When he came to, he was in a building, lying on a big, strange, nest. It was soft, and warm, and curiously smooth, but best of all, his shoulder felt so much better. It still hurt, but the pain was reduced to a dull throb rather than the stabbing, searing awfulness it was before. It was pleasant enough for him to not question the change in scenery too much. Well, until a pink pokemon waddled up to him. He lurched up, wincing as his shoulder protested the sudden movement. Braviary dimly recognized the pokemon as an Audino, but he wasn't letting another pokemon corner him again.

The Audino raised her hands, and a green glow emanated from her hands. A soothing scent filled the room as he felt himself relaxing. Aromatherapy, he realized.

"Please, we aren't here to hurt you. I'm Lily, the Audino at this Pokemon Center, and I'm here to help you, sir.", she said, paws in front of her in a placating gesture.

Valient narrowed his eyes at the Audino, but didn't move.

"May I know your name, Braviary?", she asked.

He stared at her coldly.

"Well, it's ok if you're not comfortable with that. Anyways, you're very hurt. We treated all that we could, but you will still need to take it easy for a while."

He frowned, he couldn't take it easy. Not if he wanted to return to his clan, anyways.

The Audino frowned in turn. "I know this is not a pleasant situation, but you will sustain permanent damage to your wings if you keep pushing yourself."

Valiant froze at the mention of his wings. What was a bird pokemon without their wings? But, what was he without his clan? His family?

The Audino's tone changed to something more firm, as she saw that Braviary was still unsure. "I know Thunder Wave. If you try to leave before you're fully healed, I can and will use it."

He stared at the Audino, and then slumped into the bed, defeated.

Her eyes softened at that. "I'm sorry Braviary. That's just how it is."

That's just always how it is, Valient thought bitterly.

Valiant was staring at Lily as she came inside the room. It had been 2 days since the disastrous fight in the desert, and a day since he had woken up. He was feeling well, and he intended on asking the Audino just how he had come to wake up in a Pokemon Center. He picked uneasily at his food in the meantime, as he had a sneaking suspicion about how he had gotten here.

"Audino, do you know how I got here?"

She paused, and said uneasily, "Um, a trainer brought you here…".

His eyes widened.

"There's nothing to fear. I'm sure she'll release you if you want!", Lilly said hastily.

"Release?! I've been captured?!", Valiant squawked.

Before the audino could say anything else, a small brown fox dashed into the room, through the door that had been left ajar by Lilly.

"Hi! Are you the guy who kicked Riley and Aster's butts? I had to know who put that insufferable dog in his place!" she said, gleefully.

Valiant stared at the Eevee, trying to make sense of what the fox was asking, a task made harder by the fact that he was still reeling from Lilly's latest revelation.

"The… The riolu and snivy?", he asked.

Eevee grinned, but Lilly didn't look quite as pleased.

"Now, didn't I tell you not to disturb the patient?"

"Yhea, but you already disturbed them, so I figured it didn't matter anymore!" , Eevee chirped.

The Audino gave a long-suffering sigh, before turning to Valient.

"Braviary, the trainer only caught you to bring you here. Are you ok to meet them?"

He stared uncertainly at Lilly. His clan didn't interact with humans very much, and often scoffed at the mock-battles they and their pokemon participated in. Battles were not silly games you played with friends.

"Fine. I have to see them at some point.", he grumbled.

The eevee ran off to fetch their trainer, and Lilly hurried after them. Valiant tried to figure out just what he wanted to do. He was ashamed that he would ever have any doubts, though. He was a wild and free pokemon, and it would stay that way, even if he was no longer part of his clan. Even if the code and family he dedicated his life to turned their backs on him, he would never do the same to them.

The little brown fox burst into the room again, followed Lilly and two humans. He tensed when he saw the two enter the room. One of them had pink hair, and looked vaguely similar to Lilly. The other was smaller and had long brown hair. He wondered which one was the trainer.

The one with brown hair stepped forwards, closer to his bed. He eyed the human warily. He would say that he didn't trust humans as far as he could throw them, but as a Braviary, he could throw even the full grown humans pretty far.

The human looked… almost… nervous? Valiant didn't know if that was a good sign or not. Then he noticed a certain blue and black brat skulking at the doorway.

"Um, Braviary, I'm so sorry for what Riolu did on Route 4! I promise, I didn't have him attack you. But! I still take full responsibility for his actions. So please, will you forgive us?", the human girl spluttered out.

He gawped. For the most part, he didn't hear of tamed pokemon disobeying their trainers. He didn't know if this was a good thing or a bad one. Not that he was particularly concerned for the brat riolu.

"I forgive you, but not the brat.", he grumbled, and turned to glare at the insolent little thing.

The riolu jumped up from where he was skulking, indignance burning in his voice.

"I'm not a BRA-". He was cut off by two slender green vines wrapping themselves around his mouth.

"Shut up!", Snivy hissed, irritation clear in her voice.

The human girl frowned, and Valient realized that she must have only picked up on the irritation in his voice. He always thought that it was a silly myth that humans couldn't understand pokemon's speech. After all, he could understand what they said just fine.

"Well, let me just release you, then. I get the feeling you don't want to be cooped up in a pokeball, huh?", she said.

Valiant nodded.

"Wait, you're not joining us?", Eevee said, a little miffed.

Lilly smiled, and turned to the little brown fox. "Well, it's his choice. From what I've heard, he didn't really get off on the right foot with your team."

"And even if I did, I wouldn't want to be at some human's beck and call.". Valiant's pride wouldn't let him. And perhaps, he still held out hope that his clan would one day take him back, but if he decided to travel with a human, then they would never accept him again.

The snivy huffed in indignation. "Seriously? Do you hate humans or something?".

The riolu, having just been freed by Snivy, started mouthing off again. "He just thinks he's soooo much better than us, just because he beat us! Well, if I had the type advantage over someone I'd easily beat them! In fact, didn't he have a hard-"

"QUIET! You insolent brat! I can't believe I felt bad about knocking you out! I'll beat you again without using any flying-type attacks if you want!". Valiant's outstretched talon's glowed white, threatening a Slash.

Lilly and the nurse jumped a bit, tense in case a fight broke out, but Rosa had been faster, and planted herself in between Riolu, who looked shocked, and Valiant, who looked furious.

Rosa gasped, "Hey, hey! Guys, let's not fight. Riolu, I told you to apologize to him, not, erm, insult him!".

Recovering from his shock, the riolu dashed out of the room. Valiant thought he could make out tears in his eyes. He almost felt bad for him, but the brat had called him weak. He couldn't stand it when impetuous children called him weak.

The human frowned, looking torn between chasing after the distraught riolu or apologizing for the brat's behavior. Snivy decided to run after Riolu though, so the girl turned to Valiant instead.

"I'm so sorry. He's just kind of… troubled.", she said, a little exasperated.

Valiant huffed and turned away. He hated every moment of this. He just wanted to be back with his clan. His family. And instead he was sitting in a human city, trapped on all sides, and forced to interact with humans and their tamed pokemon.

He was jolted out of his moping by being bathed in red light, which startled him enough to make him jump. He then started falling back down, despite not hitting the ceiling like he would have expected. He then stopped falling, but he didn't feel the bed. In fact, he didn't feel anything! No no nononono! Make it stop! This is not natural, not in the slightest! No-

And then it stopped, and the pink and purple pokeball she was holding, broke in two.

What? Valient thought.

"Erm, are you ok. You looked a bit panicked there Braviary." Lilly asked, an undercurrent of amusement in her voice.

"What the actual fu-"

"She was releasing you, Braviary.", she clarified. Except, it clarified nothing.

"Yes, but why does it feel like that?!"

The human looked confused at the panicked squawking, seeing as she had done what he had wanted.

"Oh, this Braviary must not be very familiar with how pokeballs work, dear. It can be frightening to some pokemon experiencing it for the first time", the nurse explained.

Valiant was rather miffed at being called "frightened". I'm not some chick to be frightened! That is just plain unnatural!

"Oh. Erm, sorry about that, Braviary. I guess it must be weird for you. Anyways, hope you get better soon.", the girl said, dashing off to, presumably, find her two pokemon that had ran off.

The eevee started to leave, but turned around as she was going to go through the door.

"I hope you get better soon Braviary, even if you are a big grump."

Valient stared at the brown fox, and then mumbled,

"Thank you, eevee."