Egg care and battle results

"Your egg should be hatching in about little more than a week and a half," Nurse Joy said as she read the information off of the scanner she was using on the egg, "It should beginning moving in the next two days. I would advise keeping a closer eye on it during this time,"

"Will do," Vali felt excitement fill her at the fact she'd have a baby pokemon to take care of soon, "So can you tell the gender now?"

"That I can," Nurse Joy looked at her with an amused look, "Would you like to know?"

"Yes, please!" Vali had trouble keeping herself from bouncing around.

Nurse Joy let out a warm laugh and moved the scanner around a bit before saying, "You're going to be having a male Vulpix."

Vali grinned brightly at that news. Of course, she would've been happy with a female one, but a male was actually the better option. Males of the Vulpix-line were generally more even tempered and more forgiving especially towards newer trainers, they also didn't demand to be groomed every single day unless it was mating season though that wouldn't affect her little one until he was at least a year old and had become a Ninetales. She took the egg gently from Nurse Joy when the pink haired healer handed it over, "Thank you for this, Nurse Joy. Are there any tips you can give me at the moment?"

"Just keep it out of the cold as much as possible," Nurse Joy told her, "When the egg starts moving, you should let it keep it in a padded area where it can move about though not too big of an area. It should be about the same size as this crib," Nurse Joy pointed to the padded crib where a small Teddiursa was sleeping, "In the last few hours before the egg hatches, it will stop all movement save for a gentle rocking motion. When it begins to hatch, you should make sure there are hot towels and the like around you to clean up the baby pokemon and make sure you're the first thing it sees to ensure it imprints on you. Make sure you give it moo-moo milk laced with fire-type formula,"

"How long should I wait before catching it?" Vali set the egg into her egg-case and began writing down what Nurse Joy had told her so far.

"Wait until the day after, it'll make sure that the baby won't be harmed in the catching process," Nurse Joy looked at her note taking with approval, "Tell Professor Oak immediately after it hatches, it can't be sent to the lab for a period of four months to ensure you bond with it properly. It can begin training within a month of being born though nothing serious until after the four month marker. Talk to a Nurse Joy before you do battle with it, we don't want to accidentally hurt the poor pokemon,"

"Yes, Ma'am," Vali wrote that down before asking, "Is there anything specific I should do after it hatches?"

"Hold it as much as possible and make sure to introduce it to all your pokemon so it will associate them with pack," Nurse Joy warned earning a nod, "Other than that, you should be fine. I would advise getting some teething toys since it's teeth will grow in pretty quickly,"

Vali would see if Professor Oak had any extras laying around the lab, "Anything else?"

Nurse Joy cupped her chin lightly, "Keep it out of the snow for three days after its born, you should also avoid using water on it for about two weeks. Other than that, you should put a bit of ground up charcoal into it's food until it is about six months old which will be when it'll do that on its own."

"While I'm not planning on evolving it for a long time, when would be a good idea?" Vali asked earning an approving gaze.

"When it's a year old, it shouldn't be evolved before then even if it reaches the limit of what it can learn as a Vulpix," Nurse Joy advised, "Any other questions?"

Vali thought carefully before shaking her head, "No, Ma'am. Thank you for everything."

"It's no trouble," Nurse Joy smiled warmly, "It isn't often that young trainers around your age take the time to get their eggs checked and make sure they're prepared for when it hatches,"

Vali promised herself to talk to Professor Oak about ensuring the kids of Pallet Town at least understood what went into taking care of an egg among other things. If nothing else, she would ensure Ash and Gary understood it. Ash probably knew at least a small bit what with his Pidgey.

Steven's battle with Koga went by fairly quick and showed just how much trouble a poison-type had with steel-types. Koga had still given a good showing when he managed to take out Mawile and Lileep only to fall in the face of Metagross. The Scolipede Koga had, had managed to get the match to a stand-still for a little while before ultimately falling. It was an amazing match that caused quite a bit of damage to the battlefield that resulted in Koga having to use his outside battlefield until the League was able to make it safe again. Due to the fact winter was closing it's icy grip on Kanto, Koga would probably be postponing his gym battles after the new two weeks due to the conditions outside being too unsafe.

Vali made sure to take pictures of the battles and went through them once they left the gym, "That was amazing, Steven."

"It was a good battle. I hope to come back at some point and battle his true team," Steven grinned a bit, "It isn't often I get a good battle against a poison-type user,"

"I have to wonder if Koga will look into getting a Salandit or Salazzle," Vali noted the confusion on his face, "They're a fire/poison-type from Alola and are a female only evolution. I looked them up while I was researching fire-type pokemon and Professor Oak has a database about the pokemon of Alola due to his cousin living there. It's a pretty cool pokemon though finding a female Salandit is like searching for a needle in a haystack since they're a lot like Eevee where the species is pretty much male,"

Vali wasn't going to mention just how expensive it would be to import a female Salandit from Alola. They were even more expensive than Eevee especially when you went into all the red-tape owning one outside of Alola was. If you caught one in Alola, you didn't have to go through as much red-tape, but it still existed. Poison-types were a bitch and a half to get permits for if you went out of your home region since they were a pretty big threat to the environment. While poison-types were fairly cool, she preferred fire-types which rarely involved needing permits and going through red tape to own outside of a few specific instances such as the Magby-line.

"I'll have to look them up at some point," Steven murmured looking interested at the idea of a fire/poison-type.

"Just know that it'll be rare to find any trainer with one outside of Alola," Vali shook her head lightly, "They're hellishly expensive to import especially the female Salandit. The amount of red tape you'd have to go through to get one isn't worth it unless you're a serious poison-type master or really, really, really want one,"

"That seems to be how it is with most poison-type pokemon," Steven eyed her for a moment, "You wanted one, didn't you?"

"Yup," Vali wasn't going to lie about it, "But there isn't a chance I'm going to go through all that unless I get lucky or become a high level member of the League,"

They got all kinds of special passes and the like that made almost all the red tape go away. Steven patted her shoulder, "You'll get one eventually."

"Maybe when I retire from being a trainer and decide to live out the rest of my days in Alola," Vali would probably get bored fairly quickly if she did that.