Note: This is my second fan fic for this board, and I still quite mastered the whole battle thing. Also, I have not read the manga so all of Paul's Kanto pokemon are simply guesses.
--The Rest of the Story: Part 2 –
By: Bryce Daniel (2009)
RECAP: Paul has volunteered to have his fondest memory displayed for everyone to see (but not hear), but how can being booted from Ranger school, losing his first love and watching his brother lose at the Battle Pyramid be 'fond' memories?
Next, Paul is shown in a large room full of excited trainers. Paul is sitting in the corner by himself as trainers talk, laugh and generally mingle with one another.
"Hey, that's the Kanto League," Ash said excitedly.
"Brings back a lot of memories, doesn't it?" Brock said.
"You bet! Right, buddy?"
"Pikachu!"
Suddenly, all the other trainers in the room disappear except for one dark haired boy in the far right corner with a red baseball cap, a blue jacket and a Pikachu on his left shoulder.
After a moment of hesitation, Paul finally gets up enough courage to introduce himself, but just as he does so, his target gets up and leaves to train with an unseen companion. Paul goes to follow them, but is stopped at the door by a tall boy with spiky brown hair.
"Don't even think about it," Gary said.
"Think about what," Paul said gruffly.
"Don't play coy with me! I saw how you were looking at MY Ash."
"Get out of my way!"
"Fine," Gary said walking away. "Just so know, he's already taken. Smell ya later, loser."
"What was that about?" Ash asked.
"I don't know," Dawn said. "But it didn't seem very poetic to me."
Paul exits the waiting area and quickly sees Ash training about three fields away against some red haired chick.
Whatever, he thought, I'll train by myself. He finds an empty patch of grass on the other side of the arena door from Ash. He calls out his pokemon: Wingull, Sentret, Sneasel and Turtwig.
He's about to start his solo training when he is approached by an eager young trainer with reddish-brown hair under a yellow & blue striped hat and green jacket. A scruffy looking pikachu sat on his right shoulder.
"Mind if I join you," Ritchie asked.
"Why not," Paul said gruffly.
"Happy, I choose you," Ritchie said sending out a Butterfree.
Paul laughs to himself, this will be easy. "Go, Wingull."
"Happy, use Confusion."
"Wingull – Protect then Water Pulse."
Suddenly Ritchie and Sparky morph into Ash and his Pikachu. Paul attempts to keep his focus, but fails – his Wingull hit with Happy's Sleep Powder.
"Are you okay," Ritchie asked snapping Paul back to reality. "You seem a bit distracted."
"I'm fine," Paul snapped irritably.
Ritchie gestures towards Paul's sleeping Wingull and Paul recalls it.
"I've still got pokemon left, how about another round?"
"No, I've had enough humiliation for the moment."
Later that day, Paul is battling Gary in the first round of eliminations, but his Sentret is losing badly to Gary's Eevee.
"Okay, Eevee, now finish it off with Quick Attack!"
Paul orders Sentret to dodge, but it's hit by the attack anyway knocking it to the ground. After a few seconds of struggle, it finally faints.
"Sentret is unable to battle," the referee called. "The winner is Gary!"
"That was absolutely pathetic," Gary taunted. "Good luck winning Ash with pokemon like that." Paul hated to admit it, but the spiky headed jerk was right.
Later that evening, Paul re-enters the stadium after hearing a commotion from outside. He is standing in the lower concourse near the side gate with his Turtwig and Sneasel.
Inside the arena, Ash is battling Ritchie in the fifth round. Ritchie sends out that same scruffy pikachu he had earlier, and Ash sends out a Charizard. The Charizard takes one look at his puny opponent and turns away huffily.
The audience laughs as Ash suddenly transforms into a giant flailing baby.
"COME ON, CHARIZARD," baby Ash wails. "LISTEN TO ME NOW, AND YOU'LL NEVER HAVE TO LISTEN TO ME AGAIN!"
"Not exactly your finest hour," Brock chides.
Ash laughs embarrassedly.
"Well, at least I'm not the only one whose pokemon refuses to listen," Dawn said.
"Pfft," her Mamoswine snorted indignantly. Dawn sighs as her Mamoswine closes its eyes and goes to sleep – exactly like the Charizard on the screen in front of them.
"Charizard refuses to battle," the referee calls as Paul turns around and leaves the stadium disgustedly.
Some time later, Paul is walking through the forest when he is clipped by a chim-char who is running, seemingly for its life, followed by a pack of wild Zangoose. Paul reaches instinctively for the rope in his backpack as the chim-char reaches the edge of a tall cliff.
He flashes back to the Chim-char falling out of his hands that fateful evening and was absolutely determined that wouldn't happen again. But when he looks up, the Chim-char's eyes begin glowing a bright fiery orange.
"Chim-char?"
"Oh, right," Ash said. "This must be your first time seeing your own Blaze."
The wild Chim-char than coats itself in fire and charges the wild Zangoose.
"Hey, that's your Flame Wheel attack."
"No… it's not" Brock said gravely.
"WHAT?!" Ash and Dawn exclaimed simultaneously.
"Chim-char?"
"Chim-char is taking WAY too much damage for that to be Flame Wheel. No… that's Flare Blitz, an extremely powerful move that causes significant damage to its user."
"So is that why Chim-char could never recreate the move without using Blaze?" Dawn asked.
"Yes, because normally Chim-char doesn't learn that move until it evolves into Infernape."
The wild Chim-char, having defeated all of the Zangoose, snaps back to normal.
"I saw what you just did," Paul said to the exhausted Chim-char. "And I could use that kind of power on my team." He pulls a poke-ball out of his right pocket and captures the wild Chim-char on the spot.
Next, Paul is shown standing on a small hill overlooking a forest where he watches a familiar looking trainer capture a weak looking Starly. His Pikachu was gone, but more importantly so was that spiky haired jerk.
Paul wakes up with a snap, and after a moment of regrouping he makes his way off stage.
"Hey, Paul," Ash said. "I really liked your whole dream there."
"I figured YOU would," he replied gruffly a slight smile crossing his face as he walked off.
Our heroes learned a lot about their rival this evening, yet he remains as enigmatic as ever. They may not understand his motivations, but at least they - and you - know the rest of the story.