371. hefty: heavy; big and strong, muscular; of considerable size or amount

It was Gold. The kid was even scrawnier in person than Green had imagined; in pictures, the loose clothing hid his bony frame and were taken at good angles to make him look taller. The massive typhlosion probably wasn't even that massive; it was just that Gold was pretty small.

But he packed a pretty hefty punch. And he didn't recognize Green?

372. flaccid: lacking firmness

Gold stared at him defiantly, but Green could almost see the cogs and wheels in his head turning towards recognition. His eyes changed from suspicion to full-on excitement.

"Green? Green Oak? What are you doing in Pallet wandering around half naked? Haha, man I thought you were hecka buff but your muscles are pretty much flaccid... you still battling and training?"

Green deadpanned. "Uh, no I have a job, I am not flabby, and why are you here? This is kind of my family property so I'm legally allowed to be here, but you not so much? Unless Gramps hired you? I thought you were traveling and collecting badges still."

373. bellwether: something that serves as an indicator or leader of future trends

"Ahaha..." Gold's large smile faltered. "I kind of haven't been writing up good enough reports for Elm, cause he didn't complain, but Crystal got pissed and sent me to learn something from Professor Oak..."

"...Ok."

"Don't look at me suspiciously! I'm a good worker, and all the Pallet kids decided to help out cause apparently I'm pretty well known in Kanto and me working here is a bellwether for the coolness of ranching!" He wiggled out from Green's grasp, and then rubbed his stomach ruefully.

374. compunction: a feeling of uneasiness caused by a sense of guilt

Green felt compunctions of conscience for slugging Gold in the stomach, and stated as such. "Sorry for punching you."

"Naw it's fine, Silver's beaten me up pretty bad before, you're not that strong anyway," Gold said nonchalantly, before widening his eyes and covering his mouth in realization of how offensive that sounded.

"...What the hell man, I pinned you while wearing friggin heavy, wet clothing and against the element of surprise. You wanna go again?"

375. gale: a strong wind

Gold proved to be friendly, when not jumping and blindfolding people. The kid had an ego that was a couple sizes too big for him, but had the accomplishments in battling and breeding to back it up. After squabbling a little more, Green relented when the previous warm breeze began to strengthen into a gale. He wrapped his arms around his body and picked his shirt off the fence. He dropped arguing the argument (whether Silver was heavier than Gold or not) and began trudging back to the lab, feet squelching uncomfortably.

"Hey dude, don't leave me out here! I specifically waited outside of the building to ambush you so nothing'd break, and I'm hungry!" He jogged to catch up with Green, who shrugged and plodded on.

"Do whatever you want, just don't bother me and we're good."

376. assuage: to lessen pain or distress

Gold turned to grab his backpack, and as he fell into step with Green, Green saw Gold's 13...no, 14 badges. Gold followed his eyes and chuckled.

"Pretty sweet eh? I just have yours and Janine's gym left; I went to Fuchsia, and she apparently left a week before I arrived, and I've no clue when she's coming back so I guess I'm heading to Viridian next. Blaine was a pretty good challenge, but Explotaro can out-fire blast any of his pokemon." Gold smirked and tossed up a pokeball, did a cartwheel, and then caught it.

Green felt rising anxiety and tension foretelling a good battle - nice, but not when he needed some time off to relax and enjoy life with Red. And also time to research and prepare, because Gold was the real deal. His worries were assuaged when he remembered his essentially complete petition - Gold would have to beat Jasmine first, and hopefully she would be hard enough to track down so that Green could get more time to prep.

"Unfortunately I got new rules, you gotta beat Janine before you can challenge me." He chuckled when Gold looked at him.

"What the flying- dude, is that even allowed? Do you just ignore all the kids coming from Pallet and push 'em on to Pewter?"

"Actually it's a new thing, and yes that's probably what I'm going to be doing. Viridian Forest'll good enough preparation for most of them."

377. adjacent: adjoining; next to

Gold was distracted from trailing Green into the lab when he spotted Red's pokemon. Gold stopped and went googly eyed, and Green took the chance to speed up and slip away. He opened a closet full of mostly formal clothes and lab coats and indiscriminately grabbed a couple from the clothes hangers. Gold broke out of his stupor to shout at Green, but Green had disappeared into an adjacent bathroom.

378. gala: characterized by festivity or a festive occasion, especially a lavish social event

"GREEEN! WHERE IS RED? YOU GOT HIS POKEMON AND HE PROBABLY AIN'T DEAD, WHERE IS HE? DID HE POP UP IN SOME GALA TO AUCTION THEM OFF AND THEN JUMP INTO THE DISTORTION WORLD TO CHALLENGE GIRATINA?"

Green winced. Gold's voice echoed in the smooth walls of the building, and his ranting was subsequently amplified several times.

379. mediate: to resolve (arguments or disputes) by working with the conflicting parties

Green toweled off the last bit of moisture from his feet and slipped on dry pants and a shirt. Now how to phrase the situation? He went over his options; there wasn't much he could hide from Gold, with the kid's intuition. He unlocked the door after dressing, and Gold, pounding furiously, almost fell over when he swung the door open.

Green swished by Gold and to the closet to grab a couple clothes hangers to dry his wet clothes on. "Let's see... Red's pokemon wanted to go on a romp but Red didn't, so I'm mediating and taking these guys on a walk around Kanto."

380. empathy: ability to understand and identify with another's feelings and emotions

"That's not all. C'mon, my best friend was an emotionless introvert who had identity problems cause his dad was an asshole that abused animals and essentially ran the black market of Kanto, and whose organization totally messed up Johto. If I could empathize with a dude like that, reading your face is no problem." Gold stared at him, unblinking; it wasn't intimidating, but it certainly showed that Gold wasn't going to back down.