One school day, a boy named Tom was sitting in class and doing math. It was six more minutes until school let out. As he was doing his homework, something caught his eye.

His desk was next to the window, and he turned and looked to the grass outside. It looked like a picture. When school was over, he ran to the spot where he saw it. He ran fast so that no one else could grab it.

He picked it up and smiled. It had a picture of the most beautiful girl he had ever seen. She had a dress with tights on and red shoes, and her hand was formed into a peace sign.

She was so beautiful he wanted to meet her, so he ran all over the school and asked everyone if they knew her or have ever seen her before. But everyone he asked said "No." He was devastated.

When he was home, he asked his older sister if she knew the girl, but unfortunately she also said "No." It was very late, so Tom walked up the stairs, placed the picture on his bedside table and went to sleep.

In the middle of the night Tom was awakened by a tap on his window. It was like a nail tapping. He got scared. After the tapping he heard a giggle. He saw a shadow near his window, so he got out of his bed, walked toward his window, opened it up and followed the giggling. By the time he reached it, it was gone.

The next day again he asked his neighbors if they knew her. Everybody said, "Sorry, no." When his mother came home he even asked her if she knew her. She said "No." He went to his room, placed the picture on his desk and fell asleep.

Once again he was awakened by a tapping. He took the picture and followed the giggling. He walked across the road, when he was suddenly hit by a car. He died instantly, picture in hand.

The driver got out of the car and tried to help him, but it was too late. He saw the picture and picked it up.

He saw a cute girl holding up three fingers.

It has been reported that some victims of torture, during the act, would retreat into a fantasy world from which they could not wake up. In this catatonic state, the victim lived in a world just like their normal one, except they weren’t being tortured. The only way that they realized they needed to wake up was a note they found in their fantasy world. It would tell them about their condition, and tell them to wake up. Even then, it would often take months until they were ready to discard their fantasy world and PLEASE WAKE UP.

One night quite a while ago, I was invited to dinner at a friend's house, who happened to be the nephew of Craig McCracken, the creator of Powerpuff Girls. The party was pleasant, and I was in for a surprise when Mr. McCracken himself was one of the guests. As a teenage girl, I was absolutely obsessed with the show. I would hog the TV for the premiere of every episode, and yell at my younger brothers if they so much as said a word before the commercial break. Being a somewhat moody, spunky teen, Buttercup was always my favorite of the three girls. I loved her sarcasm and her edginess. Upon meeting mr. McCracken, I had told him what a big fan I was, and that I was ecstatic to meet him, but he seemed very uninterested and was speaking in a vague, rushed tone, no matter what we were speaking of. I supposed it was because of all of the show's fans could be quite annoying, so I backed off.

Somewhere a bit later into the night, Mr. McCracken left hurriedly, not noticing that he had left a small envelope with a single disc inside. I looked around quickly before taking the disc, thinking of the possibility of this being another cartoon invented by the genius behind the Powerpuff Girls.

After the party was over, I rushed home to see what this mysterious disc had in store for me. With my hands trembling, I lifted the shiny disc from the envelope, and my heart fluttered with delight when I saw that the DVD had "Buttercup.avi" written on it in purple sharpie. Buttercup, as I said before, had always been my favorite, and I was incredibly anxious to watch this episode, that for one reason or another, had not been released, but left next to a chair at a dinner party. I put the disc into my DVD player, and it started instantly, no title screen, no credits, nothing.

The episode started off oddly. The colors had been dulled down to an almost sepia tone, and the house looked all wrong. The windows were busted out, and the walls looked dirty. There were small, reddish-brown footprints going up the wall to the middle upstairs window. Confused and creeped out, I continued watching. The camera zoomed into the house, which looked even worse than the outside. Professor Utonium was sitting on the floor, sobbing. He looked up into the camera, his eyes looking too realistic for even the most advanced animation at the time, and had this horrid, pained expression on his usually smiling face. "Buttercup, what have you done?! What have you done to your sisters?! Why?! WHY?!! WHY?!!!" He sounded genuinely like someone that had lost everything, and my heart hurt for him. Behind him sat the corpses of Blossom and Bubbles, horribly mangled. Blossom was missing one eye, and photorealistic blood dripped from her empty socket. Her limbs were broken and twisted at unnatural angles. Her heart had been cut out and laid beside her, and blood stained her pink dress where her heart had been. Bubbles was killed in a similar fashion, except for the fact that both eyes were missing and shoved down her throat, and her legs torn off. Disturbed more than I had been in my entire life, maybe, I began to feel sick to my stomach, but I knew I had to keep watching.

The camera then cuts to Buttercup, whose eyes were also very realistic, like Professor Utoniums. She had an unusually heartless, bitter look in those all too realistic green eyes, and a twisted smile on her face. She was stained with blood from head to toe. She tilted her head up very slowly, then a maniacal laughter left her mouth, ringing throughout the room and my mind.

"Didn't you see it coming, professor? I'm sure all of our adoring fans did." She spat, sounding disgusted at the words 'adoring fans'. "They were so annoying, with their constant happiness, their love of always being in the spotlight, always being nice and good and perfect. I hated it! For years, it disgusted me, but not anymore, Professor, not anymore!"

Professor Utonium continued sobbing, and the horrid sound got louder and louder until a green streak with a silver glint flew across the screen. The professor's disembodied head then flew at the camera, his eyes staring directly at me for the remainder of the video before cutting to black.

Thinking it was over, I went to turn off the TV, but I stopped when I heard the sounds of screaming and singing.

Blossom and Bubbles' screams were quiet, as Buttercup's voice was loudly singing "Hush little babies, don't say a word, Momma's gonna kill you and make you burn, and if those corpses just don't burn, Momma's gonna bury you beneath the furns." Though the words were cheesy, the sound of Buttercup singing and the eyes of her and the Professor still haunt my dreams.

I was actually planning on hacking Pokemon.
Yes, another one.
This one however is going to be a LOT more subtle than LOL SIVER IS DEAD, or LOL GHOST KILLS EVERYONE THEN YOU LOL

Basically, It’s yellow edition, all normal, except when you fight the first pokemon AKA pikachu, before you catch it, you see the text “Pikachu sneezes!”
When you fight your rival it says it again, and then after the fight, when you check it’s status it says “sick.”
Going to the First aid center solves this and his status becomes normal.
As you go along, the line in the first aid centers get longer, and there are more people in there that says “My pokemon is sick. I’m not sure why, but the pokecenters will solve everything!!”

After the thirds badge, pikachu get’s “Sick” again except this time the message says, “Pikachu coughs violently.” Pokecenter solves this again. As you get to the fourth town, AKA lavender town, the area has several people in it when it is normally a very small town. taking to them says “We are trafficking dead pokemon. They died from a strange sickness. I suggest you keep an eye on your pokemon.” The tower is skipped, Mr. Fiji being in a house guarded by team rocket. Going inside the tower shows a giant fire with one person in front of it who says that you are not authorized to dispose of bodies, and you are escorted out.
Note this is all still in planning so if you see something in it you don’t like, point it out and I can alter it.

As you along facing badges, it gets worse. There are now designated grave yards in towns, and they get bigger as you go along, although not TOO Big, as it wouldn’t make sense for these to actually be huge in a small town. When you saved Mr. Fiji, he gives you the silph scope for free along with the Poke flute, I think, It’s been a while since I played.
Anyway, these graveyards now spawn ghost pokemon and that’s how you get ghost if you want then.
In the fifth gem there are trainers that don’t fight you, saying “They have sick pokemon and that they cannot fight you.” Eventually they all have ghost pokemon at the sixth gem. Eventually the ghost pokemon become common. When you get to pallet town, that’s when the REAL hits the fan. you go into it to see 2 tombstones, and the two walking NPC’s outside are gone. Turns out, that sickness? It can affect humans too. Your mom is sick, but she’s innoculated,so she should be fine, oak is nowhere to be seen, you don’t know what happened to blue, he stops showing up at the fourth town, and there are masked men everywhere. Pikachu exanimations shows he’s worried.
Cinnibar island is fenced off except for one area. You enter in here and have to fight a masked man, who has ghost pokemon, so having an physic pokemon means that this game is gonna get easy, unless THEY catch the sick status, in which in battle the pokemon “is too sicken to fight.” And is dealt a good amount of damage. Good thing is, if they get hit by another pokemon that isn’t sick, THEY can get sick as well. This variable increases as the game goes along, but your pokemon can NEVER get sick from hitting sick pokemon.

Sick will be a status dealt by “Viral Breath” which certain pokemon now do. Mind to say, It hardly ever happens and except for pikachu after the third infection, it always clears it up
Cinnibar is now a shelter for non sick pokemon, going under the sea for the room and accominations for other pokemon. You go into the broken lab here, now converted to a HUGE off pokecenter, the other pokecenter an emergency surgery center/MR (Military Recruiter), which is the base of the Masked men. When you leave the center, fighting men and ghosts, there are people missing, and the EMR is empty. Going into the gym gives trainers missing and only Blaine there, who when you go into combat with, only has a Charmander that’s lvl 15. Beating it gives you the Badge and TM whatever. He says his pokemon suddenly turned sick and he wasn’t sure why and that the badge you have there is only temporary.
The eighth badge in vermilion is the easiest. There are tomb stones all in vermilion and trainers that just say “urgh” when you talk to them. Giovanni says “DON’T GET NEAR ME. STAY AWAY. YOU HAVE IT, I KNOW YOU DO. YOU BROKE MY FORCES, AND YOU’RE GOING TO BREAK ME.” Going into combat with him reveals him to be utterly sick, and his pokemon are all underleveled and have the “SICK” Status, so sick that NOTHING gets out of them. Needless to say, this fight is over quick. You get the badge. He then backs against the wall and turns his back to it and the text “No….. N…No….” appears. Investigating him gives the text. “He…. He’s not breathing.”
Leaving the gym triggers the next blue sequence. He starts saying all of his pokemon are dead. ALL of them. He’s not sure why but now he’s sneezing. He didn’t mean for this to happen. Why?” and so forth.

Your pikachu becomes sick again, but this time the pokecenter doesn’t do much as it just happens again. He doesn’t get attacks taken or damage, just… sick.
(Basically, Sick comes in 2 ways, One replaces freeze since that never happens in Gen 1, and the other will take I think Toxic, since that hardly happens in Gen 1 either. Neither will be missed)
Investigating him reveals him to be frowning and for bubble to be rising above his head, and a “sneeze” to emit from him.
Going to the elite 8 shows masked men everywhere and for more face down trainers.
Going through victory roads shows sick visible pokemon with NO encounter rate.

Did I metion that past 7th gym, you now encounter ghost pokemon outside of grass? It’s really low encounter but you can.

Also, when pikachu is infected the third time, all pokemon are “Too scared to move.” against him.

Anyway, Victory road HAS no encounter rate, and the 4 are all sick when fighting, and certain pokemon are midly sick, and each one has at least 1 ghost pokemon. Still challenging, but not as much as the original. They all attempt to stick to their speechs but are sick and mess it up a little. Not the whole “I’M DYING” thing but like “You tried your breast.. I mean best, sorry.” It gets less surreal the further into the 4 that you go. They also warn against “The newcomer.”
Getting to the last elite shows that his pokemon all have “Sick” but they still attack somewhat. He warns you about the other person and that to not worry because he was lucky to get the few inoculations that actually worked.

The FINAL boss is still blue, but all sublty is shed off here. He’s basically sick as a dog and has only one pokemon. “You…You did this…” Or something like that, I haven’t planned out his speech and how your pikachu started this, even though it’s very possible he didn’t, the source is never ‘explained’ until Oak gets in after you defeat blue, who ‘dies’.

Oak explains that said plague that’s been going around was a failed experiment. It was a gas that was meant to actually prevent a certain sickness that was going around, and instead amplified it to unbeleivable strength. It kills pokemon, and turns them into ghosts that are super powerful. After a few more lines, Blue gets up. He turns around. He mubles “You… YOU.”
You have to fight him again, this time his portait is different, with white eyes.
He now has 6 ghost pokemon that are Extremely high level and have powerful attacks. Losing kicks you to the title screen, winning shows him falling over dead, permanently this time.
Oak offers you asylum in the Kanto region where they have it under control, rather than this soon to be wasteland. The final cutscene is you wondering past “White” trainers and “Masked men”. You escape to a small monologue that I haven’t planned out yet.

It doesn’t show the whole WOOO I’M HAUNTED THING but instead takes a mores subtle apporach to allow the illusion that this count have been an actual plot that was canceled. It’s certainly not finished yet in my head and certain things are gonna get changed.
A. Is this possible to hack (I think most likely, most of this isn’t hard to change) and B. Would anyone here actually play it.
Also C. Objections/dislikes.

Also, any ideas suggested will be seriously concidered and possibly implemented. Just remember this is the gameboy, so I’ll be limited in power.

Also, For those of you that hate grind, the game will feature an increased pace.
Wild pokemon EXP will be increased by 300%, trainer exp by 200%, and all money gain will be increased by 400%, with most items being decreased in value by 60%, to drastically lower grind, so you have a straight shot through the game.
There will also be a normal version in this as well without these added variables, but with how the game starts to smirk trainers, you’ll find yourself drasitcally under-leveled later in game.

I was also going to add a shop in the Final 4 as well that allows you to buy stat raisers for a good price.
Also, Payday will instead of giving money after a fight, trade EXP for PKE, so fighting with a meowth in party and using pay day will give 4600 gold per fight for example instead of EXP. However, since most fights will be harder in end game in the wild, this might prove to be a challenge in it’s own right.

No ed up music at first, no messed up art, no anything like that except for pikachu sneezing, and at most someone might think that is just a little quirk as it’ll be advertised as “More interactive with your pikachu! He can get a little sick, but he can get better with the help of Nurse joy! It’s playing with pikachu like you never experienced before!”

Of course, they soon realize after lavender town it’s a plague nightmare, but that’s their problem then.

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 choked 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 thoroughly searched and cleared out the place, so wherever this letter had come from, it wasn"t kept at his home. It was signed to be given to Nisino. It started off quite formal, a hello, how are you, regards to the family, and such. After one or two of these normal paragraphs, they reached a section that requested Nisino to get him into the game team, to get him a programming position in Pokemon Red and Green.

As the letter continued, the handwriting seemed to grow more jittery. He talked about a glorious idea he had, a way to program something unseen in any game before. He said it would certainly revolutionize not only the gaming industry, but everyone. He went on to say that it was a very simple procedure to program this idea into the game. He did not even have to add any foreign programming, but could use what was already given in the game itself. This would, the detectives agreed, make it impossible to notice any obscurities in the programming itself. It was a perfect way to hide whatever this was.

The letter ended abruptly. There was no goodbye, no say hi to the family, no write back, or thank you. Nothing like that. It was just his name, written hard in the letter where the paper almost broke through. It was only his name. "Chiro Miura."

This was the nail in the coffin for the detectives. They had no more suspicion about the cause. Chiro had programmed something into the early parts of the game, something maddening. To further increase this streak of success, they discovered that the programming team had worked in pairs, even Chiro himself. He had worked with another programmer, Sousuke Tamada.

If anyone knew what the secret in this game was, Sousuke Tamada would be the man. This was their final hope of unraveling this mystery once and for all.

They learned Sousuke had provided a lot of programming to the game, and seemed to be an average, good guy and worker. They were easily allowed into his home, a fair place, and they entered his living room where they sat. Sousuke did not sit, however. He stood by the window of the second story floor, looking out onto the busy street. He was smiling a little.

There is no direct witnesses to the events that followed. The only thing from this conversation that remained was found on a voice recorder sitting on the table in front of the two detectives assigned to talk to Sousuke. What follows is the unedited recording:

"Sousuke Tamada, what part did you have in the games Pokemon Red and Green?" asked the first detective.

"I was a programmer." His voice was light, friendly, almost too friendly. "That"s all."

"Am I right in knowing that the programmers working on the game worked in teams?" asked the detective.

One could hear the voice of feet moving on the floor slightly. "You would be right," said Sousuke after a moment of silence.

"And your partner, his name was--" The detective was quickly cut off by Sousuke eerie voice.

"Chiro Miura... That was his name. Chiro Miura."

Another silence. It seemed the detectives were a little uneasy about this man. "Could you tell us if Muira ever acted strange at all? Any particular behaviors you observed while working with him at all?"

Sousuke answered them. "I don't know him that well, really. We didn't meet up frequently, only every once in a while to trade data, or when the entire group was called up for a meeting... That"s the only times I really ever saw him. He acted normal, as far as I could tell. He was a short man, and I think this affected his consciousness.. He acted weaker than any other man I met. He was willing to do a lot of work to gain recognition, this I do know. I think..."

Silence. "Yes?" asked the detective, pushing for him to continue. "You think what?"

"I think he was a very weak man. I think he wanted to prove himself regardless of this point... I think he wanted to make himself known for something special, something that would make people forget about the way he looked and pay attention to the powerful mind that lay inside his skull.. Unfortunately for him, however.. heheh.. He didn't have much of a mind to back up that reasoning."

"Why do you say that?" asked the second detective.

"Well it"s the simple truth," answered Sousuke quickly. His feet could be heard moving across the tiled floor. "He was nothing special, even if he wanted to believe so. You can"t become greatness, even if you believe it. It's impossible... Somehow, I think Chiro knew this himself, somewhere deep in there, he knew it."

The detectives were silent again, not sure how to steer the conversation. After a moment, they continued. "Can you tell us what Chiro's part of the game was? What did he work on exactly?"

Sousuke answered more quickly than before. "Nothing... I mean, nothing important. He worked on some obscure parts of the beginning of the game." A pause, then a little more information. "It was Oak"s part to be exact. He worked on some of Oak"s parts... When he"s seen first, you see.."

"What else?" pushed the police. They could hear it in Sousuke's voice. He knew something. "We know you know about the children and the deaths. We know it was Chiro who did it. He programmed something in the game."

"What are you implying?" asked Sousuke. It sounded like he was trying to maintain his voice.

"We"re implying that since your his partner, if you"re hiding something from us then you could just as much be responsible for those children"s deaths as Chiro is himself!"

"You can't prove anything!" Sousuke shouted.

"Tell us what Chiro did to the game!" they shouted back.

"WHAT I TOLD HIM TO."

Silence. Complete silence.

"You want to know, huh?" asked Sousuke finally, breaking the eerie silence, but replacing it with his voice. "You want to know what is this all about? Chiro was an idiot. He"d do anything for a bit of attention, anything at all. He couldn"t program worth a either. The one thing he could do, however, was be manipulated. You could tell him what to do, and he"d do it. He wouldn't even question it, he"d do it. Just to hear that "thank you" when you received the finish product, that was his reasons. That"s all he wanted."

Two clicks from the detective"s guns could heard.

"I could control his flawlessly. He"s a lot like Takenori... Of course none of you knew this, but I was the one who brought up the idea of the game, the idea of the entire operation. I just told the fellow what to do, and he followed me without doubt. He knows nothing, just like Chiro."

A sound of a window opening could be heard, follow by the detectives.

"Don"t move or we"ll shoot!"

"Let me tell you about a mechanic in the game," continued Sousuke. His voice was more rushed, but it still held that slyness. "Consider it a hint, alright? If you walk around in grassy areas enough a Pokemon will appear, and you"ll have the chance to go into battle with it. It"s a necessary part of the game overall, you see?"

"Step away from the window! We won"t warn you again!"

"At the start of the game you have to walk into the grassy area before Oak appears and you receive your first Pokemon, understand me? Under normal circumstances, it was programmed that even though you"re in a grassy area, no Pokemon will spawn... I made it different. I manipulated that Chiro, told him what to put in the program, gave him all the instructions on how to do it, and he did it flawlessly. It"s rare, but it can happen.. Stepping into that grass, one can spawn..."

"Sousuke, we don"t want to shoot!"

"Shoot me?" asked Souske, laughing at the same time. "Shoot ME? You"re as dumb as Chiro was! Once he found out the truth, he had to end it! It was his fault after all! He shot himself because of it! If you"re so determined to finish that case of yours, if you want to know, play the damn game for yourself! Roll the wheel, and who knows? Maybe you"ll learn the secret for yourself!"

A shot could be heard, loud enough to distort the audio. Sounds of screaming, murmuring could be heard. The table the recorder was on crashed. Ear shattering distortions. Silence. Then laughing. Sousuke was laughing, and then words. "Come follow me... Come follow me..." And then nothing.

The recorder continued to record until the tape ran out. There was nothing else on it. The police arrived on the scene quickly, and to their horror they discovered Sousuke and the two detectives dead. They had all been shot, but not after struggling. The detectives had been shot multiple times, at least ten each, before dying after being shot in between their eyes. Sousuke himself had clearly died of two shots to his chest, straight through the heart.

This game was causing a massacre. At least a hundred children were dead. Nisino, the unsuspecting 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’m what you could call a collector of bootleg Pokémon games. Pokémon Diamond & Jade, Chaos Black, etc. It’s amazing the frequency with which you can find them at pawnshops, Goodwill, flea markets, and such.

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

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



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

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

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

After selecting your starter, if you looked at your Pokémon, you had in addition to Bulbasaur, Charmander, or Squirtle another Pokémon — “GHOST”.

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

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

The implication was that the Pokémon died.

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

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

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

The game changed quite a bit after defeating the Elite Four. After viewing the Hall of Fame, which consisted of Ghost and a couple of very under leveled Pokémon, the screen cut to black. A box appeared with the words “Many years later…” It then cut to Lavender Tower. An old man was standing, looking at tombstones. You then realized this man was your character.

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




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

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

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

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

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

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

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

You couldn’t use items, and you had no Pokémon. If you tried to run, you couldn’t escape. The only option was “FIGHT”.

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

The screen cut to black a final time.

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

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

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

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

A man went to a hotel and walked up to the front desk to check in. The woman at the desk gave him his key and told him that on the way to his room, there was a door with no number that was locked and no one was allowed in there. She explained that it was a storeroom, and that it was out of bounds. She reminded him of this several times before allowing him upstairs. So he followed the instructions of the woman at the front desk, going straight to his room, and going to bed. However the insistence of the woman had piqued his curiosity, so the next night he walked down the hall to the door and tried the handle. Sure enough it was locked. He bent down and looked through the wide keyhole. Cold air passed through it, chilling his eye.

What he saw was a hotel bedroom, like his, and in the corner was a woman whose skin was incredibly pale. She was leaning her head against the wall, facing away from the door. He stared in confusion for a while, was this a celebrity? The owners daughter? He almost knocked on the door, out of curiosity, but decided not to. As he was still looking, the woman turned sharply and he jumped back from the door, hoping she would not suspect he had been spying on her. He crept away from the door and walked back to his room. The next day, he returned to the door and looked through the wide keyhole. This time, all he saw was redness. He couldn’t make anything out besides a distinct red color, unmoving. Perhaps the inhabitants of the room knew he was spying the night before, and had blocked the keyhole with something red. He felt embarrassed that he had made the woman so uncomfortable, and hoped she had not made a complaint with the woman on the front desk.

At this point he decided to consult her for more information. After some gentle quizzing and the promise that the explanation would go no further than him she finally said "Well, I might as well tell you the story of what happened in that room. A long time ago, a man murdered his wife in there, we find that even now, people get uncomfortable staying there. But these people were not ordinary. They were white all over, except for their eyes, which were red."