Searching Far and Wide - 46

Teams:

Pierce Lawson:

- Narcissa, Beedrill

- Orion, Onix

- Cygnus, Abra

Lillian Dale:

- Root, Bulbasaur

- Talon, Spearow

- Gem, Geodude

- Star, Cleffa

Cerulean City VII

“Come on, little one, don’t give me that look,” Pierce pleaded, completely failing to resist the sad eyes of Poliwag. “This is a good thing, buddy. Don’t be sad.  Come on.” The water type wasn’t swayed… at all. “Let’s go. I’ll make you a bunch of pokeblocks, and a berry salad. We can spend some time together with everyone and then see you off. It’ll be fine, buddy. You trust the sisters, don’t you?”

Poliwag mumbled something under his breath.

“I know it sucks, but that’s how things are, buddy. You’ll be taken care of and things will be good. You deserve all that,” Pierce reassured with a smile that he couldn’t quite keep from being sad. “You’ll be fine, Poliwag.”

With that said, he carried the little water type off to the side where some supplies and Pierce’s things were so he could deliver on his promise of food. He was going to make damn sure he did his absolute best with all of it too, that much he swore. It was just a shame that he wasn’t quite confident he could make a poffin worth a damn just yet.

After all, Poliwag was getting sent somewhere else. Apparently, the first of his group of patients/friends to be relocated was the lil’ one. Lily had greeted him that day to tell him of the news and while it was very sad to know that he’d be gone… Well, the Gym was getting cramped, really, even with all the space it had to house water pokemon.

Besides, the place wasn’t a rehabilitation center. It was a Gym.

All in all, Pierce was suddenly wishing he’d spent more time studying how to make poffins and pokepuffs. The former were a step up from pokeblocks, definitely. Pokeblocks were more like just taking berries, mashing them together into a snack-candy confection in a device and calling it a day. Poffins were more like actual cooking, or baking, to be specific.

Pokepuffs were that, but taken even further, which he guessed was like a progression line he’d follow.

As it was, he was barely getting started on reading about the process and getting familiar with things. He’d likely start trying soon, but Pierce just wasn’t confident he could make a good one right at that moment. It sucked, but at least he knew which were Poliwag’s favorite pokeblock combinations.

He’d just have to try and be ready for the next one.

“Might be a little too much for the little guy, don’t you think?” Daisy asked him, looking very amused. To be fair, she wasn’t wrong. He’d definitely prepared too many pokeblocks and salad for Poliwag. However…

“Better too much and not too little,” he said, quoting his grandma with a slight smile. It was a sad reminder, to be honest, but he was getting better at dealing with them. “I’m sure Quagsire will eat whatever Poliwag doesn’t, the glutton,” he added, receiving an affirmative response from the ground type.

“Well, that’s nice of you regardless,” the blond Sister commented, regarding his group. “The others are getting kind of curious about your little group… And kind of envious too.”

“Lily told me something about helping around more yesterday? I can have more pokemon with me,” Pierce offered, taking a magost berry that he’d set aside and throwing it at Magikarp, who seemed all too happy to catch it while it was still in the air. “Everyone here’s mostly friendly or just grumpy. No problems whatsoever, so I can take care of more.”

“She did tell us that too,” Daisy replied, humming thoughtfully as she continued looking at them. “We are not very sure, but seeing it like this… I guess we could focus on the more problematic ones and have you take care of the more calm ones.”

“I mean, I wouldn’t complain regardless,” he told her with a shrug, patting Poliwag on the head. “Take it easy, buddy. Food’s not going anywhere, even if Quagsire wishes it would go his way,” he reassured, getting a whine from the ground type. Rolling his eyes, he took a belue berry and threw it at him. Quagsire was the only one that liked those anyway, even in combination. “Stop being a baby, will you?” he asked the ground type, getting only a happy babble.

Pierce just sighed.

Besides him, Vaporeon stared at him with a look that screamed “this is your fault”.

The worst part was that the eeveelution was right.

“Yeah, I can definitely see it now. Although, I might have to move the magikarp to another area,” Daisy told them, making all the group turn towards her. The pokemon she was talking about looked especially taken aback. “She’s marked as a gyarados danger. They can evolve at any time and in the condition she’s in and after what she went through… I know it sounds mean, but it’s better if she’s in a place with people that will be able to contain her.”

Pierce wanted to argue that, very much so. He looked at Magikarp, who in turn was looking between Daisy and himself. He didn’t want her to be taken somewhere else just yet, especially if she was just going to be in the same building with someone else and waiting to be actually relocated. However, he understood the dangers of a sudden gyarados evolution. He’d read about those in his research, preparing for hopefully getting a magikarp on his team.

Magikarp evolving into gyarados were much worse than a regular gyarados, which was already saying a whole lot. On top of that, even if Magikarp was a sweetheart right now, she’d lived through some awful situations and that would make it all worse. An evolution usually brought all those memories to the forefront, meaning that the worse a magikarp’s life was, the worse the evolution and the following gyarados would be. As it was, it was in everyone’s best interest for Magikarp to be in a controlled environment and hopefully not evolve for a while so that they could hopefully help minimize the impact of what she’d experienced before.

“Can we go with her or something like that?” Pierce asked, trying to compromise. “I get the dangers and all, but surely forcing her to do things isn’t much better, right? If she’s just going to be somewhere around here, surely we can go too… right?” he suggested, trying and probably failing to not sound too pitiful.

Daisy stared at him, then at Magikarp, her expression giving nothing away. Then she turned to the side where he noticed Lily and her Slowbro across the entire room. They seemed to have been going somewhere, judging by the Poliwrath carrying a crate that was with them, but both of them had turned towards where Pierce and everyone else were.

“... I guess something can be arranged,” Daisy agreed, sounding too reluctant for Pierce’s liking, but he’d take that anyway. “You’ll have to be careful. There’ll be other pokemon that are in the danger category, so if you cause any trouble, you are all out. Am I clear?”

“Crystal,” he replied instantly, beaming at the woman before turning towards the pokemon around. “Everyone will be perfectly well-mannered pokemon, or there’ll be only kibble in their future,” he added, making all of them stiffen. “Right?”

Several heads –  and bodies in some cases – nodded quickly.

“That’s what I thought.”

“Good. We are trusting you, because you aren’t wrong. It’s better to have these pokemon as happy as they’ll be… And we’ll bend the rules a little, if it’ll give us better odds,” Daisy told him then, suddenly sounding and looking very tired. “Do prove us right, ok? I’d hate to have to put a mark on your record about this.”

“I’ll do my best,” Pierce replied right away, which seemed to surprise the blonde. He wasn’t very sure why, but it was fine regardless. He was confident that he could keep the group in check and that meant that it was basically fine. Even if somehow something happened, what was a bad mark on his record? He had to have a few good ones in there anyway, so it would check out in the end. “But for now, it’s little Poliwag’s moment and that’s what we are all going to focus on, ok?” he continued, looking straight at the tadpole pokemon, who had seemed a little subdued there at the end.

However, he perked right back up as Pierce addressed him.

“Nobody’s forgetting that you are leaving, buddy. We are sending you off, which means plenty of food, we’ll play, we’ll swim, we’ll eat some more. Anything you want, little one,” Pierce promised, making the Poliwag bounce around happily. “Mhm, let’s get to it, yeah?”

Glancing towards Daisy, Pierce saw the woman smiling at them, which prompted him to return the gesture. Without saying anything else, the Gym leader waved at him and then started walking away. Before turning back to his group though, he did catch her and Lily exchanging a look.

‘Doesn’t matter. Focus on the little one,’ he told himself.

[}-o-{]

Quagsire whined.

“I know, I know,” Pierce said, idly swinging his legs back and forth in the water as he rubbed the top of the ground type’s head. “It sucks, but it’s how it goes. You’ll have to go to a center too, eventually, just like the rest of you,” he added, drawing another whine from the pokemon. The rest of the group was uncharacteristically quiet and still, even for some of the less expressive ones.

Goldeen, Tentacool and Magikarp simply floated in the water around his legs. Quagsire was lying flat on the floor by his side. Vaporeon had decided to take things a step further and lay her head on his lap.

“You’ll go to a nice place though. There’ll be nice people to take care of you and give you all the belly or head rubs you want,” Pierce reassured softly, continuing to pet Quagsire. “You’ll have all the food you can possibly need, even if they probably won’t spoil you as much as I do. That’s a good thing though. Eating too much can be as bad as eating too little, if you don’t control yourself. They’ll heal you every time you get hurt or sick. They’ll help you if you feel bad in any way. And maybe you’ll go back to nature and live your life as you should have, or maybe they’ll find a trainer that’s just as nice as them to care for you from then on.”

A grumble escaped Vaporeon then.

“I know it probably sounds too good to be true, but think of it like this, you’ll go somewhere with people like me. Maybe they won’t be the best, just like I’m not, but they’ll try their best, just like I do,” Pierce insisted, because it was better to get them used to the idea. That was how things would go for them, whether they liked it or not. The League couldn’t just let them be, after all, no matter how much they deserved their freedom. They were a risk, and very much not ready to face much of anything on their own. “So, meet them halfway, yeah? They try their best, you try your best, and I’m sure things will go well. If they don’t, then I’m sure you can find a way to take care of yourselves. Just like there’s bad people out there, there’s also good people. You just have to find them.”

Magikarp moved a little bit to rub on his leg.

“Come on, I think this is enough moping, yeah?” Pierce said, forcing a smile on his face. “How about we go swimming for a bit, yeah? Nothing crazy, just to move a little.”

Surprisingly, it was Goldeen the one that cheered up the most and the one that looked to be the most on board with the idea. Pierce certainly wasn’t complaining though. Instead, he just grinned down at the fish pokemon before taking off his shirt and setting it on the floor by the pool. Once that was done and Vaporeon was off his lap and standing, he let himself drop fully into the water.

“Let’s go.”

Maybe swimming could help him too, because he wasn’t feeling much better than the pokemon were at that moment. It always sucked to have to say goodbye, but somehow Poliwag was worse. He guessed that it was because he wasn’t just some pokemon that had been fine and he’d just helped him heal the once. He’d suffered a lot and Pierce felt like he needed to help him an equal amount… but that just wasn’t possible, sadly.

So, that’s what he did, just stay in the water with his little group of friends. They couldn’t go very far, sadly, since a chunk of the pool was dedicated to the pokemon that were classified as a “danger”, the people in charge of keeping an eye on them, and their pokemon. Pierce had seen some of those from a distance and he could kind of understand. There’d been a sharpedo that looked like it’d bit off the closest limb it could, for example.

Even Pierce knew those pokemon were dangerous, but he still… Mostly just felt bad for them. He was sure they hadn’t been like that before the Rockets. If he didn’t know he was more likely to be kicked out than anything else, he’d have at least offered to make them some pokeblocks or something. As it was, some of the Gym staff that was around already didn’t seem to like him much, so…

Yeah, Pierce would wait a little, maybe check with the Sisters or something.

He was just happy that he could at least keep close to the pokemon he’d befriended.

“Ok,” he said, finally growing too tired to swim anymore. It was his fault though. Why did he think trying to match water type swimming speed was a good idea? He was dumb. “Time for some rest… and snacks,” he breathed out, exhausted. Magikarp’s little happy jump out of the water still made him smile though. “Tentacool’s turn to choose the special though.”

At that, all the pokemon sagged in disappointment, even the impassive Goldeen. Pierce guessed that wasn’t too surprising. Tentacool liked his stuff sour and bitter… and nothing else. Even Pierce thought that was questionable, but the rules were the rules and everyone got to choose the special pokeblocks…

Still, nobody but Tentacool ate the specials in that round, but that was just lucky in the water and poison type’s part.

[}-o-{]

“Opening,” Pierce commanded Narcissa, using a new strategy call. This one was for her to not commit to any move and wait. Once their opponent did anything to leave themselves open, that’s when she’d go all in. His beedrill’s only response was buzzing louder as she started flying around the oddish they were facing.

“Absorb, Oddy, and keep it up!” the other trainer called, making Pierce narrow his eyes. That was a relatively hard move to miss, unfortunately, but it also required focus, which was good. It’d depend on Narcissa to find a good moment to rush in. Unfortunately, neither of them had a good advantage over the other, so this wouldn't end all too quickly, from what he knew.

Which suited Pierce just fine, really.

After all, the whole reason they were there was because Narcissa had really wanted to fight something. Training all the time was taking its toll on his battle maniac of a bug type, evidently. Orion and Cygnus seemed to be taking better to it, simply happy to be progressing, especially in the latter’s case. Not his beedrill though. No, she wanted to have a chance to test her strength, to prove it to herself, to Pierce and to everyone else.

So, once they’d talked a bit and he’d picked up all three of them, Pierce made his way to the closest battlegrounds for a quick fight or two so that Narcissa could let out some steam. Orion wanted in too, as it turned out, but Pierce was sure one battle would be enough for his stone serpent. Cygnus was fine just watching though, which was good. It was late and they were all kind of tired, so he didn’t want to spend too much time there… Even if it sounded sort of weird, considering he was a trainer.

“Don’t let it get away, Narcissa!” Pierce called once the beedrill managed to do as the last strategy dictated and make her way in from an opening. Now, he just needed to keep her there, since close quarters were her forte and not the oddish’s from what he’d seen so far. “Strike! Go all in!” he called and so his beedrill did. Narcissa went all out on the poor thing, with Bug Bite, Fury Attack, Twinneedle. Only reason she didn’t Tungsten Strike was because the move needed some prep work to actually function.

‘I have to increase her options for close combat since she likes it so much,’ he noted to himself.

Soon, the oddish dropped.

“Please release your next pokemon,” the referee told the other trainer. The man on the other side obviously wasn’t very pleased, but at least he didn’t look like he wanted to insult Pierce’s entire family tree. That was something. Better that most people he’d battled, really.

“Come on, Geo!” the man across from them called, releasing a geodude. Pausing, both Narcissa and Pierce shared a look. He didn’t need psychic powers to know that his pokemon would have been wearing a face-splitting grin if she could.

As it was, he was smiling very widely himself.

“Let’s wipe that grin off his face, Geo!” their opponent shouted and Pierce almost laughed. “Rock throw! I know you can nail that-”

“Move!” Pierce called, making Narcissa start flying around at high speeds. No way the Geodude would actually land a hit with Rock Throw. Rock Blast maybe, since it had a more spread area of effect, but with Rock Throw’s single projectile? Neither Pierce nor Narcissa would have been fine with that kind of hit after all the work they’d put into things. “Modify!” he added then, once realizing that they were mostly safe.

It was time to do some prep work for their move.

“Rock Blast!” their opponent commanded. ‘At least he’s not that stupid, it seems,’ Pierce mused, but it was no use. Narcissa was already stacking buffs. Between her increased speed and an occasional Harden? Even if she got hit, Pierce was positive she could still keep going no problem. Oddish had landed a few Absorbs on her, but all in all, it hadn’t done enough damage that Geodude could one-shot her.

“Tungsten Strike!” Pierce called eventually, once he saw an opening. Narcissa flew true, like a beedrill shaped bullet, before crashing into the Geodude. He didn’t leave that there though, since that obviously wasn’t enough to one shot the rock type. “Fury Attack! Don’t let it breathe!” he called then.

“Ugh, Rollout!”

“Move!” Pierce called, making Narcissa fly away. ‘Ok, so, she might not like this much but…’  “Blaster, girl, just for a bit! Grass!” he commanded. He knew she didn’t like it. He could see it in the way she flew and her stingers and antennae twitched. However, she still didn’t hesitate, flying straight and smooth all the same. She was great like that.

He only needed her to do that for a bit anyway, throwing the other two off their game a bit with a sudden shift in approach. A few Giga Drains here and there that weren’t really all that effective since the move wasn’t quite battle ready yet. However, that wasn’t the point to begin with and it seemed to be enough to spook the two for a bit.

“Strike again!”

“Geo, look out-” the other trainer started calling. However, he was a second too late, since Narcissa had already flown in and hit his geodude. “Fuck,” their opponent cursed, seeing his pokemon down for the count.

“Good job, girl,” he praised, making Narcissa preen in the middle of the air.

[}-o-{]

‘All I’m saying is that you’ll have to train on other moves besides punches, buddy,’ Pierce thought out loud to Cygnus, who was riding on his shoulders. Narcissa had been too tired and content to care when they were done in the battlegrounds, so the psychic had gotten the spot without trouble. ‘Not that you shouldn’t focus on them, but just adding more options. Even Narcissa has to use some range, even if she prefers close combat.’

“Know,” Cygnus agreed reluctantly. “Not… now… though…”

‘I literally just said- Ah, forget it, you little shit,’ Pierce replied, rolling his eyes as he realized that his abra was just messing with him. ‘You really shouldn’t mess with the person that makes you pokeblocks and salads,’ he added, making the – internally – chuckling Cygnus freeze. ‘That’s what I thought. Not so funny now, huh?’

Don’t bite the hand that feeds you indeed.

‘Speaking of food, what should I take today?’ Pierce wondered, this time actually thinking to himself as he entered the Pokemon Center. Cygnus had gone strangely silent though, he noticed. Not because he didn’t say anything, but because the pokemon’s presence in his mind had pulled back. It couldn’t be because of their conversation, he knew, so why-

“Pierce!” a voice called once he entered the mess hall and he immediately grinned widely. “Took you forever!”

“You are one to talk, Lily,” he replied, bringing the volume down a bit, since they weren’t the only ones there. “I thought I’d be done here in Cerulean before you even managed to make it here,” he told her, drawing a pout from the girl.

“It’s not my fault my luck sucks,” she grumbled, glaring at him as if it were his fault that she was unlucky. “Stupid rain, stupid mud, stupid Pierce.”

“Hey, what do I have to do with any of this?” he protested, but she didn’t seem to be listening anymore as she kept muttering complaints and calling things and people stupid. “So, were you waiting for me so we could both get dinner or have you already eating everyth-” A napkin hit him straight in the face. “Well, that’s rude.”

“Your face is rude.”

“Well, that was uncall-”

“Shut up and let’s go get something to eat,” she muttered, going to stand up and then go do just that. Pierce and Cygnus followed her, looking at the girl strangely. ‘Someone’s in a bad mood,’ he mused.

“No… really?” the abra replied, rolling his eyes. Then the psychic paused. “You think… it’s her…”

‘Don’t finish that thought, buddy,’ Pierce interrupted, already having an idea of where his pokemon was going from the feeling in his mind. Maybe it was, maybe it wasn’t, but he sure as hell wasn’t going to try and ask Lily that. He had more self-preservation than that.

He resolutely ignored Cygnus’ doubts.

“So, besides all the “stupid” parts, anything to tell about the rest of the trip here? Did you stop at any nice beach places? Did you get hit on by everyone with eyes?” he asked, pulling up to stand next to Lily. He saw her tense shoulders relax a bit and he patted himself on the back. Nothing like reminding people of good things and complimenting them to bring the mood back up, or so he thought.

“There was this nice place, but we didn’t stop there for more than a few hours. Traveling alone isn’t really my thing,” she mumbled, looking like she was making an effort to keep herself angry. “Everyone missed your pokeblocks.”

“Don’t you mean they missed me?”

“And the guys approaching me did get a little old real quick,” she continued, completely ignoring him and slowly going back to her usual cheery self. “But that’s fine. Talon had fun scaring them off. Root even joined a bit. Star tried but-”

“She’s adorable,” Pierce finished with a grin.

“That she is.”

‘Man, is it good to have Lily back,’ he thought to himself as he listened to his friend ramble on about her few days by her lonesome.

[} Chapter End {]

Hey guys! How’s it going?

I know some people were sure that Poliwag was going to join the team but… it was not to be. The Muse decided otherwise, sadly. Other than that, I’m quite happy with this chapter all in all. No part really screams at me that I could have done much better or that I might have messed up. Hopefully that’s not me being wrong.

Also, hey, Lily finally made it!

I hope you enjoyed the chapter.

Discord Link: discord.gg/UTDransjJZ

Random Question: Do you like wine? I really don’t.

See you.