As I continue my quest of covering the gym leaders, I arrive at Vermillion City, where Lt. Surge awaits us.

Three years later I have become a professional homeless man, digging desperately through trash cans in hopes of striking gold. Luckily I finally found what I was looking for and I can unlock some doors in this building, behind which the decaying corpse of Lt. Surge is discovered.

No but seriously, what does this gym puzzle have to do with Electricity.

Anyway, Lt. Surge is confirmed to be American, and a war hero who fought in some war Kanto was involved in. I remember everyone thinking they must have fought Kalos when gen 6 came out, as that region was also involved in a war.

Surge focuses on the Electric type, making this a scary fight for the Squirtle Squad out there trying to make it big. When defeated he gives players the Thunder Badge.

Pokemon Red, Blue, Fire Red, Leaf Green

Surge uses three fast electric Pokemon that he hopes to paralyze the player with. He has a Voltorb that luckily can't explode yet, but Sonic Boom always doing 20 HP of damage can actually be scary this early in the game. He further has a Pikachu, which is a pretty easy beat, but then follows it up with a big buff Raichu. This thing is surprisingly hard to take down this early on. In Red and Blue it even knows the almighty Thunderbolt, basically one shotting a bunch of your Pokemon with it. In the remakes they balanced it out by replacing Thunderbolt with Double Team. I honestly wish it still had Thunderbolt...

Pokemon Yellow

Surge must have been pissed off at his losers as he decided to drop them all from his party, going all in on his Raichu. Seriously, the guy has one Pokemon. Is this the only gym leader to ever have just one Pokemon? It still knows Thunderbolt, and also Mega Punch/Kick to punish any Electric resists. Scary guy!

Pokemon Gold, Silver, Crystal, Heart Gold, Soul Silver


Surge is actually the first Kanto gym leader you encounter in the post game of the Johto games. The ship you set sail in from Olivine City arrives in Vermillion, giving you the perfect chance to beat up Surge as your first experience in the Kanto region.

Surge decided to stick to a Kanto squad this time, using his trusty Raichu, and evolving his Voltorb into an Electrode (and even adding a second one because he likes it so much). He finishes his team with new soldiers Magneton and Electabuzz. Yes, he still has these unevolved forms even in the Gen 4 remakes. 5 Earthquakes later and you are victorious, though be careful of Zap Cannon paralyzing you and two exploding tactical nukes.

When you call Surge on your cell phone late night when you need his love, on specific days, he will rematch you in Heart Gold and Soul Silver. Head to Olivine City to fight him again. This time he finally evolves his Magneton and Electabuzz into Magnezone and Electivire respectively. He dumps one of his Electrodes and completes his team of 6 with a Manectric and.... a Pachirisu? You do you man. It is a world champion after all (though this was before... hmm)

Pokemon Black 2, White 2

Surge, like most of the gym leaders, returns to the Unova Pokemon World Tournament, where he can be fought in a few challenges like Type Experts and Kanto gym leaders. He uses a few cool newcomers like Jolteon, Ampharos, and Lanturn.

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And those were Surge's main series appearances! He can still be seen in several spin-offs, but I won't go into details on those. In the manga he is quite the sociopath from what I recall, smuggling trainers, Pokemon, and having no qualms about zapping people and Pokemon alike.

I find it fascinating that the Pokemon games both refer to the United Stated directly, making it a canon place in the Pokemon world, as well as a war. You have to remember, Pokemon was not the giant it is now, and was aimed to be a fun monster collecting game specifically aimed at an audience of children. For them to refer to a war that was fought is a pretty big step away from that premise. I do hope one day we get a legends game based in Kanto that will go in further detail on this war. Apparently in the Pokemon World Tournament in Black 2 and White 2, the announcer questions if Surge is from Unova (region based on the US), and that they also had a war. Hmmm.... sounds like an interesting game to me.

Oh and one last thing, Surge actually full on swears in the Japanese versions of the anime and game. Pretty funny that they made the American swear.