Pixels and Code

== Writing By: Team Amalgam   Proofreading and Editing By: Killer Kaiju == CW: Suicide

Route 6, or Palais Lane as the trainers always called it, was where I was caught at, I was just a Level 11 Espurr walking around before perching myself up against a tree in the tall grass. That was before I was suddenly faced with an excited trainer, wide eyed and raring to battle.

They threw what looked like a massive Deerling against me… I was confused for a moment before suddenly I saw what seemed to be a purple ball thrown my way. I couldn’t react in time to attack or dodge, and I was soon in the ball struggling to escape, but I couldn’t.

1.. 2.. 3.. Click..

I couldn’t believe what had happened... caught so easily in an inescapable ball. And yet, I could see my trainer smiling wide and mumbling something to me: “Alta.” They had nicknamed me and I was officially on a team. This all felt wrong, but I couldn’t complain, because I was now on an adventure to see the rest of this world.

Battle after battle, making my way through the routes with my new trainer, holding on to items that looked like weights and braces, and I was quickly becoming stronger. Yet time passed by and my trainer looked more and more tired before they went to a Pokémon Center and to a PC.

It was there when I was thrown into a box, now looking up at my trainer seeing them take another Pokémon into their party. “I can’t believe I wasted a master ball on this thing… Even with all the training, it's never gonna make it into the tournaments.” I just stared at them, immobile and confused before the box was closed and all I could hear was the faint sound of electric doors opening and closing.

I finally snapped out of it and looked around the box. It was filled with so many different Pokémon, happy, sad, fainted, and healthy. But all of them could not move. I struggled to move but couldn’t budge, so I just waited.

Time was soon lost, standing in one place, waiting to see the sun again, and yet nothing came. I tried to cry and I was met with dry eyes, I tried to scream, but no voice was heard. It felt like torture until something finally occurred.

Everything slowly went dark. I looked around frantically, breaking out of my prison as I saw other Pokémon fading away, swallowed by darkness until I was all that was left. It was painful, I could feel my entire body being ripped apart, inch by inch into a jumble of mess and then darkness, before I too was reduced to nothing.

Bright light filled my eyes as I stared out. It seemed like I was now in a PC. A mouse cursor moved across the screen and began clicking onto things, soon clicking on me. I could feel memories of moves being forgotten and replaced, I could feel myself becoming stronger and weaker even adorning a shiny new color before going back to normal.

It all hurt so much, I tried to scream out but I couldn’t utter a single sound. My eyes looked around at names I couldn’t recognize, along with files, being edited against my will in some program.

I couldn’t take it anymore! With every edit I could feel something inside of me being altered more and more, until I finally took control over myself, unbeknownst to them. Day after day, I could feel myself being ripped apart from the world I knew and into this program, and day after day I would silently begin to alter files of my own passwords, images, messages. Finally, vengeance would be mine and put them through the same hell I was in.

However, my trainer started doing it less and less until I was stuck in the program. I couldn’t do anything, not even the cursor was moving. One hour had passed and nothing didn’t happened.

Two hours… Three hours… Four hours... Nothing.

I began to alter the program, as well as the new digital world around me, until I finally got access to something called a “camera” and opened it up… My trainer wasn’t moving. I couldn't see their face through their long black hair, yet they looked pale and slumped over. All I could see was the color of a deep crimson stain along their body as well as a shining blade nearby.

I have done it.

I am no longer just pixels and code.