A small, hand-held device was playing a video of rather low quality, but it was still clear enough to display the cocky confidence- or perhaps arrogance- of the lab coat clad figure that was the centerpiece. The video played on, "My name is Frank! Frank N. Stein! I AM THE GREATEST SCIENTIST OF THIS GENERATION! I have created the second digital Pokemon since Porygon! MissingNo! I did this single-handedly! I share credit with no one! This is my mark of triumph! Look upon my creation!"

  The video paused, then skipped backward, cutting back to playing after a moment, "-single-handedly! I share credit with no one!"

  The device in hand creaked as pressure increased from the hand holding it, a thin man in a white suit clenching his fist against the casing. Expression maintained careful neutrality, but the blue-haired figure was furious.

  The people standing nearby in black suits emblazoned with bright red 'R' logos all stood stiffly at attention, sweating and trying to remain very still, alongside a smaller cluster of four glasses-clad figures in their own lab coats.

  "A-as you can see, Archer, sir, there appears to have been. Um. Unexpected advances in... um. The F-franken-technology system." One of the scientists chirped up timidly, the others taking a quick step back from the man, as if he was an offered sacrifice.

  The blue-haired, stern-looking Rocket admin tapped his fingers off the desk before him, raising his intense stare from the screen. "We still have all the data on that abomination of technology? From before we abandoned that 'quack' for lacking results?"

  The scientist nodded rapidly and vehemently, "We do! It took some time to dig out, but the project was merely abandoned. We don't outright delete any experimental data as it can be useful for further projects, even only as reference of failures!"

  A slow nod, "Then I want to see a functional duplication of his results within the week. Use whatever resources you need. A new Pokemon that can compete with Porygon, and can clearly bypass the League's digital security systems..." Archer recalled the moment in that casually-recorded video where the system was completely overwhelmed by this... MissingNo's intrusion. "It would be invaluable for our work, going forward."

  The scientist swallowed, "Sir, that deadline is a bit-"

  A loud bang reverberated as Archer's fist came down on his desk. "This lunatic!" Archer all but shouted, pointing down at Frank's image frozen on the screen, "Likely hid his results while he was working for us so he could take advantage of us giving up on him, in which case all the clues you need should be in our copies of the data. If he didn't, then that means that he single-handedly created a new digital Pokemon, without support, by himself! If that is the case... If you can't replicate the feat with an entire team of researchers and open access to unlimited resources, you might as well dig your own graves and jump in. Am I clear?"

  A small, timid jerking of the head in affirmative answered him, the entire group of scientists looking like a group of bobblehead dolls. "Go get started." The admin made a gesture of dismissal, and the scientists all but sprinted out of the room, even if some of them seemed to be panting for breath inside six strides from lack of physical exercise.

  Archer dismissed them from his mind, turning toward the grunts. "This was filmed in Pewter City, so I want you all to head to that area and find him. I don't care who you have to bribe, threaten, or rob from in the process. Find me Frank Stein. We're going to remind him that some debts can't be so easily defaulted on."

  A chorus of 'Yes, sir!' reverberated through the room, the grunts similarly hurrying out, leaving Archer alone. His expression finally cracked the veil of restraint, and his eyes lit up with anger. "Doing all of this 'single-handedly', hmm, mister Stein? I always thought you were completely insane... and crossing the Rockets? That just proves I was always correct."

  On a large screen, displayed before a group of well-dressed men arranged around a long, elaborately ornate table, played a video. "My name is Frank! Frank N. Stein! I AM THE GREATEST SCIENTIST OF THIS GENERATION! I have created the second digital Pokemon since Porygon! MissingNo! I did this single-handedly! I share credit with no one! This is my mark of triumph! Look upon my creation!"

  The video came to a halt, and the group all wore solemn expressions. "Thoughts, gentlemen?" The prompt came from the head of the table, with the framing of the broad logo of Silph Company on the wall behind him.

  "Even if this video is an excellent fake, this is disastrous for our image. Seeing the security systems are so easily penetrated... were the Porygon in charge of the Pokemon Center's digital security vetted? We could claim that the Porygon had been injured and were recovering, and thus weren't present during the attack."

  Another man nodded before taking over the thought, "That could work! It will at least run damage control. The last thing we need is people losing faith in the effectiveness of our security systems. Porygon are a mainstay of the company, after all, and the use of computers is only on the rise. I almost believe this is a plant from the Devon Corporation, trying to sweep our legs out from under us, but this doesn't feel like them."

  "Agreed. Devon would love nothing more than to gloat, and we all know how Steven Stone can't keep his mouth shut and is a shameless show-off besides. He wouldn't be able to resist putting his name on something like this. Plus, showing the new reveal of this Pokemon committing crime cements that idea. No company would want to be attached to this kind of public scrutiny."

  "Go forward with the plan to discredit the source material. I want two teams on this at once, the first team focused on convincing people that this is a fake. It helps that the Pokemon in question looks like some sort of digital distortion. It doesn't match the image of Porygon, and we can try and claim it's all editing magic. The second team is in charge of claiming this is real, but the security Porygon simply weren't present. The clashing narratives will stir up and draw supporters to both sides. While they argue, they aren't thinking about possibly security flaws."

  "That seems reasonable. Thirdly, we must find out where this trainer vanished off to. If we can get him working for us and clean up his... unorthodox image, his research could be extremely valuable. Covering up his petty crimes so far would be barely an effort. If he refuses, well, we need to resolve this problem before he produces more of these MissingNo, provided he hasn't already. Diplomacy always has alternatives to unreceptive parties."

  The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

  No one in this group needed it stated outright. They stood to lose vast amounts of money if this wasn't resolved, and what was one scientist, in the grand scheme of things?

  A man with spiked, brown hair and narrowly squinted eyes stared down at a video on the left side of his computer monitor. Once it wrapped up, his attention flicked to the right side of the screen, at the image of a short, older man with a blue baseball cap on backwards, and an absolutely wild mane of pale-white hair, a massively bushy beard, and long eyebrows. Charles Goodshow, the president of the League.

  "Well, Brock, this normally isn't significant enough that I would ask you to make a move personally, but as you can see... this promises to be chaos. It's a new species of Pokemon in the hands of, and supposedly created by, a small-time criminal scientist. Plus, it happened in your neck of the woods, so just look into it as a personal favor, alright?"

  Brock sighed, reaching up and rubbing the back of his neck. He really wanted to say that he was too busy, but it was a personal request. "Of course." He eventually replied with a sigh, "I can't exactly go patrolling around looking for him, but I'll keep an eye out while I go about my day-to-day, and if I get any reported sightings, I'll head over as soon as I can. But remember, the report states that he teleported out when confronted. He might not even be in Kanto anymore, let alone Pewter."

  He sure hoped that was the case. The last thing Pewter City needed was more chaos. He felt bad enough not having enough time to take care of his siblings while running the Gym as it was already. If something took up even more of his days...

  The old man flashed a smile, nodding, his expression one of understanding. "That's all I can ask of you, Brock. The other Gym Leaders are being notified as well. One more thing, though. The report states that the trainer appeared to be in a state of panic, but he never made any moves that could be considered aggressive through the whole process. We aren't sure if he's peaceful or unskilled in battling, but while we consider him a flight risk, we aren't listing him as dangerous."

  A gentle chuckle escaped from Goodshow, and he flashed a thumbs-up gesture. "Try to use the softer rocks when you beat him down, if that has to happen. Maybe we can convince him that working for the League is in his best interest. Especially since it seems like he might have cut ties with the Rockets. He did make a rather confrontational public statement, didn't he? Perhaps he was only worried that by taking him into custody, the Rockets would catch wind of him and enact revenge?"

  Brock shrugged his shoulders helplessly. "How should I know? I'm not a mind reader. You'll have to ask Sabrina to find out. Then again, I'm not sure having any psychic peer into that man's mind is a great idea." He chuckled, playing light on the manic energy Frank has displayed, the odd confidence that shifted into intense cowardice in the last moments before his escape.

  President Goodshow laughed back, and made a waving gesture, "Well, go catch him, and then we'll find out everything we need to know!"

  The right side of the screen faded to black, and Brock let his attention wander back toward the video displayed on the left. He didn't seem like such a bad guy. If anything, he was reminded of certain other comedically-inept Rocket associates...

  Frank rest back against the lumpy embrace of the couch, staring down at the Frankendex in his hands. MissingNo hovered nearby, a tendril of its static fog reaching over to draw power from one of the power outlets. "You know. I thought something was weird, having a trainer ID right from the moment I woke up..." He directed his musings toward MissingNo.

  It was hard to tell if the Pokemon was paying attention or not, merely bobbing in place absently. It didn't seem to want to interrupt its meal, but it extended a tendril toward the Frankendex, which flickered its display.

  'ˉ\_(°?°)_/ˉ'

  "You don't know either, huh? Yeah, I didn't think you would, I'm mostly just tossing my thoughts out there. Still, I don't think I really delved into this thing. After I scanned you with it, I sort of got distracted by, well, you and everything else I had going on. I think I need to sit down and dig through this thing..."

  '(b^_^)b'

  Frank pressed the only key available to him that made sense, the enter key in the middle. This brought up a menu he could scroll through, and it reminded him of operating the settings menu of an old phone.

  Frank stared at the list in disbelief, just. Gawking. Then he burst out with incredulity, "WHAT!? How have I never looked in on this thing before! If this works the way it says..."

  Number one? Pretty clear and straightforward. Number two, though? A data editor? He got the feeling that wasn't just going to be editing the data in the Pokedex section. Three and four seemed like the game's PC system, storing items and Pokemon all but magically in a moment. But what the actual fuck is 'Frankencharge'?

  That was the weird option, but he wanted to investigate the second option first. It was too much to resist. The screen displayed a spinning circle for a moment, and the text: 'Linking to MissingNo...'

  So wait, when this device was made, someone knew his static-cloud was MissingNo? How did that make sense? The Pokemon in question perked up and attached a tendril back to the Frankendex, and bobbled in place. Two new options appeared.

  He confirmed the first option, and an interface very similar to one he recalled from a popular and unofficial Pokemon battling website in his previous world appeared.

  It listed 'Moves' with four blank slots, and a series of slider bars for the stats 'HP, Atk, Def, SpA, SpD, Spe'. The moves boxes seemed to be interactable, as did the sliders, but there were several more boxes that seemed to be simply for display purposes. Gender, which displayed a simple dash for MissingNo, as well as the ability, held item, and Pokemon's type.

  "Huh. Well, now I can confirm your typing, but how am I going to explain to anyone else that you're a bird and normal type? What does bird even mean? It's not flying, it's bird. People are going to think I'm battier than Mt. Moon's caves! But this..."

  MissingNo's ability was listed as 'Data Conduit', and Frank's mind drifted to the other option in the editing. He could play with MissingNo's editing later, but he needed to toggle back and confirm something...

  When he clicked the second option, the spiraling circle returned. 'Linking to MissingNo. Success. Linking to third party. Waiting... waiting... waiting...'

  It just kept indicating the waiting, and Frank's grin grew wider. MissingNo was a data conduit. He could edit Pokemon's data. So if MissingNo touched another Pokemon and let him connect it to the editor...

  A chuckle. A giggle. Frank stifled the noise, but he couldn't stop it. It bubbled up in his chest, and he gave in, throwing his head back and devolving into unrestrained, wild cackling. The noise reverberated through the room, with its metal tile and lack of sound-dampening surfaces, and likely out and down the halls outside. The resounding delight of a specter haunting these abandoned halls.

  "I REALLY AM THE GREATEST SCIENTIST WHO EVER LIVED!"