Searching Far and Wide - 18 (Patreon)

Pewter City XII

“One of my friends is gonna be participating in the tournament,” Pierce said, sitting across from someone in the Pokemon Center. It was a little strange to see the place empty, admittedly. Most trainers, after all, had moved to where the aforementioned competition would be held. The only people still in were him, the person sitting across the table and a handful of Center staff that remained. Many of those latter ones had moved to provide assistance to those at the tournament site, after all.

Apparently, and worryingly, more serious competitions could very easily get out of hand. It didn’t happen very often, but it wasn’t precisely rare. Certainly not as much as Pierce would have liked, that was for sure. As it was, learning that had done a great deal to discourage him. Especially having a pokemon as fragile as Narcissa.

‘The death and crippling rate is really low though,’ he reminded himself. Mainly because he knew his bug type companion would be devastated if he went back on his word regarding their training path. Some might think him weak, he supposed, but that was fine by him. He would be weak if that stopped Narcissa, one of the only friends he had in this new world, from getting permanently crippled.

Crushing her dream, her goal, wasn’t much better, however. Unless he got a good enough reason, he’d push forward, for Narcissa if not himself. He could probably make a living doing other things, after all. Battling was… fun, he supposed, exciting even. That didn’t mean he cared about that more than he cared the wellbeing of his pokemon.

“This will be quick,” the ranger sitting across from him said, bringing Pierce’s attention back to the present. “It was nice working with you,” the man added, giving him a half-smile and extending his arm.

To that, he blinked, looking at the offered hand.

“Pleasure to meet you in person, old man,” Pierce replied, returning the grin and accepting the shake. Was it mean of him that he enjoyed the grimace on the man’s face at the nickname? Maybe, but it was still how he felt. “What’s up?”

“To make things short so that you can go watch your girlfriend battling,” Scott said flatly, giving him an unimpressed expression. Pierce would have corrected him, but he could tell that getting a raise out of him was the whole reason for the comment, so he just rolled his eyes and leaned back against his chair. “I’m here to tell you, personally, that your reward for the help with the onix situation has been issued.”

“So, the money is already in my account, that’s nice. I don’t know if it required this seriousness though,” Pierce replied, blinking. The thing had been fairly quick and simple with the beedrill swarm and the whole deal with Zone 5, after all.

“Not quite,” Scott said with a slight smirk. That of one that knows something the other person doesn’t, to be specific. “You see, I got a look at your record and you’ve gathered quite the list of accomplishments really quick, kid. A beedrill swarm, a special mention for help in Zone 5 during the shitshow that was Mt. Moon and now the onix incident.”

“I’m sure other people do similar stuff. I can’t be the only one that came across a situation like that and decided to help out,” Pierce said. He knew many would shrug and go on their way because it wasn’t their problem, but between all the trainers, surely his case wasn’t so rare, right?

“True enough,” Scott nodded, before chuckling. “But rangers make sure to add specific notes of what trainers do, how effective it is and how much they do,” he explained then. “Your notes were very much in your favor, I gotta say. And not only because I was one of the three that noted down your stuff, Pierce. You’ve been doing great, especially for someone that just started their journey. You are the kind of trainer we want to succeed, to reach far in their journey.”

“Thanks. I appreciate that,” Pierce said, drawing a louder laugh from the man.

“I’m not done, kid,” he said, grinning widely. Then, his hand moved to his jacket and pulled out something from it. “Here you go. You have three pokemon, right? These are three vouchers for pokemon tutors. There are many of them affiliated with the league that will receive them and teach your pokemon one move out of their natural pool. One for each voucher, so use them well, Pierce.”

Blinking, the younger man took the pieces of paper and looked at them with widened eyes. He’d looked up some of those tutors himself. They’d be essential to cover more bases with his pokemon, after all. He’d need them to get some more type coverage with moves, especially to cover some of his partners.

They were also expensive. Sure, they were affordable enough, but paying for one move would take a whole chunk of his bank account. And considering that, according to Lily, he was more on the well off side of trainers than not, that said quite a bit. He really wasn’t looking forward to having to start investing in that…

At least until Scott came with a solution, if a momentary one.

“Thank you, this is amazing,” Pierce said, grinning widely as he looked at the three vouchers, even if they were all pretty simple and identical.

“That’s not all,” Scott told him, making his eyes widen once more. “We got you permission to be in public areas with your beedrill and your abra. Onix is a different matter altogether, however, so I’m sad to say the young one will have to stay in his pokeball while inside cities or buildings. Once your abra evolves, you’ll need to get permission once more too.”

“That’s still great!” Pierce exclaimed. How many times had he felt bad for having to keep his partners in their pokeballs? How many times had he wished he could have some company while moving around the city? Sure, it wasn’t anywhere close to the value of the tutor vouchers, but still, that was a very nice bonus.

“Well, Pierce. Keep doing a good job and being a remarkable trainer, and more good things will come your way,” Scott said, to which he wasn’t sure if he should be excited or not.

“I don’t know if I want to be thrown into more of those situations, but I don’t think that really depends on me,” he commented, drawing yet another laugh from the ranger. Apparently, he was quite the unintentional comedian, who’d have thought.

“The fact that you think it’s out of your hands says a lot,” the older man commented, before standing up. “Take care of yourself, kid. And good luck with the First Aid License.”

“Thanks, take care of yourself too,” he called, as the man started leaving the Center. To that, the ranger simply waved over his shoulder.

[}-o-{]

“What do you think, Cygnus?” Pierce asked the abra that was, once more, sitting on his shoulders. The psychic type was resolutely ignoring even the thought of it, but the trainer was fairly sure that the pokemon had decided that was his preferred place to be. ‘First Narcissa with the piggyback rides and now this…’ he mused.

Cygnus didn’t deign that with a response, preferring to focus on the question that Pierce had actually voiced instead of anything else. As such, he felt a wave of slight positivism.

“Woah, man, calm down. Don’t be so excited and involved,” Pierce commented dryly, receiving a shrug in response that he almost missed. As it was, the only reason he picked up on it was the shift of the abra’s body. “Not big on battles, are you? That might be a problem with Narcissa,” he commented. After all, he didn’t know how his first pokemon would react to a companion that wasn’t as into fights as she was. ‘Maybe I should have asked before catching them.’

Cygnus projected worry then and there, which shifted his thoughts instantly.

‘Don’t worry about it,’ he reassured. ‘I’m not big on battles either. It’s just something that would have been good to know-’ he paused then, blinking as the abra projected more things in his mind. There was an image of a kadabra fighting with a nidorino and positive feelings. There was a kadabra sitting on the ground, watching other pokemon fighting, this time with bored feelings. ‘You like fighting, but you don’t like to watch?’ Pierce wondered then, receiving an affirmation. ‘Huh, interesting. Narcissa has a lot of fun watching too, but then again, she enjoys fights a lot more than you do so there’s that.’

To that, Cygnus shrugged again, and that was that.

“I guess you being able to see this isn’t as good a perk for you as I thought, huh?” he asked out loud, gazing towards the stage/arena where the tournament at Pewter would be held. As far as being outside of the pokeball went, maybe it was a lackluster but it wasn’t like he could really choose where to go, really.

Fortunately, the psychic type reassured him that he’d still have fun, even if it wasn’t his favorite thing ever. ‘It’s weird how sometimes what you send is very clear and sometimes it’s just pictures and feelings,’ Pierce commented in his mind, drawing yet another shrug from Cygnus. He did get an underlying feeling of frustration though, and he couldn’t have that. ‘I’m sure you’ll get better. Aren’t you pretty young?’

He was, apparently, but that seemed to be no excuse for him.

‘What’s with my pokemon and being prideful,’ Pierce lamented, rolling his eyes.

“Lily didn’t say anything regarding when her turn would be up, right?” he asked, trying to change the subject. He’d deal with that problem of Cygnus’s if it… Well, actually became a problem. ‘Prove me wrong then,’ he added in his mind when he felt the psychic type’s indignation.

After a moment of annoyance, his pokemon partner replied to his question in the negative, just as a battle started. Neither of the trainers were someone that Pierce knew, but that didn’t stop him from watching intently. On his lap, he had his trusty notebook, ready to write down anything interesting he might want to keep in mind for the future.

Even if he didn’t get any of the pokemon used, that didn’t mean the fights wouldn’t be useful. He could see weaknesses to exploit, strengths to be wary of and besides, some of the strategies used could be applied to his own pokemon. Every battle could hold some new insight in something. That was what he learned while watching Lily battle in Viridian Forest, the challenges at the gym and the battlegrounds. This tournament certainly promised to give him much more information to work with.

On his shoulders, he felt Cygnus tense up and a wave of interest washing over his mind. It seemed that the psychic type liked that idea, which made him grin. Well, he wouldn’t be the only one being a nerd, he supposed. It’d be nice to have a second opinion in real time. Maybe once Cygnus started actually speaking they could have conversations about the whole thing with Lily.

Judging by the curiosity he felt, the abra probably would be happy just listening. Pierce made a mental note to definitely add the psychic type to the next conversation he had with Lily regarding training and strategies. Not that it was something unlikely to happen anyway, since now he could have him outside whenever. He grinned widely at Cygnus’s excitement at the idea.

Yeah, he definitely would have someone to bounce ideas with even if Lily decided to go some other way down the line. Which was great, because he didn’t know how good a trainer he’d be without some help. ‘... Thanks,’ he thought, focusing intently at the fight in front of him while his pokemon shot a wave of reassurance at him.

Not for the first time Pierce was surprised by the fact that psychic communication wasn’t… Well, more uncomfortable, like he’d expected. Then again, he’d-

‘Ok ok, I’ll focus on the battle,’ he thought, rolling his eyes but doing exactly that. It seemed his new study buddy was rather enthusiastic now and wouldn’t take any slacking off. ‘First Narcissa with exercising and now this… Orion better be the nice one,’ Pierce grumbled to himself.

[}-o-{]

“That was… not what I expected the first day of the tournament to go like,” Pierce commented, placing his tray on the table at the Pokemon Center. In front of him sat Lily. He’d wanted to have Narcissa and Cygnus to stay with him, but… Well, the abra had needed to sleep after being awake so long and the beedrill preferred to stay out when she could freely move around or at the very least hold onto his back. The former wasn’t possible while inside the Pokemon Center and the latter wasn’t possible while he ate, so she’d have to wait a little.

“It’s a rookie tournament, Pierce. It wasn’t going to be an Indigo Conference,” Lily commented dryly.

“Still… I guess it was a bit underwhelming,” he replied with a shrug as he started eating. The first day of the tournament was over already and he would freely admit that it was a bit of a let down. Two rounds had been battled and Lily had battled using Talon first and then Root, the former against a spinarak and the latter against a sandshrew. Overall, the matches hadn’t lasted very long, really.

That wasn’t an exaggeration. Most of them were barely better than fights that happened on the road or at the city battlegrounds. Sure, people seemed to be taking them a little more seriously, but it didn’t make that much of a difference. ‘I guess it makes sense,’ he mused idly. ‘It’s not like other fights are for fun, those mean winning or losing money too.’

“Well, excuse me for being boring,” Lily grumbled, stabbing at her salad with a twitch of her eye.

“You were fine,” he told her, rolling his eyes. “One of the better ones we saw, that’s for sure. Speaking off,” he added, before bending down to pick his notebook from his backpack and setting it on the table. “I noted down some stuff about others that stood out. There’s a guy with a poochyena that battled in both battles and won easily enough,” he said, citing stuff from memory. “There’s a girl that seems to be going with a flying type team. She battled with a hoothoot and a zubat.”

“I might look up some more on flying types then, see what else she might have,” Lily mumbled, a slight frown on her face.

“There was another guy that had a pineco, so…” he trailed off, seeing his female companion grimace. Next to him, Cygnus gave a slight feeling of annoyance and anger. He hadn’t been a fan of that trainer, that was for sure. The guy had sent his pokemon in and immediately made it use Self-Destruct. Pierce himself wasn’t a fan of the tactic, for sure, but he was guessing there was more to it than he was getting.

He’d been pretty sure the move was supposed to take out the pokemon that used it, but apparently he’d been wrong. The pineco had remained standing, even if it had been on its last leg and had passed out as soon as the referee called the round. Then again, Pierce hadn’t been a great connoisseur of pokemon information, so being wrong wasn’t something all that unexpected.

Pierce had already decided to look the move up later, but he had a guess of why his psychic type was so annoyed and if it was right…

“What did he use in the next round?” Lily asked.

“Geodude,” Pierce replied.

“Oh fuck,” the girl cursed, making his eyesbrows raise. “Geodude can learn Self-Destruct too,” she told him, making him grimace much like she had before. Yeah, that sounded like a nightmare to deal with. Especially if the other guy was smart about it. “I’m gonna want to see those notes of yours,” Lily said, a familiar competitive glint in her eyes that made Pierce grin.

“Sure,” he agreed easily enough. Even if it wasn’t with him as a trainer, he wanted Narcissa to win. Seeing his pokemon up there, victorious in such a competition, would be great. Granted, it wasn’t that great a tournament or anything, but it still counted. It was still a milestone for them to reach, or Narcissa at least. “Another concerning one was a girl with a growlithe and a geodude.”

“Yeah, that one might be troublesome, depending on who has to release a pokemon first,” Lily acknowledged, which was precisely what Pierce wanted. After all, those pokemon held advantages against hers, Narcissa included. “Anything else?”

“Eh… Those were the ones that stood out the most. There were some others too, of course, but they were just normal trainers but better than the rest,” Pierce replied, considering the question and checking over his memories to see if he remembered anything else of actual note. “Yeah, that’s it, I guess.”

“Hm, good to know. I’ll still see your notes on it, if you don’t mind,” Lily said, continuing to eat. “Today was easy, but that’s because it was the first day. It’s a lot more difficult to meet actually skilled people in the first round from what I was told. Tomorrow will begin the real thing.”

“And then the final two the day after,” he reminded her, since the next day would hold a bunch of rounds and then there would be the finals afterwards. It made sense that the second day there’d be “more” fights. At least, more fights per participant. Now that the numbers had been reduced by half twice, the trainers could battle more often, since there would be more time.

[}-o-{]

“... So, with Leech Seed having weakened the sandshrew, Lily called for a Vine Whip that smacked the ground type to the side. It was a tense moment. The sandshrew went to stand up, its legs shook and its arms trembled, but they still pushed him up. However, it was done, a moment after it stood up, it just fell to the side. The referee called the match then and there,” Pierce narrated to a thoroughly fascinated Orion, who was looking at him with wide eyes and awing and ohing at some points, like he was telling him the story of an Indigo Conference final or something instead of the first rounds of a rookie tournament.

“You make it sound better than it was,” Lily mumbled, fidgeting with a strand of her hair as she looked away from them. “It was a really simple battle.” If anything, that made Orion even more excited, which made the poor girl turn red in embarrassment. “Pierce do something,” she whisper-shouted at him.

“Anyway, so, tomorrow, our valiant, talented friend over here will go forth, to conquer the whole competition,” he said dramatically, earning himself a glare from the girl. “Together with her trusty team, the mighty Root, the fierce Talon and last, but very certainly not the least, the domineering Narcissa,” he added, making said pokemon preen under the wide-eyed gaze of the onix.

Lily’s pokemon had been let out of the pokemon center shortly after their meal and they’d all went to visit Orion. After all, the young onix was still staying with his mother and Pierce didn’t want to make him feel excluded or anything. Thus, they’d decided to drop by. He’d told the onix all that had happened through the day since the last time they’d seen him. He hadn’t even left out the boring parts, so that the rock type felt more part of the group, or so his thought process went.

Lily, for her part, had taken her pokemon and Narcissa aside to have some light training before calling it a day. It’d been mostly just some move training and little else. There was no need to risk injuries or exhaustion, after all. Now that would have been a shame, that was for sure.

In the meantime, Pierce had stayed with Orion and Cygnus, making sure to spoil the former a little extra by rubbing him with the special cloth he’d gotten. ‘Not so much of a situational purchase anymore, I guess,’ he mused with a grin on his face. With that out of the way, they were just spending some time together under the watchful gaze of Mama Onix. Sure, she was ok with the group and all, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t make sure nothing happened anyway.

Pierce guessed she was being a helicopter parent while she still could, which was a little sad to consider.

He made a mental note to definitely come around for a visit as soon as possible.

Speaking of mental…

“How’s it going, Cygnus?” he asked, looking to the side. The psychic type was doing something that looked… surreal, he guessed. Certainly an unusual sight, if Lily was to be believed. The abra was standing on his feet, instead of just sitting/floating. His body shook, especially his arms, but Cygnus persisted.

The psychic type had been very interested in some parts and plans that Pierce had informed him off regarding his training. At the Pokemon Center, he’d done his due research on what abra – and onix too, of course – were capable of learning, both naturally and not. Well, Pierce had known that they could only learn Teleport, but there were plenty of moves they could work with regarding the less natural movepool to choose from.

Cygnus had been particularly drawn to a specific group of them, however.

Punches.

Focus Punch, Drain Punch, Fire Punch, Ice Punch, Thunder Punch.

Cygnus wanted to learn them all.

With that in mind, Pierce had suggested starting low and just getting him used to actually moving his body around himself instead of using his psychic powers. Thus, the abra had started doing some physical conditioning. Well, if it could be called that, since it was more along the lines of normal movement, but in a way he wasn’t quite used to just yet.

As it was, Cygnus had trouble just standing and moving his arms. After all, he’d barely been able to help him when he was treating Orion for short things. So, Pierce proposed doing even less strenuous activities. The poor abra was very frustrated, but he’d get there eventually, he was sure.

Or so he hoped, at least.

Pierce hadn’t found much regarding the abra line and their physical training. There were some things, but they were… Well, nobody seemed to reach very far down that line for whatever reason. It didn’t even seem to be a matter of a physical restriction. Trainers just… Never really seemed to push their abra, kadabra or alakazam on that front. It made some sense, he supposed, the line was psychic not fighting, but still.

The fact that nobody seemed to have tried was a bit weird to him. ‘Then again, maybe those people either aren’t well known or haven’t shared that?’

So, Cygnus and him would tread that path and see if there was anything stopping the psychic from reaching further than everyone else. If nothing else, the abra seemed to be excited about the prospect of doing something nobody else seemed to have tried. However, maybe he was a bit too excited, considering the way his body was shaking at that moment.

“Take a break, buddy. No need to push too hard too quickly, ok?” Pierce told Cygnus, as the psychic type deflated and then sat down slowly. His movements were much more controlled, which belied the use of his telekinetic powers. “Honestly, Orion, please don’t be like Narcissa and him. I need someone that won’t be a training and battle maniac or I’ll go insane.”

Turning, he could only feel dread in him as he saw the onix frowning as he looked to the side, smacking his tail to the ground and making a rock shoot out of the ground.

Behind him, he heard Mama Onix rumble a laugh.

[} Chapter End {]

Hey guys! How’s it going?

Eh… Not much to say regarding this chapter, I guess.

I hope you enjoyed the chapter.

Discord Link: discord.gg/UTDransjJZ

Random Question: What do you think Pierce will use those move vouchers for to teach his pokemon? Not sure if I explained this before (or if people will remember if I did) but I’m putting TMs and Tutor Moves under that category of “unnatural” moves that can be taught with some more effort than “natural” ones.

See you.