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Kasiya opened her mouth to say no, but a loud growl escaped from her stomach and answered for her instead. "Actually, yeah. I'm starving," she admitted, sitting down at the kitchen table and looking around. She hadn't really had a good look at the house before, but it was a rather nice place. "Any chance you know how to make pancakes?" She gave him a cute smile, only now starting to feel like herself again. It felt nice to be out of her shoes and socks and she had pulled off her vest and draped it over her bag. She let her forehead rest on the cool, smooth surface of the table, staring down at her toes. "What a day..." she murmured, closing her eyes as she undid her belt and placed it on the table, running her hands over the six spheres contentedly.

"I wish I had a Charmander..." she said suddenly, imagining the adorable fire lizard in her mind's eye - it's smooth, orange, scaly skin and cute flaming tail. "It's a Pokemon I've always wanted. Knowing Mike and Nitro all this time has done nothing but strengthen that want," she added, thinking about the large, proud Charizard and his equally prideful trainer. "Is there any Pokemon you've been thinking of trying to add to your team?" she asked, more to break the silence than anything else.

Keegan only smiled. "Are you kidding? I am a pancake master," he said, laughing. He quickly grabbed a large bowl and all the ingredients he'd need, doing his best to look like a somewhat-professional chef. He measured out the dry ingredients, casually looking over his shoulder at Kasiya, wondering if she really was that upset by a dream, or if something else was bugging her. He smiled at her thoughts on a Charmander, remembering well how proudly Mike and the then-unamed Nitro would run around the town, causing trouble and eagerly awaiting the start of their own journey. Keegan couldn't help but wish he had left when they did; the only problem being he didn't have a Pokemon of his own.

He checked the gridle to see if it was hot enough, looking at the droplet of water in dismay as it hadn't bounced around before sizzling into nothingness. "I dunno..." he said thoughtfully, carefully mixing the batter, but trying not to overmix it either. "I was thinking that a Skarmory would be pretty cool," he said after a moment, carefully pouring the batter onto the griddle before taking a handful of chocolate chips and dropping them on the top. "Wait, you want chocolate chips in yours?"

Mag and his pokemon quickly finished their midmorning lunches and decided to take a few more minutes to sit and rest. You had to take breaks every now and then when training just to make sure that you weren’t breaking anything. Mag was content to lie in the cot as his pokemon sat in the grass. The forest was tranquil and a welcomed change from all the crazy battling and the hustle and bustle of traveling between towns and cities like Pewter and Cerulean. Of course he would soon be leaving his island home and going back to the hustle, but this time it was to get his next badge. Lt. Surge better be ready for a mighty fine whooping!

At least, Mag hoped that his pokemon would be ready for the former soldier and his tough electric pokemon. That meant for sure that Tsunami wouldn’t be doing much battling so she should get some extra training in now. But what would really help him in the battle was if one of his Eevee would evolve… True, Mag had a thunderstone but neither Shining nor Shadow seemed like the Jolteon type to him. But a Jolteon would be very useful with the “Volt Absorb” ability since Lt. Surge used electric pokemon and their best moves would be of their type. But an Espeon or Umbreon would be great to have since Espeon could blow the pokemon away with psychic attacks and Umbreon could take a lot of damage before going down. Plus those two evolutions just seemed to fit with his pokemon. Mag could only hope that one of them would be ready to evolve by the time that he arrived at the gym.


Lenalee moved further up the trail. The poor girl managed to make several wrong turns off onto trails that she thought were part of the main way up the mountain. Unfortunately they were just left by Rattata and Raticate or other wild pokemon in the area and lead to absolutely nowhere. Lenalee did manage to get back onto the correct trail after each misstep however. The whole time Cagomarg snickered on her shoulder much to the girl’s annoyance. But very shortly she found what appeared to be a clearing. Off on the other side she noted four figures on the grass and another in a hammock between two oak trees. “HA!” She exclaimed, startling the five resting shapes, “I’ve finally gotten up here!”

"Chocolate chips would be fine," Kasiya said, nodding, but then realized she was still staring at the floor, so Keegan didn't see the gesture. Soon enough she could hear the batter sizzling in the pan and the smell of cooking pancakes were wafting throughout the kitchen. She looked up, watching Keegan deftly flip a pancake in the air without the flipper thing, and she applauded, knowing if she tried it the thing would have landed on the ceiling or floor, if not on her head. "You do this often?" she asked, half-jokingly as she watched him cook. There was something about it that was endearing, and she felt that excited little flutter in her heart once again.

She thought about Keegan owning a Skarmory, and shuddered a bit at the thought. The steel bird had been creepy and daunting, and she didn't really care for it much. However, she could see Keegan training one, as it would probably find a way to fit in with the rest of his party quite nicely. "If you catch a Skarmory, Artemis will be jealous," she said jokingly, standing up to help. "Where do you guys keep the plates and stuff? I'll set the table."

"Desperate times call for desperate measures, y'know?" he laughed, shrugging. He watched the electric ball follow Napalm around for a while, knowing that it would do the Live Coal baby no good. The boy scratched his nose and a light shiver went up his spine as Napalm fell to the ground. As he was about to cheer for a victory, he froze.

Finally free of that Magby's lame attempt at trapping him, Elekid took a step forward, triumphant. At least, he would have been. A stinging pain got him in his left side and he fell to his knees, panting from the burn. He would've had enough strength to go on but...he was so very tired. Right beside Napalm, the plug passed out as well.

Kilik blinked and then started laughing. "Just like last time!" he placed his fists on his hips and continued to let out a hearty laugh, "So far, neither of them can beat the other. It's funny," he snickered, "Maybe it's destined to always be a draw with them." He held up Elekid's Pokeball and recalled the tired baby, attaching the ball back to his belt. He really hoped that nobody dare challenge him to a battle yet. All he had left was Ludicolo. "So, how about we get our shopping done, eh?" He smiled at Mike.

Mike said nothing, and merely slapped his forehead with an open palm. With a labored sigh he recalled his Pokemon. "Well, can't win em' all." The boy let out a short burst of air from his nose that could maybe be construed as a laugh. "Or lose either." He smiled. Even if it was only their second battle, it seemed like the two had been at each other's throats for a lot longer. Perhaps when they evolved things would end more...concretely? "Well," Mike began. "I'm just gonna leave him at the Center so that he'll be ready when we're done with our little mall run."

As he walked to the Pokemon Center, Mike smiled at Serenity lightly patting the girl on her petite shoulder. "And think, those are our weakest." The electronic doors closing silenced the boy's laughter, and he returned no more than a minute later, ready to go. "Alright, let's hit it."

"No, no, no, you sit down! You're a guest!" Keegan scolded but sighed, knowing she wouldn't listen to him. "That cupboard, right there," he said, flipping over another pancake. "My parents are good at forgetting to eat, with them always taking care of the Pokemon, so I've picked up a thing or two over the years." He poured a bit more batter, watching carefully for bubbles to appear. "Yeah, Artemis will be jealous, but she's too small to fly with. I need a larger flying type that can actually carry me places. And I don't think I have the patience to raise a Zubat, like you did." He was silent as he finished cooking and stacked the pancakes on a plate before carrying it over, as well as a container with butter and a decanter of maple syrup.

"Dig in," he said, resting his elbows on the table and letting Kasiya have first pick. "This is nice, though. We should do this more often, I think."

((I am rocking the short sucky posts this week! Woo!))

"You're welcome," Keegan replied, serving himself after Kasiya had started to eat. For once he tried to keep his table manners about him, mainly for Kasiya's sake. He also didn't really have anything on his mind, as food usually became the most important thing to him during mealtime. At one point though, he looked up when he heard Kasiya mumbling, syrup dribbling down his chin. "What?" he asked curiously. "You said something about Team Rocket."

He pushed his chair back and stood up, stretching. He figured they should probably feed their Pokemon, seeing as it had been a long day, and a fully belly would do Kasiya's Pokemon well before they jumped into battle with Flannery later. He gathered several bowls and filled them with food before setting them around the kitchen floor in various places. He then released all his Pokemon, having to avoid them all as they seemingly stampeded to find their dinner. "Geez, a thanks would be nice," he muttered over the loud crunching noises. He sat back down, indicating that Kasiya could let her Pokemon out as well.