Breakfast talk and plans for the future

By the time everyone got into the kitchen/patio area, Vali and Elrond had gotten breakfast ready with all the pokemon having some extra vitamins since they all had been training extra hard save for Houndour though the baby was growing up thus needed any extra nutrients possible. The trainers sat down after getting their pokemon settled and Steven spoke up after taking his first sip of coffee, "So what's the plan for today?"

"Relaxation with some light training to work on adding any strategies we feel will actually work with our team," Vali answered as she picked up her glass of juice, "Mainly the first part though since everyone needs to rest as much as possible, we've been going at it pretty hard whenever they're not in Nurse Joy's care or following her advice,"

"True enough," Lance nodded his head as he grabbed a few slices of bacon from the main plate, "I'm going to head to one of the nearby parks for half the day. You two?"

"Same," Vali had picked it out on her pokenav's map last night.

"Mhmm," Steven inclined his head, "I'll be going to town afterward for more exploration,"

"I'll be doing the same," Vali just wasn't sure where she'd be exploring though, "I want to get some more pictures for my portfolio and to get more of a feel for this place,"

"Looks like we're going to all be doing the same thing," Lance looked amused, "Guess we should meet up,"

"Only until around three, I'll be heading to the Oak residence after that though. I've apparently come up with a final rough draft he's felt was acceptable for my research paper and wants to go over it with me a bit. Though we'll be focusing on something else first," Vali took a drink from her juice as the two gave her curious looks, "Apparently there have been some questions about my photography skills among his connections thanks to the pictures people saw from those reports I sent him. We're going to be setting something up, so I'm actually starting my career,"

Both of the boys looked at her in shock, Lance snapped out of it first and burst out, "That's amazing, Vali! Even if it's only going to be a side gig, you've already got something like that set up when most people only do it towards the end of their trainer careers."

Steven stared at her in shock and only broke out of it when Lance nudged him somewhat harshly making her wonder what had been going through his mind. He offered her a warm smile, "That's wonderful, Vali. You've taken so many beautiful pictures and now the world will see it for themselves."

"Thanks, guys," Vali blushed at their compliments, "I wouldn't go so far as to say the whole world, Steven. I'd say only a small portion will probably pay attention to it, but it's still exciting. That reminds me, would either of you mind if I put the pictures I've taken of you and your pokemon up? I won't if you say no, but I'd appreciate it if I could,"

"Go ahead," Lance said with a slight grin, "I don't mind,"

"I don't either," Steven shook his head lightly, "I'm sure they won't mind at all,"

"I'll ask each of them too just to be sure," Vali told them, "But thank you,"

Vali felt nervous for the first time in a long time going to see Professor Oak and she clutched the strap of her bag. Elrond float beside her with Aragorn and Houndour trotting along at her feet. Lance and Steven had both offered to join her only to be declined as she wanted to do this herself. Walking into that somewhat big house, she was surprised by the lack of sound and spoke softly, "Elrond?"

"Only the Professor is here, Delia and the children seem to be out," Elrond's left ear twitched curiously, "He bids us to come to his study,"

"Right," Vali swallowed feeling her nerves spike a bit, "Aragorn, Houndour, I want you two to behave yourselves. It'll be a bit boring since the Professor and I will mainly be talking the whole time. Just let Elrond know and we'll see abut you two going outside to play under Balto's watch, okay?"

The two nodded with confirming barks and they started marking their way towards the Professor's study. Unlike at the Oak house in Pallet, the one at Indigo held it's Study on the ground floor though which was both great since it was easily reached and bad as Vali's nerves seemed to grow with each step closer to that door. Pausing upon reaching it, a soft paw touched her cheek and Elrond spoke in her, "What's wrong?"

"Why am I so nervous?" Vali asked mentally not wanting to voice it out loud, "I shouldn't be,"

"It's setting things in motion for the future, Dear One," Elrond replied in a gentle tone, "Anyone would be nervous, but waiting will not help. It is time to take the plunge,"

Vali took a deep breath and nodded with a small smile before knocking on the door. Professor Oak called out for her to enter and she opened the door. The study was in Indigo was done in warm earthy tones with a medium sized desk and a large office chair. The many shelves carried books and a few nick-knacks. A fire place sat towards the back of the room though it was currently inactive at the moment. A computer was set up on the desk and a couple of photos with it. The room lacked the clutter and well-loved atmosphere that Professor Oak's study held back in Pallet though that was mostly due to not being used much. Speaking of Professor Oak, the man himself was sitting at the desk though he was looking at the screen of his computer, "Good Afternoon, Vali, Elrond, Aragorn, and Houndour. How are you?"

"A little nervous," Vali admitted prompting Professor Oak to look up, "But only because this does have to deal with setting things up for my future. I'm eager to get started though especially since you're satisfied with my latest draft,"

"Right," Professor Oak smiled warmly and waved a hand towards the chair in front of his desk, "Take a seat and we'll get started, I just need to pull up your research paper,"

Vali did as asked and opened her bag up, "So are we going to be publishing it soon?"

"Not just yet," Professor Oak chuckled as Vali deflated, "Now that you've finally created a passable rough draft, we can work on making it look pretty. Once that's done, I'll put it through the publishing process and your first paper will be published. The whole process should only take about two weeks as a whole since you've done the leg work,"

"That actually sounds pretty simple," Vali eyed the Professor in distrust since none of this had been simple so far, "What's the catch?"

"Nothing," Professor Oak focused on his computer, "You've done the hard part, Vali, though I will admit to making it quite a bit harder than it needed to be," He clicked his mouse and typed a few things in before turning back to her, "I would apologize, but the paper you've produced is absolutely amazing as a result. And we're going to make it even better, we only need to do the work now,"

"And this will benefit me in the end too," Vali supposed earning a nod, "I know how to write a good paper and you'll be helping me get my name out there too. I'm on my way to making my start as a Master,"

"Indeed," Professor Oak set his hands down on the desk, "So ready to begin?"

"Might as well," Vali had a feeling they'd be there for awhile just working on the paper alone.

Steven looked up when the door opened and Vali walked into the cottage carrying a worn out Houndour in her arms. Aragorn trotted at her feet though the Vulpix looked ready to drop any second and Elrond seemed a little amused. He put down his dex, "Vali, everything alright? You're coming back a bit late."

"Professor Oak and I got caught up in our work," Vali told him with a tired smile, "We didn't even notice the time passing even when Delia dropped off food for us and took my pokemon out to go play with the boys. It wasn't until about twenty minutes ago she realized we were still working and gave us, Professor Oak mostly, a dressing down before sending me home though not before offering me to stay,"

"Did you get everything done?" Steven asked as Aragorn jumped up to settle down beside him on the couch.

Vali carefully took off her shoes before moving to join him on the couch, "Set everything up, my paper is almost finished though we still need to work on it and we'll be doing when there is time. As for my business, we set up a plan for it. Officially speaking, it'll be in Delia's hands to manage until I turn 16 which is when I'll take over. She'll deal with any contracts, job info, and manage the site. I'll help out when I'm not traveling, but my main job is taking pictures. Delia's agreed to act as my manager and as my business grows we'll work out a percentage of the profit gained, but for now twenty percent seemed like a decent amount especially since a majority of it would be going to my pokemon."

"That's good, Vali," Steven smiled lightly as she set Houndour down and dropped onto the couch beside Aragorn, "What's the name of your business?"

"It took a little while, but I eventually decided on Marauder's Rebirth Photography," Vali answered with a slight flush to her cheeks, "Since coming to this world, I've been pretty much ignoring my past unless it's popped up in my nightmares or my thoughts at random," She pressed a hand to her chest where the feather that belong to Fawkes rested, "But I know that needs to stop especially since my magic needs to be trained with the future in mind," She looked at him and smiled, "So I decided to honor my parents, my fathers both past and present, by using Marauder. I chose 'Rebirth' because we came to this world via fire and were essentially given a chance to start anew by whatever brought us here," She looked at him nervously, "What do you think?"

Steven was a little surprise and touched by her question, "I think it's wonderful that you've put so much thought into this and it's a good name," He frowned a little, "How will you train your magic without a wand though? I know it's hard for you to use it without one."

"That's part of what took me so long to come back tonight," Vali reached down to scratch behind Aragorn's ears, "That crystal we got in the Safari Zone can channel my magic and my flames, I just have to learn how to seperate them. Professor Oak is willing to let me take one of the smaller pieces of crystal to experiment with so long as someone is watching me. After that, I'll just have to work hard to manipulate my magic since I'm not going to focus on using words to guide me like Sirius,"

"Is that safe?" Steven felt a bolt of worry run through him at the thought of Vali getting hurt.

Vali offered him a light smile, "It has some dangers, but it's more powerful. The words merely act as a guideline for our magic to follow and it's not like Sirius knows every spell anyway. I also want to learn the Animagus transformation too," She sighed deeply, "Especially since there's no telling if we'll ever have a chance to go back to our old world, I need to find a work around and figure out what my magic can do."

"I get it," Steven reached out and touched her wrist gently, "I'll help where I can even if I don't exactly understand it. Just try to be safe, okay?"

"I will," Vali promised with a light smile.

Vali stiffened and he tightened his grip on her wrist when Lance spoke up from behind the couch, "That's awesome and I totally agree with Steven about you being safe, Vali, I just have a few questions. What the hell is magic, are you really from another world, and why am I only hearing about this now?"

"Shit," Vali hissed softly under her breath.

Where the absolute hell had he come from and why had neither of them realized he'd been there?