Based on true events

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The Viridian Forest was unusually dark that fall night. It was darker even during the daytime. Nobody could explain this sudden "dark" change to an otherwise peaceful forest.

This change was reflected on the life of the forest. The Pokemon looked sickly and defeated. They all seemed to be on their deathbeds. Quite sad, actually.

The young trainer seemed unaffected by this change. He knew that he wanted to go into the forest that night. The rumors of what was hidden deep inside the forest were too compelling to ignore.

He left all but one Pokemon at his home in Viridian City, and proceeded to the forest with five Pokéballs, some rations, and a Tyranitar. Nothing could break his stride now.

Except for your traditional crazy old geezers. Our beloved, wise-cracking elders who display great wisdom, and provide great 'laughing at' material. They always seem to pop put at the right time for the young adventurers.

This old man lived in a shack near the entrance to the cave. He acted as an unofficial night watchman for the forest. He was a highly respected member of the community in his glory days. Nowadays, he lives in semi-seclusion and lives off mooching the government.

What a night this was. A beautiful full moon reflected upon the forest, giving it an eerie glow. This made it a little brighter. The young trainer looked at the full moon with thought, and at the forest with intense determination. This was his moment. Nothing will stop him fr-

"HOWDY THERE, SONNY!"

Well shoot. Old geezer alert.

The old man popped out of some bushes in front of his shack, staring long-eyed at the young trainer. His hair was wild and gray, and he had a tremendous beard. He reeked of whiskey.

"Hey kid, whatcha doin' out so late," he said, "all by yerself?"

First of all, I am not by myself. I have one Pokémon on me. And second, it's none of your business, old goober.

The old man seemed offended. He gasped. "Goober? In my day, we respected our elders. We didn't brush them off like an unwanted flea. We showed them respect."

It's hard to respect an old boozehound.

The trainer seemed quite annoyed. He didn't come out here to hear an old man ramble.

Now if you'll excuse me-

"Whoa whoa whoa whoa now hold a second….are you really planning on going into the forest tonight?"

Well…yeah.

"What are you, light headed or something? Don't you know why no one goes into Viridian Forest anymore? Don't you know why they built that superhighway that goes around it?"

It was just some political or economic mumbo jumbo. People these days don't care about the thrill of the adventure.

At that moment, the old man's face changed dramatically. The silly, senile expressions turned into looks of dead seriousness. All signs of anything remotely similar to a positive attitude were gone. "Politics are not way this forest is blocked off from the public. The real reason is what I know you are searching for."

Here, this once silly old man turned into the wise, warning seer, the person who would predict destruction in the future, and would tell tales of terror and morality to shape up the eventual hero.

"Inside those woods, deep inside…lies a terrifying creature. A thing that should not exist. A destroyer of reality. An anomaly."

The trainer seemed half interested.

"This thing was believed to have existed since the beginning of time as only a soul. It wandered across the universe searching for a body to take. This certain body was believed to have been made by a terrible group of people determined on accessing its cosmic powers. They built it to be contained on a supercomputer, but it couldn't handle the body, so it broke free and took random parts of it to create a basic structure."

The old man took a quick glance at the night sky, and then back at the trainer, who looked prepared to leave.

"Some say it is a shape shifter that can take on many different forms. It can exist in many places at one time, some even outside our place of reality."

Man, who comes up with this dribble? It's Pulitzer Prize worthy.

"Smart mouth, eh?" He paused. "I've seen many young people like you venture off in search of the thing that were either never seen again or mentally scarred for life. They're so determined to capture power that they don't think logically about the situation……of course, many of them were drunk or high on Gengar dope."

And then the trainer knew he had to go.

So what if a bunch of intoxicated frat boys were lost in the woods. It's their fault for being stupid. Listen, I know something is in there, but I don't think it's this "anomaly" you say it is.

He stretched his shoulders, and began walking away.

I know that whatever is in there is part of my destiny. I can feel it. Good night, old man.

He disappeared into the dark forest.

"I pray for your soul, young traveler."

There was no turning back now. Once inside the forest, the trainer knew that he would either come out with his prize alive or dead.

He carefully maneuvered around all the hanging branches he could not see and all the trees in his way. The trees weren't particularly that tall, but tall enough to diminish the height of the trainer immensely. They were menacing and jagged in silhouette. Fall was coming soon, he could tell. He could tell that several trees had begun to loose their leaves.

A nice, cool breeze was out that night. It soothed the tired body of the trainer. He prepared for this night for so long. Spent so many restless nights reading rumors online, and training the Pokemon he would use in battle. His mind is still groggy, but the spirit is strong.

Now this is why he became an adventurer in the first place. Exploring the unknown and the forbidden leads to new exciting stories that haven't been told yet.

He ventured deeper into the forest. He scraped his knee on some low branches a few times. Nothing too serious. And sure, he tripped on a log at one point, smashing his nose up pretty good. Again, nothing too serious. No broken bones would stop him.

Squish. He heard a squish underneath his foot.

Oh god. What could this be?

He lifted his foot up to take a look. He saw a green pile of goop. Faintly, as he didn't have perfect enough vision to look through the darkness.

Shit, I stepped on a Caterpie. That'll leave a stain.

With no remorse, he continued.

Hours passed. He was unaware that he was going in a circle. All the trees looked the same, so he couldn't tell where he was. It almost seemed like the trees were getting taller by the minute.

Every now and then, he saw eyes moving around in the darkness. Occasionally, very sick looking Pokemon crawled on the forest floor. He had never seen a Raticate look so gray and pale before. Or cough, even.

Sigh. This is getting irritating. I've been in this damn forest for hours, and I haven't seen any signs of any rare "monster" or "reality destroyer" anywhere! Why do people even listen to that old kook anymore? He's just an old washed up scientist who fell into alcoholism! I'm not even getting the thrill of adventure like I used to anymore! I just want to capture this stupid thing and be done with it! I-

….something dawned on him as soon as he finished his sentence...

My god. What is wrong with me? Do I really care more about capturing a thing I know nothing about than just being out here and having fun?

He took a good look at his surroundings. The forest seemed dense all around him. The sky was beginning to lighten up. A bright, starry night sky could be viewed above. He gazed above, looking far beyond the sky he could see. It was a moment of quiet reflection for him. As far back as he could remember, one sort of "golden rule" for him was to never let anything prevent him from enjoying the moment. He believes he had broken that rule that night.

A sigh of relief came forward. His face, once stern and tense, relaxed gently into calm.

Heh…almost lost myself there. Bah, I shouldn't have come out here in the first place. I should just go home now.

And of course, the moment he decided to make a rational decision, something happened that made him jump back in.

A blinding light, a blood curdling scream, and an outline of something moving amongst the trees: these three things all happened so suddenly without warning. The light just came out in front of him, temporarily blinding him in darker darkness. Now the scream was hard to describe. It was a terrifying, deathbed rattling scream, but also sounded like a triumphant animal having killed its prey. The scream was heard in full on surround sound all around him.

Oh Jesus, what was that?

He noticed in the corner of his eye that a figure was moving inside the woods. His peripheral vision failed to help him when it moved behind him. To prevent a sneak attack, he jumped and turned around quickly, grabbed his Pokéball from his jeans pocket, and released his Tyranitar.

Who's out there?

No answer. Tyranitar made a gruff sound from his mouth.

Easy now.

He was awfully proud of his Tyranitar. He'd won it as a Larvitar at a carnival in Johto almost ten years ago. Since then, he has been the cornerstone of his Pokemon team. It was very strong, agile, and quite intelligent.

Most importantly of all, however, was its ability to hold back on impulsive action. When released, he just stood around and surveyed the area before making a move, even if a Scizor was heading right towards him. He was basically a stoic Indian you can keep in your pocket.

Tyranitar, do you see anything?

It replied with a sound that sounded like a no. No name talking out of this one.

Tension was in the air. One could hear the rustling and heavy breathing in the words without any sense of where it was coming from. The trainer's eyes darted back and forth. What to do know?

Then, he saw something. Some sort of a silhouette figure slowly emerged from the shadows. Step by step. Heavy breath by heavy breath. The trainer gulped. This was it, he thought. Now he would learn what he had spent all his time out here looking for.

What was revealed wasn't all that shocking, to be honest.

"Why howdy there, kid!"

Oh.

You. You crazy old man!

The old man was still partially covered in shadows. His face was completely blocked except for his mouth.

"Gave ya quite a fright, didn't I?"

You mean, the reason I came all the way out here was for you to just get a cheap scare out me? What is wrong with you?

Turns out, a lot was wrong with him. He stepped out into plain view. His eyes. Oh my lord, his eyes. The trainer was awe struck.

Wh-what happened to your eyes? And your face?

His face had big streaks of what looked like pixels all over. Big pixel-y scars. His eyes were dark gray. No pupils to been seen. No gateway to the soul to be found.

"Ah yes, those. Well to be perfectly honest, they were already like this when we first met. I just merely fixed the glitches to trick you."

And with a blink of an eye, his face and eyes looked the same as their earlier encounter. And then he changed them back to "normal".

What? I don't understand.

"It's quite simple really…I am the thing of the woods. The destroyer. I am your destiny."

There were no words to describe how the trainer felt at this moment.

"Well, at least I'm part of the thing. This being, known unofficially as Missingno, attacked me many years ago on Cinnabar Island. I was on the coastline enjoying a night swim when it rose from the ocean. It was terrifying. A big, block-y L shaped monolith made entirely out of pixels. I was just staring at it in horror, not knowing what to do. Suddenly, it jumped me. I don't know how, but it jumped me. I felt like I was being electrocuted when it put me inside its body. It then shot me out, and I landed on the coastline. My face felt like it was burning. I saw my reflection in the water, and I was screaming in terror."

It could be told from the expressions on the old man's face that he was repressing the memory from that night for so long. He looked so sad and dejected. Angry, even.

"I found myself curled up on the beach begging to die. I screamed to the heavens to heal my face. And then, poof! Just like that, my face was fixed. I learned that I can use my mind to fix my body. Or just radically change it, if I so chose to. The eyes, however, are permanently gray."

Why are you doing this? Are you taking out your anger on the world because this thing attacked you?

"No."

Just with that one word, the old man's voice was gone forever. It was replaced with a voice that sounded like a mix between a demon and a MacInTalk speech program.

"My purpose is to serve my master. He gave me the power to destroy the boundaries of reality. To be part of the greater good. The world has been slowly falling apart for centuries, so I decided to help speed it up. Those poor young trainers who came in search of me will be remembered for their sacrifices. They died to give me power. They gave up their bodies to become spirits forever."

Who, or what, the hell are you, and what have you done to the old man?

"Nothing. I just made him a pawn, is all."

Those dark gray eyes began shining brightly. Soon, his whole body was glowing and he was floating in the air far above all the trees, blocking out the moon. There was an explosion of energy. The old man's body was gone and replaced with the big monolith he had described. There it was.

Missingno.

It slowly fell back down to Earth. There was an ominous humming to be heard whenever it moved. Tyranitar was still stoic, but worried about what would happen next. He began prepping to attack.

This thing may be harmful when it attacks you, but if we strike first, we might have a chance. Tyranitar, use Hyper Beam!

Tyranitar unleashed a Hyper Beam from its mouth with ease. It headed right towards Missingno. It went right through it like it didn't exist.

No!

In three split seconds, the tide was changed. In one second, Missingno fell to the ground. On the second second, it lunged towards Tyranitar. The final second, it shot out pixel claws at it and dragged him into itself.

Time moved very slowly as the trainer watched his most proud Pokemon was eaten, for a lack of a better word, by Missingno. Now, he was shit out of luck. So what does one do when he has been handed to?

Run. Run as fast as you can.

So, he ran. As fast as he could. He ran blindly into the woods without any second guesses. He ran straight through branches sticking out and felt nothing. His mind was racing. Almost as fast as he was running. Something like:

"oh my god oh my god what is happening oh god someone help me that thing is going to kill me oh my god i hate you missingno i hate you why did he have to take tyranitar oh goddammit i want to kill that thing."

With his mind pacing and his body moving, he couldn't really concentrate on where he was heading. It didn't matter though. He could hear the humming of Missingno right behind him. If he stopped, then game over. Even if he ran right into a tree, his body just kept going.

What took hours to get inside took minutes to get out. He tripped on a log, and slammed nose first onto a dirt road. He was outside the forest. Looking ahead, he could see the Viridian City Pokémart just in the distance. What a relief.

Oh my god! I made it! I'm alive, I'm alive, I AM ALIVE! Wait. What if Missingno is right behind me?

He took a look backwards. Nothing except the haunting entrance to the forest.

Whew.

He looked back forwards. Missingno was there. The ominous humming was heard loud and clearly.

How did-

There would be no answer to his question. Missingno changed shape yet again. He became a Tyranitar. His Tyranitar. It too had the dark gray eyes and the pixel streaks.

The trainer was weak and defeated. All he could was watch helplessly as the pixel claws lunged at him and ended it all. His life flashed before his eyes. No restart button here. No checkpoint, no extra lives, no quarters to put in the slot.

A thunderous roar was heard all across the land that night....

notes:

[inspired by good horror stories (which involve more psychological elements and actual suspense instead of lame-ass "hey guys look random killer blood lol xdd" crap), my favorite type of authors (writing style and doing different text formats. because let's face it: doing the same ordinary thing gets boring after awhile. I encourage you all to search out different literature and look for books that really push the envelope layout and text wise) and the Missingno glitch, obviously.]

[story title taken from the song by The Dillinger Escape Plan. Chapter title is technically Based on True Events because I can't come up with titles sometimes.]

[enjoy yourself. have a good life. pray to your gods that you aren't being chased by glitch dinosaurs.]