Nostalgia and Viridian returns

Vali ended up bringing along Balto, Elrond, Celina, Arwen, Pele, and Terra. Smaug still needed to strengthen his wings before she was comfortable letting him battle. The only reason she was bringing Terra along was for one on one training and to just spend time with the Larvitar. After everything was said and done with her gym battles, she'd spend some personal time with each of her pokemon making sure they understood that despite not having much time for everyone at once, she still cared about them. She was also doing this to ensure that Terra got some battle experience and to help her figure out what kind of battle style would fit the Larvitar. It would likely be the same thing she'd have to do with Pele by making her into a tank, but that was something to do once Terra was a Tyranitar. As a Larvitar, Terra could take hits, but no where near close to what she'd need to be able to deal with in order to be considered a tank.

After returning to the Ketchum-Black-Potter residence, Delia had Steven and Vali sit down for one last lunch together before the duo were to set off on the last leg of the Kanto Gym Circuit. The lunch was delicious and the conversations shared were light-hearted. Once they were all finished eating and the two trainers had packed away the bags of cookies Delia had gifted them with, the two said their goodbyes before leaving. For the walk to the edge of town, Ash joined them with Pidgey sitting on his shoulder. At the edge of town, she hugged Ash and stroked Pidgey's head, "I'll probably see you at some point soon, so I'll just say to be good for Delia. Pidgey, watch over him. Ash, make sure to check on Gary and Bellsprout."

"I will," Ash hugged her back, "Be safe,"

"I have my pokemon and Steven with me. I'll be fine," Vali released him and Vulpix nuzzled the boy causing Ash to smile, "See you,"

"See you," Ash replied with Pidgey chirping.

Balto nudged Ash letting out a low bark. Ash scratched behind Balto's ear murmuring a small goodbye. After that, they set off waving to Ash behind them. At the entrance to route 1, Vali paused with Balto and took a deep breath feeling a sense of nostalgia fall over her. She dug her fingers into Balto's mane, "Feels like just yesterday we set out together with Smaug to start our journey, huh?" Balto smiled a doggy smile and leaned into her, "We've grown a lot over the months since then. Adding to our family and getting stronger, we've been through a lot both good and bad."

"No regrets?" Steven asked looking at her in amusement.

"None," Vali's lips pulled into a light smile, "I'll never regret leaving Pallet Town even if things suck a lot sometimes," She looked forward as excitement coiled in her stomach, "Let's get going though, we don't have time for me to reminisce all day and I'm really eager to see just how quickly we can pass through this place. Though first things first," She released Terra who looked around curiously, "Terra, you're going to be walking beside me, okay? If you start to feel tired, I'll have Elrond carry you, okay?" Terra nodding with an excited expression on her face, "Well, let's get going,"

Steven let out a soft laugh, "Elrond is going to be annoyed with you."

"He needs to train himself to handle heavy weights and Terra is exactly that," Vali bent down to rub Terra's head, "If he wants to lift something else, I'll probably find a few boulders for him to practice on or have Claydol make some. Training is important after all and we can't become lax especially now,"

They managed to get most of the way to Viridian City before needing to set up camp for the night. Terra was exhausted by the time they set up camp and went to sleep after eating her dinner. Vali allowed it mostly because Terra had been training her stamina all day and had managed to keep up rather well meaning she definitely deserved a chance to rest. Due to this being route 1, they made sure to have multiple psychic barriers up to ensure the surrounding area wasn't destroyed. Steven looked at the sky in surprise when a hoot sounded, "A Hoothoot?"

"Spring time migration," Vali caught sight of a Noctowl flying overhead with package held in it's claws, "There's also night time deliveries, Noctowl are commonly used at night rather than Pidgeot,"

"I'm surprised I haven't seen many," Steven said as Vali took a drink from her water bottle.

"Not all the delivery companies use them, they tend to be used for short deliveries mostly due to not being strong long-distance flyers when carrying something," Vali capped her water bottle, "Professor Oak and some of the other people in Pallet get nightly deliveries. Mostly Professor Oak, he gets them from the League,"

"Odd," Steven commented as he looked at her from across the fire.

Vali shook her head, "Not really, they're usually packages sent via League channels from various other Professors mostly the Regional ones."

"I guess that makes sense," Steven shook his head lightly, "We should get some rest. We'll reach Viridian by noon if we wake up early,"

"Sounds good," Vali put her water bottle away and got into her sleeping bag while Steven had Blastoise bank the fire, "Night everyone,"

"Night," Steven said as the pokemon gave their own version of goodnight.

Vali settled down with her pokemon cuddling up around her. She closed her eyes with a soft yawn.

Vali looked around the Viridian city Pokemon Center and noticed that the Nurse Joy manning the front desk was the same one from her first visit to Viridian. Smiling a bit, she brushed her fingers against Eevee's pokeball while walking towards the desk. Eevee's pokeball warmed beneath her fingers, but the fox-like pokemon didn't release himself. Nurse Joy looked up as she reached the front desk, "Welcom-Valkyrie Potter-Black and Steven Stone?!"

"Nurse Joy," Steven greeted her.

"It's nice to see you, Nurse Joy," Vali grinned a bit, "You're looking well,"

"What on earth are you doing in Viridian so soon?" Nurse Joy asked as she got out two trays.

Vali began placing her pokeballs onto the tray after unclipping them, "We've got all our gym badges save for our eighth, so we're here to get it. We'll be staying for a month this time around."

Nurse Joy looked a little surprised, "Really? That's amazing considering this is your first year, Vali," The pink haired woman smiled brightly, "Congratulations," Vali pulled out her pokedex and handed it over as Steven did the same, "I wish you both the best of luck."

"Thank you, Nurse Joy," Steven inclined his head lightly.

"Nurse Joy, I have two extra pokemon who are on my inactive team. One of which you'll definitely recognize," Vali's grin widened at the Nurse Joy's curious look, "He's a lot better now,"

Nurse Joy's expression twisted in confusion than realization as the pink haired nurse gasped, "Really?"

Vali nodded as she placed Eevee and Vulpix's pokeballs down, "Yeah. He's still wary, but less likely to attack people unless threatened."

Eevee tolerated being touched and held by Steven though he preferred being carried by her if it was needed. Any males that he didn't know well usually found themselves on the business end of a Shadow Ball or Swift. Ash and Gary had learned that Eevee would not tolerate being touched by anyone save for Vali, Steven, and Delia rather quickly when Eevee scratched them up a bit. Sirius had ended up with a weak Shadow Ball to the face for startling Eevee a few times. Nurse Joy beamed at that, "Oh, that's wonderful!"

"He does have problems with unknown males," Vali watched Nurse Joy frown, "So long as they don't try to touch or pick him up, everything should be fine,"

"I'll keep that in mind," Nurse Joy picked up the trays and placed them on a trolley that her Chansey took into the back, "So you'll be staying for a month?"

"A month," Steven inclined his head as they got out their pokedexes, "Two rooms please,"

Nurse Joy took their pokedexs and began fiddling with her computer. Vali looked around the pokemon center and noticed that there were more trainers than before, "Things are really starting to speed up around here, huh?"

"A bit, but it won't get really busy for another two to three weeks," Nurse Joy logged in their pokedexes before handing them back and grabbing two keys, "Those rushing through their badge run with be really focused on getting that last badge, it used to be a lot busier before Giovanni took over and set that badge limit," Nurse Joy handed them the keys, "Here you are, your pokemon should be ready to go in about ten to fifteen minutes. I'll page you over the intercom,"

"Thank you, Nurse Joy," Vali took her key as Steven did the same.

They went to their rooms with Steven asking, "Should we go sign up for a spot?"

"That would be a good idea," Vali moved closer to Steven as they passed a few trainers heading back into the lobby of the Pokemon Center, "Just to make sure we get a spot before they fill up, it'll start getting busy before the month is out if Nurse Joy was telling the truth. After that, we could go look around at the various places that cater to pokemon trainers," Steven nodded slowly as they started to walk up the stairs, "I really need to find a good spot to help my pokemon train with those new TMs not to mention spend time with Terra,"