The next round came to be. She took a moment to ponder what to offer the judges this time. Surf and turf was the theme.

It reminded her of that one time she was at the beach. She hadn’t been very old at the time, but it was one of the few times were she was given time to just be a normal kid trying to swim amidst other children and Pokémon.

She distinctly remembered having some rather commoner’ish dish afterward, perhaps that would do? But for a moment she could not remember the name nor the recipe. But as she dived deeper into the memory it all came to her and so she began to prepare the dish alongside her Pokémon helper.

Bacon-Wrapped Tuna Steaks with Frisée and Avocado Salad

Was the dish she was preparing. No better surf and turf, right?

First she laid the bacon strips on a cutting board and placed a piece of “tuna” in the center of each; seasoned it with salt and pepper. She then folded the bacon around the tuna and secured it with toothpicks.

She then grabbed a large nonstick skillet. In the large nonstick skillet, she heated one tablespoon of the olive oil until it shimmered. She then added the tuna and cooked it over moderately high heat, turning once, until the bacon was crisp and the tuna was still pink inside, so about 6 minutes.

Meanwhile, in a medium bowl she whisked the remaining two tablespoons of olive oil with the vinegar; season with salt and pepper. Toss in the frisée and avocados and transfer to plates.

She then removed the toothpicks from the tuna and cut each piece in half. Arrangeed the tuna over the frisée and serve it to the judges, drizzling any remaining dressing left in the bowl over the fish.


lGpaq_l5

MISSION: Steel Chef Cooking contest.
LOCATION: Lilycove City
PRIOR ROLLS
- 21
- 71
- 38
TOTAL
- 168

@tag

One Kingambit richer, Johanna could return her attention to Isaac. The Sword and Shield returned to her side as she did. “Definitely not within League regulations. Especially with children in the audience.” Johanna commented. “You know, we wouldn’t want them to mimic dangerous stunts, like picking up possessed swords.”

What went for a chuckle escaped the Aegislash.

“Pretty much. At least that’s what I would like to say. But it’s surprising how much work it takes to run a place like that.” Johanna sighed.

“You would think that all you need to do is hire some people to look after the place, but then one thing leads to another, and suddenly you are elbow deep in an ice-cream machine trying to fix it because none of the repairmen are available.”

That had been a fun Monday morning.

“How about you?” She returned the question, attention at Isaac until she felt the gentle prodding of a snout.

She looked down. A rather nice smelling Lechonk was sniffing at her leg. She kneeled down and began to pet the pig-pokémon while listening to Isaac.

The Lechonk seemed not bothered by the glinting steel of Aegislash wanting to make pork-chop out of it.



OOC: Capturing Kingambit
LOCATION: Fortree City -> Route 120

The Snorlax was by no means quick on its feet. That weight required time once it had begun to move. This weakness allowed Nidoqueen to deliver a powerful counter attack.

Snorlax gasped as it felt like its insides were pummeled. And not long after it felt a powerful blast of dark energy hitting him in the back. It groaned and growled at nobody in particular, nobody but itself.

A purple aura with yellow streaks began to envelop it as it jumped forward aiming to crush the Nidoqueen beneath a GIGA IMPACT.

Meanwhile the Tinkaton was wasting no time in pursuing the Zoroark. This time channeling her DRAINING KISS into her hammer, a personal favorite stylistic choice of hers. A puckered kissy-mark appeared upon the blunt side of the hammer just before she would try to smash the whole thing onto the head of Zoroark.

The flame engulfed the tree for a moment. But it was clear, both to the Shield and the Dragon that Trevenant somehow allowed the fire to phase through.

Aegislash drew the shield, changing from a defensive stance to an offensive one.

“Aim for the Mankey!” Johanna called out.

Aegislash was all too quick to agree. Its blade glowing with a psychic energy as it flew to meet the jumping simian. Unfortunately as it was swinging to deal a PSYCHO CUT to the Mankey, it felt the grace of a NIGHT SLASH in return.

Meanwhile Dragapult took a defensive position as it threw up a PROTECT. Aiming to use it’s own presence to protect the Aegislash from any attacks from the back.

The battle began.

Johanna didn’t need to say much, they each knew their role, though Dorian the Aegislash was no fan of it. Aegislash was on defense, and it floated in front of the Lucario as quickly as it could in its shield form, erecting the KING’S SHIELD in the process.

And finding that the water splashed harmlessly upon it. What a let down.

Of course, Lucario wasn’t about to stand around. Seeing the crackling electricity from the Pikachu, it quickly went into motion.

Body shining with a faint white glow before suddenly disappearing, or so it would seem for those whose eyes could not follow its EXTREME SPEED. It was charging at Inteleon hoping to bring this battle into close range.



TLDR:
- Aegislash Blocks SOAK with KING'S SHIELD
- Lucario charges at Inteleon with EXTREME SPEED.

(This thread takes place sometime after “CHANGING PATHS” )

The sun shone brightly far high up in the sky. Baking down as best it could, though cold as it was. Johanna stood eagerly waiting at the edge entrance to Route 121. Dressed as appropriately as she could for the weather.

This would be her first bit of traveling out into the wilds after what happened at Mt. Pyre. The mere thought still sends shivers down her spine. Everything still felt wrong. But, the hospital had deemed her well enough to leave the bed.

By her side a Blastoise stood. Eager for some fresh air, itching to get a move on. But Johanna kept denying it. They had to wait for Megan Whitmore to arrive. Johanna didn’t want her first bit of traveling to be without Megan, after all.

MISSION:BOND BRIDGE
LOCATION: Route 121

It didn’t take long before introductions were exchanged with the appearance of problems.

First Nihilego. One in the distance and another that somehow managed to sneak up on Ettie and graze her.

Worry quickly appeared on her face as she watched Nikita check up on Ettie. She knew even a graze, no matter how light, was enough for Nihilego to inject its venom. Now she wasn’t about to mention how she knew that.

Now as a Gym Leader and former Team Rocket, the moment she had heard there might have been a chance of Nihilego here, she had brought antidotes as well.

But alas administering that would have to wait. Predators had caught a whiff of their presence and they were hungry.

Johanna took a deep breath, while she might’ve seemed a bit on the timid side of things. Now, as she faced a horde of predators. She had taken upon herself the Gym Leader mask and stood defiantly against them. “Run, I’ll see if I can buy us some time.”

She hoped they would trust her enough to just do as she would say.

“Retnauh, keep them occupied for a moment.”

The Gengar went to work sending waves of hypnotic power against the horde. And for a moment it seemed to lessen their speed. But then the Veluza began to counteract it using their own Psychic powers.

But Johanna hadn’t placed all her Togepi’s in one basket. During all of this she had retrieved the Pokéball containing her Claydol, releasing it into the fray.

“Terastelize, then Earth Power followed by Ancient Power!”

Claydol was consumed by what seemed like Ghostly energy for a moment, before emerging now a ghost. Just in the knick of time as Psychic attacks began to grace the pottery-doll.

Weakened though the attacks were, they still stung. But not enough to prevent it from collapsing the tunnel in front of the approaching horde halting their progress and then using Ancient power to dig rocks that might help prevent them from digging through.

“That should be enough, let’s go!” And so she and all her Pokémon turned to run. Hoping by now that Nikita and Ettie had done the same and therefore had a headstart.




PROMPTS CLEARED THIS POST:
- 07
- Terastelize
- Johanna Personal prompt

Nikita Sokolov Ettie

“Thank you!” Johanna spoke, a nervous chuckle escaped her. No matter how many times people acknowledged her trainer abilities, it still felt weird.

On the other hand, Gengar wasn’t as timid when it came to taking in the praise. A boisterous chuckling escaped the ghost.

“Really?” Johanna would exclaim surprise in her voice as Dolores proclaimed her Pokémon’s similar sleep inducing capabilities. “Oh, a Haunter!” Johanna said. She watched how the Pokémon dealt with the Sineastea.

“I like ghosts too, which is your favorite ghost?” Johanna replied to the question that Dolores posed.

Meanwhile a flickering light joined the group. Litwick quietly floated about looking for somewhere to take a rest. Unfortunately for Johanna, her head was the place it chose.

With a mild thud the fiery ghost landed on Johanna’s blue hair, and made itself comfortable. “Well, hello there.” Johanna would say directed at the Litwick. Gengar on the other hand was a little bit more suspicious, quick to tell the little Litwick that it better not try anything or else the same fate would befall it as had befallen the Golurk.

The Litwick simply gave a small ‘don’t’ worry about it’ gesture.



OOC: Attempting to catch Litwick.
LOCATION: MT. PYRE -> Route 121

So far so good. Her first dish had been accepted, even if another contestant came up with the same dish.

But that didn’t matter, all that mattered was the result. Johanna had to focus, she had to provide the best possible entertainment for the crowd, hoping that it might draw some attention to her.

Luckily the next challenge sounded easy enough. How could she possibly mess up a Salad? And so she went to work trying to make Shellfish Salad with lime & Chilli dressing that required no more than four easy steps. Minus all the pre-prep, for some reason nobody ever counted that.

She grabbed green prawns, Lemon-grass, Scallops, Black mussels, Fresh lime juice. And Red birdseye chili which she deseeded and sliced as finely as she possibly could. Though admittedly she did not hold the skills that those FURY CUTTER Pokémon could. As well as a whole host of other ingredients.

And then, only then could the proper cooking begin.

She half filled a large saucepan with water. Before she HM01’d with great care the lemon grass into three pieces.

Once that was done, she placed the lemon grass in the water and brought it to a boil over high heat. Once satisfactory, she reduced the heat to medium.

She then added the prawns and cooked them until they had been cooked through. Taking a slotted spoon, she used that to transfer the prawns into a heatproof bowl.

She then brought the water back to a boil, added the scallops and cooked for 2 minutes. With another slotted spoon she transferred the scallops to the bowl with the prawns. Then, she drained half the liquid from the pan and brought the remaining liquid to the boil.

Another ingredient was added, this time the mussels which she cooked for 5 minutes before transferring the open mussels to a heatproof bowl, tipping any liquid in the shells back into the pan. She discarded any unopened mussels. Before setting it all aside to cool slightly.


With that done, she began to remove half the shell from each mussel using a small sharp knife to loosen the mussels in the remaining shells.

Lastly she began on all the other stuff. She whisked together the lime juice, chilli, garlic, oil, fish sauce and sugar in a small jug. Before she divided the lettuce, prawns, scallops, mussels and oysters among large serving plates. She then drizzled it all with dressing and sprinkle it with coriander.

The moment Isaac the Bewear could see the dish had been finished. He stood ready, grabbing the plate and walked it to the judges like a true butler. Leaving Johanna behind as she stood panting and tired.

Who knew cooking could be so hard.


WJnK18B7

MISSION: Steel Chef Cooking contest.
LOCATION: Lilycove City
PRIOR ROLLS
- 21
- 71
TOTAL
- 130

@tag

The Gengar gave her a gleeful greeting, wide grin and happy eyes. Only for all of it to be turned to surprise and shock as she eek’ed at the sight of its trainer.

Honestly Johanna was surprised as well. So surprised in fact, that she made a little jump. When she finally realized she wasn’t being attacked, but had rather scared another human being (she assumed) her nerves calmed down.

“Oh sorry about that. I didn’t mean to scare you.” She quickly claimed the responsibility.

Speaking of being claimed. A huge Golurk, large even for its kind, slowly walked toward Johanna. Its robotic movements would have been obvious, if Johanna hadn’t been focused on Dolores.

The Golurk had one purpose right now. To claim careless souls wandering Mt Pyre. Luckily for Johanna, her Gengar hadn’t been hypnotized by the appealing Dolores yet, and so quickly jumped into defending its trainer by putting the Golurk to sleep and eating its dreams.

“Retnauh, what’ve I told you about putting random Pokémon to sleep?”

The Gengar seemed mildly surprised that Johanna would assume ill intent. But then Johanna smiled. And the joke dawned upon the jolly ghost.

Johanna was certain Gengar had had his reasons and so instead of scolding him she just grabbed a Pokéball and attempted to capture the Golurk.



OOC: Attempting to catch Golurk.
LOCATION: MT. PYRE -> Route 121

It brought Johanna a small bit of comfort to hear him agree. Though she knew all too well that words meant little when it came to nervousness.

But all that could wait, for the battle began.

Wisely Ikarus tried to have his Pokémon aim for Pokémon they wouldn’t be useless against. But alas Johanna would not make it so easy.

“Ruby Focus on Zoroark, Kevin, Nidoqueen.”

Her Pokémon had gotten their targets.

Snorlax reacted quickly, grabbing the Tinkaton and chugging it toward the Zoroark. Though it saved her from the Earth Power, it did make her hit the Night Slash, which did hurt her a little bit. Luckily it was not the first time she’d been thrown by a Snorlax, and so she managed to fire off a DRAINING KISS toward the Zoroark.

Meanwhile Kevin felt the full force of EARTH POWER and he was none too pleased about it. It hurt, and hurt a lot. And so he charged toward the Nidoqueen. His fur took on a steel shine as he came charging with a HEAVY SLAM.

It had to happen at some point. Her announcer would mess up. But the show had to go on! And so they played it along as all a part of the act.

And so the battle began. Johanna was honestly surprised at the tactic. But she wasn’t about to let it defeat her so easily.

“Dorian Defense. Ethan Offense, Flamethrower.” She quickly relegated the roles of each Pokémon.

The Aegislash quickly jumped in front of the Dragapult. KING’S SHIELD Held high as the NIGHT SLASH hit it. Once safe enough, the Dragapult would move past it’s fellow ghost and send a FLAMETHROWER toward the Trevenant hoping to bath it and everything in between in smothering flames.