- League Intervention -
Charizard ignored the looks he got as he made his way to the Pokemon Center. They honestly were not important to him as long as nobody tried to stop him, and the only officers he could see clearly understood he had not stolen his trainer's stuff.
This was his worst nightmare, the thing that had kept him awake in his ball several nights as a Charmander back when he first became Alexa's Starter. Being able to carry a pokeball instead of her hurt body was better, he definitely would be thanking Maizie for the pokeball now, but no Starter worth the title would be happy to have their trainer hurt instead of themselves. It felt like a failure, despite the fact that he had half expected this outcome.
"Charizard? Where is Alexa? I thought I missed your Gym match," Maizie said from behind him just as he reached the Pokemon Center's doors.
"Sorry, no time to explain," Charizard grumbled, and frowned as he didn't hear Slowking translate for once. Despite that he pushed open the doors and moved straight to the counter.
"Ah, the Water/Bug," the local Nurse Joy grumbled. "Where is your Bug/Fire trainer?" He gave her a dark look as he unclipped Alexa's ball from the belt and handed it to her. The Joy immediately became more serious, but he was still upset with how she had just assumed this was another training match fix-up. "I'll make sure she's okay," the Joy replied quickly and took Alexa's unique pokeball over to the healing machine.
"I take it Alexa didn't have a good Gym match," Maizie said with a bit of a hiss, and Charizard turned just enough to tell she was currently a Vipercury before he focused back on Alexa's ball. "I've been with a League Official I called about the glove thing and the other pokemon-trainer stuff most of the morning, do I need to sic him on Bugsy?"
"You might need to save Bugsy from William, maybe make sure William doesn't get arrested. Not sure which, don't care at the moment," Charizard bluntly replied.
"Alright, then I made the right choice asking him to look into this match that had a pokemon who never fought another trainer working her wings off in order to get ready," the fluid snake pokemon now clearly hissed inhumanly. "I know that it probably felt like something you didn't need to ask for help with, but I did try to say I would stand up for your trainer and William to the League." Her body flowed in front of his face. "I have a voucher for a set of custom gloves for Alexa to use when you get to Goldenrod, another for William too, and a third for if you want them."
"I think I change shape as much as Alexa, so that might not work for me," Charizard pointed out with a clack of his three part claws, and felt a bit of tension relax at the distraction. "Although given this is happening it would be nice to have a pair in case this sort of thing happens again."
Maizie's serpentine face gave him a concerned look. "I'm afraid that might mean it will work just as well," she said slowly, still without speaking to the humans around them. "Just because she is Legendary doesn't mean you aren't."
That was less reassuring, but she moved out of the way before he could reply as the Nurse Joy returned to the counter with Alexa's ball. "Your-" The Joy visibly paused to consider her next word. "Trainer will be fine, but she was badly banged up and we needed to restart and restore her defensive energy. I know it is a bit unusual, but it would be best if she rested in her ball until at least noon tomorrow. Do you have another trainer who can sign into a room for her?"
Charizard sighed, and dug his own trainer card out of the bag. "Being able to talk sometimes seems useful," he grumbled and got out the notepad again. "I do not want her registered as mine," he wrote and underlined.
"You've been a trainer this entire time?" the Joy asked dully and entered his information into the computer. "Ah, my sister has you listed for the same room as your trainer and one other already. Of course, just the thing to not tell me." The Joy, who apparently was not the one they saw the first day in town, sighed. "You're good then. Try not to wake your trainer up."
"I'll let your team rest then," Maizie noted as she pulled a pair of envelopes out of her mass. "Here are your vouchers, please use them."
"Maizie," Charizard said to stop her before she left. "Thank you for the pokeball. I don't know what we would have done without it."
"Your welcome," she replied with a bit of a smile, but she didn't look entirely happy with how things had turned out. Charizard could understand the feeling.
William continued to glare at the Gym Leader as that opponent's last Bug type pokemon was recalled. Bugsy had a few of Shanker's throwing blades embedded next to the Leader on every side from near misses, and Mareep had just finished leaving puddles of lava around the arena that had drifted a bit close to Bugsy's feet. Both would be easily explained as mistakes by pokemon that weren't entirely familiar with their new forms.
"I think you've definitely proven yourself," Bugsy said to William with a look as if he was a feral pokemon. It was a new experience to be looked at like that, and William would have felt a lot worse about it if he was a bit less angry. It was still less enraging than that uncertain look of confusion after Alexa fell. It had almost looked like the Leader had wanted to stop Charizard from leaving.
Now the Gym Leader did seem a bit concerned with how close William had let his pokemon get with those attacks, but still got out a Badge and walked across the torn arena to give it to him, careful to step around the still hot pools of lava. "Maybe work on their aim a bit more?" Bugsy added, but William did not reply, he simply took the damn Badge, recalled Mareep, and left.
On his way out he spotted a League Official who seemed serious walking into the building, and wondered for a moment if this was the end of the League for him this year. It was probably safe, he had good reasons and more importantly had quite firmly stopped Shanker from trying to fling the blades even closer to the Gym Leader, but he was expecting that he would not have the Badge by the time they left town. William even considered trying for a third again with the reasoning that he didn't trust the evaluation if he did somehow end up keeping the damn thing.
"Ah, I caught you," Maizie said as she cut in front of him on his way to the Pokemon Center, and William caught a whiff of metallic toxin that told him she was currently only illusioned into a human shape. "I've already given the other two to Charizard, but I have a voucher for you to get custom ball handling gloves in Goldenrod."
"How is Alexa?" William asked, with the anger now gone at the reminder Alexa had gotten hurt enough that she didn't leave the arena on her own. He had never been injured that badly, even when he ran into non-League issues that got him involved in combat.
"Not badly hurt, but out of action until late tomorrow," the Vipercury sighed as she passed him an envelope. "Charizard has that mostly handled. What exactly happened? I didn't want to bother him with asking considering the situation."
"Bugsy broke their agreement. He sent out a pokemon that was sixth Badge team at least instead of a first time round third," William growled, happy that Maizie could probably understand him despite that slip.
"I think that I will check in on the League Official I sent after him then," Maizie declared darkly. "How hurt is Bugsy?"
"Near misses only," William replied dryly and continued towards the Pokemon Center.
"So not as bad as he's been hurt by actual accident before," Maizie complained lowly as she walked off, and William realized a bit slowly that he still had not restored his own illusion.
With a sigh, he considered what to do about that. It wasn't the first Gym match he had done without one, or even the first time walking around a town without one, so it wasn't a new problem. On the other hand the previous cases either had Alexa with him, or conditions that disrupted his illusion so it wasn't an option. This time, he thought darkly, it was more that he wanted to show that pokemon could be perfectly normal trainers.
In the end he made it to the Pokemon Center an open pokemon, and apparently annoyed the Joy working there with that decision as Charizard being listed as one of the trainers in charge of their room had been a surprise to her. Which in turn meant there were at least two Joys working in this Center that he has mistaken for only one.
"William," Charizard greeted him when he entered the shared room, the Water/Bug pokemon hunched over what looked like a different notebook than normal with quite a bit of concentration focused on writing. "Are you still a trainer, or does Azalea Town need a new Gym Leader?"
"That isn't an 'or' question," William grumbled. "Bugsy was unharmed last I saw him, and he gave me the Badge despite some near miss attacks, but that doesn't mean he will still have a job tomorrow."
Charizard looked up from the notebook to glare at him. "Oh yes, I'm so sure that one mistake will get a long respected Gym Leader fired," the Starter grumbled.
"I was thinking 'early retirement' actually, he has been at it long enough for that," William half joked. "What are you working on?"
"What is it like to have a pokemon on your team that is badly hurt?" Charizard questioned in response.
"Terrible, the worst thing ever, and something Chesnaught can probably talk with you about better than I can. Just because I've never been hit hard enough to need to go to a Pokemon Center immediately doesn't mean I haven't been sick enough to be out of action," William replied with a sigh. "Let me get her out, and you two can talk about that while I calm down a bit more."
Alexa woke up with no memory of when she fell asleep, still inside of her pokeball and still likely a Vespikiln. She could half recall the now-familiar surge of energy from a healing machine, but then she just drifted off at some point.
She didn't even know what time it was, although a moment of concentration on the ball's sensors let her hear her team discuss something quietly while William argued a bit louder with Chesnaught. Alexa couldn't make out what her pokemon were saying, but apparently Chesnaught wanted William to be more firm about telling Alexa not to fight herself.
The latch to her ball would be easy enough to open, Alexa just needed to work up the willpower to open it. Charizard probably wouldn't send her out unless it was critical for her to be out there, and he definitely wouldn't let anyone else force her out.
"When did Maizie say the League Official was coming by?" Charizard asked more loudly, presumably to William.
"Around two, give or take. He wanted to review the video of the matches yesterday again, and also to wait long enough for Alexa to recover," the Zoroark replied. "So we still have at least an hour."
Alexa didn't really want to, but she opened the latch on her ball anyway. "How did a League Official get involved?" she asked as she half stumbled to her feet, and then hissed as her wings ached instead of flapped. "Charizard, how do I compare to your first flight?"
"I didn't have a seventh Badge pokemon shoot me down with boulders," her Starter said, and she looked up sharply at him because he wasn't joking at all. He had apparently shed his Bug type already, which was about right for his timing, and that reminded Alexa that it was a day later than she recalled so she would be turning back soon. Which was a good thought to distract her from the content of Charizard's answer.
"That, almost explains why a League Official is looking into things, but how did one get here already?" Alexa questioned mostly to stay away from the thought. She had been worried about strong hits from three Badge team pokemon, seven was quite a bit stronger than that.
"Maizie was not in fact joking about how she wanted to have a discussion with the League about pokemon-trainers," William admitted with a tone that said he was just as surprised as she was. "Which means she's ended up a bit upset by this whole thing. I think she might have bitten Bugsy."
"She bit him?" Alexa had to ask a bit dully as she tried to imagine the older girl biting someone.
"Considering she was a giant poisonous snake at the time it was a serious thing for her to try," Chesnaught grumbled. "William has already been told that, given Maizie might have done that, he is safe to keep the Badge."
"At least Bugsy was used to being poisoned," Bellossom said in a way that was the exact opposite of how Alexa's Grass/Electric type usually spoke about humans getting poisoned. Bellossom for the first time in a long time sounded happy about someone getting poisoned.
"By the way, you're not going up against a Gym Leader again," Kingler commented. "We all decided."
"Hey, don't make it sound like it is all the injury thing," Heracross, who Alexa noticed was still in his bat form likely from another use of Stable Cloud, criticized the crab pokemon. "I barely had any training time since we got that challenge because Alexa's so far behind. My fight was closer than it should have been."
"It is mostly the injury thing," Rhydon noted, currently wood and metal once more. "But I did kind of want some more time working out how to do stuff instead of just helping out."
"It is entirely the injury thing, and I am contemplating benching you myself," Charizard said seriously. "I can't take more wake ups like that one, Alexa. You vanished before I even knew what had happened."
"Yeah, yeah I can say that I'm done with Gym battles myself," Alexa admitted. Between the stress of preparing herself for the fight and the lost training time for the rest of her team it just wasn't worth it. "I kind of want to try other battles sometime, but we can probably update the paperwork so I don't get forced again."
That statement cleared a good amount of tension from the room, and William described his team's match. Shanker had gone through two pokemon, and Mareep a third, all stronger than the ones Alexa's team had faced, with the kind of rage usually reserved for desperate fights against wild pokemon. Shanker now had good practice for her aim and Mareep had a chance to cut loose with Fire type attacks.
The story was basically completed, and the conversation somehow shifted towards Mareep's magma-fleece, when there was a knock on the door to the room. "League Official Vernon, here to speak with Assistant Alexa Larch," a voice from the other side said loudly enough to be heard through the door. The halfway recovered mood dipped again immediately as Charizard moved to open the door.
"Hello Official Vernon," Alexa greeted dully. She looked at the well dressed man carrying a large briefcase and sighed. "I'm Alexa Larch."
"I'll start off with the official apology from the Johto Pokemon League for your injuries in your match against Leader Bugsy," Vernon began seriously. "Complete with a refund of your entry fee, and compensation for both the injury and any additional training expenses you faced before this match."
"I've had a bad Gym Leader before," William said in response to that while Vernon went over to the table in the room to open the case. "I got the entry fee back, three of them actually to cover all my attempts, but nothing for the training."
"Leader Bugsy made three massive mistakes with regards to his Gym battle with Assistant Larch," Vernon replied and passed some money along with an expense form to Alexa. "The first of those was to request a pokemon that is a trainer to be a participant in the match. That is in fact against League rules except in the very specific case where a trainer only has five other pokemon, they are registered to fight themselves, and the Leader feels the need to have a full six on six match. Which is only available to Gym Leaders giving a seventh or eighth Badge trial."
Alexa had sort of known that already. Between the paperwork for her new trainer cards and the sign in paperwork for the match itself, it was clear that the League assumed you were the one to ask to fight if you fought. She had just assumed that the difference was with how those documents assumed that a trainer was not a pokemon normally. "I agreed to the match," she pointed out.
"Assistant Larch, it is not your job to make sure the offered match is proper," Vernon bluntly replied with emphasis on 'your'. "Leader Bugsy is responsible for not giving such requirements, and if he finds he has done so by mistake then he should have reversed his standing on them."
"I'm pretty sure it is also his job to not give out Badges to people that just barely didn't let their pokemon attack him," William pointed out. Alexa glanced over and saw that the other pokemon-trainer was unhappy with Vernon's tone. Alexa personally felt too drained to get worked up over blunt replies.
"Officially, I have a reprimand for your performance in the match here. A warning since it was also Bugsy's job to realize you were too mad from the prior match to have your own safely," Vernon answered and sighed. "However, off the record I wish you had been less careful. If you had damaged or broken his defensive energy it would have given me a wonderful example of the worst mistake out of the three."
"The overly strong pokemon?" Charizard questioned, and William quickly translated.
"Leader Bugsy had planned on allowing you to switch out pokemon if you were taken out, Assistant Larch. He intended to wave the rule that in normal circumstances would have you automatically defeated," Vernon explained with a bit of rage. "I understand that you have apparently heard of that rule as a result of becoming a pokemon that is a trainer, but to be specific that is Rule 25, Subsection D," the official specified as he took out another document and passed three copies to Alexa, William, and Charizard. "Rule 25 states in simple terms that should either trainer have their defensive energy broken the match is ended immediately for safety reasons. Subsection A specifies the standard scoring method for League matches in that situation. B states that if it occurs by deliberate order of a trainer to attack the other trainer then the attacker forfeits the match. C covers situations where a trainer takes a blow for their pokemon, and how that is to be judged. Finally, Subsection D states that a trainer that knowingly entered combat themselves in place of a pokemon is the loser if their energy is broken so the match cannot continue."
Alexa looked over the document, which covered Rule 25 in greater detail for a moment, not sure what to think. "It is a rule for all of that?" she heard William ask.
"It is specifically a safety regulation, and as such it is very illegal to even consider bypassing it in an official Gym match," Vernon said coldly. "I will be personally overseeing Leader Bugsy's matches over the next month because he wanted to attempt that, if he is allowed to continue as a Gym Leader at all." Vernon then turned to Alexa with a serious expression. "Additionally, because you did not willingly decide to participate yourself, but were requested to, Subsection D does not apply. I have reviewed the match and determined that you were the clear victor over the conditions presented at the time of the mandatory ending of the match. That is separate from the awarding of a Badge by the Leader, which he cannot do for this match unfortunately due to his violations of regulations before, during, and after the match."
"You still haven't said anything about the overpowered pokemon," William pointed out a bit bluntly himself. "That seems to me like it would be more important than something that didn't actually happen."
"There was a first failure, a worst failure, and a thorough failure," Vernon replied with emphasis on each descriptor for the failures. "In addition to those two failures, Leader Bugsy was aware of a rule in place for Gym Leaders facing trainers with proven strong Legendary pokemon." Alexa froze at the statement. "A rule he misunderstood in at least three different ways, which is far more lack of needed understanding for his position than either of the other failures." The rest of the room had also stilled at the word 'Legendary'. "Starting with the word 'proven' in that description. Gym Leaders are allow to use a single otherwise stronger pokemon specifically against a Legendary member of a trainer's team that has been shown in another official League match to have notably more power than the trainer's other pokemon."
"Alexa has only fought a wild pokemon and trained before," Charizard commented, and this time William did not translate, clearly still shaken by the statement.
"Correct, she does not meet the 'proven' requirement," Vernon answered despite that lack of translation. "But on top of that requirement there is also Alexa's status as the team trainer. This Legendary substitution rule is quite specific about pokemon that are trainers. They are explicitly exempt from that rule, as being a trainer is a time investment that restricts personal training time enough that even a proven power boost is not enough to justify a stronger response. Where the third and most annoying part of that particular rule violation comes into play. The proper response to a trainer that is pokemon who a Gym Leader feels would merit that rule is to bar the trainer from participating themselves."
"If he thought I was strong enough to handle what he did, then he should have told me I could not fight instead of making me fight?" Alexa asked with a bit of anger, and she could feel the air around her heat up.
"That mistake was so large that it encompassed both of the other ones and has layers," Vernon agreed. "And for that the Pokemon League is truly sorry."
"You can understand me," Charizard accused the League official before that apology could go further. "How?"
"Translator," Vernon said briefly with a motion to one of his ears. "I was informed that you were present, Mr. Larch, and made sure I was prepared to more easily interact with you. Back when this was a simple plan to go over the education of trainers like your group, and even though I expected to arrive after you had all left."
"After we left?" Rhydon asked now that it was clear that the human could understand all of them.
"Crafter Maizie's request was processed about a week ago, and it took me that long to be able to prepare everything I needed to answer her questions before I left. I started out from Goldenrod," Vernon checked his watch. "About two hours from now."
Alexa nodded at that, turned to look at Charizard and then William, and decided that she did not want to touch that topic, but probably needed to. "Celebi?" she asked carefully.
"I did have to go through a forest where one lives to get here over a day before I left," Vernon complained to confirm. "Which means you are not merely 'like' a Legendary pokemon, to merit that attention. I have no reason to officially list you as such, and I've already explained how the rules wouldn't change at all even if I did finish that paperwork. It would be quite a bit of paperwork for me, and I have heard that it is the exact opposite of an apology to a Legendary pokemon trying to be human."
"It really would not be," Alexa agreed, without outright saying anything about being Legendary.
Vernon sighed again. "Unfortunately, trainers typically agree about the last reason I am here now too," the League official said and removed a smaller case from the briefcase, along with another envelope. "From the review of your match against Bugsy, and the testimony of the locals who have seen you train, I find I must award you, Alexa Larch, with a League Badge." Alexa glared at the human. "Good for your third Badge requirement in this year's Johto League. As is standard for League Badges you can only use one for League Tournament entry, so you will need another third Badge Gym match if you wish to use another you receive for a higher requirement. Additionally, as with any Gym Badge, you can choose to personally request another match of the same level if you feel the need."
Alexa took the small and fairly plain Badge from the official, and very politely did not throw it back in the man's face along with the associated prize money. League Badges weren't common, but they also weren't well liked by trainers.
The most common way to get one was to go to a testing center and going through a very harsh test on pokemon knowledge and handling to earn one for up to fourth Badge status without a Gym battle. Not a respectable way to earn one, but if you were having trouble with the Gym Leaders you'd been to or only wanted a lower ranked Badge count it was an easier method.
The second, somewhat more respectable, way to get one was to pull off some daring rescue or other service for people during a pokemon League. Alexa had earned one for her assistance with the Dragonite, and promptly went for another match to replace the thing so it wouldn't be on her Tournament record. Being a hero was better, but it still wasn't a real Gym Badge and most people would first assume you got it from a testing center.
This was the rarest method, a Gym Leader being so bad at their job that the League had to step in to resolve things. It was an awkward one compared to the other two. You didn't just go for an easier Badge, but you also didn't do anything special. It wasn't the nearly respectable heroism Badge, but it also was technically a real Gym Badge.
"Trainer Charles Larch, I'm afraid I have the same 'reward' for you for your quick actions after the match," Vernon continued. "As you are not entered in the current League, and do not currently have any registered pokemon, this is mostly to tell you that your trainer status is now one Badge instead of no Badge."
"I take it I can't turn this down?" Charizard rumbled dangerously. "Because that sounds like the exact thing I have been avoiding by not signing up or catching pokemon."
"Unfortunately no. I was originally going to just offer one to Alexa, but I checked in with my superiors before I came here and they said it was their preferred end result. I don't even have the Badge ready for you yet," Vernon grumbled. "Personally it seems to me like you just used standard Starter training instead of anything really meant for trainers, but Crafter Maizie apparently has decided to have opinions on that topic too."
Alexa buzzed with a bit of annoyance at that which Charizard matched with a huff of flames. Then she felt the room warm up notably and her body shift back into a human shape. Alexa blinked at the slightly different ache in human form, looked over to Charizard as Vernon paused to take in her new appearance, and took a vial of Toxin Contagion from her Starter. "Ah, that is a stranger change than I-" official Vernon started to say before Alexa turned herself into a Mephagic. "I did not think the changes were that quick."
"Vespikiln isn't," Alexa said a bit bluntly. "Do you need anything else?" She was tired again, and wanted to go back to her pokeball.
"No, Assistant Larch," Vernon said quietly and closed the briefcase. "I don't have any more news, good or bad, for you. Crafter Maizie mentioned that she wished to speak with you before you leave, but that is not League business."
"Alexa," Charizard started to ask when the official left, and before his trainer retreated back into her ball.
"I don't want Bugsy to see my human form," Alexa answered a question Charizard was not asking.
"I don't want him to see us again at all, but I was going to ask if you had any idea for an alternate third Badge," Charizard corrected her. "We at least are earlier in the League this time."
"Ah, another bad Gym?" William questioned.
"No, my other one was for heroism," Alexa answered the other trainer first. "Charizard, we're using this one. I'm tired, I want something out of that mess, and I don't really care if anyone at the Tournament complains about using one."
"It isn't actually that common in other regions to hear complaints," William said calmly. "Most people who actually get theirs from a testing center don't actually make all eight."
Charizard nodded, willing to go with that. "Alright then. That just leaves any complications from my new status," he complained. He had worked hard to avoid the very low bar for a first Badge. It was probably a foregone conclusion, anyone who could even just travel with a trainer while helping would qualify for the first Badge, and it mostly said that you were able to handle pokemon enough to be trusted alone with them even outside of a League. "I'm going to have to look into it."
[Author's Note]
This is not a person in power coming and fixing everything, it is in fact the second half of this low point in the story. Things have resolved, but not in a way that has left everyone satisfied. Someone else has patched the issue, but that isn't quite the same as having it fixed.