9:54 a.m. July 23rd, Thursday, 106 PH (Post Hoopa Event). Day 44.

Events: Rhea and the girls are now on a mission to get into the Silver Bracket, pushing many others in Bronze-tier to follow their example. Our girl started her journey on the 9th of June. Lori earned her first Silver-tier Gym victory—giving it to Miky to take as her parting gift—even if it is a bittersweet moment in her life, they’re still pushing forward; now she has Zyra, her impish Rookidee Sergeant!

The morning went by faster than Rhea would have liked; she kissed her mother goodbye on their way out of the dojo, nervous about the text they’d formed together to send to Sabin. Ash and Pikachu were waiting for them outside, apologizing for having been so busy over the last few days, not that he needed to feel bad for helping out the restaurant.

Casey and her friends would be staying in Saffron for a few days since they also wanted to come up with a plan to beat the legendary Psychic Trainer and would be doing more training at the dojo to prepare for their own Silver-tier jump.

Walking beside Lori and Shauntal on their way to one of the city’s east gates, Rhea flipped through the general Bronze-tier discussion board; only those that were officially registered in the bracket could log into the large forum.

Trending right at the top was the topic: Push For Silver!

Lori’s chuckle drew Rhea’s attention to a large news board that showed their current phones. “Looks like it got leaked; it still blows my mind how many contacts your mom has in, like, every field—space stuff, breeding, technology—she has her hand in everything.”

Rhea shrugged, focus returning to her phone, not particularly interested in the topic. “Cutting-edge breeding techniques and genetic engineering take a lot of technology, so… yeah. Anyway, what do you think about so many people trying to get to Silver-tier after the trend you set?”

“I wouldn’t say I started it,” the Unovan girl mumbled, glancing down at her device before watching Zyra talk to all of their Pokemon. “Ugh… I don’t know if I can keep them out the full hour—it’s so weird—sometimes I can go longer, and other times way shorter.”

Ash’s head tilted back and he slowed to allow them to catch up, leaving Amira to lead the way, engrossed by the open map on her phone. “The reason for that is Rhea’s ability. It fluctuates—think of it like working out—the muscle needs time to rest and push itself.”

Shauntal walked silently beside them, seemingly plotting her next book as they walked, and Pikachu jumped down from Ash’s shoulder to join the other Pokemon gathered around the redhead. Lyra went back to Viridian—but not before surprise-teleporting Silver to the area to have a family picture— claiming she had to kidnap her husband for a date.

Rhea sighed. “I haven’t been using my Aura for the last few days like you told me… It almost feels uncomfortable after doing it so often on the way to Saffron. I really can’t use it all the way to Lavender?”

“Afraid so,” Ash confirmed, studying her with a frown. “You can get too absorbed in Auras and lose touch with reality if you spend too much time in that state, and you can start reading too much into other people’s emotional state or personal lives. It’s good to sort of, heh, detox yourself.”

“I guess I can understand that,” Rhea mumbled, trying to pull her mind away from the urge to enter the hyper-focused spiritual state and the unique world it opened up to her. “We need to do a lot more training on the way, so… we won’t be pushing super hard, right?”

Ash gave her a cheery nod and thumbs up, reading between the lines; Amira was still having trouble with her Physical Allocation. “We’ll be going off-route most of the way, but it’s not that hilly; plus, we’ll be able to see part of Saffron’s eastern grasslands above Route 8. If we’re lucky, we might be able to see some Abra, Growlithe, Chansey, and Vulpix packs.”

Shauntal hummed, smiling impishly while absently bumping into her little sister. “Agatha told me there is an old ruin hidden somewhere in the grasslands that ghosts haunt and safeguard. A good place to get some story ideas, hmm? Oh! I can’t wait for tonight; we can tell ghost stories around a campfire.”

“Hmm?” Lori lifted an eyebrow, focus drifting to the Elite-4 member’s unburdened back. “Where’s your stuff anyway, Sis?”

The woman snapped her fingers and pointed above them, causing their heads to lift to see a trendy Haunter-themed backpack floating high in the air.

“Figures… Uh, as to your question, Rhea… What was it again?”

“Everyone shooting for Silver-tier?” she restated, frowning while seeing a new thread pop up involving Lori’s match against Sabrina; the emojis next to it said it all.

“Bah. It’ll blow over like any trending topic on the forum. The speedrunning fad was there for a while, then the Contest craze, and now everyone’s freaking out about being left behind since they wasted the first month instead of battling or doing Gyms. I’ve seen the posts. Heh, have you seen the seventh-ranked?”

Rhea’s mouth tightened as she scrolled up to click it; photos of them out in public from multiple people loaded, yet almost all of them had Lulu in focus, and she recalled Lyra’s words regarding the societal pressure of being famous.

Isaac Collins - Rank 56,532: How is this even legal?!

Colette Wooten - Rank 23,332: FR! It’s a Muking Cosmog! Not only that, but the Rocket diva has a UNIQUE Meloetta! How?! Just… How?! I want a darling like that, but no, Rocket and League corruption! They have FOUR Pokemon! C’mon! We’re Bronze!

Rosie Scott - Rank 462: Okay, I was starting to like Amira, but Muk that! One online viral song with a superstar, and she now owns the world. Connections. Me and my Pokemon work our butts off, and these Master-Kids get everything handed to them!

Jayden Kramer - Rank 1,565: Is it any surprise? Do you know who is in that Muking photo? That’s Rhea’s mom—you know, Christie, Best Breeder and Geneticist in the world—they’re in a different league, guys. Don’t even try. It’s all about birth.

Tommy Clark - Rank 8,523: Troll! Did any of you see Rhea’s battle against Forrest or Mallory’s against Misty? What about that 4v3 battle against those absolute legends? They’re far from invincible, guys. Keep crying.

Jayden Kramer - Rank 1,565: @Tommy Clark Hah! Quit simping, bro; they aren’t going to date you.

Chris Sexton - Rank 95: She’s not battling with it, right? I don’t see the issue with having them if the League allows it, which, clearly, they are. Plus, her team’s trying to jump out of Bronze. Chill, people.

Jayden Kramer - Rank 1,565: @Chris Sexton Unblock me, coward! When will you finally accept my challenge? Wait! Hah! You totally fell for them after losing, didn’t you? So embarrassing! I see you’ve at least been able to climb up a few ranks after that loss; what’s your team rank now? 97? You fell off, bro.

Tommy Clark - Rank 8,523: And blocked. Back to the original topic; I do wonder how they can even bond to Legendaries, even babies… Is that some kind of secret training technique to boost them up?

Alyssa Hancock - Rank 4,324: Idk about the Cosmog, but where can I get a Muking Eevee like that?!

Unovan Villain - Rank ????: Y’all are a headcase! Mukin’ crazy! But I still love you ;) @Jayden Kramer Who hurt you? Need a kiss or hug?

Rosie Scott - Rank 462: That has to be Mallory! How did you do that with your name?

Jayden Kramer - Rank 1,565: The Muk? I don’t need a hug from a Slowbrow loser.

Unovan Villain - Rank ????: @Jayden Kramer Spelling be hard.

“Eh? Lori?” Rhea asked as the message came up, and she saw the same thread open up on her screen as she snickered, typing to the random Trainers.

“Hehe. He’s trying to slide into my DMs,” Lori laughed, holding up the notice for Jayden.

“Are you going to answer?”

Shauntal snickered, leaning over to see the hate chain continue. “Pfft. Lori will string him along. You’re totally going to get your account suspended for the hack, though.”

“Like I care. Haha. It just means I’ll gain more infamy; I mean, if I really wanted to be mean, I could just clip it and post it on my socials, but I’m not trying to destroy the guy’s life—just have a little fun. Let’s post some pictures of Lulu and the squad—yeah, now we’re fanning the flames—say cheese, Nova! Cuteness can smother any fire. Hehe.”

“Pweee!” the Eevee chimed, flipping around with Alice and Gables as Zyra photo-bombed.

“Nice!”

Rhea shook her head, watching Lori totally derail the thread conversation. People love and hate us… I guess this is nothing new to Amira. Still, I’m surprised Chris responded.

Her thoughts returned to the high-ranking team they’d fought the previous week, and a smile came to her while looking ahead; she saw the redhead ignoring the conversation entirely, clearly not wanting anything to do with the message board—she had the right idea.

Swapping to her text messages to read what she’d sent to Sabin, she felt the heavy weight against her chest lift upon seeing his reply:

10:04 a.m. - Sabin: Yo! I’m looking forward to it. I just let Kate know we’ll be taking a break from training to fly to Lavender. What do you say about checking out the haunted docks with your bro? Hehe. Kate never wants to do anything spooky, but maybe if you come along, we can scare her good. What do you say? Up for scaring the pants off my girlfriend?

10:06 a.m. - Rhea: Phrasing, Bro! Haha. I’m down. Oh, do you think Franky can stop by, too? He sent me some very sad pictures yesterday.

10:07 a.m. - Sabin: Good idea! Luna has been dying to see him again (shhh! She has a crush!), and I heard Shauntal is with you? If so, Franky is a huge fan of some of her Pokemon. It would be a big surprise gift to let him hang with them if she’s down.

Rhea held up the message to the Ghost specialist, making her chuckle; several people nearby jumped in fright as her massive Gengar and Chandelure materialized behind them.

“All of my girls are looking forward to meeting another strong ghost; I’m sure they’ll have a blast together… All of them want to have some time with him. Hmm-hmm-hmm.” She chuckled with a sly look in her purple eyes that made Rhea a bit nervous for her dad’s Ace.

“Right, hehe… Sounds good.”

10:09 a.m. - Rhea: Ahem… All of Shauntal’s ‘female’ Pokemon want time with Franky. Idk, bro. What do ghosts even do when they hang out? Spook people? What does a Ghost date look like? I have so many questions!

10:11 a.m. - Sabin: Haha! Oh, no! Luna is soooo possessive. She is NOT going to like that, not that there’s much she can do about it against Grandmaster-tier Ghosts. Maybe she’ll learn some stuff. Huh. Kate is suddenly in a really good mood? Guess she’s happy to see you again. Anyway, TTYL! I’ll tell Franky.

10:11 a.m. - Rhea: TTYL!

10:13 a.m. - Katelin: TY! TY! TY! I could kiss you, girl! Arceus, I can’t wait to take a hot shower. We’ve been training soooo hard, and your brother can be SHOCKINGLY dense when he gets in that grind mental state. I’m going to buy you ice cream! Oh. Can we hang out a bit in Lavender? I know we haven’t always gotten along, but… Yeah! Just putting it out there!

Expression softening, Rhea recalled how she’s been a total Froslass to the girl ever since she’d taken her brother away from her, but she really was good for Sabin; it was a relief knowing there was someone that could take care of her brother when he was biting off too much, and she knew it would be good to have Kate there after breaking the news about their parents’ past.

The night out with Kate should actually work really well if she knew her brother as well as she thought she did; he was the type that took everything in and then went off to dissect it for the night before really expressing how he felt about something.

10:14 a.m. - Rhea: I’d like that. I think my friends will make it to Lavender the day after we get there, so that should work out great. On one condition!

10:15 a.m. - Katelin: ??? Do I need to stand on my head and spin around three times or wear a garbage bag to remind myself I’m Garbodor to the Gigantimax for stealing your brother away? I’ll do it!

A devilish gleam appeared in Rhea’s eyes.

10:16 a.m. - Rhea: Worse.

10:17 a.m. - Katelin: Oh, no! I’m a little frightened now. What embarrassing thing are you going to ask me to do? I didn’t think you had an Impidimp in you, Rhea! I’m curious now. What do you have in mind?

10:18 a.m. - Rhea: Fright night at the spooooky docks with Sabin and me the following night.

10:21 a.m. - Katelin: What?! No! No! No! No! You don’t know what you’re talking about, Rhea! I know your brother must have convinced you to go along with this, but you seriously don’t know how spooky that place is! Idc if we have Ghost Pokemon with us—it’s the Ghost World incarnate! I swear! I heard a bell from a ghost ship the last time we even went near the place… when it was daylight! There’s always fog! It’s like! No! No!

10:22 a.m. - Rhea: Hehehe. Perfect punishment! I’ll schedule it in.

10:23 a.m. - Katelin: T_T I’m literally crying.

She swapped back to her brother.

10:24 a.m. - Rhea: Bro, she’s game, but you might get slugged… a few times. Just a heads up.

10:26 a.m. - Sabin: Hahaha! Too late! She turned into a Mukin’ Hitmonchan! I’m running! Can’t type!

Laughing to herself, she caught a few glances from the others, but she didn’t expand on the family plans. Lulu teleported onto her head, hanging her head down to watch her use her phone with interest; she figured the Pokemon was probably about to fall asleep.

She gave Nova a thumbs up for being a good babysitter, making the Eevee chirp and join Zyra in some new game; it was a little strange seeing their Pokemon lined up ahead of them beside a wall as Gables pointed to each and they saluted them.

Apparently, Amber, Mya, and Alice were leaders since the pair had to be of the same rank. Nova happily accepted whatever role she’d been given, but Rhea had no doubt the Eevee would be the real shadow commander behind the scenes for her two competitive Pokemon.

They passed through Saffron’s checkpoint and entered the wild, dodging journalists that realized they were leaving the city and people wanting to know more about their rise to Silver-tier. It was crazy that they only started to swarm when they were going to leave.

Rhea breathed a sigh of relief when finally outside of the massive metropolis, taking in the smell of nature and its sounds; there were still many people on the route, but it was nothing like the extremely crowded sidewalks.

Looking north, she spotted the snowy, tall mountains in the distance beyond the green hills; Rock Tunnels’ complex network was a hotspot for many Silver-tier Trainers, yet it wouldn’t be a focus for their journey. Word among the Masters said it was constantly changing due to the underground Pokemon, much like Diglett Cave.

Wanting to know a bit more about their plans, Rhea opened up a conversation with Ash and Amira, asking about the Battle Dome along the way.

Ash informed her that their plan was to high-tail it to Lavender, rest up a day or two—however long Rhea needed to spend there and leave Shauntal to whatever task Agatha asked her to do—before jumping up the northeast route to the town near Maiden’s Peak to investigate the site.

After that, they could take a boat to the Battle Dome, which would be the perfect competition to provide proof to the other Gyms that they’re ready for Silver-tier since it specializes in Gold and Silver under League regulations.

Amira hummed, going over the website as they left the road to walk onto the planes, following Ash; their partners were greeting some of the field Pokemon. “Do you really think the Gyms will recognize us if we place well in the Battle Dome Silver Bracket?”

“It’s a Double Battle format, which is Silver-tier, and it places you in a bracket of sixteen Trainers; so, to win, you need to win four times in a row, but you don’t need to win the competition.”

Rhea followed a video explaining the Battle Dome that Lori quietly played behind Ash and Amira. “We only need to show we can compete at Silver-tier, right?”

“Right!” Ash said, pointing at the brackets the holographic device showed as their Pokemon came closer to understand what they were aiming for. “Two victories should be enough to get you recognized, but three will dispel all doubt. For now, you guys need to prepare for this big competition.”

“Pwee!”

“Fen-Fen,” the Fennekin sniffed as if saying it would be no problem for her.

“Buneary! Bun-Bun?”

“Mawile!”

“Bun-Buneary!”

“Rook-Rokidee.”

“Pikachu!”

The other Pokemon began to split up to play their training games with the yellow rat as a coach; somehow, Pikachu obtained a headband from nowhere with paper fans.

Rhea chuckled at the zeal the Pokemon had developed, moving Lulu from her head to her shirt front to rest without worry of falling off, as she’d almost done a few times. Amira was holding her red-haired Mythical Pokemon while Terri still had a bit of spunk to spend with Alice’s group.

Not waiting to fall behind or grow complacent, Rhea gathered Amira and Lori to talk about their Moves and how their Pokemon might combo together since they had options with three Pokemon they could select from. Lori showed them the sheet Rhea’s mom sent her for her Rookidee, impressing Amira.

Name: Zyra

Pokemon: Rookidee

Nature: Impish

IVs: 31

EVs: HP/Def/SpD

Abilities:

Keen Eye

Unnerve

Known Mves:

Defog

Leer

Peck

Rock Smash

Roost

Sand Attack

Screech

Sky Attack

Spite

Tailwind

Throughout the day, Rhea learned that Zyra had been near a Galar recruitment center and a large stadium, which was where she’d become obsessed with ranks. It was quite the contrast, having an orderly, impish bird that liked to cause trouble.

All of their Pokemon enjoyed playing soldier, though, and it was nice to see them getting along with Lori’s new fluffy bird; she was a good fit to fill in the hole the Impidimp left for Gables and Roxie.

Zyra loved Tailwind and used it often in their games to counter Alice’s speed, much to the Buneary’s joy at having faster opponents.

The next three days went by like a flash as they camped in the fields, told stories, and met the local Pokemon; unfortunately, they didn’t find the ruins—at least, they hadn’t, but who knew when it came to the Ghost specialist?

It was near the end of Saturday—when Rhea was playing the ball game with Alice and Nova—that it happened; they were only a few hours away from the city, just beyond the forest they’d entered—it wasn’t spooky, yet… but the sun was going down.

“You got it, Nova?” Rhea asked, balancing the ball on her head with some effort as her excited Eevee chirped beside her, impressed he’d managed to finally get it to stay.

“Pwee!”

“Alice, you ready?”

“Bun-Bun!”

“Here it comes!”

Jumping up a little, she almost tripped on a patch of uneven ground, but her brown shorts were already stained with green spots from the many tumbles she’d already taken over the course of the days practicing with her Pokemon.

Nova hopped into a circle, tail lashing out to swat the ball at the Buneary, who did a backflip to kick the ball high into the air, yet she didn’t get the chance to return it to Rhea.

“Huh?!”

Lori and Shauntal’s conversation came to a stop as Ash clapped his hands.

“Nice! It is about that time.”

A pulse resonated within Rhea’s soul as she felt an expansion from her little bunny, and the white illumination made her eat grass; her small, cute bun grew with the radiance, placing a bit more stress against Rhea’s chest than she had expected.

“Bun—Lopunny? Lopunny!” Alice chirped, lifting her big ears to examine her new, fluffy figure.

Trying to recover from her fallen position, Rhea got on her hands and knees, holding out her arms to accept her excited bunny as she jumped into her arms.

“We did it! You evolved!”

“Piii-lii!”

“Pwee!” Nova cheered, dancing in a circle as their other Pokemon joined them.

“Now you have Cute Charm, Endure, and Baby-Doll Eyes! A little more training and you’ll get After You!”

“Lopunny!”

Rhea giggled as Alice pulled away to brush out an ear and stare down at her glaring teammate as Mya came over; she was now taller than the Steel Pokmon.

“Lopunny?”

“Mawile!”

The two squared off as Nova chirped, waving her tail to the others that they wanted to battle each other; she would ref it, of course, since Pikachu had been teaching her the basics. It made sense the pair would want the other to be their first opponent after they evolved. Alice was never one to take things slow.

“A quick one,” Rhea said with a strained chuckle. “You know it’s hard on me when you two really go at it.”

Alice and Mya gave her a happy nod before their serious glares returned to one another.

“Pwee?”

“Punny.”

“Maw.”

“Pwee!”