The Dragon's Den
Two years prior:
The sky was clear and a full moon shone brightly over the riverhead falls - a location secluded and seldom visited by humans. The waterfall had large boulders that formed two great pillars, one on each side.
Clair; the Blackthorn city gym leader, stood before the thundering falls, surrounded by water that sloshed about her knees. Her newly evolved Dragonair loyally stood to her side and a small gaggle of trainers watched on from the safety of dry land.
There was silence in the air as wearing her ceremonial garb, Clair lifted the ancient, Dragon's tooth into the air above her head. Her eyes were closed and deep in concentration. The fang she placed on a sacred cloth containing the Blackthorn emblem on a boulder in front of her.
"We ask the universe to bring peace and happiness to all Dragons. Be they Dragons of the sky, Dragons of the Earth, or Dragons of the water." With her hands held toward the sky, she hollered, her voice high pitched and echoing.
Then leaning down and cupping a hand full of water, she sprinkled it lightly over the fang, causing it to light up and glow brightly under the full moon.
"Woah!" Clair's companions – trainers from Kanto who went by the names; Ash, Brock and Misty - all gasped in unison, the awestruck audience watching on as a light-energy of sorts soon began to resonate from the fang.
Following Clair's outcast arms toward the sky, it formed into a dazzling ball of light which for a moment completely engulfed the Dragon Trainer. Then slowly rising above her, it exploded into the outline of a brilliant dragon-shaped figure, a mystical roar sounding aloud as this 'Light Dragon' hurtled toward the stars.
"What's that?!" With a clenched fist, a loud cry erupted from the young boy named Ash.
"A Light Dragon!" Brock was quick to answer him.
"Really?" questioned Misty. "Wow!"
Not taking their eyes off the spectacle, they watched on as the Dragon figure seemed to dissolve into the stars, leaving behind it a trail of glittery light.
"It went right up into space!" exclaimed Misty.
"It looks like it just stopped in midair then turned into a star!" confirmed Brock.
Clair simply smiled to herself as she collected up the now dead fang in its cloth, allowing her gym companion to fill in the details for her.
"Yes, once a Dragon Pokémon becomes a star it watches over all Dragon Pokémon." The short, old man's eyes gleamed with excitement. "At least that's what the popular legend tells us happens."
"My friends," Clair met them at the water's edge. "The ritual has been completed…"
I found Kair at the end of town behind the gym. She sat alone on a bench, reading a book by the partially frozen waterfront of Blackthorn Lake. The morning was chilly but the sun warm on my skin as I approached her from behind.
"I know it was you in the PGM headquarters, Kair," I said with a tone full of frustration, though it was more at my lack of attention to detail than her.
Kair turned her head and raised her eyebrow before the slow smirk made its way across her face. "I thought that was Shelly. And besides, I was in the radio tower getting arrested. How can I be in two places at once?"
"The Team Rocket raid of the Goldenrod Radio Tower was a ruse. There was plenty of time between the fossil getting stolen and you getting arrested."
The woman snorted in reply and carefully got to her feet to face me. "What if Team Aqua deliberately planned the theft at the same time as Team Rocket's heist, purely because they knew all eyes would be focused on the radio tower? Doesn't that sound more reasonable?"
Her blatant defiance did nothing to alleviate my frustrations. "The Shelly in the video has a scar on her side. The shelly from Team Aqua does not. I don't need to ask you about your scar Kair. I was there with the Masked Marauder when you got impaled in the side. And I've seen it enough to know that it is still very much there."
Her scoff turned into a deadly frown. "This is a dangerous path you're heading down, Lance."
But I merely matched her gaze. "This is a dangerous path you're heading down too, Kair. I have enough evidence to arrest you here and now, you know."
"But you're not going to do that," she snarled.
"Why?"
"Because I'm carrying your children."
For moments it seemed we stood at a standoff until Kair's eyes fell on something behind me.
"Lance!" she let out a shout, pointing in the direction of several dark figures that carefully snuck up on us from behind.
I reeled around just in time to realise they were dressed like ninjas, before all at once Kair unleashed a Psywave that travelled straight through me and into our would-be attackers.
All four of them hit the ground several metres back. Leaping to their feet they fell into a fighting formation, but the chance to attack was not given them as I conjured energy and released a Dark Void on each one of them, knocking them out cold.
"Look!" Kair pointed me back to the lake and to a speedboat containing more ninjas quickly speeding toward a notorious looking cave on the other side.
But it was the old box that sat safely tucked under an arm that grabbed my attention. "Oh, hell no!" I yelled my way into a backward stagger. "The Fang! They've got the Dragon Fang!"
"They're headed for the entrance of the Dragon's Den!"
Quickly calling on Kair's Charizard, I leapt onto his back before stopping his master from following suit. "Kair, go and get Clair! That's an order!"
I didn't give her the chance to retaliate as I took off with her Charizard at full speed into the Dragon's Den.
The darkness was overwhelming, the flame on Charizard's tail doing little more than light up the immediate space around us. The cave itself was a massive warren of tunnels and dead ends - only one path leading into the sacred Dragon Holy lands. I knew what that path was but attempting to steer Charizard through a tunnel he had never before entered was severely slowing us down. Regardless, I knew exactly where those men were heading with that fang, and it didn't take long for it to dawn on me who they worked for. Sa'lu!
"Shit!" I cursed out loud, the reasons for those maps and charts I'd found on her desk coming to light.
I didn't have the time to even think it through. I gave myself no choice in the matter. I did the one thing I'd sworn to myself that I would never do again. I called on the powers that had remained dormant for so long. I felt the dark shadow that swept its way across my mind before it reached out and connected with the fire lizard I rode. Granted he was no Dragon, but he was close enough and in this instance, close enough was good enough.
I felt his conscious dull and merge with mine as I forced my will onto his mind. I felt my eyes start to burn and become bloodshot as I took on Charizard's sight. My heart raced in rhythm with the Pokémon's. I felt his limbs, his wings flapping and his power. An inward inferno of fire energy seemed to fill every part of my body. I, in effect, became the Charizard.
Twisting and weaving in amongst obstacles and tunnel entrances, I flew with pinpoint accuracy, the Charizards body and wings barely avoiding scraping on the stone walls of the cavern.
I heard them up ahead, calling on several flying Pokémon of their own as they took to the sky in search of the shrine – their target. The loud thunder of a waterfall came into range but I made no point of slowing down as we burst from the den and out into the morning sunlight, the brilliant colours of a paradise in bloom greeting us everywhere the eye could see. I forced Charizard up into the air. In the distance I could barely make out the figures aloft on various types of flying Dragon Pokémon.
Sticking my forefinger and thumb in my mouth, I let out a high-pitched whistle that echoed off the rocky walls of the valley. Within moments the shadow fell over us as my own Dragonite, who had been residing in these parts for some weeks now, fell into sync with us. "Dragonite! Invaders are heading for the shrine! Make sure you stop them!"
Without hesitation, the Dragon mother took off ahead, laying the path for us to follow.
Her cry sounded aloud across the valley and before long we found ourselves joined by other Dragons native to the Holy Lands.
We flew until we reached the base of Mt. Silver where the shrine resided. Seldom visited by Humans lest for ceremonial occasions, the shrine that had stood the test of time was nothing more than a small, one roomed structure that sat in the middle of a wide lake. What lay hidden inside it however, was the very symbol that kept Human and Dragon bonded in this symbiotic relationship.
Now however, several darkly dressed figures stood around it in a wide circle along the shoreline. A single, wooden bridge led up to the shrine itself, which was occupied by a caped woman with flowing, silver hair. My shadow along with the shadows of the Dragons that followed me fell over her and she turned to glimpse me in the sky, her expression turning into a dangerous scowl.
"Step away from that shrine, Sa'lu." I hollered, causing everyone in the vicinity to turn and look up at me. "Don't make me resort to taking drastic measures!"
The woman merely gave me a smirk and a chuckle, stopping her hefty stride in the middle of the bridge. "Drastic measures? Sounds a bit dramatic to me!" she seemed unfazed even in spite of my Dragonair and Dragonite companions that circled her in the sky. "Don't you dare underestimate my powers, boy."
A single flick of the finger was all it took for her to order her people to release their own Dragons. And it soon occurred to me that every person working for this woman was also a Dragon trainer. Monsters of all kinds appeared from their pokéballs. Dragonairs, Fraxure, Altaria, Salamence… to name a few. They were all here - dragons from all regions, all ready and willing to fight me.
This was going to be a hard battle…
"Lance!" Clair's call came as a blessing as I spotted her Dragonair on the approach closely followed by another Charizard and a boy riding upon its back – N. "Sa'lu!" her attention soon changed focus as she spotted the Shadow Dragon Master on the bridge. "What are you doing here?!"
Sa'lu's glare hardened, clearly not at all impressed with this intrusion. She knew she was going to have a battle on her hands now, and I was going to make sure she was on the losing side.
"Men!" she yelled across the lake. "Take them out!"
All at once, the flying types took to the air in a joint battle effort.
"Dragonite! Make sure they don't succeed!" I threw the order out to my Dragonite which she repeated across to her companions.
Who threw the first attack, I don't recall. All I know is that all at once, the atmosphere was shredded with Hyperbeams and Dragon attacks. Panning Charizard downward to avoid the areal battles, Clair, N and I took to lower skies only to find ourselves at the receiving end of a ground assault. A giant fireball hurtled in my direction which I was barely able to dodge. This I replied to with a fire attack of my own, Kair's Charizard belching out a Flamethrower that formed a wall between Trainer and Dragon.
I didn't even see the Twister that struck us from behind, sending us into a spiral and separating me from my Charizard.
"Ahhh!" The next moment I found myself freefalling. "Oof!" My torso hit Dragon hide as I landed on Clair's Dragonair.
"Gotcha!" Clair panned her head to the side and grinned at me. "Hang on!"
This I did as she flew her Dragonair upwards, back into the madness above. "Dragonair! Thunderwave!"
An Altaria fell out of the sky, hitting the lake below it with a loud splash.
I attempted to locate Kair's Charizard but the sky was filling with smoke. It was hard to tell one Dragon from the other. Caught up in the confusion, N vainly struggled his way through the chaos, surprisingly, his Charizard coming out unscathed.
"Lance! She is reaching the shrine! We have to stop her!"
I snapped my head around to find Sa'lu bolting for the end of the bridge. Dragonair took a dive, but we were too slow!
"Charizard! Hyperbeam! Take out that bridge!" N's call came from behind before I heard the loud buzz zap of the Pokémon's Hyperbeam attack. A single, yellow beam of light dropped from the heavens above us. Then Booom! The explosion was so intense that we were forced to cover our eyes.
Wood and shrapnel flew in every direction in a blast that would have surely meant the end of the old Dragon Master once and for all. But as the smoke cleared, there I saw her, standing and shielding herself with none other than a Protect attack. I had to double take, there wasn't a single Pokémon around her… this was a Protect attack of her own doing!
"What the…?" I could only conjure.
There was a problem for the woman now as she stood at the end of a bridge that had now literally been blown in half. But this didn't seem to faze her. Instead I watched her draw in a different kind of energy… a familiar kind. The breeze around us began to pick up, debris that once floated about in the water were lifted and twisted around into a spiralling tornado. It was a Twister attack… A dragon move. And it dawned on me… Sa'lu had given herself a special little ability of her own…
The woman soon found herself lifted up within her self-made tornado which made its way across the lake toward the shrine.
"Oh no you don't!" I heard Clair's confused bellow. She ordered her Dragonair into another dive, not even seeing the trap until we were in it. Because the moment the woman set foot on the ground, she turned that twister back on us - a twister full of splintering wood and nails that attacked Clair's Dragonair head on. Clair and I had no choice, we had to jump or find our feeble, human bodies impaled. Grabbing her by the arm, I pulled her into a tight hug and threw us off the Dragon just as the twister hit. The loud bellows of her Dragonair filled our ears before the cold splash of water drowned out every other one of our senses.
Our heads broke the surface only to find ourselves hurled from the water onto dry land.
Ninjas and what was left remaining of their Dragons surrounded us, threatening us with knives and swords. Coughing up water and heaving air into our lungs, there wasn't much we could do to resist them as they pulled Clair and I to our feet and bound our hands behind our backs.
I searched the sky for any sign of the Dragons but there was nothing more than silence amid the darkness of the billowing clouds of smoke.
And suddenly there she was… standing on the other side of the lake and holding a golden bowl in her hands containing the eternal flame that had burned on for a hundred years. The very symbol of Human and Dragon unity.
The smile on Sa'lu's face was wide and hungry as she stood with gloved hands, holding the artefact over her head. "I stand here today to bring on a new era. A new age in Dragon Mastery! I hereby proclaim this the age of the Shadow Dragon Master!" There was nothing anyone could do to stop her. She dropped the bowl into the water, dousing its flame instantly.
"Oh please no!" Clair's voice was panicked as she struggled to stay still in front of her holders. Swords were held to our chests and throats. One small move and we were dead, so using my Dark ability at this point would prove to be futile.
My eyes fell on N who had landed safely some distance away. He was back in the custody of his aunt's men, who didn't see the need in threatening him in the same manner. He watched with great interest the scene that unfolded before his eyes.
We all watched on as the Shadow Dragon Master then pulled the stolen Dragon Fang from her robes. Performing a ritual similar to the one Clair would perform on an annual basis. Except this one was riddled not with requests for peace and prosperity. This one called on a force… a dark force that I immediately started to feel welling up in my very core. As if to will this Shadow darkness out of the fang, the woman's beckoning call echoed across the lake.
A dark cloud suddenly began to seep from the fang - an energy so sinister that I found myself utterly fixated by it. Feelings… began to surface… things that I had not felt in many, many years. Power…
The darkness seemed to engulf Sa'lu for a moment before it travelled upwards into the sky. It began to transform, expanding out into a serpent-like shape. It grew wings, and a single fang while the other was missing. A loud, ear splitting screech filled the air as the Shadow Dragon formed, red eyes gleaming… screaming for power… for vengeance. It was like nothing I'd seen before… something from my worst nightmares.
The old woman was chanting at it… pleading with it to connect with her in the Shadow Arts. She aimed to control it.
The demon Dragon let out another screech that immediately sent all other Dragons in the area to flight. Then all at once in a single motion Sa'lu produced a dark pokéball I immediately recognised from the underground establishment with the Masked Marauder.
The ball sucked up the Dragon in a beam of black before hitting the ground at Sa'lu's feet. There she stood… we all stood. Watching it blink and roll around... then lock.
She'd just captured it.
I suddenly felt my very heart sink into the depths of my feet. This couldn't be happening. With it, she would take on the rest of the Dragon Clan… and there would be no stopping her.
The woman made her way back over to us, the disgusting smirk on her face full of victory. She approached me, facing me head on and extending a gloved finger to wipe my nose that I only just realised was bleeding.
"You've unlocked your special little secret haven't you?" she whispered before turning and walking away, "Make sure they don't follow us."
These were the last words I heard before I felt something hard hit me on the back of the head…