User blog:3krok/Abi - My first Pokémon

 Once upon a time, I turned seven.

I got Emerald, I was astonished, I finally had a Pokémon game, but I was pretty miffed that I couldn't get a Pikachu.

I started several save files, I was still young. The one I stuck with was one where my trainer was named "gary" in all lowercase letters, I chose Torchic, and it turned out she was a girl, so I said out loud "I'm gonna name her Abi!" and so I did, Abi, my first Pokémon, I didn't know what bond I'd create with her, after all, I was just seven years old.

I got worked up when she evolved, I didn't know that was a thing in Pokémon, Evolution, I was still pretty new, luckily, my sister, Robyn, was very into Pokémon before I was born, she explained that it happens and that Abi got better and tougher. I was satisfied.

Fast forward a few months, I'm stuck in the game, few months, stuck again.

I used my master ball on Sharpedo, I released it trying to think that it would give me back the master ball. It didn't. But I was on the verge of turning eight then, I still didn't know my worth about Pokémon.

By this time, Abi had turned into a Blaze-Kicking Blaziken! She was super cool! She was my friend!

I stopped playing Emerald for a while, everyone thought I was out of Pokémon for good. Then Diamond and Pearl was advertised on TV and I was super stoked. I asked my Mum to get it.

"But you don't like Pokémon!" "I do! I just haven't played it in a while!"

Mum gave in, I got Diamond, my brother, Sean, got Pearl. My sis didn't take part in the Pokémon games this time, she had Sapphire while my brother had Ruby, but those happened even later than when I got Emerald.

I loved Diamond, I chose Turtwig and named him Leafdrop, he was a new friend, but I still had a friend in the back of my head, oh, by the way, by this time, I was nine.

I beat the game, Leafdrop had turned into a masculine Torterra and he was super cool. I still play Diamond to this day, it's my favorite in the series.

Leafdrop and I's connection grew more when I saw him in the third dimension in PokéTopia, I got Battle Coliseum that Christmas.

Then Black and White came out, I got Black, Sean got White. We weren't very satisfied with Unova, but I was still tickling for more. I was about twelve or thirteen by this time. I got Snivy, I don't remember nicknaming him, though.

Picture, it's now 2013, I've just turned fifteen, I got a shiny X for my birthday, while Sean got Y and a 3DS, I was the only one with a 3DS before this, Sean loves his 3DS to this day.

When 2014 started, Robyn got X too, I convinced her into playing Pokémon again since she had finished her A levels. I chose Chespin, named Hajime, after two characters, Dangan Ronpa's Hajime Hinata and Hajime Aoyama from Ghost Stories. Robyn chose Fennekin, nicknamed Katniss after The Hunger Games. Sean chose Froakie, nicknamed Hopper, a nickname chosen by my mother.

<p style="color:rgb(68,68,68);font-family:'HelveticaNeue',HelveticaNeue,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;line-height:19.600000381469727px;">I never did forget a little something, but I couldn't find it until Pokémon Bank came out, which was about Tuesday, the 4th of February 2014.

<p style="color:rgb(68,68,68);font-family:'HelveticaNeue',HelveticaNeue,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;line-height:19.600000381469727px;">On February 6th, 2014, when I was 8 years older than when I was when I started my Pokémon journey, I booted up Emerald.

<p style="color:rgb(68,68,68);font-family:'HelveticaNeue',HelveticaNeue,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;line-height:19.600000381469727px;">The internal battery has run dry, the game can be played, but clock based events will no longer occur.

<p style="color:rgb(68,68,68);font-family:'HelveticaNeue',HelveticaNeue,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;line-height:19.600000381469727px;">Needless to say, I was heartbroken. It's not that bad, but it could lead to something bigger, right? I didn't want to lose Abi...

<p style="color:rgb(68,68,68);font-family:'HelveticaNeue',HelveticaNeue,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;line-height:19.600000381469727px;">...She's my best friend.

<p style="color:rgb(68,68,68);font-family:'HelveticaNeue',HelveticaNeue,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;line-height:19.600000381469727px;">She's been there waiting for me for eight years, and I left her, level 78, at the Battle Frontier. I was worried about her, but I couldn't move her because she had HM moves, but there was the Move Deleter, who in this case, was the best friend I could ever have.

<p style="color:rgb(68,68,68);font-family:'HelveticaNeue',HelveticaNeue,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;line-height:19.600000381469727px;">I removed Cut and Rock Smash, I could relearn them anyway. And with five other of my precious Pokémon from Emerald, migrated her to HeartGold with regretful thoughts going around my head, it was Sean and Robyn who suggested I do this.

<p style="color:rgb(68,68,68);font-family:'HelveticaNeue',HelveticaNeue,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;line-height:19.600000381469727px;">"But... it feels wrong, moving Abi from her home!" I stuttered in tears.

<p style="color:rgb(68,68,68);font-family:'HelveticaNeue',HelveticaNeue,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;line-height:19.600000381469727px;">Talking from my mother, as well as Sean and Robyn occured.

<p style="color:rgb(68,68,68);font-family:'HelveticaNeue',HelveticaNeue,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;line-height:19.600000381469727px;">"It's just like Abi's moving house!" "They're moving countries." "Abi's wanted to be closer to you for a long time, and this is the best way to do it."

<p style="color:rgb(68,68,68);font-family:'HelveticaNeue',HelveticaNeue,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;line-height:19.600000381469727px;">I had no choice, I hit YES. If I hadn't, maybe Emerald might have corrupted in that time and Abi, Ruby... they'd all be gone.

<p style="color:rgb(68,68,68);font-family:'HelveticaNeue',HelveticaNeue,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;line-height:19.600000381469727px;">When I went to the Pal Park, I caught all of them in an order that felt random at first, but then it felt like the game was messaging me in some sort of symbolic way.

<p style="color:rgb(68,68,68);font-family:'HelveticaNeue',HelveticaNeue,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;line-height:19.600000381469727px;">The sixth and last Pokémon I had to catch in the Catching Show, a female Blaziken, level 78, nickname? Abi.

<p style="color:rgb(68,68,68);font-family:'HelveticaNeue',HelveticaNeue,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;line-height:19.600000381469727px;">My first ever Pokémon, standing in front of me in an entirely different Pokémon game, it felt so strange. She was the last one out of the six Pokémon. That's... cliché, yet it hit me emotionally.

<p style="color:rgb(68,68,68);font-family:'HelveticaNeue',HelveticaNeue,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;line-height:19.600000381469727px;">I caught Blaziken and I've never cried more tears of joy in my life. My best friend of two worlds, she's safe, and she's closer to me than ever.

<p style="color:rgb(68,68,68);font-family:'HelveticaNeue',HelveticaNeue,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;line-height:19.600000381469727px;">She is currently at the front of my party in Kanto. She walks with my trainer through Kanto and Johto. I turn to her and press A, her cry, a smile, it could feel like a normal Blaziken at any point, but it didn't, it felt different, I'd known her for a long time, and her bond with a different trainer with the same controller felt like her bond with me was still stronger than titanium, it made me smile, I smiled back, and I saved the game several times, I didn't want to lose her.

<p style="color:rgb(68,68,68);font-family:'HelveticaNeue',HelveticaNeue,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;line-height:19.600000381469727px;">Earlier, when I just got her, I checked the PC, her markings were significant to me.

<p style="color:rgb(68,68,68);font-family:'HelveticaNeue',HelveticaNeue,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;line-height:19.600000381469727px;">A heart. All that was highlighted.

<p style="color:rgb(68,68,68);font-family:'HelveticaNeue',HelveticaNeue,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;line-height:19.600000381469727px;">A heart.

<p style="color:rgb(68,68,68);font-family:'HelveticaNeue',HelveticaNeue,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;line-height:19.600000381469727px;">Abi is my best friend, I love Abi, I'm sure she loves me too, her journey to Unova to Kalos will hopefully go well, because Abi is my first Pokémon and the best and most trustworthy friend I could ever have, losing her would wreck me.