Cerulean training sessions

Misty looked at Vali curiously as they settled down in the lounge area after she released Smaug to join Balto. Due to the presence of other trainers, she was keeping Sandshrew in her pokeball for now. Glancing at Misty as she took out her pokedex to write down the ideas she'd gotten during the battles, she asked, "What's up, Misty?"

"Why did you become a trainer, Vali?" Misty asked her curiously.

Vali hummed softly as the triplets looked at her curiously, "Well, I didn't originally want to become a pokemon trainer."

Misty looked at her in shock, "Really? Why?"

Vali shrugged lightly, "It never really appealed to me. Oh, the battles and contests were interesting, I loved watching them on TV and seeing them at the corral when traveling trainers came by to see Professor Oak," She continued typing on her pokedex, "It wasn't until day I went to the lab. I can't remember the exact reason I was there, but I ended up seeing a trainer with a three legged Ninetales..."

The four Waterflower sisters listened to Vali as she told the story with wide eyes. She didn't notice their expressions until after she finished the story and was somewhat surprised by them. Was she really that good of a story teller? Mentally shaking her head, she looked at Misty as the orange haired girl asked, "If that's your reason for becoming a trainer then what's your goal?"

Vali looked at Balto and Smaug as she grinned, "Short term is complete my badge run. Long term is to become a fire-type master. I have always had a bond with fire-types that no one could really explain and eventually thanks to Steven here, I finally decided to become a fire-type master."

"But you have other pokemon," Misty pointed out.

"You'll find that many pokemon master's have pokemon that aren't their favorite type pokemon," Steven explained earning a surprised look, "I'm raising a Squirtle and another pokemon that isn't a steel-type despite the fact I want to become a Steel-type master. When it comes to pokemon and trainer, it doesn't matter what type they are so long as the bond between you is strong,"

Vali added on, "One day, you'll find pokemon that just speak to you. It'll be like there is something about them that screams to you that they're meant to be yours. When that happens, it won't matter what type of pokemon they are, what gender, what nature, or anything like that. All that will matter to you is that they're yours and you're theirs," She pointed at Balto who was rough housing with Smaug on one of the fire-proof mats set up all over the room, "Take Balto for example. He's almost five years old and I met him a little under two years ago. Based on what's known about captured pokemon, we shouldn't have the bond that we do and yet, we do. He's mine just as much as I am his."

Misty wasn't the only one looking at her in shock. Balto looked away from where he was pinning Smaug down after hearing his name and Vali held out a hand to him. He got off of Smaug and raced over to her. She began petting him as Smaug slowly made his way over to her. Violet commented, "You'd never know it at first glance."

Grace and her husband Walter came to the pokemon center as they were picking up their pokemon. Misty let out a squeal and called out, "Daddy!"

"Hello, my precious pearl," Walter bent down to pick up his daughter.

Walter had dual colored hair with the top being a whitish pink color and the bottom being a dark almost black blue. He had striking hazel eyes that glittered with happiness as he looked his youngest daughter. Grace smiled at her husband and youngest daughter before looking at Vali, "She didn't cause any trouble, did she?"

Vali shook her head lightly, "Not at all, she was a very well behaved kid."

"Vali won against Lily and Daisy!" Misty announced with a grin, "It was awesome, but she lost against Violet,"

"Which just showed me that we have a lot of work to do before the gym battle," Vali said earning a smile from Grace and she turned to look at the triplets, "Thanks again for the chance to battle with you. I needed that,"

"Like no problem," The three said with grins.

Walter spoke causing Vali to look at him, "Thank you for watching over Misty, Miss Potter."

"It's no problem and please call me Vali," Vali smiled warmly at him, "It was a lot of fun. She's a good kid,"

"We should get going if we want to be ready in time for the show," Grace said earning a few nods from her family, "Vali, Steven, you two are welcome at the gym any time,"

Vali nodded as Steven said, "Good luck with your show."

With that, the Waterflower family left and Steven looked at Vali, "So ready to work on our double battling together?"

"Yup," They started heading towards the practice field, "Hey, Steven, do you think Skarmory can help Celina learn some of the moves that I have in mind? Her move-pool is far too small. If I want her to really shine, I need to widen her move-pool,"

"I don't see why not though you'll have to let me look over your notes," Steven said earning a nod.

"It's going to be a long two weeks for Celina and the others," Vali wasn't about to let any of her pokemon slack off even if they weren't participating in the battle, "But it'll be worth it in the end,"

Vali set her pokemon on a very strict schedule for the next two weeks that was adapted from one of Steven's training schedules. They all got up around seven in the morning for a morning run/jog through the city until eight when they returned to get ready for the day. Breakfast was a large healthy meal full of berries, vitamins, and other healthy stuff. After that, they would start working on their physical abilities until noon. On some days, they worked on getting faster and increasing their stamina. On other days, they worked on getting their bodies more powerful. At noon, they would eat a filling lunch with oran berries to regain their strength. After that, they would work on either getting their attacks stronger or learn new ones until a quarter to five. They would spend all the time they had before dinner which was at six cooling down and recovering from their day. After a dinner of healthy food, they would watch videos or think of strategies together.

Every two days, Vali had them take a break to relax and recuperate. Depending on the day, Vali and Steven would go out and find people to double battle against. It wasn't all work though, Vali made sure they thoroughly enjoyed their time in Cerulean. It was a city rich with history and had unique activities you could only do there. They went to some of the water-shows held at the gym, watched the various water based competitions going on, and got to enjoy a minor festival that Cerulean threw every year in honor of the water-type pokemon that helped the city survive.

Vali ended up taking some swimming lessons at the gym as she wasn't that good of a swimmer. Pikachu and Balto joined her. Pikachu joined her both because it was a good skill to have and because it would help him get even faster. Balto was doing it for the same reasons, but also because it would help with his resilience to water. She hadn't been sold on allowing Balto to join in on the class until one of the local Officer Jenny came in with her own Growlithe partner who seemed to absolutely love the water. It was apparently a training exercise that the Jenny family had developed to ensure that their favored partners would be able to work through all kinds of conditions.

Steven and Vali both ended up sitting in on some of the classes that the gym held on water-type pokemon. The classes were fun, interactive, and highly educational for both trainers. She ended up finding out things about water-type pokemon that not even Professor Oak knew when she mentioned some of the facts over the phone when she was checking in on Eevee's progress. Surprisingly, her call had prompted Professor Oak into contacting all the Kanto region gyms about their discoveries and ended up helping the Professors research. Because of this, Professor Oak asked her to contact him as often as she could about the interesting things she learned during her journey which she was happy to agree to do.

Vali beamed as Pikachu correctly executed Electro Ball for the first time and pulled him into a gentle hug as she congratulated him. They had a week before the gym battle and her pokemon were working tirelessly to become better. Celina's loss seemed to light a fire under their butts that made them try harder than they had before. Balto had recently finished learning Fire Fang and was working on Reversal when he wasn't assisting Smaug. Celina had managed to figure out how to do Aerial Ace through using Quick Attack and tackle together. She wasn't exactly sure how that worked, but was happy that Celina had managed it. At the current moment, the Pidgeotto was working on Swift which was coming along greatly and Twister which wasn't going so well since Celina didn't really know how to feel out the dragon-type energy she needed to use for the attack.

Vali let go of Pikachu as she said, "Good job, Pikachu. Now, you get to choose between Thunder Wave and Thunder Bolt as the next move you learn. Which one do you want to try?" She held out her pokedex to him and he pointed to Thunder Bolt with a determined look on his face, "You sure?" Pikachu nodded, "Alright, but that means you're going to be working on charging up your electricity longer and make it stronger too. I'll see if Nurse Joy wouldn't mind you getting some extra electricity from the feeding port. For now, I want you to work on charging up Electro ball faster. While you've finally got it, you need to charge it faster and put a bit more power behind it. Try holding it after you charge it up, it'll probably help you get Thunder Bolt down faster."

Pikachu nodded and darted off to go do as she asked. Vali turned to go inside before pausing and returning Sandshrew deciding to see what Nurse Joy had to say about her. Steven looked up from where he was explaining something to Squirtle who looked more like a Wartortle every day, "Vali, where are you going?"

"To see Nurse Joy about allowing Pikachu get some extra electricity from the feeding port seeing as he's decided to learn Thunder Bolt," Vali said earning a nod from him, "I'm also going to see how much longer until Sandshrew will be ready to start training," She looked at Squirtle, "Are you going to see if you can get him to evolve today?"

Squirtle grinned at her as Steven said, "Yeah. He's so close that it isn't even funny."

"I bet he's uncomfortable too," Vali said earning a wince from Squirtle, "Good luck, Squirtle. I can't wait to see how you look as a Wartortle,"

Vali headed inside and passed by a few trainers before reaching the lobby where a small line of trainers had formed. She got behind them and took out her pokedex to make waiting go by faster. She opened up on the page she'd made for Pikachu and checked off Electro Ball before putting down Thunder Bolt with Thunder Wave under it with a question mark. She saved that before moving on to each of her other pokemon adding their own learned moves along with the ones they were attempting to learn. She was surprised when a notification appeared on her dex telling her to call Professor Oak as soon as possible. Deciding to do that after she got finished with Nurse Joy, she closed her pokedex after saving everything and found herself in front of the desk. Nurse Joy smiled at her, "Hello, Vali. How can I help you?"

"I want to get Sandshrew checked out to see how much longer it'll be before I can train her," Vali answered as she unhooked Sandshrew's ball from her belt and put it on the tray Nurse Joy set up, "I also need to know if Pikachu could take some extra electricity from the feeding port. He's trying to learn Thunder Bolt,"

"I don't see why not especially since there aren't many electric types around the center," Nurse Joy picked up the tray, "Just make sure he knows that he can't take all of it," Vali nodded already planning on it, "I should only need fifteen minutes to see where Sandshrew stands. Has she started digging yet?"

"Not just yet, but by the burrowing instincts and the fact she's been playing with dirt, I'd say it won't be too long before she does," Vali answered earning a grin, "I'm going to have one of my older pokemon show her later on," Nurse Joy let out a soft laugh, "Thanks again, Nurse Joy,"

"It's no problem, Vali," Nurse Joy said before shooing her away.