Chapter 11: Pikachu's Pride

"You're late."

The Rocket Trio cringed with their heads bowed at Giovanni's displeased tone. The man glared at them from a computer screen in a smaller hideout in Vermilion City.

Despite their best efforts, and Fearow to fly around and help them find their way, they still arrived late in the evening that day—still on time, but with less than stellar punctuality.

Jessie spoke up first, "Please forgive us, Boss. We were aiming to steal an exceptionally rare Pokémon and our hot air balloon got destroyed."

She along with her two partners had already worked out what to tell their leader, the truth. Of course, they couldn't tell him that one Squirtle had ruined all of their supplies, so they told specific parts of the truth. If the Boss happened to connect the facts differently, then so be it.

"A rare Pokémon?" he asked, hardly mollified. "The Pikachu again?"

"Actually, no," James politely answered while taking the camera out, his face still lowered. "If you'll allow me, I can show you the sort of Pokémon we saw last night."

Giovanni paused to consider it, "…Proceed."

The male agent nodded and took the memory card out before depositing it into the computer, "We weren't familiar with the species, but we noted the massive size of the beast and attempted to weaken it with bazookas. Unfortunately, the explosives did little more than aggravate the Pokémon, and it overpowered us with a massive swipe of its tail. After we washed up on the shore, we discovered that our balloon had been wrecked and all our supplies missing or ruined."

The Rocket leader looked at the massive Pokémon pictured on another of his own screens and recognized it as a Dragonite, albeit much larger. At the very least, they hadn't lost their craft to that same Trainer. A battleship would be hard pressed to fight such a Pokémon; a glorified balloon stood no chance.

"I see," he replied as James rejoined his teammates. "For now, the loss of your transportation is of no consequence. Stay in Vermilion and be ready to report for duty tomorrow."

"Eh, before ya dismiss us, Boss," Meowth said, holding up a paw. "We got a hunch dat we might run inta anotha giant Pokémon if we keep on tailing dat twoip. If ya could look inta gettin' us something fer dealing wit' those giant Pokémon, we'd gladly supply da funding from our R&D budget."

At length, Giovanni's eyes narrowed, "I have some older technology in storage that could stun such a Pokémon on the ocean, so the donation will not be necessary. It was made to catch large groups of water Pokémon, but dismissed due to its long set-up time. As for a ball to contain it, our Johto branch should have something that can increase your odds. Show me a Pokémon in your possession that could stall a beast like the one you saw that night, and I'll send them to you. But not before."

"Yes, Boss," all three agents replied.

"Dismissed."

The following morning, Ash held up the map they'd been following with his walking stick held in his fingers as well. He lowered it and looked up at the sign to their destination, at long last with glee. He along with Misty and Brock had accumulated stains all over them from extended travel.

Having finally reached Vermilion City, the trio gave three cheers of "Hip-hip hooray!"

Misty clasped her hands, "I can't wait to take a bubble bath!"

"And I have to hit the laundromat," Brock noted while looking at his dirt-stained clothes.

The Pallet Trainer grinned, "I'm going to-" he glanced down at Pikachu to see him collapsed on the ground, "take Pikachu to the Pokémon Center; what's wrong, buddy?"

"Chaaa…" Pikachu whined while his stomach growled.

Misty looked at the Electric Mouse Pokémon while Ash picked him up, "He must be hungry…"

"We haven't eaten anything decent for three days now," Brock noted.

The three Trainers then blushed as their own stomachs growled. Ash chuckled embarrassedly, "I guess we're all a little hungry, eh, Pikachu?"

Pikachu nodded tiredly.

They quickly identified the hospital building from a distance and then went inside to drop off their Pokémon. But they had barely had the chance to before another Trainer came in with his Rattata on a stretcher.

"Hurry!" he urged the Chansey pushing it along. "You'll be okay, Rattata… Hurry!"

"That Rattata's in rough shape," Brock noted. "I wonder what happened."

Nurse Joy sighed, "Oh, that's the fifteenth one brought in this month!"

"What?" Ash asked.

Joy led them to one of the wards, where several Pokémon of varying types rested on beds with their Trainers hovering nearby. Brock's brow furrowed, "This is terrible…"

"They all lost to Lieutenant Surge," the nurse explained, "the Vermilion Gym Leader."

"Whoa, he must be a really strong Trainer," Ash said.

Misty smirked, "So, Ash, you scared already?"

"No way," he defended.

"Well, you talk big," she continued, "but when you see how tough it is to get badges, you turn chicken."

Ash let out a light huff through his nose, then turned to Nurse Joy, "Excuse me, can I check the patients' charts to see their injuries?"

"Sure," she replied.

The Pallet Trainer moved to a few of the beds and checked the clipboards hung on the ends. Most cited the injuries as severe electrocution while a Sandshrew had fractured bones and major bruising.

"A powerful Electric-type with decent fighting moves too," he muttered to himself.

Misty made a "hmph" noise at being ignored and a chiming noise caught Nurse Joy's attention. "That signal means your Pokémon have recovered."

Ash nodded, "Thanks."

The Trainer trio moved back towards the lobby and found Pikachu sitting next to their Poké Balls while munching on an apple.

"Pikachu," Ash called. "I hope you're feeling better. I want to go check out that Gym today."

The front door opened and another Trainer ran in while a Chansey wheeled in a Pidgey. "Please hurry! Just hold on, Pidgey!"

Misty looked at the injured Pokémon worriedly, "I guess they must have come from that Gym."

"Piii!" Pikachu started panicking, but Ash waved a hand, "Don't worry, Pikachu. It's an Electric Gym so your attacks wouldn't be good at taking down Surge's Pokémon, anyway."

The Electric-type felt a small degree of comfort from the reassurance that he wouldn't have to battle. But alongside that, he felt a twinge of disappointment that Ash had already written him off.

Once the Trainers picked up their Pokémon and Pikachu took his place on Ash's shoulder, they made their way to Vermilion Gym, Ash thinking about which Pokémon to use.

"Pidgeotto, Butterfree, Krabby and Squirtle are poor matches. Bulbasaur has his Leech Seed and Poison Powder to sap the opponent's strength, but an Oddish was also in that Poké Center…" he mused. "Charmander has Rage, but I don't want to rely on a move that needs him to get hurt so much… Rattata has Guts and Dig, along with speed from Quick Attack, but I'm not sure. She has the best chance with that Ground-type attack, though…"

'I'm learning Dig too,' Pikachu thought sourly. 'I have Quick Attack, and Agility from Pidgeotto, and resistance to electricity…'

Ash decided that he would pick between the three when he saw which Pokémon Lt. Surge had. They soon arrived at the Gym, a grand building colored in a faded teal with light yellow lightning bolts decorating the front and roof. A blue door with another lightning bolt printed on it stood in a red doorway. Pikachu hopped down from Ash's shoulder once he stopped in front of it.

"So this is the Vermilion City Gym…" Ash noted as they looked up at the imposing décor.

Misty glanced at the Pallet Trainer, "It's not too late to back out."

He let out a sigh as his shoulders sagged slightly. Then he looked over his shoulder with a slight glare, "Misty, I'm really getting sick of you putting me down all the time. Just watch me win this match!"

"I'll watch to see your face when you get creamed," the Cerulean Leader replied with a smirk.

"Oh yeah?" Ash challenged as he took out his Cascade Badge. "If I'm such a lousy Trainer, why do I have the badge from your Gym?"

Misty's smirk fell into a small frown as she took a breath to retort, and Brock awkwardly cut in, "Are we ever going to go inside?"

Ash put the badge back in his jacket before moving forward to open the Gym doors. Pikachu looked back at Misty for a moment before following his Trainer. Brock and Misty followed behind them, the latter somewhat grudgingly.

Once the doors opened with an ominous creak, the Pallet Trainer stepped forward to see two imposing grown-ups, one male with buzzed black hair and a leather jacket with no shirt and the other female with a red muscle shirt and a white headband with a green stripe wrapped through her auburn hair.

"Hello," Ash said, deciding to cut straight to the chase, "I'm here for a Pokémon battle to earn a Thunder Badge."

The man smirked and glanced over his shoulder, "Hey, Boss. Another victim for the emergency room."

Footsteps sounded from the darkness beyond the light from the doorway as a hulking figure started moving forward, asking in a gruff voice, "Which one?"

Once he was visible, Ash looked up at the bear of a man in dark green pants and a matching jacket, also shirtless and with black combat boots and fingerless gloves with imposing studded bracelets. He had tan skin with blond hair spiked up at the top, but otherwise buzzed away. Military tags gleamed in the sun's light as he looked down at the trio with a condescending grin.

"Whoa, he's huge!" Brock whispered.

Misty raised an eyebrow, "Is he the Gym Leader you have to beat?"

Lt. Surge spread his arms in a welcoming gesture before lowering down and pulling Misty into a hug, "Welcome to Vermilion Gym!" Then he pulled away slightly and looked at her, "Oh, my next challenger's a cute one. Don't think I'll go easy on ya."

Misty laughed nervously, "Um, excuse me, but I'm not the challenger…"

"Then who?" Surge asked with raised eyebrows.

Ash pointed to himself with his thumb, "Me, that's who!"

The Gym Leader glanced at him before standing back to his full height and turning to face him, "Oh, you." He patted him on the head, pushing Ash's hat down slightly, "Okay, baby."

Ash growled and pushed the hand away, "I'm no baby! My name's Ash Ketchum!"

"Heh, I call everybody who loses to me 'baby,'" he explained. "Huh?"

At that moment, Surge noticed Pikachu, who tried hard to not seem intimidated as he looked back up at the man.

"Heh! A Pikachu! Hey, look at this! Baby brought along a baby Pokémon!" he told the other two before all three of them burst out laughing. Pikachu only frowned harder and glared.

"Quit it!" Ash demanded. "Why are you making fun of my Pikachu?"

Surge grinned as he took out a Poké Ball, "Oh, I'll show ya why…" He opened it and a Pokémon materialized. It stood around twice Pikachu's height and had orange fur with a white belly and black around its paws and feet. Its ears were yellow on the inside while being black on the back and rims and the new Pokémon had a long black tail with a yellow lightning bolt at the end. One thing Ash immediately noticed was that it had similar round cheek patterns to Pikachu, except that the other Pokémon's were yellow.

"It's a Raichu!" Ash said as he recalled Giselle's explanation of Pikachu's evolved form. He'd checked his Pokédex after that day out of curiosity, so he didn't need to check it now to confirm.

Pikachu glared at the larger Pokémon now while Surge's Pokémon just grinned smugly at Ash. Surge laughed, "Okay, baby, if ya wanna quit, now's your chance." His Raichu chimed in with a cocky "Raichu."

"There's no way we're gonna quit now!" Ash vehemently denied.

"Heh!" Surge scoffed. "What could a baby like that do?" He got down on one knee behind his Raichu and patted him on the head, "If yous wanna become a Pokémon Master, you should make your Pokémon evolve as soon as ya catch it."

The Pallet Trainer frowned, "There's more to raising a Pokémon than forcing them to evolve. And I like this Pikachu just the way he is."

The two other adults laughed and the Gym Leader stood up again, "Wrong, baby." Both he and Raichu waved their fingers, "Electric Pokémon are only useful once they've learned all their different electric attacks. You keep it puny like that and it's no more than a little pet!"

Pikachu growled and electricity sparked on his cheeks. Ash noticed and Pikachu met his eyes before tilting his head towards the Raichu for a brief moment. The Trainer seemed worried for a moment, but furrowed his brow in determination and nodded.

Misty leaned towards Brock and whispered, "Can Pikachu beat Raichu?"

"I seriously doubt it," the breeder answered. "Especially if Raichu knows all the electric attacks."

The Vermilion Leader crossed his arms, talking in a patronizing tone, "Okay, baby, did ya just come here to show us your little pet?"

"I'm here to earn a Thunder Badge!" Ash answered while Pikachu clenched his fists in a fighting stance.

"That's unusual," Brock commented with a raised eyebrow. "Pikachu really seems to want to battle."

Misty shook her head slightly, "I'm not surprised."

Both Raichu and Surge shrugged as the blonde said, "Oh well. I guess you'll learn that playing with the big boys can be a shocking experience."

"I've fought better Trainers and more dangerous people than you," Ash retorted as stadium lights came on to reveal an arena.

For each of the categories the Trainer mentioned, he recalled the battles he most closely associated with them. He lost against AJ but he put up a good fight against a superior opponent and gained a new perspective on training. As for dangerous people…

Ash moved to his side of the arena, reassuring himself, 'You can do this, Ash. This guy's nothing compared to what you've faced. He's just about muscle. And if there's one thing those three have taught me it's that there's more to winning a battle than power.'

Granted, he didn't intend to cheat, but he would play smart and try to lead Pikachu to do the same. He twisted his cap back with a serious expression on his face as he watched Raichu closely.

"The Pokémon battle will now begin," the male adult from earlier announced from a booth at the side of the arena. "Only one Pokémon may be used. The Gym Leader, Lt. Surge has chosen Raichu. The challenger, Ash has chosen Pikachu. No time limit. Let the battle begin."

The sound of a bell rang out and Surge shouted, "Go, Raichu!" The evolved Pokémon leapt out of the Leader's area into the arena proper.

"Pikachu, analyze!" Ash ordered right out of the gate as Pikachu ran forward.

Surge raised an eyebrow at the odd command, but furrowed it again when Pikachu stopped on all fours and shot a Thunder Shock from his cheeks. Raichu kept advancing without flinching and the blonde grinned, "Ya call that an attack? Raichu, show 'em a real shock!"

As his Pokémon charged up mass quantities of electricity in an instant and discharged it towards Pikachu, Surge noticed both Pokémon and Trainer watching the attack closely and Pikachu dodged to the side with a small burst of speed. The ground where Ash's Pokémon had stood took a heavy hit, but Pikachu remained unharmed, having focused on proper footing before launching his own attack.

After Ash's battle at Pokémon Tech with Giselle, he noticed that Pikachu had managed to work out Cubone's weakness of his skull and bone club simply by dodging and watching. So he started training all of his Pokémon to concentrate on being ready to dodge over anything else when he ordered them to "analyze." Attacking came second, only to see how an opponent reacted and to try finding any weak points.

"What?" Surge blinked in surprise before furrowing his brow again. "Raichu, give it another Thunder Shock!"

This time, Pikachu skirted near the bolts, allowing him to charge closer and Surge saw an opportunity to surprise the Pokémon.

"Mega Kick!" he ordered.

Raichu moved to kick Pikachu, but then the smaller Pokémon moved with even more speed than before. Circling around faster than the eye could see with Agility, Pikachu used Quick Attack on Raichu's back. The impact caused the larger Pokémon to overbalance and fall forward, giving Pikachu more than enough time to get away with another burst of Agility.

"Raichu!" Surge shouted in shock as Raichu got up, but looked thoroughly angry and embarrassed. Pikachu returned to Ash's side and they smiled at each other.

Behind Ash, Misty watched with her eyes wide with surprise. "What's going on?" she wondered incredulously. "Ash is making Surge and Raichu look like a joke!"

Brock raised his eyebrow as a thought occurred to him, "Wait… Didn't Surge say that he evolved his Raichu right after he caught it?" He hit his fist into his other hand, "That's it! Raichu evolved too fast and didn't learn any of the speed moves it can only learn in the Pikachu stage."

"Wait," Misty said while turning to Brock, "then that means-"

"Surge's Raichu can't lay a finger on Pikachu," James commented with a chuckle.

The two had been out shopping for at least some supplies to replace what that Squirtle had destroyed. They had noticed the Gym and figured that Ash would be in there by now.

"Well, the twerp deals with us on a regular basis," Jessie pointed out with an arrogant smirk. "It'd be shameful if he couldn't outwit the big, blonde caveman."

They looked back in and the male agent laughed at Surge and Raichu's expressions, "Ooh, someone's getting mad."

The Pallet Trainer called out to his opponent, "Your Raichu is way too slow, Surge! That's its weakness!"

"Raichu, Body Slam!" the Leader shouted.

His Pokémon ran forward and jumped, aiming to crush Pikachu, but his target just flitted away, also dodging the tail swipe that he used in an effort to trip him up. The process repeated twice more before Surge growled and clenched his fist.

"Okay, Raichu! Give it a Thunderbolt! Shut it down!" he ordered.

Raichu charged up an even larger amount of electricity than before in a few seconds and shot it in all directions. Giant bolts carved up the ground and shattered multiple windows in the Gym. Unseen by the people inside, two forms by a window hurriedly ducked to avoid the shock.

Surge shielded his face from the dust and smoke before lowering his arm with a smirk, "The end o' the match." But when the smoke cleared, he blinked in surprise as he saw only a hole in the arena where Pikachu had been.

"What?! Where'd it go?" he demanded.

Raichu looked around as well, but then the ground in front of him cracked and Pikachu shot out like a missile to head butt the larger Pokémon right in the forehead. Raichu got knocked to the ground on his back while Pikachu bounced off and landed on all fours, shaking his head clear, but hardly winded.

Ash cheered, "All right, Pikachu! Looks like you've got Dig down!"

"Hm, that could be a problem later," Jessie noted.

James agreed with a nod, "Pitfall traps won't do anything more than inconvenience the twerps for a few seconds now."

"Ya wanna hear what's inconvenient?" a new voice asked irritatedly. "Bein' stuck doin' all da work while you two watch da show!"

The two agents perked up and wheeled around to see Mankey and Meowth standing with a new toolbox and a bag full of crafting supplies respectively.

"Meowth! Quit slackin'!" the Scratch Cat Pokémon chastised. "We're already on thin ice wit' da Boss. Ya think we need anotha reason fer him ta chew us out? Getcher halves o' da list so we can get back ta work for da operation!"

The two agents looked at each other and nodded before rushing off to buy food for travel and secure some raw materials to remake their bazookas and begin work on some of their other inventions.

With great difficulty, Raichu managed to sit up and clutched his head as he pulled himself to his feet. Pikachu got ready to move again, and Surge ordered, "Raichu, give it another Thunderbolt!"

Raichu tried charging up again, but got no more than a few sparks before it fizzled out. He tried again, and when he failed, Surge frantically said, "Do something!"

"It's over," Brock commented with a smile. "Raichu ran out of electricity." Misty just stood there in surprise.

"All right! Pikachu, Quick Attack!" Ash ordered.

Surge growled, "Raichu, Take Down, now!"

Raichu tried to grab Pikachu so he could drive the smaller Pokémon into the ground, but Pikachu darted through his reach and rammed into his chest, driving him back a few steps. Then Ash's Pokémon charged some electricity into his tail and swung it around, hitting Raichu in the side of the face with a Slam attack. The Leader's Pokémon teetered with a disoriented "Raiiichuuuu…" and toppled over, falling unconscious.

"Unbelievable!" the Vermilion Leader shouted with his hands clutching the sides of his face. Raichu moaned tiredly in response.

Ash grinned, "We did it, Pikachu!"

"Way to go!" Brock cheered.

Pikachu smiled and said, "Pikachu!"

Misty on the other hand, felt like Ash kept getting further ahead. She'd never admit it, but she still hadn't gotten over the fact that he beat her in Cerulean Gym. She kept telling herself that Ash had cheated by washing Staryu and Goldeen out of the pool. Misty had figured that he'd lose if Surge didn't use any special terrain.

But he'd won, simply by ordering Pikachu to dodge and watch for any flaws in his opponent's battling.

'That was a fluke,' she denied. 'He wouldn't stand a chance against a fully developed Raichu. And in an actual Water Pokémon battle, I'd beat him any day of the week!'

After Surge spent a bit of time putting some bandages on four bruises formed on Raichu's forehead, back, stomach and cheek, he went over to Ash.

"Congratulations," he said with a sporting smile. "Nice job, Ash, Pikachu." Then he reached into the right chest pocket of his jacket, "As proof of your victory, a Thunder Badge."

Ash took the sun-shaped badge from the lieutenant's hand, "Thank you." He looked at it in his hand with a smile as Surge said, "You should be proud. You and your Pikachu really fought good together!"

"Thanks!" The Pallet Trainer grinned, "We did it, Pikachu! We got the Thunder Badge!"

Pikachu held up a peace sign with a happy "Pi-Pikachu!"

Surge clapped along with the two other adults as he congratulated, "Nice victory, Ash. You're no baby."

"Congratulations, Ash, Pikachu," Brock cheered while clapping.

Misty started clapping as well, but she didn't say anything.

Raichu clapped as well, and Pikachu scratched the back of his head with a sheepish apology for injuring him. Then Ash picked him up and pulled him into a hug over his shoulder.

"Thank you, Pikachu!" he said while nuzzling the Electric-type. "This was your victory!"

Pikachu grinned and let out a small discharge of electricity from sheer happiness. Ash felt a slight tingling, but it didn't hurt much, so he kept up the hug, him and Pikachu laughing.

The Rocket trio walked back to their temporary quarters, bogged down by their new supplies under the afternoon sun. Jessie had several raw materials such as metal, hard rubber and small planks of lumber and James had four paper bags filled with groceries, having called back Mankey with the promise of some rice balls for helping Meowth earlier. The two of them had given their Pokémon companion a blow-by-blow account of what had happened in the Gym battle.

"Huh," Meowth said. "We'll hafta watch out fer underground attacks now, and fer our own pitfalls bein' used against us."

James nodded, "That Pikachu really is special."

"That's why it's worth snatching," Jessie added.

"Hey," the feline agent reminded them. "Focus on our current mission fer now. We can go after Pikachu another time."

They walked in companionable silence for a moment, before James stopped, looking like he had an epiphany. Jessie and Meowth glanced back at him with a questioning grunt and the blue-haired agent slowly smiled.

"Say," he ventured, "the point of our current assignment is to lure powerful Trainers in so that we can steal their Pokémon, right?"

"Yeah, what's yer…?" Meowth trailed off as he grinned as well.

Jessie caught on as well and smirked, "Well, well, looks like we can do both. Whether it's us or some other operative who does the job, all Pokémon caught are for the glory of Team Rocket and the Boss."

After booking a room for the night at the Pokémon Center, Ash let his friends know that he'd be taking a look around Vermilion City himself.

"Why?" Brock asked out of curiosity.

Ash shrugged, "Shop around a little, and see if I can find anything useful to buy. Also, this is a port town, so it'd be ideal for training Squirtle and Krabby both on land and in the water."

"Oh?" Misty asked while keeping her face neutral. "And why do you need to train in the water? That's my specialty."

"What if we get separated while fighting Team Rocket?" he asked in response. "It could happen, and I'd like my Pokémon to be prepared."

"Well, I guess that's true…" she begrudgingly replied.

Ash raised an eyebrow, "Misty, are you feeling okay?"

"Of course! Why wouldn't I be fine?" the Cerulean Leader violently protested. Then she shouldered her backpack, "I'm going shopping!"

Once she left, Ash turned to his remaining friend, "What do you think her problem is?"

"I think that what we need to do is give her some space," Brock replied. "Go ahead and explore, just be sure to be back by curfew."

"That Ash must be feeling so smug about his win at Vermilion Gym!" Misty grumbled as she stormed through the city.

Even though she said she would go shopping, the Cerulean Leader was in too bad a mood to actually do that. Her feet wound up carrying her to one of the harbors, an ideal place to train her Pokémon. But she turned around and started heading back to the city.

"I don't need-"

"Congratulations~!"

Two party poppers shot confetti and streamers into her face and she looked up in surprise to see two tan-skinned girls in high school uniforms consisting of a collared white shirt, a beige vest and a navy skirt with knee-high white socks and black shoes. One had blonde hair to her shoulders and the other had strawberry blonde hair styled into a long curl down to the small of her back.

"You are WAY lucky~! You can go on a super deluxe sea cruuuuuise~!" they said in a celebratory cry.

"A sea cruise?" Misty repeated in surprise.

The two of them stepped forward, the long-haired girl in front while holding a ticket, "Well, it's like, you know, we have this incredible super-cool ticket for you!"

"Cool~!" her blonde friend chimed in.

She held the ticket up to Misty, "Cool, huh? This is a ticket to the biggest party ever, onboard the St. Anne cruise liner!"

"The famous St. Anne?" the Trainer asked in shock.

"Cool~!"

"The coolest ship on the sea!" the ticket holder enthused. "Everybody's going to be together and, like, have the coolest party!"

"Cool~!"

"And the party's for Pokémon Trainers only~!"

"Cool~!"

"Coming tomorrow~!"

"He-he-he-hee~!"

"It'll be a radical party! All of the most radical Trainers will be there!"

'Who says "radical" anymore?' Misty wondered.

The strawberry blonde girl offered the ticket to Misty, "Okay, dudette, here's your pass!"

"Uh, I'd love to go on a cruise, but I'm traveling with some other people right now, and I can't really afford it," Misty hesitantly replied.

"Whoa! Like, you don't understand!" the high schooler said.

"Cool~!"

"It's a group pass for up to five radical Trainers, and it's totally free!"

Misty blinked, "Huh?"

"Totally free!" she repeated before spelling it out. "To-tal-ly FREE~!"

"Why are you giving them away?" the redhead asked.

"Uh, like, we have to go out with our boyfriends," the other girl answered awkwardly, "and we wanted to give our ticket to a cool Pokémon fan!"

"Cool~!"

"We saw you and thought you looked really cool!" she held out the ticket again. "Just take this and have a cool time!"

Misty took the offered ticket with a smile, forgetting her frustration for now, "Thanks a lot!"

"No sweat!" the high school girl answered.

"Cool~!"

"Have a nice day, for sure! Now, we're already late to meet our boyfriends!"

The two girls ran off towards the city and Misty smiled, "This is cool! Wait 'til Ash and Brock hear about this!"

Jessie and James watched from some nearby bushes, smiling at their successful act.

"We did it!" the female agent quietly celebrated. "We got them!"

Her cross-dressing partner looked over with his chin resting in his hand, still talking in his girl voice, "Wow, don't I make, like, the COOLEST girl~?"

Jessie growled and hit him with a hammer from nowhere, causing him to shout in pain.

"Ah~!"

"Knock off the airhead routine!" she ordered. "Let's get back to the hideout and grab our actual disguises to keep giving out tickets!"

"Ow…" James moaned in his regular voice as Jessie dragged him off.

Ash treaded water with a new rebreather over his mouth and nose. It had cost him the majority of his savings to buy, but it was more than worth it in his mind, since he still had enough to buy Potions and other medicines for a good while. In addition, he could coach his Pokémon directly while training them in underwater combat.

Wearing his swimsuit, he spoke through the mask's speaker, his voice warbled, but clearly recognizable, "Squirtle, try again. Torpedo Kick!"

The Tiny Turtle Pokémon swam low and pointed his legs towards Krabby, curling up before kicking out while firing a Water Gun from his mouth. The water warbled in his wake, but the move lost momentum before impacting, doing little against the crustacean's hard shell.

The Pallet Trainer crossed his arms, "Hmm, no luck… Still, you managed to learn Mega Kick on the surface; we'll just have to wait until you get a stronger move for more speed to use it underwater. And you taught Krabby Water Gun while you learned Bubble Beam. And Krabby, you learned Crabhammer, so I'd say it's been a good day of training for both of you. You two want to keep going, or stop?"

The two Water Pokémon looked at each other and turned back to Ash before pointing up. Ash nodded and the three of them swam up. Once they breached the surface, they swam back towards the pier where Pikachu waited. The Electric Pokémon drank juice from a plastic cup with a bendy straw as he watched the setting sun.

Ash let Krabby stand on his shoulders while he and Squirtle climbed up the ladder. Once there, he grabbed their Poké Balls from the pile of clothes and said, "Good fighting, you two. As long as we're crossing the sea to the next Gym, I'll keep you two on so that we can keep training and you can get a chance to battle too. You two take a good rest before tomorrow."

The Trainer had used his Pokédex to send Rattata and Charmander back to Professor Oak's lab after conferring with his Pokémon to decide who tagged out. Rattata because she had learned plenty already and Charmander because he didn't feel comfortable doing any battling near large bodies of water.

He shook his hair clear and dried off with a towel on loan from a booth near the pier. Once he felt he was dry enough, he put his clothes on over his swimsuit and headed back with Pikachu walking alongside him as he re-packed his rebreather and shouldered his backpack. Ash also made sure to drop the towel off in the hamper next to the booth with a "thank you" to the man running it. Pikachu jumped and threw his cup into a trash can as well.

By the time he reached the Pokémon Center, night had fallen, but he knew that it was still well before the eleven o' clock curfew. When he walked through the doors, he saw Misty and Brock waiting for him with grins.

Ash raised an eyebrow, "Guys? Did something happen while I was gone?"

"I got a ticket for a party aboard the St. Anne!" Misty gleefully shouted.

It took a moment for the statement to register before the Pallet Trainer blinked, "How long was I out? Things like that really happen?"

"Two girls had a ticket to a party for Pokémon Trainers, but had to cancel at the last minute," Brock explained with a smile. "So they gave their pass to Misty. It's good for all three of us!"

"Really?! That sounds awesome!" Ash cheered.

Misty nodded, "Doesn't it? We'll be going to board the St. Anne tomorrow!"

After a light dinner, the three Trainers went to sleep with high hopes for tomorrow.

Glad to have finally gotten this done! Sorry for the long wait.

I hope that you all like the chapter and don't mind the changes I made to the Vermilion Gym battle. But Ash has fallen for too many traps to Leeroy Jenkins into a battle with a powerful opponent. He also trained his Pokémon much more seriously than in canon and already had Pikachu learning speed moves like Quick Attack and Agility, so he didn't have to let Pikachu take a beating before he could do that. After dodging a few strikes, it should become clear that Raichu couldn't keep up and the battle progressed from there.

Anyway, those that watched the show should know what's coming next, but will it be the same? Find out next time!

See you when I see you.

-AJ203