Chapter Text
A cool, rain-scented breeze greeted me as I walked towards the bright pitch. The murmurs of the crowd could be heard echoing around the tunnel. With each step the end seemed to get further away, but I kept my gaze forwards, and finally stepped out into the lights.
There was a sudden cheer from the crowd. I looked up with a smile, knowing it wasn’t for me. A bright orange and red blur entered the stadium from the star-studded sky above and circled around once before landing near the center of the pitch. Ever the showman, Galar’s Champion stepped off his Charizard and struck his signature pose with a brilliant smile. The crowd roared. I reached the center of the pitch and waited.
Leon finally came over. Same diamond tights, same tacky cape, same black snap-back thought now I noticed there was a golden crown under the brim. Huh, I’d always thought it was a zigzag up until now.
I reached out to shake his hand.
“Sorry for the delay. Wow. My matches are always sold out, but this... I've never seen a crowd this wild.” He grins, gazing out over the utterly packed stands.
“Even if it’s a bit late, it’s a battle to determine a new Champion. I doubt anyone wants to miss a show like that.”
His eyes narrowed and his smile grew nuanced as he squeezed my hand. “Regardless of what story the press has, you were the one who caught Eternatus and saved the Galar region. Now that I know just how capable you are, crushing you into the dirt will show everyone just how strong their Champion truly is. I couldn't have dreamed of a better Challenger to help increase my winning streak."
It was really hard to tell if he was pumping himself up or trying to piss me off.
I squeezed his hand back. “I guess I won’t hold back either then, Mr. Future-ex-Champion.”
“I look forward to it.” He let go of my hand, and we each turned and went to our starting positions. The last match of the tournament had finally begun.
We each turned at the same time. He flung off his cape, and we each threw out our first pokemon.
Hydreigon roared onto the pitch, its claws snapping like an extra pair of mouths as it circled above, getting its bearings.
Leon sent out his Haxorus and immediately had it use Outrage. Hydreigon dodged and I ran forwards, signaling for it to do a fly-by. It did, blasting it with Dragon-pulse even as Leon was trying to send a command. It flashed back into its pokeball, one-shot.
Leon’s grin became more energized and he sent out a Mr. Rime. I waved for Hydreigon to use Dark-pulse. Black spheres shout out in an arc from its claws and mouth. But Leon’s pokemon dodged, and even as it did, it retaliated with Freeze-dry. I got Hydreigon to avoid a full blast, but one of its wings was still hit. I immediately swapped it out for Ninetails.
The Mr. Rime used Teeter-dance, trying to confuse it. Ninetails staggered for a moment as though caught by it, but I called to it and it leapt forwards with a snarl, blasting the Mr. Rime with Flamethrower. Another one down.
Then Leon smirked and sent out Dragapult. I had Ninetails use Will-o-wisp, but the Dragapult zipped out of the way and Leon behind it also dodged to the side. Well, I wasn’t trying to hit him. They retaliated with Dragon-breath. Ninetails and I had to dive in opposite directions to avoid the blast and I almost swore. We tried again with Will-o-wisp and missed again. Dragapult hit it with Shadow-ball and it staggered. I had it retaliate with Hex. Another miss.
I withdrew Ninetails, who just wasn’t fast enough, and swapped in Walreign who was sturdier and had some super-effective moves. It wasn’t time to send Hydreigon back in yet. With a wave of my hand I had it summon a hailstorm to slow the Dragapult down. The air chilled and golf-ball sized chunks of ice began falling from the clouds above the two pokemon. The cloud didn’t cover the whole arena, but it was enough to force Leon further away from his pokemon, though me as well.
The Dragapult blasted at it with Shadowball, but for once, Walreign actually dodged in time and I even got it to land a hit with Ice-beam. The Dragapult flew back when the freezing attack hit it, then it snarled and I smelled ozone. Thunderbolt crashed down on Walreign and I raised my arms to shield my face from the turf that flew from the force of the impact.
Walreign fainted and I swapped in Whimsicott. It spun up with a trill and immediately used Misty-terrain. The Dragapult sneezed, then squinted at it, tail lashing. Leon yelled to it, and it suddenly rushed forwards. So did I, calling to Whimsicot as I did. At the last second as it opened its maw and a jet of what was undoubtedly Flamethrower started to come out, Whimsicott flew up, out of the way and blasted down with Moonblast. The Dragapult cried out in surprise as it was blasted into the ground. It started to pick itself up, however, before we could attack, Leon withdrew it and sent in his Aegislash.
It lunged at Whimsicott, its steel-edge gleaming. I managed to get Whimsicott to doge in time, though a bit of its fluff was shorn off. I withdrew it and sent Ninetails back out. It looked at the steel-type and seemed to let out a haughty laugh, ignoring me for a moment. The Aegislash almost got it with Shadowball then. But I ran closer and snapped at it and it moved in time to only take a glancing blow, then finally got serious. It retreated, but I had Ninetails press forwards after it, feinting to the side then using Flamethrower. It went down with a mournful wail.
However, having taken down two opponents, Ninetails decided to sit and act smug, so when Leon sent out Intelleon, it again only managed to partially dodge. Mud-shot hit it right across the eyes, and it shook its head trying to clear its vision. The hailstorm petered out. I ran forwards to get its attention, but its Energy-ball flew wide. Leon and the Intelleon quickly finished off Ninetails with a jet of water from Snipe-shot.
I sent out Whimsicott again, and it let out a tiny battle cry as it unleashed Grass-knot while dodging around the Intelleon’s Dark-pulse. A direct hit. Leon and his Intelleon tried to repeat their blinding trick with Mud-shot, but I was paying better attention this time. I had Whimsicott fly right towards it, then dive and use Grass-knot again. Intelleon was out.
Then with a roar, Charizard made its first appearance, and Leon smiled widely like he was king of the world.
I grit my teeth and dove to the side at the last minute after telling Whimsicott to dodge diagonally up as Charizard unleashed a massive Fire-blast. This wasn’t good. We still hadn’t beaten his tricky Dragapult. I didn’t want Hydreigon to fight that and Charizard back to back.
I had Whimsicott feint again, buying it space to refresh the Misty-terrain. It got the move off, however, as it did, Leon gave a signal, and Charizard took to the sky after it.
I had it use Hurricane, but Leon’s battle-hardened partner plowed right through it and with a smug grin, he had it retaliate with his own flying-type move, Air-slash.
However, neither of us expected what happened next. Charizard beat its wings, sending two arcs of wind right at Whimsicott at a range and speed that made it impossible to dodge. Whimsicott squeaked in alarm and still tried to flee. The attack hit it in the middle of its back. Suddenly, where it had been was a massive explosion of pale yellow fluff.
For a single moment, Leon, Charizard, and I all stared at the furry starburst in the sky, their faces perplexed and mine mildly mortified as I then watched Whimsicott’s little fluff-less, brown body plummet unconscious towards the earth. I got it into its pokeball before it hit the ground and Leon also recalled Charizard.
Well, that was…alarming.
I sent out Lucario and it growled softly as it took a fighting stance. Dragapult zipped back out onto the field, observed it calculatingly, then sneezed at the pink mist still hanging in the air thanks to Whimsicott.
When it did, I had Lucario lunge forwards to strike with Iron-tail. But Dragapult was still hella fast, and managed to escape while only being grazed by the attack. It whipped around and let loose Flamethrower, but I had moved in close and knew exactly where Lucario needed to dodge. It followed my unspoken commands and after a few exchanges of moves we soon pulled a successful feint on the Dragapult. Lucario went left pretending to use Iron-tail, but just as it got close and Dragapult tried to blast it with Flamethrower, it slid beneath it and used its own negative version of Aura-sphere, aka, Shadowball. The Dragapult shrieked and flew back, Leon running with it, but Lucario and I pressed forwards, repeating the attack twice more in quick succession. The second one hit, and Dragapult finally went down for good.
Charizard came back out. It was the only one left. Leon grinned wilder than ever and shouted, “I'm not finished having a Champion time here! And I won't let anyone finish it for me! The only end for you today is defeat!”
Then Charizard took off and attacked with Fire-blast. It was clever—Leon had it attack at an angle that forced me and Lucario to dive in opposite directions to avoid getting hit, and in doing so cut off my line of sight. But I could feel my connection to my pokemon stronger than ever. It was anticipating another immediate attack, and I sent it forwards to dodge. Getting around the smoking ground, I saw it dive just in time to miss an Air-slash, and I had it retaliate with Shadowball. It hit Charizard’s tail in the middle, but the orange pokemon was fast. We dodged four more times and landed two more glancing blows, but at last, Lucario went rolling in the dirt from a Fire-blast it couldn’t possibly avoid. Its bitterness at losing stung me just before it fainted. I quickly recalled it and sent out my last pokemon.
Hydreigon growled instead of full on roaring when it came out this time, its gaze immediately locked onto Charizard, tail lashing. Fortunately it seemed the glancing blow from the ice-type attack hadn’t bothered it too much. Leon and I both moved at the same time and so did our pokemon. I kept Hydreigon flying relatively high since the pink mist of Mist-terrain was almost gone but not quite. Leon used that to his advantage and had Charizard suddenly attack from below the way I had with Lucario earlier.
Hmph, my own trick wouldn’t work against me.
I called to Hydreigon. As Charizard got close, it suddenly dove using Dragon-pulse. Charizard shrieked and did a barrel roll to the side, but the tip of its wing was still hit and it had to take a moment to right itself. I seized that moment to send Hydreigon after it with Dragon pulse again, but Leon had it ward us off with a sudden Fire-blast.
Orange and black streaked across the sky exchanging attacks and wearing each other down at an approximately equal rate it seemed. However, they finally ended up in a position where Hydreigon slammed Charizard into the ground with Dragon-rush, but Charizard recovered and used Ancient-power flinging some rocks from the ground into the sky with a thwack of its tail. Hydreigon let out an ear splitting roar as it took the direct hit and also fell to the ground. It got back up and stretched its wings to take off again. Then I noticed Leon doing something out of the corner of my eye and raised a hand signaling for it to stop.
“I guess it’s time to turn up the heat! Charizard, Gigantimax time!” He enthusiastically called to his pokemon, and Charizard flashed back into its pokeball. He activated his Dynamax band and with one hand threw the giant pokeball into the air.
Damn. So we were doing that after all, huh? Well, I guess it was now or never.
I recalled Hydreigon and activated my own Dynamax band shouting, “I hope you brought some painkillers for after, cause this is going to hurt!”
Dark clouds appeared over the stadium that was bathed in a red glow. I met Leon’s eyes and we had a moment of tacit understanding as the crowd seemed to hush for a moment as the Dynamaxed pokemon appeared. The danger was only fun so long as it wasn’t real. It was time to put on a show.
Leon leapt onto Charizard’s rapidly growing back and heaved himself onto its shoulder.
Show-off. I bet he’d regret that in the morning if not later tonight.
I stayed on the ground as Hydreigon grew, jumping over the tip of its giant tail as it swept back. Two enormous pokemon shrouded in a red shimmer appeared on the pitch, their roars like thunder.
Without missing a beat, Charizard unleashed G-Max Wildfire. I dove to avoid the scorching tsunami of flames after signaling to Hydreigon. It took the blast head-on, then immediately retaliated with a roar and a singular forward-beat of its wings unleashing Max-Wyrmwind.
I mentally crossed my fingers that Leon wouldn’t get blown off, but his Charizard immediately used Max-Airstream and the two attacks canceled one another out, sending a strong but harmless blast of sparkling wind through the stands. I had Hydreigon repeat the move and this time it hit.
Charizard staggered. The crowd hushed. But then it recovered and roared. I faintly saw Leon wave an arm, seeming to give a command, and the crowd cheered wildly.
I felt a grin on my own face as I saw Charizard prepare for a second round of G-Max Wildfire. I signaled Hydreigon to meet it with Max-Wymwind for a third and final time. The attacks collided creating a vortex of flames that went straight up before dissipating in a dazzling shower of sparks that had the crowd shrieking in delight.
I had to quickly brush off some which landed on my shirt and began to smolder, but it wasn’t anything significant.
The two pokemon shrunk back down, both still standing. I noticed Leon stagger a bit as he hopped off Charizard, grimacing for a moment before replacing it with a determined smile.
Hydreigon took to the sky again as did Charizard. Charizard got it with Air-slash and it faltered, but didn’t fall, and I saw the opening.
I sent Hydreigon up, Charizard chasing after it. They exchanged breath attacks, both missing. Then just as Charizard used Air-slash again, I signaled for Hydreigon to dive. The move hit, but the impact wasn’t as bad since it was already going into the same direction. Charizard dove after it, mouth open wide to use Fire-blast as Hydreigon approached the ground. Then I yelled out to it and with a wave of my hand, just above the ground Hydreigon suddenly leveled out sinking its tail into the ground, then banked, and used Stone-edge, its tail slinging shards of stone right at the incoming Charizard.
Charizard took the super-effective hit and went down hard. It didn’t get back up, and soon the tell-tale flash of light signaled it had fainted and been returned to its pokeball. The crowd surged to its feet with a roar.
Hydreigon flew back over and landed beside me, panting hard. I felt numb as I rubbed behind its ruff, trying to think, but not being able to. It rumbled in satisfaction before I returned it to its pokeball and reflexively turned to face my opponent.
The crowd continued to cheer, fireworks crackled, and confetti flew through the air. But it all felt very distant. Leon had pulled his hat down to cover his face for a moment, then decisively lowered it as he walked to meet me again at the remains of the center of the pitch with a smile.
He shook my hand and said, “Thank you, Alice. This was one of the best battles I’ve ever had. The timing of that final maneuver you had Hydreigon pull was incredible—even I didn’t see it coming until it was too late. Though… I guess this also means my time as Champion has finally come to an end.”
The firmness of his grip was enough to shock my numb brain back into doing that thinking thing that’s kind of important. But the first thoughts out were not terribly inspiring as my head was quickly filled with mildly panicked, “Oh shi**”s. I hadn’t intended to get this far when I started this journey, and now that I was here, I had no idea what I was supposed to do.
Maintaining a smile to hide my exhaustion-fueled inner panic, I shook his hand. “That whole match was awesome though,” I managed to say. Okay good, I didn’t rub salt in the wound or say something totally stupid. However, then my brain failed me and I asked unfiltered, “So how much pain are you in?”
He laughed a little, then winced slightly, a little pain creeping into his smile and he asked, “Emotionally or physically?”
Damn it me, couldn’t I be nice for once in my life? I’d already taken his job, or rather gotten myself stuck with it.
He laughed a little at whatever expression I was making and said, “I may have overdone it on that Gigantimax. Just a little. But I’ll be fine. And you?”
“Fine, but my Whimsicott’s coat is definitely not coming back.” I smiled.
He laughed back. “Yeah, that shocked me too.” Glancing up at the crowd he murmured as though more for himself than me, “Just one thing left then.” Then he beamed and suddenly turned to the crowd. Raising my hand in his as he did, which spun me in the same direction, he shouted, “People of Galar! Here you have it! A new legend born right before your eyes! Your new Champion, Alice!”
The crowd cheered and more confetti blasted out as the fireworks continued. I smiled back at them. This was part of being the Champion after all.
We went back to our respective locker rooms. However, I’d only just wiped the sweat and grime from my face with a wonderful warm, damp towel when the league staff quickly ushered me to the press-conference room since this was the final match of the season. Ugh.
During the post-Gym Challenge press conference I’d been able to pass most of the questions to Hop or Marnie. However, Leon was more experienced with these things and had no intention of letting me slither out by dumping all the questions on him. Thus, whenever I was about to dodge one he thought was reasonable, he’d lightly kick my ankle under the table so I actually had to answer what at least seemed like a ton of questions. Unsurprisingly, there were almost as many questions about the “Darkest Day” incident as it was being called as there were about today’s match.
Thanks to Hop’s scheme aided by my superb deflection weeks ago most of those questions were directed at Leon rather than me. He shot me a couple looks as he modified the actual course of events to match what Hop and I had told him and the press weeks ago, but fortunately he stuck to our ruse and was already exceptionally knowledgeable at how to deal with the nosier reporters.
When they finally let us go, I rushed back to the locker room to enjoy a hot shower. Marnie was waiting and excitedly started pestering me with even more questions and exclamations about the match. However, I gave her my bag with my pokeballs in it, managed to convince her to take them to the pokemon center, and finally had some peace.
After showering and changing, I lay down on the bench and closed my eyes for a moment to clear my thoughts. The next thing I knew someone was tentatively shaking my shoulder and several other someones were chuckling. I covered my eyes with my forearm and mumbled, “The press conference is over, now what?”
“We were all waiting for you so we could go to dinner, but you never came out of the locker room.” Marnie giggled from my left. Not the shaker then.
“Lee said he’d treat us to dinner to celebrate the successful end of the season!” Hop’s cheer came from next to Marnie, but he knew for a childhood of nuggies to not shake me awake.
“Hmph. You didn’t even get on Hydreigon when you Dynamaxed—you can’t be that tired.” A condescending voice huffed just off to my right. Bingo.
I jumped up and grabbed that fluffy mass and roughly tousled it as Bede’s eyes went wide in alarm and he jumped back before I could get him in a head-lock. Hmmm, his hair was almost as soft as Whimsicott’s fluff.
Marnie offered me my bag. Taking it I asked, “Alright, I’m up. Where are we going, and why did Bede get to wake me up?”
“He lost rock-paper-scissors.” Hop beamed, absolutely delighted.
Bede carefully fixed his hair, grumbling, “And that’s the last time I ever let you win anything.”
Hop stuck his tongue out at him then turned and said, “Apparently the fancy restaurant in the hotel actually has really good pizza.”
“Is Leon already there?”
“Ah… uh… I’ll call him real quick.” Hop pulled out his phone and walked ahead as we left the locker room.
I let out Whimsicott as we walked and had to catch it because it didn’t float in the air like usual. Marnie whistled and commented it looked like a gingerbread man with green horns without its fluff. It made a surprised whistle, felt around for its fluff, then burst into tears and tried to climb into my jacket. I found there was already a downy layer of yellow fuzz regrowing. Assured that it was alright, I gave it a consoling pat and returned it to its pokeball.
“Hmph, at least it fought impressively all the way to the end. That Ninetails is the one who should be crying in shame,” Bede scoffed.
“I feel like the trainer who’s Sylveon tried to savage it like a feral pokemon at the beginning of the Finals doesn't have room to talk,” I replied dryly.
“I still can’t believe you avoided both Whimsicott and Lucario getting one-shotted by Charizard despite them both having double type-disadvantages,” Marnie mused, holding her chin as she nodded.
“ I can’t believe your bulky Hydreigon actually managed to pull off that turn at the very end,” Bede interjected.
“It’s always been surprisingly agile. Remember when it was a Deino and got your Hattena?” I grinned.
Bede held the door to the competitor section open as we walked out and retorted scathingly, “You mean when it barbarically tried to eat my partner? Yes, I do remember that.”
We walked out of the stadium and impressively, both Hop and Leon were actually there. Hop waved, and we all got to experience the rare sight of Leon wearing normal clothes that even matched.
Bede even leaned in and whispered in mock disbelief, “Did Hop grab the right person?”
Marnie flicked his ear at that and told him to lay off, not everyone was a clothes snob like him.
Back at the hotel, we got three normal pizzas and Bede got the most pretentious one on the menu. To his credit it was actually delicious, though I swear I saw Leon choke on his drink a little when he saw the bill.
After that, Leon managed to slip away and we went up to my room and played Uno. We got a variety of snacks from the vending machine in the lobby—the person with the most cards left at the end of each round had to run down and get them. Bede and Hop verbally jabed at each other the whole time while Manie smugly took five games because they were too busy glaring at each other to notice her dwindling number of cards.
However, I must’ve fallen asleep sometime after the 12th hand, because I woke up to someone knocking on the door. Slowly sitting up, I found I was on the couch. Looking around as I got up, stiff all over, I saw Hop and Marnie were sleeping at the foot and head of the bed respectively. Bede must’ve slipped out, since I didn’t see any sign of him.
When I opened the door, a member of the league staff smiled and requested I go with her to Rose Tower to finish filling out all the paperwork and what not as the new Champion. I told her I’d be there in a couple hours, and closed the door. According to my phone, it was only 8 in the morning, and I’d been up late last night. Since the season was now officially over, it wouldn’t kill them to wait a little while.
I showered and decided I really needed to stretch. Seeing that Marnie and Hop were still sleeping, I let Lucario out and headed for the hotel’s fitness room. The league staff was still waiting when I opened the door, looking a little put out as she insisted the paperwork needed to be filled out as soon as possible. I walked around her and continued on my way.
In the end, she sat pouting on a bench while Lucario and I did some yoga to work the stiffness out of my muscles. When we finished, she perked up excitedly, then deflated again when I went to my room instead of the elevator.
Hop and Marnie were up by then. Marnie was finishing packing up while Hop straightened up the room a bit. Surprisingly, Zacian was also present, lounging on the bed and watching curiously as Hop hurriedly stuffed empty wrappers in the trash and threw pillows over it back onto the bed.
Still ignoring the league staff, who finally left while typing into her phone, we went out to get breakfast. I saw Hop and Marnie off at the train station. However, when I turned to go grab the rest of my backpacking stuff from the hotel, I saw Leon and Charizard coming over. Hmmm, I’d underestimated that league staff lady—she’d gone straight for the Dynamax.
After checking my phone, I quickly turned to go right back into the train station. Unfortunately for the league staff lady, Leon’s sense of direction was reliably unreliable, so I could likely lose him in the crowd before he drug me to Rose Tower. Unfortunately for me, Charizard’s sense of direction and keen eyesight were much more capable.
I lounged in the monorail as we zoomed towards Rose Tower while Leon lectured me on how just because I was Champion, didn’t mean I could torment the staff on a whim.
“Yes, yes, respect the team supporting me, got it.” I shrugged while frowning at my pokemon. Lucario had deliberately sat on Leon’s side of the car and had its arms crossed. Geeze.
Leon sighed. We arrived at the tower station and went to fill out paperwork. This was also a part of being Champion.
Three months later I leaned back in a rolly chair in my dorm room, listening to a video meeting. Leon was presenting to the League on his plans to remodel the former Rose Tower into a Battle Tower after the ones he’d visited in Sinnoh and Johto during past exhibition matches there. The Tower was all Leon’s idea, so I was mainly on the call to show he had the Champion’s support. Not that it should’ve been that important considering he was the new Chairman of Galar’s Pokemon League and the former Champion himself. However, since he’d supported my much more massive construction project idea for Eternatus, showing up was the least I could do.
Hop diligently did his homework at a pop-up desk on the rug, his Dubwool performing the noble task of backwarmer as an early snowstorm raged outside. Ninetails and Zacian lay on opposite ends of the bed. Ninetails was abiently adding some heat to the room as it napped while Zacian curiously watched what Hop was doing.
Hop bounced his pen as he thought, and I absentmindedly wondered if he’d let me copy his homework when the meeting was done.
However, I was soon called on and had to summon my energy to give a rundown of why I thought Leon’s Tower was a good idea. I actually did though, so it wasn’t like I was just reading off a bullet-point list he had made beforehand. The fact that it had tiers meant it was a great place where people could meet and have battles recreationally on the lower floors, while people who wanted to get more experience with their teams but didn’t want to participate in the Gym Challenge or get their pro license could still work their way up the ranks.
Afterwards, when everyone else had logged out of the call, Leon thanked me and promised to show me how to fly on Hydreigon on my next break. Well, that would be convenient to be able to do at last.
However, when I poked Hop with my foot to see if he wanted to talk to his brother, he waved dismissively without even looking up and reached to pull a book out of his backpack. I guess he was serious about trying to go for a pokemon professorship.
Leon and I chatted a little longer about things that would need to be arranged for the upcoming season’s Gym Challenge, even though it was still several months off. Then I finally logged off and went to flop on the bed next to Ninetails which gave a disgruntled snort, but scooched over nonetheless.
Two years later I stood in the observation room of the Energy Loop, an enormous, doughnut-shaped tunnel that ran deep beneath Wyndon, and watched Eternatus do happily loops as it flew around the underground space. The walls were lined with rings of special capacitors that absorbed the massive amounts of raw energy it gave off and sent it to be converted to electricity at a separate power plant. They were even sturdy enough to absorb its energy blasts if it got fussy. It had taken a lot of close-calls between Leon and I to test materials until we found the right ones. Eternatus was particularly sassy, and while it would sometimes follow basic instructions now, it was just as likely to “accidentally” almost hit whoever was directing it in the process. Ironically enough, since its energy was now used to power the region, Rose’s plan had succeeded, albeit in a rather roundabout way.
I tapped my card on the scanner beside the reinforced security door and stepped out onto the platform where Leon was attempting to get it to repeat the thing he’d taught it last week.
“It doesn't seem to be in the mood to cooperate today,” I called, walking through the door.
Eternatus noticed me, paused for a moment, then took off down the tunnel and soon vanished around the bend. Heh, it really didn’t want to train today it seemed. Well, I certainly wasn’t going to chase it.
Leon looked up, then chuckled and said, “It was doing pretty well just a few minutes ago, believe it or not.”
“Uh-huh. Sure, Chairman.” I raised an eyebrow and held up my phone saying, “Don’t you think it’s about time we got going though? At this rate if you get lost we’ll definitely miss the Opening Ceremony.”
He spun around, the red twintails of his coat fluttering and he grinned saying, “Then it’s a good thing Charizard knows the way by now!”
Well, at least he was honest with himself about his navigational abilities, or lack thereof.
A couple hours later, lounging on Hydreigon’s back, I listened to Leon give an enthusiastic variation on the same opening spiel that the Opening Ceremony had every year. I had to admit, looking down on the brightly-lit arena from above like this really beat walking out of the tunnel. A dry summer wind blew by. Hydreigon rumbled softly as it shifted in anticipation. Hearing our cue, I knelt on its back, holding the slightly looser skin around its hackles, and at my signal, it launched off the platform down into the stadium.
We do one loop around the platform Leon was presenting on before landing next to him. No flashy backflips for me though. I stepped off lightly and strode forwards. Raising a hand I gave a single wave to the crowd. The crowd roared in excitement and I smiled—this was going to be the start of another fun Season. Hmph, not that I intended to lose.
~Fin~