PoV:
Rhea!
Pokemon Map I Loosely Use For Visual Aid: The distance between areas might be different; some cities are somewhat incorrect, a few routes have been mislabeled, and some cities aren't listed, but it's the best I've found.
Google Document (In-line Comments)
2:14 p.m., November 7th, Saturday, 106 PH (Post Hoopa Event). Day 151.
Events: Rhea and the girls are on a Badge Hunt, trying to get all the Kanto Encrusted Badges before time runs out! Our girl started her journey on the 9th of June, and the registration deadline for the Winter Indigo Cup is December 5th (27 days away).
Rhea sat on the locker room bench with her hands folded in her lap and watched Amira’s shower stall door. It had been fifty-two minutes. It was a long time.
Inside, Rhea was biting her nails.
She’s fuming… What passed between them at the end?
It wasn’t normal Gym behavior, that’s for sure.
But I can’t tell what she’s angry at with that short Aura pulse I sensed…
She looked up at the clock again as Lori came back from the vending machine with three bottles of water and a face that said she was punching herself inside. Something was up with the Unovan girl after her match, too.
She handed her a bottle with a small sigh.
“C’mon, Sunshine, I know you’re trying not to Aura farm us with those big blue eyes, but you see it. Terri’s punching my stomach again… Lulu!”
Rhea giggled as her little puff ball jumped out of her front to happily join the Kubfu, playfully striking the girl’s abbs.
“Ne! Ne!”
“Fu! Fu!”
“I know, Lori,” she whispered, pulling the cheery cloud off her lap, just trying to lighten the mood. “My Aura Sense has been a bit hyperactive lately. I think it’s because of Rylee’s loss…and worrying about Jason…and my parents…and my brother… I’m hopeless,” she groaned, head hanging.
“Hey,” Lori swept Terri against her chest to scoot over to hip and shoulder bump her, “if anything, we’re the hopeless ones compared to you, Sunshine. Just let me work up the courage, girl. I’m a bit of a Mukin’ coward when it comes to my feelings. Okay?”
Rhea giggled.
“What do you want me to say to that? Okay?”
“Okay. Okay! Ugh… I lost. It sucks.”
“Yeah… But I thought you were cool.”
“Aww! Honeypot, don’t go tugging on my heart like that!”
She pressed her shoulders to her, rather strongly—the girl’s weight was more than she realized, which was a bit funny, Rhea had to admit, and would not say aloud!
Then again, she was the smallest out of their group. Lori was almost a foot taller than her.
I’m so small…
Jason likes that, though.
Oh no!
She tensed as her face turned red, imagining that time she’d tacked him in Saffron—her hair draping around his face, lying atop his chest, looking into his eyes.
The reversal, he shifting her to the ground—his weight on top of her, pinning her under his broader, enshrouding frame…
Stop! If I start sweating and turning this red, Lori will…
“Hmm?” Her violet-eyed friend’s vision drew a half-lidded, sharp gaze, cutting like a hot knife as her scrutiny only further turned Rhea’s face crimson. “Now what in the world did I say that led to a face like that? The only person who gets those kinds of reasons is… Jason! Spill!”
“No…”
“Spill! Spill! Spill!”
“Nee! Nee! Nee!”
“Fu! Fu! Fu!”
“I’m going to hide in my hair now,” she cried, drawing her braid around like a curtain before pressing her bridged fingers against her abdomen. “I just miss him. Okay?”
“Aww. Fine… Escape with the cute card. Cheater.”
A little banter here and there for several more minutes went by, Rhea doing her best to get her Aura sense under control, as Ash had taught her.
She closed her eyes, remembering the training they’d done on the way to Saffron, opening her Aura Sense in a radial zone. She saw Lori, her color, her inner struggles; she was trying to work herself up to express.
Rhea let that site slide by, focusing instead on the women bustling around the locker room. They were nervous Gold-tier Trainers now, going in to face Giovanni, and not one so far was making it past. He was ruthless today, and all of them sensed it.
She took a deep breath, feeling V respond with her meditation.
No… We’re not resonating. Just calming myself down.
Yet, in that short time, she knew something important by the momentary glance she’d gotten of Amira’s soul color.
She’s not going to tell me… That’s okay. It feels sort of healthy.
Maybe.
Not long after, Amira finally came outside, and Rhea pumped her fist internally when her Aura sense remained inactive.
Victory!
Amira stepped out in her replacement blue dress, with her hair wrapped in a towel, and she was already smiling—the small, controlled one she used in public. Mariah walked beside her, serene, giving nothing away.
Which was fine! Rhea was proud of the Songstress Pokemon. Amira was her friend. When she wanted to talk about something, Rhea would be there to support her.
“Thanks for waiting,” Amira said, waving at them and moving to the mirror to unwrap it. “I lost track of time. Want to help me with my hair, Rhea?”
“Sure!”
“All good!” Lori chirped, so brightly that Rhea almost winced. “Uh, yeah, so…you’re still good to go out and comfort-slash-celebrate with the fam?”
“Of course,” Amira chortled, catching sight of a few women in the locker room peeking inside before ducking out. “I know you’re worried. I’m mad. But I’ll get through it. Thanks, Rhea,” she added as she began combing out her hair.
“Mhm!”
“So,” Amira pressed on, applying product to her skin to prevent drying out, “did anything interesting happen in the last hour? I feel like I missed a news cycle. What are people saying online about Rhea’s victory? It’s the first time my grandpa was beaten in Silver in…pretty much ever.”
“Yeah,” Lori cleared her throat and brought up her phone, “a lot of buzz going on. Kind of crazy, actually, Sunshine… Our team has its own hashtag. #CheaterSquad… Great name. Huh?” Her face became sour. “I think you can guess why.”
“How mature,” the redhead mumbled, looking up in the mirror to smile at Rhea. “It seems we keep shaking the boat. We are becoming notorious. Lori, maybe we should link our merchandise and engage?”
Lori’s lips flipped in the opposite direction.
“Say less. Operation rage bait sales is on the way… I’m kind of scared to look at the profits we’re getting already. Maybe I’ll have enough to gamble next week!”
Rhea snickered, careful to comb out Amira’s head.
“I don’t think you’ll last a day.”
“Booo!” The Unovian girl pouted, fingers dancing across the holographic screen as she mocked and memed on the replies.
“No faith in my skills, Sunshine? You’re my good luck charm. I can’t have you doubting me… Says the single-girl-failure living in her dad’s basement at thirty-six. Simple. And gets the crowd going. #loser!”
“Don’t be too mean,” Rhea mumbled. “Maybe she’s taking care of her dad…”
“Oh, you innocent child. If you throw stones, expect to get dented in return! Send.”
Rhea’s mouth drew into a line as her teammate cackled, becoming a keyboard goddess with her tens of millions of subscriber army, throwing her weight around.
Amira’s soft voice in the locker room wash area drew both their attention.
“…I’m going into Viridian Forest this week to train. I’m sorry I won’t be there for Misty or Forrest…”
Rhea’s fingers paused, half brushing through the redhead’s hair, separating it. Amira’s ruby eyes were held off to the side, fixated on random tiles. It didn’t take long for Rhea to continue, mouth lifting slightly.
“…I’m happy you’re pushing forward.”
“Mhm…”
Lori was quieter than Rhea expected, the girl’s Aura momentarily flaring. Not externally focused colors—an internal push strong enough that Rhea couldn’t not see it.
Rhea took a moment to gather her courage.
“We can watch the replays and message each other. Right, Lori? I got a ton of messages from my family, too. And, Amira, kick your grandpa’s butt! After that, we go to the Silver Cup.”
Lori swallowed and nodded.
“That’s the plan… And, umm, I have something big to tell all of you. Tonight. Okay?” She looked up, trembling slightly. “Hold me to it?”
Amira shifted to put a hand on her arm, Rhea pulling Lori and bumping her with her hips since her hands were full.
“Tonight.”
Some time passed, and Rhea finished helping Amira.
In the meantime, Lori’s phone, which had been buzzing like crazy for the last ten minutes, finally lit up with a pattern that made her groan.
“Hmm?”
“Okay, well, my mom’s found her second wind.” She thumbed it open. “Right—I was supposed to tell them we’re coming. I was also supposed to do that an hour ago.”
She held up a finger with a wink, putting the crystal against her ear.
“Mm. Hi, Mom! Uh-huh. Yes. We’re dead—dead-alive. Yes. She’s a Goldeen. When? Turned into it in the shower. Horn and all. Yes, a prince would be recommended. Handsome, Kalos native, maybe a bit stiff and suit-wearing.”
Amira gave her a deadpan look in the mirror.
“What? Prefer the Alolan tan?” she asked with an innocent smile.
That got a ‘slight’ playful side punch to the girl’s stomach.
“Oof! Hehe. Yeah, Mom, she got me good. Tell Lyra to send the limo. We’ll be out soon.”
Rhea gave her a sad shake of her head.
Lori just grinned as Terri jumped up and kicked Lori in the butt, making her cry out.
“Hey! Be nice. I’m nice…”
“Kub! Kub!”
“Neeee!” Lulu chimed from inside Rhea’s front, poking out to give the Unova girl a ‘I’m watching you’ look. “Ne. Ne.”
“Fu!”
“Pfft. I’m the villain in every story… Yeah, it’s my mom and dad. They’re at the restaurant. Shanny was at the restaurant for approximately eight minutes, then disappeared, which nobody has commented on because she’s Shanny and this is what she does… Loser big sister,” she grumbled.
“As for Cass, she’s at the restaurant with the appetizer menu, and is reportedly, ahem, let me quote, ‘eating like a Snorlax who heard they were closing the buffet #girlbloat’ That’s a direct quote she sent out to over fifty million people. Meanwhile, Dad’s texting me something cryptic, which means either Mom is drinking or the universe is ending… Or the fuzz is onto us.”
“Could be all of the above with your family,” Amira said with a small smile.
“Not wrong,” Lori conceded. “Rhea, your dad still holding your mom hostage?”
“Mhm!” Rhea beamed, getting a hair tie from her stuff to bind up Amira’s locks into a high ponytail. “And still refusing to pay the ransom.”
“You terrible daughter, you!”
“I know. I’m quite the delinquent. It’s a problem.”
They all chuckled softly.
Ten minutes later, Amira was picture perfect. Literally, she could model then and there. The girl was a fashion savant. Rhea was a bit jealous, to be honest. Fashion magazines would call her for tips. But that was their Rocket girl.
On the way out, they picked up their recovered Pokemon from the Center.
Amber and Gables were having a private moment.
It was kind of sweet, and Rhea could see the guilt and frustration in the fox’s Aura as they trailed them. Amira mentioned it had something to do with the wand he’d made for her. It meant a lot to her Starter.
Lulu wanted to blow up the stadium, screaming her world-ending speech to the bewildered Gym front entrance crowd, floating high above. Yeah, she was watching way too many Bellelba flicks as of late. Sabrina would be proud.
Rhea had to let her get it out, her Pokemon snickering inside and cheering her on as she shouted her death monologue in the cutest voice, puffy arms acting as fans.
“Neee! Ne-ne. Ne. NEE. NEEEEE! Ne. Ne. Nee…”
Rhea clapped as she did her villainous curtsey and floated down with the poise of a goddess to land on her chest and disappear into darkness, as villainesses do.
Perfect.
Once past the crowd, as disruptive as always, they found comfort in the limo.
The driver was the same one. Rhea recognized him from this morning’s ride-in—a young Rocket agent, maybe twenty-three, with the kind of carefully trimmed hair that Rocket seemed to hand out at orientation. Silent. Professional. Non-engaging. The Rocket staple.
He held the door open without meeting her eyes and said, “Miss Rocket, Miss Medina, Miss Everhart,” in the exact same respectful tone, and closed the door, and got in the front, and did not say one more word.
Amira sat by the window, deep in thought.
Lori appeared engaged online.
That left her to do inventory with Nova and the other girls, and to let them know everything that happened. She had her badge, but she didn’t want to flash it in front of her teammates. That would be in bad taste.
The silence wasn’t bad. Rhea could feel a lot happening beneath the surface that spoke louder than words. They were in a transformation stage. And you don’t help a Butterfree out of its cocoon before it’s time…
She didn’t really get that saying. Metapod evolved.
But, whatever, it was a saying.
The limo pulled onto Viridian’s main artery, and through the window, Rhea could see the edge of Viridian Park opening up ahead: trees bare now in early November, the long reflecting pool at the center, the old stone path that led up the rise.
And past the park, sticking up like a clean black knife, Rocket Tower.
Giovanni’s tower.
Rhea saw Amira’s eyes land on it for one half-second and then deliberately go elsewhere, a scowl momentarily creasing her brow before it vanished.
She turned her own face toward the other window and let Amira have her view.
Not long after, the limo slowed. Outside the tinted window, a doorman in white gloves was stepping forward.
Over his shoulder, through a set of glass double doors, Rhea could see a bright, busy restaurant on the third floor visible through the big panoramic windows of the building across the plaza. Three stories up. All glass. Facing Viridian Park.
And through those windows, even at this distance, Rhea could pick out a mop of silvery-blue hair at one of the tables and a second figure in a dark kimono beside it.
Karen was leaning against the railing, mane blowing in the wind.
“You aura farm, Mom,” Lori mumbled with a laugh, seeing the photographers on the street or in the park catching pictures. “You know, whole Mukin’ jobs are centered around taking her picture for a living.”
Rhea smiled. “Your mom certainly is photogenic. She just has that…girlboss—eh, more than that look, I guess. Party girl. Chaos. Control… I don’t even know. Words?”
“Elequent,” Amira mused, exiting the vehicle. “Perhaps we should just go in.”
“Ah! Yeah,” she mumbled, cheeks darkening.
The restaurant was called Le Vernal, and Rhea had to look up because the doorman had opened the glass doors, and the interior ceiling was three floors up and made of brushed copper panels angled like a cupped hand.
The whole building caught the afternoon light and threw it down in wide, warm slabs over dark wood floors, glass railings, and long panoramic windows that faced Viridian Park from every level.
An elevator ride up, and they were on a grand entertainment roof. Their table was on the top, above the third floor. Rhea saw it before she got there because Karen stood up again, waving with both arms.
“Girls, Cass is in the bathroom throwing up. Don’t ask.”
“Didn’t ask, loser,” Lori returned with a grin, “but okay. I’ll go see if she’s doing alright.”
Amira, walking between them as Lyra rushed forward to sweep her up into a hug only a mother could do.
“My little Mew! I am going to murder your grandpa!”
“Then who would give me my badge next week…”
“Oh, yell—scream with me! Ahhrh!”
“Rawr…”
“Ohh! You’re just like your grandma. Be a little more like me. RAWR!”
“Mom. We’re in public…”
Rhea snickered as her teammate was twisted around in a circle, face showing daughterly annoyance. It didn’t take long before Karen descended upon them, smothering Rhea as she realized why her violet-haired friend had vanished.
“My girls,” Karen breathed, and got her arms around Rhea’s shoulders, lifting her up.
Karen’s silver-blue hair smelled like expensive conditioner and a faint, faint suggestion of wine-at-lunch, and her hands were on her with the absolute no-permission-needed attitude.
Everyone was hers.
“You did it. You. Did. It. Rhea, baby girl! You made me so much money! Do you understand what you did? Everyone’s calling tonight! Whitney already called, Clair called, your aunt—Chuck is Mukin’ broke after the bet he made. Bruno? Knocked out cold with the debt he’s under. Those muscles aren’t going to help him now!”
Somehow, amidst that chaos, Rhea found her head spinning until Casey and Lori returned. How long was that? She legitimately had no clue. But eventually, she realized Silver and Grimsley were there, holding up their hands in that manly way that wordlessly said:
“Yo.”
And that was all that was needed for them, as Lyra bounced around and Karen chatted about, well, everything happening.
Again, she didn’t get it.
She liked to get updates on how everything was going.
Jason would probably get it, though.
Men’s brains are weird…
How do they communicate without communicating?
Is there a translation book online?
I should look it up.
Men for dummies 101.
Not long after, the two moms marched them to the table, with a hand on each of their backs. The table was, well, Karen had undersold it. It was a wasteland.
Casey plopped down in the middle of it, hair silvered and pulled up into two loose high buns, wearing a yellow off-shoulder sweater that Rhea vaguely recognized from one of her Memestar tutorials, and she was gesturing with a breadstick.
“Finally,” Casey said, through cheek. “I thought you guys died. I was about to eat your plates.”
Now, Rhea knew why she was in the bathroom. Hopefully, that didn’t imply bad habits returning. She was a bit leering when it came to Lori’s sister, but she was reformed! Supposedly. Her teammates had helped her a lot with detoxing her parasocial mania toward her fans.
Where were they now? Who knew? Not her. And the topic didn’t come up.
Lori wasn’t about to let her little sister get away with that previous comment.
“You were already eating our plates, Munchlax!”
“Oh, up yours! And I wasn’t eating theirs. I was eating yours, dear sis. Ahem! I have ethics.”
“Wow. She’s got ethics, Class. When did she learn that big word? Chat teach you?”
“If they did, I’d be drowning in the middle of a lake for their entertainment right now.”
“Cold.”
“Ice cold!”
“Get over here.”
Lori went, and Casey tackled her into a hug that knocked a breadstick off the table and made Grimsley, sitting at the far end of the table in a dark charcoal kimono with the sleeves folded back, lift his coffee cup very slightly to avoid the casualty.
“Dad,” Lori said, muffled.
“Mm.”
“Mm. You suck, too!”
“Mm.”
“Mm!” Karen interjected with a sharp grin. “Your dad looks handsome today. Doesn’t he? It almost makes me want to punch his smug face.”
“Get ‘em, Mom!” Cass chimed. “Chair slam!”
“Dad, go for the hair,” Lori chimed in. “She’ll freak.”
Grimsley’s dark-blue eyes flicked up over the rim of his coffee, found hers, and creased at the corners in a way that on Grimsley functioned as approximately a six-sentence speech.
“The flower that blooms last, holds its beauty longest.”
Karen’s face dulled. “I don’t know if you’re calling me old and past my prime or our girls are blooming or anything of the like, but I already want to slam your face into a pillow.”
The man lifted his cup to her. “All is right with the world.”
Laughter followed, Lyra taking Silver’s hand under the table—Rhea didn’t miss that.
Not long after, the feasting began.
Lunch was, for a little while, very good.
Rhea learned this about the Medina-Grimsley-Rocket family dynamic the same way she learned everything about everyone: by sitting near them and letting their shapes fill in around her.
Casey and Lori sniped at each other like they always did, Tangela hair and mop top, and at least I don’t dye it that color, with Casey eating half of whatever appeared on Lori’s plate and Lori letting her.
Silver asked Rhea about Sinjoh—real questions, not polite ones, the kind a father asked when he’d been quietly paying attention to where his daughter’s best friends had been.
He wanted to know about Maria. He wanted to know whether the meditation work was being translated. He nodded at her answers and did not interrupt. Amira watched him ask, and Rhea could see her reach up under the table and hold his sleeve.
Rhea was eating something Lori had ordered for her that was apparently a risotto but looked like cream soup with rice in it, and was very good, and she was letting herself be a girl at a table with a family that had adopted her for maybe ten minutes.
It didn’t take long for her peaceful observations to be abruptly interrupted by the world in the world’s most usual disruptive way: impossible things happening to her, out of every girl in the world:
Lyra, Silver, Karen, and Grimsley all looked south at the same time. Rhea felt a slight spike in an insane Aura burst—hot, as if her skin was scorching—before it vanished.
All that got from them was a glance and a shrug.
But what came next made her brain go blank.
“Hey, uh, Sunshine… Is that your BFF-BF?”
Rhea’s jaw slacked as the TV on the elevator wall flashed on an emergency message, and Jason’s face was plastered front and center as the Kalos news anchor spoke.
BREAKING — KALOS — MEGA EVOLUTION IRREGULARITIES — EVACUATIONS UNDERWAY
The banner scrolled.
ZYGARDE CELL AGGREGATION CONFIRMED — LUMIOSE — ANISTAR — GEOSENGE — UNPRECEDENTED DENSITY
Silver swiftly turned up the volume.
On the screen, the aerial footage cut to what was clearly an amateur recording. A vertical phone video, shaky, the unmistakable blue-and-white tint of a Lumiose boulevard, and the caption at the bottom read:
VIRAL — WITNESS FOOTAGE — LUMIOSE AVENUE, 2 HOURS AGO
Jason was sprinting down a Lumiose boulevard with his eyes the size of dinner plates. Len was next to him, one arm out like a sprinter, laughing so hard he was crying, and Lucian…
Well, Lucian was right behind them in a flat, dead sprint with his tie loosened and his face arranged in an expression of dignified horror that was the single funniest thing Rhea had seen in her entire life.
Because, behind them, about ten meters back and closing fast, was a Dratini.
It was pink. It was shiny. It was eighteen Muking feet long—almost the size of an average, flipping Gyarados. Its purple eyes were fixated on her boyfriend—or maybe the Pikachu with an ‘Oh, Muk!’ look on his face.
Behind the Dratini, half-visible at the top of the frame, a Mega-form Absol, or…was it an Absol? It shifted like a shadow on water, only in the air, drifting past the Prism Tower with its single wing outspread like a claw.
“MON DRATINI—” Jason was screaming at the camera as he passed it, voice cracking, “MON DRATINI ETAIT DANS LE PARC CE MATIN, JE NE SAVAIS PAS—”
Lori made a sound Rhea had never heard her make. It was somewhere between a bark and a wheeze.
“What did I do?!” Jason was now screaming in Common, having apparently run out of Kalos. Police sirens everywhere. Three officers on Pidgeotto were trying to keep pace above them while trying to keep an eye on all the other Pokemon in the area.
“Your Pokemon romanced a park boss, idiot!” Len was screaming back, still laughing, “Different customs!”
“Isn’t this the city of love?” her boyfriend shot back. “All he said was her scales were pretty!”
“Apparently not the city of love for you, brother! Turn left!” Lucian shouted from behind.
The pink Dratini roared. The footage cut. The news anchor reappeared with a faint, involuntary smile on her face that she was clearly trying to suppress.
“—the trainer in the footage has been identified as Jason Vermillion, a Silver-tier challenger from Kanto, currently in Kalos on extended training. We’re told he is safe. The Dratini has been subdued by the authorities. And the Alpha female in question has been returned to her home park under sedation. The clip has, at the time of this broadcast, been viewed approximately forty million times—”
Rhea made a small sound, knuckles pressed against her forehead.
“What is he doing? Eh—”
In the next instance, the sun appeared in the park across from them.
Or, it might as well have been the sun, teleported in by a grinning brunette, shouting at them from across the street on the Legendary firebird—
In rainbow lights, a Moltres materialized in the middle of Viridian.
And, for once, it wasn’t Lyra’s fault.
Leaf stood on the one-hundred-foot-tall bird.
She had her hat on, her messenger bag pressed to her side, and flip-flops present, which Rhea registered as a detail so completely absurd under the circumstances that it was probably load-bearing.
“Heya, girlies! I’m here to kidnap your mom, Amira. Kalos trip! New Evolution Stones!”
Behind her was Kris, in bike shorts and a red jacket with her teal hair in the familiar low bunches, and beside Kris was a tall, long-haired blonde woman. Daisy, Misty’s eldest sister, rocking a tank top, sunglasses, and short-shorts.
She was actually putting on sunscreen.
“My little girl here offered to fly us!”
“Tress!”
Rhea winced as the whole city of Viridian froze, flames that somehow didn’t burn shooting into the sky to turn the entire sky crimson.
Here we go again…