Searching Far and Wide - 149

Teams:

Pierce Lawson:

- Narcissa, Beedrill

- Orion, Onix

- Cygnus, Kadabra

- Bellatrix, Gyarados (Shiny)

- Andromeda, Vaporeon

- Regulus, Meowth

- Sirius, Yamper

Lillian Dale:

- Root, Ivysaur

- Talon, Spearow

- Gem, Geodude

- Star, Cleffa

- Cinder, Vulpix

Taken II

“Yeah, yeah,” Pierce commented, sitting on the hard metal floor and leaning on the just as hard metal door behind him. “I heard you the first time,” he added, unimpressed and rolling his eyes when another roar made the room shake and echoed very unpleasantly. The place was also cold. Not quite as his holding cell – or whatever that had been – was, but certainly enough to be unpleasant, especially with all the metal around.

The aerodactyl predictably didn’t care for what he was saying.

Instead, it continued thrashing around, attempting hopelessly to break the chains around its neck. Whatever that – and the room for that matter – was made of, it was very resistant. A metal trap that could contain a houndoom was one thing, but something that could cage an aerodactyl? Yeah, no, the whole place might as well be made of gold, considering how much it had to have cost. Probably only made even more expensive since it had to all have been set up illegally.

He hoped so, at least.

Pierce would have been a little happier if he knew the Rockets had wasted a lot of money in his fancy cage. He did feel bad for the aerodactyl, sure, but it wasn’t being very friendly at the moment, so… He was reserving judgement. It seemed to be causing problems for the Rockets though, so he guessed it couldn’t be that bad.

“Say,” he started, being interrupted by another roar. It even twisted its body to try and hit him with its tail. ‘Rude,’ Pierce thought to himself. He was trying to act calm, admittedly, but he was only partially succeeding at being so. There was just something very unnerving about the creature, especially when it stopped to stare at him. Which made him slightly grateful for all the moving that it seemed to be doing trying to break free. “Are you a he or a she? Because calling you it in my head was fine for a bit, but it’s getting old,” he asked, making the creature pause and glare at him even harder than it had ever had before.

Pierce tried to act like he didn’t feel his heart stopping in his heart, metaphorically speaking… probably.

“He… or she?” he repeated, slower, and he got his answer with the way it seemed to take offense as he added the last part. ‘Congratulations… it’s a monstrous, ancient stone dragon boy,’ he thought to himself, holding back a grimace. He had a feeling that only made things worse. If the thing had anything in common with actual Dragon types, then males were generally the most “angry”... Unless the females were nesting. Those jumped right over “angry” and into “natural disaster”, but that was neither here nor there. “Well, pleasure to meet you, buddy. I’m Pierce,” he greeted.

Predictably, he only got rage and frustration in response. Not that he blamed the creature, but still. Couldn’t it see that he was in the same boat? Probably not. Still, Pierce would wait a little longer before trying to do some explaining and such. He had a feeling that he’d be there a while and he might as well try to befriend the angry stone dragon, but for that he’d need time.

It wasn’t like he had studied the things, considering they were extinct. And sure, he knew the Pokemon world had its ways of bringing dinosaurs back to life Jurassic Park-style, but he couldn’t have been expected to know he’d come across one, right? So, he had no idea what aerodactyl were supposed to be like. At most, he could guess from what he was seeing, both physically and in its behavior, although he had very limited data on both fronts, since he had to keep his distance and the creature wasn’t keen on showing a wide range of emotions at the moment. All in all, it was a very shitty situation all around that he found himself in, and that was without the Rockets being involved.

Pierce was also aware that they probably wanted him to befriend the aerodactyl, but it wasn’t like he could do much other than exactly that. He was kind of stuck and without a lot of options. So, he’d have to make do and hope for the best. Maybe if he played along for a bit, they’d give him some wiggle room to do stuff.

“You’re going to hurt yourself,” he pointed out after a particularly painful looking attempt by the aerodactyl. The collar was digging into his neck quite a bit already and that was without some of the motions it attempted. Alas, he knew he’d be ignored and that’s exactly what happened.

So, he sat there, looking.

Absently, his hand reached for the cast on his left arm, tapping against it. Technically, he didn’t need it, not anymore. The Rockets might not know it though, and the fact that they hadn’t taken it off lent some credence to that idea. So, that was a card up his sleeve, even if he didn’t know if it was a good one.

His cast was supposed to be off in a day or two, depending on how long he’d been there. His arm was fine, really, unless there’d been some complication that he wasn’t aware of, but that was very unlikely, from what he knew. So, that meant he could take it off and use his arm just fine any moment. He’d just have to be careful not to get blasted with a move or do something stupid or dangerous or both, like falling from a second floor right on his arm for some reason.

What were the chances of that though?

As if to answer, aerodactyl let out a roar, this time louder than all the others. ‘A move,’ Pierce realized, covering his ears, even though it did nothing. ‘Supersonic?’ he wondered for all of a second before his thoughts got scrambled inside his head. All of a sudden, he couldn’t even think straight, his brain going in all sorts of directions and tangents, like he was just waking up and still not sure what the fuck was going on.

Once he could string ideas together though, he only had one thing to think.

‘God, this is going to suck.’

[}-o-{]

He wasn’t like, counting the minutes or anything, but it had to be at least a few hours since he’d been pushed into the room.

Either that, or his perception of time was skewed, which was possible.

All the same Pierce was starting to realize that he was going to be getting nowhere fast. In all that time, the aerodactyl had done nothing but thrash around and he was starting to suspect that the pokemon had been at it for much longer than he’d been there. ‘Did they kidnap me because they couldn’t handle this?’ Pierce wondered to himself, staring at the struggling Rock type.

‘Seems… excessive,’ he mused to himself, dropping his head back onto the metal wall. He’d walked around a bit, trying to get some heat pumping through his veins. Alas, he hadn’t succeeded much. Beyond that, he’d only learned that the whole place was just… barren. There was nothing in the room other than the chains nailed to the wall keeping the aerodactyl from killing Pierce and the door from where they’d pushed him through.

If it weren’t for pokeballs, there’d have been no way for the creature to even be put inside, really, which meant that there was no way out for the stone dragon even if he managed to free himself from the chains. Sad, downright depressing even, but that was the reality of things. Not that Pierce pointed that out. He had a feeling the pokemon wouldn’t take too kindly to that piece of information.

‘There’s got to be more to this than… this,’ he thought to himself, looking around the room. Maybe they were testing him, starting small, but then… What could they possibly have in store for him afterwards? Or were they going to throw him in a room with a strong, dangerous pokemon every time they got their hands on one so that he could “tame” it for them? That sounded… very concerning. ‘What can I do though?’ he wondered, watching as the aerodactyl finally seemed to get tired.

Pierce felt tired just looking at him, honestly, but that was beside the point.

‘What even am I supposed to do here? I can’t just talk to him. He won’t listen to me,’ he thought to himself, considering the situation and trying to go over what he knew of the creature. ‘Food isn’t likely to help me here either. I doubt I can tempt it when it’s this angry.’ And it wasn’t like he had any food to offer… There was a concerning question hidden there about whether or not the Rockets would feed them, but Pierce would cross that bridge when he got to it.

Treatment was an option, he supposed. The area around the collar was getting damaged, slowly but surely. Kind of, but in a much milder way, than how the trap had damaged Houndoom. The creature wasn’t fine by any stretch, but it was unlikely to take him up on an offer to help with something that small, he was sure.

That was even less likely to be allowed considering how angry the living fossil was.

There didn’t seem to be anything in Aerodactyl’s mind other than breaking free and likely the anger he held for those that had trapped him. So, what could Pierce possibly do to get it to listen to him? If he were out in the wild, he’d have just turned and left, deciding that the pokemon was better left alone and to his own devices.

Alas, that was not an option.

‘So, how?’ he wondered, looking around the room once more. It was spacious enough, like an empty warehouse of sorts. The aerodactyl wouldn’t have been able to fly around the place even without the chains, but it was still big enough that Pierce could keep several aerodactyls’ worth of distance between him and the very angry stone dragon. So, he had… space? ‘Gotta be something else I can do here,’ he thought to himself, taking a deep breath in.

Looking more closely at the walls, he did find something else… and it was not helpful. Because he was pretty sure there were cameras on the corners. Either that, or the corners had to be built specially for the room, which he wouldn’t even be surprised if it was the case. The point was that they looked like they had cameras blended into the corners, but it was difficult to tell with how high up they were, so…

‘Would make sense, right?’ he mused with a bitter smile. ‘Gotta keep an eye on the goods.’ There were probably Psychics keeping an eye on things too, which made Pierce very grateful for his block. Because fuck the Rockets, really, since it wasn’t like he had a plan for an escape yet.

He would eventually though.

Probably.

Maybe.

‘For now though… what to do?’

Wasn’t that the question? Because he’d been pondering that for a while and nothing was coming to his mind. For as calm as Pierce was trying to be, there was a gnawing worry at the pit of his stomach. It grew more and more with every passing second, just as the voice at the back of his mind whispered that he wouldn’t get out. Not even he knew where he was and plenty of time had passed. Did the authorities outside even know where he was?

Were his pokemon fine? Did Cygnus actually manage to get away? How was everything going outside? How was Daisy doing? Did Lily know what happened? Was Misty doing fine with the sanctuary? Had anyone told the school? Was Grace having to put out fires? Were his friends worried?

It was… kind of funny, in a very not funny away, the way the questions he had were very similar to those he had in regards to his old life, his old world.

The flash of metal, the sharp pain of a stab, the warm red of blood, the dull pain of a wound, the blurring of his senses as he laid-

Pierce placed his hand on the cold, metal wall and tried to focus on that. ‘Head in the game, Pierce,’ he told himself, taking a deep breath in. He’d have to think about something to do. Because he had a feeling that he didn’t have infinite time to just… wait. The Rockets wanted him, or his talents or whatever, but they wouldn’t be patient forever.

[}-o-{]

‘I’m not right in the head,’ Pierce thought, for the first time seriously agreeing with all the people that had called him crazy. He decided that if he ever got out, he’d apologize to Lily for all the times he called her dramatic when she witnessed him doing something odd. She had been right all along, evidently. She deserved the recognition, even if it was only Pierce that had doubted her.

Still, he took another half a step forward.

Aerodactyl thrashed some more, both trying to get free and trying to hit Pierce. No limb could reach him, but he was steadily getting closer. Why? Because he was crazy. That and he had the grand total of one idea so far and he had to try it… Because if he didn’t, then what was he supposed to do?

Pierce didn’t know how long he could just stay there doing nothing. So, he had to get creative. For one, he had to look like he was doing something. For another, he had to try and find a way to get more options. For both, considering his circumstances, all he could do was just… try and play the Rockets’ game. There was literally nothing else he could do in that regard.

Well, he could drag his feet about it as much as he could, but that was difficult without any way to know how much wiggle room he had in that regard. So, there was a lot of guesswork involved and Pierce was not a fan of that. He was definitely not hurrying up what he was doing at that moment though. No way in hell.

No, Pierce was being as safe as he could be… while approaching an enraged aerodactyl, that is. Every step forward he took was carefully considered. He let the minutes pass by, making sure that the Rock type creature couldn’t reach him. Minutes passed, maybe an hour or two. He wasn’t too sure. There were no windows and no clocks. The lights on top of the room weren’t telling him much, he’d admit, and Aerodactyl didn’t even seem to get tired ever.

The only measure he had of time was that he was getting hungry, but that could just as well be his mind playing tricks.

The point was that Pierce never moved a single finger in the living fossil’s direction unless he was absolutely, one hundred percent sure that he wouldn’t get killed by a tail, or a wing, or God forbid a row of teeth. As far as he was concerned, so long as he continued doing something, he had all the time in the world. That was his game at the moment. Dangerous, deadly even, but it was what he could do and he had to stick with it if he wanted to get a chance at doing more eventually.

It didn't stop him from trying to come up with different ideas, but so far…

‘Not aerodactyl resistant metal, huh?’ he noticed at one point in his observation, in his wait. Well, the metal might be pokemon resistant, maybe as good as it came, but it probably wouldn’t have been enough. He saw, after all, how there were flashes of energy here and there whenever Aerodactyl hit the walls. If he had to guess, there were pokemon keeping the walls from being dented or worse, maybe even the chains too. Probably Barrier or some other Barrier-like move, if he had to guess. ‘Here’s to hoping you’re tiring out a lot of pokemon, buddy,’ Pierce thought to himself, letting out a weary sigh as he went back to what he was doing.

Shitty as it was, testing the limit of how close he could get to the caged pokemon was all he had.

“I don’t suppose you feel like calming down, do you?” he asked eventually, when he was getting closer and closer to actually getting hit. He still had some room to move closer, but he was taking longer and longer to do so. Soon, he’d have to start having to dodge, which he was not looking forward to. Not even if he was pretty sure the only thing that’d reach him was the tail or the tip of the wings, which would be fairly predictable.

Pierce didn’t feel like tempting fate like that.

Alas, Aerodactyl didn’t feel up to conversation yet. If he did, Pierce wasn’t sure he wanted to know what all the roaring and thrashing was supposed to mean. Probably nothing that could be shared in polite company, if he had to guess. Which was fine, he felt like throwing around a curse or ten, but that wasn’t helping either of them, really.

“Yeah, didn’t think so,” he commented wearily, running his fingers through his hair consideringly. “Still though…” Talking seemed to only make things worse, by the looks of it. The sound of his voice seemed to anger the living fossil all the more and Pierce understood, he really did. He was a human, humans had trapped Aerodactyl there, and thus Pierce was just as bad. One plus one equals two, simple math.

It wasn’t right, but it was understandable.

So, he stood there, letting the thing rage go on and on. The most he managed after that was shuffling closer about one more step and that was as far as he dared. From there, he just waited and then waited some more. He watched every movement, every roar and stood his ground when Aerodactyl felt like unleashing another Supersonic.

He needed to understand the pokemon better and, while conversation would have been better, observation was giving him a clue or two. ‘Basically dealing with an angry dragon, as one would expect,’ he thought wryly. Proud, angry creature that it was, Aerodactyl made sense, like all pokemon… or most pokemon, really. He wasn’t some alien, mystery creature just because it was an ancient creature brought to modern times.

“What if I can get the collar off of you?” he said when there was a pause in the roaring, if not the thrashing.

Immediately, Aerodactyl froze mid-motion and silence finally was able to make an appearance in the room. With slow, deliberate movements, the living fossil twisted and turned, landing his wing-claws on the ground heavily and peering at him with dark green eyes. A low growl escaped from his throat, a snarl hanging onto his mouth, half threatening and half questioning.

“What if…” Pierce repeated more decisively. “I can get the collar off of you?” he finished, staring right at Aerodactyl’s eyes. “I’m trapped here, just like you,” he explained, getting a roar that almost made him think he’d failed already. It wasn’t followed by anything. “I am,” he insisted, pouring all the honesty he could into his tone and it seemed to work. “So… will you work with me?” ‘Please?’ he thought, but didn’t say. He was a puny human. He needed to have some strength to him or the pseudo-dragon would walk all over him.

He would never be an equal in that room, with that creature, but maybe he could have enough going for him to be respected all the same.

So, he stood his ground, waiting for an answer. He needed to find some common ground. Otherwise, he’d get nowhere with Aerodactyl and that would be, potentially, really bad for both of them, or at least him. Pierce wasn’t too sure about a lot of things since he was kidnapped, but he didn’t think he was wrong in his assumptions.

His answer came after a while and it was not what he’d hoped for. Still, the questioning growl was better than he’d feared. He could work with curiosity, no matter how skeptical. So, with that mild encouragement – or so he chose to see it as – he took a deep breath in and started speaking.

“Being in this room without the collar is better than being in it with it, right?” he asked, doing his best to carry himself as Protector-Voice rather than just plain old Pierce. He needed to be that guy. He needed to be the guy pokemon listened to. He needed to be the guy Aerodactyl would listen to. The guy the living fossil would let help. “I’ll see what else I can do for you after that, but I need you to work with me so we can do something about… all of this, alright?” he explained, waving his hand to gesture towards the room around them.

The creature was making a habit of taking his time and Pierce didn’t appreciate that. He’d much rather things go smoothly, but alas, no such luck. Instead, he stood there, entirely too close to something that could probably bite half his body off. Not that it was the first time, considering how much time he’d spent in the company of gyarados, but Aerodactyl was also one very much angry pokemon that wasn’t listening to him at all and seemed determined to at least try to tear apart everything around.

Pierce wasn’t feeling very confident at that point, which was… not new, but certainly unusual.

He’d almost have called it an interesting experience, if not for the whole kidnapped by Rockets thing. Shame that, really, but it was what it was. ‘Come on, buddy,’ he thought to himself, trying not to grimace. Because he could only remain calm for so long, especially while making no progress. He needed something more to work with, he needed to get some kind of win or he’d be quickly running out of options.

Eventually, Aerodactyl let out a sound that was somewhere between a bark, a huff and a roar. Pierce, for his part, took a deep breath in and nodded. That sounded positive enough to him, he decided. Now, for the other hard part, because there were no easy parts in the messed up situation he found himself in.

“Thank you for the chance,” he said, running his fingers through his hair again and turning around.

Turning his back on the angry aerodactyl wasn’t what he’d call advisable, but alas, that was the next step of his simple, crazy plan. From there, he moved towards the door with measured, calm steps. Poise that he didn’t really feel like he had, but he needed to keep it together, so he’d fake it till he made it, he supposed. No other options, no other ways. ‘Gotta make do.’

So, he reached the door and he knocked on it like one would a neighbor's to ask if they had sugar or something of the sort. He waited for a while after that, keeping his eyes on the metal surface rather than turning and looking at the living fossil that remained silent, probably with his eyes locked on Pierce. The plan was to do just that, but he was ready to make a verbal call if nothing happened. That would probably make him look less reliable though, less like he knew what he was doing. He doubted he’d be able to keep the doubt out of his voice, after all.

Fortunately, the door opened after a while and he saw Archer on the other side.

“Making a lot of progress?” the man said, a placid smile on his face that felt incredibly mocking to Pierce. That was all that he said and Pierce himself would have had a few choice words if not for how bad the situation was for him… Or if he could have gotten a word in at all, which didn’t happen.

What happened, instead, was that Aerodactyl let out a Supersonic immediately after Archer spoke. He wasn’t even half-way through pulling off the move when the door closed right on Pierce’s face before he could so much as react to the mess. His mind was once more scrambled and he only recovered after about a minute… or maybe more. He wasn’t too sure.

When he did though, he turned and gave Aerodactyl an unimpressed look.

The living fossil glared right back.

“That’s how you want to play, huh?” Pierce said, his worries increasing, but as they did, he decided to do something with them rather than let them torture him. It wasn’t smart, not at all, but he’d tried to be smart and he’d gotten a metaphorical slap to the face. He didn’t know what the fuck had happened to his team. He didn’t know what the fuck was going on at his sanctaury, with his school. He didn’t know how badly his girlfriend and his friends had it with what had happened to him.

He didn’t know a lot of things.

He did know one thing though.

“Well, guess it’s no wonder you’re trapped here,” he commented with a half-smile. What he did know was that Aerodactyl could have worked with him, could have tried to be helpful, given him a chance and tried something out. Instead, it had decided not to. “You’re an idiot, after all.”

He got a Supersonic for his troubles, but he didn’t care.

[} Chapter End {]

Hey guys! How’s it going?

Well, Pierce is having a good time with Aerodactyl, as it turned out. All fun and games, really. Sunshine and rainbows, even.

Chapter probably didn’t need to be this long for what happened, but I had a surprising amount of fun slowly going over the situation and what little Pierce can do. Not sure how much that’ll continue to be the case going forward, but I guess we’ll see. With any luck, this hasn’t been a painfully boring experience for you.

So, yeah, I hope you guys enjoyed the chapter.

Discord Link: discord.gg/UTDransjJZ

Random Question: So, somewhat inevitably… Which is your favorite, Omanyte or Kabuto? I’d add Aerodactyl, but I have a feeling most – if not all – people would pick it, so I won’t. Personally… I gotta take Kabuto. Looks more adorable and Kabutops is pretty cool.

See you.