Teams:

Pierce Lawson:

- Narcissa, Beedrill

- Orion, Onix

- Cygnus, Kadabra

- Bellatrix, Gyarados (Shiny)

- Andromeda, Vaporeon

- Regulus, Meowth

Lillian Dale:

- Root, Bulbasaur

- Talon, Spearow

- Gem, Geodude

- Star, Cleffa

- Cinder, Vulpix

Saffron City XV

The response to their announcements was mixed, but that was kind of expected.

Didn't mean Pierce and Lily didn't feel bad every time there was "criticism" in a comment though, and they used that term loosely. Human nature worked the same for both of them in that rather depressing matter. No matter how many people commented positively, the negative ones would always hit five times as hard if not worse.

In a way though, it worked in their favor that they both had announcements that were received with criticism. It meant that Pierce could reassure Lily that the people that were looking down on her future more trainer-oriented section the same way she would about his future ads. It'd have been better not to have to deal with the flames at all, but beggars couldn't be choosers. Pierce was sure that he'd have been pretty shaken without the support, maybe even putting off the ads for later or entirely.

Then again, maybe not. There were a lot of people that were either excited or at least hesitantly curious about the promotional content. So, he'd just have to make sure that he did a good job on his side of things. 'Probably only do ads about stuff I'd personally use… Maybe I can show them on other videos without mentioning it or anything so people know I actually use them?'

That sounded like a good idea. Kind of like that one youtuber that did restorations and then you could come across the restored things being used to restore others in later videos. He'd always thought that kind of slight easter egg was nice. Maybe he could do something similar with the stuff he promoted? Would that be neat or obnoxious?

"You shouldn't be thinking about that, Helper-Voice," Cygnus told him and he was right. Pierce's mind was a bit of a mess that day though. He was entirely too aware of what was going on in his channel. "Focus, or at least try to clear your mind."

'I know, I know,' he thought, taking a deep breath in and then letting it out in a drawn out sigh. 'Maybe I need a change of scenery,' he mused, opening his eyes and looking around the garden.

"Fighter-Watcher and Fighter-Enjoyer quite liked how the fluffy seats looked," Cygnus supplied and Pierce snorted, a smile forming on his face. Yeah, Andromeda and Regulus had really liked the puff seats when they'd walked into the area. Maybe he could indulge them. They looked really comfortable to him too, so that helped.

'You know what, let's go with that,' he decided, taking another deep breath in and standing up. 'Don't think I didn't figure out that you want to go there too though,' he added, giving his pokemon a half-smile while the kadabra looked away.

"I'm sure I don't know what you're talking about, Helper-Voice," Cygnus replied evasively, to which he rolled his eyes.

'Whatever you say,' he thought. 'Child.'

The Psychic pokemon didn't get to voice his protests after that though, because a third presence made itself known in his mind. Sabrina, he figured out after a second. He hadn't learned much during his time training his mind, but at least he'd learned to recognize her.

"You undersell your efforts," Sabrina told him, but this time he wasn't surprised. He was kind of getting the hang of having non-private thoughts without having to "voice" them "out loud", if that made any sense. Honestly, even after skimming through some of the Psychic texts recommendations he'd gotten from the Gym Leader, Pierce felt like a lot of it was up in the air and open to interpretation. "Matters of the mind are highly subjective. Also, I commend your progress in mental communication, but that method is almost like whispering, difficult to pick up on."

'Hmm, and does this work well or am I screaming?'

"More speaking loudly rather than screaming," Sabrina answered and if he hadn't known better, Pierce would have thought she was amused. He did know better though… probably.

'... How about now?'

"Better, but not quite," the Gym Leader answered calmly, to which he clicked his tongue. "Progress is being made, Pierce Lawson, even if you don't believe so. The road you've picked to walk is a very long one."

'I know. I guess I've never been the patient sort,' he replied with a grimace. It was kind of why he'd never stuck to any of the sports he'd tried out, or any of the other number of activities he'd attempted. If he wasn't good enough quickly enough? Then he just dropped out. It was a shitty attitude, childish even, but that's who he was, he supposed.

He was just lucky he'd found something he was actually good at in the Pokemon world, he supposed.

"Your self-esteem can be ridiculously low on occasion, have I told you that, Helper-Voice?" Cygnus asked him and Pierce decided to just ignore him this once. "You are our trainer. You are a Helper. You are a Voice. Maybe you're impatient, but there's more to you than random skills you weren't good at in the past."

'I know,' Pierce replied. And he did know, it was just his brain being dumb, as usual. ''Anyway, did you need anything, Sabrina?' he asked, turning to look at the Gym Leader.

"Just checking, but it seems your mind is in turmoil."

'Makes it sound a lot worse than it is. I'm just distracted,' he thought with a chuckle. 'I'll be working on that,' he added, running his fingers through his hair. 'Really hope you're right about me actually making progress.'

"I don't give empty praise, Pierce Lawson. The Psychic path is slow and difficult. Even talented people will struggle to no end. Don't be discouraged," the woman told him and he nodded.

'I'll try… and if I fail, my pokemon will smack some sense into me anyway.'

"That we will," Cygnus readily agreed, entirely too quick if anyone asked Pierce.

This time there was no denying the amusement the Gym Leader felt. Mainly because she openly giggled, which somehow managed to seem more unnatural than her eerie calm state. Maybe because Pierce had gotten used to that, sort of. Either way, the unexpected moment helped him realize that, unnerving or not, Sabrina was one beautiful woman.

"Distracted again," Cygnus told him, making him groan.

[}-o-{]

"Quick Guard!" the opponent called from across them, but Pierce just grinned.

"Feint," he commanded and Regulus charged right in. There was an odd twitch then with the swipe of its claw, right when he hit the barrier the Mr. Mime had cast in front of himself. That's what Feint did, after all, and the reason why he'd chosen his meowth to face the pokemon notorious for making barriers and defenses.

Feint was one of the moves Regulus knew and it just so happened to be tailored to mess with stuff such as Quick Guard. It used a fake, weaker first strike to dispel the barriers before going for the actual hit. Not uncommon for pokemon to do even without Feint, but it was simpler and more efficient to use the move, if the pokemon knew it. There was less wasted energy, less effort from the pokemon and less complications that could cause trouble.

"Scratch," Pierce ordered.

His eyes were mostly locked on the meowth though, as they had through the whole battle. He was trying to get a feel of his new addition to the team, how he battled, how he felt about battling and where he stood in terms of skills and power. All around, Regulus didn't stand out much. His battling skill was fairly good, sure, but he wasn't really into battling. Andromeda was the pokemon that was the least battle-maniacy of the rest of his team and even she was more excited and motivated in certain moments.

That wasn't really a problem, admittedly, but it was worth noting.

"Move," he commanded, and the meowth started dashing around right when their opponents started firing. The Normal type wasn't quite up to speed on his "special" commands, but it wasn't like Regulus had a lot in his repertoire. For the moment, Pierce was getting the meowth used to things little by little and Move was simple enough to follow. Especially because it didn't really involve any move just yet. "Strike," he added after a moment.

Regulus still needed to learn which "Strike" move to use when though, but they'd work on it. For the moment, Pierce just grimaced as the Normal type went for Scratch and his attack was blocked by a barrier. Something to learn from though, which was the whole point of regular challenges, as far as Pierce was concerned.

"Growl and Feint," he ordered, cracking his neck. No need to overly frustrate the meowth with too many coded commands, after all. And frustrated he was getting, which was a little surprising, since he seemed to be fairly laid back, from what Pierce had seen so far.

Despite this, Regulus wasn't what he'd call weak, not at all. He was no powerhouse, of course, but his attacks held some power behind them and he used them effectively. If he wanted to keep to the battlefield though, Pierce and him would have to work on things. If he didn't… then it was fine. It wasn't like he had a problem with non-battler pokemon.

That'd be mighty hypocritical of him, really.

It could potentially cause some trouble though, down the line. After all, why would he keep a non-battling pokemon around when he could have a full team of pokemon that needed their trainer to get better? Pierce didn't know what he'd do if he had to make that decision, if he were honest. After all, pushing Regulus aside would be shitty, but it'd be just as shitty to send away a pokemon that wanted to get stronger in favor of one that'd just be there, wasn't it?

"Scratch," he called for when Regulus managed to dodge a Confusion. Maybe he wasn't focusing on the battle as much as he should, but again, this was more of a trial run to watch his pokemon and consider options more than for the actual battle. He had a lot of things to consider, evidently.

Either way, not an easy decision to make in his future, he knew. Which was why Pierce was kinda hoping the streak of battle maniacs would continue. At that point, it'd be for the best, even if it sounded like a headache. At least then the entire team would be on the same page.

"Pound!" their opponent commanded and Pierce grimaced. Regulus was too close to the Mr. Mime, considering he didn't really have ranged options. 'Probably the next thing to work on,' he thought, pained by the sight of his meowth being unable to dodge in time.

"We surrender," he called, not quite shouting but raising his voice enough to be heard over the sound of their own and nearby battles. Regulus turned towards him then, looking like he wanted to argue that decision, but there was no point in pushing him to his limits. "Come here," he said with a half-smile as he gestured for the Normal type to approach him. When he did, with some difficulty, he crouched, petted his head and praised him. "You did well, but it's just a battle to see what you can do. We can have a more serious attempt after we've been training for some time, alright?"

The pokemon wasn't too happy with him, but he agreed easily enough. Which was good, he'd rather not have an argument with his own team member while their opponent was waiting for him to pay up. Once that was out of the way – which took entirely too long, since the guy was a bit of an obnoxious winner –, Pierce picked up Regulus and moved to a bench nearby.

"How'd you like battling?" he asked, checking for injuries at the same time as he ran his hand and fingers through the pokemon's fur. For a long moment, the cat didn't answer, but that was fine. He'd taken the battle fairly seriously and still lost pretty handily, even if he made their opponents work for the win. He could give him some time to recover.

Eventually, there was a meow that called for his attention. Looking at the Normal type though, he felt an amused smile tugging at his lips. The cat was staring rather intently at the nearby battlefields

"I worried for nothing, I guess," he commented, idly petting the pokemon's head. "You're going with us to the top then?"

A meow was his answer and he smiled a little wider.

"Guess that's that."

Even when making a meaningful statement, Regulus still managed to make it fairly laid back.

That was how the meowth was, Pierce supposed.

[}-o-{]

"So, it worked well then?" he asked, holding his pokegear up to his ear with one hand and a cup of cappuccino in the other. 'Not bad,' he thought, taking a sip from the drink and looking at the snacks he'd asked for together with the beverage.

At least there was something nice for him to enjoy, considering the conversation was going to not be that.

"For a definition of well, sir," Grace replied dryly, but he just grinned. It was a little weird to be called "sir" by… literally anyone, really, but she'd insisted and he hadn't seen the point about arguing that. It'd just have made an already awkward situation worse, he was sure. "More than half the offers and potential offers you'd gotten were taken back because of that video."

"And I'm perfectly fine with that. I won't be selling stuff I don't think is good," he said with a shrug that the woman couldn't see. "If they aren't confident in their product, then I don't think I should associate with that, don't you think?"

"It's a risk, sir, to allow someone to speak badly of your product and pay them for that to boot," Grace told him as if he were the weird one. He just rolled his eyes. "But I understand your side of things, so I'll deal with matters on my end. There's some offers that are still tentatively curious, at least. They won't agree to anything just yet, but hopefully they'll do so once I've had a chance to talk to them."

"Great, I knew hiring you was a good idea," he commented, only half joking. After all, he didn't even want to know how much of a headache it'd have been to deal with that kind of stuff himself. Maybe it'd have put him off the whole thing entirely too.

… He was starting to realize that the whole promotion thing was a headache on many fronts.

Maybe he should have stayed away from that while he still could?

Too late, he supposed.

"I can see why you were so eager now," Grace replied just as dryly as before. He wondered if that'd be the default tone once she got to relax around someone. Considering everything, that seemed likely. "Although, I have to say, this is certainly interesting."

"You like a challenge, huh?" he asked curiously.

"Of course. How else would I get better?" Grace said.

… Pierce was starting to wonder if it wasn't just in regards to his team that he seemed to attract intense individuals. Thinking about it, his deepest connections were with an up and coming training prodigy, Gym Leaders and Rangers… and now Grace. 'Do I have a magnet or something?' he wondered idly, taking a gulp of his cappuccino.

"Have fun then," he replied, unsure of what else he could possibly say to that. "Is there anything else I should know?" he asked, leaning back and looking up at the sky. The sight was kind of ruined by the many tall buildings around, cutting the open sky into a much smaller piece.

"No, I don't believe so. I just wanted to keep you informed. I'll be dealing with this and sending you reports after every talk, unless you want me to call?" Grace told him and he considered that for a moment. Although, he didn't change his mind from what he'd decided almost immediately, he'd admit.

"Messages are fine unless you need to check with me for something pressing or important. I think we can leave a call until after you're done… or at least done with a few of them. That way we can discuss them all together," he said, mostly thinking out loud. Then something occurred to him. "Unless you think it's better to make calls? I don't mind that, really, and you're the expert."

"... I see," she replied, somewhat hesitantly. It made Pierce wonder if he'd said something wrong or weird. Taking a deep breath in during the moment of silence that followed, he gathered his thoughts as best he could.

"Did I say something weird?" he asked then, because he had no idea what was going on and it'd be nice to understand.

"I just… didn't expect quite this level of freedom to do my job. This is plenty of money and benefits that are on the table for you, sir," she answered, just as hesitantly as before, but Pierce almost wanted to roll his eyes.

"I hired you precisely because I'm not confident about dealing with all this myself, not because I'm too lazy to do it." Although he totally was that too, admittedly. "The money and the benefits are nice, but you know what my conditions are. I'll leave the rest of the process to you and I'll do it happily. Less of a headache for me, honestly."

"I see. The Sisters had warned me that you were a peculiar man."

"They aren't wrong, or so I've been told," he replied with a self-deprecating half-smile. "Get used to it, I guess."

"Of course, sir. I'll do my best."

"In regards to the job or getting used to me?"

"Yes."

To that, Pierce just laughed.

[}-o-{]

"Someone's thinking really hard," he commented, pointing at Lily across the table with his fork. The girl barely chanced a look his way to let him know she heard him, before going back to frowning at her plate. "What's going on?"

"It's Root," she answered, as if that said anything. Which it didn't, if it wasn't obvious. Her bulbasaur was about as problematic as… Actually, he was the least problematic of both their teams, probably, except maybe Gem. Certainly less troublesome than his team members, that was for sure.

"Excuse me?" Cygnus exclaimed in his mind, but Pierce stood by what he thought. "You-"

"That's new," he commented out loud, ignoring his Psychic type's outrage. "What's up with the lil' guy?"

"That he's a lil' guy," Lily answered, deflating on her chair and making him blink at her, uncomprehending. "He's a step away from evolving, but we just can't manage to take that single step, it seems," she finally decided to explain, which allowed him to understand at least a little. "We're training and battling like never before, but he just can't manage, for whatever reason. Maybe if I'd waited a little for the Gym Challenge, it might have pushed him through."

"I see," Pierce replied hesitantly. He wasn't nearly as good a trainer as Lily was, so he'd take her word for it. She probably knew what she was talking about, after all. "Well, if you think a challenge would help, maybe the dojo?" he suggested, unsure if he was even supposed to. After all, she knew more than him, so how much could his advice truly help?

Then again, maybe he could get her talking and act as a rubber duck?

Or maybe he could, by some miracle, point out something she missed?

"That's an idea," she replied, but she didn't seem very sure. "Maybe it's because we are trying to force it," she added then and that sounded about as good a guess as any to him. Evolution hadn't been a great concern of his. After all, Orion needed external means, Cygnus had evolved very recently and Psychics were a little different from the norm, as usual. Regulus had just joined and he was very inexperienced. Then there were Narcissa, Andromeda and Bellatrix who were all fully evolved already.

'Huh, curious that all the girls are fully evolved and the guys aren't,' he mused idly, getting a mental roll of Cygnus' eyes.

"Star should be evolving soon too, for that matter," Lily mumbled as she pushed her food around on the plate. "It's a little… I was going to say frustrating, but I don't think it's the right word."

"I get what you mean," he replied, leaning forward. Then he rested his elbow on the table and his chin on his palm thoughtfully. "Well, you said it yourself that maybe you're too conscious of that. But not doing anything probably won't help either," he mused out loud, considering the situation. "Maybe we can try and do something while not directly addressing the issue?"

"Like what?" Lily asked, and it looked to him like she'd almost given up on finding a solution. Maybe she'd been smashing her head against that particular wall for longer than he thought. She looked very affected by the whole thing and it was new to him. She might be a better actress than he gave her credit for.

Then again, he was particularly busy those days too, so maybe he'd just missed it.

"Well, we'll be leaving soon, so maybe we can make it a point to look for strong wild pokemon to challenge on the road," he suggested, scratching his forehead as if that would help his brain work better. It didn't though, unfortunately. "Something like that, you know? Something to add to our routine, regardless of if a pokemon is close to evolution or not."

"I guess… It's not like we haven't been doing that though, Mr. Proxyman," she commented, but she seemed to be in a better mood already. Maybe just talking about it had helped? That was good enough for him.

Now he couldn't stop thinking about the issue though.

"How about a battle between our teams?" he suggested then and immediately got the attention of every member around their table. They'd been acting indifferent so far, but none of them even so much as bothered hiding their interest then and there. "Like, a proper battle instead of just spars. We can hold one of those every so often, especially in cities, since we have Pokemon Centers at the ready."

He'd admit it wasn't an idea that appealed to him all that much, but that was because he'd rather avoid serious battles as much as he could get away with. Even battlegrounds challenges weren't all that serious unless one came across a tryhard. Most of the time people were fairly chill. So far, the harshest battles he'd been involved in were the Gym Challenges, really.

He knew that wasn't good enough for his team though, so this could work in his favor too. It'd give both teams something to push them forward a little bit, be it in regular training or towards evolution. On second thought, maybe he was a genius?

"That actually sounds good," Lily replied, blinking at him.

"Gee, don't sound so surprised," he told her flatly, but the girl ignored him. "See if I help you with something, Mrs. Blue."

It should say something about how deep in thought Lily was at that moment all of a sudden that she didn't even react to his teasing. Well, he'd leave her to that. At least she wasn't stressing over something this time. That was something.

Although…

"You should eat that. It's gonna get cold," he pointed out, gesturing with his fork towards her plate.

"Huh?... Oh, right!" she exclaimed, before starting to eat once more. She was only half there though, but oh well. Pierce could let her do her thing for now. He'd done his part as a friend already.

Besides, he had some studying waiting for him after the meal, so he needed to save as much brain power as possible.

"You had that, Helper-Voice?"

'Shut up, Cygnus.'

[} Chapter End {]

Hey guys! How's it going?

A bit of an aftermath chapter, for the most part. Setting up more work for some other things too. Then there's the usual slice of life touch that's usual for this series and all that.

Business as usual, really.

Hope you guys liked 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

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Random Question: What color are your eyes? Mine are boring brown.

See you.