The Wrath of the Titan

I didn’t have Pokemon as a kid. I come from a Christian home (not that there’s anything “anti-Christian” about Pokemon, but you know). My parents were always a bit skeptical, as were a lot of Christian parents at the time. Of course I played around acting like I had a Charmander and Squirtle. I mean, who didn’t? I grew up in the 90s, and when I was a kid, EVERYONE played Pokemon. But the first Pokemon game that I owned was HeartGold. My brother played Diamond the summer of 2007, when he had summer school, and when HG SS came out, he got SoulSilver and nagged me to get HeartGold. I did, eventually, and I was hooked.

Now, anyone you talk to who knows me will tell you that my favorite Pokemon is Munchlax. I’m not sure why, but I just love that thing, the cute baby version of Snorlax. This probably comes from a joke that my brother made.

I said, “You know, Alpha. If I was a Pokemon, I’d be a Snorlax.” (because I’m kind of a big guy, 6 feet tall, 300 pounds.)

And he said, “Nah, Django. Ward is Snorlax. You’re a Munchlax.” I agreed with him on this. Our friend Ward would indeed be a Snorlax. He’s pretty big, and he can be really lazy.

"What's a Munchlax?" I asked.

"It's Snorlax's pre-evolved form," he told me.

I was unaware that Snorlax had any evolutions. I looked up Munchlax, thought it was pretty cool, and I decided to get one. The First one I bred in Heart Gold was almost EXACTLY like me. It was male, had a Quirky nature, when you talked to him, sometimes it would randomly hug the trainer, it would get lost in thought, sometimes he would space out or stare at the ground while he walks.

I tend to look at the ground when I walk, I have a weird personality, and I’m a hugger, and I get lost in thought and space out a lot. So, I named this Munchlax after myself, and raised it to level 100, and it was my pride and joy. I kept it from evolving on purpose.

My friend, Ryoji (one of his nicknames, and the name he gives all of his RPG main characters) can farm breed Shiny Pokemon. He found a way to increase the likelihood of hatching shinies, and he had the luck of the gods when it came to hatching and encountering them. So, I asked him breed me a Shiny Munchlax.

Ryoji and I don’t get to hang out much. I moved to go to college, and we both have busy schedules. But, one time when we DID get to hang out, he gifted me with the Shiny Munchlax I asked for. I asked that he name it Titan, because I knew it would be powerful when it evolved into a Snorlax. But I never used Titan in Heart Gold. I left him in my PC Box. I had planned to get a copy of Platinum, and I was going to use him as my starter.

I hit a dead end on completing my HG Pokedex and I didn’t really want to hunt the 7 Sages in White, so i put Pokemon down for a while and moved on to other games, only playing Pokemon every once in a while.

A few months later, I went to an anime convention, and there had been a Pokemon panel, which told us about some of the “dark rumors” of Pokemon, which I would learn later that they were called "creepypastas". The Pokemon Booth told us about Buried Alive, Lavender Town Syndrome, Gary's Raticate, and the White Hand. This intrigued me a bit. Could there actually be a dark side to these fun kids games? But that was beside the point. I was back on my Pokemon Hype. When the con was over, I made it a priority to complete my Heart Gold Pokedex. I asked my brother to look up where to get a Buizel.

He told me where and said that I had to use the Sinnoh Sound app on the radio (this is what plays on Thursdays on Pokemon music channel). So I changed the day on the DS calendar to Thursday, and the music played. I went to Route 35, and the VERY FIRST Buizel I encountered….was a shiny! I freaked out when the Yellow and white weasel slid on the screen and the shiny animation played.

I had only seen one wild shiny before that (not counting the Red Gyarados at the Lake of Rage). I caught a Shiny Boldore I met at Victory Road in White and i wasn't about to let this one get away either. So I threw a Quickball, and caught the Buizel. I think that shinies should be treated special, so decided to train it. I named it Poseidon, after the Greek god of the Sea. It eventually evolved into Floatzel and grew stronger and stronger.

So, I was doing my second usual training method of spam fight the Elite Four. I couldn’t fight Blue because it wasn’t Sunday, and I was trying to catch Seviper in the Safari Zone. With some Pokemon, like Seviper, Bagon, Croagunk and Stunky, you have to place certain items in the safari zone and wait so many days, and I tried tricking the DS clock, but it didn’t work, so I decided to just wait it out.

Now, I had just beaten Lance, went through the credits, and woke up in New Bark Town, like normal. I had my prized team with me: My level 100 Munchlax, my level 100 Feraligatr, named Saber, level 100 Blastoise, nicknamed Koopa, and my level 100 Lapras named Laplace, my level 100 Mewtwo named CHAOS, and Poseidon, level 42 by this point.

I walked downstairs, and I saw mom and Lyra sitting there. I found this odd, because I don't recall ever seeing Lyra outside the main story or the Celebi event. Mom then got an “!” icon above her head. She then walked up to me and a Text Box appeared.

“Mom: Oh, Able, there’s a Pokemon sitting outside. Is it one of yours? It looks sad.”

(No, that’s not a typo. My character’s name was put in as Able, but it was supposed to be Abel, but I didn’t want to restart my game, since I didn't realize the mistake until I was already in Mahogany Town.)

Having never seen this before, I was a bit surprised. I walked outside, and I was shocked to see a light blue Munchlax sitting there. Without my control, Able walked up to it. Its back was turned to him. Another Text Box.

“Titan: How could he do this to me? Ryoji worked so hard to create me and then he just ignores me!”

I was getting a little freaked out at this. How had Titan gotten out of the PC, and in New Bark Town? There wasn’t a PC with a Pokemon storage system there, and weirder still, how was it TALKING? And about Ryoji?? Titan then got an “!” above his head too. He turned around and saw Able standing there.

“Titan: YOU! How could you!? You spent countless hours grinding all the others, but you left me to rot in that PC box!!”

I was then thrown into a battle, and the Rival's theme was playing. The shiny Munchlax appeared, the Shiny animation played, but his sprite looked angry, his cry was more low pitch, as if trying to sound mad, and it was level 100. This was wrong. Titan was supposed to be level 1. He had never been in any battles at all! The text box read “Ryoji’s Titan appeared!” The first Pokemon I sent out was my Level 100 Munchlax that I named after myself.

Titan then spoke once more

“Titan: You would spend hours training THIS Munchlax, but you don’t give me the time of day? UNFORGIVABLE!”

I chose the command Thunder, but Titan moved first.

“Titan used Body Slam!”

“Critical Hit!”

“Django Fainted!”

I was getting scared. He just 1-shot one of my best Pokemon! I sent out Saber next. I chose Super Power because Normal types are weak to Fighting. But it missed. This was irritating.

“Titan used Thunder!”

“Critical Hit!”

“It’s super effective!”

“Saber fainted!”

Now I was getting angry. I sent out Koopa next. I chose Focus Blast. This missed, but I wasn’t surprised because she had horrible accuracy for some reason, even with the Wide Lens item. Plus Focus Blast's accuracy is only 85. Titan used Thunder again, and 1-shot Koopa too. I sent out Laplace. I chose Body Slam. I finally managed to land a hit, but it only took out about ¼ his HP. Titan then used Metronome. I was PISSED when I saw the move.

“Titan used Brick Break!”

The super effective move KOd Laplace as well. I sent out Poseidon next.

Titan spoke again.

“Titan: If it hadn’t been for you… he forgot about me when you came along!”

This wasn’t true. I knew Titan was in the PC box, I was just waiting to get Platinum, so I could use him for my whole adventure. I told Poseidon to use Aqua Jet. It hit, but barely did any damage. Titan used Thunder once again. One hit KO. I was down to my last Pokemon. I sent out CHAOS. If this failed, I didn’t think anything could stop him. CHAOS used Aura Sphere. It hit, and depleted Titan’s health down to a sliver. The battle ended there. It returned to the overworld, and I saw Titan turn his back to my sprite.

“Titan: I just wanted you to be my friend….”

Lyra then came out of the house.

“Lyra: What’s with all the commotion?”

She then got an “!”.

“Lyra: What’s going on here? He looks sad. You should try being more friendly to him.”

I talked to Titan again, but he just said the same message as last time. I tried to leave New Bark town, but Able said “I can’t leave yet.”

I didn’t have my Pidgeot with me so I couldn’t fly, and I didn’t want to Surf all the way to Kanto.

Then I remembered something. Lyra said I should be more “friendly”.

I scrolled through my inventory and found the item Soothe Bell in there. It increases Pokemon’s friendship level. I approached Titan, went back to my inventory, selected the Soothe Bell and clicked “Use”, an option that wasn't normally there for a held item. Titan got another “!” over his head. He turned around.

“Titan: Even after all this, you still wanna be friends?”

Another text box appeared.

“Titan was given Soothe Bell to hold!”

Then Titan said “…..No…I can’t….”

Then there was a noise that sounded like someone had used the move Metronome. The game did a Flight animation, and then Titan was gone. Lyra walked up and said “Where is he going? Looks like he’s flying towards Sinnoh….”

So Titan was gone. Ryoji was irritated when I told him about this, considering how long he spent trying to breed a shiny Munchlax. But it was out of my control. I continued on my quest to complete my Pokedex. I found a way to exploit the Global Trading System to get the Event Legendaries, since I didn't have the game while the events were going on. (When you search for a WIFI spot, when it asks if you want to Auto Obtain DNS, click no, and put in a certain number. Whenever you go to the GTS, you will receive a random Pokemon.) So now I had Arceus, Shaymin, Mew, Darkrai, Deoxys, and so on. The only event legendary the GTS didn't give me was Celebi, but I already had it because I actually WAS able to go to the download event. My Pokedex was at 491. All I was missing was Gliscor and Probopass.

A few weeks later, I finally saved up enough money, and bought a copy of Platinum from my local Gamestop. Lo and behold, it had the two I was missing! So I transferred them over, and all of the other good ones, the level 100s and all of the legendaries. This copy of Platinum was Game-Sharked. It had 999 of every item, even the Cherish-balls, the all red Poke-balls that held Event Pokemon, and you couldn’t obtain those at all.

So, once I transferred everything I wanted to, and upon fully completing the Heart Gold Pokedex, I restarted my copy of Platinum, and named my character Crimson. It started out normal. (Or what I assumed was normal, since I hadn’t played Platinum before.)

So Verde (my Rival) and I were about to receive our starters from Rowan. I chose Chimchar. I usually go with water types, but I don’t like Piplup, and I thought Infernape was pretty cool. I clicked on Chimchar and was greeted by a text box that said

“Crimson: ………”

....What was that supposed to mean? I clicked again but got the same thing. I tried Piplup, but got the same message. I HATE grass types, but I didn’t seem to have much choice. I chose Turtwig…..and got the same text box. I was confused. It wouldn’t give me a starter? After the text box disappeared, it sent me back to the over world. Then Rowan spoke.

“Rowan: You don’t like any of these? Then how about this one?”

I was sent to another screen with one poke-ball. Another text box.

“Rowan: I found him outside my lab this morning. He seems sad.”

I clicked the Poke-ball, and I couldn’t believe my eyes. It was a shiny Munchlax. I chose him, and Rowan said

“He needs a good home. I know you’ll be a good partner for him, Crimson.”

I checked the Munchlax’s stats. Sure enough, it was Titan. It was male, holding a Soothe Bell, level 1, Hasty Nature, and his OT was Ryoji. I sent a text to Ryoji to tell him about this. I received a message back. “You have been blocked from originating messages to this number.” Blarg. I was used to this. He was out of minutes again. I decided to surprise him next time we met. So I began my quest with Titan by my side, the way I had planned it originally.

It was a little difficult because he was level 1, but he leveled up very fast, being a traded Pokemon. A lot of times he’d disobey because I didn’t have the right Gym Badge. Because he was holding the Soothe Bell, his Friendship increased rapidly and evolved to a Snorlax at the conclusion of the battle with Fantina. He had a Hasty Nature, which made him extremely fast for a Snorlax. He was even faster than my Golduck, who was only about four levels below Titan.

On top of that, his Friendship was really high, so I taught him the move Return (which increases in power the higher the friendship is) and he could one-shot just about anyone. As my team reached higher levels, some of my other Pokemon became faster than Titan. Since his Friendship was already at the maximum, he didn't need the Soothe Bell anymore, so I gave him a Quick Claw to let him keep up with the rest of my team. This made the Elite Four relatively easy. Though the battle with Cynthia was still difficult. Freakin’ Spiritomb. But I finally managed to complete my run-through over the course of about three weeks (I normally breeze through games, but I tried to do everything I could before beating the Elite Four, including the Ruin Maniac side-quest, which took several days just by itself. I had also been playing a copy of Diamond because I was doing a Nuzlocke Challenge, but I wanted to do a normal playthrough of Platinum, and I didn’t want to restart Heart Gold.).

I woke up in Twin-leaf town, and I expected to go on my quest to capture all the legendaries and fill THIS Pokedex. I went downstairs, then walked outside. But when I got outside, there was someone waiting for me….

It was Ethan, the trainer from Heart Gold! Even though I hadn’t played Platinum before, I was pretty sure that this wasn’t supposed to happen. Heart Gold came out AFTER Platinum, so that sprite shouldn’t even be there. I gasped when I saw the next text box.

“Able: ……I’m here to take Titan back with me…..”

Crimson walked forward, and the Shiny Snorlax stepped out from behind him.

Titan: I’m not going back with you! You neglected me, but Crimson loves me! He treats me the way a trainer should!

Able: Ryoji created you for me! You’re coming back with me, RIGHT NOW!

Titan: NEVER!

Able then ran towards Crimson and Titan, and a battle engaged. It said “PKMN Trainer Able came charging!” I had only seen this message once before, on my copy of Diamond. The message “***** Came charging!” is from the very first battle, when you’re ambushed by some wild Starleys, and you have to use your newly picked starter to battle.

Able sent out a level 100 Feraligatr named Saber first.

Titan merely came out. Crimson wasn’t even on the screen. Titan was level 100 now instead of level 65 where he'd been after the Elite Four. Then, a command was picked without my input. The game chose “Fight”. I was surprised to see the entirely new move set.

Titan knew Metronome, Body Slam, Giga Impact and Return before our battle with Cynthia. Now he knew Thunder, Megapunch, Crunch, and the last move made me shudder….Guillotine. I knew that Guillotine was a real move, but Snorlax can’t learn it. The only Pokemon that I know for sure that can learn it are Pinser and Kingler. (I don’t use 1-hit KO moves so I don’t know who all can use them).

Titan used Thunder. It was a Critical Super Effective. My eyes widened at the next text box.

“Saber died!”

Died?....DIED!? Pokemon don’t die when they lose a fight! I was getting scared now. Titan was going to shred my entire prized team!

Able sent out Koopa next. Same routine. Thunder. Koopa Died.

Next was Django, my level 100 Munchlax. This time, Titan used Megapunch. Same message. Seeing my name and "Died" in the same sentence made me cringe.

Then Able sent out Poseidon, who was level 100 here, but had only been level 47 when i last used him. I had been busy completing the Dex and not spending as much time training him anymore. He used Aqua Jet and managed to take about 1/5 of Titan’s HP. Titan used Thunder. My Shiny Floatzel died too. Next was Laplace. Titan used Megapunch. This killed my Lapras as well. Next was CHAOS. CHAOS went first, using Aura Sphere. The attack animations started, the energy gathering around the Mewtwo, and focusing into a ball, but before he could unleash the attack, another text box popped up:

“Titan: Not this time!”

Titan's sprite moved as if the Quick Claw let him go first, and CHAOS's attack stopped.

“Titan used Crunch!"

"Critical Hit!"

"It’s Super Effective!"

"CHAOS died!”

NO! Not my Mewtwo! He was the strongest one I had! Titan had just killed off my entire team!

.....But something was wrong...the battle didn't end. Able’s sprite scrolled back to the screen. The game picked the “Fight” option. There was one move that hadn’t been use yet….Guillotine.

“Titan used Guillotine!”

After the attack connected, the head on Able’s sprite was gone. Some red pixels covered his neck, and he fell off the screen.

“Able died!”

It then cut back to the overworld. It showed Able’s dead body laying there. Titan then turned and looked at Crimson.

“Titan: I’m sorry you had to see that. But I had to do it. He neglected me. He wanted to take me away from you. YOU showed me kindness, and gave me the life I wanted…do you still love me?”

The game gave me a [Yes/No] option.

I paused, trying to comprehend what had just happened. I was still confused about how Titan had gotten into Platinum to begin with. I couldn’t think of an explanation. And now, Able shows up, and then Titan killed him and his entire team! Not KO’d. He KILLED them. I had never used an Action Replay on HG, and I knew IT wasn’t hacked because I bought it brand new from Gamestop. The copy of Platinum was used, but the only hacks I could see was the cheated amount of items on the previous save file……

I looked back at the game. Perhaps Titan was right. On Heart Gold, I should've showed him more care. I hadn't used him at all, even though Munchlax is my favorite Pokemon, but I did use Poseidon, a shiny I got by chance, while Ryoji spent a long time trying to breed Titan specifically for me. I can understand why he felt betrayed. I DID still love this Pokemon. He’s one of my favorites, and a SHINY on top of that…plus I was kind of scared that he’d turn on Crimson if I said no. I clicked "Yes".

Another text box appeared.

“Titan:…you hesitated…you're mad at me…you don’t love me any more…not after I’ve done this…..”

The game then made the Metronome sound and a flight animation played. Titan  flew away like last time. It faded to black and returned to the title screen. Dumbfounded, I switched the DS off, and decided to check my copy of Heart Gold. When I opened it up, my save file was still there. I loaded it, and it showed New Bark town. Near one of the trees were 7 gravestones, like the ones in the Lost Tower. Mom, Lyra, and the sprite of the main character from Platinum were standing in front of them.

Able's mom was crying.

“Mom: How could this have happened? *sob* Able….*sob*

My jaw dropped at the next text box.

“Ryoji: It’s my fault. I created that monster. Now I’m going to finish this.”

“Lyra: Ryoji, you couldn’t have known this would have happened. It’s not your fault.

"Ryoji: I’m sorry…but I have to do this."

He then held out a Pokeball. A Black Charizard appeared and did the flight animation. That was Cloud MK III, Ryoji’s prized Shiny Charizard. They flew off screen, leaving Lyra and mom behind. The screen faded to black, back to the title screen. I tried to continue but it said “Leave this to Ryoji!”

I was confused…I tried Platinum. I hadn’t saved, so I woke up in my room like last time. Except Titan wasn’t in my party any more. My Golduck, Arcanine, Charizard, Gallade, and Glaceon were still there, but my Snorlax wasn’t. I went downstairs and tried to leave, but Crimson’s mom stopped me.

"Mom: Honey, I know you want to help, but leave this in Ryoji’s hands."

Well, crap. What could I do? Both my games were telling me not to do anything! I checked my copies of Diamond and White. They played normally, but they weren't involved in this incident. I wanted to know what was happening!

Just after that, I heard my phone ring. It was a text from Ryoji (the person, not the character.)

"Hey, Django, my copy of Platinum is acting wierd. Cloud just made me fly to New Bark Town! It looked like a funeral was being held, and the deceased was named "Able". Isn't that what you named YOUR character?"

……Not able to think of much else, I told him what happened, and replied

“It’s in your hands now. Go get him.”

The next part is written from Ryoji’s point of view, because he’s the one it happened to.

My involvement in this all started when my friend Django told me something was going wrong with that Shiny Munchlax I had bred for him. After Titan flew away from him in Heart Gold, my methods for breeding shinies no longer worked. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't get another shiny. A few weeks later, though, the day care man said something weird. "I believe the last one you bred has something to do with your problem." Now this was odd, because I knew that the last shiny I had tried to breed was Titan.

Nothing else happened for a few weeks, but the day after I got more minutes on my phone my copy of Platinum did something that I will never forget. I exited the Pokecenter where I had last saved, and then without my input, Cloud MK-III, my shiny Charizard, chose to fly us to New Bark Town, in spite of the fact that my Charizard didn't know fly.

(The reason it’s Cloud MK-III is because my original Cloud was on my Fire Red Version, and was extremely powerful. I traded him to Pearl, but my copy of Pearl got stolen. I bred a shiny Charmander on HG and named it Cloud MK-II, but the data got erased after the game ended up in the washing machine. So this is Cloud MK-III. )

Cloud doing this freaked me out a little bit, considering New Bark Town isn't even IN Platinum, but what scared me most was the graves. I had a copy of Heart Gold, so I knew they shouldn't be there. But how had we ended up here in the first place? I saw Able’s mom and Lyra. We had a small exchange of words, which is wierder still because the main characters almost never talk in Pokemon. After the conversation, the game made Cloud fly again, and we ended up in Sandgem. I texted Django to tell him what was going on, and he told me what happened on HIS copy. He left it in my hands, and I was going to end this.

I can't say why I had become so calm at that point but I knew what had to be done. I went into the lab, walked up to Prof. Rowan and a text box appeared.

“Rowan: I heard what happened to your friend. I’m sorry about that. I never should’ve given that Munchlax to Crimson. He’s roaming Sinnoh now. Here, let me mark it in your Poketch.”

I went to the PC in the Sandgem Pokecenter and switched out my Pokemon with the team I had built for a tournament my friends and I started. This team was composed of rock, steel and ground types, all of them were heavy hitters, and all level 100. I then set out on a hunt for the beast I had created. He appeared on my Poketch App the way Mesprit does.

My chase took me all over the map and time and again I would see Titan, but when I would get within 5 steps of him, he would fly away. I know that Metronome can do random things, including making a Snorlax fly, but that was only in battle. Metronome can't be used in the overworld. This made things all the more irritating. When I pursued him to Mt. Coronet, he ran inside, and the chase continued on foot. Finally, I caught him at Spear Pillar. Then it got really weird. Titan had his back to me, facing the center of the area. A text box appeared.

"Titan: Team Galactic had the right idea. A perfect world...your world. I will use Palkia and Dialga to go there, and you cannot stop me."

Titan turned to face my character.

"Titan: I just wanted him to love me. You’re no different. Shinies are special, and you breed us on a whim!"

Then the battle began.The Shiny Snorlax appeared on the screen and the message said "Ryoji's Titan Appeared!" The Snorlax looked angry, and his cry was in a much deeper tone. The music playing was the same as when you battle Regigigas.

I knew it was going to be a tough fight so I started out with my Level 100 Hippowdon, Gaia. Titan used Crunch and took out over half of its HP. That was ridiculous! He was my tank, and he’s not even weak to Dark type moves! I responded with earthquake but barely scratched him.

Titan followed up with a Megapunch. A text box saying “Gaia Died!” appeared. Now it was happening to me too! I tried the rest of my team but Titan was a monster. He wiped them out one by one, Terra, my Scizor, Leviathan, my Empoleon, Ziz, my Flygon, and Masamune, my Gliscor, each one dying instead of fainting, until all I had left was Behemoth, my shiny Tyrannitar. I sent him out as my last hope. Afraid I would end up like Able, I opened with Dragon Dance, but Titan responded with Megapunch and 1- hit Killed my trump card.

I was screwed. My sprite appeared on the screen, and I heard a Snorlax’s cry. A text box.

"Titan: I'm sorry, but now you will meet the same fate..."

“Titan used Guillotine!”

I closed my eyes and waited for the worst. But then I heard something that made my heart leap: The cry of a Charizard. The attack began it's animation. As the blades appeared, Cloud swooped down out of nowhere, like when a Pokemon uses Fly in Battle. Just as the attack connected, the black Charizard pushed my trainer’s sprite back and took the hit. My heart sank as I watched my prized Pokemon’s health plummet. But as it hit 1 hp, a message appeared saying

"CloudMkIII endured the hit!"

followed by another saying

"CloudMkIII: You will not touch him!"

I nearly passed out from the surprise. Cloud was speaking! And what’s more, he was protecting me!

"Titan: WHY! Why do you get all the love!? You protect him because he cherished you, but what about ME!? Don't I deserve to be loved too!?"

Cloud made a low rumbling sound, that sounded like a Charizard’s cry when it faints.

"CloudMkIII: You were cherished, you just didn't see it. Crimson was scared, but he would never have left you." "Titan: LIES! He doesn't love me anymore! Whether he's Crimson or Able, I'll get him at the source!"

The battle resumed and Cloud used Sunny Day. I wasn't in control anymore, otherwise I would never have chosen this. Cloud only had 1 Hp left, and he couldn't afford to set up. Titan used Thunder and landed a critical, but the message "CloudMkIII endured the hit!" came up followed by "CloudMkIII: I will never back down!" Cloud used Flamethrower and took out a good third of Titan’s health. Titan used Megapunch but once again the messages played and Cloud survived.

"Titan: How can you stand up for a trainer who isn't even real? How can you endure so much for someone from another world!? He creates Shiny Pokemon at will, not even cherishing them like the rare gems we are!"

" Cloud-MkIII: Because our worlds are connected. Ryoji's sprite here may be fake but somewhere out there is the one who raised me. He went out of his way to create us! He gave us life! And you will not harm him or his friends!"

Cloud proceeded to use Solarbeam and the Critical Hit brought Titan’s Hp to 0. I let out a premature victory shout. But my feeling of triumph turned to fear when Titan didn't fall from the screen and another text box appeared. My stomach knotted up as I read the message.

" Titan: If I can't get my revenge, then I'll take you down with me!"

“Titan used Explosion!”

I hoped, I prayed that Cloud would endure this too. But my hope turned to despair...

Cloud’s Hp hit 0.

“CloudMkIII Died!”

“Titan died!”

Both sprites fell off the screen, and the battle ended. It returned to the over world, still at the Spear Pillar. Titan was gone, and there, laying before me was a bloody, black Charizard. It was lying in a crumpled heap, on top of a patch of red pixels. It was covered in battle scars, and its tail flame had gone out. I examined it, but a text box appeared, reading

“It’s no use. He’s gone.”

I was heartbroken. My most cherished Pokemon was dead. He died to protect me.... I hate to admit it, but I broke down and cried. I looked at CloudMkIII as the successor to my original partner from FireRed. It was bad enough that I lost MKI and II, but now MKIII was gone as well, killed by another shiny that I created.

All of a sudden I heard a strange noise, and I looked up to see Palkia and Dialga appear before my sprite, emerging from the portals that they came out of earlier in the story. When the spacial warp stopped, a text box appeared.

"Palkia and Dialga: We have borne witnessed your struggles, and have taken an interest in your skills.

We have deigned to grant you a gift. We will return Cloud to you but no-one else. They will serve as reminder to you of how you affect this world with careless actions and that life is precious. Now GO!"

They screeched and the world went white. I woke up in my house at Twin-Leaf and checked my party. Cloud was there but as a shiny Charmander and at level 1. His name was Cloud MkIV. I walked downstairs to see Lyra, and another Main character sprite, who turned out to be Crimson, as well as Able’s mother all sitting there and they congratulated me.

"Crimson: You've done so much. I’m sorry this happened…."

"Lyra: Thank you. Able can rest easy now...."

“ Able’s Mom: My son would be honored."

My character’s mother walked up to me and said "You've been through a lot. Why don't you go out and relax a little?" The screen faded as my sprite walked through the door and the game asked if I wanted to save. I clicked yes. I never wanted to forget what happened, For fear it might happen again.

We're switching back to Django's point of view.

About 4 hours after the conversation I had with Ryoji, I received another text from him. "It's finished." He said, and he told me what happened. I was sad for him too. I could rebuild my team, but getting shinies takes a long time, so it would take him a while. I decided to check my copy of Platinum, and it showed the same as what Ryoji had said, but from Crimson's point of view. After Ryoji left the house, Lyra and Able’s mom said that they were returning to Johto.

They walked out, and then the game played like normal. The only difference being that Titan was gone. I saved the game, then checked my copy of Heart Gold. My save file was still there. I opened it, but the screen was black. Then, Able's sprite slowly faded in, the one that shows up on the trainer card and in the hall of fame. But it was white, almost ghostly. A text box appeared. "Able: Thank you. You have allowed me to rest in peace. With Titan gone, no one else will suffer this fate."

Then, six shadows appeared around him. They were the shape of my prized team; Munchlax, Feraligatr, Mewtwo, Lapras, Blastoise and Floatzel.

"Able: I'm sorry this had to happen. But you can't change the past. Thank you, and thank Ryoji for me...."

The screen then faded white and returned to the title screen. I checked to see if the file was still there. When I pressed Start on the title screen, it automatically took me to Professor Oak, greeting me with the usual introduction about Pokemon. I would have to start a new game.

In the end, I was saddened. I had invested over 350 hours into Heart Gold trying to complete the Pokedex, and all that work was erased. And on top of that, not only was my Shiny Snorlax gone, but so was mine and Ryoji's whole teams. But what Titan had said before the battle with Ryoji disturbed me a little.

From what Ryoji told me, Titan was mad at me because on Heart Gold I didn’t treat him the same as Poseidon, and he was mad at Ryoji for farm breeding shinies. I guess he saw it as “playing God” in a sense. But then Titan tried to come to OUR world, and hunt us directly? Of course I knew it wasn’t possible…but even so, a Pokemon game saying those kind of things is pretty messed up….

I still play Pokemon a lot, and am ready for the release of Black and White 2. All I can say is, I'll never look at Snorlax the same way again. I still use Munchlax, and he's still my favorite; I caught another one in Platinum to fill in the gap in my team. Ryoji told me that he hasn't tried to breed any more shinies since the incident. I don't know if he will or won't again. As I said earlier, I think Shinies are special and should be treated as such. I should have listened to my own advice.

A few weeks later, I went to Anime Weekend Atlanta with my friend, Yoshi, and I accidentally left my copy of White in her car. When I got it back, she told me she left me a surprise....there, in my PC Box, there was a female shiny Munchlax.