481. vehement: forceful; furious

Red looked at him, and waved back.

Arcanine came bounding out, recognizing Green's scent and flying down to tackle him. As if sensing Red as well, Blastoise and Venusaur and Charizard and Aerodactyl began shaking vehemently in their pokeballs, demanding to see. Green released them all and put in the last bit of energy he had to hug Arcanine, and jog to the cave's mouth. Gyarados opened an eye, and than called his obnoxious, reverberating call. Though it was a bone shaking growl, judging by his smile, Gyarados was happy. Exeggutor, Tyranitar, Machamp, and Pidgeot came waddling and fluttering and storming over to engage in a body crushing hug.

482. narcissistic: excessively interested in one's own appearance, comfort, importance, et cetera

Although Green did his best to play the confident, narcissistic ass, he really had been insecure and alone at times in his journey. But any bad memories or feelings bubbled away and were forgotten in the fuzzy hug from Arcanine (that bowled him over into the snow), the tickling from Exeggutor, the fist bump with Machamp, the hair-ruffling from Pidgeot, and the careful, icy cold pat from Gyarados. Umbreon decided to join in for good fun, and tackled him when he sat up.

Green laughed and laughed until he couldn't possibly laugh any more, and then glanced over at Red, who had also faced a similar tackling from his own team. Leaf and Yellow walked up to the cave, and dumped their bags before releasing their traveling pokemon (Leaf's demonically powerful Jigglypuff and Yellow's cute Pikachu) and joining the madness by throwing snowballs.

483. tangible: able to be touched or treated as real

Green called for a ceasefire to throw his bag into the cave as well, and then joined the fray in all earnest. Leaf got him a couple times on the rear, and he turned and struggled to aim in the chaotic crossfire; it'd started as a free for all, and everybody simply aimed at things that moved and then ran to escape the subsequent wrath. The girls eventually teamed up, and convinced Red's Pikachu, Espeon, and Umbreon to join them and Jigglypuff and Yellow's Pikachu. The rest of the bigger pokemon stayed fighting for themselves, and Green skirted the center of the conflict to find his target. He eventually found and tackled Red.

Red drew his breath sharply as the two landed on the soft snow. Green hugged him tightly, laughing and marveling at just how tangible Red was; despite pale skin and skinny arms, Red had not yet become some kind of mountain wraith or fairy.

484. exemplary: worthy to serve as a model

Red stiffened due to the contact, and Green reluctantly let go as Red wriggled a little to be released. Red offered him a blank stare at the sudden intimacy, and Green's cheeks, already red from exhaustion, grew a little warmer. Red let the smallest of smiles spread across his face, and packed a snowball. Green immediately got into defensive position, but relaxed when Red turned and threw the snowball in an exemplary arc, to land gracefully on Leaf's head.

485. malign: to talk badly of something or someone; harmful

Leaf turned and glared at Red (who stared back passively), and then ordered Umbreon to tail whip a couple snowballs in their direction. Green ducked as one sailed overhead, narrowly missing his head. He resisted the urge to malign the (furry, adorable) traitor and weakly tossed a couple snowballs back their direction.

486. preeminent: superior in status or fame to all others, especially as a generally recognized quality

Snowball attacks grew progressively more creative - after ten minutes of warfare, Machamp had begun to toss gigantic snowballs (more like snowmen bodies) to bury careless pokemon. Pidgeot figure out how to scoop up snow with his tail and carefully maneuver it to dump on unsuspecting pokemons' heads. But of all the techniques used, Venusaur's was preeminent; the normally docile creature was rapidly batting snowballs in all directions with high accuracy (presumably from razor leaf throwing practice).

487. prominent: noticeable; widely known

Green, back and arms aching and stomach sore from laughter, was the first to surrender, but was still pelted with snowballs as he hurried into the cave to shake off snow and try to ease warmth into his frozen fingers. Although he had a strong resistance to sickness (maybe the fat did have its uses), he wasn't invincible and his body was near frozen. He stumbled over and plopped down near the dying embers in the fire area, next to which stood a prominent stack of neatly piled firewood. He tossed in a log and flamed the sparks to life, throwing off his damp jacket and gloves to absorb warmth from the fire.

488. conflate: to bring together; to merge into a composite whole

The rest of the crowd soon stampeded in to conflate and crowd around the fire. More logs were tossed in, flamethrowers were shot, and soon, a massive bonfire was burning. Pika (Red's pikachu) and Chuchu (Yellow's) were huddled together, already close friends. Espeon and Umbreon were curled around each other and dangerously close to the fire. Arcanine and Charizard sat by their trainers, providing them warmth. The rest were at varying distance around the bonfire, but overall it was a happy, chaotic mess of pokemon and humans chattering and purring and absorbing warmth. Eventually, pants of exhilaration and exhaustion quieted and turned into giggles and chuckles, hugs and nuzzles, and all sorts of friendliness.

489. prone: tending or likely to do something; lying face down

Green was lying prone on Arcanine's back, and beckoned to Red, who was listening to Leaf talk about Yellow. Leaf concluded her talk when she saw Green call for Red, and slyly pushed Red over to sit on Arcanine's back as well. The canine grunted but didn't move at Red's extra weight. They sat close together, as Arcanine's back was fairly narrow.

490. modest: limited in amount, extent, et cetera

Red had prepared a modest lunch of mountain greens and brown rice (dear Arceus, lugging rice bags up the mountain was probably the hardest work Green did) - well, plentiful in Red standards, but Green pulled out the un-decorated coffee cake he'd baked, Leaf pulled out candies and chocolates from all over the world, and Yellow presented a fairly large container of still warm stir-fried meat and vegetables. Green found himself heaping the food onto Red's plate (the boy really needed to gain some weight) who happily devoured it all. And with each extra piece of broccoli was another, "Happy Birthday."