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 pomegranate 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. The 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.

I always liked Super Mario 64 when I was a kid. I remember playing it at my aunt's house all the time. Well, one day a pop-up appeared out of nowhere as I was watching gameplay footage on Youtube. I was a little startled, and was about to close the window, until I realized that it was a website showing of a mint condition copy of Super Mario 64 for sale. There was a picture and everything. I usually don't trust these things, but the feeling of nostalgia overpowered me, and I wanted to buy it.
The whole business was peculiar, seeing as how the owner of the game wanted the buyer to send an envelope containing $10 to and address on the site, instead of using something like PayPal. What made things even more strange was that when I tried to gain access to the website (I wrote down the URL) after encountering...problems with the game, the page was nowhere to be found.

A few days after the $10 was mailed, I got a package containing the new copy of the game. The first thing I noticed when I opened the small box was that the "official sticker" with Mario flying in the air was apparently peeled off or something. In it's place was a piece of duct tape with "Mario" crudely written on it in permanent marker. I felt a little ripped-off, but as long as the game worked, I didn't care.

I got out my Nintendo 64 and put the cartridge in. The screen turned on with the familiar Mario face that you could stretch and twist aimlessly. I remembered laughing all the time at the results as a kid and decided to mess around for old times sake. I moved the cursor over to Mario's ear and pulled it to elven proportions. I was going to do the same to the other ear, when the TV suddenly produced loud static. Mario's whole head started deforming and twisting in ways that I didn't even know were possible for the model. Random sound effects from the game started playing along with the static. As all this was occurring, I could hear a faint voice whispering in Japanese. The voice was stammering and whimpering.

I immediately shut off the game and tried again. I didn't bother with the Mario head this time. Just selected a new file and started playing.

When I selected the file, the game skipped the opening monologue by Peach and the courtyard outside. Mario was just placed right inside the castle. Creepier still, Bowser didn't say anything either. I tried to ignore it and played anyway. However I also noticed that their was no music. Just dead silence. Their weren't even any Toads around to talk to. The only door I could enter was the Bob-omb Battlefield. The other doors wouldn't even respond to my button commands.

The portrait to Bob-omb Battlefield wasn't the usual picture. It was just a stark white canvas. I was still trying to convince myself that these were just minor glitches, and that they wouldn't effect the gameplay at all. Once I entered the portrait, the image suddenly went from a blank canvas to the Lethal Lava Land painting. You know, that slightly unsettling image of the flame with the evil smile? Yeah, that's when I started getting really suspicious.

The mission select menu came up, and yet another weird detail was present. Instead of "Big Bob-omb on the Summit", the mission was called "TURN BACK". I have no idea what drove me to press A, but I did.

The level seemed normal. Everything was how I remembered it. I thought I could finally enjoy my favorite childhood game. But then I saw him. Luigi. I was absolutely shocked. He was never in this game. His model wasn't even a Mario palette swap. He looked like a completely original model. Luigi just stood there until I tried to approach him. He started running at unexpected speeds. I followed suite and went through the level. Strange things happened as I pursued him. each time I picked up a coin, the enemies and music would get slower, and the scenery would look darker in color and more morbid. It kept gradually getting worse until I collected a 5th coin. Then, the music just stopped. The enemies laid down on the ground like they were dead. I was seriously freaked out, but I kept chasing Luigi.

I went up the hill. No cannon balls rolled down trying to knock me over. I really wasn't surprised at this point. Luigi was always just out of my sight as I ran. Once I reached the summit, I saw yet another object out of place. A small cottage was all that was seen on the top of the hill. Luigi was nowhere to be found. The cottage was certainly od looking for a Mario game. It was old, plain, and broken down. Regardless of my fears at that moment, I had Mario enter the cottage.

As soon as the door closed. A disturbing picture of a hanged Luigi immediately popped up along with a very frightening scare chord. It sounded like a violin screech accompanied by loud piano banging. Mario fell to his knees and sobbed for roughly 5 minutes, then the screen irised-out.

I returned to the castle. Mario just slumped out of the painting. The image switched from the Lethal Lava Land portrait to the image of Luigi hanging himself. The room was different this time. It was now a small hallway. Toads with blank expressions and white robes lined the sides of the hallway. Their was another painting at the opposite end that just completely and utterly scared me. It was a picture of my family It wasn't even a photo from the time Super Mario 64 was released. It was a very, very recent photo. I remembered posing for it last weekend.

I reached for the on/off switch on the N64. There was no way I was going to play this anymore. However, when I flipped the switch, the game was still on. I flipped it back and forth, but to no avail. I tried unplugging the whole system, but it never left the screen. I was even still able to control Mario. I couldn't just leave it on forever...so I kept playing. I went to the photo of my family, and jumped in. Only one mission was available, of course. This one was called "Run, Don't Walk". I selected the mission. 'Let's-a-go'...

The level started in a flooded hallway with platforms floating on the water. Mario landed on one of these, and the camera turned to show what was behind. A silent black void was slowly approaching Mario. It didn't look like anything. It didn't even look like finished graphics. Just a giant, blocky, black blob. I started jumping from platform to platform. With no goal in sight, I kept running, the darkness slowly but surely gaining speed. This kept going on for what felt like hours. I was really doubting there would ever be an end. Mario was just going in circles. Finally, the black blob/void/thing caught up with Mario, and enveloped him in darkness. He didn't scream or resist at all. It just consumed him.

Mario fell out of the painting and back into the castle. I lost one of my 3 lives. The room was different now. Some of the Toads were gone, and the painting looked different. My family and I were in the same positions, but our bodies were partially decomposed. It looked too real to be photoshopped. It looked more like someone just took our dead bodies and posed them.

Regardless, I jumped into the painting again. Mario was in an small room. There was still only one mission available. It was called "I'm right here." spelled just like that. I selected the mission and prepared for the worst. Mario landed in a small, dark room. There no visible way out. The room was empty except for a piano in the corner. I knew what that meant. i was stuck in there with the Mad Piano. I approached it and it started chasing me as always. There was no way to damage it, so I had no choice but to let Mario take damage.

When he lost all his health, the usual death animation didn't happen. Mario just got mauled by the piano. He fell as his blood and guts spilled on the floor, and the camera panned to a top down view of his corpse. A distorted version of the merry-go-round music from Big Boo's Haunt played as the screen slowly transitioned from the in-game shot to a photo-realistic sketch of Mario's dead body in the same view as the shot. It was very unsettling. I was crying softly as I gazed upon the image. I lost another life.

The photo of my family was shown again. We were even more rotten then before. The view zoomed into the painting, like I was warping again. I was greeted with a shot of Peach's castle from the outside. The castle was crumbling in ruin. The fields were on fire. The sky was pitch black. Bowser's laugh played on a loop in the background as children mockingly chanted "You couldn't save her!". This went on for a long time, until, a close-up of of Peach's face accompanied by an extremely loud screech interrupted the loop without notice. Peach's mouth was wide open as if she was screaming, and her eyes were empty, black holes.

Suddenly, I was back in the hallway as Mario was once again ejected out of the painting. Now all of the Toads were gone, and me and my family looked positively repulsive. Maggots were wriggling around in holes in our flesh. Guts were spilling out of our bodies. My dad's eyeball was hanging loose from its socket. It was too much to bear, but something still urged me to trudge on. I jumped into the painting, with only one life remaining.

This time, there was no name for the mission. Just a blank space where the title would be. I selected the mission, and Mario landed on a very small island in the middle of the ocean. There was a solitary sign. It only read "DIVE". I did just as it said and entered the water.

The ocean was dark and empty. There were no fish. I wasn't even able to see anything in the water besides Mario. I swam downwards. I kept going for quite some time, yet Mario never ran out of breath. I counted roughly 10 minutes of swimming until I decided to go back up. Just as I turned Mario around, it came. A huge, and I mean huge Unagi the Eel came out of nowhere and swallowed Mario whole. I was dumbfounded. It went by so fast I wasn't even sure what I saw. The Game Over screen didn't show up. All that happened was a fade-out.

The photo of my family and I was shown again. We were plain skeletons now. Once again, it looked very real. I couldn't move the camera at all. It just stayed focused on the picture. I shut off the game and turned it on again. I chose my file, but it just went to the skeleton photo of my family. I tried this about 3 more times before giving up. I desperately wanted to stop, but some force kept me from walking away. I decided to select the only other saved file. The camera once again focused on the skeleton picture, but this time they were in a different position. As if they were a different family.

You see, I am a simple college student living alone in an apartment. I was very enthusiastic about the release of HeartGold/SoulSilver on the states. I have purposely locked myself out of all media and the internet aside for school purposes. That means no 4chan, no /v/, no Bulbapedia, etc.

As I was busy with the school year and being a poorfag at the time, I wasn’t able to buy SoulSilver on launch date. After my school year ended, I ordered SoulSilver on Amazon (sorry, I’m not a faggy pirate). However, it would take a week for it to arrive. I decided that during that time, I replay my Crystal version on my Gameboy Color.

However, I realized that long ago, my mom threw it away because I told her the save went dead, and I was very upset about it then. She also threw away my Silver version, so all I have is my Gameboy Color. As such, I set out to Gamestop and bought a used Silver version, as it’s the only Pokemon game left that they have for the GBC. Ten dollars – fairly cheap despite it being Gamestop.

I went home and started it up for a nostalgia trip. However, that’s where things started getting bizarre, and most likely the reason why you read this.

The Gamefreak logo started up as normal, but it just froze there. I thought the cart was just errored or something, so I turned it off and on. The same thing happened. I tried pressing A and Start over and over, and all of the buttons. Eventually, the logo vanished and there was a black screen for about five seconds. Suddenly, rather than going to the usual menu screen, I was already in the game in a previous saved file, which was odd as I was expecting all of these carts to have been wiped by the poor battery. Either way, I wasn’t complaining, as I would have chosen the “Continue” option to see what the previous guy did anyways.

First off, I checked his trainer information. His name was just “…” – He didn’t have much originality.

I checked his profile and apparently he had 999:99 hours put into the game, with all 16 badges, 999999 Pokedollars and all 251 Pokemon on the Pokedex.

Seeing as he apparently had Mew and Celebi logged also, I am guessing he either used a Game Genie or is a really hardcore Pokemon player back then.

I checked his Pokemon to see what badass team he has. To my surprise, I saw 5 Unowns and a sixth Pokemon named “HURRY”. I’m thinking that this must be some cruel joke by the person who last played this game, but I decided to check the profiles of those Pokemon anyways. As expected, they were different letters of Unown, all Level 5. I was a bit shaky with my Unown alphabet at the time, but I identified the word spelled out to be “LEAVE”.

As for the sixth Pokemon, it turned out to be a Cyndaquil (mind you, this is before there were individualized Pokemon icons). The Cyndaquil looked normal, but it was Level 5 with only 1 HP left with only two attacks: “Leer” and “Flash”. I don’t know why they named him “HURRY”, but at the time, I just disregarded it. The most eerie thing was that, despite my volume being at max, none of the Pokemon he had said their usual cries. Just pure silence.

Having enough of the team, I closed it. I was parked at what appears to be a room inside Bellsprout Tower. However, for some reason, there were no NPCs around. Even more eerie was that the “pillar” in the middle didn’t move at all, as if just leaning on its side. There was no music at all, and there was no exit or ladder, or least I thought there wasn’t.

I walked around for a few minutes but can’t seem to find a way out. This was certainly not a room I’ve seen in the Bellsprout Tower before. I’ve tried checking my items for an Escape Rope, but the bag was completely empty. There wasn’t any Wild Pokemon either.

Finally, I’ve managed to find a ladder, which turned out to be behind the “pillar”. The screen turned black and the music finally started playing. I had a sudden chill, as I recognize that melody I heard to be the theme you hear when you listened to the radio at the Alph Ruins where the Unown are at.

I immediately realize that it wasn’t a loading transition, but rather I was in a dark room and would need Flash. Before I took care of that though, I immediately checked my Pokegear to change the radio to something more pleasant, but it turns out that there was no Radio card, or even a Phone nor Time cards. There was only a Map card in which Gold (“…” from earlier, and I will call him Gold from now on) was just walking in a midst of black.

I recall that Cyndaquil has Flash, so I turned off my Pokegear and made Cyndaquil use Flash. I didn’t see any message saying “HURRY has used Flash!” or anything like that. The room just became lit just like that, and I soon regretted it. The room was a chilling blood-red with a linear gray path heading south. The ladder I used to go up/down was not there at all.

I had no choice but to head south. The screen got darker every 20 steps I made, until I finally made it to the end, which appears to be a sign. I read the sign, which said “TURN BACK NOW”.

Suddenly, I was asked to answer YES/NO, but there was no question asked. I chose YES as I do not know what it was asking, and the screen went black again, making a “ladder climbed” sound. The Unown Radio music stopped, and in a few seconds was replaced with the not-as-creepy Poke Flute radio music.

I was in another dark room, but I held my breath and used Flash again. Suddenly, it said that “HURRY has fainted!” which was odd since I recall that there was no status conditions like Poison on him, and I clearly wasn’t in a battle. I checked my Pokemon quickly and suddenly he’s no longer in my party. In fact, after a bit of investigating, none of my Pokemon are there, but instead all replaced with Level 10 Unown. I did the same thing as before and spelled out the Unown. My then team of Unown spelled “HEDIED”.

Either way, after that creepy change, the room was lit to reveal myself in a very small room that appears to be only four squares big. The walls of that room were gray bricks, as if I was inside something that was hollowed out. Outside that room appears to be a bunch of graves similar to the ones in Pokemon Red/Blue. I’ve walked around that small room and pressed A but nothing happened.

I’ve already concluded that this was clearly a hacked game and some sadistic pineapple sold it to Gamestop. However, my curiosity kept me going. I checked the trainer profile of “…” again only to find out that the sprite of Gold was missing his arms. He also seems to appear less smug, but rather seems more sad and empty in a way that I do not know how to describe. For some reason, it also now said that he has 24 badges, which was clearly impossible.

After a few minutes of aimless wondering, my character suddenly spun and did the Escape Rope spinning animation. Instead of flying up though, my character spun downwards slowly, as if sinking.

After that screen, the music stopped. After finally landing, the overworld sprite of Gold is coloured differently now. Instead of the usual red colour he dons, he appears completely white now, including his skin. It’s as if he came straight from the colorless Game Boy games placed into a colored background of the Gameboy Color. I checked his profile, and now, while now is as white as his overworld sprite, he lost his legs and has what appears to be bloody tears from his eyes. It also says he now has 32 badges, which now starts to disturb me as this change of number seems to represent something important.

I also checked my Pokemon, which this time contains 5 Unowns and a Level 100 Celebi without a nickname. The Unown are this time Leveled 15 and spelled out “DYING”. I checked the Celebi’s profile. It was a shiny Celebi, except there’s only half of the sprite. One leg, one arm, one eye. It only has one attack: “Perish Song”.

The area I was in itself was the Sprout Tower with the immobile pillar as before, except everything is apparently red now. I walked north for what felt like forever. Eventually, I finally encountered some generic men and women NPC. They were all lined up to the side just facing the long slantish pillar in the middle. They were also white, and nothing happens when I try to speak to them. I kept on going north until eventually the pillar finally appears chopped off, with a transparent Red in that spot. I went up to Red and without even pressing A, I was suddenly engaged and finally in a battle.

The music starts again, which it sounds like the Unown Radio music again, but played backwards. Gold’s battle backsprite matches his front one with the bloody eyes, white skin, and lack of arms, while Red’s sprite was the same as before in GSC except transparent. The text simply said “wants to battle!” as if he has no name, and both of us only have one Pokemon each, which is weird as I swear I had six with the Unowns. My shiny Celebi came out, conveniently with half-a-sprite for the back sprite also. The “Shiny” noise and animation was different, as the sounds it made sound like multiple “Screech” attacks used consecutively. Red sent out a seemingly normal male Pikachu, except he is Level 255 and his sprite seems sad and has tears in his eyes.

Rather than the usual “FIGHT/ITEM/PKMN/RUN” menu, I was only given the option to use the Attacks. Since Celebi only has one, I chose it. Naturally, since Pikachu was Level 255, he went first.

“PIKACHU used CURSE!”, lowering his Speed and increasing his other Stats. I’m not even sure if Pikachu could even use Curse.

“CELEBI used PERISH SONG!” In three turns, both Pokemon get KO’d – not like I have a choice.

At this point, it didn’t even go back to the Fight menu, as the battle just continued without me. Also note that there was no animations at all for some reason.

“PIKACHU used FLAIL!”, which didn’t do much damage despite his Level and boost as his health was maxed.

“CELEBI used Perish Song!” Nothing happens as it was already used.

“PIKACHU used FRUSTRATION!”, which did a shitton of damage, knocking Celebi down to less than 10 HP.

“CELEBI used Pain Split!”, which surprised me as Celebi didn’t even have that attack in the first place. Now Celebi and Pikachu have about 150 HP.

“PIKACHU used MEAN LOOK!” Not like that did anything.

As expected, due to the effects of Perish Song, my Celebi fainted. Except in the text, it said “CELEBI has died!” and instead of the ordinary drop off the screen animation, the CELEBI backsprite just vanished. For some reason, the Pikachu was still up even with Perish Song and it didn’t count as my lost. Pikachu used one more different attack beyond the 5 attack limit:

“PIKACHU used DESTINY BOND!”

Afterwards, it said “PIKACHU has died!”, with a slow fade-out animation. Apparently, I was the winner, as the transparent Red Sprite showed up and said “……….”

At that point, I just freaked out, as that transparent Red sprite was suddenly beheaded, leaving nothing but his transparent body. The battle then ended at that point and faded out along with the music.

I’m back in the overworld, with another change to the Gold sprite – he’s now as transparent as Red’s overworld sprite. I quickly checked Gold’s profile, where this time the only thing remains of him is his head, with a transparent skin. The head was zoomed in a bit, showing a black void in his eyes. It now stated that he now has 40 badges. I then backed out and checked my Pokemon. They were all Level 20 Shiny Unown, which when spelled out, read “NOMORE”.

I was at what I now know is next to the end. There was apparently no music playing, but for some reason I still felt like something was there that could be heard. I was back in my room in New Bark Town. Maybe finally I get to play this game properly, but who am I kidding. I knew that sadistic pineapple must have done something. I “walked” around my room to interact with things, as I’m a bit afraid to go down the stairs to see what was awaiting down there. Note I said “walked”, as while the background was moving, Gold was not moving his transparent limbs at all while doing so, just floating like those ghosts you see in Diamond/Pearl.

As expected, the radio, computer, and TV did not work, so I had no choice but to go down the stairs. I ended up in the same lower level room of my house. Everything appears normal, except mom isn’t home. After failing to interact with anything in this room, I decided to go outside. To my surprised, that door leading outside at the south didn’t work, and instead I just walk straight through it to a void. I continued moving south to see what the pineapple was going on. My house vanishes as I head south into the void. It was creepy as when I entered the void, the outline on Gold’s transparent sprite turned white to contrast with the pitch black. Eventually, I reached a white area and Gold’s sprite turned black and transparent again. I continued south without thinking of stopping at all.

After a long trek south, I finally encountered something. It was GOLD’s regular sprite. I talked to it. He said “Good bye forever ….” (notably with a space inbetween the forever and ….), and vanished. As that happened, it said “??? used NIGHTMARE” which at that point, I would not deny that being possible. Gold did another Escape Rope animation spinning slowly downwards like before.

I’m now back into that small hollowed-out room surrounded by graves earlier. Or at least I say I was back there, as there’s no sprite anymore. I tried to walk around but nothing moved – not even wall bumping noise. I checked my trainer profile with absolutely no Gold sprite left. It said I have 0 badges and all the pictures of the Johto Gym Leaders at the bottom were replaced with skulls.

I checked my Pokemon, which were all Level 25 Unown. As expected, it spelled out a phrase that I dared to read. “IMDEAD”

As soon as I went back to the overworld, the room I supposedly was in was then covered with the same blocks as the walls. I then figured out what exactly that room was when the final text was said: “R.I.P. …”

That room was a big grave, surrounded by other grave. Gold has already been dead. He died presumably a few years after he defeated Red.

He was a young trainer who, despite his efforts in collecting so many badges and attempts at becoming a Pokemon master, was still unable to avoid the inevitable fate of death, and his efforts were eventually forgotten by the next generation.

I was unable to escape from that text no matter what I pressed. I tried resetting the game, and the same thing happened, at which I then finally decided to give up on that horrible nightmare. After that experience, I will never look at the “gimmick” Unown the same way again. They say that only the first generation have folk tales and legends, but the second generation have shown me how unpleasant the truth can be. I eventually enjoyed SoulSilver immensely, but I still can’t unthink what that rigged game have told me.

Early this morning, I was browsing the emails I had gotten during the night; a few facebook updates, a little spam, a newsletter, and an email from a sender with the name "NO MORE". The address was "Hope_abandoned". The subject? Tarnished Gold.
I was intrigued. I opened my email to find a wall of text starting simply with "I hear you're in the market for creepy Pokemon things...here's one for you. Enjoy."
And then, I began to read.

Being someone who isn't nearly as computer savvy as someone from this generation should be, I know very little about what technology is capable of. Aside from email, IM, and the occasional download of something otherwise unobtainable for me at the moment, I have about the same amount of knowledge an eighty-year-old might possess about the electronic world.

For example, and for the sake of this tale I'm about to recount, I was totally unaware that someone is capable of hacking pokemon games to make their own sub-story of the world, even less so that it was possible to make a physical copy of the game in a real cartridge.

However, I happened to learn about this in one of the most disturbing ways possible.

When I was younger, Pokemon Gold was my very first game from the ever popular franchise. I became very attached to the little creatures my character (named after myself even though the character was male) and often fantasized about the adventures we would go through had a preset storyline not been in place.

That isn't quite important, though.

Was is important is the fact that I never truly let go of my childhood fantasies, the memories had from that first game were far too cherished to set free. As such, I still have my old Gold game, complete with a total abuse of the copy glitch. I refuse to restart my game though, as I'm afraid too much of the old magic would be lost.

I wanted to play a whole new game of the version that I recall being the happiest with, but older cartridges are rather hard to find outside of the Internet nowadays, the most my local flea markets have are GBA games...hardly any being Pokemon.

Fortunately for me, my grandmother still fully supports my long-standing love for Pokemon and often buys boxes of cards, toys, video tapes and other items she comes across during her frequent visits to local auctions. Granted, very little of these thing she gives me are in good condition; long forgotten items stowed away in a musty basement after the phase in their owner's life has passed hardly ever are. But, as gifts from a dear relative, I cherish them as if they were made of gold...pun not intended.

Most recently, she gave me a box with a brand new video tape containing episodes from early on in the first season, several hundred battered and well used cards, and a game cartridge with no label.

The cartridge was the familiar metallic gold color of the game I had been looking for. Even though the label had been removed, and a large red 'X' drawn in sharpie in the place where the sticker should have been, I could easily tell what it was...what other game had that color? You can imagine my excitement for finally finding another copy! -I hate ordering things online, this was a rather big relief- I thanked her profusely and promised I would play it as soon as I got home, which I did.

Getting started was difficult, not because the game was faulty, but because I had sold my GBA to my little brother several years ago for some of his better pokemon cards...once something belongs to him, it's difficult to get him to lend it out to me. Such is sibling relations, I suppose.

After much bribery, I finally got my hands on my former GBA and quickly inserted the vandalized game. Chills ran through my body as the opening 'movie' for the game began to play, sending a wave of nostalgia crashing over me, it was good to see it again.

The game opened normally, the pixelated image of Ho-oh flying through the sky beneath the title presented itself before leading into the normal selection screen. The person who owned the game before me still had the game on file, but I cared very little for what someone did before me. Considering the condition of their things, they must have been very young. I was bound to be met with a team full of Pikachu with ridiculous names.

I started a new game.

It was here that I realized something wasn't quite right with the game. The normal intro involving a Professor introducing you to the world of Pokemon didn't play out. Rather, it went more like this:

It started out with a black screen, which was quite familiar considering that’s how the Gold, Silver, and Crystal games begin. But, instead of the normal ‘What time is it?’ dialogue, I was met with…

………..
……
…
Pokemon are nothing more than tools.
Use them, and throw them away.
……..

The black screen faded away, revealing an empty area at night. It looked familiar; I vaguely remember it being a route in an earlier part of the game, but since I’ve been away from the game for so long, I couldn’t place it.

In the silence of this scene, the sprite of your rival –henceforth noted as Silver- walked in from the left; he moved a little slower than normal as if he were hesitant about something. Once he had moved to the middle of the screen, he stopped and turned back to look at where he came from, turned towards where he was going, and turned back towards where he had came once again.

For a moment, he stood there simply staring towards the left side of the screen before a dialogue box popped up beneath him saying nothing more than “…”. After that, he turned back around yet again, only this time, he continued off to walk off screen.

The scene faded away to be replaced with Silver standing in the place where you first officially see him, just outside Professor Elm’s laboratory. It was clearly in a slightly later part of the game than normal as the professor and his assistants all exited the lab and went their separate ways; the assistants left the town, and Elm walked further downward off screen –which I assume that meant he left for his home and remained in town. The character of Gold was nowhere to be seen.

After that small scene, it stayed on Silver. I thought the game had frozen for a minute, but I finally realized I was able to move him. Honestly I was a little excited, Silver was –and always has been- my favorite of the rivals, it was an interesting thing to be able to play has him.

I moved him a little further downward to see if I was able to explore, but it stopped me each time I moved one step away from the front of the lab. A dialogue box popped up that said, “I can’t leave yet…”, and it backed me up a step. I moved back up to the place he had originally been standing and moved into the window, it worked much like a door as it allowed me to enter Professor Elm’s lab.

Aside from the regular equipment -bookshelves, computers, trashcans, tables, all that- the lab was empty; which was to be expected since the employees had left just a moment ago. On the table was a single pokeball, being without one at the moment, I walked over and took it.

A dialogue box popped up and said ‘Obtained TOTODILE’ but no ‘item get’ music played…apparently, stealing wasn’t condoned even by the game. After pressing ‘A’, it gave me the option of naming the pokemon, I picked ‘yes’ as I love naming these things. As it took me to the naming screen, another dialogue box popped up, interrupting the naming process:

“Don’t name it! You’ll only get attached.
Don’t love it, use it.”

It was clearly the ‘voice’ of the same person who spoke in the very beginning…I found it odd…

The naming screen faded away leaving me in the empty lab, which I quickly tried to leave through the front door, but was stopped by Silver saying, “Not through there…” Again, he backed up and I exited through the window I had come in from.

As if things weren’t strange enough as they were, when I left New Bark Town to begin the adventure and stepped into the grass, it was nearly impossible to get a random battle to start. Normally, I go out of my way to avoid them later on in the game, but during the beginning, it was something I enjoyed to get my pokemon to level up…being unable to find something to fight was a little frustrating.

After several minutes of walking back and forth in patches of grass, I finally encountered a pokemon. A Sentret, nothing out of the ordinary, but when I sent out my Totodile and chose the only presently useful move he had –Scratch-, the pokemon fled. I was rather confused, wild pokemon never ran…not so early in the game. After a few more tries, all with the same outcome, I continued on to Cherrygrove.

Just before I entered the city, I recognized the small area as the one Silver had walked through in the beginning. After entering the city, I bumped into Gold, who wordlessly challenged me to a battle.

His pokemon, a Cyndaquil, was already a slightly higher level than mine (I was still stuck at level five, he was already at level seven) and, even though I had the type advantage, he beat me. Before whiting out, his sprite switched out with the Cyndaquil’s…he looked disappointed.

After exiting the Cherrygrove Pokemon Center –I hadn’t used it prior, but it was apparently the only option I had-, I walked back to the place he had challenged me only to find I was unable to battle him at this point again.

The game was getting a little annoying by now, I had no money, pokegear, or pokedex, and I was unable to battle wild pokemon. Fortunately, once I entered Route 30 onward, there were other pokemon trainers in which I could battle and easily beat…though none of them seemed eager to speak to me after I had won.

By the time I entered Violet City, my pokemon’s level was still too low to take on the gym leader. But with the money I had won from the trainers I fought before, I was at least able to buy some potions, so I felt I was set.

The lesser trainers of the gym were easy enough, I was only forced to use two of my previously purchased potions and I leveled up once. Though, as I took on the gym leader, he proved to me too much and I lost yet again. Upon winning, he did the very same thing Gold had done…and he looked disappointed as well.

When the battle ended, I didn’t white out, rather I had to endure a lecture about treating pokemon correctly from the leader. Once he finished speaking, I received a one-worded option: ‘Steal?’

I chose the only option given to me, ‘Yes’.

Silver backed up one step and slammed into the gym leader, kicking him backwards. Another dialogue box popped up telling me that I had stolen the gym badge, TM31, and $500.

After that, I whited out.

This is how it continued on for the remainder of the game, while I was able to defeat lesser trainers on the paths to cities and in the gyms, I constantly lost to the leader and was forced to steal their badges. The ‘steal’ option also worked on people who would normally give you items in the game, this is how I was able to obtain key items such as the Itemfinder, the bicycle, the water pail, HMs, and many more…They refused to give me anything otherwise.

Anyone I spoke to either refused to talk, greeting me only with “…” or lectured me a little on how to properly treat pokemon…it was beginning to get that way with Nurse Joy as well. By the time I had progressed to Goldenrod City, anytime I whited out, she’d scold me.

Pokemon continued to avoid me as well, if I wanted to better my team I had to hope that the pokeballs I used worked the first time. What was stranger about random battles is that, even if I locked the pokemon in battle with Mean Look, the pokemon passed out. Literally. After my first attack of Mean Look –If I got to the first attack that is, sometimes the pokemon had a higher speed than mine-, before I was able to choose another, the pokemon would faint on its own.

The dialogue box proclaimed, “-POKEMON- forced itself to pass out!” and the battle ended.

The only thing that seemed to go normally for me was the battles with Team Rocket. I always won against them and they always treated me like a punk kid getting in their way.

The rest of the game up until a certain point isn’t entirely important. Aside from win, lose, and steal, everything was more or less normal. While my pokemon matured slowly due to frequent losses, they did grow to like me a little as I began giving them haircuts and other little things to boost our bond. The last I had checked, the person who rated their happiness –one of the very few people who spoke to me normally- said “It’s quite cute.”
I know you must be thinking that this isn’t disturbing at all, that I should just accept the fact that this is simply a hack made to tell Silver’s side of the story…Well, I did and it was, but I’m not quite finished yet.

Once I had finally made it to Kanto -continuing the process of win, lose, and steal-, I ventured into Viridian City. The second I stepped foot into the city, the music cut off. I thought for certain that this was simply a glitch in the programming, that I was now to walk through a soundless game. But as a stood there for a moment, a very faint noise picked up and faded away.

I was now sure that the music had messed up, like it was trying to play, but couldn’t. But as I stepped back into the route I had just come from, the music picked up perfectly…it was only Viridian City that was silent.

I was now curious, so I stepped back into the silent city and began to explore. There wasn’t a person in site…No one out in the open, no one in the houses, not even anyone in the in the Pokemart or Pokemon Center. The city was entirely empty…just the silence and the occasional soft noise which I still hadn’t identified.

As I walked towards the gym, the sound grew a little louder. I figured the noise was coming from the inside, so I entered. There was no one there either, but that was to be expected, the gym was always empty until much later.

The noise didn’t play in here, but it was still dead silent.

I walked up to where the gym leader normally stood and, as I walked past the spot and into the brink wall –I do that sometimes, I like the noise- I was transported to another room…the wall had hidden a set of stairs.
This place was silent as well…but the noise began to play yet again. It was much louder this time, just a bunch of random, high-pitched noises…but it sounded like screams.

By this time, as you could well imagine, my heart was pounding…I don’t take screaming –or things that sound like screaming- very well due to an unfortunate experience with a very graphic haunted house when I was three years old…but I digress.

Regardless of my pounding heart and shaking hands, I explored the room…which was tinted in a muted red much like everything was in Pokemon Red. The room followed a sideways zigzag pattern and the ‘screams’ came at random, some short, some long and drawn out…it sounded as if someone was being tortured.

As I continued down the zigzagging hallways, I came across several disturbing images; sprites of NPCs without their heads, as well as heads without bodies. Anytime I tried to examine the bodies, Silver simply said “Don’t look…”

The bodies and heads became more frequent as I went on, clogging up the hallways and leaving only a small path for me to follow…and the screaming became more frequent.

The screen began to flicker as I walked, just like it would if one of my pokemon was poisoned…but none of them were. Just in case, I checked the status of my party. None of them were poisoned, but their health was going down. In an attempt to heal them, I picked a super potion out of my bag and used it on my Feralligator.

A dialogue box popped up and said “It won’t have any effect.”

Now I was disturbed, I knew none of this was supposed to happen. Regardless, I continued on, hoping that if they all fainted from this, I’d be taken back to a pokemon center and things would return to normal.

…It was stupid of me to assume that…

I continued along the morbid path, the screen flickering in and out. Finally, Silver stopped as the dialogue box popped up telling me that all my pokemon had fainted…but it didn’t say what I had hoped…

It said ‘ALL DEAD’.

By now, I was read to cry, but I couldn’t stop myself from trying to get to the end of this disturbing experience…if I didn’t do this now, I’d just be tempted to try it again some other time…

Finally, I reached the center room, which was now tinted a deep red…I assumed this was to simulate the fact that the room was filled with blood, however there were only a few bodies scattered around it. In the center, there were a few live figures, a man, a pokemon, Gold, and another pokemon I could only assumed was his Typhlosion.

Gold’s Typhlosion attacked the man’s pokemon, but it was quickly struck down, its sprite first turning red, then grey, then disappearing…the man’s pokemon had killed it.

Silver’s sprite stepped forward on its own and the man finally acknowledged he was there.

GIOVANNI: Ah, son, you’ve made it. Come to see your rival’s demise, have you?

This caused Gold to turn around to look at you; the only thing he said was “…”

Silver continued to move on his own; he approached the man and kicked him backwards…Which obviously enraged Giovanni.

GIOVANNI: You’re going to help him? HA! You’ve become just as weak as the others! If he seems worth saving to you…perhaps I should show you that there’s no sense in getting attached! MEWTWO, take care of him!

Mewtwo obeyed his creator’s command and approached Gold. I’m still uncertain of what it actually did, but it struck Gold, causing a scream much louder than before as the sprite of Silver’s rival lost its head and faded to deep red to grey.

GIOVANNI: I told you long ago, Silver, Pokemon are nothing more than tools! People are as well. Use them and throw them away once they’ve server your purpose. MEWTWO, kill him!

The Mewtwo didn’t obey this time; Giovanni’s words must have angered it. It turned to him and actually spoke.

MEWTWO: …You’re no longer useful…

It struck Giovanni just as it had done Gold and Typhlosion, but the scream Giovanni produced was much longer than any other I had heard…Mewtwo was torturing him.

Finally, the scream faded away into nothingness and Giovanni’s sprite did just as Gold’s did…leaving only Silver and Mewtwo alive in the room. As Mewtwo turned to face me, I knew that wouldn’t last for long.

MEWTWO: …Not useful…

It struck me, initiating a battle in which I was totally unable to participate. My sprite was in the place of any pokemon, my health was full, but I knew it wouldn’t help. I chose to run, but I couldn’t…I chose to attack, but I had nothing to use…I just had to stand there as Mewtwo used Psychic on Silver’s defenseless image.

Even with the sound turned to a low level, the ‘scream’ coming from Silver was disturbingly loud. Even as the battle screen faded away, the scream lingered until Silver’s sprite turned from red to grey – which I now assume symbolizes the coldness of death-…Silver, along with Gold and everyone else who had been unfortunate enough to wander into this place from Viridian, was now dead.

The screen faded to black, all except for Mewtwo’s sprite, which remain in the center of the screen. My paranoid mind immediately made me think he was somehow going to turn on me next, but the word ‘END’ simply faded in just underneath him and the screen cut to black, taking me back to the opening sequence.

I’m still unsure why this was made, why someone just shoved it into a box to sell, and why I happened to find it…But I can assure you that I’m swearing off all randomly found games…either it’s new, or I’ll never risk touching it again.

The game I just described has slipped out of my possession since that first play through…I have no idea where it is, but I hope it’s rotting in a dump somewhere.

After the fourth generation of Pokemon disappointed him so much, my brother tossed me all of his Pokemon stuff in disgust. I received hundreds of cards to add to my collection, the Blastoise plush he won at King's Island nine years ago, and the Diamond game that completely swept away his love for the game and all things associated with it. That chapter of his life came to a sad close while mine just gained something to continue on. Admittedly, the games that had come out for the DS disappointed me as well; there was just something about it all that made the magic the games normally held fade away a little. As a person who grew up with the originals, generation four simply wasn't 'my' Pokemon anymore. Regardless, I wasn't going to turn my back on something that accompanied me through my childhood simply because the game disappointed me a little. In fact, I wanted Diamond. Dialga was a hundred times better looking than Palkia and I rather enjoyed the thought of finally getting to be the one to catch it this time around instead of having to hack one or trade for it. Before I continue, I must tell you that this doesn't involve Dialga at all. I just like it and originally wanted Diamond, but had to settle for Pearl because my brother got to Diamond first. This DOES start off with a legendary Pokemon, however, though I'm certain that if I had used any other, the outcome would have been the same. This happening seemed to be meant for me. Otherwise, it probably wouldn't have happened at all, which I would have been completely fine with. I started up his saved game just to see what all he had. His save information said he had all the Pokemon in his Pokedex, even the ones that had yet to be released through wireless events, which reminded me that he really enjoyed using Action Replay codes to enhance his gaming experience. That was probably the only thing that caused him to keep the game for as long as he did, but even cheating gets old after a while. After starting his game, I checked his party. He had six shiny, level 100 Rayquazas. Like all the other Pokemon he owned, he caught them using the lengthy 'encounter any Pokemon' code where you had to discard heart scales to indicate which Pokemon you wanted to catch at level 100. While the Pokemon encountered with this code were about as weak as if you had given them a large number of Rare Candy, I still recall losing to these six frequently. I had used this code myself throughout my first play-through of Pearl, and I traded these across the net to increase my chances of winning at the lottery...or, at least that's what I did before a friend scolded me and I was more or less forced to start over cheat-free. While he needed no Pokemon to complete his Pokedex and he didn't need to win any extra items, trading was always a fun experience for me just to see where they came from. So, I went to Jubilife City and into the Global Trading Center to see what I could get for one of these Rayquazas. I know I could have traded anything, but I secretly held a grudge against these six for beating me so badly all those times. Once in the trading network, I offered one up for a Bronzong that I had picked at random out of the first list. Of course, I couldn't choose a gender, but I chose the required level to be 100, just to make it more or less an even trade. After that, I left for a little while. After doing nothing of particular interest for about six hours, I came back to see if I had any takers for the trade. I immediately got excited when the trade sequence started up. I know it was just a simple Bronzong, but still, I like this process a great deal. You could send me a Magikarp and I'll get excited for a little bit. You know how the process goes; I won't bother explaining the actions on the screen to you. Long story short, I received a shiny Bronzong named 'Hell Bell.' I was shocked to get a shiny in return. I never got a shiny when I traded in Pearl...but the name was unsettling to me. Being a slightly religious person, I'm not comfortable speaking about anything pertaining to Hell or anything like that. Even writing this makes me feel like I'm provoking a similar event to happen again. Let's just hope this functions as a learning experience for you and not something else for me. After leaving, I checked its stats. Everything was set at 666, its old trainer was named 'Beelze' (which, again, both points slip into my sensitive area), and it was caught at Lost Tower and contained in a Cherish Ball. Clearly, it was hacked, but that's what I get for offering up a hack first. The stats and other information of the Pokemon disturbed me only for the fact that I didn't like its name or information, but I assumed it was fine otherwise. Regardless, I didn't want it, so I tried offering it up for trade again...but each time I tried to put it into the GTS, the game informed me that the Pokemon couldn't be offered in a trade. This had happened to me several times before when I tried to trade hacked legendaries. I assume there's something in place that keeps people from getting truly ripped off...but I was able to trade that Rayquaza and 'Beelze' was able to trade me Hell Bell this go around. I didn't know why it wouldn't allow me to offer it again. I still wanted to be rid of it, so the only other option I had was to release it. Before I went to the PC, however, I checked the item it was holding. The sender had attached mail to it, which was always fun, even though your choices for what to say are severely limited and the letters always come out painfully cheesy (That's one of the thing I don't like, the revamp of the mail system). I chose Hell Bell and selected to read the mail, though the letter wasn't set up like it normally was in the game. It looked like it had actually been typed out like you used to be able to do in Gold and Silver. The message was only three words long. "Take me back." I wasn't quite sure what that meant. I certainly couldn't trade it again. Even if I could, there was no way I could make sure Hell Bell got back to Beelze, so I discarded the message and went to the PC to release it. I selected the 'deposit Pokemon' option and selected Hell Bell to release it, but each time the party sprite shrunk away, it immediately came back with a message saying something along the lines of "Hell Bell doesn't want to leave you!" Again, this had happened before when I was clearing out my PC box in my second play-through of Pearl. I wanted a little more room and decided to release a Shinx that I had caught early on in the game, but it kept coming back. I had thought it was cute then and made the Shinx (now a Luxray) a permanent member of my party since it appeared to like me so much, but now it was just annoying. When I checked Hell Bell again, it was holding another mail item. It made no sense, since I had taken it away the first time. I opened it and read a slightly longer message. "I can't go back on my own. Take me back." Again, I took the item and tried to release it. Another failure. When I tried to simply deposit it, the game told me to remove the mail item from the Pokemon before depositing. I know I had, twice even....but upon checking it again, Hell Bell had yet another mail item in its possession. "Lost Tower." It was finally getting more specific, which I found oddly relieving rather than feeling a little uneasy as I probably should have been. At least I knew where it wanted to go...maybe it'd leave my party after I took it there. I'd like to know why this Pokemon was making my game behave so strangely. The Pokemon was hacked, not the game itself. As far as I know a decent hack doesn't affect the game and a bad hack can make it crash...but this was doing neither, more like something in between. Eager to get rid of it, I left the GTS building and stepped out into Jubilife. I was too impatient to pick an actual flying type out of the PC, so I just taught one of the Rayquaza the move 'fly' and chose to use it. Strangely, when I picked Solaceon Town from the map, the game informed that I couldn't fly there. I know my brother had visited the city before, so I don't know why I couldn't go there. I didn't take the time to actually think about it; I just flew to Hearthome instead. I didn't waste time in Hearthome. I simply left to travel through Route 209 to get to the Lost Town and hopefully rid myself of this strange Pokemon somehow by taking it where it wanted to go. I immediately noticed the lack of people on the route. Granted, I don't remember who all was there to battle and things of that sort, but I know there were at least a few people around. The area was completely vacant. Well, not completely. There was one person, who I didn't quite recognize, quickly pacing back and forth where I believe an athlete once ran. The sprite there now was of a white-haired old man. Curious, I spoke to him, which was where it began to get a little weird for me. He didn't say anything that made sense, but babbled over and over for an annoyingly long amount of time, much like when you speak to a specific cyclist on the bike trail in Ruby, Sapphire, and Emerald. You know, the one who knows where you got your bike because the name is all over it. "RING THE BELL RING THE BELL RING THE BELL RING THE BELL RING THE BELL RING THE BELL RING THE BELL RING THE BELL RING THE BELL RING THE BELL RING THE BELL RING THE BELL RING THE BELL RING THE BELL RING THE BELL RING THE BELL RING THE BELL RING THE BELL RING THE BELL RING THE BELL RING THE BELL RING THE BELL RING THE BELL RING THE BELL RING THE BELL RING THE BELL RING THE BELL RING THE BELL RING THE BELL RING THE BELL RING THE BELL" That meant nothing to me. I didn't bother speaking to him again, and continued to the tower. Once inside, I tried to go up the stairs but something prevented me from moving for a moment. I thought all the hacked Pokemon had finally made the game screw up, but that wasn't the case. after a moment of complete silence, the sound of a deep, brazen bell began to slowly toll. (If you're curious about how that sounded exactly, start up your HeartGold / SoulSilver game. That bell is just like it.) After about four rings, the tombstone in the center of the room cracked and shattered like someone had used Rock Smash on it. Beneath the tombstone was a hole. Since it wasn't allowing me to go up the stairs, I walked over and fell through the hole. When I landed, I fell on a platform much like the one you find Arceus on in the Hall of Origin, except it was much darker. Where the transparent platform was white and glowing for Arceus, this one was more of a blackened red. It just seemed evil rather than the 'holy' vibe you get from the Hall of Origin. Coming from the platform was a set of wide stairs that looked as if they were made of black marble rather than white. there was no way back up (I couldn't fly, had no diggers, and I lacked Escape Ropes), so I took the stairs and the bell (which I now assume was Hell Bell, considering that Bronzong is indeed a sort of bell) continued to ring slowly. By now, I was feeling incredibly uneasy, but I continued down the stairs. As I went further, it began to get foggy and dark. when I reached the bottom, I was met with a narrow path with large pools of magma / lava on either side. It was beginning to look more like the cave in which you encounter Groudon in Ruby, except with better graphics. The path continued in a straight line for about forty steps before hanging right for another forty and finally going up. The final path was long; magma still bubbled at the side and with each step I took, the ringing of the bell began to go faster - at least as fast as a large bell could ring - but it was still just an ominous, slow tolling. With each ring, I couldn't help but repeat what the old man NPC had said earlier. "Ring the bell." Finally, I reached the end of the pathway, which was just as small was a 4x4 platform, and the bell stopped ringing. I wondered what I was supposed to do here; there was nothing to interact with, no way to release Hell Bell, and no way to get out. I received my answer in the form of a disembodied 'voice.' A dialogue box popped up. "Oh, you've returned Hell Bell to me? I really appreciate it." He faded into view one space in front of my sprite. It was just a simple 'gentleman' sprite. The party sprite of Hell Bell came out of me and stood in the space between us, facing him. The game informed me that I handed over Hell Bell. Next, something popped up on the touch screen. It looked like the part of the trainer card where you sign your name. Again, the voice spoke. "Would you mind telling me your name so I may thank you properly?" Now, this confused me...actually, everything that was happening confused me, but this really threw me for a loop. First, the game should know the character name programmed into it from the start and, as far as I know, it can't actually recognize handwriting. Regardless, I began writing my brother's character's name, which was 'Dust.' I made the first stroke - it was in black 'ink' like normal - and made a 'D.' The voice stopped me. "No, no, your real name, please. I can't thank you with a false name, you know." My heart felt like it stopped for a second and sunk right into my stomach before violently bounding back up into my chest. How the hell did the game know that I wasn't signing my real name? "Your real name, please." Again, I began writing. Why I was listening to this, watching it all play out, when I could easily turn it off or start a completely new game, I didn't know. The thought simply didn't cross my mind at the time. I don't think it was allowed to. The 'ink' in which I was now writing was a bright red color, but I still wrote my full name - first and last - in the space I was provided. After I was finished, the man spoke again. "Good, now blow, please? We don't want the ink to smudge." I blew into the mic and the 'ink' turned from bright to deep red. I was unable to make changes after that. Afterward, the screen disappeared and the man spoke again. "Thank you, miss. You'll be happy to know that you now belong to me." The bell tolled twice more as my sprite - currently male - turned to face me and shifted to the female sprite. It had brown hair and was wearing all black...just like I was at the moment. Hell Bell moved forward, overlapping my sprite, and a final dialogue box popped up. "Hell Bell used IMPRISONMENT!" After that, my DS's battery died. I was shaken, I'll admit, but it just seemed like a twisted event brought about by some sort of secret within the game unlocked by a Pokemon, but now... I can't sleep. Food seems to turn to ash in my mouth. No water can quench my thirst. People and animals both act as if the shadow of death is passing by them when I'm near. I'm not my own anymore. I belong to that man...and Hell Bell. I don't know what became of that Pokemon, but if I received it, someone else is surely to do so. Use caution while using the trading system, please...and if you receive Hell Bell, don't hesitate to reset. Your special, once-in-a-lifetime event Pokemon aren't worth the cost of your very soul.

The young nurse stood behind the counter, staring fixedly at the automatic doors and waiting impatiently for a trainer to come wandering in, seeking help. The Chansey next to her was dropping in and out of sleep and she knew she should tuck it into bed soon. Whenever she suggested that it should get some rest, it would look extremely offended and ignore her.

She heard the familiar sound of the last ferry for the night announcing its arrival at the Vermillion City port. She felt a bit guilty for perking up.

After a few minutes of waiting, the automatic doors zipped open and a teary-eyed young boy came wandering in. He was cradling a sickly looking Meowth in his arms and was sniffling uncontrollably. The Chansey immediately snapped out of its doze and hurried over around the counter to examine it.

“P-p-poisoned!” The boy wailed as the Meowth let out a gurgling cry.

“No need to cry. We can fix him up good as new,” the young woman said kindly as the boy continued to sob.

“You just return him to his ball and we’ll make him better in no time at all,” she instructed and in the boy, wiping his nose on his sleeve, quickly returned the spluttering Meowth to its ball.

The Chansey rubbed the boy’s back sympathetically as they waited for the Meowth to heal. None of them noticed as the automatic doors slid open and the shadowy figure that stumbled inside and collapsed into the nearest chair.

“See! All better!” The young woman said brightly, passing the ball back into the boy’s hands. For good measure, she dug a brightly coloured sweet out of a jar and handed it to the still extremely shaken boy.

“Look after yourself out there,” she said and the boy nodded weakly, wandering back outside, holding the poké ball tightly in his hand. The Chansey clucked its tongue in a concerned way and returned to its post behind the counter. The young woman yawned and rubbed her eyes a bit. She looked around and jumped slightly when she saw the huddled figure sitting one of the seats. The shadow was clutching its stomach and talking to its self.

Thinking at first it might be one of the pet’s from the Fan Club she frowned at it.

“Shoo! Get out!”

The shape put its head up and she saw immediately that it wasn’t a Pokémon at all but a young girl around fourteen. Her face was grimy and deathly pale and she was extremly thin to the point of looking skeletal. The Chansey gave a little squeak of fright.

“Oh I’m so sorry! I thought you were…never mind. What’s the matter?” She cried as she hurried over to the girl, helping her to her feet. The girl didn’t answer but whispered something low and intelligible under her breath. As soon as the young woman was near enough she saw immediately what the matter was. Under her dirty clothes the girl’s stomach bulged in the obvious sign of pregnancy.

“…think me water’s broke…” the girl muttered to herself. The young woman’s jaw dropped and the Chansey’s eyes bulged out of its head. Why on earth had the girl come all the way here? Nearly all pregnant women in Kanto had their births at home with a nurse from the local Pokémon Centre right by their side.

Travelling all the way to the Centre itself was very unusual.

Panicking slightly, she led the girl over past the counter and into the emergency ward at the back.

“Chansey, could you look after her as I call someone?” She fretted as she nearly sprinted back to the front desk. She was so busy, leafing through her little phone book she barely noticed the way the young girl recoiled away from the Chansey’s touch.

After ten seconds of searching she finally found it. Sweat broke on her brow as she dialed the number of the other nurse in town.

“Pickup, pickup, pickup…” She begged as the phone rang for what seemed like hours.

“…H-h-hello?” A sleepy voice yawned from the end of the line.

“It’s me, Joy! You’ve got to get in right away!” She nearly screeched down the phone. She heard the other nurse drop something in surprise and a barely muffled curse.

“What’s the matter? Is it a decapitation? Or has someone been drained by a Zubat?” She replied, her voice suddenly alert and full of authority.

“No, no, no! A girl’s come in and she’s going to have a baby!” She replied as there was a sudden loud shout from the next room. Shooting a terrified look behind her she heard a brief gasp of surprise from the phone and next minute the nurse had hung up.

In record time the other nurse had come bustling in. Feeling an immediate sense of calm, the young woman led the more experienced nurse into the ward out back. The girl was lying on her back and her knees pointing to the ceiling. She had a pained, frightened look on her face that didn’t disappear as she saw the two women hurrying to her side.

“Go get me some gloves and blankets please,” the other nurse said sharply but the Chansey had already beaten her to the job. The other nurse snapped on the gloves and put the blankets on the bedside table.

“You have to control your breathing, honey,” she said kindly but the girl seemed to not hear her.

The young woman looked on in half wonder, half disgust as she looked at the wailing girl. The long hours passed in screeches, panic and blood…the girl ignoring all commands given to her, lost in her own world of pain.

Dawn was coming as the finally the newborn came into the world. The girl’s head lolled back into the pillow and she was finally quiet. Not even bothering to wipe the sweat from her eyes, the young woman quickly checked to see if she was still okay. She was as pale as paper, was sweating profusely and her heartbeat was faint. Feeling panic run through her again she turned to the other nurse.

“She’s lost a lot of blood,” the other nurse said worriedly as she wrapped the gurgling baby into the blankets.

“But at least the baby seems o…ERRRUUGGHHHH!” She broke off into a cry of utter repulsion dropping the newborn back onto the bed as if it were contaminated. The young woman stared at her in shock.

“What on earth’s the matter with you?” She said as she hurried back to pick up the baby. She looked at it more closely as the other nurse made gagging noises.

“Oh, how REVOLTING!” She screeched dropping the baby onto the bed again, feeling her stomach churn. The Chansey stared at them both and when she went to examine the baby a sad, solemn look crossed its face.

“What is it, what is it?” The young woman whimpered, stumbling away. The other nurse, apparently recovering from her shock, took a few steps closer. The baby’s skin was a sickly, slimy yellow. Two moist tiny eyes one bigger than the other, set deeply into its head glistened up at them. It nose was long and drooped over its lower lip. It made pathetic squawking noises. Its skull was lumpy and misshapen and one of its arms was crumpled up uselessly against its side.

After a few minutes of staring at the monstrosity the other nurse stumbled over to deadly quiet girl.

“What’s your name, honey?” She said hoarsely as the girl stared, glassy-eyed at the ceiling. For what seemed like ages she made no sound and it seemed like she wouldn’t answer. Then her lips twitched and she said so quietly they all had to strain their ears to hear…

“L…Lostelle.”

The baby squirmed slightly at her feet. The other nurse looked at the girl for a few moments.

“Who did this to you?” She asked her voice dropping to a whisper. The girl slowly shook her head and gave out soft protesting noises. As the nurse patted her arm sympathetically she screwed her eyes shut and shook her head more fiercely.

The two nurses glanced at each other as the girl fell quiet once more, staring fixedly at the ceiling. They began to look for potions and medicines to help fight infections and to stem the blood flow. The Chansey, apparently the only one out of the three who was not completely revolted by the baby, carried it over to a nearby cot, normally used to store recovering Pokémon.

“Please, honey, you have to drink this to get better,” the other nurse begged as she tried to force the potion down the girl’s throat. She seemed to not notice.

“Don’t…want…to get…better,” she informed them as they both tried to pry her jaw open. The minutes ticked away and her heart beat grew fainter and fainter by the second. Her eyes rolled up towards the back of her skull and she began to mutter delusional things under her breath.

“…didn’t listen…didn’t listen…such…lovely music,” she whispered, her head rolling from side to side, sweat pouring off of her forehead.

Finally as her life drifted away she looked at them both clearly for the first time, her eyes glistening with unshed tears.

“Kill it for me, kill it for me please,” she begged as the baby cawed from its cot. The other nurse’s lower lip was trembling as she tried once again to force the potion into her mouth.

“Tell Daddy…I’m sorry I didn’t listen…”

The young woman buried her head into the other nurse’s shoulder as the girl’s last breath escaped her lips and her whole body shuddered then finally lay deadly still.

Why does Pokemon have such a weird way of numbering episodes?

Well, I'll tell you.

Back when I was 9 I got Pokemon for Christmas.
I expected to get the Red version, but to my surprise I got a Hyper-Realistic looking version called Blood.

The Cartridge had a Charizard bleeding with the word blood at the bottom.

I was too excited and just shrugged it off and started my adventure.

When I was naming my trainer and Gary it would only use the name Blood, no matter what I typed.

I finally got in game, there was blood everywhere, Hyper-Realistic blood.

Soon my gameboy started leaking blood and the game turned off.

I couldn't believe what I was seeing with my Hyper-Realistic eyes.

I threw it outside at the nearest Hyper-Realistic trashcan I could find.

To this day I still haven't heard or seen about it ever again.

But I still have the picture of the cartridge.

Cupcakes
By Sergeant Sprinkles: World's Greatest Party Clown
Edited by Edinpony

WARNING: This fanfiction is incredibly gory, and may ruin your appreciation of a certain My Little Pony character as well as the titular baked goods. READ AT YOUR OWN RISK!

The air was warm, the sun was shining, and everypony in Ponyville was having a glorious day. The town square was bustling and crowded and busy ponies filled the streets. All the pony folk seemed to have somewhere specific to be. All except Rainbow Dash; her place was in the sky. She tore freely through the air, speeding one way and the next, buzzing the tree tops and racing the wind. The blue pegasus swooped over a schoolyard, much to the delight of the children, then climbed several hundred feet and dove, streaking downward as fast as she could. Seconds before hitting the ground, her wings flew open and she pulled up back into the clear blue. Rainbow felt alive.
Suddenly, Dash remembered that she had somewhere to be; she was supposed to meet with Pinkie Pie in five minutes. Dash had gotten so caught up in her exercises that she’d nearly forgotten that Pinkie had asked to meet her at Sugercube Corner at three. Pinkie hadn’t said why or what they’d be doing, but Dash knew that with Pinkie, it could be anything. Dash wasn’t sure if she really wanted to go, though. She was so engaged with her stunts that she thought about blowing Pinkie off to continue flying. But, Dash’s conscience got the better of her. She knew that it would hurt Pinkie’s feelings; after all, Pinkie had said it was going to be something special just for the two of them. Dash considered it and thought “why not?” What did she have to lose? Heck, it might be more pranking. Pinkie might have found a bunch more fun stuff to pull on folks, and they’d had so much fun the last time. Dash kicked into overdrive to make up for lost time, and sped to her appointment.
When Dash walked into the store, she was immediately greeted by her host, who was bouncing in excitement. “Yay, you’re here! I’ve been waiting aaall day,” said the jumping pony.
“Sorry if I’m a little late, Pinkie. I was doing my afternoon exercises and lost track of time,” Dash apologized.
Pinkie giggled and responded in a gleefully reassuring tone, “Oh that’s ok, you’re here now. What‘s a few more minutes? I’ve been sooo excited thinking about all fun stuff we’re gonna do, I haven’t stopped bouncing since I woke up. I mean, I almost forgot to breathe I’ve been so happy.”
Dash gave a slightly uncomfortable laugh. She had always appreciated Pinkie Pie’s friendly, outgoing way of life, but Pinkie’s overabundant enthusiasm almost creeped her out. Dash maintained a polite expression, however. If Pinkie was this worked up, whatever she had planned must be good.
“So, you ready to get started, Rainbow Dash? I’ve got everything all ready,” the pink pony said.
Dash psyched herself up. “You betcha, Pinkie. So what do ya got planed? We gonna prank somebody? I got a couple of good ones I’ve been thinking about. Or maybe you’ve got some stunts you think I should try? Or perhaps…”
“MAKING CUPCAKES!” Pinkie happily announced.
“Baking?” Dash was disappointed. “Pinkie, you know I’m not good at baking. Remember last time?”
“Oh that’s not a problem at all. I only need your help making them. I’ll be doing most of the work,” Pinkie explained.
Dash thought for about it for a second. “Well, alright, I guess that’s ok. What exactly do you need me to do?”
“That’s the spirit. Here you go.” Pinkie handed Dash a cupcake.
Dash was puzzled “I thought I was helping you bake.”
“You will be. I made this one just for you before you got here.
“So, is this like taste testing or something?”
“Sorta,” Pinkie said.
Dash shrugged and popped the pastry in her mouth. She chewed a bit and swallowed. Not bad.
“Ok, now what?” Dash asked.
“Now,” Pinkie informed her, “You take a nap.”
Puzzled, Dash opened her mouth but felt instantly lightheaded. A wave of dizziness washed over her, the world spun, and seconds later she collapsed to the floor.

When Dash regained conciseness, she found herself in a dark room. She tried to shake her head but found that a taut leather strap held it firmly in place. She struggled to move, but braces around her chest and limbs glued her to a rack formed from a series of sturdy planks, which spread her legs wide apart. Dash’s wings were the only part of her not tied down, and they fluttered frantically while she struggled to escape. As she writhed, Pinkie jumped suddenly into her line of sight.
“Goodie, you’re awake. Now we can get started,” Pinkie stated gleefully. She bounded into the darkness, and quickly reappeared pushing a small cart covered with a cloth.
“Pinkie, what’s going on? I can’t move!” Dash said urgently.
“Well duh, that’s because you’re tied down,” chided Pinkie. “That’s why you can’t move. I didn’t think you’d need to be told that.”
“But why? What’s happening? I thought you said I was going to help make cupcakes.”
“You are helping. You see, I ran out of the special ingredient and I need you to get more.”
“Special ingredient?” Dash was now breathing heavily and starting to panic. “What special ingredient?”
Pinkie giggled and responded “You, silly!”
Dash’s eyes widened, and her face contorted in fear. Then she started to laugh and said, in a voice bordering on hysteria, “Woo, you really got me there, Pinkie pie. I mean, tricking me in to thinking I’m gonna get made into a cupcake? I gotta tell you, this the best prank yet. You win, you’re the best.”
Pinkie only giggled even more. “Aw, thanks Dash. But I haven’t done any pranks today, so I can’t accept your praise.”
Dash was struggling again. “Pinkie, come on, this isn’t funny.”
“Then why were you laughing?” Before Dash could answer, Pinkie grabbed the cloth and whipped it off the cart. On the cart was a tray containing various sharp medical tools and knives, carefully organized and wickedly sharp, as well as a large medical bag.
Dash was now in full panic mode. She was starting to hyperventilate. Her mind raced as she tried to reason with the pink pony. “You can’t do this Pinkie! I’m your friend!”
“I know you are and that’s why I’m so happy that I’ve got you here. We get to share your last moments together, just you and me.” Pinkie was skipping again.
“But, the other ponies will wonder where I am. When the clouds pile up, they’ll come looking for me and then you’ll get found out,” Dash cried in desperation.
“Oh, Dash,” said Pinkie. “Don‘t worry, there are plenty of pegasus ponies to take care of a few clouds. And besides, no will find out. I mean, how long do you think I’ve been doing this?” And with that ominous statement, the lights suddenly came to life and revealed the rest the room.
“Oh no.” Dash reeled in horror at the image presented to her. The room was decorated with a typical but twisted Pinkie Pie flair. Colorful streamers of dried entrails fluttered around on the ceiling, brightly painted skulls of all sizes were attached to the walls, and organs done up in pastels filled with helium were tied to the backs of chairs. The tables and chairs were made of bones and the preserved flesh of past ponies. Dash cringed upon seeing the center piece of the table nearest to her. The heads of four foals, their eyes closed as if they were sleeping, were wearing party hats made from their own skin. With a thrill of terror, Dash recognized one of them as Apple Bloom’s classmate Twist. Dash’s eyes darted back and forth and then fell upon a patchwork banner hanging from the rafters. Made from several tanned pony hides, the words “Life is a party” were scrawled on it in blood red.
Dash’s attention was brought back by a party horn unfurling and tickling her nose. She gaped at Pinkie Pie, who was standing right in front of her. The party pony was wearing a dress quilted from dried skin, emblazoned with cutie marks. On her back fluttered six pegasus wings, all of different colors. As the earth pony skipped in excitement, her necklace of severed unicorn horns clacked together loudly.
“Like it?” Pinkie asked. “I made it myself.”
Desperately, Dash pleaded with the smiling pony before her. “Pinkie please, I’m sorry if I did anything to you. I didn’t mean it. Please let me go. I promise I won’t tell anybody.”
“Oh Dash, you didn’t do anything. It’s just that your number came up and, well, I don’t make rules. We can’t turn back now.”
Dash was tearing up. How could this be happening?
“Aww, don’t be sad Dash,” said Pinkie. “Look, this’ll cheer you up. I brought you a friend.”
Seemingly out of nowhere, Pinkie produced a brightly painted blue and yellow skull. It was about pony sized, but it had a very defining feature: a beak.
Dash gaped in shock. “Is…is that….is…that?”
“Hey, Dash lets hang together. These ponies are lame-os. Dweebs dweebs dweebs,” Pinkie mimicked. “I caught her right before she left town. Remember when I left the party for about twenty minutes? That wasn’t enough time to play with her of course; I had to wait till after the party to do that. But boy am I glad I did. It was worth it for the flavor alone. Griffons taste like two animals at once, it’s amazing. I know she didn’t have a number like everyone else in Ponyville, but when was I gonna get another chance to try griffon? I probably should have asked where she came from so I could have gotten more, but I forgot. I’ll tell you what though, she was quite the fighter. She lasted a long time, which was a lot of fun for me. I got the chance to play with somebody other than a pony and try new things. It’s too bad she had such a meanie mouth. She said so much bad stuff I just had to take her tongue out. You know, bad language makes for bad feelings, Rainbow Dash.”
Dash didn’t have anything to say. She just sobbed and writhed in her tight bonds.
“Well” said Pinkie with an air of finality, “that’s enough reminiscing. It’s time to begin.”
Putting down Gilda’s skull, the pink pony gripped a scalpel in the cleft of her hoof and walked over to Dash’s right flank. Without any flair, Pinkie placed the blade an inch above Dash’s cutie mark and began a circular cut around it. Dash shouted in pain and tried desperately to pull away, but the braces held her still. Finishing the incision, Pinkie grabbed a curved skinning knife from the tray. Screwing up her face in concentration, she worked it under Dash’s skin and sliced the hide away from the muscle. Dash ground her teeth as she tearfully watched her flesh peel off. Pinkie then moved to the other side and repeated the process on Dash’s left flank. Once she had finished, Pinkie held up both cutie marks in front of her friend and started waving them like pompoms. Dash just whimpered. Her thighs burned like nothing she had felt before.
Placing the ragged patches of skin down, Pinkie selected a large butcher knife and walked behind the blue pegasus. “Hope you don’t mind, I think I’m gonna wing it now,” Pinkie laughed. She grabbed Dash’s left wing in her mouth and played with it for a few seconds, yanking it back so the sharp pain reignited the fire in Dash’s flanks. Then, stretching the wing out, Pinkie brought the blade down hard at the base. Instantly, Dash screamed and thrashed her appendage. The movement threw off Pinkie’s aim. She tried to hit the mark again but missed, and carved a huge slice into Dash’s back.
“Dash, you gotta stay still or I’ll keep missing,” scolded Pinkie as her friend howled.
Pinkie took another whack and hit her target. She swung again and again. Blood sprayed into the air, but Pinkie realized she wasn’t getting anywhere. The blade just wasn’t going through the bone.
“Hmm, I guess I forgot to sharpen it. I’ll try something else,” stated Pinkie matter-of-factly as she tossed the knife over her shoulder, embedding the blade in the table. Through the haze of pain and tears, Dash heard the sound of a metal box opening and closing.
“Got it! Say Dash, why do they call it a hack saw? It doesn’t hack; hacking is what I was doing with the knife. This is a saw. I don’t get it.”
Pinkie placed the tool over the mangled flesh of the last attempt. Standing on her hind legs, she worked the saw back and forth with her front hooves. It sliced effortlessly through the bone and skin. The feeling of the jagged teeth grinding into her made Dash want to vomit. She watched numbly as her wing flew over her head and landed with a fluff on the table. Pinkie moved to the next wing and started sawing. Dash didn’t struggle this time; she’d given up trying to fight and focused on choking back screams of agony. Abruptly, the sawing paused. Pinkie was only half way done, the wing hanging off by a sliver.
“Hey Dash,” Pinkie piped up. “Think fast!”
Suddenly, Pinkie yanked the wing as hard as she could. The bone snapped but the blue pony’s skin held, then tore away. The pull ripped away a long strip of flesh all the way down Dash’s back to her rump. Her body seized at the unexpected trauma. As her pelvis tensed up, Dash felt a warm release between her legs, and her loud, unending melody of pain filled the room. Unable to catch her breath, she blacked out.

Dash awoke with a gasp. The stench of her urine filled her mucus caked nostrils. As her vision swam into focus, she saw a very pouty Pinkie Pie removing a large adrenaline needle from her chest. Stomping her hooves, the frustrated Pinkie lashed out at her helpless victim.
“Didn’t anybody teach you any manners? It’s very rude to fall asleep when somebody invites you over to spend time with them. How would you like it if I came over to your house and went to sleep? ‘Oh I’m sorry Dash, you’re so boring I think I’ll take a nap.’ You think I like always doing this by myself? I told you how excited I got when I found you were next. I was excited to have a friend be here with me while I worked. But NOOOOO! You’ve got to be inconsiderate. You know, I thought you were tough. I thought you could handle anything. I’ve had foals stand up better than you! Do I have to baby you? Huh? Is that how you want me to remember you, as a baby?”
As Pinkie stopped to catch her breath, Dash blinked and sobbed softly. Her back was in agony, her sides were on fire, and there was an intense pain in one of her legs. As she blinked again, she saw Pinkie pop something red into her mouth and began to chew. Noticing Dash’s stare, Pinkie quickly gulped the morsel down.
“What?” Pinkie asked. “Oh, this?” She held up another piece. “Well, while YOU were asleep, I got a little impatient and helped myself to a small sample. I got it from your leg; you’re not bad. Wanna try some?”
Without waiting for a response, Pinkie shoved the strip of meat into the revolted pegasus pony’s mouth. Dash gagged, and immediately spit it out. Pinkie frowned, and picked up the chunk of flesh. “If you didn’t want it, you could have said no.” She contemplated the discarded snotty morsel, then gulped it up. “It’s not like you haven’t had my cupcakes before.”
Swallowing, Pinkie turned her attention to a small can on the tray. She removed the lid, revealing that it was filled with red-hot coals. Lying on top of the coals were several large nails. As the adrenalin filled her veins, Dash began to panic again. Picking up the can, Pinkie walked over to Dash’s left. Holding some tongs with her mouth, Pinkie carefully picked up a nail and positioned it at the seam between her victim’s front left leg and hoof. She then grabbed a hammer and took careful aim.
“No Pinkie!” Dash screamed. “NO! NO!”
The hammer came down and the nail punctured Dash’s skin. The white hot burning was too much. Dash screamed as she pulled and thrashed at the braces, causing her raw skin to rub and tear. Pinkie tried to line up another nail, but couldn’t find her aim, and let out a frustrated grunt. When Pinkie brought the hammer back to take a wild swing, Dash burst out crying and begging.
“PLEASE STOP! PLEASE, PLEASE STOP!”
Pinkie rolled her eyes. Putting down the hammer and tongs, she walked back in front of her friend and stared pensively at the broken pegasus. Gilda didn’t even cry this much when she had a live parasprite stuffed down her throat. Pinkie thought for a minute about what to do next, then had a sudden spark of inspiration.
Rotating a wheel on the rack, Pinkie laid Dash on her back, then moved to Dash’s hind legs, bringing the can with her. Picking up her tools, Pinkie drove a searing hot spike of metal directly into the bottom of Dash’s hoof. As Dash yelled in pain, Pinkie moved around and drove a second nail into the other hoof. Next, Pinkie went back to her cart and located an enormous battery and controller, which she dragged over to where she was working. She tied copper wires between the terminals and the nails driven into Dash’s hooves, then gave Dash a wink and flipped the switch.
Electricity rocketed through Dash’s body. The blue pony reacted immediately; her body seized, and her muscles snapped taut. Dash’s hips thrust skyward, her eyes rolled back, and she let out a deep, throat shredding cry. Pinkie giggled and danced in place, then reached down and turned up the juice. Dash convulsed uncontrollably, and her bladder emptied once more.

After about five minutes, Pinkie shut off the power. Wisps of steam rose from the singed fur around Dash’s hooves, and the area reeked of cooked flesh and burnt enamel. Pinkie rotated Dash upright again and tried snap the drooling, delirious pony back to attention.
“Dash? Dash! Rainbow Dash, wake up!” Dash moaned and managed to give a modicum of weak acknowledgment. Pinkie studied her handiwork, then reached into the medicine bag and produced a large syringe. “Alright, time for the last round.”
Dash focused blearily on the needle, which Pinkie took as a question as to what it was.
“This is a little something to take the pain away,” Pinkie informed Dash as she walked around to her victim’s ruined back. Dash flinched as Pinkie jabbed the needle into the lower part of the blue pony’s spine. Moving in front of her friend again, Pinkie leaned down and elaborated.
“In a few minutes, you won’t be able to feel anything below your ribcage. Then you’ll be able to stay awake to watch the harvest.”
Dash started to cry again. “Pinkie?” she choked out.
“Yeah?”
“I want to go home,” Dash sobbed.
“Yeah, I can see wanting to do that,” replied the party pony. “Sometimes, I just wanna give up, just say ‘I’m done with this mess’ and go to bed. But you know what? You can’t shrug off your responsibilities. You got to pull yourself up and meet the challenges head on. That’s the only way you’re gonna get ahead in life.”
Dash hung her head and cried.
Minutes passed as the drug took effect. Eventually, Dash was completely numb from her chest to her flanks. At this point, Pinkie approached with a scalpel. Glancing at Dash and smiling, Pinkie made a long horizontal cut across the pegasus pony’s pelvis, just above her crotch. Moving up Dash’s body, Pinkie made a similar incision under her ribs. Finally, Pinkie made a long vertical cut down Dash’s stomach, connecting the first two.
“Looks like I got my ‘I’ on you, Dash,” Pinkie giggled.
With a moist, gooey sound, the flaps of skin opened. The sight of her own organs and the lack of feeling caused Dash’s breathing to intensify. Pinkie carefully sliced open Dash’s abdominal sac and grabbed her large intestines. As she separated the organ from the rest of the digestive tract and pulled it out of the new cavity, Pinkie grew jovial. Laughing as she gutted her friend, Pinkie began to make jokes. Dash, growing weaker from this new source of blood loss, tried desperately to shut out the macabre comedy act.
“Look at me, I’m Rarity!” Pinkie laughed, slinging the intestinal tube around her neck and spraying blood in all directions. “Isn’t my new scarf soooo pretty?”
Reaching back inside, she sliced the smaller intestine off from the bowls. Squeezing out the excess excrement, Pinkie filed the slimy organ through her teeth and dragged it back and forth. “Dentists say you gotta floss every day, Dash.”
Dash was barely aware of what was going on anymore. The shock was causing her to fade. Disappointed, Pinkie dived back into the blue pony’s guts, ramping up her routine.
“Aw, don’t go yet Dash.” Pinkie started pulling out the rest of Dash’s organs, pausing with each removal. “I know I can be a real pancreas, but you know I’m just kidney with you. You really got to learn to liver it up. Boy, these jokes are getting bladder. Guess ya gotta develop a stomach for them.”
Pinkie placed the discarded body parts into a bucket, keeping the last one for bit longer. “Ooo, bagpipes.” she said, placing the end of Dash’s esophagus in her mouth and the stomach in her armpit. She squeezed, and a spurt of acid hit her tongue. “Eww! Oh hey look, there’s your cupcake, Dash!”
Dash didn’t hear her tormentor. She had slipped from conciseness minutes ago. Pinkie, not yet satisfied, hit Dash with another adrenaline shot. Dash woke up for the last time, her heart pounding. Warm blood flowed out from the wound in her chest in great spurts. It wouldn’t be long now.
Pinkie brought Dash around onto her back again and straddled the blue pony’s chest, scalpel at the ready.
“Ya know, Rainbow Dash, I’m disappointed. I thought you would have lasted longer. I really wanted to spend more time with you before we got here. But I guess it’s my fault; I should have taken it a little slower. Oh well. It was really was nice knowing you, Dash!”
The blade sunk into the blue throat and worked its way up to Dash’s chin. Coming back down, Pinkie’s scalpel then circled Dash’s neck. The last thing Rainbow Dash felt was her skin being cut away from her skull, and the metal of the blade scraping her teeth.
Then she was gone.

Pinkie Pie stared into the mirror. She had done a really good job, even keeping the eyelids. She winked, and Dash winked back. Pinkie smiled.
But still, she was sad that her friend was now gone. Dash had only lasted fifty minutes, not nearly as long as Pinkie had wanted. She looked back at the cadaver hanging in the center of the room, the last of her friend’s fluids draining into a pan. Yup, no more Rainbow Dash.
As she looked, Pinkie cocked her head. She began to take notice of the fact that there really wasn’t much damage to the corpse. “It fact,” the pink pony mused, “I think….” An idea exploded in her head. She was good at sewing and she had all the pieces, all she had to do was put them back together. Yeah, she just had to get some stuffing and bingo, she’d have Rainbow Dash forever. In fact, thought Pinkie, that’s what she’d do for all her best friends when their numbers came up. She was so excited, she skipped right over to the body with her skinner to get started. The cupcakes could wait; Pinkie Pie had a friend to make.