Chapter III: Proposal

At some time in the next week or so Rojer stood before a very, very powerful man. I don't know the name of the town, or the name of the building, but I'm sure it was in some big, lavish room. Most of the lights would probably be out, especially near the desk in the back of the room. Sitting in the desk would be a man smoking a cigar. The smoke from the cigar would be the only thing you would be able to see aside from the whites of his eyes and a thin outline of his figure. He would be petting a beautiful Persian purring at his side. His walls would be lined with thousands of books on topics like business, Pokemon, and crime. On a shelf would be hundreds of Pokeballs containing hundreds of Pokemon, some of which he caught himself, others he stole.

In a cold demeanor the man would ask Rojer what his business was.

"I have for you a candidate for the new operation you've briefed us all about." I assume Rojer said, as professinally as he could muster.

The man would ask a few questions about my age, physical appearance, and experience handling Pokemon, Rojer probably responded truthfully to all of these inquiries. Finally the man would remind Rojer that the operation was supposed to be an entirely private enterprise and that Rojer would only be paid according to the amount of gym badges that I won and furthermore how well I did in the Johto league championships… if I made it that far.

"I understand," Rojer would respond, "but you now realize that this kid is part of the operation?"

The man would laugh.

"There are dozens more of him."

In three days Machop had fixed the plumbing, patched the roof, and fixed dozens of broken items in our house. Meanwhile, I was making tons of money working overtime at the Radio Station. There was a girl at the Radio Station, about the same age as me. She worked as a Secretary for a Secretary, probably for another several Secretaries after that too. Lately I hadn't been able to take my eyes off of her. One day I approached her and asked what her name was.

"Samantha," she responded.

I told her my name in response and complained about working in the mailroom, she followed with a complaint about her job. Turns out that Samantha and I have a lot in common. She told me that she only works here so that she can support her family as well. Her real dream is to become a Pokemon Trainer and travel the world, which she's trying to save up to be able to do. I told her that I had recently received my first Pokemon (I didn't tell her how, of course) and that it was a Machop. Instantly, she spouted out tons of information about Machop, what level he evolves, what move he learns at each level, even things like what his HP cap is. I must admit that I was really surprised by her wealth of knowledge. I really enjoyed talking to her it became what I looked forward to each day at work. Eventually I invited her over to see Machop, I expected her to fully accept the invitation, but she pulled back and said she was busy. I wasn't quite sure what to think.

That same night I got off work a little late and had to walk home in the dark again. The winds were cold that night and it was raining a little. It was scary going through those dark alleys by myself (especially with the memories of what happened last week rushing through my head) and I suddenly wished I was carrying Machop around with me like a real trainer. In a quiet alley a very nice car pulled up to me and stopped, I stopped too. The tinted window rolled down and I could hardly see the face of the person in the car.

"Hey kid, come over here." It was Rojer, I walked over to him. He whispered into my ear: "get in the car."

The door opened and he had already moved into the next seat, leaving plenty of room for me. I chose the nice car over the cold rain. The driver took off immediately after I entered the car.

"So, Ethan," started Rojer, "how've you been over the past couple of days? Everything going alright at home? How's that Machop I got you?"

"I've been chillin'…" I really didn't know what to say, but I wanted to say something impressive, at this point I still respected the guy, "Machop's… great! He's been a real help around the house."

"Really, really, that's good to hear," Rojer said completely uninterested in anything I had to say, "so have you done any training with him? You know, gotten into any battles?"

"Oh, no. I've mainly just been using him to do some chores around the house, you know, help us out a little."

"Well have you ever thought about battling with him?"

"No, I guess I hadn't considered it."

"You know, the new Johto League Championships are going to be starting in a couple of months, maybe you should consider it."

"I don't know, I've never been really interested in 'training' Pokemon."

"Maybe you should give it a try, you handled that Machop pretty well the other night."

I was strongly opposed to entering any Pokemon competition no matter how many times this guy complimented me. On the other hand, I thought of Samantha. She loves Pokemon, she wants to be Trainer herself, she might like me even more if I became a Trainer, but then how would I afford it? Rojer had grown impatient with my silence and moved on to his heavier motivation.

"Listen, kid," he started, "you know how much I paid you the other night for helping me rob that store?" I nodded my head. "I can pay you at least five times that for each badge you win me, even more if you make it to the big competition, all of this in addition to the money you already win from each Gym Leader you defeat."

I thought about this for a moment. I'd make much more money than I do now, I'd impress Samantha, and even if I didn't make it that far Joseph would be working soon and he'd be able to pick up any of the slack. My boss at the Radio Station would definitely hire me back if it didn't work out too. I didn't see any negatives.

"I think I'll do it." I responded, only slightly unsure. "How do I sign up?"

"There will be tons of ads for it in December, you can sign up any time between January 1st and the 15th. The competition itself will be in September, you have to have gotten eight badges by then to qualify." Rojer replied.

"Alright, I'm gonna do it."

"Good. You've got about two months before the start of January. I've brought these for you…" Rojer reached into his pocket and pulled out five Pokeballs. He handed them to me. "…start training now, start catching new Pokemon too. It's best to go into these sort of things with a plan so research the Gym Leaders that you want to battle and start catching Pokemon that you can use to battle them. If you need anything else just let me know."

The car stopped.

"Looks like we're here," said Rojer.

"Where?" I asked.

"Open the door."

I did and I was at my house, I stepped outside.

"Good luck, kid," he yelled out at me, "and train hard!"

The car door slammed shut and the vehicle sped away. I turned back towards my house. I was going to be a Pokemon Trainer, something I never really wanted to be, but I was excited. I walked forward into my home, completely unsure of what the future held for me.