Tales of Galar: A rewritten Sword/Shield Story

Chapter 9: [creative title here]

"Listen Lumi," Hop said to his friend as they walked out of the Pokémon Center, "I've been thinking...if you're a Pokémon trainer now, you must want to try your hand at the Gym Challenge, right?"
"The Gym Challenge?" Lumi was puzzled, "What's that?"
"The Gym Challenge, mate!" Hop rolled his eyes with a chuckle, "The annual competition where trainers can battle it out for the right to challenge the Champion! But the trick is that you've got to be endorsed if you want to take part. And Lee doesn't seem to think we are up to snuff..."
"Wait, why would we be up to be killed??" Lumi evidently wasn't knowledgeable on Galar slang even though she grew up here, even though Hop tried to teach her some. After a while it became rather hilarious when she had a confused look on her face.
"What he means is we don't meet the requirements," Hop laughed, "But that is the main dilemma. So I'm thinking we ought to talk to the professor and see if she could help you and me, Lumi!"
"Wait, why do you want me to take part in this?" she asked.
"A proper rival is just the thing every trainer needs to keep growing stronger after all," Hop answered, "Keeps you motivated, right?"
"I'm worried I might get stronger and wind up defeating you," Lumi said to herself, "I don't wanna go and spoil your dream!"
"Ah, that won't happen," Hop chuckled, "The professor's house is way down at the end of Route 2, so let's head there...and give our teams the chance to train up a bit along the way!"
"Should we try to...tame some Pokémon?" Lumi asked, "Do we...give them treats...or...?"
"You don't know how to catch a Pokémon?" Hop asked, "Your Mum never taught you?"
"No, she didn't," Lumi replied, "Sorry Hop."
"Well, I'll teach you, mate!" he said, "Follow me!"

After a little bit of coaching from Hop on how to catch a Pokémon (I won't explain since everyone and their ancient grandmother knows how a pokéball works at this point), Lumi successfully caught a wooloo she lovingly named after her best friend, the rookidee that kept attacking her hair, and a skwovet she liked. Lumi felt a surge of confidence and spun a pokéball on her finger.
"Alright Lumi!" Hop cheered, "You've already got a proper party!"
"And you both are showing excellent progress," Leon suddenly appeared, scaring both trainers. Startled, Lumi threw a pokéball at Leon's face, but the champion caught it easily.
"Lee?!" Hop was still processing that Leon just showed up randomly, "Where did you come from?!"
"Look at you, Lumi!" the champion praised, "You already caught some Pokémon of your own! Your mum gave you some pokéballs, didn't she? Keep capturing those Pokémon and you'll have your Pokédex full in no time! I'll give you some more pokéballs, but in return, I'll only ask that you catch plenty of Pokémon!"
"I will, Leon!" Lumi grinned.
"Perfect!" Leon chuckled, "The Pokémon around here seem easy to catch, almost like they're itching to join a trainer's team, wouldn't you say?"
Leon headed on towards the road towards the professor's house, to meet with her. Hop turned his attention back to Lumi.
"All right!" Hop was motivated albeit a little jealous that Lumi was receiving a lot of the praise, "I'm gonna catch loads of Pokémon. The professor will be shocked when she sees!"
"Just don't get swarmed by wooloo like last time," Lumi said as she watched her friend run off, "Last time it happened, I swear you had enough static to charge all of the region."

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I know this was a short chapter, but recently I kinda lost motivation and I kept forgetting this existed. To make it seem longer, here are some fun facts:

-Lumi was a newborn when Abigail found Trevor. She doesn't remember too much about it, although she knows something happened to make Trevor not talk too much about his past.

-Trevor's actual name is Treyvahn.

-Abigail drinks on occasion, more than you would think. However, she has never been a violent drunk, just a goofy one (I do not support being drunk).

-Lumi's name is Finnish for snow, and Kabuverdianu for fire. It also means "light bringer" in Old Norse.

-She's lesbian. It's not her entire character, but I felt it would be worth mentioning for no reason.

-Nao and Rachel originally belonged to a friend. I decided to include them into the lore with their permission. Nuzlocke is my own original villain, based off of the challenge of the same name.

-Calyrex can speak normally without needing a host in this universe. Yes, this counts as a spoiler that he appears later on in the story.