Call of Charon

Okay, so this happened to me almost a week ago or so, give or take, I was on the bus on my way to school, playing my Soul Silver on my DS, when the bus lurched a little at a stop. This wasn't unusual, a lot of the city buses were in disrepair and their engines stalling was common. I only sighed in annoyance at this—until something slid from the back of the bus after its sudden stop, the object coming to a halt by my seat.

It appeared to be an abandoned Pokewalker, to my surprise. I bent down and picked it up to have a closer look, distracting myself with it while the bus driver tried valiantly to restart the engines, all other passengers around me groaning impatiently. Upon closer inspection though, I frowned that the little Pokewalker was fairly scuffed and dirty, but worst yet was the screen on the thing.

The clear plastic covering had been scratched badly, looking as if someone had done it on purpose with keys or something to the point that it would be otherwise near impossible to tell what kind of Pokémon was within—that is if the thing supposedly even worked. Curious, my thumb hovered over the middle power button, debating if I should turn it on or not.

That was about when the bus suddenly started running again, the sound startling me to where I simply tucked the Pokewalker into my bag. I forgot about it all through the bus drive and through my classes until I finally got home later that evening. I was digging in my bag when I got comfortable at home, surprised when my fingers brushed the mangled Pokewalker I'd forgotten.

I looked at it over again, and honestly couldn't help feeling a bit of pity. Shrugging, I figured it was worth a try as I pulled out my DS, and finally turned the little Pokewalker on-further, shocked to hear it beep to life. I squinted at the scraped screen, feeling even more sorry for the homeless Pokémon when I discovered, with some difficulty that it was a Gardevoir inside. Gardevoir you see are one of my most favorite Pokémon, and it was really sad someone would just abandon theirs like this. There was no way this thing hadn't been damaged on purpose I figured, so I hoped beyond hope that maybe—just maybe I could get it into my own game.

I started up my Soul Silver to the Pokewalker menu, and pointed the device to my DS card, finding the Connect function with obvious difficulty. My jaw dropped. It connected! "Charon has returned from its walk!" I couldn't help but smile at the warm feeling of adopting this poor Pokémon as its data streamed into my DS—up until something went horribly wrong. The sprite didn't finish loading—stopping right when only the vague shape of Gardevoir appeared on screen and it suddenly went seemed to freeze. I panicked, realizing I had probably accidentally downloaded a glitched or hacked Pokémon of some kind.

I went to shut it off in hopes of saving my data, when the dialogue box went from showing the vague Gardevoir-ish shape to stating, "Saving, do not shut off the power." It wasn't frozen I realized but was still a little stumped why Charon's—as the Gardevoir's name seemed to be, sprite didn't want to load. That was then I also noted that it didn't go to a small journal about Charon's "adventures" in its Pokewalker either.

I decided I'd have a look at the Pokémon as soon as I could, so I let the game finish saving, before starting up my game again. I was already in a Pokémon center, so immediately I booted up the PC to check my boxes. I found Charon's sprite and selected it to have a look at its stats. I nearly screamed and dropped my DS in horror when I finally got a good look at his sprite and his cry.

Charon was a disturbing sight for a Gardevoir, the skin was a dark ugly green and hair an odd, dark shade of an almost purple. His eyes were solid black-not just his pupils, and dripping what looked like an equally black ooze, and where his horn should be on his chest was the same black ooze too and a hole, as if the horn had been completely torn out. His cry was garbled somehow and almost sound as if he were in pain.

I had to shut my DS for a second and take a deep breath, realizing that maybe it really was just a hacked Gardevoir. Possibly nothing special. And after all, I did love Gardevoir, so I figured he could be good on my team. When I finally collected myself, I got a better look at his stats and was shocked to find he was already at level 100, but oddly enough had 0 HP. Oh yeah, I realized, rolling my eyes. He had to have been hacked. He was a male Gardevoir, level 100 with a quiet nature. His attacks were a little off though—or so I think. I never did pay attention to whether or not Pokémon could learn certain moves.

He knew Perish Song, Destiny Bond, Shadow Ball and Teleport. I thought it was odd that a high level Gardevoir—a hacked one at that—would still have Teleport, but I didn't question it. I switched out with one of my other Pokémon—the one at the top of my party, to get Charon, immediately healing my party to fill his HP again as well.

When I checked on him after however, I was shocked to find that, besides all my Pokémon, Charon's HP was still at 0. I decided that, since he was at the top of my party to have my trainer talk to him and see how he liked me. A speech bubble appeared over his head reading, "...". At first, I thought that was all that was going to happen, until a text box appeared, reading the following:

"..."

"Charon wants you to follow him."

"Will you follow Charon?"

"Yes/No."

I thought this was a little odd. How was the game doing this? Or better yet how is it Charon was able to affect it like this? Was it that advanced of a hack? I decided that, since my game didn't seem to be glitching or freezing up so far yet, to go ahead and go along with it. I chose "Yes," and no sooner had I done so, Charon used teleport, once again using its awful, tortured cry. I winced and waited, figuring he'd just teleport me outside of the Pokémon center again.

This wasn't the case however, as instead I found myself in the hallway of the Old Chateau, Charon by my side. I panicked, realizing just how impossible this was, turning around to try the door. Unfortunately, however, a dialogue box appeared, reading simply, "The door is locked from the outside. There is no way to leave yet." I was chilled and swallowed, wondering just what the Hell was going on. I tried turning to Charon again in hopes he would once again use teleport, but the Gardevoir only responded with another, "..." and nothing more.

Frustrated, I went to switch him out with one of my other Pokémon in hopes that doing so would undo the hack. However, when I opened my party, I was stunned to see it was completely empty, save for the Gardevoir, who's HP was still at 0. I resisted the urge to shut it off there and then, fearful that by doing so would only corrupt my game with whatever had taken it over and worst of all, lose all my Pokémon. Closing the party screen, I decided to just go along with it for now, though I was reluctant. The Old Chateau was never my most favorite places in the Diamond, Pearl and Platinum games. In fact, ever since I spotted my first non-Pokémon ghost in that place, I swore off going back in there ever again in the game, and the music itself was creepy enough too. Irony was cruel I suppose.

I started wandering around the mansion, nervous as ever and expecting a ghost to pop up any second. I let out a sharp gasp then when the random battle music began to play, and a wild Gastly Appeared. I didn't think it was possible, considering he had no HP but Charon was sent out into battle—his sprite far more disturbing from behind and clearer than before. It seemed the gash in his chest went all the way through his body, the black ooze dripping from behind as well.

I took a moment to look away and compose myself before continuing on with the battle. When I could look at the screen again, I grimaced and used Shadow Ball. I was shocked and a little disappointed to see it take out the gastly in one hit, hoping I would have been able to catch it and have something else in my party, at least. Unexpectedly however when the Gastly fainted, a dialogue appeared that wasn't the usual one for a victory, "Wild Gastly was caught!"

I couldn't believe it. Immediately, I checked my party and sure enough, the Gastly was there—in fact it was even still fainted. Unfortunately, however, I was unable to move the Gastly up my party roster, almost as if it were locked. I decided to try talking to Charon again, to see if anything else would happen. At first it had the usual, "..." again, only for another dialogue box to appear reading, once again:

"..."

"Charon wants you to follow him."

"Will you follow Charon?"

"Yes/No."

I started grinning with relief, realizing maybe this time I'd be teleported out of here and back to the Pokémon center, so right away I chose the option for "yes." I hadn't realized then how huge a mistake that was at the time, but rather than teleport, instead I unwittingly relinquished all control to Charon. He began leading me further into the mansion, and all I could do was watch helplessly. Every few steps we'd run into another wild Gastly, defeat it (naturally) and the fainted Pokémon somehow instantly added to my party, the Gardevoir all the while still able to battle despite being either fainted... or dead perhaps.

I didn't ponder this revelation for long however, as Charon soon made his way, while leading my trainer all the while, to a door. I realized this was the room you enter where you catch Rotom—only I was unable to see inside before the Gardevoir lead me inside. Once we entered the room however, it was definitely a far cry than it was supposed to be. It was much larger than I remembered, and the walls and floor had holes and looked as if they were rotting away. At this point, Charon stepped away from my trainer and to the center of the room. All the Gastly we caught together left me and joined the Gardevoir as well, circling around it.

Charon then turned around then, his sprite facing mine from where he stood, encircled by Gastly. At this point, it started to, from the way it sounded, use Perish Song. Only the song itself, was lower in pitch much slower and sounded as if some static was corrupting it. I tried to lower and turn off the volume on my DS, but it didn't do anything—if anything the song seemed to grow louder and kept playing over and over again. As it sang, the Gastly began circling, as if dancing around Charon—and that was when I noticed what looked like a black hole opening up beneath the Gardevoir.

Abruptly, the song stopped, and so did the Gastly. A dialogue box appeared, with another, "..." but then it continued. Instantly, I realized with a shock, Charon, the Gardevoir was talking to me.

"... thank you for bringing me here."

"... these souls... and mine will rest now..."

"... we're not done yet... however... your turn will come...."

"... your turn will come... and I will... in five dAyS I wiLLL come get yoooUU\*\*$$%-"

It was about this time when Gardevoir's cry shrieked out of my speakers at an impossible volume and horrible pitch. I dropped my DS to cover my ears, cursing when it hit the hard wood floor and shut off suddenly.

I tried starting my DS again, but I already knew it was no use. It was broken, and all because of me bringing home some creepy Pokewalker.

I ended up tossing it out, by the way. It stopped working too, after I transferred that Gardevoir into my game. At first, I couldn't sleep because of that eerie warning, I had all kinds of horrific nightmares about Charon's black bleeding eyes and disturbing cry. I know I shouldn't be worked up over someone's sick idea of a joke, but I gotta admit it was Hell of a convincing hack. It's almost been a week and so far, nothing's happening.