“To-to. Totodile!”

  Nina and Kerry squealed as the former scooped the croco-baby into her arms. “Hey Totodile, how’s it going?”

  “To! Todile.”

  “Hehehe…” Nina giggled and handed over a couple of Berries to the derpy blue crocodile who was fervently wiggling his stubby little feet in the air. All the while, Totodile eyed the baby Eevee in Kerry’s embrace with barely concealed fascination and even tried to reach over with his little t-rex arms in an attempt to pet him.

  “Vee…” Eevee whimpered and burrowed further into Kerry’s arms, likely intimidated by the gleaming fangs of the big jaw Pokemon.

  Kerry let out a warm chuckle and gave the precious bundle of fur a reassuring pat to calm him. “It’s alright, Vivi. Big brother Totodile isn’t going to hurt you… Isn’t that right, Totodile?” She whispered as she came in closer to allow the friendly crocodile to caress her baby.

  “To! Totodile!”

  “Hehe… You’re a sweet little thing arent’cha, Totodile? Nothing to be feared at all.” Nina cooed. “And where’s Toki by the way? Is he around?”

  Nina and Kerry had once again flown to New Bark Town. After the ‘negotiations’ between Nina and Lilian, the two girls came to the conclusion that the latter’s simple request might have burgeoned out of their purview. And so, decided to reach out to their respective backers first before proceeding any further.

  It was also around that time that Nina received an urgent call from Professor Elm, stating that her Fossil Egg was about to hatch. The Johton Pokemon Professor had actually messaged Nina at some point during her stay in Goldenrod City, to inform her of the Fossil Eggs successful revival. But because she was occupied with the derby at the time, and with how hectic the subsequent developments were, she never got around to making a visit.

  “Totodile. To!” The croco-baby nodded, tongue dangling from the side.

  “It’s okay, it’s good that he’s going to school properly.” Even the son of a world famous professor needed to be educated. “Then, do you mind bringing us to Professor Elm? I imagine he’s probably too busy to come greet us.”

  “To-todile!” With a little hop onto the ground, Totodile stumbled, rolled onto his head, and began waddling towards the direction of Elm’s lab with a purposeful gaze.

  ***

  The egg was shimmering. A rippling, iridescent aurora pulsated from within the semi-translucent, pearlescent shell in a rhythmic beat — the amorphous silhouette contained within stirring ever so slightly with every glow.

  “It’s gorgeous…” Nina gasped in awe, she had never seen such a beautiful egg before. It was like a living gemstone, the fetus’ heartbeat correlating with every pulse of light — an absolutely magical phenomenon. “Even after so many years, this world never ceases to amaze me.”

  Kerry nodded to her side and turned towards Professor Elm with an inquisitive gaze. “What Pokemon Egg is this, Professor? I don’t think I’ve ever seen its likeness before, even in my family’s expansive archives.”

  Judging by the settings of the complex looking incubator in front of them, and the misty cold air surrounding the Egg, the young Joy could tell that the ancient Pokemon was an Ice Type. But her knowledge wasn’t so extensive that she could figure out its identity through pure deduction.

  Professor Elm responded with an excited grin. “That’s because this is an extremely rare find, my dear. While not as rare as the Tirtouga that Nina had asked for previously, this Pokemon comes pretty close, mainly due to the environment in which this Pokemon is native to — most of which have long since faded from a bygone age of ice and frost.” The man hummed in recollection.

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  “We’ve discovered quite a number of this Pokemon’s remains that were intact enough for revival over the years. But this might very well be the first time that we’ve ever come across a perfectly preserved Fossil Egg of its species. Although, cloning efforts for the species have been inordinately successful given how well-preserved their remains tend to be… You said that the Egg was found in a pair by the Harrisons right, Nina?”

  Nina nodded, too mesmerized by the halo of colors surrounding the egg to respond in any meaningful way. Meanwhile, Kerry furrowed her brows in mild frustration. “I notice you didn’t answer my question, Professor.” The other girl chided.

  “Haha. Forgive an old man and his fun, Miss Joy. I wouldn’t want to ruin the surprise for dear Nina here now, would I?” Elm teased with a tap on his watch. “You’ll find out soon enough once the Egg hatches. Which should be any time now — it’s hard to tell given how unfamiliar we are with this Pokemon’s incubation cycle. Not to mention how sporadic its activity has been. It should be sometime today, if not, tomorrow…

  “Oh, and before I forget, I should probably make a call to the Pewter Gym and inquire about the status of the other Egg they found. Excuse me for a moment,” said the Professor as he wandered out of the high-tech nursery.

  “Urgh. Don’t you want to know what Pokemon you’re going to get, Nina? What if it's a big scary Tyrunt?!”

  “Heh.” The girl in question turned towards Kerry with a smirk. “I already know what this Egg contains. And besides, Tyrunts are Rock and Dragon Type — a refrigerated incubator is the worst sort of environment you can hatch them in.”

  “You know what it is?! Tell me! Tell me!” The nurse girl frantically began shaking her friend, but Nina persisted in her silence with an insufferably smug grin on her face.

  “Hehe... This is revenge for kicking me out when your Eevee was hatching, Kerr…”

  ***

  “Nina, you’ve been sitting in front of that incubator the entire day. Why don’t you go and stretch your legs for a little bit. Surely Espy will alert you when the Egg is about to hatch?”

  Kerry approached the girl sandwiched in between an assorted pile of Pokemon. Nina had released her entire team to keep her company at some point, all in order to greet the baby when it hatches.

  It was quite a ridiculous sight; Brinny was being straddled by Espy, who was being straddled by Nina who, in turn, was being straddled by Azzy, who was being straddled by Brucey, who was being straddled by Nitey. Like a silly band of anxious Daruma dolls lined up neatly by size. The only one not in the row was Sir Clodington, by virtue of his lack of appendages.

  Even Celebi had joined in at some point, languidly perched atop Nina’s head. And for whatever reason, there was also an Unown floating around in the room which Kerry didn’t remember her friend ever catching. So she assumed it was probably a stray that Celebi dragged in for some inexplicable reason.

  “Where’s Dhelmise?” Kerry asked, receiving a look from Nina. “Yeah, sorry. That wasn’t very nice of me.”

  “Why do I feel like you’re getting sassier by the day?” Nina remarked, eliciting a chuckle from the other girl.

  “Sorry, Vivi spends most of the day sleeping. Which means he’s fairly active at night.” Kerry joined Nina on the floor and leaned into her shoulder with said naughty bundle of fur in her arms.

  “Why not just have your Noctowl look after him? He’s still not fully acclimated to daytime right?” Unlike the hyperactive Brucey, the nocturnal lifestyle of the Noctowl was firmly ingrained in his DNA, so trying to convert the owl Pokemon had been an extremely slow process.

  “Or perhaps it has to do with his nature. Duo’s chill, way to chill… Like he’s fine with whatever so long as he gets to sleep in peace and is fed properly.” Nina mused.

  Kerry whined, her eyelids slowly fluttering shut. “Duo’s only partly nocturnal these days… He’s able to sleep for half the night and I don’t want to ruin all that progress. Besides, that’s not the problem. Vivi likes to jump on me whenever he gets hungry, so I still have to wake up to feed him — won’t let anyone else do it, not even Peppy.”

  Nina nodded. Something that she learned, while dealing with the newly hatched Pokemon of the Cerulean Gym, was that infant Pokemon ate a lot. It might have to do with their rapid growth during that hatchling phase. Because the larger the average size of the species, the more nutrients they needed during that initial period of life.

  Case in point; barring a few exceptions, most Pokemon Eggs were roughly the same size — that of an ostrich egg from Nina’s past life. But an average Tauros, for example, was around 1.4 metres tall and weighed anywhere between 85 to 100 kilograms. So what size was a newly hatched Tauros then? The answer; just large enough to fit within the egg.

  So then, how long would it take for a Pokemon to reach the average size of their kind? It varied from species to species, but in the case of a Tauros calf, it would take just one to two months depending on environmental factors.

  From barely fitting inside an ostrich egg to a full grown bovine in just a couple of months. One could easily imagine the staggering amounts of nutrients necessary to achieve such a feat. Naturally, there were also some Type Energy shenanigans going on. But it was safe to say that baby Pokemon were very fast growers with the only exception that Nina could immediately think of being Kangaskhans.

  “I wonder what this little cutie will eat once they hatch…” Nina mused.

  “Hmph! If you guys would just tell me what Pokemon it is, maybe I could answer!” said the adorably pouting nurse girl by her side.

  “Nah, I’ll just ask Professor Elm later.” Nina teased. “He is an expert in the field after all.

  With a playful shove, Kerry slumped her head against Nina’s shoulder and closed her eyes for a quick nap.

  It was also at this point that the lights began to flicker, prompting Nina to immediately turn her gaze up towards Zed the Unown, thinking that maybe the Pokemon’s innate magnetism was interfering with the electronics or something.

  It was only when the temperature dropped and a glowing aurora appeared in the ceiling that she realised… “The Egg! It’s about to hatch!”