Searching Far and Wide - 112

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 V

[Pierce Lawson]

He’d thought he was over being overwhelmed and shaken by the power around him.

Not because he’d suddenly become more resilient as he was subjected to every world twisting move the elite level pokemon around him threw out, but because he’d become numb to them. His bones still rattled inside him and his skin still felt electrified, but those had been pushed to the back of his mind. His brain tuned them out the same way one does mosquito bites or a scab. Granted, that was a laughably inaccurate analogy for the measure of it, but the idea was accurate enough.

‘I wonder if this is anything like standing before a Legend,’ a little corner of his mind whispered in awe. The rest of it was too busy half-panicked and half-humbled at the presence of the mega ampharos and the mega manectric. The elite pokemon around were amazing, and they made even the gyarados – recently evolved or not – that were in the water feel like caterpies and weedle. But these two?

These two felt to him like a lightning storm had decided to become a creature.

And that was before they did anything.

Because one second they were standing there and the whole area seemed to fall silent and still in their wake. The next, however, manectric disappeared, vanishing before Pierce caught a glimpse of a shape and electricity off from the edge of his vision. When he turned though, he was already late, with another flash off to another side. And so on it went, leaving him feeling like he was trying to find a split second frame in a video with a pause to read hidden text and failing every single time.

Then came the ampharos, who used some Electric move that he didn’t even know the name of. Or maybe he did, but he didn’t recognize it. He thought he could be excused for that, considering it split the waters like the Red Sea, filling it with a beam of lightning the size of a house or maybe even bigger. It was difficult to tell, with how blinding it was.

‘Holy shit,’ was all he could think, eyes wide.

Those two pokemon were monsters, even more than he’d first thought. So much so that they made him forget his broken arm. Well, the fact that Sabrina had one of her Psychic pokemon holding the thing together with their powers probably helped. It wasn’t perfect, especially when he moved. It felt awkward most of the time and painful the rest, but the fix allowed him to actually move around without treating the injury. Something that was being pushed for later in light of the much too extenuating circumstances.

“Pierce,” Sabrina called, pulling him out of his thoughts.

Right, the entire situation was a thing. Surge’s pokemon – those megas had to be his, right? He doubted they were anyone else’s, although maybe there was some typing switch shenanigans going on there? He didn’t remember – were positively decimating the wave, but it was still pushing forward. It was then that he realized that there had to be a reason, if they had mega evolutions available, they hadn’t done that before. One other than it likely being a secret, that is. Pierce imagined the process had to have some sort of drawback, and if it did and their mega evolutions weren’t enough to deal with the whole thing before that kicked in, then they’d be screwed.

Now though, the wave had been battered plenty. Pierce’s school of pokemon was growing – and there were a lot of unconscious pokemon due to the Electric moves, so there was that – and they were slowly… Not gaining ground, but they were definitely stopping the wave. No longer just pushing back to lower its momentum, but properly stopping it in place.

Vermillion was basically touching his back at that point. There was almost no space for the school of Water types to move around. He hadn’t even noticed they’d been pushed that far, but then again, he’d been focused on something else.

“Let’s go,” he said, his voice a little strained as he moved his arms. He could have made do with a single arm, but it’d be better if he used both. Any little thing he could do to help, he needed to. “Everyone knows what to do!” he called out and he got several roars in response.

The school was amazing. Not as amazing as his team, but it was damn close. He’d definitely have to keep track of where they were sent and maybe call them for a reunion every so often. Preferably without impending doom as the reason, he imagined they’d appreciate it.

He looked at some of the pokemon floating by. Most were unconscious, some weren’t though and there were others that were conscious but were also… twitching. Evidently, the elite were doing a lot better by then, considering that hadn’t happened before.

“Join or leave,” he repeated for what felt like the hundredth time. On top of that though, he added something new. “And if anyone can help those that are still in pain, that’d be great!” he called and he saw a few slowpokes and slowbros swimming forward. There was also a blastoise and a squirtle, surprisingly enough. But beyond that- ‘Is that a Lapras of all things?’ he noticed with wide eyes. Those were rare. Not only were they rare, they were also kind of a protected species, from what he remembered.

A corner of his mind lamented the fact that pokemon healing moves didn’t work on humans when he saw the first one being used. That’d have been great right about then. Alas, he’d have to put up with the broken bone the normal way for the moment. Well, as much as it could be called normal to have a Psychic splint on his arm.

Another ampharos attack cut through his wandering mind just as much as it did the sea.

Evidently, the hit had done a number not only on his body but on his mind too.

‘Nevermind any of that,’ he thought, shaking his head and focusing forward. There was a disaster to help stop and now more than ever, they had to press their advantage. Especially if he was right and Surge couldn’t keep the megas up for long. ‘Maybe we can actually do this though,’ he added hopefully.

It wouldn’t do to let his guard down though, as the stabbing pain that he occasionally felt in his arm was keen to remind him.

He could worry about rare pokemon and his injuries after the entire thing was over at Vermillion. So, in the meantime, he focused, waving his arms and occasionally making a call when something was too complex for gestures to get the message across. That didn’t happen that often, surprisingly enough, but it could happen, like when he directed the healer pokemon towards those creatures that needed help a little more or those that were almost fine and needed a fix. Some of those even turned out to be school members that had gotten a hit or two.

Speaking of, he didn’t fail to notice that the gyarados that he was standing on – and had been standing on before – had lowered his body until it was almost touching the water. He was no longer towering up above, higher than anyone else in the school. There was also the fact that all the other gyarados around, those that had been part of the original school, were almost forming a barrier around him. Or, at least, they were doing so as much as they could while still letting him see what was going on.

Evidently, that hit had spooked them.

Pierce realized that he should be plenty frightened himself, but somehow that didn’t really register beyond some distant thought at the back of his mind. He knew he could die very easily with a move hitting him. The only reason he had a broken bone and little more on his arm and shoulder instead of… a hole where any of that should be was the fact that he’d been hit with a stray shot more than an actual attack. The pokemon probably had made a half hearted attempt at an attack in between actual attacks or it had thrown out its last attack before getting knocked out.

Either way, Pierce had been lucky in that regard, he supposed. Although there was the counterpoint that he was unlucky to be hit at all, considering all the safety measures in place like Sabrina’s pokemon or his own school. So, in the end, it kind of balanced out, he supposed.

And the fact that he could think that was all the more telling about the fact that he really wasn’t thinking as he ought to. He realized that, but he couldn’t quite push away the determination to help that had been awakened at the start of the entire ordeal. The pokemon roars – on both sides of things – were still echoing in his mind, urging to do more, to do better. He needed to help them, or he was sure he’d have nightmares for a long, long time.

So, that’s what he did. Just like the echoes urged him, he urged the school. He gestured and they followed, he spoke and they listened. Pierce might be an average trainer, if that, but he could connect with pokemon. That was what he was good at and even his terrible self-esteem couldn’t really dissuade him of that notion. Especially considering all the people telling him about it. He might still find it odd at times, but they had to be onto something considering how things were going.

He hadn’t been told to go the fuck away, so if even the elites of the region could see that his skills were worth something, then he’d be an idiot to doubt himself.

Even if he wasn’t good at that, Pierce couldn’t do nothing either way. He needed to try to help these pokemon, help Vermillion and everyone else. He was no hero, or at least he didn’t think so, but he knew he wouldn’t be able to live with himself otherwise. So, he squared his shoulders – which, ouch – and soldiered through his doubts, his fears and everything else. It wasn’t an effort, more of an instinctual state, really, but he did so all the same and went for it.

“Be more thorough in your recruiting, Pierce,” Sabrina told him and he was startled a little. “We’ll take care of the holes while Surge pushes through, but he’ll stop and then we’ll need to rise to the challenge. You having a considerably stronger school would be useful.”

‘I can do that,’ he replied, taking a deep breath in while sensing the mental nod that the woman sent his way. Ok, so they wanted him to grow stronger with his group so that he could fill the void left by Surge… Tall order that, entirely too tall, really. Much as he was exceedingly pleased with his school, he knew he was no match to the trainers that surrounded him at that point. Maybe Surge could weaken the wave enough for them to be enough though.

“Ask every pokemon to join!” he shouted and the school shifted. He kept attacking occasionally, but his gestures changed too. He made more calls, mostly so that those that didn’t get the memo would catch up. It was a sudden change in approach, after all, so he didn’t blame them for the metaphorical stumble.

Still, he was happy to see them get into the roll of things after a moment.

Eventually, most of the school was too busy approaching floating pokemon, nudging them, helping them, convincing them. The good thing about Surge being the one to go on his broken ass trip with mega evolution was that his pokemon were more likely to knock those in the wave out. The Electric moves evidently either thoroughly put them to sleep, or it stunned them enough that they could wake up relatively fast… or it killed them, but Pierce tried not to think about those for the moment, regrettably as it was.

And so, the school grew bigger, the wave grew smaller and then…

Then Mega-Ampharos and Mega-Manectric disappeared as fast as they had appeared. The flashes of lightning were no more and the thunder cannons stopped splitting the seascape. 

[}-o-{]

[Lance Blackthorn]

The greatest high and the lowest low, all in the span of a few moments.

Two, to be exact.

One for the first and one for the former.

At first, they were almost pushing back. Surge’s manectric took out the most dangerous pokemon, making it so there were less heavy hitters and his ampharos cut through the wave of creatures to disrupt it, weaken it. The absolutely insane push that mega evolution gave his pokemon almost made the entire affair easy. It did, actually, do that, but Lance knew it was momentary relief and it would end.

Mega evolution had its price, after all. Taking one’s bond with a pokemon and forcibly turning it into something else, pushing one’s pokemon into a stage that was… not unnatural, but beyond the scope of what they should achieve. Mega evolutions were a mystery still, but Lance thought calling them evolution beyond evolution was as accurate as something could be.

The problem was that the process took a lot out of pokemon and trainer alike.

Surge’s pokemon would remain, but they wouldn’t be nearly as coordinated and efficient as they had been. If the man managed to keep himself conscious after two simultaneous mega evolutions, then Lance would be surprised. One took a lot out of a guy, even him, and two… few times had he tried that and none of them had left him feeling like he wanted to give it another go.

Alas, sometimes they didn’t have a choice.

Still, even with as precarious as the situation was, Lance could almost forget about it. It wasn’t because he didn’t realize that things were bad. He had eyes, after all. However, there was something about this specific disaster that threw him off a little and that was that Sabrina wasn’t calling on him. Usually, he’d have to send one of his pokemon off to help someone else. He was the strongest and that meant he was the one that could afford to lose a little firepower if it meant helping one of his fellow elites get back on their feet.

If he wasn’t called, then that meant that things were fine and progressing well, right?

Not quite, or, at least, not that day. Because things were definitely not fine nor what he’d call “progressing well”. However, he also didn’t need to worry about bolstering someone’s forces, because there was someone else doing that. There was a force that wasn’t there before, patching up holes and offering support.

And Lance couldn’t help but glance at the growing school of water types at his back. It was almost becoming a wave of its own, by the looks of it, and it reassured him at the same time that it unnerved him, truth be told. Because he was a Warrior and a Champion, but even he had to bow to the forces of nature that pokemon could be in the right situation. And a school, a swarm, a wave of pokemon? That could beat everything except another wave, if the numbers and the strength were right.

So yes, having a secondary school was concerning, but so long as they could keep it on their side…

‘Do you think we could finish this if everyone uses their megas?’ he asked, projecting the thought to Sabrina while he continued fighting forward. He was  a Warrior and a Champion, but Sabrina was a Mind. He could make decisions when it came to it, but for that he needed information, and in a situation like that, there was no one better than Sabrina.

“Chances are good,” the Psychic answered almost immediately. However, he could almost hear the “but” that would follow before it was sent to his mind. “But there’d be too much damage to the area if we do that. The effects of mega evolution aren’t subtle either. People would know something happened. Surge going the extra mile in his home city can be explained away. If everyone’s so much stronger though, that falls apart.”

And they couldn’t afford that. There were too many risks on mega evolution knowledge getting out. Things were already slipping through the cracks as it was. It was a lost battle to hide them entirely, he knew. Between all regions, it was piling up. A sighting here, a few words there and the secret was getting out. Still, they had to try, because there was an entire history of terrible things happening and their own region’s Team Rocket was proof that there was reason to keep such powers hidden.

He could only imagine what they’d do with it if they had access to it, if they even knew of it.

‘Slow way it is then,’ Lance thought grimly, taking a deep breath in and continuing with his commands. They’d have to win the battle of attrition, he guessed. It was doable, of course, but it wouldn’t be easy. ‘Should be grateful it’s even doable,’ he chidded himself. Less than half an hour before then, it’d been an impossibility to keep the wave away from Vermillion entirely.

Now they had a chance.

All because one man was good at talking to pokemon.

Pierce Lawson was a name that Lance would definitely remember. He might not have been the strongest around, not even close, but he was strong enough. Strong enough to make that minimal but necessary difference and the same couldn’t be said about a lot of people. Lance could appreciate that, because that was what was saving Vermillion. By themselves, doing a great job at it, they might have saved part of the city.

However, the smallest of helps could do wonders at times, and when the problem was the unrelenting, unending tide of pokemon instead of less numerous, stronger problems, a little could do a lot. Not only were the school of gyarados strong enough and resistant enough to stand their ground, but Lawson was adding more pokemon as the battle went on. It made a battle of attrition against the sea something manageable when their forces had some measure of recovery. The elites were strong, but they didn’t have infinite energy to battle forever.

At that point though, the tide had been weakened enough, and Lawson’s school had grown enough, that they were catching up. The scales were starting to be balanced and soon, they’d tip over in their favor. Lance could see it and Sabrina could too. They would win and Vermillion would be safe without any considerable damage.

That’d have been a dream for them when things got started.

Lawson had joked about them adding the seconds they couldn’t buy him as zeros in his pay, but Lance had half a mind to just go the extra mile and do just that. The damage to Vermillion would have cost more anyway and that was without even going into the non-material damage. Yes, this man was certainly someone to keep an eye on, even more than before.

Furthermore…

Lance turned to look at the man for a split second and saw the other reason why he’d decided to keep a close eye on him. Not because of his ability to calm and command pokemon, but something else entirely. His eyes found the man easily enough and then they found his chest… or what rested on his chest. He looked at the shining rock, hanging from some kind of cord. He saw the red light coming off of it from all the way where he was flying over the ocean and nodded to himself.

‘A very interesting man, that’s for sure.’

For the moment though, Lance needed to keep pushing with everyone else.

And that’s exactly what they did. Time kept slipping by and he wondered how long the entire thing had gone on for, but there was no need to bother with that. All the same, after however long it had taken to even the scales, the time passing after that became much clearer. There was actual progress being made. The tide was thinning and weakening. So were their pokemon, admittedly, but as the danger grew lesser, they could use weaker pokemon that they have had on the side, from their Gyms in the case of the Leaders or from prospective members of their teams for the rest.

Slowly, the battle was getting more and more manageable.

Something that had started with absolute chaos and power was now going out with a weak whimper and Lance couldn’t be more satisfied with it.

‘We won,’ he thought, equal parts relieved and proud when no more pokemon came their way. Some of them had dispersed off into the sea though and they might cause trouble for the surrounding area. So, no rest for them just yet, Lance knew. ‘Sabrina, can you coordinate everyone to support the Zones?’ he communicated.

“Certainly,” she agreed immediately and he took a deep breath in. He’d be staying there himself, just in case. Just in case any more pokemon came back and just in case he was needed anywhere else. He was the joker card in that scenario, ready to support anyone else if it came to it. “What are we going to do with Pierce’s school though?”

Well, they couldn’t just put them back in their pokeballs, that was for sure. The school was several times bigger than what it had started as. If they tried to take away the core, initial members, then they were likely to disturb those the ones that remained. However, Lance was wary of letting the school be without Lawson himself there to keep the peace. It had worked well in a time of chaos, but now that there wasn’t the threat of disaster hanging over them, the pokemon might get… restless, as it were.

‘Can he stay?’ Lance asked. The man was injured, he knew that much. If he didn’t need immediate treatment, which was likely considering Sabrina had let him stay in the battlefield, then Lance would rather have him keep the school calm. Maybe he was wrong though, hence the question. Lawson could very well be hanging by a thread and be minutes away from getting teleported to a hospital by Sabrina.

“He can and he agreed to stay,” Sabrina told him after a moment. She’d asked, so the man wasn’t fine. However, he was allowed to be stubborn, which meant that the injury wasn’t too bad. Lance could work with that. It’d just be added to the list of things why Pierce Lawson was impressive, he supposed.

Never had he thought he’d be impressed by someone with three badges and the ability and power to match that – or maybe slightly surprise that –, but there they were. Proof that not everything in the pokemon world was about raw fighting power, he supposed. It was easy to forget at times, but the world would remind them every so often.

‘I can’t wait to see what you do, Pierce Lawson,’ Lance thought, allowing his thoughts to drift now that there was no longer any imminent danger. There was a lot to do still of course – they had to secure the entire area and then look for survivors of the SS Anne, provided there were any –, but there wasn’t anything that he could do at that very moment without compromising something else.

Thus, he allowed his mind to ponder on what he’d seen.

Because that shine, that light? There were few things that could explain that and he had a very good idea as to what that was. If he was right… Then they definitely needed to keep Lawson close by. Not only within sight, but on their side.

There were so few people with that gift that they might as well be myths, after all.

Only, Legends had a tendency to be real in the world they lived in.

[} Chapter End {]

Hey guys! How’s it going?

Well, when I started this arc, I can’t say I saw it taking five chapters to be done. God damn, has this taken quite a while, huh? I didn’t see it coming, but I definitely enjoyed writing it, I have to admit. These scenes have been some of the most fun I’ve had writing in quite a while. I guess I hyped myself up during them.

I hope you enjoyed reading this arc as much as I enjoyed writing it.

Discord Link: discord.gg/UTDransjJZ

Random Question: I’ve been setting up things for that last part that Lance is thinking about for quite a while. The rock Pierce was given, the shine and even some other things. Any guesses on what's going on there?

See you.