Meeting Barry

Today the gang finally returned to Hearthome City.

"I hope we will battle Fantina this time." Tomo said. "I'm tired of waiting."

"Me too Tomo, Fantina did make us wait a long time." Ash agreed with his brother.

"Well you two can't blame her for that." Dawn said. "Remember she was training with her Pokemon."

"Yeah, but still-" Ash said.

He was patient, but even he found it hard to wait for a gym battle; he even found it hard back when he had to wait to battle Jasmine.

When the gang finally got to the gym, Ash and Tomo ran to the door. But then the gym door opened and somebody crashed into Ash.

"Ouch what was that?" Ash asked.

"Ow my head." A voice said.

The voice belonged to a boy with yellow hair.

"Are you okay Ash?" Dawn asked.

"Hey what about me!" The boy shouted. "Don't mind asking me if I'm okay!"

"Oh dear sorry, are you okay too?" Dawn asked the boy.

But then when Dawn looked at the boy, he appeared to be familiar to her.

"For crashing into me like that I should fine you." The boy complained.

"That was a accident pal." Ash growled. "No way I'm paying you for that."

"Under my watch you are!" The boy argued. "Ah I don't have time for this. I'm going to be the greatest Pokemon trainer ever!"

Then he ran off.

"What the heck was that about?" Ash asked.

Just then Tomo noticed something on the ground. It was an orange badge case.

"Hey do you think this badge case belongs to that kid?" Tomo asked, picking it up off the ground.

Before Tomo's question could be answered, Fantina came out of the gym.

"Why bonjour Ash, Tomo, Dawn, Brock." She said.

"Hi Fantina." Dawn greeted her.

Suddenly Fantina noticed the orange badge case Tomo was holding.

"Oh, that belongs to my challenger." She said.

"Challenger?" Ash asked. "Oh, you mean the boy that just came out of the gym?"

"Correct." Fantina said.

She explained that the boy was from Twinleaf Town and had just challenged her to a gym battle, but lost.

"Speaking of gym battles." Ash said. "Can Tomo and I challenge you to a gym battle?"

"Oh sorry Ash." Fantina apologized. "But I have a few challengers battling me today and my Pokemon need to rest. Please wait till tomorrow for our battle."

Ash was disappointed he couldn't battle, but he was aware that Fantina's Pokemon needed to rest following her gym battles.

"What should we do now?" Tomo asked.

"Well first of all we'll take this badge case back to the kid we saw earlier, then we get ready for the gym battle tomorrow." Ash answered.

Suddenly there was a shout and somebody ran into Ash; it was the boy from earlier.

"Ow not again." The boy complained. "Oh it's you again."

Ash wasn't happy either.

Just then the boy noticed his badge case on the ground; Ash dropped it when the boy ran into him.

"You're not just a klutz, you're also a thief stealing my badges." The boy said.

"Hey you have it all wrong." Brock said.

"Hey, I remember you now." The boy interrupted, pointing at Ash. "I saw you on TV when the Hearthome Tag Tournament was taking place and you teamed up with Paul. Man, you were terrible compared to Paul; I was laughing through the whole thing."

"Oh yeah!" Ash shouted, angrily.

Just then, Dawn interrupted them.

"I remember you, you're Barry right?" She asked the boy.

"You know him, Dawn?" Ash asked.

"Yes I remember him because I'm from Twinleaf Town too. I remember that you did a duet with Exploud at the festival last year. That was you, right Barry?"

"Yeah that was me, but I don't remember you." Barry said. "Oh wait, now I do. You're the geeky trainer that Paul defeated in the tournament."

"Geeky?" Dawn responded, angrily.

She wasn't fond of Barry's statement.

Brock and Tomo told Barry they were in the tournament too, but he couldn't remember them. So Brock and Tomo introduced themselves, disliking Barry's attitude.

"Hey, let's have a battle." Barry stated. "You have ten seconds to call out your Pokemon."

He had an orange Poketch.

"Wow, that's the latest model of the Poketch." Dawn said, grabbing Barry's wrist to get a better look at it.

"Hey you girly geek!" Barry shouted, rudely. "You're interrupting my timing."

"My name is Dawn." Dawn said, angrily.

Barry ignored her and told Ash to hurry up and release his Pokemon.

Ash had enough of Barry's attitude and sent Chimchar out to battle first.

"Hey I recognize that Chimchar." Barry said. "It was Paul's Pokemon. Did you trade with him or something?"

"No Paul abandoned Chimchar so I'm his trainer now." Ash answered.

Barry didn't believe him; the truth is, he thought Paul was a great trainer and had no idea what he was really like.

"I take it you want to be strong like Paul?" Barry asked.

"I beg your pardon?" Ash asked.

Being like Paul was something Ash would never, ever like to be. Barry explained he wanted to be strong too which is why he worked and battled hard with his Pokemon training. He also said he had three gym badges.

"Really? I have four badges." Ash said.

Barry was shocked by that, but quickly shrugged it off. He went to reach for a Poke Ball, but he suddenly stopped.

"Ah I forgot I left my Poke Balls in storage." Barry said. "I'll quickly go back and get them. Don't go anywhere!"

He quickly ran off and the gang decided to follow Barry.

In the city Team Rocket was pulling a sneaky stunt. This time they set up a fake storage system for Pokemon. The trick was the Pokemon trainers would give their Poke Balls to Jessie, James and Meowth to look after them for a bit, like a real Poke Ball storage system.