Chapter 36 – Cracking an Egg
The following days were quite hectic, Mr. Moore being determined to turn Victini into a competent battler by his definition. The military style no nonsense training didn’t mesh well with her personality type.
“Give me twenty flamethrowers within ten minutes or you can go to bed without dinner!”
“Vi!?!?”
He didn’t deign to spare me from his extreme ministrations either. According to him, great trainers were always mobile. This meant that he had me running laps inside the volcano while his Pokémon were taking potshots at me. His Magcargo was acting all gingerly about it and luckily for me the Lava Pokémon was restricting itself by only using rock throw and ember attacks. The first few days I went to bed bruised and mildly singed leaving me with torn up and burnt clothes.
“Egon! If you don’t finish those three miles, it’s no dinner for you either!”
‘Like hell you are convincing my grandma into letting me go to bed starved. If worse comes to worst, I’ll just sneak out to get dinner at the hot springs’ inn.’
“Me too?”
‘Of course, what kind of trainer would I be if I didn’t sneak in some extra for you. Starving ourselves won’t make us grow stronger.’
The rest of my team had it much easier. Each one gained a friendly mentor which they couldn’t stop raving over. Especially Rena’s mentor, Mr. Moore’s own Ninetales took a shine to my little fox. When she was not teaching Rena new tricks the two could often be spotted together grooming one another.
Numsy also had a same species mentor this time an older gym Camerupt not on Moore’s personal team, picked for seventh level badge fights and up. Since the Camerupt had nothing else to do except graze and look after the gym’s numel this was a nice change of pace for him. I stressed the importance of learning earth power to Numsy. So hopefully he has been focusing on that instead of grazing and lazing about with the rest of the gym’s herd Pokémon.
Only Orin and Glove didn’t receive a mentor, both of them, especially the little Litwick had trouble finding a proper mentor. While Glove just exercised once in a while with most of his attention being focused on the egg. I figured it would be pretty awkward for him to start receiving advice from Pokémon close in strength to himself. Orin for the most part just watched on from the sidelines as we got abused into being capable battlers. Or if he wasn’t then Flannery probably took him along to have fun elsewhere.
Tranquill, being absolutely bored out of her mind, has been picking fights with the weaker gym Pokémon. In the wild that wouldn’t be an issue, but gyms had to make sure that they have Pokémon of appropriate level strength for every challenge. If a first badge level Pokémon got too strong, they’d be moved up and used against 2nd badge level fights and so on. If a gym’s Pokémon got too strong too quickly, they could face a shortage of Pokémon to use for challengers. Luckily there was a limit to the number of battles Tranquill could start before growing tired.
The training was rough and often times Mr. Moore and I had disagreements on how to engage with Victini. The only way to convince him to ease up on the training when he was stuck in one of his moods was to have Victini tell on him to Flannery. The red head was quick to berate her grandfather for “bullying” her cute new friend. Whenever Flannery involved herself, he turned back into the overly spoiling, kind-hearted, Pokémon poetry obsessed grandfather.
Mr. Moore was old enough to have experienced the interregional war between Kanto and Johto and being that his family originally came from Johto I figured he must have some leftover mental demons and I couldn’t help but compare the training we were doing with army drills. Curiosity alone was not enough to have me start asking questions about such a sensitive subject. There was a widely agreed on consensus between old people to never talk about the war. To prevent the youth from holding on to old grudges.
Although we didn’t agree with his methods, they did produce some results. Since power was never an issue for Victini we skipped past moves that relied too heavily on technique. The focus would be to train her up to be able to use flamethrower, fire punch, psychic, and thunder punch. Mr. Moore didn’t have any psychic types of his own but the Magmar on his elite team was skilled at using the move.
After each personal session with Magmar the little rabbit Pokémon usually walked away with new insights. Even though Victini had a childlike disposition the smarts inherent to psychic type Pokémon shined through. She quickly learned to use three of the four moves on the first try. The only move the rabbit Pokémon had some difficulty learning was thunder punch, requiring the remainder of our first week to get the basics down. I attributed her difficulty learning the move with the fact that she had never in her life tried to channel typed energy that was neither psychic nor fire type.
“Ugh… My everything hurts, and spending too much time in that Volcano ruined my traveling boots.”
It was after another one of our training sessions with Mr. Moore when it happened. Me and the team were walking back home, myself sweaty and with a growing bruise on the side of my head where I got hit by my Magcargo’s rock throw. The Pokémon was limiting himself in order to not to hurt me too badly, I knew that, but getting hit still stung. We met glove on the way back home, he was carrying the incubator in his arms looking especially harried. This was a strange occurrence since Glove never went outside the house without being accompanied by me or my grandparents.
“What’s wrong Glove? Did Flannery try to ride on your back again?”
“Nitan!”
“Glove says the egg twitched three times one shortly after the other!”
“Really?! Okay! Glove you head on over to the Pokémon center with the egg. I’ll let Grandma and Grandpa know in case they want to watch the hatching. Tini, can you let Flannery know?”
“On it!”
Flannery kept bugging me about my egg, since I declined to disclose the specific species inside of the egg to her. I figured it would be fun for her to find out the traditional way. Our Nurse Joy Mary told me the hatching process could take a whole day, but I hoped my immature friend could stay for long enough to witness that special moment.
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Seven hours later*
“Egooon!!! How much longer is this going to take? I am hungry!”
“It’ll hatch when it is ready and not a moment sooner. Maybe if you calm down the little one in the egg will come out sooner.”
“Oh my… We have some rice crackers in the back if you’d like some?”
The people inside the delivery room at the center consisted of just me, Flannery and nurse Joy. My grandparents visited for a spell but quickly left after making a token appearance. As did Mr. Moore here to drag Flannery back home since it was past her bedtime. Nurse Joy managed to convince him to let Flannery stay here for the birth. It was just an hour past midnight and we spent most of our time waiting by sharing stories. Our local nurse Joy, being very well traveled, had a few juicy escapades to share. During her younger years she used to be a trainer just like us competing in four regional circuits. Her being from the Joy clan meant that she had unrestricted access to almost any region. She wasn’t really all that successful never qualifying to enter the championship tournaments but for her it was more about the experience traveling around meeting new Pokémon.
“Mary, has anyone from the Joy clan ever won a championship tournament?”
“Yes, my niece twice removed, if I do recall, she won one here in Hoenn. Before taking up a job as a PIA agent in Kanto.”
“PIA?”
“The Pokémon inspection agency. They are responsible for making sure gyms and other league associated facilities are being run according to the rules established by the Pokémon association. Making sure they keep up with the latest safety standards and provide the correct level of challenge for each individual challenger. Each year they shut down a few minor gyms for poor practices.”
Minor gyms were quite common in every region. Technically speaking if a village, town, or city doesn’t have an official gym a resident was free to open one. Naturally the badges awarded by such a gym weren’t worth much. It was tough for any trainer to run a gym without significant backing from their community. The successful ones out of these small timers kept the big gyms on their toes, always eying their position and ready to take over when their leaders proved themselves inadequate.
Our time spent watching the egg has been quite draining to me and Flannery, our young bodies not yet used to staying up past our usual bedtimes. Mary offered to let us go sleep in one of the center’s bunkbeds while she would keep watch, but I felt it was important to observe the entire process.
The rest of my team were out of their poké balls, except for Victini who was counting on me to inform her when the hatching commenced. It’s not like we didn’t trust nurse Joy to keep Victini’s existence a secret but there were multiple camera’s set up inside the room and we planned to share those recordings with a number of people.
To pass the time Flannery started goofing around with her team and my Pokémon. Playing hide and seek, tic tac toe and tag. Naturally running through the Pokémon center’s hallways was completely against the rules but Mary allowed it this one time since it was past visiting hours and the girl clearly needed to let off some steam.
Then it happened. The egg had been wiggling for a while now, but it seems like its occupant decided to finally take escaping seriously. Marked by the fact that for the first time we heard a loud thwump emanate from inside the incubator.
“Mary, it's happening!”
“Dar! Dar!”
The family’s nurse Joy with practiced precision unscrewed the incubator’s top open before carefully picking up the egg and placing it on a collection of old wet towels. She let me know beforehand that fire types tended to come out dry with the eggshell pieces bursting out in every direction like a small grenade explosion. This tended to scorch up the surroundings real bad hence the need for wet towels.
The first visible crack was made at the top of the egg splintering into multiple lines which glowed red hot. As if the occupant inside sought to blast their way out. And eventually it did pelting me and Flannery with the remains of its egg shell. Luckily it being a newborn Pokémon the power behind the blast wasn’t at all dangerous.
“Veeeees!”
We could finally see the baby Pokémon’s true appearance. Larvesta looked similar to other first stage bug type Pokémon sporting a segmented body with the upper half of its body enveloped by a fuzzy white mane. Having three pairs of legs with one pair front facing so it could hold grab things its most distinctive feature however was the five whorled horns distributed equally alongside its head.
‘Oh, right! My Unovan Pokédex will probably have this one on record let’s see…’
Larvesta, the Torch Pokémon. When battling opponents, it sprays fire from its five horns. The max temperature of the flames can reach nearly 5,500 degrees Fahrenheit. In ancient times, Larvesta was worshiped as the emissary of the sun. However, it was also viewed as a burden since it often caused forest fires.
“Aww it’s so cute! And look at those horns!”
Flannery as always was quick to comment on the perceived cuteness of a Pokémon. Meanwhile Mary was eager to give baby Pokémon a physical exam slowly inching closer to the newly hatched Larvesta.
“Vesta!”
It seemed Larvesta was having none of it. Dangerously flaring up its horn towards the nurse’s incoming hand.
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“Wait! Larvesta will only trust a human or Pokémon who has been designated as its caretaker.”
It has been around two months since I received that pheromone mark. I’ve showered and bathed multiple times since then so I didn’t know for sure if this would work. However, it had a better shot of working than whatever Mary was planning to do.
Un-sleeving my right arm I presented my bare skin to Larvesta. The mark had almost completely faded, but if you looked closely you could still barely see a faint white outline. I was hoping Larvesta wouldn’t burn my arm off in an attempt at self-defense. Thankfully the little guy or girl seemed to be distracted by something in the air. The torch Pokémon crawled over to my offered appendage and started rubbing its fuzzy white head across the length of my arm.
“Your mother chose me to take care of you. Do you want to come with me, Larvesta?”
“Veeees!”
Somehow, I knew that I had gotten a positive reaction from the newborn Pokémon. Evidenced by the fact that Larvesta was now crawling up my arm on its direction towards my shoulder eventually making its way up there. The feel of Larvesta up there wasn’t altogether unpleasant. Yes, the horns were poking me but they weren’t sharp in any way.
“Larvesta, would you mind letting the nice Nurse Joy have a look at you?”
“Veees…”
“If you are really brave, I am sure she’ll give you a tasty treat afterwards.”
“Can I have a tasty treat too?”
‘Yes, in a bit. First let me work my child rearing skills on Larvesta.’
With some further cooing and head rubs I finally managed to convince Larvesta to let Mary have a look at her. The nurse Joy took Larvesta off my shoulders and placed the torch Pokémon on a nearby weight scale.
“This is the first time I have done this with a Larvesta so please bear with me. We don’t have a medium for what is considered a healthy amount of weight or anything really. So, the only thing I can do is to take all Larvesta’s measurements and document them for any future references.”
Mary proceeded to test Larvesta pupillary light reflex as well as the reflex-arc on each of her six limbs. Before turning Larvesta over and examining the other parts of the Pokémon’s body.
“Egon, I am pleased to inform you that this Larvesta is a healthy baby girl.”
‘Ughh... now Dianne is surely going to hound me to play matchmaker in the future.’
“Larvesta for being such a brave Pokémon you can have your pick out of any of these Lollipops.”
Mary offered several choices from candied fruit peels to sliced berries. Eventually Larvesta settled on a honey flavored lollipop. Mary seemed quite pleased with the bug Pokémon’s choice for some reason.
“All bug type Pokémon that end up visiting our center for treatment, just love my special combee honey lollipop. it’s a bug type favorite.”
“Mary, I didn’t know you made Pokémon confections in your spare time.”
“Fufufu, visiting trainers don’t stay in Lavaridge for long so me and Chansey end up with a lot of free time.”
“Grrr…!”
‘Calm down! I’ll get you one of those lollipops later.’
While Larvesta was enjoying her candied treat, someone else in the room couldn’t contain their eagerness any longer.
“Dar Dar!”
“Yes, go ahead Glove this is the perfect time for introductions.”
My Darmanitan stood ramrod straight which wasn’t easy since his species tended to lean forward using their arms for additional support. Just like that Glove slowly walked up to Larvesta who was still situated on top of the medical exam table.
“Dar Dar…”
“Vesss?”
“Nitan!”
‘What did he say?’
“Glove is swearing his loyalty to the princess.”
‘Wait why? I thought we were going to be cool uncles?!’
“Lar!”
“She appointed him as her personal knight.”
‘This is getting out of hand real fast! I am going to try something.’
“Glove, how are you going to be an uncle and a knight at the same time? Knights can’t play horsey or do whoopey cushion pranks!”
“Dar…”
“It was all just in my head? You are a retainer first and foremost?”
To his credit Glove did seem slightly ashamed of going back on his words. To get my mind off this grave betrayal I gave Flannery and the rest of my team the go ahead to make their own introductions. Fervently wishing that none of my other Pokémon felt the need to swear allegiance to Larvesta.
First up was Numsy, the eruption Pokémon seemed the most disinterested of those who were present in the room. Which was still quite fond as a numel he spent a good number of nights reclined against the egg looking after its well-being.
“Rupt.”
“Ves?”
“Came?!”
Larvesta hopped off the table and landed squarely on top of Numsy’s neck.
‘Wait what just happened?’
“Larvesta deemed Numsy to be a part of her royal procession… as her steed.”
‘Please Acreus! Don’t let this happen to me. I can't handle eccentricities of this magnitude.’
Numsy eventually recovered from the initial shock of being categorized as Larvesta’s beast of labor. Not bothered by Larvesta’s implications he carried her around the room to the other Pokémon of my team who hadn’t had the time to introduce themselves yet. Each time Larvesta giving them some sort of made-up court position. Rena became her lady-in-waiting while Orin received the honor of becoming her antiquarian. Tranquill oddly enough also was deemed worthy enough to receive a position in this faux court. Victini translated her job title as Keeper of the Swanna. When it was time for Flannery to make her introductions, the smooth procession seemed to run into a few snags.
“Heya Larvesta my name is Flannery. Let’s be friends!”
What sounded to me like a completely normal start to a healthy relationship seemed to somehow offend Larvesta. Evident by the small plumes of fire shooting out of her horns.
“Vess! Vess!”
‘Wait that seemed completely normal to me what happened?’
“Larvesta says only family can deign to speak to her so casually.”
Before things got out of hand, I intervened by pulling off Larvesta from Numsy’s back and giving her a stern talking to.
“Flannery is a family friend be nice to her, okay? She might come off as a bit too forward but give her some slack for my sake.”
“Vess…”
“Now as a token of reconciliation you should shake hands together.”
“Vess!”
“She says that…”
‘It’s okay, even I can figure that last one out.’
‘Taking care of this one is going to be a chore, I just know it.’
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Later that night*
Mary didn’t want us to go out after dark, so she let us stay in the center dorm rooms. Numsy couldn’t stay out and had to be put back in his ball, but the rest of the team kept on without sleeping for a spell longer to get to know Larvesta a bit better. She seemed tolerant enough of those who she deemed to be her servants. Seeing as I was to look out for her, and she hadn’t decided to give me a court title yet I seemed to be in the clear.
Larvesta went into great detail on what was to be expected of each member. As her knight and personal champion Glove was permitted to take her place in any trial-by-combat duels and was to put a stop to any assassination attempts. Rena was the only one permitted to be candid to her, her duties as a lady-in-waiting was to be Larvesta’s playmate and keep her up to date with any courtly gossip. Orin’s job entailed the protection and maintenance of any artifacts or valuable items our party manages to acquire. After which she promptly demanded to inspect our “coffers”. Orin being completely out of his depth looked at me hoping I’d take over for him.
“It’s alright Orin you don’t have to play along with her antics if you don’t want to.”
“Lit…”
“Fineeee…”
I grabbed my trusty backpack and turned it over letting all its contents spill out on my bed covers. Besides the obvious clothes, camping supplies and tupperware filled with Pokémon food and berries there were a number of items that didn’t fall into the before mentioned categories. To make it as simple as possible for Orin I lined up any of the unusual items.
One Mega stone, Safety Goggles, Rena’s ruby tiara, calling card from Geof the secret CEO/ janitor, one fire stone, Pokédex, five soda cans, Xtransceiver and the disassembled remains of Dianne’s egg incubator which I planned to return to her at some point. It wasn’t much but hopefully Orin will be let off with just this.
Larvesta paced around the bed painstakingly inspecting the goods. She seemed happy enough with the firestone and unidentified mega stone. Dismissing all the supplies and clothes, when her eyes landed on the tiara her eyes started shining.
“Ves! Ves!”
Before Larvesta had the chance to go grab the tiara Rena swiftly body blocked her claiming the tiara to be her personal property.
“Pix Pix!”
‘Oh boy this is not going to end well if I don’t do something. Gotta distract Larvesta quickly.’
“Hey, Larvesta, we haven't gotten to naming you yet. Your mother has a beautiful personal name. How about I come up with one for you?”
“Lar?”
“Your mother’s name is Sunny, so I was thinking something sun related.”
“Ves Ves!”
“Excellent, hmm how about Halo? The way your horns crown your forehead looks similar to old petroglyphic art depicting the sun.”
It seemed like I’ve gotten better at naming since Larvesta seemed blown away by my name suggestion. Eagerly bobbing her head in agreement and also completely forgetting the ruby tiara which Rena was at this moment sneakily trying to hide behind her six tails.
"Perfect! It's nice having you on the team Halo. Hey, would you mind me capturing you in this net ball? I don't want anyone else to try and run off with you."
My proposal to capture her passed scrutiny and she gave me a single nod with her head. Not wasting any time and with most of my backpack emptied I grabbed the singular empty net ball which was not latched to my belt but acted as the hood ornament of her incubator. Sitting in preparation for today's events and sparing me the effort of buying a regular one from the local pokémart. Gingerly I gently bopped Halo on her head, the capturing device opening up and sucking the bug type Pokémon inside. The ball wiggled only once before producing that familiar clicking noise to confirm a successful capture.
“I caught a Larvesta!”
“Pix Pix!”
“Dar!”
“Lit!”
“Egon shut up!”
“Whoops, Let’s keep quiet you guys. Flannery needs her beauty sleep.”
Since Flannery was a bit upset after being shunned by Larvesta like that. I made a deal with Victini to keep her company for the night. My fellow redhead was sleeping in the next room over and was not in the mood to entertain my antics.
“Let’s go to bed as well. Tomorrow will surely be a hectic day.”
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The following morning*
Since we stayed awake for a good portion of the night, we only got out of bed at around ten in the morning. Naturally this being Larvesta’s first day out of the egg, she looked at every surrounding building and tree with a sense of wonder and delight.
“The building you were born in is called a Pokémon center. It's where injured and sick Pokémon go to be healed.”
“Ves.”
“You can always identify a Pokémon center by the distinct red coloring of their rooftops. So, if you ever get lost in a big city that’s the place, I’ll look for you. There’s also the(a?) Pokémart. These buildings have blue tiled roofs. It’s where trainers like me buy supplies, like poké balls or medicine.
Halo being very eager to learn all there is to know about all the buildings and Pokémon walking around Lavaridge. It made teaching her a pleasant experience not mentioning the fact that her fuzzy mane felt nice brushing up against my neck. It is good that her birthplace is my hometown, if she was born in a big city all the noise and crowded streets might have been a bit overwhelming for her. I was late for my daily training session with Mr. Moore, but I was sure he’d understand the importance of showing Halo around town.
“Ves?”
“That’s the gym, the place where me and a few other fire type specialized trainers work at. We offer challenges to passing trainers at differing skill levels and if they do well, they earn a badge. Badges are what trainers like me aim to collect in order to earn a spot at this big yearly tournament.”
“Can we go now?”
Victini had to suffer through being smothered like a stuffed toy for the whole night. Cheering up Flannery took a whole lot of effort on Victini’s part. The girl went back home a bit earlier than I did in order to have breakfast with her grandfather on time.
Arriving through the front entrance, Halo got a whole lot of attention from one of the three people that worked at the gym full time.
“Why look at that, a Larvesta! I didn’t think I’d ever get the chance to see one in person. You are one lucky trainer Egon. So, that is the Pokémon that was inside the egg you were logging around the whole time?”
“Yes, it’s my first time raising a newborn Pokémon so any advice you could give me would sure be helpful Keegan.”
“Well, I’ve raised a lot of the gym’s newborn Pokémon. We don't exactly plan for it but when love happens someone’s got to take care of the Numel and Ponyta once they’ve been weaned off. They make for excellent challenges against fledgling trainers.”
The gym trainers did have to take care of some extra unplanned Pokémon from time to time. Slugma, Ponyta and Numel mostly. If the newly hatched Pokémon didn’t have any interest in battling, they would be relocated to a place more suited to them. Those ponyta and numel usually ended up at a ranch or reserve. The ponyta especially were a big hit with riding schools since all those girls tended to want their own personal ponyta to ride on. However, there was a strict rule that parents and their calves/foals were not to be separated unless they both gave the gym their consent. Magcargo typically didn’t have much parental instinct. For them it was enough just knowing the egg would be cared for by a diligent trainer.
“The people working here are all trainers with way more experience than me Halo. So be sure to pay attention when they give out suggestions.”
“Vess…!”
“Hoho! Got yourself a spitfire I see. That sort of personality type is well suited for a fire type. Well, I’ll leave you two to it. There is a Magby just waiting to be prepped for today’s challengers. If you are looking for Mr. Moore, he’s at the usual place inside the caldera.”
“I am sure Mr. Moore would love to meet the only Larvesta ever to be found outside the Unova region.”