Searching Far and Wide - 3 (Patreon)

Viridian Forest I

“I get the feeling that I’m a little too soft,” Pierce commented wryly as he looked at the weedle next to him eating kibble from a bowl. Across from him, Kakuna chittered something that sounded to his ears as a mocking tone. “I know, I just… they are adorable, you know? Speaking of though, I get the feeling that caterpie don’t like me.”

The chittering this time sounded annoyed.

“Is there like, a weedle-caterpie enmity going on here? Because that’s the vibe I’m getting,” Pierce asked, raising an eyebrow. The weedle was the one that answered that, actually. Chirping something that sounded pretty damn aggressive, for such an adorable little guy. “Huh, is that so? Interesting, I guess.”

With that said, Pierce finished his meal mostly in silence as he looked at his pokemon, the wild weedle and out at the forest around alternatively. It was all so… fascinating. He still couldn’t quite believe that was what his life had turned into. In a moment of pain and blood it had all been taken away from-

‘Focus,’ He thought, gulping down the knot that had formed in his throat. ‘Don’t go down that road, Pierce,’ He told himself, taking a deep breath in and doing his best to relax his tense body. In front of him, the shine of Kakuna’s shell took his mind away. It went from the normal white of harden to a shinier gray/silver of whatever steel type move she was trying to learn.

“Doing better and better, huh, girl?” He asked, a slight smile forming on his face, even if he could barely form it. She didn’t know what had happened to him. She didn’t know what was hiding in his mind. She wouldn’t understand why he wasn’t happy for her so he had to do his best. Good thing he was a pretty good liar, he guessed.

Kakuna chittered something strained. Clearly, the move took a toll on her with each use. Either because she hadn’t gotten the hang of it, or because it was a demanding technique. Regardless, he could only hope that training would help with that. He liked her better grumpy than weary, if he was honest. At least he could talk to her even when she was annoyed.

“Well, little guy,” Pierce said then towards the weedle, cracking his neck as he prepared to stand up. “Time for us to continue on our little trip. I’ll help you up a tree, yeah?” He asked, receiving a cheerful chitter as he picked up the worm-like pokemon and put it as high up a tree as he could manage. “I’ll store the tent and everything else and then we can continue, ok?”

Kakuna replied with a disinterested chirp to which he rolled his eyes.

Once all that was done, he picked up his companion and started walking. It would have been better to let her stay in her pokeball, but really, he wanted the company. On top of that, she could get some training done whenever she recovered her energy too, which was a plus.

‘I wonder if one can keep pokemon out inside cities and such,’ Pierce thought to himself. ‘I know Ash always had Pikachu out in the series, but it’s different to have one of those than it’d be to have an onix out in a street, I think,’ He continued then, considering that question. ‘Better be safe and put her in the pokeball whenever we reach somewhere. I can try to find all that information first thing after that.’

Putting that line of thought to the side for the moment, Pierce focused on other things. Mainly on what he was going to do once he reached civilization. He was going to try to be a trainer, he decided. Sure, it probably wouldn’t have him reaching very far, but that was fine with him. He could settle with a normal job somewhere and be a casual trainer.

“I mean, it’s likely that we’ll have to skip a few Gyms and go straight to the Grass type one. Pretty sure those are weak to Bug types. So are Psychics, but I really don’t want to go there,” Pierce explained out loud to Kakuna. He didn’t know if he really was in Kanto, but that was the basis he was using for his planning for the moment. With that in mind, he also didn’t know what Sabrina he was dealing with. Regardless of that, however, it was likely that she’d be troublesome.

He’d need more information before approaching Saffron at all, probably.

“Then again,” He continued with a shrug that bothered Kakuna, since he was carrying her in his arms. “It really depends. If we get some other teammates, plans might change. I don’t know if I wanna fight things to get them on the team though,” He mused with a grimace.

He’d really prefer to get them Ash style, which is to say just have them willingly join without fighting or anything. It was the approach that he liked the most when he thought about it. Besides, with his future plans, why would he need the kind of pokemon that would join through a fight?

He was pretty sure those would be battle maniacs and such. Pokemon that would respect and desire strength. The kind of pokemon professional trainers would want for sure. Someone that was most probably going to be a normal guy more in a city somewhere? Less so.

“People at last,” Pierce noted, seeing down the path that there were some trainers around. Two, from what he could see and they were battling too. One of them had a bird while the other had a rattata. What the first was he couldn’t quite tell since he was pretty far. “Huh, I’m suddenly nervous,” He added with a wry smile.

Kakuna chittered something in his arms but he couldn’t quite tell what she was trying to say that time.

“It’s just…” He started, before pausing. How was he supposed to explain? ‘Oh, it’s just that I’m from another world so I don’t know how interacting with people from here will go, not to mention that I’m not all that sociable,’ He thought to himself, almost laughing at how absurd that would sound. Yeah, that wasn’t going to be what he said. “I’m just nervous, I guess. I’ll be fine.”

For once, Kakuna’s chittering didn’t sound annoyed. He’d almost call it encouraging, actually. ‘Maybe she’s not so bad,’ He mused as he adjusted his hold on the cocoon pokemon.

He got close just in time to see the bird – a spearow, he realized now that he was closer – diving with its beak shining with a light purple color. ‘Lavender?’ Pierce wondered idly. He’d never been too good at identifying colors, in all honesty.

Back to the fight though, the move hit the rattata. The rodent then fell to the ground, visibly struggling to stand up again. It was a very sad sight to see. Pierce felt his heart twist a little just looking at it. ‘Is this what pokemon battles normally look like?’ He wondered nervously. ‘It’s a lot more… brutal than it looked like in the anime.’

“We surrender,” The boy that was evidently the rattata’s trainer called, sounded dejected as he started making his way to the pokemon. As for the rodent itself, it slumped down on the ground, visibly relaxing now that the battle was apparently done. “You did a good job, buddy.”

“Great job, Talon,” The girl cheered as the bird flew towards her and landed on her arm. Pierce assumed the bird had somehow done so without clawing her arm, considering that she didn’t so much as twitch. ‘Did she name the spearow Talon?’ He wondered, somewhat amused.

“Here, as we agreed,” The boy said then, holding the rattata on one arm while he extended a few bills towards the girl with his other hand. ‘The price money? Wonder how that works,’ Pierce thought to himself. “Ah, if you wanted a battle, I only have one pokemon left and I’d like for them to be in good condition for camping,” He said then, noticing Pierce’s arrival and drawing attention to it.

He almost wanted to make up an excuse and walk away.

“That’s fine, I only have Kakuna here and she’s not in battle conditions, you could say,” He replied instead, giving them an awkward smile as they both blinked, looking between him and the bug type in his arms.

“Huh, a bug catcher? They don’t venture this deep in the forest often, from what I heard,” The boy mused out loud and Pierce was sure he wasn’t even really talking to him. “Anyway, I’m Roy, nice to meet you.”

“Pierce,” He replied, shaking the hand the teen extended. ‘He looks older than ten, that’s for sure,’ Pierce thought, but then again, not everyone was a new trainer. ‘It’ll be weird, if I have to battle a literal child though.’

“And I’m Lillian, but you can call me Lily, everyone does,” The girl, who looked to be around the same age as the other boy, introduced herself. Pierce couldn’t begin to guess what their ages were. Yet another thing he had a hard time telling from people. “And this amazing bird is Talon, by the way,” She added, waving her free hand towards the preening flying type. “Are you on your way to Pewter too?” She asked then.

And what a loaded question it was.

‘So, I am in Kanto, huh?’ Pierce thought in a split second before answering. Last thing he wanted was for them to think him weird or something because he took too long to reply. He could get more info if they were friendly, at least.

“Yeah, I am,” He agreed easily, thanking his lucky stars that he was a somewhat good actor. “Are you going there too?” Pierce asked then, looking between them.

“I’m actually going to Viridian. I’m new, but I have relatives there that I want to visit before continuing,” the boy answered, looking somewhat excited. Which explained why he was fine giving away information like that, Pierce supposed.

“You bet I’m going to Pewter,” Lillian proclaimed enthusiastically. “We are getting our first badge there, aren’t we?” she added, turning to look at her spearow, Talon. The bird, for its part, replied with what Pierce guessed was a fearsome cry. Or an attempt at one, since it sounded more cute than anything from the relatively small bird. ‘Small for this world, at least,’ he corrected himself.

“Anyway, I’ll be going now,” Roy said, looking between the two of them and the path he seemed to be following. “I want to find a nice place to stop for the night and treat Rattata,” he explained as he took out a pokeball and used it on the aforementioned pokemon. “See you and good luck.”

“See you,” Pierce nodded a farewell while Lillian waved cheerfully.

“Good luck to you too. I hope we can have another battle in the future!” she called as the guy walked further away.

“Sure thing!” Roy replied.

“Now, about you, do you want to travel with us?” Lily asked, making Pierce blink at her. He looked her up and down, as if her appearance would tell him why she was asking such a question out of nowhere. She looked normal enough, he supposed, with her apparently having decided that her color theme was going to be black and light blue. She wore a black long shirt over a light blue shirt and shorts. The trainers she wore also had both of those colors. She had long brown hair and equally brown eyes.

She certainly didn’t look weird enough to guarantee that question.

“Uh, you do know that we just met, right?” he asked hesitantly. “Stranger danger and all that?” he added, when the girl looked nonplussed at him. Honestly, he felt like it’d be weird to travel with someone that didn’t even looked to be an actual adult, least of all a girl he didn’t even know.

“Well, bug catchers are usually not that good people,” She mused out loud with a slight pout before it was just as quickly replaced by a grin. “But you are carrying that kakuna around. Most bug catchers aren’t too fond of bug types, ironically enough. They just catch them because they evolve quickly and can make for easy wins while everyone else is mostly on the initial stages of evolution,” She explained, suddenly sounding like a teacher or something.

He blinked.

“People don’t like them? They are nice though,” He said, not quite understanding. Sure, they felt a little funny to the touch, but so far they seemed to be adorable, in the case of weedle, or cool, in the case of beedrill.

“Yeah, I definitely don’t mind traveling with you,” Lily decided with a firm nod. “Lillian Dale.”

“Uh, Pierce Lawson,” He replied with an awkward smile.

‘The fuck is happening right now?’ He wondered to himself.

[}-o-{]

“She’s doing rather well, you know?” Lillian commented once they found a place to settle for the night. Pierce, if he was completely honest, still didn’t know how he’d been roped into traveling with her, but he’d long since accepted that it was what happened. “Iron Defense is a difficult move for kakuna to learn. Usually they need other pokemon and trainers to teach it to them.”

“Hm, I'm fairly sure some wild pokemon must have taught her then. Because I don’t know what I’m doing and she was already on her way to getting it when she joined me,” Pierce told her with a slight shrug, drawing a wide-eyed look from the teen, even if he didn’t know why. “What?” He asked, turning towards his bug type as it chittered something angrily.

“She doesn’t seem too happy with you,” Lily pointed out unnecessarily with a shiteating grin. Pierce just gave her an unimpressed expression. “Speaking of, I should let out Root or he’ll get angry with me,” She said, her amusement turning to slight guilt as she pulled out a pokeball and let out a pokemon.

‘Well, that explains the name, somewhat,’ He mused, looking at the pokemon that reminded him somewhat of a cross between a weird dinosaur, a toad and a cat. A strange mix, to be sure, but together they formed what he’d chosen for his team when playing the pokemon game that one time back when he was younger.

Bulbasaur.

“Wow, aren’t those rare?” He asked curiously, drawing the attention of the grass type. As far as he knew, those were starter pokemon only. Meaning she had to have gotten it from Oak… or some other professor, maybe. Maybe even somewhere else, he wasn’t too sure how the starter thing happened. After all, there couldn’t be only three people getting starters per year, that was ridiculous.

“They are, I got mine from Professor Oak in Pallet Town,” Lillian explained, beaming down at her pokemon. “We’ll be staying here for the night, Root. Are you feeling better?” She asked, which gave Pierce the idea that maybe she’d battled with the bulbasaur too and that was why it had been in its pokeball.

As the pair “chatted” he looked between them. If she was from Pallet and had gotten a starter, maybe she was one of those unnamed trainers that got a starter instead of Ash? ‘Then again, maybe it’s presumptuous to just go with the idea that this is the canon year. Hell, this could even be something else other than the anime world,’ He thought to himself. However, he was grateful for the new puzzle pieces he was offered. Every piece of information was welcome.

“So, I don’t think you told me what kind of trainer you are, Pierce,” Lily said then, pulling him from his thoughts and making him look at her. “Are you aiming for the Indigo League? Or maybe you just want to do the Gyms? A coordinator maybe?”

‘There’s a Coordinator circuit in Kanto?’ He thought to himself, intrigued. Regardless of that random tidbit, it was an interesting question. So far, they’d only talked about their journeys so far. He’d found out that the current Indigo League season had just started, from some previous chatter, evidenced by Root’s unevolved state if nothing else.

“I’ll try my hand at being a battler, from there I’ll just… see how far I reach. Just that,” He replied with a shrug and an uneasy smile. It sounded so… underwhelming, when said like that. “I don’t think I’d be a good coordinator though,” He added, more sure of that.

Being a coordinator sounded interesting, but Pierce didn’t think he had the right mind for it. Being a coordinator was all about making your pokemon stand out, from what he remembered, and that required a specific type of thought process. What would look pretty? What would look imposing? What would look scary?

“Well, I myself want to reach far into the Indigo League, at the least. My friends would never let me hear the end of it if I didn’t manage to even enter,” She told him, not at all nervous about the rather impressive statement. Pierce was pretty sure that with how big of a deal the League was supposed to be, it couldn’t be an easy feat to go far in it.

Then again, if this was by anime standards, maybe he could be wrong.

“Any plans for what pokemon you want in your team?” Pierce asked, interested. He was careful not to say “catch” or “get” since those terms sounded a little… Like pokemon were just things. After having Kakuna around for a few days and interacting with other bugs in the forest, he didn’t like to think of them like they were collectibles or something of the sort.

“Hm, not really. There are some pokemon I’d definitely like, but not so much that I’d look for them specifically,” Lily answered with a shrug as she regarded him and Kakuna. “And you?”

“Eh… Same, I guess,” He replied, bringing a hand up to massage his neck awkwardly. “I haven’t put that much thought into my journey though, I gotta admit.”

‘Mainly because I was just dropped into it, basically,’ He added wryly in his mind. He’d have to do a lot of research to know what to do once he managed to get to a computer or something. If that wasn’t enough… Well, he’d probably have to ask people about it, even if he’d look like an absolute fool while doing so.

“Huh?” Lily exclaimed, tilting her head as if the concept was entirely too strange for her to understand. He guessed he got it too. After all, one's journey was bound to be an important thing. Something that people prepared for, instead of something they could do on a whim like the anime depicted. ‘Maybe I’m guessing too much stuff?’ He mused wryly.

“Yeah, it was just… a last minute decision, you could say,” He said, hoping it’d be enough to stave off any questions. Fortunately, it seemed to be, since the girl fell silent then.

Kakuna chose that moment to shine again in yet another attempt at Iron Defense. ‘God, am I grateful to know the name of the move now,’ Pierce thought to himself with a slightly relieved smile. It had been so incredibly frustrating to not know even that much. He promised to himself that he’d research everything Kakuna could learn as soon as he got a chance.

He would also definitely look into books or stuff that could help him know this kind of thing for future pokemon he might catch too. Last thing he wanted was to be in the same situation once again if another pokemon decided to join him. Unlikely as that would be, that is.

‘Then again, I also have to make sure that I can afford that too, I guess,’ He thought wryly. After all, he had no idea how much the money he had was worth. For all he knew, it was just the bare minimum to survive or something of the sort.

A buzzing sound took his attention away from the cocoon and he saw Lily and her pokemon tense up. A beedrill appeared shortly afterwards, flying through the woods until it reached them, stopping to regard the two humans and the pokemon. Talon gave a menacing cry when the bug looked at him. Root, meanwhile, crouched, readying for a fight.

“Hm, I don’t suppose you could leave us be, could you?” Pierce asked, giving it an awkward smile. “I swear we are just going to camp here. We don’t want to cause trouble,” He added.

The beedrill replied with an aggressive buzzing of its wings and a clicking sound of its mandibles.

That was when Kakuna chittered something at it and it went silent. Or as silent as a bug the size of his leg could be while still flying. A moment later, the thing touched the ground and pointed towards…

“Oh, come on,” Pierce groaned.

“Pierce?”

“Don’t worry, I think we are fine,” He reassured, even while grimacing. “God, this was nice at first but it’s getting annoying really quick,” He grumbled as he moved towards his backpack, expanded the green cube and pulled out a kibble for the beedrill. “Here you go, big guy,” He said, hoping that it was, indeed, a male.

Judging by the lack of angry reactions, he thought he’d gotten that one right, at least.

Small mercies.

“We are fine,” He repeated towards Lily who was still looking at the beedrill apprehensively. ‘This is the girl that had zero problems with me tagging along?’ He couldn't help but ask in his head.

“The beedrill line isn’t known for being… friendly, you know?” The teen told him, hesitant to take her eyes off the bug type. “They are kind of infamous here in Viridian Forest, actually. They are downright aggressive if you encounter them at the wrong time here.”

“Eh, so far, all of them have been friendly. Hell, the most aggressive one of the line I’ve met was Kakuna here,” He said, signaling his companion with one hand and getting annoyed chittering in response from the cocoon. “They are nice, even if they’ve been eating through my kibble. At this rate, I’ll run out before I reach Pewter and that’s not even taking into account the fact that Kakuna might evolve before that…. Speaking of, how far are we, really?”

“About a week, I think,” Lily replied, almost absently as she seemed to be considering what he’d said. Then she frowned, as if his question was strange. Which he realized why a second later and scrambled for an excuse for his question.

“I got a little lost on the way, I’ll admit,” He said, which wasn’t entirely a lie. “Shouldn’t have left the path,” He added, which was a lie, but his situation was certainly not easily explainable.

“You don’t say,” She mumbled, her expression turning amused for a second. The beedrill’s presence didn’t seem to leave much room for her to relax though. Fortunately, the bug type was done eating soon after that. Once that happened, the beedrill looked up at Pierce and chittered something.

“You are welcome?” He replied hesitantly, which earned him a nod. Kakuna “said” something to the beedrill and then the wasp-like pokemon flew away, the buzzing soon disappeared in the forest. “Well, that was… something. Also, if we are that close I should be… relatively fine in regards to food storage… probably.”

“Well, if that’s what it takes to keep them away, I guess I can help,” Lily offered, her shoulders finally relaxing as she sighed in relief. “Repel is a little too expensive for me to buy right now. I was ready to have to fight my way through the forest, but it’s nice to know that won’t be necessary,” She told him with an uneasy smile.

“It helps having an ambassador, I guess,” Pierce commented, waving his hand to signal Kakuna, to which the teen nodded in agreement.

“I guess you are right about that,” She replied, giving the bug type a thoughtful look.

“Well, we better get those tents set up and get started with dinner, right?” He suggested, turning his eyes up towards the darkening sky.

“Right, we don’t have that much time, I guess,” Lily agreed, following his gaze.

“Say,” Pierce started as he pulled the blue cube from his backpack to take out the tent. “You wouldn’t have advice for me as a trainer, right? I have a feeling you are more prepared than I am, that’s for sure,” He asked with a wry smile. If nothing else, the fact that she’d been given a bulbasaur by Oak said she was probably competent and he’d need all the help he could get.

“I sure do!” The girl exclaimed enthusiastically, all previous unease having been forgotten, apparently.

[} Chapter End {]

Hey guys! How’s it going?

So, we have our first traveling companion around. I know her introduction is weird and may feel kinda forced, but I have my reasons, I swear. Dunno if they are good reasons, but I do have some of those, at least. So, please bear with me, I’ll try not to disappoint.

I hope you enjoyed the chapter.

Discord Link: discord.gg/UTDransjJZ

Random Question: Have you played any of the pokemon games? I played mostly Fire Red, but I did play a lil’ bit of Ruby and Pearl too.

See you.