Battle of the Elements!

 

 

 

"Wake up! Please wake up!" cried out Misty and she pulled the best she could on her dragon’s tail.

Though he wouldn’t budge. He wouldn’t even twitch.

"You can’t wake them up," hissed the counterpart of Christine, "They’ve been poisoned with a sleeping grain and they won’t wake up until the next sun!"

Ash and Misty clenched their teeth.

"Hm," said Misty, "Well, then, we’ll have to fight them ourselves!"

She shot out a heavy, strong stream of water at Christine and she screamed.

"Water! I hate water!" she cried out, covering her face the most.

"Electricity… electricity… not Shaharazad, not Christine, not Mary and John… Neia and Kyle!" Ash said, thinking more as if it were a pokemon battle then a fight to death. "Pikachu!" he called out to his pokemon.

"Pikapi!" he answered, trotting over.

"Lighting rod, Pikachu!" ordered Ash.

"Pika!" he nodded and ran behind Neia and Kyle.

Ash aimed his arms in the sky and shouted out his spell attack, "Deynatsu… Dragon rage!"

The dragon of electricity bolted out of his arms and into the sky. It exploded and came back together and into Pikachu, who then shot it out at Neia and Kyle. They yelped and screamed and collapsed onto the ground.

"Grrrr, the little twerp…" muttered Neia and she got up.

"We are the true leaders of the elements!" shouted out Kyle, "You fakes!"

"Look, I don’t care weather or not I’m an element leader, but I do care about weather or not I’m going to live!" shot back Ash.

"Then you still have something to worry about," said Neia and she lifted her arms, and half the river water rose up along with her movements.

She shot her arms forward and the water went with it, splashing onto Ash and he toppled over, soaking wet.

"Hey!" called out Misty, who then dropped the tuckered out body of Christine. "Pick on somebody of your own element… geez, that sounds weird."

Misty jumped down from Ash’s dragon, where she had been fighting, and rammed Neia into the water.

Neia shrieked and she tried getting out of the river like she was afraid of it. Misty wondered why until it came back to her.

(*flashback*)

"But we can’t breathe underwater," said Misty.

"I can’t either," said Neia and it looked as if Ash and Misty’s eyes were going to pop out, "This water is enchanted, and you can breathe in it."

(*end flashback*)

"The water here isn’t enchanted and the water sprites haven’t fully evolved," she muttered. She smirked. "Ha! Looks like you stupid water sprites have your own element as a weakness."

Misty dived into the water and pushed Neia’s head down under the water.

Kyle rushed over to help, but was blasted away by a beam of ice Misty shot at him.

While Misty was fighting the two water sprites, Ash bumped into Lila.

"I don’t want electric dragons invading my skies," she said and gave a loud bellow like when she was calling out other wind sprites a long time ago.

Though this time, there weren’t other wind sprites, it was a giant gray dragon with gigantic wings, golden horns, and silvery hair down its neck and on the end of its tail. It cracked a roar and flew down behind Lila.

"PIKA!"

Pikachu landed onto the giant dragon’s head, but it didn’t seem to notice Pikachu since it was so small.

"Piiiii kaaaa CHUUUU!" he gave a large bolt of electricity and the dragon gave a squeal.

"Oh my goodness!" shrieked Lila as she saw her dragon collapse onto the ground.

She ran to her dragon, trying her best to get it up again.

"PIKA!"

Pikachu shouted and gave both of them a shock of electricity. Lila screamed and collapsed over the head of the dragon, or what she could since even its head was huge.

"Well, you momentarily defeated those two, but what do you have to say about me?" said a low woman’s voice.

Ash turned around seeing Shaharazad.

"You’re a pokemon trainer… you should know," she said in an icy voice, "that electricity doesn’t beat grass, and neither does your little water friend."

"Now what?" Ash mumbled under his breath.

"<Yo, Ash!>" a voice said in his head.

"Huh?" he wondered, lifting his head up.

"<It’s me: Misty! Using Telepathy!>"

‘Oh,’ he now began to think.

"<Use the fire spell, just make it BIG.>"

‘Wha-? What do you mean?’ he asked.

"<Is it possible to use a fire spell, but modify it so it’s really big and shoots at her?>"

‘Wouldn’t that be changing it completely?’

"<*Erhem* Well, sort of, but you get the idea.>"

‘Well then no, since I have no clue of what to do or say.’

"<Darn. Well… DO SOMETHING!>" she shouted so loud that he had to press his hands right above his temples.

"Stop stalling, boy, and let your life go quickly!" shouted Shaharazad, but Ash’s mind was too concentrated on talking to Misty to hear the tree sprite and he kept on starring out in space.

‘But, Misty’-

"<Well, make something up!>"

"You asked for it!" shouted Shaharazad and she tackled Ash, who then realized he was being attacked now.

"Waaaaaah!" he yelled trying to squirm out and he felt something pop into his head. "Deynatsu teleportation!" he shouted out and disappeared in a puff of a sparkling, golden haze of smoke with Pikachu along with him.

They both reappeared about ten feet above Shaharazad, floating in thin air.

"I hate wizards…" muttered Shaharazad.

"Aauuuhh…" gasped Ash in surprise and awe. "I didn’t know we could float!"

"Pika pika," said Pikachu in the same suit for agreement.

"You can’t escape from me!" shouted Shaharazad menacingly and leaped up to grab him, but he disappeared again in the cloud of gold dust.

And the chase went on as he kept getting missed by Shaharazad’s tackles at him.

Neia and Kyle were beginning to catch up on Misty. She had no clue they could hold their breaths for an hour! She swam into a tunnel, trying to lose them. As her body brushed against small holes on the side small eel-like creatures sprang out of them and out of the tunnel.

She felt them coming closer and hissing in her mind: "<You can’t escape from us, Kasumi!>"

She gritted her teeth as her fin brushed against one of the two’s hands and scrunched up her tail a little. All the while she had been thinking of how Togepi was still cuddled up at her dragon’s tail, and hoped none of the sprites had found it.

"Togepi… Ash…" she murmured as the chase went on.

"Uhh, let’s see now… Deynatsu… fire…" Ash started and his hands glowed red, awaiting for what kind of spell he’d use. "fire… explode!" His hands stopped glowing red, meaning that wasn’t the right one.

"Okay, then. Deynatsu… fire… blast!" he tried and it didn’t work. Ash looked down at Shaharazad who seemed to have her own fire in her eyes.

Ash disappeared again and came out onto the ground. "One more time…" he said and promised to himself he’d get a right spell. "Deynatsu… Fire dragon!" He shot out his arms and two streams of fire shot out of his arms, then combined as a dragon much like his electricity.

Shaharazad jumped up into a tree and melted into it, only to have the dragon follow her and open its jaws to…

::CHLAMPSHHHHHH::

… bite it and burn it to a crisp. Shaharazad’s burnt body fell to the ground and she struggled to get up.

She put her hand to her right boot and pulled out a short dagger that was tied by her ankle. On the handle was a picture of a yellow dragon of golden trimmed leafs and wings made of yellow-green vines, and its eyes of jewels- jade.

"Zenni!" Shaharazad called out.

Ash gulped. "Zenni? You mean… Zenni is here?" he wondered thinking of what the counterpart of Zenni would be.

"SCHREEE! SCHREEE! SCHREEE!" he heard and loud stomps coming from the dead forest.

He came out with loud shrieks, but no longer was it as big as a dragonite. It was half the size of his dragon, but surely more powerful then it looked. His wings flapped furiously and cracked like whips since it was made of pure vines. It’s eyes were dull but still seemed to glint with evil. His triangular scales ruffled up like leafs swaying in the wind and his tail swung around menacingly.

"That’s Zenni?!?" Ash exclaimed.

"Pikachuuu!"

"SCHREEE!!!" he bellowed out and Ash’s hair fluttered back and he shut his eyes.

"Deynatsu fire dragon!" he called out and the fire dragon burst out of his arms and to Zenni. The dragon, though, was only sucked up into his mouth and disappeared.

Ash sweat dropped and clenched his teeth.

"Pikapi, pi pi-ka pika chu chu? (Ash, what are we going to do?)"

"Well, I’ve given much thought and consideration to this and I think the best thing we should do is… RUN LIKE HELL!"

They both darted away from Zenni but it started stomping its way to them, making his loud "SCHREE!" noises.

They teleported away as Zenni tried to take a chomp out of them and appeared on a blunt part of the water dragon’s back. Ash could see Zenni wondering where they were and ‘thwapping’ his tail around violently.

Ash sighed and looked down, only to see Misty’s beloved Togepi still sleeping soundly in the dragon’s curled tail.

"I’ve heard of heavy sleepers," said Ash as he jumped down and picked it up, "but this is the deepest sleep I’ve ever seen!" Ash gave it a light shake saying softly, "Wake up, little Togepi. Come on, wake up."

"To-ge?" it opened its little eyes and stared at Ash a moment. Then it grinned, showing a quite large, shiny set of spiky teeth.

"Ehh, nice teeth, Togepi…" murmured Ash with a mildly surprised look on his face.

"TogE! TogE!" it chirped pointing behind Ash.

"Look… behind me?" he wondered and turned around seeing Zenni looking down at them. He took a slight breath and roared at them with the smell of dried leafs filling the air.

"Waaaaaaaah!" yelped Ash and he darted with Togepi, and Pikachu following close behind.

"TogEpi! TogE!" chirped Togepi, who seemed to enjoy the ride.

Ash looked behind him seeing Zenni now running towards them, which was even worse then the slow walk it used to do.

He looked back at his arms to see if Togepi was okay enough for Misty not to kill him later, but found it was gone.

Ash stopped dead in his tracks, "Where’s Togepi???"

"Pikapi!" called out Pikachu pointing to Togepi who was standing in front of the wailing dragon.

Ash gritted his teeth knowing that Togepi was now going to become a crossover of scrambled eggs and seafood.

"TogE! TogEpi!" it said hopping up and down.

The dragon stopped and stared at the little creature with a small smile on its face. He blew out a snort of warm air, knowing the little pest would be gone in two seconds max.

Togepi waved its little arms and Zenni suddenly gave a confused look.

Confused, exactly! Confusion! It was using confusion! The dragon was lifted into the air swaying about in terror.

Shaharazad looked at her dragon flailing about in the air, then at the small pokemon chirping happily and jumping up and down.

"TogE, togE, togE, togE!" chanted Togepi happily and waved its arms again.

Zenni floated over Shaharazad and she looked up at her dragon trying to escape the powerful attack.

"Oh crap!" she yelled, knowing what was going to happen.

Ash and Pikachu cringed and shut their eyes, turning their heads away from the bone-crunching sound that they heard.

Zenni opened his eyes slowly and when realizing he had just crushed his master, he stood up and looked at the flat body covered in green blood. He had a sad face for a moment, but it quickly turned to rage and he gave a howl of anger.

Ash quickly ran to Togepi and picked it up before it would become that cross between seafood and scrambled eggs again.

"I thought you were always following your mother," said Ash through his pants.

"Togetoge togEpi!" it chirped.

"Togetoge? Toge-pi?" repeated Ash, wondering what that meant.

"Chu pi chu pika chuu pikachu pikapika."

"It thinks I’m its daddy?!?"

Ash gave a look of "Yikes!" from both Togepi and Zenni, who was now practically running over them. He looked up, seeing Zenni staring down at them with glowing jade eyes about to breath out a bunch of razor sharp leafs.

He skidded to a stop and Zenni ran still in the same direction until realizing he had just run past them.

"Deynatsu… Fire dragon blast!" shouted Ash and from his arms shot out a large fiery dragon that surrounded Zenni for a moment then disappeared leaving a pile of ashes on the soil.

"I hate killing people…" mumbled Ash.

"Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!" a scream reached to his ears coming from the river.

"Huh?" wondered Ash and he turned his head over to the two slumbering dragons: as close as he could get to seeing what was by the river.

Misty leaped up onto the thunder dragon’s back, clinging onto the green hairs that grew like a mane.

"Come back, Kasumi!" hissed a voice and Neia with Kyle jumped up onto the dragon’s back along with her.

"Will you stop calling me Kasumi?!" she screamed and jumped off the dragon and ran towards Ash.

"Hi, Kasumi- I mean Misty," said Ash a little confused.

"These idiots are- Togepi!" she exclaimed and snatched him from Ash’s arms. "Ohhh, I’m so glad you’re alright!" Misty glared at Ash and pinched him lightly and he yelped. "You’re lucky it’s okay or you would have been the scrambled eggs!

"Okay, let’s scram!"

"Why?"

"Because of the two idiots chasing us!" she pointed to Neia and Kyle making their ways towards them.

"Deynatsu dragon rage!" shouted out Ash while running and his electric dragon hurled toward Neia and Kyle.

"Hya!" Neia shot out a shield of ice and the dragon disappeared into it.

"Your silly attacks won’t effect us!" shouted out Kyle.

"Oh, great," he muttered and continued running.

"Not… so… fast…" a voice wheezed out.

Ash and Misty stopped, seeing Christine limping her way towards them. They looked at Christine, then at each other, then back at Christine.

"Sorry, we have no time," Misty said quickly and they both started running again.

"Grrrrrr… they won’t escape!" Christine bellowed out.

"<PYRO!>" she called out in her mind.

"<PYRO!>" the voice echoed in Misty’s mind. "Christine’s up to something."

"What could she do? She looks like a soaked up match to me," queried Ash.

A rumbling roar filled their ears and a red glow surrounded them. The air suddenly felt warmer like the sun just exploded.

They stopped dead in their tracks and looked up to see a large, red, dragon staring at them. It rumpled out a louder roar and stomped its left foot creating quite a shudder.

It had spiky scales with golden tips starting at its head and it trailed down to the tip of its tail that swayed around knocking trees down in flames. Its chest and the bottom of its tail was covered in glowing golden scales and devil horns. The dragon had the typical English medieval style with large wings that had a claw where another hand used to be before it evolved.

The dragon looked to Misty and drew in a breath. She widened her eyes, wondering if the dragon was going to do what she thought it would. It blew out a stream of fire at her, and Ash, anticipating it ran in front of her as if it would help.

"Ash, what do you think you’re doing?!" she screamed and ran in front of him to shield him from the flames in time.

Several streams of water streamed around them from Misty like her first attempt at an attack, but just circled around them continuously. Most of the water blocked off the fire, but some managed to sweep across their skin and burned them.

"Don’t mix your lame attempts of heroism with me," she said and pinched his arm. Secretly, a small glass bottle ‘poofed’ into Ash’s hand and some of the water splashed into it.

When the embers stopped Misty turned around and shot out a beam of water at the dragon, hitting it in the face.

The dragon cringed and shot it’s head below to get away from the stinging water. Its wings flapped a little and dust flew up from under.

Still, the water was shot on it’s long neck and so it tried moving its arms in the way, but it wouldn’t help. The water would hurt any part of its body and so it gave up and sat down, letting the water painfully drip over it.

Seeing this, Misty dropped down her hands and looked sorrowfully at it.

"Now what- I don’t want to kill it," she said.

Christine, who was now in utter disgust with her dragon, gave a mean look and her brown hair curled up.

"You dumb dragon! Get up and kill em’!" she ordered and pointed to Ash and Misty.

The dragon looked at its master and then at Misty, who got into a fighting position, ready to defend herself. It snorted out a puff of warm air and smoke, deciding that either way it’d die so it just laid there and rested its wings into a comfortable position, waiting for the water to slowly evaporate of drip off.

Misty turned her direction to the rampaging Christine and her eyes became icy with anger. This dragon looked like it was no longer on any side, so now Christine was left vulnerable. She darted towards Christine and shot her arms out to throw a beam of water at her.

Just then, the fire dragon’s tail whipped in front of Misty and she skidded to a stop, nearly crashing into the wall of the tale.

"<PLEASE DON’T HURT HER,>" an old female’s voice said. It had the dual tone of a man’s like Ash’s dragon, but the woman’s voice showed older.

"<But then she’ll->"

"<I WON’T ALLOW THAT EITHER,>" she thought and curled her tail back up.

Misty stared at Christine who went unconscious from yelling and fighting too much. Ash and Pikachu with Togepi poofed up next to Misty and looked at Christine.

"YOU SHOULD…" began the fire dragon, who wasn’t used to talking and coughed a little "GO… SOMEPLACE SAFER."

"I would if I knew where that ‘someplace’ was," replied Ash, who was confused at the dragon’s help.

She lifted her head up a little and looked to snow-capped mountains that were on the horizon where the closest moon always set.

"WE… NEVER GO… THERE. IT’S… SAFE," she said quietly.

Ash and Misty looked at the mountains studying it for a second.

"Now it’s our turn to fight!" a man’s voice called out and they saw John looking down at them with Mary next to him from the sky.

"Let’s go!" hissed Mary and she shot her hands and arms forward at Ash and Misty.

Ash looked over to the mountains and then at Misty.

"Misty!" he called out and she looked over to him.

"What?" she asked quickly.

Ash didn’t answer but held her as tightly as he could.

"Pikachu!" he called out and he jumped onto Ash’s shoulder.

"Ash what are you doing?" she asked, covering Togepi protectively so it wasn’t crushed by Ash’s chest.

"Teleporting us out of here!" he replied and began to get in deep thought.

"It’s very heartwarming, but you’ve got to go, Satoshi!" shouted Mary. "En’katsubomi quoquios!"

Electricity shout of her arms in a large blast.

"Deynatsu teleportation dragon!" shouted Ash quickly.

It looked as if a puff of smoke appeared in the form of a dragon and swept across Ash, Misty, Pikachu, and Togepi and when it disappeared they were gone. The electricity hit the spot but with the targets gone it just hit the ground.

"Damn," muttered Mary and she snapped.

The golden smoke appeared again and swept across in a spiral, and they appeared in the middle.

"It worked!" said Ash and he let go of Misty.

She wobbled around a little, then shook her head to get out of it.

"Where are we?"

"The foot of the mountains, I guess," said Ash. They both looked up seeing the towering gray mountains with the tops capped with snow.

"Come on, let’s go in that cave," said Ash, pointing to the cave nearby.

Misty nodded and they both headed in. It was darker than night. Almost pitch black except for a strange glow that seemed to let them see their surroundings a little.

"Pikachu, light up the area a little," said Ash.

Pikachu nodded and emitted some electricity from his cheeks steadily. The place now glowed with the cackling light and they could see more clearly. The walls were coated with black crystals that sparkled different colors of the rainbow when light was shown on it, making the place light up with colors.

"The grounds too rough," complained Misty staring down at her bare feet.

Ash looked down at her feet that tried stepping as lightly as possible. He then looked at the ground seeing it was made of pits and pieces of the dark rainbow crystals.

"Try the best you can," he said and they continued down the cave.

As they continued walking, they stopped, seeing three different passages that led to who-knows-where.

"I say we go left," said Misty.

"I say we go right," said Ash.

"Pika!" chirped Pikachu and he headed into the middle tunnel.

Where the source of light went, they’d have to follow, and so they agreed on going into that direction.

Now the dark crystals shone gold instead of all the colors of the rainbow. The light danced along the surface of the ridged walls and ceiling.

"It’s so beautiful," commented Misty and she clutched Togepi harder.

A ‘squeak’ sound came from the ceiling suddenly, and they looked up seeing two red eyes peering down on them.

"Aaah! What’s that?!" screamed Misty and she hid behind Ash.

A wave of shadowy figures appeared with dozens of red eyes and they all stared at Ash and Misty.

"I don’t like the way they’re looking at us…" whispered Ash.

The first shadowy figure leaped off the ceiling and spread out it’s wings. The others followed and started fluttering around Ash and Misty and out of the tunnel, sometimes pecking at them on the way.

"Bats!" shrieked Misty and she and Ash ducked.

"Who’s there?" asked a voice that echoed from deeper inside the cavern after the bats slowly made their way out of the tunnel.

A woman in her 20s appeared. She wore what looked like a pale golden swimsuit but made of a different material. She wore a long skirt that flailed out like when you have all those layers and layers of kimonos on, but it was only one layer. It was very thin and you could see her long, pale legs through it. Each strand lightly sparkled with gold like the crystals that surrounded them. She also wore a cloak of the same material and it billowed out just like the skirt. A hood cascaded over her head and her amber hair was shown through it and she wore boots that came above her ankle. When she stepped the hard soul of the boot would make a crunching sound on the crystals.

Ash and Misty stared at her for a moment, not knowing what to say.

"Who are you?" she asked and tapped her fingers along her thigh in impatience.

After a moment Misty spoke up, "Some sprites were trying to kill us and a fire dragon told us to come around these mountains. We thought the safest place would be this cave. We’re sorry if we’re intruding, and we’ll leave if you want us to." She kicked Ash’s leg as a warning. "Won’t we, Ash?"

"Yes," he said in reply of the kick.

The woman looked at them for a moment. Her eyes switched from Ash to Misty a couple times. Then she looked at the small creatures at their feet, staring back at her. She noticed the small sparks coming from Pikachu’s cheeks, but it abruptly stopped when he realized that’s what she was then looking at and the place became darker except the sparkle of gold. She looked at Togepi and Misty clutched it harder in reaction of sensing the woman’s brain orders of looking at it.

The woman smiled and nodded.

"You may stay. You aren’t like other sprites; more like our kind," she said.

"We’re sprites?" wondered Ash. "All 100 percent sprites?"

The woman came up to him and placed her finger tips on his ear, which was long and pointy at the top like hers and Misty’s, and she trailed along to his lightning bolt scars.

"Yup," she said and poked his nose playfully and he scrunched it back. "I can’t see you as being anything else," she said, stood up, and turned around "unless you’re an elf," she looked to him over her shoulder, "but they don’t exist.

"Follow me," she said and started to walk deeper into the cave.

Ash and Misty followed in and Pikachu started emitting sparks lightly again.

"My name is Zoe. This is the main part of the Crystal Cave, and," she said and they stopped when they reached the end of the cavern that widened into a room "this is the guardian dragon of it."

Ash and Misty looked up and on a small ledge that stuck out of the wall was a dragon perched on it, sleeping.

It’s head wasn’t like any of the other dragons they’ve seen- it was related more to a lizard with two gnarled horns on its head. It had shimmering golden skin that had only some indentation on it as scales. On its shoulder blades were the remains of two arms which evolved into wings that was wrinkled up in lack of use for them (though what use are wings when inside a cave?), but that was in its genes from its ancestors. Two claws sprang from the tip of each wing it had two long legs that bent in a relaxed position and its two arms curled up against its chest in a resting position and its tail wrapped around the ledge to help keep its balance.

Though it was a small dragon- or at least much smaller than their dragons, and only came several feet above Zoe.

It’s eyes opened in a flash and they flinched at the glaring green eyes.

"WHO ARE THEY?" the dragon asked in a dual voice of both males.

"A couple of young sprites. They will be staying for the night or more," replied Zoe.

He snarled a little and went back to sleep, soundly.

"You must be very quiet," Zoe whispered. "He sleeps most of the time, and when waken he might be a little grumpy."

Ash and Misty stared at the dragon and nodded slowly.

Zoe walked to a pile of hay that lay in a corner opposite from the ledge that the dragon sat upon. She parted it into two separate piles as small mattresses for them to sleep on.

"You may stay here for the afternoon and night. You must have had a rough day," she said.

Ash and Misty sat on one or the other hay stacks and their pokemon followed to their masters (or parents…). Zoe looked at the two pokemon confusedly for a moment.

"Have one of you mixed bred some animals? You should know it’s not allowed on this island, although many outlaw sprites have broken the rule," she queried.

They looked at their pokemon and picked them up, looking at them for a moment.

"I thought you might have known we only became sprites when we landed on this island, and before we were pokemon trainers," said Ash and looked up at Zoe.

"Po-ke-mon?" her tongue curved over the word in confusion.

"Ash, they don’t have the same memories as they do in the old island," scolded Misty softly enough for Zoe not to hear.

Ash nodded mildly and turned to Zoe.

"I accidentally said a wrong spell and they mysteriously appeared instead of… a metal pot," he lied. "We just decided to call them pokemon."

She deceivingly looked at them for a moment but smiled and chuckled a little. "I’m sorry I asked," she said and walked out of the cavern. "If you need me, you can just call."

Misty leaned back on the hay stack as Zoe walked out of the cave, and sighed.

"It almost feels like a bed…" said Misty and snuggled in to the hay.

"But it’s not, and we might have just forgotten what a bed feels like," murmured Ash and he rolled over onto his stomach and looked at Misty, who now gave him a look.

"Thank you, Ash, for ruining it," she said and turned her back on him.

After a moment or so of Ash staring at the back of her head, he talked. "Okay, okay, I’m sorry. You can stop turning your back to me."

Though there was no answer coming from her and she remained still.

"Misty?" he called out to her and there was again no answer. "Misty?… Misty?"

He crawled over to her and looked at what was to her besides her back, and saw she had fallen asleep. Ash plopped back onto his hay stack and stared at the ceiling that sprung out at him with the dark crystals sparkling everywhere.

He held out an empty hand and stared at it a couple of seconds before the small container with some of the water Misty had shot out to save them, swirling around in it. It glowed light blue and it churned in the bottle like a storm was inside it.

"Got a present for your girlfriend?" a voice asked and Ash looked up, seeing the dragon looking at him with devilish eyes.

He stuck the bottle into his boot quickly and looked to the side, blushing.

The dragon gave a small chuckle and jumped off the ledge.

"Where are you going?" asked Ash.

"Have to catch dinner. Dragon’s got to eat, you know," he replied and stomped his way out of the cavern, leaving Ash alone with a sleeping Misty and the little bottle, which he then took out of his boot.

He set the bottle down next to the hay stack. He held out bot of his hands and looked like he was spacing out for a moment. Then, like the bottle a scrap of metal and dead seaweed appeared, laying in his hands. He set the metal down and carefully dropped the seaweed on top of it.

"I hope this works," he said to himself.

Ash popped the cork off of the bottle and quickly covered the opening with his free hand before the min-storm could fly out of the bottle. He could feel the spot on his hand that covered the opening start to sting with the splashing water, and it almost became immediately numb. He tipped the bottle along with his hand so the opening was towards the hay and crystals.

"A dead plant and rocks… I hope it works," he said again to himself and checked to make sure it was big enough.

He moved his numbing hand out of the way and shoved the bottle into the brush of seaweed until he sensed the hardness of the metal. The water burst out and splashed everywhere around the two substances, twisting and curling around, splashing and sparking through open spaces, but curving back inside like it was a planet in orbit.

After a moment of the silent wizardry, it stopped swirling around, and the water just soaked into the two items. It glowed a blue aurora and began to take a more identifiable shape instead of what it was right now- a blubbery heap of blue jelly. It became longer and thinner like a cylinder and there were two sparks of white light and through the blue glow there was a pearl on each end of the long stick. On of the ends split into three points with the middle being the longest. The blue aurora stopped and there the object laid in gold. Yes, this is what Ash wanted. He had done exactly as his dragon had told him to do to make it, and it looked perfect. It was a trident. A three-pronged spear. The basic symbol of what was related to water. Misty was related to water. It now fit together.

Though going back, "looked" was a word that proved, that perhaps it wasn’t right. It looked okay- every detail of the weapon was as Ash had pictured it. And he couldn’t possibly test it before giving it to Misty.

He was a magician- a thunder sprite. He couldn’t use what items were used by psychics- water sprites. Besides, there wasn’t a place to test it. This cave… it would be too much of a commotion- maybe it already was with the swirling glow of lights everywhere and he was surprised that Misty still fell asleep through it.

Ash looked around. Pikachu and Togepi had gone to sleep as well, obviously. They’d always after what had happened with the other sprites earlier.

"Hmmm," murmured Ash, "there’s no place to put this… I can’t make it just disappear- it’s too big for me to handle…"

He looked to Misty and wished she were awake, but in another place that he could just go to. She had rolled over onto her back and he got a view of her face. It wasn’t much of a beautiful face, but there was always something about her that he just loved. And right now she was asleep and he didn’t want to wake her up.

Though he didn’t know what to do with the trident and so he crawled over to her with the long weapon in hand.

"Wake up, Sleeping Beauty," Ash teased, holding back a chuckle at what had popped out of his mouth.

Misty’s mouth curved and she partially sat up, still half asleep and wrapped her arms around Ash’s neck.

"What the…" said Ash as he wondered what she was doing.

Misty gave a hummed sight and a smile, mumbling "… Ashy-boy…"

Ash gave a look of "what’s she doing?". She leaned her head forward and kissed him sloppily. It was now that she was fully awaken when she felt actual flesh against her lips and she shot her eyes open and yelped at the blurry vision of Ash.

"Kind of awkward to give me a goodnight kiss when you just wake up," he said.

Misty ignored the comment and rubbed her eyes trying to get a better view of her surroundings.

"Why did you wake me up? I was having such a nice dream… that we were back in Viridian City…"

"Misty, I have something for you," said Ash.

"…and that there were no reporters and- What? You have something for me?" she asked and became excited.

"Yeah, I thought you might want it," he said and picked up the trident next to him, which Misty had missed when half-asleep.

She then became surprised and stared at the golden rod with the two gleaming pearls on either end.

"It’s a trident!" she exclaimed. Ash handed it to her and she ran her fingers along the long handle to the left point. "It’s so beautiful…"

"But I don’t know if it works. If it does, I thought it might help you with attacks instead of just defense."

"It feels… familiar," she commented, looking at every little square inch on it.

"It’s made of seaweed, metal, and some of the water you shot out when the fire dragon was attacking us."

"You took some of my water?" she asked.

Ash nodded, half in shame, "I’m sorry- was that bad thing?"

"No, it’s okay," she said, still in half of a daze from the gift. She turned it over several times, memorizing its details from tip to blunt edges. She burst out and tightly hugged Ash, careful of not to poke him with it. "Thanks, Ash! I’d kiss you if I hadn’t already!"

"TogEEEE?" wondered Togepi, who then awoke from all the commotion.

Misty turned around to him and held out the trident so it could see it.

"Look Togepi, my very own trident!" she partially explained to it, and with its ‘mother’ being happy, it jumped up and down with its diglett-voice.

"Maybe you should test it?" suggested Ash from behind her.

She turned to the side so she wasn’t facing Togepi or Ash and held up the trident. She fumbled for what she was supposed to do, but knowing half her power was in there, why not do an attack.

"Hmm…" she hummed out, hoping it would work.

Her hand gripped onto the long spear tighter and the tips of the trident began to whirl with blue water. It took the shape of a cyclone, but when Misty decided it had gone far enough, she stopped and set down the weapon quickly.

"It works enough for me," she said.

Ash gave an exasperated sigh and leaned back on his hay stack. Misty turned to him.

"Are you okay? You don’t look so good, Ash."

He nodded a little, resting his arm on his stomach. "It was just sort of a lot of work on me to make it- draining out a lot of my powers I mean. I just… need to… sleep," he said and let his head drop and sink into the dead grass.

She lightly kissed his forehead, seeing a small smile creep upon his lips, and laid down on her own stack of hay, falling asleep.

After a while, a glow from the tunnel Ash and Misty had came through faded in, and Zoe came in, carrying a lantern. She quietly stepped in, seeing that her dragon was not there, and anticipated he went on his nightly hunting. She held her lantern up a little more where Ash and Misty slept. She looked at the golden trident with the two sparkling pearls on either side and smiled. She walked to a wooden pole that stuck out of the cavern walls and hung the lantern to it, putting out the light so the cavern was almost completely dark except for the glow of the crystals and the trident.

She walked into another tunnel, and disappeared off into the darkness.

Ash woke up with a yelp and shot his head around. He could see Misty’s hair that seemed like a flame burning in the eternal blackness. His eyes adjusted a little and he could just barely see around him. He sighed.

"A dream," he said to himself, "Just a dream."

He was still uneasy, though, and shivered.

"Misty?" he whispered shakily. No answer. "Misty?" he said just above a whisper, and he could hear her stir a bit.

"Mmm… Ash?" she asked groggily.

"Can you… please come here?" he asked.

He heard of weary noises and then a hand on his boot.

"What is it? What time is it? Something happen?" she asked, sitting up.

He could see a white outline of her where light shone and the rest was a shadow. Her cheeks moved with her talking, and he saw how the shadows would appear and disappear at her jaw.

"I’m sorry, I just needed to see if you were still alive," he said.

She could see a white outline along his face as well, along with the silhouette of his hands fidgeting.

He saw the shadow on her jaw frantically dance across her face. She was laughing.

"What gave you the idea I was dead?" she asked.

"I’m sorry," he apologized again, "it was a silly nightmare I had."

She leaned forward and kissed his nose. "We all have those, and they seem real sometimes. Our dragons aren’t going to mysteriously awake and turn against us, trying to kill us."

"How did you…" but he abruptly cut himself off, knowing she was psychic. "So you can read minds now?"

"So you now know. I was trying to keep it a secret, but I opened my big mouth," she said and laughed a little again.

Ash laughed a little too.

"But that means I cheered you up?" she wondered.

He nodded and his lips curved up a little.

"I guess I should be careful of what I’m thinking," he said.

"And you should never dare to think that Misty Hannada would ever die. I can hold up a couple of old dragons," she said.

"Except my dragon isn’t old."

Misty would whack him with her mallet if it wouldn’t have made so much noise and wake up Zoe, or the crystal cave dragon if it was there.

Instead, she yawned a little. Ash gently held her hand, and although his whole body was almost completely cast with shadows, you could tell he had a mournful look.

"I’m sorry to wake you up," he said for the third time. "To tell you the truth," he said, thinking now of Mimey, the Mr. Mime that his mother had, "I’ve never had so much good luck with nightmares."

"Yes, those vacuum cleaners must be a real pain, eh?" she said.

Ash sighed, "I have to be careful of what I’m thinking."

Misty giggled a little and squeezed his hand.

"It’s okay. Go to sleep," she said almost as if he were Togepi ( ‘almost’ being the key word…). She felt a sudden rush up her spine like a bug crawled up it, and she knew it came from Ash. "I’ll be with you," she said.

Ash softened up and relaxed against his hay stack. The silhouette of Misty came closer and her lips touched his forehead.

Before they had ever landed on this island she had always thought of a tune that suited her state. A tune that just popped into her head and she’d hum it when she was alone. And gradually, words shifted so it rhymed and she secretly named it "Misty’s Song". But now she sung to a different tune.

She knew that now, what she and Ash had to do was fight for their lives before even trying to get back home. They had to- they had no choice. They must. But they weren’t alone- they had each other.

The new "Misty’s Song" now formed and she hummed each word…

Out here in the endless dead night;

Beneath the clouds, and the moon.

We both know we’ve got something on our minds,

We know we must, but we don’t want to.

You look at me, I look to you.

I wanna tell you that we must, but I don’t know how to start.

I wanna tell you but now I’m afraid that the sprites might take my heart.

Oh why should anything so easy ever be so hard to do?

I wanna tell you that we must and to say that…

I’ll be with you.

You practice all the spells that you must say;

Line by line, every word.

You tell yourself, today could be the end,

And every time, you never lose your nerve.

I look at you, you look to me.

I wanna tell you that we must, but I don’t know how to start.

I wanna tell you but now I’m afraid that the sprites might take my heart.

Oh why should anything so easy ever be so hard to do?

I wanna tell you that we must and to say that…

I’ll. Be. With you.

Why? Why do we turn away?

It must be, we’re afraid to be-

(We’re lost) We’re lost, but we must pay our cost

And think of love, not push and shove…

Can’t we see?

I wanna tell you that we must, but I don’t know how to start.

I wanna tell you but now I’m afraid that the sprites might take my heart.

Oh why should anything so easy ever be so hard to do?

I wanna tell you that we must and to say that…

I’ll. Be. With you…

Tell you that we must, (I wanna say…) but I don’t know how to start…

I wanna tell you but now I’m afraid that (But I’m afraid…) that the sprites might take my heart.

Oh why should anything so easy (I’ll always be with you…) ever be so hard to do?

I wanna tell you that we must and to say that…

She then whispered, "I’ll always be with you."

And she’d have to for both their sakes. And she did want to tell him everything that was in this song, but what was in the chorus would say why not. She couldn’t bring him alone to talk to him, they knew danger lurks around every corner- even in this cave. They’d be losing their guard. And when they slept, they could still sense if something was there.

Though, through the danger around them, the song made sense as she said she’d be with him. With this, he wouldn’t be alone. She’d always be there to save him… and hopefully, he’d be there to save her. Sure they seemed perfect- Ash had the offensive power and Misty had defense specialty- but they were weak. They were only a couple of 11 year old kids, weren’t they? They’ve changed… they’ve changed a lot with knowledge, and that was required for them to learn about their adversaries and allies… but it’s not like they’re now super powered heroes capable of saving the world in a day.

Misty thought of all this. Her head beginning to fill with complex thoughts to fit the puzzle. What she had been thinking before was only one of the pieces of the puzzle. It seemed as if she were then isolated from the rest of the world. Animals outside perked their heads up, and a breeze swayed the dying trees that laid outside in the forest, and it was like the whole island was telling her that she almost figured it out…

And then it hit her like a truck running over her. This wasn’t just a game like a pokemon battle. This only included her and Ash, and what was on this island. This was the start of Battle of the Elements.

-to be continued