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"I wonder what's taking Nolan so long?" Kiera sat down on a stump and watched the food cook. She poked the pot with a spoon and sighed. Vesy was lying down next to her and cuddled with Jupiter. Wispy was already snacking on some treats while Brutus guarded the area. Kiera shouldn't be worried but she couldn't help it. She thought about sending one of her pokemon to find him. Zeus would have been the best choice but Abra needed a lot of sleep. Yanma was the next best choice and she asked the pokemon to come over. "Will you go find Nolan? Check up on him and make sure he's okay. Then come straight back here. We don't need to start losing pokemon again." The blue Yanma nodded and buzzed at her and then took off towards Blyse to spot Nolan from up high. When he saw him he swooped down towards Nolan and hovered over his head to see if he needed any help.

"I have ... some first hand knowledge that Valor is very, very close to building up enough electricity. If we could just do one more battle, I bet for sure this time Valor ... Valor could ..."
Nolan trailed off when the subject of his attention wasn't anywhere to be seen, and he did a full 360 to search the small clearing around the large old tree. Even Snivy widened her eyes in alarm for a moment, shrugging at Nolan, because she hadn't either seen when they had left behind the doofy Flash cub.
"He couldn't have gone far. He was just with me a second ago."

Turning back the way he had come, Nolan started to search the grass carefully, along with any little hidey-hole he came across. This time Honor and Nincada joined their trainer and Snivy, spreading out to cover more area. Nolan was the first to come across Valor though, and it was only a few tense minutes later. The Shinx was crouched for the pounce, only a meter away from an oblivious Pidove. ... Yet the human noisily blundering through the grass immediately scared the bird, and Valor stood up, beaming at Nolan, so proud of himself for stalking so well.
"Oh, I found him, everyone! He didn't get far at all."
Except it wasn't just Valor that Nolan found, something else was rustling in the grass.

Nolan knew he shouldn't probably have gotten so scared, a shot of adrenaline rushing through him, and he suddenly couldn't speak a word. It felt like his tongue had gotten stuck to the roof of his mouth. Valor tilted his head to one side, befuddled by his trainer, and then glanced over at the source of the noise. A pink cat-like pokemon leaped out at them, hissing and spitting, and for such an adorable looking thing, the savage manner it took on was only somewhat humorous. Nolan didn't want to tempt fate though, and backed up a few paces.

Valor thought this meant it was time to fight, and he faced the Skitty, just as Nolan remembered his pokedex to get the name and some data.
"Oh, right. This should be no sweat."
Nolan didn't sound so sure of himself, but there was no other way to really know until the battle started.
"Charge up some energy, Valor, and get ready for its attack. Focus on your electricity."

Skitty didn't seem to play fair though, zipping forward so quickly that both trainer and pokemon couldn't believe it. The kitten clapped its paws together loudly an inch from the cub's face, startling Valor terribly that it totally made him recoil at the sound. But Nolan noticed how close the Skitty was now.
"Tackle instead! Now!"
Valor jumped into action, ramming right into the Skitty and that was it - the Kitten pokemon was knocked out. Confused, Nolan waited a moment, even though Valor was already purring and rubbing against his ankles, begging for attention. There was no way that the fight was over that fast, right? Chancing it, Nolan found a long stick and poked the Skitty. It twitched, but groggily roused and made a break for it. A little stunned, Nolan sat down and pet Valor's ears.

He didn't notice Kiera at first.
"Oh hi, thanks. Uh, for helping me to look, again, but he didn't get far at all. Sorry about all the trouble."
Nolan picked up Valor and walked back towards the tree to make sure no one else was lost now.

Being friends with someone as crazy as Kiera didn't sound like the best route in Nolan's opinion, but the more he thought about it, the less he minded the notion.
"Yeah, we're sorta like friends now."
But the mention of food reminded him of something else. And not just of his growling stomach. Sitting down on the grass next to Kiera, Nolan tried not to stare and drool at the food.
"Um, Kiera, could you tell me where you got those treats you gave to my pokemon earlier? Snivy and the rest really like them, and I would like to get them more."

Despite her cool attitude, Snivy did perk up when she heard mention of Kiera's treats, and had to pretend that it didn't interest her one bit. The Grass Snake gathered with the rest of the pokemon batting at each other, and hoping that the trainers would feed them too.

"Hold on, let me write this down."
While Kiera summed up the recipe, Nolan quickly recorded it in his notebook so he could remember for later. It sounded pretty simple, but who knew? He would probably forget it by tomorrow otherwise, and Nolan had caught a glimpse at Snivy licking her lips with a glint in her eyes. He didn't want to let his pokemon down like that.
"Could you help me make some later? Well, if we can find an oven or something. I'd have to go buy the cornstarch and stuff. If ... if you don't mind helping me and all. You don't have to."

Nolan felt himself on the verge of rambling, hating to ask for help, but frankly, he wasn't the best cook. He picked up one of the eggs and started to peel it, just to have something for his hands to do. Snivy cleared her throat impatiently.
"Oh, sorry. Did you want some, Snivy?"
The snake shook her head and just pointed at the two Shinx staring at the tasty little egg. It wasn't difficult to understand now. Nolan split the cooked egg and gave one half to each Shinx who greedily gobbled them up. Then he started on peeling the next egg, trying to race the Shinx so he could eat this one himself.

Honor was already sniffing at Nolan's egg before it was even half peeled of its shell. Nolan sighed and just surrendered it over to the Shinx, whom took it carefully with his little fangs. Honor loped off past his fellow Shinx to eat it in peace. Jealous, Valor gave Nolan big sad eyes, getting a big sigh from his trainer, and earning himself his own egg to gnaw on. The shells couldn't really hurt them, could it? But at last, Nolan was able to peel his own egg to eat without interference, nodding at Kiera meanwhile. But coughed and swallowed his food quickly when the bag of treats came out.
"I- ... you don't have to give me all this. It's too much. I should- ..."
Nolan was caught off guard by a glare from Snivy, and he just went silent for a moment.
"I shouldn't, but if you're sure? Thank you very much."

Once the two cubs were satisfied, and even Nolan felt that growl in his stomach subside, Nolan got up to stretch. He made sure to pack all his things nice and neatly back into his messenger bag, although, the bag of treats wouldn't quite fit so perfectly. Nolan couldn't get the whole thing to close snugly. Oh well. Snivy was still sampling some of the foods, Nincada wasn't interested at all with what the humans had to eat, and Taillow had taken a small treat when Nolan offered it as a peace offering. But Twill didn't seem interested in anything more, still brooding up on her branch. Brushing off his hands, Nolan gazed up at the Tiny Bird for awhile until turning to Kiera, saying,
"Whenever you're ready, Kiera, and um, if it's all the same to you ... could we battle your Poochyena again? I don't want your Eevee to get hurt, but the level difference is a little too big of gap. And I want Valor to give it his all."

Oh boy. Nolan hadn't really forgotten how fierce of an opponent that Poochyena made, yet none of Kiera's other pokemon seemed to be such a good match-up for Valor. Her Whismur was just frighteningly loud, and Yanma would be hard to hit in the air. Vesuvius already could beat Valor, and well, the other two couldn't put up a fair fight at all. Nolan took a deep breath in attempts to steady his nerves, yet Valor seemed to be doing the exact opposite - getting riled up and all wiggly all over. Valor thought Brutus was tons of fun, and all this attention must have meant that Nolan liked the Shinx lots!
"Don't let Brutus get off another Howl, go now! Lets see your Intimidate and tackle him!"

Valor bared his teeth, taking a proud stance and look askance at Brutus with a cruel gleam in his yellow eyes - his finest Intimidate yet. Crying out, Valor whipped his head around to glare forward, dug his claws in for traction, and sped up at the Poochyena for a head-on tackle.

(( We could start rolling for accuracy to make the fights more fair. With one sand-attack, that means that Tackle will only hit on a 1-90 number, and miss on 91-100. Sounds good? ))



That seemed like dirty tactics, just like that Skitty had used Fake Out before, but it was a perfectly legit pokemon move to use Sand Attack too. Nolan just wished he had some trick up his sleeve like that, but Valor so wouldn't understand something so complex on the fly like Brutus. He gave the Flash cub a few seconds to start to wipe the sand from his eyes.
"Um ... try to charge up until you can see alright again!"
'Might as well make the best out of a bad situation.' Valor shook his head side-to-side to try to fling more sand off of his face, but also wanted to do what Nolan asked him to do. The Shinx's fur started to shimmer and gleam slightly as the electricity charged up, giving more to his special defense stat. (Silly, I know with all physical attacks going on, but Nolan didn't really know better at the time.)
"Be prepared for an incoming attack."