How long has it been? Oh well, the important thing is that I updated.

Chapter 7: Round 4: Savior

Ash and co. were back at their original campsite collecting their things. May hummed a happy little tune with a huge grin on her face as she was rolling up her sleeping bag. The song brought annoyance to Misty. She turned towards May with a readied glare, but looking at May's giddiness seemed to have an odd affect on her. She didn't feel like shooting dirty looks at May.

'It's weird, but for some reason I actually feel kind of... happy for May. I have no idea why. We're both after the same guy, but seeing her like this makes her seem like less of a rival to me.' Misty stared at May. She remembered that content and carefree face. It was the same face May had when she had first met her. It was that same happy girl with a little-sisterly like feel. Without even realizing it, Misty had a smile upon her own face and out of nowhere, she giggled. 'She's a cute kid!' Her train of thought was broken when Ash's voice was heard.

"Well, that's that!" Ash exclaimed as he had finished up packing.

"Pika! Pi!" Pikachu piped as it sat beside Ash.

Misty had shaken all of what she had just thought of May out of her head when she snapped back to reality. 'That's right, we're still fighting over Ash's affections. Why did we have to become rivals? Or better yet, why did I turn our blossoming friendship into enmity? Well, if I want Ash, then I can't let my weakness for friendship get in the way of my goal, so I guess it'll have to remain this way for now. Just until he chooses one of us.'

May had also broke free of her humming with only her smile gracing her. The morning had given her a new found hope. She couldn't wait for the next challenge. She was prepared for anything.

Ash stood up with his things under his arm and Pikachu perched on his shoulder. "Ready to go you two?" The girls nodded synchronically.

"Yeah!" They said.

The group started walking through a very wooded area. Suddenly, Ash spotted a Spearow and hesitated.

"What's wrong Ash?" May asked. This grabbed Misty's attention and smirked.

"I bet I know, he still remembers that time he got a Spearow mad at him when he just became a pokemon trainer!" It agitated Ash that Misty told her that.

"It wasn't my fault! It was after Pikachu!"

"Pi!" Pikachu said.

"Uh huh, and you were the one who picked a fight with the Spearow in the first place and then it and its friends attacked Pikachu!" Misty stated matter-of-factly. Ash let out a slight chuckle.

"And if that hadn't had happened I wouldn't have met you." Misty thought about it and smiled.

"I guess you're right Ash!" May became a little uncomfortable with the two of them walking down memory lane. They had known each other for so long and she had only known them for a short time compared to what they've been through together. She didn't want to feel left out of their conversation either, it made her feel more uneasy.

"So why did you make that Spearow angry?"

"Well, I was trying to capture a Pidgey and when I couldn't I got frustrated and accidently threw a rock at Spearow."

"And it was that tough to battle one measly little Spearow?" Ash was about to give her the explanation about Pikachu in the beginning, but she interrupted. 'Maybe if I show up Ash on battling a Pokemon he had trouble with, I can have another upper hand in winning him over through admiration!'

"It doesn't look that tough to me. I'll battle it right now!" May ran off towards the Spearow. Ash called out to her to stop, but she kept going.

"Wow, I didn't know she could be just like you." Misty commented.

"Pikachu." Pikachu agreed.

May stopped in front of the Spearow with a pokeball in hand. The Spearow looked at her with curiosity in its eyes. May smiled ready to take victory.

"Go Combusken!" Combusken was released out of its pokeball and let out its battle cry. Spearow readied itself for the battle.

"Combusken, use double kick!" Combusken did as it was told. May was sure that that would have done enough damage to the Spearow, but it turned out that the Spearow still had some fight left in it.

"What? It looks like it didn't affect it at all!"

"May, fighting moves won't work on Spearow!" Ash called out to her on the sidelines.

"All right then! Use ember!" Combusken let out the said attack from it beak. Spearow quickly dodged it and the embers fell upon a tree. However, May didn't notice for she was too caught up in defeating Spearow. The tree continued to burn to the point where it was about to fall.

"Ember!" May called out again. The attack missed again and hit another tree. The Spearow soon flew away.

"Hey, come back you coward!" May started to run after it, when the first tree that was hit with ember started falling right where she was.

"May look out!" both Ash and Misty called out. May stopped and saw the tree coming down and fear paralyzed her. She thought she was done for, but then Ash tackled her out of the way of the falling tree.

"Are you alright May?"

"Yeah, thanks Ash." She answered still a little shaken up. She smiled at him, but it soon fell when she heard Pikachu cry.

"Pika! Pi!"

"Ash, May, look out!" Misty yelled. They looked to see that the second tree hit by ember was collapsing as well. Ash pushed May forward and jumped back just in time to avoid the tree. He became trapped within the flames as the two trees had formed a barrier. He decided to run the opposite way instead, but the spreading fire beat him to his escape. Ash was surrounded.

As this was happening , Misty, Combusken, and Pikachu had ran toward May. Misty knelt down beside her with concern written on her face.

"May, are you okay?" she asked the bewildered girl. It struck May odd that her rival cared about her well being. In the midst of this, she saw what was going on. She looked on with complete shock and terror as Ash became trapped. Ash attempted to release Corphish, but he could barely keep himself up from inhaling too much smoke and began coughing violently. May quickly reacted by sending out Beautifly.

"Beautifly, use gust to put out the fire!" Beautifly flapped its wings fast and hard, but to no avail. The fire was too strong for the butterfly pokemon and the flames were getting to it. It was wearing down. May called Beautifly back helplessly. 'Now what? This is all my fault? How can I save Ash now?'

"Corsola, Politoed, Staryu, go!" Misty released her pokemon one by one.

"Use water gun to put out the flames!" the pokemon did so and sprayed the fire down. May watched in amazement as Misty took control of the situation. Once the flames calmed down enough, Misty put down her backpack with Togepi in it next to May and raced in to get Ash. He weakly looked up at her.

"Misty?" he let out a cough.

"Hang in there Ash." Misty covered his mouth with a handkerchief she had brought with her, put his arm around her shoulder and helped him out of the fire.

Misty lied Ash down on the ground. He inhaled the fresh air deeply as he coughed out the smoke that had filled his lungs.

"Ash are you okay?"

"Yeah, thank you." he coughed out. Pikachu rushed to Ash's side.

"Pika! Pi!" Ash smiled at Pikachu reassuringly.

"Don't worry Pikachu, I'm fine!" Pikachu smiled. Ash sat up and turned toward Misty.

"Thank you Misty, I owe you my life!"

"Don't worry about it Ash, that's what I'm here for! To get you out of trouble." she replied. Ash chuckled.

"This makes how many times I've saved your skin?"

"You're keeping count?"

May watched them as they joked. Her eyes filled with tears as she watched Ash. 'I couldn't protect him. Ash has saved me many times before and I couldn't do the same for him today! It was my fault to begin with. Why wasn't I able to save him?' May turned her gaze towards Misty. 'She did what I couldn't. She's more of a hero than I'll ever be.'

Misty turned towards May and noticed her solemn look on her face.

"May, are you okay?" May broke out of her thoughts and blinked her tears away.

"Yeah, I'm okay. I just want to leave now." she said quietly.

"Sure May, we can go right now." Ash replied.

They got up and started heading off again.

"Ash?"

"Yeah May?"

"I'm really sorry."

"It's alright May, just don't tell my mom what happened or else she'd freak out." Ash said trying to cheer her up.

"Okay." she said with her head down. 'Why couldn't I protect him?'

Well Misty was the big hero in this one, it appears to be a tied game for May and Misty now. What's in store next? Sorry for the hiatus, I just couldn't think of anything. I finally did when I found out that my brother became a firefighter so thank him. Well, good news is that you won't have to wait very long for the next chapter since I already have an idea of what to write next. Review time! No flames, Ash has had enough of that for this chapter^_^;