“Yeah, it did.” Placing himself next to his friend in one of the in-kitchen dining room chairs, he gingerly tore the tape and wrappings from the package, slipping a hand inside and pulling out its contents: a thank you post-it note from the seller, and the game itself. He turned it over in his hands, examining it, listening to the sound of Scott munching away at the remnants of his sandwich all the while. Something felt off.
“Scott, do you see anything different about this cartridge?” he asked, handing the little red square over to him. Scott took the cartridge and looked it over with little care, giving a shrug afterward.
“Looks like a regular Pokemon game to me.”
“No, seriously. Hang on.” Derrick stood from the table, leaving the cartridge with Scott, and headed upstairs to his room. On his bedside table was an Game Boy Color, with a similar red cartridge poking from its depths. Pulling the game from the slot and making his way back downstairs, he picked the second red cartridge up and placed the two side-by-side in his palm - two Pokemon games, Red Version, in decent condition. But one of the cartridges was different. It looked altered. The two Charizards on the cartridge stickers stared at him. One was shifted, with a see-through plastic design. He could almost see the microchips through the sticker of the one he had just gotten in the mail.
“Hey, Derrick, I’mma head home,” Scott interrupted his reverie, crumpling his sandwich wrapper in his hands and disposing of it in the trash. “Thanks for joining me for lunch. I’ll see you later?”
“Yeah, see you…” he replied almost absently, waving to his friend as he exited through the front door. After examining the two cartridges moments longer, he trod back upstairs to his room, suddenly eager to start playing his new Pokemon Fire game. He entered his room, flipped is lights on, and let his eyes swivel to where he last left his GBC.
It wasn’t there.
Furrowing his eyebrows, he looked behind his bedside table. Not there. He checked beneath it, under his bed, on top of his bed. Not there, either.
Weird, he thought to himself, but he was still eager to begin playing. A thought came to him. Turning to the foot of his bed, he found his backpack, to which he unzipped the middlemost zipper and pulled from it a Game Boy SP.
“Hah,” he chuckled, hopping onto his bed, sliding the new cartridge inside and flipping the handheld into life. The Game Boy jingle rang from the contraption’s speakers, the green light of battery shone on the side of it, but the backlight he was used to in the handheld didn’t flip on. “Must be a flawed copy…”
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A soft buzz met Derrick’s ears moments before the passed in front of a surprise trainer in the game, watching the little character walk up to him and demand a Pokemon battle. He let the 8-bit battle music engage and turned his eyes to the surface of his bed, where his phone’s backlight was on. He had a message. Balancing his SP in his right hand and picking up the cell with his left, he read over his new text message.
SCOTT
HEY WANNA HANG OUT?
He input a command for his Charmeleon to attack and turned to his phone to answer.
SURE YOUR CAR OR MINE?
Balancing the phone on his knee to await another reply from Scott, he finished the battle, and smiled. His journey thus far had gained him his first badge from Pewter City by defeating Brock, and he was now mere footsteps from the end of Mt. Moon. Plowing his way through wild Pokemon (or rather, running from them), he finally saw the small hole of light in the cave that was the exit. He found himself on Route 4, when he suddenly felt his phone vibrate again. He picked it up.
SCOTT
MINE. GIMME 15 MIN AND ILL BE AT UR HOUSE.
Instead of answering, he stuffed the phone in his pocket shifted his attention back to his SP as he was beginning to cross the threshold of Route 4 to Cerulean City. He pulled his menu screen up again to save his game, leaning his head against the wall and closing his eyes as he waited.
These clothes should be fine. I should let mom know where I’m going, though…ugh…why am I suddenly so sleepy? He rubbed his eyes, trying to blink the desire to doze off from his eyes. Did I really stay up that late last night? He let his arms drop to the bed, resting his eyes for just a moment before he got ready to go. Before he knew it, though, he had dropped beneath the line of consciousness, and was asleep.
Suddenly he jerked awake, nearly falling over as he realized he was standing. He patted his face, feeling the sleep begin to subside, and looked around him. His eyes met a vast landscape of grey, a few simple-looking houses dotting the place to make that landscape a civilization. He had the absolute oddest feeling that he recognized it. He rubbed his eyes again and walked toward the buildings, in a daze of where he was. He saw a ravine to his left with a little island a nice swim across its wake, a little man standing in front of the opening of a cave. It was also familiar. Still, he walked on, until he came across a man standing alone in the streets.
“Um, excuse me, sir?” he called to him, walking up to him gingerly. “Could you please tell me where this is?” He didn’t respond. In fact, Derrick felt as though the man didn’t even realize he was there. He stood perfectly still for a few more moments, before turning on his heels and walking two or three paces forward, before resuming his previous stillness. Derrick’s jaw dropped.
“No…” he muttered in bewilderment, rushing past the still man, deeper into the small buildings. He suddenly knew where he was. He continued beyond other people who maintained the same position as the man, and finally came to a stop at a bigger building, one that read ‘Gym.’
“I’m in Cerulean City…!”
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