126 Chapter 126

Luckily for us, the Pokemon Centre's tended to come equipped with rather large battlefields for trainers to have practice or even serious battles at.

And the Viridian City Pokemon Centre, was quite a large one, much larger than the average Pokemon Centre, and as such, the battlefield reflected that.

Honestly, it would have probably looked quite odd to any passerbys as we literally walked around the side of the large Pokemon Centre, Lance and myself in the lead, and being trailed behind by a waddling…pod of paparazzi.

And the barely contained excitement that practically vibrated off of each and every single one of them…was kind of weird.

I'm not gonna lie.

I at first likened Champion's to basically the greatest athletes in the world of the most popular sport.

But, this went beyond that.

I'm not even sure how to describe it, it wasn't even hero worship, it was beyond it as well.

It was almost…cult like actually.

Kind of freaky if I'm being honest.

And not a little bit intimidating. What kind of power and strength inspires such zealotry I wonder?

'Doesn't matter.' I shook my head, putting it out of mind. If I let something like that psyche me out from the very beginning, I had zero chance and had already lost the battle.

Moments later, we were in place, both Lance and myself on opposite sides of the plain ground battlefield outside the back of the Pokemon Centre while the reporters all lined up along the doors of the Pokemon Centre leading out to the battlefield, far enough away that they shouldn't get caught up in the battle, but definitely close enough to get some good up close shots of the battle.

"Jord, may I make a-" Lance began to call over, but before he could finish whatever it was he was going to say, the doors of the Pokemon Centre slid open.

Out stepped a bevy of people. First was Nurse Joy, followed surprisingly by familiar, huge stockily built blonde man, a well dressed man with slicked back black hair dressed in an expensive and dapper black suit, two men in lab coats, one an older gentleman with short greying hair, the other younger with short brown, somewhat spiky hair and wearing rectangular glasses.

The last ones to step through was a beautiful brunette woman dressed in a pink cardigan, and a curvy teenage girl a few years older than me with long reddish brown hair set in a long braided ponytail and bright green eyes dressed in a white uniform of some sort.

…What the fuck?

Nurse Joy, Surge, Giovanni, Professor Samuel Oak, Delia Ketchum, and if I'm not wrong, the professor guy from Journeys and his daughter that was the pal of that twat Goh…right?

Understanding dawned on quite a few of their faces almost immediately, and Nurse Joy outright palmed her face.

"Jord…really?" she groaned aloud.

At her side, Professor Oak rolled his eyes, "Quick as always aren't you Lance?" he mused with a chuckle.

My eyes met those of Surge's own. I expected him to growl at me, maybe glare or something. But instead he just frowned, and gave me a single nod.

…Way more courteous than I was expecting from him the next time we met, odd.

While I'd usually be more interested in Delia or the other girl, Chloe if I remember right, her father being Professor Cerise, instead I found my attention drawn to the black suit wearing man and strongest gym leader in all of Kanto.

And also the secret leader of Team Rocket.

His thin, finely shaven eyebrows raised lightly when he noted me looking at him. I wasn't sure what I was expecting from Giovanni, but it was not for him to smile at me and dip his head in acknowledgement, respectfully so.

Fishy as fuck bro.

"Believe it or not Professor, but it was young Jord that challenged me, he's quite the bold one," Lance laughed, waving the older man off, "And I cannot say I'm not curious myself to see what he is capable of."

"Bold huh…that's an understatement." Surge snorted, crossing his huge arms over his barrel like chest.

That was almost a compliment.

Did I fall into the mirror world back in the Grandpa Canyon and not realise it? Did that effect even reach this far from Kalos?

I'm clearly in bizarro world.

"He'd need to be if that video of him going around on the net is anything to go by," Professor Cerise agreed, "I'm baffled at how a person could become so strong physically, but I'm much more interested in seeing how a trainer with such physicall prowess is regarded by his pokemon, especially the more prideful and violent ones, like that rather odd Dragonite and Gyarados we saw in the footage."

"I'm actually quite interested in that Dragonite myself," Lance nodded in agreement, "Though, right now, I'd prefer to see that Aerodactyl in action. What do you say Jord, will you use it in our battle?"

Eh?

I actually wasn't planning on using Aerodactyl. He was already all healed up and battle ready again, but beyond the one training session I've hardly worked with him at all.

I was planning on fielding Dragonite, Milotic, either Gyarados or Blastoise depending on the what I was up against, Charizard, Fearow and Pidgeot.

I don't doubt I'll lose this, but there's victory to be had even in losing and showing off the crazy and amazing pokemon I have just in looks and rarity is an avenue open to me to earn the awe of others.

"I can't promise he won't go for you," I warned, "He'll listen to me, I've made sure of that, but Aerodactyl still has a real attitude problem."

Aerodactyl had well learned, that he was much lower on the totem pole than he thought he was, and while it wasn't true, I'd even established myself as above him on it in fighting ability.

"I'd be shocked if a pokemon like that didn't," Lance merely chuckled in reply, "Of course I understand it is you giving me a handicap having to use a pokemon you haven't had any real time to train yet in a battle."

…What?

Wait.

I glanced at the reporters to see a few of them hurriedly jotting notes down at his words. Was…he giving me some clout there?

I mean, that's a pretty big boast, to be giving a champion a handicap.

"Fair enough, fine," I shrugged, "So how are we doing this then?" I asked.

"Splendid!" Lance clapped his hands together happily, creating an audible echoing sound, before pointing my way, "It's not only Aerodactyl I'm interested in, but all of your pokemon. How about, we make this a six versus six battle?"

Once more the reporters burst into an excited frenzied chatter. I'm not even sure why. At the chance to see Lance use more than one pokemon in a battle, or because Lance was deeming me worthy of such a thing?

No way I can take that many, I'm betting I can take two or three at most. And he most definitely knew that, hell he probably thought I wouldn't even be able to beat one of his and was just hyping me up in their eyes to give me more clout and butter me up.

Big mistake buddy, you're not dealing with your average trainer anymore. I have gone beyond the standard and reached into the throes of legends themselves.

I in fact know where I can go to capture a few legendary pokemon rather easily if I so desire. Like all I'd need to do is open the door send Golem in, close the door, have him explode, open the door and catch them. They were powerful as all hell, but they were glass cannons.

"Fine with me," I smirked at him and grabbed Aerodactyl's pokeball from my belt, "Better not hold back on me though, else you might have to hand that title over to me before the days out."

"It doesn't actually work like that I'm afraid," Lance gave a booming laugh of amusement, "But message well received."

(So I've begun recently uploading my Beyond Critical story up here as well, repurposing an old dead story to get around my max story limit. It's a multi-cross story with DxD, Ikki Tousen. Rosario Vampire, Uzaki-Chan Wants To Hang Out and Testament Of New Sister Devil. I'm looking to boost the traction it's getting on here, like comments, reviews, follows/favourites that kind of thing. If it gets enough, I'll upload another chapter of this tonight alongside one of Systematic Shinobi. Honestly I'll need to look into seeing about getting some of my other stories up here as well like, my Danmachi story - Is It Wrong To Devour Monsters In The Dungeon, Or my One Piece System story - Seaside System.)