Teams:

Pierce Lawson:

- Narcissa, Beedrill

- Orion, Onix

- Cygnus, Abra

Lillian Dale:

- Root, Bulbasaur

- Talon, Spearow

- Gem, Geodude

- Star, Cleffa

Cerulean City XVI

[Misty Waterflower]

This was bad.

This was really bad.

Things had escalated entirely too quickly with that gyarados evolution. It didn't help that it was even stronger than the usually fresh out of evolution ones, which was already saying something. The gyarados evolution, after all, got progressively worse the more the magikarp suffered through their lives. It made them angrier and that seemed to feed into the energy they had when they evolved.

It was why the magikarp in situations such as the ones they had now, after having suffered pokemon abuse for a long time, were marked as dangers. If any of them evolved, it was just a disaster waiting to happen. Even with all of them ready, staff, her sisters and Misty herself with their best pokemon ready, this was still a very dangerous situation they were in.

And that was without even taking into account the man that had been placed right there in front of the now evolved, bright red gyarados.

Pierce Lawson was, Misty would admit, very skilled at what he did. He just understood pokemon in a way that seemed uncanny. It reminded her of her sisters when they dealt with water types. It reminded her of what she wanted to be like once she was older. And the man did it without the years and years of specialized knowledge that her sisters had.

Now, however, he was in a situation that was entirely out of his league.

Fresh out of evolution gyarados weren't rampaging gyarados, no.

They were worse.

They had all the rage that one of those could have, multiple times over, with their worst memories at the forefront of their minds. They had all the powers those could have, multiple times over, riding the high of energy that evolution and their rage brought. They had all the resilience those could have, multiple times over, blinded by their wrath and new found strength as they were.

Misty would know. There was a reason why she was scared of gyarados in general, after all. Back when her parents were alive, her whole family had been there to help and yet, a single gyarados had made them all look like first badge rookies. Pokemon were often described as forces of nature, that was never more true than with gyarados, especially those that had just evolved.

"What are you all waiting for?!" she heard Daisy shout, making the staff members and the other two sisters snap to attention, making calls for their pokemon. Misty, she was ashamed to admit, remained frozen, eyes locked on the gigantic, red serpent that roared so loud that she could swear the entire place shook around her. "Lanturn, go for it!" her sister called first of them all.

"Wait! Pierce, get out of there!" Lily screamed, and Misty barely could glance at the man in question. She only managed that much because the man was right there, in front of the gyarados, standing without moving as the creature roared straight at him. "We can't attack with him there!"

"Gyarados will bite him in half if we leave him there!" Violet countered and Misty agreed, for as much as her mind could work at that moment. Better to be hit by a move or two than being dead.

"Pierce!" Lily shouted, desperation in her voice. Misty saw a few water attacks hit the side of the gyarados' head, making it turn to blast something off to the side.

"Get those pokemon out of here, Jason!" Daisy commanded, and Misty glanced, for a split second, to the side and saw the rest of Lawson's group of Rocket victims. Where they attacking the gyarados?!

"Girl," she heard then, a calm voice that seemed to find a place in the middle of the chaos. Just in that second, when nobody was shouting and the gyarados wasn't roaring, he spoke. Misty couldn't believe it, as she turned and saw Lawson standing there, just where he'd been when it all started, at the edge of the pool.

The sea serpent turned her attention back towards him, roaring just like all the other times and Misty could see it, the slight gathering of energy around it. The flickering lights that signaled a messy usage of power, but that meant nothing when dealing with a pokemon that was so out of it and rampaging. Something that usually meant a sloppy move and no effect at best, could now mean a move appearing from out of nowhere, with no warning and no build up.

"Pierce, get out of there! We can-"

"It hurts," the man said, interrupting Lily's panicking voice as she tried to warn him, getting him away from the beast. He spoke like nothing was wrong, however, like he wasn't face to face with the stuff of Misty's nightmares. "I know it hurts, girl," the man said.

That was when he decided that his madness wasn't bad enough. That was when Lawson did something that never in a million years would Misty, or maybe anyone else, have predicted. Because surely everyone had enough sense in them to not do such a thing with a gyarados in the state that one was in. She had seen him talk to an annoyed gyarados once, but this was a rampaging, just evolved gyarados… And yet he did it anyway.

He reached forward and planted his hand on the pokemon's nose.

Right there, over the maw of the beast, a mere twitch away from losing his arm if he was lucky. Right there, in front of the creature's eyes and Misty saw how those burned at the temerity. Right there, touching the skin of the rampaging pokemon like it wasn't an act of absolute madness.

"I know it hurts," the man said and just then did Misty notice the eerie silence that now permeated the room. Glancing to the sides for a crazy second, she had to make sure that she wasn't actually alone in the room with the madman and the gyarados. Sure enough, there were other pokemon and people around.

And she saw all of them frozen, as if they were afraid to breathe.

"I know, girl," he continued speaking and it was just then that Misty realized that the gyarados wasn't moving, wasn't roaring. Even the sparkle of energy around it had stopped. "Listen to my voice, girl. I'm right here," he told the water type, taking a step forward and moving his hand from the front to the side of the gyarados' head while he rested his own against the sea serpent's crest. "I know it hurts, girl, but just listen to me, ok?"

In the calm before the storm, Misty was able to gather her wits.

Instantly, her hand moved to the side. She needed to do something. If everyone was frozen, it was ironic considering she'd done the same before, but she'd have to be the one to do something. She could get Pierce away with one of her pokemon and her sisters-

'Don't move,' she heard Lily's voice in her mind, making her eyes widen. 'Don't do anything, you hear me, Misty?' her sister told her, voice firm inside her mind. She'd recognize the communication through Slowbro anywhere at any time. But why- 'Anything could cause the gyarados to snap. Pierce is anchoring her though. Slowbro is keeping an eye on her mind, but Pierce is giving her something, someone away from the memories and the rage. Don't move.'

So Misty gulped and remained frozen where she was, now out of choice instead of fear… mostly.

It was insane though. That couldn't be right, could it? Lawson couldn't have done such a thing, right? Not even her father had been able to break through his own magikarp's evolution rage and Lawson had done it with one that he'd known for a few days and that had been well and truly traumatized?

No way.

"Listen to my voice, girl," Lawson continued speaking, his voice lower now to the point that Misty almost couldn't catch the words. "You are angry, and hurt, and afraid. I know, ok? I need you to listen to me though, can you do that?" he asked and Misty felt herself pale more than she already was. He told a gyarados they were scared, was he ma-? Of course he was, the real question was-

The gyarados roared again, making Misty stiffen. However, this sounded very different from before. It didn't shake the place. Instead, it seemed to shake the gyarados.

"I know, I know," the man repeated, petting the gyarados. "Take a deep breath in, girl," he told her, as if ordering a rampaging gyarados were easy or a good idea whatsoever. Just as insane as the whole thing was, however, was the fact that the pokemon listened. Misty was starting to wonder if this would get any less shocking anytime soon, but it didn't look that way. "Now let it out, let it all out, girl," he told her.

And then the gyarados roared again and this time it did shake the place. It shook Misty's bones and she saw more than one person and pokemon twitch and shiver in place. Lawson remained steadfast though, keeping his forehead pressed against the gyarados' and his hand on the side of her head.

"I know it's awful, girl, but I'm here. I'm here with you and it'll get better, I promise," he told her, his hand moving slowly up and down. Then he leaned back slowly, eyes firmly on the gyarados'. "You look beautiful, girl," he breathed out, his voice barely reaching Misty's ears. "You are a magnificent gyarados. You look so big and strong…" he trailed off as the pokemon moved.

Then it let out a weak roar that almost couldn't be considered as such, moving her head too harshly and pushing Pierce to the ground. Out of the corner of her eyes, Misty saw some people move and- 'No!' Lily shouted in her mind, making her freeze once more, together with the others.

Gyarados seemed to have stopped moving altogether at the same time as them, she noticed then.

Lawson laughed then, freely and without worries even in the situation he was in. He pushed himself back up while the gyarados followed his movements with her red eyes. The pokemon didn't move though, but the man certainly did, moving to plant his hand on the water type's crest once more.

"You are adorable too," he told the pokemon. What followed then made Misty's jaw drop. In hindsight though, considering everything she'd witnessed that day, those last few minutes, she shouldn't have been so surprised. She was though, and she thought it was with reason. This was worse than everything else so far, after all.

It was a gyarados – one that had just evolved – slowly but surely rubbing her head against the man.

"Yeah, that's the adorable little thing I remember," she heard the man say. Then he turned to look behind him at where all the people were. His carefree expression shifted to something else then, something tense and serious. Misty was fairly sure that she saw him gulp then too. That, at the very least, lined up much better with what she'd expect than anything else. "Can someone help me out here. I need berries and stuff to make poffins and pokeblocks," he said, his voice calm and happy but his expression speaking of something entirely different.

Until he turned back to the gyarados, that is.

"You deserve a feast, girl. We'll celebrate this and then we can talk and swim and play with the others, how about that?" the man asked, receiving a roar that sounded to Misty like whine when he pulled his hand away. He placed it back again then, chuckling. "I'm not going anywhere. I'll stay here and we'll have a great time."

[}-o-{]

[Gyarados, the Red Survivor]

"Nice, isn't it?" Pierce asked her, and each word made the haze of anger pull back. Suddenly, not everything was red, only her, and not everyone was bad people. There was Pierce and the people that had given him the berries and other things. "Taste tested by other gyarados, as you know," Pierce said, and his form became a little more focused, even though that stopped being the case as soon as he stopped talking.

But he was there and she wasn't alone anymore.

She was still angry thou-

"Say," the man continued talking then, making her mind refocus again. She was getting angry at the constant need of- "Hey, don't snarl at me," he chided softly, giving her a mere pat on her scales. It didn't hurt. She barely felt it. But it was enough to make her focus again.

Why was it so difficult to stay focused though?

"Again, say," he started talking again, and she was so very thankful for that. She wanted him to talk forever. She didn't like that she was angry all the time now. It was uncomfortable, and sad, and exhausting, and annoying, and infuriati- "You are really big and strong now, girl. Maybe we can do other things now that you are," Pierce told her and she focused on him and the sound of his voice again.

It was so nice and it was so calming and she wanted more of it. She didn't want to be angry anymore. So, she moved her head forward to rub it against him. Touching him made the anger go away too, like when he touched her, so she did that.

"You are still adorable, come on," Pierce commented with a smile on his face. She felt herself squirm a bit at the words. He still thought she was adorable? That was nice. She liked being adorable and gyarados weren't adorable. They were scary. And she was a gyarados now, wasn't she? So she was scary instead of adorable, right? "Absolutely adorable," Pierce said, rubbing the side of her head with his hand and she wiggled a little, which was a lot more eye-catching now that she was big and strong instead of small and weak like a magikarp.

She was still adorable though! She wasn't scary!

"Come on, take another poffin. You deserve it," he told her, making her open her mouth and take the snack. Before, it'd have been a good size. Now, she could barely taste it, but it was just as glorious as they had ever been. "Good, eh?" Pierce asked and she tried to let him know that it was, but it only came out as a growl that would have scared her half to death before. Why did she have to sound like that now? It was so annoyi- "Yeah, it's good," Pierce said and she blinked.

That's how things continued after that, with her mind slipping into the anger at the slightest things and Pierce's voice, touch and food helping pull her back. It was… exhausting, her body ached and it felt heavy. All the power she now had only felt like it added more weight on her instead of making things easier. If she moved wrong, she'd cause waves, which was inconvenient for everyone but mostly for Pierce. She'd ruined a perfectly good batch of poffins because she'd gotten excited and messed up everything. She'd pushed Pierce away when she tried to tell him that the food was great. She'd made him fall when he'd been petting her. And those were just the cases she could remember off the top of her head.

Yet, the man continued smiling, talking to her in a soft voice and even took out the scale brush to use on her. On her aching, tired body, it felt like bliss itself. It also reminded her that her body was different. She was having some trouble with that, she'd admit. She was so used to being a small, weak magikarp…

And now she was huge and powerful and scary, and she kept forgetting because all she could think about was how annoying and infuriating-

"How is it, girl? Better or worse than before you evolved? Remember, nod or shake your head. No need for wiggles anymore," Pierce asked, chuckling at the end instead of sounding as annoyed as she felt. It was nice, that he seemed to be fine with how much she messed up now. Before, she'd been just the adorable magikarp that was around, but now she was a gyarados and she was annoying and she knew it. "I'm waiting~" he reminded her, making her nod slowly. It did feel nice, better than before, if only because there was more of her to use the brush on.

She was a gyarados now and she was adorable.

Gyarados was happy with that.

"So, it seems like I'll be staying here for the night, yeah?" he commented with a smile and she cheered… Maybe a little too loudly, if the way some of the bad people around jumped. Pierce just laughed though. "Yeah, awesome, right? I need to make a call right now though, do you mind? I'll stay right here," he explained to her, bringing out a little thing that she'd seen other humans use to talk to people that weren't close.

She nodded, because even if Pierce wasn't talking to her, he'd still be talking and all she wanted to do was hear him. All she wanted to do was for him to make the anger go away like he had so far. Gyarados would be happy just being close by and not being angry anymore.

She didn't want to be angry.

She wanted to keep being adorable.

So, she let Pierce talk to his friend, some Lily that wasn't the pink-haired one. Then he turned to her, petting Gyarados as he continued talking. He spoke of his team, which she had only heard about in passing. He talked about giving them to this Lily person for a bit since he had his hands full with Gyarados. She felt bad about that and she was annoying Pierce and she was angry about that and-

Pierce continued petting her, bringing her back from her thoughts.

Off to the side, while the man talked, Gyarados saw the bad people and the bad pokemon, around. She saw them look at her warily, which was annoying, but they were keeping their distance and she could feel Pierce touching her skin. So, she'd just ignore the others. They didn't matter anyway.

"We mean no harm to you or Helper Speaker," a voice told her, earning a growl that made Pierce speak softly at her over his call with the Lily person. She was still annoyed though, turning towards the pink creature with the shell tail that had talked to her mind. How dare this-? "Oh… I wasn't aware. My apologies, I meant Helper-Voice," the creature corrected and she settled back down… Mostly because she knew it was fine now, but also because Pierce was looking sad and worried and she didn't like it. She much preferred to see him smiling like when she rubbed against him to try and cheer him up. "We are here to help you and Helper-Voice," the pink pokemon told her and Gyarados didn't know if she believed it, but so long as they stayed away and let her spend time with Pierce, it'd be fine. "That can easily be arranged," the creature told her, already grating on her nerves.

Fortunately, that was all. There was no more talking and everyone seemed to, indeed, stay away from Pierce and her. Good, maybe they weren't so bad. They had given him the things he needed to make pokeblocks and poffins, so…

Maybe they weren't bad people and bad pokemon.

[}-o-{]

[Lily Waterflower]

It had certainly been a day, she thought, blue eyes locked with Pierce and the gyarados.

Now, if that whole shitshow hadn't been a surprise, then she didn't know what was. Although, the evolution had been less of a surprise, admittedly. They'd tried all they could. They'd given the pokemon as good a care as they could, even if there'd been bumps on the road like that man trying to get the shiny magikarp for himself. They'd fed them well, given them an overall nice environment and Pierce had been wonderful to keep everyone entertained and peaceful.

Even with all that, they all knew that the magikarps were an evolution danger all the same. All magikarps were always an evolution danger, really, but these ones especially. They were confirmed to have been treated all sorts of wrong and suffered through who knew what. There was just no way that an evolution would be pretty and there was also a very much non-zero chance that they'd evolve at the slightest thing.

Now that they were given decent treatment and been allowed to relax, anything bad would hit all the harder and could trigger them. That was just how things were. There was no way to prevent it. Treating them less nicely wasn't a better alternative, as some ignorant people would think. Same could be said about any other "simpler" or "easier" approach to keeping things safe.

Things were never safe with an evolutionary danger involved, least of all a magikarp.

So, they'd done the best they could and Lily and her sisters were proud of how well things had gone after the mess that the Rockets had caused and that had been thrown on their laps. Pierce was a small, but still very considerable part of that. He seemed to just calm pokemon down, offer them nice treatment and entertainment that didn't seem to cause any issues at all… Except maybe some scares from overly worried staff members.

Having him tell the magikarp that they'd found a shelter for her had been a risk. But any approach to that situation would have been one. Same as it would have been to try and pry the man off his group. Same as it would have been to not allow him back.

Situations like that didn't have good options, after all. There were only options and one had to decide what they could live with. Things had looked very much like they were going down a path Lily wouldn't have been happy to live with later for a solid minute there… And then Pierce had spoken and the gyarados had listened.

It was still surreal.

Every so often, she saw Misty look in the direction of the man and the shiny gyarados and pinch herself. Lily could very much understand that sentiment. She didn't know if to believe what she was seeing was real herself at times. She'd asked Slowbro to check her head a few times, to be honest.

Admittedly, this wasn't the weirdest or most surprising thing she'd ever seen, to be sure. She'd known Lance Blackthorn for a while, after all. That man could make dragons look like growlithe puppies. However, Pierce certainly made a compelling argument to be placed fairly high in the "What the fuck?" scale in Lily's mind.

"Lily," she heard Daisy call from beside her before passing her a tablet. "We need to send the report of this. Misty, Violet and I are already done," her sister told her, getting a slight nod in response as she took the device and read through it quickly. She felt like if she took her eyes away from Pierce and the gyarados, another rampage would start.

Although, maybe it was extreme to call what had happened a rampage. It'd been borderline cute compared to other, much less tense gyarados evolutions she'd witnessed in her life. A few blasts and hits and some roaring. That was basically nothing.

Pierce had stopped a rampage before it began.

She still couldn't believe that, even though she had seen it.

So, she read through the report, making little notes here and there with information either she had gathered or Slowbro had gathered for her. She knew what to write about, what not to and what it was better to leave vague. There was no hiding this though. Pierce was showing more and more signs of something going on there and they just couldn't hide that from the League.

Not when the looking glass was already pointed towards Pierce with all the things he'd gotten involved with.

And besides, if their theories were right, then why would they?

The League could always use people with talents like Pierce's.

So, Lily did her job as Gym Leader. She confirmed everything she could and added a few things of her own. Then, when she was almost done, she looked at the last two parts before sending the report.

She added her agreement next to the tag that read "Preternatural".

She added her agreement next to the tag that read "Possible Supernatural?".

Because, as she hit send, she could only recall the flashes she'd seen and the second and third perspectives that Slowbro had gotten that fit with that. She remembered that moment when Pierce had been talking to the gyarados, petting it and then she remembered the slight flicker of light she'd seen. That split second when she swore – and could almost confirm – she'd seen the man's necklace shining.

[} Chapter End {]

Hey guys! How's it going?

Well, now I just have to worry about having done a good job writing this and also about some of the choices and directions involved being good ones. Business as usual, really, just worse than the normal stuff. I can easily see people liking and not liking what I've done with this chapter, after all.

So, I hope you guys enjoyed the chapter.

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

P a treon . com (slash) AdrianKing

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Random Question: I'd really appreciate feedback on the chapter so, what do you think?

See you.