A/N: Lots of stuff to get through now. Gloria's gotta go HOW FAR to get to Zacian/Zamazenta? Hoo boy. Time to ramp up the pace!
Chaos ensued. Disoriented, Rose reached down to his phone and called someone, sputtering incoherently about something, but even if I were paying attention to him, his words would have been lost in the growing cacophony of the stadium as the mass of thousands began to piece together exactly what Eternatus was capable of. Instead, I rushed back to the sidelines immediately. Only one thing was on my mind: find Hop. "Gloria, where are you…" Leon started, but his voice too became lost in the mess of noise behind me.
As I arrived at the edge of the pitch, Marnie and Victor both rushed out to greet me, quickly followed by the gym leaders that still were at the match. Sonia and Nessa had disappeared somewhere, and I saw Piers skirt around the group sneakily, a scowl on his face, but I focused on my quickly approaching brother.
"Victor, where's—"
"He's calling," Victor answered, already knowing who I was looking for and handing me his phone.
"This is that sword and shield stuff you were talkin' about?" Marnie asked. "Hop said you'd need it, so I swiped everythin' from the locker room for you." She held out my backpack, sweater and street clothes, and Rotom-phone. The screen was lit up to the sight of multiple missed calls from Hop.
"Thank you," I said to Marnie as I dumped my street clothes on the cement in front of me. I snatched Victor's phone out of his hand and brought it to my ear. "Hop, where the bloody hell are you?"
"Sorry, mate," he said. "Thought I'd make it back in time by the match for a surprise—"
"Leon and I probably aren't battling, all things considered. It's bad, Hop, it's all because of those shithead royals—"
"They're behind this?" Hop gasped. "Bastards, I knew it. Yeah, Raihan, the Buckinghams."
"Raihan's there?" I asked. I slipped my sweater over my shoulders, just as Leon reached the side of the pitch.
"You reached Hop?" Leon asked. "Is he okay?"
"Hush," I said, holding a hand up to him. "Hop, where are you?"
"Circhester, of course," Hop said. "I did that thing you did, where everything got woozy, and I talked to Zamazenta, and he more or less convinced me it was all too important. And then I talked to Raihan, who said that Oleana had left with the Buckinghams, and then I kinda spilled the beans about Zacian and Zamazenta, told the gym leaders to help you out with anything you needed over there, and here we are in Circhester, breaking and entering."
"Tell her I helped, too!" yelled a voice in the background.
"Oh, yeah, and we brought that Georgie guy, Melony's kid?"
"I know you know my name!" he roared.
"So, you got the sword and shield?" I asked. The weight on top of my chest may not have been removed, but it seemed to shift a little to the side at least.
"Not yet," Hop said. "We were scopin' out the place when this big pillar of light came from Hammerlocke! Crazy storm clouds are spreading out from there too, it's already worse than anything we've seen."
"I'm on my way," I said, grabbing instinctively for Flygon's Pokéball.
"Gloria, on your way where?" Leon asked.
"You really need to ask?" I shot back, nestling the phone between my head and shoulder. "Don't get arrested or anything, Hop, hate to have to break you out of anywhere on top of all this," I said to Hop over the phone.
"I think everyone's mind is elsewhere rather than a couple people committing a much more minor felony. See you soon, Gloria." The phone line went dead, and I tossed it back to Victor.
"Alright," I said. "There's room on Flygon for two, if one of you wants to go with me."
Victor and Marnie gulped and exchanged a glance.
"Gloria, go where?" Leon asked again.
I wheeled around to face him. "Oh no, we're not doing this again," I said hotly. "I know you're the unbeatable champion at all, but even you can't face Eternatus alone. I'm helping and that's—"
"I wasn't asking to stop you," Leon said, a grin spreading across his face. "I was asking because I certainly don't know the way there. Charizard's also got room for two, in case you remember, Victor."
"Do we really have to fly?" Marnie asked. Victor looked at me with pleading eyes, in full agreement with her.
"I dunno, take a Corviknight, I guess! This is just the fastest way!" I groaned.
"No, no one's going anywhere," came an order from behind us all. Leon and I whirled around to see Rose and a group of league officials, each of whom looked a little less than excited to be there behind him. "We've already secured the stadium here. No one in or out until we can locate Eternatus. Emergency warnings are going off across all of Galar and—"
"We aren't staying here," I growled, tossing Flygon's Pokéball into the air. He appeared in a burst of light beside me and looked at me intently. "We're going to fix your problem before you somehow find a way to make it worse."
Rose cleared his throat. "I think you misunderstand me, Miss Dixon. I'm doing this for your safety—"
"Oh shut up," Marnie said, scooting in front of me. "Gloria's leaving and if you want to stop her, you're gonna do it over my dead body."
"Don't be barbaric," Rose sighed. "No one's going to kill you over this."
"So, we agree that Gloria's leaving then," Marnie said, her voice so icy I could feel the frostbite setting in. She tapped a ball on her waist and Grimmsnarl appeared next to us.
"Marnie…"
"You and Leon better head out of here," Victor said, stepping up next to her. "We'll take care of this clown."
Rose grimaced. "You two will be headed nowhere. I've already ordered the roof to be closed. Now would the lot of you please cooperate? It's for your own—"
"If you gave a single drop of shit about our safety, you would have cut this project off when Raihan and I asked you to months ago!" Leon shouted.
Rose blinked, then dropped his act entirely. "Do you know who pays for your entire lifestyle, 'champion?'" he threatened, his eyes narrowing.
"Do you know who makes you the most money, chairman?" Leon asked, folding his arms. Charizard roared in agreement, then lowered his wing to climb on. As he did, there was a loud mechanical whine. I looked up and saw that some of the pink metal petals that adorned the sides of the stadium were starting to close above us.
"Leon," Rose said through gritted teeth, "I am begging you to consider what it means to be a champion of Galar."
"I already have," Leon growled, swinging a leg over Charizard's flank. "And it doesn't involve listening to you until Eternatus is in a Pokéball or in the ground. Gloria, I take it you know the way?"
"Alright, Flygon, you ready to fly?" I asked. Flygon looked at me, then Leon, then the rest of the crowd gathering at the edge of the pitch, and then lowered his wing just like Charizard next to him. Leon and I both clambered on our dragons, and I looked back to Marnie. "You coming? I don't want to do this without you."
"That is it, I am no longer asking!" Rose yelled, jamming his hands into his pocket and pulling out a set of five Pokéballs. "If you do not recall your Pokémon this instant, we will have to use force!" The line of league officials gulped and pulled out balls of their own.
Marnie looked back at me. "Go get your dog," she said. "I'll meet up with you after I beat the shit out of a corporate exec."
I blushed. "You are so hot," I sighed.
Marnie winked and turned back to face her opponents, an expanding number of steel type Pokémon, all led by the same Copperajah that we had battled at the Stow-on-Side statues. I looked over at Victor, who shook his head at me. "Gonna need someone to melt all this junk metal," he said with a shrug, pulling out a Pokéball I knew had to be Arcanine's.
"I know you lot are having a moment, but we should really get going," Leon said to me, as Charizard was pumping his wings and lifting him up toward the closing ceiling. Flygon began to follow suit, and I found myself tightly gripping his flank as I rose into the air.
"Leon!" I shouted. "There's too many of them, it's just Victor and Marnie—"
Leon held up a hand to stop me and then with the same hand, pointed back down. I followed his finger and saw that Piers stood smack in the middle of the pitch with his Obstagoon, and an army of Team Yell, the same who had come to cheer for Marnie and stayed to cheer for me, were hopping the barricades and storming the league officials from behind. Just as Rose raised his arm to attack, they gave out a yell unlike any they'd ever given before. The officials turned around just in time to order their partners to join battle against the most Linoone, Thievul, and Liepard I had ever seen in my entire life. I gave one last look to Marnie and saw that she was already sending Scrafty to bat against a Klinklang. She looked up at me and blew me a kiss, then mouthing the words "I'll find you," before turning back to the fray. Victor was already hidden behind a wall of fire spewing from Arcanine's maw. I took a deep breath. I knew they'd be okay. After everything this challenge had thrown at us, they could handle a pencil pushers and glorified bouncers. Flygon turned to the sky and followed Charizard up and out, slipping past the closing roof pieces with room to spare.
"So Hammerlocke, right?" Leon yelled over the wind as our dragons hovered above the stadium. I looked to the South and felt my soul collapse in on itself. In the direction of Hammerlocke, a singular pink spire shot high into the sky, piercing the very atmosphere above it, and dark red clouds spun like wildfire across the sky. Even Leon couldn't get lost with a wayfinder like that. I shook my head and then urged Flygon South, but a little off to the left, towards a clump of Mountains I knew Circhester would be in. Flygon sped forward, with Charizard in hot pursuit.
Wind blew past me with such intensity that I found myself cowering behind Flygon's skull as he flew, trying not to be carried left and right in the turbulence. Despite all his time as a Vibrava, he hadn't prepared for any flying like this, and the closer we got to the expanding darkness, the bumpier the flight became. I chanced a look over to Leon and saw that he also was barely able to stay on Charizard's back from the high winds, though Charizard was handling it all a bit more gracefully than Flygon. I hugged Flygon's neck all the tighter. What I wouldn't give for a saddle of some sort.
After twenty minutes of flight, the dark clouds finally caught us, but before we could be covered completely, Charizard and Flygon both dipped low and underneath. Once we were closer to the surface, the winds were less fierce, but we then had to contend with chilling rain. Flygon's dragon typing helped him stay steady in the deluge, but Charizard roared in discomfort, each raindrop sizzling as it splashed his scales.
"Gloria! Are you sure we're on the right path?" Leon yelled over the rain.
"Yes!" I yelled back. "We have to get to Circ—"
"Blast Burn!"
"Huh? Shit, Flygon, roll!" Flygon snapped one wing up, spinning us off haphazardly, looping twice before righting ourselves as a fireball large enough that Cinderace could kick it around in his Gigantamax form sailed past us, glowing violently despite the rain. "Leon, what the hell—"
"Gloria, fly low!" he yelled.
"What?" I called back, but Flygon needed no more information, closing his wings up tight against me, shielding me from the wind just long enough to finally open my eyes and look forward again. As I did, I saw the black figure of Eternatus exploding through the Blast Burn attack, five obsidian horns atop its head gleaming like death. It reached out with outstretched arms, but Flygon had begun to fall, dropping just below its reach as it passed above us, screeching incoherently.
"Flygon, keep flying!" I yelled. Flygon spread his wings out, caught an updraft, and sped off, circling around to rejoin the fight. As he did, I saw that Charizard had engaged with Eternatus, shooting fireball after fireball out of its mouth. Eternatus flew circles around it, blasting waves of aura, pinkish white just like the light pillar in Hammerlocke. Neither was willing to give up any of their ground. "Flygon, you've gotta get back in there, use dragon breath!"
Gloria, my sword! Zacian roared.
"I can't just leave Leon here!" I yelled.
You must find Hop! We are the only ones who can hope to stop the Black Hand! Zacian urged, but I pushed her voice from my head, just as Eternatus reared up and blasted another powerful wave of Dynamax energy at Charizard, hitting it square in the belly.
"LEON!" I bellowed. The light dissipated, and I saw Charizard's limp body begin to fall towards the trees below. I kicked at Flygon's flanks, and he sped towards Charizard, but a shadow zipped past us, and Charizard quickly disappeared in a flash of red light. The shadow stopped and hovered for a second as Eternatus took another circle around us, and I saw Leon leaning on the back of Dragapult, breathing heavily.
"Leon, we need to get to Hop," I yelled.
"Why?" he panted. "Bloody thing's right here; if it's still weak we've got a fighting chance!"
Gloria!
"Leon, we really don't," I insisted. "Hop and I know what stopped Eternatus during the darkest day all those years ago, it's the only way. We have to find Hop."
Eternatus screeched again, and content that it had bested Charizard, shot northbound again, following the expanding darkness.
"Wyndon," Leon said weakly. "It's going to Wyndon. Everybody's there. Gym Leaders, our families, hell, half of Galar is in that city now. Gloria, we have to head it off now."
"I'm telling you, it won't work!" I yelled. "I can explain when we get to Circhester, but we have to—"
"I can't let that thing go unchecked," Leon interrupted, his voice resolute. "Gloria, you're one of the only people who knows what this thing is capable of; I need trainers like you to help me take it down before it destroys Wyndon."
"That's what I'm doing!" I roared. "Look, I can go with you and fight Eternatus, and we might be able to keep it occupied a while, but the best hope we have for actually beating that thing is this way. You've gotta trust me!"
Leon looked at me, then back to Eternatus' receding form, and then back to me, his face filled with anguish. "I do," he said. "But I can't turn my back on them. You say you can find the thing that can put a stop to it?"
"Yes."
"Do you need me to help you find it?"
Gloria! Zacian yelled again, her voice becoming more animalistic with each passing second.
I took a deep breath in. "I mean, Hop and I can probably do it," I said uneasily.
Leon smiled. "Good," he said, "I hope so. I'm going to try and corral this beast as far away from everyone as possible."
"By yourself? Are you mad?"
"Gloria, if I've learned anything from my brother and you and your friends, it's that I'm far from the only powerful trainer this side of Kalos. I know I won't be alone." And without another word, Dragapult flew off after Eternatus, and as the two dragons flew further away, the sound of thunder did as well. I turned Flygon around, and after a couple seconds of looking, managed to see the dim glow of Circhester in the still falling rain.
Save for the rain, Circhester was blissfully quiet as Flygon and I touched down just on the outside the bathhouse. There seemed to be no damage to any of the buildings, and there wasn't a giant Pokémon in sight. I checked my wrist to be sure. Dynamax energy was whirling around me, but in very low amounts – not enough to Dynamax a Pokémon in battle, and certainly not enough to cause them to grow against their will. I sighed deeply and slid off Flygon, who was already breathing heavily, with only about a quarter of the journey he needed to make complete.
"Stay limber, okay?" I said, patting Flygon's head and jogging towards the entrance, Sneasel and Cinderace's Pokéballs in each of my hands. There was a very confused-looking guard by the door. I prepared to throw the Pokéballs out, but before I could do anything, he held up his hands, waving them frantically.
"No no no no no!" He shouted quickly. "They told me you'd be comin', and that you'd be angry, just leave me be, okay?"
I blinked, then snapped the Pokéballs on my waist. "Er, okay," I said coolly, walking past him. He smiled sheepishly but flinched as I pulled out my phone. I had missed a whole string of notifications on the fly over, understandably, but before I could read them, I saw Hop and Raihan skid into view from the hallway, Gordie hot on their trails.
"Gloria!" Hop cried, the stressed look on his face replaced by a smile, and then quickly returning to its stressed state as a bright light and the sound of an explosion came from where they had just run from.
"Aw man, Mum is gonna hate that!" Gordie roared, laughing maniacally. Waddling out behind him was a hulking black Coalossal, evidently pleased at whatever it was that had just happened.
"I thought the plan was just breaking and entering?" Raihan asked, furrowing his brow at Gordie.
"Yeah, I think that statue is broken now," Gordie grinned.
"How are you related to Melony, mate?" Hop asked.
"You'd be surprised at how similar they are," Raihan said, with a face that implied so many things I wished I had the time to ask him.
"Do you have 'em?" I asked. Hop looked back over to me and smiled, bringing his arm up and showing that he had looped the rusty shield against his arm. Raihan slowed his pace and walked over to me, extending his hand and held the sword out by the blade. I grabbed it by the hilt, but nearly dropped it the second he let go. "Blimey, how did knights fight with these things back in the day?" I gasped.
"Most knights weren't teenagers who had their Pokémon do all the battling," Raihan snickered with a wink. "Now c'mon. I doubt the coppers will be much longer, and I'm banking on you having a good enough excuse for doin' this that I don't go to prison, Hop."
"I promise," Hop said. The three of us ran past the guard, who seemed to be rooted to his spot in fear, and the three of us were back in the open, pelted by rain that was starting to fall a bit heavier now. "Hold on a sec," Hop groaned. "Gordie's still…"
"Forget him," Raihan said. "Let him get his mommy issues out of the way, it's not our problem. Our problem is Eternatus. We're headed to Hammerlocke next, right?"
"No," I said.
Raihan blinked. "But the pillar of light!" he cried, gesturing up in the sky. It was still standing tall, but the clouds blossoming from it had now covered more than half of the sky and was still spreading quickly. "We gotta calm that thing down, right?"
"It's on the move," I said. "It's headed to Wyndon. I came here with Leon, but he turned back to keep it safe. You should do the same."
"And you?"
"We've got to go further South," Hop said, holding the shield up. "Zacian and Zamazenta's shrine is near our hometown, and this is the only way we can get to them."
"And you're going straight South? Alone?" Raihan asked. "Bloody hell, you two really have some balls. You sure you don't need me?"
"We can handle a Dynamax Storm," I said confidently. "It's Eternatus who needs to be reined in. You and Leon are the only ones with experience there."
"Not that much, I'm afraid," he said. "We need that Master Ball to do that."
"Well, the Buckinghams broke it, so all the more reason to have another set of hands keeping it at bay," I said with a shrug as Flygon rushed over to us.
"That's how they—why would they—ugh, they're so awful," Raihan growled, ripping a Pokéball out of his pocket and throwing it into the air, bringing out his own Flygon. "If you two are sure you'll be okay, I guess I've got no choice. But without that Master Ball, I don't even know if Leon and I will be able to handle that thing for long. Come back to Wyndon as soon as you possibly can."
"Right," Hop and I said in unison.
"And Gloria?" Raihan said, swinging a leg over his Flygon's neck.
"Yeah?"
He smiled his classic winning smile, flashing his sharp, white teeth. "Was really hoping we'd have a battle, Flygon-to-Flygon, during our gym match. Once this is all over, let's do it. Our fans would die for that kinda content."
"Yeah, well, get to Wyndon and keep them from dying for real and I'll see what I can do," I replied. Raihan laughed and patted his Flygon's neck. In a burst of air, his Flygon zipped away, going north to Wyndon, leaving Hop and me with our sword and shield in the middle of the street next to Flygon.
"You alright?" Hop asked. "You look like you need a moment to catch your breath."
"I do, but I don't think I can afford to," I sighed, clambering onto Flygon's back. "Come on, then, Flygon's strong enough for two." Flygon slowly turned southwards, ready to take off, though I could feel his body shaking with exhaustion. "I know, I know," I said, rubbing his head, "it's more than I would ever ask you, but you're the only one who can help me. I know you can do it."
"Actually, Gloria," Hop said suddenly, "Why don't you let me be the one to support you this time?" There was a flash of light, and his Corviknight hopped up next to us. Hop climbed onto his wings and reached a hand out to me. "C'mon, he's not as quick as Flygon, but he'll make the whole distance in one go."
Flygon immediately bent down, either knowing I'd accept the offer or not letting me have a choice in the matter, and I slipped off his shoulders. "Thanks for everything so far. Rest up while you can, we're all in for a long, long, night," I said, giving him a tight squeeze and recalling him to his Pokéball. I then grabbed Hop's outstretched hand and pulled myself up behind him, nestling up at his back and bringing my arms around this. "Don't get any funny ideas about this, mister," I said.
"Mate, the only idea I'm having is that you throw that league uniform right in the bin once this whole mess is over; you reek," he snickered. And with a pat of Corviknight's steely head, the bird was off, flapping its wings mightily and carrying us off into the storm.
A/N: Okay, all the pieces are in place. Let's get ourselves some legendary dogs.
NEXT WEEK: THE NEW CHAMPIONS OF GALAR