Bill's house

Three hours later, they managed to reach the coordinates that Professor Oak had given them. They had run into no less than five trainers though only one pair wanted to double battle. Squirtle still hadn't evolved, but it wouldn't be long until it happened. Much like with Smaug, the little turtle needed something a bit more to push him into actually evolving. As soon as they arrived, it was easy to hear the the loud hissing and rattling of Ekans. Vali forced back a shiver as she was reminded of the basilisk and focused on the sounds of the hisses. Eventually, the hisses faded away into white noise as the sound of five distinct voices echoed through the air. A hand on settled on her shoulder making the fire-type trainer flinch a bit before she turned her head. Steven looked at her in concern, "You froze up a bit. Can you understand them?"

Vali nodded and held up a hand to stall Steven's questions as she listened to the voices. Eventually, she tuned them out as she said, "Bill apparently disturbed all their nests doing something. They're annoyed with him and want to show him why pissing them off is a bad idea."

Steven blinked slightly before asking, "Did you just sum that up or did they actually say that?"

"Summed it up. The accent attached to their voices is a bit hard to decipher, but I managed it," Vali shook her head, "You might want to have Metagross and Claydol restrain them with psychic,"

Steven offered her a curious look before releasing both his psychic types, "Restrain the Ekans that are here."

"There should be five of them," Vali offered to the two.

Soon enough, Metagross and Claydol had the five Ekans restrained in the air. Vali had Steven go check on Bill while she focused on the snake-like pokemon again. During the time that it took Steven to come back with a harried looking Bill Sonezaki, Vali had managed to start understanding the Ekans better. Bill beamed at Metagross and Claydol, "Oh thank you four for saving me! I thought I was going to be a goner."

"Mr. Sonezaki, if I may ask, what did you do to cause their nests to be disturbed?" Vali asked making the scientist blink slightly in surprise.

Bill flushed lightly, "I was working on a new pokemon transporting device that would allow the trainer to transfer their pokemon as they liked via pokedex. The machine I was making ended up blowing up quite spectacularly."

"So the vibrations caused by the explosion was what disturbed them," Steven theorized while looking at the Ekans in understanding.

"Perhaps you should try to make your lab vibration proof before doing stuff like that when you have vibration sensitive pokemon living around you," Vali suggested before looking back at the Ekans who were starting to calm down a bit.

"Maybe you're right," Bill looked at the Ekans and walked over before apologizing for disturbing them.

The Ekans calmed down even more though the words they hissed at Bill were particularly vulgar. Vali had to bite back snickers as she listened to them. She was definitely keeping Sandshrew in her pokeball since there was no need for the little one to learn such words. Bill invited them inside his cottage after Steven had Metagross and Claydol release the Ekans into the forested area. As they followed after Bill, Steven asked, "What were you snickering about?"

"Those Ekans were really foul mouthed," Vali explained earning a curious look, "I'll explain later,"

Bill's cottage was bigger than Vali had first thought and messier than Professor Oak's lab on a bad day. Vali shook her head lightly as she looked at the mess before looking at Bill as he said, "I don't exactly have much to offer in the way of refreshments save for some tea that will take time to make."

"That's fine, we were sent by Professor Oak to check on you," Vali explained earning a surprised look, "He's a bit worried seeing as you haven't been answering his calls,"

"Oh dear, I should call him up," Bill ran a hand through his messy greenish black hair, "I hope there weren't any complications with that Eevee he's taking care of,"

"From what the Professor told me, Eevee's almost completely physically healed," Vali said making Bill jerk a bit and turn to look at her, "I was the one that rescued Eevee and Professor Oak has been keeping me posted,"

"So you're Valkyrie Potter," Bill grinned at her, "I've been wanting to meet you and your Godfather since I learned about you two,"

Vali had to take a step back since that look in Bill's eyes reminded her far too much of Hermione's when the girl had found a new subject to research. She ended up backing into Steven who said, "Bill, why don't you go make some tea while we call the Professor to tell him that you're alright."

"Of course," Bill nodded rapidly.

Vali moved away from Steven, "Sorry."

"It's fine though why did you react like that?" Steven asked with a raised eyebrow as he took out his pokenav.

"He had the same look in his eye that my friend Hermione did right before she begins to devour books on a new subject," Vali wondered how Hermione and Ron were doing since they had probably started what would have to be their fifth year of Hogwarts by now.

After confirming that Bill was fine and talking about what had happened, Professor Oak had ended the call due to the fact one of the Rhyhorn were apparently throwing a fit. Vali let out a small groan earning a curious look from Bill as he walked out of his kitchen carrying a tray of tea, "Something wrong?"

"I fear that my adoptive little brother and Professor Oak's grandson have had an unfortunate encounter with a Rhyhorn at Professor Oak's lab," Vali was definitely going to be calling home and asking about it once they got back to Cerulean, "They're some of the most adventurous five year old boys I know, but sometimes the stuff they pull is particularly bone headed,"

Bill let out a chuckle, "Boys will be boys. I was an adventurous lad at that age as well though I will admit that I've never actually tried playing with a Rhyhorn."

Vali took the offered tea and drank some immediately humming softly in pleasure, "Cardamon Cinnamon tea. I haven't had a good cup since leave Pallet Town."

"It's one of the things that keep me going," Bill smiled looking pleased, "If I may ask, have they made any discovering in how you ended up in this world?"

"No and I highly doubt they will unless they manage to get a hold of one of the Sinnoh legends," Vali said with a sigh, "I will admit that I'm curious about the how's and why's, but I actually prefer this world. Its so much cleaner and has pokemon,"

Bill looked at her in interest, "Would you answer some questions I have on your old world?"

"Sure though I will admit to not knowing a lot about it," Vali smiled weakly at him.

By the time Bill had finished asking his questions, it was almost sunset and Vali's brain felt like mush. While she had been pleasantly surprised by how much she actually knew, Bill had made her think really hard. As they were leaving Bill's house, he'd given both Steven and Vali his number in hopes of staying in contact while looking a little disappointing by the fact that Vali didn't have a communications device. While the pokedex could accept messages, it was only from the regional professor and the League.

Vali grimaced as she looked at the sky, "Well it looks like we should get going if we're to make it back to Cerulean tonight."

"We can use Claydol to get there," Steven said earning a surprised look, "Unlike Metagross, Claydol instinctively learn Teleport upon evolution,"

"Has Claydol practiced it?" Vali knew that teleportation outside of the Abra-line/Ralts-line was rough and often times left many trainers sick.

Steven nodded lightly, "I've made sure of it. While it isn't as smooth as the Abra-line or Ralts-line, it's not very jarring, so long as the distance isn't very great. Since Cerulean isn't that far from here, we shouldn't have any bad side-effects."

Vali sighed in relief, "Alright then. It's better than having to traverse Route 25 and Route 24 while its getting dark."

Steven released Claydol and had her grab onto the large pokemon as he did the same. Claydol glowed lightly and Vali felt her stomach drop a bit as her vision promptly turned upside down while her feet seemed to leave the ground for a few moments. When her feet hit the ground again, she let go of Claydol and stumbled back as her head began to spin. Steven steadied her quickly, "Are you okay?"

"Give me a few moments," Vali closed her eyes, "That definitely wasn't like being teleported by an Alakazam,"

When it didn't feel like the world was spinning, Vali opened her eyes and looked at Claydol as the large pokemon spoke in her mind. Unlike Metagross' rather distorted voice which was caused by having four minds, Claydol's voice was a smooth baritone that sounded slightly whispery, "I am sorry for any distress caused during transit. I am not used to teleporting anyone save for Master Steven."

"It's fine," Vali waved off the apology.

Steven spoke as he let go of Vali once he was sure she wouldn't fall over, "Shall we head inside and get something to eat?"