A/N: Thanks for all those reviews guys. AveragePichu, Ash was actually serious when he asked Bill that question. He just didn't figure it would turn out to be so awkward. Silver trying to dye his hair silver was a pun.

With Ash's luck, it stopped raining just ten minutes before he got to the Pokemon Center instead of a few hours ago. The sky was beginning to lighten- the sun would be up now soon. The only thing that worried Ash was whether or not he'd be in time to rescue Charmander.

Outside the Pokemon Center, he saw that Brock and Serena were already waiting for him.

"Ash!" Serena called out. "Why'd you go and run off all alone like that?"

"I'll explain later," Ash said, running to go and hand over Charmander to Nurse Joy.

"Wait up!" Brock said.

Ash saw Nurse Joy at the counter and proceeded to hand over Charmander while Serena continued to tell him how irresponsible he'd been.

"You know, you could've just woken us up and we would've come with you," Serena said. "It's dangerous to go out in the middle of the night alone- you didn't even take Pikachu along and eventually it woke me up and then I woke Brock up."

"Why did he wake you up first?" Ash asked. "You were sleeping in a different room. Wouldn't it have been easier to wake up Brock?"

"He was sleeping like a rock so he came to me," Serena said. "And that's besides the point! You're soaked Ash, was it too much to take an umbrella? You could have pneumonia by now or-"

"I couldn't wait, I wasn't sure if I would get there in time," Ash said as he watched Nurse Joy examine the Charmander.

"She has a point Ash," Brock said. "It's always dangerous to go and wander around the wilderness on your own. And that's disregarding that you've gone and went into Team Rocket's bad books by now and that's enough to make you a target."

Ash took a deep breath. He hadn't noticed it up till now, but he was feeling extremely cold. And while Ash assumed it was normal for Serena to fret over things- it was literally why his mother had asked her to tag along in the first place, Brock was usually more cool-headed. If he was worried, Ash thought it probably meant that he probably had been out of line, at least a bit.

"I'll have to rush this Charmander to the ICU," Nurse Joy said. "Is this your Pokemon? How could you be so irresp-"

"It isn't mine, Damian left it on a rock," Ash said before Nurse Joy could go on a tirade against the wrong person.

"Your friends are right though," Nurse Joy said before carting Charmander off for one of the Chanseys to handle. "It's always safer to be with someone else- especially with Team Rocket growing bolder day by day. Didn't you hear about that kid- Brian Sanders a few years ago?"

"Yeah, he got hurt real bad," Ash said. It was the kid who had gotten into an accident in the wilderness so long ago and caused the Pokemon League to raise the starting age on when a Trainer could begin a journey from ten to thirteen.

Ash guessed by now with everyone saying the same thing that he just might have been a bit too rash- but at least he had told someone where he was going. They'd have come to find him, though admittedly it could've taken quite some time for them to reach him. And normally he'd be comforted by the fact that Jessie and James would be looking after him, but they had said that they'd be forced to keep their distance from Cerulean City.

With Charmander gone and wheeled off for the ICU Ash suddenly realized how tired, wet, cold, and hungry he was and after a quick change of clothes he fell asleep and woke up after what seemed like forever. A quick meal was all he needed before he found Serena and Brock battling outside and was about to join them when Nurse Joy told him that Charmander was feeling better now.

Charmander was awake, but lying down.

"Hi there, Charmander," Ash said. Charmander's flame was low from what Ash guessed was normal for a Charmander based on Damian's shiny one, but brighter than he had ever seen it before. Charmander suddenly got up and off the bed and seemed pretty happy as it waltzed towards Ash.

"Hey there," Ash said, opening his arms to welcome Charmander…

….who completely ignored Ash and went behind him. Ash turned to see Damian walking down the hallway- seeing the Charmander, and looking surprised.

Charmander excitedly walked up to Damian and had one of the happiest expressions Ash had ever seen on a Pokemon.

"Oh hey, you still alive there?" Damian asked.

"Char charr," Charmander said.

"Well, okay, let me break it to you like this since you're so keen on followin' me around- I don't got time for you," Damian said. He released his Shiny Charmander. "This guy's my favorite now. Now scram!"

Charmander seemed confused and tried following Damian as Damian walked off, only for his Shiny Charmander to suddenly turn and use a weak Scratch to ensure that Charmander wouldn't try coming back to Damian again.

It was then that Ash saw one of the most pitiful things he had ever seen- Charmander was crying. And not just a few tears- he was tearing up like a fountain and wouldn't even get up- he was just lying in a puddle of his own tears as he continued to wail.

Ash wasn't sure what to do. Nurse Joy wasn't around for the moment and neither were one of her helper Chanseys, and Brock and Serena were probably busy with their battle right now. Pikachu stared at the Charmander, but seemed to be as lost as Ash as to what it should do.

Eventually Charmander's cries softened down to weak sobs- but they still shook its entire body. Charmander then managed to get up weakly before falling back down.

It was then that Ash finally decided to do something and sent out his Greninja. He was sure that his Pokemon would be great at trying to handle the Charmander.

Pikachu helped Charmander get up and Greninja helped stabilize him. Charmander seemed surprised at the odd show of kindness.

"Hey Charmander," Ash said, his voice low and reassuring. "It's bad what happened with you and Damian- and I know this is a bit hard to understand, but he never loved you. But you don't need him- I don't think he ever realized how special you are and just saw you for being weak. And I don't know if this is the wrong time to say this- but I have to say it eventually or at least I think so… so do you want to join us?"

Ash extended his hand and Charmander began sniffing it. No- he wasn't sniffing it, Charmander was looking at the bite marks on Ash's arm which had been cleaned by the rainwater. Ash was wondering if Charmander remembered that it was the one who had done that- but Charmander's guilty face put all those doubts away. Charmander definitely recognized its own bite marks.

"You don't need to worry about that, it's okay," Ash said and Charmander took a glance at Greninja and Pikachu- both of whom were smiling and then nodded before nodding off to sleep.

With that, Ash took Charmander back to where it could get some rest.

Brock and Serena then came in.

"So you're up now, huh?" Serena asked.

"Well, it's three o' clock so I guess he better be," Brock said.

Nurse Joy then came in with a worried look on her face. "Damian just left the Pokemon Center… this is a big problem for Charmander here…"

"I know, Charmander was really upset at that," Ash said.

Nurse Joy shook her head. "No, you don't understand. All Pokemon Centers are equipped to heal only Trainer's Pokemon as per League regulations. If Damian has released it and won't take it back, that means that it qualifies as a wild Pokemon now."

"How's that a problem?" Serena asked.

"Pokemon Centers don't take care of wild Pokemon," Brock said as he realized it.

"Huh? Why not?" Ash asked.

"Because they get a limited supply of funds from the Pokemon League- that's why they're free for all League registered trainers," Brock said. "But they're told they can't waste resources on wild Pokemon except under certain situations. I don't know what they are though…"

"None of them apply to Charmander though," Nurse Joy said. "He'll need at least another day to recover but I'll have to discharge him now-"

"Oh, no, I'm his Trainer now," Ash said firmly.

"Oh, good then," Nurse Joy said. "But I've already entered Charmander in as one of Damian's Pokemon. I'll need to get some paperwork done then- can you please hand over your Pokedex?"

"Oh yeah sure-" Ash said as he reached for his Pokedex but then froze as if he had just seen a ghost.

"What happened?" Serena asked as she watched Ash's shocked expression.

"My Pokedex… um Nurse Joy, I'm sorry but I think I lost it somewhere," Ash said.

"Ash, how could you?" Brock asked. "That's literally one of the most important things that a Trainer should always have with him."

"Sorry," Ash repeated meekly. "You won't discharge Charmander, now, will you?"

"I suppose I can take your word for it," Nurse Joy said. "But do you have any other evidence that you're a League certified Trainer?"

"I have my gym badges," Ash said and showed them to Nurse Joy.

"That'll do for now," Nurse Joy said.

Ash sighed out of relief and then got up and headed out to leave.

"Hey! Where're you going?" Serena asked.

"I need to get my Pokedex back," Ash said. "I think I forgot it at Bill's place."

"How're you so sure?" Brock asked.

"Uh, well, I went back on the same road we came here by and didn't see it, and I don't think that it'd have fallen off onto the road without us noticing so I think that's the only real place it could be," Ash said.

"Well, we're coming with you then this time," Serena said and Brock nodded.

Ash really didn't need the two of them breathing down his neck while he retrieved his Porygon, but then again, he couldn't think of a way to refuse without arousing suspicion after all that had happened last night so he let them come with him.

Ash didn't dare say it in front of Serena as he didn't want to look weak, but he was starting to feel really sore having walked all this distance so many times in such a short time frame. It didn't help that there was a steep walk up to Bill's house.

Serena and Brock were discussing their battle- Brock had won easily, but Ash would've been surprised if he hadn't with him being a Gym Leader and all, and with Fennekin's type disadvantage. It turns out that Oddish wasn't strong enough to hold its own, at least not yet.

Ash buzzed the intercom. He buzzed it again two minutes later, and it was only after ten minutes that Bill showed up.

"Uh, hey, it's me, Ash, from yesterday," Ash said. "Sorry to bother you, but I think I forgot my Pokedex here."

"Huh, oh yeah, Ash, from yesterday," Bill said. "Yeah, sure let me just open the door and let y'all in."

"So yeah, I think it may have fallen out of my pocket," Ash said as Bill came to greet them. Bill was dressed in the same clothes that he had been wearing yesterday, though Ash wasn't someone to judge someone else on that front.

"Well, do you have the 'Find My Pokedex' feature installed on it?" Bill asked.

"No," Ash said. "There's a feature like that?"

"Yeah," Bill said. "I studied the Pokedex extensively when I was learning how to build my machines. It's a neat little feature." He turned towards a computer. "Just put in your name and trainer ID and it'll start locating it."

Brock and Serena tried making some small talk, but honestly it wasn't very interesting much like yesterday since Bill seemed to be less interested than most people in answering things or talking about stuff that normal people spoke about. Maybe he was just shy, Ash guessed.

Ash found his Pokedex really quickly with the software working and the fact that it was where he had put it yesterday- now the only problem was trying to get his Porygon back without anyone noticing him. He finally made an excuse to go to the bathroom which meant that he'd have some privacy.

Only now he ran into another problem- just how was he going to call Porygon back to himself?

At a complete loss for a minute, Ash then entered the bathroom for a moment to plan things alone to see that Bill had apparently installed a computer monitor. He shook his head- this was kind of going too far in his opinion on the whole 'tech-savvy' thing, but he saw that it had a microphone with it which he switched on. It was normally for voice commands, but Ash decided to say, "Porygon… if you're done here I need you to come back out."

A figure appeared on the screen- an icon of a small Porygon that got bigger and bigger as it finally materialized out of the screen and Ash took it back into its Poke Ball. He'd give it back to Jessie and James once he'd get the chance.

With that over, they stayed for a while before going back to the Pokemon Center to await the next day.

The next morning, Ash and his friends picked up Charmander alongside them and took off. They decided to forget about exploring the east coast and decided to go back to Cerulean City, from where they'd continue on south of it to Vermillion City.

Brock was ecstatic along the way- he'd finally get to visit the Day Care south of Cerulean City.

"You guys don't know this, but I've always wanted to be a breeder, always," Brock said. "Charles Darwin once said that not a man in a thousand has the eyes to become a true breeder of Pokemon, and not one in a thousand of them has the patience to become an excellent one. I've always been amazed at just what you can do by breeding Pokemon selectively."

"Seems kind of boring," Ash said. "Who wants to just raise Pokemon instead of training them?"

"Boring? Boring?" Brock said and then went onto a tirade. "It's everything but boring! You can see artificial selection happening right before you eyes- you can see Pokemon Evolutionary Biology as you selectively choose which traits to breed and how you can progressively alter how they are generation after generation."

He went on and on about breeding eggs and how it worked.

Neither Ash nor Serena were really interested in breeding, but Brock's enthusiasm was contagious and they both decided that they'd at least check it out.

"Hey- Gary once told me that a Wailord and a Skitty could have a Pokemon egg together," Ash said. "I told him he was lying but he said it was true."

"Oh, yeah, that is possible, they're in the same egg group," Brock said.

"But, but, how would they… you know?" Serena asked, her face turning bright red.

Ash was blushing too- he had received 'the Talk' only a few weeks ago. "Yeah, how'd that work?"

"Well, Pokemon don't lay eggs like that," Brock explained. "No one knows how or where they come from- they just seem to appear. Some people even say that they shouldn't technically be called Pokemon eggs, but Pokemon cradles instead. And the female Pokemon never seem to get fatter before laying eggs no matter how small they are and remarkably all eggs are always the same size though some hatch faster. So I guess there aren't any real problems they'd encounter. But there are a few rules for breeding, namely that the egg's species always is the mother's, but the Pokemon inherits moves preferentially from the father. It can lead to a whole lot of combinations of Pokemon knowing moves they couldn't normally know."

"Well, it looks like we'll be there soon," Ash said as Cerulean City came into view. "But before we go south, I think there's someone we should talk too first…"

Back at the Pokemon Center, Nurse Joy was relaxing and enjoying one of her few breaks. It was tough being a nurse- she had to work twice the amount a normal person would do, and it was usually for ungrateful people like Damian who frankly didn't deserve to be around Pokemon at all, let alone try to train them.

The salary she got was okay, but it wasn't much compared to how much a nurse for humans would make and it was even smaller when you considered the debt from nursing school…

She was interrupted in these thoughts by a helper Chansey coming up to her and handing over a report. She looked worried.

"What happened?" Nurse Joy asked as she read a Charmander's- yes that Charmander that Ash had had- blood report.

She read it again. And then rubbed her eyes to make sure she wasn't dreaming and then read it again.

She had heard of this happening before, but she had never seen a case like this herself, despite her long years practicing.

As such she had no idea what to do, but decided that it would be best to inform the trainer first. He did say that he would be going towards Cerulean City, and she could always ring up her cousin there.

"I'm not sure about this, but I think we should try," Ash said.

"We're with you Ash," Brock said and his Pikachu nodded. "Except I think Serena and I are gonna wait outside. You have our support though!"

Ash walked into the Cerulean City Gym and asked around for Misty. He found her trying to tackle a mountain of paperwork almost a foot tall.

"Hey," Ash said.

Misty snapped up from whatever document she was perusing and said, "What is it this tim- oh."

"Yeah, it's me," Ash said. Pikachu hopped on to the desk. "We were coming back to Cerulean City and I wanted to drop by."

"Well great," Misty said. Ash noticed that she looked tired- and guessing from the mound of paperwork he assumed that Misty was being handed the scrub work of running the gym.

"Listen, see, the thing is that when I went up north I saw a Charmander and it was pretty small and all and had been abandoned but the thing is that when I found out- okay it's a long story- but I thought right then and there that it would've been good to have you along," Ash said. "The thing reminded me of you."

Misty frowned. "Ash, you're not making a whole lot of sense. Are you saying that I'm like a Charmander?"

Pikachu face-palmed, he had known that Ash wasn't very good at these things but he hadn't expected something along these lines.

"No, what I mean to say is, Misty, do you wanna come back and travel with us?" Ash asked. "I know you were just tagging along because of your bike but I guess I didn't realize how great it was having you along. I know this gym probably means a lot to you- but come on, I mean, you can probably learn a lot more and get stronger outside. And if it means that much to you, I can always go ahead and break something else so you can follow me until I pay that off…"

Pikachu then did an 'anime fall' seeing as a face-palm wasn't good enough in this situation.

Misty sighed. "Ash, you really don't know what to say do you?" She then got up, and Ash thought she was leaving, but she grabbed the stack of paperwork and dumped it into a dustbin. "Good riddance," she said. "You know what Ash? You're right, and don't get me wrong, I'll come back to run this gym the right way one day. But maybe for now... I'll just tag along with you."

Ash smiled. "Glad to have you back!"

Despite this initial warmness, they would be back to shouting at each other within fifteen minutes.

A/N: Thanks for reading! I don't know about Krookodile being 'cool', when I said 'cool' I mainly meant overpowered Pokemon like Ash having a team of Sceptile, Lucario, Charizard, Pikachu, Greninja or something along those lines where he has the best Pokemon from each generation and basically becomes Red. Well, Ash already had three of them, but it's rarer to see Ash stuck with a Pokemon like a Beedrill or Bellsprout, for example, or a Golbat.

I might add the Youtubers, but I'll be adding them when the story needs basically needs the video game equivalent of a trainer NPC rather than creating a new one that you won't hear about ever again like in the anime.

Also, unlike in the anime, Damian will return again. I plan something big for the Pokemon League.