To Hop’s dismay, the second cave did not lead to an exit to the mountain. Rather, the cave contained an entrance to what looked like a balcony made solely of rock formations. Well, to be more precise, it was a cliff, not a balcony, but it was still pretty majestic. Or maybe Hop just thought that because he hadn’t seen a sign of human civilization for a few hours. This cliff showed him a nice view of Oreburgh City. It was a nice sight to see, but the small town reminded him of how high up he really was. Hop wished he was in that sweet little city and not on this awful mountain. Why would he be so stupid? It was like he threw out all logic and decided to climb a mountain! He wished somebody would come and rescue him! But he was stranded, and unless he found a way down himself, he was probably going to starve…

“Staraptor, CHARGE INTO THAT ROCK!” a very familiar voice yelled out.

Hop saw a familiar flash of yellow hair before being slammed into a rock wall. He luckily didn’t hit his head. If he did, he probably would’ve passed out. Cautiously, he looked directly at his assailant. He was hit with a staraptor. It wasn’t Madison’s, though. This staraptor looked more beaten up, but also more energetic than his taxi driver’s. And with the dash of blonde hair, the owner of this Pokemon had to be…

“Jeez, Hoppio, I was nervous you were in a cave! I don’t think my staraptor could fit in one of those cramped areas!” Barry exclaimed.

Hop had never been so happy to see the hyperactive food-loving teenager. He wanted to hug Barry, but he kind of was trapped between the bird Pokemon and the rocks.

“Barry, could you please move your bird?” Hop asked.

“You have to promise not to run away again, though,” Barry stated, “Lucas told me to say that if I found you.”

“I promise,” Hop sincerely said. He had no intention of breaking this promise.

“All right.” The bird moved backwards a little bit. Hop could freely move around, but he just stayed still. Would Barry turn him in to the police? Hop didn’t think Barry would do it, but there was a chance. After all, Hop had only met his guides a few days ago.

“You know, what you did was really irresponsible,” Barry chastised, “and rash. You rushed into a cave with only the clothes on your back!” Then, he muttered, “I’m supposed to be the one that gets into trouble…”

“I’m sorry,” whispered Hop. “Are you going to turn me in?”

“Say what now?” Barry said, surprised.

“Am I a criminal? Do the Sinnohian cops want to throw me in jail?” Hop stated, a bit slower this time.

“You think the cops would care about you climbing a mountain?” Barry blurted out. “I think I got away with a bit of petty theft a few times.”

There was a long moment of silence.

“Like I stole a bag of Pewter Crunchies,” Barry added.

More silence.

“Dawn and Lucas made me return the stuff, of course,” Barry explained.

The silence didn’t end. Hop didn’t want to admit that he was surprised that Barry had committed some petty larceny, but he genuinely was. Barry seemed bubbly and hyper, not a criminal. And wasn’t his dad a Frontier-something? Why would Barry feel the need to steal if his father was rich? Was it the need for attention? Or was it another reason? Was he just hungry at the time?

“Sooooooooo,” started Barry, “this is awkward. Let’s just get down this mountain and meet up with our good pals!”

“How mad are they?” Hop asked.

“Dawn and Lucas?” Barry responded. “Oh, they weren’t mad. They were just SUPER worried. I mean, they may be mad, but I doubt it.”

Hop didn’t know if he believed Barry. Dawn got pretty angry when Hop had initially asked about Giratina. She would definitely be furious when he came down from Mt. Coronet. Maybe she would take Sparks and demand that Hop had to leave. Hop didn’t mind leaving, but he didn’t want to leave behind Sparks.

Hop looked around him and spotted his Pokemon companion playing in a small area of grass on the rock balcony. Apparently, Sparks had not spotted Barry, and likewise Barry had not spotted the shinx. Hop wondered how humans and Pokemon could act so similarly.

Barry looked at Hop impatiently. “Can you stop watching grass grow and get on my staraptor?” bleated Barry.

Hop returned Sparks to his pokeball, which surprised Barry a little bit, and went towards the staraptor. He immediately felt a wave of apprehensiveness wash over him. The staraptor looked pretty beaten up. Would it really be safe to ride in that thing?

“Don’t be nervous, Hoppio!” Barry cheered as he noticed Hop’s nervousness. “My old staraptor is as safe as it gets! I mean, I’ve only fallen off…” He quickly counted with his fingers. “...six times!”

Hop backed up, but before he knew it, Barry grabbed him and flung him onto the staraptor. “There you go!” he exclaimed as he joined Hop on the staraptor.

“How did you do that?!” Hop cried out. Barry was pretty scrawny. How could he pick up Hop and put him on the Pokemon?

“A magician never reveals his secrets!” answered Barry as the staraptor started to take off.

Hop was a little uneasy throughout the entire flight. He was a bit worried that the staraptor would fling him off or something, but no such thing happened. The ride was surprisingly smooth. Barry was carelessly whistling during the entire ride, which kind of got annoying after a while, but it wasn’t unbearable. Hop focused on the pretty view and hanging on to the Pokemon more than Barry’s whistling.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

“So,” Barry started, “what have you been doing for the past few hours?”

“Trying to climb Mt. Coronet,” responded Hop.

Barry nodded. “Ah, yes. But that’s not all you did, right? The mountain’s a fun place! Don’t tell me you didn’t do some Pokemon hunting?”

Hop shook his head. “No. I didn’t have a map, Barry. How would I know where to go? I spent all of those hours just trying to get out.” he sighed.

Barry frowned. “So your sole motive was to catch Giratina. But you promised me you wouldn’t run away again and let me bring you back down without a single protest.” Barry noted. “Something’s not adding up.”

“I just realized that catching Giratina isn’t the only thing that would make my friends like me again.” Hop explained.

Barry stayed silent for quite a bit. Hop wondered if somehow he had broken the boy. He thought maybe Barry had reached his daily word limit. Maybe he’s just thinking really hard. Hop pondered the possibilities in his head for a bit.

“I’m sure your friends still like you.” Barry’s voice broke through the silence.

“Huh?” Hop spluttered.

“I mean,” Barry declared, “true friends don’t just stop liking you after a few small mistakes. They stick with you, through thick and thin. I’ve done so much bad stuff and made so many mistakes, but Dawn and Lucas still want to hang out with me! I’m sure you haven’t done worse than me!” Barry winked after the last sentence.

“What did you do?” Hop asked quietly.

“You know how my staraptor’s a little beaten up? Well, I once invited the two of them on my staraptor.” Barry chuckled. “And it crashed into a pond. Poor Lucas didn’t know how to swim and had to have Dawn and I pull him up. He lost his glasses though, so I had to buy him new ones.”

Barry seemed amused by his own story, but it only caused Hop to cling on to Barry’s staraptor even more. There were no bodies of water around here, meaning that if Barry’s staraptor somehow crashed or Barry and Hop fell off, the two of them would fall to their peril. Hop wanted to at least reconcile with Gloria before any accident took his life.

“I see you don’t find that story entertaining.” Barry huffed. “It certainly isn’t as humorous as the time I dropped my peanut butter and jelly sandwich from this staraptor and it fell on my old man’s head!”

Hop felt sorry for the poor Frontier-person that had Barry as his son.

“Anyways, we’re about to land! Be sure to keep your seatbelts on until we come to a complete stop!” Barry said, imitating a Flying Taxi driver.

“But there’s no seatbelts,” Hop complained.

“Shut it, Hop,” Barry grumbled.

The landing was pretty quick. Barry was (surprisingly) good at landing when he really tried. Hop thought that Barry would crash again and that would knock Hop out until Dawn and Lucas arrived. However, that didn’t occur. Instead, the landing was smooth and was just a gradual decrease in altitude. Hop couldn’t believe that Barry could be so gentle. Maybe he wasn’t always so reckless…

Barry suddenly pushed Hop off of his staraptor, which caused Hop to land face-first into the muddy ground. He got his head out of the mud so he could face his attacker.

“Ow!” Hop exclaimed. “What was that for?”

“You were taking too long, so I helped you!” Barry responded as he hopped off the Pokemon. “I don’t see how it’s such a big deal.”

“You TOSSED me off your staraptor! Into the mud!” Hop shouted.

“At least we were on the ground…” Barry mumbled to himself.

Hop got up and tried to get as much mud as he could off his clothes and skin. While he did that, he thought about where Dawn and Lucas were. They were either a) alerting the authorities about Hop being inside the cave or b) trying to find Hop themselves. Hop believed they did the latter. Most of the authorities were either calming the citizens of their respective towns or going up the mountain to fight Giratina themselves. If they were on the mountain, then they probably didn’t have any cell service, and if they were trying to calm the citizens, then their top priority would be just that.

“Hey, Hop?” Barry asked. “I know you said you didn’t want to catch Giratina anymore, but I want to tell you something anyways.”

Hop looked at Barry again. He looked pretty hesitant, just like he did last night. “Is it…?” Hop started to ask.

“About when I was in possession of Giratina? Yes.” Barry answered. “You see, I didn’t catch any of the legendaries. That was all Dawn. But… Lucas and Dawn wanted us to each take one. Because we all helped defeat Team Galactic.”

“You guys mentioned them before,” Hop remembered, “and you said they were a little crazy?”

“Oh, not a little. They were the entire crazy factory.” Barry laughed. It wasn’t Barry’s normal laugh, though. It was nervous instead of light-hearted. It was a tad unsettling. “So I took Giratina. But after a while, I started to hear this voice. It told me that I wasn’t strong enough, that I wasn’t good enough. It kept saying that I was a stain on my father’s grand legacy.” Barry continued.

Hop remembered Bede saying something similar to him. That he didn’t live up to Leon’s name. That he was a disgrace to all of Leon’s hard work. “That must’ve hurt…” Hop sympathized.

“I didn’t really mind it in the beginning. They were just easily avoidable whispers. But the whispers only got louder until they were all I could think about.” Barry shuttered. “It was absolutely unbearable. So then-”

Suddenly, Hop looked over at the entrance of a cavern and saw two people exiting from it. “Yo! Dawny! Lucas!” Barry hollered. “I found Hop!” Barry looked a little perked up after he said that. Hop knew that it would be unwise to try to ask Barry about Giratina while Dawn and Lucas were there. Plus, he didn’t want to dampen Barry’s spirits.

“Barry! You didn’t crash your staraptor with Hop on it, did you?” Lucas asked, looking at Hop’s muddy clothes.

“Nope.” Barry responded. “I just pushed him off.”

“WHAT?” Dawn exclaimed. “Hop, Barry didn’t hurt you, did he?”

“No.” Hop lied. “I just fell into the mud. No harm done.” He made sure the scrape on his knee wasn’t visible.

“That’s good,” Dawn replied, “but what were you thinking?! If Barry didn’t find you, you may have died up there! Who knows when somebody would find you!”

“I’m sorry,” Hop apologized. “I’m sorry for being rash and running off. It was extremely irresponsible of me to worry you guys like that.”

“Welp,” Barry smiled, “I forgive you.”

Dawn nodded. “We all make in-the-moment decisions from time-to-time.” she added.

Lucas whispered something to Barry, which caused Barry to nod. Hop deduced that it was something about the promise he made to Barry. “As long as he learns from his mistakes, I see no reason why we shouldn’t forgive him.” Lucas reasoned.

“Hey, it’s kinda late,” Barry stated. “We should find a place to eat out. I’ll even pay for it if we find the right place!”

Dawn and Hop both nodded. It wasn’t often that Barry offered to pay for food. But Lucas looked hesitant.

“What’s the problem?” Dawn inquired.

Lucas looked at Dawn and adjusted his glasses. “Well, I think Hop needs to clean up before we go out,” he remarked.

Hop looked at the mud on his clothes. Even though he got a lot of the mud off, there was still quite a bit left. “How about we go back into the hotel, and I’ll change into some cleaner clothes. Then we go eat somewhere.”

“That sounds good,” Lucas responded. Dawn also seemed to be in agreement with Hop’s plan.

As they were walking back towards the hotel, Hop swore he heard Barry mumble something about blaming himself for not getting an early dinner.