Searching Far and Wide - 5 (Patreon)

Viridian Forest III

“So, Air Cutter and Tailwind,” Pierce asked, frowning in thought. Next to him walked Lillian with her pokedex in hand as she checked over information about Beedrill. He’d already asked her to let him check over that to take notes. Most of it would be random trivia, he expected, but it was random trivia that could be very useful. Nevermind the fact that she seemed to have a list of the moves Beedrill could learn, which was much more than he had, that was for sure.

“Yeah, those are the moves Talon could probably help you with,” the teenager replied, nodding and closing the device for the moment as they walked. “Personally, I think both are very useful, especially for Beedrill. They are… Well, they are pretty fragile, nevermind the fact that they are bugs. So, dodging is the way to deal with attacks when it comes to them, really, and Tailwind would help with that. Air Cutter would add more range to her repertoire besides Poison Sting and String Shot on top of a new type to attack with.”

That made sense, but Lillian had already told Pierce that Beedrill would have difficulty getting any of those two moves anytime soon. They were, after all, not in the natural set of moves that the species could learn in the wild. They were the result of extensive training and conditioning. He was somewhat surprised to hear that Iron Defense was supposed to be one such move too, but Lillian had reasoned that the bug had a somewhat easier time with that since she couldn’t do much else other than train the move while in her cocoon form.

Logical, he supposed.

All that didn’t really help him decide which of the flying type moves he wanted Talon to help Beedrill with. He was leaning towards Tailwind though. Between more speed, Harden and Iron Defense, his partner would be pretty much covered as far as being safe was concerned. Well, not really, but it was nice to add to that. They could work on Air Cutter and other offensive moves later. Pierce was rather nervous about battles, after all, and he wanted to make sure his partner was fine if they needed to get into that.

Which he was more and more convinced that they would, mainly because Beedrill herself seemed very eager to give it a try. Whenever Lillian got into a battle with another trainer, the bug type would watch intently. Whenever they trained together, she gave it her all. Pierce hoped, he really did, that he hadn’t found himself with a battle maniac pokemon. That’d make his plans for a nice, peaceful life… complicated.

Surely not though.

After all, Beedrill was a sweetheart… Or, maybe it was better to call her a tsundere, really. She was prickly, for sure, but it was difficult to see her as such when she was hugging his neck as he carried her in a piggyback. Nor when she argued against her kin whenever they came across a particularly aggressive beedrill.

“I think I’ll go for Tailwind,” Pierce said eventually, receiving a nod in response.

“Ok, I’ll lend you the pokedex later for you to take notes. But I’ll keep my eyes on you,” Lillian told him, pointing at her eyes with two fingers and then pointing at his. He chuckled at that, able to tell that she wasn’t actually serious. Although, admittedly, he was still very confused about her quick trust of him. He was kind of getting over that, even if he would probably find it weird for quite some time.

“Thank you, Lily,” he said simply instead.

“You are thinking stupid stuff again, aren’t you?” she accused with narrowed eyes, making him roll his eyes. “I’ve always been good at telling who is good and who is bad,” Lillian explained, skipping forward as if there was music only she could hear. “Besides that, you are good with pokemon, and pokemon know those kinds of things too.”

Pierce had to wonder if there was more to that than just “a good feeling”. Was there Aura involved? Psychic powers? Even the trivial and the crazy became relevant in a world where there was magical logic at play, after all. Difficult to know, but he’d take her word for it and be grateful for that. God knew how screwed up he’d have been if he had to get through the forest on his own. ‘Or Arceus, in this world, I guess,’ he mused wryly.

“If you say so,” Pierce replied with a slight smile. “You think Beedrill and I should risk a battle?” he asked then, and his pokemon immediately perked up at the question. ‘Yeah, no questions that she wants to fight,’ he confirmed to himself, holding back a sigh.

“With bets?” Lillian asked, even though she seemed to know the answer already. “I think you should go for it. Beedrill flies circles around Talon, I doubt there’ll be anyone new that has something better than her, unless it’s a bug catcher.”

“And if it is?”

“Well, you tried,” Lily answered with a perfectly straight face that crumbled a second later. “No, really. If you do come across a bug catcher, chances are that they’ll have a butterfree. Much more friendly than those of the weedle line. Even if it’s a beedrill, I doubt they’ll be much more trained than yours and she knows Iron Defense. That should be a nice edge to have over them.”

“All good points,” he considered out loud and he could almost feel Beedrill staring at him. “Guess we’ll give it a try if we come across someone.”

“You should keep her in her pokeball if you want to do that though,” Lillian advised. “She’s your only pokemon, but others might have two or three and one of those could be more effective against her than the others. No need to give them the advantage of knowing what they’ll face when you might not have that benefit,” She told him and he nodded. That made sense.

“Right, thanks,” he replied. He’d have probably thought of that himself, but he also might not have, so he appreciated it. There were many things like that, which he could guess at if it came down to it, but for Lillian, they were common sense. They were the kind of thing that she’d studied for her journey, a benefit that he hadn’t had. So, he’d be grateful for any advice he could get.

“Don’t mention it. I look forward to seeing you two fight,” Lillian told both of them as he grinned wryly and looked at Beedrill’s red eyes. Yeah, the bug type was all for a battle, so he better start thinking about it and preparing himself. ‘God, I hope this doesn’t go badly.’

[}-o-{]

It was just his luck that Pierce would come across a newbie trainer under an hour later. Granted, it wasn’t like finding other trainers was rare, but there seemed to be like a fifty fifty chance of anyone they found being new or being experienced already. Not everyone that they found wanted to battle either, just like they didn’t battle anyone that asked. If Lillian’s pokemon had already battled, she usually abstained from doing so again unless the battle was either not that taxing on them or they’d had enough time to recover. The same went for other trainers, he supposed.

Thus, Pierce had half hoped that he’d have some luck and find a few people that wouldn’t want to battle or would be out of his league… That was not to be though. Instead, he found himself standing in front of a girl called Brittany who’d readily accepted and said she was new too. She didn’t even have the decency to look nervous, looking like a happy camper not unlike Lillian.

Rude.

“You both ready?” his traveling companion called and he nodded while Brittany called out a “Yeah!”. Lillian looked at both of them and brough the hand she’d raised down. “Then start.”

Apparently, for normal battle challenges, both people picked a pokeball and released their pokemon roughly at the same time. Waiting to see what the opponent let out before doing so yourself was considered bad manners. Nevermind trying to change what pokemon you’d use. That’d get everyone annoyed at you and an opponent walking away without even bothering, at best.

That is, unless some other set of rules was agreed to, of course. Gym challenges and Tournament battles worked differently, from what Pierce had heard. He’d already taken notes to look all that stuff up as soon as he could. The list of things to investigate was getting longer and longer, and he was expecting it to keep going like that for a while.

Back to the fight though, both trainers’ pokeballs let out red beams of light that coalesced into creatures. In front of Pierce, Beedrill appeared, floating so that her eyes were at the same height as his. The buzz of her wings filled the small clearing at the same time that Brittany’s pokemon let out a cry that was more adorable than intimidating.

‘Poison type, if I remember correctly,’ Pierce noted to himself instantly, eyes fixed on the light blue, rodent-like creature covered in little spikes. ‘Nidoran, right? Or was it Nidorino? Which was the first stage? Anyway, I think those had an ability that poisoned things that touched them. Good thing poison types can’t poison each other. Bad too, for us, I guess.’

“Ugh, a bug catcher, really?” Brittany groaned out loud and Pierce almost snappet at her out of nerves, if nothing else. Instead of doing that though, he decided to get on with the fight.

“Fly around, Iron Defense and Harden,” he told Beedrill, who chirped something and immediately dashed around. A second later, she paused and her body shone with bright silver light. ‘Gotta see if she can learn to use the move while… well, moving. If not, it’s a bit of an opening for others to take advantage of.’

“Poison Sting!” Brittany ordered, and Pierce wondered why she was shouting. The pokemon was right there in front of her and it had pretty good hearing, he was sure. Either way, the Nidoran – ‘Light blue were the female ones, right?’ – shot out the purple needles of Poison Sting that Pierce knew well by that point. “Don’t let up.”

Beedrill was too fast to get caught on that though. She buzzed around without a problem, the projectiles flying and hitting nothing but trees and ground far away. ‘So far so good,’ Pierce noted to himself, waiting for the moment Harden’s light shone and then dimmed.

“String Shot, Beedrill!” he called, a little louder since she was further and there was more noise around now. “If you can’t hit, try to corner them!”

“Move, Princess! Don’t stay still!” Brittany called in response. ‘So, it is female, huh?’ He noted to himself. The thing Pierce was disliking the most about his… new situation was feeling like an idiot. So many things felt like stuff he should know, even when he wasn’t originally from that world. Stuff he’d heard or known once upon a time and now he’d already forgotten. It was very annoying, each and every time.

He pushed those thoughts aside though. Instead, he looked at Beedrill’s shots and “Princess”’s dodging. The rodent-like pokemon did a good enough job evading the attacks, but the ground was getting covered in strings and that was bad for the girl and her partner.

String Shot wasn’t too annoying in terms of residues. The thing seemed to fall apart really quickly after being thrown around, at least when it was used liberally like that. Not really disappearing, but it stopped sticking to anything and everything and it seemed to “dry up” in a way, getting thinner and weaker too.

That process wasn’t quick enough not to make the stuff a bother during a fight. It’d take a good few minutes at the least, and the rodent-like pokemon didn’t have that much time. Sure enough, eventually, the poor thing got stuck in a thread. Didn’t quite do all that much, with the little creature tearing apart the string, but she was slowed down. That was enough for Beedrill to shoot again and hit it. Two more shots and the thing was firmly stuck to the ground.

“Poison Sting, Princess!” Brittany switched tactics after a lot of frantic yelling for her pokemon to dodge this or that way. “I know you can hit it!”

“Shoot right back, Beedrill!” Pierce called, wondering if he could do something else. Bug Bite and Fury Attack were melee attacks though and Pierce didn’t really feel confident in using them. First, because Brittany had only used Poison Sting for range, which made him think that was all she had for distance fighting. Again, he was no expert, for sure, but he was fairly confident that the poison type would have more options up close and he didn’t want to risk it.

‘Besides, no need to risk it anyway,’ he thought to himself. After all, Nidoran/Nidorina was stuck now. She couldn’t dodge and she couldn’t hit the buzzing bug type. On top of that, since she couldn’t move, even if Beedrill didn’t hit all her shots with Poison Sting, she still got more hits than the grounded pokemon. ‘This battle is done.’

“We give up!” Brittany called, a dejected expression on her face. There was a fair bit of annoyance there, but Pierce couldn’t quite place where it was directed. He really hoped it wasn’t at him, what with the comment about bug catchers from before.

Regardless of his readings on the other trainer, Beedrill had frozen where she was, shooting one last Poison Sting but managing to send it away from the other pokemon. All but a second later, the bug type zoomed all the way to him and gave him a hug, not unlike the way she’d cling to him for a piggyback ride but from the front. Pierce, for his part, returned the gesture as carefully as possible. He doubted he could do much to the beedrill, but he didn’t want to risk it. The wings looked fragile, even if he was sure they weren’t.

“Great job, girl,” he told her, a grin quickly spreading over his face. It got wider and wider as he realized that he – And Beedrill, of course – had just won a pokemon battle. “You won,” he added, chuckling as the excitement started to bubble in him. “Right, um,” he mumbled as his eyes found his opponent. “Sorry, it’s just-” he started, struggling to get Beedrill to let go only for the bug type to fly and latch onto his back. “It’s our first battle, really. Good fight. Unlucky though.”

“I guess. Congratulations,” Brittany replied, giving him a plastic smile and handing him the money they’d bet. “See you around,” she offered half-heartedly before walking away. ‘Well… she didn’t insult us? That’s a win, right?’ Pierce considered before looking over his shoulder to share a look with Beedrill.

His grin returned instantly.

“Congratulations!” Lillian exclaimed loudly, suddenly appearing right next to him and shaking him by his arm. “Great start. I told you there was nothing to be worried about! You can totally take another fight after that. Beedrill didn’t even get hit.”

“I think that was…” Pierce started before trailing off as the bug type squeezed with her pincers. If the message wasn’t clear enough, the buzzing and clicking certainly made it so. “Well, guess we can go for another.”

[}-o-{]

Fortunately, they didn’t come across anyone else for a challenge after that. Or, at least, fortunately for Pierce. While his first battle had gone well and it had been easy enough, he was kind of nervous about giving it another go. Beedrill had enjoyed the thrill well enough, but he was afraid that the next time would have a different outcome. Not all opponents could be conveniently weak to their tactics, if they could be called that.

Case in point, while walking, they’d found a guy that had been setting up a campment already. Neither Pierce nor Lillian had asked for a challenge. The latter because her pokemon were already tired out, and the former because he’d seen the growlithe that was sitting off to the side. Lillian had agreed that facing that would likely go… not so well for them. While the fire puppy was an initial stage, it was the first of two stages only and the evolution required “special circumstances” as she’d said. All that meant that even though it was a first stage, it wasn’t to be underestimated, even with fully evolved pokemon.

In that whole situation, Pierce had also picked up that maybe the stone evolutions weren’t so well known. Either that or there were other ways to get those results besides the stones. Interesting to know, but in the end he’d gotten little else besides the fact that there was something else that he needed to look up once he got access to that world’s version of the internet or whatever there was.

“Clefairy, huh?” Pierce commented that night as they both sat across each other with a campfire in the middle. They’d already eaten and he was taking some random notes before going to sleep. He was mostly brainstorming how to help Beedrill train, both with Tailwind, Twineedle and Focus Energy, which she was still learning, and with the moves she already had.

They still needed to put more work on Iron Defense and Fury Attack. Hell, even Beedrill’s other moves weren’t quite all that. She needed to work on her aim for String Shot and Poison Sting. They needed to train some of her melee combat, for which he’d probably ask Lillian if Root was up for it, he guessed. Either that or against wild pokemon. Surely some of them would be open to it if he offered food. The Viridian Forest population seemed to be swayed quite a bit by their stomachs, from what he’d seen so far.

“Yeah, they are super rare and they don’t like most people, which makes them avoid strangers on principle,” Lillian explained to him. The girl had happily gone on a tangent when he’d asked, instead of what pokemon she wanted, which ones she’d like to have, even if she didn’t think they were possible. That seemed to make all the difference for her, because she’d been talking for quite a while already. “But fairies are so cute~!” the girl gushed and he chuckled.

“I heard you can find those in Mt. Moon,” he commented, carefully leaving the statement vague. If the pokemon were so rare, then maybe his knowledge about the mountain was wrong, or different from what he remembered. Besides that, even if the Clefairy line could be found there, it might not be common knowledge.

“There are rumors about that, yeah,” Lillian replied with a nod and he internally patted himself on the back. “Still, they say you only meet them if they like you and that if you meet them, then you are trainer material for them. So… Yeah, unlikely,” she said, pouting to herself.

“Not with that attitude,” Pierce pointed out, trying to give a little positivism. Not that he was that kind of person, but he liked to help people reach some balance. Give positive opinions when people were too negative, give negative opinions when people were too positive… ‘That sounds kinda wrong after putting some more thought into it,’ he mused to himself.

“I guess?” Lillian mumbled, not looking very convinced.

“The way I see it,” Pierce started, deciding to try again. “You can give up after you’ve passed through Mt. Moon, right? Until then, well, there’s a chance. Or have you been there before?”

“I don’t think I have…” she said, her voice just as low as before, but he saw the idea take root in her mind. “I guess I can give it a try.”

“Maybe you can explore a little when you are there? Increase your chances, you know?” Pierce offered, and he saw her perk up. “And if not, well, you tried, right?”

“Yeah, I guess,” she repeated, much more certain then.

“Good, then-”

“Pierce?” Lillian called, her tone back to nervous and he almost groaned. He’d gotten the impression that she was a positive person, almost bubbly. Why was she like that all of a sudde-?

Only, she wasn’t even looking at him when he turned. Instead, she was looking at the space next to him. Turning again, he blinked and then did so once more. There, blinking adorably at him with big beady eyes were three caterpillars the size of his forearm. Green caterpillars, to be exact.

“Hey there, little ones? Need something?” he asked softly with a grin. Beedrill chose that moment to buzz around him and the three little guys, which seemed to put the latters on edge. Fortunately, she didn’t seem to be in a particularly mean mood, despite the sort of frightening presence she projected. The one on the right side made a gurgling sound of some kind that he didn’t quite understand, at all. Only thing he got was that the thing was nervous.. “Uh… I’m guessing food?” Pierce hazarded, looking at his pokemon for clarification.

It was the safe assumption, really. Every bug they’d come across wanted food. Pierce was almost convinced that it had something to do with either being a bug type, since Lillian’s pokemon didn’t eat all that much from what he’d gotten, or the fact that they evolved so fast. His guess was that the fast evolution made it so that the pokemon needed to eat more to compensate. He’d either get his answers later through research or after Beedrill had been in a single stage for a while.

Back to the situation though, Pierce was utterly unsurprised when his partner nodded her head. Sharing a look with Lillian, who was giving him a shiteating grin, he sighed. ‘I like these little shits entirely too much,’ he grumbled in his own mind as he went to pull out more food.

“You guys are so lucky that we are close by and I have more than enough food. I’m gonna run out eventually,” he added, as he set the kibble on a bowl for all of them.

“I’m half convinced that you’d give them food even if it meant you’d go hungry,” Lillian pointed out, getting angry buzzing from Beedrill. Well, at least someone had his back, Pierce supposed.

“Let’s hope we don’t have to find out, yeah?” he asked. Because, honestly? Looking at the cute little caterpies eating from the bowl so happily? Maybe she wasn’t as wrong as he hoped. “We aren’t far from the city, right?”

“A few days,” Lillian answered, clearly amused. “We should be out of the forest in a day or two though,” she added then, making him almost sigh in relief. Well, thank God for small mercies. “Yeah, good for your reserves. Not sure if you’ll suffer from bug type abstinence or something though.”

“Is it wrong that I like them? They are not so bad,” he defended himself, turning slightly when he saw a caterpie shifting. Apparently, the food was over, but they weren’t squirming like the others had done when they wanted more, so he assumed that had been enough for them. Regardless, one of them approached him slightly and gurgled with what Pierce liked to think was gratitude. “Don’t mention it, little guy,” he replied, placing a hand on the caterpie’s head and petting it.

“I mean, seeing them like that,” Lily mumbled, looking like she was holding back from gushing at the cute little friends he’d just made. Pierce could relate. Bugs had no business being so damn adorable, in his opinion. “Still, you take it a step further than most.”

“Guess I just like them more than is normal. I don’t think it’s just bugs though, pokemon are just amazing,” Pierce said, shrugging. He wasn’t even lying, really. He’d always liked animals quite a lot, and pokemon just added that little extra to the whole thing, really, since they could actually understand what he said and sort of answer. Bugs were just the ones he could interact the most, since flying types and rattata, which were the other wild pokemon he’d come across so far, tended to just flee.

“Maybe,” Lillian replied in the end, shrugging too.

[} Chapter End {]

Hey guys! How’s it going?

Welp, our boy and beedrill have had their first battle. It wasn’t all that impressive, but then again, they are a little ahead of the curve with Beedrill being fully evolved against most rookies at the moment. On top of that… Well, low level battles don’t have that much going for them. Pokemon don’t have vast movesets and they can’t tank that many hits or put that much power behind attacks. It’s how it is.

Still, I hope you liked the chapter.

Discord Link: discord.gg/UTDransjJZ

Random Question: You already know my answer, all things considered, but which one do you like more, Beedrill or Butterfree?

See you.