The battle started with Gyarados vs Ceruledge, but it was less of a match since neither Ash nor Gyarados looked to be taking this too seriously, in fact, Gyarados was still in base.

"Gyarados use [Dragon Tail],"

"Ceruledge block it!"

Gyarados brought his tail down as it started glowing purple, so Ceruledge raised its 2 blades up blocking the attack but still feeling the pressure from it.

"Gyarados now [Aqua tail]!"

Amethio swiped his hand, "Now [Phantom Force]!"

Gyarados made a horizontal swipe as his tail glowed Blue and approached Ceruledge, Ceruledge went into a portal diapering and quickly reappeared above Gyarados avoiding the attack and then sending a swipe to his head.

The attack landed making Gyarados' head tilt but he still smiled as he quickly twisted his head around and bit down on Ceruledge and started using [Crunch].

As Amethio looked on he commanded, "Ceruledge try to get out!"

Ash smiled and yelled out, "Oh no you don't, Spit it out and slam it down with [Waterfall]!"

Ceruledge began trying to stab Gyarados' mouth and face in hopes of breaking free, but instead, Gyarados threw it into the air and then with his tail he spun around in a vertical motion catching Ceruledge and slamming him into the ground and creating a water geyser directly on it.

The force slightly shook the ship but overall everything was fine, then Ceruledge went into another portal and appeared next to Amethio's side.

Amethio was clenching his teeth, and what made him do it, even more, was the fact that Ash didn't even really look like he was trying, "Ceruledge [Psycho Cut]!"

Ceruledge's blades extended and glowed purple as it slashed across the air creating a slash in the air and flying towards Gyarados.

As it came Gyarados raised his tail and slapped the slash, sending it flying away, into the barrier wall, causing more shaking and the barriers to begin to flicker. And an explosion was heard inside the deck.

Friede yelled out from the side, "Hey you 2, I said not too hard unless you want these shields to go down stop hitting them!"

Ash looked at everything and sighed, "I really hoped you'd make me get serious, but I guess it's just disappointing, but I'm sure you hear that a lot,"

Amethio frowned at Ash's comments, but Ash continued, "So it seems like your a danger to everyone here including yourself, so I guess I need to end this now,"

Then Ash held out the Keystone making Amethio's eyes flicker again, "So you want me to get series alright have a taste of this, Gyarados Me-"

"WAIT STOP!" Liko screamed out as she started walking forward to the center of the field.

"I-I" Liko said hugging onto Sprigatito tighter, "Just don't want anyone getting hurt because of me,"

As she faced everyone she pet Sprigatito, "I'm sure Sprigatito feels the same an- wha" Sprigatito jumped out of Liko's hands making her fall over.

Sprigatito turned to face her and started scolding Liko, "Meow, maw, maw!"

Liko saw what Sprigatito was saying, "Y-your right, I've been lying to myself and you know it…" Liko said as she could feel tears welling up in her eyes.

Sprigatito then jumped and growled at Amethio and Ceruledge who were walking up, Liko took a breath and jumped up behind Sprigatito.

"No more running!" Liko said as she took the deepest breath she could and shouted out, "Use [Leafage]!"

Sprigatito raised her little body as the leaves around its neck started glowing and Sprigatito shot not a few leaves but an entire beam of leaves that went directly towards Amethio and Ceruledge.

Amethio had a look of panic across his face as Ceruledge took the strength it had left and jumped in front of Amethio.

The [Leafage] started but it didn't stop, what should have been a couple of leaves became an entire cyclone of countless leaves that filled the entire stadium and spun around starting to crack the barrier.

Ash Liko and Sprigatito were cheering everyone else watching and a part of this was looking at the glowing leaves filling the stadium Ash included as he finally took the time to look at Sprigatito.

—

[Sprigatito(F)]

[Nature: Quirky]

[Moves: Leafage(Mastered)]

—

Ash looked at the dex then at the weed cat, 'The heck kind of plot armor BS is this!'

As the Leaves kept coming it caused the barrier to finally shatter causing them to be blown away in the wind, but that also meant that everyone else was too.

Everyone grabbed something to hold on as the Explorer fell off, but Liko and Sprigatito fell over and while sliding across the floor Friede managed to grab Liko but missed Sprigatito as she fell off as well.

Amethio took that as an opportunity and threw out his Corviknight as it caught Sprigatito and returned Ceruledge before jumping on and flying down to catch up to his falling companions.

"Sprigatito!" Liko yelled out as Friede held on to her and the ship started to adjust.

But then Ash dropped Pikachu down and started running forward as Gyarados flew next to him letting Ash hop on, the last thing they heard was Ash yell out, "Don't worry about It I got this one! Gyarados Me-"

As they watched Ash jump off the ship they saw a bright light but they didn't see where it came from.

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–

Amethio was holding onto Sprigatito as he finally caught up to his teammates who were falling, "What's the matter with you, bring out your Skarmory!"

"We can't sir!" Onia yelled

"Why not!" Amethio demanded.

Then from the side, a voice was heard, "Because I already took care of them,"

As Amethio looked back he didn't just see Ash, but they were both standing on top of his Corviknight and just smiled at him.

"You," Amethio said clenching his fist and swinging it at Ash, "You ruined everything,"

Ash caught his fist easily, "No you did that to yourself,"

Amethio clenched his teeth, "Do you even know what you did!"

"I missed the part where that's my problem," Ash said as he pulled down Amethios fist and delivered a gut punch knocking the air out of him and making Amethio let go of Sprigatito.

Sprigatito immediately jumped over to Ash's shoulder as he said one last thing, "Do you want to know a secret, you losers haven't even seen a fraction of what I can do," then Ash let go and jumped off getting caught by a red blur.

As Amethios looked up to find Ash he saw him standing on not just Gyarados, but Mega Gyarados looking down at him as they kept flying.

Ash gave a smile, "Now you have 2 choices, you can fight me and try to salvage your ego, or you can go save your grunts, your choice really but the ground is getting pretty close,"

Amethios clenched his teeth as he looked up at Ash and saw that he probably couldn't win, so with a tongue click he looked at Ash, "This isn't over, you haven't seen the last of us!" and he flew down to save his teammates.

Ash shook his head, "Bland and unoriginal villain speech, 3 points,"

Sprigatito looked at him and he shrugged, "You'd be surprised how many I see,"

—

Liko was sitting there holding onto Pikachu tightly as she was worried. People from the ship started walking over to see what happened and Friede was explaining the situation.

From it, only 1 new person was there, a girl with orange accents on her hair that Liko could only assume was Orla, the one Mollie talked on the phone with.

As Mollie walked over and crouched down to try and comfort Liko, suddenly from the side a red blur sped up and slammed right through the reset barrier, a large red leviathan with a more prominent fin looked down at them.

Everyone looked at this big monster and they prepared their Pokeballs in case this thing wanted a battle, when suddenly they saw the top of its head there was the familiar sight of a boy in a red hat and jacket, with Sprigatito on his shoulder.

"Hey, you guys miss me!" Ash said as he jumped down and immediately Sprigatito jumped off his shoulder and back into Liko's arms.

Liko was hugging Sprigatito tightly as everyone started approaching him, Friede in particular looked at Gyarados mumbling to himself, 'So this is Mega evolution,'

Gyarados then untransformed back to base as Ash held out his Pokeball, "Good work for tonight," and returned him to the Pokeball.

Ash then looked at everyone and as Pikachu jumped on his shoulder he greeted everyone the way he does best, "Yo!"

(A few minutes later)

Everyone was sitting in the kitchen as Ash basically explained the Gist of their questions, of course leaving some stuff out that he didn't want to answer. So in the end they decided to talk more in the morning since it was past midnight.

Ash and Liko were given temporary rooms on the ship to sleep in. And Pikachu and Captain Pikachu met with each other to finally set the score.

This was it the interaction between the strongest Pikachu of history and the strongest Pikachu of today

And they walked up to each other ready for anything, and began rubbing their eclectic pouches together, they got along.

—

During the later times of the night, Mollie was walking over to the medical room to check up on all the supplies, but as she did she noticed that the lights were on in the room.

She walked in looking defensive but when she looked inside she saw Ash treating Gyarados and other injured Pokemon she didn't get to.

Ash looked over at her, "Oh, hey, sorry I had to give Gyarados some first aid and the little ones wanted some too,"

Mollie blinked seeing Ash's work, "Well it's fine but did you really do all this?"

"I mean yeah I do technically have a medical degree in Pokemon and Human medicine, "Ash said as he thought 'or I should'

Mollie blinked, she was used to doing everything in this station, and having someone else do it felt weird, "Err, ok, can you tell me what supplies you used or any medicine so I can mark it down?"

"Oh don't worry about that, I use my own stuff and I make all my own medicine," Ash said

Mollie looked at him for a moment, "Ehh…"

–

After Ash finished he walked over to the kitchen to grab some water and go to bed, Mollie seemed really surprised though.

When he looked inside he saw an old man who had a beard similar to a Drampa, he noticed Ash and gave a nod as it looked like he was holding a tray of different baked goods.

The man who was named Ludlow walked up to Ash and held out the tray, "Would you mind helping an old man like me out,"

Ash blinked for a second checking to see if his eyes were being dumb and when he made sure this was real he took the tray, "Sure, where do you want me to take this?"

"It's a room to the far right, just knock on the door and d… well you'll see," Ludlow said, smiling under his beard and walking out.

Ash sighed at what he was doing now but went ahead and did it, as he made his way to the door he was told to go to he could hear a commotion inside so he knocked on the metallic door.

After a moment of scuffling the door opened and outside came someone in a big blue costume, "Hey Ludlow, I told y-" Then the big suit stopped releasing Ash was standing there just watching this.

The figure quickly grabbed Ash and tugged him inside and closed the door making sure no one else was around.

After a moment the big costume turned out to have a girl inside with purple hair that made her look like the Overcast Form of Cherrim, in the side of the room there was a Quaxly and the entire room looked like a streaming setup.

The girl was sitting across from Ash looking at him, "S-so you found my secret, I-I didn't even know more people were on the ship."

The girl took a breath and looked at Ash, "Yes, it is true, I am Nidothing!"

"... Who?" Ash asked, making the girl almost fall over.

After some introductions, the girl was named Dot, which was another character since Ash didn't see her in the first poster promoting the new series but since she had a Quaxly the 3rd of the Paldean trio, that meant she was supposed to be important.

Eventually, after Dot asked Ash not to reveal her identity to anyone and he agreed cuz he still has no idea what Nidothing was.

Then it ended up, with them making some small talk and Dot made some questions about how Ash was supposedly a professional trainer and would be in this year's Indigo League and stuff about that.

After what was probably too much time Ash finally said farewell to Dot and went to his room to sleep, completely forgetting that he wanted some water in the first place.

—

In the morning, Murdock walked over to the kitchen early like he always does to prepare breakfast, alone since he is the only one who cooks, but today as he cleared his groggy eyes he smelled something good coming from the kitchen.

He walked in only to see Ash there cooking, "Oh sorry, I usually wake up early to cook for everyone so I borrowed the kitchen I just started,"

Murdock blinked for a moment, "Err no it's fine, it'll be nice to have someone to have an extra pair of hands, what are you making right now," Murdock asked as he put on an apron.

"Well I just made a bunch of Pokeblocks for the Pokemon," Ash said pointing to the table with cues of colorful blocks and some Pokemon already eating them happily.

"Well that's surprising, I've never really made Pokeblocks before, but I've been meaning to learn,"

"It's easy I can teach you, but first what are you gonna make for breakfast?" Ash said as he raised his sleeves to help out.

—

{Later}

Liko walked out of her room looking tired as she walked to the Kitchen meeting up with Orla on the way, "Oh hey, how did you sleep,"

"O-oh, hey, I'm fine, I guess I finally realized that you people aren't the bad guys," Liko said with her cat walking next to her

Orla chuckled, "Did you think we were the bad guys or something?"

"N-no, it's just well, your friend Friede was it, he just kinda took me without explaining anything," Liko said.

Orla shook her head, "Classic Friede, sorry about that,"

"No it's fine, I just wanted to ask, do you… think I can stay with you all for a while longer?"

"Well, it's fine by me but Friede and Cap have the final say, so let's ask them," Orla said smiling.

"R-right, yeah I can tell you all good people," Liko mumbled as they opened the door to the Kitchen and there they saw Mollie, Murdock, and Friede holding Ash down as they tied him to a chair.

"Oh hey Orla, good news we're going to keep this one!" Friede said happily as Pikachu and Captan Pikachu stood in the corner watching this.

"Wha- what's wrong with you guys why are you trying to kidnap someone else, expect this from you Friede but Mollie and Murdock!"

"The kid has a medical degree, I want more sleep instead of staying up treating everyone," Mollie said

Murdock cut in, "And he can cook, no one here ever helps me with the cooking!"

Friede looked over, "Cap just likes him, and he's fun,"

Orla rubbed her head as she saw Ludlow fishing, "Hey Ludlow can't you say something to them!"

Ludlow turned and after a moment said, "He's a good kid,"

Friede smiled, "See even Ludlow likes him,"

Orla rubbed her head, "Seriously what is wrong with you guys, this is a new low," She said as she walked over to Ash.

"Come on, I'm sure he even has something related to what you do," Friede said

"I doubt it unless he is a licensed mechanic," she said as she ripped the tape from his mouth.

Ash closed his mouth from the pain of getting tape ripped off of him, but then he looked up, "No I don't know anything about repairing stuff, but I do know a good amount about thermal power,"

"... We're keeping him," Orla said as she slowly put the tape back on his mouth.

Liko was watching from the outside wondering if she made the right choice.

—-

After a while, Ash was let out, and he was sitting on the rails as everyone was talking, "So you're sure you don't want to join us?" Friede asked

"Nah, I have my own stuff going on, like the League I have to go do that, but maybe I'll come around sometime," Ash said as Abra appeared on his shoulder eating a Pokeblock, "After all as long as you're not to far away I can find you,"

Friede sighed, "Well I guess there's nothing that can be done about it then, but if you ever want to you'll always be an honorary member of the Rising Volt Tacklers,"

Then he looked at Liko, "And how about you, Orla told me you wanted to join us?"

Liko took a breath and nodded, "Y-yes, I don't know what happened with anything but, I want to know, so if you don't mind I'd like to stay,"

Friede smiled as Cap nodded, "Alright then welcome to the Rising Volt Tacklers!"

As Liko smiled and finally got a good look at everyone, they all looked at Ash who was still here sitting on the railing.

Friede asked, "So you want us to turn around so we can drop you off?"

"Nah, don't worry about it," Ash said as he took off his hat and threw it into the air falling off backward from the railing, Pikachu sighed as he also ran forward, caught the hat, and fell after Ash.

After the initial shock wore off they all ran over to look over the edge only to be caught off guard when a random Charizard flew up holding them on his back.

Ash held Pikachu and Abra on his shoulders and he put his 2 front fingers on his head, "Let's stay in touch, oh and also I already put my number in all your phones Byeeee," Ash said as he teleported out.

They all looked surprised as they pulled out their phones and looked at it and indeed there was Ash's contact info.

Friede shrugged and looked at everyone, "Well he may be gone but we aren't, we still have work to do, so get to your stations, everyone!"