This is another idea about what might have happened to Lawrence III after he got stranded on Lightning Island. It's not a serious take, but it was just begging to be written.
Putting Him In His Place.
Chapter One.
Lawrence III stood on the beach, looking out across the water to where he could see Shamouti Island, and wondering just how he was going to get back to it. Dusk was falling, and a full moon was visible in the sky. He had felt a sense of exaltation upon first finding his Ancient Mew card undamaged, had felt totally confident about starting over again, but as the sky had darkened and the night drawn in, that confidence had ebbed with the light of the setting sun.
Several hours had passed since his attempt to capture Lugia, and the attack that had sliced through his flying machine like a hot knife through soft butter. The flying machine was almost totally ruined, and would have to be re-built almost from scratch. One drawer in the arm of his control chair still worked after a fashion, and it was in there that he had placed his Ancient Mew card for safe keeping.
The other thing that was still working was his wireless e-mail system. He had sent a brief message to his friend Cyril, who was, like himself, also a collector of the rare and beautiful, informing him of his brief capture of Moltres and Zapdos, but his failure to take Articuno and Lugia. As he had not been in a particularly good mood at the time, he had given no more details. Lawrence knew that Cyril was coming to Shamouti Island in the next few days.
Abstractly, he realised that he had failed to include a warning in the message about the dire consequences of disturbing the three Legendary Birds, now known to be the Titans of Fire, Ice, and Lightning the Shamouti legend spoke of.
He frowned, damning himself for the oversight. He knew that Cyril felt rather overshadowed and bettered by Lawrence, and Cyril's greatest desire was to achieve something that Lawrence himself had never done, or even better, had attempted and failed to succeed in.
It was a certainty that Cyril would go after Lugia and Articuno to try and achieve what Lawrence himself had failed to do. He would have to have a word with him when Cyril landed, and try and put him off. Cyril was prone to be air-sick in less than calm conditions, and the turbulence of the earlier weather would definitely have sent Cyril's face an odd green tinge. Had the consequences been less dire, Lawrence felt he would have happily left Cyril to find out the hard way about not catching the birds. However, he didn't want to risk the fate of the world, nor put the Chosen One, the birds, and Lugia through a repeat of the ordeal they'd just been through to merely let Cyril learn his lesson. No, when Cyril called in to tell him he was coming in, he'd warn him off then.
He had yet to find any food or fresh water on the inhospitable rock of Lightning Island. He had ventured out, but was wary of going too far in case he accidentally blundered into Zapdos. Being close to Zapdos while Zapdos was restrained and confined by his force-field mechanisms was a different thing entirely to being close to a Zapdos who had probably remembered what had been done, and would perceive him as a threat. It was a situation Lawrence wished to avoid.
Lawrence sighed. There was no sign of any activity from Shamouti Island, and he didn't fancy spending the night on Lightning Island. Having no boat or other transportation available meant that he would have to swim for it. It was a fair distance to Shamouti Island, but Lawrence knew himself to be a competent and strong swimmer, and thought he could make it. He lifted the hem of his robes, slipped off his shoes, and took off his trousers. He didn't want to be weighed down by cloth. He undid the brooch at this throat, and began struggling out of his robes. While they were over his head, a patch of water by the shore began to froth and rise up.
Something was emerging from the water.
Lawrence pulled the robes off his head, and dropped them on the beach behind him, next to his trousers and shoes, well above the high-tide mark. He would return for them tomorrow, after hiring a boat from the Islanders. Turning back to the water, he noticed the disturbance, but was not prepared for the sight of a full-sized Lugia emerging from the water not ten feet from him. He froze in awe and fright.
Lugia didn't even pause, darting forwards impossibly fast, his mouth open. He grabbed Lawrence's left arm in his beak, and pulled him forwards before Lawrence could utter a word. He landed face-down in the water.
Lugia released Lawrence's arm from his beak, and Lawrence was glad to feel that it had not been bitten off. In fact it hadn't hurt much at all, Lugia must have used a fairly gentle bite. Lawrence lifted his head into the air, spluttering and gasped for air. He only had time for one gasp before Lugia's great white wing rose from the water, and then came down again over Lawrence, pinioning him firmly but gently against Lugia's body.
Then Lugia dived.
Lawrence felt panic rise up inside of him. When would Lugia surface again? Lawrence didn't know how long a Lugia could hold its breath, but he was sure it was longer than he himself could. He feared he would be drowned. Perhaps this was the punishment Lugia was meting out on him for daring to try and catch him? He knew that Legendaries were said to be sometimes almost human in their intelligence. Perhaps Lugia was out for revenge?
Do not panic. You will reach the surface again by the time you need to draw breath again. This is not a punishment so much as a lesson for you. You must learn the hardest lesson of all-to put yourself in another's situation to understand how they feel. This is the best and most effective way.
Lawrence didn't know exactly what that last cryptic remark meant, but he was relieved to hear that Lugia didn't want to kill him. A wave of dizziness washed over him, and as it cleared, he began to be aware of an odd feeling. It was almost as if he could see a pattern in the water ahead of him, or was picking up the sound of a far-distant tune.
You can now feel the harmony between the elements of Fire, Ice, and Lightning. They are currently in perfect balance, but you will feel it if that changes. Now, I must go, and you will see me again the next time the moon is full in the sky. Until then, it's your turn. Another wave of dizziness washed over Lawrence as Lugia released him from under his wing.
Lawrence saw Lugia sheer off as his vision cleared, and was puzzled. Lugia didn't seem as big as he had first thought. In fact, bizarrely, he seemed to be about the same size as Lawrence himself. Lawrence dismissed that. He knew Lugia's size, knew Lugia was over three times as long as Lawrence himself was high. He must be getting confused through lack of air. He had to breathe.
One stroke of his arms-and oddly enough his swimming style had changed-brought his head above the surface and he gulped in air. Looking about he was startled to find that his head seemed about a foot or so above the water's edge. How this could be when his shoulders were still beneath the surface he didn't know. He blinked, for now he was thinking about it, other things felt different too. His legs seemed powerful but not as long as he remembered. He had changed from breast-stroke to an out-and-down-and-back motion of his arms. Come to think of it, his arms felt different too, long and wide and powerful, and he couldn't feel his hands anymore. There was something else down the other end of his body too, an awareness of something that had not been there before.
Since when had he had a tail?
Lawrence let out a cry, half of startlement and half as a test. His suspicions were confirmed as he heard the cry of a Lugia instead of his own voice. Craning his neck back, he saw immense white wings, saw the blue plates he now felt on his back, saw his legs and tail.
Lugia had found the perfect way to put Lawrence in his place to understand what his life was like quite literally. Somehow, Lugia had effected a change in him, changing Lawrence himself into a Lugia.
Lawrence had heard that some of the Legendaries were rumoured to take on human shape, and he guessed this was a related ability. He had also heard that some of the Legendaries had powers that could only be guessed at, and now it seemed that he was experiencing one of those abilities. He hoped that when Lugia returned he would decide that Lawrence had learned his lesson sufficiently to see fit to change him back to his own form.
He also hoped his Lugia instincts would kick in, for he would need to eat and find a place to sleep-that is, if Lugias slept. He wasn't too worried about this, for if Lugia was half as benign as the Islanders had led him to believe, he would have taken that into account.
Then he remembered something that gave him pause for thought.
His friend Cyril was coming to Shamouti. His fellow collecting friend. His friend who yearned to succeed at something that Lawrence had not.
Like catch the three birds. And Lugia.
Lawrence gave a mental sigh. He had better start working out the weaknesses of the machines and force-field capturing mechanisms, and work out how he could exploit those weaknesses.
If he couldn't work out how to outwit Cyril, things could get really messy.