CREEPY.COM

I'd beg for plushies, for new games, hell, for my birthday parties I'd even ask my mom if she could buy my best friends the games just so we all could play together.

Pokemon made my little childhood. My older brother would always tell me about the new games, new peeks at new pokemon that were releasing in the next one, any legendary events, the works..

It'd sound like I had a pretty darn good childhood, and I did... for a while, at least.

Eventually everything came tumbling down one way or another.. But this isn't about me, it's about. This game. I lost contact with my brother for a few years, but about a month ago, we started talking again. Catching up, getting along, making up for lost time.

I fell out of my pokemon phase, but he offered me a box of his belongings since he wouldn't be able to take it during "his move", so I gladly took the offer. He gave a big mention that it'd be mostly pokemon stuff, cheap offbrand plushies, toys, games, and whatever else I don't care to remember.

The package arrived about a week or two ago.

I remember a few things.. a few magazine pages, an offcolor pikachu, some weird..plushie, thing. It was probably some custom sold in some thrift shop but it was vaguely pokemon adjacent, and some other things. The important thing I'm here to talk about is the game.

It was a standard GBA cartridge with something sloppily written over it. The color of the tape it was written on and the marker it was written with clashed so heavily I couldn't even read it. Now, I haven't touched my GBA in years.. but I thought looking into this would've been a good way to get in touch with my inner child again.

How wrong I was.

So, a day or two later I was looking for my GBA. Eventually I found my DS instead and went for that, so I finally booted up the game. It had a standard animated intro. A few seconds in, I could immediately tell what it was, Pokemon Ruby.

Easily my favorite generation of games. My brother always had Ruby, While I usually took Sapphire. So the fact Ruby was in here was honestly unsurprising. Could it be the same cartridge we had in our childhoods? I hoped so, but landing on the "Press Start" screen confirmed otherwise.

The start screened seemed.. off. It was a static image for one, and didn't read off "Pokemon Ruby" at all. It read "Beast Captures" and "Burnt Ruby" or something. I didn't care, it was just a little thing before I pressed start. I noticed there was a save already. It looked like it had decent progress on it, but the time on it only stated 0:000, slightly extending past the save box. For the sake of my curiosity, I went to the save.. for a moment, it loaded up until the text "Sorry, Load Failed" appeared.

I was unfortunately stuck on the screen, and had to reset it, which was fine, and what I should've expected with everything looking iffy already. When I got to that new save, the black screen returned.. I could hear my ds really being put to work, and enough time passed that I thought it froze again and that the game was a lost cause, but moments before I pressed the power button, a sound resonated from my DS.

It sounded like.. wind. A fake kind of ambiance, laced with some static. Eventually, the screen came to with a white and beige color. It looked like a standard intro, without professor birch. but after the standard intro question, it asked a variety of other ones. Ones about me, how I'd handle situations, and it seemed.. almost like a text adventure, but it was also heavily reminiscent of a Pokemon Mystery Dungeon game.

This basically confirmed my suspicions of this being a hacked game or something, had it not been already glaringly obvious. I knew about hacks but only gave few my time of day, usually on emulators. Didn't think my brother would be into this sort of thing though. So after the bunch of questions, the game finally began.

It played a lot like a pokemon game. With a few differences here and there. Met my rival a bit early, some npcs had grammatical errors or no dialogue at all when the text box popped up, hell, I think Wally even showed up a bit earlier than expected without needing to go through too many trainers. An important note to make is that all the pokemon used and encountered seemed.. off. Like their sprites were recolored three times over. It wasn't glaringly obvious, well, unless you particularly cared about that sort of thing. Just a sort of thing you notice in passing.

Interestingly enough, my rivals seemed to have different personalities than the norm. Wally was more bombastic and confident, while May (of course I picked Brendan,) was more smug and a bit shy. Being honest, I got a bit attached to these different takes on their characters. Now, to get to the weirder stuff..

It was sudden, I was actually enjoying my time playing through this hack, but eventually one of the routes I'd commonly pass by looked barren. Usually the trainers would still be there even after being beaten, you know? But nothing was here, not even stepping in grass would prompt anything, which was a shame because I was searching for an HM slave. There was no music. There was nothing.. I left the area and came back multiple times but each time nothing happened.

This intrigued me, so I tried to look around.. eventually I spotted something just shy away from camera's view.. it looked like it was a professor’s aide sprite. Like, one of those scientist guys, but different? It was only halfway on screen and despite how much I tried to reach it, nothing would budge..

As time went on, more and more routes became this way, just without the sprite, although at times I swear I'd see it from the corner of my eye, just for it to not be there when I checked. The game proceeded like normal, mostly. Team Magma ran amok, but me and my rivals had it handled. But things.. just kept getting weirder as time went on. More glitches, having to reset my ds to get out of tight spots, and.. Wally.

While, yeah, Wally was much different and more upbeat than usual, every time I won against him he seemed more and more.. frustrated with me? While also asking if he did better this time.. Oddly enough, I always had an option to say yes or no to what he asked.. I didn't know how to respond at first, but I eventually just.. decided to go with what felt right?

I said No. For the first time, and he didn't even reply to me.. from then on, battles with him became nigh constant. Even between battling magma grunts, and other route trainers he’d find some way to immediately come rushing at me to try again. Hell, even to gym battles!

The same question would come up “Did I Do Better This Time?” I kept being honest, but the more I said ‘No’, the harder the battles seemed to get? I even ended up losing once. And the battle interaction played out again as usual.. but this time, I said ‘Yes’ when I eventually won. And shockingly? He actually seemed happy with it.

..I assumed so, anyway. He eventually just walked off anyway, but.. the battles were much less constant. In fact, I didn't see him at all for a while.

..Okay. Bear with me here. I didn't make this entire thing to just talk about some weird rom hack that’s been going around, but I didn't want to immediately come out with some wild story either, okay? So just.. believe me when I say this. I’ve done everything I could to try and explain this to people. Friends, My therapist, more… This is not some creepypasta, okay? This is not intended to scare anyone.

It just.. scared me, and I have no idea what kind of person would put so much effort into this.. sick joke. It was the final stretch of the Team Magma storyline, at the Seafloor Cavern. Everything was normal. The same puzzles, the same everything. It was just like Pokemon Ruby.

Everything fell down to muscle memory.. I’ve played this game so many times, I’ve basically knew most of the puzzles by memory and just needed some refreshing.

But.. when Maxie finally made his appearance within the cave, to face me and awaken Groudon, before he could even finish..

Wally.

He came rushing in behind him and just.

Shoved him into the lava.

I couldn't even tell what was happening, it all just.. went by so quick. The only thing that snapped me from my confused daze was the pixelated scream that erupted from my DS’s speakers at full blast I keep my speakers up because I love Ruby’s music, but the sudden, loud, gutwrenching noise immediately made me snap my ds closed. My heart was fucking pounding because WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT?!

It sounded NOTHING like any pokemon game or. fucking anything at all. I didn't know what to say, or do, or even if I should snap open my DS again or what-

I just needed a moment to catch my breath. To just.. steel myself, and breathe. As I did I just.. went to grab a snack to just, make sure I didn't panic myself even further- But.. I had to know what happened. I just, had to know what just fucking happened, I was scared but I couldn't just let it go.

I tried to sleep off my worries and this scared confusion and I got no sleep.. eventually I just.. caved and opened it up again, volume turned way down.

…

When the scene resumed, Maxie was gone.

It was only me, Wally, and.. Groudon. I guess.

The text read: “Wally’s red orb suddenly began shining!” HOW THE FUCK DID HE GET THE RED ORB?!

It wasn't supposed to happen. It CAN’T happen. I couldn't help but think that this was NOTHING but some edgelord’s stupid fucking hack and I couldn't even deny it anymore. But.. I said that aloud. I yelled out HOW he couldn't even have had that, and..

he responded.

He said something like.., I don't remember..

“Isn’t it cool?”

I think… I was just. so upset and pissed off and disturbed I never even paid it any mind. Thinking back on it now, so much more weird shit happened.. ..He started talking. Something like

“You look surprised!”

“Team Magma, they're just a bunch of idiots. They didn't know how to chase after the real thing.”

“Now I have Groudon.”

“Aren't you proud of me, DUSTIN?”

Dustin is my name.

I didn't put my real fucking name in. I just chose Brendan.

Was he talking directly to me? How? That wouldn't be fucking possible! There's no way some fucking hack could just LEARN MY NAME.

Before I could even mull over the fact, the battle already started.

He was way too fucking overleveled. All of his pokemon reached near lvl 90. Whoever made this stupid hack fucking sucked. To be fair, I was decently above the level gap for here too.. the constant battles with him boosted my lvl up a ton, which was good for me. But.. steadily, my team was whittled down.. I had 3 left by the time we reached the lvl 100 Groudon.

And one by one, they all burned.

Swampert. Altaria. Banette.

They just burned.

I could see their sprites be engulfed in flames, a distorted version of their cry, muted by the sound of flames.

“Swampert Burned!” “Altaria Burned!” “Banette Burned!”

I just.. watched. As I was helpless but to send them out one after another.

…

When I lost, I didn't black out. I returned back to the scene as I had before, Wally standing in front of me.

He seemed overjoyed. Glad to have finally beaten me.

He started talking, but I barely even read the words.. I just felt. Overwhelmed? Empty? Who could enjoy making such a demeaning game?

The only thing to snap me out of my daze, was.. flames.

Groudon inched closer and closer to Wally…

He didn't catch Groudon. He was just using it. He was probably so confident he could control the beast but-

He was engulfed in flames.

I immediately turned down my audio before I could hear anything, my heart pounding in my chest to hurriedly turn things down before I heard any terrible sound again.. and as this all happened, the cave began to quake, and.. everything seemed to just happen at once.

Miraculously, my Skarmory persisted through being knocked out, and rose once the danger was realized.

It used HM Fly to immediately get us out of there.

And a scarily pokemon-like cutscene played out.

Showcasing the cave erupting into a geyser of lava, and a haze coating the skies…

It showed the ocean drying up.

Lava landed on houses, coating towns as people tried to run… .. I landed in Petalburg Woods. And the haze and fog was already intense.. And I didn't know what else to do. Maxie had the blue orb.

There was no good ending to this game.

I didn't know how else to continue from here. I didn't want to continue this fucked up version of a beloved game from my childhood.. but I just couldn't put it down. I couldn't. Some sick fucking need was there in my head forcing me along, knowing that if I stopped now, my mind might just fill in the blanks with something worse.

I tried to go to the pokecenter. No one was behind the counter, but people were taking refuge. child npcs and their parents, other npcs you’d find on the routes, hell, they even had dialogue when talked to. I didn't want to read any of it. It’d have just made it worse.

I eventually healed my full team with my own potions and revives. And I just.. walked.

I walked.

I walked.

And I walked.

May was nowhere to be seen. No gym leaders, or anything.. and returning to Littleroot, there was no comforting music to be heard of.

Just the sound of flames. Flames engulfing the houses, the forest surrounding me, and it only seemed to spread..

I began to return to Petalburg City.. but right before I did.. I saw him.

It was Wally.

He had horrid burns. I swear, I could see blood on and pooling under his sprite, and it all looked.. too realistic.

Before I could say anything, he already collided with my sprite.

“Pokemon Trainer WALLY wants to battle!”

I hated the sentence.

His battle sprite looked even worse than the overworld one.

The entire Right side of his body was burned and charred. He looked distorted and dead, and his sprite.. just looked at me.

It was faced directly at me. It was staring at me. He was staring at me.

Now 3 pokemon down, the battle commenced…

and short answer.. I won. God knows I didn't want to think about if I hadn't.

When his battle sprite reappeared.. it was. changed.

He was smiling at me.

…

The sound of the flames grew louder.

“Dustin.. Dustin..!”
“You’re so strong. I fucking hate you for it. You’re amazing.”
“Even when everyone around you fucking abandons you.”
“You’re still here. Through it all.”
“What a fun little roach you are.”
“You’re so fucking pathetic."
“I love you. You’re the best friend I could ever ask for!”
Whoever made this hack is sick in the fucking head.

That's exactly what I said, at least.

It felt as though his text was completely disjointed, It made no fucking sense.

Why would some freak fucking hack know about me?

Would my own brother mess with a game just to fuck with me and mock me?!

“The flames of passion. . .”

“Let’s burn together.”

“I want you to feel me. As every inch of our bodies fucking burn to ash as we’re ripped to hell.”

“I hope I live longer than you. I doubt it. But I want to feel the fi na l be a t o f you r co l d fuc k ing he a r t.”

…

My screen flashed,, before it turned to black.

I started to try and turn it back on again, but I noticed.. its battery ran out.

...I swore I charged it but-

Honestly. I’m glad I didn't.

…

I never bothered to take the cartridge out again.. I just.. put my DS away and stayed up all night.

I tried to contact my brother again. But he wouldn't return any of my texts or calls or anything.

..I called his girlfriend and apparently after 3 weeks of being.. “off” he’s just.. disappeared.

He has fucking missing posters.

And I’m stuck here.. just. Thinking about it.

I couldn't stop thinking about it.

I can't stop thinking about it.