Do you believe in ghosts?

My girl. She is so awesome. I love the Yuki-Onna myth and when Pokemon delves into that side of its origins altogether, so this one is agiven for me. When this Pokemon came out, I felt like I had been waiting for her my whole life. Very few female-only Pokemon get to be as cool as let alone cooler than their male counterparts and I feel like she was the first (though I reject the existence of male Gardevior, RIP to the weirdos). Her cry is so eerie and evocative and every component of her design is beautiful and clever. Imagine coming across a solitary Froslass, alone, in a blizzard. Staring down the possibilities of being doomed or saved ...and I would honestly be content with either at that point. 100000000000000000000000000/10.

Chandelure feels like it wandered straight out of a haunted house. It's such a great representation of the ghost type in general, and few things are as cool as the Fire type so this combo is a huge win for me. I paid way too much for the official Chandelure lamp and have no regrets. I even love its face, its inexpressive features are perfect for its ‘possessed object' vibe. I imagine in real life its flames would look especially lovely reflecting off its glass body.

My dear little doll. Its origin tugs at my heartstrings as a lover of plushies and dolls myself; I even kept my childhood favorites. Sometimes I think I believe in a minor, personal form of animism (or maybe just crazy). On top of that, its shadowy appearance and mischievous grin make me love it even more. I would never abandon you, Banette. Is that why I don't have one?

S&V is far from my favorite (except for the last bit) but I doubt anyone would disagree that Ceruledge looks sick as hell. I like its fire counterpart too, but Ceruledge is special. It looks so ominous and its blue flames help highlight why it is a ghost type, even if its appearance may not the most evocative of the typing on the surface. I put mine in the timer ball and the animation when I send him out is just so cool. Ceruledge like a person trapped in the body of some digital, ghostly being - or kind of like a Dullahan with a head (lol).

I love a good werewolf and kitsune allusion, I was so happy to get a ghostly version of such a great Pokemon; and its coloring looks like bloodstained snow. Truly spooky, even if you can tell at glance our Hisuian trickster is very much alive, it gives me another dose of that Yokai representation I love so much. Plus, despite its intimidating appearance I want to touch its fur. So pretty.

How could I not throw some respect on the ones who started it all? Aside from being iconic their designs are so thoughtful - I can't speak to the Japanese versions, but the names are also evocative. Especially Gengar lending itself to the ~Clefable's doppelgänger~ theory. Plus...even if Haunter has had an ominous and deserved grip on the fandom since day one, Gengar is not a downgrade. It's just so cute! It looks like a monster a child would imagine under their bed! Mega Gengar is such a great design too; and its shiny throws back to the old fashioned ~floating white ghost~ trope which is adorable. Even if they got screwed over by their poison typing early on, they were a perfect start for the Ghost typing.

I'm not sure I like this Pokemon ‘as a ghost' but I do love this Pokemon. Owls are already perceived as otherworldly - and ghostly - with eyesight verging on the supernatural which ties into its sharpshooting theme so cleverly. On top of that, deciduous trees are the ones that lose their leaves and appear gnarled and lifeless in the winter, so along with the inherent nocturnal theming it is a respectably spooky Pokemon. I love owls, I love that we have some Ghostly presence in the starting Pokemon lineup, so of course I adore Decidueye even if I think it's more likely to ward off hauntings than cause them.

The real heavy hitters. While later games had their share of spooky moments and ghostly representation (as well as spurring their own real world rumors), the early games set the stage for it all.

When most people think of Ghost Pokemon, especially for the early games, they think of Lavender town. And with good reason - the eerie music has stood the test of time, the locals sometimes say strange and startling things, and who could forget the morose and dangerous atmosphere of the local Pokemon Tower and the tragedy of Cubone's mother, who died protecting her child from Team Rocket? Of course, this was my favorite part of the game as a child. It introduced me to the concept of channelers, white magic (removed in later games, boo), and showed just what Ghost Pokemon were capable of in the series, even outside of battle. The unknown ghost sprite is also both infamous and appreciated, not the least of all by me. Pokemon Tower was later converted into a new radio tower, and though the graves were moved to a new site, I still imagine that radio tower is very haunted - I wish they portrayed that in the games, but I'm guessing they removed it to be a little lighter and softer and thus wouldn't allude to spooky things like that.

On a smaller note, the fact that such a famous and important company like Silph Co. developed a scope to see these ghosts is such a cool little bit of world building, it makes me wonder what else was happening in Kanto around this time. It'd be like if Microsoft developed a real ghost hunting program.

Human ghosties appear in the series too sometimes! Like the people in the Old Chateau in Pokemon Diamond and Pearl (shout out to the antidote in the kitchen that got removed in Platinum) and the beloved Elevator Girl in X&Y.

And then we have Agatha. I really liked her; a badass old lady and a foil to Professor Oak. Even with just a few Pokemon to work with, she still earned a place in the Elite Four and I feel like she was criminally underused. Though more cheerful, Phoebe is worth a mention as well for being so close with a human ghost that she keeps her company in her Elite Four chamber!

I'm only going to talk about the early anime, as that's what I watched for the most part and I feel like it had more impact on how the fandom perceives the Ghost typing. Of course, part of that is that so many saw it and grew up with it, but for a time it was most of what we had; the first game had the single evolution line and the second generation only gave us one more! Still, they were great Pokemon, with Gengar, Gastly, and perhaps especially Haunter giving us some of the most memorable episodes in the first season. It also helps that the early anime seems a lot weirder and more experimental than other ones, no doubt due to figuring itself out.

The Ghost of Maiden's Peak

This was one of my favorite episodes as a kid. It's absolutely nuts and highlights the weirdness of the original series. In it, the trio visit an island where a young woman bewitches Brock and James. She's too elusive to speak to but the locals inform them that she is the ghost of a woman who lost her lover in a war and supposedly waits for him on a cliffside even after her death (which is also kind of messed up; she waited so long she basically fossilized in place). Eventually, the two love-struck idiots cause enough trouble for the group and danger to themselves that the trio and Team Rocket team up to defeat the ghost - who turns out to be a Gastly in disguise. They battle with it conventionally but the ghost's illusory powers turn out to be too much for such methods; including taking the apparent form of a real life mongoose and a real life mouse trap. Misty even resorts to trying to repel the Gastly with a cross. Additionally in this episode, James finds a real world penny. Did they have a different crew on board or something?

Anyway, the Gastly leaves with the morning light but not without the ominous warning that it will return (yes, it can talk!). Strangest of all, at the end of the episode, Gastly speaks with the real maiden - a literal ghost! I thought this was so cool. And I loved how it was charitably causing mischief to keep her legend alive in hopes of one day being reunited with her lost love. He's an absolute role model! I loved everything about this episode, Gastly's motivations, the beauty of the maiden, all the real world touches of Japanese culture. It was fascinating.

The Tower of Terror

This whole arc is great and my favorite of the series. Sabrina mops the floor with Ash and then terrorizes him with her psychic powers and he realizes he needs a ghost Pokemon to beat her. Too bad for him he's only guaranteed to find one in this Satanic looking tower in which a Gengar, Haunter, and Gastly are watching stupid cartoons (really!). But it's mostly known as the episode where Ash fucking dies and hangs out with some ghost types and flies around with a view of the beautiful Saffron city with them. Goals, honestly. He gets bummed seeing his friends mourn his dead body, though, and resolves to go back. Once again, ghost Pokemon are just too weird for normal means of capture, but the Haunter decides to follow Ash back to Saffron to face off against Sabrina. In the end, Ash does earn his Marsh Badge (don't get me started on that name and the Soul Badge) from Sabrina but only because Haunter cracked her up. I love Sabrina, easily my favorite gym leader, and the anime portrays her powers as particularly creepy so I was just crazy about this arc. As a kid, I definitely wanted to die and fly around, causing trouble with Ghost Pokemon. It's not as weird as it sounds!

This is the codifying image of the Ghost typing as a whole. This art had a chokehold on me and is what comes to my mind, and no doubt lots of other people too, when I think of Haunter. I love its creepy, outreaching hand and the use of perspective.

Did these bring back any memories? These are some of the creepy sprites from the early games, and intentionally or not (thanks Missingno!) they were involved with some of the more ghostly or frightening parts of the first game. Some are unusued or glitched.

I'm what you could call a collector of bootleg Pokemon games. Pokemon Diamond & Jade, Chaos Black, etc. It's amazing the frequency with which you can find them at pawnshops, Goodwill, flea markets, and such.

They're generally fun; even if they are unplayable (which they often are), the mistranslations and poor quality make them unintentionally humorous.

I've been able to find most of the ones that I've played online, but there's one that I haven't seen any mention of. I bought it at a flea market about five years ago.

Here's a picture of the cartridge, in case anyone recognizes it. Unfortunately, when I moved two years ago, I lost the game, so I can't provide you with screencaps. Sorry.

The game started with the familiar Nidorino and Gengar intro of Red and Blue version. However, the ''press start'' screen had been altered. Red was there, but the Pokemon did not cycle through. It also said "Black Version" under the Pokemon logo.

Upon selecting "New Game", the game started the Professor Oak speech, and it quickly became evident that the game was essentially Pokemon Red Version.

After selecting your starter, if you looked at your Pokemon, you had in addition to Bulbasaur, Charmander, or Squirtle another Pokemon - "GHOST".

The Pokemon was level 1. It had the sprite of the Ghosts that are encountered in Lavender Tower before obtaining the Sliph Scope. It had one attack - "Curse". I know that there is a real move named Curse, but the attack did not exist in Generation 1, so it appears it was hacked in.

Defending Pokemon were unable to attack Ghost - it would only say they were too scared to move. When the move "Curse" was used in battle, the screen would cut to black. The cry of the defending Pokemon would be heard, but it was distorted, played at a much lower pitch than normal. The battle screen would then reappear, and the defending Pokemon would be gone. If used in a battle against a trainer, when the Pokeballs representing their Pokemon would appear in the corner, they would have one fewer Pokeball.

The implication was that the Pokemon died.

What's even stranger is that after defeating a trainer and seeing "Red received $200 for winning!", the battle commands would appear again. If you selected "Run", the battle would end as it normally does. You could also select Curse. If you did, upon returning to the overworld, the trainer's sprite would be gone. After leaving and reentering the area, the spot [where] the trainer had been would be replaced with a tombstone like the ones at Lavender Tower.

The move "Curse" was not usable in all instances. It would fail against Ghost Pokemon. It would also fail if it was used against trainers that you would have to face again, such as your Rival or Giovanni. It was usable in your final battle against them, however.

I figured this was the gimmick of the game, allowing you to use the previously uncapturable Ghosts. And because Curse made the game so easy, I essentially used it throughout the whole adventure.

The game changed quite a bit after defeating the Elite Four. After viewing the Hall of Fame, which consisted of Ghost and a couple of Pokemon I used for HM`s, the screen cut to black. A box appeared with the words "Many years later..." It then cut to Lavender Tower. An old man was standing, looking at tombstones. You then realized this man was your character.

The man moved at only half of your normal walking speed. You no longer had any Pokemon with you, not even Ghost, who up to this point had been impossible to remove from your party through depositing in the PC. The overworld was entirely empty - there were no people at all. There were still the tombstones of the trainers that you used Curse on, however.

You could go pretty much anywhere in the overworld at this point, though your movement was limited by the fact that you had no Pokemon to use HMs. And regardless of where you went, the music of Lavender Town continued on an infinite loop. After wandering for a while, I found that if you go through Diglett's Cave, one of the cuttable bushes that normally blocks the path on the other side is no longer there, allowing you to advance and return to Pallet Town.

Upon entering your house and going to the exact tile where you start the game, the screen would cut to black.

Then a sprite of a Caterpie appeared. It was the replaced by a Weedle, and then a Pidgey. I soon realized, as the Pokemon progressed from Rattata to Blastoise, that these were all of the Pokemon that I had used Curse on.

After the end of my Rival's team, a Youngster appeared, and then a Bug Catcher. These were the trainers I had Cursed.

Throughout the sequence, the Lavender Town music was playing, but it was slowly decreasing in pitch. By the time your Rival appeared on screen, it was little more than a demonic rumble.

Another cut to black. A few moments later, the battle screen suddenly appeared - your trainer sprite was now that of an old man, the same one as the one who teaches you how to catch Pokemon in Viridian City.

Ghost appeared on the other side, along with the words "GHOST wants to fight!".

You couldn't use items, and you had no Pokemon. If you tried to run, you couldn't escape. The only option was "FIGHT".

Using fight would immediately cause you to use Struggle, which didn't affect Ghost but did chip off a bit of your own HP. When it was Ghost's turn to attack, it would simply say "..." Eventually, when your HP reached a critical point, Ghost would finally use Curse.

The screen cut to black a final time.

Regardless of the buttons you pressed, you were permanently stuck in this black screen. At this point, the only thing you could do was turn the Game Boy off. When you played again, "NEW GAME" was the only option - the game had erased the file.

I played through this hacked game many, many times, and every time the game ended with this sequence. Several times I didn't use Ghost at all, though he was impossible to remove from the party. In these cases, it did not show any Pokemon or trainers and simply cut to the climactic battle with Ghost.

I'm not sure what the motives were behind the creator of this hack. It wasn't widely distributed, so it was presumably not for monetary gain. It was very well done for a bootleg.

It seems he was trying to convey a message; though it seems I am the sole receiver of this message. I'm not entirely sure what it was - the inevitability of death? The pointlessness of it? Perhaps they were simply trying to morbidly inject death and darkness into a children's game. Regardless, this children's game has made me think, and it has made me cry.

I love Pokemon. I always have, and always will. Not just the game... but the characters themselves.

When I was about six, my Dad bought me my first ever games console; a Yellow Gameboy Colour console with a copy of Pokemon Yellow.

I was overjoyed; I had been a hardcore Pokemon fan ever since I started watching the TV shows with my brother and some friends, and every time I would start trying to re-enact some Pokemon. Due to my young age and naive nature, I didn't know it was just a kids' show and a game.

My brother was with me, and his own colourless Gameboy (the see-through one that shows all of the funky machinery inside of it) had a copy of Pokemon Blue. I would have gotten Red, but they were out of stock.

My brother began his game, along with me, in the car on the way to my Grandmother's house and we were both instantly hooked. I fell in love with Pikachu instantly, and my mind being naive at a young age made me call it a weird name. Thinking of a girl who I knew who had moved recently (a very close friend of ours), I named my Pikachu 'Jessica' as a tribute to her. I got to Pewter City and I had a Butterfree and Pidgey already, similar to Ash in the cartoon. I had to turn it off and begged Dad to buy me new batteries to keep playing, but it was safe to say that I was hooked.

After time, my team grew stronger; it changed, expanding itself and now replacing Butterfree and Pidgeotto with a Sandslash and GORORO, a Dragonite traded to me from my brother. As well as the two of them, my team also added in the Charmander, Squirtle and Bulbasaur that you get during the game. However, one Pokemon never changed throughout the game.

Jessica.

She remained on my team throughout the game. I didn't mind that she was a little weaker than my other Pokemon because she wasn't evolved; she held a special place in my heart. Somehow, no matter how many times my brother tried convincing me to evolve her into a Raichu (which was impossible in my game) by trading her to him to let him do it, I never did. I liked Jessica the way she was, and kept training her along with my other Pokemon, hearing the cute "Pika!" as she went into battle and the little animations when I spoke to her.

In fact, she was the first Pokemon on my team to reach level one hundred; my first ever top level Pokemon, the first v I had ever gotten! My Dad told me I was too into the game, but I saw differently. I saw Jessica as more than just pixels and bytes in a video game; I saw her as a close friend, a companion and someone who would cheer me up when I was down with her "Pika Pika!" every time I pressed the A button on her.

In a sense... I began to love Jessica like a friend, as weird as it sounded.

Soon, Pokemon Gold and Silver came out. I traded my Yellow team to my Pokemon Silver version and trained on that one instead, even getting them all to level one hundred too. Jessica still remained at the head of my party, along with my Yellow team and my new Pokemon Silver team.

I remember watching the anime in Johto, and Ash saying that he valued all of his Pokemon, and treated them like family. I valued my Pokemon in the same way, and Jessica felt like the little sister I never had.

My brother had a tendency to just restart his game when he got bored; I even got Pokemon Red to try to match him and we even had races together. He and I battled occasionally, and he often won, but he could never match up to my Pokemon Yellow team.

One day however, one of our younger friends came around and messed with my game without me knowing. He didn't erase it, but he accidentally evolved Jessica into a Raichu (since it was on my new Crystal version, she couldn't refuse like she did in Yellow).

I felt gutted and a little sad that some of my past had died. To relive some nostalgic moments, I traded my team back to Yellow and began to fight some Pokemon with my team, my love for it being back. Although Jessica wasn't following me around anymore, I still treated her like the Pikachu I always had. I even spoke to my game a few times, and once or twice I thought she responded to me; if I felt happy, the Raichu's cry was normal and tough, and if I felt sad it felt slowed down and a little saddened. It might have just been me, but oh well.

When Pokemon Ruby and Sapphire came out, I was distraught that I couldn't trade Gen I and II Pokemon to them. I felt incredibly sad and finally put down my Pokemon Yellow to pick up a copy of Pokemon Ruby; so what if it was American on a British Gameboy Advance? I began to play and was instantly hooked. I made a new team, but every now and again I went back to my old games. Jessica still made me come back to Yellow, and her Pikachu on the front page sprite made me always happy to see her again.

Unfortunately, my life outside of my Video Games was becoming less fortunate. My mother was getting sick and slowly dying of cancer. The doctors tried everything they could and fought to keep her alive, but everyone knew the end was coming... except me. I was so naive that I never even understood half of what was going on. Sure, I knew Mom was ill, but then... the inevitable happened and it finally smacked me in the face.

I closed myself to reality, playing games and forcing everyone away from me. My thoughts were so misguided and far-fetched. My mind was being distorted and I was doing incredibly badly on my games, even if I was trying to use them as a fail-safe. Ruby was no fun anymore and most of my other games were just plain rubbish. Super Smash Brothers Melee kept me entertained for a while, but soon even that got dull. The only thing left for me now was Yellow.

Somehow, as a failsafe, Jessica and Yellow actually worked. She always seemed to cheer me up, even as a Raichu and her tough battle cry made me keep going forward. I met a girl online and began to fall in love with her; she helped me though several hard times and was also a great Pokemon fan. I got Pearl soon after and began to play that, getting hints and tips from this new friend (who will be known as "S" to protect her identity) and making a new team, buying Pokemon Battle Revolution soon after and battling her on it occasionally.

Everything was getting back together, until one fateful event. One event that would, to me unknowingly, set off a whole chain reaction.

I had come home from school incredibly angry. People at school had been bullying me and a friend had turned on me and seriously upset me. In a blind rage, I had stormed into my room and began to throw things around; my bag, books, drawers - anything that wasn't secure. Eventually, I calmed down and began to tidy up. Removing things from a pile I had made of heavy objects being thrown, I heard an odd crunching and cracking noise. Digging everything away, I found something that made my anger dissipate into nothing.

There, crushed at the bottom of the pile, was a yellow cartridge for a Gameboy colour game. I only had one yellow Colour game, and that was the game I started with.

...Yellow.

I cried. I think I really cried for quite some time, just holding the smashed bits of my game to my chest. No more nostalgic battles with the Elite four, no more battles with my rival...

...No more Jessica. The Pikachu-to-Raichu I had grown to love as a good friend and almost as a sister.

I felt bad and guilty, but even still, I had other Pokemon games. I had Pearl with an amazing team on it and soon I was going to get Platinum. Would I really miss a Pokemon game that was about seven or eight years old?

I wish I'd paid more attention... I was far too blind and naive.

I began to play Pearl more frequently, challenging S to battles as well as my friends. I moved to a new school and got Platinum, but my depression kept coming back to haunt me. My brother, too, was suffering from depression from the death of our mother, and neither of us were getting any better.

Well, I was stable thanks to S, who had now become my girlfriend, but my brother was worse off; my brother wasn't even going to school anymore. He had lost interest in Pokemon and gone to other fandoms, but I stayed loyal. I still am, to this very day, the number one Pokemon fan in my school.

However, whenever I played my Pokemon games, something lingered at the back of my mind... something that I'd forgotten. Something that I couldn't quite put my finger on... whatever it was I seemed to get this feeling whenever I saw a member of the 'chu family in the anime or in the games. It was... odd...

...And a little creepy.

A year and a half later, (approximately six months ago from today), another tragedy struck. My brother, who had slowly been sinking lower and lower into depression, died in his flat suddenly. Nobody told me anything about what happened, but it was enough; my depression came back like a storm and smacked me.

A few days later, I was due to go back to school. I was rummaging through old things that would bring back memories of my brother. Digging in a box, I found a cracked object. Pulling it out, I was surprised to see it was my old Pokemon Yellow cartridge. There was a large chunk of it missing from the front and a lot of the nuts and bolts inside of it were loose and tipped all over the bottom of the box. I took all of them and attempted to find the lost piece of the cover, but to no avail. Finally giving up, I placed it back into the box and put it away. As I did, a name flashed into my mind that made me pause.

Jessica...

...Where had I heard that name before? I couldn't remember. I stuffed it back under my computer desk and left for school.

Things weren't going very well; after my brother's death, my mind was going wrong. I was soon hearing voices in my head and I was diagnosed with minor 'Multiple Personality Disorder'. Pokemon HeartGold, my most recent game, along with S and my two friends (known to you as P and R) were the only things keeping me sane.

Soon enough, P suggested I get the new Pokemon games, Pokemon Black and White. I decided to get Black because I liked the look of the white dragon Reshiram. He said that he would get White and we would race to see who could beat the game first, just like me and my brother would have done.

Soon, the game came and we went instantly to playing it. Within three days, I was already with seven badges and a full team. My love of Pokemon would never die, and P was left in the dust with only four badges.

Finally beating the game and getting the Transfer Machine, I borrowed P's DS and began to scroll through some Pokemon to trade from my HeartGold. I wanted to replace Lightning (my Zebstrika) and Wildfire (my Simisear) because they were far too weak. Looking through, I came across a Pikachu I had gotten from the Yellow Forest Pokewalker run. It was female, had a modest nature and knew Surf, Volt Tackle, and two other moves I can't remember.

Perfect.

As a tradition of mine, I always name my Pokemon. This helps me put characteristics to them, and I had done so ever since I could remember. My HeartGold file was loaded and I took the Pikachu to the Name Rater. Pikachu seemed like the only one really worthy of being on my team; I'd already decided to replace Simisear with another Unova Pokemon. As I went to nickname her, I had a discussion with the other two voices in my head to ask what to call her. As we were talking, my stylus tapped absentmindedly on the screen without me realizing it.

As I came back to focus from the conversation with my other two counterparts, I realized that my dawdling had made me press Enter. I rolled my eyes and went to look at the probably silly name I had made.

"Congratulations! From now on, this Pokemon will be known as Jessica!"

"...Jessica..." My eyes widened as I recognized the name from somewhere. Where, I didn't remember, but it seemed to fit.

Everything from there went smoothly. We decided to stick with that name and sent Jessica to my Black and played that weird capture game thing. It took me two tries to do it, but I finally got my Pokemon to Black. Jessica was shifted to the front of my party, and I began to train her. Things were going as planned; the Lucky Egg and Exp. Point Up power I was using from my C-Gear were working great. I changed her moveset a bit to be more Special-oriented (she had a Modest Nature) and kept on training.

Things started getting strange about thirty minutes after she was in the game.

I had started training Jessica without an Exp. Boost and had just gotten her to level fifty. Level fifty was the level I was planning to evolve her into a Raichu. I pressed A twice to get rid of the stats and then a third time to get rid of the winning battle message.

However, rather than the screen going back to normal, it stayed black for a few seconds. Thinking my game had crashed, I pressed the A button once or twice. A black message box appeared on the screen, as if I'd just received an item, but the text was going slowly, and what was displayed made me frown.

"...remember me...?"

I blinked. I didn't know what that was. The text box vanished and the screen returned to normal. I guessed it was just some odd glitch for an event; maybe a joke they did since Pikachu was a main Pokemon in the first games. Chuckling a little at a possible gag, I went to my pack and took a Thunderstone, going to click on Jessica. However, rather than the page being replaced by Jessica evolving, a text box appeared, this time the text moving at normal speed.

"Jessica is refusing to take the stone!"

"...Refusing?" I was confused; a Pokemon had never done that to me... except once. Maybe it was a gag again back to this old Pokemon game. Sighing, I closed the bag and began to walk around a bit more, training again. Jessica raised a few more levels until she was level sixty, and I tried with the Thunderstone. Again, Jessica refused, but this time, as I closed the bag, another message appeared; black text box, slow white writing like before.

"...It's not going to work... now do you remember me...?"

This was starting to creep me out a little. I saved my game and then checked Jessica's stats.

On the status screen, her stats seemed normal; level sixty, modest nature, holding a Lucky Egg, female... but something was different. It took me a few seconds to notice what it was. The Pokemon's sprite usually moves on the status screens, but Jessica's was unmoving. The Pikachu was sat there, staring intently at the screen, and she didn't look happy like all of the other Pikachu did.

In fact... she looked... angry. Her head was crouched a little and her eyes were narrowed, her cheeks sparking occasionally. She hadn't been like that when I'd first gotten her. Worried that it could be Pokerus or some form of equivalent, I took her to a Pokemon Centre to see if that little message saying 'you have Pokerus' came up. When I spoke to Nurse Joy, she healed my Pokemon and then began to say something else, but what she said wasn't what I was expecting.

"Oh my... it seems your Jessica isn't very pleased with you. Did you do something to upset it? You should take better care of your Pokemon."

I read the screen over and over, trying to understand what I'd done wrong. Was this all a side-effect of some glitch involving Pikachu's and Thunderstones?

Alarm bells were going off in my head; my other two voices were screaming at me to be careful, but I wanted to get Jessica up to a higher level to battle the Champion and my friend; and so, I began to train again. Once she reached level sixty-five, I checked back on her sprite.

Jessica's sprite had gone back to normal, but something was different. Where-as the Pikachu sprite normally bounced, Jessica did not, and she seemed to be looking at me, her eyes locking onto mine quietly, the detailed brown eyes filled with emotion I never knew could be seen in a game; hatred, anger, resentment, sorrow... they were not happy eyes. As I closed her status page, another message flashed up.

"...You're a liar... a cruel, heartless killer..."

"K-killer...?!" I stared at the screen. Now I KNEW something was wrong. I quickly grabbed my DS and hurried upstairs in my school to find P and R, both of them in the upstairs lounge. I showed them the game, but as soon as I turned the DS to show them, the message would replace itself with Jessica's stat screen. I told them to listen to me and begged them to understand, but the two of them were both talking about something else and thought I was just going nuts and being stupid. I resigned myself to possibly thinking that too and headed back downstairs to my room, continuing to train.

As soon as I opened my DS back up, words were on the bottom screen in a slightly larger-than-normal textbox. These words were worrying, however, since it was still on the black text box... but the words themselves were blood red and in a different style of writing, much more blocky and sharp than the rounded edges of the newer writing.

"You kept me close. We were the best of friends. Then you broke me - killed me - and then discarded me. I will never die. I am too close to your heart."

Jessica's sprite appeared on the screen, but it was different again. Instead of a happy bouncy Pikachu, her arms were folded and her ears were drooping downwards, her eyes narrowed and her body had turned so it was now facing the screen directly. It was then that I really understood; she wasn't talking to the character at all.

She was talking to me.

"...J-Jessica..." I whispered, staring at her quietly. The Pikachu's sprite nodded angrily, and its mouth began to move silently as words appeared on the screen in that same blood-red, digital writing.

"I thought you cared. I thought you really cared. Wasn't I special to you, Cameron? Wasn't I your best friend?"

A Yes/No selection box appeared. I lingered, memories slowly beginning to hit my head as the other two voices in my head remained silent, probably just as shocked as I was. Fingers trembling, I selected 'yes'. Jessica nodded on-screen before her tail flicked and her mouth began to move again.

"Yes. We were partners, you and I. We took down Team Rocket together. We conquered Kanto, Johto, and even Red together... I thought you cared, but I was wrong. You let rage get the better of you and snapped me like a twig. You crushed me, as well as my heart. You killed me. You're a murderer, Cameron."

"N-no!" I cried, not realizing I was talking aloud; "Jessica, I'm sorry! I really am!" I could feel tears begin to stream down my face, "You've got it all wrong!"

There was silence from the screen, before I suddenly heard; "...Pika," from the speakers. I looked at the screen to see she had turned her back on me and had begun to walk away. I shook my head, frantically pressing the A button to try and do something, but all I got was a swish of her lightning-bolt tail as she faded out. The screen returned to normal, and Black (the character) was facing a Pikachu sprite at the top of some steps. I guessed that this was Jessica, and the little Pikachu-block looked at Black before another text box appeared.

"At the top of Celestial Tower... I will wait for you."

With that, the screen flashed black and then back to normal. Things were wrong, though. The music had stopped playing, and Black seemed to be moving slightly slower than normal. When I checked my party Pokemon, the first thing I noticed was that Jessica was no longer in my party. The first space was replaced by my starter, Wish, my Samurott. Looking over my Pokemon, I noticed some other things; their cries were not sounded, and their sprites were frozen. The sprites themselves were also only done in certain monochrome colours; yellow, red, blue or what-not, as well as done in large, blocky pixels... just like...

...just like Pokemon Yellow sprites. Everything suddenly hit me; Jessica, my old team, the nostalgia... and finally, what had happened to the cartridge.

Without another word, in real life or in game, I used my trusty Sigilyph (Hynode) to fly to Mistralton City and headed north towards Celestial tower. The music still refused to play, but I was in too much torment with myself to care. The two voices in my head were trying to reassure me that this was some kind of nightmare, but I knew it was all happening. It was all so real... and my throat was incredibly dry. My tears still ran down my face as I entered the tower; the tower of deceased Pokemon.

Pokemon Tower...

As soon as I entered, the atmosphere was different from outside. The room was darker than normal, and there wasn't anybody there. There was a forlorn silence, but faintly, music was playing. I began to ascend the spiral staircase and the music got louder with every floor I raised.

Each floor was how it should be, but much darker and with no Trainers or wild Pokemon. The graves were painted black, and on the final staircase, I saw "CAMERON USED RAGE! JESSICA DIED!" in block red capital letters spiraling up the stairs, one letter on each second step.

I finally reached the top, and, surprisingly, found everybody there; all of the trainers from the tower, the Gym Leaders, Elite Four, Belle, Cheren, N, Alder... they were all here, looking towards the main steps to the bell at the top of the tower. As I approached them, people stopped me. What they said was what shocked me and made my throat dry out even more and fresh tears well up in my eyes.

"Belle: Cameron... how could you do such a thing...?"

"Cheren: You... I looked up to you... how could you betray me...?"

"Alder: This... is unforgivable... but maybe, she will..."

"N: You said that you wanted people and Pokemon to live in peace... then why did you...?"

As I rose the final few steps, Belle, Cheren, N and Alder all followed, blocking the way back out. I went forward and stopped. There, standing in front of the bell, was undeniably... a Raichu sprite. The Raichu rang the bell, the sounds sounding eerie with the music, which I now recognized as the 8-bit Lavender Town music from Pokemon Yellow.

The music suddenly stopped, and another text bubble appeared; black, with white writing.

"...You came, Cameron."

"...I did..." I whispered quietly to the screen, sniffing as I stared at it. The Raichu sprite turned around and took a few steps towards Black, only stopping one or two spaces away.

"Do you know why I wanted to call you here?"

A 'yes/no' box appeared again. I pressed 'yes' with shaking thumbs and the Raichu shook its head in response.

"No, you don't. Don't lie. I called you here... so you can see what you did to me." The sprite took a final few steps towards Black, and the screen fuzzed out, the larger sprite replacing most of the screen, like when N sometimes talked. What I saw however almost made me sick.

It was a Raichu, but no Raichu I had ever seen. The creature's ears were flattened to its skull, a huge gash leading from one ear to the other across the forehead. Blood-stained fur was shown all the way down its face, past its sorrowful eyes and scratched cheeks. Its arms hung limply by its sides and its tail drooped limply over its shoulder, the lightning bolt at the tip of it having had a large chunk ripped out of it. The Raichu's mouth had dried blood around the lips, and some still dribbling from the corner of its mouth, but it was the main part of the Raichu that terrified me.

Right where the chest was, the abdomen and stomach area of the Raichu too, there was a gaping wound; inside could be seen intestines, bones, cracked ribs and with copious amounts of blood dripping from it, covering the white belly-fur and staining it red. I could see its heart, and with a sickening turn of my stomach, I saw it beating feebly within the shattered ribcage.

Panicking, I pressed A repeatedly to try to get the image away from the screen. Instead, a text-box appeared, the writing digital and red, just like the blood coming from the Raichu.

"What's wrong, Cameron? Can't stomach what you did to me? Your closest friend, the one who you so mercilessly killed?"

"I'M SORRY!" I screamed suddenly, staring at the Raichu's face; "I'M SORRY!!" With that, I crumpled over my screen and sobbed; "J-Jessica, it was an accident! I didn't mean to hurt you! I didn't mean to do ANYTHING to you! You're still my Pokemon! You're still my friend! None of this was meant to happen, Jess! Don't... d-don't hate me, it was all a stupid, stupid accident!"

I cried for a solid few minutes before finally looking at the screen. Jessica had gone, and the overworld Raichu sprite was simply standing there, looking at Black. Nothing was said for a moment, and I simply stared at the screen. Finally, a text box appeared.

"...Was it truly an accident?"

A 'yes/no' box appeared. I pressed yes, and there was another pause. The Raichu sprite turned around and walked back to the bell before another text box appeared.

"...Do you regret what you did?"

Another 'yes/no' box. I frantically pressed 'yes', more tears making their way down my face. There was another pause before Jessica finally turned around, staring back at Black.

"Jessica... believes you."

I felt a wave of relief wash over me as I saw the Raichu sprite walk back over to Black. The screen flashed up with the gruesome Raichu sprite again, but this time, the sorrowful eyes were replaced with soft ones, a small, weak smile on its face.

"Do you still love me?"

There was no 'yes/no' box, but instead, it asked if I wanted to 'record' or 'check mic options'. I knew my DS microphone was fine, so I pressed 'record', and took a deep breath.

"...J-Jessica... I'm so sorry for what I did to you... I wish I could reverse what I put you through. I should never have forgotten. You're not just a bunch of pixels and data, but a being, just like me. I'm really sorry, I promise... I'll never do it again, ever. I'll be more careful, I'll... I'll never restart a Pokemon game! Ever! All I want..." I took a soft breath, and finally let the last words out; "...Is your forgiveness for my stupidity. ...I do still love you, Jessica."

The picture of Jessica on-screen nodded, and it faded out. The overworld returned, and Jessica appeared again as a Raichu sprite. This time however, Black spun around in a circle and a small Pokeball flew from his hand. A flash of white light engulfed Jessica, and the ball closed. As Black moved forward to pick it up, a new textbox appeared.

"Thank you, Cameron... you really do remember."

I smiled at the screen and as I did, Cheren, Belle, N and Alder all walked up to Black and surrounded him. The screen faded out and Black re-appeared in front of the bell. He rang the bell, and the usual message appeared. Instead of what normally happens, however, Black walked away from the bell with the screen still focused on it. As it faded, I saw a few ghost silhouettes; a Charizard... a Blastoise... a Venusaur... a Sandslash... and a Dragonite.

All of my old Pokemon Yellow team... had been laid to rest in the Celestial Tower. Never returning... but never being forgotten.

The screen blacked out and returned me to Mistralton city. A message popped up saying that the game had been saved. I checked my Pokemon and saw Jessica in my sixth slot. Opening her page, a huge wave of nostalgia and comfort greeted me and my two other-voices as we looked at the screen.

Greeting us was a level 100 Raichu, Modest nature, female and with the nickname "Jessica", and OT as "CAM", which was my Pokemon Yellow character name. Moving to the moves section, I saw that her stats were exactly how they were left in Yellow, and her moveset was exactly the same as her old Yellow moveset; Thunderbolt, Double Team, Submission and Surf. I smiled broadly; she had forgiven me and decided to join me once again.

As I pressed B to leave the page, one final message popped up. The large Raichu picture appeared again, but this time, there were no cuts or internal organs shown. What was shown was the smiling face of a healthy Raichu beaming at the screen. A message box popped up as the Raichu's mouth moved as if it was saying the words.

"Thank you, Cameron, for taking me back... oh, and by the way..." the screen changed briefly; the picture now had one paw up, and I saw something in her paw that made my eyes widen and show that no matter how much anyone would prove otherwise, this was no joke or hack.

In her paw... sat the final, missing part to my Pokemon Yellow cartridge.

"I never truly forgot you, either."

-/-/-/-

I hope you read this and realize; to us, it may seem a game. But Jessica taught me that if you love a game too much, it becomes part of you, so much so that you can't leave it behind.

I have never, ever restarted or broken a Pokemon game since. I am careful with all my games. I don't want to upset anybody like Jessica ever again. I'm glad she was so forgiving and loving of me.

If she wasn't... it could have ended so much worse.

So, my brother and I, we kind of grew up on Pokemon. Around here a lot of kids did. It worked out perfectly for us, too - every time a new gen came out one of us would get one version, one of us would get the other, and since our mom liked to spoil us, we both got the 3rd one.

This is going to sound, at first, like a bittersweet story about two siblings who grow up with a couple of games that eventually take them down two different roads... Well, it's a little more than that.

The years rolled by, we kept collecting. Gameboys got old; we replaced them. Cartridges finally gave out, we picked up new copies. But we started down two completely different roads before Ruby, Sapphire, and Emerald came out. See, around then my brother got a GameShark. We had heard all the hacks and cheats you could do with them, even if we were kind of late to the party, and they sounded awfully cool.

Our first guinea pig cartridge was my brother's old Blue version. We just dicked around with it a little bit, nothing major. But whatever we did fucked the cartridge up. After just a couple of code entries, it glitched out completely and became unplayable. Naturally we were upset at first; my brother mourned the loss of his hours of work, and I was sympathetic. I told him, "It's okay, we can replace it I guess. Stupid shark was a waste of money."

But here our paths finally differed. After seeing the mess it had turned Blue version into, I had become opposed to the idea of hacking or cheating any of my games. (What can I say? I'm a chick. I feel feelings for the little pixel-critters.) At least with that GameShark. But my brother had taken his game's destruction as a personal challenge or something - I don't think he ever played a game after that which wasn't hacked somehow. Yeah, we played a shit ton of Pokemon, man. But for us there really wasn't much else to do; we live way out in the country without many other kids, and the farmers didn't want us on their property... so... we played Pokemon out on the lawn just about all day, every day. It was pretty awesome to us, at least. We lost the GameShark when our rooms got moved around. A new addition was built onto our house and it disappeared in the mess of shit that got stuffed into the new closet.

Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald arrived, and after playing through them once we were both in agreement that they were definitely lacking in comparison to the last gen. We both tried another honest play-through, and though we managed to finish, it left us both yearning for some good old-fashioned nostalgia. Where were our old Gold, Silver, and Crystal cartridges though? It took us probably a month to dig through the boxes we'd been too lazy to open up before, but we finally found one full of a shitload of all our old electronics: My old purple Gameboy Color still worked, his red one could no longer hold batteries in place.

Both of our GBAs were fine, though, along with our snakelights and link cables, that one with the nifty little connector in the middle that I had always wrapped up oh-so-carefully to avoid fraying the wires and condemning it to the trash like our last cable. We both grabbed up everything we could. It was so nice to have Yellow (which had been my first and most cherished game of any series, not just Pokemon) and Red and Gold back.

We went through the motions of checking our old files, taking in all the old memories, and eventually we figured the gen 1 stuff was just too nostalgic to get rid of. I restarted Gold, he restarted Silver. Immediately he snatched the GameShark out of the box and slipped it into the back of his GBA. I just shook my head at him. I remember what I said to him.

"That thing will kill your game, you know."

He never had liked me preaching to him about ‘abusing pixels.' I shut my mouth after that, but it had put him off from playing with me. I guess it was just one time too many or something; I oughta know to keep my thoughts to myself, really...

It was a couple of days later that it happened. I was out on the porch, Gameboy in-hand, just about to go into the Elite 4 when I realized I needed a little help. My team was ill-balanced thanks to my playing through for leisure, and at the time I was no great trainer that could pull off gimmick runs. I knew that my brother had been two badges ahead of me when we'd last checked with one another, so I was hoping maybe he'd let me borrow a Pokemon or two just for this run-through.

Now, the thing is that I'd spent the last 24 hours at a friend's place. I had literally come home, dumped my bag in my room, and crept out into the sun with my GBA to play. I had no idea what he'd been up to. For all I knew he was done with the game and onto a new one... which, I figured, was all the better for me since he wouldn't need those Pokemon and I'd stand a better chance of nicking a few. So I got up and went into the house, and when I was crossing the living room I noticed all of his Pokemon games lying on the floor.

Some of the cartridges had been mangled, like they'd been hacked at with something sharp. Even his old Blue version, long ago dead and too sentimental to throw away, was lying with the plastic cut ragged, split almost halfway up one side, completely unusable anymore even if it would have worked. I was a little scared. This had to have happened this morning, otherwise our mom would have seen and they wouldn't be lying on the carpet. Tucking my GBA into my pocket, I crept over to his room and found the door unlocked. Somehow that was even more concerning.

I walked in and found my brother sitting on the edge of his bed. His GBA was in pieces on the floor at his feet, smashed to bits. Next to him on the bed were a hammer and our mother's gardening scissors. His face was paler than I'd ever seen it, even whiter than the time we'd gone corning and the old guy up the street, legally blind and a raving nutcase, had come and chased us into the trees with a shotgun. It was now I also noticed the GameShark on the ground, and a silver cartridge corner poking from under his bed. Somehow they had been spared the wrath of the hammer.

"Are you okay?" I asked. I remember the chills that ran through me. He was my little brother. Seeing him like this was horrifying.

"It was awful," I remember him rasping, and the way his voice rattled made my knees weak. "Oh god. White everywhere, and then BLACK..."

I remember running over and hugging him. And I remember, his limp arm fell and brushed the Gameboy in my pocket, and his sudden scream, right in my ear, making me jump and bite my tongue by accident. He ripped the handheld from my pocket and hurled it at the far wall. I cried out at the dent the plastic system made there, running over to collect it. The screen had gone dark, and though I feared the worst when I flicked the switch it powered up normally. I waited there in the corner, trying to pretend the GBA mattered enough not to go and run for our mom.

The volume was on.

The Pokemon theme started up, and he screamed again, picking up the hammer. This time I screamed, too, and ran from the room with my GBA clutched to my chest like a shield.

He ended up in the psyche ward of the hospital for two days. When we went to visit him, I left my GBA at home. No one could figure out what had set off his strange, manic behavior. There was some talk that I didn't understand at the time about some kind of disorder he may or may not have had, but even though mom and I had collected and brought in all the cut-up cartridges to be looked at (moms' idea, not mine), no one had even thought to tie it back to the game... maybe that was my fault.

I hadn't said a word about what had happened when he had accidentally touched my Gameboy, or the blind, white terror he had been thrown into when the music had started. On my last visit to the hospital before school on the second day, I was left alone in the room with him while mom had some private talk with the doctor about precautions to take should this happen again. I sat in a chair next to the bed where he was staring at the ceiling. But then suddenly he sat up, making me flinch.

"Hey," he told me, "Angie. Go in my room when you get home."

I didn't understand what he meant, and then I remembered the things we hadn't packed up and brought in... the game and the hacking tool under his bed.

"Get rid of them. I don't ever want to play with them ever again."

His voice was so weary and desperate... he sounded like an old man on his deathbed. My poor, damaged little brother... how could I refuse?

"Promise you'll get rid of them."

"Okay. I promise."

I was carted off to school late, and through the whole day I only had my promise to him in my head. I didn't know it at the time, but this would be the last time that I could ever play the big-sister role and help him out. I just had to get home and get rid of that game... but as the day went on a sick curiosity started to go through my own head. What could possibly have happened to that game that scared him so badly? I was scared, myself, but I just had to know. I had to.

I got home and went right into his room, bent on uncovering whatever horror was waiting for me. Mom had since vacuumed the room, and the cartridge and GameShark were no longer visible. I got down and crawled half under the bed, feeling timid but holding onto the promise I made as my badge of courage. Under the bed there was enough dust to make me cough, enough old Legos and various other toys that I couldn't set my elbow down without it landing on something. But I finally saw both objects. They'd been shoved to the corner, on top of a notebook that looked too new to have been down here long. Unthinking, I grabbed the corner of the paper and dragged everything out with me, still wheezing from the dust. (Allergies and all.)

They looked so innocent, simple toys and a simple, spiral-bound bunch of papers. When I set Silver version and the GameShark on the floor, I took a closer look at the notebook. On it were scrawled at least twenty different cheat codes, but one had been scratched out with sharpie over where it had initially been drawn in with pen. This was confusing. He had REALLY tried to erase it out- the marker had been pressed to the paper so hard that ink soaked through most of the pages behind it, almost 2/3rds of the way to the card-stock back cover. But pen has a way of sticking around. I picked up the notebook and tilted it backward in the light, and the reflective surface of the sharpie revealed the indents that had been left where he'd written. The code was an unintelligible mess of letters and numbers, but the words next to it confused me.

Easter Egg - Snow on Mt. Silver

I remembered what he had said when I'd found him... he had been raving about white, white and then black... could he mean snow? Even though it was only August and the temperature was still climbing to 90 degrees every day, a chill ran down my spine. Did I dare...?

I picked everything up and brought it to my room, and laid it out on the carpet in front of me with my own GBA next to it. For a long time I just stared down at it, and the longer I looked, the more maniacal Lugia's face became on the sticker... like some kind of twisted grin, like it was daring me to find out what had happened to my brother. I was a 14 year old kid. Did I really want to tempt fate and risk ending up like him? I glared down at Lugia for awhile longer.

I had to see.

I slid Gold out of my GBA and stuck Silver in its place. It took me almost 15 minutes to compose myself and turn it on.

It started up normally. I left the sound on low, too afraid of what I might hear to keep it up the full way, and too curious to turn it the whole way off. The title screen was normal, too. Lugia again, but somehow menacing despite my common sense telling me it was exactly the same picture as every other time I had started up the game. How bad could this be? I asked myself. His notes said Easter Egg. Didn't that mean that that was coding already in the game? The menu came up... still absolutely normal.

His character was Blake, with a mostly filled Pokedex ... but the time was odd. 999:99. I KNEW he couldn't have been playing that long... I had barely logged 50 hours on my own game and I was at the E4... and I was playing slowly. Probably the result of his hacking fucking up his file, I thought. Well, whatever then... The game started up, and the first thing I noticed was the prolonged black screen. It took almost a minute for anything to change... and there was no sound at all. The hairs on the back of my neck were standing up already, but it was too late to turn back.

Finally, a very dim sort of map came onto the screen... but it looked like static. What was going on? I squinted down and realized with a fearsome pang that it was actually the Mt. Silver map... but what I thought was static was heavy-falling snow. So this was where he had last saved his game. I checked his party... a very normal team for someone who'd been using a GameShark: Typhlosion, Feraligatr, Meganium, Pidgeot, Tyranitar, Lugia, all level 100 with modded moves... typical for him. Something about the sprites was... strange, though. They seemed sullen, in a way. Their colors seemed washed-out, and their expressions lacked the usual vigor they normally had. I chalked this up to missing pixels or something, also due to the hacking...

The map had brightened up just a smidgeon when I closed out of the start menu. Indeed, snow was somehow falling very heavily; pixels danced across the screen so fast it was hard to see the little sprite that was my brother's character. Something was off about him, too. When I checked the information, it was the same as the Pokemon sprites; the colors were dull. In fact, now that I thought about it, he almost looked frostbitten.

My stomach tightened, and I turned and tried to move back down the mountain. As I hit the bottom of the screen, words popped up, and there was finally a sound - my sprite hitting an invisible wall.

"I can't turn back now."

That was... unsettling. I went into my Pokemon and tried to use Pidgeot's ‘Fly' ability.

"I can't fly in this!" obviously referring to the snow.

‘Fuck this,' I thought, going into his bag. There was an escape rope. I tried using it.

"I can't go back anymore."

What was going on? Once again, I tried to walk back down the mountain, and to my horror the words changed with every attempt.

"I can't run away."

"I can't go back down."

"I can never go back."

This last one sent a frigid feeling through my heart. There was no way down the mountain. I had to climb. Turning the little sprite around, I moved him forward.

No resistance at all, though my walking speed was oddly slow. What was truly weird was the lack of grass, of trainers, of anything at all but that white snow, which still blew across the screen and made it almost impossible to see. As I moved further "up" the mountain, his walking speed became slower, and slower. The static curtain of pixels grew thicker, so that I could barely make out the features of the map... but it seemed like the only way to move was straight ahead anyway. I reached what looked like a set of stairs at the very top edge of the screen. I didn't remember this being there before. As I tried to move up, the little sprite paused.

"I'm cold."

By now even I was getting goosebumps. His walking speed had become painfully slow, as if somehow he was being impeded. Up the little staircase...

More text on the screen.

"Meganium has died."

What the fuck, I thought. Pokemon don't die in these games. I checked in my party, and was frightened and confused by what I saw.

Meganium's sprite had been replaced by a red X. All of my other Pokemon sported varying degrees of damage, though I hadn't battled once. I went into my bag and found a single revive, and tried to use it.

"It's too late," it said. What kind of Easter Egg was this?

There wasn't much else I could do... trying to turn around yielded the same messages as before. So I kept moving.

"Pidgeot has died."

I checked again... sure enough, there was the little red X. This time I selected it and looked at the Pokemon itself, trying to figure out what was wrong... I wished I hadn't.

The sprite was mangled; pieces of it were missing. What was left was splotched with a sickish blue-grey color, and its eye was a solid black pit. I flipped down to Meganium- same deal, a leg missing, a chunk of its neck, most of its head, save that pitch-black, dead eye.

Morbid curiosity urged me onward, and the path never deviated from the straight upward road I'd traveled the entire time. Along the way, every now and then, another party Pokemon would ‘die' and examination of its sprite would show it was in the same condition as the others. Until all that was left was Typhlosion. One more stair case was up ahead. I climbed it, braced for whatever horror awaited me.

I hit the summit.

It was deserted - Red was nowhere to be found.

The snow had stopped falling.

In the very center of the map was something sticking out of the snow. It looked like a Pokeball. Okay, maybe all this creepy shit lead up to some climactic, final battle using whatever was in THERE. If I picked it up, maybe Red would come out of hiding. I walked over and examined it, and there was a burst of static noise from my game that made me jump.

What appeared on the screen was a battle animation, my trainer sprite appearing, his skin tinged blue... against another mangled Pokemon sprite.

It was Celebi.

In the center of that black hole that was its eye, a single red dot burned out like an ember. The thing looked rotted. I didn't even throw out my mostly-dead typhlosion before it had moved.

"Celebi used Perish Song."

A screech came out of my GBA, and I almost dropped it as the screen went white. A part of me was relieved, thinking that my final Pokemon had been KO'd and I would be transported to a Pokemon center... but I was wrong. My sprite reappeared in what looked like a cave; was I now inside the mountain?

I checked my trainer card and felt sick. The sprite was just as mauled as the Pokemon had been; a leg gone. A single eye remaining, pitch-black and so, so sad looking, tears welled up at the corner... And every color on him was replaced by those sick shades of frosty blue-and-grey. Every stat on the card was reduced to 0, except the time, which still read 999:99.

I quickly moved back to the map. His sprite there mimicked the horror it had become on the trainer card; pieces were missing, everything was discolored. I started trying to walk, and at first I received a message.

"It's so cold."

There was only one direction to go- upward. I moved on, and every now and then would be stopped by a message that made my heart sink lower and lower.

"Mother..."

"It feels so cold..."

"I can't go on..."

The walls, as I walked, became darker and darker, until they were pitch-black at the end.

There was an exit there, marked only by a white outline. I had no other choice but to go through it.

It opened into a chamber that was also solid white... the only way to distinguish the walls was a thin grey line that marked them as separate from the floor. Against the far wall there was another sprite. Red's sprite. Intact. I had come this far... I had to finish this. I walked right up to him and hit A.

"..."

A battle started.

Red's sprite had none of the deformities that marred my own. The colors were the same blues and greys, but he was intact. He just looked... extremely sad. His first Pokemon came out; Venusaur. It was just like my own had been... but level 0, with a speck of health. I sent out typlosion, who had just 6 Hit Points (HP) left. No Pokemon made a sound when they were brought into battle.

"Venusaur used struggle!"

There was no animation, just a single point of damage done to typhlosion, and then the opposing sprite dropped off the screen.

"Venusaur has died!"

There was no text asking me to switch out. Instead, there was just what I took to be dialogue from Red.

"..."

His next Pokemon was Blastoise, even more mangled than Venusaur had been. It too struggled and died. After each round there was that ominous "..." from their trainer. Every sprite was more damaged than the last; his Espeon was barely distinguishable as a Pokemon. I realized somewhere he was sending them out all out of order, which saved one Pokemon for last...

Pikachu came out, and it was grotesque. It, too, was discolored like it was frostbitten. It was missing an ear, half its body and tail, its head was mostly intact but its eyes were much larger than they should have been, and glared out at me like pitch-black windows into hell... but the thing that got me the most was the giant smile that extended almost all the way to the edges of its head. Its health was somehow at 0, or at least looked that way. My hands were shaking. I didn't get a chance to attack.

"Pikachu used Pain Split."

"Pikachu has died! Typhlosion has died!"

It cut back to the image of Red's sprite... and now it looked like mine, with his body so butchered it looked like a carcass stripped of most of its meat... except it had those same, soulless, deranged eyes as Pikachu.

I finally understood what happened. They were dead. They were dead, and this sub-level of the mountain was the hell they now existed in.

Red finally spoke.

"It's over."

The screen flashed black and white for a moment.

"Used Destiny Bond!"

A horrible, hideous screeching started to issue from my GBA. The screen went white and it shrieked at me, and I threw it to the floor and pressed my back against the bed. The horrible noise continued for several long moments while the screen stayed white.

Then went black.

Then there was silence.

It took me a long few moments, but I eventually stood up. I took the GameShark. I took the notebook. I took that fucking possessed game. I picked them all up and carried them to the garbage can we had already set out for morning pickup, at the end of our long, winding driveway... and I threw them in. When I got back to the house, I don't know what made me do it, but I picked up yellow version and inserted it into my Gameboy... I think it was part of me determined to make sure I hadn't somehow been tainted as well. The music started up. The game played. I turned to my Pikachu and hit A.

Its smiling face greeted me with an ear twitch and a big, pixelated smile. A pleasant, normal smile. I turned my game off, and spent the next hour crying on the floor.

My brother and I never did play Pokemon together again - he gave it up for good. I stuck to replaying my comforting, unhacked games.

That winter, the snow fell thick.

The Buried Alive Model, often referred to as its code: the Buryman script, was to be found on the final story of the Pokemon Tower, in what has now been replaced with the Marowak ghost. According to the scripts assigned to it, the Buried Alive model was intended to be the "boss" of the tower. Once reaching the top floor, the following conversation would have taken place.

After this, the battle would have been initiated. Once in "battle view", the Buried Alive model appears to be a decaying human corpse attempting to crawl out of the ground. It has been programmed to have two White Hands, a Gengar, and a Muk.

Strangely enough, a protocol for the Buried Alive's actions after it was defeated were not written.

In the case of the player defeating him, the game would freeze. However, a specific ending was written by an unknown programmer upon losing the battle. In this ending, the Buried Alive was to have stated, "Finally, fresh meat!" followed by several lines of gibberish.

He was to have then dragged the player character into the ground surrounding him. The scene would finish with a typical "Game Over" screen; however, in the background, an image of the Buried Alive character devouring the player was to have been shown.

Especially strange are the protocols for after this scene. The cartridge was to download this image to the small internal memory contained in the Game Boy, overwriting the title screen that normally accompanied a Game Boy turning on. Instead, whenever it was started, the player would view this image as the sound file staticmesh.wav was played.

The intended purpose for this effect, unlike many of the other factors leading towards Lavender Town Syndrome, is unknown.

The Lavender Town Syndrome (also known as "Lavender Town Tone" or the "Lavender Town Suicides") was a peak in suicides and illnesses of children between the ages of 7-12 in Japan back in February 27th, 1996. The phenomenon occurred shortly after the release of the first Pokemon games, Pokemon Red and Green.

Rumors say that these suicides and illnesses only occurred after children playing the game reached Lavender Town. The location's theme music had extremely high frequencies that studies have shown only children and young teens can hear, because their ears are more sensitive.

Due to this effect, at least two hundred children supposedly committed suicide, and many more developed conditions and afflictions. The children who killed themselves usually did so by hanging or jumping from heights. Those who did not often acted irrationally and complained of severe headaches after listening to the theme.

This mass hysteria was caused by the first released version of the game. After the incidents, the programmers fixed the location's music to be at a lower frequency. Lavender Town now sounds differently depending on which Pokemon you're playing, but since that change, children are no longer affected by the song.

One video appeared in 2010 using "special software" to analyze the audiowaves of Lavender Town's music. When played, the software created images of the Unown near the end of the audio. This created controversy, since the Unown don't appear in the series until the Generation 2 games: Silver, Gold, and Crystal. The arrangement of the Unown appears to translate to "LEAVE NOW".

The original Lavender Town theme can be listened to [here]. Viewer discretion is advised.

There are tons of stories out there about hacked Pokemon games. Some of them really quite neat such as the one about a version where you get a ghost as a starter.

Some are ridiculous, silly stories about individuals dying after playing a game, or the game talking to them. God, don't these writers know less is more when it comes to these stories? Ah well, I digress.

I grew interested in these hacked games that are apparently in any thrift store, on eBay, or handed out by homeless people to random passersby.

I didn't have the pleasure of meeting these creepy people, I merely found this particular cartridge in a trash bin when the garbage truck backed into my neighbor's dumpster.

I noticed the game and asked the trash man if I could take it, and he didn't seem to mind. It was thrown away after all. I of course checked with my neighbor to confirm if they actually didn't want it, though they seemed perplexed, as if they'd never seen it in their life.

Their son made a grab for it, a little boy who saw the charizard on the cover, crying out "Pokemon! I want mommy!", but his mother told him no, seeing as I found it. He didn't even have a game boy anyway, he just liked Pokemon.

Thinking nothing more, I simply went home, looking at the cartridge's sticker on the way. Just a plain old Red Version, the sticker torn slightly across the Charizard's neck, but that was expected with such an old game. I had Blue Version as a kid, so I was a bit eager to see the, albeit minimal, differences Red Version had. I was rather disappointed by what I saw when the title screen showed up.

"Pokemon: Strangled Red Version."

Well damn it, it was a hack. Hacks were neat and all, but they had zero monetary value, the originals quite valuable by now, and I wanted to play Red anyway, not this crap. Oh well, it was free, might as well try it.

The name was odd however, Strangled Red? That made no sense, not even in a morbid description of someone being asphyxiated, as people turn blue when choking, not red. Who knows, maybe there was a pair of these hacks and I just got the red one.

The more I thought about this though, the more interested I became. My initial disappointment turned into curiosity, I wanted to know what the creator had made, and I was going to note everything I saw. The first oddity I noticed was the start screen had a Charizard next to the trainer instead of a Charmander, also, the Pokemon never cycled through like the original versions did, it just stayed Charizard, even after five minutes of waiting.

Shrugging, I hit start, noticing there was no Charizard cry as I did, like there was supposed to be.

I saw there was a "Continue" option, so I figured I'd do what everyone did with used games and see what the previous owner had done.

"... No..."

I blinked in surprise. No? What do you mean no? The game wouldn't let me continue no matter what, though on the fourth attempt, I heard the Charizard cry, quiet and barely audible, but there. Shrugging it off, I decided to just hit New Game, like I would have done after checking the old file anyway.

The screen cut to black for a while, no Prof. Oak, no starting theme, just nothing at all. Eventually, the screen came back, showing a bedroom, two beds, two TVs, and a computer in the corner. My trainer sprite was the usual one, consistent with the original Red Version. I was curious as to why it didn't ask my name, though that was answered as I opened the pause menu, noticing my Trainer was named "Steven". No, this isn't my real name or some stupid crap like that, this game isn't self-aware or haunted, at least not that I know of, it just had a name chosen already.

Curious, I saw he had the starter amount of money, no badges. He didn't look like red though, his hair was longer, almost reaching halfway down his back, Red's usual smile replaced with a confident smirk. Honestly, I found this sprite much cooler than Red.

Next I checked out his Pokemon, a single Charmander, level five, named "Miki". Nothing was odd about it... or should I say her, with the name and all. She had beginning Charmander stats, only knew Scratch and Tail Whip, basic stuff. The game seemed relatively normal.

Returning to the game, I walked about the room, noticing Steven's long hair was present on the back of my trainer sprite when my back was turned to the camera. I didn't recognize the house, but I descended the stairs to see more. Downstairs was another trainer, who spoke to me the instant I came down.

Mike: Ready yet?

Steven: Yeah.

I assumed this "Mike" was my rival, pre-decided for me, a replacement of Blue most likely, though I thought back to the bedroom having two beds, realizing they weren't just rivals, they were brothers. They talked back and forth, basic Pokemon dialogue, become a pokemaster, catch em all, stuff like that, before having a little argument over which is better, Charmander or Squirtle, which of course led to the introduction battle, like the one vs. Blue in the lab. Simple enough, Scratch, Tackle, Scratch, Tackle, til I won purely for having the first turn.

I took note of how much better Steven's sprite looked in combat than Red's, a different pose, his hair looking like it was blowing in the wind, a brief, minor upgrade, but still, much nicer.

I left the house after some more banter with my "brother", stepping out to the Pallet Town theme. Going to the east, I found this was indeed Pallet Town, the house was simply on the outskirts to the west. I noted there was no mysterious grassy field like in normal Pallet Town. Wandering about, I decided to check in on Red's home.

His mother was inside and when I talked to her, she commented on how handsome Steven looked, hoping her son would look up to him as a role-model for when he became a trainer himself next year, which of course led me to realize this game took place a year before the original Pokemon. Red was even upstairs, playing the SNES in his room, commenting "I'm gonna be the best too when its my turn!"

I was starting to like this hack. It was interesting, a completely new adventure, a different character, hell, Steven even seemed to have a history with the people in his town, a reputation, a personality beyond a silent protagonist. The people in town talked to him as a person, making conversation, not just spouting tutorial crap. Even Blue's sister had new dialogue, they seemed to be in a relationship too, as the dialogue ended with a kiss and a heart over her head.

Prof. Oak simply wished me well, giving me a Pokedex to aid my adventure. He wasn't giving it to me to be the reason behind the adventure like every other Pokemon game out there, he gave it to me out of kindness, something to help me on my way, a gift. I was liking this more and more with each second, the game seemed to have an actual story now! I was somebody, not just a cookie-cutter protagonist anyone could be, not some blank sheet that could be replaced without notice.

The story was different, though the actual game play remained unchanged. I went north like I was supposed to, went from town to town, collected badges, received the praise of the leaders. Steven's fame even seemed to spread, as some NPCs would talk like the knew him.

I used Miki for every battle, and she was growing surprisingly fast. She handled Brock with ease, even pounded Misty with no trouble at all. She wasn't as adversely effected by super-effective attacks as others, did more damage than a regular Charmander, she was a veritable powerhouse! She even became a Charizard at the mere level of twenty-five, not bad at all I must say.

Things started to get weird though as soon as I reached Lavender Town. I know, I know, Lavender Town is the focus behind every creepy story and the like, but it was the only place that was noticeably different. There was no Team Rocket invasion, which I found odd, though I did remember this was a year in the past, so the invasion wouldn't occur until Red's time. I tried to enter Pokemon tower, aiming to get a Ghastly, but that's when it go odd.

Steven: I have no reason to be here...

Steven wouldn't go into Pokemon Tower no matter what I did. This was weird, I mean hell, there are a million places in Kanto you really have no need to be, little random houses with nothing but children NPCs for example.

Why was it here that Steven wouldn't enter?

With a shrug, I figured I wouldn't need a Ghastly, seeing as Miki could handle anything, so I simply went on my way, Lavender Town serving no purpose other than a passageway with a poke center.

The game progressed normally from there, the remaining gyms fell and eventually I made my way to the Elite Four and defeated them.

As with Blue, my "brother" Mike was there before me, initiating the championship battle, which Miki swept with ease. The aftermath of the battle was quite pleasant, none of the tension that was present between Red and Blue at the end of their match, the brothers congratulated each other on their progress and shook hands, before the screen went white, no Hall of Fame, nor any credits.

When the screen came back, it was at the house again, the two brothers sitting at the computer, conversing with each other.

Steven: I don't want too...

Mike: Come on, I just gotta borrow her for a second to finish the Pokedex, the entry won't register unless she recognizes me as master for just a second. Steven: But she's my Miki...

Mike: I promise I'll give her back, come on, please?

->Yes?
No?

I was a bit perplexed, so I hit No to be cautious.

Mike: Come on, please?

NO

Mike: Come on, please?

I realized this would simply continue to loop until I hit yes, so I did, just to see what would happen.

Mike: Alright, this will just take a sec, then we'll both be pokemasters! Steven: ........

The screen changed to the animation shown when two people trade Pokemon, which I found a bit weird, seeing as I was solo, but whatever, this was what was apparently supposed to happen. Miki went first, I watched lazily as she began to travel down the trading tube.

SNAP!

That made me jump, the sudden noise resonating in my silent bedroom, loud due to the volume being way up. Looking at the screen, I noticed the game had seemed to freeze, Miki still in mid-trade, but the game wasn't doing anything.

With a sigh, I just turned off the game, wondering when my last save was. When the game turned back on, I stared for a moment at the start screen, there was no Charizard next to the trainer. Upon pressing start, I saw the New Game option was absent, leaving only Continue. This was... strange to say the least, so I selected it, the game staring without even showing my stats as usual. My jaw dropped at what I was greeted with.

ONE YEAR LATER

The Lavender Town theme came first, playing its normal way, the screen slowly fading in from blackness. Steven was in the Pokemon Tower, which made the music even stranger, seeing as the tower had its own theme. He was standing in front of a tombstone, not doing anything. Wondering what was going on, I pressed A.

Steven: ...

Confused, I tried walking, realizing I was indeed in control at the moment. I brought up the pause menu and checked my party. Miki was gone. Not just Miki, all Pokemon. He had nothing, The Pokedex was absent from the menu, his bag was empty. Honestly concerned now, I checked his trainer card.

He had no money. He had no badges. His play time was 8,795 hours, which was impossible as I had only 30 logged in before. But that wasn't the strangest part. His picture, the picture of the handsome, confident young trainer was...different. His eyes were blank, his face turned slightly down, that smirk of his was gone, replaced by a lack of any expression at all, that long hair of his, before in a perfect perm, was now messy and unkempt. I couldn't look at him any more, closing the menu, I went to move out of the tower, but with every step I took away from the tombstone, the screen flickered, like it did when a Pokemon was poisoned.

Gulping, I brought up the trainer card again, his picture was getting worse. Every step I took, he hung his head more and more, his shoulder slumped, he bent over. By the time I had exited the tower, he was on his knees, hands to his face, hair draped across him.

I had guessed already what was going on, but this clinched it. I began to put some things together in my mind. I had always wondered why there was no champion in the original games besides your rival. Why is it you, the protagonist, had to beat your rival, when he just waltzed in, no previous champion to challenge.

Then, it struck me. The answer was right here. The previous champion gave up.

His precious Miki was apparently dead, and with her, so died part of him. His Pokedex, the other Pokemon, his badges, his fame, all of it, he threw it away. In that year, the year that I missed, the year where all those hours came from, I even did the math, there is 8765 hours in a year, add that to my 30 from before and it matched up.

Even so, the game kept going, this should have been an ending I thought, I mean, what else was there to do? I had no Pokedex, no Pokemon, not anything. What was I supposed to be doing? I talked to everyone in the town, but they all said similar things.

"Are you OK?"

"Still mourning I see..."

"Everything will be alright..."

"Please... Is there anything we can do?"

Steven never replied to them, and they all simply said the same things over and over. I couldn't put the game down now, this was all so strange. Curious, I headed off into the tall grass, and eventually got into a battle with a Rattatta. No Pokemon was sent out, just Steven's sprite. I was wondering how I'd battle.

Wild RATTATTA left you be.

The battle ended without anything happening. This was certainly interesting, and it happened with every Pokemon I encountered.

Wild PIDGEY ignored you.

Wild PONYTA wandered off.

The music never changed either. No matter where I went, Lavender Town came from the speakers, following me, sometimes slowed down slightly, sometimes not. I searched everywhere, every town, talked to every body, wondering just what the hell I needed to do.

My frustration was mixing with the depressing atmosphere of all this, making the experience all together unnerving and uncomfortable, but I couldn't tear myself away. I was starting to get a bit angry though, nobody telling me anything besides giving me their condolences and trying to give me items like LEMONADE or COFFEE, each met with:

Steven: ... No...

I slapped myself for idiocy, suddenly realizing how the likely answer was right in front of me, Pallet Town of course! When I went there though, which took a long time, having to walk, no Pokemon to fly with, no bicycle to ride, and Steven only seemed to move half the regular movement speed, it wasn't much different. I first tried talking to Prof. Oak.

"These things happen... you were just unlucky."

Next I tried Blue's sister.

"Please... Don't leave home again..."

Red's mom wouldn't even talk to me at all. With nowhere else in mind to go, I walked to the west, finding the house from the beginning, which I had never entered since leaving Pallet Town. Inside was Mike, but talking to him was just as useless.

Mike: I'm so sorry...

I pondered for a moment if this really was the ending, Steven doomed to do nothing but roam Kanto in misery, haunted by the memories, forced to listen to everyone's concerns about him. As a last ditch effort to do anything, I went to the bedroom and walked over to the bed.

Steven: I'm going to sleep...

The screen faded to black for a moment, but then slowly faded back in, the world having a black tint to it, the Mike's sprite laying in the other bed, I assumed this meant it was night.

Steven: I'm going to do it...

Do what? Again, I had no idea, tried inspecting everything in the room, nothing happened. As soon as I left the house, another dialogue.

Steven: IT can bring her back... IT can do anything...

What in the hell was IT? Something that could do anything, I couldn't for the life of me figure it out. Wandering about, I tried to leave Pallet Town the usual way.

Steven: Not that way.

He wouldn't go any further, I tried the homes.

Steven: Screw them...

I quirked my eyebrow at that, forgetting for a moment this was not a real Pokemon game, the vulgarity just took me off guard. I continued to look around, but there was nowhere I could go, until I accidentally stepped on the ocean, and Steven walked right in, only the upper half of his sprite visible, like the swimmers you encounter in the Cerulean gym. I didn't know he could swim...

Steven: The missing one...

Missing one? I paused for a moment, no, he couldn't possibly mean... that, I hadn't tried the MissingNo trick on this hack yet, but it just fit too well, that had to be what he meant. I "surfed" all the way towards Cinnebar. I began to feel something was off, more so than this already was. Silence. The Lavender Town theme had stopped, there was no noise at all, nor were there any Pokemon. I just kept going, finding Cinnebar and surfing up and down the east coast, lo and behold.

Wild MISSINGNO appeared!

Steven: Mine...

Wild MISSINGNO was caught!

What the hell? Steven didn't do anything, he just commanded that atrocity of broken data to join him, no, become his possession, and it did. I was getting more and more disturbed by this all, checking the start menu, I saw MissingNo was not in my party, but instead an item, making things even stranger. I checked the trainer card as well. Steven has his back to me, his long hair draped behind him, his hands in his pockets, nothing else.

Remembering what he said at the start of this night, I realized what I had to do... I surfed to land and made my way northeast to, where else, Lavender Town. Along the way, I noticed all the trainers, oddly still out at this hour, wouldn't look at Steven, all of them turning when he passed, even those that were normally static. I tried talking to one of the officers in the guard-house type buildings.

"Just go..."

They all said the same thing, though one sent chills down my spine.

"Sometimes dead is best."

My hands were sweating by this point, Steven was about to try the impossible, something some would see as a crime against nature, which many of these people shared that opinion. I steeled myself, it's just a game, and I was going to complete it.

It took an eternity to reach Pokemon Tower, but I got there eventually, taking a deep breath and heading toward the tombstone, I remembered which one, the image of Steven standing before it was burned into my mind after all. First, I tried inspecting it.

Steven: Miki...

Nothing happened. With a gulp, I opened the menu and selected MissingNo from the bag.

OAK: Steven, don't use it!

I was reminded of when Prof. Oak would magically tell you that you couldn't use a Key Item somewhere, like when using the bicycle in a building, though the message this time was different, even worse, Steven responded to it.

Steven: In a world that cheated me, why should I play fair...

Steven used "It"!

...........................
...........................
...........................
...........................

Steven obtained M@#$!

What in God's name did I obtain? I couldn't tell you, because the game took away my control. Without my input, Steven began to leave the tower on his own, walking single step by single step. The Lavender Town theme started again as he left the tower and began his excruciatingly slow journey against my will.

Every time he crossed one of the borders where the music would change, it got progressively slower, more and more disturbing, by the time he reached Cerulean City, it was a demonic rumbling. I just stared, watching him, trying to guess where he was going, but it was getting more and more obvious. He was heading to Pallet Town.

The music had all but stopped when he got there, playing single note by single note. He went exactly where I had guessed, right to his own house, inside, and up the stairs.

At this point, there was no music, Steven moved step by step, stopping at his brother's bed, turning to face him. At first, I though the game froze, he didn't do anything, simply stood there, and I couldn't move him. I did however, find out I could open the pause menu. I was terrified to look, but I couldn't stop myself. I selected his trainer card.

There was a low growl noise, like a distorted Pokemon cry. Steven was looking at me again, directly at the screen. He was hunched over, his bangs obscuring his face, his hair was wild and feathered out.

Between his bangs, there wasn't even a face at all, just black, two red eyes looking straight forward, a white grin contrasting with the darkness. That wasn't all.

His name was now S!3v3n.

I couldn't look away, my eyes glued to his, not breaking contact for some time. My vision was getting blurry until I couldn't see very well, my face grew wet. I was crying, like a baby.

There was nothing I could do to hold back the tears. I was with this boy from the start, I built him up to greatness, and was then forced to watch his decline after a tragic accident, and now...he was this. This thing, this abomination.

I watched him go insane.

Halting my tears, wiping my eyes, I closed out of the trainer card and tried to save the game, wanting to just quit. The game informed me this was impossible.

"Nothing can be saved now."

The pause menu wouldn't close no matter what I did, so with no other option, I checked the bag, nothing happened. I checked Pokemon, and there was one. A single sprite met me, it had zero HP, it's status: DED, its name M@#$. I selected it, and I was greeted with four options.

->STATUS
"Its her..."

->SWITCH
"Never"

->CLOSE
"...No..."

->STRANGLE

My fingers shaking, I selected STRANGLE, and the menu closed, showing Steven in the room again.

S!3v3n: Goodbye...

SNAP!

The game shut itself off. I was more dumbfounded than frightened. In a bit of shock, I turned it back on, the title screen showing the manic S!3v3n and a horribly glitched Charizard. I pressed start, then Continue.

All I saw was a zoomed out view of Pallet Town, showing Steven's home to the west, tall grass surrounding it, those unmovable stones blocking it from the rest of the town.

The image was completely static, no music, no movement, before fading to white, going back to the title screen.

It was as it had been when I first popped it in. A trainer and a Charizard. I attempted to hit continue.

"... No..."