Magikarp's Worth

My best friend Tom and I loved to play Pokemon, it was just one of the many things we would do together. Even better is the fact we would buy different versions of the game so when there was an exclusive pokemon, we would be able to trade them off as we wished. Anyways, when the new Ruby and Sapphire games came out, we both jumped at the chance to get them. Tom bought Ruby and I bought Sapphire.

One day Tom came over to my house. He sort of looked like he hadn't slept in days. When I looked at him I was concerned, since, well he is my best friend. We both headed over to the living room.

"Dude, whats wrong," I asked as he sat down on the couch next to me.

"Nothing," he muttered under his breath.

"Fine, whatever," I said with a sigh. If he didn't want to tell me I wasn't going to force him. I pulled out my purple colored Gameboy Advance. "Do you want to have a Pokemon battle?"

Tom winced a bit when I said the word pokemon. "No, I'm good."

Now I was really starting to get worried. Tom was always up for a Pokemon battle, he loved a chance to kick my butt in a battle. "Alright tell me whats wrong right now," I said after a slight pause.

"I said nothing is wrong, okay?"

"Come on, just tell me."

"No," he snapped. For a few minutes Tom and I were just staring at each other. Tom then sighed, he knew I wasn't going to give up until he told me. "Fine, you win Jade. I'll tell you but, you'll probably never believe me."

"Try me," I said as I crossed my arms.

"Well you see a couple of days ago one of my friends traded me a magikarp. I honestly thought it was a shiny but I was tricked when I actually took a good look at Pongo."

"Pongo?"

"Yeah it's what my friend named him. Anyways after I found out that Pongo wasn't a shiny I figured I could at least evolve him into a gyarados, since I didn't have one yet. Funny thing though, no matter how hard I tried I couldn't evolve the stupid thing. Then I started to see Pongo when I slept and now I can't use any other pokemon, it's like it's permanently glued to the first slot in my party. Everything is Pongo now! I'm afraid to play my Pokemon game anymore."

"Dude, its a magikarp."

"It's evil!"

I could see that he didn't like Pongo and did look a bit disturbed. I could not take him seriously though. After all, magikarp are probably the most useless pokemon on the game. I kind found it funny that Tom couldn't evolve a simple magikarp. A thought came to me; maybe if I ask for Pongo and give him my gyarados Bubbles, since I have two, maybe he'll stop acting like this. Anyways I always did have a soft spot for water pokemon so I figured it wouldn't hurt to add another water pokemon to my collection, even if it was a magikarp.

"Hey Tom, would you like to trade Pongo for one of my gyarados?"

"You want Pongo?"

"Sure, I wouldn't mind adding him to my water pokemon collection since, I evolved Bubbles by accident I haven't gotten another magikarp. So, what do you say?"

"Yes! Please, just get Pongo away from me!"

With that being said we linked up our Gameboy Advances and traded our pokemon. I said farewell to Bubbles as she was transfered to Tom's game. He seemed overjoyed to see Pongo go. I rolled my eyes at his reaction. Soon I was greeted with Pongo and Tom was greeted with Bubbles.

"Thanks a lot for the gyarados Jade."

"No problem, just take care of her."

"You know I will...uh, have fun with Pongo."

"Okay, I will."

After receiving Pongo I didn't feel up to playing Sapphire anymore, so I saved and turned the game off. Tom pretty much did the same thing and we just sort of hanged out until he went home. He seemed so much happier since I got Pongo in the trade, I actually saw Tom leave my house with a smile on his face.

It wasn't until much later that I felt like playing Sapphire again. I grabbed my Gameboy Advance and curled up on my bed. I turned the light on my end table so that way I could play without having my main light on, which annoyed my parents if I played games late at night. When I made myself comfy I turned the Gameboy Advance on.

I started off in the pokemon center in Fortree City where I had last saved. I opened up my pokemon party to see Pongo. I noticed right away though that he was in the first slot. I thought I had him more in the back of the party but it wasn't a big deal. I looked at Pongo's level, he was a level fifty. Dang, Tom really did try to evolve him.

"Alright Pongo, let's play a little," I muttered to myself. I didn't really want to evolve him myself since he was the only magikarp I had, but I always loved playing with any new pokemon I got from a trade. If he started to evolve, I could easily stop him so it wasn't a big deal.

I exited the pokemon center and left the city to go find some wild pokemon to battle with. It didn't take too long to find myself in a battle with a level twenty five wild linoone.

My trainer, Annie, called out Pongo and the battle started. I looked at the attacks he had which wasn't all that much. The only moves Pongo knew were "Splash" and "Tackle." Wait, shouldn't he at least know flail too? He was a level fifty after all. I shrugged it off anyways. Looking at my choices I figured tackle should do the trick, so I picked that one. He obeyed and attacked the linoone with tackle. Pongo's attack actually caused the linoone to faint, which wasn't all that surprising since it was twenty five levels ahead of the linoone.

After quite a few battles Pongo reached level fifty one. Since he was well past the level he was supposed to evolve. I waited for something signaling him evolving, nothing happened and I exited the battle normally.

"That was weird. Maybe Pongo is holding a everstone," I absently questioned under my breath.

Wouldn't I have caught the fact that it was holding the stone the whole time? Tom said that Pongo wouldn't evolve no matter what he tried, so of course he would have made sure that Pongo wasn't holding that stone. I figured it wouldn't hurt to look anyways, so I opened up my pokemon bag and selected Pongo. To my surprise he wasn't holding anything.

I sighed and looked at my clock, it read, "12:34". I figured I should just give the game a rest and go to bed. I'll deal with the game later when I'm not tired. Then it struck me; maybe it was because I was tired that just made it seem like Pongo didn't want to evolve. Weird things do happen when you're tired after all. I put my Gameboy Advance onto the side table I turned off my light and went to bed.

The next morning I woke up tired. All last night I had nightmares abut something. I was still a little shaken from them but honestly, I don't even remember what the nightmares were about. With a sigh, I grabbed my gameboy. I figured if I couldn't sleep I might as well play some Pokemon.

I turned on my Gameboy Advance and started up where I had last saved my game, which was on Route 120. I didn't feel up to playing with Pongo right now, I wanted some time with my other pokemon . I didn't feel like heading back to the city to drop Pongo into the PC box either, I just sort of wanted to mess around Route 120 for a bit. I figured I would just switch Pongo with another pokemon and just stay on Route 120.

Going into my pokemon bag I clicked Pongo and decided to have him switch with my flygon, Rocky. When I tried to switch him with Rocky though it wouldn't work. I didn't get a message or anything it would just act like I canceled the switch myself.

"What the," I said in confusion, "Is it broken or something?"

I tried several times with different pokemon but I could not get that stupid magikarp out of the first slot. It was really starting to annoy me. What was up with this magikarp? Nothing was wrong with my game until I got Pongo and now I can't even switch out from the first spot?I looked at the bright side; at least it wasn't something major. My game besides the thing with Pongo was working just fine.

Well since I couldn't play with my other pokemon I guess I could mess around with Pongo. Maybe I could see if he would attempt to evolve the next time I leveled him up. That was something that sort of bothered me last night when he didn't even attempt to evolve. With that in mind I set out to level up Pongo.

After battling a variety of wild pokemon, Pongo reached level fifty two. Like before, nothing happened. It updated his new states but, nothing came up prompting him to evolve. I could not figure out why. Maybe Tom wasn't crazy about Pongo not evolving.

"Is this thing messing with me," I asked out loud. Honestly I wasn't looking for an answer. Besides I'm alone in my room, who's going to answer me?

There was no point in leveling Pongo up anymore since well apparently he didn't feel like evolving. Can a pixilated creature actually feel like doing anything or even have feelings? Who am I kidding? It's just pixels in a game. It shouldn't feel anything. Why in the world would I even think that? I really think this game is starting to get me.

That was the last straw though, if Pongo is just messing with me then I don't want to play with him anymore. I was about to try and switch him with another pokemon but then I remembered that he wouldn't switch places with any of my pokemon. Well then if Pongo didn't want to switch with my pokemon then I'm shoving him into the PC. Using Rocky I had Annie fly back to Fortree City.

Upon arriving to Fortree City I entered the pokemon center right away. I made Annie then walk over to the PC and I clicked on it. I then went over to deposit pokemon and I chose Pongo. He though wouldn't go, it was just like what happened when I tried switching pokemon. I should have known that would happen.

"Why won't you go away you stupid magikarp," I yelled at the game. Even though I love water pokemon, Pongo really started to get under my skin.

Alright right then and there I figured that I needed a break from the game. I mean what sane person yells at a game? I saved my game and shut it off.

I soon found out that my nightmares got worse when I didn't play the game. I went three days without touching my Gameboy Advance and I haven't slept much since then. Though I could never remember what scared me so bad during my nightmares because as soon as I woke up I would forget the whole dream,I started to feel like I was slowly losing my mind. It was the fourth day that I finally broke down and played my Pokemon Sapphire again, it was like something in the back of my mind kept wanting me to play.

As soon as I started up my game I wanted to see if I could play with another pokemon besides Pongo, so I opened up my pokemon bag. When I did that though I saw that Pongo's sprite seemed different, curious I clicked on him to get a better look. What I saw nearly made me drop my Gameboy Advance.

Pongo's usual unintelligent expression was replaced with an angry looking face. His normally round eyes were slanted in an angry manner and his mouth was closed, it sort of looked like he was frowning. If looks could kill than Pongo probably would have killed me right on the spot. That though wasn't the reason for me almost dropping my Gameboy Advance, it was the fact it caused me to have a sudden flashback of the nightmares I've been having fo the last few days.

That expression that Pongo made made my blood run cold as I continued to lookat him that was the face the had been terrorizing my dreams and turning them into nightmaers for almost four days now. It had not dawned on me that the nightmares were about a magikarp until now. Since Pongo reminded me of the magikarp from my nightmare, I had to look at his moves. That just made matters worse. Along with his two moves splash and tackle, I saw that he had hyper beam and hydro pump. I knew Pongo didn't have those moves before and I also knew magikarp never learn those attacks. I wanted to cry though, the magikarp in my dream knew those moves. Quickly I shut off my game just as I started to hear words run through my head.

"Magikarp are the most useless pokemon? No, you are the one who is useless. I don't need to evolve to prove myself!"

"Am I useless now?"

The last words echoed in my mind since they were the last thnig I'd hear in my dreams. Every time I heard the last phrase the magikarp would kill me off with hyper beam after attacking me with hydro pump and the dream would end.

Now I know Tom was right, I can see it clearly now. Pongo is evil, he'll do anything to prove his worth.

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I woke up on the couch with my Gameboy Advance in my hand.It was off, of course. I took a glance around the room, mainly because I don't remember falling asleep on the couch. It seemed to be night since it was dark in the room. Sitting up I turned on the lamp that was next to the couch and then turned on my game.

Annie was in the pokemon center where I think I had last saved. It then occured to me; I needed to check on Pongo. I went to my pokemon bag and opened it up. Just then a chill ran down my spine, Pongo was no where to be seen. I was sure that he was in my party, I mean no matter how hard I tried I couldn't even switch him out of the first slot. Oh well it was late, so I shut off the game and headed off to bed.

The next day I headed over to Tom's house. He seemed fine and well rested for that matter. He was a bit surprised to see me over his house so early though.

"Whats up Jade?" he asked as we walked to his room.

"Do you remember Pongo?"

"Who?"

"You know Pongo, the magikarp you traded me yesterday?"

"I never traded you anything yesterday."

I stopped dead right there in the hallway. Was it all a dream? How could it be a dream, it felt so real to me. Was Tom playing a trick on me? "Yes you did, don't you have Bubbles?"

"Who?"

"You know my gyarados that I traded you for the magikarp."

"Dude, maybe you should get some more sleep. You're not making any sense." With that said Tom entered his room.

I pulled my Gameboy Advance out of my bag and turned it on. I wanted to make sure Pongo wasn't real. Quickly I looked in my pokemon party and I dropped my Gameboy Advance onto the ground. There in the first slot was a level fifty two magikarp and its name was Pongo.