Searching Far and Wide - 63 (Patreon)

Teams:

Pierce Lawson:

- Narcissa, Beedrill

- Orion, Onix

- Cygnus, Abra

- Bellatrix, Gyarados (Shiny)

- Andromeda, Vaporeon

Lillian Dale:

- Root, Bulbasaur

- Talon, Spearow

- Gem, Geodude

- Star, Cleffa

Cerulean City XXIV

Pierce was, once more, back at the Gym at the gyarados pool.

It was business as usual, really. They’d played for a bit and now they were on break time once more. Some of the sea serpents were helping his team train, while Pierce himself found himself studying. He’d kind of dropped his First Aid License studies for a bit, but he was back to it now that things had stabilized.

It felt like forever ago since he’d opened his medicine books, actually. Which was a little worrying, but he found that he remembered a fair bit. Then again, he had never been a great student because he never really applied himself. As a child, he’d found that he could just pass exams without really trying. That is, until college slapped him in the face with reality.

With a terrible work ethic already solidly built in his mind, Pierce had struggled a lot there.

Not that it mattered anymore, he supposed, but he was now studying something that didn’t even really feel like studying. It reminded him more of those times when he’d look up guides for games or check through countless pages in wikis. He was interested in all that. Sure, some things were more interesting than others, but it called him enough that he could push through the worst parts easily enough.

‘All in all, not as bad as I thought it’d be,’ Pierce mused to himself, finishing re-reading the parts that he’d been studying so far. He remembered a fair bit, he was pretty sure. Then again, it’d only been… a couple of days, really. ‘If anything, it was more of a lil’ break out of necessity, I guess,’ he thought, starting to read a new part with his trusty notebook by his side.

Before that though, he sent a look over it to check on the pool. Things were still calm, for the moment, which was great. Then again, things were usually calm. The problem was that there were a bunch of gyarados involved, so one of them or several could be triggered at any time. It was more of an annoyance than anything, since there was no way to really predict things unless Pierce was on them 24/7, which was just not feasible. He barely managed to do that with Bellatrix as it was and even then he couldn’t be with her all the time even when he’d had to.

He’d just have to make do stopping the messes that did spark up when they did.

It was more complicated, but it was better than being constantly on edge. That was probably not very good for his health, both physical and mental. Call him whiny if you will, but Pierce thought he already had enough issues of his own without adding things to that. He was barely getting better with the tiny problem that was having lost everything he’d ever known and loved in but a few minutes, between pain and literal death.

He’d rather deal with that before having to deal with more things, thank you very much.

Setting his book down, Pierce brought his hands up and rubbed his face. ‘Why the fuck am I thinking this shit?’ he asked himself with a frustrated groan muffled by his palms. Sometimes his mind went in terrible and stupid directions and he so hated that.

Taking a deep breath in, he took the water bottle by his side, drank a bit and then set it back down. ‘Let’s continue with this. At least it’s more productive than wallowing in misery,’ he told himself, picking up the book once more and continuing to read. This time, at least he mustered enough focus to actually study without his brain going on painful tangents.

Not that he wanted to bottle his problems up, but he’d rather leave them for later when he wasn’t trying to do something else. Maybe when he went for a swim in the pool, for example. At least then he’d have the comforting presence of Andromeda and Bellatrix on top of something to do that didn’t really require any focus on his part.

Studying was important, after all.

He still remembered the mess that had been the Cerulean Gym when the water types had been dropped there for them to help with. He remembered how helpless he felt not being able to help as he should have. He knew what he needed to do, but he hadn’t been able to, since he didn’t have a License.

He didn’t want that to happen again.

So, he needed to focus and study, which was what he did. He could deal with other things at other times. For the moment, he gave his all to the books he had on the subject. Once he determined himself enough, it wasn’t so difficult. ‘Years of ignoring problems with distractions sure are useful,’ he thought wryly, even though it did help with things at that very moment.

So, he just sat there studying while the world continued moving around him. Every so often some sound would call for his attention but it was usually nothing. Other times, however, it was worth doing something about. Like how he did get called, at some point, to deal with a gyarados that thought it’d be funny to shoot moves at others like one would splash water at a pool playfully. It turned out to be a terrible idea to do that when surrounded by other unstable gyarados.

Who’d have thunk?

‘Is this what it feels like to work at a daycare?’ he wondered, giving the aforementioned gyarados an unimpressed look while it tried and failed to look innocent. ‘Because suddenly I feel bad for those poor, poor people.’

“There will be no poffins for you, mister,” he said, getting a whine from the sea serpent. “Only pokeblocks until I think you’ve learned your lesson,” he added, getting a growl in response. “Oh, that’s how you want to do this?” he asked with a raised eyebrow.

The water type held the glare for a long moment before whining.

“That’s what I thought. Now, to the corner with you, and think about what you did,” he ordered and the gyarados sulked off just how he was told. Pierce just shook his head and turned towards another sea serpent. “Thanks for calling for me instead of shooting back,” he said.

The gyarados preened proudly.

“Yeah, good job.”

[}-o-{]

“Nothing quite like lazing about and eating nice snacks, am I right or am I right?” he asked, getting agreeing sounds from pokemon all around. “Yeah, of course I’m right,” he said then with a chuckle, sticking his hand inside the bag he held to pick up a new handful of chips. He was no pokemon and there was nobody around to make him muffins or anything like that. So, he was making do with a bag of chips and a soda while the pokemon around ate the snacks he’d prepared.

It was a little bullshit, admittedly, but alas, such were the woes that plagued his life.

“This one’s for Bella, guys!” he called, extending his hand to the side and making the shiny gyarados extremely happy. Then he picked up one of the poffins he’d set aside. It was prepared with “extra goodness” as Cygnus had translated from gyarados speech, so the sea serpents were determined to be on their best behavior if they got to get one before snack time was over. All of them would too, unless someone misbehaved, even the one gyarados he’d had to scold before.

He was liable to have some of the water types rebelling if he denied them the premium snack without good reason, he was sure.

When he threw the thing up in the air for his pokemon to catch. Sadly, he couldn't spoil his own gyarados too much in front of the others. He didn’t think they’d take too well to preferential treatment. It’d just be a matter of waiting until they left Cerulean, he supposed. Once they were away, he’d be allowed to spoil the adorable giant thing she was to his heart’s content.

“You are all going to behave later, won’t you?” he asked, giving the gyarados gathering around him a passing glance. They all did their best to nod and generally look obedient. It didn’t quite work, but they all knew there’d be a lack of poffins in their future if they didn’t follow through with those promises.

He was determined to learn how to prepare pokepuffs next at some point in the near future. The way to a pokemon’s heart and obedience was their stomach, after all. Or, at least, that was the most effective way to bribe them. If he could get gyarados to listen to what he had to say for poffins, then what could possibly be too much if he could prepare some good pokepuffs?

If the answer wasn’t nothing, then he was sure the number of pokemon in the list was short.

“Yeah, who’s adorable?” he asked, when Bellatrix drew closer for some petting. “You are,” he answered himself while the gyarados did her best impression of a purring cat. It was an odd one, for sure, but it was adorable and that was what mattered.

A meow from the side had him turning and giving Andromeda a raised eyebrow.

“You are very adorable too, don’t worry,” he reassured, planting his hand between the vaporeon’s ears. They twitched while she glared at him, but she didn’t pull away or shoot him with a Water Gun, so he wasn’t making a mistake. Yeah, she was like that. That’s why when she started growling, he only grinned at her. “Come here,” he decided out loud, picking up the vaporeon and settling her on his lap while continuing to pet her. “You’ve done a good job keeping an eye on everyone for me, better than everyone else.”

At that, Andromeda relaxed, because she might act tough but compliments were as effective with her as snacks. ‘And I thought Narcissa was bad,’ he mused to himself with a smile.

“Just couldn’t help yourself, huh?” he asked with a chuckle after the aforementioned beedrill latched to his back, peeking over his shoulder. “Guess we are having one of those moments,” he commented when Orion curled up so that his head laid to his leg and Cygnus teleported to the other side leaning against his side. Not one to be outdone, Bellatrix moved to settle by his leg on the pool… No, actually, she pushed both of his legs up so that they laid on top of her. “You are all a bunch of softies,” he said and none of his pokemon argued against that.

They were such a silly group…

And they were all he had. His team, Lily, her team and everyone else he had met through his both short and long journey. It wasn’t much. It was nowhere close to all that he’d lost, to all the things that he still remembered and suffered over. It was nowhere close to his parents and siblings, to friends that he’d had for years, to goals and dreams that he’d held onto during his life. They were all new and…

And still meaningful.

Even if it wasn’t the same. Even if they were nowhere close. It didn’t mean that the things he had now weren’t important too. Just because they were different didn’t mean they were less. No, just like how his family and his friends weren’t the same back in his world, his team wasn’t the same as either of those, and that was fine.

It was fine, because Pierce loved them all the same.

‘It’s going to be fine,’ he thought to himself. His heart ached and his throat closed, but he felt…

He felt like it was going to be fine, eventually.

[}-o-{]

Pierce raised both of his arms up sharply over his head, his hands balled into fists.

Immediately after, two gyarados of roughly the same size jumped up in the air. They came out of the water some distance ahead of him one on each side and then arched their bodies while they flew back into the water slightly behind Pierce. The sea serpents were getting really into the little dance they were starting to use as entertainment. Granted, Pierce would never call it “dance” to their face, but it was more or less what they did, really.

He’d even shown them some videos of the Sisters’ shows and while they turned their noses up at the “beautiful dance”, they did agree with each other that they could do better. Pierce would have called them out on the pettiness, but he didn’t think that would be good for his health. He also didn’t really care what thought process they followed. The fact of the matter was that the dance gave them all something to do in the small space they had and it allowed them to channel some of the energy much better than some swimming did. It was no battling, but it was the closest thing they had.

So, Pierce didn’t really care for how the sea serpents rationalized it.

He did mention to the Sisters that he suspected the gyarados actually were going along with it much easier than they usually would because they wanted something to do too. It was important, considering he was pretty sure the Sisters were considering working with his “method” – if it could really be called a method at all – to see if they could get more gyarados in their shows. Last thing he wanted was for an accident to happen because they were working with wrong information.

“It’s fine. We know it’s a study in progress,” Lily commented in his mind through Slowbro, making him blink. “We also know you aren’t actually studying this, but we are. We’ll give you plenty of credit, don’t you worry.”

‘... Was I gonna get asked for permission at all?’ he asked curiously. He wasn’t really angry or anything, but it did catch him off guard, that was for sure. Ultimately, he didn’t much care. They were the ones doing actual study stuff, if she was telling the truth. He was just messing around while taking care of pokemon and learning from the-

“I’m very curious what you consider a study on pokemon to be,” Lily commented, sounding amused. “Anyway, of course we were going to ask for permission to post anything. We figured you wouldn’t care if we observed and learned from what you do.”

‘Well, you figured right. I do wanna know if you are going to post something with my name on it though. The video thing was already kind of…’

“Yeah, I get that. We caught the person that uploaded them, by the way,” the Sister replied, her voice shifting into something cold as steel. It was a little impressive and a little scary, Pierce would admit. “Why thank you. Back to that thing, we did find the person who did that. We made them upload a public apology and fired them.”

‘I mean, that sounds kind of ras-’

“No, Pierce. This was relatively harmless, sure, but we can’t have someone that does that kind of thing here. There’s a lot going on in places like this that we don’t want people to know. Especially with people like the Rockets around,” Lily said firmly and he decided it was better to let the matter drop. She was the expert Gym Leader and he was just the guy that got along with pokemon. He figured he better leave that kind of thing to them. “And you figure right. By the way, I think the gyarados are getting antsy.”

‘You are right,’ he agreed, noticing the rather intently stare of the sea serpents around him. Taking a deep breath in, he started to move again. In a moment, they were back to full dance, with the gyarados swimming in patterns following his movements. There were some mistakes here and there, but that was fine. There was only so much they could read from him from underwater and besides there were a lot of tricks and such that they had come up with to memorize. Didn’t help that most of it all had to be read from just him moving his arms and hands. After all, he needed his feet firmly on the ground if he was going to be standing on Bellatrix or any other gyarados.

Eventually, it was time for another break though.

“What do you think?” he asked after swimming up to the edge of the pool and getting himself out, sitting with his legs still in the water. “I think they are getting hilariously good at that,” he added with a chuckle, running both hands over his face and then pushing the hair back and out of his face.

Andromeda gave him a barely agreeing meow that sounded more like a “yeah, whatever” than anything else.

“You are just jealous that you can’t join. I’m sure I could come up with-” He was stopped from finishing that sentence by a weak Water Gun to the face. “Well, that’s rude,” he mumbled, giving the unrepentant eeveelution an unimpressed look. “Fine, be that way.”

A yip made him blink and turn back to Andromeda, who seemed to have something to tell him. With his attention back on her, she pointed with her paw towards the pool. For a wild moment, he thought that the vaporeon was actually asking to join the dance, which he didn’t think was really her thing. However, a moment later he realized that she wasn’t pointing at the now scattering and relaxing gyarados. She was pointing at Cygnus, off to one side of the pool and practicing Focus Punch once more.

“Training?” he asked, getting a firm nod from the eeveelution. “Well, far be it for me to stop a pokemon from getting stronger. Didn’t take you for a battling pokemon, honestly,” he commented, and Andromeda seemed to blink at him, uncomprehending. “What? I hadn’t gotten around asking yet and you didn’t seem interested in battles from what I saw. You are?”

Pierce really didn’t appreciate the way his pokemon was looking at him like he was stupid.

Nor the yip that sounded pretty much the same way she looked.

“Well, there’s no need to be rude,” he mumbled, giving her a flat look. “I guess we can start with you showing me what you know and I’ll start looking into how to train you best, yeah?”

She nodded at that, but she was still regarding him like she was starting to question his intelligence.

Seriously, why did he decide to take her with him in the first place?

[}-o-{]

Halfway through his assessment of Andromeda’s skill set, Bellatrix had decided that she wanted in too, as it turned out. It wasn’t a huge surprise that both of them seemed ok with battling, he supposed, but it was a clear reminder that pokemon were just built differently like that. He was no psychologist, but he was pretty sure going through an ordeal like they had would have made humans not at all appreciate such a violent sport as battling.

Only, it wasn’t a sport for pokemon, he had to remind himself. For them, it was part of who they were. Like humans learned, adapted and generally worked to improve their lives, pokemon craved strength, which led to training and fighting. It was what they did and, even if he couldn't completely understand it, Pierce had to accept that.

‘Not a lot to work with, but that’s fine,’ he mused, writing some ideas for training for his pokemon. Bellatrix didn’t have much besides some moves she’d learned instinctively, like Bite and Brine (which he’d thought was Water Gun before). Andromeda, surprisingly, didn’t know much either. Maybe once they’d been together for a while, he could have Cygnus help him know his pokemons’ stories better. Because he knew very little about them, really, even in Narcissa’s case.

Something to keep in mind.

As it was, he’d have to do some proper research to decide how to best train his pokemon. Bellatrix wouldn’t be training quite yet, at least until he was sure that she wouldn’t get carried away. Maybe they could work some on the moves she’d gotten after evolving, to help her get a better handle of them. There definitely wouldn’t be any new moves for a while though. That way laid a frustrated gyarados and that was the last thing they needed at the moment.

Andromeda was a little easier, but she was in no rush, even if she’d already expressed interest. That meant that he could take his time to get all the info he wanted. As long as he didn’t put it aside like an idiot, the vaporeon would be fine with waiting a little. She might be standoffish, but she was also reasonable and mature… sort of. Like some weird mix of Narcissa and Cygnus, he supposed.

“Maybe you should stop being silly and start getting ready,” the aforementioned abra commented, making him grin. Then he looked at the notebook in his hands to make sure he wasn’t forgetting something before closing it and putting it back on his backpack that was laid to his side. “I’m not offended,” Cygnus argued to the thought that popped in Pierce’s mind.

‘I’m sure you aren’t.’

“I’m not!”

“Well, time to get on with it,” he mumbled out loud, standing up and stretching. To the side, he saw all three of the Sisters and Lily, who had been having some quality time with her pokemon on one corner of the pool while they all waited. “Nothing last minute to deal with?” he asked the Gym Leaders.

“It’s all taken care of,” Lily reassured with a smile.

“It should be us asking you that, really,” Daisy commented, seemingly amused. “This is all your doing, really. We are barely involved besides giving permission to use this place and those pokemon,” she added, which he supposed was fair.

“Are you sure you want to do this?” Violet asked, sort of a segue to her sister’s previous comment. “There’s little to do to come back from this, you know?”

“I’m sure. I doubt I could avoid the attention anyway. Might as well do things my way,” he answered, running his fingers through his hair. “Speaking of, I guess we should get started.”

“We were kind of waiting for you, if you’ll remember,” Daisy pointed out, drawing a nervous chuckle from him. “We are just here for the show.”

“Right,” he mumbled, taking a deep breath in and looking down gratefully when Andromeda rubbed herself to the side of her leg. “Thanks, girl,” he whispered as he leaned down to pat her head. “Lily!”

“Yeah?” the Sensational Sister asked, making him turn to glare at her before she giggled.

“Me, I’m guessing,” his traveling companion commented, standing up and approaching them with an amused grin. “Ready?”

“Yeah. Let’s get this show on the road,” he answered, trying to keep his breathing steady. The Sisters went silent there, looking at him intently, which really didn’t help with his slight nerves. ‘Come on. This is like helping Misty, or helping pokemon during a crisis, or any of the regular jobs I’ve done,’ he reminded himself, taking a deep breath in.

It wasn’t quite the same, but still.

“Ready when you are, Pierce,” Lily said as they moved into position. Closing his eyes, taking a deep breath in and then opening them as he let it out. Then he nodded at her and she nodded back.

“Hello world,” he started with a smile directed at the camera in his traveling companion’s hand. “I’m Pierce Lawson, but you may have heard of me as ~GyaradosTamer. What you may have also heard, probably, is that I didn’t give permission for those videos you might have come across, but this one… Well, let’s just say I did,” he said before chuckling. “I thought I might as well do videos myself, considering how well those did. And the first thing I’m going to do is correct the Tamer part of that nickname, because there’s no way to tame a gyarados, as far as I’m aware. You see…”

[} Chapter End {]

Hey guys! How’s it going?

Business as usual in the Gym and Pierce is dealing with things, externally as well as internally. Oh, and he’s becoming a youtuber, I guess. Why am I even surprised at this point?

I hope you enjoyed the chapter.

Discord Link: discord.gg/UTDransjJZ

Random Question: Gyarados or Milotic? For me? Gyarados, all the way. Not to say Milotic isn’t neat, but I just prefer the menacing pseudo-water dragon. Simple as that.

See you.