Pokémon: Midnight Blue

Pichu

I spent a lot of time moving back and forth from Route 1 to Viridian City training to my wits end trying to make my Pokémon stronger. Charmander learned a lot of new moves, and Magikarp... I wish I could say more about Magikarp.

I decided after a certain point to move on from Viridian City. The gym was closed and it seemed like the leader had no intention of returning any time soon. As I stepped outside the city limits, as fate would have it, I ran into Robin.

“I didn’t expect you to catch up with me so soon, Brian,” Robin joked, “Then again, I have spent a good amount of my time training out on Route 1. My Pokémon have gotten a lot stronger.”

“So have mine,” I responded.

“Is that right? Well let’s have a match so we can see how well we’re doing.”

With that, Robin flung a Pokéball ten feet in the air, and out popped Squirtle. I tossed my Pokéball into the battlefield and summoned Magikarp.

The battle ensued. Squirtle charged at Magikarp, Magikarp used its Splash attack to dodge. It used the momentum of its descent from the air to slam Squirtle into the ground. The attack proved to be quite effective, but it seemed to take its toll on Magikarp as well. Magikarp flopped about helplessly for a moment, and Squirtle took advantage of the chance to tackle Magikarp. Magikarp countered with a Tackle attack, and both seemed to take a hard hit from the exchange.

“Squirtle, return!” I heard Robin yell. Squirtle vanished back into his Pokéball. Robin flung another Pokéball into the air and Pidgey appeared. Pidgey ran towards Magikarp, and Magikarp flailed its tail into Pidgey’s face in response. Pidgey, quite aggravated by this, whipped up a Gust attack and sent Magikarp flying. Magikarp was holding on tightly to his consciousness by the time it landed in front of me. I could not bear to see him take much more.

“Magikarp, return,” I grumbled. I sent out Charmander and ordered it to use Ember against Pidgey. Pidgey took a hard burn and seemed pretty exhausted after. Robin brought back Pidgey and sent out Squirtle. Charmander flung its claws at Squirtle. Squirtle dodged the attack and used Bubble on Charmander. Charmander suffered upon contact of Squirtle’s water-type attack. Charmander looked like he wouldn’t be able to take another attack like that.

I did not know what to do. Magikarp was barely conscious, and Charmander was up against his worst weakness. I was running out of options. Suddenly, I felt something wiggle on my back. Something was climbing my back. I looked over my shoulder and locked eyes with my recently-hatched Pichu, who was hanging on to the back of my coat, grinning ear to ear.