Chapter 8

"Meeting with the Regions"

Following our long flight into Tokyo, we made our way into Viridian City, in the Pokemon region of Kanto and we were in a meeting where 6 of the 8 judges were present. You see, the Pokemon regions each had two judges, one American judge and one British judge since the regions were under dual American and British jurisdiction. As we sat down with the British judges, we could tell that one of them, Judge Richard Conrad of Britiain, was not going to be easy to please.

"What we are faced with or so it appears," I said as I began the meeting. "Is the secular equivalent of drafting the Ten Commandments for Pokemon, and for the Pokemon world at large, none exist."

"None are necessary," said Judge Conrad. "We're trying Pokemon war criminals whose guilt is unquestioned by the jurisdictions we respresent."

"Your honor," I said. "If we're going to hold a Pokemon war crimes trial, it must be based on guilt…"

But Judge Conrad interrupted me before I could finish my sentence and I am not a very patient man by any means necessary.

"It must also be based on a degree of guilt," he interjected. "And appropriate punishment."

"A completely fair trial with opposing counsel and cross examination," I said.

"Precisely," said Harry Radcliffe, my British counterpart.

"With eight judges that act as referees," I said, much to the displeasure of the British judges.

"As in a sporting match?" remarked Judge Robert Russell of the British Judges as Shawn looked over at Matt.

"Pain in the butt, what did I say?" he whispered.

"That is not the way it is done in my district," said Judge Russell.

"No, in the Hoenn region," said Judge James Avery, one of the American judges who was the only American judge present. "Lawyers merely help the accused prepare of a defense. They have very little role in the court itself."

"In the United States alone," I said. "A defendant is entitled to his lawyer's most aggressive representation."

"Yes as in Britain itself," added Harry.

This did not sit well with the British judges as they wanted all of the defendants to pay as much as the next person. After all, 40 British citizens were killed on 9/11 and 55 more were killed in the July 7th London bombings. Not to mention the countless more who were lost in the 9/11 airliner bombings.

"You would allow a man such as Giovanni Sakami," said Judge Donald Roberts, one of the British judges. "The leader of Team Rocket who, along with his allies, Osama Bin Laden and Al-Qaeda were all responsible for the London Bombings, the dual 9/11 attacks and for killing millions of innocent people and Pokemon to stand before a court of law and declare himself not guilty?!"

"That is precisely what we would allow," I replied, trying to follow legal protocol.

"20 million Pokemon in my region were captured and killed by these monstrous criminals," cried Judge Douglas Jones. "Half of them were trained, killed without mercy."

All Harry and I did was just stare out at Judge Jones and his British counterparts with wide eyed expressions knowing that they were going about this the wrong way. I felt like sorting them all out, but I decided against it.

"How many died in New York and Washington this way, Mr. Schneider?" asked Judge Roberts. A long silence fell over the room upon hearing those words. Many Americans and British citizens were ruthlessly murdered on 9/11 and the British judges wanted justice as much as we did. However, I decided to use a little bribery to get the four judges on board.

"Your honors," I replied. "It occurs to me that perhaps separate trials may be the best way to satisfy our differences. The Americans will hold a trial with the ones we currently have in captivity: Sakami, Shimuno, Fuji, Matsubasa. And the British will hold their own trial with the ones that you have on hand."

Another long silence fell throughout the room, but this time the tension was broken when Judge Jones laughed to himself knowing that he and his counterparts would not go at this alone.

"There is no need to be so impulsive," he said with a wry smile. "We have been allies for a long time after all and we must try to bridge our differences."

So a little while later, feeling satisfied with what I had done with my tactic, we managed to get the British Judges on board with this trial as they must have realized that if they were to go against this, then they would be doing a disservice to their people and especially to Queen Elizabeth II.

"Well, at least the prosecutions a unified group now," I said to Harry as we left the meeting. "At least we had to compromise with Judge Russell and let the judges be the jury."

"I must say," said Harry. "Your neat little trump card had managed to turn the British judges into pussycats. "

"Well, I didn't enjoy it," I replied. "I didn't want to sandbag the poor men."

"Oh, the old boys were taken aback by your remark," added Harry. "That we have the big Pokemon crime fish while they alone only have a couple of minnows."

We stepped outside and looked out among the streets of Viridian City were many people and Pokemon walked about freely, minding their own business. It was hard to believe that it was only a decade since the worst attack on modern day humans had ever occurred.

"Nonetheless I couldn't argue his point," I said. "A majority of the killed in the attacks was my own countrymen and you lost some countrymen too, Harry. But, I cannot help asking, how can you look out among all this and still guarantee these people a vigorous defense?"

Harry was quick to answer that for that even though we were the same age as him and his deputy prosecutor, Hermione Watson, he and her had prosecuted more Pokemon war criminals than us.

"I want to put their national socialism on trial," he answered. "So, they can incriminate themselves. Besides, after everything that has happened, I don't want something like 9/11 to ever happen again."

After a few moments, we stepped down the stairs and turned our attention to the next phase at hand and that was to find a courthouse for the trial.

"Well," said Harry, changing the subject. "There is no question you are the undisputed leader in all of this, today proved that. As soon as we are done here, you'd better find a place for the trial, if anything that can hold a large trial still exists that is."

Of course finding a place for the trial was going to be a lot harder than I thought it would be, but no matter where we would hold the trial, justice was going to be served either way possible…