The Dragon Master II: Chapter Four I had to find a way to get out of this place. I knew that I didn't have much time left. I had about three minutes left of air at the most. I couldn't reach my six teal pokeballs that contained my dragons. Two minutes. I tried using every dragon attack possible on the ice bars but I didn't even scratch them. One minute. I was doomed. There was no way that I could get out. Fifty seconds. Someone was swimming towards me. Forty seconds. I couldn't see who it was. Thirty seconds. It was Misty! Twenty seconds. She reached the bars. Ten seconds. She motioned for me to use a dragonbreath. I complied and she used a whirlpool on them. Five seconds. The bars shattered. I had to get to an air pocket. Four seconds. I swam as quickly as possible to the nearest air pocket. Three seconds. I couldn't find any. Two seconds. There, five feet to my left! One second. I reached it just as I ran out of air. I was gasping for breath, totally winded from my swim. "How did you get down there," Misty asked. "You know, in that cage of ice." "Flargini," I replied. "He trapped me in there." I realized that I had left my pokemon down on the floor. I ducked back under the surface of the water. I swam towards my dragon pokemon. However, Misty beat me to them and handed me my teal pokeballs. We swam up to the surface quickly. "What were you doing down there anyway," Misty asked suspiciously. "This," I replied, holding out the dragon piece to the medallion. "This is the key to defeating any Mysticmen." "It's only a teal...uh...thing," she said. "How is that the key?" "I don't know," I said. "But there are seventeen more scattered throughout Kanto and Johto. We have to collect them and put them together. Combined, that will be the key to defeating Flargini." "Who on earth told you this," she asked. "The Guardian of the Dragons," I replied, "my grandfather." "Who told you to go to him," Misty asked. "My mother, Lorelei," I responded. "And you trust her," Misty queried me. "Do I have a choice," I asked. "If I don't, then I'm lost and there is no way in hell that we can stop Flargini from doing what he wants to do. That's taking over the League." "Where are the other pieces," Misty asked with a sigh. "That's the problem," I said. "This is the only one that my grandfather knows of. The other ones are out there, I just don't know where." "Well," Misty started, "Blackthorn City is a town of dragons, right?" "Yeah," I came back with. "But where is this-" "And the dragon shard just happened to be here, right," she cut me off. I figured out where this was going. "So you're saying that the other shards of the medallion are located in a town where that town is a specific elemental Gym Leader or Master," I asked. "Honestly, I'm intrigued." "You should be," she said with a devilish smile. "But not now, we have to find the rest of those shards. Perhaps something can happen later." "Good idea," I told her and kissed her on the lips. "I was talking about the shards being in the respective cities. Let's go." She was kind of stunned at what I had just done, so she didn't follow me for about three or four seconds. We go to the entrance of Dragon's Den and I immediately flew off towards Blackthorn City. I was going to check the Gym for Clair, but I couldn't find her anywhere. "Where are we going now," Misty asked me. "Let's go find the Ice Shard," I replied. "The town of ice is Mahogany Town." "But there's no places for ice except the Gym," Misty said. "The Ice Path," I said. "We have to go to the Ice Path. That's where we'll find the Ice Shard." We ran off towards the Ice Path. When we entered the Ice Path, there was an abundance of ice pokemon in there. They all ran away from us when we came. It was kind of dark in there, so I sent out Flare, who appeared in a flash of teal light from its teal pokeball. That lit up the cave so it was very bright. "We are never going to find the Ice Shard in here," Misty complained a half-hour after we entered. "It's here," I reassured her. "I can feel it. Masters can always feel it when their weakness is close." "Maybe it's Pryce or Lorelei," Misty suggested. "Just hope that it's the shard," I asked her. "We need to find it. Quickly. We don't know how long it will take for Flargini to figure out that I'm alive." "Good point," Misty said. "Hey, what's that over there?" It was some very shiny ice. Yet, it was too bright for ice. That had to be the door! "Misty, Flare, come on," I said, as Misty and Flare followed me to what I hoped was the door. "It's the door," Misty exclaimed. "But it's frozen behind a wall of ice." "Flare," I commanded. "Use your flamethrower." Flare obeyed, but the wall did not even melt a little bit. "Maybe he doesn't have enough power," Misty suggested, resulting in a dirty look from Flare. "Or maybe it's just really thick ice." She said that last bit to cover up. "We need more power," I said. "Scarlet, Aeroy, Dragonight, Dragon, Puff, I need all of you!" In five flashes of teal light, my other five dragon pokemon emerged from their teal pokeballs. "I think I'll just back up," Misty said, edging backwards. "Scarlet, Dragon, Dragonight, Flare, Puff," I ordered. "Use your Flamethrower! Aeroy, use your Fire Blast!" They all complied and relentlessly attacked the wall of complete and solid ice. It took about ten minutes, but they melted through the ice. I returned everybody but Flare. There was another question on the wall: Behind this door lies the Ice Shard, Which you are hoping to find. The enigma is confusing, But not if you have a great mind. I looked under the clue. There was a picture. The picture was of the medallion with all the pieces put together. I decided that I should punch in the shards that I already have. So I pressed the Dragon Shard. Nothing happened. I then stuck the Dragon Shard in the slot that I had pressed. It glowed a bright teal, and the door opened. I could not explain what had happened and I didn't really want to know. The Ice Shard was on a podium, as the dragon shard had been. Except that there were two guards made of complete ice standing on either side of the podium. They each had a sword in their hand. I went up and grabbed the shard. I then backed away quickly, stuffing the shard in my cloak. The guards remained still and unmoving. "Whew," I said as I back around to the door. The door closed before we could get out. "Why do I have the feeling that this is not good," Misty asked. The ice guards moved. They each grabbed the hilt of their sword and came at either one of us. I degenerated my teal cloak and called my teal katana. Misty took off her cloak and called her twin blue sai knives from the moisture in the air. I charged at the ice guard moving toward me and engaged in combat. I was performing every kind of kick, punch, and slash that I could. He blocked all of them. I sent a false punch with my left fist, then dodged and slashed him to pieces with my katana in my right. He fell to the ground, not moving. Misty had also defeated her ice guard. "Why isn't the door opening," I asked Misty. "We defeated the guards." Slowly, the ice guards resurrected themselves and became whole again. "That's probably the reason," Misty answered, as the guards were moving ever so closer to us. "We can't keep on killing them forever," I said. "Misty, maybe we have to use the Ice Shard to open the door. I'll fend the guards off." I threw her the Ice Shard and she hurried over to the door. They both concentrated on me and I was slashing and blocking, mostly blocking. I heard a sound behind me. "The door opened," Misty yelled at me. I quickly decapitated the two guards and ran out the door of the shrine. I put my hand on the door and it closed. I pulled the Dragon Shard from the door and a blanket of ice covered it once more. "How did you get the door open," I asked Misty. "I was messing around with the shard, and an ice beam shot out of it and hit the door," she explained as we ran towards the exit. "Let's put them together," I told Misty. She handed me the Ice Shard and I pulled the Dragon Shard out of my cloak. The Ice Shard flew out of one of my hands and connected with the Dragon Shard in the other. It was like a magnet, and I couldn't get them apart. "Only sixteen more shards to collect and put together," Misty said. "Where's the next on that we're going to get?" "Well," I said, "we can only get shards that fit with the other shards. According to the picture of the Medallion, the shards that fit with the dragon and the ice shards, we have seven choices." "Where's the closest one," Misty asked me. "I'd have to say the Bug Shard," I said. "I hate bugs," Misty said. "Yeah," I said, "but we have to collect all the shards. Not just the ones that we like." "Fine," she said. "But where are we going after that?" "Most likely to Cianwood City," I replied, "to get the Fighting Shard. But we have to take this one step at a time. First we'll get the Bug, then we'll go and get the Fighting." "Where do you think that the Bug Shard will be," Misty asked me. "I mean, there's really no town that complies with bug pokemon." "Azalea Town," I replied. "But they have lots of Slowpokes, not bugs," Misty said. "Even though they have a Bug Master in their town, that doesn't mean that the Bug Shard will be there." "There's only one type of pokemon found in the Ilex Forest, right," I asked. "Yeah," Misty said, not knowing where this is going. "That's bug pokemon," I explained. "The Bug Shard is in the Ilex Forest." "How do you know," Misty asked. "And don't say that you have a feeling." "Okay," I agreed. "I have a sense." "What," Misty exclaimed. "That's the same-" "We have to go," I cut her off. "Come here." She came and I picked her up. I called my wings, and we were off to the Ilex Forest. We landed at the place with the G/S shrine used to be. There was a new shrine that was built in its place, and the G/S ball was placed inside. The Bug Shard had to be around here somewhere. The G/S ball looked different. The button on the front was shiny. It was made of crystal! The letters on the front of the ball had changed, too. It now read G/S/C! "Misty," I said to her, "we were wrong about the G/S/C ball all along. It's not something from a legendary pokemon. It's the key to finding the Bug Shard!" "How do you know," Misty asked. "I just do," I replied. I pressed the button on the G/S/C ball and the shrine moved to the left, leaving a staircase that went down about twenty feet. Misty was just standing there, in her blue cloak, with her mouth wide open. I went down there and there was a door, a door like all the others had been. There was again a puzzle in Unown writing. It read: So you have come to find the Bug Shard, This you may not get. Who put the Bug Shard here? That's the question; do not fret. "That's the question," I said unbelievingly. "Who put the Bug Shard here? I dunno. Lemme check the choices." The Creator The Current Bug Master Celebi I understood the first two, but I wasn't sure of the last one. What's a Celebi? I decided to ask Misty. "What the hell is a Celebi," I asked Misty. "I don't know," she said. "Maybe it's a pokemon. Check your pokedex." I figured that that was a good idea and I pulled out my teal encyclopedia or pokemon. I opened it up and pointed it towards the name Celebi. "Celebi," my pokedex said in a computerized voice. "The Time Travel Pokemon. It is said that it travels trough time and leaves an egg from the future." "I'm guessing that it's a legendary pokemon," I said. "Wonder what type it is." "Celebi," my pokedex continued. "A Grass/Psychic pokemon." "Not a Bug Type, eh," I said. I was about to press "The Creator" but my pokedex continued. "Celebi is said to be the guardian of the Ilex Forest in Johto," it said. "Legends say that Celebi built the Ilex Forest Shrine, which was recently destroyed in an explosion." "Celebi's the answer," I exclaimed. "It put the Bug Shard here because it didn't want it stolen by any Mysticmen!" "Which unfortunately will happen," a voice behind us said. We turned around and there was Flargini, floating in midair behind us... - End of Chapter Four -