Searching Far and Wide - 111

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 IV

[Lily Waterflower]

Sometimes, when one reached a certain level, and in the right situation, a second could feel like an eternity.

She knew that very well. Many battles had given her that feeling, sometimes more than once per battle. It was what separated some trainers from others, at times, the ability to make split-second decisions. Crisis situations caused this phenomenon even more, really, and the one they were in? With as bad as it was? It had definitely called for that ability more than once.

Yet, none of it had been felt quite as much as the moment when she saw a move hit Pierce.

As she screamed, she saw him fly off, dropping almost like he was in slow motion. She hadn’t seen what had hit him, but it couldn’t be good. Even the mildest of moves could kill a person when the pokemon meant for it to be an attack. She also couldn’t see how serious the damage was, or even much of anything in detail. There was too much water flung into the air in between them, nevermind the not-that-short distance and the general chaos. It was a small miracle that she’d even seen what happened.

Before he even touched the water – or the pokemon, she wasn’t sure what he’d hit first, considering he’d been surrounded by his school of strays –, Lily heard Daisy echo her scream and she felt her soul wither a little. If she’d been horrified, she didn’t want to think what her sister was feeling at that moment. Pierce was a friend, but he was more than that to Daisy. Maybe he wasn’t her boyfriend, but if that wasn’t close to being a thing already, then he still was more than just a regular friend.

And now he could be dead.

Could being the operative word there, but in the middle of what was going on…

Lily’s thoughts were interrupted, cut through like someone had taken a knife to her mind. It wasn’t pleasant nor comfortable. It was jarring, really, no two ways about it. However, she was used to dealing with Psychics. She might be a Water type specialist, but she had a slight preference for those with a Psychic secondary type, after all.

“We need you three,” Sabrina said and Lily thought she sounded even more detached than usual, but then again, they had gotten distracted considerably. Besides, maybe she was dealing in her own way. She knew the Saffron Leader had taken a liking to Pierce too. “Please,” was all the Psychic Leader said, before pulling back from her mind.

It was enough though, snapping Lily out of her thoughts.

Right, there was a crisis going on.

It didn’t make it any easier to turn away from Pierce though, but if they didn’t get their heads back in the game, then not only would he be dead for sure, but Vermillion would suffer a lot for it too. So, they needed to get back to work. If they did, maybe Pierce’s school would save him. Those pokemon followed him like he was Lugia, so Lily didn’t think they’d just let him die. They needed to keep the frenzied pokemon at bay though, if they wanted that to have a chance to happen.

Besides, there had to be a reason why Sabrina wasn’t capturing and teleporting the pokemon as they had planned in case Pierce’s school got out of his control.

As she considered all that, Lily pushed aside the thought that Pierce might be dead already, way before he’d even hit the water.

“Daisy!” she screamed and her sister turned to her, the absolutely heartbreaking expression on her face giving her pause for a single instant before she powered through. “We need to keep the wave away from him!” she told her sister, making it as simple and understandable as she could. She also made it as clear as possible that they needed to do this for Pierce, because she had a feeling that was the only thing that would get through Daisy’s mind then and there.

She didn’t hear what Daisy said, because she spoke too low for the chaos around them. She didn’t have time to chat either, so Lily got back to the matter at hand, commanding her pokemon against the wave that was still trying to push its way to Vermillion. Her chest hurt and she felt even colder than before, in a way that had nothing to do with the cool sea water that had been splashed all over her. Lily couldn’t afford to get distracted though, because that’d just make things worse.

She was still grateful when she noticed that Violet – by far the most cool-head of the three of them – took on a bit more responsibility to give her a moment… or their version of a moment in that messed up situation. She couldn’t afford to stop, but she was still grateful to have at least a little less to deal with. Still, as good as Violet was at keeping her emotions under control when necessary, she wasn’t a robot, so she tried to pick up the slack as best she could and as fast as she could.

However, she was momentarily taken aback when she saw Daisy and her pokemon finally move.

It was no secret that of all the Waterflower sisters, Daisy was the strongest, most capable of them all. She was the oldest, but that hardly mattered, really. Violet was a year younger than Lily and she was still better, even if an argument could be made there. There was none of that with Daisy. If Cerulean was ever pressed to put down a definitive single Gym Leader, that’d be the blonde.

And at that moment, it seemed that Daisy had snapped into her best form. It wasn’t much different from before, but with what had happened? Lily would have expected her to lower her arms the smallest bit, metaphorically speaking. Instead, it seemed she’d done the opposite and it was a great relief, but also slightly worrying.

Lily really hoped that her sister wouldn’t do something stupid in whatever state she was at the moment.

[}-o-{]

[Gyarados, the Unbroken Giant]

Helper-Voice had been hit.

Helper-Voice had fallen.

That would not stand.

He roared in a way that he hadn’t since he’d evolved. He roared in a way that stopped everything that was happening close by. He roared in a way that almost mimicked the way Helper-Voice spoke. His will cut through pokemon as they heard his rage, it gave them pause when many of them seemed to be about to panic and frenzy.

That couldn’t happen.

Helper-Voice had gathered them, guided them, in order to bring calm to those chaotic waters. Gyarados couldn’t let all that effort be for nothing, so he roared and the pokemon listened, because he’d been the one that their leader had ridden. He was the one they’d been looking at the whole time and he’d be the one they’d look to now, if he had any say in the matter.

Once he had all their attention, he roared again and fired a move towards the wave of pokemon that still pushed towards them. Because Helper-Voice was somewhere in the water. Someone from their school would pick him up, Gyarados was sure. They needed to stop the wave, however, if they wanted Helper-Voice to have a chance of surviving. And he had to survive, because if not, then those seas would see the fury that everyone feared. The fury of Gyarados unleashed on the world, his and any other of his line that he could rally.

Because Helper-Voice had saved them and if they couldn’t save him…

Then nobody would be spared.

Gyarados pushed that thought aside. That wasn’t what Helper-Speaker would want, he knew. He wanted peace, he wanted to protect and he wanted to soothe. Soothing wasn’t what Gyarados was known for, nor peace for that matter. Protect though, maybe he could do that.

So, that’s what he’d try to do.

And if it came to it, then maybe he could unleash his rage on the sea, on these pokemon that caused the entire mess Helper-Voice had to help stop. The man wouldn’t want that either, but Gyarados could only compromise so much. Maybe he’d spare those that helped, all that gathering of pokemon that were entirely too strong even for him and by far at that, or the people that guided them, or the city behind them. The sea though, the sea was what caused the entire situation.

Yes, Gyarados would make the sea pay if it came to that.

That was a thought that all but vanished from his mind when a pokemon moved next to him and told him one of their school had picked up Helper-Voice. He seemed to be alive, some of the Psychic pokemon said, and that was enough for him to be able to breathe without it being a challenge. The man wasn’t in good shape though, from what he was told. Hurt and out of it, maybe even unconscious, the pokemon couldn’t really tell, considering all that was going on.

That was enough though, more than enough.

So, Gyarados roared and rallied his school, the school that Helper-Voice had put together. Their purpose was still the same, even if they no longer had their leader. They had to stop the wave and it’d be hard to coordinate, especially considering the monsters they had ahead of them, but he’d seen enough so far. The trick was to shoot in between those. Where there was a space, they fired at the wave. Beyond that, they just needed to continue picking up the strays, those that were snapped out of their frenzy, so that they couldn’t rejoin the wave and could actually try to help push back.

Gyarados could do that. Maybe not as well as Helper-Voice, but he could do that. And if he couldn’t, then maybe the rest of the school could help him. It galled him to ask for help, truly, but after being part of a school… He didn’t want to be alone, to work alone. He wanted to be part of the school.

Thus, he roared, ordered the attacks, attacked some himself and he told those that were smaller, weaker, faster or a combination of those to look for the strays. They wouldn’t be much use attacking anyway and they might be able to pick up someone that would. That was what Gyarados hoped. Because Helper-Voice had almost died, there was no doubt about that, and he’d done so for the sake of the city behind them.

That meant that the city had to be protected, this would be their way to repay Helper-Voice so they better do a good job of it. He told as much to his fellow gyarados and he saw the determined glint in their eyes. He was a little surprised when even some of the other pokemon reacted similarly, but he wasn’t one to question a good thing. Not after Helper-Voice showed him that goodness existed in the world. And if there was one place where he thought there might be more of that, it was in the wake of the man that had saved him, saved them.

Gyarados needed to protect that.

He would protect that.

The same way Helper-Voice had helped them, protected them. That’s what he had in mind as he led Helper-Voice’s school, his school, their school. The man that had done so much for them had wanted to do something for other pokemon, so they’d help him achieve that. Gyarados would be his hands, his voice, now that he couldn’t signal them, speak to them, anymore.

And he’d be damned if they didn’t succeed for him.

They could do that much for Helper-Voice.

They would, Gyarados swore.

[}-o-{]

[Daisy Waterflower]

Was it shitty that the danger to Vermillion hadn’t motivated her quite as much as the resolution to protect Pierce?

She thought so, and yet, that was how it went.

Humans preached about a lot of things, she supposed, but in the end they tended to organize their priorities differently from how they should. It wasn’t like she’d been half-assing it before, really. She’d been giving it her all. And yet, when someone she cared about was in true danger, she’d gone beyond that. She knew she was one of the weakest Leaders in Kanto, but she liked to think she had managed to become that little bit closer to the heavy hitters at that moment.

Nobody was getting in her way, at least, and that was good.

It made things easier for her.

“Pierce Lawson is alive,” Sabrina said and Daisy let a tight smile form on her face.

That was good, but that wasn’t the best. The best would be for him to be safe, but Sabrina hadn’t said that. It meant he was injured and required treatment urgently. It meant that even though he’d survived and been teleported away, he still wasn’t safe. What had he even been hit with? She didn’t know and it ate at her. Was it a Poison type move? Those could be even more nasty than most others on people.

“Pierce Lawson is injured, but beyond that, he’s fine,” Sabrina said but Daisy frowned. The Psychic was hiding something then. Why wasn’t she saying he was safe? “He hasn’t been teleported away.”

‘Why the fuck not?!’ she screamed in her own mind, likely sending the message loud and clear to Sabrina. Good, because she couldn’t imagine a single good reason why that hadn’t happened. He’d done more than enough and almost died for it. What reason could they possibly have to not send him to a Center?

“His school is still helping,” Sabrina explained calmly and Daisy had a feeling that the only reason she was taking the time to talk her through all that was because Daisy would go gyarados if she didn’t. Which was very perceptive of her. She had half a mind to do that anyway. “They need their lynchpin, even if he’s not guiding them anyway. I have a team of pokemon looking at him now, they’ll teleport him away at the first sign of danger.”

‘Why didn’t you do that before?’ Daisy growled in her mind, barking orders at her pokemon that were maybe a tad too harsh. They listened all the same, pushed further by her own motivation. She’d have to do something nice for them when everything was over.

“Because I had to look at his growing school in case things went wrong,” Sabrina answered, still the picture of a clear mind. It annoyed Daisy further, but she didn’t “voice” that to the woman. “I needed to be able to teleport all of them away if need be. Now I know they’ll keep it together long enough for me and my pokemon to assess the situation.”

‘... Okay,’ Daisy said, all but waving Sabrina away. Now that she knew what was going on a little better, she could be calm. Energy she’d been pulling on and pushing onto her pokemon receded the smallest bit, but she kept her focus sharp. It wouldn’t do to let her guard down even the smallest bit.

“Damn, girly, that might have been short, but it was impressive all the same,” she heard Surge say.

It spoke very well of the current state of things if someone felt like they had time for non-essential words, she supposed. Sabrina had established a Psychic network for all of them to communicate through, but so far she’d been the only one to broadcast anything. She was the one with a thousand eyes, since even her weakest pokemon could be useful as eyes connected to the web she’d weaved. Now though, maybe they’d be able to communicate more between themselves instead of relying on the Saffron Leader.

‘Thanks, I think,’ Daisy replied to the local’s words, getting a mental chuckle in return. The connection there pulled away a second later though and it was no mystery as to why, because Surge’s side was suddenly pushed a little extra when what looked like a newly evolved gyarados charged through.

Right, the situation was good, but not that good.

“Pierce Lawson is in the network,” Sabrina said and Daisy went to speak, feeling her own sisters pushing forward through the link too. However, they were all beaten to the punch. It wasn’t words though, not at first. Instead, they felt a pang of bone-deep exhaustion and pain. Then, they heard a mental voice none of them had ever heard, not like that at least.

“I’m fine,” Pierce said, the words clipped, like he’d had to pull them out of his mouth like teeth. “I can get back in,” he added and no, she wasn’t about to let him do something that stupid. “If you think it’ll help, I need you to buy me a second or two. If not, I guess I can stay out of things,” he explained and good, now she could tell him that he was an idiot and that-

“Sabrina?” Lance asked and Daisy blinked, pausing her commands to her pokemon.

“I believe it’s worth considering. The school is much more efficient with Pierce in charge. Even without being at his best, his command will help,” Sabrina answered, like the creature almost detached from emotions that she was. It was harsh of her to think that, but Daisy felt like she was entitled to that much, when they were talking about letting Pierce risk his life again.

“You bought us seconds, Lawson, we’ll buy you seconds. Sorry if the amount isn’t the same,” Lance announced, his voice grim despite the joking words.

“I can get the rest as zeroes in my reward later,” Pierce replied and she could almost hear the chuckle he let out.

Oh, Daisy was going to have words with that man after they were done there.

And if he died, so help her, she’d catch his ghost just so that she could kill him again herself.

[}-o-{]

[Robert Surge]

Ok, that was quite enough.

Robert’s respect for this Lawson guy had already been pretty damn high. Had to be, considering the man wasn’t one of them. He wasn’t an elite trainer. He was just a guy that had banded together some decently strong pokemon to make them not-irrelevant when next to the actual elites such as Leaders like Robert. He respected that, especially because that meant that his group of pokemon wasn’t trained for something like this, and it was evidenced by that hit he’d taken. There was always one pokemon around Robert whose sole purpose was to cover for him.

Lawson’s school probably tried, but they weren’t prepared for that kind of situation, at all. They had all been banking more on the fact that he was behind the elites, providing support from some distance. Alas, even the best laid plans could go awry and that had certainly not been what Robert would call the best. Not even close, but beggars couldn't be choosers.

Now though, he had to draw a line somewhere and there was only so much that Robert would let a civilian risk before deciding that it was enough. He couldn’t ask for the guy to pull back though, that would just be disrespectful and he was better than that. No, what he could do was make sure to risk just as much himself. After all the progress they’d made, not in small measure because of Lawson, Robert could afford to step forward himself and do more than he was doing.

Risky, but maybe the guy had drawn out the recklessness that the military had tried its best to get out of him.

“Sabrina, is there anyone that can see us?” Robert asked, firm enough that he could feel through the link how everyone paused. None of them stopped what they were doing though, they were better than that. However, the part of their multitasking minds that was focused on the link certainly stopped for a second. “Besides Lawson, if you were counting him.”

“None that I can pick up on,” she said and that might as well just be no one. Sabrina wasn’t as good at being a Psychic as an actual pokemon, but she was good enough to pick up on psychic presences around, meaning picking up on the minds of those around. Besides, even if she wasn’t, she had her network of pokemon to help her. No single Psychic, pokemon or otherwise, not even Dark types, could hide from her mind's eye at that moment.

“Good, I’m going all out here,” he announced and if his fellow elites hadn’t been taken aback by his tone before, they definitely were now. Immediately, he felt Lance’s presence grow more prominent.

“I appreciate Lawson’s efforts, but this might be beyond his pay grade. Furthermore, that’s a risk, Robert,” the Champion said – immediately realizing what he was talking about, just like the rest of them – and Robert understood what he was saying. However, he imagined they had made enough progress, way more than they’d expected. So, what had been discarded before could very well work at that moment. “I do believe it could end well, but it could also end badly and you’d be literally taking yourself out of this. Not exhausting your pokemon, but taking yourself out of the equation would mean they’d lose a lot of their strength.”

“That man is risking death to save my city, Lance,” Robert replied simply, decisively. He wouldn’t be outdone by some rookie, even if he was a badass one. “I’ll be damned if I can’t take some risks for it too,” he added, a wide grin on his face. Granted, death was unlikely, but things could definitely get ugly.

“... I don’t know him well enough. Can we trust him with this secret?” Lance asked, reluctantly but accepting Robert’s words. The man probably understood better than most what it meant to want to defend what was his, his people, his territory.

“I didn’t talk with him nearly as much as I’d have wanted to, but he seemed good,” Brock replied hesitantly, his voice a little strained. He was probably having a hard time at the moment, considering his specialty and his status as the weakest of the group.

“We can vouch for him if needed,” Blondie added, and Robert would have scoffed if it weren’t for how… steely her voice sounded. She’d definitely pulled all the stops when Lawson was hit. Maybe she had a bit of a soldier in her, or a warrior. Robert would have to see.

“I can vouch for him too,” Sabrina chimed in, and that was much more surprising coming from the robot lady herself. “And his mind can be a steel trap if he wants it to be. I barely could read anything from it during his Challenge. Nobody will be reading that off of him.”

Well well well…

Lawson was just full of surprises, wasn’t he?

“... Do it, Robert, before I come to my senses,” Lance said and he grinned widely.

Immediately, he let out some of his oldest companions. They were beasts in their own right, but the battlefield just worked against them plenty. That would change now though, because they’d be much more than they already were in a moment. Immediately, he knew that they understood the situation, not even needing a second after appearing on top of other pokemon in the water. They turned sharply towards him and he took a deep breath in.

Then he felt the energy, his energy, flow towards the gem secured to his belt, beside his pokeballs.

And then his companions were shining, both his ampharos and his manectric. Their bodies shifted while covered in that light. Their powers grew further, the storm in them raging like it never did in their normal bodies. Everything they had was being channeled in that very moment, for the strongest they could be to come out and, as for Robert, he facilitated that with his own energy. All three of them would be out of the fight afterwards… but at that moment, they were the strongest.

The wave didn’t know what was coming their way.

[} Chapter End {]

Hey guys! How’s it going?

Not gonna lie, I get quite hyped myself while writing some of these parts in this last arc. Are the scenes as good as I feel they are? I certainly hope so. There are some doubts here and there, of course, but there’s just as many points that I just love.

I’m a little concerned with how long this is getting, but the Muse says the thing has to continue, so it shall.

I hope you’re enjoying this as much as I am though.

Discord Link: discord.gg/UTDransjJZ

Random Question: Favorite electric type? Mine is Jolteon. That eeveelution doesn’t get much love, at all, but it’s my favorite in that area too. Shame that I couldn’t add it to Pierce’s team… Unless…

See you.