Doctor Doom entered the Pokecenter and noted that he was not alone in the entrance. A man with red hair and a long black cloak was currently talking to Nurse Joy in an animated fashion. He wore a smile on his face as he gently patted the Joy’s arm in an affectionate manner which caused a blush to rise to the nurse’s face.
Doom walked forward, the noise from his iron boots alerted the man that he was no longer alone with Joy.
The man turned around and gave Doom a friendly smile before turning back to Joy. “It seems you have a customer. Contact me if you get any information, thank you for your time.” The man’s voice was light and friendly but there was something layered deep within it that Doom caught. The man in front of him had tremendous strength and an uncanny amount of willpower.
Doom’s eyes narrowed. This man was a threat. Doom liked threats; it made it all the more satisfying to crush those that could actually fight back in some capacity unlike that worm Reed Richards.
Joy smiled at the man. “O-of course, if I find out anything I’ll contact you sir,” Joy said as she fought off another blush as best as she could.
The man nodded before turning around to face Doom. Their eyes met and instantly the man facing Doom narrowed his eyes. He could sense part of the danger Doom represented. If he could sense it all it would have made him run screaming in terror. After a moment he spoke. “Hello. I haven’t seen you around before. My name is Lance; I am the Pokémon League Champion.” Lance offered his right hand to shake.
Doom was a master of politics, actually he was a master of everything but that’s beside the point, and knew how this game was played. He reached out his hand and shared a brief handshake with Lance. “I am Doctor Victor Von Doom. A pleasure.”
Lance looked at Doom’s belt and noticed the Pokeballs there. “Are you taking the Pokémon League challenge, then?”
“Indeed I am. I was just about to take care of a few loose ends before challenging the gym leader of this city.”
Lance’s eyes lit up at this. “It isn’t often that people challenge Misty these days. She has grown into quite a beautiful woman and an even more formidable trainer. It would be unwise to underestimate her,” Lance said earnestly.
Doom’s mind was racing. It was true that he did not think much of the orange haired woman, but the fact that Lance deduced that from a single comment was impressive. He would have to do research on this man before long. Doom was very interesting in Lance, something that Lance probably wouldn’t like very much if he knew just what that entailed.
Doom left his thoughts for the moment and responded to Lance’s advice. “I will be sure to take that into consideration.”
Lance nodded his head. “Well I’ve got to be off. I am just in town for the hour to investigate some Team Rocket activity. Apparently there have been a lot of shakeups in the hierarchy lately and it falls to me as the strongest trainer of the region to investigate such matters.” Lance let out a sigh. “I miss the days where I sat around all day waiting for young hopefuls to be crushed by my awesome might. Those were the days,” Lance said wistfully.
Doom raised an eyebrow at that. Perhaps this man was closer to a kindred spirit than he had previously thought.
Lance cracked a boyish smile. “Sorry, I tend to be a chatterbox sometimes. The habits of old age I suppose. Keep out of trouble now, Dr. Doom,” Lance said with a predatory look in his eye. In the blink of an eye the look was gone and Lance was already moving past Doom. Dooms heard the door behind him open and close as he processed the brief interaction he just had with the Pokémon League Champion.
Doom suddenly let out a delighted cackle. The fact that Doom now knew for certain that there were men out there like Lance was news for celebration. When this world fell to Doom’s majesty it would only be after Doom crushed their greatest hope, their champion. Marvelous.