The Third Option

I have noticed that ever-since I wrote that story on "Decisions" and the Bulbasaur that was left behind that I have been finding a ton of stories that are similar.

A part of me thinks this is cool while the other part of me is disappointed because I was really hoping that I had written something special. Either way...here is a cool Pasta I found on DeviantArt.

---Element02

The Third Option

 * by *lunast, Jan 1, 2012, 6:15:25 AM
 * Literature / Prose / Fiction / Horror / Short Stories

I had always chose fire starters, no questions asked. Something about them just makes them so cool and partner worthy.

A month ago, I had just finished my Pokemon Platinum. With my worthy partner - Infernape ( you would have guessed by now ). I grew bored with these new generations. Thinking back, I remembered how exciting Pokemon Red was when it first came out. How nostalgic.

Maybe it was just a spur of the moment, but I really wanted to play Red again.

I've asked my friend at school the next day if I could borrow his Pokemon Red. He'd told me he'd finished it a thousand times, and glitched with it so badly the game barely runs anymore. I'd told him to fix up a few bugs, and lent it to me.

I found my old Gameboy Color blanketed in dust on top of my shelf. It still worked, thank god. I smacked the old cartridge in and started the game. I could feel the nostalgia already.

His saved file.. I should check it out before I start a new one, I thought.

If you were expecting it to be all glitch city with sprites disfigured and streaming with blood. Sorry to disappoint, it was a normal save file at pallet town... looked like he'd just finished beating the elite four. His team was alright, I saw he had a love for fire starters like me.

I restarted the GBC, and started a new file. Skimmed through the instructions hastily. I'd named my player 'Red' (because the game was Pokemon Red, and I have the tendency to keep things that way.) And My rival 'Green' Like in Pokemon Special.

Speeded my way through all the intro, I'd finally found myself in front of my three choices. I chose Charmander, without a doubt. I didn't feel very creative at the time. So I called him Char. I could change the name later on, I knew where the name rater was.

Green chose Squirtle, and that's when the games started glitching. I thought it be natural, since I got the game from a Pro-Glitcher. As soon as Green chose squirtle, a low-pitched, quiet call of a familiar pokemon echoed. I tried to trigger the event again so I could identify the pokemon, but nothing happened. I shrugged it off.

I continued my journey, it was painfully slow, and I constantly wandered when I could get to the ass-kicking part. I had to deliver Oak's Parcel first.

I went back to Oak and delivered the parcel, I raced through the dialogue. When he'd complimented on my relationship with my charmander, I heard that low cry again. The same, distorted, painful cry. But this time it was louder. The trigger event had no pattern. I had to figure this out... I went around the lab, clicking on everything. But nothing turned out to be the trigger.

After this, the road towards Viridian and Pewter city was a bit glitched. With the odd 'cut-able' trees here and there, framed by glitches. Colourful, I thought. This ought to be interesting... I made sure I saved every so often, I didn't want to risk it.

Viridian forest was the first weird event. When I'd reached the end of the forest, just before the entrance to pewter city, a line of glitchy trees appeared, with a pokeball in the middle. I tried walking around it, but it seems clicking on the glitchy trees would only freeze the game, which I had to restart. I had no choice but to click on the pokeball.

A Yes or No option popped up. It didn't even make sense.

My Charmander was poisoned and had only 10 hp left, the only other pokemon I had turned out to be a lv. 5 caterpie. (How useful) I didn't want to risk it, in case it was a pop up pokemon like electrodes in the power plant. So I selected no.

There it was again, that low, sad cry. I didn't have enough time to react before it disappeared, taking the row of glitchy trees with it.

So my Glitch-loving friend had put some eerie events in it? I thought it was going to be awesome.

The game continued as normal, like before, only with the odd trees here and there. The glitching grew worse, however. Dialogues would show alien characters, some paths were blocked off by glitchy codes or just plain black nothingness that would freeze your game upon setting foot on. After many saves and goes, I finally found myself in S.S Anne. I thought the weird pokemon call glitch had stopped. Until I heard it again, low and almost inaudible, but I caught it. I was overcame with anxiety when I came to the conclusion that I could find this mysterious Glitch in S.S Anne. I had to be careful with everything, to find the trigger.

Disappointed, nothing was on the lower decks. This meant that if I wanted to find my glitch, I had to go through with battling Green. Luckily, this wasn't the case. Strangely enough. I made my way to where Green was supposed to appear and boast about his pokemons, instead I saw his sprite running and bumping towards Red, knocking him a step away. The Green sprite than looks back towards the stairs, and continued running until he disappeared on the left of the screen. He'd dropped a pokeball behind, and upon inspection, it was the HM Cut that Captain was supposed to give me.

Curious enough... I still wondered what he was running away from.

There it was again! As I entered the captain's room. I heard the glitchy cry again. Louder and much clearer this time, though I was still unable to make out what pokemon it was. The captain's room was very badly glitched with lots of glitchy trees, big and small. I tried to talk to the captain, but nothing happened. As I move back towards the door, a glitchy tree blocked my way. I tried to click on it, but I realized I didn't want have any pokemon with Cut, and I was reluctant to teach anyone of them it.

Annoyed, I closed the menu and a dialogue appeared. A few words were very distorted, but I can just about make out what it was trying to say:

_UL_A__UR CA_N L_E_RN _THE M_VE CUT T_EEACH CUT T_ _UL_A__UR?

A Yes or No Option popped up again, I chose yes, of course. I wanted to obtain this glitch so badly, who knows what amazing tricks it could do to my boring screen.

I was really pissed off when a notice about a full pokemon team popped up, stopping me from obtaining my glitch. The very dialogue that the daycare couple would say to you if you had a full team. I cursed under my breath, and chose no again, reluctantly. The same dialogue showed up, a little different, it looked more like a command than a request.

It pains me just as much to let you go, little glitch thing. I had no other choice, I smashed on the B button and hoped for some solution.

It gave up after a few goes. The distorted cry rang again, loud this time, and sounded angered. The screen was glitched and there were gitchy trees everywhere. It seemed like the ship was going to collapse. If I wanted to live until I got the glitch, I better make a run for it, I thought. So I did. I managed to find a way through the mazes of glitchy trees and found myself outside of S.S Anne, with the ship looking like a big mess of conjured MissingNo's.

The next weird event didn't occur until I got to Lavender town. I'd been expecting it, however, it was this event that shook me most of all. The rumored ghost town of pokemon, and probably responsible for the suicides of many children who supposedly had gone crazy after hearing the tone. Lovely. I thought, as I turned up the volume. This ought to be interesting.

I decided to pay a visit to the famous 'white hand' girl, see what interesting things she had to say. Instead, she turned to my character and an empty dialogue appeared, glitching her sprite a little on every click. After about ten tries, her sprite had glitched so badly nothing happened when I clicked on her anymore. Guess it wanted me to move on. I was truly a bit shaken when I'd thought I saw a white dot that resembled a hand on my sprites shoulder. Which turned out to be a mere dust on the screen. But I could have sworn I felt my shoulders twitch with the presence of something. I'd turned around just in case, and loosened up my shoulders. Maybe I should change a seat.

I had heard the familiar cry as I entered the pokemon tower. The first sign that things are about to go wrong. I tried to talk to the other characters but they said nothing, but merely turned to face my character like the little girl. When I reached second floor, I encountered Green again. He turned to my character and an empty dialogue popped up. I pressed A, and words appeared. Human words. You have no idea how much of a relief it was. So much of a relief for me at the time I didn't notice how weird he was behaving. The dialogue went something like this:

'''GREEN: RED! LOOK AT WHAT YOU'VE DONE! YOU SHOULDN'T HAVE CHOSEN HIM FROM THE START! NOW ITS COMING FOR US'''

His sprite had turned to its left, then to its right again. Another glitched cry. I could feel Green's fear.

'''GREEN: RED! YOU HAVE TO SACRIFICE HIM'''

Then my menu had popped up. When I tried to click B, the same dialogue appeared and led me back to the menu. Confused and a little anxious, I'd opened up my pokemons and clicked on Char and an option box popped up. And on the first line, written in bold, was SACRIFICE. I felt a shudder, now it  was just turning creepy. I tried to shrug it off, and laughed weakly. I am so going to make him pay for this tomorrow, I had thought.

I hesitantly clicked on the option. But nothing came up. My breath fell short for a second, and waited. It turned out that my game merely froze. That's all. I sighed, half in relief, and restarted the game. I was so sure I'd saved last outside name rater's house. But there Red was, standing where he was the game had froze. Only Green had ran off somewhere.

I decided to progress through the game. More and more glitchy trees appeared as I climed. Also, curious... and eerie enough, no pokemon appeared at all during my trip to the top of the tower. Not even when I'd reached where mother marowak was supposed to be.

At the top of the tower was a small, un-animated mini sprite of the kind of dragon-like pokemon that appeared in your pokemon team. It released the same glitchy cry loudly as I approached. I was so sure this was what I had been looking for all this time. I clicked A, standing in front of it. And my pokemon team popped up. With the option for SACRIFICE under Char. I wanted to get to the end of this, so I sacrificed him.

Just as I had clicked, glitchy trees had appeared around Char's profile, and a high pitched techno- screeching sound rang. Followed by the dialogue you'd get  when you run out of usable pokemons:

RED RAN OUT OF USABLE POKEMONS! RED BLACKED OUT!

My sprite was re-spawned outside what seemed to look like the Indigo plateau. I checked my pokemon team, surprisingly, Char was still there, his name replaced by FIRE, my other team members, however were gone.

I had made my way through the Pokecenter and the empty rooms. There were no signs of Nurse Joys, store clark, or any of the elite four anywhere. The Place was only filled with fucking glitchy trees and messed up tiles. I had dared myself to go on, and block out the distorted cry I had heard so much I got used to. Into the last room. I met what I thought was Green. For a short second I felt relief. But upon closer inspection, its sprite was messed up too, and made no reaction upon clicking. My trembled fingers urged Red to go on, and when I had heard the cry again, this time louder and screechier, I stopped breathing, scared it might hear the slightest sound I make.

It was the table that was supposed to be in Oak's lab - the table of starter pokemon choices. One lone ball sat in the middle.

My character froze as another cry was emitted from the devil. And a few short seconds later, I entered a battle scene with it.

It had turned out to the the last starter pokemon, Bulbasaur. That was rejected by the player and the rival. I gave a mad, weak laugh, that explains the glitchy trees. I studied the glitch carefully, its sprite was replaced by the sprite from pokemon yellow. Only, black and white... and was pretty fucked up. Its left eye glitched black, and it seemed to be grinning like a madman. When It cried again, I was finally certain this was the source of cry I had heard.

Red sent FIRE out, I was heartbroken to find him as a level 5 Charmander again, All these time, training for nothing.

The Bulbasaur was used cut, I cringed as FIRE's hp fell to half.

AM I NOT USEFUL

I pleaded for a yes or no option to come.

AM I NOT POWERFUL

As it used cut once more, I heard my Char's cry beg for mercy. A low, dying whimpering.

WHY MUST I ALWAYS BE THE THIRD OPTION

The screen flashed a couple of times, and gameboy went completely berserk. The words overflowed the dialogue as a sharp, ear-piercing screech emitted from the speakers, it sounded like nails on a blackboard. I yelped, throwing my gameboy at the wall in a futile attempt to stop the noise. But it continued. I shriveled up, dragging myself away from it, and clawed at my ears and begged it to stop. My eyes were watering, and I felt my brain melt. I peeked from my eyes and saw the screen:

CHOOSEMECHOOSEME CHOOSEMECHOOSEME CHOOSEMECHOOSEME

I must have been crazy, or had no choice. I grabbed the sharpest item close to me, which turned out to be a pair of scissors, threw myself on to the gameboy, and started attacking its batterie slot. A sharp pain, like a knife stabbing at my ears, and the sounds started to die down. I smiled, either I was starting to get used to it, or it had given up. Either way, it seemed at the time to be a tremendous victory.

Almost there, I felt what seemed like sweat rolling down my temples. I successfully broke its hard plastic shell, and I dug impatiently into the batteries and hacked it out. The scream stopped.

There was a short moment of utterly, complete silence. It was good not to hear anything. I wiped the sweat off my forehead, and my neck. I cringed. Fuck, that's all that I could think of at the time. My hand were stained with blood, not a lot, but definitely enough to freak you out at the time. This thing must have done something to my eardrums. I should probably get to a hospital sometime soon.

I grabbed a few pieces of tissue paper, and held it to my ear. I probably should start a new game before I get to the hospital... Just so my heart can finally rest, knowing the nightmare's officially ended.

Hesitantly, I slotted the batteries back into its place. And started the game. The Startup screen! That's a good start.

No continue file, every thing's going better than I'd expected.

I started a new game, and found myself in front of the choosing table again. But I was pretty sure I know what I was doing. I was too freaked out by this experience to ever look at Bulbasaur properly anymore.. and I didn't want to risk the same experience again by choosing Charmander. I went directly for Squirtle. Feeling quite proud of my flawless plan. This way, Bulbasaur won't be left behind, and I don't have to sacrifice another ear.

'''I threw the gameboy at the wall and broke it. But a Charmander's low-pitched, quiet call echoed in my head throughout the night.''' .