The Dragon Master II: Chapter Seven

	While Misty and I braced ourselves for whichever attack we about to hit us, 
sparkly powder drifted down and hit the metronoming pokemon. They then froze 
solid, not moving.
	"What just happened," Misty asked me as we walked closer to the Rock Shard. 
The answer, however, was just jumping down from above us.
	"Hello, son," Lorelei said as she walked up to us. "You must get the Rock 
Shard and get the hell out of here before something bad happens."
	"Okay," I said as I sent another attack at the Moon Stone. "HYPER BLAST!" A 
beam that was about the width of my pinky shot out of my hand, then, when it 
was one inch away from the target, erupted into a beam that was bigger than 
the moon stone itself and shattered it. I grabbed the Rock Shard and put it 
in its respective spot on the medallion.
	"The reason that you must get out of here, Bob," Lorelei said, "is that the 
mole in the Pokemon League is growing ever more active. I would advise you 
not to go back there, as you don't know whom to trust. Keep the Shard 
business between Misty, Ash, you, and myself. We are the only ones that you 
can trust. But, Flargini can also control them, so if their pupils 
disappear, knock them out and get away as quick as possible. Do you 
understand? Leave me now. Go find the next Elemental Shard. You must 
complete it before Flargini collects one shard. But, before you go, let me 
tell you something. You can remove the Shard that is of your own element 
from the medallion if you see fit. Go now, and complete the medallion." I 
then picked Misty up in my arms, and flew away towards Cerulean City.
	When we reached it, everybody seemed normal, and was walking around in a 
cheery mood. We headed directly for the Gym where Misty's sister would 
hopefully be at.
	"O my God," Violet said as Misty and I walked in. "Like, what are you doing 
here with your boyfriend?"
	"Actually, this time," Misty started, "it's confidential League business, 
and so we can't tell you. We just need to ask you something."
	"Really," Daisy said as she walked in. "Ask us anything. If it's for the 
good of the League, then we'll cooperate. We remember what happened the last 
time that the League was corrupt."
	"Good," I spoke up for the first time. "If you three sisters had a water 
artifact, where would be the best place to put it?"
	"Most likely in that one chamber at the bottom of the pool that we can't 
get open," Lily said. "We discovered it once Daisy dived right on top of it 
and broke her nose." Daisy was furious while the other Misty, Lily, and 
Violet all had smirks on their faces.
	"Um." I began, trying to sound nonchalant, "what did it have on it? Was it 
a door? Were there any buttons?"
	"Some kinda design," Lily offered.
	"Yeah, there was a door, but we couldn't open it," Daisy said.
	"There was these weird squares on there," Violet stated. Misty took off her 
cloak and shoes and dived into the water. I followed suit. Then, of course, 
I heard three professional diver splashes right after me. Misty could stay 
down there as long as she liked, as she could breathe underwater. I, 
however, was given a breathing apparatus that was about the size of my fist.
	We made it down to the chamber that the three Waterflower sisters couldn't 
open. There was an enigma on it, as there had been on most of the others. It 
read:

				This test is physical, not mental,
				So you must use your strength.
				But if you don't you shall perish.
				How long can you hold your breath?

	I pressed the button under the clue, and the door split and opened. The 
five of us swam down into the depths of the chamber. I wondered how deep 
that it actually went, until we came to a shimming mist that covered the 
entire passageway. I wondered what it was, but I had no time to figure it 
out. I just swam right through it, and I ran out of air! The breathing 
apparatus on my mouth had malfunctioned! The four women behind me did the 
same, and everybody but Misty was out of air. I grabbed Violet and Daisy, 
while Misty grabbed Lily. I sprouted my wings and used them to propel me 
faster than even Misty. After about 10 seconds, we reached another 
shimmering energy wall. Inside, was a blue shard lying on top of a podium. I 
went through the energy wall, and instead of going down, I was going 
forwards, instead! There was no more water, and I could breathe. Misty and 
Lily showed up about five seconds later.
	"Is that what I think that it is," Misty asked me.
	"Yeah," I said. "That's the Water Shard. Once I connect it to the other 
Shards, we'll be half-done."
	"Okay," Lily said. "I am like totally weirded out."
	"Yeah," Daisy agreed. "Like, what the hell is going on here?" Misty and I 
weren't listening as I grabbed the Water Shard and attached it to the 
reconstructed part of the medallion. Immediately after I had connected the 
Water Shard with the others, the golden light disappeared, and water rushed 
in to meet us. We were not vertical as we had been; we were now horizontal 
with no breathing apparatus. I grabbed Violet and Lily, the closest two of 
Misty's sisters, called my wings, and swam as fast as my Mastery allowed me 
to towards the surface of the pool. When we reached the surface, we all took 
a refreshing breath of fresh air.
	"Which Shard are we going to get next," Misty asked me. "Well, I mean, what 
are our choices?"
	"Well," I started, "we could get the Grass, Thunder, Fire, Psychic, or 
Poison Shards."
	"Okay," Violet said. "What the hell are you two talking about? And what is 
the deal with the secret chamber down there?"
	"We can't really explain right now," Misty offered. "But we will explain 
everything once we are done with this mission."
	"See you three girls later," I said as I called my cloak and ran out of the 
door to the Gym. We continued to go to a little café up on the Cerulean 
Cape. We ordered our meal and discussed where the next location of the Shard 
that we would try to collect, the Thunder Shard.
	"Could it be in Vermillion City," Misty asked.
	"Perhaps it could be in the Power Plant," I said. "It could be anywhere 
that the Thunder Element exists."
	"If we don't know where it is," Misty said, "then how are we supposed to 
find it?"
	"Where is the place that the most electricity is stored in Kanto or Johto," 
I asked her. She still had a blank look on her face. "The power plant. They 
still haven't figured out how that thing is still running after that machine 
part was stolen by Team Rocket."
	"So we have to get the part from Team Rocket, and then we have to go all 
the way back to the power plant to put it in and get the Thunder Shard," 
Misty asked.
	"Yep," I said. "This Shard will be complicated to get. Perhaps my father 
will just give me the part. Despite the fact that he hates me."
	"Yeah," Misty said. "That can always be a problem. But since you're the 
Pokemon League Champion, and he's a Gym Leader, he has to obey your orders."
	"He also denied in a court of law that he had anything to do with Team 
Rocket," I said. "He'll just deny that he has the part. Technically, there's 
nothing that I can do."
	"Let's just sneak into his place of business," Misty said as she leaned in, 
"and steal the part back."
	"I suppose that we could do that," I said. "Let's go."
	"After we eat," Misty said. "You know that we both haven't eaten properly 
in days."
	"Fine," I conceded. "I just want to get that part back so we can get the 
Thunder Shard." We finished our dinner and then we flew off towards Viridian 
City, where my father's Gym was located.
	"Are you ready," Misty asked me as we both stood outside of the door to the 
Gym.
	"Yeah," I said. "HYPER BLAST!" The beam knocked the door down and I walked 
in to talk with my father.
	"Meh," Misty said. "So much for the subtle approach." She followed me in 
there as Ground trainers started to swarm around us.
	"Quagsire," a trainer yelled. "Use Earthquake."
	"Scarlet, go," I said. "Ice Beam." Scarlet obeyed and the trainer's 
Quagsire was frozen solid.
	"He's the League Champion," the trainer exclaimed as he bent down on one 
knee. All of the others followed suit. Giovanni walked in, along with his 
Persian.
	"Ah, son," Giovanni started, though I cut him off.
	"I am not, and will never be your son," I said. "Now to cut to the chase. 
Give us that machine part that you stole from the Power Plant awhile back."
	"I have no idea what you are talking about," Giovanni offered. "You both 
know that I severed all my ties with Team Rocket after that you defeated 
Lance. Without him, Team Rocket would have never taken place at all."
	"What are you saying," I asked him.
	"Master Lance funded Team Rocket with the League's power," he continued.
	"Nothing about Lance surprises me any more," I dismissed it. "Underlings, 
leave now." They all got up and ran out of the door. "Now you are going to 
tell me where that machine part is at before I have to use force."
	"You wouldn't dare," Giovanni breathed. I picked him up by his shirt and 
slammed him against the wall.
	"Tell me," I said. "NOW!" His eyes flashed over to the painting on the wall 
beside him. "Thank you." I then set him down gently. I removed the painting, 
and sure enough, there was a safe behind it.
	"There's nothing in there," Giovanni insisted.
	"Sure," I said. "Outrage." My fists erupted in a teal fire, and I punched 
repeatedly through the door to the safe. The machine part was safely stowed 
away in there. I took it out and walked out the door.
	"Um," Misty said as she turned to follow me. "Thanks for your cooperation, 
I think."
	"Any time," Giovanni answered her, rubbing his chest where I had picked him 
up. She followed me while I was heading to the PokeCenter in Viridian City.
	"I thought that we were gonna sneak in," Misty complained as she caught up 
to me. "He could've shot you on the spot. He did have a gun, you know."
	"Big deal," I said. "We got what we wanted and now we can go and get the 
Thunder Shard and continue completing the medallion so we can defeat 
Flargini."
	"Okay," Misty said. "But the next time we go up against somebody with a 
gun, be a little bit more careful, okay?"
	"Fine," I replied. "Hold on." She grabbed on to me and we flew back towards 
Cerulean City.
We landed a little bit out of town so we wouldn't be noticed. There was a 
hiker on the route that ran up to us. We weren't wearing our cloaks so we 
wouldn't attract attention.
	"Hey," the hiker said. "I'm kinda bored. Do you want to battle me?"
	"You don't want to battle me," I replied in a soft and dangerous voice.
	"Yeah," the hiker persisted, "I do want to battle you. A one-on-one battle. 
We each choose one pokemon and battle."
	"You really don't want to battle him," Misty tried again.
	"Come on," the hiker said. "You know you want to."
	"Fine," I said. "Choose your pokemon. Better, yet, play to my weakness. Go, 
Puff. Make this quick. We have work to do." Puff came out of its pokeball in 
a flash of teal light.
	"Go," the hiker yelled as he threw out a pokeball, paying no attention to 
my Mastery. "Machamp!" A huge, muscled Machamp came out and met with Puff. 
"Machamp, Cross Chop!"
	"Puff," I said quietly, "Elemental imbalance." Right before the Machamp hit 
Puff with a powerful fighting blow, Puff turned into maroon energy and hit 
Machamp, knocking him out.
	"Holy shit," the hiker said. "You're right, I shouldn't have battled you. 
Here, take this. It's a little something that I found in Rock Tunnel. I 
think that it's a flute. I tried playing it, but I'm no good. See that 
inscription on the side, there? It looks like some sort of ancient writing. 
Hope that you had better luck than I did with it." With that, he turned 
around and left.
	"What does it do," Misty asked me. "It can't just be a flute with those 
ancient symbols on it. Hold on, that looks like unown writing!"
	"Perhaps it has something to do with the medallion," I wondered out loud. 
"Let's give it a try." I put my fingers on the holes and blew. A haunting, 
wonderful melody came out. It was actually a visible melody. There was a 
whitish haze drifting into the shape of a square. I stopped playing and the 
haze shifted into a map of Kanto and Johto! There were eighteen X's on the 
map; each one the color of an element. This is the map of the Elemental 
Shards.
	"Are you thinking what I'm thinking," Misty asked.
	"Perhaps," I answered. "If you're thinking that we just found the map to 
the Elemental Shards."
	"Yeah," Misty said, still staring at the map. "That'd be it." The map was 
showing that the Thunder Shard, was indeed underneath the Power Plant.
	"Let's go," I said. We ran off down the route to the Power Plant. However, 
we would have to surf the rest of the way downstream. I sent out my red 
Gyarados and she sent out her blue Gyarados. We both hopped on our Gyarados 
and surfed downstream to the Power Plant.
After about a ten-minute trip, we arrived at the Power Plant and the guards 
let us in to talk to the manager.
	"Are you crazy," the manager said as we told him what we wanted to do. "You 
can't possibly be serious. You two teenagers want me to let you go into the 
part of the Power Plant with the highest amount of voltage? I'm sorry, but I 
can't. if you were a Ground Master and immune to thunder, I'd let you in, I 
seriously would. But you're not, so I won't. That's my final answer."
	"You know that we're going in, anyway," I said. "As I am the Pokemon League 
Champion, I have access to go anywhere. And you know it."
	"Yeah," the manager said. "But, you have to give me the Machine Part that 
we have been missing for four years."
	"Deal," I said as I tossed the part to him. I then walked over to the part 
of the plant where the power was generated. I walked through the door, with 
no thought of the electricity in there. Misty on the other hand, created a 
force field of liquid blue energy around her. We walked in there for about a 
half an hour when I tripped over a handle on the floor. There seemed to be a 
trapdoor and that was the handle.
	"Think that the Shard is under here," I asked Misty.
	"One can only hope," Misty said nervously. I pulled open the door and 
walked down the ladder. Misty followed me. There was really nothing down 
there besides cleaning equipment. But there was a big steel frame by the 
wall with a sheet draped over it. It was the door to the Thunder Shard. I 
read the clue on the door:

				Make it to the end of the room,
				Moving one square at a time.
				Make one wrong move and you're fried,
				Paying the ultimate fine.

	"I'm betting that that's not as cheerful as it sounds," Misty said.
	"You stay here," I said. "I'll go." I pressed the button under the door and 
watched it open. There was the Thunder Shard at the end of the room, though 
there was no floor. Instead, there was crackling electricity where the floor 
was supposed to be. Suddenly, a floor appeared, though the tiles were 
disappearing and reappearing as they pleased.
	"Be careful," Misty warned me. I just nodded and took one step on to the 
floor. I hopped from tile to tile, hoping that they wouldn't fall out. I was 
three tiles away from the shard. I jumped onto another tile, right when it 
disappeared! I quickly changed direction and ended up hanging from a tile 
with one hand. I heard Misty scream. I sure hope that that tile didn't go 
out...

-                                         End of Chapter Seven               
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