Searching Far and Wide - 66 (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 XXVII

“Psychic!” the trainer across from them called and Pierce’s eyes widened. That wasn’t quite the move one expected from a Poliwhirl, after all. If anything, they more or less kept to Hypnosis in regards to Psychic type moves.

“Twineedle!” he called in response, trying to disrupt the energy with a Bug type move, since Psychic was weak to Bug. Unfortunately for him, the water type had that particular move very well trained, smacking his beedrill to the ground before Narcissa could react. Pierce’s eyes narrowed.

That was bad. Narcissa might be a Bug type, but she was also a Poison type, and that meant that she was weak to Psychic. Quite the disadvantage to have when the opponent had a strong Psychic move to use. It was made even worse considering the fact that it wasn’t even a proper Psychic pokemon, so they didn’t have an advantage on that front. Then again, they still had plenty of advantage with anti-Water type moves.

“Again, Poli!”

“Move!” Pierce called, but they could only avoid so much before Narcissa got hit once more. Furthermore, each attack wore down on his beedrill. She was a fighter, not a tank. If she started taking hits without dealing twice or more back, then she’d go down and they both knew it.

Sure enough, that one battle didn’t go too well for them.

“Good match,” he told the other trainer, paying for the bet money and moving on. “Don’t look at me like that,” he told Narcissa, who forcefully came out of the pokeball’s stasis when he sat down at a bench. He’d have let her out anyway so that they could talk, but someone was in a bit of a mood, it seemed. “You can’t get like this just because we lost. I know we’ve been doing great lately, but it won’t go on forever. We aren’t invincible, girl. Not even close. It’s just how it is. We are still pretty high in the standings for our level, I’d say.”

That apparently, wasn’t a great reassurance, if the way his beedrill continued staring at him was any indication.

Pierce sighed.

“I don’t like it either,” he told his pokemon, running a hand through his hair. “Makes me feel like I fail you, or any of the others, when we lose,” he added, getting annoyed mandible clicking that he ignored. “Maybe I could have trained you better? Maybe I could have made better calls? Maybe I could have just been better, be as good as you all seem to think I can be?” he asked, leaning back against the wall at the edge of the battleground’s building.

Narcissa continued protesting what he was saying, but he heard her hesitation. She was getting where he was going. She didn’t like it, but she was understanding it.

“You know what I do?” he asked, finally turning back towards her. “I just keep going. I try to get better, so that I can train you better, command you better and so that I can be the trainer you believe I am and that you deserve me to be,” he explained as he extended a hand to rub Narcissa’s head, carefully avoiding her antennae and her eyes. “Can you do that for me too? Just… keep trying to get better trying to be the invincible pokemon you want to be. I don’t like when you are upset like this.”

She clicked her mandibles a bit more, but it sounded more like idle grumbling more than actual anger and frustration. That was good, because he was being hundred percent truthful there. It was awful to see his pokemon, his new family, being upset. It made him feel like a failure of a trainer.

“Feeling better?” he asked softly, continuing to pet his beedrill. When she turned away but clicked what sounded like a “yes” to him, he smiled. “I’m glad,” he whispered, closing his eyes and taking a deep breath in. “You want to rest in your pokeball for a bit? I’ll do a few more battles with Cygnus and Orion and then we are done here.”

Narcissa clicked her mandibles “yes” one more time and he felt infinitely better. It meant that she wasn't just saying it. She was genuinely a little calmer then. She’d feel even better once she was patched up back at the Pokemon Center and she got her through her meal courtesy of Pierce. He was sure that’d lift her spirits plenty.

“See you in a bit, yeah?” he whispered as he pulled out the pokeball. Before he could set her back in it, however, Narcissa leaned to the side to rub her head on his leg. “You were great, girl. Now you can rest,” he told her with one last petting before letting the red beam of the pokeball take her. “Well, time to get some more battles done,” he mumbled, standing up and stretching. Orion and Cygnus had some fight left in them, after all.

The former had more than a little trouble getting fights to get in though, considering the high population of water types in Cerulean. However, whenever he got a chance to pick second with someone that picked a half-decent opponent for the onix, Pierce went for it. It ended up putting his rock serpent against some troublesome opponents, but that was all part of the training process, he supposed. Harder battles would teach him more, Pierce was sure, and Orion agreed.

Cygnus, for his part, wasn’t too concerned with the number of battles he was set into. He was very much grateful for that, considering how difficult it was to find something that they could fight with just Teleport, Thunder Punch and Focus Punch. They were making it work though, mostly because of how annoying Teleport made battles for the opponent. That is, unless the battle was drawn out, because flashing around took a huge toll on the abra’s stamina.

Overall, things required effort on the battling front, even when his pokemon were plenty strong.

‘Because God forbid things are easy, right?’ he thought to himself with a wry grin.

[}-o-{]

“Your pokemon and you are so dramatic at the most random of times,” Lily said as they sat at the Pokemon Center for lunch. Thankfully, the fact that there were two Lilys around was made a lot easier when he was outside the Gym. After all, he only met the Waterflower one in the League building. Now, if he were to see her outside once or twice, that’d probably throw him into the mild confusion zone more often, which would suck.

“Gee, thanks,” he replied flatly. “We are allowed to have emotions, you know?”

“I know, I know,” Lily told him, waving him off. “It’s just that it’s a bit jarring. You are always so calm and rolling with the punches. You can stand up to an evolved gyarados and calm it down. But then you all but panicked when you were about to challenge the Gym. Narcissa is always so proud and self-assured, but she loses once and she flips out. You are all really dramatic at times. That might be the theme of your team. Wonder when Cygnus will do something like that.”

“I guess we are calmer most of the time and then when we are not… Well, we are really not,” he reasoned with a shrug, considering what she said. Much as he didn’t want to, he had to admit that she wasn’t entirely wrong.

“That might be it,” she mused with a thoughtful nod.

“So, what did you do with your morning? You never did go to the battlegrounds in the end,” he asked, eager to talk about something else. The topic of feelings tended to send him in a spiral towards his emotions regarding his past life, and he’d rather not at that very moment.

“Oh, I got a little excited looking through comments and then I started editing the video we got of you helping your adoring fan-” she started, making his eye twitch. “-It was kind of fun, since I had to change a lot more to keep her identity hidden.”

“... You are really into this, huh?” Pierce commented and he was a little surprised by the embarrassed look that appeared on his traveling companion’s face, with blush and all. “Something the matter?” he asked then, having been a little caught off guard by her reaction.

“It’s just… Um,” she mumbled then, drawing into herself a little and poking her fingers together. “I just, I grew up watching documentaries about trainers and pokemon. I used to look for anything I could get my hands on and I found myself watching a lot of videos. I used to think that maybe I’d give that a try myself.”

“And now you can,” he said, but was surprised once more when she grimaced a little. “What?”

“I mean, I guess…” she answered, but she sounded far from sure. “I’m just excited to be part of that, is all. And your channel will be special, because I've seen you do all these crazy things, showing me a side of the world that I wasn’t even really aware of. And now I can help you show it to everyone else. I’m just… really happy with just that, honestly. There are better trainers than me out there, but there are so few that can do the things you do, if anyone at all, at least that I’m aware of. Certainly none that are showing their talent to the world.”

“... And you were calling us dramatic,” he replied, his expression twisting in embarrassment. It was a bit awkward to be on the receiving end of Lily’s passionate speech.

“I guess we are all dramatic at times,” she said with a wry smile.

“Well, now I kind of want you to have a space in the channel,” he told her with a grin. “Especially knowing that you are so interested and enthusiastic about it. You say no to straight out going for a trainer series. Maybe a journey series? Like, showing stuff that you do in your journey. Normal stuff and not so normal stuff.”

“I mean, I guess, it could be a shared thing, so it wouldn’t be out of place in our channel that has your name,” she commented, and he could see her growing excited about the idea. Still though, he gave her an annoyed look at that last part.

“Again, I wonder whose idea that was.”

“Shush you,” she chided him. “I think I like that idea. Like an online journal of what we do. People would see that you are absolutely crazy at all times and not just for videos, so there’s that,” she added with a giggle as he rolled his eyes.

“Who knows, maybe you’ll grow popular too and you can have your own spinoff channel later on,” he added, unwilling to let it go. If she wanted to try something, she should do it.

What did it matter if there were other people around that did more or less the same thing? They weren’t her, after all. He hadn’t checked the internet all that much unless it was for something he needed, but back in his world there were tons of youtubers that did more or less the same thing. Like the ones that did let’s plays and walkthroughs, they all did the same thing, but with their own personal touch to differentiate themselves from others.

“Maybe,” she replied, and Pierce didn’t need to be a psychic to know that she didn’t believe it would happen. For the moment, he’d drop it there, but they were definitely having that conversation later on. It wouldn’t be good to continue pressing her. Better to play the long game.

Pierce could do that.

Besides, it’d help to have actual backing for the idea if things went well with the journey videos, as he said.

[}-o-{]

“And that’s a wrap,” Lily said, beaming like a kid when they got a cone of ice cream. “I think it was great.”

“You hear that, buddy? People all over the world are gonna see you,” Pierce commented with a grin, patting the gyarados by his side. The water type responded to that by making a pleased sound and preening a bit. “Yep, you are  a star, everyone that helped is a star, actually. You were all awesome, guys. I’ll remember that,” he announced, receiving more happy sounds from the sea serpents that had agreed to help him with a video.

Although, to be fair, even the ones that hadn’t been so willing had still helped in their own way. After all, it allowed Pierce to show a little of the less nice side of gyarados too. Last thing he needed was some idiot pulling a Malfoy-Buckbeak with a gyarados because they’d seen what Pierce did. People could be mentally challenged like that at times. He’d know. He’d had cousins that were like that.

“Nice showing. I like that most of the stuff you said were warnings,” Daisy commented, approaching them with her sisters. The three of them were very invested on his channel, it seemed. Not that he was surprised, considering…

“Even he’s not crazy enough to skip those,” Lily – his traveling companion – said with a smile on her face. 

“I don’t know,” the other Lily commented, tapping her chin thoughtfully. “You sure about that?”

“Sadly, no.”

“That said,” Violet said, taking over. “You are doing great, judging by what I saw the last time I checked on you online. You’ll get there in no time, Pierce.”

“That’s good to know,” he replied with a smile. “Lily gives me a summary of how things go from time to time and I check when I can. I’ve been kind of busy though,” he commented, taking a deep breath and running his fingers through his hair. The video and dealing with the gyarados for it had left him a little tired, he thought. “I’m gonna leave for a bit, guys! Behave yourselves or you know what’ll happen. Andromeda and Cygnus are in charge.”

There was some grumbling from the sea serpents at that, but none of them actually protested that. Satisfied with that response, Pierce turned around to see very amused women all around. It was kind of intimidating, he’d admit. Alas, he was too tired to care much and he knew they were more or less harmless… even if some of them could be annoying.

“So, I’m gonna go get a coffee before coming back. Do any of you want to join me?” he asked, cracking his neck. It was kind of weird. He’d done explanations much like the ones he’d just done for the video before, but the latter had left him much more drained somehow. He guessed it had to do with the pressure that it was going to be much more public.

He usually did that with a few people around at most.

“Asking all of us on a date? Someone’s Bold with capital B, am I right?” Lily – the Sensational Sister – asked before giggling as he grimaced.

“Is this a Lily thing or are you two just a terrible, terrible coincidence?” he asked with an exasperated expression. Judging by the amused looks on the others, he was sure he was alone against the unfair and annoying Lilys. Life was a bitch like that, he supposed.

“Maybe both?” Violet asked unhelpfully.

“Anyway, I’m out of here. I wanna take a break and you two are definitely not helping,” he decided, taking a deep breath in and just starting to walk out of the Gym. That’s what he got for trying to be nice and invite people to do things. Being sociable just wasn’t worth it, evidently.

“Which two?” Daisy asked from behind him, laughter in her voice.

“Yes!” he answered, and he wasn’t sure who, but one of them snorted.

Unfortunately for him, the sound was followed by steps following after him. Sure enough, they were all going with him, it seemed. ‘Me and my big mouth. Why did I invite them if I wanted peace?’ he thought to himself, holding back a sigh.

Hell, Violet hadn’t gone with them – probably staying back to keep an eye on the Gym – and that was not a good thing. He'd rather have her there and not one of the others. She was one of the nicest ones, together with Daisy. Both Lilys were a nightmare. Alas, he was just that unlucky.

“So, I’m very curious,” the Waterflower Lily started a few minutes later, as they sat at a cafe near the Gym. For some reason, just saying what she had made Pierce start feeling uncomfortable. He was pretty sure he wasn’t going to like what follo- “Are you in a relationship or something?”

‘Called it,’ he thought with a sigh.

“No, I’m not,” he answered, drawing a blink from both her and Daisy.

“Huh, are you gay?” the blonde asked.

“I’m straight,” he said simply, resigned to his fate.

“We are just saying. You haven’t checked us out in the entire time we’ve known you,” the pinkette pointed out, as if that was supposed to explain something. “And don’t give me that crap about being decent. Even good guys do it a time or two. We’ve made it a game to try and catch them looking at us or at one of the others,” Lily continued then, waving her hand towards her sister.

“Well, if your ego is hurt, I’ll let you know I think you are beautiful and definitely attractive. All three of you,” he told her, not quite keeping his tone flat but definitely casual. He was there to relax, and he’d goddamn relax even through the awkward conversation.

“Well, that’s nice of you to say,” Daisy replied with a smile. “You are still weird though.”

“Yeah, yeah. I’m just not interested right now, so I guess I’m not on the lookout as much,” he said with a shrug then, very gratefully taking his drink when the waiter came to drop their orders. He’d be giving the guy a big tip just for that. Especially because after that the others seemed to forget about the topic.

[}-o-{]

“Focus on swimming,” he said, doing just that himself with the most lazy, bastardized breaststroke style ever. It wasn’t like he was going for technique or speed, after all. He was just enjoying being in the pool.

Besides, he kind of had to account for Misty’s frozen ass.

“Focus on the water and swimming, I’m sure you are familiar with that,” he said calmly. He’d gotten more peace then and there, having to teach the youngest Sensational Sister, than he had when he’d been out on his break and having a nice drink. It was such bullshit.

“Easy for you to say,” the redhead grumbled. It could barely be said that she was swimming, really. After all, she was so stiff that she’d submerge herself a time or two with how little she was moving. “Why did I think this was a good idea? Why did I agree to this?”

“Because you are a very determined young woman?” he asked and when she submerged her mouth and bubbles came out, he was pretty sure she was cursing him and maybe his entire family. Oh well, it had been her idea in the first place.

“You can’t even feel them. What’s the big deal?”

“That I can see them,” the girl all but screeched at him, drawing an annoyed growl from one of the gyarados swimming close by. Not Bellatrix though. Misty had to graduate from her at some point. Besides, most of the gyarados there were pretty agreeable with the right bribes. They were basically about as docile as Pierce’s own sea serpent, really. Especially because he was there to stop the redhead from messing up enough to cause trouble.

“Stop looking at them then. Focus on swimming and relax,” he told her, as if he were trying to use a hypnotic trigger or whatever those were called. It worked like a charm, actually, which had him amusing himself thinking that he’d actually managed that. He saw the girl close her eyes, take deep breaths and relax her muscles, swimming a lot more smoothly. “That’s more like it,” he praised with a smile.

“I still say you are crazy.”

“Well, there’s a way to end this right here and right now,” he told her then, immediately gaining her attention.

“How?”

“Swim up to one of them and touch them. Then you can leave the pool and we’ll call it a day here,” Pierce explained to her and saw her pale even more than the cool water made her. However, he also saw her consider the offer. The girl paused, swimming in place with surprising calm as she considered her options.

It was kind of funny that she did her best while she was too distracted by the prospect of escape than she was when she was actually trying.

“Ok,” Misty said in the end, visibly gulping and slowly swimming towards one of the gyarados. As she did, behind her, Pierce signaled for the sea serpent to remain mostly still. When she was on the last stretch, however, the redhead struggled a lot more. That was expected though, so he just waited and prepared himself to intervene in case something happened.

It didn’t seem to be necessary though, since she continued going, even though she stopped a lot and went very slowly when not. She was making progress though. At no point did she swim away and that was a victory on its own, as far as Pierce was concerned. By that point, he’d let her get away with not actually touching the water type before ending things. She was already doing much better than he’d expected, actually.

It was unnecessary though, because she did give the gyarados a quick pat before pulling away and swimming around the creature towards the edge of the pool. Pierce followed after her then, because he kind of needed to keep an eye on her and because she might need someone to help her calm down. She wasn’t swimming like she was panicking, at least, although he could be wrong.

“You doing ok?” he asked when they reached the edge of the pool and sat there. She looked a little pale and shaken, which was starting to worry him. Especially when she didn’t immediately answer. However, when she brought her hand up to look at it, he paused.

“I touched it,” she mumbled then, seemingly shocked that she still had her arm or something of the sort. “I touched it,” she repeated, more energy bleeding into her voice as she perked up and turned towards him. It wasn’t the first time she did, but maybe doing it in the water made it different? It was also the first that wasn’t Bella, he supposed, so there was that. “I swam up to it and I touched it,” she said, as if trying to get herself to believe that.

Then she threw herself towards Pierce and pulled him into a hug.

“Thank you, thank you, thank you!” she exclaimed excitedly. “I can’t believe I did that!”

“Well, you did,” he told her with a smile that was both fond and amused. “You did amazing. You should be proud.”

“Boy, am I?!” she said, with an almost hysterical laugh. “I touched it!”

“Mhm, so, feel free to celebrate and do whatever the rest of the day, yeah?” he replied.

“Thank you!” she repeated, pulling him into another hug before letting go and getting out of the pool. As she walked away though, he was pretty sure he caught another “I touched it”, however.

“She did great, didn’t she?” he asked Bellatrix and the other gyarados, who had quickly approached after realizing that the exercise was done. “Thanks for being patient, girl. Both of you. And you,” he said, adding that last part when Andromeda walked up to him from the side. “How’s everyone doing? Did I miss anything?”

[} Chapter End {]

Hey guys! How’s it going?

Life goes on, progress is made, and we get ever so closer to the end of the Cerulean Arc. It’s not gonna last forever, guys, I promise. I’m trying my best to get to it. Just that there’s a lot going on that needs time.

Still, I hope you enjoyed the chapter.

Discord Link: discord.gg/UTDransjJZ

Random Question: Pichu-line or Turtwig-line? I personally I’m a great fan of Torterra, but Pikachu is a classic… Eh, I’m still going for Torterra though.

See you.