บท 33: 9. The show ends

Robert stood there with the Pokéball in his hand looking seriously at his opponent. While Robert didn't doubt that he would win this battle, he didn't plan on underestimating his opponent. No matter how much of an idiot he seemed to be, he still qualified for the Junior League.

Robert quickly looked at Beedrill and couldn't help feeling a little disappointed. Only Dark silver talent. Robert thought since this kid's Beedrill evolved twice already it should be at least light Gold. While a Pokémon's talent could be slowly improved, every evolution was an opportunity to give it a big boost.

Robert then looked at all the other Pokémon and was even more disappointed. The taciturn lacky had a light silver Tyrogue. The kids with injured Pokémon were a light silver Teddiursa, light silver Elekid, male and female Nidoran that were both silver. Even the shiny Rhyhorn was dark silver. The only one that impressed him was the shiny Growlithe, it was gold.

Robert thought about it and realised that it wasn't that these Pokémon weren't unimpressive, his expectations were just way too high. After spending time with Eevee and Vulpix, two gold Pokémon. Then hearing from his sisters how talented some of the trainers and Pokémon are at the League. His view got a little skewed.

Silver Pokémon are already amazingly rare. If trained right these Pokémon can bring a trainer to the Experienced rank. Expecting to see gold Pokémon everywhere was too farfetched of him.

"Are you gonna send out you're Pokémon or are you too scared now that it's time to battle." Robert was woken up from his thoughts by the skinny kids nagging. Robert gave him a side glance, this kid was starting to get pretty annoying.

Robert didn't respond and just threw out his ball. After a flash of light, Vulpix appeared in front of everyone. Vulpix looked around a little nervous at first, this was her first time in front of a crowd after all. She spotted Robert standing behind her smiling in her direction and soon calmed down.

The skinny kid saw that Vulpix looked nervous and thought it was scared. This made him sneer even more and feel like victory was in the bag. He did notice that this Vulpix was a funny colour but didn't think much of it. his boss and that other kid had a Pokémon a funny colour as well so he didn't think it was a big deal.

Robert noticed his reaction to Vulpix, or lack of and was confused. Didn't he know about shiny Pokémon? As Robert gave a quick glance around, he noticed everyone else had the same reaction, no reaction. The two who reacted and looked shocked were the two who also had a shiny. Everyone else seemed to think of it as just having a funny colour, nothing more.

Robert then remembered his conversation with his dad about shiny Pokémon. Dennis had only heard of them and never seen one before then. If Dennis was like this when he was not low in the military, it made sense if most people had never even heard of such a thing and just thought they looked funny.

Robert pushed all these thoughts aside. Now wasn't the time to think of these things. "Alright, Vulpix it's your turn now like I promised. That Beedrill over there is your opponent." Vulpix immediately got excited and looked over at Beedrill. Vulpix had long left behind its fear of Beedrill and had been itching to find one for a good beating. Now there was a good volunteer. How could Vulpix not be excited?

Margret stepped forward to officiate the match. Soon everyone was ready, "Don't forget, the person who beat you was Harold." Robert looked at him weird after he said that. Were they really not reading from a script? Margret held her hand up. Seeing both trainers nod she swung her hand down

"Go Beedrill, poison jab"

"Move behind it with quick attack, then will-o-wisp"

Beedrill took off at Vulpix with its lance arms showing a purple glow. Normally Beedrill is faster than Vulpix, this Vulpix however, was a much higher level along with all the training it had done. Beedrill would have a hard time keeping up. After it got close, Vulpix disappeared from its vision. "Behind you!" hearing its trainer Beedrill turned just in time to see a blue ball of fire hit it. there wasn't much of an impact but it felt a burning pain sap its strength, the pain also flared up as time passed.

Harold's face didn't look good. That Vulpix was way too fast and now Beedrill was burned right off the bat. "Get some distance and use ember."

"Don't let it get away, use fury attack." Vulpix jumped back but Beedrill was right behind it, repeatedly stabbing its lances at Vulpix. "Use quick attack to get through its lances, then back away again." Vulpix couldn't get away from Beedrill but was dodging all of its swings with relative ease. After hearing Robert it easily shot past the lances and slammed into Beedrill's chest, pausing its movements. Vulpix then quickly and easily pulled away.

"Now keep your distance and hit it with ember. If Beedrill gets too close use a quick attack to move away." The rest of the battle went without suspense. Harold after much effort managed to get close to Vulpix once but it just zipped away with a quick attack. All the while being peppered by ember and suffering from burn. Soon Beedrill was on the ground unconscious and Vulpix looked quite pleased with itself.

The crowd and the other kids were rendered speechless. Didn't this battle seem a little anti-climactic? The crowd felt let down while the kids looked shocked. Most of the Pokémon that were defeated, were by this Beedrill. They knew it wasn't weak, so why did it look so helpless in the battle.

"The battle is over and Beedrill can no longer battle. Now return your Pokémon all of you and stop messing around outside the Pokémon centre." Harold was standing there dumbfounded but was snapped awake by Margret's words. "NO! he must have cheated somehow. There is no way I could have lost to this nobody. He must have done something."

Margret frowned at Harold's hysterical outburst. Even the crowd felt a little disdain for Harold hearing him not accepting the loss and looking for excuses. Even accusing the other party of cheating. How did he see it but no one else here saw it? "Harold", Harold's face lit up hearing this voice.

He turned around and looked at Richard, "boss you have to help me. This kid he-"

"Shut up!" Harold immediately shut up. Seeing the dark and dangerous look on Richard's face he quickly calmed down and lowered his head. Robert looked at this show with amusement, at least the clown was well trained.

Richard turned to Margret, "I'm sorry Mrs Chromium. We just wanted to challenge the other trainers admitted, we got too carried away. We will immediately head inside and stop causing trouble." Margret nodded, "That would be for the best."

Richard then quickly returned his Pokémon and went inside, his two goons doing the same. The other trainers also quickly returned their Pokémon, thanked Robert then rushed inside. The boy with the Growlithe came last, having also returned it to its Pokéball. "My name is Joel Junsar. Thanks a lot for helping out." Joel then stretched out his hand.

Robert shook his hand, "No worries, I'm sure you could have defeated that dimwit yourself. the rich kid was a lot tougher I bet, I just happened to bring someone rather scary with me." As he said that Robert glanced at Margret who only snorted. Poor Joel just stood there with an awkward smile.

Margret looked at Joel and said, "kid you look like the responsible sort. Take him into the Pokémon centre to find a room." She then looked at Robert, "I'll find you later. there is something else I want to take care of first." Without waiting for either to respond she marched off in the direction where the inspectors were, who had long tried to flee upon seeing Margret.