I'd like to give a special thanks to everyone who is supporting this story! Especially those of you who left such encouraging reviews after my announcement :) I can't guarantee that this story won't get deleted by the administrators. That could happen. But It will take a while for them to get to it. I'm going to be updating really fast from now on to have the highest chance of finishing this story before anything bad possibly happens. So hopefully that makes you guys happy and hopefully I finish this thing before it (possibly) gets deleted! Here's chapter 19!

Disclaimer: Don't own none of this Pokemon stuff. Yup. And I don't own the song lyrics in this chapter either!

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"This will be a three on three battle," Ash decided.

"Fine by me," Rudy responded. "The more opportunities to crush you the better."

Misty scowled. They had relocated to a small park where there was a battle arena and some bleachers. In the distance you could see the beach and the ocean, lined by a row of palm trees. Rudy was getting on Misty's nerves. She didn't really like what Ash was doing either though. She didn't need to be fought over like some virgin maiden. She could make her own decisions. It just took time to make them.

"Ninetails, come on out!" Rudy yelled, releasing his first Pokemon. A cream colored fox with nine orange tipped tails appeared.

"Buizel, I choose you!" Ash called, throwing his own pokeball.

Good choice, Misty thought. Ash has the type advantage now and she knew his Buizel was tough from when she battled it before.

"Ninetails, use take down!" Rudy commanded. The pokemon ran at Buizel.

"Dodge and use aqua jet!" Buizel rolled out of the way and then dived into the air. It came streaming down in an aqua jet and slammed into Ninetails.

"Use flamethrower!" Ninetails released a stream of fire that Buizel was unable to dodge. The otter pokemon grunted, but it hadn't taken much damage from the move.

"Buizel, use swift!" Ash yelled. Buizel shot stars at Ninetails. "Yes! A direct hit!" Ash cheered.

"Ninetails, use flame wheel!" Ninetails rolled into a flaming ball and plowed into Buizel, causing the pokemon to cry out.

"Let's finish this! Use aqua jet again!" Buizel used aqua jet and hit Ninetails directly. The Pokemon collapsed in the grass, defeated. Buizel was breathing heavily and was pretty battered, but it could still fight.

"Return, Ninetails!" Rudy said. He glared at Ash across the field. Ash smirked back, his hat causing a shadow to fall over his eyes. He was determined to win this fight.

Misty sighed and leaned forward, her elbows resting on her thighs. Other girls would be happy to have two guys fighting over them. Misty knew that Dawn would be thrilled to be in her situation. So would May or Leaf. But all Misty felt was annoyance. Was this battle really necessary?

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Leaf heaved a heavy sigh. She was standing outside the boys' hotel room door. She hadn't gone far when she'd walked out. Just back to their own hotel room. After she'd cooled down a little, she ventured back. She was sick of fighting with Gary. She needed to patch things up with him. She couldn't date him. Not as his girlfriend. But she had to do something to fix this rift between them, because it was driving her crazy.

She knocked on the door, but no one opened it. She called out Gary's name but no one answered. Leaf tested the doorknob. The door wasn't locked and it opened right up. The sound of a guitar could be heard inside. Leaf entered, and saw Gary sitting in a chair strumming out chords. Then he began to sing.

Give me love like her,
'Cause lately I've been waking up alone,
Paint splattered teardrops on my shirt,
Told you I'd let them go,

And that I'll fight my corner,
Maybe tonight I'll call ya,
After my blood turns into alcohol,
No, I just wanna hold ya.

Give a little time to me or burn this out,
We'll play hide and seek to turn this around,
All I want is the taste that your lips allow,
My, my, my, my, oh give me love,
My, my, my, my, oh give me love,
My, my, my, my, oh give me love,
My, my, my, my, give me love.

He was so absorbed in the music. That's why he hadn't heard her. This was the first time Leaf had ever heard him sing. His voice was flawless to her ears. Gary must have felt her presence or something, because he looked up and stopped playing.

"It's beautiful," she said.

"Wrote it myself," Gary answered lightly, putting his guitar down. "Listen Leaf, I'm sor-"

"No." Leaf put up a hand to stop him from apologizing. "You don't have to say anything. I'm sorry too. Let's just both understand that the other is sorry and wants everything to be okay again."

"Okay. I can do that."

Leaf relaxed, and so did he.

"Well, we're both here alone, so what do you say we work on that song of ours?" Leaf asked.

"Sure," Gary answered, smiling at her genuinely for the first time in a few days.

"Why don't we work on the lyrics, and then we can get a guitar part worked out?" Leaf suggested. "Sounds good. I'll get my lyrics notebook." Gary got up and walked over to a suitcase in the corner. He leaned over to get into it, and Leaf couldn't help but notice the skin that showed above the waistband of his pants as his shirt slipped up. It was smooth and beautiful. Flawless. He came back up with a worn looking notebook and turned back towards her.

He must have noticed something in her eyes, because a look of surprise flashed through his own before they too, glazed over with longing. But he forced himself to sit down and ignore whatever was happening between them, because he knew that's what she wanted.

"Okay, so how about we start like this?"

And the two of them spent the rest of the day writing the song together.

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"Electabuzz, let's pound this loser!" Rudy exclaimed. A yellow and black pokemon on two legs appeared, ready to fight.

Buizel's in trouble now, Misty thought. Ash's pokemon was already weak from battling Ninetails, and now it had a type disadvantage.

"Use thunder punch!" Electabuzz ran at Buizel, it's fist glowing with electricity.

"Dodge it, Buizel!" Ash's pokemon dodged, but Electabuzz kept coming at it. Eventually, Buizel was too exhausted to move fast enough and it was hit by the attack. It was enough to make it faint, and Rudy let out a cheer.

"Now we're all tied up," Rudy said. "And I'm going to pummel your next two pokemon into the dust!

"That's what you think! Staraptor, I choose you!" The black, white, and red pokemon emerged from its pokeball, letting out a cry.

What? Why is he using a flying type against Rudy's electric type? Misty thought.

"Staraptor, use close combat!" Staraptor kicked and punched with its wings, causing a massive ammount of damage to Electabuzz.

"Use thundershock while it's hitting you!" Rudy commanded. Electabuzz glowed with electricity and shocked Staraptor every time it attacked. The pokemon broke apart, both breathing heavily.

"Use aerial ace!" Ash yelled.

"Dodge it!" Rudy cried desperately. Electabuzz was unable to dodge the attack and took a heavy blow. It collapsed on the grass with a grunt.

"Good job, Staraptor! That was awesome!" Ash praised.

Rudy grunted and returned his pokemon. "You think you're going to win? I'm not going to allow that to happen!"

Misty was impressed. Ash's pokemon had won, even with the type disadvantage. He must be good trainer. A really good trainer. Suddenly, she found herself developing a preference for the outcome of this match.

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"There you are," Dawn said, walking up to Drew and May. "I followed Paul today. I think I know what he's been doing."

"Really? What is it?" Drew asked. He had a cautious look about him, like he wasn't sure if he really wanted to know the answer.

Dawn had decided on her way there that she would leave out the part about the blue haired girl. She didn't know for certain that Paul was sleeping with her. She had no way to find out for sure. But she was certain about her other suspicions, and those concerned her more anyways.

"I think he's sneaking off to get high," she said quietly.

Drew winced and tilted his head back. "Are you sure?" he asked.

"Pretty sure. He was acting all tripped out. And I could smell it on him too."

"He told me he had stopped doing that," Drew muttered, holding a hand to his head. May held his other hand comfortingly. "What I don't understand is how he found someone who sells it so fast. We've only been here for a little under three weeks!"

"Well, we've been hanging out at a club," Dawn pointed out. "You know as well as I do that some of those people there looked pretty shady. Not to mention stoned."

"Yeah. I should've kept a better eye on him. I promised his older brother, Reggie, that I would look out for him while we were here. Now I feel like I've failed him."

"Don't feel that way," Dawn said comfortingly. "You can't look out for him twenty-four hours a day. If he was determined to do it, then you couldn't have stopped him even if you knew about it."

Drew sighed. "You're right. But what do we do now?"

"I don't know."

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"I'll fight flying with flying! Pidgeot, come on out!" Rudy released a tan and white bird pokemon with red and yellow feathers on its head. Ash grinned across the field.

This battle's as good as over. He'll choose Pikachu after Staraptor faints and then Rudy's Pidgeot will be toast. Literally. Misty was growing slightly bored at this point. Ash was clearly going to win. And while she appreciated his effort to win her over, she was irritated with him for starting this stupid fight. Could she learn to love someone so impulsive and passionate? She knew that she, herself was very much like that too. And weren't opposites supposed to attract? Maybe there aren't any concrete rules when it comes to love. She only knew one thing for sure though. She wasn't the type of girl who needed to be rescued by a man. She could hold her own, and Ash needed to understand that.

"Staraptor, use brave bird!" Staraptor flew into the sky and dived at Pidgeot, glowing an intense blue color.

"Dodge it!" Rudy yelled. Pidgeot did get out of the way in time and Starapter collided with the ground, causing it to faint on the spot.

"Staraptor, return!" Ash called. "Now it's time for my trump card! Pikachu, let's do this!" Pikachu jumped off of Ash's shoulder and ran into the arena, it's cheeks sparking in excitement. Misty could see Rudy starting to sweat a little bit. He wasn't stupid enough not to know that he was in a tough situation now.

"Pidgeot, use hurricane!" he called shakily. It was a long shot. Hurricane was a powerful, but inaccurate move. And even if it did hit, Pikachu wouldn't faint from it. Pidgeot whipped up powerful winds with its wings, which twisted into a large tornado. It moved across the field toward Pikachu, who was too small to dodge it. Pikachu was sucked up into the funnel, spinning around and around inside it.

"Use Thunderbolt!" Ash yelled. Pikachu summoned a large amount of electricity and let it loose, charging the hurricane with electricity. The electricity hit Pidgeot, and the bird pokemon fainted from just one hit. Eventually the electric hurricane faded out, leaving the field quite ravaged.

"We won!" Ash cheered. "I won, Misty!" he turned toward the redhead, only to see that she wasn't smiling as he expected. She looked more annoyed than anything else.

"See? She didn't want you to win, she wanted me to win!" Rudy yelled.

"Shut up, both of you!" Misty yelled. "I don't need to be fought over like some object! I'm a human being who can make her own decisions!"

"Then make one already!" Rudy demanded. Ash said nothing.

Misty glared at both of the boys. Then her gaze turned sullen. She couldn't choose. She just couldn't. Slowly, she turned away and left them both behind.

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Okay, so this chapter was a bit shorter than usual, but it had some important moments in it. I promise that there will be way more Ikarishipping moments as we get closer to the last leg of this story! Please review! It means a lot to me! And I am nervous about the possibility of this story getting removed, but hopefully that doesn't happen! I think it probably will happen. I've been talking to a lot of people who had their stories removed. One girl had her story removed for song lyrics, but they were song lyrics that she CREATED HERSELF! Isn't that unbelievable? FF doesn't even look into what they delete. And Critics United doesn't even thoroughly check what they report before they report it. If there's going to be a group who searches for violations, I think they should at least be intelligent people.