Chapter Text
“I wouwd wak a thousand miwes ta see you…TONIIIIIIIGGGGGHHHHTTTTT” The two bellowed as they were on a back road heading back from the mall trip. The car rolled down the back road till it tipped over into a hole, the duo screamed as the call fell with a thud into a bizarre cave like area.
“Uh, Ricky? What just happened?” The women mumbled in confusion, moving further up to look out the front window.
“Not sure, but whatever happened, it’s your fault.” Ricky replied back.
“Fair enough.” Climbing out of the car with a couple of bags in hand the women looked around the cave-like area. “Hm… I don’t recognize any of this, where’d we fall into?”
“I’ll let you know when I find out Ari, but in other news… that fall totaled my car!” Ricky groans, pulling his set of bags out of the car too.
“Oh…uh how are we getting home? Through that wormh-.”
A cry rattled the duo out of their confused looks towards the wormhole, behind them a creature hovered just slightly over their heads. Tentacles waver slightly at its side before it starts to move towards the duo. They scream freezing themselves to the spot before another cry sounds off as a similar creature appears near them. They bolt towards the nearest wormhole in a panic, belongings in tow. Ducking her head right before the creature could grab her Ari quickens her paces towards the wormhole veering slightly off so they wouldn’t collide into Ricky and following right after him into the wormhole they topple down a small incline stopping right before a water’s edge.
“As I would like to mention again! This is all your fault.” Ricky says sitting up to dust off his pants.
“Ha, I regret nothing!” Ari chuckles a smile on her face as she turns to her friend “so, we’re totally not in Kansas anymore Toto!”
“I hate you, but seeing as we continuously mention that one road is The Bridge to Terabithia, really shouldn’t be surprised it eventually turned on us.”
“You are right about that, well come on let’s see if we can find our way out.” Ari says standing to collect their bags.
“Sure, but like uh… which way? All I see is a horribly dense fog”
“Uh, well…not sure either, kinda don’t want to either do you hear all those sounds… can’t really make them out, but I want nothing to do with them.”
“Oh, neither do I, so yeah let’s try to get out of here.”
Slowly walking down the closest path the duo could find they keep their eyes plastered between the ground and what’s in front of them to keep from tripping over branches and rocks. Ricky turned his head off to the side to catch two sets of glowing yellow eyes and shadows peering between the area of bushes and trees and jumped closer to his taller friend. Ari looked in the same direction, curious about what was seen, but looked away after nothing was seen after a few seconds of looking.
“You good? Whatcha see?” Ari nudges her friend's shoulder.
“Do you hear voices?” Ricky says excited to know they may find a way out and get his mind off the glowing eyes.
“I think so, sounds like some kids!” Ari quickly looks around trying to find the source of the voices.
“Oh let’s see if we can find them, maybe they know how to get out!” Ricky sprints heading further down the path Ari follows quickly behind. Sprinting further till they come to a small clearing with two kids standing with a pair of sheep.
“Huh? Where’d you two come from?” The purple haired boy turns to look at them.
“Further in, is the way ou-.”
“Further in? There isn’t anything further for people to be at, not to mention the forest is known for being haunted!” The boy cuts Ricky off with confusion and curiosity written on his face.
“Well we did walk through a wormhole to get here…” Ari mentions “Oh, I’m Ari and that’s Ricky by the way.” She gestures to herself and her friend
“I’m Hop! This is Gloria!” He tosses his arm around the shoulder of the girl standing next to him.
“Hop, we need to get out of here before our brothers know” Gloria says waving towards the duo as her introduction.
“Mind if we follow you guys? You’d at least be able to find the way out better than us.” Ricky asks, tilting his head towards his friend.
“Of course! It would be pretty unheroic for me to leave people behind!” Hop says, throwing his fist into the hair as he spins around.
The group heads down the path behind the two kids, Hop excited asking them questions about the wormhole the duo had escaped through till a low screech startles the group. Glances over shoulders into the dense fog showed a black shadow staring at the group.
“What. Is. That.” Ricky gripped Ari’s arm tight slightly, yanking the tall woman closer.
“Don’t know but we should move faster.” Ari replied back.
The group picked up pace as the screeching grew closer, till they came head to head with a massive black bird, red eyes staring the group into place as it tossed wings out like black curtains.
“It’s a Corviknight!” Hop’s yells standing in front of the group with his sheep in tow “it’s blocking the path we need to take out too!”
The Corviknight lets out a screech before diving at the sheep. Hop calls out to the sheep to move out of the way before a streak out fire comes out of the thick fog off to the side landing a hit on the massive bird, who turns towards where the attack came from.
“Charizard use fire blast!” A voice echoes a command as a dragon appears out of the fog.
“That’s Lee’s Charizard!” Hop cheered, turning to face the three people behind him.
“Lee?” Ari tilted her head making a questioning face at the kid.
“Yeah! Leon, he's my older brother!” Hop beams towards the duo excitedly.
“Well, that’s good someone was looking for you.” Ari smiled back at him.
The Charizard continues to attack the Corviknight with a volley of fire attacks, the massive bird attempts to take flight before being hit with the draconic creature's claws. It loses control of the direction it was headed and starts flying towards the group, Ari pushes the kids out of the way as Ricky runs the opposite leaving the girl alone in front of the bird. Seconds later she’s tossed to the grassy floor by a purple blur and lands with a roll as she comes to a stop on top of something.
“Are you alright, Miss?” A voice sounds off in her ear startling her up.
“Y-yes, I’m fine thank you” Ari says sitting up.
“Great, it wouldn't be good to let you get hurt.” They stand up and turn back towards the Charizard and Corviknight fighting “Time to finish this I think, let’s go Charizard! Inferno!” They call out in a commanding voice.
The Charizard engulfs the Corviknight in a wall of fire before the massive bird collapses onto the ground with a heavy thud. It lets out a huff as it stomps over to the voice commanding it, they turn around and face the group with a gentle smile on their face before it becomes serious. A second later a kid strolls out the fog and stands next to Charizard and its owner.
“Why were you two in here?! You know nobody’s allowed in this forest anymore and Gloria doesn’t even have a pokemon to help fight, what would you do if I wasn’t here to save you!?” the purple hair person says walking closer to the pair of kids.
“But Lee! One of the Wooloos broke the fence and ended up running in here!” Hop says motioning towards the sheep creature standing with the Charizard and another sheep.
“You guys could've gotten me, I would’ve gone looking for it” The person named Lee says “And what of those two? Where did they come from?” He said looking between Ari and Ricky.
“They say they came out of a wormhole that showed up further in the weald” Gloria says standing next the child that showed up mer seconds ago.
“A wormhole you say…wait I should officially introduce myself first! The name Leon” He sends the duo a megawatt smile and holds his hand out for the two to shake.
“Ricky, and that one on the ground is Ari” shaking his hand with a smile.
Leon regards the two with a curious look before turning back towards the group of kids behind him, while he ushers the kids to get them to start heading out of the forest Ricky turns to his friend trapped in a starry eyed daze.
“You gonna get up off the ground? Or have you decided your calling is to be a plant?” Ricky snarks at his friend who’s blinking out of their daze.
“Maybe~ I think I couldn’t make a pretty good plant! I’ll be the prettiest flower you’ve ever seen.”
“More like ugliest.” Ricky chuckles holding his hand out to pull his friend up
“Oh rude” Ari sticks her tongue out as she stands before dropping back to the ground and clutching her ankle “crap, that’s hurts.”
Ricky crouched down while Ari unlaced her shoe enough to pull her foot out. Her ankle already starting to swell, the duo look at each-other then back at her foot before Ricky standing to collect her items off the forest floor. Ari moves to stand gingerly placing her hurt foot on its toes and making her way towards the Charizard and children Ricky follows behind mentioning to Ari she shouldn’t be walking on it.
“How am I supposed to get out of here then?” She replied back before stumbling into Leon’s back.
“Woah! I got you, are you okay?” Leon catches her eying her with a confused look
“Yeah, I just put too much pressure on my ankle.”
“Hm…?” He looked down at her leg and noticed the discoloration at her ankle “you can’t walk on that, here I’ll carry you back to Postwick. Then we can deal with your ankle.” He picked her up bridal style and started following the Charizard and children out.
“Oh …thanks” Ari mumbled, brain reeling from being picked up like a couple of grapes, and wrapping her arms around his neck for support.
Leon sends her a dazzling smile as he continues to follow behind Charizard and the kids ahead talking amongst themselves. Minutes pass and the trees and fog start to thin as specks of houses and golden fields come into view.
“Finally out of that dense fog and the weld!” Hop bounces forwards and tosses both his hands up.
“We should probably let our mums know safe, then we’ll see you at Wedgehurst” Gloria pats Hop’s shoulder as she passes by with her twin in tow.
“And we should head back to our place, gonna need to get ahold of some supplies for her ankle” Leon nudges Hop as he passes by with Ari and Ricky.
“Right right!” Hop bounds past the smaller group and down the road to a purple roofed house.
“He’s got a lot of energy” Ricky chuckles at seeing Hop wave his hands at them before slipping in.
“He sure does!” Leon chuckles back as they pass by a miniature battlefield and up to the front door “Makes everyone pretty active too.” Leaning against the door to open it “you two can wait on the couch I’ll go grab the kit!” He says placing Ari down and bolting around the corner; up the stairs and out sight leaving Ricky and Ari to sit on the couch and wait for his return.
“They got a nice house here.” Ari absently mentions looking around the living room.
“And a helluva lot of trophies too” Ricky motions to the wall of trophies “What do you think he does to get all those?”
“It could be a lot of things, but he looks like he’s got a uniform.”
“Maybe I’ll ask when he gets back.”
“When who gets back?” Leon rounded the corner first aid kit in hand.
“Hm… The Trophies? They’re mine from some of my Pokémon battles.”
“Oh cool!” Ari and Ricky say in unison.
“Thanks!! It’s a lot of hard work but it's fun, have you guys thought of being trainers?” Leon questions lifting Ari’s leg to wrap it in bandages.
“Are we even allowed to? I mean, can we start now?” Ricky asks curiously, leaning on his elbows; watching the bandages slowly wound around.
“Of course! It’s never too late to be one, I want everyone in Galar to be one, kind of a dream of mine” standing up with a clap of his hands “there you leg is wrapped, probably should stay off it for a couple days…meaning you might be trapped here for a while, hope you don’t mind.” Leon chuckles sheepishly as he rubs the back of his neck.
“If it means I get to see some more Pokemon, I'm down.” Ari's eyes sparkled.
“I seconded that!” Ricky chimed, eyes sparkling just as much as Ari’s.
“Well Postwick does have a lot of Wooloo, and butterfrees tend to hang around the fields too.” Leon mentions picking up the first aid kit before he carries it back upstairs. “Tho Gloria and Victor’s place have some budews and the tall grass has a few different types on the way to Wedgehurst.” He places a few blankets on the couch next to Ricky before leaving and come back with a cot “Normally you can catch Rookidees and Skwovet, Hoothoots are pretty rare but they're out there too.”
“That sounds so cool, god wish I wasn't stuck. I wanna check them out so much.” Ari whined leaning back on the couch to toss her leg up on Ricky.
“Soon, and then we can stare at all the pokemon.” Ricky teases, jabbing a finger into the calf of Ari’s leg.
“Just a day or so, should be good.” Leon says before the door swings open showing three people entering the house “Mum, Grandmum-mum, Grandpa-pa, you’re all back early.” Leon walks over to his family grabbing the bags out of his mother’s hand.
“There weren't so many people at the market today, so we finished up a bit earlier than usual.” she says “and I see you have company over.” she eyes the duo with a gentle gaze “Are they joining us for dinner?” she questions looking back at Leon.
“Yes, Ari twisted her ankle while in the Slumbering Weald, so I brought her here to rest.”
“The Slumbering Weald? Why were they in there, people shouldn’t be going in there.” Concern growing in her voice.
“They said they came from a wormhole inside of the Weald. I haven’t had a chance to go in and look for it.”
“A wormhole?”
“Interesting isn’t it!, I wonder if there’s any pokemon there to fight, haven’t had a chance to ask with everything happening!” Leon laughs, his voice ringing out into the living room where Ari and Ricky sit with his grandparents.
“You poor thing, you rest up now. You’ll be on your feet soon enough.” The elderly lady coos patting Ari’s leg “They’ll finish dinner soon enough as well.” She says the clanking and clattering of pans and glass sounding off in the kitchen before Leon walks out laughing as he is shooed out by his mother.
“Getting along with my Grands?” He asks the duo plopping down between Ari and Ricky.
“Yes actually, they’re wonderful.” Ricky says laughing at Ari’s confused face.
“That’s good, I hope they weren’t just talking about me.” Leon smiles sheepishly, hand raising to rub the back of his neck.
“We did get a few retellings of some of your battles.” Ricky nudges him in his rib alongside Ari.
“Well, how bout we change the topic, hm!?” waving his hands about
“Sure! Since we’re new to Galar, what’s here?” Ari asks, as she catches Leon’s arm right before it smacks her in the chest.
“Uh...yeah u-um” he stutters out “let’s see, There’s Lake Miloch it’s a massive lake in front of the city of Motostoke real pretty you can see all sorts of pokemon lazing together around and in it and there's also Hammerlocke’s Vault where you can see the tapestry for the story of the heroes of Galar.” He calms down settling into his spot between the duo “There’s also Hulbury it’s got this wonderful seafood restaurant called the Captain’s Table, and a little market too.”
“Woah, they all sound so cool.” Ari leans forward peeking at Ricky “We have to check those places out!”
“Agreed!” Ricky chimes back.
“There’s also the ferris wheel in Wyndon; it's got a good view of the entire city.” Leon adds after watching them excitedly talk about their future plans.
“Oo! What kind of ferris wheel?” Ari asked looking at Leon curiously “It’s not like one of those traveling ones, they always scare me.
“No, it doesn’t move, but it is pretty big! Real nice too” He adds in staring back at her as her eyes widen in glee.
“Well, now I have to try it!” Ari smiled looking between Leon and Ricky.
“Yeah… I could take you there, Gotta head back to Wyndon for some work related stuff soon.” Leon flushed eyes looking everywhere but at Ari.
“You will!” she squealed Ricky rolling his eyes as he watched the both of them get lost in their conversation he glanced over at Leon’s grandparents who sent teasing glances towards Ari and Leon.
“Dinner!” Leon’s mother calls, pulling everyone out of their thoughts. A sound of footsteps barreling down the stairs make everyone laugh as Ricky and the older couple make their way to the dining table glancing back at Leon helping Ari over.
After everyone is sitting amongst the table and food has been passed around Leon’s mother looks over at the duo a smile graces her face “I haven’t had the chance to introduce myself, I am Samira.”
“Ricky, and that’s Ari” his hand motions to the girl over on his left.
“Hello!” she chirped, twirling the utensil in her fingers.
“I hope everything is to your liking, I know it's not much, since I didn’t know we were gonna have guests.”
“Oh it’s fine, it’s very good.” they both chime in beaming at her.
“That’s good!” Samira chuckles, fork clattering against the plate.
Hop sits between his brother and mother eyes flitting around the room and all the people as he devours his food, talking Leon’s ear off about a battle that he’s been in recently and about a challenge. Leon laughs, lifting his hand to ruffle Hop’s mop of purple hair, Ari chuckling elbowing Ricky to watch the siblings as Hop’s face scrunched up as he pouted. Dinner passed in a whirlwind of chatter before it all died down as everyone got ready for bed.
Ari plopped on the couch, as Ricky climbed into the cot before having a blanket smacking him in the face. She laughed quietly as Ricky’s face came from under the blanket unamused. A set of footsteps are heard coming down the stairs before Leon appears with more blankets in his hands as he makes his way to the other couch. The duo exchange glances before cracking jokes about it turning into a sleepover.
“Ah, come to join us at Bruised Ankle Bungalow?” Ari teases, making Leon’s face flush as he pulls the blankets up to his face.
“Well, I didn’t want to make you guys feel lonely.” he teases back, making Ricky snicker.
“Yeah, make us feel lonely” Ricky chuckles, adding extra emphasis on us in his sentence flustering both Ari and Leon before he flops back with a ‘goodnight guys’.
“Goodnight.”
“Night.”
Morning rose to the sound of Rookiedee and Wooloo waking for the start of their day. Ricky woke up first out of the trio, eyes bleary before he pulled his glasses up from their place on the floor. He looked over at Ari still out cold, and Leon woke up seconds after him. Rolling over and pulling the pillow out from under his head ready to beam it at Ari before a pillow came flying at his face, a soft giggle sounding off before Ari’s face came into his view. Leon spins around just as the pillow collides with Ricky's face and sees Ari giggle as she covers her face before she gets up and moves to hover over her friend.
“I take it we’re fully awake?” Leon asks, watching Ricky climb from the cot and Ari slip her glasses on her face.
“Yep, surprised you’re awake Ari, you sleep like the dead when you want to.” Ricky says, folding his blankets.
“Same here, my ankle doesn’t hurt anymore either, which is odd.” Ari replies back wiggling the ankle that she hurt.
“That good, at least, you can see all those places you planned early now.” Leon chimes in “I have to head to Wyndon so you...could join me, sightsee while I do what I need to and we can check out the Roue de l’amour.”
“Is that the name of the ferris wheel?” Ricky asked “What’s it mean?” Ari chimed in with equal amounts of curiosity.
Leon stammered, face flushing as he looked between the two, both of their heads tilting before he started with a mumble “Wheel Of Love.” Ari’s eyes sparkled and Ricky laughs unsurprised by the name “b-but yeah.. it’s nice and there’s a good place to eat around there too.”
“You two can ride the wheel I’m gonna be roaming, but I will take you up on your offer of food.”
“Well then Leon, it’ll just be the two of us.” Ari smiled up at him “well, till food time.” she snorted, shoving Ricky who shoved her back.
“Yeah… it’ll be champion time!” He smiled back, face slowly recovering from his flush before a thud sounded behind them.
“LEE! You’re still here, great!” Hop yelled bounding over to the group.
“What is it Hopscotch?”
“Can you endorse us for the gym challenge this year?!!”
“You, Gloria, and Victor? You guys aren’t even ten years old yet, you have one more year before I can do that, and the twins still need Pokémon.” Leon ruffles Hop’s hair who in return sticks out his tongue before bolting back up the stairs.
With that Leon followed Hop up the stairs to get ready for the day, leaving Ari and Ricky downstairs to finish cleaning up their mess before dragging stuff out of their bags to start their morning. Soon all three are ready to leave standing at the entrance way of the house, Leon’s family standing off to the side saying their goodbyes and ‘see you soon’. They step outside to the sky being cleared, but everything is still wet from an early morning shower, making their way down to the Station in the small town over the trio making jokes and ribbing each other before they stand at the little town of Wedgehurst.
“This place is so charming!” Ari cooed looking over the town as they headed to the train station.
“It is! My childhood best friend lives here. In the purple building over there actually.” Leon says, pointing to the purple building at the far end of the street.
“Oo, what do they gotta be doing to be living in a lovely house like that?” Ari asks spinning to face Leon.
“She works with her grandmum-mum as a pokemon researcher, She might be out to her house which is passed here on route two.”
“There’s more passed here?” Ricky looked up the road.
“It’s really just professor Magnolia’s, Sonia’s grandmum-mum house and lake out there.” Leon says “Lakes real big too, has a little island in the middle of it.”
“That sounds so cool.” the duo says in unison as they enter the station.
Murmurs sound off behind the trio as people follow the groups every movement, giving Ari and Ricky off putting feelings of being watched before the train pulls into the station and they all climb aboard. Soon the train is moving as Ricky leans back into the plush chair watching the scenery change at an increasing pace. Leon walks off saying he has a call to make and he’ll be back. Spacing out only to be shaken by Ari sitting directly next to him, a pastel purple rectangle object in her hand.
“Dude! check your phone! I think something is wrong with it!” her voice increased in panic.
Ricky pulled his phone out of his bag confused why they had the same weird rectangle object in black “what is this?”
“That’s a Rotom phone, looks like some rotom decided they wanted to be in your phone.” Leon chuckles plopping in the chair across from them.
“Can we make 'em leave?” Ari asks nose crinkling.
“I’m not entirely sure, but we can try?” Leon ends his sentence with a question, not entirely sure how they would go about it.
“Honestly, no, sounds like too much work.” Ari replies back placing said phone on the table just for it to get up and move “oh…”
“Oh…” Ricky echoed his phone floating after Ari’s.
Leon releases a quiet laugh, the rotom phones floating around the heads of Ari and Ricky only making the duo pout about the roaming phones. “We should exchange info so I can find you guys when I’m done, before we all forget.” The rotoms floating back down to the table.
“Yeah that would be smart.”
They trade info before a voice calls out over the intercom of the incoming station for Wyndon. They all step out to a crowd of people swarming the stations yelling and cheering. Leaving the trio to get separated from each other, Ari and Ricky stumble out without Leon.
“Who are they cheering for?” Ricky asks Ari as they squeeze their way through the crowd, losing Leon in the chaos.
“Not sure, but we lost Leon, but I think I can see his snapback.” Ari said standing on the tips of her toes catching a glimpse of his hat brim. “Don’t think we're getting to him, so where should we head first?”
“There’s a restaurant right there, Wanna check it out?” Ricky asked, pointing to a striped awning.
“I’m down, getting hungry anyway.” Ari said, walking ahead of Ricky in the direction of the eatery.
Eventually they're eating a basket of fries placed between the two, as Ricky takes a sip from his drink. The atmosphere is quiet with only a handful of people sitting around the small building, leaving the duo to watch people and pokemon walk by the massive window they’re sitting next to.
“So! looking at what Wyndon has to offer outside the ferris wheel, there’s a clothing store not too far from here.” Ari coos spinning her rotomphone towards Ricky.
“Guess we have to check out, maybe it’ll have stuff we like.” Ricky laughed pushing the phone back towards his friend who beamed at him.
‘Great! We can go from there!” She said, grabbing a fry from the basket “Hopefully Leon simultaneously takes a while and also not too long, I wanna ride that ferris wheel so bad.”
“I just wanna know where this food place he was talking about.” Ricky pulled his cup from his mouth.
“Of course, I mean he’s offering food, hopefully really good food.”
Soon they finished they’re drinks and fries and started their walk to the store, Ari leading the way with the phone in her hand as she looked at the name of the store.
“This is it! HonEdge Topic.” Ari beamed, opening the door for her and Ricky.
“My god, it’s edgy.” Ricky said slipping passed Ari “wait I see plaid pants.” He B-lined towards them Ari following in tow only being momentarily distracted by a rack of skirts.
“Tragic, we don't have enough money to buy anything.” Ari sighed looking over a skirt.
“Quick, what's the fast way to make money?!” Ricky spun around pointing at Ari.
“Nothing legal.” She chuckles trying to contain the smile crossing her face.
“Fair enough.”
“I’ve found a jacket you’d absolutely love” Ari pulled it from the rack waving it in Ricky’s face before he grabbed it from her hands.
“You’re right… I love it.” He slipped it on showing off before taking it off and handing it back to Ari.
Eventually they leave out, walking further past the boutique and into another stretch of stores. They float in and out or look through windows in passing as they wander the streets of Wyndon. Soon they're standing by a waterfront, the Roue De L'amour towering over the buildings it surrounds, slowly spinning in the twilight.
“That must be the ferris wheel!” Ari pointed leaning against the railing.
“Wonder how close to it we are?” Ricky questioned.
“Wanna find out?”
“Duh.” Ricky said looking down the path to find a way over before one of their rotom phones went off “I think that’s you?” He said staring down at his
Ari pulled her phone from her pocket and Leon's face appeared on the lit up screen “Oh Leon! Are you finished with your work?”
“Yep! I just got out, how-” Leon replied before his voice cuts off “Sorry mate, next time!” He calls over the phone confusing Ari and Ricky “Sorry, how’s the sightseeing going?”
“Great!” They say in unison “We can see the ferris wheel from where we’re standing.” Ari said eyes flitting back to the wheel in the distance.
“Are you by the waterfront then, do you see a large tower? It’s got green glass spiraling up it.” Leon said, voice coming out breathy.
“Yeah, with a dome on the top?” Ari questioned looking at the top of the tower to the right of the ferris wheel.
“That’s it, could you meet me there, there should be a lift on the main street.” his voice coming out loudly and quick before quieting down to hush, a mumbled ‘sorry’ floats through the phone.
“Sure” Ari said before he said ‘See you soon’ and ended the call. “Guess we got a funky tower to go visit.”
“Rad, I was gonna ask if we could see it as well, so this is good.” Ricky said stepping in pace next to Ari as they headed back to the main street
Main streets end day hustle and bustle bewilders the duo as they pass back through heading to the monorail, weaving in and out of crowds as they curiously eye the streetwear they keep coming across. The ride to the tower is short and quiet as they look through the glass staring at the city passing by before landing at the base of the tower. As they approached Leon barrels out of the front doors, nearly missing the duo before he slid to a halt, behind him a man and women stood a small distance away.
“Excited to see us or something Leon?” Ari questions laughing as Leon catches his hat from flying off with the force of him stopping.
“Yes actually, for two reasons. First reason is that the chairman of the league wanted to meet the two of you.” He said shifting to the left of the duo showing the pair behind him “and two being, I just can’t wait to bring you to the ferris wheel, and then the both of you to my favorite place to eat.”
The shorter of the two walks up the group hand extended for a shake, stopping a few meters before them, Ricky’s hand raising to shake theirs Ari following behind.
“Hello I'm the chairman of league Rose and welcome to Rose Tower.” The man smiles, falling back to place by his side.
“Thank you and it’s nice to meet you sir.” Ricky says “I’m Ricky and that’s Ari.”
“I hope Wyndon has been treating you well, Leon’s told me a bit of how you arrived here.” he replies “If I remember correctly the Slumbering Weald is one the farthest part of the region what lies beyond it is the Crown Tundra, and you dont look like you were dressed to be there. An odd place to be showing up isn’t it.” He chuckles looking at the duo.
“Yeah, we came through a wormhole or something.” Ricky says looking over at Ari who shrugs in turn.
“How fascinating, you have to tell me more. Over dinner I can show you everything Wyndon has to offer.”
“Ah excuse me, chairman Rose, we're planning to eat at the King’s Shield after I showed Ari to the ferris wheel.” Leon interjected.
“Not both of them?” Rose questioned.
“Ricky is gonna keep sightseeing till we go eat.” Ari mentioned.
“Well then I shouldn’t keep you all from your adventure, but Leon could you come here a second there’s one more thing I’d like to discuss before you go.” Rose said, motioning Leon to him.
“I’ll be right back.” Leon followed after chairman Rose back into the building. The duo watched him going, starting a conversation before Leon came back out lost in thought.
“Welcome back.” Ari said, looking over at him.
“Uh, thanks.” he mumbled back before snapping out of his thought process.
“Whatcha thinkin’ bout?”
“The gym challenge, the new season starts soon. Everyone has been wondering if I’ll endorse anyone.”
“Are you?” Ricky asked as they walked towards the monorail station.
“Possibly” He chirps.
“Gonna tell us who?” Ari asks, nudging his shoulder.
“You’ll find out in about two days time.” he nudges back before following Ricky off the monorail and out the station.
“Have fun on your date.” Ricky coos as he spins on heel to face the other two, both of their faces flushing Ari’s breaking into a quiet set of giggles when Leon tilts his head down using the brim of his hat to cover his face.
“We will…” Leon mumbles, grabbing Ari’s hand and leading her in a direction.
Ricky laughs at the duo as they walk off, the embarrassment wearing off as the moment soon passes them. Soon he comes across another tiny cafe nestled on a corner of a street leading to a set of homes. Walking in he looks around only a few people seated quietly talking among themselves before he heads up the counter to order and steps outside to sit at one of the fews tables outside. His snack is brought out and he starts to eat before something off in the distance catches his eye and soon he’s tossing his snack back into the paper bag it came in and shoves it into the backpack he's carrying.
He stands in front of a massive garden with a group of people standing in a field, pokemon standing in front of the getting ready to face off, being distracted from the rustling coming from behind him, eventually the battling group finishes and leaves in a cacophony of laughter. Ricky pulls his bag off his back, stretching his shoulders before pulling it back on and carrying on with his sightseeing before stopping only a block later.
“Hm, my bag feels heavier than usual.” he mumbled to himself, wiggling his bag around a bit before carrying on with his tiny adventure. Eventually his bag wiggles before he topples backwards, it opening as he falls backwards, tiny black feet appearing as he stares upside down at the small creature.
“Riolu…”
“Huh… we-were you in my bag?” Ricky questions, the small creature nodding its head before turning back in the direction Ricky had come from and looking over its shoulder “Uh…do you want to go back that way?” attempts to ask before it heads off without him and he quickened his pace to catch it.
Back to where he started at the battlefield of pokemon and trainers, the small pokemon picks up its pace and excitement clearly in the way it moves faster over to the battling pokemon. Making Ricky quickly scoop them up before they could dive bomb into the middle of the battle and confuse the bystanders and their pokemon.
“You gotta wait your turn!” Ricky’s voice picking up in octave at the squirming pokemon.
“Ri…” it goes limp in his arm, head lolling backwards to look skyward.
“Okay, weird.” He mumbles to himself staring down at the tiny pokemon in his arm before looking back up and watching the battle continue before the growlithe is knocked out by an Espeon.
The stars start to make themselves noticeable by the time Ricky and Riolu stop watching the trainers battle. Ricky picks himself up from the spot he relaxed in Riolu in his arms as he travels off in a random direction down towards the waterway again, the lights of the ferris wheel making a glittering reflection.
“I wonder how Ari and Leon are on the ferris wheel?” Ricky asks looking down at Riolu who looks back up at him “Can’t wait to show you off to them.” He laughs holding the tiny pokemon closer and it replies in an exclaim. As he starts to walk off a voice calls out to him, leaving Ricky in his spot to look for the person.
“Excuse me, you dropped this.” A voice calls out behind Ricky.
He turns around to see a gentleman in a suit holding his hand out, a keychain in his palm. Passing him another man stands mint green hair pulled back in a ponytail eyeing the Riolu in Ricky’s arm.
“OH! Thank you.” Ricky reaches out and pulls the keychain from his hand slipping back into his pocket.
“It was nothing…” The man says, keeping his gaze on Ricky just a little longer.
“Hello? Are you okay?” Ricky asks, looking between the man in front of him and the other behind him “Well I gotta go….thank you again.” he turns to leave before a hand lands on his shoulder.
“It was not a problem.” the man says before releasing Ricky’s shoulder and walking back to his friend.
Ricky watches them walk off and soon they’re a distance away, leaving him confused about the encounter before he starts to walk again.