Misty fans, beware. I can almost guarentee that you won't like how she acts this time. Read on, and complain if you want. Advanceshippers are also in for a scare at the end of the chapter.

Ash and May stood up and walked toward the counter where a cheerful James took the money for the ice cream, gave them their change, and bid them farewell as they walked out the door. After walking toward the Pokémon Center for a few minutes, May began to complain about the heat.

"Ash!" the girl whined, "can't we go do something? The heat is killing me!"

Ash was glad to be wearing his hat again. Although he thought it smelled like May's shampoo. "I guess we could ask Misty if we could go swimming in the Gym Pool…" Ash thought out loud.

"That's a great idea, Ash!" May grabbed his arm and pulled him along. As Ash was being pulled along, he heard some ruffling in the bushes behind him. He turned his head, and the ruffling ceased. For the second time today, Ash felt as if he was being followed.

May managed to drag them to the Gym, stepping through the door. This time, no one was sitting at the counter. "Hello?" Ash called out.

"Are you here, Misty?" May added.

"Pikachuuu!" the Pokémon put his words in.

The crimson-headed Gym leader stomped into the entrance area. The fire in her eyes was unmistakable.

"You…" she growled, "you…"

"What, Misty?" May was startled.

"You bat faced weasel!" Misty shouted at the girl as she brought her hand across the coordinator's face. May held her cheek, tears forming in her eyes.

"Misty!" Ash grabbed her by the shoulders. "What's gotten into you?"

"I know what she's been doing to you, Ash!" Misty shook free and faced down May. The young girl held her face, tears streaming.

"What do you mean, Misty?" Ash held her back.

"She's been taking advantage of you!" Misty turned to Ash, grabbing him by the collar.

Ash shook himself from Misty's grip. "What do you mean, Misty?" Ash's voice was serious, now. "And why all the pressure against May?"

"I know what she's been doing to you!" Misty shouted at him. Misty turned to the girl who had been stunned silent since the slapping. "She's a two-faced, conniving, cruel monster!" she shouted, pointing at the girl. May looked up to Misty, her eyes full of sadness and disbelief.

"Misty, the only one being two-faced right now is you!" Ash pulled her back. Her spun her around and glared intensely in her eyes. "Now tell me what's going on!"

"She's been hurting you, Ash!" Misty shouted at him, anger and compassion in her voice. "I can't stand to see my best friend like this!"

"What do you mean?" Ash was puzzled.

With that, Misty brought her hand down sharply into Ash's right shoulder. The boy cried out, and fell to his knees, his left hand gripping the point.

"Ow…" Ash moaned…" what'd you do that for?"

"To show you how the injuries she's inflicted on you affect you!" Misty snapped at him.

Pikachu leapt from Ash's back to his defense. "Pikaaa…" the normally friendly Pokémon stood his ground, sparks flying from his cheeks. "Pikachupi, pika pika Pikapi pi Pikachu, pika pi-ka!"

"So I see you're in on this, too, Pikachu." Misty looked down her nose at him. "I'm surprised. I thought you'd be the one to help him against her, but I see you're just as weak willed as he is."

"Misty!" May spoke up, "stop! Quit hurting your friends! Just give us a chance to explain!"

"And give you a chance to charm your way back with lies?" a voice from the pool room called out. Harley, with a stern and serious look on his face, stepped into the room.

"It's you!" May screamed, her voice becoming hoarse from the crying. Her eyes widened, her fists clenched. "What have you been telling Misty!"

"I've been telling her the truth," Harley averted his gaze from the tearful trainer. "I've told her all your dirty secrets about how you've been abusing poor Ash here."

"That's not true…" Ash climbed to his feet. "May's never laid a finger on me!"

"Then how do you explain this?" Harley shouted, producing a picture he had printed out from the internet. May and Ash gasped at a picture of Ash being attacked by Torchic's Ember attack.

Those stupid paparazzi! May cursed them in her mind. The day they had journeyed into North Petalburg prior to Ash's fifth Gym battle in Hoenn came to mind. Being giddy from all of the praise she was getting, she accidentally had let Torchic burn Ash during the battle there against his Taillow. Conveniently for Harley, Ash's Taillow wasn't in the picture.

"I can explain!" May screamed at them, her eyes running out of tears to produce.

"I think you've done enough, little girl!" Misty pointed at her. "I challenge you to a battle!" May's eyes widened in shock. Misty began to walk up to the girls face, but Pikachu jumped between them and let out a Thundershock to separate them. He turned to face Misty, this time, true anger across the Electric-type's face.

"What?" May couldn't process everything fast enough.

"Misty, you gotta believe us!" Ash turn, grabbing her arm. "Harley's a big liar. He's got a vendetta against May, and is just trying to get you to turn on her."

"Ash, I can't believe you!" She pulled her arm out of Ash's hand. "You'd stand with this witch, even after she's done all of these things to you!" She pushed him back to the ground, her anger getting out of her control.

"You leave him alone!" May shouted, slapping Misty across the face. "He's done nothing to you but try to reason with you, and you have the nerve to hurt him!" Her nearly ever-present tears had returned. Her breathing was rapid through her clenched teeth. "I accept your challenge!"

"Good," Misty leered at her. "It'll be a one on one battle, to be held three days from now, the day after Brock and Max get here. I want them to see it. If I win, then you have to go into complete detail on the speaker in Cerulean Gym as to your relationship with Ash."

"And if we win…" Ash pulled himself back to his feet. He glared angrily at Misty. "You have to give us some compensation. What you did to her just now was completely out of order for a Gym Leader to do. I don't know what Harley said to you, but if you take his word above your friends, then you must have hit a new low."

"Ash, you're too proud for your own good!" Misty said to him, sternly. "Why don't you come clean? She's been attacking you with her Pokémon! Why don't you just let your pride go and tell us what she's been doing to you?"

"That's it!" Ash could stand it no longer. "I challenge you to this battle as well. Make it a tag battle!"

Misty smirked. "Good. That way I can humiliate you both, and you both have to admit to what's been going on."

"How about we make one more specification?" Harley asked, approaching the group. "Let's make this a Contest Battle. I'll be Misty's partner, of course." He wanted to best May in a battle that put her integrity on the line. So he could strip it away.

"Fine with me!" Ash snarled at Harley. He then took the distressed May by the arm and began to lead her out. "C'mon, May. We can tell when we're not wanted around." Pikachu leapt into May's arms, trying to comfort the girl. She could only cry as Ash took her out of the Gym with him.

"Don't bother coming back to the Gym, Ash!" Misty shouted to the leaving trainer. "You're both banned from the Cerulean Gym from now on, until the day we battle! And make sure you watch the news tonight. I'm sure you'll find it interesting." Ash heard these words as he left the Gym, the doors automatically closing behind him. May cried into Pikachu's soft fur.

Harley watched with utmost satisfaction. May was torn up that Misty would turn so quickly. And she was even more deeply wounded when Misty took out her anger on Ash. The girl was reduced to tears more than once in this encounter. However, in order to make his vengeance complete, he'd have to defeat her in the coming battle. With Misty's help, that should be simple! Harley's Perfect Revenge is back on track!

They had stepped into the grass outside the Gym. May fell to her knees, crying loudly.

"It'll be alright, May," Ash placed his hand on her back, comforting her, "all we have to do is win the battle three days from now. Then Misty will have to see things our way."

"But why?" May sobbed, hitting the ground with her fist. "Why did she say those terrible things?" She reached for a rock on the ground and began to wind her arm back. "I hate you, Misty!" she shouted. She tried to throw the rock, but her arm was caught by Ash's hand.

"No," he calmly told her, gently rubbing her back, "Let's not sink to Harley's level. Never say you hate anyone. You never know when they could become your friend. People like Harley hold stupid grudges and never can let them go. That's a lesson he'll never understand."

May could only sit there and cry, with Ash trying to comfort her. He looked back to the glass doors of the Gym, but Misty and Harley had disappeared into the Gym.

"Well, I guess you've gotten yourself into trouble again," a familiar voice came up down the path leading from the Gym. Ash and May both looked up to see a familiar green haired boy walking towards them.

"Drew!" both Ash and May turned to him. May wiped the tears from her eyes and stood to face him.

"How did you get back so quickly?" Ash asked him, "Max said it would take him and Brock about three days to arrive."

"Did you forget about my Flygon already, Ash?" Drew asked him rhetorically. "I rode him here. He can make pretty good time when he needs to. It really wore him out, though, so right now he's resting at the Pokémon Center." A look of concern shot across his face. "What happened in the Gym? Why was May crying?"

"I think we better find a more private place to talk about this," Ash commented, "and I think I know the place." He turned to the bushes and called out. "Alright, Cyndi, come out of the bushes."

Drew and May put a stunned look on their face as the small girl walked out from behind the bushes.

"How did you know I was there?" Cyndi protested.

"You didn't make yourself hidden very well," Ash pointed out. "Besides, blue hair sticks out a ton among green bushes."

The small girl became flushed and walked up to the trainers. Pikachu leapt to her head.

"We're going to your house, Cyndi. We can talk in private, there." Ash explained.

The girl nodded, taking the lead and guiding the trainers to the small clothing store in the outskirts of Cerulean City.

When they arrived, Raine led them into the living room behind the store front. The room wasn't painted, the wooden boards serving as the backdrop. A dusty window sat in the back of the room, the afternoon sun gleaming in. Ash sat on the couch in the middle of the room, next to May, who sat next to Drew, who sat next to Cyndi. Ash and May recounted their adventures when they were separated. When Ash was about to come up with a story as to how May's bandana got ripped, May halted him. "No more lies," she said. "Not when Harley is using them to use Misty as his tool!" With that, Ash backed down. He let May tell the rest of the story at her leisure.

May didn't tell the story in its entirety, however. She also left out many of the times she and Ash were close. Ash chuckled in the back of his head. She's probably worried about what Drew'll think, he thought. He told himself he'd point out May's hypocrisy later.

Drew thought for a moment, then turned to Ash. "Well, I'll be willing to help you train for the contest battle," he said.

"Really?" Ash asked him. "That'd be great!

"Thanks, Drew," May smiled at him, "I knew we could count on you to help."

"Don't mention it," he waved off the praise. "We'll start bright and early tomorrow."

"Okay," Ash nodded, "I'm looking forward to it."

"Hey!" Cyndi spoke up, pointing at the small television she was watching. "Misty's on TV!"

Sure enough, the Cerulean Gym leader was holding a press conference in front of the Gym. She stood along side her sisters and Harley. Various flashes from a multitude of angles kept illuminating her body.

"I've issued a challenge to a trainer by the name May, a Pokémon Coordinator from the Hoenn Region," she announced. The news program cut to a picture of May. It was the profile shot taken during the Kanto Grand Festival. Misty continued to talk while the picture was on screen. "I can't get into specifics as to why I must battle her, but I can tell you that it will be three days from today. It'll be a tag battle between her and… a very close friend of mine that has chosen to be with her rather than me." A picture of Ash from the footage shot before his battle with Tucker, the Dome Ace and a Frontier Brain, appeared onscreen. It was a picture that had been taken during the press conference. May's face was unaltered, but the faces of Brock, Max and Scott where blurred out. The footage changed back to Misty with her supporters in front of the Gym. "My partner will be this trainer, Harley." As she said this, Harley waved shyly at the camera. "It will be a Contest Battle with each trainer using one Water-Type Pokémon." Misty turned and began to walk into the Gym. The reporters began to crowd the area, but Misty's sisters and Harley held them back.

"Please," Harley pleaded with them, "Misty's been through a lot today. She's had to face some very ugly truths, and now she needs her rest." He managed to keep the reporters at bay long enough for Misty to retreat into the Gym. Misty's sisters began to distribute posters, hoping to hype up the battle and sell tickets. The screen had flickered back to the news anchor who began to put in his opinion.

"What'd she do that for?" Ash shouted, "Is she trying to make us look like the bad guys?"

"No," Drew said, looking at the screen, "this is more Harley's style. I'll bet he convinced Misty that a large crowd would be there to see the humiliation."

"That just makes me hate Misty even more!" Cyndi shouted, shaking her fist at the picture of the Gym Leader that appeared on screen.

"Why don't you just tell her the truth about what happened?" Raine asked, walking in from the kitchen.

"We tried," May explained, "but I couldn't get her to listen to me."

"Well, that doesn't matter anymore," Ash stood up. "Misty's thrown down the gauntlet, and now we have to clear ourselves by winning. We'll uncover Harley's web of lies only by battling." He turned to May, "Because it's a Water-Type battle, I'm using Corphish."

May pulled a Pokéball from her belt. "I guess that means I've gotta use Squirtle," she said.

"With the news of this going around, it might be too dangerous for you two to go back to the Pokémon Center," Drew said. "You two better stay here."

"You're right," Ash said. Then he leapt up. "Oh, no! News of this might have reached Pallet Town by now!" he gasped.

"Do you think they'll even go to Petalburg to try to talk to my father?" May asked.

"They might…" Drew said, thinking. "I better get going," he said, turning to the door, "We're going to have an early day tomorrow."

"Hey, Drew?" May spoke up, "can we talk for a bit?"

"Sure, May," he said, leading her outside. Ash couldn't help but feel a pang of jealousy as they left the building. Ash followed Raine into the kitchen to help her fix dinner.

"Drew…" May started, "thanks for agreeing to help Ash. He's never had a contest battle before, so this'll help him a lot."

"Don't mention it, May," Drew smiled at her. "I'd really appreciate it if you came with us to watch. You might learn something, yourself!" he laughed.

"Hey," May smiled back at him, "who beat you in the Kanto Grand Festival?"

"You only won because of the time limit!" Drew sneered.

"Well, I was actually planning on it, anyway" May turned from him and said matter-of-factly.

"May…" Drew whispered to her. She turned to see a rose in her face. "I missed you while you where gone." He said. "I was worried that something bad might have happened to you."

May took the rose out of Drew's hand and held it to her chest. She smelled it for a moment. "You didn't have to worry about me, Drew," she smiled at him, "I had Ash with me, and he made sure I was okay."

"But I could tell that he was getting injured by the way Swellow was grabbing him. I was worried that Ash wouldn't have been able to protect you," he explained.

"Yeah, I heard how worried you where when I called," May added. "Max told me that you'd been searching nearly all day and night for us."

"Honestly, May," He looked into her sapphire eyes with his emerald eyes, "I was only looking for you." He ran his fingers through May's locks and caressed the cheek that Misty had slapped earlier that day. May couldn't help but feel herself blush. He gently turned his head and kissed her on the cheek. At that, May fell to her knees, unable to stand. "I'll see you around," he told her, walking off. She looked back at the rose he gave her, seeing a small, white note attached to it. She took it off and read it.

I realize things may be a bit hectic for you now. I'll wait for your answer until this mess is over with.

With Love,

Drew

May folded the piece of paper and placed it in her pack. She stood up and brushed herself off, and walked back inside, hoping noone saw the exchange between her and Drew.

Unbeknownst to her, a pair of large, dark eyes had seen it all.

Drew returns! But is he here to help, or help Ash lose? And who was watching them?

I really didn't like writing Misty to be so mean in this chapter. I figured that her trust in May would have been easy for Harley to break (She's only met May three times, and that's counting the morning in this story). Misty did try to get Ash back on her side. She does care about him. She buys Harley's story because it explains Ash's injury (she hasn't heard from anyone but him how it happened). And maybe, she's still a little jealous of May for getting Ash when she didn't.

Drew's back with a vengance, much to the chargin of Advanceshippers. I had to bring him back, or May's choice would have been between some guy she hadn't seen in ten chapters, or a guy she's spent ten chapters getting cosy with.

Anyway, you guys and girls can all read this chapter and review it and what not. I'm gonna start writing chapter 15.