Pokemon Fan Fiction / Pokemon Fan Fiction ❯ The Satire ❯ Bruno's Journey ( Chapter 1 )

The Satire

Pokemon

Richard Green

Chapter I

Bruno's journey

Winter 2037

Bruno stepped off one of the many elevated train station platforms of the city of Viridian and resumed his passage towards the Pokemon League Headquarters, this time using just the powers of his body instead of those possessed by a human invention of metal and plastic. The degree to which the air temperature had fallen and the shortness of the amount of time since he last stood in the open air like this combined to surprise him to an unexpected degree. Maybe he was used to the artificial heat of the train. However he was uncertain that such a thing existed. Was there some device similar to an air condition in a train but one that created hot air inside instead of sucking cold air from outside? He was no engineer and remained none the wiser for considering the likelihood of such a device's existence.

Time. He checked his watch. He had no reason to mark any consideration of that mysterious, man made idea. Yet he allowed it to become a focal point in his life like so many of us do. Like many of us too he was at one moment chiding himself for it but at another telling himself he had no reason to get so concern over such a concern. After that he felt that he was twenty minutes walk away from both his geographic destination and whatever waited for him at that destination. He watched the smoke of his breath move out before him like a security guard putting himself in front of the person he was sworn to protect in case he had to take a bullet. This breath came from the coldness of the air instead of a long term smoking habit that he had just fuelled with a cigarette. He did not smoke in that way.

The heat from his destination, once he actually arrived, was not physical until he opened the big, ornate, wooden doors. Despite this he imagined he could feel that warmth now. A trick of memory and the chill he was actually feeling. The doors were like those of a church. Meant to intimidate but familiarity and the knowledge he work here in a high position blunted him to this effect. He walked in and memory of warmth became a physical reality. To get in was easy in theory and far from it in practice because the theory, not surprisingly, did not include swimming through a sea of tourists, security guards whom Bruno had to show his photo ID to and reporters. They completely blocked then steps leading up to the actual doors and a small amount of pavement that these steps ran up from.

Once inside the building Bruno paid no attention to his lavish surroundings. First he was transported through a non-literal tunnel leading from the exterior of the Pokemon League Headquarters to the reception of a large business office. This was certainly still the Elite Four's HQ even though he could almost see the tunnel itself however much it defiantly didn't exist. The receptionist rose to greet him. To the eyes of Bruno, often called "Self-obsessed" behind his back, the receptionist's name wasn't important enough to remember. Because of this he just said: "Hi" to her. Bruno's first name was remembered by all of course. As was his last, Cejeli, pronounced always with an Italian accent or pronounced wrongly. A security guard stopped him at the only entrance to the reception he hadn't walk through today.

"I need to see your pass sir."

Bruno seemed to stare at the guard from "On high" both in the look from his eyes and his physical height of six foot one.

"Don't you people know who I am by now? I've been through this outside already."

"I'm not permitted to know anyone sir. The ID please." This guard clearly wouldn't be fazed by anything and Bruno knew it without having to try this theory out. He therefore relented for the moment.

"Thank you sir. I'm sorry about the precautions but there was a riot whilst you were away so Lance hired us to only let people with ID's in. We're doing a mail check for bombs too. Lots of protesters tried to convince everyone to let them in under false business."

"I don't believe it. This is the most popular institute in this country. It wouldn't just go from that to riots outside and people sending us bombs through the post."

"This place's reputation has been going down for some time and that's not my opinion it's a fact."

"Would you dare give me your opinion, knowing who I am?"

"I don't just believe it's my right to give it to you but my duty as a Kantoian citizen. If you wish to hear it here it is: people think your not adhering to the old standards of the previous generations of the Elite Four. If they think you keep breaking the rules they'll keep challenging you. I guess that means riots."

"Lets get right down to it. Do you think we're not adhering to the original constitution?"

"Am I going to get in trouble if I tell the truth?"

"Is the truth so bad that it merits trouble?"

"You've got a very broad interpretation of the League constitution. That's all I'm going to say."

"Don't worry. That tells me more than you think."

Wherever Bruno walked now he continued to ignore his rich surroundings. He moved through the vast Pokemon stadium that made up half of the Pokemon League building's purpose. The other half was to hold the leisure facilities of a standard house, including bedrooms that were provided for the staff of the building to spend their early mornings,

evenings and nights in. They also served as offices to be used at the times not mentioned above so the Elite Four could govern the world of Pokemon. Once Pokemon where discovered on a small group of islands, amongst them Kanto, four of their original discoverers realised long before anyone else how vastly important Pokemon would become to the world. They realised that inevitably large corporations would claim owner ship of Pokemon on whatever grounds they could come up with so they could start selling Pokemon to people. The four foresaw this long before the corporations themselves did and also foresaw that such events most be prevented. They speedily moved to buy the islands in which they found native Pokemon themselves so they could declare it a country that could be owned by no other continent. They created a constitution that prevented, amongst other things, the official ownership of Pokemon by any one individual or group of individuals. They conceived of the idea of Pokemon battles and their official rules. They created the Pokemon laboratories and other purely Pokemon-related facilities. Finally they set up the Pokemon League Headquarters as the seat of justice for the island where the Pokemon's laws could be made and enforced. They called themselves the Elite Four and others, like the Gym Leaders, were sent to be their local representatives in the towns and cities of the islands. When they died they passed on their legacy to another four. Their ranking system was simple. There were four tiers called first, second, third and fourth with the first as the greatest. By now the current Elite Four in descending rank order are Lance, Bruno, Malcolm and Loleta. Bruno was the second supreme justice of the entire Pokemon world. He was used to the League's immodesty décor.

Malcolm did not look up from his laptop when Bruno entered Lance's office. He was more contented to deal with this machine than the race that spawned it. Lance stood immediately.

"It is customary to say hello to a person when he enters a room" Lance said sharply at Malcolm, not to Malcolm.

"Can't you see I'm working here?"

"And they say he's anti-social" Bruno said with sarcasm so casual it could only be born of long practice.

"We are the Elite Four. Of course we are anti-social."

Bruno banged his fist just next to Malcolm's shoulder. He looked up now.

"Ok. Hello. Can I get on with this now."

"I got a reaction out of him. It's a miracle," said Bruno with that same easy irony. He did not pause to reflect that most of his conversations with Malcolm quickly degenerated like this despite the trueness that such a reflection would possess.

"Must you always squabble like this? Your like children" Lance said. Malcolm's final contribution to the conversation for some time came now. It was a grunt.

"Force of habit. I apologise."

"So how was the trip?"

"The trip was fine. It's the reporters that bored the shit out of me. Where's Loleta?"

"She's still being bored to death. She'll be back within a couple of hours."

"Where she'll face security guards. I'd like to ask some questions about them if I may. What are they doing here? Why are they necessary? Why do they need to check who I am when every TV screen on this earth has my picture splashed all over it? Those kinds of questions."

"We have had riots here. One man lost his life. I hope you are not complaining about them. That sounds like what you are doing but trust me they are so necessary they go beyond the bounds of that word to where it no longer possess any meaning. In my eyes they are as important to keeping my staff healthy and happy as breathing in and out and my most important job is to keep my staff happy. They will stay here."

"Surely they have no need to verify my identity."

"Maybe I am over-cautious now. I will lessen the tightness of the security guard's grip later."

"Sir I'm sure that's true..."

Malcolm spoke up again for his usual purpose of annoying his fellow humans in general and Bruno in particular.

"Lance didn't realize being safe was such an affront to your greatness."

"You have no greatness nor a worthy reason to keep safe so maybe you don't understand my situation" Bruno replied, his voice flaring in a similar manner to his temper.

"No one has any human feelings except you right? Sorry I forgot. Maybe it was because I was to busy admiring your intellect." Malcolm laughed. As a direct result Bruno grabbed him by the collar and with the considerably greater weight and height he had over Malcolm he shoved him against a wall and pinned him there.

"Take it back or I swear the blackness of being un-alive will take back your body."

"Stop this. It was bad enough when you duelled with words but now you must do it with physical force too. We are the Elite Four. We are not school children," Lance said in the calm but authoritative voice he knew would always end a fight between Malcolm and Bruno. Such physical battles had taken place numerous times before.

"I apologise sir" Bruno said and he put Malcolm down. His victim coughed a few times then uttered his next words in a voice he fought to keep level: "You should apologise to me."

"No he should not." Lance's quickly interceded before Bruno's anger overtook his moral ideals again.

"You were very rude to him for no apparent reason. If any apology should be offered up at all it should be from both of you to each other."

"I'm sorry. That was uncalled for." Bruno's tone was humble. Malcolm just looked at him.

"Apologise" Lance ordered. Reluctantly Malcolm did so.

"See. You just need to be calm but firm. Now on to new business" Lance said. Malcolm resumed his silent study of his computer.

"What new business is there?"

"There is a man called Damien Nemo. He will fight us in three days time in the Pokemon League."

"I've heard of him. He beat every Pokemon League in the islands."

"Yes and now he comes to beat us. First he says he wants to see us. Get to know us before he gets to beat us."

"Isn't that the sort of thing that if I were to call it unusual I'd be a master of understatement?"

"Yes. I believe he wishes to do it for publicity reasons. He wishes to show that we respect him as a trainer to such a degree that we will do him the honour of meeting him before his Pokemon so much as lay a finger against ours. However I will point out to the press that he is within his legal rights to do so as is any other trainer on this planet. I will do this firstly because it is accurate and secondly because we do not put up with arrogant trainers here."

"Is that why you stopped Malcolm and I fighting?" Bruno said in jest.

"Yes" Lance said in seriousness.

"Tell me about his legal right to do this."

"It is in the constitution that any Pokemon trainer may talk to us at any time about any subject he wishes and we could do nothing about it. Hell he could bring a city full of friends here with him every day of his life, talk non-stop for hours about the weather and then leave again and we'd have to tolerate it. It is amazing how many laws are made just because they seem a good idea at the time."

"Yet we worship the constitution to such a degree that if you were not a member of the Elite Four I could arrest you for treason at this time."

"Unfortunately both the constitution and tradition say we must obey the constitution therefore this will happen."

"Perhaps our dislike and therefore failure to act on the rules has angered the people to such an extent that they feel they must protest in this violent manor we have seen so much off in recent times" Malcolm suggested.

"Its undeniable that you know how much I hate agreeing with Malcolm however I make it a point to occasionally do so anyway if he's correct. You have no choice but to admit, if you intend to be honest, that we have used loopholes within our own laws to prevent trainers we detest from being able to perform in official Pokemon conflicts. Now certain

members of society may choose to see that as stretching the law almost to the point where it is in broken. This would

naturally run contrary to their own set of moral standards and may even cause them to resent us because they believe we are fluting our power but ignoring our duty. Then we proceed to prevent legal action by sighting examples from the constitution that would seem to support us and jointly claiming we are Elites and beyond reach of the law. We constantly use the constitution's immunity clause to claim we cannot be charged with breaking the constitution's other declarations," Bruno said. In a pattern of behaviour familiar to all three people in the room Malcolm had fallen silent once more.

"That is one way to look at it and if you had used the exact phrases I would have to indicate this opinion you have just given me then I would have agreed with you. However there are interpretations of the constitution you have failed to highlight. Let us take the case of Tes Wins. Now we are all in agreement I am sure and therefore will not ask that she includes a passionate disbelief of tradition in her personal code of ethics. I am equally sure that you are all aware of the importance of tradition to the Elite Fours of the past and present. If she had won a battle against us and become Pokemon Champion then she would immediately dispense of the entirety of our list of traditions. To prevent this we sighted a technicality in our official judicial system based on our constitution in order to disqualify her from a match against us. Now you could certainly put forward a coherent and persuasive argument that suggests our acts where unlawful. However you could argue equally plausibly that the law was created in order to prevent her from winning anyway so we were in fact attempting to enforce the official league rules not break them. I would use just such an argument to explain our actions because I believe in that interpretation of the law. I can therefore easily claim that I was morally justified in disqualifying her."

"Perhaps this is not in fact the time to discuss this despite the fact that I heralded the discussion. I wish to continue this important and fascinating debate later. For now please tell me more about the particular situation that requires our attention at this time."

"Well the precise time of this thing's happening will be at four o'clock this afternoon. In approximately three and a half hours. I tell you early because I wish for you to see him not because I have ordered it but because you are willing to do it without argument. We are the Elite Four and it is our sworn duty to give every Pokemon trainer of this world great curtsy. Malcolm and Loleta have already agreed to this and they will go first. What I am asking is will you speak to him graciously and without complaint when the time comes?" Lance asked.

"If you can actually manage that" Malcolm said. Bruno turned to him with a mixture of madness and anger in his eyes, dancing like a flame. In haste Lance blocked him with his arm and the eyes returned to normal.

"Shut up" he said to Malcolm then resumed his study of Bruno.

"I serve at the pleasure and command of the head of the Elite Four" Bruno said.

"Trust me that is a very good thing."