Here's chapter 6! I'm glad that most of you are enjoying my fic so far, but I'd like to reply to those reviews that left me quite puzzled as to why they dislike my fic for the sole reason that May's in it. It's perfectly fine that you prefer Misty over May, but I'm not looking to see if you like the characters in my fic, I'm looking to see if you like my fic in general. The anime, Pokemon, has no official couples or REAL love on it because the writers made it for kids. They never intended on a love relationship between Misty and Ash, May and Ash, Jesse and James, or any of the other main characters, but that's the whole point of fanfiction, it's FICTION written by FANS. And another thing, if you don't like my fic, then it's a probably a good idea that you shouldn't read it.

Chapter 6: Round 3: Survival of the Fittest!

The sun was setting by the time Ash and May's tour of the town ended. They were now somewhere in the outskirts of Pallet. Ash was unaware of this and continued walking with May right behind him. May had barely noticed that they were no longer within the perimeter of the town, she was merely happy about having Ash to herself for once. No Max, no Brock, no Pikachu, and definitely no Misty, it was just her and Ash.

Meanwhile, Misty, waited for Ash and May to return. The more time passed, the more agitated Misty got. 'It's now 5:49, where the heck are they?' she wondered.

"Misty, could you please do me a favor?" Mrs. Ketchum called from within the dining room. Misty put on a cheerful smile and answered, "Yes?"

"I was calling several neighbors and they say that Ash and May were heading into the Viridian Forest. It's late and knowing Ash, he'll probably end up camping out there, could you please track him down and give him his sleeping bag?"

"Sure Mrs. Ketchum!" Misty said gladly. This was a good opportune moment to keep an eye on Ash. She ran up to his room and grabbed his sleeping bag, as well as her own.

"Oh, Misty! Could you get the spare that's in the attic? May probably doesn't have one with her and I wouldn't want her to catch cold out there." Misty's face faltered at the mention of her name. 'Yeah, wouldn't want that to happen to poor May,' she thought sarcastically.

Misty headed out of the house with two sleeping bags under her arms along with Togepi in her backpack. Pikachu accompanied her with the third sleeping bag. The both of them were struggling a bit with lugging the camping necessities around, but they managed to reach the Viridian Forest.

"Hey Ash, are we still in Pallet? There's nothing but trees and fields here." May commented. Ash peered at the surroundings.

"Waah! We went too far!"

"It's getting dark, we better turn back."

"Nah, we'll just camp out here May!"

"Camp out? But we don't even have anything to get us through the night!"

"Calm down May, we'll just make due with what we have."

"You don't understand Ash, I'm not one to be in touch with nature, I can't just be dropped off in the middle of the woods and be expected to survive with nothing."

Just then a rustling sound was heard. May jumped and hid behind Ash.

"What was that?"

"Probably a pokemon."

The rustling continued. Something was nearing the two of them. May whimpered behind Ash. Ash was prepared to grab a pokeball and send out one of his pokemon to protect them, but suddenly a familiar voice was heard.

"Don't tell me you two are afraid of being out here all alone."

A figure appeared revealing Misty along with Pikachu. Ash and May sighed in relief.

"Hey Misty, what are you doing all the way out here?" Ash asked.

"I could ask you the same question!" Misty said with annoyance in her voice eyeing May suspiciously. May only rolled her eyes.

"Anyways, your mom asked me to bring you your sleeping bag." She put his sleeping bag down on the ground. She then turned to May and in a careless tone said, "Oh, and she told me to bring you one too May." She then dropped the extra sleeping bag and stretched from having to carry the two loads. Pikachu had also put Misty's sleeping bag down and a fell to the ground exhausted.

"Thanks Misty!" Ash said grabbing his bag. May grabbed the extra one gratefully. Ash then noticed that Misty had brought hers as well.

"Are you camping out here with us?"

"I'm not a delivery girl, I have a right to be here."

"I'm not saying you don't, we might as well get a fire going now before it gets too dark, you two get the firewood, me and Pikachu will get something to eat."

"Pika!" Ash and Pikachu left in search for food. Misty and May were left to themselves. They stood in silence for a while. Misty then started walking off. May then suddenly got frightened being by herself and followed her.

"Why are you following me? You're not afraid are you?"

"No! Of course not! I just think we'll have more luck locating wood together."

"May, we're looking for wood, it's not hard to find. Don't you know how to survive by yourself?"

"Sure I can!"

"All right then! We'll see if you can, we'll both have separate camps. Neither of us will ask for Ash's help. We'll see who gets through the night."

"Fine then!" Misty and May headed in opposite directions looking for wood. 'Oh great! I have no idea what I'm doing! It was easier when Ash, Brock, and Max were there by my side whenever we camped out, but I don't think I can do this on my own!'

Misty had no trouble gathering wood for herself. She was on her way back to the campsite. She saw that May hadn't returned yet and smiled smugly. 'She won't last long.'

Ash and Pikachu had returned with fruit and berries. He saw that only Misty was there.

"Hey, where's May? Did she get lost?"

"No, she just decided to try to fend for herself out here and asks for neither of us to help her." Misty said. Ash was a little confused as to why May would want to do that, but shrugged it off.

May was still wandering around trying to find firewood. 'Give me a break! I'm in a forest! How difficult can it be to find some decent wood?!' she continued her search and sighed. She was just about to send out a pokemon to help her in her search, but decided not to. 'No, I want to do this on my own, without even my pokemon's help!'

Tired, scared, and cold, May decided to grab small pieces of sticks and twigs, not caring if they were decent enough. She grabbed anything that would burn, like leaves. She returned to the campsite to find that Misty and Ash had their own campfires set several feet away from each other.

"Pika!" Pikachu yelled out happily as it saw May approach. Ash and Misty looked up to see her.

"Hey May! I was starting to get worried about you! Where've you been?" Misty said in a catty way. May only glared at her. She went over to her sleeping bag and dropped everything she had gathered to the ground exhausted.

"Is that all you got as firewood?" Ash asked her. May blushed in embarrassment.

"I'm not all that cold anyways, besides I'm afraid of starting a forest fire."

"Okay."

May sat down on the ground tired from the walking she did.

"Aren't you going to start a fire May?" May groaned hearing Misty ask that question.

'How do I do this?' May asked herself. She thought back to times when Brock would set up camp. Of course, he was prepared with matches. She tried rubbing two sticks together. Tiny embers would appear, but died down soon after lighting. May was growing exasperated and fell onto her back. Her head hit something hard and she looked to see what it was. She smiled happily finding out that it was flint. She grabbed it and tried striking it against her pile of sticks and leaves. A spark appeared and the sticks caught fire to it. May rejoiced.

"Great job May!" Ash congratulated her.

"Yeah, great job." Misty said dully.

May beamed, but noticed that she was growing hungry. She looked towards Ash and Misty. They were both already eating, Misty was feeding Togepi and Ash was feeding Pikachu. Misty made a side glance and noticed May was staring at them eating.

"You know May, if you're hungry, then maybe you should start looking for some food." May groaned again. She was tired, but she was also hungry. She got up and started walking away.

"Gee, May seems pretty tired, I wonder why she wants to do this all by herself." Ash wondered watching May.

"I have no idea." Misty lied.

'Here I am again, wandering in the woods again. Why did I even agree to this challenge?' May asked herself. She looked up in the trees, and saw that they were no longer baring fruit or berries. 'How could all the fruits and berries disappear so quickly? I could've sworn I saw some earlier!' Her question was answered when she saw a bunch of pidgey and ratata hoarding food. May sighed and collapsed to the ground. 'I'm having such bad luck out here!' Suddenly she noticed there was one last apple left in a tree. She ran towards it and began climbing. May was just about to make a grab for it when a spearow flew down and snatched it.

"Hey that was mine!" May called out to it. The spearow continued to fly away. May jumped down from the tree and ran after the spearow. She followed the spearow until she lost sight of it. By then she was nowhere near the campsite. 'Great, now what do I do? I'm so hungry and tired.'

May sat underneath a tree and closed her eyes. Suddenly, something fell onto her head.

"Ow!" May cried as she rubbed where she was hit. She looked around to see what hit her. To her surprise it was an apple! She grabbed it, wiped off any dirt she saw, and bit into it. She savored the fruit in her mouth. When she finished it, she looked up and saw more fruit. May smiled and gathered as many apples as she could.

May started heading towards camp, but stopped in her tracks when she had no idea which way to go. Wind was blowing strongly and she shivered. 'I need to find some kind of shelter.' She looked around and noticed a small cave. May ran over to it, she was just the right size to fit into it. She crawled in and began eating. Fatigue kicked in and she was drifting off to sleep. 'My first night in Kanto and it turns out to be in a cave. Well, at least I proved that I was able to survive out here.' May then fell asleep.

"May, hey May! Wake up!"

May's eyes fluttered open. It was morning, she made it through the night. She looked up to see Ash peeking in the cave with Pikachu on his shoulder. Misty was also there.

"Ash?"

"You had us worried May! I stayed up all night waiting for you to come back!" May blushed hearing this. She smiled at Ash.

"I was fine Ash! After I realized that I was too far away, I decided to seek shelter and eat in here!"

"You mean you actually found food?" Misty asked. May nodded happily. She crawled out of the cave, stood up, and stretched.

"Wow, I'm impressed May! You made it out here by yourself! That's pretty admirable for someone who's never camped out on her own before!" Ash exclaimed. May blushed again.

"Well, why should it be so surprising? Misty did pretty good herself." Misty looked away nervously as Ash chuckled.

"Misty didn't really fend for herself, I ended up helping her." May was both angry and pleased. Angry that she had to go through all the torture of being alone in the woods, and pleased that she was the one who ended up as the victor of Misty's challenge. Not only that, but she won Ash's admiration as well!

"Come on, let's head back home!" Ash, Pikachu, and the girls headed towards Pallet once again.

That's the end of Chapter 6! You may have noticed that I'm pretty slow when it comes to updating. Do not give up on me and my fic, I have every intention of completing it. You're going to have to try and bear with me people, I'm not a very creative person, and I do have a lot of work to do. Plus, I am also co-writing a fic with Tigersword, and that kind of distracts me from this fic. I'm also sorry to say taht there won't be an AAML version. I'm sorry to disappoint those of you who support it, but I have little time on my hands. Please forgive me.