Scheduling and training

After taking a nice shower and starting her laundry, Vali headed downstairs to collect her pokemon and get something to eat. Steven joined her a few minutes later and they ate lunch before leaving the Pokemon Center for the Gym. The Viridian City Gym was more grandiose than any of the ones she'd come across and sat elevated above the other buildings via a large platform of earth. It was one of the larger gyms she'd seen with large columns gutting out of the earth on either side of the pathway leading up to the doors. The building was mainly done in a dark brownish orange and outlined in a mixture of grey stones. The doors were made of burnished bronze. She glanced at Steven as he commented, "He's definitely making a bold statement."

"What do you mean?" Vali asked as she eyed the building they were walking into.

"You can tell a lot about the Gyms Leader by how their gym looks," Steven explained as they passed by a pair of columns, "Pewter's Gym Leader chose to have the gym's outside based on stone. It could mean a lot of things, but when I met Flint, I realized that it meant a strong foundation. Everyone's first gym battle always leaves a lasting impression on the challengers and starts the foundation for what kind of battler they'll become,"

Vali admitted it made sense thought that just made her ask, "And this one?"

"He sees himself as a ruler. Someone that won't be toppled easily," Steven answered as he peered at the gym with a look of concentration, "He'll push any challenger that faces him to the brink forcing them to either submit or show their true strength. If he can back it up, it's no wonder why he'll only face the strongest opponents," He smirked a bit which Vali had only ever seen during the video of him facing Lance in that tournament, "This should be fun,"

Clearly someone was excited about challenging Giovanni, Vali looked forward to seeing their battle especially if it would be on the same level as Lance and Steven's battle back during the Vermilion City tournament. She smiled lightly as they walked into the gym and found a receptionist sitting at the front desk. The man looked more than a little bored as he said, "Unless you have seven gym badges, you're not going to be challenging the boss."

"We both have seven gym badges," Vali stated making the man straighten up and looked at them with a raised eyebrow, "We're here to sign up for two gym battles a few weeks in advance,"

"I see," The man turned to his computer, "Names?"

"Steven Stone of Mossdeep City in Hoenn," Steven answered as he showed the man his badge case.

"Valkyrie Potter-Black of Pallet Town," Vali answered taking out her badge case as well.

"Alright and when will you two be wishing to battle?" The receptionist asked once he'd looked over their badges.

"Three weeks from now," Vali replied as she put her badge case away.

The receptionist hummed lightly, "Alright. I have an opening for a 2 pm on a Tuesday three weeks from now and a 3 pm on a Wednesday during the same week."

"I'll take the Tuesday and Steven will take the Wednesday," Vali said glancing at Steven who nodded.

"Alright," The receptionist typed away at his computer, "Should you lose against Boss, you'll have to wait a week before scheduling another Gym Battle,"

Once they'd secured a spot in 'Buck's Battlezone and Training Facilities', Vali got a training room for her pokemon and set them to work learning how to use their new moves. Elrond was put to work with Grass Knot which was the most important of the three moves he'd be learning. Balto was going to be working on Solar Beam then Arial Ace. Celina would be working on Hyper Beam and Arial Ace. Arwen would be working on Solar Beam with Balto. Pele would be working on learning Protect and Double Team the former would be the most important. Once they were hard at work, she led Terra over to a unoccupied section of the room where there was a dirt floor, "Alright, Terra. We'll begin with you showing me the basics so I can get a better idea of what you're able to do."

Terra nodded and went through her attacks. Terra's Bite was stronger than before and would actually do quite a bit of damage during a battle. Leer was pretty strong as well. Outrage needed a lot of work, but that was alright. Ancient Power was coming along really nicely though Terra's control was just a bit shaky after a minute of using the move. Substitute was very good and only needed a bit more work to be viable during a battle. Toxic needed work, but was definitely usable during a battle. Sandstorm needed a lot of work mostly due to control issues. Nodding to herself, Vali decided on how they'd be doing this, "Okay, Terra. You've got a good hold on Bite and Leer. Substitute needs just a little bit of work. Ancient Power needs some work though it's mostly strengthening your control that's needed. Toxic can be used in battle, but you'll need to strengthen it," Terra nodded with a curious look on her face, "Outrage and Sandstorm need the most work. We'll start with working on controlling Sandstorm then focus on getting Outrage up to snuff. Okay?"

Terra nodded and they got straight to work once Vali pulled Elrond over to keep the Sandstorm contained. It would be another training exorcise for him that would likely help during their battle against Giovanni since there was no telling if one of his pokemon knew Sandstorm. Elrond didn't mind the break since Grass Knot was difficult mostly due to him never using a move like it. Elrond spoke while Terra worked on controlling her Sandstorm, "Vulpix is going to get bored just watching all this."

"I know," Vali glanced towards where Vulpix was laying enjoying the warmth from one of her pokemon using Sunny Day, "I'll set something up for him soon,"

Elrond nodded slowly as he peered into his psychic barrier where Terra's Sandstorm raged, "We may not win this battle."

"I know, but we've still got to try," Vali reached out to rub the top of Elrond's head, "We can always go for a rematch, but I know that we've got a chance to win so long as we give it our all,"

Elrond let out a low sigh and shifted to lean against her, "I know. I just can't shake the feeling this will be even harder on us than before."

"It's our last Gym Battle and we're dealing with a type that has some advantage over two of our pack," Vali watched as the Sandstorm parted for a second to reveal Terra standing in the center with her eyes closed, "It'll be our toughest battle yet, but the Conference will be even tougher,"

Elrond's ear twitched as his nose wrinkled, "Once the Conference is over, we'll be taking some time to actually relax, right?"

"Of course," Vali planned on at least two to three weeks of simply playing and relaxing with only the barely needed amount of training needed to keep from losing their skills, "Everyone definitely deserves some actual rest and relaxation. Granted we'll be doing some light training to keep up your abilities, we won't go all out like we usually do,"

"That sounds pleasant," Elrond offered her a small smile, "I look forward to it,"

Vali nodded as she smiled back at him. She looked forward to having some actual off time especially since it would allow her time to just be with everyone.