My Best Pokemon Memory

This article was originally published on my personal website, thelostmd.com

My best pokemon memory comes from about 2003 or 2004, when I was visiting my grandparents for a few weeks. I had just started a new file on Yellow Version and had made it to Brock with a team consisting of Pikachu, one of the Nidorans, a caterpie and a metapod. Everything was level ten or so aside from the caterpie, which was level 4, and Metapod must have been level 9. That was the one I planned to evolve.

Pikachu brute forces Geodude down and gets Onix’s health about a third down before Pikachu dies. Send out Nidoran, and with that health a bit further down, Nidoran dies as well. Caterpie goes up and lasts for quite a bit, but seeing the situation I was in, I focused on string shot until the caterpie died. Finally, there I was, with my trusty metapod against Onix, who’s health was maybe a third left. I hadn’t saved in a while so I was just hoping to have the battle end quickly, but things began to get strange. As I was using Harden, Onix kept using screech and such, but wasn’t damaging Metapod. Every time it tried Tackle, it missed, likely thanks to Caterpie. The one-in-ten that WOULD hit barely hurt because Metapod was just using harden over and over. Bide didn’t do anything because Onix wasn’t being hurt, and bind wasn’t doing practically any damage.

It went on like this with me getting 1hp of damage every few turns for about ten to fifteen minutes. Then, something I’d never had happen to me occurred – Harden ran out of PP. I had never once managed to do this in my previous runs of Red or Yellow. I had no idea what would happen. Then, I saw it.

“PENIS used STRUGGLE! It hurt itself with recoil…” I never knew this was in the game. Onix’s health barely went down at all, and mine went down a handful of points. For several minutes, I was doing maybe 1-3hp damage and taking 1-3 per turn. Back and forth, little by little, both metapod’s and Onix’s hp were in the red and Onix’s was going down about a pixel every turn. It got down to the point where Onix had one pixel left of health, and Metapod had about 3hp. If Onix hit with tackle or Bind, I was done for…. but, “Enemy ONIX used BIND! Enemy ONIX’s attack missed! PENIS used STRUGGLE! It hurt itself with recoil…”

It was over. Twenty plus minutes fighting Brock, and I won with a Metapod and 1hp. I was amazed. The entire thing, especially at the end, was so exciting. Any random bit of bad RNG luck could have ended it, but no, my Metapod prevailed. After the grueling onslaught, PENIS evolved into a Butterfree, and damnit, it deserved it. It earned it. I kept that mother on my team until around Vermillion City.

I guess my second best pokemon memory is getting a Ducklett in White and naming her Quackers. As a swanna, she eventually beat the game for me. Good ol’ Quackers.