Searching Far and Wide - 94

Teams:

Pierce Lawson:

- Narcissa, Beedrill

- Orion, Onix

- Cygnus, Kadabra

- Bellatrix, Gyarados (Shiny)

- Andromeda, Vaporeon

Lillian Dale:

- Root, Bulbasaur

- Talon, Spearow

- Gem, Geodude

- Star, Cleffa

- Cinder, Vulpix

Saffron City X

Andromeda hummed thoughtfully before finishing with an approving yip.

“Glad you like it,” Pierce commented wryly.

Not that holding the vaporeon in his arms was a chore, but still, it was the principle of the matter. She was surprisingly light, but just big enough to be a bit cumbersome. Fortunately, she wasn’t as hard to wrangle as some dogs had been back in his old world. She was much more cooperative… if not completely so.

Apparently, she didn’t understand or deliberately ignored the sarcasm in his voice, because Andromeda just yipped happily at him.

With a sigh, Pierce leaned back on a tree trunk he was sitting against. Much better than walking around carrying the Water type, if he did say so himself. From there, he turned his attention away from the eeveelution and looked at the rest of his team. Narcissa was in the sulking corner with Orion and Bellatrix, the latter of whom was trying to cheer up her teammates. Although, Pierce made a mental note to spoil all three of them a little extra for a few days.

Orion and Bellatrix were probably feeling a little left out, especially the Gyarados, even if she was – ironically enough – the one that looked the least affected by the fact. He guessed she was just happy to be around and enjoy the company. She was adorable like that, he supposed, and the least battle obsessed of the bunch, which was funny. One would have thought that’d have been Andromeda, but nope.

Then there was Cygnus, who was pretty proud of himself, together with Andromeda. They had done great in the challenge though, admittedly. Narcissa had too, but she obviously disagreed with the assessment. Apparently, being taken out without beating her opponent had left her in quite the bad mood. Pierce didn’t want to think how she’d have been if they had actually lost the challenge.

Before he could try and say something to cheer them up though, someone beat him to the punch.

“Remind me to do something nice for her,” he commented idly, getting a yip from Andromeda and a mental hum from Cygnus. All three of them watched as Star hopped up to the moody trio – duo, more like – and babbled happily at them, apparently trying to get them in the celebratory mood. She wasn’t very successful, but she did seem to snap them out of it a little bit.

Soon, she was joined by Root and Cinder.

“Thanks,” he said, looking up to where Lily had moved to stand next to him. “I have my hands full at the moment, but I’ll do something for you all later,” he commented with a smile that his traveling companion returned. “Even if it means the food reserves will-”

“One time…” Lily hissed, her expression changing immediately to a narrow-eyed glare and a pout. “You are lucky I like you, Pierce, but don’t push it.”

“You’re lovely, Lily, truly you are. But I don’t know if we can be together like tha-”

“That wasn’t a confession, asshole,” she grumbled. “And you didn’t have to be so quick with the rejection, you know? Even if you are messing around, that hurts.” She didn’t look very hurt, but he didn’t point that out. Instead, he went with…

“Don’t worry, Lils, I’m sure Blue will tell you all about how pretty and-”

“God, I thought the times of you being extra annoying would be over after the challenge,” she huffed, rolling her eyes at him. “Do I have to take my pokemon and run away for a few more days?”

“I’m just feeling a little too relaxed, I think,” Pierce commented, pondering on how he felt. It was like a knot had been undone in his chest, but that left him ironically almost as restless as his bundle of nerves had beforehand. “I should be back to normal soon-ish,” he added, hugging Andromeda a little tighter to his chest.

He wondered if there’d come a point in which important battles wouldn’t make him feel so out of it.

“Doubtful,” were the encouraging words of his kadabra. Comforting, Cygnus was not. “Just telling it how I see it, Helper-Voice,” his Psychic added, sounding entirely too amused for Pierce’s liking. Why did he have such an asshole of a pokemon again? “Takes one to know one.”

Ok, that was a good one, he’d admit.

“I’m just that good.”

‘You are also a child,’ Pierce shot back, relishing the victory in the scandalized feeling that bleed through from Cygnus. Turning his attention away once more, he looked at Lily. They’d been kind of waiting until both of them were done with the Saffron Gym – one way or another – before talking about…

“What are we doing now? Where are we going? Vermilion or Celadon?” he asked, adjusting Andromeda on his arms and lap so as to free one of his hands to run his fingers through his hair. “The traditional path is through Vermilion, right?”

“It is, but there’s not much point in sticking to that, really,” Lily commented, tucking a lock of her brown hair behind her ear as she regarded him. “There was a special time-limited prize for beating Surge’s challenge for a bit, but it ended the other day,” she commented and Pierce felt his insides freeze.

“Really?” he asked casually, leaning on the comfort Cygnus was offering to play things off as best he could. His kadabra didn’t know what was going on, but he knew something was affecting him and had decided to help. He was reliable like that when he wanted to be.

“You could be more grateful.”

“Yeah, tickets for a cruise, which sounded pretty nice. No way we could have made it in time though, at least not without rushing there since I heard about it too late from my friends,” Lily commented with a shrug, unaware of how much her words disturbed him.

‘Is… the SS Anne going to be a thing?’ he couldn’t help but wonder. He knew there was some kind of plot involved there and he remembered something about it getting attacked. Was that canon? Was that in the games? Was that in the anime? Was that in the manga? Was it in all of them? Was it going to happen in that weird pokemon world he was in too?

He didn’t know.

What he did know was that his mood had dropped quite a bit.

Getting his face licked by Andromeda, he forced a smile. ‘Feeling like shit won’t help,’ he told himself. If something happened or not, it wasn’t like he had any proof to bring it up with anyone. Realistically, what could he do? If things happened, he didn’t have any way to justify his knowledge. And if nothing happened, he’d mark himself as somewhat of a lunatic, which might cause more problems than just being embarrassing.

Taking a deep breath in, he tried to focus back on the present.

Tried being the operative word there.

“So, it doesn’t really matter, does it?” Lily continued talking and Pierce was grateful that she wasn’t looking at him. “Celadon or Vermilion, same thing. Celadon has more stuff to buy though, admittedly. I could look around to see if I find a Fire Stone for whenever Cinder needs it, I guess, although it’s soon for that, so there’s no rush.”

“... We can see. No need to decide right away, just wanted to get the talks going,” Pierce commented, wondering if he was doing a good job at acting natural.

“You are,” Cygnus reassured him, his tone serious even though he had no idea what was going on. “Do you need a distraction?” he asked, and Pierce noticed that almost every member of his team was discreetly at attention, except for Bella. They were great. He was really lucky. “You are. Now…”

Narcissa buzzed as she started floating up and then made a beeline towards him, clicking her mandibles and making him grin.

His team was the best.

[}-o-{]

“Stop grumbling, will you?” he asked, receiving more grumbling in response. Or, at least, the beedrill equivalent of grumbling. Taking a deep breath in, Pierce just rolled his eyes and continued using the special wipe on Narcissa while she clicked her mandibles and occasionally buzzed her wings.

It’d been a while since that last thing had stopped being a little nerve wracking. He’d always worried that he might get smacked by them. It also worried him that he might damage them, despite knowing that pokemon were far from fragile. Even Narcissa’s wings, which didn’t look that sturdy, would be pretty hard for him to break, especially accidentally.

He just couldn’t shake off the thoughts though.

“To think I thought you wanted to help,” he commented, amused.

Despite acting as a distraction, his beedrill had very much wanted to be spoiled either way. She was in a mood and needed some pampering to recover, it seemed. Not that Pierce had a problem indulging her, but it was fun to realize that it wasn’t all for the sake of taking him out of the tense conversation he’d been having with Lily.

After getting some time to himself and his thoughts though, he felt a little more relaxed.

Getting a questioning sound from his starter, he smiled softly down at her and rubbed her some more with the wipe. Yes, he was back to normal, for a definition of normal. He was still a little nervous and uneasy, but he knew there was nothing he could do. His information was faulty at best and he was not responsible for everything bad that was caused by the Rockets.

Besides, if he were to do anything, it’d involve the League.

And telling the League had a chance of things reaching Giovanni.

Pierce couldn’t let that happen, for the safety of everyone he knew and himself.

“I think it’s Orion’s turn now, girl,” he commented, making the onix perk up. “Yeah, just give me a moment to pick up your wipe, alright?” he asked, getting a pleased, eager growl from the Rock type. Narcissa for her part, grumbled half-heartedly as she got off of his lap and took off. “Don’t get into a fight with Talon!” he called, making the beedrill freeze midair before she continued flying.

It seemed he’d hit the nail in the head, unsurprisingly.

“Fighter-Challenger is predictable,” Cygnus said, as if he were any less predictable himself. “I am,” the Psychic protested and he actually believed that. “What’s that supposed to mean, Helper-Voice?... Helper-Voice!”

Ignoring him, Pierce just did what he said he would and got ready to pamper his onix some more. If Cygnus wanted to delude himself into believing he wasn’t predictable, that was his problem. Although, it was kind of funny to hear him complain about that, trying to defend himself. He didn’t even seem to realize that he was proving Pierce right doing that.

“... You suck.”

‘I love you too, buddy,’ Pierce replied with a grin. ‘How’s Bella doing?’

“... She’s not terrifying any Water pokemon in the river, if that’s what you are asking,” Cygnus grumbled in his mind and Pierce amused himself guessing that the shift in his voice was the mental equivalent of pouting. “It’s n-... You are just going to continue being obnoxious for no reason, aren’t you?” his kadabra seemed to finally realize.

‘Amusement is a reason,’ Pierce answered, getting a mental huff in response. ‘And it seems Andromeda is doing a good job babysitting. Remind me to give her an extra poffin.’

“Will do,” Cygnus grumbled all the same. “Speaking of, when are you going to try making poke puffs?”

‘... Gluttons, the lot of you,’ Pierce commented, although he was fairly amused by the way his Psychic type couldn’t contain his curiosity. ‘I’ll get to it sometime soon. It’ll be a while before the next challenge and everyone will have stuff to work on. I guess poke puffs will be what I do.’

Pierce had wanted to get started with that in Saffron but… Well, things had happened. As it was at that moment, he was fairly sure that his pokemon – and Lily’s for that matter – would rebel if he delayed that any more than he’d already done so. The silence that came after that thought from his link with Cygnus was telling enough, and that was without bringing it up with the less mature and cool-headed of the pokemon in their group.

And he still needed to keep exercising and studying for the First Aid License…

Pierce really needed days twice as long just to get all that he wanted done, honestly.

Then again, he guessed the First Aid License had been pushed to the side a little bit. He was in the League’s good graces, to hear Daisy tell it. This translated to him having some leeway to do things others might get in trouble for, which meant that he could treat pokemon if he wanted, so long as he didn’t mess up. Which he wouldn’t, since he was always careful to check that he knew what he was doing.

Still though, he needed to study for that to be a thing, even if it wasn’t to prepare for the exams.

Oh well, he didn’t have that much room to complain about needing to work on stuff. His team was constantly training new stuff on top of polishing the things they already knew. They were working to improve themselves all the time. The least he could do was do the same on his end.

That didn’t mean he wouldn’t complain anyway.

“And we are the childish ones?” Cygnus asked, but Pierce was undeterred. They were, indeed, the childish ones. More childish than he was, at the very least, which should be very telling. “You are a very obnoxious man, Helper-Voice.”

‘Thank you.’

His only response to that was silence, but that was enough for him.

[}-o-{]

[Short: Third Badge Celebration]

Lightning55Turbo

He calmed down a gyarados!

HE CALMED DOWN A GYARADOS!

johnyoung4733

Difficult to believe this guy had one badge when the Gyarados calming down thing happened. Just as hard to believe the Gyarados show was put up when he had two badges. There’s people with balls of steel and then there’s Proxyman.

CorphishOutOfWater

He’s just built different.

Shi89

Sure is, have you looked at him?

Ruxlay

Would.

CrystalMorgan9655

Shi and Ruxlay being thirsty as usual, it seems. Also, congrats on the win, Proxyman!

NamelessStacey3213

The gym’s already uploaded the battle and damn is it just me or did Sabrina make you guys work for it?

DanielDadford35

I looked at the battle and yeah, she definitely did. Especially with that Inkay. That was a nasty choice. Thing has literally no weaknesses except Bug and Fairy, and she’d already taken out Narcissa.

Props to you, Proxyman, for pulling through.

My third badge with Sabrina wasn’t that harsh, pretty sure.

ForestEnjoyerClub

Proxyman pulled through against the odds once more, this time in a challenge. Congrats, to you, Proxyman, and to the team! They did amazing! Can’t wait to see what they can do in some more time. Wonder if we’ll see Proxyman in the Indigo Conference.

CrystalMorgan9655

That’s probably the plan. Easier said than done, of course, but we are with you, Proxyman!

Pokepuffpuff

Is it just me or is it kind of weird to think he does normal trainer stuff like challenges when he also does… Well, Proxyman stuff?

CorphishOutOfWater

Definitely not just you, Puff. Usually when you see guys like him, they’re already established trainers or something, not a guy that’s on the lower side of the badge number. That just makes everything he’s been doing so far that much more crazy, honestly.

Proxyman is just built differently indeed.

SnowflakeMeowth_Gifs

Proxyman, the plan to befriend murkrow might have worked too well. Can we get another murkrow episode, snack edition? They are surprisingly neat and I wanna spoil them!

NamelessStacey3213

??? Is Proxyman contagious?

Pierce – Pokemon Proxy

I’ll work on it, Snow. We’ll probably take it easy for a few days and a visit to the murkrow murder sounds like a nice way to do so. It’ll be fun to try new recipes and I’m sure Narcissa will like to spar with them.

Pokepuffpuff

Only Proxyman could say equal “taking it easy” to “visiting a murder of murkrow”. Never change, Proxyman. Never change.

ChompChomp

We are here for that Proxyman quality content.

Poison_Sniffa

And for the eye candy. Can’t forget about that.

Ruxlay

Very much would.

Poison_Sniffa

Indeed, Ruxlay.

MasterPoffin1111

Can’t wait for the new recipes, Proxyman.

On a different note, how’s no one commenting on Cygnus’ spoon?

johnyoung4733

It should really say something about Proxyman that that’s the least surprising thing when he’s involved, Poffin. It’s not that weird for kadabra to have a personalized focus. Spoons tend not to be all the same. Still though, I think a knuckleduster spoon is probably a first.

Sabrina – Gym Leader

It is a first, as far as I’m aware.

johnyoung4733

1!!!

I think this is the first time I see a Leader comment.

Poison_Sniffa

Pretty sure I’ve seen the Sensational Sisters a few times here and there and Brock once or twice in pokemon care videos (might appear here at some point?). Definitely a first for Sabrina.

NamelessStacey3213

It’s a Proxyman Miracle!

Quick, everyone. Make a wish.

MasterPoffin1111

I wish for more amazing Proxyman content.

johnyoung4733

I wish for another great pokemon show (and to be able to attend).

Shi89

I wish for more shirtless Proxyman content.

Ruxlay

Yes!

Lily – Pokemon Proxy Proxy

I’ll see what I can do, girls.

Ruxlay

YES!

Shi89

YES!

[}-o-{]

[Pierce Lawson]

He stared at the screen with a flat expression and then turned to look at Lily.

“What?” she asked, playing innocent and doing an absolutely terrible job at it. “I’m just saying. It’s summer, you like to swim, Bella loves to spend time with you,” she said leadingly, trying to sound casual, as if there were any way for her to sound like that. “What?” she repeated, batting her eyes and trying to play clueless.

“You are something,” he said, his voice as flat as his expression. “Why do I put up with you again?”

“Because I’m cute?” Lily asked, trying to exaggeratedly show off. It was funny, he’d give her that, but still. “Most guys would be pleased to have girls fawning over them on the internet, you know?” his friend added, making him roll his eyes.

“First of all, bold of you to assume they are girls,” he said dryly. “Second of all, they are strangers. Third of all, I’m not that good looking. They are just exaggerating for the memes,” he continued and it was Lily’s turn to look at him flatly. “What?”

“You are something, Pierce,” she told him, unimpressed. “Anyway though, given any thought to where we’ll go,” she added, taking her styrofoam cup of coffee and taking a sip from it.

“Eh, was looking at the map and… couldn’t we go to Vermilion, taking a ship to Celadon and then another to Fuchsia?” he asked, pulling up the tab he’d been checking.

He was pretty sure there was supposed to be a non-water path between Celadon and Fuchsia, but he couldn’t remember what that was all about, so he guessed it wasn’t too important. Either way, the fact was that there was a stretch of water between them, since Fuchsia was at the tip of a peninsula. Neither Celadon nor Fuchsia were directly on the coast, but there were ports nearby with boats coming and going for transport and traveling.

“Oh, that sounds nice,” Lily commented, pointing at him with a pen. Apparently, he’d gotten her into the habit of taking notes for stuff, especially when she was doing research at the computers of the Pokemon Center, like at that moment. “I could probably do with a water type in my team,” she added, looking up thoughtfully and tapping her pen on her lip. “Yeah, I think I like the sound of that… Lots of shirtless Pierce for the fans too.”

“... You had to ruin the idea for me, did you?” he asked, his flat expression making a comeback. “Anyway, yeah, I thought it’d be a nice change of pace from the trekking and such,” he added, running his fingers through his hair. He also thought it’d be nice for Bellatrix to be comfortable being out and about too, but he left that unsaid. Orion probably wouldn’t be a great fan of that, but Pierce had somewhat of a plan in regards to that issue.

“Hmm, we can think it over. We could go to Vermilion anyway and go through the traditional path if we change our mind,” Lily suggested, making him nod. The traditional path was to go to Vermilion and then around the peninsula to Fuchsia and then take a boat to either Celadon or Cinnabar. It was more flexible fork in the road than the ones they’d come across so far, since you more or less had to take a boat or teleport to either of those.

Most people went to Celadon over Cinnabar, since Erika tended to be a “softer” Gym Leader than most others. The only reason people didn’t go for her sooner was that they preferred to leave the biggest city in Kanto for roughly the last place, to get evolutionary items and such things when their teams were more established. They’d need that kind of stuff for the last Leader or Leaders they faced and then the Conference.

… Provided they got that far into the circuit, that is, which wasn’t what one would call common.

“Sounds like a good enough plan,” he replied, leaning back on his chair. “Assuming we don’t get lost-”

“Oh, shut up,” Lily said, throwing a note paper sheet crumpled into a ball at him. He just let it hit his face before smiling at her. “Idiot,” she huffed, turning back to her screen and faking focusing on it. As if anyone could switch gears that fast, especially when annoyed.

Still, he let her get away with it, leaning down to pick up the piece of paper and throwing it in the bin before turning to his own screen. 

Pierce didn’t know what Lily was working on, but he was tinkering with the training plan for his team post-Saffron. Vermilion was looking more likely as their next destination, so he was prioritizing that, but he did as a splash of brainstorming for Celadon… Just in case. It was kind of awkward to try and juggle both even the smallest bit though, considering they were so different.

Either way though, Andromeda and Bellatrix were almost sure to stay out of those fights. Orion too, if Celadon turned out to be their destination in the end, but he could be pretty much his best option in Vermillion. Narcissa would go well for both. They just needed to get Drill Run down for Vermillion if it came to that and they’d have a solid fighter right there. As for Cygnus, adding the last elemental Punch to his repertoire would fix them for Celadon… Vermillion would be trickier, but his strength was his versatility.

‘Another team member would help,’ Pierce mused idly, because things would only get tougher. He was no specialist to make disadvantageous match ups work, especially on hard battles. No, he needed more coverage, preferably someone that either had an advantage or had just as much versatility as Cygnus…

Then again, it wasn’t like he recruited for his team. They came to him and he’d feel bad if he looked for someone for his growing family just because they’d be useful. ‘Oh well, I’ll have to put extra effort to make the team work, I guess,’ he thought, an uneasy grimace on his face. If he put the effort in, his team would make up for the lack of talent on their own, he was sure.

For the moment, he noted down some ideas and then…

‘I think that’s enough for now?’ Pierce mused, rubbing his weary eyes. Dinner would be in a bit, Lily was still working and his pokemon were resting so… ‘Might as well,’ he decided, clicking a few times, typing a bit and… waiting.

“... Hey Pierce,” Violet greeted him with a smile. “Calling Daisy?”

“Hey yourself,” he greeted, waving at her. “I mean, yes, but we are friends, right? We can chat too,” he commented, to which her smile widened. “How are things going over there?”

“Well said,” she replied happily. “And same old, really. Nothing to really complain about. Although, now that Daisy’s not here, I can tell you about…”

[} Chapter End {]

Hey guys! How’s it going?

I’m quite happy with this chapter, surprisingly enough. There’s some relaxing, which is always nice. There’s some planning for the future, which I’ll have to go over a lot while trying to decide what Pierce and Lily would do.

And then there’s the comment section, which I’ll admit is kind of growing on me. It’s getting more and more fun as I get better at it… I think. Maybe it’s all in my head…

Anyway, hope you guys liked the chapter!

Discord Link: discord.gg/UTDransjJZ

Random Question: Any of the remaining cities that you are looking forward to? Why?

See you.