Hop was not having the time of his life. Actually, it was quite far from it. Oreburgh City’s hotel (dubbed “Diamond in the Rough Suites”) only had two open rooms. Of course, Dawn received one of those rooms (“‘Cause she’s a lady!” Barry reasoned.), so the boys had to share one room. One of them would get the bed, one would get the couch, and one would get some blankets on the floor. And, in a stupid but noble move, Hop told the other boys that he would take the floor.
So there he was, lying on the cold, hard floor. And the carpet was blue. Of course, of all colors, it had to be blue. Hop was pretty much finished with the color blue. He now despised it with a burning passion.
Barry had gotten the bed. Except he claimed that he had no intent on using it. He had claimed that he was going to stay up all night for no reason other than the fact that he wanted to annoy Lucas. Lucas told everyone to have a good night’s rest, and apparently Barry took it offensively. So Hop thought that he was chugging energy drinks or something to keep himself awake. But when Hop stood up to get a drink of water, Barry had already passed out.
Lucas was on the couch. Initially, he couldn’t catch a wink of sleep. Barry was being loud and obnoxious. Plus, the TV was on. But now, with the TV off, he could finally rest. Hop wished he was as lucky. No matter how hard he tried, Hop could not fall asleep. So he decided to get out his bag and started to read one of the books that Victor and Leon packed for him. He pulled out an old looking one. The History of Galarian Government sounded like the kind of book Hop needed to start to snore. He flipped to the first page. “Chapter One: A Thriving Monarchy” sounded so thrilling… Hop found his head on a pillow in a matter of seconds.
His dreams, however, had other plans.
He found himself in Jubilife City. Except it was blue. Standing next to him was the blue Gloria he had dreamt about in Sandgem Town. She looked tense and at unease. She muttered some incoherent words as she pointed at something on the street. It was a shadow being produced from a single boy in the distance. Except it didn’t look like the silhouette of a boy. Rather, it was the outline of some sort of giant Pokemon.
“How is the shadow of that boy a Pokemon?” Hop wondered aloud.
Blue Gloria shrugged. The boy didn’t hear their comments. Hop couldn’t make out the boy’s appearance, but he assumed he had the form of a normal child. Based on his height, he looked no older than fifteen.
“What’s the Pokemon that the boy’s shadow resembles?” whispered Hop.
Blue Gloria responded, but her response certainly wasn’t in a language Hop recognized. It didn’t even sound like a word Hop knew. The name sounded like “reniginia” or something along those lines. The Gloria-like girl said something after that, but Hop couldn’t translate her sentence.
Suddenly, the boy with the weird shadow ran in the opposite direction from Hop and his blue companion. Blue Gloria, in a true Gloria fashion, ran after the boy. Hop, even though he could move, stayed behind. He didn’t know where following a blue variant of his former friend would take him. So he just looked around at the surrounding buildings. Despite being monotone, they resembled the buildings in Jubilife in almost every other aspect. It was so similar that it was weird. If this was truly recalled from his memories, why could he remember every building? Most of these buildings he never went in or even got a close look at! It was very peculiar, to say the least.
Suddenly, he felt something trying to move him. He opened his eyes and came face-to-face with Barry “You’re up!” he exclaimed. “You’ve been asleep foreverrrrr!”
Hop sat up and looked around. “Where’s Lucas?” he asked.
“Oh, Lucas and Dawn are preparing for our ascent up the mountain,” Barry explained.
‘Without us?’ Hop thought. He doubted he slept in very long… until he saw the clock. “10:30?! I slept until 10:30?!” he cried out.
Barry smiled and nodded. Then, he responded, “First time, Hoppio?”
Hop wished he had his brother to wake him up and not Barry. Barry was okay, but he was a little hyperactive. Leon was usually calm. And he didn’t shake his brother awake. Also, he would’ve made sure his brother had woken up at the right time. Of course, he wouldn't expect Barry to wake him up at the time Leon usually woke him up. Hop just really missed Leon.
“Why don’t the two of us go and meet up with Lucas and Dawny!” Barry suggested. “I think they got breakfast for us!”
Hop still thought it was silly that Barry was so food-focused. Maybe being as energetic as Barry burned off a lot of calories. Hop didn’t know, but he didn’t really feel like asking. Barry could take it the wrong way, and Hop didn’t want to deal with all the drama.
The two walked off into the city. There were a lot of people outside looking up at the towering mountain in the distance. “What’s up with the mountain?” Barry pondered. “It looks normal to me.”
Hop fixed his gaze on the snowy tip of the mountain. He thought he saw a black silhouette towards the top, but it disappeared before he could point it out to Barry.
“Did you see that?” a woman exclaimed.
“You mean the black thing? It looked scary!” a child cried out.
“You all must be crazy; I don’t see anything,” Barry muttered.
Suddenly, Hop noticed a teenager rushing over to the crowd of people. He had a scratched up hard helmet that nearly fell off his head when he ran over. His clothes didn’t look like they were the highest quality. They were stained and wrinkled.
“Is he a miner or something?” Hop quietly asked Barry.
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“Of course he’s a minor! Does he look like an adult to you?” Barry whispered as a response.
“I meant the other type of miner!” Hop aggressively whispered back. “You know, the kind that actually mines?”
Hop noticed the rough-looking teenager directing the other people to buildings. He looked so calm and controlled, unlike the panicked crowd. Hop wondered if he even saw the shadow on the mountain.
Hop was so busy watching the teenager give calm instructions to the crowd that he didn’t notice Barry’s absence. That was, until he noticed Barry assertively push through the crowd to get to the teenager. Hop ran into the crowd as quickly as he could. ‘Barry’s going to embarrass himself!’ Hop thought. He didn’t want Barry to get made fun of, but more importantly, he didn’t want to be associated with someone who made a public fool out of himself.
“Hey!” Barry yelled out. “Why is there a big crowd here?”
Hop froze. Of course Barry had to scream out into a giant group of people. Well, it wasn’t actually that big. But it certainly felt like it to Hop. Seldomly was he the one embarrassed by his friends’ actions. However, he certainly felt embarrassed at this moment.
“Barry?” the teenager responded. “It’s certainly been a while since I’ve seen you.”
“Can you get to the point where you tell me why there’s a crowd here?” Barry impatiently scoffed.
“Still as impatient as ever, I see.” replied the teenager. “This group is here because they saw something on the mountain. I’m instructing them to get to a safe building.”
“But was it really anything?” Barry asked.
“We don’t know yet, but I’d rather be safe than sorry,” the boy responded.
Barry bumped into Hop as he was leaving the crowd. “Hop! You could have gotten trampled by this horde!” chastised Barry.
“Who was that teenager?” Hop wondered aloud.
“Oh that’s Roark,” Barry answered, “and he likes rocks.”
“Isn’t he the Gym Leader here?” Hop exclaimed.
Barry nodded but replied, “He’s busy right now though.”
Hop really wanted to say something along the lines of ‘I can see,’ but he decided against that for fear of being rude. Speaking of which, nobody was muttering sharp comments behind Barry’s back. His conversation with the Gym Leader wasn’t awful, but Hop wished it didn’t happen at all. Then, Hop wondered what his friends felt when he’d speak his mind in front of a crowd. They probably felt the same way he did. That made Hop feel a little guilty about the way he acted back at home.
Barry spotted Lucas and Dawn looking at maps on the outskirts of Oreburgh. “Hey GUYSSSSS! You won’t believe who I just talked to!” Barry boasted. “I talked to ROARK!”
“Yeah, so did we. He came over to us and gave us tips on climbing Mt. Coronet.” informed Dawn.
“Oh.” Barry looked a little less cheerful. Hop bet Barry must’ve thought that talking to a Gym Leader was such an important thing that it would make his friends jealous. But Dawn probably talked to loads of Gym Leaders in her Champion career. That experience must’ve been boring and mundane for her.
“So, are we ready to get climbing?” Dawn cheered.
“Um, no. The mountain is off limits to everyone save the Elite Four.” Lucas notified the group.
Everyone looked at Lucas. “What do you mean, off limits? Did we travel this way for NOTHING?!” Dawn complained.
“I mean, that’s what Roark told us. Remember?” Lucas told his friend.
“But doesn’t that mean that Giratina will cause havoc until we stop it?” Hop asked.
“The Elite Four will probably handle it,” huffed Dawn, “which means that we just traveled here for literally nothing.”
“And the Elite Four will be too nervous to get the job done!” Barry fumed pretty loudly.
“Why don’t we just go to the hotel room and think of a plan?” Lucas suggested.
Dawn and Barry, despite still having sour expressions on their faces, nodded in agreement of this plan. But this jeopardized Hop’s original plan. He suddenly thought of what life in Galar would be like if he didn’t bring home Giratina. Gloria would never talk to him ever again!
“Are you coming, Hoppio?” Barry queried.
At that moment, Hop dashed towards the mountain. All he knew was that he needed to get to the mountain. He heard Dawn, Lucas, and Barry panicked footsteps chasing behind him. But he didn’t mind. The only thing that really mattered was getting to Giratina, catching it, and going back to Galar to beat Gloria. Then his entire life would automatically be fixed! Oh, how perfect was this?
He ducked below the signs blocking off the mountain. He still heard hurried footsteps behind him, albeit a little farther away. Then, Hop saw a cave. ‘Maybe I can lose them here,’ he thought. So he ran into the cave to hide out until his guides left. It was pretty dark in the cavern, though. However, too much light would alert somebody to his location. But a small amount couldn’t hurt!
“Go, shinx!” Hop called out.
His shinx fell out of the pokeball and onto his face. Hop couldn’t stop himself from letting out a laugh. The shinx may be a low level, but that means one of his electric attacks wouldn’t produce a lot of light.
“Shinx, use thunder shock!” he demanded.
The shinx used an electric type move. Hop didn’t know which move, but it was an electric type one. And, really, Hop didn’t care which move it was as long as it produced a little light, which the move did. However, this light alerted Hop of a zubat in the vicinity. The zubat saw the little electric type Pokemon and quickly swooped in, ready for attack.
“Shinx, tackle!” Hop said.
The shinx tackled the zubat, but it didn’t do very much damage. The zubat tried to bite the little shinx, but Hop pulled the shinx away just in time. Hop didn’t know why he wanted to fight this battle with his shinx of all things, but he decided to just keep the little guy in the battle.
“Shinx, bite!” Hop declared.
The shinx bit the zubat and kept hanging on. The zubat kept struggling and struggling until it eventually fainted. The shinx let go once he realized the zubat had fainted and looked earnestly at Hop. Hop thought he’d probably should say something.
“Great job, shinx!” Hop congratulated. “I don’t really like saying shinx. Do you want a nickname?”
The shinx smiled and jumped up and down. His little display of enthusiasm caused Hop to grin.
“What about Volty?” Hop suggested.
The shinx looked at Hop with a concerned look on his face.
“How about… Electro?” asked Hop.
The shinx looked unchanged.
“Sparks?” Hop tried.
The shinx bounced up and down with a smile. Hop nodded. “I guess your name is Sparks now,” Hop chuckled.
Hop really enjoyed this shinx’s excitement. If he trained the little guy, he’d be totally loyal to any of Hop’s demands. Or he could just be a pet. Either way, Hop knew that he wanted to keep Sparks.
Now, he just needed a plan to catch Giratina.