Searching Far and Wide - 143

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

Route 7 V

[Pierce Lawson]

“Ok, that’s as much as I can do here,” the ranger said after what felt like hours but was probably just minutes. He leaned back, rubbing his arms wearily, which Pierce understood. He was feeling stiff and tired himself and he hadn’t actually been doing anything too strenuous. “If this were an owned pokemon, I’d have taken her to a Center, but…” he commented idly before shrugging. “She’s wild, so it’s better to leave her here, even if it’ll take her longer to recover this way. So… Lawson,” the ranger continued, turning to stare at him rather intently. “It’ll be better if she isn't alone… if her son and her aren’t alone while she recovers,” he explained. “I can’t make this an official request from the League, it’s not big enough, but I know you and I know you… care, so…”

“I’ll keep her company. The two of them can come along while I trek Route 7,” he answered before the man could properly deliver the request with a slight smile. He definitely knew Pierce, he supposed, and that meant he had likely already known the answer. He still seemed surprisingly relieved when he said that though, sighing and all. “How long should I keep them company?”

“However long you can,” the ranger replied simply, shrugging. “Pokemon are resilient. She’ll recover fast, so every day you stay with her will give her better chances of fully recovering before a wild battle can happen. Besides, this way, we can locate her easier, trackers… tend not to survive pokemon for long. We’ll have someone send you a message to turn on your emergency beacon again so that we can come and ask houndoom about what happened. It shouldn’t be more than a day or two before that.”

Well, that was a relief. It certainly helped that they could just question pokemons about stuff like that, even if it required a bit of back and forth with Psychic pokemon, he was sure. Better than no communication at all though. Pierce was happy to know that things were more likely to go somewhere with the extra information rather than whoever had set up that trap getting away with it.

It couldn’t be just anyone, after all, to set up a trap that’d do something like that to a pokemon.

“I’ll probably be on this route for a while, so it’s no issue and I always welcome more company,” he commented with a grin that the ranger returned. “Anything I should know about caring for her?” he asked then.

After that, he received some instructions that he noted down dutifully. Stuff about what she should eat the most and things she should avoid for a few days at the least. What she should and shouldn’t be allowed to do, or how much she should be allowed to do something. Those and more things were listed for him to keep an eye on, Pierce even got the ranger’s number to ask questions if he needed to.

He seemed remarkably friendly, all things considered, but that was hardly surprising. He seemed to be a fan, after all. He recognized Pierce and his pokemon and even made references to some of his videos while giving him instructions. All in all, despite the bad taste the reason for that entire meeting left in his mouth and the upset knot in his throat, Pierce did appreciate the lighter note things ended with through his interaction with the ranger.

It was short-lived though.

“Well, I should go now,” the man said, smiling apologetically. “But do keep your pokegear charged, alright? Good luck.”

And so, Pierce was left alone once more… Well, alone with his pokemon and the houndoom family. Speaking of, he turned towards the latter, looking at the still unconscious houndoom, with her leg looking even more unusable than his own arm had been for a while, and the very worried houndour. His already considerable concern and pity grew worse, but he took a calming breath in and moved on. They needed him to have a calm mind.

Or, more like, they would be better off with him keeping a hold of his thoughts. They didn’t really need him, as he understood it. Otherwise the ranger would have taken them to a hospital or maybe a sanctuary equipped to take care of them. Which wasn’t the case for his, yet. His was one where pokemon went to live for a while and slowly recover from things. About half of the pokemon there would one day be let go back to the wild… although he suspected a bunch of them would stick around, what with how they were part of his school, as it were. Hell, the ones released might not go too far, he suspected.

Still, the point was that his sanctuary wasn’t particularly well equipped to deal with injuries and such cases, least of all serious cases like Houndoom’s.

“Well, little guy,” Pierce said, approaching the Dark types and petting the houndour on the head. He didn’t even get growled at much for doing so, which reassured him plenty. “Looks like we’ll have to look out for your mother. You’re gonna help me with that, aren’t you?” Predictably, he got an immediate and enthusiastic bark as an answer. “I knew it. You’re a good son, little guy,” he praised and something in the houndour seemed to ease up the smallest bit at his words.

Houndoom wasn’t the only one that needed help, evidently. For the moment though, the mother couldn’t help the son, so Pierce would do that for her until she could. He was there to make things easier, after all, and he’d do just that. ‘First things first though. We have to get back to the camp,’ he thought to himself as he took a weary breath in. That was going to be a bit of an adventure on its own, he thought.

“Narcissa, can you carry her to the camp?” he asked, and his beedrill agreed instantly. It’d be a struggle and she wouldn’t be able to go very fast, but it’d do. “Cygnus, go with her, make sure they get there safely and help Narcissa set her down. We’ll go on foot until you can come pick us up… if you can. I know you’ve done a bunch of fast Teleports today already.”

“I can manage that much, Protector-Voice,” his kadabra reassured, but Pierce would believe that when he saw it. “I’ll be back soon,” he added, and he could almost hear the eye roll in the mental words.

[}-o-{]

“So, yeah, it was an… eventful morning,” he commented, drinking from the cup of coffee he’d gotten for himself. He’d have to get started on lunch soon, but for the moment, he needed a pick-me-up. Once he got through that, he’d be able to take a nap and finally get things back to normal, somewhat. He couldn’t wait. “And now I have a traveling companion, I guess, since my last one abandoned me,” he added with a grin.

“Ha, fucking, ha.”

“Woah, you kiss your mother with that mouth?” he said dramatically, placing a hand on his chest even though she couldn’t see him, and then he added a gasp for good measure.

“You’re hilarious, Pierce, truly.” Lily said dryly. It sounded like she wanted to stab him with words, which he thought was entirely too dramatic. And that was coming from him. “Maybe you should do a comedy act instead of the pokemon shows to make money.”

“Now, there’s an idea,” he replied casually, grinning widely at the aggravated groan-sigh that Lily let out. Truly, she was a gift that kept on giving and she didn’t even do it on purpose. “Anyway, that’s how I have a houndoom and a houndour traveling with me, I guess. Fun stuff,” he commented, decidedly not having fun explaining that. Just looking at the Dark type mother made his stomach twist into knots, barely allowing him to drink his coffee. Looking at the sleeping houndour on his lap wasn’t much better either.

The poor guy had been exhausted after taking care of his mother for days, evidently. He’d dropped like he’d been hit with Sleep Powder as soon as he ate a bit and laid down for two seconds. It was both adorable and more than a little sad. Although Pierce would have preferred he fell asleep somewhere else other than on top of him. Now he couldn’t move without waking him up.

At least he’d gotten his coffee before that.

Small mercies and all that.

“Only you, Pierce,” Lily told him and he could see her shaking her head. “Well, on my end of things… I have my Challenge in an hour, so wish me luck,” she commented, sounding eager, nervous and exasperated all at the same time. No surprises there though, considering… “I swear to God though, if it gets rescheduled again, I’ll go and break all the perfume bottles they have,” his ex-traveling companion hissed and he had to hold back a chuckle, else that aggression might have been directed his way.

“Well, good luck,” he replied with a grin. “Not that you need it, but still. Never hurts to have some of that.”

“You’re not wrong…” she said, but the way she said it made him think she wanted to add something else after that. Sure enough, after a few seconds of wait, she continued. “I guess this all confirms that I won’t be here when you arrive,” she added and he nodded slowly, even though she couldn’t see him. “That sucks.”

“It does,” he agreed before taking a deep breath in. “But it is what it is. I might follow after you, try and travel faster. I do want to get all the badges, so I should pick up the pace at least a little,” he mused out loud, leaning back and considering things. “Did you tell me where you’ll be-?” he started asking, only to be interrupted by a low whine and the shifting of a pokemon to his side.

Not any pokemon though.

Houndoom.

“Sorry to cut it short, Lily, but Mama Hound is waking up,” he said rushedly. “Good luck, talk to you soon.”

“Good luck to you, Pierce. Talk to you soon,” she said and he hung up immediately afterwards. As he did, however, he glanced at Cygnus and Andromeda, the ones he could trust the most with greeting and helping the Dark type through her first moments with them. Not like he could do much, considering the houndour-shaped weight on his lap.

“Hey there,” he called, keeping his voice low and soft enough to hopefully be reassuring – and not wake up houndour –, but still strong enough not to be weak and to be heard from where they’d set down the houndoom. “I hope you’re feeling a little better.”

His words were, however, greeted with a stir and a whine before the Dark type tried to get up. They couldn’t have that though, so Pierce mentally commanded Cygnus to push her down, gently, but firmly. She needed rest and not to make her wounds worse by sudden movements and such.

“Relax. Everything’s fine,” he told her and, miraculously, she listened. “You’re fine,” he continued, very glad to see the houndoom mother lay back down on the improvised bedding they’d put together for her. “Your leg’s been treated, but you’ll need some time to recover. For now, just rest. Do you want something to eat?” he suggested and asked, taking a deep breath in and sending Cygnus to procure some berries for the Dark type.

At the same time, he saw Andromeda approach the pokemon before trading some low and soft barks and yips back and forth with her. He didn’t know what they were saying, but he was pretty sure his Water type was reassuring the mother while the Dark type tried to wrap her head around the situation. Not that he blamed her, she’d been very out of it even before they found her.

She probably couldn’t even remember clearly anything that had happened.

Pierce was just happy she hadn’t woken up flinging moves about. That had been a genuine concern of his, but his luck wasn’t that terrible, apparently. Much to Narcissa’s disappointment since she’d been looking forward to a fight. He couldn’t say the same, admittedly. He wasn’t keen on having to battle against a crippled pokemon, no matter how strong the houndoom looked.

He wasn’t going to ask either, because he had a feeling the pokemon world would surprise him again and have the Dark type agree. He was not going to participate in that, no way. So, in the spirit of avoiding that particular situation, Pierce decided to get things moving in another direction before it could happen. He was getting good at that, herding pokemon.

“Go for it,” he urged when Cygnus approached the injured pokemon with a berry in each hand and a few others floating around his arms. “I promise they are good,” he commented. He tried to keep his voice calm and friendly as best he could.

The houndoom was looking very out of it still, after all. She kept glancing around, as if trying to figure out where she was and how she ended up there. Or, more likely after her chat with Andromeda, trying to wrap her head around the new situation she’d found herself into. Pierce could understand and relate to both things intimately, really.

Metal and blood and pain-

Confusion and woods and pokemon-

“Take your time,” he reassured, running his fingers gingerly through the son’s fur. “Your child is fine. He’s just resting,” he added. The mother’s eyes snapped to the houndour, but she seemed to eventually relax at the sight of them all, especially that of her son. “Eat something and then I can give you another rundown of what happened, if something wasn’t clear. But you need some food in you if you want to recover quickly.”

She didn’t immediately take him up on that though, but he expected as much. Instead, the houndoom stared at him for a long moment from where she laid on a bunch of mattresses they’d put together to build her a bed. She pawed at the bundle with her good legs, as if making sure it was all real. She tried to move her leg, but Cygnus didn’t let her do that, holding the limb down. She didn't seem offended, or angry, about that though. The attempt seemed to be good enough for her, or maybe that was his wishful thinking speaking.

Sometimes Pierce wasn’t sure.

Fortunately, this time his optimism was right, because the Dark type mother started eating one of the berries Cygnus offered her after a bit. From there, it was a good few minutes of the houndoom eating berry after berry and he even had a few pokeblocks that were probably good enough too. As it turned out, they were not, in fact, good enough. He got an opinion on how to make better ones though.

Apparently, houndoom – and maybe, probably, also houndour – were a weird mix of Dark and Fire type preferences with only a small sprinkle of dog preferences. Not unexpected, but usually pokemon leaned more towards one typing with their preferences, either that or their “animal kind” as it were, such as dog-like in case of houndoom. Granted, there were outliers, but in those cases they tended to go towards the other typing or kind when they occurred.

It was, thus, a learning experience for Pierce to deal with the houndoom’s preferences. He made notes to look out for cases in which they might mix the preferences of their typing and kinds. ‘Learn something new everyday,’ he thought to himself, leaning back. He mulled over the new information, bouncing off ideas with Cygnus and trying to get the entire thing firmly in his mind. He’d need to note it down somewhere as soon as he was free from being a houndour bed.

“Your son led us to you,” he explained eventually, when he noticed that the Dark type mother was eating less and staring at him more. “We called for help and took the trap off your leg. Then they treated you, but it’ll be a bit until you’re fully alright,” he told the pokemon, who kept stoically looking at him, as if it were the most life-like statue in the world. “You can stay with us until you feel better. We’ll be around the area for a bit, so if you don’t mind moving with us a bit, we’ll be happy to help. If you do mind, we can stick around for a day or two, until someone can check on you and ask about what happened so that they can catch whoever set up that trap, and then we’ll be off and you’ll be free to do whatever you want again.”

He felt like he’d done a bit of an info dump there. Maybe he threw too much information at a pokemon that was still getting her bearings. All the same though, Pierce didn’t want to leave anything out. He wished he could have gotten things properly explained to him when he first woke up in Viridian. Sometimes he still felt lost, especially when he stopped to think about it.

He’d gotten no proper answers, after all, even after all that time. He still didn’t know how or why what had happened happened. He still had no idea about anything, but he was moving forward all the same. It didn’t lessen his confusion and it still left him feeling out of place and awkward, but he was learning to ignore all the questions at the back of his mind.

He could help this houndoom not deal with the same bullshit though, so he did.

“I can go over that again if it wasn’t clear,” he offered and he got an almost immediate bark as a response. He nodded, smiled and started again, going over each point and making sure the mother understood them. He had to backtrack a few times, go into detail here and there, but it was worth the effort. Slowly, he saw the lost look on the houndoom gain some calm, some assurance, and he welcomed that change.

A pokemon who appeared that imposing shouldn’t look so vulnerable, ever.

[}-o-{]

“Curious little thing, isn’t he?” he commented idly later that same day. It was afternoon and Pierce had decided the day was worthless as far as traveling was concerned. Not only would it be a bad idea to move Houndoom more than they already had, but much of the day had been spent already. He didn’t think it was worth it to go through the trouble of picking up camp and setting it down for only about an hour or two of walking.

Besides, it’d be better to give Houndoom at least one day of peaceful healing.

Thus, he’d settled down and decided to let his team train for a bit once Houndoom was doing a little better. At some point though, Houndour had woken up and bounced off, running between and looking at every member of Pierce’s team as they worked on different moves. He looked like a child in a candy store, if he were honest. It made for a very humorous sight, especially when he approached Sirius and Regulus.

Where the yamper was all cuteness and positivity, the Dark type mixed in some… tsundere, for lack of a better term. He didn’t seem mean, or at least Pierce didn’t think so, but he certainly had a few rough edges when dealing with others. Not unexpected, to be fair, but something of note all the same. Regulus seemed to match that energy, giving him the same treatment he gave Sirius. Although, at times they almost seemed friendly to each other, like a united front of somewhat prickly pokemon. It didn’t feel like a coincidence that this seemed to happen mostly when Sirius bounded towards them to be part of whatever conversation the two were having.

Houndoom replied to Pierce’s comment with a bark that sounded both tired and fond. Like a mother that knew her child was a handful, but loved them anyway. He could relate to that. His pokemon were a handful and were getting even worse as more were added. It made him dread the future, because he knew he’d get more pokemon.

He could only hope he’d find an Andromeda or two more, because he needed some cool heads around, or else he’d go mad.

“I know your pain,” he commented as he petted her head and he didn’t just mean it in regards to her son. He couldn’t very well tell her that, but he hoped it came across at least a little. “At least you’ll have help taking care of him, eh?” he commented and he got a bark as a response that was a mix between “yeah” and “thanks”. “Don’t mention it,” he said with a slight smile. “Just make sure you recover well so you can take over again faster.”

He got another positive bark for that and he nodded.

With that done, he glanced at his pokemon, checking on their training. Nothing out of the ordinary going on with most of them, fortunately. Bellatrix was getting a little moody, but nothing that wouldn’t go away with some attention and playing after training was over. Regulus and Sirius were getting a little distracted for the aforementioned reason, but Pierce wasn’t too concerned with that. They were helping him with the houndour/houndoom situation, in their own, unintentional way.

Everyone else was doing either well, or they were dealing with things on their own without needing his input. He was happy to see that, especially then and there, when he didn’t really have all the time and energy on his side. Or maybe they realized he had his hands full for the moment and didn’t want to add onto that? He’d keep an eye on that. If they were really behaving themselves, then he’d need to reward them.

“I didn’t ask, but do you mind if we move away from this area? We’re kind of traveling, but if you want to stay over here, we can,” Pierce said, turning back to the houndoom. He’d thought about that a while back already, but he’d held back on asking until he felt like the Dark type mother was feeling well enough to be able to give a real answer. “It’ll just mean we’ll be out of your hair sooner, but you should be doing well enough by then.”

In a day or two, she’d still have her leg all bound up, but she would likely already be able to hold her own all the same. Not a lot of pokemon that would take on a houndoom, even a weakened one. On top of that, she was probably going to be extra cautious and he rather doubted anything would take her off guard when she was actively looking. That and whoever had trapped her would likely be driven away rather soon, or so he hoped.

His answer came in a series of barks that he tried to make sense of, reading her body language and tone as best he could. He got the feeling that she was unsure what she wanted to do though, or maybe he was unsure of what she was trying to tell him. He’d have checked with Cygnus if he were around, but alas…

“Are you not sure?” he asked and he got a hesitant yes as a response. “That’s fine. You have a day or two to think it over. No pressure,” he reassured with some more petting for good measure. “It’ll be fine either way, so we can do whatever you want,” he added, happy to feel the houndoom relax on his lap once more. “We make quite the pair though, don’t we?” he pointed out with a grin. “We have our handfuls over there to deal with and we both have to do so while injured,” he explained, gesturing towards his team and her son before doing so towards his cast and her bandages.

The mother huffed a laugh that had him letting out a chuckle of his own.

“I know you agree with me,” he said, getting what he was sure was an agreement in the form of some light barking. “Well, at least we’re not alone, eh?”

The Dark type barked again, and if he didn’t know better, Pierce would have said she was pressing onto his lap a little more than before.

[} Chapter End {]

Hey guys! How’s it going?

Well, that’s the “end” of this part. Not really the end of the arc, if it can be called that, but it’s not always that I spend more than one chapter to address any one situation. In the sense of it all happening in a single day, is what I mean. Plenty of things that take days or weeks or months do take a whole lot of chapters, but those are different kinds of situations… at least in my head.

Anyway, I hope you guys enjoyed the chapter.

Discord Link: discord.gg/UTDransjJZ

Random Question: Are you good at picking gifts? I absolutely suck at it. I never, ever, know what to give people. I wish I could just go and ask them… maybe I should start doing that, actually.

See you.