Chapter 7

The next day, Ash was awake and petting Pikachu while he was talking to Sceptile.

"So, you told Gary last night about The Evil Zoom?" Ash asked the wood gecko pokemon, who nodded.

"The reason was because I felt I could trust him. Even though he was once your rival, I felt like he could be the leader for the group until you healed." Sceptile answered. Ash slightly smiled as he said that.

"Well, Gary is a great friend and might be an even better leader than me. It was a good thing you told him, Sceptile. But, I just hope he doesn't go telling everyone about it just yet."


With his friends:

"(yawn) Good morning guys. How did you sleep?" Dawn asked as she came to the breakfast table.

"Fine, Dawn, thanks for asking. How was your night?" Gary answered then asked the bluenette.

"Great! Me and the girls got to do lots of things last night, but I won't tell any of you about it." she answered. Gary just raised an eyebrow.

"I bet it was a great night for the girls alright. Anyway, how do some of you know Ash?" he then asked the others. May tapped her chin in thought before answering.

"Well, I went to Littleroot Town to get my first pokemon so that I could travel the region. But I met up with Ash while he was trying to find Pikachu. You see, because of a machine Team Rocket used on Pikachu before Ash left for the Hoenn region, the electricity Pikachu had was building up and couldn't be released. So, Prof. Birch and his assistant tried to get the electricity out. But, Pikachu got a fever because of the build up and thought everyone it saw, including Ash, was its enemy. And, Ash being Ash, wouldn't let his Pikachu run wild, so he went after it. I didn't know what happened after that until I helped Prof. Birch pull Ash up from a cliff. After we did that, Team Rocket appeared and used a machine to try and steal Pikachu. The machine was made to absorb electricity, so when Pikachu tried to shock it, it didn't do anything. But, what the machine wasn't made for was a Pikachu with lots of electricity built up in it. Soon, Pikachu overloaded the machine and blasted Team Rocket off again. Afterwords, Pikachu was back to normal and Ash was going to go traveling. But, I offered to go with Ash because he owed me a bike and because I knew he would help me travel." May told them. Most of them were impressed. Then, Dawn spoke up.

"That sounds a bit like what happened with me when I met Ash. When I met Ash, I had just gotten Piplup from Prof. Rowan and was starting my journey. He was asking if I had seen his Pikachu. It was because, when Team Rocket's newest machine blew up, Pikachu was also blown away from Ash. After I told him that I hadn't seen a Pikachu, he ran off looking for it. After a while, I saw a Pikachu and, thinking it was wild, tried to capture it. Unfortunately, the only things I got out of that were a fried bike and a burned-to-a-crisp Piplup. Later, I learned that the same Pikachu I fought with was Ash's, so I helped him get back with Ash. Not long after we ran into Team Rocket and they tried to catch Pikachu again. After Team Rocket caught him and was ready to get away, Ash came, along with Brock, and tried to get his Pikachu back. While he did that, Team Rocket accidentally broke their own robot and it blew up, sending them flying. Me and Brock were afraid that Ash and Pikachu might had gotten badly hurt, but they both turned out fine underneath the rubble. We all then went back to Prof. Rowan's lab to heal Ash's pokemon, where he got a change of clothes and we fought Paul for the first time. It ended in a tie, but I got to become Ash's newest traveling partner afterwords." Dawn told them. Most of them were pretty impressed.

"Wow. I never knew Ash met you guys in that kind of way. When I met him, he threw a pokeball at me, thinking I was an Axew. Afterwords, we started to travel together. But I never knew he did those things while meeting you guys." Iris said, shaking her head.

"I agree with Iris. I met Ash when he challenged me to a gym battle, along with my brothers. He won, of course. But, because of his battling, which impressed me, I wanted to travel with him. But I didn't want to leave the gym, either. My brothers convinced me to go, however, and I've been traveling with him ever since. It wasn't a meeting like the one both of you described, but it was a great meeting. If I hadn't met Ash, I don't know where I would be right now." Cilan said.

"Neither would I. I used to be a gym leader as well, Cilan, before Ash came along. He lost the first time, but beat me the second time. He amazed me, because of his battling and because he used the sprinkler system in the gym to weaken my Onix. He didn't defeat my Onix, though. He knew it wasn't right to finish off a downed opponent, so he stopped the battle. But, because of his judgement, I gave him the badge anyway. I also found out that the man who trained him and his Pikachu the night before was my father. After he agreed to do all of the things I had to do while he was gone, I started to travel with Ash. I traveled with him until he finished his Sinnoh region journey. And I guess you could say that I'm Ash's oldest traveling partner besides his pokemon." Brock told them.

"Looks like Ash made an impact on all of us. After he beat me in the Silver Conference in Johto, I decided to become a Pokemon Researcher like my grandpa. If it wasn't for him and his rivalry with me, I don't think I would have trained as hard as I did or changed my path. He really is something, even though he's only fifteen." Gary spoke up.

"Making friends and impacting their lives isn't the only thing he's done over the years." Misty said.

"What else has he done, then?" Trip asked, speaking up for the first time since yesterday.

"He's helped legendary pokemon and even saved the world a few times." Misty answered. That just got a shocked look from Gray, Trip, and even Paul.

"How could Ash have saved the world or even helped legendary pokemon? He doesn't seem like he ever did those things." Paul said, getting in the conversation.

"Well, why don't we go ask him? He's probably awake right now, along with his pokemon." Max said.

"Last one there's got to pay for out next meal, then!" May said, already bolting for the hallway. Everyone soon followed, until they all got in a pile up from running into a stopped May.

"Oww... Why did you stop, May?" Dawn asked, getting up.

"Well, I didn't want to run into him." May said, pointing to a grass-haired boy who was also rubbing his head.

"If I had known people were following you, June, I wouldn't have stopped you." the boy said, getting up.

"It's MAY! M-A-Y, Drew!" May yelled, her face red with anger. Then she calmed down and said to everyone: "Guys, this is Drew, my rival."

"Why were you running in the first place, April?" Drew asked, starting to smirk. May didn't blow up at him, though, and explained to him what had happened since yesterday. Afterwords, he wasn't smirking anymore. He had more of a sad expression on, though most couldn't see it.

"I see. Here, how about I come with you?" he offered. They agreed and started back down the hallway, only to stop because of a huge 'BOOM' and the Center starting to shake.