//------------------------------// // ERROR TEN: Viral Infection Overload! Virus At Peak! Either Delete Now, Or Suffer Forceful Reformatting! Accept. Accept. Accept. Accept. // Story: Missing Number Escapes To Equestria // by The REAL Mister Pkmn //------------------------------// Many days had passed, and MissingNo. had grown quite proud of what Glitch Out had become capable of. Thanks to all the smaller exercises and the bigger tests, Glitch Out’s prowess had soared exponentially. Though, its power was nowhere near what MissingNo. was capable of. This fact was driven home when Glitch Out stumbled upon MissingNo.’s secret training ground. It was a large place that was bigger than any area that Glitch Out had cleansed on its own, but it saw its teacher shape the place back to its former glory quite easily. Glitch Out looked on with envy. This was the power of one that had been with these powers for decades? If that was the case, how was Glitch Out ever supposed to match up and equal MissingNo.? It just seemed unfeasible. But as Glitch Out was about to leave, it attracted the attention of MissingNo. It turned around, and glanced at its student, and understanding seemed to emanate from its form. “Glitch Out. Do not feel discouraged. We are unique, you and I. if we had more time to practice, you would soon catch up. Yet, we do not have such a luxury. Time is short, so in order to get the rest of your training…” MissingNo. paused and turned to face its student, a calm demeanor emanating from its form. “It is time for a little experiment.” It focused, and flexed its power. It summoned forth whitish blocks from within itself, and began to shape them. Glitch Out looked on it with concern as it continued to grow ever larger. “MissingNo.? What are you doing…?” After a bit of silence, MissingNo. looked upon its creation, and nodded as it turned to face its student. “Now. Defeat it, using all that I have taught you. Show me your capabilities!” The whitish blocks coalesced into a new and strange shape, one that was quite imposing. It stood almost as tall as MissingNo. Itself, and it had various parts of a myriad of creatures all writhing in anger. Glitch Out looked at MissingNo., hoping for some sort of encouragement. Yet, all it saw was a confidence like no other oozing from MissingNo. Deciding to take that as a vote of confidence, Glitch Out took a deep breath as it approached the beast. It opened its eyes, and the battle began. The beast attacked first, swinging its lobster claw like a massive hammer. Glitch Out sidestepped, and shot off a beam of whitish energy at the beast, wounding it slightly. Glitch Out grew slightly worried. That beam was one of its less forceful attacks, but it had been sufficient to massively damage other Glitches, yet it basically just glanced off of this one. It seemed that MissingNo. really was pulling no punches in this training session. Glitch Out steeled itself, and avoided the swipe of its tiger’s paw just barely as it charged a more powerful attack. Though, it took time, so the beast could manage to attack again- and this time Glitch Out let itself get hit by the scorpion’s tail. The pain from it was unlike anything that it had suffered before, but it was worth it to supercharge its next attack. Glitch Out unleashed the energy by charging straight at its foe head-on and colliding in an explosion of whitish blocks. When it turned to see, it expected to see that it had defeated its erstwhile enemy, or at the very least severely damaged it. But such was not the case. The beast, for some reason, was only slightly wincing for a brief moment. Glitch Out gulped. The beast had powered through one of its best attacks! This meant that Glitch Out had to fall back to heal lest it get knocked out by carelessness. It dodged the incoming attack from the beast’s dragon tail, and Glitch Out happened to land in the residue of the explosion- and the whitish blocks flowed into it like a flood. It felt its pain abate as it energy and power surged uncontrollably. Glitch Out had never taken on this much at once, and the temptation to slip back into madness was sorely powerful. It grit its teeth, forcing the power to fall under its command. It took a deep breath, as it wielded this new power to attempt an attack that it had tried before, but failed. It called upon the power, and let it charge as Glitch Out deftly dodged the next attack that came from the beast’s wolf leg. After letting the power charge to a peak, it unleashed it with a shout. “Code: Disassemble!” It cast forward the power, flying like a large meteor towards the target. The beast tried to avoid, but the meteor path-corrected so a hit was ensured. Before it hit, Glitch Out could almost swear that a smile came up on the beast’s face. The meteor exploded on contact, dismantling the glitch beast piece by piece. When the dust cleared, the beast was gone as MissingNo. Went to absorb the whitish blocks. Once done with that, it turned to face its student, a proud feeling emanating from it. “I knew that you could do it, Glitch Out. I’m proud that, once we defeat Amalgam for good, I’ll be leaving this world in capable hooves.” Glitch Out looked glum, and voiced its sorrow. "So that’s it? MissingNo., will you... be going back, then? Back home? Or will you travel?" MissingNo. seemed to shrug. “Perhaps. There might be millions of worlds that need my help. My own no longer does, so there’s not room for me there anymore. You’ll be able to handle the stragglers once Amalgam is gone. I believe in you.” Glitch Out sighed, shaking its head. “That’s not… I meant, I’ll… miss you when you’re gone…” MissingNo. seemed to nod. “And I you. But it is for the best.” As MissingNo. left, Glitch Out let a tear drop. “That is not what I meant… It’s not for the best… not for me.”