Don’t Call It Useless

My story begins in a little town in the Kanto Region that was my home. WAS my home. Since in a few seconds, I’ll be history. One day, back before all of this started, I happily got up. I was in a great mood since I was going to get my very first Pokémon, from the hands of Professor Oak himself. However, I was in deep sadness when I found out that I was too late and all the Pokémon had been taken by other trainers. Seeing my sadness, Professor Oak decided to take me to the nearest forest to help me catch my first Pokémon. We ventured for a long time, looking for a good Pokémon to catch. After a while, we found one in between some bushes, it was a '''Weepinbell. ''' My heart started to beat faster and faster as Professor Oak took out his Raticate to battle the wild Weepinbell and, after a few minutes, it eventually collapsed to the ground, defeated. Professor Oak took the chance and threw a Poke Ball at the fainted Weepinbell; it opened and absorbed it before rolling three times, indicating the capture was complete. I couldn’t contain my excitement; I had gotten my first Pokémon from the Pokémon Professor! He gave me the Poke Ball and told me to “Take good care of it.”

I quickly opened the Poke Ball and Weepinbell came out of it. At first it looked around before noticing me, then it startled in fear, covering its face with its leaves. I started to talk to it, introducing myself and telling it I wanted to be its friend. After some time, it decided that I wasn’t really a threat and looked at me more calmly. I noticed it had a star-shaped stain on its front. We started to play and became friends very quickly. After a few days, I decided to show my friends that I had a Pokémon. They already had Pokémon with them, and one challenged me to a battle. I accepted and released Weepinbell from my Poke Ball. The look on my friends’ face was priceless, since Weepinbell was an already evolved Pokémon.

We faced off against my friend’s Nidorino, but I quickly noticed that my Weepinbell was very moony, mostly because it had never been in a battle before Professor Oak caught it for me. When I called for it to do an attack it did something different either because it didn’t knew that one or wasn’t paying attention. In the end, Nidorino won without breaking a sweat. My friends laughed at my Pokémon, which frustrated me a lot, so I recalled Weepinbell and ran to my house. I took Weepinbell out of my Poke Ball and it seemed afraid that I would be mad at it for losing. I quickly healed it and told that ''“I don’t care what they say about you Weepinbell, you’ll always be my friend. It doesn’t matter if they laugh at you for not winning a battle.”''

But things went from bad to worse; my Weepinbell wasn’t able to win ANY battle. One day, we lost a battle to a girl and her Meowth. I felt so frustrated after watching my Weepinbell being defeated by a girl. My friends always laughed at my Pokémon. They told me things like my Pokémon didn’t serve, that it was trash that it was useless. “Don’t Call It Useless!” I shouted and ran to my house.

Back at home I started to think that maybe, maybe my friends were right. My Pokémon was useless. It hadn’t won any battle since I got it. It did not serve after all. So I decided to get rid of it. I went to the forest and released it from my Poke Ball. I told it to, “Get lost!” but it didn’t understand and just looked at me. It happily got close to me, but I kicked it and it crashed into a tree. I screamed, ''“Go away now! I don’t want to see your face anymore! You are weak! I hate you! You useless Pokémon!”''

I drop its Poke Ball on the ground and crushed it with my foot. Weepinbell started crying and ran into the forest. I went home and didn’t hear anything more about it for a year and a half. During that time, I got a proper starter, my Squirtle, which soon evolved into Wartortle. It was the envy of my friends. I also caught a Rattata and evolved it into Raticate. One day, I went with few friends into the forest to catch more Pokémon. Everything was going well until we heard a mysterious sound, and then a giant Pokémon abruptly appeared from the trees. It was a Victreebel, but an enormous one. It had a look of pure hatred, or so that was what I thought when I looked at it.

One of my friends took out his Pidgeotto, confident about his type advantage. However, Victreebel soon wrapped it around its vines and quickly engulfed the Bird Pokémon as my friend screamed in horror. Victreebel put an end to that as it ripped through my friend with its vine, engulfing him too. We all screamed at that, as Victreebel digested my dead friend and his Pidgeotto, that one still alive. Another friend of mine released his Growlithe and ordered a Flamethrower to burn it down. After the flames had dispersed, Victreebel came out of it with little scorch marks on its skin, and threw acid at the two of them. Both my friend and his Growlithe fell to the ground, their skin dissolving up to their bones. The Victreebel threw Razor Leaves at my other two friends, slicing them into pieces before they got the chance to take their Pokémon out. It covered me in all their blood as their parts went flying through the forest. I screamed in terror.

The Victreebel was so terribly strong and horrifying, but I didn’t have the chance to escape from it, so I took out my Raticate and ordered to use Hyper Fang on it. However, the monstrous Pokémon threw Poison Powder at my Raticate and it fell on the ground, squirming in pain. I was so shocked and afraid to take my Wartortle out, in case that what happened to my Raticate happened to it too. But it was my only hope to get out of here alive, so I released it and ordered to use Ice Beam, a move we had practiced before. It shot the blue beam straight at the monstrous Victreebel, freezing it completely.

I was so relieved that this nightmare was over, and I had avenged my friends and Pokémon’s death. I fell on my knees crying, still covered in blood. Suddenly, I heard something and looked in horror at the Victreebel in the ice. It was moving. Suddenly, the giant Victreebel broke free of the ice and wrapped its vine around my Wartortle. It crushed it so hard that my Wartortle’s shell broke, ripping it apart. I looked in horror as I saw the remaining parts of my once dear Pokémon fell to the ground. I yelled why was this Victreebel so strong, and why it had decided to attack me and my friends. The Victreebel slowly came close to me until we were face to face. I was so scared that I couldn’t run. When I had a close look at it, I was surprised to see it crying, and even more surprised when I saw the star-shaped stain it had on its front. I realized … that was it. The same Weepinbell I had hurt, despised and released.

I dropped my head as I said, ''“I have failed you. I promised to take care of you and always be with you, no matter if you couldn’t win a battle. I hurt you. I deserve this…”''

Now, I only have a couple of seconds left, as Victreebel opens its mouth and prepares to engulf me, but I warn you: Be good with your Pokémon or else, you may cross paths with this monstrous Victreebel that rounds around the forest, looking to punish trainers that are bad to their Pokémon.