Teams:
Pierce Lawson:
- Narcissa, Beedrill
- Orion, Onix
- Cygnus, Abra
Lillian Dale:
- Root, Bulbasaur
- Talon, Spearow
- Gem, Geodude
- Star, Cleffa
Cerulean City XIX
Red stared into red.
The tension was high and Pierce could see, out of the corner of his eyes, Daisy looking warily at them. Vaporeon sat beside him, looking relaxed but he caught her making sharp, stiff motions from time to time. Narcissa had her stingers wrapped around his neck while Orion laid some distance behind him with Cygnus sitting on top of him.
All of them looked at the stand-off happening before Pierce.
"... Good to see you can get along," he said in the end, trying to break the tension and only partially succeeding. Both gyarados turned to look at him and he knew he should be scared, or at least nervous. It was a difficult thing to do when he'd seen the red one be an adorable little magikarp and a just as adorable gyarados and the other participate in silly games for poffin prizes. "Now that you've proved that, I think you both deserve a treat."
He had to chuckle at the way both of them perked up.
Really, how was he supposed to be scared of the gyarados if they acted like that? Sure, he'd been part of the tense moment there for a bit, since… Who wouldn't? But everyone was still tense after things went well, which didn't really make much sense to Pierce. By then, it was better to relax. Being so on guard was more likely to annoy the pokemon than anything else, after all.
"See? I told you, girl, progress," he said, throwing a poffin at the red gyarados. His smile widened when her head snapped up to catch it, showing a very nice level of control over her own body. She was getting better at that, evidently, and Pierce was very glad to see it. Before, she'd have either failed or caused waves in the pool. "Good job," he praised, making her preen while he took a second treat and threw it at the other gyarados, the one he'd calmed down some time before.
It was a great step, to introduce the gyarados to each other. Sure, his shiny friend was a little tense and prone to anger still. The whole thing had been tense for a reason, after all, and it had looked like a very close thing a few times, but ultimately calm had won… if barely. That was good enough for Pierce though, and it showed progress.
Maybe it'd take a while for Gyarados to fully get used to her new self, but she was making great progress and that was what mattered. Slowly but surely, they'd get to the point where she could get through things like this without him even being in the room, or anywhere close. 'One step at a time,' he thought to himself, taking a berry and bringing it to Narcissa over his shoulder.
"Charmer-Survivor is doing well… indeed," Cygnus told him, making Pierce smile at the picture of the shiny gyarados that flashed in his mind. 'Charmer-Survivor sounds about right,' he thought to himself before acknowledging the mental message from his pokemon.
"Now that I know you two won't fight or anything,"he commented out loud, giving the two gyarados a look that told them they better not fight or anything. He couldn't very well threaten them in a conventional manner, of course, but he was pretty sure the poffin in his hand spoke for itself with the look. Both water types seemed to do their best to appear harmless, which was hilariously ineffective… Which meant that it went all the way back to being effective, somehow. "I guess we can play some games, right? And I feel like swimming too, so what's it going to be?" he asked, making both gyarados glance towards each other.
A magikarp from the group he'd been dealing with so far took the choice from their hands… or fins, really, and swam around in front of Pierce. It took him a second to interpret the pathing and wiggling, but he was getting good at that. It was also interesting to see two gyarados looking so scandalized at a magikarp.
"Swimming it is, buddy," he agreed with a nod, getting arguing growls from the sea serpents. He turned and gave him a raised eyebrow in turn. "What? You two aren't the only pokemon here, you know? Now, you going to swim with us or are you going to stay there?" he asked, tapping Narcissa so she'd let go and pulling his already wet shirt over his head and throwing it to the side. It was pointless to be careful with such articles of clothing when they would get wet and dirty at one point or another while he dealt with pokemon anyway.
Both gyarados grumbled something, reminding Pierce distinctively of moody teenagers. 'God, as if they didn't make a terrifying enough picture by themselves, now I'll imagine them as teenagers of all things,' he thought, shuddering. All that power with the control of a teenager's mind. Terrible, terrible combination.
No wonder everyone was terrified of the creatures.
"Now, remember," Pierce said, pushing those half-joking thoughts to the side as he approached his shiny friend and patted the side of her head. "Try not to crash against anyone and don't start a fight, yeah?" he told her, getting a shy, unsure mumble in response. She was about as afraid of messing up as Pierce was of her messing up, he knew. "And you," he continued, walking over to the other gyarados. "You know the drill, you'll have to help stop her if she gets out of control. You think you can do that for me, buddy?" he asked, getting a serious hum and a nod. "Thank you. I'll be sure to give you extra poffins later, yeah?"
The sea serpent certainly liked the sound of that.
"Let's swim for a bit then," he decided out loud, jumping into the water.
[}-o-{]
"You are doing really well, girl," he praised, getting a pleased hum that traveled through Gyarados' body and made him vibrate where he laid on top of his shiny friend. He smiled, looking up at the ceiling of the pool room while relaxing. They'd swam for quite a while and there'd been some stumbles along the way, like the time the recently evolved gyarados hit a little too roughly against Tentacruel, but otherwise things had gone fairly well.
Everyone was starting to get more comfortable with the changed member of their little group of strays.
Still, there was only so much they could play in the water, really, so everyone was now being pretty lazy. Some of the other pokemon had straight out decided to take a nap. For their part, Gyarados was just lazily drifting this or that way in the water while Pierce laid on top of her with Vaporeon. He wouldn't have been surprised if someone told him that he'd actually fallen asleep for a few minutes at some point, with how comfortable and relaxed he was.
"Just a few," Cygnus informed him, making him smile. Speaking of, Pierce thought he'd done enough of ignoring his team. "You are busy… We understand," his abra told him reassuringly, but he was having none of that. Maybe they were fine waiting, but Pierce wanted to spend time with them too.
Besides, it'd make a nice next step for Gyarados anyway.
"Girl?" he said, pulling a hand from where they were acting as pillows under his head and rubbing it on Gyarados' side. "Can you go to the edge of the pool?" he asked and the water type immediately started doing so, much faster than he'd expected with the leisure pace she'd been going at before. "There was no rush, but I appreciate it, girl," he told her with a smile, pulling himself to a sitting position and patting her red scales. "I'm going to spend some time with my team, alright? If you need me, just call, I'll be right there."
That got a predictable but still not nice whine from Gyarados. What was even worse was the growl that was almost hidden there too. Pierce couldn't let that stand.
"I know you don't like it," he spoke softly, not getting off even when Gyarados positioned herself at the end of the pool for him to step off. "But I'm not a water type, you know? And just like you, my team needs me. I can't leave them, just like how I can't leave you. You understand?"
The whine was alone this time, so he took that as progress.
"Come on, don't give me that. Everyone else is still here. You like Vaporeon, right? God only knows why, but you do," he pointed out, getting a predictable weak Water Gun to the face. "And Tentacruel and Gyarados and everyone. You know they are all nice, so there's nothing to feel bad about, right? And if you feel bad, give me a call and I'll come running, alright? I'm gonna be right there. You'll even see me from wherever in the pool."
That seemed to help her relax, even if she still didn't look happy. With a sad smile, Pierce turned to his side, where Vaporeon was sitting now, looking at him. Dropping his shoulders, he extended a hand and petted the eeveelution's head.
"Keep an eye on her, alright? I give you permission to Water Gun me if you need me to come over and she's stubborn," he told her, getting a grumble from Gyarados. He was taking no chances with his shiny friend though. The last thing he needed was things becoming a mess because she'd decided that she didn't want to call him for whatever reason.
Vaporeon nodded resolutely, making him smile. Sometimes it was difficult to figure out if she liked someone or not, but it was at moments like that when it showed. There was no standoffish huff or anything like that, because she knew things were serious.
At least until after a second, when she gave him a "Well, why are you still here?" look.
"Ok, take care of yourselves, yeah?" he asked them, getting off Gyarados and starting to make his way to his team. "And don't let Golduck do something stupid!" he called over his shoulder. A scandalized squawk reached his ears a moment later, drawing an amused smile from him.
"You didn't… need to, Helper-Voice," Cygnus told him, making him roll his eyes. As if he needed an excuse to spend time with his team. That thought seemed to please the abra, even if he tried not to show it. It was just adorable of him. "I'm not… the adorable one," his psychic type argued and Pierce had to chuckle when a picture of the shiny gyarados flashed in his mind.
'She doesn't have monopoly on all things adorable,' he pointed out with a chuckle. 'Even if she'd probably like to.'
"Hey buddy," he greeted, placing a hand on Orion's side as the onix twisted his body to rub his rocky head against his side. "I missed you too. Maybe you can play with the gyarados somehow? I'll see if I can think of something. I know it must be boring for you here," he spoke, rubbing his hand on the snout of the onix. "You like the sound of that, you big child?" he asked, when his rock type made a pleased sound. "Yeah, you do."
He chuckled then when he heard the buzzing of bug wings and felt the familiar feeling of stingers wrapping around his neck.
"Hey, girl. It's time for us to spend some quality time together," he commented, patting one of the beedrill's stingers while they tightened affectionately. "So, what say you, guys? What do you think of the group of misfits I'm in charge of?" he asked, and Orion immediately jumped to talking about the various pokemon he'd observed while Cygnus translated.
[}-o-{]
[Vaporeon, the Lost Watcher]
She observed, like she always had.
Once upon a time, she'd observed a child, a sweet girl whose parents had gotten her when she'd been just an eevee. Her parents couldn't be around as much as they had wanted, so Vaporeon was there in their stead, looking after their child. Her job was to observe the girl, comfort her when she needed to, play with her when she needed to and protect her when she needed to.
She'd even evolved when she needed to, with a Water Stone because her sweet, sweet charge loved to swim. Vaporeon was fine with that, even if she'd have liked to choose herself. She liked being Vaporeon, so it was all fine.
Less fine were the times that came after that, when the Rockets attacked. They stole from the girl's family, their money and Vaporeon herself. She'd been curious after getting away from them and Slowbro had been kind enough to dig into things for her. Vaporeon was happy to learn that her previous family was fine… even if it'd been so long.
They had a new eevee for her charge, which she was both glad and sad about.
Vaporeon had been asked if she wanted to go back, but she couldn't. She didn't want to go back. She didn't want to take steps back, look back… Not when all she could see back was that place with the Rockets. She'd found out what happened with her girl and she was happy never to have to think about the past again.
She'd much rather observe her present, Vaporeon decided.
So, that's what she did. She gazed upon the red gyarados that she should rightfully be terrified of. She had never been very strong, after all, because she wasn't supposed to be strong, she was supposed to observe. She didn't have the strength to do much of anything if the gyarados decided to do something.
And yet, Vaporeon was perfectly fine sitting at the edge of the pool, right next to the red sea serpent. She observed her, just like she had when she was just a tiny golden fish. She observed her and she saw the same pokemon in front of her. She was bigger, stronger, more scary, but she wiggled just the same. It was honestly a little baffling.
The one different thing about her formerly tiny friend was that she got angry very fast, however. Case in point, Vaporeon yipped at her when Golduck – idiot that he was – decided to do something stupid that annoyed her. It was harmless, but nothing was truly harmless with Gyarados. Vaporeon got a red-eyed glare for her troubles, but she stared back impassively.
Gyarados huffed then, visibly calming herself down and Vaporeon relaxed. She'd had half a mind to turn and-
"Good to see I left things in good hands," Pierce said, taking a seat next to her. "Or paws, I guess," he added, drawing an unimpressed look from Vaporeon. He might be very nice, but he was also very stupid very often. "Yeah, I deserve that," he acknowledged, proving that he wasn't quite as stupid as Vaporeon thought. Not that it meant much. "You are thinking mean things about me again, aren't you?"
She huffed. So, maybe she wasn't the only observant one around, big deal. She was still the best.
"And now you are thinking proud things," Pierce told her, making her snort. Pierce was, mayhaps, closer than she thought he might be. Her face twisted when she felt his hand on top of her head, between her ears. She didn't pull away though, that would make her look bad…
And maybe, just maybe, it felt nice.
Not that it mattered.
"You are behaving yourself, girl?" Pierce asked, to which Gyarados sheepishly replied in the affirmative, as if she hadn't been caught misbehaving not even a full minute before. "That's nice, Gyarados. You are doing great," he commented, making the sea serpent preen. "And what about Vaporeon, was she nice or was she… herself?" Pierce asked, making the gigantic red pokemon blink and look between him and Vaporeon.
As for herself, she just glared at him.
"You know how she is, she gets annoyed easily and she can be kind of… prickly. Kind of like you right now, so you watch her and she watches you, right?" Pierce asked, making her glare even harder. She was not as bad as a gyarados, thank you very much. The idiot had the gall to ignore her though, keeping his annoyingly warm eyes on the sea serpent instead. A pokemon that answered him with no arguments or defenses. Instead, she agreed enthusiastically.
The absolute traitor.
This is what Vaporeon got for looking after her?
"Don't look at me like that," Pierce told her, turning his eyes towards her and making her glare even harder. How dare he-? "You look after everyone here. You watch over them… but you need someone to watch your back, Vaporeon." She didn't- "I know. You are awesome, the best of the-" Gyarados growled, making both Pierce and Vaporeon roll their eyes. "The second best of the best, but even the best need someone to help them out at times."
She huffed.
"Yeah, I know," Pierce said softly, continuing to pet her head. She almost wanted to turn her head to bite his hand, except she kind of didn't. "You don't need help. Do it for me, yeah?" he asked her and she took a deep breath in. "Please," he added, to her and then turning to look at Gyarados, who nodded eagerly.
Now Vaporeon would never get rid of the sea serpent. Pierce's word was as good as the law when it came to her, even before she evolved and that only seemed to make her worse. It seemed she was now stuck with the biggest, meanest, most red guard in the history of… somewhere.
"Thanks, girl," Pierce said, using his other hand to pat Gyarados. "I need the best assistant here to be well, after all," he added, patting Vaporeon.
Well, at least he appreciated what he had, she supposed.
[}-o-{]
[Pierce Lawson]
He laughed, and it wasn't a short laugh no. It was straight out full on laughter, the kind that shook the body and left one without air, gasping and in pain. The kind of laughter that one couldn't stop even when they wanted to. The kind of laughter that's both great and awful at the same time.
"Oh my God," he breathed when he started calming down a little… although maybe he was too early, because he devolved into more laughter a second later. A splash of water hit him right in the face, but that only set him off more. There was just no way he could calm down. They couldn't expect him to after seeing that. "You guys are great," he said, dragging his hands over his now wet face and running his fingers through his hair.
Nothing could quite prepare someone for the sight of two gyarados getting tangled together, after all.
Gyarados – the shiny – was in front of him, glaring heatedly at him with red eyes that might as well be fire. Gyarados – the not shiny – was doing more or less the same, but he also looked like he wanted to be anywhere else but there. Vaporeon, by his side, looked entirely too amused, which for her might as well be the absolute hysterical laugh he was still letting out.
"Ok, ok… I think I'm good," he muttered, still chuckling and grabbing his sides. His everything hurt, even his cheeks. "God, you guys are great. I haven't laughed that hard since… since…" He trailed off a little. He didn't remember when it had been, but it was sure to be before… before. "Sorry for annoying you. I just couldn't help it. Thanks for not biting my head off," he told the gyarados duo, getting a huff from both. "Yeah, yeah, I'll get you some poffins. Sorry."
That seemed to placate them…
"What is it, girl? You want something?" he asked his shiny friend, who was still glaring at him. In response, the red sea serpent moved in the pool, closer to him before twisting her body to one side. "Ok, I can do that, give me a bit to get your tangle friend over there a snack, yeah?" he said, getting growls from both Gyarados.
A minute later, he found himself sitting on top of Gyarados' red scales while she swam.
"I really am sorry, but it was hilarious," he commented with a grin on his face, noticing how the gyarados duo was still looking fairly annoyed. "In my defense, you've laughed about others too, so you can't judge," he added before grinning as both water types huffed.
Whatever else he was going to say or think was interrupted by a presence brushing against his mind. It wasn't Cygnus though and neither was it Slowbro, which made sense since Lily wasn't there at that moment. It was Daisy that was keeping an eye on things in that pool-
Immediately, he got a message not unlike how Cygnus did back when he couldn't talk. Pictures flashed and emotions were mixed in to deliver a message. First, he learned that the one contacting him was Daisy's Starmie. Second, he learned that she was also keeping an eye on the rest of the gyarados that were in the gym like the one swimming beside his shiny friend. Third…
The third thing seemed to be that the gym leader wanted him to help with those?
"Entertain… more like," Cygnus explained, to which he nodded. Just to make sure, Pierce pushed a rough idea towards Starmie's presence that gave it pause. A moment later, he got hesitant approval, which was all that he needed.
"Girl, can you go towards the other gyarados over there? And I need you two to be on your best behavior, alright?" he asked, glancing between the two sea serpents. He got two agreeing noises and nods but he was a little skeptical. Especially in regards to his shiny friend, since she was still a little… unstable, even if sounded bad to call her like that.
Ultimately, he rode Gyarados all the way towards where Daisy waited with a particularly big gyarados by her side and the rest of the group he'd met when dealing with the annoyed one back in the day. All of them were looking at him and his two friends when they arrived. Daisy didn't look particularly worried and she'd allowed him to bring the other gyarados, so he was guessing whatever she wanted wasn't too urgent or dangerous.
"Hey, Pierce," she greeted casually, further proving his assumption. "Big guy here was questioning the quality of your snacks, so I thought you'd like to prove him wrong," the blonde commented, making him blink. He didn't have all that much time to process that statement, however, because his shiny friend seemed to take a lot of offense to that, growling at the much bigger gyarados. Even his other sea serpent friend seemed very miffed.
"Hey," he called, patting Gyarados' red scales and giving both of them pause. "No fights," he reminded them, making them grumble. Rolling his eyes, Pierce turned towards the gyarados that had "offended" him and his skills to give him an amused expression. "That's a very convoluted way to ask for snacks, I gotta say, but to each their own."
That got a growl out of the gyarados.
"If you think they are bad, then that's your thing," he told it, giving him an even look. Just because these pokemon were forces of nature didn't mean he had to bend over backwards for them. Especially because he imagined that would only have them trample all over him. No, Pierce had to find that spot where he wasn't insulting them but he also wasn't letting them insult him. "But I guess I can give you one to try. You'll have to ask nicely if you want more though," he told it before patting Gyarados' red scales once more. "To the edge of the pool, girl."
As he set out to do just as he said, he missed the amused and very interested look Daisy gave him.
And both of them missed a third person, off to the side.
[} Chapter End {]
Hey guys! How's it going?
Sometimes I wonder if I'm taking too long with Cerulean… Then I realize that yes, that's true. I also think it doesn't really matter. My fics are always slow and Pierce's journey is about more than just traveling from city to city and getting badges. Honestly, that's a secondary thing in this fic, pretty sure, if that.
Which is funny, because I've dropped fics for doing this kind of thing, but I guess they focused on things that didn't interest me like the Slice of Life of Pierce does.
I guess if you've made it this far, you must feel the same, but I hope you enjoyed the chapter all the same.
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: What do you think that last part is about?
See you.
