Lost Silver

You see, I am a simple college student living alone in an apartment. I
 was very enthusiastic about the release of Pokémon HeartGold/SoulSilver
 here in the states. I have purposely locked myself out of all media and
 the Internet aside for school purposes. That means no 4chan, no /v/, no
 Bulbapedia, etc.
As I was busy with the school year and being poor at the time, I 
wasn't able to buy SoulSilver on its launch date. After my school year 
ended, I ordered SoulSilver on Amazon. However, it would take a week for
 it to arrive. I decided that during that time, I would replay my 
Crystal version on my Gameboy Color.
However, I realized that long ago, my mom threw it away because I
 told her the save went dead, and I was very upset about it then. She 
also threw away my Silver version, so all I have is my Gameboy Color. As
 such, I set out to Gamestop and bought a used Silver version, as it's 
the only Pokémon game left that they have for the GBC. Ten dollars – 
fairly cheap.
I went home and started it up for a nostalgia trip. However, 
that's where things started getting bizarre, and most likely the reason 
why you read this.
The Gamefreak logo started up as normal, but it just froze there.
 I thought the cart was just errored or something, so I turned it off 
and on. The same thing happened. I tried pressing A and Start over and 
over, and all of the buttons. Eventually, the logo vanished and there 
was a black screen for about five seconds.
Suddenly, rather than going to the usual menu screen, I was 
already in the game in a previous saved file, which was odd as I was 
expecting all of these carts to have been wiped by the poor battery.
Either way, I wasn't complaining, as I would have chosen the "Continue" option to see what the previous guy did anyways.
First off, I checked his trainer information. His name was just "…" – He didn't have much originality.
I checked his profile and apparently he had 999:99 hours put into
 the game, with all 16 badges, 99999.9 Pokédollars, and all 251 Pokémon 
on the Pokédex.
Seeing as he apparently had Mew and Celebi logged also, I am 
guessing he either used a Game Genie or was a really hardcore Pokémon 
player back then.
I checked his Pokémon to see what a badass team he has. To my 
surprise, I saw 5 Unowns and a sixth Pokémon named "HURRY". I'm thinking
 that this must be some cruel joke by the person who last played this 
game, but I decided to check the profiles of those Pokémon anyways.
As expected, they were different letters of Unown, all Level 5. I
 was a bit shaky with my Unown alphabet at the time, but I identified 
the word spelled out to be "LEAVE".
As for the sixth Pokémon, it turned out to be a Cyndaquil (mind 
you, this is before there were individualized Pokémon icons). The 
Cyndaquil looked normal, but it was Level 5 with only 1 HP left with 
only two attacks: "Leer" and "Flash".
I don't know why they named him "HURRY", but at the time, I just 
disregarded it. The most eerie thing was that, despite my volume being 
at max, none of the Pokémon he had said their usual cries. Just pure 
silence.
Having enough of the team, I closed it. I was parked at what 
appears to be a room inside Bellsprout Tower. However, for some reason, 
there were no NPCs around. Even more eerie was that the "pillar" in the 
middle didn't move at all, as if just leaning on its side. There was no 
music at all, and there was no exit or ladder, or least I thought there 
wasn't.
I walked around for a few minutes but can't seem to find a way 
out. This was certainly not a room I've seen in the Bellsprout Tower 
before. I tried checking my items for an Escape Rope, but the bag was 
completely empty. There wasn't any Wild Pokémon either.
Finally, I managed to find a ladder, which turned out to be 
behind the "pillar". The screen turned black and the music finally 
started playing. I had a sudden chill, as I recognize that melody I 
heard to be the theme you hear when you listened to the radio at the 
Alph Ruins where the Unown are at.
I immediately realize that it wasn't a loading transition, but 
rather I was in a dark room and would need Flash. Before I took care of 
that though, I immediately checked my Pokégear to change the radio to 
something more pleasant, but it turns out that there was no Radio card, 
or even a Phone nor Time cards. There was only a Map card in which Gold 
("…" from earlier, and I will call him Gold from now on) was just 
walking in a midst of black.
I recall that Cyndaquil has Flash, so I turned off my Pokégear 
and made Cyndaquil use Flash. I didn't see any message saying "HURRY has
 used Flash!" or anything like that. The room just became lit just like 
that, and I soon regretted it. The room was a chilling blood-red with a 
linear gray path heading south. The ladder I used to go up/down was not 
there at all.
I had no choice but to head south. The screen got darker every 20
 steps I made, until I finally made it to the end, which appears to be a
 sign. I read the sign, which said "TURN BACK NOW".
Suddenly, I was asked to answer YES/NO, but there was no question
 asked. I chose YES as I do not know what it was asking, and the screen 
went black again, making a "ladder climbed" sound. The Unown Radio music
 stopped, and in a few seconds was replaced with the not-as-creepy Poké 
Flute radio music.
I was in another dark room, but I held my breath and used Flash 
again. Suddenly, it said that "HURRY has fainted!" which was odd since I
 recall that there was no status conditions like Poison on him, and I 
clearly wasn't in a battle. I checked my Pokémon quickly and suddenly 
he's no longer in my party. In fact, after a bit of investigating, none 
of my Pokémon are there, but instead all replaced with Level 10 Unown. I
 did the same thing as before and spelled out the Unown. My then team of
 Unown spelled "HEDIED".
Either way, after that creepy change, the room was lit to reveal 
myself in a very small room that appears to be only four squares big. 
The walls of that room were gray bricks, as if I was inside something 
that was hollowed out. Outside that room appears to be a bunch of graves
 similar to the ones in Pokémon Red/Blue. I've walked around that small 
room and pressed A but nothing happened.
I've already concluded that this was clearly a hacked game and 
some sadistic fuck sold it to GameStop. However, my curiosity kept me 
going. I checked the trainer profile of "…" again only to find out that 
the sprite of Gold was missing his arms. He also seems to appear less 
smug, but rather seems more sad and empty in a way that I do not know 
how to describe. For some reason, it also now said that he has 24 
badges, which was clearly impossible.
After a few minutes of aimless wondering, my character suddenly 
spun and did the Escape Rope spinning animation. Instead of flying up 
though, my character spun downwards slowly, as if sinking.
After that screen, the music stopped. After finally landing, the 
overworld sprite of Gold is coloured differently now. Instead of the 
usual red colour he dons, he appears completely white now, including his
 skin. It's as if he came straight from the colorless Game Boy games 
placed into a colored background of the Gameboy Color.
I checked his profile, and now, while now is as white as his 
overworld sprite, he lost his legs and has what appears to be bloody 
tears from his eyes. It also says he now has 32 badges, which now starts
 to disturb me as this change of number seems to represent something 
important.
I also checked my Pokémon, which this time contains 5 Unowns and a
 Level 100 Celebi without a nickname. The Unown are this time Leveled 15
 and spelled out "DYING". I checked the Celebi's profile. It was a shiny
 Celebi, except there's only half of the sprite. One leg, one arm, one 
eye. It only has one attack: "Perish Song".
The area I was in itself was the Sprout Tower with the immobile 
pillar as before, except everything is apparently red now. I walked 
north for what felt like forever. Eventually, I finally encountered some
 generic men and women NPC. They were all lined up to the side just 
facing the long slantish pillar in the middle.
They were also white, and nothing happens when I try to speak to 
them. I kept on going north until eventually the pillar finally appears 
chopped off, with a transparent Red in that spot. I went up to Red and 
without even pressing A, I was suddenly engaged and finally in a battle.
The music starts again, which it sounds like the Unown Radio 
music again, but played backwards. Gold's battle backsprite matches his 
front one with the bloody eyes, white skin, and lack of arms, while 
Red's sprite was the same as before in GSC, except transparent. The text
 simply said "wants to battle!" as if he has no name, and both of us 
only have one Pokémon each, which is weird as I swore I had six with the
 Unowns.
My shiny Celebi came out, conveniently with half-a-sprite for the
 back sprite also. The "Shiny" noise and animation was different, as the
 sounds it made sound like multiple "Screech" attacks used 
consecutively. Red sent out a seemingly normal male Pikachu, except he 
is Level 255 and his sprite seems sad and has tears in his eyes.
Rather than the usual "FIGHT/ITEM/PKMN/RUN" menu, I was only 
given the option to use the Attacks. Since Celebi only has one, I chose 
it. Naturally, since Pikachu was Level 255, he went first.
"PIKACHU used CURSE!", lowering his Speed and increasing his other Stats. I'm not even sure if Pikachu could use Curse.
"CELEBI used PERISH SONG!" In three turns, both Pokémon get KO'd – not like I have a choice.
At this point, it didn't even go back to the Fight menu, as the 
battle just continued without me. Also note that there were no 
animations at all for some reason.
"PIKACHU used FLAIL!", which didn't do much damage despite his Level and boost as his health was maxed.
"CELEBI used Perish Song!" Nothing happens as it was already used.
"PIKACHU used FRUSTRATION!", which did a shit-ton of damage, knocking Celebi down to less than 10 HP.
"CELEBI used Pain Split!", which surprised me as Celebi didn't 
even have that attack in the first place. Now Celebi and Pikachu have 
about 150 HP.
"PIKACHU used MEAN LOOK!" Not like that did anything.
As expected, due to the effects of Perish Song, my Celebi 
fainted. Except in the text, it said "CELEBI has died!" and instead of 
the ordinary drop off the screen animation, the CELEBI backsprite just 
vanished. For some reason, the Pikachu was still up even with Perish 
Song and it didn't count as my loss.
Pikachu used one more different attack beyond the 5 attack limit:
"PIKACHU used DESTINY BOND!"
Afterwards, it said "PIKACHU has died!", with a slow fade-out 
animation. Apparently, I was the winner, as the transparent Red Sprite 
showed up and said ".........."
At that point, I just freaked out, as that transparent Red sprite
 was suddenly beheaded, leaving nothing but his transparent body. The 
battle then ended at that point and faded out along with the music.
I'm back in the overworld, with another change to the Gold sprite
 – he's now as transparent as Red's overworld sprite. I quickly checked 
Gold's profile, where this time the only thing remains of him is his 
head, with a transparent skin. The head was zoomed in a bit, showing a 
black void in his eyes. It now stated that he now has 40 badges. I then 
backed out and checked my Pokémon. They were all Level 20 Shiny Unown, 
which when spelled out, read "NOMORE".
I was at what I now know is next to the end. There was apparently
 no music playing, but for some reason I still felt like something was 
there that could be heard. I was back in my room in New Bark Town. Maybe
 finally I get to play this game properly, but who am I kidding.
I knew that sadistic fuck must have done something. I "walked" 
around my room to interact with things, as I'm a bit afraid to go down 
the stairs to see what was awaiting down there. Note I said "walked", as
 while the background was moving, Gold was not moving his transparent 
limbs at all while doing so, just floating like those ghosts you see in 
Diamond/Pearl.
As expected, the radio, computer, and TV did not work, so I had 
no choice but to go down the stairs. I ended up in the same lower level 
room of my house. Everything appears normal, except mom isn't home. 
After failing to interact with anything in this room, I decided to go 
outside. To my surprise, that door leading outside at the south didn't 
work, and instead I just walk straight through it to a void.
I continued moving south to see what the fuck was going on. My 
house vanishes as I head south into the void. It was creepy as when I 
entered the void, the outline on Gold's transparent sprite turned white 
to contrast with the pitch black. Eventually, I reached a white area and
 Gold's sprite turned black and transparent again. I continued south 
without thinking of stopping at all.
After a long trek south, I finally encountered something. It was 
GOLD's regular sprite. I talked to it. He said "Good bye forever ...." 
(notably with a space inbetween the forever and ....), and vanished. As 
that happened, it said "??? used NIGHTMARE" which at that point, I would
 not deny that being possible. Gold did another Escape Rope animation 
spinning slowly downwards like before.
I'm now back into that small hollowed-out room surrounded by 
graves earlier. Or at least I say I was back there, as there's no sprite
 anymore. I tried to walk around but nothing moved – not even wall 
bumping noise. I checked my trainer profile with absolutely no Gold 
sprite left. It said I have 0 badges and all the pictures of the Johto 
Gym Leaders at the bottom were replaced with skulls.
I checked my Pokémon, which were all Level 25 Unown. As expected, it spelled out a phrase that I dared to read: "IMDEAD".
As soon as I went back to the overworld, the room I supposedly 
was in was then covered with the same blocks as the walls. I then 
figured out what exactly that room was when the final text was said: 
"R.I.P. ..."
That room was a big grave, surrounded by other graves. Gold has 
already been dead. He died presumably a few years after he defeated Red.
He was a young trainer who, despite his efforts in collecting so 
many badges and attempts at becoming a Pokémon master, was still unable 
to avoid the inevitable fate of death, and his efforts were eventually 
forgotten by the next generation.
I was unable to escape from that text no matter what I pressed. I
 tried resetting the game, and the same thing happened, at which I then 
finally decided to give up on that horrible nightmare.
After that experience, I will never look at the "gimmick" Unown 
the same way again. They say that only the first generation have folk 
tales and legends, but the second generation have shown me how 
unpleasant the truth can be. I eventually enjoyed SoulSilver immensely, 
but I still can't unthink what that rigged game has told me.
== The Game ==
In early September 2010, a complete, working fangame of Lost Silver
 was made. The game is its own executable rather than a ROM hack, and 
therefore does not require an emulator nor a Pokémon Silver ROM.
There has been talk about expanding the story by adding a 
different series of events if the player chooses "No" at the sign that 
says "TURN BACK NOW." While many people believe that the events when choosing "No"
 (which is referred to as "Hidden" by fans) is a made-up addition by the
 fans, it is in fact made up by the original writer in response to the 
creator of the fangame.
The stand-alone fan-game was made using an underlying pokémon engine created by a game creation program called Game Maker.
Category:Pokemon Creepypasta's