Chapter 156

"So?" I prompted bluntly when he trailed off into a silence that hung for a few seconds.

"…No nonsense with ya huh, yeah I kinda got that feel," Surge shook his head, before breathing deeply and exhaling through his nose, "Look kid, I wanna apologise."

…Eh?

So shocked was I by the sudden statement me feet came to a stop and I gaped at the huge blonde gym leader, "You…want to apologize?" I asked, my mouth hanging low.

Surge…wanted to apologise to me? What?!

"Yeah, see, it took me a lil while to calm down," Surge admitted, "A whole day actually, that was how pissed off ya made me when we met. Ya hit a few sore spots for me."

"The tiny dick insults?" I asked in disbelief.

I won't lie, that was half just to goad him and the other half to cover up a bit of my own insecurity. Surge looked like an absolute beast and he was trying to flirt with Hilda while calling me a 'baby'.

That actually made Surge scoff, "No way, I'm not that pathetic kid even if I did show ya' a pretty uncool side of mine," he refuted, before shaking his head, "Look, what it was doesn't really matter, what is, is that I acted like a complete idiot over some trash talking from a kid and acted completely immature and raked ya' across the coals in our battle no mercy as if ya' were a veteran. Ain't no excuse that for that, but I wanna make up for it a little bit, so here."

Surge reached into one of the large pockets of his camo cargo pants and pulled out a case containing a yellow disk and a small yellow badge that looked almost like the sun.

The Thunder Badge.

"This is the Tunda' badge and the TM for my favourite attack, Tundabolt, ya earned these." Surge said and held them out for me to take.

I stared at the items in his hand for a moment, "I didn't beat you." I pointed out.

"Ya don' always need ta'. Gym leaders prerogative an' all that," Surge shook his head, "Sides', ya may as well have. I'm willin' to bet if ya started fresh against me with that monster bird ah yours now, we'd see a completely different battle."

I swirled my tongue around the inside of my mouth as I digested his answer, "Still haven't beat you yet, I don't want a pity badge," I replied, "Even if you feel bad about using your best pokemon or something against a kid for a gym battle, that's not for me mate."

What kind of loser would whine over not getting a badge because a gym leader decided to not go easy on them? Pity fights like that were how generations got weaker.

Surge scoffed, "I don't feel guilty about using my toughest pokemon against ya, that's frowned on against newbies but it ain't a rule, given a second chance I'd still use the same pokemon or others from my main team, why'd ya think I call all the kids babies? Cuz the higher ups wanna baby you kids nowadays," he said, a look of absolute disgust flashing in his eyes, "But you ain't no little wimpy baby like most of the new generation kid, I respect that."

I blinked.

….I didn't think we would agree on much. But, that I completely agree on. Babying trainers was a stupid thing to do when trainers were the biggest militant force in a region. If trainers were babied like that, what about in the future?

What about the champions of the future? The true protectors of regions. If trainers were babied, they'd never get to the point where they were as strong as the likes of Lance. Lance and such would end up retiring without anyone as strong or stronger defeating him and taking over.

Weaklings would become the strongest by default. And those same babied weaklings would be in charge of protecting the region from shit like Team Rocket or rampaging legendaries.

That was absolute stupidity.

There was a quote from back home I liked that fit that narrative.

'Hard times create strong men, strong men create good times, good times create weak men, and weak men create hard times.'

The strong were needed for good times above all else. Babying trainers that took the gym challenge to rise up through the League and one day try to attain the coveted position of Champion, would welcome the ruin of regions and result in mass amounts of death.

Only the strong had the ability to protect. From weaklings without the ability to enforce it, morals were just pretty words.

Surge made me curious now.

"Alright, I'll take it," I agreed, if a man with such beliefs thought I earned the badge, then I did, "On one condition. What did I say that really set you off."

Surge stared at me for a moment, before sighing in defeat and rubbing a hand through his spiky blonde hair, "…Alright fine," he relented, "It was a case of really bad timing. What do ya' know about me?" he asked.

"Not a lot," I shrugged, "You're an electric type specialist with a brutal reputation and some stuff about you being in a military of some sort."

"Bare basics then," Surge nodded, "Yeah, I was in a military. To be exact, I was part of an Ace Trainer squad that dealt with threats to the Kanto Region and more across the world. There's a lot of bad people out there, pirates, criminal organizations like Team Rocket, even one nasty group over in Orre we tangled with. Our job was simple, we dealt with them permanently, for the good of people everywhere."

Interesting. So basically like a military squad dedicated to wiping out what amounted to more or less terrorist organizations.

"Some idiot reporter got a hold of our files though and my name was at the top since I rose to the highest position in my squad as the Lieutenant," Surge continued, "At the same time my old man got sick and couldn't continue his duties as the Vermillion City Gym Leader, so I had to come back and take over. The gym has been passed down in my family for a good hundred years ya' see."

Ah, the picture was beginning to fill in now. I could already predict where this was going. After all, the media were the absolute worst of the worst no matter the world it seemed.

And I'd only dealt with them for the first time today. They would have been super obnoxious without Lance around.

"Those idiots wanting to push for us to be softer on trainers and want to be more inclusive and other nonsense, used me as a scapegoat and had my name dragged through the mud by reporters, have been for over a year now," Surge scowled angrily, "Calls a' nepotism cuz I inherited the gym, news reports of my files that were stolen being leaked and people calling me a murderer for dealing with monsters in human skin to protect people. Even claims I built my body up with illegal drugs, in fact, there was an article in the paper that morning just before ya' challenged me about made up nonsense of drugs I used both on myself and my pokemon." as he finished, Surge's teeth ground together so hard in anger I could literally hear them grinding against one another.

"Ah…" I trailed off myself, realisation striking me, "And then I used it as an insult."

"Yeah…." Surge nodded, trailing off himself, before promptly shrugging, "Not that it's an excuse, I was still an idiot, just the frustration boiled over in the end at that time. I just wanted to say I'm sorry for taking it out on ya'."

"Apology accepted," I nodded instantly, "And I'm sorry too, I didn't actually mean any of that. I was just pissed off because you called me a baby and were trying to flirt with Hilda right in front of me."

I can totally understand where he's coming from. The work I put in every Arceus damned day.

Even with Blissey's help to heal, it doesn't change what I do. I break myself and break myself.

No, we, me and my pokemon both. We break ourselves and break ourselves four hours on end, pushing ourselves to our very limits day in, day out. Three times a day.

Morning, Noon and Night.

If some bastards started raking my and my pokemons names through the coals, because it wasn't just Surge here that was getting the insult, it was his pokemon too. I would be beyond livid. If these people lied and slandered me and my pokemon, demeaned their effort, threw allegations of drug abuse and cheating.

I'd kill them.

To demean and insult the effort and pride of my try hard birbs. To mock the determination of Raticate who just wanted to please me. To degrade the will of Charizard who was day by day overcoming the shame of weakness Cross had thrust upon him. To muddy the efforts of my graceful and beautiful Milotic. To dirty the name of Bellossom and Victreebel's joyful contributions. To look down upon Golem who tried his best and cried tears of shame over losing once and not winning for me.

I could never let that go.

They would have to die. No, worse. I'd fuck their wives, I'd fuck their daughters. I'd take everything they owned and beat them to death with my bare hands, and only after I'd taken everything they loved could I be satisfied with my revenge.

just thinking of such a thing was making my blood boil.

Before I even realised it, my hands were clenching into fists, nails would have been digging into my palms hard enough to draw blood-

"Togepri?"

If not for Togepi's confused chirp as my hand positioned changed and jostled the little newborn.

That was enough to pour could water over the smouldering blazing rage beginning to build.

"Yeah, my bad about that kid, really, thanks and I'm really sorry." Surge gave me an awkward smile.

He wasn't a bad guy at all in the end.

In fact, I was bigger cunt than him.

And…I'd forgotten something. I'd forgotten something important along the way since I came to this world. I was so focused on money, fame, power, women and more…that the most important thing of all had completely slipped from my mind.

We all live in a pokemon world.

How could I have forgotten? How could I have forgotten something that had meant so much to me? The lessons I'd learned from it.

The power that was inside.

One of the greatest lessons, and one of the greatest powers within taught to me by pokemon, was the strength of character.

To continue on even when things were hard, to never give up even after colossal failure. To always strive for what your dreams, and never to overlook people and their struggles.

I've been so selfish and petty. Smothered by my own greed and desire.