Call's home

Professor Oak beamed at Vali when she finished giving him a short summary on what she'd talked to about with Erika, "Vali, thank you for doing this for me."

"It's no trouble, Professor," Vali assured him, "I honestly enjoy learning about pokemon even if they aren't fire-types. I was going to ask her this stuff anyway though not in so much detail, but ended up thinking of you when I was heading to the gym to meet with her,"

"I look forward to seeing what you've written. Could you possibly ask Erika if she'd mind contacting me?" Professor Oak requested earning a nod, "Thank you. Do you want to talk with Pikachu?"

"If you don't mind, Professor," Vali said and soon enough Pikachu was sitting in front of the screen, "Hey, Pikachu. Enjoying your vacation?" Pikachu nodded vigorously, "Good. All I ask is that you try to keep up with the training schedule I gave you. Maybe talk to the other electric-types around the corral, Celina really improved since she did it, so I'm hoping you might be able to as well," Pikachu nodded seriously, "Have you met Delia, Ash, and Sirius yet?" Pikachu nodded with a soft grunt, "Good. If you get bored at the Corral, you can always spend some time at my house in Pallet. Just have Ash's Pidgey show you the way there when it finally managed to fly,"

Vali caught Pikachu up on what happened since she'd sent him to the Corral. By the end, she could tell he was going to be doing some serious training which prompted her to remind him to not overexert himself. Getting stronger was all well and good until you started damaging yourself, she would never forgive herself for allowing any of her pokemon to hurt themselves because they trained too hard. After saying goodbye to Pikachu and Professor Oak, she called home. Ash answered the phone, "Vali!"

"Hey, Ash," Vali greeted the boy with a light grin and spotted the Pidgey nesting in his hair, "So that's the little Pidgey you found,"

Ash beamed at her, "Yeah! She's awesome!" Ash went on for five minutes about how cool his Pidgey was despite not being able to fly properly just yet, "And everyone in class was so jealous of me getting a pokemon early."

Vali frowned at him when she heard that. She knew that Ash was nothing like Dudley or Draco, but the idea of him becoming like them made her stomach turn. She wouldn't let someone she considered a little brother turn out like those two selfish and arrogant pigs if she had a say in it, "Ash, you aren't bragging are you?"

Ash shook his head, "No, Mom, Sirius, and Professor Oak made sure I knew not to brag. I don't want to get other kids hurt just because I got lucky."

"Good," Vali was glad at least someone was willing to curb such tendencies before they got really bad, "How are things at school other than you having a pokemon?"

"It's a lot of fun for the most part, but some stuff's really difficult," Ash admitted with a soft sigh, "Stuff like history, it's so boring,"

"It might be boring, but you need to learn that kind of stuff, Ash," Vali understood the pain all too well, "History is important especially if you're going to be a pokemon master," She thought of something, "If you're having trouble learning something, go up to the lab and ask around Professor Oak's assistants. They'll probably have a lot of ways to make learning that stuff more fun and probably help you understand things better,"

"I'll try," Ash promised her.

"That's all I ask," Vali smiled at him, "Just think of it as another step towards becoming a master,"

Ash perked up a bit, "That actually makes it a bit better."

"Now," Vali smirked at him, "Has my old dog of a godfather asked Delia to marry him?"

"No, but," Ash lowered his voice while casting a glance around him before getting closer to the screen, "Mom's taking him out for dinner tonight while I have a sleepover at Gary's house. I think she's going to do it tonight,"

Vali grinned brightly, "Good. Once Sirius marries Delia, we'll really be siblings."

Sirius had adopted Vali in this world at the prompting of those around him to protect her from those that wouldn't have her best interests at heart. While Ash and Vali were happy enough to call each other siblings, it would be nice to have them recorded as siblings on official records. There was also the fact that the kids teasing Ash about not having a father would shut up, she hated how cruel kids could be sometimes. Ash smiled at her, "Yeah."

Vali noticed the line waiting for access to the video phones in the corner of her eyes, "I got to go, Ash. I'll try calling tomorrow. By the way, I gave permission for Pikachu to come to the house if he wanted to. So long as you aren't too pushy or anything, he might help you train Pidgey when he's old enough to battle."

Ash's eyes brightened, "Thanks, Vali! I'll tell them. Talk to you soon."

"Talk to you soon," Vali replied and ended the call.

Vali got up after taking her pokedex from the machine and walked away as the video phone was taken by someone else. She was eager to see how things turned out and couldn't wait for tomorrow. Delia and Ash would officially be members of her family once Delia married Sirius which was the best feeling in the world. The old dog would have someone other than her trying to reign him in and he would have someone that could ground him when he had a relapse. Despite the fact she was Sirius' goddaughter and came from the same world, she had her own problems and it wasn't healthy for him to lean on her. To be honest, she was glad that Sirius would have Delia to help him out since it would mean he couldn't unintentionally hurt her by mistaking her for James Potter. While she had nothing against her birth father, it hurt to be constantly compared to him especially after she learned about how much of a bully he'd been.