Ducky

This story is about me and the game Pokémon Red, and the Psyduck, nicknamed "Ducky". Hope you enjoy.

I am about 18. I live with my parents, but I have a ton of schoolwork to do on a normal day-to-day basis. I only get some freetime to myself, but we only have 2 sources of entertainment: The Laptop, which my dad says is for Schoolwork only, and the DS, which my little brother, who is 7, plays Pokémon Red on all the time. He has a Psyduck he named Ducky.

I'm not the biggest Pokémon fan, so I knew little about all this, but I enjoyed watching him play nonetheless. It was funny, sometimes. He would ask me what some words meant, and I would sometimes give a joke answer, and we had a great time. I barely payed attention to what was really going on in the game, but I didn't think there was much to look at. It was just a pixelated game where you fight virtual monsters, and I wasn't really into that. Plus, I thought it was too childish for my age.

One day, My Brother got in trouble for beating up other kids in school. The parents blamed the game, and took it away from him as a punishment. I didn't really mind, but now I had nothing to do. The TV was busted, and we were all too cheap to replace it. So, I decided to read the news.

I saw the DS right next to me, with Pokémon Red inside. I thought to myself, "Why not try it out?" and started it up.

When I entered the game, I knew there was only 1 save file, and that was my brothers. His name on the file was "Jimmy", as that was his name. I didn't want to upset him and delete his file, so I decided to play on his. I was in Lavender Town when I started up, and pulled up the menu. I pressed "Pokemon", and saw only 3. The first was Ducky, the Psyduck, level 30. The second was an Arbok, nicknamed Fangy. The final was a Charmeleon, nicknamed Fireball. I thought Fireball was the most unique name, but I couldn't blame him since he was only 7. So I left Lavender Town and started down the road.

I got into a Pokémon battle, and was forced, as normal, to use Ducky. It was now I realized how low Ducky's health was, and attempted to switch Pokémon, but a text box came up and said, "That won't do you any good." So, I pressed moves. Ducky only had 3 moves: Watergun, Punch and Bite. I assumed this was normal, and decided to use Watergun.

"Cannot be used at this time." The text box stated.

So, I used Bite. Ducky ran up to the other Pokémon (Which was a Rattata) and bit it. The Rattata had a very visual bite mark on its body, but it wasn't severe. Rattata did nothing but cower in fear, and beg for mercy. Ducky then, without me saying so, ran up and bit the Rattata again.

I was shocked! The Rattata's Health Bar was low, and the Rattata coughed blood, as said by the Text Box. Then the Text Box said, "Ducky and Jimmy ran away." I was devastated to think of what happened to that Rattata. I shut off the game.

I went upstairs to where Jimmy was, and told him about what happened. Jimmy laughed, and told me it didn't happen, and I was a big joker. I did kid around with him, but this time it was serious. But, still, no matter what I said or did to convince him, he didn't believe me. So I gave up.

After the week of his punishment of no Pokémon Red, I asked him if I could watch him play. Of course, he agreed, and we played like normal. When Jimmy played, though, it seemed... normal. No dying Rattata's, no low health, heck, Jimmy even healed Ducky first thing. It's like it never happened. But I wasn't convinced. I still thought something was messed up.

Jimmy went to a daily Soccer Practice every Sunday, so I thought that was the perfect time. I replayed the strange Pokémon Red cartridge. Everything went normal. Until I got into another battle. This time, It was with a Pikachu. The Pikachu looked sad, depressed, tears falling from his eyes as his animation. Ducky was sent out, and this time his moveset was different.

He had only 2 moves: Watergun and Stab. I clicked Watergun, but the same thing happened as last time, "Cannot be used at this time." So, Unwillingly, I clicked "Stab". The screen went to black, and I heard very realistic stabbing sounds. When the screen faded in, I was back in the overworld. Again, I shut off the game, scared.

I didn't tell Jimmy, because I knew he wouldn't believe me. So I told my parents. But they didn't believe me either. They thought I was simply imagining things. But I wasn't... Something was wrong with that cartridge, but it only happens with me.

I don't know why. I don't know when. But I replayed Pokémon Red for the final time. I turned on the DS. Normal screen. I pressed Pokémon Red. Normal Screen. But instead of a Charizard... It was Ducky. Ducky was just standing there, staring at me. Crimson Blood oozing from the background. I took a picture. But the picture came up... blank. Nothing was on it.

So I ignored it, and started to play. There was no File Select. Just... darkness... and a Psyduck Sprite. As if.. he were a character. I moved Ducky around, but it looked like it just showed it's normal walk animation. Nothing was happening until...

"Bump! You ran into???"

I was afraid to see what I bumped into. But I pressed okay. A battle screen commenced. I was fighting... Ducky. Ducky was standing there. His eyes white as snow. His skin pale and cracked. Blood everywhere. He was holding a knife. It gave me one option. "Plead"

This is what the text box sequence was:

"Please, don't do this!"

"..."

"We can find another way!"

"..."

"I thought we were friends... I loved you!"

"..."

"You... Heartless..."

"Ducky charges at Jimmy."

After that... the game shut off. I didn't want to turn it back on. I put it down, and went upstairs to think about what just happened. I was in total dismay.

Jimmy said his file was erased completely, and blames me. Now I got a freaky game and a pissed brother. Great. But, It's not all bad. Jimmy never wanted to play the game again, so I decided to make some money off of it. I decided to sell it on eBay for a very cheap price, and someone thankfully bought it. I put the game and a note in an envelope to the address. The note simply read, "Ducky."