Here's chapter 9 of my Songfic. Last time Chase and Andrew had a battle of mind over matter with Chase declared the winner much to his chagrin. With the tournament close approaching and all the teams assembled nothing else should go wrong, right?

DISCLAIMER: I HAVE NO CONNECTIONS TO POKEMON HOWEVER MUCH I LIKE TOTHINK I DO. PLEASE DON'T REPORT ME FOR A SUIT FILE.

International Tournament File 009: Keep Up the Drive

A week before the tournament's opening ceremony and Chase, Szac, and Andrew had been declared as the American team after an intense debate and a conditional response.

"If you allow Andrew to join the American team with his Ferrothorn, then you can have the chance for the authorities to apprehend him with no interference from the rest of us harboring him from the officials." Iain said with a very powerful voice.

"Mister Micheals, you have a compromise!" the justice declared hitting the podium with his hammer. "Court is adjourned!"

Andrew was shown leaning up against the wall with his arms crossed smiling to himself with Szac and Chase in the corridor awaiting the response. Andrew delivered the good news and the three returned to hotel to find a truly disturbing scene.

"Gijo-kun, nya!" Brittany yelled jumping out from nowhere pouncing on Gijo.

"Having fun?" Szac said teasingly with a small snicker.

"Just wait shrimp, once she's done with me, your next." Gijo said with a crazed look in his eye.

Szac backed off slowly as Brittany continue to cuddle Gijo to the point of choking. Andrew and Chase both turned around and left the hotel bursting into laughter and returning a moment later with straight faces staring at the two on the ground.

"Why do you do that anyway?" Chase asked looking down at Brittany.

"Because he's so kawaii, nya!" she said still cuddling on him.

"Not really what I meant; I meant why you do that to only him and not someone like Szac or one of the other girls in the hotel." Chase explained.

"Because I saved her once and she hasn't been able to move away from that." Gijo standing up and walking away with Galvantula following him. "Just leave me alone…" he said turning to Brittany.

Brittany sat there in silence and looked back up to the American team members with a confused look on her face.

"I think you got him mad." Andrew said stating the obvious. "I'll go talk to him."

Andrew made his way up when Brittany gripped his jacket and pulled him back and walked up herself.

"I got him mad, I need to apologize, nya." She said with a confident smile making her own way up to Gijo's room.

Brittany knocked on the door with a simple "Go away" from Gijo. Brittany continued to knock and even stated that she would continue to do so until Gijo opened the door. Gijo opened the door and looked at Brittany with a near emotionless face.

"There, I opened it." He said shutting the door in her face.

"Alright, nya. Liepard, Sucker Punch, nya!" she ordered to her Pokémon.

Liepard struck the door with a simple strike opening the door to find Gijo jumping out the window. Brittany saw Gijo looking back up at her and running with Galvantula.

"Hold up, nya. Liepard, come on, nya." She said jumping out the window and running after him.

Brittany made the chase last for several minutes until Gijo's young age got the better of him causing him to tire giving Brittany the time to catch up to him.

"Let's talk, Gijo-kun, nya." She said compassionately inching towards him.

When Brittany was mere inches from Gijo Brittany felt a small rumble as did Gijo as the ground from beneath began to give away from underneath them.

"Hoe?" Brittany exclaimed as the two fell down with the Pokémon.

"Galvantula, return!" Gijo called out as the two were falling into what seemed like thirty feet.

Brittany also returned her Pokémon as the two finally hit the ground to find Andrew looking down the hole.

"What's up?" he asked with a hint of derision.

"At the moment, everything but us." Gijo said. "Can you get us out?"

"Ooh, no can do. See I used Ferrothorn's Gyro Ball the dig that hole so you two could have some alone time and I can't let you out until you apologize to Brittany, Gijo." Andrew explained.

Gijo and Brittany's jaw dropped to the ground as Andrew instructed Ferrothorn to stay on top of the hole and only to let them out when Gijo had apologized.

"Bye-bye." He said teasingly while giving a smug look to wards the two.

"Great, just great!" Gijo said pacing back and forth through the hole. "Next time I see that delinquent, I'm gonna kill him."

"Why don't we just attack Ferrothorn, nya?" Brittany asked.

"A few reasons; one, he has a natural defense that beats even Pokémon that are said to be legendary and a special defense that tops all other non-legendary Pokémon, two, even if we did beat him how do we climb up? This wall was cut completely flat by that Gyro Ball attack and anymore than that and we're talking ice-like friction and three, our Pokémon can't reach that high in either speed to use a physical attack or the height in which to hit it at long range. So, looks like we're stuck here until someone else comes and gets us out." Gijo explained sitting down; as he did his phone rang and alerted him to a text from Andrew reading, "I have already alerted the other occupants of the hotel to not aid you in your problem, bye-bye…"

Gijo began shaking and screamed out until he began panting and Brittany trying to comfort him with no avail.

"Y'know it's all your fault, right?" Gijo said looking at her.

"Hoe?"

"If you hadn't always been cuddling with me this whole mess could have been averted. I told you to move past that time when I saved you and that Purrloin."

"Do you even remember that day, nya?" Brittany asked.

"Like it was yesterday…" Gijo said drifting off into one of his few memories explaining, "I had just begun working as an undercover police officer and had been getting a hard time at work. For me going back to my place was the only time of peace and nowhere else. You were my next door neighbor" he said looking towards Brittany, "and you weren't too social, living with your grandparents you were kept away from me at all costs due to my methods of enforcement towards other cops. They did something wrong it was up to me to stop them…at all costs. Anyway, it was rainy and I was coming back from work to find a stalker following you and grabbing at you and your purse. For me, watching someone getting harassed and not doing anything was just as bad as the one harassing so I stepped in and attacked him with Galvantula and arrested him. You never said anything until the two of us got back home to find your grandparents at their front door with several different emotions expressed; relief, disapproval, confusion, etc. and etc. They asked you what happened and you explained the whole situation down to the slightest movement.

"You had begun to walk home from the market when a stray Purrloin began following you, and you having a thing for all things cute scooped it up in your arms and began to carry it home not realizing that it had a collar on it. As you walked down the street a noblewoman stopped you and demanded that you give the Purrloin to her as it was her property. You noticed the Purrloin frightened expression upon seeing the woman and refused. When she wanted to use force you attacked her with your shopping bag out of fear. She fell backwards and saw Purrloin growling at her alerting her to the fact she was against her. She cursed you and vowed to get even before you even arrived back at your house. From what I dug up she hired a hit man to take the sleeping Purrloin in its PokéBall from your purse and when he got started he went into a state of full-on stalker and when you reached the part of me saving you your grandparents were shocked and amazed apologizing for everything they ever thought of me. I told them it was my duty to serve and protect and in this case, my privilege. You took that the wrong way and began this whole thing where you think I'm in love with you. I've told you many times that I don't reciprocate those feelings but you always thought I was being modest. But I envied you; I envied you that you had so many memories than what I had before Galvantula that part of me wanted to get to know you."

Brittany giggled at the serious face that Gijo had on when he said that he envied her. She then thought back to her own past and hit Gijo on the head.

"What was that for?" he asked tending to his head.

"You don't know how good you got it, do you, nya?" she said. "Without memories, there's no room for sadness and pain, nya. You never knew anything about me and I can imagine if you did you'd think I was the worst person to be around, nya. My parents died when I was six and me and my sisters had to make our own way in the world, nya. We got gigs singing and got money that way until my sisters got sick and died from cardiac arrest, nya. You think I was always like that, nya? Anti-social, nya? When you think about, having no memories is better than having painful ones instead, nya."

Gijo hit her on the head as she did to him before and gave a estranged smile, "Try not to think of it as me not having any painful memories, but instead think of it as me having no happy ones." He said with Brittany looking over at him. "You do have an unfortunate past, but think about Andrew, he had no one to turn to after he lost his parents he has memories of that pain, but he also has memories of Bouffalant that are the happiest times of his life. Alejandro has the memory of his friends going to jail, but he has the memory of meeting the person who helped get them out. Chase never had the love of a family, but he coped with Luxray. Rei was taught that she could never battle because of the violence, but she found a love for both battle and show. Iain I found out recently that he was under the whip of his parents when they were around and when they weren't he had to cope with the feeling of not being loved, but instead his happiest memories are of his partner. Ashley and Jon are a regular Romeo and Juliet, but they've found joy in the memories of being friends. Star has the memory of being threatened by her father, but has the memory of being the greatest battler because of her mother's love. Daisy and Szac probably have their painful memories of abandonment from society and not being able to see one's family, but they have memories of the friends they've made along the way to where they are now. And you have the memory of losing part of your family, but finding it again. Not having memories is even more painful than not having a lifetime of happy memories. All I know of my past is a symbol of a slanted letter.

"Brittany I'm sorry, for making you feel as though I never I cared when in reality you and Star are the two most important people to me since I've had memories to look back on." Gijo said bowing to Brittany as they heard applause coming from up the hole.

The two found a radio on the bottom of Ferrothorn and that it was recording everything. Gijo and Brittany both dropped their jaws again and yelled into the radio.

"How long were you listening, nya?" Brittany asked.

"Since…always!" Rei's voice called out.

"Andrew! You're dead!" Gijo called out to the radio.

"Far from it, shrimp. Ferrothorn fell asleep about an hour ago and it looks like you two are stuck in there until he wakes up." Andrew's voice said.

"How long is that?" Gijo said getting nervous.

"At the least, two hours, at most, eight." He said very flatly.

Gijo froze in his position and began to freak out as Brittany jumped on him cuddling him…to the extreme. Andrew's voice could be heard laughing from the radio.

"So I get to play with Gijo-kun for about seven hours, nya?" she said still cuddling him.

"I gave Ferrothorn the industrial sleeping pills so…yeah." He said as the other trainers began to laugh hysterically. "Have fun, Brittany-san." He said.

Throughout the rest of Ferrothorn's nap one could hear Gijo screaming from the bottom of the whole.

"STOP IT! NO, DON'T DO THAT, IT TICKLES! HEEEEEEELP!"

After Ferrothorn woke up one could see Gijo in a heap with Brittany still holding on to him. After the two reached the outside of the hole Gijo ran back to the hotel and locked all the doors and windows to his room. Brittany went back up to her room and began writing in a small journal which became apparent to Rei.

"Whatcha writing, lover-girl?" she asked in a suggestive tone.

Brittany yelped and tried to hide her journal with Rei continuing to try to grab it from her. This went on for several minutes until Rei finally grabbed and opened it to the page she was writing on. Rei was inches away from reading it when Brittany tackled her like a football player causing her to drop it. Brittany grabbed it and locked it with a combo lock and began to sigh out of relief.

"Your secrets are soon to be figured out, lover-girl. Don't think it isn't obvious for me and the other girls. See ya." She said waving back to her.

Brittany sighed out of relief again and looked across the hall at Gijo's closed door and simply muttered the words, "I'll never doubt you again…"

Chapter nine finished. Next, the tournament is only a day away and one of the members is missing, what is the team going to do find this trainer? Is it the work of another team or of their own volition? Ja nee.