a sprite fic by charity236
Disclaimer:
I didn't create Pokémon or any other Nintendo characters in this fic. Well, some of the fake Pokémon, attacks and GBA accessories are mine, but that's about it. All real people in this fic own themselves. Flames will be given to Rauru to melt his chocolate coins.
Summary:
Early one morning in a house in suburban Australia, charity236 turns on her PC to discover that all of her mixed sprites have been wiped from her hard drive.
That same morning in a dimly-lit office in Kyoto, Japan, three important people ponder over who or what could have caused such a crime, and who should be the ones to retrieve what was stolen.
Now the Sprite Artists of Pokémon Crater must go on a journey to defeat the Sprite Rustlers - not just for themselves, but also for Nintendo itself.
Short History of TSR:
If you were hanging around the Pokémon Crater message boards from the middle of last year to early this year, you may remember Kyogroudon's Mixed Sprites topic, of which myself and six others were helpers for much of its existance - the other helpers being BobBillLarry, Christy dragon hunter, Siddhant, PokeGirl1212, BurninatingTorchic and PokemonMaster99.
TSR was started very early in January, and was continued right until the whole of Crater was taken down in August to make way for the new version. But most unfortunately, the Crater message boards haven't been put back up yet, so TSR has been homeless for quite some time - until now, of course.
Anyways, enough with the history and on to business!
Quick Notes:
Okay, for those who read TSR when it was on Crater - this is a rewrite of the original, hence the addition of the "V2.0" in the title. Spelling/grammar mistakes have been fixed, better descriptions have been added where possible, there's more/better jokes, and... well, it's a rewrite. 'Nuff said.
I haven't decided whether to include a Super Fun Happy Feature or not, but I'll make my decision known when ready.
If I need a guest appearance for new chapters, I'll probably pick from another Crater member or one of the V1.0 frequent reviewers (I have all the reviews on file, hehe.
This fic is based more on the Pokémon games than the Anime, because of the sprites and such. There's also more Zelda stuff than Mario or other Nintendo characters, as Zelda is my other favourite Ninty series.
Ash lovers will probably get upset with some events (particularly in chapter 12), and Ganondorf fans may be rather amused with chapter 9. Just a warning to ye all.
I aim to update about once or twice a week until school finishes, after which I'll try to update every two to four nights.
So I hope you enjoy the fic, and please review afterwards!
- Chapter 1: Zero, Zip, Zilch -
- charity236 -
I stared in utter confusion at the open Explorer window, which was clearly marked "Requests".
Absolutely nothing. There wasn't a sprite to be seen. No PNGs, no GIFs - heck, not even a BMP.
There should be a Kyogredoom there, all of its five different Pokémon parts recoloured black, grey and red. There should be an Abtalesol there, with its Ninetales head expertly placed onto an Absol body. There should be a sprite there, goddamn it!
'WHERE DID MY SPRITES GO?!' I screamed at the top of my lungs, thankful that Mum and my little sister Katie weren't home to hear me rant and rage.
---
Oh, hi. Didn't see you there. My name is charity236. Well, okay, that's just my Internet screenname. I'd like to tell you more about me, like my real name and where I live, but there's more important things to worry about at this point in time.
Pokémon Crater. It's a website - you know, "surfin' the Net". Crater is a website for Pokémon fans (I'm sure you know what Pokémon is, so I won't go into that) where you can catch, train and battle your own online Pokémon. It's pretty cool.
However, most of my time at Crater is spent on the message boards. One of my friends there, Kyogroudon, has a cool thread where people request sprites and other people make them. I'm one of the people who makes them - I guess you could call us Sprite Artists.
What are sprites, you ask? They're the graphics that are used in all 2D games, whether they be on a Sega, SNES or Game Boy. We Sprite Artists, however, simply mix Pokémon sprites to make new ones.
But I'm rambling on... back to the story.
---
Sprites. All gone. Nothing. Zero. Zip. Zilch.
Where did they go? I wondered, trying to think of realistic solutions. Maybe Katie deleted them? There was a power surge? A virus, perhaps?
No. On second thoughts, I don't want to think about what could have caused this. I need to find a way to get them back.
After thinking, playing Zelda: The Wind Waker, thinking again, eating breakfast and then thinking some more, I remembered the backup disc I'd made a while ago - it contained all of the sprites I'd ever made up to this point in time.
I hurriedly took the CD from its case and fumbled with the buttons to put the disc in. When it started loading, I opened My Computer to check the disc's contents - everything was still there.
Phew.
And yet something still didn't seem right. I dashed to the lounge, where my Game Boy Advance was connected to my GameCube. Ah yes, the Tingle Tuner. Very helpful feature... although Tingle's a right old mental case.
I unclipped my GBA from the GBA-GCN cable, took Ruby Version from the Game Boy Player slot and put in into the GBA, and then turned it on. The Game Boy logo appeared as per usual. So far, so good.
From there, the situation went downhill (which is what usually happens whenever someone says "so far, so good"). I expected the usual introductory animation: May cycling along a grassy hill, Latios soaring above her head as she pedalled on; and then the battle scene, with Torchic and Mudkip facing off against a Duskull and a Sharpedo.
I never expected to see a screen full of random letters and numbers replace that animation.
My first thought was that it reminded me of The Matrix.
My second thought was that it could be another effect of that Berry glitch which prevents Berries from growing after having owned the game for a year. However, there was one problem with that theory - it was January, and I'd only bought the game last September.
What else could it be, then? I couldn't see any other explanation apart from "I must be dreaming", yet I'd already pinched myself to make sure I was awake.
'This is terrible!' I trembled. There must be something I could do.
And then I thought of Kyogroudon and the other Sprite Artists on Crater. Maybe they'd know how to help?
I connected the Internet cord and logged on. After the homepage appeared, I quickly opened the Favourites folder and clicked on the PKMN Crater bookmark, causing the Crater website to load in all its glory. I logged in and saw there were no new PMs, so I headed straight for the message boards.
It was now obvious that many other people had the same problem as I did. There were threads about it in almost every single board, particularly General Pokémon Discussion. What was this, a glitch epidemic?
I went to check the Mixed Sprites thread - several people had posted in there about the glitch, too. In fact, ALL of the Artists had, and none of them knew what to do.
At least I wasn't alone.
------
- ???? -
I refreshed the page again, hoping that the last Artist would post something to make her presence known.
'Can't this computer load any faster?' I muttered under my breath. Our ISP's broadband system was down, meaning we had to use 56k dial-up until the problem was resolved. Geez, I miss broadband.
'Having some trouble there?' a voice came from the office.
'Everything's fine, sir,' I replied unenthusiastically as the page showed signs of loading, and about twenty seconds later it was done. I scrolled down the page, looking for - yes, the Artist had posted. I slowly read the new message, nodded and clicked on the Reply button.
------
- charity236 -
Five minutes and two Crater gym battles later, I checked back on the Mixed Sprites thread to see if anyone had replied - which they had. It seemed that BobBillLarry, one of the Crater mods, had decided to take a stand.
---
BobBillLarry:
I think we should go see if there's anything wrong.
PokeGirl1212:
But where DO we go?
Siddhant:
She's got a point.
---
Some of the other Artists had suggested ideas as to what they should do, but most of them weren't very well thought out. However, there was one new post which left me intrigued; not only was it written by someone I'd never heard of, but when I hovered the cursor over the link, the bar at the bottom of the browser window displayed no URL whatsoever.
---
KetchumAll:
I know just the place to go - here. Make sure that you are holding a Game Boy and anything else that contains sprite data when you click it.
Once all Sprite Artists for this topic have entered the link, I will delete this post.
---
Interesting... but who was this "KetchumAll" person, aside from some unknown Senior Member? I checked his profile, but it didn't say anything, not even his email address.
But by now, instinct had kicked in, and it told me to click that link. I picked up my GBA and CD in one hand before pushing the left mouse button down.
And then everything went black.
Where exactly does that link go? We'll find out in chapter 2...
Next Chapter: Who Said Video Games Weren't Real?