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Train smiled back--she had a tendancy to smile or laugh when others did, especially if she was in a good mood. She nodded at M.A. and trailed behind her as she got her Phanphy's Poke Ball, but paused good-naturedly when the girl grinned mischieviously, her curiousity sparked.

Train look around the Korean barbeque, liking all the decorations and designs that came with foreign resturants. She blinked a bit surprisedly at Sae's strong handshake, but smiled and -attempted- to return the handshake. "I'm Train," The teenager replied with a small grin, adding a little, "Yeah, let's!" at the mention of food. Even if her appearance didn't show it at all, Train loved some good eatin'. She obviously didn't get the quip that went on between M.A. and Sae, not knowing much about the other girl's brother or of what he'd been doing.

Pikachu hopped off of Train's shoulder when they got to the table and perched himself at the edge of the table beside his trainer, not wanting to sit in the seat, because then he wouldn't be able to see anyone! Train glanced over at the Smeargle when it was mentioned, staring at the painting, at loss for words. And not in the good way.

A laugh escaped her lips as she saw the little fight go on between the two Pokemon, then turned to see Tora appear, still amazed at how big and powerful the Pokemon looked compared to how it had been only a short while ago.

(I'm back!)

Darkra was running toward the screams. Trees and wild Pokemon alike flew by him. He didn't care about anything but his Cyndaquil. He came to a sudden stop when he came to a clearing, in which were two supiscions men. They both had big brown jackets on, one of them had a red cap on, and the other had a blue headband.
"Have you seen a Cyndaquil come by here?" Dakra asked.
"And what if we have? What does it concern you." The one with a blue headband asked.
"Well, its mine."
The men looked at each other.
"Where's your proof?"The one with the red hat demanded, "If you don't have any, there is no way your get the lil guy."
"Give him back!" Dakra yelled.
"Well, that was a bit loud. We don't want anyone to come looking for us. Let's take this 'witness' out." With that they brought out their two Pokemon, Bulbasaur and Todidial.
'I hope Kurine comes soon.'
Out of nowhere, the pidegy with the eyepatch flew on to Dakra's shoulder.
"Hey there little guy!" Dakra said, surprised. 'Well,' He thought, 'At least I fould a Pokemon to battle with.'

((YOU GOT DA POKEYMANZ))

"K-Karri?" said Mike with a slight stammer. "Oh, yeah. Totally!" The last thing he wanted was the mind reader digging around in his head, especially now that he wasn't feeling well and his mind was thinking up whatever it wanted. Mitsu could just be sending her out to read my mind, to find something to use against me! She's mad that I didn't return her feelings, and that I just won! He took in a deep breath and turned around, recalling Felsic. Get ahold of yourself Mike. Mitsu isn't some evil saboteur. She's your friend. Stop being crazy. His head throbbed. Boy did that hurt. After regaining his composure he turned around, congratulating Mitsu on a battle well done...sort of. "I'm sure if you had Nightmare it would have been very different. Where is that little fishie anyway?" Come to think of it, the last time he saw that Gyarados it was when Mitsu went to join the Rockets to get her back at the Cherry blossom festival. He made sure to add a silent prayer that nothing like that happened today, even though his gut knew that it would. Damn Rockets.

"Walk and talk." said Mike as he started for the Pokemon Center, fiddling with Felsic's Pokeball as he walked.

((yay!))
Even though she knew the Ralts seemed to be doing this willingly, Riza couldn't help but feel a little nervous as the pokeball rocked back and forth, the light in the center blinking rapidly. Sneasel stood nearby, arms crossed while she waited for the outcome of this capture attempt. Finally, after what seemed like ages, the sphere came to a standstill, the red light blinking out and a resonating 'ding' sounding out through the area. Very slowly Riza's lips curved into a smile and she quickly ran over to the Pokemon, picking it up in her hands. "We did it, Sneasel! Our very first catch!"

"Snee!" Sneasel cheered, clapping her hands excitedly. She was very glad that her first new Pokemon friend was someone she already knew she'd get along with, and she tugged at the hem of Riza's skirt excitedly. "Sneasel snee!"

"All right, all right," Riza said, understanding perfectly. She held up the pokeball triumphantly as though it were a prized trophy and she were showing it off to the world. "Come on out, Ralts!" she cried, throwing it high into the air. The adorable little psychic popped out in a flash of red light, and instantly teleported herself from view. Riza didn't even get a chance to question the Pokemon's actions because very soon she reappeared, sitting happily right on Riza's left shoulder. "Welcome to the team, Ralts," she said, reaching up to pat the Pokemon on the head. "I bet we're going to have some interesting adventures together!" She reached up and pulled Ralts into her arms and beckoned to Sneasel. "Come on, let's get back to the Pokemon Center and get you two healed up!"

Once she got outside Kasiya recalled her Pokemon one by one, clipping each ball back into place. She too had that pre-battle anticipation beginning to pump through her veins even though she had only offered as a means for both her and Crenu to train their Pokemon. She couldn't explain it though somehow she knew this sudden adrenaline rush was connected to more than just the pending battle with the stoic, serious Crenu. Something's going to happen today, she thought, shivering with cold despite the warm sunshine beaming down on her. I don't know what it is but something is going to happen... She looked around the beach with an almost paranoid demeanor, suddenly overwhelmed by the feeling that she - no, everyone, was being watched. She glanced from beach goer to beach goer, very much fearing that any one of them could be involved in whatever was going to go down and were just waiting for the perfect moment to attack...

Crenu's soft voice on the cool breeze was the only thing that snapped her out of her thoughts of impending doom and she turned to face him, putting on another smile despite the fact that she was still visibly shaking. She was a bit surprised to see that he was now wearing shorts although she swore they looked a lot like the pants he'd been wearing earlier, but much shorter than before. Now grinning for real she nodded at Crenu. "What happened, get into a fight with a lawn mower?" she asked playfully, now tossing a Pokeball up and down in one hand. "Anyway, wanna get things started?"

=-=-=-=-=

Jaeshan didn't really know what to do or say so he simply just nodded and waved. When it seemed appropriate he introduced himself, kind of wishing he could just fade into the background. Robin seemed to be as uncomfortable as he was though and it made him feel a little better. He had no arguments about where they went for lunch, although he kinda hoped it wouldn't be anything too exotic. His parents were very fond of getting strange and unusual foods from all around the world and he often wished they could just eat normal meals like normal families. He couldn't help but notice how happy Luffy seemed to be now that the Ampersand character was around, and Jaeshan inwardly wondered if that was his real name.

He had the same thoughts when Ann introduced herself, as it sounded like she'd just made the name up on the spot. It didn't bother him that she didn't want to divulge her real name to a couple of strangers, although he did wonder what she was doing way out here in Slateport. He thought she looked familiar but he couldn't quite place where he'd seen her before.

"Nice to meet you too, Robin, Jaeshan," 'Ann' said, nodding at the two younger trainers. She leaned over and gave Ampersand a playful nudge. "For someone who doesn't like people you sure seem to have made a friend here," she said, nodding towards the redhead. There was something about the way the girl acted that reminded her of herself when she was younger; shy, lacking self-confidence and probably thinking that she wasn't worth very much as a person. She stood up and put her black leather boots back on before standing up. "Well, shall we be going?" she asked, rubbing her stomach a little. "I'm starved!"

Sae grinned broadly. "Another day, Swablu. Fickle Smeargle we got here. But more importantly, what a sturdy wrecking ball Tora's become! Hope she learns she ain't as little as she used to be, or she'll knock people down by just blowing her nose. Figures my walking disaster of a sister would find a natural disaster of a Pokemon..."

M.A. pouted in protest. Tora, on the other hand, tilted her head, not comprehending, and in the process her nose flipped the Smeargle and sent him flying.

"Say, that Smeargle yours? If it is, tell it to stop painting the poor waiter."

"No, he isn't. He just came flying in."

"He flies?"

"Yeah... Is that not normal?"

"I wouldn't call it normal. Oh, Train! Sorry, you look starving. Spade, drag that Smeargle off the man, or we'll never eat. What says you to a huge platter of ... meat? Sounds good," Sae decided arbitrarily, smiling like a kid about to be awarded with the first place spelling bee trophy. M.A. sighed, exasperated, although she too had a huge silly smile across her face; the girl adored her brother, no matter how irrepressible he was. And plus, not ordering meat at a Korean barbeque was just a bit short of scandalous.

"That'll come with rice and salad," the man said with a gasp, having just been mauled first by a Smeargle and then by a Linoone -- Spade never was very accurate.

"Oh yeah! Could we have some Pokemon food too? Nearly forgot there."

"Of course. Any drinks?"

"Beer."

"Water, please."

"And you, miss?"

Meanwhile, the Smeargle got to work for the second time on Tora, since obviously his last palette didn't seem to want to be painted. Shame, it had such a nice white surface too. Before he got too far with his work on the wall, however, he decided it was time for a lunch snooze; and so, the artist suddenly plopped onto the floor with his head lying on his brown messenger bag, falling asleep nearly instantaneously.

------

"Riiight," Jun said, staring down at the serving Jenny had unceremoniously dumped onto his plate. The top was as black as Jun's eyeliner, and that was pretty black. Well, maybe his cousin was celebrating different ethnicities through pasta. It'd be discriminatory if all pastas were white or brown...

Jenny, however, totally ignored Jun's comment and beamed. "I thought so too! So I figured it'd be alright if I left it in for another ten minutes or so."

And so Jenny more neatly served Aidan and herself more moderate sections of the lasagna before running off to grab the breadsticks she had left in said oven by accident. Jun took a bite of one, resulting in a terrible crunch (which either came from Jun's incisors or the bread, we're not sure) and cursed; in response, Jenny punched him in the faux-hawk. "First you molest the teeth and then the hair?!" the man cried woefully, casting his glance towards Aidan in a quest for pity and understanding. Look at the cruelties he had to live through under this madwoman!

And so the meal ensued like so, a very lively meal indeed, though it was a typical mean by their standards. Jun's Jynx, Leeron, sat composedly at the side, eating little dainty bites and hardly batting an eye at the ongoing feud between cousin and cousin. They never killed each other, so that was fine. She did, however, bat plenty of eyes at the newcomer man, whom she found terribly attractive... Though if Jun liked him, she supposed she could give him the free shot. Didn't seem like Jun's type at all, but who knows; her trainer was an equal-opportunity employer sometimes.