Teams:

Pierce Lawson:

- Narcissa, Beedrill

- Orion, Onix

- Cygnus, Abra

Lillian Dale:

- Root, Bulbasaur

- Talon, Spearow

- Gem, Geodude

- Star, Cleffa

Cerulean City XIII

"Move, Modify, Subdue," he commanded instantly.

"Mud Shot!" Daisy called. Interestingly, the wooper shot water at Narcissa, but it was water that had turned brown through the energy used on it. 'Wonder if that affects the move or not. Doesn't look like it,' Pierce mused idly as he watched Narcissa flying around, avoiding the attack and using status moves on herself. After the third move the wooper tried on her though, she retaliated… kind of.

String Shot started being directed towards the water and ground type.

"Get out of the platform, Wooper. Into the water and use Water Gun!" Daisy commanded and her pokemon made a leap right to the pool. Unfortunately for it, Narcissa had experience against flying pokemon. A pokemon mid air that couldn't change direction? That was easy pickings.

A String Shot hit it squarely on its side, sending it back to the platform.

"Get it off with Mud Sport, Wooper," the Leader said, making his eyes widen. 'That works?' he thought, watching as the wooper covered itself in another mix of water and ground energy. Sure enough, the hold of the threads on it seemed to be weakened.

Narcissa wasn't just watching though, shooting more webbing at it.

"Keep it up, girl," he told her, narrowing his eyes. He needed a good enough moment. Preferably, when-

"Mud Sport again. Try to get away, Wooper!" Daisy called and that was exactly the opening he needed. As soon as he saw the wooper go to use the move, he made his own.

"Twineedle! Pin it down!" he ordered and his beedrill immediately dashed forwards, doing exactly what he told her to. The hit left the wooper lying on the platform, still half-covered in webbing. "Giga Drain!" he called then, making Daisy's eyes widen.

From there, there was nothing the poor thing could do to get away. First of all, it wasn't in the water, where it would be stronger. Second of all, Narcissa had boosted herself and tangled it with String Shot. Third of all, the beedrill had an evolutionary advantage over it. Fourth of all, Giga Drain just hit twice the weakness on the poor thing. And that might not even have been all.

'Should have sent the pokemon into the water sooner,' Pierce thought, but he imagined it had something to do with it being a First Badge challenge. Daisy couldn't precisely use pokemon that were all that well trained. Maybe Wooper and even Horsea weren't that good at battling when they couldn't hear commands, like when they were underwater. That could explain it, probably. 'Something to keep in mind if I get a water type,' he mused.

"Wooper is unable to continue," Lily called eventually. 'A bit anticlimactic, but that's fine by me,' Pierce thought with a smile forming on his face. Narcissa stopped her assault and moved back to him, circling around and latching on his back. 'A climactic battle would have meant a struggle and I'd have felt like shit,' he added, grinning at his bug type as he brought a hand up to scratch her under her mandibles.

"Good job, girl. Maybe it was easy, but it's all up from here now," he told her softly, making her squeeze his neck affectionately. "We are just too strong for this level, I guess," he added, knowing that it would appease her battle maniac tendencies. "Let's go then," he said, looking as Daisy walked around the edge of the pool that formed the battlefield and Lily got down from the platform to the side.

"Pretty good first battle," the latter said once he met with her.

"I was hoping you'd have gotten your beedrill to learn Electroweb," Daisy commented with a wry smile on her face. "No such luck for me."

"I did," he admitted, drawing a confused look from her. "I travel with someone that has a grass type. I got Narcissa here started on Giga Drain before I reached here and got her a tutor for Electroweb," he explained with a grin. "I guess I got lucky. I don't know if I'd have thought of covering separate types myself."

"I'll be generous and think you'd probably have thought of it," Daisy told him, looking amused. "Here's your Cascade Badge, you earned it," she continued, passing him the smooth light blue teardrop crystal object. It was simple and small, around the size of his thumb, nevermind light… but it was still very important. The first of hopefully many badges to come in a journey to the Indigo League.

Pierce held it between his index and his thumb as he shared a look with Narcissa over his shoulder.

"Thank you," he said as he turned towards the sisters.

"Don't mention it. Some people struggle with even the first battle, but those are the people that don't even put effort into their pokemon before throwing them in a challenge. You did, probably, the opposite of that, if what you've told me is true and I'm inclined to believe you," Lily told him with a chuckle. "So, you should be fine even for your second and maybe third badge depending on who you challenge. From there, that's when you have to start showing that you get better and have potential."

"I'll keep that in mind," Pierce replied with a nod. That didn't mean he'd take things easy, that was for sure, but it was nice to know when he might start struggling more.

"Well, the referee now has to register your win," Daisy pointed out, drawing a groan from her sister. Somehow, Pierce got the impression that something was going on there. The blonde was looking too pleased with herself for it to be nothing. "You and I can do whatever though. You staying for a visit already or coming back in the afternoon?" she asked, turning towards him and walking towards the side where he'd come from into the battlefield area.

"I was thinking of spending some time with my team, celebrating a little and then coming back," Pierce answered, drawing a hum from the woman. "Unless you need me for something?"

"Nothing right now, no," she reassured, waving her hand dismissively. "We just like having a helping hand ready in case anything happens with the water types back in the danger areas. We try to at least have one of us there, but Misty isn't as experienced as my sisters and I. We also have to run the gym and most of our staff and trainers are busy taking care of the pokemon back in the pools but they aren't good enough for emergencies like the gyarados you dealt with the other day. Good job with that, by the way."

"Don't mention it," he waved off, wondering how much of that was true. Surely some of their trainers and such could deal with things if he could, right? He wasn't that experienced with water types, after all. Then again, he didn't know the precise number of how many pokemon had yet to be relocated, so maybe there were a lot more than he thought. "The gyarados is doing fine?"

"From what I was told," Daisy answered with a nod. "Violet got a look at him after she freed herself and had only good things to say."

"Good to know."

"Great battle, Pierce!" Lily – his traveling companion, that is – exclaimed as they came out to the hall that led towards the entrance of the building. "Your notes were right, it seemed."

"Of course they were, you doubted them?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Another future challenger, I take it?" Daisy commented.

"Lillian Dale, most people call me Lily though," his friend introduced herself with a grin.

"I'll keep it to Lillian, if it's all the same to you. It'd get confusing otherwise," Daisy replied, drawing a snort from Pierce.

"Yeah, I know what you mean," he commented. "Well, I'm sure you have better things to do than accompany me, with how busy this place is right now," he added, turning towards the Leader. "Maybe I'll see you around later though."

"I wouldn't be so sure," the woman told him with a wink before her expression fell and she sighed. "But I guess you have a point. Take care of yourself, Pierce. See you later."

"Same for you," he called as she moved to leave, getting a wave of Daisy's hand over her shoulder. When he turned towards Lily though, he saw her with a shiteating grin on her face. "What?"

"A heartbreaker as always, Pierce," she commented, making him groan. Her response to that was to just giggle behind her hand. "Never a dull moment with you Pierce, never. I love it."

"You suck," he grumbled, shaking his head and starting to walk towards the exit. He had better things to do than put up with her teasing, after all.

"Hey!" she called from behind him, but he just sped up.

[}-o-{]

"Ok, take your time. Because I swear, Cygnus, if you choke again…" Pierce said, laying down a tray with poffins in front of both his abra and Narcissa. Picking one up, he offered it to Orion. Sure, the onix hadn't participated in the challenge, but he didn't want him to feel extra bad about it. Poor rock type already felt a little left out, there was no need to make it worse. "Here, big guy. Hope it's good this time," he commented, because he hadn't quite gotten the right mix for his onix still. He was thinking of going for something salty instead of the general sweet kind of poffin he'd found recipes for. After all, Orion had loved munching on the rocks at the beach.

Something for another time though.

When he looked back, he saw that Cygnus had taken that threat seriously. Good, because it had been serious. He'd almost had a heart attack when his psychic type had choked on his first successful batch of poffins. It proved that even the smartest of pokemon could become an idiot when faced with good food, he supposed.

"I'll make a celebratory poffin batch for you guys when you win your challenge here, how about that?" Pierce asked Lily's team, who had been enviously watching his from the side. The girl herself looked very amused by how they were acting, actually. All four of them nodded instantly and very seriously. "That's the spirit."

"I think I could win that right now and without giving them orders just with that prize," Lily commented, looking like she was holding back a laugh. "Nice of you to motivate them, Pierce."

"You're welcome," he replied with a smile and a chuckle. Then he turned back to his team, since they were the stars of the day, as it were. "So, anything you guys want to do to celebrate today? The day is yours."

"What about… water types?" Cygnus asked, sending him a picture of his own memories of the pokemon at the Cerulean Gym. Pierce smiled down at his psychic type, especially because he was asking out of curiosity and not jealousy or anything of the sort. He was genuinely curious.

"They'll be fine if I don't show up today. I asked the sisters and they said they'd send a message if they found a place to relocate them," he explained sitting in front of his team. "I know I said I'd go in the afternoon, but if you guys want to do something, it's fine." Because he loved those pokemon more and more every visit he went through, but his team was his team. They were the ones that had his back, the ones that made him not be alone. They were his new family now, the only ones he had in this new, strange world.

Interestingly, Pierce watched as his pokemon traded looks between the three of them for a long moment. He didn't pick up much from Cygnus' presence in his mind either, since the abra had put himself as far as he could without actually severing the connection. It wasn't often those days that he couldn't pick up at least some little things from Cygnus, really, which made this a little weird now.

"Visit them," Cygnus told him. When Pierce went to say something, he continued. "We are fine… with just morning…"

"If you are sure?" he asked, carefully observing his team. Narcissa didn't look precisely thrilled but she nodded and she seemed honest enough to him. Orion just gave him a happy rumbling and nudged him with his tail.

"Helper-Speaker… likes to help," Cygnus said, sounding like he wanted to roll his eyes. "We are not… getting… in the way…"

"But-"

"No buts," the abra interrupted, making him deflate.

"Ok then," Pierce replied wryly. "If you are going to be like that. If you guys get annoyed though, I'm gonna be annoyed," he pointed out, moving to sit between his abra and his beedrill and planting a hand on top of both their heads. "So, what do you want to do this morning to celebrate?"

"Fighter-Challenger… wants to fight… obviously," he answered for them, flashing a picture of Narcissa in Pierce's mind.

'Fighter-Challenger, huh?' he thought, still wondering what was up with that.

"Not yet," Cygnus told him, seemingly amused by his curiosity. "Fighter-Suvivor agrees," he added, this time with a picture of Orion. "I would… rather watch," his abra finished.

"Well, if that's what you want, that's what you'll get. But that's after you finish your meal and we've rested a bit. We have plenty of time to hit the battlegrounds," he commented, drawing nods from all his pokemon as they continued eating through their prize meal. Well, except for Orion, who curled up behind him. "So, how was the poffin, big guy?" he asked, leaning his back onto the side of his onix.

He received a happy rumble in response.

"Good, huh? Well, I know what direction to go with, I guess," he mused, patting the top of the onix's head. He was still going to try for some salty poffin versions though. Just in case. Who knew? Maybe he'd strike gold with that.

A moment later, Cygnus shuffled a little so that he was left leaning on Pierce's side while munching on a poffin. With his psychic powers, the abra picked up the tray of snacks and brought it to Pierce's lap. Narcissa seemed to join in on the idea as she crawled onto his other side, being careful with her stingers.

"Guess I'm now trapped," he commented with a grin.

"What a terrible fate," Lily said, giggling behind her hand. "Well, I guess we'll go train for a bit. Those poffins aren't going to earn themselves, right?" she added, turning to her own pokemon. Resolute as they had ever looked, the group of pokemon gave their affirmations to their trainer. "Nice. Let's go."

[}-o-{]

"Honestly, I feel a little bad," Pierce commented, running his fingers through his hair. That day in the battlegrounds had been… very lucrative, one would say. He wasn't there for the money though, not really. He had more than enough with what he earned through jobs and League rewards, really. He was just there to give his pokemon some battle experience and… Well, also to satisfy their wish for some battles in general.

That day though, either because he'd gotten his first badge or coincidentally, Pierce and his team had ended up facing a whole lot of water types. 'Hm, maybe most casual people here have at least the Cascade Badge too?' he wondered idly. That would make some sense, he supposed.

"You should. That was so sad," Lily commented with a giggle that kind of contradicted her words. "Really, that was kind of very sad for them. Water types against your team is kind of unfair, unless you happen to be using Orion," she added, which was fair. Cygnus and Narcissa were too well equipped to deal with water types now. Especially those that weren't all that high level, that was for sure.

"Says the girl that fights mostly with a bulbasaur," he pointed out, making her raise a finger… and then lower it when she realized that he was right. "That's what I thought."

"In my defense, the rest of my team isn't really prepared to face water types yet," she said, looking away and pouting. "And I use Talon too."

"We both know you only do that because the little shit would peck you to death if you didn't," Pierce replied with a grin that only widened when she huffed. "So, you going to stay here much longer? My team seems to have had enough," he asked.

It was a little weird, that they'd decided to cut the morning of battles short… But then again, Narcissa could only enjoy one-sided battles for so long. Orion didn't quite like facing water types all that much… or at all. And then there was Cygnus, who was even less eager to just beat pokemon after pokemon than Narcissa was. Sure, his pokemon seemed to enjoy battling quite a bit, but the conditions of that day in the battlegrounds weren't the best.

Quite sad, considering that was supposed to be a reward for them.

"I will stay, yeah. I might give Star a battle to be in or two if I find suitable pokemon to put her against," Lily answered thoughtfully. "What about you? Going to the Gym early?"

"No, I think I'll go to the beach. Give the team some free time," he mused out loud. It sounded like a good enough plan. Narcissa would enjoy some free flying, Cygnus would nap under the shade with a nice sight and Orion would munch on a rock or two.

"And you'll go play with the magikarp again," Lily pointed out, looking amused.

"That's always a plus," Pierce replied with a grin.

[}-o-{]

"Thanks for letting me have my team out," he said, looking to the side as Lily, the Sensational Sister, approached him. He idly wondered if he should start calling his traveling companion Lillian in his mind just to make things a little less weird.

"Don't mention it," she waved off, looking to the side where his team was spending their time away from the pool. Apparently, his latest stunt with the rowdy gyarados had earned him enough points for them to allow him that… So long as they didn't get anywhere close to the pokemon in the pools. "Now, what's this about you traveling with someone called Lily? You didn't tell me you were using me as a replacement, Pierce. I'm hurt."

He just deadpanned at her fake, dramatic gesture of wiping out an imaginary tear.

Then he rolled his eyes and turned back to the pool.

"Rude," the woman told him and he could almost see her pouting without even looking at her. "I don't like you anymore."

He just hummed.

Fortunately, at that very moment, one of the pokemon he was keeping company decided to do something that was a good enough excuse to not pay the Leader any mind. His savior of the moment was, funnily enough, the aforementioned gyarados. The water type jumped out of the surface on the opposite end of the gigantic pool and then flew through the air sideways for quite the distance. Pierce and the water types by his side looked intently, gauging the distance.

Once Gyarados fell back into the water, he grinned and waited for it to peek out of it once more. When he did, Pierce put his hands around his mouth and let out a loud cheer. The sea serpent deserved nothing else, really.

"That was great, buddy!" he exclaimed, walking up to the edge of the water while the gyarados approached in turn. "That was like three whole tiles longer than your best jump so far!" he added, making the water type preen at the praise.

They'd had to do a little reworking to their game for Gyarados. Otherwise, the sea serpent would just jump out and slam against the gym's ceiling and that was… a bit of a no, one could say. Call it a hunch, but Pierce didn't think anyone would take kindly to that. So, instead of seeing how high he could jump, they'd changed it to how far he could.

Surprisingly, the rest of their apparently very competitive group had decided to shift their attempts accordingly. Pierce was glad about that though. It'd probably make the gyarados feel more included that way, which was nice.

"Here you go. I changed the recipe a little but it should still be good," he said, offering the water type his prize poffin. The snack quickly disappeared inside the creature's maws, but even with how comically small it was in correlation with the pokemon, Gyarados still let out a pleased sound. "Good to know you like it," Pierce added with a grin as he patted the side of the sea serpent. "Now, who's ne-"

He was interrupted by a splash slightly to the side, making him turn towards the shiny magikarp, the only one he'd call Magikarp with capital "M", at least until he or she left. The golden fish seemed to be trying to get his attention pretty hard, which made him sit on the edge of the pool. Curiously, he looked down and rubbed the side of the fish pokemon trying to figure out what was going on.

"Everything alright, girl?," he asked after a moment. "It's not your turn yet," he commented with a tilt of his head. Then he grinned as she started rubbing against his leg in the water. "Someone was feeling left out, huh?" he said with a chuckle. "I guess I can stay here with you… and everyone else," he continued, adding that last part when a bunch of other water types approached.

Idly, he sent a glance to his team to see if they were ok.

"Don't worry… about us," Cygnus reassured, and Pierce could almost see the abra rolling his eyes. "We are… fine. You worry… too much," the pokemon added, making him nod. It just felt a little wrong to leave them aside when it was their day. "It was a… first, easy victory," Cygnus said, and this time he even sent him a mental picture of him rolling his eyes.

His pokemon was a brat.

Somehow, Pierce wasn't surprised.

"I'm being ignored," Lily said, making him turn towards her to see the grown woman pouting at him as if she were a child. "Don't you know that you shouldn't ignore a pretty lady?"

"Hm, I'll keep that in mind," Pierce replied with a nod. Then he faced the pool once more. "So, who's next?" he asked, drawing a huff from the Sensational Sister behind him that made him grin. One of the number of normal magikarp around wiggled and jumped a little in response. Pierce tilted his head and looked at it for a moment as he tried to figure out which of them all it was… Until it came to him. That little overextend with the tail wiggle was distinctive. "Go for it, buddy," he said then, making the water type disappear under water.

"You sure you are not a water specialist in disguise or something?" Lily asked, her previous fake annoyance already forgotten. "People usually have a lot of trouble telling magikarp apart."

"That's because they look at their faces, but they are not very expressive in that regard," Pierce replied, petting Magikarp. "It's easier to tell them apart by-"

"Looking at their body language, yes. I know," Lily finished for him, giving him an amused look as she took the seat by his side and started petting a tentacool herself. "I am a water specialist, you know?"

"Fair enough," Pierce replied with a chuckle as the magikarp from before took his turn jumping out of the water. "I'm a little distracted right now."

"I don't know if I should be offended or impressed by that."

"Why not both?" he asked, still smiling and drawing a snort from Lily.

[} Chapter End {]

Hey guys! How's it going?

I know it was a very anticlimactic start of the chapter with the easily won second half of the gym battle but… What can I say? Sometimes the "Wing It" approach works and sometimes it does this kind of thing. Can't all be wins, I guess.

I hope you enjoyed the chapter anyway.

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: How many lightbulbs can you see without getting up from your chair? I can see like 10.

See you.