Shooting Stars

It had been a long day for Piers, and he was glad to find a spot where he could relax. He let out a deep breath as he sat on the grass on the hill that looked over Pasio with Centra City behind him. He had been on Pasio for two weeks, and he never been so busy before in his life. It felt like he was on tour again, except it was traveling on foot and constant battling. Piers found himself surprisingly enjoying it. He was sure it was because he didn't have to worry about dynamaxed Pokémon on his opponents' teams, and therefore no one judged him for not dynamaxing his own. At first, he struggled with the three verses three battling style, but the more battles he did, the more that he got used to it.

Ziggy, his Obstagoon, sat beside him and let out a yawn along with a belch from dinner. Ziggy cackled afterward as if it was the funniest thing in the world.

"Ziggy," grumbled Piers, "Cover your mouth next time."

"Ob-sta-goon!" said Ziggy, but Piers could tell he was being sarcastic and saying, "Fine! But I might not remember!"

"I'm glad you didn't do it in front of everyone at least," said Piers.

Piers was mortified at his Pokémon's behavior when he attended the food festival with Roxie and her new friends during his first week here. Ziggy had displayed terrible table manners, he was scarfing and slurping down food like it was a contest. Roxie laughed at the comical sight, along with her new friends Hau and Maia. Then Maia's Torchic named Chili let out a belch, but this was more shocking than Ziggy's eating habits as Chili let out a huge flame. Maia picked up Chili and gently patted the fire chick's stomach. As Maia was comforting Chili, Piers chuckled at the death glare Chili gave his food bowl. Piers realized he was among good company and that he was looking forward to seeing what it was like to battle with the group if this was how they reacted to the weird things that happened with Pokémon at lunchtime.

"Hey, can I sit here?"

Piers looked up in surprise to see that Maia was beside him along with her Solgaleo named Sunny standing behind her. Her grin and grey eyes showed Piers that she was happy to see him.

It was strange to think how two weeks ago he had met this woman who was excited to see him in the Pokémon center while he just wanted to find the loo and now, he was her friend. After spending every day battling together, Piers came to see why Roxie liked to team up with her and even followed her on her Pokémon Masters League challenge. Maia was a good battler and was great with her Pokémon, but she was someone who was kind to everyone (unless it was Team Break), made sure that everyone had fun while they trained and traveled. Even though she was friends with famous gym leaders and champions, it was clear to Piers that Maia was the person who led her team and held them all together.

"Go ahead," said Piers.

"Great!" said Maia and sat down next to him, "Wow! Look at the stars! It's incredible. You can see so much."

Piers looked up at the sky and realized that he could see so many stars. It looked like there were millions and they could even see the Milky Way. It reminded him of Spikemuth at night when he used to sneak out on the roof of the town's metal covering to go stargazing in peace.

"The stars, they're so metal. They're in a class of all their own," said Piers, not realizing that he was saying his thoughts out loud.

Sunny roared and Maia laughed.

"Yes, you big kitty. We know you are a metal star," said Maia.

Sunny let out a purr and laid on the grass and Ziggy rolled over so that he could chat with him, leaving Maia and Piers to talk to each other.

"But I agree, the stars are absolutely metal," said Maia.

Maia attempted to say "metal" the way Piers did with his accent which caused him to let out a short laugh.

"Nice try, but you still haven't got that Spikemuth accent," said Piers.

"Well, I'll keep trying," said Maia, "Also, I hope I'm not interrupting anything. Roxie said that you needed some alone time. I just happened to come here after traveling with Sunny. He's done getting his walk in for the day. We were about to head back to the Pokémon Center when he spotted you."

"Nah, you didn't interrupt," said Piers, "If it weren't for you, I would have forgotten to look up."

"Good thing I came then! By the way, I just wanted to say that I'm so glad you decided to join our team, I have been looking for a Dark type user who's not Nanu. He's great, but I can tell that his heart is not into continuing for now."

Piers scoffed. He thought that man was lazy at best but didn't say anything as he did see Nanu early that day absolutely wiped Team Break members in back-to-back battles members with just his Alolan Persian. If Nanu had not come, their team would have been overpowered. Piers was wondering why the man stuck around if he didn't want to be here.

"Well, I think Roxie would have killed me if I said no," joked Piers.

Maia bumped his shoulder.

"You wanted to join," she teased, "And besides Roxie would never kill you over it."

Piers smiled; Maia did speak the truth. Usually, Piers was used to being on his own or in Spikemuth. Most people were not sure how to interact with a Rockstar battler with Zizagoon hair and he wasn't the most extroverted person out there. It was strange to him that he joined something in what he considered to be a short amount of time. He knew Roxie previously as they were both rock musicians and had chatted about their music together, but now he found himself considering Maia and the other teammates as friends. Marnie was going to be so proud to know that he joined a team here on Pasio. Despite being nine years younger than him, Marnie was worried about his lack of close friends. Thinking of Marnie made Piers sad as this was the first time he had left her alone besides when she went to compete in Galar's gym challenge. He didn't even know when he would come back especially since he had a commitment to the team in Pasio.

"Piers, what's wrong?" asked Maia, "You look troubled."

"It's nothing," said Piers quickly.

Maia looked at him and Piers knew that she didn't believe it was "nothing".

"Well…I just thought about my sister and I was wondering if she's doing alright."

"Her name's Marnie, right? You two seem to be really close. I know Roxie was pretty surprised that you left her back in Galar."

"Marnie's the one who kept insisting I come. She said that I needed a break and all of that. I don't regret being here, but I can't help worrying about her. One of our friends is checking in on her and making sure she is set with food and supplies, but still…"

"That's understandable. You care for her. I missed my family when I moved out to college. Even here, I still miss them. Especially when all these cool things have happened. I wish they could be here to see it."

The was a moment of silence as the conversation naturally ended. Then Maia let out a gasp and pointed at the sky.

"Look a shooting star! Make a wish everyone!"

Piers saw the comet that came across the sky and it disappeared in a flash. He didn't have time to think of a wish before Ziggy tackled him with a hug. Ziggy was pointing furiously at the sky and chatting away with excitement.

"I saw it Ziggy," said Piers, "Please stop slobbering all over my hair."

Maia laughed along with Sunny who came over and encouraged Ziggy to stop slobbering over Piers. Maia then stopped laughing as a look of "I have an idea!" appeared on her face.

"Hey! Why don't you ask Marnie to come to Pasio? That way you could still see her, but still be here. She knows Gloria right? Isn't Gloria looking to do some more training for Zacian? They could travel together."

"I don't know. I think she should make her own decision," said Piers as he scratched his head, looking away.

"Well, that's why you make it a suggestion! I'm sure she misses you too. I think she's glad to have video calls and pictures, but I bet she's itching to come."

"I suppose it's not a bad idea, I will ask her later."

"Perfect! Well, we better head back now. I liked looking at the stars here tonight. Let's invite Roxie and Hau to come next time! It will be fun!"


I hope you enjoyed this one shot! Piers was my favorite character from Pokemon Sword and Shield and I was so excited to find out he is going to be in Pokemon Masters soon!

I also have a short comic about how Maia and Piers first meet that can be found on my Twitter and Instagram accounts. My username is maia_writer