New Beginnings - Chapter 125

As Ethan approached the next of his trainees, he took a good look at both trainer and pokemon. The floating Bronzor was quite a special sight. In the games, where they were 2D pixel sprites, you didn’t truly get a sense of their motion. This Bronzor floated and rotated around its trainer like a magical shield, tilting its body up and down to take in the sights, as it didn’t have a neck to turn. Its trainer was a man in his early twenties, with short buzzed brown hair and a slightly crooked nose. To be stereotypical, Ethan assumed just by his appearance that he’d been in some scraps. He had his hands in his pocket as he rocked back and forth on the balls of his feet, waiting for Ethan to come to him. 

“You’re up next.” Ethan spoke loudly as he made his way over. “First of all, what can you tell me about Bronzor?”

The man didn't even move his head to look at him as he approached, just his bored eyes. “Steel and Psychic. Floats and stuff.” He shrugged, utterly disinterested in the theoretical aspects of tutoring. “Teach’em a move that’ll help and we’ll be on our way.” 

Ethan came to a stop in front of the pair with an unimpressed glare settled on his face. Ethan was not a short man, but he wasn’t tall to most eyes. But, with a comfortable six-foot stature, he could stare down the short five-foot three man with some levity. “If you don’t want to be here, then leave. If you’re only here to learn a free move, then at least give me something to work with.” 

The man, obviously not liking Ethan staring him down and his tone, took his hands out of his jacket and took a step forward. Thankfully, before the guy could spout some nonsense, Bronzor floated right in between their faces, facing Ethan. It blinked innocently and tilted side to side.

“Braaaaaaah…” It… spoke? Somehow? 

With a step back and a flick of the wrist, Ethan released Chatot. His colorful bird shot him a quick glare at being released in the cold, but turned to glare even harder at the man who was stepping up to Ethan.

“Chatot, please translate for Bronzor. It appears I’ll deal with the pokemon, not the trainer.” 

“You think you—” The man started, but Ethan’s second thrown pokeball, thrown right behind the short man, instantly made him close his mouth with a sharp snap. He turned slowly to come face to face with an unhappy Snorlax.

“Snoooore…” Snorlax warned, deep and grumbly. A rare frown on his face at the rude man. To Ethan, he could tell that Snorlax wasn’t truly angry or anything. He was more confused and upset at the rudeness from the man. He hasn’t ever seen his friend be angry before, not truly. 

It was a good thing this guy didn’t know that. Face to face with the big-eater? That’s a clencher. 

The man instantly deflated, all of his anger at being dismissed evaporated in an instant. “Whatever… Let’s go Bronzie” He kept his eyes on Snorlax as Bronzor floated back over to the man with crescent eyed happiness. 

“Guess you guys won’t be needed.” Ethan commented as they walked away. “Back to your balls?” He asked his pokemon. 

“Yes!” Chatot practically begged as she fluttered closer, eager and willing. Ethan recalled her without a moment's notice.

He turned to Snorlax who plonked himself down where he was, feet extended ahead. Snorlax tilted his head to think, before shaking it with a slight fanged smile…

Then he grabbed some snow to eat. 

Ethan snorted at the true reason Snorlax wanted to be out. He wanted to eat more snow. Protecting Ethan was just his side-job. Ethan gave his large foot a small nudge of acknowledgement before making his way over to the next trainer, who stared at the retreating back of ‘Mr. Rudeness’ with a frown. 

“What a dick.” The guy said as Ethan approached. “He won’t go very far with an attitude like that. At least his Bronzor likes him.” 

Ethan made to agree, but the man held up a hand quickly to stall him. “Sorry, but stay right there for a second. Give me some time with my Shieldon. He’s… feisty. I’m Tom by the way.”

“Nice to meet you, Tom. Do what you need to do.” Ethan smiled reassuringly as Tom knelt by his small pokemon and spoke quietly. The Shieldon, who had been bulldozing the nearby piles of snow like they offended him, listened to his trainer with half of his attention. The other half was focused on Ethan with narrowed eyes. Slight plumes of foggy breath escaped its tiny nostrils. 

When Tom finished his little speech, he kept his eyes on his pokemon as he waved Ethan forward. Ethan held out his hands to show his intentions as he slowly walked forward. While his empathic abilities typically did him all sorts of favors, Vespiqueen showed that they were not a solution to all problems with pokemon. 

Shieldon huffed and puffed, pawing at the ground in warning… but slowly calmed down as Ethan got closer and closer. Tom rubbed the back of his head in embarrassment, manglinging his long curly blond hair with the motion. “Sorry. He’s a bit territorial.” 

“That’s alright. All pokemon are different. Snorlax over there would eat a house if I gave him the choice.” Ethan threw his thumb over to Snorlax, who paused in the middle of shoveling snow into his mouth to give Ethan a dopey smile. 

“I bet!” Tom laughed, testingly looking away from his Shieldon to look at Snorlax’s bulky grace once he was assured that Shieldon wasn’t going to ram into Ethan or anything. “He’s a big boy!” 

“Yup.” Ethan agreed, “So, tell me a little about your pokemon.” but shifted to the main purpose of why they were here.

“Well,” Tom looked at Shieldon. “He’s a feisty li’guy. Rock and Steel type. Takes instruction well, but is very territorial and protective of me and my other pokemon. He knows Tackle, Take Down, Endure, Iron Head, Iron Defence, and Bulldoze.” 

“Right,” Ethan whipped out his phone and started to take some notes. “Anything you think he’d be good at for helping people and pokemon in the snow?” 

Tom looked flustered at being asked what he thought. “Uhh, If I’m honest, I don’t actually know what moves he can learn…” 

Ethan waved off his worry. “That’s not a problem. I’m positive he can learn Dig. That’ll help a bunch. I’ve taught Dig to many pokemon before. It will be easy.” Ethan turned to Shieldon. “You gonna let me and my pokemon teach you how to dig? You won't need to beat down the snow if you can tunnel through it.”

Shieldon gave his trainer a look, as if asking for the answer. Tom nodded and smiled encouragingly. “Don.” 

“Well, let’s get you started.” Ethan tossed out yet another pokeball, releasing Pachirisu into the snow. After the light of his release, Pachirisu’s head breached the snow like a submarine telescope. “Pachi-Pach!” 

“Pachirisu, teach this Shieldon how to get started on Dig while I finish up with these last two trainers.” 

Pachirisy pranced and hopped through the snow as Shieldon bulldozed a trail for himself. Tom just followed his Shieldon off to the side of the field to get started.

Ethan made his way over to the young woman with the fire-puppy Houndour and yelled out to the man with the large Drapion. “Does your big guy know Dig?”

“No?” The man yelled back, a little confused. 

Ethan pointed off to where Pachirisu, Shieldon, and Tom were going. “Follow them and I’ll be with you in a moment. They’re learning Dig too. You can practice together.” 

“And you.” Ethan said as he arrived, “Not to be rude, but I don’t think a fire type would need much help around here.” He gestured to the snow all around. 

“... He’s young. The only fire move he knows is Ember.” The young woman answered, a little nervous. 

“Then off over there!” Ethan said with a flourish and a smile at the easy solution, gesturing off to where Smeargle was blasting off a long Flamethrower next to Absol. “We’ll teach him Flamethrower!”

“Her.” She blurted. Her face reddened quickly as she explained. “She’s a girl.” 

“Hou!” The Houndour howled, insulted but standing proud.

“---Her Flamethrower!” Ethan edited without pause, a smile still plastered on his face and hands still extended. 

Misgendered a pokemon… Whoops. Ethan thought, following along as they walked off the Smeargle and Absol.

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The man, the myth, the fabled mystery’ faller’ far from home… Lucian watched from afar as Ethan Reed began his tutoring in earnest. While not one to partake in the services of tutors, he had read about the process and hyperfixation on specific moves by many. Cynthia had spoken about him a few times before, mostly about his unique circumstances, but she had once mentioned his strangely fast methods of teaching pokemon. 

From the outside looking in, Ethan Reed did not do anything special. Yet, that is what truly made him unique. Most move tutors specialized in one move, and those were typically the most sought after tutors in any given region. If he remembered correctly, there were only a handful in Sinnoh—That old lady by Cynthia’s home was quite famous, teaching Draco Meteor…

Sadly, most tutors in cities or towns were scam artists, creating mystical mumbo-jumbo to advertise their talents and draw in the unfortunate trainer down on their luck. It was a business that was plagued with frauds, and one that was hard to fight. 

Ethan Reed came at it from the angle of a teacher. He explained the process of the move, the related type energies associated with the move in accordance to other moves the pokemon knew, and used the physiology of the individual pokemon in question to assist in the practical applications. Nothing out of the ordinary. It was almost as if he was teaching a human a skill. 

“Actually…” Lucian mumbled, eyes narrowing as Ethan knelt down next to a Shieldon and felt around its shield-like skull. “It’s almost like he’s teaching his own pokemon moves.” 

“That was my thought as well.” 

Lucian glanced over his shoulder and sighed as Cynthia joined him on the outskirts, hidden and watching. He nodded towards the man of discussion. “Looks like me when I tried to teach Bronzong Flash Cannon.” 

Cynthia nodded as she tightened her stylish black trenchcoat around her frame. Face utterly serious as she spoke. “And me when I taught Garchomp Earthquake.” 

He balked. “Really?” He asked deadpan with a tad a mirth lacing his tone. “I specifically remember being there when you taught your Gabite Earthquake, and it was a lot of stomping on the ground and you making shaking sounds like a city was collapsing. Ethan here seems more academic.” 

He narrowly avoided Cythia’s punch to the arm in retaliation. 

“Don’t make me release Girafarig to protect me. She doesn’t like the cold.” He quipped. 

Cynthia ceased her physical assault as a thoughtful look came into being. “You know, Ethan has written about many of the things he knows. During one of our arguments, he talked about how the league never asked him about information regarding pokemon. He mentioned that Girafarig had an evolution.”

Something on his face must have shown his shock, doubt, and interest. She continued.

“In his world, his knowledge is linear in a timeline regarding many pokemon. Any pokemon from Kanto? He can label their names, their types, location typically found, many of their moves, egg groupings, and much more. Pokemon from Alola? He’s about the same as many trainers. Could name most of them, get their types right with a high degree of accuracy—things like that. But, from Paldea?” She shook her head. “He couldn’t even name ten percent of them. Hell, he has a Tinkatink and had to learn everything about it. So, it’s lucky for you that he mentioned a pokemon named Farigiraf, the evolution of Girafarig, in his writings.” 

“If Girafirig had an evolution, she’d be evolved by now.” Lucian countered. His bond with Girafarig wasn’t in question, nor her strength. “Is it a stone evolution? An obscure item?” 

Cynthia simply smiled and nodded off towards the man with the answer. “Go ask him yourself. He never wrote down the method of evolution, just that it had one.” 

Lucian locked his gaze onto Ethan Reed once more and watched as Absol spewed a glob of flame right by his head, causing him to flail backwards into the snow. His Smeargle was helping him back up with a laugh as he turned to leave. “Maybe when this is all over. We have more pressing matters to attend to.” 

Cynthia fell in step with him as she closed her eyes and heaved a heavy sigh. When they opened, the Champion was back. “Right you are.”