Ash was blankly staring into Pikachu which lasted about 5 seconds so much so that the group in the top was starting to ask questions.

"What is Ash doing?" Green asked.

"I was going to ask you and Yellow that, you two grew up with him, has he ever done this before," Misty asked.

"No, the only time that Ash stops is to think," Yellow answered.

Then Green continued, "But right now it looks like he is trying not to cry. I wonder what Pikachu did to make him crash."

Meanwhile

'cccccckkkkkkk' Ash finally finished thinking in his head before he gave himself a slap to focus.

'Ok Pikachu let his pride get ahead of him, if he loses then my plans go out the window, if I refuse he will misunderstand why, so I have no choice. Well normally I would have almost no chance of winning but with spikes and toxic spikes, I have a chance. Another thing is that Raichu probably has Lightning rod, however, Lightning rod is not perfect. If enough electricity is put into the Pokemon then it basically explodes from the inside, but that will also apply to Pikachu.'

"Hey Kid, are you going to bring out your next Pokemon or are you going to stand there and cry," Surge mocked as Raichu also said something that made Pikachu even more mad.

"Right," Ash said before looking at Pikachu, "You really want to do this,"

"Pika" Pikachu said with a nod and electricity in his cheeks.

Ash sighed before putting up a smile, "Alright then go but you better not lose,"

Pikachu ran forward and Surge gave a hardy laugh, "Well it seems like you're running dry on Pokemon if you're using that baby Pokemon, well don't worry I will still let you keep the handicap you gave me." Surge said as he put Raichu in the ball and threw him out letting him get poisoned, he was that cocky.

"Alright, then Raichu let's get rid of this Pipsqueak, Dash in and Mega Punch," Surge commanded as Raichu ran forward and pulled his hips back as the orb on his chest glowed.

"Pikachu dodge then Agility," Pikachu jumped back and started vibrating, gaining the speed advantage.

"Now Electro Ball, on the ground," Pikachu used the previous momentum to push himself up and through an electric ball that was also boosted by the Terrain, leaving behind a giant dust cloud hiding Pikachu.

"What?" Surge called out in surprise as the Life orb took its toll and the poison started seeping in, "Cheap tricks will get you nowhere Raichu, Swift."

Swift is an interesting move that ignores any changes and always hits its target, however, he doesn't know where his target is if, "Double team and use 'that',"

Suddenly dozens of Pika clones jumped out of the mist and each star from the swift started dispelling a good few of them, but Surge couldn't just keep using Swift The tax from the life orb would eventually catch up to him.

"Raichu change of plans Use Scatter-bolt(Charge+Thunderbolt+Discharge)," Raichu picked himself up and started charging and collecting as much electricity from the environment, almost like a minigun started rapidly firing small thunderbolts in all directions hitting more and more of the clones in hopes of finding the real one to finish the battle in one hit.

All the Clones got hit, not before the poison and life orb tax hit, but Pikachu was nowhere to be seen, "What where did that-" Surge noticed the smoke clearing and a hole was left.

Pikachu learned Dig for this one moment, and it is never going to be used again. Probably, now you may ask how Pikachu learn Dig, by digging of course what you think he did, dance in a volcano.

Anyway Surge was about to call out to Raichu, but it was too late as Pikachu climbed out from behind and slammed into Raichu.

"Alright Pikachu let's finish this, I hear he likes rapid fire, let's see how he likes it, Iron tail on the ground and shoot style stealth barrage (Iron tail+Stealth rock)."

Pikachu immediately slammed the ground causing the previous stealth rocks to fly up and Pikachu started hitting as many as he could, shooting them at Raichu like a semi-auto machine gun. Each dealt heavy damage until Richu was flung back and rendered unable to battle.

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The lead was silent as the previous electric terrain was put down and Surge returned Raichu, Once he did he looked at it and started laughing, "Hahaahahah, I haven't had that much fun in a battle in so long, not too mention you won on your first try, hahaha, I haven't lost like this since those two monsters."

In the stands everyone was still processing what was going on before Yellow got up, "Congratulations Ash You Won!" Shortly followed by everyone else.

Surge walked forward and put a hand on Ash's shoulder, "I gotta say I like you kid, and that Pikachu of yours isn't half bad either, if you don't mind I have an offer for you," Surge said.

Ash raised his eyebrow, "Really well I am listening,"

Surge looked at the female assistant and signaled for something with his head, "That's the spirit I like to see, well I am sure you have heard that the S.S. Anne is going to be hosting a cruise to introduce the new elite 4."

"Right,"

"Well they aren't going to be bringing their whole team just their ace, and so bodyguards are being chosen to go on the ship as well, In fact, Yours truly is one of the 2 gym leaders that will be going on the ship, I'm even going to bring my main team," Surge said pointing at 5 Pokeballs behind some glass above some metals.

"Really I would expect you to have been one of the last to do this kind of thing. What did they offer you?"

"Haha, you're pretty smart yes there is a pretty hefty sum of money that I am being paid, but also I am going there because my little girl is one of the new members, in fact, the other gym leader is her best friend, Janine,"

That made Ash take a step back, "Wow you're married and had a kid, well I guess there's another half for everyone, well that's beside the point why are you telling me all of this."

Surge looked like he was thinking about something when suddenly he snapped out of it, "Ok, well along with the announcement there is going to be a sort of tournament on the S.S. Anne, with pretty nice Prizes, basically I am allowed to 'Sponsor' you for this tournament and if you win my gym gets some pretty nice bonuses."

"Ok so you're saying that you want me to go to the S.S. Anne, beat up everyone there, and then we both run off with the rewards"

Surge chuckled, "Well I guess you could put it like that, well what do you say you can even bring your friends if you want." Surge said as the assistant came by and brought 5 tickets, "I really don't understand why they gave me so many but I guess you can have all of them. I certainly don't need them."

Ash started thinking for a bit, 'Well It wouldn't be the worst thing, but I will need to prepare because I refuse to get stranded on an Island, it would also make things easier to get those stones,' "Fine, I'll do it"

Surge gave a toothy smile, "Great I know I wasn't wrong about you, Well you can do what you want, go out and train or I can train you here but all you need is to be back here 2 days before the end of the month. And you will also need this." Surge said as he reached into his shirt pocket and pulled out the thunder badge.

"Thanks but one question, Why did you choose me specifically, Wouldn't one of your assistants have been better."

"Well they were the second option, but the reason was that I planned to give it to whoever could beat me, yesterday That one kid won and I was going to offer it to him but he just took the badge and ran off, Since I am sure you know not many people come to my gym since league rules say you only need 6 badges from official gyms so mine is usually skipped."

"Well it makes sense either way I will make some preparations before anything I will be back in time and maybe I'll take you up on that offer for training," Ash said before walking out and seeing his friends wait for him.

"Hey Ash, what took you so long?" Brock said.

"Don't tell me big man Surge was salty and made you clean the field before you left," Misty said with a smirk.

Ash proceeded to explain a basic gist of what Surge offered and showed the tickets much to Misty's excitement, and Green's Money eyes.

"Wow there's one for each of us," Green said, reaching for a ticket.

"Not so fast," Ash said, putting his arm out to stop her, "After what you did, I poured my heart out and all you did was shatter it and feed it to the Magikarps, especially after we said we would be together when we were kids," Ash said in a very overdramatic tone so much everyone could tell he was joking.

"So I will never hand you a ticket, instead I will put it very precariously in my Pocket and hope it is still there tomorrow," Ash said and barely put it in his pocket as it was dangling out.

"Well either way we should discuss what we are planning to do since the S.S. Anne is at the end of the month," Ash said as he saw the Ticket leave his Pocket but he didn't do anything to stop it.

"Right, hey Green do you want us to stay and watch your battle too, I'm sure you can win," Yellow said.

"Aw I appreciate it Yellow, but if I let you then Ash will learn about my Pokemon and I can't have that," Green said, giving Yellow a pat on the head.

Yellow looked a bit sad too so Ash put the Pikachu on her as well, which cheered her up.

"Well then see you later, Green we should get tea sometime," Misty said as they started walking off.

Eventually, they got to the Pokemon center, Ash healed his Pokemon and went to sit down to talk to his friends.

"Well we have some time until the S.S. Anne, is there anything you guys want to do?" Ash said as he sat down and slouched.

"Well I can't really think of anything specific," Misty said, "I mean besides being by the water."

"Yeah me neither," Brock also said, "The only thing I would want is to see my siblings again."

"Well I want to visit Uncle Wilton," Yellow said.

"Alright then if all of you want to visit your family then you should go," Ash said.

"Well genius, how do you propose we do that?" Misty said in a sarcastic voice.

"Well why don't you guys borrow Fearow and Pidgeotto, it won't be too smooth since I don't have saddles for them but they will get you there," Ash said while holding up two Pokeballs.

Everyone looked surprised, "Really, no we couldn't, they are your Pokemon. It wouldn't be right," Yellow said.

"It's fine we are friends aren't we I trust you guys not to do something stupid with these two, besides I have Abra I can just teleport everywhere," Ash said really insisting because he needed to be alone to start some of his plans.

Misty still wasn't convinced, "No we shouldn't even if you gave us permission it wouldn't be right after all"

"Flying is super effective against bugs."

"I call Pidgeotto."