New pokemon

"Man, I feel bad for the kid," Zavian commented as Vali walked up to the gym doors, "He might be a little shit, but still,"

"What did Blaine give him?" Vali asked as she reached Zavian and Jackson's sides.

"A Sandile," Jackson answered with a shake of his head, "Specifically one with a tendency to show its affection by biting. Sandile was sent to the gym by a breeder two weeks ago for this even though we weren't the ground-type gym. Tried to send it back, the breeder blocked us and even said they wouldn't take the poor thing back no matter what,"

Zavian shook his head, "Things affectionate as hell, it also has a tendency to accidentally use Snore whenever its feeling lonely or sad."

"So basically if it feels like he's angry with it, the brat's going to be falling asleep?" Vali asked earning a nod and promptly let out a laugh, "I feel bad for the kid, but it's got to be karma for being a power hungry brat,"

Vali found that she enjoyed helping give out pokemon to various kids though it sometimes took some intervention to pair them up. When everything was said and done, they all gathered together to celebrate pairing the new trainers with various partner pokemon. Before Vali could even take a bite of her piece of cake, Blaine shoved a pokeball at her earning a wide-eyed look. He looked at her with a slightly amused expression, "I told you before we even signed the damn papers that you've needed more fire-types. We've got an extra one. You're catching the next one."

Vali looked between him and the pokeball for a few moments. Zavian finally managed to break her trance by saying, "Well aren't you going to say or do anything?"

"T-thank you, Blaine," Vali looked at the pokeball, "What's in it?"

"Release them to find out, Brat," Blaine told her with a snort as he sat down.

Vali took a deep breath before releasing the pokemon inside. The pokemon released was a quadruped leonine Pokémon. It's body was covered in semi-coarse short that was mostly dark chocolate brown fur save for the lighter pale brown paws, ears, tail tip, and face. It's muzzle was short and rounded with a reddish orange nose at the tip. A pair of rounded ears with darker interiors were perched atop its head and circular obsidian colored eyes with pearl pupils peered around the room. A reddish orange tuft of fur was perched between its ears which would one day become the mighty mane of its evolution. Each of its paws has three toes and dark brown paw pads. Unlike most pokemon, it's tail had a unique pointed teardrop shape at the end of it.

As the Litleo's eyes met Vali's, she realized it was the same one she'd been trying to partner with various kids, but hadn't had any luck. With a soft giggle, she got out of her chair and dropped down to its level, "Hey, Little one. Guess with everything going on, we didn't take the time to figure out what exactly you wanted, huh?"

Litleo peered at her with slightly narrowed eyed before snorting softly and mewing. Elrond spoke as he approached from where the pokemon had been chowing down, "He didn't think they'd let him sleep for very long. At least with you, he'd be able to sleep more often once he's strong enough."

Vali let out a soft laugh, "Well, you're not wrong. So you're okay with becoming my partner?"

Litleo nodded with a soft yawn and Elrond translated, "He says sure thing."

Vali reached out and scratched behind his ears, "I'm glad to hear it."

Taking out her pokedex, she scanned Litleo.

Litleo, the Lion Cub pokemon. The stronger the opponent it faces, the more heat surges from its mane and the more power flows through its body. They set off on their own from their pride and live by themselves to become stronger. These hot-blooded Pokémon are quick to fight. This hot-blooded Pokémon is filled with curiosity. When it gets angry or starts fighting, its short mane gets hot. In the past, Litleo often served as the pokemon of noble children due to their protective nature when grown, but it fell out of practice in favor of canine pokemon like Growlithe and Houndour.

This Litleo is Male and has the ability Rivalry. This Litleo knows the moves Leer, Tackle, Ember, and Fire Spin.

It was a fairly good move set to start off with though how much had he'd mastered was the question. Putting her pokedex away, she told him, "We'll start your training tomorrow, Litleo. For tonight, I want you to spend some time with me. I'll introduce you to our pack/pride later on."

Litleo nodded with a yawn and nuzzled into her hand. Elrond chuckled softly, "He doesn't care so long as he'll be able to sleep at some point."

"You'll be able to sleep," Vali promised as she carefully picked him up and returned to her seat.

Vali set him down beside her and had Elrond get him some food. Litleo began eating after eyeing it. Zavian shook his head at the sight, "Man, I've never seen a Litleo that lazy and pushover-like even a male."

"Litleo's awesome," Vali replied as she returned to her piece of cake, "I'm looking forward to seeing how things go,"

Steven's face appeared on the other side of the screen, "Vali! It's good to see and hear you again. How have you been?"

"Fairly good even if things have been busy," Vali sat on the beach towel as with Litleo curled up against her knee, "How about you?"

"Not too bad," Steven replied as he shifted the pokenav around, "I'm leaving for Rustboro in the morning for the real start of my journey around Hoenn once more," He smiled lightly, "It's been nice being back here and seeing the Beldum colony. I've enjoyed seeing all of my pokemon together,"

Vali smiled at that, "How is training your Magnemite? I found out that Lance got an interesting Trapinch."

Which was fairly funny, Lance had called about the Trapinch biting him in the ass twice already. He had wanted to know if Seel had been difficult for her or not. He'd been quite disappointed to find out that Seel had been well behaved and only had a penchant for licking things. Steven blinked a bit at that piece of information, "Well enough, they're rather...dull witted though from what I've managed to understand they'll become quite intelligent once they evolve especially into their final evolution."

"You'll have to be careful when you're attempting to evolve it into Magnezone as the process is up there with attempting to evolve a Electabuzz or Magmar without any items," Vali warned him though she was aware that he probably already knew that, "Anyway, I ended up getting a Litleo from Blaine. He was a left over starter prospect that decided no one was worth the trouble. He just wants to sleep. He's willing to train and battle so long as I let him sleep whenever we're not doing that kind of stuff,"

"That's lucky and he's an odd pokemon," Steven shook his head with a chuckle, "So what's going to happen now?"

"Blaine'll keep on training me and we're going to be working with Amity," Vali replied with a slight shrug, "I've got a few duties around the gym. Mostly helping to care for the various pokemon and keeping the gym cleaned up, I'm mostly studying whatever stuff Blaine gives me. Today we're off,"

Steven frowned slightly, "Not going home yet?"

"Not until I've got a few days off in a row," Vali replied with a sigh, "That won't be for another month at least," She ran a hand through her hair, "I talked to Delia and the boys are asking about me, but neither want to talk on the phone with me. They're still being stubborn,"

"They'll talk to you soon, Vali," Steven assured her earning a pained smile.

"I know, Steven," Vali just didn't like waiting, "So how's training your pokemon going? Anything new happening?"

Steven looked like he wanted to say something about her change in the topic, but began explaining what he'd been doing.