Back by popular demand. I guess I enjoy Ikarishipping so much that it gets put across to you lot too, right?
Who am I kidding? I just love writing. Full stop. :)
Plus I haven't written about Paul in a while.

So, Merry-semi-christmas. :)

Even though we had now become traveling partners, it made no change in Paul whatsoever. He made no effort to converse, and didn't check to see I was behind him when he turned the corner.

I was beginning to regret agreeing to this.

"Um... Maybe we should ask someone?" I worried, scanning the ghost town. Slightly problematic, Paul didn't even bother blessing me with a snide remark. Just a smirk.

I sighed, I knew worrying wasn't going to help anything. It would more than likely hinder us, so I had to work to keep my tone light as I tried to take my mind off things. "How's Reggie?"

Paul shrugged. I frowned, he wasn't giving me much to work with. "Don't you keep in touch?"

"Not really, but if you're so interested, you should call him yourself. I'm sure he wouldn't mind your chit-chat." He said monotonously. My gaze dropped to the floor; "Oh, sorry."

So family talk was not a favourable topic for Paul. I mentally noted that and moved on to something I knew he was interested in. "He looks after your pokemon, doesn't he? What team are you planning to use for the league?" I smiled brightly, trying to look as interested as possible. Maybe he could learn something. He looked at me with bored eyes; "Why, so you can tell your friend?"

I gasped a little, then sniffed. "I'd never do anything like that, I didn't realise it was so personal to you."

He shrugged again, and it was really starting to grate at my nerves. I didn't have the best temper and patience, and that made a fiery combination. I didn't understand what had made him change so suddenly, was it this Urban area? Surely not, there wasn't a human or pokemon in sight. It couldn't be that he was protecting some reputation... Maybe it was though, maybe there was only a certain person he worked to keep his angry image for. His rival. I sighed, that would have to be right, typical alpha male behaviour.

I changed to something he couldn't have an opinion on, contests.

"Want to know what Pokemon I'll be using in my next contest?"

"Not really." He sighed.

I gave him my answer, ignoring his remark anyway. It was cheering me up at least; "Well in the Grand Festival, Mamoswine worked so hard! I definitely think we've trained long enough to make a good appeal." I paused to wait for some remark, and was shocked to hear him actually interested; "You have a Mamoswine?"

I grinned, pleased with my hard work paying off; "Yeah, I caught it as a Swinub, we trained real hard together. Sure, I had some issues when it first evolved, but now we're really good friends."

He grunted, and it seemed to be an impressed grunt. If there was such a thing.

We turned a corner, and it seemed that we'd hit the jackpot. "Bingo." I muttered, and I heard Paul chuckle. I realised he was enjoying my company more than he was letting on. We headed straight for a huge building, the only one that seemed to have power running through it. We came to the front door and stopped. I looked up the building, the lights were on at about the third floor.

I nodded to myself, before stepping forward, but I was stopped by his hand grabbing at my wrist.

"If we go barging in there, they'll put some defences up. Lets get your friends out before they realise we're here." Paul muttered quietly, taking me around the building. I smiled; "Good idea, that way I can use Togekiss to scout the back rooms."

"A Togekiss too, huh?"

I giggled, to my surprise. I was rather fond of my new Togekiss.

We reached the back, and luck was on our side once again. The basement door had been opened, and abandoned. They clearly hadn't checked that. I reached for a pokeball and followed the plan. The large white pokemon smiled happily at me as it gracefully stood on the tips of its feet. It looked to Paul and bowed gently.

"I need you to find Ash and Brock. I think they're in this building somewhere, do you think you can look through the windows?" I whispered, and Togekiss nodded. Silently, it spread its wings and lifted into the air with a grace that left me breathless every time. Even Paul seemed in awe.

"Let's go." He murmured, carefully treading into the dark basement. The steady decline meant light went slowly away from our eyes. With each step I grew more nervous, if they managed to defeat Pikachu so quickly, how were we going to defeat them now, when they would have stronger defences this time?

But then, as the light was near enough gone, I felt a hand wrap around mine. It was as if he knew I would be afraid, and that I would need the guidance. I could only just see the silhouette of our fingers folding around our hands, a finger between each gap. I searched for his face and found he was looking at my panicked expression. "It's okay." He stated, giving me no reason object. I found I didn't want to, either.

As we waded through the inky darkness, I evaluated that hand. Was it me that he was doing this for? Or himself? Though I knew I was probably being conceited in thinking this, but it was strangely out of character for Paul to hold my hand, let alone do it twice in such a short amount of time.

So if he was doing this for me, how did that make me feel? I concentrated on the warmth passing through his palm, how his skin was unexpectedly smooth and gentle. The warmth crept through me in short jolts, like pins and needles. Other than the physical feeling, I couldn't work out what was going on.

We interupt this programme to discuss the diabolical news that could destroy us all. I've never interrupted my work, but I felt this was necessary.

Dawn and Paul are leaving the show.

I know. I only just found out. WHY? Why cruel world? Hence why I've continued writing this again. Ikarishipping changed the way I saw shippings completely, and I feel the need to write it all the time. It also changed the way I wrote, I loved it so much, that I began writing with proper grammar, and bigger chapters. It was my most successful 'fic. (Even though people are copying it. ¬_¬) There are many things I love about Ikarishipping, and it hasn't had chance to give us many hints!

Here we go, just to feed your Ikari spirits, I know that's what I needed to get over my depression from this horrible news. *Cries again*

He creaked open the basement's door that would get us into the building. I didn't like it, it made too much noise. It let in a small amount of light, and that soothed me a little more. He pressed his face to the door frame so he could see out the door, and smiled; "nobody." He whispered, then turned to me. "Go see if your Togekiss has found them."

I nodded, shuffling my way to the light again, my hands out in front of me. I didn't like being blind, but the light came quick enough. I peeked out and saw Togekiss flying frantically, I grinned. I could see it was three stories high, and they both pressed their faces to the glass. Ash waved at me quickly, as if I wasn't already paying attention.

"Which room, Togekiss?" I asked, and the pokemon made a sweeping move across the level. It then flapped its beautiful wings purposefully four times. Third level, fourth room down the corridor. I nodded and returned it. Muttering thanks as I made my way to the dark again. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, reluctant but determined to move through.

Of course, by closing my eyes, I restricted my vision even more so that the darkness. I was stupid enough to forget that in doing so, it was almost inevitable that I should trip. Which was exactly what I did. I remember thinking about how much noise the impact was going to make. Luckily enough, Paul had been thinking the same too, and it was him who had tripped me. The impact was cushy, being his chest. My toe hurt from where I'd stubbed it on his foot though. I took pleasure in feeling those sharp pangs through my hands again as I placed them on him to lift myself to stand again. I opened my eyes to see him staring incredulously at me, but his hands were out in mid action, as if he'd attempted to catch me but I'd already head butted him. Oh the shame.

"Thanks." I muttered nervously, keeping my face down as I followed him back to the small line of light. His outline came into view, and he creaked the door open enough for us to slip through. "Third floor, fourth room."

I saw him nod once.

The stairs were metal, we were especially careful how we placed our feet. The slightest weight made a tapping sound. I held my breath, just to make myself lighter.

Three flights of stairs, nobody had noticed us, and we hadn't noticed anybody. The floor was now carpeted, so Paul took my hand and ran. The fourth door was closed, and from the light peeping through the side of the door, we could see it was unlocked. He looked to me and I nodded with determination. He pressed the handle slowly and pushed the door. I ran straight in.

To my mistake, they weren't here. I remember thinking 'where were they?' a brief millisecond, before a hand clutched around my throat and coiled me to turn with my back to my captor.

That horrible, unmistakable double click sounded by my left ear. I shuddered violently.

"Drop the pokeballs."

I did so immediately. I wouldn't have used them anyway. I recognised the voice, it was Hun.

"Get out there." Hun spat, I didn't see where he was pointing, but Hun pushed me out the door. "Up the stairs." He barked. We did so.

Surprisingly enough, as scared as I was, I kept myself relatively calm. We moved up the stairs and Hun pushed open the door at the top floor. We were on the roof. Paul wasn't anywhere to be seen, he must have managed to escape. I exhaled with relief. At least one of us could alert the police.

I continued to scan the roof, the most noticeable figure being the huge, muscled Attlia. He grinned at me from the edge of the roof.

Hun led me to the middle, and when I strained my eyes to look at the floor, I realised we were on a helipad.

"Dawn!"

I didn't move my head, but I grimaced as Ash called me. Hun threw me to look over at them, and I gasped. They were hung behind Attila. My friends, bound by rope and tied to a mere flag pole. They both looked at me with panic, more so for me than themselves. I found I was quite the opposite, but then I couldn't see the gun at my head.

"We need a Helicopter here, now." Hun ordered harshly, shaking me slightly as he slammed his phone back into his pocket. I whimpered helplessly, wobbling in his strong grasp like a rag doll.

"Let her go!" I heard Ash cry; "just take us and let her go!"

Attila was the one to reply this time, he hadn't spoken since I'd arrived; "she caught up to us here, didn't she? No, we won't be that stupid again."

I heard Ash's growl and flashed my eyes in warning to him. He didn't stop.

"Attila." Hun barked, and the large man bounded over in three long strides. He loomed over me and Hun, grinning down at me like we were in some happy, comfortable situation. I shuddered into Hun, and wished I hadn't. He shoved me forward for Attila to catch me, and he then picked me up, bride-style, and I flailed my legs.

"Dawn!"

"Get off me, get off me!" I screeched, but he wrapped his long arms around my skinny legs, and my hands did nothing to stop him. He was overwhelmingly strong.

"Dawn!"

A new voice, one I'd been hoping would come. I stopped thrashing and twisted myself to see him, he stood hunched slightly, his hands gripped in frustration. A stance I regularly saw him take in battle. It scared me even more.

"Put her down." He growled, reaching for his belt...

"I wouldn't do that if I were you-"

"Dawn, get out of here!"

"Let her go!"

We were all in fierce conflict, growling and shouting words that just became a blur. It wasn't until a loud bang sounded did we all stopped in our tracks. I searched frantically for who I'd lost, but they were all staring wide eyed at Hun. I looked over too, his arm was held straight upward. He jolted it toward me and Attila dropped me to my knees so I was an open target.

"Anybody moves or says another word without my okay, she gets shot."

I heard no movement. I kept my head down, but I could still see his shadow leering over me, that horrible extension to the shadow's arm.

Attila's feet ground into the gravel as he turned. I grimaced away from the sound.

"You. Put the pokeballs down."

I heard the clinks immediately. They'd worked out who affected him most already, they were nothing like the Team Rocket Trio I'd become accustomed to and we knew they weren't bluffing.

"Kick them here." Again, another gravelly slide and the rolling of pokeballs toward Attila, he gathered them up and grinned.

I whimpered again, feeling desperately weak. There was no way out of this, for me anyway. I looked up slowly, the gun in his hand tightened. I flinched away but said my piece; "Please. Let them all go. They won't bother you. Please."

Hun sneered at me; "I'm afraid that isn't your choice." His eye line flickered up to behind me, where Paul stood. I kept my eyes on Hun as he continued to speak; "You can choose. Let her come with us, and you can save them. Pick her, and they fall to their death."

I noticed I wasn't getting shot in either scenareo for the moment, to my relief. I just hoped Paul spotted this too, I would go with them if Paul was allowed to save my friends. There was no sign of movement until a sound in the distance began ringing through the air.

"Not now..." I muttered. The police. The sound approached at shocking speeds.

"Attila!" Hun shouted quickly, and I was yanked up by my arm. "You'd better choose quickly." I looked to Paul and pleaded with my eyes, then looked straight at Ash and Brock. Both brimming with tears, and I saw Paul begin running toward them.

"No!" Ash screamed; "Get her! No! No no no!"

Yes. I was thankful. I felt Helicopter blades press air straight onto me, my hair whipping around my face furiously.

"Pretty good haul, Hun." Attila yelled over the sound of beating blades. We moved away from the landing pad, and it hovered waiting for us to get in. Attila lifted me over his shoulder, and I made no resistance. The Helicopter was black, with a large red 'R' on its side. The pilot took off the moment I was strapped in. Already I was caged. I closed my eyes and cried.

I hope this soothed you as much as it did me. This news is actually killing me.

I'm getting into a roll with this. I'm super enjoying it. My Ikari spirit is re-awakened after a coma of depression!

Reviews please. :) Edited for mistakes. I swear this thing keeps taking words out of my sentences! I read back and think; "Whaa?"