As Ethan, Joyce, and Gloom appeared after teleporting, Ethan felt the biting chill of the fierce gales billowing through the bright white snowscape that encapsulated all before his eyes. From where he appeared, which appeared to be at the start or end of the Route 203 bridge, to the base of the towering mountain miles out, white snow reflected the morning sun. The only breaks were the mounds of snow covering what must have been bridge debris, and the ant-like dark spots which could only have been people.

  Ethan immediately squinted and held up a hand to shield himself from the glare and the whipping winds as Gloom tettered about, trying to hold in his last meal. Joyce visibly cringed at the conditions of their arrival as she tugged her winter coat tightly around her frame.

  After ensuring Gloom was okay, Ethan turned his attention to his immediate surroundings. Behind them, a splattering of colorful tents and roaring bonfires made up a base-camp for the ongoing rescue operations. Dozens of government officials and a smattering of helpful trainers roamed or sat about the fires, resting and warming themselves until their next foray into the wintery depths down below.

  One of the government officials must have been waiting for them, because as soon as Ethan’s eyes roamed over them, they stood from their seat by a nearby fire and speed walked over, hand held high to shield themselves from the wind and snow as they waved them forward. Joyce didn’t waste any time heeding the officials request, as she took huge steps to traverse the foot of snow which caved underneath her feet.

  Ethan picked up Gloom and held the cold plant to his chest and followed along. It wasn’t long until Gloom began to slightly shiver, and Ethan unzipped his own coat to stuff him inside—just like he’d done with his family cat long ago. Gloom gave him a pat of appreciation as he snuggled into Ethan’s warmth.

  “Sir!” The official, who he could now tell was a woman, yelled over the wind. “Recall your pokemon! It’s dangerous for them to be out and about for extended periods of time!”

  “Can’t!” Ethan yelled back, voice lowering as they finally grew close enough to speak in a semi-normal volume. “He’s wild. He lives with me and came to help.”

  The woman didn’t bother responding, instead opting to turn to Joyce. Joyce nodded and… surprisingly took command? “He’s correct. Now, I’m sure you were asked to wait for our arrival. Take us to Champion Cynthia or whoever else is in command at this moment so we can get up to speed.” Joyce gestured with some haste, causing the woman to turn around to lead them.

  They followed as Joyce continued her questions.

  “Where’s the Joy tent? What’s the layout and how are the general operations unfolding? Any casualties from the rescuers? What’s the plan right now?”

  As the woman began answering Joyce questions, describing the general layout and ongoings of the camp and operations to the best of her ability, Ethan recalled the information from the Pokemon Center he got to view when Emolga had her tests run. Joyce wasn’t just a Nurse Joy. She was also the Pokemon League Medical Liaison for Sinnoh.

  While he didn’t know what that entailed, he could assume that Joyce was more important or at least had a higher rank than whoever was their guide.

  After three minutes of trekking through the camp, sidestepping many of the bonfires and those settled alongside them crammed together for warmth, cutting through the thin alleyways created by the many tents, and watching their footing from the thick ice which rested in gaps between the trails from general movement, they all entered a large black tent.

  Ethan and Gloom sighed in relief at the warmth inside, generated by heaters and a roaring fire in the center of the enclosure. Smoke trailed up and out of an opening directly in the center of the dark fabric. A handful of people were talking around a long table taking up half of the huge tents space as they entered. Ethan spotted Cynthia the moment she spotted him. Forced smiles matching as they nodded their greeting to one another.

  Cynthia waved them forward as their guide immediately left to go about her normal business—no time to waste now that her task was done.

  The conversation never stopped as they both joined the table. Ethan got a few ‘this guy is definitely a weirdo’ looks as he still had Gloom wrapped up in his coat and pressed into his chest. Thankfully, nobody freaked out at a Gloom being around. It seemed Oddish were the true terrors of their evolutionary line.

  “Progress is too slow and the constant swapping of rescue and survey teams is doing us no help.” Said a man around Ethan’s age with purple hair, who looked vaguely familiar.

  “And what?” Cynthia bit back, obviously frustrated at the whole scenario and agitated from being here… for who knows how long. “We just extend their times and have them freeze to death? The winds funnel into the mountain with little escape. What’s the windchill? -30C°?” She scoffed, “Lucian, be better.”

  A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

  Lucian, who must have been the one and only Lucian from the Elite Four, threw up his hands in surrender. From what he could tell, this conversation had been going on and on, getting nowhere. Now that a lull appeared, Cynthia took the chance to introduce both him and Joyce. “Here we have Nurse Joyce Joy, whom you all should be familiar with.”

  Nods and murmured greetings were said around the table, and Ethan started to connect the dots on who exactly was around the table. Gardenia was here, which wasn’t surprising as her city was being cut off from the disaster. A red haired fidgeting man with fire logos emblazoned on his bright clothes… a green haired younger man with a spike of hair that screamed ‘anime’… an old lady bundled up in several layers… The entire Elite 4 were here. Sadly and embarrassingly, he couldn’t… recall their names.

  The other members, going by his memory of their appearance, seemed to be a few gym leaders. Not all of them, but three were apparent. The miner guy from Oreburgh city was here in thick miner attire, simply listening. Between him and Gardenia was a young brunette, at most twenty years old, and not dressed for the occasion. She wore a skirt and a buttoned up white shirt with a cyan bow-tie. Ethan pegged her as the cheerful outgoing type, but she was obviously subdued due to the nature of the meeting. Ethan couldn’t remember what the ice-type gym leader looked like, but he was going to assume that this was her.

  “And this is Ethan Reed,” Cynthia gave his introduction, and heads swiveled. A few even doing double takes and increasing their focus—notably, from the Elite 4 members.

  They obviously had some more details about him. Not surprising.

  “A Move Tutor and Pokemon Breeder based in Eterna Forest. He’s going to help the trainers here by tutoring some of their pokemon. Ethan has a vast knowledge of moves and has the fastest speed when it comes to successful tutoring in the region. One of my own has been under his care.” Cynthia finished.

  Ethan slowly craned his head to the side to stare dumbfounded at Cynthia.

  I have the WHAT? It takes me a few days and sometimes even a week! How slow are the others?! Where’s all my customers at?! Ethan thought.

  “Oh? What moves?” The red-headed fire-type specialist enquired as he leaned forward with interest.

  Joyce jabbed him in the side with her elbow to stop his embarrassing stare and bring him back to the situation at hand. He coughed to clear his throat as he thought about what was asked. “Name one and I’ll tell you if I can’t?”

  “The ego…” Gardenia muttered softly, still loud enough to be heard.

  Joyce instantly pinned her with a glare that caused her to straighten up and lose her slight scowl.

  “Now, Candice…” Cynthia started again, twisting to look at the younger brunette.

  Straightening up with a bright smile and excitement at the chance to talk to the Champion, Candice jumped into action. “I’ll have my pokes sent out and about! Each team leaving will have my friends to watch over them. They’ll also do their own thing from a distance when they’re not needed! The Rangers should be fine by themselves.”

  “Remember,” Lucian added, “Keep your Froslass away. We don’t want people getting the wrong idea when she’s spotted.”

  Candice nodded respectfully and got up out of her seat. She brushed down her brown skirt and cirtsied before leaving with a bright smile. The rest got up and started to follow, the meeting seemingly ending at a sudden and frankly disheartening point. The only ones to stay behind were Cynthia and Lucian. The other two Elite 4 members left with one another, and the Gardenia and the miner left in quiet conversation.

  “Ethan, Joyce, thanks for coming.” Cynthia said as she sat down. She’d been standing at the head of the table when they’d entered. Ethan gingerly took the seat Gardenia had sat in as he picked Gloom out of his goat. The leafy pokemon shook his head, his fronds flapping in the warm air. Joyce sat beside him. “Joyce, you know what you’ll be doing. You’ve been in these situations before and your job doesn’t change. I will say, it’s not looking good. Many of the wild pokemon have been trapped and are untrusting of those coming to help. Wayward Cave has been completely sealed and the pokemon there… Well, we try not to disturb them for a reason. Now, we don't have a choice.”

  “Jocelyn is doing a good job I hope?” Joyce asked as she nodded her understanding. Her job was going to be the same as always, just higher in intensity.

  Cynthia wiggled her hand back and forth like a see-saw. “She had a rough start, but she’s learning. Ethan, we’ve notified many of the trainers stationed here that there will be free tutoring for them to acquire the moves needed to help excavate the snow or find pokemon or trainers still lost within it. If anyone asks you to teach a move that you think will not help, and you suspect that they’re trying to get free moves for their team and journey, you let me or one of the officials know. We’ll handle it.”

  “If you don’t like the idea of them picking moves, you can instead offer a move yourself. You're the tutor here, so I’ll leave that side of things to you. I do recall hearing you teaching in a group environment before?” She questioned.

  “I have.” He answered. “I’ll have to see which pokemon are being tutored before I make a call on a group session for one move, but I’ll figure it out. I brought Ursaring, Pachirisu, Gloom here, Chatot, Smeargle, and Snorlax in case I needed to help dig people out or search.”

  “Snorlax? That little Munchlax evolved?” Cynthia smiled, glad at the news.

  “He did! On Christmas two days ago.” Ethan patted Snorlax’s special pokeball, drawing Cynthia’s eye. “Want to see him?”

  She shook her head. “Maybe I’ll see him around the camp. Did you bring a tent?”

  “I don’t own a tent.” Ethan shrugged. “Got one I can borrow?”

  “He can stay with us in the Joy's tents.” Joyce spoke, drawing their attention. “Is Uncle Bill here?” She added with a smirk, causing Ethan’s quickly forming smile of gratitude to turn to stone.

  He and Bill… they didn’t get along.

  https://discord.gg/T6AD3E2qVR Feel free to join!