#paldea arc

39th: Norman. He yanked my tail! And it reallyreally hurt!

38th: Giovanni. He's the leader of Team Rocket! Which is reallyreally bad!

37th: Avery. He was reallyreally mean to me on the Isle of Armor!

36th: Skyla. One of the cannons in her gym made me hit a wall and it reallyreally hurt!

35th: Cilan. He didn't show up with all the other Unova gym leaders to help stop Team Plasma!

34th: Grant. It was reallyreally hard to climb up his tower to reach him!

33rd: Brassius! He uses reallyreally weird words that make no sense!

32nd: Flannery. Her gym was reallyreally hot!

31st: Katy. I don't like olives! And that olive was reallyreally big!

30th: Clay. He was mean to Cheren!

29th: Surge. I don't know what a loutenant is but it sounds weird!

28th: Misty. I couldn't swim in the pool in her gym!

27th: Brock. He only had one gym trainer in his gym!

26th: Brycen. His gym was reallyreally cold!

25th: Viola. That spiderweb was reallyreally sticky and high up!

24th: Brawly. I don't think he knew I can see in the dark!

23rd: Roxanne. Her gym was boring!

22nd: Ramos. His gym was boring but not as much!

21st: Erika. She has friends!

20th: Kabu. His gym was where I became a Galar League competitor!

19th: Wattson. He told me about New Mauville!

18th and 17th: Tate and Liza. It was cool fighting two gym leaders at once!

16th: Wulfric. He wasn't at his gym for a while but I learned about Pokemon Village because of him!

15th: Nessa. I got soaked in her gym test but it was still fun!

14th: Elesa. I got to go reallyreally fast in her gym!

13th: Burgh. The honey in his gym was yummy!

12th: Clemont. He helps with electricity in Lumiose City!

11th: Winona. She seems reallyreally cool!

10th: Milo. It was reallyreally fun herding the Wooloos!

9th: Valerie. She wants to be a Pokemon!

8th: Sabrina. She can do psychic stuff!

7th: Juan. He taught Wallace, who is reallyreally cool!

6th: Blaine. He knows lots of reallyreally cool things!

5th: Koga. He's a ninja!

4th: Olympia. Her gym was reallyreally cool and spacey!

3rd: Korrina. She helped me after I tried mega evolution and it went reallyreally badly!

2nd: Drayden. He helped me learn about Reshiram and Unova's past!

Nemona was getting excited.

She had been watching the news, of course. Watching her rival's journey through other regions.

Kalos and Kanto, Illanero had become champion of both. Not to mention stopping Team Plasma in Unova!

Apparently xey were also champion of Hoenn, before she had even met xem! And xey were going through the Galar gym challenge, and xey appeared on a TV broadcast from Sinnoh!

Xey were traveling all over the world, winning battles everywhere.

No wonder the only time she was able to beat xem was when she introduced xem to terastalization! Xey were a multi-champion!

So Nemona decided she was done holding back. Next time her rival stopped by to Paldea, she was facing xem with all her might!

Then they'd be best rivals! And...maybe she'd finally have a friend who liked battling as much as she did.

She just needed to wait until they met again, then they could battle!

She just needed to wait until then.

She just needed to wait.

=====

Arven was starting to lose hope.

Mabostiff had perked up after that first Herba Mystica, yes, but it was only so long before it was again difficult for them to move.

His little buddy, the Zorua-tailed trainer, was nowhere to be seen. Why? Xey said xey would help him, so why did xey abandon him?

Maybe he should have told xem the truth from the start. Maybe then xey'd be more motivated to help, instead of going off doing gyms or fighting Team Star or whatever else xey were doing.

...maybe something bad happened to xem.

Arven hoped not.

=====

Penny was getting frustrated.

She should have chosen someone else for Operation Starfall. Illanero had been off in other regions for months now.

She looked again over her most recent footage of xem. A Zorua-tailed trainer, posing with a Turtwig, on a Sinnoh news network.

Sinnoh. Why were xey in Sinnoh?!

The expulsion deadline for Team Star was coming closer and closer. Sure, they still had a bit of time before then, but it was far less than what she was hoping.

She needed a new plan.

She had found xyr Tacklr account, where xey openly talked about xyr adventures, and...how xey were a Zorua.

One interesting post on the blog caught her eye.

Xey were being blackmailed by her uncle's secretary to collect Wishing Stars in Galar, or xey'll be revealed as a Zorua to the world.

Maybe she could blackmail xem about that, too. Force xem to take down the Team Star bases, or have xyr identity outed.

Penny didn't feel right blackmailing the Zorua. Especially given her own past, and her own identity. She didn't want to be a bully.