“Haaaa…” Valerie sighed heavily as she lay in the bed of a cheap hotel room, her phone suspended above her face, scrolling endlessly through her Chatter feed.

  Larry and Natu lay on both of Valerie's sides when a post caught Larry’s eye, “Aah!” He pointed at the post, and Valerie quickly scrolled back up. It was another news article posted by a user, the headline picture was a sky-view picture of the Center smoke and dust billowing out of its side. He still couldn’t read, but the pictures were still unmistakable when they ran through her timeline.

  “Repairs on League Reception Pokemon Center in progress; Training grounds cleared for trainers!” Valerie read out loud to Larry, her cadence rising at the end of the sentence, “That’s great! It hasn’t even been a week, and we can already go back to training!”

  With the damage the Center incurred during the incident with his mother, the general public had been forced to stop using the building until an assessment of its structural integrity could be made. Valerie continued reading off the article, which spoke of the inspectors clearing the healing wards of the lower levels for entry, with only the west wing being closed off for repairs.

  The Center wasn’t entirely functional yet, with most of its dorms for trainers and some specialized healing wards located in the western parts of the center still being unavailable, but it meant that Pokemon under the Center's care weren’t being brought into other League-owned property nearby anymore and the Center could be used to some capacity again.

  Her mother side-eyed her, sitting on an uncomfortable plastic hotel chair at a desk in their dinky hotel room. With her dorm in the Center being unavailable, Valerie had been forced to move out and had been put on house arrest by her parents for her completely reckless behavior. So she had been sleeping in her mother's hotel room, originally only meant to serve her for a day or two, but it has now become her permanent residence for the family.

  “You’re not going.” She spoke resolutely from her seat.

  Valerie wanted to retort, a witty reply already on her tongue, but her mother raised a finger to stop her, “Don’t even start. Every. Single. Time. you go anywhere, it ends with you coming back with another injury or making more problems for me to deal with. No way I’m letting you go to the training grounds.”

  “But my shoulder is already better!” Valerie swung her arm around for effect. The bandages had come off just a few days ago, and while the skin still looked slightly different from before, there were no lingering effects on her arm and its range of movement, since the damage wasn’t very severe, “And if I want a chance at beating anyone in the future I’m going to have to train my Pokemon, thats just a straight up fact!”

  Their entire family had had a little get-together after Valerie's talk with Bruno, and Michelle had taken Valerie with her. Though when Larry mentions a get-together, it means it was more like an angry chewing out by Michelle as her father helplessly tried his best to calm her down from his hospital bed. It had all coalesced into Valerie, who, before, had earned her father's blessing to do whatever she wanted as a trainer, having those rights revoked once again as her mother locked her up in her hotel room for safekeeping. She just didn’t trust her anymore with the amount of trouble she managed to get herself into.

  His trainer continued, “Besides, what can even go wrong if I go to the training grounds? Mt. Silver and a collapsing Pokemon Center are dangerous, but what is supposed to happen on the training grounds?”

  Massaging her temples, Michelle sighed, “That’s the issue…I don’t even know what to expect! I love you, Valerie, but why would you run into a collapsing building?! A normal Pokemon trainer would be concerned with giving their Pokemon a cute nickname and maybe finding the right PokeChow for them to eat! Most trainers don’t even know what their Pokemon's parents look like, much less try and find them! For all I know, once you’re out, you’re gonna run off into the woods to go stir up a Beedrill's nest!”

  Valerie rolled her eyes as she continued to scroll through her phone as she denied her mother's accusations, “I won’t do that! I wanna do all those normal trainer things too…It’s just that the whole mess surrounding Mt. Silver has been taking up so much time. With Larvitars' mom now back to health, everything should slowly be calming down.”

  “So, less drama from now on, right? No more running into chaos?” Michelle put down her phone, staring at her daughter with a hard stare.

  She had an unsure look on her face as she turned to her mother, “I hope so…”

  Larry sympathizes with Valerie's mother on the sheer craziness of the last week, he had an idea on how to fix it though. He rose and made a swinging motion with his arm, inviting Michelle to come with them, “You should come with us!”

  His trainer got the idea of what he was talking about, “Yeah, Larvitar is right! If you’re so concerned, why don’t you just come with us!”

  She rolled her eyes, thinking it through, “Well…I won’t be helpful in your training, but…I wouldn’t have to worry…Hmm, it might work out?” Michelle crossed her arms as she lolled her head from side to side in indecision, “You know what? I am interested, why not? But you have to stay close to me, ok?”

  Valerie jumped up excitedly, “Hel-Heck yeck!”

  …

  A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

  Entering the training grounds, their group realized that it was practically swimming with trainers. The opening had brought not just local trainers, but also many tourists here to look at the destroyed Pokemon Center. Trainer and their friends and family filled every training court, as Pokemon fights were being conducted on all six courts available.

  “Well, it is kind of packed…” Michelle said much to Valerie's disappointment as they entered the space.

  Her daughter wasn’t discouraged, though. “It's not too bad, we’ll just find a corner for us to train our moves in.” Looking around, Natu’s eyes fell on an empty spot from up on Valerie's shoulder, and it pointed its beak in the direction with a quick call.

  While there was a grid of training courts for trainers to fight in against each other, further away in the back, there was a big rectangular area with benches and other amenities trainers could use to relax while their Pokemon trained.

  “Good eye, Natu. Let’s take that spot over there!”

  Michelle made herself comfortable on an open spot on a bench just a few steps away, “I’ll be watching, just don’t get into any more trouble, ok? Please?”

  Valerie rolled her eyes, “Mom, this isn’t Mt. Silver…Nothing's going to happen.”

  “If you say so…” She pulled out her phone, but kept an eye on her daughter as the girl huddled close to her Pokemon.

  …

  Their trainer clapped her hands, “Alright! Last time we were here, we had a look at Natu's moveset and had a little spar.” The two of them nodded back at the recap, “With the whole mess at Mt. Silver over now, we can finally focus on training!”

  Larry let out a little whoop of appreciation at the mention of some more action, ‘Yes! I’ve been sooo bored these last few days!’

  “Before we begin talking about training, though, I thought we should get some other things in order.” Valerie crossed her arms, her face turning serious. “Names!”

  ‘Names!’ Larry felt himself stiffen at the mention, ‘This is my chance!’

  She knelt next to both of her Pokemon, “I didn’t want to force a cute nickname onto you guys without your choice, but I also think giving you two names to differentiate you from other Pokemon from the same species might be good.” She put up a finger, “So this is the plan, I’ll give you guys some recommendations and you’ll tell me if you like any, ok? If you don’t like any, we can take some time and find another way for you guys to tell me what you want to be called, no reason to panic.”

  Before she could give any recommendations, Larry jumped out, “Lar-vi!”

  “Hm? What are you trying to say, Larvitar?”

  “Lar-vi! Lar-rvi!” He tried his best to somehow vocalize his name using only the Syllables of Larvitar as he pointed at himself, “Tar! Lar-rvi!”

  “Larrvi? Are you trying to tell me the name you want?” She cocked her head to the side, “Do you want to be called Larrvi?”

  Larry shook his head furiously, “No! No! It’s supposed to be Larry! L-A-R-R-Y!” Unfortunately, what came out was, “Tar! Tar! Larvi-Vi-Lar-Vi! Lar-rvi! Laa-ar-vii!”

  Valerie was still unsure what to make of it, “Is it supposed to sound similar to Larrvi then?” He nodded his head furiously as she caught on to what he was trying to do.

  “Larrvi…What about Harvey?” A shake of the head was his response.

  “Jarvis?” Another shake of the head.

  “Levi?” This was getting stupid, so he repeated himself, “Larrvi!”

  “Hmm…What about…Larry?” Larry jumped, pointed animatedly as he held onto her knee with excited hops, “That one!! That one!”

  “Phew, alright. Larry, hm?” She let the name run over her tongue, “Larry…”

  “I wonder why he picked that name…” Michelle spoke from her place on the bench.

  Larry himself let out a cry of satisfaction, “Yes! Finally!” Mentally, Larry was unsure of how to even bring up the topic, so it was very fortunate that Valerie had, ‘I’m so damn lucky that I’m a Larvitar! I don’t think many other Pokemon would’ve been able to say anything even remotely close to the name Larry!’

  Valerie herself giggled at the name, looking back towards her mother, “It sounds like the name of some old dude!”

  Michelle snickered back, “It certainly isn’t a name I’d give a Pokemon. I have a coworker named Larry who does PR.”

  The comment shot straight into Larry like an arrow, ‘Oof! Worst part is I can’t deny any of it…’

  She shook her head, “No matter…” Scooching over to Natu, she once again asked, “What about you, Natu? Do you want a name?”

  The bird looked up at Valerie with those same vacant eyes, before giving off a long, unsure, “Naa…” translating to an unsure, “I don’t know…”

  Valerie smiled back at the Pokemon, “Unsure, huh? Do you want me to come up with something?”

  Larry gave his advice, “Do you want a name, Natu?”

  “I’ve never had a name before, I am unsure…Names weren’t part of my vision…” Natu looked at the ground confusedly.

  Their trainer cut in, “What about this? I give out a few names, and if you like any of them enough, we’ll go with them, else we can always stick with calling you Natu, ok?”

  The Flying-Type nodded back slowly, still unsure of how to feel about it.

  “You’re a Psychic-Type bird Pokemon, what about…Omen or Seer?” Natu shook its head at the names.

  “Sage, Zenith, Vigil? Those sound cool, right?” Valerie tried, only for Natu to shake its head, but it looked less unsure.

  “Hmm…It’s gotta be something fancy, right? I couldn’t give you a normal name like Larry.” Larry once again felt the insult sting into him, but he couldn’t get himself to rebuke it.

  Michelle, behind her, looked up from her phone, “What about Sybil?”

  “Ooh! I like that! It sounds cool, but it still sounds like a name someone might have!” Valerie slapped her thighs at the name.

  Natu finally looked up at Valerie with unfocused eyes as her eyes glinted with that same rainbow shine of Psychic-TE. It stood stock still for a second as Valerie waited for its response, “So, what do you think? Natu?”

  Blinking the TE out of its eyes, it bowed its body regally, “Natu.” translating to a, “It is good.”

  It seems like Valerie didn’t catch the event, but Larry did. He looked at the Psychic-Type worriedly, “Was that a future-vision?”