The stadium was packed with cheering spectators. Thousands of seats were filled with people who had come from all over the world to see the events that were about to take place on the field below them and they couldn't wait for the show to begin.
The cheering reached its peak when the announcer took to the field and cleared his throat before speaking into the mic. "Ladies and Gentlemen!" His voice blared through the speakers. "We have finally arrived at the final round of the eighty-ninth annual Galar League Champion Cup!"
He waited for the audience to die down a little before continuing on. "After several terrific and exhilarating battles from several amazing trainers, the two that have proven to be beyond their opponents now stand facing each other with the right to battle the champion on the line!"
The excitement in the air swelled even more as smoke started to billow from the two entrances on the opposite side of the stadium and two figures started to emerge from them.
"To my right," The announcer said as he swept his arm towards the figure walking out of the entrance to his right. "Is the challenger who's claimed the title of crowd favorite, The Speedy Striker, Haigha White!"
The ground shook from the sheer force of the applause as a twelve-year-old flame-haired girl wearing a white sport uniform with the number '106' embroidered on it strolled onto the field. She waved to the crowd as she made her way to the center of the field.
"And to my left," the announcer said, sweeping his other arm in the other direction. "Is the strongest challenger that we've seen so far. Ladies and Gentlemen, it's my honor to introduce to you," the audience started to drumroll an entrance for Haigha's opponent.
The announcer took a deep breath before shouting in a loud female voice, "Haigha! Wake Up!"
Haigha's eyes snapped open as she sat up in her bed to see her nineteen-year-old cousin, Sonia, standing in her doorway. Sonia had orange hair done in a side ponytail with little silver hearts pinned in it. She wore a tan trench coat over an aqua sweater that perfectly matched the color of her eyes and her boots. She was also wearing jeans and had a small, black, circular purse hanging from her hip.
"Oh, morning, Sonia," Haigha yawned. "How'd you sleep last night?"
"Don't 'How'd you sleep' me!" Sonia shouted. "Do you realize what time it is?"
Haigha looked to the clock on her nightstand and saw the time. "It's only eight-o'-clock," she said.
"Weren't you supposed to meet Ringo at nine?" Sonia asked.
"I've still got an hour." Haigha yawned as she pulled up the covers. "Plenty of time for a nap."
"No, it's not." Sonia said as her cousin went back to sleep. "Haigha!" She said in a stern voice, shaking her in an unsuccessful attempt to wake her up. "Haigha! Wake up!" Haigha just turned on her side and started to snore. "Alright, you asked for this." Sonia let out a sharp whistle.
"Yamp, yamp!" A little barking noise sounded from the outside hall. Soon a little brown corgi with yellow eyes, a yellow tail, and a yellow patch of fur wrapping around its neck like a scarf burst into the room.
"Yamper, here boy." Sonia called. Yamper came running over to his trainer. Sonia pointed at Haigha before saying, "Use Nuzzle."
Yamper barked and jumped onto Haigha's bed and rubbed his neck against her head, sending an electric shock through Haigha's body.
"Alright, now get dressed and eat your breakfast." Sonia told her crispy-burnt cousin. "James is coming home later today and Gran wants us to look our best for the barbeque tonight." She then shut the door and went downstairs.
Haigha just sat on her bed and puffed a smoke cloud out of her mouth. Suddenly, she registered what Sonia had just said. "Wait, Jay's coming home today?!" She ran out of the room to eat breakfast before running back in to get something she forgot. She opened a birdcage by the window so she could wake up her little friend.
"Rookidee, how did you sleep through all of that?" Haigha asked her tiny bird.
In the birdcage sat a small, sleeping bird with blue feathers, a grey beak, a yellow belly, and black feathers around her eyes. Haigha started to poke her so she would wake up. Eventually Rookidee opened her red eyes, flapping her wings in annoyance until she pecked at Haigha's hand to get her to stop poking her.
"Hey, don't look at me like that." Haigha said. "We've got to get breakfast. Let's go, mate."
Rookidee flew out of her cage and perched on Haigha's shoulder as she ran back downstairs to find a plate of steaming hot curry on the table with a note beside it.
Went to Wyndon to talk to a research partner. Be back in time for dinner. Love Gran.
"Oh? Gran's gone off to Wyndon?" Haigha asked.
"Looks like." Sonia said, sitting down at the table with a cup of tea. "Wonder who she's talking to. I'd love to have been there if she's talking to another professor about the Dynamax phenomenon."
Haigha nodded in agreement, despite the fact that she rarely, if ever, payed attention to her gran when she lectured them on any subject that she tried to talk about. Not that Haigha wasn't a good student, she just had a hard time sitting still long enough to focus on academic stuff. She'd much prefer going out in the world and seeing it instead of learning about it in a classroom.
"You should go get dressed, now," Sonia said. "It's about a thirty minute walk to Postwick from here and it takes you about five minutes to get dressed."
Haigha quickly devoured the rest of her breakfast and went back to her room to get dressed for the day. She came back down wearing a white jersey with a black collar, red shorts, and black, red-tipped tennis shoes. She had a red hairband with white wings on the sides in her hair. "Ready to go."
"Good." Sonia said as she opened the front door. "How long has it been since we've been to Ringo's house?"
"I feel like it's been forever," Haigha answered as she walked outside.
"Well, we've got to stop in at Wedgehurst for a bit." Sonia said as the two cousins and their Pokémon walked down the road. "Ringo's mum called, she's asking us to pick up some ingredients for the barbeque tonight. Sausages, lettuce, ketchup, you know the usual."
"Can we pick up some hot sauce too?" Haigha asked. "You know I like spice."
"That was on the list. Now come on, you know how impatient Ringo gets."
It took about ten minutes to walk into town and buy the food from the local market. As they made their way to the route to Postwick, they passed the train station and saw a small crowd starting to gather by the entrance.
"Hey, what's going on over there?" Haigha asked, walking over to the crowd.
"Haigha!" Sonia shouted. "Where are you going?"
Haigha walked up to a random guy in the group, tapped him on the shoulder to get his attention, and asked him why everyone was standing around.
"Oh, this?" he responded. "The champion is coming home later today and we wanted to give him a good welcoming cheer when he arrives. Did you guys want to join and cheer with us?"
Haigha wasn't really considering it, but before she could respond, she felt Sonia pull her back closer to her. "I'm sorry, but we're a bit busy at the moment. Come on, Haigha." She pulled Haigha from the crowd and off to the route. "How many times do I have to tell you?" Sonia asked. "If you're going to run off without me, at least let me know what you're doing before you go."
"Sorry." Haigha mumbled.
"It's alright." Sonia said. "Let's just get to Postwick. We've kept Ringo waiting long enough."
The road from Wedgehurst to Postwick was a short and sweet stroll down a dirt road with sprawling fields stretching out to either side. They eventually came across a two-story house with a thatch roof and a small pond underneath a tree in the front yard. In the front yard, setting up a grill, was a dark skinned woman with indigo hair, wearing a yellow shirt and jeans.
"Good morning, Mrs. Snare!" Sonia called.
Mrs. Snare stood up and turned to see who was calling her. "Oh! Haigha and Sonia, It's so nice to see you again!"
"Getting ready for the barbeque are we?" Haigha asked.
"Well, it's not every day that my boy gets to come home, so I've got to make it count." Mrs. Snare said. "Why don't you head on inside? I'm sure Ringo would love to see you."
"Sure thing." Haigha went inside the house to find her friend, sending Rookidee off to the backyard to play with the sheep-like Wooloo, who belonged to Ringo.
Haigha decided to go upstairs to see if Ringo was in his room but stopped as she heard a sound come from the living room. She opened the door and saw that Ringo, a dark-skinned thirteen-year-old with green, spiky hair wearing a leather jacket and black jeans, was cheering at something on the telly.
"You know I don't lose battles, Raihan!" Haigha heard a voice on the telly say. A red glow filled the screen as she heard the voice shout, "We'll show you what we can really do! Charizard, Dynamax!"
"Yeah, Jay!" Ringo cheered while banging on a drum to his right. "You've got this!"
"Are you re-watching an exhibition battle that took place a week ago?" Haigha asked.
Ringo froze with his drumsticks in the air and slowly turned around with a big blush of embarrassment on his face. "Oh, 'ello there mate." He said. "How've you been?"
Haigha and Ringo just stared at each other for a few seconds until they slowly started giggling at each other before they burst into laughter at the awkward scenario they were in. They then hugged each other and sat down on the couch to watch the rest of the match, despite the fact that it was a re-run and they'd both seen it twice already.
"Say why don't we let the Pokémon in to watch?" Haigha asked. "It doesn't feel right if they're not here with us."
"Mum doesn't let me bring Pokémon in the house anymore," Ringo explained. "Let's just say that it involved Wooloo and the fine china set and leave it at that."
"Okay." Haigha snickered. They spent the rest of that afternoon watching that one match and other matches that Ringo had recorded over the years.
The day seemed to fly by as the two friends sat on the couch and watched the telly. Eventually at around six o'clock, when the sun was beginning to go down, Ringo's mum called the two of them back outside. They went out to the front yard to see Mrs. Snare and Sonia talking to an elderly woman with green eyes, curly brown hair, and pale skin. She was wearing a lab coat over a yellow dress and wore loafers on her feet. She had triangular glasses and had a purple, wooden cane.
"Gran!" Haigha ran over to hug her grandmother, Professor Victoria Magnolia, who hugged her right back.
"Hello there, dear," Professor Magnolia said. "How's your day been? Been watching James' matches with Ringo, have you?"
"Maybe." Haigha answered. "How was your trip to Wyndon, by the way? Who'd you talk to? Someone interesting, I hope."
"Oh, pretty boring." Magnolia answered. "Just a business acquaintance who wanted me to double-check their work, nothing exciting there. However, she did give me some gifts, but I think they'll be of much more use for you two."
She reached into the pockets of her lab coat and brought out two phones with orange cases. There was an orange lightning bolt at the top of the case. When Haigha and Ringo grabbed them, they vibrated as if they were trying to squirm out of their grip. Haigha heard Ringo shriek and turned to see that he'd dropped his phone but it hadn't hit the ground, instead, it was floating around his head, that's when Haigha noticed that the case also had icy blue eyes and was smiling. She turned over her phone to see that hers had them too.
"Wait, are these Rotom-Phones?" Haigha asked. She'd seen some of the Professor's research associates use some of these before, but she didn't know how they actually worked, other than the fact that they were powered by Rotoms.
"Yep, they're also equipped with a map of the whole region and a Pokédex." Magnolia said. "I thought that they might be helpful when you two take part in the Gym Challenge."
"We can't take part in the Gym Challenge, though," Ringo said, a little disappointed. "We don't have an endorsement yet. We'll need one from a prestigious chap if we want to do the Gym Challenge."
"Well, why don't you ask your brother for one?" Mrs. Snare said. "Chaps don't get much more prestigious than the regional champion, and besides," she turned her head towards the direction of Wedgehurst. "I think I hear his train coming in."
Haigha and Ringo each paused, listening for a train and were quite excited when they heard a whistle shriek off in the distance. They turned to each other with a big smile on their faces. They then took off, sprinting down the road to Wedgehurst Station, Rookidee flying in the air behind Haigha with Wooloo rolling alongside Ringo, all while Sonia and Yamper chased after them.
"Whoever gets to the station first wins!" Ringo shouted.
"You know you're going to lose!" Haigha shouted back, picking up speed.
"Slow down, you lot!" Sonia shouted, trying to keep up with them. "Wait for me!"
The group ran off all the way down to Wedgehurst to see that the crowd in front of the station had started to grow a little rowdy. Haigha could hear them chanting things like He's here! or It's the champion! Eventually, Haigha and Ringo were able to push their way through the crowd to see a twenty-one-year-old man with a Charizard standing behind him. The man had dark skin, golden eyes, and thick blonde hair running down to his shoulders, where a yellow cape was draped. He wore a navy-blue shirt and his gloves, tennis shoes, and leggings were all black. He had a blue circlet nestled in his hair and a diamond-shaped belt buckle. The number '007' was sewn onto the left leg of his leggings, just below the waist.
He struck a pose, thrusting his left hand into the air with his thumb, index, and middle fingers sticking out. "Hello Wedgehurst!" He shouted. "Your champion, James Snare, has come home!"
Author's Note: First Chapter of my First Story! I hope you guys like what I've got so far, I have a lot more to come. Questions and Constructive Criticism are always welcome so send them in and I'll reply best I can. I wrote this in 2019, so please be nice ;P.
For those that didn't read the description, this is a novelization of my playthrough of Pokemon Sword and Shield with a twist. Some characters are Anthropomorphic Pokemon who can also use moves. We'll see more of that in action later.
Gloria is Haigha White, a Cinderace.
Hop is Ringo Snare, a Rillaboom.
Leon is James Snare, an Inteleon.
I'll update this list as more come in. Have a blessed day!
~ Dr. Bluebone