Teams:

Pierce Lawson:

- Narcissa, Beedrill

- Orion, Onix

- Cygnus, Abra

Lillian Dale:

- Root, Bulbasaur

- Talon, Spearow

- Gem, Geodude

- Star, Cleffa

Route 4 V

"Razor Leaf," the trainer across from him called and Pierce grimaced.

"Come on, Orion! Blast-Modify!" he called, drawing a confused look from their opponent. The girl quickly shook her head and focused on the battle though, which was fair. She was winning and very likely to come out on top even with Pierce and Orion having a command system she didn't understand.

Nuzleaf was a great counter for his onix, after all. It couldn't fly, but it was fast and agile enough to dodge any attack Orion sent his way. On top of that, Razor Leaf allowed him to attack from a safe distance and do good amounts of damage. Pierce was half convinced that the girl had purposely chosen someone that could literally smack around Orion…

After all, her sandshrew had lost very badly against the onix.

Still…

"Don't stop shooting, buddy," he called, making Orion smack his tail to the ground and continuing to send Rock Throws at the dodging grass type. When there was enough distance between them, his pokemon added a Harden to the mix, following his orders from before. Screech was an option too, but it seemed neither Pierce nor Orion thought it a good option, so it was just the defensive move for the moment.

"Keep it up, Nuzleaf, we'll be done soon enough," the trainer said calmly and her pokemon followed the order to the letter, continuing to dodge and sending more Razor Leaves their way. Ultimately, Orion was kind of doomed, but he got some good fighting done, which was the important part.

For the moment, even if it was something necessary and unavoidable – as he'd likely tell Orion later –, the loss grated on him anyway. His pokemon wanted to be strong, all of them, so it felt like a failure on his part whenever he lost. He knew it was silly to think like that, but he couldn't help it. So, with that in mind, he decided to continue with the battle… a smirk slipping onto his face.

An expression that became more pronounced when he saw the confident look on the girl's face turn into something completely different as Narcissa appeared. Which made sense, since she was a pokemon that likely could match her Nuzleaf's speed and dexterity… And had effective poison moves against it, together with doubly effective bug type moves too. The fight was basically over, really, but Pierce wasn't going to be overconfident if he could help it.

"Modify-Strike, bug attacks," he commanded as the fight continued, making Narcissa buff up before dashing towards the now nervous Nuzleaf. To their credit, they put up a decent fight, making Narcissa work for her hits for a bit and getting a few licks in with some normal type attacks. It all came to a somewhat abrupt end when Narcissa nailed the nuzleaf with a Bug Bite.

"Who even uses bug types anymore?" he heard the other trainer grumble, but it didn't seem to be an actual insult, as far as he could tell. Just some harmless complaining, or so he imagined. Narcissa still didn't like hearing that though. "Sorry, I didn't mean that," the girl apologized quickly with a nervous smile as she looked at the offended beedrill before handing the betting money to Pierce. "Good battle."

"Same," he replied with a nod and a smile. "Good luck in the next one."

"I'd say the same, but I think you'll be fine," she shot back, seemingly glad that he was fine with things. "Maybe we'll see each other around."

"Maybe," he said, and that was that. It was just Lily and him with their teams once more. "So, that's done," he commented, tilting his head. "Should I treat Orion and Narcissa here or-" He was interrupted as the aforementioned bug type flew around him and latched onto his back. "Guess we can travel a bit and find a nice spot."

"Sounds like a plan," Lily replied, clearly amused. "I was hearing that there was more Rocket trouble," she added, the smile falling off her face as she waved her pokedex in the air. "Somewhere in Route 6, Surge took care of that, apparently."

"Here's hoping some of the rumors about the guy are true," Pierce commented with a grimace. Was it too much to ask for Team Rocket to just be dealt with? Maybe it was whiny of him to think like that, considering that he'd never had to directly deal with them, but still… The mess they'd caused around Mt. Moon was enough for him to want them gone as soon as possible. He could only imagine how many other such incidents they'd caused before and how many they'd cause in the future.

'More motivation to get stronger and get the First Aid License, I guess,' Pierce mused. He hadn't liked having to heal the pokemon at Mt. Moon and its surroundings. He'd have much preferred the pokemon be healthy and fine instead of… Like that. However, that was unrealistic and probably also stupid. So, if he could help by getting better all around, then he would, even if he'd prefer not to get involved in such things.

"I'm pretty sure they are," Lily replied to his previous comment, breaking Pierce out of his thoughts. "I've heard some stuff from… reliable sources."

"Professor Oak? Your mother?" he asked, watching in amusement as Lily's cheeks turned pink and she looked aside. "Oh wow, I never would have seen that coming," he added with the flattest tone he could manage.

"Shut up, Pierce. Let's get going," the girl told him, huffing and starting to walk away before he could say anything else. To that, he just traded a look with Narcissa over his shoulder and then chuckled before following after his traveling companion.

[}-o-{]

"Ugh," Pierce groaned, sitting down and leaning his back against a tree. His legs burned and his arms felt heavy. As it was, he was also barely getting his breath back to normal. "Exercising sucks," he grumbled.

Maybe it was hypocritical of him to complain about that when he was a trainer, regularly making his pokemon push their limits. In his defense, that was what they wanted though. He'd have been fine without doing that altogether and going for another of the many routes available for him.

'I'd even have preferred that, if only because then I wouldn't have to exercise too,' Pierce thought to himself, pushing through the exhaustion and picking up one of his books to read while he recovered from the work out. Once he'd cooled down a little, then he'd clean up. For the moment, he wanted to just lay down and read for a bit.

Idly, he cast one more look at his pokemon to check on them. Orion was taking a break from Sand Tomb to work on his other moves. Narcissa had gone back to Giga Drain and seemed to be doing a little better than before. And Cygnus… Cygnus was nowhere to be seen.

That is, until the abra teleported right beside him, making Pierce jump a little.

'That's not nice,' he projected towards the familiar presence brushing against his mind. The psychic seemed to be mostly amused by this, but there was also something else. There was an underlying determination there, with some nerves true, but solid resolution all the same.

"Helper-Speaker," he heard, making him perk up. The voice came just as inhuman as the psychic pokemon voices he'd heard before, but it sounded even more off. It was distorted, as if there was static of some kind or something like that. Immediately, he felt Cygnus' annoyance.

'Already starting to speak, huh? That was better than I expected things to go,' he informed his pokemon, not really making him feel better. 'Come on, I expected you to start off with a lot of garbled speaking. This was a lot better than that.'

The abra was only mildly reassured by that.

'So, does that mean I can find out what's up with the "Helper-Speaker" thing soon?' he asked, receiving only amusement in response. 'I'm curious, ok?!'

Cygnus sent him the psychic equivalent of a laugh.

'See if I make your favorite pokeblocks, funny guy,' Pierce shot then, making his pokemon go psychically silent. 'That's what I thought,' he added with a smirk. 'Congrats on the speech though. I'm sure we'll have actual conversations in no time.'

Cygnus was quite pleased with that, enough that the feeling transmitted through their connection made Pierce smile.

"Prek-tis," the abra said then, making him blink.

'Now, that's more what I expected,' he mused, drawing a psychic groan from Cygnus before the pokemon teleported away. Back to practice it was for him, it seemed. Pierce was happy with his progress though, since he was getting better and better with Teleport. Focus Punch was getting places, slowly, but getting places all the same. And now it seemed that he might be able to better communicate with his abra too.

Things were going well on the Cygnus front, evidently.

If they continued that way, maybe Pierce would even use him in the Gym battle. At least, if he didn't find some other pokemon for it, since Orion was a no-no for that. If worse came to worst though, maybe he'd skip Cerulean too. Not like it'd be difficult to challenge the gyms later, once Cygnus was able to teleport them around in longer distances.

As it was…

… Pierce just sighed, deflating a little as he looked at the book on his lap.

His days were busy. There was traveling, there was training, there was working out and there was studying. Little else fit in his routine, really. He didn't want to add more to those things, really, but he also felt like he needed to. Or, more specifically, he felt like he needed to cut down on those things and add something more… relaxed.

Pierce knew very well what burn out was and he was almost positive that he was getting there. The only thing he could comfortably take out of his routine was working out though, and he didn't want to do that. It'd feel shitty, if he were to do that, while keeping everyone training. Sure, studying and training his team could count as working on things too, but it wasn't the same.

He dismissed Cygnus' concerns when the abra's mind brushed against his. He could deal with things for the moment. The occasional stop to interact with some wild pokemon or just generally resting would do for the moment. Maybe he could find something to relax once they made it to a city. After all, once they were in one, there was no need to spend a chunk of the day traveling.

'Might be another balancing act to keep up,' he mused. 'Don't stay in a city long enough to impact the journey, don't travel long enough to impact your mental health,' Pierce thought, tilting his head curiously. That seemed like a probable enough theory to him. Then again, they could stretch the trip a little bit to account for some more downtime, he supposed.

'That's a nice thought,' he decided, liking the sound of that last idea. 'I think I'll try and get Lily to agree to a day's pause once we reach water,' he added with a grin.

With that decided and the prospect of a break in the horizon, Pierce focused back on his book. That First Aid License wouldn't get itself, after all. He wasn't sure for how long he'd have to study to be ready for it, but he wanted to give it his all and get it as soon as possible. Then he wouldn't have to worry every time he applied a potion on some wild pokemon or another. Nor would he have to stop himself from offering to treat other people's pokemon that weren't Lily's.

'Lots of things to work on,' he thought with another sigh.

[}-o-{]

"This is nice," Pierce commented, laying over the grass. Sure, it was just a short break and such, but at that very moment, it was very relaxing. Probably wouldn't help much with the growing exhaustion he was feeling, but that was a problem for another time, at least. Besides, Lily had agreed to stop for a bit as soon as they reached the water.

The pokemon he was resting his head on hissed her agreement.

"You are really comfy, has anyone ever told you that?" he asked, receiving some pleased hissing from the creature. "Yeah, I could stay like this forever."

The ekans he was spending some time with simply shifted a little and laid her head on his chest. It was a little funny, he supposed, that he was resting on her body and she was resting on his. Or maybe he just thought that because he was half-asleep from the gentle warmth of the sunlight and the surprisingly soft skin and muscle of the serpent pokemon.

Star babbled something contently from his side, having joined him and the ekans for their pseudo-nap. Pierce could almost feel Lily's concerned gaze on them, but fortunately she hadn't voiced her worries. The poison type was unlikely to take that well, even if she'd been very chill after he treated some bruising she'd had when they came across her and fed her some kibble.

As it was, their group had decided to take a short break then and there, with Cygnus sleeping, Orion curled up under the sun to the side and Root sitting on top of the onix. Narcissa and Talon, for their parts, were flying around, the open space of the increasingly scarcer trees giving them a different kind of pleasure than the forest did.

He wasn't sure where Gem was, but he'd bet she was with Lily off to the side. That was where he'd last seen the two of them though, before he let the calm feeling of just lying there take over. He wasn't even sure how long he'd been there already, so he might have missed a few things while shutting off his brain.

A sleepy mumble came from Star before he felt the fairy type shift and rest against his side.

Immediately afterwards, Lily confirmed that she was still there with the click of a photograph being taken. That was fine, he supposed. He did notice though, that she was taking more of those ever since Mt. Moon. Maybe she'd found that she liked that? It was a possibility.

For the moment, Pierce decided that thinking was too much effort and slowly shut off his brain. Their teams were around and Lily was wide awake. They could take care of anything that popped up. 'I'll just… sleep for a lil' bit…'

[}-o-{]

His feet moved into the water and he sighed, deflating where he sat.

"God, I didn't think my feet felt that bad until just now," Lily groaned from beside him and he fully agreed with her on that. He'd known his feet could use a break from all the trekking but he'd thought things weren't quite as bad. That is, until he sat down and placed said limbs inside the water.

"You can say that again," he agreed out loud as he looked off into the water. They'd finally reached the coast. The place they were at was where the mountain and the sea met though, so there was no sand, only rock and water. Still, it made for a great spot to rest anyway. They'd have a beach to enjoy later.

After a long moment, he looked at his pokemon. Narcissa seemed mostly indifferent about the whole thing, which… He supposed was expected. Cygnus seemed to like the sight though, sitting up on a tall rock and watching towards the horizon. It was a new experience and the psychic probably liked that. Then there was Orion… Who was warily poking at the water with his tail as if the sea would jump out and bite him.

Pierce guessed that was something similar to how Narcissa and Cygnus had felt while inside Mt. Moon. A natural instinct against something that was harmful to him. Water instead of the dark and rock, in this particular case. Interesting that.

At least Orion wasn't alone on that front, with Gem just as uneasy with the extension of water before them. Root seemed to be mostly fine with it even though it was salt water, which was curious too. Talon seemed to care about as much as Narcissa did, which is to say not at all. And Star…

Star jumped into the water.

Fortunately, it was a shallow pool that had likely formed with the waves during high tide outside of the actual sea. Pierce could already see Lily or himself having to throw themselves into the water to rescue the little excitable thing from its own idea of fun. Not that he could blame the fairy type much, since she likely had experienced very little outside of Mt. Moon. The forest they'd left some time ago had been quite the shock by itself, but the sea?

Yeah, Pierce understood.

"A shame it's not safe to swim here," Lily commented, to which he had to nod. There were too many rocks around for them to really get into the water. A sudden wave could end up very badly for them, considering the surroundings. As it was, they were kind of risking it a little just doing what they were doing, actually.

"Maybe tomorrow?" he commented, moving his feet on the water a little bit. "Can't wait, honestly. It's been forever since I swam," he added. It'd been a while ago, actually, visiting one of his relatives that had a pool in their backyard. It wasn't that big, and he'd had to share it with his cousins and such but… Whenever he had a moment to just swim around, it'd be nice.

"There's shore not that far from Pallet, so it hasn't been that long for me, but I'm definitely missing it," Lily replied with a grin. "I think I'll have to teach Star how to swim though. I feel like she'll want to do that a whole lot."

"At least until the novelty wears off, yeah," he agreed. "Swimming might be great training for Cygnus, actually," he added then, considering his team member. Narcissa and Orion were likely to stay far away from the water but the psychic…

Yeah, Cygnus definitely liked that idea.

"That's two for the swimming classes," he commented, to which Root barked something. "Make it three. We'll have fun, I'm sure."

[}-o-{]

[Lillian Dale]

"Huh, I look good," Pierce commented, seemingly giving himself a look after having changed into his swimming trunks. Lily could only roll her eyes at him. Although, admittedly, he wasn't wrong.

"That's a bit narcissistic, isn't it?" she asked, tilting her head.

"First of all, don't worry, Lily, you are still the eye-candy in this duo," he answered with a grin. She had to make a conscious effort not to roll her eyes again. Being honest though, the compliment was very much appreciated. "Second of all, I didn't quite mean it like that. I just… haven't been very fit since… ever, really. Hell, I was actually kind of worried I'd start getting fat before… Before I started my journey," he added, hesitating for a moment.

Which was curious, but not something new to Lily. She already knew – or theorized, but whatever – that he hadn't quite started his journey with a lot of planning. It almost seemed like he'd just stumbled into the path more than anything else. Probably because something had happened in his life, she bet.

Puzzle pieces kept appearing all over the place, and they didn't paint a nice picture.

"So, who's ready for some swimming? Because I sure am," Pierce said as he stretched some more, starting to walk towards the water. He looked ready to go straight to the deep waters, which…

"We'll keep close by. Root and Star don't know how to swim and I'm… not the best at it, so I'd rather have them know what to do before we go deep. I don't think I'd be able to help much if something happened," Lily admitted. She liked swimming as much as the next girl, but she wasn't… Particularly skilled in that field.

"Ah, makes sense," the young man replied, deflating a little as he looked out at the sea and then towards Cygnus. Lily didn't need to be – or have – a psychic to know what was going on there. Ultimately, Pierce shook his head and ran a hand through his hair. "No, you are right. We can start slow. Cygnus and I have to test his Teleport with water around anyway."

It sounded to Lily's ears as if it pained him to acknowledge that no, he couldn't go swimming to his heart's content. It was a very amusing sight, to see a grown man like Pierce all but pout. She managed not to laugh at him though, but it was a close thing.

"You could just go swimming and do the rest later though, I can look over everyone for a bit by myself," Lily offered, but Pierce shook his head.

"No, it's fine," Pierce said, shaking his head. "Too many pokemon to look after and most of them can't swim if anything happens in the water," he added, which was fair. Although, Lily rather doubted that would remain the case for long. If nothing else, the man was bound to find some water type to befriend and that'd be that, even if they didn't manage to get one on their teams. "Maybe I can teach you how to swim too. Never know when you might need to do so, and well."

"I… guess?" she mumbled, rubbing the back of her neck. He wasn't wrong though. Especially because Lily wanted to get a water type for herself too. Maybe later down the line, considering her team had gotten two new members pretty quickly, but still.

"And that's that, let's go. If you don't get into the water some while we are in Cerulean, you won't be left alone," Pierce commented with a chuckle. "If you know you know," he added with a grin.

Lily, for her part, didn't know how to reply to that, other than probably blushing a bit, if the heat on her face was any indication. Sure, she knew she was pretty, but people in Pallet didn't really have high standards, considering it was so small. It was nice to get confirmation out of it, something that was helped by Pierce seemingly deciding to throw compliments rather freely…

When he wasn't reminding her of mistakes, that is.

"Guess it's a good thing you will be swimming a lot too," she added eventually, to which Pierce laughed even more than before. "What?"

"Nothing, I just… I'm not the most sociable person, so I just can't see that," he said, and Lily knew that many people wouldn't believe that. He seemed like as much of an outgoing person as she was. However, the fact was that… Pierce truly wasn't all that sociable.

The most glaring proof of this was that he only seemed to really interact with Lily herself, their pokemon and wild pokemon. He'd gotten along with Arnold back in Pewter and the rangers he'd met too, but those were more because of professional settings. It'd been a surprise for Lily when she figured that out, because she'd almost missed all that.

As it was, Pierce didn't even seem to have family or other friends besides Lily herself. Ever since he'd gotten the pokegear, she'd started paying more attention to that too. He hadn't used it even once since they got out of Mt. Moon. No call had been made and he barely seemed to use it for anything other than setting up the radio function, so messages were out too.

Of course, he'd told her that there wasn't anyone to call, but still... She had a hard time believing that someone like him had no friends back home, even if he might not be on the best of terms with his family or something like that. Surely there was someone, right?

It was rather sad, that for someone as nice and friendly as Pierce was, he seemed to have no one.

Lily didn't know what she could do regarding that other than be there for him and hope that it would be enough.

[} Chapter End {]

Hey guys! How's it going?

We are getting closer to Cerulean, guys! Otherwise, business as usual in this chapter. A little of this, a little of that. Just more things to build up the characters and give the whole thing a more life-ish vibe, if that makes sense. I know most people just can't wait for Pierce to actually do something, like challenge a Gym or participate in a tournament or something. I promise I'm trying to get there, guys! I do!

It's just the damn characters don't wanna follow, but it's gonna happen. I swear.

Maybe.

Probably.

…

Anyway, I hope you 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

Discord Link: discord .gg/UTDransjJZ

Random Question: My mind decided to turn off when trying to think of a question, so I'll just ask: What's your favorite part of this story?

See you.