Bulbasaur decided to follow them into the cabin , if not to at least keep an eye on the humans but Melanie told Bulbasaur to stay outside .

"Saur." Bulbasaur muttered only to hear something and he turned to see the Raticate that was a member of Austin's team.

"Cate, Rati." Raticate began to converse with the Bulbasaur who decided to test his curiosity about the humans that she traveled with.

The Raticate answered his questions easily as Bulbasaur was stuck listening to some tales about the journey these four humans have been on.

It was the exact same thing that Pikachu told him, showing more credibility to how these humans acted.

Unknown to him, Melanie saw Bulbasaur interacting with the Raticate. "I've never seen Bulbasaur so relaxed around other humans or their Pokemon before." She commented bringing his presence to everyone else's attention.

"What's Bulbasaur's story?" Brock asked curiously.

Melanie was silent before she sighed. "Bulbasaur was abandoned by a cruel trainer." She said, her words catching Scyther's attention immensely. "The trainer said that he was weak after Bulbasaur was injured badly and left him without even trying to heal him."

Her fists were clenched as she said that, showing her anger towards the trainer who abandoned the Bulbasaur.

"That's terrible!" Yellow said on hearing that.

Brock's face was shadowed in anger. "That trainer deserves to lose the privilege of being one." He said before giving Bulbasaur a sorrowful look.

"But how did Bulbasaur trust you if that happened?" Misty asked in surprise. "I would think that he wouldn't trust anyone after that."

"It wasn't easy." Melanie said remembering yelling at that trainer for how he was abusing his Pokemon, but he just mocked her and left.

Despite wanting to confront him, her main worry was about Bulbasaur who was snarling at her as she tried to pick him up, he retaliated with Vine Whip causing some stinging bruises to appear on her arms, but she didn't give up.

"Bulbasaur tried everything to make me leave him alone." Melanie had a sad smile as she could remember Bulbasaur biting her fingers as she tried to change his bandages to knocking the food she attempted to give her away. "But overtime he overcame his hatred and began to trust me, since then he worked hard to keep this place safe."

Scyther was quiet as he looked at Bulbasaur in understanding.Both of them were abandoned Pokemon, but in his case Paul never left them injured on releasing them, he did heal them before doing so.

What Bulbasaur's old trainer did was unforgivable.

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Austin returned later that evening with Fearow who landed in the clearing in order to get something to eat as everyone else was beginning to clean up.

"Any luck?" Yellow asked as he returned only for Austin to give a smile.

"It's an improvement." Austin said looking at her. "So what happened while I was gone?"

Yellow hesitated before she filled him in on what they talked about and Austin went silent.

That was something that they didn't explain in the anime .

But to his surprise he saw Bulbasaur talking to Raticate and Scyther made the initiative to come over to talk with the little guy as well.

'If anyone could understand him, it's Scyther.' Austin thought seeing that before he began to help with the clean-up from the dinner they had as Melanie was speaking to Brock about the different plants used to make Medicine as the Breeder was writing them down, eager to learn them.

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Nothing else really happened until the next morning when Brock was asking more questions about the healing plants and Melanie decided to show them how to make the plants.

It was interesting to say the least but Austin noticed that Yellow wasn't really paying that much attention, probably because she could heal Pokemon without that stuff.

But she did look amazed by how the medicine was made.

"This is really useful to know." Austin said as he began to write some stuff down for himself.

It wouldn't do to not be able to heal his Pokemon if there was no Pokemon Center and he was separated from everyone else.

It turned out that the group was learning a lot from Melanie. She had showed them the various types of plants that she uses and what each one does. She even did a few demonstrations of how she turns the plants into medicine for the Pokemon. She then let the group try it out themselves. The group was learning a lot and figured this would be very useful in case there were no Pokemon Centers close by and they needed to heal their Pokemon quickly.

As Bulbasaur watched the group, it couldn't help but be curious about these humans. They were unlike any trainers it had met before. Melanie had been the only human it trusted for a long time, but maybe these ones weren't so bad, either. The trainer called Ash especially intrigued it.

" So Ash, what are you doing on your journey?" Melanie asked curiously as Brock was attempting to make some of the medicine.

"I'm going to try for the Indigo League." Austin said with a strained smile at someone else who is calling him Ash, he briefly wondered if he could get them to call him Austin as a nickname but he didn't know how to do it without being suspicious.

"That's quite a goal." Melanie said in surprise. "You think you'll be ready when the time comes?"

"I'll never know unless I get there." Austin said as he began to rub Pikachu's head as the guy was on his shoulder right now. "But I believe that my friends will get far."

As he said that he looked at the team who gave cries of confirmation.

"You have some loyal Pokemon." Melanie said looking like she was thinking on something. "And you treat them as friends rather than animals."

"Well of course." Austin said blinking at her.

"Ash, what do you think about taking Bulbasaur with you?"

Her question was heard by everyone as they looked at her in surprise, none more so than Bulbasaur himself.

"W-What?" Austin asked not expecting that, truthfully he wasn't sure if he would even get Bulbasaur considering how Team Rocket hasn't attacked the Hidden Village that Melanie stay's in.

Melanie calmly picked Bulbasaur up with a smile. "Bulbasaur has always stayed here to protect the weaker Pokemon." She explained to the surprised group. "But this village is too small, the bulb on his back won't grow, he needs to go out into the world now and I can tell from looking at your team that you'll take good care of him."

"I-... I would but I have seven Pokemon only due to some conditions set by professor oak ." Austin said looking at the team who has been with him for this journey. "If I take Bulbasaur, one of them will be going back to Prof. Oak's lab."

"Pi." Pikachu said at hearing that as he looked at the whole team who looked down, knowing that by the end of this discussion, one of them would be going back.

Austin was at a loss as he wasn't sure who to pick.

If he chose Fearow that could cause more distrust between them, Butterfree has a limited time before the Mating Season, Scyther just joined the team so it wouldn't be fair to have him go and Pikachu doesn't have his Pokeball so he wouldn't go.

That left the choice between Raticate , Clefairy and Pidgeotto.

A cry caused Austin to look down to see Pidgeotto walking up as she gave a nod to Bulbasaur who looked curious.

"Pidgeotto… Are you volunteering to go?" Austin asked not sure what to make of this as Pidgeotto gave a small nod. "Are you sure?"

"To." Pidgeotto cried out as she did a small motion with her wings.

Austin gave a nod as he looked at Bulbasaur. "Do you want to come with us?"

Bulbasaur looked at Austin warily before see Pikachu, Raticate and Scyther were waiting for his answer and he gave a smirk, jumping out of Melanie's arms to land on the ground, pawing at it.