It was just beginning to storm right as they made it to the Pokemon Center, Austin had the vest off with Pikachu on his shoulder, using his paw to help hold it over Charmander's tail as Bulbasaur was keeping up fine, using his Vine Whip to help Pikachu out.

"Nurse Joy." Austin ran in catching the Nurse's attention. "Please help."

Her eyes widened when she saw the Charmander's condition. "What have you done to the poor thing?" She asked glaring at him.

"I didn't do this." Austin denied looking angry at the accusation.

"He's telling the truth, that Charmander was like that when we found him." Yellow said getting off of Dody as they got into the Pokemon Center, soaking wet, Misty and Brock behind her.

"Get the stretcher." Nurse Joy ordered the Chansey as it took off.

Charmander opened his eyes to the noise as he saw where he was and he gave a weak cry, motioning to outside.

"Are you crazy, if you go outside right now, you'll die for sure." Austin said as he kept a hold of Charmander who gave him a lost look.

"Char." Charmander muttered before his eyes widened as he looked past Austin. "Mander."

Following his gaze, Austin glared as he saw Damian, the blue haired teen wearing a pink shirt and brown vest, on the other side of the Pokemon Center and he was laughing with a few guys while a pile of Pokeballs were nearby.

"Is that your trainer?" Austin asked causing the others to look towards where he was looking while Charmander gave a nod.

'Good, now I have an excuse.' Austin thought with a dark look.

Since the stretcher wasn't there yet, Austin gave Charmander to Brock and stomped over there, not caring if his arm was still bleeding and was dripping down his arm, onto his clenched fist.

"Austin, what are you doing?" Brock asked following him as Austin looked extremely pissed.

"Just look at them, it's a pretty cool collection-." Damian began only for Austin to interrupt him.

"Excuse me, you wouldn't happen to own a Charmander would you?" Austin asked giving a glare.

Damian gave a cocky grin towards Austin as his friends were a little wary considering the bleeding arm.

"What's it to you? I did have a Charmander but that puny thing was so weak it couldn't even beat a Magikarp." Damian taunted and Charmander felt his heart shatter at hearing his old trainer say that. "That's why I left the dumb thing on a rock-."

He didn't get any farther when Austin straight up punched him in the face.

That caused the others to begin running over to him as he reared his fist back to punch him again only for one of Damian's friends to interfere and punch Austin, sending him on his back.

"Just who the hell do you think you are-?" Damian raised his fist only for Pikachu to jump in front of Austin, his cheeks sparking and Bulbasaur had a glare of pure hatred at this human.

Austin rubbed his jaw before he spat some blood out, pleased to see that he gave Damian a bloody nose.

"Someone who thinks you don't deserve being a Trainer." He said gesturing to Charmander who was in Brock's arms giving Damian a sad look. "Your Charmander nearly died because he was loyal to you."

"That puny thing stayed there this long?" Damian chuckled. "Wow he is stupider than I thought."

"Chu." Pikachu began to prepare a Thundershock only for Nurse Joy to intervene.

"Enough, this is a Center for healing Pokemon, not a place to have brawls." Nurse Joy said not wanting a fight to break out.

"Tch, whatever they started it." Damian said walking off but he glared at Austin. "Watch your back weakling."

Austin glared at him before he felt something spray his arm and he cried out in shock as it began to sting.

Looking over as he saw a saddened Charmander being placed on a stretcher, Austin saw that Nurse Joy had a bottle of disinfectant and a roll of bandages. "You'll need to check the bandage every few hours." She said to him as she handed it to them. "I'm going to make sure Charmander survives the night."

As Nurse Joy left, Austin clenched his fist again and glared at where Damian left.

"Ash, you need to bandage your arm." Brock said reminding him.

"I know." Austin said as he sat down and got to work.

"How could someone be like that?" Yellow asked, her voice cracking a bit. "He didn't care if Charmander would die or not."

Austin gave her a look of surprise before realizing that despite seeing how Team Rocket were or hearing about Bulbasaur's story, Yellow hasn't really seen anyone truly get hurt.

They were lucky with Team Rocket not killing or severely injuring them so it didn't sink in with her and she only heard the story with Bulbasaur.

But to see how Charmander nearly died like that and how Damian didn't care, that could've been what made it all sink in.

"Unfortunately there are people who don't care for Pokemon at all." Brock said, anger in his tone.

Misty gave a nod at that before walking to Austin. "Hang on, you're doing it all wrong." She said helping out with the bandages, making sure it was on tight.

"Thanks." Austin said looking at the bandaged arm.

"... So are we not going to talk about what Yellow did?" Misty asked causing them to tense. "Was I the only one not to know?"

"I… I have abilities that let me talk to Pokemon, heal them and form bonds with them." Yellow admitted looking down. "It's just something I've always been able to do."

"Ash and I found out in Mt. Moon when we ran into Team Rocket." Brock said surprising Misty as they never told her that they fought Team Rocket. "After that we kept quiet about it because we didn't want the wrong people to hear."

"It's not that we didn't trust you Misty, it's just that we weren't sure how to tell you." Austin said hoping that this wouldn't cause a problem later in the road.

"I… I need some time to think about this." Misty muttered as she walked off causing them to look down.

Thunder began to boom outside causing them to look outside. "Man the storm is tense." Brock said seeing the wind howling. "We were lucky to find this Pokemon Center."