Pikachu (JJEMPIRE), Lv.6

Pikachu (JJEMPIRE), Lv.6

So with just JJEmpire, AKA Pikachu, I set out on my quest, and walked into the trail of tall grass separating Pallet Town from the world. Then, four tiles in, I encounter a wild Lv.4 Pidgey!

I immediately have JJEmpire attack with a Thundershock, but during the attack's animation, the game restarts and I see the Game Boy screen with the ding! sound. Then, it restarted again, and dinged again. I turned it off at that point, and took the Game Boy downstairs with me to get the tape. You see, I lost the lid that held the battieries in my Game Boy a long time ago, so I used tape to keep the batteries in. Since the tape is super-old and I can feel the batteries being loose, I decided to replace the old tape with new tape.

Five minutes later of carefully making sure the new tape was designed to keep the batteries still and not joggle loose, I slapped the old tape on the side of my bookshelves, with my other bits of random crap, for nostalgia. I then turned the Game Boy back on, and got back to the game.

I re-appeared in Pallet Town, and, again, went through the corridor of tall grass just near my house, and four tiles in, again, I see the exact same fucking Lv.4 Pidgey! I killed it quickly. With lightning.

I had to go back to my house for healing twice, however, because I didn't want to waste my one Potion, and some of the Pidgeys scored a critical hit. I met a nice boy who worked for the PokeMart up ahead, and gave me a Potion as a sample. So now I had two Potions, but I wasn't going to waste them if free healing was nearby. JJEmpire leveled up to Lv.7 on the way, and finally, I got to Virdian City.

I chat around with some people, then enter the PokeMart.

Apparently, that nice boy called his PokeMart and informed his fellow employees of my coming, because the cashier there called out to me, "Hey! You're from Pallet Town, right?!" I walked up to him, and he said he had a parcel that came for Professor Oak.

Wait, PokeMarts take in packages? Oooo, can I order something? How much does a Master Ball or something better then Pokeballs cost?

...

Oh, I'm not important enough to order parcels, am I? Oak gets all the glory, eh? Fine, [expletive], I'll deliver your damned parcel.

I walk back to Pallet Town, and enter Oak's Lab to give Professor Oak his parcel. He thanks me and said this was the custom Poke Ball he ordered. Dammit, c'mon, Oak isn't even a true Pokemon Trainer anymore, I need that Ball more then he does! I should have used it on the way here.

Then, the dreaded theme song played.

(Oh, no, oh, no, oh, no-ho-ho-ho!)

(Shit, shit, shit) Gary Oak is here to kick, your ass,

Gary Oak is here to rip, you, a new one,

Gaaaaaaaaaaary

Mother-Fuuuuuuuuuucking,

Oaaaaaaaaaaaaak!

I turn around to see Gary Oak walking in. Oak then begins to explain to us how he's going to send us, technically ten-years-old boys, out into the world to many dangerous places so he could fill out something called the Pokedex, an encyclopedia-like device that would be the go-to for all things Pokemon. However, I couldn't help but wonder...don't we have Bulbapedia for that?

At one point in the explanation, one of Professor Oak's aides ran into the room and whispered something in Oak's ear. As the aide walked out, Oak corrected one part of his explanation: we weren't going out into the world to collect Pokemon, we were just going to explore the general vicinity of Kanto for that instead. First he got his own grandson's name wrong, and now he mistook Kanto for the whole damn world. Oak's getting old, sorry to admit.

With the neat Pokedex, and a Town Map, now in my possession, I return to Virdian City to purchase several Potions and Pokeballs. I considered it too late to catch a usable Pokemon at Route 1, so I went west to catch some Pokemon, being careful not to go too far, otherwise Gary Oak would show up.

I dive into the tall grass, hoping to catch a Nidoran or even a Mankey (possible in Pokemon Yellow). An encounter starts, and the battle screen opens to reveal...a Lv.3 Rattata.

Ah, well, I was hoping to make sure I could handle Brock easily (Mankey being a fighting type), but Rattata's Hyper Fang is beastly to have regardless. He just needs to learn it first.

So I caught the Rattata, and named it Shadik (after Hypershadik, because of the Hyper Fang move; get it?). I went back to heal Shadik, and I returned to Route 1 to train Shadik.

Let me say it first, training a Lv.3 Pokemon on Route 1 can help you lose a few pounds. I send Shadik out to fight a Pokemon, switches him out for JJEmpire since Shadik keeps getting his HP cut down to near-death, and I have JJEmpire kill whoever I was battling, and then I walk back to the Pokemon Center in Virdian City to heal Shadik and JJEmpire, then walk out to Route 1 again.

This repeats for about a dozen times, with JJEmpire getting all the kills and leveling up to Lv.8, before finally, I get Shadik up to around Lv.5. He's close to Lv.6 now, and despite the fact that JJEmpire and Shadik has some wounds, I decided to do just one more battle to level up Shadik before I go back to heal my party.

I quickly encountered a Pidgey around Lv.6, so I thought I'll be getting some nice XP for Shadik. I have Shadik do a Tackle on the Pidgey, and then switch Shadik out for JJEmpire. JJEmpire tries to attack with a Thundershock, but misses. The enemy Pidgey responds with a Sand-Attack, lowering JJEmpire's accuracy. JJEmpire attacks again, misses. Pidgey follows up with another Sand-Attack and blinds JJEmpire even further. I swore. Loudly. JJEmpire tries to attack Pidgey again, but his attack was way off again. Pidgey tormented JJEmpire even further with a third Sand-Attack, and after that, during JJEmpire's futile attempts to hit him, Pidgey went on the offensive with several Gusts thrown at JJEmpire.

I kept hoping JJEmpire would get lucky and kill the damned thing. Finally, JJEmpire hit his mark! A Thundershock rang loud and true as it damaged Pidgey, bringing his HP down to...RED!

Damn! Thing's still alive!

Pidgey threw off another Gust, bringing JJEmpire down to orange HP. Two more Gusts, or a critical hit, would finish him off. JJEmpire was walking a razor's edge here.

I'm not one to roll the dice. I immediately switched JJEmpire out for Shadik. Pidgey did a Sand-Attack, but it missed. Knowing how much this bird managed to fuck up my best Pokemon, I was cautious. But at the same time, somehow I knew Shadik was eager to take this Pidgey down. Somehow, I just did.

I let him loose.

SHADIK used Tackle!

Shadik slammed into Pidgey, dealing a nasty critical hit. The bird was down! I knew Shadik was smug of his victory. Despite the battle, however, Shadik didn't level up. I checked his status, and saw that he only needed three experience points left. Maybe I could do one more--

No. After this? No way. I'm going back to the Pokemon Center and healing these guys first.

Within five minutes of the close call with the Lv.6 Pidgey, we had another close call, but it wasn't as intense and game-threatening as the first one. I did have to go back to the Pokemon Center, though. Along with the close call, we had a bunch more battles, and Shadik got leveled up to Lv.7 and then Lv.8. I decided to go up north, so I could catch at least two new Pokemon and prepare to fight Gary Oak in the west, where the Indigo League is located. I enter Route 2, and go into the tall grass to get my third Pokemon.

An encounter started up. Aaaand...another Ratatta appeared. I went and caught it. I named it Jakyl Lyx, and he's at Lv.4. I went on ahead, into Virdian Forest, to catch my fourth Pokemon. I'm hoping to get a Caterpie, so I can evolve it into Butterfree and kick Brock's ass with a dose of Confusion. Once I'm in the forest, another encounter occurs, and...a Lv.5 Pidgey!

...

Brock's going to be really hard. No pun intended.

I catch Pidgey with my very last Pokeball, and I name it Pijy, of course, after Pidgey the admin. As I go to the Pokemon Center to heal and go back to Route 1, I couldn't help but think about those close calls I had already so far, from the first one with Gary to the one with the Lv.6 Pidgey. How close to death we were, and yet we prevailed. I couldn't help but feel a bond with JJEmpire and Shadik now, even though they were just graphics, like when I felt what I felt during Shadik's part of the battle with the Lv.6 Pidgey. Perhaps that was the true purpose of a Nuzlocke Challenge: to show you that these Pokemon of yours mattered, that they were more then sprites on a video game screen. Perhaps I'll feel that way soon with Pijy and Jakyl. Maybe I'll feel that way with everyone.

But for now, we'll wait and see.

Pikachu (JJEMPIRE), Lv.8
Rattata (SHADIK), Lv.8
Pidgey (PIJY), Lv.6
Rattata (JAKYL LYX), Lv.4

Pikachu (JJEMPIRE), Lv.8
Rattata (SHADIK), Lv.8
Pidgey (PIJY), Lv.6
Rattata (JAKYL LYX), Lv.4

Scratch
Growl
Dig

Scratch
Leer
Low Kick
Karate Chop

Thundershock
Slam
Quick Attack
Thunder Wave

Tackle
Poisonpowder
Leech Seed
Vine Whip

Dig
Tail Whip
Quick Attack
Hyper Fang

Water Gun
Tail Whip
Quick Attack
Hyper Fang

Gust
Sand-Attack
Quick Attack
Whirlwind

Scratch
Growl
Ember
Leer