Teams:

Pierce Lawson:

- Narcissa, Beedrill

- Orion, Onix

- Cygnus, Abra

Lillian Dale:

- Root, Bulbasaur

- Talon, Spearow

- Gem, Geodude

- Star, Cleffa

Cerulean City II

The next morning started… quite late, really. Pierce woke up much later than he was used to, that was for sure. He believed that was understandable though, since he'd been absolutely spent the day before. So, he sluggishly made his way to the Pokemon Center's hall and got himself a cup of coffee and sipped the bitter drink without even adding sugar as he normally would. He needed to kick his brain into gear or he'd be wasting a chunk of his day, he just knew it.

He ate breakfast slowly though, letting himself be a little more lazy than usual. There were other people in the hall too, one or two eating just like him. Then there were others that were likely waiting for lunch more than being there for breakfast. Idly, Pierce glanced towards the book he'd brought with him, but he really wasn't feeling it.

'I think I'll just spend some time with the team after this,' he decided, bringing his cup of coffee back to his lips and pushing the tome to the side a bit. 'Then I can visit the Gym in the afternoon,' he added, thinking of the pokemon he'd helped and sort of befriended the previous day. 'I don't wanna bother the sisters too soon… And I should look up who's who.'

It'd be kind of awkward if he went back and still didn't know what the names of the sisters were, after all.

For the moment though, he had a few things to do, he supposed… Like waking up.

So, it was about fifteen minutes later that he walked towards the back of the pokemon center where there was an open field for people to let out their pokemon. Now, Pierce wouldn't have used the place to train himself, considering that Orion by himself could be a bit much. Cygnus would have managed, he supposed, but Narcissa would have felt cramped, especially if there were more people around, like at that moment.

"Hey guys," he greeted as he let his team out, giving them a slight smile. "Sorry for the wait."

"Tirid," Cygnus told him, making his grin widen a little bit.

"It was a long day yesterday, but nothing too bad happened," he told them, walking up to Orion and sitting by him, leaning his back and head on him. "There were a lot of injured pokemon though, it was… It was not nice," he explained to them before going into more detail, telling them about how things had gone. "So… I'll probably be visiting some of them later," he commented at the end of his little narration, taking a deep breath in.

Idly, he placed a hand on top of Cygnus' head, who was sitting by him, and another on top of Narcissa's, who had laid herself on his lap. 'Gotta love these moments,' Pierce mused, just relaxing in the company of his pokemon. Somehow, Orion's hard skin and his pokemon pressing against him was a lot more comfortable and soothing than the soft bed at the Pokemon Center, he realized.

"Vizit," Cygnus whispered in his mind. "Ve Jelp?"

"You can come too, yeah. I was thinking about taking you to some tutors already, since I'll be a bit busy visiting the Gym and all but… I think I want some company right now," he replied softly, remembering some of the things he'd seen on those water pokemon. Some injuries looked very bad, of course, but what his mind focused on was the malnourished ones, the bruised ones, the weak ones. They weren't in as terrible a condition as those that were actually wounded, so they hadn't quite been a priority the day before but…

But they were the ones that affected Pierce the most.

Those pokemon had been with people, people that should have been taking care of them. Instead, they had all suffered. They had all been treated horribly and Pierce didn't want to feel even remotely like he was doing the same thing with his pokemon. He didn't want to just dump them somewhere else while he did other stuff. That felt… neglectful.

"Jelp git ztrong," Cygnus reassured, seemingly growing frustrated because he was still unable to talk properly. "Not, like, dat," the psychic said then, trying to take his time so that he would do better, which he did, if not perfectly.

"I know, buddy, I know," Pierce reassured out loud, rubbing his hand on top of the abra's head. "I just want to spend time with you guys, and show you that you are the best. I'll be using the wipes on Narcissa and Orion tonight. You want anything, Cygnus?"

The psychic type seemed to go to say something, before thinking better of it and sighing. However, he did send a picture to Pierce's mind. The picture of a Kadabra's spoon, to be exact, which made him blink. As far as he was aware, Cygnus wasn't quite that close to evolution, after all.

"Something you wanna tell me?"Pierce asked curiously.

"Pre-par-e," Cygnus told him, which… fair enough.

"Ok, then, do you need something specific?" he asked, receiving some more pictures of the spoon, metal and… rings and necklaces?

"Sailver," Cygnus told him.

"Silver, right," Pierce commented idly. "You know what, we can look for that and you can choose whatever you like the most," he decided with a nod, making plans to look into going on a bit of a shopping trip. He did need to get a charger for his pokegear for when they were traveling, and now he needed to get some silver for Cygnus, apparently. On top of that, he needed to replenish some supplies and then… Well, maybe he would come across some other things to purchase.

"Thanks," the abra told him, drawing a smile from him.

"Don't mention it."

And that was that for the moment.

Some time later, he returned his team to their pokeballs and went to have lunch. It was a little later than usual, but he had had breakfast later too, so there was that. After that though, it was time to get some things done. One such thing was checking his bank account. Pierce was fairly sure that he had enough money for basically whatever he wanted, as long as he didn't go overboard, but he still wanted to make sure just in case. Besides, it never hurt to know exactly how much he had and considering he hadn't checked since Pewter and he had gone through the Clefairy incident and now the thing at the Cerulean Gym, he was a bit curious.

As it turned out, he wasn't curious enough.

'That's a lot of money,' he thought, blinking at the screen of the computer he was using at the Pokemon Center. 'Well… I won't have to worry about money for a while, that's for sure,' he mused. He'd already had a decent amount of savings, but now? Now he was even better off than before. He could probably afford to buy a whole lot of supplies to care for wild pokemon now and not even have to worry in the slightest.

'Neat,' he thought to himself with a grin and a nod. However, that wasn't the end of the surprises. He had a bunch of messages in his trainer account too, for some reason. For a moment, he thought that maybe one of his clients had sent some complaint or something, or maybe the League had tried to contact him for some reason. However, that wasn't the case at all.

Instead, he had a bunch of very similar messages regarding work at several farms and other places at Cerulean and even around other cities. How did these people even expect him to go all the way to half of these places anytime soon? 'Huh, I mean… What? How?' he mused, blinking at the screen for a moment.

Taking a moment to process this new development, Pierce decided to look into it some more. He'd see who he needed to check with to make sure this was a real thing and not a scam and then he'd see how to reply to everyone in case it was actually real. 'I swear to God, if I'm getting sent all this spam for no reason…' he thought wearily, if also a little nervous. If it turned out that it was real then… He wasn't sure what he'd do.

It wasn't much of a problem, but he thought it was a little weird that he got all that all of a sudden. From what he'd learned, it wasn't all that common to get contacted for specific jobs unless you made a name for yourself. Pierce very much doubted he'd done that with the handful of things he'd done while in Pewter.

'A problem for future Pierce,' he decided with a sigh and a shake of his head. It was a good thing if it was real, of course, but it was also a little overwhelming and he didn't have the emotional bandwidth to deal with that at that moment. He could do something about all that once he felt a little better, had some time to relax and probably reunited with Lily so he could get a second opinion on that. 'Maybe I can ask the sisters at the gym if they seem friendly enough,' he mused, taking a deep breath in and logged out of his account before turning off the computer.

'For now, time to go and use some of that League money,' he decided with a slight grin. He'd get everything he could possibly want. Maybe a few more preserving and storage boxes so that he could carry more things. More medicine, more food, more supplies overall. Maybe he could get some equipment so he could delve into some more complex pokemon food cooking?

'I have to save some money of course but…' Pierce mused, shaking his head to himself as he had to hold back a smile. He had a lot of money and not a lot of reason to save much of it, really. Before, he'd had to do it because he wasn't sure he could recover it if he spent it all. Now though? He was starting to feel like things were kind of… escalating, really. If things kept going, he'd have more money than he knew what to do with.

Even with his current plants that felt quite splurgy, but even with that, he didn't think he could spend enough to really find it anywhere near concerning. However, there wasn't much need to save for his pokemon at the moment. Sure, Cygnus needed him to buy silver for his spoon, and probably a second one for when he evolved into alakazam, but that wasn't that much. There was Orion too, he supposed, but getting the metal coat was…

Even if he saved all his money, and he kept getting rewards like he had so far, it'd take a while to get that kind of cash. Pierce had looked into it, after all, obviously, and it had been quite the unpleasant surprise. There were other ways, but they weren't exactly what one would call accessible or cheap either. 'Yeah, I guess even if it'll be hard, I have to save for that,' he thought, his mood being brought down a bit.

On a somewhat positive side, he hadn't really talked with Orion yet, so maybe his partner would decide that he liked being an onix and he'd stay one. It wasn't a conversation to have just yet though. After all, with the rock type being basically a child. At the least, Pierce wanted to wait a month or two. Pokemon developed faster than humans, a lot faster, but he wanted to give his partner enough time to have a look at the world, to make an opinion by himself.

Maybe he'd even try and contact Mama Onix, just to be sure.

'For now, I have things to buy,' he thought, stepping out of the Pokemon Center and starting to make his way to the stores he'd looked up while in the computer room.

[}-o-{]

All in all, after spending some time buying stuff, Pierce was feeling a little more relaxed. He'd recharged batteries, as it were. He'd spent time with his team, he let his mind all but turn off while looking around and getting supplies on auto-pilot and then he entertained himself looking around and seeing what new stuff he could get. He wasn't feeling great by any means, but he didn't feel as emotionally drained as he had before, so that was good.

Good enough that he thought he could go visit those water types now and not feel like every second was chipping away at his sanity. He felt bad just for… Well, feeling like that, but it was quite draining to be there, face to face with living proof of how shitty humanity could be. It made Pierce feel guilty, even if he knew he had nothing to do with any of that.

"Still bored?" he asked, turning his head to look at Narcissa, who was hanging onto his neck with her stingers again. That permit to have his pokemon out even in public settings was a godsend. Sure, it was a bit annoying to have to answer everyone that asked why he had his pokemon out and so on, but it was more than made up by the fact that he had a friend with him.

Narcissa chittered something that sounded very bored to him.

"I know, you aren't very interested in all that," he commented with a chuckle and a grin. "You weren't so dismissive when I was getting the cooking supplies and the new stuff," he pointed out and the beedrill did her best tsundere impression, which was all sorts of amusing and adorable. "Yeah, yeah, whatever you say."

He felt her stingers tighten around his neck ever so slightly but he wasn't nervous about that. He knew his pokemon was a softy, even if she tried to appear tough. On top of that, Pierce knew that if he annoyed one of them, he was more likely to be pushed harder during his own physical training than he was of being attacked.

"Do behave yourself once we reach the Gym, yeah? Those pokemon are on edge and there might be more than those I interacted with," he commented, drawing what he imagined was an agreeing sound from Narcissa. "On top of that, they might ask me to put you back in your pokeball again, so don't get angry if they do, yeah? They might not want to risk it, even if you are a perfect little angel."

To that, Narcissa grumbled something, but Pierce honestly didn't know if she was grumbling because of the possibility of being sent to her pokeball or because he called her a perfect little angel. He liked to think it was the latter though, since that made the beedrill seem more adorable still. With some luck, he'd be able to keep her at the Gym and maybe even let out Cygnus too.

Sure, maybe it was a bad idea to reveal his team members to the Gym Leaders when he wanted to challenge them during this visit but… He just didn't want to keep his pokemon in their pokeballs just because of that. Besides, it wasn't like what he was going to do in the challenge was that obvious anyway. On top of that, there were a bunch of half-assed excuses he'd made for not worrying about it, like how the sisters couldn't know if those were his whole team and such.

Ultimately, he just wanted company and more pokemon around while he was visiting the water types.

Sounded like it'd make for a better time there.

"Hello. I'm sorry, but we aren't open to challenges today," the receptionist said instantly when he opened the door. The short speech seemed practice to Pierce, but that made sense. He imagined the poor guy had had to repeat that a whole lot that day, especially judging by his expression.

"I was here yesterday for the water type situation," Pierce replied, causing the previously disinterested and sort of vacant look on the receptionist to focus on him. "I was told by Lily that I could come and visit the pokemon I worked with?" he commented hesitantly. Maybe it was a bad time? Maybe he should come back later or another day?

"Name?" the receptionist asked, tilting his head as he reached for a phone on the side of his desk.

"Pierce Lawson," he answered, getting a nod in return.

"Ok. Can you wait a second? I need to check with the Gym Leaders to make sure," the man told him and Pierce agreed easily. There was no rush and he knew even the people that weren't directly involved in the whole mess might have been nervous. What if the Rockets came looking for those pokemon? What if someone else did?

Those were a whole lot of injured, weakened pokemon, free for the taking, as it were. Gym Leaders might have been figures that scared a lot of people off, the looming figures in the distance, but they were still people. If someone was determined enough, Pierce had no doubt that they could find a way to try and get to those pokemon. Even if it wasn't the case, someone dumb enough might try anyway.

So, he just stood there as the receptionist talked through the phone for a bit, simply resting his arms on the counter and waiting. Idly, he looked around, turning to see an aquarium set up on one side. He blinked at the goldeen that swam around in it. 'Did they set up a pokemon in there?' he wondered, a little concerned. The tank wasn't small by any means, but it was still not quite what he'd put a pokemon in, especially for extended periods of time.

A moment later, Pierce noticed that the thing seemed to be connected to somewhere else by a giant tube of some kind.

'That makes much more sense,' he thought, a smile tugging at his lips as he waved at the pokemon, who twirled in the water happily after it noticed the gesture. 'Friendly little thing,' he mused, remembering the almost unresponsive goldeen he'd worked with the day prior. 'Maybe she can be like that too, with a little help.'

"Lily asks what it is she called you," the receptionist said, making Pierce blink for a bit.

"Helper-Speaker," he replied, making the man nod and go back to talking. Maybe he shouldn't be surprised that the receptionist wasn't too surprised by the strange title or whatever. It was possible that he knew what it meant or what it was or maybe he just wasn't curious enough about it.

"You can go through that door. Just follow the corridor and Lily will meet you and take you where you need to go," the man told him, gesturing towards the same staff-only door from the previous day. It probably led to some other pool where the pokemon had been taken to before, he supposed.

"Thanks," Pierce said and soon he found himself walking through the aforementioned corridor after waving a goodbye to the friendly goldeen. As he moved there, he looked over his shoulder at Narcissa. The receptionist hadn't said anything, so maybe it was fine? Or maybe the man decided that if the sisters didn't agree with that, they could tell him themselves. Either could be, he supposed.

"Pierce!" someone called him eventually, as he saw Lily peek out of a door further away from where he was in the corridor. The woman smiled and waved at him from the door. "Over here! Your fans are waiting!"

Personally, he rather doubted that. Sure, Poliwag was great and likely to be happy to see him, but the rest? He imagined Vaporeon and Tentacool had just rolled their eyes when they were informed, Goldeen given a particularly emotive blink and Quagsire… Well, if he was feeling better after the time had passed, he could be another one to be more expressive, maybe.

"That's one way of calling them, I guess," he commented wryly once he was closer. "Long night or early morning?" he asked once he was able to look at her more closely and noticed that the woman had rather concerning bags under her eyes.

"Yes," Lily replied.

"Uh, if it's a bad time, I can come back tomorrow or something," he commented, suddenly feeling guilty. Was he ruining her chances of getting some rest or something? Maybe even the other sisters too?

"It's not your fault, don't worry," she told him with a weak giggle waving off his concern. "My sisters and I just need to keep an extra close eye on everyone. Our pokemon can do it a bit, but we are the experts, not them," she explained to him as they walked past the door and he saw his group of misfit pokemon by the pool's side. "Most of these pokemon are a loud sound or a particularly menacing walk away from panicking or going off like a bomb… Speaking of, no offense to your pokemon, I'm sure they are nice but…"

Lily trailed off, gesturing vaguely at Narcissa.

"I get it. I was actually wondering if it was ok," he told her with an understanding smile. "I'll see you later, ok, girl?" he added towards the beedrill, who chittered something comforting instead of annoyed and gave him an affectionate squeeze. "I know, I'll be fine," he mumbled, leaning his head on her before she was absorbed by a red beam from her pokeball.

"Something the matter?" Lily asked curiously.

"I'm not that good at dealing with pokemon suffering. It's… draining," he admitted, rubbing the back of his neck. "I've been sort of down for the whole day, but I was feeling better, and I wanted to check on the pokemon."

"Yeah, I know what you mean," she told him with a weary smile. "I'd tell you that it gets better, but that'd be a lie. You just… get better at dealing with it. Sorry if that's not reassuring."

"It's not, but I appreciate it anyway," Pierce replied wryly before grinning wider as he got closer to the pokemon he was there to see. "Hey everyone, have you been good?" he asked, getting Poliwag to jump in place cheerfully. "Glad to hear that, little guy. How about the rest of you? Doing better, guys?"

Vaporeon was the second to reply. If a shrug could be a sound, that's what he thought the response he got was. Tentacool followed, with a brief wave of a tentacle. Quagsire mumbled something as he dragged himself out of the water towards him. Goldeen, for her part, circled a little as a way of answering.

It was both good and bad to see them. It was nice to see them apparently feeling better and starting to heal. However, it really brought his mood down to see pokemon that were in such a situation as they were. 'If I could get my hands on whoever did this to them…' he thought, barely holding back a snarl.

"So, I brought some supplies, so we can get to trying to find the right pokeblock combination for you all," he told them, immediately catching their attention and making them perk up. Some more than others, of course, but he'd take that win. "Just bear with me if they aren't all that good, ok? It's a process of trial and error, after all."

Poliwag immediately hopped towards him excitedly.

"We have a volunteer, I guess," Pierce commented, picking up the tadpole pokemon and moving to sit by the side of the pool with his foot in the water after taking off his trainers. Good thing he'd come with swimming trunks. "I'm glad you guys are doing better," he commented with a slight smile, patting Poliwag's head, much to the water type's delight.

[} Chapter End {]

Hey guys! How's it going?

Hm… I don't have much to say. I liked writing this chapter and I like how it turned out, but I just don't have much to comment on. At least, not without risking entering spoiler territory in some instances or just talking for talking's sake in others.

So, I'll just say that I hope you enjoyed the chapter.

As always, if you can't wait until next week for next chapter, or if you just feel like supporting my writing, there's up to three new chapters in my Pa tre on:

P a treon . com (slash) AdrianKing

Discord Link: discord .gg/UTDransjJZ

Random Question: Any favorites in Pierce's little water type rehabilitation group?

See you.