Chapter Text
Shawn awoke in his bedroom to find himself alone. Everything was deathly quiet and still. No sound of anything outside, no gentle hum of electricity, and, most worrisome, no sound of his pokemon nearby.
"Guys?" he called, his voice sounding as if he was speaking in an empty expanse too large to return an echo. He called once more, each of their names in turn, but all it did was make him feel more alone. Perhaps they were outside? He climbed out of bed to prepare himself for the morning only to find himself dressed in a strange, inexplicable outfit he couldn't quite make out.
He looked around for his bag and supplies, but they were missing. In fact, he appeared to not even be in the same room he went to bed in. Confused and nervous that something horribly wrong was happening, Shawn went to the window to see if Cerulean was still there. It wasn't. In its place stretched a desert that seemed to float in the midst of nothingness. It was difficult to tell, but it just appeared to stop after a few miles. Beyond that was a dark, empty void.
"What's going on here?" Shawn asked desperately as he stepped back from the window, "Where the heck am I?"
No answers would be found by staying inside that little room. Shawn was left with only one sensible choice and that was to leave. Reaching for the door, he pulled it open slowly as if going too quickly would set off a booby trap. Once he had it open, he stepped through and into a large, incredibly noisy tavern. The gigantic contrast between the dead silence of his room slammed against his head and caused him to stumble backwards into his room where everything went silent again despite the door remaining open.
Shawn stared into the tavern in disbelief. Something, besides the noise, felt incredibly off about it. He glanced out the window. According to the doorway, it lined up perfectly with a table. According to the window, the table was a desert. Thinking it was an illusion, Shawn ran to the window, opened it, and stuck his head outside only to find that there was not a tavern on the other side, but rather a simple one-room shack that comprised the entirety of the building he was in. He turned and poked his head into the tavern again, this time prepared for the noise, and saw that there was no sign of either the desert or the shack.
"Okay, this can't be real," he told himself, "It's impossible for both of those to be true."
Despite his best attempts to will himself back to reality, he remained where he was. He had no idea what was going on but thinking about home clearly wasn't working. Deciding it was the better option over the desert, Shawn stepped into the tavern to see if he could find any kind of answer. What he saw only confused him even more.
In one corner of the tavern, two patrats were beating each other with magikarps while Professor Oak and Professor Elm argued furiously over the philosophical implications of the fight. Not far from them he saw Arceus, with a transcendental smirk, opting to playing at the roulette table instead of a game of dice. And running the bar was the only individual who noticed him and was actively waving him over: a melodramatic baby carrying a large candy cane.
"Ummm... hello?" Shawn asked while on the verge of giving up all attempts to make sense of the situation.
"ah, greetings young traveler, shawn!" the baby said both with great dramatic effect and, Shawn wasn't sure how he perceived it, without any capital letters, "i am life, the bartender!"
"Where am I?"
"you are where you are not! this is a place that exists in a place that which does not! a place where we come together to perceive a non-reality to each of our own preferences! a place where we all share a common misunderstanding of who, what, and where we are! you, shawn, are in the null and void tavern! be warned that while death and dismemberment is a personal choice on your part, all forms of violence are welcomed here and you may be asked repeatedly if you are okay with getting maimed!"
"This... I... uh... where..." Shawn started, but could not articulate anything to ask. Finally he just sighed, gave up, and snapped, "Okay, this place makes no sense whatsoever! What is going on here? And how do you know my name?"
"as I told you, i am life! i am she who brings everyone into this world just as death, the usual barkeeper, is the one who brings them out! and also as i told you, everything here is your own perception! you see what your notions of logic, sense, and reality cannot see! this is the void, shawn, a place that exists in nothingness. all that is here is real and unreal, true and untrue, exists and unexists!"
"Then what am I doing here? Why am I here? Why am I not in Cerulean City with my pokemon?" Shawn demanded, his patience wearing thin.
"you are here because you aren't here! all things happen for a reason, shawn! well, usually! sometimes they don't! sometimes they happen for unreasons! but the important thing is that all things happen! unless they don't happen, but there's usually a reason or unreason for that!"
"Stop talking in riddles!"
"then have a drink!"
"What?" Shawn asked a moment before a mug of brown, frothy liquid materialized explosively on the counter before him. He eyed it cautiously and, seeing that it wasn't dangerous, grabbed it and found that it did not explode in his hands. When he tried to move it, the drink refused to budge.
"you have to pay for it first, of course!"
Shawn reached into his pocket and pulled out his wallet, at which point life frowned.
"the existence of currency is strongly within doubt here! we do not take money, but prefer goods that have amusement potential! search your pockets!"
Shaking his head, Shawn did as he was asked and discovered he had a large supply of oddities stuffed away. A few pieces of shrimp, a trout, a Liberty Ticket, a few pokemon trading cards, and an Ocarina of Time were just a few of the things he came across. Shrugging, he set them down on the counter and then attempted to lift the mug again. This time it budged just fine. He took a sip to discover that it was perhaps the best mug of root beer he had ever had.
"be warned, Shawn, your time here is almost up! for he approaches!"
"Who's approaching?" Shawn asked, taking another drink of the only thing that made sense in this place aside from himself.
"i can't say his name!"
"Who, Candle Ja-" Arceus, looking up from his game of roulette, started to ask but inexplicable vanished before he could finish speaking.
"no, worse! i must go! bye!"
"Huh? Wait!" Shawn started, but Life turned herself into a quantum particle and warped away. Shortly thereafter, everyone else in the tavern did so as well. The barely tolerable noise of the tavern dropped down to the same deathly silence that was in Shawn's room earlier. He did not know why, but his heart began to pound and he began to tremble. A terrible sense of dread washed over him as the silent minutes ticked by.
What had scared everyone off? What were they all afraid of? And why couldn't Shawn run away with them? Was it truly something that horrible? Or was it just another inane behavior of the people in this... place? If it was, then why did he feel like something horrible was trying to rip at his heart? Everything was fine, the people were just being non-sensical. Nothing was going to happ...
Shawn's line of thought stopped as, just at the edge of his ability to hear, the soft sound of static started to drift into the room. Gradually, but very slowly, it began to grow in volume. He tried to reassure himself once more that it was nothing, but as the sound became more and more clear, his attempts all failed miserably. Finally, he just gave up, panicked, and immediately looked for a spot to dive under and hide but all of the furniture, doors, windows, and other features had vanished. Indeed, he was now alone in an empty, featureless room. With nowhere to hide.
A distorted screech pierced the air and the static instantly went to a deafening roar. The walls and ceiling turned black, broke apart into small, flat squares, and scattered to the four winds. All around him in the sky and on every horizon was a horrible mess of soft gray, white, and black pixels. On a sudden urge, Shawn looked straight up and saw a massive patch that seemed to have taken into some vague shape amidst the chaos. And that shape was growing as if it was coming closer.
"WHO DARES TO DEFY ME AND MY WORLD?" a screechy, distorted voice bellowed in demand as the shape came closer.
"Wh-who are you?" Shawn squeaked as unspeakable terror took hold of his body.
"I AM MISSINGNO! I AM THE FORBIDDEN BIRD-TYPE POKEMON" the shape declared proudly, "YOU AND YOUR KIND HAVE DARED TO INSULT ME FOR THE LAST TIME!"
"What... what did I do? I haven't done anything!"
"YOU DARE TO SURF ON THE EASTERN SHORE OF CINNABAR ISLAND IN AN ATTEMPT TO ACHIEVE ILL-GOTTEN WEALTH AND POWER! I SHALL PUNISH YOU ALL FOR YOUR TRANSGRESSIONS!"
"But I didn't do that! MISSINGNO, I've not even been to Cinnabar Island! I don't even know where it's at! There's no way it could.."
"SILENCE! NOW FACE MY WRATH WITH DIGNITY, PUNY PLAYER, AND WATCH AS I DESTROY YOUR GAME!"
Searing pain shot through Shawn's body as he turned black. He could feel himself turning into pixels and breaking apart. He attempted to scream, but the only sound that came out was a distorted shriek. Above, MISSINGNO laughed as it watched him suffer.
* * *
Shawn jerked upright, screaming. He took deep gasps for air has he shivered and felt cold sweat run down his body. Looking around, he realized he was back in the motel room he and his pokemon had rented the night before.
His pokemon!
Frantically, his eyes darted around the room to search for them. Fortunately, he found them very quickly. All six of were standing around the bed, watching him with concerned looks that strongly suggested he had perhaps been kicking or screaming in his sleep for a little while now.
"Yo bro, are you all right?" Rusty asked.
"Yeah... yeah... I'm fine," Shawn breathed and shook his head, "What a nightmare. What time is it?"
"It's the middle of the afternoon," Lucy replied, "and you've been out since we got in here. You were exhausted from the trip yesterday."
"Wow, really?" Shawn asked and then shook his head, "I'm so sorry everyone. I didn't mean to be out that long."
Cedric fluttered up to him and smiled, "Oh, don't worry. We're just glad you're okay."
"Thank you, all of you. Sorry to make you worry like that," Shawn replied, throwing off the covers. He stood up and stretched, "Well, let's see what we can do with the rest of the day, why don't we?"