Teams:

Pierce Lawson:

- Narcissa, Beedrill

- Orion, Onix

- Cygnus, Abra

Lillian Dale:

- Root, Bulbasaur

- Talon, Spearow

- Gem, Geodude

- Star, Cleffa

Cerulean City X

"I hate you," Lily told him, eyes narrowed and Pierce was pretty sure he'd have been dead a few times over if she could manage to do that with her mind. As it was, he was left to look aside and slowly sip from his cup of coffee. "You suck," she muttered, just like she had through the whole morning so far.

To be fair, he kind of deserved it, he supposed.

In his defense, angry moms were scary and standing there when a friend is getting scolded by their parents is one of those really awkward moments that he'd like to avoid if at all possible.

"Traitor," the girl hissed at him, making him laugh nervously.

"I get it, ok? It's not my fault you didn't tell your mother half the stuff we get up to," he said.

"We?" Lily asked, scandalized. "I'll have you know it's all you, mister! I wanted to get away from those beedrill and somehow I'm the one that gets scolded? That's bullshit!"

"I mean, pretty sure parents are contractually obligated to be unfair like that from time to time," Pierce commented, not really improving his friend's mood. Not that he expected to. At that point, he was just resigned to having to put up with it. "Besides, I think it might be more of a problem regarding you not telling her than it happening at all."

"You might be right," Lily mumbled, slumping on her seat and taking the straw of her drink in her mouth and loudly slurping some of it. "Still…" she whined childishly, making him smile. "Getting scolded sucks."

"I mean, I agree, but you could stand to act like the nineteen year old you are, you know?" he pointed out with a slight smile, making her glare return with a vengeance. In his mind though, he couldn't help but remember that he'd never get scolded by his parents again. Which was why he took a deep breath in and moved on to something else. "So, any plans for today?"

"Hit the battlegrounds, maybe do a short job, take my pokemon to their tutors. After that…" She shrugged, her mind successfully diverted to safer territories. "I might get some work done with Star. She's not getting tutored, after all. She's too young and I kind of want to keep doing one on one training with her for now."

"Makes sense," he replied, leaning back and taking another sip from his coffee. "I was thinking about going to the beach for a bit this morning. Don't know if I'll have time for much else afterwards, but I might see if I can get a quick job done or check on one of the ones I've done already," he said thoughtfully looking at the ceiling. "I kind of want to go there at least once though. Would suck if we left and I never went to Cerulean's beach, you know?"

"That's the spirit," Lily told him, beaming. "I guess we can put off the battlegrounds for now."

"Want me to beat off the guys with a stick before they swarm you, huh? Smart."

"And I wanna be there if any girl tries to hit on you too," Lily said then, smiling widely. His eye twitched. "How could I say no to the free comedy show?"

"I think I need to have a more thorough conversation with your mother," he muttered, wiping the amused expression right off of Lily's face. "As it is," he sighed then. "I checked the list of jobs I have left to do and most of them looked to be mostly minor things compared to what I've already done. I swear one guy asked me to check because occasionally pokemon go into his farm and get a few fruits."

"Isn't that like… the normal thing to happen for them?" Lily asked, to which he gestured towards her with his hand. That was exactly what he thought on the matter. "Well, good to see you aren't exhausting yourself."

"Yeah, well, I got someone to nag me about it if I try."

"And you better remember that," she replied, pointing at him with her fork playfully. "So, it's gonna be a calm day in the life of Pierce Lawson, huh?" she asked, slurping some more of her drink.

"Looks like it," he answered, finishing the last of his coffee and setting the cup on the table. That was the last of his breakfast altogether too, so it was time to get started on things. '... Or maybe I can be lazy for a bit,' he decided instead. Leaning forward onto the table, he rested his head on his hand.

"What?" Lily asked curiously.

"I'm just feeling really lazy today, I think," he commented with a shrug. "Not feeling tired or anything just… Not feeling like doing much," he tried to explain. He didn't feel like he was getting the point across very well though.

"Ah, one of those days, huh? Makes sense," the girl replied, looking amused. "I guess there won't be much swimming then."

"But there'll be a lot of floating, yeah," he agreed, drawing a giggle from Lily. Then he sighed. "Almost didn't wanna get up this morning."

"That bad, huh?"

"Yeah, today's not going to be a productive day for me, at all," Pierce answered. The more he thought about it, the less energy he seemed to be able to gather for himself. "At all," he repeated with a sigh.

"It's really weird to see you like this," Lily commented, looking at him like he was a particularly entertaining show. That is, before her expression turned more serious. "You sure you are fine, right? You didn't get burned out or something, right?"

"I don't think so," he mumbled. "Maybe it's just taking me longer to wake up or something."

"If you say so…" Lily said, looking dubious. He honestly didn't feel bad though, and he thought he knew what burn out felt like. He was just… really not feeling like doing much of anything.

[}-o-{]

"Looks amazing," Pierce commented, for the first time stepping into Cerulean's beach. It was quite the mistake to not have gone there before, he decided immediately. The sand was soft, the water was clear and the sidewalk by the beach had little stands with food and other things arrayed through its length. It was honestly what he'd imagined one of those famous beaches in the world to be like.

Not that he'd know, since he'd never visited one of those.

It brought energy to his lazy self to see that, if he was honest. He dug his toes into the sand with a smile as he stretched his arms over his head. Lily walked beside him while Narcissa flew around, but he gave them only a passing glance.

"Too many people though," he pointed out, not really bummed by that even if it did take away from things a little. He couldn't really fault them for being there though. The place was great, as he said, so expecting it to have few people when they were already having summer weather was kind of unfair. As it is, he supposed he should be grateful the place wasn't looking like one of those disturbingly crowded beaches he'd seen back in his world.

"Oh, don't start complaining, Mr. Lazy," Lily told him, pushing against his side with her shoulder. "Let's go set up somewhere. I don't feel like standing around all day."

"Who's lazy now, huh?" he replied, even as he followed after her. She'd joked about it before, but he definitely didn't feel like seeing if she was right about girls hitting on him. Maybe if he stuck to her, people would continue to misunderstand and think they were together. That was bound to help keep people away, right?

He didn't feel like getting into that sort of mess when he had enough on his plate as it was.

"I'm sure I don't know what you are talking about," Lily commented with a smile on her face. "This looks like a good spot," she added then. Looking around, Pierce noticed that it was on the biggest area without people that wasn't more than a block away.

"Good enough for me, I guess. Could be a little closer to the water though," he replied before shrugging and helping her set their things down. "Do I have to keep playing bodyguard or can I go to the water?" he asked once they were done, Narcissa latching onto his shoulders as he stood up. Turning towards the beedrill, he smiled. She probably wanted to get some time with him before he got into the water, since she couldn't really follow him there.

"Here I thought I was playing bodyguard for you," Lily told him with a half-smile. "But yeah, I think I'd like to get into the water."

"Ok then, what about you, girl? You feel like staying around here or flying?" he asked Narcissa over his shoulder. "Cygnus will be staying here, I bet," he added, letting out the abra. It would just be a shame that he wouldn't get to spend time with Orion, but he'd promised the onix some one on one time later, probably using the wipe for rock types on him or something like that.

"I… can… watch," Cygnus voiced in his mind. "Then… sleep…"

"Ok then, buddy. I'll send Narcissa to take over later then," Pierce told his psychic partner, who gave him a slight nod. "Let's go. I can't wait."

"Hadn't noticed," Lily said, snickering by his side and making him roll his eyes at her.

Not even a minute later, Pierce found himself floating in the water. He'd been excited for sure, but he still was feeling pretty lazy. It was just that he'd rather feel lazy in the water than at the beach. The cool waves were much more soothing than laying down under the progressively hotter sun.

Whenever he'd open his eyes, he'd occasionally get a glimpse of Narcissa flying over him. Some other times, he'd see some other pokemon, probably someone else's or maybe even a wild one. He rather doubted many wild pokemon came by though, considering the amount of people around.

'I'll have to send her to guard our things if Lily hasn't gone back yet,' Pierce thought, catching sight of his beedrill once more. He'd gotten "separated" from his traveling companion, as it were, when they'd gotten into the water. Lily had said something about swimming and what not but he'd just decided to lay down on the water and let it do the rest.

"She's… back… Helper-Speaker," Cygnus told him then, making him hum to himself. "I… sleep."

'Rest well, buddy,' he replied, closing his eyes for a moment. It seemed that Narcissa would get to fly for a bit. He'd just have to do something nice for his abra, he supposed.

"It's fine… I liked… seeing… the beach," his psychic reassured, making him smile.

'That was a lot more smooth than usual, Cygnus. Good job,' he praised, getting a feeling of pride before the abra pulled back. A moment later, he felt the pokemon pull away from his mind a little. Still there, at the edge, but there was a noticeable distance, separation, between them.

'And so there's silence again,' Pierce thought, enjoying the feel of the gentle movement of the water against his skin. The waves moved his body up and down, washing over him at times. The sounds of the outside were muffled by the sea, which only added to the peace.

And then something bumped onto his leg.

Pulling up, he went to apologize to whoever he'd hit. Although he was pretty sure that it had been their fault, he wasn't without some of the blame, since he hadn't been looking or anything. The words never left his mouth though, since there was nobody there. There was nobody even close to where he was.

"Weird," Pierce thought, looking around with a confused frown. That is, until he felt something touch his back, something rough. Turning around, he blinked. "Hey there, buddy," he greeted, a little caught off guard by the magikarp. "Felt like playing or something?" he asked then, bringing a hand up to pet the fish as he kept himself afloat with his other limbs.

The magikarp swam into him quite strongly at that.

"Hey what's the ma… tter?" he started asking before trailing off as he noticed something. This one magikarp had a scale by its eye that had a slightly weird shape. Now, that wasn't so strange. Pokemon often had little details like that. They didn't all look the same, after all. However, he recognized that particular distinction. "What are you doing all the way over here, buddy?" he asked, eyes wide as the water type continued swimming towards him, pushing against his chest. "Did you come all the way over here for me?"

The answer he got to that was the magikarp swimming harder, rubbing against him to the point that he was worried the scales were going to hurt him. However, Pierce was more impressed than he was concerned about any of that. This was, after all, one of the magikarp he'd met way back before he was called to Cerulean.

"Felt like holding me up to what I promised, huh?" Pierce asked with an apologetic smile on his face. "Sorry for disappearing on you, guys," he said, petting the side of the magikarp. He had told Lily to talk to them about why he had to leave and all, but it still sucked that he couldn't tell them goodbye properly. "It was shitty of me," he added, and it was then that he felt something else bump onto his side. Looking around again, he saw that he was surrounded by a magikarp school. "Well," he started with a surprised laugh. "I guess we'll get that play date, huh? Even if it was delayed."

He couldn't believe it.

As if he needed more stuff to solidify his placement of the magikarp line as one of his favorites.

[}-o-{]

Magikarp, the Shiny, jumped out of the water, flew up for a bit, slightly rotated so she started facing down and then dove into the water once more. As she did, Pierce clapped his hands enthusiastically. When the water type came out of the water, he beamed at her.

"Great job, girl! That's a new record! I'm sure!" he exclaimed, drawing a happy wiggle from the magikarp. "Isn't it?" he asked then, turning towards Vaporeon and Tentacruel. The latter gave a bob of his giant body in agreement while the former simply sighed, done with their antics but unable to do anything about them, and nodded too. "Great job!" Pierce repeated, leaning down and picking up one of his poffins before offering it to Magikarp.

He'd made a few and they were hits so far. He was keeping it as safe as possible, of course, using combinations that he'd learned while making pokeblocks as much as he could. Which wasn't much, since they were completely different things, but he did what he could. Evidently, he'd managed to do a decent job at it, since they were doing well with the pokemon.

Well enough to act as prizes in this "competition" that they were holding. He didn't think it was the right word for it, but they were having the pokemon make jumps out of the water and if they beat their personal record, they got a poffin. The lil' guys were really motivated with that, which was great, because they kind of needed the exercise, as Violet had told him when he'd asked if it would be fine.

What followed wasn't a magikarp though. Instead, what jumped out of the water, flying a very fair distance up in the air before falling, was a sharpedo. Pierce watched intently as the maneuver was performed, his head following the pokemon with Vaporeon doing the same beside him. The water and dark type fell into the water with a splash under the watchful gaze of the magikarps and the judge panel.

When it came out, it looked at them.

When nobody said anything for a long moment, it started twitching nervously.

"I don't know. Did he?" Pierce asked, turning to look at Vaporeon and Tentacruel. "I think he might, but it was kind of close," he said with an unsure expression.

The eeveelution shook her head mercilessly and the sharpedo slumped.

The poison and water type shook his head too and that was the nail on the dark type's coffin.

"Sorry, buddy," Pierce said apologetically, sitting at the edge of the pull and gesturing for Sharpedo to get closer. When it did, he started petting his head with an encouraging smile on his face. "It's fine though, you'll do better next time, I'm sure. That's what training is for, right? You just gotta try your best and you'll do better."

The poor guy did seem to be feeling a little better after that, but not by much. Pierce got it though, doing badly sucked. In fairness to him, this was as difficult for him as it was for the magikarp, really. After all, what they had to beat was themselves, not the others. Alas, he'd just have to do better next time, literally.

"Who's next?" Pierce asked then, when nobody immediately jumped. There was a moment of doubt in which none of the other magikarp went for it. It was a little confusing. They had been doing fine so far and he hadn't seen anyone demotivated enough to just give up just yet.

His unasked question was answered when a golduck broke through the surface of the water, flew up and then fell down. The diving part needed some work though, because it fell flat on his belly. When it came up, everyone stared at it for a second before Pierce beamed and spoke.

"Welcome, buddy! Good to have you!" he greeted with a grin, kicking his feet still inside the water of the pool. "Now we just have to wait for the next round to see if you do better, yeah?" he asked, making the golduck nod and move to take a seat beside him. "Part time judge?" he added then, drawing a shrug from Golduck. "Fair enough. I could use someone else to buffer Vaporeon's… Vaporeoness."

The water gun to the face was rude and entirely uncalled for.

"See?" Pierce asked, as drops fell from his face. In the water, the magikarp school seemed torn between being amused and being offended. "Anyway-" he called with a clap. "Next one?"

[}-o-{]

[Cygnus]

He felt strong.

Strength was different from power, however.

He'd learned that from Pierce, actually. All the way back when they were helping Orion – then just Onix – and the man had thought about how it was weird that his line didn't use their actual muscles. He'd gotten curious then, merely to see what it was like to not use his psychic powers.

And he'd liked it.

There was something very… pleasing, about doing things without his innate powers. There was something very satisfying about achieving things with an ability that he'd cultivated himself, instead of being born with. Because his psychic powers had always come naturally to him. Maybe not as powerfully as they could be with training, but he had never had to put effort into moving his own body or other things.

Not until he first tried what Pierce had thought about.

It had been frustrating, since his body was so weak. However, he knew he could get better. Cygnus knew that with the struggle would come strength. He liked that idea. Putting effort into something that he wasn't good at and changing that. Through his own will, his own efforts, he'd gain a strength that few of his line had, if any.

He liked that idea a lot.

So, he talked with Pierce, and his trainer had easily agreed. Now, here he was, with two moves that were almost battle ready. He wasn't even a kadabra and he could already fight. Granted, that wasn't super weird, but how many abra could fight with their bodies alone. He was confident that he could beat some pokemon without even using teleport.

At least, he would, once he finished getting those two moves under his belt, as Pierce would say.

He couldn't wait.

For that, however, he needed to push himself more. He needed to be stronger. Not more powerful, but stronger. So that his punches would be able to do more damage. So that he would need his psychic powers less. One day, he wished he would be able to do without them completely. Not because he didn't like them, but because he could.

He wasn't going to do without other means entirely, but he wanted them to not be a necessity. He didn't want to rely on them. He'd been shown that he could very well do things without them, and he now wanted to stop being reliant on them. It didn't sit well with Cygnus that he was limited, in a way.

So, he'd train himself. He'd follow Pierce's training and anyone else his trainer decided was good enough. He'd do his best to improve, to get stronger, faster, better. He'd be the best damn abra in the world. And then he'd be the best kadabra. And then the best alakazam.

Narcissa had the right idea. Why do anything if you'd be content with being mediocre or weak? Maybe his line wasn't looked down upon as the beedrill's, but abra were generally considered weak, since they were hard to train. That was just a sign of bad trainers, not bad pokemon. Pierce and Cygnus were proof of that.

He'd beg if he needed to, but Cygnus would be in the Gym challenge. He needed to proof that his trainer and him weren't mediocre or weak or anything else. Pierce didn't seem to notice or care, but Cygnus always saw it. The way other trainers reacted when he said he didn't have any badge yet. That, or when he'd show Cygnus or Narcissa.

It pissed him off.

They weren't weak. Pierce, Narcissa, Orion, Cygnus, none of them were weak. They were strong. They studied and prepared and trained. They worked for their own strength, every single one of them. They pushed forward and higher, and he wouldn't let anyone look down on that.

Cygnus would show all of them, those that said it, those that showed it, those that thought it.

He'd show them all the might of his trainer and his team.

Cygnus' fist flew forward, destroying his practice target. No psychic powers, only his own body. That had been done with only the strength he'd cultivated and worked for. Pride coursed through him, but it wasn't enough. No, he needed to perfect it. The moves needed to be perfect. Only then would he earn a spot in the team for the Gym challenge and maybe get to fight first. Because Narcissa could and would deal with all of them herself and Cygnus wanted a piece of that.

He needed to prove his strength to Pierce – even if his trainer didn't care –, to his team and, more importantly, to himself.

So, Cygnus continued practicing. He gathered the energies a little faster. He put a little more power behind his punch. His arm moved a little faster. His first flew a little more precisely. Little by little, he'd get where he wanted to be. And if he didn't, then he'd just have to work harder.

His tutor, the man Pierce had left in charge of Cygnus' training for the moment, hummed at his progress. He couldn't fool the abra, however, not really. He could read it, without even needing to go deep. Just with the emotions the man projected.

He was impressed.

And that was what Cygnus wanted.

Everyone would look at him like that. Everyone would look at his teammates like that. Everyone would look at Pierce like that. Because they deserved it. Cygnus had worked for it. His teammates had worked for it. Pierce had worked for it.

They'd made it all possible through their own efforts.

And one day – he didn't know when, but one day – the world would know that.

The world would know that they were strong.

[} Chapter End {]

Hey guys! How's it going?

No great doubts today, which is great. I'm really happy with this chapter, actually. Maybe it's not the best thing ever, more or less just regular slice of life stuff, but I'll still take it. Cygnus part was a little more tricky, but I think I managed to do it well enough.

Hope you liked the chapter too!

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: That's two out of three team members that have gotten their own PoVs recently. What do you think Orion's would be like? (I don't even know if I'll actually write one, but I'm curious.)

See you.