..like a face peering through a half-opened door..

I loved pokemon glitches.

Namely the ones that you wouldn’t see much people talking about today, Xu-Xu, XY’s weird shiny bulbasaur that was lvl. 999 in all places and also seemed to be mega, you know the ones. The ones that tend to also be..on the freaky side as well, such as the Ghost of Glitch City and her apparent connection with some old gold/silver beta dialogue about someone’s daughter going missing in the Burned Tower, Charizard ‘M, etc etc…

One, however, always seemed to catch my eye every time.

It was the Female Symbol, whose name was just glitchy gibberish and the symbol itself, the one who dwarfed all non-glitch pokemon, the freaky as hell dex entry, and its infamous long, unsettling, and almost endless cry. Its sprite freaked me out, what a shock, because of the way the darkness around it seemed to cover the items menu, and the whole “endless cry” thing that played alongside it as well.

Moving on from that, I had decided to go to one of my local game shops, mostly for new games to get for my consoles. As I entered, everything seemed as usual as it could be, bored (maybe underpaid) teenagers working the desk leaning against a wall and playing on their phone, games and consoles lining the walls and such.

That's when I noticed something on top of the stuff that was in the USED GAMES bin sitting right behind the counter. It was a pokemon cartridge, I went up to the desk, clearly excited.

“Hey, uh-” I motioned to the cartridge, “-how much does that cost?” the teenager looked up, once again clearly bored out of their mind. “Oh, that one?” they looked over at the cartridge, picking it up, “Came in today in a small box for some reason, whoever dropped at the doorstep must've ran off once I got to the door, it's goin’ for 2$.” I giggled quietly, “I’ll take it!”

Once I had paid and went back home, I inspected the cartridge a bit more, it seemed to look like one of the B2/W2 cartridges, the paper that would have the title and such on it was..all black, I couldn’t see anything, and the Pokemon logo was just..there, nothing else. Well, this was going to be fun.

I grabbed my old 3DS and plopped the game in there, I started the game..and found myself already standing outside a house in Humilau City, whoever dropped this off must’ve saved it here. I opened the menu, noticing that..my trainer name was blank, I went to open it, and everything..seemed fine.

I closed that, and went to see my pokemon, I had only..4 pokemon, a Blastoise named “?” that knew surf, waterfall, dive, and hydro cannon. The 2nd pokemon was a Venusaur, named “!”, who knew razor leaf, grass pledge, giga drain, and poison jab, this one was shiny. The 3rd one was a Charizard named “.”, who knew fly, flamethrower, fire pledge, and aerial ace.

The final one..was a Raichu named with only a colon, it was shiny as well, and knew thunderbolt, thunder, thunder punch, and thunder fang. Odd names, but I supposed the previous owner didn’t have many names to think of. I decided to go inside the house, noticing an old woman sprite in there.

I went to speak with her.

[ Ah, hello! I don’t get many visitors here! ] she paused for a second, looking around as if she was nervous before stopping. [ ..Are you sure you want to hear my old tale of the SIREN OF THE DEEP? I must warn you, it's a cautionary one… ] a YES OR NO option popped up, I couldn’t pick NO, so I selected YES.

[ ..Alright then. When I was just a young lass like you, I was..prone to wanting to bend rules, break outside boundaries, you name it. I wanted to explore, and now I wish to just go back in time and give my younger self a fearful warning. It was a calm and clear day, and today seemed to be the day which I so foolishly decided to try and see what really laid in the ABYSSOPELAGIC part of the sea. I embarked on that fateful journey with my pokemon in tow. ]

[ If only I knew the answer wouldn’t have been so kind. ]

She turned away from the player, walking up to a fireplace.

[ I dove down deep, and deeper, wearing the scuba outfit I was given as I descended deeper and deeper until the light couldn’t reach us. That's when I found it, the MARIANA DEN, where I felt a presence that almost felt akin to that of one of the many LEGENDARY POKEMON out there. I held a dive ball in my hand, and went in. ]

[ I found myself at the dry land part of the den, and used the move FLASH, which I taught one of my beloved fire pokemon. The other side was covered in darkness, and it seemed even light couldn’t breach it, as I took a step forward, a rumble emitted from that side, and I saw..the SIREN appear. Its body still so surrounded by the inky darkness, but I could see its crimson red color, as it emitted a song so horrible, so POWERFUL that it made my body shiver and sweat. ]

[ Oh, perhaps it was natural human instinct that saved me, as I quickly turned heel and ran, and ran and ran and ran! Until I dove back up to the surface and showed up at my parents house shivering, that wretched song still playing in the back of my head, my face drained of color. ]

[ It was then that I decided to call off adventuring for good. ]

She turned back to me, and walked right up.

[ Listen, trainer, should you ever try to find the SIREN OF THE DEEP, you must heed this tale not as a warning. ]

That was when the convo ended. The description of the SIREN was one I knew right on the spot, the infamous FEMALE SYMBOL. This started to make me both curious and excited about what this hack had in store. I walked up to where you could start surfing on the sea, and found the rocky barriers that once prevented you from traveling any further..had vanished.

I surfed on and on, no change that I could see until I reached a dark spot where one could dive, I approached it, and pressed A. The screen then faded to black, and took awhile to fade back in, where I found myself in front of the MARIANA DEN that the old lady mentioned. The screen was tinted a dark, dull blue, with the only light coming from my player.

I entered the den.

It wasn’t all that hard to see, and I moved forward, eventually reaching the room where I would..meet the SIREN. Interesting name for a glitch pokemon, was it the song?

My trainer took a few steps forward, and an ! appeared above their head as the room rumbled, and the dark blue became a bright red tint. I was thrown into battle shortly thereafter..

The music started off slow, some parts clearly off-note as it started to get faster, in a frantic sort-of-way, and it slid onto the screen. FEMALE SYMBOL seemed to have its old colors like before..however, its sprite looked like different water-type pokemon parts mashed together, with that darkness covering up most of its features.

'[ ! W LD !?♀., APPEA ? .REDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD ]'

Oh, what the HECK?

Now this was starting to get freaky, I sent out Raichu first, which..wasn’t Blastoise in front already? I tried to use thunder punch, and another glitchy and messed up text box appeared.

[ ! b u ! T it F. il E ? d.. ]

[ ♀ ! us ? ED  ETERNAL LULL/ ?? ABY ! ?., ]

I covered my ears as a horrible ear-piercing sound emitted from the game, the screen going crazy and sprites becoming corrupted as junk proceeded to fill the screen, leaving only FEMALE SYMBOL untouched, and right as the game forced itself to close-out, I could’ve sworn..

That it had turned its many eyes on me.