*****- This one is made by ~Fluffycrow on Deviantart.com !
This one made me sad.D: But I think it's really good!^^
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False Ruby
That was it. I couldn't wait one more minute for Pokemon's fifth Generation, for Black and White, and for the grass-type starter I knew for a fact I would have to name "Smugleaf." Unfortunately, there were still a few months until the games' American release, and I would have to satisfy my need for hardcore Training with the Pokemon games I already had. Sighing, I tore into my case of DS and GBA games and immediately came face-to-cartridge with the first Pokemon game I had ever bought: Pokemon Ruby version.
Oh, the nostalgia. I had bought the game randomly as a child, wasting a month's allowance on a video game simply because it was named after my birthstone. Good thing it turned out to be a quality game as well; before long I was entirely caught up in the adventures of my Trainer, ANNA, (This was before I discovered pressing the select button would allow you to enter lowercase letters on the naming screen. I just assumed all characters had to have their name entirely in uppercase letters for some reason.) and her Mudkip starter, FLUFFY. (It was a lame joke—See, Mudkips don't have any fur. And Fluffy was a common pet's name. And… somehow that equaled irony.) It nearly took me two years to finish ANNA's journey to become the Hoenn League Champion, and I loved every minute of it. Catching new and unfamiliar Pokemon, evolving FLUFFY into an all-powerful Swampert, and developing a strange crush on Steven… I even remembered that the first Pokemon I caught on my beloved GBA SP was Groudon itself. The memories…
Without thinking, I stuffed the red cartridge into my DS Lite and started a new game. At this point I had already transferred FLUFFY and my other Hoenn-based Pokebros to Diamond or SoulSilver, so I didn't have to worry about losing any of my cherished Pokemon. I felt my heart pounding with excitement as Professor Birch appeared on the DS's top screen. As usual, he demonstrated his lack of observation by asking my gender; I selected the female Trainer and, for nostalgia's sake, named her "ANNA"—capitalization mistakes and all.
I was perplexed when the game didn't start in the moving van, but in ANNA's room, but didn't think much of it. The cartridge was old and overused—even in my last file, I had eventually found myself unable to grow any berries due to some bizarre glitch. When I walked down the stairs, the Machoke movers weren't there either—but "Mom" was, and she told me to go say hi to the neighbors as usual. Well, if it part of the game were to glitch up, at least it was the unimportant bit. I did as "Mom" suggested and walked to Brendan's house.
When I arrived to introduce myself, however, my rival didn't give his usual introduction speech. Instead, this appeared in the text box:
BRENDAN: …ANNA? No…
BRENDAN: Who are you? I don't know you.
"No shit," I grumbled under my breath, starting to get pissed off. This wasn't a glitch; it was more like someone had hacked my game. At this point, I suspected my brother; he was in college majoring in Computer Programming as I played, and he did have the twisted sense of humor and /x/-worthy love of creepypasta that was likely to result in a hacked game. I was annoyed, but at the same time I felt like I at least wanted to see what moronic prank my brother's hacking was leading to. Plus, I really did want to get to the actual game.
I dismissed the hacked dialogue; it wasn't as if Pokemon games had a real plot, anyways. Brendan refused to say anything else, so I left and walked to Professor Birch's lab, expecting to find the lab aide declaring Birch gone as usual. Was the professor going to be murdered? Did the Poochyena maul him? I may have been annoyed, but I did find myself wanting to know what my brother was planning.
But, despite my thoughts and the original game's canon, Birch was safe and sound in the back of his lab, where he is usually found after the player gets their starter. I shrugged it off and walked up to him. I had already decided that I wanted another Mudkip; maybe I would even name it "FLUFFY" too. But again, it seemed like I would have to deal with brother dearest's screwed up dialogue.
PROF BIRCH: ANNA! I haven't seen you in…
PROF BIRCH: Wait. You aren't ANNA, are you?
The usual "YES/NO" choice showed up, but in my confusion I found myself pausing to wonder which to pick. Of course I was ANNA; not only was it my actual name (minus the extra capitalization), but I had just named my Trainer that as well. What was brother dearest aiming for, anyway?! I jabbed the A button rather violently, selecting "YES."
I realized at this point that I was overreacting, and looked down at my abused A button with regret. To be honest, it was rather sweet of my brother to take the time to prepare a surprise for me like this. I supposed my issue was that his pranks were screwing with an integral part of my childhood. It wasn't his fault, and it wasn't the game's, either; I was just taking this too seriously. I sighed and looked back at the screen.
PROF BIRCH: You're lying.
Birch's sprite turned away from my Trainer's, and he took a few steps forward, increasing the distance between us.
PROF BIRCH: I know ANNA. We all do.
PROF BIRCH: You can't fool us.
Apparently Birch had nothing more to say; I regained control of ANNA… or not-ANNA, as it were. I saw that there was a Pokeball sitting on the table to the left of the lab. It was just the one Pokeball, but I was anxious to get FLUFFY, and figured this was my best bet to get him. I walked over to the Pokeball and pressed A. Birch turned back to me and ran over to stand beside my character, facing the table.
PROF BIRCH: This… This is the one rare Pokemon I have left.
PROF BIRCH: I wanted to give it to ANNA, but she's not coming back…
PROF BIRCH: You want it? Fine. Take it.
The Pokeball disappeared from the table; apparently I had it now. I pressed START and checked on my "Pokemon" tab. There was a level 5 Torchic in the lead space, and the rest were empty. So, no Mudkip? That was a shame. I did love my FLUFFY. Still, Torchic would do; Blaziken was pretty badass, after all.
I decided to leave Birch to his pouting and leave the lab, eager to start the game for real. Unfortunately, Brendan thought not; his sprite appeared in the doorway, blocking ANNA's way. Not-ANNA's way. Whatever, bro.
BRENDAN: Just because Dad's given up on her…
BRENDAN: I never will!
BRENDAN: I won't let you take ANNA's place!
A battle automatically started. Both my and Brendan's sprites seemed safe; no tears of blood or missing arms or anything of the sort. What did concern me was that Brendan apparently had six Pokemon. One little Torchic would never be able to take on even six level one Pokemon!
Having no other choice, my Trainer sent out Torchic. In response, Brendan sent out… oh. Sceptile. Level 34. There goes my chance at victory.
With no other choice, I decided to attack. Torchic only new Scratch and Growl; I picked Scratch for the hell of it. As expected, it didn't deal much damage, barely denting Sceptile's HP. In retaliation, Brendan's Pokemon used Slash. Torchic fainted. What a surprise. With that, the game cut back to the overworld.
BRENDAN: Now, give me that TORCHIC!
With the action finished, I paused before pressing A, reflecting on these new circumstances. Brendan's starter wasn't just ridiculously overpowered; it was also a Grass-type. In a normal playthrough, the rival of a Trainer with Torchic would pick Mudkip, the starter with the type advantage. Brendan would only have picked a Treecko if I had picked Mudkip. In all fairness, I would have picked FLUFFY if given the chance, though…
I let the thought die and advanced the dialog… Not that Brendan said anything else. Instead, another human sprite ran towards the two of us, and this was a man I was certainly surprised to see. Before I could let loose a full-on fangirl squeal, another text box appeared.
STEVEN: Wait, BRENDAN!
Steven came to a stop standing between the two of us, and his sprite turned to face Brendan. At least, I thought, smirking, ANNA had a pretty nice view from here.
BRENDAN: CHAMPION! What are you doing here?!
STEVEN: I heard ANNA had returned, and apparently she has!
STEVEN: But why are you being so hostile towards your friend?
BRENDAN: …
BRENDAN: That's just an impostor, CHAMPION.
BRENDAN: ANNA is gone. You might as well give up hope.
BRENDAN: None of us will ever see her again…
STEVEN: Don't say something like—
BRENDAN: But it is true.
BRENDAN: The one person I was happy losing to is gone.
BRENDAN: The only person who could defeat you is gone.
BRENDAN: Even her SWAMPERT has disappeared…
BRENDAN: Macabre enough, I find myself wishing that we could at least find her body and bury it on MT. PYRE…
"But I'm right here!" My voice sounded louder, pained in contrast with the silence permeating my otherwise-empty house. Seconds ago I was taking the whole thing as a joke, but something in Brendan's speech made me both regretful and… oddly happy.
Taking the characters' earlier actions into account, I could now see what my brother—no, I decided, it wasn't my brother. He knew me. He knew that I would get a kick out of sprites edited to appear bloody, or finding the word "fainted" replaced with "died" in battles. But he wouldn't program my own death into the game.
And it was true, I was sure; the ANNA Steven was looking for was me, but not the current me. The ANNA he wanted had just been deleted, to be replaced with Brendan's "impostor." Someone who had defeated Brendan and the Elite Four? Someone who had a Swampert? There was no way they were referring to anyone else. They had loved me. The original ANNA was the one they were looking for.
And I had killed her.
I quickly wiped the tears from my face, somewhat ashamed to be crying over Pokemon. Besides, I had to see where this was going. I pressed A. Steven's sprite turned towards the fake ANNA now.
STEVEN: ANNA…
STEVEN: Tell me. Is it really you?
Another yes/no choice appeared. I pondered this one for a while. On the one hand, yes, I was the same person who had been ANNA. On the other, in the universe of the game, ANNA really was dead. My new character was just an impostor. It wasn't a matter of not being sure which choice Steven would react best to; it was a matter of finding the true answer.
I contemplated for a moment more, then chose my answer. No. I wasn't ANNA. I wasn't a child anymore. I was calculating, the sort of person who chose the most beneficial path through video games rather than the one I would honestly choose. Obviously I still retained the sentimentality of back then, as demonstrated by the fact that I was still crying. But were the personalities of child-me and current-me compared, they would still be different. Similar, maybe, but not the same person. Brendan was right; ANNA was gone.
On the screen, Steven took a moment to react to my words, not speaking. After about five seconds, another text box appeared.
STEVEN: …Of course. I'm sorry.
STEVEN: I didn't mean to make you upset.
STEVEN: But you sho
STEVEN: uld go now.
What was this? A glitched game glitching up? But I didn't have time to worry about this now. Steven was talking. I owed it to him to listen. I pressed A.
STEVEN: Leav
STEVEN: e us.
STEVEN: If you see A
STEVEN: NNA as you leave, te
STEVEN: ll her we miss her.
STEVEN: AN
STEVEN: N
STEVEN: A
I pressed A again, but all that appeared in the text box was a garbled mass of pixels. As I advanced again the glitch grew larger, eventually eclipsing the entire screen. The seizure-inducing mass stayed on the screen a few seconds before turning itself off.
Months passed. I was shaken at first, reluctant to play another game. But eventually, as nothing else strange occurred, I became comfortable again with starting new games. But not on Ruby. I haven't played that copy of Ruby since then, though I kept the cartridge out of nostalgia. Eventually I gained the courage to buy a used copy on eBay, so I could continue to play.
I didn't name my character ANNA, and I didn't pick Mudkip. So far, things are going as normal.
Sometimes I consider my "glitched" game, and wonder what caused it. Did Brendan do it, to show me what pain I was causing?
But that's stupid. He's just a video game character.
Besides, if video game characters are real, then that means I might be manipulated by a higher power, just like ANNA. How long before they get bored and delete me? I can't accept that expla
nati
on.
YOUR SAVE FILE HAS BEEN DELETED. NEW GAME?
