Searching Far and Wide - 144

Teams:

Pierce Lawson:

- Narcissa, Beedrill

- Orion, Onix

- Cygnus, Kadabra

- Bellatrix, Gyarados (Shiny)

- Andromeda, Vaporeon

- Regulus, Meowth

- Sirius, Yamper

Lillian Dale:

- Root, Ivysaur

- Talon, Spearow

- Gem, Geodude

- Star, Cleffa

- Cinder, Vulpix

Route 7 VI

Pierce felt weird, walking forward towards their next stop on Route 7.

It was a funny kind of weird though, born from the fact that he was walking with a gaggle of pokemon following after him like ducklings. Andromeda was by his side, sure, but Regulus, Sirius, Houndour and Houndoom were all behind him. The Dark type family of two was the furthest behind, on account of both how slow the mother was moving and that she also was still feeling a little wary of them.

It was barely noticeable though, admittedly. She seemed to have decided they were nice enough, for strangers. He’d expected some twitchiness, especially because of him, since it was another human that had messed her up. He wouldn’t have been surprised if he had received a few barks and growls and maybe even the shine of a half-formed move at a particularly bad moment.

Instead, the worst he saw was her trying to keep her distance from the rest of the group a little bit, like a shy member of a friend group rather than someone keeping actual distance. She ate slowly, watching them all the while, and she seemed very wary of them while his pokemon trained, but that was about it. Maybe she was kind of waiting for the other shoe to drop somehow while being cautiously optimistic?

‘Nine pokemon is a lot of pokemon, admittedly,’ Pierce thought, acknowledging the other part of the “good weird” feeling he was dealing with. That morning, it seemed to finally dawn on him how weirdly big his group was. In a way, maybe he’d gotten used to the rough number of pokemon one would expect around a trainer and he was definitely nowhere close to that. Before Houndour and Houndoom, he could be somewhat excused, since Bellatrix usually was a little separated on account of her needing to be in water and most of his pokemon were fairly small too, Orion and Bellatrix notwithstanding. So, that had helped previously.

There was no disguising how big his group was then and there though.

The point, if it hadn’t been clear enough before, had been driven further in by the strange looks they got from the occasional trainer they came across. Although, to be fair, a bit of that could be explained by the fact that people knew him, by then. It was no longer one or two people here and there that knew his name from the viral gyarados video. Vermilion’s incident had made it a point to plaster his face everywhere. The news had talked about him for a while. There were videos of him everywhere and it had kind of created a popularity loop between that and his channel for a bit there that was kind of… scary.

Grace had explained all that to him during one of their talks and he was still working on wrapping his head around that knowledge.

“Fighter-Challenger found a good spot to stop at,” Cygnus told him. He wasn’t done though, and didn't retreat away from his mind after that message. There was more he wanted to say and thus Pierce waited… And he was surprised to have a flash of a weirdly colored and shaped picture in his mind. Like a badly distorted 3D photograph, was the best he could describe it, really. Annoyance quickly followed through the mental link. “That was… supposed to be the place she found. I tried to share it with you,” the kadabra explained and Pierce sent his acknowledgement back.

Maybe it was like a telephone game situation, where the mental image got more and more broken the more it was passed around. It made him wonder how well Cygnus could really see what he pictured in his mind. Something to test later, or maybe something to find out if he ever got to that stage of Psychic Arts… or Aura. Maybe he could do that with Aura? He was pretty sure there was something at least similar to that… probably.

“I’ll have to get better at that,” Cygnus commented and Pierce rolled his eyes. He couldn’t help but be a little concerned though. His kadabra was working on a lot of things, between his regular training – which was already taxing on its own, considering his chosen path –, Teleport training and now Psychic Arts training? “A little hypocritical, don’t you think, Protector-Voice?” Cygnus asked, forcing Pierce to pause and consider that.

‘Fair enough,’ he acknowledged with a wry smile spreading on his lips. He was juggling a lot of things himself, so his pokemon was correct; he didn’t have a leg to stand on. Admittedly, he wasn’t in a rush to get anywhere on any of those fronts, not really, except maybe the sanctuary, but he had people helping him keep things up to “schedule”. ‘I’m pretty sure you want to be strong as a priority, so I worry other things will get in your way,’ he explained and it was his pokemon’s turn to pause.

Maybe he was on the right side of the argument, Pierce considered when the Psychic type didn’t immediately shoot something back and seemed to consider what he’d said. It wasn’t rare, but it was always a small victory anyway. Cygnus and him seemed to swap the role of the smart one around, so it was always nice to know whenever it was his turn.

“You’re an idiot, Protector-Voice,” his kadabra huffed in his mind, but he nevertheless grinned.

‘Am I though? Because I’m pretty sure I just shut you up,’ he pointed out, maybe  a tad more smug than he should have been. Nobody had ever said he needed to be mature, especially not at all times. Pierce would allow himself some measure of childishness from time to time.

“Keep telling yourself that,” Cygnus said, rather rudely if Pierce did say so himself.

‘You’re just angry I won the argument.’

 The frustrated mental groan was music to his mind.

[}-o-{]

Setting up camp had, by then, turned into a bit of a game. At least, it had where it concerned the little ones. Having them “help” was entertaining for everyone involved, even if Pierce knew it was far from effective. It made them feel good, useful and all that, and in turn it made for good entertainment for the “grown ups” of the group. It also was all sorts of sweet, really, to watch Regulus intensely focused on holding a peg in place or Sirius stumbling on his own stubby legs while trying to bring the hammer for him.

Nobody would have called the entire show an efficient use of their time, but everyone had a good time.

“That took a bit,” he commented with a grin on his face. It’d taken extra long that day, that much was true, but he found himself the least frustrated that day too. He’d only cursed his injured arm like, twice, which had to be a record. Still though, he couldn’t wait, but needs must. ‘Just a few more days,’ he told himself. Less than a week, and if everything went right during his check up, that’d be that…

“The little ones are too exhausted to be annoying, so there’s that,” Cygnus commented and Pierce snorted. His kadabra wasn’t wrong though. Regulus, Sirius and Houndoom had dropped into a single pile of differently-colored fur and had fallen asleep almost instantly. Although, to be fair, it had also been because they’d intermittently played tag for a considerable chunk of their trek there.

“You’re not wrong,” Pierce commented with a nod. “Guess we can cook in peace for a bit then.” Although, judging by how the “grown ups” perked up, it wasn’t much of an improvement. Every pokemon was a child when good food was in the cards. Not that he blamed them, humans could be like that too, but still. It was funny to see it happen so blatantly. Thus, with a shake of his head, Pierce set out to make some pokeblocks and maybe even a poffin or two if he was feeling generous and his arm didn’t make him curse three more times. “Now, Cygnus is gonna help me and the rest of you all are going to keep yourselves busy. No snacks mid-cooking for any of you.”

Nobody liked hearing that, of course, but they were going to follow through anyway. They didn’t want to go against his orders and not get any snacks. That’d be like… some next-level punishment, as far as they were concerned. Besides, keeping themselves occupied guaranteed that the kids wouldn’t bother him for snacks and eat part of what should be theirs. So, it was no surprise when Andromeda almost immediately moved to chat with Bellatrix and Narcissa approached Orion to play for a bit.

Besides him, Houndoom huffed a laugh.

“I know, right?” he said with a roll of his eyes and a fond smile. “You lie down for a bit, yeah? I’ll have an oran berry cut for you, but I really do need to get this done if I don’t want this lot to eat me when meal time comes around,” he explained and the Dark type gave a sad nod that almost made him reconsider. He was half-convinced that it was on purpose though, so he very bravely resisted the temptation to give her the cut up berry immediately.

The next few minutes were spent very carefully cutting up berries for the pokeblocks and poffins. It was easier said than done when he only had one working hand, but he made do with what little he could do with his “bad” hand and with Cygnus' help. His arm was, after all, actually alright for the most part. He was just keeping it in cast to make sure that it wouldn’t re-break while it was still a little fragile. His bones would be, at least a little, protected against any sudden hits or movements in the thing, even if it got in the way a lot and didn’t let him do much of anything most of the time.

‘Just a few more days,’ he repeated to himself for the hundredth time. He really, really hoped he’d never break a bone again. Or that, if he did, he wouldn’t be in the middle of a journey. It was a lot easier to deal with it when he was in the middle of civilization and he could get help from people. Alas, he needed to keep moving if he didn’t want to fail his team and his best friend… and the world too, because the pokemon world was oddly fixated on journeys, maybe even more than with pokemon battles.

And Pierce… thought he was starting to see it. There was something liberating about moving from place to place, exploring and seeing what the world had to offer. There was also a lot to learn about the world and oneself. He didn’t think he’d be doing half as well as he was with his… death and the subsequent “trip” if not for the journey offering him both a distraction and a chance to just… be and find his place in this new world he found himself in.

Or maybe he was just going native, who knew?

‘I might be too far gone already,’ he thought, somewhat amused as he waited for the next batch of pokeblocks to be done. His hand absentmindedly petted Houndoom, aware that he’d have to wash them in a moment, but still. What was the point of having adorable pokemon around if he couldn’t properly enjoy their presence.

After months of being in the pokemon world, he was sure that the wonder of it would never leave him, after all. Maybe that was what stopped him from properly acknowledging how scary pokemon were. Or maybe it was the supposed innate aura abilities he apparently probably had? It was then that he started wondering if he really was to be an Aura Guardian…

Or if it had all been a misunderstanding from how different his mind apparently worked compared to everyone else in that world.

[}-o-{]

“Psybeam,” the trainer across from them called and the attack flew dangerously close to Narcissa, Pierce would admit. He kept his grin in place though, twisting his body to the side a little as his beedrill flew to the left of the battlefield and prepared to charge in. His hand balled into a fist as she moved, both of them waiting for the right moment. Like then and there, when the Psychic move ended and the koffing stopped for a moment, clearly not very used to the move yet. Or it could be that he was a little rusty with it, one way or the other, it was a chance for them and they’d take it.

“Drill Strike,” he called and Narcissa flew straight towards the floating pokemon, like a dart towards a balloon.

“Move out of the way!” the opposing trainer ordered, but that was a little too late. Besides, it wasn’t easy to avoid a Strike move of theirs. Sure, the move was at its strongest when they could get the most momentum, which required a straight line. However, that was difficult to achieve, and they’d learned to make do with weaker, but more versatile approaches.

They were still working on it, of course, but Pierce thought it worked fairly well for something still in development.

The idea was simple. Since the Strike move wasn’t really an attack until the flight part of it was over and Narcissa used whatever move gave the attack its typing, then she could still maneuver until the very end if need be. It’d have less momentum, which meant less damage, but it’d all the same give them an effective move against their opponent… Provided that Narcissa knew an applicable move of the necessary type, that is.

Pierce could hear the click of their opponent’s tongue from across the improvised battlefield and it was music to his ears, just as he knew it was for Narcissa. They were far from done though. A half-hearted hit, no matter how effective, wouldn’t win them the battle. It got their foot in the door though and it also motivated them, gave them a taste of the victory to come.

“Drill Run,” he called and what followed was a messy trade of moves back and forth.

That was how battles went, most of the time. More of a bar brawl than an choreographed action movie battle scene, or so Pierce had found. Sometimes trainer calls were ignored, sometimes pokemon froze up or stumbled or messed up and sometimes things did go well and it all looked spectacular.

A change in the “normal” fighting pulled him out of those idle musings in between commands, however.

“Smokescreen!” their opponent called at some point and Pierce had to tilt his head and consider his options. Neither of them could see shit in the cloud, but Narcissa’s flying might give her away through the disturbances in the smoke. Not much, but certainly more than koffing’s floating. They were the ones that needed to do something in this situation.

They might be able to clear up the area with Tailwind, even if they’d leave themselves open for an attack. Pierce wasn’t a fan of that, but it was the safest option. Tank an attack and go back to fighting. They were winning anyway, after all, so they could afford that small risk.

Narcissa wasn’t one for concessions though, Pierce knew. And at that moment, neither was he, considering his method of fighting. So, he looked for a second option… attacking. How to do that was the real question. That’s how Pierce closed his eyes and visualized the small clearing they were using for the fight. He imagined the trainer on the other side of the smoke, he imagined where koffing had been before the place was flooded. He imagined Narcissa and how she’d move from that point on.

He tried to place them all through sound, but the trainer was silent for the moment and koffing didn’t make much sound while moving around. Narcissa though, she was louder. He could hear her. Not quite placing her, but he could guess. He could further, less accurately, guess where koffing was. He needed something to confirm that though, but a semblance of a plan formed in his mind.

“Look for that beedrill! Tackle!” he heard the other trainer call and he took a deep breath in. The dull smell of the smoke filled his nostrils, but he pushed that aside in favor of looking for a sound. A swish in the wind, that’s what koffing sounded like. So, hidden in the regular wind and Narcissa’s buzzing, somewhere around where he guessed it could be, from where he guessed Narcissa would be…

‘She did move there,’ he thought, head twitching as he picked upthe sound of his beedrill a little more clearly, helping him place her more accurately. The opponent was still hidden, still nowhere to be found, still- ‘There,’ he guessed still, but he had heard something, so-

“Electroweb towards the left, behind!” he called and there were some flashes of yellow that followed in the middle of the smoke. “Yes,” he hissed under his breath, pumping his fist in the air when he heard the move hitting something and koffing’s groan. A second later, there was a much more clear swish in the air and even a scrapping against the ground. “You know where it is, again!” he called. After all, Electroweb had a decently big area of effect. Enough that their less accurate attacks would be somewhat compensated.

“Fuck,” he heard the other trainer curse and he grinned even wider at that.

They were going to win that fight, he was sure.

To make things even better, he was going to win because of his battle style, and Pierce loved that the same way Narcissa loved to win battles in her own way. Maybe he loved it that much because of Narcissa. The line always blurred a little, especially in the middle of his “channeling”.

In the end, it didn’t really matter, both of them loved the victory that followed.

[}-o-{]

[Daisy Waterflower]

“You know journeys aren’t supposed to be that eventful, right?” she asked, sounding amused but feeling anything but.

Pierce, her boyfriend – she was a grown woman, she had no business feeling giddy thinking that –, was a man that couldn’t go without finding himself in interesting situations, apparently. Granted, finding out about a pokemon poacher in a route was downright tame by that point, as far as Pierce Lawson was concerned. Once upon a time – and maybe still –, Daisy would have found that interesting, maybe even attractive.

Now she just worried that he’ll get in trouble again, the kind of trouble that landed him with a broken arm that he’s still recovering from. Hell, he got off easy with that broken arm, considering the shit he tried to pull. Furthermore, it wasn’t even the first time he had done something that risked his wellbeing and while some might think that daring, brave and maybe even “cool”, Daisy knew it’s anything but. She knew what could happen if your luck ran out and you were still out there, in the middle of things.

That’s why she felt a part of her shrivel every time Pierce mentions something “interesting” happening to him. Her mind started conjuring some near-death experience immediately, because it wasn’t out of the realm of possibility when it came to him. That time, at least, it was mostly harmless, beyond the poacher possibly being around still when he made the call for help.

“Believe me, I’m not trying to have a journey this eventful, as you said,” Pierce told her and she knew it was true. That was most of the reason why she didn’t get angry at him. That’d be kind of unfair of her, and hypocritical. The other, smaller but still worth noting, part was that he was cute and nice and way too good at… a bunch of things for her to really be mad at him. “Anyway,” he continued, like he was telling her about this neat thing he came across on a stroll and not the pokemon he helped save from death by shitty poacher. Not that there were non-shitty poachers, but still. “That’s why I have a houndoom and a houndour traveling with me. It’ll keep me on my toes, I guess.”

“That’s one way to look at that,” Daisy commented with a raised eyebrow that he couldn’t see. Off to the side, she saw Lily come in for… a glass of water, by the looks of it. “So, what, is one of those team member number eight?” she asked, only drawing a passing glance from her sister.

“No?” he said, but there was no certainty in his voice whatsoever. “I mean, it’s not the plan, but you know how things go when it comes to my team and additions,” he admitted and he wasn’t wrong about that. Pokemon picked Pierce, not the other way around, apparently. “I think I’ll encourage them to stay wild though. I wouldn’t mind having them with me at all, but they are a family and my team has gotten kind of big. I think I’d rather wait to add another pokemon if I can help it. I feel bad separating them, which I know is kind of hypocritical considering Cygnus and Orion, but… I have a feeling these two don’t want to be separated at all.”

“Too bad. A dark and fire type would go great with your team,” she commented idly. Not that Pierce seemed overly concerned with recruiting “efficiently” for his team, nor did he have a type or a “type” at all. Whatever pokemon decided Pierce was their trainer, they were in, apparently. It was kind of hilarious, and Daisy couldn’t argue with the results, really. There was clearly a method to his madness. Although, that might be a combination of luck and his aura bullshit.

She was still processing that ever since Lance informed them, and she couldn’t imagine how Pierce managed to sound half sane after that was dumped on him over everything else. No wonder he’d hopped from place to place before running to the routes. Daisy hadn’t been told in as many words that was what happened, but she could read between the lines.

“Oh well, maybe they’ll join later,” she added with a shrug. Off to the side, Lily sent her a questioning look and she rolled her eyes, mouthing “Pierce” at her. In turn, her sister rolled her eyes at her and some annoyance bled into her expression. Daisy could only feel smug about that though, since it was because she’d managed to snag the catch from under her sister’s nose. She was just salty ever since, she knew, no matter what she said.

She really knew how to pick him, what could she say?

Previous relationships notwithstanding.

“Maybe,” Pierce said, interrupting her thoughts and interaction with her sister. “How are things over there though, anything interesting?”

“Not by your standards, no,” she answered dryly, drawing a chuckle from the man that the pokegear did no justice at all. Good thing too, since she didn’t feel like having her insides deciding to dance all of a sudden, or her brain turning to mush. She kind of needed her brain to work. “We’re working on a new routine, trying to add another gyarados, but not all of us can wave our arms and have them follow like an orchestra.”

“Hey, you got all the looks and the brain, I have to bring something to this relationship, you know?” he said jokingly, but she still rolled her eyes to herself. She did wonder about his self-esteem sometimes, but it wasn’t concerning, at least. “Speaking of looks, any idea when we can have another date?” he asked, rather bluntly, but she liked that about him. He didn’t try and play coy or beat around the bush too much. He wanted to see her and he told her, Daisy really liked that about him

“Well, I could be convinced to take some time off…”

[} Chapter End {]

Hey guys! How’s it going?

Some more regular traveling, because I’m never not going to write slice of life if I have half an opportunity to do so. I decided to throw in a PoV change just to shake things up a bit… a very small bit, but still. Not much else to say, admittedly, but meh…

I still hope you guys enjoyed the chapter.

Discord Link: discord.gg/UTDransjJZ

Random Question: This has made me think, anything in particular you guys would like to see? Like, a PoV change to someone in particular or some specific kind of SoL bit or maybe something else? 

See you.