Chapter 5: Arrival
They have existed since almost the beginning, perhaps since before the beginning. Those few that know of their existence are divided on how the Missingno came to be. Some say they formed from pieces of the original chaos that existed before the world began. Others say they were created by the mischievous young Giratina, before he had a true grasp on his powers. Yet others say they came here from another universe, or even the space between universes. However they came here, the Missingno are truly terrifying to behold.
They use illusions to keep their true appearance secret, but those unlucky enough to see one's true form but lucky enough to live to tell the tale say that they look like deformed, skeletal birds, with two wings and four legs. They are said to warp reality itself, and most dangerously of all, they can use those reality warping-powers to summon beings from across the universe - or even from other universes.
At first, the earliest legendaries didn't know what to do with them, despite their initial urge to destroy them. Then Uxie had an idea. They would allow the Missingno to live on the planet, as long as they provided one vital service: summon non-superpowered organisms from other universes to keep the ecosystem in balance.
And so for millions of years they preformed the mundane job of summoning bugs and plants and fungi and microbes to spread across the planet. Some of the organisms got lucky and were seeded with Mew's DNA, but the rest remained food for the rapidly developing Pokémon species.
The Missingno, on the other hand, thrived in the background – but were bored to tears. To them, the job was bland, and didn't cause nearly enough chaos for their liking - for the Missingno loved chaos, and wished to cause as much of it as possible.
They tried to mix things up a little – by summoning bizarre alien beings that eventually became Pokémon like Lunatone, Solrock, Cleffa, and Staryu - but that wasn't enough. For most of their long lives, they remained bored as ever.
Then came the rise of the Alakazam and Metagross. At first, the Missingno regarded them with only mild curiosity. Only when they started to get organized and the first territorial brawls got started did the Missingno really get interested.
They loved the chaos that these new sapient beings caused among each other. They loved the chaos that the two species, for a while, caused between each other. They hated the peaceful times that came later, but enjoyed the occasional ideological war that sprung up (and even caused a few). And most of all, they adored the explosive, cataclysmic end.
They wanted more, and as soon as possible. They didn't want to wait for the Alakazam and Metagross to rebuild, and doubted it would even happen. So, a group of Misssingno decided they'd bring chaos to the world another way.
They gathered together in a secluded area, and began to create massive portals to another universe. On the other side, strange creatures were drawn, as if hypnotized, to the portals. These creatures were relatively small, and weak, and had no elemental powers, but they had intelligence, and passion, and could use them both to terrible, wonderful, effect. They stepped through the portals, not knowing they would change the Pokémon world for all time.
Humanity had arrived.
They came from a world gone wrong, a world where only the elite had advanced technology and the rest were forced to feed, figuratively and literally, on the scraps they left behind. The humans who stepped through the portal were part of "the rest," and for the most part the only possessions they brought with them were herds of livestock, who had also been drawn by the hypnotic nature of the Missingno gateway.
They would create a world better than the one they left, in time, but for now, they were helpless, and vulnerable, and the Missingno weren't willing to help them survive much.
Humanity- and the food creatures they brought with them - were easy prey for some of the larger, more vicious Pokémon that inhabited the world. They attacked livestock, children, even adults- anything they could get their claws on. Even though millions of people came through the portals, only a fraction of them managed to survive. They tried to fight them off with improvised weapons- rocks, sticks, etc. – but those were no match for the superpowered creatures.
Humans weren't so nice to the weaker Pokémon either – but out of necessity. They often caught and killed small rodent and fish Pokémon and ate them, to help themselves survive. Unfortunately, said Pokémon were proficient at fighting back, and so the humans were often left who empty stomachs. Humanity looked like it was doomed to die out in this new world it had inadvertently strayed into.
But then some Pokémon – a select few species that were more intelligent than most and even had a sense of nobility – began to take pity on the humans. They decided they'd do something about humanity's plight.
The first to do so was the Lucario species, who came to the simple settlements the humans created and began to defend them against marauding attackers – particularly their mortal enemy Zoroark, which used its illusions to attack humans with ease until the Lucario used their aura abilities to sniff them out.
More Pokémon soon came to help the humans, and when that started to happen humans realized that with enough food and a little bit of force they could convince other Pokémon to protect them as well.
And so began the process of capturing Pokémon in their first stage of evolution and keeping them as guards against other Pokémon. Most fully-evolved Pokémon- and pretty much all dragon-types- were considered untamable, so they had to start out small. At first, these first stage Pokémon had little advantage against their evolved wild counterparts, but then the humans discovered something remarkable.
They discovered that the elemental powers of Pokémon interacted in dramatic ways – and that they caused Pokémon to be strong against some types of elemental powers and weak against others. They quickly gained knowledge of what was effective and what wasn't, and used that to quickly defeat wild Pokémon. The Pokémon that they tamed, as a result, grew stronger until they evolved as well, making them even more effective in defending their new human allies.
However, Pokémon are pugnacious by nature, and even when the humans were not under siege they had a strong urge to fight. The humans decided that instead of letting them express that urge by trashing their villages, they could get their tamed Pokémon to fight each other in friendly competitions. The sport of Pokémon battling was born.
But as well as the humans were doing, they were about to have a major blow struck against them.
The Missingno, seeing how successful the humans were now, decided to move on to the next phase of their plan. They decided they would manipulate human history to repeat their chaos-filled past until they eventually either destroyed themselves, got destroyed by the legendaries, or, if push came to shove, the Missingno themselves had to destroy them. However, they knew the humans would have a sense of déjà vu if they manipulated history without manipulating the minds of the humans in some way. So, they did.
They used their reality warping powers to wipe all memory of the humans' home universe, and all the memories of technology and history that came with it. The humans fell a step backward almost overnight. If it weren't for their loyal Pokemon companions, they could have been wiped out due to this manipulation of their minds.
But some Pokémon took notice.
The Alakazam were among the Pokémon that the humans had tamed. Metagross, on the other hand, were considered untamable, but they watched from the sidelines. Both Pokémon, with their psychic powers, noticed that something strange had occurred with the minds of the humans.
Human civilization had given them a great boost. The Alakazam and Metagross were able to get organized again, and working together for the first time in thousands of years, they were able to discover what the Missingno were doing. This shocking discovery led them to form a new pact, with a new mission – stop the Missingno from achieving their goal at all costs.
The legendaries were not oblivious to what had happened with the Missingno either- but, due to what happened last time, they were afraid to interfere again. And so they sat back and waited.
In the midst of all this, the humans and their Pokemon companions continued to do well. Once again, the villages became towns, then cities, then entire kingdoms.
A new era was about to begin.