Pokémon Red

Me and Pikachu

Two Years Ago

This is about a very eventful day. It was a beautiful day, the night was exactly it's opposite.

"Mom, I'm late." I said, picking up my bag, ready to leave for Professor Oak's Summer Camp. He organised camps for children and teach them about Pokémon, it was the last day of the program and I surely did not wanted to miss it.

"Hey, how are you feeling?" Asked Dad, entering my room. He looked happy, really happy, one could tell by his face that he had finally completed his project at work.

"I'm feeling great!" I said, bemused. "How are you? You seem really happy."

"Work stuff. Don't forget taking Pikachu with you." Said Dad. "Are you gonna wear that to camp?"

I was wearing denim shorts and a dark blue striped shirt.

"Well, you gotta work on your dress sense. Wait-" He quickly went through my almirah and pulled out a t-shirt I barely ever wore, it was a white t-shirt with 96 written on it in red color and had red sleeves. Apparently, denim shorts seemed to be no problem. "There you go. And start watching some TV for this sacred knowledge of dressing."

I quickly changed my t-shirt and was off to Professor Oak's Summer Camp on my bicycle. It was located on a hill where his laboratory was being built.

Half way to the camp, I bumped, or more like crashed the bicycle into a tree, breaking it's paddle.

"Oh no." I started fixing the bicycle. I put the paddle back where it was supposed to be it seemed to be broken rather than detached.

"Need some help?" Asked a girl, well she wasn't able to help me put it back together but she did accompany me to the Summer Camp. And from then on, she became a good friend of mine.

I arrived the camp a few minutes late, maybe more than a few minutes. I had dragged my bicycle on foot and it was already tiring.

"Everyone, send out your Pokémon." Said Professor Oak. Every kid at my school sent a different Pokémon, Pokémon I didn't know about. "What are we gonna do today? Today let's see what moves your Pokémon can perform. And you're gonna try them on my Machamp. He can take it, he is very powerful."

Professor Oak kept calling names and the children used a few moves on Machamp, but it remained unaffected.

"Red." Said Professor Oak. "Your turn."

I stood in front of the Machamp. "Go Pikachu." I said, sending out Dad's Pikachu. "Use Thunderbolt."

Thunderbolt was the only attack I knew, I had no idea about other Pokémon attacks. Fun fact, Pikachu was dad's weakest Pokémon, which managed to defeat Machamp in one Thunderbolt.

Machamp fainted.

"I must say he is strong. But consider using weak Pokémon for these activities." Said Professor Oak.

"He's the weakest one we have." I said. The day went by at the camp and it was great.

In the evening, when I arrived home after dragging my bicycle again for half an hour, I left it outside the house, leaning on the front wall.

I slowly walked to the door and heard the telephone ringing inside. The telephone was answered and I entered, Dad was talking to someone on the phone and looked extremely worried, as if something was wrong.

Dad put down the phone and without even looking at me rushed back to his office room and picked up some files.

"Red, I'll be back. Take care of your mother." He said, with tears in his eyes. "I'm always there for you. Always!"

He hugged me tightly. That was the last hug we ever had. He left without even looking back.

At midnight, the telephone rang, Dad's bus had crashed and it caught fire, burning every passenger inside. I lost my dad that day.

I still miss him and I love having things that make me miss him more, such as his cap and his Pikachu.

Pikachu was going to be my companion now, along with more Pokémon that I meet on the way.

Until then, my journey awaits!