The Battle between Vali and Lance

Lance won the race if only because he just needed to dodge flying-types. Balto needed to dodge around various ground bound objects and other pokemon. Steven managed to arrive just before Vali thanks to the forest opening up to the large field nearest to the lab allowing her to speed up quite a bit. Despite being the loser, Vali had enjoyed the race both because of the adrenaline pumping through her veins and the fact she'd gotten to experience it with Balto. Balto was just glad for the chance to run and get a proper warm up before battling. After clearing it with Professor Oak, they took to the battlefield.

Lance released his Dragonair the moment Steven gave the word and Vali's breath caught a bit in her throat. A great serpentine form burst into life from the pokeball that the pokemon had been kept within. Long and sinuous, the dragon-type coiled through the air radiating a sense of grace and gentle mystical power. Beautiful cyan blue scales glittered as the softer cloudy white scales of it's underside gleamed in the sunlight mimicking the heavens above them perfectly. Oval eyes the color of amethysts peered around the beautiful creature as it peered at the world from behind a rounded snout. A small white horn adorned its forehead alongside the small stylized wings at each side of its head. The wings were the same brilliant white as its scaled underbelly and curved into a swirl at the base. At its neck, a dark navy blue orb gleamed in the sunlight was matched by a small pair coiled around its tail. Releasing a gentle cry as if to greet the world, the Dragonair boasted a gentle mythical aura.

A spirit of the sky and seas made flesh indeed Vali's mind commented as it always did when exposed to the beautiful pokemon that always managed to leave her breathless. She focused as Balto stepped onto the battlefield and Steven announced, "If both trainers are ready, you may begin."

"Ladies first," Lance offered earning a grin.

"Awe such a gentlemen. Balto," Balto flicked his tail, "Double Team and Leer. Hit and run, we need to see just what this one can do,"

Balto barked and began copying himself. Dragonair shuddered visibly as Balto leered at it. Lance called out, "Dragonair, Thunder Mist."

Vali was left wondering what that was for all of five seconds before Dragonair began to release icy blue tinted mist from its mouth and the gems on it's body began to spark with electricity. A Thunder Wave and Mist combination. The electricity of the Thunder Wave would be boosted as it traveled through the mist. Smart if a bit diffrent from the full on attack she'd been expecting from Lance based on his battle against Steven back in the tournament. Balto used Heat Wave without any prompting from her which rendered the Mist useless leaving him only needing to deal with the Thunder Wave. A grunt left Balto as the attack hit, but he didn't let it stop him. Balto slammed into Dragonair with a Flame Wheel attack followed by Bite. Dragonair let out a low screech before slamming an Aqua Tail into Balto's side forcing him to release his hold. Which meant she'd need to work on that with him, she realized as Balto quickly disappeared back into the sea of clones he'd formed.

Vali called out, "Balto, Sunny Day followed by Heat Wave."

"Dragonair, Rain Dance!" Lance retorted with a grin.

The two weather based attacks cancelled each other out in a minor explosion which sucked, but Balto's Heat Wave still did damage to Dragonair which made up for it somewhat. Dragonair replied with Icy Wind which earned a irritated growl from Balto who used Flame Wheel to get rid of the ice melting into his fur. The water diminished the strength of his attack, but the Arcanine didn't seem to care since he wasn't wet anymore. Balto followed up with Fire Fang earning a screech of pain as the bite burned through Dragonair's thick scales. Dragonair coated itself in Aqua Jet causing Balto to release with a wet cough as water unexpectedly filled his mouth. Dragonair aimed an Ice Beam at the wet dog that Balto dodged as best he could and countered with Flamethrower. The two attacks met and exploded against each other filling the battlefield with steam.

As they waited for the cloud of steam to clear away, the sounds of battle continued within it. Balto howling and Dragonair screeching followed by crashing sounds. When it finally cleared away, Balto was using Reversal on Dragonair with both pokemon looking a bit worse for wear. Dragonair slammed into the ground harshly sending up small clouds of dust. Dragonair used Dragon Pulse sending Balto skidding and stumbling back. When the attack faded away, the two pokemon stood panting and bleeding from various marks on their bodies. Balto took a step forward spitting out Toxic at Dragonair who moved aside with a hiss of displeasure. Vali called out, "Balto, Flare Blitz."

"Dragonair, Dragon Rush!" Lance shouted.

The two pokemon rushed at each other coated with their respective elemental attacks. The two met in the middle with a loud boom followed by a shock-wave that sent everyone skidding back. Vali belatedly pulled up her scarf as dust went flying. She sent out Celina as the dust stopped flying around and had her clear everything away with Wing Attack. Once the dust was cleared, the two battling pokemon were revealed to be unconscious. Without waiting for Steven's call, the two trainers returned their pokemon and headed inside to get them checked out.

Professor Oak shooed them out after taking their pokeballs. Vali spoke as they left the lab, "That was..."

"Awesome," Lance grinned at her, "Thanks for the battle, Vali,"

"Thank you too," Vali replied as her lips pulled into a bright grin, "It was a lot of fun,"

"I'm definitely making you one of my Elite Four when I'm a champion," Lance told her with a laugh, "You're going to be super strong once you've got more time to train under your belt,"

"I wasn't expecting that first move," Vali told Lance, "From your battle with Steven and the ones on your trainer page, I was expecting a full out assault from the start,"

"I like to change it up sometimes," Lance shrugged as they headed for where Steven was waiting, "A champion has to have a lot of diffrent tricks up their sleeves in order to keep their position after all,"

"How are Balto and Dragonair?" Steven asked when they reached him.

"Professor Oak is keeping them overnight and probably until tomorrow night just to be safe," Vali answered feeling a bit bad that Balto had gotten hurt, "But no permanent injuries thankfully,"

"Good," Steven smiled a bit, "Nice battle you two,"

"Thanks," Lance grinned at him as Vali nodded, "Maybe we should battle while I'm here,"

Steven shook his head, "No, I'd prefer to wait until the conference, so I can beat you in front of a crowd."

"We'll have to see about that since I plan to win the conference," Lance headed over to where his Dragonite was humoring Empress' attempts to headbutt him.

Ash pouted at Vali once she finished talking about the battle, "That's no fair, why did you battle without us around?"

"Because we could battle and waiting didn't seem like any fun besides I didn't want to interrupt your time with Sirius," Vali shrugged as she took a roll from the basket on the table, "You had fun today, right?"

"Yeah," Ash grinned lightly, "It was a lot of fun. Siri took Gary and I to the cliffs,"

"Cliffs?" Steven asked looking up from his dinner.

"The foot hills leading up to Mount Hideaway," Sirius answered picking up his glass of soda, "About five miles before they begin, you'll find this set of cliffs. If you follow them at the base, you'll find these caves that a lot of flying-type pokemon use as nest sights. Professor Oak's Dragonite uses them,"

"Really?" Steven looked at Vali.

Vali nodded with a slight grin, "It's an awesome place. Really calm and one of the best places to watch flying-types in their natural habitat, I remember one year there was a group of Altaria."

"And a small flock of Swellow," Delia added as she grabbed the bowl of salad set up next to the rolls, "We had a lot of flying-types from Hoenn migrating around that area. Professor Oak usually organizes something with the local school to take a small class up there,"

"It's usually the graduating class though it'll be another month and a half before something like that happens," Vali took a drink from her oran berry smoothie, "If you want, I could show you. The pokemon are usually calm thanks to Dragonite nesting there,"

"I'd like to," Steven smiled lightly, "Do you want to go tomorrow?"

"Let's wait until Balto's healed up," Vali told him, "While I can ride Celina, I've never gone up there without Balto,"