#they made Leon so pretty too but that's kinda expected

[rain-124c41]

Resident Evil Vendetta is a comedy, you can't change my mind

[mackjlee9]

kay i'll take advantage of the hyperfixation bc i'm hyperfixated too 😋 this one is quite angsty? Depends on how you wanna do the end bc i'll leave it up to you

u see how in re6 chris asks leon if he will protect ada despite all the damage she did and he says yeah he is? What if instead of chris asking is leon's long term boyfriend since raccoon city?

like reader kinda knows he's still not over ada bc let's say reader went with him to rescue ashley in re4 and well, ada was there and shit.

so with that reader this time KNOWS leon is till not over ada no matter how much time has passed and he feels kinda betrayed bc they had a full ass relationship since raccoon city and it's been YEARS.

ending up to you ofc depending on how interested u are on writing this lmao. bye byee 💖

Ehe- I tried lol

Leon Kennedy x Male!Reader [Angst]

Maybe spoilers if you haven't played/watched re6?

Masterlist.

Resident Evil 6

(M/n) almost couldn't believe how awful this vacation was turning out to be.

From shooting the president to chasing after Ada herself, Helena could look at him with an apologetic look in her hazel eyes. (M/n) hasn't explicitly told her that he and Leon were dating, just said they were together on a vacation to relax and unwind a bit from their job on the D.S.O, but the situation had become worse than they initially thought.

And now Ada was involved? Well, when wasn't she honestly, that woman seemed to have some sort of GPS on Leon because she always showed up wherever he was, it was rather odd, still, he didn't question it, coincidences were pretty common in this kind of job.

Just look at it this way, they met with Sherry a while ago and now Chris was here too.

The three of them chased after Ada, Leon in front, and (M/n) right behind him, while Helena did her best to keep up behind them, but she was injured and she was struggling to keep up the pace. (M/n) stopped and made sure she was okay, before realizing how far Leon had run already.

"(M/n), go! I'll... I'll be fine, you go after her," she said gently pushing him away, and (M/n) hesitated for a moment, but Helena's reassuring smile helped him make up his mind.

He continued running after Leon, hearing two more foreign voices echo in the building, his eyes observing how Ada was cornered by two BSAA agents and as one of them pulled the trigger, Leon hit the gun away, immediately getting involved in a fight with the man. (M/n) arrived just in time to catch a stumbling Chris and prevent him from falling when Leon kicked his stomach hard enough to make him lose his balance.

Chris groaned from the pain, even when he was kicked over his bulletproof vest, Leon has always been known for having strong legs after all.

"Here," (M/n) mumbled while standing up and helping Chris get up from the ground, hearing him grunt a small 'thank you', all the while still being pointed by Leon with his pistol, "Leon-"

"Shut up," was all the blond said, making him swallow and nod, standing back whilst Chris and Leon started arguing. About Ada, and why she needed to die. (M/n) saw Leon clench his jaw, tightening his hold on the grip of his pistol, his cold blue eyes staring into Chris', "She's a key witness, we need her."

"A witness? She's the one that did all of this!" Chris replied, angry at what Ada had done, and probably at Leon for stopping him earlier.

"No, it wasn't her, it was Simmons, the National Security Advisor," (M/n) looked at them, hearing Helena's stumbling behind them and he helped her stand up. He wasn't sure what he was expecting the outcome of this discussion would be, but something told him he wasn't gonna like it.

"I lost all of my men because of that woman!" Chris yelled as he approached Leon, who kept a firm stance, not even blinking at his outburst.

"And I lost over seventy thousand people, including the president, because of Simmons!" He replied back with the same tone, followed by a deafening silence, the light of a chopper landing on them through the window.

Chris sighed and looked down, shaking his head before staring back at Leon, "She works for Neo-Umbrella, you know what that means?"

(M/n) watched as Leon sighed, "I do."

Glancing back and forth between the two of them, (M/n) took a deep breath, and took a step forward, slightly covering Chris with his body, he doesn't know what made him do it, maintaining eye contact with Leon's blue eyes, that remained cold and serious.

"After all she did to you, to me, to us... You're still gonna protect her, Leon?" The few seconds of silence that followed made his ears ring, the fact that he had to think about it let him know his answer.

Leon's stare hardened, seemingly unfazed by (M/n)'s words, not caring about the pain in his voice.

"I am."

(M/n) released a dry chuckle, turning around and walking away, "I was scared you were gonna say that," he mumbled as he left, finding another way to go downstairs. While he waited for them, he saw a flash of white, soon followed by Ada's body gracefully flying with her grappling hook.

They made eye contact for an instant before she ran away again, like she always did, never deviating from her mission.

He unzipped his pouch, his fingers wrapping around the velvet box, gripping it tightly as tears began gathering in his eyes. (M/n) had planned this vacation perfectly, wanting to make it special and memorable, after all, he and Leon had been in a relationship for 15 years... Or so he thought, because it seemed like he was the naive one who thought that way, when Leon was clearly smitten to Ada, after everything that happened... Everything he had done to make Leon happy...

(M/n) sighed and rubbed his temple before lowering his hand to grab his pistol, but before he could, he hit one of the pouches around his hips, his world freezing and breaking down piece by piece when he realized what he had kept safe there during this whole ordeal.

All of it had been wasted, maybe... Someone else would appreciate all his efforts?

But who? He has never loved anyone other than Leon, and it's not like he could simply move on to someone else, that wouldn't be fair to the other person.

(M/n) observed the black box in his hand, hearing the footsteps of Leon and Helena approaching his position, and he had to dry away the tears that had managed to run down his face, turning toward them with a hint of a smile, putting the box back and closing the zipper again.

"We have to keep going, let's go," he will figure out what to do when all of this is over, but right now, they had a job to do.

[championleonsslut]

What about Leon's wifey going through a high-risk pregnancy? Nothing angsty, just Leon being always like "Babe no lemme do that-"

I’ve been looking for an excuse to write about the rest of the kids you have with Leon! Yippie! You can find the firstborn headcannons here. And if you want to hear about the last child you guys have together, feel free to request it!

Btw Adelina is the kid you already have with Leon :3

Leon expecting his second, (and third!) children with you

ontains: pregnancy, kids, kinda nsfw? Not super in detail birth stuff but it’s there 🤷‍♀️ ITS A LONG ONE BABES

Adelina was a wonderful daughter. You both loved her more than you could imagine. Leon was especially fond of his little girl, loving her as much as he could. Since he ran the battle tower now, he certainly had more time to care for his child.

But you both knew you wanted more than one child. Since your first pregnancy was pretty low-key, and Adelina was three now, you both thought it was about time to have another. Leon seduced you into it one night, and you were happy to agree.

Of course, it didn’t just take one night to conceive your second child. It actually took about three months of trying. But when you saw that positive pregnancy test, you got so excited.

You surprised Leon with it that night, and he was ecstatic. You both knew Adelina would also be a great big sister, but that a new baby might also make her feel jealous and forgotten. You planned to tell her later, as it was far too early.

Things went smoothly for the first six weeks, up until it was time for your first ultrasound. Leon couldn’t make it, as he was working at the battle tower that day. So you left Adelina with her grandmother, who was ever so happy to care for her granddaughter, and left to go to the doctors.

You teared up when you heard the baby’s heartbeat. Then the doctor pointed to the ultrasound screen.

“There’s the baby.”

You teared up at the little blob.

“And here’s the other baby.”

What.

You were flabbergasted to learn you were not just expecting one baby, but TWO babies. Twins! It definitely took some time to process. Instead of having two children, you’d have three. Could you really deal with two newborn babies?

But you knew with Leon beside you, everything would be just fine.

When you showed him the ultrasound pictures later, his jaw dropped.

“I put TWO in you???”

“Yes Leon.”

Despite being terrified, he was also more than happy. Even though two babies would be a lot, he knew it would be wonderful. Plus, you’d only have to go through labor once and get two babies out of it.

He totally said that multiple times too.

Since you were carrying twins, your pregnancy was far more high risk than a normal pregnancy. Leon was constantly on edge for you, and once it got to your second trimester he was practically doing everything for you.

“Babe trust me, you sit, I’ve got this.”

“🙄”

Telling Adelina was what made you both nervous. You weren’t sure how she’d react, and it especially scared Leon. He didn’t want his little girl to feel like you were replacing her.

But you both sat her down once your second trimester came around, and explained things.

You told her that mommy was expecting two babies, and she would be a big sister to both of them. Leon assured her that you weren’t replacing her, and instead giving her two friends.

Adelina was ecstatic. She was ever so excited to have two little siblings.

She did ask how the babies got in your belly though, which you decided to talk about another time.

She didn’t mind being moved out of the nursery either, and into her brand new room. Her only request was that it was Alcremie themed, which you both happily made happen.

With Adelina out of the way, that left the rest of your friends and family.

Hop and Leon’s mother were surprised and excited to learn you were expecting two more babies. His mother both wished you good luck, and promised to help whenever you needed it.

Raihan, Sonia and Nessa were all excited for you guys too, just shocked to learn it was twins.

You had to take maternity leave at twenty weeks, since your stomach was already so much larger than your first pregnancy. But that did mean you got to spend a lot more time with your daughter!

Then the time came to find out the genders of your babies, you wanted it to be private with just you and Leon. So the doctor sent you home with a little note, that you and Leon opened up at home. You both didn’t care what genders the babies were, as long as they were healthy.

Baby #1 was a girl.

Baby #2 was a boy.

You were both terribly excited to be getting one of each. Just like last time, Leon was incredibly picky with choosing names.

And then your third trimester came along. You felt huge, and both babies were barely leaving any room in your body. Despite how undesirable you felt, Leon had been fucking you silly throughout the entire pregnancy, and found you irresistible. It helped that your libido was so high during this pregnancy too.

Leon took the last three months off from the battle tower, since he felt you needed his help more than the tower did. You were very appreciative, and he was just happy to help.

Adelina was fascinated by how large your stomach had grown, and loved feeling for baby kicks. She squealed whenever one of them kicked her hand.

Leon was no better than his daughter.

And at thirty-five weeks, five weeks early, the twins decided to come now. It was right as you were getting ready for bed when you started having contractions. You recognized them from last time, and went right to Leon. He panicked a bit, but quickly called his mom to come watch Adelina for the rest of the night.

All the commotion had woken her up, so you both kissed her goodbye when she came downstairs. He grandmother explained that the babies were going to be born, and Adelina was extremely excited.

Your labor progressed very slowly, and Leon was pacing in the hospital room the entire time. When you told him to sit down, his leg wouldn’t stop bouncing.

But when it was finally time, it was determined that both babies were head down, so you agreed to try a vaginal birth. Leon stayed by your head the entire time you pushed, not complaining once about how much you were squeezing his hand.

It took about an hour, but soon a baby’s cry filled the air. The doctor took your newborn son out, and he was quickly taken away to be cleaned up and checked out.

Your daughter didn’t take that much longer to push out, as her brother had already cleared the way. She was born two minutes after her brother, crying as loudly as he had been.

Leon gave you a big kiss once the twins were born. His eyes were filled with happy tears, as the babies were brought over.

They handed your son to you, and the girl to Leon. They both yawned and stopped crying once they were in your arms.

The boy had your skin and your hair, but with his father’s beautiful golden eyes. The girl had your skin too, but Leon’s hair and your eyes.

They were absolutely perfect, and you both were sobbing over them. You traded babies so you each got to hold them.

Of course, they needed names. You both had agreed on the ones you liked best, and those were written down on the certificates.

Hugo Finn Woodrow

And his sister

Genevieve Fern Woodrow

You brought them home two days later, where Adelina was patiently waiting to meet her new siblings. You sat her down on the couch, and handed Hugo over to her as Leon cradled Genevieve. His mother cooed over the baby girl, while Adelina gently held her brother.

She was completely enamored by him, and didn’t want to hand him over to hold her sister. She did anyway, and was just as enamored by her baby sister.

It was safe to say she loved them both.

Dealing with two newborns and a toddler was hard, but Adelina was surprisingly easy throughout it all. It was the twins that were a problem.

Oh how they loved to cry. They absolutely loved it. It certainly kept Leon up, as he’d taken the night shift so you could sleep. He slept during the day, and had to take even more time off of the battle tower until the twins were a little older.

You both made lots of time for Adelina, playing with her and giving her just as much attention.

But as the twins grew, they got a little easier. Even with how difficult they were, you loved them lots.

You loved your little family.

And then you guys had another baby.

[torturedblue]

It’s the middle of the week, have some dancing turtles

Spoilers below as I gush about my Mutant Mayhem Monday experience 🤗 please feel free to gush with me I wanna hear other people’s thoughts too!

First off… When Seth wanted to put the teenager in TMNT he meant it. Like, all the versions act like teenagers, but like Nickelodeon PG stereotypical teens. MM turtles were the realest PG-13 outta pocket 21st century teenagers I’ve ever seen and I love that shit because it’s the first time I actually felt like I was around the kids in middle school and high school again with the way they talk. Kinda appreciate Superfly cussing too? Like idk it’s Ice Cube and this villain goes hard tryna kill some teenage turtles he formally saw as his lil cousins, let the grown mutant cuss

Also uh, was not expecting to be sad so early in the movie? Like I could tell from the trailers it was gon be an emotional rollercoaster but shit like ten minutes in and these turtles are fuckin depressed. And to see it really hit me because in every other version (except for Bayverse) the turtles literally never let not being part of the human world get to them. In the shows especially they’re so well adjusted and never bothered by sticking to the shadows. Then there’s Rise where they pretty much go out whenever they want and indulge in most of the human world stuff they want to. For these guys to be so stunted and desperate to have more freedom was so heart wrenching. Especially when Splinter grounds them for a whole month and the reality sinks in of how much they know the life they want isn’t an option for them

Wasn’t expecting any kind of ship or romance but that crush Leo has on April hit me like truck because…… holy crap the Leo-April pair has never been a thing? On top of that this is only the second on screen black April we’ve seen and I’ve been a Leo kinnie across the board since day one so to see this combo of my favorite character liking a black girl is making me lose my mind 🥲 and like it got me thinking of several of my favorite shows and the single characters I kin in those and if they’ve ever had black love interests and it’s just still not a common normalized thing honestly.

I’m sure a lot of people aren’t excited for the prospect of ships coming back (especially after 2012 scarred us) but as a Leo lover and black girl it got me so excited to see something like this. I’m just hopeful and optimistic they won’t mess it up like a lot of shows do. The “this is just as friends line” already makes me a little worried bc that trope never has a good history but I have faith they’ll handle things tastefully and not make it toxic or messy

MURDER THE SHREKS!

“I assume you’d wanna be on camera. ‘Cause you have, like a very camera ready look…” OKAY SMOOOOOTH LEONARDOOOOOO 👏🏽

Could not stop laughing while he was shooting his shot my face was literally donnie’s restraining myself from bursting out laughing

Just a couple of my favorite questions that April wrote down for them:

“Do you carry salmonella?” Look I still don’t know wtf salmonella is but it’s the second time a TMNT iteration has joked about it so I’m starting to think it has something specifically to do with turtles 👀

“Have you caught covid?” Oml covid exists in this world

“Are you the source of covid?” OUT OF LINE 💀

“How many people has the red bandana turtle stabbed? Does he need therapy?” Yes.

“Does sunlight cause you to burst into flames?” They’re- they’re not vampires? 😂

Leon Ardo deserves the world and whatever he wants in it give him everything 😭

I will never understand what made Donnie laugh so hard at the name Nardo other than it being because it’s his sibling and that it bothers Leo lmao

All imma say about the puke scene is that I’m glad I heard an “out of context” spoiler about it bc I knew exactly when to look away and I’m glad I did bc the scene lasted for so long??? 😀❓But hey at least I had Unwritten to listen too while I was sparing my eyes 😂

The sequence of them going around and shaking down those gangs and Superfly’s connections. BAD. ASS. And each of them got their own moments to shine? Loved it. Like they each even got to take point and have their moments where they got to kick in the door lol. And the fight scenes were just, muah. Chef’s kiss, they all looked amazing taking grown ass adults down together

Okay Splinter definitely gets the best dad award for putting together that little surprise party, with all the celebrity Chris’s and pretending to wait on them 🥺 so pure. It did make me sad the guys immediately left and you can just see such a sad dejected look on Splinter’s face, knowing he can’t provide what his kids really want or make them happy enough without it 🥲 At the very least they say thanks and that they appreciate but I would’ve at least stayed for a lil bit and gone along with it, Splinter just looked so excited about it and it was so sweet 😭

And he doesn’t even get upset though he knows they’re hiding something, he just says he’ll help them if they’ve gotten into trouble, which is something I’m sure almost every kid has wanted instead of having the kind of relationship where they’re more scared of telling their parents they messed up instead of handling it on their own

I love how musical Superfly’s family is 😂 Ray Filet just starts sing-introducing his name and Mondo and the other couple mutants when they drive with in the car trying to find music they could all sing to together 🥹 not to mention the musical references Superfly makes later that I’ll get to. “Kinda don’t wanna murder everyone on Earth, I just kinda wanna sing” Me too bruh.

Raph immediately going “goochi goochi goo” and playing peekaboo with Genghis frog is so underrated that boy has such a soft side he’s not even that afraid of showing at times, and maybe it’s continuing the trope of Raph having a soft spot for pets/animals? Who knows 😌

Yo I was kinda shook when that government guy knocked Leo out and he just fell unconscious on the ground 😶 Like we’re used to seeing the authorities be brutal especially in movies like this but that’s a whole teenager? You just assaulted a minor? 🙂 Crazy

Also I know it’s sad they got captured and drained painfully but Mikey in that scene was hilarious 😂 like even the way he was dramatically crying and Leo was just started to cry with him like “iM sO sOrRy mIkEeEeEy! 😭” gold. When one of his children is hurting Leo hurts too. One of my favorite moments 🤣

They literally started singing BTS while being tortured they’re so unserious but like in a serious way to them and I love it. Also the fact that they did it just to make Donnie feel better? So pure. Like Raph of all turtles offered to sing while being drained of blood (bc I refuse to use the m word 💀)

The way Splinter snuck in and soloed literal government soldiers single handedly? Badass. Never loved seeing a Splinter save his sons so much 🥹

“But it’s the only way we’ll be accepted.”

“No! We accept you!”

“You can come live with us! We accept you!”

“WE VIBE!”

Oml they’re so puuuuure 😭 I really thought this was gonna be a moment where the guys invite them all to come live with them and Splinter was gonna be like ‘aha 😬 whoa slow down there’ but damn nah he was just as enthusiastic as them inviting all those mutants to come live in their home forever “The more the merrier!” Like ugh he just loves finding family like Baxter Stockman and we see where the guys got their loving nature from 🥹

The amount of his soul Mikey put into that BROSEEEPH was so real like I’ve never heard the name broseph be said in any other way, I’m so glad they put that moment in there

“New York, New York!” “I’m the king of New York!”

Oml superfly’s a Broadway baby 🤗 he’s a big bad villain marching through time square and talking about King Kong but he’s fill gonna nerd out and make his musical theatre references 😂

“For once in your life you didn’t sound lame. You actually started to sound like a leader”

“That was really heartfelt Raph”

I love the Leo Raph dynamic in this movie. Like they don’t always agree or understand each other but they will show love towards one another and show mutual appreciation

Something about any of the turtles shells cracking always gets to me for some reason like those are some serious permanent injuries so I want to see if they do anything special with that in the sequel or show maybe 🤔 And I couldn’t tell if all of theirs cracked or just one, and if so which turtle it was. I think Leo or Raph. I feel like it was Leo but Raph’s are also starting to have a trend of getting cracks in their shells so 🤷🏽‍♀️

Also I do not want to judge what other people like to wear but why are Raph and Donnie the only normal dressed ones 😭 like Mikey looks like he’s going on vacation and Leo looks like he’s going to clock in at Best Buy 😂 tell me it’s because they have limited resources for clothes lmao. HE’S LITERALLY WEARING A LANYARD

Them taking off the masks was crazy honestly… like them deciding not to wear them made my brain pause until I realize they’re kids going to school now and not being ninjas all the time… they don’t need them anymore. I’m just so pleased with the fact that this movie was willing to do what all other iterations weren’t. I see why they’re getting a sequel and show already, these guys and the plot development deserve so much more exploration

Maybe I missed something in the beginning but I’m wondering where Stockman went. Like is he still in custody? Did he die? Because not seeing him again that’s what I assumed but we only saw him get arrested or whatever, so if anything I don’t get why Superfly and the others wouldn’t try to break him out 🤔 I was surprised they didn’t make him a villain though, but I’m pretty happy about him getting to be a more optimistic kind character tho

SHREDDER HAD ME SHOOK LIKE THE ARMOR ALREADY LOOKED SO COOL AND I WAS NOT EXPECTING THEM TO GET THE BIG BAD INVOLVED AHHHH I’M SO READY TO SEE THEM REACT TO THIS ANGRY GIANT TIN CAN

Although I do wonder if Shredder’s gonna have some personal gripe with them since they have a different backstory he doesn’t seem to be a part of. And shit now that they’re public and in school it’s gonna be so much easier for him to go after them 😅 pluses and minuses…

The soundtrack: golden. Cultured. Nothing but range. Goes from a 90’s rap song to Natasha Bedingfield’s soulful 2000’s song. Most movies only ever have all pop mainstream songs or only rap songs because they think they can’t mix but MM does it effortlessly. The turtles are so versatile not just with music genres but they make old and new references ‘cause they’re well rounded kings 💪🏽 Between rizz, Adele, broski, Hey Arnold, K-Pop, Ferris Bueller, etc… I mean Donnie’s literally doing the sprinkler and the funky chicken in that gif up top 😂 they’re born in 2008 I doubt any kids today know about those dances anymore

Clearly I have all the thoughts and feelings about these boys and the movie, but I think this is probably my favorite TMNT movie? I’ve loved all of them but I think this one definitely brings me the most comfort fr

[postersofleon]

notes: um, well, this isn't smut or maybe it's crack smut. basically, sometimes the fandom seems to forget that ada and leon don't know each after those six years and i think it's funny (re2 to re4)

ada was disappointed.

ada betrayed wesker for some dick. well, not really. ada is a good person and sometimes as a mercenary you made had decisions if the client should be arrested or not. nobody could arrest wesker in her mind so the best worst thing she did was steal samples and pray to a living god that wesker didn't kill her. even wesker didn't kill her right now, ada had the worst feeling that he would kill her and if not... wesker is a kind of dick. how dare he think ada is nothing when she stole the sample g and... kinda gave him the amber and plagas.

well, ada didn't know if she wanted to die or not so as her final meal she brought in the dick.

leon s. kennedy. she didn't not like necessarily like him before. but don't get her wrong, she liked pretty men, but she liked it when men were more dominant. 1998 leon was (not to be mean) a loser. he was too good lookng, but thinking that fbi might help?... dumb. this soldier leon?

fuck yeah.

she gave him a fake promise of telling him who she was working with. ada gave him a list of stuff she knew he wouldn't reject. leon did owe it her though. ada did save him and now she is owed the dick.

but what she didn't expect was leon to still be kind of dumb and bring his field partner with him. that's how ada's disappointing night started. ada was naked with two agents looking confused. ada didn't know how she convinced them to stay, (was it her beauty or the promise of telling them about wesker's plans) and now she saw how leon was being gently kissed by them. leon sighed softly, he seemed to like your kiss that traced his freckles. you gently rubbed his shoulders.

"okay, fine." ada thought to herself. ada slowly bit his neck and leon pulled away. poor leon's dick was getting hard and not. ada's original wetness of excitement slowly dried up. this was a job. leon didn't trust ada but obviously trusted his partner. leon trusted ada enough in the missions but not here. as the night dragged itself, leon sighed, "tell me who you work for?" he asked as he clung to you. leon just had sex with you as if he kind of ignored her. at least you tried to include her into the threesome ada accidentally planned.

ada sighed and didn't respond.

[wisecrackingeric-2]

Death Island Spoiler-Free Thoughts post!!!

I JUST finished seeing DI last night (In Aotearoa) and oh my GOD???????? It was S O G O O D????????? It ABSOLUTELY lived up to my expectations!!!!!!!! I’m gonna do a spoiler-free thoughts post first and then I’ll post my spoilers post!!!!!! And if anybody wants any clips of the movie I managed to sneak in, please just ask!!

Ok first off,,, holy FUCK that beginning was S O tense. My friend and I were gripping our seats the entire time and it takes place during a pretty important moment in RE history and I think people are gonna LOVE it

And the villains motivations????? His backstory???????? LITERALLY HEARTBREAKING. It’s ACTUALLY GENUIENLY COMPELLING AND INTERESTING. His backstory is all laid out in that beginning scene and dear GOD it’s SO SAD. I’m trying to keep it Spoiler-Free obviously but I will D I E on the hill that him and his “best friend” were actually gay lovers. You CANNOT convince me otherwise

He was also just genuinely pretty frightening of a villain. He has this one repeated ‘motion’ he does throughout the movie that really makes you tense up, and there’s this one scene with a doctor character that had my friend and I on the edge of our seats

Again, his motivations were actually interesting and made sense!!!!!! And him calling out the main gangs respective organisations (BSAA, DSO, Government, Terrasave, etc etc) for being hypocrites was actually a compelling argument!!!!!!!!! It actually made the characters think!!

I’m trying to word this as best as I can without giving any of the plot away, and @highball66 has talked about this in their posts too, but throughout the movie the main gang are called ‘Pawns’ or ‘The Governments Weapons’ repeatedly quite a lot, and it makes me wonder if that’s gonna come up as an important plot point in a future game or something???? It’s very interesting to think about coupled with the implications of their respective organisations being hypocrites

You’ll all be delighted to know there is SO MUCH shipping content in this movie my GOD. S O many good Chreon moments. So many good Valenfield (for both siblings) and Chamberfield moments (in fact, every scene Rebecca’s in, Claire’s in there too :)) Shippers will have a BLAST

Just as expected, Jill and Leon are the PERFECT duo. They’re SUCH GOOD BESTIES, they work off of each other repeatedly SO WELL. They’re constantly giving each other silly goofy one-liners and saying something sarcastic to make the other one laugh, it’s great

Also, I don’t think Leon has a single serious line in this movie HXNSHDNDHXN everytime he’s on screen he’s ALWAYS saying something goofy or silly or making a pun. It’s GREAT

Also, the characters traumas actually get explored in an interesting and compelling way!!!!!!!! ESPECIALLY Jills!!!! Which makes sense cuz the movies about her, but they all get their moments to talk about how X event effected them etc etc, unfortunately none of it really gets resolved but I’m assuming they’re saving that for a future game

Jill’s kinda does???? She has a Good-For-Her moment with the villain which is fantastic and her and Chris have a good heart to heart at the end

Also, Chris Redfield fans are gonna be delighted with his character exploration in this movie

LOTS of references to Re2 & 3. In fact a BIG plot point/ motivator of the movie all stems from RE2, so Raccoon City fans are gonna have a blast!!!!!

Also, HEAPS of old characters are either mentioned or do actually show up!!!!! Nobody that I think anyone would be screaming to be excited about, but still!!

Unfortunately, Rebecca does get the exact same treatment as she did in Vendetta, but like, in the opposite direction…… she dissapeares for basically the entire movie and randomly shows up to save the day. I can’t complain though cuz seeing her work together with everyone else was FANTASTIC

This truly did feel like the avengers endgame of the RE movies, but there were also PLENTY of hints and open ends to a sequel

Finally, this truly was JILLS movie. When I was told that Jill was gonna be the main character I wasn’t really convinced, but M A N she truly SLAYS in this film. She IS THE MOMENT. This is HER movie and it shows

Aside from Leon’s random goofy one liners, I think my favourite part of this movie was the villain. I WISH I could just spoil his motivations in this post because for resident evil standards they’re SO INTERESTING and AGAIN, his thoughts on the main gangs respective organisations leave a lot to think about when it comes to future instalments!!!!!

10/10 movie, would 10000000% recommend. Truly lives up to my standards. My only negative is that Rebecca was hardly in it for the middle half but that’s it. SO glad we FINALLY got to see everyone working together (Capcom, PLEASE put your characters together like this again!!!!!!)

Forgot to add this, but Jill is cannonically a Jurassic Park fan. In fact, the entire last half of the movie is just a giant Jurassic Park reference

And I can’t PROVE this, but,,,,,, I’m 90% sure there was a Mr Beast reference. You’ll know it when you see it

[lipglossanon]

do u think u could give a little backstory on how & why sweet stepdad divorced the readers mom ?

Hello anon! 👋 and sure!

I’ve kinda touched on this in another post (but I can’t seem to find it 😅).

But basically, your mom wasn’t exactly there for you so you stayed with your grandparents. When Leon married your mom, you were youngish (like preteen/teen) so at that point whatever your mom got up to, didn’t really phase you.

You got along with Leon really well and eventually acted got along better with your mom. So you stayed more and more at their place since Leon made the new home a pretty stable environment. You still kept to yourself a lot or stayed with your grandparents. It’s why you and Leon were more like comfortable acquaintances more than anything for a long time. You thought of him as like a mentor type person vs father figure.

You like the new life you have. Your mom on the other hand, started working longer hours and frequently going on business trips until it got to the point you hardly ever saw her. It comes to a head one day and Leon confronts her over pretty much abandoning you both and she straight up tells him she’s leaving him for a coworker.

You’re not surprised a bit, kinda expected something cause that’s who she’s always been but it hits Leon pretty hard (one of the reasons why it’s drinking got worse). So your mom packs her bags and Leon files for divorce. At this point, you’re 18 and so ask Leon if you can stay with him, who’s shocked you’d even ask! You’re always welcome since this is you’re home too 🥲

[tappioca]

What do you think Leon and Ashley's wedding looks like?

hello anon! would you care for some headcanons during these trying times?

in my head, their wedding would be relatively small compared to what one would expect from a wedding that has someone of ashley’s stature as the bride. papa graham’s got himself ordained so that’s one thing off their list of things to worry about.

given that ashley once got in trouble (read: kidnapped) for being the daughter of a Very Important Man, i think that another number that Spain did on her was that it made her want to be as lowkey as possible as a civilian. and that would translate to her very own wedding later in life. in my head she’s got like a maid of honor and like 2 bridesmaids then maybe ≤12 of friends and family. like just the really trusted ones. (maybe what blows up the head count are the security that papa graham vehemently insisted upon. that was his one big request as the father of the bride. although let’s face it—the safest ashley will ever be is already beside her groom.)

while ashley knows that the “star” of a wedding is the bride (let’s face it, that’s a thing), she knows leon’s introverted as heck and would want as little bells and whistles as possible—incidentally she wants that too.

as for leon’s side of the church, he of course invites his found famjam — the rest of the death island gang (chris is his best man and claire is his best woman; yeah that’s a thing), plus sherry, jake, hunnigan, helena.

also note that i said small, not simple. simple in the sense that the heads are much fewer than expected. the place and the aesthetics are where ashley’s finer/more particular tastes show up though. think hamptons, the wine and flowers having to be imported. baby girl’s still ballin’, after all. leon’s a bit shookt at the height of extravagance but he’s already dated her long enough to know that there are just some things she has finer sensibilities for.

i imagine ashley would be one of those para-celebrities (like, they’re not exactly celebrities, but they’re associated with big figures, thus the term) that someone would look up on the internet one day then just go “oh! she’s already married? to an unnamed individual?” kinda like that.

(bonus: in my hc two hours before the ceremony the bride and the groom respectively receive a paper plane with a lipstick kiss mark on it and there’s “congratulations on your wedding” written in pretty script when they unfold it.)

[alleycatchitchat]

Okay, so I first started reading Amulet in 3rd grade and it made a huge impression on me. It's an old comfort series that holds a special place in my heart. I'm fully aware that the quality has recently taken a nosedive (I felt pretty good about the books up until Supernova -- that was garbage) but I still wanted to finally finish the series. I've heard the horror stories, my expectations are low, but I think I've emotionally distanced myself enough that I can handle whatever Kazu has to throw at me.

So I'm reading Waverider, and I'm jotting down my initial thoughts and reactions! And without further ado, here they are:

Surprise, surprise! Mr. Elf actually LOVES the shadow, he's totally brainwashed, what a plot twist (Or is it? Entirely possible that this has already been hinted/revealed and I just forgot). Anyway idk something about this seems a little flat, a little unnatural. The dialogue isn't exciting enough to support the scene. or something.

who's this yellow mustache guy

"I can power the ship" Ha! That is SUCH a raw line and it caught me by surprise. This is good Emily characterization, totally badass and totally nonchalant about it. First part of the novel I have strong feelings about

Woah Galiban

Hmm okay

So I actually think this is... huh. Mixed feelings. I actually feel like this makes sense for Galiban; he's a fanatic and motivated by convictions so strong that he can use them to justify almost any decision, even if it would otherwise be out of character. If that makes sense?

But Trellis. Sweetheart. WHAT are you doing. Okay I know you don't like the throne, and I know you have maybe some respect for Galiban, but WHY do you just roll over like that? NO resistance, NO critical thinking, and the fate of your people at stake? Kazu WHAT are you DOING

Wait I still kinda thought they were gonna dethrone him. Is Galiban king now? Why is that a good idea? Just because I understand his motivations doesn’t mean I think he’d be GOOD at the JOB. and what about Trellis?

I actually liked the dream sequence. Idk, just felt right, felt natural. Harkened back to other dream sequences but Emily’s not falling for it this time and she’s not angry, she’s not relying on her rage anymore, and she’s not afraid either, she’s just frustrated.

Yes, the soldiers are just kids. Your brother is a child soldier, Emily. YOU are a child soldier. Your friends are child soldiers. You’ve been literally fine with it this whole series, why is it only now a problem?

“Deagle Swift” wtf why are we introducing new characters in the friggin LAST BOOK

“This is my gift to you” “Find your center, find balance” “come back to us” Too poetic. I get that Emily is no longer an angry angsty ‘it’s not a phase mom’ emo teen on the inside anymore, but can we keep a little of her grouchiness? Just a tad? As a treat?

I officially hate Deagle Swift. What is he doing here

RONIN! R- ron - RONIN’S BACK, GUYS!!!

I actually like Ronin’s return. Sure, it’s random and out of the blue, but so is most of this book, and I’m a sucker for strong women leader characters

WOAH WOAH WOAH SILAS MADE THEM HOLY COWWWW

CRAZY

I ACTUALLY LOVE THIS

NO Ikol you’re not fucking friends with Emily Hayes I know it’s just a manipulation attempt but come ON no way is she gonna fall for that

Aw. I kind of liked Ikol’s death. It felt meaningful and maybe a little anticlimactic but in a good way.

What the fuuuuccckkkk. Leon. You should at least be a short redhead.

“We’re not cursed or anything. We’re just aliens.” Made me laugh out loud so shoutout to that line ig

Whoops false alarm Ikol’s not dead

I’m dying. Riva. What the hell. WEIRD. 

ENZO AND RICCCOOOOOOO WOOOOOO I loved Enzo’s transformation and I like Rico’s human form he’s so dorky <333

Woooow. Wooooooow. Kazu, do the words “Show, don’t tell” mean anything to you? Anything at all? What even was that ending. Okay. All right.

So overall, pretty much what I expected. I started reading with the expectation that it would be total garbage, but there were a few aspects of the story that I actually liked, so there’s that. It’s incredibly obvious that the ending was rushed. And I don’t like a lot of things about this. But I think I’m glad I read it.

[thecodeveronica]

Well I'm dying to talk about Castlevania or I'll explode so here's my tier list for the "modern" era, regular timeline (non-LoS) games (basically SotN and onward), in honor of me getting the Platinum trophy for Dominus Collection last night :)

Reasons under the cut:

S Tier

Portrait of Ruin - LOOOOOVE this one. It's been my fave since pretty much the very first time I played it back on the DS and still is after my recent replay with the collection. Jonathan and Charlotte are just such fun protagonists and stand out a lot in this series, and I think the story is actually pretty decent in this one. By CV standards lol. Soundtrack is AMAZING, please listen to "Gaze Up at the Darkness" because it RULES. PoR also has very fair boss fights and a fair level EXP gain rate, and good drops from enemies too. The paintings are super neat too, mixes up the usual "well, here's Dracula's castle" of most of the games.

Lament of Innocence - I actually think OoE is an objectively better game overall, but I have a lot of love for Lament and am one of its big defenders so I'll put it one slot above lol. Leon! My favorite Belmont! He goes through the wringer in this game, and it's a very interesting origin story for the Belmont fight against Dracula. The gameplay is fun, kind of DMC-lite but with a whip (and cool elemental versions you can get from some optional fights). The level design is a lot of long hallways, but it has good atmosphere, and the game doesn't overstay its welcome as it is pretty short. Another FANTASTIC soundtrack too btw.

Order of Ecclesia - a game I didn't like at all back on the DS but fell in love with after my Dominus replay. Once the gameplay clicks, it is so satisfying swapping glyph loadouts and hitting weaknesses on enemies. You have to play smarter in this game, and it was fun improving. Hype as hell when you finally get to the castle, too. Shanoa is a very cool protagonist and has some of the best lines in the series, and I'm unabashedly obsessed with Albus. GOD he was so asdjfk;ls sorry, but damn was he perfectly tailored to my tastes. Story was good in this one, actually made me a bit emotional ngl, which is something I don't expect from this series lol. I lose my mind over the songs "Sorrow's Distortion" and "Rituals" just so you know

A Tier

Aria of Sorrow - extremely good game where the handheld ones found their footing fully, with a very cool concept of "what if Dracula was gone, but maybe he isn't ;)" Soma is iconic for good reason, and the Soul System is fun with a lot of options, even if I'm not nuts enough to ever try for 100% soul completion lmao. The castle is a little small in this one and it feels oddly short for the Metroidvania-era games, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. I like the almost... soft?... look of the visuals in this one. Graham is also one of the villains I kinda like the most in this series, so that's cool.

Dawn of Sorrow - Pretty much Aria of Sorrow 2 lol. But I think it loses a little without the novelty of AoS's questions about Soma as the Dark Lord and all. Also, the villains in this game are fucking goobers lol, their character designs are godawful. Other than the castle being larger this time around, I think DoS doesn't really do anything different than AoS, and since I'm a freak who values story, I prefer Aria overall. That said, Julius Mode is pretty sick and I think Dawn's soundtrack is a little stronger overall.

B Tier

Symphony of the Night - I feel like it's blasphemy putting SotN this far down, but I honestly think it is a bit overrated. Good certainly and extremely important to the franchise, but also kinda jank to go back and play. I don't like the way equipment or items work in this game, and I'm not... super fond of the castle layout compared to the higher tier games. Inverted castle is also kinda meh, the only time I like that is when PoR did it with the paintings. However, I do love the original PS1 dub of this game. Absolutely iconic. The newer one sucks because it's so safe that it loses the charm. Like, come on. I think a series that has giant Frankenstein's Monster enemies shooting bullets out of its elbows can afford to have some cheesy lines and voice acting.

Harmony of Despair - a really fun multiplayer game! But it could use more maps (that it'll never get since it's long been abandoned 😭), and character balance is a little iffy. But I have a lot of fun with this one, even just with two players! It's functionally co-op Metroidvania, what's not to like? I think this game would do quite well with a revival on modern consoles and cross-play, and I dream of a world where that exists and they add new DLC. why the hell wasn't Albus in this game btw, like wtf he literally was playable in OoE and had sprites available

Harmony of Dissonance - ...this is confusing putting the two games with "Harmony" in their name right next to each other when they're not connected at all lol. Anyway, I like HoD, but it has some definite issues, the most of the games in this tier. The visuals are... hoo boy. The color palette is a bit much. And the music is uh... it's infamous in the series for a reason. The sad thing is that I think the actual compositions are solid, just hamstrung by the shitty Gameboy sound chip or whatever, and I'm someone who usually likes retro game music. Gameplay is solid, though! The A/B castle thing is kind of annoying because this game has some atrocious warp room locations IMO, but it's fun being able to dash and slide with reckless abandon as Juste. Wind+Bible is also a godly subweapon combo

Grimoire of Souls - damn you, Apple Arcade, for having this as an exclusive. I can't speak to the gameplay on this one for that reason, but I watched a whole 3.5 hour playthrough for the story, so I'm judging on that, mostly. A fun little plot that let characters from a lot of different time periods/games interact, which is cool. Lucy and Hermina were good original characters, too. Death in this game was kinda 👀 Lol I kid I kid, I only have eyes for Albus, who was not nearly as important in this game as I'd hoped but had an extremely nice scene with Shanoa, so it was worth. Jonathan and Charlotte were also very entertaining here, as always. I'll be real: those three were the whole reason I watched this tbh

C Tier

Circle of the Moon - this game is SO HARD. Like, I eventually got good in Order of Ecclesia to overcome the difficulty, but that moment of understanding just never hit me in this game. And there are no shops!! Oh my goooooooood, why??? If you could get potions more easily, it might be a little more reasonable, but I don't think the drop rates were even that good to make up for it. The boss fights were so tough, man... If I give this another try, I might have to do the DSS glitch, which I didn't know about at the time.

Curse of Darkness - Real talk, I don't remember this one very well at this point. I mostly just remember not liking the Innocent Devil system or the map design that much and thinking it was disappointing after I loved Lament so much. Maybe I'd like it better if I tried it again now, I dunno. Not much to say here.

D Tier

Judgment - Look, I have some good memories from this game. I used to play it against my sisters. I was super excited for it at the time. But it's just a super jank game. And the story mode is BAD (aside from a few characters). Like, I can handle anime cringe. But this is the BAD kind of anime cringe, the "boob envy"-kind of anime cringe. Maria's story is *gag sounds* Also not a fan of the roster choices here. CV3 in particular gets way too much rep, the GBA-DS era not enough (only Shanoa, and even then they murdered her design???). I can't believe Soma at least didn't make it in, a character with so many moveset options? Good for Cornell being in though, nice seeing the N64 characters actually acknowledged and he had one of the better story modes too. Speaking of characters, who thought it was a good idea to do a game that was functionally a big ol' celebration of the series with character designs that so drastically changed most characters into being unrecognizable? The Death Note expy jokes are played out, but they're so true nonetheless. The worst thing is still Maria's story mode and especially her interaction with Sypha, though. I cannot stress enough how bad it is. It makes me feel embarrassed just thinking about it lmfao

[lightsburnbrite]

The Love You Want: Part 4

When Elena looked back at me, it was with equal parts exasperation and exhaustion. I had expected her to say something, anything, but instead she continued to stare at me.

"I, um, I didn't realize you had a date. I guess I kind of…ruined things." My voice caught the lump that was forming in my throat. "That's what I do, isn't it? Ruin things? I'll just leave you alone."

“Leon, wait.”

I turned back around to see Elena taking her shoes off. She approached me, tentatively, and wrapped her arms around my waist as she leaned against me. I put one arm around her shoulders and cradled her neck with my other hand. I wanted so badly to kiss her but, for now any least, I was going to follow her lead.

“Do you know how long I’ve been waiting to hear you say that?”

"Too long." I let out a little laugh as I rested my head against hers. "I really am sorry about the guy. I didn't know you had someone over."

I felt Elena shake her head before she stepped back. "He lives in Berlin so nothing serious was going to come from it anyway. Does Lara know you're here?"

"That doesn't really matter." I reached out and wiped away a single tear that lingered on her cheek. "She got pretty bent out of shape when I told her you were far more important to me than she would ever be and if she was going to make me choose, she wouldn't like my choice."

Elena cocked her head to the side. "Does that mean…are you still together?" 

"Nope, I'm a single man." I couldn't help the smirk on my face. "But I'm kinda hoping we can change that."

Standing on tiptoes, Elena wrapped her arms around my neck, resting her head against my chest. "Are we doing this?"

I gently pushed her away from me, cradling her chin in my hand. "Yeah."

I ran my hands along her sides before dragging one hand up her back. Finally, I paused. "So…how am I supposed to get you out of this dress?"

She laughed as she placed her hands over mine. "How about you get me into the bedroom first instead of the middle of the living room?"

"Good point." I leaned in to kiss her again. "Lead the way."

Elena took my hand as she walked back towards a closed door. As soon as she opened it, Greta bounced out, tail wagging. 

"Hi, pretty girl." Elena cupped the dogs face with her hands and kissed her nose. "Can you give me a few minutes?"

She turned back to me, taking my hands and guiding them to the hemline of her dress. "It's stretchy, just pull it over my head."

I let my forehead rest against hers, kissing her briefly, before I hooked my fingers under her dress and began to pull it up over her hips. Elena lifted her arms over her head helping me to pull it off the rest of the way. I tossed it aside and looked at the lingerie she was wearing. I had to admire the matching set, all in sheer black lace with a subtle gold shimmer, the typical bra and panties were joined with a garter belt and thigh high stockings.

"Fuck, can I just," I took her hand and encouraged her to spin. "Damn."

Elena giggled, clearly enjoying the compliment. 

I pulled her back against me, giving her backside a squeeze. "I mean, I'm a little jealous, knowing you put this on for him."

"Nope." I felt her hand moving to the bottom of my sweater. She tugged it over my head before tossing it aside and focusing on the buttons of my shirt. "It was a blind date. I like wearing fancy lingerie just for me."

Once she made it to the bottom of the placard, Elena ran her hands up my chest and over my shoulders. She slid my shirt off and threw it over with my sweater.

“Ok,” Elena looked at me with a smirk. “When did you turn into the Incredible Hulk?”

I saw that as the perfect opportunity. Lifting her by her thighs so she could wrap her legs around my waist, I carried Elena to her bed. Crawling on my hands and knees, I positioned my self over her. Starting at her collarbone, I placed a trail of kisses down to her hip before moving back to her lips. She giggled as she moved her hand to the button on my pants, tugging the zipper down. I stepped off the bed and kicked off my pants before returning to Elena.

Holding out my hands, I encouraged her to stand up. We had seen each other in our underwear and in swimsuits before and our mothers thought nothing of bathing us together when we were kids but now there was obviously a different context now.

I raised an eyebrow at her. "Last chance to back out."

Elena held my eye contact and reached behind her to unhook her bra. Her cheeks flushed pink  but she didn't hesitate. I pulled her closer to me, moving back towards the bed. She backed herself up and stood on her knees, wrapping her arms around my neck while she kissed me. It caught me by surprise when she put her hands on my chest and pushed me away.

"Sorry!" I immediately started to apologize but she shook her head at me as she sat back. She pulled her panties down, kicking them off before reaching out for my hand. I took her hand and gave it a squeeze before letting go to strip off my briefs. Elena laid back and closed her eyes while I continued to kiss and nuzzle her neck. "Ready?"

Elena nodded and breathed out a barely audible yes as I positioned myself to enter her. I made sure to take my time, I wanted her to be comfortable but also feel in control, especially after the stories she'd told me. When I felt her push back against me, I picked up the pace, urged on by her whimpers of approval. 

Her hands never left my body. They went everywhere from my arms and shoulders to my sides and thighs. I had been kissing her neck when I pushed myself up, putting my weight on my forearms. I had expected Elena's eyes to be closed so it caught me by surprise to see her gazing back at me. She gave a little smile as she rested her hand on my cheek, her lips begging for a kiss. I felt that familiar anticipation coiling in the pit of my belly.

"Elle," It took all of my willpower to stop. "I'm gonna pull out-"

Squeezing her eyes shut, Elena shook her head. "Please…no…I need you…"

Resting my head in the crook of her neck, I felt myself release. Elena rested her hand on the back of my head and held me against her chest and for the longest time, we stayed just like that. Eventually, I eased myself off to her side but kept my hand on her belly. Elena let out a sigh followed by a little sniffle.

“You ok?” I grazed my thumb back and forth along her stomach.

Now she laughed. “Yeah. I guess I just feel a little silly because I’ve wanted this for so long.”

“Me too.” I leaned over and kissed her again. “Like I said, I’m an idiot for taking so long.”

I was dozing in and out of sleep, lulled into contentment by the steady breathing of Elena as she laid on my chest, when her question roused me. "Huh?"

She laughed a little as she repeated the question. "When did you realize you were in love with me?"

"Do you remember when we were 16 and we took that school trip to the Kemnader See?" I began twisting a lock of her hair around my finger.

Elena sat up a little bit and I could see her searching her memories. "It was a recreation trip and we camped out overnight…when we snuck out in the middle of the night and went skinny dipping?"

"There was just enough moonlight." I looked up in time to see Elena roll her eyes. "I know, but hear me out. I have always loved spending time with you. Especially now, I never have to question your motives, you always make me laugh and you will absolutely give me shit if I do something stupid. When I got a look at you and realized that I was physically attracted to you too, that was it."

Laying back down, Elena sighed. "I wish you would have let me move with you. I feel like we wasted so much time."

"I know,' I kissed the top of her head. "But I honestly didn't think you felt the same way. And I don't think I could have handled it if you didn't feel the same and that pushed you away."

Now she laughed. "I think it was pretty obvious how I felt to everyone but you. Including Angela."

I let out a frustrated groan, only half in jest but Elena placed her hand on my cheek and kissed me. "I love you too, by the way."

"But what about you?" I gave her backside a little squeeze. "When did you know you were in love with me?"

She giggled but quickly let out a sigh. "I don't know, there wasn't some sort of epiphany moment, it's more like I just always known. You always made me feel safe, I knew you'd always be there if I ever needed help. I was starting to question my judgement but when you came back for Papa's funeral, it was like you'd never left."

We both looked to the foot of the bed. Greta had her front paws up, looking at us and whining. "Ok," Elena stretched her arms above her head. "I'm getting up."

I watched Elena slip out of bed and begin to dress. "Are you going out on a walk? I'll come too."

Once we were out the door, Elena handed me Greta's leash and wrapped her arm around mine. "Do you have training in the morning?"

"Only the afternoon." I smiled to myself, wondering where she was going with this.

Elena leaned into me a little more, Greta found something interesting to sniff and we had stopped walking at this point. "Would you want to stay tonight? Maybe we could get brunch in the morning?"

"Actually," I leaned in and kissed her forehead. "I'd love that." 

We walked back in a comfortable silence but it gave me a chance to think. Spending the night together would be the last test to see if we'd really be compatible as a couple. The sex was good, probably as good as a first time together could be, but how would it work sleeping in the same bed?

"I have an extra toothbrush." Elena was hanging up her coat when she turned back to me. "And I can make some space in the wardrobe and chest if you want to keep some clothes here."

I smiled as I stepped closer to kiss her. "When do I move in?"

"No," She laughed before kissing me back. "Your place is much nicer than mine when we're ready for that."

That got a laugh out of me. "Noted."

I sat on the bed and smiled as I watched Elena go through her evening routine. She put the tv on for some background noise and then climbed into bed. As soon as I laid down next to her, she snuggled up to my side and I put my arm around her. She let out a contented sigh and I found myself smiling again, this finally felt right. It finally occurred to me that everything just felt right and I hadn't felt that way with any other girl I had been with.

"So," Elena rested her hand on my hip. "I haven't told Mama about the divorce yet."

She must have sensed my surprise because her tone became slightly defensive.

"Mama has been through so much in a short period of time that I didn't want to put one more thing on her mind."

I gave her a little squeeze. "So you don't think knowing that you're happy would help lessen that? I mean, she knows your marriage wasn't great."

"I know," she sighed again. "I just want to tell her everything first before your mother goes skipping over to tell her about us."

She had a point. "Yeah, my mother would do that. I feel like they've been trying to nudge us together forever."

"I want to tell her in person. I'll call her in the morning and invite her down for a visit." Elena yawned and nestled in further. "Then maybe we can make a trip home when it works with your schedule."

"Can you imagine everyone's response when we tell them?" By this point I had closed my eyes as well.

Even in her drowsy tone, I could hear the humor in her voice. "I'd love to see Angela's reaction."

[echantedtoon]

A Champion Time For The Heart Ch28 The Champion Cup P2

(Warning: Someone does get hurt with a hurt arm and someone does get knocked out And Leon is a lil hurt from his Eternatus confrontation but don't worry. They're all ok.)

So Hop lost to Raihan?...You shook your head before putting Allister down. The small boy ended up pulling your arm and pointing towards the cabinets again wanting a replacement hot chocolate for the one that he spilt earlier which you complied into making for him. ..Along with all the other kids who shouted for refills. Sigh. Oh well. At least the spill was cleaned up and no was else was fighting. But still...You could barely believe this was happening. Not that it was peaceful. But the fact that Hop would be the one who was going to fight Leon instead of one of the player avatars, Victor or Gloria. Not that you didn't think Hop wasn't strong because he was a strong trainer, but the story line took a 180 degree you weren't expecting at all. You could never have predicted Hop would've been the one to battle his way through the champion cup but you guessed Raihan must've been too strong to win against in a one vs one battle style. Well that would explain why Hop was here with you guys now and the twins were gushing all over him asking what it was like battling his way to the second to last round and giving him congratulations for making it that far.

"Really guys. It was nothing!," he assured then raising his hands before sighing defeatedly. "I didn't even get to make it past Raihan to Lee anyways. *sigh* So much for becoming the world's first champion brothers." 

"Ye still tried your best. That's all that mattered. 'Sides, ye got farther than me!"

"Yeah. But you got pretty good run in yourself in the semifinals!"

"Aw! Thanks, Hoppy!"

Gloria smiled at Hop gratefully. Beside her Bede rose a brow between her and Hop before raising a hand and coughing loudly. Gaining her attention. "*AHEM*....Yes. This is ..all well and good." He peeked one eye open at Gloria who blinked at him before looking away again. "I suppose some congratulations is in order. You were..very good out there. I'm surprised you were strong enough to last through to the semifinals. I may have underestimated by rival's perseverance."

Gloria blinked surprised but smiled at him. "Well that's a surprisingly nice thing ye would say 'bout me. Thanks, Bede."

You didn't miss the light pink of Bede's cheeks...and neither did Hop who scowled at him. "*ahem* Y-Your welcome. It's only natural to comment on one's strength if they get far."

"Yeah!" Hop narrowed his eyes at Bede. "Great job out there, Gloria! You did your best."

Sigh. Those two were going to be a handful It was..kinda a blur but you had set Allister back down in his seat by the window, thanked Victor for making sure things didn't delve into further chaos, and then went about making a LOT more coco for everyone around you who wanted another cup. Which was almost everyone. You absolutely made sure Allister got a replacement cup to replace the one that he had spilt a little while ago. When everyone was satisfied with the hot coco, you were about to go sit down when you remembered. Hop probably hadn't eaten anything yet. Everyone else had burgers and countless amounts of hot chocolate, but he probably hadn't eaten anything too busy focusing on battling. You'd better make him one of those ramen cups so he'd have something in his stomach- B O O M!! The entire place shook again as a gigantic boom went off outside shaking the entire stadium. You had to grip the cabinet to not fall over before it quickly stopped. What the world was THAT!?

"IT'S A MIRACLE FOLKS!! THE FIREY FIERCE FIGHTER KABU!! HAS BEEN DEFEATED!! THE TALL, DARK, AND MYSTERIOUS PIERS HAS EARNT THE RIGHT TO BATTLE IN THE FINAL ROUND!!" Oh! Was THAT what that was? The crowd cheered and Marnie stood there staring out the window. Her blue eyes suddenly slightly narrowed staring out and down to the field. "BATTLERS PLEASE EXIT THE FIELD FOR REPAIRS AND PREPARE FOR THE FINAL MATCH TO DETERMINE WHICH GYM LEADER WILL BE LUCKY ENOUGH TO COMPETE AGAINST CHAMPION LEON FOR THE FINAL MATCH OF THE CHAMPION CUP!!"

You slowly let go of the cabinets and minded your own business as you made another cup of ramen for Hop, and along with his cup of coco, and brought it over to him. All the while swiveling your head around and keeping check on all the kids there. Making a head count. One, two, three- Ok! All fourteen children (now including Hop) were accounted for and safe. Hop smiled and thanked you for the food once you handed it to him and you finally got the chance to sit down on one of the couches with a sigh. Almost as soon as you did, Silver slunk over and plopped himself next to you curled up like a cat. Well good news. You didn't have to worry about anything else at the moment. Bad news....Now you had to deal with ANOTHER giant problem. The game for whatever reason was...derailed. Derailed harder than a train flying off the tracks at a million miles per hour. So now begged the question. HOW WERE YOU GOING TO GET HOME NOW!? If the only chances you had of getting home were riding on the game ending then how would you get home now? Would you still go home once the Champion Cup was over? Would it really matter if Gloria or Victor wasn't the one battling Leon in the end? ...You shook your head stomach in knots. You didn't know. There was only one thing to do. You'd have to wait with the others and watch the last two battles of the entire finals. Would Raihan or Piers be the one to battle Leon in the end? With a sigh you leaned back. Wonder what those guys were up to now? Was Raihan taking selfies before his big match? Was Piers getting a new song ready to sing for audience as he battled his way through the champion cup? You had no idea.

"Thanks for the food, Y/n!" You turned to Hop gratefully holding the ramen cup. "I haven't eaten anything all day. Nice to have something warm in me."

You smiled at him. "Hey. No problem. I'm surprised you've eaten three of those now. Must've been real hungry huh?"

He smiled a bit embarrassed but you smiled. Wasn't his fault. You probably would've been hungry too having to just battle in the cold and focus on your pokemon most of the day. You had been trying to not fall down the rabbithole of worry with your thoughts about the unusual circumstances and focused your energy into talking and playing with some of the kids, and making Hop some food. Which you didn't mind at all, keeps you busy. All the while Marnie had been standing at the window looking out with that narrowed eye thinking face of hers. And for good reason, but you hadn't noticed being too busy taking care of everyone there until Bede had perked up towards the window..and hummed before asking.

"Isn't that field repaired yet?"

You had looked up from Silver for a moment and blinked at him. "Huh? What makes you say that?"

He rolled his eyes but answered. "We've been sitting here for nearly two hours now!" He complained gaining the attention of everyone else who looked at him. "The next match should have started long before now!" He threw a hand towards the window. "We should we watching the Champion defending his title RIGHT THIS SECOND!!"

That made Hop look towards the window as well with a confused look. "Huh...As much as I hate to admit it, Bede's right. Piers and Raihan should've already battled by now. I wonder what's keeping them?"

"Well maybe the field is still being repaired?," you offered.

Hop shook his head. "Can't be. Field Repairs usually only take thirty or forty minutes. An hour at most if the field's really banged up and it's already been repaired.." he took a moment to pull out his phone to check the time. "...About an hour and twenty five minutes ago." He looked back towards the window again with narrowed eyes. "That's not normal unless something's wrong."

"What could have gone wrong-"

It was at THAT exact moment that that the intercom voice came back ON.

"SORRY FOR THE DELAY FOLKS!! TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES!! BUT NOW WE'RE BACK AND HERE IT IS!! THE LAST MATCH OF THE FINALS!" The crowd cheered and almost everyone sitting down stood up to immediately make a beeline to the windows and so did you. "WHO WILL EARN THE RIGHT TO CHALLENGE THE UNBEATABLE CHAMPION LEON!? WILL IT BE THE BRILLIANT ROCKSTAR PIERS!? OR WILL IT BE THE ONLY TRAINER THAT CHAMPION LEON CALLS HIS RIVAL!! THE TAMER OF DRAGONS RAIHAN!?"

The crowd roared from his announcement as the two gym leaders made their way out onto the field both their faces lit up on the screen. Both meeting each other in the middle of the field. Here we go. Icy wind blew around the two as they met at the center of the field. Electric blue eyes meeting dark ocean blue ones as both Dark and Dragon gym leaders made eye contact. Piers barely suppressed a shiver as the cold winter wind bit his pale skin and made his long hair blow around him. His neutral face meeting the smiling face of his friend. 

"BATTLERS PLEASE GET TO YOUR PLACES!!" At the sound of the announcer both men turn. Piers pausing to give one upwards towards the windows high above for the VIP lounge. Oh right. You turned your head to Marnie. He must've known his little sister was up here watching him. "READY YOUR POKEMON!! GET SET!! BATTLE BEGIN!!"

There was no grand THUD sound when Piers pulled out his microphone to stamp to the ground in one hand and pokeball in the other! Having thrown it out as soon as the announcer said to, challenging Raihan to dare make a move against him. And the pokemon were sent out. Piers Skuntank verses Raihan's torkaol!

"LET'S START THIS OFF WITH A LIGHT TO CHASE AWAY THE DARKNESS!! DROUGHT HIGH AND PROUD!!", Raihan had yelled out immediately on sight practically roaring out his command. And in an instant the slow looking turtle pokemon immediately did as it was told. With a giant huff a tan-sandy like fog was exploded from it's back shell and spread throughout half the stadium in a bright light. Piers stared narrowed eyed at it until suddenly a bright flash of light erupted from it. The skuntank yelling out in pain from it as it's master held up an arm to it. "HOW DO YOU LIKE MY TORKOAL'S NEW MOVE!? TOOK A WHILE TO LEARN THIS ONE!! GETS THE SUNLIGHT BURNING REAL HARSH!!"

"M' all for a good spotlight! But I think I'd rather settle for a little SMOKESCREEN!!" The skuntank obeying it's master's commands opened it's mouth, and a torrent of abyss fell from it's maw.

From above you all watched as the field was covered half in lit up fog and black smoke, as if day and night was fighting against one another. It was fascinating. But there was one problem....You couldn't even see what was happening and neither could either gym leaders. How could either tell who was winning if it was either too dark or too bright for either to see? Marnie leaned in closer pressing a hand to the frosted glass as she watched closely.

"Nice counter, Piers! But you're forgetting I can still get my way through to see you! USE SOLAR BEAM TO PART THAT SMOKE!!" The barely visible torkoal gladly obeyed the command by opening it's shell and let a ball of light come thro-

"SCREECH YOUR HOPES HIGH!!" It was then that a figure shot up from right beside the turtle looking pokemon from the dirt at it's side and before it could even turn it's head an ear piercing SCREAM tore through the air! The torkaol gave some kind of yell itself of sharp pain through it's skull that was drowned out by the screech. Raihan gave a growl of pain himself both hands shooting to his own ears! "BITE!!!" Any more screaming from the torkoal was immediately cut off by fangs latching around his neck and with a swift yank the turtle pokemon was helplessly flipped onto its side. "BRING ME YOUR PREY!!"

Raihan could only see the silhouette of his torkoal through the slowly dissipating bright fog before in one swift movement it was yanked backwards back into the heavy smokescreen it had created earlier. His eyes widening to the size of plates as if the earth itself had just swallowed the both of them whole. "TORKOAL!!"

You stood there stunned as did everyone else who had witnessed the fast attacks A FREAKING SKUNTANK DID TO THAT POKEMON!! Then again...Piers had raised it well enough that thing could almost keep up with a scorbunny despite it's bulk and size. You weren't surprised it was fast and strong enough to pull a torkoal like that, but how did it sneak up on it?? It was too big to just crawl without Raihan being able to see it's shadow in the lit up fog even if it was near blinding. You all watched with baited breaths until a moment later barreling out of the slowly disappearing smokescreen came the skuntanks running on all fours like a mini furry tank and dragging along the poor torkoal on it's side as it useless flailed. It ran straight towards Piers who pointed his hand towards the nearest boundary line and with a sharp turn you had seen it use on Gloria's scorbunny, it turned hard right and barreled towards it.

"TORKOAL YOUR BACK IS TOWARDS IT!! USE SOLAR BEAM TO HIT IT IN THE SIDE!!"

Piers with his hand still outstretched gave a flick of his wrist the skuntank did a twirl and SLAMMED the torkoal down onto the ground before it could even respond to Raihan's orders, before continuing to run towards the boundary line. What they- He didn't even give the pokemon an order! How was-...Did- Did Piers train it to respond a certain way to his hand motions? Either way the skuntank ran at full speed charging towards that line before stopping and releasing it's jaws. As a result the poor turtle went round and round head over shells from the speed and throw it received flipping around and around until it finally landed on it's stomach, body half laying across the line.

"Raihan's torkoal has been thrown out of bounds! Therefore the Mighty Piers is the winner of match one of Round Four!" The crowd roared regardless of the fight you had just witnessed and you sighed. Watching as Piers once again made a motion with his hand in the universal sign of 'Come here', and watching the skuntank paddle up to it's training. Rubbing his body against Piers's leg in the way a cat would and Raihan returned his poor pokemon. "Ok folks! What a quick start to thing's but now it's time for the second match! Get your pokemon ready!" Piers also returned his skuntank, not bothering to take his eyes off Raihan.

"I'm impressed! Again!" Raihan made a finger gun towards Piers. "Wasn't expecting you to take me down so fast like that! Really caught me off guard."

"Then don't bloody leave two feet of space below your fog for us to crawl sideways under! Can't light us up if the light doesn't even touch us!"

Smirking, Raihan held up another pokeball. "Thanks for the tip. I'll be sure to work on that flaw."

"Ready!? Let the second match begin!!"

Up next was Piers's liepard against Raihan Goodra. You watched with wide eyes and baited breath as Pier's mostly directed the pokemon with single commands or hand gestures as the two pokemon battled it out. Ultimately ending with Raihan winning the second match. Raihan sure was a strong trainer and it showed in the next round as well when it was his turtonator verses Piers's malamar and completely destroyed Piers in the process. Past the third round now and so far it was Piers one Raihan two. Oh you hoped this didn't end up in another tie.

"The fourth match of Round Four is about to begin!," the announcer blared through the cheering crowds as both men readied their fourth pokeball. "Get your pokemon ready! Let the fourth match BEGIN!!"

In a flash of light and shadow from each of the two gym leaders the two sent out their fourth pokemon. Raihan presented his flygon and Piers a toxtricity. Raihan gave a smirk pointing to Piers. "GET READY CUZ HERE WE COME!!"

"I'm waiting to be impressed then!"

Raihan smirked at Piers's snarky remark before pointing towards the toxtricity. "Let the winds blow! STREAM FORWARD SANDSTORM!!" With a loud cry from the flying pokemon, a literal whirlwind suddenly appeared and enveloped it in a tornado of sand before the thing spread out and Piers was forced to push his hand up in front of his eyes to keep the sand from them- "BREAKING SWIPE!!" The toxtricity gave it's own yell of pain as all of a sudden the flygon as fast as lightning, DOVE towards it before doing a quick roll in air and with a sickening WHACK sound nailed the toxtricity in the head before continuing it's fast flight- "STEEL WING!!"

Piers raised a wrist as the flygon flew close to the ground, but still with some space for someone to duck, with it's wings lit up a bright silver color, headed right towards the toxtricity. The poison type stared at Piers who with his hand still raised bent it back with a yell. "VENOM DRENCH!" You all watched as fast as the flygon could fly the poison type formed a toxic ball of thick purple posion smoke into it's hands and when the flygon was close enough. BENT. BACKWARDS. Like how a rockstar would bend back doing those knee slides, the toxtricity bent backwards with it's hands throwing up and by the time the flygon realized the danger it was in. It was TOO LATE!! The toxic purple ball was thrown up and with a wet splat sound a water balloon would make, it smacked right into the flygon's face as it soar over the toxtricity. The pokemon gave a shriek of surprise and perhaps pain as it's flight faltered and slammed onto the ground. Rolling a few times before fully stopping with a finally thud.

"FLYGON GET UP-''

"GIVE IT A JAB OF YOUR PERSONAL POISON!!" With a sharp twist of it's body the toxtricity turned it's back towards the struggling Flygon who was shaking his face from being drenched in the purple goo from the venom drench, and a torrent of dark purple missiles projectized from his spines. And by the time the flygon turned towards it, it was once again too late. It gave a loud cry as the multiple projectiles slammed right into it and with a heavy thud it went down to the ground. And that's where it stayed.

"FLYGON IS UNABLE TO CONTINUE BATTLE WHICH MEANS FOURTH MATCH VICTORY GOES TO GYM LEADER PIERS!!" The crowd roared in cheers as both men returned their pokemon as the announcer still spoke. They were tied. Both winning two matches each. But the question was who would win and who would lose? "BOTH POWERFUL FORCES ARE TIED TO THE MAX!! WHO WILL REIGN SUPREME TO CHALLENGE THE CHAMPION!?" From high above in the VIP lounge you all looked on intently and excitedly to see who would win the tie. Raihan's trainers cheering their mentor's inevitable victory while Marnie held one hand firmly against the glass as she watched brother intently. You watched with wide eyes wondering who would win...but one look at Raihan told you all you needed to know. "IT'S TIME FOR THE FINAL MATCH OF ROUND FOUR!! THE VICTOR SHALL GO ON TO THE CHAMPION MATCH!! YOU KNOW WHAT THAT MEANS FOLKS!! IT'S TIME TO DYNAMAX!!"

Both men took out a final pokeball. Their final chance. Piers sent out his pokeball and in a puff of dark smoke appeared that giant badger-man looking pokemon out. The cold wind beating around him as he pointed. "Face the mighty high roar of my Obstagoon!" The pokemon roaring out from Piers's introduction of the dark type. "He'll tear through your steel like paper!"

Raihan laughed at his friend producing a pokeball himself in the cold wind. "You do realize I'm the great Raihan, right!? I'll be the one to beat Leon! So first I'll beat you and then I'll just walk away today as the new Champion!" With a single pokeball in one hand, red energy filled it to the point it suddenly surged to the size of a bowling ball in his hand. With a quick pose and smile, his rotomi phone quickly snapped a picture of the Dragon Tamer before be turned around and with a hard throw single handedly tossed the ball through the air. It soared through the cold winter sky before cracking open and out came the duraludon. The stadium, Piers, and his Obstagoon wobble from the sheer force of the roaring giant pokemon hitting the ground. Piers had to desperately cling to his mic stand just to stay standing but all would be lost with Raihan one and only command to end the battle. "MAX STEELSPIKE!!"

Blue eyes widened as the crashing of the titanium spikes shot up from the ground upon the leader's command. The ground cracking open as dirt flung high and the shiny steel reflected his terror as it struck. It a crash. Piers fell. Or more like flung back by the sheer force of the ground that shot up from under his feet. Blue eyes wide and body light, he flew a few yards into the cold air before landing down hard onto the frozen ground like a sack of brick. Crashing down with a thud and rolling a couple times before finally coming to rest on his stomach face down and unmoving. The Obstagoon suffering the same fate as it's owner flying through the air before smacking down WAY outside the boundary line. You all stood there in stunned silence as no one moved. Marnie's eyes widened to the size of plates. Gloria gasped and her hands flew to her mouth. Hop choked on the ramen noodles he was eating. And even Bede who normally couldn't care less rose his brows in alarm at one of the gym leaders getting flung across the arena like a bean bag. After a long moment of Piers being still on the screen he moved. A shaky hand slowly coming up and digging into the frozen grass of the field. Lose dirt and rubble fell from his body as he pushed himself from his stomach onto his back. Indicating he was alright. Marnie sighed in relief.

"PIERS'S OBSTAGOON HAS BEEN KNOCKED OUT OF BOUNDS!! THEREFORE THE MIGHTY RAIHAN GOES VICTORIOUS AND IS ONCE AGAIN THE ONE TO BATTLE CHAMPION LEON!!" The announcer sounded and THE. CROWD. ROARED!! You let out a breath you didn't know you were holding and sighed in relief. Well that could've gone worse. After a moment, the duraludon gradually was returned to it's normal size and returned to Raihan. "THE FINAL BATTLE OF THE CHAMPION CUP IS COMING UP NEXT FOLKS!! WILL THE CHAMPION REMAIN UNBEATABLE OR WILL HIS LONG TIME RIVAL AND TOP GYM LEADER FINALLY CLAIM THE TITLE OF CHAMPION FOR HIMSELF!? STAY TUNED!! FOR NOW PLEASE CLEAR THE FIELD FOR FINAL REPAIRS!!"

With the triplets cheering for their mentor Marnie sighed and pressed her forehead to the glass. In the meantime Raihan was racing his way across the field, going around craters in the dirt or jumping over larger pieces of rubble on his way over to Piers who had still not gotten up from his crash landing earlier. His mic stand right next to him.

"PIERS!?," he cried out half alarmed half worried as he raced over to the man. Soon dropping to his knees and blocking out any light above him. "Piers!" The rockstar was jolted into opening his eyes when Raihan's stronger grip grabbed him by the shoulders and shook him. "Hey man! Are you alright!? You went flying higher than a kite!"

"AHH!! " Piers instantly bristled as a spike of pain shot up from his other arm. His arm was brought up to his chest as his good one clutched it. A scrunched up face of gritted teeth and closed eyes met the frozen Dragon Man as Piers's body slightly curled in instinct from the pain. "NO! I'M NOT BLOODY ALRIGHT!! I THINK I HURT MY ARM!!"

Raihan was frozen for only a moment before he nodded and reacted. "Hey! Don't worry man I got you!" Piers gave another groan of pain as his friend grabbed him by the shoulders and pulled him to his feet. The pain in his arm worsening with the jostling. "Hey. It's ok buddy. C'mon! We'll get you to medical professionals stat!"

You watched as the two gym leaders disappeared and released a breath you didn't know you were holding. "Alright. The big moment's finally here, eh?" You blinked to Hop.

Gloria nodded. "Yeah. Who do you think's gonna win?"

"I came here just to take on Lee but I ended up having to cheer for him instead from the sidelines. *sigh* But it's not easy picking sides for some. After all, it's the show down between my big brother and his rival who's also a fan favorite. Who should I really want to win more?''

"Hop. We all know you're cheering on Leon."

Hop chuckled caught red handed. "Yeah. I guess that much is obvious. If anyone can defeat the unbeatable Champion it'll be Raihan. He is the top gym leader after all."

You nodded in understanding. That was true you guessed. By what you just witnessed Raihan was a very strong and capable gym leader. But you STILL couldn't understand why it wasn't Gloria or Victor who was going up against Leon- You thought process stopped when you felt a tugging on your pants leg, and when looking down discovered Allister was there and was holding his cup up to you again. Indicating he wanted more hot chocolate. With a sigh you graciously took it from him and decided to make him some more hot chocolate. Might as well have something to do while you wait. As the field was being repaired, the room was alive in excitement. All the kids happily chattering away pumped to see who would win. The Champion or The Top Gym leader. Both had titles deserving of their might but only one would walk away with a win. You were a bit busy making more refills of hot chocolate and a few more cups of ramen for the few kids who were still hungry. So you had your hands full playing babysitter and cook to all these guys who wanted the food. It wasn't too long a wait. The kids were sated with their full stomachs against the cold. The field was repaired. And possibly the loudest cheer you had ever heard the crowd made yet came roaring out as someone walked out onto the field. And you soon found out why.

"HEY! IT'S LEE!!" You looked up at Hop's cry and he beckoned for you to come to the window. You blinked and went over towards it again and peered down along with everyone else. And low and behold Leon was right there in the middle of the field. Standing arms crossed and smile on his face as the cold wind blew his cap and long purple hair around with the snow. Looks like you'll finally be able to see Leon after all.

"LADIES AND GENTLEMEN AND FOLKS OF ALL AGES!! I GIVE TO YOU THE GALAR REGION'S UNBEATABLE CHAMPION LEON!!" The crowd kept roaring at the announcement and you watched on. Here it was the final battle...But wait. Your face scrunched up in thought. Something wasn't making sense. Something was missing. You felt it in your gut. "THE FINAL BATTLE OF THIS YEAR'S CHAMPION CUP SHALL NOW COMMENCE!! WILL LEON REIGN SUPREME FOR ANOTHER SEASON OR WILL WE GO INTO THE NEW YEAR WITH A BRAND NEW CHAMPION!? THE FINAL MATCH WILL BE BETWEEN NONE OTHER THAN LEON HIMSELF AND ONCE AGAIN HIS LONG TIME RIVAL THE STRONGEST GYM LEADER IN GALAR!! PLEASE WELCOME GYM LEADER RAIHAN!!"

You still let your mind whirl with thoughts as Raihan made his debut out onto the field. Waving at fans and the rotomi phone floating around snapping pictures....And it was THEN you remembered eyes wide. Where was the big bad guy you were supposed to beat!? Every pokemon game had one and despite the mishap with Gloria and Victor losing, there was STILL the threat of the bad guy!! You remembered now! Before the player could battle Leon there was a bad guy you needed to defeat before earning the title of champion! But...you didn't remember who it was. Your hands shot to your head as you gritted your teeth and growled at yourself! Empty brain!! WHO WAS IT!? You had thought it was Piers at first being the leader of Team Yell and they had been causing trouble, but it wasn't then wh-.....Your eyes widened to the size of plates as you slowly turned your head back down to the field where Leon and Raihan was. ...Leon was here organizing this whole thing...But the Chairman wasn't.

".....Oh no!"

Raihan made his way back to the middle of the field without a care in the world. After all he had been here multiple times challenging Leon for the title in other Champion Cups. So he was used to this right now. The arm he had been waving going back to relax on his hip as he stopped in front of his long time rival with an amused smirk. Blue eyes meeting gold. "Waiting for me as always? Aw.~ You shouldn't have. If it makes this easier you can just leave and let me win."

The golden eyes smiled. "Hehe. As tempting as that is we both know I won't do that. I would say that I'm surprised you made it this far, but we've done this so many times it's practically a family tradition now."

Raihan lazily shrugged. "What can I say? I'm good at my job. But I will give you kudos for endorsing strong trainers. They actually gave me a challenge. By the way how is that brother of yours? I heard you took him to the 'babysitter'."

Leon chuckled and shook his head. "Hop's just fine. I'm proud my trainers was able to make it this far."

Raihan chuckled back before smirking. "Yeah. It was nice of you to give me a challenge. But now I think it's time for an even greater challenge don't you think?"

Leon inhaled taking a moment to shiver against the cold wind and snowflakes falling on him. "..The tense still air on the pitch and the exact opposite from the audience cheering and yelling. They're both fantastic wouldn't you say?"

"I hear ya." With a turn of his head, Raihan looked upwards towards the snow falling down and the sun setting down. In a few hours it will be the new year. Many people celebrating and watching them. "It can be easy to get distracted by it all."

"But remember the audience is also a bit cruel. They want nothing more than to see one of us lose after all. It can fill you with fear knowing that, but I absolutely love pushing past that fear! I love giving it everything I've got as a trainer and seeing my team give everything they've got to seize another victory." Raihan slowly looked from the sky and back towards Leon who smiled. "It's the greatest feeling in the world and I can't get enough of it! I can feel my partners itching with anticipation inside their pokeballs! We're going to have a real Champion Time this year!"

"...Hmph. Always had a way with words Lee. No wonder you can get a crowd going with just a speech. But I've got to let you know." he pointed finger guns at him. "I've got three kids who look up to me personally, and I promised to make them proud by finally beating you today. And let me tell you." Leon watched as those ocean blue eyes turned slightly up towards the windows where he knew they must've been watching. "I never let my fans down. So as you're rival, you'll have to excuse me for taking that title from you."

Leon chuckled. "You can try but you're also forgetting something. I'm the Galar Region's Champion Leon! Me and Charizard and the rest of our team will use all our knowledge and experience to crush you completely, Raihan."

"Heh. I guess we'll just have to see who can out dazzle the other then." He winked. "After all how am I supposed to tease you if I can't make ya jealous over winning that babysitter gal?~"

Leon blinked. ".....What?"

Raihan's sly smile returned as he rose his brow. "Oh don't play dumb on that. Mr. I'm-Going-To-Give-This-Girl-Money-And-Gifts-Only-The-Champion-Can-Get-His-Hands-On. I know you spent all that time swooning her with that pretty scarf and all the free invitations."

"I-I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT YOU'RE TALKING ABOUT!!" Leon quickly stammered face red which only made his rival laugh loudly.

"We both know you're lying! I've known you for too long to not know when you've got a pupplio crush on someone! And as a man of romance myself, I happen to know all the ways of love-"

"PIERS!!," Leon quickly interrupted the amused gym leader all of a sudden. "H-How is he anyways? I saw you practically carrying him off the field. The fall he took was pretty brutal."

Raihan paused for a moment blinking before sighing and shaking his head. "He seemed alright but he thinks he might've busted his arm. Took off with to the Wyndon Hospital."

Leon hummed looking a little concerned and coughed thankful he was able to quickly advert Raihan's teasing...For now. "That's for the best. When I'm done here I'll go see if he's alright."

"You and me both. But I think for now we have another matter to settle."

Leon nodded. "The show must go on. Let's make sure to make Piers proud by putting on a good show for everyone."

"THE CHAMPION MATCH SHALL NOW BEGIN!! BATTLERS PLEASE GET TO YOUR PLACES AND READY YOUR POKEMON!!"

The two turned and began walking to their places once getting there the two most powerful trainers in Galar turning to face one another. Pokeballs in hands and the cold wind whipping the snowflakes around them both in some kind of flurry, waiting for the cue from the announcer to start the match. But that's not what they had gotten. Instead what happened was that the ground shook, which wouldn't have been too shocking considering this was a stadium made to withstand dynamaxing pokemon. But that wasn't the cause of the rubble. The ground shook like an earthquake on a sugar rush for a few but long feeling seconds, during that time both men on the field wobbled around arms flailing for balance before the earth collapsed in the middle of the field and a stream of blood red poured out of the frozen earth and into the dark sky above. Lighting the sky like some sick firework. Horror riddled across both men's faces as they stood there, as loose dirt and gravel was spewed their way from it. The harsh red light reflected in their shocked gold and blue eyes. And then among the red lights screams of panic began to scream out from the masses and the monitor turned on with a familiar face and voice.

"Hello there Leon and Raihan." Both men turned to the monitor hands over their eyes to shield from the harsh light and just barely making out the face of none other than the Chairman hacking into the giant screen. "Just letting you know I think it's time I brought about the Darkest Day. For the sake of Galar's future of course. But I'm in a bit of a pickle. The energy released by the Darkest Day is too much for me to contain. I'm sorry it's come to this. But it's you who forced my hand Leon. You refused to listen." And then the monitor cut out-

There was a high pitched scream as soon as the red light burst out of the ground making the whole place shake and on instinct you reached out and snatched the nearest screaming child into your arms in a protective hold. Allister whimpered and locked onto you as you pulled his scared form to you. Wide eyed you stared as the red light took up everything around the field and the two men fleeing from the field as a result. You didn't notice, but Hop and the twins did. As a result the three of them fled from the room, slamming the door behind them as everyone else was too busy panicking or watching the red light in horror. AND. YOU. REMEMBERED!! During the game's final battle between the player and Leon it would be interrupted by Chairman Rose in a crazy plan to 'help' everyone by releasing the ancient evil pokemon Eternatus that would bring destruction to all! But the player and Hop manages to team up with the two dog-like legendary pokemon to combat it at Hammerlocke Stadium where the Chairman's power plant was after receiving the ancient shield and sword from Postwick!! THAT'S WHAT YOU'VE BEEN FORGETTING THIS ENTIRE TIME!! Which meant that-...Your head snapped around you at the remaining children who were there. The triplets were huddled together, Elsa had her little brothers hanging onto her looking horrified, Bede and Felix could only look on in horror at what they were seeing, Marnie stood still where she was with her hands against the window too shocked at what happened to move, and Allister clung onto you scared out of his mind. But Gloria, Hop, and Victor were GONE!! WHERE DID THOSE THREE GO!? ....Oh NO- Your head whipped to the door and with Allister in your arms you RAN to the door, throwing it open to meet the sight of many, MANY league staff running up and down the halls and in and out of the many rooms around them. But no signs of any of those three missing children.

"HOP!? GLORIA!?", you yelled desperately snapping your head either way as the dread and sinking feeling in your gut sank into realization. Your arms reaching to cradle the whimpering boy in your arms. No...NO! NONONONONONO!!! THIS COULDN'T BE HAPPENING NOW! "VICTOR!?"

It was no use...They were gone. On their way back to Postwick in order to get the ancient sword and shield of the fallen heroes from the Slumbering Wield then off to where ever the Chairman was. ....YOU HAD TO GO AFTER THEM!! GAME PLAY BE DARNED THEY WERE JUST KIDS!! YOU HAD TO LEAVE AND HELP THEM!! And you would've....if something hadn't held you back. The whimper in your arms snapped you back in reality..and you slowly turned back into the room. All the children were still in there terrified and crying out from the shock as the sounds of panic set in. You couldn't leave these children here alone!! With three taking off to danger was bad, but you couldn't just leave all the others here by themselves!! Especially since Allister refused to not let go....Which a panicked whirled mind you made a choice. You stepped back in. And closed the door. Choosing to turn around and try to calm down the frightened children...Heh. Easier said than done. With Allister refusing to let go of you, you somehow managed to herd Elsa away from the window view and sit with her brothers on the couch. Two of which were crying while another kept asking where their mother and big brother were. Poor baby. You wished you could answer his question. Once or twice one of them would try to leave but you dragged them back and told them they had to stay unless they be swept up in the chaos. You tried not to look out the windows to see hundreds of people panicking, and screaming instead ordering everyone and pulling a couple to come sit down away from the windows as well and sit on the couch. Bouncing Allister in your other hand trying to keep him calm at the same time of calming down the others. You didn't blame them for panicking and being scared, but you weren't going to just let a bunch of young kids wonder around by themselves and get swept up in the chaos. You knew where the other three were heading. You didn't want anyone else panicking anymore than they should've with everyone sitting on the couch you took a head count of everyone and by some Miracle everyone except for the 3 missing teenagers were accounted for. But the next few hours weren't easy. Everything blurred as the skies grew dark and the MORE and MORE anxious you became. Practically sweating buckets by the time the sky had gone completely dark. You were worried scared! Pacing back and forth in front of the door as lots of people still shouted and ran around on the outside while you bounced Allister who clung to you and assured all the other kids it would be alright. Until you almost dropped Allister when the door all of a sudden behind you open. You yelped and jumped forward, giving a yell before turning around-....And breathed a sigh of absolute relief when none other was Ms. Opal stood there. The old woman didn't look the least bit bothered as she slowly walked into the room and calmly looked around, spotting Bede's shocked expression at seeing her.

"I came for that behavioral report."

You stared at her blank faced and numb for a moment before shaking your head. "I- He's fine!" You gestured a hand. "Bede's fine! But I need to ask a favor of you." The older woman rose a brow as you, as much as you hated to, started prying Allister from you. "There's some friends of mine who might get really hurt! If I don't go after them they're going to get in big trouble! PLEASE! Will you please take care of these guys until everyone comes back? I know I shouldn't ask but-"

The older woman held up a hand. "I am more than capable to handle these children."....Well that was pretty fast. And for some reason you believed she could if she can handle Bede. She held out her hands for Allister who was whimper at you prying him away. "Hand over the boy. You've handled the roles of ours long enough."

You sighed and nodded. "Thank you. Thank you so much." You finished untangling Allister from yourself before handing him over to Opal who easily took him into her arms. "Silver!" With a chirp the shiny pokemon came running over and in an instant you swept him up into your arms and made a beeline for the door. "THANK YOU AGAIN!!" You called over your shoulder to the older woman who nodded at you're retreating form.

With Silver in your arms you RAN through the building to the elevator practically spamming the down button as people ran around you Silver under one arm until with a ding the doors closed and down you went. Your heart pumping and lungs heaving with anticipation. The hotel. You HAD to get back to the hotel. As soon as the doors opened back up you RAN past all the people especially the ones giving you looks and out the lobby and stadium doors you went. With how crowded and noisy it was outside you would've thought the world was ending. And it might thanks to that airhead Chairman! WHAT ON EARTH WAS HE THINKING!? ...Ok. You get it was the gameplay. BUT WHAT WAS HE THINKING!? You ran directly into the crowds with silver under one arm and SHOVED your way through the crowds and through the streets. You didn't care how long it took you HAD to get to that hotel!! By some miracle your brain tuned out the noises and feeling of bodies pressing against you as you swam through the crowds, and made your way through. Despite it being dark you managed to remember your way through the crowds and someone made it to the less crowdy streets where you were free to run the rest of the way through the night and towards the giant fancy hotel. You didn't stop. Even when you barged into the fancy gold lobby and startled the hotel staff. You ran straight to the elevator, hoped into it, and spammed your floor's button until the doors closed. You waited with baited breath as you went up..Until with a ding the doors opened and you flew in. The first room you checked on instinct for them was the guys' room. No signs of Hop or Victor. In fact their things were gone too and the only thing left behind that they were there at all was the unmade bed. Leaving that behind, you raced to the room you shared with Gloria and threw that open as well. The same thing. Unmade bed and Gloria's things were gone indicating they had left. But your pack still laid where you left it that morning. Without hesitation you ran to it and grabbed the pack, throwing it over your shoulders as you ran back out. Good thing you packed everything away already. You HAD to get to Postwick!! Spamming the elevator back down to the ground floor, you ran up to the front desk startling the man behind it and DEMANDED to know where the train out of Wyndon was. As luck would have it, it was just a little bit past the square and near the stadium. You didn't hesitate to run back out and into the cold weather outside. Snowflakes and wind still falling from the storm clouds above. If you were lucky they might still be there having missed the afternoon train and be waiting for the night train instead. Lungs burning from the cold and tiredness you felt but your determination pushed you on until you got to the train station back through the big crowds. You were sweating, breathing heavily and Silver looked ready to pass out from the sheer stress of it all. You must've looked a shocking sight to the station master who blinked as you stumbled up to the booth he was in breathing heavily and reaching a hand out to grab the wall.

"P-PLEASE!! *GASP* When's....*wheeeeeeze* T-the next *gaaaaassp* T-TRAIN!?", you forced yourself to talk between gasps of air into your overworked lungs.

The man blinked before sputtering, "I-I- Not until morning, Miss. The night train's left almost two hours ago now."

THAT wouldn't stop you. Right then and there, you put Silver down, and reached into your pocket. Pulling out some of the last remaining money you had, you slapped it down on the counter heavily breathing still. "G-Give...*GASP* ticket-...F-For next....*gasp* one!"

The conductor did end up giving you a train ticket for the next one just a few hours away and you did NOT sleep a wink that night. Holding Silver in your arms as you sat there worried out of your mind as he fell asleep in your arms for hours, not being able to bring yourself to sleep. HOW COULD YOU HAVE FORGOTTEN THIS!? YOU REMEMBERED THE REST OF THE GAME! WHY DIDN'T YOU REMEMBER THIS BEFORE IT HAPPENED!? ..Didn't matter right now. You HAD to catch up with them. Hours passed and FINALLY at around six in the morning the first train of the day came in and you didn't hesitate. Rushing up despite the tired feeling in your bones jostling Silver from his slumber. You shoved your ticket into the slot on the gate ways and made your way through the open doors. Going to the nearest seat and just plopping yourself down. As if it would take off as soon as you did. And after about fifthteen more minutes the doors closed and off you went towards Postwick. Days passed as you traveled more and more by train. Resuming your routine of BARELY sleeping on the seats during the nights and just sitting, watching, worrying out the window. The same thoughts circling over and over and OVER again in your head. How could have forgotten? The one thing you should've known and you forgotten...You HAD to make sure they were ok. The silence of the train combined with your lonesome....Had it always been this quiet? Usually by now if you were with one of them Hop would go on a speech about amazing history facts or Victor would be telling you something related to his hobbies. Heck. At one point you could've sworn Gloria would be right there with a bright smile and shoving her phone in your face to watch something she found cool...You would take anything over the silence. You always had silence at home if your mother wasn't nagging you and you had come to like the silence more than her voice, but now....You would take them having a petty fight over the still silence. Your only saving grace was Silver who when he wasn't laying on the table or seat would dig in your pack for food and shove something for you to eat into your hands with a demanding chirp and would screech if you didn't eat it then and there in front of him. He may have been a pain, but at least he was your pain. You weren't sure exactly how much time had flown past since you had left Wyndon, days were blurring together, but you did notice the city turned into farmland a long time into this trip. ....That must've meant you were getting close right? Everytime you stopped and it wasn't Wedgeherst you mumbled curses under your breath and praying for the train to just GO already until it finally did. One night you just couldn't sleep. Letting your head touch the cold glass of the window, about to nod off before jolting back awake and repeating the cycle until-

"ZZZTT. Attention Passengers!," the conductor announced over the speakers to anyone left on board. "We'll be arriving at Wedgeherst Station within ten minutes. That is all."

You IMMEDIATELY STOOD WIDE AWAKE!! WEDGEHERST!! THAT WAS IT!! You once again jolted Silver awake when you abruptly grabbed him up into your arms with your pack and stood with a determined face. This was it! Maybe you'd catch them here! And how did you know it was Wedgehurst? Well the familiar town and the farm houses with flocks of wooloo the shepherds were herding in the fields as you all went past gave it away before you arrived around six in the morning at the train station. Flying off the train like a rapidash on a sugar rush! You burst into the familiar woodened stadium panting ...and looking around. Everything looked the same from the wooden floors to the man at the booth who blinked towards you rushing in.

"Attention Passengers! The morning train leaving Wedgehurst Station will depart in fifthteen minutes! Please exit or enter the train within that time. That's all!"

Fifthteen minutes. YOU ONLY HAD FIFTHTEEN MINUTES TO GET BACK ONTO THAT TRAIN AND GET TO HAMMERLOCKE BEFORE IT LEFT YOU STRANDED!! Rushing to think your head shot to the man in the booth and he jolted when you dashed up to him panting and clearly distressed!! He would know surely if a trio of teenagers got onto the train sometime before you. You stared at him hard before speaking.

"HEY! Excuse me!," you yelled despite him being right there making him blink more. Considering how small this town was and how this guy had a job here he must've been local! Which meant he would surely know who Leon's family was being semi celebs here, "I need to know if three kids ever got on this train here recently! One was a guy with purple hair! It's an emergency!"

the man didn't respond for a moment, only blinking. Before he rose a brow. "I-...Well yes recently there was a couple kids who got on."

"How long ago!?"

"I-...I d-don't know! A day..maybe a day and a half ago??"

One or two days! So you weren't that far behind them! Reaching back into your pocket, you slapped whatever money you had left on that booth. "I need a ticket for the morning train RIGHT N O W!!"

The man scared by your yelling, did indeed give you your ticket. Without looking back, you immediately used it to board back onto the train to ride it back to Hammerlocke. You weren't far behind them then! That was good! Bad news though you were still behind! Which meant you had to catch up as fast as you could! Feeling more determined, you steeled your worries to the side and pushed on. This time sleeping and eating better to keep up your strength as the train went along. Paying attention to every stop and announcement the conductor made, checking to make sure it was the right stop. OH!! WHEN YOU GOT YOUR HANDS ON THAT ROSE GUY HE WAS IN BIG BIG TROUBLE!!! The train continued on and on and your worry grew less, your angry growing in it's place. THAT GUY WAS SO DEAD MEAT!! The train carried you on and on. Day after day. Night after night. Until one fateful morning when you again couldn't manage to sleep-

"Attention Passengers! The morning train will be arriving at Hammerlocke Station in ten mintues! That's all!"

HAMMERLOCKE!! THIS WAS IT!! YOUR STOP!! Standing up you immediately began walking your way over to the doors and stood there as the train rattled on. Eventually slowing to a stop coming near the city. Slowly the train came to a stop and the doors open to the cold air and the dark morning greeted you. No light to be found yet are you immediately ran out of the train and into Hammerlocke's familiar stadium. Running past you noticed the small curry place in the corner you recognized and knew! You were in Hammerlocke alright! But no one was here! Most likely because the place had been evacuated like in the game when the player arrived, only to find Raihan there-...And like in game you would also find him. Stepping out of the pokemon center, you turned in the night and booked it down the castle looking street up towards the deserted gym where you would know they would head. And you heard...Yelling? The closing you got you heard it louder. And then you saw it. DRAGON BOY!! Raihan was there! He looked to be horrified as he gazed at the sky above him.

Breathing heavily, you raced right towards them. "RAIHAN!!"

Your voice echoed all around the otherwise deserted pace as your feet slapped against the pavement heading right towards the two guys who seemed shocked to see you of all people there. Raihan blinking. "....Y-Y/n?!''

Raihan nearly fell over as you harshly grabbed him and shook his jacket with surprising strength "WHERE'S HOP AND GLORIA!? AND WHERE'S VICTOR!?"

"They ran on ahead into the stadium." He spoke eyes spinning as he shook his head. "I tried to stop them...Honest I did. But they were too fast for me to catch them." He pointed up. "Then that appeared just before you grabbed me!"

You felt your stomach drop. "WHAT!?"

"The city was evacuated when Leon got here. I'm supposed to be in there helping him but then these guys side blinded me when they rushed in! It's not safe for you here!"

You stared at him silently before faster than Raihan could comprehend, you turned and started running away from him Silver at your heels.

He blinked. "H-HEY! WAIT A MINUTE!! IT'S TOO DANGEROUS TO GO IN THERE!" And he ran after your form.

You didn't stop. You already knew the way anyways! The player would go into the stadium and take that fancy elevator down into the powerplant, fight the Chairman, and then take another lift to the very top of the roof where they would find Leon and battle Eternatus! So that's EXACTLY where you went. Right into the stadium, around the corner and right up to that fancy lift. Practically spamming the down button on the thing until it dinged and the doors opened.

"HEY, SASSY!! WAIT UP A MINUTE!!" You ignored Raihan as you immediately stepped into the elevator, unfortunately he was able to catch up fast enough to jump into the lift as well just before the doors closed and with a ding noise the two of you descended. He breathed a bit shivering from the cold outside before looking around the lift...before to you're angry face staring at the doors. "H-Hey. What's up with you bursting in like this? How'd you even manage to get into Hammerlocke in the first place?!"

"I took the train!," you answered truthfully, "Guess you forgot to shut down the entrance from the station." He blinked surprised. "Look! Those kids are in trouble and you sure as heck aren't stopping me from helping them! Where's Leon?"

He held up his hands. "Hey. Take it easy there." He pointed a finger up. "He flew in a little while ago while we were evacuating but I don't know what's been going on up there."

"You'll see soon enough."

He didn't know what that meant, and you didn't answer anymore only looking ahead as you continued down. Until another Ding noise rang out and the doors opened. You didn't even wait for him immediately running out and down the metal platform. A giant opening to the right was where you would find where the player would battle the Chairman. AND FROZE!! Almost tripping over your own feet and falling onto your face as someone came around the corner and Raihan caught up to you. You both watched wide eyed as none other than the Chairman himself casually walked around the corner like it was just another day at the office, straightening his tie! But paused seeing the both of you there. For a moment all three of you stared at one another before a sigh came from the older man who shook his head.

"I see that I'm seeing a lot of familiar faces today."

....You scowled and pointed at him walking forward. "WHERE'S HOP AND GLORIA!? WHAT DID YOU DO WITH THEM!?"

Mr. Rose simply turned his head to the other elevator at the end of the hall. "I'm afraid you just missed them. You see they are on their way up to see dear Leon. Unfortunately I'm afraid they're lacking. If they couldn't get to the end of the tournament what hope would they have to help Leon?" YOUR. RAGE. B O I L E D. "Yes. I'm afraid we're all doomed."

He looked back to you. You were already walking for him when you asked where the two went, but he hadn't expected was when two smaller but strong hands GRABBED the front of his suit jacket, and with surprising strength, SLAMMED the man to the side against the wall. Which made a metal thud when he got slammed against his back, one arm forcibly laying itself across his chest to make sure he couldn't move. His light green eyes stared down at you wide eyed as did Raihan. Both men stared at you as you snarled like a beast teeth clenched.

"Listen here you stupid old man," you growled through your teeth, lowly, threatening in a way the Chairman was NOT used to seeing since he absolutely froze under your grip. "This is all YOUR fault! How dumb were you to see that this wouldn't save Galar!? That monster you unleashed will kill everyone in it's path and you decided to release it anways!?" You snapped. "IF ANY OF THOSE KIDS ARE HURT WHEN I GET UP THERE I SWEAR NO MATTER WHERE YOU GO I WILL FIND YOU AND MAKE YOU W I S H THAT ETERNATUS HAD FOUND YOU BEFORE I DID!!"

With a last shove to him, you turned and RAN down the hallway and to the elevator. Spamming the button open and hopping in. Pushing the up button for dear life until the doors closed and with a ding you started upwards. Both men stood there stunned for a long moment before the Chairman looked over at the sound of footsteps and looked over to Raihan ABSOLUTELY ANGRY at him despite the calm look he held.

"....I could threaten you more for destroying my gym, but I think her words work well enough for me."

You breathed heavily, panting in fear as the elevator took you up and up and up towards the roof. Until with another ding noise sounded and you ran out. Turning and following the red stairs up...And what you were met with stopped you in your tracks. Wind blew all around you like crazy. The roof completely destroyed. Purple storm and lightning all around you as pieces of the roof whirled. And in front of you was a battle. A battle between four pokemon and two kids all fighting a GIANT SKELETON WORM THING!! Two of the four pokemon in front of the kids dog like...And you stared. THE BATTLE AGAINST THE BIG BAD ENEMY!! This was it and you recognized those pokemon! The legendary ones from the game cases depending if you bought Pokemon Sword or Pokemon Shield. They must've been in the final stages of this battle! In the game the player and Hop battled with those two in order to capture Eternatus and then eventually win after Leon couldn't-.....LEON!? Your head whipped to the side and your eyes widened in shock at what you saw. Leon's proud Charizard, hurt and knocked out laying on the ground and the Champion himself not looking too hot. Looking as if he was standing with a limp, covered in bruises and scraps and beside him was Victor. Leon half holding the boy behind him in a protective stance, even in danger against a legendary he was still prepared to protect his little siblings. CLANK!! You gave a yell and jumped away as a metal piece of the once roof finally broke lose from the wind and slammed onto the ground right next to you. THAT WAS CLOSE!! Just a few more inches and it would've completely crushed your legs! Raihan was right! This place was too dangerous for anyone to be here! ...Your head snapped up and around towards Leon, as a heavy looking piece of roof came right for his hurt form and Victor shivering just behind him. And your eyes widened....YOU. RAN!! Right for them arms out and one goal in mind.

"LEON LOOK OUT!!"

Leon barely had time to turn his head to you before a force suddenly hit his chest strong enough to knock him out of the pathway of the falling roof piece having a domino effect as his body collided with Victor and shoved him back. But replacing you with it. With no time to dodge out of the way from impact as the thing slammed into you. Pain exploding.

....And then everything went black.

[pinkhairandpokemon]

📰📰📰 🗡️💖 //i saw that @touya-san now give us the gossip

[An online news article, dating back to around four years ago:

Champion Blake: Galar’s Knight, The Underdog Who Climbed To The Top

“The people of Galar were in for shock after shock last week, first when the Pokémon League’s very own Chairman Rose unleashed the power of a legendary onto the region and sowed chaos- and then again when one of the young trainers who stopped him ended up bringing beloved Champion Leon’s long ten-year reign to an close.

It was an outcome hardly anyone could have expected. So that begs the question: what do we know about this scrappy young hero who not only bested the might of the unbeatable champion who endorsed them, but helped save Galar from the brink of crisis? Well, you’re in luck, because today we have an exclusive interview for you all with the kid that League fans have come to affectionately refer to as ‘Galar’s Knight’.”

Underneath it is a video linking to said interview. It starts with the interviewer sitting down on a chair in what looks like a studio. Soon after, a younger looking Blake walks in; they’re wearing a champion uniform, and their hair is still its natural light brown. They appear to be 16 or so.

Interviewer: Good to see you, Champion! We’re so pleased you could join us today. Why don’t you have a seat across from me?

She points to the chair a foot or two away from hers, and Blake shuffles over to sit down.

Blake: Oh, yeah, okay…

They have a bit of a forced looking smile on their face, and they wave awkwardly to the camera man.

Interviewer: Great, so- let’s get right into it. Tell me- how exactly are you feeling right now? About winning the championship tournament, about stopping the Darkest Day- I can imagine you have a lot of thoughts running through your head! All of this has happened in like, less than a week, after all.

Blake adjusts their microphone ear piece, finding their words before speaking.

Blake: It’s um, y-yeah, it’s been a lot… I’m uh, really excited about winning the championship, though. As for um, the Darkest Day, I… haven’t really collected all of my thoughts on that yet.

The interviewer casts the young champion a sympathetic gaze, when she sees the way they seem to fidget nervously at the mention of the Darkest Day.

Interviewer: I see. Well, in that case, we’ll just stick to the topic of the championship tournament for now. So, next question- how did you feel taking down the unbeatable Leon?

Blake: It- it felt pretty surreal, honestly. When I saw Charizard go down, I thought I was dreaming.

Interviewer: How were you expecting the match to go, going into it?

Blake: Um, I don’t really know. I knew my team was strong, but I knew Leon had years and years of experience under his belt. I felt it could’ve gone either way, you know?

Interviewer: Mhm.

Blake: But, um- it wasn’t like I was expecting my team to lose or anything, I knew that whatever ended up happening they’d give it their absolute all- but before the match, I really had to just uh, steel myself for the possibility of defeat. I knew who I was up against, and I had to make sure my head was in the game. Didn’t wanna get too cocky.

Interviewer: Yeah, that’s fair- I mean, you were up against a champion with one of the longest running titles in the world, with a pristine record of win after win for a solid decade.

Blake: Y-yeah, so- when we actually won, I just kinda… stood there on the field silently for like, a-a good thirty seconds while the crowd was going absolute nuts around me, heheh. I guess in that moment, I kinda saw my whole journey flashing in my eyes- and it just, I dunno, really hit for me that I made it. Like, somehow, I made it.

Interviewer: Starting out on your gym challenge, we’re you expecting to get as far as you did- getting the opportunity to even battle Leon in the first place, let alone win?

Blake: Nope. I could have never imagined it in a million years.

Interviewer: Really? How come?

Blake: Well, when I started out, I had like… no idea what I was doing. It all changed pretty fast, to be honest. I was a kid from a home that barely wanted anything to do with Pokémon, so I didn’t have the opportunities to hone my battling skills like a lot of others did. I’d always wanted to be a trainer, but I always thought it was way out of my reach so I never got my hopes up. Until then Leon himself came along one day, and just… handed me a Sobble. Not only that, but he endorsed me for the gym challenge? That sounds like something out of every aspiring trainer’s fantasy.

Interview: Well, we heard from a previous interview- with your rival, Hop Laventon- during the semifinals that Leon had you test your strength against each other, right? Do you think that’s when he spotted the potential in you?

Blake: If he did, I couldn’t see it. I lost that battle I had against Hop- I felt like I’d let my Pokémon down pretty miserably, so I thought for sure he was gonna give Hop an endorsement letter and not me. But then he did anyways. I couldn’t fathom why, for the longest time I thought he’d given it to me out of pity. But for some reason, he always gave me this look that said he still saw great things in me. Even in my early days when I was just stumbling around, trying to grasp the basics, he kept trying to encourage me. If it weren’t for him, Hop and Sonia giving me those pushes forwards at the start, I don’t think I ever would have made it to where I am today.

Interview: My, I wish we could get some of these people in here to get their side of the story. You quickly became a rising star amongst this year’s challengers about halfway into your journey, so it’s really interesting to hear you started out as the underdog. Is it true that you had no prior battling knowledge before you got your starter? Was this the cause of a lot of your struggles?

Blake: Well, maybe a little- I watched a lot of League matches on TV growing up, Leon’s included. Hop taught me all about type-matchups, and I read a bit about strategy online from time to time, but I never thought it’d be knowledge I’d need. Besides, my anxiety always made me freeze up at the most pivotal moments, so… I would end up getting all in my head and just… fumbling, right in the middle of battle.

Interviewer: Interesting. And how did you end up overcoming this habit of yours?

Blake: I think the biggest factor in getting over that was my Pokémon- it was all about learning to trust. Trust my team, showing them they could trust me; but the only way I could do any of that was putting trust in myself. That was the biggest roadblock I faced, I think- but over time I finally learned that the trainer played as big a role in winning a battle as the Pokémon did. Once I realized that, I knew I had to become the kind of trainer my Pokémon relied on, not the trainer that solely relied on them. I… guess in short, wanting to be better for them is what inspired me to be more confident in myself and my skills.

The interviewer nods, seeming in awe of Blake’s story.

Interviewer: That’s incredible. I mean, seriously, that’s so inspiring! I mean, a lot of the Gym Challenge is centered on the thrill and grandeur of the battles, but a lot of people don’t realize just how much it can mean to the trainers. Like, it’s so much more complex than just winning and losing- like for you, the trust you and your team exhibit during a battle is the foundation of your bond with them, right?

Blake: Yeah, yeah. That’s- that’s the part I’ve come to enjoy about it most really, getting to work in sync with my Pokémon.

Interview: With all that said- where do you plan to go from here? Do you feel you’ve reached the top, or do you still think there’s a long way left for you and your team to go?

Blake: Well- I uh, I really wanna keep getting stronger, so I can live up to my title and stuff. And um, I think now that I’ve made it this far I really wanna start… being myself, if that makes sense? Cause um, I think that way I can… be sort of a b-beacon for kids like me. Who have anxiety and feel like it’s holding them back… I-I guess I wanna be um, the role model I needed growing up. Who- who shows them that it’s okay to be scared, it’s okay to be unsure, but you can overcome it all at your own pace. Like, even after I realized what kinda trainer I needed to become, I didn’t change into that overnight, I needed to work at it, you know? And even I had setbacks, but I still made it- and they can too.

Blake: Taking those steps to becoming a better trainer were scary, cause I didn’t know if I would succeed, and I knew it’d be hard to unlearn all that doubt I had in myself- so I-I feel like if I start working towards embracing myself now, may-maybe I can encourage others to do the same. And show them that road isn’t scary, that failure and the fallbacks aren’t scary.

Interviewer: That’s amazing. It’s good to see you have a solid idea of your future and what champion you wanna be for Galar- I personally have no doubt in my mind you’re gonna be one of the best our region has had yet, and I hope the rest of the public will feel the same after getting to know you and your story a bit better.

Interview: As much as I’d like to delve more into the life of our new champ, that’s all the time we have for today. Everyone at home give Champion Blake a thank you for agreeing to join us and tell us more about their road to success!

Closing out music begins to play, and Blake gives the camera a wave and a smile as they stand up, before being escorted out of the room.]

[pokeexehasstoppedworking]

A Champion Time For The Heart Ch28 The Champion Cup P2

(Warning: Someone does get hurt with a hurt arm and someone does get knocked out And Leon is a lil hurt from his Eternatus confrontation but don't worry. They're all ok.)

So Hop lost to Raihan?...You shook your head before putting Allister down. The small boy ended up pulling your arm and pointing towards the cabinets again wanting a replacement hot chocolate for the one that he spilt earlier which you complied into making for him. ..Along with all the other kids who shouted for refills. Sigh. Oh well. At least the spill was cleaned up and no was else was fighting. But still...You could barely believe this was happening. Not that it was peaceful. But the fact that Hop would be the one who was going to fight Leon instead of one of the player avatars, Victor or Gloria. Not that you didn't think Hop wasn't strong because he was a strong trainer, but the story line took a 180 degree you weren't expecting at all. You could never have predicted Hop would've been the one to battle his way through the champion cup but you guessed Raihan must've been too strong to win against in a one vs one battle style. Well that would explain why Hop was here with you guys now and the twins were gushing all over him asking what it was like battling his way to the second to last round and giving him congratulations for making it that far.

"Really guys. It was nothing!," he assured then raising his hands before sighing defeatedly. "I didn't even get to make it past Raihan to Lee anyways. *sigh* So much for becoming the world's first champion brothers."

"Ye still tried your best. That's all that mattered. 'Sides, ye got farther than me!"

"Yeah. But you got pretty good run in yourself in the semifinals!"

"Aw! Thanks, Hoppy!"

Gloria smiled at Hop gratefully. Beside her Bede rose a brow between her and Hop before raising a hand and coughing loudly. Gaining her attention. "*AHEM*....Yes. This is ..all well and good." He peeked one eye open at Gloria who blinked at him before looking away again. "I suppose some congratulations is in order. You were..very good out there. I'm surprised you were strong enough to last through to the semifinals. I may have underestimated by rival's perseverance."

Gloria blinked surprised but smiled at him. "Well that's a surprisingly nice thing ye would say 'bout me. Thanks, Bede."

You didn't miss the light pink of Bede's cheeks...and neither did Hop who scowled at him. "*ahem* Y-Your welcome. It's only natural to comment on one's strength if they get far."

"Yeah!" Hop narrowed his eyes at Bede. "Great job out there, Gloria! You did your best."

Sigh. Those two were going to be a handful It was..kinda a blur but you had set Allister back down in his seat by the window, thanked Victor for making sure things didn't delve into further chaos, and then went about making a LOT more coco for everyone around you who wanted another cup. Which was almost everyone. You absolutely made sure Allister got a replacement cup to replace the one that he had spilt a little while ago. When everyone was satisfied with the hot coco, you were about to go sit down when you remembered. Hop probably hadn't eaten anything yet. Everyone else had burgers and countless amounts of hot chocolate, but he probably hadn't eaten anything too busy focusing on battling. You'd better make him one of those ramen cups so he'd have something in his stomach- B O O M!! The entire place shook again as a gigantic boom went off outside shaking the entire stadium. You had to grip the cabinet to not fall over before it quickly stopped. What the world was THAT!?

"IT'S A MIRACLE FOLKS!! THE FIREY FIERCE FIGHTER KABU!! HAS BEEN DEFEATED!! THE TALL, DARK, AND MYSTERIOUS PIERS HAS EARNT THE RIGHT TO BATTLE IN THE FINAL ROUND!!" Oh! Was THAT what that was? The crowd cheered and Marnie stood there staring out the window. Her blue eyes suddenly slightly narrowed staring out and down to the field. "BATTLERS PLEASE EXIT THE FIELD FOR REPAIRS AND PREPARE FOR THE FINAL MATCH TO DETERMINE WHICH GYM LEADER WILL BE LUCKY ENOUGH TO COMPETE AGAINST CHAMPION LEON FOR THE FINAL MATCH OF THE CHAMPION CUP!!"

You slowly let go of the cabinets and minded your own business as you made another cup of ramen for Hop, and along with his cup of coco, and brought it over to him. All the while swiveling your head around and keeping check on all the kids there. Making a head count. One, two, three- Ok! All fourteen children (now including Hop) were accounted for and safe. Hop smiled and thanked you for the food once you handed it to him and you finally got the chance to sit down on one of the couches with a sigh. Almost as soon as you did, Silver slunk over and plopped himself next to you curled up like a cat. Well good news. You didn't have to worry about anything else at the moment. Bad news....Now you had to deal with ANOTHER giant problem. The game for whatever reason was...derailed. Derailed harder than a train flying off the tracks at a million miles per hour. So now begged the question. HOW WERE YOU GOING TO GET HOME NOW!? If the only chances you had of getting home were riding on the game ending then how would you get home now? Would you still go home once the Champion Cup was over? Would it really matter if Gloria or Victor wasn't the one battling Leon in the end? ...You shook your head stomach in knots. You didn't know. There was only one thing to do. You'd have to wait with the others and watch the last two battles of the entire finals. Would Raihan or Piers be the one to battle Leon in the end? With a sigh you leaned back. Wonder what those guys were up to now? Was Raihan taking selfies before his big match? Was Piers getting a new song ready to sing for audience as he battled his way through the champion cup? You had no idea.

"Thanks for the food, Y/n!" You turned to Hop gratefully holding the ramen cup. "I haven't eaten anything all day. Nice to have something warm in me."

You smiled at him. "Hey. No problem. I'm surprised you've eaten three of those now. Must've been real hungry huh?"

He smiled a bit embarrassed but you smiled. Wasn't his fault. You probably would've been hungry too having to just battle in the cold and focus on your pokemon most of the day. You had been trying to not fall down the rabbithole of worry with your thoughts about the unusual circumstances and focused your energy into talking and playing with some of the kids, and making Hop some food. Which you didn't mind at all, keeps you busy. All the while Marnie had been standing at the window looking out with that narrowed eye thinking face of hers. And for good reason, but you hadn't noticed being too busy taking care of everyone there until Bede had perked up towards the window..and hummed before asking.

"Isn't that field repaired yet?"

You had looked up from Silver for a moment and blinked at him. "Huh? What makes you say that?"

He rolled his eyes but answered. "We've been sitting here for nearly two hours now!" He complained gaining the attention of everyone else who looked at him. "The next match should have started long before now!" He threw a hand towards the window. "We should we watching the Champion defending his title RIGHT THIS SECOND!!"

That made Hop look towards the window as well with a confused look. "Huh...As much as I hate to admit it, Bede's right. Piers and Raihan should've already battled by now. I wonder what's keeping them?"

"Well maybe the field is still being repaired?," you offered.

Hop shook his head. "Can't be. Field Repairs usually only take thirty or forty minutes. An hour at most if the field's really banged up and it's already been repaired.." he took a moment to pull out his phone to check the time. "...About an hour and twenty five minutes ago." He looked back towards the window again with narrowed eyes. "That's not normal unless something's wrong."

"What could have gone wrong-"

It was at THAT exact moment that that the intercom voice came back ON.

"SORRY FOR THE DELAY FOLKS!! TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES!! BUT NOW WE'RE BACK AND HERE IT IS!! THE LAST MATCH OF THE FINALS!" The crowd cheered and almost everyone sitting down stood up to immediately make a beeline to the windows and so did you. "WHO WILL EARN THE RIGHT TO CHALLENGE THE UNBEATABLE CHAMPION LEON!? WILL IT BE THE BRILLIANT ROCKSTAR PIERS!? OR WILL IT BE THE ONLY TRAINER THAT CHAMPION LEON CALLS HIS RIVAL!! THE TAMER OF DRAGONS RAIHAN!?"

The crowd roared from his announcement as the two gym leaders made their way out onto the field both their faces lit up on the screen. Both meeting each other in the middle of the field. Here we go. Icy wind blew around the two as they met at the center of the field. Electric blue eyes meeting dark ocean blue ones as both Dark and Dragon gym leaders made eye contact. Piers barely suppressed a shiver as the cold winter wind bit his pale skin and made his long hair blow around him. His neutral face meeting the smiling face of his friend.

"BATTLERS PLEASE GET TO YOUR PLACES!!" At the sound of the announcer both men turn. Piers pausing to give one upwards towards the windows high above for the VIP lounge. Oh right. You turned your head to Marnie. He must've known his little sister was up here watching him. "READY YOUR POKEMON!! GET SET!! BATTLE BEGIN!!"

There was no grand THUD sound when Piers pulled out his microphone to stamp to the ground in one hand and pokeball in the other! Having thrown it out as soon as the announcer said to, challenging Raihan to dare make a move against him. And the pokemon were sent out. Piers Skuntank verses Raihan's torkaol!

"LET'S START THIS OFF WITH A LIGHT TO CHASE AWAY THE DARKNESS!! DROUGHT HIGH AND PROUD!!", Raihan had yelled out immediately on sight practically roaring out his command. And in an instant the slow looking turtle pokemon immediately did as it was told. With a giant huff a tan-sandy like fog was exploded from it's back shell and spread throughout half the stadium in a bright light. Piers stared narrowed eyed at it until suddenly a bright flash of light erupted from it. The skuntank yelling out in pain from it as it's master held up an arm to it. "HOW DO YOU LIKE MY TORKOAL'S NEW MOVE!? TOOK A WHILE TO LEARN THIS ONE!! GETS THE SUNLIGHT BURNING REAL HARSH!!"

"M' all for a good spotlight! But I think I'd rather settle for a little SMOKESCREEN!!" The skuntank obeying it's master's commands opened it's mouth, and a torrent of abyss fell from it's maw.

From above you all watched as the field was covered half in lit up fog and black smoke, as if day and night was fighting against one another. It was fascinating. But there was one problem....You couldn't even see what was happening and neither could either gym leaders. How could either tell who was winning if it was either too dark or too bright for either to see? Marnie leaned in closer pressing a hand to the frosted glass as she watched closely.

"Nice counter, Piers! But you're forgetting I can still get my way through to see you! USE SOLAR BEAM TO PART THAT SMOKE!!" The barely visible torkoal gladly obeyed the command by opening it's shell and let a ball of light come thro-

"SCREECH YOUR HOPES HIGH!!" It was then that a figure shot up from right beside the turtle looking pokemon from the dirt at it's side and before it could even turn it's head an ear piercing SCREAM tore through the air! The torkaol gave some kind of yell itself of sharp pain through it's skull that was drowned out by the screech. Raihan gave a growl of pain himself both hands shooting to his own ears! "BITE!!!" Any more screaming from the torkoal was immediately cut off by fangs latching around his neck and with a swift yank the turtle pokemon was helplessly flipped onto its side. "BRING ME YOUR PREY!!"

Raihan could only see the silhouette of his torkoal through the slowly dissipating bright fog before in one swift movement it was yanked backwards back into the heavy smokescreen it had created earlier. His eyes widening to the size of plates as if the earth itself had just swallowed the both of them whole. "TORKOAL!!"

You stood there stunned as did everyone else who had witnessed the fast attacks A FREAKING SKUNTANK DID TO THAT POKEMON!! Then again...Piers had raised it well enough that thing could almost keep up with a scorbunny despite it's bulk and size. You weren't surprised it was fast and strong enough to pull a torkoal like that, but how did it sneak up on it?? It was too big to just crawl without Raihan being able to see it's shadow in the lit up fog even if it was near blinding. You all watched with baited breaths until a moment later barreling out of the slowly disappearing smokescreen came the skuntanks running on all fours like a mini furry tank and dragging along the poor torkoal on it's side as it useless flailed. It ran straight towards Piers who pointed his hand towards the nearest boundary line and with a sharp turn you had seen it use on Gloria's scorbunny, it turned hard right and barreled towards it.

"TORKOAL YOUR BACK IS TOWARDS IT!! USE SOLAR BEAM TO HIT IT IN THE SIDE!!"

Piers with his hand still outstretched gave a flick of his wrist the skuntank did a twirl and SLAMMED the torkoal down onto the ground before it could even respond to Raihan's orders, before continuing to run towards the boundary line. What they- He didn't even give the pokemon an order! How was-...Did- Did Piers train it to respond a certain way to his hand motions? Either way the skuntank ran at full speed charging towards that line before stopping and releasing it's jaws. As a result the poor turtle went round and round head over shells from the speed and throw it received flipping around and around until it finally landed on it's stomach, body half laying across the line.

"Raihan's torkoal has been thrown out of bounds! Therefore the Mighty Piers is the winner of match one of Round Four!" The crowd roared regardless of the fight you had just witnessed and you sighed. Watching as Piers once again made a motion with his hand in the universal sign of 'Come here', and watching the skuntank paddle up to it's training. Rubbing his body against Piers's leg in the way a cat would and Raihan returned his poor pokemon. "Ok folks! What a quick start to thing's but now it's time for the second match! Get your pokemon ready!" Piers also returned his skuntank, not bothering to take his eyes off Raihan.

"I'm impressed! Again!" Raihan made a finger gun towards Piers. "Wasn't expecting you to take me down so fast like that! Really caught me off guard."

"Then don't bloody leave two feet of space below your fog for us to crawl sideways under! Can't light us up if the light doesn't even touch us!"

Smirking, Raihan held up another pokeball. "Thanks for the tip. I'll be sure to work on that flaw."

"Ready!? Let the second match begin!!"

Up next was Piers's liepard against Raihan Goodra. You watched with wide eyes and baited breath as Pier's mostly directed the pokemon with single commands or hand gestures as the two pokemon battled it out. Ultimately ending with Raihan winning the second match. Raihan sure was a strong trainer and it showed in the next round as well when it was his turtonator verses Piers's malamar and completely destroyed Piers in the process. Past the third round now and so far it was Piers one Raihan two. Oh you hoped this didn't end up in another tie.

"The fourth match of Round Four is about to begin!," the announcer blared through the cheering crowds as both men readied their fourth pokeball. "Get your pokemon ready! Let the fourth match BEGIN!!"

In a flash of light and shadow from each of the two gym leaders the two sent out their fourth pokemon. Raihan presented his flygon and Piers a toxtricity. Raihan gave a smirk pointing to Piers. "GET READY CUZ HERE WE COME!!"

"I'm waiting to be impressed then!"

Raihan smirked at Piers's snarky remark before pointing towards the toxtricity. "Let the winds blow! STREAM FORWARD SANDSTORM!!" With a loud cry from the flying pokemon, a literal whirlwind suddenly appeared and enveloped it in a tornado of sand before the thing spread out and Piers was forced to push his hand up in front of his eyes to keep the sand from them- "BREAKING SWIPE!!" The toxtricity gave it's own yell of pain as all of a sudden the flygon as fast as lightning, DOVE towards it before doing a quick roll in air and with a sickening WHACK sound nailed the toxtricity in the head before continuing it's fast flight- "STEEL WING!!"

Piers raised a wrist as the flygon flew close to the ground, but still with some space for someone to duck, with it's wings lit up a bright silver color, headed right towards the toxtricity. The poison type stared at Piers who with his hand still raised bent it back with a yell. "VENOM DRENCH!" You all watched as fast as the flygon could fly the poison type formed a toxic ball of thick purple posion smoke into it's hands and when the flygon was close enough. BENT. BACKWARDS. Like how a rockstar would bend back doing those knee slides, the toxtricity bent backwards with it's hands throwing up and by the time the flygon realized the danger it was in. It was TOO LATE!! The toxic purple ball was thrown up and with a wet splat sound a water balloon would make, it smacked right into the flygon's face as it soar over the toxtricity. The pokemon gave a shriek of surprise and perhaps pain as it's flight faltered and slammed onto the ground. Rolling a few times before fully stopping with a finally thud.

"FLYGON GET UP-''

"GIVE IT A JAB OF YOUR PERSONAL POISON!!" With a sharp twist of it's body the toxtricity turned it's back towards the struggling Flygon who was shaking his face from being drenched in the purple goo from the venom drench, and a torrent of dark purple missiles projectized from his spines. And by the time the flygon turned towards it, it was once again too late. It gave a loud cry as the multiple projectiles slammed right into it and with a heavy thud it went down to the ground. And that's where it stayed.

"FLYGON IS UNABLE TO CONTINUE BATTLE WHICH MEANS FOURTH MATCH VICTORY GOES TO GYM LEADER PIERS!!" The crowd roared in cheers as both men returned their pokemon as the announcer still spoke. They were tied. Both winning two matches each. But the question was who would win and who would lose? "BOTH POWERFUL FORCES ARE TIED TO THE MAX!! WHO WILL REIGN SUPREME TO CHALLENGE THE CHAMPION!?" From high above in the VIP lounge you all looked on intently and excitedly to see who would win the tie. Raihan's trainers cheering their mentor's inevitable victory while Marnie held one hand firmly against the glass as she watched brother intently. You watched with wide eyes wondering who would win...but one look at Raihan told you all you needed to know. "IT'S TIME FOR THE FINAL MATCH OF ROUND FOUR!! THE VICTOR SHALL GO ON TO THE CHAMPION MATCH!! YOU KNOW WHAT THAT MEANS FOLKS!! IT'S TIME TO DYNAMAX!!"

Both men took out a final pokeball. Their final chance. Piers sent out his pokeball and in a puff of dark smoke appeared that giant badger-man looking pokemon out. The cold wind beating around him as he pointed. "Face the mighty high roar of my Obstagoon!" The pokemon roaring out from Piers's introduction of the dark type. "He'll tear through your steel like paper!"

Raihan laughed at his friend producing a pokeball himself in the cold wind. "You do realize I'm the great Raihan, right!? I'll be the one to beat Leon! So first I'll beat you and then I'll just walk away today as the new Champion!" With a single pokeball in one hand, red energy filled it to the point it suddenly surged to the size of a bowling ball in his hand. With a quick pose and smile, his rotomi phone quickly snapped a picture of the Dragon Tamer before be turned around and with a hard throw single handedly tossed the ball through the air. It soared through the cold winter sky before cracking open and out came the duraludon. The stadium, Piers, and his Obstagoon wobble from the sheer force of the roaring giant pokemon hitting the ground. Piers had to desperately cling to his mic stand just to stay standing but all would be lost with Raihan one and only command to end the battle. "MAX STEELSPIKE!!"

Blue eyes widened as the crashing of the titanium spikes shot up from the ground upon the leader's command. The ground cracking open as dirt flung high and the shiny steel reflected his terror as it struck. It a crash. Piers fell. Or more like flung back by the sheer force of the ground that shot up from under his feet. Blue eyes wide and body light, he flew a few yards into the cold air before landing down hard onto the frozen ground like a sack of brick. Crashing down with a thud and rolling a couple times before finally coming to rest on his stomach face down and unmoving. The Obstagoon suffering the same fate as it's owner flying through the air before smacking down WAY outside the boundary line. You all stood there in stunned silence as no one moved. Marnie's eyes widened to the size of plates. Gloria gasped and her hands flew to her mouth. Hop choked on the ramen noodles he was eating. And even Bede who normally couldn't care less rose his brows in alarm at one of the gym leaders getting flung across the arena like a bean bag. After a long moment of Piers being still on the screen he moved. A shaky hand slowly coming up and digging into the frozen grass of the field. Lose dirt and rubble fell from his body as he pushed himself from his stomach onto his back. Indicating he was alright. Marnie sighed in relief.

"PIERS'S OBSTAGOON HAS BEEN KNOCKED OUT OF BOUNDS!! THEREFORE THE MIGHTY RAIHAN GOES VICTORIOUS AND IS ONCE AGAIN THE ONE TO BATTLE CHAMPION LEON!!" The announcer sounded and THE. CROWD. ROARED!! You let out a breath you didn't know you were holding and sighed in relief. Well that could've gone worse. After a moment, the duraludon gradually was returned to it's normal size and returned to Raihan. "THE FINAL BATTLE OF THE CHAMPION CUP IS COMING UP NEXT FOLKS!! WILL THE CHAMPION REMAIN UNBEATABLE OR WILL HIS LONG TIME RIVAL AND TOP GYM LEADER FINALLY CLAIM THE TITLE OF CHAMPION FOR HIMSELF!? STAY TUNED!! FOR NOW PLEASE CLEAR THE FIELD FOR FINAL REPAIRS!!"

With the triplets cheering for their mentor Marnie sighed and pressed her forehead to the glass. In the meantime Raihan was racing his way across the field, going around craters in the dirt or jumping over larger pieces of rubble on his way over to Piers who had still not gotten up from his crash landing earlier. His mic stand right next to him.

"PIERS!?," he cried out half alarmed half worried as he raced over to the man. Soon dropping to his knees and blocking out any light above him. "Piers!" The rockstar was jolted into opening his eyes when Raihan's stronger grip grabbed him by the shoulders and shook him. "Hey man! Are you alright!? You went flying higher than a kite!"

"AHH!! " Piers instantly bristled as a spike of pain shot up from his other arm. His arm was brought up to his chest as his good one clutched it. A scrunched up face of gritted teeth and closed eyes met the frozen Dragon Man as Piers's body slightly curled in instinct from the pain. "NO! I'M NOT BLOODY ALRIGHT!! I THINK I HURT MY ARM!!"

Raihan was frozen for only a moment before he nodded and reacted. "Hey! Don't worry man I got you!" Piers gave another groan of pain as his friend grabbed him by the shoulders and pulled him to his feet. The pain in his arm worsening with the jostling. "Hey. It's ok buddy. C'mon! We'll get you to medical professionals stat!"

You watched as the two gym leaders disappeared and released a breath you didn't know you were holding. "Alright. The big moment's finally here, eh?" You blinked to Hop.

Gloria nodded. "Yeah. Who do you think's gonna win?"

"I came here just to take on Lee but I ended up having to cheer for him instead from the sidelines. *sigh* But it's not easy picking sides for some. After all, it's the show down between my big brother and his rival who's also a fan favorite. Who should I really want to win more?''

"Hop. We all know you're cheering on Leon."

Hop chuckled caught red handed. "Yeah. I guess that much is obvious. If anyone can defeat the unbeatable Champion it'll be Raihan. He is the top gym leader after all."

You nodded in understanding. That was true you guessed. By what you just witnessed Raihan was a very strong and capable gym leader. But you STILL couldn't understand why it wasn't Gloria or Victor who was going up against Leon- You thought process stopped when you felt a tugging on your pants leg, and when looking down discovered Allister was there and was holding his cup up to you again. Indicating he wanted more hot chocolate. With a sigh you graciously took it from him and decided to make him some more hot chocolate. Might as well have something to do while you wait. As the field was being repaired, the room was alive in excitement. All the kids happily chattering away pumped to see who would win. The Champion or The Top Gym leader. Both had titles deserving of their might but only one would walk away with a win. You were a bit busy making more refills of hot chocolate and a few more cups of ramen for the few kids who were still hungry. So you had your hands full playing babysitter and cook to all these guys who wanted the food. It wasn't too long a wait. The kids were sated with their full stomachs against the cold. The field was repaired. And possibly the loudest cheer you had ever heard the crowd made yet came roaring out as someone walked out onto the field. And you soon found out why.

"HEY! IT'S LEE!!" You looked up at Hop's cry and he beckoned for you to come to the window. You blinked and went over towards it again and peered down along with everyone else. And low and behold Leon was right there in the middle of the field. Standing arms crossed and smile on his face as the cold wind blew his cap and long purple hair around with the snow. Looks like you'll finally be able to see Leon after all.

"LADIES AND GENTLEMEN AND FOLKS OF ALL AGES!! I GIVE TO YOU THE GALAR REGION'S UNBEATABLE CHAMPION LEON!!" The crowd kept roaring at the announcement and you watched on. Here it was the final battle...But wait. Your face scrunched up in thought. Something wasn't making sense. Something was missing. You felt it in your gut. "THE FINAL BATTLE OF THIS YEAR'S CHAMPION CUP SHALL NOW COMMENCE!! WILL LEON REIGN SUPREME FOR ANOTHER SEASON OR WILL WE GO INTO THE NEW YEAR WITH A BRAND NEW CHAMPION!? THE FINAL MATCH WILL BE BETWEEN NONE OTHER THAN LEON HIMSELF AND ONCE AGAIN HIS LONG TIME RIVAL THE STRONGEST GYM LEADER IN GALAR!! PLEASE WELCOME GYM LEADER RAIHAN!!"

You still let your mind whirl with thoughts as Raihan made his debut out onto the field. Waving at fans and the rotomi phone floating around snapping pictures....And it was THEN you remembered eyes wide. Where was the big bad guy you were supposed to beat!? Every pokemon game had one and despite the mishap with Gloria and Victor losing, there was STILL the threat of the bad guy!! You remembered now! Before the player could battle Leon there was a bad guy you needed to defeat before earning the title of champion! But...you didn't remember who it was. Your hands shot to your head as you gritted your teeth and growled at yourself! Empty brain!! WHO WAS IT!? You had thought it was Piers at first being the leader of Team Yell and they had been causing trouble, but it wasn't then wh-.....Your eyes widened to the size of plates as you slowly turned your head back down to the field where Leon and Raihan was. ...Leon was here organizing this whole thing...But the Chairman wasn't.

".....Oh no!"

Raihan made his way back to the middle of the field without a care in the world. After all he had been here multiple times challenging Leon for the title in other Champion Cups. So he was used to this right now. The arm he had been waving going back to relax on his hip as he stopped in front of his long time rival with an amused smirk. Blue eyes meeting gold. "Waiting for me as always? Aw.~ You shouldn't have. If it makes this easier you can just leave and let me win."

The golden eyes smiled. "Hehe. As tempting as that is we both know I won't do that. I would say that I'm surprised you made it this far, but we've done this so many times it's practically a family tradition now."

Raihan lazily shrugged. "What can I say? I'm good at my job. But I will give you kudos for endorsing strong trainers. They actually gave me a challenge. By the way how is that brother of yours? I heard you took him to the 'babysitter'."

Leon chuckled and shook his head. "Hop's just fine. I'm proud my trainers was able to make it this far."

Raihan chuckled back before smirking. "Yeah. It was nice of you to give me a challenge. But now I think it's time for an even greater challenge don't you think?"

Leon inhaled taking a moment to shiver against the cold wind and snowflakes falling on him. "..The tense still air on the pitch and the exact opposite from the audience cheering and yelling. They're both fantastic wouldn't you say?"

"I hear ya." With a turn of his head, Raihan looked upwards towards the snow falling down and the sun setting down. In a few hours it will be the new year. Many people celebrating and watching them. "It can be easy to get distracted by it all."

"But remember the audience is also a bit cruel. They want nothing more than to see one of us lose after all. It can fill you with fear knowing that, but I absolutely love pushing past that fear! I love giving it everything I've got as a trainer and seeing my team give everything they've got to seize another victory." Raihan slowly looked from the sky and back towards Leon who smiled. "It's the greatest feeling in the world and I can't get enough of it! I can feel my partners itching with anticipation inside their pokeballs! We're going to have a real Champion Time this year!"

"...Hmph. Always had a way with words Lee. No wonder you can get a crowd going with just a speech. But I've got to let you know." he pointed finger guns at him. "I've got three kids who look up to me personally, and I promised to make them proud by finally beating you today. And let me tell you." Leon watched as those ocean blue eyes turned slightly up towards the windows where he knew they must've been watching. "I never let my fans down. So as you're rival, you'll have to excuse me for taking that title from you."

Leon chuckled. "You can try but you're also forgetting something. I'm the Galar Region's Champion Leon! Me and Charizard and the rest of our team will use all our knowledge and experience to crush you completely, Raihan."

"Heh. I guess we'll just have to see who can out dazzle the other then." He winked. "After all how am I supposed to tease you if I can't make ya jealous over winning that babysitter gal?~"

Leon blinked. ".....What?"

Raihan's sly smile returned as he rose his brow. "Oh don't play dumb on that. Mr. I'm-Going-To-Give-This-Girl-Money-And-Gifts-Only-The-Champion-Can-Get-His-Hands-On. I know you spent all that time swooning her with that pretty scarf and all the free invitations."

"I-I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT YOU'RE TALKING ABOUT!!" Leon quickly stammered face red which only made his rival laugh loudly.

"We both know you're lying! I've known you for too long to not know when you've got a pupplio crush on someone! And as a man of romance myself, I happen to know all the ways of love-"

"PIERS!!," Leon quickly interrupted the amused gym leader all of a sudden. "H-How is he anyways? I saw you practically carrying him off the field. The fall he took was pretty brutal."

Raihan paused for a moment blinking before sighing and shaking his head. "He seemed alright but he thinks he might've busted his arm. Took off with to the Wyndon Hospital."

Leon hummed looking a little concerned and coughed thankful he was able to quickly advert Raihan's teasing...For now. "That's for the best. When I'm done here I'll go see if he's alright."

"You and me both. But I think for now we have another matter to settle."

Leon nodded. "The show must go on. Let's make sure to make Piers proud by putting on a good show for everyone."

"THE CHAMPION MATCH SHALL NOW BEGIN!! BATTLERS PLEASE GET TO YOUR PLACES AND READY YOUR POKEMON!!"

The two turned and began walking to their places once getting there the two most powerful trainers in Galar turning to face one another. Pokeballs in hands and the cold wind whipping the snowflakes around them both in some kind of flurry, waiting for the cue from the announcer to start the match. But that's not what they had gotten. Instead what happened was that the ground shook, which wouldn't have been too shocking considering this was a stadium made to withstand dynamaxing pokemon. But that wasn't the cause of the rubble. The ground shook like an earthquake on a sugar rush for a few but long feeling seconds, during that time both men on the field wobbled around arms flailing for balance before the earth collapsed in the middle of the field and a stream of blood red poured out of the frozen earth and into the dark sky above. Lighting the sky like some sick firework. Horror riddled across both men's faces as they stood there, as loose dirt and gravel was spewed their way from it. The harsh red light reflected in their shocked gold and blue eyes. And then among the red lights screams of panic began to scream out from the masses and the monitor turned on with a familiar face and voice.

"Hello there Leon and Raihan." Both men turned to the monitor hands over their eyes to shield from the harsh light and just barely making out the face of none other than the Chairman hacking into the giant screen. "Just letting you know I think it's time I brought about the Darkest Day. For the sake of Galar's future of course. But I'm in a bit of a pickle. The energy released by the Darkest Day is too much for me to contain. I'm sorry it's come to this. But it's you who forced my hand Leon. You refused to listen." And then the monitor cut out-

There was a high pitched scream as soon as the red light burst out of the ground making the whole place shake and on instinct you reached out and snatched the nearest screaming child into your arms in a protective hold. Allister whimpered and locked onto you as you pulled his scared form to you. Wide eyed you stared as the red light took up everything around the field and the two men fleeing from the field as a result. You didn't notice, but Hop and the twins did. As a result the three of them fled from the room, slamming the door behind them as everyone else was too busy panicking or watching the red light in horror. AND. YOU. REMEMBERED!! During the game's final battle between the player and Leon it would be interrupted by Chairman Rose in a crazy plan to 'help' everyone by releasing the ancient evil pokemon Eternatus that would bring destruction to all! But the player and Hop manages to team up with the two dog-like legendary pokemon to combat it at Hammerlocke Stadium where the Chairman's power plant was after receiving the ancient shield and sword from Postwick!! THAT'S WHAT YOU'VE BEEN FORGETTING THIS ENTIRE TIME!! Which meant that-...Your head snapped around you at the remaining children who were there. The triplets were huddled together, Elsa had her little brothers hanging onto her looking horrified, Bede and Felix could only look on in horror at what they were seeing, Marnie stood still where she was with her hands against the window too shocked at what happened to move, and Allister clung onto you scared out of his mind. But Gloria, Hop, and Victor were GONE!! WHERE DID THOSE THREE GO!? ....Oh NO- Your head whipped to the door and with Allister in your arms you RAN to the door, throwing it open to meet the sight of many, MANY league staff running up and down the halls and in and out of the many rooms around them. But no signs of any of those three missing children.

"HOP!? GLORIA!?", you yelled desperately snapping your head either way as the dread and sinking feeling in your gut sank into realization. Your arms reaching to cradle the whimpering boy in your arms. No...NO! NONONONONONO!!! THIS COULDN'T BE HAPPENING NOW! "VICTOR!?"

It was no use...They were gone. On their way back to Postwick in order to get the ancient sword and shield of the fallen heroes from the Slumbering Wield then off to where ever the Chairman was. ....YOU HAD TO GO AFTER THEM!! GAME PLAY BE DARNED THEY WERE JUST KIDS!! YOU HAD TO LEAVE AND HELP THEM!! And you would've....if something hadn't held you back. The whimper in your arms snapped you back in reality..and you slowly turned back into the room. All the children were still in there terrified and crying out from the shock as the sounds of panic set in. You couldn't leave these children here alone!! With three taking off to danger was bad, but you couldn't just leave all the others here by themselves!! Especially since Allister refused to not let go....Which a panicked whirled mind you made a choice. You stepped back in. And closed the door. Choosing to turn around and try to calm down the frightened children...Heh. Easier said than done. With Allister refusing to let go of you, you somehow managed to herd Elsa away from the window view and sit with her brothers on the couch. Two of which were crying while another kept asking where their mother and big brother were. Poor baby. You wished you could answer his question. Once or twice one of them would try to leave but you dragged them back and told them they had to stay unless they be swept up in the chaos. You tried not to look out the windows to see hundreds of people panicking, and screaming instead ordering everyone and pulling a couple to come sit down away from the windows as well and sit on the couch. Bouncing Allister in your other hand trying to keep him calm at the same time of calming down the others. You didn't blame them for panicking and being scared, but you weren't going to just let a bunch of young kids wonder around by themselves and get swept up in the chaos. You knew where the other three were heading. You didn't want anyone else panicking anymore than they should've with everyone sitting on the couch you took a head count of everyone and by some Miracle everyone except for the 3 missing teenagers were accounted for. But the next few hours weren't easy. Everything blurred as the skies grew dark and the MORE and MORE anxious you became. Practically sweating buckets by the time the sky had gone completely dark. You were worried scared! Pacing back and forth in front of the door as lots of people still shouted and ran around on the outside while you bounced Allister who clung to you and assured all the other kids it would be alright. Until you almost dropped Allister when the door all of a sudden behind you open. You yelped and jumped forward, giving a yell before turning around-....And breathed a sigh of absolute relief when none other was Ms. Opal stood there. The old woman didn't look the least bit bothered as she slowly walked into the room and calmly looked around, spotting Bede's shocked expression at seeing her.

"I came for that behavioral report."

You stared at her blank faced and numb for a moment before shaking your head. "I- He's fine!" You gestured a hand. "Bede's fine! But I need to ask a favor of you." The older woman rose a brow as you, as much as you hated to, started prying Allister from you. "There's some friends of mine who might get really hurt! If I don't go after them they're going to get in big trouble! PLEASE! Will you please take care of these guys until everyone comes back? I know I shouldn't ask but-"

The older woman held up a hand. "I am more than capable to handle these children."....Well that was pretty fast. And for some reason you believed she could if she can handle Bede. She held out her hands for Allister who was whimper at you prying him away. "Hand over the boy. You've handled the roles of ours long enough."

You sighed and nodded. "Thank you. Thank you so much." You finished untangling Allister from yourself before handing him over to Opal who easily took him into her arms. "Silver!" With a chirp the shiny pokemon came running over and in an instant you swept him up into your arms and made a beeline for the door. "THANK YOU AGAIN!!" You called over your shoulder to the older woman who nodded at you're retreating form.

With Silver in your arms you RAN through the building to the elevator practically spamming the down button as people ran around you Silver under one arm until with a ding the doors closed and down you went. Your heart pumping and lungs heaving with anticipation. The hotel. You HAD to get back to the hotel. As soon as the doors opened back up you RAN past all the people especially the ones giving you looks and out the lobby and stadium doors you went. With how crowded and noisy it was outside you would've thought the world was ending. And it might thanks to that airhead Chairman! WHAT ON EARTH WAS HE THINKING!? ...Ok. You get it was the gameplay. BUT WHAT WAS HE THINKING!? You ran directly into the crowds with silver under one arm and SHOVED your way through the crowds and through the streets. You didn't care how long it took you HAD to get to that hotel!! By some miracle your brain tuned out the noises and feeling of bodies pressing against you as you swam through the crowds, and made your way through. Despite it being dark you managed to remember your way through the crowds and someone made it to the less crowdy streets where you were free to run the rest of the way through the night and towards the giant fancy hotel. You didn't stop. Even when you barged into the fancy gold lobby and startled the hotel staff. You ran straight to the elevator, hoped into it, and spammed your floor's button until the doors closed. You waited with baited breath as you went up..Until with a ding the doors opened and you flew in. The first room you checked on instinct for them was the guys' room. No signs of Hop or Victor. In fact their things were gone too and the only thing left behind that they were there at all was the unmade bed. Leaving that behind, you raced to the room you shared with Gloria and threw that open as well. The same thing. Unmade bed and Gloria's things were gone indicating they had left. But your pack still laid where you left it that morning. Without hesitation you ran to it and grabbed the pack, throwing it over your shoulders as you ran back out. Good thing you packed everything away already. You HAD to get to Postwick!! Spamming the elevator back down to the ground floor, you ran up to the front desk startling the man behind it and DEMANDED to know where the train out of Wyndon was. As luck would have it, it was just a little bit past the square and near the stadium. You didn't hesitate to run back out and into the cold weather outside. Snowflakes and wind still falling from the storm clouds above. If you were lucky they might still be there having missed the afternoon train and be waiting for the night train instead. Lungs burning from the cold and tiredness you felt but your determination pushed you on until you got to the train station back through the big crowds. You were sweating, breathing heavily and Silver looked ready to pass out from the sheer stress of it all. You must've looked a shocking sight to the station master who blinked as you stumbled up to the booth he was in breathing heavily and reaching a hand out to grab the wall.

"P-PLEASE!! *GASP* When's....*wheeeeeeze* T-the next *gaaaaassp* T-TRAIN!?", you forced yourself to talk between gasps of air into your overworked lungs.

The man blinked before sputtering, "I-I- Not until morning, Miss. The night train's left almost two hours ago now."

THAT wouldn't stop you. Right then and there, you put Silver down, and reached into your pocket. Pulling out some of the last remaining money you had, you slapped it down on the counter heavily breathing still. "G-Give...*GASP* ticket-...F-For next....*gasp* one!"

The conductor did end up giving you a train ticket for the next one just a few hours away and you did NOT sleep a wink that night. Holding Silver in your arms as you sat there worried out of your mind as he fell asleep in your arms for hours, not being able to bring yourself to sleep. HOW COULD YOU HAVE FORGOTTEN THIS!? YOU REMEMBERED THE REST OF THE GAME! WHY DIDN'T YOU REMEMBER THIS BEFORE IT HAPPENED!? ..Didn't matter right now. You HAD to catch up with them. Hours passed and FINALLY at around six in the morning the first train of the day came in and you didn't hesitate. Rushing up despite the tired feeling in your bones jostling Silver from his slumber. You shoved your ticket into the slot on the gate ways and made your way through the open doors. Going to the nearest seat and just plopping yourself down. As if it would take off as soon as you did. And after about fifthteen more minutes the doors closed and off you went towards Postwick. Days passed as you traveled more and more by train. Resuming your routine of BARELY sleeping on the seats during the nights and just sitting, watching, worrying out the window. The same thoughts circling over and over and OVER again in your head. How could have forgotten? The one thing you should've known and you forgotten...You HAD to make sure they were ok. The silence of the train combined with your lonesome....Had it always been this quiet? Usually by now if you were with one of them Hop would go on a speech about amazing history facts or Victor would be telling you something related to his hobbies. Heck. At one point you could've sworn Gloria would be right there with a bright smile and shoving her phone in your face to watch something she found cool...You would take anything over the silence. You always had silence at home if your mother wasn't nagging you and you had come to like the silence more than her voice, but now....You would take them having a petty fight over the still silence. Your only saving grace was Silver who when he wasn't laying on the table or seat would dig in your pack for food and shove something for you to eat into your hands with a demanding chirp and would screech if you didn't eat it then and there in front of him. He may have been a pain, but at least he was your pain. You weren't sure exactly how much time had flown past since you had left Wyndon, days were blurring together, but you did notice the city turned into farmland a long time into this trip. ....That must've meant you were getting close right? Everytime you stopped and it wasn't Wedgeherst you mumbled curses under your breath and praying for the train to just GO already until it finally did. One night you just couldn't sleep. Letting your head touch the cold glass of the window, about to nod off before jolting back awake and repeating the cycle until-

"ZZZTT. Attention Passengers!," the conductor announced over the speakers to anyone left on board. "We'll be arriving at Wedgeherst Station within ten minutes. That is all."

You IMMEDIATELY STOOD WIDE AWAKE!! WEDGEHERST!! THAT WAS IT!! You once again jolted Silver awake when you abruptly grabbed him up into your arms with your pack and stood with a determined face. This was it! Maybe you'd catch them here! And how did you know it was Wedgehurst? Well the familiar town and the farm houses with flocks of wooloo the shepherds were herding in the fields as you all went past gave it away before you arrived around six in the morning at the train station. Flying off the train like a rapidash on a sugar rush! You burst into the familiar woodened stadium panting ...and looking around. Everything looked the same from the wooden floors to the man at the booth who blinked towards you rushing in.

"Attention Passengers! The morning train leaving Wedgehurst Station will depart in fifthteen minutes! Please exit or enter the train within that time. That's all!"

Fifthteen minutes. YOU ONLY HAD FIFTHTEEN MINUTES TO GET BACK ONTO THAT TRAIN AND GET TO HAMMERLOCKE BEFORE IT LEFT YOU STRANDED!! Rushing to think your head shot to the man in the booth and he jolted when you dashed up to him panting and clearly distressed!! He would know surely if a trio of teenagers got onto the train sometime before you. You stared at him hard before speaking.

"HEY! Excuse me!," you yelled despite him being right there making him blink more. Considering how small this town was and how this guy had a job here he must've been local! Which meant he would surely know who Leon's family was being semi celebs here, "I need to know if three kids ever got on this train here recently! One was a guy with purple hair! It's an emergency!"

the man didn't respond for a moment, only blinking. Before he rose a brow. "I-...Well yes recently there was a couple kids who got on."

"How long ago!?"

"I-...I d-don't know! A day..maybe a day and a half ago??"

One or two days! So you weren't that far behind them! Reaching back into your pocket, you slapped whatever money you had left on that booth. "I need a ticket for the morning train RIGHT N O W!!"

The man scared by your yelling, did indeed give you your ticket. Without looking back, you immediately used it to board back onto the train to ride it back to Hammerlocke. You weren't far behind them then! That was good! Bad news though you were still behind! Which meant you had to catch up as fast as you could! Feeling more determined, you steeled your worries to the side and pushed on. This time sleeping and eating better to keep up your strength as the train went along. Paying attention to every stop and announcement the conductor made, checking to make sure it was the right stop. OH!! WHEN YOU GOT YOUR HANDS ON THAT ROSE GUY HE WAS IN BIG BIG TROUBLE!!! The train continued on and on and your worry grew less, your angry growing in it's place. THAT GUY WAS SO DEAD MEAT!! The train carried you on and on. Day after day. Night after night. Until one fateful morning when you again couldn't manage to sleep-

"Attention Passengers! The morning train will be arriving at Hammerlocke Station in ten mintues! That's all!"

HAMMERLOCKE!! THIS WAS IT!! YOUR STOP!! Standing up you immediately began walking your way over to the doors and stood there as the train rattled on. Eventually slowing to a stop coming near the city. Slowly the train came to a stop and the doors open to the cold air and the dark morning greeted you. No light to be found yet are you immediately ran out of the train and into Hammerlocke's familiar stadium. Running past you noticed the small curry place in the corner you recognized and knew! You were in Hammerlocke alright! But no one was here! Most likely because the place had been evacuated like in the game when the player arrived, only to find Raihan there-...And like in game you would also find him. Stepping out of the pokemon center, you turned in the night and booked it down the castle looking street up towards the deserted gym where you would know they would head. And you heard...Yelling? The closing you got you heard it louder. And then you saw it. DRAGON BOY!! Raihan was there! He looked to be horrified as he gazed at the sky above him.

Breathing heavily, you raced right towards them. "RAIHAN!!"

Your voice echoed all around the otherwise deserted pace as your feet slapped against the pavement heading right towards the two guys who seemed shocked to see you of all people there. Raihan blinking. "....Y-Y/n?!''

Raihan nearly fell over as you harshly grabbed him and shook his jacket with surprising strength "WHERE'S HOP AND GLORIA!? AND WHERE'S VICTOR!?"

"They ran on ahead into the stadium." He spoke eyes spinning as he shook his head. "I tried to stop them...Honest I did. But they were too fast for me to catch them." He pointed up. "Then that appeared just before you grabbed me!"

You felt your stomach drop. "WHAT!?"

"The city was evacuated when Leon got here. I'm supposed to be in there helping him but then these guys side blinded me when they rushed in! It's not safe for you here!"

You stared at him silently before faster than Raihan could comprehend, you turned and started running away from him Silver at your heels.

He blinked. "H-HEY! WAIT A MINUTE!! IT'S TOO DANGEROUS TO GO IN THERE!" And he ran after your form.

You didn't stop. You already knew the way anyways! The player would go into the stadium and take that fancy elevator down into the powerplant, fight the Chairman, and then take another lift to the very top of the roof where they would find Leon and battle Eternatus! So that's EXACTLY where you went. Right into the stadium, around the corner and right up to that fancy lift. Practically spamming the down button on the thing until it dinged and the doors opened.

"HEY, SASSY!! WAIT UP A MINUTE!!" You ignored Raihan as you immediately stepped into the elevator, unfortunately he was able to catch up fast enough to jump into the lift as well just before the doors closed and with a ding noise the two of you descended. He breathed a bit shivering from the cold outside before looking around the lift...before to you're angry face staring at the doors. "H-Hey. What's up with you bursting in like this? How'd you even manage to get into Hammerlocke in the first place?!"

"I took the train!," you answered truthfully, "Guess you forgot to shut down the entrance from the station." He blinked surprised. "Look! Those kids are in trouble and you sure as heck aren't stopping me from helping them! Where's Leon?"

He held up his hands. "Hey. Take it easy there." He pointed a finger up. "He flew in a little while ago while we were evacuating but I don't know what's been going on up there."

"You'll see soon enough."

He didn't know what that meant, and you didn't answer anymore only looking ahead as you continued down. Until another Ding noise rang out and the doors opened. You didn't even wait for him immediately running out and down the metal platform. A giant opening to the right was where you would find where the player would battle the Chairman. AND FROZE!! Almost tripping over your own feet and falling onto your face as someone came around the corner and Raihan caught up to you. You both watched wide eyed as none other than the Chairman himself casually walked around the corner like it was just another day at the office, straightening his tie! But paused seeing the both of you there. For a moment all three of you stared at one another before a sigh came from the older man who shook his head.

"I see that I'm seeing a lot of familiar faces today."

....You scowled and pointed at him walking forward. "WHERE'S HOP AND GLORIA!? WHAT DID YOU DO WITH THEM!?"

Mr. Rose simply turned his head to the other elevator at the end of the hall. "I'm afraid you just missed them. You see they are on their way up to see dear Leon. Unfortunately I'm afraid they're lacking. If they couldn't get to the end of the tournament what hope would they have to help Leon?" YOUR. RAGE. B O I L E D. "Yes. I'm afraid we're all doomed."

He looked back to you. You were already walking for him when you asked where the two went, but he hadn't expected was when two smaller but strong hands GRABBED the front of his suit jacket, and with surprising strength, SLAMMED the man to the side against the wall. Which made a metal thud when he got slammed against his back, one arm forcibly laying itself across his chest to make sure he couldn't move. His light green eyes stared down at you wide eyed as did Raihan. Both men stared at you as you snarled like a beast teeth clenched.

"Listen here you stupid old man," you growled through your teeth, lowly, threatening in a way the Chairman was NOT used to seeing since he absolutely froze under your grip. "This is all YOUR fault! How dumb were you to see that this wouldn't save Galar!? That monster you unleashed will kill everyone in it's path and you decided to release it anways!?" You snapped. "IF ANY OF THOSE KIDS ARE HURT WHEN I GET UP THERE I SWEAR NO MATTER WHERE YOU GO I WILL FIND YOU AND MAKE YOU W I S H THAT ETERNATUS HAD FOUND YOU BEFORE I DID!!"

With a last shove to him, you turned and RAN down the hallway and to the elevator. Spamming the button open and hopping in. Pushing the up button for dear life until the doors closed and with a ding you started upwards. Both men stood there stunned for a long moment before the Chairman looked over at the sound of footsteps and looked over to Raihan ABSOLUTELY ANGRY at him despite the calm look he held.

"....I could threaten you more for destroying my gym, but I think her words work well enough for me."

You breathed heavily, panting in fear as the elevator took you up and up and up towards the roof. Until with another ding noise sounded and you ran out. Turning and following the red stairs up...And what you were met with stopped you in your tracks. Wind blew all around you like crazy. The roof completely destroyed. Purple storm and lightning all around you as pieces of the roof whirled. And in front of you was a battle. A battle between four pokemon and two kids all fighting a GIANT SKELETON WORM THING!! Two of the four pokemon in front of the kids dog like...And you stared. THE BATTLE AGAINST THE BIG BAD ENEMY!! This was it and you recognized those pokemon! The legendary ones from the game cases depending if you bought Pokemon Sword or Pokemon Shield. They must've been in the final stages of this battle! In the game the player and Hop battled with those two in order to capture Eternatus and then eventually win after Leon couldn't-.....LEON!? Your head whipped to the side and your eyes widened in shock at what you saw. Leon's proud Charizard, hurt and knocked out laying on the ground and the Champion himself not looking too hot. Looking as if he was standing with a limp, covered in bruises and scraps and beside him was Victor. Leon half holding the boy behind him in a protective stance, even in danger against a legendary he was still prepared to protect his little siblings. CLANK!! You gave a yell and jumped away as a metal piece of the once roof finally broke lose from the wind and slammed onto the ground right next to you. THAT WAS CLOSE!! Just a few more inches and it would've completely crushed your legs! Raihan was right! This place was too dangerous for anyone to be here! ...Your head snapped up and around towards Leon, as a heavy looking piece of roof came right for his hurt form and Victor shivering just behind him. And your eyes widened....YOU. RAN!! Right for them arms out and one goal in mind.

"LEON LOOK OUT!!"

Leon barely had time to turn his head to you before a force suddenly hit his chest strong enough to knock him out of the pathway of the falling roof piece having a domino effect as his body collided with Victor and shoved him back. But replacing you with it. With no time to dodge out of the way from impact as the thing slammed into you. Pain exploding.

....And then everything went black.

[cheemken]

I don’t know how to explain it, other than I’m feeling like

After reading your evil Diantha AU

You don’t have any clue how much I LOVE the “hero turns out to be the villain” plot lines. I live for it.

If that shit was crack then I’d probably be living on the streets at this point

Do you have anything else you’d like to share

with the class 🎤 Like about Lance or Geeta or Augustine? Or about any of the other champions? What about the Kalos league?

No fr it's such a good concept right hxmxnx

Like it would've been so dope if they made Diantha the twist villain in XY man evil Dia is just cool and also it's a good mental image like man Diantha w Makima's personality and traits? 👌

Anyways yeah omfs ouo

The other champions, Iris and Hau especially, Diantha had set a secret standard for em. "They shine as bright as my darling brother," she'd say and she expected more from them when it comes to battling too

Like I imagine another conference in Kalos, Hau and Iris are there, and she's really rooting for them to win. But also I imagine if they do lose Diantha would be so passive aggressive towards them saying how they should've done this or that, but also for other people to not suspect anything she'd also say how proud she was of them for getting that far

Cynthia is kinda close to Diantha, since ofc she's friends w her bro, but she does notice there's smth,,, off,,, abt Dia but she just can't pinpoint what, and hey as much as she loves and trusts Augustine, she's just a bit wary of his sister

Steven and Wallace are pretty neutral w Diantha, well Wallace and Dia are close w each other, so hey Steven just thinks there's nothing wrong w Dia cause she's still the same Kalos Champion that they all know

Leon and Dia aren't close to begin w, he knows nothing abt her but she knows a lot of things abt him

The Kalos league is painfully unaware that Diantha was behind Flare, but they did notice that Malva suddenly lost all that snark and bite she has that was reserved for only Diantha and now she's usually quiet during League meetings. But other than that, Dia is still Dia to them, the same forgiving and kind hearted Champion of Kalos, their angel, their queen

For Augustine? Well, he doesn't know what really happened, he's wondering where Lysandre was. Diantha told him he's dead, that she was too late to save him from himself and from what he wanted to do that when she got to Flare HQ everything was already destroyed, and the only thing she found was his Mega Ring. She comforted her brother ofc, Lysandre was a good friend of his, but for Dia, Lysandre doesn't deserve Augustine. Her brother is too good for him, too perfect for him, and for him to use the Mega Stone that Augustine found for him only to fail even w that kinda power, well,,, he's lucky he's dead now. But, Diantha had to admit, she would've loved if she really had his blood staining her hands.

[ellieslaces]

a deep and sincere apology — an explanation by ellieslaces

to begin — thank you all so much for the influx of likes and reposts and support I’ve received lately! It really does mean a lot. however, I would like to offer an explanation for my sudden absence on here

(warning; it gets a little personal, I discuss things such as health issues and mental health issues and some sexuality issues)

(img. 1: me reading some of my past works that I’ve posted / abandoned, realizing they are indeed, shit)

To begin, I know I was working on my Can’t Catch Me Now series (a resident evil/hunger games au) and I do have full intention of finishing it. I have big plans for it! I want everyone to know, my absence and sudden hiatus on CCMN was not planned. I quickly became overwhelmed with every thing going on in my life.

Can’t Catch Me Now really is my brain child, idk where the hell it came from and how I managed to weave RE and THG together the way I did, but I can humbly say I am proud of it. I don’t want to abandon it, I’m just trying to find time and motivation to work on it.

as for Dancing With Our Hands Tied… yeowch. it’s a mess, I’m so sorry. I kind of want to rework it, to rewrite it now that I have a little bit of a better grasp on Leon’s character. But, it’s so much work and I’m already overwhelmed by continuing CCMN. So, it’s not a definite promise, but I will try to rework it at some point.

I do however want to venture into writing for some other characters. I’ve dabbled in writing for Hazel Callahan from Bottoms and the piece did pretty well (with the exception of someone commenting that it was shitty smut (it’s not even smut) and that threw me off for a while). but, I want to write for more female characters as well as maybe starting to write for Arthur Morgan from RDR2 (I’ve been playing lately and the brainrot is real). But, I’ll keep you all updated.

(img. 2; deep diving into the shit show that my life has become the past couple of months. it gets rough here sorry)

To begin, I again want to apologize for my sudden absence. I had some backlash on a piece I wrote and it messed with my head. And after that, everything in my life kinda went downhill. I want to try to remain as vague as I can while providing a good explanation.

I am in my final semester of undergrad. I am a little over a month or so away from my degree and I couldn’t be happier. However, it’s not been without challenges. I have a shitty professor, my college is really terrible and I have a lot of issues communicating with them (I don’t live in the state where I attend uni, I’m an online student as I moved)

On top of that, I’ve been having health issues lately. I had some bad blood work, which caused increased amounts of anxiety which led to me being physically ill for multiple weeks. I went to the doctor who referred me for an ultrasound (which made me sicker with anxiety). It went okay, but I needed another scan (a fibroscan) due to some issues with my liver. So, it’s been a little rough from that too.

On top of all that, I started talking to a girl online. For a while, she was the brightest point in my life. So sweet and funny and I was genuinely interested in her. But, something happened and we fell out of contact (really she stopped answering me). It hit me harder than I expected.

While she was a bright part of my life, I also struggled with it. I grew up religious, taught that homosexuality is a sin. I have known for a little over a year that I’m not straight. I’m not sure what I am, more unlabeled. But, I struggled because no one knows. I had a few long discussions with my therapist and she encouraged me to take it at my pace. My parents don’t know, and that’s been rough on me.

There’s also been some issues in my family that mess with my head. But that’s not my business to discuss with anyone.

Essentially, the last couple months have been heavy. This, despite being a little vague, is my reason. I’m sorry I didn’t give a warning, I just needed time. And there’s no promise I’ll be as active as I used to, but I want to be present on here. I just want to thank you all for your patience.

(img. 3; me at 3am ready to crack down on some works bc i miss writing)

As for what to expect with my newfound motivation and want to write, I have a few things. Obviously you can expect me to hopefully produce chapters Can’t Catch Me Now semi-regularly (maybe a chapter every week or two weeks). I want to finish that up and have it fully released.

I do have some other Leon works brewing, some standalones that I really love. So expect some of those.

Like I said, I want to work on writing for some female characters too. I have some works that aren’t fully completed for Jill, Hazel, Ellie, and Abby. But, as I’ve previously stated on my page, I want to be careful of what I post in terms of TLOU due to Druckman’s alliance to Israel. So, I make no promises in terms of that.

I stated I wanted to venture into writing for Arthur Morgan, and I do. I want to figure out how to write his character and get some works for him done. But I’m not sure when that will be.

As for now, all I ask is patience. I’m still trying to find my groove, get it back so I can write again. But, I hope to have some stuff out soon. All the best and thank you all.

Bunches and bunches of love,

ellieslaces.