Ex-Champion

"Just stressed... one of Gloria's friends got into some serious trouble. I don't know how she's gonna take it, and... ugh!"

She will take the hug, though. Leon gives good hugs.

"Serious trouble?" That sounds, well, serious. Leon pulls her into a hug, rubbing her back gently. "What happened?"

#profprincess #ic ;#asks ;

@profprincess asked: "Leon. Were we this stupid when we were kids?" What is she even talking about? Who knows, but she looks tired.

"...Huh? Where's this coming from all of a sudden?" He has no idea what's going on, but something's off here. He frowns, offering a hug.

"Then it's decided! Second battle, the Z-Ring is all yours. I can probably get some better readings if we try it a couple times."

She leads the way to the Raid Den in question—not too deep into the Wild Area, close enough that Hammerlocke was still in sight.

"This one here. Let me just get set up..." Sonia takes out her Rotom Phone and clips it into a device from her bag. Her rotom inside buzzes awake and begins to float about.

"After you!"

"Aww yeah!! Thanks a bunch, Sonia!"

Leon eagerly peeks into the Raid Den's entrance, giving Sonia a determined nod before hopping right on in.

"This is gonna rule!" The Raid Boss appears, Dynamaxed as usually, and Leon throws out Champ with a dramatic pose. Who's he posing for? Eh. Force of habit.

"Need to build up some energy. Let me know when you're ready to get this show on the road!"

"Yeah, the fairy crystal was the only one Professor Kukui could spare for now."

Could any of Leon's pokémon even learn a fairy type move? She runs through the list in her head...

"Mr. Rime should be able to, if he knows Dazzling Gleam. You can give it a try after we're done here."

Seeing Leon use a Z-Move would be pretty entertaining in and of itself. And she's definitely curious to see it in action with another pose. No harm in letting him take a stab at it!

"I'd love to try! Mr Rime does know Dazzling Gleam, yeah!"

He walks along with her, fully trusting her directional senses. This was going to be so exciting!

"So, Raid den, yes? You know where it is?"

Leon pulls out his phone, browsing over to the PC app. Time to swap a Pokémon for Mr. Rime in preparation!

"Yeah. I can explain on the way, if you like?" She picks up her pokéballs and a small bag of equipment, which she slings over her shoulder.

"You have to do something to trigger the reaction, but it doesn't necessarily have to be the specific ones they use in Alola," she explains as they make their way out towards the Wild Area. As they do, she straps the Z-Ring to her arm, opposite her Dynamax Band.

"The way Professor Kukui explained it to me is that it has to do with the energy in your body activating the crystal. So you could technically use a Z-Move with your signature pose, if you wanted."

"Sounds good!" He's just gonna follow her. He's pants at directions, even if he's been around here a lot.

"Sooo, just something to trigger it, hmm?" Woah, interesting! He didn't know that. He always thought you had to commit to the dances, but a pose or any movement would do?

"--I can do a Z-Move with my signature pose? Now I HAVE to try it!" He does a little check up on his Pokémon, running his hand over them and counting mentally. They were all still attached to his belt, thankfully. Phew.

"Needs to be a Fairy-type move though, right?"

"Yeah, I will. I mean, technically, you don't exactly have to. But Professor Kukui insisted that it was an important part of Alolan tradition, and I wasn't going to argue." There had been a much longer, more complicated explanation about how exactly the whole thing worked, but she'd spare Leon for now. She was more excited at the prospect of testing this out, anyway.

"There's a Raid Den nearby with an Obstagoon that I'm planning to test it out in. Are you bringing Charizard?"

"I'm bringing Champ, yeah!" After all, that was his most trusted partner. The two went through a lot together, and they were so in tune that Leon barely had to give commands at this stage.

"Wait, you don't have to do the dances?" That's news to him. "Well, we gotta keep up the tradition, right?" Either way... "We leaving right now? I'll join you!"

"Now that I'm back home, I can finally test something I've always wanted to try!" She holds up a fairy Z-Crystal and Z-Ring Professor Kukui had kindly let her borrow with a grin. "We're going to see if Dynamaxed pokémon can use Z-Moves! Clefairy is going to give me a hand. Do you want to come along?"

"That sounds like an awesome idea!! I'd love to see it!" This can only go right in his mind. Bet that'd be soooo cool to see, too!

"Does this mean you'll have to do the dance too?"

"You're the absolute worst, you know that?" Joking or not, he was still this close to running off without any preparation. And she could do without the teasing, thank-you-very-much.

"I'm planning to visit the Max Lair. I want to take a closer look at what's going on in there. Plus, I'm trying to work on a device that'll help me get better readings on Dynamaxed pokémon themselves. You'll get to battle some pretty tough pokémon while you're down there, so it seemed like the sort if trip you'd like to come along for."

"Aww, Sonia--"

Okay, okay, fine. His grin is still there as he pulls out a (kinda badly) wrapped gift from his bag. Wrapping gifts was never his strong suit, but it counted what was inside, yeah?

"Here ya go."

Inside the wrapping paper was a brand new stylish jacket he thought might fit her style. "Max Lair, hmm? Haven't been in those in ages! But you're right, I do enjoy me a tough battle. I'll join you, my bestest friend in the whole wide world."

"Are you completely daft!? It's me, obviously! And don't go running off. You're going to freeze in that outfit."

Actually, she wouldn't be surprised if Leon was just fine walking around the Tundra in his normal clothes... He probably barely even noticed the cold.

"Come on, I need to finish packing up my equipment anyway. And you should actually bother telling the rest of the League Board before you up and disappear, you know."

"Oh, right." Yeah, he's joking, 'cause he's grinning wide when she says that.

"Don't worry. I'll let them know." He might forget still. "So it's time to pull out the serious snow outfit, hmm?" She's right. He wouldn't notice the cold... But that wouldn't protect him from it.

"Been ages since I've been there. Wonder what it's like now. What are you planning on studying there?"

@profprincess asked: "So if your best friend in the whole world asked you to take a few days off of work and come down to the Crown Tundra to help with a bit of research, would you be able to? Hypothetically, of course."

"Hmm. I'd tell the friend that it would definitely be possible, and that I'm on the way!"

Cue him wanting to run off without any preparations. He's also aiming for the wrong direction probably. He only returns to ask... "Wait, what friend is this for again?"