The pokémon center of Birth Island, Austin observed, was much larger than the ones he had seen in Kanto. Not only that, the entire compound was much, much larger and lavish compared to those of Cerulean and Vermillion cities. Maybe it was this place's thing, or maybe this particular center had a larger group to attend. Either way, he slowly moved around in the wheelchair, following the directions of the Nurse who walked beside him.

"Can you tell me anything about what happened with SS. Anne? I mean, after that… fight?"

Nurse Joy looked solemn. "I am not sure, about over a hundred and seventy people died in the struggle, and countless pokémon were lost. There are divers hired to fish out pokeballs from underneath the sea."

That reminded him.

"Nurse Joy… did I have a… a Pokeball on me when I reached here?"

For some reason, Nurse Joy frowned. "Interesting that you mentioned it. The Pokeball that was found on your person wasn't a registered one. If not for the fact that the former Champion vouched for you, I would have taken you as a pokémon poacher."

Austin widened his eyes. "Nurse Joy, I swear I didn't-"

Joy raised a finger again. "Relax. The former Champion wouldn't just vouch for anyone like that. To answer your question, yes, there was a Pokeball on your person when you arrived here. An unregistered one, which had an exotic pokémon locked inside it from Hoenn" She paused. " I believe it was a Nincada, it was quite joyful if I say so myself."

The nurse looked Austin squarely in the eye. "Under his orders, I registered the Pokeball and the contained pokémon under your name."

"The pokémon inside was injured, and so I took the opportunity to treat it, before returning it to the ball. It will be handed over to you once you are deemed fit to leave the ward."

"And my pokémon? What about them?"

"Your Pikachu and Pidgeot have undergone treatment and are completely fine now, though," her face scrunched, "they have been resisting returning to their pokeballs. I swear I haven't seen a more stubborn pair."

Austin chuckled weakly before he turned past the end of the corridor into what seemed to be a… large garden of sorts, with several grass-types and bug-types all around, and in the center of the garden, floating in the air, was Pikachu. Beside him, perched on the ground, a rather odd sight for the bird, was Pidgeot.

The avian let out a wild screech at seeing Austin before she hopped towards him.

Pidgeot let out another screech of happiness and Pikachu happily ran toward his trainer.

"Pidgeot," Austin murmured, as the great avian brought her head closer to Austin so that he could touch her beak. By the Gods, her head alone traversed the length of his arm. "I'm glad you are fine."

"She's something, isn't she?" Nurse Joy remarked softly. " You are an amazing trainer for having raised such beauty."

Austin sheepishly grin and rubbed the back of his head.

" What about my other pokémon?" He asked, loudly.

"Your Bulbasaur and Squirtle had injuries before I treated them. The rest of your pokémon seem healthy. They are now resting in the pokeballs. I can bring them to you, though-" she paused for a moment, "I will need your word that the garden and the pokémon living here will not be disturbed."

Austin chuckled. "You have my word."

The Nurse smiled. "I will send Chansey with your pokeballs. I need to make that call to Mr. Stone first. Can I expect you to be here by yourself without any trouble?"

Austin bobbed his head carefully. "Don't worry."

" Mr. Ketchum, I was informed to tell you that Professor Oak wanted to have a word with you as soon as possible."

" Thank you for telling me."

" I am just doing my job, Mr. Ketchum."

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

He dialed Samuel Oak's number.

Ring.

Ring.

The screen lit up.

[ Almost an hour later ]

"And that was all." Austin finished, his voice hoarse, as he completed the gargantuan task of explaining everything that happened to his delirious " mother " and an equally concerned albeit slightly lucid Professor Oak- Austin had gone ahead to explain everything with some parts of his story edited. He had described how the psychic had created an enormous draconic bomb, from where countless Draco Meteors had erupted out, and how, a King Dragonite had appeared out of nowhere, coming to their aid and defeating the psychic, causing him to flee. He had conveniently omitted the portion where he had, ignoring the possible ramifications of the act, summoned the King Dragonite to battle against the psychic.

By the end of it all, Delia Ketchum was a sobbing wreck, fallen to her eyes, her eyes glittering with tears as she allowed them to fall without concern. Samuel Oak, a man who had been through a lot, seemed shaken at Austin's account of the events that had conspired on that ship.

"Ash," Samuel spoke at last. "I believe, for your betterment, as well your mother's sanity, you should return home, at least for a few weeks."

The funny thing was, Austin had seen it coming. "I will do that. However, I am too weak right now to even consider traveling, or even teleportation, considering that more than half of me is bandaged and on a wheelchair right now."

Delia, still on the floor, heard that statement, as she stood up, looking at the screen. "Then I will go there. There's no way I am going to leave you alone after all that has happened."

"M...Mom?" Austin somewhat hesitantly said. This was going to take a little more convincing. "I am perfectly fine now, and Nurse Joy says that my bandages can be removed in three days. Besides, I need to meet Steven—uh, the Deputy Champion as well as… the Sinnoh Champion. They were the ones that got me admitted here after all."

"But-"

Austin wasn't done speaking yet. "Also, I need to know about the other people on that ship. What happened to them, their pokémon? I need to know where my friends are. We fought together, Mom. As selfish as that sounds, I cannot return home until I have at least, some of my answers."

"But Ash-"

"Having you here will not help matters, Mom. Besides, it will take you at least two days to arrive here anyway, even if you get started right now. I will be allowed to leave in three days, so I'll come home soon."

Oak arched an eyebrow. "Ash? What exactly are you planning on doing there?"

Austin looked a tad embarrassed. "Am I that readable?"

"I have known you since you were a toddler." The old professor remarked. "You have much to learn before you can fool these eyes." He paused. "Also, Bill Montgomery had contacted me, regarding a certain… draconic mist event, as I am sure, you know. For some strange reason, Bill has the unshakeable belief that you might have some explaining to do."

Crap.

"Uh… what do you say we discuss this later on?" Austin tried.

Samuel Oak gave him a hard stare. "I'll… hold you on to that."

" Sure ."

" So what are you going to do on the island ?"

" I am just going to rest for a bit and I am going to try to contact some of my friends and we'll see from there."