3:34 p.m. July 10th, Friday, 106 PH (Post Hoopa Event)
Events: The Joint Kanto and Johto Indigo Summer League have concluded. Saria Surge has become the new Vermilion Gym Leader, converting it to a Fairy Gym, and today is the first day she is accepting new challengers!
Our girl started her journey on the 9th of June—she’s been a Trainer for 31 Days (30 officially; 31 since getting Maya and Nova).
A short shower of rain followed them through Blue Forest as they left the Center, wishing Chris and his teammates a safe journey to Cerulean; Mya loved the rain, so she exited her pokeball to jump in the puddles with Dracovish, Miky, and Serenity, but, to their disappointment, they were soon asked to swap with their Water-Type weak teammates.
They’d mainly been traveling through the northern portion of Kanto, which had high elevation and was generally drier, yet Cerulean had been humid; although, they’d been in the city and not exerting themselves all day while feeding their Pokemon their fortitude for their training with the hyperactive Fossil Pokemon.
Dracovish had put Amber, Roxy, and Nova—whose main concern was getting messy—through the wringer during the drizzle, which had a slightly higher Water-Type affix to it; the three pushed through the discomfort, following Pikachu and the Fossil Pokemon’s advice on using the environment to their advantage.
It was an interesting exercise that Rhea questioned the legend on as she kept her eyes closed, trusting her companions to guide her along the route by judging their Aura proximity; it had gotten much easier since the Wild Pokemon community wasn’t swarming them today, and they were taking a break from joining in the tennis ball game for this new training.
According to him, there were times that her Pokemon may get separated from them and the protection of their pokeballs, such as the story he told earlier about the Saint Ann incident. Pikachu, Charmander, Squirtle, and Bulbasaur got separated from him when James—the Rocket Trios’ classic antics—angered a pack of Gyarados, sending them flying after they escaped the sinking ship.
Certain Pokemon had a rough time in the wild, which was why most Rock, Fire, and Ground-Types had adapted to living underground, in caves, and volcanos, having ways to escape the Water-Type-infused phenomena that could sweep across the world in the form of rain storms and hurricanes.
Trainer Pokemon and especially bred Pokemon who didn’t grow up in a Ranch environment could be left helpless during these situations if they weren’t taught how to handle the harsh phenomena.
So, their Water-weak Pokemon had soldiered through the experience, using big leaves and helping to bind them together with the Pikachu and Dracovish’s help, wrapping their feet in them with the help of some Wild Spinarak that he told them to befriend; it was important to make friends with the locals and not come off defensive or haughty, which was hard for Amber.
Rhea only had to wear her poncho until 4:14, when the drizzle passed by, bringing the blinding sun that evaporated much of the water, leaving the air humid, but she was accustomed to her home’s seaside humidity—Amira, surprisingly, not so much—the Rocket girl was groaning and fanning her face, having lived in temperature controlled climates most her life.
“What is this bipolar weather…”
Rhea chuckled at her teammate’s grumbles. “It should get better when we get out of the forest; we used to get showers like this all the time on the west side of Pallet Bay. I thought you’d be used to it since Viridian Forest can get super humid.”
“Yeah, it’s not that bad,” Lori hummed, having been passively checking on the news that was happening back home for a bit. “Unova’s got huge riverways that dump water everywhere, so we tend to have a lot of humidity—even if we live in a kind of a northern region—Castelia City can get pretty humid.”
“Cool,” Amira mumbled, clearly not all that interested in learning at the moment, which showed how annoyed she was. “Umm… Could it be from it having more Water-Type energy fused with it than normal—is it from a Rain Dance?”
Rhea hummed, looking up at the bright sky. “We are getting near the major crop area of Kanto… and don’t they hire Trainers to do Rain Dance or Sunny Day when needed?”
Ash shook his head, passively scanning the woods and the curious Pokemon that gathered on the edges of the path to observe them. “Anything involving that is localized and controlled. Plus, the wind is coming from the northeast—Cerulean—but I’d guess it has more to do with Samiya than from the fields.”
Lori put away her phone to watch Gables, Mya, and Holly doing fake drills with Pikachu and Dracovish. “We’re so far away from the city now, though.”
A small chuckle shook the legend’s chest. “Part of the reason Samiya is so popular among Water Pokemon is that it naturally purifies and enriches the ocean through the Sea Crown and high concentration of Manaphy; anywhere it goes, it will increase the potency of Water-Types.”
“That’s cool,” Rhea smiled, but it soon fell as she realized it also would cause trouble for other Types of Pokemon, which she guessed was just nature, and why Pokemon congregated around specific areas. “We heard you had a long history with Samiya.”
“Yeah, I can tell you the story. Heh. By the way, you’re doing great, Rhea; you were even able to focus on us through the energy-infused rain to keep balanced.”
“Thanks! It wasn’t easy.” Her smile returned while sensing a small spike of emotions from her travel companions’ Aura; it only happened rarely, but it showed she was honing her skills. “How long before I can start seeing the world through Aura instead of just living things?”
“Ho-ho, let’s not get carried away?” he laughed. “You’ve still got a ways to go before that, but that’s not very important—that’s broad perception—the focused type we’ve been practicing is far more useful.”
“Awesome… Umm, Samiya?”
“Right. Wooh, what an adventure that was,” he mused, reflecting for a moment before getting into the tale.
Amira’s mood improved as he told the story about his venture in discovering the ancient sea temple with Lizabeth and her family; the matriarch of the Samiya had mentioned Ash’s involvement in the rediscovery and protection of the sea temple but left out much of the details.
Rhea recalled what Bianca said about The Phantom and his attempts at seizing the city over the years, and Ash grimaced at the name; much like Aqua—the environmental terrorist group—he wanted to use it as a means to control Kyogre to extort the regions.
Yet, unlike the eco terrorists, the pirate was doing it for more selfish reasons, wanting to be named the Emperor of the Sea and to be free to take whatever he desired; Ash dully responded that he was motivated by the boring trope that most villains fell into—power-hungry fools who wanted what wasn’t theirs.
Rhea’s eyes snapped open—her Aura focus collapsing—as she latched onto one name, which brought out Alice a bit early; Mya was ready for a rest, and, to Rhea’s surprise, the bunny said she would ask the questions the Mawile wanted in the conversation. Her Buneary eagerly questioned Pikachu as Rhea launched into her own inquiries.
“You know May Lavent—Gym Leader Norman’s daughter—Contest superstar?! Her Mawile and Lopunny are Mya and Alice’s mothers.”
Lori zeroed in on her shining, pearly-blue eyes. “Woah, girl! Hehe. Someone’s fangirling.”
“She’s so cool, and her outfits are adorable—I’ve seen all her Contest debuts; Brendan and her are so cute together—and Lisia even sponsored her! They’ve been making so many waves recently…”
Rhea paused as she looked up their stats to realize they’d hit Master-tier.
“Ooh, yeah…” Ash thoughtfully nodded. “I thought they had a similar Aura; May likes to act weak to the public to give a lot of Pokemon a chance to compete while doing stronger battles in private.”
Lori lifted an eyebrow. “How can she fool the Contest System?”
Amira popped her tongue and shook her head. “The rules are clear—it’s only based on the bond between the Trainer and Pokemon. So long as she bonds to lower-tier Pokemon, potentially using regular pokeballs, then she could theoretically challenge the lower ranks, which makes sense since she’d typically be barred per reputation if she was near Champion-tier—Master+ only goes to Grandmaster.”
“I know,” Rhea mumbled. “It’s why my Aunt Cynthia doesn’t do Contests anymore… No one will face her—they just drop out. Wait… so her recent Master classification?”
He winked and pulled up a Trainer Card from Hoenn that made Rhea’s mind blank, connecting the two names. “May and Serena have been going by their actual names for Contests?”
“Sapphire… the Trainer my grandparents have been posting about recently,” she asked, shifting to their social media feed. Wait…” Rhea’s thoughts slowly connected everything she’d heard about the mysterious group of Trainers who always battled Gyms in private. “If Sapphire is May, then is Ruby… is Ruby Brendan?!”
“Secrets!” Lori squealed, pulling out her phone again to look for more information on the three, but Rhea had heard quite a bit about at least Ruby and Sapphire. “Ooh! They keep battling the Elite-4—there’s actually a bounty on discovering their identities on some Dark Sites.”
“No way,” Rhea mumbled, realizing that the Master’s community wouldn’t give them away, and if they wanted to remain out of the spotlight for their Main Teams because they enjoyed Contests, then it made her respect the woman more. “So… she’s almost Champion-tier?”
Ash forced a chuckle. “Think about who Emerald, Sapphire, and Ruby are trying to beat.”
“My grandparents and Steven Stone,” she whispered, realizing how big of a challenge that was. “Umm… Sapphire beat my grandma due to her Fire Pokemon… Her Blaziken?! I can’t believe my grandparents didn’t tell me…” She grimaced, realizing they probably didn’t even know about their Contest life.
Rhea’s mouth dropped open as Ash’s Rotom Phone snickered and showed her a picture of May, Dawn, and Serena in a Contest together in what looked to be an after-show group photo.
“They’re so stunning together—does that mean Serena is X?! How did she come up with such a ridiculous name? Sapphire sounds cool, but X?”
Lori and Amira giggled at her stumped look, and the violet-haired girl hopped over to hug her.
“You’re funny, Rhea!”
“No, this is crazy!” she hissed, loving the photos of three of her Contest idols that she’d thought had never met. “Dawn keeps winning?”
“Well… she did kind of get personal training from your aunt, but Steven’s been providing some help to Sapphire, Emerald, and Ruby recently; Diantha’s also supporting X and Y—eh-heh, sorry, I got used to calling them by their pseudonyms out of habit.”
“One detail about Rhea’s idol!” Lori jumped in.
“Mmh…” Ash thought for a second before chuckling. “Okay… Don’t get between May and her food; she turns into a Blaziken whenever meat is involved! Heh, you should see her face when I call her the Chicken Fighter—she punches—hard! I’d say she has about as much Physical Allocation as you, Lori, but she works it to the max!”
Lori cackled at the comment. “Cool! Amira, get on me to work out—I gotta pump iron, girl! Oh, maybe we can go to the gym—heh, both gyms—in Saffron, I hear the unofficial one has some beefy guys.”
Amira had her phone on, looking up more information on the women. “Uh… a single workout isn’t going to get you beefy, Lori; sorry to say. Ash, didn’t you travel with May after the Ultra War? I guess Samiya wasn’t discovered until then, so… yeah.”
“Man, you can find anything on the internet,” Ash mumbled, lifting an eyebrow as she showed quite a few pictures of him with May. “Creepy how obsessed some people are with photographing others… Is that me with Serena? Wow… That festival takes me back…”
“Tell me about it,” Amira grunted, shifting her backpack a little before wiping away the sweat from her brow.
Rhea did a double-take, unable to believe she didn’t know about the close relationship the Kalos Contest superstar and Ash were. “Seriously, I get why they don’t publicize their Gym Battles now, but what is with the X and Y names?!”
Ash shrugged. “I think it’s a play on DNA or something—heh, you know, XY for male, and XX for female—I don’t know; Calem came up with it when he tried getting into the Sky Battle scene, attempting to score all the Vivillon patterns.”
Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.
At their blank stares, he expanded on the sport. “It’s basically all about battling in the air with your Pokemon; not only do you have to beat your opponent’s Pokemon, but stay in the air while doing it. If the Trainer touches the ground, they’ve lost the battle.”
“Sounds interesting,” Amira hummed.
“So… they’re all rivals?” Rhea asked; she couldn’t be bothered with training her Aura right now as she learned more about the connections.
“Eh-well…” Ash forced a smile, rubbing the back of his head. “I’d say Dawn is the biggest rival to both of them—Wallace Cup was pretty intense—they’ve been trying to compete with her for years, and, heh, don’t get me started when they’re together… It can get wild!”
“When was that?” Rhea whispered, searching for it online and discovering it took place five years ago in a Platinum-tier competition. “You competed?!”
“Yeah… Top 8 with Buizel, baby; we did good! Fun fact, he was bonded to Dawn, but we grew closer as we traveled, and Aipom loved Dawn to death, so we traded. When Dawn was outed as Platinum, May and Serena took time away from Contests to build a new team and focus on Gym Badges.”
“That’s so sad that it broke up the rivalry and competition between them,” Lori mumbled, scanning a few old articles on it. “Will they try to do another Contest at some point?”
Ash’s teeth flashed. “Hehe. Of course! They made a promise that once they each become Champions of their regions, they’ll do the first Champion Contest.”
“That would be amazing,” she whispered, opening Gossip to see what was happening with May, but something else caught her attention. “Paldea is going to join the United Leagues?”
Lori scooted closer. “Really?”
Amira’s full lips pulled in as she pulled up a map of the world. “The region by Kalos with that massive mist zone and school system—what was their Champion’s name again… Geeta? Right… they have a League Board rather than the typical League system we have.”
Lori salivated over a ghostly blade Pokemon that came up in her search. “Okay, you all know I generally don’t like Ghost Pokemon, but Ceruledge is sick!”
“Wiglett,” Amira mumbled, looking as if she’d just spotted the cutest thing ever; Rhea figured she would coo over it since she had a thing for Digletts due to her grandma’s specialty.
Rhea had eyes for a little fluffy Puppy Pokemon. “Fidough is so squishy and sweet, heh… but I have my own fluffy babies,” she added upon seeing Alice’s huff, jumping up to say she wasn’t impressed.
Ash chuckled as they browsed between the region’s Pokemon, discussing how they’d be more available in more areas if they did join the United League. “It’s a discussion going on right now, and I heard that if it happens.”
Amira drew her attention to another topic that was highlighted on the side of her Gossip App. “Vermilion Gym opened today.”
“I almost forgot!” Rhea opened the Gym’s official website—their battle this morning had thrown her for a loop—so many things were happening. “She’s… still undefeated. Fifteen matches today so far, and not one person has been able to beat her.”
Lori must have seen the look on her face because she snickered. “Still want to be the first?”
“It would be cool… I look up to her for being the first Fairy Gym in Kanto and for following her dreams,” Rhea nodded. “I want to do Double Battles now and at Silver-tier.”
“Mmmmmh…”
Rhea’s pace slowed at Ash’s tight expression, Alice, Mya, and Nova’s hearts stopping at his hesitance. “You… don’t think I can do it?”
“Haaa. It’s complicated,” he hissed, glancing at Pikachu as he began explaining to Alice. “Double Battles is a huge step, even for fully ready Silver-tier; teamwork with your team in three-on-threes is one thing, and Double Battles are another. Pikachu and I have been preparing you for matches as a group, but I’d highly suggest doing a Two-Pokemon challenge… not a Double just yet.”
Amira sucked on her lower lip. “Mmh. It is sound advice. We can have two Pokemon out, but using Moves, and draining ones, is another thing entirely; having the stress of two out while using Moves is bound to be severely taxing.”
“Ick, yeah…” Lori shook her head. “It could land you back in the hospital for Rapid Onset Fortitude Distress.”
Rhea’s gut tightened when Nova and Mya cried out at the dreaded word that they’d heard from Brock only days after their hatching. “Haaa. I guess you’re telling me that because you know it would be too hard, even if we’re supposed to be pushing ourselves. Okay. We can do that… I just wanted my little girls to get better at working as a…” Her words died as they crested a hill and were blasted by light. “Wow…”
A colossal field of nothing but gold radiated such an incredible scene that it took her breath away; Route 5 cut a path through the glowing wheat, leading to a settlement far in the distance.
Butterfree, Beautifly, Vivillon, and Combee roamed the field, safeguarding the stocks from predators with hordes of Beedrill, who seemed to be the guard for Vespiquen in the area.
Rhea had never seen so many pollination Pokemon in one place, but they appeared to have some kind of deal with the Pidgey because they didn’t attack the fields, and in the distance, she saw massive machines preparing to harvest it.
“Seems we got here in the nick of time,” Ash noted, pointing out the vehicles. “We should reach the village by sundown; there are only like 2,200 people that live here, but without them, Kanto would be in a rough spot.”
“No kidding,” Lori whispered. “It’s like the ocean… it goes on forever, and the wind makes those cool waves?”
“Yup!” Amira answered, going into detail on the products as the humidity began to clear up.
Proceeding on the path, Rhea listened to Ash talk about the Hidden Village that used to be here and how little help they got due to being between Cerulean and Saffron—both not having a surplus of excess funds at the time for various reasons, but now it was one of the most lucrative areas of the City-States due to the production volume.
It helped when the rescued and rehabilitated abandoned Pokemon protected the area and took great pride in what they maintained; according to Ash, it was a sort of battle against the elements, and there were random Flying Pokemon flocks that could attack it, if just for fun.
There were tunnels underneath the ground that Rocket had been hired to construct by creating rain gardens that brought the underwater rivers to feed the area, helped by High Master Erika’s Green Foundation.
Rhea expected to see Saffron from this distance, but all she saw was flat prairie lands across a sweeping valley, and she couldn’t even spot mountains on either side of where the forest ended on the downward slope.
They received their electricity from the same source everyone did, including their clean water—from the massive hydroelectric dam that created Power Bay—where the Power Plant and Treatment Center distributed it.
Amira went into detail on how the Storm Conductor System to the east of the plant—situated on tall mountains—helped to guide rainwater into Power Bay, causing the water always to be turbulent; it was a hazard zone closed to the public due to the forces that many Pokemon loved, but humans couldn’t survive in.
A small town at the end of Route 20 handled most of the personnel that ran the facilities, many of which came from Rocket and Silph, requiring specialists to maintain the grid; the place had Rocket and League protection due to its importance to the entire eastern half of Kanto.
Rhea’s attention was pulled away from Amira’s discussion on the history of the place with Ash when she got a notification that Cami—Jade’s older sister—had won her Gym Battle against one of Misty’s aides with June—her Oddish—her first victory in over two years.
She felt warm fuzzies reading the story and seeing the picture of Jade and her big sister, smiling while holding up both their badges; even if they got another teammate so she could do the Summer Cup, they wouldn’t separate.
Texting Jade to congratulate her and get an idea of what their next destination was, Rhea learned a few things about how things were going between her friends; she kept the news about Ash potentially having someone that could join as Jay and Cami’s third member to herself until it was more solid.
To her shock, she learned that the four had been leery about actually using the money since it certainly didn’t come from the 10,000 credit limit of personal bounty, and even more funds had flown into their accounts through anonymous sources throughout the day.
It all added up to roughly 84,000 to 92,000 each, and it wasn’t until Lori messaged them to assure them it was legit—well, a gray area—that came from Lori secretly added the girls’ Trainer Cards onto the dark web gambling site, which triggered when challenging them; she’d had to do a few tricks to get it to go through without them confirming their identities, but it worked out.
Not only had they become the chatter of the dark web community but also the Bronze-tier community—having beaten their team—and the next battle Rhea’s group had was coming out on top against the Bronze Rank 90 team earlier today. Some people were outraged, and others were excited to see more from their Wooloo friends.
Rhea didn’t really care about all the details; the picture of Jade with her sister, beaming ear to ear, was worth any loss.
Upon mentioning the Pokemon initiative of Meadowview Village, Cami said she’d love to adopt a Pokemon that might want to continue battling; as it turns out, she was a huge Ash fan and loved the story about his Charmander.
Amira was flabbergasted when the legend reluctantly said the film took some creative liberties, and he’d accidentally signed over all rights to it without knowing what the context of the contract was; shady deals in Hollywood.
The redhead said he could totally sue, and she knew who he could call, but he wasn’t all that worried; if it had inspired people like Cami, then it didn’t matter if a few details were off.
Rhea partially listened to the discussion as she learned her friends were going down the expensive Rock Tunnel Railway, which had a scenic route that passed underneath Power Bay to see the amazing view of the world’s 3rd largest dam’s stormy underbelly.
Tourist’ Legend said that it was a common bathing spot for one of the Zapdos of Kanto; Rhea hadn’t heard anything about it growing up, but Hannah was excited to possibly spot another Legendary—the first being Ho-Oh.
She grinned when her friends mentioned they’d come up with a Legendary Bingo sheet—no bets; just for fun—that involved how many of them they could spot; to the ginger’s chagrin, Sam was winning, having seen Entei with Rhea, who confirmed it.
Rhea would have pulled out her Articuno card if not for her sad story, and to keep the location a secret; she trusted her friends, but they were talking over the internet. They already knew about Manaphy in the sea temple by her pictures.
Chatting the rest of the day on their journey through the fields, eventually, they passed the huge machines that went over the wheat, harvesting the grain. It was something else, seeing the two vehicles in lockstep, one gathering and the other holding it.
Not everything across this colossal area was wheat, it was only Route 5 that followed the golden road path, which was likely done on purpose. The potatoes, barley, and tomatoes—if they squinted, they could see corn—among many other products, were spaced across this part of the region; it came as a bit of a surprise to Rhea that they were still a few days out from the outskirts of Saffron City-State.
A big part of the industry in this area came during the off-season when they grazed Miltank on what is left of the wheat harvest, providing further funding for the initiative; Rhea couldn’t believe how everything seemed to be used to various degrees, including how about ten percent of the yield went back to the wild Pokemon of the area, which promoted a healthy environment.
Arriving at the well-maintained settlement that doubled as the temporary housing for seasonal workers that flew in, they found it a buzz with activity while pulling in the haul; Magnemite provided powered spotlights to light up the area while finishing out every last minute of the day to gather the immense harvest that took place during the summer months.
There were many storage facilities between areas that would take in the day’s workload and then be emptied the following day via Flying Pokemon to the processing planets, dropping them into the appropriate machines.
Ash took them to a less busy part of town, where the Center was, and after restoring the energy of their Pokemon, redirected them to a reasonable hotel. It was 8:30 p.m. when they dropped off their supplies—fairly exhausted from the day’s fast pace—but the legend wasn’t having their groans and asked them to freshen up.
At 9 p.m., they met him at a large local nighttime rest stop, where many workers and Trainers would gather to unwind when the heavy work was done—most seemed to only stay for an hour before bed since they started super early.
It was a bit crazy to Rhea that some of the overseers worked from dusk to dawn during the harvest, making sure everything was on schedule; then again, when millions of people relied on you doing your job to get them food, it made sense.
Spotting Ash, Rhea slowed with Amira and Lori beside her.
“Who’s he with?” she whispered; he hadn’t seemed to notice them yet as Pikachu laughed at something the blue-haired young woman said.
Amira nudged them forward. “It’s Melanie; I saw her face on the initiative’s website—the one that gave Ash his Bulbasaur.”
“I didn’t hear how he got Bulbasaur—only that there was a Bulbasaur on the island with Pikachu when they got separated…”
“Rhea, Amira, Lori!” Ash called out. “I’d like you to meet Melanie; heh, she basically runs this place.”
The woman looked a bit young to run such a huge operation, which gave Rhea the impression she was likely a Master and older than she looked. “Ash exaggerates! Hehe. I’m somewhat of an ambassador between the Wild Pokemon and farmers union here. So, traveling with cute young girls again, Ash—haaa, what’s Misty think?”
“H-Hey!” Ash blustered. “I don’t ‘only’ travel with girls; you’re just feeding into that stupid rumor online… Ack…”
Rhea couldn’t help giggling with the others as Melanie pulled out her phone to start swiping through girl after girl, naming each one.
“She’s got you dead to rights!” Lori snickered. “How did you get all of these anyway?”
Melanie shot Ash an impish smile. “Who else would have a total collection of every girl you’ve met?”
Ash hissed out a long stream of air. “Brock’s Pikabook…”
“Pika-pi…” The electric rat shook his head.
“Bingo! Hehe. Brock was with you for a long time… How is Misty? She hasn’t been looking too well—at least, the few times I’ve seen her on the news when giving her monthly address, but that party that came out of nowhere was pretty stressful, I’m sure.”
Lori sank lower in her seat.
“Yeah-haha, we can talk about that later. Actually…” Ash paused in a dramatic way, drawing their attention as he grinned at Melanie, and it suddenly hit Rhea.
Don’t tell me he’s going to ask if she can be Jay and Cami’s third member?!
She wouldn’t put it past the unpredictable legend, but he threw another curve ball.
“I know Rylee didn’t want to go on a Bronze Journey because she feels you need her too much here—and she can get out of it with a farmer’s license—but… I do know of two girls that need someone else to fill in for their last spot!”
“Haaa…” Melanie slumped against the table. “I’d love nothing more than to get her to go out and see the world… You know how stubborn she is, and she hates city girls. I’ll bring it up to her tomorrow, though; I know you wouldn’t bring it up unless you thought they could be a good fit.”
Rhea wasn’t so sure since she—much less Ash— hadn’t even met Cami, but she was fine to give it a go, and text her friends to see if they’d be down for meeting her; all it took was Cami hearing that it was a girl recommended by Ash and she was in.
She gave Melanie their phone number to video chat tomorrow, and after some more funny stories, headed for bed; Rhea hoped things would work out for her friends.
Ash shocked them with the news they’d be helping on the farm tomorrow; they’d be working under Rylee and getting to know more about the adopted Pokemon in the area—Pikachu would join them since Ash was helping in other ways with his Pokemon.
It was going to be a long day.