Chapter 4: Help with Helping
"Hey boss, did you hear the news?" a grunt said with his boss nearby. The lackey lacked grace in his entrance, but when you have important news at hand then you have to get the news out. The boss turned around in his roller chair to face his clumsy follower. He was a taller adult male with slicked back volcano red hair. He wore a pair of augmented glasses, and had a long red cape.
"No Boris, I have not. What is the news that you have brought me?" Maxie said as he adjusted his spectacles. He rose from his seat with perfect posture and folded his arms behind his back as he awaited an intelligible response from the underling.
Saluting his superior, the grunt gave his report. "Sir, we have heard that the death of professor Birch has been pinned for the moment on the son of the Petalburg Gym Leader, Norman. This accusation comes from the testimony of the professor's daughter May, who saw Brendan with the corpse of her father." the grunt then handed a picture of the boy to his leader. "The boy is currently wanted for questioning and has a bounty on his capture of $30,000 poke dollars. However, if he goes uncaptured for a solid amount of time the bounty may increase further."
"$30,000 poke dollars you say." Maxie removed his glasses and wiped down the lenses as he thought over the situation. He then repositioned his ocular device upon his brow, "Then we must be the ones to apprehend him. Send a team out after the boy immediately." The grunt saluted the boss and quickly left the room to put together the squad. As he exited, the boss sat back into his chair and turned it around to overlook his base of operations. He pondered the situation further and laughed as he realized the beauty of this little boy being blamed for the death of the fat professor. "Well Brendan, I guess you're a sick person. HAHAHAHA!" the leader chuckled and laughed as the plan was set into motion.
...
"Well Wallie, go get yourself a good little pokemon. What do you say sonny?" Norman said to the local youth standing in front of his gym. The little boy was sickly and Norman had taken a found liking to the child and believed that if the boy were to be introduced to pokemon training, which required an astute, active lifestyle that the health of young Wallie would return to him. The boy smiled with joy at the instructions of the gym leader as he raced off him the supplies Norman had given him to go and capture his very first pokemon. The boy was alive, if for the first time in his life as he went over to route 102 to find a pokemon. He searched high and low until finally he saw rustling in the woods a little pokemon for him to capture; it was a Ralts, a small psychic pokemon that had potential for serious power once fully evolved. The boy quickly threw the pokeball hard and hit the Ralts right on the head with it which sucked the pokemon inside the ball; now all he could do was wait as he watched the ball shake back and forth with the pokemon inside. It rustled back and forth, for what seemed an eternity to the young boy. Was he going to be a real pokemon trainer, or just a sickly neighborhood kid still? This issue troubled him deeply. That is until the pokeball clicked shut and the struggle for the ownership of the ralts had finally been resolved. With bewilderment in his eyes the young boy approached the ball and slowly picked it up to his eye level, as if he failed to register that the object in front of him was in fact a full pokeball with his new friend Ralts sitting comfortably inside. Wallie looked the ball over and for the first time in his life, he was something other than the sickly boy, something other than the dying kid, in this moment he was a pokemon trainer.
Back at the gym in Petalburg, just after the young Wallie had taken off Norman got a faint chill up his spine, a chill he recognized all too well, and thoroughly detested feeling. With his spine sending goosebumps and shivers to his brain, he knew what was going on without a moment's delay. "Parental…responsibility senses tingling. Must deal with biological son outside of scheduled visitation." Norman muttered as he turned toward route 102 to see a band of a trainer and three pokemon heading his way. Normally the adult would not be too interested in seeing the kid anyway, but especially with the hullabaloo going around about young Brendan, being a murdering psychopath of his father's old friend Birch was just the icing on the cake a disinterested father needed when seeing his son for the first time in quite a good bit of time. Norman scowled as he saw the boy and his band of pokemon marching toward his gym; they had a swagger about themselves, which showed that they had seen the face of death between them recently to which Norman speculated was in reference to the professor's demise. Norman folded his arms as the party made their final approach toward the renowned leader and trainer.
Brendan upon seeing his father as they neared the gym quickly turned in front of friends to have a quick chat. "Alright guys, I know that Okuni's death has us a little shaken up, but wipe that chapter clean and let us keep our heads up high. Up ahead is my dad and maybe he can help us clear our name? After all, it is in his best interest for me to not be a criminal on the run as I am his son. Even if I do not like him at all. I have to give him a shot to actually be a decent father for a change. Who knows, he might surprise me." Brendan said to his buddies huddled together to keep their voices down. He found his words hard to actually believe, although the boy needed hope, he needed something to make him believe that he could be saved from this journey as he with the battle on route 102 and the issue of Okuni's death, the kid from Littleroot was beginning to believe that this journey might be too much for the crew to handle. Fear was taking root in the boy's brain and possibly now was trying to choke out the fire that gave Brendan the ability to move down this path in the first place. He saw his dad as a potential opportunity to rescue him from a disastrous fate ahead; even with their estranged situation in life, they believed that his father would still help his son. The trio of pokemon with Brendan felt the tension in the boy's voice as he gave them the pep talk before the human spoke up ahead. Each one tried to offer courage to the boy, but Brendan did not speak pokemon, so all their words to him fell on deaf ears, yet they did nuzzle him a bit in order to nonverbally offer the boy an ounce of courage moving forward. "Thanks guys…wish me luck as I talk to him."
"Good Luck!" they all said as Brendan as he turned around and marched the last twenty feet alone to face his scowling father. The words of his pals did not register into exact words, but Brendan felt extra strength as he went up to his father.
"Hey da…."
"POW!" Brendan groaned as a fist connected with the right side of his rib cage. All three pokemon were shocked at seeing their master being struck so hard that he dropped to his knees. Masamune growled wildly and began moving in to attack Norman, but Brendan called to his poochyena from his knees, asking the dog to stay back and let him handle the situation.
"Nice to see you too daddy." The boy said as he held his sides in pain.
"Why did you come here? Do you know that I cannot go five minutes now without someone looking at me as if I'm connected with you in the murder of my old friend Birch?"
Looking up at his father the boy, then arose to his feet as he tried to continue bravely. "I did not kill him. I know I fled and ran away but that girl started accusing and attacking me so I fled for safety." Norman shook his head with an even greater scowl on his face than he had before.
"It doesn't matter, you ran away. That makes you guilty in the eyes of the world. Now you have a bounty on your head. What did you think would happen by you coming here? That I would get the world off your back, that I would defeat anyone that was chasing you. What did you expect Brendan?" the speech of his father infuriated Brendan as he began to doubt that his old man was going to do anything for the boy other than scold and laugh at his misfortune.
"I expected you to be a father for a change!" the sentence echoed loudly as people in the streets began to stop and look at the two arguing in front of the pokemon gym.
"OH YOU WANTED A FATHER!" Norman said in a booming roar. "So what would a father do here? Would a father hide you away like a secret pet for the rest of your life until I died and people forgot what you looked like, which would endanger my standing with the pokemon league and my job as a gym leader, which I do to pay for you and your mother's wellbeing? Would a father stand up in the city, say you are innocent without any proof, and keep on fighting beside you until they threw you in prison for life? Would a father give you all the money and good pokemon I have even though you lack sufficient training to handle them? Please tell me Brendan, since you are an expert on the subject, what would a father do?"
"HE WOULD HELP ME!" Brendan yelled as he closed his eyes trying to hold back the tears forming in his pupils. Norman turned around and folded his arms behind his back.
"I am going to help you son…I am going to give you until the count of ten to get gone from my sight before I forcibly arrest you for questioning in line with the murder of professor Birch." The words stung Brendan deep in his heart; they even hurt the pokemon that called Brendan their leader.
"Are you…fucking kidding me?" Brendan retorted as the tears began to roll. He came seeking asylum and found himself merely under more threats than before.
"You forget son, I am a Gym Leader. As such, I am duty bound by the law to apprehend suspects like yourself. For me to simply not arrest you, I am putting your mother and myself in serious danger; technically committing treason. Brendan rubbed his eyes as he wished to show no tears in the presence of a man who had his back turned toward him when he needed help the most. Brendan began walking back toward his pokemon, but after few steps, he turned back his head and offered a final remark toward the man he knew as father only by title.
"I am going to clear my name." He said to Norman. "I am going to get stronger as a trainer, and someday I will return here and defeat you and take a badge by force as I work to clear my name from this murder. And I will be sure that I kill all your pokemon in front of you Old Man." With that last sentence, Brendan ran back to his pokemon and set out to the Petalburg City Pokecenter. He was upset and so were his pokemon by the lack of help that Norman had offered the boy. After all, this was his son in need of help, not some random stranger on the side of the road. Brendan was let down by the old man.
As they trotted down the road away from the gym, Brendan bumped into a boy in a completely different mood than he. "Sorry friend." The boy said as he turned and made eye contact. However, as the boy looked at the face of Brendan the mood of the boy changed. "Wait a moment; you're the criminal, Brendan. Engarde!" The boy said as he threw a pokeball releasing the ralts he caught earlier in the day. Brendan was not in a mood to battle at all and neither were his pokemon. The crew keep on pacing toward the center, for a quick refresh before they continued onward with their journey of redemption. The gang was set to leave the group alone but when Ralts growled at the party, Masamune turned and howled back in a violent display, sending the enemy Ralts into a cowering state, one in which Wallie, being an intelligent kid, realized that he was not going to win a fight against three pokemon and the boy with just the ralts he caught. Brendan and his crew walked away to ponder their issues at hand while Wallie was left comforting his frightened pokemon. "Don't worry buddy, we're going to train up hard." The boy looked at the gang as they disappeared out of view. "Someday we will bring that man to justice ourselves, just you watch Raltsie. We will track him down and stop that evil doer." The boy felt a mission growing in his heart as he and the ralts felt a swelling of purpose, which gave the sickly child a boost of strength in him, that he never before felt. This child felt a strong rivalry brewing in his heart with Brendan, if just because he was a few years older.
Regardless of Wallie, the journey for Brendan, with his father denying to give him aide on his quest for innocence, was realizing as he entered the pokemon center, that his mission was actively becoming increasingly difficult.