" Shirona , Can we have a pokémon battle?" Austin asked as he was curious how strong his new friend was ?

Cynthia raised an eyebrow. "You sure know how to show a lady, a good time."

Austin didn't even try to give a reply.

"Hmmm… well, I suppose we could have a friendly battle. I'll try to go easy on you." Cynthia returned, pointing Austin to follow her towards the platform that was used for the tournament. Right now, the entire place was vacated as most of the travellers were inside.

"Oh come on, how difficult could it be?" Austin challenged.

Cynthia's lips curled into a beatific smile. A thing of beauty, really.

"Go, Buizel."

A weasel-like pokémon stood in front of Austin. It had brownish-fur, a big ring-like protrusion all around its neck, and two fins on the backside.

It reminded Austin of Ash's buizel as he quickly pulled out his pokedex to check the pokémon out.

Buizel. The Sea Weasel Pokémon. Buizel swims by rotating its two tails like a screw. When it dives, its flotation sac collapses.

"Buizel has been caught only recently, so he's the least trained but I may have a strange request ." Cynthia informed.

" What is it ? "

" Can you battle me using your Charmander?"

Austin didn't have a problem with that even though he was putting himself at a disadvantage.

" Go, Charmander."

The fire-lizard growled, as he materialized in front of Austin as he exclaimed.

"All right, Charmander, we have to win this fight against Buizel. Can you do that for me?"

Charmander asserted his agreement, his tail flame burning a little brighter, as he stared at the sea weasel pokémon.

" I should inform you that Buizel is no slouch so take this fight as seriously as you can .."

"Charmander has his shots, right Charmander?" Austin returned.

Charmander growled in agreement.

Cynthia's lips twisted. "Very well, Buizel, start with water gun."

"Dodge!"

Charmander simply dodged towards the right with extreme precision, avoiding the water-gun attack.

"Head up straight, and use metal claw."

Cynthia raised an eyebrow. "Use Aqua Jet, Buizel."

The two elemental pokémon moved towards each other, with Buizel speeding towards the fire-lizard with enormous speed.

"Use dragon pulse on the ground." Ash commanded.

Cynthia tried to mask her surprise even though this was the second time she had witnessed a Charmander. Charmander weren't expected to learn any kind of draconic attacks, except the rare ones that managed to learn dragon-dance. She would know, after all, Charizard was one of her top battlers.

However, the fire-lizard, with mind-numbing efficiency, ejected a powerful pulse of draconic energy out to the ground, creating an explosion, something that managed to stop Buizel midway, as the weasel pokémon looked at the lizard in surprise.

"Dragon breath, quick!"

"Water pulse!" Cynthia exploded, as Buizel pulled in a water pulse attack in the last second, which crashed against Charmander's dragon breath midway, creating an explosion that sent both pokémon flying over to either side.

"That is enough." Cynthia replied in a somewhat… colder tone. "Buizel, return."

Buizel looked surprised at the sudden change of orders, since he was perfectly able to continue the battle. He managed to glance a look at the somewhat tired Charmander before getting sucked in.

"What—what happened?" Austin asked warily.

" You tell me." Cynthia replied, a dangerous tone to her voice. "Only the rarest of the rare Charmander manage to begin learning that move. And your Charmander managed to use dragon breath and dragon pulse within a span of seconds. That is not normal."

"Who says that?" Austin retorted, not liking how Shirona was calling his Charmander unnatural. "My charmander is special, and I like him how he is. End of discussion."

Cynthia opened her mouth, and closed it. "Ash, you might not want to accept it, but something is inherently strange with your Charmander." She didn't add that Charmander was generating draconic energies in patterns very, very similar to how her Gible, now Garchomp did, while using draconic attacks.

"Maybe, but I like him how he is." Austin retorted while he was panicking on the inside. "Return, Charmander."

The fire-lizard sent a single glare at Cynthia as he was sucked into the pokeball. Returning the pokeball back to his belt, Austin gave her a half-glare. "What's the bloody big deal if my Charmander can use Dragon breath?"

"The big deal is because I think your Charmander's genetics aren't normal." Cynthia retorted back. "I'm not sure if you are wilfully denying or are just plain ignorant, but being in possession of illegally-bred pokémon isn't a good thing if you want to succeed as a trainer."

"My- I didn't do anything wrong." Austin defended as he was pretty sure why Charmander had a genetic variation "I found him deserted, dying and in the wild, and I took care of him. He is now a part of my team, genetics be damned."

Cynthia almost retorted back, before she controlled herself. "Very well, but I reserve the right to talk about it later."

"You can talk about it as much as you like, as long as you do not try to take him away from me." Austin replied, anger distinct in his eyes.

Meanwhile inside his mind , he was thinking of some way he could get out of this hole he had created.

He should ask Professor Oak for help.

"He's a priceless asset I'm not giving up."

"Ash," Cynthia tried, "it's only for the-"

"I don't care." Austin retorted back, before Cynthia could complete her statement. "It's quite late, and I should return to my room." Without waiting for a reply, he turned around and stomped his way off to his room, leaving a perplexed Cynthia behind.

Austin immediately took out his Transiver and began to dial Professor Oak .

He needed help ..... fast.

Mentally he was berating himself for being careless.

Of course people from the league would be very interested in a fire type pokemon that could spam Dragonic attacks as if it was a dragon type.