Chapter Text
The sky bled a red hue, clouds swirling above as if forming a cyclone above the battle tower. Sneaking out of the cyclone clouds, Eternatus reached out with its Eternamax form and attached itself to the new champion as they screamed pleas to their Pokémon friend to resist the demands of the enemy. Once the legendary Pokémon made contact with its trainer, a bright light blinded those within a small radius and a pained scream echoed off the walls of the tower. Once the light faded, a horrific sight of the champion floating and ribboned to their Pokémon like a puppet was revealed. Hop felt his blood turn cold, his mouth grew dry as he witnessed his childhood friend painfully wiggle, trying to fight for control of their own will. Marnie grabbed his arm, afraid of what had become of their mutual friend. Hop let out a small choke, trying to call his friends name, but failing to find his voice as he continued to watch, powerless in the situation. Bede moved closer to Hop, putting a hand on the young professor assistant’s shoulder, gripping tightly. The champion let out a defiant yell, a tear in the sky opening and pulling the storm, Eternatus, and themselves in. The portal sealed almost immediately, and that’s when Hop seemed to find his voice.
Hop woke up in a cold sweat, sitting up quickly and throwing his sheets off the bed. He stood up and moved over to his door so he could switch on his room lights. ‘What time is it?’ The young man thought to himself as he moved about his room and got the lights on. Glancing at the clock on his wall he determined that it was four in the morning. Sighing, he wiped some sweat from his forehead and glanced around his mildly messy room. Papers littered his desk and any flat surface, books were scattered on the floor and open to anything he could find about Eternatus.
He had to be at work at Sonia’s lab in a few hours, Hop decided he’d get an early start on his research before he went in. As he gathered clothes to change into after his morning shower, Leon appeared in his doorway, rubbing his eyes. Hop continued to gather what he needed for the bathroom as Leon stretched and woke himself up.
“ The nightmare again? “ Lee asked. Hop didn’t have to say a word for his brother to know that’s exactly what had happened. He had been having the same nightmare for the past five or six years of his best friend being puppeted by some new genuinely evil team in the region. Their goal had been to use Y/N as the controller for Eternatus due to their bond the two had made during their gym challenge. However Y/N put up a fight and vanished with Eternatus into a void in the sky.
Since that event, Hop had been rather obsessed with trying to find a way to bring his friend back without having the Galar region get demolished in the process due to Eternatus and its dynamic phenomenon. Leon had been placed back as Champion until Y/N’s return, and the gym challenge was now a memorial for the vanished champion instead of a fun challenge.
Once Hop had all he needed, he pushed past his brother lightly and made his way to the bathroom. Leon watched his brother walk away, then looked at all the research scattered about the room. Most people had given up on ever getting Y/N back from wherever they went, but not Hop. Leon admired that about his younger brother, but was growing more and more concerned every year longer the real champion was missing. At some point, this was considered unhealthy, right?
In the bathroom, Hop set his clothing to the side and started the shower, letting the water warm up while he stripped. Once the water was warm enough to his liking, he stepped in and let the warm water run over him as he got himself lost in thought. He felt miserable, not that it was a new feeling. He had felt miserable ever since you had vanished into that strange portal. Hop’s mind wandered away from the moment you vanished, to the beginning of that day.
On that day, he had overheard Opal giving a pep talk to Bede. That pep talk being about asking Y/N on a date. Hop at the time had felt a lot of things, confusion, panic, jealousy, anger. He didn’t know Bede even liked Y/N, and imagining the two together made Hop furious. He knew he had his own feelings for Y/N, but could never gather the courage to tell them how he felt. However when he overheard Opal and Bede, he felt more courage and maybe some spite than ever before and made his way to find you.
At that time he had known you were in a meeting with Leon to discuss the rise of a rather disturbing group in Galar. Sonia and Leon, in their younger years, had defeated a group who had wanted to control Eternatus for selfish and dangerous reasons. But now it seemed the group had reformed and was making headway in their goals.
Hop made his way to the battle tower where Leon and Y/N were having their meeting, and that’s when he discovered not only had the tower been ransacked, but his brother was unconscious and Y/N had been kidnapped.