Unity

Chapter 10

"Gloria!" Cane's voice echoed through the Hammerlocke station.

The red haired boy was waving at her from the entrance. Gloria put both of her arms up in the air and excitedly waved back at her new friend. She ran towards him, followed by Victor and Hop.

"Cane!" She yelled at her new friend with excitement in her voice.

The trio just got back from their journey on the isle of armor. They went and searched the second tower, but there was nothing to he found there, just empty boxes and lots of Joltik webs. Gloria had another battle with Master Mustard before they left, which she won of course.
The four trainers started to move onto the Hammerlocke stadium to meet up with Sonia and Raihan. Gloria and Cane were walking a couple of meters ahead of Hop and Victor now. Cane softly cleared his throat and gave Gloria a nervous glance as they were quickening up their pace to teach the Professor as soon as they could.

"Doesn't it bother you?" He asked her quiet enough for the others not to hear him.

Gloria tilted her head. "What does?"

"You know, being treated as a child and stuff..." Cane averted his eyes as he said it.

"What do you mean...?" She silently asked him again.

Cane was silent for a moment, but looked back at her after a couple of seconds.

"Well, you know... You literally saved everyone's lives, you're the strongest person in this region... But they still act and talk to you like you're a helpless little girl."

Gloria suddenly felt a heavy weight drop in her chest. Was it true what he said? She was being supervised at all times now but that was because of the stalker, wasn't it? No. Even before that she often was excluded in meeting about her. Even though she literally had three legendary Pokémon everyone was still always worried about her and treating her as if she wouldn't be capable of doing things on her own.

"Ah, I didn't mean anything by that, I just-" Cane nervously said in a shakey voice.

Gloria shook her head and faked a smile. She slowed down her walking pace a bit.

"It's nothing, don't worry about it!"

Victor suddenly jumped in between the two and wrapped one of his arms around his sisters neck. With squinted eyes he glanced at the red haired boy, who started averting his eyes once again.

"Oi oi, what did you just say to Gloria?" He protectively asked.

Hop was walking next to her other side and pressed his shoulder tightly against hers while giving Cane a deathly glance. Gloria shook her head and let out an awkward smile.

"It was nothing, I-"

"I asked a rather rude question to her, I'm sorry!" Cane interrupted her mid sentence and bowed his head to Victor.

The brown haired boy didn't respond to him at all. He kept walking with his arm wrapped around his sisters neck protectively. She guessed that he picked up Hop's opinion about Cane. The young champion already noticed that her rival and her new friend didn't like each other at all. After a short walk they arrived in front of the Hammerlocke stadium. Sonia and Raihan were both waiting in front of it, clearly having a conversation about it. Raihan noticed the four trainers walking up to them first. The tall man raised his arms in the air and waved at them with glee.

"Gloria, Victor, Hop!" He called out to them, leaving Cane out since he was still an unfamiliar face to him.

They came to a halt and were greated by Sonia with a warm smile. She glanced at Hop.