Chapter Text
It hadn't been that long since Ash had left Pallet Town and started his pokémon journey. Still, coming back here felt strange. It all looked so similar, but it didn't feel the same, not really.
Ash sat under a tree behind Professor Oak's lab, watching his pokémon play with each other and the other pokémon that Professor Oak kept around. They seemed to be having fun, and Ash was happy for them. They'd had a stressful couple of weeks, and the pokémon deserved a break just as much as the rest of them did. Ash just couldn't bring himself to fully relax.
He didn't even know what he was so unnerved about. They'd been able to help Mewtwo and get him to calm down, as well as kept him out of Team Rocket's hands. They'd saved another pokémon, one that Blaine and Professor Oak had figured out was called Lugia. Sure, Team Rocket was probably up to a lot of trouble, and they couldn't really let their guard down, because Giovanni and the rest of Team Rocket would still want to get their hands on Mewtwo and Lugia.
"Rai?" Ash frowned and turned towards his newly evolved Raichu. It had been a few weeks since his Pikachu had evolved into a Raichu, and Ash still wasn't used to it. Raichu wasn't quite used to it either. He had a lot of excess electricity that he was still trying to control.
"I'm fine, Raichu," Ash assured him. He stroked Raichu's fur, grinning when his pokémon let out a quiet screech in amusement. "Just getting a little antsy, I guess." Ash had never enjoyed sitting around doing nothing. When he was younger, before going on his adventure, Ash had run around to overcome boredom. Now though he just didn't like to sit around because he felt like he should be doing something useful with himself.
"Do you want to go see what everyone else is doing?" Ash asked as he got to his feet. "Maybe Lt. Surge is up for some training," They'd all been really busy since coming to Pallet Town. Even though they were all at Professor Oak's labs, Ash felt like he barely ever saw his friends, which wasn't true at all. He saw Blaine, Lt. Surge, and Koga every day. Maybe he was just missing seeing them all at the same time, because it really had been awhile since that had happened.
Before leaving Ash walked to the other side of the tree where Lt. Surge's Electabuzz was sleeping. Ash nudged it. "Hey, Electabuzz, we were going to go see Lt. Surge. Do you want to come?" The question wasn't necessary. Ash knew that Electabuzz wouldn't leave his side. Lt. Surge had given his pokémon the task of keeping him safe. Ash didn't really like that Electabuzz was basically babysitting him, but he didn't try to fight it. Lt. Surge had a lot on his mind, and Ash didn't want to do anything to make him feel worse.
Ash had been scared when he'd seen Lt. Surge completely break down at Team Rocket's island base. Maybe if it was just a one time thing, Ash would feel better about it, but he knew that something similar had happened to Lt. Surge a couple of times since they'd come to Pallet Town. Koga said that Lt. Surge was in a vulnerable state of mind because of Lugia.
Ash understood it, but it still confused him. He didn't say anything about it, but Ash thought that if Lt. Surge was so anxious about being around Lugia, maybe he shouldn't spend all his time with the pokémon.
Electabuzz grunted and stood up. It seemed really tired, but Electabuzz was dedicated to doing its job. It yawned and let a couple of sparks loose. Ash watched in fascination as Raichu seemed to draw in the small amount of electricity. Ash had noticed that Raichu seemed more sensitive to electricity. He was more drawn to it, and naturally gave off more electrical energy. Ash didn't know if this was a good thing or not.
"Let's go," Ash said. With the two pokémon following him he made his way towards the large pond behind Professor Oak's lab. He knew that was where he would find Lugia, which meant it would be where he would find Lt. Surge.
Ash didn't understand it. Lt. Surge didn't like Lugia, and he was afraid of him, and yet ever since they'd gotten here Lt. Surge rarely let the legendary pokémon out of his sight. The man didn't trust Lugia at all. He was making himself more anxious to make sure that Lugia didn't do anything that might hurt any of them. Ash was concerned, but Koga had convinced him to leave it alone. Lt. Surge was really protective. Keeping them safe was how he coped.
As they got closer to the pond Ash could see Charizard flying in the air. Ash was happy to see him. Just like how Lt. Surge had Electabuzz keep an eye on Ash for him, Ash had asked Charizard to make sure that Lt. Surge was safe.
It wasn't long before Ash saw Lt. Surge sitting on a rock near, but not too close to, the pond. His Jolteon and Raichu were sunbathing right next to him. Lugia was swimming contently on the surface of the water, even though he normally just stayed underwater. Ash was relieved to see that the two of them seemed to be having a good day.
"Hey, Lt. Surge," Ash sat down next to him. Lt. Surge gave him a small smile. He seemed to be having a fantastic day.
"Hey, kiddo," Lt. Surge took Ash's hat and set it down on Jolteon's head. Jolteon opened one eye to look at Lt. Surge before it relaxed again and tried to go back to sleep.
"How's Lugia doing today?" Ash asked. Lugia had stopped moving and was staring at him. Ash waved, and Lugia raised a wing in a type of wave in response. It seemed like Lugia was interested in coming over to say 'hi', but he kept his distance. It had taken some time, but Lugia was beginning to respect that Lt. Surge didn't want to be really close to him.
"It's not sulking or causing trouble," Lt. Surge said. "And it's not trying to cuddle with me, so I guess it's doing okay." Ash couldn't help but grin slightly in amusement. Lugia was so cautious around people in general, but that reluctance didn't seem to apply when it came to Ash and Lt. Surge for some reason. Ash didn't mind it, as he really liked Lugia and wouldn't mind being his friend, but he knew that Lt. Surge didn't like it. The man didn't want Lugia to get so friendly with him.
Ash looked at Lugia and grinned as he saw that the pokémon seemed to be playing with one of Lt. Surge's Magneton. When Lt. Surge had joined them again, they'd been in such a hurry that he'd left his Magneton on the island base. A few days later though Sabrina had transferred them back to him. Ash was glad that Lt. Surge's pokémon were all safe, even though he didn't actually know his Magneton all that well.
Since they'd gotten here though Ash had noticed that at least one Magneton was always with Lugia, even more often than Lt. Surge was. At first Ash had thought that the Magneton were just taking turns in guarding over Lugia at Lt. Surge's command, but now he thought that it was just the same Magneton, and that Lt. Surge didn't approve of it at all.
"They look like they're having fun," Ash commented. Lt. Surge frowned slightly.
"I can't drag that Magneton away from that monster,' Lt. Surge said. Ash didn't like that he called Lugia a monster, but he didn't say anything.
"It looks happy though," Ash said, and it was true. He didn't think he'd ever seen so much emotion from one Magneton. "And it's not hurting anybody,"
"Yeah, I guess it's fine," Lt. Surge said reluctantly. He stood up and stretched. He looked at Ash and the boy's Raichu. He didn't seem to be looking for anything in particular, but then Lt. Surge frowned and focused his gaze on Raichu. "Have you two been keeping up with those exercises that I showed you?"
"Uh, no," Ash admitted shamefully. "We tried to, at first, but Raichu's not used to his powers and he, well…" Raichu's ears lowered and he slouched as he let out a low whine. Lt. Surge's expression softened.
"It shocked you," Lt. Surge commented. Ash hunched his shoulders slightly and nodded.
"It wasn't that bad," Ash said quietly. "But Raichu refuses to train. I don't think he wants to risk hurting me again,"
Lt. Surge put his hands on his hips. "If if doesn't get its powers under control, Raichu's just going to end up hurting you again anyways," Raichu growled at Lt. Surge, who fixed him with an unimpressed stare. Lt. Surge didn't accept nonsense and rebelion like this from the pokémon he helped train. "You know what, we were planning on waiting a little bit, but I think you two need these things now," Lt. Surge brought two fingers to his mouth and let out a shrill whistle. Charizard flew down, ready to receive a command.
"Me and Ash have to see Blaine for a few minutes," Lt. Surge said to Charizard. "Stay here with Jolteon and my Raichu. Make sure that pokémon doesn't do anything." Ash didn't understand why Lt. Surge refused to refer to Lugia by his name. It was also 'that pokémon', 'monster', or 'creature'. Lt. Surge didn't seem to want to acknowledge that Lugia was a living, breathing creature with feelings. Despite himself, Ash couldn't help but remember when Blaine had accused Lt. Surge of not having empathy, and how Koga had said that he did this as a defense mechanism.
Charizard didn't look happy and he looked to Ash for confirmation. The boy nodded. He had told Charizarrd to keep an eye on Lt. Surge, but that didn't have to apply for all times of the day. Ash would be with Lt. Surge, and so would Electabuzz, who had already shown that it could handle Lt. Surge when he was having a really hard time. Besides, Lt. Surge would probably be more relaxed if he knew that Lugia was being supervised.
Lt. Surge began to lead the way into the labs with Ash following quickly behind him. "Why are we seeing Blaine?"
"We've been working on something together," Lt. Surge said, and Ash couldn't help but grin when he heard that. Lt. Surge and Blaine hadn't been able to get along with each other at all at first, but all of a sudden they had figured out how to put aside their differences. Ash didn't know what had changed, but he was too relieved to really care
"What is it?" Ash asked curiously. Lt. Surge smirked.
"A gift that should hopefully help you to not hurt yourself as much," Lt. Surge looked pointedly at Ash's hands. He'd burned one of them pretty badly when he was trying to convince Mewtwo to join them, and shortly after that Ash's arm had gotten burned with electricity, and it still hadn't healed completely. His arm looked a lot better, it barely even looked hurt, but there was still a lot of damage beneath the surface.
Sometimes Ash's arm would go numb. Sometimes it would start tingling, similar to how his foot might if it was asleep. What scared Ash the most though was when his arm and hand would start shaking, and nothing he could do would stop it. The only thing he could do was wait. Sometimes these things would last for just a few seconds, usually it was a few minutes. Once though Ash's arm had shook for nearly an hour. It had terrified him.
When they got to the lab Lt. Surge headed straight to the back labs where all of Professor Oak's most important work was kept. The Professor didn't usually allow anybody else back there, but there were exceptions to everything. Blaine was a talented scientist, he was smart enough to not mess with things that Professor Oak didn't want him to touch.
When they got to the back labs, Lt. Surge knocked on the door. They waited for a moment before they heard a response. "Come in," It was Blaine. Lt. Surge opened the door and led the way inside. Blaine didn't seem surprised to see the man, probably because they had been working together on whatever their project had been, but he raised an eyebrow when he saw Ash.
"Well, this is a pleasant surprise," Blaine opened the door wider, letting them see inside. This was his way of being completely open with them. He didn't have any secrets. "Did you need something?"
"What, you think I'd only come here because I wanted something from you?" Lt. Surge put a hand to his chest. "I'm wounded, Blaine, really I am," Lt. Surge's joking manner didn't last for long before he broke down and started chuckling. "But yeah, I wanted something." Lt. Surge gestured to Ash's Raichu. "This slacker has gotten lazy with its training because it doesn't want to hurt its trainer."
"And you thought that our little surprise would be the solution," Blaine frowned thoughtfully. "We haven't properly tested them,"
"Of course we haven't," Lt. Surge crossed his arms. "We know they hold their own when exposed to electricity or fire, but neither of us have small enough hands to test how well they worked. They were made for Ash, they will only fit Ash, so Ash is the only one that we can actually test them on."
Blaine didn't look happy, and for a second Ash was worried that they would begin arguing, but then the scientist sighed. "Why are you only ever right about things that are incredibly dangerous?" Blaine asked. Lt. Surge just smirked at him and made his way to a desk. He opened one of the drawers and pulled some cloth out of it.
"Here, kid," Lt. Surge held them out to Ash. The boy took them and examined them. It looked like a pair of black, fingerless gloves with a dark green base. Ash looked at them curiously. They felt different from the gloves that he used to wear, the ones that were too ruined and cut up for him to wear anymore.
"What are these?" Ash asked. He took one of the gloves and tried it on. While Ash's old gloves had only gone up to his wrists, these ones went halfway towards his elbow. It completely covered the burn he'd gotten on his arm, and Ash was surprised to notice that it actually felt good against his arm. It wasn't irritating his sensitive skin.
"They're similar to mine," Lt. Surge pulled on his own gloves. "Lined with a rubber-like substance. It's a nice protection from electricity."
"They don't look like rubber," Ash commented. The inside definitely felt smooth and somewhat stretchy, like rubber, but the outside looked like normal thick fabric.
"That was my doing," Blaine said. "While your gloves are lined with the rubber, the rest is made from synthetic fabric that I created to be fire resistant."
"We figured if you were going to go out of your way to burn yourself, we might as well make it as hard for you as we could," Lt. Surge said, grinning as Ash pulled on the other glove and looked at them. "Why don't you give them a try?" Lt. Surge nodded to Raichu, who was staring at the gloves cautiously.
"What do you think, buddy?" Ash crouched and held his hand out to Raichu, who sniffed them curiously. Raichu looked at his paws. Ash couldn't see any electricity sparking from them, but he knew that it was still there. Since evolving, Raichu always seemed to have too much electricity. Because of this, they weren't able to be as physically close to each other as they wanted. Raichu was too big to sit on Ash's shoulders, but if they figured this electricity thing out, maybe they would be able to be physically close again.
Raichu was hesitant, but he finally leaned forward and slightly leaned his head against Ash's hand. Ash's fingers felt a slight spark, nothing painful, but it was definitely there. The rest of Ash's hands felt absolutely no electricity. The gloves worked, and the way that Raichu's eyes widened, he seemed to be able to tell.
"That's awesome," Ash said with a grin. He looked at Blaine and Lt. Surge, who were watching him curiously and proudly. "They work!"
"That's great," Blaine let out a sigh of relief. "Are they comfortable? Neither of us have any experience making gloves, but your mother was a great help in that aspect."
"My mom?" Ash looked at the two of them. Lt. Surge smirked at him and nodded. Ash felt a small smile slip onto his face. He really had the best mom. Since coming back, he probably hadn't spent nearly as much time with her as he would have wanted. Ash just didn't know what to say to his mom. He knew she wanted to know how his journey was going, but he couldn't tell her about most of the stuff he'd seen or heard. He didn't want her to know about all the danger that he'd dealt with.
Though, his mom probably knew a lot more than Ash would like. She knew his arms were bugging him, and she had to know what Blaine and Lt. Surge had wanted the gloves for. His mom also knew that they had come here with some legendary pokémon that they'd had to keep a secret. His mom also wasn't stupid, she had to know that it was dangerous. He just didn't want her to know just how dangerous it was. He didn't want to worry her.
Though, just because he didn't want to talk to his mom about everything didn't mean that he shouldn't talk to her at all. She was still his mom, and she was definitely his biggest supporter. He didn't want to let her down.
"How's Mewtwo doing?" Ash asked. Blaine's face lit up.
"He's doing well," Blaine said. "He's not in perfect condition yet, but I've finally figured out how to fix up the Master Ball so he'll be able to stabilize while in there." Mewtwo is currently in the Masterball. I'm going to keep him there for a few hours so I can observe how he handles it, both physically and mentally."
Ash grinned. That was exciting news. "That's great!" It sounded like Mewtwo was really starting to trust Blaine. "When Mewtwo's okay, we would want to go somewhere else, right?" Blaine had mentioned once that he didn't think it was safe for them to stay here for too long. The longer they were here, the more likely it was that they would be found.
"Yes, that might be smart," Blaine said. "Where we'd go and what we'd be doing, that much still must be figured out." Blaine's goal had been to keep Mewtwo safe from Giovanni and Team Rocket. Ash wasn't sure what else the man wanted, but he knew what he wanted.
"Can we help Lugia?" Ash asked. As he thought, Lt. Surge scowled at the mention of the pokémon.
"We took it away from Team Rocket and are helping it to hide out away from them. What else does it need from us?" Lt. Surge asked sharply. Ash could now tell why Lt. Surge was considered an intimidating man. If he didn't know Lt. Surge, he would probably be a little scared.
"He's not happy," Ash said with a slight frown. "Can't you feel it?" Ash had heard Lugia's voice a couple of times since they'd gotten here. He never had a lot to say, but Ash could tell from his tone that Lugia wasn't happy. Lt. Surge couldn't hear Lugia's voice, but Ash knew that he felt emotional impressions from Lugia. And the man was also around Lugia a lot more than Ash was. If Ash could still hear things from Lugia, then Lt. Surge should be able to feel things, and from the way that the man grimaced and shifted uncomfortably, Ash could tell that was the case.
"I don't know," Lt. Surge huffed. "And I don't care,"
Ash crossed his arms, though even he didn't know if it was because he was trying to make himself seem more stern, or if he just wanted to reassure himself. "Do you think that this Lugia, our Lugia, is the same one that hurt Silver?"
Lt. Surge frowned slightly. He looked conflicted. "...No," He said honestly. "It's too small, and sure, it's strong, but no way is it strong enough to cause a storm like the one we got caught in,"
"If it's not the same Lugia, is it really fair to treat it like it is?" Ash asked quietly. Lt. Surge let out a shaky breath and shook his head.
"It's not," Lt. Surge clenched his fists. "I know it's not, but whenever I see that thing, all I can see is...that."
"You're making yourself sick," Blaine said. He sounded genuinely concerned for Lt. Surge. "I know you want to keep us safe, but I'm going to tell you something that I've told Koga. You can't help anybody if you don't make sure you're in a good place yourself."
Mentioning Koga really seemed to hit Lt. Surge. He wanted Koga to recover and get better, and Koga was finally starting to actually do things to make that happen. He must be following Blaine's advice, and Lt. Surge probably really appreciated it. He probably thought that if it was working so well for Koga, he might be hypocritical if he didn't give it a try himself. Lt. Surge was still reluctant though, and Ash had an idea of how to push him over the edge.
"What if your pokémon keep watching over Lugia, and Blaine watches him too," Ash looked to the scientist, asking for permission even as he offered the suggestion. Blaine nodded.
"I do not think that Lugia is a threat, but if watching him is what it takes for you to take care of yourself, I am more than happy to do that," Blaine said, and now that he had finished his work with the Master Ball and Mewtwo, he had the time to do so.
Lt. Surge took a deep breath. "Yeah, I guess we can give that a try," Ash let out a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding. He had expected some resistance from Lt. Surge. For him to give in so easily, it was a relief, but also a little concerning. Lt. Surge was a stubborn man, especially when it came to things that he was passionate about. For him to agree to this plan so easily when he was so worried about what Lugia could do, things must have been harder for Lt. Surge than Ash had thought.
"Really?" Ash asked," Lt. Surge nodded.
"Really," The man sighed and let his shoulders fall. He seemed half defeated, and half relaxed and relieved. He wasn't completely on board with this plan, but he was giving it a try, because he was too tired to put up a big fight. "I think I need a break," And he did, he really did. Lt. Surge smirked at Ash. "Besides, someone has to whip you and Raichu back into shape."
Ash grinned in excitement. He loved training with Lt. Surge, but especially now. He and Raichu had a lot of things to work through and adjust to, and it might do Lt. Surge a lot of good to lead their training. He needed to feel like he was in control, and that he was doing something to keep Ash safe. Training could be the best thing for all three of them.
"We're ready to get started,"