Benji was born on a small island far offshore of Toro by the name of Isola di Uve Sangue. The island was filled with open gang warfare from what were effectively rival mafias. As his father had died when Benji was only two, it left him with his mother in severe debt. The debt collectors caught up to them when Benji was three, and nearly killed them both. It was only the intervention of Benji's grandfather who managed to save them, although Benji's mother died a few days later of her wounds. Benji's grandfather trained Benji relentlessly... and harshly. Whenever Benji disappointed him, he would be beaten. When Benji was 12, he tried to run away from home. When Benji's grandfather caught him a few weeks later, he had his Charizard bite Benji's back and breath fire, scarring his back permanently. Benji's grandfather died when Benji was 17, from severe health issues that were caused by a combination of smoking and drinking. Benji lived with his grandmother, his last remaining family member, for three years before saving up enough money to bribe a sailor into allowing him passage on a ship to the island of Toro. His only relics of his past being his blue bandana made by his grandmother and a charmander, the son of his grandfather's black charizard.
Upon arriving to Toro, Benji was amazed. This island was much nicer, friendly, and even more advanced than his old home. As he wandered, getting used to his new home, he came across a curious half-built town. Upon investigating, he found a man working to bring cobblestone out of a mineshaft. Benji talked to the man, finding out that the town, called Viridis, was carving out their underground to make more housing, unique to Viridis. This was to be called “Lower Viridis”. Benji offered to help, and so got his first job transporting cobblestone and dirt to Cobalt for shipping. When Lower Viridis was complete, Benji moved into one of the apartments above the shop stalls, planning on buying one of the stalls and creating a shop. However, when Aeiden Bishop took control of Viridis, he bulldozed the apartment block. Benji, now without a home, wandered for a while before Aeiden contacted him about a special opportunity. Aeiden asked Benji to be the Political Leader of the newly formed Viridis Council, along with Rolan Thunder and -insert name-. Benji accepted, and built the new town hall alongside Rolan. However, -insert name- vanished shortly after the Council was formed, and Rolan lasted only a year before vanishing as well. Now alone, Benji assumed mayorship of Viridis.
Strange things began to occur after Benji assumed mayorship. Ghosts began to appear, and Team Noir was more active than ever, led by a mysterious “Mr X”. Eventually, the Premier was kidnapped, and Benji was on the team sent to recover her. After a series of battles, the crazy being known as Shadow X appeared and defeated the strongest battlers on the team, before blasting Benji and several others with a supercharged Shadow Ball.
After that, Benji isolated himself to recover and focus solely on Viridis. This went on for several years, while Benji organized everything in Viridis and slowly destabilized from lack of interaction with others. He eventually left Viridis, to find that Shadow X had been revealed as Xander Blaze, and was driven out of Toro. He also found that most of his friends had vanished, moving away from Toro. Alone, he threw himself into his work, barely stopping to eat and hardly ever sleeping. The stress continued to build as he slowly became more and more isolated. And then, Reaper Z appeared.
When Reaper Z appeared, Benji was torn between hatred and fear. This villain was more cruel, more vicious, and more active than Shadow X had ever been. Benji pushed his team through intense training to make himself strong enough to defend his town, and what few friends he had. At the same time, he met a new friend, Thomas Bryant, at the hospital. Although this kept Benji stable, the kidnapping of Maggie LeGrand, followed by the kidnapping of Donna Ross (then Donna Bishop) by Guias Blackwood pushed him over the edge he had been petering over. He had a heart attack, and found to his dismay that the only one who visited him was Tom, who had actually left him behind during the search when the heart attack occurred. Reaper Z eventually… left or something, Benji doesn't know.
After the fall of Z, lots of stuff happened, such as the short-lived tale of the Black Knight and Madame Y, which he was barely involved in. Etc etc, can't remember much about this period of time.
And then there was Doctor Q. Although Benji initially didn't care much about Q, his opinions changed when Q attacked Viridis and destroyed some of the farmland. From that point, Benji decided to do his best to crush Q and his forces. He helped capture two Angels, was personally responsible for finishing off two more Angels, and single-handedly slew the Great Beast known as Behemoth. During the grand finale, he helped slay Zeneth and was instrumental in destroying the Shade of Shadow X. He helped fight Q, forming bizarrely colored eyes on his palms that he could use pixelmon attacks from. He chose to accept the gift of healing, and was healed into far better condition than he had been in for decades.
