Clothed in sweat-drenched shorts and t-shirt, a young man sprawled out on the floor in front of a box fan. Hot and humid air passed over his body but failed to ruffle the wet clothes sticking to his skin. A towel filled with ice sat on his face. Short auburn hair trailed from his skull to the floor like the fur of a wet dog.
*Bzzzzt*
Hearing his phone vibrate with an alert, he pulled the cold towel away from his bright blue eyes and looked at the weather alert on his phone. A weather alert with red siren emojis warned people in the area to stay indoors as much as possible due to a heat wave. The current temperature displayed in the alert passed 110 degrees fahrenheit, a new record for the highest recorded temperature in his home state of Florida.
He dropped his phone on the carpet. A sigh escaped his lips. His eyes wandered over to his window-mounted air conditioning unit. At the forefront of his mind, his bank balance of eighty-nine cents flashed repeatedly, but he really couldn't take it anymore.
"Screw it. Better than dying," he grumbled. "Can just claim bankruptcy after the next electric bill."
Exhausted by the heat, he slowly rolled over and crawled over to the air conditioning unit. He turned the dial to the max setting and then collapsed back on the carpet. Hot air blew into the room from outside but gradually cooled over the next few minutes.
Even after the room cooled to a relaxing ninety degrees fahrenheit, he remained completely still on the floor with his cold towel covering his face again. The ice melted quickly until it became nothing but a wet towel. Still felt nice and cool, though.
Several minutes later, he finally regained enough motivational energy to grab his phone again. He surfed through different social media accounts for a bit without finding anything interesting aside from some Pokemon fan art that one of his online friends mentioned him under.
Eventually, though, his fingers fluttered across the screen and opened Discord.
"Hm? Nathan sent a dm?"
Opening the pinged message, he read through it and raised a brow at the two attached files.
[Bro, you gotta check out this emulator. It's the best one I've seen so far. This emerald romhack is crazy awesome too. I know you don't have anything to do besides rot in bed since you lost your job, so here you go, buddy.]
"You don't gotta call me out like that, man," Alden complained, albeit with an amused smirk.
Curious about the files, he used a few programs to check the safety of the files just in case. When everything came back clean, he decided to download them. Even if something happened, what could a hacker do? Steal eighty-nine cents from his bank account?
Shrugging, Alden downloaded both files. The name of the emulator was Lifeboy, and the name of the Romhack was True Hoenn Emerald. Not bad names, in his opinion, if only slightly uninspired.
When the download finished a few seconds later, the icon for the emulator then popped up on his home screen. It looked like a gameboy, but slightly different. Whoever designed it certainly took some liberties with it.
"Trying to avoid copyright takedown, no doubt," Alden commented while opening the emulator.
The first prompt asked him to select a folder, yet it automatically opened the folder holding the emerald romhack. He raised a brow but still selected the folder and rom. The next second, a new prompt with a black background and white text appeared on the screen.
[Are you ready to begin your very own Pokemon adventure?]
[ Yes ] [ No ]
Rolling his eyes at the typical prompt and thinking nothing of it, Alden immediately clicked yes.
A bright light flashed on the screen, momentarily blinding him.
"Ugh! What the hell?! Nathan, you sneaky bastard!" Alden explained while covering his eyes with one hand and dropping his phone.
He then blinked a few times until his blurry vision recovered. Finally, he pulled his hand away from his face.
A bright midday sun greeted him.
"Huh."
He blinked a few times.
Then he noticed the tickling pokes of grass against the back of neck, legs, and arms. It wasn't the sharp and irritating stab of crabgrass, either, but rather a gentle and comfortable grass that welcomed his weight with a soft caress.
He sat up with a start.
Looking around with eyelids narrowed to slits, he observed from atop a small hill a quaint countryside town in front of him. Behind him was a large wooden fence blocking off a thick treeline that fully surrounded the village on all sides aside from a few paths leading into the woods.
The village itself consisted mostly of small or medium size houses with relatively large yards. A few small shops sparsely lined the main path of the village that led to the biggest path trailing beyond the edge of the village limits. One large modern building with a heavy scientific vibe to it stood in the corner of the village to Alden's left, further away from the large path leading outside the village.
The salty scent of a nearby sea mixed with peaceful woodland scents of budding trees and flowers wafted along with the breeze, tickling his nostrils. Warm temperate air brushed against his skin, but it was nothing compared to the heatwave that had been cooking him up until a few moments ago. All of this together instinctively made him want to visit the beach.
Brain short circuiting due to the sudden change in environment, Alden sat completely still for nearly an entire minute.
Amidst his reverie, a small bird flew down and perched on the ground next to him. The brilliant blue, red, and white plumage attracted Alden's gaze and pulled him back out of his stunned state.
The bird tilted its small head and chirped "Tail. Taillow?"
Alden blinked several times, unable to believe his eyes.
At the same time, deep within the depths of his heart, he picked up a strange feeling. Puzzlement? Concern? Familiar emotions, yet they felt distant; like they didn't belong to him.
His blue eyes focused on the little bird that started hopping in a circle around him. Finally, his mind clicked into place and made sense of the situation.
Lips rising into a wide smirk, Alden ran a hand through his short auburn hair and laughed.
"Haha. Nice. Crazy. I'm not in Florida anymore, Toto."