Searching Far and Wide - 118

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 XI

Another day passed and Pierce was once more all but trapped in his room.

There’d been a slight change that day though, and that was the fact that his arm had been determined to be in a good enough condition to be put in a cast. Furthermore, he’d gotten his first dose – of a sort – of the magic medicine that’d help him heal the injury. To hear the doctor say it, Pierce gathered that it was like a small boost to his natural regeneration. It was a short-lived effect, but good enough to fix his bones where they were supposed to be instead of letting them free roam inside his arm and potentially heal wrong or having to go through surgery to keep them in place.

He really couldn’t put together what any of that meant or how it was supposed to work, but he imagined it was sort of like a weaker, more realistic cousin to the downright magical healing of pokemon? Because he’d been studying how medicine went on the creatures’ side of things and it was a lot like a serious look into a fantasy setting’s healing. On the other hand, what his doctor had said sounded almost like regular medicine from his old world, just with a few fantastical touches here and there.

Interesting stuff, for sure, but also annoying.

He’d have preferred to be sprayed with some potion and call it a day. 

Alas, he’d have to settle for a longer recovery. Still faster than however the process would have gone in his old world, he was sure. Unfortunately, it still required him to stay in his room for the time being while the doctors made sure nothing went wrong. The sped up process of healing had mostly been over before he was even helped back to his room, but there was still a slower part of that process to get through and the union between his previously separated bone pieces was tenuous at best. Hell, he still had Psychic pokemon in his room trying to help keep that connection from snapping again.

Pierce wasn’t a fan.

There was no getting around any of that though. He’d just have to try extra hard not to break any of his bones in the foreseeable future. Not something he’d have worried about before, of course, but some more motivation wouldn’t hurt, he imagined. He was not looking forward to spending a whole month or more with only a single usable arm, nevermind losing all his physical progress while he waited for his arm to be fine. Or, at least, most of it.

He’d been given some exercises he could do, but it’d be nothing like what he’d done before. And then there was the arm in question, which would require rehab just to get back to what Pierce had started as. It sucked, the whole thing did, but it was what it was and he’d have to deal with it. No way around it, sadly.

The fact that he’d underestimated how badly being trapped in a room would feel wasn’t helping matters at all either.

Pierce could study and plan though, so he guessed it wasn’t all bad. On top of that, he’d be able to move around more freely soon… Or so he was told. Whenever his doctors determined that his arm wouldn’t fall apart and set him back. That would be Problematic, in italics and with capital P, because it’d mean having to heal the fully normal way. The treatment he’d been given wouldn’t be usable on him for some time or it would strain his system and that would be bad.

So, for the moment, not much had actually changed for him and what he could do. It was just that he didn’t feel like his bones were stabbing him from inside every time he moved, so that was very appreciated. He needed to be just as careful, if not more so, but just doing away with most of the pain was great in his books.

“Maybe you should focus on what you’re doing instead of letting your mind go on tangents, Protector-Voice,” Cygnus pointed out and he rolled his eyes. He wasn’t wrong though, so he turned his attention back to the book he’d been reading through. If nothing else, his studies were getting a lot of progress, he supposed. “That they are. And so are mine,” the Psychic commented and Pierce turned to give him a raised eyebrow.

‘How do you expect me to focus if you talk to me?’ he asked in his mind and the kadabra was then suspiciously not looking at him. Pierce grinned. It seemed Cygnus couldn’t help but want to brag about his new special training. Just like he’d asked for pointers on how to keep bones together before, he was getting a crash course on how to support the now somewhat mended bones too.

Pierce wasn’t sure he’d trust him with his bones in case of an emergency anytime soon, but he was learning something, so that was neat. Maybe eventually he would be able to pull it off well. That’d be nice if Pierce ever found himself in a similar situation but without the support. Not something he’d like to happen, obviously, nor something he expected to happen, but it was reassuring all the same.

A bark and a slap to his good arm had him sighing.

“I know I know,” he mumbled, reaching to the side to pat Andromeda before focusing back on his book. They were so demanding those days. Then again, they were probably looking out for him, because Pierce was aware that he was kind of out of it. Between his injured arm, the limited activity he could do and the fact that he was, admittedly, still a little shaken by what had happened meant that he was far from his best. “Thanks,” he added, getting a purring sound from the vaporeon before he picked up his book again and started reading.

He was really hoping things would get better soon.

[}-o-{]

“You guys suck,” he commented with a disappointed tone. Resolutely, he ignored the glares his pokemon were directing at him. If they were going to be upset at their own skill issue, then they just had to get good, honestly. “What? Tell me you don’t,” he added, looking pointedly at the chess board that they were playing on.

The proof of his statement was all over it, literally.

Pokemon could be just as smart, if not smarter than humans. Although, admittedly, it was kind of case by case, just like with humans really. However, there were points in which they generally struggled for whatever reason. Some such cases were strategy and creativity without outside help, which was why they had the relationship they had with humanity, Pierce guessed. It was also probably the reason they generally sucked at chess too.

Nothing new, considering he’d played with the Water types back in Cerulean, but it was still kind-

‘Wait…’ he thought, blinking and processing that thought again. Then he felt guilt raise up in his chest and grind against his mind. ‘Fuck,’ he cursed to himself, considering that bit of information he’d forgotten about and adding new information he’d gotten during the last few days. ‘I need to make a few calls.’

“I was going to remind you once things were more underway,” Cygnus commented and Pierce glanced up at his kadabra. “You have your hands full preparing things for those that are already here. What’d you do with everyone else?” his pokemon asked and Pierce guessed that was a fair enough point.

There’d been more pokemon than gyarados in Cerulean that he’d kind of taken under his wing while they waited for ranches and sanctuaries to take them in. If the sea serpents had been his and part of his school since back then, then those should be too, right? That was the new bit of information he’d just deciphered from that random thought. He was really just a shit school leader, wasn’t he?

“A tad harsh, maybe. You are learning. Nobody is born a leader, or so my grandfather once told me,” Cygnus reassured him and Pierce turned to look at him once more. The kadabra didn’t often reference his family back at Pewter, actually, so this mention came as a bit of a surprise. “I see no need to mention them often, but they exist, Protector-Voice,” the Psychic commented wryly.

‘Pretty sure I mention my family a lot more than you.’

“A family you’ll forever miss, unlike me, Protector-Voice,” his pokemon replied and Pierce flinched despite the soft tone Cygnus used to say that. Despite his mental block, it seemed that his kadabra read his mind enough that he got glimpses of things that others often didn’t, like his family. At least he didn’t seem to ever catch anything about the franchise or referencing a different world, so that was a relief. “You shouldn’t worry too much about them. They are taken care of. They would be happy to come here, but you don’t have the means right now. So, you should focus on getting things ready to welcome them instead, I believe.”

‘That makes sense,’ he thought, but he couldn’t help but imagine those pokemon, sitting somewhere and waiting for him to call on them, to bring them back to him. Did they think he’d abandoned them or something? Did they understand what had happened?

“They do, just like the gyarados did. They know humans don’t always see things the way we do. They likely know that you didn’t even know the connection that had taken place. Some of them might even be of the same mind as you. You didn’t connect with them as you did the gyarados, after all,” his kadabra explained and Pierce took in the information as best he could. He’d need to understand better in the future, he figured. “I didn’t mention it to you because I knew you couldn’t take them all in, just like they themselves knew. Now though, you can, you want to and, furthermore, you’ve deepened your connection.”

A pokemon, Pierce was not, but he felt like he could understand that. He was working towards having the means of supporting that many pokemon. His sanctuary project was underway already. Grace was checking properties and sending him those that passed her own screening for him to check, with notes and all. She was also looking into the staff that would be necessary and the resources they had to obtain on top of a place. Hell, they might even need to build on an untouched piece of land.

Moreover, Pierce had called on the school of gyarados and he could understand that he’d changed things then and there. He’d called on them, called on their connection. He’d done so as a friend, but he could see how they might misunderstand that and, to be honest, Pierce himself almost saw it that way then, after the fact.

Or maybe he wanted to see it that way.

Because those pokemon meant something to him. They might not be his team, but they were far from strangers. They were a good step above those groups of pokemon he met through his travels too. Closer than friends, but not quite family. It was an odd relationship, but they were undeniably his, that much Pierce knew.

So, Cygnus was right, he supposed.

The connection had deepened.

“Bad moment?” a voice asked and Pierce blinked away from his kadabra to turn towards the door. “That was one intense look on your face. Anything I should know?” Surge asked, somewhat jokingly. Yet, Pierce noticed there was a wary tinge to his posture, to his eyes.

“Just discussing my changed relationship with the school and other pokemon I met in Cerulean,” he explained, taking a deep breath in and centering himself in the present once more. “I’ll have to ask the Sisters to help me find them like we did the gyarados.”

“Hm, I see,” the man commented, contemplating what he’d been told for a moment. Ultimately, he shrugged and walked inside the room. “Well, on a somewhat related note, I was going to send this to your manager or whatever you call that woman, but I thought better to give it to you personally. Think of it as me starting to pay off my debt,” the Gym Leader commented, passing him a folder Pierce hadn’t noticed he held in his hand.

“Pretty sure you did that when you convinced the Champion to give me even more money than he was already going to,” he commented idly, taking the offered item somewhat gingerly. As far as he was concerned, Surge had already done plenty for him with just that, considering how ludicrous the amount had been.

“You helped save Vermilion, Lawson. Do you think I value my city so little? I’m just getting started,” Surge said and Pierce almost felt like that was a threat, somehow. “Besides, some of these things work for me, for us, too. Because if you have that school readily available, it’ll make incidents like the one we just went through that much more manageable. It’s in our interest to help you out,” he added and that made a lot more sense to Pierce. He didn’t know how he felt about becoming an asset like that though, but he guessed he’d basically volunteered himself already. “So, I don’t think it’s that much of an issue for me to do this. I think I have an idea for a favor purely for you though, and I promise that’ll be the only one, if it makes you feel better.”

“It does, although I worry about not knowing what it is,” he commented wryly, drawing a barked laugh from the Leader.

“I’ll leave it as a surprise, I think,” the man told him, which was a little concerning. “It won’t be too bad for you to receive it, I imagine. With that said though, I have places to be if I want to keep helping you with this project. Check that in the meantime though, would you?” the man commented, suddenly looking exhausted as he looked towards the door.

Few words were exchanged after that before the man left and Pierce could take a look into the contents of the folder.

They were places for the sanctuary and the prices seemed fairly low. Nothing crazy, of course, but he’d looked into it enough to notice that they were lower than he’d have expected. Apparently, Surge had pulled strings to get him discounts…

‘I have to call Grace again, it seems.’

[}-o-{]

“Pierce!” he heard, making him jump and almost crumple the papers he’d been going over. He’d recognize that voice anywhere though, and he couldn’t be more glad to hear it. Turning, he saw Lily at the door, a big relieved smile on her face that he could definitely empathize with. However, he also noticed that his traveling companion wasn’t doing so well.

She looked like a mess. Her clothes were dirty and crumpled. Her hair was a complete disaster too. There were concerningly dark bags under her eyes and she looked rather pale. Pierce was pretty sure he’d never seen her look that bad, actually.

And that worried him a great deal.

“Lily,” he replied, still very much relieved to see her. After so many failed calls, his mind had come up with increasingly more awful scenarios of what might have happened. “I was so worried when you didn’t answer my calls-” he started before getting interrupted.

What happened was that she launched herself into his arms – or arm, really –, pulling him into a desperate, clawing hug. Not a second later, he felt her tremble against him, and then came the sobs. The most Pierce could do was blink, completely taken aback, and pat her back awkwardly.

Because he’d expected her to be angry or something because of the stunt he’d pulled, but this was completely different from that. It was very unlike her, so… ‘Of course,’ Pierce thought, paling. In all that had happened, he’d forgotten a rather important fact…

Red and Blue were supposed to be in the SS Anne, weren’t they?

And they were Lily’s friends.

“I’m so glad you’re fine,” she mumbled, her voice muffled against his shirt.

“... And I’m glad you’re finally here,” he decided to go with, softly.

That was going to be something to deal with, evidently.

The next several minutes – maybe even more than that, he wasn’t sure – passed just like that. Lily kept clinging to him and crying against his chest while Pierce held her and whispered reassurances in her ear. Eventually, he was glad to feel her stop shaking, but she looked like she wouldn’t be letting go anytime soon. Not that he was in a rush. If she wanted to just hold him and that made her feel better, Pierce was happy to be a human-shaped plushy for the rest of the day.

Evidently, his friend had been going through a rough few days since the incident happened and she’d done so alone. The least he could do was be there for her now, when she’d comforted him plenty of times in the past. So, that’s what he did, glancing up for a moment to see similarly worried expressions and behavior on his pokemon around the room. Evidently, he wasn’t the only one that had been caught off guard.

“It’s all fine, Lily,” he mumbled, not for the first time and likely not for the last time. However, this time, unlike all the others, his traveling companion reacted to his words. And that reaction was her whole body twitching and a sob escaping her lips.

“It’s not,” she replied, the words slipping out like a whispered wail. “Blue and Red… they were on the Anne. I haven’t been able to reach them and nobody’s given me an answer on them,” she told him and he grimaced. Yeah, he’d heard that the survivor situation was good, but it’d been a mess. Many people had been unconscious. Some of them hadn’t even woken up yet. It wasn’t clear what had happened, but it was hard to know when the pokemon world had such a loose hold on reality and its rules.

“I can talk to some people, but I heard there were a lot of survivors,” he told her, taking a more firm hold of her and trying to be her rock as best he could. “I’m sure they are fine. There were almost no casualties from what I was told,” he added, trying to be as sincere as he could while reassuring her. He didn’t want to lie to her, to give her false hope. He knew that could be its own kind of messed up, after all.

“Really?” she asked, pulling away and looking at him as if trying to decipher if he was lying or not.

“The Sisters were involved in the efforts to find the survivors. They told me they found a lot of people. Many of them were unconscious and still are, but things looked bright, or so they said,” he explained and he made sure to communicate his honesty with his expression too. “It’s caused some trouble finding out who’s who in the whole mess, but they are getting there. Have you contacted their families in Pallet? They might have been contacted if they are unconscious but were identified.”

“I called them yesterday, but they didn’t know anything,” she all but sobbed and he nodded, pulling her back into a hug.

“Ok, give me a detailed description and I’ll see if I can get some help.” Maybe he could ask Surge and have that be his payment favor? He knew the Leader had said he had his own idea, but Pierce would rather help Lily with this one thing. The girl was a great part of why he’d dealt as well as he had with the whole new life thing, so if he could help her in turn, he wanted to. “I can call someone-”

“Professor Oak said the same thing,” Lily mumbled and his mouth clicked shut.

Right, Samuel Oak existed. He’d almost forgotten somehow. The man was not only Lily and her friend’s sponsor, but he was also likely the most influential person in Kanto besides Lance Blackthorn, maybe even more so. He was likely on the case, and if he was, then nothing Pierce could do would actually mean much of anything. If Oak couldn’t get anything, then neither could he.

That was a bitter pill to swallow, but it was what it was.

“Right,” he mumbled, feeling a helpless knot forming in his throat. “Right, of course.”

“Thank you for offering,” Lily mumbled against him. “I’m… I’m just glad you’re okay,” she continued then and before he could reply to that with anything, she kept going. “I saw what you did. You’re insane.”

“I’m not gonna argue that,” he replied, a slight, weak smile on his face. That was more what he’d expected to hear when she arrived. Now, if only her voice didn’t sound so small though.

“Because you know I’m right,” she continued and he was glad to hear some energy back in her, even if it was almost nothing. “Who in their right minds goes against the sea with a group of pokemon that’s not even theirs?”

“They are mine now though, always were, depending on who you ask,” he commented, wondering if the right move was to talk about something else. Pokemon were a lot easier to deal with than humans, but he liked to think he dealt with those okay too. Alas, this one time, he didn’t know what to do or say. Or maybe he was more nervous about the possible repercussions and was second-guessing more. Both options were likely, he supposed.

“Of course they are,” Lily replied and there was some hint of honest laughter in her voice that relieved Pierce a great deal. “I’m not surprised at all that you’ve adopted a whole school of Water types. At this point, it’s almost the expected level of crazy for you.”

“I don’t know if I should take that as a compliment or an insult,” he mused, a smile tugging at his lips that became more real when he heard Lily let out a shaky laugh.

“It’s supposed to be a bit of both,” she mumbled, but the humor in her voice was lost towards the end, turning into a sob instead. “I was so worried. I still am so worried,” she told him, her hug gaining strength once more, as if he might suddenly disappear from in front of her. “You were here and they were there and I was… I couldn’t do anything. I was useless and you all could be dying and I-”

“Lily,” he interrupted, softly but firmly as his one-armed hug gained strength too, trying to offer her some silent reassurance before he spoke. “I’m fine and I’m sure your friends are fine too. I won’t be going anywhere, so we can wait for the news together, alright? And you’re far from useless. The only reason I was called was for post-incident stuff, actually. I wasn’t going to be doing anything at all until the whole thing was over, initially.”

“But you could do something,” she pointed out with a whine.

“Barely, and it just so happens that I could do something you couldn’t this time. Different skill sets, Lily. They are a thing,” he told her calmly, trying to project that to her. “I know you were worried, but if you insult yourself, I’ll have to smack you. Nobody insults my friends, not even themselves.”

“You mock me all the time.”

“Nobody but me,” he amended, drawing another weak giggle from her.

“I’m glad you’re fine, Pierce.”

“And I’m glad you’re finally here, Lily,” he told her, taking a deep breath in and allowing himself to be relieved she was, in fact, there. He’d missed her quite a lot. She was more of a calming presence than he’d thought, especially with his mind jumbled as it was. “Sorry for worrying you.”

“I’d say don’t do it again, but I know you too well.”

“Sorry about that too.”

“It’s fine… so long as you’re fine in the end.”

“I’ll try my best.”

“I’ll hold you to that.”

[} Chapter End {]

Hey guys! How’s it going?

Well, this aftermath arc looks like it won’t be short, huh? We might actually have another Cerulean in our hands, even though I had been joking before. Maybe I should have seen it coming though. I still don’t think we’ll reach that level of length, but I won’t be surprised if we do, I’ll admit.

That aside, I do hope you enjoyed the chapter.

Discord Link: discord.gg/UTDransjJZ

Random Question: Any ideas on what Surge is planning to give our boy?

See you.