Nightmare

You know of the move "Nightmare", right? Max of 24 PP, 100 Accuracy, takes 1/4 of the targets health when it's asleep? Yeah, well that's not the way that move worked for me.

See, I loved Pokemon Gold. It's my favorite Pokemon game to date, so you could understand my frustration when my copy broke, and stopped saving my game files, as well as erasing the one I already had. When Heart Gold and Soul Silver were announced, I was ecstatic. So much so, that I decided to order a new copy of the original Gold, to get me hyped up even more. When it arrived, I instantly put it in my Gameboy Advanced SP and turned it on. I began the game as normal, setting my name, the date and all the usual stuff you do at the beginning of the game. I chose Totodile as my starter, and set off on my journey.

Eventually, I got to Sprout Tower. I love Sprout Tower, for one reason; Gastly. Ghost Pokemon are my favorite type, none more so than Haunter. I've always felt like Haunter had a much cooler design than Gastly or Gengar. So obviously, I captured myself a Gastly and went merrily along my way. The first few Gyms were a breeze. By the time I had beaten Morty (The Ecruteak city Gym Leader) my Gastly reached Level 25.

"Yes!" I thought. I finally had my Haunter!

Sure enough, my Gastly evolved. But after the usual "Congratulations!" the text continued. "HAUNTER learned NIGHTMARE!" this seemed odd to me. Hadn't my Gastly known four moves? Surely it should've asked me whether or not I wanted to keep this move? And furthermore, Haunter doesn't learn Nightmare until Level 53, my Haunter was only level 25? I checked my Haunters moves; Hypnosis, Lick, Nightshade, and Nightmare. But I was sure that it had known Spite? I got into a battle with a trainer, and sent out my Haunter. The trainer sent out a Tangela. That's when I noticed something strange; it wouldn't let me select any other move except Nightmare. The moves were there, but as I scrolled up or down, the other moves would move so they were above or below Nightmare. I hit the select button, as that was how you would re-position moves whilst in battle, hoping it would set Nightmare in one place, but to no avail. I tried pressing the B button so I could send out the Pidgeotto I had, but it wouldn't let me leave the move screen. Finally, I became frustrated and simply pressed A.

"HAUNTER used NIGHTMARE!" appeared on the screen. As the opposing Pokemon had to be asleep, I felt sure the move would fail. Instead, the screen turned completely white, followed by a high pitched whine. Then, nothing. Suddenly, the screen came back to life. I was outside the battle, the trainers sprite in front of my own.

"Tha-That's no Pokemon!" He said, and ran off screen. I was confused. I checked my Haunter in my party. It seemed completely normal. This happened several other times, with each trainer saying something similar. On a whim, I opened my Pokedex. I have a nasty habit of not checking my Pokedex after my Pokemon evolves. I scrolled down to the Haunter icon, but when I opened the info section, nothing was there, as though I never evolved my Gastly at all. I continued scrolling. I got to the bottom of the Pokedex. There was another Haunter. But it wasn't called Haunter in the Pokedex. It was called "Nightmare". And when I opened the info section, it read only one word.

"ENJOY!"

Consequently, I have never played that specific game cartridge again, and it continues to baffle me. Was it a hack? Had the company added this in to unlock itself when someone tried to tamper with it? It was a pre-owned copy after all. I got my Heart Gold version, and I got a Gastly on that too. I even taught it Nightmare from a TM when I found it, but it was the normal move.

I found an email in my Gmail inbox, that had apparently been delivered the same day the version of Gold arrived, at the exact moment I flicked the On/Off switch. The subject read "Nightmare" and the text body read, "Just whatever you do, DO NOT battle your friends with this copy of Gold. But remember; ENJOY!"