15. Battle
Ethan frowned and looked over at Kris. Even he had to admit to Kris being an amazing trainer and wasn't completely convinced he could beat her. He was just glad she tended to put more focus on becoming a professor than being a trainer.
Robert quickly walked over to Kris ignoring the other two. "Kris! Where have you been all day? I've been bored out of my mind with no one to talk to today." Kris gave a rare genuine smile when she saw Robert. Joel couldn't help but twitch as he thought, 'no one to talk to. Then what am I'. Ethan looked angry that he seemed to be getting ignored. "oi, random bystanders should stay to the side when the real trainers are talking."
"So Kris did you find out anything about the things I asked you last time."
"That's where I have been all morning, you gave me a lot to think about yesterday. If I wasn't worried about a certain someone causing trouble I'd still be in my room."
"Really, did you find out about the…." Ethan stood there like an idiot with his face starting to cramp up. at least he could tolerate Kris ignoring him as she did it often and he felt she is on the same level as himself. What the hell was this country farm boy's problem. He just completely ignored him like his words were nothing but farts, no at least people complain about farts, but he didn't even react at all. Does that mean his words are worth less than farts? The more Ethan thought the more his face cramped up and the angrier he got.
Joel couldn't help but grin seeing Ethan like that. The moment they met they had been at each other. Joel had tried ignoring Ethen, but he was only 10 after all and couldn't help being provoked. Joel however knew for a fact that Robert really did treat Ethan's words as less than a fart.
"Hey! I'm talking to you! How dare you ignore me!" Eventually, Ethan couldn't hold back and yelled out at Robert while pointing at him. This naturally drew the attention of the crowd who looked over to see Ethan pointing at Kris and some random kid. Most of the crowd was surprised to see Kris talking to someone.
More than a few had tried getting close to the "big 4" as they called them. Richard and Joel were the easiest to get close to. Most were still a little intimidated by Joel's background so while he was easy to talk to most were still overly polite. Kris and Ethan however were hard to approach, especially Kris. While Ethan was arrogant and had an elitist attitude at least he would still talk to you. Kris would simply ignore most people who tried to talk to her and would often simply avoid people.
Naturally, these people that thought of making connections were jealous when they saw him and Kris getting along so well. Ethan at this point was almost shivering in anger. Not only did Kris and Robert continue to completely ignore him, but even the crowd also seemed more focused on them now. Just before he could completely blow his top a commanding voice was heard over some speakers in the room.
"Alright, it's time to open up the third floor. I'm sure more than a few of you have been bored the last three days. I can guarantee that is about to change. I won't bother explaining as you will all understand when the doors open." After the voice faded one of the two inspectors next to the big double doors went to the keypad. After typing in a code the doors rumbled open.
After the doors opened all the way the inspectors ushered in all the kids. Ethan snorted and headed in with a huff. Robert continued to treat him as air as he looked at Kris and Joel, "well, shall we head in." Joel looked at Robert with a grin, "damn, you really are the best when it comes to driving people mad." Joel then moved to Roberts side and all three walked in together.
While walking Kris couldn't help giving Robert a Mental thumbs up. she appeared to be ignoring Ethan but she was paying attention to him. As she thought of the look he had on his face even she couldn't help grinning. Ethan was always causing some mess she would have to clean up and finally felt like she got back at him a little.
They were part of the last kids to enter and all three went a little wide-eyed at what they saw. It was a huge room that looked like a stadium, complete with stands to sit and all. This was no doubt somewhere to have pokemon battles.
Robert was almost giddy with excitement, unable to contain himself he quickly ran to the battlefield and called out, "I'll be first to battle, whoever wants to battle can come up. I'll stay here until my Pokémon are tired." Joel could only give a wry smile. With the way Robert said that, it sounded like it would take a lot of them to beat him and he wanted to play king of the hill. Indeed, a lot of young trainers glared at Robert after he spoke.
They were already jealous at how well he got along with Kris and now he was trying to show off. Kris herself looked a little nervous for Robert, worried her new friend would get himself hurt. Joel saw her look and comforted her, "you don't need to be worried about him. I'm pretty curious how many it will take to force him out." Kris looked over at Joel in surprise, "is he that good. From what he told me he came from a remote farm and doesn't have much experience in battles."
"You are right, truth is I've only known him a few days more than you. We got along really well and talked about a lot of things. From what I can tell the only advantage the "big 4" have over him is just that, experience." Kris frowned a little listening to Joel, "that doesn't make sense, how could someone like that just pop out from some random farm." Joel's grin widened as Kris spoke, "then you tell me, does he seem like some random farm boy."
Kris was shocked at the flimsy response. The more she thought about it though the more she started to connect the dots. No normal farm boy would be able to be so oblivious to the backgrounds they had. Especially Joel's. while being someone recommended by a regional professor sounded impressive it was nothing compared to the behemoth that was the Junsar family. The world was just lucky they were so focused on maintaining order.
Next was his ridiculous knowledge base of Pokémon. Even she, who was taught by a regional professor, felt a little inferior. Kris couldn't help but look at Robert with a renewed light. There was no way he was just a normal farm boy. Joel noticed the originally confused look on Kris's face turn to shock then excitement. "Seems you noticed it too. When I first met him, I just thought he was a bit ignorant. I can now say for sure that is nowhere near the case. Look they finally decided who will fight him. Let's get a seat to watch."
Kris came to her senses and noticed the crowd had stopped arguing and someone was walking to the other side of the arena. Kris quickly followed Joel to the stands. What was originally going to be another annoying session of babysitting for her was now a little exciting.