" You should forward this information to Steven as soon as possible so that he-" She stopped midway.

"He what?" Austin questioned as a sense of dread filled him.

"No… that's not an option. Doing it via the standard rules would require evidence and," Cynthia looked a little saddened, "they might want to take in Charmander for testing to try finding out more about the experimentation."

"Not an option." Austin stepped back, his stance defensive. "I'm not going to allow anyone to take Charmander away from me. Not even you."

Cynthia stared at Ash with a scrutinizing stare. "I wasn't… asking you to do that, Ash. I merely said that it might be a possibility that the League officials might want to conduct some tests on Charmander and-"

"Don't you hear me?" Austin yelled. It was nigh uncharacteristic of him. "I'm not letting Charmander out to anyone. He stays with me, that's all and you better- NO!"

Said pokémon, meanwhile, seemed to have noticed the ongoing commotion and had begun to fear the worst. After all, the blonde-haired girl had raised some issues about him back on the ship too. Without thinking about the repercussions, he opened his maw and in frustration and anger, let out a roar.

"Chaar!"

Charmander's maw had flooded with fire energy, which he had belched out towards the blonde-haired girl. It had been completely sudden, and even Garchomp hadn't expected something like that to happen. The torrent of flames shot towards Cynthia who had only managed to glance at it in horror before someone leaped towards her, and the two fell onto the ground, narrowly missing the flame-thrower.

There was a tiny thud that very moment, as Garchomp swiped one of his fin-like protrusions towards the Charmander, slamming it into the little lizard with a brick break, sending Charmander flying to the ground. She might have even liked the little guy, but attacking her trainer was a transgression that didn't go unpunished.

"Ash- are you okay?" Cynthia managed to ask, her hands still on the ground, with Austin fallen above her, his face on her breasts. With a grunt, he pulled himself up, as she smirked. "Are you all right?"

"Yeah," Austin answered, a little befuddled with the entire thing. "Are you?"

"I'm," Cynthia admitted, pushing herself off the ground. "I guess Charmander doesn't like anyone talking about him like that, does he?"

"No," Austin admitted weakly. "Nearly destroyed my Pokedex when it informed me about his… altered genetics." He looked at the fallen fire-lizard on the ground, trying to pull himself up, groaning as he did. He would have gotten to the lizard by then if not for the fact that Cynthia had held on to his wrist rather tightly.

Cynthia's lips curled, her fingers still around Austin's wrist. "So he has a lot of anger, doesn't he?"

"I… won't blame him. He gets like that whenever anyone comments anything about him not being a Charmander." He paused, as her stance became a little more recognizable. "Wait, you aren't going to attack him because of that, are you?" Austin asked, wariness creeping into his voice.

"I am." Cynthia's tone seemed odd. "The little guy is too attached to being a Charmander. We will need to force that attitude out of him."

"Wait, what?"

But the Sinnoh Champion was done with answering questions. "Garchomp, that little tyke believes himself better than dragons. Show him a real dragon breath."

"Wait—no!" Austin stressed, doing his best to pull himself away, but Cynthia gripped his arm tightly. Suddenly, she let his hand go, but surprisingly, he was still unable to move even by a little bit. It seemed like something had-

Oh damn.

Medicham had put him under a psychic trap.

"Cynthia, what are you doing?" He grits his teeth.

"You've kept him protected far too much for his good. Ash." The blonde-haired girl commented in a cold, composed tone. "However, the same protectiveness has also delayed Charmander from overcoming his fears." She looked up at the fire lizard trying to get up on the ground and yelled. "Your trainer is now unable to help you, Charmander. Let's see what a black spot you are in the name of the Charmander species."

That seemed to enrage Charmander even more. Somehow managing to pull himself off the ground, the little lizard sprang up to its feet, his claws shining like bright steel as he sprang towards the dragon, his mouth filled with whatever fires he could pull up from his inner flame, throwing out a flame burst.

It did jack shit to Garchomp, who simply let out a snort at his pathetic display.

Angered by Garchomp's attitude, Charmander's mind flashed as he remembered Damian's words.

' Pathetic, you can't even do a simple fire attack.'

The flames in Charmander's mouth increased as he for the first time used Flamethrower but the attack wasn't enough to damage the titan known as Garchomp.

"Show him a real flamethrower, Garchomp."

Garchomp snorted once again, before belching out a wider, brighter, and infinitely more scorching burst of liquid fire towards the little fire-type, scorching him half to death. Even then, Charmander pulled himself up and threw up another flamethrower. All the exercises that his trainer had made it do had paid off.

"Very stubborn. I'll give you that." Cynthia winked at Austin, who had stopped fighting against the psychic trap and was now looking at Charmander as if for the first time. He knew it—Charmander knew it- that the only possible move that could be effective at this moment on Garchomp would be draconic. Besides, Charmander knew it well that his flamethrower was sub-par at best. That was why Austin had made him perfect his dragon-based attacks as much as possible over the time they had been together.

Yet, the little lizard just kept on belching out fire attacks one after another.

In the previous battles if Austin hadn't commanded him, Charmander would even use his draconic attacks but his fear of losing his trainer's trust caused him to use his draconic attacks in every previous battle.

"Cynthia… you have got to stop this," Austin whispered, pleading with her. "Charmander's inner flame is devastatingly low. If he keeps this up, his inner flame might start flickering all over again."

Cynthia smirked. "And that is exactly the fallacy you have been in." She turned towards Charmander. "Your pathetic fire attacks will do nothing to Garchomp, and yet you continue."

Charmander however, was beyond caring at this moment. His body was scorched at places, his fur scratched and injured, and yet the little lizard kept on scratching against Garchomp's thick hide with his shiny claws.

Garchomp snorted at that.

"They say insanity is doing the same thing over and over, expecting different results." Cynthia chuckled. "I'm not sure if Charmander's behavior should be called loyalty or insanity."

"I'd call it diligence." Austin put in, much to her surprise. "Watch."

With a rather loud yell, Charmander slashed into Garchomp's nigh impenetrable hide, making the larger dragon wince in pain, as he stepped back, falling onto his knees. The final slash had severed into his muscles just above it.

"Ah, I see. Metal claw. The effect increases upon successive strikes. I should have remembered that and you used it in conjunction with dragon claw" She turned towards Austin. "Did you teach him that trick?"

"Intelligent." Cynthia praised. "However, this won't change a thing. Garchomp-"

But Garchomp had already thrown a powerful pulse of draconic energy towards the lizard, slamming into his head, literally smashing Charmander into the dirt.

Cynthia almost cringed. "I hope that the attack turned him unconscious. Garchomp isn't in the mood to play anymore." She turned towards Austin and looked apologetic as she knew while this was cruel to her friend but his Pokémon needed this.

If its mindset doesn't change in the future it will only cause pain to her friend.

"I'm sorry, my friend, but I need Charmander to go through this. Please forgive me." She turned towards the Medicham. "Use Confusion on Charmander."