First Day's Travels

After rescuing Steven from Sirius, Vali said her goodbyes with Balto and Smaug before leaving. Steven spoke as they left the safety of Pallet town and entered Route 1, "Do you know what kind of pokemon you want to catch first? The first gym is a rock type one."

"There aren't many pokemon that are strong against rock types within Route 1," Vali told him, "My best bet is to try and find one of the rare Pikachu that live around here. If I can, I can teach it Iron tail just like I'm going to teach Smaug to use Metal claw. Once we get to Viridian City, I can go by the pond that's there and see if I can't catch a Poliwag. If I can catch both a Pikachu and Poliwag, I'll have pokemon that will help for the Cerulean gym,"

"Not a bad idea," Steven admitted as they walked, "It'll take us around three days to reach Viridian if we walk as long as possible, but we don't really need to do that,"

Vali nodded, "I want to catch a Pidgey as well. They're really quick and when Smaug evolves into his final evolution, he'll benefit from a teacher that knows how to fly."

Steven chuckled lightly, "You're really prepared, aren't you?"

Vali flushed lightly and rubbed the back of her neck, "I've learned that actually having a plan is better than just rushing in and planning on the fly. Though I'm probably better at planning things on the fly."

"It's a good plan regardless," Steven assured her, "I was thinking that we'd take it a bit easy on the first day both so you can catch any pokemon you find interesting and so we can get a bit of training done. At the very least, our teams should meet one another and I still need to introduce my team to Squirtle,"

"I'm fine that. It'll probably help me get used to traveling too," Vali said earning a nod, "So why Squirtle?"

"He has the best defense out of the three Kanto starters," Steven replied, "I'm a defensive fighter as it makes it easier to gauge my opponents though I can be offensive if I so desire,"

Vali nodded lightly seeing the benefits in that fighting style though it would only work if the pokemon were able to endure hits or avoid them. It fit steel type pokemon fairly well.

Vali ended up getting a chance to capture a Pidgey not long before they were going to stop for lunch. It was poking around the ground, but stopped when it noticed them. Rather than fly away, it chirped and Steven said, "Here's your chance."

"Right," Vali took out Smaug's pokeball and released him, "Smaug, we're going to be battling that Pidgey," The Charmander eyed the Pidgey before growling earning a shriek from the Pidgey, "Let's start off with Growl and Ember,"

Smaug growled loudly causing Pidgey to flinch a bit before spitting out a fire ball that Pidgey was quick to dodge. It took flight before lashing out with a tackle attack, "Smaug, dodge it and try to hit it with Ember as it goes by!"

Smaug barely managed to dodge Pidgey, but failed to hit the bird pokemon with his ember. Pidgey came back around with another tackle attack and Smaug was quick to dodge before finally managing to hit it with ember. Pidgey let out a shriek of pain as Vali quickly took a pokeball out of her backpack, but she didn't try to catch it yet. Pidgey flew towards with another tackle, but this time Smaug didn't manage to dodge it. He did hit Pidgey with another ember though which further weakened the flying type. Vali called out, "Next time it comes around, try to grab it when it tackles you and hit it with Ember again."

Smaug did as she asked and spat out an ember. Pidgey's shriek of pain died as it passed out and Vali sent a pokeball at it. The ball shook for a few moments before chiming. She walked over to the ball and bent down to pick it up. She smiled softly before turning to Smaug and pulling her Charmander into a hug, "Good job, Smaug. You got us a new teammate."

Smaug grinned at her looking smug despite how tired he seemed. Vali turned to Steven as she let go of Smaug and he said, "You two did a good job for a first time battle even if it was against a Pidgey. Nicely done, Smaug."

Smaug wagged his tail a bit showing how much the words pleased him.

After stopping for lunch, Vali released her new Pidgey and took care of its wounds along with Smaug's. The Pidgey was too exhausted to do more than allow Vali to fix it up. When she finished fixing Pidgey's injuries, Vali put away the potion she'd used and poured some pokemon food out for Pidgey, "Here, you could use some food after that battle," Pidgey eyed the food for a moments before hopping forward and starting to eat slowly, "My name is Vali, the Charmander that beat you is Smaug, and the Growlithe is Balto. I'm you're new trainer and they're your new teammates," The Pidgey eyed the two though it's eyes narrowed at Smaug showing that it remembered what pokemon had beaten it, "I'm not saying that you need to get along with them right away, but it would be nice if you could avoid causing trouble outside of practice battles," Pidgey seemed to think about it before nodding, "Good. Now," Vali took out her pokedex earning a curious look from the Pidgey, "This is a pokedex and I'm going to use it to scan you. It'll tell me a bit more about you."

Pidgey inclined it's head before focusing on eating the food in front of it. Vali scanned the Pidgey while it ate.

Pidgey, the tiny bird Pokémon. Pidgey has an extremely sharp sense of direction. It is capable of unerringly returning home to its nest, however far it may be removed from its familiar surroundings. It is docile and prefers to avoid conflict. If disturbed, however, it can ferociously strike back.

This Pidgey is female and has the ability Keen eye. This Pidgey knows the moves Tackle and Sand Attack.

"Not exactly a strong move set, but we're still close to Pallet," Vali said not feeling very surprised, "But that can be taken care of by training hard and getting experience," Vali looked at Pidgey, "Would you like a nickname?"

Pidgey thought about it before shaking her head earning a shrug from Vali. Not all of her pokemon would want nicknames and she was fine with that. Pidgey might want one later on which would probably be better as it would allow Vali to make a list of names that suited the bird. Steven smiled lightly before saying, "You should probably feed those two. From what I remember, young pokemon tend to eat more often than their older counter parts unless they're certain species."

"Right," Vali took the bag of generic pokemon food she'd gotten Pidgey's food from and poured some into a bowl for Balto before pouring a bit more than that it's Smaug's bowl since he'd battled today.

Steven released Squirtle before supplying the water type with food and water before taking out his lunch. Delia had packed a lunch for Vali which she took out of her bag. Steven spoke as they settled down to eat, "You did a fairly good job at battling Pidgey. Your strategy once Pidgey began to attack fairly good though I would advise trying a diffrent method as Smaug doesn't have the speed he would need against a fast pokemon like Pidgey."

Vali nodded lightly, "It makes the fact I'm planning on training Smaug to be faster alongside Balto even more important though I'm still going to focus on upping their power. Speed isn't worth it if they don't have any power behind them not to mention defense is an issue."

"What moves do they have?" Steven asked with a contemplative look.

Vali thought back to the moves Smaug and Balto had, "Smaug knows Growl, Scratch, Ember, and Dragon Pulse. I'm not too sure how strong Dragon Pulse is just yet. I doubt it's very strong if only because Smaug is still young and non-dragon types tend to have trouble using dragon type moves," Steven nodded while looking surprised at Smaug's egg move, "Balto knows Bite, Roar, Ember, Leer, Odor Sleuth, Helping hand, and Morning Sun."

"Morning Sun? Most would not expect a Growlithe to know it," Steven commented earning a smile from Vali, "It's a good move too if a bit inaccurate due to how much it relies on the weather. You should try to invest in the Sunny Day TM when you have the chance as it would give Balto more control over Morning Sun not to mention boost your fire types powers. It would also help if you end up with any grass types as well,"

Vali took out her dex and made a note of Steven's suggestion in the notes section, "He'll need all the help he can get until I can find him a fire stone. I won't evolve him until he's reached the limit of what he can do as a Growlithe. Once he does, I'll evolve him."

"Most trainers with Growlithe or any other pokemon that use evolutionary stones evolve their pokemon as soon as possible, they want their pokemon to be stronger sooner rather than later," Steven looked a bit annoyed by that and Vali couldn't blame him, "They only cripple their pokemon later on,"

Vali nodded as she continued to eat, "So how come you aren't letting out your other pokemon?"

"I will later when we stop for the night," Steven told her, "To be honest, they're probably still tired from the long trip here. We did a lot of battling on the boat over here,"

Vali didn't get a chance to catch a Pikachu on the first day of travel, but she didn't mind too much. She needed to get to know Pidgey better not to mention Balto and Smaug were fairly tired from all the walking they did together. Steven had suggested that both of them walk, or run in Balto's case, to increase their endurance. Pidgey flew a little bit, but stuck close to them. She didn't blame her since the Spearow were rather agitated lately. More than likely, some of them were on the verge of evolving which always led to problems. Depending on what happened, Professor Oak was either going to get involved or the league would send some trainers to deal with the Fearow.

When they finally stopped for the night and got their camp ready, Steven told her, "I'm going to release my pokemon. Try not to get too close until I introduce you."

Vali nodded having been warned multiple times since she got here that even if a pokemon is trained, it will not react well to strangers if they're too close to it upon it's release, "Of course."

"Come on out, my friends!" Steven call out as he released the six pokemon from the pokeballs hooked onto his waist.

The familiar forms of Skarmory and Squirtle appeared before being followed by four relatively new pokemon to her. She had seen them when she watched the Hoenn League conference, but it was the first time she was seeing them in person since Professor Oak didn't have any steel type pokemon in the corral. The first one was familiar if only due to the fact she'd toyed with the idea of catching one, a Metagross. The only difference between it and the ones she'd seen before was its lighter shade of turquoise. A regular Metagross had dark turquoise metal covering its body whereas this one had light turquoise telling her it was shiny.

The second was also fairly familiar most due to her high interest in its first evolutionary form: Aggron. The dragon like steel type was over 6 foot 11 and dented the ground a little when it appeared from its pokeball. Iron plates covered its entire body and was mostly a dark blackish-grey, the only places that weren't a dark blackish-grey were its sharp claws, a ring around its elbows and knees, and its head. Sharp horns were set just above its sky blue eyes.

The third and fourth weren't familiar to her. The first was a large levitating pokemon with several large pink eyes that created a ring around its head which were surrounded by wave wavy marks. Its body was dark brown body with two short legs. It has a protrusion on top of its head. Its eyes have a pattern of alternating between being open and closed. It also has cannon like arms separate from its body which were kept close to it.

The second was even odder than the first. It looked like a plant with eight dark-tipped, pink tentacles protruding from an opening on top of its head. Inside the pitch black opening are two glowing, yellow eyes. The remainder of its head is purple with yellow eye spots resembling targets. The head is connected to the body by means of a yellow stem. The body itself is purple and semi-spherical. Four stubby roots acted as its legs.

Steven spoke to the five pokemon older pokemon as Squirtle trotted over to where Vali was getting pokemon food out for her pokemon. She smiled and rubbed along the base of his neck earning a low gurgling sound from the water-type. Squirtle nuzzled into her touch and whined when she removed her hands. She waved him off and sent him back over to Steven since he needed to meet his new teammates. She took out some of the Oran berries she had stocked up on from Delia's garden and the small Pokemart in Pallet before squeezing the berries over the three bowls of food she prepared before mashing the remains of the berries into the food ensuring that it was thoroughly mixed in before setting the bowls in front of her pokemon. She jumped slightly when Steven commented, "I wasn't expecting you to do that."

"I figured that they'll all benefit from the boost the Oran berries will give them and it'll have an easier time being absorbed into their systems," Vali explained as she reached out to scratch behind Balto's ears, "I learned at Professor Oak's lab that while pokemon will eat the generic pokemon food, they will respond better to it if it has some berry juice soaked into it. As far as I'm aware, pokemon generally love Oran berries, so mixing some of them in after a long day of walking will make it easier on my pokemon especially since they're going to need the small boost later on,"

"You might have been better off just giving them each a berry and waiting until after they got some training in to feed them," Steven said earning a light flush from Vali, "Though I suppose they might need it after walking for most of the day,"

Smaug and Balto were starting to look a bit less tired the more they ate. Vali looked at Steven's team, "So who's who?"

"There's Metagross," Steven gestured to the shiny pokemon, "They're my first pokemon and my strongest," He gestured to the Aggron, "That's Aggron, I caught him when he was still a Aron. He's my second pokemon. Next is Skarmory, she's my fifth. Next is Claydol," He pointed to the first pokemon that she hadn't recognized, "I woke them up as a Baltoy and managed to catch them," He pointed to the last pokemon she hadn't recognized, "This is Lileep, he's a fossil pokemon from Hoenn,"

"A fossil pokemon?" Vali stared at the pokemon in shock, "I didn't know they'd advanced the research enough to bring them back,"

"Thanks to my father being CEO of the Devon Corporation, he managed to get me one with another one on the way if I raise Lileep well enough," Steven smiled as he patted Lileep lightly earning an odd gurgling-trill from the pokemon, "He's a grass/rock type,"

"And Claydol is some type of psychic type, right?" Vali asked earning a surprised nod, "I figured since...they?" Steven nodded lightly, "Has a presence to it that's similar to the Psychic types that Professor Oak sometimes has in the corral,"

"Ah. Claydol is also a ground type," Steven told her as the pokemon approached, "Everyone this is Valkyrie Potter though she prefers Vali,"

Each gave their own greetings and Vali smiled at them, "Hi everyone. My pokemon are the Charmander, the Growlithe, and the Pidgey. The Charmander's nickname is Smaug and the Growlithe's is Balto. I hope we can all get along while traveling together."

The elder pokemon eyed hers before either snorting and showing no reaction at all. The only one who really reacted was Lileep. The fossil pokemon waddled over before reaching out to touch her pokemon with his vines. Smaug growled and let out a burst of fire causing the grass/rock type to recoil from the lizard pokemon. Pidgey looked resigned while Balto wagged his tail with excitement and gleefully allowed the odd pokemon to touch it. Lileep let out that odd gurgling-trill again and Vali made note that it was probably a sound to show it's happiness.

As soon as her pokemon finished eating, Steven and her set their teams up to train. Smaug was set to sprinting along with Lileep to increase their speed. Pidgey was following Skarmory as the steel bird flew in quick circles over head. Balto was running through an obstacle course that Steven had Metagross, Aggron, and Claydol set up. Aggron started doing a similar sprinting exercise as Smaug and Lileep though he was slower than the two. Steven had Metagross and Claydol use their psychic powers to make the obstacles they created rotate to help fine tune their control. Steven and Vali were both observing the exercises while the elder trainer was discussing her teams move sets. Out of all her team, Smaug likely had the most power whereas Balto had the most control due to his age. Smaug was the slowest with Balto being the quickest which didn't surprise her. None of her pokemon had much of a defense which would be remedied as they got more experienced. Pidgey was the weakest of her pokemon both in move set and training due to the fact she was a wild pokemon whereas her other two had been raised by humans.

Steven commented, "You'll have to work hard with Pidgey. While Balto is at a disadvantage because his species has only one evolution, he has the benefit of being an older pokemon and closer to his prime than the other two. Pidgey is quite frankly a weak pokemon, but can become strong especially if you ensure she masters her moves."

"I'll have to work on getting all of them to master their current move set not to mention teach both Smaug and Balto Iron Tail," It was too useful a move to not teach it to them, "Not to mention, I'm going to teach Smaug Metal Claw,"

"We should see where they stand at the moment with their current move pools," Steven advised earning a nod, "After that, you should have Smaug focus on Metal Claw and Balto do the same with Iron tail. Once they both get it, you can have Balto teach Smaug Iron Tail though it shouldn't be too hard. Thankfully, the process to teach them isn't very hard. It just takes time,"

Vali took out her pokedex and brought up the page on Pidgey, "Gust is definitely something Pidgey needs to learn alongside Quick Attack. I'll eventually have to teach her Steel Wing. It's a shame Pidgey doesn't have too many defensive moves."

Steven nodded with a frown, "Pidgey are among the frailest bird pokemon alongside Taillow and Spearow. Thankfully, they're also among the fastest though the males tend to be slower since power is more important to them."