Pokemon: Missing No. Error
Prologue
Author's Note: Pokemon is property of Nintendo and GameFreaks. This fanfic is based on the games, not the anime (although I do take some inspiration from the manga). It is intended to mostly be a retelling of the story in Red/Blue (with a few elements from the later games coming in as well) with some…significant differences that give it a bit of a darker tone. The prologue doesn't introduce our hero, but it does set up much of the significant supporting cast. I hope you enjoy it.
Bill was running as fast as he could as the world dissolved behind him.
He felt out of breath, barely able to keep running. There was a sharp pain in his side from sprinting for so long, but he did not dare stop. He was not sure how long he had been running or when he started. Every time he tried to remember clearly, he became aware of a jolting pain inside his head. He was not sure if that was simply because of stress of if it was exposure to the wave of… whatever it was behind him. He had not gotten a clear look at it before and frankly he didn't want to chance looking back.
It was dark as he read down the road, lit only by the crescent moon and the stars in the night sky. Tall trees loomed along each side of the road. Bill saw them in his periphery, but tried to stay focused ahead. He tried to ignore the trees when he thought he saw briefly flash like lightning and flicker away, as if it became a burnt out light bulb. He tried to tell himself he only imagined it. He almost believed it.
He would have ran until his heart stopped were it not for a rock lying in the round. He tripped over it, flying to the ground with a thud. The wind was knocked out of him and he skinned his elbows and knees on the dirt. He wanted to get up and keep running, but he knew that the fraction of a second it would take to rise would be too late. Terrified, he looked back. He quickly wished that he hadn't.
Behind him, there was nothing, in the most literal sense. Behind him he saw no road, no trees, no land, no sky, no light nor shadow, no anything. The road he had treaded on not moments ago had simply ceased to be, as if the ground Bill was lying on now was all that was left of anything, anywhere. If there was an actual edge to existence, that was what Bill saw now: non-existence itself. Even his brilliant mind could not grasp the true form of it. The closest he could come to rationalizing it, to even describe what he was seeing, was a wave of garbled television static that seemed to stretch on forever, with only vague glimpses of life or matter within its form. It was edging closer towards him. The ground seemed to dissolve into formless static at its touch, leaving only bottomless gap of static wear the earth used to be. Bill glanced up at the sky and saw that it too disappeared within its form. The stars…as impossible and illogical as it seemed, it looked as if they were being sucked into the formless mass. The sky seemed to flash from grey to black as it too was dissolved.
Bill had never imagined what the end of the world would look like. Now he did not have to.
His mind screamed at him to turn and keep running. He could not hope to outrun it now, but at least it would prolong the inevitable, but he could not move. He could not even open his mouth to scream. No sound came out. The static edged closer. When he looked into it, he could almost make out bits and pieces of what this thing had engulfed. He thought he could see and endless sea of screaming faces, human and Pokémon alike, when the wave washed over him.
His mind became hazy. He was not sure how quickly it happened, since his sense of time suddenly seemed disoriented (maybe time itself had already been engulfed in it). He tried to close his eyes, but he could not. His eyelids were no longer there. He had felt a brief fuzziness where they used to be and then they were gone. He was forced to see everything laid out before him. White and black specks filled his vision as he saw himself in a world of static, as if he was in a blizzard that had struck reality itself. He still thought he saw glimpses of the faces in the static (one looked like a little girl which chilled Bill's blood, or at least what was left of it). The only thing that had any clear shape was his own body, and that seemed to be fading fast.
He felt a horrible tingling sensation in his right arm. He looked down at his pale arm and was horrified to see it began to flicker, like the tree he saw before. His hand became numb. He clenched his fist, trying to hang on to the sensation, trying to hold himself together through will alone. But to no avail. He felt a sting like an electric shock and saw the skin on his hand almost seem to explode into what looked like pixilated mess. For a terrible second, he saw the bones and muscles of his hand underneath, blood floating through the air in droplets like it would in a world of zero gravity, and the specks of dust that had once been his skin blend seamlessly into static. Pain shot through his hand and he screamed. What came out of his mouth was not his own voice, but a metallic screech. Then suddenly, the muscles and bone he was exposed also blended into the nothingness, and the pain was gone. His entire arm simply was not there anymore.
He felt his short brown hair feel like pins and needles in his skull as each individual hair was plucked out of existence, each hair feeling like another distinct needle in his skull. His clothes lost all color, turning as monochrome as the blizzard he had been swept into, then disappeared entirely. His entire body felt numb now, but he was smart enough now not to look down.
He tried to scream again, but now there was no sound at all. There was no sound anywhere anymore. He saw the static sweep over his eyes. He felt an odd fuzziness in his head, followed by a blinding pain. He could not see anything anymore, but if he could, he would be seeing red from the sheer pain. In his head, he felt every memory he had drift to the surface. His first day of school, being given Farfetch'd by his mother, writing his thesis, the first time he got beat up in first grade, the day after that when he brought his Farfetch'd to school when the bully was dumb enough to try it again, getting scolded by his mom… all memories long forgotten rushed to the surface. The images burned themselves in his mind, his head throbbing as he was shown each one. And once he saw the image, seared in his mind for one brilliant moment, it disappeared and he could not recall it as much as he tried. His memories were being destroyed, dissolved into nothing. It wasn't enough that his body was going, it was going to reduce every thought he ever had into nothingness.
He tried his best to hang onto each memory, but the images came more rapidly now, more painfully. He saw him graduating high school at 14, meeting Professor Oak in college at 15, writing his thesis, crying at his mother's funeral, proposing the Pokemon Storage System and meeting with Silph Co. scientists in order to explain the process of converting Pokemon into data for system storage, staying up all night for months coding the first betas on his own, receiving help by supporters both online and local to Kanto, almost having a heart attack when he received a private investment that could make the installation of Pokemon data converstion hardware worldwide a reality, finally opening it for public use, and just recently developing the Pokemon happiness protocol to improve on the system further.
The last memory flared up in his mind like a candle before flickering out. And when it did, Bill felt his mind become fuzzy as the body and mind of the person known as Bill simply ceased to be…
Bill woke up in a cold sweat, slumped over his keyboard. He shot up from his chair, nearly knocking it to the floor. He breathed heavily until his waking mind was able to realize what had happened. He looked down at the computer, seeing lines of code for the protocol he had been coding for the Pokemon storage system. He looked around his dark cottage, lit only by his computer monitor. His bed lay neglected in the corner with his Farfetch'd asleep at his bed, its wooden stick clutched between its feathers. He looked under his desk, seeing the tower for his personal workstation. He looked to the left of his desk, which was lined with servers for the Pokemon Storage System, which sat next to a teleporter panel on the floor, used for materializing Pokemon stored in the system. He looked all around the dark cottage before he became secure that the world was not being torn apart.
He slumped back down in his chair, clutching his forehead. "I suppose it was a dream," he said. He stared at the code on his screen and noticed the time displayed in the bottom left hand corner. It was only a few hours until dawn. "I… think coding this late into the night is taking its toll on me."
Farfetch'd stirred and ruffled its feathers as it perked its head up. It blinked sleepily for a moment, then stared at Bill. "Farfetch'd!" it said in an irritated tone.
Bill turned over to him. "Oh sorry, I didn't mean to wake you," he said with a hallow smile. "I suppose I was just… talking to myself. Huh, that's probably not a good sign."
Farfetch'd shook its head, then opened its bill to let out a yawn. It curled back up and tried to go back to sleep. Bill got the feeling Farfetch'd was hoping Bill would take the hint.
"Well…I guess I should maybe get to bed…maybe," said Bill, but even as he said it, he knew he wouldn't actually go to bed. He did not want to go to sleep again anytime soon. Bill usually did not have very vivid dreams, and he nearly forgot almost all of them once he awoke, but this nightmare he had was the most vivid one he'd ever had. His hand shook as he laid it on his desk. He probably wouldn't have been able to get to sleep if he wanted to, as shaken as he was now.
Sighing, he got up from the chair and went to the kitchen. He dug some leftover noodles from god-knows-when out of the fridge and stuck it in the microwave. As he heated it up, he went back to the computer. He looked at the lines of code, which should have been like a second language to him now, but now it looked like Greek. Every time he tried to think back so he could pick up where he left off, his mind drifted back to the dream and Bill had to force himself not to envision it.
He looked down at his blue shirt and kakis, which felt dirty from sleeping in them. His short hair felt oily, as it often did when he woke up in the morning (or to be more accurate, the early afternoon, since most of his nights up till around five in the morning). He looked back at the screen. He remembered that he had been tweeking the Pokemon happiness protocol for the storage system in order to make it more comfortable for the Pokemon in digital storage. He'd been working on it for over a month and he still could not get it to work right. Every time he found a bug and fixed it and ran it through the simulation testing, five more sprung up. He sighed again. Well, he certainly wasn't in the right mindset to work on it now, he thought. He supposed he would just eat and try to find something else to do until dawn. Easier said than done, since Bill did not have many hobbies aside from Pokemon research, programming, and reading. He supposed he could always look into Oak's Pokedex schematics again.
The microwave dinged. Bill decided to just compile the code and test it later. He started compiling the code as he got up to grab the noodles. He got a fork and took a bite, getting disappointed when he felt the noodles crunch in his teeth. How old is this? he thought.
He walked back over to the computer and was surprised to see an error message pop up. Bill raised an eyebrow, put down the noodles, and sat down at the computer. He read the error message, which made no sense to him. He had never seen this error before. The message read: "Script cannot be run. PH Protocol variable cannot be resolved. Missing No. Error."
"'Missing number error?' What is that supposed to be?" said Bill. The error was nonsensical and did not make any sense for a script in that programming language. Bill would know, having paid a large part in designing the language himself. He tried to exit out of the message. It did not go away. He tried to shut down the compiler, but it would not shut down.
"Oh come on!" said Bill. He tried to exit out of the compiler again, with little effect. Bill was ready to simply shut down the workstation altogether when something odd happened. The error message disappeared and showed Bill's code in the compiler in full view. Lines of code were deleted in front of Bill's eyes. Bill grunted. Was his system being hacked into? No, it was impossible. Bill's network was as secure as a fortress. He moved to manually shut down the system.
Then he saw lines of code spring up into the compiler. First one, then another, being written right in front of him. Then suddenly, a wall of text filled the compiler. The text scrolled down, being written faster than Bill's eyes could process. It continued to scroll and write itself rapidly, ending up looking like jibberish to Bill.
Bill leaned back. He felt his hand begin to shake again. "W-what is this?" he said. The text scrolled faster and faster and faster…then the screen locked up. Bill stared for a moment then sighed. He must have simply screwed up coding more than he thought. Probably just accidentally typed some gibberish while he was asleep that messed up the system. It was unusual, but the system locking up was no big deal. It was nothing he couldn't fix. It would be easy enough-
He heard a low humming sound. Bill looked at it. He had no speakers in this machine, so he was not sure where the humming could be coming from. A light flickered in the corner. Bill turned and saw a spark coming from the teleporter panel. He stood up and took a step toward it when a shower of orange sparks came from the panel. Bill put his arm up to shield himself from the sparks.
Farfetch'd jolted awake, brandishing its stick as it craned its head around in confusion.
"Farfetch'd!" yelled Bill as he looked back at the screen. He felt his face become pale when he saw what was on the screen.
The screen had an image almost the shape of a backwards L that was a garbled mess of distorted pixels that looked like status. The screen lit up brighter then normal and, in that same moment, more sparks shot out the teleporter. The sparks hit the floor and embers began to flare up.
Farfetch'd rushed to his side. The fire spread quickly across Bill's hardwood floors. Bill shielded himself from the heat with his arm, but glanced back at the computer screen, which still had the static image on it. Bill swung his arm to the floor, knocking the monitor down and cracking the glass. The image faded into darkness. He took Farfetch'd in his arm and moved towards the door as the fire crept towards if fast. The doorway crackled and collapsed just as he dove through it out into his front yard. He rolled on the ground, hitting a few rocks as he rolled down. Farfetch'd flew through the air, but quickly flapped its wings to land gracefully next to Bill. Bill staggered to his feet and took Farfetch'd in his arms. He hazarded a glance back to see his cottage in flames, hearing the crackling of wood and smelling the smoke as it filled the air. Part of Bill was devastated, but part of him was relieved that he did not see wave of nothingness behind him.
At least not yet. It was not just a dream. This was not just something caused by a small error in code. He was certain of that now. This was real, he realized with horror. That dream, the static image on his PC… was it a sign? Was his dream actually going to happen?
Hundreds of questions raced through Bill's mind. He gave one last look to his burning cottage, looked down at Farfetch'd who only looked sad and confused, then turned and ran as fast as he could. He was not even sure where he was going, he just knew he had to get far away. He had to warn someone. He had to do something.
The only coherent thought that kept running through his mind was that one certain, horrible feeling he had: it was not just a dream. It was not just a dream!
The room was dark when the girl entered. It was illuminated only by a dim light hanging overhead. She saw a desk with a small wooden chair in front. On the desk was a lamp which was not turned on and a small laptop. A big, red armchair was behind the desk. She could only see the silhouette of the man sitting in the chair in the darkness. She thinks the boss has the room dark like this all the time just for that reason. It keeps everyone who talks to him on their toes, not that they wouldn't be already if they spoke to him in person.
The boss raised a cigar to his lips and inhaled, making the flame at the end glow bright red. Smoke rose up. He spoke in a low voice. She had only heard the boss speak in a deep, quiet voice. Anyone who saw him raise his voice typically did not live long enough to see him raise it again.
"What do you have for me, Leaf?" he said.
Leaf twisted the end of her long brown hair, which hung down the shoulders of her black uniform. She cleared her throat. She always got nervous when speaking to the boss (but then again, who didn't?).
"We were almost able to enter into the Storage System, but there was an… irregularity."
The boss did not say anything. He simply took another long inhale of his cigar, awaiting an explanation.
"W-when we bypassed the firewall, there was some unusual activity in the code. It seemed to be…changing after we entered. We assumed the programmer had simply noticed our prescience and was trying to encrypt the code or something…"
"'Or something?'" said a different voice. A younger, colder voice coming from the dark corner of the room. Leaf looked over in the corner and noticed the boy leaning against the wall in the shadows with his arm folded over his chest. She glared at him. She should have guessed he would around somewhere, lurking in the shadows. Even in the darkness, she could make out his long fiery red hair. "Either you know or you don't."
"I said it was an irregularity already, didn't I?" snapped Leaf. "We tried to see if we could decrypt it but before we could, the whole network seemed to… go offline."
"Impossible," said the boy. "The Pokemon Storage System has servers worldwide. The network cannot just go 'offline' without it making the news."
"I know, I'm just telling you what we saw. If you have a better idea, Silver, I would like to hear-"
"That's enough," said the boss flatly. He puffed from his cigar. The small flame illuminated his ridged face for a moment. His cold eyes shifted over towards Silver. Silver saw the look, then turned his head away with a grunt. His eyes moved over to Leaf, who froze up.
The boss blew out some smoke. "Keep some of the grunts on it, Leaf. I appreciate the report," he said. "But make sure they get to the bottom of this. The Pokemon Storage System belongs to us. I don't make a habit of investing in projects that don't yield results. Failure is not an option." He leaned in. "I trust you'll make sure your team is aware of that."
Leaf gave a nervous laugh. "O- of course, sir," she said.
"In any event, once you deliver that message, you are free to go." He flicked some ashes in the ashtray which lay on the desk. "When I require your services, I shall call for you. Soon."
"Right sir," said Leaf as she stood up and gave a military salute. She heard Silver snicker in the corner, obviously finding the gesture quite amusing. She shot him a glare and he only gave a smug smile back. She turned to leave.
"Oh, and one more thing," said the boss. Leaf looked back. "And this goes for you too, Silver." Silver's smile disappeared as he looked over at the boss. "I trust you will know better than to start your petty bickering in my prescience in the future." His voice raised ever so slightly, just enough to let them know he was serious. "We must stand united if were intend to conquer. We will need that unity if we are to stand against Lance. I will not tolerate infighting." He gave a hard look to both of them. "Am I clear?"
Silver gave an irritated look then, seeing the look in the boss's eyes, he nodded.
The boss turned towards Leaf. "And you?"
"Yes, Giovanni," said Leaf. She looked down at the black uniform she wore, which had a red R stitched on it, as a reminder of who she served.
She turned and exited, glad she no longer had to speak to the boss. She would deliver the message to the tech team then enjoy her time off. Sometimes she wondered why she got herself into this, then she remembered she never had a choice.
As weary as she was of this, she could not shake an odd feeling she had. Something about the code they saw earlier didn't make sense, something about it gave her a chill as if something big was about to happen. Bigger than Team Rocket, bigger than the Elite Four, even bigger than Lance.
She shook it off, telling herself it was nothing, then headed to meet with the tech team.