Group RP Team Courage - Braving the Cold

"Weird, I thought the meetup location was Nimbassa Gym. It seems that I have misled what the gym trainer said." Rosie thought. She looks at her pouch and first-aid kit to organize and check what is in need of restocking.
"Let me see. There are Potions, Ethers, and Elixers, Berries for almost all situations. OK, my healing items are currently enough. Let see times for exploration. Touch, water, food. Huh, it seems my repel supply has almost been depleted when I travel through Route 4. Looks like I have to restock them." She said. And proceed to walk to the Pokémon Center to buy some Repels.
After a shopping session(but not really one because just buy one thing in bulk), Rosie is stocked up on items. Now, with nowhere to go, she decided to wait inside the Pokémon Center for Kalino. She saw Claire not far away and went there and wait with her.

 

Bruises aside, the medics in Pokémon Center found that one of Kalino's ankles got sprained due to the fall he and Charizard had earlier. It took them quite a considerable amount of time to treat the wounds.

 

David finally caught up with the group just as they split off to take care of individual needs. One girl had gone to the market to make some purchases. He caught up with her
“Hey, miss, are you part of the group heading to explore the Strange occurrences in the mines?”

 

Just after Rosie does her shopping, a guy came up to her and asked her a question. Rosie thinks for a bit and answered.
"Yes, I am one of the crew for the exploration. One of our members found a person dropping from the sky and brought him here for a body checkup to see any major injuries. Are you one of the team members as well, ur Mr. ..."

 

David breathes a sigh of relief. He hadn’t completely missed the group.
“Just call me David. David Stone. I was working late and overslept, I was afraid I’d missed everyone,”

 

The two Ninetales bowed back at the Torkoal in response to the latter's greeting to them. They later went back to following the group (especially Kalino and Claire) to the Pokémon Center.

While waiting for Kalino, Mako looked around without even noticing that his Alolan sister had already gone. And as for Mio... she decided to come closer to Rosie who happened to have a talk with another guy over there.

 

While the wonderful staff of the Pokémon Center took care of Kalino, Claire found herself with nothing to do. Seeing as Mathias and Rosie had a hefty stockpile of supplies (and Claire had a small stash of her own in her backpack), she didn't need to shop for anything extra. She didn't want to wander too far away, either, in case the group decided to move at a moment's notice.
Claire fiddled with her phone in the meantime, looking at maps of Driftveil City and Twist Mountain. The coal mines ran deep underneath the mountain. This implied that in the ancient past, the region must've been covered with dense vegetation and plenty of water, and that later tectonic activity drove the mountain up. Already, Twist Mountain seemed to have a fascinating history to it.
Claire was torn from her thinking when Rosie sat down beside her. She started to say something, but yet another new face entered the Pokémon Center and started chatting with Rosie. Claire thought she recognized him, but she couldn't put a finger on where the two might have met. "I'm sorry," she eventually blurted out, "but you seem awfully familiar to me, David. Have we met before?"

 

Upon getting closer to Rosie, Mio tilted her head at the guy who's having a chat with the girl. This easily could pass as a "Who's this?" look from the Alolan Ninetales. I mean, neither she nor Mako have ever seen him before, let alone their trainer.

Meanwhile, the hungry Mako decided to open Kalino's backpack (which happened to be nearby) and grab a malasada in there. He knew that his trainer brought some more in his backpack, but the Kantonian Ninetales felt that one malasada was enough to satisfy his hunger.

 

"Sure, David. I am Rosie Rose. You can call me Rosie." Rosie answered.
She noticed Mio got closer to her, staring at David with her head tilted. With Claire's question and expression, it seems Claire knows David. Still unsure of their relationship, Rosie braved up and asked David while petting Mio's head, "Do you perhaps know Claire? Or met her in the past? As her expression, it clearly shows that you two had met before, but somehow doesn't quite recognize each other. And your last name seems to be too suspicious. It is the same as the former champion of Hoenn. Could you be somehow related to him?"

 

David was flustered at all the attention he suddenly felt, and he’d had that question several times in his life, “actually no, or at least we aren’t closely related. My family are Sinnoh natives,” David held a hand out to the nine tails, allowing it the option to come closer to him, “That doesn’t mean I haven’t met Claire before, I have such a terrible head for names and faces.”

 

Mio enjoyed Rosie's patting as she listened to the people's conversation. As much as she loves attention, curiosity got the best of her. She got closer to the young man and sniffed his extended hand, then concluding that he's a good guy too.

Several minutes later, Kalino finally got discharged. All of his wounds were healed and his sprained ankle got better. After thanking the nurse, he saw Mako gobbling a malasada near his opened backpack.
"Hungry boi lookin' for food, yo?" he teased his Kantonian Ninetales in the style of Team Skull's rapping. Mako being surprised would be quite an understatement; his trainer annoyed him big time (but not enough to warrant his fury). Kalino chuckled at Mako's response as he re-packed his bag. Fortunately though, he had put the Alolan munchies above everything else in the backpack, so there was no more mess beyond the opened malasada bag.
"Anyway, where's Mio?" the boy asked. Mako responded by standing up (albeit with malasada still in his mouth), looking around, and walking to where Claire and the others are. Kalino followed suit... only to find Mio quenching her curiosity of the new face. Heh, that's Mio for ya, he thought with a smile.

 

Rosie is gently patting the head of Mio. With her special head-patting method, she noticed Mio is enjoying the head pats she is having. She made a gentle laugh and felt Mio's fur is silky and soft. Her body temperature is much lower than Kantonian Ninetales' which surprised Rosie.
As Rosie is patting Mio, she heard a sound from a distance. A sound that resembles the collision of hard food and plastic. Although it is very small, Rosie still manages to find the source of the sound. She quickly scans the area, with her hand on Mio's hand, and finds the injured boy has his treatment completed. She called Kalino over to get his notice to the group which is waiting for him.

 

As the boys (one human, one Ninetales) walked to the group, Kalino heard Rosie calling his name, prompting him to move a little bit quicker. Not too quick though, since he wanted to avoid further injuries.
"Thanks for waiting, guys," the blue haired boy said as he got closer to the group. "Did you guys wait for too long?"
And then awkwardness ensued upon seeing a new face sitting beside Rosie. Kalino was going to open a chat with the guy, but Mio ran to her trainer and her Kantonian brother before the former could say anything beyond "Uh, excuse me..."

 

"Thank goodness you're OK," Claire said when Kalino returned in good condition. "You didn't keep us all that long."
With the group seemingly assembled, the journey to Driftveil City could begin. Claire stood and stretched her legs. "Is the direct path to Driftveil City clear, or will we need to make a detour?" she asked Mathias. He seemed to know the most about the situation.

 

"Really?" Kalino's eyes brightened up at the fact that Mathias got a Mudsdale, of all things, to help them out. Mainly because Mudsdale is quite common among Alolan folks, be it as a Poke Ride or as a battler on its own right. Plus, his family's ranch specialises in training Tauros, Stoutland, and Mudsdale for Poke Ride purposes, so he's already gotten used to dealing with them all the time.

Upon hearing Claire's question, it got Kalino wondering too. "But how are we gonna go there? To Driftveil, I mean," he asked everyone, hoping for an answer from someone who might know something about it.

 

"We could go there by walking. Even if the roads are blocked by fallen trees, we can just break through the tree." Rosie said as she is confident that her Pokémon, especially Greninja, can remove some fallen trees, by either burning them, cutting them open or just move them away.