Pokemon Tales: Red Chapter 16: A Certain Bioelectric Railgun.

"Go, Electrode!" when Lt. Surge threw the pokeball with his second Pokemon, what appeared from inside looked eerily similar to the item it was stored in.

Having not met it previously, Red checked in the Pokedex whether this one was also a steel type, since it kind of looked like it would be, but he learned that it was purely electric. This would make the battle a little harder than the previous one since none of the fighters would have a natural advantage. Since the leader seemed to have no problem with the teenager checking up information, the boy also took the chance to learn what happened to Charmander's Scratch and learned that it must have been replaced by Metal Claw. Although it was an overall stronger version of the previous move, it could be less useful in certain situations. But there was nothing the trainer could do about that.

"Are you done?" Lt. Surge seemed to be getting a little impatient.

Even Charmander stood there, looking at his trainer, waiting for the battle to continue. It seemed like his battle spirit calmed down a little.

"Yeah, yeah. Sorry. You can have the first move." the trainer replied while hiding the Pokedex in his pocket.

"Don't mind if I take you up on that. Electrode, use Sonic Boom!"

"Again?! Will you stop it with that?!"

Charmander didn't need an order to be able to easily dodge the Sonic Boom but even though it took only a fraction of a second, when he glanced towards the opponent, he saw that it was already on the move towards it.

"Another two! Corner him!"

Electrode shot out a pair of boomerangs which circled Charmander before flying to hit him from left and right. He made a quick decision to avoid them by jumping forward, which turned out to be a mistake on his part.

"Rollout!"

Electrode was already close enough that when it began spinning its whole body, Charmander didn't have a chance to do anything other than try to put his arms up to try and block the attack. It proved virtually useless. He was hit with great force and sent past its trainer and into the corridor behind. The lizard got up, only to realize that Electrode didn't stop its attack and was still rolling towards him. Dodging it would be even harder since the corridor was tight enough that the ball Pokemon would block any path of escape.

Even though Red's vision was obscured by the leader's Pokemon he gave the only order he thought could be useful in that situation "Flamethrower!"

Electrode was pushed back out to the main room but immediately began rolling back in Charmander's direction.

"Go up!" ordered Red.

The lizard shot out his flames downwards which allowed him to propel himself into air and out of Electrode's path. His foe flew into the lobby and the fire Pokemon looked back while flying out of the corridor. Red realized the reason for why the lobby was empty and the doors weren't automatic when he saw glimpses of the electric Pokemon bouncing of the walls multiple times before it finally ricocheted itself towards the main room, hitting the falling Charmander on its way. When the lizard was knocked backwards and the ball Pokemon was turning around to attack again, Red gave another command "Flame Charge!"

Charmander set himself on fire but didn't have time to start his run since Electrode was already dangerously close.

"Dodge!" shouted the leader, and his Pokemon acted accordingly.

Red thought to himself that it would be a good idea to have Charmander keep himself in that state since that meant that the opponent wouldn't be able to hit him with a Rollout without hurting itself in the process, while both of them were getting used to dealing with Sonic Booms.

The leader must have also reached a similar conclusion since he decided to switch his tactic "Screech!"

Electrode stopped in place and began vibrating its body slightly, producing a sound which, while not physically damaging, caused Charmander to lose focus as he tried to keep it from going into his ears since even a second of it caused an unpleasant feeling to run through his body. His foe took that chance immediately and used another Rollout to send the lizard into a wall. Charmander managed to regain his composure and used Flame Charge to run up, in a similar way to when he fought Magneton.

Unfortunately, while Red and his Pokemon were both expecting another Sonic Boom or a bunch of them, Lt. Surge had a different plan "It's time to kick it up a Spark!"

Red didn't have time to tell whether that phrase made sense as he was too busy looking as Charmander was struck down by a jolt of electricity which passed through the metal walls, at an amazing speed, when Electrode touched one of them. As it fell towards the floor, it had no way to get out of harms way when another duo of Sonic Booms hit him from two sides.

Meanwhile, Electrode got in place below his opponent and began using Rollout without moving around as if it was a car that was being revved up before a race. When Charmander fell down, the spinning body of the electric Pokemon immediately sent him flying towards Red who took out the lizard's pokeball at the last second and called it back inside. The ball stopped and looked at the boy with a big grin on its face. It did a couple rolls from side to side as if it was trying to mock him.

The teenager looked a little disappointed but it wasn't because his Pokemon lost, but because of his decisions which caused that loss to happen "You did a great job, buddy."

He attached the pokeball to his belt and immediately reached for another one.

"Are you sure?" the leader looked slightly surprised that Red made up his mind so quickly.

"Yes. Ever since I met you on St. Anne and saw that you were an electric type trainer, I started coming up with what would be a good team to use in this battle. I didn't reach a clear decision but I knew this guy would be useful. Don't think that I'm playing around. I'm going all out."

"I see. Then show me the one you put so much faith in!"

"Go, Oddish!" Red yelled as he threw the ball.

The grass Pokemon appeared from the beam of light and, not surprising his trainer, was asleep as his body materialized on the arena. Meanwhile, the leader and his partner looked a little confused, but the former soldier decided to stay careful, in case if that was part of some secret plan prepared by his opponent.

"Oddiiiiish! It's time to wake up!" the teenager shouted.

The Pokemon was awake since he slowly looked to each side before he closed his eyes. He seemed to ignore his trainer which made Lt. Surge a little sad for the boy, since he imagined how embarrassing it would be if his Pokemon disobeyed him in such a way.

Red seemed like he was ready to give up in trying to get the Pokemon to move, when suddenly he arched himself back before giving a deafening shout "Didn't you hear me?! Rise and shine!"

Lt. Surge made the mistake of covering his eyes and closing his eyes for slightly longer than a blink. When they were open again, Oddish was not only completely woken up, but also spinning through the air upside down as it chanted his name. The leader let go of his ears and looked at the scene in confusion.

Suddenly, even though there were no windows, a ray of sunlight crossed the man's face. He blocked it with his hand and, during that time, Oddish managed to land back on the floor. The leader slowly came to understand that this was indeed a tactic which Red had planned. Oddish being asleep lured him and Electrode into a sense of false security while the teenager's command was formed in such a way that his Pokemon would understand to use Sunny Day without actually being told to use that move.

"I can't let him control the pace any longer..." he whispered to himself "...Electrode, use Rollout!"

The electric Pokemon smiled as it started spinning before it shot out like a flicked marble. Although it was moving fast, it came to a sudden stop since during one of the rotations, its target seemed to disappear before its eyes. Electrode turned around and saw Oddish happily jumping far behind it, on Lt. Surge's side of the room. Although it couldn't tell how it happened, it planned on continuing its attack and began rolling again, this time trying to up its speed.

As it was about to reach him, the grass Pokemon seemed to disappear again. But while Electrode couldn't rely on its eyesight to find the opponent, it still had its other senses, and at that moment its smell and hearing told it Oddish's location. It had to make a sharp turn since the opponent was still fairly close but it was sure that this time he wouldn't be able to run away.

"No! Sto...!" the leader couldn't finish since his Pokemon already crashed into him with immense force.

The man tried to stop it by planting himself firmly but when he was pushed onto the metal, it was easier for him to slip up. He fell down and the Electrode's acceleration allowed the Pokemon to fly above its trainer and bounce of the wall right above the box with the badges. When it landed, it realized its mistake and approached the leader with a worried expression. The man was slightly bruised on his elbows but other than that and the front of his torso hurting a little, he seemed to be fine, especially since he jumped right back on his feet. He gave Red a look that seemed both angry and satisfied at the same time. Oddish stood in the middle of the arena, looking like it was trying to provoke their opponents with its happy, nonchalant attitude.

"You had Oddish spray me with something which would attract Electrode's attention." the leader said while grabbing his shirt to sniff it "That's certainly a new one. But you should have used that moment to attack. I'm not somebody who falls twice for the same trick."

"Well, that was only our first tactic. I still have a couple other ones up my sleeve. Like for example now."

"What are you...?"

"I mean that while you're focused on what I'm talking about, Oddish is performing the move I told him to use while you were busy with being knocked down." Red explained with a cocky smirk.

Lt. Surge looked at the grass Pokemon who seemed to be just standing in place with a slight smile on his face. As he focused his gaze, he noticed a faint greenish glow surrounding the weeds body.

"No!" he yelled when he realized what was going on and turned his attention to his own Pokemon "Electrode! Roll backwards!"

The ball Pokemon didn't understand what was going but listened and when it did, it saw that the place in which it sat had two small vines sticking from beneath. As soon as their opponents saw through their plan, Oddish quickly retracted the ropes through the ground and back into his body. He could use them in the first place because he sent them into the earthy floor along his back and legs. That allowed it to suck out Electrode's energy by means of Mega Drain, without drawing attention to himself. Only after separating itself from the vines' touch, Electrode realized how much of its powers were drained. It panted a little but gave its trainer a look that meant it was ready to still go on.

"Alright! Let's go! Electrode, Spark and then Rollout!" the leader ordered, hoping that the first attack would keep the opponent too occupied to get a chance to dodge the second.

Although the artificial sun created by Sunny Day was useful in increasing Oddish's speed, thanks to his ability, Chlorophyll, Red decided that it would work to their advantage to not avoid the next attack "Stand your ground! Literally!"

Oddish managed to withstand the Spark without much trouble. In a short while, Electrode approached it with great speed and it seemed like the grass Pokemon would be knocked backwards. While he still moved in that direction, he did so slowly, while enduring the spinning body of its foe pushing him. It all happened faster than it seemed and before Lt. Surge could give an order, Electrode stopped by itself to see why its attack wasn't working, only to realize that Oddish stopped himself from being knocked away by planting his vines in the ground.

At the moment the electric Pokemon stopped moving, the tendrils were already stretched far enough that when Oddish jumped, he served like a catapult for Electrode who was sent flying through the room at a great speed. It couldn't maneuver itself and crashed into the wall with such force that it made a big indentation. Instead of worrying about whether this bout was over, Red focused on the walls and started coming up with another tactic.

"Electrode, return!" the leader shouted after seeing that his Pokemon couldn't go on anymore.

"You did great, Oddish." Red praised his Pokemon who jumped over to the boy to give him a high five with one of his leaves.

"Don't get too comfortable. I've been giving it my best from the beginning but I still used Pokemon in order of power. That means that this one is stronger than the previous two." the leader said while confidently presenting a pokeball.

Red looked at him with a blank face, caused by his confusion about what the man was trying to prove "I mean... it's just Raichu, isn't it?"

"What?"

"I saw you using it on St. Anne. I assumed it was your strongest Pokemon since it was the one you decided to use against the giant Tentacruel. Was... Was that meant to be a surprise?"

"I... You... You're kinda taking the fun out of this."

"No, no. I'm excited. I want to fight your Raichu."

"Are you serious?"

"Yeah, yeah. Ever since I saw it, I was like "Woah, I better watch out for that Raichu". Honest." although Red purposefully exaggerated his words, there was some truth behind them, since he made special preparations in order to fight the electric mouse.

"Okay. Then here it goes! Raichu!" Lt. Surge finally released the Pokemon from its ball.

As it appeared mid-air, it shot out small jolts of electricity from its cheek before landing with one of its legs pointed towards the opponents, and a face that showed it was ready to begin the fight.

"Alright, Oddish..." Red began as he kneeled so that his Pokemon could hear his quietened voice "...I have an idea on what to do. I don't know if it'll work out, but the important part is that you're not the one needed for that plan. If we can do this, I'm fine if you are the one to beat Raichu but the most important part is that."

Red pointed towards the artificial sun hanging close to the ceiling.

"If this disappears and you feel like you're close to fainting, you have to put up a new one. Other than that, let's just do our best. Okay?"

The Pokemon nodded while trying to put on a serious face, yet still looking as cute as always. He stepped forward and his trainer stood up and looked the leader in the eyes.

"Are you done?" the man asked.

"Yeah. Pretty much."

"Then you're done."

"Wha-?"

"Volt Tackle!"

Even though Red understood what was happening, Raichu moved too fast for the boy to utter any command of his own. Even though electric moves weren't especially effective against Oddish, since the grass Pokemon couldn't prepare himself, he was hit pretty hard and flew backwards a couple meters, hitting the wall next to the corridor.

The young trainer didn't have time to think but he predicted that the opponent wouldn't let up attacking, so he quickly ordered a countermeasure "Mega Drain!"

He was proved accurate when Raichu swiftly approached Oddish with another Volt Tackle, until the moment when it saw the vines shot out in its direction and slowed down a little out of hesitation.

"Fall back!" shouted Lt. Surge.

The mouse did as ordered by jumping a performing a couple of backwards flips, until the moment it thought it was out of reach. In truth, Oddish could probably reach it even at that distance, but the grass Pokemon felt it was more important to get itself back on feet since staying static against such an opponent seemed unwise.

"If it's that fast, we'll just have to keep it on its toes. Megadrain!"

Oddish advanced past his trainer and sprouted two new vines which approached Raichu from sides.

"Agility!" ordered the leader.

His Pokemon took a second to focus. During that time, its body seemed to be surrounded by a wall of wind. When it disappeared, so did the Pokemon. Oddish stopped his vines in confusion and started looking around in panic, when suddenly, Raichu appeared right in front of him, ready to strike. To Surge's surprise, his Pokemon immediately backed out and watched how Oddish retracted the vines.

"What's going on? Why didn't you hit him?" the leader wondered.

Raichu pointed towards a cloud of dust emitting from Oddish's leaves, which after missing its target, fell towards the floor and disappeared.

"A powder of some sort. Stun Spore... Or maybe Sleep Powder..."

Oddish glanced towards his trainer, while the opponents were busy with their own things, and noticed that the boy was holding up one of his hands and slapping the back of it lightly.

"Don't worry, Raichu. I've got an idea." the leader reassured his Pokemon who nodded in response "Use Thunder!"

The electric Pokemon started gathering energy in its cheeks. After there was enough of it, the mouse directed a powerful blasts upwards. It didn't reach the ceiling, instead changing direction and moving towards Oddish at great speeds.

"Mega Drain!" yelled Red.

Lt. Surge understood that as the boy hoping that the vines would reach Raichu before the electricity would hit Oddish, so he gave another order of his own "Volt Tackle!"

Raichu didn't look if the vines were actually coming towards him and started running while covering himself in electricity. It knew not to approach the opponent head-on, and instead tried to get behind it from the right side. The leader looked a little confused when he realized that Oddish didn't seem to listen to Red's order.

Thunder was about to hit when Red gave a new command "Jump back!"

Oddish managed to avoid it, but Raichu was already behind him and approaching at such speed that it would be impossible to dodge it without falling into the attack in the front. But what neither Raichu nor its trainer expected was that Red was two steps ahead and Oddish's vines were actually used to cover its back, making Raichu change direction at the last moment to avoid getting its energy drained. The turn was so harsh that the mouse tripped, giving Oddish a chance to extend its vines and grab the foe's body. Thunder made a huge impact and kicked up a cloud of dust which shielded the Pokemon from their partners' view. When it finally settled down, they could see Raichu struggling against the vines and trying to get free by biting into them.

"Raichu, stop playing around! Grab hold of them and use Slam!"

The mouse listened and although with a little trouble, it got to a standing position in which it used all its strength to swing the vines above itself, sending Oddish into a wall. After hitting it, the grass Pokemon's grip loosened and Raichu could escape and move to a safe distance to catch some breath. Lt. Surge looked like he was about to give another order, but his attention, as well as everybody else, was caught by the fact that the room seemed to be getting darker. The artificial sun created by Oddish started disappearing and soon the only light left was that created by the couple lamps hanging from the ceiling. Red gave his Pokemon, who was getting up, a hesitant look but it seemed like it was ready to still go on. What it didn't take into account was that with the sun gone, its speed was also lessened as proved right away by Raichu.

"Volt Tackle!"

The mouse crashed into the grass Pokemon, knocking him upwards. He tried to regain balance while mid-air, but Lt. Surge didn't want to give him any rest.

"Jump off the wall and Slam!"

Raichu did as ordered and quickly got itself above Oddish where it spun around and, this time, used its tail to send him towards the floor. It landed right next to him and picked up the helpless foe by its leaves to throw it towards his trainer.

"Finish him with a Thunder!" the leader yelled while bringing his arm up in a swinging motion.

"Oddish, this is it!" shouted Red.

The Pokemon was hurting too bad to get up but thankfully, it wasn't needed for him to use Sunny Day. Energy from its body flew through the air and started forming the shining sphere. At that moment, Raichu already had enough electricity gathered to use its move. Red was prepared to return his partner to his pokeball, but something caught his attention. It seemed like Oddish was prepared to do as much damage to his opponent, no matter how much he himself would receive. Raichu also noticed it, although a little too late.

It jumped back since it turned out that even though Oddish was busy with creating the sun and was about to be struck down by Thunder, he was using the same underground vine trick he did on Electrode. If he could make the fight even a little easier for the next Pokemon, he considered it worth a try. The sun was formed. The thunder struck. After a couple seconds, an unconscious Oddish could be seen through the cloud of dust.

Red returned the grass Pokemon to its pokeball and gave him his deep thanks before putting it away and calmly reaching for the next one. Lt. Surge looked a little worried. He would feel better if the teenager had a smug expression but the slight smile seemed so calm that the leader was actually getting annoyed. He would feel like a fool if the battle they just had was a set-up for another one of Red's plans.

"So, what is your last Pokemon?"

"Here he comes. Go, Pikachu!"

The electric mouse appeared from his pokeball without doing anything special. If anything, he looked a little bored by the fact that he was called out for a battle. He scratched himself behind an ear while staring down Raichu, who was getting slightly irritated at its opponent's attitude.

"Hey, Pikachu. Is everything okay?"

The mouse looked at its trainer and lifted his arms up, showing that it had enough of dealing with opponents who weren't a challenge to him, especially since Red focused on training him during his stay at the hospital.

"This one isn't the same. Besides, if you win, you'll get double the food for dinner."

Pikachu seemed to be in deep though over what the boy said and, after some time, showed him his hand with three fingers lifted up.

"Okay, okay. Just don't slip up on your confidence, ya jerk."

Hearing that the trainer agreed, Pikachu turned towards the opponent with an evil looking smile.

"Raichu, we have to be fast so that they can't do whatever they're planning, got it?" said the leader.

His Pokemon nodded and assumed a four-limbed, fighting stance.

"Volt Tackle!"

"Iron Tail!"

In another instance of its speed proving too great, Raichu couldn't stop himself in time, not to crash head first into Pikachu's tail which has turned to metal. The smaller Pokemon swatted his opponent to the side, but it spun one of its hands and to regain balance and place itself safely on the ground.

But Red didn't seem to plan on giving it a break "Quick Attack!"

"Spin around and grab him!"

Raichu did as ordered. It got Pikachu into a hold which was hard to escape from, but at that kind of range there was only one thing he could do.

"Slam it into the wall!"

Red understood that Pikachu couldn't avoid hitting the wall, but he didn't plan on having it take any damage "Rebound with Iron Tail!"

Pikachu turned around while flying through the air and hit the wall with his tail, leaving an indentation that was around half the length of its tail. After that, he gracefully landed on the floor.

"Yes... Something like this..." Red whispered to himself "Alright! Another Quick Attack!"

Red gave a command after a command. Each of them forced Lt. Surge and Raichu to keep a defensive stance and use Slam to avoid taking damage. The leader started looking around in order to decipher just what it was the challenger hoped to do, but the only thing he noticed was that Pikachu's Iron Tail kept damaging the metal walls, floor and ceiling whenever he was thrown into them.

"I don't know what's going on but I won't let him do what he wants. Raichu, use Agility!" the leader ordered, risking that his Pokemon would be hit by the next Quick Attack.

Raichu managed to increase its speed and perform a side step, which allowed it to grab Pikachu when he approached it.

"Throw him up, but not too hard!" commanded Lt. Surge and his Pokemon did so "Now, he has no surface to bounce off! Use Thunder!"

Raichu gathered the necessary energy and shot out a powerful attack but, to his trainer's shock, it seemed to miraculously avoid the opponent.

"That's not possible! Even if it's an electric type, it should still receive some damage!" he shouted while clenching his fists.

"You'd think so, right?" Red looked rather smug when saying that "I told you before that I made preparations for this fight. The sun created by Oddish is still here and that means that Thunder has about 50% chance of missing its target. Thanks to that, we effectively sealed your Raichu's strongest move."

"We still have other things we can use! Raichu, Volt Tackle!"

"Pikachu, Quick Attack!"

Even though Raichu's speed was higher, it wasn't important if both Pokemon's goal was to crash into each other. The impact caused them both to be thrown in opposite directions.

"There's still one thing I have to check... Pikachu, use Thunderbolt!"

The Pokemon shot out the attack but even though it reached its target, Raichu was completely unaffected by it and looked at its foe with confidence.

"Hahaha! You thought yourself so smart but as it turns out I'm also not entirely focused on brawn! I trained hard so that Raichu could attain a special ability called Lightning Rod! It makes it so that it attracts all electric attacks and negates them completely! It seems like your strongest move is also useless!"

"Alright. Our preparations are done." the boy looked rather content with himself.

"Wha-?"

"Pikachu, approach that indentation over there!" Red said while pointing to one of the damaged parts, particularly one which was rather low on a wall.

The Pokemon ran over to it without hesitation.

"Now, change your tail to iron."

Pikachu did as ordered. Everything was happening fairly quick and Lt. Surge still couldn't comprehend if the boy really had a plan and how these holes factored into it, but he didn't want to risk losing because of his curiosity.

"Oh no, you don't! Raichu, Volt Tackle!"

"Use Thunderbolt on your tail!" Red shouted, sweating a little from his forehead, since he started considering the risk of this tactic.

Pikachu himself didn't know what his trainer planned for so he was shocked when suddenly he was shot through the room with his tail leading him forward. He closed his eyes when he saw how close he was getting to another wall but when he didn't feel his body hitting it, he opened them back again to see that his tail slid along another indentation and sent him further, increasing his speed at the same time. His body was being flung around at such velocity that he had a little trouble keeping up. Meanwhile, the trainers and Raichu observed the situation. Red backed off to the corridor so that he wouldn't accidentally be hit by his own Pokemon who couldn't exactly control his path. Lt. Surge was almost grazed by Pikachu at one time and also took a couple steps back to the other corridor.

"This was your plan?!" he couldn't believe.

"Yeah! Pretty much!" Red had to yell since Pikachu sliding along the indentations with his electricity made a rather loud noise.

"And what the hell is this?!"

"It's...!" Red couldn't be heard anymore because of the increase in volume of the sounds.

Raichu looked at his trainer who looked at loss on what to do and decided to try moving around so that he could intercept Pikachu and stopped whatever game it was playing at. Although Lt. Surge's words couldn't get through, he tried to convey with his hands that he wanted Raichu to use its reflexes to grab Pikachu and use Slam on it.

Meanwhile, Red took a deep breath before shouting at the top of his lungs "Stop the Thunderbooolt!"

Pikachu heard him and stopped producing electricity while still retaining the Iron Tail. Red didn't wait to see if the Pokemon actually listened since at that speed it would be hard to tell what was going on.

Instead, the boy immediately followed with "Thunderbolt agaaain!"

The Pokemon used Thunderbolt while flying through the air, still propelled by the previous one, away from any of the indentations. This made is so instead of being shot through another hole, Pikachu's tail was attracted by Raichu's ability. Although the leader's Pokemon could see the incoming attack, he was too slow and was instantly hit in the belly while trying to grab the tail.

Even if Thunderbolt was useless, the power of the accelerated Iron Tail was so great that it pushed Raichu along the floor, past his trainer and the whole length of the corridor and through the doors at the end of it. Even that wasn't enough to stop Pikachu who had to try to rotate himself and slam the tail into the ground of the arena so that he wouldn't crush into the wall on the leader's side. His flight stopped only after he crashed into one of the boxes next to the corridor but the leader was too worried about his own Pokemon to notice that. He ran to the back room with a worried face.

"That was something..." Red said while massaging his sore throat and wiping the sweat off his forehead "Hey Pikachu, how are you... Pikachu?"

The leader returned after some time, looking at the ball to which he returned his Pokemon, visibly disappointed by his loss. He looked up after putting it away and noticed that the challenger wasn't at the opposite end of the arena. He looked around and quickly found the boy crouched next to the pedestal with the broken box.

"Damn it. It broke? I wanted this to be a surprise... Well... I never had a fight that would go so much out of control. I'll have to ask Rockskey to arrange a crew to fix the..." the leader stopped since he noticed the boy wasn't listening "Hello? Is something wrong?"

"Mr. Surge..."

"That's "Lt. Surge" for y..."

"Can you explain what's this?!" Red yelled while turning around and holding up, in his hands, a Raichu.

"Oh. So that's what happened! Your Pikachu crashed into the box with Thunder Stones and evolved into a Raichu. Normally, I offer a Thunder Stone along the Thunder badge as a prize for beating me. But there's nothing to worry about. You won so I would give the stone to you anyway."

"But I didn't want it!" Red exploded.

"Wha-? You didn't?! Are you crazy?!"

"I mean..." Red looked at the Pokemon "...I thought about evolving Pikachu sometime in the future but I still wanted to train him as a Pikachu. Now he won't be able to learn moves like Slam, Agility or Volt Tackle."

"Oh... I... But... You still managed to beat us, even though we had these moves at our disposal. That goes to show that it doesn't matter how strong your moves are, as long as you know how to use them effectively."

"I guess..." Red still looked a little sad but Raichu tried to cheer him up with a smile of his own and the boy slowly got over the whole thing "...Thanks for all your work... Raichu. Look forward to that triple portion of food."

After he returned the Pokemon to its ball, the boy stood up. The leader looked at him with a satisfied expression and realized that he was forgetting his duties. He turned around and went over to the other box and opened it with a key he took out from his pocket. After that, he handed the boy his other reward, the Thunder badge.

"Good job, soldier." the man said while saluting the boy.

"I'm... I'm not a soldier. Did you hit your head?"

"No... I... Ugh... Doesn't matter. I'll have to fix this place up or the challengers will start piling up and I'll get myself into trouble with the league officials."

After hiding the badge, Red looked up at the leader since his words reminded him of an important matter "Could I ask you something?"

"It depends. If it's about my time in the army, you have to understand that there's a lot of classified information and..."

"No, no. It's about something more recent." Red hesitated, since his thoughts wandered to the things he went through during his battle with Darkness Gang, but he slapped himself on both cheeks to regain his confidence "I wanted to ask you about Team Rocket."

"Team Rocket? Why would you ask "me" about "them"?" Lt. Surge put emphasis on these words since he wanted to test the waters after the boy's request caught him off guard.

"I don't know if he actually did it but Brock said that he was gonna contact the other Gym leaders about what he and I learned about Team Rocket." the teenager explained.

"Wait a minute. How the hell are you involved in this thing? Do you just stick your nose into every kind of trouble you can find?"

"It's more like me stumbling into trouble." Red sighed with a smile, but then his expression changed to a more serious one "The reason I was hired to be part of St. Anne's security was to protect the Crystal Eye from Phantom Venin. But I just couldn't sit by idly while Darkness Gang attacked, even though it wasn't technically my job. But I don't want anybody to get hurt because I didn't help when I could have. Even if this Team Rocket stuff doesn't really concern me, I already encountered them 3 times, and if I meet them again, I will stand up to them just as I have done previously. I don't plan on going after their boss like some great hero but if there's some information about them that could help me in another, eventual encounter, I want to know it."

"That's fine... But what do you mean by saying that you encounte..."

"I'm the one who brought the thing to Brock's attention after meeting a Team Rocket member in Viridian City and helped him realize that the Gym over there was used as a place to scout out new members. But I assumed it was a dead end, since their boss left that place long ago."

Lt. Surge turned to the side and held up a hand to his face while thinking about what to say. He glanced at the boy and after seeing the burning will of his eyes, decided to reveal what he knew.

"Brock did call us. In fact, he made it a group call using video chat. He explained the situation while omitting the stuff that involved you. You shouldn't fault him. He just wants to do good, like you, and he's probably worried about you getting involved. Anyway, out of the 7 leaders, there was one that didn't respond. It was Blaine. I noted that it was suspicious since he was one of the two people among us who knew the 8th leader personally."

"But the other person was there, yes?"

"Yes... But Koga may be even more suspicious than Blaine. I never looked into who the 8th guy was since it wasn't important to me, but after I learned that he's supposedly the boss of Team Rocket, I asked Koga to immediately tell us what he knew."

"And?"

"Weeell... We at least know his name. It's "Giovanni"."

"Giovanni." Red repeated the name as if it was supposed to remind him of something, but nothing came to his mind.

"Koga acted like he was better than us. Like as if he suspected Giovanni being the boss of Team Rocket for a long time and was just waiting till somebody else would realize. He said that he did his own investigation in the past and after getting to know Giovanni, they agreed to stay out of each other's way. He didn't look particularly happy about it. It seemed like he considered Giovanni the only person he ever met that was his match."

"So you didn't learn anything besides that?"

"Unfortunately not. We learned about the company he owned before but it seems like he dissolved it while taking all the money at the same time he abandoned his Gym. And all of his employees who could have some information about him, acted like they never saw him in person and never knew about his criminal career. There... There are two things that seem weird about all of this."

"What are they?"

"He sponsors orphanages. It seems he was pretty open about it but the money can't be traced back to him. The other thing is the fact pointed out by Koga before he left our group conversation. Although Team Rocket commit various crimes, it seems like they are less violent than other criminal organizations, especially toward humans. But I have no idea what either of these things mean. Brock tried to contact the Elite Four to try to get them to help but the bastards refused. They're even more annoying than Koga."

"That's all?"

"I'm afraid yes. Sorry. There wasn't anything helpful in what we learned."

"No, no problem." the boy said dismissively, while going into deep thought, already trying to decipher the clues he received.

. . .

A day later, Red was getting ready to leave Vermilion City. He called his parents, who seemed unaware of his adventure on St. Anne and his stay in the hospital, and told them about his progress, about getting the third badge and about Pikachu evolving. He gathered information and learned that the road leading directly to Saffron City was under construction and the closest place he could go to in order to get a badge was Celadon City. There were two ways to get there. A long one, through Cerulean City and mountains, and a shorter one to the east.

He arrived at the conclusion that Blue probably chose the latter so he decided that he would do the same. As he was leaving the city, he looked back and thought about all the stuff that he went through there, and about all the interesting people and Pokemon he met. Eevee, who was walking beside him, didn't understand that sudden nostalgia and decided to push his body against the boy's leg to make him move forward. Finally, they both started walking east, unaware that two pairs of eyes were keenly observing them from the shadows.

"Good. Now that he left the city, we can put our plan into action." said a male voice.

The other one answered him with a sound that carried with it a feeling of satisfaction and enjoyment.


The name of the chapter comes from the anime Toaru Kagaku no Railgun/A Certain Scientific Railgun. I've never actually watched it. I tried Index but it was kinda boring so I gave up. But the name fit because of Pikachu's final attack. I'm not going to pretend that I understand how railguns work but I came up with the attack when I decided that the gym walls are gonna be covered in metal. But the Wikipedia page for Railgun sounds similar to the thing Red came up with so I thinks it's okay. Red was actually supposed to come up with a name for it. Something like "Situational move: Bio Railgun" but I forgot about it since I wanted to get to the Team Rocket stuff.

I would also like to say that while I thought that name for the chapter would be cool and the final battle was the first one I came up with, I still think that Oddish deserves the most recognition. I had no problem with changing Pikachu's Thunder Shock to Thunderbolt but I didn't want to change Oddish's moveset and make myself a challenge since the 3 moves that he used previously were also support moves. I also considered giving him like Synthesis but went with Mega Drain since it woul probably be too hard to come up with a way to win against Electrode.

Apart from the battle, there's some information about Giovanni and Team Rocket. I kinda used Darkness Gang as an excuse for Red getting involved with them in the future. I also gave a taste of Koga's character. I can't wait to write about him. He's an eniterly different kind of guy than Lt. Surge yet both are still pretty badass. The last part will be explained the next time Red arrives in Vermilion City.

IMPORTANT: I may not be able to write and post anything for a couple months because of personal stuff. I'm not completely sure how it works out but don't worry if you don't see anything till january or february. I plan to keep on writing this as long as I have both of my hands, or until the story is done, which at the pace I'm going at will take several years.

At least I got to 100,000 words before taking a break :)

Red. Team: Eevee, Charmander, Raichu, Oddish, Magikarp.

Badges: 3

Green. Team: Ivysaur, Nidorina, Jigglypuff, Hitmonlee.

Badges: 3

Blue. Team: Bellsprout(Bell), Wartortle(Tori), Zubat(?), ?.

Badges: 3

Alex. Team: Ditto, ?, ?, ?.

Angie. Team: ?, ?.

Peter. Team: Dodrio, Haunter, ?.