Hannah pulled her left arm across her chest, stretching it out with a soft yawn. Jade and Sam walked beside her, glancing back at Amira, Rhea, and Mallory as they parted ways.

The Pallet streets were noticeably less busy than the day before but much more active than usual, with the International Bronze League in full swing. Naturally, many of the city's tourists were already either on taxis to Viridian or backpacking themselves to the big city.

Her stress had evened out since yesterday; the prospect of finding decent girls to travel with, managing her low funds, and the pressure of having her first bonded Pokémon had been a lot to handle. Discovering she was one of the girls with weak fortitudes didn’t help her confidence either.

However, meeting Jade, Sam, and Rhea, the girl that brought them all together, had helped ease the anxiety, plus the leisurely pace they were going at.

Hannah shifted her gaze to Sam and Jade’s tote backpacks; they’d become pretty popular lately, noticing all of them had chosen colors that matched their hair.

A low giggle passed through her throat as they rounded the corner, shoulders slumping slightly. “Your guys’ backpacks killing your shoulders?”

“Gah!” Jade groaned, rubbing her neck while adjusting her pack. “How do they carry theirs like it’s no big deal?!”

Sam rubbed her nose, sniffing softly from a stuffy nose. “Well, the spa helped a lot, but yeah … heh, the moment I put it back on, my shoulders were crying.”

Hannah looked up at the black sky, stars hidden from the bright city street lights; men and women were walking across the sidewalk, cars zooming by at 35 miles an hour, and tourists everywhere you turned.

“So, uh … wanna come over to my place tonight? My dad works nights, so he won’t be back until the morning.”

“Your mom?” Jade asked.

Hannah forced a chuckle while adjusting her hat and ponytail. “I never actually met her … but, umm, yeah, my dad won’t have a problem with you coming over.”

“Sure.”

“Okay,” Sam mumbled.

The conversation turned a bit awkward, tightening Hannah’s gut.

“Umm … so, what did you guys think of Amira?”

Sam jumped on the topic. “She’s pretty!”

Hannah smirked, fiddling with one of her red locks while examining it. “Her hair’s way prettier and darker than mine…”

Jade rolled her eyes. “C’mon, we can’t compare our looks to them; it’s just not fair. Rhea says she looks horrible, and if that’s what she looks like when having a bad day, then we come from very different universes.”

“Right?” Sam giggled. “Must be nice coming from a family of Master-tier Trainers.”

“Oh,” Hannah nudged her head toward the next intersection, “we take a left up here.”

Sam and Hannah lifted an eyebrow, catching the street signs.

“Northside?” Sam asked.

“Just on the edge,” Hannah shrugged, stopping at the light with a few groups beside them as they waited for the lights to change. “My dad works nighttime security at the Oak Foundation Lab, and they pay pretty well.”

“Is he Gold-tier?” Jade asked with surprise.

Hannah shook her head. “No, no, just like … medium-high Silver…” She whispered, rubbing her left arm. “His Sandshrew is supposed to be pretty strong, I guess. My dad thinks he’ll turn into a Sandslash soon.”

“That’ll be cool!” Sam commented. “Yeah, my dad’s Nidoran recently evolved into a Nidorino. It was hype.”

“Were you there?”

“Umm, no, but I saw the footage,” she mumbled. “So … your dad got eight Bronze Badges and a few Silver?”

Thinking back on some of her dad’s stories and the footage she saw from his DVD collection that he’d saved, Hannah scratched her neck. “Umm, he … kind of hit a brick wall at the Celadon Gym. He tried to get the Encrusted Silver Rainbow Badge, but … that didn’t turn out so well. High Master Erika didn’t go easy on him, and he couldn’t beat the other Gym aides after for the normal Silver Rainbow Badge.”

“That’s still pretty far, though!” Sam encouraged.

Jade nodded as the lights changed, and they moved along the crosswalk, heading toward Pallet’s northside. “What Pokémon did he use? Oh, maybe we could watch some of his old footage. He has it saved, right?”

“Yeah … I guess we could,” Hannah said with a forced smile. “Umm, he has three Pokémon; he hasn’t caught anymore since. His Sandshrew is his main, and then he’s got a Rattata and Spearow.”

Silence followed, broken by Jade several seconds later. “... Orin’s pretty inspired by Amber and Gables … not to mention the crazy fight we saw with Mya. Do you really think … well, that it’s a good idea to … I don’t know…”

Sam hummed softly, pulling up on her backpack to shift it around her shoulders with a grunt. “I think Hector asked Gables a lot of questions, too … Amber kind of intimidated him. I guess she’s beautiful, hehe. Umm, yeah, I mean, think about how we look at Amira, Rhea, and Lori … their fortitudes must be leagues ahead of us … literally, and they’re Mukin’ supermodels, but … they didn’t look down on us.”

“Yeah,” Hannah mumbled, fiddling with her hair before swallowing. “I had some friends, and … we were gonna go together; just the three of us, ya know? Then … one of their other friends asked if they wanted to join … her dad was a Gold-tier Trainer, and well … yeah…”

“So you were the odd girl out?” Sam asked with a worried frown.

“I mean, I get it,” Hannah mumbled, “they want the best team they can get for the triple battles.”

“Well, Muk’em,” Jade huffed. “You got us, and maybe you wouldn’t have met Rhea either.”

Hannah gave them a forced smile. “Yeah … thanks for asking me to join, Jade.”

“No problem!” Jade looked down at the ground. “Umm … why do you think Rhea didn’t bring out Nova or Mya at the spa? I really wanted to pet Nova.”

“Yeah, I don’t know…” Sam shrugged.

“Hmm … oh, so, what did you guys think about Amira? I mean, not her looks,” Jade mumbled with a slight shake of her head, “no, but just her, ya know, in general.”

“Her family certainly comes from money,” Sam replied with a soft chuckle. “I can’t say I’m surprised the Rockets would have their own personal spa that makes the PikaSpring look poor, but yeah … umm, she didn’t talk that much. I don’t know?”

“I thought she was actually kind of nice … maybe a bit annoyed at first, but she seemed pretty relaxed,” Hannah replied, scratching her nose. “She offered to take all of us, but just … I just thought she was really cool. Amira was really quiet, but she was really smart, too … whenever we did talk.”

“I mean, her mom’s Champion Lyra,” Sam mumbled. “I can’t imagine she wouldn’t be smart. I guess … I don’t know, I was expecting a lot … well, I expected her to be a lot different from what I saw online. She does seem like the cool-girl type, though.”

“What about Lori?” Jade asked with a grin. “She’s so friendly!”

“Loud!” Sam returned, small frame shaking with laughter. “No, Lori did not like that ice bath, but she kept asking all about my family and the kind of bands I liked … no, she was super fun. Kind of crazy with what I’ve seen about her sister.”

“Have you read some of Shauntal’s books?” Hannah asked.

Sam’s eyes lit up. “You’ve read her adventure novels?”

“Which series do you like most?” Jade followed.

“Umm … probably Sky Rise Challenger. It’s supposed to be based on someone that challenged the Elite 4, right? That part at the end of volume four, you know, where Noman has to battle his own father … sent chills down my spine!”

“Right?” Sam grinned. “Although,” her lips pressed to the side. “I kind of wanted him to get with Anthea or Concordia, to be honest … the chemistry, but … I just couldn’t decide which one.”

“Definitely Concordia!” Jade replied. “I was never that interested in Anthea … I don’t know, I just didn’t like how fussy she was; maybe I’m biased, but I liked Concordia a whole lot more.”

Hannah blushed a little. “I just liked putting myself in White’s place … you think she’s based on a real person like Noman?”

Sam nudged her side a little. “Hmm? Put yourself in her place, huh? Well, I’ve heard people call Hilda White, you know, one of the former Champions of Unova, that girl Champion Hilbert had a rivalry with. You think there’s something deeper there?”

“No, no,” Jade waved her hand. “Hilbert’s married to Cynthia’s daughter, Bianca. There’s no way there’s something between Hilda and Hilbert! Cynthia would destroy her … then him.”

“Hmm?” Sam pressed with a sly smirk. “Maybe it happened before they were married; you never know! It’d be quite the steamy story.”

Hannah couldn’t help but picture the two former Champions following the scenes, and it did make her face redden a bit more, but a few things didn’t add up if that was the case. “... That would be … uh, don’t you think Hilbert would function better as Herlan…”

“Oh, you’re right!” Jade mused. “Quite the head canon we’re making,” she snickered.

“I love it!” Sam returned. “Umm … you know, my mind just kind of thought back to that time when we were in the lobby…”

A frown touched Hannah’s lips as she searched her memories. “That … wait, when Rhea was talking about Yellow and Red?”

“Yeah … Muk, isn’t that crazy? She’s met both Red and Yellow.”

Jade crossed her arms under her chest. “Mmh … it didn’t seem like she felt comfortable talking about it, though.”

“I think it just shows how many Master-tier Trainers she knows,” Sam piped up.

“Master-tier?” Hannah sucked in a breath. “Yeah … Red and Yellow are far beyond that point, and Lori seemed to know a bit, too. Uh … I know I said it before, but do you really think we should go with them tomorrow … won’t we just, ya know … slow them down?”

“Physically?” Sam mumbled, vision dropping to the pavement. “I hadn’t thought about that.”

“... Yeah, I guess we would,” Jade whispered, lips falling. “Orin feels kind of the same, too.”

Hannah could feel a similar sensation coming from Limru; Jade and Sam’s Pokémon might have gotten closer to Gables, but the opposite was the case for her Ledyba, intimidated by the chill frog Pokémon’s smooth charms that prompted her to stick closer to Amber.

“How far do you think they can travel in a day?”

“... I don’t know, a lot longer than us; that’s for sure,” Sam sighed. “Rhea was so insistent, though.”

“Umm, hey, let’s just give it a shot!” Jade encouraged. “If we do suck, then we can just tell them to go on without us.”

“Mmh, I don’t see Rhea being okay with that,” Hannah replied, “but … I guess traveling with us will make it super casual for them. I … suppose I’m down for trying one day to see how it goes. You, Sam?”

“Yeah, I’ll give it a go,” she smiled. “I just want to hang out with Rhea a bit more, and Lori’s really fun.”

Hannah was a bit more interested in Amira than Mallory. There was just something so powerful she could see in her; Amira had red hair like her, and she just seemed to not give a Muk about how anyone saw her. Hannah was always pretty conscious about how people viewed her, which was why she tried to act like her father had more money than he really did and was really conscious about what she wore.

“Yeah, okay…”

“... Excuse me…”

Their attention shifted to a woman in a black dress; she’d been walking beside them for a while, appearing to mind her own business.

“Yes?” Sam asked, and they slowed, separating a bit while eyeing the woman.

Hannah swept her appearance, judging her to work in an office by her formal attire, but the black purse was a bit more expensive than she’d expect for work use. Of course, she couldn’t talk, saving up every credit her father gave her and even skipping out on meals to afford just a bit more fashionable clothes and products.

The woman brushed back her straightened brown hair, giving them a soft smile; with her makeup on, she could pass for her late twenties, but Hannah figured she was closer to her mid-thirties.

“I couldn’t help but overhear you talking about a spa earlier. Did you two … oh, no, you three come from PikaSpring?” She asked with an embarrassed chuckle.

“Umm, yeah…” Sam mumbled.

“Oh, good! I was considering going there with a few friends later. Mind if I ask you a few questions? I’ve just heard so many good things about it and wanted to get someone’s experience who’s actually been.”

Hannah’s lips pulled in, glancing at Sam and Jade; the two returned the gaze.

“Umm,” Hannah scratched her temple, “I mean, sure, I guess.”

“Oh, wonderful! My name’s Coral, by the way,” she mumbled, vision moving left and right as the crowd shifted around them. “Mind if we find a less congested area? Mmh … I see a café up ahead. Let me buy you a drink as thanks!”

Not having to spend money on a drink was more than tempting to Hannah, and it seemed the others agreed.

“Sure!” Jade grinned. “Thanks.”

They followed Coral to the building, ordering ginger tea, and Coral added a side of steamed buns to their delight. She could always use a bit of food that could be saved for later; the woman just spent 120 credits on them.

Sitting down as they waited, Coral began the conversation. “To be honest,” she giggled, “I saw you come out of PikaSpring on my way back from work. I have a group of five other women I work with that really could use a break after the day we’ve had, and a nice relaxing time at a good spa seems in order. You know what I mean?”

“We totally get it!” Jade replied with a long sigh. “We just got our first Pokémon, and I mean, the bonding can be rough … oh, not that we don’t love our Pokémon!”

“No, no, I totally get it, girls!” Coral smiled. “When I went on my journey, the age restriction was twelve … oof, now I sound old, haha.”

“You don’t look that old,” Sam encouraged. “What do you do now?”

“Me? Oh, I do all sorts of things. I have two jobs, actually! Sometimes you just need some extra credits to get all the things you want, right?”

“Sounds like my sister,” Jade chuckled. “Oh, how far did you get?”

“Eh,” the woman’s smile turned forced, “only to my fourth Bronze-tier Badge. I never actually completed the League Challenge, but it’s not like that’s all there is, right?”

“Yeah!” Jade returned. “My dad only got to the seventh Bronze-tier Badge. Blue was running the Viridian Gym at that time … I mean, how’s that fair, he’s Mukin’ Legendary-tier,” she sighed with a slight shake of her head.

Hannah didn’t want to point out that her dad didn’t have to face Blue, and he wasn’t Legendary-tier at that time; her dad could just as easily have battled one of the Gym aides. “Umm, yeah, so what did you want to know about PikaSpring?”

Coral’s focus moved to her. “Like I was saying, I have five other women that want to join me, so I was wondering about your little group! You had three other friends that went in with you, right? You know, that six on six comparison? Hehe. I thought they looked familiar, too … wait, now that I think about it, were they battling on PrimeTime? I saw all the matches, but that first one … it was just … just incredible!” She finished, seemingly lost for words.

Sam scratched her forehead before massaging her left shoulder. “Yeah, they were the team that won against that Kalos guy’s group.”

“Oh, right, right,” she mumbled, pulling out her phone from inside her purse to bring up their profile. “Rhea, Mallory Medina, and … oh, that must be why I noticed you six … Amira Rocket was in your party. I was so shocked when I heard the News call her name for the award!”

“Yeah … she’s pretty cool,” Hannah shrugged.

“Wow … oh, you must tell me how she liked the place!” Coral pushed, eyes lightning up. “If Amira Rocket found the spa acceptable, then it must be high-quality, right? I’m sure she would have very high standards for such establishments. Was she the one that picked it out?”

“Umm, no, I don’t think so?” Jade asked, focus shifting to her.

Hannah shook her head. “No, Mallory picked it out, from what Rhea text Sam, right?”

“Yeah,” Sam mumbled, pulling out her phone to check. “... Wait, no, not in her text … umm, I don’t think she said specifically, but … no, I’m sure Rhea said Lori was the one picking out the Pass, and she paid for all of ours.”

“Is that right?” The woman crossed her hands atop the table as a waiter brought them their tea and steamed buns.

The man was in his early twenties, brown hair and markless face giving him a cute appeal.

“Thanks,” Jade grinned.

“Yeah. My name’s Rick, by the way, and the tea has free refills tonight.”

“Oh, I like that,” Sam chimed. “We’ll let you know if we need ya again!”

“I look forward to it,” he replied with a friendly tone before moving to another table.

Coral leaned forward with a sly smile. “He’s pretty cute, huh?”

A lump dropped down Jade’s throat while following his back. “Y-Yeah, he kind of is…”

“Oh, to be young,” Coral giggled, sitting back. “So, you’re friends with Rhea?”

Hannah cleared her throat, sipping at her tea. “... We only met yesterday, but yeah, I guess.”

“Right … Rhea,” the woman mumbled, looking at her phone. “Her last name was … what was it…”

Sam gave her a quizzical look. “Uh, wha … I don’t know. What about you, Hannah?”

“Nope. She had it hidden from the public, remember?”

“Oh, right,” Coral replied before Jade or Sam could answer. “I completely forgot, hehe, umm, yeah, she’s kind of a mystery, huh? I had a co-worker of mine talking about it, now that we’re on the subject. Both Rhea and Jason chose to have their information sealed; that’s pretty rare if I remember right.”

“Yeah!” Jade mumbled, chewing a bite of her steamed bun.

Coral’s brown eyes turned curious. “How would you describe her? I’ve just never met a real mysterious celebrity; you girls are so lucky to be friends!”

Hannah sipped her tea, pondering on Coral’s question. “How would I describe Rhea? … She’s super strong; I mean, you saw what her Mawile can do, right?”

“Oh, how could I not? It’s the talk of the city,” Coral chuckled. “Didn’t she have another Pokémon, too? I thought I saw a second pokéball on her belt. Was that empty?”

Jade’s light green eyes lit up. “No, that’s her Eevee, Nova; she’s so Mukin’ cute! I just want to snuggle next to her and pet her forever!”

“Wow, she has a Mawile and an Eevee … that’s just amazing, and does it have a unique color, too?”

“Mhm!” Sam grinned, excited to talk about the beautiful Eevee. “She’s black and white, like … just gorgeous!”

“That’s so … brilliant! How’d they get that color? I mean, I’d like to get one like that myself!”

“Get in line,” Jade groaned longingly. “Yeah, I’ve got no clue, but Rhea sure is amazing. Oh, yeah, so, umm … Rhea’s nice, and she doesn’t talk down to people…”

Coral’s brow creased. “No?”

“What … do you mean no?” Sam asked, eyebrows coming together.

“Didn’t you girls hear her statement to the Kalos frontrunner; isn’t that talking down to someone? I don’t know, I just thought it was a bit of a … well, ya know…”

Hannah slowly shook her head. “What statement?”

“Hmm…”

She leaned forward, pulling out an audio clip from a News station on her new-looking phone, replaying Rhea’s statement to Lucian.

“... You three didn’t know about that?”

Jade slowly shook her head. “No, but … I mean, we don’t know why she said it either.”

“Yeah,” Sam jumped in, “and that Lucian boy sounded kind of stuck up to me. He even made Rhea bet to reveal her family name to help Amira.”

Hannah huffed, lips pressing to the side while thinking about the whole match. “Actually, Rhea’s awesome! I bet she didn’t want to make that bet but still did it to help Amira; that’s a really good friend to have.”

“Huh … I suppose you’re right,” Coral smiled, putting away her phone. “Are Rhea and Amira good friends? I guess they must know each other pretty well if Rhea would do something so risky for her. It must be nice.”

Hannah’s focus fell to the table with her team; Coral was asking some pretty good questions that made them think. It was a bit of a strange turn to the conversation, but Coral seemed on the cusp of becoming Rhea’s fan, and she wanted to help her new friend as best she could.

“Eh … I don’t know,” Jade finally answered. “They don’t seem like total strangers, but who can really say; Rhea’s super friendly.”

“Umm, but … weren’t we talking about PikaSpring, though?” Sam asked.

“Right, right,” Coral chortled. “Oh, well … hehe, you see, when I was working up the courage to talk to you three, I heard something really interesting, though, and I’m just dying to know!” She chimed, looking pretty excited.

Hannah’s vision moved to Sam before returning to the woman. “From us?”

“Yeah! Of course, since I’ve been looking at a spa to stay at, I discovered PikaSpring had some relationship with Red’s wife, Yellow, and you said Rhea knew both Red and Yellow. That’s so cool, right? Where’d she meet them, at a fair?”

“A fair?” Jade chuckled. “No, no, I think they came to her house or something.”

“I mean, she didn’t really say that, though,” Hannah returned, thinking back on the scene.

“Ah,” Coral nodded. “It was just kind of implied from what she was saying. Okay, so, her parents must be on pretty good terms with Red and Yellow, then. Maybe they stayed at her house overnight?”

“Woah, woah,” Sam protested. “I don’t know about any of that! Rhea was just talking about how Yellow hasn’t aged that much in the picture, which, I mean, she did become a Master by like twelve years old, so, makes sense.”

“Yeah, she looked as old as us,” Jade added.

Hannah ruefully shook her head. “Heh, well, maybe not like us; no, she’s more like Rhea with that mane of golden hair.”

“Eh, I don’t know,” Sam mused, lips twisting into a thoughtful smile. “If we’re throwing around speculations, the only place I’ve seen blonde hair like Rhea’s would be on someone like Active Champion Cynthia.”

They all laughed, and Coral leaned in, voice becoming hushed. “Oh, I like that train of thought. Could you imagine? We’re just speculating, too, hehe; oh, this is so much fun! Wouldn’t that be a story? Rhea’s the hidden illegitimate daughter of Cynthia? I mean, no one really knows who Bianca’s father is, either! Isn’t that pretty juicy?”

“It would be crazy,” Sam admitted. “I don’t know, though. I mean, Rhea lives in Kanto, and Cynthia is in Sinnoh. Hmm … how would we make it work?”

“Mmh,” Coral’s eyes narrowed suspiciously. “I mean, didn’t Bianca live in Unova for an extended time?”

“Did she?” Hannah asked, glancing over at Sam as if she had answers.

Of course, she just shook her hand with a growing smile. “I don’t really know.”

“Well … she started her Bronze-tier journey there,” Coral mumbled, lips pushed to the side. “Oh, and it’s speculated that Cynthia has a villa around Unova, but it’s mostly hearsay,” she shrugged.

“Wow,” Jade muttered, “you know a lot of gossip.”

Sam shrugged. “I mean, I guess she did stop us to figure out more about PikaSpring.”

Hannah nodded slowly. “Yeah … umm, so are you a journalist or something?”

“Me?” Coral’s arm pressed against her stomach. “Do I look like a journalist?”

“I … don’t know what a journalist would look like,” Hannah replied with a short chuckle, feeling a little sheepish. “Eh … what did you want to know about the spa?”

“Oh, right, let’s get back on topic, shall we?” She asked with tinkling laughter. “Ah … and let’s get your cups filled up! Uh … Rick, Rick!” Snapping her fingers, the handsome man’s head darted their way. “Yea, can we get … oh, you’re a darling!”

When he came back over with a pot, she cleared her throat, winking at Hannah. “So, Rick, you wouldn’t happen to be seeing anyone, are you? You’ve got some cute young Trainers here.”

Hannah’s face turned bright red with Sam and Jade’s following, but before they could bluster anything to embarrass themselves, Rick gave a weak chuckle. “I’m afraid I have a girlfriend.”

“Y-Yeah, yeah, no … no problem,” Sam stammered, waving her hands in front of her.

Jade’s eyes were focusing on anything but his face. “Yeah, umm … w-what’s her name?”

Seriously, Jade?!

Hannah just wanted to crawl under a rock and die, doing her best to use her red hair to hide her flushed cheeks.

“Uh … Stacey?” He replied with a confused smile, filling up their cups. “Umm, sorry, but I should get over to the … other tables.”

“Yeah, yeah, go ahead!” Sam grinned, seemingly so flustered she forgot to hide her bright red cheeks.

“Oh, sorry, girls,” Coral whispered with a pleading look, “I gotta go, too! Some of my friends are calling.”

Hannah’s brain was already cooked; she didn’t even respond as Coral swiftly bid them goodbye and left, leaving a sizable tip of 40 credits.

Unable to handle the heat in her face and the pitying glances by the couples surrounding them, Hannah gulped down her tea, “Umm … you guys wanna go?”

“Please…” Jade whispered with almost a cry.

Tossing on their backpacks with heavy grunts, they trudged out of the café, head spinning.

“W-What was that … what … just … happened?” Sam finally gasped, apparently holding her breath since they left.

“I don’t know…” Hannah groaned. “I’ve never been so embarrassed in my life.”

“She just went in … deep, like … in, in…” Jade moaned. “I’ve … my sister hasn’t even done that to me!”

“I … we can’t go back to that café … ever,” Hannah cried. “What was she thinking?”

Jade’s depressed shoulders fell further. “The way everyone was looking at us, too … no-hoo-hoo…”

Hannah rubbed her flaming forehead, body on fire. “Who does that?”

“... Let’s just go get ready for bed,” Sam mumbled. “I’m gonna cry … he was so uncomfortable, too. The way he looked at us … everyone’s eyes just targeting us with pity…”

They closed in to hug her, stumbling off-balance as they bumped into the brick building beside them.

“Let’s just go to my place and get some ice cream,” Hannah whispered, feeling more depressed than anything now. “Geez, she didn’t even ask if we had boyfriends … do we really look that lonely…”

“Not you,” Jade returned with a forced smile. “You’re dressed nice, and … I don’t know … maybe it was just me…”

“Gah … just stop thinking about it!” Sam groaned, scratching her arm. “Ice cream sounds nice … is it really 9:39 P.M.?”

“Yeah, ice cream and bed,” Hannah sighed. “I’ll throw on some of my dad’s old matches we can fall asleep to.”

“... That sounds so nice right now … I just wanna die…” Jade murmured. “Muk…”