Dreams and leaving Saffron city

Vali didn't understand how she'd gotten to this dark place that seemed ready to burn her to a crisp nor did she know how long she'd been there. The only things that didn't seem dark were the flashes of images that floated before her every now and again.

A volcano on an almost uninhabited island...

A hidden passageway that led to the center of the volcano...

Fire that burned hotter than lava...

The shrieking cry of some kind of bird...

A body veiled in glowing flames...

Eyes the color of burning coal peering forward...

Light began to filter into the dark place as the world around her seemed to cool. As the light began to fill the room through increasingly widening cracks, Vali heard a warm male voice call out, "When the time is right, come to me and discover who you really are. Mortal bearer of the eternal flame!"

Vali jolted upward with a gasp only to start coughing as her dry throat closed up on itself. A glass was pressed to her lips prompting her to open them and she began to drink the water that got rid of the dryness. Once she had enough, she was pushed to lay back down as she slowly opened her eyes to see what had to be the ceiling of a hospital. A groan left her, "Is is going to be every other city that I end up in the hospital?"

A weak chuckle sounded from her right and she looked over to see Steven. He offered her a weak grin, "Hopefully not."

"What happened?" Vali asked feeling tired despite just waking up, "All I remember is going into my room and laid down on my bed wanting to sleep off my headache,"

"You've been in the hospital for a day after I found you collapsed in your room running a very high fever," Steven explained making Vali gap at him, "I got worried when you didn't come downstairs to collect your pokemon, so I picked them up and went to check on you,"

A somewhat cold monotone voice sounded from the left side of her bed causing Vali to look over, "It's my fault you ended up in this position, Valkyrie Potter-Black."

Vali's eyes widened, "Y-you're Sabrina Hino. The Saffron city gym leader."

Sabrina's lips twitched a bit as she nodded, "That I am. I must apologize for putting you in this position."

Confusion ran through Vali as she looked at the older girl, she asked, "What do you mean? How did you make me have a fever?"

"Two years ago when you arrived within this world, I felt it happen," Sabrina explained as she settled on the bed next to Vali's, "Over the years, I have been keeping an eye on you and to a lesser extent, your godfather. During this time, I have gained a great interest and many questions as a result of my observations," Well that's a bit creepy if understandable, "When you arrived within my city, I sought out your mind the moment I sensed it so close. In my eagerness to finally get answers to the questions I have, I unfortunately did not use the care needed to interact with other human minds and used more force than I should have,"

"That would explain why it felt like millions of hot pokers were stabbing at my mind," Vali said earning a wince from the gym leader, "Well, I'm glad it wasn't someone that would use the time to kidnap me or something,"

Sabrina's lips twitched again, "Yes, but I must apologize for causing your situation."

"So long as you don't do it again or ask permission, it's fine," Vali waved off the apology making Sabrina and Steven look at her in surprise, "You didn't mean to cause me any distress or pain, right?"

"Right," Sabrina nodded slowly.

"Then it's okay," Vali looked at the gym leader curiously, "What exactly happened anyway?"

Sabrina sat up a bit straighter, "Due to the pressure I was putting on your mind, I triggered some kind of defense mechanism causing your consciousness to withdraw deep into your core," Sabrina fiddled with one of the pokeballs at her waist, "I immediately withdrew my mind once you fell unconscious both because I knew that I might've hurt you and because some kind of energy, your magic most likely, burned me. I fell unconscious until this morning."

Vali winced at that, "Sorry."

Sabrina shook her head, "It is a fair deal seeing as I hurt you in the process."

Vali smiled a bit, "Guess we're even then."

"I suppose," Sabrina smiled a little.

Vali frowned as she remembered that odd place she'd been in, "I...When I fell unconscious, I found myself in a dark place that felt hot enough to burn me to a crisp. I don't know why that place would be at my core, but I...I saw something."

"What did you see?" Steven asked looking at her in concern.

Vali's eyes closed as flashes of that vision hit her, "An active volcano on some almost completely uninhabited island," It became harder to speak as the images blurred a bit, "Something veiled in flames that burned hotter than the lava that sounded vaguely bird-like," She grabbed her head as a bolt of pain slid through her mind, "A voice...It told me...to come when the time was right...something would have answers..."

"Vali," Steven shot out of his chair and placed a hand on her shoulder, "What's wrong?"

"My head," Vali almost curled in on herself as the pain seemed to burn her alive.

The feeling of something cool soothed the edges of the pain and slowly pushed it away. Vali opened her eyes as Sabrina said, "Calm down and breath."

"What was that?" Steven asked as Vali took a deep breath forcing herself to calm down from the mild panic the pain had caused.

"A warning," Sabrina looked at Vali with a frown, "Something doesn't want you speaking of what you saw," The gym leader stood from the bed, "I do not know why, but you must not speak of what you've seen to anyone,"

If that was going to happen anytime she tried, Vali wasn't going to try again, "I won't."

A beep sounded and Sabrina pulled out what looked to be a pokegear, "I must go attend to my duties. Valkyrie-"

"Call me Vali please," Vali interrupted earning a raised eyebrow, "Considering everything that happened, I would prefer it if you called me Vali,"

Sabrina nodded slowly, "Vali then. The next time you're in Saffron city please come to see me at the gym. I wish to help you construct barriers that will keep most psychics out of your mind. It will hopefully prevent another incident like this from happening."

"I will," Vali promised since she really didn't want to deal with another headache like the one Sabrina had caused.

Sabrina nodded lightly, "I have placed a temporary barrier that should last until the next time you come to Saffron especially if Mr. Stone's psychic types are willing to assist in powering it," Sabrina looked at Steven and received a nod, "With that said, I wish you luck in ensuring Vali's safety, Mr. Stone."

With that, Sabrina disappeared via teleportation and Vali stared at the place the gym leader had once stood. Vali looked at Steven as he said, "Well, that was not how I imagined meeting a gym leader."

"No kidding," Vali laid back against the pillows.

"I'll got get the doctors and see how soon they'll release you now that your temperature seems to be going down," Steven stood up earning a nod from Vali.

Once Vali was released from the hospital, she immediately called out her pokemon to explain the situation despite the fact that Steven had already done so. All of her pokemon save for Eevee looked at her in worry while she explained before becoming angry at the fact Sabrina had caused it. It was very likely that Sabrina would not be receiving a warm welcome from her pokemon any time soon. After calming them down, she proceeded to call home and ended up having to pacifying Delia as the woman wished for her to come home for a little while. As soon as Delia was calmed down and assured that she didn't need to come home, she learned that Ash would be going to school soon alongside Gary which Delia hoped would calm the two down. She gave Ash some advice for school even if she wasn't too sure how well it would work. After that, she got all of her clothes cleaned up and everything in her bag restocked.

A day after Vali was released from the hospital saw her leaving Saffron with Steven. Neither of them wished to stay, the whole incident with Sabrina was a bit too fresh. She wasn't looking forward to returning to Saffron for multiple reasons other than the whole Sabrina incident. The city was far too loud and crowded for her peace of mind. While it wasn't too polluted, it still didn't offer the same fresh air as the other cities she'd been to. Saffron also seemed to be home to many bad tempered people that seemed to rush everywhere. It reminded her of London only with more technology and less cars. There was also the fact that her pokemon disliked the city as well, Balto's sensitive nose caught every scent possible in Saffron leaving him highly disoriented causing her to keep him inside his pokeball. Sandshrew and Eevee pointedly refused to leave their pokeballs unless it was to eat. Celina wasn't allowed to fly in the city mostly because of the various sky scrapers. Pikachu stuck to her shoulders whenever he was outside of his pokeball while Smaug kept to her side. As it was, Smaug was the only one able to stay outside of his pokeball for long periods of time though it was mostly to keep an eye on her.

Vali breathed in the fresh air alongside her pokemon and felt her shoulders relax. Steven chuckled as he watched them, "I take it our next visit to Saffron will be fairly quick?"

"If I can help it," Vali grimaced as she glanced back at the city that wasn't that far away, "I know that there's a lot of fun stuff to do in that city, but..."

"You don't like it," Steven offered her a warm smile, "I don't either. I hear that Celadon is a lot better despite being a big city as well,"

"That's because Celadon is host to many grass-types," Vali said as they started walking, "Due to the fact all grass-types are part plant and thus part of the ecosystem, they constantly take in carbon dioxide due to their use of photosynthesis meaning that even with any pollution a big city like Celadon might have, they get rid of most if not all of it. It's also why certain grass-types like Oddish-line and even the Bulbasaur-lines are more commonly found there. From what I remember of one lecture Professor Oak did on Celadon city during school, the Bulbasaur-line were actually native to the forests and plains that once made up the area that Celadon city now sits on. It's only with human development and the migration of pokemon as a whole that the Bulbasaur-line aren't as commonly found in the wild anymore same as every other Starters,"

Steven nodded slowly, "I suppose that makes sense."

Vali flushed a bit as she realized she'd gone on a mini-rant, "Sorry about that."

"It fine," Steven waved off her apology, "Are the other main cities in Kanto like that? Where the gyms are one type of pokemon due to how high the population of that type is in the area,"

"While there is that, the gyms also use one type of pokemon both due to tradition and the gym leader's preference," Vali took out her pokedex and turned to the notes Professor Oak sent to every new trainer, "Take Pewter for example, it's mainly a rock-type gym. The Slate family has been the gym leaders of Pewter city since the founding of Kanto. They have generally used rock-types with the Geodude-line and Onix-line being their go to pokemon. On the other hand, we have Viridian which is a ground-type gym. The gym leader, Giovanni, has a preference for ground-types. Viridian is one of the few gyms that don't have a static type. In the past, it's been a normal, ice, dark, flying, and dragon-type gym. It changes depending on the gym leader's preference. In Kanto, two gym leaders of the same family can't run two seperate gyms whereas unlike other regions, our elite four can retire and become gym leaders,"

Steven hummed lightly, "I suppose the family thing is to keep rivalries from happening?"

Vali shook her head, "No though I suppose that's a lesser reason. Around the time Professor Oak became Kanto's regional professor, two gyms were discovered taking resources for the league under the guise of too big of a population and an increase in crime. In truth, the two gyms were under the control of a mob family via the gym leaders," She thought back to the article she'd read and what Professor Oak had said about it, "The two gym leaders were smuggling everything to the base of the mob family along with pokemon and people. Professor Oak was still fresh from being the league champion and called on by the new league champion for assistance as the drain on the League's resources was far too significant to ignore."

"So they have that rule to prevent it from happening again?" Steven summed up earning a nod, "I never would have guessed though isn't having former elite four members as gym leaders a bit too much?"

Vali shook her head, "The former elite four members becoming gym leaders will give any city under their jurisdiction even more protection than a regular gym leader can provide. In times of crisis, the former elite four member in question would have pokemon that could take the punishment that a gym leader's pokemon cannot," She put away her pokedex, "Anyway, it's mostly up to the elite four member if they become a gym leader. They would also need an open gym leader slot as well though Kanto have a rule that allows up to 20 active gyms inside the region only the eight most powerful gyms would be considered the main gyms thus allowing anyone who beats them to enter the Indigo conference without having to go through the mass of prelims where most trainers have to fight to earn a spot in the main conference."

"Which is why Professor Oak suggested only going after the other eight gyms once I finished my badge run if I felt up to it," Steven realized earning a nod, "I guess it's to also keeps the populace interested and to weed out the run of the mill trainers that won't put on a good show,"

"And to let the League scouts see the most talented trainers at work," Vali was still shocked at how much work the League put into ensuring that they had the best of the best, "The League doesn't want to waste time training those that won't amount of much even with their help," She shook her head lightly, "I assume the same thing happens in Hoenn?"

"More or less," Steven ran a hand through his hair, "We should start moving. The Ponyta and Rapidash migration is going to be near Vermilion in a few days,"