Got a story to tell! It’s Pokemon X and Y related…if you’re a Pokemon video game fan, you’ll know what I’m talking about. Otherwise, this post might not be worth readying.

I got Pokemon X and Y on Oct 21. I played for a bit and ran into a Pikachu near the beginning – level 4. That day or maybe a couple of days later, I ran into another pikachu (the second pikachu I would run into while playing the game). He was slightly different colored so I caught him as well (at the time, I had no idea what a Shiny pokemon was though). I just happen to catch him because he was a different color – his contrast is a bit harsher, he looks more like the cartoon Pikachu than the pale yellow the regular ones are. I leveled up my first pikachu but kept this other pikachu in the bank. Just kept him because of his color variation.

When I got back to Canada from my US trip, I met up with my nephew, 7, on Saturday Oct 26 as I planned, to give him Pokemon X. As he was playing pokemon, I decided to trade him my extra pikachu. He was happy to get it. I think I gave him a level 4-5 Pikachu.

As I was playing on Sunday night, I was going through my Pokedex and I saw a “Shiny Pikachu”. I had no idea what it was so I googled it. Basically – a shiny pokemon is/can be an incredibly rare Pokemon. And there can be any number of Shiny Pokemon. And here, I had a Pikachu – the most beloved and well known Pokemon character. I had a SHINY PIKACHU, combining the rareness of being a Shiny and the rareness of being a Pikachu, running into and capturing a Shiny Pikachu is pretty damn rare.

Realizing my mistake of giving away that pokemon to my nephew…I started getting a little antsy/nervous. Letting go of such a rarity…from the collector point of view, is…unheard of for me. I was also googling the possible/potential monetary value of such a pokemon – but couldn’t come up with anything.

Anyways, despite knowing it was a Shiny Pokemon, I didn’t want/need to get it back immediately. I was thinking of just going over next Saturday (Nov 2) to pick it up. But then, on Monday, I spoke to my co-worker, Sophia, who is also playing the game. I told her my story and she was SHOCKED – knowing full well that a Shiny Pikachu is pretty rare. Talking to her made me really antsy for getting it back…

So…that Monday, I drove to Richmond Hill to steal back the Pikachu I had given my nephew. I didn’t want to tell him of its specialness, knowing that he might do something like accidentally release or let it go. He’s only 7! I wasn’t even sure if he still had it (but I was hoping – after all, it’d only been 2 days).

I went over and, while he was distracted with a Pokemon book I got him, swapped a level 9 Pikachu with his level 10 Shiny Pikachu. Afterwards, he was playing again and he’s like “what happened to my quick attack?”. And then his Pikachu levels to level 10 and he’s like ‘OH! My Pikachu just leveled to 10! And it wants to learn Quick Attack!’ not knowing I made the swap and that his Pikachu hit 10 and learned Quick Attack already :P

Anyways, all in all, I have my Shiny Pikachu back at level 10. He’s safely on my 3DS for…whatever I may use him for ;) My nephew is none the wiser, and happy. I explained everything to his parents and they were okay with it and what I did – they’re happy. Everyone’s happy!

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I told this story to my co-workers and they had a reaction I wasn’t anticipating. They thought it was incredibly devious and immoral to steal the Pokemon back from him without telling him. But to my defence, I know that
a) he wouldn’t notice the difference
b) I gave the Shiny Pikachu to him in the first place
c) I also gave him the game, and a book ($70~ total)
d) He doesn’t know or understand the value/rarity of such an item.

Anyways, if I were in that situation again, I’d do it again. No hesitation.

That’s my Shiny Pikachu story :)

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Pokemon Y Status:
66 Gardevoir
66 Lucario
67 Pikachu
67 Grenina
67 Charizard
68 Roselia

7 Gym Badges
Pokedex: 293
Time: 35:32

Captured 91 different Pokemon including:
10 Shiny Pikachu
20 Combusken (evolved from Torchic – a special offer)
20 Tyrunt – picked the dinosaur over the…other fossil
50 Yveltal – The Legendary Y Pokemon, which I caught today! Saved before fighting him and had to fight him 3-5 times before I could capture him with a non-masterball pokeball. He kept destroying my team or I’d “kill” him. One of my strategies was letting him kill 5/6 of my team while I wasted moves (statue moves) or prolonged the fight (giga drain) so that after a long time of playing, I could use the timer ball – but that didn’t work.

In the end, I was able to catch him with an Ultraball – I was so happy :)

… after I beat the game, I’m gonna
a) maybe try to catch em all, I don’t know.
b) study and work on my ultimate 6-pokemon PVP team – also, learn strategies and start competing online maybe (actually, I just wanna beat my co-workers)
c) maybe start X and get the other fossil, chespin/fennekin, squirtle/bulbasaur, and the other 2/3 legendary birds. In each scenario, it means playing the full game at least 2 more times…which I could do :)

…though, Zelda will come up Nov 22 and I might just play that :D

Great time to have a 3DS ! Which btw, I pre-ordered the Zelda 3DS XL :) Can’t wait to switch to that damn classy 3DS !