Tensions on Fire

"Our heroes continue the journey to Vermilion City as Domino gets a new friend, a lovely Bulbasaur as the gang still looks lost."

James is walking while looking at the map. "According to my calculations, we are lost again."

Meowth groans in annoyance. "Thanks a lot, Einstein."

"This is unbelievable, we have been looking for Vermilion City for four days! Can we just get there already?!" Domino complained.

"I agree with Domino. Leaf is gonna get further and further ahead of me if we keep taking forever to get to Vermilion City." Jessie says.

Meowth looks at James who is still looking at the map. "I don't think I can trust Jimmy with the map anymore."

"You guys can trust me with the map, look, I spot the Nugget Bridge. We were just there and then we went-… uhh… which direction did we go again?" James scratches his head in confusion.

Jessie, Domino, and Meowth all fall in disbelief then get back up.

Jessie sighs in sadness. "We are never gonna reach Vermilion City, are we?"

"Poliwrath, Double Slap!"

"Charmander, dodge it!"

Two unfamiliar voices were heard from the gang as they looked where the voices were coming from.

"It sounds like two trainers are in a battle," Domino said.

"A battle?! I want to watch a Pokémon battle!" Jessie sprints off to where the battle is occurring at.

"Hey, wait up!" Domino sprints off as well to follow Jessie, and so do James and Meowth.

The title screen shows.

"Tensions on Fire!"

The gang comes across where the Pokémon battle is occurring at. It's between a trainer with a Charmander, blue hair and sunglasses on his head, a pink shirt, and black pants and the other trainer had a Pokémon that is the color blue, bipedal amphibian Pokémon with a spherical body and muscular arms. The trainer had black hair, a red shirt, and blue shorts.

"Charmander, use Slash!" The blue-haired trainer commanded.

Charmander slashes at Poliwrath as the Pokémon takes damage.

The other trainer makes his move. "Poliwrath, Water Gun!"

"Charmander, turn around and use your tail to block the attack!"

As Poliwrath releases a spiral of water from the swirl on its stomach to Charmander, the Pokémon turns around and uses its tail to reflect the Water Gun. It succeeds and causes steam to rise above the sky as its tail flame for shorter. The gang, while watching the battle, expresses shock.

"No way, Charmander just took that water-type move like it was nothing," Domino said in shock.

Jessie looks jealous. "That guy is so lucky, I wanted a Charmander that can take water-type moves."

"Best Charmander of all time!" Meowth added in.

However James didn't say anything, he was too busy watching Charmander close and thinking.

"Alright Charmander, go for another Slash!"

Charmander slashes at Poliwrath once more and the Pokémon goes down and faints.

The trainer gasps in shock. "No, Poly!" They immediately return their Pokémon and they run away to find a Pokémon Center.

The blue-haired trainer crosses their arms and smirks. "Looks like I won again, HA!"

"I have to battle this trainer!"

"Jessie wait-" Domino groans in annoyance at Jessie ignoring her as she follows and so does Meowth, but James just walks instead, still thinking.

Jessie confronts the blue-haired trainer. "I'd like to battle you next!"

"Oh really now? I accept your challenge." The blue-haired trainer smirks once more.

Jessie introduces herself to the trainer. "I'm Jessie from Pallet Town."

"My name's Damian." The blue-haired trainer reveals their name. "One-on-one battle, is that good for you?"

Jessie nods in agreement. "Works for me!" Jessie pulls out one of her Poké Balls from her purse. "This is my Pokémon's first battle. I choose you, Nidoran!" Jessie sends out her blue Nidoran into battle.

"Nidoran!"

Damian looks at Charmander. "Then I choose you, Charmander."

Charmander walks into battle.

James immediately steps in before the battle can even start. "Wait a darn minute! Your Charmander was just in a tiring battle, shouldn't you take it to a Pokémon Center first or use a different Pokémon?"

"How about you butt out and let us battle, dweeb!" Damian insulted.

"I am not a dweeb!" James snaps back in anger as Domino and Meowth both hold James back.

"Calm down, Jimmy!" Meowth says.

"Yeah, he ain't worth it," Domino added.

Damian turns his attention back to the battle. "Alright Charmander, Ember!"

Charmander releases bolts of fire and the move strikes Nidoran as the Pokémon takes damage.

"Tail Whip, Nidoran!"

Nidoran wags its tail as Charmander's defense drops one stage.

"Mega Punch, Charmander!"

"Dodge it, Nidoran!"

Charmander tries to punch Nidoran with muscle-packed power, but the Pokémon was able to move out of the way.

"Bite!" Jessie commanded.

Nidoran bites Charmander as the move hits and Charmander gets flung back and lands on the ground.

Damian starts stomping his foot on the ground in frustration. "Come on you stupid Pokémon, get up!"

Charmander slowly gets up and can still be able to battle as James gasps in shock.

"Did he just call his Charmander stupid?!" James says quietly to himself.

"Ember, Charmander!"

Charmander releases bolts of fire and the move hits Nidoran as the Pokémon is now burnt and takes more damage.

Jessie gasps in shock. "Crap, Nidoran is burnt!"

"Hell yeah! That makes up for missing your move earlier!" Damian yells directly at Charmander as the Pokémon just looks kinda sad. James spots the sadness coming from Charmander.

"Mega Punch and don't miss this time!" Damian commanded.

Charmander punches Nidoran with muscle-packed power and strikes Nidoran down as the Pokémon gets flung back and faints.

Jessie falls in disbelief. "No, I lost!" She returns Nidoran to its Poké Ball.

Damian starts laughing. "Looks like I won again!"

James walks directly up to Damian with a glare. "That's great and all, but now you should get Charmander to a Pokémon Center, right?"

Damian rolls his eyes in response. "Yeah yeah, I am. Stop getting up in my face! Come on Charmander."

Damian and Charmander both walk off.

Jessie looks at the Poké Ball containing her Nidoran and then at her friends. "Come on, we should also get to a Pokémon Center too to heal Nidoran."

As Jessie, Meowth, and Domino walk off to the Pokémon, James however stays behind a little while and looks back in the direction Damian and Charmander went. He sighs a little and was another to follow them until he heard Damian's voice.

"You call that a match?! You almost lost, you pathetic excuse of a Pokémon!"

James then heard a crack of a whip and immediately heads in the direction of Damian's voice where he saw Damian yelling at Charmander and whipping the ground.

"You Slash on that bush and I better see it split in half, or you get no Pokémon food!" Damian yelled.

Charmander immediately looks worried and uses Slash on the nearby bush and luckily the bush did split in half.

"Good." Damian pulls out Pokémon food and just pulls out just one piece and throws it on the floor as Charmander immediately eats it up.

"Char, Char, Char." Charmander looks down at its stomach as it growls.

"You want more food? Don't almost lose a match next time! I'm going around telling everyone that you're the best Charmander of all time and I can't have you almost getting defeated in matches!" Damian yelled.

James gasped in shock while watching this. He was about to confront Damian when he heard Jessie's voice far away.

"Are you coming, James?"

"EEP! Yeah, I'm coming!" As James was about to leave, he looks back at Charmander, the Pokémon doesn't look happy one bit, James frowns, feeling bad about the Pokémon as he leaves the scene to follow his friends.

It cuts to the Pokémon Center with Nurse Joy giving Jessie her Nidoran after healing it back up to full health.

"Your Nidoran is all healed up, Jessie." Nurse Joy says with a smile.

"Thank you!" After accepting her Nidoran, Jessie joins her friends at a table. "I'm still upset that I lost again." Jessie sighs in sadness.

"Hey, it was Nidoran's first battle after all, I think it did very well for its first battle," Domino says, trying to cheer Jessie up a little.

Meowth nods. "Yeah, I see potential in that kid."

Jessie just continues to look at Nidoran's Poké Ball. "I guess you're both right." She then sticks the Poké Ball back in her purse. "So I'm guessing we're staying here for the night?"

Domino nods. "Most likely. We're lost and have no idea where Vermilion City is."

"Are we even going in the right direction?" Meowth asked.

"Maybe ask Nurse Joy?" Domino suggested.

"I don't want to bug her again, being a nurse can be busy work," Jessie says.

James just looks out the window while sitting, he isn't really in the mood to talk as the three all just look at each other.

"Uhh James, are you okay?" Jessie asked.

James stops being silent to answer. "I don't think that Charmander likes to be with Damian."

Domino raises an eyebrow. "What makes you say that?"

"I saw… Damian is absolutely being mean to Charmander. He keeps yelling at it and barely feeding it." James explained.

Three gasps in shock after James' explanation.

"Jimmy, you're eating absolute crazy flakes right now!" Meowth says.

"Yeah!" Jessie agreed. "We didn't see anything wrong at all between Damian and Charmander."

"Yeah, you three didn't, but I did!" James continues looking out the window in sadness.

"Look, let's just have dinner. I made some delicious sandwiches for all of us." Domino pulls out four sandwiches and hands two of them to Jessie and Meowth.

"Thanks, Domino!" Jessie immediately starts eating her sandwich.

"Yeah, thanks!" Meowth starts eating his sandwich.

Domino then approached James with a sandwich in her hand. "Here you go, James!" Domino places the sandwich on the table near James as she starts eating her very own sandwich.

However, even though he likes to eat, James just ignores his sandwich and continues looking out the window.

"Jimmy, this isn't like you to ignore a delicious sandwich like this!" Meowth pointed out.

"Yeah, why aren't you eating, James?" Jessie asked.

"I'm just not hungry right now, guys. Just put my sandwich in a bag or something and I'll eat it later." James suggested.

Domino looks at Jessie and Meowth as they just shrug in confusion, but Domino does pick up James' sandwich and puts it in a sandwich bag.

James gets up and grabs the sandwich bag containing his sandwich. "I'll be heading to bed early. Night, guys." He heads to his room.

Meanwhile, the three all just look at each other.

"This isn't right after all, James is just really sad," Jessie says, actually worried about him.

"Perhaps James was right?" Domino suggested. "I mean, James has never acted this serious before, he wouldn't even eat his sandwich. Maybe what James said about Damian was right."

Jessie starts getting frustrated. "No way a trainer will ever do that to their Pokémon! There has to be some law about this if what James said is true."

Nurse Joy decided to speak up. "I'm afraid there's nothing we can do unless we have solid evidence. We can't really assume it from James just saying about Damian without evidence."

Domino frowns. "I'm afraid Nurse Joy is right."

"I would go out there, but it's getting late," Meowth says.

Jessie and Domino both nod in agreement.

"Yeah, we should get some sleep. We have to look for Vermilion City first thing in the morning." Jessie says.

"Let's head to bed then," Domino suggested.

Jessie and Meowth both nod as they stand up and so does Domino and start heading to their rooms.

"Night, Nurse Joy!" Jessie says.

"Good night, guys!" Nurse Joy responded with a smile.

It cuts to night with Domino, Jessie, and Meowth all currently sleeping. However, James is still wide awake from his bed and looking at the ceiling. James looks at his sandwich which he still has in his hands and is still thinking about Charmander. He gets out of bed and leaves his room.

It cuts to outside with James running in the forest. It looks like he's looking for something as he stumbles upon a tent. He slowly looks inside the tent where he sees Damian currently sleeping. James notices the belt around Damian where he's keeping his Poké Balls and slowly approaches the sleeping Damian extending his hand slowly to his belt and also slowly grabbing specifically one of his Poké Balls as James goes back outside.

"Charmander, go," James says quietly as Charmander is sent out.

Charmander slowly opens its eyes and yawns. "Char?" Charmander then sees that the trainer in front of him is, in fact, not Damian. "CH-" Charmander was immediately shushed by James.

"Shh, it's okay I'm here to help you, not hurt you, okay?" James says quietly while slowly removing his hand from Charmander. James then presents his sandwich, which Domino made for him earlier, to Charmander. "I saw how Damian was treating you earlier and you looked really hungry, here you can have my sandwich." He says with a smile.

Charmander slowly sniffs the sandwich. "Char!" then the Pokémon immediately starts eating the sandwich.

James smiles and chuckles at the Pokémon eating his sandwich. "You're welcome."

After Charmander was done eating, the Pokémon was heading back to the tent.

"Hey, wait Charmander," James says.

Charmander stops and looks back at James. "Charmander?"

James takes a deep sigh. "How would you like to come along and be my Pokémon instead of Damian's? I know how rough he truly is to you and I think you deserve a trainer who treats you more nicely and actually cares about you. What do you say?" James extends his hand to Charmander with a smile.

Charmander stares at James' hand and thinks about it. The Pokémon starts remembering all the times Damian has treated it harshly and begins shedding tears. It runs up to James and hugs him as James hugs the Pokémon back.

"Everything is gonna be okay," James says, still hugging Charmander.

"Charmander!" The Pokémon is still shedding tears on James' shoulder.

After a few seconds of James letting Charmander cry on its shoulder, he returns the Pokémon to its Poké Ball and heads back to the Pokémon Center.

It cuts to morning in the Pokémon Center with the gang waking up as we see Jessie, Meowth, and Domino both leaving their rooms and stretching until they see Nurse Joy with Officer Jenny and Damian.

"That's terrible!" Nurse Joy says in shock.

The trio looks at each other in confusion before walking towards the three.

"Officer Jenny? Damian? What's going on?" Jessie asked, curiously.

"It appears someone has stolen Damian's poor little Charmander." Officer Jenny says.

Damian starts fake crying. "Yeah! I woke up and noticed Charmander's Poké Ball was missing from my belt! My poor little Charmander is gone!"

Jessie, Domino, and Meowth all gasped in shock.

"I'm so sorry, Damian!" Domino says with a sad look on her face.

"Yeah, we're gonna find who this thief or thieves are!" Jessie declared,

Meowth nods. "Yeah, we're gonna get your Charmander back!"

"Thank you all so much!" Damian says as he slowly turns around so he can grin evilly.

One of the bedroom doors opens and James steps out as he walks towards the party and yawns. "What's going on over here, fellas?"

"Someone stole Damian's Charmander!" Jessie says.

This causes James' eyes to open wide in fear, luckily his sunglasses block the view of what is currently happening.

"Yeah, we got a Pokémon thief on our hands!" Domino added.

"And I'm sure I'll be here to make the arrest!" Officer Jenny declared.

Jessie starts to think. "But who would steal Charmander?"

Domino and Meowth both also start to think about who could steal Charmander as James slowly starts to get more and more worried every second that passes until he gets an idea.

James snaps his fingers. "Oh, I know who could possibly steal Charmander, Team Rocket did!"

"Of course! Yeah, Team Rocket most likely stole Charmander!" Jessie says.

Domino chuckles and rubs her head. "We have been dealing with those three a lot lately."

"Let's go out and find them then!" Meowth says as the gang nods in response.

It cuts outside as the gang including Damian and Officer Jenny leave the Pokémon Center.

"It's probably gonna take a while to find Team Rock-"

Jessie gets cut off mid-sentence as the ground below them gave up and everyone fell into a hole while screaming.

Everyone starts groaning in pain.

"Ugh, who did this?" Domino asked.

Laughing can be heard as everyone looks up and sees a hot air balloon in the sky.

"Prepare for trouble!"

"And make it double!"

"To infect the world with devastation!"

"To blight all people in every nation!"

"To denounce the goodness of truth and love!"

"To extend our wrath to the stars above!"

"Cassidy!"

"And Butch, of course!"

"We're Team Rocket, circling Earth all day and night!"

"Surrender to us now or you will surely lose the fight!"

"I'm Mondo alright!"

"Well… we found them," Jessie says.

Cassidy smirks. "All of you fell right into our pitfall trap! Literally!"

Everyone gets up after falling from the hole.

"Very funny, but you three need to return Charmander now!" Jessie yelled out.

"You three are all under arrest for stealing a Charmander!" Officer Jenny declared.

"Give me back my Charmander, now!" Damian starts stomping the ground angrily.

The Team Rocket trio all look at each other in confusion.

"What the fuck are you guys talking about?" Butch asked.

"We didn't steal any Charmander!" Mondo confirmed.

"But I know what we are gonna steal!" Cassidy pressed a button.

Robotic hands popped out below the basket of the hot air balloon as it extended into the hole, grabbed Meowth, and then the robotic hands retrieved back to Team Rocket.

Cassidy then grins. "A talking Meowth!"

"HEY, LET ME GO!" Meowth yelled out.

"No, you don't! Pidgeotto, I choose you!" Jessie sends out Pidgeotto.

"Pidgeotto!" The Pokémon starts flying towards Team Rocket's hot air balloon.

"Use Quick Attack and free Meowth!" Jessie commanded.

Pidgeotto strikes the robotic machine as it breaks and frees and catches Meowth on its back while he is falling.

The Team Rocket trio growl in anger.

"Cubone, use Bonemerang!" Mondo sends out Cubone.

Cubone uses Boomerang at Pidgeotto, but the Pokémon wasn't affected one bit by the move.

"YOU DUMBASS! Ground-type moves can't affect flying-types!" Butch yelled at Mondo.

Mondo rubs his head in embarrassment. "Oops…"

Meowth jumps on top of the hot air balloon and pokes a hole in it with its claw and then immediately jumps off and lands back on Pidgeotto.

The hot air balloon starts spinning out of control with Team Rocket screaming.

"LOOKS LIKE TEAM ROCKET IS BLASTING OFF AGAIN!" Ding!

Pidgeotto lowers to the ground as Meowth hops off.

"Thanks, Pidgeotto!" Meowth praises.

"Great work guys! Especially you Pidgeotto, return!" Jessie returns Pidgeotto to its Poké Ball.

It cuts to everyone finally getting out of Team Rocket's pitfall trap.

Domino goes back to thinking. "So it wasn't Team Rocket after all."

Damian starts stomping his foot in anger. "This is getting absolutely ridiculous, I want my Charmander back!"

"This case is really hard to crack." Officer Jenny admitted.

"If it wasn't Team Rocket, maybe it was a different person?" Jessie suggested.

James gets another idea. "Hey, maybe it was that previous trainer that Damian defeated. They got so jealous of the fact that their water type lost to a Pokémon that has the disadvantage, that he stole Charmander!"

"Yeah, that makes perfect sense, James!" Officer Jenny agreed.

"I mean, I would be upset too if my water-type Pokémon lost to a fire-type. But to go all out and steal? I don't really know about that." Domino says.

Jessie shrugs. "It's the best lead as of right now, we just have to go with it."

"Well, what are we waiting for, let's go find that trainer!" Damian demanded.

The party soon starts looking for the previous trainer that Damian battled. Meanwhile, Meowth was behind James and started whispering to him.

"I know it was you who stole Charmander, James."

James' eyes immediately widened at Meowth's correct statement. "What are you talking about? I didn't." He whispered back.

Meowth crosses his arms. "I'm not a dumb Pokémon, I could read your body language when they started questioning the thief."

James starts sweating, but then he sighs and comes clean to Meowth. "Okay fine, it was me, but you have to believe me, that Damian is not a good trainer to Charmander. Please don't tell the others."

"I wasn't gonna tell in the first place, this is fun to watch," Meowth admitted.

It cuts to everyone being able to find the previous trainer.

"I would like to ask you some questions if you don't mind." Officer Jenny says to the trainer.

The trainer looks nervous after seeing Officer Jenny. "O-oh umm okay."

Damian starts yelling at the trainer. "WHERE IS MY CHARMANDER?!"

The trainer jumps from being scared and starts shaking in fear.

Jessie holds Damian back. "Let Officer Jenny take care of things here."

Officer Jenny sighs in frustration before turning back to the trainer. "Can you empty your pockets and everything, sir?"

The trainer immediately nods as he empties all of his stuff including the Poké Ball containing Poliwhirl.

After a few minutes have passed, Officer Jenny searches everything and makes her conclusion. "You're clean, you may go. Sorry for disturbing you."

The trainer nods as they pick up their stuff and immediately runs out.

Officer Jenny continues to think. "So, it wasn't them, hmm…"

Damian finally had enough. "I'm so sick and tired of wasting time. You did this!" He points at Jessie.

Jessie immediately defends herself. "I didn't take your Charmander!"

"You're the other trainer that I have defeated with my Charmander, so it was you who stole it!"

Jessie and Damian start glaring at each other as Domino steps in between them.

"Alright, let's not fight here," Domino says.

Jessie crosses her arms. "Well tell him that I didn't steal his Charmander!"

"Tell her that she's nothing but a liar!" Damian snaps back.

Domino worriedly looks at Officer Jenny. "Jenny, can you help me please?!"

Meowth is secretly enjoying this as he leans on a nearby tree and watches this go down.

Officer Jenny finally snaps her fingers. "I got it!"

The gang and Damian immediately look at Officer Jenny.

"You did?" Damian asked.

Officer Jenny slowly approaches James as James' heart starts beating fast.

Officer Jenny starts making her case. "You seem really quiet recently and you also suggested that Team Rocket and that trainer stole it, which both of those claims turn out to be false."

"Hey, Jenny is right." Domino looks at James. "James? Don't tell me it was you."

Jessie frowns in sadness. "James, please say it wasn't you."

"They got him, looks like the fun is over," Meowth says quietly to himself.

James starts sweating a lot, but he eventually sighs and pulls out a Poké Ball, and sadly sends out Charmander.

"Charmander!"

Everyone but Meowth gasped in shock.

"James, how could you?!" Jessie said in disbelief.

Domino just shakes her head in disappointment.

"You! I should've known it was you!" Damian gets into James' face and grits his teeth in anger, although he is just pretending to be mad.

"James, you are under arrest." Officer Jenny was about to handcuff James.

"EEP! Wait, I have a defense!" James yelled out.

Officer Jenny stops. "What?"

"What are you doing, Officer?! Handcuff that thief immediately!" Damian demanded.

"Calm down, I want to hear their defense." Officer Jenny responded.

James starts making his defense. "I didn't steal Charmander! Charmander technically ran away from you, Damian! I took Charmander under my wing, because of how badly you treated them!"

Jessie, Domino, and Jenny all gasped in shock as Meowth is just eating popcorn while watching this.

"That is an outrageous lie!" Damian fired back.

"Oh yeah? Well about this. I challenge you to a Pokémon battle. If your Charmander listens to you and uses one move on my Pokémon, hits or misses, you automatically win the battle anyway."

"Does that really help James' defense, Officer?" Jessie asked Officer Jenny.

Officer Jenny nods in response. "If Charmander doesn't listen to Damian, it will be evidence that Charmander did run away from its trainer."

Domino looks worried. "James is really putting everything on the line with Charmander's actions."

"Fine, I accept your battle!" Damian agrees.

Time skips to James and Damian both standing on opposite sides of each other, getting ready to battle with Charmander already out of its Poké Ball.

"Koffing, go!" James sends Koffing into battle.

"Koffing!"

James crosses his arms. "I'll let you go first."

"Charmander, use Ember!"

Charmander looks at James who was smiling at him. The Pokémon looks down and remembers James giving them his sandwich when they were starving, and the hug as well. The Pokémon slowly looks back and doesn't use Ember like Damian commanded.

Damian looks worried. "Come on Charmander, stop messing around. Use Slash now!"

Charmander once again just stands still and doesn't use the move.

Koffing turns to James and asks their trainer if they want to use a move. "Koffing?"

James shakes his head. "It's alright Koffing, I don't need to use a move in this battle."

Officer Jenny starts glaring at Damian. "Why is your Charmander not listening to you?"

Jessie and Domino are also glaring at Damian as well with their arms crossed.

Meanwhile, Meowth is grinning at this. "This is so entertaining to watch!"

Now Damian is sweating from being worried. "Charmander, I am your trainer, listen to me right now! Use Mega Punch!"

Charmander once again doesn't use the move and just stands there still.

Damian starts stomping his foot on the ground in anger. "CHARMANDER!"

"Well Damian, I'm waiting for your first move," James says.

Now Damian starts growling in anger. "USE SCRATCH RIGHT NOW, CHARMANDER!"

Even with Damian's scream, Charmander still refuses to listen to him and doesn't use the move at all, and stands still.

Officer Jenny steps in. "Alright, I've seen enough! With Charmander not listening to you, Damian, it's evidence that the Pokémon did run away and James didn't steal it."

James returns Koffing to its Poké Ball and slowly looks down at Charmander. "Thank you, Charmander." He says, quietly.

Charmander gave him a little nod in response.

Damian starts clutching his fist in anger. "Oh yeah, you don't want to be my Pokémon anymore?!"

James and Charmander look at the frustrated Damian.

"Well, I don't want to be your trainer anymore as well!" Damian pulls out Charmander's Poké Ball, throws it on the ground, and stomps on it, crushing and breaking the Poké Ball into pieces as he runs away.

This causes everyone to gasp in shock from what they just experienced.

Officer Jenny shakes her head in response. "I hope you kids don't run into another trainer like him. Anyways, I'll see you guys later."

Officer Jenny waves goodbye as the gang wave goodbye back as she leaves out of sight.

Jessie looks at James and frowns. "I'm sorry we didn't believe you at first, James."

Domino also frowns as well. "Yeah, we're sorry that we thought you were a thief."

James chuckles and rubs his head. "It's fine guys, I'm just glad that I helped Charmander over here."

James smiles at Charmander as the Pokémon smiles directly back at him.

"Also, I did notice something about that battle Damian had earlier with that Poliwhirl. Jessie, would you please pull out your Pokédex for Charmander?" James asked.

Jessie nods in response and pulls out her Pokédex from her purse and aims it at Charmander.

"Charmander. A flame burns on the tip of its tail from birth. It is said that a Charmander dies if its flame ever goes out."

"Wait… Damian used Charmander's tail to block that Water Gun, correct." Domino says.

James nods. "Yep."

"Which also means, Damian could've killed Charmander by doing that!" Jessie says in shock.

Even Meowth was shocked. "I might be cruel, but I'm not that cruel!"

Domino starts glaring in the direction where Damian ran away. "What a disgusting disgrace of a trainer!"

Charmander looks down in sadness. "Charmander."

"What is it saying, Meowth?" Jessie asked.

"Charmander said that they have been dealing with Damian's cruelty ever since he was caught." Meowth translated to the gang.

Domino frowns in sadness. "Aww, poor little Charmander, I am so sorry."

James slowly picks up Charmander and hugs the Pokémon. "It's okay now, you don't have to deal with that trainer anymore."

Charmander looks at James and then hugs him back as James places the Pokémon down.

"Jessie, why don't you catch Charmander?" James asked.

Jessie immediately looks at James in shock. "Me?!"

James nods. "Charmander would be a great Pokémon to be on your team, also you always said you want one of three starter Pokémon on your team."

Jessie looks at Charmander who looks back at her.

Jessie then thinks for a bit. "A Charmander… that would be great for my team, but…" Jessie looks back at James and shakes her head. "No, you deserve to catch it, James."

"Wh-what?" James asked.

"Yes, you were the one that cared about Charmander from the start. Plus I think Charmander would be happier to be with you." Jessie explained.

"I agree, you deserve it, James!" Domino added.

"Yeah, catch that Charmander already, Jimmy!" Meowth also added.

James looks at Charmander and slowly pulls out a Poké Ball. "Charmander?"

Charmander looks at James back with a tearful smile. The Pokémon runs up to James, jumps, and taps on James' Poké Ball, as it goes inside, catching itself.

James looks at the Poké Ball containing Charmander with a smile. "I promise to treat you much better, Charmander. I caught a Charmander!" James poses.

Domino, Jessie, and Meowth both clap at James' successful catch.

James looks at his friends. "Come on, we should get moving again!"

Jessie nods in response. "Right!"

It cuts to the gang walking on a trail.

"And so, James got a new friend to join him on his team as our heroes continue to try to find a way to get to Vermilion City, so Jessie can win her third badge. When will they reach it? Who knows? As the journey continues!"