Red was enjoying his day off. He had beaten the Champion of the region with his trusted Pokémon at his side, and he decided to take a well-earned break from Poké-hunting to relax on Cinnibar Island.
He was sitting near the water's edge, playing with his Lapras, when something strange happened. An odd, caterwauling wail arose from the water further ahead. Red quickly prepared Lapras, in case it was a wild Pokémon, but what he saw was completely unexpected. A patch of solid air, writhing with numbers and symbols, shaped like a backwards L. disbelievingly, he quickly tugged out his Pokédex and pointed it at the strange creature. With Lapras protecting him in case it attacked, he watched as his Pokédex attempted to find any information on it. It beeped, then an odd, fragmented image appeared on the Pokédex, and it suddenly began to overheat, emitting a strangled mechanical whirr as the screen went black. Just before it shut down, it emitted one recognisable word.
"Missingno." It barked, before it died. Red slowly dropped it back into his bag, mind racing at what could possibly cause it to go haywire like that. He watched as Lapras stared aggressively at it, snorting from deep inside her throat.
"Okay, I have no idea what we're dealing with here, girl, but we'll beat it!" Red shouted confidently, stepping back to watch as Lapras prepared herself.
"Okay girl, let's hit it with an Ice Beam first!" Red called. Lapras clenched her jaw shut, the air around her suddenly cooling. The water around her began to freeze solid, crackling as it broke. Lunging forwards, the frozen beam shot towards the Missingno, freezing a path in the water on its way. The beam struck it right in the center, but it did not even flinch from the attack. In the next moment, two powerful strems of water erupted from seemingly random places on the creature, their force driving the Lapras backwards. Luckily, as a water type, they did not injure her.
"Damn, that didn't work." Red muttered to himself. "Okay, Lapras, Bite it!" Lapras surged forwards to comply, and sunk its teeth into the strange Pokémon. The strange Pokémon flickered for a moment, but still stayed, suspended above the water.
"Let's end this." Red told himself, pulling a red Pokéball from his bag and hurling it towards the Missingno. The strange hash Pokémon was dragged inside, and the ball clicked, locked. He had caught the Missingno. After healing and calling back Lapras, he decided to check back with Professor Oak at his lab,and chose to take along his busted Pokédex as well, for repairs. His intent was to show the strange Pokémon to Oak.
Pushing open the doors to the lab, he strode up to the professor, who was busy tinkering with the Pokémon healing machine. Red cleared his throat to get attention.
"…" There was no reply from Oak.
"A-Hem!" Red cleared his throat again, much more noisily.
"…"
"Professor?" Red asked, walking close to him. He tapped him on the shoulder gently.
Professor Oak tumbled silently from his chair, falling from his seat but staying in the same position, his face completely expressionless.
He wasn't breathing.
Gasping, Red quickly ran back to his house to phone for help, but when he got home his mother was standing in the doorway, blocking the entrance.
"Please move mum, I need to phone for help! Oak's dead" Red cried. His mother slowly rotated her head to face him.
"JJ&++~'#/_%^ygb!" His mother screeched, seemingly random syllables, making the noise without even opening her mouth. The sounds were so horrible that Red was left with no choice but to flee into the woods from the onslaught of painful syllables, shocked and confused.
"WHAT's GOING ON?!" He screamed into the woods. He flopped to his knees and tried desperately to gather his wits, but as he did so he saw something move up ahead. A large, dark skeleton with a wide skull and laded forearms was just standing there, not even moving a millimetre. Red stared in shock at the mystery creature, his worries about Pallet town forgotten temporarily.
Something in his bag began to vibrate and make sounds. Slipping his pack off, he was surprised to find that his Pokédex was making strange noises, and identification warnings.
"Pidgey. Pidgey. Pidgey. Pidgey." It was repeating the same name non-stop and displaying odd text as information. Clearly, the creature up ahead was not a Pidgey, it didn't take an idiot to see that. Realising that it was probably still malfunctioning, Red slipped it back into his pack, and drew out his Pokéball. He hurled it at the floor near the creature, hoping that his new Missingno was useful.
However instead of the fuzzy backwards L, an exact duplicate of the creature ahead popped out from the ball. It Too had bladed limbs and a huge, gleaming skull, but it seemed to follow his commands.
"O…kay…Missingno?" Red stuttered, looking at the creature. It screeched in response, much like the scream given off by his mother before. It seemed to be coming from..inside his head…
A massive headache began to overwhelm Red. The world began to grow dark, the corners of his vision fading as he flopped to the ground. In the distance, he could hear his Pokédex in his bag.
"Pidgeypidgeypidgeypidgeygeegeeggggpidpidgeygeeeeeeeeeeeeee-%*£ #"
…
The sounds faded to nothingness, and red was left alone, floating in darkness.
…
A shape appeared next to him. A shape in a white lab coat. A man in a white lab coat, holding a Pokéball. Red struggled to think straight for a moment. Who was he?
"Hello, my name is Professor Oak…"
Red Screamed.