Arriving in Cinnabar and beach side meetings Pt. 1

Vali was heavily bruised all over her body, but didn't have any major injuries save for her right arm which had a hairline fracture. She would need to go to the hospital and have it checked out fully just to make sure that was all it was. With her injured arm, she couldn't help out as much around the ship not that anyone wanted her to after she'd somehow managed to save them all. Steven and their pokemon helped her whenever she actually needed it. Steven had taken to writing her research paper for her while she dictated everything. While it was somewhat boring not being able to help around the ship, she didn't mind using the break time she'd been given to actually rest and meditate when she could.

Empress had become quite the worry wort and over-protective of Vali which led to her calling Lance. Lance answered as she watched Empress chase around some of the Wingull that had decided to land near Vali, "Hi, Vali."

"Hey, Lance," Vali offered him a tired smile earning a look of concern.

"You okay?" Lance asked with a small frown.

"The ship Steven and I are taking to Cinnabar got attacked by a larger than normal pod of Gyarados," Vali explained what had happened and what habits that Empress had been forming since then.

Lance shook his head, "Your luck, Vali, is insane."

"Blame whatever ancestor of mine that got blessed/cursed with it," Vali replied with an eye-roll, "So any idea what the hell's going on?"

While Vali didn't mind Empress not acting like a little bitch, she was somewhat unnerved by the change that had seemingly occurred overnight. Lance hummed softly and shifted his pokegear, "Simple, you managed to win her devotion which will definitely make things easier on you when training her."

"But isn't that a bit quick?" Vali asked as Empress trotted back over to her.

Lance snorted softly, "Not really, Vali. Empress already viewed you as hers thanks to being her trainer and respected you even if her pride got into the way of it. Devotion was probably already forming, but hadn't had a reason to stick just yet."

Vali felt less unnerved, "It's still a bit weird."

"Yeah, but just be happy she won't end up turning on you unless you're abusing her," Lance offered her a sympathetic smile, "Once you're healed, she should calm down. If not, have Smaug and Balto talk with her,"

"Thanks, Lance," Vali had a feeling it wouldn't be that easy, "How are you?"

"Not bad, I definitely prefer Kanto to Johto in the winter since it's a lot less cold here," Lance began to say something else only to be cut off by an explosion, "Vali, I need to let you go,"

"Stay safe, Lance," Vali told him before the call ended.

Empress cooed at Vali as she put her pokenav away. She smiled at the little dragon and rubbed her armored head.

Cinnabar island was warm and Vali immediately liked it a lot despite the amount of tourists running around. After visiting the pokemon center and dropping off their pokemon as well as her egg, they headed to the hospital to have her arm seen to. The fracture wasn't severe, but she would be wearing a sling while it healed up. Rather than try to find the Cinnabar Gym or Blaine immediately, they decided to take a few days to relax and finish recovering from the scare caused by the Gyarados.

Vali watched as Vulpix worked through the obstacle course that Elrond had set up using pieces of driftwood and random junk that had washed up on the almost deserted part of the beach they'd managed to find. Since Nurse Joy had cleared Vulpix for some light training, she was going to start getting him into the swing of things and took some inspiration from Lt. Surge's obstacle course in order to do it. On the plus side of this, Vulpix's rather large amount of energy was burned out allowing some form of piece. Empress and Pele were working on their own little obstacle courses which differed depending on what she felt they needed to work on the most. Balto and Smaug were sparring together while Elrond worked with Pippin to master his newer attacks. Eevee was currently meditating on a nearby rock absorbing what energy he could get from the sun. Taking her eyes off of Vulpix for a moment when her pokenav chimed, she read the text that had been sent to her by Steven asking how things were going.

Steven was at the labs on the island exploring them and mostly getting a run down of how things were going there. A few representatives from his father's company were there as well mostly to ensure that no one thought that Devon Corp wasn't taking it seriously. She texted him back that everything was going alright and asked if he'd gotten bored. Steven replied that he wasn't bored mostly because one of the scientists was actually talking about how a fossil was excavated could effect how the pokemon was brought back. She asked him to get some notes on that since it sounded important and fairly interesting. After that was done, she focused back on everything going and noted that Vulpix was starting to get tired.

Vali called over Vulpix and gave him some oran berries mushed together with some charcoal. He ate it with a lot of vigor and gave her a pleading look asking for more. She let out a laugh and did so glad that she'd had Steven help her prepare everything before they parted ways for the day. Vulpix lapped up the moo-moo milk she gave him before curling up beside her for a little nap. She scratched behind his ears after cleaning everything up earning a soft purring sound. She stiffened a bit as she heard, "Are all those pokemon yours, Little Lady?"

Vali turned her head and found a man walking towards her. He was about the same height as Professor Oak and what hair he had was snowy white. He wore a white vest over a dark red long-sleeve and dark brown khaki pants. On his feet, he wore a pair of loafers. He had a pair of glasses with circular black-tinted lenses. A beautiful Ninetales walked beside him with it's eyes on Vulpix who slept peacefully beside her. She vaguely remembered seeing him before, but couldn't figure out where that was. Looking back at the man carefully, she said, "Yes, Sir. Your Ninetales is really beautiful, you must take great care of them."

"I do my best," The man chuckled lightly as his Ninetales' chest puffed up at the compliment, "She loves being groomed," He walked a bit closer and peered down at Vulpix, "How old is this little one?"

"He's just a few days off two months old," Vali answered as Ninetales trotted over and sniffed at her prompting the fire-type master-in-training to offer the fox a hand to sniff, "Nurse Joy gave me leave to start some light training with him,"

"Ah you're being careful, it's nice to see that some children these days aren't reckless," The man smiled a bit before looking at her other pokemon as his Ninetales licked at Vali's fingers and began nosing her hand, "I'm somewhat surprised to see a Bagon, a Numel, and a Luxio in Kanto though,"

Vali gave into Ninetales' request to be petted and began searching for the spot that would likely turn the fox into putty, "I got them all in the Safari-zone. Pele, my Numel, ended up catching herself. Empress, my Bagon, pretty much demanded that I catch her after observing me while I was in the area she'd claimed as her own. Pippin, my Luxio, got trapped in a log and ended up wanting to come along with me after I freed him," Vali found the spot she'd been looking for and her lap was suddenly filled with a purring puddle of creamy golden fur, "What brings you to the beach today, Sir?"

"Just walking around, Little Lady," The man looked at his Ninetales in surprise, "She normally doesn't let anyone new so close,"

Vali wondered if it was due to her inner flame as she said, "I've always had a way with fire-types, Sir. They tend to really like me and I love them a lot. I'm trying to become a fire-type master, you see."

"A good goal. Are you going to try for Champion?" The man asked as he moved to take a seat on the nearby bench.

Vali shook her head with a soft snort, "No way, I would probably drown in the paperwork I'd have to do," She smiled as Ninetales nuzzled into her stomach, "One of my friends is going to become the Champion. He's shooting for both the Kanto and Johto Champion titles. I'd prefer being an Elite Four especially since it'd mean I get the chance to travel unless I was needed."

"Any reason why?" The man asked her curiously.

"Being part of the League would make it easier to feed my pokemon and take care of them," Vali said as Ninetales slowly began to slump against her, "There's also the fact that as an Elite Four we'd be able to battle strong opponents, it'd be fun to fight strong opponents that would push my pokemon and I to our limits," She removed her hand from Ninetales as Empress took notice earning a whine from the kitsune, "I'm also doing it to become a fire-type master. It's my goal," Empress rushed over and growled at Ninetales who ignored the dragon, "Empress, be nice. She isn't hurting me," Empress gave her a look that expressed the little dragoness' doubt, "You won't hurt me, right Ninetales?" Ninetales nodded while standing up and moving back over to sit with her trainer, "Sorry about that, Empress is a bit protective of me after what happened on the way over here,"

"Oh?" The man looked at Empress who began checking over Vali.

"An unusually large pod of Gyarados attacked our ship," Vali explained as Empress sniffed at her arm, "No one died, but our ship almost tipped over. I got pretty beat up keeping this one from falling overboard,"

"I heard something about an attack like that," The man shook his head lightly, "I wonder what made them attack,"

"No idea," Vali sent Empress back over to her obstacle course who did so reluctantly with one last glare towards Ninetales, "I thought it might be that one or more of those Gyarados were abandoned by a trainer. They saw the ship after banding together and decided to take it out on the first humans they could," She checked her pokenav when it began to chime repeatedly and cut off the timer, "Looks like it's time for a change of pace," She stood up and called out, "Guys!" All her pokemon stopped working and turned to her with Empress nudging Pele to focus on her, "We're changing things up a bit. Balto laps around the beach. Smaug into the air. Everyone else try to hit the two with your ranged attacks. Eevee, Swift. Elrond throw things with Psychic. Empress, Ember. Pele, Flamethrower. Pippin, Spark. Got it everyone?" They nodded with Smaug giving her a minor glare, "Smaug, Pippin doesn't have many ranged attacks other than Thunder. If you don't want to get the ever loving shit shocked out of you with Thunder, you can't complain about him using Spark, so don't give me that look. If he can hit you with Spark, you're not flying fast enough."

Smaug grumbled, but took off with Balto barking as he began racing along the beach. Everyone got into position and began releasing their attacks when they had a chance. Pele used Earth Power as well to trip up Balto which was definitely something Vali hadn't been expecting, but would definitely work on with the Numel when they did some one on one training later on. She remembered the old man when he commented, "That's an interesting training method, you're getting those two to practice evading attacks and taking hits if one of your other pokemon manage to hit them. On the flip side, the other pokemon are strengthening their ability to use those attacks while also increasing their accuracy with moving targets. Not too shabby, you should try to teach that Luxio of yours some more attacks though."

"I'm going to, but it's finding ways to teach him them that's somewhat frustrating mostly because they don't learn too many attacks naturally," Vali looked back at him with a small frown, "Who are you exactly?"

"Someone who loves fire-types greatly," The man answered with a slight smirk, "And has lived on this island for a long time. Tell me, when do you plan to challenge Blaine?"

"In a month," Vali answered while narrowing her eyes as she tried to figure out who this guy was, "I want to make sure my pokemon are ready or as close as I can get them to being ready,"

"A good plan," The man eyed her as he stood up, "Despite being young, you're not rushing in like most trainers your age. That's an interesting trait,"

"What good is rushing in?" Vali was beginning to figure out who this was, "When pokemon battling isn't a game and being unprepared means that my team will get hurt when I could have prevented it by being careful, my team trust me to watch over them and ensure that they're prepared for our battles. As this is our second to last gym badge, the stakes are higher than ever and there is a good chance my pokemon will get badly hurt if we don't train hard before it," She realized who this guy was, "You're Blaine, aren't you? The gym leader of Cinnabar island,"

"Correct," Blaine let out a chuckle, "I wasn't expecting you to figure it out so soon,"

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Sir," Vali didn't really know how to react, "Uh...How did you know I was here?"

"Just call me Blaine, Little Lady," Blaine told her with a light smile, "I heard that you'd arrived on the island a few days ago and was surprised that you didn't come find me the moment you could. One would think you'd be eager to find out if you could apprentice under me,"

"We had a rough trip and everyone thought it would be a good idea to take some relaxation time," Vali explained wondering if that had ruined her chances, "My traveling companion, Steven Stone, and I were going to look for you later on today once he finished at the labs,"

Blaine looked a little amused, "I see. Tell me, why do you want to apprentice under me?"

Vali looked back at her pokemon as she sat down beside Vulpix and began petting him, "To be honest, I really want to learn more about fire-type pokemon and get experience dealing with pokemon like Magmar before I actually catch one. Since you're pretty much the most knowledgeable on the Magby-line, you are the best person to learn under. I love fire-types and helping my pokemon reach their full potential," She smiled as Vulpix shifted in his sleep to sprawl on his back and let her rub his stomach, "If I apprentice under you, I'd not only get a better understanding about fire-type pokemon, but also what it's like to be an Elite Four. If anyone knows what it's like to be an elite four and just how powerful my pokemon need to be, it would be you outside of the current ones."

"That's all?" Blaine asked as he sat back down on the bench.

Vali shook her head, "You have a lot of knowledge about fossil pokemon which is something I'm really interested in. I want to have my own Amaura and Aurorus at some point. They're my favorite fossil pokemon of all the ones that have been discovered so far," She thought about what else to say only to come up empty, "I guess the only other thing I can say is that you're a really amazing trainer and learning under you would be really cool. I think my pokemon and myself would really benefit from learning underneath you."

Blaine was silent for awhile allowing Vali to focus on the training going on. She had to get Smaug from trying to barbecue Pippin twice when her Luxio managed to get in a few lucky hits. Despite only using Spark, Pippin was starting to figure out how to use Charge while also attacking. It wasn't easy for Pippin mostly because his electrical storage wasn't used to doing two diffrent things at once. Once he got used to it, he wouldn't have as much trouble, but that would take time and quite a bit of concentration. She guessed he would probably be able to do it on a somewhat consistent basis once he evolved into a Luxray mostly because his electrical storage would be a lot bigger and able to the strain a lot better.

Blaine spoke once Vali had gotten Smaug flying again and pointed Pippin in the direction of Balto while pushing Empress to practice Dragon Rush on the Charizard, "It'll take me time before I make a decision on whether or not to take you on as an apprentice."

"That's fine, we only just met after all," Vali hadn't expected any concrete decisions from Blaine for awhile.