Pokemon Blacken

As a high schooler, many others frowned upon liking Pokémon. Everyone was into games with guns and violence. The games that “mature” kids play? Yeah, unlike everyone else, I was the odd one out.

Even if I liked pokemon I only kept that interest around my family and friends. People who I trusted because I feared being bullied because I liked Pokemon. The only reason I'm scared is how people from school treat others who like different things.

Though one night while I was just casually staring at the ceiling out of boredom. A thought crossed my mind. After laying in bed for a few more seconds I sprung out of bed and turned on my computer.

I knew there had to be an emulator that could run DS games on the PC. I spent most of my spring break learning computers and learning about emulators that could play Gameboy, Gamecube, and even DS games. Even though I learned this I never really bothered to search for an emulator at the time, until now.

After a few quick searches, I was able to find a reliable emulator that was on a website that didn’t look sketchy. After downloading the emulator I opened up the software. Nothing was present. Dumbfounded, I stood there staring at the screen for a few seconds before looking up what I needed to do.

A ROM hack.

I should have known. Granted I didn’t exactly know what a ROM hack was, all I knew was it contained the source of the main game. It must have slipped my mind at that moment… Anyways. I went to search for a website that was able to give me the ROM hack I needed. I never knew how hard searching for a ROM hack was because I spent about two hours searching but after I was about to give up searching I clicked one more website link.

Just text and a plain white background.

This website had the weirdest and most unsettling appearance. I had no clue why it felt so disturbing but I decided to look at what it had on it.

The website had text reading “Pokemon Black” Huh, guess it was a lucky last search for me because this was the exact title I spent two hours searching for. I looked around the page to see if I could find some sort of button to download the file. My eyes landed on a gray rectangle that was underneath the text but there was no text on it to indicate this was a button. I was desperate and completely took a risk by clicking the rectangle.

A bar appeared at the bottom of Google Chrome indicating that a file was downloading. After it finished downloading it didn’t get a message from Chrome telling me it contained a virus. I took that as a small victory seeing how ominous the website looked.

I continued and booted up the ROM hack into the emulator. It booted up in a matter of seconds and I was blasted with a wave of nostalgia. Hearing the crisp 16-bit music and seeing the low-quality model of Reshiram. Though I saw something weird about the title when I was looking over the menu.

Pokemon Blacken?

Was this some sort of sick joke or what? Whatever this game was altered in some way. It’s only just a name change so nothing major.

I continued with my gameplay and started the intro to the game. Watching the professor of this game explain pokemon hit home mainly because I remembered this part whenever I started any new pokemon game. When they finished I was put into the protagonist's house already. This is weird mostly for the fact I remember there being two different screens where we got to choose what our protag looked like and what we would name them. Well, that didn’t even matter because I was the boy option. Yet again something weird was happening within this game.

Did I download a virus? No, I couldn’t have...

Maybe a different pokemon game was placed for the download?

No… I've never seen this game before.

A hacked game? Well, whatever it is it doesn’t matter. Since it’s just a pokemon game after all.

After sitting in my chair thinking about this game I decided to continue with the game. The intro sequence seemed to be the same with the rivals and the protagonist calling the professor of this game. The professor told everyone including my character that a box should be arriving with a pokemon for my character.

Seeing how this seemingly hacked ROM is changing the story maybe just maybe the starter will be good! I never had a problem with the starters. I’m just tired of just seeing a fire, water, and grass as the starters. Ah, well whatever.

Right after the call ended in the game there was a doorbell sound effect. Looks like I didn’t need to wait around or interact with anything to get the box to arrive. As my character and his friends turn around towards the stairs, what I can presume is that the mom of the main character enters. Sure enough, the text box proves that it is the mom.

Mom: Sweetie, Professor Juniper’s gift arrived for you!

The mother’s sprite then walked over to the table where the rest of the characters were huddled around. The box soon appeared when the mother’s sprite was at the table. Soon she left and that left me which allowed me to move around but I felt like there was nothing else to do but to open the box to see what my starter was.

POP

The sound effect played with the now silenced background of the game. When the box showed the sprite of it being opened I decided to see what was inside.

A singular Pokeball?

Well, it can’t be that bad right? Instinctively I went to inspect the Pokeball to see what pokemon I was given.

Furret

Normal Type

Furret…? Nothing special like a new set of starter designs. Not even a good pokemon? Though… Furret isn’t a horrible pokemon since it can learn some good moves last time I remembered.

Hilbert received Furret!

Huh? Hilbert? Oh well, I guess the game defaulted to the name of the canon character. No problem with that, just weird considering the fact I wasn’t able to name the character in the first place. I didn't bother with the obvious name because it never really impacted anything in the game so I continued as usual.

After leaving my character’s house I immediately headed toward route 1 but it felt like a piece of the story was missing. I felt like before leaving the house I was supposed to battle Bianca and Cheren. I might have remembered it wrong because no cutscene or interactions happened when I left my character’s house. As weird as it felt that nothing was happening I brushed it off and immediately headed towards Route 1 to start this game finally. When I reached the tall grass on the route I had my first encounter. Though when the battle opening sequence stopped there was something off with the Furret I took.

Level 50? Either this must be a bug or intentional because I shouldn’t have a level 50 pokemon already. I choose the fight option just to see what moves this pokemon has. When I checked I was shocked because it had only two moves for it being level 50. Those two moves were Grass Knot and Scratch. For this pokemon being level 50 it felt like I was robbed in some way only because the Furret was level 50.

I continued through the route but I didn’t catch any of the pokemon. It already was hard with the low exp gain to even get the Furret’s exp bar halfway, I knew it would be even more difficult if I had to exp farm for any pokemon I caught here.

Making my way to Route 2 was a pretty easy job mostly because my Pokemon were way over the level gap present in the route. At the end of the route, however, Bianca who was one of my rivals in this game came running up to my character and asked them to a battle.

Of course, there was a choice box but I knew my pokemon was way past the level gap so this should make the fight end in a couple of moves. So I accepted knowing I was going to easily win this.

When the battle opening sequences finished for Bianca the first pokemon she sent out was Lillipup which was level 6. Soon my trainer sent out Furret, where the level difference was very noticeable by more than 30 levels. I didn’t use Scratch because I wanted to one-shot Bianca’s whole team so I used Grass Knot.

Lillipup Fainted

One shot. I guess getting a Furret wasn’t bad at all. Soon Bianca sent out an Oshawatt but the thing is that Oshawatt is a water type. Using Grass Knot which is a grass-type move should guarantee me one-shotting the Oshawatt.

Oshawatt Fainted

Talk about getting an overpowered pokemon. This rival battle was easy primarily because of the level difference but that didn’t matter. A few seconds after Oshawatt fainted the game did not exit out to the overworld which caught my attention and soon my eyes were fixed on the screen of my computer.

Bianca’s sprite soon slid onto the screen but it wasn’t her usual pose of her standing on one foot where she was tilted to the right like she was going to fall. This pose was however different. Nothing ominous. It was Bianca simply holding the bag that was usually around her. Soon the sound of the textbox rang through my eyes and when I looked over at the textbox that now showed up the text on there was ominous.

Furret used Grassy Knot!

Why did the text show the text of Furret using a move? The battle was over so there was no option to attack or fight anything. I hesitated to click the continue button because it felt like something might happen if I do continue the text. I ignored this paranoid feeling and tapped the Z key to continue the text.

Bianca’s sprite slid into view when the text box disappeared but her sprite looked… different. She was now standing on both of her feet with her hands on the straps of the bag she was shown to have usually. Her sprite was standing there for a good few seconds but soon enough a sequence of events unfolded.

After a few seconds what seemed to appear was the grass that was underneath Bianca slowly raised before quickly wrapping itself around Bianca’s neck which made her sprite look confused but scared at the same time she let go of her bag and placed both of her hands on one of the grass strands. As the sprite started to shake to simulate her struggling, all I could do was watch the Furret stand motionlessly and Bianca’s struggling sprite. Her sprite started to change into a more hysterical look to the point where it looked like she was breaking down. Still, her sprite continued to shake no matter how distressed she looked.

SNAP

The sudden snapping noise made me jump which made me quickly close my eyes for some reason. When I reopened them all I could see was a red background with the assets including the Furret and Bianca blacked out. All I could see was Bianca's limp body barely standing as her neck was held by the two strands of grass which killed her. Soon enough those strands of grass retracted back the blacked-out grass that was beneath Bianca. As soon as they retracted Bianca’s body soon fell to the floor.

I sat there in shock. What just happened? This can’t be real… right? It can’t be! This is a sick joke right?? Who would make this and specifically animate this? What did I even download? What the hell was this ROM hack?! My questions quickly stopped when Hilbert’s face appeared on the screen but nothing was colored, it was just white lines on a black background. Hilbert looked like he was in shock. Tears were forming in his eyes as if he was about to break down from what just happened. As it zoomed out he started to talk.

What the-

What did you do??

WHAT THE FUCK DID YOU DO?!

WHAT ARE YOU?

Before I could even move the game closed itself after Hilbert talked. I soon frantically opened back up the files to reopen the emulator that was forcefully closed by the game itself. When I booted the game back up it showed the same 3D model of Reshiram. When I entered the file section the hours played was removed. I didn’t question it and continued one because I was worried for some reason about what just happened and if it even saved. I hoped that it was just a cruel joke that someone added in. When I booted into the file text appeared.

Months Later.

The ROM had a time skip in the span of minutes from it closing itself? Soon the camera panned over Hilbert’s house from when I first started this ROM. The screen then faded back to the end of Route 2 where there stood Hilbert next to a makeshift memorial where flowers surrounded a cross. The memorial must be for Bianca. Hilbert then fell to his knees while his overworld sprite was mimicking a crying expression. I don’t know why but I felt sorry for the kid even though he was just a video game character.

Hilbert: I’m Sorry.

Hilbert: I'm so sorry Bianca.

Hilbert’s sprite then stood up and I was able to move around. Though he walked much slower and I was unable to use the run mechanic. I decided to make my way over to Accumula Town but before I did I checked my pokemon to see if Hilbert still had that.. thing in his party still. The pokemon screen showed no pokemon. That’s good. At least I won’t need to battle with that pokemon anymore, especially after what I saw.

When I reached Accumula Town I noticed that Team Plasma wasn’t there making a speech as they usually would and more importantly the interaction with N never happened either. I decided to walk over to the nearest NPC I saw and decided to try seeing their interaction dialog.

“...”

Nothing. Not even a single word was spoken to Hilbert. I decided to talk to the other two NPCs that I saw.

“..?”

“..!”

I started to get annoyed. Why was everyone responding with just a few dots and maybe with a question mark or exclamation point. I decided to head over to Pokemart to see if I can buy some pokeballs or something to get a new pokemon so I could continue with this damn ROM hack. When I tried to interact with the cashiers the same dialog showed up.

“The cashier looked the other way.”

What the hell was everyone’s problem in this town? What makes me more pissed off is that I wasn’t able to get anything or interact with a single person. I tried to leave the town to move on to the next route but it refused to let me move on.

“No. It will pay tonight.”

No? What do you mean No?? Most importantly what did Hilbert even mean by it will pay tonight? Surely, he can’t be talking about the Furret… Right? It’s not in his party where could it even be? I had no choice but to backtrack and leave Accumula Town. The trainers that were present on the Routes that led back to Nuvema Town would not challenge me and would stare in the direction where my character was as if they were watching Hilbert.

When I finally reached the exit of Route 1 I finally reached Nuvema Town. I went to check the two houses at the bottom because I knew the one in the middle was mine but I didn’t know which one was Cheren’s House. The only reason I wanted to interact with Cheren was to see if he would even talk to Hilbert.

As I went down towards the two houses, I first checked the house on the left. When I reached the door I didn’t enter but instead stood there with a text box popping up.

“This is her house."

"Her dad isn’t even home.”

I just left the house without questioning anything. When I made it to the house on the right which presumably should be Cheren’s house I went up to the door which then let me inside the house. Inside the house to the left was Cheren. I went up to him hoping he was going to respond to Hilbert at least. When I talked to Cheren he did respond.

Cheren: What do you want?

Hilbert: Cheren.. Please.. You haven’t spoken to me in days.

Cheren: Do you really want to know why Hilbert?!

Hilbert: Please. It can’t be because of that.. of that THING!

Cheren: Hilbert. You SAT there and watch her struggle. You did nothing to help her!

Cheren: Get out of my face and my house now.

The dialog ended and I was forced out of the house. What the hell was his problem? I couldn’t do anything for the life of me to save her neither could Hilbert. Though I realized that it was now nighttime. Soon Hilbert’s spirit started to walk back to his house. Once he entered his own house the whole place was covered in darkness and Hilbert’s mom was gone and not present. Hilbert then walked up the stairs that entered his bedroom. When the screen showed his room I saw a familiar-looking sprite right next to Hilbert’s bed. It was that Furret. The one that killed Bianca and practically ruined Hilbert’s life.

The pokemon was curled into a ball position most likely to represent it sleeping. Hilbert’s sprite slowly walked over. That’s when I noticed that Hilbert’s sprite had black shading over his eyes. I barely had time to even think about it because the sprite soon reached the pokemon. Hilbert’s sprite was now shown to be on his knees. Quickly, his sprite’s hands started to strangle the pokemon around its neck.

THUMP

Every time Hilbert’s sprite kept picking up the Pokemon by its neck and slamming it to the ground. It felt like you could hear the rage with each thumping sound that rang out.

THUMP

CRASH

Hilbert threw the pokemon to the other side of the room. The pokemon’s sprite was now shaking resembling its pain. The menu popped up on its own and then entered the Bag menu where I could see a singular item under the Key Item section.

> Knife

The game’s selection noise rang through my ears as I saw the screen return back to Hilbert next to his bed while the Furret was against the wall. I saw that Hilbert now had something in his hand that most likely was meant to represent the knife.

Do you accept your fate?

> Yes

No

What…? Do I accept my fate?? Why was I being asked this? What’s going to happen?! Is Hilbert really going to stab this pokemon?

Do you accept your fate?

Yes

> No

No. I can’t accept this fate. This question has to be related to Hilbert. I’m not going to let him die.. I can’t.

Do you accept your fate?

> Yes

No

What the fuck…? I said No. I refuse to accept this.

Do you accept your fate?

NO! I DON’T ACCEPT THIS. I SAID NO.

BING

The sound effect that usually would play when choosing an option during dialog rang throughout my ears. I couldn’t say anything. I was staring at my screen frozen by fear. I could only fear the worst from now.

Hilbert: You think you can just kill my friend? Ruin my life? Well, I’ve got a few words for you.

I HOPE YOU ROT IN HELL!

Hilbert’s sprite soon started to run over to the pokemon that was still shaking. I had no power in this situation. There was nothing I could even do.

Furret used Grass Knot!

CLANG

Hilbert’s knife fell to the floor. As two grass strands wrapped around Hilbert’s next to keep him in place. At this point, he was only a few steps away from the pokemon. His sprite started to struggle the same way as Bianca’s but he was more frantic and quick as if he was angrily trying to rip the grass strands off his neck.

Hilbert: This can’t be the end for me… You killed her. I can’t let her death be in vain. I can’t. I can’t. I can’t. I can’t. I can’t. I…

SNAP

The familiar snapping sound rang through my ears as I quickly shut my eyes due to it suddenly ringing. When I reopened my eyes again all I saw was Hilbert’s slumped over head and the Furret standing up. The grass strands retracted as Hilbert’s body hit the wood flooring under him. A few seconds later the Pokemon walked over to Hilbert and when it reached the body it stood up and looked towards me. The Furret had a black covering over its eyes but the eyes glowed with a bright green color representing the color of the Grass.

The ROM then crashed. I reopened the emulator and tried to rerun the ROM but all it would do is show a black screen every time. No matter how many times I kept trying to open it, the same black screen greeted me.