Searching Far and Wide - 15 (Patreon)

Pewter City IX

“I can’t believe you didn’t tell me it was your birthday until today,” Pierce said accusingly as he glared at his sheepish traveling companion across the table. “And I can’t believe you are nineteen.”

“Hey, what’s that supposed to mean? Trainers start at eighteen,” she asked him, looking very much offended by his statement. Well, that had been a piece of knowledge that had somehow escaped him until that moment. ‘Now, how to save this?’ he wondered for a second before he found his answer.

“I honestly thought you’d gotten special permission to go out earlier or something. You did get Oak’s sponsorship, after all,” he said. His first idea had been to lie and say he thought she was older, but that… probably wasn’t a good idea, he supposed. Besides, the truth was that he’d thought she was younger too, if only because his mind kept saying that trainers should be younger, considering canon sources.

‘Is all the stuff I know about this world a lie?’ he wondered. Well, that might be a bit of an exaggeration, but still. It seemed that he found himself facing more stuff that didn’t fit what he knew than things that did. It was a bit frustrating, he’d admit.

“I mean… I guess that makes sense, but I’m not a kid… Honestly,” Lily grumbled, huffing at the end and taking another sip from the smoothie she’d gotten for dessert. The look really wasn’t helping her argument much, but Pierce felt like pointing that out would be a bad idea too. “Thanks for the meal though.”

“Don’t mention it. It’s the least I could do with as little time as I got,” he told her with a weak smile. “We can go through the shops and see about getting you something too. Surely there’s something I can buy for you. I seem to have gotten a nice bonus from that job I did when we first arrived,” Pierce told her then, feeling bad. A meal wasn’t much of a birthday present, he felt, even if it hadn’t been precisely shoddy.

There was also that last part, which had been a nice surprise when he’d gotten the message that his pay for the beedrill job at the farm had finally come through. Apparently, the guy, who he couldn’t really remember the name of anymore, sadly, had been really happy with his work. So much so that he’d paid double the agreed amount, which had taken Pierce off guard.

He did wonder why that had happened, but short of looking for the guy and asking, he wouldn’t get an answer. And he wasn’t that curious, really. He was having busy days as it was, between nursing the onix child back to health and helping/spending time with Narcissa and Lily. He also wanted to go and see if he could watch a few more matches at the Gym, or even in the arenas out of it when Lily and his beedrill went for a battle to train in a more real environment. So, with all that in his day, he didn’t feel like going all the way to the edges of the city to see why the guy at the farm had decided to pay him more.

He’d just take the money and be happy about it.

“There’s no need, honestly,” Lily waved away, a slight pink dusting her cheeks out of embarrassment. “Honestly, this is why I hadn’t told you. I didn’t want you to make a big deal about it,” she grumbled, looking down. Which checked out with the fact that he’d only found out when he overheard a part of her conversation with her family, who had called to congratulate her.

“It’s not a big deal, just a meal and I’ll pay for something you want. That’s it. So, anything you wanted to get for you or the team?” he asked, glancing at some nearby shops.

“Well, I was thinking about checking some stuff to pamper the guys,” Lily said, both considering and hesitant. When he gestured for her to go on. “I saw you using that wipe you got on Narcissa and she seemed to enjoy it, so I thought I could do something similar.”

“Say no more, we can go and check. Unless they are outrageously expensive, I’ll get them for you-”

“Pierce, buying one thing is fine. I can get the rest-”

“Lily,” he interrupted, just like she had interrupted him. “If you don’t want them for yourself, then just do it to allow me to feel like a good friend, yeah?” he asked, receiving a pout from the girl.

He wasn’t even lying. Lily was literally the only person in the entirety of the world he was in that he was even remotely close to. Around two weeks of time, that was the longest relationship he had with another human being in the Pokemon world. It was a very depressing thing to think about, and he tried to avoid doing so as much as possible.

Sometimes though, as he got ready to go to bed in the pokemon center and he had time to let his thoughts drift off to random things… He couldn’t help but remember all the things he’d lost. The life and world and people he’d probably never get back to.

He took a sip from his own smoothie to get his mind away from that place. Letting those thoughts linger would only ruin Lily’s day and he didn’t need that shit in his conscience, that was for sure. So, focusing on the present, he saw the girl across from him still pouting.

“It’s not fair if you say stuff like that, Pierce,” Lily grumbled, “aggressively” attacking her drink.

“Woah there, the smoothie didn’t do anything to you, woman,” Pierce said jokingly. “No need to kill it like that.”

“Shut up, idiot,” she muttered, calming down a bit. Meanwhile, he pretended not to notice the smile on her face.

[}-o-{]

“Another day, another round of nursing, huh?” Scott, the ranger, said as Pierce approached the onix family “home”. “Fairly sure it’s called a den,” the man commented idly and he just shrugged.

“Hey, Mama Onix, how’s it going?” Pierce greeted with a smile as he saw the head of the rock type peeking out of the entrance. The stone serpent gave him a nod in response to his waving before pulling her head back inside. “Have the children been behaving themselves?” he asked then, looking around.

He chuckled when he felt the abra give him the psychic equivalent of a huff, turning his head to the side. As for the Onix Junior, Pierce was fairly sure that if he could, it’d have been pouting. The human, for his part, gave the both of them an amused look as Mama Onix snorted.

“Yeah, I imagine they are a handful. On that note, you haven’t been trying to move, have you, buddy?” he asked the younger rock type. The way the onix looked away at the question was all the answer Pierce needed really, which caused him to give the little one a disappointed look. “Man, I know you are impatient to get moving again, but it’ll only slow down your recovery, little one. Just stay put for…” he trailed off then, until Scot whispered in his “ear” the answer. “... two or three more days and you’ll be moving around. Maybe not that much, but at least you’ll be able to and it won’t make things worse.”

That got him a grumble from Onix Junior, before Mama Onix smacked him lightly up the head with her tail. Giving the young one a smile, Pierce moved to the side to start pulling out the supplies he’d need. Once there, he pulled out a piece of cloth he’d gotten while purchasing Lily’s birthday present.

“I also got this, it’s supposed to be really nice to use on pokemon like you, with stone-like skin,” Pierce said, grinning as he saw the young rock type looking curiously at the item. “But that’s for after we are done. Now, be good and you can get the usual berries and then we can give you a good polishing with that, ok?”

He was fairly sure the response he got was affirmative, if the eager nodding was any indication.

“Don’t move so much, buddy,” Pierce told the child with an exasperated expression he shared with the Mama Onix. With a sigh, he approached the now sheepish pokemon and started working. “So, since you are awake, Abra, feel like giving me a hand? Once we are done you can go to sleep if you want. I brought you berries today too.” He was getting a reluctant feeling halfway through saying that, but at the mentions of berries, it changed into downright enthusiasm.

“The League will cover that cloth,” Scott told him before he got started with the instructions for treatment. “We have a budget for this mission, and you aren’t even close to reaching the limits of it with the supplies and the berries. We can cover that. It’s all helping the pokemon like you more, which definitely falls under mission related purchases.”

‘Well, that’s neat,’ Pierce replied before nodding as he started re-dressing one of the onix’s wounds. ‘Does that mean I can’t keep it after we are done here?’

“You can keep it, don’t worry. Honestly, I get the feeling that you keep underestimating how much of a problem Mama Onix would be if she went on a rampage,” Scott told him, sounding a little exasperated. “Even with Brock and the rangers, it’d be a mess. We’d rather avoid that, thank you very much.”

‘She seems friendly enough, honestly,’ Pierce replied, turning to look at the older onix, who was keeping watch on the entrance of the lair, before continuing with his work. ‘Besides the fact that she wants me and only me doing this.’

“You are a weird man, Pierce Lawson,” Scott told him, sounding amused this time. “Very weird, but maybe that’s why pokemon like you so much.”

‘I’ll take that as a compliment,’ Pierce said simply, pausing after he was done with one of the wounds. After all the work he’d put on nursing the onix, he was starting to get the hang of it. Sure, Scott still took the time to guide him through the whole process, but more often than not, it seemed that he was guessing how to proceed correctly. It was a nice feeling, everytime he was right, even if it was a little disappointing when he was wrong.

Fortunately, it seemed to be more the case of the former than the latter as time passed.

“Okay then, how about we take a break?” Pierce said, tossing a berry at the abra, who caught it with his hand instead of with his powers. It seemed to have taken Pierce’s previous words… or thoughts, more precisely, more to heart than the man had expected, because it was using its arms a lot more as time passed. Well, Scott hadn’t called him out for potentially harming the psychic pokemon, so he guessed it was fine.

“It is, the abra line just isn’t known to use their actual muscles much, but they can. It might actually be a good thing that you got this one to do it. They usually become too reliant on their powers. For the sake of reassuring you, yes, I checked,” Scott told him, which was a great relief, actually. On that note, Pierce added researching some more on the abra line. He’d only found some ways to treat them in his studies, but nothing regarding what to do with one if you had one, which is more the field in which what he’d worried about fell.

“You are doing great, buddy,” he encouraged the onix, who was looking much more subdued after some time under treatment. Every wound re-dressed, every dose of medicine, seemed to almost sap the energy out of him. Pierce knew he was doing good, the child was looking much better than the day before and certainly more than the first day. However… ‘Scott, can we take a break here? I know you must have other stuff to do as a ranger but-’

“Go ahead, man. The mum gets anxious when the child gets like that, so you trying to help works for us. Just don’t take forever,” Scott reassured him, to which Pierce nodded.

“Ok, we are taking a break, buddy,” he told the young onix as he rubbed his hand on the side of the rock type’s head. “Here, have a berry. How about I tell you a story, huh?” he asked, as he fed the fruit to Onix Junior. He wasn’t sure if it was the food or the offer of a tale, but regardless, the pokemon perked up a bit. Pierced smiled at the sight, a grin that widened when he felt the interest coming from the abra too. “Ok, so, this starts with me in Viridian Forest one day…”

[}-o-{]

“And that’s the last of it,” Pierce announced, having finished with the last bit of work for the day. “You did great, buddy. Come on, take this,” he said, taking a berry he’d set aside and throwing it into the maw of the stone serpent. “Now, stay put and I’ll get the food. Then I’ll leave you guys alone. I’m sure you are tired of my ugly mug by this point,” he commented, moving to pull out the food bag and the bowl he used to feed the onix.

There was a rumble in response coming from the young one and the abra sent him a sense of… welcome? Pierce wasn’t very sure what that was supposed to mean. At least it was nothing negative though, so he’d take that.

“I’ll come back tomorrow though, sad to say. We aren’t quite done, but you’ll be fine and slithering and digging around in no time,” Pierce continued, giving Onix Junior his first “spoonful” of pokemon kibble. “I’m sure you can find me if you guys decide you are weird and miss me. I’ll definitely come for a visit if you’ll have me,” he commented, turning towards the abra for a moment. “If Mama Onix agrees too, of course,” he added quickly after. No need to antagonize the pokemon that seemed to have the rangers shitting themselves.

“Hey, I resemble that remark!” Scott joked then.

As Pierce spoke though, both the young onix and the abra turned to look at the still very much imposing onix mother. With a roll of her eyes, she nodded, to which the abra sent him a picture that looked like when he had guided Pierce there for the first time. Now, he was no genius of psychic message interpretation, but he was fairly sure that was an agreement to future visits.

“Great,” he said, continuing to feed Onix Junior. “Man, I’ll miss you when I have to leave Pewter, but I’ll definitely come for a visit whenever I come around these parts too, you can bet on that. Still, that’s for the future. I have some time left in this city for now.” With that said, he continued feeding the onix, before tossing a berry at the Mama Onix. “Well, little one, time to test this thing, huh?” Pierce commented, picking up the piece of cloth he’d brought with him. “Here’s hoping I wasn’t scammed.”

If the next half an hour of rubbing the onix, at least where he wasn’t hidden by bandages and plasters was, any indication, the rock type really liked that. So much so that when Pierce offered, half joking, to do the same for the mother, she agreed. It was unexpected, and it took a while but eventually he was done. ‘The things I do for pokemon,’ Pierce thought to himself, his arms burning from all the rubbing. ‘I think I preferred giving food to random weedle and caterpie though.’

“Very weird indeed,” Scott commented, sounding like he was having fun. Maybe Pierce could convince Mama Onix to let the guy use the cloth on her while he worked on Onix Junior. “Ah… No need, man. I’m fine over here.”

Maybe the rangers weren’t helping more because they were lazy. Or maybe it was just a Scott thing. Pierce made a mental note to ask some other rangers about it.

“Oi, do you think I don’t want to do more than sit here and give you instructions? Or wait while you do stuff that leaves me with nothing to do? I still have to sit here doing nothing in case something happens, you know?” the man grumbled.

‘Yeah, yeah, calm down, old man.’

“Ugh, old? I’m barely a few years older than you, brat!”

‘Sounds like something an old man would say,’ Pierce commented, drawing a very annoyed feeling that he was sure came from the ranger. Alternatively, there was also a separate feeling of amusement that he guessed came from the psychic pokemon that was setting up the connection between the two.

“You guess correctly, Helper-Speaker,” a new voice said and it sounded… It didn’t sound human, even if Pierce couldn’t quite tell why he felt that way. It didn’t sound strange in any way, there was no detail to make him feel like that, and yet… “That’s quite normal. I’m sure you’ll get experience with that soon.”

‘Eh… Ok. Nice to meet you,’ Pierce replied, unsure of what else to say.

“Well, if you are done, brat, some of us have other jobs to get to,” Scott grumbled, apparently still butthurt about the old thing. “I’m not- You know what, I think you are well and truly done over there, so I’ll just go.”

‘See you tomorrow, old man,’ Pierce called.

“Well, that’s all for today, guys. See you tomorrow,” he said out loud towards the family of two onix and the abra.

[}-o-{]

“Sounds like you had a fun time,” Lily said with a grin as they sat across from each other at the Pokemon Center, like they usually did for dinner. “Narcissa missed you, but I’m guessing you knew that already,” she added, making him grin. The beedrill had all but tackled him when he came back. Apparently, he’d taken way too long, between story time and rubbing the onix with the cloth.

“I couldn’t tell,” he replied sarcastically. “So, how did training go? Well?” he asked, taking a sip from his drink. They were basically done with their meal, but both were procrastinating in giving their trays back for the moment. It wasn’t like they were going to leave the hall anyway.

“Yeah, we did a bit of a free for all between Root, Talon and Narcissa. They kind of teamed up against her. It was a close fight, but she’s still too high level for them,” Lily commented, taking her own drink in her hands. “They are getting there though. They’ll beat her together soon enough,” she told him, unable or maybe not even bothering to suppress the competitive tone in her voice.

“I’m sure she’s looking forward to that,” he commented, which probably was taken as joking, but was actually serious. He imagined Narcissa was looking forward to actual challenges, being pushed further along her path to strength. His pokemon’s attitude was inspiring in a way, even if he imagined it’d be troublesome to deal with.

Fortunately, the more time passed and the more battles he witnessed and was part of, the more he got used to that part of the world he was now part of. He couldn’t say he particularly liked it, but it was how he approached sports back in his world, really. He wasn’t really a fan, but he could have fun playing anyway. It helped that he could earn money with it, that was for sure. He could do without the potential loss of money though.

“I swear she must be,” Lily told him, gesturing with the arm that held her drink. “She’s worse than Talon, honestly. It’s a little scary, but it’s… kind of… Um, Gym Leader Harrison,” she said, looking behind Pierce and suddenly going a little nervous.

Not that he blamed her, as he turned and saw the Leader of the Pewter Gym standing there in all his almost-closed-eyed glory. It was a bit intimidating, even if Pierce knew a silly version of the guy from the anime. It was difficult not to take the guy that was one of the leading powers of the region seriously.

“Just Brock is alright, miss…” the man reassured with a friendly smile before trailing off.

“Oh, um, I’m Lillian Dale, sir,” Lily all but squeaked out, which was a little funny. She was usually pretty laid back… when they weren’t meeting pokemon that made her nervous, at least. It seemed that Pierce would have to add Gym Leaders to that too.

“None of that sir nonsense either, and Dale… You were one of Oak’s sponsored students this year, right?” Brock asked, standing next to the table they were sitting at. “Do you mind if I take a seat?”

“Go ahead,” Pierce said.

“Ah, the table is a mess, let me just-” Lily exclaimed, scrambling to pick up everything and taking the trays away.

“Uh… Pierce Lawson, nice to meet you,” he greeted awkwardly after seeing his friend rush away.

“I know, I was kind of looking for you,” Brock admitted, drawing a blink from him. “I’ve been hearing reports about the onix rampage we almost had in our hands. I was told it was under control, and I’ve been busy with… helping fix things after the mess the Rockets left in Mt. Moon. I wanted to say thank you for helping her. That onix has been a part of this area for a long time. She’s old and very powerful, but has always stayed out of the way.”

“Until now, I’m guessing?” Pierce asked. What the Gym Leader was saying gave a little more perspective to why everyone seemed so on edge about the onix snapping. If it was as old and as strong as it sounded… Well, it made sense to be wary, Pierce supposed. He still couldn’t really see it, but if even the Gym Leader was saying that, then there must be something there, right?

“Yes. Normally, I would have gone myself but… Well, there were pressing matters that weren’t being dealt with like that one,” Brock said, giving him an apologetic smile.

“It’s fine. It’s been interesting to deal with that. A learning experience too and a welcome one, since I want to try and get a First Aid License,” Pierce waved off with a grin. “Besides, the little one is cute, in his own huge stone serpent way.”

“They can be like that when they are “small” as it were,” Brock agreed with a wide grin. “If you need any help, I’d be happy to offer some tips. I think I might know a thing or two about rock types and onix.”

“Who’d have thought, huh?” Pierce asked wryly, drawing a chuckle from the man. “And sure, any advice is welcome. I haven’t had much trouble though but… You wouldn’t happen to know what berries would be good to give them? Or pokeblock recipes?”

“Sure, I know just the thing you might… want to know,” the Gym Leader said, pausing for a second as Pierce leaned down and pulled one of his notebooks from his backpack. “Someone’s eager.”

“I like pokemon, and I like knowing what I’m doing around them,” Pierce said with a grin. “Now, do I have to guard the secrets of the recipe? Will I have to kill anyone that overhears or tries to steal this notebook from me?” he asked, his smile twitching.

“Of course,” Brock said, with a straight face. “Do you think I give my secrets to just anybody without demanding they be treated with utmost seriousness?”

“What… did I walk back to?” Lily asked, looking a little uneasy between the two of them.

“Oh you know, just the usual stuff,” Pierce replied with a grin.

“I don’t think you realize how little that reassures me, Pierce.”

[} Chapter End {]

Hey guys! How’s it going?

So maybe it’s a little late to give a more clear age for Lily and the average starting trainer but… Honestly, I thought I’d been more clear than I actually was. It’s a problem for writers sometimes. It’s difficult to differentiate what’s written and what’s just in our heads… Or maybe it’s just a me problem, who knows?

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the chapter.

Discord Link: discord.gg/UTDransjJZ

Random Question: Do you have a favorite pseudo-legendary? Mine is Hydreigon.

See you.