Cerulean City Fire Side Evolution

After getting everything she needed and restocking some of her stuff, Vali went back to the video-phone area. Instead of getting a public booths like before, she got one of the two private ones and closed the door behind her. Vali put her pokedex in the slot before dialing Professor Oak's lab. She ended up having to do this twice before one of the Aid's answered without looking at the screen, "Hello! This is the lab of Professor Oak, how may I be of assistance today?"

"Kerry," Vali said gaining the aid's full attention, "I need to talk with the Professor,"

"I'll transfer you to his office though you might have to wait a few minutes since he's trying to give that Eevee his shots," Kerry winced as a loud crash sounded, "It isn't exactly going well,"

"I understand," Vali said earning a tense smile.

The screen turned grey with the words transferring call floating across the screen and a rather cheerful song that she didn't recognize came from the speakers. Vali ended up waiting about ten minutes before Professor Oak finally answered the call. He looked worn out, "Ah, Vali! It's nice to see you."

"You too, Professor," Vali looked at him in concern, "Are you okay?"

"Just tired, Eevee is a little rascal that does not like needles one bit," Vali didn't blame Eevee since needles were evil things, "He's recovering well and I might be able to send him to you next month,"

Well, that was a little unexpected though the information was appreciated, "Thanks, Professor. Tell him that I said hi and that I'm glad he's doing better."

"Do you want to do it yourself?" Professor Oak asked, "Alakazam is currently holding him still with Psychic to keep him still while I check his bandages,"

Vali nodded without really needing to think about it and Eevee was levitated in front of the screen. He definitely looked better than he had especially since there weren't as many bandages wrapped around his body. The only part of his body that could move were his eyes and they widened at the sight of her before narrowing into a glare. Smiling warmly at him, she said, "Hey, Eevee. Professor Oak tells me that you're doing better now. I expected as much since you're a fighter and fighters don't stay down long. I can't wait until you physically heal since it means we'll get to see one another again soon."

Alakazam nodded to her before moving Eevee away from the screen and Professor Oak reappeared, "Is there something you need, Vali?"

"Did you check out my latest capture yet?" Vali asked earning a confused look.

"Give me a moment," Professor Oak disappeared for a moment before letting out a sharp gasp and returning, "You caught a shiny Sandshrew?!"

"I didn't know she was shiny until I scanned her after I caught her," Vali explained Sandshrew's story earning a sad look from Professor Oak, "I was calling to ask if you had any advice for me other than the whole keep an eye on her and everything,"

Professor Oak hummed softly, "I would say treat her like any other pokemon, but I know you'll already do that. Shiny pokemon aren't that much diffrent than a normal one other than the color scheme. As she is a baby pokemon, I would advise you to follow Nurse Joy's advice."

Vali nodded lightly, "I'll do just that. By the way, how do you go about training a Sandshrew to find stones like how you discussed in your lecture?"

"I don't remember that information off the top of my head, but I can easily upload it into your pokedex. I assume Steven is going to want the same information?" Professor Oak asked earning a nod from Vali, "I'll have to searching through my files, but it shouldn't take longer than a day or so. I'll also send over some files on Eevee care to you. It's unfortunate that you can't come back to Pallet town as my next lecture is actually on them,"

"I am too, Professor. Those lectures are sometimes the highlight of my week," Professor Oak's lectures were amazing which was why so many people came to the lab every month to hear one, "By the way, how soon is the Ponyta and Rapidash migration going to happen near Vermilion?"

"Another month and a half," That wasn't that bad especially if they stayed in Cerulean that long, "Any others?"

"Not really since I know how hard its going to be to catch a Vulpix at this time of year," It was easier to wait until late winter and early spring to try to find one unless you were lucky enough to have one choose to become your pokemon, "Unless I'm lucky, but I doubt I am,"

Professor Oak nodded, "If that's all, I should see to Eevee."

"Talk to you later, Professor," Vali replied.

"Good luck on your next gym badge, Vali," Professor Oak replied before the call cut off.

Vali left the private booth and decided to go check the notice board she'd seen earlier. If anything, it might have a few things that she'd be interested in do or something that Steven might want to do. Cerulean had a lot of stuff to do after all.

Smaug growled loudly and glared at the Arceus be damned Bellsprout he was battling. He was a fire-type Arceus dammit this should be easy. He bared his tiny fangs feeling his power bubble up underneath his skin. The irritating itch that he'd been feeling for weeks had intensified and only pissed him off more. He heard Vali shout, "Smaug, hit it an Ember attack! I know you can do it."

Balto barked beside her and Smaug's need to win intensified. If he could take down a stupid rock-rhino and do damage to a gigantic rock-snake, he could win this battle. The Bellsprout was going down! Immediatly, the power beneath his skin bubbled over and he felt it infuse itself into each of his cells changing him into something far stronger than his current form. He roared at the slight pain running through his body as well as the fact that he was one step closer to becoming a Charizard.

Vali covered her eyes as Smaug was enveloped in a bright white light. When the light died down, Smaug's new form was revealed and she grinned at the sight of him feeling pride well up in her chest. Bright cherry red scales coated a majority of his body, Smaug's underbelly was a pale rosy color. Smaug's claws had turned white as well as lengthened and gleamed in the light. The tail flame that marked the entire Charmander line was bright and proud. On the back of Smaug's head, a horn-like protrusion sat while his muzzle had lengthened out slightly and the shape of his eyes had narrowed a bit. Smaug stood at his height of 3 foot and 7 inches give or take a few. She beamed at Smaug as he turned his head towards her and shouted, "You look totally amazing, Smaug. I'm so proud of you for evolving," Smaug grinned at her and spat out a burst of fire towards the ground, "Let's see what you can do with your evolution!" Smaug nodded, "Hit it with Ember!"

Smaug roared and released a large amount of coal-like projectiles towards the Bellsprout at a speed he hadn't been capable of before. The Bellsprout let out a cry of pain before fainting earning a groan from its trainer. Smaug began walking over to her only to trip on his own two feet. She giggled softly as she moved forward to help him up. The opposing trainer said, "Congrats on the evolution."

"Thank and nice battle. Your Bellsprout is really strong," Vali said as she helped Smaug to his feet, "It shouldn't be long until it evolves,"

"True," The girl smiled faintly, "Thanks for the battle,"

"No problem especially since you helped push Smaug into finally evolving," Vali was so happy that'd he'd evolved if only because it would hopefully stop him from having anymore angry outbursts.

In the last few days since they arrived in Cerulean, Smaug's temper had been very short and explosive. Thankfully, he'd managed to keep himself from exploding around Sandshrew, but it had been very close. Pidgey wouldn't go near Smaug after he'd nearly turned her into fire roasted Pidgey. Pikachu had shocked the fire-lizard silly this morning for burning his tail. Balto had ended up pinning Smaug to the ground eight times in the last few days and forcing the Charmander to calm down. With his evolution, Smaug would hopefully be a lot calmer though it would likely take a few weeks. The Charmander-line had some of the worst hormonal outbursts after their evolution which was actually quite common in most Dragon-types save for the Dratini-line. Which further proved that the Charmander-line did have dragons in their ancestry, it just made many wonder why the fire drakes had shucked their dragon-typing for flying. Inwardly shaking her head, Vali took the offered prize money which was a generous 200 poke as the opposing trainer, Darcy, said, "You should try to be in Celadon City in three months," Vali looked at her in confusion, "They have this really cool Grass Vs Fire tournament every year. I entered with my Gloom last year and managed to get into fourth place. It's divided between the number of badges you have in the region and your age. Once you beat out your age and badge bracket, you'll face the winners of the other ones. If that Charmeleon is any indication, you'll probably get into the top ten at the very least."

Vali smiled as she glanced down at Smaug and Balto. The two were looking up at her with pleading eyes telling her that they wanted to at least check it out. With a soft laugh, she looked at Darcy, "I think we'll check it out if we're in the area. Thanks for the information."

"No problem. I hope that I see you guys there," Darcy waved before heading in the direction of the pokemon center.

Vali watched her go before turning to Smaug. She bent down and hugged him gently, "I'm very proud of you for evolving, Smaug, and I hope that this means you won't have too many more angry outbursts," Smaug nodded and hugged her in return, "I won't be able to carry you anymore as you're a little bit too heavy now, but that just means you'll be following Balto's example and walking next to me," She pulled away with a grin, "Once we get you checked out at the pokemon center, we'll be going over your moves and seeing how much more power you have access to. We'll be working on refining your control as well and maybe attempting to learn Flamethrower a bit early. That sound alright?" Smaug nodded with a grin, "Then I'm going to return you for now. I want to don't want to stress your body out too much."

After returning Smaug, Vali headed back to the pokemon center with Balto. While Smaug was being checked out by Nurse Joy, she would be doing research of the current gym leaders of Cerulean city. Grace and Walter Waterflower. They were a pair of married gym leaders that were planning on giving their gym over to their three eldest daughters once they turned 13 as was the age you needed to be in order to become a gym leader. They had four children with three triplets around her age and one daughter around Ash's age if what she read online was correct. They were a water-type gym and one of the only ones that did double battles in Kanto. During the weekend, they closed down the gym and used it to either teach kids to swim or do small water shows. On Saturdays, the gym held lectures similar to Professor Oak only the lectures were by traveling trainers.