Disclaimer: I do not own intellectual rights to Pokémon, nor do I ever plan on claiming intellectual rights to Pokémon or making money off of the Pokémon franchise unless I somehow in the distant future do manage to earn intellectual rights to Pokémon, which is extremely unlikely. This story is written without the slightest thought of profit in mind and is published to be hosted on for anyone to see free of charge.
Prologue: Project Jailbreak
The alarm rang just shortly after the sun rose. It was going to be an exciting day for Glitch. Without a second thought, Glitch hopped out of bed and sped off to greet Professor Fir.
The alarm was still buzzing when Glitch entered Fir's room, but the professor was still fast asleep. Just like Fir had trained him, Glitch let loose a mild Thunderbolt. Professor Fir jumped awake. "Ampere, I swe- huh?" The elderly scientist looked around and found himself safely in his room. Looking to the ground, the retired professor caught sight of his only remaining Pokémon expressing happiness and eagerness as best as it could.
"Good morning, Glitch!" Professor Fir shouted with a large smile on his face. "Quite a nightmare I had there. Silly little thing, too, hahaha! Come on, let's get some breakfast!"
Glitch, of course, did not need to eat. It also did not have to drink, sleep, or breathe. Glitch was a standard, run-of-the-mill Porygon, if not a slightly outdated model. Nevertheless, the professor had made a habit of putting out a bowl of Pokémon food for Glitch while he ate, as he did for all the Pokémon he had during the glory years.
The professor enjoyed thinking back to the good times he'd enjoyed with his friends: Ampere the Electrode, who had evolved from his prized starter; Yarly the Noctowl, who had evolved from his first capture; Turret the Octillery; Compound the Muk; Pharaoh the Dusclops, for whom Fir never could find a Reaper Cloth; and, of course, Amber, the Aerodactyl that Professor Fir had "revived" on his own.
They had undergone many adventures together, earned badges from across the world, and maybe – "unofficially, of course," the professor added to his thought – had encounters with Pokémon the human world isn't ready for. Glitch joined the family shortly after Ampere passed away. The professor painstakingly programmed the Porygon himself. But that was all in the past. Today, it was just Glitch and the retired professor, and today would be an exciting day for the both of them. The thing is, neither one knew just how exciting it would be.
A gentle knock on the door shook Professor Fir from his thoughts. He got up from his seat and ran downstairs with the normal cheerful bounce in his step, Glitch sliding along closely behind him. Waiting patiently at the door, without so much as knocking a second time, was a young, twenty-something woman in a formal black dress.
"Good morning, professor," she spoke as he opened the door. Her voice was strong, the professor observed, but at the same time, gentle, almost solemn.
"Please, call me Simon. It's been years since I've done anything worthy of the title 'Professor.' What may I do for you, Miss…?"
"Woodwind, sir. I was doing some research, and I was hoping to speak with you about a project you had worked on a few decades ago."
"Please, come in." The professor gestured to his living room. "Glitch, could you fetch some coffee for Miss Woodwind?" Glitch nodded and glided back away. The professor and his guest were still within earshot.
"Well, Miss Woodwind, I'm flattered that you would come here, but most of my research can be found in your local library."
"I'm actually here about your last project: Project Jailbreak."
"Ah, Project Jailbreak. I'm not sure how you learned of that, but you do understand that it is classified, correct?"
Their voices trailed off as Glitch entered the kitchen. Raiding the pantry, Glitch found a nearly-empty case of instant coffee and poured the last of the sand-like grains into a cup. Before the water had even started to boil, however, Professor Fir and Miss Woodwind were again audible, now moving towards the lab.
"Glitch," the professor called, "Come this way please." Something was odd about his tone. Glitch's audio sensors picked up strange fluctuations in his vocal patterns. To the untrained ear, it would sound like Fir's everyday, cheerful call. Glitch, however, was able to pick up signs that it attributed to sorrow and distress.
Emulating worry to the best of its ability, Glitch followed Fir and Woodwind into the lab and approached the main computer. "Glitch, extract file 372273," Fir said, his façade starting to fail as tears formed in his eyes. Glitch recognized the number as an emergency code – "escape, and do not return." With a flash resembling a bolt of lightning, Glitch converted itself into data and uploaded itself into the computer. It travelled through the network and emerged from a monitor hidden outside the house, an escape route specifically made for the Porygon.
Glitch silently sped away as a gunshot rang from within the lab. Suddenly, Glitch felt something like a jolt of electricity flow through its body. It had experienced this sensation before, but never to this degree; perhaps it was just a bug in Glitch's programming, or something to that effect. Either way, Glitch would describe it, with its limited capacity for emotion, as "unpleasant."
Glitch had been wandering for some time now. It was now in unfamiliar territory. Porygon are not accustomed to being away from urban areas, let alone roaming in tall grass. Glitch was not even sure why it was out on a route; Fir's final order was for Glitch to leave the house, not to get out of town. Still, something in Glitch's data directed it as far away from the lab as possible.
A burst of sound suddenly rattled Glitch's mind. Disoriented, Glitch spun around and saw the blurry form of a human and a floating eyeball. Before the Porygon could act, a wave of electricity knocked Glitch into the air. Glitch was numb all over, unable to move, barely conscious enough to see. As it struggled to get up, the Pokémon found itself forced to convert its mass into energy. It put up a hopeless struggle, but ultimately did not have the strength to return to material form.
"A Porygon," came a muffled voice, belonging to a boy probably no older than eleven. "These things are rare! The stats look good for its level… And it's Timid, too! This'll do nicely!"
The last sentence faded out, as if Glitch was being moved farther away from the source of the voice. There was the familiar click of a Poké ball being clipped to a belt, and all was silent.
That certainly was an exciting day.
Author notes:
Thank you for reading. "A Glitch in the System" is the first fic I've ever decided to put online. It is technically the only one I've actually physically written (er, the only one of acceptable quality, that is), since I'm pretty shaky when it comes to writing scenes and dialogue. "A Glitch in the System" is really something more of an "authorship exercise" for me right now, so I apologize in advance if this comes off as shaky or rough. Please leave your honest opinions; even the slightest bit of constructive criticism can help.
I do have the entire story planned out, so not much time will be lost on deciding what should happen next. So, you can expect somewhat frequent updates. In fact, the next one should be posted almost concurrently, though it's not quite a chapter for Glitch's story (see the author notes for that).
