Ash Ketchum: Being More.

Expanding Your Team.

Dark clouds covered the sky as it rained down by the bucket loads. Thunder boomed and crackled as Ash, with Pikachu on his shoulder, Anabel and Lucario beside him hurried down the dirt road towards the Pokémon Center they had managed to find via Lucario's Aura sight.

At the moment they were somewhere in between Cerulean City and Vermilion City. They had left Cerulean City three days ago and had taken a more sedate pace than usual towards their destination, wanting to experience the charms of nature some more, something they were regretting right about now. If they had hurried they would have been somewhere dry by this point.

Anabel shivered in her jacket as she ran down the slippery and muddy road. "This sucks," she complained.

Ash, who was running right beside her, shrugged. "There's nothing to be done about it now. We just need to hurry."

Pikachu seemed to be enjoying it, tough. The electric rodent looked up at the sky and watched the thunder curiously, remembering how Zapdos had commanded a real lighting strike down at them. The mere memory of that act still brought shivers of awe down his spine. Looking back on it he could scarcely believe that he had really managed to deflect that attack.

Lucario was his usual unflappable self as he followed close behind Ash and Anabel. The Aura Pokémon's eyes narrowed as he noticed something alarming. I can sense an Aura presence up ahead... it's dwindling. His eyes widened in shocked realization. It's dying!

ASH! Lucario called out worriedly with his Aura Voice. There's a waning Aura presence up ahead! Someone's dying!

Ash's, Anabel's and Pikachu's eyes widened in alarm. Ash quickly sharpened his own Aura and focused his attention up ahead, and just like his mentor had said there was a small waning Aura presence. It was situated on a large rock and the body of the owner of the waning Aura presence had huddled up in a tight ball, trying to protect itself from the freezing cold bite of the wind and the harsh rain.

Without any prompting the group tripled their speed, rushing towards the Pokémon who was obviously in need of assistance.

They arrived moments later at the rock holding the Aura presence and what they saw made them gasp. Right on top of the huge and imposing rock sat a small huddled up red/orange form. A small tail with a small dwindling flame at its tip swung sluggishly behind it.

Ash immediately recognized the Pokémon. It was hard to mistake the form of the most famous starter Pokémon of Kanto: a Charmander. A Charmander that looked to be on the verge of dying. Its form was wracked with tremors of cold and pain. Scratches covered its body and the flame on the tip of its tail looked like it was about to go out.

He knew what that meant. Ash had studied up on many Pokémon with Lucario guiding him. The Aura trainee knew perfectly well that once the tail flame of one of the Charmander line went out... the Pokémon would die instantly.

Ash acted immediately and jumped up onto the rock with an Aura enhanced leap. The Charmander looked up at him, startled. Ash scooped the small Pokémon up, causing the Charmander to object.

"No, leave me here," the Fire-Type whispered and coughed. "My trainer will come back for me soon."

"You will die if we leave you here. I won't let that happen," Ash hissed right back. He jumped back down from the rock and immediately started running into the direction of the Pokémon Center, his friends hot on his heels.

Charmander was either to tired or delirious from the cold as he either ignore Ash's ability to understand him or he simply did not notice it. "No, take me back. Damion will come back for me," the lizard-like Pokémon said pleadingly. Ash ignored him.

The group continued running down the path, going as fast as they could without falling down in the slippery mud. The entire way Ash shot concerned glances to the Pokémon he was holding to his chest. Charmander had stilled, his body had gone completely silent. There weren't even any tremors of cold anymore. If Ash didn't feel the hot breath of the Fire-Type against his chest he would have thought that he was holding a corpse.

Luckily the group arrived at the small and out of the way Pokémon Center minutes later. The building looked odd for a Pokémon Center. It just looked like a normal house with a gigantic P bolted to its roof. The moment they entered Ash immediately ran up to the counter, completely ignoring the people who were already waiting in front of him in an orderly line. "Nurse Joy! We found this Charmander on the way towards the Pokémon Center! It needs help immediately!"

Nurse Joy had already plucked Charmander from Ash's arms before he had even finished speaking. "Chansey!" she called out as she ran with the Fire-Type towards the back. The door behind the counter leading deeper in towards the bowels of the building opened, a Chansey standing in the opening, allowing Nurse Joy to rush right through towards the O.R. unimpeded.

Ash sighed and stepped back from the counter allowing the other trainers access. They also looked towards the door which Nurse Joy had just passed through, concern playing on their features, fearing for the live of the little Fire-Type. An attending stepped up towards the counter, taking Nurse Joy's spot. The trainers quickly remembered the needs of their own Pokémon and started depositing their Pokéballs to the attending.

"I hope Charmander pulls through," Anabel said, getting Ash's attention. "He looked to be in a very bad shape."

Lucario patted Anabel on the shoulder in a comforting manner as he smiled at her. You don't need to worry, the Aura Pokémon said. Fire-Types are a hardy bunch. Charmander will pull through, I'm sure of it.

Pikachu frowned thoughtfully from Ash's shoulder. A spark appeared in the Electric-Types eyes as he remembered something. "What had Charmander said again? That his trainer would come back for him, that was what he had said, wasn't it?" Pikachu's frown deepened as he continued on with his statement. "Charmander looked like he had been there for days, and if his trainer hadn't even come for him in such bad weather as this..."

"His trainer had abandoned him there," Ash whispered, horrified.

Lucario's eyes sharpened, anger boiling just beneath his calm visage. While Sir Aaron hadn't actually betrayed him, he had become intimately familiar with the feeling of betrayal. He knew how it felt to be betrayed by someone you trusted, and it looked like Charmander had been betrayed for real. The Aura Pokémon had a sinking feeling in his gut that Charmander would have mental scars from this for the rest of his life.

The group continued to watch towards the double doors Charmander had disappeared behind, but quickly realized just standing there wasn't going to do anything. They quickly moved towards one of the white tables situated right next to a window. A fire raged in the center of the room, comfortably warming up the surprisingly cozy looking Pokémon Center.

"What kind of scum would just leave a Pokémon behind in the middle of nowhere," Ash spat as he sat down, anger on display for everyone to see.

Anabel frowned as she took a seat across from him. She looked like she had bitten into something really bitter. "The worst kind. I have run into those kind of trainers before. People who only want the strongest of Pokémon and abandon the ones that aren't up to their standard."

"That's nonsense," Ash continued, anger still shimmering across his features. "Any Pokémon can be strong if you train it and know how to use it in battle."

Anabel sighed. "I know, but other people don't see it that way. They just want a quick fix in strength and don't 'waste time' with training their Pokémon. They are the laziest and the lowest form of trainers out there."

Ash was about to respond, but his sharp hearing managed to pick something out in the background noise of the Pokémon Center. Something that pissed him off and caused him to stand up from his chair in rage.

A few tables further sat a group of young trainers. In front of them on the table laid a pile of Pokéballs. Not a very surprising sight, no, what drew Ash's attention to them was not their looks, but what they were talking about.

"...And then I said I would come back for it!" a loud voice with a strange accent bragged. The owner of the voice was a blue-haired boy. A group of various different trainers sat around him. From the way their attention was all on the blue-haired trainer, and how they differed to him, he seemed to be their leader.

"Do you think it's still there?" one of the trainers asked curiously. "In this kind of weather that might even be a death sentence for a Fire-Type."

"That stupid Charmander? If so, then good riddance." The blue-haired boy, who had to be the Damion Charmander had been going on about, smirked. "The world would be a better place without that weakl-ACK!"

Damion's boasts got cut of when Ash appeared behind him and grabbed him by the hair. He roughly hoisted the struggling trainer out of his chair and twisted him around so that Ash could lock his furious eyes with him. The Aura trainee didn't say anything. He just reared back his other fist, paused to sneer for one last moment at the disgusting figure in his grasp, before punching him with an Aura enhanced blow to stomach.

Damion contorted around the blow. His eyes bugged out and his mouth opened wide in a wordless scream of pain. Ash let go of the spluttering and now gasping for breath trainer and allowed him to collapse to the ground like a sack of potatoes.

The other trainers reacted immediately as their leader was manhandled in front of them. They grabbed a Pokéball each and were about to release their Pokémon, but before they could their Pokéballs were suddenly snatched from their hands.

Looking up, they were shocked and dismayed to see Lucario standing behind Ash, now holding all their Pokéballs. They goggled at the Aura Pokémon. How in the name of Arceus had he managed that?

This scene had quickly grabbed the attention of all the people in the Pokémon Center. It had happened so fast that no one knew how to react to it. They just watched the scene unfold, stunned.

"You're disgusting example of what arrogance can cause," Ash spat as he sneered down at the panting figure collapsed on the ground.

"How dare you!" Damion managed to get out through his coughing and heaves for breath.

"How dare I?" Ash repeated. He glowered down in anger at Damion. "How dare you! Leaving a Pokémon behind, leaving it to die, that's disgusting!" he spat.

Damion cringed at Ash's harsh words. Then he snarled and forced himself in a standing position. The young trainer made a show of dusting himself of and then gave Ash the darkest glare he could muster. "I dare because that is my right as a trainer. As a trainer I have standards, and I will not have weak Pokémon on my team!"

"And for that you would willingly abandon a Pokémon to die," Ash hissed quietly, scarcely believing what was coming out of Damion's mouth. It went against everything he believed in as a trainer.

"Yes," Damion hissed back, eyes glowering in anger. "Pokémon are just objects. Tools to be used and then discarded when they aren't useful anymo-"

Ash's eyes flashed at the words and a soundless growl escapes from his lips. He moved forward, his strides blisteringly quick. Three years of fighting Lucario had taught him the importance of speed. His hand speared upwards and closed around Damion's jaw before he can utter the final few words. His mouth slams shut with such force that Ash heard Damion's teeth clatter together.

Damion's eyes bulged outwards. Agony dances in his eyes. Ash wondered for a moment if Damion had bitten his tongue when he forcibly shut him up. Which is proven correct when a thin trickle of blood leaks from the corner of his lips.

Ash pushed Damion back and forced him up against the wall behind him. "You listen and listen well," Ash hissed at the struggling figure in his grasp. "If I ever hear you talk like that again, I can and will make an example out of you. You are scum. You are trash. You are nothing." Damion's eyes lit up with impotent rage. Ash's hand tightened around his jaw. The anger in his eyes disappeared, replaced with fear in a heartbeat.

Coward, Ash's transmitted into Damion's brain via his Aura. His eyes bulged out even further.

Ash released Damion and stepped back, allowing Damion to fall to his knees, once again heaving for breath and spitting up blood. Ash looked down at the figure, having absolutely no regrets. He turned to look towards the shocked looking trainers scattered throughout the Pokémon Center. "Well, this trainer just admitted to his friends and us that he abandoned one of his Pokémon to die. Where are the security personnel? They need to be locked up before Officer Jenny gets here to take them to prison."

The Aura trainee's words got the shocked trainers back moving. Moments later security personnel, accompanied by bulky looking Machops entered the room and put handcuffs around the wrists of Damion and his flunkies.

"You bastard," Damion shouted as he was being dragged away. "You will pay for this!"

Ash waved him off as he was dragged away to the back of the Pokémon Center. Lucario quickly handed over the Pokéballs he had taken from Damion's friends to the remaining security personnel. They quickly moved back to their table and took a seat, discretely looking out over the room from the corner of their eyes.

The room remained silent for a long while, the trainers shooting curious glances at Ash and Lucario, before conversation started up again. Everything went back to normal in a few minutes.

"Holy," Anabel breathed out as Ash sat down in front of her, giving him a searching glance. "I better never piss you of, or I'm toast."

Lucario shrugged as he leaned forwards, resting his elbows on the table, and gave an answer in place of his student. That was just Ash behaving as I taught him to behave. As an Aura Guardian it's his duty to protect innocents, Human and Pokémon alike, and to punish all evil doers. Damion just got what was coming to him. Nothing more, nothing less.

Pikachu sweat-dropped and gave Lucario a sideways look from Ash's shoulder. "So, you taught him to manhandle boys his own age?" he asked, incredulity lacing his voice.

Lucario rolled his eyes. Of course not. I just taught him to punish those in need of punishing. There is a big difference.

"Right," Pikachu drawled, not at all convinced.

The conversation went to lighter things after that. They talked about their homes, their families, the Pokémon and Ash's next Gym match. All the while, they thought of Charmander and the actions of Damion. Even when they rented two rooms and went to bed, their thoughts went back to the Fire-Type, hoping and praying that he would be alright.

Ash had already decided what he would do. He went to sleep with a determined smile.

"You want what now?" Nurse Joy questioned, a befuddled expression on her otherwise kind face.

Ash smiled politely at the surprised nurse. "I want to know if I can have Charmander. What Damion did yesterday night was absolutely horrible and I want to help Charmander in any way I can. I'm sure that I'll be able to get through to him."

Behind the pair stood Anabel, with Eevee on her shoulder and Lucario besides her, watching and waiting. Both were waiting anxiously on Nurse Joy's answer. Pikachu was as always on his trainers shoulder.

Nurse Joy looked him over, sizing him up, her kind green eyes taking on a much sharper appearance. She had always been a good judge of character, in her opinion at least, and was now using that trait to try and find out of Ash had an ulterior motive in suggesting to take on the care of Charmander. As far as she could see, he was genuine, and from what she had seen he was a kind enough lad, if a bit brutal if provoked. He had more than proven that yesterday.

And she approved. The nurse didn't like violence, not one bit in fact, but anyone who leaves a Pokémon to die deserves to be taken down a peg or forty. She also had the honor of bringing Damion and his flunkies their breakfast this morning, and was shocked and appalled at their attitude. In all her years as a nurse she had never been screamed at, insulted and berated to such a degree as this morning.

Which was saying something as she had dealt with distraught trainers, angry parents and enraged Pokémon before. She was glad that Officer Jenny would come and pick up the miscreants in an hour or so to have them processed in the justice system.

Served them right, the little bastards.

Her thoughts quickly went back to Ash's proposal. He was a qualified and talented trainer, which she had discovered when she had done a background check on him last night, who also had a connection to Professor Oak. In addition, his Pokémon seemed to adore him. He had also saved Charmander's life, which could help build a bond between the Fire-Type and Ash.

She winced when her thoughts went back to Charmander. The little Fire-Type had been in very bad shape when Ash had brought him to her last night. He had been covered in scratches from the Spearow that had occasionally attacked him, his temperature had dropped far below the norm for a Fire-Type and his tail flame had been on the verge of snuffing out.

If Ash had brought in Charmander a mere minute later she was sure that he would have died then and there. As it was, only her quick actions had saved the little Fire-Type's life. He would recover completely, though, and was already well under way with his recovery. Physically at least.

Mentally, though, that was a whole other story.

Charmander had woken up early in the morning and had immediately tried to run off, aiming to return to the rock where his trainer had abandoned him. It had taken two Chanseys to restrain the frantic Fire-Type long enough for her to explain to him that Damion had abandoned him and would be going to jail very shortly for his crime.

That hadn't helped matters at all. Charmander had stared at her for a whole minute, frozen in shock, before letting out a blood-curling wail of misery and started sobbing his eyes out. He had quieted half an hour ago, but he had been staring blankly at a wall since then, not responding to anyone or anything around him.

Hopefully, Ash would be able to help the Fire-Type. Her eyes refocused on Ash and she nodded at him, stepping aside to allow him to pass through the door leading to Charmander's room. "Alright, Ash. If you can convince Charmander to go with you I'll allow it." A light grimace appeared on her face. "Be warned, though. Charmander hasn't taken the news that Damion abandoned him well."

Ash nodded grimly. "I had expected that," he admitted sadly before his eyes hardened with determination. "Still, I want to try."

Nurse Joy gave him a small smile and gestured him through the door. Ash stepped through, his friends following close behind. They came into what looked to be an overly white hospital room.

Their attention was immediately drawn towards the single bed in the room. In it, covered in a thin pristine white blanket laid Charmander, who was staring blankly through the people who had just entered his room.

"It's like he doesn't even notice us," Anabel thought with a shiver, slightly spooked by the blank-eyed stare.

Ash approached the bed cautiously, idly wondering how the blankets and the bed hadn't caught fire yet with Charmander's tail flame hidden beneath the covers. He came to a stop at the head of the bed, right besides Charmander, and sat down on the edge of the bed. The bed creaked and groaned loudly.

Charmander still didn't react. He just continued on staring into nothingness.

"Hey there," Ash said, bending over lightly so that he could look Charmander in the eyes. Still no reaction. "How are you feeling?" Still nothing.

Fighting hard to keep the frown from appearing on his face Ash continued talking gently to the Fire-Type, trying to get a reaction out of him. Charmander didn't react, no matter what he said, until he strayed to a forbidden topic: "What Damion did...it was wrong," Ash finally said.

Charmander's eyes lost their blank stare and he snapped towards him, his claws clenching in outrage.

"What do you mean?! And how do you know his name?!" Charmander snapped furiously, tiny embers spitting forth from his muzzle.

Despite himself Ash smiled. Charmander still had a fire inside of him, and no, he wasn't referring to the natural flames of any Fire-Type, but the fires of passion that burned brightly in everyone's heart.

Ash leaned forwards, meeting Charmander's glare head on. "It was his duty as your trainer to take care of you, to raise you, to make you strong. His act of abandoning you when you needed his help the most proves that he did wrong by you. He had no right to call himself your trainer, or a trainer at all for that matter."

Charmander sneered, but Ash could see the tiny tears gathering in his eyes. "Who..." the Fire-Type began hesitantly, a broken tone to his voice. "Who are you to say that?"

Ash sighed, took off his cap, and racked his hand through his messy hair before putting his cap back on. "I say that as a proud trainer. A trainer's foremost duty is to take care of their Pokémon, and Damion spat on that duty without pause or remorse. He disgusts me," he admitted, before he raised his hand and brushed away the tiny tears leaking away from Charmander's eyes. The Fire-Type flinched, but didn't react further.

"He did wrong, no matter how you look at it, and it wasn't by any means your fault, Charmander," Ash said, knowing that this was the crux of the matter. In the end it didn't matter what Damion had done, but how his actions had affected Charmander and how he was going to help the small Fire-Type to rise above it. That's what mattered. "It was your basic right as a Pokémon to be taken care of, to be raised properly, to be loved, and Damion took that right and basically ripped it part without a second thought."

Charmander looked away, an uncertain look to his eyes. "But-but I'm weak. I've even lost to Grass-Types before. If I had just been stronger..."

Ash suddenly grabbed Charmander by the shoulders and forced the lizard-like Pokémon to meet his calm and determined eyes. "Then that was Damion's fault," he said, putting emphasis on Damion's name. "It was his duty to train you and to guide you in battle. If a Pokémon losses a match then it is almost always the trainers fault, and never the Pokémon's fault. Besides," he added with a grin. "You look plenty strong to me."

Charmander looked away from him, and despite his harrowed appearance, a tiny smile had fought its way across his muzzle. "Do you...do you really mean that?" Charmander spoke, sounding hopeful.

"Of course," Ash nodded without hesitation, giving Charmander a bright smile. "Why, I would love to have a Pokémon like you on my team."

Charmander's eyes once again snapped towards him, practically glowing with hope. "You would have me, even when I'm wea-not that strong," the Fire-Type corrected himself at the last moment, seeing Ash's eyes darkening at calling himself weak. He had no intention of blowing this!

Ash nodded, "Of cou-" he started to say, but got cut off when Charmander suddenly bolted up right in bed and gave Ash a flying tackle. Ash was nearly knocked over, but managed to remain seated on the bed and hugged Charmander back, who had buried his head in the crook of his Ash's neck, a steady stream of tears falling down and soaking his shirt.

He barely even noticed. All his attention was focused on the Fire-Type in his arms.

"Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you!" Charmander chanted like a broken record.

Behind them, Nurse Joy peeked into the room, and smiled a relieved smile at the heartwarming scene. 'Thank you, Ash Ketchum.'

Ash was rubbing Charmander's back, still sitting on the edge of the bed and was whispering sweet nothings into the Fire-Types ear. Pikachu had reached over and was patting the crying Fire-Type on the arm, remaining on his place on Ash's shoulder. Anabel was smiling, and Lucario was smiling proudly at his student.

It was indeed a very heartwarming scene.

Ash smiled sheepishly and extended his hand towards the officer of the law in front of him.

"Hello officer Jenny. I'm sorry to say that trouble seems to be following me. I'm very sorry for the inconvenience."

In front of him, framed by the backdrop of the Pokémon Center stood Officer Jenny, the same one who had interrogated him after the fiasco with the Rocket's. She snorted at his rather bland remark and took his hand, shaking it firmly.

"It's no problem. I'm just glad nothing too bad happened this time," she remarked, giving him a crooked smile. Then she sighed and rubbed her arm in discomfort. "Still, it always pains me when I have to arrest children. That Damion and his friends are a piece of work, let me tell you, but they are just children. Let's hope that they'll learn their lesson from this and wizen up before they really get someone killed."

Ash's smile turned forced ever so slightl. "I hope so, too," he said, not giving away his inner doubts about Damion ever repenting for his sins.

"Anyway," the officer of the law continued as she gave Anabel a curious look over from the corner of her eyes. "I see that you made a friend," she remarked. Anabel gave her a friendly wave. Jenny smiled at her in return before her eyes focused back on Ash. A slight hint of mischievousness glimmered in them. "You know, I never made you out for a ladies man, Ash. Did you save her too?"

Ash blinked and it took him a moment to process Jenny's question. An atomic blush exploded on his face. He noted from the corner of his eyes that Anabel had similarly turned cherry red at the question.

Lucario snorted and Pikachu started laughing, freely smashing his tiny fists against Ash's shoulder in hilarity. Ash silently swore to himself to triple Pikachu's training exercises for today. Eevee, who was on Anabel's shoulder, started giggling madly at her trainer's discomfort.

"W-what m-makes yo-you say tha-," Ash stuttered out, but Anabel cut him off.

"How did you know?!" Anabel screeched, her voice high-pitched and painful to the ears.

Officer Jenny's smile fell from her face as her eyes sharpened and narrowed. She grabbed Ash by the shoulder and shook him to get his attention. "Ash," she said, her voice dangerously low, nearly a growl, "What did you save her from? And I swear, if you got tangled up with even more unsavory people and didn't call the police I'll call your parents and have them cancel your journey right here, right now!"

Ash gulped at the threat and hastened to explain. "It's not anything like that!" he said, nearly tripping over himself as he tried to explain. "We were just traveling on Mt. Moon, you know, to see the sights. And as we were traveling up the mountain the weather suddenly turned bad." Jenny nodded at that, she remembered how that storm some time back that had suddenly erupted with Mt. Moon at its center.

Anabel suddenly took over where Ash had left of, completing the story. "I had been similarly been traveling on Mt. Moon. I-I was nearly hit by lightning and I almost fell down a deep cliff. Luckily Ash managed to get to me in time and saved me from falling."

Jenny looked at them for a time, trying to see if they were lying. Looking at their honest faces she decided to drop the matter.

She sighed and let go of Ash's shoulder, stepping back to give the boy his space. "Alright, I believe you," she said, causing Ash to sigh in relieve.

"Let's hope something like that doesn't happen again," Jenny said and gave Anabel a compassionate look. The young trainer smiled at her in response. "Well, I have to get those miscreants back to the precinct. Let's hope they behave themselves on the way back to Viridian City, but I'm not counting on it. And Ash," she suddenly called out. "At least try to stay out of trouble, and take good care of that Charmander. Otherwise you'll have to deal with me!"

Ash nodded, a dead serious expression on his face. "I'll take good care of him, don't worry," he said with conviction.

Jenny smiled and nodded back, completely missing the fact that Ash didn't promise to stay out of trouble. "Right, have a good journey Ash, Anabel. Goodbye," she said and turned, heading for the police van that would take Damion and his friends to the precinct in order to have them processed in the justice system.

Ash and Anabel waved her goodbye. They continued to watch as the van pulled away and swiftly took off down the beaten path, making for a very bumpy ride. Ash had to fight off a smile that threatened to appear on his face as he imagined how uncomfortable Damion and his friends had to be right now.

Lucario grunted. Well, that's finished. Let's head out. I want to be in Vermilion City before the week is over.

Ash and Anabel nodded and quickly headed down the path in the opposite direction the police van had taken, setting their sights on Vermilion City. Ash could hardly wait.

Lt. Surge wouldn't know what hit him!

Anabel's purple eyebrow twitched, but not in annoyance. Oh no, she was very, very amused right now. Eevee apparently agreed with her and was laughing pretty loudly herself.

"So, let me get this straight," she all but laughed. "You actually blew that guy up! How the hell did you do that?"

At the moment they were traveling down a steep hill into the direction of Vermilion City, getting closer to it with each step. Still, the city was still four days away, at least at their current pace. To pass the time the group had decided to swap some stories around they hadn't yet told the others. Pikachu had gone first, Ash translating for him in order to include Anabel, and had everyone laughing with the silly adventures he had gotten into with the 'Pichu Brothers'.

Then, surprisingly, Lucario had gotten in on the fun. He had told them about the time he and Sir Aaron had been tasked with protecting a caravan of travelers and merchants who desired to settle in the kingdom of Rota, and had dealt with a bunch of rowdy highwayman who had tried to ransack the rather unfortunate bunch of people. After quickly taking care of the idiots trying to attack the people under his protection they immediately had to deal with a bunch of blustering husbands who claimed they could have taken care of the threat themselves...

...And a bunch of suddenly needy woman. In Sir Aaron's case at least. Lucario got a good chuckle out of that memory.

Eevee had told a story about herself and her younger sisters and how they had played a prank on the caretakers that took care of them at the Celadon Pokémon Day Care. It consisted of loads of tripwire, all kinds of different colored paint, one hundred gas bombs, twenty-something man-sized plastic balls and more than a few other Pokémon who had helped to set up the prank.

When asked how they gotten all that stuff Eevee had blushed, looked away and had refused to answer the question.

Anabel had told them about the time she and her mother had dealt with some supposed pervert, who was now her stepfather, by kicking him in the groin. It was actually an accident really. The man had simply slipped and in his panic had tried to grab the nearest thing, which just happened to be Anabel's mother's chest. Anabel responded to this, even as her mother screamed in shock, by kicking the man as hard as she could in the family jewels.

Much more screaming followed.

And this had happened right in the middle of a mall. Everyone involved was very much embarrassed, except Anabel. She had been proud, having protected her mother after all. Ahh, the mind of an eight year old was such a strange thing, Ash mused to himself.

Fortunately, the man had immediately apologized after recovering from his kick induced injury, and had proposed to make it up to her by asking her out on a nice evening, taking her out to dinner in a fancy restaurant.

Anabel's mother had surprisingly agreed. That same day she went out with the man, came to like him immensely, and married him within the year. He was quite the ladies' man, according to Anabel at least.

And now they had come to Ash's story.

"I didn't actually blow the guy up," Ash said, his cheeks stained red with embarrassment. "I more like... blew him away."

Lucario snorted at shot Ash an amused look. Hmm, that's one way of putting it, yes.

Ash's blush grew. "Oh come on! How was I supposed to know that experimenting with my Aura in such a manner would lead to an explosion of that size?!" he whined.

Lucario rolled his eyes and then lightly wacked Ash on the back of the head. One, I told you to never experiment with Aura unless I am there. Secondly, you don't experiment with Aura, you go through the motions your predecessors went through before you, and after that you can try out new things by yourself. And thirdly, you shouldn't have been experimenting in broad daylight in front of other people in the first place!

Ash lightly rubbed the back of his head and grumbled about abuse under his breath. "But I was only doing internal Aura experimenting. No one could see that I was doing anything at all in the first place."

Lucario sighed. And I'm still wondering how you produced an explosion of that size by not even projecting your Aura outwards. Luckily, no one managed to find out that you caused that explosion and that guy you blew away only had a few scraps. Not even mentioning the fact that you yourself can't get hurt by your own Aura, or otherwise it would have been ugly, to say the least.

Pikachu snickered, trying to smother his laughs, which where eclipsed by the sudden growling of his stomach. He blushed as everyone turned to look at him. "Well," the electric rodent said, rubbing the back of his head, "I'm hungry. Can we have something to eat now?"

Ash looked up at the sky and noted the time. He shrugged. "Sure, it's just past noon now anyway."

He quickly led them of the path and into a wide and spacious clearing down beside the road. The group quickly set out to make a light afternoon snack. Nothing too elaborate, just some basic Pokéchow for their Pokémon and some sandwiches for the Humans. Lucario, of course, took care of his own food.

Ash saw Anabel release her own trio of Pokémon just as he released his newest addition to his team: Charmander. Kadabra and Munchlax appeared in a white blaze and immediately honed in on the bowls of food that Anabel had set up for them. They quickly joined Eevee, who had already started on her own bowl.

He turned his attention back to his Pokémon and grinned. "Hey, Charmander. How are ya?" he asked with a friendly grin. While Charmander had looked fine yesterday when he took the Fire-Type with him it wouldn't surprise him if he still had some lingering doubts about him and his former trainer.

Charmander simply looked up at him with wide happy eyes and smiled a toothy grin at him.

Looking at the Fire-Type Ash suddenly remembered something he had forgotten to do. He quickly took out his Pokédex and aimed at Charmander, who cocked his head curiously at the strange red device.

Charmander, the Lizard Pokémon, the Pokédex droned coldly like the machine that it was. Charmander's health can be gauged by the fire on the tip of its tail, which burns intensely when it's in good health. This Charmander is male and knows the moves Scratch, Ember, Smokescreen and Flamethrower. This Charmander also has the ability Blaze, which activates when this Pokémon is close to defeat, immensely strengthening Fire-Type attacks and giving an allover increase to this Pokémon's strength.

Ash nodded to himself as he contemplated Charmander's move set. It truly wasn't anything special, but it did give him a solid base to work his way up from. He did already have Flamethrower, though. A pretty good attack for such a young Pokémon.

"Not bad, not bad at all," Ash finally said, making Charmander grin. The trainer put his Pokédex away and looked Charmander over, contemplating what to teach the Fire-Type to increase his overall fighting skills. "You have a solid base, Charmander. The only thing you're really lacking is a powerful close range attack. Something like..." Ash thought about it for a moment before the metaphorical light bulb appeared over his head. He grinned. "Something like Dragon Claw," Ash announced.

Charmander's eyes widened and his muzzle gaped slightly open. The lizard-like Pokémon quickly gathered himself, though. He looked up at Ash hopefully. "Do you really think I can learn a Dragon-Type move," Charmander said hopefully, a certain amount of awe to his voice when he said dragon.

Ash nodded immediately, smiling down at Charmander. "Of course. It's just going to take a lot of hard work and determination. Something I know you have in spades. Besides, your kind are pretty damn close to Dragon-Type Pokémon anyway. I'm sure you'll be able to learn Dragon Claw just fine."

The trainer looked behind him and spied Anabel who had just sat down on the soft grass to enjoy her own food. He turned his attention back to Charmander and gestured to the bowl he had set down for him. "But training can come after lunch. Eat up, Charmander, and get ready, because I'm planning to put you through your paces."

Instead of being daunted by what Ash had said Charmander simply grew more excited. This was his chance to prove himself. To Ash, to his teammates, and most importantly, to himself. He would give it his all, he swore it to himself. And he would make everyone, including himself, proud.

With that happy thought he sat down in front of his bowl and started eating together with his new friends.

Life was wonderful, Ash firmly decided to himself. He had been traveling for about a month now and everything had been awesome. Traveling, making new friends, meeting and helping people in need, getting stronger and working towards his ultimate goal all wrapped up in one massive adventure that had only just begun. Truly, it didn't get any better than this. It was perfect.

At least, it would have been perfect, if not for one little thing.

"We're lost," Ash sighed to himself and smacked the palm of his hand against his forehead.

"And whose fault is that?" Anabel asked, giving him a pointed stare. "It was your idea to take a shortcut through the woods. And you lost your map, remember?"

Ash smiled sheepishly and waved his hand apologetically. "Sorry, but I was simply so excited for my next Gym match. I had hoped that by taking a shortcut through the woods we would have reached Vermilion City sooner. As for the map..." he trailed of and adverted his eyes. "Trust me, I've learned my lesson. Keep your possessions secure and never stray from the path so long as you can help it."

You'd better, Lucario muttered as he shot Ash an annoyed look. We would have been in Vermilion City by now if you hadn't insisted on taking that shortcut.

Pikachu rolled his eyes before giving Lucario a flat look. "Man, what crawled up your butt. It's not like we have a deadline or something. The League Conference is still nine months away. More than enough time to gather all the Badges. We're on a journey, aren't we? I say that we should take diversions like this more often. We need to see as much of the world as possible," the yellow rodent said, looking out fondly at the greenery surrounding the group.

Lucario sighed and shook his head. I know, I know. It's just that Sir Aaron always tried to do things in as a timely manner as possible. Wasting time just grates on my nerves, that's all.

"Hey, do you guys hear that?" Anabel suddenly said as she cocked her head to the side, trying to hear better. "Isn't that..." her eyes widened," Lapping waves."

Ash blinked and closed his eyes as he focused his Aura to his ears, augmenting his hearing for a fair degree. His eyes snapped open and he grinned. "You're right. That's the sound of waves," He grabbed Anabel's hand, not noticing her sudden blush, and started pulling her along. "Let's go. If we follow the coastline we will eventually reach Vermilion City. If my memory serves me right, and I'm certain that it does, Vermilion City lays right up against the sea."

They quickly broke free from the tree line and were treated to a stunning view of the open sea with a rising sun just becoming visible over the horizon, setting the sea aglow with a vibrant orange hue.

Anabel breathed out deeply at the sight, smiling vibrantly. "Beautiful."

Ash and Pikachu nodded in agreement while Lucario smiled softly at the sight.

Pikachu look to the side and spotted something. A grin appeared on his tiny face, causing his sharp canines to appear. "Hey, look there," he said and pointed towards the thing he had discovered. Everybody looked towards the side and their eyes widened as they beheld what they had missed earlier.

An immense lighthouse towered into the sky, it's red and white stripes that decorated its exterior easily grabbing everyone's attention in spite of the light fog surrounding the huge building. It stood tall and proud on an imposing cliff side, looking out over sea, its light aimed at the murky depths below it.

Ash sweatdropped. "How in the name of Arceus did we miss that?" he wondered to himself. No one deigned to answer that question.

Let's go take a look, Lucario said and started walking in the direction of the imposing lighthouse. Chances are that there's someone there that can point us in the direction we need to go along the coastline. If not, I'm sure that we can find some kind of map or something.

Ash, Anabel and Pikachu looked at each other, shrugged, and followed after the Aura Pokémon.

"I hope so. I have no intention of getting lost a second time."

Ash suddenly frowned, noticing something peculiar, and looked down. He blinked at the Krabby that had clamped itself tightly to his foot.

The Krabby blinked back.

Then it clicked.

"YOOOUCH!" Ash screamed and kicked out his foot, sending the Krabby flying. The others snickered at him. He shot them an annoyed look in return before his eyes once more sought out Krabby. He saw the tiny red crab-like Pokémon getting back on its feet and glared at him with more heat than one would expect from such a tiny Pokémon. Slowly, a grin appeared on Ash's face.

"That hurt you little rascal," Ash muttered through his grin. He idly contemplated which Pokémon he should use to capture that Krabby, only for the choice to be taken from him a moment later.

One of his Pokéballs clipped to his belt wiggled suddenly and then snapped open. In a white flash of light Charmander appeared in front of him, glaring defiantly at the Krabby who had dared to hurt his trainer and friend.

Ash raised an eyebrow at Charmander and was about to call out to him, telling him to get back, but halted himself. He had added Charmander to his team five days ago and he had immediately found out that Charmander would go to herculean efforts to get in his good graces. As proven when he actually managed to keep up with his other Pokémon for a time in the few days he had been training with them. It was Charmander's way of adding himself to the team, and to prove himself to Ash.

That what this was. A chance for Charmander to prove himself.

"Ready, Charmander?" Ash asked. His only Fire-Type Pokémon nodded resolutely. "Alright then! Use Flamethrower!"

Charmander's eyes burned with passion and resolve as he opened his maw, embers already gathering in the back of his throat in preparation for the attack. Taking a deep breath through his nose Charmander spat out a concentrated stream of scorching flames straight at Krabby.

Not to be outdone, Krabby responded in kind. The Water-Type opened its tiny mouth and spewed out a concentrated beam of bubbles.

The attacks met and promptly tried to push the other back, the stream of bubbles battling it out against the maelstrom of fire. Krabby and Charmander upped the power behind their attacks, their respective streams thickening. The bubbles doused the flames and the flames evaporated and popped the bubbles in turn, creating a stalemate and forming a thick blanket of mist that obscured everything from sight.

Now unable to see their opponent and aim their attacks effectively the two Pokémon cut off their attacks at about the same time. Both stared hard into the fine mist, trying to discern their enemy's location. Another stalemate.

One which Ash broke.

The trainer closed his eyes and focused his Aura. His Aura sight activated and he zoomed in on Krabby. "Charmander." The Fire-Type perked up at his whispering voice, only barely being able to make it out. "Use Ember straight ahead and a little to the right."

Trusting his trainer Charmander acted immediately. He opened his maw, spitting out a maelstrom of tiny fireballs into the mist in the direction Ash had specified. He was rewarded with a pained squeal as tiny explosions abounded.

Charmander closed his maw and smirked. He once again peered into the mist that had slowly started to lift.

The mist disappeared seconds later to show... Nothing!

Both Ash's and Charmander's eyes widened, and before they could react, the sand in front of Charmander erupted.

Krabby appeared, sand sliding off of its red armor and one bright red claw surrounded by frothing water. The crab-like Pokémon brought it down on Charmander's head with herculean force a blink of an eye later. Water erupted from the blow and sent the sand beneath Charmander's feet flying in all directions, along with Charmander himself.

Charmander slammed into the soft sand in front of Ash, bruised and unmoving.

Ash winced. That Crabhammer had packed quite a wallop.

"Get up Charmander!" Ash called out desperately, staring defiantly at the unmoving figure of his Pokémon. "I know that you're stronger than that," he said with iron-hard conviction, a conviction met by Charmander's own.

A twitch. Another. Then a leg moved. Then an arm. Followed by the other leg, and then the other arm. Charmander forced himself on his hands and knees, panting in exertion and pain, but fierce defiance burned in his eyes.

"I will win," Charmander growled to himself, once again heaving himself onto his feet.

"Flamethrower into the ground!" Ash suddenly shouted, eyes wide as he spotted Krabby spit out another beam of bubbles straight at Charmander.

Charmander didn't question the order and spat a blistering stream of fire into the ground, catapulting himself high into the air, evading the Bubble Beam attack. The lizard-like Pokémon immediately repositioned his attack and covered Krabby in scorching fire.

Krabby screeched and tried to get away from the flames, but it was neither a fast nor very maneuverable. It was stuck underneath the flames.

Charmander came falling down from the sky, still pinning Krabby down with his Flamethrower, and Ash saw the perfect moment to end it.

Ash smirked and pointed at Krabby. "Let's wrap this up! Use Scratch!"

Charmander gave a smirk of his own through his still ongoing Flamethrower and reared his clawed arms back. His claws lit up with a faint white glow as he readied his attack. At the very last moment before he would have struck Krabby he cut off his Flamethrower, did a front flip, and brought down his glowing claws in a merciless scissor movement, gauging claw marks into Krabby's natural armor.

Krabby gave one last high-pitched screech, stumbled back, and blacked out, falling limp in the soft sand.

Ash quickly grabbed an empty Pokéball, enlarged it with the click of a button, and hurled it at Krabby. "You're mine!" The Pokéball struck Krabby right in the head and snapped open. Krabby turned into bright red energy and was sucked inside as the Pokéball clicked shut, its center glowing red and wiggling from side to side as the Pokémon inside tried its hardest to escape.

Moments later, the Pokéball stopped wiggling with a soft 'ding' and came to rest on the soft sand.

"Alright!" Ash cheered and was promptly cut of as Charmander tackled him in happiness, knocking them both to the ground.

"That was great, buddy! I told you, didn't I, that you were strong," Ash complimented the Fire-Type.

Charmander simply clutched his trainer tighter at his congratulatory words.

"Great work, buddy. Now, have a good long rest," Ash said and took out Charmander's Pokéball. He returned his Pokémon and stood up, dusting of the sand that had clung to him. He then made his way over to Pokéball that held Krabby and picked it up. The up-and-coming trainer smiled at it and then shrunk it down with the push of a button before clipping it to his belt beside Charmander's.

"Well," Anabel said, gaining Ash's attention. He looked over at her and saw his friends waiting on him. "That was a fine first battle with Charmander, Ash, but can we go now? My feet are starting to hurt from standing still for so long."

Ash nodded and gave her an apologetic smile as he ran up to join her and Lucario. Shortly after that they were once again tracking towards the huge lighthouse that still loomed quite a distance away.

Ten minutes later the group arrived at the base of the lighthouse, and as one they looked in awe at the masterpiece of a front door.

There were hundreds, the group absently realized. Pokémon, familiar, strange, exotic and strong-looking were exquisitely and elaborately carved in the seven feet tall stone gray double doors. All of them stood in an intimidating pose, their element surrounding them and highlighting their forms, roaring out their names or performing an attack. It reminded Ash starkly of the immense stone plates of the three Legendary Birds of Kanto he had seen in the Viridian City Pokémon Center.

It could be nothing more than a masterpiece.

Lucario walked up to it, and absently brushed over the images with his paw. He smiled and committed the image to memory. Memories like this where supposed to be treasured, and he would treasure this image for the rest of his life.

"I know I've been saying this a lot lately, but wow," Anabel breathed out as she studied the masterpiece of a door intently, trying to burn the image into her mind.

"You can say that again," Ash agreed, his eyes hungrily roaming over the door.

Pikachu snorted at them, but even he was watching the door intently. "It's nice to look at," he admitted. "But I don't have much experience with Human architecture. Would this be considered something special?" the electric rodent wondered curiously.

Surprisingly, it was Eevee who answered. "Yes, this is something very, very special. I could count masterpieces I have seen together with my trainer like this door on my paw and have digits to spare."

Pikachu looked faintly intrigued hearing this and studied the door closer, but finally decided they had something more important to do. "Well, as interesting as this is I believe we came here for a reason," Pikachu hinted.

Ash nodded and stepped up towards the door. He considered knocking for a moment, but then he spotted the bell besides the door. Smiling, he rang it.

DING-DONG!

The ancient sounding, almost church like, bell echoed in the sudden silence, the strange and haunting sound startling Ash, Anabel and their Pokémon, except for Lucario, of course. They looked at each other, not really sure what to make of the strange occurrence. There was another moment of silence, which was broken seconds later by the sound of rapid footsteps coming from behind the closed-door.

The masterpiece of a door suddenly swung open inwards, revealing an immaculately dressed man in a blue and black suit. He had green wavy hair and chocolate-brown eyes framed by a sharp face. The man bowed lightly to them in greeting. "Hello, my name is Bill. I'm custodian of this lighthouse. How may I help you?"

Anabel stepped forwards and bowed lightly back. "Hello, I'm Anabel and these are my friends," she said, gesturing to the people around her. "I'm afraid we are lost on our way to Vermilion City. You wouldn't happen to know which direction we would need to go, would you?"

Bill smiled broadly and nodded at her. "While I'm not completely sure in which direction you should go there's a map up in my office," he said and stepped aside, gesturing them inside. "Come in and warm yourself. Feel free to look around. I'll go get the map."

They stepped inside and looked around curiously. Meanwhile, Bill discretely disappeared back to his office, looking for the map.

Ash looked around and whistled. The inside looked like nothing that he had expected from a lighthouse. They had entered some kind of elaborate antechamber with neatly decorated columns and a high arched roof. The tiles beneath their feet were colored emerald and almost shone under the low glow of the lamps hanging down from above, creating blotches of light and twisting elongated shadows of everything around them. It honestly looked a little creepy to him.

"Well," Anabel muttered to herself. "This is new."

Lucario looked around with hard eyes. He never liked to be in enclosed dark places, it created too many opportunities to be ambushed. The Aura Pokémon forced himself to relax slightly. It reminds me of Rota's church, just a hell of a lot darker.

Ash's roaming eyes spotted something of interest and before he knew it he was walking towards it. "Hey, guys," he said, gaining everyone's attention, and immediately realized that he was walking towards a Video-Phone tucked into a dark corner of the church-like interior of the lighthouse. "I'm gonna call my mother for a moment."

Anabel raised an eyebrow, "Are you sure that our host will be okay with that?"

Ash shrugged in reply. "I'm sure that he'll be fine with it. Besides, it's a public Video-Phone."

Lucario continued looking around in interest. Anabel nodded and smiled at him, unintentionally mimicking Eevee's actions. Pikachu was still on Ash's shoulder, so he went along for the ride.

Ash sat down in front of the Video-Phone and absently corrected the camera so that his mother could have a better view of him. He picked up the telephone and dialed his home number. He absent-mindedly tapped his finger against his forearm as he waited.

"Hello?" his mother's voice suddenly appeared as the Phone stopped ringing. Her face appeared on the screen a moment later, and Ash immediately spotted his mother brightening at seeing him. "Ash!" she exclaimed happily as she waved at him, "It was about time that you called me. How are you doing? What has your journey been like? How many Pokémon have you caught? Did you make some more friends? Have you-"

Ash raised a hand to silence her, laughing softly at his mother's exuberant nature. "Mom, calm down. I can't answer your questions if you keep on asking more," he said, tapping his chin as he thought about her questions. "So, in order, I'm doing fine. My journey has been awesome so far. I've caught another three Pokémon, a Pidgeotto, a Charmander and I just caught a Krabby. And I did make a new friend. Her name is Anabel and she is traveling with me now."

"That's great, Ash," his mother chirped, but then her eyes gained a mischievous gleam. "So, Anabel huh? What a nice name. Are you sure she is just a friend?"

Ash blushed brightly at his mother's insinuation. Pikachu snorted and shot her an amused look and winked at her. "T-that's not it," Ash stuttered, caught off guard. "She's just a friend I enjoy traveling around with."

"You know what they say, Ash," Delia said, her eyes crinkling in humor. "Friends make the best spouses."

Ash's blush grew to cover his entire body and he absently wondered why he wasn't feeling light-headed, as the blood needed to make his entire body blush should have made him a bit queasy at least. "Moooooooom," he all but whined.

"Alright, alright," Delia relented, all though she was still smiling widely."I'll quit. For now."

Ash shuddered at the silent promise in his mother's words and begged Arceus that no one would be there to see it when she would tease him the next time. He quickly changed the topic. "So, how have things been at home?"

"Quiet mostly," she admitted, shrugging lightly. "Professor Oak has asked me to help him out more often at the lab and Chris from down the street broke his leg." Delia winced at the same time Ash did. "But for the most part everything has been pretty boring around here."

"Good," Ash said with a laugh. He was relieved to find out that his mother didn't carry the curse, or was it a blessing, he absently wondered, of running into troublesome situations every once in a while.

Suddenly, Delia's head snapped to the side as a soft 'ding' noise was heard in the background. She turned back to him, eyes apologetic, and started getting up. "Sorry, dear, but dinner is ready. I have to go now."

Ash smiled and waved his mother goodbye. "That's alright mom. I'll call you soon," he promised and switched of the Video-Phone, the screen turning black, and he placed the horn back down on its spot.

"I've said it once and I'll say it again. Your mother as a very energetic woman," Pikachu said, a light grin on his features.

Ash nodded in agreement, grinning along with his Pokémon, and stood up. He walked away from the Video-Phone and looked around, spotting Anabel, Lucario and Eevee quietly chatting in a dark corner of the church-like interior of the lighthouse.

"How's your mother doing?" Anabel asked curiously as he got closer to them. "The last time I spoke to my mother she nearly cried."

Ash shrugged. "All things considered she's doing fine. A bit bored maybe, but all around fine."

Lucario snorted and shook his head. Delia has been, and always will be, a very hardy woman. It's in her nature.

"Huh," the unmistakable voice of Bill suddenly announced as the immaculately dressed man appeared from the darkness. He was loosely clutching a map in his hands as he gaped at Lucario incredulously. "A talking Pokémon," he mused to himself, noting absently that Lucario had face palmed at his mentioning of his ability to talk Human tongue. "Now I've truly seen everything."

Oh for the love of... Lucario growled to himself, his paw still attached to his forehead.

Ash sweatdropped and walked up to Bill. "Ignore him," he advised as he gestured to Lucario. "He just gets annoyed when people remark on his ability to talk." His eyes zeroed in on the map in Bill's hands. "Anyway, is that it?"

Bill shook his head, ridding himself of his shock and awe, and handed the map to Ash. "Yes, it's an entire map of the Kanto region. It's kind of old, but it still has all the important locations on it. Vermilion City included."

Ash nodded and took the map gratefully. He folded the map open and his sharp eyes immediately roamed over it, looking for Vermilion. The young trainer found it almost instantly. He smiled. "According to this map we just have to continue following the coastline in the northern direction and we'll eventually reach Vermilion City."

Lucario peered at the map over Ash's shoulder. By my guess it would take us three days to reach our destination, the Aura Pokémon concluded.

Anabel and Eevee nodded in unison, agreeing with Lucario.

Folding the map closed again Ash was about to hand it back to Bill but he raised his hand in a warding motion, making Ash pause. "Keep it," Bill said, smiling lightl., "I have a newer map up in my office. I don't need this one. Consider it my gift for visiting me. The life of a Pokémon researcher like myself can be rather lonely..."

"You're a Pokémon researcher?" Anabel asked, blinking in surprise as she peered closer at Bill. The others looked equally as interested.

The aforementioned Pokémon researcher nodded and smiled. "Correct. My main area of expertise is Pokémon evolution, just like Professor Rowan from the Sinnoh region, and I have a passing interest in Shiny Pokémon."

Ash once again blinked as he stuffed the map into his backpack. "Shiny?" he questioned, having never heard of the term before.

The others gave him a strange look, not believing that he had never heard of Shiny Pokémon before. Lucario rubbed the back of his head, equally in disbelieve that he had forgotten to inform Ash about them. In his defense, Shiny Pokémon are just Pokémon with different colors then the norm, and didn't have any impact on battles or strategies.

After quickly explaining them to Ash, the group thanked Bill for the help and the map, said goodbye, left, and once again headed towards Vermilion City.

As predicted by Lucario the group arrived at Vermilion City three days later. Three days of traveling along beaches, dealing with swimmers and Water-Type Pokémon, enjoying the nice environment, and taking care of their Pokémon and training.

It had been a nice three days, but Ash was anxious to get to the Pokémon Center, mainly so that he could have Krabby checked out and possibly healed. He had already treated the tiny Water-Types injuries with a variety of potions, and he appeared just fine, but Ash wanted to make certain that the newest addition to his team was at one hundred percent. He had also already struck up a friendship with Krabby, but he had refrained from training the Water-Type, first wanting to make sure that he was alright before doing anything.

Ash absently realized that he had forgotten to scan Krabby with his Pokédex. He resolved to do it at the earliest convenience.

The group was silent as they entered Vermilion City, just taking in the scenery as they headed straight for the Pokémon Center. Vermilion City was a large city adjacent to the sea. Large skyscrapers towered into the sky and wide roads crisscrossed through the busy city. People milled everywhere and into every direction. A variety of electric appliances were almost everywhere they looked.

A true city of the new age.

Lucario looked up at the city map displayed on a humongous video screen that dominated the attention of all in the busy intersection they were passing through. His sharp and experienced eyes immediately picked out the Pokémon Center. We're close, Ash, he called out to his trainer. We just need to take the next left and then down a small plaza and we'll be at the Pokémon Center.

Ash nodded, not turning to look at Lucario, and started into the direction the Aura Pokémon had pointed in. "Good," he said and then fell silent.

"Hey, Ash," Anabel spoke up as she clutched Eevee to her chest. "Haven't you been in this city before?" Ash turned to look at her and nodded, a question in his eyes. Anabel answered it with one of her own. "Then why don't you know the way to the Pokémon Center?"

Ash sighed and made a show of looking around the busy sidewalks. "I did visit this city about four years ago, but things have changed since then. Nothing looks familiar to me here. Vermilion had always been a very progressive city. It seems they have completely overhauled the place since the last time I was here," he said, secretly hoping that the few friends he had made here were still the same.

Anabel nodded in understanding and returned to looking around the busy streets, trying to look for something that would catch her interest.

They continued on walking, just looking at everything that managed to grab their attention, and then minutes later they arrived at the Vermilion City Pokémon Center. It stood on the middle of a large plaza covered in large green trees and bushes. The building itself was large and was covered by a huge red dome like roof with a large P bolted on top for all to see. Trainers milled everywhere, carrying Pokémon and chatting with each other as they rushed inside with haste.

"What a busy place," Eevee mused softly to herself as the group entered the Pokémon Center. Pikachu nodded in agreement and was about to say something...

...and stopped dead in his tracks. His mouth had fallen open as he looked around the insides of the Pokémon Center in shock.

All around them where all kinds of Pokémon. That wasn't so surprising, being in a Pokémon Center and all, but what was surprising was the state the Pokémon were in. Nearly all of them were laying down on soft towels, their bodies bruised in beaten. The majority where moaning piteously while their trainers hovered besides them, concern on display for everyone to see who cared to look.

Ash took one look around, face palmed loud enough to draw attention from people a couple of feet away, and muttered to himself, "Oh no, he's at it again."

"Ash," Anabel said slowly as she looked around, a slight tinge of horror on her face. "You know who did this?"

The Aura trainee nodded and sighed. "Yup, this has Lt. Surge written all over it," he said and removed his palm from his forehead. "He's the Vermilion City Gym leader and the holder of the Thunder Badge."

"A Gym leader did this?" Anabel asked, equal parts shock and disgust to her voice. Her face tightened with barely controlled rage. "Wh-what the hell is he thinking?!" she almost shrieked in anger. Ash, Lucario, Pikachu and Eevee winced as her high-pitched voice assaulted their hearing. Anabel continued ranting, not even noticing the slightly pained expression on her companion's faces. "It's his duty as a Gym leader to guide and protect young trainers, not ruthlessly crush them!"

She's pissed, Lucario muttered to himself, cringing as his finely honed Aura senses practically allowed him to taste her anger.

Ash absently rubbed his right ear, the one closest to Anabel, trying to clear it from the ringing her voice had caused, and thought deeply about what he should say to calm her down, "I'm sorry Anabel, but Lt. Surge has always been a rather... spirited fighter. It's just his nature to go all out on his opponent no matter how old and experienced they are. That's just who he is," he was about to say more, but Anabel cut him off.

"That doesn't make this right!" she cut him off, her burning eyes fixing their attention on him. She gritted her teeth. "He has to pay for this."

"And how are you going to do that?" Ash asked with a raised eyebrow.

Anabel took a deep breath at the question and tapped one of her Pokéballs. "My mother told me that when dealing with a bully one must always be willing to give him or her a taste of their own medicine," she smirked. "In other words, like he crushed these trainers, I'm going to crush him."

"Uh," Ash was slightly taken aback and gazed down at her blankly at her declaration. "Are you sure that is a good idea? Lt. Surge is the very definition of a hard ass. He fought in the Great War you know. Not even mentioning those Pokémon of his. They are strong and experienced, and Lt. Surge himself is as tough as they come as far as trainers go."

Anabel glared up at him and gritted out. "That doesn't matter. No matter how strong he is I'm going to give him a taste of his own medicine," she declared, her eyes brimming with confidence. With that same confidence she marched towards the counter behind which stood a haggard looking Nurse Joy and deposited her Pokémon. Ash shook his head and followed her, also depositing his Pokémon, except for Lucario of course.

Their Pokémon were returned to them moments later, fully healed and ready to fight once more. They quickly took the chance to rent two rooms for themselves as well. With barely a pause Anabel took her key from Nurse Joy's hand and headed up towards her room. Ash shook his head, took his own key, and followed her, hoping and praying that he wouldn't become the source of her ire any time soon.

Ash didn't fully relax until Anabel had disappeared into her room. Sighing in relieve Ash entered his own room and took in the small and cozy looking place. He smiled and quickly shrugged off his backpack, allowing it to fall to the ground as he moved towards the bed. With a small huff of exhaustion he fell back down on it, taking Pikachu down with him, and who immediately laid down beside him.

Lucario sat down on a small chair, his arms crossed lazily against his chest and his eyes closed in thought.

"Who would have thought," Pikachu mused.

"What? That Anabel would be that easy to set off? I hadn't expected that either," Ash said as he lazily stretched his arms above his head.

Lucario grunted in agreement and peeked one of his eyes open. It took us all by surprise, he said. We haven't known her for very long. There's probably a lot we don't know about her. She probably has hidden depths we haven't yet seen.

Ash nodded and sat up. He reached towards his belt and unclipped a trio of Pokéballs from his belt. "True, but we can talk about this later. First, we have a Gym match to prepare for, don't we?"

Pikachu sweatdropped. "If Anabel was serious just now you'll probably have to wait your turn."

Ash shrugged and threw the Pokéballs into the air. Three flashes of white later and Charmander, Krabby and Pidgeotto appeared on the ground in front of him. "Probably, but we still have to prepare."

"What're you guys talking about?" Charmander questioned as he gave a searching glance around the room.

Lucario grunted again. That Ash will have to wait his turn to take on the Vermilion City Gym leader. Anabel has taken offence at the way he treats his challengers and has decided to take him on herself.

Charmander shot the Steel-Type a glance, before nodding and sitting down on the soft carpet.

Ash's gaze zeroed in on Krabby and looked him over, trying to see if Krabby was completely healthy. To his satisfaction Krabby appeared to be in perfect condition. His natural armor was practically shining, and his pincers seemed even bigger than before. Still, just to be sure. "Krabby, how are you feeling?"

Krabby blinked his large eyes, before grinning at him and smashing his pincers together in delight. "I feel good! No, great even! I haven't had this much fun in who knows how long!"

Ash blinked and cocked his head to the side. "Fun?" he questioned.

Krabby nodded and his grin widened. "Traveling with you guys for these last few days has been more fun than I can remember ever having! Now only if I could train with you guys, then things would be perfect!"

Ash chuckled at Krabby's exuberant nature and waved his hand, "Then you will be happy to hear that now that you have been checked out by Nurse Joy you will now be allowed to train with us," he said, causing Krabby to almost start vibrating. He blinked as he remembered something. The Aura trainee reached into his pocket and took out his Pokédex, raising it to point it at Krabby. With the push of a button it activated.

Krabby, the River Crab Pokémon, the red machine droned. Living on sandy beaches in burrows it digs, Krabby can grow back its pincers if they break off in battle. This Krabby is male and knows the moves Bubble Beam, Harden, Crabhammer and Vice Grip. This Krabby has the ability Shell Armor, which means that enemies won't be able to land critical hits.

Ash whistled. "Nice," he commented, causing Krabby to grin at him.

"Does that mean you'll use me for your Gym match," Krabby asked hopefully, giving Ash a pleading stare.

"No, sorry," Ash shook his head and gave Krabby an apologetic smile. Seeing the pained look on Krabby's face he hastened to explain his decision. "The Vermilion City Gym leader specializes in Electric-Type Pokémon," he said, making Krabby wince. "I wouldn't dare send you out against an Electric-Type Pokémon, not even mentioning the fact that I haven't been able to train with you yet and make some strategies specially tailored for you. Without that I'm simply not comfortable sending you out."

Krabby nodded in understanding, but his eyes where still downcast. "I understand."

"Chin up, Krabby," Ash said, causing Krabby to look up at him. "I already have a few ideas as to how to use you in battle and a few attacks I think you should learn," he smiled at the suddenly hopeful glimmer in Krabby's eyes. "Give it a few days and you'll be ready for a real battle."

Krabby once again grinned and started grinding his pincers together in anticipation.

"Then who will you be using in your Gym match?" Pidgeotto finally spoke up, sending Ash a shrewd look.

"That depends," Ash answered calmly, "It comes down to how many Pokémon we will be allowed to use. If it's one-on-one I'll use Pikachu. His ability makes all Electric-Type attacks useless. He'll be my ace for the upcoming battle," the Aura trainee found himself grinning at that statement. He couldn't wait to see Lt. Surge's face when he realized his most powerful attacks would be totally ineffective.

Pidgeotto nodded, understanding his reasoning. Her sharp eyes narrowed. "And if it comes down to multiple matchups?"

Ash grimaced and answered. "If it's two-on-two I'll include Charmander," he said. Charmander perked up and a big grin spread across his muzzle, displaying razor-sharp teeth. "If it's three-on-three I'll have to use you as well," Ash continued, and immediately caught onto Pidgeotto's grimace. He shot her a reassuring smile. "Relax, Pidgeotto. I already have a tactic in mind that will allow you to overcome Electric-Types. I'll discuss it with you later."

Pidgeotto looked intrigued at this mystery strategy, but held her curiosity in check and nodded at her trainer.

"And if it's more than three-on-three?" Pikachu asked, all though he had a sneaking suspicion of what his trainer had in mind.

"If it comes to that and you three are all knocked out I'll use Lucario," Ash announced, and that answered everything. There was no doubt in the minds of everyone present, except for maybe Krabby, that if Ash sent out Lucario he would attain victory no matter what.

Suddenly, the door leading into the room slammed open. Everyone turned to look and saw Anabel standing in the door way with Eevee on her shoulder and her Pokéballs in hand. Ash could easily see the tightness around her eyes and the subtle clenching of her fists.

She shot him a hard look. "Let's go."

Anabel looked at the Vermilion City Gym, eyes as hard as diamonds. She hardly noticed the architecture of the building, and scoffed at it, "Che."

Ash was considerably more impressed. His eyes scanned over every inch of the building, a remodeled warehouse, he realized. The building was painted a light green, with bright yellow stylized electric bolts crisscrossing over its exterior. Crystal clear windows lined the outside as well, giving the building a feeling of openness. Bold letters were embroiled right over the entrance, loudly stating: Vermilion City Gym.

Anabel marched forwards and slammed, not pushed, but slammed the double doors open. She walked in, her posture tense and erect, and Ash followed, Lucario trailing behind him and Pikachu on his shoulder.

"So," Suddenly, a deep, masculine and booming voice announced. "Who comes knocking open my door?"

"I do," Anabel said, steel hidden in her voice, and came to a stop.

A hulk of a man with erect blond hair appeared in front of them, obviously the Gym leader. Lt. Surge smirked and cooed at her, "Ahh, does a little baby like to play with the big boys," he said and burst out laughing when Anabel colored in what he believed to be embarrassment. "That's alright," the former army man continued, smirking widely, "I'll go easy on you."

Anabel clenched her fists and growled wordlessly at Lt. Surge, getting a chuckle out of the man.

Ash stepped around Anabel and spotted Lt. Surge. He grinned widely and waved at the man. "Hey, Lt. Surge! Long time no see!"

Lt. Surge was a hulk of a man. He was at least twice Ash's height and almost ten times his bulk. The man was chiseled like a rock, and the constant smirk playing across his lips made him out to be the ultimate hard-ass. A man as tough as granite and as sharp as a diamond tipped knife.

So Ash found it slightly amusing when he saw Surge's eyes widening in surprise.

A grin replaced the smirk on Lt. Surge's face. "Hey there runt," he boomed. "It has indeed been a long time, and look at you! You're all grown up, maybe not a lot, but there has definitely been some improvement," The man leaned in and looked at him more closely. "You're still a runt, though."

Ash simply snorted at that remark and waved him off. He was more than acquainted with Lt. Surge's sense of humor. It was all in good fun.

Anabel twitched. "Ash," she said, a noticeable strain to her voice, "How exactly do you know Lt. Surge?"

Ash snorted and shook his head. "Oh, that's easy. My mother and I had gotten lost in the city." He sighed. "Go figure. Anyway, we ran into Surge, he decided to help us, showed us the way back to the hotel, and voilà. I met Surge."

Surge laughed. "You both just looked so cute, all lost and helpless. I couldn't just ignore the both of you."

Anabel gained a tick mark and took a bold step forwards, glaring at the rugged man in front of her. "Enough!" she snapped. "I came here to challenge you, not to listen to you both rambling on about years long since passed!"

Surge regained his eager grin. "You're right there, girlie. Come on over, and we'll begin," he announced and turned around. The man walked around the battlefield, a simple square of dirt with white lines over it, nothing that would give a Pokémon an advantage or disadvantage, and took up his spot at one end of the battlefield. Anabel followed suit and took up her position on the other end.

Ash, meanwhile, took a place on the bleachers to the side. Lucario sat down beside him and Pikachu was as usual on his shoulder. All three were watching intently, not trying to miss anything that could be important later on for Ash's own match.

"The rules are simple," Surge announced as he took out a Pokéball, enlarged it, and spun it on the tip of his finger. "Three-on-three. Only the challenger is allowed to switch Pokémon. The battle will be over when one side's Pokémon are unable to continue." He stopped spinning his Pokéball and caught it firmly in the palm of his hand, holding it out toward Anabel. "Is that clear?

Anabel nodded and took out her own Pokéball. "Crystal," she muttered, an undertone of hostility to her voice.

"Begin!" Surge roared and hurled his Pokéball high up into the air. A flash of white later and a Magneton had appeared on the field, floating only a scant few centimeters above the dirt. It whirled angrily at Anabel, high voltage sparks jumping off of its iron-hard shell as it did so.

Anabel released her own Pokémon moments later. Her Munchlax materialized, for once a hard look on its otherwise happy face and he smashed his clenched fists together, creating a minor shockwave.

Surge's eager grin widened at the sight. "Nice, very nice. Perhaps this will be my battle of the week," he absently mused, and then his sharp eyes narrowed. "Let's start of strong! Magneton, Use Zap Cannon!"

"Magggggnettttton!" the Electric-Type screeched in response, no words, just a wordless growl of eagerness. The magnets sticking out of its body angled towards Munchlax as electricity gathered in front of it, forming a tight sphere of concentrated electrical power. With a spin of its body Magneton send the attack flying straight towards Munchlax.

Anabel's growled order was short and to the point. "Ice Punch."

Munchlax allowed a happy grin to appear on his face as he reared back his right first. Focusing intently, the power of ice and frost coated the limb, the powerful attack at the ready and able to be used at a moment's notice. The Zap Cannon had crossed the distance between it and Munchlax in halve a second...

WHOOOSH-SHRK!

And was destroyed with a lightning quick Ice Punch, the speed of the blow parting the air and detonating the Zap Cannon into an explosion, sending small and weak bolts of lightning every which way.

"Yes," Anabel crowed. "Follow up with Ice Beam!"

Munchlax cocked his head back and opened his big mouth wide, taking a deep breath and concentrating. A sphere of pale icy blue energy formed immediately. Thrusting his head forwards Munchlax unleashed a zigzagging Ice Beam straight towards Magneton.

Surge smirked. "Nice." his eyes hardened. "Shield."

The magnets of Magneton burned a bright yellow, a herculean amount of electricity gathering there, the tips sparking erratically. Arcs of lightning jumped all over Magneton's metallic shell, casting short-lived shadows everywhere.

Just as the Ice Beam was about to strike the Steel-Type the arcs of lightning exploded outwards and formed a sphere of electricity around Magneton. Ice beam was stopped cold in its tracks, not even making an inch of headway into the protective sphere.

"Get close," Surge commanded. He grinned nastily. "Bash it to pieces."

Magneton screeched in response and rocketed forwards, maintaining its shield of electricity as it did so. It closed the distance between itself and Munchlax in seconds, who tried to halt its advance unsuccessfully by continuously blasting the sphere with Ice Beam's.

"Dodge," Anabel shouted at the last second, panic in her eyes.

Munchlax stopped blasting Ice Beam's and jumped to the right with far more agility then one would expect from such an ungainly looking Pokémon. He evaded the attack by the skin of his teeth and landed a short ways away, rolling to a stop and coming to a halt on his knees, head down and panting lightly from the narrow miss.

It ultimately didn't matter.

"Look out!"

Munchlax looked up, shock over taking his features for a split second, before it was replaced by agony as Magneton barreled into him headlong with its shield. Munchlax was picked up off of his feet and ramming into the side of the Gym. Magneton continued grinding into the wall, practically squashing Munchlax between its shield and the wall, before backing off a few moments later and allowing its shield to dissipate.

Munchlax was imbedded into the wall, stuck and completely knocked out cold.

Eyes wide with shock and horror, Anabel returned him. Horror quickly turned to anger, and then to blistering rage. "GRR," she growled, her body shaking in rage at her opponent's brutal attack.

Ash's eyes own eyes were wide as well. So where Pikachu's while Lucario's had gained a sharper look.

"I want to learn that," Pikachu announce. The awe was audible in his voice.

"You will," Ash said as he absently rubbed Pikachu behind the ears, his eyes practically glued to the battle below. He was watching a veteran battling, he realized, someone who was an expert in his chosen element. There was so much to learn from simply looking at Surge's battle tactics. He couldn't look away, certainly not now.

Anabel calmed herself with immense effort and took out her next Pokéball. "Kadabra! I need your help!"

The Psychic-Type materialized and took one look around. Kadabra immediately tensed. A short mental communication between him and his trainer had him raising his spoon.

Surge started when without any verbal communication Kadabra seized Magneton with a powerful Confusion attack. "Break free!" he shouted, his face muscles lightly flexing as he hollered his commands. "Use Thunderbolt!"

Kadabra didn't give it the chance. With a thought Magneton rocketed backwards and slammed into the wall behind it, causing it to crack from the force. Kadabra continued bashing Magneton repeatedly into the wall until it looked sufficiently confused, and then applied herculean force on it, trying to squash all the resistance out of it.

Magneton groaned and Surge finally had enough.

"Tri Attack!"

The top screw and the two bottom screws that held the three bodies of Magneton together started shining brightly in spite of the immense force being exerted on its steely body. The top one gathered electricity, the bottom left one gathered ice energy, and the bottom right one gathered heat energy. A thin white line joined all three spheres together, causing the energies to start mixing, forming a bright white triangle with different energy spheres at each tip.

"Grr," Magneton growled lowly and fired the attack straight at Kadabra with immense speed.

Kadabra's fiercely glowing eyes widened and he tried to dodge, but he was neither a fast nor an agile Pokémon. The Tri Attack struck it straight in the chest, causing a loss of concentration, freeing Magneton from its mental grip. Kadabra smashed into the Gym wall amidst an explosion of dust and dirt.

"Kadabra!" Anabel shouted. She swiftly closed her eyes and focused on her bond with her Pokémon. The Pokémon trainer sighed in relieve when she felt Kadabra respond. The attack had done considerable damage, but not anywhere near enough to knock out her friend.

Anabel opened her eyes and reviewed the situation. Magneton looked tired, the brutal attack Kadabra had done on it taking its toll, while Kadabra had been damaged as well, but much less than Magneton. The battle could still go either way.

One look at Surge and she felt victory already flare up in her chest.

Anabel focused on the bond that she shared with her Pokémon and gave an order. 'Hold still', she said, and Kadabra perked up, the action hidden thanks to the big screen of dust. Once it lowers its guard use Psybeam.

"This match is ours," Surge declared. He grinned at Anabel. "A good attempt, you had me worried there for a second, but it just wasn't go-"

"Now!" Anabel shouted. Kadabra reacted accordingly.

The multicolored beam of psychic energy speared out of the dust, and struck the completely surprised Magneton, who had foolishly dropped its guard after its trainer had declared victory. The Electric-Type screeched and was knocked back into a wall with a dull thud, cracking the stone from the force, and was knocked out cold.

Surge gaped, a shocked expression on his face. He had been completely taken by surprise.

Anabel smirked and pumped her fist in victory. "Yes!"

The gob smacked expression melted away from Surge's face and was replaced with a calm, if not a slightly annoyed look. He calmly recalled Magneton. "Good job," he praised his Pokémon before stuffing the Pokéball away. Sighing, Surge's eyes locked on to Anabel. "Not bad," he admitted. "You waited for just the right moment to strike, and acted decisively. That's a sign of a good trainer."

"But it won't be enough to beat me!" Surge declared, taking out his next Pokéball and hurling it into the air. He laughed as his chosen Pokémon slowly coalesced in front of him. A few seconds later Anabel recognized the form of a powerfully built Raichu. The Electric-Type smirked arrogantly at her and beat his tail against the ground, kicking up a shower of sparks.

Kadabra took a step back. He could clearly feel the power emanating from Raichu, and it eclipsed his by far. The Psychic-Type's eyes narrowed and he planted his feet firmly into the ground, readying himself for combat.

Anabel picked up on this and gave an imperceptible smile. 'That's right. No matter how outclassed we are we won't be giving up.'

"Thunderbolt," Surge ordered calmly, a calm grin reappearing on his face. "Follow with Focus Blast."

"Send them right back!"

Raichu's cheek pouches glowed a bright white as he gathered his energy, causing them to spark violently. At the same time he put his paws together and formed the compact blue sphere of Focus blast. Grinning nastily, Raichu sent a bright surge of electricity straight at Kadabra, hurling the Focus Blast close after it.

Kadabra raised his spoon as he focused his power, causing the utensil to bend. He mentally 'grabbed' Raichu's Thunderbolt and exerted immense energy to send it right back, making it boomerang right back to its sender.

The psychic-Type only just spotted the Focus Blast mere moments before it would have struck him. Reacting quickly he also mentally caught the offending sphere and sent it rocketing back to sender.

Surge and Raichu gave identical grins at the incoming Thunderbolt. The Electric-Type didn't bother dodging. He simply allowed the attack to hit him, absorbing the electricity easily. Raichu merely backhanded the Focus Blast away afterwards.

Kadabra panted tiredly. Sending those two attacks back had cost him a fair amount of energy.

Surge rolled his eyes and sighed. "I'm bored." He gave Raichu a look. "Finish this. Use Volt Tackle."

Eyes widening, Anabel and Kadabra watched with horror as Raichu, who grinned smugly at them, fell to all fours. He raised his long whip-like tail high in the air as a shell of bright yellow electricity covered his form. The Electric-Type bounded forwards rapidly, chanting loudly.

"RAIRAIRAIRAIRAI."

Anabel opened her mouth, the command to dodge on her lips, but Kadabra was already in motion. The Psychic-Type knew that he could not mentally grab such a rapidly accelerating target, so his only possible option was to dodge. His feet dug into the loose soil of the Gym floor as he made the motion to jump, only to realize in a blink of an eye that he wasn't near fast enough to dodge the attack.

Amidst an explosion of electricity Raichu smashed headfirst into Kadabra, driving the air from his lungs and picking him up. Raichu's momentum sent them both flying through the air mere inches above the soil, and continued on until they smashed into the psychic barriers that enclosed the battlefield right in front of Anabel.

Anabel gasped and opened her eyes wide as the electricity started to dissipate, fearing what she might see. Her fears were proven correct when Raichu came scampering out of the dust and rubble, and Kadabra laid unmoving amongst wreckage. She sighed and recalled her Pokémon.

"That makes two out of three," Surge said. He grinned smugly. "Let's make that three out of three."

Anabel gritted her teeth. That Raichu was ludicrously powerful, even for an experienced Gym leader's Pokémon. Her hopes were rapidly draining away as she realized just how outclassed she truly was. And it pissed her off.

Surge boomed a laugh. "It's alright girlie! You're not the first and certainly not the last who have fallen before me. Most rookies do, rather spectacularly I might add."

She finally snapped,."You, you scum! Do you get a kick out of this?! Do you like demeaning helpless rookie trainers?! Huh! Are you that self-centered! You're nothing more than a cruel bastard who gets his jollies out of tormenting others!"

Surge finally lost some of his near constant cheer and became quiet, and rather introspective. "Do I like playing with rookie trainers?" he mused lowly to himself. He chuckled. "Hell yeah I do, but I do have me reasons, girlie," the man damn near growled. "If you beat me I might even tell you why I do this, so come on! Show me everything that you've got!"

Reacting immediately, Anabel commanded her final Pokémon, putting all her hopes on her most powerful partner. "Eevee!"

Eevee leaped from her shoulder and landed on the dirt field, leaning low towards the ground and tensed for action, ready to react in a moment's notice at her trainers command.

Surge chuckled, looking pleased. "That's it. I like that look in your eyes, girlie," he commented and pinned her attention with another grin. "Let's have some fun! Raichu! Use Thunderbolt!"

A shell of electricity formed around Raichu, who immediately blasted an immense bolt of lightning at Eevee.

"Dodge it," Anabel commanded. Eevee jumped to the left, allowing the Thunderbolt to pass her by. "Now get in close! Once you're close enough use Shadow Ball, make sure that Raichu can't dodge," she added the last part in her mind, which only Eevee could hear.

Eevee rushed forwards, fangs bared and ghostly energy brimming underneath her skin, ready to be unleashed.

"Iron Tail!" Surge snapped. Raichu grinned and rushed forwards as well, raising his whip-like tail high up in the air behind him as it glowed a bright white. The two rapidly closed in on one another, their respective attacks ready to be used at a moment's notice.

Raichu came in swinging. Once in range the Electric-Type whipped around and swung its whip-like tail at Eevee's side, who managed to jump in time to only just evade the attack by the skin of her teeth. Then she rapidly charged the Shadow Ball mere inches in front of Raichu's face.

"Oh shi-," Raichu started to exclaim only to be cut of when Eevee's Shadow Ball struck him in the face. "Oof," he grunted and was launched backwards, rolling head over heels as he tried to shake off the blow.

"Quick! Use another Shadow Ball," Anabel commanded, causing Eevee to charge up the attack a second time.

"Oh no, we aren't falling for that one again," Surge said and snapped his huge fingers. "Volt Screen!" Raichu dug his feet and front paws firmly into the ground and halted his backwards momentum, growling loudly at Eevee, and then grinning nastily. His cheek pouches glowed a bright white as he reared his entire upper body back and electricity gathered in his paws, causing them to light up with blinding light.

"Now/Now!" Both trainers commanded at the same time.

Eevee launched the Shadow Ball straight at Raichu at the exact same moment that the Electric-Type smashed his paws into the ground, cratering the floor from the sheer force. From the point of contact electricity exploded forwards in an ever-increasing sphere of force and lightning, rushing over the cracked and broken soil and rapidly closing in on the visibly panicking Eevee.

The Shadow Ball struck the Volt Screen to no effect, detonating without even slowing it down.

"Dodg-" Anabel started to exclaim, but it was already too late. The screen of electricity smashed into Eevee, picking her up and carrying her all the way out of the battlefield and towards Anabel. Luckily, there was a psychic barrier that protected trainers in Gym's and League matches, so instead of smashing into Anabel Eevee's back made contact with the barrier, sandwiching her between burning electricity and the cold immovable wall of mental force. Anabel watched this with mute horror.

Meanwhile Raichu had used the opportunity to close the distance between him and the pinned down Eevee. Acting quickly he smashed a glowing fist, a Mega Punch, Anabel mutely realized, into Eevee's stomach, then rapidly flipped and struck Eevee with an Iron Tail from above, smashing her into the dirt amidst an explosion of grime and dust.

"Eevee!" Anabel finally managed to get through her shock.

"It's already over, girlie," Surge announced and laughed a low laugh. "Look," he said and pointed into the slowly lifting veil of dirt.

And he spoke the truth, as Anabel found out moments later. Eevee once again appeared as soon as the veil of dirt and grime lifted to show the unmoving and beaten form of her first Pokémon. Anabel looked down in shame and recalled her best friend. "You did well, Eevee," she said morosely to the silent Pokéball that held her Eevee. "It wasn't your fault, but mine."

Surge gave another laugh as he crossed the pockmarked battlefield, picking up a grinning Raichu as he did so and depositing his partner on his massive shoulder. He came to a stop in the now visibly intimidated Anabel, looming over her ominously. He reached out for her. Anabel flinched and closed her eyes as...

...he ruffled her hair?

"That was great!" Surge boomed, his grin nearly splitting his face in two. "That was the best fight I've had in ages! Girlie, you can come back anytime you like and challenge me whenever you want! But first, get stronger. So that you can give me an even grander battle next time round!" His massive hand took her numb smaller one and shook it. "Deal?"

Still in shock, Anabel could only nod dumbly.

From afar Ash snorted, loudly, gaining the attention of all present. "Same old Lt. Surge. Still the ever crazy battle maniac," he said as he approached, Pikachu on his shoulder and Lucario following close behind him.

Far from offended, Surge simply laughed once more.

Anabel swallowed. "I-I don't understand," she stuttered, gaining back Surge's attention. "Y-you're supposed to be c-cruel! And mean! And utter trash! Why, why are you being so nice all of a sudden?!"

Surge grew still as she continued to speak. He looked her over, looking for something. Then he snorted. "Ah, you're one of those people," he mused, and then shook his head. "I guess that you saw the scene at the Pokémon Center?" he asked and Anabel nodded. "Figures. Anyway, despite what you might believe I don't go all out on my challengers to demean them or anything, but to prepare them."

Anabel cocked her head and blinked. "Prepare them?"

Surge nodded, a serious glint in his eyes. "Yes, do you think I'm the only one who fights this brutally? Let me tell you something, girlie. The way I fight is the norm among high-class trainers." He gave another soft shake of his head. "The first two Gym's usually go easy, I, on the other hand, try to give my challengers a true taste of what they've gotten themselves into."

"Oh," Anabel suddenly grew ashamed. His ways were indeed brutal, but his heart was in the right place, and he did it for a good reason. She gave him an apologetic look. "I'm sorry about what I just said about you."

"It's alright," he waved of her apology. "It has happened many times before. A lot of people react like that to my methods, my defeated challengers mostly."

Anabel nodded and smiled at the giant of a man.

Surge turned his attention to Ash. "I assume you want to challenge me as well?" Ash nodded, causing Surge to sigh. "Sorry, Ash, but I'm done taking challengers for today. My team needs to rest. Come back tomorrow at eight o'clock. I'll be happy to ram you're face into the dirt," he said with another big grin.

Ash laughed. "We'll see about that," he said amusedly, and then transferred his attention over to Anabel. "Let's go back to the Pokémon Center. You're Pokémon need to heal."

Anabel nodded and immediately started turning towards the door, clearly anxious to get her Pokémon the medical attention they needed as soon as possible.

Ash gave Surge a big grin. "I'll see you tomorrow, Lt. Surge," he said candidly and rushed out after Anabel, Lucario following close behind him.

"You better give me a good fight, Ash!" Surge called out after them.

The very next day Ash and Anabel once again found themselves in front of the Vermilion City Gym, Lucario in his Pokéball for once and Pikachu and Eevee on their respective trainers' shoulders. Both looked fresh and ready, and Ash was practically bouncing up and down in excitement. After they had gotten back to the Pokémon Center yesterday Ash had thought long and hard about his upcoming match with Surge and had come to the conclusion that his original strategy still had merit, so he was as ready as he could be.

"Come on," Ash said and led the way inside, Anabel following close behind.

"Look who's back," Surge boomed as he greeted them just inside the entrance. He gave a dangerous grin. "Are you ready, runt?"

Ash smirked. "I was born ready, Surge," he said and walked confidently towards his place on one end of the battlefield. Meanwhile, Anabel walked towards the bleachers and took a seat as far back as possible. While the psychic shields would protect her, they would do nothing about static electricity, and she knew from experience that it would be murder on her hair if she got to close. Looking back on it she was surprised that her hair hadn't reacted yesterday during her own match with Lt. Surge.

Surge laughed and took his own position at the other end of the battlefield. "Now that's what I like to hear! That bravado...that unwavering confidence...I love battling trainers like you Ash, and then crushing them!"

Ash snorted and took out a Pokéball at the same time Surge did. "Then I'm going to have to disappoint you. I've no intention of losing here. I fact, I'm planning to utterly wreck you," Ash said and absently wondered when he had gotten into trash talking before a match.

Surge boomed another laugh and simply threw his Pokéball into the air as an answer. In a flash of white light an Electrode materialized on the battlefield. The spherical Electric-Type screeched at him and spun in place on its spot.

Ash threw his own Pokéball in response and released his first Pokémon.

Lt. Surge raised an eyebrow, a question appearing in his sharp eyes. "Pidgeotto?" he wondered out loud, and then shrugged. "Strange choice, Ash, but it's your call," the Gym leader grinned dangerously. "I'm going to enjoy frying that chicken. Charge! Thunderbolt! Sonic Boom!"

Ash's and Pidgeotto's eyes widened at the litany of commands.

Electrode gave another screech and spun in place like a demented spinning toy, becoming nothing more than a white and red blur. The spinning sphere glowed a bright yellow for a moment, its attack power increasing as it used Charge, and then released a boasted bolt of electricity at Pidgeotto, followed closely by the compressed air wave of Sonic Boom.

"Dive," Ash immediately snapped, causing Pidgeotto to tuck her wings close to her body and to dive bomb straight towards the ground, only just evading the incredibly large Thunderbolt. Unfortunately, Electrode seemed to have anticipated this, as the Sonic Boom Lt. Surge had ordered had been shot lower than the Thunderbolt, and was now heading straight towards where Pidgeotto was heading.

Pidgeotto barrel rolled, displacing herself just enough that instead of being hit head on the Sonic Boom merely scratched her side. She grimaced, but continued rushing towards the ground. For Ash's strategy to work she had to be close to the ground.

She pulled up mere moments before she would have crashed into the ground, and skimmed over the battlefield, her feathers almost touching the loose dirt.

"Thunderbolt," Surge commanded once more. Electrode, still spinning, fired another humongous bolt of lightning straight at Pidgeotto.

The Flying-Type didn't pull up, change direction or try to fly away at all. She just continued flying head long at the incoming storm of lightning. Her eyes were set and determined, and there wasn't an ounce of fear in her posture. At the last possible moment she twisted, but the Thunderbolt still struck her, making the Gym light up with brilliant yellow light.

Surge snorted at the easy win. "Seems it's my win," he gave Ash a look rife with disappointment. "I had expected something a little better then th-"

Pidgeotto came spearing out of the electricity, her right-wing firmly imbedded into the dirt as she dragged it forwards through the floor and the still ongoing Thunderbolt. The wing glowed a bright silver as it redirected the electricity harmlessly into the ground.

Surge's jaw dropped as he realized what had happened. "Oh, hell no! Quick, use Magnet Raise! Follow with Sonic Boom!"

Electrode immediately stopped spinning, its lower underside grinding harshly into the ground. A faint white glow surrounded it as it used Magnet Raise, causing it to swiftly rise up from the ground, allowing Pidgeotto to pass underneath it and evading her attack. Then it started spinning once more in preparation for Sonic Boom.

Pidgeotto wouldn't be outsmart so easily, however. She quickly disappeared into an Aerial Ace, pulling up rapidly and reappearing as she smashed into Electrode's spinning underside, sending it careening even higher up into the air.

"Good job, Pidgeotto," Ash crowed as he pumped his fist. "Now follow with Aerial Storm!"

Pidgeotto once again disappeared into Aerial Ace, and reappeared as she rammed into Electrode once more. Then she started flying around the spinning form of Electrode rapidly, becoming nothing more than a brown and beige blur, constantly wracking its form with the sharp wind blades of Aerial Ace.

Electrode screeched and tried to blast Pidgeotto with numerous Thunderbolts, only for her phenomenal speed to make the action a moot point. She simply danced around the erratic bolts of lightning with time to spare.

"Calm down," Surge ordered calmly. "Shield!"

Electricity exploded from Electrode, forming a spherical shield that forced Pidgeotto to back off, lest she be fried. Then the grinning face of Electrode came back in view as it stopped spinning. Screeching loudly, the still hanging in midair Electrode rocketed forwards to Pidgeotto, maintaining its shield as it did so.

Pidgeotto dove towards the ground in response, Electrode hot on her heels.

Surge's eyes widened as he realized what the Flying-Type was up to. "Electrode, wait! It's a tra-" he started to shout, but was already too late.

Pidgeotto halted herself mere moments before she would have struck the ground, kicking up a minor dust cloud, and firmly imbedded her now glowing wing into the ground while raising the other glowing wing towards the rapidly closing in form of Electrode.

Electrode smashed into Pidgeotto's Steel Wing, the electricity surrounding it pumping into the glowing appendage and through Pidgeotto, only for it to be redirected into the ground by her other glowing wing. With a screech of exertion Pidgeotto forced her steel hardened wing through Electrode's shield and smashed it into its no longer grinning face.

The sheer force behind the blow knocked Electrode back up into the air. Pidgeotto yanked her wing from the ground and followed Electrode.

Ash's face gained a feral grin. "Aerial Ace straight up!"

Lt. Surge growled and grounded his teeth. "Thunderbolt straight down!"

The wind blades of Aerial Ace appeared around Pidgeotto just as Electrode fired his Thunderbolt straight down towards her. She disappeared, danced around the arc of lightning spearing towards the ground, and struck Electrode with all the force she could muster, knocking the screeching orb into the roof, cratering it.

Electrode fell back to earth moments later, knocked out cold. Before it could fall even half way back down Surge returned it.

Surge snorted and grinned as he put Electrode's Pokéball away and took out his next choice. He laughed. "That's it! This is how I like my battles! Fast paced and completely unpredictable! Ash." His grin widened enough to show his sharp teeth. "Let's make this a battle to remember! Go, Magneton!"

The Electric-Type materialized in front of Surge and screeched its metallic screech, sounding eager to do battle.

Magneton, a part Steel-Type, Ash mused as he raised Pidgeotto's Pokéball and recalled her. Surge raised an eyebrow at the act. Ash grinned at him and took out his next choice. "It's your turn, Charmander!"

The lizard-like Pokémon appeared in a flash white in front of Ash and snorted flame as he gazed at his opponent. Charmander smirked and clenched his claws in anticipation, just as eager to do battle as Magneton.

Surge laughed. "HAH! Looks like the runt has another baby Pokémon!" he crowed, causing Charmander to glare at him, only making him laugh even louder. "HAHAHAH! That's alright, though. As long as you give me a fine battle I'm okay with any Pokémon that you use!"

Ash grinned. "Don't mind if I do then," his eyes hardened. "Flamethrower!"

Charmander cocked his head back, took a deep breath through his nostrils, making his stomach bulge, before breathing out a devastatingly hot cone of bright orange flame towards the floating form of Magneton.

Surge grinned right back. "Tri-Attack!"

The top screw and the two bottom screws that held the three bodies of Magneton together started shining brightly. The top one gathered electricity, the bottom left one gathered ice energy, and the bottom right one gathered heat energy. A thin white line joined all three spheres together, causing the energies to start mixing, forming a bright white triangle with different energy spheres at each tip.

With nary a pause Magneton fired the attack at the incoming torrent of flame. The two attacks connected, the Tri-Attack forcing its way through the flames, before finally detonating amidst the fire, creating a dense black smoke that blocked out all sight.

Except for Aura sight of course.

Ash closed his eyes and concentrated. He grinned and made a mental connection with Charmander. Flamethrower straight ahead.

The Fire-Type gave a smirk of his own and took a deep breath.

Surge looked intently into the black smoke. He couldn't see anything, and if his experienced eyes couldn't then Ash wouldn't be able to either. The match was effectively on hold until the smoke cleared. He was dissuaded from that notion when a cone of fire erupted from the smoke and enveloped Magneton, its sheer heat actually melting some of Magneton's steel skin.

"What!" the man exclaimed and cursed under his breath. "Gyro Ball!"

Magneton hastened to comply and started spinning rapidly, a light blue glow settling on its blurred form as it used the Steel-Type attack, the spinning getting rid of the burning flames. The smoke had lightened enough by this point that Charmander was visible again, so Magneton immediately rocketed towards the Fire-Type.

"Flamethrower," Ash commanded once more. Charmander took another deep breath and spat out another torrent of flame at the rapidly incoming Magneton. Said Electric/Steel-Type simply swerved around the cone of fire and continued to hone in on Charmander.

Ash quickly changed tactics. "Dragon Claw!

Charmander cut of his attack and jumped back to give himself some space from the incoming Magneton. He reared back his claws, the purple flames of Dragon Claw covering them immediately, and jumped back forwards, his attack at the ready. The Fire-Type swung...

SCREEEEEEECH!

...And the sound of Charmander's claws racking up against the steel body of Magneton echoed in the Gym, setting teeth on edge and giving everyone goose bumps.

Charmander growled as he was pushed back and dug his feet more firmly into the ground, slowing down, but not halting the rate at which he was being pushed back. "Charrr," he growled lowly and then took a deep breath, ready to spit fire.

Surge smirked. "Thunderbolt."

The spinning form of Magneton exploded with electricity, striking Charmander point-blank and halting his attack, as well as making Dragon Claw sputter out. Magneton immediately took advantage of this and surged through Charmander's ruined guard and smashed into the Fire-Type, picking him up and launching him away.

"Tri-Attack before it can recover," Surge ordered immediately.

Ash gasped. In one glance he knew that Charmander would not be able to recover in time.

Magneton stopped spinning almost immediately, kicking up a small dust cloud. Its screws immediately gathered their respective elements before a fine white line connected them together, forming the tri-element triangle once more. The attack was fired swiftly and with pinpoint accuracy, hitting the still airborne Charmander in the chest, and rocketed the Fire-Type into the psychic barrier, knocking him out on contact.

Sighing, Ash recalled his Pokémon. "You did great," he said to the Pokéball, causing it to wiggle and warm up. Smiling, Ash stuffed it away and looked up at the grinning face of Surge. Eyes hardening again he took out Pidgeotto's Pokéball, paused, and seemed to think better of it. Putting the Pokéball away he smirked. "Pikachu, you're up."

Pikachu gave a smirk of his own and vaulted from Ash's shoulder, landing before him on all fours. "Get in close," Ash commanded immediately, and Pikachu launched forwards in reply, running swiftly along the ground.

"Zap Cannon!" Surge roared, a pleased glint appearing in his eyes at facing someone with the balls to challenge him with an Electric-Type.

Ash's smirk widened and gave one clear command that threw Surge for a loop and had Anabel smiling. "Take it."

Pikachu continued running head on at Magneton, not even flinching when the Steel-Type fired the compact sphere of electricity at him. The Zap Cannon smashed into his face, and instead of exploding simply broke up on contact and was absorbed into his skin. Understanding dawned on Surge's face, but it was already too late.

"Volt Tackle!"

Electricity erupted from Pikachu, shrouding him with an intense veil of electricity as he chanted his war cry.

"PIKAPIKAPIKAPIKAPIKAPIKA."

Pikachu leaped and smashed into Magneton's steel skin with an audible gong, the sheer force behind his charge rocketing the Electric/Steel-Type away, Pikachu still firmly connected to it thanks to his momentum. Ash's second partner promptly kicked off from the soaring form of Magneton, rising high up into the air and already readying an Iron Tail to end it.

Surge's eyes had widened in something resembling panic, and he quickly issued a desperate order, "Quick, use Gyro Ball!"

Magneton recovered quickly, managing to halt itself almost immediately at its trainers command and spun into Gyro Ball in less time than it took to blink.

Pikachu came down from above with a near horizontal flip, bringing down his glowing tail on the spinning form of Magneton, producing an insistent grinding noise that echoed loudly in the almost silent Gym. The electric mouse gritted his teeth, focused with all his might, and forced even more energy into his tail, causing a detonation thanks to the conflicting energies from both Steel-Type attacks connecting.

"Magneton!" Surge shouted as the black smoke caused by the explosion overtook him. Meanwhile, Pikachu emerged from the smoke, flipping backwards and landing safely on all fours in front of Ash.

His opponent, on the other hand, wasn't anywhere near so lucky.

Magneton appeared as soon as the smoke lifted, showing a dismayed looking Surge and his unconscious Pokémon firmly implanted into the ground, knocked out cold. The Gym leader sighed and recalled the part Electric-Type.

Surge locked eyes with Ash and gave him measuring look. Then he chuckled. "You know, I can hardly remember the last time someone pushed me this far. Was it a month ago? Six months? A year? It's been so long..." he trailed of and smiled. "But you, Ash, you are different. How long have you been a trainer? My guess is for about a month, and yet you are already a legitimate threat to me. Usually it takes rookies at least a year of training to give me even a hint of a challenge. Truly amazing."

Ash chuckled, a little embarrassed by the compliment.

Surge continued, his grin slowly getting wider. "Let's finish this, Ash," he said, brimming with anticipation. He hurled his Pokéball into the air, releasing his most trusted and powerful partner. "Come on out, Raichu!"

Pikachu watched resolutely as his evolution took form in front of him and could feel his muscles clench in anticipation for the battle to come.

Raichu grinned as he finished materializing and gave Pikachu a look over. The Electric-Type snorted. "Oh, I'm going to enjoy this."

"You would think that, won't you," his opponent returned, grinning right back.

"Be ready, Raichu," Surge said, a serious note to his voice. "This Pikachu has the Lightningrod ability. He's immune to Electric-Type attacks. We'll have to beat him down physically."

Raichu's grin turned down right nasty. "Just my kind of battle," he muttered to himself.

There was a moment of tense silence after that, both trainers and Pokémon simply gazing at the other, before Ash broke the silence. "Quick Tail!"

Pikachu disappeared into a lightning fast Quick Attack as his tail flared a bright white. He rushed head long at Raichu, who had reared back at Pikachu's attack and smirked at the incoming yellow missile.

"Mega Punch!"

Blinding white light overtook Raichu's brown fist as he rushed forwards to meet Pikachu's charge head on. "Take this!" the fully evolved Electric-Type roared.

Pikachu came in fast and hot, twisting around to smash his Iron tail into Raichu's Mega Punch. Aided by the immense momentum imparted on him thanks to his Quick Attack the Iron Tail managed to match the attack of his higher evolved opponent, but only just.

Surge threw his arm to the left. "Mega Kick!"

Raichu acted immediately and stepped aside at the exact same time he let up on his attack, allowing Pikachu to soar right past him. He grinned at his opponents shocked face, then he jumped up and delivered a devastating Mega Kick to Pikachu's side, rocketing him away.

CRACK-POW!

"Pikachu!" Ash shouted in alarm as his trusted partner smashed into the wall, cratering it quite deeply, far deeper than ever before in Anabel's battle and his own. Dust obscured his Pokémon and for a terrifying few moments he believed that Pikachu had been taken out in one hit by the immensely powerful Raichu, but let out a sigh of relieve when Pikachu came limping out of the dust, obviously in pain but still capable of battling.

"Hoh," Surge mussed as he watched Pikachu march back onto the battlefield. "That little mouse is tougher then I had thought."

"You haven't seen anything yet," Ash promised as his starter once again faced Raichu, falling to all fours once more.

Surge laughed at his opponent's bravado. He calmed himself and pointed at him with one of his huge fingers. "Good! Because Raichu and I still have a few surprises ourselves!" The man grinned and gave a simple command. "Focus Blast!"

As Raichu started forming the compact sphere of Fighting-Type energy Ash quickly devised a counter. "Dig!"

Pikachu dove head first to the ground and disappeared under the battlefield, digging a hole to hide in for himself in the blink of an eye.

Raichu paused and allowed his attack to dissipate in dismay. The Focus Blast would be unable to reach Pikachu underground, unless he started spamming them and completely demolishing the battlefield to get to his opponent.

A smirk appeared on Ash's lips as a devious idea came to him. "Thunder! Full power!"

Everyone froze as they heard the earth groan and rumble, although Ash was grinning madly at the same time. The earth beneath Raichu's feet started to crack and bulge upwards as huge amounts of pressure started building up underneath it.

Surge's eyes widened. "Protect!" he barked. Raichu crossed his arms as a green protective field surrounded him.

Ash was almost blinded when the world erupted. Yellow lightning erupted up from the ground and flung the protected form of Raichu up into the air. Thunder crackled, boomed and rolled through the building. The smell of ozone became overpowering. Pikachu erupted up out of the ground, his own power flinging him up after Raichu, grinning deviously all the while.

Raichu struck the roof just as his Protect dissipated, his back smacking into the stone, his limbs splayed wide as he stayed hanging there for just a moment. Then gravity reasserted its dominance and the Electric-Type fell back down.

Right towards the rapidly rising Pikachu.

White light erupted behind Pikachu as he used Quick Attack to speed up his ascent. He smashed into Raichu's stomach, knocking the air from his lungs and knocking him back up towards the roof with a loud CRACK!

"Thunder!"

Pikachu, still imbedded into his opponents stomach allowed his smirk to widen, and used the attack point-blank, covering them both in a brilliant ball of electricity that lit up the building. The attack wouldn't do serious damage to Raichu, but since it wasn't his own energy it would fry his skin rather badly, and with an enemy as powerful as Raichu every little bit counted.

"Brick Break!" Surge commanded over the howl of the Thunder. Within Pikachu's attack Raichu's eyes snapped open. He raised his right paw up with effort, the appendage lighting up as he channeled his power into it, and chopped down brutally, striking Pikachu in the head.

The act struck Pikachu down, literally. He was dislodged from Raichu and was sent soaring back towards the ground. Thankfully, he managed to twist around and land on all fours despite the disorientation Raichu's blow had caused. The electric mouse was immediately forced to jump back as Raichu came down with a brutal Mega Kick, cratering the floor and sending deep fissures racing through the floor.

Raichu slowly turned to face Pikachu, a baleful glare on his face. He was covered in bruises, his orange skin was blackened with soot, a big bruise had started to form on his stomach and his back was killing him. The fully evolved Pokémon crushed his fist together in anger, which produced a shockwave of thunder.

Pikachu gulped. His opponent looked pissed.

"That's it!" Surge suddenly roared and pointed at Pikachu, a strange light to his eyes. "Let's finish this! Use Giga Impact!"

Raichu smirked. That was an order he could completely get behind. He once again crushed his fist together, a purple aura surrounding him crisscrossed with vivid orange energy swirling inside of it. The Electric-Type roared and launched forwards, the power of his charge cutting apart the ground in front of him, sending debris of rock flying in every direction.

Pikachu took a step back, nearly frozen in fear as he trembled in the face of the coming onslaught. How...How was he supposed to fight something like that?!

Just as he was about to panic Ash's consciousness brushed his own, and he instantly calmed. No words needed to be exchanged. He knew exactly what his trainer wanted, and his partner's calm confidence in him gave him courage.

The electric mouse kicked off, indenting the ground underneath and behind his paws as he launched himself at Raichu. His power exploded from him, wrapping him in a thick veil of electricity. The ground beneath his feet was being ripped apart, excess rubble being flung every which way as he rushed head long at Raichu and he chanted his war cry for all to hear.

"PIKAPIKAPIKAPIKAPIKAPIKA."

Closer and closer they got to each other, the ground being ripped apart in front of their head on charge. The purple and orange missile honing in on the yellow comet that was about to meet it halfway.

And then they were on each other.

BANG-SCREEEEEECH!

Both attacks connected, the ground cratering violently underneath their point of contact. The attacks held steady, dead-locking as they tried to overpower the other. Wind whipped and roared as the two attacks strained against the other, the forces involved churning the air violently. White light shone from their point of contact, the meeting energies mixing and bleeding off in the form of blinding light.

Inside of their respective attacks Pikachu and Raichu roared and poured all they had into their attacks, causing the light to intensify to such a blinding degree that no one could see anything.

And then it became too much.

With a terrifyingly loud explosions Pikachu's Volt Tackle and Raichu's Giga Impact detonated, catching both Pokémon in the immense explosion at the very epicenter. Dark, black smoke overtook the entire battlefield in the blink of an eye, obscuring everything.

"Pikachu!"

"Raichu!"

Despite the immense volume of it, the black smoke lifted quickly to show an utterly demolished battlefield. The battlefield, simply put, was a wreck. Craters dotted it, fissures crisscrossed everywhere and chunks of rocks laid strewn all over the place.

And at the very center of this devastation laid Pikachu and Raichu in the deepest crater of all. Both laid absolutely still, unmoving. Both trainers rushed towards their partner the moment the psychic barriers fell.

"Pikachu, are you alright? Come on, speak to me buddy," Ash said as he cradled his starter in his arms, shaking him lightly as he tried to get a reaction out of him.

"Raichu," Surge sighed as he picked up the orange mouse and held him in his huge arms. The man frowned, this wasn't the first time that his starter had taken such a beating, but it unnerved him to see his closest partner in such a sorry state. It was calming to know that Raichu could take a lot more damage than this and come out fine in the end. He should know. He had seen it many times before.

Pikachu groaned, shaken from his unconsciousness quite literally by Ash's actions. He blinked and then grimaced in pain as his injuries made themselves known. "I'm fine, Ash," he said in a strained and tired voice. His trainers sighed in relieve. The electric mouse quickly continued. "However, I would really appreciate some healing right about now."

Getting the hint Ash nodded and stood up. He needed to get his partner to the Pokémon Center ASAP. "Well, Surge. That was fun, but I really need to get Pikachu to the Pokémon Center."

Surge nodded, smiling a small smile. "That's alright. My team needs some healing two. But first," the man said and reached into his pocket, taking out the Thunder Badge and holding it out towards Ash. "Here. You've earned it."

"But it was a tie," Ash protested, holding back his urge to simply take the badge anyway.

Surge laughed. "Did you forget, Ash?" he said, amused. "You still have Pidgeotto. You have one Pokémon left and I do not. You have won."

Ash blinked. He opened his mouth, then closed it. Then he grinned and took his prize. The Thunder Badge shone under the artificial lighting of the Gym that had miraculously survived through the battle. Grinning, he pinned it inside of his jacket, just underneath the Boulder Badge that he had won from Brock.

Surge chuckled and looked around at his ruined Gym. "Better get that Graveler to fix this," he muttered to himself before shaking his head to get rid of the thought. "Anyway, let's get to the Pokémon Center."

Ash nodded and followed after the man as he led the way out of the Gym, Anabel meeting them halfway and joining up with them. "Damn," she whistled. "You two sure did a number on each other."

Pikachu groaned. "Tell me about it."

Raichu, who had woken up by this point, groaned as well. "You don't say."

Ash snorted and smirked, "That's the understatement of the century. Still, that was an awesome battle. Surge, you wouldn't mind if I come back here someday to challenge you again would you? I could use the training."

Surge laughed and looked at Ash over his shoulder as they walked down the road towards the Pokémon Center. "Mind? Brat, I insist on it. That was the most fun I have had in ages. You can bet your ass that you'll be challenging my Gym a lot in the future, or I'll hunt you down and force you to battle me!"

Ash snorted again and nodded, happy to agree to that. They arrived at the Pokémon Center shortly and entered. Luckily, Ash had been the first person to challenge Surge today, so they didn't have to wait behind a humongous line of defeated trainers. But there were a lot of trainers present, who were just lounging around. The same ones who had been defeated by Surge many times before. They gaped as the muscle-bound man entered the room, holding his beaten partner close.

Nurse Joy looked up from behind the counter and raised an eyebrow in surprise. "Lt. Surge. Fancy seeing you here. Did someone finally knock you down from your high pedestal?"

"Yup," he admitted without an ounce of shame. "This little brat gave me a better fight then I have had in a long while."

The Pokémon nurse turned to look at Ash and was surprised to see that such a young boy had beaten Surge. She quickly repressed it however and got down to business. "I see. That's quite impressive. Anyway, I guess that both you're Pokémon need some healing?" she said, framing it like a question.

Both Ash and Surge nodded and deposited Pikachu and Raichu. Then they handed the Nurse their Pokéballs and watched as she disappeared towards the back of the Pokémon Center with their Pokémon.

Lt. Surge grunted. "She'll be back soon. Clarice works quickly," he said and turned his eyes over to Ash. "That said, what are you gonna do now? Which Gym are you gonna challenge next?"

"The Saffron City Gym," Ash answered.

Surge snorted and shook his head. "That means you'll be fighting Sabrina. Her Psychic Pokémon are strong. Like really strong. But with your skills I reckon you have a chance at winning. Just stay on your toes and act quickly, then you will be golden."

Ash nodded as he assimilated the advice. He wasn't going to disregard it. It came from a Gym leader after all. When they spoke people listened.

Anabel looked excited hearing that. "Saffron City? Truly?"

"Yeah, what about it?"

Anabel smiled and rubbed her hands together in excitement. "I've always admired Sabrina. She is one of the toughest Gym leaders and one of the most powerful psychics in Kanto, maybe even the world. I've seen her battle sometimes on TV, and how she commands her Pokémon is nothing short of masterful. As a matter of fact, my method of fighting is actually based on Sabrina's fighting style."

Ash looked interested hearing that, not having known that before.

"Here you go," Nurse Joy's voice suddenly announced. Blinking in surprise, Ash and Anabel turned to look at the counter, seeing Surge take a trio of Pokéballs.

Walking up to the counter himself Ash retrieved his own Pokémon and put them back on his belt while placing a grinning and completely healed Pikachu back on his shoulder. Said Electric-Type leaned back on his shoulder and let out a sigh of content.

"Well, Ash," Surge said and clapped Ash on the shoulder. "It was great to see you again and even better to battle you. I have to go back to my Gym now. See you soon."

With that said the Electric Gym leader turned and left, leaving the building and going back to his Gym.

Ash grinned to himself. That was three down, still five more to go.

Saffron City awaited him.

A/N: And that's chapter four, the second biggest chapter I have ever written after chapter one. I hope you guys liked it.