REBIRTH
THE FIRST BADGE
Ch. 23

Tony walked out from behind the bolder a short while later, slapping his hands up and down together as if he was proud of the job he'd done. "That should hold him for quite some time." He said as he walked over and stood before us. "Allow me to apologize for my little brother. He wants to be a gym leader so bad that he often takes short cuts to prove his worthiness." He pulled off a ball from his belt and held it up to show us. "This Geodude is only supposed to be used for experience trainers who want to take on the league in a new region. Not for one such as yourself who's just...wait a minute, where's your trainer?"

I looked down at Lady Suicune and she nodded. After taking a long sigh I looked him strait in the eye and pulled out my Pokedex. 'I am the trainer.' I said in a strait tone as I hit the trainers info on my Pokedex and held it up to show him. He took the 'dex out of my hands and looked down at it. He looked up at me a few times as he looked down at the Pokedex.

"This can't be right." He said as he took another long look at the Pokedex before handing it to me. "How in the world did a Ralts get it's hands on an unregistered Pokedex and register itself as a trainer?"

Lady Suicune stood up, walked behind me, and gave me a nudge with her horn. 'You should probably tell him the whole story Genii. Especially if you want to get on with a trainers career.' She said as she gave me one more shove with her horn.

'Very well, Lady Suicune.' I said with a sigh as I looked up from her and then over to Tony. 'If you must really know...', I went into a long speech about my past and then some. How once I'd been a sick little boy who was born from a druggy mother and an abusive and abandoning father, how a professor had saved my life with a radical/psychotic new procedure, and here I was.

"That's one heck of a story. So does that mean that you can..."

"That's right. I can talk like a regular person. Though I don't do it much because it tends to freak most people out." Just then a shot of bubbles few past my shoulder and struck Tony in the face. I looked back at Lady Suicune and was about to scold her for doing that to someone until she raised a paw and pointed at Tony. I turned and could see that he was teetering on his feet and looked like he'd just recovered from nearly passing out. Quickly reaching out I grab his shoulder and gave him a shake. 'That's exactly what I mean.'

"I don't get it. How in the world does a Pokemon like your self speak our language?" Tony asks after he's gotten his wits about him again.

I looked down at Suicune and she quickly shook her head. So, thinking fast, I slowly looked on over to Tony and thought up a believable story. 'After one of my parents died and the other abandoned me, I was left all alone in the world. A recently born baby and no parents. I was fortunate though as my cries from my birth alerted my human step father who found and rescued me. He took me in, raised me, even sent me off to a human school to learn what I needed to know in order to survive in the world.' I started as Tony nodded. 'It was there that I met that girl, Suzy.' I threw my thumb behind me and motioned for him to look at the girl who was standing on the catwalk.

"So what's so special about her? She seems like an average, though rather attractive young women." He said as I could see the gears in his head start to turn a bit.

'She might be all sweetness to the eyes (eye candy), though when she was younger she wouldn't stop trying to capture me with her plush Pokeball.' Tony stopped looking over at Suzy and looked at me. 'Every day she would use the back of my head as target practice for that thing and claiming that I would be her first Pokemon. It was near the end of the school year when she found her 10th birthday present early and brought her first Pokemon and Pokeballs to school to bring her claim to fruition; catching me in one of those Pokeballs of hers. Fortune seemed to smile on me that day as the teacher came in at the last second and stopped her. After sending her off to the principal's office, she gave me my own Pokedex and registered me as my own Pokemon.' I finished as I looked to see that he had a somewhat shocked look on his face at first, then gave me a smirk, and finally a nod.

"I guess for someone like yourself, that might have been pretty scary." He said as he looked to Suzy and then back to me. "I find it all pretty amazing that though that nobody old enough thought to capture you, but I'm glad that they didn't."

I cocked my head to the side and looked at him with a confused look in my eyes. 'I don't understand. What do you mean when you say that your glad that they didn't capture me?' To which he smirked.

"Because then I wouldn't have gotten the chance to meet you and that Suicune of yours. Come to think of it, how did the two of you meet?" He said as he motioned for us to follow him on over to a set of benches next to the field. Once we'd been seated, along with Lady Suicune who lay herself over my legs, I began to stroke her long mane down her body.

'It's kind of funny in a way. Shortly after the whole fiasco with Suzy, I met up with Lady Suicune here, and if it weren't for Suzy who initiated me to become my own trainer/Pokemon I wouldn't have had the items I needed to save her.' With that I went into detail about how the two of us met, though keeping out some of the keener parts. 'And with that, we've been traveling ever since.'

"That is one heck of a story." He said with a long drawn out breath that had a slight whistle to it. "Can't wait to see that book on the news stands." He turned and laugh at me. "So, you decided to try out and see what it's like to be a Pokemon Trainer first?" To which I nodded as he got up and slapped his thighs then turned and frowned at me. "Unfortunately we have a small problem with that."

'And that would be?' I asked as Lady Suicune got off my legs and I stood up.

"The problem would be with my little brother. He's broken a pretty big rule within the gym leaders coalition and sort of...forced my decision on our battle." He said as he looked over to his brother who now had tears in his eyes from hanging up on the rock by his underpants.

'I think your going to have to explain this one to me. What do you mean that he forced your hand?' I asked as I looked on over to his brother then back to him.

"You remember when you fought against my Geodude and it was really strong?" I nodded. "Well, there is a specific rule about who gets to fight what level of Pokemon." He said as he dropped his head and shook it. "My little brother broke that rule and now I have to follow the consequences." He reached into is pocket, pulled out his hand with his fingers closed and offered the contents to me. I held out my own hand, palm up, and watched with studded breath as he dropped the first gym badge into my hand. "Congratulations. You've earned your first badge."

I was so shocked that I did a double take of the badge and then looked up at him. 'I don't understand. I thought that we had to battle first?'

"Initially we do, but that Geodude that you fought against, is equal to the level of all the Pokemon that I'd be using against you in our battle if he followed the rules." He said as he placed his hands on his hips and frowned at me. He only looked at me for a moment then looked back at his younger brother who was still trying to lift himself up so that he could get himself un-hung from the rock, which his underwear was still stuck. "There shall be some serious consequences for him once the league learns of what he's done. They'll probably revoke his license as a trainer and maybe throw in some jail time."

I slowly looked on over and saw that Johnny had finally lifted himself up enough to get his underwear uncaught from the rock, fall to the ground, and start rubbing his backside. 'There is no reason to go that far is there? I'm sure that there is some sort of arrangement that can be made so that he doesn't need to have his license revoked.' I said as I remembered the way that Suzy looked when the police told her this all that time ago and threatened to take back her Pokemon Rupert away and release it.

"Oh, there are a few. Though first, I think he needs a little more hang time to reflect on what he's done." Tony said with an evil smile as he walked over to his younger brother and started to laugh over him.

"OH, come on big brother. Not aga...YOUCH! YOUR GOING TO RIP THEM!"Chapter End Notes:Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended