txteclipse
The Last
- 2,322
- Posts
- 16
- Years
- Age 33
- Riverside
- Seen Aug 20, 2023
This was my entry for the Pokécommunity Small Writing Contest, shown here exactly as I entered it. I wrote this rather quickly and have not corrected it, so there's bound to be mistakes. Point them out if you care to, just be advised that I will not revise this version as that would kind of defeat the purpose of "as entered."
________
"Pidgeot, this is it!"
A blinding white flash, and suddenly all of my senses come alive, as though I'm waking up from a long night's sleep. At my appearance, the spectators in the Champion's Stadium let out a tremendous roar, their shouts and applause so loud that I can feel the sound as vibration in my bones. I shuffle my wings, blink hard against the harsh stadium lights, take a calming breath, and size up the opponent. It's Blastoise, the fully-evolved form of your rival's starter. Behind the massive turtle stands Blue himself, now Champion, with his arms crossed and an intense glare chiseled into his expression. I'm your single remaining pokémon, and Blastoise is his: the next few moments will decide which trainer is truly the best.
Of course, I know it's you. I've known ever since Blue's Squirtle surprised you by defeating your Charmander with its newly-learned Bubble attack, and you brought me out to replace him. Even during our first battle together, I could feel how well we meshed as master and pokémon. Every command you gave me felt not only right, but also inspired. Your uncompromising drive to be the best you could be was contagious. When Squirtle fell before our combined efforts, the victory seemed to be nothing more than a formality. It served only to establish what I've known from the second you delivered your first order: we're a perfect team.
The times between then and now were not always easy, but the bond we formed that day always pulled us through. And now it has brought us here, to the most important battle of our lives, where it will be tested to its utmost. I look back at you through the screen for a nostalgic second, remembering what we've been through together, and then return my attention to the present as the referee holds a green flag in the air. He swings the banner to his side with a flourish, signifying the start of the match.
"Blastoise, Hydro Pump!"
"Pidgeot, Fly!"
The orders come simultaneously, and I take to the sky amidst twin jets of water. One grazes my chest, but some quick wing work leads me away from any true harm. Blastoise pauses for a moment to recharge his water cannons, and I seize the opportunity to dive down and slam into his head, talons-first. The opposing pokémon bellows as I immediately take wing again, leaving behind a row of bloody slashes in his azure skin.
"Rain Dance!"
Blastoise points its cannons straight upwards, and unleashes what seems to be a small lake's worth of water. The liquid streams high into the sky, and then begins to fall back to earth in the form of a torrential downpour. My feathers are quickly saturated, adding weight to my slight body and making flight difficult.
"Pidgeot, use Double Edge!"
"Skull Bash, Blastoise!"
I flap my wings hard to gain height, and then tuck them flat against my body as I enter a vertical dive. Down below, I can see that Blastoise has withdrawn into its shell. Gathering tremendous speed, I squint as I begin to plummet faster than the rain, causing it to land in my face. Moments before impact, I close my eyes tight and tense every muscle in my body, aiming for one of the crevices formed where two of the plates on Blastoise's armor join.
The darkness under my eyelids explodes into light as I strike, and I feel the hard shell crack under my beak. Blastoise screams in pain from within his breached fortress. Clearing my reeling head with a shake, I hop a few feet away and then take to the sky again. Suddenly our foe is rocketing through the air right behind me, using its water cannons for propulsion. I try to fly out of the way, but the turtle's body is simply too big: the creature angles itself into a spinning Skull Bash attack and careens into my fragile form, causing the world to go black for a moment. I open my eyes seconds before slamming into the hard earth, open my wings, and land as gently as I can. Blastoise lands a handful of yards away, and we both stare at each other, breathing heavily.
"Blastoise, use Blizzard!"
We're both paralyzed by shock for a split second. Since when did Blastoise know an ice move? This will spell disaster for me if it hits, and with the arena already filled with freezable rain, the odds of that occurring are very high. You decide to lower them, if only slightly, and input the command into your gameboy. "Pidgeot, Double-Team!"
My muscles come alive with energy, and I begin to fly so fast that I leave ghostly images of myself behind. Everything around me seems to move sluggishly, including the whirling storm of snow and frost that is spreading from Blastoise's now-glowing body. The battle takes a turn for the surreal as I begin to dodge shards of ice, slipping between them as they swirl by in slow motion. After what seems like hours, the blizzard subsides, and I land exhausted but otherwise unhurt in the snow, looking to you for my next order.
"All right, this is it! Sky Attack, Pidgeot!"
You found the TM for this move on Victory Road, and taught it to me in compensation for not letting me out of my ball while we traveled through the rock-pokémon-filled locale. Retreating deep within myself, I close my eyes, and begin to fly as high as my wings will carry me.
Sensing the danger, Blue screams for his pokémon to use Hydro Pump in an attempt to finish me off before I can unleash the attack. One of the streams hits me square on, but only succeeds in blasting me higher into the air. I recover my breath, balance mid-air on weak wings for just a moment, and then slowly open my eyes. The stadium below is illuminated brilliantly as my feathers are consumed by pure energy, my eyes shining like stars. I let out a fearsome cry, and then streak towards the earth like a comet. My eyes focus in on my target, magnifying my vision tenfold. I can see the fear written on Blastoise's expression just before he retreats into his shell, and know that even that won't save him from this.
The blast wave knocks over spectators and instantly vaporizes the snow on the ground, filling the stadium with haze. You wait anxiously as the steam clears, unable to tell whether or not my attack has succeeded. Then, slowly, you watch as my silhouette appears: I am standing proudly on Blue's defeated starter.
As you collapse to your knees and the stadium erupts into frenetic cheering, I know that we are both thinking the same thing. Nothing has changed since that first day: we still make the perfect team.
I waited excitedly for you to power up your gameboy today, ready for us to travel across Kanto as the new Champions. There have been days and even weeks when you haven't played, however, so I guess I shouldn't have been so anxious. I'm ready whenever you are.
Come on, it's been three days! Let's go adventuring! I heard that there's something really amazing in the Unknown Dungeon: we could go there, if you'd like.
It's been a week, and I'm still waiting for you to play again. I don't want to bother you if your busy, but you have time on the weekends, don't you?
I…don't understand. What do you mean "you're too old for pokémon?" We're the perfect team, remember? Stop teasing me, and let's go fill your pokedex! I still need to reach level one-hundred, as well. It's already been a week since you played last! Let's get to it, already!
Two weeks? Were you really serious when you said you weren't going to play anymore?
Was it something I did? Did I not fight hard enough during our Championship tournament? If so, I can get better, I promise! Just come back, please?
Hello?
It's been a month now. I'm still in the first slot of your party, ready to go, if you ever want to play again. It's lonely being in my pokeball all the time…If I ever did anything bad, and that's why you left, I'm really, truly sorry. Just please come back sometime, even if it's just for a few minutes, okay?
Remember that time I got poisoned by that trainer's Grimer near the east coast, and you carried me all the way from there to the pokecenter in Lavender Town since you were out of Antidotes? Neither of us thought I was going to make it by the time we arrived, I was so sick, but you seemed irritated at first.
…That's not why you left, is it?
I…um…I miss you…
No, these aren't tears, I'm just…
***
It's been six months. I know you may not come back, but I don't want to be unprepared in case you do. I've been exercising as much as I can in my pokeball. The space is too small to move a lot, but I can flex all my muscles at least. I'd love to stretch my wings and maybe even fly around again, though…
It's a bit like the first time we tried to go through the Rock Tunnel, before you had a pokémon with Flash. It was so dark that we kept running into things, and we couldn't remember our way out. Luckily you found that Escape Rope, or the Zubats would have probably eaten us for lunch.
A year has passed. I'm still ready for us to start being the perfect team again, although I'm probably a bit out of practice by now.
I was just thinking about when you first caught me, how excited you seemed then. I was your first wild capture, if I'm remembering correctly, and after the pokeball locked closed you ran to show your parents. They didn't seem all that interested, or to even know what you where talking about for that matter, but I remember you flipping through my stat pages and pausing to look at my pokedex entry every half-hour or so. I felt so appreciated, it's hard to describe…
…Come back?
…
________
The Perfect Team
"Pidgeot, this is it!"
A blinding white flash, and suddenly all of my senses come alive, as though I'm waking up from a long night's sleep. At my appearance, the spectators in the Champion's Stadium let out a tremendous roar, their shouts and applause so loud that I can feel the sound as vibration in my bones. I shuffle my wings, blink hard against the harsh stadium lights, take a calming breath, and size up the opponent. It's Blastoise, the fully-evolved form of your rival's starter. Behind the massive turtle stands Blue himself, now Champion, with his arms crossed and an intense glare chiseled into his expression. I'm your single remaining pokémon, and Blastoise is his: the next few moments will decide which trainer is truly the best.
Of course, I know it's you. I've known ever since Blue's Squirtle surprised you by defeating your Charmander with its newly-learned Bubble attack, and you brought me out to replace him. Even during our first battle together, I could feel how well we meshed as master and pokémon. Every command you gave me felt not only right, but also inspired. Your uncompromising drive to be the best you could be was contagious. When Squirtle fell before our combined efforts, the victory seemed to be nothing more than a formality. It served only to establish what I've known from the second you delivered your first order: we're a perfect team.
The times between then and now were not always easy, but the bond we formed that day always pulled us through. And now it has brought us here, to the most important battle of our lives, where it will be tested to its utmost. I look back at you through the screen for a nostalgic second, remembering what we've been through together, and then return my attention to the present as the referee holds a green flag in the air. He swings the banner to his side with a flourish, signifying the start of the match.
"Blastoise, Hydro Pump!"
"Pidgeot, Fly!"
The orders come simultaneously, and I take to the sky amidst twin jets of water. One grazes my chest, but some quick wing work leads me away from any true harm. Blastoise pauses for a moment to recharge his water cannons, and I seize the opportunity to dive down and slam into his head, talons-first. The opposing pokémon bellows as I immediately take wing again, leaving behind a row of bloody slashes in his azure skin.
"Rain Dance!"
Blastoise points its cannons straight upwards, and unleashes what seems to be a small lake's worth of water. The liquid streams high into the sky, and then begins to fall back to earth in the form of a torrential downpour. My feathers are quickly saturated, adding weight to my slight body and making flight difficult.
"Pidgeot, use Double Edge!"
"Skull Bash, Blastoise!"
I flap my wings hard to gain height, and then tuck them flat against my body as I enter a vertical dive. Down below, I can see that Blastoise has withdrawn into its shell. Gathering tremendous speed, I squint as I begin to plummet faster than the rain, causing it to land in my face. Moments before impact, I close my eyes tight and tense every muscle in my body, aiming for one of the crevices formed where two of the plates on Blastoise's armor join.
The darkness under my eyelids explodes into light as I strike, and I feel the hard shell crack under my beak. Blastoise screams in pain from within his breached fortress. Clearing my reeling head with a shake, I hop a few feet away and then take to the sky again. Suddenly our foe is rocketing through the air right behind me, using its water cannons for propulsion. I try to fly out of the way, but the turtle's body is simply too big: the creature angles itself into a spinning Skull Bash attack and careens into my fragile form, causing the world to go black for a moment. I open my eyes seconds before slamming into the hard earth, open my wings, and land as gently as I can. Blastoise lands a handful of yards away, and we both stare at each other, breathing heavily.
"Blastoise, use Blizzard!"
We're both paralyzed by shock for a split second. Since when did Blastoise know an ice move? This will spell disaster for me if it hits, and with the arena already filled with freezable rain, the odds of that occurring are very high. You decide to lower them, if only slightly, and input the command into your gameboy. "Pidgeot, Double-Team!"
My muscles come alive with energy, and I begin to fly so fast that I leave ghostly images of myself behind. Everything around me seems to move sluggishly, including the whirling storm of snow and frost that is spreading from Blastoise's now-glowing body. The battle takes a turn for the surreal as I begin to dodge shards of ice, slipping between them as they swirl by in slow motion. After what seems like hours, the blizzard subsides, and I land exhausted but otherwise unhurt in the snow, looking to you for my next order.
"All right, this is it! Sky Attack, Pidgeot!"
You found the TM for this move on Victory Road, and taught it to me in compensation for not letting me out of my ball while we traveled through the rock-pokémon-filled locale. Retreating deep within myself, I close my eyes, and begin to fly as high as my wings will carry me.
Sensing the danger, Blue screams for his pokémon to use Hydro Pump in an attempt to finish me off before I can unleash the attack. One of the streams hits me square on, but only succeeds in blasting me higher into the air. I recover my breath, balance mid-air on weak wings for just a moment, and then slowly open my eyes. The stadium below is illuminated brilliantly as my feathers are consumed by pure energy, my eyes shining like stars. I let out a fearsome cry, and then streak towards the earth like a comet. My eyes focus in on my target, magnifying my vision tenfold. I can see the fear written on Blastoise's expression just before he retreats into his shell, and know that even that won't save him from this.
The blast wave knocks over spectators and instantly vaporizes the snow on the ground, filling the stadium with haze. You wait anxiously as the steam clears, unable to tell whether or not my attack has succeeded. Then, slowly, you watch as my silhouette appears: I am standing proudly on Blue's defeated starter.
As you collapse to your knees and the stadium erupts into frenetic cheering, I know that we are both thinking the same thing. Nothing has changed since that first day: we still make the perfect team.
***
I waited excitedly for you to power up your gameboy today, ready for us to travel across Kanto as the new Champions. There have been days and even weeks when you haven't played, however, so I guess I shouldn't have been so anxious. I'm ready whenever you are.
***
Come on, it's been three days! Let's go adventuring! I heard that there's something really amazing in the Unknown Dungeon: we could go there, if you'd like.
***
It's been a week, and I'm still waiting for you to play again. I don't want to bother you if your busy, but you have time on the weekends, don't you?
***
I…don't understand. What do you mean "you're too old for pokémon?" We're the perfect team, remember? Stop teasing me, and let's go fill your pokedex! I still need to reach level one-hundred, as well. It's already been a week since you played last! Let's get to it, already!
***
Two weeks? Were you really serious when you said you weren't going to play anymore?
Was it something I did? Did I not fight hard enough during our Championship tournament? If so, I can get better, I promise! Just come back, please?
***
Hello?
***
It's been a month now. I'm still in the first slot of your party, ready to go, if you ever want to play again. It's lonely being in my pokeball all the time…If I ever did anything bad, and that's why you left, I'm really, truly sorry. Just please come back sometime, even if it's just for a few minutes, okay?
***
Remember that time I got poisoned by that trainer's Grimer near the east coast, and you carried me all the way from there to the pokecenter in Lavender Town since you were out of Antidotes? Neither of us thought I was going to make it by the time we arrived, I was so sick, but you seemed irritated at first.
…That's not why you left, is it?
***
I…um…I miss you…
No, these aren't tears, I'm just…
***
It's been six months. I know you may not come back, but I don't want to be unprepared in case you do. I've been exercising as much as I can in my pokeball. The space is too small to move a lot, but I can flex all my muscles at least. I'd love to stretch my wings and maybe even fly around again, though…
It's a bit like the first time we tried to go through the Rock Tunnel, before you had a pokémon with Flash. It was so dark that we kept running into things, and we couldn't remember our way out. Luckily you found that Escape Rope, or the Zubats would have probably eaten us for lunch.
***
A year has passed. I'm still ready for us to start being the perfect team again, although I'm probably a bit out of practice by now.
I was just thinking about when you first caught me, how excited you seemed then. I was your first wild capture, if I'm remembering correctly, and after the pokeball locked closed you ran to show your parents. They didn't seem all that interested, or to even know what you where talking about for that matter, but I remember you flipping through my stat pages and pausing to look at my pokedex entry every half-hour or so. I felt so appreciated, it's hard to describe…
***
…Come back?
***
…