Lance's first championship

"So we'll be headed towards the arena soon," Vali told Lance as she brushed her hair, "Surge is getting the gym prepared to be shut down for the day,"

"This is awesome!" Lance grinned at her, "I can't wait to see you and show you what we can do. We'll be champions after this,"

"How about you brag after beating the champion?" Vali replied with a laugh earning a snort, "C'mon, Dragon-boy, you can't be overconfident before a fight especially this,"

"I know," Lance's grin fell a bit, "Hey, Vali..."

"You'll win, Lance," Vali cut him off, "You're strong enough and you've got the goal in mind. Keep your mind on that, you'll be just fine," She grinned at him, "Now quit talking to me and go pep up your team. Nervous dragons aren't going to be much use on the battlefield, you need to go get them focused and ready to beat the champions team into the ground,"

"Fine," Lance grinned at her and ended the call.

Lance looked at Diaval as his partner let out a low croon, "She's wished us luck, Bud. We've got to prove her right and go get everyone ready for the battle."

Diaval nodded with a determined look on his face. Lance matched his look and began releasing his team as Vali's words filled his mind. He hoped she didn't mind him taking some of her favorite words and using them for his speech.

"Wow, this place looks amazing," Vali said as she looked over the Johto side of Mt. Silver, "So this is where they hold the Silver Conference and champion battles for the Johto Region,"

"Yup," Surge nodded as they walked towards the stadium, "Unlike with Kanto, Johto doesn't use Silver Town's arena space all year long because the wild pokemon tend to be a bit rougher and for historical reasons. Up there," Surge gestured to the gleaming silver and gold bells, "Are the bells of Ho-oh and Lugia. Apparently if the champion being crowned is blessed by at least one of them, the bells will ring,"

"Wow," Vali murmured as she looked up at the bells, "They're so pretty,"

Surge led the way towards the Arena, "Pretty and heavy as hell, the last time they hit the ground caused an earthquake and it took ten Rhyperior to get them back into place."

"Holy shit," Vali stared at the bells in shock, "How the fuck...?"

"No idea," Surge showed the people at the entrance their tickets and they were directed to a different area.

When they reached their designated area, Vali found three other people in the box they'd be sitting in during the fight. The first was Ulric who Vali was happy to see. The second was a shirtless man with gi-pants. The second was an elderly man in a kimono. She knew the two to be the Johto Gym Leaders Chuck and Pryce. Ulric noticed them first and grinned at Vali, "Vali! Surge, nice to see you. In the box with us?"

"Yeah," Surge answered as they walked inside, "Where are the other Johto Gym Leaders?"

"Alvin is busy with his successor and that newbie bug is busy getting his city locked down after the ruckus caused by the removal of Norris," Pryce answered as his eyes settled on her, "Elena is too busy working on getting her daughter trained up for becoming her successor. The young Birdmaster is working on his technique so will be unlikely to join us,"

"Jasmine should be joining us soon," Chuck added with a grin, "The Kid's running a bit late," He looked at Vali, "So you're Valkyrie Potter-Black, I've heard quite a bit through the grape-vine though not as much as I'd wish,"

"All good, I'd hope," Vali said with a sheepish smile as Surge let out a grunt.

"Of course," Chuck grinned at her, "So, Vali, how'd you get into the box?"

"Lance is one of my best friends," Vali explained causing Ulric to laugh.

"And you're one of his future Elite Four members," Ulric revealed causing both Johto gym leaders to stare at her in surprise.

"You're shooting to become Elite?" Pryce asked with a measured look on his face.

Vali nodded lightly as she moved to sit down, "Might as well especially since Lance wanted to drag me along for the ride and it'd ensure my pokemon would get the best possible care."

"Indeed," Pryce nodded lightly.

"That and I'd be letting down a lot people if I didn't become one," Vali said as Litwick slipped out of her shadow to peer at them all, "Anyways, my pokemon want to become the strongest they can and that's what I aim to be,"

Surge chuckled as she sat down and Litwick moved to sit on her shoulder while Thorin jumped onto the seat next to her. Surge looked at them all as he moved to sit down as well, "Cant wait for this to start though, it's been awhile since someone was ballsy enough to try something like this."

"Very true," Pryce muttered as he sat down, "Your nephew is quite..."

"He's a determined kid," Ulric grinned at them all as he sat down, "Which means he should be able to do this,"

Vali looked over at the battlefield as Lance stepped forward dressed in his usual gear though it was definitely much more new. He wore a cape which she knew was a tradition in his clan to wear on special occasions. Lance looked across the field at his opponent the current Johto Champion, Shion Odel, with determination and pride. The mics crackled to life as the announcer shouted, "Welcome everyone to the battle of the century! Can Lance Blackthorn beat not only our champion Shion, but also Champion Maxwell of Kanto?! We'll see the start of it today with this battle! Like always at the higher levels, you can switch out your pokemon at will, but no item use is permitted! After three pokemon are knocked out or withdraw, the field will change terrain! And you can only use six pokemon! So how about we start things off, the challenger and champion were given a coin to toss before the ceremony and Challenger Lance won. Champion Shion, you have the first release!"

"Very well," The grape haired woman looked at Lance with a sleepy grin, "It won't help you out, Kid. Come forth and rend them, Tsukiyomi!"

Shion's starter burst forth with a roar and the Absol immediately began looking around with a glare. Lance grinned at Shion in reply as he released a Kindra that immediately set off a rain-dance, "Thanks for the pep-talk, but your reign is over. It's time for us to become grow stronger with a new champion that has direction."

The Referee started the match and Vali could barely keep up even with her increased training. Lance hadn't been kidding when he'd said the battles had pushed him to new levels. Cerci took slight damage, but that Absol found itself quickly falling to the powerful water dragon. Shion's next release was an Ampharos that barely managed to scrape by a win. Lance took it out with an Aerodactyl followed by a rather ballsy Meganium though the Aerodactyl she hadn't known about barely survived that round. The fight paused to switch the field revealing a race sleek water field. Aerodactyl was taken out by a Gyarados. Lance released a Gyarados and the two almost ripped each other apart before they were withdrawn. The two released their pokemon at the same time with Shion pulling out a Gardevoir and Lance a Dragonite. The two fought for awhile before the Dragonite took it out with a lucky dragon's breath. The next pokemon was a Mamoswine that took out Dragonite. Lance release Chark and barely managed to take out the Mamoswine.

Vali watched it fall and let out a shout alongside everyone in the arena as the Referee called it. She shouted out, "Lance! You did it!"

Vali hugged Lance when she met him at the pokemon center after his battle with the former champion. Lance accepted the hug with a slight grunt of surprise, "Vali! We won!"

"You did," Vali grinned at him, "But how in the world did you manage to get that Dragon Breath to hit to work on her Gardevoir? I know that they are somewhat harmed by dragon-type attacks due to their psychic-type natures, but it was definitely more effective than that,"

Lance let out a laugh as she released him, "Just like you've done with your pokemon, we've combined our attacks. That one was our refined Thunder Breath, Diaval uses Thunder Bolt and mixes it with Dragons Breath to attack. It was a struggle to figure out the mechanics."

Vali looked at him in shock then grinned, "That's totally awesome! I'd love to learn something like that."

"Maybe in the future since we're still working out some kinks," Lance chuckled as he led Vali towards one of the nearby seating areas, "So what did you think other than that?"

"It was a tough battle and she nearly got you a bunch," Vali replied as they reached the seating area, "Man, it was so exciting to watch. The way everyone reacted to the bells ringing afterward was amazing too,"

"Yeah," Lance's grin widened, "It was amazing," He clenched his fists with a slightly fevered look in his eyes, "We're officially known as champions,"

"Eh, you won a champion level battle, but won't become the actual champions until your awards ceremony," Vali reminded him earning an eyeroll, "Do you have any idea when that's going to happen?"

"They're allowing us to put it off for two weeks. Long enough for us to recover from this battle and do our next champion battle," Lance answered losing that fevered look in his eyes, "Soon enough, we'll be champions of both regions,"