Searching Far and Wide - 116

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 IX

[Pierce Lawson]

“Couldn’t help yourself, huh?” he asked, weary eyes locked on the sea noodles in front of him. At least they had the decency to look ashamed, he supposed. Not that it meant much when they had apparently decided that picking a fight amongst themselves was a great idea. “You’re not getting any treats,” he declared and evidently only one of the troublemakers knew how bad that was, because the others seemed relieved by that decision.

That is, until they noticed how the core members of the school reacted.

Then, they seemed a little nervous.

‘Good.’

“Now, you’re all going to behave,” he told them, simply and bluntly. Because those days, he didn’t have much energy to spare. “If you don’t, so help me, you won’t have any snacks until you learn, is that clear? It’ll be bland kibble for as long as you decide to be stubborn,” he explained and every single pokemon was looking at him warily.

One of the smaller pokemon, a goldeen, swam up to him and he patted its- her head, if he wasn’t guessing wrong with the clues he had.

“Do behave though, please,” he continued, a smile tugging at his lips as he regarded the school. They weren’t his team, not at all, but they also weren’t the same as the pokemon he met every so often on the road or on jobs. They were closer than that. “That way I can focus on recovering and we can have fun once that’s out of the way. Have the old gang taught you how to dance yet?” he commented and there was one gyarados off to the side that scoffed.

Pierce almost wanted to channel his inner Andromeda and roll his eyes at him.

“Well, if you don’t think you can manage, that’s fine,” he commented casually, drawing a sharp glare from the sea serpent. The core group looked like they were barely holding back chuckles. “These guys have trained on that a lot, so there’s no shame if you can’t match them. We can do something else if you guys want.”

As if.

With the competitive spirit properly stoked – laughably easily, he had to add –, they’d be giving it their all. Granted, gyarados made up the majority of the school, so that meant that his attempt would be as effective as trying to get children to play “who stays quiet the longest”. They’d find a way to do so aggressively and fail miserably at the objective of the game. However, something was better than nothing, he supposed, so it’d have to do.

“Couldn’t be more right if you tried,” Cygnus commented, teleporting next to him and Pierce turned to give his kadabra a grin. “Some of them are already glaring at each other,” the Psychic ratted out, flinching when Pierce pointed that out in his mind. “Could you stop calling me a snitch? This is information you should have.”

‘I know. It’s just hilarious how you react to it every time,’ he commented, getting a glare from his pokemon. Alas, he couldn’t continue bantering with Cygnus, as Andromeda reminded him with a slap of her tail. ‘Right, restless school.’

“Will you behave? Because I can’t keep coming here all the time. I need time to heal, unlike you lot,” Pierce said, turning back towards the pokemon in the water and gesturing towards his injured arm. Several of the Water types flinched and grimaced. He appreciated the sentiment, he truly did, but he’d rather they show it in their actions instead of their expressions.

There was unease in them when he mentioned recovering though. Unfortunately, Pierce didn’t speak pokemon, nor was he a Psychic, no matter how much people said he was. Sometimes he had an easy time reading pokemon body language, but others, he was as clueless as the next guy. That was one such case, for the most part. Although, he did have a guess.

‘Mine, ours,’ he thought, receiving a mental hum from Cygnus.

“I swear, I’ll do my best to make it worth the trouble, alright? I’m not just going to send you all away or anything. So… bear with me, will you?” he asked and several of the pokemon perked up. He gave them a tentative smile. “If you’ll have me, I’ll do my best to take care of you, all of you. We’re a school now, after all. You are in my school now,” he said, correcting a little at the end when he noticed that he had to.

Commanding them was a lot easier when under pressure, funnily enough. Now that there was no imminent danger or anything, he had to be more careful with what he said. He was getting the hang of it rather quickly though, thankfully.

“So… I guess we’re stuck with each other,” he added, very aware that they were staring rather intently at him. Still, somehow, Pierce found himself more comforted than nervous about that fact. Yet another connection, another set of roots, that made his place in that new world all the more solid. Pierce was growing used to that, growing fond of that. Instead of melancholic, it was… reassuring. “I’ll see you guys soon, alright? Try to behave yourselves.”

And with that said, he caught the members of his team and turned towards Cygnus to teleport him back to his hospital room.

Not before waving at the school one last time though.

Then, back in his “jail cell”, as it were, Pierce considered his most recent plan. Grace thought he’d lost it, but she was still looking into things for him and trying to see if there was even a chance of it happening. He was optimistic though, especially considering the influx of cash that was coming his way.

There was a lot of work to do though.

[}-o-{]

“Here’s a hilarious one,” Daisy commented and Pierce just groaned. She was great, truly, but apparently she’d gotten off the bed that day with the express intention to be as annoying as possible. Maybe she was channeling her inner Lily or something. Regulus was decidedly not helping though, following the woman’s energy and being highly amused. “Ahem, how much you guys wanna bet Proxyman was throwing snacks at those pokemon to get them to join,” Daisy read after clearing her throat, bursting into giggles when she finished.

His new… girlfriend? They hadn’t talked about that yet, actually. Either way, the woman had apparently decided that reading comments on recent videos about him was the height of comedy and entertainment. She’d also taken to doing so out loud, which was all sorts of embarrassing.

“Oh, oh, and what about this one?! Can we walk about the moment when Proxyman took over for everyone and held back the wave on his own?!” Daisy read, laughing out loud like that was the funniest thing she’d ever seen. “Oh my God, people are going to fall over themselves for you. Wouldn’t surprise me if you became more popular than my sisters and I.”

“You’re exaggerating,” he mumbled, looking away from her. He really hoped she was exaggerating. It was already awkward to travel and come across people that knew him and even admired him. If he became even more of a public figure, he might just cringe to death. “You are, aren’t you?”

“You wish,” Daisy answered, sounding entirely too happy. “This is going to be great. You know? Going into this, I didn’t think I’d be the one with less popularity in this relationship. I had thought you might go through the same problem some exes of mine had where they felt too small. Now I think I’ll learn how that felt instead,” she commented, but it was obvious that she was just joking, considering the wide smile on her face.

“Ha, ha, ha,” Pierce fake laughed dryly. “Fuck, this is going to be awful, isn’t it?”

“I mean, the more well known you are, the easier it’ll be for you to make this new business idea of yours work out. At least, without going bankrupt right off the bat,” Daisy pointed out and he had to agree that it’d be a plus. He didn’t have to like it though. “Speaking of, that’s… a very you thing to do, I’ll admit,” she added, her expression softening into something warm and fond. Pierce almost expected a “but” there though, because his idea was… hasty, if nothing else.

That kind of thing would usually require more planning and preparation, but alas, he didn’t have the time for that.

“But…?” he urged when Daisy just trailed off, as if the words had abandoned her. However, she didn’t seem uncomfortable or like she was hesitating to say something he might not like to hear. Instead, she just seemed… thoughtful.

“But nothing. If anyone can make it work, that’s you, Pierce. And Grace is on the case. I’ve heard that she’s asking around a lot, putting a lot of work into that. I don’t think she’d let you fail miserably,” Daisy told him and he hadn’t known how worried he was until she offered him that measure of reassurance. “I hope it works for you, Pierce. A lot of good could come out of that. And… I guess this is another one of your steps to find your place in the world, huh?”

“The biggest, probably,” he answered, a smile on his face.

In all honesty, he expected this one step to be the most decisive too. It felt like it was, at least, and he wasn’t even actually going through with it just yet. Once it was done though, he’d never be able to even pretend like he didn’t belong to the Pokemon world. He’d stop being halfway between his old world and the new one.

Setting roots and starting over, for real this time, that’s what it all was.

“I feel like I should be more apprehensive, but I’m not,” Pierce commented out loud, more to himself than to Daisy. “I should, shouldn’t I?”

“The way I see it,” the woman started answering, leaving aside the tablet she’d been using and moving to sit beside him. She took his hand and smiled encouragingly at him. “That might be because you’re ready to take that step, don’t you think?”

“Hm, you might be onto something,” he replied and he quite liked the sound of that. “My situation aside though, how are things going for you and everyone else?”

“Well, a lot more people than we expected survived the SS Anne, so that was great,” she told him and that was news to him. Maybe he’d see a report on that soon, he supposed. Although, she didn’t look as happy as one would think. If anything, she looked… suspicious. “Yeah… we don’t know how so many people survived such a mess. We didn’t expect anyone,” she explained, noticing that he noticed something was wrong. “We’re looking into it, but as it is… We’re tentatively grateful for the miracle.”

Her tone left no doubt that she didn't believe it was such.

What a mess, and he thought the Wave had been bad enough, now there was even more behind it than it was already suspected? If only he remembered any of the plot involving the SS Anne. It might be one of those moments where canon knowledge was useless, but Pierce at least would have liked confirmation. As it was, the whole thing left him feeling dread and little else.

“Something for us to worry about though,” Daisy told him, squeezing his hand and beaming at him. “You have enough on your plate without this nonsense, don’t you think?” She wasn’t wrong about that, but it hardly meant he could pull his mind away from that topic. “Speaking of not worrying about things…” she said, acting coy, the air of seriousness vanishing immediately.

The kiss she gave him definitely helped him not worry about much, he’d admit.

[}-o-{]

“You know, you guys should be the ones taking care of me,” Pierce pointed out with a bemused grin. Still, he didn’t stop rubbing the special wipe over Narcissa’s abdomen. It felt like forever since the last time he spoiled his team, even though it’d been a few days at most, so he appreciated the opportunity. Sure, it was awkward and a little uncomfortable with the splint. He also had to take it very slow, else he risked messing up his arm and that’d be a very dumb way to do so. However, Pierce was happy if his pokemon were happy, so he stuck to it.

Andromeda huffed at him from where she was curled up on the couch next to Regulus. Fair enough. It seemed his pokemon had seen through him. He didn’t need them to fuss over him, not really. What he needed was… normalcy, after the very much not normal day he’d had during the Wave Incident.

It was a somewhat stupid decision, he knew, but his pokemon were indulging him all the same. In a way, he supposed that was them spoiling him. Odd, but then again, nobody had ever accused him of being normal, at least not in the Pokemon world, no matter how much he insisted that he was. Might as well embrace his supposed eccentricity, right?

“You know that you’re supposed to be next, right?” Pierce asked, raising an eyebrow at the vaporeon. In turn, she mimicked the gesture right back at him. With a short chuckle, he shook his head and silently admitted defeat. He was a pushover for his pokemon, he supposed. “You could stand to be a little kinder, you know? I’m injured,” he commented with no heat whatsoever in his voice.

He was pretty sure his whole team – those present, at least – rolled their eyes at him, if only in their minds… Well, Andromeda did so outwardly too, but he didn’t expect any different from her. She wasn’t one to disguise her displeasure. Even Cygnus had bursts of sympathy and kindness, rare and disturbing as they were – “Hey!” –, but Andromeda? She was a direct pokemon, that was for sure.

“You know what? Regulus is next now,” he decided, making the cat pokemon perk up and meow excitedly. He was very much fine with that arrangement, evidently. His vaporeon was less so, but the grumpy Water type could deal with it, Pierce decided. A pushover, he might be, but that didn’t mean he’d roll over and let them walk all over him… at least not every time.

“Keep telling yourself that, Protector-Voice,” Cygnus told him, but he thoroughly ignored the Psychic type. He’d continue entertaining his delusions, if it was all the same to him. “It’s not.” Well, too bad. “Being trapped here isn’t good for your mental health, Protector-Voice.” He could tell him something he didn’t know, honestly. “You should try to get out as soon as possible. It’ll help you,” Cygnus said and Pierce considered that, mainly because it was meant seriously.

Well, doing much of anything would likely be bad for him until his cast was in place. Even then, he probably should wait until he got his first super-treatment to get his bones started fixing themselves together. After that was done, he’d be much freer, even if his arm would still be unusable.

At least then he’d be able to move around a little. Should at least allow him to have his team training again. He knew them and he knew they were all probably itching to get some progress underway again. Well, everyone but Regulus, he supposed. The meowth was probably happy to have the time to be as lazy as his cat heart could want.

“We can wait, Protector-Voice,” Cygnus said, but Pierce didn’t really believe him. Again, he knew his team. It was fine though. He’d take care of himself first, since he doubted they’d appreciate him worsening his condition. “You got that right.” If only because it’d mean more delay on training and such. “You’re such an idiot…”

In the meantime… Well, he’d do what he could, which was some minor spoiling for his pokemon, but most of all studying. Pierce was using a lot of time to read through his medical books and to look up information for the training of his team. That and researching for his latest project. It would require a lot of that too. There was a silver lining to being bedridden, he supposed, because he needed time to just sit down and read more than ever.

“You’re done girl. It’s Regulus’ time,” he told Narcissa, scratching a spot on the side of her head, just before her mandibles. She stirred a little, shaking off the evident sleepiness that had overtaken her. Then she lazily buzzed off before dropping on a chair in the room. It seemed someone had enjoyed her massage a little too much. Not even a second later, his meowth was already on his lap, replacing the beedrill.

Not that he expected differently.

“You guys want to go with Daisy whenever she drops by? I’ll ask her to let out Orion and Bella again,” he commented idly and all of his pokemon seemed to pause to consider that. Ultimately, he got the answers he expected. Narcissa and Regulus wanted to stay and Cygnus and Andromeda accepted going. The responsible duo would always be reliable like that, he supposed, even if they were standoffish about it.

He appreciated that.

He did wish they relaxed a little once in a while though.

“We relax plenty, Protector-Voice,” Cygnus told him.

And the poor little thing believed that, Pierce knew. That was the worst part, really. Maybe he’d been dropped on his head all the way back with his family? Was that why the Psychic clan had been so eager to throw him at Pierce? That’d explain a lot.

“I hate you… so much.”

‘Sure you do, buddy.’

[}-o-{]

Strangely enough, the broken arm’s pain wasn’t all awful.

Granted, he’d rather do without it, no doubt about that. Most of the time, it hurt but he could put it aside. However, in the quiet moments, like when he studied or the like, it could grow unbearable rather quickly. However, there was one silver lining to his awful state.

The pain helped him meditate, oddly enough.

How? Simple. It gave his mind one thing and one thing only to focus on. From there, with just the one thing occupying the entirety of his mind, it was easy to start pushing that away and leave it empty of anything but his focus. So, he did just that, again and again, whenever he took a moment to practice the Psychic Arts.

Knowing that there was little else for him to do helped too. Having already spoiled his team and with no desire to go back to studying, Pierce was content to keep smashing his head against the wall that was training his mind as Sabrina had taught him. The right situation could change one’s perspective quite a lot, he supposed.

‘How am I doing?’ he asked, projecting the thought to the surface levels of his mind. He was told, after all, that it was rather difficult to get to his mind when he was concentrating those days. Or, at least, difficult to do so without being intrusive, which wasn’t something anyone that wasn’t an asshole and likely dangerous would do.

“Very well, Pierce, I have to say. You’re progressing faster than I anticipated, but then again, you’re using your situation masterfully. Not something that I’d encourage students to do, but if you’re already in the situation…” Sabrina replied, her voice ironically thoughtful, considering they were talking with… Well, their thoughts.

‘Something to keep in mind in case any of your students breaks a bone, eh?’ he commented, slightly amused. Acting like everything was fine helped a lot with the pain. Although it was getting out of hand a little, Pierce noticed. He might need to ask for more painkillers. He’d been fine on that front, but he had a feeling that concentrating his mind so much on that was acting against him. Was it possible for that to be a thing? For his arm to feel more pain because he was focusing on it? Some kind of psychosomatic effect?

That’d suck.

“Indeed,” Sabrina replied, looking at him so sharply that he was pretty sure she’d picked up some of what he’d been thinking about. His mind was rather open when he broke away from his concentration. More than normal, even, he’d noticed. “You’re getting better at that too,” she reassured, but he wondered if she realized how ironic it was that she said that right after reading thoughts she shouldn’t be able to.

“If you say so,” he commented out loud with a chuckle as he opened his eyes. Then, taking a deep breath in, he leaned back against his rather comfy pillow. That’s when he noticed that Cygnus wasn’t in the room anymore. Before he could answer that though, he was taken aback by Sabrina’s expression. Her impassive face was now adorned with the slightest of smiles, and that was cause of surprise, as far as he was concerned.

It wasn’t like she was inexpressive all the time, but every show of emotion was worth noting.

“I find myself enjoying our time together,” Sabrina told him, tilting her head. Even more shocking was the fact that her smile remained. That was a first. Usually her expressions were fairly fleeting. “Is that surprising?” she asked and he almost wondered if she meant that she enjoyed their time together or his observation about her expressiveness.

“Not really. I enjoy spending time with you too,” he replied honestly to the most obvious of the two options. “You’re not very open with your emotions though, that’s what’s surprising to me right now.”

“Oh… that makes sense,” she mused, almost a mumble as she looked off to the side and out the window. “Yes, I can see how that’d be something unexpected. I think I’ve told you before that I’m not great with emotions.” He was reasonably sure that she had, yes. “Most of my life, I haven’t really had the chance to interact with people much. My focus on the Psychic Arts took away much of my time, after all. In recent years, I’ve gotten to… experience the world and people some, but I’m learning still.”

“I’m glad to hear that you’re getting to see more of what’s out there,” he told her with a warm smile that reflected the truth of his words. Sabrina might be odd and sometimes downright uncanny, but she wasn’t bad. She was a friend, as far as Pierce was concerned. So, anything good that happened to her was great.

“I guess one could say I’m at my best when I’m with you. You have a rather affable presence, did you know that?” she continued explaining and he was caught off guard once more. “I think that’s part of why pokemon find you so approachable. Your demeanor, even your mind, are rather inviting. It’s disconcerting, but certainly not bad,” she commented and Pierce definitely didn’t know what to say to that.

So, he was very grateful when, after a few uncomfortable seconds, the door opened and in came Cygnus, walking with a paper cup in hand. One that he approached Pierce with before passing it to him. It was tea, as it turned out, and he accepted it with a grateful thought.

“Thank you, Cygnus,” he said out loud too, because it couldn’t hurt.

“Don’t mention it,” his Psychic type told him dismissively. “I needed to stretch my legs anyway. And besides, you need it in order not to fry that barely functioning brain of yours.”

‘Gee, thanks.’

“You’re welcome.”

Pierce rolled his eyes at the kadabra before taking a sip from the drink and then turning back to Sabrina.

“Do you want to take a break or…?”

“I’m fine continuing if you are, Pierce.”

So, continue they did.

[} Chapter End {]

Hey guys! How’s it going?

More downtime Pierce, which is gonna be somewhat the norm for a bit, but not too long. Things should be picking up soon-ish, at least a little. People that got this far probably don’t mind though, I imagine. We’ve all gotten through more boring chapters than this, I’m sure we’d all agree. Not everything can be Pierce breaking people’s vision of reality, I’m afraid.

Not gonna lie, I’m more here for the fluffy downtime moments than the epic scenes, but that might be just me.

Either way, I hope you guys enjoyed the chapter.

Discord Link: discord.gg/UTDransjJZ

Random Question: Any ideas what Pierce’s project is about?

See you.