Request done for ~SHUN

random banner i made for myself ^_^

Banner Made For ~RedStar78

Random banner i made to test my newly found skill ^_^

spike's banner

my newest creation

just an idea

manaphy banner

crappy banner made in 5 mins


my new fav ^_^

Parasect is controlled by the Mushroom on it's back (says so in the Pokedex entry). In fact, Parasect is really a "zombie" if you will. It's lifespan is depressing. It lives, mates, lays eggs, then dies as the mushroom spores onto the Paras eggs, burrowing the parasitic Mushroom into the body before it is even born. It's really sad. The moment Paras evolves, it becomes unconscious of anything it does. Later the mushroom tells it to mate, then kills it, growing out of it's hollow shell (this is assumed). The creepypasta claims that when asked about the rather creepy Pokemon and it's strange hollow eyes, Satoshi Tajiri became nervous and sweaty. When asked any further he would simply yell "PARASECT IS A POKEMON AND NOTHING MORE!! STOP OVERTHINKING IT!!". But people found this to even more disturbing. Some choose to believe that maybe Satoshi is trying to warn us of something. For example, where do Parasect live? Mt. Moon. Also home of a Pokemon thought to be an alien (Clefairy). And it's even more of a coincedence that Clefairy was originally slated to be the mascot of Pokemon before Pikachu. And if that isn't crazy enough consider this: Satoshi Tajiri collected bugs as a child, primarily cicadas and beetles. If you look at Paras you will see the striking resemblance to a cicada.

In the original Pokemon red/Blue, when you encounter your rival in Lavender Town he asks whether or not you know what it's like to have one of you Pokemon die. At the point in the game, he no longer has his Raticate that he used in previous battles. Your rival battle before this took place aboard the S.S. Anne. Your rival's Raticate sustained serious injuries from the battle... But, because of crowding and confusion on the luxury liner, he was unable to make it to a Pokemon center in time and the Raticate passed away . the real reason your rival is in Lavender Town to begin with is to lay his deceased friend to rest. Despite all of the, your rival never outwardly tells you that you're responsible for the death of his Pokemon. He hides his grief and instead channels that energy into the motivation he needed to continue his quest to become Indigo League Champion. The death of his Raticate effectively destroys your rival's impish, childhood innocence. Although he tells himself towards you which further fuels his ambitions. Tearfully swearing upon his Raticate's grave to not fail in what he set out to do, he trains hard in hopes of becoming better that you... Defeating you... And eventually make it to the Pokemon League. mere moments after he became Indigo League champion, he was defeated... By you. Although he fulfilled his promise to his fallen Pokemon, it was only for a painfully brief instant. In the end, your rival is scolded by his grandfather while you receive the professor's praise. During the course of the game, you steal your rival's innocence, crush his dreams, and ultimately snatch away the love of his own grandfather. Oh and by the way, your rival doesn't have any parents. He's and orphan.

During the first few days of the release of Pokemon Red and Green in Japan, back in February 27, 1996, a peak of deaths appeared in the age group of 10-15.
The children were usually found dead through suicide, usually by hanging or jumping from heights. However, some were more odd. A few cases recorded children who had began sawing off their limbs, others sticking their faces inside the oven, and chocked themselves on their own fist, shoving their own arms down their throat.
The few children who were saved before killing themselves showed sporadic behavior. When asked why they were going to hurt themselves they only answered in chaotic screams and scratched at their own eyes. When showed what seemed to be the connection to this attitude, the gameboy, they had no response, but when combined with either Pokemon Red or Green, the screams would continue, and they would do their best to leave the room it was located in.
This confirmed the authorities suspicion that the games, somehow, had a connection to these children and the deaths. It was a strange case, because many children who had the same games did not show this behavior, but only a few. The police had no choice but to pursue this, since they had no other leads.
Collecting all the cartridges these children had purchased, they kept them sealed away as strong evidence to look over later. They decided the first thing to do was to talk to the programmers themselves. The first person they met was the director of the original games, Satoshi Tajiri. When told about the deaths surrounding his games, he seemed slightly uneasy, but admitted nothing. He lead them to the main programmers of the game, the people responsible for the actual content.
The detectives met Takenori Oota, one of the main programmers of the game. Unlike Satoshi, he did not seem uneasy, but very kept. Explaining that it was impossible to use something like a game to cause such deaths, and also bringing up the point that not all the children were affected, he brushed it off as some kind of odd coincidence or mass hysteria. It seemed like he was hiding something, but he wasn?t giving way. Finally, he did say something interesting.
Takenori had heard a rumor going around that the music for Lavender Town, one of the locations in the game, had caused some children to go ill. It was only a rumor, and had no real definite back up, but it was still something to look into.
He directed the detectives to Junichi Masuda, the music composer of the series. Masuda had also heard of these rumors, but again said they had no evidence that his music was the cause. Even to prove a point he played the exact song from the game completely through with no effects to anyone, the detectives nor Masuda himself, feeling anything different or odd. Although they still had their suspicions of Masuda and the music of Lavender town, it seemed they had reached another dead end.
Going back to the cartridges they had seized from the homes of the children, they decided to take a slightly more direct look at the games. They knew that it was these games that gave the children the ill effects, so they took extreme caution. Popping in the cartridge and turning the console on, the game screen booted. The title screen appeared, and the option to continue or create a new game appeared.
When they chose to continue the game, stats of that game appeared. They saw the names of the children who had played, usually “Red” or another simple name. However, the interesting thing was the time played and the number of Pokemon they owned. On every game, the time was very low, and all of them had only a single Pokemon in their inventory. They came to the stunning reality that it could not have been the music from Lavender town that had caused such ill effects in the children, since it was impossible to reach that part of the game in such small amount of time and with only one Pokemon in their inventory. This brought them to the conclusion that something early on in the game had to be the cause.
If it wasn’t the music, nor the title screen, it had to be something within the first few minutes of the game itself. They had no choice but to turn off the game now and go back to the programmers. Asking for a list of all the programmers from Takenori, they found, surprisingly, that one of the programmers had committed suicide shortly after the game was released. His name was Chiro Miura, a very obscure programmer who had provided very little for the game. Even more interestingly, he had requested his name did not appear in the credits of the game, and so it was not.
Looking over the evidence found at Chiro’s apartment, they found many notes written in bold marker. Most of it was crumbled, or marked out, making it very difficult to read. They few words they could find in the mess was “Do not enter”, “Watch out” and “COME FOLLOW ME” in bold. The detectives were unsure what these meant, but knew they had to have a connection. Further searching, they discovered Chiro was good friends with one of the map designers, Kohji Nisino, and this was probably the only reason Chiro had given a part in making the game.
Kohji Nisino, since the release of the game, had locked himself in his apartment, barely leaving in the dark of night to fetch anything he might need. He told his friends and family he was mourning for his dear friend Chiro, but they didn’t believe this, since Nisino had locked himself up the day the game was put in stores, a few days before Chiro had killed himself.
It was troubling, but the authorities finally persuaded Nisnino to sit down and speak with them. He looked as if he hadn?t slept in days, dark rings under his eyes. He stunk, his nails had grown black and his hair was greasy, sticking to his forehead and neck. He spoke in stutters and murmurs, but at least he had something to say.
When asked if he knew anything about the children who had died after exposure of the game and if it had any connection to the game, he answered them seemingly carefully, choosing his words thoughtfully before answering. He told them that his friend Chiro had an interesting idea with the game, something he had wanted to try since he heard the project was starting. Nisino himself knew Takenori, the director and main programmer, for a long time, so he could easily get a mediocre programmer in on the project with a little persuasion. It seemed Chiro had convinced Nisino to get him in on the project, and it had worked.
The detectives knew they were on to something. This unknown obscure programmer, Chiro, had to have something to do with it, something… They asked what Chiro’s idea was, why he wanted so badly to have a part in making this children’s game. Nisino told them that Chiro never told him much about it, other than a few details every now and then. He wanted to insert a special Pokemon in the game, one completely different from all the others. It would serve as an extra, a kind of out of place thrill for the player. It wasn’t, however, Missing No. It couldn’t be. With the gameplay time recorded on the cartridges, it was impossible for the children to have time to meet that Pokemon.
Nisino, throughout the entire conversation, seemed to break down even more with every question. The detectives pushed him more and more, searching through his mind for any and every scrap of knowledge this man had no game and Chiro… and Chiro’s intentions…
It was when they asked about the notes found in Chiro’s home that he snapped. From under the couch Nisino was sitting on he whipped out a pistol, pointing it straight at the police while backing away a few steps. Then, just as quickly, he brought the pistol to his face.
Don?t follow me…? muttered Nisino as he stuck the pistol in his mouth and pulled the trigger. It was too quick for the police to react. It was done. Nisino had killed himself, repeating slightly differently what was written on one of Chiro’s papers…
It seemed all leads had finally died. The team who had created this original game were splitting up, becoming harder to find. It was as if they were keeping a secret. When the police finally managed to talk with anyone who had parts in the game, even the obscure character designers or monster designers, it seemed they had nothing of interest to say. Most of them didn?t even know Chiro, and the few who did only seen him once or twice working on the game itself. Throughout all of this the only confirmation they had was that Chiro was indeed the one who had worked on the very early parts of the game.
It had been a couple of months after the original children suicides and the death rate had dropped dramatically. It seemed that the game was no longer giving any ill effects to any children. The call back of the games that was planned was canceled, since it seemed the game was no longer harming any children. They had began to think that maybe Takenori was right and it was all just a very odd coincidence or mass hysteria… Until they received the letter.
It was given to one of the detectives himself, quite directly out on the street. It was a woman who gave him the note, a very frail, thin, sick looking thing. She gave him the letter quickly, telling him it was something he needed to see, and without waiting for a response or another word, she disappeared into the crowd. The detective brought it to his office, and calling the others in, he brought it out and read it aloud.
It was a letter written by Chiro himself, but it wasn?t one found at his apartment. They had throughly searched and cleared out the place, so wherever this letter had come from, it wasn’t kept at his home. It was signed to be given to Nisino. It started off quite formal, a hello, how are you, regards to the family, and such. After one or two of these normal paragraphs, they reached a section that requested Nisino to get him into the game team, to get him a programming position in Pokemon Red and Green.
As the letter continued, the handwriting seemed to grow more jittery. He talked about a glorious idea he had, a way to program something unseen in any game before. He said it would certainly revolutionize not only the gaming industry, but everyone. He went on to say that it was a very simple procedure to program this idea into the game. He did not even have to add any foreign programming, but could use what was already given in the game itself. This would, the detectives agreed, make it impossible to notice any obscurities in the programming itself. It was a perfect way to hide whatever this was.
The letter ended abruptly. There was no goodbye, no say hi to the family, no write back, or thank you. Nothing like that. It was just his name, written hard in the letter where the paper almost broke through. It was only his name. :Chiro Miura.”
This was the nail in the coffin for the detectives. They had no more suspicion about the cause. Chiro had programmed something into the early parts of the game, something maddening. To further increase this streak of success, they discovered that the programming team had worked in pairs, even Chiro himself. He had worked with another programmer, Sousuke Tamada.
If anyone knew what the secret in this game was, Sousuke Tamada would be the man. This was their final hope of unraveling this mystery once and for all.
They learned Sousuke had provided a lot of programming to the game, and seemed to be an average, good guy and worker. They were easily allowed into his home, a fair place, and they entered his living room where they sat. Sousuke did not sit, however. He stood by the window of the second story floor, looking out onto the busy street. He was smiling a little.
There is no direct witnesses to the events that followed. The only thing from this conversation that remained was found on a voice recorder sitting on the table in front of the two detectives assigned to talk to Sousuke. What follows is the unedited recording:
Sousuke Tamada, what part did you have in the games Pokemon Red and Green?? asked the first detective.
I was a programmer. His voice was light, friendly, almost too friendly. “That’s all.”
Am I right in knowing that the programmers working on the game worked in teams?? asked the detective.
One could hear the voice of feet moving on the floor slightly. “You would be right,” said Sousuke after a moment of silence.
And your partner, his name was– The detective was quickly cut off by Sousuke eerie voice.
Chiro Miura… That was his name. Chiro Miura.
Another silence. It seemed the detectives were a little uneasy about this man. “Could you tell us if Muira ever acted strange at all, Any particular behaviors you observed while working with him at all?”
Sousuke answered them. I don’t know him that well, really. We didn?t meet up frequently, only every once in a while to trade data, or when the entire group was called up for a meeting… That’s the only times I really ever saw him. He acted normal, as far as I could tell. He was a short man, and I think this affected his consciousness.. He acted weaker than any other man I met. He was willing to do a lot of work to gain recognition, this I do know. I think…?
Silence. “Yes?” asked the detective, pushing for him to continue. “You think what?”
I think he was a very weak man. I think he wanted to prove himself regardless of this point… I think he wanted to make himself known for something special, something that would make people forget about the way he looked and pay attention to the powerful mind that lay inside his skull.. Unfortunately for him, however.. heheh.. He didn?t have much of a mind to back up that reasoning.?
Why do you say that?? asked the second detective.
Well it?s the simple truth,? answered Sousuke quickly. His feet could be heard moving across the tiled floor. ?He was nothing special, even if he wanted to believe so. You can?t become greatness, even if you believe it. It?s impossible… Somehow, I think Chiro knew this himself, somewhere deep in there, he knew it.?
The detectives were silent again, not sure how to steer the conversation. After a moment, they continued. ?Can you tell us what Chiro?s part of the game was? What did he work on exactly??
Sousuke answered more quickly than before. ?Nothing… I mean, nothing important. He worked on some obscure parts of the beginning of the game.? A pause, then a little more information. ?It was Oak?s part to be exact. He worked on some of Oak?s parts… When he?s seen first, you see..?
?What else?? pushed the police. They could hear it in Sousuke?s voice. He knew something. ?We know you know about the children and the deaths. We know it was Chiro who did it. He programmed something in the game.?
What are you implying?? asked Sousuke. It sounded like he was trying to maintain his voice.
We’re implying that since your his partner, if you?re hiding something from us then you could just as much be responsible for those children?s deaths as Chiro is himself!?
You can?t prove anything!? Sousuke shouted.
Tell us what Chiro did to the game!? they shouted back.
WHAT I TOLD HIM TO.?
Silence. Complete silence.
You want to know, huh?? asked Sousuke finally, breaking the eerie silence, but replacing it with his voice. ?You want to know what is this all about? Chiro was an idiot. He?d do anything for a bit of attention, anything at all. He couldn?t program worth a **** either. The one thing he could do, however, was be manipulated. You could tell him what to do, and he?d do it. He wouldn?t even question it, he?d do it. Just to hear that ?thank you? when you received the finish product, that was his reasons. That?s all he wanted.?
Two clicks from the detective?s guns could heard.
I could control his flawlessly. He?s a lot like Takenori… Of course none of you knew this, but I was the one who brought up the idea of the game, the idea of the entire operation. I just told the fellow what to do, and he followed me without doubt. He knows nothing, just like Chiro.?
A sound of a window opening could be heard, follow by the detectives.
Don’t move or we’ll shoot!?
Let me tell you about a mechanic in the game,? continued Sousuke. His voice was more rushed, but it still held that slyness. ?Consider it a hint, alright? If you walk around in grassy areas enough a Pokemon will appear, and you?ll have the chance to go into battle with it. It?s a necessary part of the game overall, you see??
Step away from the window! We won?t warn you again!?
At the start of the game you have to walk into the grassy area before Oak appears and you receive your first Pokemon, understand me? Under normal circumstances, it was programmed that even though you?re in a grassy area, no Pokemon will spawn… I made it different. I manipulated that Chiro, told him what to put in the program, gave him all the instructions on how to do it, and he did it flawlessly. It?s rare, but it can happen.. Stepping into that grass, one can spawn…?
Sousuke, we don?t want to shoot!?
Shoot me?? asked Souske, laughing at the same time. ?Shoot ME? You?re as dumb as Chiro was! Once he found out the truth, he had to end it! It was his fault after all! He shot himself because of it! If you?re so determined to finish that case of yours, if you want to know, play the damn game for yourself! Roll the wheel, and who knows? Maybe you?ll learn the secret for yourself!?
A shot could be heard, loud enough to distort the audio. Sounds of screaming, murmuring could be heard. The table the recorder was on crashed. Ear shattering distortions. Silence. Then laughing. Sousuke was laughing, and then words. ?Come follow me… Come follow me…? And then nothing.
The recorder continued to record until the tape ran out. There was nothing else on it. The police arrived on the scene quickly, and to their horror they discovered Sousuke and the two detectives dead. They had all been shot, but not after struggling. The detectives had been shot multiple times, at least ten each, before dying after being shot in between their eyes. Sousuke himself had clearly died of two shots to his chest, straight through the heart.
This game was causing a massacre. At least a hundred children were dead. Nisino, the unexpecting friend, dead. Chiro, the manipulated toy, dead. The two detectives, dead. And now, even the creator, the cause of this atrocity, Sousuke, dead. This game was stretching far over it?s original intentions. It was killing anyone and everyone who got involved.
The lead detective had decided to put this case away. He man who committed the crime was dead, so there was no longer any reason to continue the case. All evidence, all the cartridges, all the notes, all the letters, they were locked away, kept in the darkness where they belonged. There were talks about the entire thing, small conversations every now and then, but over the years even these began to fade away. Eventually, the case was only a memory in the minds of those who experienced it first hand.
Ten years passed. February 27, 2006 was the date. The lead detective, the man who locked away the original evidence ten years previous, was reminded of the awful event that occurred. Although he was no longer in the force, he still had access to files and was helped when he could. The reminder of the event caused him to look back, to open the sealed container that held all the evidence collected.
He read through the letters and the notes. He remembered the woman who had appeared to him on the street that one day and handed him that letter that lead to the change of the entire case. He wondered who she was, and where she had come from. Perhaps she was Chiro?s mother… or maybe Sousuke?s. It was far too late to pursue any of this. Far too late..
Sealing the container again, he saw a second one directly behind it. Pulling it out, he read the note on top of it. ?Evidence #2104A? He opened it up, and looked inside. Filling the container were exactly 104 Pokemon Red and Green cartridges, each one in perfect condition, untouched since the day they had last checked them ten years ago.
He reached in and pulled one out, Pokemon Red. He hadn?t seen one in a long time. He didn?t know what he thought next, but he reached in his desk and pulled out an old Gameboy. He received it a long time ago, but it still worked. It was his son?s, but he had died a few years ago. His wife was gone too. That was then though. Popping in the cartridge in the back of the Gameboy he turned on the system.
The title screen. Then the option to continue or start a new game. ?Tanaka.? That was the child?s name, the one who played it first. He was probably dead, along with all the others. He pressed New Game, and started a new game. It was normal, average. He walked around, talked to his mother, went outside. He started walking towards the grass.
In his head, he could still hear Sousuke?s words. Even though he was not there, even though he had never seen the man in his life, he could still see him, hear him. ?Come follow me.?
He was getting closer and closer, only a step or two away.
Roll the wheel, and who knows? Maybe you?ll learn the secret for yourself!?
He entered the grass. The screen did nothing at first. Nothing at all. It just sat there, and so did the detective, completely frozen, as if time had stopped just for them. The screen went black. and then lit up again, the iconic green background with black text appearing.
The lead detectives weary eyes grew wide. He couldn?t help but read out what was there in front of him.
Come follow me, come follow me, come follow me. I miss you dad, I miss you my husband, I miss you so much.?
Tears formed in his eyes, falling down his cheeks. Screens and screens of text appeared and he rapidly clicked the A button to continue it. It was his wife and his child. They were speaking to him, calling to him, crying with him. They wanted to see him, they loved him, he loved them.
I love you too,? muttered the man in a hoarse, scratching voice.
Come follow me, become new again. We want to see you and hold you, and be with you forever and ever and ever and ever.?
AND EVER AND EVER…?
Don?t stay away. You can see us too.. We miss you.. Come follow me. We love yo–?
A black screen. The detectives eyes grew wide, his jaw dropping. The screen lit back up, and Oak was leading him out of the grass. Come follow me, said Oak.
NO! shouted the man, dropping the game onto the floor. He quickly fell forward, reaching for it, bringing the screen back to his face. ?Bring them back, bring them back to me!? The game continued on as usual, not responding to the detective at all. ?My wife, my child, listen to me! Bring them back to me, I said!?
Voices… He heard voices, hundreds of voices. He turned around from his seat, looking behind him, and standing in his small room were children, many children. Some had no eyes, some had rings around their throats, some were burned all across their body. They were screaming, reaching towards him.
Bring back my mommy, bring back my daddy, bring back my pet!? they all screamed out, reaching for the game, their mouths agape with horror and pain. ?I don?t want them to go away, bring them back to me, bring them back to me!?
No! shouted the detective. It’s mine! My family is here, don?t touch it!? Horror was across his face.
Come follow me…? said a voice. The lead detective looked over, and in the corner of his room, next to an old desk, was Sousuke. He stood in the corner, tall, handsome, clean. A smile was on his face, stretching across his face. ?Come follow me…?
The lead detective jumped up, stepping back, trying to force away the children crawling towards him, reaching out for the game held tightly within his hands. ?Wh-what?s going on here!? What?s going on!? Where is my family!??
Sousuke smiled generously. ?I?ll show you. I?ll help you get away from them, you see? Just follow me.? Sousuke reached down, and opened a drawer on the old desk. The lead detective, pushing through the crowd of children, trying to get away, looked inside.
Siting there, covered with dust, was his old gun from when he was on the force. He had not used that gun in many years and had put it away, not wanting to remember the things he had to do with it. But right now he didn?t see it as something that caused pain or that killed. It was shining, it was light. It was something that could set him free.
Just follow me,? said Sousuke, picking up the gun and putting it in the lead detectives hand. He formed his hand to hold the gun, then brought it up to his temple. ?Just pull the trigger. That?s all.?
The lead detective turned around. The children were crawling at him, grabbing his legs and pulling at him. They reached for the game. He turned back towards Sousuke, and smiled.
My family… I?ll follow you.? He pulled the trigger. Bang. His brains spread the wall as he fell to the ground, dead.
It was a few days before the body was discovered. It lay on the floor, blood everywhere. In one hand held an empty gun, and in the other was a classic Gameboy with Pokemon Red on the back. The battery had long died, and only an empty, black screen was left.
This was the final murder that the remaining authorities would allow. The last detective who was ever a part of this case personally carried all 104 cartridges away, and burned them all, making sure not a single one survived. There would taunt no more.
However, this is not the end of the story. The code was said to have survived, and was even passed on to other language versions of the games. If you have an old Pokemon game, you can place the cartridge in the back of the classic Gameboy, turn on the system, and roll the wheel who knows? Maybe you?ll learn the secret for yourself.

A few years back, whilst feeling nostalgic, I dug out my old Silver game. Tragically, the battery had died, thus my save data was all missing, and I was unable to start a new save. Oddly, this has been the first time in all of my 20+ years of playing video games that a battery has died in one of my cartridges.

This left me understandably disappointed, as I had lived and breathed that cartridge when it was new. I was rarely without it within arm's length, no matter where I was, had accumulated at least one dozen each of Shinies and Level 100s, and worst yet - I had traded my best Pokémon from my first game, Blue, to it, including a Level 100 Squirtle that I had outfitted with strong physical attacks and named "Ninja".

While I was thoroughly sad in regards to this event, it was not something that
dehabilitated me in any way. For the next few years, I, on the whole, forgot about my little Silver cartridge, and went on with life.

Every summer my family goes to the local Swap Meet. It's been tradition for as long as I can recall and continued even after I moved away from my parents; last summer was no exception. The Swap Meet, especially recently, has had the quality of its selection decreased by far, but a few gems can be found to the careful observer; for example, five years ago, I had nabbed a pirated English Pokémon Green version for $10, that, although it is just a title screen hack of the English Blue release in a green cartridge, is one of my prized possessions.

In any case, last year, I came across an elderly gentleman with a slew of old games for various Nintendo systems. Most of these cartridges were either games I already owned, or had no interest in, such as the stacks of every Madden release for the SNES that were so high that they threatened to topple every time someone approached the table.

Skimming through the GameBoy games he had for sale, I came across a copy of Pokémon Silver. Strangely, although the little labels affixed for prices on the cartridges read $5-15 on each GameBoy cartridge, Silver was only noted as $1. Nostalgia came flooding back to me, and not wishing to curse my luck, I decided not to inquire the price and jumped on the chance to purchase the game.

I had become sidetracked upon arriving home that night, so the game went untouched until the following afternoon. Rummaging through my bounty of the previous day, I came across the Silver cartridge and decided to give it a go.

I popped the cartridge into my GameBoy Advance and booted up the game. A save file was already present, and like anyone would be, I was a tad curious as to what had gone on in the previous owner's game. I smiled as I chose "Continue", hoping to receive a little insight on a stranger's psyche.

Immediately after the game started, I realized that I hadn't seen the name assigned to the player character; using the start menu to check, I found it was labeled as "The S".

I cocked my eyebrow in surprise. Surely, there was no way anyone else would use this moniker in his or her game - in all of my years, the only people I've encountered using it have been deliberate impostors - hardly someone that would use it in a game of Pokémon.

I shrugged this off for a few mere seconds, when I had found that the player's team also mirrored mine at the last time I had seen it - Ninja, Venom Jr. (Beedrill), Mewtwo, Lugia, Letherhed (Feraligatr), and Slashclaw (Scyther). I couldn't tell whether I was more creeped out or jubilant. Eventually, even though I failed to comprehend exactly how this turn of events came to be, I was just so excited to see my old team again that I continued to press on.

Everything in the game mirrored my previous Silver adventure, right down to other Pokémon I had caught, rival's name, and more. Despite still feeling a little uneasy over my game being duplicated, I kept playing, as nothing else seemed amiss, and it was like I had never lost my initial game.

After clocking a few hours just battling and messing around, eventually I made my way to Cinnabar Island. This is where things truly began to frighten me. Cinnabar had been restored to its former glory, as it had been in Generation I. My fear temporarily subsided after I reasoned that it had to be some sort of hacked cartridge, or maybe, since I had read that Gold and Silver were built on Generation I's architecture, that some glitch had called back to some Gen I Cinnabar Island data still left on the cartridge. This second theory seemed to be the most accurate at the time, considering that the buildings on the island were unavailable for entrance (as if the code to enter the buildings had been disabled) and the sole inhabitant, an old man, spoke only in glitchy-looking gibberish.

I fooled around a bit, surfing and fishing around the area. I was only coming up with low level Magikarp and Tentacool, which was becoming exceedingly tedious. Just I was heading back to the island from surfing off the east side, I ran into a Wild Pokémon encounter. With a sigh, I anticipated another Tentacool, but what awaited me caused my heart to skip a beat.

I don't know why I hadn't consciously made an effort to run into MissingNo. on the coast of Cinnabar Island, but I did indeed encounter it upon my attempted return to land. However, instead of the garbled mess of town sprites that normally compose Pokémon #000 (as well as many glitches in Generation II), this was the standard Red/Blue MissingNo. sprite. Unfortunately, MissingNo.'s appearance in this game wasn't what had me nearly soiling myself in terror; it was the cry it made upon appearing. A sound that had already burrowed itself into my brain.

Earlier that year, I had been out for a jog a few blocks from my apartment, when I had come across a house on fire. Nobody seemed to be around, nor was anyone responding to my shouts for help. I did not have my cell phone on me at the time, and so, in an instinctual move, I broke a window and entered the house. Exiting the kitchen (which was the room I had come into from the window), I was hit in the back with something heavy, hard, and hot (although not on fire), sending me to the floor. Unable to get up, I heard a blood-curdling scream echo throughout the building. Later, after I had been rescued by the firefighters, I had learned that it was the elderly man that had lived there; his wife was already dead when I had made my rescue attempt.

This was the sound that MissingNo. made. The scream of a man burning to death.

Immediately, I dropped my GBA on the couch. Terror flowed through my body like blood, as I just stared at the game lying there. I didn't know what the hell was going on, or what I was going to do next. It may have actually been but a few minutes, but it seemed as if an eternity had passed before I worked up the nerve to pick it up again, again trying to reason why this had occurred, I figured that it simply was a random assortment of glitch noises that just happened to sound similar to the man's screaming. With a shaky hand, I lifted the game up, telling myself how silly it was to be freaking out over a game.

Although it was only Level 3, the MissingNo. wiped out my entire team - which consisted of three Level 100s and no Pokémon under Level 70 - with one Water Gun each, claiming it was "Super effective" no matter what type the Pokémon it hit was.

After Whiting Out, I arrived in a Pokémon Center that according to the map, was in Lavender Town. I had not visited Lavender since I had turned on the game several hours previously, so I was a bit surprised at this. I suddenly heard a bizarre noise, which actually did sound like a glitched warble that would be given off by a MissingNo. It took me a few minutes, however, to realize it was my cell phone. This was not a normal sound for my phone, thus I was startled. Flipping it open, I found that the battery was drained, and it was warning me of such. I had just charged the phone the previous night and the phone has only ever been drained when I hadn't charged it for a couple of days, or used it excessively - which I hadn't.

Sighing, I plugged in my phone, only to be shocked to see a photo pop up on the screen. It was a MissingNo. against a plain white background. Pressing a key on the phone made the phone cycle to another photo, which was another one of MissingNo., but from another angle, as if it were a 3D representation of the glitch, such as an action figure or papercraft.

It took a lot of attempts, but eventually I was able to figure out how to delete the photos (as the normal method only caused the phone to advance to the next photo). Sadly, these photos either overwrote or deleted the dozen or so photos I had on the phone previously.

Now aware that there was definitely something "not right" going on, I approached the game again... but instead of turning it off, I continued playing. I can't tell you why I did... morbid curiosity, perhaps, or maybe it had me in some sort of trance. Normally, as a fan of horror movies, I would think myself savvy enough to not take the bait, but ultimately, I kept at it.

Exiting the Pokémon Center, I found the surroundings to be familiar, but a bit different than I recall Silver's Lavender Town being. It didn't take long to dawn on me that it was because this Lavender Town was a reproduction of the Generation I version, like Cinnabar Island before it - Pokémon Tower included.

I walked into the Pokémon Tower, but the interior was completely different than in other games. It was a small nigh-featureless room, about the size of the inside of a Pokémon Center, with one gravestone in the center. My palms sweating so hard that I thought I was going to drop the game, I approached the grave, expecting to see my name there.

"Here lies Tomb."

Now, most of you would probably find this a bizarre non-sequitur or the game pointing out the obvious. After all, it's a tombstone, so of course there lies a tomb, right?

This message had special connotations for me, however. I had a close friend named Tasha who I had basically mentored for almost a decade, who was like family to me. When she moved out to Wisconsin, her friends there realized that her initials - TMB - were like "tomb" without an 'o', so that became her nickname. Tasha ended up having lymphoma, and while she was sick, I lent her my English Green version - her name as "Tomb" in that game is still there to this day. She passed away in 2008.

This was starting to drive me mad. This game knew details of my life, or at the very least, ones that had been entered into my Pokémon games previously. It was causing things to happen with my cell phone - even though Crystal was the first game to have cell phone interaction, and that was removed from the English version. And it was able to reproduce, realistically, the screams of a burning old man despite the technology not being available on an 8-bit cartridge.

My text message ring tone went off on my phone at this time, causing me to drop the game on the couch hard enough to bounce. Eying my phone, I was reluctant to pick it up again. After a few minutes, eventually irritated by the ring tone going off every 30 seconds as a reminder, I picked up the phone and saw that it was from Tasha's partner, Leslie. At first a chill went down my back, as there was no way this was a coincidence that she was texting me right after I had seen this event in my game. Then, I, still likely in denial, reasoned that perhaps there was ultimately some mystery and that she had come across clues. Sure, it's a hard pill to swallow, but at this point, I was grasping at straws.

I saw that the text had a photo attached, so I held my breath for a moment while I chose to download it. My phone is a TracFone that runs on pre-paid phone cards, so it's not exactly stellar technology, and thus, it took a while for the attachment to transfer. When it appeared on the screen, I came face-to-face with the most horrifying sight I had ever seen in my life.

Tasha appeared on the screen, her flesh a sickly gray and her face covered in deep, bleeding cuts, like the time she had been thrown through a bar window. Her mouth was twisted in a menacing scowl, and her normally beautiful eyes were completely devoid of life. She appeared to be reaching for either the photographer or the item being used to take said photo.

Seeing the face of someone so close to me in such a disturbing manner, tears began to trickle down my face. I just stared at her, willing away the photo while my thumb nervously bashed the keypad, trying to get the image off. I finally managed to delete the text (via the standard method, not the workaround I'd used to get rid of the MissingNo. photos), and quickly closed the phone. Using my landline, I dialed up Leslie... no answer, no voice mail. Scared out of my wits, I pulled the cartridge from the GBA's slot (without first turning it off), stepped out onto my balcony into the hot summer night, and flung the cartridge with all of my might across the street, hearing it crash against something with a satisfying snap.

The GBA screen was white, and there was no sound emanating from it. I turned off the system, confident that I had beaten whatever cursed monstrosity that had tormented me. As I went to put away the GBA, I saw a Silver cartridge sitting on my sofa. Nearly vomiting, I realized there was no price sticker, and that this was my original Silver cartridge, which must've fallen out from the carrying case. Just to be certain, I loaded it into my GBA, and it indeed had no save file. Satisfied, I returned everything to it rightful place. I checked the cell one last time, and everything seemed to be in order, save for all of the photos that were removed by the MissingNo. ones.

I never did have problems with the cell phone or GameBoy again. I got a hold of Leslie the next day through her job, and she had told me that she had switched providers but not numbers, thus why I wasn't able get a hold of her. I decided not to frighten her with the plight I had just encountered, though.

To this day, I don't think I'll ever get another Silver version. I definitely will not purchase any more Pokémon games secondhand, and if I decide to get one of the remakes, I'm getting HeartGold.

Back in the day my Powerful team and I journeyed all around Kanto in Pokemon Blue. They were like the brothers I never had. Hydro The Blastoise, Volts the Raichu, Dash the Alakazam, Ptera the Aerodactyl, Mike the Pidgeot, and Leah the Vileplume the sister I never had. As you could guess I was very excited. I bought Fire Red as I heard it was supossed to be good, and I picked Bulbasaur as my starter and met some new friends like Dragonite and Gengar along the way. I couldn't help but feel I betrayed my old Pokemon by picking Firered. After I beat the Pokemon league I had bought an Action Replay to screw around with. I wanted to catch duplicates of my old Pokemon so I started by setting it so only Raichu appeared. When I encountered the Raichu I was shocked. It was Volts Lv. 77 same as the one I trained on Blue. I used a master ball to catch it and put it in my party. I did the same thing for an Aerodactyl. There it was Ptera Lv. 71. I caught it. I did the same thing for Pidgeot and I caught Mike. I continued to catch Leah and Dash after that. By the time I was almost done, my mom signaled me to go to bed, and I did. I figured I'd catch Hydro tommorow. Although it was pretty creepy how the action replay knew what Pokemon I'd previously had. I went down for breakfast first thing it the morning. "Could you get Leah, her french toast is ready" my mom said. Leah? "Who's Leah?" I asked. "Don't be silly Aaron" my mom said "You know she's your sister. I have a sister? and even wierder my mom called me Aaron, my name on Pokemon Blue, and not my normal name. My suspicions grew. "Do I have any other siblings?" I asked. "Are you high or something?" my mom asked, "I hope not." "No, I'm fine, but seriously who are my other siblings I need to know." "Well there's Mike, Ptera, Dash, and Volts." Ptera, Volts? what kind of name's where those, and I was the high one? Then it all came to me. Leah, Ptera, Dash, Volts, Mike, and I was Aaron. They were my actual brothers and sisters now and I was Aaron the Pokemon Trainer. I decided to turn on firered and Release Ptera, Volts, and the other old Pokemon. As I was surfing back to Five island I saw something that shocked me, it was my Blastoise, Hydro Lv. 88, although it didn't say Hydro, its name was Aaron (my name in the game) and it seemed to be mixed with the glitch Pokemon missingno.

I was raised with morals intact/
taught to never strike back/
the best defense is to never react
but momma, that didnt work for you did it?/
it was always you alone that he hit/
you dont thnk i remember? well i do/
he disrespected you, /
abused you /
and used you/
he said he loved you,
it was always the same ruse too /
through all that shit, you ended up losing me/
my dad brought me back to my family/
your own advice just didn't work/
he kept at it, until you were physically, and emotionally hurt./
i hated him, i hated you for letting him do it./
but mom, i love you to death for finally pulling through it
you finally decided one day, it was your last shot/
either call it quits now, or forever remain at that spot/
but you did it, you mustered up the courage to leave/
you had to do it though, you just needed one last heave/
you packed everything up, and brought my brothers back home/
be it, when you got here you were all alone/
no family for support, they had all given up/
they were tired of you goin back and forth/
we all felt like, to you, we were no worth/

im sittin and kicckin it in the kitchen/
at the same time im listening to my father bitchin/
about me eating the last cookies from the cupboard/
he keeps getting louder so i retort "ok fagot, i heard!"/
and thats when all shit hits the fan and hell breaks loose/
my father shuts up, goes to his room and grab a noose./
i say "dad please, no, ill go buy some more, i swear!"/
"oh haha son, your funny, it's to late for me to care"/
he slams me against the wall and wraps it around my neck/
i make a break for it and run outside onto the deck./
i jump over the fence and grab a rake and snap it in 2/
"alright fagot you wanna go, lets see what you can do"/
we battle for like 5 minutes with the 2 pieces of the rake./
i eventually pushed him off and into the lake/
this just got him more riled up and pissed/
i aimed quickly, through the sharp end of the stick at him and missed./
"this will be the last thing youll ever regret"/
all i could think of was "haha alright fag, i bet!"/
i turned around and booked it out of the yard, and down the street./
all of a sudden i heard the roar of an engine, my fate... i was about to meet/
he drove at me doin , 20. 30, 40, then 50/
as i kept running, i prayed to god that hed miss me/
but he didnt, he hit me head on going 75/
i opened my eyes and to my dismay i was still alive/
i was in the hospital, i could hear the beeps of the machines/
as i started to focus i saw my dad holding a pillow, i know what this means/
he suffocated me, i lost all air and then i died/
if only i had told him there were no cookies left, instead i lied/