Searching Far and Wide - 141

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 III

‘I shouldn’t be awake this early, ever,’ he thought to himself with a cup of coffee in hand. The sun hadn’t even finished coming up yet, the dim morning light barely washing over the clearing. He’d woken up with the first rays, for whatever reason, and he’d been unable to so much as attempt to keep sleeping. Even though he felt sleepy, as soon as he tried to lie down he’d feel wide awake and it was exceedingly annoying, if he was honest.

He took a deep breath in, enjoying both the chill of the morning air and the smell of coffee. It wasn’t his preferred drink, not really, but the smell was something he liked, actually. That and he needed to wake up, which was what tipped his hand in its favor and against tea.

Pierce took a sip of his beverage, feeling his body shiver as the bitterness did more to wake him up than the caffeine could ever dream to. He was still convinced that was the thing that woke people up and the rest was all propaganda. Beyond that though, he went on to close his eyes and just… hear the forest.

It was quiet, with most pokemon still asleep. He did her some movement here and there, probably a rattata or something of the sort scurrying around. Distant caws reached his ears too, probably a murkrow or maybe a murder of them. He wondered if any of those sounds was the houndour from the previous night, but there was no way for him to know, he supposed.

Idle thoughts like that last one plagued his mind that morning, but he welcomed them. It was certainly a nice change of pace when compared to what had pestered him to no end as of late. Everything was still there, the sanctuary, aura, Sirius and more, but the calm of the forest had a way of getting through him.

That was exactly what he’d set out to find by rushing to continue his journey, so it was nice to see his plan had worked.

‘Okay,’ he thought, taking the last bitter sip of his coffee before it could cool down too much and setting aside the empty cup. With a deep breath in, he decided to try and do some mediation. Not for Psychic Arts, that’d wait for the visit he’d pay Sabrina later when it was a more reasonable time and Cygnus woke up. No, he was going to properly try to train with aura.

He didn’t expect much though, he’d admit, but he’d have to start at some point.

So, he took in his sleeping team around himself. Aura was about accessing energies, souls rather than minds, which was what he’d been trying as of late. Aura could work in one of two ways, usually with both intertwining here and there, and those were internal and external aura. Internal aura was fairly self-explanatory, being the user accessing their own energy and soul, usually to boost themselves or pushing it out in some way, which was when it got mixed with external aura usage.

External aura usage was trickier though, more complex, because it could work in a number of ways. It could be the aura user interacting with their surroundings through their aura, but it could also be them accessing, touching the aura of other beings around, or even the world itself. Everything had energies, aura, even if pokemon were the ones more blatant about it. There was a reason why berries had “special effects”, just like there was a reason evolutionary items appeared around the world. Even humans had it, and not just aura users and Aura Guardians. Nothing as crazy as what he’d seen in the anime, when Ash would get torched or shocked, but they were more resistant to damage than people back home had been, Pierce was sure.

Everything had aura, and that meant aura users could do something with everything for that same reason. That is, if they had the appropriate inclinations and capabilities. That was one limitation that Aura Guardians didn’t have, apparently, but he tried not to dwell on the differences too much. It was overwhelming to think about, if he were honest.

Easier said than done, of course, but the theory and the proof were there… if one believed the books, at least. Pierce wasn’t sure about some of the points, but he reasoned that with all the crazy things that he’d seen and knew about the Pokemon World, let alone the things he’d seen in the media about it back in his old world, there might very well be truth to those insane claims and tales. He was about the last person that could question the possibility of something happening, admittedly.

‘This is gonna take a while,’ he thought to himself, eyes closed as he tried to find… something. It was like trying to find his mind all over again back at Saffron. Not unexpected, but the simile didn’t really fill him with confidence. All the same, maybe it was wishful thinking or maybe he was actually onto something, but he thought he could almost feel his team around him.

He remembered where they were though, so that might have been how his mind played the trick on him. Bellatrix floated idly where the sound of the flowing river came from. Andromeda laid to his side, while Regulus and Sirius somehow ended up in a pile of fur nearby. Cygnus was sitting against a tree trunk in front of Pierce, looking to the world like he could be meditating or sleeping with no apparent distinction. Orion filled a chunk of the clearing on his other side and last, but not least of course, was Narcissa, clinging to a tree branch above the tent.

He almost thought he could feel them where they were, blurry silhouettes that were different from how his imagination would picture them. Maybe the self-inflicted hallucination was harder to pull off than he thought though, because when he couldn’t take a good look at them. When he tried, they’d disappear, replaced by an appropriate imaginary picture. It was like trying to catch one of those nonexistent shadows that flashed out the corner of his eye.

Although that… that’s what made him wonder if it wasn’t real, rather than a trick of the mind.

[}-o-{]

“This is different,” he commented, sitting across Sabrina and looking around.

When he’d arrived at her Gym for the usual Psychic Arts practice session, the Leader had told him that they were going to try in a different setting that day. Pierce had taken that to mean she’d have him take a look at one of the other “zen zones” as he liked to call them, but no. Instead, Sabrina had told him to follow and proceeded to walk right out the Gym instead.

He’d been confused, for sure, but he’d just assumed Sabrina had some other “zen zones” somewhere else in the city. The Gym only had so much space, after all, and while it was used very effectively, it might leave something to be desired in terms of options. Sabrina struck him as the kind of person to try and cover all the bases possible. She could be surprisingly passionate about the Psychic Arts, after all, despite what her demeanor might have people think.

That was not, however, the case.

Instead, Sabrina had taken him to a cafe.

“Why?” she asked, as if there weren’t anything odd about going to a cafe for a Psychic Arts session. Less odd, but still kind of odd, was the order the woman had placed for herself. It was one of those brews that Pierce could never hope to remember, with way too long a description in the menu and a name he couldn't pronounce. As for Pierce himself, he’d ordered a latte, because why not? It’d been a few hours since he woke up and had his cup of coffee anyway.

“Don’t the practice areas usually have… you know, silence? Less people?” he tried to explain, glancing around at the talking crowd. The place was packed, not completely, but certainly enough to make him a little uncomfortable. Mainly because Sabrina and him were drawing attention. Or, at least, he thought it was the both of them. Maybe Vermilion had affected his view a little bit though.

“Usually, yes,” Sabrina confirmed with a nod and he could have sworn he saw some emotion come to her eyes when their orders were delivered. If he wasn’t imagining it, then that drink was either crazy good or Sabrina just liked it that much. It was a shame that Pierce couldn’t remember it to save his life and he didn’t feel like asking. “However, there’s two reasons to do this. For one, trying to use Psychic Arts in new settings will help make sure you don’t get too used to a particular spot. For another, it’s good to challenge yourself, trying to use what you know in a setting that’s less favorable.”

“... I mean I get that,” he commented after a moment, speaking slowly and picking his words carefully. “But I can’t use Psychic Arts yet, Sabrina. I barely got the hang of feeling my own mind. I’m trying to reach out of it, but I don’t even know if I’ve actually managed that or I’m just tricking myself into believing that. Cygnus hasn’t been able to confirm anything either,” he explained, feeling a little confused.

He really did get it, the part about challenging himself, but that should probably happen when he wasn’t already being challenged to do stuff, right?

“You’re not wrong,” Sabrina admitted without hesitation and Pierce could only blink at her. “There’s a third reason,” she added then. He noticed though, that she was suddenly tilting her head to the side as if avoiding to look at him directly. “... I wanted to spend time with you outside of…” she started explaining and his eyebrows were already shooting up before she even stumbled on her words, as if she didn’t know how to finish the sentence she started. Both things were most certainly not the kind that he’d expect from Sabrina of all people. “... work places,” she finished, and he could have sworn there was a tiny frown between her eyebrows that belied that wasn’t quite what she wanted to say.

“So, you wanted to hang out?” he asked, his lips pulling up into a half-smile. “You know you didn’t need to come up with an excuse for that, right? You could have just said so,” he pointed out. Then he held back a chuckle, because that’d have been rude, and ran his fingers through his hair. It was a day of surprises with Sabrina, it seemed. Maybe she’d gotten up on the emotional side of the bed for once. “Is there anything else you wanted to do or was it just getting a drink?”

“... I… wasn’t sure what to do, I’ll admit,” she said, still sounding like she was struggling to find the right words. “I picked this because I heard one of the Gym Trainers mentioning it,” she added with the slightest of shrugs. For the first time in the conversation, Pierce was sure that he didn’t imagine an emotion on her and it was insecurity.

He couldn’t have that.

“This works for me,” he replied, doing his best to be honest and letting her know that he meant what he said. He went as far as to project it all to the forefront of his mind, which he was sure she would be skimming. “And if you find out something else you wanna try or whatever, just let me know, yeah? Today or any other day. We’re friends after all,” he told her, grinning and trying to project as much reassurance and encouragement as he could.

Helping a grown woman that had superpowers be more like a normal person wasn’t something Pierce had ever considered a possibility, but there they were. His life was determined to make him face situations he’d have thought impossible in his past life, evidently. He was not complaining though, for once. Sabrina was a friend and she was surprisingly fun, all things considered. It wouldn’t be a chore to hang out with her.

“So, anything going on over here? How are things at the Gym?” he asked, because he was pretty sure she didn’t do much outside of that. Work talk wasn’t what he’d have chosen as a first option for small talk, but it was either that or the weather, really. Maybe he’d learn more about Sabrina to know better at some point, or maybe he’d help her have other stuff to talk about, but for the moment… it was what it was.

“We got some new pokemon,” she started with and he was happy to see her usual certainty back in her voice after the moment of insecurity. “There’s this chimeco that…”

[}-o-{]

“What a coincidence, huh?” Pierce commented idly, patting the head of a vulpix that was getting the stink eye from Andromeda for some reason. It further reinforced the image in his mind that the Eevee line were more fox than anything. It’d explain the attitude his Water type liked to take with other fox pokemon like vulpix.

Good thing Lily’s Cinder had never been too close to him. None of her team had, to be honest, but neither had his team been very close to Lily, he supposed. He’d never given it a lot of thought until that point, but it was a curious thing once he did. ‘Wonder why that is,’ Pierce mused, moving his hand to scratch the underside of the vulpix’s jaw.

“I was just checking in on a friend that has a vulpix, you know?” he commented, getting a curious sound from the Fire type. She was definitely interested and so, he decided to humor her a little, telling her about Lily and Cinder and what he’d last seen of them.

Checking in might have been a bit of an exaggeration, he supposed, but Pierce had sent a message to Lily. Although, it’d been more of a feedback message after watching a video she’d uploaded in his – or their, he wasn’t too sure what to call it – channel. She’d only managed to make time for a few of those so far, but there wasn’t really all that much pressure, since it was more of a side-series to his own videos.

“So, yeah, it’s funny that you appeared after that,” Pierce commented with the vulpix on his lap. The weather was a little too hot to have a fox-based heated blanket, but he wasn’t about to complain about the cute pokemon lying on top of him. He wasn’t a monster, after all. Besides, the softness made up for a lot.

A yip made him turn to the side and snort. Andromeda seemed to have had enough with the other fox, by the looks of it. She’d moved right next to him and was now staring, waiting. He could feel her saying “enough, my turn”, which was hilarious, because Andromeda was usually too cool for much physical affection that wasn’t some grooming or sporadic patting.

“You mind getting off? I have some pokeblocks that I’m sure you’ll like. They are for my friend’s vulpix, but I’m sure she’ll forgive me,” he offered, because saying that he needed her to get off to spoil his vaporeon would likely just set the two pokemon up for an argument or even a fight and he was not dealing with that. “Didn’t know you were the jealous type,” Pierce commented with a grin when Andromeda climbed onto his lap after he set a bowl of treats for the vulpix. He’d told the Fire type to take her time, but she seemed to have ignored him in that regard.

Andromeda huffed, but didn’t move other than to make herself comfortable on his lap. With a fond smile, he settled for petting her head while glancing to the side to check on the rest of the team. Apparently, Regulus and Sirius had somehow managed to pull Narcissa into a game of Tag. She was even actually humoring them, letting them have fun instead of just immediately rushing them. Because nobody would convince Pierce that she couldn’t tag Sirius in point five seconds, and Regulus in two seconds max.

That must have been a feat for the ages from the duo, he was sure.

Kind of sad that he missed that.

“I’m as surprised as you are, Protector-Voice,” Cygnus commented and he could hear the bafflement in his mind voice. “I’m also as curious about how it happened as you are, and I was looking.”

Well, the mysteries of the Regulus-Sirius combo continued, evidently.

Beyond those, there was Orion, who was taking a nap. The onix had woken up motivated that day, it seemed, because he’d pushed hard in everything he did, from training to challenges along the route. He had also, expectedly, crashed pretty hard, which was why he was doing what he was doing. Pierce was just thankful that days like that weren’t common, otherwise he’d have been worried.

One Narcissa was enough.

As for Bellatrix… Well, they’d reached the coast once more, so she was swimming around and checking in with the pokemon in the immediate sea area. Pierce really hoped that she’d find one or two that’d be friendly with her, but he wasn’t holding his breath. His gyarados, for all her adorableness, was still a gyarados and pokemon kind of tended to stay away from those.

“Told you to go slow,” he commented when a whine sound pulled his attention back to the vulpix. His words didn’t really do much to stop the Fire type from giving him her best kit fox eyes. Pierce was getting better at dealing with cuteness though, after being a push over for so long. There was only so much he could humor the adorable little shits before he learned his lesson. “I can’t get up to make more and I’m kind of tired too, so I don’t really want to. If you get me the storage box though, I guess I can give you a few berries,” he commented, making the vulpix perk up.

“You’re still a pushover.”

‘Shut up.’

Cygnus probably wasn’t wrong, but Pierce wasn’t about to tell the kadabra that.

[}-o-{]

“You’re free to do as you please, Protector-Voice,” Cygnus told him when he turned off his pokegear.

“Why don’t I feel like that, then?” Pierce asked, feeling a mix of guilt and shame curling up in his chest, eating him up.

He’d just hung up after a call to the sanctuary and it’d reminded him that all that was his responsibility and he was running away from it all. He’d left Grace and Misty to it when things were still getting settled. Nobody had called him out on it, but he knew things weren’t quite as good as they should be for him to leave. Work was being done and the school was still finding its metaphorical footing and he’d just… left.

A bunch of things had happened and he’d been overwhelmed, so he’d left.

And he felt like a coward for it.

“You needed time and you took it. That doesn’t make you weak. I make you wise,” Cygnus told him, trying to reassure him. He wasn’t having a lot of luck on that front, considering Pierce knew he was trying to make him feel better. Everyone lied in that kind of situation. “Only fools ignore their own limits. We often need you to tell us to stop, because we’re fools. You, in turn, know when to stop, when to not do.”

“You know I’m never gonna forget you called yourself a fool, right?” he replied weakly, but the attempt was seen through immediately. Even Narcissa read him like a book, jabbing her stinger at him as if threatening him would make him stop being a fool, in their words. “Still… we can drop by tomorrow, can’t we?” he asked, running his fingers through his hair.

“If we don’t visit Leader-Mind, then I can manage that,” Cygnus said and a picture of Sabrina flashed through his mind. He’d apologize for missing their morning practice, but he kind of needed to go to the sanctuary, at least for a bit. Maybe that’d make him feel better. “I might be too tired for much else, but I should be able to get some training done after that too. If it’ll help, I’m willing.”

“Thank you, Cygnus. I know I’m being unreasonable,” Pierce replied and, instead of annoyance or exasperation, a wave of fond reassurance washed over his mind. For all his prickly, sassy attitude, his kadabra was a softy deep inside. That tracked. Everyone in the team had that, alongside battle maniac tendencies.

What a weird bunch he’d gathered around himself.

“You’re one to talk, Protector-Voice.”

“I guess you’re not wrong,” he said with a chuckle. It was then that Sirius looked up from where he’d been half lying on his lap and barked. Pierce didn’t speak pokemon, for all that some people thought he did, but he thought that was a “are you fine now, silly human?” if he’d ever heard one. “Yeah, I’m done being an idiot.”

“That’s a lie if I’ve ever heard one.”

“Or, as much of an idiot, I guess,” he corrected, allowing Cygnus the win for once. He deserved it, even if he was still an asshole.

“Thank you,” was the sarcastic response he got after that.

“I think that’s enough of me moping though,” he commented, scratching the Sirius between his ears. “You guys can go to sleep, yeah? I think we can take tomorrow for extra training and battling, if I’m gonna indulge myself with a visit to the sanctuary. I can spoil you guys like that if you want.”

And boy, did they want, if the way they perked up and enthusiastically replied was any indication.

A weird bunch indeed.

“I’m gonna stay up a little more and then go to sleep, you guys go ahead though,” he urged them with a wave of his hand. He had things in mind that wouldn’t let him sleep anyway. Besides… “You’re the ones putting in more effort, after all.”

“Mental effort is a thing, Protector-Voice,” Cygnus told him and he rolled his eyes.

“Yeah, I’m gonna put in some of that mental effort before calling it a day, alright? I haven’t even done that much today,” he argued, and he wasn’t even lying. He’d mostly skipped the Psychic Arts training that day, hanging out with Sabrina instead. He could afford to do a little more before going to sleep.

“We’ll sick Fighter-Watcher on you if you overdo it, Protector-Voice.”

“I’d rather not get a Water Gun to the face, so yeah, no worries there, guys,” Pierce said with a roll of his eyes and merely minutes later, he was alone while everyone slept. He was pretty sure Cygnus was pretending to sleep, but he’d sleep for real soon enough. And Pierce wasn’t actually planning on overdoing it anyway.

He was just taking a moment to read up on medical books. He was getting places with that, he knew, and he might even get more than a simple First Aid License. He’d been told that he was going above and beyond what was necessary enough times that he’d started to believe it, but that didn’t mean he wanted to put any less effort into it than he’d already been. If he got something better than what he’d been aiming for at the start, all the better.

That’d mean he could do more for pokemon than he thought, and that was a plus, as far as Pierce was concerned.

It was also something… more mundane, something that he could work on without feeling like he was out of place, weird, odd, strange. There was some magic to medicine in the Pokemon world, but compared to Psychic Arts? To aura? To having the potential to be an Aura Guardian? It was downright boring when put besides those things and Pierce could do with some boring in his life those days.

So, he settled for reading the mindnumbing books and let his brain zone out the smallest bit.

In the middle of the relatively quiet forest, surrounded by a family that was all his and with some normalcy in his hands, Pierce felt the smallest bit at ease.

And he was grateful for that moment, incredibly so.

[} Chapter End {]

Hey guys! How’s it going?

I know people aren’t fans of Pierce having these low, sad moments, but I kind of like writing them. Makes him feel more real, more human. I don’t know how this became a part of his character, but that’s not really something new. I wonder what it tells about him though…

Other than that, yeah, just another day in the life of Pierce Lawson, but that’s what this story is all about, as I’m sure you’ve figured out by now.

With that said, I hope you guys enjoyed the chapter.

Discord Link: discord.gg/UTDransjJZ

Random Question: How’s the weather like over there? We’re having a cool day in the middle of increasingly hotter weather and I love it.

See you.