Corruption of the Missing One (Story AU)

Corruption of the Missing One is a fanmade AU (alternate universe) made by EnderSinaby.
Want to read the original Strangled Red series? Check out Strangled..., Door's Open..., and Strangled Red!
== Prologue ==
"I will bring back my Miki..." 
I walk up the coast of Cinnabar Island, Pokéball in hand, searching for what I've been looking for a long time. It would bring her back, I'm sure it would. Miki died while in a transfer, her neck snapped in half with a sickening sound. I hate thinking about her death. She was my friend, my partner... my Miki... and I would do anything to bring her back. Absolutely anything...
But now... I know what I need to bring her back, it would work- it will work... I continue walking the coast of Cinnabar, and as the wind picks up, I see an area of glitchy white, purple, orange, and black spots. I walk up to the glitchy area as the creature materializes before my eyes... 
MissingNo.
I throw my Pokéball out as quickly as I can to catch it. Yes! It's in the ball!
Wait...
What is happening to the ball?
Why is it glitching ou-
The Pokéball bursts open and the MissingNo. towers above me, parts of the sky was glitching out. The MissingNo. lets out an ear-piercing cry before swooping down to attack. I throw another Pokéball at it but it was not long before it escaped again. I continued to throw more Pokéballs at it in attempt to tire it out and catch it, but MissingNo. escapes the ball again and again... and again... and again...
I run out of Pokéballs. The MissingNo. escapes from the last one and faces me. It makes another ear-piercing cry as it dives down to attack me.
This isn't supposed to happen!
THIS ISN'T SUPPOSED TO HAPPE-
.
.
.
Darkness.
I can still feel my body.
I feel like it's being... ripped apart and put back together. I try to move but I can't.
Something is trying to consume me. 
Something... is consuming me...
I go unconscious. Maybe I'll wake up another time.
I failed you, Miki...
== Chapter 1 ==
7 years later, December 6th
I finish my job at the store and I hop in my car and stare at the steering wheel. My friends are coming over to my house for a sleep-over thing, even though I haven't really agreed on that, Mike always likes to make the stupid decisions for himself. I love his stupid decisions, although most of the time we end up in trouble. Mike calls my phone, so I answer. 
"Come on Steve, come home and see your friends! What's holding you up?" Mike says.
"I'll be there soon, I promise," I reply.
"Okay then. You feelin' alright? I know you didn't exactly agree on having them come over but it's gonna be so fun!" Mike says excitedly.
I sigh. "Everything's fine, I'm just a little tired out from work, that's all."
I hang up. I lied when I said everything's fine, today was notably stressful, almost every day is stressful! My co-workers have made reports about my erratic and disorganized behavior, and my boss has had several serious discussions with me about it. I think I'm fine, I can't be that bad, right?
I drive home eventually and Mike greets me. "Well look who's here! Were you in traffic? You were supposed to come home 3 hours ago." 
What? 3 hours ago? This shit is getting out of hand.
"Oh, sorry, yeah there was some traffic and stuff... yknow- heheh- there's always some kind of traffic in the evening hours! Right? Right?!" I say nervously. Mike gives me a skeptical look but waves his hand to the patio outside, so I follow him. My friends, Red and Alana, are hanging out around the table, drinking wine and such. Alana greets me with a hug.
"Stevie! There you are, we were worried about you! I thought a Tyranitar got to you somehow!"
I pat her back. "A Tyranitar? That's silly, I was just in... traffic!"
She gives me another skeptical look. "If you say so, but there have been reports of a Tyranitar on the loose!"
I take a bottle of wine and sit at the table next to Red who smiles at me. "Hey buddy, glad to see you again."
"Me too, Red."
We drink and have fun for the rest of the night before we all settle down for bed. "That was fun," says Mike. 
"Yeah! We should do another sleep-over sometime again!" Alana says excitedly.
I agree, tonight was fun, but I need to take a good night's sleep after today...
== Chapter 2 ==
I was restless.
I couldn't sleep, my body felt uncomfortable in every way, I stirred and turned in my bed. I felt something was wrong, but I couldn't lay my finger on it, so I got up out of bed and quietly tiptoed to the kitchen, maybe some warm milk will help with my insomnia.
I pour some milk into a cup and shove it into the microwave. "I'm sure this'll help..." I whisper to myself. "Just some nice, warm mil-"
"Steven," A voice says behind me
I jump and turn around to see Red behind me, a concerned look plastered on his face. 
"Steven, are you okay?"
"I- I'm fine, don't scare me like that though."
"Sorry, I was just a bit worried when I kept hearing you stir in bed and get up. You're pretty noisy though, can't see through all that hair? A haircut would be nice."
I laugh. "No, it's okay, I like my hair long."
He smiles. "Alright. Get to bed soon, you have the appointment tomorrow," he says as he walks back to the room.
Right, the appointment...
I head back to my room after drinking the milk and lay down in bed. I finally close my eyes, tired from this long day of work, and dream... 
I dream of a little boy and his Charmander. The Charmander loved the boy, and the boy loved the Charmander. They were always together, they battled together, they explored together... The Charmander evolved into Charmeleon, then into a Charizard pretty quickly. The boy loved his Charizard. 
Snap!
Gone.
She's gone.
She is dead.
== Chapter 3 ==
I wake up the next morning in cold sweat, my head throbbing and messy hair everywhere. What happened? Did I sleep for too long or have a nightmare? I get up from bed and wince from pain. Ugh... my head hurts so much..., I thought to myself. I go to the kitchen and open the medicine drawer, I take out a couple Tylenols and toss them into my mouth. By the time I arrive at my appointment this headache would be gone... hopefully.
"Yawn..., good morning Stev. You look like a mess, what the hell happened?"
"Oh, good morning Mike. My appearance shouldn't be worrying to you at all. It's just... a new sense of fashion!"
He raised an eyebrow. "You've been acting a little weird lately."
"Its fine, brother! I'm all goo- ow, my head..." I winced again and held my hands up to my forehead. This headache is like... no other, I guess. It feels like thousands of Combees are buzzing around inside my head.
"Steven? Is your head hurting?" Mike asks.
"Yes, yes it hurts very much..." I struggle to say through the pain. Next I don't know what happened to me, but I felt like my head was literally going to explode, my stomach felt so weak I wanted to throw up, and the pain was so intense I started to cry. I rolled on the floor and pulled on my hair, screaming from the pain.
Mike steps back a bit, frightened. "GUYS! CALL AN AMBULANCE, NOW! STEVEN IS IN TROUBLE!"
Something happened in the corner of my eye, an area starting to glitch out. What the fuck? The glitchy particles surrounded a chair and then... engulfed it. What was that? I stop screaming, my throat hurt so much from it. "M-Mike... I d-don't know what happened... I'm sorry..." I say through my tears. I'm still crying but there really isn't a need to.
"Shush, I'm getting you to the hospital. What I've just seen was probably the scariest shit I've seen for years."
Yeah... I was scared half to death too...
== Chapter 4 ==
We arrive at the hospital not too long after and I was put into an empty room with Mike.
"Mike, you really didn't need to do thi-"
"Shut up, this is called brotherly love, caring for your family! I gotta do my part in the helping somehow." He interrupts.
I shrugged. "Yeah, guess so." The door opens and the doctor walks in with a clipboard.
"Hello, Steven, is it? I am Dr. Broadwing." He says with a smile.
"Hi." I say shyly. Dr. Broadwing looked around 40-50, with white-ish hair and a kind, wrinkled face. He was pretty tall too.
"Now, tell me everything that happened." 
explain to him everything that happened, the dream, my insomnia, the headache the day after. I wanted to tell him about the glitchy thing I saw, but decided I'd rather keep that a secret for now.
"Mmh, I see..."
"Is there a name for all this? Can you prevent it if it happens again?" I asked. Dr. Broadwing looked me up and down, then looked at my hand.
"Show me your hand, please."
"Why? Uh- okay..." I lift my hand up to him, and a pixelated pattern can be see on the underside of it. It looked very similar to the chair-eating glitch monster I saw earlier.
"Do you have any experience with catching any off-pokédex Pokémon?" He asks. Off-pokédex? What the hell does he mean?
"No," I reply. "I don't think so."
He scratches his chin. "Alright. I'm going to have to keep an eye on you for a couple months if this happens again." He points to the glitch marking on my hand. "This mark could mean something very, very powerful."
I laugh. "Yeah, hahah, so am I ready to go?"
"Yes, you are free to leave."
We leave the hospital eventually while I stare at my glitch marking. It's so weird to have this random red glitch pattern on my hand, I'd better cover it up.
== Chapter 5 ==
"How'd this appear, Stev?" Mike has been examining the glitch pattern on my arm for 15 minutes now and asking the same question.
"I don't know! Could you quit asking that so many times? It just appeared after the headache."
"Ohhhh... so could it have some relation to your headaches?" Mike asks curiously.
I shrug. "It could. I'll ask Dr. Broadwing about that next visit."
Later, I arrive at my job. I set all my stuff down in my office and groaned. I walked over to a mirror and stared at my reflection. My hair was so messy, I had dark circles under my eyes... that would wait, besides, who would want to do more work and waste time? I sit down on my chair and I slowly begin to take off the bandages around my glitched arm before somebody walks into my office.
"Mr. Steven. You are late for work, again."
I quickly put the bandages back on and get up to face my boss, Ms. Reina. "Y-yes ma'am, I am really sorry about tha-"
"I expect more from you. If you can't keep up with your position, I have the choice of demoting you." Ms. Reina says.
"Yes... I understand... listen Reina-"
"That's MISS Reina to you, boy." She interrupts.
"Miss Reina, yeah... listen, I've been having a lot of health problems this past week so, uh... uhm..." I stuttered.
"Speak." She demanded.
"I was wondering if I could have a couple days off! Yknow, a good boss needs to care for her workers as well!" She lifts her chin up at me and glared. I try to make a persuasive smile.
"No. Not until you can prove yourself as a better worker, and that means arriving here ON TIME. Got it?"
"Okay..."
I come home earlier than usual and Mike greets me with a hug. "You needa get yourself fixed! You look like you've stuck your head outside an airplane window."
"Haha, very funny." I go to my room and lay down in bed. What do I do about this glitchy stuff? I thought. How can I get rid of it? I decided I'll just talk to Dr. Broadwing about it soon.
== Chapter 6 ==
(subject for rewrite)
Days pass with many visits to Dr. Broadwing, many days of tiring work, and tons of sleepless nights. I don't really know what Dr. Broadwing is doing, if I'm gonna be honest. He just tells me to rest and stuff, as if I wasn't doing just that already. But I think he's doing whatever he can to help out- especially since I've been having multiple of those skull-splitting headaches. Speaking of those headaches, whenever they occur, some crazy shit happens around me. I believe I've seen those glitchy-household-item-eating-monsters more often, and one time I even opened a damned wormhole to somewhere! I need to give a name for this... glitchy headache-causing disease. I'll call it... The Glitch, sound good? Yeah, I think so too.
Another thing is whenever I have one of The Glitches headaches, my friends are always willing to help me get out of it, even if it means risking falling through a wormhole. Especially Red, he's always there first. (even though I'd expect Mike to be there first, but whatever) He's a great guy, caring, loving, big and strong... he's there to hold me in his hands while I recover, comforting me, caring for me, lovingly...
I think I like Red, my chest always feels so warm whenever he speaks directly to me, and my faces always flushes red when he compliments me. I liked being held in his arms, it felt so comfortable and safe. I loved it. It's great to feel love again in challenging times for myself.
== Chapter 7 ==
(subject for rewrite)
I sit next to Red at dinner after work. I have this urge to tell him how I feel about him, but I'm also scared to... what would he think of me afterwards? He looks at me and smiles.
"Hey Stev."
I blush immediately and turn away, but I look back a few seconds after. "Hi Red, how's it been?"
"Its been great, glad you asked. What about you?"
I sigh. "I don't know, work is hard on me and sleep is a battle every night."
He makes a face of understanding. "I see... well, here's something that I think would make you feel better." He pulls me into a tight, warm hug and I smile.
"Thank you..."
We stay like that for a while, arms around each other. I move my head down to his chest to hear his heartbeat, his breathing- I love it. He lifts up my chin so I can face him. I blush a little and smile, he smiles too. My head starts to feel like it's buzzing. No, nonononononononono, why get a headache right now?! I put my hands over my face.
"Red... it's happening again..." He lifts me up and carries me to his bed. He sets me down on it.
"You'll be fine, I'll take care of you."
"Thank you." The Glitch headache finally ended after 20 minutes of pain, and all through that, Red always said "it's going to be okay, it's gonna end soon!" I loved him for that. I loved that he cared about me and wouldn't run away during my headache tantrums in fear.
All I can really say is, Thank you.
== Chapter 8 ==
The next morning I awaken to hands placed over my face. Tired and confused, I get up and look down at my bed. "Is that a Pokémon?" I think to myself. It looked like a small Haunter but with no spikes and friendlier smile. It had some purple and orange smoke emitting from it. The creature sat down on my lap and smiled wider.
"What are you?" I ask.
It just stares at me blankly, then says, "Ghost!"
"Ghost? That's a rather odd name for a Pokémon, if you even are a Pokémon at all." It flies around my head, making a smoke trail behind it. "Where did you come from, buddy?"
It points to my chest. "Ghaaa..."
"You came from my chest? That's silly, tell me where you came from.
It continues to point at my chest. Fine, I'll pretend I believe it came from me. I put it on the side table and pat it's head. "Stay here, uhh..."
"Ghost!"
"Alright. Stay here Ghost, I'll ask Mike if he knows anything about you." I walk to Mike's room. Empty, huh, probably out catching Pokémon for himself. I run back to my room, expecting Ghost to still be sitting on the side table.
"Ghost? Where'd ya go-"
"GHAA!!!"
"WHAT THE FU- oh, it's just you, Ghost. Don't scare people like that!"
Ghost flies around my head excitedly. I smile, is this what it's like to have Pokémon by your side again? It's been so long, seven years actually. I grab a Pokéball from Mike's drawer and show it to Ghost.
"Would you like to be my partner?"
Ghost looks the at the ball, then at me. "Ghe gaa!"
I grin. "I'll take that as a yes." Ghost presses its face against the ball and lets itself get pulled inside. I feel a warm wave of happiness pulse through my body. Ghost, my new friend, my Pokémon, the first one in seven years...
"You and I will be great friends!" I exclaim to the Pokéball happily. Ghost responds by moving inside the ball and shouting "gha!" excitedly.
This will work, I know it will!
== Chapter 9 ==
Ghost and I have decided we'd go out Pokémon hunting in the woods nearby, so I "borrowed" a few Pokéballs from Mike's storage and head off. We see a few Starlies, Burmies, maybe a Yanma or two, but nothing good enough to spark my interest. Ghost seemed pretty excited about this, it doesn't seem to wanna calm down at all. We eventually spot a Luxio, a rather aggressive Pokémon, but super strong! To catch it, we'd have to fight it in order to tire it out, then throw the ball. Ghost would help me fight it.
I hide in the tall grass behind it, slowly creeping forward. I throw Ghosts' Pokéball at the Luxio. "Go, Ghost!" The Luxio notices us and roars. I look at what Ghosts moves are, "Curse" seems to be the only one it knows. "Ghost! Use cur-"
I am suddenly tackled down by somebody, they put their hands over my mouth to stop me from commanding Ghost. I struggle to get out of the person's grip and claw at their face.
"Stop! Don't use that move! You'd kill the Luxio!" The attacker shouts.
"What? Kill? Be fucking serious, Ghost wouldn't kill a Kricketot, let alone a Luxio!"
The attacker lifts off me, I jump to my feet. "And who are you, exactly?"
He looks around frantically, a nervous frown on his face. "Uhh, Grey.
"Alright, Grey. Who do you think you are to just... ruin my catching experience! I haven't gone Pokémon catching in years, and is this what I get?!" I waved my hands in the air.
"Listen! That thing or- Ghost- is really dangerous! It can actually KILL a Pokémon!" Grey says.
I glare. "And how do you know that, kid?" 
"Uhhh... I'm an expert in... off-pokédex Pokémon...?" A yellow creature pops out from his backpack.
"What the fuck is that thing?" I ask in slight disgust and shock.
"Her name's Shinto," he says. "She's really nice when you get to know her- but just try not to get on her angry si-" 
"Yeah yeah whatever, you owe me a Pokémon to catch." I flick my hand at him.
"O-okay..." Shinto pats Grey's head for comfort. "I haven't asked your name yet, what's your name?"
"Steven," I reply.
"Oh, right. I'm Grey."
"I know."
We continue into the forest for a while, still on the search for Pokémon.
== Chapter 10 ==
As we continue into the forest, we catch more Pokémon without using Ghost to battle. According to Grey, the "off-pokédex Pokémon expert", says that Ghost could kill a Pokémon with the Curse move, but that sounds like bullshit.
I pause for a minute and turn to look at Grey. "What makes you think you're an expert and these... off-pokédex Pokémon?" I ask him.
Grey looks a little started when I asked that, but he answers. "Oh, well, uhh... I've been studying them for a while, Pokémon like Ghost, Q, and Shinto, they're off-pokédex and would be considered "illegal Pokémon". That kind of study is... illegal, and I've gotten in trouble for it."
"But why? Wouldn't people want to study more about off-pokédex Pokémon?" I ask.
"Well," Grey continues. "They're usually really dangerous, and could kill an opponent in battle rather than make them faint. Shinto, for example, almost killed me when we first met."
I look at Ghost who gives me a friendly smile. "So you're saying Ghost really is capable of killing me as well?"
Grey nods his head. "Yep."
I pat Ghosts' head. It's so cute, how could it ever hurt me?
Some bushes rustle behind us, I turn around and back away from it. A Luxio, the one from before, leaps out from the bushes and roars at us. I send Ghost out to try and intimidate it. The Luxio roars again and slashes at me, I dodged.
"Grey, this thing looks like it wants to kill us, let me put Ghost to use!"
Grey makes a frightened expression. "No! Please! Just don't d-"
"Ghost, use Curse!" Ghost makes a familiar cry and engulfs the Luxio in white, purple, black and orange glitchy pixels, before it roars and fades away. I stare at Ghost, shocked and amazed. Then I realize something: the glitchy pixels, the colors, purple, white, black and orange... all so familiar...
"Grey?"
"Yes, Steven?"
"Tell me more about off-pokédex Pokémon, please. Especially the ones with glitchy abilities."
== Chapter 11 ==
Grey explains to me about a ton of "glitch Pokémon" and other off-pokédex creatures, such as Q, pPkMnp' ', and MissingNo. The name MissingNo. is what I am most familiar with, although I can't really put my finger on it.
"MissingNo... MissingNo..." I whisper to myself. "I've heard of it before..."
"What was that?" Grey asked.
"Nothing, I'm just remembering something. Hey, what do you know about MissingNo.?"
"MissingNo., that one's pretty well-known... well, from what I know, MissingNo. has five forms: its normal-glitchy form, a fossilized Kabutops and Aerodactyl, another glitchy form but more red and yellow, and a ghost form."
I turn to Ghost. "So Ghost could be a MissingNo.?"
Grey stares at Ghost and turns back to me. "Possibly. He does have colors similar to MissingNo."
I remember now. In order to revive Miki, I needed a MissingNo. to use on her. Ghost could possibly be a MissingNo., and it'd help me bring her back! I face Ghost, smiling. "Ghost, buddy, you could bring back my old friend! Did you know that? But... I don't know how..."
Grey frowns. "Bring who back?"
I sigh. "Miki, my old friend. She was my Charizard who died in a freak transaction accident with my brother..."
His face softens and he looks down at his feet. "Oh, I'm so sorry about that..."
I nod. It's not like Mike did it on purpose, it was just an accident, he didn't mean to kill her. I look back at Ghost. "Let's head to Miki's grave tomorrow, we can revive her there.
Grey and Ghost look a little skeptical, but they agreed on going.
I won't fail you this time, Miki.
== Chapter 12 ==
I meet up with Grey the next day at Lavender Town. We both discuss more about Glitch Pokémon and how to bring Miki back, but as the minutes pass I begin to doubt we'd have the ability to bring her back. Grey pets Shinto's head and she purrs. I look at Ghost and pet its head as well, they're both pretty cute. I think about Miki. I think she would've liked Grey, he's a good guy, honestly. I miss her alot, so I'm doing everything in my power to bring her back.
"I really hope this all works," I whisper to myself. "Its been so long without you..."
"Talking to yourself again?" Says Grey.
"Maybe. I'm just really excited, knowing that you could possibly bring back your old Pokémon back from the dead is really exciting!" I say.
Grey smiles. "I guess so. But wouldn't there be consequences to all that?"
"Don't ask me," I reply. "You're the expert here, aren't ya?"
"Well, not rea-"
I grab Grey's and and started running to Miki's grave. I stand over her grave, "I hate remembering this place..." I thought to myself. It's been a while since I've been here. Shinto makes a chirping sound and starts running around Grey and I.
"What's up, Shinto?" Grey asks her. Shinto looks around the area, a little frightened. Something must be stalking us, and Shinto's trying to tell us.
"Hello, boys. What are you doing in a graveyard all by yourselves? Ghosts seem to wander around here quite alot, you know..." It's Dr. Broadwing. What the hell is he doing here, and why was he following us?
"The real question is: why are you here?" I say. "Following people like that is kinda freaky yknow."
"You shouldn't say anything like that to your doctor, Steven. It's rude. Anyway, you have something I want, so hand it over."
"What do you want from me?" I ask. I've always had some bad feeling about Broadwing- like he's some sort of creep!
"I want your MissingNo. Give it to me."
== Chapter 13 ==
TBA.
Category:Alternate Universe story (AU)