Edge's Pikachu

Edge's Pikachu (Japanese: えっじピカチュウ Etsuji's Pikachu) is the second Pokémon that Edge captured after embarking on his journey, and his third overall.

History
As Edge arrives in, a group of angry townspeople pursue Pikachu that steals and eats their produce. However, every time they corner it, the Mouse Pokémon escapes using its electricity. After reading a poster that fell off a building, Edge decides that it would be in his best interest to give them a hand. Watching the townspeople's pathetic attempts to try to catch the Pikachu, including trapping it with a net, Edge challenges it to a battle and chooses Bulbasaur to defeat the troublemaker. Edge has Bulbasaur use, which sends Pikachu to sleep, and subsequently captures the Mouse Pokémon. After his reward from the townspeople, Edge shows them his Pokédex and they watch in amazement.

Afterwards, in the outskirts of Pewter City, Edge tries befriending his newly caught Pikachu, but to no avail. Robyn shows up and reveals he is planning on challenging, the leader of the , and he challenges Edge to try to be the first to defeat Brock and win the. Edge accepts the challenge and the next day, visits the to prepare himself to the big battle ahead, but he finds the Pokémon Center closed due to damage from vandals, and the only Pokémon he has with full energy is the troublesome Pikachu.

Edge runs to the Pewter Gym's main arena to see a familiar face, Robyn. He and his are battling in the ring. After watching the battle, Edge registers, and prepares for his first battle against a muscular Trainer and his. Pikachu stubbornly refuses to battle for Edge and, as a result, he is forced to send out Marill to battle his opponent. The muscular Trainer predicts an easy win due to Marill's lack of health. However, Edge comes up with a strategy to take out his opponent, using one-hit knockouts and complimentary moves. He uses on the Graveler, then follows up with, freezing and shattering the opponent's Pokémon.

Using this strategy, Edge battles several more Trainers using only Marill and Bulbasaur, and they are soon facing the Gym Leader, Brock. When the last battle begins, Bulbasaur and Marill are too exhausted to continue and Pikachu still refuses to fight. Brock orders his to use, who dodges every rock except one, infuriating him and causing him to attack Edge. Believing Edge's wins have been nothing but dumb luck, Brock angrily orders Onix to use his most powerful move,. The rock snake forms a twister before launching himself towards Pikachu. Diving, Edge rescues him just in time. It leaves Pikachu with a wonderful feeling of being loved and has flashbacks of when Edge asked him to be friends. Suddenly, Pikachu launches a huge electric attack at Onix, but it has zero effect. However, the electric waves damage the Gym's sprinkler system, and Onix gets showered in water, and becomes weakened. Brock then orders Onix to use another Rock Throw, but Pikachu dodges a few before using his tail to redirect a final Rock Throw back at Onix, which knocks it out, earning Edge and Pikachu the victory. Admiring his new Boulder Badge, Edge tries to befriend Pikachu, but just as before, he pulls a dirty trick on him by shocking him. However, Pikachu follows up by climbing onto Edge's shoulders and nuzzles him with its cheeks, with the two finally becoming friends.

Edge and are at the entrance to  hiding in some bushes from the. They all have the same purpose, to find the, a rock with a moon-shaped inscription that can enhance a Pokémon's power. They enter the cave, but it is too dark to see anything. Edge sends out Pikachu, who uses to illuminate the cave, and the darkness is no longer a problem. Suddenly, Edge collides with a, which turns out to belong to. The Grunts, along with, surround them, and Edge challenges Koga to a battle.

Rhyhorn begins with, managing to bury Pikachu under rocks, only for Pikachu to recover and fire a blast of electricity, surrounded by electrified debris from Rock Throw. The attack successfully knocks out Rhyhorn, but then Koga injects a liquid that forces Rhyhorn to evolve into. Misty realizes that her was similarly abused, and furious at Koga's nonchalant attitude, she attacks the newly evolved Rhydon with her Staryu. Unfortunately, the attack is returned by, pushing Misty against the cave wall and causing her to faint. Rhydon stomps on Pikachu before moving in to finish Edge, but Pikachu slides out from underneath Rhydon, having charged itself tremendously. Using its tail, Pikachu cuts off a huge portion off the cave roof, blocking the cave and allowing Edge a chance to escape with the others.

While heading towards, Edge is surprised by the arrival of Sol, although he doesn't know her name, who flatters him by telling him what a good Pokémon Trainer he must be, and then offers to boost his skills with a selection of "Pokémon items" that will make his Pokémon even "stronger". When he appears about to refuse, she becomes upset and then Edge agrees to pay her for a selection of items. They are both happy with this arrangement and Sol leaves Edge with his new items.

Edge is given the chance to try out his new items when he is attacked by a wild. He sends Pikachu into battle, using an. It doesn't seem to work, so he piles almost every item he bought onto his unimpressed Pikachu. He realizes as Pikachu is sent skyrocketing that he may have been cheated out of his money.

Pikachu is accidentally traded to Robyn Oak alongside Azumarill and Ivysaur. During his time under Robyn's ownership, Pikachu battles against a, using his new attack to deal massive damage. They later traded back, while keeping the serious attitude that Robyn installed in them.

When Edge challenged the, Pikachu was chosen as his third Pokémon to face off against 's. Pikachu dodges Vileplume's attack, but Vileplume switches to  and sends its petals flying straight for Pikachu, wrapping it up firmly and reducing its health to dangerously low levels. As Edge grimaces over Pikachu, Erika taunts him for his subdued arrogance, then smiles and says that Edge can challenge her again. With a startled look, Edge looks at a restoration machine and sees an sleeping inside, and Erika comments that Eevee was used as an experiment, and was suffering because of it, but could be used as a reliable weapon, but Erika believes that it should be put out of its misery.

Aghast at Erika's apparent attitude about experimenting on Pokémon, Edge hollers his determination to not let her get away with it, and calls for Pikachu to get back up. Through the petals binding its body, Pikachu releases an energy clone from, which Vileplume easily defeats. Erika mocks Edge for his futile strategy, but Edge grins and points out that while Erika and Vileplume were distracted, Pikachu had already reached the machine holding Eevee, and Pikachu indicates its determination to keep Erika away from Eevee.

Much to Edge's surprise, Erika walks over to Pikachu and compliments it for using the last of its health to defend another Pokémon, rather than fight. With Pikachu in her arms, Erika sets the machine to fully restore Eevee, revealing to Edge that she had heard from and  and was only testing him. Months ago, they had obtained the Eevee Reconstruction report, along with news that a certain organization had been experimenting on Eevee, revealed to be.

When Edge, Robyn Oak, and Sol attempted to enter, but couldn't as the city was blocked by a barrier, Pikachu teams up with Robyn's Golduck to lift the barrier. Pikachu uses his to get past the barrier and Golduck uses  to pass the information back to their Trainers. Inside the city, Pikachu runs into the one who created the barrier, a. Despite Mr. Mime's evasive attempts, a coordinated from Pikachu successfully faints the Barrier Pokémon, lifting the barrier.

Pikachu was Edge's last resort in his battle against. As Edge hangs for his life as a result of Giovanni's 's attack, Edge attempts to make a switch to his other Pokémon, but Giovanni has  use  to break the opening mechanisms of the Poké Balls, preventing Edge from any further action.

Giovanni praises Edge on his bravery, but also reveals to Edge that while he went on his journey, Team Rocket already had control of the cities he visited. The master plan was to send all Pokémon captured by Team Rocket to for experimentation and bio-engineering, then to  for battle training. The Pokémon were then shipped via to  by the, because the opposing Gym Leaders made a northern transfer impossible, before being brought to Viridian Forest to reawaken their primal instincts, creating an unstoppable Pokémon army for Giovanni in his supposed absence.

In light of this knowledge, Edge realizes that he is the only one who can stop Giovanni's plan, and to his surprise, Pikachu rolls its Poké Ball into his hand, being the only Pokémon Dugtrio didn't trap. Hollering his determination to defeat Giovanni and Team Rocket, Edge lunges for his final assault, as Giovanni declares Edge unable to order an attack from Pikachu in time before Nidoqueen impales him with. Much to the Leader's horror, however, Pikachu proves itself as it appears from the Poké Ball in time, already electrified and ready to attack. As Giovanni and Nidoqueen stand stunned, Edge orders a crippling that causes heavy debris to fall onto Nidoqueen, fainting it in the process.

Edge explains that he had bypassed the drawback of Pika charging itself for attacking by having it charge inside the Poké Ball, giving it time to attack before Nidoqueen could attack. Giovanni screams the impossibility of Edge holding Pikachu's Poké Ball with it heavily charged with electricity, but by the corner of his eye realizes that Edge had been wearing electric-proof gloves he had taken from.

During the finals of the, Pikachu and Azumarill helped Venusaur defeat Robyn's Charizard in a brilliant strategy by having Azumarill's water vapor and Pikachu's electric energy create a thundercloud that struck a vine shot and wrapped around him by Venusaur.

Personality and Characteristics
Pikachu was initially shown as hostile, stubborn, and unfriendly. It took until Edge risked his own safety to protect him from that Pikachu began to open up to Edge. After opening up to Edge, Pikachu one of his closest teammates and is willing to do almost anything for him.