Teams:

Pierce Lawson:

- Narcissa, Beedrill

- Orion, Onix

- Cygnus, Abra

Lillian Dale:

- Root, Bulbasaur

- Talon, Spearow

- Gem, Geodude

- Star, Cleffa

Route 4 VI

"There you go, little one, you are doing great," Pierce encouraged softly as he held onto Star's little arms and made her practice swimming with her legs. It was very different from teaching and playing with his little brother and his cousins in a pool, but teaching the pokemon to swim in the shallow beach was turning out to be pretty nice for him. It was… like mixing good times of his old life with good times of his new one, he supposed.

Bittersweet, in a way, but still more good than bad.

The fairy type babbled something half enthusiastic and half a little strained from the effort. It was adorable, really, and it was entirely too unfair. Pierce wanted to just stop the teaching and just play with her. That was for later though. After all, Star was the one that was having the most trouble learning how to swim.

To be expected, really, since her limbs were rather short and stubby. Root had made decent progress, for his part, but he was having some trouble too. At the moment though, the bulbasaur was taking a break while Pierce helped his teammate. Then there was Cygnus, who had taken to it the best out of the three, which wasn't really a surprise. He was the most humanoid of the bunch, so that meant that he could be taught a lot easier too.

"I think that's enough for now, yeah?" Pierce commented, picking Star up when he saw that she was starting to tire out. "You are doing great. We'll have you swimming circles around water types in no time."

To that, the fairy type babbled something, some of her adorably happy self being missing since she was weary from the exercise. That was fine though, Pierce had no trouble just carrying her in his arms as he had enjoyed doing with some of his younger relatives. He'd probably set her down next to Lily so she could take a nap.

Speaking of the cleffa's trainer…

"Weren't you going to teach them too?" he asked, looking down at the girl while she just laid on the beach on top of a towel, sunbathing. "I should be charging you, honestly."

"I'm too pretty to be charged for something though!" she protested, very obviously joking, considering she didn't even manage to keep the smile off her face. "You looked like you were enjoying yourself. And besides, it's a good thing I stayed here. Narcissa and Talon wanted to start a spar while you were away."

"Of course they did," he mumbled, rolling his eyes as he set Star down next to her trainer. "She did great, by the way, but she's tired."

"I saw most of it," Lily told him with a soft smile before she looked down at her pokemon. Star was now shifting where he'd set her down so that she was leaning on Lily and ready to go to sleep, it seemed. "Thanks for taking care of them. I'd really have joined but… I don't think I'd have helped much and I thought it'd be better to stay here and keep an eye on things."

"That's fine," Pierce reassured, looking to the side and catching Orion taking one of the bigger stones on the beach and eating it. The place was more sandy-ish than the first part they'd found, and it was supposed to get better and better the closer they got to Cerulean, but it still wasn't saying much. He couldn't wait to be at a place that had actual soft sand instead of the pseudo-gravel they had over where they were at the moment.

"Going to swim by yourself for a bit?" Lily asked him knowingly as he pulled out a bottle of water from his backpack and took a gulp. Afterwards, he just gave her a grin. "Figured."

"I like swimming," he replied with a shrug. "And it's quite the contrast from all the walking we've been doing. I'll probably tone it down after a bit. Probably not before we leave Cerulean though, provided we don't stay for long."

"I mean, I asked my mother to check if there was going to be a tournament or something and she told me not for another month or so. I'm pretty sure we won't be staying that long," Lily told him, to which he hummed, taking another gulp of water before setting the bottle down.

"That's good to know. Shame, I'd have liked to participate now, but I guess my team is kind of still taking shape," he mused, looking towards where Cygnus was sleeping and where Orion was eating another rock, glutton that he was. Or maybe he just found the rocks at the beach more tasty or something? Then there was Narcissa, flying around and doing light enough pseudo-training by using a move here and now that Pierce didn't feel like stopping her. "Maybe the next one."

"Cyngus is kind of incapable of battling and Orion can pull something off, but in a tournament…"

"Yeah, Narcissa's the only one that's gonna really give us a chance," he agreed with a nod. Sure, it sucked, but it'd get better after some time. Besides, there was no rush. Getting into the Conference would be great, but if he didn't, then it was no skin off his back. He could try the next year and probably have better luck. "Anyway, thoughts for later. Lots of things to do and I should prepare for the Gym battle I think I'll have than a tournament that's not here yet."

"But you'll go swimming instead," Lily pointed out, amused.

"Hey, I might find a water type while swimming, one never knows!" he commented with a grin and a chuckle as he walked backwards towards the water before turning around. "Do try not to eat my food while I'm-"

"Oh, shut up, Pierce!"

Laughing and shaking his head, he walked into the water and eventually started swimming. As it turned out, he did find a water type and he spent a good few minutes moving around with a friendly goldeen before they went away. All in all, a good day.

[}-o-{]

"Strike," Pierce said, taking deep breaths and trying to keep his mind clear as the fight went on. Narcissa dashed forward, stingers shining with Twineedle.

"Catch them! Vice Grip!" the trainer on the other side called for the krabby to follow. And they did, just not well enough to actually manage to get a hold of the beedrill, thankfully. Mostly thanks to the fact that Narcissa's stingers were long enough to let her keep some distance. Even if the krabby had caught her, it'd have been by those, and they were hard enough that they could have done something to get the pokemon off.

"Blast," Pierce decided to follow with. That attempt had gone well, but not well enough for him to want to risk it again. The water type seemed to be more skilled than he'd thought. To be fair, the trainer had looked and sounded like a braggart, but apparently he could back some of his talk too. Those were always the most annoying.

"Bubble!" their opponent called and the water type move clashed against Narcissa's Poison Sting, canceling each other. Pierce didn't tell Narcissa to stop, precisely, but he did need to do something to try and change how things were going.

"Add Move to that," he said, and she immediately started flying around. Not that she'd been static before, but now she was really doing her best to be all over the place. That was what he wanted. The krabby could only turn so much, and they'd met few things that could keep up with Narcissa's flying. Evidently, their opponent wasn't one of them.

It didn't take long for the purple rain to fall on top of the poor crab, and for it and its trainer to lose the battle.

"Good battle," Pierce said, keeping a friendly smile as he accepted the prize money from the very obviously annoyed boy. He seemed to be about Lily's age, if he had to bet, maybe a year older.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever," the other trainer grumbled as he started moving away immediately.

"Rude," Lily commented, coming to stand next to him as they watched the boy go. "Didn't even say bye."

"I think I might have hurt his ego too much by beating him in front of you," Pierce said with an amused grin. He hadn't quite caught the boy's name, but he'd definitely been checking Lily out before their battle. Maybe he'd done so during the battle too? That'd explain some things.

"Yeah, well, nobody likes a sore loser," she replied, drawing a chuckle from him. "What? It's true, isn't it?" she added, before looking down at Gem, who had been "walking" next to them for a bit now. Part of some light training, basically.

'Maybe we can do that?' he wondered, and Cygnus teleported from where he'd been sitting on top of Pierce's shoulders to standing next to him. 'Don't push yourself too much.'

'... Khnow,' the psychic type replied, to which he nodded. The butchered speech didn't really matter. He was just happy that his pokemon was progressing. It was more or less about the same as watching them struggle with new moves, really. If looked at it like that, it was fine for Cygnus to struggle his way to perfection. If anything, he was doing rather well, he supposed.

The abra seemed to appreciate that thought, at least.

And Narcissa certainly appreciated the open spot on his back, because she instantly flew around and latched on his shoulders. Sometimes, Pierce wondered when the feeling of very dangerous stingers around his neck had become comforting. As it was, he considered what to do next. They'd been traveling before the battle but…

"You want to go a little longer or do we set up camp here?" he asked, turning to look at Lily, who was now looking at Cygnus curiously. "He decided to follow Gem's example and train a little."

"Then I guess we should at least walk some more, right?" Lily pointed out, to which Pierce just shrugged. "Yeah, we can go a little further. You just want to stop so you can swim."

"Guilty," he admitted with a grin. "Guess some more travel is in order, what can you do?"

"I'd tell you that it can be dangerous to swim a lot and away from a city without a water type… but I don't think I can stop you, can I?" Lily asked, sounding more resigned than anything.

"I mean, come on. Pokemon around here seem friendly. Or, at least, that goldeen back over there was," he replied, waving vaguely behind them to where they had come from. "Besides, I don't go that far into the water. I'm sure I won't come across a gyarados over there."

"You had to jinx it, didn't you? You couldn't help yourself," Lily said, sighing and deflating. In her arms, Star made an adorably display of comfortingly patting her trainer. "Thanks, girl."

"Are you done?" Pierce asked, raising an eyebrow at his traveling companion's antics. "I knew you were a kid, but come on."

"Hey, I'll have you know I'm an adult. Have been for over a year!" she protested in a very childish display that really wasn't helping her argument, really.

"Mhm, I'm sure you are, kiddo."

"Oh, shut up, old man," she muttered, kicking his shin with basically zero force.

"Ouch, right in my feelings," he said then, dramatically being a hypocrite. "Back in my day there was more respect."

"Sure. Whatever you say, Pierce," Lily replied, sighing again and starting to walk away.

"Hey, wait! Orion, we are going!" he called, first to the girl and then to the onix who had wandered off after the battle was done. Apparently, the salty rocks on the beach tasted really good. Maybe he should re-check the onix parts of his books to see if that was healthy. If it was, he might just pick some up to keep as snacks or something.

'I haven't been checking if Gem does the same. I should,' he mused as he caught up with Lily, sending a glance towards her geodude. 'Something to keep in mind.'

[}-o-{]

"Defense Curl and Tackle, Gem," Lily called and Pierce was glad that he could sit down for this battle. She was fighting a guy with a sandshrew, after all, and so her geodude didn't really have many options to use against that for the moment. At least, not much that would work better than a good old Tackle. To make matters "worse" in a sense, he was pretty sure that Sandshrew didn't actually get to learn many ground type attacks.

"Poison Sting!" the other trainer called, looking a little put off for some reason. Which… fair enough. He probably realized that this battle was gonna be annoying. 'Why can sandshrew learn Poison Sting early on but not something ground based besides Sand Attack?'

Pokemon movesets were weird.

At least he was sitting down and he had company in the shape of their pokemon. Well, there were the opponent's traveling companions too, one of whom was refereeing the match, but he didn't feel like approaching them. All in all, Pierce didn't think it was really worth it to interact much with such people. At least with pokemon, he'd talk a bit and spend some time together. In challenges though? People just got the fight over with and went away.

It was also always a little awkward most times, since one side had just lost a battle and no matter how good a loser you were, it was still…

Yeah.

Some of them were nice and he didn't mind stopping to chat with them, but he didn't like the look one of the guys on the other group was giving him. On top of that, a girl that was with them had looked at him before and started giggling so… Yeah, he didn't think they were nice people.

Fortunately, he had Star sitting on his lap while they watched Lily's fight and his team around him to keep him company. Well, everyone except Orion, since he was in his pokeball for the moment. He was in good company, so everything was fine. Pierce wasn't too sure why Cyngus kept sending him amusement, but if he wasn't telling, then it probably wasn't important.

"Finally, huh?" he asked when Lily finally got in the few hits that finished the fight. Apparently, the other guy had gotten impatient and tried to use Magnitude when his sandshrew hadn't mastered it and had given Pierce's traveling companion the opening she needed. Thank God for that, since they'd have been there a while longer if not. "Back to your trainer you go, girl," he commented, standing up with Star in his arms.

The cleffa babbled happily and adorably as usual while pointing towards Lily.

"Say," the girl from before started when they gathered around Lily and her opponent. Pierce almost groaned when she seemed to move closer to him. From before, he half expected some kind of joke or something before more giggles.

Call him weird, but giggling girls made him uncomfortable. Like he was the butt of a joke or something, even when it was definitely for something else entirely. 'Yeah, I'm definitely weird, I guess.'

"You are going to Cerulean, right?" she asked, making him blink as she pulled a strand of hair behind her ear. 'She's not…' he thought, holding back the urge to gulp.

"Yeah," he answered hesitantly, sending a look to an amused Lily. 'Well, thanks for nothing. Some friend you are,' he groaned internally, "We are going to try and challenge the Gym there."

"We are going there too," the girl told him, smiling widely, as if that was great news for some reason. As she went to say something else though, the guy that had been looking at him before stepped closer too.

"You up for a battle?" he asked, rather bluntly.

"Sure," Pierce replied, trying not to do so too quickly. He remembered them saying that few of their pokemon were up to battling and they wanted to keep some in good shape. Whatever had made him change his mind, Pierce was grateful for it. "Regular bet?"

"That works for me," the boy answered, nodding a little stiffly before moving to one end of the improvised battlefield. 'Is he…?' Pierce wondered, blinking. Suddenly, he was feeling both amused and annoyed. Surely he was wrong, right? He had to be reading too much into it. No way this was happening to him.

"Sorry, looks like I have a battle to get to now," Pierce told the girl with an apologetic smile that he almost meant. Her answering grin seemed to have turned a little uncomfortable, but Pierce couldn't bring himself to care much.

"It's fine," she mumbled before walking off towards their group once more.

"... traitor," he hissed then, as he turned to look at Lily. The bitch even seemed to have to hold back her laughter. "See if I do something nice for you, huh?"

"I don't know what you mean," she commented, taking Star from his arms and then walking off to the side. 'I'll get you back for this,' he thought, his eye twitching.

"You are first," his opponent's friend said a moment later, after flipping a coin. Immediately, the boy across the field released a geodude and Pierce tilted his head, getting into battling mindset and pushing everything else to the side. Narcissa was up for a fight, if the buzzing to his side was any indication. Tungsten Strike should be enough to try and win that fight but…

Orion could use some positive reinforcement at the moment, between the rather thorough defeat he'd gotten from the rhyhorn out of Mt. Moon and the struggles he was going through with Sand Tomb. 'Yeah, let's give the little one this fight,' he mused. Then he paused, noticing how his opponent was looking at Narcissa instead of him. 'Oh, want to bully my bug type with your rock type?...' he thought, raising an eyebrow to himself.

"Narcissa," he said in the end and the beedrill immediately flew forward a little. It'd taken the boy a single look to annoy Pierce now. Cygnus teleported off of his shoulders then, sending him a mental message that basically said he felt the same way. Yeah, one didn't mock one of them and get away with that.

"Begin," the referee for the match called and Pierce didn't hesitate.

"Modify," he said, and Narcissa immediately started using her buffs on herself.

"Rock Blast!" their opponent called. However, by the time the geodude had attacked, his beedrill was already buzzing around with increased speed. Narcissa was getting better at using her boosts quicker.

"Tungsten Strike," Pierce called then, and the beedrill shot towards the poor rock type. The other trainer called for Rock Blast again, but the geodude barely got halfway through the move before Narcissa slammed against him with her body shining in silver light. "... Wait, really?" Pierce asked, his voice barely a whisper that he was sure nobody heard except Cygnus because he was in his heda.

'Well, that was fast,' he thought, blinking as he looked at the unconscious geodude. 'Is Narcissa that much stronger with the move already or was it weak? Maybe a recent catch?' he wondered, looking at the rock type.

Ultimately that was… quite anticlimactic, really.

'Still, at least it was a nice interruption for… that.'

[}-o-{]

"Stop laughing already," Pierce grumbled while Lily did exactly the opposite of what he told her. Then he looked at the piece of paper in his hand, with a number hurriedly scrawled on it. "I should throw it away, right? I feel like that'd be rude though."

"I mean, if you aren't gonna call, you might as well," Lily told him, looking like she was a moment away from bursting into laughter again. "Your face when she gave it to you though. I don't think I've ever seen you so red. Hell, I don't think I've ever seen anyone so red."

"Shut up," he groaned with a grimace. "I didn't expect that, ok?"

"You knew she was trying to flirt with you. Don't deny it, I saw it," she pointed out, making him groan louder. "What's up with that? Is big bad Pierce shy?"

"I'm just… That kind of thing doesn't happen to me. What was up with that?" he asked, confused.

"Maybe she… thought you were attractive? It's not rocket science, Pierce," Lily commented, rolling her eyes. "You said that you looked good yourself the other day. What's up with this surprise now?"

"I just… I guess you are right?" he asked more than stated, still trying to process what had just happened. "Yeah, I… I did tell you that I didn't look that good before. I guess I didn't think that looking better now equaled… this," he said, waving the piece of paper for emphasis.

"Well, I think you better get used to it or something, if you wanna go to the beach in Cerulean," Lily told him, looking entirely too amused. It was starting to get annoying, really. "Oh, this is just what I needed. Shy Pierce is funny," she commented.

"You won't shut up about this, will you?" he asked, lamenting himself to the heavens.

"Turnabout is fair play, buster. It's about time I found something to get back at you for all the comments about the berries Root and Talon ate," she told him, which… was actually fair, he supposed. That didn't mean he had to like it though.

"I'm suddenly regretting a lot of things," he mumbled, shoulders dropping a little.

"You should," Lily told him with a firm nod. "So, are you gonna save it and call her or are you just gonna throw it?" she asked, still having way too much fun at his expense as she waved her hand to signal the piece of paper still in his hand.

"Should I? This is… kinda new for me," he said, looking at the series of numbers as if it were some sort of incomprehensible lost language.

"Up to you, really," his friend answered.

"Well that's helpful," he mumbled, running his free hand through his hair. Ultimately, he balled the piece of paper and placed it in his pocket. "I'm gonna throw it away once we reach Cerulean," he decided. "Can we talk about something else? Please?"

"How about no?" she asked, laughing at his expression. "That's gonna be one disappointed girl, I guess," Lily continued, much to his dismay. "I wonder how many will join her by the time we leave Cerulean. Poor thing will never recover."

"God, you suck, Lily," Pierce groaned. "You really suck."

"Thanks," she replied, grinning widely and skipping beside him looking at the picture of a happy camper.

"You suck too, Cygnus," he added, his eye twitching at the seemingly continuous wave of amusement that came from his psychic type. "Is everyone gonna gang up on me?" he asked miserably.

Star chose that moment to babble some kind of reassurance.

"Thanks, Star, you are the only good one around. I should have caught you instead of this hag."

"Who are you calling a hag?!"

"Does witch fit better?"

Lily's eye twitched then, go figure.

"I'm definitely gonna talk to your mother for embarrassing stories. No way I will let this continue without some more ammo," Pierce decided and the girl's expression of dismay was oh so very sweet after she'd had her laugh. "Not so confident now, huh?"

"I-I was just getting back at you for all the teasing for the food!" she protested, hurrying up when Pierce started walking faster to leave her behind. "And the directions thing from Mt. Moon!... Pierce!"

[} Chapter End {]

Hey guys! How's it going?

I'll admit, maybe not much happened this chapter, but it was fun to write, so I'll take that.

I'd comment on some things regarding this last part, but I don't usually like explaining things more than the chapter does. Which tends to backfire on me, I think, because sometimes I leave too much for you guys to figure out and maybe not enough clues. Still, I feel like explaining too much and info dumping is somehow worse than misunderstandings so… Yeah…

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this as much as I enjoyed writing it and editing it.

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 plans for this weekend? I got an exam on Saturday morning and then I gotta travel back to the backwater town I came out of to vote on Sunday. It'll be an exhausting weekend for me, I guess.

See you.