Edited 12/21/22

Back in my day… I don't remember.

Ash now had a team of five Pokemon.

He also had an Eevee on his head.

These two facts are related.

It wasn't like he was ever going to say no to someone interested in joining his team, even if she was technically volunteered by Bill. Eevee seemed interested in the idea herself and he had no reason to refuse her entry.

"Thank you again by the way!" She spoke up as they left the lighthouse and continued on the way. "Bill is nice enough but the lab is far from the most exciting place. It's nice to get outside and see the world."

Selene hummed softly. "The world is a big place. I've only seen a little bit of it but it's so much bigger and more interesting than I expected. I'm still trying to figure out if we're living on a giant Dragonite or not though. Maybe another dragon?"

"I don't think that's the case," Pikachu told her.

"What would a dragon that big even eat?" Sunny asked from Ash's back. The trainer felt like little more than a spectator to the conversation but was curious enough to see where it went.

"Hmm, stardust maybe? Iron-filled asteroids?" Selene suggested. "I don't know a lot about space."

Pikachu shot her a look. "Don't you worship a literal piece of the moon?"

"Aren't you a godless heathen?" She prodded, her tone suggesting teasing rather than malice.

Pidgeotto finally entered the conversation. "I don't think the world is a giant dragon. Although, maybe a giant dragon is carrying the world through space on its back?"

Pikachu groaned. "The world is round you know? What, does the dragon wear it like a giant backpack or something? This is ridiculous! How would it even work?"

"That's what we're trying to figure out!" Selene shamed the electric type's skepticism.

Eevee was glancing from Pokemon to Pokemon, trying to follow the conversation. "Is this normal?" She finally ended up asking, putting the question in the air for anyone to answer.

"Define normal," Pidgeotto told her with a chuckle but continued. "If you mean do we often have inane discussions about random topics? It does happen from time to time. It is a nice change of pace from questioning our morality and philosophical discussions on the right thing."

"Further shifting away from whether or not a giant dragon is flying our world around," Pikachu spoke up again, gaining a mischievous look. "I think we're far enough from the lighthouse to do… the reveal."

That got him a few looks from the others, including Ash, but his oldest friend just rolled his eyes at him and gestured with his head up towards Eevee, then fiddled with his mouth a bit to make a grin that mimicked Ash's when he was… oh!

"Right! Pidgeotto, can you check the road ahead and behind us and make sure we're alone? Just in case." Ash suggested to the flying-type who with a quick nod took off to scout the area.

They came to a stop, Misty following along quickly and shooting them a confused glance, still missing the context of the conversation unfortunately, they still needed to work on that.

As the bird Pokemon did a quick look around, Ash quickly deposited the rest of his team onto the ground. Most of them seem to have caught onto what was about to happen but the newest addition remained befuddled, which made sense to be fair.

"I'm sorry but I'm a bit confused." She admitted looking at the other Pokemon who wore a mix of excited and amused looks.

Misty had realized what was going on at this point and chuckled at the normal-type's apparent confusion.

"Don't worry." She told the little Pokemon. "It's nothing bad but it is a bit surprising the first time you see it."

As the normal type processed those words from the one true human of the group, Pidgeotto returned and gave Ash the all-clear. With that confirmation, he grinned and dropped his illusion.

Eevee actually fell over.

This was not the hoped-for reaction and Ash took a step forward to check and make sure she was okay but she recovered quickly and now stood staring at him in obvious bewilderment.

"You- what- how?" She finally settled on after a short spew of confused words. "You're not human, but you looked like one and you sounded like one and walked like one, how does that work?"

Ash gave her the rundown. "Basically, I am a Zorua, the only one in Kanto!" He explained but paused. "I think, at least I haven't met anymore in Kanto but I was living in Pallet Town most of my life so there might be more around."

"But you looked like a human! How did you do that? Is it some sort of move that all Zorua have or something you learned?" She started theorizing out loud. "Maybe not a move, an ability? But how would that work then…"

He stared at the other Pokemon as she gave way to mumbling, trying to figure it out rather than just letting him finish explaining. She may have picked it up from Bill. He did a lot of research on Pokemon so it made sense he would do a lot of theorizing about how they worked.

"It's an ability." Ash clarified before she could get too lost in her ideas. "I need something to base it on but I can make adjustments!" He demonstrated by changing into Pikachu, appearing the same as his friend physically except for a slightly lighter shade of yellow.

She processed the second change in appearance for a moment. "Okay, so an ability that allows you to transform into other Pokemon… and humans I suppose. And you're a trainer but you're also a Pokemon, how does that work? Why would you do that anyway?"

That question was one Ash had received before of course so he answered it truthfully and with practice, he had thought trainers cool, and then he met a man who suggested he could be one and the idea took root in his head. He and Pikachu had looked into it and found there were no actual rules against Pokemon becoming trainers. After that the rest was history.

"You became a trainer because you wanted to and because you could?" Eevee sounded somewhat doubtful but reconsidered. "Although given what I know that seems to be the motivation of most human trainers, why would a Pokemon be any different in that regard?"

"Because most Pokemon aren't ridiculous and weird." Pikachu pointed out 'helpfully' for the new teammate.

"Says the electric-type who beat a ground-type with an electric attack." Ash pointed out to him.

Pikachu huffed. "He was all wet. I had the advantage."

Eevee was now giving Pikachu a weird look. "I cannot begin to describe how that is not the case."

"Anyway," Ash refocused the discussion, "that's 'the reveal' as Pikachu put it. I'm a Pokemon too. Any other questions?"

She thought about it for a moment. A lot actually but we have time I guess, but my first one is, why didn't you tell Bill? He would have been fascinated by this."

"I try not to tell too many people, well humans mostly, just because there are bad people out there. We've met some of them, and like I said, I'm probably the only Zorua in the whole Kanto region." the dark-type explained.

"That makes a certain amount of sense I guess." She admitted but eyed Misty in turn. "What about her then?"

Pikachu snickered again and Pidgeotto answered the question. "It's a long story involving a Diglett, a flock of Spearow, and a Pokeball."

Ash kicked at the ground in disgrace. "You weren't even there for it." He muttered.

"And yet I can recite the whole thing verbatim despite this!" She crowed somewhat maniacally, clearly teasing him.

"If she's wondering how I know about it, I was fishing when Ash came out of the river disguised as a water-type from Sinnoh, I tried to catch him but burst his illusion. At that point, the Meowth was out of the bag." Misty elaborated after seeing Eevee's glances and hearing Ash's disparaging comment.

"I was a bit upset when I realized I'd messed up," Ash admitted. "But I'm honestly glad how things worked out. Misty and I probably wouldn't be friends otherwise and I can't imagine this journey without her!"

"I'm not sure you'd have made it this far on the journey without me." Misty shook her head, he tone was full of fondness despite her words.

The group got underway again soon after, questions for Ash continuing as they walked. Although they were not only for Ash, Eevee began to familiarize herself with the rest of the team, and them with her in turn.

Most of them were standard fair, where did everyone come from, how did they end up with Ash and stuff like that.

By the time they stopped for the night everyone seemed to have run out of questions. Ash and Misty were relatively tired after another day of walking but the rest of the group had a significant amount of energy left over. Mostly because they were using Ash as their mode of transportation.

"From what I know about trainers taking the gym challenge, this is the part where we do some training right?" Eevee checked as camp was made and 'dinner' (if it could be called that) was eaten.

Selene answered her. "That's usually how we do it, we normally do some around lunchtime too, but we skipped it for today, not quite sure why."

"We talked about this, remember?" Pidgeotto pointed out and then paused. "Never mind, I'm pretty sure you were explaining to Sunny why he should make a pilgrimage to the Moonstone and become a Lunar Variant Charmander. Which does not exist."

Pikachu was the one to give the fairy-type an answer. "We've been on the road for a lot longer than normal, the sooner we reach Vermillion City and get a bit of proper rest the better."

"The road is interesting though." Selene pointed out but continued pondering. "Although cities are also interesting. Or at least Cerulean City was and this is another city so it might be just as interesting in its own way."

"That's one way to look at it I suppose…" Sunny concluded as Selene finished speaking.

"I'm feeling a bit tired tonight," Ash admitted as he dropped his illusion and returned to his real form. "So I'm not sure how much direct training we'll do but I can at least get everyone started, especially you Eevee, we kind of need to figure out what to work on."

Most of the team was able to pick up where they last left off for training, Pikachu continued working on Discharge, Pidgeotto was now trying to use Steel Wing while moving at very fast speeds, and Selene was working on switching between attacks as quickly as possible and Sunny was working on both the strength and technique of his attacks.

Eevee was a bit of an interesting pickle, just because she had so much versatility and freedom to grow. The evolution Pokemon was named that way for a reason. Her growth had depended a lot on which way she wanted to evolve if she wanted to at all of course.

"Okay, your moves are mostly physical ones," Ash concluded as he got the rundown of Eevee's current moveset; Quick Attack, Tail Whip, Tackle, Covet, Sand Attack, and Baby-Doll Eyes. "When we get to Vermillion we can start working on learning some new moves to add variety to the typing but unless you want to change it up let's focus on dealing a lot of damage."

"No, it seems like the best idea right now." Eevee agreed with him. "Maybe later I can try changing it up but for now let's focus on what I'm already good at. You're planning to challenge the gym in Vermillion right?"

"Right," Ash confirmed but paused. "Oh, I just realized that I might not be able to use the whole team." He scrunched up his face as he thought about it. He didn't like the idea of leaving someone out, especially if they wanted to fight. "We'll have to talk about it more when we get there. It depends on what the gym leader is like I guess."

The other Pokemon didn't have too much experience battling, as it turns out, Bill had gotten her from a Day Care Center so she'd never experienced Pokemon battles properly.

In light of that fact, Ash decided to do a brief mock battle with her to give her an idea of what to expect from battling.

"Obviously we're not going to battle to knock out, I think three hits seems like a good idea?" Ash wondered. "Maybe two clean hits. I don't want either of us to get too roughed up."

"Are you sure this is a good idea? You're feeling tired right? It seems a bit unfair…" Eevee was skeptical.

"It's fine." Ash brushed off her concern. "I'm a lot more experienced at this than you so it should even out pretty well."

"If you say so." She accepted and crouched down like she was ready to pounce.

"Try starting with Sand Attack to lower my accuracy," Ash suggested helpfully as he prepared for battle as well.

There was a moment of confusion from his new teammate as she processed him suggesting how to fight him but then seemed to realize that was the point of the training. She kicked up the attack and a cloud of dust shot towards Ash, which he proceeded to dodge quite nimbly.

"That was pretty quick!" He congratulated the normal type. "Most Pokemon need to practice to make it that fast, or need to get in close to make up for the lack of speed!"

She seemed a bit put out despite his compliment. "But I didn't hit you."

"I've been doing this for a while." Ash pointed out. "But if you're worried about it, instead of a proper battle we can work on your aim and ability to hit?"

That was agreeable to Eevee so they began working on that instead. He didn't say it out loud but she definitely needed practice, while her Sand Attack was quick, she had trouble landing her physical attacks, she kept misjudging the time it took to reach him.

"Aahhhh!" She yelped as she used her Quick Attack to try and catch him, but ended up shooting past him and crashing into a tree.

He winced in sympathy, he hadn't run into any trees while learning Quick Attack himself, but walls? That was another story altogether.

After some consideration on his end, Ash decided not to abuse his Quick Attack to avoid the attacks, not every Pokemon had that move, and using it to avoid attacks wasn't something everyone thought of. They could work on that aspect later but for now, it was better to build up her base skills and confidence.

She realized soon enough that Quick Attack was her best bet to hit him as she wasn't able to keep up with him to use Tackle and he'd already proven nimble enough to avoid her Sand Attack.

There was also Ash's exhaustion factoring in, she had the advantage there, if she just kept it up he would start slowing down and make a mistake eventually.

It didn't take too much longer for their war of attrition to end. Eevee had a brief moment of inspiration and feinted left as she prepared to use Quick Attack once more, the Zorua saw this and moved the other way to avoid it, and right into the actual path of the attack.

Her head collided with his side at blitzing speed and knocked him to the ground hard enough to make him bounce. He winced as he landed and pushed himself to his feet, stumbling as he stood. Despite this, he couldn't stop himself from grinning.

"Are you okay?" She asked with some alarm, not expecting to manage such a good hit after missing for so long.

"I'm fine," he shrugged. "And that was great! You hit a lot harder than I expected! Nice job!" Ash praised her despite her worried expression.

"If you're sure you're alright…" She checked but accepted his congratulations. "You're really fast, I guess I need to work on speeding up if I want to hit anyone."

"Not every Pokemon can move fast, some are big and slow, and can take a lot of hits. You kind of need to be ready to adjust depending on the situation." He explained.

As the training began to wind down, everyone began heading to bed. Misty had gotten a head start on everyone else, deciding to forgo the training and just head to sleep with her Pokemon.

Ash looked over everyone and distributed medicine to those who needed it (including himself) and then got everyone piled into their tent. With the training wearing them all out, it didn't take long for the whole team to be off to dreamland.

It took the group almost another full day of traveling to make it to Vermillion city but just as the sun began to go down, they saw the port city on the horizon and they plowed forward with renewed vigor.

They didn't stop to look at any of the local sights or buildings, instead choosing to make a beeline straight for the Pokemon Center. Albeit that didn't stop locals from taking in the strange sight of them, or Ash more specifically, with all of his Pokemon riding on him like a bus.

It was two very tired trainers that finally stumbled into the Pokemon Center.

The Nurse Joy running the center looked on with concern as they made their way to the desk and all but flopped on it. "Hi, can we get two rooms for the night and a check-up on our Pokemon?" Misty managed to push herself up for long enough to look at Nurse Joy as she spoke.

Ash had given up on movement and lay hunched over the desk, face down. His Pokemon had climbed off and Pikachu poked him a few times.

"Are you dead?" He asked his disguised friend but Ash only managed a mumble.

Honestly, he probably shouldn't be this tired but after multiple weeks on the road and then pushing themselves the past two days to get here as fast as possible he was out of it. Not to mention carrying everyone all the while.

Misty set it up so their Pokemon would be sent right to their rooms after Nurse Joy was finished with them and the trainer duo dragged themselves to their rooms.

Ash would have liked to wait for his team to finish up with the Nurse before he went to bed but at this point, he was just a bit too tired. He dropped his illusion once he closed the door to his room and left his backpack on the ground behind him. With that, he pulled himself onto the bed and let himself pass out.

By the time the next morning came around, the rest of the team had taken their places on the bed in their usual positions, or in Eevee's case her new one curled up near the foot of the bed.

She would have wanted one of the pillows but Pidgeotto had acquisitioned all of them to make herself a nest, unfortunately.

Now that he was awake and fairly well rested Ash was ready to take on the day, and the local gym. It did come to his attention pretty quickly though, that he didn't know a lot about Vermillion City's gym or its leader. He vaguely recalled it being electric-type but he wasn't certain.

At breakfast that morning, it rapidly became the topic of his discussion with Misty.

"I don't know too much about the gym leader here, just the basics." She began explaining over her breakfast, complete with toast, waffles, cereal, and pancakes. After so long without a decent meal she was going all out.

"It's an electric-type gym and the leader's name is Surge, Lieutenant Surge specifically. He's got a reputation for being tough. Beyond that I got nothing." The girl elaborated, before diving back into her food.

"That's more than I knew before!" Ash supplied as he thought. "Although I guess that means we're at a bit of a disadvantage again. Only we don't have Iron Tail or Steel Wing to help pull us through…"

"What are electric-types weak to again?" Selene asked thoughtfully, glancing at Pikachu who paused his meal to explain.

"It's a little complicated." He started. "Like if we're talking about moves that are super effective against us? Just ground attacks, nothing else. But apparently, grass-types and dragon-types can resist electric attacks. I've never had that problem though." he ended a bit smugly.

Eevee chimed in. "You forget, electric attacks don't affect ground-type Pokemon and other electric-type Pokemon can resist them too, especially if they have something like Lightning Rod or Volt Absorb."

Pikachu stuck his tongue out in distaste. "Those don't count."

"This is a bit of a problem though," Sunny spoke up. "None of us are going to be very effective in this gym. Actually, Pidgeotto is pretty fast and does a lot of dodging training with Pikachu so she might be the best here."

"Excuse me?" Pikachu sounded aghast even as Pidgeotto puffed out her chest.

"Was there any doubt?" She asked rhetorically.

"Anyway!" Ash quickly cut in before an argument could develop. "I guess we should probably do some training before we head to the gym…"

"I'm sensing a 'but' here," Pidgeotto muttered.

"…but we have been on the road and doing a lot of training for a while. I want to go to the gym and take a shot at it! At the very least get an idea of what kind of challenge it's going to be like!" Ash continued, his excitement leaking into his tone.

"I'm okay with that, I want a proper battle, it's been way too long." Pikachu agreed almost immediately.

Pidgeotto considered. "I feel as though I should be the voice of reason, but yeah, I want a battle too."

"We might not all get to battle though." Eevee pointed out to the group and paused. "Come to think of it, that would probably be me on the bench though, I haven't had a lot of experience yet and my last training session left a lot to be desired I think."

Ash winced at her words but couldn't think of anything to dispute her. They would need to do some more training soon. At the very least just so that she could have a bit more confidence in her abilities.

"As I said, we're gonna get an idea of what the gym is like and yeah probably challenge it but if it doesn't seem like we're ready then we'll come back later, does that sound like a plan?" Ash checked and got a series of nods from his teammates.

He glanced up at Misty, who had almost completely decimated her food. "What about you? Do you have any plans?"

She swallowed. "I'll follow you to the gym but I might head off after to look around the city a bit. I don't come here very often so it might be neat to look around a bit. Who knows? Maybe I'll find something to solve our food situation."

With a vague idea of the daily plan laid out, the group cleaned up and headed for the gym.

The gym once again had a unique appearance. It was primarily yellow save for the glass panels. It had a roof that was slanted to one side, and the building seemed to be separated into a larger main one and a smaller side structure. As they approached Pikachu chuckled.

"Look, the roof is made to look like a lightning bolt if you look at it straight on." He nodded his head along the trail and Ash followed his gaze. Sure enough, that seemed to be the case, it was interesting certainly, and nice that the building wasn't just owning up to the electric-type angle just by being yellow.

As they neared the doors they burst open and someone ran out. Another trainer based on the Pokeballs around their belt but they didn't even seem to notice Ash and Misty, instead, he just raced past them. When he passed they were able to see the tears on his face and hear him sniffling.

The two travelers shared a look and glanced back at the gym.

"That was slightly ominous…" Misty decided with a bit of concern touching her tone.

"Maybe it has something to do with Surge being 'tough?'" Ash remembered her earlier words.

"Maybe…" The water-type trainer allowed, and they continued into the building itself.

Lt. Surge was not exactly hard to find, they just followed the sounds of explosions and fighting to the main field of the gym. It was a large room with a dirt floor and plenty of space for maneuvering.

Inside the room, two trainers in military camouflage slacks and coats were battling with electric types. On one side was a Raichu and on the other was a Magneton. They didn't get much of a chance to watch the battle though, because as they entered a thunderous and harsh voice filled the air.

"Visquez! Dwayne! Hit the showers! It looks like I've got another challenger or two." The two trainers and their Pokemon stopped immediately and stood at attention. The two humans saluted each other and returned their Pokemon, then proceeded to jog off the field.

As the other two left through a backdoor to the field, someone entered the same way, they'd probably been watching from an observation room nearby or something.

He was a big man, tall and very muscled. His hair was spiked and he was dressed much the same way as the two who had just left. But he seemed to command more of a presence than they did, even without any identification Ash could guess this was Lt. Surge, the Gym Leader.

He sneered down at them. "New challengers already? After I sent the last one crying? Visquez and Dwayne had barely gotten back to their match and I had to call it off again! Let's hope you two have a bit more fight in you."

Ash swallowed and took a determined step forward. "I'm the challenger, Misty is just here to watch."

"Watch?" Surge snorted. "What are you his cheerleader or something?"

"I'm his friend, and isn't that what you were just doing with those two?" Misty glowered at him. Ash glanced between the two and was reminded of David and Goliath for some reason.

"They're my trainees, I was monitoring their training." Surge waved off her accusations of hypocrisy. "If you're sure you want to watch Raichu and the rest of my troops beat the stuffing out of your 'friend' here, be my guest."

The leader turned his attention back to Ash and surveyed him, he'd barely looked for a few seconds before snorting. "Oh, what is this? Are you serious? Come on now, are you a trainer or a taxi service?"

The disguised Zorua frowned and resisted the urge to bite back scathingly. "I'm here for a challenge, are we going to fight or not?"

Surge's frown curled upwards at that. "Well, well, maybe you do have a bit of spine in you after all. But still, a Pikachu? Raichu will crush that mouse of yours! Not to mention the others, why don't you go and evolve them and then come back, your babies will be crushed otherwise."

Ash crossed his arms. "Pikachu is great the way he is! Pidgeotto is plenty strong too and so are Selene, Sunny, and Eevee!"

"Maybe not me?" Eevee pointed out from his head.

"Eevee please just let him defend us from the big mean buff man." Sunny pleaded.

"Want to put that to the test?" Surge asked with a smirk. "How about this? Your little baby mouse versus Raichu!" He sent out said Raichu. The fully evolved electric type was bigger than average, or at least he looked that way to Ash. "One-on-one, if you win you get the badge, when I win you go and get your runts evolved before trying a challenge here."

"Yes!" Pikachu immediately declared bracing himself to leap down before Pidgeotto shoved her wing across Ash's face and in front of the other Pokemon.

"Oh no, you don't! You are not taking this whole gym battle for yourself!" She declared, glaring at him.

Ash dropped Selene who landed gracefully on the ground, then pushed the feathery limb out of his face and placed a hand on Pikachu's side to both calm him and hold him in place.

"That's not how this works." He protested. "I'm not going to do a gym battle with only one of my Pokemon, that's not fair to the others who want to fight."

"'Not fair!'" Surge mocked. "Fine, be that way, I'll crush your team instead of just one, do you even have any badges?"

"Two." Ash confirmed with a little bit of pride.

"Two whole badges! What? Did you scrub the floors extra hard in Cerulean?" The military man suggested coyly.

The Zorua could hear Misty's teeth grinding next to him, so he decided to just try and move things along quickly.

"I've got two badges and five Pokemon, what are the rules?" He insisted.

"Three versus three, no substitutions, a Pokemon battles until they are knocked out." Surge explained firmly. "In the unlikely event of a draw, the challenger loses by default and does not receive the badge."

Ash barely kept himself from repeating 'that's not fair' and simply nodded and went to the position challengers square near where he had entered.

Misty followed along beside him and Selene bounced along behind. "What a massive jerk. If you don't beat him then I will! I don't care if I'm not taking the gym challenge."

"Didn't I beat you?" Ash pointed out with a bit of confusion, wondering how Misty would take on Lt. Surge in his place.

"Oh shut up." She said and stood by the wall as Ash turned to face his opponent. He now had Raichu standing by his side but it didn't look like he was going to send him out.

"Choose your first Pokemon." Surge called to him. "I've got mine and we send them out at the same time." He tossed a Pokeball idly in his palm as he spoke.

Ash considered for a few moments. "Sunny, do you want to give it a shot?" He hadn't seen Sunny in a proper battle beyond training so this might be a good opportunity.

"Me?" The fire-type asked in surprise but nodded. "Sure! I'll do my best!"

"That's all I ask," Ash confirmed and gave him a little pat on the head. "We're ready."

"Three!" The leader started the countdown and wound up to throw his Pokeball. "Two! One!"

As soon as the last syllable left his mouth the muscle man's arm shot forward like a canon blast. "Go, Electabuzz!"

"You can do it Sunny!" Ash announced as the Charmander took the field against the bigger electric-type.

Electabuzz snorted as he faced his opponent. "Is this a joke? You're tiny!"

Sunny held his head high. "You know what they say! The bigger they are, the harder they fall!"

Electbuzz both cackled with laughter and crackled with electricity. "You're not big at all, does that mean you'll go down easy?"

"Enough slander Electabuzz! Crush him into the dirt with Thunder Punch!" The gym leader ordered his Pokemon.

Electabuzz drew back his fist and it blazed with yellow electric light.

Ash wasted no time shouting his own orders, "Sunny get back and use Ember! Try and keep him at range!"

The little fire-type jumped backward and spat out a flurry of fire and hit Electabuzz dead on. The Pokemon hissed in pain but propelled himself forwards toward Sunny in an effort to follow through on his attack.

With a little bit of luck, Sunny managed to roll to the side of Electabuzz's attack and the fist impacted the dirt, leaving a fist-shaped hole.

"Ember again!" Ash called as the electric type righted himself.

"Thunder Wave Electabuzz, keep him in place." Surge sounded almost bored.

The Ember hit Electabuzz once more but even as Sunny tried to move back to avoid the effects of Thunder Wave he was too slow and got caught up in it.

The lizard Pokemon went rigid as sparks surrounded him for a moment they disappeared but the status effect was still there, waiting to strike at an inopportune moment. "Ugh, this feels weird!" He complained.

His trainer winced, this was hardly an ideal situation, moving wasn't the best idea since he could freeze up at any moment, but attacking left the same problem. Unfortunately thanks to the rules he couldn't just switch out either.

Time to do something either really smart or really dumb.

"Sunny, get ready to use Skull Bash."

"Better than nothing." The fire-type agreed and lowered his head, bracing himself.

Across the field, Surge snorted. "Oh, this is just pathetic. Electabuzz, Focus Punch, show him why he shouldn't use his head."

Electabuzz closed his eyes and once more drew back, his fist, more slowly and gracefully this time.

As he did so, Sunny finished his preparation and propelled himself forwards, ready to crash into the electric Pokemon fully force, only for disaster to strike.

Ash's gamble on Skull Bash failed to pay as the Paralysis of Thunder Wave caused Sunny to go rigid midair and crash to the ground just as Electabuzz moved forwards with his own attack.

The young trainer wanted to look away as the fist crashed into Sunny and sent him hurling across the field. It was the first time Sunny had taken a damaging attack this match but it was a devastating one.

"Sunny are you okay?" Ash called to his teammate who struggled to stand.

"Not really." He answered. "Any ideas?"

He had some distance on Electabuzz now so this was the best chance they would be getting to law down some suppressing fire. "Embers! As much as you can!"

The fire type didn't need to be told twice and began firing off the attack in rapid succession. Electabuzz held his arms up to shield himself from the attacks but he'd taken several hits already and the continuous barrage was not helping things.

"Power through Electabuzz! Blast that Charmander with Thunderbolt and wrap this up!" Surge ordered.

Despite or perhaps because of this command Electabuzz started moving to the side, forcing Sunny to turn to maintain a direct attack. As he did though, he once again froze up as another wave of Paralysis hit him.

Seeing his opportunity Electabuzz blazed with light and unleashed the requested Thunderbolt! It rose out of him in a blaze of golden aura and arced across the field.

Ash knew it was probably pointless but he called to Sunny to dodge it anyway, in the hope he could somehow avoid the attack.

It was not to be however as the attack made contact the Charmander cried out in pain before collapsing as the glow faded.

"That's one down, who do we get to crush next?" Surge mockingly asked, Electabuzz swung his arms in front of him, still eager to fight.

Ash returned Sunny to his Pokeball and considered his options.

Pidgeotto had the most experience dodging electric attacks, but she also didn't have anything effective to use in this fight and there was the flying-type weakness to consider as well. After a bit of deliberation, he decided.

"Selene, you're up, finish that Electabuzz off." He'd make it up to Pidgeotto later.

"To battle!" She agreed and jumped forward, landing in the field and doing a little bow. "Hello, there jerk! I'll be your defeat today!"

Electabuzz snorted. "Yeah right."

There was no time to waste, "Selene use Disarming Voice!" Ash directed.

Selene opened up her mouth and the soundwaves strove forwards crashing into Electabuzz and knocking him off his feet. Despite this, he still pulled himself up and charged at Selene as Surge gave another order.

"Thunder Punch again! I want to see that fairy bounce!"

"Defense Curl and then Pound!" Was Ash's response. It meant tanking an attack but he was sure she could handle it.

Selene curled up and flashed as the Defense Curl took effect, just in time for the Thunder Punch to hit her. She didn't budge an inch though and while it surely hurt, it didn't stop her from uncurling and shoving her forearms into Electabuzz's face while he was still bent down.

The attack sent him crashing back to the floor, and the myriad of attacks he'd been hit with were taking their toll on him now as he struggled to right himself.

Neither Ash nor Selene were feeling particularly merciful right now though and he called for her to use Pound again.

This time the attack was on this striped Pokemon's torso and sent him further imprinting into the dust. He did not try to get up again after that.

Surge scowled. "So two of your babies can beat one of my soldiers, I hope you're not too impressed with yourself. Electrode, your turn!"

The next Pokemon sent out resembled the Pokeball he'd been contained in, just with inverted colors and a face. The sphere Pokemon rolled around on its axis for a moment, observing Selene before its grin became menacing.

"Use Rollout and Spark! Make them regret ever hoping for victory!" the Lieutenant commanded.

The new combatant rushed forward in a roll, beginning to spark with electricity as he did so. Ash would be impressed with the combination of moves if he weren't busy wracking his brain for how to get Selene out of this situation.

"To the side! Defense Curl again!" he decided and Selene rolled herself out of the way of the speeding Electrode and flashed with Defense Curl once more. Thankfully she avoided a direct hit and her opponent came to a stop on the other side of the field.

"Let's see if we can get some good luck!" Ash decided, "Metronome!"

The Fairy Pokemon began rocking back and forth, waving her fingers as she did so. Surge growled in response to this.

"Relying on luck is a poor tactic! Get in there and knock her out of it Electrode!" He ordered his Pokemon who launched forwards in another Rollout.

As he approached Selene finished her chant and stars appeared around her. The dazzling lights then surged forwards and began crashing into Electrode, knocking him off course.

After the first one hit and sent him to the side, the rest continued to follow him and bounce him around the battlefield like it was a game of pinball.

"I think that's Swift." Eevee supplied as they watched the aftermath of the move. "It's a homing attack, it doesn't miss."

That was useful, Ash thought to himself. "Alright, use Disarming Voice again! Don't give him a chance to recover!"

"Block it out Electrode and use Thundershock!"

The two attacks were unleashed but by their nature managed to bypass each other. The electric lancing through the center of the soundwaves as they crashed into their respective targets, making both flinch in pain.

As they recovered, Surge scowled. "Electrode get in close! This Clefairy is getting on my nerves and I want her out of this battle."

"Use Pound to knock him away and follow up with Disarming Voice! You've got this!" Ash was confident.

Whatever he had been expecting though, was certainly not what happened.

As Electrode got close to Selene and she raised her arms to use Pound, Surge ordered his next move.

"Self-Destruct!"

Electrode exploded in a flash of light and a noise like thunder. Ash had to shield his eyes from the light. The room shook in the aftermath and his mind whirled around the thought that a Pokemon had literally blown itself up to win the battle.

When the aftershocks faded and he was able to look back, he saw an unmoving Electrode at the center of a small crater. Slumped against the wall at the edge of the gym was Selene, in a similar state and looking much worse for the wear than she had a few seconds ago.

"And then there were two," the local gym leader said, sounding shockingly calm for what just happened. He returned Electrode with ease and grinned at Ash.

"You just told your Pokemon to blow itself up!" Ash's voice was higher pitched than he would have liked as he returned Selene, hoping it looked worse than it was.

"My Pokemon do what it takes to win, Electrode was beaten, if it was going to lose though, it was going to take your Pokemon down with it." Surge was unapologetic. "Now choose your final Pokemon, I'll even be nice and let you know I'm sending Raichu in, aren't I a swell guy?"

"You're really not," Ash muttered under his breath and took stock of who he had left. Pidgeotto, Pikachu, and Eevee.

Eevee was out from the start; she just wasn't ready to handle this kind of battle yet. Of Pidgeotto and Pikachu though, the decision became tougher but he knew who it had to be.

"Pikachu you're up, show that Raichu who's the best electric-type here." He told his friend and Pidgeotto scowled.

"Why not me?" She asked as Pikachu took the field.

Ash lowered his voice to respond. "You can dodge the attacks but you don't have any move to finish the fight, and he only needs to get one or two good shots in to take you out of the fight. Pikachu can take the attacks and while he's not as fast normally as you he can use Quick Attack more."

The flying type sniffed disdainfully. "That makes sense, I still don't like it."

"I'll find a way to make it up to you," he promised her as the two electric types on the field faced each other down.

"I don't remember calling a pause, let's keep going!" Surge roared with vigor. "Raichu show that tiny runt why you're the top of the line!"

"With pleasure!" Raichu smirked down at Pikachu who glared at his final evolution counterpart.

"Don't expect me to beat me." Pikachu huffed at him.

"I don't expect to, I plan to," Raichu announced and lashed his tail forwards, it glowed and flashed metallic with the telltale sign of Iron Tail.

"Quick Attack Pikachu! You're faster than him! Keep him guessing!" Ash called to his partner who began moving before he finished speaking.

Raichu's Iron Tail missed but he didn't even finish turning to face Pikachu as his trainer called out his next move.

"Discharge! Let's see him try and dodge that." Surge directed and the pulse of electricity surged across the field.

Pikachu saw it coming and braced to leap but was an instant too slow and got caught in the attack. It didn't deal much damage but it was still a blow nonetheless.

"Don't let up Raichu!" Surge ordered a repeat showing and Raichu was happy to oblige him.

"Pikachu! Over the attack and hit him! Like with Onix!" Ash called his own plan and Pikachu followed through quickly. He took to the air, once again achieving record heights, and came spinning down at an unsuspecting Raichu with an Iron Tail to the skull.

The larger electric mouse growled in pain and lurched backward and Pikachu landed on his feet.

"Let him have it Pikachu! Use Quick Attack directly!"

Pikachu blurred with speed and slammed head-first into Raichu knocking him back, but not over. In fact, despite the damage, Raichu stood his ground and leaned his upper half back as Pikachu finished his attack and then crashed forwards onto Pikachu.

The Slam attack crushed Pikachu into the ground, making the smaller Pokemon gasp with pain.

"Iron Tail and then Thunder Bolt," the gym leader ordered his Pokemon.

The Iron Tail sent Pikachu crashing away from Raichu and the electric attack followed close behind, catching the recovering Pikachu. Ash clenched his fist in frustration but as the dust settled Pikachu pulled himself up and stood strong.

"Is that all you got?" He asked.

Raichu grew a scowl that mirrored his trainer's. Ash took the moment to call for Pikachu to use his electric attack.

"Pikachu! Thunder Bolt let's go!"

The familiar glow surrounded his friend but Surge had his response.

"Another Thunder Bolt Raichu!" he directed. "Show him who's stronger here!"

The two identical attacks met in midair and struggled against each other for a few moments. For a second it looked like Raichu's attack was about to overpower Pikachu's but the smaller Pokemon wasn't calling it quits and pushed out more electricity. The two attacks seemed to flex against each other and gave one final push before flashing and dying out as both Pokemon ran out of energy to pump into them.

Surge seemed impressed by this. "What do you know! Your tiny rat has a lot of juice in him! Even more reason for him to evolve! Just imagine how much stronger he'd be as a Raichu!"

"In, *huff* your *huff* dreams." Pikachu got out as he panted.

Raichu seemed to be in slightly better shape and glanced toward Surge. "I'll need to charge up for another decent electric attack, can we just finish this?"

Ash watched as Surge inspected that battlefield. He probably didn't understand Raichu but he could probably tell who was in better shape. "Raichu Quick Attack and Slam, let's finish this up."

Ash turned to his friend with worry. "Can you dodge it? Quick Attack or regular! Anything!"

"I can try!" Pikachu ground out and started moving, it was faster than some people could run but still a snail's pace to Pikachu's regular speed.

It wasn't enough and the Quick Attack crashed into the smaller Pokemon with painful speed and then he was shoved into the ground with Slam.

As Pikachu lay there clearly knocked out, Ash felt a cold and unhappy feeling well up in his chest as it dawned on him what this meant.

They had lost.

I did it! A chapter at long last!

*laughs in slight derangement*

So why did this take so long? A couple of reasons!

I wanted to take a break after the last chapter and so I did. I thought about updating or posting something else but I didn't get anything finished and decided to take the week off. The next week I got sick and felt too miserable to do anything really so that got skipped too.

After that little things just kept adding up and then it was July. Oops.

I did try writing a few things, I have a couple of other projects in the works but I've been struggling to get anything actually finished. But we're here now so there's that.

Also I'm going to try avoiding 10k+ weekly chapters, that was burning me out just a little too much.

There have been a lot of reviews since last time (mostly because of how long it's been) so let's get started!

Paul: I'm quite happy with how Ash and Delia's relationship turned out and I'm glad you appreciate the Elder Scrolls reference. Yeah AJ was… interesting to think about the ramifications of his actions and thanks for your two cents on the matter. As for people swooning over that one character, she was pretty and depending on the media that is good enough grounds for all wrongdoing to be excused! For some reason!

Phaleon: I do like to drop in references here and there!

PokeDan: Not quite next week from last time but I'm glad you liked the chapter!

Ultima-owner: good question! But he might not have been in the area for parts of it.

Lex Legis: Why?

Jonathan-Mandrake: I sent you a PM with the link but I don't think you joined unless it was a different name? I'm putting a new link at the end of this chapter anyway if you're still interested.

LEGOBRICK13: Ash's ability to talk to Pokemon certainly smooths over some conflicts along the way. As for which way Eevee is going to evolve, just gotta wait and see!

Pikachumaster18: Squirtle joined Misty for a few reasons, I wanted to give her some more Pokemon as Ash is starting to build up quite a team. I also wanted to include Squirtle and solve the Squirtle Squad problem. As for Eevee, that is simple. I like Eevee.

Nightfiredragon: Maybe someday, they don't have too much bearing on the story apart from being an inciting incident though. Damian's suffering is beautiful every time, all of the time. Yes Ash has an Eevee now.

Branng66: I don't know? Do you? How? She had one singular line of dialogue!

Lupercus1944: I have a window, you know. Team Rocket has the unfortunate curse of bad guys who are better at being good guys than they are willing to admit. Squirtle and Misty didn't have much time at all this chapter but next chapter we'll see them some more. Sunny has a lot of character development in the works. Ash's motivation was something that caught me up while writing the previous chapters and I'm glad I've found something to push him forwards! I'd not heard of "The Fog Horn" before but it sounds interesting. Eevee has a lot of potential, just by being Eevee, she's new to this but she'll learn quickly!

FlyTrapGuy: Yeah sometimes I drop off the face of the Earth, sorry about that. I have a condition.

Cyberhawk: There are other stories so maybe not rare, uncommon definitely.

Verdauga: No, his name is Ash not John.

Fanatile8gmail: Sequel? I'm not even done with this one yet!

B0bbles: I'm glad you think I'm doing it well!

FosterFarms: Kanto is a bit overdone I admit. I remember when the Let's Go games were announced my friends had a joke where any time we mentioned something about another reason someone would say "But what about Kanto!" I'm glad you think it's charming though!

Cyde: Honestly the message can get a bit muddled if you look too closely. I like the idea of Pokemon as friends and partners so I feel the need to bring up and address the times when they're not treated as such. There are numerous examples in the show and games and I feel bringing up the fact that Pokemon are sapient beings is important. Also Selene is way too nice to steal someone's lunch money. She'd beat them to a pulp and then share her lunch with them!

ADB-Fantasy: One of the reasons I did this is I wanted a Zorua!Ash story where he is very clearly a Pokemon and its part of who he is, rather than just a coat of paint. I'm glad you like his and Pikachu's dynamic. I worked hard on it.

KvAT: Your hopes are fulfilled with this update!

Drwx: You my good fellow have very good timing, I'm glad you like the story so much!

Woo! Like I said lot's of reviews. I'm going to try and get another chapter out this next weekend but it's a busy one for me so we'll see.

Here is an updated discord link that should be permanent.

Discord:

Until next time everyone!

~FriTik

R&R