Randomized Fates

Hey! I figured I’ll share this with people because the memory just resurfaced, I’ll try to describe what I’ll remember now so some things may be a bit odd.

-

I always was a big fan of stuff that could modify the data of Pokemon games. Randomizers, EXTREME Randomizers, you name it. I was hoping to do one myself once I got my hands on a good pokemon game to do one on. I eventually decided on Heartgold, a game that I watched one of my friends play over and over.

After fiddling with the game and the randomizer I chose, I ended up putting it into my DS, watching with excitement as the intro animation played. As the game eventually started, I went through the regular motions as per each game, eventually reaching where I’ll pick out my starter.

They were...a curious choice, to say the least.

Suicune

Onix

Salamance.

Due to me always liking getting a legendary for a starter, I picked out Suicune, naming it “Storm”. It played out as normal, running into unusual pokemon..you know, how usual randomizers work. But..when it got to the first Silver battle, things started to get..weird.

He sent out a charmander, and after I beat him…

“...Wasn’t this a chikorita..?”

..Whaat the heck, never mind the fact that..his sprite seemed slightly concerned. Something about that left an uneasy pit in my stomach as I continued to play on. Eventually I managed to get a full team, plus the mystery egg. As I continued on my journey to beat Red, I noticed something else.

Silver’s fights weren’t..appearing at their right time like they were supposed to.

Everytime I did get to fight him, his sprite looked more and more concerned, like there was something wrong. His messages seemed to sound more and more concerning as well, one that..really stuck out to me was this one:

''[ Something isn’t right here. ]''

The idea of an AI becoming self-aware through something like a randomizer..something about that seemed really interesting and yet worrying to me. It wasn’t until I became champion that I saw Silver again.

His overworld sprite seemed..glitchy, almost. Like the game was trying to hold him back itself.

There was no dialogue that was said before the battle started, it seemed to get stuck on a black screen for a moment, but then the battle finally faded in. There was no music as my trainer and Silver's sprite came onto screen, but..when the textbox said “__ WANTS TO BATTLE!” came up..

''[ PKMN TRAINER ?SILV_?R WANTS ?TO ?BAT_LE ! ]''

…

...Oh crap.

He sent out...something, it looked like it was a mix of a megaium and another pokemon, glitchy as all hell and the cry sounding distorted beyond all understandingl. Whatever had happened to that poor thing seemed worse than..death, as much as I hate to say it.

I sent out my level 100 Suicune, his Thing-ium was at level 80, which means it..wouldn’t be that much of a challenge, right?

That proved to be true as I ended up taking it out rather quickly, the Thing-ium letting out a lower-pitched cry as it fainted. Next up was..Crobat? It looked like it but..had some parts of Ho-oh glitching in, the cry distorted aswell.

I found myself plowing through the rest of his team, his sprite seemed more desperate, more..upset.

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Oh.

Oh my god.

The game crashed, letting out an ear-piercing sound as it exited, the usual software crashed message popping up. I (although shaking) closed the DS as I realized it was around night time. Maybe it was time to..take a break from playing Heartgold for a long time.

-

It had been a month or so after that accident, I..haven’t touched that save file in awhile, although I figured I was finally strong enough to play it again. I plopped open the DS, opening Heartgold and reaching the save screen, when the corrupted save file text popped up.

..Somehow, that felt so relieving

The game seemed..un-randomized (if that was even a word!), hoping that would satisfy that little red haired bastard. I figured that the hell was over! I could just..play the game normally!

That hope fell down a bit when I didn’t see Silver looking into the lab. Only an empty space that..I could only walk around in and thumb against the wall. As I got the egg from Mr. Pokemon and started to head back to New Bark Town…

An exclamation point appeared over my character's head as a mess of pixels slowly moved on screen, forming a familiar sprite.

God. Fucking. Damn it.

'[ ?KMN TRA?NER S?LV_!R2 WA?NTS T0 BA_TT_E ! !? ]'

His battle sprite appeared on screen, much more glitchy and much more..angry. He sent out his messed up starter. I quickly noticed how..somewhat unscrewed it looked, with a bunch of glitched pixels covering its eyes and feet. Unsurprisingly, he wiped the floor with me using a single hyper-beam.

...but that just led to the game crashing once more, freezing as Thing-ium used it, the giant beam landing right onto my starter with an ear-hurting beep. The software crashed message popped up once more as I leaned back, covering my eyes with my hands and letting out a frustrated groan.

I needed to go take a break.

-

It had been awhile.

I had long since reopened the game, relieved to find that despite the corrupted save file, everything seemed normal (either it was for the best or worst, I couldn’t tell.), Silver seemed to function normally without any sentience or glitches, and I got through the game without any problems.

It had dawned on me that after getting bored with the game after doing all the post-game stuff, defeating RED, etc..I could sell it! After I had wiped the save file clean, I put it up for anyone to buy, and after a while…

Someone brought it.