AdrianKing
patreon
Searching Far and Wide - 68
🕑 Added 2024-05-15 17:51:48 +0000 UTCTeams:
Pierce Lawson:
- Narcissa, Beedrill
- Orion, Onix
- Cygnus, Abra
- Bellatrix, Gyarados (Shiny)
- Andromeda, Vaporeon
Lillian Dale:
- Root, Bulbasaur
- Talon, Spearow
- Gem, Geodude
- Star, Cleffa
Cerulean City XXIX
“Who’s the best?” he asked, grinning widely as he patted Bellatrix’s side. “Of course you are,” he answered himself with the gigantic sea serpent wiggling like she was the most adorable living water disaster. “You did great, girl. You really did,” he added, rubbing his hand on the shiny gyarados’ side.
Normally, he wasn’t one to spare praise for pokemon, especially his own, but Bellatrix had definitely more than earned them this time. After all, they’d just gotten through a quick test that the Sisters had told him was necessary for him to be able to let her out when they weren’t in the Gym and without supervision. It was like a downgraded version of the license he’d gotten to let out Narcissa and Cygnus in public spaces. Apparently, gyarados were so dangerous that they needed a special permit just to be let out anywhere close to civilization, contrary to how things had gone with Orion.
Pierce guessed it made some sense, but still…
It didn’t feel good to have to restrain how much he let out his pokemon.
However, this was a great step in the right direction. He couldn’t wait to be able to have breakfast with everyone at the field behind the Pokemon Center. It always left a bad taste on his mouth to be there with everyone except Bellatrix, after all. Besides, that way, she’d feel more like a part of the team. As it was, she barely counted, really, much as it sucked to admit.
She was only his pokemon because she was registered in his name, but otherwise, she might as well still be one more of the gyarados that were sheltered in the Gym.
“Did… things go well?” Misty asked, making her presence known by his side. He counted it as great progress on Bellatrix’s part that she hadn’t reacted when the girl had gotten close. Back when she’d first evolved, Pierce would have noticed that kind of thing just because she’d have at least growled at whoever got close.
“I think so,” he answered with a smile as he turned towards the girl, keeping a hand on his gyarados all the same. He didn’t need to be constantly touching her to calm her down, but Bellatrix loved being close to him and she very much appreciated physical affection, so why wouldn’t he keep it up?
“I’m glad,” she replied with a shy smile as she shuffled on her feet. It was really hard to imagine her as the Gym Leader that she was in the games and the girl she was in the anime. He didn’t remember if she’d ever been this meek in the latter, for one. Then again, the circumstances were very different, so there was that.
“How about you? Did anything interesting today?” Pierce asked as Bellatrix curved around him and placed her head by his side. In response, he shifted his arm so it laid on top of her.
“Training, studying, taking some low level challenges,” she answered with a shrug. He was surprised when he saw her take a few slow but deliberate steps forward towards them, her eyes fixed on Bellatrix. “I came to see the gyarados for a bit… even if I stayed away from the pool.”
“That’s great to hear. You’ve been doing really well as of late,” he told her with as encouraging a smile as he could muster. He was glad to see that it did help cheer her up, even if she also gained a slight embarrassed blush. “The gyarados are starting to like you too.”
“Really?” she asked, half surprised and half hopeful. He couldn’t imagine that’d have been her reaction before, really. After days and days of working on things though, she was truly leaving behind her phobia of sorts. At least partially. She was still very much on edge, especially when she had to be within arm’s distance of one of the sea serpents, but progress was progress.
“Sure,” he answered confidently. “If you learn how to make some decent pokeblocks and poffins, you’d be up there beside me on their top of favorite people,” he added with a grin that only widened as the girl giggled. “They are getting used to you though, so, one that doesn’t know you would still be…”
“... dangerous,” she finished for him, her nervousness returning.
“I was going to say troublesome, but yeah,” he told her with a wry smile. “It’s a process. You’ve been making great progress as it is. It’ll take time for you to be fine. Hell, I’d say you are doing better than most people already,” he added, to which she returned his grin, if shyly.
“I guess that’s true… But I’m not most people. I’m a water type specialist. A Gym Trainer, almost a Gym Leader,” she replied, whatever confidence and cheer she’d managed to gather crumbling. Well, that wouldn’t do.
“And that means you know more about how dangerous they are than the average person,” he argued, rolling his eyes. “Besides, you had a bad experience,” he continued. She’d never actually told him what happened, but there’d been hints here and there. He didn’t need to know, so he hadn’t pressed. “You’ll get there in no time. It hasn’t even been a month, you are doing great.”
“I know, I’m just…”
“Impatient?” he finished for her this time, getting a pout in response, to which he grinned at her.
“I guess. Sorry. I know I’m being a brat,” she said then, rubbing the back of her neck.
“Don’t worry about it. I’ve seen worse brats in my life, I’ll tell you that.”
“Are you flirting with my sister, Pierce?”
“Daisy!” Misty shrieked, both surprised and scandalized in equal measure.
“I like being alive, so no,” he answered calmly, rolling his eyes at the blond Sister.
“Good. If you wanna flirt with someone, we are right here, and we wouldn’t even have to give you the shovel talk,” she said, making him roll his eyes even harder. “Fine, be that way. Your test went great, in case you were wondering. You’ll just have to wait for a bit while it gets processed, but it shouldn’t take more than a day or two.”
“That’s good to know,” he replied with a smile. “You heard that, girl? You’ll be able to go outside with us in no time,” he told Bellatrix, who had been great throughout the whole chatter and just calmly stayed under his arm.
To that, the gyarados rubbed against his side affectionately.
Yeah, she liked the sound of that.
[}-o-{]
“Thank you,” the kid in front of him said, beaming as he held onto the gyarados poster that he and his mother had brought to the Pokemon Center for Pierce to sign. That had certainly been an experience but then again, his channel had grown very quickly. Much quicker than he could have ever imagined, let alone predicted.
“Don’t mention it. Just remember that gyarados-”
“-are really strong and should be respected,” the kid finished, making him grin. How many times had he watched his video to know how that went by heart? “And I shouldn’t try to get close. And I should be calm,” he continued then, derailing the script a little. Pierce was still very proud to have teached someone something.
“That’s exactly it, buddy,” he replied with a grin.
“Can I see Orion?” he asked then, eyes wide with wonder. “He’s my favorite of your team,” he added and Pierce knew there was no way he could get away with saying no. His onix would never forgive him, for one. For another, the kid was reminding him of his little cousins and he’d loved spoiling them.
“Sure thing,” he agreed easily.
“There’s no need to humor him, Mr. Lawson,” the mother interrupted then, looking like she was very reluctant to ruin her child’s moment. She was polite though, that was why she was saying that. She was giving him an out if he’d rather not. It was nice and the kind of gesture that his mother would have liked. Hell, knowing her, she’d have spent the next three hours talking to that woman while telling Pierce that they’d be going in “just five minutes”.
His mother was great, but she was also a lying liar.
“I’m sure you have other things to do,” she said then, giving him a very heartfelt smile. “Like taking care of those gyarados, right?”
“Oh, yeah, the gyarados need help,” the boy nodded then, clearly not happy but it was so nice to see that he actually cared for the pokemon. ‘Well, that seals it.’
“I’m free right now, don’t worry. Let’s go. I’ll do you one better though. How about you meet my whole team?” he asked, giving the boy a grin as his eyes lit up. “I’m sure they’ll love you.”
“Even Bellatrix?” Pierce could almost see the stars forming on the little one’s eyes. “I thought she couldn’t be out of the gym yet.”
‘I might be sharing too much information in videos,’ he thought to himself. Then again, it was nice to be able to interact with the very enthusiastic people. ‘Hm, maybe I can do something with that,’ he mused, but that was a thought for another time.
“You are in luck, I just got the license and the people here at the Center love me,” he replied with a grin as he stood straight instead of leaning down to be closer to the boy’s eye level. “Let’s go, yeah? The team might be getting antsy anyway.”
“I get antsy when I have too much candy.”
“I bet,” Pierce said then with a chuckle. The boy definitely exuded too much energy as it was. He couldn’t imagine a sugar rush on top of that. His poor mother though, she deserved some kind of award for the trouble. ‘At least I get paid when I deal with rowdy children,’ he thought, amused.
As he showed the boy his team and let him play around a bit, Pierce considered the explosive start of his video channel.
According to the Sisters, when he asked, his shockingly big success was due to how viral the leaked videos had gotten. They were impactful, after all. It wasn’t every day that you came across a real video of someone just calming down a recently evolved gyarados. That alone had drawn a whole lot of attention. From there, his entrance into that world had been very much smoothed over for him, really.
That made some sense, he supposed.
Pierce was pretty sure that if he’d just started as he was, his videos wouldn’t have earned quite as much of a following. The Sisters and Lily praised them, but they were documentaries, more or less. Sure, he tried to make them interesting and get to the point so they wouldn’t be hours long and sound like a lecture. However, at the end of the day, he was just explaining what he knew about pokemon and how to deal with them. ‘Then again, maybe I’m overthinking it,’ he thought with a mental shrug.
“Thank you, Mr. Lawson,” the boy said when it was time for them to go.
“Don’t mention it. Always nice to meet someone that loves pokemon like I do,” he replied, planting a hand on his head and ruffling his hair.
“Goodbye, Mr. Lawson. Have a nice day,” the mother told him with a grateful smile before starting to steer her child away.
“I’ll be watching all your videos!” the boy called over his shoulder.
‘Well, that was very… motivating,’ Pierce thought as he waved at them whenever the boy turned to look back at him. He wore a grin on his face the whole time, wondering if there was anything more he could do for the channel. It was just… very nice, to know that he was making people happy with his content and he’d taken to reading through the nicer comments whenever he was feeling a bit down.
Validation was just the best.
“That was adorable,” Lily commented, moving to stand beside him. She’d left him to entertain the boy on his own at some point, the traitor. Although, maybe it was because he’d really not cared if she was there or not and she had stuff to do. Still though…
“Well, you could have fans of your own,” he told her with a grin.
“I agreed to the journey log, didn’t I?”
“We could do some other things though.”
“Like what?” she asked, eyebrow raised.
“Well, I was thinking about uploading stuff about pokeblocks and poffins. I’m sure there’s better content, but why not, right?” he commented with a shrug. “You could be a helping hand,” he added. “And learn, in the meantime.”
“Hm, that’s an idea,” she mumbled, a slight smile on her face.
She really did like the video thing, it seemed.
[}-o-{]
Once more sitting at the Gym, Pierce overlooked his pokemon’s training with a notebook on his lap. Occasionally, he’d made a note or two on a particular teammember’s entry, but that was about it. It was mostly the occasional bit of progress or maybe an idea that he’d tell them about later when they weren’t concentrating. Unless he felt it was necessary, Pierce preferred to just let his pokemon get through the training session and then give them pointers.
He didn’t like being interrupted when he was training, after all, unless it was something important.
Pierce was also sort of brainstorming new move combinations. It was harder than one would think though. It wasn’t easy to get the pokemon to circulate the energies in them differently from what they already did for moves, after all. There was a reason why certain pokemon could do certain moves and others couldn’t. Sometimes, their biology just didn’t work with some of them, for whatever reason, even when it’d make sense. Like with beedrill being able to learn Giga Drain but not Absorb or Mega Drain.
That was just how it was.
He guessed it made sense, in a nonsensical kind of way. The pokemon world was full of stuff that shouldn’t make sense but did. The move learning limitation was far from the weirdest of them, as far as he was concerned. It was kind of annoying though, admittedly.
He’d work around that though, somehow.
Tungsten Strike was proof that it could happen. He’d gotten around that by having each move act independently instead of trying to use them all at the same time. Narcissa went through the speed boosts and then used Iron Defense on its own. It was a combo, not a completely new move. He had some ideas for Cygnus and Orion, but Bellatrix and Andromeda were a bit more complicated.
Maybe he could try to teach them a new move that could open some options, once he thought they’d practiced the basics enough. As it was, he was having his gyarados learn how to properly use her new moves and her new body. The vaporeon, for her part, had a decent number of moves – even if they were mostly just Normal type – and she knew how to use them, but she had no experience in fighting or doing more than just using the moves. They barely had any punch behind them, so that was something to work on.
Pierce was, thus, doing just that by having Andromeda have some very light spars with Star from Lily’s team. The cleffa couldn’t really be considered a fighter, but she was a pokemon and she was interested. It was just a matter of powering down moves so that it was almost play fighting. A little counterintuitive, considering Andromeda needed to work on her move strength, but one thing at a time. During their private training sessions at the Gym, he had her working exclusively on putting more of an oomph behind her attacks.
“She’s overtraining,” Cygnus snitched.
Apparently, he didn’t like Pierce thinking of it as snitching, even though that was exactly what it was. Regardless, he was grateful for the warning. While he tried to check on everyone, he also had to keep an eye on the gyarados in the pool and Bellatrix, just in case she got frustrated or messed up while training a move. That meant that he’d sometimes focus too much on the pool.
‘Thanks, buddy.’
“Don’t call me a snitch next time,” his pokemon grumbled at him, making him laugh.
“Hey there, girl,” he called after he’d gotten a little closer to the vaporeon. “I think it’s time for a break,” he added when he saw that he had her attention. It took barely a split second for the pokemon to huff and roll her eyes, because of course she did. “None of that. You are tired and you’ll be taking a break.”
Andromeda proceeded to glare at him but he remained undeterred, simply raising an eyebrow.
“Let’s go. You can help me keep an eye on everyone, yeah?” he told her, pointing behind him with his thumb. The Water type held his stare for a long moment before huffing and walking up to him and then beside him as he turned to go back to where he’d been. Close by and paying close attention, she was looking a little winded with the way she walked and breathed.
Cygnus had earned himself a poffin, it seemed.
Pierce pretended not to notice the slight cheer bleeding through the weak connection his abra held with him. If the embarrassment that followed was any indication, he hadn’t been meant to “hear” that. Maybe he was getting better at the whole psychic connection thing? Or maybe Cygnus was just connecting them more thoroughly as time passed.
Regardless, he took his seat on a bench once more and Andromeda took the space to his side and curled there.
‘I think we got this?’ he mused, looking at his pokemon and thinking over one of his plans.
Cygnus pulled his attention then, showing off his latest attempt at Ice Punch. It wasn’t complete, not really, but it was certainly a good attempt, for how long he’d been at it and without a proper tutor. It’d be a usable move soon, he was pretty sure, even if an incomplete one.
“We got this,” the abra told him, confidently.
‘Then we got this,’ Pierce replied, smiling.
[}-o-{]
“You didn’t have to pay for me, Pierce,” Lily protested as the two of them sat next to each other, which wasn’t too strange a sight, he supposed. This time though, both of them were in a completely different place than usual. It wasn’t even that they were out on a job or anything. Instead, he was about to take a day off of his duties at the Cerulean Gym.
The Sisters had said it was fine so long as it was just one day. The gyarados group demanded a lot of attention, after all, and nobody handled them quite as well as he did. Thus, every shift that he wasn’t around was actually quite the difference for them, in regards to staff and even resources. Apparently, keeping them calm was a lot more complicated for non-Pierce people.
That was… something.
“Sure did,” he replied, rolling his eyes at his traveling companion. “It’s more or less a pointless spending for you, after all. If you are gonna join me, then I might as well pay for your part.”
“I want to though, even if I have nothing to do. It’ll be nice to get out for a bit,” she argued, all but pouting. “Seriously, Pierce-”
“Seriously, Lils,” he interrupted, giving her a flat look. “I have more money than I actually know what to do with right now. I’ll probably keep making more anyway, considering my journey so far. This is nothing. Stop making a big deal out of it, alright?”
“Fine,” the girl huffed. “And don’t call me Lils,” she added, turning to glare at him.
“No promises,” he said, resolving to continue calling her that, if only just to annoy her. She deserved it anyway. That’s what he got for being nice? She’d see if he did anything else for her. Maybe he could make her pokemon riot with the power of food? Something to think about.
Then the urge to yawn interrupted his thoughts.
“... It’s too early for you to be a brat, Lils,” he mumbled once the yawn was over, leaning back on his seat and letting his eyelids close a little bit. He didn’t want to fall asleep, but he’d woken up entirely too early.
“I’m not the one that wanted to be off early.”
“Shut up,” he grumbled, dropping his head back against the wall behind their seats. “I wanna make the most of this,” he added with a mumble. “A day sounds like a lot, but it’s not.”
“I know,” she told him with an amused smile. “If you are gonna get me to get up at this hour, you could try not to complain.”
“Me? Not complain about morning?” he mumbled, confusion clear on his face and on the tilt of his head. What was that nonsense the woman was talking about?
“Anyway,” she continued then, rolling her eyes at him for some reason. “Do you think we’ll get any recordings today? Could be interesting.”
“I mean, I don’t know what kind of video we could get. Maybe something unrelated to the series we are uploading?” he answered, giving it some thought. He hadn’t considered that possibility himself, but then again, Lily seemed to have her head on that every time she didn’t have it on battling.
“It’s not information or a job, so I guess it could just a more random video,” Lily agreed with a nod. “Or it can be a day off too. We’ve been uploading quite a bit,” she added, to which he gave her a flat look. “What? It was worth asking about anyway!”
“Sure it was,” he mumbled, rubbing his face with his hand tiredly. Andromeda, sitting on the ground by his leg, pushed her head against his knee to get his attention. After she did, she just stared at him, unimpressed. “Yeah, I know, I’m an embarrassment,” he said, rolling his eyes as he extended his arm to pat the vaporeon on the head.
Even if she was an absolute tsundere, she was still the best to keep out when in public. Narcissa could be intimidating and she easily got snappy. Cygnus, for his part, still liked to sleep a lot, even if he needed less and less by the day. Andromeda, for her part, was much more calm, even if she was also kind of aloof. At least she behaved well enough when there were others around and she didn’t give off negative vibes to strangers.
It was when you knew her that you learned that she was a bit of a pain.
“Pierce Lawson? Lillian Dale?” the receptionist called then, and he instantly recognized the curious look of someone that knew him by name. He was getting better at that. “It’s your turn,” the woman told them, looking like she had other things she wanted to say. Sure enough… “Are you the one from the videos?” she asked then, a little wide-eyed.
“Yes, yes he is,” Lily answered for him, looking entirely too pleased. One would have thought she was the “celebrity” instead of him, if he could be called that.
“Could I take a picture? My nephew won’t shut up about you,” the woman asked, more amused than hopeful or excited. “Then again, that gyarados video was impressive.”
He had several gyarados videos, but he didn’t point that out.
“Sure thing,” he agreed easily and after a quick picture with the woman, Andromeda and him taken by Lily, they were off to what they’d actually come for. They entered one particular room, which seemed fairly spartan-looking. That was fine though, it wasn’t like the place needed to be anything special.
They weren’t even there for a full minute either.
“Well, here we are,” he said, opening his eyes and finding himself in a similar looking room.
“Even for this kind of thing you are unpredictable,” Lily commented, amused. “I didn’t think we’d come back so soon.”
“What can I say? I did promise I’d come back.”
Sure enough, it was time to keep some promises, between other things.
There was plenty to do in Pewter, after all.
[} Chapter End {]
Hey guys! How’s it going?
Well, that happened, huh? I don’t know how this happened, but it’s certainly an interesting development, I’ll admit. It’ll be nice to get out of Cerulean for a bit, not gonna lie. Even then, I’ve quite liked the subplots that have formed in this city.
Not sure why people want to leave Cerulean so much though. It’s not like nothing is happening. I guess it’s the people that are just here for the gym challenges and tournaments? Sorry to say, but this story won’t be too heavy on that, as you should know by now.
Anyway, we are back to Pewter for a day and Pierce’s poketuber career is off to a great start.
Hope you guys enjoyed the chapter.
Discord Link: discord.gg/UTDransjJZ
Random Question: Spearow or pidgey? I know everyone loves the pidgey-line, but I quite like spearow. Fearow is a little more ugly, but I still like it.
See you.
Comments
Ranma_Leopard
As always this is just really awesome. Regarding your question, Pidgey line for me.
Sage Berthelsen
Mega.
Kcx1
Pidgey... Pidgeotto helped me get through my 3rd grade depression
