#norathemediocre

[You cannot accept this. You want to stop everyone from crossing the point of no return, comfort CODY and tell them they don't need to obey anyone.]

[You snatch the game away before anyone else can save. If CODY doesn't have the heart to reset on their own, you'll do it for them.]

[You quickly turn the game off and on again, but the title screen makes your heart sink.]

[Reminiscent of the good old days of Generation 1, the title screen changed to sport CODY holding a POKé BALL, with a familiar POKéMON standing beside them.]

[The game had saved automatically, after PIKACHU's capture.]

[You have no choice but to continue on with PIKACHU, now.]

[When you load the file up, the POKéMON TOWER theme begins to play at a slower pace than before. Not by much, but just enough to feel wrong.]

The trainer is giving you one more opportunity to guess their name.

Supposedly, it’s really close to the name “CORY.”

[You open the ITEM menu, intending to scroll down to the SILPH SCOPE...]

[But the moment your cursor hovers over the POKé DOLL, the trainer uses it automatically, without any player’s input.]

[The screen fades to black, and the battle ends.]

[But, instead of returning to the overworld...]

[The moment you press A, the game turns off.] 

[You almost forgot that the trainer had that power. You wonder why they didn’t try it sooner...]

[Without a moment’s pause, you turn the game back on and load up the file, to be met with the trainer staring you down.]