(Fan trailer in media by @ruby-marie94)

I held my oceanic blue GameBoy over my head, using the charcoal colored arrow pad underneath the screen to move my avatar around.

2014 and I was still playing GameBoy. Yes, I had a 3DS but I liked old school stuff too.

The pixilated boy I controlled at the time walked into the tall generated grass. This certain patch was on the right side route of Vermilion City. It wasn't too soon until the sound of electronic rolling battle music began. I set the hand-held down onto my bed and, with a flop, rolled from my back to my belly. A cord that connected the GameBoy with my prized laptop sunk into my stomach, yet I didn't mind it too much.

My fingers flew across the keyboard like an advanced pianist would across their keys, the faint sound of tapping clicks filled my utterly dark room. My caramel eyes vigorously followed the thousands of lime green digits that built a code soar up my screen.

My pinky outstretched itself clicked the "Enter" button, the final clack being the loudest. I nibbled on my lower lip as I turned back to face my GameBoy. My muddy brown hair twisted around my body with the movement. I lifted the game up, and a warm feeling surged through my veins.

As my player character threw out my starter, Charizard, my lips curled into a grin. Our enemy was a faded cream mirage, its long tail snaking behind the creature's odd proportioned body like an 'S'. It wasn't exactly the most appealing sprite to stare at though.

It was technically impossible to receive Mew without special events, even in original games like my Red Version. (Let's ignore the tedious Mew Glitch for now. No way to legitimately claim it in-game, quickly.)

But not for me. Nothing was impossible for me.

You see, if I was ever able to receive Mew by events it means the pokemon's code was already in the game. So if I was able to find it in the oceans of data packed into one cartridge and cut it into the location code my avatar was at, then it would appear as a wild pokemon. Because all I really did was modify the pokemon who was originally supposed to appear along with its move set.

I opened up my team, and gazed upon them for a moment.

Charizard- Level 100

Blastoise- Level 100

Venusaur-Level 100

Lapras-Level 100

Snorlax-Level 100

Pikachu-Level 100

I just wanted to admire my team, my work per se, which I was able to build by hacks for a moment before I exited back into the battle. I moved my choice box onto the section labeled, "BAG" and opened the pokeball section. My 99 masterballs sat awaiting me with a glowing radiance.

"Gottcha ya' little sucker," I whispered with a smirk hinting at the corner of my mouth as I chose a masterball to throw. My avatar in mid-toss froze, the screen glitched. Bar lines darted across the screen and the catchy battle music was replaced with a high static screech emitting from the right corner speaker. The frequency continued to vary at full volume as the codes flashed across the small screen in clusters. Small sparks glittered in my dark bedroom.

Both my hands were slapped against my ears and my teeth gritted into one another. With much courage, I peeled a hand away from my left ear and reached over to the GB's power switch. My finger flicked at it multiple times, but nothing happened.

I let out a pained growl, I hate when systems do this... Always with the older ones too.

Soon, the bugged game effected my computer. The modern technology amplified the ringing static, my laptop screen lighting up a pure white.

With no more options, I ripped the GameBoy from its plug violently, with both my hands torn from my ears, and chucked it at my wall. Anger seethed up through me, my temper flickering.

The breaking open of plastic and shattering sparks of circuits was the end of it. My laptop forced itself to a shutdown, leaving me alone in the darkness of the night.

Well, not for too long.

"Leaf!" my door was flung open, the knob thundering against the back wall. Bland light from the hallway dripped into my room. I cringed back as the switch on the wall was turned on and my room was illuminated by its own light. My graying mother gazed at me hysterically, almost angrily. "Are you alright, Leaf? What happened? I heard some screeching, and I thought it was some bat in the house, and then I heard something break in your room, and why don't you have a normal light on in here! That light from your games can't be good for your eyes!"

Yes, my name is Leaf. Leaf Verde. And I'm named after a plant. Actually, a part of a plant. My mother was not that creative with names. And it wasn't like a father was there to help with the naming. My father, you see, he was shot in the head a month before I was born. His body, I suppose, was found in an alley the day after the murder. It was an alleged mugging, according to the police reports.

How I got ahold of the reports? I may or may not have hacked into the police department database when I was a bored 13 year old. There isn't any proof of the system infiltration, anyways.

I guess it's sad, my father's murder. My mom usually grows more depressed than usual near his birthday, their anniversary and his time of death. But, I was never really upset about it. I mean, I never met the man. How can I mourn about someone if I didn't know who they were? Was my father a good man? Was he a moral man? Was he a strict one? Was he loving? Was he abusive? These things I would never know and I don't need to.

So the entirety of my life, it's just been me and her.

I rolled my eyes and rubbed my pasty white arm, "Mom... I was just playing one of my games. The darkness helps me focus. And--- A bug corrupted the game. It won't happen next time."

My mother placed a hand over her heart and let out the breath she had been holding. But quickly, her ease flickered to shock, "It is almost 11:30 at night! You've been playing since I got home at 3!" her emphasis on playing dripped with a sort of condescending disgust. "You should be asleep. Scratch that, did you finish all of your homework?"

I ran a hand through my hair that draped down to my mid-back, giving her a bored stare, "I have an IQ of 172, I might just be smart enough to know I should finish all of my simplistic homework," I replied to her dryly. "I finished it before I left that mediocre school you send me to."

"That, quote-unquote, mediocre school is one of the most advance schools for gifted children in our country. We moved out here so you could just attend it," my mom said in an irritated tone, one hand relaxing her hip as practiced. "And you are taking nearly all Advance Placement classes in tenth grade, How is that simple?"

I just shrugged, unwilling to answer my mom as usual, "I'll go to sleep now, mom. See you in the morning."

"Really, Leaf," She finally expressed dismally, letting out a small sigh. She turned around and switched off the lights, letting the dark immerse me one more.

"Love you," I said quietly what I never said enough just before she clicked the door silently closed. I simpered slightly before pacing over to my sock drawer. Even in the darkness I could shuffled the cotton clothing articles around and pick out my back-up GameBoy. I set it on my pillow carefully and booted my laptop back to power.

The bright laptop light that covered the room behind me also lit up my new crimson GameBoy. From the corner of my eye, I saw a pile of broken plastic. I slipped over that part of my room and fingered though the blue wreckage, "What's salvageable..." I mused. My eyes widened in shock as I came across, underneath the heap of shards, was a mostly undamaged Pokemon Red Version. Just a buff or two in the corners of the durable cartage.

I blinked ferociously, this occurrence was highly improbable. Almost impossible. I threw that GameBoy pretty hard.

Once I tossed the unsalvageable wiring into the trash and slipped the saved circuits into a shoe box full of more, I sat back onto my bed weakly. I took another glimpse at the ruby colored piece of plastic in my grasp, a few scratches on the corner.

I wondered for a moment if I had lost any of the data on it.

It quickly dawned upon me, that if it did... I might be able to create a new game platform all together. Though, from a blank slate it would just be writing. Swiftly, I plugged the GameBoy into my laptop and popped that old game into the cartridge holder in the back.

My computer alerted me that I had plugged in a foreign object and I moved the mouse to X off the alert. Once I pulled up the game's system, I was in. My fingers flew across the keyboard once like before, though this time new codes being imported. I was quick to find that no data was lost, but the damage had opened up a new area for me to explore. I let out a sigh that my first idea wouldn't be able to work. But if there was a new area to play in, maybe I can do a few more things too. Curiously, I tinkered with the number strings within and smirked at this form of entertainment. To prove that my toying had indeed worked, I also altered the lines that Pokemon Champion Blue speaks after defeating him for the second time.

Before flipping on my game, I perched my pillow up against my bed's backing and relaxed against it. I held the GB in my hands and watch as the game flashed across the screen. The beginning music played with an electrical echo like the usual. The main menu came, with the usual choices.

I hit the A button to "Continue".

But something curious happened. My Avatar, dubbed Red for game-namesake, was standing in the dead center of his bedroom. I rose an eyebrow and opened up the party option. Everything remained normal there. I let the disturbance roll off my shoulder, thinking that I had just forgotten that this was the last place I saved at.

I maneuvered the character from his home and flew him to the elite four. Demolished them with my team. Then finally I came to the champion's threshold. Like usual, Blue (Rival named after The Blue Version which I hadn't owned at the time.) waited for me.

I challenged him to a battle and won in a hasty sweep.

The battle faded back to the sprite screen, the characters were conversing. My breath had caught itself in my throat with anticipation. Re-writing words was easy, but the tension of my new work leaving an impression on the rest of the game had me twitching. As if I was in over my head for hacking.

Blue stoically stood across from my avatar, "Why? Why did I lose?" The speech bubble at the bottom of the screen read. I moaned with impatience, pressing the A button carefully. I didn't want to accidentally pass what I had decided to change.

That was when it started.

"But I am disappointed in you, my eternal rival, Red... You let a player hack into our system, use you. Us. You let them destroy the natural balance of our world. Look at yourself. You have a completely over-powered team and all three of our Kanto starters. The player cheated without a second thought, they just used you."

What the...? My jaw drooped as the text flashed across the speech bubble. I know I didn't program this.

Blue continued to talk, unmoving like all original game sprites, "For this, as champion of Kanto, I banish you, Red Fire, to Mt. Silver. And under the Kanto-Johto alliance, you may never set foot into either Region or face the consequences." Without a word, my avatar turned around and walked out the door.

I rose one of my eyebrows, This must be a fail-safe that the game creators set up. It hadn't occurred to me that during the Kanto games, Mt. Silver and the Johto region weren't in progress or even thought about by game creators. It's like the Mew one, that I was attempting to work around. Next is probably going to be some "Game Over" And I just have to restart.

Expectantly waiting to see the screen fade to black, the image remained. Curiosity started to bubble up within me, "Where's the Game Over...." I thought out loud.

"That's not how life works, Player," the black text slowly faded across the screen from Blue's speech bubble. "In life, you can't just make a mistake and get a do-over. Or a Game Over as you say." My fingers that had gripped the crimson GameBoy flew to the back of my neck. The hand-held gaming system dropped to my comforter blanket that covered my bed.

My eyes danced across the system while I recalled that GameBoy's didn't have microphones or cameras, "That's not right. Or possible..." I droned in awe, confusion and a teeny bit of fear. So I smiled, because that's all I could do to hide my thumping heart. The music changed to an eerie silence, nothing. Just a faint static buzz kissing at my ears.

Though a clear laugh emitted from the system. The voice sounded electronic, "It is very possible, Player. Or should I call you hacker? Just as Red has been punished, you will be too."

"Alright, I am going to hunt down whatever messed-up game creator programmed this. Then wring them around the neck for terrifying the shit out of me," I let out a hollow and nervous laugh, pressing the power switch.

Nothing.

I hit it again.

Nothing.

Like last time, sparks emitted from the system and the ringing static began again. Electricity ran though the cord that connected the GB to my laptop at high speeds. My computer's screen flashed all the colors of the rainbow at such speed it was like a strobe light. Glitching bars chasing each other across the display.

The intensity stung my eyes, I swore to myself it would cause a seizure. The wire snapped right up the middle, sending even more sparks into my dim room. The sudden change shut my laptop down. I pushed the top screen down with one arm, the other attempting to cover my two ears while the feedback frequency increased.

The free running wire that snapped seconds before whipped its plastic-coated self against my open arm. The copper inside shot volts of electric through my body, and I let out a tortured yelp. More electricity that seemed to just be expelled from the GameBoy wrapped around me like vines. The pain started to become unbearable, and my agonizing cries were only drown out by the static.

After what was probably 10 G's of electricity rushed through my veins I finally blacked-out. Maybe from the pain. Maybe because the electricity had stopped my heart. Maybe from how confused I was at this impossible phenomenon. Because that much should kill me.

I had no clue for how long I was out cold.

I really didn't care.

All I knew was the darkness that filled my mind. How difficult it was to even send forward a thought. An idea.

And then, when my mind had pulled me into what I assumed was consciousness, a thick fog filled my brain from still giving me a clue.

I might have not been fully attentive at the time, but there was one thing I knew when I had awoken. My eyes absorbed the setting that had lied out before me, my covers up to my chin. I slowly rose and shook my head in disapproval, the cover slipping down to my hips.

My room definitely was never pink.