Searching Far and Wide - 78 (Patreon)

Cover Art: Amasw.

Teams:

Pierce Lawson:

- Narcissa, Beedrill

- Orion, Onix

- Cygnus, Abra

- Bellatrix, Gyarados (Shiny)

- Andromeda, Vaporeon

Lillian Dale:

- Root, Bulbasaur

- Talon, Spearow

- Gem, Geodude

- Star, Cleffa

Route 5 III

“Why did I miss the wild again?” Lily asked, drawing a sleepy chuckle from him. Not that he blamed her, but it was what it was. “Why can’t it all be cities? Why must we suffer like this?”

“Because this is where the pokemon are?” he asked, taking another bite at his breakfast courtesy of Lily herself. “I mean, I guess we could skip a route and just teleport to a city if we aren’t interested in the pokemon there, but that’d feel…”

“Yeah, I know what you mean,” Lily replied, pouting anyway. “It’s not like I want to look for more pokemon myself. Only two more before I have to send them back to Professor Oak as it is,” she added then, following that with a sigh. “Still, I want to give it my best throughout. Maybe I’ll find a great pokemon to take with me in this route, or the next one. It’d also help so I can train them for the end of the circuit, you know?”

“Yeah, I do,” he replied, taking a sip from his cup of tea. He himself didn’t really look for pokemon to join him. Or, at least, he hadn’t so far. Maybe it could be a nice change of pace to actually do so? Either way, so far, his pokemon had found him, really. And that was with five of them, so he didn’t think it was too wild to assume it’d happen again at some point. “I’m mostly the same, I guess. Honestly, I’m expecting the last member of my team to just come to me or come across it somehow without even trying.”

“Lucky,” Lily mumbled. “Then again, I guess I’m not one to talk. But still, that’s not normal team building.”

“Are you saying I have a chance at doing things the normal way?” he asked and Lily considered that for a long moment before conceding the point. He was sort of sad she did. He knew he was a weird trainer, but still. She could have at least tried to argue that. “Anyway, so nothing for us to look for here?”

“I mean, I wouldn’t mind a vulpix, but other than that…” Lily commented, shrugging. “And I don’t even know if I want one to be one of my last two members. There’s plenty of region to explore yet and just as many pokemon to find.”

“That’s very mature of you,” he replied with a nod.

“I feel like you are calling me a child…”

“Me? I’d never,” he said with a grin on his face that probably wasn’t helping his argument. “Either way, there’s some cool pokemon around here, but I have only one spot open in my team right now so…”

“I don’t think you’ve said yet. What are you going to do if you go over the limit?” Lily asked curiously and he appreciated that she said if instead of when which he imagined was the normal thing. Six was very lacking, especially for generalist trainers. There were so many types that one couldn’t really get good coverage with just six pokemon. Even less so when there was overlap, which was the case for him with Bellatrix and Andromeda.

“I don’t plan on doing so, but… It’ll probably happen anyway,” Pierce said with a grimace. He’d been to two cities so far and he already had five pokemon. He’d be very surprised if he finished the entire circuit without going over the limit. However, he didn’t want to, he really didn’t. “It’ll suck if it happens though. I’d hate to have to send someone away. If it comes to that though, I don’t know. I’ll probably look for a nice place to rent, I guess. Maybe the Sisters will know a good ranch.”

“Hm, I can try to put in a good word for you with Professor Oak. I imagine he’d be more than happy to do so. He’s very interested in the things you do. Last I heard, he was studying your videos,” Lily commented and Pierce blinked a few times. She’d said that entirely too casually. Was she joking?

Looking at her told him that no, she wasn’t. What was up with that? That was a big deal, right? Professor Oak was up there in the VIP list of Kanto, he was pretty sure. Maybe not Champion Lance level, especially so long after he’d stepped down as champion himself, but Samuel Oak was no nobody. But then why was Lily…?

‘She’s too used to him, maybe? She is from Pallet. Maybe people from there know him more personally. Might be just the guy that knows a lot about pokemon for her?’ he wondered to himself idly, trying to piece that puzzle. Either way, it didn’t matter right then and there. 

“That’d be appreciated,” Pierce said, looking to the side to regard his team… Only to be met with five sets of stares. “It’s not gonna happen anytime soon, guys. Don’t worry,” he reassured with a smile. ‘At least, I hope it doesn’t,’ he added in his own mind.

“You think it will,” Cygnus said, but his tone in his mind wasn’t accusatory, Pierce noticed with some surprise. “You said you could check places?” his pokemon proceeded to ask and Pierce nodded slowly. “Then maybe you could find a place in Pewter?” his abra added and he realized where his Psychic type was going.

“That’s an idea, buddy. A very good idea, actually,” he replied out loud with a smile before reaching for Cygnus and patting the pokemon’s head. “You all aren’t getting rid of me just yet though, so let’s not worry about that, ok?” he added then. “If you are feeling sad, please direct your complaints to Lily for bringing up the topic.”

“Wait, what?” his traveling companion squeaked but Pierce just smiled and continued eating his breakfast. Had he thrown her to the wolves? Yes, yes he had.

He didn’t regret it a single bit.

[}-o-{]

“Things are going well over there then?” he asked, holding his pokegear up to his ear and his other hand patting Bellatrix. “You haven’t been avoiding the gyarados, have you?”

“I haven’t,” Misty answered and he could almost hear the eyeroll in her voice. “My sisters keep mentioning how my teacher would be disappointed if it even seems like I might not. It’s really annoying?”

“But it works, huh? I’m moved.”

“Shut up,” the girl replied but there was some amusement in her voice, so he took that as a win. “How’s being back on the road?”

“Good and bad, I guess. Can’t say I’m a huge fan of camping for extended periods of time, but it’s what it is. I like being in the middle of nature though, and the pokemon are super nice,” he answered with a smile on his face.

“Are they? Or are they just “super nice” to you in particular?” Misty asked before giggling.

“Wouldn’t know. They are nice enough to Lily when she’s around,” he answered, his grin widening. “I’m usually around when there are pokemon involved, so I wouldn’t know how it goes otherwise,” he added, drawing more laughter from the girl. “How are things back at the Gym?” he asked as he reached for a few pokeblocks and started feeding Bellatrix.

“Calm… It’s honestly kind of dull and boring without you and the bunch of gyarados around anymore. I’d almost forgotten how it normally was around here,” Misty answered and there was wistfulness bleeding into her words. “Never thought I’d miss gyarados of all things.”

“Well, maybe we can teleport for a visit when we get to Saffron. We should have some time while we get the last few details ready for the challenge. Even if we don’t, we could probably pop there for a day after the challenge anyway. A day’s not that much in the grand scheme of things,” he commented, more letting his thoughts spill out of his mouth than any sort of solid plan. Still, the idea sounded good.

The Sisters were some of his first friends besides Lily, so going for long without seeing them sounded sad to him. He already had almost none of those as it was, what with his… forceful displacement. If nothing else, at least he might be able to get a video call done whenever they got to a Pokemon Center? That was a nice idea.

Maybe that way he wouldn’t feel so empty whenever Lily had to leave to call back home.

“That sounds nice. It’s much easier to deal with the gyarados when you are around. At least then I know you can stop them if they feel like eating me,” Misty half-joked, but she did sound happy with the idea. He took comfort in that fact. Silently, he signaled to Bellatrix that he was going to check on the others… Which made the gyarados pout at him, but she did nod her acknowledgement anyway.

He gave her a fond smile and a last pat before turning around.

“The others miss you too, by the way, so I’m sure they’d appreciate a visit too,” Misty continued, sounding a bit absent, so he imagined she was also doing some stuff on her side of things. “I’m surprised none of them called you before me, actually. Especially Daisy.”

“Maybe because you beat us to it,” he heard a new voice say, a little lower than Misty before the girl squeaked. “Hey, Pierce!” he heard Lily – the Sensational Sister – greet him, this time her voice sounding normal, at least for a pokegear. “You aren’t missing us too much, are you?”

“A whole lot,” he answered honestly, a smile on his face as he walked up to Narcissa’s area. His beedrill was doing great. Pursuit was basically fully learned. Now they just had to polish it in some spars and actual battles to get the last rough edges dealt with. From there, they could move to the next technique. “Can’t wait to see you guys again. I was telling Misty that I might teleport over there at some point while we are at Saffron.”

“Oh, um, yeah, that sounds good, actually,” Lily said, a little surprised before she turned a little… shy? He almost couldn’t believe his ear. “I… I thought you’d come later on or just call,” she added, still sounding extremely out of character. Her words made him roll his eyes though.

“Why are you being a stranger all of a sudden? I’m almost insulted, honestly,” he said, scoffing at the idea. Who did she take him for? “I think you or your sisters mentioned that you don’t get to have many friends because of who you are. I don’t have many of those either, so you are stuck with me now, ok?” he explained to her.

Had he said that to them at any point? In as many words? Probably not, he supposed. He couldn’t remember doing so, at any rate. Well, it was said now. Hopefully that’d help somehow. And if not… Well, they deserved to know anyway.

“I guess, if we don’t have any choice,” Lily replied, recovering a little bit to her usual self. “Please do go somewhere else with Daisy though, ok? Poor Misty is still traumatized.”

“Lily!”

“You can’t let it go, huh? I seem to have left an even more lasting impression on you than on Daisy,” he commented with a grin.

“I’m not jealous!”

“I didn’t even mention that this time though,” he pointed out and there was only silence coming from the other side of the pokegear. He wished he could see her expression, that was the best part of teasing her, really.

“What’d you say to her?” he heard eventually and it was Misty. Apparently Lily had given her back the phone. That made him laugh.

“Nothing, nothing. So, you doing anything interesting?”

[}-o-{]

“There’s food for everyone, don’t make a mess,” Pierce said with a smile on his face as he started setting down bowls of pokemon food around. Good thing he was prepared by then and had much more of those than he needed for his team. At that point, he knew how things were likely to go in his travels.

The abundance of food spots didn’t stop the adorable little oddish from pushing against each other to reach it though. Apparently, the second it took Pierce to set down more was too long for them to wait through. Hell, Lily, Cygnus and Root were helping with that, but that was still not enough for the Grass types. They were just desperate and it was amusing, adorable and slightly annoying.

“They just can’t help themselves, can they?” he asked once the last bowl was set down and the family of Grass types started eating. Idly, he noticed that even the oddish stayed away from the gloom. The one vileplume in the family, for her part, seemed fine in both groups. He took note of all that, both mentally and literally. “Here, is this better?” he added after a moment, moving a few bowls a little away so the gloom could eat without bothering the little ones.

He did feel a little bad about that though, so he didn’t put them that far.

Either way, the smell wasn’t as bad as he’d expected. Then again, he’d read that the smell was worse the more in danger the gloom felt and the opposite was true if they felt safe. There was still some foul smell around, but Pierce could definitely put up with it at least a little. Especially when he saw that the gloom seemed really appreciative of that.

He guessed it made sense. When even most members of your own line stayed away from you, any company would be more than welcome. He’d put some effort into playing with them while they were around, he guessed. Just thinking about how sad they must be everytime someone moved away from them made Pierce want to never leave them alone again.

“Just like you can’t help yourself,” Lily commented from where she sat besides the oddish, giggling, patting and hugging them whenever they approached her cheerfully like little happy kids. They were all just the most adorable little things ever, Pierce swore.

“Can you blame me?” he commented, hand feeding a pokeblock to one of the gloom.

The meal he’d put together for the family of pokemon was a mix of berries and regular pokemon kibble. He was all for preparing good meals for his pokemon, but kibble did have all that they needed and to hear his team comment on it, it wasn’t too bad. Not bad, not great, sort of like an average thing. They didn’t mind eating it, so Pierce didn’t feel bad feeding them the stuff on occasion and the kibble lasted quite a bit so it was nice to have around in case of emergencies.

He did like mixing the stuff with berries more often than not, if only so that he could add some variety to what his pokemon ate. Because even if the kibble made for a decent meal, he imagined they might grow tired of the same thing every single meal. Then again, he might be wrong. Either way, he liked adding that touch of extra care to their meals on top of sometimes preparing better stuff altogether with berries and poffins.

“No, I don’t think I can. These little ones are adorable,” Lily commented, beaming at the Grass types as they cheered in response to her words. “Yes, you are!”

“I disagree,” Cygnus commented and Pierce almost laughed at the sight of his abra being swarmed by oddish that hopped around and on him. It was a sight to behold, truly. It seemed the Grass types had decided to make a jungle gym of him… and Orion, for that matter. They didn’t dare go for his female team members, but that was no surprise. On Lily’s side of things, her team was meeting a similar fate, with Talon being the sole exception. And Star too, he supposed, if only because the cleffa was hopping along with an oddish that she’d seemingly made friends with.

Ultimately, Pierce decided to leave Cygnus’ words unresponded, mainly because anything he might say would probably annoy the pokemon. As it was, he was already receiving a mental glare from just thinking that the sight was funny. Which was totally bullshit, by the way. He couldn’t even have thoughts anymore without them being judged.

Cygnus eye-roll was not appreciated.

“Hope the food is good enough for you, guys,” he commented, turning his attention away from the grumpy Psychic and towards one of the gloom. “Especially the pokeblocks. I haven’t prepared for your line before, so I’m kind of testing the waters here,” he added, receiving some reassurances – or what he thought were reassurances – from the nearby pokemon. “Good to know. Just tell me if something tastes worse or better than the rest. I kind of need that to get better.”

He received some affirmative answers, so he smiled at them and left it at that. There was no need to pressure them for feedback or anything. Pokemon would more often than not have exactly zero problems speaking their minds. He appreciated that about them, actually.

“Hey, you two, no pokeblocks if you go too far!” Lily called, making Star and her oddish friend freeze where they were. Pierce hadn’t even noticed that they were moving away from the main group. Apparently, they’d been drifting towards the forest for some reason. He wasn’t very sure, but considering how scared and stiff they were, he had the slight suspicion that they might have been sneaking off.

Like children, honestly.

“I guess some of you don’t want to try poffins later,” he commented, faking a sad expression. The oddish didn’t seem to know what he was talking about, but Star? Star knew perfectly well and it showed in her little adorable despairing expression.

Yeah, that’d teach her.

[}-o-{]

“You guys are way too spoiled,” Pierce commented, but he had a smile on his face as he continued using a special wipe on Andromeda. “You are all just lucky that you are great,” he added, shaking his head.

He’d have said cute, but Orion didn’t like being called cute. Cygnus didn’t either, but he at least tried to be mature about it. Like a precocious kid, really. He didn’t like that comparison either, but tough luck for him. If he was going to be connected to Pierce’s mind all the time, then he better learn to deal with it.

“I’ll evolve soon and you’ll have to stop being stupid, Helper-Voice,” his abra said and he’d have sworn that the pokemon was sending him the mental equivalent of a pout. That didn’t really help his argument and Cygnus seemed to realize that, because Pierce felt him finally pull away through their connection.

Andromeda, for her part, let out a sound that was somewhere between a purr and a growl in response to his words. Pierce wasn’t too sure, but he was pretty sure that was more or less “Go on, human. Praise me more.” or something along those lines. ‘She’s the spoiled princess here, I guess,’ he thought to himself, holding back a chuckle.

“Very great, yeah,”  he added, his lips twitching into a half-smile. One that turned into a full blown one when Bellatrix made a questioning sound that probably would have scared a good deal of people. “And you are very adorable, yes,” he told the gyarados, making her do her happy wiggle that looked so very silly, but also so very cute.

‘How am I supposed to be scared of gyarados when you look like that?’ Pierce wondered to himself. Because he was pretty sure he’d never not get comments on his videos about him not being afraid of anything, considering how he interacted with gyarados and the show. He honestly didn’t know how he could ever be scared of pokemon in general, really, when they were all so…

Sure, they could be dangerous, he very well acknowledged that, but so could people and few people went around being scared of everyone. It was just a matter of having a healthy amount of respect for them. From there, he needed to just focus on not angering them, just like he would any person. That had worked well enough for him so far, he was pretty sure.

His thoughts were interrupted then, making him chuckle.

“Jealous?” he asked, turning his head to look over his shoulder while feeling Narcissa’s stingers squeezing the smallest bit tighter around his neck. “You had your turn, Cissa,” he reminded her, but she remained stubborn. No surprises there, he supposed. She was always a little clingy, he supposed.

He was just grateful that she hadn’t been too bad in Cerulean.

“It’s nice to have more time for ourselves, isn’t it?” he asked then, turning back to Andromeda and continuing to pamper her.

All his pokemon replied affirmatively to that, which was kind of amusing, since Bellatrix and Andromeda hadn’t really ever had “time for themselves” with him before. Still, he got it. They appreciated the change too, even if they didn’t have a frame of reference before. He himself was enjoying that quite a bit. He loved helping pokemon and all, having the comforts of the city was nice and the Sisters’ company was great… But there was something very nice about being by himself in nature, without so many people around and only familiar faces close by.

He’d never been too shy, he supposed, but there was something very unnerving about crowded spaces ever since he was… dropped there. In a way, he guessed his brain couldn’t help but remind him that all those people around him were different from him. They were from a different place, a different culture. Sure, he was getting used to that thanks to Lily and lately the Sisters, but he was nowhere near fine with things just yet.

‘Baby steps,’ he told himself with a slight smile. He might be progressing slowly, but Pierce was pretty sure he was progressing. It was a painful, melancholic process, but he was getting used to things, he supposed. ‘Humans are adaptable creatures,’ he mused idly.

“And that’s all,” he said, smiling softly down at Andromeda as he finished with her, folding the wipe in his hands. “Hope you enjoyed it,” he added, getting a yip and a nod in response. “Glad to hear it,” he told her, patting her head and enjoying the moment of appreciation from his vaporeon, who didn’t scoff or glare at him. Instead, she rubbed her head up against his hand. “How are you liking traveling so far?” he asked her before glancing to the side towards Bellatrix. “Both of you.”

His gyarados took no time at all. She roared an enthusiastic response, swimming around in the river that was, for once, big enough that she didn’t look uncomfortable moving in it. Pierce wondered if she really meant that she was, indeed, liking traveling or if she was just saying that because it was what he wanted to hear. He guessed he’d have to make sure she did have a good time, just to be safe.

Andromeda, for her part, he was a lot less worried about. Not because he was sure she was liking traveling, but because he was sure she’d tell him if she wasn’t. She wasn’t nearly as desperate for approval as poor Bella was, after all. That was why he was happy when, after a long moment of consideration, the Vaporeon yipped and nodded slightly.

That was good enough for him.

“I’m glad,” he told them, patting Andromeda’s head and reaching for a pokeblock for Bellatrix. “Now, what do you guys want… to do…?” he started asking before trailing off as the intent look Orion was sending him. Pierce stared for a long moment before his laughter escaped. “Ok ok, pokeblocks for everyone,” he said, rolling his eyes as his onix cheered.

Seriously, how did his team end up with the two biggest pokemon being the most childish?

[} Chapter End {]

Hey guys! How’s it going?

Traveling shenanigans all around, guys. I know, not very exiting or anything, but I think we had enough plot and arcs in Cerulean. It can’t all be like that. Let’s let Pierce have some normal traveling, yeah? Well, for a definition of normal, anyway.

Pretty sure nobody thinks he’s normal except maybe him.

With that said, I hope you guys enjoyed the chapter.

Discord Link: discord.gg/UTDransjJZ

Random Question: Do you have a favorite number? Personally, I’m fond of prime numbers. But I guess that if I had to pick one… I’d still be unable to choose, but three, five and seven are definitely the top three. Multiples of ten are pretty neat too.

See you.