Searching Far and Wide - 51

Teams:

Pierce Lawson:

- Narcissa, Beedrill

- Orion, Onix

- Cygnus, Abra

Lillian Dale:

- Root, Bulbasaur

- Talon, Spearow

- Gem, Geodude

- Star, Cleffa

Cerulean City XII

“You look entirely too serious for a challenge you have in the bag already,” Lily told him during breakfast that day. Because yes, it was the day Pierce was going to challenge his first Gym. Sure, some would say it was high time he did, but he’d delayed it as much as he had for a reason. His pokemon weren’t really suited for challenging Pewter and not even Cerulean when he’d arrived. Narcissa was great but Orion was young and had been recovering in the former and the latter was also a terrible match. As for Cygnus, he hadn’t even been able to use a damaging move of any kind in Pewter.

Now, the situation had changed and it was time for his team and him to take their first actual step in their journey as battlers.

“I know, I just… I don’t want to screw this up,” Pierce replied, bringing his cup up to his lips. “This is important.”

“It is,” Lily agreed with a nod. “But you won’t screw it up. Don’t worry,” she proceeded to reassure. It wasn’t much, but it was still nice to hear, he supposed.

Some might call him dramatic too, he imagined. He’d been doing great in the battlegrounds and regular challenges on their journey. Pierce might not be a great battler like Lily, but he was a good one, if his win ratio was anything to go by. Narcissa was a great part of that, for sure, but that didn’t mean he was bad.

And this was his first badge challenge, so it didn’t really matter if he had a great early pokemon because he was in the early stages of his journey. If anything, he was grossly over prepared for this, really. Unfortunately, that just put another kind of pressure on him, really. After all, if his victory was so certain, then surely everything would go well, right?

What if it didn’t though? What if he struggled, even though he should have an easy time? What’d that say about him as a trainer? Because there was no way that’d be on his team. They’d worked hard enough to make him feel bad more than once. They had the motivation and the work ethic. If they didn’t have an easy time, then it was because Pierce sucked.

“Pierce,” Lily called him, giving him an annoyed look. “Have some faith, ok? It’ll be fine. You pokemon are great and you are too. It’ll go perfectly.”

“I know,” he repeated, sighing. “I’m just overthinking it, but I can’t help it.”

“I mean, with the notes you took? I’d ask if you can jump to the second badge challenge if that were a thing,” Lily told him, leafing through his notebook. He’d spend many nights watching battles from the Cerulean Gym on the internet, both for first badge challenges or otherwise. One never knew, after all. “Don’t get me wrong, this is great, but it also looks like overkill to me.”

“Thanks… I think,” he muttered, finishing his coffee and leaning back on his seat. “Ok,” he said then, taking a deep breath in. “I’ll go talk with my team and then we’ll go to the Gym. Good thing I booked my challenge battle early in the morning.”

Because if he had to wait much longer, he might go crazy. He’d been… mostly fine during his stay in Cerulean and even before, but that just made things worse. After all, he’d spent all that time working towards this, preparing and doing things. Now… There was nothing to do but to actually do the job.

All that time he’d waited and prepared seemed to have just made things worse for him. It was like all that time he’d been fine waiting had suddenly turned into stress about the result of this battle. He knew it was fine, but… He just couldn’t help but be nervous anyway. There was a huge difference between losing a normal challenge or a battlegrounds one and a Gym challenge.

Once outside the Pokemon Center, he released his pokemon. Somehow, just seeing them filled him with confidence. The nerves he’d had through the whole morning, short as it had been so far, seemed to be assuaged in a matter of seconds. He chuckled to himself, more out of relief than amusement.

How was he supposed to be unsure, really?

His pokemon knew what was coming. He’d talked to them the night before, explained to them that the Gym challenge was happening that day. So, seeing them at that very moment, looking the picture of confidence, gave him the certainty that he’d lacked a minute before. Narcissa kept herself at eye level with him, hovering steadily as if she weren’t moving at all except for her wings. Cygnus stood on the ground, not even using his psychic energy to do so, looking up at Pierce with resolute eyes. And Orion, big boy that he was simply curled around his teammates to peer at Pierce like nothing was out of the ordinary.

‘What am I even worried about?’ he wondered with another chuckle, shaking his head. Sure, he was still afraid he’d fail them… but his team knew what they were getting into. They wanted him over any other trainer, just like he wanted them above any other pokemon. If he wasn’t good enough, he’d just have to try harder.

That’d be what he’d tell them if they did badly, which he knew wouldn’t happen.

“You ready?” he asked and the answers he got were short but decisive. Even Orion joined, even though they knew it was unlikely that he’d get a battle of his own. “That’s the spirit,” he said, placing a hand on the side of Orion’s head. “Let’s do this then,” he added, receiving three nods before he set them inside their pokeballs once more.

“Back to normal then?” he heard Lily ask to his side.

Without turning, he took a deep breath in and then smiled. He was still nervous, for sure. However, even that was something he couldn’t afford. He needed to do his best for his pokemon and that meant not letting nerves get to him.

‘Let’s do this.’

[}-o-{]

“About time,” Lily – the Sensational Sister, that is – said, greeting him at the entrance of the Gym when he walked past the door with the other Lily. ‘That’s more confusing now that they are both in the same room,’ he thought idly as he smiled at the Gym Leader and nodded.

“Sorry, was a bit nervous,” he admitted, his grin turning a little embarrassed as he rubbed the back of his head. “Managed to get over it though and it’s not like I don’t have time still,” he added, not even bothering to ask how she knew he’d be challenging the Gym. After all, no other reason why she’d seem to be waiting for him nor for her to assume he’d arrive early, since he usually visited in the afternoons.

“Do you have a reason to be?” the Leader asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Not at all,” Lily answered for him, drawing an annoyed look from him. “He’s just overthinking it.”

“Ah, you came from Pewter, right? And skipped it,” the pink-haired woman commented, looking at him thoughtfully. “That makes sense. Happens fairly often. If you skip the first option, you get more training, but more pressure too. It’s not that rare.”

“Thank you,” he breathed out.

“You are still silly though,” she told him, making his glare return. “Now, come on, Violet should be done with the challenge before yours real quick. Some guy thought he’d return with the full badge set and get a tour around the gyms… I think he thought it’d be easy or something.”

“Poor bastard,” Pierce commented, drawing a giggle from the Sister. After all, going for a full badge fight against someone you beat early on in your journey could be very deceiving. Even if you took them seriously, there was a subconscious part of your brain that couldn’t help but underestimate them. He was fully expecting to get his ass kicked whenever he decided to try that, which he imagined would happen eventually.

“Yeah. Last I saw, he was already behind by two pokemon,” Lily added and he grimaced in sympathy. Yeah, that guy, whoever he was, wasn’t having a good time.

“How’s everyone in the pools doing by the way?” he asked, running his fingers through his hair.

“They are doing great, as if you didn’t know that,” the Leader told him, rolling her eyes. “Now, come on,” she added, waving for him to follow her. He knew the way around the Gym already, but he followed nonetheless. He’d done some exploration to see where the battlefield and the stands were, even if he hadn’t really gone to watch any of the challenges that had taken place during his time there. “It’s getting really difficult to get people to take these pokemon, admittedly,” Lily continued as they followed her through the hall. His companion was a little too quiet behind him, but this was kind of a conversation where she didn’t have much context or part in, he supposed. “There were too many all at once and there’s only so many rehab centers for water types.”

“I can imagine,” he replied with a grimace. After all, there’d been a lot of those and centers could only take so many all at once. He rather doubted any of them had been empty before this disaster, after all, so having so many pokemon with such issues thrown at them all of a sudden couldn’t be nice in any way. It wasn’t like they could rush pokemon they were already working on to make space either, that’d be shitty.

“I’ve heard talks of a new one being set up just for this,” Lily continued, and he wasn’t sure if she was actually talking to him – or them – or if she was talking to herself. “And don’t get me wrong, it’s great, but I really don’t like the idea that we need more rehabilitation centers.”

“I get what you mean. It’s great that pokemon will get the attention they need… but it sucks that they need it,” he said, sighing to himself.

“Exactly,” she breathed out next to him. “But enough of that depressing stuff. You have your challenge now!” she exclaimed, clapping her hands as if that were all that was needed to change the mood. “Good luck in there, yeah? Not that I think you need it.”

“Pretty sure you haven’t seen me battle,” he pointed out and she grinned at him.

“Bold of you to assume that,” she replied, making him blink. “And besides, I don’t need to. Nobody as good with pokemon as you can be a bad trainer,” she said with a sage nod that looked more silly than anything. Probably on purpose, he supposed. “I’m sure it’ll be fine.”

“Thanks for the vote of confidence.”

“And Violet said you wanted to watch one of our shows, so maybe we’ll give you some tickets for the next one if you do well,” the Leader continued, making him smile. “Or, if you are really lucky, maybe a private one,” she teased, making his expression twitch. Holding back a sigh, he just continued walking without saying anything.

His eye twitched when he heard both Lilys giggling behind him.

[}-o-{]

‘So, Daisy, huh?’ he thought to himself once he found himself standing across the Cerulean battlefield from the Leader he’d fight against for his challenge. The blonde of the Sensation Sisters was a tricky one, which would make things more complicated for him. After all, she tended to pick things that would counter the pokemon of the challenger.

Although, it shouldn’t be too much of a problem in a first badge challenge where both of them could only use two pokemon.

He glanced at the battlefield then. It wasn’t just a set of platforms floating on a pool, at least. Not that the straight platform going from end to end of the pool added to that was much of a difference, really, but at least there was some solid surface for land pokemon to be on. That by itself was more than he’d expected, so he’d take what he could.

Good thing his pokemon wouldn’t be as limited as full ground-locked ones. Narcissa could fly which would put her more or less on even footing with the water types that could swim. Cygnus wasn’t quite on that equal footing, but he could teleport, which afforded him much more maneuverability than those pokemon that had to just run places. Orion would have nightmares about a field like this though. So, the resolution to leave him out of this challenge solidified even more.

“Gym Leader Daisy will release her first pokemon!” Lily called from the referee spot. Violet and Misty were standing behind her too though. It was a little nerve-wracking to basically have the full team of Leaders of Cerulean spectating his battle, but it wasn’t unexpected. He’d talked to them plenty while visiting, with the exception of Misty. He wasn’t sure he’d call them friends, but they were more than acquaintances, that was for sure.

His mind focused back on the field and the battle once the horsea made an appearance floating in the water. ‘Full water type, starting off with a simple typing, I see,’ Pierce noted to himself. And that was the good thing with Daisy for a first badge challenge. She got more dangerous the more pokemon there were involved in a battle, since she could see what you picked and then send in something to counter you. However, with only two pokemon involved in the battle, she couldn’t really take advantage of her fighting style all that much.

“Challenger Pierce, please release your first pokemon,” Lily called and it was a little weird to hear her speak so… officially, if that made sense. Regardless, he took a deep breath in and reached for one of the pokeballs set on his belt. With a click, the sphere expanded in his hand before he released his first choice.

Daisy tilted her head at Cygnus as he materialized on the bridge-like platform that led from Pierce to her. Unsurprisingly, no comment was made and nothing was shown on her face. She was a professional, after all. Some Leaders liked to have a “meaner” persona for challenges and sometimes it wasn’t even a persona, but the Cerulean Gym didn’t have that image.

“He’s so cute!” Daisy exclaimed.

The Cerulean Gym did have, after all, an image like that, between the Sisters’ shows and the women themselves and their personalities. Pierce smiled as he felt Cygnus’ embarrassment through their link. ‘Not so nice, is it?’ he asked, receiving a sympathetic mental apology.

“You are not wrong, but we are here for a challenge!” Lily called, looking more amused than anything as she started looking at Cygnus much like her sister did and then seemingly snapping out of it. “So, let’s get to it. Start!”

“Water-” Daisy went to call immediately. Pierce was already ahead of her thought. ‘Move,’ he thought as he reached for the telepathic link. “-Gun!”

Cygnus had already teleported away by the time horsea was halfway ready with its – ‘Her,’ his abra supplied. – move. ‘Fake,’ Pierce commanded then, making Cygnus blink once more, this time over horsea.

“Dive!” Daisy called for her pokemon, who immediately went underwater before his abra could even try to do something. Good thing that hadn’t been the case. The woman narrowed her eyes then, either annoyed by the psychic commands or because they hadn’t revealed which card they had ready for attack. Abra didn’t naturally have any attack moves, so she had to determine which tutor move Pierce had his pokemon learn for this Gym.

‘Won’t be that easy,’ he thought to himself with a smile as Cygnus teleported back to the center platform. Then, they just waited. There wasn’t much they could do, after all. His abra still wasn’t that good dealing with the interference that water caused. He could teleport someone on the water surface or something like that, but underwater was out of his range at the moment. Same for any sort of telepathy.

Thankfully, they didn’t need to worry too much. Unless Daisy was a psychic – which he very much doubted – then she couldn’t give orders to her pokemon while it was under water. There was a possibility that the pokemon would act on its own, sure, but in that case they needed to keep an eye out. Which was what they were doing, so things were under control for the moment.

‘Flash Punch as soon as she comes out,’ Pierce directed, getting a firm mental nod. Cygnus didn’t move though, because he was just that focused. ‘If you can, get her on a platform, but don’t overreach,’ he added, trying to think how to best approach this. They couldn’t take the horsea out with a single attack, so they’d have to try and make the situation better for themselves. ‘Maybe an uppercut?’ His pokemon liked the sound of that, from what he could pick up.

Sure enough, the horsea eventually surfaced and shot water at Cygnus. His abra reacted almost immediately after the water surface was disturbed, teleporting away before the shot could be made. In a split second, he was already on the horsea. Or, by the horsea might have been a better descriptor, since he teleported as close to the water type’s side as he could without actually being in the water.

“Get out of there!” Daisy called, but it was already too late. Cygnus’ fist was already basically touching her pokemon by then, the limb covered in electric sparks. That was the wonderful thing about a punch move with a pokemon that could teleport. The opponent had no time to prepare for it. Teleport with a distance move had the time it took for the move to reach you, but teleport with a melee move? You only had a chance with something like Focus Punch, but this was not the case. “Move away, don’t stop!”

And so the horsea did.

‘No luck with the paralyzing effect, it seems,’ Pierce thought, getting some annoyance from Cygnus. It was a stretch though. Thunder Punch was more about damage than it was about shocking, so the chance was pretty low, really. Didn’t mean they couldn’t hope, of course, but such was their luck with their first attack. ‘Flash Punch whenever she stops for an attack,’ he ordered then, following the horsea’s movement through the pool. They weren’t diving anymore and for good reason.

If they did, then it was just asking for Cygnus to pull off the same thing once more.

“Twister!” Daisy called then, sending a confident smile towards Pierce. ‘Hit quick or don’t hit at all,’ he projected to Cygnus then, because he knew the dragon type move would be a pain in the ass for his abra if it got to actually form. His partner had already teleported before he even finished that thought though.

Unfortunately, even that wasn’t fast enough, with the horsea already rotating in place and surrounding herself with energy. Cygnus managed to land the hit but the whirling dragon type energy got him too, Pierce noticed. ‘Get out of there!’ Pierce thought when the horsea didn’t stop the attack at all even with the hit.

Sure enough, his abra got away then. ‘Stay away, the Twister isn’t big enough,’ he projected in his mind, narrowing his eyes. What’d be Daisy’s next move now? Horsea had tanked two direct Thunder Punches too, so it couldn’t be holding up that well, right? Cygnus might be an abra, but he was no average abra. His punches had to deliver quite the damage, he was sure, and he had type advantage there…

If they didn’t beat Horsea in the next punch, then it’d be the one right after.

“Water Gun!” Daisy called and Pierce saw the opportunity. However, he hesitated for a moment. ‘Far Fake,’ he told Cygnus instead. The abra didn’t hesitate, contrary to himself, following the order instantly. “Twis-Huh?” the Leader mumbled, seemingly surprised. Not shocked, certainly, but they’d certainly done something unexpected for her. ‘It was a trap,’ Pierce confirmed with a smirk.

‘Flash Punch,’ he commanded in that moment of doubt from the Leader and her pokemon. Before any of those could react, Cygnus had already delivered an electricity-covered punch at the other pokemon.

“Twister, Horsea!” Daisy called at that moment, but the water type seemed a little out of it. ‘Get it out of the water!’ he called then, when he noticed that the pokemon hesitated to move or use the attack the Leader had called.

“Horsea is unable to continue,” Lily called after the attack and Pierce grinned widely. “Gym Leader Daisy will release her second and last pokemon!” And so, a wooper appeared on the field, making him grimace. That had been what he’d been afraid of. ‘That’ll counter Narcissa’s Electroweb too,’ he thought with pursed lips. Thank God his beedrill had Giga Drain too. ‘Double weakness for the win.’

‘What do you think, buddy?’ he asked in his mind. He could use his switch and call Narcissa to deal with this one. As it was, the beedrill would have his head if he didn’t call her for the challenge.

“Want to… try,” Cygnus told him resolutely. After that, he got a quick thought projection for good measure. The abra knew his chances were slim, since Focus Punch wasn’t that good, but he wanted to give it a shot anyway. Even if he lost, he wanted to lose fighting. Pierce could respect that.

‘Narcissa might just spear my head, but sure,’ he replied with a smile.

“Both sides are ready?” Lily asked, looking at Pierce instead of at both of them. Evidently, they expected him to switch now that Thunder Punch wasn’t usable anymore.

“Yes,” he replied, making the woman tilt her head.

“Then start!”

‘Go for it, buddy,’ Pierce told his pokemon, who immediately teleported in front of the wooper and pulled his arm back. Instead of electricity, the abra’s hand started shining with white and reddish energy as he concentrated it. Pierce took some pleasure in the surprised look that Daisy had on her face.

“Get away!” Daisy called and Pierce grimaced together with Cygnus – even if the latter did it mentally – when the Focus Punch flew forward just a second too late. “Slam!” was the command that followed then, and the wooper wasted no time throwing itself at Cygnus.

‘Buddy, dodge and try again?’ Pierce asked and his pokemon did just that, teleporting behind the water and ground type at the last second and starting to charge the move again. He was feeling his pokemon’s exhaustion though. Teleporting in battle wasn’t easy, and while he had the punch moves down, they still took a lot out of him too.

“Slam again,” Daisy called and the wooper hit Cygnus before he could finish. ‘Sorry, buddy, but it was a great attempt,’ Pierce thought to his friend before recalling him.

“Abra is out of the battle,” Lily called, giving him a nod. That was another thing that was different from the games. You couldn’t recall a pokemon in the middle of a battle without it being taken out of it entirely, as if it had been defeated. You either switched when you defeated the other person’s pokemon, or when you pokemon was defeated. That was it. Which he imagined was to avoid abusing pokemon changes or something… Kind of sad though. “Challenger Pierce, please release your second and last pokemon,” she added then.

With a deep breath in, he grinned at Daisy and took out his second pokeball. A moment later, Narcissa was hovering in front of him and he didn’t need to be a psychic to know that she was excited. Her wings were batting so fast that she seemed to have trouble keeping herself in place.

“Everyone ready?” Lily asked and both of them nodded. “Then start!”

[} Chapter End {]

Hey guys! How’s it going?

Well, I hope the first part of the chapter wasn’t too annoying. I know people get in a mood when an MC isn’t a pillar of confidence. Pierce isn’t that kind of character though, I hope you’ve all realized. At least not in regards to battling.

I guess I’m kind of like that in regards to fight scenes, ironically enough. I hope I didn’t do too poorly. This is kind of an important battle, considering it’s a challenge. It’s also a first badge challenge though, so I’m kind of in an odd spot where I want to make it epic but there’s no way to make it that epic all things considered.

So… yeah…

I hope you enjoyed the chapter, despite all that.

Discord Link: discord.gg/UTDransjJZ

Random Question: What’s the last series you watched? My parents have been watching Grey’s Anatomy and since I have my laptop set up in the living room… Yeah. I’m not much of a fan, but it’s ok, I guess.

See you.