12. The fierce Margret
It was early morning and Robert was excitedly packing up the few things he got out for his stay. After racing downstairs, he realised that he was way too early. "At least I wasn't the only one who couldn't wait." Robert turned to see Joel walking over and stand next to him. "Yea, I basically packed up and raced down as soon as I woke up. I didn't even think to look at a clock."
"Hahahaha" Joel couldn't help but bend over in laughter. Robert's mouth twitched a little. "Oi, it's not that funny is it."
"At least I'm up early out of habit but you, haha. You didn't even check the time before you raced down here." Robert's face started twitching, "why don't we have a battle to pass the time, I'm sure we will have enough time for all my Pokémon to have a turn." Joel immediately jumped back. "that's not fair. You're trying to bully me with your numbers."
"Brats shouldn't make so much noise out in the middle of the Pokémon centre so early. Your disturbing everyone else." Both boys looked over to see a short older man glaring at them. Joel whispered to Robert, "that's the inspector in charge of those three that blocked the centre yesterday. I heard that after we went inside Mrs Chromium went and rounded up the inspectors of the kids involved and gave them all a sound beating. As the inspector in charge of the kids responsible he had his rewords halved and forced to handle all menial tasks for the rest of the journey."
Robert was surprised, Margret could so easily defeat so many inspectors at once. As for the punishment, to be honest he was a little disappointed. Joel grinned, seeming to know what Robert was thinking. "To be honest I wasn't very impressed with the punishment either, but I also heard that after she rounded them all up Margret singled him out, she said, and I quote 'if I had my way you would be stripped of your inspector position for allowing such a ridiculous farce to happen at all, never mind right outside a Pokémon centre'. After she said that, the guy tried arguing that it was only some kids battling. After that she flew into a rage, every time he opened his mouth, she only beat him more. Now not only are all his Pokémon injured, even he is as well."
Hearing all this Robert was pretty surprised. He didn't realise Margret was so fierce. As he looked closer at the inspector, he did notice a few cuts and bruises on him. He now knew why Margret was so late in coming to his room last night.
The man seemed to notice they were staring at him and grumpily snapped at them. "And what are you two staring at, if you have so much time then-"
"What are you doing wasting time in the lobby. Go get the boat ready. Why is he still so useless? Maybe he needs a bit more, educating?" the second the investigator heard this person, he went pale and stiff, unable to say another word. Although the owner of the voice said the second half as if mumbling to herself, it was still loud enough for everyone to hear. After the investigator heard the end he shuddered and power walked outside.
Robert grinned and turned to look. There he saw Margret walk over with the elevator doors just closing behind her. "Morning Mrs Margret, did you just say boat." Margret walked over and nodded at Joel before responding to Robert. "Yes a boat, all the Johto kids will travel by boat and meet up with the Kanto children. Then you will all be transported together to the Junior league."
"Eh, I thought we would just go over on your Skarmory." Margret glared at Robert, did he think she was a taxi. "No. the League is quite far and while my Skarmory could make it, it would put a strain on it. Skarmory are known as Pokémon not very good at long-distance flight and often strain themselves when they are made to do so. I have talked to the inspector in charge of your friend here and he will be in charge of you from now on. I look forward to seeing what you can do in the Junior League Robert." With that Margret turned and left, without even waiting for Robert to say goodbye.
Joel looked at Robert with a strange look on his face, "you don't seem to know who Mrs Chromium is."
"She told me she was an instructor at the Junior League."
"Well, technically you're not wrong." Joel kept the strange look on his face as he gazed at Robert like Some rare specimen. "Alright already stop giving me that weird look. Is she like a special instructor for advanced classes? Wait, Does the League even have advanced classes?"
"I don't know about the advanced classes, I don't know anything about the Junior league. No one does until they go. There is something or rather someone who is often mentioned alongside our Johto/Kanto Junior League. Margret Chromium." As Robert and Joel talked, they headed towards some chairs in the foyer.
"Margret Chromium is an amazing trainer of her generation. She specializes in steel types like the rest of her family but is stronger than any before her. Even among other Elite trainers, she is at the top. Some even say that she will even surpass the elite rank soon. The only trainer in Kanto or Johto to have publicly surpassed the Elite rank is champion Lance himself. Mrs Chromium is said to already be at least as strong as the Elite four if not more so. However, Mrs Chromium has little to no interest in the muddy waters of the union. Instead, she prefers to stay at the Junior League and look after it. because of this, her authority in the union itself is rather low. Within the Junior league however not many would dare to argue with her."
As Robert listened, he felt more and more shocked. While he had a feeling she was strong, even among other Elite trainers, he didn't realise it was so exaggerated. She sounded so fierce. "I've heard that because of certain matters there are several people unhappy with her at the top of the union however she also has a hobby of finding and raising promising trainers. Because a lot of these trainers then move on to have various positions in the union, those individuals are worried about the backlash if they try to do anything about her."
"This all sounds stupidly complicated." As Robert said this Joel nodded. "I agree. Unfortunately, I had to learn all these sorts of things growing up in my family."
"Well, all of that rubbish has nothing to do with us. I'm more interested in all the things we will be able to do when we finely get to the Junior League. Just imagine all the-." Robert suddenly paused mid-sentence and stared wide-eyed and slack-jawed at the person who just walked out of the elevator. He wore a red shirt, black three-quarter pants with red and white shoes. He had a cap that was black on the sides and yellow down the middle. He wore it backwards with a tuft of hair out front.
Robert recognised this person the second he saw him and his brain seemed to short circuit. Ethan.