Searching Far and Wide - 130

Teams:

Pierce Lawson:

- Narcissa, Beedrill

- Orion, Onix

- Cygnus, Kadabra

- Bellatrix, Gyarados (Shiny)

- Andromeda, Vaporeon

- Regulus, Meowth

Lillian Dale:

- Root, Ivysaur

- Talon, Spearow

- Gem, Geodude

- Star, Cleffa

- Cinder, Vulpix

Vermilion City XXIII

“... So, yeah, we’re over in that direction,” Pierce said, gesturing off to the side. “None of us want any trouble, really. We just want to have pokemon be comfortable and little else. Of course, that means that if you’re ever in trouble or need anything, you’re welcome to drop by,” he explained, picking up a pokeblock and offering it to one of the pokemon closer to him. There were very intent eyes on him, but considering he was surrounded by puppies, he wasn’t too scared.

The arcanine in front of him barked, acknowledging what he was saying but little else.

Pierce wasn’t overly concerned by that. The pokemon mother had to look out for the little growlithe, after all. He could hardly blame her for being a little cautious. However, again, he wasn’t too concerned. The puppies were adorable and friendly and the arcanine was opening up little by little. Besides, he didn’t need to befriend them. He just needed to make sure they knew about the sanctuary. Not only would that offer them help if they needed it, but it’d also make sure no unnecessary trouble went the sanctuary’s way.

“You want one?” he offered, picking up another pokeblock handing it towards the arcanine. The mother hesitated for only a moment before stepping forward and taking the treat. Wary, but not unfriendly. He could definitely work with that. “So, I have a pokemon or two that would be happy to play with these lot so that you can take a break, if you want,” he added afterwards and the evolved Fire type blinked before quickly agreeing.

Yeah, nothing like offering a parent time off of… Well, being a parent.

So, that’s how Pierce found himself sitting against a tree trunk with Arcanine by his side. In front of both, Orion and Regulus were busy playing around with the puppies. Somewhere along the way though, a few other pokemon had dropped by to say hi, get some snacks and even join in on the games. Pierce was more than happy to indulge all that.

He’d ventured into the forests on the other side of the sanctuary and even planned to go a little further into the neighboring areas. Not all of them were owned, on account of the place being on the outskirts of Vermillion’s populated area, touching outwards towards the Wild. That by itself was enough reason to try and smooth things over so that no unexpected problems came towards them from wild pokemon. However, that was far from the only reason. As he well knew, after all, pokemon could cause trouble even in the middle of a city.

Still, it was as good a place to start as any.

He wanted things to go smoothly for the sanctuary and he’d do what he could to make that happen. It was one of the reasons why money was kind of a problem. A lot of issues they might have had to deal with – along with much more delayed progress –, Grace was smoothing over with generous amounts of cash. No way around it though, if he didn’t want the pokemon to be confined to a subpar space for a long time or potentially deal with big issues down the road. He’d rather do things well than halfassing it and paying the price later.

“We don’t know how things work around here,” he commented, making Arcanine turn towards him. “But we want things to be peaceful so we can help those pokemon to the best of our ability,” he explained as he ran his fingers through his hair. “So, I’d appreciate any help we can get,” he said, leaning forward and regarding the Fire type, who was staring rather intently at him. “In return, if you guys ever need refuge, food or treatment, feel free to drop by. You’ll get those no problem. Although it might be a little tight at the moment, I’d never turn away pokemon in need and neither will my sanctuary.”

Pierce left it at that though, not wanting to be too pushy. He’d made his pitch – twice, even – and that was enough. Taking a deep breath in, he looked around at the other pokemon that he hadn’t talked to yet. To be fair though, having an arcanine and a growlithe pack on his side would be a great boon. All the same though, any help would be appreciated, even if it came from oddish. Besides, he wanted the forest itself to be on their side.

Refuge, food and treatment.

If they gave enough of those three things out to the wild pokemon, they’d surely start helping them out, even when it wasn’t strictly necessary. The same way the school had formed, but likely less attached. That’d be great for the sanctuary, to have that many hands helping out. All pokemon could be great helpers in their own way.

Granted, Pierce would feel a little bad for basically trying to recruit them in such a way, when they didn’t necessarily need him or anything. However, at the moment, the sanctuary wasn’t in a spot in which it could afford to be picky. They needed a lot of things still and they’d need a lot of things for a good while too. So, having a few pokemon looking out for them and possibly helping in the future? That was something they couldn’t afford not to try and get.

Arcanine’s bark brought him out of his mind and he looked at the resolute expression on the Fire type. It made him smile and reach for another pokeblock to throw at it. ‘Well, that’s a weight off my shoulders,’ he thought, because arcanine were nothing to scoff at. He wasn’t sure what else lived in that forest, but there weren’t likely to be a lot of things that Arcanine and her pack couldn’t help them deal with if it came to that.

Still, he’d be checking with every pokemon he could just in case.

‘Speaking of, I guess I should get up and get to that,’ he thought, taking a deep breath in and then pulling himself up with some struggling.

“Thanks for hearing me out,” he said with a smile.

Arcanine barked her response and Pierce nodded before leaving.

[}-o-{]

“Good job so far. I hear you all have been doing a great job,” Pierce praised, a slight smile spreading on his lips at the pleased sounds he got as a response. The pokemon in the water around him seemed to be in a good mood. Then again, that probably had something to do with the treats he’d brought with him to reward them. “Thanks for the help, everyone,” he added, throwing a pokeblock at Boss and then at Chief, the now “named” sharpedo.

Where Boss commanded every single gyarados in the school, Chief had gathered his own group composed of mostly fish-like pokemon. Other sharpedo, carvanha, goldeen, seaking and even some other rarer pokemon like qwilfish and mantine. All in all, Pierce was very grateful for the both of them, since it meant most of the pokemon that could worry the League and other authorities were more under control that way. Anything that was fully aquatic was considered even more of a flight risk, and that was something they definitely needed to avoid.

He regarded them from where he was, sitting on top of Bellatrix. The shiny gyarados had insisted and he’d seen no reason not to let her carry him around. His arm wasn’t as fragile anymore and Cygnus was on watch just in case he needed a quick rescue. The kadabra was even seeing it as training for their eventual boat trip and for battling. They’d need to watch out for a specific moment to act at some point, after all.

“Anything you guys want to do?” Pierce asked once he was done giving every pokemon around their reward for helping out. He might need to consider making poffins for Boss and Chief, maybe even those pokemon that were especially helpful. ‘Actually, that’s a good idea. Will make sure they put actual effort instead of half-assing it for rewards,’ Pierce mused. Although, he wasn’t sure Boss and Chief would let them get away with that. “Ok, we can dance,” he agreed when he saw the gyarados wiggle in place.

Before he could ask Cygnus to help him stand up though, the sea serpents organized themselves, poking their tails out of the water and over Bellatrix to support him. ‘They are great,’ he thought with a wide smile. Sure, they were as great as they were terrifying, but the more he got to know them, his school, the less he could imagine them doing anything bad.

“You guys wanna join?” Pierce asked, turning his attention towards Chief’s group. “Or take a turn after this lot?” he offered, considering it would probably be a little difficult for the fish pokemon to swim around the sea serpents, both in terms of space and that they likely were just as scared of the gyarados as humans were. They seemed to want to take him up on his offer for afterwards, so he nodded. “Sure thing,” he readily agreed.

And that was that on that front before Pierce started waving his good arm around and coordinating the school of gyarados. As he did though he started thinking too. The shows he was trying to organize to gather funds were in his mind plenty those days, for one. Then his mind drifted towards Chief’s group. He could try to make a show with those pokemon too, but he was pretty sure that’d just be a worse version of the Sisters’. The selling point of his show was that it was all gyarados, after all. Normal pokemon wouldn’t have the same effect, which was a bit of a bummer. He didn’t want to have them not be able to help just because they were friendlier…

‘Friendlier,’ he repeated in his mind, tilting his head even as he kept the dance going. Pieces of an idea started gathering as he worked on putting them together. Ultimately, he felt rather good about the possibilities. And it had the added benefit of needing even less money to set up than the shows.

“Pause, everyone!” he called then and the gyarados that could hear him all but froze. “Take a minute, I need to make a call!” he exclaimed before tapping on Bellatrix’s back. “Everything alright, girl?” he asked, getting an affirmative response almost immediately. “We’ll go swimming when we’re done here, alright?” Pierce told her with a grin.

Then he turned around to look at Chief and his group, who had been watching the spectacle so far.

“Chief, can you gather the calmest, most friendly Water types in the school?” he asked, making the sharpedo perk up. A quick response and an even quicker dash away were the answers Pierce got. ‘Say what you will about sharpedo, but they don’t mess around when they do something,’ he thought, blinking a little. With that done though, he turned once more, this time to-

Cygnus was already there with his pokegear.

“Thank you, buddy,” he said, taking the device and immediately going to make a call. Fortunately, he didn’t have to wait long for someone to pick up. “Hey, Grace. I have an idea.”

“You know, I’m starting to fear that’s what you have to say whenever you call me, sir,” the woman replied, a long-suffering tone in her voice. He almost felt sorry, but alas, he had his mind occupied at the moment.

“If it helps, it’s an idea to make money,” he replied with a shrug the woman couldn’t see. “It also might help to know that the more money we make, the more I’ll pay you for your wonderful, absolutely essential services.”

“Flattery will take you some places, sir,” Grace replied, although he wasn’t sure if she was serious or just following his half-joke. “And it does help a little bit. So, what do you have in mind?”

[}-o-{]

“Yeah, I think you lot will work,” Pierce commented with a grin as he held a horsea on his lap. He was pretty sure no pokemon was truly fully aquatic, but some of them could handle being out of water a lot better than others. Horsea was one such line. They couldn’t move very well, for sure, but breathing was almost no issue at all. To the point where they could be perfectly fine out of water for quite a bit before it became even a slight problem. “And I see you like the idea,” he added when the Water type on his lap tooted something cheerfully.

Then Pierce looked around, taking in the sight of the many Water types playing around or just swimming. Occasionally, one would come up to him and rub against his legs or demand some petting. They were adorable, that was for sure, and they seemed plenty friendly and tame. ‘They’ll work,’ he thought.

They’d still need to work on things if he wanted his idea to have a chance, but Pierce found himself optimistic.

There weren’t that many pokemon, admittedly, but that was hardly surprising. The school hadn’t formed from pokemon in good situations, after all. Most of them being at least a little wary, aggressive or fearful was understandable. If anything, the pokemon around him at that moment were the weird ones for being so… chipper. Not a bad thing by any means, of course, but certainly different from what one would expect.

“Ok, you like the idea a lot,” Pierce said with a chuckle when he got all but trampled over by the excited water types.

Maybe it wasn’t so odd, actually. These were pokemon that had suffered and some of them had lacked any amount of affection. He could see how some of them might find it very appealing to receive lots of it. It was also a little sad, when he noticed that some of them downright craved what he was now offering them.

‘At least I can do this sooner than the show, since I don’t need to wait for my arm,’ he thought with a grin as he patted a goldeen on her head. Avoiding horns and spines and such pokemon parts had become an unconscious habit at that point, after so much dealing with pokemon in the wild. ‘Something to talk about with Grace later,’ he decided.

“Pierce,” he heard in his mind, making him perk up. It wasn’t often that someone other than Cygnus communicated telepathically with him. Even less so that they called him by his name instead of Protector-Voice or any other previous title he had. “I hope you have time for a… friend.”

‘Always,’ he replied firmly, especially after that slight moment of hesitation before the word “friend” reached him. He couldn’t allow that. ‘Give me a minute, Sabrina,’ he requested before taking a deep breath in and turning to address the pokemon around him.

It was almost painful to say goodbye to the very friendly lot, but he sent them all Misty’s way. The girl would have a good time dealing with them. If nothing else, it’d be a nice change of pace compared to gyarados and such. At least, provided she wasn’t busy, but then she’d send them to someone else in the available staff. Which wasn’t a huge issue, since, again, those pokemon would be no problem even for inexperienced people to handle. Unless someone did something monumentally stupid, in which case they would be promptly kicked out.

Pierce considered himself patient, but there were lines of irresponsibility and incompetence that he wouldn’t accept crossed. Especially when it meant the pokemon would have to suffer the consequences of both. His sanctuary’s main focus was the pokemon and if someone was going to cause issues with the pokemon, then they had no place there.

Harsh, maybe, but he could accept nothing else, considering how fragile the school was, even if they were also strong.

With that out of the way though, he teleported back to the wharf. There was a friend waiting for him, after all. One that he hadn’t seen in a bit, considering how busy he’d been with the sanctuary and his latest Challenge. He’d been planning to teleport to Saffron one of those days, actually.

“I’m happy to hear that,” Sabrina said, proving once more that his mind wasn’t nearly as in control as he wished for it to be.

“Seems like I need a lot more practice,” he replied wryly as he moved to greet the woman. Oddly enough, he felt like he should still be more respectful to her, despite their friendship of sorts. Pierce guessed it had something to do with the fact that she was very… cold in personality. Not unfriendly or anything, but she didn’t have that welcoming feeling that properly friendly people had.

If that made any sense.

“Not really,” the woman said, a placid smile on her face that surprised him. “You’re doing well. I just got a little too curious due to what little I could pick up. I’m sorry.” He was pretty sure that was supposed to be a huge invasion of privacy, right? And yet, he was only mildly annoyed. “If it helps… Actually, this is part of what I came here for,” she said and he was surprised by that pause and change in words. Sabrina didn’t usually do stuff like that.

A moment later though, Pierce was being handed a book and when he took it, he checked the cover and the first few pages. ‘Mind Arts Etiquette, basically,’ he summarized, now understanding what Sabrina had been talking about. Maybe friends could delve a little deeper in friends’ minds? The same way deeper delves were allowed in battles and such? Something to check in the book, he imagined. For the moment, he’d give Sabrina the benefit of the doubt.

He had been curious about the topic for some time too.

“Is another part to host one of our sessions? Because I was thinking it’d been a while since I practiced properly,” he asked, closing the book and turning his attention back to the woman in front of him. “I was actually going to go to Saffron one of these days, but it seems you beat me to it.”

[}-o-{]

“You’re getting better,” Sabrina whispered in his mind and Pierce smiled. “Even with distractions… to an extent,” she added then and he was pleased with that. He felt his focus slip from him when she spoke the second time, but it was certainly an improvement over how his meditation efforts had gone at first. He’d come a long way from not even being able to feel his own mind.

He was no proper Psychic Arts user yet, not even close, but maybe he wouldn’t need to rely on the block over his old life’s memories in order to keep Psychics out of his mind. Not that he wouldn’t rely on that if he really needed to, but it would be nice to have other options. All the same though, it was what he needed to do if he ever wanted to be able to use proper Psychic Arts like telepathy or telekinesis. At the moment though, those were far off dreams, as far as Pierce was concerned.

Talent or no talent, the fact of the matter was that it took years for one to be able to pull off those tricks properly. Maybe he’d be able to share emotions with others or whatever the equivalent of that was for telekinesis. Those would be neat enough things to be able to do. They were, after all, essentially superpowers all the same and Pierce was all for that. Although, who knew, maybe those would lose their appeal after some time in the pokemon world and with the increasing difficulty.

There was a reason people in that world didn’t all train themselves in the Psychic Arts.

“I think that’s enough for now, if you want to take a break,” Sabrina added after some more mental prodding. “You seem weary.”

‘Days have been long since the Wave,’ he replied, taking a deep breath in and then letting it out. ‘Thanks again for coming all the way here. I know you Gym Leaders are busy. I really was going to go to your classes in Saffron, by the way.’

“I know you were,” Sabrina replied, just as flatly as usual, but Pierce thought he caught a hint of amusement somewhere in there. It might have been his imagination though. “And I appreciate it,” she added and there was definitely a hint of… was she pleased or just happy? He couldn’t quite grasp-

What little focus he’d held onto through the mental conversation was interrupted when a loud meow reached his ears.

Opening his eyes, he looked over to where Regulus had been training. Judging by the two holes on the ground, Dig had been successful. Now, how successful, Pierce didn’t know, but he was about to find out. Leaning on a tree, he pushed himself up and then walked up to his meowth to pet him. The little guy looked too pleased for that not to have been a success, but then again, the lazy creature could have a different definition for success.

“You got it?” he asked and he received a quick affirmation. Pierce considered the cat for a long moment, smile on his face, before nodding. “Good job,” he praised, petting Regulus some more. “Now, how about you show me?” he asked. Instead of a whine, he got an eager meow, which almost confirmed that yes, Regulus had finally finished learning Dig.

Sure enough, a moment later, Pierce saw the Normal type pull off Dig without issue. Admittedly, it was slow and the power of the attack coming out of the ground wasn’t the best. However, the move had been completed without any kind of problem during the process. That was more than enough. It’d be a few days before it was properly battle ready, but the hardest part was over.

“Good job, buddy,” he praised, beaming at his partner. “Come on, let’s get you something from the treat box,” he added, referring to a little box where he put poffins for his team. He couldn’t really make many of those, on account of how difficult it was to cook at all with one less arm. Thus, he’d come up with the idea of keeping basic treats to pokeblocks and using poffins on special occasions.

One such occasion being when they pulled off a new move.

“We’ll have to see what’s next for you, but that can wait,” he said, getting a somewhat pleased and not sound from Regulus. The lazy cat probably liked the idea of putting that decision off, but not the idea that it’d happen eventually. “For now, you can just sit with us or you can go and play with Misty and the pokemon of the sanctuary,” he offered and the meowth considered that while munching on his treat slowly, taking his time to savour it. “Think it over. Just don’t cause any problems if you go play, alright? You’ll be getting plain kibbles for a while if you do. The sanctuary is still getting its feet under it,” he added for good measure.

The last thing he needed was his own pokemon causing issues. No matter how small of an issue it might be, the sanctuary needed things to go as smoothly as possible for a while. Grace was still working on paperwork that they actually needed to have the place running as they did at that moment. It was only the goodwill that he’d amassed with the League that had let them start early, but that could easily go away too.

“You worry too much,” Sabrina told him and he almost was reassured by that. However, Grace herself had told him to be cautious and he trusted that woman. “It’s not a bad thing, admittedly. But we are on your side, Pierce,” the Gym Leader said and he nodded slowly as he sat down once more to continue their session.

‘Thank you,’ he said and he wondered if it was for the reassurance attempt or for the support or something else.

“Don’t mention it.”

[} Chapter End {]

Hey guys! How’s it going?

Almost felt like we were back on the roads with that first part, ngl. It was fun. Then we got some more sanctuary building and the return of Sabrina and the Psychic Arts…

I wonder what’s with me and my MCs having like a hundred plates to balance.

I really must hate myself.

Anyway, I hope you guys enjoyed the chapter.

Discord Link: discord.gg/UTDransjJZ

Random Question: What’s your bank account inf- Ahem, are you saving for or planning something in specific in the near future? I’ve been putting off getting a laptop that I can use exclusively for writing when I’m on trips and such, personally. I’ll get around to it sometime soon… probably.

See you.