Leo's laptop went black. The power cable sparked once, then died.

Leo, laughing nervously, clicked it.

Leo stared at the flickering cursor in his terminal. The assignment for his game development class was simple: "Deconstruct a classic." Most students were picking Pong or Tetris . Leo chose Pokémon Fire Red .

The game window refreshed. Red was back in Pallet Town, but now the sky was a perfect, clear blue. The grass was still. And in the top-left corner, a new dialogue box appeared—not Professor Oak's voice, but a cold, vector-perfect font: