Okay, with Remi covering the travel, it's time to jump into the showdown at Cinnabar! Bit of a longer one this time.

Poke-ball 25: Basic

"I can't believe she's attacking us now!" spat Red, as his Charizard canceled out one of the Shadow Balls with its Flamethrower.

"I can," Blue said dryly. "Nothing Agatha's done so far is fair."

The old lady leered unmoving from the shore, her Gengar grinning maliciously.

Sabrina glared back, frowning.

Blue has a point, Red thought. Out of all the Elite Four, Agatha had been the trickiest to deal with. Her constant use of Pokemon switching, Hypnosis and Confuse Ray made it hard to form a steady strategy. Was this how she fought during the war too? Or had she been even worse?

Well two can play at this game, thought Red. He sent out Espeon.

"Espeon! Use Psy-"

Espeon instantly shrieked and hissed, ears back, back arched, fur on end. It still glared ahead, but it was backing up against Red too, growling and yowling.

"What?" asked Red. Was Espeon scared of the Gengar? Sure it might have been the strongest Ghost-type Espeon had ever seen, since it wasn't part of Red's team during the Elite Four, but strong foes with a type advantage never fazed it before.

Charizard also snarled, its entire body rumbling beneath Red.

"W-What is it?" He hoped this wasn't like what happened to his Pikachu. "Blue! Are your Pokemon acting weird?"

"Yeah, Blastoise's acting really uneasy," said Blue. "She's up to something, and our Pokemon can sense it. What about you Sabrina?"

"Yes, something is wrong," Sabrina said.

But what? thought Red, scanning everything else around them. He saw nothing else on the ocean, or on what he could see on Cinnabar Island. Were there other Ghost-types hiding somewhere?

Espeon let out another shriek, before releasing a blast of Psychic.. The translucent force shot across the waves like a missile, throwing up some stray spray and Tentacool. It reached the shore in no time.

And crashed into Agatha, sending her flying back.

Both Red and Blue stared in stunned silence as Agatha fell onto the ground, and didn't get up. They looked at each other with equal horror.

Sabrina only narrowed her eyes further.

"E-Espeon! W-Why did you do that?" exclaimed Red. "I didn't order you to attack her! She's old, and..."

Espeon paid little attention to Red's panicked accusations, eyes still locked ahead and body still arched. It growled lowly.

Agatha did get up again, much to Red's relief. But that was soon replaced by bafflement.

Red wasn't sure how to describe what he saw. It looked like Agatha, but...blurred? A little bit disjointed even, like a warped mirror? And she was...floating?

"That's not Agatha," said Blue, also gaping at the strange thing. "That's...a ghost?"

"What, so the old hag died before we got here?" asked Red, but not even he believed that.

"No," said Sabrina. "This thing is a monster of Cinnabar Island."

IIIIII

"Ah, so they finally realized," Agatha noted with amusement, watching from a window Blaine's Gym. Beside her were Erika, Pikachu, and Blaine. "Let's see how they handle this most basic of anomalies."

"I wouldn't call this a basic anomaly," said Blaine. "How did you summon one of these impersonators?"

"Me and Erika just took a stroll on the beach," said Agatha. "It seems like creatures respond to each other even more than we realized."

"Will Erika be alright?" asked Blaine. "You don't even know the name of whatever is controlling her, do you?"

"I've dealt with these creatures even more than you have," said Agatha. "It will be fine."

"And that thing out there could summon anything, Pokemon or otherwise," Blaine added. "Is this really the best way to show those kids the truth?"

"It will be fine."

IIIIII

This was mentioned in the last chapter with Blaine, but not really explained: what you encounter on the shore during the Old Man/MissingNo glitch literally depends on your name. Certain letters relate to Pokemon encounters, while others relate to the level of the encounter. That what you get things like Level 153 Bulbasaurs as well as MissingNo lol.

As for the fake Agatha, Trainers are actually listed under the same table as Pokemon encounters, so it's possible to encounter glitch Trainers through the Cinnabar shore as well. However, usually this only happens if you have weird symbols like the male or female signs in your name, so you normally wouldn't encounter them on accident. I don't what summons Agatha letter-wise, but I'm taking some creative liberty and saying whatever's possessing Erika is drawing unusual encounters with its even more unusual name. This is what Agatha and Blaine are talking about at the end of this chapter (though not in as much detail, since they only know that certain creatures are drawn to certain names).

I hope that's not too confusing XD. Pokemon Gen 1 has some of the strangest glitches ever. Don't worry, I don't plan to tap into that deep well of insanity too much here XP