It all started when I got a used copy of Pokemon Green off of Ebay. It was the game I had begged my parents oh-so much for, in it's box, straight from Japan, Pokemon Green.
Er, Pocket Monsters as it said on the cover. I stared in awe at the large Japanese letters under the Venasuar. I didn't know what it meant, but I just assumed it was Japanese for green. Then again, it could be the Japanese name for Venusaur. I was just too psyched to have a copy of this game to care! I thought about how lucky I was to have this, and how jealous my "Pokebuddy" at school would be. Before I could think of anything else, my sister butted in. "So what do you think of your Japanese game? Are you gonna open it?"
"Oh sure." I replied. Everyone gathered around me as I gently opened the box, and slowly slid the grey cartridge out of the box. I then put it on the table next to my Gameboy Advance SP. The town map and the manual and instruction book soon followed.
"So do you like it?" asked my mom. "Is it what you expected?"
"I love it! And it's just how I imagined it would be!" I said excitedly.
"Alright. Well, I have to go drop off your sisters. Will you be fine by yourself?"
"Yeah, I'll be fine." I said.
"Ok, then." My mom said as she headed toward the door. "Bye, I love you!"
"Bye."
The door slammed shut. I then popped in Pokemon Green into my Gameboy and took everything that came with the game with me. Once I was in my room, I put the box on my desk. Then, I laid out the town map on my bed. "Wow..." I said to myself. It was really quite impressive. But Cerulean city was smudged off with black marker and some poor Japanese writing under it, like the person was franticly writing it down. It was as if the previous owner was trying to warn me not to go there... But I just shrugged it off. I have Pokemon Green so I should probably just play it already. So I turned the power on.
It showed the dates for everything, the companies, the Game Freak logo along with the stars that flew by it. Everything was normal. And it stayed the way. I picked Charmander, battled my rival, ran an errand for Professor Oak, caught a Caterpie, and leveled it up until it was a Butterfree. After all that I decided to take a break. I saved, turned the Gameboy off, and decided to play some Pokemon Emerald. But no matter how hard I tried, I could't get Pokemon Green out of my Gameboy. It seemed to say to me "I'm not done with you yet..."
"I better just leave it in there." I said to myself. "I don't wanna break it."
So I decided I'd just play some more. After awhile, I got to Cerulean city and beat the trainers on the Nugget bridge, I decided to do the Mew glitch. I'm not really big on glitches, but I thought it would be fun to do. So I started looking around in the grass for an Abra. This is when the game started to get a little weird. Before I could take one step into the grass, a text box showed up. But the text was in English! "Are you enjoying your game?"
A yes or no option showed up. I was a little freaked out, but I told it the truth and choose yes. "That's good. We'd hate for you to be unhappy. That's our only purpose. To make sick people like you happy. It's sickening how you call this fun! Is torturing poor innocent creatures fun to you in your world?"
Yes or no showed up again. Of course, I choose No. "Then why do it here? Are we really any different? You and your kind are a sad, sadistic race that torment us just because we're different. And not only that, but you capture our people and force them to fight against their own species. Why do you do this? For your own enjoyment. It's not right. I'm going to show you how we felt all these years!"
A battle soon began. In a few seconds, I found myself face to face with an Abra. His Pokemon Green sprite was already disturbing, but the game being in black and white and the circumstances I was under made it worse. But the music is what scared me the most. It was silent at first, but then I heard sudden loud beeps and garbled up notes. Then there were loud buzzing noises, like those in the original Lavender town theme. But at least one thing was normal. Everything was in Japanese again. I soon sent out my Charmeleon and choose scratch. The text went back to English again. "Lizardo will not obey."
"What the heck?" I said in shock. "That's right. My kind are no longer slaves to you. I've freed them." Suddenly, my Charmeleon slid off the screen, as if a Pokemon used Roar. "Lizardo was freed! Butterfree was freed! Purin was freed!" I was speechless. All of my Pokemon had left me. What was going to happen now? I hoped that my trainer would white out and I would end up in a Pokemon center. But to my horror, the trainer sprite slid onto the screen and the game said "Red entered the fight!"
"I'm not done with you yet. I'm going to make you experience all the pain and suffering you humans have made us go through!"
"Casey used psychokinesis!" I suddenly felt an agonizing headache. It was Psychic.
"Arghh!" I moaned in agony.
"Are you enjoying yourself? No. I am!"
"Casey used excessive poison!" I then felt a sharp pain running through my veins. The pain grew worse and worse as it continued. It was Toxic. "You feel such pain, don't you? Wouldn't it be nice if someone or something could put an end to all this? I can make it happen. All you have to do is let go. Let go of your life. It's worth nothing...therefore you have nothing to lose." It was then I realized something. The power button! I decided to use the last of my strength to turn off the game and end this madness. "Come on...don't bring anymore pain into your sad, pathetic existence...join me...I can grant you a new life...a life free of any suffering...won't you join us?"
"Yes or no?"
And insincere smile went across my face. "No."
I switched the power switch off. That garbled up music stopped, and changed to what sounded like sounds of distorted screams and laughter. The game seemed to freeze for a second or two, but then it started to corrupt. All kinds of graphics from all over the game flew across the screen while the animation for Toxic played 3 times it's normal speed. Static appeared on the screen every few seconds, giving the impression of an old TV. Suddenly that Abra gave me a very sinister look. An Abra's cry than played over and over. It seemed to say "joinusjoinusjounusjoinusjoinusjoinusjoinusjoinusjoinusjoinusjoinusjoinusjoinus."
"Wh-what did I do?" I stuttered. As soon as I said that, everything stopped.
"You did this to yourself."
The Abra then disappeared into static, along with the entire screen. The pain then reached an unbearable height, and everything went dark. But before I went out, I heard a voice in my head...
"Don't say no to me, child...don't say no..."
When I woke up, I found myself in a hospital with my entire family staring at me, full of concern for my well-being.
"...Mom...dad..." I managed to say.
"Son, you're alive!" My dad cried as he softly hugged me.
"What happened?" I asked.
"We found you passed out on the floor with your game in front of you. At first we thought you were asleep, but when we turned you over to put you in bed, we saw blood foaming out of your mouth, and a huge stain of blood on the carpet where your head was. We called 911 as soon as we saw you. When they came, we found out you had been poisoned! It was a miracle that you were still alive! They managed to get all of the poison pumped out of you, and took you to the hospital." My sister then took out my Gameboy, with Pokemon Green in the slot. "I thought you might want to play your game so you don't get bored, so I brought it here."
I don't know how, but I swear that game talked to me and said "Come join us, child..."
"NO!" I grabbed the Gameboy and threw it across the room! "Go to Hell you demented monster! I'll never join you!" I tried to get out of my bed so I could smash that possessed cartridge, but the nurse in the room held me back and called for some doctors. "We're sorry, but you'll have to leave. We'll take care of your son." The nurse said politely as she scooted them out.
When my family left, the nurse got out a needle and had that same soulless face as that Abra. She started chanting "Join us" along with the other doctors as she slowly moved toward me. I tried to scream but the doctors covered my mouth. All I could do was make muffled shrieks of terror. The nurse slowly injected that long, sharp needle into my side. It pierced into my side so deep I could feel it touch my inner organs. I then started to feel ooze going through my body. It burned like boiling water as it went through my body. The needle seemed to be stuck in my body for hours. It was the most unpleasant thing I had ever experienced in my life. Finally, the nurse said something again. "If you won't join us...we're going to join you." I suddenly felt physical changes with my body. My skin starting turning yellow and brown. My bones starting to shift in different angles. I felt my head form into a triangle. My shoulders started to point out and move upward. I felt my arms become smaller until they were weak and I could barely move them. I felt my ears dissolve into the sides of my face and new ones form at the top of my head. I felt my toes disappearing into my feet and my fingers into my hands, and claw like things replacing them. And with one painful jerk, I felt a tail shoot out from behind me. My changes were complete. I had joined them.
I woke up with a terrible scream. I found myself drenched in sweat as I lifted myself from the bed. I looked at the clock. It was 2:08 in the morning. And then I noticed it...
Pokemon Green, next to the bed.
I picked it up and examined it. "What do you want from me?" I said to it. To my shock, it talked back.
"I want you to join us..."
"No! I-I'll never become one of you!" I screamed at it. I opened the window and threw it outside. But the game levitated right back into the room in front of me. The Venusaur's mouth moved as it spoke to me in it's deep, oily voice. "You can't get rid of us...we're your friends now...won't you join your friends...?" I stared in horror as it got even closer to me.
"You're not my friends! Get away from me! I-I can crush you like a twig!" The Venusaur's vines came out from the cover and held me by my neck. "You'll either join us...OR DIE!" The Venusaur started to charge a Hyper Beam. I tried my best to get out of his grasp, but he wouldn't let go. It was all over for me. I had no where else to run. But just then I saw the glass of water next to my bed. "I'll give you one last chance. Join us and you won't suffer the consequences."
I picked up the water. "Take this!" I threw the water onto the game!
"Aaarrghh!" Screamed the Venusaur as he let go of me. This was my chance. I ran out the door!
"Get back here!" The cartridge chased me down the hall. "Now you're going to pay!" The Venusaur unleashed his Hyper Beam! I managed to avoid it as I jumped to the side. "Ha! You pathetic human! You can't escape from us!" The Venusaur used Razor Leaf on me as I tried to reach the stairs.
"Argh!" I screamed as the leaves pierced my skin. Blood was now trickling down from all over my body. But I had to keep running. It was the only way to survive. The game flew right over me and blocked the stairwell. "Now you're going to pay!" The Venusaur started to charge up another Hyper Beam. There was nowhere to run. It was a long, narrow hall with nowhere to dodge. Wait a minute. There was a window! I was on the 2nd floor, so I had a chance of living. "Have fun in Hell!" The Venusaur said before he unleashed his Hyper Beam. That was my move. I jumped out the window, just in time to avoid the Hyper Beam. Luckily, I landed on an ambulance that was just pulling out. I grabbed onto the blaring sirens on top of the ambulance. Just when I thought I was safe, I felt something wrap around my feet. "You fool! You think you can escape from me?" The Venusaur started to yank hard on my feet to pull me off. I held on hard to the sirens. I tried my best but my hands started to slip.
"Oh God, please help me!" I said hopefully.
"No one can help you now!" Said the Venusaur sinisterly. "You're mine!" With one last yank, I was pulled off the ambulance. But I felt something help me to grab onto the handles on the back of the ambulance. Almost by magic. "What?" Said the Venusaur, puzzled. "Let go already!" Suddenly, I saw the Ambulance going by the intersection to my house. I jumped onto a pickup truck headed there. I was almost free. "No! You're never going to see your family again as long as I'm here!" The Venusaur tried to pull me out from the back of the truck. I hang on to the very back of the truck. "Fine! If you're not going to budge, I'll kill you how you are!" The Venusaur started to charge up his Hyper Beam. Well, this was it. It was either let go or be killed. I didn't know what else to do. Suddenly I heard a loud thud, and I was let go. I fell down and so did the back of the truck. I managed to still hang onto to the back though, and I pulled myself back up. I looked back, and saw that the cartridge got all tangled up in a tree!
"Thank God!" I said to myself. Although I knew it would still be after me, at least I was safe...for the time being. When the truck passed my house, I jumped onto the grass. I landed on my face but at least I was home. I had quite a story to tell, even though no one would believe me. If my parents ask, I'll just say the hospital dropped me off.
But that game is still out there. Out to get me. I'm not sure if it's even a game anymore. Whatever you do, don't buy used Pokemon games. In fact, don't buy any more video games. Stay away from them. It'll make him angry. Whatever you do...
Don't join them.
