The man Hop dragged out of the crowd had to be twice his size. Even slumped over, ducking out of the crowd there was on imposing aspect to his appearance. It was like when an amateur in something met a true master of the craft. Most of the man's outfit was something you might find on any serious trainer. White shorts, a black and white stripped jersey, it was all fairly regulation stuff. But his lean but thick muscles, his flowing mane of hair topped with a ballcap, his firm and deliberate movements. There was something about him that screamed "master."
And then there was his cape: a flowing mantle of red velvet a gold wool adorned with dozens upon dozens of small multicolored patches sown into the fabric. All of them were the logos of various sponsors. Having a corporate sponsor as a trainer wasn't too uncommon at the upper levels. But usually a trainer would have just one, maybe two. This man had 13. Such an absurd number of sponsorships could only belong to the most well renowned trainer in the entire region.
Indeed, he was Leon the Unbeatable -- Hop's older brother.
As Hop managed to pull him from the crowd of people, the crowd split even further behind him to make way for his Charizard, an equally imposing specimen of a pokemon. Hop had told gloria that Leon traveled all the way to Kanto just to catch his own Charmander and raise it up himself. She'd always gotten the impression that his prized partner was powerful, but even being in close proximity of it was something else.
Having been fished out of the crowd, Leon, or Lee as Hop liked to call him, turned back around to face his audience.
"Alright, alright. That you all so much for coming out!" He said in a deep but personable voice, "I have to go for today, but I'm sure you'll know where to find me later if you have any more questions! Someday, I'm sure any one of you could be the one to knock me down a peg, so keep it up, work hard, and be the best trainers you can be!"
With that, the entire crowd cheered. Even Hop started clapping, his eyes bright with admiration and enthusiasm.
But Gloria didn't have much of a reaction to Leon's parting words to the crowd. If anything, it only cooled off the initial star struck reaction she had to his presence. All this talk of being the very best felt distant to Gloria, like she lived in a different world.
After the round of applause, Leon turned around to face Gloria and Hop. Like a switch, his face turned from one of resolution to excitement. "Hey! How's my Hop doing!"
"Hehe, never better! I've been practicing all the stuff you told me, I think I've even gotten my throw down!"
"That's good to hear, I'll have to see it later..." Lee accentuated his comment by ruffling his brother's hair a bit before turning to face Gloria. For a moment, he seemed a bit confused, but his eyes quickly lit up again. "Ahhh, you're Gloria aren't you?"
"'At's ma name. e've met before ya know?"
"Yeah, I remember, you were a whole lot smaller back then. Hop's told me quite a bit about you since." At this point, Leon had fully turned his focus onto Gloria, but not in exactly the same way he had for Hop. His attitude was a bit confusing for Gloria, like part of him had returned to talking to the crowd, though that crowd had already started dispersing. "But, no point in bothering you two in the road, might as well head back. I heard there's a Barbecue starting soon."
"Hey hold on! Didn't you bring anything back?"
"Remember what I said Hop? A trainer's gotta have patience. Let's go say hi to mom first and see if she needs any help, okay?"
"Yeah... okay." Gloria couldn't help but share a bit of hop's disappointment. She'd lugged around a big bag for nothing; though, there was some hope. Lee's comment implied that he did have *something*. Whether Gloria would get any or not was a different story entirely.
And so, the three walked back from the station up to Hop and Leon's family home. Preparations for the Barbecue had been going smoothly, but their mom couldn't say no to a trio of extra hands, even if one of them was unwilling. With all that help, it wasn't long before the Barbecue was ready, just on time for a few guests from around the neighborhood to show up and welcome Leon home, some of them doing so for the second time today.
Gloria didn't end up participating in much of the socializing, however. Instead, she found a little corner of the party and stacked her plate full of various meats, sweats, and even vegetables. As soon as she'd gathered her prize, it was gone, all of it stored away in a now taught belly straining against her dress. Not everything had gone her way that day, but the food almost made it all worth it.
However, as Gloria recovered from her battle with the meats, Leon strolled over from the more crowded areas of the party over to her.
"I see you've enjoyed yourself over here." Despite having to talk to family members and neighbors all day, Leon still seemed eager to chat to a certain young girl in particular
"Mhm... Aye, 'at grilled slowpoke wis great..." Gloria did her best to stifle an oncoming belch. She wasn't completely stuffed, but it was enough to make her a bit gassy, and she'd rather not let one out in front of the Galar League champion.
"Yeah, hop thought so too. Glad mom was able to splurge a bit, looks like everyone's loving it. Your mom's cooking was good too. Been a while since I had homemade cookies."
Leon then sat down at the table across from Gloria, and the two made small talk for a little while. A few people came over to mention something or as Lee another question, but it was clear his attention remained on the round-bellied girl in front of him. Eventually, Hop showed up to the table as well after finishing his food and bragging about his brother. For a while, the 3 just caught up with each other. As minutes passed and the sky grew darker, some people started to leave the barbecue. By the time the sky was black and the lights of Hop and Leon's house were the only things lighting up the yard, everyone from the neighborhood had left. This left the three almost alone in the yard except for their moms, who were starting to clean up.
"Alright, 'bout time to back it in huh? It's gettin' late" Leon was the first of the three to bring it up; however, hop wasn't having it.
"We can't go in yet, what about the stuff you brought back!?"
"Hey now, did I ever say I got anything?" Leon looked at Hop sporting a devilish grin as Hop face sank. As much as Gloria had been looking forward to getting something from Lee, the look on Hop's face was almost a gift in itself.
"Aww come on Lee!"
"Well... okay, I did happen to get something, but it might be a bit different than what you were expecting."
With one quick movement, Leon suddenly tossed a set of three objects out onto the yard as he spoke. The motion was confusing at first, but Gloria and Hop quickly realized exactly what he had done. As the 3 spheres hit the middle of their arc, they erupted into a burst of light, spawning figures much larger than themselves. For a moment the three figures released shining with light, like reversed silhouettes, before that light died down. By the end, 3 pokemon were sitting on the grass, all looking around at Leon, then at Hop and Gloria.
Of the three, the most attention catching one was a small, white and orange, bi-pedal pokemon with long ears and large feet. It seemed fairly up beat and active, practically running in place as soon as it hit the ground. As it lifted each leg, small singe marks could be seen on the grass below, implying some sort of intense heat.
The second pokemon was also bipedal; though, it spent most of its time hunched over, banging a stick it'd taken from the leaves in its head against a nearby rock as it curiously scanned its environment. Its body was fairly stout, but it had a long tail as well, probably for climbing trees and such.
And in the background, the last pokemon had shrunk away, keeping out of the way of the other two pokemon. It was a small quadrupedal creature with thin limbs and a large bulbous head. It was covered in blue accented by yellow fins, and its face gave it this constant worried look; though, the little thing seemed more nervously excited than worried.
"Woah... I've never seen pokemon like these!" Hop shouted, barely able to hold in his enthusiasm.
"Yeah, I found them while I was doing some publicity for the League. Magnolia likes when I bring back rare pokemon while I'm out and about, but..." mid-sentence, Leon gave Hop a knowing glance, pausing for dramatic effect, "I though these ones might be a bit more suited for some up and coming trainers..."
Hop just stared at Leon for a moment, wide eyed. It was like the lights in his head had just shut off, overloaded but the news he'd just been given. His next words weren't ones of excitement but skepticism. "A-are you sure...?"
"Would I lie to you? Of course I'm sure. I already talked to mom about it, she thinks you're ready to take on another one."
Another moment passed of Hop being in shock and aw; however, this time the silence was broken by a resounding "YYEEEESSSSSS!!!" so loud that the rest of the neighborhood probably heard it. Gloria was a bit irritated by the sudden outburst, but she let it slide. Not even she was willing to ruin this moment for him.
Practically hopping up and down, Hop excitedly went on to ask Leon what the pokemon's names were.
"Well, that one's Scorebunny, that's Grookey, and that one in the back is Sobble," He said, pointing to the white and orange, green, and blue pokemon respectively.
"Scorebunny, Grookey, Sobble..." He repeated back, committing the names to memory, "Do I just get one?"
"Just one."
"In that case..."
View Portfolio
Visit Notebook
Send Gift Points
Awards
Badges
Send Email
Community Newsfeed
General Discussion
Sponsored Items
Book of Trinkets
Static Items
Books
Groups
Interactive Stories
Audio
Campfire Creatives
Community Notes
Crossword Puzzles
Documents
Folders
Images
In & Outs
Madlibs
Photo Albums
Polls
Product Reviews
Quizzes
Survey Forms
Web Pages
Word Searches
More by this author
