After a week of reading up on healing techniques stuck indoors Ash decided that he would take a walk. When he left the villa he headed north, soon enough he tripped over something lying across the centre of the path and fell on his face. When he looked up a serpentine Pokémon shooting two green vines at him at a high speed, however, before they could hit him, they slowed dramatically and fell to the ground, completely useless. Ash realised that there could only be one reason that an attack like that would fail, is if that the Pokémon that was using it was seriously injured. Ash, concerned for the Pokémon's wellbeing, jumped up off the ground, and rushed over to the Regal Pokémon and, avoiding repeated attempts to attack him, managed to get within nine feet of it, but then he saw its tail taking on a metallic sheen and jumped away, knowing that the metallic sheen meant that the Pokémon knew Iron Tail.
Ash, figuring that there was no way that the Pokémon before him was going to allow him to help it, announced, "Alright then, if you aren't going to let me help you as is, Garchomp, come on out," first of all retrieving a Pokéball from his belt and then throwing it towards the Pokémon. Ash stated alright Garchomp, I don't know what kind of Pokémon this thing is, but right now, it's doing more damage to itself than anything else. We need to help it, but, as riley said on Iron Island, sometimes to help a Pokémon, you need to injure it. Use Flamethrower." Garchomp breathed a stream of fire at the grass type and, when it was over, the Pokémon was badly burned on top of its previous injuries. Ash said "sorry, whatever you are. But it had to be done." Ash then withdrew a Pokéball from his belt. This was no ordinary Pokéball however. This one was a bright pink with a blue band running the circumference of the ball. The ball also had some beige designs running up it. Ash quickly ran over to the downed Pokémon and, before anything more could happen to it, he dropped to his knees and tapped the Pokémon on the head with the Heal Ball that he had acquired prior to leaving from Pallet Town. The Pokémon was sucked into a silvery light and the ball shook in Ash's hands a few times before making a sound that indicated that he had captured the Pokémon.
He turned to Garchomp and said "thanks Garchomp. I think that it might be a good idea for you to remain out here while I do this next bit." Garchomp let out a querying bark that Ash promptly ignored in favour of showing him. He announced "alright Pokémon, come on out." As the Pokémon appeared out of the Pokéball it said "Ssserrpeerriioorrr." Ash rhetorically asked "I wonder what kind of Pokémon you are. Too bad I left my Pokédex back at the villa." The Serperior cocked its head in curiosity at Ash. "Oh, it's nothing, it's just that if I had my Pokédex with me, I could find out what you are and what you can do. Tell you what, what do you say we go back to the villa and get some brunch?" the Serperior nodded and Ash returned it, and Garchomp to their Pokéballs before heading back to the villa.
When Ash got back Cynthia looked up from the book that she was reading and exclaimed "Ash! I didn't think that you would be back so soon."
"Yeah, well I had actually originally intended to keep on going until around one o'clock before heading back, but I ran across an injured Pokémon and, even though I used a heal ball to capture it, I figured that it couldn't really hurt to come back and check it out thoroughly."
"That's very responsible of you Ash."
"Yeah, well those books that you've had me reading have really expanded my view as to what needs to be done to truly take care of your Pokémon."
Cynthia smiled and said "I thought that they might. When I saw you in the Sinnoh Region the first time, you struck me as being really similar to my best friend."
"Really? Why's that?"
"Well, you both love Pokémon so much that you would probably put your life on the line, just so that a Pokémon wouldn't get hurt, right?"
Ash thought back to the experiences that he had gained whilst with Annabel. Namely the one in which he jumped in front of a Beedrill, just so that it didn't get hurt. "Yeah, I have done so."
"I thought that you may have. She does much the same when it comes to protecting Pokémon."
"Okayy..."
"Well, she happens to own this villa and those books in there are actually hers and she told me that they really helped her when she didn't know what to do."
"Well, alright then. Better get to checking that Pokémon" Ash stated prior to leaving the room.