themagebear: this story has been rattling around in the magebears head for a while now. the magebear read a story (dont remember what its called, sorry random author) and liked the idea of ash opening a gym. the magebear found a few other "pallet town gym" stories, and the magebear, as is the magebears habit, started getting ideas for one that wouldnt be a carbon copy of the others.

several other authors works (that the magebear remembers) provided inspiration for different pieces of "The Field Badge"; "Pedestal" by Digital Skitty, "The Sun Soul" by 50caliberchaos, "When One Ends" by Souljah and a Gentleman, and "A New Journey" by Texas Longhorn are some of the most notable. so if you like this, or not, check them out.

finally, thanks to Bittersweet Romanticide for co-authoring this. as the magebear is generally hopeless when it comes to dialogue and emotional interactions, you may credit most of those parts to her.

Nearly every trainer wants the same thing, when it comes down to it. Whether they want to do it through paperwork or traveling, or whether they seek out the most powerful pokémon they can or train the ones they happen to come across, it all comes down to the phrase "Pokémon Master". Children dream of one day getting their first pokemon and setting out on their journey, or beg their parents to send them to Pokémon Tech. New trainers bubble with excitement at each victory, and even long-standing trainers cling to the idea to give them inspiration, to give them hope.

Ash Ketchum was one such trainer.

But unlike most trainers, Ash almost achieved this goal. Almost.

When he'd first come home from his latest regional competition, his mother embraced him, and they laughed and joked and held each other tight, only to have the mood broken by his mother's solemn question; "Are you ready to settle down yet?"

He wasn't. Not quite yet. Which came to an argument. It wasn't the most heated they ever had, because his mother accepted his choices and only wanted what would make him happy, and he loved his mother enough to listen when she talked and honestly think about her advice. They eventually came to an agreement; Ash would participate in one more League tournament, then start looking for a job. To his mother's delight, the Indigo League tournament was only a few weeks away, so Ash wouldn't need to go on another journey to get badges, and he could stay at home while he trained.

"I don't want you to give up your dreams," she whispered, kissing his temple. "I'm just happy to have you here with me."

"I know, Mom." He smiled, then stood and rubbed his hands on his pants. "I'm going to ask Professor Oak if I can help him work this summer, to stay in shape."

Ash did, and the Professor was almost a little too eager to have Ash come study with him. There were minor scuffles with Gary, mostly a few punches, a few pranks, but they got along well enough. When he wasn't fighting with Gary or helping Oak, he trained his pokémon. He usually worked with two or three at a time, some days having six. Some days he challenged himself, and had more than one battle running at once, enjoying the extra challenge of quick thinking and carrying several different strategies in his head at once.

Then he found the games. Ash discovered that what looked like pokemon just sitting around or chasing each other to an occasional observer were actually complicated games involving large groups of pokemon. After watching one for a while, he decided that it reminded him of kids playing capture the flag or paintball, and usually ended with Snorlax eating whatever they'd gathered to be the prize.

He wondered if there are any League-sponsored events like that.

"Professor Oak?" he called, entering the lab carefully.

"Oh, hello, Ash," the old man smiled and glanced up from his test tubes, waving the boy in. "It's nothing delicate, don't worry about disturbing anything."

"What is it?"

"Just a few medical tests – no one's sick, just doing comparisons. What did you want to talk to me about?"

"Have you seen the huge games the pokémon play?" Ash asked.

"Games?"

"Like capture the flag, where they all get to gather and plan everything out, like a war or something. I mean, no one dies or gets really hurt or anything. It looks like fun. And I was just wondering if... I guess it sounds like it's something I'd like to do. It's like…like super battling." He grinned. "If the league had a sport like that, I think I'd want to try it."

"The Indigo League hasn't even caught on to double battling quite yet. You'll find their rules to be quite old fashioned." The professor arched an eyebrow Ash's way. "It seems like quite the idea, though. You could make a whole new sport. At least, you could make a fine gym."

"What do you mean?" the boy asked, absently scratching behind the ears of his ever-faithful companion, Pikachu, who was nestled deeply on his shoulder with his cold nose poking into Ash's neck.

"I mean, it seems like the kind of idea the League would respect if it came from a high ranking trainer, perhaps one who wins the Indigo League." The professor peered at him over his glasses, and, realizing that the years had still not sharpened him to the art of subtlety, continued, "A trainer who could be like you, Ash."

To his surprise, Ash grinned. "I know, but I don't know how good of an idea this is. I mean," he snorted, "could you imagine me as a gym leader?"

Across from him, the elderly Professor Oak nodded. "Yes, Ash, I can. I think it's a very good idea. I know your mother has been waiting for you to settle down a bit, and this way you'll still get to train. It's certainly a unique idea, but if Lance and the Elite Four know it's you, a you that has won the Indigo League on top of many of your astounding achievements, they should be quite receptive to the idea. If you have their support, the League administrators probably won't have a problem with it."

He pushed his things aside and smiled. "I feel like a bite to eat, don't you?"

The pair sat in Professor Oak's living room over cups of tea (as much as he disliked the taste, the Professor loved his afternoon tea, and Ash didn't want to take away from it, so he politely pretended to drink as well) discussing an idea the young trainer had come up with, going over the details and the money and all those things that would make things hard. It ended with the Professor chuckling, "Besides, it will be nice to not have your mother yell at me after one of our chats for giving you an idea that sends you off on another journey."

"You really think it would work?" Ash pushed.

"That I do."

He paused. "You want me to give up on being a Pokémon Master, then?"

The man paused for a long moment, thinking very hard. "Ash, what you are is something I don't think we have a word for."

"That's not really an answer."

"Isn't it?" he replied idly, and sipped at his tea in a way that said the discussion was closed.

Still, Ash thought to himself, "Maybe one day, Professor. But not now."

"Though it put an incredible fight, that burn seems to have taken its toll on Pikachu, and Camerupt's Rock Slide pushes it over the edge, and it finally goes down. Now Ketchum's down to his last pokemon as well, but does Snorlax have enough fight left after that battle with Nidoking?"

Ash gripped Snorlax's pokeball tightly. "It's all up to you, Snorlax. Go!" He hurled the ball, and Snorlax appeared in a flash of white light. Snorlax looked around the ruins of the the battlefield, and finally focused on Camerupt across the field.

Jason, Ash's opponent, called out, "Camerupt, bury that fat cat! Rock Slide!" Camerupt snorted smoke, then reared up before crashing down onto the ground, sending a wave of rubble out from under its paws in a landslide that crashed into Snorlax, knocking him onto his back and nearly covering him completely.

"Oh no! Snorlax, use Rest to recover, and then let loose with Snore!" Snorlax gave no visible sign that he heard Ash, but a few seconds later the entire stadium was rocked by thunderous snores. Camerupt, barely a few meters from the sleeping pokemon, winced and thrashed its head, unable to block out the terrible noise. Finally, the snoring stopped with a snort, and Snorlax sat up and glared at Camerupt.
"Awesome, Snorlax! Now give it a Hyper Beam!"

Snorlax opened his mouth and blasted Camerupt with a powerful beam of energy.

"Not so fast," Jason countered. "While it's recovering, Camerupt, Eruption!"

After being pushed back by the force of Snorlax's Hyper Beam, Camerupt steadied itself before belching waves of flame and magma out of the volcanoes on its back and Ash could only look on as Snorlax was covered in burning lava.

"Snorlax, are you okay?" Ash yelled.

Snorlax replied with a nod and a low "laaaax."

"Great! Then pump up with Belly Drum, then finish it with Body Slam!"

"Snorr," Snorlax grunted, then began beating his chest before lurching into a lumbering run towards his opponent. Snorlax winced with each thump, until it was close enough to launch itself into the air.

As he came down, Jason called out, "Lava Plume!" but it was too late. Snorlax slammed into Camerupt's shoulders, driving the beast into the ground with enough power left over to make a crater. After a few seconds, Snorlax rolled off of Camerupt, revealing it to be practically flattened.

"I won," Ash whispered, eyes widened.

The stadium thundered with applause, and the speakers were barely audible over them as the announcer called, "And it's Ash Ketchum from Pallet Town! His second time competing in the League and his first time first place!"

He really didn't remember much after that. His head was a whirl of excitement, and he stumbled along as people hugged him and shook his hand and told him how fantastic he was. He remembered the cake, though. It was vanilla with chocolate frosting. After the festivities were over, several men and women in suits, and Lance, the current Champion of Kanto and Johto, led Ash to a conference room in the upper levels of the stadium.

"Ash," Lance began once they were all seated around the large table, "You now have to make a decision."

Ash could only think about his decision to eat four slices of chocolate cake, and how he now regretted this. He crossed his fingers under the table and hoped he would not throw up in front of some of the most important people in the world.

"Tomorrow, we will provide passage for you to Champion Hall."

"Champion Hall?" Ash repeated.

Lance smiled. "Champion Hall is where you will have the opportunity to battle the Elite Four and the Champion."

"Oh, I know what it is!" Ash blushed at his outburst and ducked his head. "I just... I'm still surprised."

"Which is why I'd rather ask you this at a later point, instead of now when you're just getting off the rush of the battle."

Agatha sniffed. "This is the way it's always been done."

"And that always turned out great," the man muttered. His eyes flicked back to Ash, and the warm smile came back, comforting and understanding. "When you beat a member of the Elite Four, you either move on and defeat the next one as well, and so on, or, if you lose to the next one, you take the place of the member you defeated. It's mandatory for you to take the job, Ash. And being a member of the Elite Four means paper work and politics with other regions."

"Just covering pokémon, right?"

Lance sighed. "It mixes, Ash. I'd like to say you'd only handle pokémon, but it'll be more than that. Not to mention we'll have to take you to train and study for years before you finally take the place of the previous League member. This is a long commitment, Ash, and it's not all fun and games."

Ash frowned. "This isn't what I signed up for."

"I know," Lance agreed. "I know it's not."

"So, what? You don't tell people the details, or the truth about the job, and you hope that they have enough…you hope that they're so desperate for a title they'll just do it anyway?" he snapped, standing up. "That's my choice? To walk away and have the world think I'm a coward or be stuck in some job that…that I don't even think I want, let alone ever be good at?"

Agatha sniffed again, shrugging her shoulders. "This is the way it's been done. We had the same choice you did."

"Get someone else," Ash hissed, and slammed the door so hard behind him the room shook.

Lance glared at the old woman. "I told you, this isn't the old days anymore. If you want the kids to have any kind of trust in the government and go for it-"

"This is the way it's always been done!"

"And you haven't had a new applicant since me! That's almost twenty years ago, Agatha!" he snapped. "Things have changed!"

"If it's really his dream, the boy will be back."

"It was his dream," Lance said sullenly. "And, no, he won't."

During the weeks following the Indigo League, everyone noticed that Ash was behaving very oddly. While it was expected that he would be acting differently, considering he had just won a Pokemon League competition for the first time, he wasn't just behaving differently. He floated through his daily life, listless and uncaring. He never spoke other than to give single-syllable answers, sometimes only grunts, and that was when he came out of his room at all.

Of course, he hadn't told anyone about the Champion's Hall offer. It hurt to even think about.

It came to a head one afternoon when Delia called up to Ash, "Ash, honey, you have a phone call!"

Ash wore only his boxers, a pair of socks, and extremely large, ratty shirt that made him look rather homeless, and him coming down the stairs was enough to make his mother sigh and offer to make him him a plate of sandwiches. He shook his head mutely and picked up the receiver. "'lo?" he mumbled.

"Ash Ketchum, what is going on? I spoke to Tracey the last time he was here and he said you were moping! Moping, Ash? Really?" Ash winced at Misty's tone, suddenly glad for the miles separating them as he imagined her telling him off in person. She'd be grabbing him by the shoulders and shaking him, screaming in his face... no, this way was definitely better.

"I..."

But Misty cut him off, her voice suddenly soft, "What's wrong, Ash? What happened to Mr. Wannabe Pokemon Master? What-"

Ash didn't hear the rest of what she said. He dropped the phone back on the cradle and went back upstairs. A few minutes later Delia called up to him again about another call, but his door stayed firmly shut.

A few days later, Ash was sitting on his bed, leaning against the wall and staring into space. He had managed to change his boxers, but clearly hadn't taken a bath in between, his hair grungy and his normally clear skin sallow and sunken. He nearly had a heart attack when his door slammed open and a furious redhead burst in.

"You hung up on me! I call to be nice, because I care about you, because you're my best friend and you've barely left your stupid house since you actually won the thing you've wanted to win forever and what do you do? You had the nerve to hang up on-" She paused, looking at him, then swallowed hard. "Oh, damn, someone died."

"No one died," he whispered.

"Then what the hell happened?"

"I was offered a chance to fight in Champion Hall," he said. He saw her wince. Ash gawked. "You knew?"

"I'm a gym leader. I'm part of the League." She lowered her eyes. "Of course I know."

"So that's it. My dreams are shattered, everything I've worked towards for the past few years of my life is a complete waste, and to top it all off I've had the happiest moment of my life and I can't even enjoy it because, hell, that was pointless too. Who else knows? Professor Oak? Gary? My mom?"

"Ash, don't be mad-"

"Why the hell not? You've probably all been laughing at me since I started this stupid journey," he raised his voice a few octaves, in what she assumed was an impersonation of her. She made a mental note to strangle him later for it. After this had all settled down. "Oh, that silly Ash. He probably really thinks he can be a Pokemon Master one day! I bet he doesn't even realize-"

"Of course not, you idiot! What would happen when you finally won a competition—when, not if—never even occurred to me. I hadn't even thought about it until you brought it up."

"Besides," he fumed. "what am I supposed to do now, Mist? Be a baker? An executive? A teacher? A scientist? 'Cause I'd really do well at that. I'm seventeen, and all I know how to do is train pokemon."

She arched one graceful eyebrow. "You could open a gym."

"Professor Oak suggested that, too. Yeah, like I could really handle all the time and money and paperwork that it takes to run a gym." He snorted. "Can we focus on me losing my dream, please?"

She grinned. "That seems depressing, let's talk about something positive."

"How I can't run a gym is positive?"

She smiled, then walked over and, in a rare moment of tenderness, hugged him to her, "How you have a gym leader for a best friend to help you, you dolt."