Chapter 018

Alex woke up in the middle of a simple room with two beds. He was lying down on one, and he could see Joseph in the other.

He recalled the events before he fell asleep. They sneaked out to see the Crobat, but were unfortunate to end up seeing it way closer than needed. They got caught up in the fight, and a bunch of lives that force you to sleep, like Hypnosis, Sleep Powder and Yawn was thrown in their general direction. He didn't know what happened after he fell asleep, but considering he and Joseph were relatively unharmed, the Crobat should have been subdued.

He decided against going out, and waited for someone to enter.

Soon, Roger entered, and he seemed to be having an intense discussion on his phone. He put down the phone as he entered and looked at me.

"Ah, you are awake! How are you feeling? Here, drink some water. You need to flush out the Sleep Powder from your system" he said, handing Alex a bottle of water.

"What happened after we fell asleep?" questioned Alex, taking a sip of the water.

"First things first. What in gods name were you doing outside? Did I not tell you to go back to your room? I didn't know your room was in the middle of the park up a tree!" he said, looking cross.

"We are sorry" Alex said, hanging his head. Roger had a soft spot for apologies, and would forgive anyone who gave a pitiful apology.

"Not this time young man! Do you know how dangerous that was? How close that final Air Cutter was to getting you? You had a low chance of survival if you were really hit back then" he said angrily.

"We just wanted to see Crobat. We didn't think you would choose the park as the battlefield" said Alex weakly.

"And where else do you think we would ambush it? Hiding in concrete buildings and jumping out in ambush as soon as the Crobat passed by? No! We had to choose an open space with plenty of sunlight! And the park was the only place!" said Roger.

"What happened finally?" questioned Alex.

"Well, I scattered us with shadow ball. You started chucking stones at it. Then, running out of stones, Joseph chucked the sky-blue Pokeball that belonged to his parents at it. And.... the Crobat was caught?" he said with a mixture of disbelief and confusion.

"Joseph caught the Crobat? Wow! I am so jealous! Damn! We were talking yesterday about our first Pokemon and today he already caught his! Wow!" yelled Alex in excitement.

"Well... that is how it seems" said Roger.

"But can he keep it? I heard the Crobat was going to the Fuchsia gym or something right?" questioned Alex.

"Can I keep it?" questioned Joseph, who had been woken up by Alex's yell.

"Well, it's complicated," said Roger.

"How so? The Pokeball is registered to my parents. I threw the ball at Crobat. Since it is captured doesn't it belong to me?" questioned Joseph.

The Pokeballs would be registered to the trainer's name when purchased or acquired in other ways. Hence, you can't just use a random Pokeball for your Pokemon. Only if the registration of the Pokeball is in your name could you legally claim the Pokemon inside is yours. Joseph's parents won the Pokeball in a contest and it was registered in his mother's name. With her dead, her son owned the Pokeball.

Also according to the law, the person throwing the Pokeball at wild Pokemon was its trainer.

Joseph believed that since he was both the owner of the Pokeball and was the one who threw it, he should be the trainer of Crobat.

But Alex knew it wouldn't be so simple. First of all, Joseph wasn't a trainer. So the trainer's law probably wouldn't hold up for him. Second, the Crobat was obviously insanely talented. It took on a Pidgeot and a Fearow, both of which were at a higher level than it. It then tanked the Solar Beam of Vileplume which was at a much higher level than it, took 3 Psychic attacks head-on and was still fine.

Hence, this Crobat was very valuable. It was highly unlikely that those who wanted it were going to let a small kid be its trainer.

"First of all, you are not yet 10. So you can't legally own Pokemon" said Roger.

"You can keep it for me until then! The laws allow someone younger who subdued a Pokemon to leave it with an older trainer until they come of age" said Joseph.

"And what makes you think I can keep the Crobat in line? Didn't you see how badly it was beating my Pokemon?" questioned Roger.