The group waited in front of the door to the emergency room as they were hoping to find out if Charmander would be well.

It was still too soon to know for certain and while Austin could think that he knew, it could just as easily have changed because it took them a bit longer to get here because of his extra 'training'.

'If Charmander dies it could be my fault.' Austin thought sitting down. 'I knew that he would be in danger but I didn't hurry over to get here, I was worried about just getting home.'

Brock was standing in front of the door, praying that Charmander would survive.

"Chu?" Pikachu was next to Austin looking worried about his trainer.

Bulbasaur left to go blow off some steam at what happened.

"I'm fine." Austin said to Pikachu before he felt someone sit next to him and looked to see Misty was back.

"No you aren't." Misty said hearing him. "Charmander will pull through."

"Yeah he has to." Brock agreed, finally turning away from the door. "Misty are you okay?"

"I'm… Upset that you guys didn't trust me earlier." Misty admitted but she had a determined look. "We can talk more about it after Charmander is fine."

Yellow gave a nod as she had Kitty out again, hugging her.

It was clear that until they heard the news for Charmander, none of them were going to be able to sleep.

The light on the door went off causing them to all tense as Nurse Joy came out.

Right as soon as she saw the group, she gave a reassuring smile. "Charmander will pull through." She said causing relief to go across all of their faces. "He's really lucky that you brought him in tonight, another day and it would've been too late."

She let them go in to see that Charmander was fast asleep with the tail burning a bit brighter than it has been.

"That's the spirit Charmander." Brock said with a smile before seeing Austin walk in.

"Nurse Joy, is it alright if we stay with Charmander?" Austin asked as Nurse Joy had a confused look before giving a smile.

"It's no trouble at all, but let him rest." Nurse Joy warned.

Now knowing that Charmander would be fine, Brock walked up to her. "Oh you are so kind to souls such as us." He said in an attempt to be romantic causing Nurse Joy to give a sweatdrop.

"Uh that's nice?"

"I would be honored if you would-." Brock was cut off when Zubat came out, but Misty grabbed his ear. "Ow, ear! Ear."

"Come on Casanova, I think it's time for you to get some shut eye."

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

Bulbasaur came back into the Pokemon Center, soaking wet as he looked exhausted later that night.

He spent most of his time in the woods taking his aggression out on the various trees.

Just seeing what happened to that Charmander made him think of what happened with him and it made him angry.

Sniffing the air as he found his trainer's scent, Bulbasaur followed it to see that they were in the ER room and he saw Charmander fast asleep, looking much better and he gave a nod before he went to stand guard at the door.

No one was getting in there to hurt that Charmander or anyone else in this room any more.

He'll make sure of it.

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

The first thing that Charmander remembered was getting attacked by those ferocious birds as he tried to protect himself. However, his life-flame was dangerously low (it never had been the best for as long as he remembered), and with all the injuries he had sustained from fighting the beast of lightning (it still had hazy memories about that lightning-fast yellow beast, with black patches all over its body, and that maniacal grin on its face), it barely had the strength for a single flame-burst, not to mention the icy cold winds and the torrential downpour all around him.

Then, he remembered how Damien, his trainer had left him on the rock, promising to return back in a few hours, with treatment. He had waited for the entire day, climbing up to the top of the cliff despite the strain it put on his already injured body, if only to catch a glimpse of his trainer returning to him as promised. He had waited, and waited.

And waited.

Damien didn't come.

For three days he had waited, and slowly felt the life-flame burning inside him slowly flicker and come to the point of getting extinguished completely. That was when the unfortunate punishment from the heavens had come lashing at him in the form of the storm, punishing him for being a weakling like he was.

There had been a sneaking suspicion in his mind that Damien had also deserted him because of his weakness, but he hadn't allowed his barely held-on hope to flicker because of that dangerous thought. That was why, he had held on to the barely enough protection of the Oran-berry leaf, doing his best not to cry out in pain as those monsters pecked harshly on his injured skin.

....

Charmander slowly opened his eyes to find himself in a fire-proof bed instead of the rock like he expected.

Pushing himself up as he looked around, he paused at seeing the four humans, along with the Pikachu, Bulbasaur and Kakuna from the other day and that was when he remembered the events.

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

Remembering those words, caused some tears to fall down Charmander's face as he remembered how he tried so hard to be strong for Damian.

He tried to make the trainer proud of him.

He believed him when his trainer said he would be back.

Charmander tried to be loyal.

… He was stupid.

"Char." Charmander muttered causing Bulbasaur to turn around and give a soft smile.

"Saur, Bulba Bulb." Bulbasaur said looking tired as he walked up there.

"Mander." Charmander looked down only for Bulbasaur to frown.

Guessing that he was still thinking about his trainer, Bulbasaur plain out told him to forget him.

That caused Charmander to glare. "Mander Man." Charmander snarled saying that it wasn't that easy.

No it wasn't.

Bulbasaur gave a nod to agreeing with that. "Bulbasaur." Bulbasaur said tilting his head to the other humans. "Saur Bulb."

Charmander went quiet at that before he saw Austin slowly open his eyes. "Morning Charmander."