Dragon's Den

Ash and the others were heading to Blackthorn City so Ash could obtain his last gym badge for the Johto League. Along the way they had gotten involved in a few adventures. First they ran into a fire type Pokemon trainer named Egan, who really loved fire type Pokemon and he had a Flareon and a Magcargo. Next, they came across a mysterious lake that electric type Pokemon always gathered at and in the process, they encountered a wild Zapdos and the gang swore to never tell anyone else about this. And last but not least they entered the Ice Path which was a very long icy cave with lots of ice type Pokemon. But now they were getting closer to Blackthorn City.

Just then they saw a Dratini sleeping on the ground next to a lake.

"Hey what is it doing here all by itself?" Ash asked.

Just then a Gyarados popped out of the lake and fired a Hydro Pump attack at them.

"Hey what did you do that for?" Ash demanded.

A blue-haired woman came up and answered Ash's question.

"I'm sorry about that, my Gyarados protects my Dratini whenever there are strangers around." She said. She then returned Gyarados to it's Poke Ball.

Ash introduced himself to the woman. Tomo, Misty and Brock introduced themselves as well. The woman introduced herself as Clair, leader of the gym in Blackthorn City. When Ash heard that Clair was the gym leader, he asked if he could challenge her to a gym battle.

"I'll gladly accept your challenge Ash." Clair said. "But I have to perform a important ritual today before I can accept any gym challengers."

"What important ritual is that?" Brock asked.

"I can answer that." A voice behind them said.

The voice belonged to an old man and he was carrying a green backpack on his back.

"My name is Kaburagi." The man said. "And I'm Clair's assistant at the gym."

Kaburagi explained that Clair had to take the old Dragon Fang to the Dragon's Den. He showed them a very old Dragon Fang from his backpack.

"Hey I read about this once. A Dragon Fang can power up dragon type moves." Ash noted.

"That's correct." Kaburagi said. "And this old Dragon Fang is a priceless treasure of the Blackthorn Gym."

He explained that the old Dragon Fang has been in the Blackthorn Gym ever since the first gym leader.

"It's a tradition that the leader of Blackthorn Gym takes the old Dragon Fang to the shrine that's in the Dragon's Den and perform a special ritual in there."

The gang was fascinated by this.

"Can we watch the ritual?" Ash asked Clair.

"Yeah can we?" Misty asked. "It sounds exciting to watch."

Clair and Kaburagi didn't see anything wrong with that and allowed the gang to join them.

So Clair and Kaburagi led the gang to the Dragon's Den. The Dragon's Den was located just outside Blackthorn City. Along the way Clair revealed that Lance of the Elite Four was her cousin which surprised the gang and they told Clair about their encounter with Lance outside Mahogany Town. Soon they reached a lake, and the entrance to the Dragon's Den was on the other side of the lake in the cliffs. Clair sent out her Gyarados and everyone got on it's back to cross the lake and into the Dragon's Den.

The Dragon's Den was a very dark cave. Ash ignited his hand to act as a light source. The other problem was that there were some whirlpools in the Dragon's Den. Misty sent out her Staryu to deal with the whirlpools with Whirlpool. Soon they were getting closer to the shrine, which was in the middle of the Dragon's Den.

"I take it Lance has been here as well right Clair?" Ash asked.

"That's correct Ash." Clair said. "All dragon type trainers come here to pray for all dragon type trainers of the past to guide them on their quests. So both Lance and I have prayed here to have our quests being great dragon type trainers be successful."

"I see." Ash said.

Finally they reached the shrine of the Dragon's Den. Suddenly three old men ran out of the shrine; they were the priests of the shrine.

"Oh Clair, we are glad you're here." One of them said.

"Has something happened?" Clair asked.

One of the priests explained that they were getting the shrine ready for Clair's ritual, but then a thief broke into the shrine and stole all the Dragon Fangs from the master of the dragon clan.

"Oh my!" Kaburagi gasped. "I'm glad that this thief hasn't stolen the old Dragon Fang."

"Is the master okay?" Clair asked.

"Oh he's alright." One of the priests answered. "He's just in shock from the attack."

Clair ran into the shrine to see if the master was okay and Kaburagi and the gang followed.

The inside of the shrine was a mess; scrolls were all over the floor, boxes were on the floor and some statues were knocked over. Clair ran over to the master, who was an old man, to see if he was okay. The master of the dragon clan was in charge of the Dragon's Den shrine and he was also a teacher to those who wanted to become dragon type Pokemon trainers. The master was okay, but he was mad that the Dragon Fangs had been stolen.

"You must get those Dragon Fangs back." He instructed Clair. "The thief plans to sell them to make money and he can't do that."

"Don't worry Master." Clair said. "I'll go retrieve them immediately."

The gang offered to assist her and Clair accepted it, then they all went back to Gyarados to go after the thief. Kaburagi stayed behind to help the priests and master tidy up the shrine.

The thief was a man wearing a black jacket on a motorboat on the lake.

"I did good stealing those Dragon Fangs." He laughed.

He drove the motorboat to the shore of the lake and placed his bag down on the grass to look at them. Aside from stealing Dragon Fangs; he had stolen other items that powered up Pokemon moves like Charcoals for fire types, Magnets for electric types etc.

"I'll be getting a lot of money by selling all this." He said.

Clair and the gang then arrived at the shore.

"Stop right there thief!" Clair said. "Give those Dragon Fangs back."

"Not a chance girl." He said. "I need these to make money."

He started to run off.

"If you won't give them back willingly, we'll take them from you." Ash said.

He and Tomo commanded Flaffy and Growlithe to go after the thief, while they also proceeded to give chase. The thief noticed the Pokemon following him and sent out a Primeape to deal with them. The gang saw the Primeape and then Clair sent her Dratini out to deal with it.

"I'll deal with Primeape, you kids continue chasing the thief." She said.

While Ash and the others ran after the thief, Clair challenged the Primeape. She commanded Dratini to use Thunder Wave on Primeape. Primeape was hit by the attack and was paralyzed, but it wasn't going to quit fighting. Primeape hit Dratini with Karate Chop.

"Dratini attack with Slam." Clair said.

Dratini slammed into Primeape really hard.

"Well done Dratini."

Suddenly Dratini started to glow and then it evolved into Dragonair. Clair was amazed by her Pokemon's evolution, but she concentrated on Primeape.

"Use Twister Dragonair." She said.

Dragonair created a tornado with it's tail and sent it at Primeape. Primeape fainted after being hit by the tornado.

"Good job Dragonair." Clair said. "Now we must go after the thief."

She got on Dragonair's back and they flew up to the sky to catch up to the thief.

Ash and the others were still chasing the thief.

"Grr these kids are getting on my nerves." The thief said to himself.

He was about to throw another Pokemon out of a Poke Ball to hold them off, but then he was stopped in his tracks by a Thunder Wave attack. Clair and Dragonair had arrived. The gang was surprised to see Dragonair.

"Her Dratini must have evolved." Brock said.

Clair ordered her Dragonair to use Ice Beam on the thief. Dragonair fired a beam of ice at the thief's feet and the thief's feet were trapped in a block of ice, so the thief couldn't escape. Ash took the thief's bag of loot from him and Brock ran off to get the police.

"Stealing from a shrine is unforgivable." Clair told the thief. "I'm going to return these Dragon Fangs to the shrine."

Soon the police were on the scene and they arrested the thief.

"I'm glad you were able to catch this thief." Officer Jenny said. "This guy buys and steals things and then he sells them to trainers for unfair prices."

Everyone had a look at all the things that the thief had in his bag. Aside from Charcoals, Dragon Fangs and Magnets, the thief had Black Glasses, Miracle Seeds, Black Belts, Never-Melt Ices, Hard Stones, Mystic Waters, Metal Coats, Poison Barbs, Silk Scarves, Sharp Beaks, Silver Powders, Soft Sands, Twisted Spoons and Spell Tags.

"Wow, all of these are items that are used to power up Pokemon moves." Brock said.

Clair picked all the Dragon Fangs up.

"The master will be happy to know that the Dragon Fangs are okay." She said.

The gang stared at the other items and asked Officer Jenny if the other items had been stolen.

"No all the other things were bought fairly." Officer Jenny answered. "So I guess I can take all the other stuff to Nurse Joy and she could figure out what to do with them. But before I do that you four trainers can help yourself to any of the items."

"What, we can?" Misty asked.

"Of course you can. Besides you earned the rights for these things because of your help capturing the thief." Officer Jenny said.

The gang was delighted with their reward and picked out what they wanted immediately. Ash picked out one of each of the items, except the Metal Coat and Mystic Water because he already had them and Tomo picked all the items as well. Misty picked up a Never-Melt Ice and two Mystic Waters; she wanted to wear one around her neck all the time. Brock picked up a Hard Stone and a Soft Sand.

"Wow, this saved us a lot of trouble having to search for and purchase these from shops." Ash said, placing his stuff into his backpack.

"I agree." Misty added, placing her Mystic Water around her neck.

Officer Jenny thanked Clair and the gang again, then she and her men left with the thief.

Clair and the gang returned to the shrine with the Dragon Fangs. It was all tidy again by that time. The master and priests were happy to have the Dragon Fangs back and they thanked Clair and the gang. Clair told Kaburagi about her Dratini's evolution and Kaburagi was happy for her. Just then Kaburagi said it was now time for Clair to perform the ritual.

Clair knelt down in front of the shrine and held the old Dragon Fang in her hands. The master and priests were kneeling at the sides, doing a prayer and Kaburagi and the gang watched from behind. Clair said a little prayer and then the old Dragon Fang began to glow.

"May you continue to watch over future dragon type trainers always." Clair said.

Then the glow stopped; the ritual was now complete.

"What happened?" Tomo asked.

Kaburagi explained that the legend says that the past dragon type trainers and gym leaders look down on the present day dragon type trainers and gym leaders. And that the ritual was to pray to them to continue watching over them and to watch over future dragon type trainers.

After the ritual was over Clair, Kaburagi and the gang headed back to Blackthorn City.

"Ash, you and I will have our gym battle tomorrow." Clair said.

"I can't wait for it Clair." Ash replied.