Black Out

Black Out
My friends wonder why I don't play Pokémon anymore. That is because I am the only one who knows the truth... I know what happens whenever you lose a Pokémon battle. Well, obviously, you get sent back to the Pokémon Center, but that isn’t what I’m talking about. I’m talking about the part that happens in-between. Most people don't think much about 'Blacking Out', other than that it means you lose Pokedollars and get sent back to the nearest Pokémon center. I know that it isn't that simple...



           It was about 1AM, I’ve been playing Pokémon Fire Red for an hour. I moved my character down route 12 when suddenly; a trainer stopped me for a battle. Excited that this was a chance to level up my Pokémon, I eagerly sent out my Squirtle. That was when I remembered, my other Pokémon had already fainted from my other battles along the route. The opposing trainer sent out a Pidgey, which thankfully was a few levels below me. I chose the move Surf and prepared to teach this guy a lesson. Sadly, the Pidgey used fly to dodge and because my Pokémon was weakened from the other battles, I had no choice but to watch as the Pidgey collided with my Squirtle and caused my Hp bar to drop slowly until it was all over. I yelled in frustration as my last Pokémon fainted! I was waiting to hear the sound of my Pokémon being healed but it never came. Angry from the loss, I quickly became impatient and began pressing random buttons! Finally, my screen went fuzzy but it never completely black.



I came to the realization that the trainer I had battled attempted to knock me out. My character must have had a hard head because he wasn't fully unconscious. Through a blurry screen which was oddly now 1st person, I got to see what was happening. Though, I only saw bits and pieces because my character had a minor concussion and seemed to be drifting in and out of consciousness. I could hear rival trainer removing money from my character's pocket. He then proceeded to drag me away. My screen began to get blurrier and I could only see the outlines of places and people moving around. What was going on? Why was the game in 1st person? I was very confused and wanted answers.



A short while later my screen became a bit clearer and I could tell I arrived at an orange building, which I assumed to be a Pokémon Center. At first I felt relief that I would get my Pokémon healed but I soon realized that wasn't happening. I saw my character get dropped onto the table where Nurse Joy usually puts your Pokémon but I was quickly shoved under the desk. My character wouldn’t move no matter how hard I pressed my DS Lite's buttons. Whenever I hit the control pad, all that happened was my character giving a light groan. I could hear a fuzzier version of the sound of Pokémon Getting healed playing over and over again. The closer I listened, the more messed up it sounded. The notes became slightly out of tune and it was a lot slower than it was supposed to be.



<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; line-height: 18pt;"><span style="color: white; font-family: "Noteworthy","serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-themecolor: background1;">           Later, all the lights went out besides the small glow coming from the computer. My character was dragged by an unknown person towards the back of the Pokémon Center. As I passed the computer, the light shined on the unknown person’s face just enough that I could see the person was Nurse Joy. I saw her press a button on the wall that I had never noticed before despite visiting the Pokémon Center countless times. A secret door opened up in the wall and I was dragged in. The screen's blur grew for a minute and I strained my eyes trying to see what was happening but it was useless. Once my vision cleared up again, my character was in the back room and was tied to the wall. I began to worry about my character as he was now completely immobile. My Control Pad worked now, but it could only move my head around. I was scared.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; line-height: 18pt;"><span style="color: white; font-family: "Noteworthy","serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-themecolor: background1;">

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; line-height: 18pt;"><span style="color: white; font-family: "Noteworthy","serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-themecolor: background1;">I was staring deeply into the DS when I heard a noise in my real house and jumped up, almost dropping my DS in the process. I set the system down on the table in my room and went to investigate. Upon walking into my kitchen I realized it was just my cat jumping around on the counter. I was extremely relieved, yet my heart still raced for my in-game character. I almost ran back to my game hoping I didn't miss anything. I couldn't believe I was stupid enough to leave it there. I picked up the DS and resumed watching.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; line-height: 18pt;"><span style="color: white; font-family: "Noteworthy","serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-themecolor: background1;">

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; line-height: 18pt;"><span style="color: white; font-family: "Noteworthy","serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-themecolor: background1;">Now, Nurse Joy was in the room with my character. She moved slowly across the room; reaching for something. I heard the sound of metal being dragged slowly across a hard surface. Then she began to move directly toward me, stopping every few steps as if the item was too heavy for her. My fear grew as she approached my character and through a moon lit window I saw Nurse Joy's seemingly pleased face as she lifted a blood-stained baseball bat. I lost all control I had left of my character. Then Nurse Joy began talking. I didn't know if she realized my character was awake or if she was just talking to herself.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; line-height: 18pt;"><span style="color: white; font-family: "Noteworthy","serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-themecolor: background1;">

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; line-height: 18pt;"><span style="color: white; font-family: "Noteworthy","serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-themecolor: background1;">"Sweety, I’m not going to kill you. This is what I do with everybody who comes into the game."

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; line-height: 18pt;"><span style="color: white; font-family: "Noteworthy","serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-themecolor: background1;">

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; line-height: 18pt; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="color: white; font-family: "Noteworthy","serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-themecolor: background1;">Now I was confused. What did she mean 'everybody that came into the game’? Didn't Nintendo program the characters in? I continued to listen to her talking to herself but I couldn't make out the words anymore

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; line-height: 18pt;"><span style="color: white; font-family: "Noteworthy","serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-themecolor: background1;">

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; line-height: 18pt; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="color: white; font-family: "Noteworthy","serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-themecolor: background1;">The screen flashed red as she hit my player once in the head with the baseball bat. Only now had I realized it seemed less pixilated than before. Actually, I didn't know the DS could support graphics like it.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; line-height: 18pt;"><span style="color: white; font-family: "Noteworthy","serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-themecolor: background1;">

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; line-height: 18pt; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="color: white; font-family: "Noteworthy","serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-themecolor: background1;">"I hate those stupid trainers... they don't even thank me for healing their Pokémon" Nurse Joy growled in rage.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; line-height: 18pt;"><span style="color: white; font-family: "Noteworthy","serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-themecolor: background1;">

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; line-height: 18pt; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="color: white; font-family: "Noteworthy","serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-themecolor: background1;">She hit me 3 times in the torso and I heard my character let out a scream.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; line-height: 18pt;"><span style="color: white; font-family: "Noteworthy","serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-themecolor: background1;">

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; line-height: 18pt; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="color: white; font-family: "Noteworthy","serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-themecolor: background1;">"It is so fun turning all of you ungrateful little jerks into annoying NPCs that no one likes".

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; line-height: 18pt;"><span style="color: white; font-family: "Noteworthy","serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-themecolor: background1;">

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; line-height: 18pt; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="color: white; font-family: "Noteworthy","serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-themecolor: background1;">I felt sorry for the ex-main character of the game but then felt myself get nauseous as she took a needle off of the table and proceeded to stitch my characters mouth shut. I wanted to look away but I felt like something kept me from doing so. I watched in horror as it went on for what seemed like forever. I saw blood dripping from my character’s face as he let out what would have been a scream.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; line-height: 18pt;"><span style="color: white; font-family: "Noteworthy","serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-themecolor: background1;">

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; line-height: 18pt;"><span style="color: white; font-family: "Noteworthy","serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-themecolor: background1;">"There” she said, satisfied with her work.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; line-height: 18pt;"><span style="color: white; font-family: "Noteworthy","serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-themecolor: background1;">

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; line-height: 18pt; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="color: white; font-family: "Noteworthy","serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-themecolor: background1;">“Being an NPC, you don’t need to talk anymore. All you have to do is mindlessly battle. I don't need you going and asking for help..." She explained casually as if she did this hundreds of times before.  She just stared at my character for a little bit.  It was obvious she knew he was conscious just based on his attempts at yelling for help. She then inserted a needle into his arm.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; line-height: 18pt;"><span style="color: white; font-family: "Noteworthy","serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-themecolor: background1;">

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; line-height: 18pt; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="color: white; font-family: "Noteworthy","serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-themecolor: background1;">“This will make you feel better honey..." was the last thing I heard before my character blacked out for real.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; line-height: 18pt;"><span style="color: white; font-family: "Noteworthy","serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-themecolor: background1;">

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; line-height: 18pt; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="color: white; font-family: "Noteworthy","serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-themecolor: background1;">My screen was blank and I eagerly waited for it to light up. Despite the horrid things I’ve seen, I wanted to see what would happen next.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; line-height: 18pt;"><span style="color: white; font-family: "Noteworthy","serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-themecolor: background1;">

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; line-height: 18pt; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="color: white; font-family: "Noteworthy","serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-themecolor: background1;">With a flash of white light, I spawned back in the Pokémon Center just as if it never happened. The game was back to a pixilated sky view and the familiar, and normal, sound of Pokémon healing filled my ears. I saw Nurse Joy give me back my Pokémon with a sincere smile as I began to move my character towards the door.......wait.... My Character! He was a completely different person. If it weren't for the previous events I never would have noticed but his hair color was darker and he was wearing different clothes. I was confused but I went to exit the Pokémon Center anyway... I couldn't move! Then an NPC that was sitting down turned to look at me. It was my previous character! Nurse Joy looked at me too. Her nice smile was now an evil looking one, and it was creeping me out beyond belief. Then the screen magnified their faces until it filled the entire screen and their eyes turned a dark shade of red. For some reason, I felt myself growing weaker and my DS fell to the floor as I passed out in real life.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; line-height: 18pt;"><span style="color: white; font-family: "Noteworthy","serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-themecolor: background1;">

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; line-height: 18pt; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="color: white; font-family: "Noteworthy","serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-themecolor: background1;">Waking up in a strange area, I tried I remember what happened and eventually recalled the strange and scary occurrence in my Pokémon game. Then, a look of horror came across my face as I realized I was in a Pokémon Center. How did I get into the Pokémon Game? It wasn’t possible! I tried to move but couldn't even turn my head. Then I realized my whole body was numb. The character that I played as right before passing out came to talk to me. I began to say 'help' but it came out as "keep going trainer!   Here's a potion". I was about to go insane. I screamed for help again and again and again but all I could do was give away items. I was scared, helpless, and alone. Unknown to me, Nurse Joy was watching from behind the counter with a smile on her face.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; line-height: 18pt;"><span style="color: white; font-family: "Noteworthy","serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-themecolor: background1;">

<span style="color: white; font-family: "Noteworthy","serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-themecolor: background1;">Written by 2CreepyPasturs

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