Chapter X

We knew the dangers of making assumptions. The solution to the first riddle was very different from our initial theories. Still Finn and I yet again had strong suspicions about the new riddle. It went like this.

This was the easy part,

give all that you've got,

rule with a Charizard,

where he can be what he is not.

Charizard was probably one of the most famous Pokémon in the franchise. The fire Pokémon was the final evolution of a starter Pokémon from the original games. It became one of the mascots for the entire franchise.

"I think I know this one," Finn had already said ten minutes after reading it the first time. "What is Charizard not, above all else?"

"Relevant in the current metagame?"

"A dragon."

My brother was right. The orange lizard looked like a dragon, breathed fire like one and flew like one. But his typing was Fire/Flying, not Dragon. Fans often joked about it. Pokemon that were obviously inspired by dragons didn't get the typing, while monsters inspired by walking palm trees and apples did.

Charizard could temporarily evolve into a Dragon type in a couple of regions on Satoshi. The phenomenon was first introduced in Kalos, the equivalent of France in the world of Pokémon. That might be a good lead, but somehow we both felt like the answer would be somewhere else in the OASIS again.

For the past few days we were scrolling through wiki pages with phenomenons from 1996, trying to find a link with dragons.

"Think I got something," I said while swiping one of the tabs in Finn's direction. "A movie called Dragonheart, released in 1996."

It was a live action fantasy film about a dragon that was voiced by Sean Connery. It was an original story with it's own lore.

We further researched the movie and it was not only available as a flicksync, but also as an open-world role playing game with at least 40 hours worth of quests. The biggest surprise was where we would find that place. A planet called Slovakia.

Most countries had a planet in the OASIS dedicated to them. They were founded as a sort of marketing tool for tourist boards. A place to attract real visitors by giving them a virtual taste of white beaches or beer festivals. In today's world these planets often became more of a memorial to what those countries once were.

Apparently the people of Slovakia were very proud that Dragonheart was one of the biggest films ever shot in their country. That's why they invested a pretty sum in making a full feature video game based upon the movie. They did the same for The Last Legion (2007).

Finn and I flew to Slovakia. We wouldn't leave the planet for the next four days. We did all the quests, with and without the Silph Scope. When enabled, we were able to bring out our Charizards. But they didn't really respond to anything other than the Pokémon that roamed Slovakia.

The Dragonheart game was pretty good. I enjoyed fantasy that didn't take itself too seriously. And Finn really enjoyed that Dina Meyer was a romance option in the story. We were both surprised to see Dizzy from Starship Troopers walking around in a medieval robe.

All we knew about the nineties was what our father had introduced us to. He put on Starship Troopers at least once a year. Dad was always telling us about the supposedly brilliant political satire in that film, but we mainly saw futuristic soldiers shooting up bugs.

Finn had a thing for Dina Meyer. And my younger self couldn't stop glowing when Denise Richards would smile. I may have played the Wild Things flicksync a bit too often in the past.

After the fourth day we completed all the quests, sidequests and scavenger hunts on Slovakia. Nothing had happened. We both got the same feeling that we were following up on the wrong lead.

The riddle once again proved to be a bigger challenge than we naively anticipated.

"It's time to call in support," Finn decided.

My brother and I were flying to a traveling space station, currently in orbit of a small, red sun. We had asked our father to just call or meet up in a chatroom, but he was playing a bit in an elaborate role playing adventure and didn't want to step out of character.

Dad, a few months away from his sixtieth birthday, would get lost in lengthy campaigns all the time. Once he did a four year role play of World War II. Another time they were the Napoleonic wars.

Our father introduced us to Pokémon. It was his childhood nostalgia. But in the OASIS he never bothered picking up the game. He never liked the idea of "starting over" on Satoshi and was still upset that he wasn't allowed to transfer his Pokemon from old console games to the OASIS.

Now our old man was taking part in a very detailed reenactment of the Mass Effect trilogy in which he managed to get the part of The Illusive Man. A very silent role in the first episode and dad was happy his troop of role players finally reached the second installment where the frenemy played a significant part.

When we landed in the launch bay a member of Cerberus, a group of xenophobe terrorists, was waiting for us. We were surprised that she wasn't tagged as a NPC, but an actual human player.

"Pretty unlucky part you got," Finn said. "Wouldn't you rather have been one of those blue pole dancers."

"Please follow me," she just answered, remaining in character.

We went up in an elevator and stepped out in a big, empty room with glimmering tiles. Ominous music started playing.

At the end of the room there was a single chair with a panoramic view of the dying star the station orbited. In it a middle aged man sat. A cigarette in one hand, a glass of scotch in the other. He turned his seat.

"Morphynn, Pandasaurus. I was expecting you," a man that looked like Michael Douglas, but sounded like Martin Sheen said.

"Dad, cut it out," Finn answered, already annoyed by the charade.

"I would advise you to be cautious about what you'll say next, agent."

"For fuck sake," I intervened, "it's bad enough you make us come all this way."

"Agent! Are you on red sand?"

Finn grabbed something from his jacket. It was an inferno grenade, he had picked one up in the hangar. He could blow us all up and kill our father's part in the campaign.

"OK, OK… Geez, you little dipshits," dad said. "You want my help, you visit me in real life sometime. Instead you come here messing up my RP. And don't think I didn't hear you being dicks to Josie back there."

He nodded towards a screen that showed a live feed from the hangar.

"Is she your new girlfriend?" Finn asked unimpressed.

"What if she is? Got some witty remarks on that too?"

I took a deep, demonstrative breath.

"Look, dad. We just wanted your help with this thing we're doing. The Mew hunt? We found the second riddle," I said. "We need your nineties expertise."

This triggered his interest. The Illusive Man wanted to know all about the hunt so far. The Mario Kart part made him laugh ("clever bastards") and he shivered when I told him about Ghostface's attack.

"Dragons… Hmm…" he pondered when we shared the latest riddle with him. "There have been so many dragons. Did you try Bruce Lee? Harry Potter?"

While he was scraping his memory, I immediately followed up on his suggestions in a tab.

"Not that year, not in 1996," I had to disappoint.

"Sports were big back then," he said. "And cartoons! Yes, cartoons. So many of them had dragons too. Did you check the cartoons?"

"Leo has been checking out too many cartoons lately," Finn chuckled.

"The nineties were all about cartoons," dad went on. "Your uncles and I couldn't wait to run downstairs on Saturday morning, fighting over the remote."

A quick search brought up shows like Dragon Flyz, Pocket Dragon Adventures and Blazing Dragons. One show managed to ring a bell.

"Dragon Ball GT?" I asked.

"Dragon Ball!" my dad shouted enthusiastically. "That one was probably bigger than Pokémon!"

After some more brainstorming, Dragon Ball seemed like the best bet for now. We thanked our dad for helping out. He had to get back to his role play, something about human colonists getting abducted. He said he'd let us know if something else would come to mind.

Finn would check out the Dragon Ball lead for now. I had something else to do this evening.

"Something Sara related?" my brother smirked.

"No. She's still missing in action. It's something else."