" Lance?"

Lance stayed busy in his thoughts, his palm firmly holding the edge of the table.

"Lance?"

"Yes?" Lance looked up, his expression disturbed by the thought of such a disturbing notion.

"What are we going to do, if… hypothetically, this armoured pokémon exists, and decides to attack SS. Anne? How are we to know that this… Team Rocket is not behind all of this?"

Lance fell back to his chair. "Then I suppose, we need to take protective measures about it. You and the Sinnoh Champion will be present on the ship, with Agatha and Sabrina-"

"Sabrina has straight-away refused to get close to the vessel, as she calls it."

"Right!" Lance drew, "very well, I'll send Agatha and… Lorelei perhaps, to be on board. I myself, along with a team of Aces, will patrol the surroundings keeping our distance from the ship."

"The Champion of Kanto and Johto wouldn't be there for the largest promotion event of the decade?" Steven asked, surprised.

"As I said," Lance stressed, "this event… is something we cannot afford to cancel. If I'm playing on the safety of several hundred of my region's population, I need to get the job done without any problems."

"But Lance-"

"No more hitches, please." Lance raised a hand. "I'll call Bruno and… Sabrina, to take care of Kanto while this… SS.Anne event is on board."

"Very well."

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

Austin laid on his bed, looking at the ceiling with a frown.

He was by himself as the others were in the main lobby of the Pokemon Center, even Pikachu was with them as he wanted to be alone.

It's been a day since he lost to Paul and he couldn't help but think about how that battle went from start to finish.

There was no way around it, he was completely outmatched.

Yes Squirtle did win and Pikachu did a lot of damage, but his strategies were childsplay compared to the Field Advantages, something that Paul knew pretty well.

"All of my training and all of my preparation and I couldn't even beat Paul-he's not even as strong as he was in Ash's timeline yet." Austin said to himself .

Austin gave a sigh and looked around the room that was practically clean as they were planning on leaving Vermillion to begin the journey to Celadon that day and Austin saw that it was nine in the morning, he knew that Brock left the room around eight due to being up but pretending to be asleep.

"I should probably head out before the others get too worried." Austin said standing up.

"And to get Fearow back." Austin smiles a bit more widely.

It would be great to have Fearow back again.

Straightening the cap, Austin stopped at seeing himself in the mirror, still dressed as Ash.

"I should get some new clothes when I am in celadon ." Austin said due to wanting to have his own style.

Plus he missed wearing a hoodie.

Pulling the backpack on and leaving the room but not before grabbing a small notebook on the desk.

After the battle, Austin wrote down everything he knew on Field Effects from the battle to his past experiences now that he thought about it.

It wasn't that much but it was better than nothing.

On entering the main lobby of the Pokemon Center, Austin saw the others waiting for him, Brock looking over a map while Misty was petting Pikachu and Yellow looked to be sleeping.

"Pika!" Pikachu saw Austin first and ran over to him, immediately getting to his spot on his shoulder.

"Morning to you to Pikachu." Austin said with a grin scratching under his chin.

" Are you feeling alright Ash?" Brock asked folding the map up curiously while Austin gave a nod.

"I am, not only do we continue down the road but I'm getting Fearow back today." Austin said with a grin excited about that.

"That's today?" Misty asked in surprise forgetting about that before asking another question. "Who are you going to exchange for him?"

"I'm thinking about giving Squirtle a small break for now, I can always call him back for training later." Austin said with a grin.

So a few moments later, Austin was on the video phone talking to Prof. Oak with Pikachu still on his shoulder. "Don't have him strain himself too much or his wing will start to aggravate him," Prof. Oak warned when they did the switch. "Fearow is behind your other Pokemon in terms of strength."

"Got it Prof. Oak," Austin said with a smile holding Fearow's Pokeball once more. "I don't plan on having him battle anytime soon until he's cleared."

Pikachu gave a nod, intent on helping with that matter.

Prof. Oak gave a nod, smiling at Austin. "Oh and congrats on beating Surge, I saw the battle itself you showed a lot of good tactics in that one. Pikachu going into the wall and Bulbasaur eating his Energy Ball? Brilliant."

Austin rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. "Thanks, but I still have a lot to learn."

"Chu." Pikachu smiled at hearing the praise from Prof. Oak.

"Nice to see these wins haven't gotten to your head." Prof. Oak said with a chuckle.

"So how are Krabby, Raticate and Bulbasaur doing?" Austin asked to check in on his other three Pokemon.

"Pika Pi." Pikachu looked just as curious.

"They're doing fine, in fact Bulbasaur has been sparring with Krabby to help him become a fighter and when they aren't, Krabby has been helping me with some of my errands," Prof. Oak said with a smile. "Bulbasaur has also been helping with keeping the peace between the other Pokemon on the ranch."

"That's great." Austin said at hearing that

"Just like last time."

"Raticate however has been getting restless, I think you should take her with you for the moment." Prof. Oak said surprising Austin before he gave a nod.

"Alright, let me figure out who to send first." Austin said looking through who he had.

He wasn't going to send Pikachu, Fearow or Charmander-the latter because the fire type was still so fragile and he really wanted to help Charmander with that.

Plus he just got Fearow back so he wasn't going to send him back.

But that left the choice between Butterfree, Clefairy, Pidgeotto and Scyther.

Just thinking about Butterfree made Austin hesitant as it was getting closer to the mating season that he left in the series and he wasn't sure if he would be strong enough to allow that because Butterfree really has grown on him.

Deciding to try and make the last few moments with Butterfree matter, Austin chose not to send him back and thought between Clefairy, Pidgeotto and Scyther.

Clefairy was extremely close to Yellow and he didn't want to make his friend cry so that was a no go.

Scyther has been pretty down the last day after the battle with Paul so Austin could send him back for some R&R, but he could also use the time to train him.

But Pidgeotto was already sent back when he caught Bulbasaur and recently joined back up with him so it would be cruel to send her back.

"Give me a moment Prof." Austin said standing up holding Scyther's Pokeball while Pikachu leapt off his shoulder.

Prof. Oak raised a brow before looking at Pikachu. "So how are you doing?" He asked despite knowing he wouldn't understand Pikachu.

Seeing Pikachu smile and give a cry made Prof. Oak chuckle, happy to see how close Pikachu and Ash were considering how Pikachu hated him on the day they left.

While that was happening, Austin sent Scyther out who looked down. "Hey, I'm going to send you to the Ranch for some rest." He said and to his sadness he saw Scyther's head hang a bit lower at hearing that.

"Ther." Scyther muttered looking away thinking that with how badly he failed his trainer he was just going to be left there.

"Hey," Austin placed a gentle hand on Scyther's shoulder. "This isn't a punishment for that battle, you've never been to the ranch and you won't be alone because Bulbasaur, Squirtle and Krabby are there too. I promise to call you back as soon as possible for some training because I'll be using you in the next Gym Battle."

That caught Scyther's attention as he looked at Austin intently for any signs of him lying.

"You stuck with us because you're a part of the family," Austin said hoping that Scyther would believe him. "And someday we'll have a rematch against Paul and we'll beat him.

After a second, Scyther gave a nod happy to hear that.

Giving a smile, Austin returned him and got back to Prof. Oak

"Alright, I'll be sending Scyther in exchange for Raticate." He said with Prof. Oak giving a nod, accepting that.

"I have her Pokeball ready for the exchange." Prof. Oak said with Austin placing Scyther's Pokeball on the transfer machine and a second later the exchange was made.

Picking up Raticate's Pokeball, Austin thanked the Professor and ended the feed with the man wishing Austin luck on his next Gym Challenge.

Once outside, Austin held Fearow's Pokeball after letting everyone else out.

But he didn't release the flyer yet due to how he didn't know how Fearow would act.

While it was true that he defended Austin, the trainer didn't know if it was a one-time thing or if Fearow truly does care what happens now.

"Something wrong Ash?" Yellow asked seeing his hesitation while she, Brock and Misty were waiting so they could get on the road.

"Just a little nervous, it's the first time I'll be seeing Fearow since the incident with Damian," Austin said with Charmander nearby looking away at hearing his former trainer's name. "So I want to believe that Fearow is giving me another chance but I don't know."

"Only one way to find out." Misty reminded him and with a deep breath, Austin gave a nod and threw Fearow's Pokeball into the air.