My Friend, My Killer

I was very little when I started collecting berries at Viridian Forest. I was helping Professor Oak, an old man from my town that was a family friend. He would often ask the kids from Pallet Town to help him with his researches or his lab work. In exchange, the kids would be able to learn more about Pokémon and have more experience in venturing to the wild for when they would go on their journeys. Since most kids around here, myself included, wanted to become Pokémon Trainers, we often accepted. So, when Professor Oak asked me to start collecting berries for him, I accepted without much thinking. He would often praise my work and say that one day, when I was ready, he would give me a Pokémon of my own. I was really anxious about it and could only dream of that day.

I remember one day when I was venturing in the forest collecting berries, I encountered a wild Pokémon. That wasn’t necessarily bad, most Pokémon around here were inoffensive or wouldn’t attack if unprovoked. However this Pokémon was different, I had never seen any of its type before. He was very big, of a green color and seemed very intimidating with the blades he had for arms. When I saw its stern look, I thought for sure it would attack me. However, much to my relief, that wasn’t the case. He just looked at me, as with curiosity, until I had collected the berries I needed -I was collecting Pecha Berries for a poisoned Rattata that was attacked by a swarm of Beedrill- and left. I decided not to tell Professor Oak or anyone else since I thought they would consider it too dangerous for me and wouldn’t allow me to collect berries anymore.

As time went on I would continue to go to the forest for berries and encounter this Pokémon. Sometimes he would be between the bushes, others he would be up a tree, and other I couldn’t spot him, but I was sure he was looking at me from somewhere, hidden with the green of the forest. However, one day I was collecting berries as usual until I accidentally grabbed a Caterpie, not realizing what it was. The Caterpie jumped out of my hand, scaring me since I was still a kid, and I screamed. My scream must have woken a Nidoking that was sleeping nearby as it came rampaging through the bushes. He was looking at me angrily.

This Nidoking however didn’t seem normal, he looked more fierce than usual and his eyes were a bloodlust red. I thought I was done for, since Nidoking are known for their poisonous bodies. The Nidoking let a big screech before charging to attack me. I closed my eyes, expecting to be dead in a moment, but nothing happened. When I opened them again I saw the green Pokémon with the blades for arms that always looked at me. He was giving me his back as he was using his blades to stop the charging Nidoking. With a closer inspection I saw that the Pokémon resembled a mantis.

He was struggling to stop the angry Nidoking, however it used its blades to cut the air between the Nidoking and him, so the Nidoking flinched to avoid being slashed. That didn’t stop the rampaging Nidoking as he opened his mouth creating a small orb of energy before firing a powerful beam, known as Hyper Beam which is one of the strongest attacks for a Pokémon, at the Mantis Pokémon. The Hyper Beam hit the Mantis directly, sending him flying into the trees. I quickly ran up to him thinking he was dead, however upon looking at me he got up, though he was badly hurt. He started concentrating, as if he was charging his inner energy, and a light aura surrounded him. The Nidoking charged at us again, however this time the Mantis Pokémon was ready as he slashed the Nidoking in the chest with one of his blades. The Nidoking started losing blood from the cut and that seemed to scare him because he backed off and left.

After Nidoking left, I looked at the Pokémon that had saved me. He was pretty hurt from the fight and almost collapsed before I grabbed him. I told him that I knew someone that could help him, but that he would have to trust me. He looked at me for a moment before nodding. I quickly took him back to Professor Oak’s lab. He was really surprised when I appeared carrying this strange Pokémon, but told me to come inside with him nonetheless. He quickly took a box containing a lot of Pokémon medicine and started spraying the Mantis Pokémon with some potions. I could only watch as he bandaged the Pokémon’s wounds. After a couple of hours, Professor Oak stopped and came next to me. He told me that the Pokémon would be fine, but needed to know where I had found him. I decided to tell him the truth, from the moment I first saw him to what had just happened with the Nidoking. Professor Oak seemed more surprised than angry. He told me that the Pokémon that saved me is known as ''‘Scyther’ ''and was also known as one of the most aggressive Pokémon in the Kanto Region, as must as Primeape and Charizard. I was really surprised at this and looked at Scyther, who was now resting on the stretcher Professor Oak had put him in.

From that day I felt a lot of gratitude from Scyther, even though he acted very indifferent, I still felt gratitude and a sentiment of friendship towards him. After Scyther had fully healed and was ready to go back to the wild, he would always come to collect berries with me and as a protector in case something like the Nidoking incident happened again.

A few months passed and Scyther and I were starting to become good friends when Professor Oak called me to go to his lab. He told me that since I had help him so much with collecting berries, he now wanted me to collect information about the many species of Pokémon that were on Kanto. I asked him how could I do that and he showed me a strange device, it was red and very small. He told me that it was a Pokédex, a special digital encyclopedia he had crated to collect information about Pokémon from around the world. He showed me how to use it to scan the data I needed from the Pokémon and told me I would have to travel around the region to do it. I asked him if that meant I was ready to become a trainer and when he said yes I couldn't hide my excitement. He gave me to choose between the three Kanto Starter Pokémon: Charmander, Squirtle and Bulbasaur for one to become my first Pokémon. After a lot of thought, I decided to go with Charmander, since it would become very powerful when it evolved into Charizard. Professor Oak also gave some Poke Balls to catch wild Pokémon and collect more information about them.

The day I was leaving Pallet Town I came across Scyther when I was reaching Viridian Forest. He looked at me and I smiled when I realized that he wanted to come with me on my journey. Of course, having the fighting spirit that characterized his species, he wanted me to defeat him in a battle first. I send out Charmander since he was the only Pokémon I had with me. Even though I had the type advantage I knew that this wasn’t going to be easy, I had seen Scyther’s strength and ability really close. Scyther had the strength and speed advantage, but when he was at a close range to attack I ordered Charmander to use Flamethrower, which was a super-effective move and hit Scyther directly. That was enough for me to throw a Poke Ball at him, the Poke Ball opened and a red beam absorbed Scyther inside before it shook three times and stopped, motioning that the capture was complete. I was so happy, I had caught my first Pokémon, and it was my friend Scyther.

Now with two Pokémon, we reached Pewter City to challenge the first Gym. We face off against Brock and even though my whole team was weak against his Rock types, we came victorious thanks to Scyther’s speed and the fact I had taught him Steel Wing before the battle. We continued making more friends in our journey, catching more Pokémon and challenging the rest of the Gym Leaders. My team was made of my Charizard, Scyther, Alakazam, Lapras and Eevee, although I had more Pokémon but I had sent them to Professor Oak so they could help him with his investigations. After a few months, we were ready to challenge the last Gym Leader: Giovanni, the Viridian City Gym Leader who used powerful Ground types. We managed to win his badge and after that I decided to take a rest with my Pokémon at Pallet Town to get ready for the Pokémon League.

That night we were resting at Viridian Forest while heading towards Pallet Town. I decided to let Scyther out of his Poke Ball since this was the place where we had met. Suddenly, we were woken up by a scream that seemed to come from a Pokémon. Scyther immediately shot towards where the scream had come from. I tried to follow him, but he was too fast and I couldn’t see well in the darkness. When I finally reached him, he was standing motionless in the middle of the field, his back turned towards me. I tried to speak to him, but he wouldn’t respond. That’s when I saw it: a Gengar was in front of Scyther, and it seemed to be doing something to him. Scyther turned towards me and I saw that his eyes were red and full of hate. I realized Gengar had used his Hypnosis on my Scyther, but I didn’t want to hurt my friend so I didn’t send out one of my other Pokémon.

I tried to talk to Scyther, hoping I could reach to him and break Gengar’s Hypnosis. However he seemed out of it and tried to attack me with his blades. That was when I realized I would have to fight my own friend. I send out my Alakazam to use his Psychic powers and release Scyther from Gengar’s control. However, I had forgotten Scyther’s amazing agility. He was too fast and seemed to dodge all of Alakazam’s attacks. Since Alakazam couldn’t use any of his attacks I tried to return him, however Scyther used Pursuit to block the change and hurt Alakazam’s leg with his blade. I couldn’t believe it, Scyther was attacking me and our friends, and to top it all Alakazam was losing a lot of blood and couldn’t move. Scyther slashed Alakazam on his throat, killing him instantly.

I screamed and cried at my now lost friend. Scyther turned his attention and attacked me, making me drop all my Poke Balls. I managed to grab one Poke Ball and opened it. It was Eevee’s Poke Ball. I knew that Eevee couldn’t defeat Scyther, however he had an advantage over Gengar since it couldn’t use its Ghost attacks on my Eevee. I ordered Eevee to use Quick Attack to dodge Scyther and attack Gengar, however it ended up costing my Eevee’s life as Scyther was too fast and protected Gengar, stabbing Eevee until he pierced his heart and lungs.

My sadness was big, but not bigger than my anger at that damn Gengar and its mocking laugh. While Eevee was stabbed, I looked for my other Poke Balls, but I couldn’t find them in the darkness. I suddenly found one and opened it. My Lapras came out and I quickly ordered it to use Sheer Cold. It froze everything around, except for Scyther. I couldn’t see the Gengar and at first I thought we had defeated it, but suddenly I heard its laugh and it appeared next to Scyther, ordering him to attack Lapras. Gengar seemed to laugh at me and my Pokémon’s suffering. Once Scyther finished Lapras off, he turned his attention towards me. I tried to run, but I realized that my feet were frozen on the ground from Lapras’ attack. Scyther started walking slowly towards me and I was desperate. I looked at his red blood eyes, they seemed almost exactly like the eyes of the Nidoking he had protected me from.

I thought I was going to die when I touched something in my pocket: it was my Charizard’s Poke Ball. I felt safety, since Charizard was stronger then Gengar and had a type advantage against Scyther. I released Charizard and he seemed to understand everything that was happening almost instantly, he looked angrily at the bodies of his fallen comrades and at his opponent who had the guts to hurt his friends using one of them. Charizard released a Heat Wave that burned both Gengar and Scyther, but not enough to kill any of them. Gengar seemed irritated and joined Scyther in attacking Charizard. He bravely fought against the two of them, but the numbers advantage was enough and Gengar ended up using his psychic powers to hold Charizard enough for Scyther to slash his neck.

I didn’t have anything left. I had lost my friends, I had lost the battle and I had lost my hope. I looked at the Gengar while crying and sobbing, and managed to say, “Why do you do this?” Gengar laughed at me and used telepathy to answer. It told me that since the Nidoking failed to kill me that time, it decided to get revenge on me killing me in a more painful way: using my best friend as my killer. Gengar then ordered Scyther to finish me. I looked at Scyther’s eyes, they weren’t red anymore and he had recovered consciousness, but I realized he was still under Gengar’s control when he lifted his blade to attack me. Scyther used Slash on my chest, piercing one of my lungs. I still had enough air to continue to live for a few minutes, but those minutes were just seconds giving my best friend forgiveness. I managed to see that Scyther was crying and using one of his blades to carve something on a rock before I died.

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In the middle of Viridian Forest, there’s a rock that reads the following: ''“Do not disturb nature while you are in this forest, lest you awaken Gengar’s great ambition of blood and turns your best friend into your killer.”''