Searching Far and Wide - 44 (Patreon)

Teams:

Pierce Lawson:

- Narcissa, Beedrill

- Orion, Onix

- Cygnus, Abra

Lillian Dale:

- Root, Bulbasaur

- Talon, Spearow

- Gem, Geodude

- Star, Cleffa

Cerulean City V

“Looks nice,” Pierce commented as he walked through the path towards a house in the middle of some berry fields. Cygnus, sitting on his shoulder, rolled his eyes. “What? I like nature and all the trees and colorful berries look nice. What’s the matter?”

“Too… organized…” the abra replied.

“I mean, yeah, but it’s not supposed to be a forest, you know? I think the lined trees look kind of neat, even if it’s unnatural. It’s… nice to look at, if nothing else,” Pierce commented. In response, Cygnus sent him a rather nice mental picture of a forest. It was his turn to roll his eyes though. “I’m not saying a forest isn’t nice, Cygnus. I’m just saying that this looks nice too.”

“Whatever…”

“What are you, a teenager?” he asked before rubbing his eyelids. “At least we are here already. I don’t think I wanna keep this conversation going.”

“... Not… a… teenager,” the abra couldn’t help but reply.

“Right, you are just a child,” Pierce said, getting a very scandalized mental response. He knocked on the door before his pokemon could continue, however. At the abra’s annoyance, he just grinned.

They were visiting a farm just outside of Cerulean. It was one of the many places that had sent him a request for a job. As it turned out, they were all real and he just had to check with a League approved facility – like the Pokemon Center – to see if there was an actual job application from the person that sent the request. Pierce guessed that was the kind of thing a local would have known, or maybe it was just something that one had to find out whenever they got a personal request? Regardless, even if he felt dumb, at least he had an answer.

So, with his pokemon out for the afternoons with their respective tutors, Pierce guessed they could get some work done… literally in this case. Not like he wanted to pressure them into training more. They’d likely go for it, but it’d make him feel bad. So, Pierce decided to do something productive with their time so that they wouldn’t complain.

“... Idiot,” Cygnus told him.

‘Very mature,’ Pierce replied, in his mind since he could hear steps coming towards the door. No need to give a crazy impression, even if they’d understand once they opened the door.

“Hello, can we help you?” a woman asked after opening the door and looking at him.

“Mrs. Clark? I’m Pierce Lawson,” he answered, plastering his friendliest smile on. She looked like a nice woman. He could easily imagine her being about as nice as his mother and as caring as his grandmother. “You sent me a trainer request for a job?”

“Oh, Mr. Lawson!” she exclaimed, suddenly looking very excited. ‘Mr. Lawson. When was the last time someone called me that?’ Pierce thought, feeling a little awkward about that but easily shaking that off. “The trainer you heard about is here, John!”

‘Heard about? Is this Arnold’s doing?’ he thought, remembering the old man he’d most worked with back in Pewter. ‘Wonder how the ponyta are doing…’

“We heard about you from Don. He had very good things to say,” the woman told him, smiling widely. Pierce, for his part, tried to return the gesture and not frown in confusion. ‘Don?’ he wondered. “We could use some help with a flock on the East side of the fields,” she added and he took note of that. ‘Right, flock of spearow,’ he thought then, remembering the info on the request.

“I can’t promise that I’ll be able to solve any issues, but I can certainly try,” he replied. He firmly believed in not guaranteeing anything. Failure was always a possibility, no matter how good you were at something. Bad luck worked like that.

“Well, can’t do worse than the rest of the trainers we usually get for this job,” A raspy voice said from inside the house before a man – John, presumably – appeared next to the woman. “John Clark.”

“Oh, where are my manners? I’m Martha Clark, nice to meet you, Mr. Lawson,” the woman said, clearly embarrassed by the slip.

“Pierce Lawson, but please call me Pierce. Mr. Lawson makes me feel like I’m in trouble,” he said, drawing a chuckle from the man and an amused smile from the woman. “Now, if I could get some more information about this? Like where exactly the spearow flock are. Is there a fearow? How do they act, exactly? Stuff like that.”

“Well, you already seem more professional and less of an idiot than the rest of trainers that have come,” John grumbled. Despite the slightly mocking and definitely annoyed tone, Pierce took the compliment anyway. His own grandfather hadn’t had the best of personalities, but he’d still been great, so maybe this was the case too.

“I try, sir.”

“Bah, just call me John, everyone does,” the man waved him off. “Now, come in so Martha can feed you. She has that grandmother instinct and with our grandchildren away, she needs to feed everyone that comes by.”

Funnily enough, the woman just smiled.

Pierce had a feeling that he’d like these two.

[}-o-{]

Idly, Pierce looked through his notes on Talon as he moved through the Clarks’ farm.

Sure, one pokemon couldn’t be taken as the “standard” for its whole species, but they did seem to often share some traits and behaviors with each other. With that in mind, he imagined it was good to come in with all the information he could, since it was a pokemon that he was familiar with the one that he’d have to deal with this time. Sort of like when he’d dealt with the one beedrill swarm at Pewter, really.

It wasn’t like he hadn’t already researched spearow a bunch, before he even got that job, actually. He’d even looked up videos and such, trying to study them by himself instead of just hearing the analysis of someone else. Not that he thought he knew more, but everyone could make mistakes and Pierce imagined he knew a thing or two about understanding pokemon.

As a bit of extra preparation, he’d also prepared a bunch of pokeblocks that Talon had liked, not only his favorite but some other blends that he’d enjoyed if not quite as much. Pierce was sure at least one of those would be to the flock’s liking. He just needed to get a foot in the door with them, really, not feed them a feast… Even if he’d have no problem doing that.

‘Wonder if I can make the same deal I made with the swarm in Pewter with this flock…’ Pierce thought as he continued walking. He guessed that was a pretty good outcome for everyone involved. The flock got food and the farmers didn’t have to deal with extra trouble, even if they had to give up some of the fruits. Ideally though, Pierce would like to give it a serious try to not cost the couple anything though. That’s what the job was really about, after all.

It just was… very unlikely that he could convince the flock to just leave and not bother with the farm anyway. Even if he could do that, chances were that they’d come back like they had with every other time that they’d been driven away. Even if he could manage to prevent that too, it’d just likely mean that they would go to some other farm and that didn’t sit well with him.

‘Nothing yet?’ he asked in his mind, louder than his regular thoughts, or so he believed. It was strange sometimes, trying to convey thoughts towards Cygnus instead of having them be regular ones. Granted, the abra could read both, but he wasn’t always paying attention. Thus, Pierce had to try and get the message across like a call, a little more intently. Maybe the key was intent more than “volume” though. He guessed that would make sense.

Regardless of those musings, Cygnus replied in the negative as Narcissa flew around through the trees in the farm. They were currently just looking to find at least one spearow so that they could get things started. Unfortunately, the flying types didn’t focus on one zone but several. Hell, they even attacked other neighboring farms too.

That was why it had taken him an hour to just get to looking for them, actually. He’d had to make a quick trip to visit the other farms and talk to the owners there. It turned out that the three families were actually three of the people that had sent him requests. Pierce still didn’t know where the rest of them had come from, but at least that explained a chunk of them, he supposed.

He’d briefly considered the fact that maybe that one farmer back in Pewter had spread the word about him, but he didn’t know why he would have. Sure, he’d done a good job there, he supposed, but he hadn’t completely solved the issue. On top of that, he hadn’t really interacted all that much with the man and things hadn’t seemed all that noteworthy.

He was pretty sure it had to be Arnold that had gotten his name around.

Either that or something else was going on. Maybe the League was involved? Would they do something like that? It sounded weird, but the League seemed very supportive, at least of people like him. Maybe that was it? Another way to help out trainers that had useful skill sets?

‘As good a guess as any, really,’ Pierce thought to himself.

That’s how he walked through the tree field, lost in thoughts and theories, ideas and even memories. Occasionally, he’d take a moment to talk with Cygnus or Narcissa. Little else to do while they waited for an encounter, he supposed.

Eventually, a caw gave him pause.

Turning, he saw a spearow on a tree branch some distance away, looking directly at him. Before Pierce could call it over or anything, however, the bird did as its typing suggested and flew away. That was interesting, he supposed.

“Don’t follow, Narcissa,” he called, before his beedrill could rush towards the spearow. They weren’t here to pick up a fight, after all. At least not if they could avoid it.

Tilting his head, he looked at the pokemon go curiously. ‘That’s weird though,’ he thought, following the creature as best he could but still just walking. He had a feeling about things and if he was right, then there was no need to rush. As it was, he pondered on that and other reasons he imagined for the behavior of the bird.

“Went… for… flock,” Cygnus confirmed, making Pierce nod.

“Makes sense,” he mumbled, walking calmly and mostly just waiting for the flock to come to him. One of his hands held Orion’s pokeball in his pocket, ready to let the onix out at a moment’s notice. Just because he liked pokemon and thought they could be very reasonable, it didn’t mean that Pierce didn’t know they could be bad. Until he got a feeling of how the spearow flock was, he’d be wary, if at least a little.

It didn’t take long for the sound of batting wings to reach his ears and he stopped in between the tree lines. Not quite a clearing, but as close to one as the field got. Soon enough, spearow started landing on branches all around them, making Narcissa warily point her stingers forward trying to regard all of them, even if she knew that was impossible.

“Calm, it’s fine,” Pierce said, relaxing a little. The flying types didn’t seem overly aggressive, at least. None of them were cawing angrily nor were any puffing and extending their wings to make themselves bigger. They glared, sure, but that was a standard expression for spearow, really. “We are just here to talk,” he said, regarding the flock. “Can I talk with the flock leader?” he asked then, looking around.

That was how spearow groups usually worked, after all. It was usually a fearow that took the place, either the oldest one or the strongest one. If there were none, as was the case in this instance, then the strongest or oldest spearow would do. Sometimes there’d be more than one, but that was mostly for big flocks, which wasn’t the case here.  So, imagine Pierce’s surprise when not one but four of the pokemon around him flew and landed on the ground, slightly away from him.

Immediately, he got an idea of what might be going on.

“Likely,” Cygnus agreed, regarding the group himself.

“So, I want to talk… But first, what’s your favorite type of berry?” Pierce asked, slowly pulling off his backpack and then a Preserving Box. Expanding it, he started taking out supplies. “Anyone want something to eat?”

More than one spearow tilted its head.

[}-o-{]

“You are telling me that we’ve been dealing with those pests for months,” John said, frowning and a very angry tone in his voice. Pierce had to hold back his desire to tell him not to call the spearow pests. He had a feeling that wouldn’t go well with the man. “Because they want to fight stuff?”

“They don’t have a leader,” Pierce explained, running his fingers through his hair. “They either lost their last one or they are new flock that formed after a bunch of them separated from another one. Either way, their problem is that they don’t have a clear strongest or oldest, so they are looking for fights to prove their strength and also grow stronger so one can fill the role for the flock.”

“And what does that mean for us?” Martha asked, placing a hand on her husband’s arm. John was looking increasingly more annoyed, but Pierce wanted to believe that it was because he’d been dealing with a problem that could be easily solved.

“Well, I talked with the flock a bit and I have some ideas,” he answered, preparing himself for some… choice words from the man across the table. He imagined John wouldn’t be a fan of anything that didn’t give a clear solution and he didn’t have anything like that. “One of them is that you continue hiring trainers to fight them, give them what they want. The flock would be fine leaving your lands alone if you just provide the fight they are looking for.”

“So, basically no solution at all?” John asked, looking very displeased. That was what Pierce expected though, so he continued talking.

“Not quite. You’ve been requesting for people to drive the flock away, but you are not likely to accomplish that. If you hire trainers from time to time to fight them and nothing else, the price of the job should be a lot lower. Fighting a few spearow is a lot less complicated and demanding. Anyone can fight a few of those, really. Another idea I had was to just do the battling yourself if you have a pokemon that would like to let out some steam occasionally,” Pierce explained calmly, and that last part seemed to get through with John.

“Mary does get a little antsy from time to time, doesn’t she?” Martha asked her husband, looking a lot less stressed. Almost amused, really, which was very relieving to see for Pierce. “Maybe we can let her fight a few of the spearow if that’ll keep them away.”

“And you can coordinate with your neighbors. No need for you to do all the work and for them to get the benefits, right?” Pierce suggested, imagining that part would appeal more to John, which it seemed to. “Ultimately, your lands will be left alone for the most part. I’m not in the business, admittedly, but I think this is quite the improvement.”

“And you are sure that we can’t just drive them away?” John asked, grumbling. He didn’t seem too annoyed now though. Mostly just making sure, Pierce imagined.

“I don’t think that’s possible unless you get a high ranking trainer to beat them so bad they decide to leave entirely and never come back,” Pierce answered, grimacing. He didn’t want to lie to the man, which is why he said that, but that option sounded too extreme for him… And like it would be very bad for the flock. It wasn’t the pokemon’s fault that the situation was what it was. It was unfortunate for everyone involved.

“There’ll be no need for that,” Martha replied for both of them, getting a grateful smile from Pierce and giving a kind one in turn. “Anything else we should know?”

“Well, they should be a lot calmer once they establish a flock leader. They might even leave you alone entirely after that, with the right talking and such. They don’t really need the food from your trees, even though that’s a nice plus. They are here because you keep providing a fight that they are looking for,” Pierce answered, trying to let them know as much as possible so that they could deal with the problem themselves if it came to it. “Once the hierarchy is decided, they’ll probably come a lot less, if at all, for a challenge here and there. You know how pokemon are.”

“Well, that’s good news, at least,” John grumbled.

“I can probably convince them to watch over your fields too, so that they can keep away other pokemon too. I’ve done that before with other pokemon and so long as you provide something that they want, they’ll have no problem giving in turn,” Pierce told the man, who suddenly looked very interested.

“No more rattata or mankey? You should have said that before, boy. The spearow are a menace, but at least they don’t ruin my plants,” John complained, waving his hand towards the fields on his property.

“Well, maybe we can go ahead and talk with your neighbors. Once everything’s settled, I can go have another talk with the flock and finish things off,” Pierce told them, and he was quite happy to see Martha very much on board and John being receptive enough now. He was sure once the man saw the results, he’d be happy. It just didn’t sound so good when presented with just words, after all.

[}-o-{]

‘Business as usual then?’ he read on his pokegear, making him chuckle. Lily had started sending him messages at some point during his short trip back to Cerulean proper, when he’d been in the process of taking his pokemon to their tutors. The rest of the affair with the spearow flock and the farmers had been mostly solved, although he’d promised to check on them a week later before leaving Cerulean – if not later, if he stayed long enough – to make sure that things were working and no further discussion was needed. He expected there to be some little troubles here and there, but other than that, there was little for him to worry about.

‘More or less,’ he wrote back, grinning to himself and making sure not to walk into a post or something. ‘How’s the trip?’

‘You are so lucky it’s not even funny,’ Lily wrote then, and he could picture her pouting and stomping her feet. ‘There’s mud EVERYWHERE, Pierce. It sucks.’

‘Having fun, huh?’

‘I’m going slower and taking all the battles I can just to make time for the stupid dirt to dry a little. This is a nightmare.’

‘Lots of fun.’

‘Oh, shut up. Broke any hearts over there when I wasn’t looking?’ Lily sent then, making him roll his eyes as hard as he could without them literally rolling out of his skull. ‘I need all the juicy details, mister.’

‘I don’t think so, no.’

‘Ah, but you are dense as a rock, Pierce. You might not even know!’

‘Why ask then?’ he replied, staring at his pokegear screen with an unimpressed expression. Then he sighed, looking at the path he was taking. ‘Besides, I haven’t even interacted with many people here. So, unless you think the Sensational Sisters are in my league…’

‘Sisters?! As in, plural?! Have I been traveling with a player?!’

Now she was just having fun at his expense, he knew. Pierce sighed, resigned to his fate of being teased in this particular subject. He supposed he deserved it though, with all the jokes he’d poked at her for a number of things. Didn’t make the whole thing less annoying though.

‘You are not overworking yourself, right?’ Lily asked then, giving him pause.

‘I’m fine. Couldn’t overwork myself if I tried. I guess I found my routine for now. Jobs in the morning, get everyone to their tutors, visit the water types, work out and research later. Rinse and repeat,’ he sent. He hoped the more detailed answer would be more reassuring.

‘Good to know. I’ll be there tomorrow, guaranteed this time. I’m not delaying more even if it starts pouring like Legendary disaster zone,’ Lily told him, which honestly sounded kind of concerning. The good thing was that those were rare, at least.

‘Can’t wait. Feeling a little lonely with everyone with their tutors right now,’ he admitted, running his fingers through his hair. Then he saw the Gym appear around the corner and he started typing again. ‘Welp, speaking of, I’m going to get some company to make myself feel better. Reaching the Gym now.’

‘Give those sweet water types some berries for me, yeah?’

‘Sure thing. Keep kicking ass.’

‘Of course.’

And that was that as he walked through the door.

“Hey there, Pierce,” the receptionist greeted him, beaming and waving. “I tried that pokeblock recipe you told me about and my ekans loved it. Thanks.”

“Don’t mention it. I’m glad it worked out. Pokemon can have different tastes, after all,” he replied, walking up to her and grinning widely. “Anything I should know? Maybe she liked it but there was something she would change? I can always use more info,” he asked, making the woman giggle a little at his antics before leaning forward.

“Well, she did seem to like it more when I took out the bluk berry from it,” she answered, which made him tilt his head.

“Hm, I guess I’ll note that down later. Thanks for giving it a try,” he replied.

“Think nothing of it. I’m the one thanking you here, Pierce. I like spoiling her anyway, so finding new treats is great.”

“Flirting with our receptionist, Pierce?” they heard then, making the woman jump a little and him turn to the side to see Lily – the Sensational Sister, that is – standing by the door with Daisy. “Is this the real reason you are visiting so much? I’m so disappointed.”

To that, Pierce rolled his eyes and turned towards the poor receptionist that had turned bright red.

“Don’t let them win like that or they’ll never shut up. I’ve learned that the hard way,” he told the poor woman. “Hey Lily, good to see you more rested… I think.”

“Rude,” the pink haired girl said, not looking offended at all. “Here for the water types, I guess? Unless I’m right, that is.”

“You know why I’m here.”

“For me?!” she exclaimed, placing a hand on her chest dramatically.

“No, for your sister, obviously. You look like a hassle,” he answered, making her turn the shock into hurt. “Now, can we get to the pools before you say more nonsense?”

“I think I like you,” Daisy commented, a smirk on her face. “Daisy Waterflower.”

“Pierce Lawson. Nice to meet you,” he replied with a friendly smile. With some luck, she’d be less… like Lily. He’d thought she was cool before, but that might have been because the whole thing with the water types had tired her out.

“I’ll have you know that we are all a hassle, Pierce, so I wouldn’t try my luck with Daisy, just saying.”

“Assuming a whole lot there, Lily. What if I was talking about Violet?”

“Same thing,” Daisy was the one to answer that, giggling.

“Good thing I’m actually here for the pokemon then. How are they doing?” he asked, making the sisters’ expressions turn softer and a little sad. It was how it was though. There was no avoiding the subject… especially since he was there to visit them.

“They are doing better, all of them. Your little group seems to be getting more animated though, and they are helping others feel a little more relaxed. Shame that doesn’t count as extra service though, huh?”

“I’ll call it a happy coincidence. Not like I’m hurting for money anyway,” he said, shrugging. Sure, more money would always be nice, but not getting some for this was fine. He wasn’t doing any of what he was because of the money, after all.

“Good man,” Daisy commented. “We might give you a chance if you have the guts to ask.”

“Which I definitely don’t,” Pierce replied without missing a beat. There was also the fact that he was still struggling with a lot of things in his mind to add romance to that too, but they didn’t need to know that. “Hey, guys!” he called once they entered the pool zone and he caught sight of poliwag. At the sound of his voice, the little tadpole pokemon jumped and cried out a greeting of his own. “You missed me?!”

[} Chapter End {]

Hey guys! How’s it going?

Pierce doing Pierce things, evidently. Talking to people, talking to pokemon, solving problems, helping and suffering. Business as usual indeed, right? Nothing out of the-

Why are you looking at me like that?

Anyway, I hope you liked the chapter.

Announcement: I started another story in FFN that won’t make it to Patreon. The reason for this is because I’m working on it with Arclight from the Discord server. It’s also a “story” where we’ll post several different projects, just to get them out there and try to get opinions on them, so even if you don’t like what’s there, chances are that a new project will pop up later and you might like that one better than the others. So, please, give it a try and tell us what you think.

Discord Link: discord.gg/UTDransjJZ

Random Question: I don’t even know. Anything you wanna tell me regarding this story in general?

See you.