chapter 01 :: the cinnabar incident :: scum
Word travels fast through Kanto. Moments after what was dubbed The Cinnabar Incident occurred, players quickly discovered that they were unable to log themselves out and that their fulldive settings were edited. When one player learned this, they messaged their friends and the news spread like wild fire.
As suddenly as the sun had disappeared, it returned, completing its setting as if it had never been interrupted. Traces of the binary aurora remained in the sky, weaving through clouds and stars, as it descended into the ominous glow at the edge of the horizon. What was assumed to be fire had been subdued, though not defeated, leaving only embers and a pillar of smoke to billow into the night.
Amour and I decided to split up and gather information from other trainers in Pallet Town, before meeting up on a park bench, located between the North and West roads that branched from the fountain in the town's heart.
When I returned, Amour was sitting on the wooden bench, tossing seeds to a small flock of short, plump birds. Two were on the pavement and one perched itself on the arm of the bench, but all three were cooing happily. They were a species known as Pidgey, common in early levels of the game.
"Hey, did you find out anything?," I asked, as I took a seat beside her. One of the pidgies fluttered into my lap, begging for seed.
"Well...," Amour began, as she held out a handful of seed for the bird, "Only those of us who were logged in at the time of the Cinnabar Incident were affected, so trainers who weren't are still able to come and go as they please. According to one trainer I spoke to, the incident is already being reported on the news and the cause is currently unknown. How about you?"
I scratched the back of the pidgey's head and it nestled into my hand. I smiled briefly, as I answered her, "I spoke to the player who screamed. Her name was Cherry Bomb. According to her, her in-game alarm went off to tell her it was time to pick up her fiancé from work, but... I couldn't get much information out of her beyond that."
I sighed. The uncertainty of our predicament weighed heavily upon me.
"...but," I continued, "I did escort her to a Pokémon Center so she could calm down. While I did, I learned that there are no NPCs in this game. Their characters were run by multiple accounts and would seamlessly allow one person to log in and out without us ever noticing. So, there are more people trapped than we originally thought."
The pidgey that was on the arm of the bench now hopped into Amour's lap and began pecking at the seed in her hand, which upset the one I had been petting. It chirped angrily and flapped its short wings at the intruder. With an exasperated sigh, Amour flung the seed to the pavement, where the two birds followed and began tumbling with the third pidgey who had already been eating. Despite our grim circumstances, I smiled at their greedy arguing.
"We can infer then," Amour spoke, as she folded her hands together nervously and looked at the squabbling pidgey, "That if official characters are trapped in the game, that Gamefreak will work even harder to quickly resolve the problem."
Gamefreak is the company that developed the Pokémon game for the Cerebellum. With several of their staff members at risk, Amour had a point. Though I believed that they would have worked tirelessly even for just their players.
Once the seed was entirely consumed, the birds flew away. A small ping alerted us that a quest had been completed. Since Amour and I partied together, we both got the notification.
"You...," I paused, feeling both irritation and amusement, "were doing quests? While investigating?"
"Yes," she answered, then stood up, wiping down feathers from her black shorts. "I figured, if we're going to be here awhile, we might as well get some money. We'll have to eat eventually."
I peeked over her shoulder and smiled at me. Honestly, I was amazed that she had the forethought to look out for our basic necessities in a moment when I had not considered anything beyond getting out of the world.
After turning in various quests, Amour and I decided to eat at a local café. Neither of us were hungry, but we both agreed that we needed something on our stomachs before our bodies got fatigued. By this time, it was evening and the tables had ambient lighting from a centerpiece decorated with a lantern circled by white flowers. Several trainers had already left Pallet Town, so it was only us and a few other groups left.
Upon finishing our meal, we sat in silence as we drank from warm cups of coffee. I had too many questions, but not enough answers without even an inkling of where to look for most of them. Except one, the question of Blackwing's identity, sitting across from me stirring another cube of sugar into her drink.
"I've been meaning to ask...," I began to inquire, as I took a sip from my cup. "Who is Blackwing?"
I had wanted to sound curious, but my stern disapproval was evident. She met my eyes briefly, then looked away, watching the patrons sitting inside the café.
"He's...my boyfriend," she answered, hesitantly. "He was a beta tester who was paid to play the game before release."
Her fingers tightened around her cup. I could sense there was more she wanted to say, but could not for some reason. I took another sip from my coffee, making an exaggerating slurping noise. The corner of her lip twitched up in a half-smile.
"I just... I haven't seen him much lately, between his classes, his work with the game, and my own work. I am a little disappointed that he wasn't happy to see me, but since he seemed to have a head's up about the incident...," her voice trailed off with her thoughts.
I set my now empty cup down on the wrought iron table and pondered for a moment.
"Maybe he was trying to protect you?," I offered reassuringly, "At first, I thought he was a douche for how he man-handled you, but maybe he was just in panic mode."
She nodded silently, finishing her last gulp of coffee, and smiled at me again.
"Maybe. I'm waiting for him to read his messages."
Pokémon Centers are veterinary clinics where trainers can heal their creatures for free. Other services they offer are boarding and dining at the cafeteria. We checked into the Pallet Town's Pokémon Center, a scaled down version of the ones present in other cities, located in the strip of buildings on East Street.
Our room was quaint, but adequate, complete with one bunk bed, a desk with a PC, and a nightstand with a lamp. The wallpaper was beige and the comforters were a wine red. Above the desk was a framed copy of a map of Kanto. Before The Cinnabar Incident, trainers would use these rooms to convalesce after battles or even just to rendezvous with their party in privacy. Now, the nurses opened them up for people to spend the night with no charge for the first twenty-four hours.
I sat down at the desk with the PC, while Amour pulled her long, pink hair into a ponytail for the evening. I was not tired yet and had an insatiable curiosity about the situation we were in. My first impulse, a carry over from our reality, was to look up information online, but I was disappointed to discover that the PCs were merely used as an online storage system. I sighed and swiveled around in the computer chair. Amour was sitting on the edge of the bottom bunk, wrapped up in the comforter. I could tell she was beginning to be exhausted from everything that happened today.
"Amour," I asked, as I leaned forward against the back of the chair, "You're tired, right?"
Before she could answer, she yawned, then nodded.
"Yeah...," she mumbled, "I want to do more investigating tomorrow, though, maybe on Route 1?"
I stood up and walked across the room, sitting on the floor in front of her. She looked down at me with tired, magenta eyes and offered a small smile. I felt grateful to her for the meal from earlier and had an idea to repay her.
"Would you be upset if I went out for a few more hours?," I inquired. "I know you're tired, so you don't have to come if you don't want to, but I swear I'll come back."
She shook her head and yawned again, this time louder.
"Excuse me," she said with a laugh as she held a hand in front of her mouth. "I don't mind. I think it'd be better than sitting around here, while I'm asleep."
She turned her glance up towards the door and held it there for a moment, before looking down at me.
"Promise me you'll be safe, though? With our settings altered, there's no telling what that means for us."
"I promise," I answered and held out my pinky finger. She curled hers around mine and we shook on it.
Beyond the perimeters of Pallet Town laid Route 1, the first taste of the grasslands the open world of Kanto had to offer. A dirt path wound its way through the route, eventually leading to Viridian City, but bushes, shrubs, trees, and patches of tall grass grew along the outskirts promising opportunities to battle and capture more pokémon. A few feet into the route, I stepped off the path and into a thicket of knee-high grass. In the quiet of the night, I could hear the rustling of the creatures trying to stay hidden from me and followed their echoed sounds as best as I could.
Skreeeeeeee!
Startled, I jumped back and noticed I had stepped on the tail of a purple rat. It stood about a foot tall and had long teeth and a single cream-colored whisker on each side of its face. The creature sat on its haunches, rubbing its tail with two paws, while leering at me with a glint in its red eyes. I knelt down, feeling bad for harming the creature, when it leapt directly at my face with a scream.
I fell backwards, hitting the ground, as the rat clawed at my face. Each scratch stung and I wondered if I was bleeding. While keeping my eyes closed to avoid damaging them, I fumbled around my belt for Pyre's pokéball. Finally, I felt its cool surface and pushed the release button. It seemed to take a moment for Pyre to comprehend what was happening, but when he did, he grabbed the Rattata with his teeth and tore it off of me. The rat howled as it hit the ground with a thud, before engaging in battle with my Charmander. Quickly, I wiped dirt, sweat, and blood from my face and scrambled to my feet.
According to the pokédex, Charmander only knew basic commands at this point, but did not seem to need any instructions on how to battle. While the Rattata was tough, it was not invincible. After swapping scratches, Pyre defeated it in battle. The Rattata lay unmoving and Pyre sat his clawed-foot across its back triumphantly, before it vanished from sight. Not only did Pyre's experience grow, but so did my inventory, since wild defeated pokémon drop items.
"Way to go, buddy," I praised, though still shocked from the attack I had faced. I could tell this was going to be a long night.
The next morning, I walked back into the room to see Amour ready and waiting on me. I groaned, exhausted, when she ran up to me and touched the scratches on my face.
"Wh-what happened to you?!," she yelled.
I winced, both at the words and her touch. "I... spent the night training."
She put both hands on her hips and shot me a dirty look.
"I thought I told you to be careful," she scolded, half-jokingly.
I grinned and ran a hand through my hair sheepishly. "I wanted to level up before we set out together this morning."
"Why?," she asked, guiding me to the swivel chair in front of the desk. I sat down, relieved to get off my feet.
"You took care of us yesterday when you took on quests, so we could eat," I explained, turning the chair towards the desk, so I could lay my head on my arms. "I'm grateful. So I decided to help out too by leveling up, since I couldn't sleep."
Judging from her expression, she seemed humbled. Her eyes widened and she smiled. "Thank you, Scum. I can't imagine what battling is like yet, but it must be tough. Is there anything you need?"
Without sitting up, I shook my head from side-to-side and yawned. "All I need is a little sleep."
She giggled and reached down, pulling at my right arm, offering to help me up.
"Then, at least let me get you to bed. You'll be stiff if you sleep there."
Amour allowed me to sleep in the bottom bunk where she had rested the night before, since I was too tired to climb to the top. Almost as soon as my head hit the pillow, I was sleep. The last thing I remembered was feeling the blanket pulled over me and thinking to myself that her smell on my pillow was comforting.
A/N: I just wanted to take a moment to thank everyone that read my first chapter! I hope you'll stay with me. Also, who else is stoked for Sun and Moon version? If you've preordered or plan on buying a copy, sound off in the comment about which version you picked and who your starter will be!
