Chapter 6 Bede
Hop snapped his fingers and let out an excited holler. "Yes!" he cried. "A Rookidee! Perfect! Corviknight is awesome!" he exclaimed. He walked over to pick up the ball and gave it a wide smile. Grookey bounced up his back and gave an "Ooh!" at the ball in Hop's hands.
"Welcome to the team, buddy," Hop said. He gave Grookey a reassuring pat on the back. "You did so well, Grookey! Now we've got Rookidee, Wooloo, you, and Growlithe!" He clipped the ball to the belt looped about his waist, and Grookey excitedly squeaked, bouncing from one shoulder of his to the other.
"I'm starved!" Hop declared to his little friend. "What say you about some curry, huh?" Grookey hopped to the ground and danced from foot to foot in excitement. "Alright, alright," Hop laughed, "let's do it then."
Setting up the tent was the worst part, but thankfully he had gotten better at it. The trip was taking him a lot longer than he thought it would initially. He supposed that challenging Gloria to race across dozens of miles to the next city probably wasn't his smartest choice yet. Maybe she'd listen to him asking for him to call it a draw… Next, he had to set up a campfire, and then finesse the pot overtop it.
"Now how did I do this before…" he mumbled.
After some hilarious failures, involving dropping the pot into the flames several times, Hop finally managed to get it set up. Thankfully, he was much better at the actual cooking, and it was just mere minutes before the large serving of curry was finished. Grookey greedily sniffed at the pot, but Hop scooped it up. "Fire's hot, dude," he chuckled, "don't get burned now, I don't have any burn heals at the moment."
He tossed out his other Pokemon. Wooloo quickly contented itself with some grass; Rookidee landed on Hop's shoulder and peered curiously into the pot. Growlithe began to chase its own tail almost immediately, barking and carrying on. Hop laid four bowls out to the right of his campfire and then scooped a bit of curry into each one. He got everyone's attention and was able to give each one their own serving.
Wooloo didn't seem all that interested, and Rookidee didn't eat much, but Growlithe and Grookey destroyed their portions… and then demolished the leftovers from the other two.
"Guess I don't have to throw any away at least," Hop shrugged. He opened the flap to his tent and entered it, calling his Pokemon to follow. "C'mon, you lot, let's rest for a while!"
Hop tucked himself into his sleeping bag. Its insides were cozy and warm thanks to a thick layer of wool and a fluffy pillow built into the fabric. Grookey bounded inside after him and settled into place on a part of the pillow Hop wasn't using. Rookidee perched on one of the tent's supporting poles, tucking its head into its feathers, and shutting its eyes. Growlithe simply curled up in a ball on the floor. Wooloo was the last to wander in, and she plopped down at Hop's side and fell asleep in mere seconds. Hop smiled warmly and touched his hand to her wool.
He and Wooloo had been through so much together. He loved that he finally was able to go on that adventure with her he had always dreamed of. There had been a time a few years back where, as he and Wooloo sat together analyzing Leon's matches on the DVR, Wooloo had abruptly ran off. It had been after Hop spent some time gushing over Leon's Charizard and she had done an adorable impression of it. When she had gone missing, he had searched high and low across the nearby towns for her exhaustively, fearing that he had run her off by praising Leon's Charizard too much and not paying her enough attention. Nighttime had been drawing near when he finally got her back from a Corviknight Cabbie that had been coming to take her home. Breathless and tired from the long day of searching, he had promised her he would take her all the way to the championships and hugged her tightly. They fell asleep on the ride back to Postwick in the Corviknight Cab.
He had every intention on keeping that promise.
Gloria smugly checked the time on her Rotom Phone. She had beat Hop by a longshot to Motostoke, it was almost unreal. She had never known him to be slow to anything before. She cracked a devious grin to herself. "I think champion's little brother might have overestimated himself for his first visit through the Wild Area," she mumbled to nobody in particular.
She had been hanging out in the Pokemon Center's café for a while, figuring Hop would show there once he arrived due to needing his team healed. She grew bored of waiting after a few hours though and went to exit only to bump nose-first into him. She rubbed her nose and uttered a nasally, "Hi, Hop."
"Hey, Gloria," he chuckled, shaking his head a little. "So! We're both here! At Motostoke!"
"Took you long enough," Gloria teased. She pushed past him and out the Pokemon Center.
"I got to heal my team real quick, but I'll be right back," Hop told her. "And then—be ready! I bet I've caught more than you since I took longer!"
"Ohh," Gloria said, "is that right? Well go heal 'em up, then."
She waited, and in just a few minutes Hop was back at her side. He whipped out his Pokedex and showed her the Pokemon he had caught. He still wanted his partners to rest, and that's why he didn't release his actual Pokemon, he reasoned. Gloria nodded, noting he had caught a Rookidee and Growlithe to add to his team.
"You and me are about even then, mate," Gloria shrugged. "I still got Sobble of course, then a Vulpix, Rookidee, and a Yamper."
"I almost had a Yamper!" Hop sighed. "Thing ran away though…"
"Hey, you two!"
Gloria and Hop circled to look behind them. They noted Sonia waving at them as she approached. "Congratulations on gettin' to Motostoke so quick," she said. "I almost forgot, I wanted to give somethin' to you two. It's a common League Card for Lee, could be helpful." She handed one to Gloria, who eagerly flipped the card back and forth to take in all its details.
"No thanks," Hop said, "I collect all of Lee's cards. I've got every common and rare one from since he joined the gym challenge!"
Leon is known far and wide for taking part in the Gym Challenge at the tender age of 10 years old—and even more so for claiming victory in the Champion Cup on his first attempt. Ever since that victory, he and his partner Charizard have remained unbeaten in both League and exhibition matches. He is called "the unbeatable Champion" and is a hero to many Trainers. He has but one weakness: a dismal sense of direction. But don't worry-wherever he ends up, he makes sure everyone has a champion time!
She snorted at the last sentence on the card's back. On the front, however, the card sported a much more forlorn-looking façade. Leon was sitting on a bench or chair, staring past the camera, with his elbows leaned against his knees. He looked almost tired. Famous people are strange, she thought.
The sound of heavy, beating wings drew her attention and she cackled wildly as Leon on his beloved Charizard landed behind Sonia. Sonia shouted in fear and ducked. "Why, no need to fret, little lady," Leon gloated, puffing out his chest. "Your Champion awaits."
Sonia whirled around and jabbed a finger in his direction. "You! You!"
"Me what?" Leon asked innocently. Charizard blew a small puff of smoke at her face.
She broke into laughter and waved the smoke from her face. "You are somethin' else, Lee!"
"You got that right," Leon reassured her teasingly. "So, little bro and…"
"Gloria," Gloria filled in for him with a deadpan expression.
"Right! So little bro and Gloria, you two know the basics I'm sure, but don't forget about items, alright?" He slid off the back of his Charizard finally and pulled a couple of trinkets from his pockets. One appeared to be a necklace with a beautiful, sapphire tear-drop shaped gem hanging from it. The other was a gleaming emerald seed. He gave the seed to Hop, and the necklace to Gloria. "Those power up Grass and Water-type moves respectively 'cause they make the Pokemon feel special. Different items do different things. Just remember they can't use stuff like potions, they don't really know how that works. Tried giving Charizard one once."
Charizard huffed and growled a little, averting its eyes.
"Yeah, that's one trip to the Pokemon Center I'll never forget either, buddy."
"Thanks Leon," Gloria giggled.
"Now, off to the Openin' Ceremony with you! Get registered! Then get registered at the hotel! Remember to sleep once in a while out and about, though, got it? Though, Hop, you look like you slept half the day away. And on your head," Leon teased, going to ruffle Hop's hair even further.
"I forgot a brush! And… hair gel…" Hop defended himself hotly and pushed Leon away, finger-brushing a few errant strands of hair straight.
"Alright, I'm off," Leon said before seeming to become aware of a growing crowd. "Right, right," he mumbled under his breath. He cleared his throat some, struck his signature pose, and shouted, "Good day, Motostoke! I'm afraid I've got to run for now, but make sure to visit the Openin' Ceremony tomorrow, and all of you have a champion time while you're at it!"
With that, Charizard scooped him up onto his shoulders, and they disappeared into the skies.
"Man, I really wanted his autograph!" Gloria heard someone from the crowd complain.
"Does your brother not know the meaning of incognito?" Gloria asked.
"What's he got to go incognito for? Look at all those fans!" Hop rebutted. "Must be great."
Gloria wanted to disagree but figured the resultant petty argument wouldn't be worth it. "Yeah, I suppose," she said instead. Sonia had already begun to walk away by the time they decided to finally enter the Motostoke Stadium, where they would register with their endorsements to be part of this season's gym challenge, and be featured in the Opening Ceremony the following day.
Upon entering, there was a lot to take in. There were quite a lot more gym challengers than Gloria had expected. Not a lot of them really stuck out to her, but she did take note of a few. The first was a dark-haired girl in almost entirely black leather and pink getup, followed by two severely over-dressed individuals in black and pink clothing to match hers. Except their faces were covered in paint, and their hair ranged from being bald to spiky and pink. They also were carrying gaudy instruments half the size of their bodies.
Another was a guy dressed in almost all pink and purple, with platinum blonde hair that sat upright atop his head. He was leaned against a sign, his eyes closed, one leg to the floor and the other at an angle with said sign. He looked absolutely ridiculous in every sense of the word, but perhaps he was trying to play a theme, she thought.
But the third? Nothing could top the third. A person was standing over two children, talking to them, except… obscuring his entire head was a massive Pokeball mask, with a ballcap chilling on the top. His clothes were a flat blue, long-sleeved T-shirt, and their pants were long jeans. At first, she thought he had paper-white skin, but as she drew a little nearer, she realized it was a white bodysuit beneath the clothing and mask! She reared back.
"Some of these people sure are a bit… thematic, aren't they," Gloria asked. When she got no response, she looked back to where Hop had been just a few minutes ago and realized he was long gone. He was standing at the helpdesk all the way at the back of the lobby of the stadium, waving at her.
"Gloria! Get a move on, would you?" he called teasingly.
She quickly followed him and registered with the desk. The man asked her for a number to represent her in the leagues. The numbers had no functional use; they were merely a convention from days of old, when the sportiest thing humans did was kick around a speckled ball. So there could be multiple gym challengers with the same number in one season. She settled on the number 229. It was a randomized number. She never liked the idea of doing anything clever with her number since it was rude to talk of what a person's league number meant anyway. It was, however, perfectly acceptable to ask what someone's league number was. She turned to Hop.
"So, what'd you pick?" she asked.
"Oh, 189," he responded quickly. "229, huh? I'll be sure to remember that! Anyway, now that we're all registered, maybe we should check out the competition, huh? Talk to some challengers?"
"Sure," Gloria shrugged. "Want to stick together for it?"
"Yeah, why not," Hop nodded. He gestured vaguely toward the same pink-clad challenger Gloria had noticed earlier. "Why not start with him? Not a huge crowd around him."
"Somethin' tells me there may be a reason for that," Gloria warned.
"Oh, rubbish, I'm sure he's fine," Hop smiled and began to lope over to the lonesome challenger. Gloria followed soon after, though she didn't like the look of this one bit.
"Hi there!" Hop opened, giving the challenger a wave. The guy's eyelids twitched but did not budge.
"Hello," the challenger answered. "Now be on your way and don't waste my time."
"Oh, come now!" Hop said. "That's no way to greet other gym challengers, now is it? What's your name?"
The guy's eyes finally opened. His indigo eyes narrowed in annoyance and he pushed off from the sign to stand upright. He took a deliberate step toward Hop. Hop seemed a little intimidated once he realized this person was taller than he was. The guy in pink brushed a strand of hair that had fallen in his face away. "Not that it's of any importance to you, but my name is Bede. I was endorsed by the chairman himself, the very man who created the Pokémon League. And you… my, my, you are the champion's little brother, aren't you?"
"Yeah, name's Hop," Hop said. He was still trying to remain cheerful. Hop was under the misguided impression that this guy was trying to be friendly now and Gloria could tell that just wasn't the case. She clenched her hands into fists almost instinctively.
"Gloria," Gloria introduced herself through gritted teeth as she stood to Hop's right.
"Well, Hop, Gloria, you two were endorsed by the Chairman's showpiece," Bede sneered, crossing his arms and moving back to a respectful distance. "Leon is nothing more than the Chairman's dog who greets everyone kindly at the door. Everyone shows up to pet it while he keeps everyone at the party safe and entertained. Understand? I am far more important than either of you two ever could be. Now do yourselves both a favor and do not bother me again. It's criminal," he said, resuming his position leaned against the sign behind him. He shut his eyes again. He looks so peaceful for someone so vile, Gloria thought. "Absolutely criminal, of you two to come by wasting my time like this."
"Yes, we can see you're so very busy," Gloria said, rolling her eyes. "Over here marinatin' in your salmon costume alone with your eyes closed. C'mon, Hop."
Hop pointed a finger at Bede and nearly jabbed his cheek with it. "Now you listen here, you bloody—"
"Hop!" Gloria hissed. "Leave him be, he's not worth your breath."
"Listen to your keeper, champion's little brother," Bede said without opening his eyes back up. A devilish smirk had crossed his lips. "Might need to keep her by your side if you want to make it later into this challenge."
Hop squared his shoulders and stalked away. "Fine," he growled. "What a dick!" he spat once he was out of earshot of Bede. Gloria put a hand over her mouth to hide the ugly laughter that brought from her.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry," she said as Hop glared back at her, "I'll stop now."
