurled my Pokeball, and the ghost was captured. I named him Bootacular, and behind me, I heard a voice.
“Very nicely done, young one,” said a middle-aged male voice. I turned around, and saw a monk with a set of prayer beads, one designed to look like a Pokeball. “However, you have much to learn.” He pulled the Pokeball from the bead necklace and released his ally: Bellsprout.
He smiled and his ally stood there for a moment, not attacking, waiting for me to do something. I merely watched, and waited. He gestured, and the Bellsprout sank its roots in to the wood of the tower, and as quickly as it happened, I heard the same roar I had heard in the cave, only this time in intense agony. I turned and saw Terra being struck on a tiny fault line in her body, and she shattered in to a million tiny stones.
I froze. I had seen death many times before, but this was different. This was one of my friends, my close allies, now merely nothing on the floor of this accursed tower. I turned slowly, tears streaming down my cheek, my eyes ablaze with anger. The monk spoke quietly. “There is beauty in the transience of a short life.”
I barely heard the words. Immediately, Incisor and Mousetrap were out of the Pokeballs, and as Incisor set upon tearing the roots out of his Bellsprout, Mousetrap began stripping layers of skin off of the monk’s face. As I left him there, bleeding, my heart hardened. I would become the champion for Terra’s sake.
When I reached the top floor of the tower, I met the elder sage, who decided to test to see if I was worthy of the tower’s treasure. He sent a Bellsprout out, much like the monks before him. I let Incisor teach this old man a lesson. Perhaps I should have learned the lesson. The Bellsprout’s roots burrowed in to the floor and burst out beneath Incisor, piercing through his flesh and heart, killing him instantly. At this point, I lost all composure, and I had lost any momentum I might have ever had. Mousetrap came up to avenge his fallen friend, but took serious injury in the process. I would not lose any more of my friends, so I recalled him, to let Bootacular finish the job. The sage removed from his pouch a small scroll with some kanji written on it. He began to chant, and the scroll burst in to eerie blue flames, along with Bootacular. In just a few seconds, Bootacular had evaporated in to nothingness. I was beyond anger at this point, and I decided that enough was enough. I sent Palms to teach this old man a lesson. Palms’ razor-sharp leaf projectiles severed the Bellsprout in to several hundred pieces. The old man nodded approvingly, and offered me a jewel case. “This is a Technical Machine. Using it will teach a Pokemon a move. However, this type can only be used once. There are other similar machines out there that are reusable. This particular machine will teach a Pokemon ‘Flash’. This will illuminate dark caves and let you see your way.” I was at a loss for words. All this pain, all this anguish, all this loss was for a device that had no practical use? Shaking slightly, I returned to the entrance of the tower, and as I stepped across the threshold, I struck a match and dropped it on the floor, setting the entire wooden structure ablaze very quickly. I did not look back. This would be the funeral pyre for my fallen friends: Incisor, Bootacular, and Terra.
I headed to Falkner’s Gym, which was open again. The strange man had left, leaving me to use the lift that would take me to my first major victory in the Pokemon League. Riding up a good 10 stories, I sized up my new surroundings: precarious catwalks with no railing. Of course, these people were bird fanatics. They would have little need for such luxuries. I started to approach Falkner, but his two lackeys interceded, demanding that I prove myself worthy to challenge the Gym leader. One of them sent out a bird I had never seen before called a Spearow. It would not be long before I would understand the meaning of that name. The bird glided around the area, putting my Mousetrap at a clear disadvantage for mobility due to the precarious nature of the catwalks. Suddenly, the Spearow saw his opportunity and dove, just as Mousetrap was turning to follow, leaving his belly slightly exposed. This was all the opportunity needed for the bird to dive, and his razor-sharp beak pierced flesh much like the root of a Bellsprout. However, that was not the mortal blow. That came from the ten-story fall. I did not even see Palms come out and begin plucking out feathers, then entire wings. All I saw were carrion birds swoop in through every opening of the building, down on to the fresh fallen corpse. Just like that, it was just myself, and Palms.
Shaking with fury, I launched myself at Falkner’s lackeys, knocking them both off of the catwalk to the floor far below. I looked down at Palms, who looked back up at me with such anger and determination as I had never seen in my life. Despite the clear disadvantage, I knew and he knew that we would triumph. The spirits of our fallen friends would empower us to prevail. Falkner sat there on a cushion, a smirk on his face. “You clearly do not have what it takes to be the champion, much less a trainer. However, if you would see your friend perish, then you may challenge me.” He then hurled a ball, unleashing a Pidgey. Palms quickly sprang in to the air, and with a whip of his leaf, enveloped the bird in a cloud of poisonous spores. From there, it was a game of cat and mouse, with Palms clearly on the advantage, just letting his venom work its course. Eventually the Pidgey succumbed to the poison, and gave up. Falkner just smiled. “I see your thirst for victory cannot be easily sated. Let’s see how you like this!!” He threw another Pokeball, unleashing a much larger bird I would later come to know as Pidgeotto. Its wingspan was enormous, at least twice as long as my outstretched arms. It beat those gigantic wings. Palms tried to latch on to something, but it was no use. The metal catwalk would allow for no slight imperfections that would allow a terrestrial Pokemon to get a grip, and he was carried up off the catwalk, and down in to the abyss below. Falkner stretched his arm out, and the bird landed on it. He said one thing before I left. “The carrion will feast well tonight.”
I am a Pokemon trainer, and I shall never train again.
-- Wow, was this thing star-crossed. Picking the Grass starter was probably my first problem. The second was keeping the Geodude out against the Bellsprout. However, every single one of the other deaths was due to crits. I almost heard "MAGETS!" every time one of my dudes died.
