A few minutes ticked by in the relative silence, leaving Frank mostly alone with his thoughts, barring the buzzing overhead. The static had vanished, leaving only the hum of the lights. His breathing calmed, and he shook his head in an erratic jerk, as if trying to bring himself back to his senses.

  "Alright. So. Ignoring the possibility that I've been in a horrible accident and this is all some sort of hallucination from the medication I've been given... this is happening. I'm in Pokemon." Frank propped his elbows onto his knees, leaning forward and catching his chin in his palms. "I've got a trainer ID, which means I don't have to come up with some elaborate story on where I came from, dropping out of the sky or something. Really glad I didn't have to go through puberty a second time on this trip, too."

  He chuckled softly to himself, and clapped his hands together. "Right. So I've got about five grand in Pokedollars, which isn't nothing, but is probably barely enough to get me a backpack and some basic Pokemon supplies." Five red-colored bills had been folded in the wallet- his new wallet. It had his ID in it, after all.

  "Aside from that, I have the most junk 'Dex I've ever seen. First things first, lets resolve this thing's error..." The Frankendex was lifted, and he began sifting through the error message. It wanted him to give the 'unknown scan' a numerical designation. He tapped in '000'. It wasn't taken, that's what it was in his memory, and most of all it was the default if he hit enter three times.

  That's right, the Frankendex wanted him to input data, but it only had arrow keys and an enter button. That meant a lot of scrolling. He had to select the empty space to enter something, and use the arrow keys to scroll through the display of the alphabet and numerals, and then hit enter to input each symbol, one by one. Using this thing was going to be agony. "Couldn't even slap a smartphone swipe-to-type into this thing...?" He complained.

  The device dinged at him, and then the screen displayed another prompt. Unlike traditional Pokedex, his abomination didn't seem to have speech functionality. That was fine, it meant he could get scans of something without a loud voice calling out he was doing so.

  'Input accepted. Pokemon number 000 accepted. Input name.'

  It was, of course, going to be MissingNo. Still, just the idea that he was going to have to enter this data symbol by symbol in the most primitive interface possible made him groan in annoyance. "I am really not looking forward to this..." Frank mumbled.

  As if in response, the Pokeball he had still not yet lifted from the floor popped back open. The distorted, static-laden noises returned as MissingNo revealed itself again. It was like watching a graphical distortion made sentient and brought into reality. The space flickered and twitched, objects able to be seen through the foggy, pixelated liquid-cloud that made up its body.

  "Oh! Uh. Hey, buddy? We're friends now, right?" Frank called out nervously. Part of him felt like it was silly to be concerned, but he stomped that emotion down real quick. He wanted to be sure Pokemon worked the way he remembered it, all friendly and teamwork-oriented, before he made any assumptions.

  The distorted cloud didn't respond, or if it did, the response blended into the static noises. It jolted forward, and Frank crossed both hands in front of his face in a preemptive bracing gesture, peeking around his upraised arms.

  MissingNo flew toward his Frankendex and slipped into it much as it had the TV earlier, the screen twitching and jerking erratically. The symbols faded away, rapidly being replaced by jittery, twitching symbols.

  '(???)'

  Frank swallowed hard, then let the tension out of his figure, relaxing into the couch with a heavy sigh. "Great. Glad to hear it! I'm Frank. I'm, uh. New to this. But also sort of an expert at it, in theory? I'm a theoretical expert, sure, go with that."

  '???'

  The device just flashed the smiling face bigger, as if someone had leaned in closer to a window to listen, back at Frank in response. It seemed to be waiting for him to continue.

  "Glad you seem to be a chipper sort. I wasn't sure how. Uh. Easily we'd be able to understand each other. So, you're like a Porygon, then? I guess that makes sense, MissingNo being glitchy data..."

  '( ?_?)'

  Frank waved his free hand rapidly, as if MissingNo could see out of the screen and notice his frantic, negating gesturing. For all he knew, it could. "I don't mean that in a bad way! Honestly, you're really interesting! I actually know quite a lot about you- again, in theory- and it's all very exciting. As far as I know, you can learn any move there is, which is overpowered just by itself. The only other example I can think of is Mew, the very progenitor of all Pokemon... debatably. There's like, so many conflicting 'firsts' when it comes to Pokemon..."

  Voice trailing off into silence, he redirected himself to the issue at hand. "Regardless, I'm delighted to be working with you, Partner. We're gonna do some crazy things. Sound like a plan?"

  '?(???????)?'

  "Great. Now, I'm going to put in the data I know of you into this, uh. Device. Since you can clearly do the typing on this, can you input what I'm saying as we go?" Frank crossed his fingers, silently praying. If MissingNo could make this hunk of junk interface obsolete, he would be the first to rejoice.

  '(b^_^)b'

  "Awesome! So, lets get down to the brass tacks." The screen shifted to the new page-in-creation for Pokemon number 000. "Classification: MissingNo, the Chaotic Data Pokemon." Frank paused, watching the entry being filled in as quickly as he could speak. "Excellent. No, sorry, delete that 'excellent', that wasn't part of the entry, that was just me complimenting you."

  '(???)'

  The screen flickered an annoyed-looking emoji, briefly, and then returned to the screen with the alterations. Clearing his throat, he resumed speaking in a clear voice, wanting to resume. "Ability: To be determined. Gender Ratio: Unknown."

  At that remark, unprompted, MissingNo interrupted the display of typing, showing '(>﹏<)'.

  "Alright, well, then you can put whatever you want if it bothers you! You're the only one, so you effectively make up 100% of the species ratio!"

  If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

  The screen flashed back to the budding 'Dex entry, and following the phrase Gender Ratio was simply: '(?^?^?)'

  "You know what? Whatever makes you happy. If anyone else sees this, they're going to think I'm completely mad, though." Frank tapped his foot off the tile, the subtle noise reverberating around the metal surfaces of the room as he tried to think of whatever else an entry would need.

  "Height...? Just put unknown for that as well. And weight. I don't think there's a way to get you on a scale, though I think I remember Porygon having weight despite being able to be a digital entity. We'll look into that. Egg Group? Yeah, definitely unknown there, and I'm not even going to consider figuring that out. You're on your own, then you tell me, pal!"

  '(╬?_?)'

  "Look, what do you want me to say? You're a data cloud- ... Pff. Data cloud. Sorry! Sorry! Anyway, the only suggestion I have is Porygon, because like I said, they can digitize too, or whatever it is you're doing right now! That, or maybe Rotom. They possess technology." Frank grumbled quietly, backing down and throwing out some ideas to try and appease his irate MissingNo.

  "Lets just throw in some basic description and call it a day, okay? Fill this in and we'll be done. Thanks for your help, again, you're making this way easier."

  '(^-^*)ノ'

  "This Pokemon appears as a cloud of slightly opaque static, capable of levitation. It consists of programming code, and is capable of entering electronic objects and controlling them. It is presumed that it can act freely in cyberspace, but this requires further testing. This artificial Pokemon is the creation of Trainer Frank N. Stein, and as such only one example of this Pokemon currently exists." Frank sighed. "Done. Good enough."

  '(◣_◢)'

  Glancing down at the angry expression, he raised his free hand in an appeasing gesture. "Look, I know that's technically not true. Still, no one knows where you came from, and I'm almost certain there can't be more than one of you out there. As far as I know, you never officially existed! If this blows up in my face later, I'll take full responsibility, but this will get me some serious clout, and I need something to add a little flash to my debut. Please?"

  '?～(￣、￣ )'

  "Thanks, MissingNo. You're the best, thanks for not being upset. Actually, it feels a little odd to keep calling you MissingNo. What do you think about a nickname? Only if you want one. You can even chime in with any ideas! I've only got a few basic, obvious nicknames in mind right now. I'll mull it over, and you do the same, alright?"

  '(b^_^)b'

  "Great. Want to come on out now? I think it's about time we get out of here. I'm starting to get hungry, and I'm sure not going to find anything to eat around here. Actually, do you eat? If you do, we can find you something too." Frank wanted to try and keep on MissingNo's good side, having just asked it for a favor.

  Rather than display a response, MissingNo floated back out of the Frankendex, and hovered over toward near where its Pokeball lay. The cloud moved past it, toward the outlet that the TV likely should have been plugged into. It nestled against the outlet, starting to jitter and display more prominent glitchy visuals through its static-fogged body, sparks emitting erratically.

  "Oh, so you feed on power? I guess that makes some sort of sense. As much sense as anything else does in this place. Well, that might be a bit of an issue on camping trips, but maybe I can carry around some batteries. Or, well. I could catch an electric type Pokemon, but catching a Pokemon just for you to feed off them seems... morally gray, at best? Let's try and not."

  Frank shuffled over toward the Pokeball and picked it up, clipping it to his waist. It seems his belt had the appropriate slotting to accommodate six Pokeballs, as was standard. Good thing he woke up with one, he didn't want to use his limited funds on one. He stood around, waiting a few long moments until MissingNo drifted away from the outlet. "Mind staying out of your Pokeball until we get out of this place? This place gives me the creeps."

  MissingNo hovered closer, levitating itself near his side, and the pair of them walked back toward the exit to the room. Frank pried open the rusting-squealing hinges of the door once again, and stepped back out into the dimly lit hallway. It appeared that maybe one in four lights actually worked.

  Footsteps echoed through the hallways as Frank strolled along, peeking in to see more ruined science-looking rooms. Was the place a school of some kind, or perhaps a university? Why would they need that many science classrooms? It didn't have any lockers in the hallways, which seemed out of place... but then again, there were those Silph Company space backpacks or whatever in this world, so perhaps students just always carried everything?

  "I don't suppose you know any moves that would get us out of here faster, do you?" Frank asked, more to fill the silence than actually expecting to be that fortunate. The static-laden cloud bobbled in place energetically, emitting a brief, bright blue flash, and then it was gone.

  "MissingNo? Great, don't tell me you have a penchant for pranks too, do you? Don't leave me alone in here!" He shouted out, and something scurried away in the darkness down the hall, low and rapid-moving across the floor. He glanced over his shoulder, only to see MissingNo come back out of the previous room and catch up to him.

  Pausing to consider, Frank rubbed his chin. "Was that teleport? It looked like what I remember of teleport... but, of course, you can only go to places you've already been to before with teleport. No one wants to wind up spliced halfway through a wall, after all. Well, at least that will be convenient once we find a Pokemon center. We can zip back any time we need to use the services! Great stuff, MissingNo."

  MissingNo bobbled in place with enthusiasm, swaying from side to side in a dancing-like rhythmic motion at the praise. "Well, lets keep walking. Just keep an eye out for me. I saw something moving, and it wasn't you. I think I see natural light at the end of the hall, which is a relief!"

  That was something that had been bothering Frank. He hadn't seen any windows this entire time. But since the seemingly natural light he saw ahead shone on an ascending staircase, that made sense. He was in a basement. "What kind of school has so many science rooms in a basement? Something's not adding up."

  The pair of them approached the stairs, and there was a crumbling ruin of a concrete structure overhead. A large portion of the ceiling had collapsed from something, letting the sun shine in down onto the stairs, as well as likely letting in whatever creature he saw earlier dart off into the darkness. There was a broken computer, and this section of aboveground didn't seem to have any power. The only lighting came from the hole in the ceiling, as this room also lacked windows, despite seemingly being on the surface.

  "That bad feeling's coming in strong... this is starting to feel more and more eerie and sinister. Is this some kind of hidden base? Oh... Oh no. My license was issued in Kanto, please tell me I'm not in some abandoned Team Rocket facility or something...!" Frank groaned out in a frustrated exhalation.

  The pieces fit together pretty well. Disrepair, a lot of suspiciously science-themed rooms, abandoned equipment. It was likely a facility that the Rockets had abandoned due to discovery or lack of need. Frank dusted his hands off each other in a slapping motion, and climbed onto the computer desk.

  "Doesn't matter, we're leaving anyway. All the more reason to get out of dodge, right? Figure out where we are, get a meal, and then get some supplies. If I have to roam like a hobo, I want to be a well-prepared hobo!"

  Frank jumped up from the desk, hooking his arms onto the opening in the roof overhead, and hauled himself up onto the rim of the opening in the concrete. MissingNo levitated up shortly afterward, leaving them both standing in the sunlight.

  Wind rustled branches around the pair of them, and they looked around into the depths of featureless forest that surrounded them. There wasn't so much as a dirt path to indicate which way was often travelled to and from back when this building saw use.

  "I guess we pick a direction at random and start walking, MissingNo. We'll figure it out. Make sure you get my attention if you see any berries or anything, just in case. We don't know how far away from the nearest town we are. It might be all I get to eat for a while..."

  The hanging tail of Frank's lab coat flared out as he jumped down from the roof, landing with a soft grunt and bending his knees as he hit the grass to cushion the impact. Man and Pokemon strode and levitated off respectively, full of confidence. After all, when you had no idea where you are, any direction was as good as any other!