19. Finely Arrived
Robert was again standing on the open deck looking out at the water, only unlike previously he didn't have a distant and boring look. Instead, his eyes had an excited gleam in his eyes as he followed a large shadow that was moving around in the water. After moving around in the water for a while the shadow suddenly headed straight towards Robert on the deck.
Seeing this Roberts smile only widened, soon the shadow reached the ship then with a huge splash of water, Gyrados erupted from the water. It then happily swam alongside the yacht. It had been a full week since the incident that Robert fell overboard. When Gyrados collapsed Robert had to be restrained from diving in after it.
Luckily Pokéball's float and Gyrados's was soon found. After being returned to the ball it was brought to the Pokénurse. Luckily even though Gyrados was injured and covered in blood it was simply exhausted. Gyrados did have some small injuries but with its size and vitality could almost be ignored. As for the blood, very little was from Gyrados…
Over the last week Robert, Joel and Kris had become a common sight together and had all become quite close. Robert spent the day after the incident in bedrest with someone always present. The reason someone needed to be there with him was that the little imp simply refused to actually rest.
The first time he snuck out they found him in the arena trying to start a battle. He was quickly dragged back and assigned a guard to make sure he stayed put. That didn't stop him from attempting to get out three more times before he gave up.
After being released from his forced bedrest he dragged Kris and Joel to the arena. The arena on the third floor is where the trio spent most of their time. Robert even had his rematch with Ethan and his Poliwhirl. This time Robert was much calmer. Ethan was much more attentive this time but he still lost to Roberts Eevee.
Robert also tried battling the other young trainers, but most were reluctant. After Robert announced that he had a third Pokémon at a lower level many become excited. When they saw his third Pokémon however they almost wet themselves. Not many knew the details of what happened that day the Carvanha and Sharpedo attacked so none of these young trainers besides Joel and Kris knew about Roberts Gyrados.
After a day of rest, Gyrados was fully recovered and was excited about its first battle. Unfortunately, a normal Gyrados is an intimidating sight as it is, Roberts Gyrados being half a size bigger made it all the worse. Not one dared to step forward and Robert had to return Gyrados.
Over the next five days, Robert spent most of his time in the arena battling. Most of his battles were with Joel, kris and even Ethan occasionally. He also had a couple of battles with Richard and his shiny Rhyhorn. He did battle a few of the braver young trainers a couple of times, but the battles were too easy for his Pokémon. He barely even needed to give commands.
This didn't mean that they were weak, just that Robert's Pokémon having broken past lv30 were far too strong. This doesn't mean Robert went unchallenged.
After its second battle with Eevee Poliwhirl pushed past its hard level block and become much stronger. Ethan also had a Dark Silver Aipom stuck at lv30, Kris had a Dark Silver Smoochum over lv30, Joel had his Gold shiny Growlithe at lv30 while Richard had his Dark Silver shiny Rhyhorn that was below lv30.
Most of Robert's battles were with Kris and Joel, especially the former. The original "Big 4" did also battle among each other often. After six days of competing with each other, those at lv30 broke through and Richard's Rhyhorn had reached lv30.
During this time Robert also let Gyrados out to swim in the ocean so it wasn't stuck in the ball the whole trip. However, unlike the inspectors Pokémon that just deterred wild Pokémon from attacking, Gyrados actively challenged them. One day Gyrados came back covered in wounds with half a Sharpedo in its mouth.
After Gyrados recovered Robert found that Gyrados had also broken past lv30. Today was a full week since Gyrados evolved and they were set to arrive at their destination, Cinnabar Island. On the opposite side of the island from the city was a camp, that was their destination. After arriving they would meet the Kanto applicants who are already waiting and then head for their final destination, the Junior league.
There were no battles allowed today so Robert let Gyrados out earlier today, who was more than happy with the arrangement. "I heard that even your Gyrados has broken past lv30 now." Robert looked behind him to see Kris approaching and smiled at her. "Hello there professor Linden, I'm not sure how the battle went but he came back with a Sharpedo for lunch. After he recovered, I had an inspector use their tool to check his level, now he's lv31."
Robert couldn't help grinning from ear to ear as he said this. Kris shot a glare when Robert called her Prof Linden. She had mentioned that when growing up there was a linden tree she liked to sit under, ever since then he had insisted on calling her that. She had tried to stop it to no avail, she wouldn't admit it but she kind of liked being called Professor. She just didn't get why she had to be named after a tree. "Sigh, now you have all three of your Pokémon past lv30. You really are a bit of a freak."
"Coming from you I'll take that as a compliment." Kris joined Robert and leaned on the railing, looking out at Gyrados swimming alongside the yacht. "Besides I'm sure lots of people would complain if they heard you complaining. After all, your focus isn't on battling but your Smoochum is the only Pokémon that defeated my Eevee."
"You say that, but my poor Smoochum always lost to your Vulpix." Robert grinned at her sulky retort. "I'm sure my advantage won't last long. Ethan and I are the only people I've seen that have more than one Pokémon. I just started my team a little earlier is all."
Robert then looked in the direction the yacht was heading in. he could already see the vague outline of an island in the distance. They had finally reached their destination. Soon they would meet their Kanto counterparts. Robert was incredibly excited to meet them and most of all more people to battle.
Before being on the ship he hadn't been in any battles with others on a similar level and age. After spending a few days battling everyone he could he found himself getting addicted to the feeling. Originally, he wanted to become a trainer so he could travel around and adventure.
More recently he had discovered that he was becoming more than a bit of a battle junky. The more he battled the better he got and the more challenging it was the more fun he had. Kris glanced at Robert and saw the shining look in his eyes.
Robert may have been inexperienced when he first started battling, most obvious in his first battle with Ethan. That quickly changed. He spent as much of his time battling whoever was willing. Unfortunately not many were, so he often dragged Joel and Kris there to be his battle partners.
She could tell that Robert was more than slightly excited about all the new potential opponents. Indeed, Robert was excited about the new opponents he would face but that wasn't all he was excited about.
After he met Kris and Ethan he started to wonder if he would meet anybody else. He was looking forward to potentially meeting Red and Blue. These two were amazingly not who he wanted to meet the most.
There were many nights that he still thought about the night the Miltank was taken. One night when he was lying in bed thinking about that night, it suddenly hit him. Ethan and Kris were here but there was someone from the Johto games that wasn't, Silver.
Silver was the most known rival from the Johto games that stole a Pokémon from Prof. Elm. Robert didn't think such a thing could happen in this world. Silver also wasn't on this ship so there seemed little hope to meet him if he existed.
There was something that not many knew about Silver. His hometown was Viridian city in Kanto, how he ended up in Johto wasn't known. Why Robert wanted to meet him however was because of his father. Silver was the son of Giovanni, leader of Team Rocket.
If Silver was there on that island, then perhaps in this world Silver wasn't abandoned by Giovanni. If that were the case, maybe through Silver Robert could find that person from Team Rocket.