Disclaimer: Blah blah blah I quite obviously don't own pokemon.

A/N: Wow, thank you for the story favourites and reviews! It means so much. Seriously. And if you haven't already reviewed I suggest you do because it makes me go like this; :D

Chapter 8: Phantom.

20th June.

May stirred a little. The darkness she'd succumbed to for god knows how long remained. Her eyes were so heavy it would take unbelievable strength to open them, strength she didn't have.
She could hear the sound of her own panicked breathing, she didn't even know whether she was still in the hotel. She tried to listen to whatever else was going on but it was hard to above her own breathing. She wanted to call out for help but she just couldn't manage to raise her voice enough.

There was a small noise about five minutes after May had regained consciousness; she recognized it as a door clicking open somewhere in the room. May heard footsteps walking through the room she was in. She could tell that wherever she was, it was small.
The footsteps stopped near where May was lying on the floor, whoever it was stood beside May, watching her.
She moved her head a little, using all of her strength to open her eyes just slightly.

Her head was in an excruciating amount of pain, as her eyes open her vision was completely blurred for a while, leaving her only able to make out a shape among the darkness of the room.

"Miss Maple, contrary to what you must think, I do not want to hurt you"

May recognized the voice from somewhere, being so out of it she couldn't quite think where.

"Who are you..?" May asked, her strength fading a little more every word she said.

Her captor laughed, "Unfortunately Miss Maple, I'm not at liberty to divulge personal information to you"

May attempted again to strain her eyes to see her captor but her vision was still blurred that only shapes remained. She doubted she'd see much in the dark room anyway.

"Why am I here?" She asked wearily.

She noticed the shape of her captor moving toward her, so close that she could hear the sound of breathing.

"Your little friend Drew is that reason"

"Why him?" May asked, her mind spinning.

"Miss Maple, you are simply insurance, please don't take this personally" Her captor said, "I'm going to contact him now"

May lay there for god knows how long, her captor still in the room. While she begun to feel more awake she heard a voice.

"Am I speaking to Drew Kurain?"

Location: Bayleaf Hotel.

Everyone had been sitting on the stage discussing how Drew should win the title of top coordinator. The problem was that everyone had different fighting techniques, resulting in Drew being bombarded with suggestions all different from each other.
He let out a small sigh and tried to smile politely.

"Maybe I'll just train alone" He said, awkward from the attention he was getting.

Before anyone else could say anything, the doors to the hall opened, everyone looked to them expectedly for May but instead came a person with a haze of purple hair and lime green clothes.

"Sweethearts! I have something for you!" Harley smiled brightly at everyone, "You're all gathered here for me! I am so honored!"

"Beat it, Harley" Max said bluntly.

Harley let out an overly sarcastic laugh, "Oh, you're so funny, Max!"

Everyone looked embarrassed for Harley because there was no-one else who found him funny in any way. Harley had begun to notice that no-one was laughing and let out a nervous laugh.

"Well Sweetie, I just came to tell you that I hope you lose!"

Drew smirked at Harleys comment, "That coming from someone who didn't even make the top four"

Harleys face turned red, "I'll have you know I put up a better fight than you did! You got lucky!"

"Does it matter?" Brock asked calmly before Drew could come up with a reply, "Shouldn't we all be more concerned with the situation with Jordan instead of boasting about the Grand Festival?"

For a moment, Harley looked like he was going to answer back, but decided not to.
It looked like everyone was breathing a sigh of relief as they didn't have to argue with Harley.

"So, do any of you know who did this to my precious Jordy?! I'd hate to see someone get away with something so terrible!" Harley clapped his hands together for dramatic effect.

Drew rolled his eyes, "Well, there's an overreaction-"

"Excuse me!" Harley shouted, "I've had just about enough of you!"

"Likewise" Drew said, smirking as Harleys temper begun to get worse.

"You are completely intolerable! I just want to help with my Jordys case-"

Dean stepped forward, "I'm all for insulting Mr. Mould-hair over there but I'm beginning to find it disturbing that you're calling my brother 'Your Jordy'"

Drew raised an eyebrow at Deans comment, "Childish name-calling works in school, Dean. Not right now"

Dean was taken aback, "And who are you to tell me what I can and can't say?"

"Someone that's getting sick of your constant presence around May-"

"I knew it!" Dean shouted, interrupting Drew mid-sentence, copying Drews arrogant hair flick to annoy him even more, "You, are jealous"

Drew couldn't stop his face from going bright red, "WHAT?! No way!"

Harley joined in, "Oh this is too precious!"

Dean didn't necessarily like Harley, he just enjoyed the fact that he and Harley could make Drew so annoyed so easily, just by mentioning May.

Max, Ash and Brock were getting to the point where their eyebrows would disappear into their hair, they were raised so high. Brock took a step forward, determined to sort this out, and made himself the barrier between Dean, Harley and Drew.

"This doesn't matter! Yeah, we get that you all hate each other but this doesn't help or change a thing!" He said as calmly as he could.

Harley, Dean and Drew stopped bickering in agreement with Brock. The next person to speak was Max, who had suddenly got very pale.

"Hey guys, where's May?" He asked.

Everyone thought for a moment, she'd been gone for a while. In fact, they'd been talking for nearly forty minutes. Dean stepped forward.

"I'll go look for her" He said, walking away at a fast pace.

Drew glared after him as he walked. Harley watched Dean go too, unlike everyone else, he still had a bright smile on his face.

"I'm going to follow him, he might tell me more about Jordy!" Harley clapped his hands together, far too excited.

"Go ahead" Max said, "Knock yourself out"

Harley smiled brightly, "Of course, Hun"

Max made a face and murmured so only Ash could hear, "I was being serious"

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief as Harley begun to walk away, unfortunately that was short lived as he swiveled round and walked up to Drew again.

"I totally forgot what I came in here for, some guy at the front desk told me to find you and give this to you" Harley said, holding out a package for Drew.

Drew took the package off Harley and begun to rip away the layers of wrapping paper that were covering whatever was inside. Drew noticed from the wrapping that someone had given this to the front desk in a hurry, he hoped it wasn't any hate mail or anything sent to him to hurt him.
He got to what was inside the package, a mobile phone.

Drew was confused, looking up at Harley, "This isn't mine?"

"Maybe it's a present?" Harley offered, "I was just told to give this to you, I don't know why, Anyway, toodles!"

Harley walked off, his annoying cheerfulness going with him. Drew looked at the small black phone he'd been given with curiosity.

"It's probably been mistaken for your phone" Brock said, "The owner will ring eventually"

"I guess" Drew said, bemused that out of all people the phone would be given to him through, Harley had to be the one to do it.

Fifteen minutes passed while they all sat around the hall, waiting for Dean to return with May.

"I bet her and mum are on the phone gossiping" Max said, "I hate it when they do that"

Ash was clutching his stomach, a pained looked on his face, "My stomach hates them for it. I'm so hungry!"

Brock rolled his eyes, "Maybe May needed to make more than one phone call?"

Max looked glum, "To do even more talking?"

Brock shrugged his shoulders, "Maybe"

The doors to the hall opened quite suddenly, with such speed they smashed against the walls. Dean strolled through as fast as he could without actually running, he had a determined look on his face as he walked up to Drew and the others.

"Do you know any other places in this building with phones?" He asked, a little out of breath, "I can't see her"

"There are phones in the room behind the front desk" Brock said.

Everyone looked at him.

"How did you know that?!" Max asked, amazed.

Brock blushed, "There was a cute girl on the phone when I checked in and I couldn't help but-"

Max raised an eyebrow, "I should've known"

Dean looked at the others, "I seriously couldn't see her anywhere, when I was at the front desk there was no-one in the back room.."

"She's probably gone to her room, or gone out" Drew said, "She could even be avoiding you-"

"Enough!" Brock interrupted before either of them could say another word, "Please, no more fighting"

Before anyone could agree or say anything otherwise, the phone in Drews hand started to ring, shocking everyone at the sheer volume of it.

"Put it on speakerphone" Max whispered.

Drew recovered from nearly dropping it and pressed the answer button, as well as the speakerphone button, if it was the owner of the lost phone it was best they tried to recognize the voice.

Drew was shaking a little from the volume of the phone ringing, he hated unexpected loud noises, "Uh, hello?"

"Am I speaking to Drew Kurain?" The voice on the other end of the line said, Drew could swear he recognized the voice from somewhere, he couldn't quite put his finger on it.

"And you are?" Drew asked bluntly.

The person on the other end actually begun to laugh, a creepy hollow laugh that sent a shiver down Drews spine.

"I don't think you understand. That information is trivial. There are far more important matters you should be concerning yourself with"

Drew raised an eyebrow, "Like?"

"DREW! HELP ME! DREWWW!"

Drew's heart skipped a beat at the sound of her voice, by the looks of it, so did everyone else's.

"M-May?!" He stuttered.

"So now you see how trivial the matter of my name is"

"I.. May!"

"That's the problem with kids like you, you're always over-reacting to situations like these" The voice said calmly, "Anyway, I wouldn't want you to fall apart just yet. In fact, I have a proposal for you"

Drew's icy demeanor returned, "And that is?"

"Patience is a virtue, Drew" The voice paused for effect knowing very well Drew was hanging onto every last syllable he spoke, "If you do what I ask, your lady friend will be returned. If you do not do as I ask, you will never see or hear from your girl- ever again"

Drew lost it, again, "Your-You're SICK!"

The voice did that hollow, disturbing laugh, "I'm just doing my job. Now, would you like to tell me exactly what I've done now, boy?"

Drew was confused, "What do you mean?"

"I want you to say out loud, in front of all the people you must be around, exactly what this is" Whoever it was, they sounded amused, "After all, I want to do as much damage as possible if I don't get to actually kill the girl"

Drew closed his eyes and clenched the fist that was lying by his side, he shuddered as he spoke, "K-Kidnapping for ransom"

"That's right!" The voice said, cheerfully, "Yes. This is a kidnapping"

"What he hell do you want?!" Drew shouted, he could have thought of a million other things to say or ways to say it but he didn't want to push this guy the wrong way.

"Good. You're beginning to understand"

Drew ran a hand through his hair, "State your price… I'll- I'll give you anything you want! You want money? You can have it, you can have it all!"

"Price?" The voice asked, a slight humorous tone to his voice, "In a days work I can make triple what most people make in a year. I don't want money. The condition on getting your item back is that you have to lose"

Drew was confused again, "Lose.. to you?"

The voice remained humorous, "I am not the one you will be losing to. You must lose to Clifford Miles"

Drew was taken aback, "C-Clifford? Why?"

The voice breathed deeply down the phone line for a moment, "I will state this only once, firmly but clearly" The voice had turned deadly serious, "Clifford Miles did not do anything, he did not poison Jordan Coran, he did not try to kill him, he did not kill anyone. However, if he loses the opportunity to become top coordinator, I will"

"You will?" Drew asked, realizing this was no longer some petty rematch.

"Someone is planning to frame Clifford for this, someone incredibly clever, someone close to him. You can believe anything you like about what I say. But take this as a fact, your precious item is in my possession. You have two days to lose these matches. Oh and while I'm talking to you, do not contact the police about this. If I find out you have, even if you lose, your precious item will never be returned. Think hard about this, Mr Kurain. I'd hate to see you let May down"

Drew thought for a moment, "WAIT!"

"Yes?" The voice asked.

"Who are you?" Drew wondered, "I know you said your name isn't important but I want to know!"

The voice broke out into that hollow laugh, his voice deepening menacingly.

"I haven't had a real name in years, six years to be exact" The voice said.

"What's your 'fake' name, then?" Drew asked desperately.

The disturbing laugh was all that took up the other end of the line for a few minutes, "They call me The Phantom"

Before Drew could say a word the sound of that menacing laugh had been replaced by the dial tone.