It must be said that there are actually many excellent Trainers in the Galar region.
Even though Galar is quite special because it does not have an Elite Four, the region is truly not weak.
Putting aside the undefeated Champion Leon, there are many other Champion-level Trainers besides him.
For example, there is Raihan, who is known as the strongest Gym Leader.
There is also Mustard, the master of the dojo, and Peony, the former Champion who fell out with Rose.
Beyond those three clearly Champion-level Trainers, there are others.
There is Opal, the Gym Leader of Ballonlea and Mustard's old rival.
Bede calls her an "old witch." Despite her age, her strength is still hard to measure.
Then there is Piers, the Gym Leader of Spikemuth.
In the original story, even without using Dynamax, he relied on his own strength to give Raihan a hard fight. His skills are very impressive.
So, if you say the Galar League has no Elite Four, you are right.
But if you say Galar is an easy challenge, you are definitely joking.
Because of Galar's unique Champion Cup system, after a Trainer gets all the Gym Badges, they must take part in the Champion Cup to challenge the Champion.
The participants in the Champion Cup are the various Gym Leaders and other Trainers who passed the Gym challenge.
During the Champion Cup, these Gym Leaders go all out with their full power.
They do not hold back or go easy like they do during a normal Gym challenge.
Strictly speaking, the opponents you face in the Champion Cup are equivalent to the Elite Four challenges in other regional leagues.
Furthermore, the difficulty is definitely higher than in many other leagues.
For instance, the Elite Four of Unova, Kalos, or Alola are certainly not as strong as Raihan, Piers, or Opal when it comes to raw power.
Not to mention the final Champion battle. Leon's strength is absolutely beyond doubt.
Besides these veteran Gym Leaders, there are also many strong opponents among the rookies in Galar.
The first is Hop.
As the younger brother of Champion Leon, he is a rival. He received his second Pokémon from Leon alongside Gloria. Hop's first Pokémon was a Wooloo.
Although he challenged Gloria every time they met on their journey and ended up losing badly, he was naturally optimistic.
He kept fighting despite his losses and never seemed affected.
However, Hop was not actually completely optimistic.
Once, Gloria, Hop, and Bede met.
Because he couldn't stand Bede's arrogance, Hop challenged him to a battle.
The result was a total defeat for Hop.
Bede, with his sharp tongue, mocked and insulted him. Poor Hop was so shaken by Bede's words that he became withdrawn and depressed.
Because of this, he changed his style.
He began harsh special training for his main team. He even "abandoned" his weak Wooloo because its strength was not enough.
Later, after finding himself again, Hop awakened.
He found his true path as a Trainer, and his strength grew rapidly. He could almost be called the strongest in Galar, second only to Gloria and Leon.
Yes, except for Gloria and Leon, Hop never lost to anyone else after that.
In the Star Tournament, if Hop's opponent is anyone other than Gloria, he is sure to win. If the opponent is Leon, he is sure to lose.
It is worth mentioning that during that period, Hop had already gained the recognition of Zamazenta, the Shield King.
However, he still could not defeat Leon. What does that tell you?
Additionally, on Hop's League Card, the duel between him and the new Champion, Gloria, is the focus of worldwide attention.
This is not an exaggeration.
Hop's strength truly deserves that level of attention. He has a full team of powerful Champion-level Pokémon that are only slightly weaker than Gloria's and Leon's, plus the Shield King Zamazenta.
Besides Hop, Gloria's second rival is the stubborn girl, Marnie.
Marnie comes from Spikemuth. Her older brother is Piers, the Spikemuth Gym Leader.
Because Spikemuth has no Power Spot, Dynamaxing is impossible within the town's boundaries.
This caused the popularity of Spikemuth to drop sharply.
The town slowly became quiet and ignored.
To change this situation, Marnie set out on her Gym challenge.
Piers once said in public that he has a younger sister whose talent makes him feel inferior.
That is enough to prove that Marnie's talent as a Trainer is excellent.
And the last one is the person right in front of them, Bede.
"A troubled kid... troubled kids are the best."
Damian looked at Bede with interest. He was currently drenched in sweat.
This was because Platinum was using her newly caught Regieleki. Bede's first Pokémon was a Mawile.
However, facing the extreme speed of Regieleki, Mawile could not keep up with its movements at all.
It was completely toyed with and finally defeated by Regieleki's Thunder Cage.
Bede's second Pokémon was a Gardevoir.
Bede's battle sense was indeed very high. He was completely certain that if he didn't find a way to limit Regieleki's speed, he would have no chance of winning.
Therefore, Bede decisively ordered Gardevoir to use the Psychic-type move Trick Room.
Trick Room can twist the speed order within an area, making the fast slow and the slow fast.
This is one of the best ways to deal with high-speed Pokémon.
Once Gardevoir successfully used Trick Room, the situation of the battle would flip.
The worst-case scenario would be forcing Platinum to switch out Regieleki.
But first, he had to successfully use Trick Room.
Platinum, of course, would not just watch.
So, she had Regieleki use Extreme Speed.
Regieleki's Extreme Speed was as fast as a bolt of lightning.
Almost instantly, in less than a breath, it slammed hard into Gardevoir's face.
The impact made Gardevoir's fragile body stumble.
In the next moment, before Gardevoir could even steady herself, she took another Extreme Speed hit from behind.
It almost made Gardevoir fall over.
Then came attacks from the left, the right, above, and the front...
Bang! Bang! Bang!!
Regieleki turned into an afterimage.
Extreme Speed attacked from every direction, wildly striking Gardevoir all over her body.
The only thing that could be seen was a yellow blur moving up, down, left, and right, along with Gardevoir's painful cries.
Forget about Trick Room, Gardevoir couldn't even use Protect right now.
As Bede's expression turned extremely ugly, Gardevoir was struck by Extreme Speed for a full five seconds.
Within those five seconds, how many times was Gardevoir hit?
No one knew.
They only knew that when Regieleki's Extreme Speed attack ended, Gardevoir had already fainted, her body covered in injuries.
Yes, from beginning to end, Gardevoir didn't even have time to use a single move before she fell.
Bede's left hand trembled slightly as he recalled Gardevoir.
Looking at Regieleki and Platinum across from him, he was already sweating buckets.
How... how could she be this strong?!
Even that old witch Opal had never put this much psychological pressure on him.
It made him feel like he didn't even want to continue the fight.
This was because Bede couldn't think of any way to break this high-speed battle style.
He was originally a Trainer who specialized in Psychic types.
After being caught by Opal and brought to Ballonlea, he switched to being a Fairy-type Trainer.
But reasonably speaking, Psychic Pokémon are actually quite good at handling high-speed Pokémon.
After all, no matter how fast you are, can you be faster than psychic power?
A Psychic Pokémon could just stare at you and use its power to forcefully restrict you.
But what about an opponent that even the eyes cannot catch?
Unfortunately, Regieleki was exactly like that.
In its state of Extreme Speed, its speed was faster than lightning.
But should he surrender and admit defeat?
Bede couldn't do it.
Bede had once said something like this. It might be controversial, but it fit his personality perfectly:
"I often hear people say that you can learn more from defeat, but I would rather not. After all, that would only damage my reputation."
"Rather than swallowing the humiliation of defeat, I would rather stay in victory while moving toward the goal of being the strongest."
That's right, Bede was someone who would not admit defeat easily.
This was because he always believed that losing a battle was not just embarrassing for the Trainer.
A poor battle was also an insult to the Pokémon.
Bede's third Pokémon was a Galarian Rapidash.
However, it was useless. In front of Regieleki, it was completely useless.
The fourth was Sylveon, and his final ace was Hatterene.
Eventually, even Hatterene fell under Regieleki's Thunder Cage.
Bede finally couldn't hold on.
His head spun, and his body felt weak. He almost fell to the ground.
Luckily, he used his left hand to support himself, avoiding the humiliation of collapsing flat on the floor.
Even so, thick beads of sweat appeared on his forehead, and his face was incredibly pale.
I lost... and I was completely swept...
This fact kept echoing in Bede's mind, making him feel intense embarrassment and humiliation.
"It seems you are no match for Platinum, Bede."
A familiar male voice came over.
Bede looked up and found that, at some point, the black-haired youth had walked over to stand in front of him.
Bede stubbornly stood up.
He was unwilling to bow his head in front of these people.
"Yes."
After a short silence, Bede turned his head away and gave a stiff reply.
He did not want to taste the bitter fruit of failure, but once he truly failed, he would not deny it.
"According to our agreement, you must join my organization."
"...No problem. But if it is something harmful to Galar, I won't do it."
Bede looked directly into Damian's eyes.
He accepted his loss, but he still had his own principles.
Even though Bede corrected himself quickly, how could Damian not know what he had almost said?
"Tsk~ Even in this situation, are you still thinking about Rose?"
Damian clicked his tongue as he looked at the pink-clad Bede.
Bede had actually grown up in an orphanage.
His family went through a disaster when he was young, so he was sent there.
But because of what had happened to his family, his personality became very twisted and sharp.
It was hard for him to fit into a group, and he often got into arguments with others.
It was Rose, during a visit to the orphanage, who changed the rest of Bede's life.
He gave Bede a Pokémon and discovered his talent as a Trainer, sending him to a Pokémon school.
Because of this, Bede respected Rose deeply.
But it was also because of this admiration that he wanted to help with Rose's ideals.
So, he took it upon himself to damage the ruins in Stow-on-Side to collect Wishing Stars.
However, such a disrespectful act toward the land of Galar made Rose feel incredibly disappointed in him.
Rose even stripped Bede of his right to take part in the Gym challenge.
After that, Bede met Opal and was forcefully taken to Ballonlea to be "disciplined."
But looking at him now, even after being punished by Rose, Bede still respected him deeply.
"That has nothing to do with you," Bede replied coldly, turning his head away again.
"Fine, it really has nothing to do with me. But I can promise you, I won't make you do anything against Rose."
Damian shrugged. He took out a document and a silver badge.
"I acknowledge your talent. This is the Senior Executive badge of the organization. Although you lost quite badly today, it doesn't mean you lack strength."
Damian's casual and relaxed voice made Bede grit his teeth again.
Bede glared fiercely at Platinum, who had caused his crushing defeat.
Platinum blinked and gave him a friendly smile in return.
This only made Bede feel even more out of place, so he had to look away.
"I will definitely not lose to this woman next time!"
Bede made a stubborn declaration.
Then, he directly signed his name on the contract.
Only then did he notice that the organization he was joining was called Team Rocket.
Team Rocket? Never heard of it. It's probably some small, unknown organization.
Well, it doesn't matter.
As long as it could help him get away from that old witch Opal, he would be free from now on.
One day, he would come back and teach that old witch a lesson.
And this woman too!
He accepted this humiliating defeat for now, but one day, he would pay it back double.
He would make them understand that he, Bede, was the strongest.
For now, he would endure.
Damian nodded with satisfaction.
Team Rocket had gained another highly promising recruit.
Of the four genius rookies in Galar, he had already secured two.
All that was left were Hop and Marnie. That probably wouldn't be very difficult.
In this way, the future of Galar was already falling into his hands.
Very good.
He believed Chairman Rose wouldn't mind once he found out, right?
After all, Chairman Rose was generous.
Well, even if Rose got angry, Damian wouldn't care.
After all, Team Rocket was always built by recruiting talent away from somewhere else.