Hey! When I first started the Kanto trip I thought it would just be a short couple of episodes and then I'd write normal chapters up until Sun and Moon. However, Sun and Moon is releasing in about three weeks and I still haven't finished it, so it leaves me with a mere two chapters if I finish this now.

That being said, let's get on with HOPL and finish the Kanto trip!

Chapter 41: Battles and Leaders! (Finale)

"Who's this?" Nate frowns at the sight of Spark.

We're all back from our visits, joined together in the center of Saffron City, the front of the Silph Co. building. May and Dawn have Pokémon plushies and the Kanto and Johto Legends have a worried look on their faces. Surprisingly, those who went to Lavender Town look the least agitated.

"I'm Spark, part of the PokéGO Development Team." He introduces himself with a grin.

"Gold." He smiles as well as they exchange handshakes.

"And I'm Krystal!" She does the same.

"Spark!" Nate finally realizes.

"Krystal, Gold and I are part of your team." He salutes.

"There's also Dawn, but she's not as cool."

"Hey!"

Spark chuckles.

"Nice. I'm assuming most of the others chose Valor?"

Everyone but Red and Diamond nods. Does this happen often?

"Most real-life Pokémon trainers identify more with Candela's views: Train the bond between you and your Pokémon, and you will train it as well."

Candela shrugs.

"Well it's true. Look at where it got them." She points at all of us.

Blanche rolls her eyes again in response.

"Just because you have a majority doesn't mean you're right. Plus, it's not like those views got them to do anything for humanity. Any studies or scientific discoveries were a side-quest from their Pokémon journey. Being good friends with your Pokémon didn't improve your strategy. It didn't teach you to keep the opponent guessing. If you only had that, you'd never make it far. Just look at Ash."

Red winces at the name. We have a rule at the House that we never mention it. We're not in the House, so I guess there's no problem here.

Candela scoffs.

"And if you only cared about strategy your Pokémon would never fight to their fullest potential. Just look at any of the bad guys. Let's take Team Rocket. The grunts failed easily because they didn't have a strong bond with their Pokémon. Giovanni was much harder to beat because he actually cared for his Pokémon, even if he still just saw them as tools."

Spark shakes his head.

"None of this matters, you know. You don't have to battle. I focus on the intricacies of hatching because it's simple and beautiful. There's no strategy, no bonds to form. Just the miracle of life."

Now they both roll their eyes.

"Whatever, hippie. You're no fun."

Now Spark smiles.

"What are you saying? I'm the definition of fun! I just don't mix fun with combat."

Red finally intervenes, shaking his head.

"Enough. We're done with Kanto. Let's head to Johto. The sun's getting low."

It's true. We tried our best to go through Kanto as fast as possible, but we're not runners. Plus, we wanted to enjoy ourselves.

"Come on, we're going through the west side. Get on a riding Pokémon and go as fast as you can." Red releases his Charizard shortly before Leaf releases her Dragonite.

"Hold on. " Gold frowns, but gets out his Typhlosion a little after Kris gets an Arcanine.

"Shouldn't we just go through the Magnet Train Station? It's a lot faster and easier."

Red shakes his head.

"To Johto, yes, but New Bark Town is closer to the west. Plus, I wanted to visit Blue."

Ruby frowns as well. Him and May are riding on their own Latias and Latios.

"I thought you said you didn't want to bother him. What happened?"

Red shoots a glance at Sabrina's gym.

"Nothing, it's just that I haven't met with him in a while and I realized earlier that...I...I need some time away."

Now we all look worried. Red wanting to be outside the House is like a Snorlax wanting to go on a diet. It doesn't happen.

"Did something happen?" Dawn asks. She decided to share her Mamoswine with Diamond.

"We're all here, you know."

Red shakes his head.

"No, it's nothing you should worry about. It's only age. I've spent so much time in there I forgot I'm an adult now. I need some time to remember."

Black sighs. Him and Hilda are riding their starters.

Leaf puts a hand on Red's shoulder.

"Do you want me to come with you?"

Red nods.

"I'd like nothing else. I'm thinking of asking Blue, too."

She nods back.

"That would be great. Just the three of us, like our younger days.

He smiles weakly.

"Our younger days..."

"Come on, are we going or not?" Nate complains. He's riding Cobalion and Rosa's riding Virizion.

He's acting impatient and unfazed, but he can't hide the fact that he's sad too. Red intervening is half the fun of messing with the House Rules.

"Wait, if you're leaving, will that just leave us two as Founders?" Kris asks.

Leaf answers.

"No, we've also been thinking it's time for new Founders to be established. The Hoenn and Sinnoh Legends are experienced enough now. We saw that when you planned the division of the group and effectively cut our time here in half."

May, Ruby, Diamond and Dawn look surprised. Now that I think about it, they've been part of the House for more than four years.

"So, we'll be Founders once we get home?" Diamond's still befuddled.

"Yes."

I get on my Talonflame at the same time that Serena gets out her Pyroar.

"Now that that's over with, let's hurry up and get to Lyra's house before night!"

The ground rumbles as our grounded Pokémon break into a sprint and our flying Pokémon jump into the air and start accelerating.

(The NeverEnding Story flying segment)

Back in Viridan City, we all stop so that Red and Leaf can go get Blue. We're told to stay outside while they get him, but there's windows on the gym where we can watch.

"Blue!"

We can hear Red's muffled voice through the glass. The gym has no trainers, but it has an extremely complicated tile floor puzzle. The floors have different-colored arrows pointing in different directions, which push you that way. Blue stands at the end, calmly playing a game on his Pokédex with his back to the entrance. Red and Leaf don't even attempt to beat the puzzle, and instead call him from the other side of the gym. Not a bad idea, since the tall ceiling and empty space make it so that sound travels very easily inside.

Blue must have recognized the voice, because he jumped from his seat and turned around with a smile on his face before getting to see who called him.

"Red! Leaf!"

He hurriedly steps on one of the orange tiles that point south, which sends him careening to the entrance.

"It's been so long!" He practically tackles both Legends into a hug and gets a smile from them. Now it's easy to see they're best friends, because if you so much as brushed Red's shoulder back at the House, he'd stare daggers into you.

"What are you doing back home? I thought I'd never see you out of it!"

Red visibly chuckles, but we can't hear that well.

"Just a field trip with the others."

Blue nods and waves at us through the window.

"They seem nice. I haven't seem them in a long time, either."

I can hear Nate chuckle beside me.

"He visits sometimes. If Red's the father of the house, then he's the fun uncle that rarely visits."

"Listen," Red starts to explain.

"I visited Sabrina and I've been thinking, we should go on vacation. Just the three of us."

Blue's face lights up like an Ampharos' tail.

"Are you kidding!? I've wanted to do that since we beat the Johto league!"

Leaf laughs.

"Well, it's in your blood."

She probably means Prof. Oak, Blue's grandfather. He's spent so much time outside of Kanto on studies and vacations that he might as well have his own House.

"Yeah, whatever. Where were you thinking?"

Red frowns and looks up.

"Actually, I haven't thought much of that. I just want to go somewhere I don't know. Somewhere new. It's been a long while since I saw something new."

Blue smiles.

"I got just the place. Right in the middle of the ocean, cut-off from the other regions, and I've heard they're thinking of establishing a Pokémon League over there."

Leaf raises an eyebrow. She probably guessed it.

"Alola?"

Red thinks to himself for a moment and then nods.

"Yeah, Alola sounds nice. I've only gone to places where there's Pokémon Leagues to beat. Maybe it's time I visit a region free of gyms and all that."

"Alright!" Blue puts his arms around the Kanto Legends hugs them.

"To Alola it is! When do you think we should go?"

Leaf looks to Red, who's indecisive. She answers instead.

"Maybe we should wait a little back at the House before leaving. We still have to inaugurate the new Founders and pack our things."

"Okay then, I'll head straight for the House. Do you still have stuff to do here or are you ready to go back?"

They shake their heads.

"We're visiting Lyra before heading back."

Blue shrugs and gets out a pokéball.

"Alright, I'll see you at your crummy old house!"

He opens the doors, releases his Pidgeot and gets onto it before shouting:

"Smell ya later!"

And he's gone. His Pidgeot flies faster than we could react to.

Even though I never met Blue, I know he went through Kalos shortly before I beat the League. A lady in a Pokémon mentioned someone matching his description.

"He got 'Bonjour' down just fine, but he still always said 'Smell ya later!' when he left!"

The first time I saw Red laugh out loud was when I told him that.

"Come on, let's get back on the road." Red gets on his Charizard again with a smile. His Charizard has weird look on its face. It's staring at the sky.

"CHAAAURRR." It grumbles and spits fire on the ground.

"Don't worry," Red mutters and rubs his starter's neck.

"He'll be back soon enough."

Now, I've never seen a Charizard smile, and I still don't think one can, but if one could smile, it would be doing what Red's Charizard is doing now.

"Let's go!"

(The NeverEnding Story flying segment 2: Manectric Boogaloo)

"New Bark." Gold sighs as he gets off his tired Typhlosion.

Unlike Pallet Town, New Bark Town seems to be almost completely unchanged. I wouldn't know, but I'm assuming so because they're still using those old fans and there are no tall buildings in sight.

"Oh my god..." Kris' smile goes from cheek to cheek.

"I dreamt of coming back here for so long..."

Gold puts an arm around her and points at the northeast house of the small town.

"Remember our house?"

Kris laughs.

"How could I not?"

Red intervenes again.

"You can revisit later. Now we have to go meet Lyra so that the rest of us can go home."

The Johto Legends nod and head to the smaller house at the southeastern part of the town, where we follow.

They stand in front of the door and hesitate, looking at each other.

"You want to do it?" Gold asks first.

Kris sighs and nods.

"Alright. Here goes..."

Kris steps up and knocks five times on the door, to the tune of the Pokémon Center's healing station.

From inside, a familiar muffled voice calls:

"Coming!"

The door opens to reveal Lyra, who's happier than I've ever seen her before.

"Kris! Gold!"

She smiles and brings them both into a hug.

"You brought the House?"

She frowns at the 12 of us. Candela, Blanche and Spark are hidden behind the crowd.

Gold shrugs.

"Red wanted to leave to see what PokéGO's all about and we decided to tag along. You're good at it, right?"

Lyra smiles and nods again.

"I haven't been beaten yet. Come on in!"

She leaves the door open and beckons everyone in. It's not a very big house, so we feel a bit crowded in here.

"These are Candela, Blanche and Spark. They're the creators of PokéGO." Kris introduces them.

The Team Leaders wave from the back of the group, a place they can't escape from.

Lyra waves back and turns to the stairs.

"Silver?"

The crimson-haired trainer descends and stands next to Lyra.

"Hey."

He smirks at Gold and Kris, who smile back.

He's definitely got the "Rival" look going on. I'm kind of glad I never had one. They seem kinda mean.

"How's stuff going back at the House?" He asks.

"Not much." Gold answers. "The Hoenn and Sinnoh guys are gonna be Founders soon and Red's going on vacation with Leaf and Blue."

Silver raises an eyebrow.

"That doesn't sound like 'Not much'. How are you doing?"

He asks the question to Krystal, who hasn't been here in a long time.

She nods.

"Good. It's just been a while since I've been out in the real world. Between the Distortion World and the House's dimension I don't get much interaction with the outside."

"So!"

Lyra takes out her PokéGear.

"Who's here to challenge me?"

Done! I couldn't went on and finished on the battle, but I'm not sure who to put her against and I'm pretty tired. I'm finally getting away from the Kanto trip so I'm happy. Plus, I got to show Blue and Silver, which is also great. Next chapter I'll finish the trip and stuff will be back to the way it was.

Please leave who you want Lyra to fight and it will happen next chapter!

Thanks!