A silly Shinx and a stubborn Baggon

Vali spent her mornings training with her pokemon and the afternoons exploring the Safari-zone. She learned quite a bit about Pele during the time they spent bonding while her newest pokemon worked on perfecting her skills. Pele's strongest attributes were her defense, endurance, and wide spread attacks. Pele's weakest were her stamina, physical strength, and accuracy. Everything else was pretty much in the middle. Thankfully, Pele was fairly calm and didn't seem to get frustrated. The Numel was also quite enthusiastic about training so long as she kept things simple and offered treats. Out of all her pokemon, Pele was the most motivated by food which was a new experience for the fire-type master-in-training. Granted it wasn't really a problem, she was just surprised to find a pokemon that was motivated by wanting to eat.

It took a week for Vali to get through the Safari-zone after the first visit and she ended up finding two more new pokemon for her family. The first new pokemon she came across was an energetic and clumsy Shinx. She came across the Flash pokemon while walking through the Forest-zone. He'd somehow managed to get stuck in a log that was trapped between two boulders. With Balto's help, she got him free and healed him up before moving on only for the little guy to follow her. Eventually, she offered him a chance to join her family and he jumped at the chance. He'd pretty much decided that Eevee was his new best friend the moment they first met. While Eevee acted like he didn't like it, he didn't seem to mind too much.

The second new pokemon was a female Bagon that had been attempting to catch one of the water-type pokemon in the Lake-zone for food. Seeing the rather poor shape the Rock Head pokemon had been in, Vali offered Bagon some of her bait much to the dragon-type's suspicion. The dragon-type had ignored the bait until a Whooper decided to take the snack only to end up being fought off. She didn't stay with the Bagon deciding not to press the issue and moved onto the next area. She ended up catching the Rock Head pokemon two days later when Bagon refused to let her leave without taking her with her.

Once everything had settled down and her pokemon had gotten to know one another with Bagon seemingly developing a crush on Smaug, Vali scanned her knew pokemon and gave them both names:

Shinx, the Flash Pokemon. The extension and contraction of its muscles generates electricity. Its fur glows when it's in trouble. It flees while the foe is momentarily blinded.

This Shinx is Male and has the ability Intimidate. This Shinx knows Tackle, Leer, Charge, Baby-Doll Eyes, Spark, Bite, and Ice Fang.

Bagon, the Rock Head Pokemon. Bagon has a dream of one day soaring in the sky. In doomed efforts to fly, this Pokémon hurls itself off cliffs. As a result of its dives, its head has grown tough and as hard as tempered steel. In an attempt to dispel its frustration, it will slams its hard head against huge rocks and shatters them into pebbles. Some theories suggest that its behavior of forcefully bashing its head into things stimulates cells that affect its evolution.

This Bagon is Female and has the ability Rock Head*. This Bagon knows Rage, Ember, Headbutt, Dragon Rush, and Fire Fang.

*Changes upon final evolution.

Shinx ended up being called Pippin/Pip after one of her favorite Hobbits from Lord of the Rings and Bagon chose Empress after thirty minutes of going over names. One of the things Vali was definitely going to do upon meeting Lance again was ask how best to care for the newly named Empress. While she could probably handle it with little problem, she wanted to avoid making too many mistakes when it came to her first dragon-type.

Pele blinked and looked at her side where Empress had just slammed into her with Headbutt. Pressing a hand over her mouth as Empress gaped at Pele in shock, Vali struggled not to laugh at the little dragon who clearly didn't expect the camel-like pokemon to be unfazed by the attack. She grabbed her camera and took a picture quickly before returning it to her pocket as she said, "Empress, you're going to have to hit harder than that. Numel aren't really fazed by attacks unless they actually hurt," Empress growled and backed up a bit, "Pele," Pele looked at her slowly, "Did you feel Empress hit you?" Pele nodded slowly after a moment, "If you feel something hit you during a battle, you need to hit it back," Pele nodded and looked back at Empress, "Now, let's try this again you two. Empress, use Headbutt. Pele, use Tackle on Empress."

Empress charged towards Pele with a slightly glowing head clearly intent on causing some pain. Pele focused on Empress and slammed forward once Empress was close. The two attack collided and seemed to be at a stalemate for a few moments Pele managed to overpower the Headbutt and send Empress stumbling back with a cry of shock. Pele looked at Vali as Empress landed on her butt and she said, "Good job, Pele. Here," She tossed Pele an Oran berry that the Numel devoured quickly, "Empress," Empress pushed herself up and looked at the witch in irritation, "Take a deep breath and calm down, you aren't going to win a battle if you allow your frustration to take you over," Empress snarled at her, "How about you take a break? Pippin needs to take his turn."

Empress glared at Vali before heading to one of the boulders littering the training ground and began banging her head against it. The witch felt a bit of irritation, but pushed it down knowing that she couldn't let it get to her. Turning to Pippin who was bouncing in place, she smiled, "Alright, Pippin. Let's see how you do against Pele," Pippin tripped over his own feet in his eagerness to battle, "Pippin, slow down. Pele isn't going anywhere," Pippin meowed at her before settling across from Pele with a determined look in his eyes, "Alright, Pippin let's start with something she should notice. Use Ice Fang. Pele," Pele looked at Vali curiously, "Try Earth Power to keep him away."

Pippin darted forward with his fangs glowing an electric blue. Pele lifted her hoof and slammed it onto the ground causing the ground underneath Pippin to open. Pippin let out a yowl of surprise as the ground underneath him disappeared before vanishing into the ground. He let out a cry of pain prompting Pele to stamp her hoof on the ground. The ground rumbled a bit and Pippin reappeared showing that the earth beneath him was being raised. Pippin stumbled forward with a shake of his head. Vali frowned slightly, "You okay, Pippin?"

Pippin nodded and focused on Pele with determination in his eyes. He darted forward with glowing electric blue fangs and bit down on Pele's causing the Numel's eyes to widen in surprised pain. Pele let out a cry of pain and began trying to shake off Pippin. Pippin got shaken off and ended up getting an Ember to the face for his troubles causing the Shinx to stumble backward. Pippin tripped on a rock and ended up sprawled on the ground with a low meow. Vali made her way over to him while tossing Pele another berry and began checking him over. Thankfully, Pippin's fur was only slightly singed and he seemed to be in fairly good condition. She checked over Pele and found that the ice had stayed on the surface of her skin. Pippin had caused a somewhat deep puncture, but that would be easily fixed with some potions or a trip to Nurse Joy.

Steven walked over as she stood up, "How goes training?"

"Not bad," Vali heard the low rumble of thunder and looked up to see dark clouds moving across the sky, "We should probably head inside. It's going to start raining soon," She returned Pele and Pippin, "Empress," Empress paused in the middle of reducing a second boulder into rubble and looked at her, "We need to head inside. It's going to start raining soon and I don't want anyone to get sick," Empress looked back at the boulder, "You can turn that one into rubble later. I promise we'll come back outside once the rain stops,"

Empress gained a satisfied look on her face and made her way over to Vali. The witch quickly began returning the rest of her pokemon and just managed it before rain finally began to fall. She ran towards the side entrance of the Pokemon Center and got inside along with Steven as lightning flashed across the sky. She dropped Pele off with Nurse Joy before taking a seat by one of the TVs. Steven commented, "I didn't see rain on the forecast."

"Me either," Vali frowned as she looked at the TV which was running a blooper reel of the latest contests in Sinnoh, "It could be that a pokemon used Rain Dance too close to the ocean. Storms have been caused by that before,"

"Whatever the reason, it looks like we're probably going to be stuck inside for a little while," Steven shook his head at the TV which showed a Munchlax colliding with a Meowth causing their attack to blow up in the middle of their Appeals round.

"I'm going to go look up videos on Koga's past gym battles," Vali answered as she got up, "What about you?"

"I think I'm just going to sit here for a little while," Steven took out his pokenav, "I might as well see if I can find any new bugs,"

"Have fun," Vali headed towards the computers.