Episode 152: Which Glitch is Which?

Ash, Brock, and Brenda are traveling through Kanaveral City. Rather than walking, they're taking the futuristic moving sidewalk. Brenda looks rather annoyed, while Ash is watching the treadmill beneath his feet with much interest.

On their way back to the Kanaveral Gym for Ash's final Tenno gym battle, our heroes have decided to try out just one example of the technology that makes Kanaveral City so special.

Brenda comments, "I really don't get it, myself. What's the point of these things? Is it really that hard to walk?"

Ash urges, "Come on Brenda, it's science!"

Brenda looks to Ash with confusion. "No. I don't think that's what it is."

Brock pipes in, "It kind of is. The infrastructure of this entire city is based on some of the world's most advanced computers. That includes these moving sidewalks. For example," he points ahead to the crosswalk before them, "the computers will stop the sidewalk when the traffic light is green, and then resume when it's red. It also knows that the light doesn't need to turn red until there's someone nearby on the sidewalk." Sure enough, as they approach the crosswalk, the traffic light turns red, and the treadmill continues to move to push them across the street. Once across, the light changes back to green and the cars resume their trips. "It makes things much safer."

Brenda shrugs. "I guess. It just seems so…excessive…"

Ash laughs. "Who cares if it's excessive when it's this cool! This is the future of—" The sidewalk comes to an abrupt stop, which causes Ash to lose his balance and nearly fall. "Hey! What gives?"

There're loud honks from the intersection they just passed. Cars nearly crash into each other as the traffic lights blink back and forth between red and green.

It's not just the traffic lights and sidewalks. Electronics all around the city seem to be on the fritz. Electronic billboards display static, streetlights strobe rapidly, and even the lights in buildings flicker on and off erratically.

Brock glances about. "I don't know what's going on, but something's not right. It's as if all the electronic systems in the city are going haywire."

Not too far ahead of them is the Kanaveral Gym. Ash spots Neil. "Hey, maybe Neil knows what's going on!" He runs off. Brock and Brenda follow. "Hey Neil!"

Neil glances over. "Ash. This is rather embarrassing, but I'm afraid I've been locked out of my gym."

"Locked out? How's that possible?"

"I don't know. The computerized lock isn't accepting my code." He glances about. "But that's the least of our worries. The entire city seems to be going haywire."

Brenda asks, "So you don't know what's going on?"

Neil shakes his head. "I'm afraid not. But I'm willing to bet it has something to do with the city's computer core." He looks back at Ash. "I'm sorry, Ash, but I'm going to have to delay our battle again. I need to go the Space Center and make sure everything's alright there."

Ash asks, "Is there anything we can do to help?"

"You three should try to find Hal, he's the administrator of the Kanaveral Computer Network. If something's wrong, he'll be the one who knows how to fix it." He points to a building a few blocks down. "He lives on the top floor of that apartment building."

Ash nods. "You got it. We'll find him."

Neil looks around. "Let's just hope this doesn't last. Kanaveral is far too dependent on computers to be without them for long."

Ash, Brock, and Brenda approach a door to an apartment. Ash knocks, but this only pushes the already cracked door open the rest of the way. Ash shrugs at the others, then walks in. "Hello? Hal? Neil sent us here! Are you here?"

In the next room, a disgruntled voice complains, "Come on! Work with me here!"

Ash rushes into the room, where he finds a tall, skinny man wearing a wrinkled white coat over a black t-shirt. His hair is a tangled mess. His eyes are bloodshot with shadowy bags beneath them.

The man says, "Vocal interface: shut down and reboot."

A computerized voice responds, "I'm sorry, Hal, I'm afraid I can't do that."

Hal frustratedly runs his fingers through his hair. "Great. I can't even turn it off and on again." He notices Ash and the others. "Oh! Where'd you come from!?"

Ash laughs. "Did you not hear me shout?"

"Sorry. It's been a long night. It seems like whenever I squash one bug, three more take its place."

Brenda asks, "So you already know that the city's computer controls are breaking down?"

"The city's computer controls are breaking down!?" Hal turns to his desk and begins to type away frantically. "Shoot! You're not kidding! I had hoped to stay far enough ahead of the cascade of failures to prevent this, but it seems we just hit the breaking point. Argh!" He pounds his forehead against the computer screen in frustration.

Ash asks, "Is there anything we can do to help?"

"Do you know Pyrethon?"

"The Pokémon? Yeah, I've seen one before."

Hal sighs. "Never mind. Forget I asked. I'm going to physically inspect the servers that host the city's computer regulation systems. You're welcome to come with me if you want, but I'm not sure there will be any way you can help."

"But just in case there is, we'll be there."

They don't notice that on a window-washer's platform on the other side of a window, three window washers have their ears up against the pane and are listening in. They're not window washers at all, but rather Team Rocket.

James comments, "Hmm… So, the computer system that controls all of Kanaveral City is breaking down. That sounds like utter chaos." He grins and add giddily, "Fun stuff."

Jessie asks, "What if we took advantage of the chaos to commit some crimes? I'll bet you security systems are down."

Meowth shakes his head. "Nah. You're thinking too small. That's just petty theft and misdemeanors. We need something more."

James asks with interest, "How much more?"

"Cyber warfare more."

Jessie questions, "Huh?"

"Think about it, if we follow the twerps right now, they'll lead us straight into the computer core that runs this whole city. From there, we could control everything. We could hold the city hostage!"

James grins. "I like the sound of that. That's more than just a misdemeanor, that's a crime. No, that's a federal crime!"

Who's That Pokémon!?

Its hairs work like muscle fibers. When its hairs unfurl, they latch on to opponents, ensnaring them as tentacles would.

Hal turns the lights on in a vast room full of computer server towers. Brock gives an impressed whistle. "I've never seen so much computing power in one room before."

Hal grins proudly. "And you never would. This room holds the record."

Ash looks around in confusion. "But if this is where all the computers are, where are the screens? How do you use these computers?"

Hal decides to ignore the ignorant remark and walks to the nearest server. He places a hand up against it and says, "If only you could just tell me what was wrong." He sighs.

Ash walks up to him and asks, "These screenless computers mean a lot to you, don't they?"

Hal nods. "They do. They're my life's work. They're like…my children. That's why I will stop at nothing to fix them."

"Pix! Pix!"

Brenda looks around for the source of the sudden voice. "Huh? What was that?"

A small Pokémon floats out from behind a server. It looks like a character out of an old 8-bit video game. It's completely flat and made out of pixels. The pixels form together to make a sprite-like image of a fairy.

Hal shouts at it, "You! You're causing this!"

Ash asks, "Huh? What is it?"

He takes out his Pokédex. "Pixle, the Glitch Pokémon, and a Light and Fairy Combo-Type. Pixle was created as a living debugger program to fix computer glitches."

Brenda surmises, "Oh, it must want to help out."

The Pokédex continues, "Ironically, a glitch in its code made it unstable, so it only causes bugs instead. Evolves into Spryte or Artifract at level 34, depending on its form."

"Oh… Never mind…"

The pixelated Pokémon flies up to a server tower and floats around it, before suddenly glitching out. Its entire body seems to break apart and reform at the pixel level. When it reforms, it's a distorted and messy version of what it was before. It shouts in surprise, "Pi-ix!?" The voice now sounds choppy and warped.

Several sparks fly out from the server and its green lights turn red.

Hal shouts angrily, "Get away from that!"

"Pi-i-ix!" Pixle is startled and retreats. It distorts again and changes back into its regular form. It sighs, "Pix…"

Brenda notices the remorseful look on Pixle's face. "Hey Hal…what if Pixle really does want to help? It was designed as a debugger program, after all."

Hal laughs. "No way. That Pokémon has caused me nothing but problems. It's always sneaking in here and putting glitches in my systems, no matter how many times I kick it out. I'll bet anything it's the one responsible for all this havoc. It's nothing but a nuisance and a menace."

Brenda stares at Pixle. She seems rather unconvinced.

Team Rocket is once again lurking nearby. James asks, "Say, doesn't that Pixle Pokémon evolve into Artifract, the Pokémon we used to break into Team Copycat's computers?"

Meowth nods. "The very same."

"That Pokémon was invaluable to The Boss. Mayhap he wants another."

Jessie nods contemplatively. "I can't argue with that logic.

Meowth suggests, "It seems mighty attracted to those computer servers. Perhaps we could kill two Pidgey with one stone."

Jessie looks at him questioningly. "Why would you want to kill one Pidgey, let alone two?"

Meowth groans. "It's a figure of speech."

"Okay, fine. But why are you using a stone? Aren't there easier ways?"

Meowth groans again but doesn't explain things further this time.

It's Grimmsnarl!

Hal is sitting cross legged on the floor and has connected a holographic laptop to one of the servers. Line after line of computer code flashes across the display. He shakes his head in frustration. "This doesn't make any sense. I've gone through every line of code, and there's not a single abnormality to be found. There're no viruses, no malware, no trojan programs. From a software standpoint, everything is exactly as it should be. What is wrong here?"

Brock asks, "If Pixle really is causing this, would it show up as a virus or malware?"

Hal nods. "Essentially. The Pokémon corrupts the code of computers just by being near it in a way similar to a virus."

Brenda, who was deep in thought, perks up. "Does that mean Pixle didn't do it?"

"I never said that. I just haven't found the code it corrupted yet. It could have been as simple as deleting a single 'if' statement somewhere. That could cause a cascade of failures while also being nearly impossible to notice."

"Pix! Pix! Pix!" Pixle flies back in and starts circling around the same server tower as before.

Hal groans. "Not again…"

Pixle's body distorts as it once again transforms into its Bugged Form. "Pi-i-i-ix! Pi-i-ix!" The server reacts immediately as its lights turn red and flash erratically.

Hal bolts up, causing his laptop to fall off his lap as he runs at the glitched Pokémon. "Shoo! Scram! Escape! Control, alt, delete!" he shouts as he waves his arms about to scare the Pokémon away.

As it transforms back into its Debugged Form, Pixle retreats back out of the room. "Piiiiix!" It sounds like it's crying.

Brenda looks towards the ground in shame, unable to watch Hal chase the Pokémon away.

Hal, looking pleased with himself, sits back down and picks up his laptop. "Hopefully I scared it away for good this time."

Brenda is staring at the door. She sighs, then looks to Ash and Brock. "Guys…I've got to go do something. I'll be back soon."

Ash nods. "Sure, see you later."

Brenda runs off.

Ash is looking at the server that Pixle was floating around. "Say Hal, shouldn't you check that server? I think it's the same one Pixle was attracted to earlier."

Hal shakes his head without looking up from his work. "They're all networked together. If one has an issue, it will reflect in all of them."

Ash takes another glance at it. "I wonder why Pixle likes that one so much…"

Before he can ponder the question any further, there's a loud crashing noise as the room shakes.

Brenda runs out of the building housing the server room and looks about quickly. Across the street, she sees Pixle floating away dejectedly. It's in its Bugged Form, and as it passes by a traffic light, the lights flash back and forth between green and red. Fortunately, no cars are near.

Brenda runs across the street. "Pixle! Wait!"

"Pi-ix?" Pixle turns around as its pixels correct themselves back into its Debugged Form.

Brenda catches up with it. "Pixle, I know you don't mean any harm. You just want to help, isn't that right?"

Pixle nods. "Pix."

"It must be hard for you. You exist to help people and computers, but you're cursed to only hurt them… It's so sad…"

"Pixle…"

"You only hurt computers in your Bugged Form, right? Do you have any way of staying in your Debugged Form instead?"

As Pixle shakes its head, it morphs into Bugged Form. "Pi-i-ix…"

Brenda sighs. "That's too bad. There has to be something we can do to help you. I couldn't stand to see the way Hal treated you, when all you wanted to do was help."

Pixle quickly returns to Debugged Form.

Brenda gets an idea. "Hey, when video games have glitches, they make patches to fix them. I wonder if there's some way we could make a patch for you. One that would keep you in Debugged Form." She pulls out her Pokédex. "Maybe the Pokédex knows how."

As she activates it, Pixle changes forms once more. The screen of Brenda's Pokédex fritzes out and displays nothing but static. A gargled and broken electronic voice says something unintelligible.

"Oh…I guess the Pokédex is a computer too…"

"Pi-i-ix…" Pixle is ashamed of itself. It floats away from Brenda.

"Pixle, wait! No! Don't go! I don't mind!" Pixle ignores her.

Before Brenda can work any harder to stop it, she hears a loud crash, and notices dust and debris flying out from the building she came from.

"What was that!? Something's wrong!" She looks to Pixle. "Come on, Pixle, let's see if we can help!"

Pixle continues to ignore her as it continues on its way.

Brenda sighs, but she decides she's unable to wait for Pixle any longer. She runs off.

The wall of the server room has been broken down by a giant robot. It's gray and boxy with various flashing lights all about it. Its only facial feature is a single ominous, glowing, red light. On its front are two large rectangular slots.

Hal demands, "What in blazes is going on!?"

The cockpit atop the robot's head pops open to reveal Team Rocket. Jessie announces, "Prepare for trouble!"

James continues, "Make it double!"

"To infect all computers with malware!"

"To click on that strange link is safe, we swear!"

"To crash your hard drive and to wipe it clean!"

"To lock you out with a deadly blue screen!"

"Je$$1e!"

"J me$!"

"Team Rocket boots up at the speed of light!"

"Surrender now to our digital might!

"Meowth, that's right!"

"Wobbuffet!"

"Mime mime!"

Ash demands, "What are you doing here, Team Rocket!?"

James laughs. "Isn't it obvious? We're here to steal computing power!"

Meowth chuckles. "Someone less obvious would just plant some malware to perform operations in the background, but we at Team Rocket believe in doing things more literally." He presses a button on a control panel and the two arms of the robot stretch out to grab two of the server towers. It rips them out of the ground and inserts them into the two slots on its front. They fit in perfectly. Meowth announces, "All those FLOPs are now ours."

Jessie objects, "Meowth, we don't want to flop on this one."

"No, not flop, FLOPs, as in floating-point operations per second."

"Flying what now?"

Meowth groans. "I took their computing power!"

Hal demands, "Give those back!"

Meowth answers in a monotone voice, "I'm sorry, Hal, I'm afraid I can't do that."

"Why does everyone always say that to me!?" Hal urges, "Those two servers have been severed from the network. We need to get them back, or there could be a cascade failure for the rest!"

Ash shouts, "We're on it! Pikachu, use Thunderbolt!"

"Pikaaaa chuuuu!"

Meowth grins. "Now let's put those FLOPs to work. Calculating the optimal defense!"

Lights across the robot and the servers flash rapidly, then the robot stomps its foot into the floor, causing rubble to fly up and block Pikachu's electricity.

James laughs. "With this much computing power, we'll be able to optimally counter any attack!"

Brock throws a Pokéball. "Guardgoyle, use Dragon Rage!" As soon as Guardgoyle appears, it attacks with an orb of purple energy.

Meowth announces, "Calculating!" The robot picks up a chunk of debris off the floor and throws it at the energy orb, forcing a premature explosion.

Brock shakes his head in frustration. "It's no good. Whatever we do, that machine is able to calculate a way to stop it."

"Lupine, use Magical Leaf!"

"Lup lup!"

Benda and Lupine have entered the room. Lupine attacks with an assault of glowing leaves.

The robot holds up an arm and fires a flamethrower, which burns all the leaves away.

James laughs. "I guess that Lupine's bark isn't as bad as our bytes!"

Meowth cracks up in laughter, but Jessie looks confused. "Huh?"

"Bytes with a y instead of an i. It's a computer joke."

Jessie shrugs. "If you say so."

Brenda asks, "What's going on?"

Ash explains, "Team Rocket is using Hal's servers against us. Their machine can calculate a counter to any attack."

"That doesn't sound good."

Brock suggests, "Let's all try attacking together. Maybe we can overwhelm it."

Ash nods. "Sounds worth a try to me. Pikachu, Thunderbolt!"

"Guardgoyle, Smack Down!"

"Lupine, Energy Ball!"

Pikachu launches electricity, Guardgoyle flings rocks from an orange orb of energy, and Lupine fires a green ball.

Meowth laughs. "You underestimate our processing power!"

The robot extends an arm to grab the rocks from Guardgoyle's attack and throws it at the Energy Ball. This causes the Energy Ball to explode, the shockwave of which dissipates the Thunderbolt.

James laughs with glee. "We'd never be able to come up with all these counters on our own! Computers are amazing!"

Brenda shakes her head in frustration. "It's no good! Their computational ability is too much for us to stop! We can't do this on our own."

Ash points out, "But there's no one else to help us."

"Pixle!"

Brenda's eyes light up at the sound of Pixle's voice. "No, there is someone who wants to help!"

Hal is outraged upon seeing the Pokémon. "No! I can't deal with you too! Get out of—!"

Brenda steps between him and Pixle. "No, Pixle wants to help. Let it help us."

"How could that thing possibly help us?"

Brenda scoffs at him as she points to the servers embedded in the robot.

"Oh. Yes. Of course. Carry on."

Brenda looks to Pixle. "I know you don't damage computers on purpose, but do you think you could make an exception this time?"

"Pixle." It nods, then flies at Team Rocket.

The three of them all break into laughter. Jessie asks, "That cute little thing is supposed to stop us?"

Meowth declares, "You're not even worth an adding machine's worth of computation."

James grins, "We'll just capture you and giftwrap you for The Boss."

But as it flies at them, Pixle transforms into its Bugged Form. When it does, the lights across the robot begin to flash red.

Jessie's nose wrinkles in disgust. "It's not so cute anymore."

Meowth shrugs. "Fine. I'll calculate a way to get rid of it. Why not?" But when he presses the button, nothing happens. "Huh?"

"Pi-i-i-ix!"

Brenda shouts, "Pixle did it! Quickly, attack before it transforms back into Debugged Form!"

"Pikachu, Thunderbolt!"

"Guardgoyle, Smack Down!"

"Lupine, Energy Ball!"

Team Rocket suddenly gets very nervous. Meowth is furiously pressing buttons but gets no output. He winces. "Guys, I don't need a computer to calculate how this is going to end…"

The three attacks hit the cockpit, causing it to explode. Team Rocket is sent hurtling through the hole in the wall and into the sky.

As they soar away, Jessie scolds, "Well Meowth, you jinxed us. Too many FLOPs. The plan flopped."

Meowth shouts in frustration, "That's not how it works!"

James says with a sigh, "But we all know how this works."

"Looks like Team Rocket's blasting off again!"

On the ground, Brenda cheers, "Way to go, Pixle!"

The Pokémon morphs back to Debugged Form and cheers, "Pixle pix pix!" It flies excitedly around Brenda.

Hal walks over to the fallen robot and inspects the servers. "We're in luck. The servers are physically undamaged."

Brenda crosses her arms. "I think you owe someone an apology."

Hal laughs. "Pixle? It may have helped this time, but that doesn't change the dozens of other times. Not to mention the issues I still haven't fixed."

"Pix?" Suddenly, Pixle has begun to glow.

Ash gasps. "Woah! Pixle is evolving!"

When the light of evolution cuts out, Pixle has transformed into another Pokémon. While it still looks like a sprite of a fairy out of a retro video game, its pixel density has increased. Now it looks like something out of a 16-bit game.

"Spryte!"

Brenda cheers, "Woah!"

Ash consults his Pokédex. "Spryte, the Antivirus Pokémon and a Light and Fairy Combo-Type. Evolution while Pixle was experiencing no bugs served as a patch for its code. Now it can fix bugs, glitches, and viruses while causing none of its own. Evolves from Pixle Debugged Form at level 34."

Brenda proudly puts her hands on her hips as she looks at Hal. "You were saying?"

Hal shakes his head. "I can't forgive it so long as my computer network is still breaking down because of its actions."

"Spryte! Spryte!" Spryte flies over to the same server as before and floats about it. This time it causes no glitches.

Brock suggests, "Maybe Spryte wants you to check that server specifically."

Hal laughs. "Nonsense. I already told you. All the servers are networked."

Ash suggests, "How about opening it up and looking inside?"

Hal laughs even harder. "I'm sorry, Ash, but that's not how software works. If there's a problem, it's going to be in the code."

Brenda asserts, "Just humor me and do it."

Hal shrugs. "Okay. Why not? If only to prove once and for all that there is nothing…" He opens the panel on the side of the server and wedged inside of it is a Pokémon. "What!?"

It's a small caterpillar-like Pokémon. It looks mechanical in nature. Its body is made up of green segments which look like computer chips. Small wires poke out to serve as legs. For antennae it has two capacitors. Its eyes are an LED display. The tip of its tail looks like the end of a flash drive.

Fortunately for Ash, he never put his Pokédex away. "Malworm, the Computer Bug Pokémon and an Electric and Bug Combo-Type. Malworm are known for nesting inside of computers, where they will interface with them directly to consume their data. This causes all kinds of problems. Evolves into Pterabite at level 27."

Hal shakes his head in disbelief. "It was a literal bug… I was so certain that it was a software issue that I never once stopped to consider it would be a hardware issue…" He looks to Brenda. "Do you know what this means?"

"That you've been blaming Spryte for something it didn't do."

"Well…maybe, but more importantly, it means it wasn't my fault that I couldn't fix it! I'm a software engineer, not hardware!"

Brenda laughs and looks to Spryte. "You might just have to take that as your apology."

"Spryte." It laughs with her.

Hal looks Spryte over. "Actually, the way you were able to determine the issue, even though I was blind to it... That could prove quite useful… What do you say to working with me?"

Brenda gasps. "You have a lot of nerve asking that!"

Brock points out, "Brenda, this is good for Spryte. Not only will it no longer be chased away, but it will get to be helpful, like it's always wanted to."

Brenda sighs. "Yeah. You're right." She looks to Spryte. "Don't feel like you have to help him. He's been nothing but a jerk to you, and you don't owe him anything."

Spryte considers its options for a moment. "Spryte…"

"But Brock is right. You would get to do what you love most."

"Spryte." The Pokémon flies over to Hal.

Hal grins. "I sense this will be the beginning of an excellent partnership. Tell me, can you debug Pyrethon?"

"Spryte!"

"Wonderful."

Ash comments, "I still don't get what a Fire-Type snake Pokémon has to do with computers."

Hal and Spryte both laugh at Ash's ignorance.

Brenda likes to see the best in both people and Pokémon. Today that meant she was able clear the name of an innocent Pokémon and help it to achieve its true potential. And now that yet another crisis has been averted, Ash's final Tenno gym battle will be upon us in no time at all, so stay tuned.

To Be Continued…