Morning training in the aftermath

Lt. Surge looked at Vali with just a small amount of shock when she walked into the indoor training ground, "Kid, I'm surprised you're here given what happened."

Vali shrugged as she released her pokemon and set them to training, "If I let something like yesterday break me down, the stuff I went through and survived before will mean nothing."

"Alright then," Lt. Surge shook his head, "You'll work on strategizing and figuring out how to use your favorite strategy with those two," He pointed to Smaug and Balto, "I'll be doing some personal training with Elrond. In thirty minutes, you should go oversee everyone's training before returning to what you're doing,"

"Right," Vali nodded feeling glad that Lt. Surge was letting her try to make things as normal as possible, "What about Eevee?"

"He'll be working with Jolteon," Lt. Surge answered as he gave her a look of understanding, "Now get to work,"

Vali wasn't surprised when Sirius barged into the indoor training ground much to Lt. Surge's annoyance not long after she started working on her strategies. She'd been expecting him to come by at some point today to check on her, but she would admit to expecting him earlier. Like closer to dawn, she guessed that Delia had probably convinced him to wait until a more reasonable time which the fire-type master-in-training was very grateful for. She did have to wonder how the man knew she'd be here, but supposed Steven had probably said something. She put down her pokedex as Sirius shouted rather unnecessarily, "What the hell is going on here?!"

"Training obviously," Lt. Surge glowered at Sirius looking quite ticked to be interrupted in the middle of explaining something to Elrond who looked just as annoyed as the Gym Leader, "What are you doing here, Black?"

"Checking on my Goddaughter," Sirius replied with a growl as Vali wondered why he was stressing the 'my', "What the hell are you doing?"

A part of Vali was tempted to see where this went, but the rest of her wasn't especially since Lt. Surge's pokemon were giving the grim animagus the evil eye. None of them appreciated the way Sirius was treating their trainer. Considering just how nasty electric-type pokemon could be despite their generally more cheerful dispositions, the man was likely to find himself in quite a bit of pain via electrical attacks if he didn't change his tone. Clearing her throat, Vali said, "Surge is helping me train my pokemon," Sirius opened his mouth, "Siri, I want things to be as normal as possible today. Please just stop."

Sirius' mouth closed and he seemed to take a closer look at Vali. She saw him wince likely seeing how tired and drawn she was. Despite the more restful sleep she'd had after Steven woke her up from the nightmare, she was still very tired and in pain despite the graze on her side being closed up. The antibiotic that the doctor had prescribed had left the fire-type master-in-training both sleepy and nauseous which she would be mentioning to the physician next time she saw him. Sirius ran a hand through his hair as he sighed, "Sorry, Pup. Yesterday just scared the hell out of me."

"Me too," Vali offered him a strained smile as she picked her pokedex back up, "Which is why I want things to be normal while I work up the energy needed to mentally right myself and not suffer a break down,"

Which was actually quite hard to avoid when not distracted by doing something, Vali knew it wasn't the best way to deal with her problems, but it worked for the most part. It was her best coping mechanism which was better than just wallowing in some corner and flinching at every passing shadow. She refocused on what was going on in the world around her when Sirius asked, "Is there anything I can do to help?"

Lt. Surge snorted, "No, we've got it all handled Black."

Sirius scowled at Lt. Surge causing Vali to sigh deeply wondering what was going on with the animosity. She knew there would be some considering the fact that she'd nearly been mugged and actually been shot in the city that Lt. Surge was supposed to be protecting. But this level of animosity went beyond that, the question was why? She eyed the two with a small grimace before asking Sirius, "How is Delia?"

"Worried about you same as Professor Oak," Sirius answered as he walked over to the bench she was sitting on, "It was scary getting a call from Steven saying you were in the hospital after nearly being mugged," He offered her a hopeful look, "We'd all feel better if you came home for a little while longer,"

"If I do that, I'd probably end up never leaving again," They both knew Vali was lying when she said that because staying in Pallet Town for a month had left the girl restless in ways she had experienced before.

Seeing everyone had been nice, Vali would love to do it all again at some point, but staying in Pallet Town for longer than a month wasn't something she'd be able to do anymore. Going on this journey had opened her up to a part of herself that had been locked up tight by the Dursleys and the wizarding world, the part of her that desired to wander the earth and discover new things would never let her be comfortable with staying in one place for long now that it'd finally been able to breath. Sure, she'd end up finding a place to settle down eventually, but that was in the future once she was older. Sirius let out a low chuckle, "Lying doesn't suit you, Pup."

Vali nodded as she fiddled with her pokedex feeling glad that Lt. Surge was letting them have this moment, "Siri, don't get me wrong, I do kind of want to come back to Pallet Town for a little while, but I can't," She looked at her pokemon who were training even harder than normal given what had happened yesterday and Vulpix who was sticking close to her despite not understanding anything other than the fact something was wrong, "I know that it would probably help me, but I can't go back. Not when I'm scared that I'll start making excuses about why I have to stay. Some part of me thinks that if I go back to Pallet Town, I'd be quitting and rendering everything that I've done to this point moot."

"A part of you believes that you're a weakling and nothing up to this point will have mattered if you don't keep moving forward," Sirius finished her line of thought when she'd stopped to think, "I get it, Pup. I'm not exactly happy about it, but I get it," He shook his head, "I won't try to drag you home, but please call us if you need to talk,"

"I will," Vali promised him.

Sirius probably wouldn't stop worrying no matter what Vali said.