The Dragon Master V: Chapter Thirteen

	When I finally woke up, Duplica was sitting beside me, but she didn't 
notice that I was awake. She was looking sad, and then she put another slash 
of chalk on the cement wall. She looked towards the doorway, where William 
and Erika were talking in apparent secrecy. It seemed to me at the time as 
if they were hiding something, but I had just woken up after...only God 
knows how long.
	"Duplica," I said, finally sitting up, finished observing all of the 
action. Erika and William immediately ran to the quarters that I was in.
	"Bob," she said. "Thank God!" She gave me a hug.
	"How do you feel," William asked, sounding worried.
	"Like shit," I said. "I have a pounding headache, and it's kind of hard to 
breathe. How long was I out? A couple hours? Or was I out for about a half 
of a day?" At this point, they all looked uncomfortable, especially Duplica.
	"Well," Erika started.
	"How long was I out," I asked again, panicking more this time.
	"Nearly two days," Erika said, steeping back because she was afraid of what 
I might do.
	"WHAT," I screamed, standing up immediately. "How is that possible!?!?"
	"You took one of your own Hyper Blasts to the head," Duplica explained. 
"What can I say? Those things hurt."
	"What day is it," I asked. "And what time?"
	"It's the twentieth," William said. "And last time I checked, it was a 
little after noon."
	"We've lost too much time," I said. "Where are we? We need to get to 
Cherrygrove City and Indigo Plateau by nine o'clock and noon, respectively."
	"We're in Pallet Town," Erika answered me. I did not like that answer.
	"We still need to plan and strategize," I said. "This task seems impossible 
now."
	"It seemed impossible when we started," Duplica asked. "But you didn't give 
up hope. So now you're just going to give up? If you do, you will never be 
with Misty again! How do you like that?" That shut me up. I knew she was 
right.
	"Okay," I conceded to Duplica. "But where are we at exactly?"
	"Professor Oak's basement," Duplica said. "He went up to get us some food. 
Otherwise, he's been down here all day."
	"I have one more question," I stated. "Did Ash get away?"
	"Yeah," William said, sorrow in his voice. "He took a Shadow Blast to the 
head. I was going to take him out, but Flargini came out of nowhere and took 
him."
	"We'll get him at the Pokemon Master meeting," I said. "But as for now, we 
must leave immediately. We'll than Professor Oak on our way out." Everyone 
else nodded. I started to walk up the stairs. I met Professor Oak as he was 
coming down with a platter of food.
	"Bob," Professor Oak said, surprised. "You're awake. How good!"
	"I thank you for everything that you've done for us, Professor," I thanked 
him. "But we have to leave. I have to stop Ash and Misty..."
	"Indeed," Oak said. "Well, Bob. Good luck. You don't deserve this kind of 
life." I smiled for the first time in a while.
	"Thanks, Professor," I said, giving the old man a hug. "You're just as good 
in this reality as you are in mine."
	"Thank you," Oak said. "I think."
	"Don't worry," I calmed him. "It's a good thing." I winked at him, and 
continued my way up the stairs. My three companions followed me.
	I burst out the door and onto Route One. If anyone looked out of their 
window, they would see three Pokemon Masters in their respective cloaks 
running through the tall grasses of Route One. I silently hoped that no one 
was looking out his or her window.
	The three of us sped into Viridian City, unaware of who resided there. 
Mainly, we didn't care at the moment. But later that night we would...
	When we hit the route leading to New Bark Town, we slowed down, and I 
looked at the sun, estimating the time to be around two o'clock.
	"What's our plan for getting Bruno out," Duplica asked. "I mean, it's going 
to be one of the biggest execution since Giovanni's boss."
	"Giovanni had a boss," I asked. "He was the top guy, though."
	"Not ten years ago," Duplica pointed out. "His father was. I guess that 
that would be your grandfather."
	"I guess," I spoke.
	"Seriously, now," Erika started up the original conversation. "How are we 
going to get Bruno out of there alive?"
	"We'll have to go undercover," I said. "We will take the execution guards' 
suits, and escort him out, saying that we have orders from the Pokemon 
League Champion to execute him at Indigo Plateau. Sound like a good enough 
plan to you guys?"
	"Yeah," William said. "Except with one minor flaw. We're going to need to 
find something to do with me."
	"Well," I said. "You'll stand watch, no pun intended. In your case, you'll 
stand sound."
	"Smart aleck," William said, smirking himself. "Shall we start running 
again?"
	"Yeah," I replied to William. "We're going to need to get to at least New 
Bark Town by nightfall. And we're going to need to wake up at six o'clock 
just to meet the guards." The four of us started to sprint down the path, 
loaded with embattling trainers. There was a huge crowd gathered at the 
bridge, so I called some rain and some thunder to scare them off.
	"Great," Erika said, pulling her hood up over her head. "With any luck, the 
trees will start growing thicker." I looked at the nearly barren trees, and 
it was only August. She was right; this place needed the rain.
	Most of the fisherman scattered off the bridge, and the only ones that 
remained were the ones that loved to fish or the ones who were desperately 
in need of water pokemon. I noticed that it was getting late, soon to be 
dusk, so I jerked my head, and the four of us started to run across the huge 
bridge.
	"What time is it," William asked Duplica, who was the only one wearing a 
watch. She took a look at it, and was surprised at what she saw.
	"It's already six o'clock," Duplica said, slowing down. "We've been running 
for four hours." She stopped.
	"We're still nearly an hour from New Bark Town," I stated. "And that's if 
we sprint."
	"I agree with Duplica," Erika panted, evidently breathing hard. "A break is 
in order, I think." I stopped running, and they caught up. I was surprised, 
because William hadn't even broken a sweat. Though it was hard to tell 
because of all this rain. But he wasn't even breathing hard.
	"We should rest for ten minutes," William suggested. "We'll need our energy 
for tomorrow."
	"Fine," I gave in. Duplica and Erika just sat down near some trees and 
tried to catch their breath. While they were doing that, William and I were 
discussing strategies.
	"What are we going to do once we reach the Indigo Plateau," William asked. 
"Are we just going to break in and kill Ash?"
	"No," I said. "He'd be expecting it. It's just to be a small wedding, just 
his mom and some close friends. Also Misty's parents and sisters."
	"Of course," William said, nodding.
	"And we don't want them to know that we're on to them," I said.
	"So what do we do," William queried me. "Just kidnap Misty?"
	"No," I said. "I won't drop down to Ash's level."
	"I heard about that," William said with his hand on his chin, thinking 
hard.
	"What if we make it so the wedding can't go on," I asked.
	"What's that supposed to mean," William questioned.
	"I'm not quite sure," I said. "But we will find a way." Duplica and Erika 
got up and made their way into the conversation.
	"Wouldn't it just be easier to kill Ashy-boy here," Duplica asked me. "It 
would save us a lot of trouble."
	"Actually, it would cause more," I said. "Because if we killed Ash now, 
then we wouldn't be able to get into the Pokemon Master Meeting. And that's 
where we're going to kill Lance and the Elite Four."
	"What if we hurt somebody at the wedding," Erika asked. "Someone important, 
like. Perhaps the minister?"
	"We don't have a grudge against him," I said. "We would need to find 
another target."
	"I'm afraid that we don't have any," William said. "All of the rest of the 
people you share some sort of connection with. But I did hear Professor Oak 
say something about Ash sharing some sort of strong bond with the minister, 
saying that he would allow no one else to marry him and Misty."
	"So what you're saying is-,"I started.
	"We take out the minister and stop the wedding," William cut me off.
	"I see," I replied, in deep thought. "Who is he?"
	"I don't know," William shrugged. "But we won't kill him. We'll just have 
to injure him badly enough so he won't be able to perform the ceremony."
	"Great," I said. "We now have an affirmative plan of action." I smacked a 
fist in my palm. William felt for his watch on his wrist, and then hit a 
button.
	"Six-ten P.M.," his watched beeped.
	"It's been ten minutes," William said. "We'd better get moving, just in 
case we want to make it to the outskirts of Cherrygrove City by tonight."
	"Okay," Duplica said with her hands on her hips. "I think Erika and I have 
caught our breath enough."
	"All right," I replied, smiling to annoy Duplica. "Let's go." I took off 
running towards the direction of New Bark Town. William followed, and then 
Erika and Duplica sprinted after us unwillingly.
	The run to Tohjo Falls was quite unexciting. We didn't slow down, and it 
only took us a half of an hour. Before we entered the cave that contained 
the falls, I sent the storm away that had been pouring rain on us for the 
past couple of hours. We next went into the cavern, prepared for anything 
that came our way...
	However, there was nothing there except a few Slowpoke on the land, and 
some Goldeen and Magikarp in the water.
	"Scarlet, go," I said, throwing out a teal pokeball into the water. My red 
Gyarados exploded in a form a teal energy. I hopped on, and helped my three 
companions onto my water pokemon.
	"GYYYYYYYY," Scarlet shouted, obviously sensing something that I didn't.
	"Shhh, Scarlet," I said. "Waterfall." Still going on about something, 
Scarlet shot a beam of water out of his mouth, so powerful that it made the 
waterfall flow upwards. Quickly, while the current was going our way, 
Scarlet swam up the waterfall with ease. We reached the top, and the 
waterfall flowed back to normal. We surfed across the narrow passage at the 
top of the two waterfalls, and then went down the waterfall on the opposite 
side of Tohjo Falls.
	We beached on the shore inside of the cave, and the four of us Masters got 
off of Scarlet, while I returned him.
	"Everyone keep their eyes peeled," I warned my companions.
	"No problem," William said sarcastically, giving me a thumbs up.
	"Fine," I replied to William's cynical comment. "Just keep all your senses 
aware. Scarlet thinks something is wrong. Believe me, my pokemon are usually 
the first to know."
	"We'll take your word for it," Duplica said, stepping out of Tohjo Falls, 
and the rest of us followed her. "I think that Scarlet is right. I sense 
something."
	"Me too," Erika said, looking about as if knowing what was going to happen.
	"William, could create us an ice bridge over this water," I asked my blind 
companion.
	"Could you direct me to the water," William asked, putting a hand on 
Duplica's shoulder. Duplica led him over to the wide span of water, still 
very alert. I also felt that something was about to happen. Maybe it was 
just the fact that I would be stopping Ash and Misty from making a huge 
mistake in my life.
	"It's right here," Duplica said, taking William's hand and pointing it to 
the water.
	"Right," William replied. "Ice beam." Ice shot out of William's hand 
quickly, and froze a path of water all the way to the other side, which was 
New Bark Town, my old home.
	The four of us Masters walked across the ice, but there was something 
strange to me. There were no pokemon swimming in the water. Usually there 
were Magikarp everywhere. I didn't even see the occasional Chinchou or 
Lanturn.
	"I...um...have to do something quick," I said once we reached New Bark 
Town. "You guys can stay in that house. It's been abandoned ever since 
Delilah died..." I pointed to a now-shoddy house, which used to be my home. 
I looked at the old house, and remembered what had all taken place there.
	I left my companions' sides for the first time in about a week. They didn't 
follow me, because they knew where I was going and what I was going to do.
	I walked to the cemetery, where Delilah had been buried so many years ago. 
I walked to her grave, where it read the exact same thing that it did in my 
reality:

				Delilah Angela Largway
				October 23, 1957-August 1, 2002
				Beloved Mother
				Lance and Bob shall miss her for all eternity

	I looked at the message that I was reading all of these years before, and 
Lance came up behind me and put his hand on my shoulder...but that was a 
long time ago. Times have changed. I was a bigger man than Lance now. He 
thinks that he could just toy with billions of peoples' lives like this. I 
would show him.
	I looked at the empty vase that used to contain flowers. Evidently, no one 
much cared about her anymore. I placed a single teal rose in the vase, and 
then I looked at the headstone once again. I called a Dragon Claw and 
scratched out something on it. The headstone now read:

				Delilah Angela Largway
				October 23, 1957-August 1, 2002
				Beloved Mother
				Bob shall miss her for all eternity

	I knew that Lance didn't miss her. That's why I scratched out his name. He 
didn't deserve to be involved in her life. He killed her...and I would get 
my revenge, making sure that Lance was dead once and for all...
	I sprinted out of the cemetery, and went to the tallest hill in New Bark 
Town. That was where Lance and I had played all those times when we were 
younger. But times had changed. I fell to my knees up on top of the hill, 
and tears uncontrollably ran down my face. I had had everything taken away 
from me. I had nothing to lose, and therefore I had nothing to fear.
	"I WILL FINISH THIS, LANCE," I shouted into the sky.
	"You have to finish this with me, first," a voice behind me said. I got up 
from my knees, and spun around. I was now facing one of my most hated 
enemies...my father, Giovanni.
	"I don't have time for this," I said with anger.
	"I know," Giovanni said. "You have to settle something with Lance. Blah, 
blah, blah. I couldn't really care less about it. The reason for that is 
mostly because the two of us have yet to settle our own little father-son 
spat." I immediately called my katana, and Giovanni called his stone created 
of dirt.
	"Bring it," I said, katana at the ready. Giovanni bolted at me, and I was 
on the offensive, swinging my katana at him furiously. Giovanni finally 
backed away, and started to use elemental attacks.
	"MUDSLIDE," Giovanni yelled. The ground below me seemed to melt, and I was 
sucked into it like quicksand. All of a sudden, the ground hardened again, 
and I was trapped in it. I had to stall him...
	"HAILSTORM," I shouted. Clouds came over the sky, and ice flew down from 
it. Giovanni was trying to come up the hill to finish me off, but the 
prevailing winds got the better of him. He was actually losing ground, which 
gave time to dig myself out. I stabbed the ground with my katana, softening 
the ground, and then pulling my legs out of it.
	"EARTHQUAKE," Giovanni shouted, pounding the ground with the butt of his 
sword repeatedly. I called my wings, and took off so all ground attacks were 
ineffective.
	"DRAGON SLICE," I shouted. I swung my katana from the air, and it made a 
vertical rotating beam of energy at Giovanni. He blocked it perfectly, 
aligning his sword with the beam at the moment of impact.
	"GROUND SPIKES," Giovanni shouted. Spikes of dirt departed from the ground, 
and flew up at me. I sliced them down with my katana, making them useless.
	"It's time to finish this," I said. "Man to man."
	"Bring it on," Giovanni said, sword at the ready. I dived at him with both 
of our swords flinging. Something stopped me, and I looked at where my 
katana pierced Giovanni in the stomach, going straight through him. A sword 
dropped from Giovanni's hand, hitting the ground, and being absorbed right 
back into the earth. Giovanni looked at the sword jammed in his stomach, and 
then at me in the eyes.
	"I'll see you in hell," Giovanni swore at me. I nodded to my father, and he 
fell backwards to the ground. He lay on the ground for about three seconds 
until his body disintegrated into dirt, and then was only a pile of dirt on 
the ground.
	"Dust from whence you came," I recited. "And to dust you shall return." I 
stood there looking at the pile of dust, and I saw it blow away slowly into 
the wind. I heard footsteps running up the hill. I saw Duplica, Erika, and 
William coming towards me.
	"Bob," Duplica shouted, running towards me. She stopped, however, once she 
saw my bloody katana and the pile of dust on the ground, slowly drifting 
away.
	"Giovanni's dead," I said. "We have to get moving." I started to walk down 
the hill.
	"You're just going to go on," Duplica asked. "Your father is dead!"
	"For starters, he is not my father," I told Duplica, my voice rising. "And 
second of all, I'm the one that killed him! So why should I care?"
	"You've just ended a man's life," Duplica exclaimed. "That's just no big 
deal to you?!?! That's just a normal day!?!?"
	"It doesn't matter," I said. "He's alive in my reality! Once we've done all 
this, he'll be back to his old, live self. And just for the record, I wish 
that he would just stay dead!" I walked off onto Route 29.
	"Bob," Duplica shouted after me. "But-"
	"Duplica," William cut her off. "He's grieving in his own way. He's just 
trying to get his old life back."
	"I know," Duplica conceded. "But that was his father!"
	"Not to him," William explained. "I'm not sure if he even has one..." That 
shut Duplica up, mainly because she didn't want to argue anymore. I had 
heard every word of this conversation, but kept on going as if I hadn't. But 
William was right. I didn't have a father.
	The four of us, now silent for a record of three hours, set up camp at 
around ten o'clock. Erika and Duplica went to bed right away, but William 
and I stayed up to watch and listen to the fire crackling. I knew that he 
wanted to talk about my father, so I started it up.
	"I know that you want to know about my father," I said. "But, frankly, 
there's not much to tell. He and my mom gave me up for adoption when I was 
three weeks old, and I didn't speak to him or my mother for fourteen years. 
He kidnapped me using Jesse, James, and Meowth, three of his worst people. I 
was taken back to his lair underneath the Viridian City Gym, and asked me to 
join him. He wondered if I wanted to be evil with him. I said no, and he 
became my enemy. Then in my reality, a couple years later, I took his Gym 
away from him because I had found out that he had cheated on my mother at 
the same time with another woman, bearing another of his children."
	"Who was that," William asked. "Was it anyone important?"
	"Yeah," I said. "It was John Flargini."
	"So that means," William said, thinking this through in his head. "That you 
and dear old John would be-"
	"Half-brothers," I said. "I met his mother back in time using a Mysticman, 
and it's a pity what happened to her."
	"What happened to her," William asked.
	"Lance was trying to kill the younger version of me," I said. "But missed 
and kill Josie, who was John's mother. Anyway, I joined up with him last 
year to take down Ash and the League. It was my group of Masters without 
their Masteries, an underground force of rebels, and Team Rocket that 
disarmed the League of Lance's hands. I never did give him his Gym back. 
That was the last time I saw him before we met up with him at Koga's dojo."
	"Hmm," William murmured. "Not much to tell, eh?" He smiled.
	"Shut up," I replied in a friendly way, also smiling. "Now that you think 
of it, I did have a lot to tell. I just didn't want to. But I still don't 
know what's happened in this reality between me and him."
	"Nobody really does," William said, still listening to the fire. "And the 
only person that did is now dead. But I have one more question for you. Why 
did Lance want you gone?" I didn't even know the answer to this question.
	"I'm not sure," I replied, utterly confused.
	"He has to have a damn good reason," William stated. "I mean, he's been 
trying to get rid of you for about five years. You just have to wonder why 
he wants you gone..."
	"You're right," I said to William. "You're absolutely right. He has to have 
a good reason. I just can't think what it is."
	"Neither can I," William replied. "But, we'd better hit the sack. We're 
going to have a hard day tomorrow.
	"Yeah," I said, lying on the ground a bit away from the fire. I lay on the 
ground for only minutes before I was asleep. I had worn myself out 
today...it was just time to rest...
	I woke up at about dawn, and woke everyone else up. Duplica and Erika 
weren't happy about that, but William didn't care much. We got up willingly, 
though because we knew that we were going to save one life today. Also, we 
knew that we would be destroying thousands...
	The four of us made our way to Cherrygrove City, but we weren't wearing our 
cloaks just in case the news about Giovanni had made it here already. To 
tell you the truth, I wouldn't have been surprised if it did. I knew 
directly where we were going, and I led us directly there.
	We were standing by the back entrance where the execution guards would come 
in. luckily, there were four of them, and so we could use their uniforms. 
That was one thing that I was counting on. The guards came in right at s 
o'clock sharp, which was another thing that I had assumed. I was leaning 
against the door that they were going to enter into. The four guards came 
towards me, one of them holding a briefcase. Duplica was up on top of the 
roof, along with William. Erika was hiding on the fire escape in case in 
needed help.
	"Could you please move," a guard asked me. "We need to get in here to 
execute the prisoner.
	"Now why would you go and do a thing like that," I asked nonchalantly.
	"He murdered someone," the same guard said. "That makes him eligible for 
the death penalty."
	"What if he didn't do it," I asked. "Wouldn't you just feel horrible that 
you killed an innocent man?"
	"Get out of our way," the guard said. I scratched my head, which was the 
signal to Duplica that the guards were getting annoyed with me, and that it 
was time for her to fire her sleeping arrows. I knew that she wouldn't be 
able to hit all four of them, since she was so far away. I nodded to Erika, 
which told her to take out the last guard. When I scratched my head, I 
scratched it in the middle twice, meaning that Duplica was to take out the 
middle two guards.
	"Are you going to answer my question," I asked.
	"Are you going to get out of our way," the same exact guard asked.
	"Nope," I said, pulling the pen out of my pocket that Duplica had given me 
six days ago. I clicked it once, shooting a tranquilizer dart into the first 
guard. Duplica let two arrows fly into the middle guards, knocked them out 
with the tranquilizer tips. Erika used Sleep Powder on the last guard, 
knocking that one out, too.
	I grabbed a guard by the wrist and dragged him over behind the trashcans. I 
took off his clothes, and put them on over myself. Erika, William, and 
Duplica came down by me and changed behind the dumpsters. When Erika and 
Duplica changed and emerged, I picked up the briefcase that the guard was 
holding. Erika and Duplica fell in line behind me, and I placed a hand on 
the doorknob. It was time to save Bruno from a fate that he didn't 
deserve...
-                                         End of Chapter Thirteen            
                        -