Job talk and travel talk

Before Vali went to go meet up with Steven and his friend, she had finally scanned both Eevee and Vulpix at the urging of Lt. Surge. Needless to say, the two pokemon were full of surprises:

Eevee, the Evolution Pokemon. Eevee has an unstable genetic makeup that suddenly mutates due to the environment in which it lives. Radiation from various stones causes this Pokémon to evolve. It has the ability to alter the composition of its body to suit its surrounding environment. Current studies show it can evolve into an incredible eight different species of Pokémon.

This Eevee is Male and has the ability Adaptability. This Eevee knows Covet, Growl, Tackle, Sand Attack, Bite, Swift, Stored Power, Endure, and Shadow Ball.

Vulpix, the Fox Pokemon. At the time of its birth, Vulpix has one white tail. The tail separates into six if this Pokémon receives plenty of love from its Trainer. The six tails become magnificently curled. Inside Vulpix's body burns a flame that never goes out. During the daytime, when the temperatures rise, this Pokémon releases flames from its mouth to prevent its body from growing too hot.

This Vulpix is Male and has the ability Flash Fire. This Vulpix knows Ember, Secret Power, and Heat Wave.

Warning: King gene present.

Admittedly, Vulpix was a bit more surprising than Eevee considering the fact that he had the King gene despite being a runt, but both of them had surprising moves that could only have come from their parents. Endure and Stored Power were probably the only reasons that Eevee had managed to survive the abuse of his former trainer even if it had only been used subconsciously. Both of their parents had to be pretty powerful for two egg moves to be passed down, she wondered which of their parents passed down each move. Obviously Heat Wave came from Ninetales, she wondered who Vulpix's father had been, but doubted she'd ever find out. Not only was Ninetales unlikely to be in the area, Ninetales tended to be secretive of their mates with only a scattering of known mated pairs being recorded.

Lt. Surge commented at the list with a raised eye, "Well that explains your Eevee surviving, but damn the King gene present in a fucking runt..."

"Professor Oak is going to be kicking himself for not having me scan Vulpix earlier," Vali knew he'd be calling her fairly soon.

Lt. Surge clapped her on the shoulder, "Kid, I stand by what I said about your luck. It's interesting."

"And I'm going to be waiting for the other shoe to drop," Vali wondered what else was going to happen.

Lt. Surge let out a bark of laughter, "Good luck, Kid. Get going though, it's a quarter to six."

"Thanks for the help, Surge," Vali returned her pokemon, "What time do you want me to come back tomorrow?"

"9:30," Lt. Surge replied as they left the indoor training ground, "I might have some jobs for you to do when we're not working your pokemon into the ground,"

Vali looked at him curiously, "What kind of jobs?"

"Nothing big, I'm mainly planning on having you take pictures of the pokemon that are being put up for adoption. Professor Oak sent in those pictures you took of the Safari Zone and despite not being done using a profession camera, they aren't half bad," Lt. Surge replied as Vali pulled on her jacket, "They're mainly pokemon not able to battle anymore,"

"The kind people hope to get as pets?" Vali offered earning a nod, "Not a bad life considering where they came from, I don't mind doing it. Anything else?"

"I'll come up with something. You'll get paid for the work you do for me and it'll look good on your record if you're planning on becoming an Ace," They reached the lobby, "You up for it, Kid?"

"Sure," Vali smiled a bit, "Sounds like a plan. See you later," She waved to Monica, "See you, Monica,"

Steven's friend was a rather tired looking guy by the name of Ryner Moss. His pale cyan hair was long and shaggy, he had tired brown eyes hidden beneath a pair of wire frames with heavy purple bags beneath them. He wore a thick black sweater and some jeans that had definitely seen better days. He had a white messenger bag and beside him a cheerful Kirlia. Considering how tired he looked, Vali wondered just how much sleep the poor man actually got. Ryner offered her a tired smile, "It's a pleasure to meet you, Miss Potter. Steven's told me a lot about you while we were working."

Vali glanced at Steven as she offered the man a smile and her hand, "I hope it's all good. Please call me Vali, Mister Moss."

"Ryner then," Ryner replied as they shook hands, "This little girl is my partner, Stella. She helps me stay on track and keeps me from losing things,"

"It's nice to meet you, Stella," Vali greeted the cheerful psychic/fairy-type, "I'd introduce my pokemon, but they're all being looked over by Nurse Joy. Lt. Surge really worked them over today,"

"It's alright. I'll meet them tomorrow," A light almost melodic voice chirped, "It's really nice to meet you, Vali! You're really pretty,"

"Thanks..." Vali flushed a bit before looking at the two guys, "Let's go get dinner,"

They got their food rather quickly and found an unoccupied table. After they got settled, Steven asked Vali, "So I guess Surge is helping you out while we're here?"

"Yup. I'm going to be training with him from 9 in the morning till whenever he has to start battling," Vali ate some of her stew, "After that, he's got some jobs for me to do that'll give me some form of income since my pokemon will likely be a bit too tired to battle much once we're done training,"

"Like what?" Steven inquired as Ryner looked up from his own bowl of stew in curiosity.

"Not really sure other than taking some pictures of pokemon that'll be going up for adoption," Vali grabbed the salt shaker on the table and shook some out into her stew, "I'm fairly curious what else he's got in mind considering the fact that it'll look good on my record if I'm going to try for Ace,"

"That's pretty lucky," Ryner commented as Stella nodded beside her trainer, "I mean not everyone gets that kind of offer from a Gym Leader like Lt. Surge,"

"I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop especially given what we found out when scanning Vulpix and Eevee," Vali dreaded what kind of chaos could happen and hoped that no one got hurt because of it, "So what about you two? What did you do today?"

"Mostly working on some paperwork from some parts of the company that Father is having me oversee," Steven picked up his glass of water, "It is kind of interesting if a bit dull at times,"

"Vali, may I ask you something?" Ryner requested as Vali picked up her glass.

"Sure," Vali looked at him curiously.

"What exactly do you plan on doing once you compete in the Indigo Conference?" Ryner offered her a measured look, "Do you plan to travel to another region?"

Vali was a bit surprised by the question and didn't really have an answer. Sure, she had a few things she could possibly do, but most of them depended on other people. She wasn't sure about traveling to another region just yet since she was physically ten years old. She could go looking for whoever the 'Lord of Flames' was, but something told her she wasn't ready yet. She saw Steven giving her a curious look and knew he wanted to know as well. Looking at Ryner after taking a drink of her water, she said, "I'm not sure at the moment especially since I have a few offers on the table that either depend on someone else or how I place within the Conference. While traveling to another region seems interesting, I'm am a bit hesitant seeing as it would be more difficult to return home if I needed to."

"I see," Ryner nodded slowly, "Perhaps if you do choose to travel to another region, you might come to Hoenn,"

"I plan to at some point especially since I don't intend to lose contact with Steven," Vali smiled lightly as she looked at Steven.

Steven grinned at her, "Agreed."

After that, the conversation at the table was mainly Steven and Vali sharing stories about their travels through Kanto so far. Ryner and Stella offered a few stories of their own though it was manly the Kirlia. Ryner and Stella left after dinner not wanting to be walking to their hotel once it got too dark. Vali collected her tired pokemon from Nurse Joy and went to go take a shower after getting them all fed. Steven took his turn in the shower while Vali began grooming Vulpix. When she finished with Vulpix, a slightly reluctant Eevee took his turn. She looked up at Steven when he left the bathroom, "Who exactly are you bringing along with you?"

"Metagross, Claydol, Blastoise, Lileep, Mawile, and Skarmory," Steven answered as he moved to sit down on his bed, "Metagross is finally used to the cold which is perfect due to how familiar they are with psychic-type battles. Aggron is as well, but the cold still doesn't quite agree with him. I am hoping Lileep will evolve before we arrive in Saffron,"

Vali recalled Professor Oak comments about Lileep's growth, "You'll probably need to battle with him a few more times before he evolves. Do you want me to see if Surge is willing to help out?"

Steven thought about it before nodded, "That would probably be the best idea."

"I'll talk to him about it tomorrow," Vali finished grooming Eevee, "There you are, Eevee. Who's next?"

Empress pulled herself onto Vali's lap and demanded attention. Reaching into her grooming kit, she pulled out the dragon kit that Professor Oak had gotten for her and pulled out the oil that was supposed to help make a Bagon's head that much stronger. She looked up at Steven as he asked, "Vali, when do you plan to look for..."

Vali paused in rubbing the oil into Empress' head before continuing as the Bagon let out a small growl, "I'm not sure. I know it isn't time for me to look, but when it is, I don't think I'll be able to resist especially given just how much I really need to find out what's going on," She looked up at him, "I'll let everyone know when it's time since I don't want you guys worry so much."

"I'm glad," Steven's shoulders relaxed a bit, "But do you have any idea when that time will be?"

Vali was quiet as she let herself fall into a slight meditative state to get an answer to that question. Funny thing about her inner fire, it was diffrent compared to her magic. With her magic, it went with the flow and generally responded to her will as she got older. With her inner fire, it was playfully chaotic and had to be coaxed into do what she wanted it to do. Both were sentient in a way, it took some time to figure that her inner fire was sentient considering how new it was to her. Generally, she had an instinctive understanding of her magic, but it took awhile for her to learn how to use that to her advantage. While her inner flame on the other hand refused to cooperate for anything, it only gave her vague impressions of things that were rarely ever clear. The only thing it seemed to be willing to give was a sense of anticipation when she thought about meeting the 'Lord of Flames'. After a few moments of 'poking' at it, she got her answer and told Steven, "A year or two."

"A year or two?" Steven frowned a bit, "That isn't very specific,"

"My inner flame doesn't really care about specifics," Vali retorted with a shrug as she focused on Empress who was releasing a low crooning sound.

Steven offered her a sheepish smile, "Sorry. I know this is hard for you especially given everything that happened with those tests."

Vali offered him a weak smile that was barely more than a slight twitch of her lips. She forced herself not to shiver as phantom pain raced through her body at the memory of those tests. Vulpix let out a low whine and pressed himself into her right side as Pele trotted over to nudge her legs. Smaug and Balto both looked at her with worry. Elrond floated over to press a paw to her shoulder. Eevee's gaze carried concern as he looked at her from his place on the pillow. Empress stopped crooning to look at her in wary curiosity. She pushed those memories from her mind as she murmured, "Yeah."

Vali calmed her pokemon down as Steven winced, "Sorry for bringing it up."

"It's okay, but let's just stop about this for a little while, okay?" Vali asked once she'd gotten everyone mostly calmed down and finished up Empress' grooming.

"Sure," Steven agreed with a slight frown.

Silence fell over them as neither of the trainers knew what else to say at the moment, the heavy note of the conversation they'd just had was difficult to shake. Eventually, Vali finished grooming her pokemon and got ready for bed. She glanced at Steven who was looking at something with his pokenav, "Hey, Steven?" He looked up at her, "When I do travel to Hoenn, will you show me around a bit? If you're not too busy being a Champion, that is."