Teams:

Pierce Lawson:

- Narcissa, Beedrill

- Orion, Onix

- Cygnus, Abra

- Bellatrix, Gyarados (Shiny)

- Andromeda, Vaporeon

Lillian Dale:

- Root, Bulbasaur

- Talon, Spearow

- Gem, Geodude

- Star, Cleffa

Cerulean XXX

Back in Cerulean, Pierce found himself checking his video channel.

It was going great and he couldn't be happier for it. Atmosphere in the comments and such was generally nice, which always brought a smile to his life when he had to check them. Positive feedback was awesome and it did wonders for his confidence and self-esteem.

There were, of course, some less than positive people around too, but most of them seemed to just try and be assholes by saying that it was all staged or something along those lines. It honestly helped Pierce deal with the negativity, really, since he knew that they were wrong. Furthermore, he loved to see other people defend him. It was very… nice.

Not the most eloquent description of it he could have pulled off, but he kind of had other things in mind.

Mainly, Pierce was scrolling through the comment section for more than just lifting his own spirits with the warmer side of it. He was also noting down questions that people had. He'd be doing a bit of a Q&A episode, he decided. He imagined it'd be a nice way to return the favor, somewhat, to his viewers. He felt like he needed to do something, considering how great it was of all these people to take their time to let him know that they enjoyed his content and many other things.

'I might have enough to go for it now… or soon,' he noted to himself, idly looking at the numbers of his channel and videos. There were a lot more people than he'd imagined, but he guessed that was thanks to his viral entry into the world of videos. None of his videos were quite as popular as the first leaked bunch, but they were certainly doing well for themselves.

One day, Pierce had taken the time to check similar channels and how the general landscape of the internet video world in the Pokemon world looked like. He was far from the most successful, of course. He wasn't even close. But he was doing decently well, much better than he'd have expected, that was for sure.

It was honestly really nice, if a little weird.

'Better get used to it,' Pierce told himself. 'It's for a good cause,' he added. There was no point regretting what he'd done at that point anyway. He'd gone for it, sort of expecting his attempt to fall flat. Instead, he was now… suffering from success, he supposed. 'I'm not really complaining,' he mused, finding another nice question that he could add to his list.

He just found it all kind of… awkward, but maybe he'd get better at dealing with it. He certainly hoped so, at least. He'd likely go mad if he continued feeling like that, especially if the numbers continued going up.

[}-o-{]

Pierce looked at the battle in front of him with eyes almost as wide as his opponents.

Cygnus was on fire that day, as it turned out.

The abra was teleporting like crazy, to the point that the poor pidgeotto that had been pitted against him was struggling to even fly somewhat normally while trying to keep up. Not only that, but his transitions to Focus Punch and Thunder Punch were spot on. He'd even managed to land one of the former hits, which was an accomplishment of its own.

It had happened a few times already, that one of his pokemon had a particularly good day. It would never not be a pleasant surprise to see though. Like when Narcissa's movement seemed faster and smoother than usual. Like when Orion was particularly decisive with his hits. Or, like at that very moment, when Cygnus was feeling inspired with his style of fighting.

Pierce almost wished he had Ice Punch down already so that they could add it to the mix.

"Can I try?" Cygnus asked, flashing before him and for once in the match leaving the poor pidgeotto breath. Pierce saw the trainer on the other side of the field desperately trying to come up with some way his bird could fight back a little… Alas…

'If you feel confident, buddy. Go for it,' Pierce answered easily.

After all, what was the worst that could happen? That Cygnus failed? Even if his good day was ruined and his confidence took a hit, his abra was smart enough to get over it. Besides, Pierce would be there, ready to pamper his dejected pokemon if need be and provide all the poffins that would be necessary to cheer him back up.

On the other hand, if he pulled it off…

"Back to it, buddy," he said out loud, taking a bit of pity on their opponents. The least he could do was give them a fighting chance by giving some commands out loud. "Flash Barrage," he called for.

A fancy name for a very basic combo. It was basically the same as Flash Punch, which was just Teleport and a Punch move. Except, that is, that Barrage was, true to its name, a series of Flash Punches, basically. One after the other, not stopping and trying not to give the opponent room to breathe. Something that was easier said than done, but with how good Cygnus seemed to be feeling that day?

It really was that easy, for once.

From then on, he watched Cygnus intently. He didn't go for the Ice Punch right away, which was smart. As expected of his abra, truthfully. Instead, he continued as usual, a Thunder Punch here, a Focus Punch there. Eventually though, he seemed to find the opening that he'd evidently been looking for. He flashed and then stopped, almost like he was going for a Focus Punch, except there was no mistaking the light blue light of the Ice move with the Fighting type move.

The other trainer called for a move and… pidgeotto got the hit in before Cygnus could wrangle his own attack into working.

'It wasn't to be, buddy. Back to the usual, yeah?' Pierce projected in his mind. However, he knew what his pokemon would say before he did. It was just that clear in his mind with just the emotions that bled through their link.

"One more?" Cygnus asked and Pierce narrowed his eyes. On the one hand, the battle was pretty one sided before that misstep. On the other, if they messed around too much, they could end up losing.

Then again…

'Go for it,' Pierce allowed.

After all, what did he care if they won or lost? He wasn't battling for the money. He was battling for training, to give his pokemon experience and help them get better. In the spirit of that, why not allow his pokemon to try some new things? Why not take some risks if it could allow his partner to get better? If they couldn't do it then and there, then when?

So, he watched his pokemon go back to the flow of things with the moves he knew how to use. Pierce could already see that he'd been snapped out of "the zone" where he'd been in before. That failure had kind of ruined things for Cygnus, it seemed. Alas, good times had to come to an end eventually, Pierce supposed. It was still better to take the risk when they could afford to.

Certainly better to do it when they were having a good day instead of the opposite, or at least so he thought.

Then, there was another opening and Cygnus went for it once more. Pierce looked on intently, comparing the attempt at Ice Punch with the previous one and even those he'd seen his abra do during training sessions. 'Looks good…' he mused as the energy shone on his pokemon's fist. Then the limb moved forward for the attack. 'Energies look weak though,' he thought, pursing his lips.

Sure enough, the punch flew forward and it even hit the pidgeotto before it could fight back. However, the move might as well have been a tap on the bird's back for all the damage it did. 'Oh well,' Pierce thought. That had gone better than he'd expected, really. It hadn't backfired that time, at least.

'Back to normal, buddy. This time I mean it,' he told Cygnus, who reluctantly agreed. After all, it was one thing to take some risk and it was another to throw a match because they were stubborn. That would have a much bigger impact on his partner's mood than just failing a move he hadn't mastered yet.

They did win the fight, but he was more content with the fact that Cygnus seemed to have made progress with Ice Punch than the victory, if he was honest.

"I'll manage next time," his pokemon said stubbornly.

'Don't push it, or you'll just mess up more,' Pierce said, patting his abra on the head.

[}-o-{]

"She did so well!" Lily – his traveling companion that is – exclaimed, cooing over Star like she had ever since the cleffa had gotten to participate in a fight and won. It hadn't been easy, what with Lily having to find a suitable opponent so far into the league and with two badges. Eventually, she found another trainer with a new pokemon that had agreed to use one of their new captures against her. "She did, didn't she?!"

"She sure did," he replied with an amused smile as he passed a poffin to the very proud Fairy type. "Here, have another," he said, pretending not to notice the envious looks the rest of Lily's team were giving him and Star. "Productive day at the battlegrounds, I'd say."

"How did you do?" Lily asked, probably more to be polite than anything. She was too excited about Star's battle. Not that Pierce blamed her. She had a difficult time with the Fairy type, after all. The main problem being that she was a baby pokemon, so she needed to be handled with more care than even normal first stage pokemon. Another being that it was difficult for her to find good battles for her, since everyone and/or their pokemon were very competitive.

Each battle was something to celebrate for the lil' baby pokemon because of that.

And because she was adorable too, of course.

"Doing great work, girl," he praised the lil' one with a smile. "You'll be a mighty clefable in no time."

The adorable Fairy type babbled, looking up at him with wide, hopeful eyes. He could almost picture her innocently asking him "really?". God, being that cute had to be illegal or something. Was Lily really allowed to have such a pokemon in her team? Wasn't that against some rule?

"Really," he confirmed, and he might as well have told her that he'd be giving her an infinite source of poffins, if he went by her reaction. "On another note, Cygnus tried Ice Punch in his fight."

"How'd it go?"

"He got hit himself the first time and the second time he gave the pidgeotto a pat on the back," Pierce answered flatly. Immediately, he saw Lily trying to hold back her reaction, her lips twitching. Cygnus, being the Psychic type that he was, was not fooled nor amused.

"You both… I'll remember this," his abra swore, to which he just raised an eyebrow. Really, as if his pokemon's threats held any weight when he could just threaten- "Shut up."

"At least it worked, right?" Lily said, finally getting a hold of herself… at least a bit. "And you haven't really been training it that long, right? Without a tutor either, so that makes it extra impressive."

"You could learn from her, Helper-Voice," Cygnus told him, and Pierce could almost feel the glare even if the abra's expression didn't change.

"Maybe don't try to use it in battles just yet though," Lily added and he couldn't hold back a snort.

'You were saying?' Pierce asked in his mind, receiving only annoyance from his Psychic type.

"Anyway,"he said out loud. "Battles went well for me and they seem to have gone well for you-" Well, except for Gem, if the way she frowned was any indication. "-for the most part. Come on, let's celebrate with some more snacks, yeah? I'll set everything up to prepare more."

"Speaking of, you think we could do cooking videos?" Lily asked, making him blink.

"You think that'd work? I mean, I guess my pokeblocks and poffins are good, but I've never checked a single recipe online. There's probably better stuff there," he mused out loud, leaning back thoughtfully.

"Weren't you the one that told me it didn't matter if I uploaded stuff that others do?" Lily shot back with a raised eyebrow and he had to acknowledge her point with a nod. "Besides, you are actually doing the trial and error way, so you can tell people about other things. What works and what doesn't work and all that, you know? Much easier than someone just telling you what to do and leaving it at that."

"I guess there's something to that," Pierce replied, and what was the worst that could happen, at the end of the day? That people didn't like it and they didn't watch the videos? Sure, it'd suck, but it wasn't that bad in the grand scheme of things. "Yeah, I guess. Not today though, I think I'd have to put more thought into this… Wouldn't hurt to put more thought into the other videos, actually."

"I think they work as they are. Sure, they seem a little rough, but that makes them more authentic, in my opinion," Lily told him with a smile on her face. It still took him aback that she was so into the channel at times. He just couldn't wrap his head around it. Sure, if it was the other way around he'd help her, but he probably wouldn't have been as excited as she was. Happy for her, sure, but not excited about working on it… probably.

Did that make him a bad friend?

He supposed it might.

"It feels less like you are just reading from a script or trying to force jokes and such into it, you know?" Lily continued, snapping him out of his thoughts.

"Yeah, I get what you mean," he replied with a smile. "I guess you are right about that." God knew he'd always hated those videos of people that seemed like they were reading a book. Almost as bad as text to speech bots, in his humble opinion at least.

"I'm right about everything," Lily shot back.

Pierce just gave her his best flat Andromeda expression together with the actual vaporeon.

[}-o-{]

"Taking care of the Gym by yourself, huh?" he commented as he sat at the edge of the pool at the Cerulean Gym with Misty. "I heard from your sisters that you usually have one of them around to help."

"You say it like this is the first time it'll happen," the redhead told him, rolling her eyes. "It's happened before and it'll happen again. I actually like it."

"Feels like you are an adult, right?"

"Righ- I am an adult!" she hissed at him, glaring like she wanted him to burst into flames. He just answered the look with a smile. Ultimately, the girl huffed and Andromeda, laying by his side where he was petting her, let out a sound that he hazarded was her version of a laugh. "Anyway, yeah, it feels like I'm an actual adult instead of the little sister, I'll give you that."

"Honestly, sometimes even I don't feel like an adult," Pierce commented.

"Aren't you like, thirty or something?"

"Twenty-four, thank you very much," he answered flatly. "But I'll be twenty until the day I die, I'll have you know."

"You know that just makes you sound older, right?" Misty shot back at him.

"Tch, damn brat. There's no respect anymore," he grumbled exaggeratedly. "Anyway, nothing bad about being a kid. And if you want your sisters to treat you like an adult, that'd be complicated more often than not. You'll always be their little sister to them."

"I figured, but one can hope, right?" she mumbled, kicking her legs in the water in a very child-like manner that really didn't help her argument. Pierce didn't point that out though. He somehow thought that'd be a bad idea.

"Anyway, I hope things go well with the challenges. Any difficult ones scheduled?" he asked, leaning back a little and resting his hands on the floor behind him to hold himself up. Idly, he glanced towards the pokemon around, like his team who were training once more. Andromeda was the exception because she was taking a break and because she was the one that helped him the most with keeping an eye on things and with Bellatrix too, if need be.

"There's one Sixth Badge challenge," Misty answered, and at that moment she did seem kind of nervous. "I should be fine, I've dealt with high level challenges before," she added, but it felt more to him like she was saying that to herself. Maybe there was something she wasn't saying?

"And is this something you haven't done without your sisters around?" he asked and her embarrassed expression said it all to him. "You'll be fine."

"You sound very sure of that," she mumbled, looking off towards the gyarados. Which, sure, they were far at the moment, but it still said a lot that she preferred to look at them.

"Because I am," Pierce told her and this time she turned towards her, if only to give her a skeptical look. "First of all, I researched every single one of you for my challenge, so that I could be better prepared against whoever was the one I was set against. Second of all, I've seen you around here, with your own pokemon and dealing with your fear of gyarados. Third of all, your sisters trust you with this, and they seem capable enough, wouldn't you say? I think you can trust their judgment if nothing else," he explained, sticking out a finger for each point he made.

"I… I guess," Misty mumbled, kicking at the water of the pool and looking down. He even thought he caught the hints of an embarrassed blush on her cheeks. "Thank you for that."

"Just telling the truth. You'll be fine," he replied with a smile.

"I… I think I should get going, yeah? I have to talk with the pokemon, and check the challenger profiles just in case. Lots of preparations to get through and-" she started rambling. 'Someone's weak to Praise type moves, I guess,' Pierce thought to himself, more than a little amused. "So, hm, I'll see you after the announcement, yeah? And… Uh, good luck with that," she continued as she pulled herself out of the water and into a standing position.

"Good luck with your Gym Leadering," he replied with a smile that she returned, despite her flustered state. "Go kick ass."

"Bet on it," she said before turning and leaving somewhat hurriedly.

"She's adorable, isn't she?" a new voice said from behind him. Before he could turn to look at them though, the person moved, taking the "seat" beside him that Misty had vacated. "Thanks for reassuring her, by the way," Daisy told him with a warm smile. "No matter how much we did that, we could never quite get through her."

"Praise is different when it comes from family," Pierce replied, nodding. "It always has that lingering doubt of "are they just saying that because we are family?" and such, you know?"

"Yeah, I do," Daisy answered with a huff, wiping her hair out of her face even though it was already so. "It's still frustrating though."

"Never said it wasn't," Pierce agreed. After all, he'd dealt with that himself more than a few times, from both sides of things, really. Now, he'd never have to do so again, he supposed. 'Not the time to mope, Pierce,' he chidded himself in his mind.

"How about you, nervous?" she asked then, peering at him curiously.

"A little bit," he admitted. "I'm more nervous that this won't be as successful as it needs to be."

"I wouldn't worry. If anything, it might work too well," Daisy reassured him. "My sisters and I have talked about it a lot, even checked with our people in PR and advertisement and they said it should do well. Especially with how well your channel is doing and having us sort of vouching for you."

"Well, that is reassuring," he replied, taking a deep breath in. "I guess we should start preparing things, right?"

"It'd be for the best," Daisy agreed.

[}-o-{]

It was a little odd, how he was getting used to being in front of a camera, Pierce mused.

"I've been working at the Cerulean Gym with the staff and everyone's favorites, the Sensational Sisters, to take care of these pokemon," he continued talking for his last video. One that wouldn't be about pokemon trivia, knowledge or problem solving. This was an announcement. Speaking of, it was about time that he got to that part, after the whole explanation he'd just given. "So, in order to give them more adequate care in a proper sanctuary, the Sisters and I have organized an event to gather funds for this cause," he said, looking up at the gyarados by his side, who had accompanied him through most of the video, if sometimes not quite as calm.

The gyarados and magikarp needed a better place and better care than they could get at the Cerulean Gym. They were stretched thin there as it was and, to hear the Sisters talk about it, he was the only one making things somewhat good for the pokemon. Otherwise, it'd have worked, but barely.

"We'll be hosting a show here for this, in the spectacle pools of Cerulean. Tickets for the will be available right as this video is released and there'll be an auction for the VIP seats. It'll all be a special performance tailored by the sisters, going above and beyond for the sake of these Water types that they so love," Pierce announced, taking a deep breath in. That wasn't it though. Sure, it'd help, but that wasn't it at all. They needed something big if they wanted to gather as much money as they would need. "That's not all, of course," he said out loud. "After all, right here, right now, for all of you to see, there'll be a show that'll be the first of its kind."

It was time.

"Hosted by yours truly," he said with a grin and placing a hand over his chest. "You can see, with your own eyes and in VIP seats if you manage to get them, the very first gyarados-only show in the world," he dropped.

Without turning, he heard the gyarados that had been his partner for the video so far dive into the water as he shifted to position himself at the edge of the pool but facing away from it. Looking straight at the camera, Pierce placed both of his arms slightly separated from his body before sharply raising both of them while spreading her fingers in a sort of grabbing gesture towards the ceiling. Immediately afterwards, he heard two gyarados answer the sign and jump out of the water while roaring in unison.

A moment later, there was the splash of them falling back into the pool.

"You're not going to miss it," Pierce asked, grinning at the camera while the whole school of gyarados came up with a much more discreet gesture of his. "Are you?"

[} Chapter End {]

Hey guys! How's it going?

Fun fact, I rolled to see if Cygnus would pull off the Ice Punch in that battle and he rolled a 2 and a 12. Quite sad, but sometimes not even a good day can carry you to success. Sometimes you really do need to put in the work, I guess.

With that out of the way, finally, the thing I've been working towards and that should, hopefully, end this arc… I'm not making any promises, but barring more character free will shenanigans, this should be it. Really hope this is it, because I'm growing very tired of people whining about this arc being too long.

Anyway, I also hope you enjoyed the chapter.

Announcement: We have a story cover now! Courtesy of the very, very talented and generous Amasw (recent new member of the Discord server). We can now have an actual cover for this story on top of an "official" look for Pierce (although, let's be real, I never described him much and that's on purpose). Be sure to give her all the praise she deserves for it, alright? And if you don't like it... I'll fight you, don't think I won't.

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: So, maybe you missed or forgot, but I mentioned Pierce wanting to do a Q&A video for his channel. Thus, I'll use this space for a fun lil' thing that occurred to me. What question would you ask Pierce if you were someone from the Pokemon world? (If you don't want to use your current username for this, you can stick another one with the question too.) If I gather enough questions that look good, I might use them for a chapter or at least a part of one by actually writing the Q&A video.

See you.