Pokemon Nightmare Stories

Hell Bell

After the fourth generation of Pokémon disappointed him so much, my brother tossed me all his Pokémon stuff in disgust. I received hundreds of cards to add to my collection, the Blastiose plush he won at King’s Island nine years ago, and the Diamond game that completely swept away his love for the game and all things associated with it. That chapter of his life came to a sad close while mine just gained something to continue on.

Admittedly, the games that had come out for the DS disappointed me as well, there was just something about it all that made the magic the games normally held fade away a little. As a person who grew up with the originals, generation four simply wasn’t "my" Pokémon anymore. Regardless, I wasn’t going to turn my back on something that accompanied me through childhood simply because the game disappointed me a little.

In fact, I wanted Diamond. Dialga was a hundred times better looking than Palkia and I rather enjoyed the thought of finally getting to be the one to catch it this time around instead of having to hack one or trade for it.

Before I continue, I must tell you that this doesn’t involve Dialga at all. I just like it and originally wanted Diamond, but had to settle for Pearl because my brother got to it first. This does start off with a legendary Pokémon, however, though I’m certain that if I had used any other, the outcome would have been the same, this happening seemed to be meant for me… otherwise it probably wouldn’t have happened at all, which I would have been completely fine with.

I started up his saved game just to see what all he had. His save information said he had all the Pokémon in his Dex, even the ones that had yet to be released through wireless events, which reminded me that he really enjoyed using Action Replay codes to enhance his gaming experience. That was probably the only thing that caused him to keep the game for as long as he did, but even cheating gets old after a while.

After starting his game, I checked his party; he had six shiny, level 100 Rayquazas. Like all the other Pokémon he owned, he caught them using the lengthy "encounter any Pokémon" code where you had to discard heart scales to indicate which Pokémon you wanted to catch at level 100. While the Pokémon encountered with this code were about as weak as if you had given them a large number of Rare Candy, I still recall losing to these six frequently.

I had used this code myself throughout my first play through of Pearl, and I traded these across the net to increase my chances of winning at the lottery. Or, at least that’s what I did before a friend scolded me and I was more or less forced to start over cheat-free. While he needed no Pokémon to complete his pokedex and he didn’t need to win any extra items, trading was always a fun experience for me just to see where they came from.

So, I went to Jubilife City to the Global Trading Center to see what I could get for one of these Rayquazas. I know I could have traded anything, but I secretly held a grudge against these six for beating me so badly all those times.

Once in the trading network, I offered one up for a Bronzong that I had picked at random out of the first list. Of course, I couldn’t choose a gender, but I chose the required level to be 100, just to make it more or less an even trade. After that, I left for a little while.

After doing nothing of particular interest for about six hours, I came back to see if I had any takers for the trade. I immediately got excited when the trade sequence started up. I know it was just a simple Bronzong, but still, I like this process a great deal. You could send me a Magikarp and I’ll get excited for a little bit.

You know how the process goes; I won’t bother explaining the actions on the screen to you. Long story short, I received a shiny Bronzong named, "Hell Bell".

I was shocked to get a shiny in return, I never got a shiny when I traded in Pearl… but the name was unsettling to me. Being a slightly religious person, I’m not comfortable speaking about anything pertaining to hell or anything like that… even writing this makes me feel like I’m provoking a similar event to happen again. Let’s just hope this functions as a learning experience for you and not something else for me.