LIGHTNOVELONLINE B2 — 16. Starting A Tsunami
5 P.M. July 3, 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. It will be open for challenges on the 10th.
Our girl started her journey on the 9th of June—she’s been a Trainer for 24 Days (23 officially; 24 since getting Maya and Nova).
On the way to the boutique—one Casey had been recommended by one of her Cerulean fans—they gained quite the gathering. Yet, despite Rhea’s fears at the number of people surrounding them, the mood had changed dramatically to when the focus was on their three-person team.
Casey and Mallory bounced off each other, acting as the center of attention with jokes, posing for walking photos with fans, and creating a fun, active environment that invited people to cycle in and out to have their time with them, showing how accustomed they were to being in public.
As she observed—enjoying the positive vibes—Rhea noticed Casey may have been the one to bring that energetic mood, but it was her step-sister that acted as the relief, pointing individuals out and motioning them forward to keep the enthusiasm rebounding. She gave everyone time to have their ten or twenty seconds in the circle.
Rhea couldn’t help but admire how amazing Lori really was, doing the same interference with Amira, and occasionally with her, yet between their new star of a singer and the famous Unova sisters, Rhea was very outshined by her other friends, and that was just fine by her—she just enjoyed the atmosphere.
A few bad actors would try to instigate—mainly targeting her cousin and Amira—trying to bring up past actions or controversies to get a gotcha moment, but Lori was quick to call them out, building Casey’s confidence to joke about it.
Their attempts became almost pitiful as the two easily turned the court of public opinion on the people trying to ruin the vibe. It soon became apparent the troublemakers weren’t going to turn the crowd against them due to the two sisters instantly swapping between each other with witty comments, pushing the trolls out quick and shutting down their attention-seeking behaviors.
One person with a microphone was screeching about something to do with Rocket—Rhea couldn’t quite understand their high-pitched calls with the boos mixed into his disruption—and she had no clue what happened to him after five minutes, but by the sounds of it, he’d been pushed to the outside of the throng.
It didn’t take long for the deplorables to be trolled or heckled out, and not getting the reaction they came for, they left, causing the interactions to only grow more fun with the people wanting to have a good time.
Mya didn’t want to get involved in the massive crowd at all, especially after one such rude, middle-aged woman had laughed at Rhea for losing to Forrest, being Cynthia’s niece, leaving Alice and Nova to soak up all the love and pictures.
Rhea could understand why her Mawile was being more reserved after having salt rubbed in that old wound. Even if she was Adamant Natured, she still had feelings, and it was a harsh memory.
As pissed as Rhea was that someone could say such things to a baby Pokemon, not even a month old, she also knew if she let it slide, it could turn into a future problem for her sensitive Mawile, who was already going through internal trouble with Alice.
Humming to the music playing around them—one small group of amateur shuffle dancers attempting to do a moving dance-off between the two sisters—Rhea tried to figure out how to approach her Steel/Fairy Pokemon’s issues.
After some inquiry, her heart went out for Mya; it hadn’t just been the Trainers, but a few of the floating Pokemon overhead that Nova and even Alice called out—the other, stronger Pokemon had also pushed them out, but their comments stuck in her self-conscious Mawile’s head—that moment had left a big scar on her self-confidence.
A smile touched Rhea’s lips as a few twelve to fourteen-year-old girls made it through the crowd, wanting to see her more than the other girls.
“Umm—hey! I, uh… I was wondering if we could get pictures with Mya,” the older girl nervously asked, trying to be heard past the claps and laughter of the throng nearby.
A black-haired twelve-year-old nodded, holding up her phone to show the Pewter battle, shocking Mya at their inquiry. “Yeah—Mya was so pretty and awesome! We’ve never seen a black and white Mawile—she’s just so cool—the way she never gave up!”
“Oh! You’re fans of Mya?” Rhea chimed, shifting Lori's package to lean against her other side; the Unova girl had asked her to hold it while she interacted with the dancers or fans looking for pictures.
“Mhm! My big sister wants to get a Mawile egg for her first Pokemon—Mya just looked so strong!”
“Totally! I’ve never seen a baby Pokemon as strong as her, and I heard Steel/Fairy is an amazing Type combination!”
“Is that right?”
Rhea nodded, Bianca remaining nearby to be her support. “Yup! Incredible offense and defense.”
“So cool!”
“She’s gorgeous, too—so…”
“Yeah, can we get a picture with her?”
See, you have fans too, Mya; it’s not just Alice and Nova. Rhea chuckled internally at her caution. What do you say?
The girls were bright-eyed, talking amongst themselves about the battle and how Mya’s last attack looked epic in the replays.
Coaxed out and a little nervous, she finally agreed to it with Nova’s encouragement tipping the scale; she swapped places with the Eevee for Bianca to take their phones, acting as the photographer.
Squeals came from the teens as her vicious salt-and-pepper cutie came out, slowing for a second to take a few awkward photos that were so adorable that she had them Icyfanged to her.
Noticing the Mawile out, a few more of Mya’s fans—mostly girls the same age as the others—came forward, wanting her to make little scary-cute poses they could post on Pikasnap, to which Rhea was all for.
It was only for three or so minutes as they continued to shuffle through the streets, after which she was right back into her pokeball—the girls seemed to intuitively understand—and to show how much her courage meant to them, the girls and Rhea set the image to be their background.
She could feel the positive embarrassment of her little fighter, warming her heart as Nova jumped out to lavish in the hole Mya left, posing for several more herself—her Eevee was a natural at finding the cutest angles and expressions.
As expected, by the time their short photoshoot was done, Casey, Lori, and surprisingly Inoa, made the group of nineteen-year-old boy shuffle dancers admit defeat. They were politely turned down to exchange numbers, naturally, having a general policy at it.
The ever-growing teens, who idolized the popular Unova sisters—especially the energy the two brought—and the new Rocket singing superstar, trending on just about all platforms from the colossal influencers that Delibirded their performance out, they didn’t get too far in their slow forty-minute journey.
In the end, it took the police to break up the crowd, acting as if it was a concert, drawing more curious people, which only increased the public disturbance; once it was becoming trouble for traffic, the authorities made it clear the throng needed to disperse or be arrested.
Waving everyone off as the police escorted them away, more officers showing up to handle the redirection, they made it to the boutique Casey wanted them to shop at; it was nice of the authorities to remain for a while to make sure no one tried to harass them.
Thoughts moving away from the unusual flash mob they’d unintentionally caused—of course, Rhea wondered if Lori knew exactly what she was doing—she began browsing the small shop merchandise.
The majority of the outfits weren’t precisely what Rhea expected. Instead of looking at the really fancy stuff, Lori drew their attention to more simple, tighter, and—most importantly—cheaper clothing that would help them not trip in their inexperience; the most expensive part was the shoes, coming up to 450 credits, or almost half of a normal Gym challenge.
Rhea cleared her throat, holding up the orange Rotom Kicks V9, somewhat distracted by the background music, Memories—one of Curtis’ songs; Alice and Nova danced together, Gables teaching their small group of Pokemon. “Are you sure we need to spend money on these when we’re just using them once?”
“What do you mean?” Casey interjected, giggling at Bean—her Mudkip—attempting to show her own moves to Miky and Ellie, who was recording them for a MemeStar post. “Shoes are the most important thing with Shuffle!”
Lori jumped in, holding up red Mark 8 Rotom Heats for Amira. “Without a doubt! Everyone’s eyes are on your legwork, which means you gotta have bright colors to draw attention to the style!”
Inoa hummed, inspecting some Charjabug Skitters. “Kanto has a storage center for foreign Trainers to send stuff… What about locals?”
“Wait, really?” Rhea asked, the first time hearing about it. “I was just going to send them back home—there’s a PO box we use in the village—eh, does it cost money?”
“A bit,” Amira absently replied, taking her eyes off the shoes to look at nearby black, fashionably ripped pants. “It certainly adds up over time and would generally require budgeting, considering the number of units they need to keep, especially with how many Trainers are currently in Kanto.”
“Eh, if that’s an issue, you can send stuff to my home,” Rhea offered. “Heh, no charge—well, except for the postal.”
Alice and Nova swapped pace in their dance, causing Jordi—Ellie’s Charmander—and Blu—Inoa’s shiny Cyndaquil—to clap as the song changed to Curtis’ Ladykiller; they were becoming interested in the activity after meeting up with Casey’s Pokemon.
“That would be nice,” Inoa smiled, her Alolan accent coming through. “Sending anything back home is insanely expensive.”
Amira took the Rotom Heats after hearing Casey’s advice on playing into her fiery look. “You can send them to Rocket if you want; I’ll text Matori to have a storage setup—you can charge it to Rocket, as well—it can be used as a tax write-off, supporting new Trainers.”
“Nice!” Lori grinned, giving her a thumbs up and doing a quick moonwalk, snatching a hat, spinning and tipping it down to do a swift pose. “Oooh-hoo… It’s like a cheap thriller—she’s such a ladykiller!”
“Hehe.”
“Seriously, Amira!” Casey jumped in. “The more I get to know you, the more awesome you become—Lori’s always texting me about how generous you are with the beauty tips—oh, check it, she sent me a recording of the thing you taught her a few days ago!”
Bianca laughed. “You should start posting those on your Pokebook for her mother.”
“You were recording me? And please, no,” Amira sighed, giving the grinning Unova sisters a forced smile. “If you start doing that, she’ll expect daily uploads; ugh-heh, I swear, you’re better than an undercover reporter at it, though.”
Casey snickered. “Lori’s gotta be slick to catch our parents! And what’s wrong with daily uploads? My mom’s been commenting and liking all of my stuff recently—I love it!”
“I saw that!” Lori mused. “Mom’s been way more attentive lately, huh?”
“C’mon, Sis; you’ve always got a Vise Grip on Mom’s neck, I swear; she’s way better than you give her credit for.”
“Maybe,” Lori shrugged, reaching out to pull her into a hug, “but I wanna make sure you’re taken care of—so I gotta Slam her every once in a while to keep her on her toes!”
“Geez, hehe, you’re always so overprotective.”
“That’s a good thing in my book,” Bianca smiled. “Rhea’s always had my back when I needed someone and Hilbert was away… Everyone needs—eh, really?” she laughed, and they looked up at the speakers as more of Curtis’ catalog played, She Will Be Loved coming on.
Rhea knew the song was a soft, bitter-sweet spot for her cousin; she played it on repeat when her fanbase turned on her, doxing her out of the public and how supportive Hilbert had been to her during those rough days.
Holding out her hand, her cousin smiled and took it, squeezing to know she was okay.
“Ahem… No joke!” Inoa forced a laugh, likely sensing Bianca’s internal heart flutter with her Empathy. “So, are we going to get to this dance?”
“Oh, yeah!” Lori chimed in. “Let’s get steppin’! It’s already 6:23—Shuffle Night starts at 7 in the parking lot.”
“Parking lot?!” Rhea and Amira questioned in unison.
Lori nodded, snatching a pair of white shoes—complete with rainbow-colored flashing lights—giving them to her sister in her size. “Yup! You saw those videos I showed you; the indoor stuff is there, too, but you guys aren’t good enough to jump into the tight-space stuff—this will be funner—and they got an outdoor DJ to mix things up.”
Rhea could see Amira holding herself back from telling her that wasn’t a real word as Cassey pointed Rhea to a bright-yellow pair of shoes, gently pulling the orange ones away and putting them back.
“You guys should go with colors that match your hair—hehe, especially with hair as long as yours; they won’t know what to look at, your bouncing hair or feet!”
“Good thought!” Bianca added, but Rhea could hear the small note in her voice. Her poor cousin was reliving a part of her past taruma—likely made worse by the comments from the terrible people in the crowd—now triggered by the song, and taking her back to that time. “Erm—so, should I go with a yellow, too?”
“Yeah, match with me, Bi!”
Wrapping up, they picked a variety of outfits, the sisters choosing more flashy dresses with short-shorts to add more flair to their colorful advanced moves.
On their way out, Lori brought up a group she’d started and sent out to her followers, Casey Delibirding it to her own audience; news was spreading online about them going to the Cerulean Clefairy Club’s Moonlite Shuffle Night, and the number of others attending was skyrocketing.
Amira gave her a dull look upon countering by showing Cerulean City’s official website, where they posted that due to the flood of people centralizing around Downtown Cerulean, there would be an extra deployment of officers to redirect traffic; the club had caught wind of the influx and informed the Governor’s Office—Misty seemed to be forced to get involved.
“Smooth.”
Lori rubbed the back of her neck. “Eh-hehe, well—I didn’t think it would hit roughly 50,000 that said they’d be going—typically, we’d be lucky to get 1,000 in this short of a time.”
Casey snickered, holding up her own phone to show them why it had blown up. “Seems Mom and Dad also said they’d pay a visit…”
“Wait… I didn’t… Dad, hehe…”
To Rhea’s surprise, she saw a meme on the Unova Elite Four’s profile showing the Cascade Badge, a dancer, and Meloetta with a picture of him smirking. “Uh… What’s that about?”
Amira puffed out a long stream of air. “It’s a style of meme that is typical of Dark Grandmasters; it’s basically him saying he’s taking a pretty lady—Karen—to a club in Cerulean, and with the one we’re going having a Unova Shuffle night… Two plus two.”
“Did you tell your parents?” Inoa asked, giving Bianca a concerned frown after a second; it was probably worse than she was letting on.
While the group discussed how crazy things always seemed to escalate over the last few weeks, Rhea took the opportunity to text her aunt and Hilbert, having a feeling she was going to show up at some point tonight or tomorrow.
Rhea 6:38 P.M: Hey, Auntie, Hilbert. Bi is having a bit of a rough time; we were swarmed by a group, and people were trying to get a rise out of her, bringing up the past. I know you’re possibly thinking about showing up in the next bit, Auntie, and just wanted you to know. She Will Be Loved kind of triggered her a bit.
Putting away her phone—Bianca none the wiser at her message—Rhea sighed. “So, we meeting up with Jason and the others?” she absently asked, squeezing her cousin’s hand to pull her soft, questioning smile.
“Umm… Maybe I shouldn’t come, Rhea; this is supposed to be your date night.”
“Huh?” Lori’s eyebrows pulled together. “No need to feel like a 3rd wheel, Bianca; we can totally all chill together—it’s more of a hangout, really—like a soft date. We’re just having fun.”
“Mhm!” Casey interjected. “There will be a ton of people there; we probably won’t even be all that noticed!”
“Hmm… I guess,” Bianca said, unable to say no to people.
“Want to dance with me?” Rhea asked, knowing being alone was the last thing she needed. “Hmm-hmm. I don’t want to look like a fool alone!”
“No, you’re right. I guess that’s fine.”
Reassuring the 26-year-old researcher, they made their way through the streets, and, to her excitement, her cry for help was answered several minutes later.
Bianca came to a dead stop as a handsome, tall, light-steely-blue-haired man appeared out of rainbow hues, wearing beachwear, a beautiful, blonde Legend in a light blue summer dress beside him.
“M-Mom… Champion Steven Stone?! Eh…”
“Alola!” Cynthia giggled, her Porygon-Z spinning above them.
“Y-You came all the way from Alola?” Inoa asked, stunned by the distance to her home region.
“No, no,” Steven chuckled. “We were exploring some ruins in the Orange Archipelago.”
Cynthia strode forward to hug her daughter, Rhea waiting for her turn next, excitement bubbling up in her breast. “We stopped by Mt. Silver to drag Hilbert over, too; he’s just finishing up a training session with Leon.”
“Hilbert’s coming?!”
“He said he’d be here soon! Leon’s gonna Teleport him over after he heard you were heading to a club without an escort. Rhea! How’s my little Swablu?”
“Happy to see you!”
“Hmm-hmm. I think we should probably stop in to see Misty; don’t want her having too much trouble, and it seems a lot of celebrities are showing up and causing trouble in her city.”
“Good thinking,” Steven grinned. “If we’re going to impose, we might as well help her keep things orderly and provide what support we can.”
Happy to have her aunt nearby, Rhea felt far more confident. “We’re going to a Unova Shuffle event.”
“Ah,” Steven gave the Sinnoh Champion a sly grin, taking off his sunglasses to stick them in his shirt front; Amira eyed them with a slight frown, likely wanting to get replacements of her own. “It’s been a while since we’ve tried out that style of dancing. What do you say, Cynthia?”
They all forced a chuckle as the two Legendary Champions’ eyes illuminated with their aura as they gave each other smirks.
“I may have lost in our last dance-off, but you best be prepared; Volkner is shockingly good at the style, inventing his own Sinnoh branch to it.”
“Interesting.”
Rhea grinned; her aunt always turned everything up to 1000% wherever she went, and the fact she had such a close friendship and rivalry with the Hoenn Champion—bordering on a full-blown relationship to many Gossip article writers—meant things were going to get crazy.
“Lit!” Casey cheered, her sister soon following it up.
“We’re about to go get our dates. Are you going to join us?”
“Of course! Hehe, who are these boys?”
Casey snickered. “Some Alola thugs that Lori’s and Len’s team met. They’re meeting us near Downtown Main’s Center; they’ve been waiting for a good fifteen minutes.”
“Fashionably late; I like it! Ah, and those boys, huh? I’ve seen them battle Rhea; they seemed… nice,” Cynthia mused. “We’ll be talking with Misty before she’s forced to Teleport to us—want to join us, Honey? Leon is sending Hilbert to us since he doesn’t know your aura.”
“Umm, yeah! Thanks, Mom!”
A hurricane as always, her aunt gave Rhea a grin and a wave, disappearing in rainbow lights with Steven and her cousin. “See you in twenty! Oh, and lovely voices, girls; maybe you can sing to end the night, Amira,” she winked as they vanished.
“Mmh-hmm-hmm…”
“Later, Auntie!”
Glad to see Bianca’s eyes sparkling again, Rhea took a deep breath, catching everyone’s gaze. “Huh—what?”
Amira slowly shook her head. “Honestly, Rhea… How much attention do you want to give us? Not only is the Kalos Champion here, but Sinnoh, Hoenn, and now the former Unova Champion…”
“Not all of that is my fault,” Rhea defended as they continued their journey, now excited butterflies in her stomach, and her phone vibrated, showing a message from Katelin. “Nice! My brother and Kate are coming; they saw your post, Lori!”
“Wow…” Ellie mumbled with a straight face, holding up Casey’s phone. “We’ll get some good MemeStar footage.”
“Is that what you’re focused on?” Inoa hissed. “I—I don’t know if I can do this, Cass…”
“Breathe—in and out…” Casey prompted as her emotionally charged teammate began to hyperventilate, having held the air in her lungs for much of the Champions’ short entrance. “Remember; exposure therapy!”
“This isn’t the same club night you sold me on… We’re talking about thousands of people!”
“Hmm… I’m afraid it’s growing bigger.” Their attention moved to Amira as she held up Cerelean’s official website again, which showed a big picture of Yancy, the famous Pop-Star. “Apparently, she was performing on the SS Annabel cruise ship that is just pulling into port, and—an event is being set up for tomorrow, too—she wants to do a surprise concert with me… How is this happening?”
“Isn’t it great?! We battle Misty in the morning and get to hit an Amira and Yancy colab-concert in the evening tomorrow!” Lori squealed. “Yancy can DJ, mix, and sing, too—total babe and full package; I’ve gone to plenty of her concerts where she does voiceovers live in songs! This is turning into Kanto’s version of Unova Summer Fire Fest!”
“Ultra hype!” Casey laughed, shoving her sister over a little for them to break into a short unified dance skit as they walked, drawing more eyes. “We’re totally here for you, Inoa! Feed off the high!”
“I’ve… never done that before…” the mocha-skinned Alolan girl fearfully mumbled. “What if I go crazy?!”
“That’d be great! Let’s all go crazy; Kanto Fire Fest, Baby!” Lori cheered.
Breaking into a skip, they all got into the rhythm, Rhea was surprised at just how much she enjoyed it. “What do you think, Amira? I think you’d do amazing!”
“Singing, maybe… I don’t know about DJ’ing or whatever.”
“I’m sure she knows that; Yancy’s great with collaborations and working with upcoming artists,” Casey interjected. “Are you going to do it?”
“Hmm… I’ll probably see her, but… Well, I already promised Kekipi that I’d meet up with him after our match with Misty…”
“Cool!” Lori lagged a second to take the redhead’s hands and bring her into a faster-paced dance, Gables using her phone to play music. “Bring him backstage! I’m sure Rhea’s aunt and Steven Stone are gonna be brought into the loop to help put the stage together—maybe Diantha will get involved, too; Cerulean is the place to be!”
Casey’s eyes lit up. “Oh, I should send out the word—we’re startin’ Kanto Fire Fest today—and more tomorrow! Ellie?”
“Just… sent it,” she replied in her even tone and expression.
“W-Wait!” Inoa cried, but it was too late. “Do we really want to hype it up even more—people will fly in overnight?!”
“To the moon!” Lori shouted, unable to stop her body from moving and drawing Rhea into it next; she kept trying to follow the girl’s movements—this was actually pretty fun. “The best parties are sporadic!”
Amira sighed, looking at her phone again to refresh it. “So… Yancy is being set up in Cerulean Stadium—they’re throwing the cover over the floor, and it’s now been officially announced… Yancy, Karen, Grimsley, Steven Stone, Cynthia, Hilbert… Diantha is also going to make a brief appearance with Yancy… Your aunt and Steven can sing, too?”
Rhea shrugged. “She can do anything—literally.”
She couldn’t explain the energy flowing through her, and it might have even been Inoa’s influence, but she’d never felt her heart thump like this before; it felt like she was on fire. Having it turn into a soft group date rather than feeling pressured into a single, awkward thing was way better; now, it was time to meet up with the boys and hit the sporadic event.
“Makes sense, I supp—” Amira choked as a new text message popped up on her screen. “Pfft… My mom and dad are coming now—both my grandparents will be in the City-State for my match tomorrow… What have you started, Lori?!”
“A tsunami—and I wouldn’t change a thing, haha! Let’s Mukin’ go!”