The Unknown City

Part 1: The Beginning

Everybody knows the theory that Lavender Town had a gym in the past...but nobody knows about Crimson City. Apparently, Crimson City was an anime-exclusive location not visited by Ash and co. However, I visited Crimson City once. I got a copy of Pokémon for my Gameboy when I turned thirteen. Weird looking thing; it didn't even have a version name. It just said Pokémon as the title. Not only that, but there were no Pokémon on the cover. It was just...blank. No use fretting over it, so I started the game. I started in Pallet town as usual, but the music was slowed down a bit. Must have been a bug, but it persisted. It continued. The game was the same until I got my town map. I checked it, and there was a new city between the Rock Tunnel, and Lavender Town: Crimson City. I had to check this out. I sped through the game like normal, defeating every trainer, because I didn't exactly want to fight them again when I was finished. When I got through Rock Tunnel, that's when things got weird. The Team Rocket theme played, but there were no grunts running up to greet me. That was strange. When I got to Crimson City, I immediately encountered a wild Pokémon. That was even stranger, considering that I didn't even walk in any tall grass. The screen faded to black and stayed that way for a full minute. The music went back to normal, but that was the only good thing. After the minute passed, the music cut out. I encountered Ghost. Now I was starting to freak out just a tad. I sent out my starter Pokémon, Charmander (Now a Charizard, level 50). Unlike most encounters with Ghost, this was a real battle. Ghost was level 50, so I imagined it matched the level of the Pokémon being sent out. Considering that it was a Ghost type, I used the move Crunch, a Dark type attack that Charizard knew. It only did a tiny bit of damage and the words "Not very effective..." and then "Ghost used Hydro Pump!" appeared onscreen. Charizard survived the attack, but just barely. He (my Charizard was a male) had thirty HP left. Thinking I had enough, I tried running from the battle. Thinking I wouldn't be able to run, I expected the "Couldn't escape" message. But instead, "You cannot run" appeared. I tried throwing a Pokéball at it. It failed, and the words "Ghost fled from the battle!" appeared onscreen. When the screen faded back into the overworld, this is where I got scared. There was still no music, but the sound effects worked, making this game all the freakier. The town looked exactly like Lavender Town, although the buildings were arranged in different locations. I decided to check out the town. There were a total of six people in town, three of which claimed they didn't want to be here. The other three said "...", "What do you want?" and "Please, end this nightmare!" so I decided just to not pay any attention. I noticed that the town had a Gym. I looked at my badges and apparently there were nine badges to earn instead of the usual eight. I entered the gym. The gym music started playing. I took a look at my surroundings. The place was a muted red, kind of like the color of Pokémon Red played on a Gameboy Advance. As I advanced further, the room got darker and darker until it was so dark I couldn't see. I decided to keep moving forward because that looked like a safe path; until I got to the gym leader, of course. When I got to the gym leader, an earsplitting scream could be heard. This is where I got freaked out the most. I couldn't even imagine a jump scare being in a Pokémon game! The gym leader said "I am the gym leader of Crimson City. I only use certain types of Pokémon; Pokémon that will scare the living daylights out of you, child." That was all she said. So I decided to leave the room. That's when things got a little bit unnerving. "́͟Ỳ̷͟͡ó̀͘u͢ ̨̕͟c҉̴̶à̕͡n̵̛n҉̧͜o̧͠t̛͟ ̢͟͞͡҉l̷̷͡͝è̴̶av̧̛e͏̶̀҉̴.̷͟͟ ̨̧͘͘T̷́͠h̷͢͠i͢҉̢s̴̨̧ ͝h̛͟͞͝á̴͏͡s̶҉ ͟͡͝o̷̷͢͟͝ǹ̷̸̵l̀͜ý̶҉̶ ̵́̕j̵̛̕͘u̡̕ś̀͡t̀͘ ̡̧҉́b͡ę̴̶͘͢ģ̢̡̕͠ú̴̸̢͠ń̕҉̵̛.̀͝"̶̸̧̕͢ appeared onscreen. Then the screen got all staticky. I tried moving toward the door, but the static kept getting worse and worse. Then pictures of Ghost appeared onscreen every three steps I make. When I got to the door, "̷́̕͡͡Ý̵ò͝҉u ̨̨͞c̷̡a̵͜n̛͡ǹ̷̢̢̕o͏̴͘̕ţ̵̵̧͟ ļ̵ȩ̴͢a̵̶̛̛͢v̶̕͝è̵̶"̷̸̢ appeared onscreen and the screen faded to black. I then teleported to a new room. I saw the gym leader, but she looked... different. "͏̴̢̛͡Y̡͢o͜͡͞u̷̡̨͟͜ ̨̕w͏̡̛͝͡i̵̡͜͏̧l̢̕͏l̵̨̀͟ p̛͜͝͞e͏̵̧ŕ͏̡i͡s̵̕͟h̷͠͝ ̵͜í̶͟n̵͜͡ ̨f̷̛́l̴̢͏a̢m͏̸͜҉e̡s̶̷̕͠͠.҉̧"̡͜͠ she said. I got teleported outside, but there was nothing there. Just what the town looked like, but with no buildings whatsoever. The Lavender Town theme started playing, but every fifteen steps I took, it started playing slower and slower, and so did I, until I started moving so slow I could barely tell I was moving. I finally got to the end of the road, when I saw somebody. Luckily, this was a normal person. He said "Goodbye, Red," and the screen faded out to crimson. It showed an overview of Crimson City, aging really rapidly, buildings appearing and some disappearing, until eventually, Crimson City just disappeared altogether, with the route outside of Rock Tunnel appearing in its place. When things got back to normal, I was nowhere to be seen. Another cut to crimson. A box appeared saying "Many Years Later." It faded back to Pallet Town, and my character was there, getting his Starter Pokémon. "Red II, this Pokemon will always serve and protect you." Professor Oak said. After much thought, I realized that what I just played was what happened before Red, Blue, Yellow and Green took place. Back then, there was a city called Crimson City. Anyway, the screen cut to static for fifteen seconds, and then the hall of fame appeared, cycling through my Pokémon, but halfway through, Haunter appeared and that same earsplitting shriek started playing. I turned my gameboy off, really shocked, and it turned off. But when I turned it back on, Haunter was still onscreen, and that shriek was even louder. A box appeared saying "Don't turn around." I turned around, and there, in flesh and blood, was Red as a zombie. "Why, Caleb? Why did you kill me?" he asked, in a voice like he was having trouble breathing. "I didn't mean to. I'm sorry! Don't hurt me!" I said. "Don't worry. I have something much more horrifying in store for you. You see, I have been searching for years for somebody to kill me, that way I become real. But you were my victim. You're my hero; My big, stupid hero. From now on, you are to take my place. Come, sit down!" he said, pulling a chair out. I sat in the chair and got electrocuted. I then reappeared in my room, but it looked exactly as it would have looked in Red and Blue. I heard Red laughing, as a disembodied voice. "From now on, Caleb, you are to take my place, going through my adventure over and over again, never aging, living through the same story. And maybe you will see how horrifying my life is," he said. He gave my gameboy, which was still on, to a little girl, who thanked him and started playing. I started moving automatically, without even trying. I then realized, I really was taking place. Then, the little girl got bored. She deleted the file, and my world went black. I just realized; when she deleted my game, I died.

Part 2: The Girl

I am the girl who killed Caleb. It was an accident, I had no idea he was trapped in the game. Anyway, this was my story leading up to the point when Caleb died. This is sort of like an amuse-bouche, a prequel about what happened before. My name is Sally. I am eleven years old. I've been a fan of Pokémon for a few months now, but all I could find were newer, generation IV games for the Nintendo DS. I wanted old games, like Generation I games for the Gameboy. So, I found and bought Pokémon Red on eBay. I was the highest bidder, bidding around sixty three dollars. When the game started, I named my character "Sal." I played through the game relatively quickly; it only took around thirty six hours because I am really good at Pokémon. I then took around three days catching the rest of the Pokémon, trading with my best friend, Sarah, until I got the last Pokémon, Mew. When I went back to professor Oak, he congratulated me and I entered battle with Mewtwo. I got bored of battling so I caught it in my trusty Masterball. I looked at its stats; it was very strong, so I decided to fight the elite four. When I got to Gary, though, that's when things started to get strange. Instead of fighting me right away, he asked me to answer some questions, ie why did you bid sixty three dollars on the game, what took you so long to get it, etc. The game cut to black around then. A box showed up; this must have been a cutscene. The box said "Sal fell into a coma right before fighting Blue, the champion. Six months have passed since she fell asleep. The Kanto region hasn't been the same since," and the game faded into Lavender Town. My character moved to the Pokémon Tower automatically. But she did it very slowly, like one step every five minutes. It took her about twenty minutes to make it to the Lavender Tower before I finally got back control of her. When I entered Lavender Tower, I talked to an old woman who told me to "GET OUT, GET OUT, NOW!" prompting me to leave. My Gameboy turned off by itself. I hung out with my friends, Sarah and Vivian, for the next few days. My mom got cancer. I looked at my Pokémon Red version, and I noticed something about my Pokémon team. Here was my Pokémon list:

1) Charizard

2) Arbok

3) Nidoqueen

4) Chansey

5) Eevee

6) Raichu.

They were all really weak, and I started to wonder...then it hit me. Here is the list again, eliminating everything but the first letters:

1) C

2) A

3) N

4) C

5) E

6) R

Before I looked at my Pokémon team, I didn't know my mom had cancer, and I didn't know now, but it was still really strange. I got sucked into my game for a couple of days. My brother, Andrew sunk into a depression over his girlfriend not loving him anymore and ended up committing suicide. My dad wound up in jail for infuriating a police officer. My mom got sicker and sicker as the day went on, and as she did, my Pokémon became stronger and stronger. I thought it was a coincidence, as I was training them, but then, I thought, it couldn't be. One day, my Pokémon were all level one hundred except for my Raichu, who was level 98. My mother called me to her bedside and asked why I didn't come when she asked. She was near death. That's when I put two and two together. My game was sucking the life out of my mother just so I could have stronger Pokémon. I tried to help her, until eventually it blurted out of me. "Mom, the reason you have cancer is because my game is killing you. My Pokémon party reads CANCER whenever you look at it. She asked me to see my game cartridge, so I gave it to her. She took it and threw it at the wall, thus breaking the game. She grounded me for three weeks, but I couldn't take it around the two and a half week mark. I took all of my stuff and climbed out the window. I live with Sarah now, and her mom is ok with it, and she won't tell as long as I don't get in trouble with her. Sarah and I were playing Super Mario World on her SNES when I went to the kitchen because. The phone rang, and I couldn't believe my ears when I picked up. IT WAS RED!!! He said to come to Caleb's house immediately, he had something for me. At the time I didn't know who Caleb was, I just knew he was alive. He goes to my school, has a solid D+ average. Wondering what was up, I went over and saw Caleb strapped to an electric chair, getting electrocuted. Red saw me and waved. This pretty much brings us to the present. Red gave me the gameboy; I played for a few seconds before getting really bored and deleting the file. I didn't know Caleb was in the game. I cried for days and went to Caleb's funeral. Halfway through the funeral, I saw Caleb's ghost coming out of the grave, with his Charizard. He told his Charizard to use Flamethrower directly at me, saying "Make sure she goes down with me."

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