A/N: A Merry Christmas to those who celebrate! That paired with Santa's gift of a breakthrough COVID case for me means this chapter is gonna be a short one, but that's okay because Bede is supposed to beat Hop without breaking a sweat, and that's the only thing I've got in my outline for this chapter. So thanks, COVID-19, for coming at a very convenient time for me.

Bede walked calmly down the long staircase, not even bothering to look at Hop or me, who walked down beside him. Hop, on the other hand, was staring daggers into Bede's skull, in some ineffective form of intimidation.

"Gloria, you just wait," Hop said confidently, "this kid won't stand a chance against a trainer like me!"

"Hop, he's only ranked one lower than you," I said snidely. "He's a punk, but he knows what he's doing."

"Just so you know, I can hear you quite well," Bede scoffed.

"Good! Don't let it get to your head," Hop taunted.

Bede laughed. "Don't let it get to your head when I take your place in the rankings."

"He won't," Hop said to me smugly. "I've got a new strategy with Wooloo. He'll never see it coming." I smiled.

The three of us stepped onto the dirt path at the edge of the battlefield when Bede pulled out his Rotom-phone. "We'll do it here," he said. "Look, you've even got some fans coming out to see you lose." I turned around and sure enough, a small gathering of trainers had followed us out. I spotted Sam and Eddie, who waved happily, and a couple of the trainers I had seen in the mines before the cave-in.

Hop and Bede exchanged their information and stepped back while their Rotoms swiveled around to clear out a battle area as I wandered over to Sam and Eddie. "Alright, you two?" I asked brightly.

"Eh, I've been better," Eddie said solemnly. "Milo was too much for me, and when I came back to rematch Kabu before the cave-in, he wiped my team again. I think I'm just going to call it this year. I'm not going to rise from the 500s."

"What? No!" I cried.

"It is what it is," he said with a shrug. "I'll still go on the journey with Sam; they managed to beat Milo."

"You'd think a Grass-type gym leader would be a pushover," Sam added, sounding a little embarrassed.

"I never thought that," I laughed. "Glad you're still hanging in there."

"One twenty-four!" they replied, giving me a thumbs up. "Watch out, Gloria, I'll be in the big leagues with you in no time."

"Hey, we should battle! I can see how good you really are!"

"Wooloo! Let's go!" Hop yelled in the distance. The three of us turned. His battle was underway. The three of us cheered along with the other crowd of trainers. Eddie pulled his phone up and started live-streaming it.

"Hey, I recognize this guy," Sam said. "He's top ten, right?"

"Yeah, unfortunately," I sighed. "He's a real piece of work, though."

"Hop can handle him, right? He's the brother of the champion." Wooloo skidded around a psychic blast from Bede's Solosis and in perfect sync with a command from Hop, sped toward the giant green blob to land an attack. Wooloo rolled away and stopped, ready to strike again, and Solosis slowly turned and sent another psychic blast toward him.

"I don't think that means all that much in the heat of battle," I said. "I mean, don't get me wrong, Hop's a great battler, but he definitely gets a little too cocky and gets sloppy sometimes. Bede's not going to miss something like that."

"You almost sound like you're rooting for Bede," they laughed.

"No! Eugh," I gagged in disgust. "I'm just saying he's probably bitten off more than he can chew this time." And as if to prove my point, Solosis finally landed one of its psychic blasts, sending Wooloo rolling off course in confusion. Hop yelled to the sheep, which only made the poor thing more confused. It tripped up and tumbled, coming to a rest close to us, where Solosis launched another powerful psychic blast, knocking Wooloo out completely.

"Wooloo!" Hop cried in surprise, fumbling with his Pokéball to recall him.

"See what I mean?" I said. "Bede's relentless. COME ON, HOP! YOU CAN DO IT!"

Hop looked at me and grinned as he pulled out his second Pokéball. I matched his grin with one of my own, but I could see that he was reeling from Wooloo being knocked out so quickly.

"I've never seen Wooloo go down so quickly in any of Hop's battles," Sam said, as if reading my mind.

"Yeah, usually he plays Wooloo much more defensively; that was really weird," I agreed. There was a flash of bright white light and his Corvisquire emerged, cawing magnificently. Bede immediately recalled Solosis and threw out his second Pokémon, Gothorita.

"Hold on, his Gothita evolved!" one of the trainers yelled in surprise, and most of the other trainers voiced approval and excitement. I had never seen a Gothorita in person before. She stood calmly, looking at Corvisquire with an analytical stare.

Hop looked at Bede's new evolution, and a flash of annoyance flickered on his face. "Got a little nervous about Corvisquire, huh?" he shouted at Bede. He glanced back at the crowd, who cheered a little.

"He knows how to work a crowd, at least," Sam said with a laugh.

"Alright, Corvisquire, let's show this punk what a real—"

"Rock Tomb," Bede ordered. Immediately, Gothorita's eyes lit up in a brilliant blue hue and the ground cracked and heaved, sending five large rocks from underneath Corvisquire directly into the bird with incredible speed. Corvisquire squawked in pain and fell out of the sky, landing hard on the ground.

The crowd, which had been steadily growing since the battle began, was immediately silenced. Hop's face was blank. He hadn't even returned Corvisquire's ball to his belt.

"By all means, keep bragging," Bede smirked, eyes gleaming intensely.

"Did…did he just?" Sam sputtered, blinking their eyes.

"One hit? Hate to say it, but Bede's got a knack for that kind of thing."

"Wow," Eddie agreed. "This is…not what I was expecting it to be." He lowered his phone just a bit, as if embarrassed to keep filming.

"You sending out your third Pokémon, or are you giving up, then?" Bede asked, as Hop still hadn't moved since Corvisquire fell. Hop blinked and shook his head, regrouping. He jerked his arm forward and called Corvisquire back into its ball and returned the ball to his belt.

"He doesn't stand a chance, does he?" Sam asked.

"I don't think so," I said quietly.

"Go! Thwackey!" Hop cried. Thwackey burst out of the Pokéball and screeched excitedly. Hop did not share his Pokémon's enthusiasm, and instead stood staring at Gothorita intensely. Even from where I was, I could hear his mind racing as he tried to find a way to salvage the battle.

"Fake Tears," Bede said calmly.

"Knock off!" Hop roared. Thwackey lept at Gothorita viciously, swinging its arms in a wild manner. The punches landed and Gothorita fell to her knees, tears in her eyes, causing Thwackey to pause and take a step back.

"No, Thwackey! Keep at it!" Hop cried.

"Psybeam."

Thwackey lunged again, though it looked still surprised and confused at the tears in Gothorita's eyes. His slowed gait was enough for her, as she snapped to attention and swiftly dodged the blow, skirting to his right. Before Thwackey could even turn his head to follow where she went, her eyes glowed brilliantly again and a powerful psychic wave burst from her head, landing at point blank range, and sending the monkey flying off to the left, where he bounced once, rolled, and stopped moving.

Two agonizing seconds of silence followed as the Rotom-Phones determined what we already knew. "Trainer Hop is out of usable Pokémon. Trainer Bede is the winner!" they chirped in robotic unison.

"Yikes," Sam said. I grunted in agreement, and Eddie lowered his phone. There were a few members of the small crowd who applauded Bede out of courtesy, but he seemed uninterested in what they had to say. He just smirked and recalled Gothorita. Hop returned Thwackey and slowly walked toward Bede, extending his hand for a handshake.

"I…I should probably go over there too," I said, hoping to get there before Bede said anything too awful. Sam nodded.

"You…you definitely caught me off-guard there, mate," Hop said to Bede as I approached them in a very forced jest.

"So much for 'in your blood,'" Bede said dryly. He did not raise his hand to grab Hop's.

"Bede…" I warned. He didn't even flinch.

"I hope your brother won't be as easy to beat," he continued, grinning a little. "how embarrassing do you think your loss will be for him? He'll definitely see this battle; the chairman says he has notifications for any change in your rankings. He was so proud of you, too. You won't even make it through the gym challenge if you keep doing whatever that just was."

"Bede!" I shouted. "You are way out of line!"

"Why are you upset?" he shot back. "You're the one that Leon's actually putting his faith behind. You earned his endorsement, remember?"

"What the hell are you talking about?" I asked.

"In the caves. You said you earned your endorsement. Clearly, you're the only one out of the two of you that did." He paused and looked around, his smirk growing. "Wait a minute, weren't there three of you before?"

"Leave him out of this," I growled, starting to shake. I could feel my eyes water and my face grow hotter.

"Looks like he's left himself out, actually," he laughed.

"Bede, you motherfu—"

"Gloria," Hop said weakly. "let's just…let's just go."

I stopped and spun back toward him. His usual cocksure attitude had disappeared entirely, and he was on the verge of tears.

"Hop…" I started, but he just turned back to his bag, grabbed it, and started walking away from the crowd as quickly as possible.

"Maybe you should let your brother teach you how to battle!" Bede yelled after him. "If he's not tired of you dragging his name through the mud like this!"

"Bede!" I yelled.

Hop stopped and clenched his fist up. I thought he was going to turn back around, but instead he started sprinting away.

"Hop!" I cried, but he kept running.

"Might want to find him before he gets himself killed," Bede said in a bored voice.

"Bede, I swear I'll…shit." I knew I had to go after him.

"Don't worry, I'll be waiting for our rematch. You're at least fun to beat," Bede concluded. He turned back toward the stairs of the city.

"FUCK! OFF!" I yelled as loudly as I could, but when he didn't respond, I whirled back around. "Hop?" I cried. But he had already gone down the giant hillside and toward the swampy areas to the Southwest of the Wild Area. I glanced back at Sam and Eddie, who awkwardly shrugged and dispersed with the rest of the crowd, and I raced down the hill after Hop.

"Hop? Hop!" I cried again, now deep in the swampy lowlands. The sun cast barely any light through the thick treetops, and a thin mist clung to the lower branches of the trees, making everything gloomy and surreal. I had slowed my pace and was now walking noisily through the trees, barely keeping to the thin and winding path between the trees. Blipbug and Dottler scuttled around me, avoiding the squelch of my leather boots in the soft mud. "Hop, come on, where are you?" I cried again, my voice nearly breaking in worry.

"I'm over here," I heard him say. I turned and saw him, sitting at the edge of a small pond, scratching Wooloo's head pensively. Wooloo brayed weakly.

"Can I sit?" I asked awkwardly.

"Yeah, of course. Be mindful of Wooloo though, he's still resting up."

"Right," I muttered, and moved around so I was sitting on his other side. "You alright?"

"Yeah, fine!" Hop said, smiling.

"Uh…you sure?"

"I mean, obviously I've been better," he corrected with a forced laugh, "but you were right. I…I must have just underestimated him."

"You scared me, running off like that."

"Oh, right. Sorry." He stopped smiling and looked toward Wooloo. "Well, I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a little embarrassed after that showing."

"Didn't help that Bede is such a pissant," I added. "If you didn't run off, you woulda seen me deck him."

"You hit him?" Hop asked, surprised.

"No, but almost," I sighed. "I was worried about you."

"I'm fine," he repeated.

"Well, I didn't know that then," I joked.

"Gloria?"

"What's up?"

"I…I'm not really dragging Leon's name down, am I?"

"What are you talking about?"

"What Bede said earlier."

"He's just trying to get under your skin, Hop. He's an angry little gremlin and he's lashing out to make him feel better about himself. The only person who can make Leon look bad is Leon, and he already does that because he needs Charizard to act as his GPS."

Hop laughed again. "Right," he said, but he didn't sound convinced.

"Hop, you're alright," I pressed, grabbing his shoulder and giving him a shake. "We all lose battles. Hell, we all lose battles to Bede. But we're still great trainers, and he's still a prick, and we'll get him next time, okay?"

"Leon never loses battles."

"Well, you're not Leon, dummy," I laughed, shaking him a bit harder. "Now I know what'll cheer you up. We both need a new team member. Why don't we try and find a new Pokémon to catch?" I stood up and extended my arm to help Hop up.

"Actually, Gloria, I kind of just want to sit and rest for a while, if that's okay?"

"You? Rest? You must be sick." He didn't reply, or even look up. I stood for a couple seconds in awkward silence before speaking again. "Okay, well, we can definitely take a break—"

"Alone."

"Huh?"

"I just want to be alone for a little bit. Can I just have a few minutes?"

"Uh, yeah! Sure! Um. Take all the time you need. Tell you what, I'll head to the other side of the pond and see if I can't whip up a curry for you and your team. I can probably have lunch ready in an hour or so?"

"Yeah, that's fine. Thanks, I'll come over in a mo," he said softly, with a sad smile.

"Hop, are you sure—"

"I'm fine, Gloria," he insisted. "Just need to get my head together. I'll be back to normal in no time!" He smiled again, but I knew he was lying. Still, I didn't want to push him, so I grabbed both of our packs and wandered off to the other side of the pond, looking back every few steps. Every time I did, Hop paid no attention to me; he just stared forward, scratching Wooloo's head.

A/N: And that's the end of what I'm calling "Part One" of the story - a season finale, if you will. I'm going to be taking next weekend off as a treat (and thanks to the aforementioned COVID case, which fortunately is not much worse than an annoying bout of the regular flu), but Chapter 21 will be coming on January 7 instead of December 31. Though this isn't a massive hit on the site, thanks to those who have for sticking around and commenting/messaging/reviewing; it means the world to me. Have a great New Year, everyone!