Leaving Pallet Town

After saying their goodbyes with Delia giving the two some snacks, Vali and Steven went to Professor Oak's lab. An aid led them to one of the side rooms in the laboratory where Professor Oak was fiddling with a pokedex. The aid cleared her throat, "Professor, Vali and Steven are here."

Professor Oak looked up from the pokedex and beamed, "Right. Thank you for bringing them to me, Annie."

Annie nodded lightly and took her leave without another word. Vali watched her go for a second somewhat surprised at the rather unhappy seeming aid. Generally, Professor Oak's aids were usually in various states of being tired/harried/scratched up, but generally cheerful since they got to work with a lot of diffrent pokemon all day while also increasing their scientific knowledge. She wondered if Annie wasn't feeling well before inwardly shrugging since it wasn't really her problem. She looked at Professor Oak curiously as Steven asked, "So what are you having us deliver, Professor?"

Professor Oak put down the pokedex he'd been fiddling with and moved towards the shelves where a plain looking brown shoe-box sized package sat, "As you know the wild fire that occurred the last time you were in Vermilion was created due to the actions of a young trainer somehow slipping a Magmar through our security, the League has tasked many of the scientists within Kanto and Johto to find a way to ensure it won't happen again," He picked up the box and brought it over to the table, "This is my answer to that, I am unsure if it will work which is why I'm sending this to Lt. Surge."

"Because Vermilion's port is typically the only one to really see any travel from outside of Kanto and anyone going to Cerulean bay are usually sailors rather than travelers/tourists," Vali looked at the package in interest, "Is it a scanner of some kind, Professor?"

"Yes, it is," Professor Oak pushed the package across the table to Steven who picked it up, "With any hope, it'll be able to find any pokemon like Magmar that require a more experienced hand allowing the proper authorities to confront the trainer and discover if they're at a level where they can properly deal with said pokemon," Professor Oak radiated a sense of pride as he looked at the package, "If it can, we might be able to prevent another incident such as this from happening or at least, on such a large scale," Professor Oak dug a letter out of his desk and handed it to Vali, "Please give this to Lt. Surge as well,"

"Of course," Vali placed the letter into one of the inside pockets of her jacket, "Professor, what happened to that Magmar? They never mentioned it,"

Professor Oak grimaced with low sigh, "Due to the way it was captured and released in a place far from it's home, the rage it felt was too great resulting in it's death."

Vali winced at that though she could understand. Magmar weren't pokemon that could be reasoned with once they got pissed off enough. She sighed deeply feeling a flare of anger towards the stupid brat that had forced such a powerful being into a situation that caused it's death. At the very least, the Magmar had died in battle which fit it's species to a T as they lived and breathed for battle. Pushing away her anger, she murmured, "I hope this scanner works."

"Now let's send you both on your way, Vali it would be best for Vulpix to be returned," Professor Oak warned the witch, "Teleportation on young pokemon isn't a good idea unless they're shielded via a pokeball,"

"Right," Vali took out Vulpix's pokeball, "I'll release you soon, Vulpix,"

Vulpix seemed to pout at her, but didn't resist being returned to his scarcely used pokeball. Vali had only ever recalled him into the pokeball three times after capturing him since the fox was small enough to be easily carried without any trouble. Not to mention, she really liked being able to cuddle with the baby of her family. Professor Oak smiled a bit, "He's definitely adjusting to the bond if he is willing to be returned."

"Somewhat, he prefers being outside which I don't mind since it is a way to bond with him," Vali secured Vulpix's ultra ball to the necklace that carried Fawkes feather, "So are we being taken to the pokemon center?"

"Yes. I would suggest checking into a room before doing anything else since Vermilion is rather crowded this time of year," Professor Oak warned them as they left the room and headed towards the front of the lab where Alakazam would be taking them to Vermilion.

"Right, it's the high point in Vermilion's winter tourist season," Vali thought about the pokedex Professor Oak had been fiddling with, "Professor, are you going to be updating the pokedex soon?"

"Not very soon, I am playing around with the next few features I plan to add," Professor Oak replied as they made their way through the lab, "I hope to have it finished for the next batch of trainers,"

Vali nodded slowly, "Professor, I have a small suggestion for a new feature."

"Oh?" Professor Oak looked at her curiously alongside Steven.

"Perhaps a transfer option, I know Bill is working on it since we discussed it a bit when Steven and I checked on him for you. I wasn't sure if you were as well, so I thought it might be a good idea to bring it up if you're working on some new features for the pokedex," Vali said immediately gaining Professor Oak's full attention and she began to explain the option, "One that doesn't require going to a pokemon center to transfer a pokemon or two for people like me who don't like being separated from their pokemon. Obviously, it would be a feature available only to higher ranking trainers and League personnel. The League would obviously get the option to transfer around more pokemon than anyone not with them once it proves viable and the system can sustain the strain without a problem. Maybe a badge limit? You'd need like four or five to be able to access this feature,"

Professor Oak grinned brightly, "We have been thinking of something like that with Bill doing the brunt of experimenting with it, but haven't quite found a way to sell the idea to the League in order to gain funding for such a project. If we expand on your idea a bit further while explaining it and perhaps..." Professor Oak began muttering to himself as they exited the lab and Alakazam appeared making the Professor shudder a bit as a wave of psychic-type energy radiated from the powerful pokemon for a few second, "Right, it's time for you two to leave. Vali, Steven, I wish you both luck and will contact you if there is a problem. Vali, you have the lab's number, right?"

"And your house number along with mine," Vali answered as she took out her pokenav to show him, "I also have numbers for the Ranger stations, the generic police number, the League's various numbers, Bill's number, and Steven's number,"

Professor Oak nodded as she put away her pokenav, "Just wanted to make sure, I want to be the first to know if you discover something like that cavern."

"Did you ever figure out who was responsible for the Durant?" Steven asked as Alakazam moved closer to the humans she'd be transporting.

"The Ranger's and League are doing a joint investigation into it," Professor Oak grimaced as he said that, "There are some speculations, I don't have much information about it though thankfully, the colony of Durant was small enough that the Rangers were able to remove them. A small group will be ensuring that they're completely gone and haven't managed to leave any eggs behind,"

"Good," Vali shuddered to think about what could have happened if there were more Durant, "Did they figure out how long the Durant had been there?"

"Around two months at most, the damage done is repairable," Professor Oak smiled in relief, "Apparently, one of the few Steelix that were in the Safari zone knew Fire Fang and had gained a taste for them which is mainly why the population was still small despite Durant being able to have multiple clutches of eggs during that time period,"

"Must be an experienced one if it was able to get it's Fire Fang hot enough to melt a Durant's outer shell," Vali shook her head with a small snort.

Steven cleared his throat, "What is going to happen to the Durant?"

"They're being sent back to their native Region save for one that found a home with one of the Ace Trainers that were assisting with capturing the Durant," Professor Oak looked at Steven as Alakazam placed a hand on Vali's shoulder, "If you want, I could see about getting one for you though you'd have to do quite a bit of paperwork and obtain a license for it,"

Steven thought about it before nodding, "If it wouldn't be too much trouble, I would love to have one. It will be interesting to see just how diffrent it's hive mind is compared to a Beldum."

"I'll see what I can do," Professor Oak looked at the two, "Safe travels, you two,"

"Try not to overwork yourself, Professor," Vali replied with a smile.

With that, Alakazam teleported them to Vermilion City.