Rhea’s lips fell into a slight grimace.
She assumes a lot of things… I mean, some of it isn’t far from the truth, but she’s stating it as almost a fact. Cynthia’s my aunt, not my mother… and I never said Red and Yellow stayed at my house… did I? No… they never have, so that would be a lie, and she’s acting like Red and Yellow are stuck-up snobs that wouldn’t stay at anyone’s house that weren’t famous.
Her thoughts returned to the kind golden-haired woman that stopped by every other year with Red to talk with her father, and the journalist’s portrayal made her a bit angry. They stayed at one of the three guest houses the Masters had pitched in to build; a lot of Masters used them as a low-key resting spot when traveling between regions.
Nova mirrored her light frustration but was feeling a bit happy that she was mentioned.
“What do ya think?” Lori asked, getting up to do some light stretches on the ground with Gables.
Rhea hummed softly. “What evidence is she citing?”
Amira shrugged, tossing her phone beside her before packing up her items. “It’s standard journalist manipulation. A few people will blow it off, but most will buy into it because she says it and is check-mark certified from Gossip. Other than Nova, the Cynthia speculation, and the Red and Yellow bits, there’s not much substance to it that wasn’t public knowledge.
“Nova was the linking piece that’ll throw weight behind her speculations to be carried by other outlets. It’s a practice I’ve seen Coral use before, and she’ll go after the people close to you, ambushing them with paid off individuals. You’d be shocked what normal people are willing to do for fame or 20 credits.”
“True, that!” Lori chuckled.
Rhea sighed, scanning the article again. “Is this bad? Did Sam, Jade, and Hannah sell her the information?”
“Doubtful,” Amira promptly replied in a disinterested tone. “They were just used by Coral, which is why you should keep friends at a distance.”
“Oof, harsh,” Mallory said with a small smile. “I can’t blame them, though; we never warned them.”
“Did we really need to?” Amira asked with a lifted eyebrow. “They were smart enough not to spill the information about Rhea being hospitalized but couldn’t handle the other probing questions. They knew what was sensitive information, but were more likely careless about what they talked about in public.”
“Can’t argue there,” Lori replied, swapping positions to stretch out her chest. “They don’t have the experience.”
“Hmm… I don’t have the experience,” Rhea sighed, dressing in her navy-themed shirt and skirt before pulling back her hair into a ponytail to feed through the back of her cap. “Should we bring it up to them?”
Amira shook her head. “I’d wait to see if they bring it up.”
Mallory moved to the bathroom, giving the redhead a smirk. “Test them?”
“For what?” Rhea asked. Lori entered the bathroom to take a warm shower. “I didn’t think about them even letting slip about me being in the hospital… and are you going to wear that dress hiking?”
Amira glanced down at her lavish red dress with a small frown. “What’s wrong with it? It’s a hiking dress that’s no different than the average Trainer-style outfits, designed with protective coating for the elements to resist stains and water.”
“Hmm… what about wind?”
“I have a belt and leggings; the tiers are designed to be removed… there’s a pokéball magnet ring layered on the hip, too,” She mumbled, showing the hidden thin zipper underneath.
“Wow… fancy,” Rhea mumbled, smiling at her defensive tone. “Maybe I should get one.”
“Umm, yeah… I can show you a place in Viridian,” Amira whispered. “I don’t know, I just feel like if they are your friends, then they’ll own up to their mistake.”
Rhea didn’t like the idea of testing their loyalty, but a part of her questioned how the entire exchange went; Coral didn’t have a lot of time to interrogate them, and she wondered if the journalist had more if she could have gotten her hospitalization out of them.
“Uh… Amira, how did you know I told them about being in the hospital.”
Finished dressing, Amira’s lips bunched to the side while staring at her. “Because you talked about it at the spa. Are you sure your brain’s okay?”
“Oh, hehe… umm, yeah, I guess I’m still not a hundred percent. I usually have a really good memory…”
“That’s because you have a good mental Allocation,” Amira commented, crossing her legs after moving to an armchair by the door; Amber jumped on her lap. “It just means you’re not fully recovered. Right?”
“I guess so… thanks.”
“Don’t mention it.”
Attaching her pokéballs to her white belt, Rhea’s mind returned to her conversation with Brock. “Hey, Amira…”
“Mmh?” She was fiddling with her glasses, attached to her dress front.
“What’s it like for you… with your Pokémon? How does it feel when feeding them energy?”
“Right… you don’t have a limiter.” Amira glanced to the side, vision narrowing slightly while petting Amber. “I can tell how much personal energy Amber has… not as clearly as I’d like, but I’m working on enhancing that monitoring sense.
“There’s like a… filter in place between us, and I can throw as much energy as I want to her, but only so much slips through that filter. It’s like I’m pushing against an immovable wall that’s slowly chipping away the longer Amber and I are bonded.”
Amber chirped happily, rubbing her head against Amira’s hand; her fiery tail and ears had turned into dark red tufts to not burn her Trainer.
So… Amira’s working at decreasing that wall while I need to put it up. How, though? Just being bonded with a Pokémon and increasing that link helps reduce the barrier, but how do I put one up… I don’t think it’ll happen naturally.
They fell into silence, Rhea using the time to analyze the link between her and her Pokémon, but whatever she was looking for wasn’t so obvious.
Lori spent 8 minutes in the shower with only 5 more getting herself ready. She wore her clothes that went through the automatic Trainer washing and drying machines each room had for overnight cleaning.
Most Trainer outfits were high-quality non-iron treated fabrics for long-term use. She appeared to have breathable leggings for warm climates and an insulated pair for colder.
After finishing their preparations, they put on their sunglasses, leaving the keycard in the automatic return slot by the front entrance, and moved through the brightening city toward the Oak Foundation Lab.
Rhea frowned upon getting a text from her mother on the way there.
6:47 A.M. Hey, my lil’ Swablu, so… there’s a bunch that’s happening in Viridian right now. Your father and I will probably be here for a few days; I’ll have my hands full, but I want to make time for your father and I to take you out to lunch, though! There’s a place we can go discreetly. Loves you!
She let her team know as they walked through the busy street, drawing gazes as they went. It was a partially cloudy morning with a cool breeze that would be nice when hiking.
“We have a lot planned for Viridian, don’t we?” Rhea chuckled.
Lori nodded. “I’m so excited!”
Amira’s fell a bit, red irises watching for people instead of enjoying the bustle Rhea was enthralled by; just being around, so many people were new to her, and seeing how everyone dressed and acted fascinated her curiosity.
Amber kept a few feet in front of them with Gables camouflaged from sight, apparently practicing his stealth while on the lookout for journalists.
“Lunch with your parents and dinner with mine… how long are we planning to stay in Viridian?”
“Mmh,” Mallory clasped her hands behind her back as they stopped at an interception, waiting for the light to change, “probably at most two days. We gotta get to Pewter to participate in some of the local betting odds to get back what we spent here, what we’ll spend in Viridian, and Dark City. Maybe we can participate in the Yas or Kaz Bronze Challenge. I’ve heard they both have some fun prizes.”
For the first time all morning, Amira giggled, causing the two other girls to lift an eyebrow. “Yas and Kaz? You do realize those two establishments have been trying to compete with the Pewter Gym for official Gym Status for over two decades and failing miserably? I heard their children are even involved in the effort.”
Rhea and Lori shook their heads with a wry smile.
“Nope,” Rhea mumbled. “Never heard of them until now.”
“I just heard they had decent prizes,” Mallory shrugged.
Amira smirked. “The highest challenge they have is in the Gold-tier. They can’t even qualify for a Platinum-tier Challenge Ranking, yet they’ve been hounding my grandfather for support forever; it’s only because of him that Dark City hasn’t collapsed and has basically become a subsidiary of Viridian. They come to the city to seek sponsorship just about every year.”
Mallory chuckled, pulling up a large map of Kanto. “Well, isn’t all of Viridian Forest… Muk that’s massive, Viridian Bay… the surrounding areas around Neon City, Gardenia City, the Shadow Woods to the east of Dark City, Gardenia City, Fennel Valley, Stone City, Terracotta Town, Scissor Town, Mulberry City…”
“Yeah, yeah, I get it,” Amira mumbled with a wave of her hand. “Viridian has a lot of governing land as an official City State.”
Rhea’s eyes lit up. “Oh, do you think we can stop by Gardenia City to try out the Contest? It’s only like a few hours hike uphill from Dark City, right? There’s an official PAC Office there so we can get our Contest Passes; we can do some of the Contests around the region, too! Oh, what about Hollywood in Viridian? That’d be fun!”
Amira’s brow furrowed, glancing to the side with a sour expression. “Ugh, you want to go everywhere. Contests… aren’t really my thing, and the Hollywood district in Viridian isn’t all that… a bunch of bloodsuckers.”
“Aww, c’mon, Amira! You’re the one that seems to enjoy dressing up, and Amber would be a smash; I’m down to give it a go!” Lori cheered.
The redhead popped her tongue a few times, ushering them into a small store to buy a pack of spearmint gum for 3 credits. Waiting in the checkout line, she brushed back her hair with a soft sigh. “Yeah, but wanting to look nice and dressing up to make a fool of myself are two different things.”
“Hehe, okay. You can watch us from the stands,” Lori chuckled. “We could use someone on our side; I don’t think we’ll win since that’s a higher class Contest Hall, but it’ll be a fun bonding experience.”
“Yeah, knock yourselves out,” Amira grunted with a small smile, paying for the item. “It will probably force us to stay in one of the cities overnight, though.”
“Unless we camp out!” Lori returned with a smirk.
“Why camp when you can have a bed to sleep in… even if it’s not that decent?” Amira asked, popping the gum in her mouth.
Rhea thought the bubblegum girl suited the redhead’s look well, causing her to smile as she casually offered them both a piece. Accepting it, Mallory challenged them to a bubble size contest. Gables obviously won once joining the competition, hanging off Lori’s pack with a smug smirk, sucking in the sphere he created that was the size of his head.
“Muk, nice!” Lori giggled, giving him a high-five. “Creamed Amira’s record.”
Amira’s cheeks bunched to the side, glaring at the frog through her round rosy glasses. She’d been winning before that point, with Rhea being crushed. “Okay, that’s not fair.”
Amber was still trying to make a bubble, doing even worse than Rhea.
Rhea got her first text from Jade’s group when walking up the lab steps.
7:08 A.M. Hey, sorry, we’re running a bit behind! There was this strange lady that wanted to talk to us about PikaSpring… she totally crushed us… I’ll tell you about it when we meet up. We were soooo embarrassed! Anyways, we kind of couldn’t sleep that well; we’ll be at the spot in like 40 minutes, top!
Showing the message to the others, Amira huffed, still chewing her gum. “Not surprised. Coral’s got a whole community hate thread on PikaEdit… mostly Viridian residents, I think.”
“Crazy,” Mallory mumbled. “Think she’ll follow us?”
Walking inside the building, they made it to the front desk, Rhea asking for a package in her name. The woman retreated to the back to check with her supervisor.
“She’ll go wherever the biggest clickbait is, which was us yesterday, but it could be something else today,” Amira absently replied, studying the scientists walking through the doors to start their workday. “They’ve got informants all over the place that might send them something that’ll distract the mob for a bit. Believe she’ll be there when we get to Pewter, though.”
“Makes sense,” Mallory hummed, fiddling with an app that was more complicated than Rhea wanted to learn or discover its use. “I’ll widen the net to see what’s goin’ on… umm… by the way, the underground bounty for us went up.”
Rhea and Amira’s gaze darted to her.
“Our what?” Rhea asked.
“So… you know how our legal max bounty is capped at 26,500 right now, right?”
“Mhm?” Amira replied, folding her arms under her chest with a deep frown.
“Yeah, well, there’s a few underground betting rings I keep an eye on, and three of the biggest ones are focusing on us pretty hard. Seems a lot of people on the low wanna see us eat dirt…”
Rhea adjusted her cap. “What’s the bet?”
“Combined or individual?”
Amira nibbled on her lip, gum tucked against her cheek. “The total works.”
“Okay, excluding the official bet, for me… 18,870 credits, which is kind of low, to be honest,” she huffed with a slight frown. “I guess it makes sense, though… Grimsley has a lot of weight in these circles.”
“Me?” Amira asked with a rushed chuckle.
“Uh… one sec… oh… 78,472 credits.”
“Great,” Amira grumbled.
“Oh, what about me?” Rhea asked, feeling more excited than worried.
“Uh… two bounties, actually… although I’m not surprised.”
“Wait… only two pools?”
“No, no… there’s a bounty on beating you for… 87,450 credits, and one for your family identity for 55,540 credits.”
“You’re joking…” Rhea sighed, twisting to lean up against the desk, texting Jade back.
7:12 A.M. Yeah, no problem. BTW, go to PikaEdit and lookup Coral Kaylera. xD That the woman you met?
“Nope, and I think it’ll probably go up,” Lori mumbled. “That’s a healthy chunk of credits, though; it could cover a small family for a year. Bah, not much we can do about it…”
She paused, putting away her phone as the woman returned with Rhea’s box.
Opening it with some scissors the woman lent her, she extracted exactly what she thought they’d be, two prototype phones from Silph.
“Oh, sweet!” Lori cheered, swiftly selecting the black one as Amira hesitantly accepted the red.
“Are you sure?” She whispered, fingers rubbing the smooth red crystal device.
Rhea shrugged, motioning for them to follow her out. “Why not? My mom wanted to give them to you. If you want, I can just give it back to her. It’ll probably hit the market in like… six or eight months.”
“Nice!” Lori snickered, fiddling with her phone to extract the small SIM bar that held her information. “I wonder what kind of processing power and network coverage this thing has…”
“I’ve never had issues,” Rhea replied, walking back out into the sunlight.
Amira and Mallory went silent, each fiddling with their phone as they transferred the data over with the simple TouchTether method, applying all the enhanced encryption and password requirements.
Rhea snuck a few more pictures of them while walking to post on her PikaBook profile, tagging her mom to let her know they loved the gifts.
On their way to the meet-up spot, Jade texted her back.
7:32 A.M. Woah! That is her, and… she is a journalist. Did we say anything bad?
7:32 A.M. No, you’re fine. Just watch out; she might show back up again, using other people to get info about us. Thanks for keeping the hospital bit a secret!
7:33 A.M. Yeah! We’ll be more careful… Hannah’s so mad… me, too… she really, really embarrassed us and didn’t tell us the truth… Hannah’s writing a post on PikaEdit right now.
7:33 A.M. You’ll have to tell us about it. Yeah, Amira’s not a fan of her. See ya in a bit!
7:33 A.M. Okai! We’re on our way right now… we’ll maybe be there at 7:45.
7:33 A.M. NP, we had somewhere to go, too. You’ll probably beat us. We should get there at like 7:55.
Rhea did what she’d seen other Pallet citizens do, stop beside a yellow taxi and just open the back door, motioning for her team to follow; the two girls were still fussing over their phones, going through settings for Mallory and the startup tutorial for Amira.
They got to the location at 7:51 with their driver going a bit faster than her travel App suggested and less traffic than expected. Getting out where she’d entered Pallet, Rhea guided Lori and Amira to the clearing, meeting up with the three girls as they seemed to be going over the map, their Pokémon out.
“Umm… where does the map show we should travel, Hannah?” Jade asked with a bright tone.
“Not near Mt. Hideaway or Mt. Evolution,” Hannah mumbled.
Sam shook her head. “No, no, that’s way too far west… it’d be out of the… oh, hey, Rhea, Lori, Amira!”
“Hey, guys!” Rhea called back. “What’s up?”
“Just trying to figure out what’s the best route,” Hannah replied with a nervous giggle. “Umm… hey.”
Amira had the holographic display fully extended with the map application active. “… I’ve already come up with a trail. If we cut through the mid-range Bronze-tier areas, then we can bypass most traffic and minimize the probability we’ll get challenged.”
“Yeah, but umm… that’s a bit rougher terrain,” Sam mumbled softly. “Uh… yeah, okay, umm, sure; we’ll give it a shot!” She grinned, grunting while hoisting up her backpack.
“Mmh,” Amira swiped through the 3D map, glancing at the shown terrain, “it’s not that big of a curve… we’ll be hiking up a few hills, but nothing like Viridian Forest will be.”
“I see,” Jade replied with a forced smile. “We, uh… better get used to it, then, haha.”
Rhea glanced down at her own phone; Amira had sent her a link to her chosen path, and she marked forward. “Okay! We’re heading to Xanadu Nursery!”
“We probably won’t get there today,” Amira commented, following as the others trudged behind. “If we travel at a constant rate, then we’ll probably get most of the way by nightfall, though. Make camp at 7 or 8 P.M., and wake up, restock at the Nursery, and see how far we can get to Viridian.”
Glancing back, she caught the three girls’ giving each other strained expressions. “What’s up?”
“Umm,” Sam mumbled, “I don’t know if, uh… we can travel the whole time… you know, until 7 or 8 P.M.”
“Not the entire way,” Amira evenly replied. “We’ll probably take one or two five minute breaks.”
“One or two…” Jade chuckled.
“Uh, yeah! We’ll do our best, right?” Hannah returned.
The other two swallowed. “Yeah…”
Feeling a little bad for them, Rhea hummed. “If you do feel tired, just let us know. Okay?”
They gave similar responses in the affirmative. It turned out to be a lot worse than Rhea thought; she wasn’t even feeling tired after each break the girls needed to take, and she began to realize how much more physical Allocation her team must have had compared to ordinary people.
Sam, Hannah, and Jade weren’t all that fit, but they weren’t overweight; still, they required a rest every hour or two with the casual pace Rhea set. She knew Amira was a little exasperated with the constant stops, but she hid it well, and Lori didn’t seem all that bothered. It gave Rhea time to enjoy nature, though, watching out for new Pokémon and taking pictures that were receiving constant feedback from her family.
She caught sight of all the normal Pokémon within the area; Pidgey, Rattata, Sentret, sleeping Hoothoot, Wurmple, Pineco, Ledyba, and Spinarak. There were one or two Poochyena groups, and a Plusle and Minun group.
The Poochyena party paused as if debating starting something, but after a sharp bark from Amber, flames flicking out of her mouth, they scampered off. A Spinarak crawled down from its web around 11 A.M. to see what they were about, but again, the firefox sent it scampering back up its tree.
Gables kept popping up every so often, resting after extended Camouflage usage.
Sam, Hannah, and Jade’s Pokémon weren’t able to see a lot of action with Amber’s leading prance, acting as if she owned the forest. A swarm of Sentret followed them for a bit, eyeing Jade’s Pidgey on her shoulder. It almost seemed like they had a bit of beef with the bird, but Gables and Amber were a powerful deterrent for the weak Pokémon along their route.
The one upset came from a pair of Pikachu that stood in their way, seemingly challenging Amber. After a short exchange that consisted of three Ember and a Scratch, the two yellow mice were battered and defeated, running with sharp cries.
Gables was able to practice Bubble and Mud Sport to put out any chance of a fire starting from the Stab Embers. Unplanned forest wildfires rarely happened with the network of Rangers that patrolled the forest, but handling the issues you create from battles were also a part of a Trainer’s duty.
Once it hit 5 P.M., Rhea decided it would be best to call it; the three girls were huffing and puffing, and they’d just found a downhill stream they could use with a decent clearing to set up in.
Nova had been a great cheerleader throughout the trip, and Mya was starting to wake up. Along the way, they recounted their encounter with Coral, and Rhea told them that she had to rest after her previous fight with Lucian, which was why Nova and Mya weren’t out of their balls. They appeared content without the details, so Rhea kept them to herself.
After setting up their tents, they started a fire with the gathered sticks they found around the area and talked. She discovered a lot about each of the girls as Mallory guided the conversation between them. Preparing for bed at 9 P.M, Rhea talked a bit to Bianca about her first day on the journey, lying on her sleeping bag with the warm night sending in a lovely breeze.
Sam, Hannah, and Jade’s Pokémon had gotten a lot of rest with Amber and Gables handling everything, so they offered to take up the night watch, allowing the two to sleep. Amira was a bit leery about the offer, Amber protectively sleeping beside her. Nova and Mya felt the same, longing to be out to be on watch duty, but contented themselves to their pokéballs.
Rhea was a little surprised they didn’t run into a single Trainer, but Amira had picked out their route for that very purpose. They could start taking battles more seriously once they hit Viridian; Amira thought that they’d get a few challenges tomorrow once they hit the Nursery, though, but the big hitters looking to make a name for themselves would be at the Viridian gates.
At 9:35 P.M., she said goodnight to Bianca, already up longer than she should be, but her husband wasn’t home and drifted off into oblivion.
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