Pierce

Art by Matori

**Pierce** is a member of Team Rocket and a supporting character in *The Angel of Reckoning*. He is an elite agent and spy for Team Rocket, often charged with undercover work and liasoning between field agents and higher-ups such as Giovanni and Dr. Zager.

## History

Pierce was born in Virbank City in the Unova region, as the son of the aspiring actress Anthea. He had a sister, and both of them lived with their mother and her roomate Concordia, who became an adoptive aunt to the children. One day, Anthea and Concordia were abducted from the bar where they worked to make ends meet by Ghetsis Harmonia and Team Plasma; Ghetsis intended to dispose of Pierce and his sister, but they were saved by their mother's and aunt's co-worker Trevor Hastings, who spirited them away from Unova and entered Team Rocket to gain that organization's protection for them.

As an adult, Pierce joined Team Rocket himself and quickly worked his way up the ranks to become one of Giovanni's most elite agents. He never forgot what Ghetsis and Team Plasma had done to break up his family and often dreamed of returning to Unova to save Anthea and Concordia. A chance at this came when Team Rocket moved into the region to pursue the Meteonite. Initially, the Razor Claw Squad and Jessie, James and Meowth entered the region to gather intelligence, but Giovanni soon sent more agents, placing Pierce in charge of handling them. He also worked alongside Dr. Zager in locating the Meteonite, which they eventually did in the Desert Resort. Once they excavated it from the Relic Castle, he went to Castelia City with most of the other agents and helped Zager present the Meteonite's power to the elites of Unova as part of Giovanni's ransom threat. However, Team Plasma attacked them, aiming to steal the Meteonite, and despite his desire to fight them, he remained at Giovanni's side to protect him. He retreated from Unova with Giovanni, Zager and the Razor Claw Squad, but Team Rocket's other forces kept up the fight against Team Plasma both in the battle for the Meteonite and in several other skirmishes across Unova. However, his opportunity to save Anthea and Concordia never came.

At the beginning of *The Angel of Reckoning*, Pierce was sent to retrieve Jessie, James and Meowth from where they had been in standby undercover, bringing them to Zager and Ariana Lalume at Dr. Zager's Laboratory. He then brought the trio to a location near Cherrygrove City to investigate activity indicative of another Meteonite shard, while he went into Cherrygrove to look into other matters. He met with the Tenganist Prophet, forging an alliance between Team Rocket and the Tenganist Liberation Front to pursue the shared goal of destroying Polaris, the world-threatening cult that was also behind Team Plasma. He then approached Matt Chiaki, providing him with evidence of Ghetsis's crimes under the guise of an information broker named Sam.

Later, in Goldenrod City, Pierce assisted the Razor Claw Squad and the rest of Team Rocket in pursuing a larger Meteonite taken from the Ruins of Alph by Polaris. When Jeunes tried to extract the Meteonite from Goldenrod City aboard a Magnet Train, Pierce joined Ada and Trevor in giving chase. Once they caught up, they came upon a battle between Matt, Bunny Spruce, and Jeunes; Petrel also joined them, having previously infiltrated the Polaris train. Pierce was able to break off a piece of the Meteonite using a mechanized claw, but the damage to the rock caused it to release an energy pulse that sent the train speeding back toward Goldrenrod City. He offered to join forces with Bunny to stop the runaway train, but she refused and went off to carry out her and Matt's plan to stop it instead. As such, Pierce instead went with the others to report their acquisition of the Meteonite piece and discovery that Jeunes's identity was that of Dr. Yung, an old enemy and former member of Team Rocket. Giovanni then assigned Pierce to rejoin the rest of Team Rocket at their secret Olivine City base, then bring both the Meteonite piece and data stolen from the Purine Base by Petrel to Zager.

After completing that assignment and another one, to deliver the stolen Battle Factory Pokémon to Stacia, Pierce rejoined the others near Ecruteak City in preparation for Operation Atlas. Using a glider created by Zager, he joined Giovanni in confronting Ghetsis and the Shadow Triad at the top of the Bell Tower, where Ghetsis was using Anthea and Concordia to summon Ho-oh. He was soon captured by the Shadow Triad, and Ghetsis used him as a hostage to lure Giovanni into a head-to-head confrontation. When Ghetsis struck Giovanni down using his Aegislash and moved to start the ritual to summon Ho-oh, Pierce lost his composure, desperately pleading with his mother not to assist in Ghetsis's plan. However, when Ghetsis threatened not only his life but Anthea and Concordia's as well, they had no choice but to sing the song needed to summon Ho-oh. The bright, blinding light of Ho-oh's arrival afforded Pierce a chance to escape from his captors, however, and he used his glider to get away. He ended up crashing near Nekou Lalume's position on the ground, inadvertently leading to another encounter with Matt as well. He did not hide his allegiance when questioned by Nekou on what was taking place; this directly led to Matt and Bunny realizing Nekou's membership in Team Rocket before she revealed it to them.

Desperate for help to rescue Anthea and Concordia, Pierce forged a temporary alliance with Matt's group. They delegated individual responsibilities: Matt and Nekou would pursue Ghetsis, Pierce would save his mother and aunt, and everyone else would try to deal with the riots that had broken out in Ecruteak in response to Ghetsis's earlier speech. After some struggle, he was able to break through Ghetsis's defenses and reach the Bell Tower, but when he freed Anthea and Concordia, he realized that he had not planned an escape route three people could use. He briefly considered leaving Concordia behind to save his mother, but the Tenganist Prophet appeared with Hoopa, allowing them to escape by passing through Hoopa's ring instead. With Anthea and Concordia's safety ensured, Pierce aided the Prophet's own plan by using the missiles in his glider to shoot down as many of the drones surrounding the city as he could, aiming to bring down the barrier they generated to keep outsiders away. He was unable to accomplish this on his own, but with help from Morty's Pokémon, the barrier was destroyed. Later, in the aftermath of the massive battle, Pierce went with the rest of the Tenganist Liberation Front to the Sinjoh Ruins, where Anthea and Concordia could recover.

At the underground Gaia spring beneath the Sinjoh Ruins, Anthea and Concordia finally recovered enough from their trauma to have their long-overdue reunion with Pierce. This caused him to begin regretting his actions as a member of Team Rocket, deeming his actions not those of a fine man when Anthea called him such. She and Concordia offered him the chance for the three of them to start over, but he voiced a belief that this would not be possible. These words incited the rage of Mewtwo, who had allied with the Tenganist Liberation Front in their fight against Polaris, as it still harbored vengeful desires towards Team Rocket. However, Mewtwo was shaken by Pierce's request for time with his family before meeting his fate, as well as by Anthea and Concordia protecting him. This allowed enough time for the Prophet to arrive and get Mewtwo to back off its threat, albeit in exchange for an explanation of what was really taking place. Pierce, along with Anthea, Concordia, Looker and Jacob Alexison listened as the Prophet told them and Mewtwo the tale of Saeko Oryo, Dark Matter and the Coronet Rosary. She then revealed her goal to retrieve the Life Orb, use the Sinjoh temple to turn it into a Jewel of Life, and then restore the area to a lush state so that the Tenganists could live there in peace and security forever. Anthea, noting that this would be their greatest opportunity for a fresh start, asked Pierce to help make this happen, to which he agreed. He also supported the Prophet along with the others when she recalled Ghetsis's actions towards her, which prompted her to reveal her true identity. Concerned by Sheena's mention of the name Azrael in her story, he arranged for her to speak to Zager.

With Giovanni seemingly gone, his family reunited, and the Tenganist Liberation Front's plan providing them a chance at a fresh start, Pierce decided to leave Team Rocket once their war with Polaris was over. He returned to Olivine City through Hoopa's ring, rejoining his teammates in preparation for Operation Dreadnought. His role in the mission was to pilot the getaway helicopter the others would escape from the Adenosine Base using, while Ada stayed aboard with him and hacked the base's mainframe. This became pivotal when Ariana was gravely wounded by Dr. Yung's Mirage Mewtwo and could not make it back to Olivine City. Nekou refused to leave Ariana behind and would not listen to reason, forcing Proton to contact Pierce and request he send his Braviary to pull her to the helicopter.

In the aftermath of Operation Dreadnought, Pierce brought a drive stolen by James's newly-caught Klefki to Zager so he could use it to access the data Ada hacked from the Adenosine Base's mainframe. Later, after accessing the data and discovering a Polaris statement that the "Laphicet Prophecy" would soon occur, Zager ordered Pierce to contact Giovanni and inform their boss of Zager's need to meet with him personally, then begin preparations to escort him to said meeting.

## Trivia

* Pierce's alias as an information broker, "Sam," is a reference to the character Sam Carmichael played by Pierce Brosnan in the *Mamma Mia!* film franchise. Brosnan also played the fictional spy James Bond in four films from 1995-2002, paralleling Pierce's character and role.
* The weaponized glider Pierce uses during Operation Atlas is a reference to the "Goblin Glider," a similar machine used by the Marvel Comics supervillain Green Goblin in the *Spider-Man* comics and films.