Rise Of A Hero

Chapter 8

Ash's POV:

"Hey there, Ash! Who are your friends?", Misty asked me seeing Paul and Trip.

"This is Paul. He's from the Sinnoh region, and he is the 3 time winner of the Sinnoh League, and this is Trip, he's the 3 time winner of the Unova League", I introduced them and Misty seemed impressed. Trip and Paul recognised Ritchie.

"Nice to see you, Ritchie", Paul greeted.

"Nice to know you aren't a TOTAL boonie head, Ritchie", Trip greeted causing Ritchie to rub the back of his head nervously.

"Wow! The two of you have won the leagues of your respective regions thrice? That's not a small feat. It's highly impressive!", Misty told them impressed by their performance. Trip shrugged his shoulders as if it wasn't a big deal while Paul snorted.

"They didn't give me a challenge. Nobody knows what happened to Tobias after he lost the semi-finals to Ash. I would've enjoyed my victory if I had defeated Ash. He gave me the greatest battle I could ask for", Paul told her and she wiggled her eyes at me.

"Well, well, well! As long as I can remember, I once knew a guy who battled my Goldeen with a Charmander just because the little guy wanted some action!", she told me and I rolled my eyes.

"As far as I can remember, I won the battle!", I countered causing her to pout.

"I went easy on you because you were a child", she told me.

"Good excuse", I told her and before she could start another round, May came in between us and placed her hands on our chests separating us.

"Alright, that's enough for a day! You've been having a verbal spar since we've been coming from the other side!!", she told me and I just shrugged my shoulders. Then, she saw Paul and Trip.

"This is Paul, and this is Trip. I guess you'll remember them", I told May and she nodded her head giving them a smile.

"I'm May, Ash's cousin", she introduced herself and the two of them gave her an acknowledging smile.

"I'm Dawn, the same, cousin of Ash, and an unfortunate cousin of brown head", Dawn introduced herself rubbing May's head in a headlock resulting in yet another Meowth fight between my cousins. Drew and Gary had learnt to ignore them and the two of them were busy chatting. Trip and Paul just chuckled looking at them fight like small kids.

"I believe we've met before. In case you don't remember me, I'm Gary and this is Drew", Gary introduced himself for both himself and Drew causing the latter to flip his hair and roll his eyes. Paul seemed to strike a friendly rivalry with Gary while I could say the same about Drew and Trip.

"Who is that?", Paul asked me pointing his chin towards Serena.

"I'm Serena, Ash's girlfriend-to-be!", she introduced herself causing me to groan in embarassment.

"Well, nice to meet you, but what does that mean?", Trip asked her causing her to giggle.

"He's too Torchiced to ask me out, that's why I'm his girlfriend-to-be!", she told them wrapping her arm around my waist and stroking my chest with her other hand.

"I understand how you feel. Back in Unova, there were tons of girls behind him, and he wouldn't bother to look at them again. I recall Bianca, Georgia umm....Iris, and uh.....a girl from Johto named Lyra", Trip told her causing me to look at him with a shocked expression. Was he playing with me, or was it true?

"Wow! Lyra followed him to Unova, huh? She was head over heels for him back in Sinnoh", Paul added smirking causing Serena to let out a low whistle.