Αίμα

Genesect used to be my favorite Pokémon. After this. . . I’m not sure what to think.

It was a nice sunny July morning. There was an event going around about catching a Genesect in Pokémon Black & White. Since Genesect was my favorite Pokémon, it was only a matter of time before I found out.

When I found out about it, I was excited. Though I had only just bought the game not long ago, I wasn’t at the area where to get the Genesect. So I was rushing through the game, hoping to finish it in before the event ended. But one day I was searching for hacks to get through the game faster, which was something I rarely did, and I only did when I really wanted to, I found something that caught my attention.

It was a hack for the event Genesect. I read the description, and it said once you download the code, and you press a certain combination of buttons before finding the Genesect with Ghetsis, then the Genesect would be shiny. In my head I thought “A shiny Genesect! May as well.” So I got the code for later on. The maker of the hack was named “UnknownHacker”.

So after a while, I finally beat the game, so right away I rushed to get to the island to get Genesect. For a while, I had forgotten about the shiny code, until I was talking to Ghetsis. I very quickly reviewed the combination before Ghetsis finished talking. So before Genesect appeared, I pressed the combination.

“ A-A-Down-Up-B-Y-X”

When I finished, I thought I saw the game color scheme get a bit darker, but I ignored it, thinking it was just my imagination.

The battle with Genesect commenced. I had a master ball at ready to capture it. When it appeared, it was red shiny. But not a bright red like I expected, it was more of a dark, bloody color. Its eyes were also red, instead of the blue color it was supposed to be. I didn’t pay attention to the minor details, though. I was too excited to catch it.

I threw out my Level 78 Chandelure named Lure to face it, thought I didn’t need it to attack. The text box quickly read “Lure is shivering in pain”. I didn’t know what it meant, but I was still ignorant. I didn’t pay attention to the text.

I went to my bag and selected master ball. I threw it at the Genesect. One, Two, Three. . . Click. I was very happy. I had caught a shiny Genesect!

The battle scene faded to show Ghetsis in front of me. Instead of what I expected, which was for him to get mad and run, he chuckled. Like, actually chuckled. Out of my headphones I heard him chuckle. The chuckling turned to hysterical laughing, so loud I had to turn the volume down.

“Thank you Trainer, you have saved me! Rejoice! The pain is gone at last!”

He ran off, leaving me to ponder what happened. Though, again, I was too excited on the catching of the Genesect to pay any attention.

The Genesect was already nicknamed, which I figured was part of the event.

“Αίμα”

I had no idea what language that was, or if that was even a word. I didn’t care. He was level 50. His nature was “Crazed”. I had never seen a Pokémon with a crazed nature. This is when I started to be a bit worried. With Ghetsis’s text, the name, the nature. It was. . . creepy, for a lack of a better word. But I continued on.

I decided to test its strength against some strong Pokémon around level 49-53. Αίμα defeated them all in one hit. All battles started out the same, with it saying “The opposing Pokémon is shivering in pain”. Αίμα had 3 moves: Slash, Curse, and its signature move, Techno Blast. It didn’t have any Drives, so it was stuck with one type. Still, it was a cool animation to watch.

The other thing that was strange was the words after a Pokémon was defeated. “The opposing Pokémon has collapsed in pain”. I was really starting to get worried about this. But I continued playing. Not until Αίμα was level 75 did I get bored. I decided to call it a day. I looked at the time, realizing I had spent hours playing. It was midnight. I fell asleep, unaware of the things to come the next day.

When I woke up, I saw my DSI directly in front of me. Strange, I thought, I had left it at the counter last night. Well, since it was there, I decided to play. I plugged in my game, and selected continue.

I was in the cave, but Αίμα was standing in front of me. Again, strange, since only Heartgold and Soulsilver allowed that. Then a text box appeared underneath.

“Why did you leave?”

I was scared, thinking it was talking to me. Not possible, I thought to myself, it’s just a game. But deep inside, I knew he was talking to me.

“Answer me! Why did you leave me!?”

I was really freaked out. “I didn’t leave! I just went to bed!” I thought I had gone insane, talking to a video game, but to my surprise, it spoke back.

“You left me in the dark… When I could have been killing more Pokémon…”

Wait, I thought. ''He killed Pokémon? ''

“Now that your back, you will not leave again. I will make sure of that.”

His sprite moved along, and my trainer followed. I wasn’t in control. He turned around, and stared at me. Stared at me. It was a game, but I had a feeling it was more than that.

We were at the Elite Four. It automatically went into battle with Shauntal. I only had Αίμα as my Pokémon, versus Shauntal’s entire team. But I didn’t control anything. The Genesect instant KOd all Shauntal’s Pokémon. The same message appeared for all of them “The opposing Pokémon has collapsed in pain.”

It went on for the other 3 Elite Four, then even the Champion, Alder. After defeating Alder, a text message appeared. “Alder has had his life force sucked out of him.” This scared me a lot. I wanted to shut of the game, but the power button wouldn’t let me.

“Leaving so soon?” said The Genesect. “But the fun has just started…”

It took me through many scenarios, Genesect killing Bianca, then Cheren, then Juniper, then my own in game mother. It went on for so long my eyes hurt. But I couldn’t look away. I wanted to. But I couldn’t. The scenes were so gruesome, so gory, I just couldn’t look away. The reason why, I didn’t know.

After this went on for most characters in the game, Genesect looked at the screen. Directly at me.

“You’re next… Ethen…”

By then I was really spooked. Ethen was my real name. But how Αίμα knew that was unknown. He jumped at my in game character. It showed a scene even more gruesome then the last ones. Limbs teared out of my trainer’s body. Blood pouring out of his eyes, one eye replaced by an eye socket. An entire arm was missing, with instead blood pouring out.

For a split second, so quick I thought I imagined it, the screen flickered, showing instead of the character, my face. The face was distorted, so scary, I still have nightmares about it. A frozen scream on his face, with both eyes black, blood streaming down like tears.

A text box appeared, the text red like blood, slowly appearing, but I knew it was coming before it finished.

“Say goodbye… FOREVER.”

Suddenly, I had a pain in my chest, like it was scratched with a knife. Or rather… claws. It hurt so much. I was dying. Black spots danced along my vision. I did the only thing I could think of. I threw the DSI at a fireplace which happened to be nearby, happened to be turned on.

When the DS hit the fire, it wailed. A scream so loud it could have shattered glass. I had to cover my ears to avoid passing out. It died down. I chanced a look, and saw the DS melted, but the cartridge was still there. I grabbed a hammer and smashed it, smashed it like my life depended on it.

It was over.

I looked down at my shirt, and noticed it was stained with blood, and underneath, scratch marks were clearly visible. I passed out.

Later, when I woke up, I was in the hospital. Apparently, someone in a nearby home had heard the scream from the DS, thinking it was me. She had immediately called 911, so police and ambulance came in the driveway. They had found me laying on the ground, with one large scratch mark on me. Other than that, I was ok.

I tried to tell people what happened. No one believed me. After a while, I gave up trying to convince people. I decided it was better they not believe me then try out the hack themselves.

While laying down I thought about the other people who could have downloaded the code. There had to be more people like me who wanted a shiny Genesect. They couldn’t have been as lucky with a fireplace nearby…

When thinking about that, a thought suddenly hit me. I had studied Greek back in high school, and I had realized something.

Αίμα in Greek means blood.