This is my second story, loosely based off of my own experience with this device.
I do not own any aspect of Pokémon.
I do not own the name or product "Action Replay," other than the one I've bought.
Chapter 1: Glitch
Ethan had finally beaten the Pokémon Champion, Lance.
It took him much longer than he thought it would, what with needing to take down Team Rocket, crush the Gym Leaders, and run through the Elite Four.
Now that he was Champion, maybe he could finally relax.
Heading to Pallet Town, he once again glanced at the closed-mouthed people. They were peculiar, these silent denizens, and it seemed to him that somebody had died. No one was excited or cheery. He never had liked it here, but he needed to see Professor Oak one last time before he left to see his girlfriend, Lyra, in Johto.
He walked into the lab, glancing at the machines, books, and assistants.
"Ah, there you are, my boy! Champion, eh? How's that treating you?"
Ethan smiled at the friendly professor. "I think it's treating me pretty well. Hey, prof, I just came over one last time to show you my Pokédex before I left for home."
Professor Oak frowned. "Ethan. You can't leave, yet. I… need you for something. Could you do me… a personal favor?"
Ethan tilted his head. "Personal favor? Like what, exactly?"
Professor Oak sighed. "Do you know of the legend of Mt. Silver?"
Ethan nodded vigorously. "Everyone knows that one! The former Champion abdicated his throne to Lance, and is now waiting on the mountain for someone to defeat him!"
Professor Oak nodded. "Yes. The Champion, Red, is the greatest Pokémon trainer of all time. He was the one who wrecked Team Rocket the first time. He was the first one with the title 'Pokémon Master.' And he is the one who has caused all of this depression in Pallet Town by leaving. I want you to be the one to beat him."
Ethan was surprised. "What do you mean? Everyone who goes up there comes down with the same story! Horrendously strong Pokémon, followed by a trainer, the likes of which has never been seen before! You're asking me to try to defeat a Master?"
Professor Oak nodded again. "I believe that you can be the one to defeat him. And while you're at it, why don't you take a girl from two houses over with you? She was Red's companion on his quest. I'm afraid that she was even more distressed by Red's decision to leave than the rest of us were. Her name is Leaf."
Leaf turned out to be a pretty girl with silver-brown hair and brown eyes, although it seemed that her face was in a permanent position of despair. "Yes? Who are you? What do you need?"
Ethan waved his hand. "I'm Ethan, I'm the new Indigo League Champion, and I was asked by Oak to take you to Red."
Her face brightened considerably. It was like the sun coming up. "Red? Alright, I'll be a moment!"
"So… who was Red to you, exactly?"
Leaf was almost bubbly. "Well, we started off as friends, but along the way, it became slightly more than that. He was the first boy I kissed."
Ethan shook his head. Too much information from a complete stranger. "Okay, then. What kind of Pokémon does he have? He'll come back down easier if I know what I'm dealing with."
Leaf waggled her finger. "As much as I want to see Red, you're not going to have an unfair advantage. He does have a reputation to maintain, after all."
Ethan sighed. He should have known that it wasn't going to be that easy.
Ethan and Leaf walked up the frozen mountainside. Mt. Silver had been a maze, but compared to even Diglett's Cave, it was small and easy to navigate. They had walked for an hour, at most, and finally arrived at the end.
The exit led to a bluff on the northern side of the mountain. And at the top, standing still and seemingly looking at the ground down below was…
"Red!" Leaf was crying and running towards the Master. "Red!"
Master Red turned around with a look of surprise on his face, but didn't say anything.
Leaf jumped into his arms, and Red seemed happy. He kissed her on the mouth, and then put her down.
"Red, how have you been? It's awfully cold on this mountain."
"…"
"Red, what's wrong?"
"…"
"Red, answer me right now, or so help me…!"
Red could not answer. When he had reached the bluff, he had taken a vow of silence that could only be broken when he was defeated. He would not break it in any other case, not even for Leaf.
Ethan walked forward, understanding. If he was an epic trainer, he would have taken a vow of silence, too. After all, to speak would have reduced Red to only human, and not the legend that he was made out to be.
"Leaf, move."
Leaf didn't understand, but she did move to the bottom of the bluff, near the entrance. If Red battled like he used to, she would need to have a quick escape handy.
Red and Ethan got into position, ready to begin. There was a moment of hesitation, and then…
"Missingno!" A horrendous screech echoed off the mountain.
The three on the bluff covered their ears. Ethan looked at Red. "What the Distort was that?"
Red shook his head. He didn't know anything that made that horrible noise.
All of a sudden, a sparkling, shifting mass flew up the mountainside. It was grey, white, and black, and it didn't seem to stay in the same shape any more than once.
"Missingno!" it shrieked again.
Leaf was staring at it. "What… is… that?"
Red shook his head again. He had never seen the likes of… whatever that thing was.
Suddenly, a guy appeared, walking through the mountain wall as if it wasn't there. "Hmm… that wasn't expected… I suspect that was the result of altering the hexadecimal figure to zero-zero-zero… Something that is… bird/normal type? What in the world is 'bird' type?"
The figure continued to rattle off several obscure words, and Leaf, Ethan, and Red turned their attention towards him.
"What the Distort? Who are you?" Ethan asked.
The man looked up. He had red hair, green eyes, and round black sunglasses, and was wearing thick black clothes and gloves. "Hmm… Ethan of New Bark Town… counterpart of Lyra… Gold… and some other kid in the anime…no interest, no interest…"
Leaf was seriously confused. "What? Counterpart? No interest? What are you blathering about?"
The man looked at her and smiled slightly. "Ah… Leaf of Pallet Town… counterpart of Red… Blue- or would it be Green? This is America, so Green… but the translations say Blue… no anime counterpart. Promising, promising."
Red didn't like the man's random-sounding speech. He pulled out the Pokéball with his Pikachu in it.
The man grinned. "Oh-ho… Red of Pallet Town… counterpart of Leaf… Red… Ash Ketchum… Fun. You want to fight, Master Red?"
Red nodded. If it would make this guy be silent, he would bring the whole mountain down.
The guy whipped out a black device with a touch screen, which was evidenced by the fact he was using a stylus to tap it. "Okay, then… let me get ready!"
The air between the man and Red rippled. All of a sudden, in a burst of white and black letters and numbers, Rhyperior appeared.
Of course, none of the three had ever seen a Rhyperior before, never having gone to Sinnoh.
Red sent out his Pikachu, who was fully charged and ready to go.
The man nodded and tapped something into his little device. Pikachu fainted.
Ethan didn't understand it. "WHAAAT?"
The man nodded again and tapped something else. "Programming requires that at least one Pokémon be out, at least. However, the algorithm for moves is easily altered to cause one hundred percent damage. Using a simple code modifier, I can alter my Pokémon to one with a high defense and high speed… therefore I always go first, and even if the code doth fail… the defense more than makes up for it."
Leaf shook her head. This man might just be crazy, but he was pretty strong… she thought.
Red sent out his five remaining Pokémon all at once, hoping to overwhelm this strange-talking fool.
The man seemed unconcerned. "With a few key edits, I cause two things to happen in-battle. One… I can't get hurt, and neither can my Pokémon. Two… everyone I go up against loses."
Red's remaining Pokémon also fainted for no apparent reason.
Red swayed, dizzy. "I… lost."
The man didn't seem to care. "Hexadecimal value for the reciprocal function… but why would I want to do that? Hmm… I could at least run to Hoenn or someplace… Teleportation isn't any fun. I'll just activate 'run through walls' and make it back to… Eh… 'run through walls' is almost boring, now. Oh well… oh yeah, one more thing. One more test."
The man tapped something on his pad and nodded. "Alright… they will arrive here in a few minutes… a pity I can't stay… but I will need to find out later if the Trainer Creation worked."
Red looked at him strangely. "Trainer… what do I call you?"
The guy looked back, distractedly. "Hm? Oh… the name's Node… and I thank you, Red, for helping me with the code device."
Node walked back out through the wall.
"…"
Leaf was outraged. "Red, you didn't lose. It wasn't a fair fight! That man cheated with that weird tappy-thing!"
Red looked at his girlfriend, who had somehow remained faithful to him for three years while he was gone. "I lost, Leaf. I'm not sure how he beat me, but I lost."
Ethan was inspecting the wall that Node had walked through, and the Rhyperior that was left behind. "I agree with Leaf, Master Red. That wasn't anything normal at all. I don't think that he won with this Pokémon. After all, who just leaves their Pokémon behind?"
The Rhyperior was shaking strangely. It looked like it was dying.
Red covered it with a blanket. "Are you sure that the Pokémon didn't move at all?"
Leaf shook her head. "No, Red, it didn't move. You heard that guy. This Pokémon was only here for a Pokémon to be out at all."
Red nodded. "Explain to me how he won, then."
Leaf was baffled. Why did Red want to lose? "Red, he did something with that weird tappy-thing, I already told you!"
It took the two another fifteen minutes to convince the Master that something was wrong and that something else might go wrong if Node continued to run rampage.
"Okay, guys, I get it. I just… don't like this mountain. That's all. I think I'm going to be quiet, now."
Ethan nodded. He'd thought it was something like that. "We need to find this guy. Something told me he's going to cause a lot of problems, and-"
"OOMPH!"
Three people had landed in the snow next to Leaf.
"Huh? Where am I?"
"Red? Where'd you go?"
"I should've known better than to eat the cookies."
Leaf, Red, and Ethan backed up a little.
Leaf smacked her head. "That guy said that others were arriving, didn't he?"
A girl who looked exactly like Leaf, except with red-brown hair, blue eyes, and a bigger… chest… looked up at Ethan. "Gold… what did you do? I don't like it!"
Ethan was confused. "Gold? What? Where?"
A blonde boy with a dress that appeared to be made of burlap and a big straw hat looked up at Red. "Red? Where are we? Why is Blue here? And why… am I seeing two of her?"
The girl whose clothes matched Leaf's looked at her. "Humph! Girl, you have a lot of guts to copycat a Pokédex holder! I'll overlook this one offense, but if I see you copying me again…"
Leaf was angry. "Me… copy you? It's the other way around! You're copying me!"
A girl that reminded Ethan very much of Lyra pulled on the belligerent girl's shoulder. "Blue, calm down. It's not good to take your anger out on the first person you see."
Blue wasn't happy with this statement. "And what about your emotional issues and abuse that you use on Gold here, Crys?"
Crys shook her head. "I don't know what you're talking about. GOLD!"
Ethan jumped. "Why do you keep talking about gold?"
Crystal's eyes narrowed, and she walked up to Ethan and pulled his ear. "Don't play dumb with me, Gold! You gave me the cookies, they were probably drugged, and now I think I'm hallucinating!"
Ethan was in pain. "Gold's a name? I'm not Gold!"
The blonde boy was walking up to Red. "Red, please tell me what's going on."
Red remained silent, staring at Crystal and Ethan.
"I… am… going… to… beat… it… out of you!"
"I'm not Gold! I'm not Gold!"
Blue calmed down Crys now. "Crys… I don't think this guy's Gold."
Leaf looked astonished. "Of course not! His name's Ethan!"
Crys let go of Ethan's ear. "Ethan?"
Ethan massaged the lobe. "Yes. That's me! Champion of Indigo League, Ethan!"
The blonde boy frowned. "Champion? But Red's the Champion."
Leaf frowned. "My Red is no mere Champion. He's the Master!"
Red sighed. They were wasting time, precious time to hunt down that cheater. He would stop Node, and then he would have to return to his mountain, still unbeaten.
Ethan learned that the boy's name was Yellow. Yellow kept shirking glances at Red, and Ethan didn't know what to make of it. Blue and Leaf were in the middle of an argument, so they didn't notice anything. Crystal was pacing.
"Uh… Yellow… why are you looking at Master Red like that?"
Yellow glanced at Ethan. "I'm not sure what you mean."
Ethan smirked. "I mean, you're all lovey-dovey. Red isn't gay."
Yellow shook her head vigorously. "NO! I mean… I'm a girl!" She pulled off her hat, revealing her ponytail.
"Oh… awkward moment…"
Yellow walked up to Red, uncertainly. "Red… why won't you say anything? Are you sick?"
Red didn't know who this boy… oh, wait, girl… was. He shook his head.
Blue walked up to Yellow, fleeing from Leaf. "Yellow, as far as I can tell, this isn't your Red. He's hers."
Yellow looked from Leaf to Red, and back to Leaf, and then cried and ran away.
Blue shook her head. "No, Yellow… I was trying to say that we're in another dimension or something…"
Leaf looked after the crying Yellow. "Another dimension? What do you mean?"
Blue smiled mischievously. "Anyone who knows anything knows that there are alternate universes."
Leaf started yelling.
Node was watching them through his screen. "Sorry, girls. No alternate universes. Just a couple of good pieces of code."
Having an Action Replay gives you the feeling that you can do anything, and provided you know how things work, you can. There are several people who've hacked extra people into their games. I picked Blue, Yellow, and Crystal from Pokémon Adventures because I didn't feel like making up new characters, and Node, who's an obvious Pokémon fan-boy, would've enjoyed the meeting that Pokémon Adventures and Pokémon Games would make.
