Talks of leaving

"So if Eevee is staying with you, will you battle with him or not?" Daisy asked once Vali finished relaying what Eevee had said.

Vali looked at Eevee who was staring at Daisy with narrowed eyes, "Eevee," He looked at her, "It's your choice. Do you want to battle with me or remain on my inactive team?"

Eevee eyed her lightly before barking and Alakazam translated it for Vali, "He wishes to be a battler."

"Battle it is," Vali looked at Professor Oak, "Professor, what are the protocols for this kind of thing?"

"Eevee will still be on your inactive team for another two months, but if no incidents occur during that time, you'll be able to add him to your roster full time," Professor Oak replied with a bright smile, "You can train him however you wish. I will be giving you an everstone to ensure that he won't evolve during this time as evolution can make any lingering problems in abused pokemon resurface. Until we can ascertain just how stable he is, he'll need to wear it just in case,"

Vali looked at Eevee, "Are you okay with that?" Eevee nodded after a moment, "Alright. Can you fashion it into something Eevee will have an easy time carrying that's durable and won't be too constricting?"

"I can do that," Professor Oak nodded as she scratched just above Eevee's cream colored rough, "Other than that, you should be just fine,"

Vali began packing her things up making sure to put anything she wanted to leave home away. The biggest fragments of Vulpix's egg were placed in a special case along with some of the fur he'd shed not long after hatching. Ash walked into her room, "Hey, Vali."

"Hey, Ash," Vali looked up from the clean clothes she was folding, "What's up?"

"I was wondering who you'll having stay behind since you can only carry six pokemon," Ash answered as he sat down on the bed with was currently rather cluttered with the stuff she needed to put away, "I know Eevee and Vulpix are on your inactive team, but who are you taking?"

"I'm leaving it up to my pokemon," Vali told him as she finished folding her clothes and began putting them into her bag, "I know that Smaug and Balto are staying with me. Other than that, it'll be up to my pokemon,"

"Who do you think will stay behind?" Ash asked her curiously.

Vali thought about it carefully, "Idril and Terra will likely stay behind because of the cold weather not agreeing with them. Same with Celina, the Pidgey-line hate cold weather after all. Anyone else is pretty much a toss up," She looked at him, "Why do you ask?"

"Would Gary and I be allowed to come play with your pokemon?" Ash flushed a bit, "Please,"

"So long as they want to play and you both do your homework," Vali grinned a bit at his groan, "You also have to be good for Delia and try to keep your room clean,"

"Fine," Ash perked up a bit, "Can we help them train?"

"Yes, but only if Professor Oak agrees and is there to oversee the training sessions," Vali grinned a bit, "Think of it as hands on learning for when you're a trainer and have more pokemon than Pidgey,"

Ash's own grin appeared and he jumped off her bed, "That's going to be so awesome!"

Vali looked over her pokemon with Professor Oak standing nearby with a clipboard to mark down who was staying at the lab. Balto and Smaug were sitting with the two members of her inactive team next to her. Celina quickly moved to the side of the room with Idril and Terra following the Pidgeot as she'd expected. Pippin darted over to join the two coming with her and slammed into Balto's side earning an eye-roll from the two. Empress joined him with a small snort. Elrond floated over after a moment with Arwen moving to join those staying behind. Pele looked a bit confused, but moved towards Vali after a moment. Professor Oak marked that down on the clipboard, "I'll get everything set up in the system while checking to make sure Vulpix and Eevee are definitely on your inactive team."

"Thank you, Professor," Vali told him honestly earning a warm smile.

"It's no trouble," Professor Oak left the room.

Vali looked over each of her pokemon with a sad smile, "Each of you staying at the lab, I'm going to be checking in as much as I can. Please do your best to continue training, I'm going to put together some training schedules. Celina knows what to do, so look to her for guidance if you need help with something, okay?" They all nodded and she moved to hug each of them, "I love you guys and hate knowing that we won't be traveling together. I'm going to do my damn best to ensure that I can up my carry-limit as soon as possible. Ash and Gary will likely be coming by a lot to play with you guys. You can refuse if you want. They're going to try helping you all train, but only let it happen if an adult is around to watch over it all."

"I'm going to stick around for another week or two," Daisy announced the night before Vali and Steven were due to leave, "I need to make up for being so absent and I still have to figure out where I want Alakazam to drop me off,"

"Have you two figured out where you want to be dropped off?" Delia asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Vermilion City," Steven answered after they shared a look, "We want to get used to traveling again and neither of us really have a use for going back to Celadon at the moment same with Cerulean,"

"Not to mention that a lot of trainers are traveling to and from Vermilion City at this time of year which means more of a chance to help my newer pokemon get used to battling," Vali added the information that she'd researched, "I would also like to see Lt. Surge to see what kind of idea he had about training Elrond,"

Ash frowned a bit, "How come?"

"Lt. Surge is Kanto's leading expert on electric-type pokemon and there are rumors he's been to Alola more than once though no one has seen any Alolan electric-types he might have," Vali answered as she picked up her glass of sweet berry flavored soda, "I'd also like to ask him for any advice for training Eevee. Seeing as the abused pokemon found in the Kanto region all go through his care one way or another not to mention the fact that he helped me a lot during our time in Vermilion City, I know he'll definitely be able to help me somehow. There's also the fact that he's interested in Elrond, it makes a lot of sense to visit him now rather than later,"

"This actually makes things easier," Professor Oak commented earning everyone's attention, "I need something delivered to Lt. Surge. Since you're planning to visit him, will you deliver it for me?"

"Sure," Vali agreed as Steven inclined his head, "It won't be any trouble, Professor,"

Delia looked a bit curious, "Steven, what about you?"

"My father is sending someone to meet with me," Steven answered with a slight smile, "I'm going to be spending time doing paperwork for the most part. Catching up on things that I've missed since coming to Kanto,"

Vali pulled on her backpack after making sure everything was inside of it. She looked down at Vulpix and smiled, "Ready to see the real world, Vulpix?"

Vulpix barked and wagged his tail. Bending down, Vali picked him up and left her bedroom. All she had to do was beat Sabrina, Blaine, and Giovanni then she'd be qualified for the Indigo Plateau Conference.