The Dragon Master V: Chapter Seven Erika called her staff, Duplica called her bow, and William twirled around his nun chucks some more, ready to fight. Ash and I called our katanas, mine teal with a silver hilt, and his jet black, like both his element and his hair. Misty also called a twin blue sais, though I was not expecting her to fight me. "So much for lying low," Erika grunted while fighting off a League guard. "Shut up and fight," Duplica said, firing an arrow at a guard, piercing his side, and forcing him to pass out. "Let's finish this," Ash said. "Agreed," I said. "It'll be my pleasure to make sure you're gone," Misty said, her eyes cold as ice. I had a feeling that she could shoot either ice or fire, because she was so mad at me right then. Ash charged at me, katana elevated in the air. Right before he hit me, I ducked, kicked his legs out from underneath of him, forcing him to fly straight over me. I turned to Misty. "If you won't stay out of my life," Misty said. "Then I will make you." She took both of her knives and whipped them at me. I did a back flip, and one of her knives passed over me, my hands planted on the ground, and as I went to my feet, her second sai passed over my back. Ash was waiting there for me, and swung his katana the moment I finished my flip. I blocked with mine, and swung again. He blocked that attack. "RAIN DANCE," I yelled. "TWISTER!" A huge tornado came down from the sky, and headed towards the ship. Many people were already headed for the lifeboats. As the cyclone headed towards us, I knew that this fight wouldn't end in me resolving this, but it made me feel better to cause Ash some pain first. Meanwhile, over by the League guards, Erika was running out of energy from using too many solar beams before I used Rain Dance. She needed a quick power-up. "Ult...Ultra...Dra-a-a," Erika moaned before she passed out. She was trying to use Ultra Drain, but she didn't have the energy. William heard her collapse, and ran over to the vicinity where he thought she was at. "AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH," a League guard cried as he made his way towards William and the fainted Erika with his staff. William heard him coming, so he twisted the tip of one of his nun chucks one full rotation, and the wire was sucked back into the two sticks, making them taut and a full three-feet shaft. As the guard brought his metal pipe that he had found abandoned down at William and Erika, William put up his staff to block. The League guard, surprised that a blind man could block an attack, picked up and swung again, but this time only at William. William heard the pipe swish through the rain, and detected the area that the pipe was coming from. He blocked there, too. The guard was becoming increasingly agitated. He swung again and again, but each time William discovered where it was coming from, and blocked it again and again. The League guard swung again, and William not only blocked it, but he hit the guard across the face. He back flipped away and landed on a flat surface. "ICE BEAM," William yelled, pointing his staff at the guard. A streak of ice shot out of the tip of the staff and blew the guard back a dozen feet, now frozen in ice. William bent down to inspect Erika again. He picked her up, and carried her over to the guard he had just frozen, using the trail of coldness that the Ice Beam had left. Duplica was providing them cover fire for anyone who would dare to come near them. William ordered the ice to go away from the guard's hand, and then place's Erika's on top of it. "Hurry up, William," Duplica shouted, now drawing up to five arrows at a time to keep away the guards. She had to shoot some of them more than once. "Erika, wake up," William said, tapping her cheek. Erika groaned. "Just say 'Ultra Drain.' Come on, Erika!" "Ultra...Drain," Erika said faintly, but it was enough. Her eyes opened, and glowed green. Energy from the guard flowed into her. She got up, and called her staff to her. Erika muttered thanks to William, and they went on fighting the rest of the guards. I was still fighting Ash and Misty, and the Twister was coming nearer and nearer to the ship. All of the passengers not involved with the fight were already on lifeboats, and were a mile away by now. I swung my katana across Ash's thigh, causing him to fall down in pain. He was still conscious, but not very. "Going to kill me," Misty asked. "No," I said. "I can't even fight you, let alone kill you." "You were just fighting me," Misty exclaimed. "I was defending myself from you," I said. "Deep down, you don't want to hurt me." Without warning, Misty chucked one of her knives at me, nailing me right in the left arm. I clutched it in pain. "Damn," Misty said. "I missed. I was aiming for your heart." I pulled the sai knife out, with much pain, and blood started to flow from the wound at a slow rate. Misty threw the other sai at me, and I awaited the cold sting of death that it would bring. I closed my eyes and waited, but it never came. I opened my eyes, and the sai knife was pinned against the wall by a pink arrow. Duplica was standing up in the crow's nest, and had fired an accurate arrow to stop the knife. Before Misty could call another sai to finish the job, the tornado hit the ship, and I was thrown overboard. William and Erika were over my area when it happened, and I heard William shout. "LAPRAS, I CHOOSE YOU," he yelled, throwing an ice blue pokeball in the water. Lapras, the fossil pokemon, appeared out of it. As William, Erika, and Duplica jumped off, they all landed on Lapras. The tornado ripped the ship into shreds. But before it did, I saw a figure in a deep purple cloak covered with moons and stars teleport Ash and Misty off the ship. "DAMMIT," I yelled, disappointed that Ash lived. "Lapras, Ice Beam," I heard William say to his pokemon. An ice island was created in front of me, and I crawled on top of it immediately. William, Erika, and Duplica, all on Lapras sailed over here to pick me up. I was put on Lapras's back, and Erika started to work on me immediately. She took some bandages out of her cloak, and examined the wound. "It went all the way through," Erika said, now wrapping it up tightly to stop the bleeding. "You're lucky. If she had hit on half inch closer to you, she would've destroyed a major artery." I tried to listen to what she had said, but from the battle and the lack of blood, I was completely depleted of energy. I just fell into a deep sleep, uncaring if I woke up or not, because sleep was bliss... When I woke up, I was on a sandy beach and it was night. A fire was going, and Erika was creating bark and sticks for it to burn with. Duplica, however, was sitting by me, waiting for me to wake up. When I did wake up, she seemed so ecstatic, that it seemed that she thought that I would've never woken up. "William," Duplica yelled. "Bob's awake!" I opened my eyes to see William walking along the beach in his ice blue Master's cloak, poking his way along the ground with his ice blue cane. He came over to where he heard Duplica's voice. He sat down next to me. "Good to see you awake," William said, smiling. "Good to be awake," I said, trying to get up, but failing because of my arm. William cautioned me down with his cane. I looked around, trying to establish my surroundings. William must have sensed my anxiety. "Wondering where we are," William asked. "Well, we are on an island that's so small that it's not on any map that I've ever seen. But Cinnabar City is not to far away from here." "Cinnabar City," I asked. "Yes," William said. "What is it in your reality?" "It's just Cinnabar Island," I said. "It was here, too," William said. "Right after your run-in with the League, however, people began to question Lance, and moved as far away from him as possible. Before the League knew it, Cinnabar Island was getting crowded. So, they fixed a problem by connecting it to Kanto to both Pallet Town and Fuchsia City with a huge landmass. They basically just dumped dirt in the water until it formed land for people to live on. So as it was not an island anymore, they changed the name." I nodded in agreement, though I knew William couldn't see it. There were times that I thought that he knew more than he let on...but, it wasn't in a bad way. I think that he found some way to get past his blindness, but yet not cure it. "William," I asked. "You never did explain how you knew that you hit the bull's eye back at your house." "Oh yes," William said. "Well, each ring of my target is composed of a different wood. Just by the arrow hitting the target, I can tell what I hit because I've memorized what wood makes what sound, and what ring is which wood. Plus, since I was born without sight, my hearing is extra sensitive, so I can pick up what other people can't. Test me. Pick a tree around here, I will shoot at it and Duplica can verify it, as I trained her." A challenge, I thought. A shooting challenge. A shooting challenge by a blind man. "Okay," I said. I threw a rock at a tree twenty feet away. "Hear that? Of course you did. That tree is twenty feet away." William nodded and stood up. He turned the top part of his cane a quarter turn, making it the one and a half feet staff. He turned it another quarter turn, and it changed into the three feet staff that he had used earlier. William then turned the middle of the staff a half rotation, and the bow curved, leaving the string there that he shot with. He reached inside of his cloak for an arrow, pulled one out, and strung it. Pulling the arrow back far, William let it fly. The arrow hit the tree with full force, making quite a large thud. William smiled. "Birch," he said. I turned to Duplica, and she nodded. He then reversed the twists and turns that he had done to the device that was now his bow, making it his cane once again. "Now, we'll head for Cinnabar City in the morning." I was outraged. "In the morning," I complained, sitting up, not letting my arm stop me. "That's not soon enough. Ash and Misty are getting married at noon on the twenty-first! That's also the date of Bruno's execution!" "We'll do it," William explained. "Trust me." He guided me back down to a laying position with his cane. "Get some rest tonight," Duplica said, patting me on the chest. I didn't get up, mostly because I couldn't again. I turned on my right side, because it was my left arm that was injured. I closed my eyes, and was out like a light... I woke up the next morning at dawn. My arm was doing better since my Dragon Mastery allowed me to heal fast. I sat up, called my cloak, and saw that Duplica had slept right beside me. Erika had slept away from the fire, as well as William, because they were both weakened by it. "Morning," William said, getting up. "Morning," I replied. I must have tripped his hearing, I thought to myself. "Shall we get Erika and Duplica up so we can head," William asked. "It's already seven o'clock." "Yeah," I said. I went over to Duplica and shook her awake, while doing the same with Erika. They got up very reluctantly, and William already had Lapras ready at the shore. I went over to William and Lapras and got on. Erika and Duplica followed suit, and got on. "Cinnabar City," William said, patting Lapras's head. "Is Blaine still the Gym Leader," I asked William. "Yeah," William said, surprised. "Isn't he in yours?" "Actually," I said, unsure how to say this. "In my reality, Blaine's dead. John Flargini killed him. His only heir, his daughter Darla, took over." William nodded, and we continued on to Cinnabar City. The four of us were silent was we kept on our journey. It was about 10:00 when we reached the docks at Cinnabar City. The four of us got off, and William recalled Lapras. "Where are we going," William asked, putting his hand on Duplica's shoulder. "To Fuchsia City," I replied to William. "Maybe we can get some help there." He nodded, and the four of us made our way through the bustling streets of Cinnabar City. People were looking at us strangely, as if we had been seen by them before. Duplica was breathing quite heavily, and looked nervous. "What's the matter," Erika asked. "I haven't been back to Fuchsia City since we first took on the League," Duplica said. "Now that I'm going back, I'm wondering what the people there will think of me once they find out that I'm an assassin." "Don't tell them you're one," William advised. "Oh, these people have ways of finding out," Duplica said. "And-" "Don't worry about it," I cut her off. "We have more pressing matters." "Like them," Erika stated, pointing at two members of Team Aqua heading for us from the way that we were going...the road to Fuchsia City. They were speaking to a few people asking if they had seen us. We all froze as they pointed in our direct vicinity. The two Team Aqua members started to run towards us. "What's the matter," William asked, unapparent of Team Aqua because he couldn't see, and they were too far away to hear. He must've then heard the clumping of their feet running towards us. "Never mind." He let go of Duplica, and turned his cane a quarter turn, making it into a foot and a half long rod. He then turned it another quarter turn, transforming it into a three-feet long staff. William then took the middle part of the staff, and rotated it was half turn, changing it into his bow. Duplica took the hint, also calling her bow. William took an arrow out of his quiver that he wore, and strung it on his bow. "I'll take the one on the right," Duplica said. William nodded, concentrating on the left set of clumping footsteps. They both released their arrows at the same time, nailing each victim in the heart. The two Team Aqua members dropped immediately to the ground. People started panicking. "Let's go," William said. The four of us ran, William following the sound of our footsteps. We headed for the road to Fuchsia City, but more Team Aqua members appeared. Water splashed up from the shore of the road to the middle, and it formed a person...Marcus Waterflower. "Okay, men," Marcus shouted. "We take them alive! Restrain from the hand-to-hand combat!" William turned the middle of his bow a half turn the opposite direction that he had turned it to get there, making it the three-feet staff. He then twisted the top inch a quarter turn the same direction that he had just did, making it the foot and a half long staff, and did a three quarters turn the different direction than what he just had, shrinking the staff even smaller to a size on nine inches. William then placed it in a holster that he had called with his Mastery. The four of us called our cloaks, as we wouldn't be fighting hand-to-hand. Each of the Team Aqua members pulled out a pokeball, and we each pulled out one pokeball. "Puff, go," I said simply, throwing my teal pokeball out there. "I choose you, Ditto," Duplica said, whipping a pink pokeball out into the fighting field. "Go, Bellossum," Erika yelled, tossing out a green pokeball out on the field. "Sneasel, do what you do best," William said, chucking an ice blue pokeball to fight. "Feraligatr, I choose you," Marcus yelled. A blue pokeball was thrown out onto the fighting area. A huge water pokemon, the final evolution of Totodile, was standing, clenching its fists, waiting for a good fight. "Puff and I will take on Marcus and his Feraligatr," I said to the rest of my people. "We'll take on Team Aqua," Duplica said. The members of Team Aqua sent out various water pokemon, about thirty in all. "Ready," Marcus asked, uncaring if I was or not. "Bring it," I said, holding out my hand with two fingers gesturing to come here. Marcus grinned. It was time to see how well I could battle in this reality... - End of Chapter Seven -