Pokémon Pinwheel Village



It was 1/4/2012 when my friend let me have his copy of Pokémon Black; my friend had a tendency of selling his consoles but keeping the games, by evidently still owning Super Street Fighter IV though he hasn’t had an XBOX 360 since a year ago. The same applied for Black he recently sold his DSI to GameStop to make some money for the long board he wanted; Of course when I asked him if he was willing to give it to me for free, he hesitated but agreed as long as I would find a way to transfer out his Pokémon. I had a friend who would help me trade out the Pokémon but he was in Oregon for the holidays so he had to leave all his stuff at home. Over the next few days I had the game in my dresser drawer waiting for my friend to get back from his vacation, until then I thought to myself, I guess I can new game it just as long as I don’t save.

My Starter of course had to be Oshawott, and I nicknamed him Tito. In every Pokémon game I've played since crystal I've Come up with 2 rules; Rule 1:The first 6 Pokémon I catch would stay with me until I beat the Elite Four I also could not catch any more after I've caught these six until after the Elite Four. Because of these rules I usually refrained from catching any Pokémon until later. I didn't catch my second Pokémon until I reached Nacrene City it was a female Blitzle I named Electra.

I finally made it to Pinwheel Forest and managed to beat team plasma with Electra alone, which was good because she needed some training. After the events with team plasma I decided to remain in the forest before venturing onto the next town because I have the habit of leveling up my team to the next nearest 10, mostly because I loved having the upper hand in the next gym battle. While there I also thought to have a look around for any items that could be useful. While walking around I encountered a patch of rustling grass, being my first time seeing one I didn’t know what to expect (and over all unfamiliar with this generation, and the only information I knew about it being related to N) I decided to go for it. The patch of grass began to move away from me and I immediately thought “I have to chase after it? Well it certainly makes catching Pokémon interesting. I guess” I followed it for a minute when I realized I don’t really think this is worth it, so I began walking back.

As I began my walk back to the path I noticed I wasn’t in a familier part of the forest which didn’t concern me much thinking I could probably find more items this way. That’s when my games screen began to shake and large roots came out from behind the trees and blocked my path back. I had thought back to a Pokémon Ranger I had battled while in pursuit of the Plasma Grunt with the Dragonite skull, mentioning that the forest is alive and that everyday something changes. So I had thought this is what he was talking about, and that it was a maze that would shift randomly. So I began walking in the other direction to see if I could find another way around. After walking in a straight line for a while I began to think that this probably wasn’t a good idea.

Just then an “!” icon appeared above my characters head and the screen panned left to a woman in a dark green ball gown as though she had come from a fancy party. She was facing the opposite direction and as I approached her the “!” icon appears above her head and she turns around to face my character. Immediately she said “Oh well if it ain’t nothing but a child, what are you doing this far out in the woods sugar? Not trying to scare anyone I hope” She waited for my character to respond, when he didn’t she continued to say. “Well not much of a talker are ya? Well you should come with me any way, will see if we can’t do something about your predicament.”

She began to lead my character west and into a town called Pinwheel Village, I hadn’t noticed it on the town map the last time I checked, and the music was a blues influenced version of Route 1 from the original Pokémon game. She continued to lead my character through the town which was rural styled, almost all the houses were made of wood and old fashioned the only exception being the stone cottages at the entrance. As we walked she began to speak “Pinwheel Village is an old town and was built on a swamp. My family has owned these fertile lands for generations. We also don’t get many visitors round here, so I apologize if I seemed startled by ya’ll earlier.”

We finally stopped in front of a building that had a small sign on the front which I couldn’t not read because it was written in that universal gibberish for international cartoons my first assumption was this was some type of herbal shop. The woman then said “this here’s our towns Pokémon Center feel free to heal up your Pokémon, then when you’re done, come by my mansion and take on my gym challenge. I’ll be waiting for ya’ll so don’t keep me waiting.” She then walked north off the screen, immediately I pulled out my town map and checked where I was, and sure enough I was in Pinwheel Village just west of Pinwheel Forest just before reaching the coast.

I then made my way into the Pokémon Center and everything in there was totally different compared to the last Pokémon Center I was in, first off there was no upstairs for communicating with other players no PC and no Pokémart. It was cramped looking in there but, the nurse at the end of the hall along with what appeared to be a small pinkish Pokémon, (I remind you, I know nothing of this generation so I still don’t know certain Pokémon names) ,were the only ones in there. I approached the desk and talked to the nurse, instead of the regular greeting she simply said, “Welcome! ya’ll look tired why don’t ya have a quick lie down? ” when my screen came to I then made my way to the gym, all the houses were locked and the only person out was standing facing his Purloin, and when I pressed A on him it said “They are busy playing maybe its best we don’t disturb them”

At first I saw nothing but fenced in wheat on both the left and right of my screen the walkway was about three spaces wide and I had passed by an open gate earlier so I assumed I had entered the Plantation. Upon approaching the gym the camera began to move behind my character as if I were walking right behind him, so I saw the mansion in total detail. The first thing I noticed was it was a huge mansion, I mean like plantation house huge. And the next were the large amounts of vegetation growing on it which included Vines, Roots (similar to the ones that blocked my path earlier) and an extremely large tree bursting out of the roof of the complex and multiple branches poking out of windows and balconies. I knew from this that this was going to be a grass gym and since I had no fire types the best option was Electra seeing as Tito, (who was a Dewott now), was a water type, I thought she stood a better chance.

Entering the Gym I was greeted by the music of any normal gym, but the man near the statues who’s supposed to give me advice was not there, this was strange but I thought nothing of it since I didn’t really need any advice for this gym. As I looked around the rest of the room I noticed the building on the inside looked just as destroyed as on the outside, Roots were digging into the floor vines were spreading on the wall and shrubs growing from cracks in the walls. As I walked forward the floor was covered in the same roots as earlier and just as I was about to take my first step onto them, the screen began to shake and they opened up leaving a giant gaping hole in the floor and set of stairs from which a trainer climbs up and says “well it’s been awhile since we had a challenger, I promise to make it worth the trip.” When the battle sequence started the trainer’s sprite looked a lot like a mature version of the male character from Sinnoh when he wears his tuxedo, his trainer class was a Ball Room Dancer Stanley. The trainer had a Deerling and a Pansage which were both taken out by Electra’s stomp attack.

After the Battle the trainer says “If you want to get to our gym Leader you’re going to have to battle all of us in the ball room, every time you beat one of us a new root at the end of the room grows out, extending the bridge a little more.” Just as he had finished the sentence the screen panned north and began to shake and I saw a root come up patching up the bottom bit of the gap in the floor at the end of the room. Seeing as the opponents weren’t very tough I decided that in the next battle I would use Tito to gain some exp. The next set of roots came up and just as last time the screen shook and the roots moved revealing another trainer. This time it was a young female dressed in a yellow ball gown. “May I have this dance?” Here name was Ball Room Dancer Jessica. Her sprite was a young brunette around the age of 10 or 11 in a big yellow dress. She had both a Deerling and a Snyvy around level 16. As before her Pokémon were fairly weak so it was an easy experience for Tito, by now Tito was level 20 and Electra was level 17. The battle ended and she ends with “Was I being polite?” The bridge then grows a bit more.

Now what I expected to be the final trainer was left seeing as the bridge had one root remaining I approached the next set of roots, as before the screen shook and the roots spread only this time revealing a pair of trainers, a male and a female the man wore a Dark Green Vest and the woman wore a Black Dress. The text box then appeared; Jack: “We are the best dancers in this room, so don’t expect us to let up easily!” Diane: “To get to Samantha you’ll have to do better than that!” The battle then started there sprites were very dark almost Hispanic both were dark haired and were making that classic tango pose with both hands together pointed to the character, Tango Couple Jack and Diane would like to battle the text box said.

They had three Pokémon instead of the normal 2 that the other trainers had. The first 2 were Simisage and Maractus. I hadn’t ever seen a Maractus yet so I was a bit excited about it, but not as excited as I was going to be when I found out what was next. They were hit by my Tito’s razor shell and Electra’s Stomp of course the Simisage survived the stomp without even a dent but Maractus had gone down in one hit. The next Pokémon to appear was a Pokemon called Holowseed which I had never even heard of, its cry was the sound of rustling leaves and two wooden objects hitting one another. It looked like a walnut half way pried open enough to reveal to red eyes (similar to kabuto) in the dark hollow space inside the shell, in its animation it rocked back and forth for a bit stopped, then the eyes moved left and right inside the shell as though looking around then repeated the animation.

Assuming that it was just a pokemon I would encounter later in the wild I attacked, this time I used stomp on Holowseed and razor shell on Simisage. Simisage, went down no problem but the Holowseed didn’t take a hit, it had no affect so it must have been a ghost type. I thought to myself “Ghost Grass Pokémon? That’s a first at least it’s something new right?” the Pokémon then attacked with Bullet Seed. The next turn I KO’d it with razor shell before it could attack again. The match ended and the text box appeared; Jack: “It takes 2 to tango doesn’t it?” Diane; “Yet you still beat us with only yourself” The final root then shot out of the wall completing the bridge and allowing me to cross over to the Gym Leader.

She was standing at the base of the tall tree’s shadow with a beam of sunlight, (Almost like a spotlight), casting out from between the leaves on its colossal branches. I approached the Gym Leader and pressed A. “Ya know I just realized, I never properly introduced myself, I’m Samantha owner of this Plantation, and what do they call you? … ‘Aldo’ now that’s a mighty powerful name. Well now child ya’ll kept me waiting long enough, it’s my turn to dance with ya’ll, so don’t hold anything back and give it all ya got!” Samantha’s battle sprite had much more elegance then that of her over world sprite, she was blonde and wore her hair in bun with a white and purple flower on the side of her head and two streaks of hair running down both sides of her face. She had a beauty mark on her left cheek and had light green eyes. She wore long gloves going half way up her bicep, her dress was sleeveless and started from the top of her neck and slim fit until the waist where it spread out into a beautiful cascade of green and yellow dotted with light green flowers thickening into light green clouds towards the bottom of the dress.

Her first Pokémon was a Holowseed, mine was Tito. As my first attack I chose razor shell and took care of her Pokémon without hesitation. The next Pokémon was another Halowseed so I decided to use Electra this time because she lacked experience. For this attack I couldn’t use stomp so I decided to use charge then attack with shock wave. Halowseed used vine whip, which took out a quarter of Electra’s health. The next time I attacked I KO’d it and Electra leveled up, to 18 learning the move Flame Charge, which was perfect for the situation I was in.

<p style="text-indent:.5in">The next Pokémon was called Swampress. Its cry was almost the same as holowseed except the rustling was replaced with a more scraping sound and the wood taps were replaced with a small drum beat (sounded like a heartbeat). When I first saw it the attributes that stood out to me were the same red eyes as Holowseed, of course giving me the idea that this possible his evolution. They were at the base of the tree in the shadow of the thick white roots which were spiraling upwards merging into a solid trunk of a tree. For its animation it would grow a few inches appearing to bounce but then spring back to its original height. I used Electra’s flame charge and got it almost down to zero health. Swampress then used Ingrain. But it didn’t help seeing as I took it out in the next attack.

<p style="text-indent:.5in">That was Samantha’s last Pokémon or so I thought. The battle ended and a text box appeared; “Well that was one heck of a battle, but don’t ya’ll think it’s over, I’m just getting started, It’s time I introduce you to my strongest Pokémon!” as she said that the music intensified and the whole gym began to shake. Roots began to detach from their places in the gym and back through the holes in the ground, shrubs sank into the wall. Then as the gym continued to shake a text box appeared “Seeing ya’ll this far out in the forest made me suspect something about ya’ll. But I didn’t expect that ya’ll would be the strongest challengers to step foot into this gym, I can’t let my families’ legacy die, so with great angst I must ask you for a rematch, and I won’t take no for an answer.”

<p style="text-indent:.5in">The shaking began to intensify and the tree in the background suddenly had a little red orb moving about within its hallow frame appearing occasionally in the dark gaping holes in the bark turning the old tree into a monster, and immediately I knew it was the final evolution of Holowseed, it then began to rise out of the ground revealing two more red eyes in the shadows of its roots. A battle then started, but the sound was much more intense as if fighting a legendary. Samantha rolled in saying “alright now it’s time to show me what you really got, she then faded into the background and the monstrous Pokémon rose from the ground, the only eyes visible were the 3 scattered around the dark brown bark the two eyes I saw earlier were reburied into the ground. The sound it made was that of a tree after being cut falling snapping branches and landing with a loud thud. The screen only fit in everything below the branches maybe a reference to how tall it is.

<p style="text-indent:.5in">My character then threw out two Poke balls both Electra and Tito came out, of course I thought it was strange I’m only going against one Pokémon so why would I need both at the same time? It was when the status bars finally slid into view that I realized why; The Pokémon’s name was Eternatree but that’s not why, its level was 40 compared to my teams level that was a little bit high… make that really high, the strongest Pokémon I got is level 20 I don’t stand a chance. In its animation it would just sit quietly with its eye moving about uncoordinated as if it were looking around for something, then suddenly the tree would tilt back and all 3 eyes (including the now revealed ones hidden in the tangled mess of roots) would all focus on my screen as if looking at me then repeat.

<p style="text-indent:.5in">Eternatree went first it used the move sunny day, I immediately knew what it was trying to do. It was preparing for solar beam. Electra attacked with flame charge and that barely did anything, Tito used razor shell that didn’t do much either but at least it lowered its defense. I had better luck this time around, it tried to use shadow ball but it missed, I then attacked with flame charge and razor shell again reducing its health to a little bit less than half. Next round my luck ran out, it then used shadow ball on Electra and KO’d her so I was down to Tito and I knew I was screwed. But luckily razor shells affects had now taken its toll and lowered its defense enough so it was a somewhere in the third quarter of its health.

<p style="text-indent:.5in">Next round Eternatree was now absorbing sunlight and I thought I was done for. And just as I thought it was all over, Tito landed a critical hit on Eternatree and I won the match. In the text box after the match the text read; “…” The next scene after the battle, instead of fading into the over world was a close up of Samantha, she was looking down but with shadows covering her eyes, but tears running down her face, the Eternatree was in the background but back to its dormant state like before the battle, but it appeared in and art style as if straight out of the anime, only much more detailed. Samantha looked up, with tears still running down her face she was smiling, as soon as the text box appeared the song “sad song” from Pokémon mystery dungeon played but it sounded different, like it was softer and sadder, and slightly more orchestrated,

<p style="text-indent:.5in">She then said “So I get it now, not everyone can be the strongest, I think I’ve known that for some time now… but was too ashamed to admit it… Aldo, thank you, if it wasn’t for you and your Pokémon I wouldn’t have realized that, I owe you an apology I had a bit of an outburst. I hope you will forgive me, (a yes and no option appeared and I chose yes) Oh you don’t’ know how much that means to me. I wish I could give you a badge for all your hard work but I honestly don’t have one. So instead I’ll leave you with something to remember me by. You’ll find it upstairs in my room…” (Her expression then changed to her looking away over her left shoulder, her smile turned into a slight smirk) “So I guess this is good bye then, I wish I could say we will meet again…” (She then looked back down like from the beginning) “Aldo… when you think all is over never lose sight of the ones you love.” and with that she slowly faded in white and began to fade away as if she were made of white petals, and a gentle breeze was blowing her away. The now visible and still dormant Eternatree began to sink into the ground but not like normal it unraveled into millions of vines in a stop motion style it slowly slipped into ground allowing sunlight into the now empty mansion. “Wow” I thought (almost about to cry) “Game freak really went all out on this game, that was just awesome.” I was now looking at the gym which was now looking decayed as if it’s been years since anybody’s been here as well as shifted into a darkish brown as if the building had the life drained out of it.

<p style="text-indent:.5in">The music began to fade and was returned to the over world I noticed that the gym music never returned and it was silent. I made my way towards the doorway on the other side of the gaping hole left behind by Eternatree. I found myself in a room so dark, as if it had been inside of a cave the only forms of light were once again the beams of sunlight squeezing through the holes in the roof. I then noticed a bed and thought “I could heal up my Pokémon while I’m here”, I walked over and pressed A expecting to take a nap. Instead a text box apeared; “there is a notebook on the bed would you like to read it?” I chose yes and another text box appeared.

<p style="text-indent:.5in">''“November, 6 1861; it has been 8 months since I’ve seen my father, he had enlisted in the army to fight in the war. I’ve seen those beasts go at each other for months now, the black and white dragons in the shrouded in cloud. I told my mother about it, and as she looked up they were gone… as I was getting ready for bed I could hear them, crying out, they no longer wanted to fight…” ''

<p style="text-indent:.5in">''“June, 11 1862; we haven’t received a letter from my father in weeks mother waits for him every day, outside on the bench under the tree where they would spend their time together. As my brother, he hasn’t spoken to anyone since my father left. I haven’t seen the black and white dragons since May, but I could still hear them at night, my mother said it’s nothing, just the wind… Until my father can rest in peace, when the war and the blood shed stops, and until those beasts stop fighting… I won’t give up, as long as I carry his burning legacy…”''

<p style="text-indent:.5in">December, 20 1862; we’ve just received the news… my mother has locked herself in her room since the letters arrival, and as for my brother… Nobody has heard from him since that night he disappeared… since the black dragon flew over our village, nobody saw it but me, and trying to prove it is pointless… as for me, I’ll carry the legacy on my shoulders, until my brother finds his way home…” 

<p style="text-indent:.5in">“July 20 1864; my father’s birthday is in exactly a month, and were having a ball in his honor, everyone will be there even Jack and Diane my family’s closest friends, seeing there dance is always the best and with all this maybe I’ll finally get to see my mother smile again…”

<p style="text-indent:.5in">"August 1 1864; I saw a Pokémon today but something about this one was odd, as if it didn’t belong here like it had come from a distant land. It had short white fur, it was on four legs, with the body of a hound, black tail and a black horn that looked like a scythe, on the right side of its head, it then directed its gaze in my direction, it had a dark humanoid face, and two red shimmering eyes. I felt a warm sensation on my cheeks as if near a campfire or in front of an oven. The Pokémon then directed itself towards the forest and ran off. It looked into my eyes, almost as if it was trying to tell me something..."

<p style="text-indent:.5in">"August 15 1864; five days until the ball, this morning I awoke to the sound of a pokemon in the yard when i went outside I saw a quick figure dash around the side of my house and as I turned around the corner, it was gone. However as I returned to the door at the foot of the first step I found an egg, I didnt see a nest nore another pokemon around so I decided to take it inside, atleast until its mother returns, I'll make it a temporary nest until then"

<p style="text-indent:.5in">''“August 20 1864; the ball is tonight at exactly 8 o’clock so it’s about in an hour, and this morning while out in the fields I saw three Pokémon again only there appearance in comparison to the last was completely different. They all moved on four legs. one was thick, brown and strong looking, another was swift, green and made no sound as it galloped about, and the third was blue and stood upright with such presence, a dominate figure amongst the group, it looked at me I was overcome with a presence so familiar, I felt sudden a tear run down my face. It then turned and disappeared amongst the trees with the others, they were headed east towards the forest, I thought I saw smoke in the distance but everyone told me not to worry. Well I must finish getting ready for the ball were supposed to be expecting a very important guest…"''

<p style="text-indent:.5in">The book ended there.

<p style="text-indent:.5in">I then wandered about the room looking for anything else of significance, I ended up finding a notch behind the bookcase; my character after pressing A reached behind the bookcase and found an egg and placed it in my party. After this I made my way out of the mansion everything was burned and didn’t look like as it did before, I never saw anyone on the way out, and the music never played it was just silence the whole time except for the sound of my character bumping into things, the field was nothing but dry soil, the wooden houses were piles of charcoal and the stone houses were nothing but moss covered rocks. On my way back to the path nothing made a sound it was quiet, until I made it back to the familiar path leading to Castelia city the music began to play.

<p style="text-indent:.5in">Now I wish I could say I still have the egg and that it hatched into something marvelous, I wish I could say that... Sadly since I had no idea what I had come upon until the next day, it was too late. The day before I had turned off the DS because I had grown bored of it at the time, and I assumed I would just replay it again after my friend swaps out the Pokémon.

<p style="text-indent:.5in">I was having a conversation with my friend (not the one who gave me the game) about it, I asked him “so do you have any idea what’s inside the egg that one chick gives you?” My friend says “which egg?” “The one you get from pinwheel village after you defeat that grass gym.” Friend; “what are you talking about?” “The grass gym, after you beat that chick who has all those ghost grass Pokémon” Friend; “there aren’t any ghost grass Pokémon” Me; “what about Eternatree and holowseed?” Friend; “what the hell are those?” Me; “the grass ghost Pokémon!” Friend; “those don’t even sound like Pokémon man!”

<p style="text-indent:.5in">I ended up explaining the whole story to him but he didn’t believe me, said I was full of myself. This whole time I was playing this game I thought game freak had just hit another jackpot on another memorable story. As soon as I got home I got on the game and checked the map, sure enough the landmark for pinwheel village was nowhere on the map even the path I took to get there is gone. Ever since then I’ve been trying to repeat the whole thing again without success... I feel like such an idiot! Whatever Samantha had inside that egg, the legacy she left behind… I’m sorry Samantha….