Searching Far and Wide - 108

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 I

His first impression of Vermillion City was… not much of an impression at all.

In fact, after he was teleported, Pierce could barely see anything at all. There were people all around and what little he could see beyond them was the white ceiling and the top of the light blue walls of the Pokemon Center. The only other thing for his eyes to find were the screens set up on the corners.

All of them displayed several views of the coast, views from high up down on the coast and views off the coast towards the ocean.

It reminded him of the Mt. Moon incident, sort of. There were differences, of course, like how the screens weren’t showing any outright bad thing happening. That would come though. People also weren’t scrambling about, even if the tension could be cut with a knife. Everyone was stiff, but nobody was panicking. 

“Name and pokemon?” the receptionist asked him and he gave a wry smile.

“Pierce Lawson. Beedrill, Kadabra, Onix, Gyarados, Vaporeon and Meowth,” he answered and the woman looked up at him for a moment before nodding and tapping on the computer a few times. Behind him, he thought he heard someone whispering “Proxyman”, but that wasn’t the time for a meet and greet.

“No zone, post-incident relief effort. Stand by, please,” the woman told him and he nodded. That wasn’t protocol, but then again, he’d been called and it wasn’t protocol to do that with trainers outside of the range of wherever an incident happened. It was why Lily hadn’t been teleported with him. Pierce had been called specifically.

So, he stepped aside and let the woman continue working.

As the seconds and minutes passed, he watched as everyone was asked the same question as he was. He didn’t mean to eavesdrop or anything, but he hadn’t been told to go away and they were right there. So, he was starting to get a picture of how the thing was organized. Almost everyone that was sent to a zone had either flying pokemon – as in, capable of flight, not the typing – or they had swimming pokemon. There were a few exceptions, but he noticed that those tended to have advanced pokemon, as in teams consisting entirely of fully evolved pokemon or ones that were at least in their second stage. Pierce imagined that those were probably people with many badges, or however else the League determined who high level trainers were.

He was kind of glad that he was probably too low-leveled to be sent to a zone, if Pierce were honest. Either that, or the League had determined he was more valuable away from those, because his team had one flier and two swimmers, and he was pretty sure that they should send him at least to one of the low priority zones designated. Furthermore, Cygnus could likely be counted as at least half the value of one of those, considering teleport.

Pierce was not complaining.

From what he was picking up here and there, things were going to be messy. Something had happened with the SS Anne and now there was a huge number of Water types that were enraged. Gyarados and tentacruel were bad enough, but there were schools and schools of other pokemon that were in a frenzy. Just with the former two, however, the situation would be much worse than anything he might have seen during the Mt. Moon incident.

Case in point…

‘All Gym Leaders are here, the Elites too… And Lance,’ he thought, his eyes locked on the screen that displayed those people’s arrivals. They made him grow more concerned instead of relieved with their presence, however. Even if they were all powerhouses, the fact that all of them had gathered at the coast now meant that things were FUBAR, as far as Pierce was concerned.

His fears were more or less validated by the fact that some of those people looked downright uneasy.

His pokegear rang then and he grimaced when he saw several people flinch and jump at the sound. He turned away from those, not wanting to see if they were glaring at him or anything. Instead, he picked up the device and blinked at it before squaring his shoulders and answering the call.

“Pierce. I’m guessing you’re here.”

“I am,” he confirmed with pursed lips. “Is this as bad as it looks?”

“Worse. A lot worse,” Daisy replied and he could hear the grim expression on her face. Looking at the screen, he saw the slight delay showing, because Daisy was just showing in a call there. “You’re not in any zone, are you?”

“No. I’m on post-incident relief effort, whatever that is,” he answered and he heard her sigh.

“Good. Means you’ll be doing something similar to what you did at Cerulean. Help injured pokemon and calm them down. We’ll need you to work your magic on these pokemon if we want calm waters to be a possibility anytime soon and that’ll be necessary if we don’t want ships to be unable to travel through,” she told him grimly. “It’s gonna be bad though. I imagine it’ll be like Bellatrix but in bulk.”

“Reassuring,” he replied, trying not to let his fear bleed into his voice. She was doing a great job of putting the fear of pokemon in him though. Bellatrix hadn’t been a walk in the park. Hell, she was still working on her anger issues, really, even if she was mostly recovered. “Wish I could do something, but I guess I’ll leave that to you, the actually strong people.”

“You have your strengths, Pierce, but I don’t think one of those is being able to stand your ground against a rampaging mass of pokemon. Your team is great but they are few and they aren’t strong enough for this. You’d need a few dozens more of those to-”

Now that she said that though…

“Daisy-”

“Sorry, was that rude? I’m just… I’m nervous and I’m trying to make sure you know-”

That wasn’t the point.

“Daisy,” he tried to interrupt once more, this time firmly.

“Sorry, I’ll stop rambling now.”

“Daisy,” he repeated, both amused and a little annoyed. “I have an idea, not sure who I should talk to about this though...”

[}-o-{]

[Lillian Dale]

SS Anne had been attacked.

SS Anne’s incident was why Pierce was teleported to Vermillion.

SS Anne was where Red and Blue said they’d be.

Lily was beyond herself, power walking through the forest with Talon making sure that she stayed on course and didn’t get lost somehow. She’d have been running, but she wasn’t going to make it in time anyway and she knew it. There was no point in risking getting tired or hurt by doing that.

There probably wasn’t much point in her rushing over to Vermillion. She wasn’t going to get there in time for much of anything. However, the moment she heard the news, there was nothing else she could do but move. How was she supposed to rest, to sleep, while knowing her best friends were out at sea and that the ship they’d been on was at the center of a pokemon disaster the likes of which she didn’t even know when the last one had happened. They could be drowning, or fighting for their lives, or drifting off at sea.

How was Lily supposed to just… not do something?

So, she walked, with trembling hands, shaky breaths and a knot in her throat, making her way forward one step at a time. She didn’t know what else to do, so she just kept going and going, hoping that she’d get somewhere, achieve something. In reality though, all she was doing was distracting herself, setting a goal so that the worries wouldn’t overwhelm her, and she knew it.

‘They have to be alright,’ she thought, trying to swallow her panic and failing miserably. ‘They have to.’

She hadn’t caught up yet, after all. She was nowhere close to them, really. She hadn’t been in any rush, of course, but now that they might be-... She wanted to catch up. She wanted to show them that she was in their league and not just second best to them. Lily had her own strengths and she wanted to show them. They couldn’t d-...

When she got back on the road properly after this, Pierce and her would be speeding up. She was sure that he’d agree to that. He always offered and she knew that he often felt bad about delaying her journey. So, she’d take him up on the offer to speed up. They’d done half the journey at his speed, they could do the other half at hers. She would catch up to Red and Blue and she’d challenge them.

She would challenge them, and chat with them, and share stories.

Because the scattered messages and short calls felt so very lacking at that moment.

Those couldn’t be the last of it. Lily refused to believe those would be the last of it. There would be more to their friendship. The future would hold more in store for them. She’d see all three of them making their way through the Indigo League. They’d all prove themselves to the world and they would all become part of the top trainers of the region.

She was sure of that.

She was sure.

So…

So they couldn’t…

So they had to be alright.

They just had to.

‘Please,’ she prayed to herself, her face twisting in a grimace and tears threatening to fall from her eyes. However, she took a deep breath in and blinked several times as she focused on the way forward. ‘Please be alright.’

She wondered if it’d have been better if she were called for that emergency. Would she have been called if she were stronger? If she were more advanced? If she had more badges? Or would she have been left where she was while Pierce went away?

Her traveling companion could do things she couldn’t. She knew that much, accepted it and even was fine with it. However, she did feel bad about not being called. Just because she couldn’t talk to pokemon like Pierce did didn’t mean she was useless. She was a better trainer, battler. The only reason why Pierce even kept up even remotely was because of how crazy his pokemon were, for the most part.

So… So… Surely she could get strong enough to be dependable like that too, right? Would she have been teleported with him if she were? Would she have been taken to Vermillion and actually been there to help? Would she even be able to help at all?

Lily really could have used some of those “clear mind” exercises that Pierce did, because she felt like her own thoughts were putting her through hell. Her brain wouldn’t shut up and nothing it said was nice. She kept thinking about her friends, about what their situation could be, about if she could have done something, about the things she might not be able to do. None of those were good things to have in mind, but all the same it was all she could think about.

And Lily didn’t want to stop, she just wanted all those worst case scenarios to be wrong.

She’d be happy with that, quite honestly.

Alas, all she had at hand was time that had slowed to a crawl and a route in which she was alone. All she had was her imagination and fears that twisted it. And those were all the things she’d have for a while until she at least got to Vermillion, if getting there even helped at all.

But she had to hope it would.

Because otherwise she’d go crazy, or crazier than she already was.

‘Please be alright,’ she repeated, looking up at the sky and catching a glimpse of Talon. ‘Please be alright,’ she chanted, like it was her own personal prayer.

[}-o-{]

[Barry Coleman]

Zone Eight was… actually amongst the safest of the Zones assigned around Vermillion that day.

Barry was kind of glad about that, but then again, he was probably sent there because he didn’t have all that much to offer. Granted, he had a golduck, a tentacool, a pidgeotto and a butterfree… But what was he going to do with that against what they’d been told was coming their way? No offense to his team; they were great, but they weren’t “stop rampaging gyarados” great and they likely would never be.

So, he was kind of glad that they were off into a tiny peninsula – did it count as a peninsula, actually? – to the West side of Vermillion. They were there more as a containment aid than an actual force to protect the city. Their objective there was to stop pokemon from spreading the damage towards Celadon’s side of things and take out any stray pokemon that might have separated from the main group. Although, thinking about it in the terms of a “group” felt like a grave understatement.

“Do you think it’ll be much longer?” someone said from somewhere behind and off to the side. Barry barely caught the words, but that was more because of the distance. Few people talked, the tension too much for all of them. When he glanced around, he’d see several of them shifting and fidgeting. They didn’t have a precise time when the pokemon would hit the coast, but nobody wanted to be caught unaware.

“Who knows?” someone else answered, voice wry, sardonic and a little annoyed. “The wait is killing me though,” she added and Barry could agree with that much. It was like waiting knowing that a lightning bolt was going to fall close by and not knowing if it’d fall on top of them or not. They could only stand there and hope that when things inevitably happened, it wouldn’t be too bad for them.

Barry hated it.

They’d all have to suck it up though, because there was nothing to do.

Although, it was admittedly nice to have time to be ready. He’d been called to emergencies before and this was the first time he’d had enough time to be anxious during the wait. Most of the time, you had to go to some place where shit was already hitting the fan. There was no time to prepare or think or anything of the sort. You were called, you were sent to a Zone and then… Good luck and thank you, try not to die.

It wasn’t always that extreme, but the point stood.

Having too much time hadn’t ever been a problem, until that day that is. Because he almost wished things were already going on when he got there. It’d be less nerve wracking that way, even if it’d be more terrifying… probably. That still remained to be seen. Barry imagined it’d be plenty frightening when gyarados and tentacruel appeared.

That was not going to be a fun time.

He could only hope that, being in the Zone he was in and considering what they’d been told to expect, not too much trouble would come their way. As it was, they didn’t expect things to be too bad. A stray gyarados or tentacruel was what the rangers said was likely to come their way. At worst, two or three of either, but considering the number of trainers around, they should have enough firepower to contain that much.

Well, so long as it wasn’t a newly evolved gyarados.

Then it’d be a nightmare.

Barry was pretty sure Proxyman wasn’t there with them, after all.

“Is that it?” someone asked and Barry groaned. There’d been a few false alarms already. When people expected to see something, it was easy to imagine things happening. A wave a little too tall turned into a gyarados and a bit of a reflection of the sun was a tentacruel. Mirages on the water got to people, especially people that were already on edge.

Nevertheless, his eyes still darted to the horizon.

Idly, he noticed that the sky was clear, which didn’t quite fit an emergency like the one that was coming their way.

“I think so?” a guy replied and Barry froze. Was there really something? He wasn’t seeing it, but then again, he probably needed to get his eyes checked. He really hoped he wouldn’t need glasses though, because that would su- There was something.

It was small, so very small. Right where the sea met the sky far into the distance. Like a wave, but too tall for the distance. Nothing like the mirages Barry himself had seen a few times. And it was getting bigger.

What had started as a slightly taller wave than normal turned into some kind of distorted, messy sight in the water. Like the difference between calm water in a bucket and the same water being splashed with both hands and quickly. The water was higher, rising up into the sky the smallest bit, and there was more white than blue. Something was agitating it and it showed more and more with every second that passed.

“Everyone ready!” one of the rangers barked and Barry stiffened further. They were coming.

“You ready, guys?” he asked, and he wasn’t the only one. His butterfree latched onto his upper arm and clicked her mandibles at him. “Yeah, me neither,” he replied wryly, but there was no more preparation nor waiting time. The pokemon were coming and they’d just have to deal with it. They’d had enough time, but that hardly made them feel ready. If anything, he was now wondering if he should have done something.

He knew there was nothing, but he didn’t feel at all like he was prepared for what was coming their way.

Alas, there was no option but to face it all the same.

It was their duty, whether they liked it or not.

People depended on them.

[}-o-{]

[Robert Surge]

“Zones Seven, Eight and Nine called in. They see the pokemon approaching. We have a few minutes tops,” he said, his voice somewhere between a bark and a growl as he stalked forward on the wharf. He wasn’t quite stiff, but saying he was relaxed would be ridiculously wrong too. He was… ready, for lack of a better term.

Even with as much time they’d had to prepare, there’d been a lot to do, which was why he’d been the last to join his fellow Leaders, the Elites and Lance even though they were in his city. He’d had to coordinate a lot of things, from the ranger efforts to citizen evacuation and everything in between. He hadn’t even managed to get everything done, but he was still very grateful for the heads up he’d managed to get. It was a rare occasion when that happened.

Now though… Now it was almost time.

Robert would have liked to say that it was rare for him to be reminded of his worst days. He’d have wanted nothing more than to not remember something as bad as the war had been. Alas, something really shitty happened from time to time. Not often, per se, but it happened, and there was no denying it. Sometimes the world just decided to show one how bad it could get and you could just take it to the chin as best you could and hope it didn’t knock you out or worse.

“Did I miss anything?” he asked, glancing around. Everyone had their game face on, which was good. Nothing against his fellow leaders, but they could be… They didn’t fill him with faith in a dire situation, at times. Being capable and being prepared for a shitshow were two very different things. Brock – the rookie – and the Sisters – the showmakers – hadn't quite proven themselves in his eyes, but maybe this would be their chance. Or maybe all they’d be able to do was earn themselves more chances, like Erika.

Not that he resented them not being soldiers or anything, but sometimes you needed someone that could deal with this kind of bullshit.

“Yes,” Koga said, going straight to the point and Robert turned to look at him. The man, however, was looking at Lance, not at him. “Are you sure it was wise to allow that?” the man asked and it was a rare day when someone questioned the Champion, especially in a crisis. Lance was not a lot of things, but if Robert was a soldier, Lance was a warrior. A disaster zone was where the Blackthorns’ poster boy shone.

“This is going to be messy. Last I heard, there were many pokemon evolutions, several of which were gyarados,” Lance told them and Blaine cursed. Robert had already known that, but he almost wanted to curse anyway. There was never going to be enough cursing to cover how fucked up the situation was. “So, yes, I’ll take the risk. Vermillion is already going to get hit, no matter how hard we push back. If he can do half of what he says, maybe we can save a little more of that.”

Again, Robert had known that already, but it didn’t mean he liked hearing it. And the expression on Blackthorn’s face said a lot. The last time the Champion had looked like that was when Moltres had decided to show a less than friendly side to them. Now Blaine had a secondary Gym inside a volcano just to keep things under control.

Not that the old man cared – from what he’d heard –, but that didn’t make the situation that had led to that any less of a mess.

He really wanted to know what the fuck had happened to SS Anne, because this… this wasn’t normal. A rampage of wild pokemon that big wasn’t unheard of, of course, but adding the SS Anne to that made it all look a little suspicious. Something had happened out there. Rampages happened for a reason and a wild rampage wouldn’t be this big and it involving a boat would have been a one in a million chance. Too coincidental.

Something had happened at the SS Anne that caused the rampage. That was Robert’s best guess. He wasn’t sure what, but he was damn well going to find out, once things settled down and they dealt with this crisis. Provided things didn’t go South even more. That was always a possibility.

“What did I miss?” Robert asked, trying to find out what new piece of information he was lacking. He thought he was the best informed of them, but evidently his colleagues had something to share themselves.

Before he could get an answer though, a gyarados roar made him stiffen and turn towards the horizon.

“Are they here alread-” Erika jumped a little.

“No, girl,” Agatha said, in that exasperated old person tone that she’d mastered before she was even old at all, Robert was sure. Not that he blamed her, but Erika was the kind of person that would jump like that. She was probably one of the most nervous of them all. “That came from behind,” the Ghost specialist told the Grass type one, but Robert had already noticed and was already turning.

“What the fuck?” he asked, watching as a whole school of gyarados made their way towards them.

“We’re not late, huh?” an unknown voice said, standing on top of one of the sea serpents.

“And who are you?” Robert asked, checking the new arrivals with a critical eye. That many gyarados would be useful, no matter how untrained most of them looked. In those numbers? Working together? They’d be a wall, if nothing else. Not quite what the Sisters or Lance would be able to put up, but it’d be something. Robert certainly appreciated the extra help, that was for sure.

“Pierce Lawson, sir,” the man at the head of the school told him, a nervous smile on his face.

‘Daisy’s boy toy?’ Robert thought, eyebrows shooting up.

[} Chapter End {]

Hey guys! How’s it going?

Well, shit is about to hit the fan and Pierce’s great idea is to put himself right there, almost in front of the fan. Because of course that’s what he’d do. What did we all expect? Reasonable actions? It’s honestly on us, certainly on me. I should have known the Muse wouldn’t be kind.

On a different note, Robert Surge. Yes, I had to make up a name for him, because apparently none of the Gym Leaders have full names and that kind of doesn’t help me much. So, I looked into things and saw that some of the game translations call him Bob for some reason. So, I mixed that with the more well known version and got Robert Surge. Hope it’s not too annoying.

I’ll also likely need to come up with full names for everyone else at some point and that’s going to suck.

Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed the chapter.

Discord Link: discord.gg/UTDransjJZ

Random Question: Any of you guys feel like helping me come up with names for the Leaders and Elites that don’t have full ones?

See you.