Before Joseph Stone was a name that echoed through Hoenn, before he set foot on warm dirt roads and exchanged glances with Gym Leaders or locked eyes with Cynthia's name on a championship board—he lived in another world. One not made of vivid towns or bustling ports, but of pixels, save files, and GBA cartridges worn from too many hours of gameplay.
FireRed: The First Vault
Joseph sat cross-legged on his bed, old GBA SP glowing dimly in the early hours before dawn. The plastic click of buttons was a rhythm more familiar than his own heartbeat.
On screen, his team was finishing off the final member of the Elite Four—again.
"Flygon, Earthquake."
The screen shook, pixels flashing. The opposing Arcanine fell with a dramatic cry. Victory. Again.
Not that he needed it anymore. He'd beaten this league hundreds of times. But this was never about the League. This was about the Vault—his term for the perfect Pokémon he'd raised and stored meticulously inside the PC Boxes.
Joseph saved the game and accessed BOX 14.
There, in neat order, sat:
Metagross, Adamant nature, max IVs across the board
Salamence, raised from a Bagon caught with a single Ultra Ball in Meteor Falls
Gengar, imported through Pal Park from LeafGreen
Snorlax holding Leftovers, HP and Defense maxed
Gyarados, shiny, caught after resetting the Lake of Rage data via cheat-glitch just to simulate HeartGold conditions
Shiny Eevee, Timid nature, perfect IVs, EV-trained for Sp. Defense and HP
Each was earned. No cheats, no shortcuts. Just sheer repetition. Thousands of battles against the Elite Four. Dozens of berries plucked and used to fix EV mistakes. Countless trades between ROMs using emulated link cables. Hours of soft resets just for nature and IV perfection.
And yet… he always found himself going back to one Pokémon.
He scrolled until her name lit the screen:
Eevee♀ | Shiny | Lv. 5Nature: TimidMoves: Wish, Charm, Protect, Baton Pass
"Ready to train again?" he murmured.
She was never just data to him. She was the start of everything.
Emerald: Endless Horizons
Switching cartridges with muscle memory, Joseph opened Emerald—his more experimental file. The ROM flickered to life. The title screen music had long since been muted in his head.
He was in Battle Frontier, standing just outside the Tower. His team? An optimized mix for doubles: Latios, Dusclops, Ludicolo, and Swampert, all itemized for synergy. But this wasn't about showy wins or Battle Points.
It was about stress-testing perfection.
He transferred over Shiny Eevee via the in-ROM trade port he'd set up using two emulator instances and began again. Today was about Baton Pass chains. Protect, Wish, Substitute, Calm Mind—all timed perfectly to pass into Latios or Snorlax.
And when things went wrong?
He reset.
Again.
And again.
Not out of frustration, but determination. For Joseph, these weren't just pixels. They were companions. He was building something timeless. His legacy, piece by pixelated piece.
Pokémon Bonding, Pixel by Pixel
He started naming them. Not just nicknames, but quiet emotional associations:
Salamence was "Storm," because she won battles he had no right winning
Gardevoir became "Stillness," after surviving a sweeping +6 Dragonite
Eevee was… simply "Her"
When he had a tough day in the real world, it was "Her" he loaded up. He'd run in circles through Petalburg Woods or Surf lazily between Route 124 and Mossdeep, letting her follow behind on his screen. Just the two of them. Her silver coat glimmering, even in pixels.
Sometimes, he'd bring her into the Frontier—even though she was under-leveled.
Sometimes she'd win anyway.
Final Teams and Final Nights
Months passed. Real life grew heavier. College. Jobs. Family expectations.
He saved his final FireRed save with the PC Box filled to capacity:
Box 1–3: Battle-ready Legendaries: Articuno, Zapdos, Moltres, Mewtwo, Entei, Raikou, Suicune. Each caught and trained with obsessive care.
Box 4–7: Team variants—Rain, Sandstorm, Baton Pass Chains, Stall, Dragon Rush
Box 8–13: Spares, alternates, breeding lines, experimental natures
Box 14: The A-Team, his champions
And one empty slot beside Shiny Eevee.
He never filled it.
It was a symbol. That maybe… just maybe… this world wasn't where it would end.
The Day the Screen Went Dark
One evening, while saving after a flawless Battle Dome run, the screen glitched.
Flicker. Freeze.
Corrupted Save File.
Joseph stared.
The system rebooted.
Everything—gone.
Except… one backup save. Weeks old. The Vault intact but aged. A sign?
He sighed, slid the GBA under his pillow, and whispered, "If I could… I'd live there instead."
That night, he went to bed with a quiet longing.
And never woke up in the same world again.
Arrival in the Real Pokémon World
When Joseph opened his eyes next, he was older.
Taller.
Smarter.
And in a bed of fine linen, in a manor overlooking the cliffs of Rustboro City.
There was a silver Poké Ball on the nightstand.
He picked it up, heart racing.
Click.Light burst forth.
A silver Eevee appeared on the floor, stretching and yawning. Her eyes sparkled with the same calm intelligence he remembered from that little screen.
He whispered hoarsely, "...Her?"
She ran to him, leapt into his arms, and licked his cheek.
Tears filled his eyes.
"We made it."
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