Paul

While Ash, Tomo, Brock and Dawn had been busy, Team Rocket was making a new start in Sinnoh. They had spent four months resting, planning and relaxing at James's vacation home and now it was time for them to get back to work.

While they had been there James picked up an old Pokemon friend of his. It was a grass type Pokemon named Carnivine and it resembled a walking Venus flytrap. James had Carnivine ever since he was a boy. Another thing that happened was that Jessie and James evolved some of their Pokemon. James had revealed to the others that his Roselia and Jessie's Sneasel could evolve. James evolved his Roselia into a Pokemon called Roserade with a evolution stone known as the Shiny Stone. Jessie evolved her Sneasel into a Pokemon called Weavile with a item known as a Razor Claw.

The process behind a Razor Claw's use was that Sneasel had to train while holding the item at night time and that's what Jessie did for Sneasel to evolve. James pointed out her new Aipom could evolve into a Pokemon known as Ambipom but Jessie decided her Aipom wasn't ready to evolve and decided to do that later.

So now that Pokemon evolutions and rest had been taken care of, the trio decided to go out and search for Pokemon that they could give to the boss.

Meanwhile Dawn was at a Pokemon Center talking to her mom. She introduced her Piplup to Johanna and told her about her Ariados and Burmy.

"Well Dawn, you certainly had a interesting start to your journey." Johanna said.

Dawn also told Johanna that she attempted to catch a Buneary, but failed.

Piplup was still sulking about that and he and Dawn started arguing with each other. It made Johanna wonder if Dawn and Piplup would be an okay pair. After her phone call with her mom, Dawn got a phone call from Prof. Rowan. He told her about Ash and Tomo.

"Once you meet up with them I want you to come back to my lab with them. Ash has plenty of stories you would like to listen to." Dawn thought that sounded interesting and decided to wait for Ash outside the Pokemon Center.

At that time Ash, Brock and Tomo were still on their way to meet up with Dawn. Suddenly they saw a jolt of electricity in the sky.

"What was that?" Tomo asked.

"Must be a trainer battling a wild Pokemon." Brock said.

They decided to go and check it out to see what was going on.

In the forest there was a purple-haired guy named Paul and the jolt of electricity was from his Elekid. Paul was catching three Starly.

Just then the gang turned up.

"Don't get in my way." Paul said. He had a rude attitude.

"We are just passing through." Ash said. "You haven't seen a girl named Dawn pass through here have you?"

"I haven't." Paul said.

He then noticed Riolu.

"Where'd you get that Riolu? Don't tell me that's your starter Pokemon."

"No Riolu isn't my starter. Pikachu is." Ash said. "I received Riolu as a gift a week ago."

Paul looked on in disbelief.

"I saw you capture that Starly of yours earlier." He said. "And you don't think catching the strongest there is."

Ash frowned at Paul. He released his three Starly and scanned them with his Pokedex, which was black.

"Starly, the Starling Pokemon. They flock in great numbers. Though small, they flap their wings with great power."

"I'm sure you know that you can find out a Pokemon's moves with a Pokedex and that's just what I do." Ash already knew that because he has done that ever since he became a Pokemon trainer.

After scanning Paul kept one of the Starly and released the other two. Ash, Tomo and Brock didn't like what they just saw.

"I get it." Ash said. "You just like catching strong Pokemon and you toss the weaker Pokemon away. You can't fool me because I've seen this before."

"Doing that just saves you the grief of the long road." Paul replied.

Ash started to dislike Paul, even though he just met him.

"Come on Brock, Tomo." He said. "I've had enough of this so let's go find Dawn."

Ash, Brock and Tomo walked away, leaving Paul alone with his Elekid.

Meanwhile Dawn was in trouble. When she came out of the grass, she was attacked by a machine. It was Team Rocket and they wanted her Piplup. James found out that Piplup was a water type starter Pokemon so they wanted it. Just before the mechanical arms could grab Piplup, they were burned off.

The gang arrived just in time to help Dawn.

"I can't say I'm surprised to see you Team Rocket." Ash glared at them.

Team Rocket was not happy to see Ash was ruining their plans again, so they started to turn their machine on him. Ash released his Piplup, Shinx and two Aipom and told them to attack the machine together. The two Aipom used Swift, Piplup used Bubble Beam and Shinx used Spark. Together the attacks broke the machine and Team Rocket was sent flying. So much for Team Rocket's start in Sinnoh.

Dawn was grateful. Just then she gasped when she saw Ash.

"Hey I remember seeing you on TV at the Hoenn and Kanto grand festivals." She said to Ash. "And they call you the prince of Kanto."

Ash was embarrassed and he didn't know he had that nickname."

"Ash, tell me all about your contests please." Dawn said.

"Wait until we get back to Prof. Rowan's lab." Ash said. "He wants to hear everything too."

So the group headed to Prof. Rowan's lab again. What they didn't know was that Paul watched everything.

Once the group got back to the lab, Ash told them all about his journey through Kanto, the Orange Islands, Johto and Hoenn. His times at the Pokemon leagues and grand festivals and he also showed Prof. Rowan and Dawn his psychic power, aura and dragon form.

"I was told about that by Prof. Oak and he was right about you Ash." Prof. Rowan said.

Dawn was amazed about Ash's stories and about his powers. Last of all Ash told them how he obtained Riolu, Shinx, Piplup and Budew in Rota.

"Well Ash, you are pretty lucky." Brock said.

Ash smiled.

"Hey Ash, are you going to participate in the contests in Sinnoh?" Dawn asked.

"Yes I am." Ash answered.

"Then please let me travel with you." Dawn said. "I wish to learn about the contests and battles from you."

The three boys were surprised by the sudden request. Prof. Rowan thought it was a good idea; since Dawn was a beginning trainer, she could learn a whole lot from Ash, Tomo and Brock. The three boys saw nothing wrong with that and agreed to let Dawn accompany them. So Dawn became the newest traveling partner of Ash, Tomo and Brock.

Just before the gang could leave to start the journey, Paul came up. He introduced himself to Prof. Rowan and explained that he was waiting for Ash. The thing is after seeing Ash's Pokemon break Team Rocket's machine he wanted to battle Ash to see how strong his Pokemon were, especially Pikachu. Ash accepted it; it would be good to have a battle before his journey through the Sinnoh Region began.

They moved to the back garden of the lab to have the battle. Paul said it would be a 3 on 3 Pokemon battle and no substitutions. Brock became the referee. Paul sent out his new Starly to battle first and Ash sent out his Piplup to battle first. Paul let Ash go first.

"Bubble." Ash told his Piplup.

"Dodge that and use Aerial Ace." Paul said.

Starly dodged the bubbles and moved in with Aerial Ace, hitting Piplup.

"Use Growl, Piplup." Ash said.

Piplup let out a loud cry and Starly covered it's ears.

"Now Piplup, use Steel Wing." Piplup struck Starly with metallic hands and it fainted.

"That Piplup is something special." Prof. Rowan said.

He told Dawn that Piplup doesn't normally learn Steel Wing until it evolves into Empoleon. Dawn could see that Ash's Piplup was stronger than hers.

Paul returned Starly.