Vali's secondary battle and Steven's inner thoughts

Sabrina and Vali once more stood across from one another on the battlefield. Steven had been joined by Lance in the stands. The referee called out, "This is a one-on-one battle between Sabrina Hino of Saffron City and Valkyrie Potter-Black of Pallet Town. No substitutions are allowed, the match will end when a pokemon is either knocked unconscious or can no longer continue battling safely. Trainers release your pokemon!"

Sabrina sent out a rather odd pokemon that Vali did not recognize. It is a bipedal feline pokemon with a human-like posture, finger-less appendages, and two tails. Its fur predominantly dark blue with white accents. Its ears are mostly blue with some white accents and the tips are pointed straight. The tuft of fur that sat between the pokemon's ears was white and in a straight diagonal style. The collar of fur around the pokemon's neck is white and in a pointy style. The pokemon's eyes are spring green with darker green pupils. Each of the pokemon's tails have a white stripe just before ending in white and ended in a point. The ends of the pokemon's arms and legs are white. She took out her pokedex and scanned it.

Meowstic, the Constraint Pokemon. When in danger, Meowstic raises its ears and releases enough psychic power to grind a 10-ton truck into dust. The eyeball patterns on the interior of its ears emit psychic energy. It keeps the patterns tightly covered because that power is too immense. Male and female Meowstic have diffrent appearances with the male being mostly blue and the female being mostly white. They are the evolved form of Espurr. Male Meowstic are more defensive in nature while females are more offensive.

This Meowstic is male.

Vali grinned a bit, "He looks handsome Sabrina. Which region does he come from?"

"The Kalos region," Sabrina answered as the Meowstic smiled at Vali's compliment.

"Cool!" Vali released Smaug who looked at his opponent with a low growl and gave her a look, "He might not be big, but he's definitely not going to be an easy opponent, Smaug. Let's do our best, okay?" Smaug let out a low huff and narrowed his eyes at Meowstic, "Start off with Sunny Day then Flamethrower."

Smaug raised his head and released an orb of light into the air. The artificial sun began to heat up the gym clearing away any lingering chill from the winter weather outside. Smaug released a powerful Flamethrower towards Meowstic who nimbly dodged the attack and retaliated with Psybeam. Smaug used Dragon Pulse to block and overpower the Psybeam causing Meowstic to cry out in shock as the attack hit him. While the damage might've been halved thanks to his Psybeam, the attack still caused damage. Meowstic was sent skidding back as Smaug quickly took to the air using what limited space had been granted to him and slammed into the cat-like pokemon with his Dual claws sending Meowstic flying backward. Meowstic managed to soften the blow with Light Screen before using Disarming Voice making Smaug cry out and back away from Meowstic rather than follow through with the attack. Sabrina called out, "Meowstic, Thunder Wave and Psyshock."

Meowstic released two waves of energy that slammed into Smaug making him cry out in pain. A grimace formed on Vali's lips when electricity danced along Smaug's scales even after Thunder Wave had faded, "Smaug, use Dragon Pulse."

Smaug released the dragon-type attack with a growl and Meowstic used Light Screen to allow himself time to move out of the way. Meowstic retaliated with Psyshock and Disarming voice making Smaug roar in pain as he gripped his head. Static raced along his scales making the dragon-like fire-type stiffen as his muscles began to flex wildly, Meowstic used Psybeam while Smaug was unable to move. The colorful beam slammed into Smaug's chest sending him skidding backward. When the attack stopped, the area on Smaug's chest was bleeding and he fell to his knees with a grunt. Vali barely managed to resist the urge to rush towards him, "Smaug!" Smaug pushed himself up with a loud growl as his tail flame began to flare up, "Can you continue?" Smaug nodded while spitting an ember towards the ground and giving Meowstic the evil eye, "Smaug, Smokescreen. Do whatever you need to after that."

Smaug nodded and began hacking up smoke before diving into the cloud. Meowstic let out a yowl of pain as he was sent flying out of the cloud not too long later. Smaug sent out a Dragon Pulse after him. Meowstic managed to put up a Light Screen, but it shattered far too quickly to do much good. Meowstic cried out in pain as the Dragon Pulse slammed into him. When Smaug let the attack fade away, Meowstic dropped onto the ground with a soft grunt. Meowstic tried to push himself up for a few moments before falling to the ground leading the Referee to call out, "Winner Valkyrie Potter-Black of Pallet Town."

The cloud of smoke was quickly cleared away as Smaug stumbled out of it towards her. Vali rushed over to him, "You did it, Smaug!" Smaug grinned a bit before shuddering as electricity raced across his scales, "Let's get you to Nurse Joy."

Vali returned him and placed his ball into its place on her belt. Sabrina returned Meowstic and they shook hands after meeting in the middle. She smiled at the gym leader, "Thank you for the battle, Sabrina. I definitely feel like I earned my gym badge now."

"Thank you for battling Meowstic, I now know where exactly he stands," Sabrina replied as they released each other's hands.

"That battle was awesome!" Lance crowed as he jogged up, "Smaug's grown really strong since we last saw one another. Maybe we can battle before you leave Saffron, Vali,"

"Probably not since we're leaving pretty soon," Steven said as he walked up carrying Vulpix with Eevee padding beside him.

Lance frowned at Steven before looking at Vali, "Do you want to battle, Vali?"

"Next time we see each other," Vali saw the disappointment form in Lance's eyes at her reply, "Steven's right. We've got to leave soon if we're going to be able to get our last two badges and have a decent amount of time to train before the Conference. If you're still at Professor Oak's when I'm in Pallet Town, we can have our battle then,"

Lance frowned a bit before nodding, "Sounds good, I guess."

Steven frowned at Lance when the dragon master-in-training hugged Vali. He narrowed his eyes at Lance when the red head shot a smirk at him over Vali's shoulder. Biting back the urge to growl, he felt a little happy when Vali pulled away from Lance, "It was nice seeing you, Lance."

"You too, Vali," Lance grinned at her, "It was fun despite only being a couple of days,"

"Yeah. I can't wait until we've got a chance to battle since it'll be a lot of fun," Vali moved to stand next to him easing away some of the annoyance he was feeling towards Lance for reason he wasn't too sure about, "See you, Lance,"

"See you, Vali," Lance looked at him with an odd look in his eye, "Steven, watch over her and yourself," He nodded to the red head while feeling a bit offended that Lance had felt the need to ask, "Call me if you're having trouble or just want to talk,"

Vali nodded with a light grin, "Sure thing. Call me or message me if you want to talk too."

With that, they left Lance behind and began leaving Saffron City. Steven shoved his hands into his pockets feeling glad that it'd be awhile before they'd be seeing Lance again. It wasn't that he didn't like the red head, but something about the amber-eyed dragon master-in-training got on his nerves. He glanced towards Vali noticing the slightly distracted expression on her face and the slight pale tint to her cheeks. Knowing what she was likely thinking about, he commented, "So Vermilion City. Are you going to be okay?"

"I should be fine," Vali shot him a weak smile that only brought the feeling of guilt towards what happened to rise up again, "We aren't going to stay long after all,"

"I mean we could go to Fuchsia since they do have ships going to Cinnabar," Steven offered not wanting Vali to be uncomfortable.

Vali shook her head with a frown, "That would put us back awhile since we'd have to go through Celadon City, Vermilion would be a lot faster and cheaper around this time of year. Cinnabar sees a lot of traffic this time of year since people are trying to wait out the cold weather. It's also a lot more straight forwards since there aren't many islands on the way to Cinnabar from Vermilion unlike Fuchsia."

Steven could tell by the look in Vali's eyes and the way her jaw clenched that she wasn't going to let him talk her out of it. She probably wanted to do it for other reasons, but didn't feel like sharing them. With that in mind, he reluctantly nodded, "Alright. We'll go through Vermilion."

They walked out of Saffron City and began walking along the road to Vermilion. Vali spoke after a few minutes, "Steven, what was going on between Lance and you?"

"What do you mean?" Steven looked at her in confusion.

Vali bent down to let Vulpix walk since he was beginning to fuss a bit, "Well, Lance and you were pretty tense around each other the whole time. You also didn't seem very happy to see Lance either," She looked at him with a frown, "Did Lance do something to make you angry?"

Steven shook his head at that, "It's not that, Vali."

Steven didn't know how to explain that Lance irritated him whenever the red head was around Vali. Vali tilted her head a bit, "Then what's going on?" She didn't give him a chance to figure out an answer, "Are you annoyed at losing to him during the tournament?"

"Yes," Steven would admit that the reminder did annoy him somewhat.

"I can understand that," Vali grinned a bit, "Though wasn't your battle with him a lot of fun too?"

Steven nodded with a small smile, "It was. If I'd had a bit more training against dragon-type pokemon, we would've won."

Vali turned the conversation to the battle that he'd had against Lance and just how awesome it had been to watch the replay of. Steven was grateful that he wouldn't have to try and explain that it wasn't just the battle that left him annoyed with Lance. Especially since he didn't know how to explain it or even why he'd been so annoyed with Lance, he was probably going to have a headache if he dwelled on it.