Oh! You surprised me… Nice to see you back again. You do remember what my job is, correct? If not, I'll remind you again; I research hacked Pokémon games. You remember now? Good. How ironic for you to appear at this time; I have just recently completed another log of a recent finding…

My partner… Yes, the same companion of mine that gave me the "Robbed Soul[Silver]" cartridge a few days ago... sent me a link, meaning that this next one was not a cartridge, but a hacked ROM. I braced myself; I knew, by previous experiences, that ROM hacks tended to be more unnerving than hacked cartridges, mainly because they were easier to alter. They are often disguised as normal Pokémon game ROMs, having the official title. But, they are far from the real thing. It also seems as if only certain people meet the effects of the ROM, while others play the game normally…Why this is so, I've yet to find out… What I do know is that I seem to be one of those certain people, for I am always running into one of these constantly, and so is my partner…

Along with the link, he sent me a list of the answers I would have gotten if he had been asked. I will state what I can remember of the e-mail, because I deleted all evidence of it after I read it and collected the nessacary information. This was the same link a downloaded the hacked Pokémon Ruby ROM on… And, I will keep both of our e-mail addresses anonymous, as well as the link.

"From: XXXXXXXXXXXX

To: XXXXXXXXXXXX

Subject: sHE shaLl Pine

(www. XXXXXXXXXX. com)

thiS is a rom Hack of pokEmon leafgreen. found today at 4: 57 pm, vIa download. containS slIght gore. Name Not altErED. please note… i did not complete this myself. my emulator crashed, so I didn't finish it.

(There is a reason for the chosen subject.)"

And that was the end of it. I noticed a couple of capitalization errors, but I ignored them. He was probably in a hurry. He had mentioned the subject of the e-mail… It was obviously of significance. I examined it for a while, noticing one four letters had been capitalized. It did not take me very long to notice that the uppercase letters spelled out "HELP". My partner had done the same thing with the actual e-mail, which explained the errors in it. The uppercase letters in the e-mail read out, "SHE IS IN NEED". I knew that he was hinting what was to be in the ROM… I had gotten all the vital info, so, after copying and pasting the link, I erased the e-mail.

Like Robbed Soul[Silver], I finished in a reasonable amount of time. And I was glad that I did. I have a lot to say about it in my log, so here it is:

Day: January 3, 2011, Monday

Time: 5: 05: 54 PM

Game Acquired: 5: 00: 56 PM

Originally Found: At www. XXXXXXX. Com (download link) via fellow researcher

Hack of: Pokémon LeafGreen

Alternate Name?: None, dub name needed

Full Summary:

The introduction of the game was entirely normal, having nothing out of the ordinary. It even included the "press start" screen, with the Venusaur, and the intro music present. It was after I pressed the correct button for "start" that things began to grow intimidating. I was not given the opportunity to start a new game, but instead was met with a blank, dark screen, which stayed immobile for around twenty seconds. I knew the game didn't crash; one thing these hacks are famous for lagging for a few minutes, and then having something show up as soon as you're about to turn the game off. After the twenty seconds, a text box appeared, containing blue text, said;

"…Save me... You're the only one left…"

An image began to fade in the center of the darkness… It was the female protagonist of LeafGreen, or Leaf, as I liked to call her. She was in very bad shape; it almost scared me. Her close were torn and ripped (to a higher extent than Lyra in the last hack), and her face, legs, and arms were riddled with scratch wounds and ugly bruises. What made it even more discomforting was that it was very obvious that something had made those markings; something had attacked her… Her eyes, which where thick with both yearning tears and desperation, despite being made of pixels, looked right into my own. She didn't move, so I got up, not to leave, but to test something…

I could have sworn I heard a sharp whimper from the speakers, and she said, "No! Please! Don't g-go… I beg of y-you…"

Ah, I figured; a ROM aware of the player… I hadn't encountered this in quite a while. I, with my question answered, sat back down, and did not plan to get back up again. "G-good, you stay with me…" she said. "Please listen… Help me out of here…" She faded out, and another dark screen appeared, saying,

"…It's after me… It wants me dead…"

Something came up after a few seconds… It was Leaf, and even in her overworld form, I could still see her terrified expression. She was standing in what looked like Pewter City. It was normal and full for about three seconds, and then, little by little, it began to completely disorder, becoming a mass of mashed, eye-hurting pixels, all while Pewter's music became horribly glitched…

"Oh… Oh no… It's come for me again… Take me away from here…"

I, though confused as to what was going on, did, moving her away from the city using the correct buttons for walking. She soon began running on her own, without my pressing any buttons. She ran to the east, into she reached Mt. Moon, which was normal as well. I knew it wouldn't stay that way for long, though. When she entered the mountain, I saw her sprite shivering, as if in utter fear.

"I'ts all My fault…

i ShOuldn't hAve caught it…

i SHould hAve run away froM thE…

How coulD… i have known?"

The punctuation mistakes were done on purpose; it read

"I'M SO ASHAMED…"

I had a slight indication on what exactly she was talking about, but I wasn't quite sure. She no longer moved, so I quickly opened up the menu, and looked through her team. It was entirely empty, except for a particular spot in the first area, which showed a full HP bar, but also a glitchy, unreadable name and no Pokémon available next to it. I tried to examine a summary, but I couldn't. No menu would appear when a pushed the right button. So, I closed the team, and opened up Leaf's trainer card. It read;

"Na?me: lEaF…?

Time: ?0?:?0?

?P?o?ke?dex: ? iTsA?LL?gO?Ne"

The card itself was a complete mess, being bordered by the same jumble of pixels as Pewter. Leaf's profile was the same as it was in the intro; suffering. But this time, I noticed that her left leg was screwed up, the pixels being disordered and out of place. I made a guess; the corruption of Pewter had affected her while she was in it. That's why she needed me to control her running for her, because she couldn't run on her own. I also noticed that there was a star on the trainer card, meaning she had made it into the hall of fame… But, like everything else on the card, it was corrupted and messy, though I had no idea why… Oh, and as a note, I have just realized upon writing this that among the jumbled symbols, the letters next to "?P?oke?dex:" read out "It's all gone" minus the apostrophe. I trust that this meant her Pokedex was empty due to whatever was going on. Lastly, I checked her bag. The was one type of item inside, reading;

"Rare Candy X?99?9"

The map was present as well, but I was surprise to find that what happened to Pewter had happened to all of Kanto. The entire map was obstructed by the same horrid, eye-hurting pixels…

I soon had to close the menu out, because while I was examining the map, text box containing red words said;

"i've found YOU… you t'Ruly bElieveD that you could EscApe my reign, coulD you… "

The capitalized words spelled out "YOU'RE DEAD"…

"No… Not you… WHERE ARE YOU? H-help me.."

I knew she was calling for me, so I closed everything out immediately, and went back to Mt. Moon. The place was just like Pewter now… In garbled ruin. Leaf was shaking even more now, looking around her in panic. Whoever was talking was going to attack her; the same thing that attacked her before I loaded the ROM… The screen flashed, with humming in the background, and the opponent… I knew it. I had not encountered this since my youth in Pokémon Red… It was Missingno.. It did this to Leaf, and Kanto. Something else had hit my mind as well… I was in the "second half" of this. My partner had been through the first half, but his emulator crashed on him. The save-data hungry monster clearly took advantage of this situation, and cruelly maimed Leaf, and the remainder of Kanto while no one could help her… This also explained the trainer card; the star was in shambles because the creature had disrupted her Hall of Fame data.

"!deraeppa .ONGNISSIM dliW"

It wa "Wild MISSINGNO. Appeared!" backwards, with no good reason…

"Ise e… Yo u'venot hingt ofig htagai nst m ewit h…*"

*Translation: "I see… You've nothing to fight against me with…"

"N-no… Leave me… Please…" Leaf begged, still having the same tears

"Ic anno t .Yo ca pt uredm e , soy oum ustsuff erm y po w er…*"

*Translation: "I cannot. You captured me, so you must suffer my power…"

I watched as Leaf's arms both grew garbled and corrupted… I heard her wailing in pain; Missingno. was killing her.

"Stop… The pain…"

The glitch no longer spoke in jumbles. "No. There is no way to stop me. Unless…

You."

"You"? I was confused for a few seconds, until I realized that it was talking about me.

"Me?" I said aloud.

"Yes. You. The one who downloaded this. You wish to save this human?"

NO

NO

Not very fair options. But, I didn't panic. I merely said "Yes," out loud. It could hear me, after all.

"Gah. More intelligent than I believed…

…or not." It changed from its glitch sprite form to the intimidating GHOST form, the smile piercing and wide…

A text box with two words on it appeared, saying;

Delete

Continue

The glitch continued. "you've tWo choices. Save tHe gIrl, start a new game. Or, you may keep your preCious little save file, and watch the cHild die by my pOwer. I know which oNE you sHall choose… hUmans are clingy when it coMes to their dAta… Now. choose."

It spelled out "WHICH ONE HUMAN"…

Leaf's eyes turned to me, with more tears in her eyes, like she had lost all hope. Did she really think I would let her fall to Missingno.? I had not even started the file to begin with. With flair, I selected "delete".

"What? It cannot be…"

Leaf's tears subsided, and she said;

"Thank you… You saved me… From it… Th…a…n…k…yo…"

She didn't finish. As her final world rolled, the screen became black, and a text box appeared saying;

"you are a smart one. i underestimated you. i shall head you with a warning. leave me be if you are lucky enouGh tO see me. If nOt, others shall suffer… others shall Die… Bear that thought in Your mind…"

The letter spelled out, "GOOD BY," but it was missing the "e". But no matter. The screen was black for about five minutes, and I knew that it was over. I closed it out, the glitch's last words bundled in my mind… That is all.

End.

Yes, that was a lot more than last time. I applaud you for sitting through it all. And, while sharing this with you, I have a theory… Could it have been possible… That before me or my partner found this ROM… Someone else had used it for fun, caught Missingno., and then saved the game, and never touched it again? No, it can't be… Or could it…? Bah, no need to bore you with that idea. You are free to leave now. But before you go, I would like to tell you the name I came up with for this ROM… Invaded LeafGreen.