It was almost nine at night in Galar, and Postwick was rightfully calm and quiet. Well, that was, until three trainers on Galarian rapidashes trotted in.

“Thanks for letting us borrow some of your rapidashes, Bede!” Gloria exclaimed.

“No problem,” Bede slyly smiled. Gloria could tell that Bede had some ulterior motive for coming to Postwick. Bede hated this town and almost all its inhabitants. It was really odd that he was totally willing to go this time.

“I’ve never seen Postwick this peaceful before,” Marnie wondered aloud.

“Emo girl, can you shut up for a second?” complained Bede.

Marnie exchanged glances with Gloria. Bede was a big jerk, but he had a softer side. One that was buried deep in the dirt of cruelty, locked in the tomb of selfishness, and chained up in the chains of insecurity. But he was a skilled battler, and he could be nice if he really tried. But that was only when he tried his hardest. Gloria and Marnie understood that he had some trauma due to his life at an orphanage and the metaphoric scars left by Chairman Rose, but that didn’t justify being mean to everyone.

“Where are we going, anyways?” exasperated Bede.

Gloria twisted a strand of hair on her finger. She didn’t want Bede or Marnie to know about the pain she felt when her two oldest friends suddenly cut contact with her. She sent letters, of course, but they remained unanswered. The more she sent, the more she longed to hear again from those two boys from Postwick who always believed in her. Yet they never responded or even acknowledged the messages she sent. Gloria might’ve decided to stop, but maybe, she thought, there were some mail issues preventing the two from responding. She just wanted to clear things up in person before she completely gave up.

Bede and Marnie both noticed Gloria’s hesitance. “Is it because you want to talk with Victor and Hop?” Marnie softly asked.

“Oh, would you give up on them already?” Bede rolled his eyes.

“But we’ve been friends for so long!” Gloria countered, “And I don’t want to throw that away!”

Now the three of them were on the doorstep of Leon’s house. Gloria knocked on the door in two polite knocks. Quickly, Leon opened the door with a flying taxi uniform on. Oh right, he had to get a job to provide for his family now that… Gloria beat him. Maybe that’s why Hop cut contact. He was so busy having to work on a job to provide for his family and it was all Gloria’s fault! Oh goodness, how could she apologize for taking away his main source of income and leaving him to work in a factory?

“Oh, hello, Gloria,” Leon welcomed, “I didn’t know you would come back into town so soon!”

“Yeah, sorry for the short notice,” Gloria apologized, “Is Hop home?”

Gloria felt herself start to sweat. Leon didn’t seem mad about his loss, but what if Hop hated her for all of eternity for stealing his brother’s job?

“I’m sorry, he’s not home,” Leon stated.

“What town is he in?” Gloria asked. She still had time to catch up with him before it was too dark.

“Sandgem Town,” Leon replied.

Gloria paused. Sand…gem? She’d never heard of that town before. Maybe it was a small town between two major towns. “How long is it from here?” Gloria questioned.

Leon dropped his smile and looked towards the ground. Sandgem Town wasn’t a codeword for the afterlife, was it? Oh gosh, if Hop had perished and Gloria never got back in contact with him…

“About three to four days by Flying Taxi,” Leon sighed, “I wonder how he’s doing now.”

Gloria’s eyes grew wide. At least he wasn’t dead, but… He was in a different region now? Hop wouldn’t do that. He was just a local boy with a heart of gold! There was no way he would leave his family and friends to go elsewhere.

“Funny prank, Leon,” Gloria groaned.

Leon looked at her and responded, “Why don’t you ask Victor if you think it’s a prank. Hop’s been gone for five days now.”

Gloria stormed off, leaving Bede and Marnie in front of the open door. Leon looked at them with a mischievous look and said, “So how much did hothead over there pay you two to be her friends?”

“Noth-nothing?” Marnie whispered timidly, “I hang out with her because she’s my-”

Gloria suddenly looked back and yelled, “More than you’re making, Delivery Boy!” She then motioned at Bede and Marnie to follow her.

“Bye-bye, Delivery Boy!” Bede chuckled.

“She’s not normally like this, Mr Leon Sir,” Marnie whispered to Leon, “She’s just a little, you know-”

Gloria grabbed her by the arm and dragged her over to Victor’s house. Leon quietly shut the door and enjoyed the rest of his freetime until his next shift.

“Gosh, I absolutely despise that guy sometimes.” Gloria loudly complained about Leon.

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“I think he’s-” Marnie started.

“Awful?” Bede interrupted.

“Nice,” Marnie muttered.

Gloria walked over to Victor’s house. It was next door to her house. She wondered what her mother was doing right now… But she didn’t have time for that! She needed to ask Victor if this was just a joke! Which it was. Probably.

Two polite knocks. Silence. Two more less polite knocks. More silence. Gloria suddenly hit the door. BAM! BAM! “Open the door, Victor!” Gloria aggressively cried out.

The door finally opened. Victor stood at the doorway, arms crossed. Well, at least Gloria thought it was Victor. He was wearing the black hoodie she told him was cool. His hair was messy, and it looked like he hadn’t slept in a while. Maybe this was the wrong house and this was not Victor. His face kind of lightened up when he saw Gloria, but not by a lot.

“What do you want?” asked Victor.

Gloria was a little alarmed by Victor’s untidy appearance, but went on to say, “Why didn’t you stop Hop from leaving?”

Victor looked a little confused and said, “Huh?”

“And also,” Gloria added, “why didn’t you respond to my letters? I put a lot of effort into them!”

“Wait a-” Victor started.

“And then you feel sorry for yourself and lock yourself up in your house!” Gloria fumed, “You say you want to stop being a crybaby, but if you act this pathetic, you’ll never succeed!”

Victor looked down at the ground. Gloria stopped. Was he going to cry? She regretted being mean to him. She had promised she would never try to hurt his feelings again. Gloria tried to comfort him. “I’m sor-” Gloria started.

Victor pushed her back. “You always blame me when things don’t go your way. It’s not my fault that you found yourself too important to tend to Hop’s wellbeing!”

Gloria knew she shouldn’t snap back at him. This was only him retaliating against her inconsiderateness. However, she didn’t try to stop herself. “Maybe I was busy. Maybe I had loads of work I needed to complete. Being a Champion is hard, but you wouldn’t get that. You don’t have enough skill and power to even THINK about being a Champion!” Gloria blurted out.

Victor softened his eyes again, and his frown lifted to a somber smile. “Well, now I know how you really feel about me,” he muttered, “So long, Gloria.”

Gloria stopped him from closing the door. “Vic, you know I didn’t mean that. I was just frustrated, that’s all,” she defended herself.

The two former friends made eye contact. Gloria felt really bad about lashing out at him so persistently and cruelly. Victor stopped resisting Gloria’s attempts to keep the door open. He then whispered, “I never got any letters. Did you get that necklace I made you?”

Gloria shook her head. “The guy who gets my mail never delivered… Wait a minute…” Gloria paused. “Bede?”

“If you’re wondering if I stole your mail, I didn’t!” Bede defensively argued, waving his arms in the air. Suddenly, a letter slid out of his sleeve. Bede tried to desperately grab it, but Marnie was quicker. “To Victor and Hop,” she read aloud, “Didn’t you write this a few days ago, Gloria?”

Suddenly, all eyes were placed on Bede. “Um… well… er…” he stuttered.

“Here,” Marnie said, handing the letter to Victor. As he read it silently, Marnie and Gloria questioned their friend.

“Why?” Gloria cried out, “Why would you do something so SELFISH?”

“Because I don’t like Hop,” lied Bede.

Marnie sighed. “Please be serious, Bede.”

“Well, you see, if you hung out with Victor and Hop…” Bede started.

“You thought I wouldn’t hang out with you anymore?” Gloria asked.

Bede nervously nodded.

“That is the STUPIDEST thing I’ve heard this entire gosh darn day!” Gloria exclaimed. “I could punch you in the face right now!”

“Gloria,” Marnie frowned, “Violence never solves anything.”

“It could be an outlet for the INTENSE RAGE I feel towards Bede right now,” Gloria reasoned.

“Still,” Marnie muttered.

Bede glanced at both girls, then Victor. “So am I off the hook?” he asked.

“If you help us find Hop,” Gloria concluded. Bede rolled his eyes.

Victor walked next to the two girls. “So are we all going to Sinnoh?” he asked.

Marnie, Gloria, and Victor suddenly looked at Bede. “Fine,” he remarked, “I’ll call a Flying Taxi tomorrow.”

Lucas, Barry, and Dawn all wanted to show Hop different things in Jubilife. Barry wanted to introduce him to his favorite eateries. The whole time, Hop wondered if Barry’s stomach was secretly a bottomless pit. ‘No living person could eat that much!’ he thought. Yet Barry would order full course meals at every place. Hop wondered how much he spent.

Lucas was more interested in the News Station there. He’d watch all the recording sessions with a glimmer in his eyes. Hop thought it was super boring, but Lucas seemed to enjoy it. “This is so fun!” he exclaimed with glee. Internally, Hop rolled his eyes, but externally, he let out a half-hearted “yeah.”

Dawn enjoyed shopping in the stores at Jubilife. Hop rather enjoyed shopping. However, Hop and Dawn had very conflicting fashion senses. She enjoyed most of her clothes to consist of pink, purple, or blue with yellow somewhere on them. She mostly chose the color blue to match her hair. Hop now heavily despised the color blue. He did not appreciate it when Dawn commented that he would look great in a bright blue t-shirt. Well, that wasn’t true. He appreciated that she thought he looked good in it, but he didn’t like the shirt at all. He walked out of the stores with a singular purple shirt.

“Do you want to do anything in particular, Hop?” Lucas asked.

“No, thank you,” Hop responded.

Dawn, Barry, and Lucas looked at each other. Barry smiled, but the other two looked nervous. “How about we go meet a good friend of ours?” Barry laughed, “She’s at the Jubilife News Station right now!”

Hop made eye contact with Dawn. She averted her eyes, obviously nervous. “Who is this friend of yours?” Hop squealed, scared.

Barry grinned, but Dawn and Lucas shuttered. “Her name is Cynthia,” Dawn said.

Hop looked at Lucas. His eyes were wide. “You wouldn’t make a newbie trainer fight Cynthia, would you?” Lucas gasped.

Barry responded, “Well, he wanted to grow stronger, right? This is a quick way to do it!”

Hop nodded. He didn’t like being called a newbie trainer, and this trainer couldn’t have been any stronger than Gloria, right? If he managed to beat her, he’d be able to beat Gloria easily!

“I’ll do it!” Hop cheered.

“I only managed to beat Cynthia with one Pokemon left,” Dawn commented, “she’s really tough.”

Hop looked at Dawn with a sour expression. Just because she thought this Cynthia girl was hard doesn’t mean she actually was difficult! ‘This will be a piece of cake! Cynthia’s probably just a silly pushover!’ Hop thought, an arrogant smile on his smug face.

Hop soon found out that Cynthia was not a pushover.