First Indigo Battle Pt. 3

Allen shook his head and quickly recalled his Persian, "Right," He pulled out a worn pokeball and looked at Vali, "I won't lose this next match. Come out, Politoed!"

Vali mentally cursed as the water-type appeared even as she took in its appearance with some curiosity. She had rarely seen this evolution of the Poliwag-line usually seeing a Poliwrath if someone managed to get a third evolution seeing as Kings Rocks were fairly rare to find. They weren't the most powerful with most finding their homes by the sides of Coordinators, but if raised right, they could be powerful battlers. She might end up needing Elrond to win this battle, but there was no need to think about that now. Taking a deep breath to center herself and block out the distractions, she called out, "Pele, Umbrella!"

Pele quickly set up another defensive wall only this one was meant block water type attacks. The rocks would be super-heated creating a cloud of steam energizing Pele even if the water particles would cause a bit of pain. During their training, they'd spent time working on her endurance against water-type attacks mainly taking any pain caused by them during this time period. When she finally evolved into a Camerupt, the sheer heat she gave off would make most low-level water-type attacks like trying to use a toddlers squirt gun against a forest fire. Politoed let out a playful ribbit and jumped forward releasing a stream of bubbles that impacted Pele's Umbrella causing steam to explode outward.

Pele shifted backward with a wary grunt as steam flowed around the wall of earth and the orange aura of focus energy pulsed across her form as they'd practiced. Allen shouted, "Politoed, Rain Dance!"

"Heat Wave!" Vali retorted while mentally cursing at not teaching Pele Sunny Day.

Heat Wave would lessen the effects to a point if not completely, Vali sometimes hated not facing certain moves many times beforehand, but this wasn't the first time she'd had to figure things out on the fly. Based on the random splatters of water and the fact there was a true cloud forming within the sky, Allen had probably just taught his pokemon the move, but that didn't make it any less annoying. Politoed aimed another Bubble Beam at Pele who blocked it with a mound of slow moving earth. Pele sent a spike of earth towards Politoed who dodged quickly and sent an Ice beam in reply. The Ice Beam was dissolved by a pulse of heat that wasn't quite Heat Wave and Pele set off a Magnitude earning a croak of surprise from Politoed who lept up from his rocky perch nearby in alarm. Politoed narrowed its eyes at Pele as it landed on a diffrent perch and sent a Water Gun towards her, the Politoed and everyone else were surprised to find Pele's image disperse into thin-air. Allen shouted out, "What?!"

"Don't you know that Double Team can be used for a single clone?" Vali asked in a semi-innocent tone and sweet smile.

Allen gave her a look of disbelief, "Why would you make just one clone and when?"

"Why wouldn't you?" Vali tossed back with an amused grin as Politoed's Rain Dance began to fade and inwardly cheered, "Pele, let's heat things up a bit now that the rain's gone away,"

Vali watched as cracks formed and steam begun to bellow forth from various portions of the field earning confused looks. Confusion turned to shock and awed shouts as lava overflowed certain portions of the field, Pele's Lava Plume turning the field into a deadly play-ground for their comfort. Pele climbed out of the hole she'd burrowed into shaking off the magma she'd been using to clear away some of the water. Allen and Politoed stared at the battlefield in shock with the other trainer's jaw actually dropping. She spoke in a light tone, "Mister Warner, I would advise picking up your jaw. While it is quite wonderful to see that our handwork is actually 'jaw-dropping', we do have a battle to get to."

Allen closed his mouth and stared at her for a moment before looking at his Politoed then at the battlefield. He was completely silent before pulling out his pokeball and stating in a clear voice, "I forfeit. My pokemon's health is worth more than a pokemon battle on a field like this."

Vali, while slightly disappointed, was thankful her opponent cared more about his pokemon than winning a battle and smiled at Allen, "I am glad to hear it, Mister Warner. You were and your team were a pleasure to fight. I hope one day we may battle on an even playing field and perhaps see who is the better trainer."

"I'd like that, Miss Potter-Black," Allen answered after a moment of surprise and returned his Politoed.

Vali took a seat in the Pokemon Center waiting room after handing Nurse Joy Empress and Pele's pokeball's. While she'd have liked to got see Lance or Steven's battles, they had started a bit before hers and ended not long once it began. Already rumors of the two sweeping the competition were spreading just from that first battle, they hadn't lost a single pokemon. She would just have to catch their next one if it was possible. Taking out her pokenav, she called Delia and smiled when the woman answered immediately, "Vali! How did it go?"

"We won," Vali answered earning a loud squeal, "Empress evolved as well,"

"Oh, how wonderful!" Delia squealed again, "Is she alright?"

"Nurse Joy is looking her over, but she should be fine. She didn't fight at all after evolving and didn't have too many serious injuries before evolving," Vali reported as she leaned back into the soft backrest of the chair, "So long as everything is alright, she'll be released to me in a couple hours,"

"That's wonderful, we should be at the Indigo Plateau in a day and Sirius called me an hour ago to say he's been given Moltres watching duty, so he'll be there as well," Delia let out a soft laugh.

"I can't wait to see him," Vali couldn't wait to see Sirius and introduce Regulus to her Houndour, "It'll be wonderful to see him. I've missed him a lot,"

"He's missed you quite a bit as well. He's been worried especially with the Lavender Town incident," Delia told her in a soft tone.

Vali winced a bit since Sirius would probably have been told the full story or near enough to have guessed it. The old dog would definitely be worrying quite a bit. She rubbed at the back of her neck, "I'll talk to him. I promise, Delia."

"Good," Delia sounded so relieved that it made Vali's heart ache.

Vali resolved to not worry Delia so much or at least make sure the woman didn't know enough about her life to worry. It wasn't a sure thing and she'd probably fail, but it would save Delia some pain in the end. She spoke with Delia a bit more before ending the call and putting away her pokenav with a soft sigh. She spotted Steven heading her way and waved, "Steven."

"Vali," Steven jogged up with a curious look on his face, "What were you doing?"

"Talking to Delia while I wait for Nurse Joy to tell me how Empress and Pele are doing," Vali answered as he took a seat next to her, "You?"

"Just picking up Aggron," Steven said as he held up the pokeball, "How is Delia?"

"She's doing well. She'll be here with Ash, Gary and probably Professor Oak in a day," Vali answered as Aragorn let himself out of his pokeball to greet Steven earning a light smile from the steel-type master-in-training, "Sirius should be here around then too since he's been given Moltres watching duty as well,"

Steven snorted softly, "Moltres watching duty?"

"It's a thing apparently," Vali shook her head, "How's Aggron?"

"He'll be just fine. He didn't take much damage during the battle. I'm only being overly careful," Steven replied as he petted Aragorn, "I apologize for missing out on your battle, but between the press and my father, I didn't realize how much time had passed,"

"It's fine," Vali waved it off, "You'll just have to catch the next one. Just like I'm planning to catch yours,"

"Sounds like an idea," Steven grinned at her, "Though I do have to ask if the rumors I've been hearing are true, did Pele really turn the entire field into a pit of lava?"

Vali flushed a bit, "Not the entire fiel-"

"Vali!" Zaria shouted from across the pokemon center, "Did you really make them-

"Excuse me!" One of the Nurse Joy gave Zaria a glare causing the dark-type master-in-training to shrink back, "This is a place of healing not shout, please go outside if you're going to be loud,"

"Sorry, ma'am," Zaria apologized earning a huff, "I won't do it again,"

"See that you don't," Nurse Joy told her.

Zaria hurried over to where Steven and Vali were sitting, "Vali, is it true?"

"Is what true?" Vali asked with a small frown.

"That one of your pokemon turned the rock field into a volcano," Zaria said with an excited look on her face.

"No," Vali shook her head, "Pele might've gone a bit over-board with here Lave Plume, but she didn't turn it into a volcano,"

"I beg to differ," Zaria grinned as she pointed to a nearby TV, "Check that out,"

Vali stood up and headed over to the TV alongside a curious Steven. When she reached it, the fire-type master-in-training realized why everyone kept saying Pele had turned rock-field into a lava-pit since it really did look like it from above. She heard someone whistle from nearby as the reporter on screen spoke, "-field will be out of commission for three hours while clean up teams work to clear away the damage. Thankfully a backup field for such a time has been prepared. To think a rookie's first evolution pokemon managed to cause this, I for one am going to keep an eye on this Valkyrie Potter-Black of Pallet Town."

"Well, that's one way to get your name out there, Vali," Zaria slung an arm around Vali's shoulder.

"Yeah," Vali stared at the field feeling somewhat shocked since it looked a lot worse now, "It didn't look so bad before,"

"Probably before the Lava Plume had time to eat through the stone and dirt," Steven told her as they moved away from the TV.

"I'm really looking forward to battling you now," Zaria said as she hugged Vali, "Not Pele for obvious reasons since that shit is kinda scary, but I really want to battle you if that's something you're capable of,"

"It'll be interesting to see how we'd fare in a battle against one another, " Steven mused with a light smile as he looked at her.

"I'd love to battle both of you," Vali shook away her surprise.