73 Change of plans

A/N: So someone had a problem with the way Alex was turning out as a person with you know great pokemon and having a perfect body(They thought he would look like a roid monster lol XD). Obviously this person was either not paying fucking attention or failed to actually understand what I was writing as well as how the story was turning out this way (They even left a poor review about it on royal road if you want to take a look). I will only say this one more time so pay attention EVERYTHING THE SYSTEM GIVES IS BECAUSE OF A VERY REAL AND VERY UNBIASED ROULETE WHEEL AND I HAVE NO SAY IN IT BESIDES ADDING THINGS IT COULD LAND ON! THIS INCLUDES ITEMS , POKEMON , ABILITIES , SKILLS AND VARIANTS SO If YOU DON"T LIKE HOW LUCKY ALEX IS IT IS NOT MY FAULT! For everyone else you are great and I love the support you give.

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"I suppose I can understand that , though aren't there men working for the gyms as well?" I asked curiously. How this ends was pretty much set in stone at this point so learning a bit more about the inner workings of a gym could only benefit me. "Of course there are but do you know how awkward that is after the stress dies down? It's horrible!" Melissa said with a shudder. I merely shrugged at this since I never really had to deal with it before. "So how are we doing this exactly? I bought the pills just in case but the details depended on you." I said honestly.-

"You can just shack up at my place for the time you are here , unless you aren't into cuddling afterwards?" she questioned and I shook my head to show I had no such problems. Despite how odd it was one night stands occasionally wanted to fall asleep while being held after the act so I had experience in this regard. This was basically the same thing just stretched out over the next three days. "Then it's settled , but first you need a shower. You smell like the forest and not in a sexy way." Melissa said with a wrinkled nose.-

"Before that I need to make a call since I'll never hear the end of it if I don't." I said and she looked curious. "Who do you need to call that comes before this?" she asked while motioning to her body. "Professor Birch , we are ... friends I guess?" I said not complete sure on that part. Don't get me wrong I am sure Birch likely considers me a friend but I wasn't sure if logically speaking I counted as such. We might have interacted a LOT for two weeks and I basically lived with him but again that was only two weeks so I think I counted as an acquaintance at best.-

I had problems forming attachments for reasons that should be obvious at this point so I was rather iffy on mine and Birches status. Melissa had her jaw hit the ground though after hearing me. "You are friends with THE professor Birch!?" she exclaimed in shock. "It's complicated but I am more or less fairly well acquainted with him yes. Now if you don't mind I really should get this call over with." I said calmly.-

She gave me some space after that as I took out my pokenav and activated the match call feature on Birches number. "BRRR! BRRRR! BRR ... CLICK!" The call rang for a couple times before getting answered on the third ring. "Alex! You must have made it to Rustboro , I take it the trip was pretty calm or did you pick up another monstrous pokemon again." Birch joked. "Not this time but yeah I reached the city and even got my gym challenge appointment and lodging taken care of." I said casually. "When is your challenge , I will probably watch the live stream if it's not at a bad time?" he asked curiously.-

"Fours days from now at noon and what do you mean livestream?" I asked confused. I had looked it up and all the gym battle videos I had found were after the fact but never live. "Oh right! so It's not known by the public but every gym challenge is broadcast live to all the other gym leaders , the elite fours , champions and of course the regional head professors which is me in this case. Usually we only pay attention if it is a person of interest in our own regions though." Birch explained.-

That made me VERY uncomfortable to learn as I knew of one gym leader in Kanto who I really didn't want to notice me at the moment. All of the criminal teams were lead by dangerous and powerful trainers but none were as dangerous as Giovanni in my opinion. From what I understood the man singlehandedly ran team rocket without anyone else aware of it WHILE being in a position of heavy scrutiny like that of a gym leader. Such a person was the most difficult to deal with because they pretty much cut all paper trails between the criminal side and them.-

People like Archie and Maxie I could pretty much openly stab in the heart and no one would bat an eye because they were dangerous criminal bosses but Giovanni was a trusted government official as far as everyone knew and I would not have a good end if I did the same to him. "I don't think it will be a very entertaining match to be honest , you know what I have on my team after all." I said while pushing those thoughts to the darkest parts of my mind until they were gone.-

"About that ... I MIGHT have kind of possibly buffed the difficulty a smidge." Birch said sound sheepish. I sighed "What did you do?" I asked slightly irritated at the idea of my plans being changed by someone other than me. "Okay so win or lose you will get a badge but depending on which it is you may get a different sort of badge. In exchange for that Roxanne has agreed to use fourth badge level pokemon due to your special circumstances. Don't worry though she will also only be using two pokemon since your newest two aren't on the same level as your first two." Birch explained in what sounded like an excited manner.-

"Please tell me that there is actually some benefit to me having this extra challenge besides entertainment value." I said trying to find a positive to the situation. "Of course there is! Should you win you will receive a star badge. This is a bit of a league secret but there is in fact two kinds of gym badges. The first is public knowledge so I'll skip over that but the second is the star badges that can only be obtained if the challenge a trainer receives from the gym exceeds the number of badges they have."-

"A star badge holder is automatically more trusted than a normal badge holder by the league and is eligible for very tasty benefits like discounts at stores , VIP treatment on training grounds , personal training with the gym leaders or higher and the biggest benefit of all , pick of the litter on any league missions. Obviously the level of these benefits depends on how many star badges you can get but it is pretty worth it right?" Birch said like a corrupt salesman.-

I had to admit that the idea appealed to me greatly as not only would it help me increase the power of my team thanks to them really getting challenged but those were some very juicy benefits. "I admit that does sound like something that would interest me but could you talk to me about this sort of stuff before you did it , would have been a nasty surprise if I didn't learn of it until I went in for my challenge." I said seriously. "Yup , It honestly slipped my mind with all the drama with the Joy and Jenny clans." Birch said with an awkward chuckle.