31. adduce: to show as an example or means of proving something
When Green opened the door to see some five people staring at him. He frowned.
"Who are you and how did you get in here?" The five of them exchanged glances, and one girl stepped forward.
"Uh, hi? We're your gym trainers now, um, I'm Salma, those to are Alan and Ida, he's Arabella, and that guy's Bonita. Please take care of us?"
Green stared in disbelief. His trainers looked like the kind of weirdos he'd find hiding in the grass on the side of the road. "Do you have your trainer ID's on you?"
"Yeah, here's mine. Lorelei did leave our names and ID's in the office right?"
"...Maybe? These are pretty legit, but I'll go back to double check. Here, why don't you all warm up with your pokemon, I want to battle and see all of your levels in a sec." The ID adduced that the trainers weren't just robbers trying to do something weird, but he didn't think his trainers were going to be some teenagers!
32. extol: to praise highly and lavishly
After digging through papers with no clues, Green sighed and walked out of the office. He had probably filed the papers under some forgotten cabinet. Surveying his trainers' pokemon, he was fairly impressed. None of them were even close to having a full team, but they all had decent pokemon. Nothing to be extolled though, he was fairly confident Machamp could take care of them all with a couple hits. He called out Machamp, who looked excited for a challenge.
"Who's first?"
33. interlocutor: someone who takes part in a conversation, especially formally
After taking out Arabella and Bonita, Green called for a break. They'd both done fairly well, considering their type disadvantage. Arabella was twenty, three years older than Green (he looked fifteen), and a good trainer. Bonita was seventeen (and looked older than Arabella, it was really weird) and pretty experienced. Green'd given some tips on increasing their pokemon's move-set diversity, and sat back, a little sweat on his face. His phone buzzed in his pocket. Leaf.
"Hello?"
"GREEN I was invited to be an interlocutor at this big Kanto-Johto conference for Trainer of the Year and its intermission right now so I have to leave in about thirty seconds and apparently this kid Gold recently beat Lance, and he's like Red but more annoying and he's-"
"Nobody's like Red."
"OK fine but he's currently going around Kanto challenging gym leaders so I thought I'd give you a heads up ok bye!"
34. encomium: high praise
Bonita stared at Green, his jaw slack. After a silence, he asked in awe, "You have a girlfriend?"
Green face-palmed. "No, Leaf's a childhood friend." He got that question a little too often, especially when people saw him and Leaf when she forced him to meet her whenever she happened to be in the region. "Wait, is it surprising that I'd be in a relationship?"
Bonita shook his head. "Well, it's more surprising you're not in a relationship, my sister's actually a fangirl. Can I get a signature later?"
Green nodded tentatively. More often than not, he felt his encomium was a result of his fabulous genetics as opposed to his actual battling.
35. abduct: to take way, kidnap
Over the next two weeks, Green found himself flooded with work to do. After Volkner's shipment of booby trapped tiles arrived, Green rolled up his sleeves, double checked his blueprints, smiled (evilly) and got to work arranging them. It was tedious and Green saved the work for doing after the gym closed, because he definitely didn't need anybody to stand witness to him testing out the paths (and making a general fool out of himself). After a week of boot camp training, everybody had improved drastically, and Green rarely had to take any challenges. He spent most of the daylight hours searching online for paint that would cover up the shady looking stains on the walls, looking for Gold, and looking for recipes. Arabella had helped him settle in a nearby apartment complex in exchange for a day off from training. The first thing Green noticed was the difficulty of cooking for himself.
He had settled into something of a hectic schedule, when Friday rolled by and he stared aimlessly out the open window, savoring his lunch break. Then, Leaf literally dropped from the sky outside of his gym.
"Hey! I wanted to go see Daisy so I thought I might as well bring Eevee as an excuse! I'll be back in a couple hours!" At the mention of Daisy, Eevee bounded eagerly out the window towards Leaf, who scooped her up in her arms and jumped right back on her Wigglytuff and floated off.
Green stared. Had his partner just willing let herself be abducted?
36. indelible: incapable of being removed or erased
Green got a call from Daisy just a half hour later, which entailed a lot of nagging about Eevee being too stressed and her shoulders being unusually stiff. And then some embarrassing things about her being proud of his and Leaf's long friendship and how friendships were indelible and the like. Green let his mind wander off as Daisy talked on and on and then he remembered.
Red. In two days. Sunday.
37. gauge: an instrument for measuring or testing
The sky was just beginning to darken as Green gauged it late enough to go home. Leaf had texted him saying that she's ended up staying longer than expected, and would bring Eevee first thing next morning. He was about to send an irritated reply when she sent him a (completely, heart-warmingly and fuzzy) picture of Eevee sleeping on Daisy's massage table. Feeling bubby, he'd dismissed everybody (they were more than happy to get off his training regimen early) and went home to review his recipes.
38. mercurial: easily changeable; erratic
Green cursed. That was the second wasted batch of macaroons. He swore they had something against him. The mercurial little fudgers.
39. prudent: marked by careful planning; discreet
After an especially prudent batter mixing, the macaroons finally puffed up just right. After test tasting (to make sure his creations hadn't magically spawned some evil in the baking), he wrapped them up carefully and stored them in the freezer. Sunday, Sunday!
40. cryptic: secretive or partially concealed; mysterious
Green slept all the way through the morning, and woke to the obnoxious ringing of the doorbell. He wrapped himself up in his blankets, and peeked through the eye-hole in the door.
"ARCEUS DAMMIT GREEN IF YOU DON'T OPEN THE DOOR THIS INSTANT I'LL TEAR YOUR-"
Green paled as he swung the door open. Leaf looked hardly surprised by his Caterpie-likeness, and walked in, settling on his couch. He glared a little at her, but softened at the sight of Eevee, who nuzzled his shin before jumping on to the couch to watch some drama with Leaf. Traitor.
Green Caterpie'd his way back to his room to shower, and pulled on some clothes. As he walked out to the little kitchen, he deadpanned at Leaf, suffocating Eevee and sobbing at the TV. He sighed. Just as Red was cryptic in his silence, Leaf was confusing in her openness.