“So, what’s next? Anything of interest in town?” I asked Cliff, as we were walking out of the gym.

“We didn’t really find anything.” he shrugged, looking towards the nearby mountainside and a large building rising there. “There’s a large chapter of the Church of Freedom, the architecture is quite amazing, even if the people are a little…” he shrugged again, this time with a wry smile on his face. Obviously, a group of people with convictions and beliefs so opposed to our own lifestyle was something you had to take with a grain of salt, even if they cloaked themselves in benevolence.

“That does sound interesting,” I admitted, curious what their church would look like. Would it be anything like the towering structures of glass and steel I had briefly glimpsed in some of my dreams, easily dwarfing even the Gym of Sandgem City?

“Anything else?” I prodded, doubting that their church would hold my interest for more than a few minutes.

“Well, there’s a massive party scene here, don’t you hear the music and feel the energy just pulsing through town?” Lucas enthused, just as some old leaflet was blown past us by the wind, carrying a bit of colder air from the lake. There was no energy anywhere to be felt and the only thing I could hear was quiet conversations in the surrounding buildings. If my eyes were closed and someone had told me it was the middle of the night, I would have believed them, as the town felt almost asleep.

When I raised an eyebrow in question, Lucas let himself visibly deflate in total contrast to his earlier enthusiasm.

“I think some of the women have a crotcheting circle going if you are interested in that. Though you might have a hard time getting in, it sounded like they were pretty competitive.” Cliff added and while I was certain that Lucas had been joking, Cliff sounded perfectly serious, as if a crotcheting circle was the primary entertainment in this town. If so, having to stay for a while, in order to let Claire recover, might drive me insane. I liked my peace and quiet, but there was too much of a good thing, a point where peace and quiet made way for maddening boredom, a lack of stimulus driving me to do something stupid, simply to create something interesting for myself.

“That sounds…” Claire began, looking as enthusiastic as I felt, “calming?” she finished, clearly not certain how to take this place.

“Why don’t we head back to the Centre, maybe we’ll be able to find a local trainer or two? Or we could ask the Gym attendants what there is to do in town.” Lucas suggested, turning back to the gym we had just exited.

“The Centre sounds good, the people there were nice,” I agreed, not wanting to walk back into the gym.

We walked through town together, now focusing on the signage on the doors and placards in the streets, hoping to find something of interest. Sadly, it didn’t look like there was anything of interest going on and while the people moving around looked quite busy, none of them were moving in a casual manner. They all looked like they were moving around with purpose, as if going from one important task to the next, making me unwilling to disturb them.

We got a few looks, some hostile, some curious, others merely measuring or acknowledging, but none of the locals took an interest to talk to us.

When we got to the Centre, little had changed inside. The frazzled looking attenandant was still busy, sifting and sorting through papers, giving me the impression that she was in need of an extra pair of hands.

“Is there any way we can help you?” I asked, stepping up to the counter. I hadn’t quite planned to help out, but given how busy she was, I couldn’t bring myself to disturb her, especially not to simply ask how to have fun in town.

Her eyes flicked up from the pile of paper she had been leafing through, looking at me. There was a look of surprise on her face, with a bit of disbelief and confusion, but she quickly shook it off.

“I don’t think…” she started to reply, before pausing and letting out a sigh, “Maybe you could help,” she admitted, looking back at the papers in her hands.

“These reports are a mess, could you go through them and sort them? First separate the incident reports from maintenance and routine reports, giving each their own stack. Can you do that?” she asked, motioning for me to move around the counter.

The other three looked at me, and at her, with wide eyes, obviously not expecting me to suddenly decide to help out at the Centre.

“Lucas, you have some experience with data management from your work in the lab, right?” I asked, hoping that he did. He blinked, apparently not expecting me to drag him into work as well, but nodded a moment later.

“Yes, I do,” he confirmed and I motioned with my head that he should move up, which he did.

“Now, you’ve got two peons to do your grunt work,” I motioned at Lucas and myself, “And one who can help with some physical tasks,” I gestured at Cliff, before looking at Claire, “Claire, why don’t you get horizontal somewhere in the sun? Or what sort of relaxation would you prepare?” I asked, ignoring the amused expression on their faces at my sudden assumption of leadership

“I’ll just get comfortable, don’t worry about me,” Claire grinned, before moving to the reading nook and sitting down.

Next to me, Lucas looked over to Cliff and the two exchanged a shrug, amused smiles on their faces.

“Well, I guess I was made physical labour,” Cliff looked at the attendant, who gave him a grateful grin. “What do you need me to do?” he asked.

Before the attendant could answer, Lucas spoke up, “Are these the only reports that need to be sorted? If you want, we can sort them all and you can deal with them by order of importance.” he offered, with me nodding along.

Lucas and I quickly started to sift through the various reports, while the attendant, who had introduced herself as Leana, showed us just how much paperwork there was to be organised.

At first, Lucas and I worked silently side by side, letting Leana get on top of the new stuff coming in. There were a few trainers dropping in, briefly talking to Leana, before leaving again, giving us looks of interest and confusion on the way, but none of them actually talked to us. It wasn’t a steady stream of visitors, but the amount of paperwork each of them produced was quite impressive.

“Thank you for your help,” Leana told us during the afternoon when Lucas and I had managed to sort through most of the backlogged reports. I had noticed that there were multiple reports regarding Gastly-sightings filed away, none of them apparently having been passed on, a realisation that made me rather annoyed.

“You’re welcome,” I replied, before raising an eyebrow in question, “How did it ever get this bad?” I inquired, causing Leana to let out a sigh.

“It was a mess when I started, two weeks ago. Normally, there are four of us holding down the fort, but one had to take time off to take care of her baby, one has been sick for a while and the last one mostly works nights. Trying to organise everything is nigh impossible, especially with the regular interruptions. I just forget where I was and have to start over again, or I wouldn’t get anything done.” Leana admitted, looking crestfallen.

“There are so few working here?” I asked, surprise in my voice. I had never quite counted how many people were working in the other centres, but I was almost certain that it had been more than four.

“Yeah, it’s not a popular job,” she shrugged, before focusing back on the papers Lucas and I had pre-sorted, scanning the incident reports to pass on the important details with the next trainer travelling in the right direction.

“Anyway, could you do me a favour and run these over to the Gym? They need to be filed there, too,” she asked, me, gesturing to one of the binders she had put together. By now, she looked far more in control of the situation and more confident than the frazzled mess she had been when we first turned up.

“Certainly, stretching my legs would be wonderful,” I assured her, taking the binder, giving Lucas a nod, and starting out of the door.

If nothing else, we now had something to do in Eterna City, while waiting for Gym Leader Sylva to decide what task to assign us.