Start game with selected codes. Stop. Please turn switch in the off position before starting the game. Stop. Continue Player DrakO? Confirm. Starting game from latest save point. Stop. Switch turned on…
I couldn't ask for a more picture-perfect sight. Before me is a beautiful beach, light brown sand and greenish-blue waves lapping onto the shore. The sun overhead is emanating an almost unbearable heat and is glaring its rays into my eyes, but hey--it's summertime and I need a tan. Besides, there is a cool breeze of wind blowing my way and if I just turn west, from my vantage point I can see an impressive view of Fuchsia City's finest seaside hotels and tourist attractions, aside from the Safari Zone that is, and if I bother to take a closer look below me, I can see many tourists out in the waters enjoying what recreational activities that summertime has to offer such as swimming, surfing, fishing and the like. As for me, I'm just reveling in the joy that is flight!
Well, actually I'm floating, floating just high enough to escape the notice of everyone around me. It's almost like being a ghost, this whole floating business. This is because for some reason unknown to me, I cannot seem to interact with other trainers while floating. I can't drop things on their heads or torment them, and they don't even acknowledge my existence. It's like some sort of taboo or something. I imagine that I physically could torment people or even give a shout out to them but for some reason it would just feel wrong if I were to. So I just don't.
But that's okay, I guess. I still have my Pikachu, Jack, to interact with. Jack is running on the beach just below me, following my every move like a shadow. Funny, but I feel like more the shadow being as no one notices me. As I float over the water Jack jumps into the air and now we are both floating, laughing as we skim over the heads of all the trainers out for a swim.
Now the whole key to this floating trick is to first activate the proper Shark code. Then once the code has been turned on you find a ledge which you can hop over and hop over it. If all goes well you should hover in mid-jump into the air and remain floating. Or at least that's how Jack and I do it.
But we have to be careful. This floating business doesn't come naturally, you know. This is an ability that was Sharked in order to keep this game amusing. And with this Sharking and these unusual abilities comes the rare privilege of seeing the unusual that we do not seek.
Once we crossed to far out beyond the fenced off areas of water to the south and we saw things that we shouldn't have seen. Buildings and caves that were meshed together and patchy sprites were surrounded by holes of blank nothingness. It looked like an accident waiting to happen! We high tailed it out of there before we were deleted into oblivion.
On a more amusing occasion, Jack and I once snuck into the Pewter City museum and sat on top of the space shuttle Columbia. It was one of the coolest things I've ever done.
As of now Jack and I are floating around the Fuchsia City Zoo and surprising all of the pokémon. We hover just above Lapras and give a shout out. The "!" expression it gives us sends us reeling into laughter. Hey, I'm just glad these pokémon are bright enough to look up every once and awhile, which is more than I can say for the trainers around us in ignorant bliss… sigh.
Floating really does give you a brand new outlook on this whole gaming experience. For example: battling gym leaders isn't really necessary when you can float. Y'know that annoying guy that ambushes you on your way from Pewter City, the one who forces you to go get that stupid badge before passing through? Well, guess what? I bypassed him!
But for all practical purposes, I recommend that you get all the badges you can even if you do possess the ability to float. Well, if you can float, odds are that you don't really have to worry about badges, considering that you can Shark.
This floating business can make one feel like a superhero sometimes. When I'm up here floating I can do whatever I like, fly and be free. But when I come back down to the ground I am visible to the public eye once again and must conform to the rules of this society, and once landed there is always this feeling, this longing to be floating once again…
Well, you can't have everything and even if you did, would it really make you happy? Am I happy here, floating among the clouds or am I truly happy down there, with my feet planted firmly on the ground? Maybe both, maybe neither; I really don't know anymore.
Well, anyways, I'm just here, floating, a specter invisible to all the world but Jack, my feet almost touching the rooftop of this fine resort, waiting. Waiting for something or someone; waiting for someone to look up, for someone to notice me…