Searching Far and Wide - 127

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

Vermillion City XX

“Yes, you did a great job, buddy,” Pierce praised, making the gigantic stone serpent wiggle like he was possessed by the cutest, most excited lil’ puppy in the world. “I’m pretty sure that was Surge’s strongest pokemon in the Challenge and you beat them. What does it matter that you got knocked down too? Cygnus and Narcissa got it easy anyway,” he added, getting very scandalized responses from both of those.

Orion was a more childish pokemon, less mature and more fragile too. The fact that he was the only one to actually be taken out had bummed him a little, so he wanted to make sure the onix was in a good mood. They had won, after all, so he wanted them all to be happy. Furthermore, he did think the electabuzz had been the most difficult pokemon to face. Not only was it likely the strongest, but that one had countered Orion a lot more than the others had Cygnus and Narcissa.

So, the other two could protest all they wanted, but Orion was Pierce’s focus at the moment. Cygnus in particular could suck it. He was always being a brat, after all. Or, at least, that’s what he wanted to do, but he was a sucker and his pokemon had him wrapped around their fingers. Thus, his resolution crumbled like a house of cards.

“Idiot.”

“Maybe not, but you still did a great job and that electabuzz was a very strong opponent,” he said, rubbing Orion’s side with his hand, covered in the special wipe he’d gotten for his onix. He couldn’t give him the proper treatment “So, you should be proud, buddy. Same for you two,” he added, turning towards the kadabra he’d just ignored and the beedrill that he knew was glaring at him, even though Narcissa wasn’t from a very expressive species.

He got a huff from Cygnus and annoyed clicking from the Bug type.

“Yeah, yeah, I’ll give you two some extra snacks, come on,” he said, shaking his head and chuckling as he moved to picking up the aforementioned food. It was a bit of a struggle to pull them out and it had been even more of one to make the poffins. His team deserved the extra spoiling at least that day though. “Here you go,” he said, flicking one of the snacks for Cygnus to catch and offering the other to Narcissa. “Sorry you guys didn’t get to be part of the Challenge,” he added, petting Regulus’ head when he passed by the meowth on his way to Orion. “Depends on where we go, you might have another chance.”

There was a chance that they could go for Blaine, after all. Going to Cinnabar would allow for Bellatrix to be comfortable and he kind of wanted that. The most adorable sea noodle on that side of Kanto deserved a little more freedom, after putting up with being land locked that long. If that didn’t happen, for whatever reason, then maybe they could go to Fuchsia. It’d require a trip through water too, even if it’d be a shorter one.

Was it risky to get on a ship after the SS Anne? A little, he supposed. There was a chance that his knowledge would fail once more and there’d be another attack. There had been nothing of the sort that he could remember in any source material, but again, that was hardly reassuring. However, he couldn’t live in fear of that, right? And he didn’t want to make Bellatrix suffer a land-locked journey the whole time.

So, he supposed he’d have to trust that his next ship would be low-key enough to not be targeted if the Rockets were feeling a certain way.

“I can get us out of there if it comes to that,” Cygnus said, but Pierce knew that was an empty promise. No offense to his Psychic type, but it was practically impossible for there to have been no Teleport-capable pokemon in the Anne. So, that meant the Rockets had a way to avoid that. “Or the surprise didn’t allow them to focus for long distance teleportation. I’ll be ready at any time if I need to,” his Psychic said and Pierce considered that for a moment.

He could be right, he supposed.

Pierce would check his options, to make sure.

‘For now though…’

“So, what do you guys want to do? You won, so you get whatever you want, within reason,” he said, grinning at the entirety of his team. Sure, half of them hadn’t participated in the actual Challenge, but they’d still worked hard while they prepared, just in case they were needed. In general, as far as Pierce was concerned, all of them won or lost together. That was part of the reason why he felt extra-responsible as the weak link of their battling.

Regulus was the first to reply to his question, expectedly. The lazy lil’ guy was always eager to have fun and generally not do anything too serious. So, given the chance, he’d pounce on the option to mess around and play. Fortunately, half his team didn’t mind that and the other half would be happy to play too. It was kind of funny that the smallest and the two biggest in the team were the childish ones though, whenever he paused to think about it.

“We can get a training ground to play in, I guess,” he said, getting excited roars – more like a squeak, in Regulus’ case – from all three of the “children”. The adults rolled their eyes at the three. Although, maybe calling them adults was a stretch. They were more like precocious kids. Andromeda was the only one that gave proper adult vibes, really, and not even all the time. “Welp, better be on our way then,” he decided with a grin, rubbing the back of his neck before catching everyone in their pokeball except a clingy Narcissa who rode on his back.

He wanted to get there quickly so that they could be spoiled for longer.

[}-o-{]

“Told you it’d go well,” Daisy boasted, looking as excited as his pokemon had been. Pierce was a little less inclined to show how happy he was, but that could also be because the cultural significance of Challenge victories didn’t hit him as hard. At the very least though, he was happy because everyone else was happy, especially his team. “You’re good, Pierce. Have some confidence!”

“I’ll try my best,” he replied with a half-smile. “So, how did that thing you had to do go?”

“Ugh, why’d you have to remind me?” she huffed, groaning as she deflated on her chair. For his part, Pierce blinked. “You can’t set up your sanctuary and get some credentials fast enough, Pierce. That way maybe my sisters and I won’t be called by idiots that don’t know how to treat Water types.”

“That bad?”

“They tried to hand feed a sharpedo,” Daisy answered and he grimaced. Yeah, that was bad. Even he would hesitate to do that unless he was already on good terms with the pokemon. Really good terms. “Had the gall to sputter denials and say it’d been perfectly fine before and “suddenly” became aggressive.”

“These people know that you can just ask the pokemon, right? And like, use Psychics to-”

“Pierce, don’t try to logic with stupid people,” Daisy interrupted, giving him a flat stare. “It’ll give you a headache and nothing else.”

“Fair enough,” he acknowledged with a nod and a half-amused, half-disbelieving smile. “So, you wanna complain about that?” he asked, leaning back and taking a sip from his drink. Idly, he looked off to the side, where his pokemon were playing with hers. The rest of the Sisters had congratulated him already, but after that they’d just left the two of them alone for the moment. They’d have dinner together later though, or so was the plan. “You know I don’t mind listening.”

“Maybe another time,” Daisy said, and she had appreciation written all over her face. Lucky him, he supposed. Hearing her complain was far from a chore and it made her happy, even if he never had much advice to give. She seemed content to have someone to talk to who wasn’t her sisters, apparently. “It’s your day today, so I don’t wanna ruin it. For me, if nothing else,” she added, saying the last part quickly when he went to say something.

She’d seen his words coming a mile away, evidently.

“If you say so,” he settled for after a moment, an amused smile on his lips. “Did you want to do anything in particular to celebrate “my day”, as you called it?” he asked, drawing a huff from the woman. He was perfectly fine doing whatever, or nothing at all. His pokemon were celebrating enough for all of them, really.

“You can bet I do,” she said, narrowing her eyes at him and he raised an eyebrow. “But that’s for later tonight. For now though, I guess we can sit here doing nothing and waiting for dinner,” she added, huffing and leaning back. “I’m never gonna say no to a break from everything else.”

“Figured,” he replied with a shake of his head.

“I’m surprised you’re not exploring each other’s throats,” a new voice commented and both of them turned to look at Violet. “Lily was sure that’s what waited for us here. It’s why she made me come here even though I’m the one cooking too,” the blue-haired Sister explained, sounding more amused than anything else. “If you’re not too busy staring into each other’s eyes-”

“We only do that at restaurant tables over candlelight, I’ll have you know,” he said dryly, getting a giggle from Daisy.

“-then Lily and I were thinking about opening some snacks to pass the time. It’s gonna take a bit for the food to be ready,” Violet finished, resolutely ignoring his words. Apparently, the blue-haired Sister didn’t cook often, but when she did, she went all out and made great stuff. It was why the other three took up most of the cooking, so that they could leave Violet to cook for special occasions.

If he were honest, Pierce was kind of touched that they considered his Challenge victory a good enough excuse. Considering that was the first time though, maybe they’d been a little wary still when he’d beat Daisy and Sabrina. Or maybe those had come at bad times. God knew it’d all been a bit of a mess when he got their badge. Maybe something had been going on when he got Saffron’s.

Either way, he was just happy they were doing that then.

“Whatever you want,” he said when Daisy turned towards him. That earned him an annoyed huff, like she always did when he said that. It wasn’t his fault that he didn’t have strong opinions about a lot of things. He truly meant that when he said it. Still, he did try to pick stuff from time to time, but he didn’t want to risk picking the one option that Daisy would dislike when he was fine either way.

“We’ll go in a bit,” she told her sister, who was looking between them with an even wider smile than before. “You’re the one that’s gonna herd the kids though,” the blonde added, glaring at him as she gestured towards their pokemon. To that though, he just raised an eyebrow.

“Everyone!” he called and plenty of pokemon perked up. “We’re going home,” he announced, earning some whines and groans. Not all pokemon would be leaving the Gym with them, after all. “I promise we’ll drop by tomorrow, guys, don’t be like that. I’ll even bring some poffins,” he told them and that seemed to smooth things over well enough. “Gather around, will you? Nobody wants to be a brat like Cygnus, I bet.”

“Excuse you?” the kadabra mentally sputtered while the pokemon around snickered.

“Thanks, everyone. You’re great!” Pierce said, turning towards a giggling Violet and a pouting Daisy.

“No fair.”

“What?”

[}-o-{]

“I don’t wanna hear it, Cygnus,” he said wearily as he sat down and placed the plates he’d prepared with his pokemon’s help. Cooking hadn’t been a great idea, but after how accommodating the Sisters had been, he’d felt like doing something nice. And he’d woken up early too, so that helped. Still though, funny how he was more tired in the morning than he’d been the previous night.

“Why are you surprised, Protector-Voice? Weren’t you up pretty late with-”

“Cygnus, please, don’t mention that, at all, in any way,” he interrupted, giving his Psychic type a flat look. “You’re way too young to be talking about such things and there’s a reason I put you all in your pokeballs,” he added. His pokemon huffed, but the kadabra could do that all he wanted, he wouldn’t budge.

“I’m not a child, Protector-Voice.”

“Could have fooled me,” was his dry response. Fortunately for both of them, they were stopped from further antagonizing each other when they heard steps coming down the stairs. “Just enjoy the poffin, will you?” he added. Cygnus did as he was told, but not without a lot of mental grumbling. Which was adorably annoying, considering how happy Pierce could tell he was with his snack.

“Oh, wow,” Lily said, being the first to wake up, apparently. Or, at least, the first to get up. God knew Pierce tended to wake up and then stay in bed anyway sometimes. “You didn’t need to prepare anything, you know? You’re a guest and you’re injured.”

“I felt like it,” he said with a shrug. “Besides, my arm is fine, so long as I don’t strain it,” he added. He wasn’t even exaggerating in regards to that. The worst of it had passed already. Every day, the weak mend of his bones provided by the treatment he’d gotten became that much more solid. The concern had been mostly during the first few days, when there could be unexpected weak points that could cause the bones to re-break.

Every day that passed things became that little bit more safe. It still needed the cast, for sure, but that same cast meant that he could do anything that didn’t involve straining it. Simple things that would have been a pain before had become a lot more manageable and he was grateful for that.

“Didn’t make anything too complicated anyway, and Cygnus helped, even if he complained a lot too,” he commented, stabbing a bit of scrambled eggs with his fork. “You think we should wake up your sisters or not?” he added, to which the pink-haired woman raised an eyebrow at him. He should have seen that coming, he supposed. “You’re so mean.”

“Yup.”

“Guess I’ll have to go myself,” he said, taking a deep breath in and standing up. The question had been rhetorical, after all, but Lily seemed to feeling greedy, because she looked like she’d eat everything before her sisters could get up. “So much for caring for the guest and the injured.”

“Your arm is fine, isn’t it?” she asked, grinning at him as she shot his words back at him.

“Touché.”

Five minutes later, they were all sitting around the table, with her sisters giving Lily the stink eye. Pierce, for his part, was happy to just eat in good company. Besides, it helped that his night had been great. On a somewhat related note, it was a little amusing how hard Misty was trying to look anywhere but at his neck and failing. Amusing, but also awkward.

“You do know that the more you try not to look, the more you do, right?” Violet pointed out mercilessly, making her younger sister blush beet red. “Also, are you doing that on purpose?” she added, this time towards Daisy. If she was trying to make the blonde feel guilty or ashamed, she failed, because all Daisy looked at that moment was smug. “Ugh, I really need to get a boyfriend. You’re getting annoying.”

“You just realized that?” Lily grumbled.

“Jealousy isn’t a good look on you, you know?” Daisy asked, earning angry sputtering from her pink-haired sister. Pierce, for his part, just shook his head at them. The conversation had happened enough times that it had gone from embarrassing and a little funny to just amusing. “Anyway, you’re going back to Vermillion after this?”

“Yep, Grace is going to start working on all the paperwork for the property we’re getting, but we’ll start working on things immediately,” he said, leaning back and taking a sip from his orange juice. “Apparently, the owner is a very grateful citizen of Vermillion, so we can start moving pokemon in and work on stuff even though we still have to deal with that. That’s honestly better than any discount they could have given us on the price.”

“Not that you’d have argued against that if they’d offered more,” Violet added, to which he gave her a grin. True, they hadn’t given them a very big discount, but that was understandable. People were only so grateful, after all, and a property wasn’t a small matter. The price had been lowered enough and Pierce would take being able to start right away over that any day anyway. Otherwise, they’d have had to wait for up to a month, maybe longer.

Although, there was the fact that the League was apparently helping things go smoothly. Still, the power paperwork had to slow things down to a crawl should never be underestimated. Stronger than any Legendary, that was. Pierce was so glad he had Grace to take care of that.

“It’s what it is,” he replied with a shrug. “So, yeah, we’ll be moving pokemon there, getting them used to the new place,” he explained, taking a bite from his plate. “That’ll take the best part of today and tomorrow, probably. Then we have to welcome the construction crew and start hiring people and… Yeah, it’s gonna be a very busy time from now on.”

“On the plus side, not as stressful as a Challenge, huh?” Daisy said, clearly meaning that as a joke. Pierce nodded though, because goddamn if he wouldn’t take the sanctuary mess over that. At least most of what he had to do was just making sure pokemon were being taken care of. He could do that no problem. He also had full confidence that Grace could either take care of or guide him through anything else that needed to be done.

So, yeah, a lot less stressful.

“You’re impossible,” the blonde sighed, shaking her head at him.

Pierce, for his part, just shrugged.

[}-o-{]

“This won’t be happening again, you hear me?” Pierce asked, expression set into a firm stare. “Look at me, right now,” he added, and the gyarados in front of him grumbled something, half-heartedly turning to do as he said, if only barely. “Mister, look at me properly or so help me,” he threatened and the big red eyes locked onto his this time. “Good. Now, answer me, that won’t be happening again, right?” he asked, drawing himself up a little bit, squaring his shoulders and raising his head.

There was some more half-hearted grumbling this time, even though they were looking at him.

“What kind of response is that? Where’s all that fire you were showing before, huh?” he asked and the gyarados seemed to slump where it was floating in front of him. “Apologize to the kind trainer, will you? Right now,” he ordered, adding the last part with more steel when it seemed like he’d argue. The sea serpent wilted before looking at the person that was awkwardly standing next to Pierce and growling his apology.

“No… No harm done?” the trainer besides Pierce replied with, sounding like he didn’t know what to do about anything that was happening. He could have tried harder, honestly, but oh well. Pierce would have to make do by himself.

“You can go back now, thanks for stopping,” he said, smiling at the man and looking as he scurried away. “Where do you think you’re going?” he snapped then, turning back towards the gyarados, who stiffened, halfway facing away from the wharf. “You, mister, won’t be participating in any dances,” he decided, nodding when the sea serpent flinched. “And won’t be getting any pokeblocks,” he continued and now the gyarados just looked pitiful. “For two days,” he finished with, looking at the slumped Water type. “Now, Boss, can you take over here?! I need to welcome the rest of the school!”

A roar came from a little further away, where the biggest gyarados in the school replied.

Pierce had taken to calling him Boss, since he seemed to have taken a minor leading role in the school. Pierce's word was still law and Boss didn’t have much sway with all the gathering of pokemon, but it was the most anyone other than Pierce himself had. So, he’d taken to trying to encourage that. Maybe between Boss, Misty and whoever else they put in charge of the school, they could keep the more troublesome individuals under control.

Pierce could hope, at least.

“It’s quite different to witness this in person,” Grace said when he walked away towards a different part of the wharf, where people were teleporting and releasing the school members. “I find myself much more understanding of some of the things people say about you,” the woman commented, holding a notepad to her chest and looking at Pierce like she was seeing him for the first time.

“Reconsidering your employment?” he asked, eyebrow raised.

“Not at all,” she said, much to his relief. If he didn’t have her, Pierce knew he’d be lost. Paperwork might actually literally kill him. He was not built to deal with that nonsense. “If anything, I think I’m glad I got to hitch my wagon to your star, sir.”

“Glad to hear,” he commented, looking off towards where there were two people staring at him wide-eyed. “Those your hires?”

“Interns,” Grace answered and he shook his head.

“You paying them?” he asked then, getting a raised eyebrow in response. Right, of course. “Throw them a bone, will you? At least when we get out of the hole I dug us into.”

“Of course, sir,” his accountant – did she even count as that? He wasn’t too sure what her actual role was – replied. He’d leave it at that and check later, he decided. He had his hands full with the pokemon as it was. Nevermind the fact that his arm was bothering him a little. Between his night with Daisy – which he didn’t regret, but was still a cause – and having to move around a lot to help with the school, it was no wonder it was a little strained.

“... I might need to take a break soon,” he said, reaching for the cast and moving it a little, as if looking for a position in which the dull ache of his arm would go away. Nothing of the sort happened though and he just sighed, giving up for the moment. “Half of the school left still,” he added as he ran his fingers through his hair.

“Irene, bring two cups of coffee, will you?” Grace asked and one of the interns dashed away. Bad as he felt for the poor bastards, he would admit that he was glad they were there at that moment. Besides, everyone had to suffer through that at some point. It’d build character and he’d make sure Grace treated them well once things stabilized again. “Anything else you need, sir?”

“You not to call me sir?” he asked, receiving an even stare from the platinum blonde. “Fine. How are things on your end?”

“Advancing. I’ll have to go away in… forty five minutes,” she answered, checking on her watch for the precise number. “And then I should be back in two hours, three at most.”

“If anything happens-” he started, only to get interrupted.

“I know to call Lieutenant Surge, sir, don’t worry,” she finished for him with a nod. Fair enough, that was more efficient, since that’s what he’d do if she called him. Still…

“I really lucked out hiring you, didn’t I?” he asked, more to himself than to her.

“So long as you’re aware, sir,” she answered all the same.

[} Chapter End {]

Hey guys! How’s it going?

Well, we got the proper celebration chapter, sort of. And some more advancing on the sanctuary plot. There’s also a bit of future plans that will have to be built. Even I am not sure where we'll go from here. I’m kind of making the decision together with Pierce, honestly, believe it or not.

Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed the chapter.

Discord Link: discord.gg/UTDransjJZ

Random Question: What’s your guess on the next destination? It’ll probably be a bit, since the sanctuary is only just getting set up properly, but eh. 

See you.