Pikachu's return and sending things home

Professor Oak sent the message she was waiting for an hour after she'd eaten breakfast. Heading to the front desk of the pokemon center, Vali waited in the short line of trainers for a few minutes before reaching Nurse Joy. Nurse Joy offered her a warm smile, "Good morning, Vali. How can I help you today?"

"Professor Oak should have sent a Pikachu here for me," Vali held out her pokedex for Nurse Joy.

"Let me just check to verify the information," Nurse Joy took her pokedex and inserted it into the computer before beginning to type, "Oh my, I wasn't aware that Professor Oak had taken on a data collector as young as you,"

"I was surprised when he gave me the offer," Vali replied as she leaned against the counter, "But it's something I was hoping to become anyway if I didn't manage to become an ACE or an Elite,"

Nurse Joy nodded as she clicked her mouse, "Well, it's nice to see young trainers thinking about more than their next battle. Alright here we are..." Nurse Joy hummed lightly before nodding as she clicked her mouth, "Everything seems to be in order, give me a few moments to get Pikachu for you."

Nurse Joy took Vali's pokedex from the computer and handed it back to the fire-type master-in-training before heading into the backroom. Vali looked down at Balto, "I can't wait. It'll be nice to have everyone together again," Balto barked as he wagged his tail, "I can't wait to start training with everyone. With Pikachu, everyone that can do it will be learning Double Team which means we'll get a lot more combinations to work with."

Nurse Joy returned carrying Pikachu's pokeball, "Here you are, Vali. Is there anything else?"

"Are there any tournaments or anything happening within the next month?" Vali took the familiar pokeball feeling a sense of completion fall over her.

Vali relished in the knowledge that she'd have every member of her pokemon family at hand. Everyone would be there to welcome any new family members into the fold. She focused on Nurse Joy as she set Pikachu's pokeball on her waist, "Not this month, December however will have many diffrent events due to the holiday season."

"Thank you, Nurse Joy," Vali told the pink haired nurse before taking her leave.

While it was somewhat disappointing that there wasn't any tournaments this month, Vali supposed it was a good idea to take a break from those kinds of events. It had been a lot of fun, but perhaps being able to focus on their gym battle and being able to deepen their bond would be even better. They would need a deep bond in order to reach elite level. But other than that ambition, she wanted them to be able to trust one another and reach an understanding that would allow them to train with one another if she wasn't around the guide them.

Pikachu was pounced on the moment he was released from his pokeball. Once the surprise wore off, he found himself enjoying it as his family surrounded him. Everyone was stronger than the last time he saw them, but so was he even if it was more of a subtle increase in strength. Running after Vali's little brother, the young Pidgey, and the other boy had ensured that he got stronger, he'd had to get stronger in order to protect those rambunctious children. Whenever he wasn't running after the children, he was either increasing his electrical capacity, discharging the gathered electricity through training, or sparring with other electric-types. It was becoming quite clear to him that soon enough he'd reach the limit of what he could do as a Pikachu and that was something exciting. After all, he'd never though he'd ever reach that level after what had happened though he supposed there was someone to thank for that.

Looking up at Vali as she leaned back against the wall as their family trained, Pikachu smiled a little as memories of the past seeped into his mind. She wasn't his first trainer, but that didn't matter to him especially after everything they'd been through together. She was diffrent from his former trainer least of all because she wouldn't abandon him as that boy had. She was much like the trainer his mother had spoken of back when he'd been a baby Pichu. Once he'd evolved into a Pikachu, he'd searched for a trainer like that and had thought he'd found one only to be abandoned in a foreign land across the ocean the moment he became useless. It had made him bitter and cold towards humans. He'd hardened his heart and forced his dreams of finding the perfect trainer from his mind. But not even two months after his abandonment, she'd found him and decided to take him in as part of her family.

Vali had broken through the walls around his heart just as she was doing with Eevee. Even though he hadn't been sold on being her pokemon at first, Pikachu had come to care for her. And even if it meant that he'd become a Kanto Raichu rather than Alolan one like the generations before him, he would take it. Not because he wanted to become one of the strongest electric-types like he'd dreamed of before, he wanted to become a Raichu for Vali. He wanted to protect her and their family as much as he could. Though he wouldn't be alone in that endeavor, the rest of their family and even Vali herself would protect each other no matter what.

Vali looked over Pikachu's move set with some surprise. He had learned Discharge, Spark, Nuzzle, Agility, and Thunder while he was at Professor Oak's Corral. Smiling when she realized that he'd done as she asked, she looked at Pikachu, "You really went all out back at the Corral, didn't you?" Pikachu nodded with a grin, "I'm going to guess Ash, Gary, and Pidgey forced you to learn Agility if only to keep them from getting badly hurt?" Pikachu nodded with an exasperated look, "I swear those three are going to give everyone grey hair by the time they're able to become pokemon trainers. Thank you for looking after them, Pikachu. I was a bit worried since I'm usually the one keeping them out of trouble since Daisy left for her journey last year."

One of the boys alone wasn't that hard to deal with unless Ash wanted to go exploring and his ability to get lost kicked in. Add in Gary and suddenly they were a pair of danger magnets, Vali couldn't keep track of how many times she'd had to keep the pair from getting hurt because they pissed off the wrong pokemon. It hadn't been that hard when Daisy was still in Pallet Town, but then the female Oak had left on her journey. Shaking her head lightly to clear away those memories, she said, "Well, you've got a few more attacks that you can naturally learn. We have Feint, Slam, Wild Charge, and Light Screen. Wild Charge is something that you can teach Balto and Arwen once you learn it."

While a TM would be better and take less time, Vali didn't know where to get the Wild Charge TM since it wasn't sold very often in Kanto stores. She looked at Pikachu and bent down showing him the screen of her pokedex. He pointed to Wild Charge which made her smile a bit, "Okay, we'll work on Wild Charge," She clicked the move and looked over the data gathered about it, "Hmm, it looks like learning Slam will be a must before you learn Wild Charge because the fundamentals are pretty much the same. After that, I'll see if Steven has any pokemon that know Light Screen and see if they can teach you. Feint is something we'll need to work on with Balto or one of the others that know Protect."

It'll give everyone that knows Protect a chance to strengthen their barriers and hopefully be able to keep the odd move from breaking them. No one really knew how Feint worked just that it somehow managed to do so. Professor Oak theorized that the energy used during Feint somehow managed to destabilize the energy used to make Protect or Detect. It was due to the adaptability of normal-type energy allowed for it to channel other types of energy such as ghost or dark-type energy. It would explain why normal-types could use a variety of elemental attacks and why other types of pokemon could use normal-type attacks. Of course, it brought more questions about how it was possible and even bring up the mystery behind why Eevee could, theoretically, evolve into any type of pokemon.

Vali pushed those thoughts from her mind since now wasn't the time to wonder about that kind of stuff. Instead, she picked up Pikachu and headed back into the pokemon center. They had videos and articles to view in order to get an understanding about how exactly Slam worked. While the principle of the move was simple, it was best to watch it in action. With any luck, Pikachu would be able to learn it pretty quickly.

Due to her excitement over Pikachu being with her once more, Vali had forgotten about the glass Aggron she'd gotten Steven until she came across it while going through the things she'd gotten from the festival. She stared at it for a few moments before deciding that she'd send it home and have Delia keep it safe. While she knew that Steven would like it, they were on a journey and it was likely going to break. At least this way, she could make it his Christmas present and it wouldn't get broken since Delia would place it somewhere Ash wouldn't be able to get his hands on it. While Ash wouldn't mean to do it, he would likely accidentally knock it down or Pidgey would somehow do it.

Using a pair of her old shirts that needed to be thrown out due to how worn and ripped up they were from her journey so far, Vali wrapped up the Aggron and placed it into the box she was sending home that had a thick layer of packing peanuts. She then put everything else she was sending home into the box alongside the photos she was sending home. Once it was full, she put the rest of her packing peanuts into the box before closing it. She then turned to do the same with the box she was sending to Professor Oak though she didn't use any packing peanuts since she didn't have anything breakable in it. As soon as everything was packed up and correctly labeled, she headed to the post office.

While Celina could probably deliver everything, Vali didn't want to risk her pokemon's health or the packages since it took special training to be a mail pokemon. Entering the post office, she offered a smile to the clerk as he said, "Sending off some mail?"

"One package is going to my family back in Pallet and the other is going to Professor Oak," Vali answered as she set the packages onto the counter.

Taking out her wallet, Vali listed as the clerk began to weigh the packages and scan them, "Christmas gifts for the family?"

"Somewhat. Some of them are just some souvenirs for my little brother and his best friend," Vali ran a hand through her hair, "Not sure how much they deserve them though since those two get into way too much trouble for a pair of four year olds,"

The clerk let out a laugh, "Well, kids that age do tend to get into."

"Not the kind of trouble they regularly get into," Vali was glad that they were in school now since it meant they had less time to get into trouble.

The clerk finished with the first box and moved onto the next one, "Well at least they'll be somewhat prepared for their journeys," The clerk glanced at her, "So are you here for the Safari-zone or the gym?"

"Both," Vali held up her camera, "I'm mostly hoping to take some good pictures of the Safari-Zone,"

The clerk finished up, "Your sending these to Pallet town, right?" Vali nodded as the clerk began to type things into the computer, "That will be 600 poke. 750 to have it delivered within a day."

Pulling out the six hundred, Vali handed it over, "Can you mark the one I'm sending to Delia Ketchum as fragile?"

"Of course," The clerk took the money and typed on his computer, "Here is your receipt," A receipt printed out and he handed it over, "Anything else that I can do for you today?"

"No," Vali turned and began leaving, "Thank you for your help,"

"Please come again," The clerk said.