Dark Future

Well, I just had a hectic week: Got failing grades in school, my dad was laid off, there's too much to list here. However, Pokemon Scarlet and Violet launched recently, and I thought, "Why not get back into Pokemon stuff? I could probably find some Pokemon cartridges on eBay..." ...And that's exactly what I did. I found a Pokemon Platinum cartridge, but something was kind of off about it... it was nearly all black, and there was a pair of red eyes that kinda looked like Giratina's. Well, still can't hurt to play it, right?

I booted up the game, and the intro sequence ran its course, as usual. There was a premade save, but it was pretty glitched out and the game would crash if I selected it. So, I just made a new game. While I was going through the trainer creation thing, the male option was who would normally be my rival, and I just went with him. I named my trainer after my real name: Nico. Another thing I noticed was I never named my rival, because it never gave me the option to do so. It was automatically the female character, named Maggie. Well, I got through the tutorial, and loaded into my house.

Most of the gameplay went as expected, and I got to pick my starter. I don't know about you guys, but I like penguins, so I went with Piplup. I nicknamed him "Freezy". We got to the part of the game where you have to go through tall grass, but the Pokemon in it were super late game and super high level. They quickly did some damage to Freezy, but when he should have fainted, the game said that Freezy's ability, Sturdy, had triggered and his HP stayed at 1. Piplup can't even have that ability! And even after Sturdy had been used up, it would still trigger and keep Freezy from fainting, meaning sooner or later, I could still defeat the Pokemon. But when they would faint, the ground below them would turn black and the Pokemon would fall in almost immediately, with the text saying "(pokemon's name) has died!", like in that kinda cringe Lost Silver creepypasta. Another weird thing is that Freezy would gain very little XP from the Pokemon, usually only one. But the further I got into the game, the weaker the opponents got and the more XP I'd get from them. Also, if the Pokemon had Trainers, they would still die, and the Trainers would forfeit at the loss of their Pokemon. And if any of my Pokemon fainted (besides Freezy), they would also die, and be removed from my team altogether.

Eventually, I got to the point of the game where you need to climb to the top of Mt. Coronet to stop Cyrus. But as soon as that was my mission, the final battle distortion started before I even got to the top. On the way up, I caught some of the Pokemon you can find on the mountain (that I quickly lost). When I got to Spear Pillar, the camera panned over to Cyrus, who was facing away from me. None of the Galactic Admins were there, or anything. Cyrus then spoke.

"...Through the months, I've come to realize that this world... is a prison. Of pain and suffering. Dreams collapse within mere moments..."

It was then that I realized that the game was happening a few years after the original game, which explained why I hadn't seen anyone associated with Team Galactic throughout my entire run. He turned around and most of his face was in shadow.

"Fools like you and your friend Maggie have no business in this cage of suffering. But the one I want to get back at most of all...

LUCAS."

He was referring to the default male character. It seemed like Lucas had defeated Team Galactic the couple years back when the actual game took place. I tried to move, but Cyrus said:

"You're not going anywhere, Nico"

I tried to open my menu, but Cyrus said:

"Nothing to do there that will help you here."

I tried to reset save data, but Cyrus said:

"Nothing to reset left, kid."

I tried to turn off my DS, but Cyrus said

"Stop trying to escape, Nico. You know you can't."

At this point, Cyrus's face was in even more shadow, and he walked closer.

"This world is a cruel place. Beasts have been sealed away for doing nothing wrong... and there is still one beast that we have yet to contain.

HUMAN.

They have forced Pokemon to battle against their will. They minced them into burgers and other food. But they can't do that... if there is no Pokemon. Every Pokemon that faints gets dragged down to the other world by us."

US!? Who was Cyrus working with!?

"Even some foolish trainers who mourned the loss of their Pokemon were dragged in. Those who fell into it would instantly be **killed** by us."

So apparently Cyrus became a serial killer, along with his mysterious partner, and that was why the space under the Pokemon turned black when they fainted.

"All the souls from the Pokemon and their trainers gave it enough power to make a hole big enough to escape..."

OK, Cyrus was barely making sense anymore. And out of nowhere, a giant black hole appeared in the ground behind Cyrus, who then turned around to face it. A giant shadow being rose out of it, that I quickly realized was Giratina. Cyrus turned back around, and all of his face was in shadow, with a small red dot for an eye. Cyrus then said:

"N0W... L3T tH3 w0Rld c0LlAp$3 1Nt0 chA0$ HAhah4HahHA4a4A4ha4AG8YR0W98u-8\_^\*7y\*(\_ya98-7w-w98pS"

A battle was then initiated, with the intro text reading "You are attacked by rAGE!", like it was a forced battle. Shortly after, an all-black Giratina sprite with only the eyes not black appeared. There was no animation for rAGE sending out a Pokemon, it just cut to me sending out Freezy. rAGE was Lv. 666, and had 666/666 HP, kinda like Hell Bell. So the battle went as expected, and Freezy survived every one-hitter. Eventually I got rAGE to 1 HP, but that's when things got really scary. The next turn where I would have defeated rAGE, it moved first, as usual, but it used an attack that was definitely not one of the four moves it had used already.

"rAGE used Impale!"

A 3D Giratina tendril shot straight through Freezy's sprite, and Sturdy didn't save him this time. The text read "Freezy has finally died..." after he was killed. Without any further text, it cut back to the overworld. But some more text appeared:

"rAGE used Impale!"

Another tendril appeared aimed toward Nico, and quickly shot at him, and just before it hit him, the game crashed with a high-pitched buzz sound. But I could hear something play through the speakers of my DS:

"IT'S YOUR TURN NICO."

After it finished playing, a tendril shot out from my screen. Like Giratina's, but realistic. It almost went straight through my head. rAGE's head came out of the screen, looming over me. If you're reading this, it means you're in my house, which will forever be haunted by rAGE. Save yourself before it finds you...