A trip to the casino and Smaug

Celina was given a mostly clean bill of health. The only problem she had was overexerting some muscles in her wings by doing the Wing Attack so soon after evolving and some bruised ribs from the Staraptor's Brave Bird that had been cracked before she evolved. Thankfully, It only required Celina avoiding any thing to do with train or anything more than eating/going to the bathroom for a week which was a small price to pay. The Pidgeot wasn't happy about being unable to train or get used truly used to her new body. Oh, she understood why, but really didn't like it.

To pacify Celina, Vali had the Pidgeot meditate and train her mind. A significant part of Agility involved pushing past the mental limits on how fast you could go without damaging your body. When the pokemon in question managed to use it, they took some of their innate energy and created a barrier around their muscles that prevented them from being torn apart due to going far faster than they naturally should. The barrier got weakened each time the pokemon using Agility used it more than once a day and eventually snapped under the strain thus creating the reason why Agility was often forgone for moves such as Tailwind. In order to use it effectively, the pokemon using Agility needed to build up a resistance to it which took a lot of time and energy that most trainers below master-class didn't have time for.

Vali would be having Balto do the same thing once he evolved and learned Extreme Speed. While the Growlithe-line were made for the move due to how they've evolved over the years, they still needed to train it in order to use it effectively. Learning Agility would help in the long run, Celina would be teaching it to Balto when she finally managed to learn it.

Vali spent her first week in Celadon competing in various competitions as well as cheering Zaria on during the Grass vs Fire tournament. Steven joined in one a few tournaments that caught his eye, but mostly spent his time training his pokemon or doing research on whatever caught his eye when he wasn't watching the two girls battle. Celadon didn't have anything really interesting going on that any of the trainers felt like participating in outside of battling unless you counted the Game Corner. It wasn't until Zaria got second place in the Grass vs Fire tournament with Nuzz that the trio decided to go check it out as a way to celebrate. Of course, Steven wasn't quite sold on the idea seeing as the Game Corner was a lot like a casino, but the girls still managed to drag him along. If there was one thing all of them agreed on, it was that they needed to take a break from battling or really exercising their minds.

Zaria rolled her eyes as Steven fidgeted again as they reached the rather flashy building, "We'll be in there for an hour and only spend up to a three hundred poke-dollars. Just relax."

Vali shook her head and tugged Steven inside. Immediatly, the scents and sounds of the place hit them as soon as they got through the door. The place wasn't overly crowded, but there were still more people than she would have liked. The lights and sounds coming from the machines were a bit loud for her taste. She definitely wasn't going to spending more than an hour inside if only to prevent a headache from forming. Spotting the front desk, she led the way towards it. It barely took them any time to get their coin cases, coins, and some knowledge about the games. At the current moment, the Game Corner boasted a slot game, a betting game involving Voltorb, and a higher/lower game.

"I think I'm going to try the slots," Vali said as they looked at the various sections, "They're relatively low risk,"

"I'll do Voltorb Flip," Zaria decided as she began walking off.

"I'll do the slots," Steven decided after a few moments.

They headed to the slot machines and settled down next to each other. Vali put in the required 5 coins and pulled the lever. When it stopped, she ended up with five Staryu and 50 more coins than when she started. Smiling a bit, she repeated the process.

When the hour was finally up, Vali was 20,000 coins richer while Steven managed to earn about 5,000. Zaria ended up losing most of her coins and only managed to earn 500 much to the dark-type masters annoyance. They headed to the prize section which boasted both pokemon and TMs as prizes. Vali didn't bother looking at the pokemon prizes. She didn't need a new member of her team though the Abra and Porygon prizes were tempting enough that she would probably come back eventually to get one. It made her wonder how they got said prizes in the first place since Abra were hard pokemon to catch on a good day in the wild while the Porygon were expensive enough that only those rich enough or well connected to the League could get one.

Vali looked over the TMs before picking three of the permanent versions. She easily picked out Psychic and Shadow Ball which covered two rather glaring holes in the various elemental moves she had access to even if she didn't have any pokemon that could use them yet. She hesitated before picking up Giga Impact which was commonly referred to as the physical Hyper Beam. At the very least, it wouldn't cause as much damage trying to train it and she wasn't going to actually use it until her pokemon were ready.

Steven picked up the last permanent copy of Gyro Ball that they had in the Game Corner. Zaria was pouting until Vali handed over the rest of her game coins seeing as she didn't have a use for them. Zaria picked up the Shadow Claw TM and some charcoal sticks. Zaria handed her the charcoal sticks with a grin, "Thank you, Vali."

"No problem though let me borrow that Shadow Claw TM to teach Idril, okay?" Vali asked earning a nod.

"Try it again, Smaug," Vali advised as she observed the irritated Charmeleon.

Smaug drew in a deep breath before releasing a powerful stream of Embers that slammed into the rock they were practicing on. So far, Smaug had managed to strengthen the power of Ember, but he couldn't do much more than create a constant stream of projectiles rather than a stream of flames which was needed for Flamethrower. Vali frowned as Smaug's attack petered out and he turned to look at her expectantly, "The power is there and you've managed to create a steady stream rather than the short bursts that you did before," Smaug let out a frustrated sigh, "I know it's frustrating, but we'll get there even if it isn't right away," She closed her eyes for a moment as she tried to figure out something to do, "Maybe try holding your breath once you've inhaled as much oxygen as possible?" She opened her eyes and looked down at Smaug who shrugged, "Let's try it out."

Smaug nodded and turned back to the target. He took a deep breath before holding it for a few minutes before releasing it. Immediatly, Vali could feel the difference in the heat from the Ember attack which looked a bit more like live flames than coal-like projectiles. Smaug stopped and smirked looking pleased with himself since it was progress. She took out her pokedex and marked it down before going onto the files it had one Flamethrower. She watched one of the short clips and grinned when she noticed something, "Okay, I think I've got another idea," She waved a curious Smaug over, "See how this Charizard is doing it?" Smaug watched the video with sharp eyes and nodded slowly, "The increase in oxygen is a definite, so keep up that. I think it's do the placement of it's tongue," She restarted the video and pointed to the open maw of the Charizard, "Try placing your tongue in a few diffrent positions and maybe open your mouth wider too."

Smaug's eyes narrowed as he moved back to where he'd been standing. He had a look of complete concentration on his face as he took another deep breath before holding it. Vali watched him carefully as drew back his head a bit before releasing the flames brewing inside of him. The difference was immediate as it looked more like a proper stream of flames than a powerful stream of Embers. When the flames stopped, Smaug grinned and bounced a bit before stopping as he turned to her with an expectant look. She turned to his pokedex page before shaking her head making him frown, "Just a little bit more and I'm pretty sure you'll have Flamethrower down, Smaug."

With a determined expression on his face, Smaug turned back to the target. Instead of immediately trying again, he stared at the target for a few minutes. When he finally took a deep breath, he drew in more air than he had during his previous attempts before he held his breath. When he released the next stream of flames, Vali watched in awed happiness at the Flamethrower he released. Checking his pokedex entry, she grinned while shouting, "You did it! You learned Flamethrower!" Smaug cut off the flames with a grin and she rushed over to hug him, "You did it, Smaug. I knew you could do it!" Smaug hugged her back, "Now we just need to work on you pulling it off more quickly. Once we do that, we'll work on power output. I'm looking forward to seeing just how powerful it will be when you're a Charizard since most Charmeleon don't learn Flamethrower before they evolve."

Vali fiddled with the TM machine for a few minutes before turning to her pokemon, "Alright, I've decided that each of you will be learning at least one TM before the gym battle. If you manage to master the TM I'm having you learn, you'll either get to choose another one or learn a new move that your species knows."

Vali returned Balto and placed his pokeball in the slot before going through the list of TMs she had. She selected Protect seeing as Balto needed a defensive move. The machine hummed as Balto's pokeball was enveloped in a greenish gray sheen. When it faded, the machine chimed as a transfer complete notification appeared on the screen. Removing Balto's pokeball, she released him and Balto shook himself vigorously before sneezing. Smiling a little, she asked, "Try using Protect, Balto."

Balto barked before closing his eyes tight. A shimmering see-through greenish aura began to rise from Balto's fur as his face scrunched up in concentration. It stopped advancing a few inches off of his body and began to visibly vibrate before shattering causing Balto to open his eyes as he began to pant softly looking a bit tired. Vali reached over and scratched behind his ears, "A very nice first attempt, Balto."

All of her pokemon save for Celina and Eevee were given TMs to play with. Celina was working on Agility now that she was healed and Vali wasn't going to risk Eevee's trust especially since they still had almost two more months left before he made his decision of whether he'd stay with her or not. For Smaug, she chose to teach him Sunny Day since he didn't have many area wide attacks and it was a fairly harmless move most of the time. For Idril, she chose Protect as well since it would up the Sandshrew's defense and hopefully give the young pokemon some courage. For Arwen, she chose Toxic both because it wasn't a move most Ponyta ended up learning and because the Ponyta could use her high stamina to wear out her poisoned opponent. For Terra, she chose Substitute as the Larvitar needed something to offset her current move-set that fit in with her favored battling style. On the plus side, Arwen would hopefully be able to help Idril learn how to use Poison Sting once the Ponyta mastered Toxic to an acceptable degree.

Once everyone had their TMs, they set to training. Vali worked with each of them though she found herself focusing a bit more on Smaug. He wasn't very happy learning an non-attacking move even if he understood why. It was while they worked on Sunny Day that she began to understand why he was so irritated. Smaug's body was starting off the process of evolution. One of the key signs in Charmeleon were an increase in hormones that led to heavy aggression as the body began the process of getting ready for evolution. Once she realized that, she returned him and headed into the pokemon center to have Smaug checked out.

While Charmander evolving into Charmeleon wasn't too bad, Charmeleon evolving into Charizard put a lot more stress on the body. The growth of wings and the separation of the horn-like protrusion on the back of the Charmeleon's head were just some of what went into the final evolution of the Charmander-line. The lungs of a Charmeleon grew rapidly alongside the sacks that allowed the fire-type to produce their fire. The lungs gained a new membrane which would allow the Charizard to fly at high altitudes without becoming short of breath. The brain grew larger and more advanced to allow for the Charizard to use its new instincts as well as understand the mechanics needed for flight. And that didn't account for the change that the Charmeleon's inner flame went through when it reached its maturity not to mention the addition of becoming a flying-type, the final evolution of the Charmander-line was extremely painful due to how much had to happen during the short period of evolution.

It was better to be safe than sorry when it came to final evolutions especially for a Pseudo-dragon.

Steven looked at Vali when she left the pokemon center, "What's going on?"

"I think Smaug's starting the long process of evolving into a Charizard," Vali answered as she sat down next to her bag, "I'd rather get an expert opinion on the matter than ignore the signs and paying for it in the long run,"

"How long will it take for Nurse Joy to figure it out?" Zaria asked as the dark-type master in training walked over.

"A couple hours since Smaug isn't showing any outward signs just yet," Vali was a bit anxious about the results.

On the one hand, Vali was happy if it meant Smaug was going to evolve while they were in Celadon since it meant that there was a pokemon center close by. On the other hand, she was worried about the pain that he was going to go through. Smaug would likely cause a lot of trouble before and after he evolved. An increased aggressiveness was not going to be fun especially when you considered that she only had one fully evolved pokemon capable of kicking Smaug's ass. When he fully evolved, she didn't know if he'd start challenging her other pokemon for the leader spot. If he did, she didn't know how Balto would do against him. While Balto was older than him, Smaug would be a fully evolved pokemon with the benefit of a fully matured inner flame and the power it gave him. An experienced unevolved fire-type vs a fully evolved pseudo-dragon with the added pride of a flying-type. Yeah, she definitely had a reason to worry about it.

When Nurse Joy called for Vali, the fire-type master in training was taken to an office with a calmer Smaug sitting on the floor. Upon entering, Smaug immediately got up and rushed over to her. She bent down to hug him and scratch under his chin. She let go of him and sat down in the offered chair while Smaug settled on the ground beside her with his tail in his lap. She looked at Nurse Joy who sat down with a file in hands, "Nurse Joy, what's the results?"

"You were right to have us check him out as Smaug is definitely in the beginning stages of evolving," Nurse Joy replied with a small smile, "It shouldn't take longer than two to three weeks for him to evolve,"

Vali smiled at that, "Looks like you're going to evolve soon, Smaug."

Smaug looked at her with a pleased grin on his face. Vali turned back to Nurse Joy as the woman said, "Of course, this comes with its own risks, I assume you're aware of them since you received him from Professor Oak."

Vali nodded as she laid a hand on Smaug's head and began to rub the base of his horn-like protrusion earning a low crooning sound, "Yes, Ma'am. I also attended his lectures on the Charmander-line and have been keeping up with the latest breakthroughs in order to keep him as healthy as possible."

"Good," Nurse Joy looked satisfied with her answer, "Most rookie trainers don't do that though it makes sense, you've only got a select few pokemon,"

"They're my family," Vali stated earning a warm smile.

Nurse Joy nodded as she opened the file, "Good. Now, the reason we're having this conversation in my office is because there are some special things you'll need to do both before and after Smaug evolves though I assume you're going to bring him to the nearest pokemon center when he does," Vali nodded, "I'll still give you the information of what to do after he evolves if you're not able to get to the nearest pokemon center when it happens just in case."