The Dragon Master V: Chapter Five

	"Yes," Mya said. "And you must be Bob Shepardson, the man that my little 
girl fell head over heels for."
	"Damn straight," I said. "Until you changed reality."
	"Well," Mya said. "At least now she's in love with someone who's taking 
advantage of Lance's plots, like her father and I."
	"You mean being evil," I retorted.
	"I never said that," Mya said.
	"Well I did," I replied. She ignored me.
	"Allow me to introduce to you Team Magma," Mya said, waving her hand at the 
group of red ninjas behind her. "They are one of the two groups that is the 
equivalent to Team Rocket in Johto. The other one, as you know, is Team 
Aqua. Team Rocket is in Kanto, being the group there."
	"Whatever," I said. "Let's go."
	"I'll take on Team Magma," Duplica said. "You take on that bitch."
	"Okay," I said. I called my katana, and Duplica drew her bow, along with a 
quiver of arrows. The Mya called a red staff, and all her ninjas called 
various ninja weapons: staffs, sais, nun chucks, and swords.
	I charged at Mya Waterflower, and she blocked with her staff. She swung at 
me with her staff, and I dodged it. I jumped up and kicked, but she knocked 
my feet out from underneath of me, making me fall to the ground.
	"Fire Blast," Mya said. A Fire Blast emerged from her staff, headed 
directly at me. I rolled out of the way, and pushed off the ground with my 
back and landed on my feet.
	"Outrage," I cried. Teal flames emerged my staff, and I looked directly at 
Mya. She didn't even look scared. Her eyes glowed, and her staff erupted in 
flames. We started swinging at each other, and I was wondering how Duplica 
was holding off.
Duplica was drawing and firing arrows rapidly. Every one that she drew, she 
hit a ninja. She had definitely grown in her skill of the bow. She drew 
three arrows at once, placed them in the bow, and let them fly at three 
oncoming ninjas.
	"Arcanine, go," a Team Magma Ninja said, throwing out a pokeball.
	"Ditto," Duplica said. "Transform." On command, her Ditto transformed into 
her, along with another bow. Duplica and her clone kept firing at the 
ninjas.
	"Flamethrower, Arcanine," the Team Magma Ninja said. Duplica and her Ditto 
nodded to each other. Their arrows turned into solid water. It wasn't ice, 
but just water confined to an arrow shape. They drew three arrows apiece, 
and let them fly at the Arcanine. Before the Arcanine could let out the 
attack, it was bombarded with arrows flung at it by Duplica and her Ditto. 
It fainted promptly, and was returned by its trainer.
	Mya and I were still battling it out. As we were doing this, I was thinking 
in my head that she was one of the people that I had to kill in order to get 
Misty back. This thought made me swing more furiously than ever before.
	"I won't let you win," I grunted.
	"Letting me win isn't the thing," Mya said. "Because I'm going to win 
anyway." At that instant, a tip of fire appeared from the end of her staff. 
Catching me off guard, she sliced me across the stomach, and I was bleeding 
freely. Duplica must have done with the ninjas, because just as Mya was 
going in for the kill, dozens of solid water arrows hit Mya in the stomach, 
forcing to back twenty feet. I sat up a bit just in time to see her and her 
ninjas retreat into the darkness. It was the last thing I saw before I 
blacked out...
	I awoke, but didn't open my eyes. I just felt like lying there. But I did 
hear two voices talking back and forth in conversation. One I recognized. It 
was Duplica. The other voice sounded familiar, but I couldn't place who it 
was. It was definitely a woman. She was either in her late teens or early 
twenties.
	"I fixed him the best I could," the unknown woman said.
	"Thanks," Duplica said.
	"No problem," the other woman said. "But..."
	"But what," Duplica asked.
	"But why are you here," the other woman asked. "And why is he here? I 
haven't seen him for four years. Why did he come back into anybody's life? 
He had noble efforts, but nobody wants him around."
	"It's a long story," Duplica said. "You wouldn't believe it."
	"What do you mean, 'I wouldn't believe it,'" the other woman asked.
	"It's one of those stories that true, but nobody thinks so," I said, 
sitting up with pain in my abdomen. I noticed that it was bandaged heavily, 
and that my shirt had disappeared somewhere. I looked at the other woman, 
and I saw that it was Erika.
	"You're awake," Duplica exclaimed.
	"Yeah," I said. I turned to Erika. "By the way, I know that I'm not 
wanted...in this reality, anyway."
	"What's that supposed to mean," Erika said.
	"This place isn't real," I said. "The Kanto and Johto that you know is 
nothing like the Kanto and Johto that I know. Everything that you've 
experienced in the past four years isn't real." Erika looked completely 
nonplussed.
	"What do you mean," Erika asked. I stood up and walked over to her.
	"Everything that you've experienced over the past four years was a lie," I 
explained.
	"He's telling the truth," Duplica said.
	"You're both nuts," Erika scoffed, backing away.
	"Erika," I said. "There has to be some way to make you believe."
	"This is insane," Erika said.
	"I know," I said.
	"Tell me something that only you would know," Erika said.
	"What would that do to make you believe," I asked in confusion.
	"Just do it," Erika said. "Or I will give you over to the League at once. 
Both of you!" I thought for a moment.
	"Come on, Bob," Duplica said. I snapped my fingers.
	"When I first came to get you to help us beat Lance," I said. "You helped 
us out of there because of a secret passage. Otherwise, we would've been 
caught, and it would've been over." Erika eyed me suspiciously. I sincerely 
hoped that that had happened in this reality. She then smiled.
	"You remember," she said.
	"Yeah," I said. "But do you believe me?"
	"Like I said when you tried to get me on your side the first time," Erika 
said. "Do I have a choice?"
	"I guess not," I said.
	"So, what's happening," Erika asked.
	"We have to kill the Elite Four and League Champion," Duplica said. "We've 
had close encounters with three of them."
	"John Flargini, Ash Ketchum, and Mya Waterflower," I said. "As for Lance 
Largway and Marcus Waterflower, we haven't seen them."
	"Why does Ash have to die," Erika asked. "You and him were good friends."
	"Until he went over to Lance's side and kidnapped Misty," I said. Erika 
looked confused. "In my reality, that is."
	"I see," Erika said. "Where do we go from here?"
	"We have a contact in Olivine City," I said. Duplica cleared her throat. "I 
mean, Duplica has a contact in Olivine City."
	"Okay," Erika said. "Let's go." I nodded, and called a cutoff teal shirt 
and my cloak. As we turned to head out the door, I noticed something 
blinking in the corner. Whatever it was, it was hidden inside a book. I 
pulled the book out of the bookshelf, and opened it.
	"A camera," I said, throwing it on the floor and smashing it. "We've been 
made. How long have we been here?"
	"About an hour," Duplica replied. I ran for the door, and Erika and Duplica 
followed. I smashed open the door without checking to see if the coast was 
clear, which was a mistake on my part. Immediately, a figure tackled me from 
the side. I rolled him through, and jumped back up on my feet, just like the 
attacker that tackled me. I took a good look at him.
	"Hey, Bob," Lance said. "Miss me?" Marcus and Mya Waterflower came down on 
either side of him.
	"I'll take the Grass Master," Mya said.
	"I'll have pinky," Marcus said, referring to Duplica and her pink cloak.
	"Lance," I said. "It's time for you to pay!" I threw off my cloak and 
called my teal katana with the silver hilt in an instantaneous move. 
Charging at Lance, he threw off his cloak and called his lance. I swung, and 
he blocked with his weapon. I back flipped away from the failed strike. I 
decided to move in with an attack.
	"What are you going to do, Bob," Lance taunted.
	"I've picked up a trick or two since we last met," I said. "HYPER BLAST!" A 
thin beam of light came from the tip of my katana, headed directly at Lance. 
He jumped out of the way, and the attack hit a building, blowing it to 
smithereens.
	"Is that all you got," Lance sneered. "DRAGON CLAW!" Lance stuck his lance 
in the ground, and the tips of his fingers extended into sharp looking 
weapons. They then glowed teal, and he charged at me. Lance jumped into the 
air, claws raised. I swung my katana at his hands, but it made a 
metal-on-metal sound, and he didn't even look damaged.
	"What the hell," I muttered to myself, but Lance heard me anyway.
	"Do you like that, Bob," Lance whispered dangerously. He continued to swing 
away with his hands.
	"DRAGONBREATH," I cried. I inhaled, and blew the acidic breath of a dragon 
at his hands. It hit directly, and Lance's hands recoiled quickly to their 
original form. His lance, stuck in the ground ten feet back, quivered 
slightly, flew out of the ground and directly into Lance's awaiting hands.
	"Now for how real mean fight," Lance said.
Meanwhile, Erika was taking on Mya Waterflower, and getting kicked. Fire 
attacks of all kinds were being thrown at her.
	"FIRE BLAST," Mya cried as a star of fire came out of her staff, aimed 
directly at Erika.
	"Growth," Erika cried. Plants sprang up in front of her, creating a wall. 
It didn't matter, because the fire ate right through the wall. It didn't 
matter because Erika, however, because she remained unscathed.
	"FLAME ENGULF," Mya cried. A red beam of energy shot out of the end of her 
staff. Erika dodged out of the way, but the beam hit a tree behind her. 
Slowly, the tree was eaten away by a fire that started inside of it. Erika 
called her ebony staff.
	"SOLARBEAM," Erika yelled. Since energy was stored inside of her staff, the 
attack didn't need to charge, and it shot right out unexpectedly. Mya, 
unprepared, was thrown back by the attack. She had troubles getting up, but 
got up.
	"You little bitch," Mya said. "Take this! FIRESTORM!" A tornado of fire 
came down from the sky and hit Erika, not expecting it. Erika was thrown 
back against a tree.
A little bit away, Duplica was busy fighting Marcus Waterflower. She had her 
bow drawn, and he had his staff out.
	"WATER SURGE," Marcus cried. A huge blast of water came out of the end of 
his staff, but Duplica flipped out of the way. She drew an arrow and shot it 
at lightening speed. However, Marcus used his quick reflexes to hit the 
arrow off course with his staff.
	"Block this," Duplica said because she was shocked that someone could have 
faster reflexes than her, so she drew and shot another arrow, and another, 
and then another, all in the span of a second.
	"Gladly," Marcus said, and hit the ground with his staff. Without delay, 
water burst out of the ground, and knocked the arrows off target. Duplica, 
knowing that arrows wouldn't work, knew that she had to change into 
something powerful. Her eyes glowed pink, and her form blurred. She went 
down into a position of a four-legged animal, and when she was done, she was 
a Jolteon.
	"THUNDERBOLT," Duplica shouted in a voice that wasn't hers. Her spines went 
sharper, and many thousands of volts of electricity shot out of her body. 
The mass of energy was headed directly at Marcus, but he spun his staff 
around very fast, depleting all the energy into nothingness.
	"HYDRO PUMP," Marcus shouted, pointing the ends of his staff outwards. 
Water flowed out of both ends powerfully. He then threw his staff as hard as 
possible at Duplica. She took off immediately, leaving thunder-scorched 
ground behind her. The staff followed her, around and around. She was going 
fast, but the staff was moving even faster. The staff nailed her from 
behind, and she was knocked forward, out of the form of the Jolteon that she 
was in.
	Lance and I were still fighting. During this time, we were mainly fighting 
with our weapons of choice. I leaped over him completely, and landed behind 
him. I swung my katana at his back, but he whipped his lance over his head, 
and blocked me while not even looking. When he drew his lance away, my 
katana was caught in a niche that it had made in the wood and was thrown 
into the wall of a house fifty feet away. Now I was left unarmed, and Lance 
was more dangerous than ever.
	"What are you going to do now, Bob," Lance asked. His lance repaired itself 
and extended itself, while making another tip on the opposite tip of the 
other one. Lance was spinning around with his lance, and I was lunging and 
dodging this way and that, trying not to be hit with the deadly weapon. As 
we were fighting, and noticed that it was getting cloudy out, and that there 
was a lake right by Sprout Tower, which was where we were fighting.
	"I'll tell you what I'm going to do, Lance," I said. He looked worried. 
"WATERSPOUT!"
A tornado came down right over the lake, and sucked up nearly all the water. 
I summoned the waterspout to the spot where Lance and I were fighting. Lance 
was busy being blown away, and I decided that this was my time to attack.
	"RAIN DANCE," I yelled. Water was already pouring down on account of the 
waterspout, but I made it rain even more. Now to finish it off, I thought. 
"ELEMENTAL STORM!" Ice came down and belted Lance, Thunder came down and 
struck Marcus, and Fire came down and hit Mya. The three of them were 
knocked out, and I walked over them, making my katana zoom to me as I went 
over there. Before I reached them, however, John Flargini teleported to that 
spot, and grabbed all of them.
	"You can't win, Bob," John said as he teleported away with Lance, Mya and 
Marcus. I stood there for a moment in shock that I was so close, but didn't 
get it. Duplica and Erika awoke and came over to me.
	"GOD DAMMIT," I shouted at the sky. "YOU BASTARD! I'LL GET YOU, LANCE, YOU 
SON OF A BITCH! I WILL KICK YOU'RE ASS! YOU JUST WAIT!" Duplica tugged on my 
shirt.
	"Bob, we have to get out of here," Duplica said. "Someone will see us." 
Reluctantly, I followed them onto Route 36.
	The three of us set up camp in a deserted clearing. Erika went to bed, but 
I stayed up to watch the fire. Duplica stayed up to watch me and make sure 
that I didn't leave them high and dry. I sat watching the fire, and 
remembering the pleased look on Lance's face. I hadn't seen that look since 
the first time we fought, me having full knowledge that he was the man in 
the teal cloak.
	"Bob," Duplica said, interrupting my thoughts. I didn't look at her.
	"What," I asked.
	"I know you're mad about not getting Lance," Duplica said. "Even after he 
evaded you the first time."
	"He didn't evade me," I said. "I killed him, and he's been haunting every 
aspect of my life ever since."
	"Yes," Duplica said. "But these things take time."
	"As long as innocent people are suffering," I said. "Our time is limited."
	"Bob, look at me," Duplica ordered sternly. I did as she said. "What will 
you do if you don't resolve this?"
	"I will," I said.
	"But what if you don't," Duplica said.
	"Then I will die trying," I said.
	"Is that what you've become," Duplica asked. "Some guy who will go to any 
means to do what he thinks is right?"
	"No," I said. "What I've become is to go to any means to get Misty back. I 
would go to the ends of the earth for her, and Lance knows that."
	"So he uses it against you," Duplica said.
	"Yeah," I said.
	"Listen," Duplica said, moving closer. "You've had a lot of pain not only 
in the past four years that I've seen, but the past four years that I 
haven't seen." She began to lean into me to kiss me. I lean back in, but I 
didn't back away, either. Our lips touched, and it got deeper. Suddenly, I 
realized what I was doing and pushed Duplica away.
	"I can't," I said. "Even though she hates me in this reality, my heart 
still belongs to Misty." She nodded.
	"I understand," Duplica said. "I'm gonna head off to bed." I knew that she 
was hurt, but I had more important things to deal with than Duplica's 
feelings. I stared into the fire, remembering all the goods times that Misty 
and I had had. I just wanted to have those again...
-                                         End of Chapter Five                
                        -