Chapter 6 | Battle Royal

"I need to talk you, now."

-

Gladion and [Name] sat in the Malasada shop, while their Pokémon were munching happily on their Malasadas.

"Are you from the Æther Foundation? If so, what's your mission?" Gladion started off, sipping on his water. [Name] wasn't sure if she was allowed to tell him, but felt like she could trust him for now.

"I-I'm UBT-001, an artificial human created by Lusamine and Faba. A-Apparently I'm made for a certain reason, but t-they haven't told me. Unfortunately I-I can't tell you about my mission," [Name] told him, scared if something would happen to her. Gladion seemed satisfied by her answer, suddenly standing up rather angry and returned his Pokémon.

"How annoying..." He turned around and threw some money on the table, leaving [Name] and her Pokémon. A sigh escaped her lips as she stood up and paid for the food.

-

'When are they going to arrive?' [Name] thought as she played with Blanc in the Royal Avenue. She thought it was beautiful here, the bushes had a nice shade of pink, many trainers come to just play with their Pokémon.

"Eevee!" Blanc cried out as she played with Faux. Luckily no one paid attention to Faux, despite it being an unusual Pokémon no one had ever seen before.

[Name] was about to stand up and leave the town to search for them, but they came as if Arceus itself called them.

"Hiya [Name]!" Hau skipped towards her, waving his shiny Waterium Z in his hand. "We've completed the trial!"

"...C-Congratulations, Hau, Sun," [Name] was really happy for them. "Y-You should try out the B-Battle Royale. It's in that Dome o-over there...," the girl suggested, sure that they'll win there. Hau and Sun looked at the Dome.

"Maybe we should! Come on, Sun! Let's go!" Hau dashed towards the Dome in full speed as Sun was left in the dust. "Not again..."

[Name] giggled, returned her Pokémon and stood up. "L-Let's go, Sun."

Sun looked at her shocked. "Sin-" [Name] got the idea and interrupted him. "N-No, I'm going to watch you g-guys." A relieved sigh was heard as an answer.

They walked towards the Dome, but stopped after seeing a certain blonde stand in front it.

"Hmph. Why do I do this...Every time something brings me down, I end up coming right back here again...," Gladion muttered to himself.

"Hey [Name]? Isn't that the guy from Route 5?" Sun asked, not entirely sure if it is. "I-I think so."

"Come on, Null. Let's go bury our sorrow in the crowd," and with that, he entered the Dome.

-

The duo walked into the Dome, but couldn't see Hau anywhere. [Name] decided to head to the spectator area, as she was about to go, a masked man stopped Sun and her.

"Glad you could make it!" the man said as he walked down the stairs.

"D-Do you by any chance k-know him?" [Name] whispered quietly, but Sun shook his head.

"He looks like Professor Kukui, but I'm not sure," he whispered back. [Name] nervously stared at the ground, maybe stealing slight glances at the masked person. Somehow his presence made her sweat nervously and her heart quicken.

'He's scary...,' she thought, hoping Sun would handle the situation like last time he did.

Suddenly, the poor girl could feel someone glaring daggers at her. Her shaking became worse and her breathing was really fast. She never handled so much stress, not even in her first Pokémon battle.

She stepped back and slowly turned her head around, only to see the one and only Team Skull Enforcer looking straight into her eyes. He gave her one last look, closed his emerald eyes and turned away.

[Name] stared at him a little longer, thinking about his incident in the Æther Paradise. Shaking her head the girl turned back to see the masked man proudly standing at the end of the stairs, with Sun nervously smiling at him.

"I'm here today, yeah, to spread the word, oh yeah, about Battle Royal! They call me...the Masked Royal! Woo!" the 'Masked Royal' enthusiastically said.

"Professor?" Sun silently muttered, furrowing his eyebrows in confusion. The man frowned, glaring at Sun.

"The Masked Royal!" He corrected, walking down the stairs. "I'm here to teach you, oh yeah, about the battle format passed down in Alola for generations... The Pokémon Battle Royal! Woo!"

Sun silently cringed at his enthusiasm, but still remained quiet to listen to him.

"But, Royal, what's the Battle Royal? You might ask. Four Trainers! Four Trainers, oh yeah, each pick three Pokémon, yeah, for one big Pokémon battle, oh yeah!"

"When one Trainer's team can't battle anymore, yeah, the Battle Royal ends! Whichever Trainer has taken out the most Pokémon, yeah, and has the most Pokémon left will emerge the winner. Woo!"

After he finished talking, Sun stared at him, creating an awkward silence and weird atmosphere.

"First, just give it a shot! Pick your Pokémon and let's do this!" the Masked Royal suggested, causing someone to gasp from the floor above.

"Dude it's the Masked Royal! I wanna battle! I wanna battle!"

Sun and [Name] looked up, seeing Hau grinning and waving down.

"Hau?! Where were you?" Sun angrily shouted. Hau sweatdropped and scratched the back of his neck.

"You there!" the Royal suddenly called, making everyone turn their attention to a certain blonde.

The emerald eyed boy opened his eyes and turned to the masked man, letting out a sigh in process. "Come join in the fun!"

[Name] gasped, thinking she would have to join in too. "Do you wanna join-" the panicking girl shook her head rapidly. "N-No, I'm j-j-just gonna watch! T-Thank you!" And with that, she ran up the stairs and disappeared behind the doors to the spectator area.

"She's fast...," Gladion silently muttered.

"I'll be the mix too, yeah. And now we have our foursome. Woo!", the Masked Royal announced.

"Heeeee!" Hau exclaimed, shocked.

"Discovery! New experiences! Adventure! It's all yours if you want it! It's time for a Pokémon Battle Royal! Ready...fight!" the man walked into arena, followed by Sun and Hau.

"Let's see how this goes...," Gladion said to himself, walking into arena while holding Null's Poké Ball.

---

This has maybe 300 words more than I usually write! Yay!

A small question, should I add Sun as a love interest or even a love rival? I was thinking about it and thought I should ask my readers first.

I also was thinking about making a Pokémon One-shots book, would you guys be interested in reading it? (I am talking about Pokémon Trainers x Reader, not the Human Pokémon)

I'll publish a special chapter tomorrow, but it's not about Gladion and you, it's about another Trainer and you. ;)

-soyoo