13 Chapter thirteen- The flames of Loyalty

It was multiple days after leaving the Pokémon sanctuary that Mason, Ash, Misty and Brock found themselves taking a break on the path to get their bearings. Brock was looking concerned over the map that he had folded out over a tree stump, while Mason was taking a drink from a water bottle next to him.

"So what's the word Brock," Mason asked as he put the cap back on his bottle and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, "how much longer?"

Brock frowned, "It's hard to say, I can't find where we are, if we are where I think we should be it should only be another few hours before we come to a Pokémon Centre but for the life of me I can't find the last marker Ash said we past on the map" he scratched the back of his head.

Meanwhile, Ash had a pair of binoculars out and was surveying their surroundings. "Oh, there's nothing but Spearow around here" he complained, taking in the sight of a dozen of the bird Pokémon in the grass in the distance.

"That's the least of our worries isn't it," Misty sighed as she flexed her feet, sore from all the walking they had done.

"Just because we're a little lost doesn't mean I have to stop catching all the Pokémon I can, does it?" Ash replied back a little annoyed by her comment, not seeing her point at all.

Mason shook his head, "Ash if you were really so concerned with catching Pokémon you would have a full team by now, give it a rest" he commented as he looked over the map with Brock.

"Well excuse me, but you only just barely have a full team of Pokémon yourself, so you're one to talk" Ash shot back.

Mason glanced up from the map, "I catch Pokémon at my own pace, and I don't go out catching just any Pokémon, now get over here and tell us where the marker was" he told him with a scowl.

Ash huffed and walked over before glancing down at the map before pointing out a spot on the map, "there, that one, route twenty-four" he said proudly.

Mason's jaw dropped as he heard that and looked at the map as multiple things ran through his head, the first being that Ash was a complete idiot, Route twenty-four took them in the exact opposite direction of Vermilion City, the second being that he knew just what was going to happen next… Charmander… The prick Damian, oh Mason was going to make that bastard pay.

Brock sighed, "Ash that can't be, you must have read the route wrong, if we were on route twenty-four we'd be going the exact opposite way of Vermilion, see," he said as he pointed out Ash's logic.

"So we're completely lost!?" Misty exclaimed as she slumped to the ground in defeat, "We've been walking for ten whole days now"

Mason pat her shoulder, "well all we can do is try to find a Pokémon Centre to get our bearings, the sooner we find one the sooner we can get a good bed to sleep in and a shower" he mused before sniffing his armpit and wincing, "I'm really starting to stink, water bottle showers just ain't going to cut it much longer"

"Then what are we waiting for," Misty said as she got up grabbing her bag, the prospect of a warm shower and comfortable bed seeming to have given her new energy as she set off at a power walk, "Let's go!"

Mason chuckled and shouldering his own bag, "well you heard the lady, guys. Forward march" he said knowing just what was coming as he set off to follow her with Brock and Ash coming up behind.

It didn't take them long, just another ten minutes of walking before they came to the rather large boulder, and Mason had to restrain himself to keep from sighing with relief when he saw Charmander atop it. He had been worried when they hadn't immediately found the boulder like in canon that he had somehow changed things in a bad way, and perhaps doomed the Charmander to die before they found him. But it looked like everything was still on track, for now.

"Is that a Charmander?" Brock asked as they came to a stop in front of the boulder looking up at the small fire-lizard perched atop the large rock.

Ash immediately fished out his Pokédex and pointed it at up in Charmander's direction.

"Charmander. The flame burns on the tip of its tail from birth. It is said that a Charmander dies if its tail ever goes out" Dexter reported confirming Brock's suspicions.

Mason frowned as he surveyed the Charmander, the flame on its tail looking weak and flickering, "Doesn't look to be in a good way does it," he commented as the Charmander was also breathing heavily on its perch.

"No it doesn't," Brock agreed.

"Then we'd better get it some help," Ash said as he took out a Pokéball, "when I first became a trainer, I was disappointed that I couldn't get a Charmander as my starter, looks like I'll get to catch one now," he said before throwing the enlarged Pokéball at the orange lizard.

But true to form Charmander turned on its spot and with a swipe of its tail knocked the Pokéball away and back to Ash.

"Touch little guy," Mason smirked.

"Yeah, looks like it still has plenty of strength to me" Ash commented as he looked at his Pokéball before looking at Brock, "Do you think I should have Pikachu battle it some to make it easier to catch?"

"Why don't you let me catch it? My water Pokémon would be a better match against a fire type like Charmander" Misty speaks up offering her aid.

Mason shook his head as he looked at Charmander, "I don't think that would be a good idea."

Brock nodded, "Mason's right, just look there, the flame on its tail," he said and pointed to the Charmander who was now breathing more heavily than before as it's flame flickered weakly,, it looked like it took nearly everything it had to deflect the Pokéball before. "There's no way it could still have the strength to battle. Ash, try the Pokéball one more time."

"Alright," Ash said, sounding more confident as he took aim and threw the Pokéball again.

This time Mason watched with narrowed eyes as the ball struck home without being deflected and pulled Charmander inside in a beam of red light before it landed on the rock.

"Alright!" Ash celebrated prematurely as the ball shook without the light at the front flashing before it burst open releasing Charmander just as it had been launching the Pokéball back at an unprepared Ash hitting him in the face.

"Sure has a lot of spunk" Brock commented as he crossed his arms looking at the Pokémon that was now glaring at the four of them.

Mason shook his head, "Something's not right," he commented, getting their attention, "Did any of you see how the Pokéball reacted when it pulled Charmander in, and after?" he asked.

"No, it just looked like a regular catch to me," Ash said dumbly.

Misty's eyes went wide as she realized what Mason was talking about, "there was no flashing light,"

Mason nodded, "exactly, there was no settling light and that can only mean one thing" Mason explained as he recalled one of the books he had read back in Cerulean city about how Pokéballs worked.

"It already has a trainer," Brock frowned.

Mason nodded, "looks like it," he said remembering how the book had explained how each individual Pokéball was registered to a trainer who purchased them, and how once a Pokémon was captured the Pokéball would register that Pokémon as caught through the Pokéball storage network and would prevent the Pokémon from being captured by another Pokéball until it was either released or the Pokéball was destroyed.

"If that's the case then why did its trainer leave it out here in this condition then?" Ash asked, angry that anyone calling themselves a trainer would do such a thing.

"I don't know, but if it has a trainer all we can do is leave it until its trainer comes back," Brock suggests with a sigh.

Mason shook his head, "No we shouldn't, we should take it to the Pokémon Centre to get treatment if it has a trainer the Centre should be able to locate them as well as reprimand them for pulling a stunt like this, its abuse, plain and simple" he stated, his anger clear in his voice, knowing full well how Charmander ended up out here, he wasn't about to let the prick get away with just a slap on the wrist for this. If he treated Charmander like this, just imagine what he treated his other Pokémon like.

Misty nodded, "we all know you're right mason," Misty agreed, "but what can we do, if it already has a trainer that means we can't catch it, and it's too weak to battle"

Mason sighed as he took off his backpack and handed it to Brock to carry before shrugging out of his coat, "there's more than one way to skin a cat," he muttered under his breath as he took his coat by its arms and moved to the bolder.

Charmander seeing him coming let out a weak growl and moved back as far as it could but it wasn't far enough as Mason scaled halfway up the boulder and used his coat to catch Charmander and pull it back and off the boulder before he wrapped it around the weakly struggling Pokémon to keep it from moving.

"Hold still," Mason said as he moved to wrap his arm around the small lizard Pokémon. He knew this was risky, but he was betting on Charmander from being too weak to burn itself out of his coat, "we're taking you to get healed, if you want to come back to this boulder to wait on your trainer after, fine, I won't stop you, but your life is in danger now" he said as he moved to hold Charmander in such a way that its tail was sticking out of the coat from behind him as he didn't want to smother it with his coat.

Despite his words, Charmander still continued to struggle in the coat making it difficult for Mason to hold. Ash quickly put his Pokéball away and ran over, "here let me help" he said as together they got a good hold on the struggling Pokémon and held it between them.

"Well that's one way to catch a Pokémon," Brock said shaking his head with amusement, "come on let's move"

Moving from then as a group the four of them moved as quickly and as gently as they could around the boulder and continued on the path they had been heading on.

Luckily for them, they spotted the Pokémon Centre a few minutes later and were well down the path towards it when the sky began to darken and the first few drops of rain began to fall and they were making their way inside just before it really began to come down hard.

"That was well-timed," Brock commented as the doors shut behind them.

"Yeah any longer and we'd be getting soaked out there," Misty agreed.

Mason nodded and mentally sighed at their good timing, in the show the three of them had been caught out in the rain, that would definitely not have been good for Charmander. At that thought Mason looked back and swallowed hard, the flame on Charmander's tail was even smaller than before, now that he noticed it he also noticed that Charmander wasn't struggling any more, shit.

"Charmander needs help now," Mason said, getting their attention as he pulled Charmander to himself and began to rush over to the front desk.

"Nurse Joy, we have an emergency," Mason said, getting the nurses attention from behind the front desk as he brought the Charmander over to her and showed her.

It only took her one look before she quickly stood up, "Chansey, use Soft boil on this Charmander immediately" she ordered as one of the Chansey rushed over and held its arms out as the egg on its front began to glow brightly.

Then as Mason and the others watched a small piece of the light broke away from the egg in a small sphere and floated over and into the Charmander. Almost immediately Charmander began to breathe a bit more easily as its tail flame grew a bit brighter but not by much.

Once its flame had settled Nurse Joy picked Charmander up from Mason's coat, "we'll take it from here," she said giving them stern looks before she carried Charmander away from the counter just as a second Chansey came with a stretcher for her to place it on before the three of them wheeled it away through a set of double doors.

Mason caught her look but didn't say anything about it as she took Charmander away. Only sighing once the doors swung shut.

"Well nothing more we can do now," Mason said as he lifted his coat, "come on let's go and get washed and get some food in us while we wait, I'm sure Nurse Joy will have some questions for us when she is done."

The others nodded before they went looking for the rooms that trainers could stay in overnight.

-Time skip-

It was an hour later that Mason was leaving his room in fresh clothes after a nice long shower, he may have been in it longer than necessary but he wasn't about to let anyone judge him on it. After ten days of not showering, he was going to enjoy any and all luxuries of being indoors that he could when he could.

"Mason," Misty called to him from down the hall, "down here, Nurse Joy is done treating Charmander, she wants to speak with you" she called to him.

Mason nodded and began walking down to her and into the room where Charmander was resting, only to be met by a slap to the face from a clearly furious Nurse Joy.

"How dare you!" Nurse Joy snapped at him, "How dare you treat Charmander like this, it's condition was atrocious, it's not even half the weight it's meant to be, and it's exhausted beyond reason, how could you let it get like this! I should have your license as a trainer revoked! This kind of behavior is inexcusable!"

Mason was so caught off by the slap and the rant that he was momentarily too stunned to speak, the slap had shocked him but by the end of her rant he realized just what had happened and what she was thinking. He didn't know what to feel angrier about first, her slapping him or the fact that she believed he was the one who had reduced Charmander to the state it was in. That last one felt like a punch in the gut, he would never do something like that.

He stood up to his full height in front of the nurse and glared at her, his fists clenched at his sides.

"Don't you dare," Mason growled, "Don't you dare ever, even insinuate, that I would ever treat a Pokémon like that," he spat, both in anger over being slapped and hearing Charmander's condition, "I would never do such a thing, and I'm insulted that anyone would even think that I would!" he snapped back at her.

Nurse Joy took a step back at his anger, her own faltering slightly at his response, she had been furious when she had realized the extent of Charmander's condition and had assumed as he was the one to bring Charmander in he had been the one responsible.

Misty herself in shock both from Nurse Joy's actions and Mason's anger quickly spoke up in Mason's defense, "Mason would never treat a Pokémon like that, he cares for all his Pokémon better than any trainer I've seen"

"Misty and Mason are right," Brock spoke up as well, "none of us would ever abuse a Pokémon like that,"

"Yeah, we found Charmander abandoned out on the road, weak and once we realized we couldn't catch it because it already had a trainer, Mason was the one to catch it with his coat so we could bring it here for treatment" Ash spoke up after.

Nurse Joy listened to them and immediately seemed to realize her mistake at jumping to conclusions and quickly bowed apologetically to Mason, "Oh my, I'm sorry I just assumed that you were its trainer because you brought it in, I should have realized…" she began to continue but Mason cut her off.

"It's fine," Mason cut her off and moved past her to look at Charmander who was asleep on the only bed in the room, its tail propped up on a small stand, the flame was stable but still very small, "how's Charmander?"

Nurse Joy frowned but lifting the clipboard with her notes she began to rattle off the various things her scan had shown up, "severe malnutrition from a poor diet, depleted energy levels from overtraining, exhaustion from lack of sleep, various untreated injuries that look to be the result of battling long past the point that any responsible trainer would deem reasonable…" she continued.

Mason's fists were clenched by his side more and more as she continued to list off several other problems that she had found with Charmander as a result of both its harsh training and poor diet. This was much worse than in the show from what Mason could tell, and he was extremely glad that he had stepped in as he had and made sure Charmander got to the Centre instead of being left out in the rain to catch pneumonia, that on top of everything else would have ended poorly he was sure.

"Will you be able to find its trainer?" Mason asked through clenched teeth, his voice cold.

Nurse Joy nodded, "if they haven't destroyed Charmander's Pokéball yes, if they have it will be a bit more difficult to prove they were Charmander's trainer, but I will do everything in my power to make sure they answer for doing this to Charmander."

Mason nodded, "good," he said before turning, "I'm going to go, and see to my team's dinner, I'll catch up with you guys later," he said and left them to watch over Charmander, his mind still railing from everything.

-Scene break-

It was about half an hour later that Mason sat at one of the tables in the corner of the Pokémon Centre. All his Pokémon were out of their Pokéballs and were around the table, each with a bowl of Pokémon food in front of them eating away happily at the Pokémon food that Mason had taken the time to make from scratch from the recipe that he had gotten back in Cerulean city.

While his Pokémon were all eating he was doing his best to keep his mind and hands occupied to keep himself from thinking back on what had happened with Nurse Joy and Charmander. Taking the opportunity to use the portable Pokéblock mixer for the first time since he had bought it and was mixing some of the various berries that he had bought.

Though his attempts were for not, as he cranked the wheel on the mixer, his mind and thoughts flowed, his anger over how Charmander had been treated came to the front of his mind as he spun the crank faster and faster.

His anger must have shown through as Misty, Brock, Ash and Pikachu came over with trays of food.

"Easy there Mason, you don't want to break that now with how hard you're spinning it," Brock told him with a voice of understanding.

Mason broke from his thoughts and realized that he had kept spinning long after the blocks were done and sighed as he undid the top, "thanks Brock, I just can't seem to get Charmander out of my head."

"It's understandable," Brock said as the three of them sat down and Pikachu went over to join Mason's Pokémon eating, Dratini happily sharing some of his food.

"Any word from Joy as to who Charmander's trainer was?" Mason asked as he began to feed the Pokéblocks into the container he had for them.

Brock shook his head, "Not yet."

"She was just finishing treating Charmander's injuries, and she said she would check the system in a few minutes so she should know soon", Misty explained.

Mason nodded as he slotted the last of the blocks into the Pokéblock dispenser, and that was when he heard it, the smug voice, the offensive British accent that made him cringe.

Looking over to the Centre of the room he could see the familiar blue hair of the prick he knew to be Charmander's trainer and his five buddies all crowded around the table in the lower sitting area of the Centre. Even from where Mason was sitting he could see the table had a pile of shrunken Pokéballs on it well over the legal carry limit for a single trainer.

"Just look at 'em, it's a pretty cool collection if I do say so" the offensive accent carried, gaining the others attention as well.

"Way cool,", "You're the man Damian", "Yo, I thought you had a Charmander too?"

The now identified Damian scoffed and shrugged his shoulders, "Yeah, I had one. But that little shit was such a weakling I couldn't do anything with it. Even with all the training I gave it, it just didn't get any stronger. I was at my wit's end with it."

Hearing that Mason took in a breath as he had to hold himself back from immediately going over and pummeling the prat.

"So what did ya do with it?" one of the pricks' friends asked.

Damian laughed, "that thing was so pathetic, always following me around like some lost puppy. I eventually got rid of it by leaving it on a rock and promising I'd come back for it"

By this time Damian not only had the four trainers' attention but all of the Pokémon's attention as well and they were all glaring at Damian and his buddies angrily as the six of them started laughing like it was some kind of joke. Cubone looked down hearing about how casually the trainer had abandoned Charmander, being reminded about how he too had been abandoned.

"That thing's so stupid, I bet it's still out there right now waiting for me to come back, what a hoot," Damien joked getting another round of laughs from his buddies.

That was the last straw for Mason. He stood up from the table and gave a glance to Brock.

"Hey, Brock, don't you think that that pile of Pokéballs look extremely suspicious," Mason commented in a low voice, "it's well above the carry limit for a regular trainer."

Catching his tone Brock couldn't help but give a small smirk, "you're right, very suspicious," he said as he rose from the table as well, catching onto just what Mason was up to. The pile of Pokéballs, plus his verbal admission of abandoning Charmander as he had would give them more than enough to bring him to the attention of the local authorities.

Both began to make their way over to the group, followed by Ash and Misty, both as equally as angry and disgusted with what they had heard. Walking down to the lower area Mason acts fast.

He grabs Damian by his arm and pulls him from his seat getting a surprised yelp from the boy, but before he can react Mason spins him around and slams him against the table twisting his arm and pushing it up to the middle of his back.

"OW, what's the big idea!" Damian yelled outraged at the sudden attack and tried to reach for his Pokéballs on the table with his other arm. But he found them pulled out of reach as Brock moved to do his part as he scooped the Pokéballs up and into his arms.

"Hey!", "What do you think you're doing!", "let him go!" Damian's buddies all went to try and help, reaching for their own Pokéballs but suddenly found themselves out cold and on the ground, as Scyther blurred from where it had been and appeared behind them, its blades extended but in reverse showing it had knocked each of them out with the backs of its arms.

"Wa-What!" Damian said in shock at everything that was happening but winced as he felt his arm get pushed up higher on his back as Mason knelt over him.

"So, you're the shit who thinks it's some kind of joke to abandon their Pokémon and leave them starving, exhausted and in no condition to defend themselves," Mason growled as he squeezed Damian's wrist harder.

"You should be ashamed of yourself," Misty added glaring at Damian with hate-filled eyes.

"You could have killed it," Ash added clenching his own fists wanting to punch the prick.

"Yeah so what if I did, it's my Pokémon, I can do what I like with.." Damian went to reply only for another squeeze and push of his wrist to cut him off and make him hiss in pain.

"You're scum, no one like you should ever be allowed to become a Pokémon trainer," Mason growled, restraining himself from pushing up any more on Damian's arm if he did he'd be likely to dislocate or break the joint.

"What's going on here?" Nurse Joy said as she came out hearing the ruckus but paused when she saw the scene and who Mason was restraining, "oh it's him" she said before frowning, "I just finished with Charmander's treatment and scan, and I've called Officer Jenny to report this case of clear Pokémon abuse, but it seems you've saved her the trouble of hunting this one down"

"What'd ya mean hunting me down?" Damien asked but he was ignored as Nurse Joy turned and gestured to the hallway.

"Could you please bring him this way, we can keep him in one of the back rooms until I've had time to call Officer Jenny back and tell him that we have him here," Nurse Joy explained, "You'll all have to stay as well, she'll no doubt want to speak with each of you about how you all found Charmander"

Mason nodded and pulled Damian to his feet none too gently and began to push him up the steps towards the back room.

"Nurse Joy," Brock said getting her attention, "Damian also had these seventeen Pokéballs on him, could you please check them over, we overheard Damien talking about how he abandoned Charmander, and if he treated Charmander poorly he can only have done the same or worse with his other Pokémon"

Nurse Joy nodded, "of course I'll get started on them right away," she said before looking to the unconscious forms of Damian's friends, "you can put them into a room as well, and confiscate their Pokémon, I'll look at all of them as well, if they are like Damian then they will have to be dealt with by Officer Jenny as well"

"We'll help," A voice said and Mason looked over to see other trainers that were in the Centre step forward, "we heard all of it, scum like that give Pokémon trainers a bad name", "Damian and his lot are nothing but trouble" they voiced.

Mason smirked and pushed Damian forward again, "this just is not your day is it ass wipe" he muttered to the cussing trainer. Pushing him through the doors face-first Damien cursed.

"So bloody what!" Damien yelled as Mason manhandled him down the corridor, "The thing was pathetic, ow, a weakling, I didn't do anything wrong, so what if I wasn't going to go back for it, it's it's own fault for being stupid enough to believe me"

"And the abuse, Nurse Joy read all of the Injuries your treatment of Charmander caused, it's lucky to even still be alive because of you," Damien growled as they got to a room.

"Training, I train my Pokémon hard, they know if they want food they have to earn it, the strong eat and the weak don't plain and simple" Damian smirked only to get shoved face first through a door and tossed onto the ground, he turned but froze seeing Mason glaring down at him. If looks could kill then Damian would be dead ten times over from the glare that Mason gave him.

"You're lucky that Nurse Joy has already called Officer Jenny, otherwise…" Mason said as he glared at Damian, "I'd be tempted to let you go… just so I could hunt you down myself… and end you" he spat before closing the door as he stepped out closing it and locking it as he did so.

Mason stood outside the door for several seconds breathing deeply to try and control himself, he was beyond furious, he had hated animal abusers back in his last life, and now in this world Pokémon abusers…. It just made him sick.

Getting himself under control Mason looked down the corridor towards the room that he knew Charmander was in, he felt himself pause as he saw the flicker of Charmander's tail go back into the room before the door closed behind it. Mason's shoulders slumped as he sighed, he could guess what had happened, Charmander had heard Damian's confession about internally leaving it out there to die.

Well, he guessed that Charmander would never have accepted another trainer if he was still loyal to Damian, this just shattered that loyalty. It had to happen one way or another.

-Time skip-

With the help of the other trainers at the Centre all of Damian's buddies were piled onto the beds in one of the guest rooms to away Officer Jenny's arrival, which didn't take long even with the storm outside, and needless to say, she did not arrive happily.

As the doors to the Centre opened Jenny walked in shaking her head, her plastic overcoat dripping from the storm outside, even with the hood her hair was a mess and she had a scowl on her face that Mason guessed was two parts due to why she was there, and one part due to being called out in the middle of the storm and in the middle of the night.

"Alright no one move, I'm tired, soaking wet and pissed off," Officer Jenny growled, "someone point me to where Nurse Joy is"

All trainers in the room, Mason included, pointed towards the doors leading to the office space behind the front desk. All of them wisely not wanting to further annoy the clearly pissed off officer.

Officer Jenny grumbled before pulling off her plastic overcoat and throwing it onto one of the coat racks before making her way to the office area. She was only gone for about a minute before every trainer flinched as they heard her yell "WHAT!!!!"

The next second the door to the office area opened and Jenny stepped out, "Whichever one of you is Mason, get yourself in here!"

Mason couldn't help but swallow a little bit intimidated by the clearly furious woman but none the less got up from his seat and made his way into the back office area to find Nurse Joy sitting behind a large oak table with several files laid out on it.

Jenny shut the door before walking over to the table, "Am I to understand that you and your friends are the ones to have found that poor Charmander abandoned on your way here"

Mason nodded, "Yes Ma'am" he responded, keeping his answers short and to the point unless asked otherwise not wanting to waste any time.

Jenny nodded, "you did a good job getting it here as fast as you did," She commended him as she sat down in a chair next to Nurse Joy, "I need you to walk me through everything that happened from when you and your friends found Charmander, and anything else you can think of that might help in prosecuting these criminals," she said as she took out an offered notepad and pencil from Nurse Joy so she could take notes.

Mason nodded and took a seat on the opposite side of the table and began to recount all that had happened from when they had found Charmander, leaving nothing out and making sure to mention how he and the others had clearly heard Damian explain how he had intentionally abandoned Charmander out there in the forest knowing full well what state it was in, and also how Damian had commented on his treatment of his Pokémon.

A couple of times during his recounting Jenny looked as though she was angry enough to snap the pencil she was using with how hard she was gripping it, clearly, she was as disgusted with Damian as he was.

Nurse Joy wasn't faring much better as a few crumpled pages showed when her own anger and disgust had gotten the better of her several times through the recounting.

Finally when he was done Jenny put down her pencil and scowled, "I hate cases like these, they don't come around often but when they do they are always hard," she said with a frown, "but thanks to you this one is going to be relatively quick to deal with, and with all the evidence that Nurse Joy has gathered together from his Pokémon's health reports I'm going to be able to levy multiple charges against him"

"So it wasn't just Charmander then?" Mason asked, guessing the outcome of what Nurse Joy had found.

Nurse Joy sighed, "All of them, all of Damian's Pokémon show similar signs of abuse by him, signs of malnutrition and training beyond reasonable limits, none as extensive or as recent as Charmander but the evidence is clear when they are scanned, it's disgusting to think that he could do this and could have continued to do this"

"Well he won't be after this," Jenny assured her and Mason, "right now we have him solid on eighteen counts of Pokémon abuse, and he was caught red-handed carrying three times over the legal carry limit for a Pokémon trainer of his status. I'm going to be doing a deep dive into his records once I get him back to the station to see if he has any other Pokémon on record, released or otherwise. There is no way that he'll be keeping his trainer licence after this, the league has a harsh tolerance policy on Pokémon abuse and even if they didn't with this many counts against him he's already looking at jail time and a lot of it"

Mason couldn't help but smile at that, that was more like it, finally some actual results, "that's good, but what will happen to his Pokémon, and what about those friends of his? Were they abusing their Pokémon like Damian?" he asked

Nurse Joy shook her head, "no they weren't, a couple of them looked to have been trained a bit harder than they needed to be but other than that they are in good health"

"I'll be calling in for backup to help transport them all to the station," Jenny explained, "the friends will all be given warnings and a notice will be put on their licenses so all Pokémon Centers will be keeping a close eye on any of their Pokémon for signs of abuse. As for Damian's Pokémon, once they are treated and cleared as fit enough, standard procedure for things like this is that they are sent to a Pokémon wildlife preserve where Pokémon catching is prohibited by law so they will be safe"

Mason nodded, "I see, I was just curious if adoption was an option, there are several trainers still here who I'm sure would be glad to help in any way they could, myself and my friends included"

Jenny arched an eyebrow at the offer and looked to Nurse Joy who only smiled at her and nodded her opinion. Jenny sighed at that, taking off her cap and scratching the back of her head.

"Well that is an option too I suppose, and it would save me from the paperwork in the long run, and free me up to do a deeper search into these sixes background to see if anything more pops," Jenny said, sounding not opposed to the idea.

"But each trainer would have to be informed that the Pokémon in question will have to stay at this Centre until I clear them, and after that, they will be on a strictly regimented diet to help them further recover from their malnutrition" Joy explained after the fact sternly and seriously.

Mason nodded, that wasn't unreasonable, it was expected really given what they had been through and he was sure that any trainer would understand that as he did.

Seeing the nod Nurse Joy smiled and turned the files around and pushed them to him, "these are the Pokémon that previously belonged to Damian, let me know if you want to claim any of them"

Mason nodded and began to flick through the files looking over everything calmly, though the details in some of the files of the past abuse made him want to leave the room and punch Damian repeatedly for them. But he cooled himself down knowing that the bastard was getting what he deserved.

In the end, Mason chose only one of the seventeen other Pokémon that Damian had, his only other fire type, a female Growlithe that looked to be the second-worst off after Charmander. While he was tempted to pick more he knew he already had a full team, and he didn't want to seem to be taking advantage of a bad situation.

He was told that Growlithe would have to stay in the Centre for at least another week given her status but as soon as she was fit he would be transferred to Professor Oak and added to his roster.

Mason nodded and left happy to have helped. After that one by one, each of the others was called in to give their statements, and at the end of it all, each of the abused Pokémon that had previously belonged to Damian all had new trainers awaiting them when they made recovery.

Misty had chosen to take a female Dewgong, Brock had chosen both a female Rhyhorn and a male Sandslash, and Ash, of course, had asked for Charmander.

All in all, Mason was pleased with how things had turned out, and come the next morning there was not one sign of Damian or his buddies and the gang were able to leave with little problem. Charmander had been given a clean bill of health but Nurse Joy had asked that he be kept out of any battles for a week just to be sure and Brock had been given a list of Charmander's dietary needs for the next several weeks.

Mason had half expected them to fall into the trap hole that team rocket had dug in the middle of the road like in the show, but oddly enough they didn't and Mason shrugged it off as just one other thing he had changed, probably his part in their last blast off launched them farther than originally intended, but he wasn't about to complain, things were good.